Voyager of the Seas: like no other cruise...
Written: Nov 11 '02 (Updated Nov 11 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Food, music, bars, room, new things to do like rock climbing and ice skating
Cons: huge size, lots of people, dusty room
The Bottom Line: Definitively my top choice in cruises. In general, a very nice ship for adults. After this trip, you won't find a reason to go in anything less.
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| rcube's Full Review: Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas |
Background
This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to marry my special someone and to celebrate my Honeymoon… that special memorable trip that will only come once in a lifetime (at least we hope). So in order for it to be EXTRA special, I decided to go all the way in the cruise ships arena. Of course, it had to be one of Royal Caribbean’s latest and finest in their line of cruise ships: The Voyager of the Seas.
Compared to my Carnival Inspiration review, this time I have a cruise to compare the Voyager to. I will use a similar rating system for cross-reference, and to better see the differences. This time I will end the review comparing my bachelor experience in the Inspiration with my just-married experience.
THE GOOD
Rooms 5/5: Simply magnificent. On the Inspiration I had a window. This time I had a balcony, which was excellent for watching sunsets with that special someone, or for anything else you can imagine. Rooms with balconies are simply incredible. Everything is comfortable: the bed (about a full size), the bathroom and shower, the desk…there’s even space for a sofa and a small table. The TV channel repertoire was decent with news channels, movies, ships news and schedule, your ship’s account status (better check this one out daily). Movie variety was very good. Instead of the same movies all week as in the Inspiration, they played different movies every day. They even had Lord of the Rings when even the video hadn’t come out. Although rooms are very clean, the sofa looked old and dusty, and the pillow covers sometimes smelled “used”. Still that wasn’t enough to tarnish the perfect 5 I gave to the room.
Service 5/5: Again, it is first-rate. Everyone from cabin stewards, the waiters, bartenders, to casino dealers, and even the captain, do a great job in making sure you have a great time. Even though rooms are cleaned twice a day, I had to ask my cabin steward to pass the vacuum because he didn’t do it for the first 3 days (I am extremely allergic to dust). Still he was more than happy to do it. You also get the classic chocolate-on-your-pillow treat as well as the towel animal “sculptures”.
Music 4/5: A big ship means plenty of music variety. Of course, they play calypso, reggae, conga and all the essential Caribbean rhythms, specially around the pool on At sea days. They also play more salsa and merengue compared to the Inspiration on The Vault club. The Vault is a very nice spacious club with 2 levels and a cool sci-fi deco. The only problem is that it was mostly empty, except on honeymooners night when it got packed. Sadly, it is a very nice club, which looks neglected because not enough people went there (and they didn’t do much to attract people). If clubbing is not for you, they have a great piano bar, country and classic rock hits at the Pig and Whistle bar, jazz on the Cloud Nine cocktail lounge and High notes jazz bar (which is a little hard to find…and looks like another neglected part of the boat…which is kind of unfortunate because it is a bar located at the highest level of the ship and has an incredible view of the pool area). I think that those places that were empty at night was simply because at night, almost everyone hangs around in the Royal Promenade (see below).
Variety of things to do on the boat 5/5: The amount of things to do on the boat is even more impressive than the Inspiration: from napkin folding classes to games by the pool, from bingo, to rollerblading, ice skating, rock climbing, and miniature golf under the sun. They even have a Library, and Internet access with cameras. There are 2 days at sea, and believe me, you won’t be bored. Of course, not everything they have during the days at sea is for everyone. That’s why I used that time to rest from all the tours and other things to do on the boat. After all, couples need some time off (wink, wink!). At night simply hanging around in the Royal Promenade is great. Currently only three ships have this concept: Adventure of the Seas, Explorer of the Seas, and the Voyager of the Seas. The Royal Promenade is an actual street inside the boat on deck 5 that is larger than a football field. It is lined with shops, bars, music, and a bunch of other people who are looking to have a good time. They even have parades on that street. The shows on the La Scala theatre are top-notch: from broadway-grade musicals, to standup comedy, and even famous singers like All-4-one and the Nelson brothers. Your eyes won’t believe the kind of show they have on the tiny ice skating rink on Deck 3.
Food 5/5: The food is simply incredible. They simply have way too many options. For breakfast, I recommend the buffet. They serve everything you can imagine: toast, fruits, muffins, eggs, omelettes. You will get tired of the iced tea and lemonade which are complimentary, but hey, it seems like you have to pay extra for a simple Coke on every ship. For lunch, I recommend either the buffet, or Johny Rockets. Yes, they have an actual diner in the ship. Of course, you have to pay extra for the Coke’s and the milkshakes (which are like no shake I’ve had before). And dinner….ahhh dinner. They have 3 main restaurants which are joined by a huge staircase in the middle of the room. I was on the second level. Our waiter was kinda slow in the beginning of the trip in getting to know and build rapport with us and my table mates, but in the end we were all sad to leave. If you can choose, I recommend second seating. You seat at 8pm end up having the main course at around 9:15pm… just in time for the good shows which start around 10 pm for second seating. If you get hungry before 8pm, you can always have a snack at the snack bar on the Royal Promenade. The only drawback I found to second seating was that you WON’T be hungry enough for the 2 midnight buffets they have for the week.
