Voyager of Seas repositioning cruise from Singapore

[dennisamor]

Plenty of reasons Why I'll not be booking with Royal Caribbean again☹️️☹️️. Will explain why when I reach home after Voyager of Seas repositioning cruise from Singapore.

[Gig103]

Plenty of reasons Why I'll not be booking with Royal Caribbean again☹️️☹️️. Will explain why when I reach home after Voyager of Seas repositioning cruise from Singapore.

 

Dennis I'm considering booking one of these. I will subscribe here but if you wouldn't mind e-mailing me (my CC username @yahoo.com) I'd be very keen to hear your advice. Airfare is going to cost me more than the cruise so I want to be 'sure'.

[BekkaW]

That's a shame, we did the Singapore-Sydney cruise on Voyager a few years ago and loved it. We have relatives on this cruise now on our recommendation! Very interested to hear your though once you return

[dennisamor]

Dennis I'm considering booking one of these. I will subscribe here but if you wouldn't mind e-mailing me (my CC username @yahoo.com) I'd be very keen to hear your advice. Airfare is going to cost me more than the cruise so I want to be 'sure'.

 

Hi Mike,

 

Main complaints involve an apparent contempt for passengers. My main groans were over having to queue for a total of 10 hours for tenders over three days and being refused My Time Dining, even though the cruise had been booked for 18 months. Complaints to Passenger Services were met with promises that someone would get back to me ... nobody ever did, despite reminders. Bathroom toiletries were supplied only on request and there was no nightly bed turn down service ... definitely no bedtime chocolates on pillows. Horrendous price of drinks ... and 18 percent gratuities ... even on those you took out of your own cabin fridge. Constantly bombarded with sales pitches trying to get money out of you. Lots of other niggling things which really amounted to penny-pinching. But as the captain admitted at his stage presentation, one has to keep the "shareholders" happy. Seem to me Royal Caribbean has lost the plot ... surely it's the passengers it needs to keep happy!

[Eva15]

Hello,

 

We also were on the Voyager cruise that departed Singapore on the 18th of October. Boarding, for us, was uncomplicated but others weren't so lucky. Our room was available fairly early but upon opening the door we were bowled over by the smell. The room stunk, it smelt moldy. After many hours of complaining, I mean 10 hours, we received a visit from the housekeeping manager who promised to have the carpet cleaned the next day. The carpets were cleaned the next day but this didn't fix the problem, I travel with room air freshener which made it only just bearable.

The first night we never made it to dinner in the main dinning room because our bags were among those still being loaded an hour after the ship was due to sail. I didn't want to go to the dinning room feeling all grubby that first night so it wasn't until the next day that I found out that we no longer had My Time Dinning even though we had had My Time Dinning since booking the cruise in February. As it turned out we were on a table with three other very lovely couples so I can't really complain about that.

I have been a member of Cruise Critics for a while, even though this is my first post, and I sign up for the meet and greets. When we first entered our room all that was there for us was the horrendous smell. There was no info about anything, not our booked excursions or our purchased dinning package. No info about the Cruise critics meet and greet or about our Crown and Anchor entitlements. I rang customer service, the first day at sea, to find out when the meet and greet was on but they didn't know. I was told to ring again the next morning and they should know by then, they didn't. It was not until we found the Crown and Anchor desk open on the third day that we found out that the meet and greet had been held on the first day at sea.

We are not big drinkers so we didn't have a drinks package. We both like a couple of wines with dinner but by the forth night this was becoming increasingly difficult. Whoever ordered the wine for that cruise needs to be sacked, I'm not kidding. Four days into a two week cruise and they had run out of any wine under $50 a bottle, I was not a happy cruiser. Wine was not the only drink that they ran out of but the only one I cared about.

We have no complaints about the dinning service or food. Not all the food I liked but that's a matter of taste except for the pate which everyone agreed was bland. Also I found a lot of the dishes in the Windjammer were too salty but we don't use salt very much, so again probably a taste issue.

Now about the tendering, what a complete stuff up. We have been on cruises before where tendering has been an organised and efficient process but not on this cruise. Our first tender port was Port Douglas, we collected tender tickets shortly after 9:00am. Our tender ticket was 43, at the time they were up to 16. We finally headed for land after lunch, it took them over five hours to transfer everyone. The tendering was done useing large tourist catamarans not the ship boats. Unloading, when we reached port, was quick and efficient but the loading at the ship was another matter. We got on the boat just before it left but other people told us that they had been sitting on the boat waiting for 40 minutes. Our next tender port we had an excursion so we thought we would get off quicker, wrong. We were 45 minutes late leaving on our excursion and then what was meant to be a 5 hour excursion returned after 3 hours and 40 minutes. I complained about that and received a 20% refund. By the third tender port some people refused to go on their tours and demanded a refund when they were still waiting on the ship 30 minutes after their tour was meant to have left. I watched one couple being dealt with by a very rude member of staff who demanded their tour tickets and tour numbers and then told them that they would have to go and get a tender ticket and wait for their number to be called. I told them to just go and get on the boat that nobody was checking tender tickets.

