LIVE Voyager of the Seas Oct. 2nd, 2022 - Oct. 9th, 2022

HappyTexan44 · October 4, 2022

Would it possible for you to post a photo of the Daily Activities you get each morning?
I am eyeing Cabin#7433. If you happen to wander down to the library could you tell me your impression of that cabin?

Another_Critic · October 4, 2022

1 hour ago, rudeney said:

Open, but heated and well surrounded so no breeze.

YMMV. It was quite cool and breezy last month on the transatlantic.

Sea Dog · October 4, 2022

2 hours ago, rudeney said:

I walked into Portland for Some Holy Donuts:

Is that a maple glazed bacon? Those donuts are to die for.

rudeney · October 4, 2022

4 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

YMMV. It was quite cool and breezy last month on the transatlantic.

Not as breezy as the main pools. I do have to qualify my experience with the fact that even though I am from Alabama, I have a very high tolerance for cold weather. 🙂

rudeney · October 4, 2022

3 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

Is that a maple glazed bacon? Those donuts are to die for.

Yes! I bought two of them One "disappeared". 😝

Another_Critic · October 4, 2022

6 minutes ago, rudeney said:

Yes! I bought two of them One "disappeared". 😝

Darn those pesky seagulls. 😉

Broons77 · October 4, 2022

3 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

Is that a maple glazed bacon? Those donuts are to die for.

11 minutes ago, rudeney said:

Yes! I bought two of them One "disappeared". 😝

4 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

Darn those pesky seagulls. 😉

Sorry, but it had to be said...

rudeney · October 4, 2022

We did the Portland by Land and Sea excursion. The first two was aboard the Bagheera, a 72-foot wooden hull schooner built in 1928.

We ended up "racing" the Timberwind, a sister ship owned by the same company:

We left them in our wake!

Saw a few sights in the bay

rudeney · October 4, 2022

The 2nd part of the tour was on a bus through Portland and to the Portland Head Light Lighthouse. The bus didn't stop except for at the lighthouse, so no pics in town.

rudeney · October 4, 2022

6 hours ago, HappyTexan44 said:

Would it possible for you to post a photo of the Daily Activities you get each morning?
I am eyeing Cabin#7433. If you happen to wander down to the library could you tell me your impression of that cabin?

It's an inside cabin, on an "inside" hallway. But close to the aft elevators

rudeney · October 4, 2022

6 hours ago, HappyTexan44 said:

Would it possible for you to post a photo of the Daily Activities you get each morning?
I am eyeing Cabin#7433. If you happen to wander down to the library could you tell me your impression of that cabin?

It's an inside cabin at the end of an "inside" hallway, but very convenient to the elevators - three left turns passing maybe 12 cabins. . It does backup to a service area, so I'm not sure about noise.

Another_Critic · October 4, 2022

2 minutes ago, rudeney said:

It's an inside cabin, on an "inside" hallway. But close to the aft elevators

There you go ... the inside story.

perfect match · October 5, 2022

Thanks @rudeney! Loved the sailboat! ⛵️ The donuts 🍩 looked yummy!

rudeney · October 5, 2022

Last night's dinner was at Izumi. The edamame starter was very good. Jan doe NOT like sushi - she won't even try it! So she had fried rice, beef teriyaki, and yaki udon with chicken. I had the gyoza dumplings, the chef's sushi selection, and sashimi. I liked everything. Jan said the udon noodles were a bit too mushy, and the chicken didn't have much flavor, but I thought it was fine. I don't normally each the garnishing (besides the wasabi and ginger) but I got a bite of the seaweed on the sushi plate and it was incredibly good! It was like a sweet slaw - not a briny seaweed flavor. I asked the matire de about it when he came by and he said it was special long preparation process to get it to taste that way. I could easily have eaten a side of that!

One thing I didn't mention was that yesterday's all-aboard was at 4:30pm, but our RCCL-purchased tour was slightly late, by about 5 minutes. We got stuck at a drawbridge. Of course the ship waited for use, but I noticed several people on their balconies looking at us, probably hoping to get some "dock runner" videos. Sorry to disappoint!

After dinner, Jan had some Ben & Jerry's ice cream and I had (another) drink and we enjoyed browsing around in The Promenade. And speaking of drinks, here's something I had been curious about. I drink mostly Scotch, and have had no problems finding Johnnie Walker Black Label, but I find that all the bartenders have been carefully measuring the drinks. By the time I have them add some ice and a splash of club soda, it gets a bit watered-down. I asked one of the bartenders for a double, and she said it would be an upcharge because basically, I'd be getting two drinks. Since I had both Jan's and my SeaPass cards (and Jan was at the table), I asked if I could get my drink as a single and a shot "for her". The bartender immediately understood and complied with my manipulation of the system. I did that later, but didn't ask about a double - I just ordered the drink and shot. When that bartender saw me pour the shot into the drink, she laughed and gave me a thumbs-up and laughed. Anyhow, that's how I've been getting doubles.

rudeney · October 5, 2022

We're in Saint John, New Brunswick this morning.

