We NEED some reports on VOS - please.

[LoveCruisingCC]

Thanks for the review. I am planning to do a Jan cruise on VOS, hope the virus is all gone by then.

 

For the MDR, is the menu the same standard RC menus, or do they change it for different home ports? I always wonder how they source the same ingredients all over the world.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Thanks for the review. I am planning to do a Jan cruise on VOS, hope the virus is all gone by then. For the MDR, is the menu the same standard RC menus, or do they change it for different home ports? I always wonder how they source the same ingredients all over the world.

 

Containers of frozen goodies are shipped all around the world , to hopefully meet up with the ships. Just about all the food on cruise ships comes out of Fort Lauderdale......

 

The most important man on any ship these days is not the "Chef" ...its the Defroster...:D

 

 

 

 

[timtam2]

I was on for last night too, and I can't say that I was all that impressed with VOS. It's just too darn big and crowded for my liking . I knew that being a one night cruise, everyone was going to try to get their money's worth and be everywhere and do everything (and for a lot of them, drink themselves into oblivion!) - and that's what happened. Standing in the Royal Promenade watching the disco show at midnight, - well, it was just like being in the Rocks on NYE. Jam packed, surrounded by people who could barely stand, broken glass - ugh. Of course, it wouldn't be like that every night of a normal cruise - but it was pretty ghastly.

 

We only went for the ship and get a taste of Royal Caribbean, as I have never sailed on one of their ships previously, only attended a luncheon on Radiance. And I can say that if I were to do an Australian cruise with RCI, I would select the Radiance or maybe even Rhapsody. Radiance was lovely when I inspected her last year. VOS was looking a little tired and tatty around the edges. From the broken chairs in Cleopatra's Needle - ( collapsed when hubby sat on it), the dining room chairs badly scuffed, dirty windows, grubby fingerprints all over the lifts etc. I just felt it didn't have it's own 'atmosphere' - you know that feeling when you walk onto a ship and it just feels 'right' - it lacked warmth and friendliness. Of course, I kept comparing it to our last cruise, Celebrity Century, which is much smaller ship but has a great deal of class and warmth plus a fabulous crew.

 

The dining room food was a bit, well, meh, for me - not good, not bad, but the waiter and the bus boy were excellent and attentive, even calling us politely by our surname. The Windjammer really disappointed me, because I can remember being impressed by the buffet on Radiance, but there really was not a lot to choose from. Perhaps they dumbed it down for the one nighter.

 

We were actually wondering if they dumbed down the whole thing for the one nighter - we had an outside cabin on deck 6 and there were no amenities in it at all - there was a kettle, but no cups, glasses, tea or coffee, not even a glass in the bathroom, no shampoo - we got one cake of soap and a half used toilet roll. The cabin itself was quiet spacious and even though the bed looked like a camp bed, it was very comfortable. The balcony was great as it had a full length bulkead on one side and the glass partition on the other, so it was quite private and gave good shelter from the breeze.

 

The dumbing down could possibly be blamed on the noro issue, as they were using this as the reason for the embarkation schmozzle. However, That embark would still have been one of the worst EVER without the noro problem. Something has GOT to be done to fix the way this is done. People herded like cattle into pens, waiting for someone to hold up a paddle with a number on it, then everyone comes up against each other anyway at the counter and you can't hear a word that is being said to you! The computer crashed for about 15 minutes, so that put a spanner in the works also and then the onboard computer billing system was also not working the whole time, so all the dockets for drinks, the shops, the photos, everything were manually done and they could not produce folios this morning - some people will be receiving a nasty shock in the mail later in the week when these are sent out and they remember then how much they actually drank. Not too sure how you can go about challenging an error on your bill a week after the fact!

 

now, the noro business - a couple of things rather horrified me - there were definitely people all around squirting and polishing things and serving food in the buffet. But, the crew did not seem to care if anyone did not observe this rule - for example, I was queuing up to get a cookie in the dessert line - one poor girl was serving the line, very slowly, and the 'me first' people would not wait and would go around the other side of the buffet and start taking the food with their bare hands. The girl would just stare. Finally, when one guy grabbed a set of tongs from the bottom of the tongs and not the handle - the bit that actually touches the food - I said to her - Look Look!!! - she shooed him away. She then went on using that SAME set of contaminated tongs to serve others. I walked away.