Another issue was the air conditioning, it was mostly too cold and I didn't think I would need a cardie. One day I sat talking to an old fellow who told me that his cabin was freezing and that he couldn't stay there unless he was in bed. Another old lady told me that they were in a suite and they had no hot water and no one cared.

Other things that I have an issue with are things that are a matter of opinion such as the quality of the entertainment which didn't impress us very much. I also think that the girl from Alice Springs should have won the Karaoke contest not the guy from Adelaide. In my opinion he only won because he was part of the Adelaide Crows mob.

We won't be cruising with Royal Caribbean again and I think we will stick to the smaller ships.

[direptor]

Hi Mike,

 

Main complaints involve an apparent contempt for passengers. My main groans were over having to queue for a total of 10 hours for tenders over three days and being refused My Time Dining, even though the cruise had been booked for 18 months. Complaints to Passenger Services were met with promises that someone would get back to me ... nobody ever did, despite reminders. Bathroom toiletries were supplied only on request and there was no nightly bed turn down service ... definitely no bedtime chocolates on pillows. Horrendous price of drinks ... and 18 percent gratuities ... even on those you took out of your own cabin fridge. Constantly bombarded with sales pitches trying to get money out of you. Lots of other niggling things which really amounted to penny-pinching. But as the captain admitted at his stage presentation, one has to keep the "shareholders" happy. Seem to me Royal Caribbean has lost the plot ... surely it's the passengers it needs to keep happy!

 

Not sure how long you have not cruised with RC but chocolates on pillows were something that has been gone for years and 18% gratuities has been there for a long time already too.

 

Bathroom toiletries are only provided to Grand Suite and above guests so if you were staying in a room lower than a GS, any toiletries they provide you is a bonus and its not even an expectation these days.

[direptor]

Hello,

 

We also were on the Voyager cruise that departed Singapore on the 18th of October. Boarding, for us, was uncomplicated but others weren't so lucky. Our room was available fairly early but upon opening the door we were bowled over by the smell. The room stunk, it smelt moldy. After many hours of complaining, I mean 10 hours, we received a visit from the housekeeping manager who promised to have the carpet cleaned the next day. The carpets were cleaned the next day but this didn't fix the problem, I travel with room air freshener which made it only just bearable.

The first night we never made it to dinner in the main dinning room because our bags were among those still being loaded an hour after the ship was due to sail. I didn't want to go to the dinning room feeling all grubby that first night so it wasn't until the next day that I found out that we no longer had My Time Dinning even though we had had My Time Dinning since booking the cruise in February. As it turned out we were on a table with three other very lovely couples so I can't really complain about that.

I have been a member of Cruise Critics for a while, even though this is my first post, and I sign up for the meet and greets. When we first entered our room all that was there for us was the horrendous smell. There was no info about anything, not our booked excursions or our purchased dinning package. No info about the Cruise critics meet and greet or about our Crown and Anchor entitlements. I rang customer service, the first day at sea, to find out when the meet and greet was on but they didn't know. I was told to ring again the next morning and they should know by then, they didn't. It was not until we found the Crown and Anchor desk open on the third day that we found out that the meet and greet had been held on the first day at sea.

We are not big drinkers so we didn't have a drinks package. We both like a couple of wines with dinner but by the forth night this was becoming increasingly difficult. Whoever ordered the wine for that cruise needs to be sacked, I'm not kidding. Four days into a two week cruise and they had run out of any wine under $50 a bottle, I was not a happy cruiser. Wine was not the only drink that they ran out of but the only one I cared about.

We have no complaints about the dinning service or food. Not all the food I liked but that's a matter of taste except for the pate which everyone agreed was bland. Also I found a lot of the dishes in the Windjammer were too salty but we don't use salt very much, so again probably a taste issue.

Now about the tendering, what a complete stuff up. We have been on cruises before where tendering has been an organised and efficient process but not on this cruise. Our first tender port was Port Douglas, we collected tender tickets shortly after 9:00am. Our tender ticket was 43, at the time they were up to 16. We finally headed for land after lunch, it took them over five hours to transfer everyone. The tendering was done useing large tourist catamarans not the ship boats. Unloading, when we reached port, was quick and efficient but the loading at the ship was another matter. We got on the boat just before it left but other people told us that they had been sitting on the boat waiting for 40 minutes. Our next tender port we had an excursion so we thought we would get off quicker, wrong. We were 45 minutes late leaving on our excursion and then what was meant to be a 5 hour excursion returned after 3 hours and 40 minutes. I complained about that and received a 20% refund. By the third tender port some people refused to go on their tours and demanded a refund when they were still waiting on the ship 30 minutes after their tour was meant to have left. I watched one couple being dealt with by a very rude member of staff who demanded their tour tickets and tour numbers and then told them that they would have to go and get a tender ticket and wait for their number to be called. I told them to just go and get on the boat that nobody was checking tender tickets.

