Voyager Review: 3/23-3/30

[Ryffian]

Voyager of the Seas

Ports of Call: Cozumel, Roatan, Progreso

March 23 - 30

 

My Background

This is my second cruise, my first with Royal Caribbean, and my first time sailing out of Galveston. Traveling with my mother, this was her first cruise.

 

Embarkation

This seemed like a disorganized mess to me. We arrived on the pier around 11am (a little early, I know). There was still a crowd of people milling about who had just disembarked. Finally saw the "check in" sign and peeked inside the door. A woman told me that we should give our luggage to be checked to one of the guys in Hawaiian shirts. So we wandered toward a large garage door and saw some of them, but none of them seemed to be looking to help us or take our bags. I asked one of them where we got our luggage tags (I didn't have them since I didn't get formal cruise docs, only had my Set Sail Pass) and he directed us to a table inside. Found the table and quickly got our bags tagged. The guys at the table told us to put our luggage in a spot on the floor (where other people had left their luggage), so that's what we did. We went back inside the "check in" door it was smooth sailing. Once we checked in at the counter we waited for about 30 minutes before they announced that they would start boarding. A little confusing at first, but we made it.

 

Our Stateroom

7614, hump balcony, port side. Lovely balcony, we were on the forward side of the hump. Love the sliding balcony door. The solid curved shower doors are wonderful, it's like showering in a nice little "pod" with no wet cold shower curtain clinging to you!! Yay! Christian, our stateroom attendant was efficient and friendly but not at all "intrusive." Don't open both the balcony door and stateroom door at the same time when the ship is moving ... *SLAM*!!

 

Sea Day 1

Rough seas today ... 7-12 foot waves. I felt very seasick this morning and ordered saltines from room service. The swimming pools were like wave pools (and a lot of fun to play in too!). Our Meet and Mingle was this morning. Had chocolate covered strawberries, finger sandwiches, and drinks. Cruise director Eric came in and raffled off prizes. It was so wonderful to finally meet everyone and put faces with names. Saw the ice show Ice Odyssey. Overall a good show, but it was a little boring for me at times. Bravo to the performers though, I wouldn't even attempt to ice skate on a moving ship! This was formal night one. We sat at a table for 6 in La Boheme at the 8:00 seating.

 

Cozumel

Got off the ship early and headed to the beach. We had reserved a spot on an "all inclusive beach break" independent of the ship. Caught a taxi no problem. Beautiful day, beautiful beach, strong drinks.;) The snorkeling trip they offered left a little to be desired, but that's probably because the coral at Cozumel isn't near as nice as it used to be. There were still some rough seas that made snorkeling difficult at times. Great lunch.

We got a little confused with local time vs. ship time today. All the ship info reminded us that Cozumel is on the same time as Central US time. Well, we forgot that right now, Central time (and subsequently ship time) is Central Daylight Savings time, and not Central standard (which is an hour behind). Oops. We were docked along side Radiance of the Seas, it was interesting to see the size difference between the two sister ships. Went to the casino and turned $20 into $200 ... yay! We got our fuel surcharge credit ($35 pp) today.

 

Roatan

Booked an independent snorkeling excursion for today. The dock area is under construction and there is limited "waiting around" space to meet up with excursion guides. Apparently there was a mix up on our tour operator's schedule because he was 45 minutes late getting to the dock to meet with us. He then found a taxi that would fit the 8 of us (after one failed attempt in a van that would only hold 6) that took us to his dive shop. The snorkeling was fantastic! The water was calm and clear. The only down side was that it was cloudy and raining off an on which clouded the water a bit. Saw plenty of fish, I could've stayed there all day! The tour wasn't exactly as advertised, so I was a little disappointed, but the snorkeling itself was great. The Love and Marriage show was definitely entertaining. The other two couples at our table both had negative experiences at Roatan. Very windy tonight with more rough seas.

 

Sea Day 2

Definitely a pool-side day. Lots of chair-saving going on with no visible enforcement of the posted 30 minute rule, no surprise there. Went to the comedian show tonight, only it wasn't really a "stand up" comedian like we were expecting. He played the piano and said a few funny things ... definitely entertaining! The best part was his interaction with the Voyager pit orchestra's piano player ... he was fantastic!! Formal night #2 today ... lobster night. Watched the Karaoke Superstars competition. We had some good talent on board. Barry's rendition of "Sweet Caroline" was my favorite. That night it was (finally!) calm. Mom and I went out front to the helipad to stargaze. We saw several shooting stars, it was amazing. I highly recommend going out there if you have a calm clear night like that. It's very dark out on the bow, as it's in front of the bridge.