 

However, the worst example of RCI not following their own precautionary rules was the boat drill - our muster station was also in the dining room - this was at 5.30pm and first sitting was due to start at 6pm, so the tables were all ready and set. Everyone sat down at the dining tables and I witnessed people touching the crockery, cutlery, glasses, putting their bags on the plates and sneezing and coughing all over the tables. half an hour before people were due to eat at these tables. This really disgusted me and filled up most of my feedback survey this morning.

 

I have booked to go on Mariner out of Singapore next year and I still intend on going, as I know it will be a totally different onbaord experience. I don't expect to see the X rated stuff in the jacuzzi on that one.......:eek:

 

we're also doing the one nighter on the Solstice in 2 weeks and I am REALLY looking forward to that - it will be good to be able to compare them and see how Solstice measures up against my very, very fond memories of Century

[Cruise ship fan]

We were actually wondering if they dumbed down the whole thing for the one nighter - we had an outside cabin on deck 6 and there were no amenities in it at all - there was a kettle, but no cups, glasses, tea or coffee, not even a glass in the bathroom, no shampoo - we got one cake of soap and a half used toilet roll.

 

We had some tea with sugars with our kettle. Instead of glasses or cups we got 2 Starbucks disposable cups in the bathroom.

 

Glad to hear it wasn't just use who felt like they didn't really make it the best experience. Plus with all the people who drunk as much as they possibly could. I had a person come up to me and ask if he could have my lanyard, he was really out of it too. Also with all the computer systems failing. With the issues they were having you would think it was a brand new ship and they were yet to finish everything and iron out the bugs.

[diy dave]

I can only hope they get their act together before my cruise in two weeks. Come on RCI. Take notice of these reviews.

[Gold Coast Cruisers]

Gosh the feedback is interesting reading from you all. It's like a different ship to the Voyager we were on in April and May.

It sounds as if these one nighters are not really prepared properly either by the company or the crew on board. I don't think they do 1 nighters elsewhere in the world, the minimum is usually 3 nights.

As mentioned by a few of you it appears the hygiene is not up to standard and that's very poor for a ship as big as Voyager that carrys so many passengers.

How disappointing for you all.

Here is their last Vessel Sanitation score, I do note that it was carried out back in March 2012. Maybe Voyager's due for another check.

http://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/InspectionResults.aspx

Jilly:)

[The_Big_M]

(You don't need to take the jackets from you cabin).

 

They changed that a year or so ago to simplify it for people. It was viewed as an improvement.

[The_Big_M]

I don't think they do 1 nighters elsewhere in the world, the minimum is usually 3 nights.

 

 

1 night is rare (for the public - common for industry), but two nights are run frequently enough in the US and other parts of the world.

[timtam2]

The other thing I forgot to mention was the shops!!!! They opened the souvenir shop, plus the cosmetics and perfume shop and also the Coach/Michael Kors/Burberry/Guess boutique at 1030pm - and it was like a swarm of locusts descended. I am sure so much stock was stolen last night - they had 1 or 2 people serving in each shop and the odd security person floating in between the shops, but with the amount of people and writing the manual dockets, they could not check what was actually being paid for or just walking out the door! I saw several bottles of perfume 'disappear' - then in the upmarket boutique, they unlocked the sunglasses cases containing the Prada, Dior, RayBans, Michael Kors and other designer brands becasue there were not enought staff to keep going back to unlock and lock the cases and manning the cash register at the same time. I bought my sunglasses, but others did not :eek:

[avalon007]

Wow, what a horrid experience.

 

But you know, reading about the general bad behaviour of the passengers, many of whom were it seems hell bent on having a big booze up & acting like animals, it wouldn't suprise me if the crew were totally just 'getting through' the nightmare.

The fact they managed to act civil in the face of some disgusting behaviour is an amazing feat in itself.

 

Frankly I'm embarassed to hear that other Australians are carrying on like this.

 

I know that the first day of a cruise the Windjammer has a reduced menu & I do think from the sound of it they have dumbed it down even further.

 

Did the ship actually leave the dock or was this just a floating hotel for the night?

