Just off Voyager of the Seas, review to come! Any specific questions ask away!

[kaa12740]

We just returned from a week on Voyager of the Seas and will post a review when I have a little more time. We had a wonderful time. This was our first Royal Caribbean cruise and have cruised on Princess and Carnival before so it was interesting to compare! If anyone has any specific questions I would be happy to answer them!

[fd851]

what did you do and what were your thoughts on Falmouth?

[camdam]

did you have a flat screen tv in your stateroom and could you also post your cruise compasses? Thanks

[kaa12740]

When we arrived in Falmouth it was raining so it was a bit on the down side. We had a tour planned with Peat Taylor to go to Dunns River Falls and Mahogany Beach. More to come on Peat Taylor tours (pros and cons). They were great and accomodating, however, we were not aware that we would be waiting for other passengers from a different ship. We were told to meet them 15-30 minutes after we arrive. We did just that and ended up waiting 2 hours for the other passengers to arrive before we could leave. This was a bit frusterating. We are not much of shoppers so the port was not something we were interested in. They told us to "shop" while we waited. We walked around and tried to stay "dry" for 2 hours and felt like we wasted 2 hours out of our day and still had to pay the full tour price. Don't stay around the area if you are looking for something fun and entertaining to do. Mahogeny beach was AWESOME!!! We loved it as it was very windy our entire trip so there was a nice cove we could go out in the water and relax with our drinks and not have to worry about the rough ocean. Music and drinks were great and not many people. The bartender that waited on us was great and kept in touch with Peat Taylor and called him when we wanted to leave. Highly recommend this. It took an hour and a half to get to Dunns River and an hour to return to Falmouth. I would not recommend renting your own car unless you feel comfortable driving around the area. We saw 3 accidents on our way and talked to some people that rented a car and wouldn't do it again. Just a thought.

 

We did not have a flat screen in our room but it wasn't a big deal for us to not have one. We were on the Carnival Dream last year so there were some huge differences when comparing the two since Voyager of the Seas is a bit older. However, I thought this ship was beautiful and would be ranked #2 on the 7 cruises I have been on, Princess being first. No complaints there. A little wear and tear but nothing to complain about! We had a great time!

[kaa12740]

I did not keep the daily compass, sorry I can't help you out. We found a lot of the activities were the same for dancing at night such as Synergy if that helps any. Derek Lewis was always the same. He was great and it was awesome but after one night we were a bit bored since it was the same.

[TulaSeoul]

Are there hairdryers in the cabin?

 

Anything you wished you had packed but didn't?

 

Nice suit OK for men's wear on formal night (rather than tuxedo)?

 

What were the live shows in the large theater? (sorry, I don't what this is called)

 

Didn't see if you brought children, but if you did, would love to know what you thought of the kid's clubs.

 

Thanks!

[sophiesnores]

We just returned from a week on Voyager of the Seas and will post a review when I have a little more time. We had a wonderful time. This was our first Royal Caribbean cruise and have cruised on Princess and Carnival before so it was interesting to compare! If anyone has any specific questions I would be happy to answer them!

Glad you had a good time

 

is there an Aquarium Bar with large fish tank? not sure whether it's on Voyager or another of the class.

 

Was there plenty going on in the evenings?

 

Thanks in advance

H

[hmallett]

did you have a flat screen tv in your stateroom...

The 3 staterooms I've been in all had CRTs, but I think some people have said that some staterooms have LCDs - probably when CRTs have failed, they've been replaced with CRTs.

Are there hairdryers in the cabin?

Yes. In the drawer in front of the mirror.

is there an Aquarium Bar with large fish tank? not sure whether it's on Voyager or another of the class.

There is an aquarium bar, but it no longer has an aquarium in. It used to be there, but is no longer an aquarium with water and fish in.

[xrayman2]

How was weather?is pool warm Anough to swim?

[*CENSORED*]

What nights were formal nights?

[xrayman2]

What type of band by pool?

[DonnaK]

who was the cruise director?

[Riff Sniff]

Any norovirus outbreaks onboard during your cruise? How was the staff/service?

[bcwaves]

How was embarkation in New Orleans? What time did you arrive at the port and how was the traffic/parking situation?

[will773]

Can't wait for your review!

[kaa12740]

There were usually certain times during the day the pool music started and stopped. Pool activities took place at 1:00 each sea day. Music was a mix of island type music but they would also play slower songs as well. You could hear it a little if you are laying out at the solarium, which is great by the way!

