My review: Voyager of the Seas (March 10 sailing)

For your information ....

This was my 12th cruise and second in a row with Royal Caribbean (for a total of 3 overall). It was my first large-ship experience with Royal Caribbean. Coming into this trip, I had no strong feelings anyway in terms of preference for either Royal Caribbean or Carnival, and to be honest, I did not expect this to change. I have had very good cruising experiences with both companies.

This trip was booked in November of 2006, which is fairly late for me. I am a graduate student and Purdue University and had been looking at cruises during my spring break for some time. My initial plan had been to go with a friend, but that fell through. At that time, I had been looking at either Royal Caribbean or Carnival to see which would offer me the cheapest trip possible. When I saw the price of Voyager drop severely on a senior discount, I asked my mom (and past cruise companion) if she felt like braving the spring breakers for a great deal. I was fairly insistent, especially since I’ve been wanting to cruise a Voyager-class ship for a while, so she agreed and I set about making plans. For some reason, convoluted planning appeals to me, so I made some strange decisions driven by the desire to save a few (or quite a few) bucks.

Getting to Miami ....

Our Southwest flight was scheduled to leave out of Indianapolis at 10:20 AM and arrive in Orlando at about 12:20. Even though I had checked in early the day before and gotten “A” passes, I wanted to arrive at the airport at least two hours early. The last time I had flown during spring break, I had very clear memories of very long lines and extra switchbacks installed for Southwest. Arriving at about 8:20, though, I was extremely happy to find absolutely no lines whatsoever. We checked in, had our bags tagged, and were heading to security by 8:25. The flight was absolutely fine, though full. Just in case you were interested, people started lining up for in the “A” cattle-chute at about 8:40, with the B’s quickly following. My general rule, especially when I have an “A” is to refuse to line up until the passengers from the arriving flight are at least coming off of the plane. Sticking to this rule, we still found ourselves occupying two seats of an empty row number 10, with those who waited lined up the longest landing rows 4-7 and the exit rows. The flight actually left Indy early and arrived early at Orlando, pulling up to the gate at about 12:15.

Once we collected our bags at the baggage claim, we headed to the rental car counters in the lower level of MCO. Alamo (of course) had the longest line with about 10 people waiting. They also had some automated terminals that looked to be similar to the kiosks used by the airlines (which I don’t mind using), but I skipped them just because I thought my reservation may be oddly handled since it had been prepaid through Priceline. This might have turned out to be a mistake because I ended up a very foreign, male agent who seemed bound and determined to pressure me into taking all of the add-ons that Alamo offered. For about fifteen minutes I had to put up with his hard-to-understand, pressure sales tactics. Let’s see … some of my favorites … I was told :
• I needed to upgrade to a compact because an economy would only hold one suitcase and one backpack
• I needed to upgrade because it was a long trip to Miami and I would want a CD player because the radio is boring
• I needed to buy insurance or else the car would spend weeks in the shop and the charges would be placed on my card and they didn’t care if it was my fault or not
• I needed an insurance card in hand to be able to waive insurance
• I needed to prepay 2.55 for gas because it would be 2.89 in Miami and if I didn’t buy it and turned in the car without it being full, I would be charged 6.25 a gallon (of course … he forgot to mention that if you prepay, you pay for the whole tank, regardless of how much you use)

After putting up with this, I finally just told the guy to give me the car I paid for. He wrote 2-door economy on my ticket, circled it, and told me that once I left the counter, I would have to go out, then come back and wait in line when I had realized the errors of my way. Needless to say, I walked over to the garage where they keep the cars irritated beyond belief. The man in charge of the cars at the entrance to the second level of the garage looked at my ticket, then told me to pick a car out of the section marked “compact”. We went to that section, but the only things there were four-door cards. I went back and told him that I couldn’t find a two-door as listed on my ticket, and he said that it didn’t matter … just choose whatever I wanted that was in that section. We ended up in a Pontiac Vibe, a four-door with a hatchback that very easily fit our two suitcases, garment bag, and carry-ons. The car also had a CD player (not that I had CDs) … so if I had been sold an upgrade at the desk, I would have ended up with the exact same car … interesting.

