Voyager – 6/3 – 6/12 Caribbean Cruise Review

[superjerryw]

I have to say that I can find little to complain about on this trip with the exception of some of the food. Despite some bad weather and the cancellation of the port stop in Grand Bahama it was still a great trip.

 

 

Condition of the ship – it looked great to me. If you look hard enough you could find some signs of wear and tear here or there like a spot on the carpet, but it’s certainly reasonable on a 6 year old ship that has over 3,000 different people getting on and off each week. No matter how much attention you pay to maintenance, such a large number of guests will always take its toll on a daily basis when they routinely spill or break things. I would say they are doing a great job maintaining the ship.

 

 

Entertainment – average cruise ship mediocre entertainment. The production shows were pretty good with the exception of the male singers that I thought were pretty bad. The headline entertainers were OK, but that’s about it. The ice show is the exception as it is truly outstanding. I can never figure out how the performers pull off those great tricks in such a small rink.

 

 

Service – Excellent in this category all around. The cabin steward did a really good job. These people work really hard and put in a lot of hours each day. I can’t believe that in some other posts people complained about not getting towel animals until the fourth night of the cruise. The service provided in the dining room by our waiter and assistant waiter was excellent as well. In the Windjammer there was always someone stopping by the table to either clear the plates or ask us if we wanted a beverage.

 

 

Food – Overall, very good. There was a nice selection of food every day in the Windjammer and we enjoyed just about everything we ordered in the dining room at dinner time. The Vidalia onion tart was great as always, but I don’t recall them serving the mushroom fueillette (sp) that I have enjoyed in the past. The chilled soups every night were great. All of the entrees we had were very good and prepared as we requested. The only disappointment was the desserts. In years gone by there would be 5 or 6 quality desserts to choose from each night. I think this is the one area where RCI has gone downhill. The carrot cake was dry and tasteless and the cheesecake was mediocre. Ice cream always arrived half melted as in the past. The key lime pie was good as were some brownies served in the Windjammer the first day. As for the rest of the desserts, it seems that they take globs of cream and add a different food coloring each day and call it something else on the menu. Just a bunch of uninspired creamy glop to me.

 

 

Chair hogs – yes, they were out there. I remember walking past the same two deck chairs several times on one sea day which always seemed to be occupied by only a towel and a shoe.

 

Overall – as I said, a great time. The weather was bad a few of the days, either totally cloudy or in some cases rain. I have read a couple of posts where other people that were on this cruise talked about how rough the seas were. To be honest, I have no idea what they were talking about. I never experienced any roughness at all. As a matter of fact, on the next to the last night of the cruise one of our tablemates commented on how smooth the sailing had been up to that point. Some other people also said the seas were rough due to tropical storm Arlene. Again, we were east of Florida and the storm was making landfall in Mississippi, nowhere near us. My only complaint is RCI’s failure to refund the port taxes for Grand Bahama since we didn’t stop there. I have been on other cruise lines who would immediately credit your ship board account for the port taxes if a port was missed. RCI’s policy in this area needs to be revised. The port taxes are not part of the cruise fare and they have no right to keep this money if a stop is missed.