VOS transatlantic 4/14/12 review and thoughts

[lilant]

basic background before i start. we are two guys in our mid 40's and like to travel. we usually switch up between cruises and land tours, but have cruised several times before and this was our 3rd TA.

 

ok so.. even though we were told not to arrive for boarding until 6pm due to the loading of a bunch of stuff for a face lift and we would not be leaving until 10pm, we still arrived at the dock at 11am. good thing no one paid any attention to the email. our taxi driver told us we were his second fare already to the ship and there was already a line.

 

we had priority boarding which really cut the line down and were on the ship in 20 mins. our rooms would not be ready until 1pm but we were on board!!

 

im not a lover of the voyager class for sure, but thats just my taste. i like eating alfresco and watching the world go and theres really no outdoor food venue on this ship. now i know you can go to the windjammer and take food outside, or eat from the pool BBQ in the day time but for me its not the same. too much walking back and forth. we did eat once at johnny rockets and they were nice but the food wasnt any better then anywhere else.

 

the room D2 was nice no complaints, except for the smokers next door. now i must say its been a couple of years since we have been on a RCL so when did the stop putting bars or liquid soap in the bathrooms? no soap no lotion.... hmmm. so we ended up stealing a couple of bars off a room attendants cart as we past, she had a stack. after that our girl started giving them to us. but really no soap? i understand they want to cut cost and people just loaded up on them but they could put a little card in the room and say we have it if you need it. first timers would be shocked to arrive and find no soap. this part of the ship is really a hotel and hotels still give soap. i can do without all the other stuff but soap?! ok im done with the soap, lets move on.

 

i signed up for a paid for in advance "my time" what A MISTAKE! there is nothing "My" about it. after reading about it on line i thought great we can go when we are hungry instead of a set time. i made a couple of reservations on line before the cruise for the first days so we would be set then thought we could just swing it for the rest of the cruise. HA, what a joke! we have been on NCL and loved freestyle, this is nothing like it. everyone had reservations for the same time everyday. well whats the point? the first day we had reservations at 7pm when we arrived they turned us away. "the drill was going to take place soon and they were not taking anymore reservations come back at 8:30" exactly is what i was told. buffet dinner #1.

the next day when we showed up for dinner about 6:30pm they were full for the night, buffet dinner #2. when i asked what was my time all about if i could not eat at my time and got a little pissy the host found a spot for us at 7:30pm starting the 5th day. so we had set reservations for the rest of the cruise, but whats "my time" about that? we ate at the buffet 5 or 6 times and at portofinos 5 times room service once and the few other days at the main rest. "my time".

 

TBC...

[Madame B]

We were on this sailing and were on a tour with you in the Azores. I'm anxious to read the rest of your review as we had some of the same issues, especially with "My Time Dining".

[lilant]

...so like i said we had dinner in portofinos several times had and had a great time and had great food. one thing i cant understand is why they dont change the menu up a little for such a long cruise, like once a week. people like us may do more if there were some small entree changes. you'd be surprised what $20 bucks(pp) gets you in quality of food & service not to mention the type of people in the restaurant. one night in the main restaurant i saw a "lady" put her feet up on her husbands chair!:eek:

 

 

we also bought the wine and dine package, 10 bottles of wine. now my only complaint is why couldn't i get a bottle of champagne in the champagne bar? the wine as i understand it is only for the dinning venues, so maybe i didnt read the fine print well enough. but it was nice to have wine with the meals and not have to worry about the bill at the end. it was prepaid before the cruise.

 

we had a $200 SBC from our TA that was quickly applied to our acct. as was our free dinner at protofinos and the one spa item also provided by our TA. i was glad that i printed out the two vouchers at home though cause we never got any notice in the room. when i showed the vouchers to both the spa and portofinos they accepted them with no problem.

 

 

all in all we had a good time im not going to sit here and try to find all the bad things about the cruise. i got so sick and tried of everyone complaining about the smallest things. we made the best of it.

 

there were the chair hogs but i usually found a chair or two within a couple of minutes. the pools were for the most part open and on sunny days the spot to be. they did repaint one of the pools and at the end of the cruise started some like cosmetic up keep with the plants on the pool deck. they replaced the live but sickly looking plants with fake ones. the new hedges looked really nice though.

 

i didn't use the gym, but my partner did almost everyday and i must say it is well kept up and very clean. its a nice size and has a wide variety of machines. they offered lots of work out classes but they are about $12 a class which is way to expensive. IMHO, that whole spa has gotten out of hand with prices.

 

now on this cruise as a lot of you may know the casino was closed for the first 7 days. for me i could care less it saved me money, but i know it was a big issue for some. when it finally did open like smelled and looked nice and new. lots of new tables, slots, carpet and a new "high rollers" area. i ended up taking $500 of the casinos money home, thank you very much. it is now tucked away in my bank acct. i got 5 scatters playing a penny machine (20 cents a pull) and won $572!! :D:D.

 

there were little snags here and there but nothing to ruin our vacation. we had a great time and for the price i think we got what we paid for.

