Is the Voyager too "Asian" for us to Enjoy?

[Desertbelle]

Our main objective for this cruise is to see Australia. I want to spend as much time there as possible as it may be my only chance to ever go. I have been dreaming of Australia since I was very young. Continuing on to Singapore will be cutting into my Australia time, and I have to weigh the pros and cons of getting to see Singapore (which sounds amazing) and spending a few more days in Australia. Now that it appears that the cruises will be very similar my choice is going to be based on itinerary alone.

 

Thanks for all the help, I sincerely appreciate that people give their time to help me understand the situation better.

[Embl]

I spoke to my travel agent this morning to book the Voyager of the Seas on a cruise from Sydney to Singapore in 2017. She had concerns over the "Asianization" of the Voyager in the last year or so and wondered if we would enjoy it.

 

It's probably a little late to reply to this but I thought I would anyway.

 

We've done this particular sailing 4 times on Voyager. Yes, the crew is predominantly Asian with some having better English skills than others while the passengers are predominantly Australian. The Asian theme isn't predominant at all. There are some offerings on the menu, you can book to eat at Izumi and there is always an Asian section in Windjammer as many people enjoy this cuisine. We have found the croupiers in the Casino to be understandable. Some of the bar staff have difficulty understanding drinks orders that may have different local names. In our experience the quizzes, bingo,outdoor and art/craft activities are led by the CD's staff who tend to be of European background.

 

We've also done this cruise in reverse and found it to be the same except that there are many more children on board if you depart from Sydney.

 

I wouldn't say there is an Asian 'theme' to this sailing and can't imagine why 2017 would be any different.

 

Waves away!

[Joe12]

As long as you can accept it being slightly different to your typical Western cruise, you'll be fine.

As Voyager spends half the year in Australia, she wasn't changed a whole lot for the Asian market. Mariner, however was changed significantly as she is based in Asia year round.

 

EDIT: I've just seen that this cruise is from Sydney, so it will be fine. Mostly Australians.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Joe12

[Newby58]

Ah yes, food. I fully agree with you that the one of the most unique features of Singapore is our local hawker fare. I am a big advocate of that too.

 

 

 

The BBC Travel channel has said that the Hainanese Chicken Rice is worth a 15 hour flight. On this blog post, I share some videos of the chicken rice that I have been eating.

 

 

 

Other than chicken rice, we have plenty of local hawker fare and here are some videos to show you what I eat.

 

 

 

Compilation video.

 

[YOUTUBE]vgFS4TPwIC0[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

 

At a hawker center, having breakfast.

 

[YOUTUBE]Gsk1lP_AyXE[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

 

Having some food at Newton Food Center, including satay, char kway teow, young coconut and chendol.

 

[YOUTUBE]qlxP5P3JiY4[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

I am booked on this cruise with my husband, (Aussies). We will be spending time post cruise in Singapore. I would really like to know if you can purchase Singapore Chilli Crab at a hawker stall? It's soooo expensive in the tourist restaurants.

To the OP, don't miss visiting the outer Barrier Reef regardless of which itinerary you choose. We are going again at every port possible [emoji4]

[Newby58]

Oops. Rewatched the videos and SAW Singapore chilli crab with pepper.

[Queenslandcruiser68]

We sailed on the Mariner from Singapore-Shanghai and the "Asianization"on her was noticeable...Since your cruise starts in Australia I would be surprised if it was near what the Mariner had become.

 

 

Hi Ashland,

 

Just wondered if you could elaborate on your Asian cruise experience. We are booked on cruise with Voyager in May 2017 out of Singapore. I am more interested in the entertainment side.

 

cheers

 

Sandra

[WaveSplasher]

If you do the re-positioning the other way round like for example Hong Kong to Singapore and if the ship is continuing to Australia like the Voyager then you find things that are useful below:

 

Entertainment:

Catered to the Australians such as Comedian from Australia ( Duck Cameron) and (Nathan Foley) Singer from Australia. Love & Marriage Show, Dancing Rocks Party. No Asian productions.

 

Songs are all sung in English. There is no band singing Chinese songs.

 

Announcements:

All in English, rarely in Chinese or none at all.

