Voyager Nice to Dover June 2-12--just returned

[RachelG]

Our cruise on the Voyager June 2-12 was our second with Regent (Radisson) having cruised Istanbul to Athens on the Diamond in 2003. This was a wonderful cruise--actually all my expectations were met or exceeded, which is saying a lot, because we travel a lot.

The cabins were wonderful. We had 747, which is probably an ideal location as you can go up or down the stairs easily. It was very quiet. I never heard anything from the hallway. My husband, who is usually a light sleeper, slept till 11 am one sea day because it was so quiet.

A lot has been said about vibration on the Voyager, and you can feel it. But to me it is "well, duh, you are on a ship". It feels like a ship. The only time it was severe was when we were in Signatures eating dinner one night, and the ship was making a very tight turn pulling out of port. I wasn't ever bothered by it in the least.

Service was outstanding uniformly. Our stewardess was great. One day, I asked if she could possibly find some scissors for me to use sometime that day. She was back in 5 minutes with them. Refrigerator was stocked, as I requested, with diet coke and bottled water with extras on the side.

The size of the cabin is the largest I have seen on any ship. Nice big bathroom with separate shower, which I really like. Also like the walk-in closet.

Restaurants were all great. Hard to say my favorite as I liked things about all of them. Any were ones that I would return to, even on land.

 

As far as the ports:

Nice-loved it, actually way more that I thought I would. Would go back in an instant. Beautiful water, great food, great museums, weird dogs.

 

Malaga- had a bad experience here which probably colors my thinking. We had rented a car from Avis at the train station to go to Ronda. Walked to the train station (no problem) and rented the car. Streets were poorly marked and very confusing, but eventually we got on the correct freeway to Ronda. About 10 miles out of town, on the freeway, the car died. So there are all these huge trucks bearing down on us. Eventually, my husband was able to get the car running a little (wouldn't go higher than 2nd gear) and we sort of coasted off the freeway to a gas station. No one spoke English, but I speak Spanish, so was able to get the station attendant to let me use the phone and call the Avis place. They said to wait there. Waited over an hour, and no one came. Got a taxi to take us back to the Avis place in Malaga. They refunded our money, but our day was pretty much shot. We still had some time, but as it was Monday, the Picasso Museum and the Alcazaba, which are the main attractions, were both closed. We had lunch and walked around, but it was disappointing.

 

Cadiz--given our previous bad experience, I cancelled our rental car, and we hired a taxi and driver for the day. We went to Arcos de la Frontera (not much to see there except a town on the edge of a gorge, and it was very crowded) and Jerez. The horse show was really better than what I expected. Also visited a bodega, again better than I expected.

 

Lisbon--they offered a bus to the center of town, so we took that and hiked up to the castle which was really good. There is an actual functioning Camera Oscura there. Then we took a taxi to the Maritime Museum, again really good. Wish we had more time here to see the other museums.

 

La Coruna--not a tourist town, but we really enjoyed it. It is the wettest city in Spain, but didn't rain the day we were there. It was just very over cast. We walked everywhere. Went to the old fort--very interesting. Ate some tapas, and just wandered.

 

Bordeaux--again, like this more than I had expected. We walked to the train station and took a train to St. Emilion. Had a great lunch, toured a winery and bought a bunch of wine which is being shipped. A great day. There is also a tram stop right by where the ship docks which will take you to the train station.

 

Honfleur--probably my favorite. You can see the d-day beaches before you come into port. We took our only ship excursion here, a hike to Etretat and its cliffs. We really enjoyed this. Also visited a goat cheese farm.

Dover--disembarked. I had hired a private driver to take us to LHR. Went by Canterbury, but had very little time.

 

Any questions, I will be happy to answer.

[Travelcat2]

Really enjoyed the review of your cruise. We took our first Voyager cruise last year and booked it again for a Mediterrean cruise in 2008 -- we love the ship. Your comment about the vibration was "perfect" -- many posts have been complaints about the vibration on the Voyager and/or Navigator -- I'll have to remember what you said about it. We have been on both ships and have no problem with the movement or vibration -- if we wanted smooth water, we'd take a row boat on our local lake.

 

Anyway, thanks for the review!:)

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Rachel, thanks so much for the review, brings back memories of our very similar cruise last summer. Taking the train to St. Emilion sounds like it worked out well, what a great idea! Did you see the underground cathedral?

 

I agree with you completely about the vibration. Heck, you want to know you're at sea, don't you?

[ridolphi]

Nice review Rachel. Brought back lots of fond memories.

[RachelG]

No, Wendy, unfortunately we didn't get to go to the monolithic church. We ran out of time what with eating a long (French) lunch, walking around town, buying wine, and doing the winery tour. I wanted to see it, but it was lowest on my husband's priority list.

 

We could have rented a car and drove to St. Emilion, but the car rental place is at the train station, so we would have had to go there anyway. It actually cost less to ride the train and was more relaxing; however, would not be for anyone with problems walking as the St. Emilion train station is about 1 mile outside of the village, and there are no taxis. We like to hike, so it was fine for us.

[freddie]

Rachel - Thanks for the review. It does indeed bring back good memories of our Monte Carlo - Dover cruise a year ago. Your DH had good instincts about the monolithic church tour. It would have been a very interesting 15 minute tour - unfortunately, at about 45 minutes long, it was more of an ordeal. We loved St. Emilion and hope to return there again on a land trip for a few days. Cheers, Fred

[ChatKat in Ca.]

That was one of the best cruises I've experienced - we had such a great time with extra special friends. Your report was right on the money! Our days in Honfleur and Bordeaux/St Emilion were very memorable.

 

Ah, yes, Fred - I forgot about the monolithic church and concur that peek in, take a look and that's all that is warranted.

[sundial]

Hi Rachel! We were on this cruise with you in 765 and actually got on the ship in Rome for the 5/26 sailing. Although we've been on the other Regent ships this was our first time on the Voyager and we too had a great time. This is an incredible itinerary. We did mostly ship's excursions and were quite pleased with them. We went to Granada and the Alhambra from Malaga, Seville from Cadiz, the tram and city tour in Lisbon, a Circle of Interest tour to two chateaus in Bordeau, La Coruna and Betanzos, and the landing beaches in Normandy from Honfleur. In Nice we just explored the town on our own. These are really interesting ports.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Yeh, I have to agree with Kathy and Fred (since we were together!). It was really interesting and certainly unique. But 15 minutes zipping through it would have been about right.

[Judyumcer@aol.com]

Rachel, We are booked in the same cabin/suite for the sailing 9/1/07 from Copenhagen to London. Glad to hear it is a good location. How was the bed? I am wondering if they put mattresses and flat screen TV's in yet.

Judy

[RachelG]

I thought the bed was great, and I would have to say that my husband did too, given the amount that he slept! We like firm though, so take that into consideration. The tv's are unfortunately not flat screen. They seem pretty old, and I am thinking that they are the next thing due for an update, as everything else was quite spiffy. You will love our cabin.

[comettgirl]

Rachel, How did you find the new "drinks included" policy? Were you satisfied with it? Would they deliver drinks to your suite?

[RachelG]

We didn't have any drinks delivered to our room--don't know about that one. The frig is stocked with beer (I don't drink beer, don't like the taste, but I know they had Heineken as my husband likes that) and soft drinks. There was a bottle of champagne in the room on ice when we arrived.

A couple of times we got drinks at the bar and brought them back to the room--no problem with that.

I thought the quality of wines served was good, and they were very generous with refilling glasses, etc. My husband was able to get whatever mixed drink he wanted and thought the bartenders were good.