[F27TW]

OMG The casino was closed for the first 7 days?? My partner would have jumped overboard !!

[lilant]

OMG The casino was closed for the first 7 days?? My partner would have jumped overboard !!

 

LOL! it wasnt that bad really!

 

also, i want to make an observation regarding "MY TIME", sorry to harp but im hoping someone from RCL will read or hear about this. while in college i waited tables so i have some experience. when you are part of regular dinning everyone comes and goes at the same time, so the waiter takes everyones order serves all the salads, all the soups, all the entrees all the desserts and coffees and then we are gone. IMHO, that CANT be done at "my time" but was exactly what our waiter did. i watched him he tried to time it all so that he only went to the kitchen once per item, like salads for example. and that made either some people wait long periods of time for the next dish or some people feel hurried. for example one night i liked a salad and the soup. i swear i watched the waiter. he served my salad and when i was done had my soup already waiting at the station. he had brought it with the salad. well so much for hot soup. the waiters should be re trained for my time and work more like a traditional restaurant. serving each table independently, and not trying to time everyone together. also, where the hell are the wine sommeliers? i bought a wine package and had wine with dinner, who served it? the waiter and asst waiter. well now no wonder they were trying to time it all. if we had wine with dinner the asst waiter had to go get the wine from god only knows where sometime it took 10min before we saw him again leaving the waiter to manage by himself. there should be a dedicated team for wine i think. its too much for the waiters to be running around trying to serve dinner and go and get wine.

[Jimnbigd]

...when did the stop putting bars or liquid soap in the bathrooms?

We've always had the small bars of soap as well as the (cheap) shampoo in the shower dispenser. Sounds like an oversight of your cabin attendant. Or maybe the last passengers took the soap after the room was made up.

[tillys mom]

Not unless they stole from my cabin too. Any penny that could be pinched on this cruise was pinched. The ship normally holds 3600 passengers, but only carried 2890 this trip with the rest of the rooms being used by contractors working on the ship. They had the 3D movie system set up but did not activate it because "they didn't make enough money on this cruise." I could go on and on, but it would do no good and was clearly management's decisions and not the crew's fauilt.

 

As far as I was concerned, the worst problem on the ship was having NOTHING to do. There were no lectures - including port lectures. If you didn't play trivia or go to the spa, you were out of luck. The few movies were shown over and over in a tiny screening room- the only exception being The Help; it was shown once in LaScala. This cruise had 10 sea days with no casino for the first 7 nights of the cruise. I went to a napkin folding class with 110 people (10 were men). We were standing and trying to fold on our lap. Every venue was too small for the people who showed up.

[mek]

Not unless they stole from my cabin too. Any penny that could be pinched on this cruise was pinched. The ship normally holds 3600 passengers' date=' but only carried 2890 this trip with the rest of the rooms being used by contractors working on the ship. They had the 3D movie system set up but did not activate it because "they didn't make enough money on this cruise." I could go on and on, but it would do no good and was clearly management's decisions and not the crew's fauilt.

 

As far as I was concerned, the worst problem on the ship was having NOTHING to do. There were no lectures - including port lectures. If you didn't play trivia or go to the spa, you were out of luck. The few movies were shown over and over in a tiny screening room- the only exception being The Help; it was shown once in LaScala. This cruise had 10 sea days with no casino for the first 7 nights of the cruise. I went to a napkin folding class with 110 people (10 were men). We were standing and trying to fold on our lap. Every venue was too small for the people who showed up.[/quote']

 

Interesting comments - we just returned Sat night from our 14 day TA on Liberty OTS. We did early traditional dining, so didn't experience the issues you had with dinner, but we did feel that there was a definite lack of activities during the day for a cruise with 8 sea days and the movies were shown over and over and over..... There were only 80 kids on our cruise, yet they didn't change the kiddie movies, ( or at least add additional movies to the selection.)

[Madame B]

I have to note another thing that happened on this trip. For two of the sixteen nights we didn't have water from midnight until 6am. While they gave us a few hours of advance notice for this, they never compensated us for this and were quick to charge us almost $5 per bottle for the bottled water that we consumed.

This was our first RCCL cruise and possibly our last, mostly because of the My Time Dining issue. I guess the reason they have us prepay tips is because they are not truly flexible with the dining. We didn't want to make a reservation every night as we didn't know when we would finish our pre-dinner drinks. They could learn a few things from Princess and Carnival by giving us beepers and designating a larger area of the dining room to MTD.

[lilant]

I have to note another thing that happened on this trip. For two of the sixteen nights we didn't have water from midnight until 6am. While they gave us a few hours of advance notice for this, they never compensated us for this and were quick to charge us almost $5 per bottle for the bottled water that we consumed.

This was our first RCCL cruise and possibly our last, mostly because of the My Time Dining issue. I guess the reason they have us prepay tips is because they are not truly flexible with the dining. We didn't want to make a reservation every night as we didn't know when we would finish our pre-dinner drinks. They could learn a few things from Princess and Carnival by giving us beepers and designating a larger area of the dining room to MTD.

