kcmo74

You can easily fit 3, and possibly more depending on how you arrange yourselves, but you also have a table with 4 chairs next to the bed so everybody can be in the area together. We had 11 between 2 beds and just switched throughout the day as some went to the beach or pool while others napped or lazed.

Toddler will definitely prefer the pool so you made a good choice, all of the beds around the pool are similar so exact location isn't a big deal, we picked the ones furthest on the end closest to the beach since we had a mix of ages and people going between pool and ocean all day.

The times the kids attempted swimming the pool was "too cold" for them, and the hot tubs were full or just not that exciting to kids. They definitely filled their time with AO and weren't disappointed. I think the older ones were going to do the slides and stuff on the last sea day, but they were closed due to the rough seas, so it was a full day of AO instead.

There was no itemized check when we left. Brother-in-law loved the tacos from the taco truck. Would definitely go twice, as stated in my review, would not hesitate to go back if we make it back to Coz.

Wife loved their nachos, I thought the breaded shrimp and quesadillas were both good, and the people in our group who got fajitas enjoyed those too. There guac was pretty good, as I've heard from others on here in the past.

Just as an example, my wife received the Instant Free Cruise For 2 offer in our stateroom (with an exchange value of $300) on the final sea day of our cruise last week. This was our first sailing on RCI and her goal was to play enough to receive one of these offers. We went to the NEXT cruise desk that day and put down the $200 deposit that is required, we then had 30 days from that date to book the cruise by calling RCI. On the sheet there was a QR code you could scan which took you to a list of sailings that fell under this offer, there were offerings from 4 nights all the way up to 2 weeks I believe, they also had a few balcony rooms on there but most were interior and a handful of ocean view. The cruises offered ran through December of 2024. We wanted to use this on an Alaskan cruise and were looking for the best available room on an Inside Passage roundtrip route. They had 3 offerings on the Brilliance out of Vancouver for 7 night Inside Passage ocean view, so we picked the date that worked best for us and called to book. The call was a breeze and the $200 we had already deposited went towards the costs, we also had them add on the gratuities as we always prefer to prepay them. In the end we paid $760 (including the $200 deposit) for a 7 night cruise for 2 to Alaska with gratuities prepaid, if trying to book this same cruise through the website right now we would be paying nearly $3000. We were also given $100 casino free play for depositing with NEXT cruise on the ship, and $150 more when we booked, so we have $250 in free play and $50 obc that were given to us along with this booking. I've read of some great deals on here and to us I feel like this is a pretty fantastic deal. We'll wait and see if we get any more offers, but we didn't want to pass up the first one as that was the goal of her playing.

Their critique of it was exactly the same obscure songs/musicals that the material was pulled from. Also, that the music was so loud it was hard to hear the singing at all.

My daughter is 6 and my niece and nephew are 9 & 10. They all enjoyed it and all wanted to go back anytime they were able. They probably attended 7 or 8 sessions, they went every night to the 7-10pm session and caught a few morning (9am-12pm), and afternoon (2-5pm) sessions on sea days. They mostly said they played games but didn't go into great detail, I know they played gaga ball several times, and they came back with prizes they won from some of the games. They made friends that they saw at other times around the ship when with us. They also all wore their pj's to the final night and watched the Super Mario Bros movie.

