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Voyager of the Seas Picture Review Dec 2012 Australia & New Zealand Cruise

Iluvcruising2

By Iluvcruising2,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Iluvcruising2

Iluvcruising2

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255owuf.jpg

We are still in Sydney. Ship was only sailing off at 11pm.

 

The question was raised during Captain's corner - why the late departure?

 

Apparently, there was some harbour restriction that the ship cannot sail out before 6:30pm, but this didn't explain why the ship set sail so late, at 11pm.

 

Capt Charles gave a straight and honest reply. He commented that the OPT at Sydney wasn't exactly the largest passenger terminal that they had used.

 

Also, this was the first season that Royal Caribbean Voyager class was sailing out of Sydney OPT. Therefore, they were being conservative. They wanted to make absolutely sure that they could turn around the ship and sail out.

 

Hopefully, as Royal gains more experience with Sydney OPT, they can sail out a couple of hours earlier. Due to the large distances to sail, we only reached Hobart at 10am on Day 3. An 8am arrival would have been much better.

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Iluvcruising2

Iluvcruising2

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Day 2. What a sight to wake up to.

 

j6tugh.jpg

 

Do note that our Deck 10 balcony was completely shaded. It suited us fine but I'd imagine some passengers may not be exactly pleased that they can't sun-tan on their private balcony.

Edited by Iluvcruising2
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LoveCruisingCC

LoveCruisingCC

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Thanks for your review so far. So glad to hear the food is still good (or at least comparable to your June 2012 sailing). I have booked 6:15pm My Time Dining for first night. Do you think I will have enough time for the show at 8pm? Bearing in mind that I do have 2 young kids (almost 3 and almost 6).

 

With regards to your late 11pm sail out, I think it's more to do with the fact that it is their first cruise out of Sydney (discounting the 1 nighter) rather than the harbour restrictions. My Jan 5th sailing is sailing out at 5pm with an overnight in Sydney the night before.

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Iluvcruising2

Iluvcruising2

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Thanks for your review so far. So glad to hear the food is still good (or at least comparable to your June 2012 sailing). I have booked 6:15pm My Time Dining for first night. Do you think I will have enough time for the show at 8pm? Bearing in mind that I do have 2 young kids (almost 3 and almost 6).

 

With regards to your late 11pm sail out, I think it's more to do with the fact that it is their first cruise out of Sydney (discounting the 1 nighter) rather than the harbour restrictions. My Jan 5th sailing is sailing out at 5pm with an overnight in Sydney the night before.

 

The food, in my view, was significantly better on the Dec 2012 cruise compared to the June 2012 cruise.

 

Yes, you should have enough time to get to the welcome show on the first night. In our experience, our dinners take no longer than 1.5 hours.

 

No harm informing your waiter or waitress that you have a show to catch and to make your orders quickly. They can speed up the order for you.

 

Oh! The Jan 5th sailing is at 5pm? That's good!

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The_Big_M

The_Big_M

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30j00v4.jpg

The adult-only Solarium, from Deck 12. Unfortunately, the Solarium isn't sheltered from the elements, unlike the Radiance class.

 

The Captain explained that the Voyager was designed for the Caribbean with sunshine all year round.

 

Hopefully, they will do something about this at the next dry dock.

 

It's not just the cold, but on this side of the world, it's important to have sun protection as well. Let's hope they do something.

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Iluvcruising2

Iluvcruising2

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It's not just the cold, but on this side of the world, it's important to have sun protection as well. Let's hope they do something.

 

Yups. I found the UV to be rather intense in Australia and NZ, compared to tropical Singapore.

 

Royal Caribbean is well aware of this issue. I think they received multiple feedback from customers that the Solarium should be weather-proof, just like the Radiance class. The Radiance was designed for Alaska.

 

The Captain didn't promise that the 2014 drydock would have this improvement but he did explain that the Voyager was designed for the Caribbean and the company never expected to bring the ship to Australia!

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Sydney32203

Sydney32203

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Love your reviews. I was very much looking forward to this review by you because I will be going on an almost identical cruise in November 2013. We are not pool or sun bathing type people so hopefully there are heaps of other things to keep us occupied for 14 days.

 

You mentioned the day 1 entertainment starts at 8pm, was it the same time for all the other days? We have booked my time dining for 6pm and we will have a 6 year old with us so if shows starts later than 8 pm we won't be able to make it because the little one will be too sleepy.

 

Btw, love your photos and review of the food too. I'm a foodie :-)

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kccrzr

kccrzr

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Excellent review - can't wait to read more. We are booked for a 17 night Sydney to Perth via New Zealand in Feb 2014 on the Radiance. It will be the longest cruise we have ever taken. Will be interested to hear if you and the kids enjoyed this length of cruise.

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avalon007

avalon007

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Enjoying your review! :)

 

Can you please advise if the windjammer was no self serve due to the Noro problem?

 

Did the captain address the issue that Voyager from what we hear on this forum has had Noro from the Singapore to Sydney cruise continuously?

 

Also, do they have the frozen yoghurt machines on Voyager, if so, were these still self serve?

 

Thanks.

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Iluvcruising2

Iluvcruising2

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Love your reviews. I was very much looking forward to this review by you because I will be going on an almost identical cruise in November 2013. We are not pool or sun bathing type people so hopefully there are heaps of other things to keep us occupied for 14 days.

 

You mentioned the day 1 entertainment starts at 8pm, was it the same time for all the other days? We have booked my time dining for 6pm and we will have a 6 year old with us so if shows starts later than 8 pm we won't be able to make it because the little one will be too sleepy.

 

Btw, love your photos and review of the food too. I'm a foodie :-)

 

Yes, we aren't the pool and sunbathing type either. Through this entire cruise, we didn't step into the pool and/or hot tub.

 

However, I would recommend you bring your swimming gear along as you may still want to try the hot tub. There is a nice big one just outside the gym.

 

Also, do some workouts at the gym to get the metabolism going. It helps! I ran 5km (or about 3 miles) on the threadmill every other day, just a 30 minute session is good enough to bring out the sweat and make the heart pump a bit more.

 

The show for main seating guests starts at 9pm. It is a little late for young ones.

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Iluvcruising2

Iluvcruising2

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Thanks for the great review. Can you tell me if there are coffee machines or kettles in the staterooms? Thanks!

 

We stayed in a JS. It had a kettle as well as coffee machine.

 

I read elsewhere that balcony staterooms and below have a kettle but no coffee machine. But I can't confirm this.

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