I had been told it was around a four-hour trip to Miami from Orlando, and even though it was more expensive, I decided to stick to the toll road just to make it easier on myself. It went very well until about 100 miles out of Miami, then the toll-road turned into a parking lot. There were lots of stops, horrid toll areas where 10 lanes of stopped traffic tried to converge into 3, etc. That last 100 miles took us about 4 hours, making our total trip about 6 hours and placing our arrival in Miami after dark. The hotel room turned out to be fine … nothing spectacular, but something similar to a clean Holiday Inn room with a bit of flair. The lobby was definitely smoky, however, as were the gaming rooms. I thought the room smelled fine until I woke up in the middle of night and then thought that the smell of smoke was very strong.

Embarkation

We awoke the next day around 8 AM and spent the morning trying to kill time until we thought it would be good to head to the ship. We left the casino at about 10 AM and headed the 10 miles to Miami International Airport. There was a lot of road construction on the way to the airport, but we followed signs that indicated “rental car return,” even though Alamo never seemed to be on the list. Eventually the signs started to include Alamo, which made me feel a bit reassured since the area we were driving around didn’t seem to be the nicest. I then saw a gate with tire spikes, which was the entrance to the return lot. After driving by once to be sure, I turned in and was quickly checked in by a lady who scanned the barcode on the car and then printed out a receipt. It was definitely a relief to have my first rental car returned undamaged. I then asked her if there was a bus to the seaport, and she pointed to a bus with a line of people and said that the bus left every 30 minutes. Luckily for us, the line of people were just the ones getting off, and we were able to climb aboard with our luggage and about six other people. We found ourselves at the Port of Miami 20 minutes later, and were dropped off with our luggage in front of the Voyager at about 11:00. We tipped the driver of the bus for helping us with our luggage, and we tipped the porters for grabbing it when we got off. In retrospect, not including the gas tank fill-up, our rental car and transportation to the airport only cost a few dollars more than the set fare for a taxi from MIA to the port. We were never asked for proof that we had rented from Alamo, so my guess is that an enterprising individual could take the shuttle over to the car rental area, then hop the free shuttle to the port.

Anyway, with our checked bags taken care of, we headed into the terminal even though there were signs all around stating that embarkation time was 2:00. We went through security, retrieved our Sea Pass cards (having filled in the relevant info online), had our pictures taken for security, and were directed to line of probably about 300 people waiting to board the ship. We probably waited about 10 minutes until the line started quickly moving forward, and at about 11:50, we found ourselves onboard our first Voyager-class vessel. As per usual, our first destination was the Windjammer, which had quite a line as they hadn’t opened the back part of it yet (Island Grill). The food was decent and included honey-kissed fried chicken breasts and a carving station. We sat right next to the drink station, so it was interesting to hear from first-time cruisers … identified by them asking the drink attendant if the lemonade or water had a charge.

Once lunch was finished, we wondered the ship for a little while then headed to our room, 6487, a standard inside room on deck 6. The room didn’t seem a whole lot bigger than our inside room on the Grandeur in December, especially when the beds were put together into one (as they were initially). Having separate beds does seem to give the room more space, but to be honest, the one large bed just doesn’t seem to fit in the cabin. You have crawl over the corner of the bed to get to the side of it … it just doesn’t quite work. I was a little disappointed with the closet space available, but it was manageable. I liked the fact that the shower had a glass sliding door instead of a curtain. I wasn’t too thrilled about the fact that the sink drained very slowly (unless I just pulled the stopper all of the way out) and that our showerhead was cracked so that a little stream of water always arced out the top if it.

Our cabin steward was Keith and he did a fairly good job, though we never really saw him. I’m not sure if this was because he was never around, or if it just so happened that a majority of his rooms were in an adjacent hallway that we didn’t use (we were at the end of the middle hallway, essentially right across from the aft-balcony rooms). He did get our beds separated right away, so that was nice.
Our bags arrived in strange intervals. My mom’s bag arrived very early (around 3), but my bag and our garment bag didn’t arrive until around 6ish. The muster drill was at 4:30, and we did our best not to be the first ones there so we wouldn’t have to wait in the back of the crowd. For some reason, though, they stacked us differently this time and built vertical lines instead of horizontal ones. We still ended up in the front, so I was thankful for that. They did check off our cabin to ensure that we showed, but other than that, the muster drill seemed fairly relaxed. The crew made a few attempts to make people keep their life jackets on or not talk on their cell phones … but with the number of college-aged kids who showed up with a beer bottle in one hand, cell phone in the other, and no life-jacket … you could tell it was spring break.

After the muster drill, we headed to the helipad out on the front of the ship to watch the ship pull away from the dock and head out to sea. It was fairly empty out front, though more and more people came as time went on. We could see the Navigator follow us out to sea, as can be seen in my pictures. After we were out in open water, it was time to explore the ship, wait for luggage to arrive, and prepare for late-seating dinner.