 

Progreso

Took a ship tour to the Uxmal ruins. A two hour bus ride each way (made for a good siesta!). Ruins were amazing. I was expecting much less, and they were so grand! There was much more to see than I had anticipated. There were only 4 or 5 busses parked at the site all day. Our tour guide at the ruins site was a little hard to understand but seemed very knowledgeable. A little on the warm side, thank goodness for the cloud cover and intermittent breezes. A box lunch was provided. Back at the pier we looked around the little shops. The main performance show tonight was very good.

 

Sea Day 3

Another lovely lazy day. Ice skating was available today. We did the backstage tour of La Scala theatre this afternoon. A nice smooth calm day at sea! The farewell show was very good!!

 

Disembarkation

We chose to do the express disembarkation and were in group B. We gathered up our things and at 8am we left our room and wandered down toward deck 4. We were off the ship by 8:15 and had cleared through customs by 8:30.

 

Food

The food was good. We ate in the dining room every night. Lunch was usually a combination of whatever they were serving poolside, the Windjammer/Island Grill, and Café Promenade. Café Promenade was the best place to grab a quick sandwich or sweet snack and coffee.

Misc Notes

The adults only Solarium was the best place to be on board! It was a nice alternative to the loud music and party atmosphere at the main pool area.

I was really surprised at how much motion I felt on this cruise.

Ladies, THE place to go to have a nice shower to shave is in the Ship Shape women's changing room. The shower stall all the way to the left has a full length frosted window for lots of natural light, and there is a ledge on the side perfect for sitting or "propping up a leg."

[Ryffian]

Oh, and we saw a table packed with liquor at the pier upon disembarkation that was clearly confiscated from luggage. (lots of zip loc bags, bubble wrap, etc.) ... a little head up for those would-be smugglers!;)

[sunchasers64]

Great review! Thanks! Also, thanks for the tip on the shower. :D

[SadieQ]

We didn't do express and I really wish we had. No need for us to rush, but we were in the "orange" group and stood in line for at least an hour just waiting to get to the luggage! I thought it as the customs line--why in the world did we need to wait for someone to let us walk across the room to get our bags?

 

It took us nearly two hours from exiting the ship and getting out of the terminal. Maddening.

 

We lucked out and met a parking shuttle (Lighthouse) within about 30 seconds of getting to the sidewalk, so that was good.

 

We also loved Uxmal. Some of our tablemates went to Chichen Itza and said good things about it too. We got totally soaked in Roatan, and my $4.99 hat from Academy wil never be the same, sadly.

[p2lockhart]

Ryffian, thank you for posting your review. We cruise in 2 weeks and will be in the cabin next to yours, so we will probably have Christian as our steward too. Thanks for describing the cabin. Did you just have 2 regular chairs and a small table on the balcony? It looks pretty small from what I could tell.

 

Patti

[myrtle0116]

We're considering this cruise for next year for my son's graduation gift. Really appreciate the review. It's very informative. Glad your overall experience was good.

 

Susan

[TiggerTwo]

Glad you had a great time. Be very glad that you didn't have fog when you arrived in Galveston on either end of the Voyage. That would make you feel very happy about your experience in the Galveston port.

 

Dennis

[papa1952]

Ryffian, thank you for posting your review. We cruise in 2 weeks and will be in the cabin next to yours, so we will probably have Christian as our steward too. Thanks for describing the cabin. Did you just have 2 regular chairs and a small table on the balcony? It looks pretty small from what I could tell.

 

Patti

DW and I were in 7616 this past New Year sailing and also had Christian as our steward. DW and I did not find him all that great. I would rate him almost, poor. So, don't let him get over on you. (Maybe, he had an off week but, all week long!!) Have a great cruise.;)

[Ryffian]

Ryffian, thank you for posting your review. We cruise in 2 weeks and will be in the cabin next to yours, so we will probably have Christian as our steward too. Thanks for describing the cabin. Did you just have 2 regular chairs and a small table on the balcony? It looks pretty small from what I could tell.

 

Patti

 

Hi Patti ...

Yes, two regular chairs and a little table on the balcony.

[NiniB]

i agree.. i wish galveston would do something about the embarkation process.. i live in tx & galveston is the worst port to sail from... always a disorganized mess !!!!!

glad for your review..

[firefly333]

Hi, I was at M&M as well. I meant to do the back stage tour and forgot about it, darn. We had good experiences overall, sorry you didnt.