 

Food MDR:

All Western Style with a one or 2 dish being Indian. You will get to taste a new menu that is prepared for the Australian Season.

 

Food Windjammer:

Asian food only includes DIY noodles and some other things. Not a lot. Most of them are Western.

 

I noticed they remove the Soya Sauce and the Vinegar from the Windjammer and the MDR as opposed to the Asian Season.

 

Passenger Count:

Majority of them are Australians over 800 of them, with over 1/3 continuing on to Sydney. And there are a good number from Scotland, UK and the USA.

 

China is mostly tour groups.

Edited November 24, 2016 by WaveSplasher

[Tin can]

I'm just off Mariner and after I read these reviews I was somewhat worried - but it was all a beat up. Being Chinese New Year and sailing out of Singapore by far the biggest number of cruisers were from China and Singapore. The changes to menus were welome (there best food I've had in MDR fro many a year) and there are plenty of western dishes for those who wished. There was smoking in the Casino and some changes to venues (Champagne Bar has gone for example for extra shops). Behaviour was no different than I have seen on other cruises and certainly by experience was not at all like the reviews. The worst experience I had was the question to me by an American woman on our table at lunch asking how many white people were on the ship. Staff were uniformly excellent.

Given VOS is sailing from Australia to Asia I would expect as others have said mostly AU passengers and not much different from other RCI cruises.

Think your TA is building nervousness needlessly.

 

We are sailing on Mariner out of Singapore in 2018 (also over Chinese New Year) so found your thoughts interesting, thank you.

 

We were on Navigator a few weeks ago and I called into the 'Next Cruise' office to ask a few questions about upgrading our stateroom. The very first thing the guy said was "You do realise it will be very different!".

 

Thats part of what interests us to be honest, we are going with an open mind and looking for new experiences.

[Queenslandcruiser68]

Hi WaveSplasher,

 

thanks for this information. It will be very helpful.

 

Cheers

 

Sandra

 

 

If you do the re-positioning the other way round like for example Hong Kong to Singapore and if the ship is continuing to Australia like the Voyager then you find things that are useful below:Catered to the Australians such as Comedian from Australia ( Duck Cameron) and (Nathan Foley) Singer from Australia. Love & Marriage Show, Dancing Rocks Party. No Asian productions.

 

Songs are all sung in English. There is no band singing Chinese songs.

 

Announcements:

All in English, rarely in Chinese or none at all.

 

Food MDR:

All Western Style with a one or 2 dish being Indian. You will get to taste a new menu that is prepared for the Australian Season.

 

 

Entertainment:

 

Food Windjammer:

Asian food only includes DIY noodles and some other things. Not a lot. Most of them are Western.

 

I noticed they remove the Soya Sauce and the Vinegar from the Windjammer and the MDR as opposed to the Asian Season.

 

Passenger Count:

Majority of them are Australians over 800 of them, with over 1/3 continuing on to Sydney. And there are a good number from Scotland, UK and the USA.

 

China is mostly tour groups.

[AussieCruiser79]

I did this cruise in 2016 on the Voyager ex Perth. The cruise was very much the same as any normal cruise out of Australia. There was a change over crew on board preparing for the next cruise season in Asia but the AU season activities team were the active team.

 

They also started making some changes around the ship eg the casino during the latter parts of the cruise to prepare for the different groups but nothing over the top and it was all done discretely.

 

The food was very much the same as during the AU season. I quite enjoyed it and we had nice weather all of the way up. I would think that a cruise out of Singapore would have been quite different but something I haven't yet had the chance to do.

[joandian]

We cruised on Mariner last month from Shanghai to Singapore and then some friends joined Voyager to cruise Singapore to Sydney.

 

Neither cruise was any different to any other cruise we have been on and the demographic on the Mariner to Singapore was most UK and European, followed by USA and Canada and then Australia and NZ. I believe the Voyager had more Australians onboard.

 

The closed end cruises eg Shanghai - Shanghai and a larger number of Asians and the food and entertainment is changed to meet that demand.

 

The repositioning cruises like the OP mentioned from Sydney to Singapore will be mainly Westerners and you won't notice any difference to sailing from the US although the staff might be changing to more Asians... who are brilliant by the way.