On Board Voyager en route to Funchal

[gmon6612]

We left FLL a bit late last Saturday: Voyager had just finished the last segment of its World Cruise, and it took much longer to unload the outgoing luggage than expected. In fact, there was a long line to check in, and -- uncharacteristically -- it took over an hour and a half to get on board.

 

However, every thing since then has been smooth sailing, literally and figuratively: very smooth seas and great weather. Since we are only about half full (380 passengers), the already-good staff-to-passenger ration has been even better.

 

I'll just touch on a couple of things that may be of interest to future Voyager passengers (though I assume those embarking in Funchal, where we are getting off, must have begun their travel by now);

 

1. Vibration in rear suites. We are, by choice, in 976, smack in the middle of the rear of the ship. We chose this suite on purpose, as we were attracted by its very large rear balcony. As to the question of vibration back there, our past readings of threads on that subject ("horrible; intolerable"; or "what vibration?") led us to believe that the truth lay in the middle. And so it has turned out. There IS a definite, constant, noticeable vibration. Whether one finds it tolerable or not is of course going to vary from person to person. We have found it eminently tolerable, and a fair trade off for the increased balcony size. What was more problematic, though, at least inititally, was the jingling and jangling and squeaking of other parts of the suite due to the vibration. We were able to control most of this noise by taking a few modest steps. For example: leaving the door to the bathroom open at night; leaving the safe unlocked at night; and making sure that the glass ware and other items were not in position to clang against one another. As noted, the ship is half empty, so we could have moved to another suite if we'd wished. But we didn't.

 

2. Signatures restaurant. We were on Voyager 2 years ago and thought this place was overhyped and well below first rate. Our opinion has not changed.

 

3. Latitudes restaurant. The last time we were on Voyager they were doing a regional US menu, which we thought was very good. When they reopened earlier this week, they unveiled a new menu: a sort of Pan Asian format that did not look interesting. We cancelled our reservation (and have yet to meet anyone who has tried it).

 

4. Compass Rose restaurant: This has proven, again, to be the best eating venue on the ship, in our opinion (though, to be fair, we have not tried the new Latitudes format). It might not win awards on land, but for what it is at sea, we think it's quite good indeed.

 

5. Carpet stains: If anyone on the next leg of this voyage sees this, what's with the apparent stains in the carpets near the elevators at the rear of the ship? It looks like water stains that haven't dried. (On Saturday I did hear one of the incoming passengers berating one of the managers for not taking adequate time to clean the ship after the World Cruise. It generally looks fine to us, though.)

 

Happy sailing, Greg

 

 

29 degrees, 44 min W; 31 deg., 11 min N, heading 82 degrees

[JoAnne B]

Greg

We're following just behind you and the weather has been gorgeous...best I've ever seen on a spring crossing. We stopped briefly yesterday to check out a buoy that had been picked up by radar. Did the Voyager see it also? Curious what it was doing way, way out in the middle of the Atlantic.

 

Give our best wishes to the Voyager cruisers from the Diamond.

[petlover]

Greg, it's so nice to hear from someone who is now on the Voyager. We were on the entire WC and unfortunately it did take FOREVER to clear immigrations and unload all the luggage, boxes, golf clubs....you name it! (I heard that there were over 12,000 pieces coming off or our WC in FLL....??). We unfortunately missed our non-stop plane to LAX on Saturday due to all this delay. To further complicate things, most of the WC staff and crew was getting off in FLL as well so there was quite a changing of the guards.

 

If your cruise is even 25% as good as ours was....you're having the BEST time of your life! Thanks for posting!!

[Leejnd4]

I'm not sure where to post this...I suppose I'll mention it in a different thread as well at some point. But we had dinner in Signatures tonight. It was a lovely experience, but I must admit I'm a trifle dissappointed - they couldn't seem to get my rack of lamb right. I ordered it med. rare, it came almost well, I asked for another and it came almost well also. But even so, it was good, and I wasn't going to complain, as we were having too good a time with our dinner companions, and just the whole experience. The food was very good, especially the foie gras appetizer (I could have made an entire meal on several of those!), but overall it wasn't any better than what we had in Compass Rose the previous two nights. Still, this is all splitting hairs -- the whole things is just fantastic, this is just discussing various degrees of fantastic, I guess.

 

A couple we have been spending a lot of time with had dinner at Latittudes tonight and thought it was wonderful. We'll have to try that soon. Eight more nights!

 

LeeAnne

[petlover]

LeeAnne, the only dish that Tom had trouble with for close to 4 months was....you guessed it Lamb Chops! Most of the time they were great but a couple of other times he had to send them back. Once they were too well done and the other time they were too rare (he always orders them medium rare). There seems to be something about Signatures and lamb chops! (In all fairness, he had many a wonderful order of lamb chops too and he ate them about once a week!)

 

I usually ordered filet mignon in Signatures and it was out of this world! Our favorite restaurant though was Compass Rose!

 

I know you and your Mom will continue having such a wonderful time!!

[gmon6612]

After I posted the initial message in this thread, the ship slowed from a constant 19-20 naut mph to about 13 - 15 naut mph. (I assume this was to ensure that we didn't arrive in Funchal "too soon.) At that speed, which I assume is more typical of cruises in the Mediterranean or Baltic, the vibration at the rear of the ship was much reduced.

 

Disembarkation at Funcal went smoothly, and the Palacio Hotel, where RSSC put us up, turned out to be very nice.