The Royal Promenade was usually fairly bustling, but that night it was extra busy as they had the Voyager Expo running to demonstrate services available onboard. We tried some food made at the Portofino table, and for the first time ever, I bought a soda card. The liquor store on board was already overrun by confused people who couldn’t understand why the couldn’t take their purchases back with them to their room … perhaps that rule needs to be well-posted in store.

We went to the (only) Welcome Aboard show at 8:00. The show was fine with a juggling act and some singing. The cruise director was Kirk D. and he seemed to do a fairly average job. He used a lot of the usual CD lines, along with the “you’re on vacation” routine. I thought that the tech crew did a fairly lousy job at this show, as the orchestra vastly overpowered the voices of the singers, who seemed to be balanced very low. After the show, we headed to dinner at 8:30. We were at table 550 in the Magic Flute dining room which was a table for 8 near the back. We were placed with some interesting married couples, some of whom seemed a bit disinterested (and perhaps displeased) about the others they had been seated with (including me and my mom). After dinner, there was the “Party Around the World” parade in the Royal Promenade at 11:00, which was pretty fun. After that, it was time to rest up for our first sea day.

Day 2: At Sea

Though I'd hoped to sleep in a little bit on the first day, I still found myself up around 7:30. We headed to the dining room for breakfast and ... well ... let's just say that this was the only day we ate breakfast in the dining room. We were part of the first table seated and the service took forever and our food was served cold. I had a nasty, cold serving of eggs benedict on an untoasted english muffin with eggs that were not cooked all of the way through. There was also an interesting occurrence at our table ... as we were sitting, one of the very large paintings on the wall fell off. From the attacking decor to the food ... it just wasn't the dining room's crowning performance.

My mother and I had decided that, just like on our December cruise, we would participate in as many ShipShape activities that we could (and were interested in). We headed to do the Walk-a-Mile at 9 which was a good way to stretc in the morning. We also participated in the bean bag toss a little later on and, as usual, I was lucky to hit the platform, let alone get it in the hole. Next we signed up for the "closest to the pin" competition in the golf simulator. You get three shots and my closest from 70 yards was about 31 feet ... something I'd be ecstatic with in real life but nothing close enough to win (31 inches). This was a fun and free way to use the golf simulator if that interests you (think, swinging a club in a dark room). We also played a round of mini-golf at Voyager Dunes which was extremely challenging given the waves in the carpet.

In between walking and our other activities, ice tickets were scheduled to be available from 9:30-10:15. We went down about 9:20 and they were already handing out tickets. We had to wait in line for about two minutes, then were very easily able to get tickets for the Tuesday 7:00 show for late seating passengers. Ice show tickets were also available at 1:30 for those who missed the early give-away.

We ate lunch in the dining room, which was set up in the Brasserie 30 format. The dining room offered a fixed menu for lunch with only a few specials that changed. They also had a pasta station where the pasta and sauce is made to order. Lunch was decent, though we never had a meal that lasted less than an hour.

After lunch it was time to relax a bit before the afternoon activities. Our favorite relaxation idea was to go down to deck 4 and sit on the outdoor, covered deck.

At 3:00, I participated in the dodgeball tournament on the basketball court which boiled down to about 50 guys trying to wail on each other. Foam balls instead of rubber ones were used, so getting hit wasn't too painful unless, like me, you get clocked from the side right in your glasses. This was actually a great spectator event, as some strange rules were put into place and a large quantity of the guys playing were already drunk. Needless to say, confusion was the word of the day.

At 5:30 we went to The Vault to learn how to swing dance. This was fun, but believe me when I say that I worded harder for this dollar than any other throughout the week. After about 30 minutes of the class, sweat was pouring down just about everyones face.

Tonight was the captain's party, but instead of having two shifts in one room, it was held only once (supposedly in between meals) in the promenade. My mom and I ended up sitting in the cafe, watching people, and drinking champagne. In case you were curious, the wait staff was very intent on checking IDs before handing out glasses of bubbly (seapass and driver's license required). Dinner was nothing too special.

The celebrity headliner of the night was Charo, who put on a surprisingly good show (more than me were shocked). There was also a midnight "adult" comedy show that was thankfully not dirty just because it was adult. The comedian (sorry, don't have name at the moment) was very funny.