Islands and Tours 3.5/5: The ship leaves Sunday evening from Miami, Florida. The ports of call were Labadee (Haiti), Ocho Rios (Jamaica), Grand Cayman, Cozumel (Mexico). Although high priced, Royal Caribbean provides a wide variety of tours for all tastes.
> Labadee (Tuesday): After a first day at sea (Monday), you are very eager to get off the ship, but what do you get? A private beach on a peninsula in Haiti. Nice concept, but not what I expected. I can see someone who has never seen a beach having a good time here, but my wife and I live in Puerto Rico. We know what a good beach really is. This is not one of them. Yes the place had nice shops (where you are harassed into buying by the vendors), and lunch at the beach was cool. But the greenish cloudy water, the sand, the sharp rocky bottom, the “lounge chair” guys who very happily set one up for you and then whispering ask for a buck for their service… There are definitively better options in the Caribbean.
> Ocho Rios (Wednesday): We took a Catamaran to the famous Dunn’s Falls which was very nice. We hoped the Catamaran would be as cool as the Kon Tiki Party raft I had been in on the Inspiration trip, but it wasn’t. The boat’s captain tried to persuade us into partying and jumping, but it simply didn’t feel partyish enough. After a few minutes of trying, he kinda gave up and simply played music until we got to the falls. After walking around the falls, we went back to the ship on the catamaran. (Hilarious moment coming up…) When we were close to the ship, the captain asked us to stand up and dance to his cheesy choreography, so that the people from the ship could see us….yeah, right, I think he meant his contractors. If you plan to go the falls, go with a different tour. There are many other options. If I start talking about the money solicitors on the island, I would never end this review. Oh and by the way, if you find a wedding band on the falls, drop me a line by email. I lost my wedding ring there…only 3 days old.
> Grand Cayman (Thursday): Finally, a really nice island. We went on an expensive snorkeling tour. The Stingray tour was very very nice. The reef snorkeling tour wasn’t that good. I scuba dive, and have seen better reefs. For people that have never done snorkeling, I would recommend it though. After the tour, we had time to walk around the shops close to the bay. It was a very nice place to hang around. It feels like they have taken advantage of the amount of tourists that visit the island and setup the place accordingly. Definitively looks more inviting than Jamaica. Another cool thing about the stop at Grand Cayman was that you could compare your ship with the others that were there: Carnival’s Inspiration, and Victory, and Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the seas. If you looked carefully at the ship next to you, you could feel the envious eyes probing and wondering what was in the very ship your were in! Hehehe.
> Cozumel (Friday): Thank goodness, another nice one. My wife and I didn’t stay on the island of Cozumel because she doesn’t scuba dive (which is what I would have done…oh well… the things you sacrifice for love). We went on a tour on the mainland to the Tulum Mayan Ruins. They were very nice for us who had never seen one. From the pictures I’ve seen, they are not as impressive as Chichen Itza, so if you have been there, don’t waste your time on Tulum. We had a late lunch when we came back from the ruins on one of the small restaurants in Cozumel, El Tacolote, which was nice. I’ll be back someday to scuba dive…
Gym (5/5) and Spa (5/5): Way too many cardio machines (steppers, treadmills, climbers, etc), tv’s everywhere, nice weight lifting machines, large aerobics room, yoga classes, diet and exercise classes, massages, a huge hot water spa and sauna, huge restrooms….although the machines look like they have some years in then, the whole place is way better than the gym I go to back home in PR. The Roman decoration is also a nice touch.
THE not-so-GOOD
"That's all the $ I have left?!: After being on 2 cruise ships, I noticed that you will spend a lot more besides what you paid for the tickets. Clearly stated, this is an expensive trip. Not only are you going to pay close around $1,500 per ticket, you have to pay the forced tip on everything that is served to you at bars, snack bars, and casino, even when the service was bad (which actually never was, but you get my point). I was pretty liberal when it came to tours and buying drinks at the bars, so I ended up paying close to $700 extra between my wife and I. This is not much, because I know some of my dinner-table-partners paid a lot more. Like I mentioned above, track your account on TV every single day.
Size: It is a big ship. You will have to walk a lot to move around, and it will take you some time to memorize the place. And big ship, means a LOT of people walking around.
Can’t think of anything else… This is a really great ship.
CONCLUSION
Even with the high cost, it was a trip to remember. Honeymooners and adults, I definitively recommend this trip to you. Kids? Compared to Carnival’s ship which is more of a fun ship as their slogan states, there were very few kids in the Voyager. Overall this is a luxury trip, more than a fun ship like Carnival’s. I’m not saying that kids can’t go, but I think I would have gotten bored if I was 10 years younger, specially on at sea days. Or …wait…maybe both are as fun. Maybe it was simply the new state of mind: besides partying, I enjoyed sticking to the calm relaxing stuff like enjoying the sunset on a lounge chair with my newly wed wife.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
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Epinions.com ID:
rcube
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Location: San Juan, PR
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 23 members
About Me:
The life so short, the craft so long to learn.
-Hippocrates
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