 

We spent a couple of days in Paris and arrived home yesterday.

[petlover]

Welcome Home Greg!! We're so glad you took the time to post to us along the way!

[mariefisher]

We are sailing on the Voyager in Nov. and I am so excited. Thank you for your post, I checked each day to see how your trip was progressing and you sent me off to work excited to be able to cruise on this ship!

[cotto22]

We just returned from the transatlantic crossing on the Voyager to Funchal and had a wonderful cruise. We especially enjoyed the Cordon Bleu cooking class with Chef Ronald and our great classmates, but the entire cruise was excellent from our suite to the Compass Rose to the spotlight entertainment of Steve Lippia and the Cary Richards band. Our only disappointment came at the end with Radisson's choice of the Palacio Hotel. Here I must disagree with a previous poster. The welcome we received was less than cordial, the menu prices were very high for the less than quality offerings, and the concierge staff did not go out of their way to be hospitable. Of course, after the pampering we received on the Voyager, we were bound to feel let down no matter where we were placed; however, I met up with other passengers in Funchal who seemed to be faring better in their personal choices of hotels. I hope those continuing on to Rome have as spectacular a cruise as we did on the crossing. It was picture perfect.:)

 

Cathy

[gmon6612]

I guess I was the previous poster regarding the El Palacio Hotel. I said it was "very nice", and I stand by that. I admit it was not at all perfect. The ckeck in was chaotic, and the hotel is a bit too far from the old town for my taste. The restaurant prices were high -- though this tends to be true of hotel restaurants everywhere in the world. (And one certainly had the option of dining in town for less (with probably better food).) But the price for the room itself was right, ahd the breakfast buffet that was tossed in gratis was a nice (and filling) touch.

 

Bottom line for us: coming off the Voyager nearly any place would seem like a bit of a let down. But the Palacio was more than just ok.

 

Greg

[JoAnne B]

Greg and Cathy

 

Sorry you were both somewhat disappointed with the Madeira Palacio hotel. The times I've stayed there I've had a more positive experience. They still send us birthday and Christmas cards. It is isolated from the older part of town, although the newly opened Forum shopping center is within walking distance and a nice addition to the developing area. Just returning from Madeira myself, I was struck by the prevailing mood on the island...it wasn't terribly busy, so I think it was that period of bracing before the onslaught of tourists as soon as the weather breaks a bit. As for food, the best meals will be found outside the hotels and even the tourist areas...without a doubt. You'll generally find the food better at lunch in local restaurants, as that is the main meal of the day. But we still drive into town at least once to have pasta or pizza at Papa Manuel's directly across from the Palacio.

[cotto22]

JoAnne,

We enjoyed Papa Manuel's; the pizza was great and the decorations were fun. We also had a nice meal at a local seafood restaurant just down from the Palacio, on the water. It was a short walk, but reminiscent of San Francisco on the way back to the hotel! We also walked down to the new mall and browsed the shops and enjoyed the local grocery store. Brought home a lot of European dark chocolate for my chocoholic teenage son! We also toured the eastern part of the island and found it to be very beautiful. The flowers and flowering trees were just gorgeous.

My criticisms of the hotel were minor in nature, but plentiful. They did not provide irons/ironing boards for our very wrinkled clothes (they said it was unsafe to have them in the rooms, but we met up with friends staying in equally nice hotels in Funchal whose management didn't have those concerns). Asking the front staff to change large Euro's to smaller bills generated groans and complaints rather than accomodation.The waitstaff at lunch was incredibly rude on our first day, which was ameliorated somewhat by the pleasant breakfast the following mornings. Another inconvenience was that 800 numbers were blocked, so to reach those numbers, we had to use the Post Office facilities in town. Our room was quite worn and musty etc etc.

As I said in an earlier post, undoubtably we were let down from the fantastic crossing we had experienced on the Voyager. We had such a wonderful time and enjoyed tremendously the various restaurants, the Spotlight on Sinatra shows, and especially our Cordon Bleu cooking classes and classmates. I would recommend Voyager to anyone and everyone who is considering a cruise. It even surpassed our Mariner cruise last year. I just expected the welcome from the Palacio to be a little warmer, the service a little better, and the facilities a little nicer. Expectations.

[JoAnne B]

Yes, it sounds like you had a series of irritants that can be a "turn off" to any hotel. I find the normal rooms, in spite of their fantastic views, a bit dark and usually upgrade to a junior suite for very little up-charge. It's well worth it. We are escorted to the suite by the staff manager, which is a nice touch. As far as money goes, the Madeiran's act like changing money is a heroic act. They always want exact change, and can get peckish if they have to make change. I cashed a check at my bank in Ribeira Brava and didn't pay attention to the fact that they gave me 100 euro notes. It's almost impossible to get anybody to change them, so I just carry them around for emergencies. Last week hubby cashed a check and insisted on 20's, 10's, and (horrors) 5's. He got an attitude as well. One clerk at the bank refuses to handle our transactions, once we try our stumbling Portugese she rolls her eyes and turns us over to someone else (I know she speaks English...she just doesn't want to deal with us). So I know what you mean about the occasional rudeness. Overall, people are very friendly and helpful, but there are some bad apples.

 

By the way, the grocery in the new mall has the best selection on the island. It seems more geared for the upscale tourists and nearby apartment dwellers.

 

I'm looking forward to being back on the Voyager for the fall crossing. Will repeat the Cordon Bleu class as well. And you're right...they do spoil you for "ordinary service"!