 

I believe it will be a totally different experience on a normal cruise as most of the losers that cause problems won't be onboard. :)

 

I loved my Radiance cruise earlier this year & I'm sure Voyager will be fine by the time our January cruise comes around & the crew have had some time to recover from their post traumatic stress.:D

[timtam2]

We did leave the dock, departed at 10pm and it really was a lovely night for it - we sat out on our balcony until the ship went out of the heads - it seemed to just head out in a straight line and they must've just chucked a U turn. We woke up at 5.45am and we weer alongside already

[barnsey1802]

We did sail at about 10pm. That's why all the shops and casino couldn't open till after we sailed.

 

The shops were very busy. The hottest selling item was the adaptors for the power points. Lots of people wanted those. They were $35 ea.

 

Deidre.

[timtam2]

The hottest selling item was the adaptors for the power points. Lots of people wanted those. They were $35 ea.

 

 

So many first time cruisers who hadn't done their homework! :D

[barnsey1802]

Yes, and the woman that was buying the sockets was already annoyed because she had waited for 2 and a half hours at airport for her rcl transfer and they never turned up. I bet her survey form was long.

 

 

Also one woman told me that they hadnt changed over to the Australian power points yet....lol

 

Deidre.

[Aussieflyer]

When we were on the short Radiance cruise you were sent to your assembly point but the room attendants were putting red OK cards in doors before the signal came. Everyone was at muster when the call came! Very odd. Also they were manually marking off cabins and passengers. Did not need to take lifejacket and like others have saId only one person to demonstrate. Have been on much better organised ones.

[Aussieflyer]

About the products in bathrooms - only soap & multi-purpose shower gel/shampoo in dispenser on shower wall. This is common for RCL cabins though I understand suites have upgraded amenities. A bit cheap IMO. Disposable cups at coffee shops as well - yuck.

[dancinman66]

About the products in bathrooms - only soap & multi-purpose shower gel/shampoo in dispenser on shower wall. This is common for RCL cabins though I understand suites have upgraded amenities. A bit cheap IMO. Disposable cups at coffee shops as well - yuck.

the disposable cups I think is due to noro, as not normally had this on the other ships in the past

 

one and two nighters in australia do tend to be like a party cruise so they are now something to mostly avoid if you don't want to see hard partying

 

cheers

Greg

[rkmw]

not a very good start for RCL ships in Sydney, first the booze up on the Radiance and now the Voyager.....Princess & P&O are pretty tame compared to RCL

[Aussieflyer]

Hi Greg, the take away cups were all that was available at Latte-tudes. We had no Noro o. Our cruise

[Aussieflyer]

Stupid fingers! Meant no noro on our cruise so thought this was what RCI use. No china cups at coffee shops anywhere on Radiance.

[karmac]

Everyone sat down at the dining tables and I witnessed people touching the crockery, cutlery, glasses, putting their bags on the plates and sneezing and coughing all over the tables. half an hour before people were due to eat at these tables. This really disgusted me and filled up most of my feedback survey this morning.

 

 

This was also a problem when we were on Rhapsody in February. When we had finished eating & were sitting around chatting, they came & re-set the tables but did not remove ANY of the cutlery that had "not been used":eek:. It may not have been used as such but it was certainly handled.

[karmac]

We did sail at about 10pm. That's why all the shops and casino couldn't open till after we sailed.

 

The shops were very busy. The hottest selling item was the adaptors for the power points. Lots of people wanted those. They were $35 ea.

 

Deidre.

 

You'd think people would be able to get by for 1 night:eek:

[diy dave]

While we are on the subject of grog. Did anyone on that one night cruise take any wine on board. Were they searched. Or even asked.

[timtam2]

We took a bottle of champagne in the carry on bag and it was xrayed as normal, and there was no problem. I didn't see any one have any problems taking wine onboard but then again, that was probably going to be the least of their problems last night.

 

Pity they didn't have the sniffer dogs down there - would've had a field day :rolleyes:

[bazzaw]

Before we went on our Cunard cruises -- we had some "fears" which proved to be unfounded. I am now starting to feel the same about Voyager :eek:. - but whether they prove to be unfounded is yet to be discovered. I have heard nothing but good about Radiance and Rhapsody - but does it appear that there now seems to be nothing but bad about Voyager??

 

Barry