Review vos 24.11-8.12

[The Fox]

Hi,

Just of VOS yesterday from a cruise to NZ.

Dinning: I thought overall the dinning was a good standard to most ships that have been Aussiefied...but if food and dinng is the reason you cruise then pehaps Princess may be better for you. any food I don't have and cook and serve is good for me.Johnny Rockets is a must great fun.Portifino nice but thats it.

Buffet: Usual standard as per most ships these days good variety.A lot of pax complained about the staff serving you but there was a novo bug on the cruise prior.I had no worries with this and probally preferred it.

Cabin: We chose our usual inside cabin....it was well appointed and everything worked well .My only bugbear was I had to slide out of bed because of the lack of space between the foot of the bed and the TV.thats easily fixed get a larger interior next but having said that the beds are king sized.

Pool & out door facilities: Great pool area two big pools ,plenty deck and table and chairs.....would be a great area on a south pacific cruise.It got very little use on this cruise ....the weather ws good but I haven,t been on a cruise to NZ when it was hot enough for swimming.If swimming is one of your preferred activities rethink NZ....it more a scenic cruise but a good one.

Bars, public rooms etc: like most ships some worked for me others didn,t...

THE SHIP: Brillianted designede for cruising the mediterrain....its big,hugh infact and your legs will get a work out.It rides really well and the biggest swell we had was only 6 metres and it didnt bounce around much at all.

The mall is a fantastic concept and looks great and if you like to drink coffee and eat cakes and pastries etc...its for you.Not for me I am an outdoor person.

I thought the shops we very ordinary and lacked variety.

SPORTS FACILITIES : Loved the ice and inline skating rink and of course the 9 hole putt putt golf....the rock climbing wall is good but its not for me.

Entertainment : On the whole with the exception of the iceskating show was the same old same old...good but nothing to rave over.....DO NOT Miss the ICE SKATING SHOW it is spectacular.

Drinks : reasonably priced ,most beers 5.50 ,6.50 cocktail of the day,carafe of wolfblass red or white 10.00 as compred to 10.00 per glass in some bars....yep the drinks

were fairly priced.

 

Service : No complaints from me.....but I am pretty laidback and i realise there was 3500 pax onboard.

 

Ports : All ports were fantastic and scenery wise spectcular.....and we nailed the sounds on the perfect day....Milford sound was amazing...

 

My Views: I chose VOS to go to NZ because of its size and stability because Di has been seas sick in the past and I didn,t want to suffer and miss such a beautiful scenic country....It worked no sea sickness and she got to experience NZ.....so the choice was right.

 

THE BIG QUESTION: Would I sail on VOS again....yep but only to places with a warmer climate....althought the weather was good for NZ its cold and the strong winds made it unpleasant to be outside which meant I had to spend a lot of time in doors which I hate.

 

Comparing the 3 RCI ships sailing from Australia my preference in order : ROS ,RAD & VOS.

 

All are magnificent ships and I would sail on any of them again....the reason I place VOS last is not because of anything more than its size is restrictive and it needs ports where it can berth not tender....this is one reason it was designed to cruise the mediterrain .....hop on hop off ports ...not many sea days.Very good for the elderly and the disabled.

 

Loved the cruise and the company.

 

Till next cruise

 

Happy cruising to all

 

Col & Di:)

[cruisingback]

Hi,

 

Great Review, many thanks.

 

We sailed on her in 2002 and will again in January, so looking forward to returning to this great ship.

[aussiedisneyfan]

Great to read.

[Icerecon]

Thanks Col and Di glad you enjoyed your cruise good review.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[fishtaco]

Great and to the point straight forward honest review!

 

I suspected that many of the gripes (especially from UK cruisers) was the cooler weather that exasperated small niggles!

 

Glad I chose Freo To Singapore in March:D Bring on the outdoor areas:D

 

Den

[Gaznjo]

thanks for that col..... we have only 12 days left to go...

email me any other handy tips.... or we could meet for coffee at the TC

 

joanne

[aussiescouser]

gday Col,

 

glad you had a good trip and loved the review, i must say i agree with your order of preference for Royal Caribbean ships. I did the 1 nighter just before you to check her out and was impressed but not blown away, Rhapsody is my fav but hoping they have not taken away some of her beauty since her refit and looking forward to sailing on ROS in march. cheers mate

 

regards

Pete & Rose:D

[Gold Coast Cruisers]

:)Thanks for your review Col, enjoyed reading it very much.

We spent most of the time on Voyager out and about playing golf, table tennis, basketball, inline skating. Wasn't brave enough to try the Rock Climbing either on Voyager or on Rhapsody when we cruised on her.

On our cruise we didn't have one day of rain for the whole 42 days but we had extreme heat well over 43 degrees through the Middle East, yet we still played our outdoor games. But did always finish with a beer at one of the bars afterward.

The shops in the Royal Promenade were changed whilst we were on board. They did that purely for the Asian market putting in a lot of designer stuff.

With all that I've read from those recently on board Voyager it appears that the changes RCCL have made taking the ship from the USA market to an Asia/Australia market has turned it into a different ship to the one we were on back in April/May.

I'm fairly easy going on board but with what I've read I can understand why many have not been too pleased... Such a shame.

Jilly:)

[joejoe 59]

Thank you for your review really enjoyed reading it. We do this cruise in Jan. hope we get into the sounds as you did, as last time we didnt when we cruised on Pacific Dawn. Love the cold weather will be a lovely break from our Qld summer. :D

[Australian family]

Thank you for the review.

 

Just one question, how do they cope with getting all the passengers off in the ports? Was one thing that put me off going on the VOS.

 

From what Jilly and others have written seems like they have spoilt the VOS by catering for the Asian market.

[robinph]

Thank you for the review.

 

Just one question, how do they cope with getting all the passengers off in the ports? Was one thing that put me off going on the VOS.

 

From what Jilly and others have written seems like they have spoilt the VOS by catering for the Asian market.

 

Auckland dissembarkation was a bit of a shambles we did not arrive until 10am and they did ask that we hold off for a while as they only have 1 gangway and it was going to be a slow process, we waited approx one and a half hours before trying to get off. Gangway was on deck 2, and when we joined the line we were outside the lifts on deck 4, the line snaked its way down the stairs and along the corridors of deck 3, it took us about 55min to get off, maybe the ticketing system that is used for tendering may work at this port as it is going to be the same eveytime it docks there because of the single gangway and security checks in the terminal, Napier was another long wait we did'nt dock until 2pm, we were off the ship quickly enough but had long waits for the shuttle buses into town, they said there were traffic jams as all the locals wanted to come to see the ship as it was her first time there, all other ports things ran quite smoothly,I'm sure they will sort things out in time. Robin:)