Day 3: Labadee

I was interested in Labadee before going on this cruise as it is one location that I had not yet visited. I had originally planned to do some sort of excursion in Labadee, but then decided against it because I hate having to meet up with tours at tender ports. That's not to say that I still didn't go back and forth about an excursion ... I was severely tempted to do the jet ski tour as I've always wanted to ride one. I chose not to, however, for two reasons. First of all, I worried about having trouble seeing if my glasses were continually being splashed and speckled. I also didn't really want to spend $90 for a 50-minute excursion ... it should be obvious by now that I can be quite cheap ... er ... frugal.

Anyway, at the show the night before, we were advised that the peak time for trying to grab a tender was 9:30 to noon and that if we really wanted to go ashore, we should show up before that to avoid lines. Well, after grabbing some breakfast at the Windjammer, we ended up heading down for the tender right at 9:30. The timing was almost perfect as the tender was almost already full so we only had to wait about 5 minutes before take-off. A few mintues later, we found ourselves stepping onto the shores of Labadee (or Haiti, if you prefer).

Neither my mom or I are beach people, so we basically decided to explore the bit of land available to us. We walked to Dragon's Rock and then each of the beaches. We also walked one of the trails near the beach that seemed like they might go somewhere but ended up just being the long, treacherous route from one point on the main path to another. Perhaps they were trails used for machinery/equipment for the zipline they are installing ... I don't know.

We looked at some of the wares being offered by a few of the sellers outdoors, but I can't think of anything that would convince me to step into the building of the flea market. The sellers outside were pushy enough, and even as we approached, security was there to tell them to step back closer to their areas. We did walk in to some of the shops and I tried some rum there, but didn't really see anything too interesting to me.
Port highlights: Labadee seemed very pretty and I enjoyed walking around it. There seemed to be plenty of beach space and shade, though hammocks were few and far between.

Port lowlights: There was a bad taste in my mouth left by the tip culture of the people working on Labadee. I felt like I was hounded to stop at a beach so that a chair could be retrieved (for a tip). At Dragon's Rock, a man in a Royal Caribbean uniform was there offering to use passengers' cameras to take pictures ... for a fee. Even the tractor-driver on the tram wanted tips, telling us that we could only board if we tipped him at the end. I know how poor Haiti is, but I'm the type of person who doesn't like being told to tip ... if its obligatory, it's not a tip. It's a fee ... and if there are fees, then they need to be posted.

Anyway, after a few hours on Labadee we headed back to the ship and had lunch in the dining room. While this is my preference anyway, the dining room is the only establishment open for lunch on board(besides the cafe promenade) while the ship is ported at Labadee as all of the Windjammer staff serve lunch at various points on land. After lunch, we pretty much relaxed with a few activities like line dancing and reading.

The show for the night "Music in Motion" is a revue of movie themes. It was pretty good, though it featured a lot of music from movies I'd never heard of. There were some interesting sets and costumes, such as the ones for The Pink Panther.

Day 4: Jamaica

I'll admit ... I had mixed feelings about visiting Jamaica. One one hand, it is one of the few "traditional" cruise stops in the Caribbean that I hadn't visited yet. On the other hand, almost everyone I talked to who had visited the island did not have very complimentary things to say about it. I had originally planned to try to book an excursion that included Dunn's Falls, but decided that I'd rather just walk around the pier a bit for my first visit (going back in December).

Breakfast, as the new tradition demanded, was in the Windjammer which wasn't overly crowded at around 8:30. I had to wait a bit for my custom omelet, but it ended up being pretty tasty. This was about the only day I really enjoyed it, however, as the next two times my order came out with the distinct taste of onions and green peppers (not a fan) from the omelet before mine.

I can't quite remember when we exited the ship, though I'd say we took our time and it was about 10ish. It was nice not having to tender, for sure, and though Royal had a few photographers on the pier, they were pretty easy to avoid. The taxi drivers, on the other hand ... well, they were just about like every other island I've visited, though perhaps they were a tad more insistent. We walked the gauntlet of drivers, politely declining each one, and made our way to the Taj Mahal shopping center that is a little bit away from the main pier. This shopping center is fairly big, but it contains most of the "standard" shops ... general cheap souvenirs, jewelry, etc. Since this place is a small distance from the pier, it seemed to have slightly cheaper prices than the shops that are closer ... though I only really priced coffee and rum. This center also has a Hard Rock Cafe so my mom was able to add another pin to her collection.

