Voyager Of The Seas Jan 13th, Review

Just got home from our 10 night South Pacific cruise and thought I would write a brief review, if you have any questions I will do my best to answer.

There were 4 of us traveling. DH and I, as well as DH's sister and her husband. We were booked in Junior Suites - rooms 9628 and 1628, so one above the other.

Pre-Cruise

We flew from Melbourne to Sydney the day before the cruise and stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Darling Harbour. The hotel was a bargain at $195 per night in a great spot, central to all restaurants and bars down in Darling Harbour. We dined at Manjit's On The Wharf that night and were very impressed with the Modern Indian food that they served. It was the first time I've eaten in an Indian Restaurant where you can look into the kitchen and I must say, it was sparkling. Everything we ate was delicious and we will definitely go back.

Hyatt Regency had a nice buffet breakfast and the service was great. Rooms a little small but we didn't spend much time in them. Lovely walk-in shower which makes a nice change from a shower over the bath.

Check-In

SIL and her hubby were first time cruisers and they were very impressed by the ease of check-in. We arrived at the port at 11.20am and were on-board before 11.40am. It was super easy!

All four of us had the deluxe drink package so once on-board we headed straight to the pool bar. There weren't many people around, maybe they all headed straight to windjammer but since we had eaten a big breakfast, we were at the bar looking at the Sydney Opera House. What a view!

Rooms

Our rooms were great, so much storage I don't think I used half of it. Big walk-in robe and nice sized balcony. Beds were very comfortable. Great room attendant, Jamie. He did a wonderful job, nothing was too much trouble.

Dining

I got a great deal on specialty dining package combined with drinks package so we didn't eat in the main dining room at all. We ate at Chops, Izumi, Giovanni's, Windjammer and Johnny Rockets.

This time, Giovanni's was the only let down. The food there seemed to be hit and miss, with the exception of the Seafood Soup which was outstanding every time. The chicken was dry and bland, the fillet was good but not as good as Chops. The crab ravioli was nice, the lamb chops were good. I thought the spinach and ravioli parcels were okay but lacking in flavour. The carpaccio was good.

Chops was fantastic. We ended up eating there four times and everything was faultless. On the last night DH and SIL had the seafood tower and they were still talking about it this morning. They loved it! Other popular dishes for us were the Mushroom Soup, lamb cutlets, half roast chicken, rib eye steak and beef carpaccio.

Izumi was my favourite but alas my fellow dining companions aren't mad on Japanese so we only went once. The salmon sashimi and albacore carpaccio were beautiful.

Johnny Rockets was fine but not as good as I've had on other ships. Instead of cheese sauce on the fries, they had crumbled sliced cheddar.............what? Never seen that before and it tasted weird. Everyone liked their burgers, I really enjoyed my tuna melt with extra jalapenos...yum!

Windjammer: Now my SIL was expecting the worst because she had been reading reviews, but she was so impressed by it that her and her hubby dined there once when DH and I went to Giovanni's. We ate at Windjammer almost every day for lunch and honestly, I don't understand why so many people complain about it. There was fantastic variety and the salads were always super fresh. Breakfast was great, I had lots of people saying how much they enjoyed it. We couldn't fault it.

Ports

Noumea was our first stop. We had elected to visit Amadee Island which is only available if you book through the ship. We were first to get off the ship and the last group of people to get back on. It was a 45 minute boat ride to the island. While there we were taken on a glass bottom boat ride which was very interesting and well worth going on. Lots of turtles to see as well as many different varieties off reef fish.

Lunch was included in this excursion and the locals made us quite a feast. Heaps of different salads, barbecue Tuna, prawns, steak, rice, vegetables and desserts. There were plenty of options, it was a big buffet. DH was one of the last to go up and he said there was still a lot of food there. Many people had second helpings.

The local people performed some music and dancing then we had more time to go swimming and snorkeling before getting on the boat back to the ship. I can definitely recommend that excursion.

Mystery Island was our second stop and it was a tender. We elected to get organized early and make our way down for the early tenders, no tickets were required prior to 8.45am. We were lucky enough to get on the first boat at 8am and boy what a blessing that was. The island is beautiful, but there isn't much shade near the water. We grabbed a spot on the beach and went swimming for a couple of hours. We then wandered around the markets and made our way back to the ship. We were back on-board by 12pm and had a peaceful lunch in the WJ before spending the rest of the afternoon by the pool.