Another issue was the air conditioning, it was mostly too cold and I didn't think I would need a cardie. One day I sat talking to an old fellow who told me that his cabin was freezing and that he couldn't stay there unless he was in bed. Another old lady told me that they were in a suite and they had no hot water and no one cared.

Other things that I have an issue with are things that are a matter of opinion such as the quality of the entertainment which didn't impress us very much. I also think that the girl from Alice Springs should have won the Karaoke contest not the guy from Adelaide. In my opinion he only won because he was part of the Adelaide Crows mob.

We won't be cruising with Royal Caribbean again and I think we will stick to the smaller ships.

 

Not sure which rooms you were in but I was doing a B2B on Voyager and left the ship when it reached Singapore. The ship was sailing in low pressure areas due to the typhoons that was heading for Taiwan, Vietnam etc so throughout the 11 days i was on board, there was alot of rain and rough seas. There were a number of balcony rooms that had flooded balconies and the water seep into some of the rooms. That might have caused the smell in the room if you were in a balcony room affected by that otherwise i do not know the cause of the smell.

 

There was some issues with the Meet and Greet for quite a few of the Voyager sailings at least and many people who earlier registered for meet and greet were no longer on the list and had to reregister themselves closer to sail date as that happened to my sailing as well. Not sure if you had check your roll call to see if that happened to your sailing as well.

 

There is a thermostat in the room to control the temperature and I never felt the room was too cold since i've managed to adjust it to suit my needs. Not sure whether you have attempted to adjust the temperature using the thermostat in your room or it might have been broken if that didn't work.

Edited November 4, 2016 by direptor

[north29]

Some things in your review I can identify with and have experienced from time to time. But, many things are may not be the fault of RC, like the tenders.

 

Guest services, unfortunately, are the front line for onboard issues and take a lot of abuse from from passengers over issues they have no control over, they just report it to the proper channels heck the channels may be in Miami. Being rational and reasonable when dealing with them helps out a lot.

Not saying you were irrational.

[Sallyandtex]

that sounds awful.

shame on them, I think a lot of people have noticed and it will show in their bottom line in the future.

 

We had terrible time trying to get off with the tenders too, problem is that people do the wrong thing and not go when they are suppose to, and you are right, they don't check the tickets.... THEY SHOULD! People doing the right thing get the rough end of the stick.

[jebo]

Totally agree with your review of the cruise "Eva15".

We had a lovely 5 night stay in Singapore exploring the city and enjoying the facilities of our hotel. Then we joined the Voyager........ Food and service was well below standard and Specialty Restaurants were from average to awful, having sent two meals back for bad quality and cooking. The Ship was very dirty throughout and in need of a total refurbishment. Our balcony cabin was quite spacious (as they had removed the coffee tables), but smelled like a public toilet most of the time as did the corridors. We gave them the opportunity to fix the problem but it was not addressed. On one occasion the water was running brown in the bathroom sink to which we phoned guest services who said just to run the tap and it should clear - shame I had swallowed some of the water whilst cleaning my teeth. Ports were badly organized and we all had to queue constantly to get on and off the Ship with the tenders. Shore excursions were extremely overpriced and poor value. Passengers were constantly complaining and their concerns were not being addressed. We are not new to cruising (being Diamond members) and have taken 28 cruises to date on various cruise lines around the world. After this experience we could not recommend the Voyager of the Seas and will never cruise on this Ship again. If we do decide to use this brand again we will certainly be doing extensive research before booking.

Edited November 6, 2016 by jebo

[WaveSplasher]

Just to add.

 

I was on the sailing before the ship left for Australia, the repositioning cruise to Singapore.

 

I agree with most of the comments made here. Most of the time, the doors weren't really working well and the Bridge viewing area, the doors were spoilt throughout the cruise. I was stuck outside for a while until a someone helped to activate the door from inside as you couldn't enter from outside as the door was spoilt.

 

C&A welcome back letter wasn't there with all the benefits, neither was the Cruise Critic Meet-up. Had to queue at GS for quite a bit to get this settled

 

There were definitely issues with the ports and RCL doesn't tell the important stuff that you need to know. On the last night, My Time dining was a screw-up. And the staff couldn't bother to do the service well.

 

I would like to do a Singapore to Australia in the future, and though i will still cruise with RCL, i will need a better performance from Voyager.

 

Sadly, her itinerary to Sydney is quite interesting.