 

I turned in my express form right away and got the 7:45 am time and was off the ship early, by 7:30 and out of Galveston by 8 am.

 

We did get rained on in Roatan, but still enjoyed it. We hired a taxi up to 2 1/2 hours and had him take us to the iguana farm

 

 

I have to admit I expected tame ignuanas coming up to you, but these were wild and most of them up in the tops of trees and on top of things, none were on the ground like Iv seen before, so these must be another species. We also stopped off a few other places.

 

We had the round showers too, my sister kept commenting on them lol.

 

Funny comment, a man must have designed the women's toilets by Portofino's. All the toilet paper holders are on the back wall??!! Clearly if they can put women's hygene stuff on the side wall thats where they could put the toilet paper holders. What were they thinking designing that??

 

Beautiful ship.

[firefly333]

I dont know if anyone is curious about the OVs on Voyager, maybe someone besides me would like to see them in a picture rather than just on RCL's site.

 

I also have a picture of the waves out our window on Monday, the day that so many got seasick. The waves didnt look that big, but quite a few people said it was the roiling effect more than big waves that hit them. These are pics from Monday, just getting unpacked.

 

Huge window on the OVs. It was too bad they put the bed right in front of the window to me.

 

 

We had a connecting cabin, so we had a chair, I believe the rest of the OVs had a sofa where the chair is.

 

 

Waves on Monday out or window.

 

[pmfan]

Detailed review. Thanks for writing it.

[pmfan]

firefly333...thanks for the photos.:)

[Rancher Dave]

Oh, and we saw a table packed with liquor at the pier upon disembarkation that was clearly confiscated from luggage. (lots of zip loc bags, bubble wrap, etc.) ... a little head up for those would-be smugglers!;)

 

 

The table like that in FLL was overflowing with bottles from wayward Spring Breakers who thought they could sneak it in.

 

Sounds like you had a blast, hope your mom did as well.

 

The seas of 7-12' don't sound too bad unless the wind was blowing really hard pushing the ship around. Of course everyone has a different tollerance level for motion on the high seas. At least you had a good time despite the seas!

[firefly333]

The seas of 7-12' don't sound too bad unless the wind was blowing really hard pushing the ship around. Of course everyone has a different tollerance level for motion on the high seas. At least you had a good time despite the seas!

 

The seas didnt look so bad, but a record number of passengers seemed to be affected. I can attest to that. One lady at breakfast said it must be a poor design of Voyager and she was going back to Carnival where she had never been sea sick like on voyager. I tried to tell her it must just be the way the waves were tipping the ship or something like that. I dont know why the particular motion this time hit so many. As I mentioned in another post my cabin steward was so seasick she couldnt do her job and finally got some help. It was hitting people who said they arent usually affected.

 

We were fine, never bothered us at all. In fact one of the folks at our dinner table spent Monday in bed he said and they never got out of bed hardly until Tuesday. Beats me why so many felt the motion more than usual and you couldnt really see big waves, maybe the ship was tipping from end to end instead of side to side or something?

[Ryffian]

Since it was so windy for so much of the time, I wonder if the huge Voyager acted as a really big sail and just got blown around too much? :confused: I know we had rough seas on my NCL Sun cruise (7-12'. similar route, same time of year) but I NEVER felt as much motion as I did on Voyager.

[Ryffian]

I'm working on getting pictures uploaded ... here's album number one ... Day one, Galveston:

 

http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc310/ryffian/Cruise%202008/3-23%20Galveston/?albumview=slideshow

[satxdiver]

Good report. We were on the 3/2 VOS and visited Jamaica, Cayman and Coz. The trip across the gulf was uneventful for the most part despite the 12 foot waves and 20 knot winds. The ship was stable but the movement could be felt if you concentrated on it. The gulf is frequently difficult to cross so I was not surprised by the report. The VOS is quite a ship and much larger than the ROS.

 

We were on the Carnival several years ago out of Galveston where the south bound crossing of the gulf was exceedingly rough. I was told that half the ship pax spent the day in bed seasick. I was having trouble walking around the upper decks due to the movement. It can happen to any of the newer design cruise ships regardless of what they may claim. That trip was the worst ever for me aboard a cruise ship.

 

We have signed up for the 2/22/09 VOS with the same itinerary posted here. We have been to all the ports before and will enjoy seeing them again. Hopefully by that time Costa Maya will be back in operation. We love going to the adjacent small village although I understand that it has been rebuilt and lost some of its original charm. The facilities at the dock could definitely be classified as a tourist trap in my book. Take money.