No one in the pool!

Another_Critic · October 5, 2022

57 minutes ago, rudeney said:

Jan does NOT like sushi - she won't even try it!

👍 to Jan. 😄

rudeney · October 6, 2022

We did the Saint John Bucket List shorex. It was nothing great. We had fun, and our tour guide Lynn was very good, but it paled in comparison to the tours in Bar Harbor and Portland. The fist took us to Reversing Falls, which was nothing exciting. I guess had we been there when the tide was coming in and pushing back into the river, it might have been more interesting, but otherwise, it's just a turbulent river in an industrial area.

rudeney · October 6, 2022

They drove us up to the remnants of an old fort that had a good view of the ship. I didn't get out for a photo because it was not a very good shot of Voyager. Our next stop was the City Market in town. We were there for about and hour, giving us more than enough time to see all the vendors wares, and grab a sandwich to go. It was an interesting place, but not really something I'd pay for a tour to go see (it is walkable from the terminal). We ended up sitting in the park across the street enjoying the nice day - mostly sunny, upper 60's.

rudeney · October 6, 2022

Next up was a drive to the small town of St. Martins, about an hour northeast of Saint John on the Bay of Fundy. We too the long way so we could see some of the shore areas along Fundy. It was nice, and there was just a hint of color in the trees.

St. Martins is a small fishing village. It has an unusual rocky 'beach" and when the tide is out (which it was), there are caves that could be explored, except they had them roped off due to falling trees.

rudeney · October 6, 2022

We headed back to Saint John and made a stop at the Reversing Falls again to see if things had changed. They had not, except that the paper mill across the river was down for the evening so it was less noisy. We were back on the ship around 6:00pm. Sail away was not until 11:00pm. I am not sure why it was so late, because there was not really a lot to do in town. Portland would have been a much better port for a late departure. Jan was tired so she decided to rest before our 8:00pm dinner in Chops. I headed out and ran into some friends I had met on boarding day, so I enjoyed a few drinks with them in the VK lounge. Saint John is not as nice looking as Portland or Bar Harbor, but it has it's own bit of charm.

Dinner was in Chops. Our waiter was a young man from Ukraine named Vlad. He had a VERY dry but VERY funny sense of humor. For example, we had no salt and pepper shakers on the table so as he grabbed the ones from the vacant table next to us, he casually said, "Hmm, someone must have stolen them. I will open an investigation." We talked about his family and the war. He had left in 2019, before the invasion, and was scheduled to go back home in August to start college, but now he can't As we dined and chatted, we told him how much we enjoyed is sense of humor. He said that it almost caused him to be fired. Some guests had complained on the end-of-cruise survey that he was rude and "sarcastic" to them. I guess they just had no sense of humor, and maybe had a hard time with his Ukrainian dry wit. He hustled, kept our win glasses full and was one of the best servers we've had so far. On the way out. we asked the maitre de to please seat us ad Vlad's for our next two meals in Chops.

So for the meal, Jan had the shrimp cocktail appetizer and I had the tuna tartar - both were excellent.

For entrees, Jan had the bone-in ribeye again, and I had the NY Strip. Both were good, but I think I'll have the filet next time. I forgot to take shots of the steaks, but they look just like the ones I posted a few days ago.

I usually don't get dessert, and Jan said she wanted to get hers to go, and chose the apple pie. Vlad said that was a bad idea, because the pie is best hot, and the ice cream would melt. She then talked about getting cheesecake. We had seen a lot of people enjoying the red velvet cake, and Vlad said the chef used a slight alteration to the RCCL recipe to make it more moist. He ended up bringing Jan the apple pie, red velvet for me, plus a cheesecake and key lime pie to go. Oh, and he never let our wine glasses get empty (we have the UDP and had ordered some wines by the glass - white zin for Jan, cabernet for me).

After that, Jan decided to relax in the cabin, but I wen up to the VK lounge to see what was going on. I found our friends still there and enjoyed a few drinks with them as we sailed away.

rudeney · October 6, 2022

Today we're at sea, enroute to Sydney, NS. It's very foggy. We awoke to the fog horn sounding. I was up before 8:00am and headed up to the Solarium for some pool laps and hot tub soaking. It was totally vacant. The pool was not as warm today as it had been, and the hot tub was almost too hot, but I still enjoyed it. We then had breakfast in he Windjammer, and relaxed in the room. The fog lifted enough to not have to use the horn, but it's still a dreary day. We're headed to the casino now.