Live Voyager of the Seas Baltic Cruise (by way of a short stay in London & Copenhagen) May 22-29th

[John&LaLa]

20 minutes ago, CatLadyFemme said:

I never ever want to fly through JFK again. Worth a longer layover to fly to London or Amsterdam first and direct to Detroit. Luckily, our wheelchair pusher was a badass, and trotted us through all of the airport. Such a long way; if you are at all disabled, please request a wheelchair or cart. MrCatLady runs multiple times a week, and he was sweating by the time we got to our new gate

 

Not a fan of JFK for international arrivals

[Ukigirl]

13 hours ago, CatLadyFemme said:

We are home safe. 
 

For those who read the first posts, our trip home in Delta One was SO much better. An older plane, but I actually liked how it was organized better (it felt like more room) and the flight crew was like night and day compared to the first one. We felt so special, got offered drinks and food, no problem getting a seat belt extender, so friendly. I specifically  thanked them for making us have such a good flight back to the US. Will also be writing Delta to tell them.

 

I never ever want to fly through JFK again. Worth a longer layover to fly to London or Amsterdam first and direct to Detroit. Luckily, our wheelchair pusher was a badass, and trotted us through all of the airport. Such a long way; if you are at all disabled, please request a wheelchair or cart. MrCatLady runs multiple times a week, and he was sweating by the time we got to our new gate.

 

The highlight of our trip home was meeting CC member Stephanie (not sure her handle; tag yourself if you’re reading!) as our FA on our last leg home to Detroit. Pic posted with consent. So cool!

 

 

Got home and immediately passed out. Our cats are so happy to see us. Dealing with a migraine today, but Sir Catrick Stewart was glad to take care of me.

Already thinking about our next trip…we are booked on Quantum of the Seas out of Seattle on August 15th with MxCatLady. Hope to see some of you on my life review then! Thanks for joining me 💜

 

Cats always seem to know when you’re not feeling the best,  when I had the flu one of my three gingers stayed by my side for three days ❤️
 

[leigh922]

On 5/24/2022 at 3:15 PM, CatLadyFemme said:

Once back on board, we grabbed some drinks at the cafe. We were literally the only non-staff members on the Royal Promenade for a good half hour. I spent some time checking my internet needs (have given up on any signal in the cabin) before heading to the room to change and back to the Solarium. The water in the pool was even warmer today! It was like being in my warm water therapy pool at my local PT office, so was delightful for doing my aqua therapy. Who knew I would be more compliant while on a cruise!

 

We had such a nice time that we opted to skip the top tier event (they didn’t have emerald pins on board anyways; have a letter stating such), and enjoy more time on the deck. Then a quick change for dinner.

 

 

Tonight, my gluten free basket included pumpernickel style gluten free rolls! I was in heaven! These were the best; so soft, so flavorful. I was over the moon.

 

 

If you followed my recent Allure review, you’ll know my ordering of the grilled avocado was a total flop, with an avocado so unripe, I couldn’t cut it with a knife. This avocado was much better and quite tasty, though also not grilled. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I had the potato soup from the vegan menu…but they didn’t put the mushrooms in it, so it had almost no flavor. The polenta fries, on the other hand, were quite tasty. I had also asked for some GF/flourless chocolate cake. Again, this is different on every cruise I order it. Sometimes it is cake, sometimes like a brownie, some times like fudge. This was like a fudgey cake with chocolate ganache on top. So so so tasty but also so rich that I could only do a few bites. MrCatLady did the seafood cake (best starter he has had so far), the arugula salad (very light and tasty), the barramundi (he said it was over cooked and pretty meh, wound up pushing food around to make it look like he ate more than he did), and the lemon curd tart (also a big winner). I had asked Elmer for a mocktail, and he came in clutch; some sort of mango pineapple situation for me, and a virgin blueberry mojito for MrCatLady. All in all, a fairly solid meal. I just ordered the coconut parsnip soup for tomorrow; I really enjoy it and wanted to drop by, but we are also going to go to Giovanni’s for an 8pm meal tomorrow.

 

 

We barely made it to our ice show seats before the show started. Gentle reader, I have good news; I was so worried after last night’s show that I would hate this too and just be seen as a crabby critic, but actually loved this ice show. It’s one of the best ones I have seen on Royal. 
 

I used to be a competitive figure skater. In fact, we went in Voyager the first time in 2002 because it was the first ship with an ice rink aboard, so my sister and I were able to cruise during competition season. We brought our skates, and they had ice time in the mornings for people who could actually jump and spin. So I always remind folks this rink is about a third of a normal rink, and doing this while at sea is amazing. Luckily for the cast tonight, we are still docked in Stockholm, so they only had to contend with the former. You could definitely tell the difference as there were only two falls the whole show, while the ones I have see at sea usually have at least one fall per person.

 

The show was somehow loosely based on Tarot, and with the exception of the Hermit and the World, I could tell which card most folks were supposed to be. The costumes were much better than last night, though for the first number, MrCatLady pointing out they were all rocking trans masc and nonbinary styles (and the woman wearing the turban/tichel was wearing the colors of the trans flag). The numbers were well suited to each of the skaters (the more funny skaters did the fun numbers, the serious ones the more dramatic numbers, the amazing spinner of a Sun did a very spin heavy number, the guy who had a blend of humor and drama skated to Creed), there was a decent plot line without hitting us over the head, and the German version of Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart was lovely, rather than the jarringly re-arranged tunes from last night. I highly highly recommend.

 

 

I am not sitting on the mostly empty Solarium deck, watching the sunset, and sending some Marco Polo messages to MxCatLady back in MI. Avoiding the 70s party (am surprised they still do this; I feel like this crowd would prefer 80s or 90s, based on the Mood performances last night), and just relaxing. May read for a bit as well.

 

oh! And first towel animal of the cruise!

 

 

 

Does the Solarium have any food options on Voyager? We fell in love with the breakfast buffet on Allure.

[Biker19]

11 hours ago, leigh922 said:

Does the Solarium have any food options on Voyager?

No.

[shamajim]

On 5/23/2022 at 9:37 AM, DragonOfTheSeas said:

CatLady--Thanks you for taking us along with you. We hope you have a great trip.  I am very interested in your experiences on this cruise.  We will be on Voyager July 31 from Stockholm to Copenhagen.  

 

One thing I am interested in is how close to downtown/old town or main sites is the place Royal Caribbean docks.  . . . or do they provide a type of transportation to this area without taking a ship"s tour?  We understand this would likely not be free. TIA

I am curious about this too as we are sailing this cruise on Voyager on Aug 10th. We can't seem to determine this for most of the ports. Thanks for your recap. Very useful info here especially about all of the ports!