Hello all, me and 10 members of my family returned last Thursday from a 5 night sailing in the Western Caribbean onboard the Voyager OTS. This was our first sailing with RCI, but my 3rd cruise, wife and daughter's 2nd cruise, and 1st cruise ever for the rest of my in-laws. We planned the shorter more basic route as a trial for my wife's family to see if they are cruise people or not. My three person family took a Celebrity cruise to Alaska 2 summers ago with my family and my wife loved it, so she declared we are officially cruise people and wanted to find out if her family liked it as much as she does. We are from Kansas City, MO and our family is out of Wichita, KS so leaving out of Galveston was very appealing to us, as we could avoid flying and make the 9-10hr drive in one day (depending on how many Buc-ee's stops you make). We drove down Friday 12/1 and arrived in Galveston around 7pm, giving us enough time to grab dinner at The Spot along the seawall. The Spot was great and we enjoyed the food and atmosphere, we stayed at the LaQuinta North and it was perfectly fine for a 1 night pre-cruise stay. Galveston was foggy and overcast that first night and on embarkation day. We had a boarding time set for 11am and showed up at around 10:45am, the parking had some issues with their machines being down but once in the lot and parked it was wonderful to be so close and have our car right there when we returned. There was virtually no wait/lines in the terminal and we were through security within 15-20min. Once onboard we got our safety stuff out of the way then stopped by the MDR to setup our reservations for a group of 11 for the whole trip, we were assigned a time and after the first night we were able to go straight to our table at that time every other night. We didn't do any specialty dining this trip as we wanted the family to get a good feel for what was included with their base fare. We grabbed some lunch in the Windjammer and rooms were ready by 1pm. Overall, I feel like Voyager is in pretty good shape for her age, you could see signs of wear in spots but that's to be expected. Our cabin was in good shape and our room attendant was very receptive to anything we asked for. 1 cleaning a day, and he just asked whether we preferred it in the morning or evening. DINING We did Windjammer for most breakfasts and lunches, and the food was generally good. As many have said before a buffet is a buffet, it's kind of a quantity over quality proposition. We had many good items at the Jammer and the diversity of food was good; deserts, as usual, were the most hit and miss area as many lacked a lot of flavor. The only dinner we were in the Jammer for was briefly on the last night to get the kids a quick bite before they headed off to Adventure Ocean. The Italian fare looked plentiful and diverse and the couple things I tried were quite good. We had all of our dinners in the MDR, so my first chance to try it after reading about all the changes on here. Our last sailing on Celebrity was right before they started making all of the MDR changes so I do have a frame of reference for what it was like before. Overall, our group found the quality of food to be quite good, there were no temperature issues and only a few items that went barely eaten. We have the mindset on a cruise that it is food we don't have to make ourselves, a lot of it is food we wouldn't come across at restaurants we usually go to, and it's included at no extra charge. So with those points in mind we definitely feel like we got a good bang for our buck. Our waitress was accommodating to us ordering multiple apps and entrees nearly every night, she was even bringing dishes we didn't order for people to try if she had extra or overheard somebody saying they wished they had ordered that. We found the new menus to have enough diversity to leave us satisfied every night, with the Mexican menu probably being the least favorite of our group. I am disappointed that every sailing doesn't include a Lobster night, and feel that should be a staple. The steaks were smaller and thinner, but they definitely weren't bad or near the worst I've ever had. The beef dishes like prime rib, tenderloin, etc. were all very good. I definitely ate way too much and left the MDR full every night. We had the soda package and it was fine, other than being disappointed is one of the only ships without the Freestyle machines, so waiting at bars all trip got a little old. The soft serve was good as was Ben & Jerry's, the pizza was nothing to write home about but still fit the bill when you need a quick snack or to tide the kids over. ENTERTAINMENT We participated in trivia and some of the other gameshow type things and all were well attended and a good way to spend some time. The Royal Mystery game was interesting but needed to have a bit better direction, as the host said we were her first sailing ever that nobody got the correct answer. We attended Ice Odyssey and our whole group thought the show was very good. Our in-laws said the comedian onboard was pretty good, but they weren't impressed with the Broadway Rhythm & Rhyme show at all. Adventure Ocean was a highlight for us, our 6 year old went to the kids club on Celebrity a couple of times when she was 4 so she was ready and willing to give it a try this time. After the first session her and her 2 cousins wanted to go back for every session they could after that. It provided a great place to drop the kids before dinner every night so the adults could have one meal to themselves. My wife is also a big casino lover and spent the majority of her free time there, she played enough to get the instant free cruise offer for 2 which we just booked a 7 night Inside Passage to Alaska on Brilliance for June, only costing us about $500 including gratuities. PORTS First stop was Costa Maya, we already had a full beach day planned for the next day at Cozumel so we just decided to stay in the port area and do some shopping before returning to the ship. The port area was plentiful with shops, and the persistent workers trying to lure you in pretty much stopped if you told them no thank you. My daughter picked up several souvenirs and musical instruments, and my wife got a few crafts and trinkets. We had some gelato and the wife had a yard margarita which were both good. They both loved the flamingos and how close they are to you, they are both huge flamingo fans. Other than that it was just a basic stop, we were able to ride the tram back down the pier, and were back on in time to grab some grub just before the Jammer closed. Second stop was Cozumel where we spent the day at Paradise Beach. I left a more detailed review of the club on the Cozumel page of "Ports of Call", but the cliffnotes is that the club was great. The food and drink was unlimited and all very good, the facilities were nice and clean, the service was fast and friendly, and we wouldn't hesitate to return there the next time we were in Cozumel. WEATHER As I mentioned leaving Galveston it was foggy and overcast for the whole first day. Day 2 it cleared as the day went on and ended up settling in the high 70's with minimal wind, so a pretty good sea day. Both port days were sunny and in the mid 80's. The last sea day on the way back was the roughest seas we had. The wind picked up a lot and the boat was moving much more than the previous 4 days. They closed the outer decks along with the slides, flowrider, etc. By the evening it started to calm down, but our in-laws definitely weren't fans of that day. Overall, we had a great cruise and we will be doing RCI again for that Alaska trip in June. The rest of the family said they had a good time, but cruising isn't going to be their first choice in vacations, at least we tried. Unfortunately, our vacation ended on a sour note as we were driving back through Dallas on Saturday. Some mattresses came off a truck on the highway causing traffic to swerve/slam on breaks and we ended up being the back of a 3 car pile-up and coming away with an undriveable/possibly totaled vehicle. Luckily we all walked away in tact, with my wife having some bruising and soreness being the worst of it. Finding a rental car on a Saturday was a nightmare and it's a process I hope I never have to go through again on a vacation. Silver lining it happened on the last day and not the first. So that wraps up our first RCI voyage and if anybody has questions or will be on VOTS or this route in the near future, ask away I'm an open book.