After the Taj Mahal, we started back towards the ship and stopped at the shopping center that has Margaritaville. We stopped for a drink and some food and were treated to a nice view of the ship. To be honest and with little surprise, the place is very overpriced. Drinks are about $9 for the standard size, and my mom swore that there was no alcohol in her mojito (she wanted to try one). I ordered a super-large margarita ($13) and barely felt any effect ... definitely some weak drinks. The nachos ($9) we ordered were OK but nothing spectacular. It was an interesting, relaxing time, but we were both pretty sure that there would be no future visits to Margaritaville (especially considering we are both pretty indifferent to Jimmy Buffet). There was a pool and slide inside the restaurant, but I thought I heard a waiter say that there was a fee to use them (not sure about that point ... especially since there was an swim-up bar).

After our drinks and snacks, we wondered the shopping complex a bit. There weren't too many exciting stores here, and the one liquor store I went into had such horrid prices that I exited very quickly. There was also a beach (as seen in the background of my pictures from Margaritaville and the ship) that you could pay to go on and use the equipment (icebergs, etc). We then exited the shopping area and headed back to the ship. We stopped at one of the stores on the way back and I ended up buying some Jablum coffee. It was about $5 more than the cheapest price I found at Taj Mahal, but I didn't really want to go back.

Back on the ship, we spent the rest of the afternoon doing various, self-directed activities. My activities of choice were taking my laptop to an empty bar (favorite: Schooner) and doing some writing. I would also head to deck four and go out on the outer promenade, pull up a chair to the rail, and read.

This night (Tuesday) was the first day for the ice show. We had tickets for the 7:00 performance and headed down to Studio B at about 6:30. There were probably about 10 people milling around the front of the entrance waiting for it to open, but there was no line like I had been expecting (and read about on these boards). They opened the doors at about 6:35 and we grabbed some seats in the middle about three rows up. To be honest, we could have come about 20 minutes later. The trickle of people into the room was very slow, and 10 minutes before the show was scheduled to start, the center was decently full, as were the first few rows along the side. The rest of the auditorium, though, was sparsely populated at best. When the show actually started, I'd estimate that there were at least 100 empty seats consisting of entire rows along the side.

I thought that the show was very nice, though to be honest, I found the audience extremely annoying. Even though there was to be no flash photography, a flash went off about every 5 seconds. If that wasn’t distracting enough, there were of course the bright screens from the digital cameras after the shot to fill in the void.

This was the night of the deck party, but I decided to miss it in favor of sleep.

Port summary: I'm sure I'd have enjoyed Jamaica more if I'd done an excursion, but I'm looking forward to going back in December. By the way, I spent two hours walking around and was not once offered pot. Other I talked to around the ship were not as fortunate.

Day 5: Grand Cayman

Today the ship arrived in Grand Cayman … along with about seven other ships, including Freedom of the Seas. Throughout the night and morning, a video guide for tendering procedures was shown. This video not only talked about the procedure for getting tender tickets (go to Cleopatra’s Needle, starting at 7:30), but also the expected waits. The most interesting part was, that because of port congestion, guests should expect to wait 1-2 hours to return to the ship. I know that this warning may have been a bit of hyperbole, but it was enough to keep me from going ashore (not to mention the fact that I had already been to Cayman twice in the past six months). Sorry if this makes this part of my report boring, but I can give you some port information if you ….

Port highlights: Clean, friendly port with a lot of shopping and fine restaurants. Beautiful beaches and a good place for excursions with stingrays being the most popular.

Port lowlights: Very crowded with many ships present. Very high prices. Liquor bought in port is delivered to the ship … you don’t have to carry it around, but you won’t see it until the last day of your cruise (even to verify that it was, indeed, shipped).

Anyway, staying aboard, we decided that it was a good day to make use of the ship. We had breakfast in the Windjammer, then headed to morning activities such as Fun in the Sun (pool deck exercising) and Sit to be Fit (in-chair exercising). After getting worn out doing those things, we headed to the Solarium for a bit of pool time. The water was definitely cool (and salty … people always want to know) and I spent my time listening to the tendering process. The first 10 tenders left fairly quickly starting at a little after 8, but then there was a large gap, which I assume was when the ship tours left. The final tender ticket was 25, and that was called around 11 I believe (last tender back was to be 3:30). We had some pizza and sandwiches for lunch in the promenade, then spent the rest of the afternoon reading, writing, and going to a few events (scrapbooking for my mom, basketball for myself).