[Ryffian]

Link to a few photos from Sea Day 1

http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc310/ryffian/Cruise%202008/3-24%20Sea%20Day%201/?albumview=slideshow

[Ryffian]

Cozumel pictures.

http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc310/ryffian/Cruise%202008/3-25%20Cozumel/?albumview=slideshow

[Ryffian]

Roatan pictures

http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc310/ryffian/Cruise%202008/3-26%20Roatan/?albumview=slideshow

[cmsjab]

We were also on this sailing so I'll only add to the review -

Embarkation was a mess. Thankfully we seemed to arrive at the correct time (11:30) as a porter came up behind us asked us for our luggage (we already had tags) and tossed our bags on top of the full cart. Inside, we had our paperwork completed and things went very quickly. We stopped at Portofino's to make a reservation however, they did not have the dinner menu's available. Based upon previous threads - we decided on Friday night.

 

We had inside cabin 7377 (booked last minute) with cabin steward Otto. He did a fine job. Despite the embarkation chaos - we had our luggage by 2:30 when we arrived at our cabin and unpacked prior to muster drill at 4:30.

 

As previously mentioned, seas were rough. Weather was cloudy and cool Monday and Saturday (seadays), rainy in Roatan, sunny in Cozumel, Progreso and Thursday (seaday).

 

We ate in main dining room all dinners with the exception of Friday when we enjoyed Portofino's. Waiters - Michael (from Costa Rica) and Christof (??) did a nice job although my decaf coffee didn't always make it to the table. We never saw a bar server either before, during or after dinner. I'm not sure I would have ordered but it would have been nice to be asked. We were not crazy about the "Get Out There" menu. (do a search) It was new to us and we tried a lot of new things. It may be a day to make a reservation at the alternative restaurant.

 

Portofino's was wonderful. Mimi (the manager) recognized us from the Radiance as he had been our head waiter 3 years ago. I always thought the scallop risotto in the dining room (on the Venetian menu) was my favorite until I had the Tiger Shrimp risotto in Portofino. We ordered the seafood skewer and filet of beef as entrees - both were wonderful and well worth the price. This was our 12th cruise and we had never experienced the alternative dining but will probably do so in the future.

 

We stopped into the concierge lounge for ice show tickets and for assistance with express departure. Martin was just coming back from vacation and very busy the two times we stopped in. Due to the numbers - an overflow "happy hour" was located in Cloud Nine. This was a wonderful place to enjoy a cocktail before the evening show. I liked it much better than the dark, windowless concierge lounge. Roland was our bartender - if you stop in, please ask him how his "piano lessons" are going.

 

We disembarked without any trouble. We had requested Express A due to an early flight and were called by 7:20. We were off by 8am and waiting for our towncar. The towncar picked us up at 8:30 and we were at IAH by 10am. We had plenty of time before our 12:30 flight (which was delayed).

[txmomof3]

Ryffian

 

Your pictures of you snorkeling trip are wonderful. Do you mind if I ask what kind of camera did you use?

 

I am glad you had a great time and I enjoyed your review. My family will be sailing on the Voyager next March so it is good to get some tips.

[Emi's Mom]

DH and I were on the same sailing...and I suffered from seasickness :( on Monday too. It was horrible, the most motion that we have encountered on any of our previous sailings. I'm really happy that it was a sea day and I had time to recuperate before port days. All in all we had a wonderful time and we finally made it to Portofinos and I must say that it was as awesome as everyone has said before. :D And the Ice Show was phenomenal!!! We enjoyed the evening shows and all the excitement on the Promenade in the evenings. We can't wait to sail the Voyager again next spring :)

 

I really enjoyed have the Platinum/Diamond/Diamond+ C&A Luncheon with the Hotel Director at our table, he was so nice to answer all of our questions throughout the luncheon. I prefer the luncheon to any of the welcome back parties. I have only one regret though...I wanted to report to him how awful our cabin steward Garry was, but DH kept touching me under the table so that I wouldn't give him the guys name. He was the absolute worst cabin steward that I have ever experienced. He was never to be found and on two port days, we returned from port in the afternoon and our cabin was still untidied!!! DH called on one of those days and Garry told him that he was off duty and would send someone else later to tidy up, can you believe that??? He wasn't even around in the halls on Saturday for us to give him the envelope with his tip (even though it was just the prepaid receipt) and we didn't see him on the morning of disembarkation either. So we just left the envelope in the cabin. I felt cheated out of a special service, especially since we were always seeing other cabin stewards in the halls, just not Garry. Should I try to contact the hotel director to let him know of our disappointment, or should I just let it go like DH said???