 

Embarkation at New Orleans was easier than I expected, however, a bit different from previous cruises. We arrived at 11:00 and did not wait in any lines. We were handed a slip that had a letter and number on it and when that is called, you are able to board. It was fairly quick. We were C3 and we were on board by 11:50ish. I am usually used to dropping off our bags (carryons) in our stateroom and then still let them finish cleanning if needed. This time it was different and they had the doors closed so you could not enter the stateroom hallways. They also had someone monitoring saying you could not go in until 1:00. I understand why but I don't think I would have boarded as early as I did if I had known this. This was the first cruise that we NEVER once waited in line for over 5 minutes. This included getting on and off the ship at islands as well. It was just awesome!

 

We do not have kids (we are in our 20's) so I can't tell you about the kid aspect. It did not seem like there were a lot of kids. We did check out the kid section and it looked pretty great. The kids looked like they ejoyed it!

 

Tendering: We did run close to getting off in time for our tour. It ended up being canceled anyway due to the wind (stingray city, bummer) but I would advise if you have a tour booked and it is not with the cruiseline to get your tender ticket right away. They started selling them at 9:30. We got up there around 9:50 and did not arrive on land until 11:40 so we were cutting it close. We had tender #5. I did not have to wait in line to get the ticket at the time so I still wonder if there was a line at 9:30. I would def. get up a bit earlier and make sure to get down there to get one.

 

Windjammer vs. Cafe Promenade: My fiance and I only ate at the Windjammer once on the first day. Not too impressed so we did not go back. I am not one who is wild about buffets (all the tongs and germs haha) so we always ate in the cafe promenade. Best pizza I have had on a ship. Great sandwiches and desserts.

 

Entertainment: Again, we were not impressed. We found that there was not for us to do in the evening after we participated in a lot of the activities. I do have to say though that we did not go to the production shows. My fiance is not into that so we skipped out on those so if you like those, I did hear they were good. One comedian was awesome but we were disappointed that he never did another show after the welcome aboard show. There is one comedian that was HORRIBLE and I mean HORRIBLE!!! Everyone was saying the same and many left. He for sure looked like he did not want to be there and it showed it. Derek Lewis, great for one day but he repeats all of his shows each day so it is the same old thing which was kind of boring to us. We did enjoy Synergy band and went up to High Notes a lot for some dancing! Battle of the Sexes was ok, we both participated but we have seen better. Quest game show is a MUST!! We heard the scavenger hunt was great but we missed it for some reason. Trivia was also pretty good as we like that kind of stuff. We found that each night there may be a few different things but it was the same songs played each bar each night. The Vault is a disco type bar and we went two times but didn't stay too long. I was disappointed with entertainment comparing it to other cruiselines I do have to say that. We made it fun but we missed the usual late night shows usually offered to those who were wanting them. There were parades in the royal promenade which were pretty great! Should at least go to one! Singing in the royal promenade some nights was always nice to listen/dance too.

 

Service was excellent!! Our first time doing my time dining and I am not sure if I would do it again. I might give it another try but it was just different than the main seating. We had reservations each night at 7:45 and two of the nights at 8:00. There were always lines to get seated but never waited more than 10 minutes. Usually around 5 minutes. The first night our servers had a few difficulties but they explained to us that the first night is always pretty crazy at 7:45 is the busiest time to eat. There was no dancing/entertainment from the servers that we usually have at the main seating. We also felt like we didn't get to know them as much as we usually do and they weren't as helpful as usual. Just a thought. We didn't mind waiting though since we both enjoy our time together and of course the wine. We always do the wine package. We ate at Portifinos one night and it was AWESOME!! I wish the food was like that each night. I would def. do it again.

 

Pools: Great temperature and it's nice that you can just sit on the side and get a little bit of water on you without getting really wet. We found that the hot tub in the spa wasn't always as busy so we went there if we were wanting to go in the hot tub.

 

Spa: Highly recommend the couple sauna/steamroom! Great price and felt very relaxing.

 

Johnny Rockets: My fiance LOVED it here. We spent the last couple sea days here after laying our playing UNO :) Just a diff. atmosphere.

 

Staterooms: I thought they were larger than most staterooms I have been in. Love the showers as there is not a shower curtain, I am not a fan of those haha

 

Norovirus: Ok, so I admit I am a bit of a germaphobe so I was constantly washing my hands and having my fiance do the same. I did not hear of any outbreaks while we were there. They seemed to always be cleaning! I did see a couple people get sick in Cozumel when we were getting off the ship. It could have been that they were sick or just a little to much to drink the night before, who knows. I did see a lot of people with coughs/colds there though. A lot of the publich bathrooms I found all of the water to be cold when washing my hands. Anyone else have that problem if they sailed on Voyager OTS? I wonder how they control outbreaks when water is cold? Just a thought.....