 

 

i agree about the MTD. we did NCL and they have "freestyle" down to a science thats why we picked it this time. oh well cant win them all.

i had no idea about the water though. we never were affected i guess.

 

regarding the activities or they lack of... your right the compass was very light, i just thought it was me. maybe it was jummy's fault for not planning more. this was his first TA i think.

 

anthony

[welshrich]

We just did the Adventure TA, have to agree about the movies, we had 6 sea days and I like to take in a movie but it seemed to be the same films over and over, it wasnt like this on the Indy crossing a few years ago, also agree with the activities, seemed to be all or nothing some days and the popular things like trivia were always packed out unless you got there waaaay early to get a seat, JMHO

[trojan3000]

Hi we were also on this cruise and did the late sitting. The in the main dining room was not up to the standards that we have had off RCCL before meals sent back cold and the veal sent back because it was so tough. This was a 16 night cruise so meals that we have had before completely taken off the menu because of cut backs. We used the Windjammer for some breakfasts and some lunches the choice of food and quality was dismal not up to the usual RCCL standards

 

We are diamond plus and had a very poor concierge who never introduced himself or spoke to us the whole trip.

 

We must have had everybody’s bars of soap in our stateroom 4 in the bathroom 2 in front of the TV.

 

High light of the cruise Lisa`s tour in the Azores and dining at the farm house with the local family.

 

Ian

[trojan3000]

Food

[Iluvcruising2]

They are preparing the Voyager's casino for the Asian market.

 

Asians (especially Chinese) are known to gamble a lot.

[kenevenpar]

Were you alerted before hand that the casino would be closed? That contractors would be on board?

[lilant]

Were you alerted before hand that the casino would be closed? That contractors would be on board?

 

yes, but only a couple of days in advance which most thought was not enough. like i said it was godsent for me, it saved me money.

[mike@sea]

...also, where the hell are the wine sommeliers? i bought a wine package and had wine with dinner, who served it? the waiter and asst waiter. well now no wonder they were trying to time it all. if we had wine with dinner the asst waiter had to go get the wine from god only knows where sometime it took 10min before we saw him again leaving the waiter to manage by himself. there should be a dedicated team for wine i think. its too much for the waiters to be running around trying to serve dinner and go and get wine.

 

I could not agree more. Just returned from 12 night Brilliance and learned that (usually) the assistant waiter has to go and queue up with a single sommelier to collect the wine bottles for their tables. Lengthy process which keeps him from assisting. Lousy customer service for the premium prices we pay for wines.

 

How was the condition of the ship and staterooms, balconies ? Any work being done there?

[Madame B]

How was the condition of the ship and staterooms, balconies ? Any work being done there?

We heard that the rest of the ship will eventually be given a facelift. This was obviously a very nice ship when it was new. The furniture and carpet in our room was frayed, but still comfortable.

Regarding the food, we had several good dishes in the dining room. Surprisingly, we had a few good steaks. We only had one that we had to send back. I think we had lobster twice.

I was very disappointed in the breakfast in the Windjammer, but I had read on the boards that the choices did not vary daily.

[tillys mom]

I don't know what they were doing with the water, but 14 of the 16 nights something was going on with flushing. It would start about 11 PM and a really long flush would occur every 30 seconds(I didn't turn on the light to look at the clock). The flushes were spaced the exact same time apart and would continue until 2 or 3 AM. Several nights they were accompanied by clanging and banging sounds. Our room steward had no idea what was going on, but the neighboring cabins could also hear it. We took lots of naps.

 

Be glad you didn't have a kid on this TA since the construction supplies were stored in the kid's club area. I don't know what the kids did. In all fairness, the construction was not intrusive and we seldom saw workers except in the Windjammer where they were eating.

 

The MTD was a joke. We went the first night and were told to make a reservation for every night. For a few days I would swing by and tell them when we wanted to eat, but the food went downhill every night. Finally we just ate at the Windjammer when we wanted to. The food wasn't any better but there were more chances of finding something that you liked. We thought breakfast was the best meal there, but we ate the same thing everyday, so the lack of choices didn't bother us until they stopped serving grits.

 

There were Chinese shadows following behind workers all over the ship. One young woman taught the napkin folding, etc classes, and I thought she had alot to learn. She would tell everyone what to do and then be astonished when half the class did something else. She got very upset about the lack of discipline we showed.:D

[MadManOfBethesda]

Wow, I would be very upset if I was informed just a couple of days before a cruise that the casino would be closed for a week. Playing poker nightly is a - if not the - highlight of long cruises for me.

 

I also would have been very upset with your MTD experience. Interestingly, I was on Voyager's westbound TA from Barcelona to New Orleans last October/November and didn't experience any of your problems. My wife and I never made reservations and never encountered any difficulties being seated or being served when we just showed up in the dining room. Conversely, we did encounter a few problems with MTD on our recently-concluded TA on Grandeur last week. However, since we were in a GS on this cruise, we just ordered from the dining room menu and ate en suite most of the time.