Tonight was the second formal night and the night for the second production show, a Broadway revue. The show started for second seating guests at 7, so we got dressed up beforehand. The show was … well … not good. Not only had I pretty much seen the same show on many other cruises, some of the singing and costumes also left a little to be desired. After the show, we went to see what the dining room offerings would be for formal night and were disappointed to say the least. We decided to shed our dress clothes and head to the Windjammer for dinner, which was much better than I thought it would be. The waiters there were very attentive to getting drinks, and they also would stop and chat, which was nice. This was also the only place I found sushi throughout the ship. After dinner, I wondered the ship for a bit, then headed to bed to get ready for the next big stop, everyone’s favorite … Cozumel.

Day 7: Cozumel

Voyager was scheduled at arrive in Cozumel at around 10 AM, so our morning activities commenced as usual with breakfast in the Windjammer, Walk-a-mile, and Sit to be fit. We docked at right around 10, and people were let of soon after. After about 30 minutes of general debarkation, there was a 30 minute span where they had to block passengers from going ashore because the Norwegian Dawn was docking next to us. After the all-clear was given, we headed down and were off the ship a little after 11.

The big shock of the day occurred when we get off of the ship. We had been told that we would be docking at the pier that was 3 miles from town. My mom and I had already made plans just to do our shopping at the little area near the ship and forgo going into town as we are not necessarily fans of that frantic drive. Once we stepped off the shop, however, I looked around and realized that we had docked at Puerta Langosta (or the one across from Carlos’n Charlie’s) instead. I knew that this would at least make our day more interesting, so it was a good change. We use the escalators at the end of the pier to go up into the new mall that they are still working on. This mall has grown, even from when I visited in December, and it includes a lot of the standard type of shops you see in Cozumel. We stopped at Los Cincos Soles in the mall (by far our favorite chain of stores in Cozumel) but didn’t really find anything we needed. The store is fairly small in this location, and the restaurant, Pancho’s Backyard, at his location consisted of some tables and chairs out on a landing next to a cart selling beer (2 cans of Corona for $3) and quesadillas from a small quesadilla maker.

I was looking for a present for my girlfriend, and her only stipulation was that I not spend a lot of money on her, especially for jewelry. I walked into a few of the silver stores in the mall, and of course, there were no prices on any of the items. I was looking at a nice bracelet sitting out on the shelf and asked a salesman how much it was. He took it, went back and weighed it, then told me it was $140. I know that I’m supposed to haggle, but pretty much knowing that a) I don’t know anything about pricing for silver jewelry, b) my girlfriend would kill me if I spent that much and c) there was no way I was spending that much at a generic silver store where I had no idea if what I was getting was actually silver, I just politely turned the guy down and walked away. He chased me down, asking me how much I was looking to spend. When I said about $20 (number was really higher, but I’m not telling the guy my real limit), he laughed and told me that I could probably get a nice picture of some dancing girls outside for her for that much. At this I just smiled and walked away contented that I had not spent any money at that particular establishment. In case you are wondering, I ended up buying her a wrap and a cheapo necklace/bracelet combo from the Silver Emporium ($9) that was the same make but different color that I had bought her in December (and she liked).

My mom and I also decided that, with a many times as we had been in Cozumel, it was probably time that we visited Carlos’n Charlie’s. The place was pretty full of spring breakers, but we were seated immediately. I ordered a yard of their orange specialty drink, while my mom ordered a margarita. We also ordered a combo food platter to share that included fajitas, quesadillas, etc. The table was covered with paper, and our waiter wrote down all of the key information on there: his name, the exchange rate, etc. The ambiance was … well … what you’d expect: loud and festive. Our drinks came fairly quickly and were pretty good. I really enjoyed mine, though the price ($15) kept me from sucking it down. The food was OK, but definitely not something to write home about. It was a fun experience, but I’m not sure I’d be in a rush to do it again any time soon.

I purchased the wrap for my girlfriend, some bracelets, and some tequila at a store in the lower level of the mall (next to the ship) called Fiesta Mexicana. The store isn’t really much to look at, but the prices are pretty good and they did give change in dollars. The tequila I bought (Cabo Wabo) was cheapest I found in the area (and I was looking) and it was about $20 cheaper than what Los Cincos Soles wanted for it. I still haven’t priced it at my local liquor store, but I think I came out alright.

Anyway, only slightly buzzed and with shopping done, we headed back to the ship. The security guys gave me a big smile when they saw me carrying my yard and asked me if I had a good time. I said yes, but I got the distinct impression that they thought I was quite a bit more drunk than I actually was (one yard is not going to put me on the floor or cause me to walk crookedly). Security was also very quick at confiscating my tequila which they tagged, gave me a receipt for, and told me I would get on the last day (as expected … though that “last day” was the next day so I had slight hope that I could just keep the liquor).