We spent last Tuesday at Paradise Beach during our stop at Cozumel. The taxi ride was roughly $20 each way, we had a different number of people each time so it was a different amount coming and going, we had also pre-booked so there was trying to strong arm us to another club. We had a group of 11 mixed with kids and adults, and we pre booked the AI with 2 of their daybeds. First impressions: the club was clean and organized as advertised, the staff was very friendly and accommodating, and everything looked as we expected from previous reviews and their website. The day beds were well worth the extra $50 and gave us a nice home base for the day, and a relaxing spot to chill between activities. Service was constant and quick, the drinks were good, and the food was unlimited. I thought I had seen in other reviews that you got 1 app and 1 entrée, but they told us it was unlimited food, so we took full advantage and tried many things off the menu. We all agreed that the majority of the food was very good. Spent mixed time around the pool and at the beach. 6 members of our party ended up going parasailing for $65pp, and they all loved it. There were some people snorkeling off of their small pier and seeing lots of fish, we could also see many of them just standing on the pier. Overall we had a great experience at Paradise Beach and wouldn't hesitate to go there again if we return to Cozumel in the future. The one down side of the day, and this is no reflection of the club just a general warning when traveling to foreign countries/islands, was when two locals managed to sneak into the club looking for targets to steal from. They seemed to hang out for a while casing the area then they moved in to steal my nephew's wallet off our table. A fellow cruiser at another table noticed first and yelled at them to put it down, and then we joined in and were able to scare them off before they actually took anything. The club was quick to act and I believe they detained them until the federal police arrived. I recommend everybody just stay aware of your surroundings and keep valuables in your bags/hidden as much as possible. One great thing about PB is that there were no vendors and nobody trying to sell you on things, so that was great. If you have any questions ask away.

Thank you all for the great insight, gives me a good idea of what to look at and plan for.

Our first cruise on RCI is booked for this December, but I have cruised on other lines before. I read the boards quite often and have seen many references to the Black Friday deals that people get on excursions, drink packages, etc. My question is, our ship sets sail about a week after Black Friday this year so I'm wondering if that is too short of a turnaround time to take advantage of any deals for this particular sailing? Doesn't the ability to pre-purchase things on the cruise planner close longer than a week before sailing? Thanks for any insight, may just have to take advantage of deals for a future trip.

We're doing this same sailing in December and I had looked into Isla Pasion while looking at all the options for Coz, I thought I remembered some independent companies out there offering excursions to Isla Pasion. You can set up an excursion with a company not connected to RCCL on your own so you don't have to try to rent a car and drive it yourself. At least that's what I thought, but I could be wrong.

No idea on the pier, idk how to look that information up, or how to see what other ships are in port that day.

Awesome! Thank you both so much!