 

Leaving: We chose to carry our own bags off for the first time and HIGHLY recommend this if you can do it. We weren't supposed to be up there until 7:15 for the first round of people and second time was 7:45. We were there by 6:50 and never stopped once and walked right off the ship. We had an 11:30 flight so we wanted to be on the safe side. I was just so surprised by this! We were at the airport by 7:50!

 

More to come! I start my clinical rotation tomorrow otherwise I would keep writing more.

[kaa12740]

Suits: My fiance worse a suit and tie which was just fine. I was surprised by the amount of people who did not dress up.

 

Formal nights: Sunday and Thursday

 

Weather: One of the roughest cruises I have been on. I have never gotten sea sick and I woke up Sunday morning early and knew I needed to start taking medication to prevent it. I tried getting off of it but I needed it right back again. I am still feeling the ship rock while on land haha. It was great weather other than the wind which is typical for a cruise and it was great when laying out in the sun :)

[kijjy]

I was on this same cruise... VERY VERY rough seas most of the time we were gone, especially Sunday and Monday. I never get seasick and didn't have an issue with it but I know a lot of people who did.

 

For me, yesterday I came down with something and have been sick ever since. Not sure if it's Noro or what but it's not pleasant, that's for sure. Would like to know if anyone else had this issue.

[kewpie]

I was on the Voyager also and the ship did rock quite a bit, I was wondering if something was wrong with the stabilizers, or maybe the undercurrent was very strong from the storms. I have never been on a ship that rocked for two or three days like the voyager did. But still it was a wonderful cruise, and I did not get sick.

One thing that did bother me on this ship was the attitude of our waiter in the dining room. We didn't eat there Monday or Tuesday and when we went back in on Wednesday, he was questioning us about where we were and indicated that his boss told him to call our stateroom to see where we were. WHAT? I have never heard of anything so crazy. I just told him it wouldn't be a good idea to call to check up on passengers; or at least me.

Has anyone else experienced that?

[powelweb]

Enjoyed your review and glad you had a good cruise.

 

i see you listed Voyager 2nd with your Princess cruise as your 1st- which ship would that be? We're sailing Princess to Alaska on the Island for the first time this summer after many RCCL cruises, so I'm trying to learn about what to expect for differences.

 

still expecting a great cruise though.

 

sorry about your experience with Peat- that's one of my pet peeves with private tours- when they group you with others without telling you.

[kijjy]

I was on the Voyager also and the ship did rock quite a bit, I was wondering if something was wrong with the stabilizers, or maybe the undercurrent was very strong from the storms. I have never been on a ship that rocked for two or three days like the voyager did. But still it was a wonderful cruise, and I did not get sick.

One thing that did bother me on this ship was the attitude of our waiter in the dining room. We didn't eat there Monday or Tuesday and when we went back in on Wednesday, he was questioning us about where we were and indicated that his boss told him to call our stateroom to see where we were. WHAT? I have never heard of anything so crazy. I just told him it wouldn't be a good idea to call to check up on passengers; or at least me.

Has anyone else experienced that?

 

I talked to some of the crew members about the rocking of the ship. They said it normally rocks quite a bit in that area but had never been this bad before. Apparently there were undercurrents on top of the abnormally high swells we had. A lot of the crew were sick as well as passengers. I was lucky and didn't get sick and I feel for those who did.

 

To answer your other question, no, I've never had a waiter call to check up on me. However, if I know I'm not going to be at dinner I generally let someone from the table or the maitre d know that I'm not going to be there so they won't wait to start.

[hazmat1]

My wife was ill for a few days on a previous Voyager cruise. Our MDR waiter actually sent food to our cabin. And yes he did get a little extra tip.

[kaa12740]

So far we have not gotten sick so we are thankful for that. I am still feeling like I am on the ship though, I have never felt this way after being back from a cruise. I do not remember what Princess ship we were on, I will check into it though and let you know when I find out.

[TEXASMUNK]

When you are in heavy seas, the stabilizers are not deployed. The heave seas would literally tear them off the ship.

 

If the seas are running into the sides of the side, that will accentuate movement, and stabilizers would not help.

[Danna]

I'm confused on the dining situation. We selected 8pm dining when we booked with our Travel Agent. Is it like Carnival to where there's two seatings? One early and one late? Will others be sitting with us at that time?