The rest of the day consisted of relaxation and a bit more lunch. There was quite a turnout for the bean-bag tournament at 2:30 which I found a bit surprising given the fact that people were not due back on the ship until 6:30. This was the second day for the ice show with two more shows. For dinner it was lobster night, so a good night to head to the dining room. The lobster was pretty good, as was the prime rib. There was a single headliner show at 10:45 which featured the comedy juggling of Wilde and Hanes. This show was pretty much standing-room only and was very entertaining. They pulled out some standard jokes and made use of plants in the audience, but in the end, it was a fun time.

After that, it was bedtime to get rested for the last full day aboard …

Day 7: At Sea

The day everyone on a cruise dreads ... the last day ... also known as packing day. Of course, the cruiseline hopes you wait to pack until night so you can spend that last day at sea drinking, shopping, gambling, or any other activity on board that causes you to hemorrhage money.

The routine continued this day: Windjammer for breakfast, dining room for lunch, and shipshape activities in between. It was the last day for walking, sitting, and otherwise trying to earn those dollars with redemption occurring between 5-6 PM. At the end of the day, my mom and I had accumulated about 44 shipshape dollars so we ended up with 2 visors, a t-shirt, and a towel. The redemption was pretty easy with they guy more interested in what you wanted versus how many dollars you had.

There was also Captain's Corner in the late morning, and this was an opportunity to ask questions of Captain Gerry, the cruise director, and the environmental officer. It was pretty interesting and people actually asked fairly intelligent questions. The rest of the day was spent reading, relaxing, and dreading the next day in the airport. I received my tequila at about 6PM when I had started packing. There was a bon voyage show at 7 (for late seating) that featured singing by the cruise director, a rendition of "Brown Eyed Girl" on the guitar by Captain Gerry, and the comedy lasso stylings of El Gaucho.

On the first day of the cruise, I broke my own rule ... I made reservations for Portofino for the last night. I had learned on a previous Carnival cruise that this was perhaps not the best idea as, especially if you have late reservations, it can put a time crunch on getting luggage out for debarkation. To be honest, I made this reservation because of two reasons: a) I didn't want to miss lobster night and b) I didn't want to go on a formal night. The last night thus made me feel the most comfortable, so I bit the bullet on the reservation. This, of course, necessitated some early packing and prep work.

We headed to Portofino at 8:30 for our reservation and were immediately seated at a table facing the window (which you couldn't see out of anyway). I ordered onion soup (soup of the day), shrimp risotto, and the lobster/scallop/salmon skewer. My mom had the onion soup, gorgonzola salad, and fillet. For dessert, we both had the tiramisu. All of the food was excellent, though special recognition goes to the gorgonzola salad and the tiramisu. We were finished by about 10:30, so we had the time to go back to the cabin, change, and get our suitcases out by 11. It was collected until much closer to midnight, but I can't control that ....

PS - this last night was the first time I really had any problems with spring breakers in my cabin. My guess is ... there was some partying going on with the liquor that had been sold all day. The cabin next door was pretty noisy, but eventually quieted down ... but it was still mildly annoying.

Debarkation

Earlier in the week, we had filled out the departure sheet stating that we had a later flight and would prefer a later departure. We were given orange tags, which were the first color on the late departure sheet. In case they hadn't given you enough tags or if you wanted to change tags, they had extras available on a table near the guest relations desk

We woke up at 6 and headed to the Windjammer for one last breakfast. When we got up there by 7, the ship was already docked and people were already toting their luggage around. We ate, then headed down to the room to get ready to leave (we were supposed to be out of the room by 8). We then headed to the Schooner bar to read and wait for our color. Colors were called fairly quickly, and at about 9:00 (as listed), they called orange. We decided to go ahead and get off the ship. We walked right off at the entrance forward of the Schooner Bar, and walked into the terminal and found the real line. We waited in line for about 30 minutes to clear customs, then went down to collect our luggage. By the time we got there, the carousel was moving but there were no orange tagged luggage on it yet. After about 5 minutes they started to appear, and after another 5 minutes, we had our bags and headed out for a taxi.