We had another sea day before arriving in Vanuatu. I had booked a shore excursion through a local tour operator. It was to see the turtle sanctuary and go shopping. The excursion was fine, we had a great driver for just the four of us. He was very entertaining and knowledgeable but I am reluctant to recommend visiting the turtle sanctuary. It was quite a sad place. The turtles were kept in a big walled off pool of sea water. There is no vegetation there, they eat paw paws fed to them by tourists and seemed quite hungry. The one year old turtles were kept in a small tank made of rocks. There were only a few there and no younger babies on display, not sure where they were kept. There were also piglets, very underweight and kept in a pen that wasn't nearly big enough for them all.

Our last port was Mare but when we woke up that morning there were really bad storms. We docked and apparently 28 people got on tenders and went across to Mare but they were brought back soon after. The captain decided that we would leave Mare due to the unsafe conditions and we set sail as soon as everyone was back on board.

Crew

The crew were fantastic, always smiling and friendly. Our favourites: Pralash in Giovanni's, great server who was on top of everything. Ferdinand in Chops, he has been with the company for 12 years and was very entertaining. David in the Tavern Bar, a really nice guy who knew what we wanted without asking! Mohammed in the Casino bar, always singing and smiling. Last but not least Austinn at the pool :)

Disembarkation

We had breakfast in the Windjammer and walked off the ship straight after at approximately 8.15am. We found our luggage straight away and were through customs in 5 minutes. Our flight wasn't until later in the day but we were pleasantly surprised to see someone from Virgin Airlines out the front of the cruise terminal. For a small fee, they took our luggage to the airport and issued our boarding passes. We were then free to wander around, have some lunch and make our way out to the airport a few hours later.

Observations

There were no drink cards on sale on this cruise and I'm sure I would have noticed if there were.

Someone on facebook was complaining that this cruise was overrun by kids, I would like to point out that it is school holidays in Australia at the moment. We had no kids with us and we didn't encounter any problems with kids at all. They seemed well mannered and were busy in kids club or at other activities, not running rampant around the ship.

The ship itself is in great condition.

Overall, this was a great trip. I preferred this ship to Independence but Anthem is still my favorite of the ships we have been on. Looking forward to our next cruise now in 153 days :)

Thanks for the great review. [emoji4]

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thank you for sharing your wonderful review. :cool:

We also has a great time on Voyager in March 2016. Was Joey still playing the Piano in the Schooner Bar?

Thank you for your review.

Glad you had a great time.

Keith

Excellent review, thanks much.

Sorry to bump this thread, but who was the Cruise Director on your sailing?

Thanks!

I was on the next sailing which finished yesterday, Carlos Torres was the Cruise Director.

Also there were drink cards on mine, I didn’t notice them but met someone in the last day or so who had one, not sure how much it cost.

I have to disagree about a couple of points - I was on the very next sailing. I thought the ship was in generally good condition, but the state of the furniture on the pool decks was an embarrassment. Lots and lots of sunlounges were broken, and the padded ones in the solarium were utterly worn out, you could feel the metal bars right through the foam. In the main pool area, almost every sunlounge was torn around the area where you sit. One of the hottubs in the solarium was out of action for most of the cruise, and the remaining one was stone cold and had no jets working.

And you're very lucky to get a comfortable bed, my own one was so rock-hard that I was continually dosed up on strong painkillers due to what it was doing to my back. Felt like sleeping on a wooden box. I'd even get pins-and-needles in my backside just from laying on top of the bed to read or watch TV.

I have to disagree about a couple of points - I was on the very next sailing. I thought the ship was in generally good condition, but the state of the furniture on the pool decks was an embarrassment. Lots and lots of sunlounges were broken, and the padded ones in the solarium were utterly worn out, you could feel the metal bars right through the foam. In the main pool area, almost every sunlounge was torn around the area where you sit. One of the hottubs in the solarium was out of action for most of the cruise, and the remaining one was stone cold and had no jets working.

 

And you're very lucky to get a comfortable bed, my own one was so rock-hard that I was continually dosed up on strong painkillers due to what it was doing to my back. Felt like sleeping on a wooden box. I'd even get pins-and-needles in my backside just from laying on top of the bed to read or watch TV.

I was on Voyager the first week of February and did not experience any of those issues with the pool furniture.

If your bed is too hard for your preference your steward will happily provide either an ‘egg crate’ style topper (on ships that still have them) or other padding for the mattress.

jasper15...thanks for taking us along on your cruise.