Iluvcruising2

Day 2 dinner was formal. But, formal night on Royal Carribean isn't that formal nowadays. While a sizable number of men were in jackets, many weren't.

For me, I usually bring my jacket but I don't wear a tie.

The sun deck wasn't crowded at all. Maybe because it was chilly. Coming from Singapore, we took some time to adjust to the weather. I was walking around in jeans, a shirt plus a sweater! Yups, even in this sun. The wind was really strong.

Enjoying the sunshine. This was taken about 4:30pm, Day 2 afternoon.

Earlier in the afternoon, we went for a 3D show at the La Scala theatre. Look out for those, they are good. I think the show we watched was Madagascar 3.

This is on Deck 4, a beautiful part of the ship. You are so near the waves and the views were awesome.

The ship's wake from the aft, at Deck 4.

Enjoying your review! :)

 

Can you please advise if the windjammer was no self serve due to the Noro problem?

 

Did the captain address the issue that Voyager from what we hear on this forum has had Noro from the Singapore to Sydney cruise continuously?

 

Also, do they have the frozen yoghurt machines on Voyager, if so, were these still self serve?

 

Thanks.

When our cruise started, Windjammer was self-serve. We were advised to wash our hands frequently and to use the hand sanitizers. We were told there was Noro on board but situation was under control, so there was no '2nd protocol.'

However, about Day 8 or 9, there was no more self-serve. Crew started to serve at WJ, which does result in longer lines. Yes, the frozen yogurt machines were still available, just that the crew had to serve you.

The ship deployed crew from all quarters to assist with the service as the Dining Room staff was way overstretched. On a particular day, we had the Ice Cast serving us! Another day, it was the sound technicians.

During the Captain's corner, Cpt Charles said that they sanitize the ship and staterooms thoroughly between sailings. During the first few days of our cruise, we were Noro free. However, they started to see cases and the cases increased, so it became self-serve from about Day 8 or 9 all the way till the end of our cruise.

Excellent review - can't wait to read more. We are booked for a 17 night Sydney to Perth via New Zealand in Feb 2014 on the Radiance. It will be the longest cruise we have ever taken. Will be interested to hear if you and the kids enjoyed this length of cruise.

My kids loved the cruise. They loved the food, the entertainment, Adventure Ocean, the sea, running about on deck 12 in the strong winds, playing in our huge aft balcony....... the list goes on and on.

Yups, loved it.

Dessert.

Gianduia cake. This is good.

Hi....no, we haven't cruised before....on any lines, anywhere.....its our very first and we are so excited! :)

Oh! Wow. What a way to start your cruising journey, with an 18 nighter!

Haha, ok, then best to spend enough time reading up the cruise critic threads, which I find very useful.

If there are any specific areas that you may want my opinion, feel free to ask.

This Australia/NZ cruise was our 5th cruise on Royal Caribbean and I think there will be many more to come.

This was the pasta of the day at lunch, which my kids really liked.

For parents with kids, don't forget that they have a kids' menu as well with all the usual kiddy favorites. Adults can order from the kids' menu too.

This was the turkey.

The beef burger.

Thanks for the great review. Can you tell me if there are coffee machines or kettles in the staterooms? Thanks!

We stayed in a JS. It had a kettle as well as coffee machine.

I read elsewhere that balcony staterooms and below have a kettle but no coffee machine. But I can't confirm this.

Lunch on Day 2.

The Tutti salad was good, as usual. The lines moved quickly as the servers were working as fast as possible.

Love your reviews. I was very much looking forward to this review by you because I will be going on an almost identical cruise in November 2013. We are not pool or sun bathing type people so hopefully there are heaps of other things to keep us occupied for 14 days.

 

You mentioned the day 1 entertainment starts at 8pm, was it the same time for all the other days? We have booked my time dining for 6pm and we will have a 6 year old with us so if shows starts later than 8 pm we won't be able to make it because the little one will be too sleepy.

 

Btw, love your photos and review of the food too. I'm a foodie :-)

Yes, we aren't the pool and sunbathing type either. Through this entire cruise, we didn't step into the pool and/or hot tub.

However, I would recommend you bring your swimming gear along as you may still want to try the hot tub. There is a nice big one just outside the gym.

Also, do some workouts at the gym to get the metabolism going. It helps! I ran 5km (or about 3 miles) on the threadmill every other day, just a 30 minute session is good enough to bring out the sweat and make the heart pump a bit more.

The show for main seating guests starts at 9pm. It is a little late for young ones.

There were a large number of art pieces for the art auction being displayed outside Deck 3 dining room. Some pieces looked very familiar and I realised I had seen them before from the June cruise!

This was the menu.

Over the 14 days, they would offer 3 lunch menus, of which 2 we had seen on the Voyager (in June) but the 3rd one was new to us.

This was the first one which we were rather familiar with.

The line to enter the MDR (Deck 3) for lunch! Busy, busy.

Map of our journey over 14 days.

The Pig & Whistle (English pub) was very popular this cruise.

Much less popular was the Sports Bar opposite.

These pictures were taken back to back, in the late morning.

Picture of the Royal Promenade, Day 2, sea day.

It's not just the cold, but on this side of the world, it's important to have sun protection as well. Let's hope they do something.

Yups. I found the UV to be rather intense in Australia and NZ, compared to tropical Singapore.

Royal Caribbean is well aware of this issue. I think they received multiple feedback from customers that the Solarium should be weather-proof, just like the Radiance class. The Radiance was designed for Alaska.

The Captain didn't promise that the 2014 drydock would have this improvement but he did explain that the Voyager was designed for the Caribbean and the company never expected to bring the ship to Australia!

Thanks for your review so far. So glad to hear the food is still good (or at least comparable to your June 2012 sailing). I have booked 6:15pm My Time Dining for first night. Do you think I will have enough time for the show at 8pm? Bearing in mind that I do have 2 young kids (almost 3 and almost 6).

 

With regards to your late 11pm sail out, I think it's more to do with the fact that it is their first cruise out of Sydney (discounting the 1 nighter) rather than the harbour restrictions. My Jan 5th sailing is sailing out at 5pm with an overnight in Sydney the night before.

The food, in my view, was significantly better on the Dec 2012 cruise compared to the June 2012 cruise.

Yes, you should have enough time to get to the welcome show on the first night. In our experience, our dinners take no longer than 1.5 hours.

No harm informing your waiter or waitress that you have a show to catch and to make your orders quickly. They can speed up the order for you.

Oh! The Jan 5th sailing is at 5pm? That's good!

A rather large Christmas tree on the Royal Promenade.

Cruise critic meet & mingle was on Day 2 morning, at High Notes.

Cruise Director Gordon came by and gave a nice talk.

There was also some fruits and finger food provided, as well as a lovely raffle.

This was something new, at least it wasn't available during our June cruise in the Windjammer. This offer was not available in the MDR.

Breakfast in the Windjammer. Here is the ever popular omelette station. For most days, we would have breakfast in the main dining room. However, I think we woke up too late on Day 2.