Competition for flagging a taxi down was pretty fierce, but the taxi driver ignored the people who cut in front of us when they wanted to go to a hotel and we wanted to go to the airport. $30 later (fare and tip) we were at the airport and realized we would have to hold our bags for about 2.5 hours before AirTran would take them. The terminal was full of cruisers and spring breakers waiting for check-in. Adding to the mess were all of the people trying to get to the northeast, which was shut down by a blizzard. After a few hours of holding our luggage in one of the off-to-the-side wings where bathrooms are located, we managed to get them checked in and proceeded through security. Our flight was delayed by about an hour, so we had about another 3 hours of reading/waiting. In the end, we spent about 6 hours in the airport ... fun times, as always.

Two and a half hours later, we found ourselves back in Indiana and facing real life. Stay tuned for final thoughts ....

In review ....

The Ship

One thing I'll give Royal Caribbean ... they make some beautiful ships. Voyager may be over 7 years old, but she still looks very nice and is well-maintained. I didn't notice stained carpets or other general observations about older ships. While I was hesitant about going on such a large ship, it wasn't a bad experience. There weren't usually crowds, but when there were, it was very crowded. It was especially crowded when shows let out or when they had anything set up in the middle of the promenade. Photo stations in front of the dining rooms also severely congested the flow into the dining room. There also seemed to be a severe shortage of elevators ... a problem made worse by the size of the ship. On deck 6 or above, I usually don't worry about taking an elevator to the buffet restaurant, but since it is on deck 11 on this ship, that is quite a hike, especially given the amount of stairs I tend to take on a cruise ship in the course of a normal day.

Food

I know this is subjective, but the food was the biggest disappointment of the trip in my opinion. Nothing besides the lobster and prime rib were better than average in the dining room, and the menus seemed very limited where I would only be able to find a few things I though I'd like instead of trying to try to narrow down from a bunch of good choices. I didn't notice this on the Grandeur in December (which I thought had much better dining room food). I found the food in the Windjammer to be OK to very good (for buffet food) and I had two dinners there that were just fine. I enjoyed breakfast with crispy bacon and fresh omelets (as long as they weren't contaminated), though my biscuits and gravy were always cold by the time I took them to my table and ate them. The sandwiches at the cafe promenade were decent, though did not come close to the freshly, on order sandwiches made at the deli of Carnival ships. The pizza was not great or even good ... just OK. The cookies were the best thing offered, and I liked always being able to stop by for some chocolate chip goodness. Portofino was great and well worth the surcharge. I bought the soda card to try it, but don't think I would do it again. I found myself drinking much more Coke than usual just to make it "worthwhile" and, to be honest, I still probably didn't reach the break-even point. I did not use room service, so no comment on that aspect, though I did notice that you could order over the television.

Shows

I thought the headliner shows were of good quality, but the production stage shows were only OK. Some of the costumes and set pieces were nice, but the singers had a few problems. The ice show was very good and well worth attending.

Activities

I like the ShipShape program because it gives me incentive to get involved. On other cruises, this has not happened, and as a result, I never get to know too many other passengers or the cruise staff. I guess I'll see in June if I will try to participate on my Carnival cruise or if I once again return to the proverbial shadows.

Crew

Everyone on the crew I met was overly-friendly and eager to help ... from the housekeeping staff on to the guest relations staff. Our cabin steward was one of those you rarely saw, but he was still cordial whenever we happened to bump into him.

Other passengers

There was quite a mix of passengers on board with representation from toddler to senior. There were also quite a few returning guests (700+). There seemed to be quite a few spring breakers on board, but they were pretty easy to avoid if you a) woke up before 1 PM b) avoided the pool deck in the afternoon, and c) stayed away from the lounges late at night. There were quite a few non-spring break obnoxious passengers that can be put into their own categories: too-drunk 40-somethings, whine-about-any-activity-required-to-earn-ShipShape-dollars people, the-rules-don't-apply-to-us-people, and kids who like to hit all of the elevator buttons. Of course, most people were great, but as always, the trouble-makers are the ones who get your attention and who you remember.

Dress for the dining room was pretty lax every night. Other passengers at my table constantly complained to the head waiter about shorts and t-shirts (even on formal night), but of course nothing was done about it. I was pretty uninterested in the situation, as after the amount of cruises I've been on, I'm starting to take less and less enjoyment from formal night and all of the packing/etc that entails.

Embarkation/Debarkation

Smooth and quick on Royal Carribean's side.


This was a fun cruise that I managed to book at a great price. I probably still wouldn't pay the huge premium that Royal Caribbean likes to charge for their large ships, but all things being equal, I wouldn't hesitate to sail on Voyager or any of her sisters again.