Voyager Baltics Review

[mborchgardt]

Just returned last Sunday from the Baltic cruise on Voyager.

 

 

 

First, let me say thanks to folks on the RSSC board. I read a lot of posts over the last year and asked a few questions. All of the info was extremely helpful.

 

I’ll post my comments related to RSSC and the cruise itself here and my comments on the ports and our St. P tours with Red October on the Baltic Ports board in a few days.

 

A little background . . . my wife and I are in our early thirties. We have traveled quite a bit, including 3 cruises to the Caribbean, Alaska, and the Mediterranean – the last two on Celebrity. We were looking for a special travel experience to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We chose the Baltics itinerary because neither of us had ever been to any of the countries featured. We chose RSSC because we wanted a slightly more upscale experience for this special trip and because they offered a 7 day itinerary in the Baltics. We left two young kids at home with grandparents (a 3-year old and 6-month old) so we didn’t feel that we could consider a 10 or 12 day itinerary. All said, we were gone for 10 ½ days with travel time and one extra night in Copenhagen and Stockholm pre & post.

 

 

Pre-Cruise

 

We selected cabin 715 when we booked our reservation. Cat H was sold out, so we went with Cat G which was the least expensive category available at the time. We guessed that for the direction we were traveling that the starboard side might be better and for the most part we had very scenic views from our balcony. We also took the forward most cabin available because of vibration concerns expressed on this board. With the exception of some mild vibration during the initial sail away, we never felt (or at least noticed) any vibration of any consequence anywhere on the ship during the entire cruise.

 

RSSC offered free air on our particular sailing. Although we had made our reservation about 6 months before the free air offer, we were able to take advantage of the free air. I checked the RSSC website for specials about once a week and when I noticed the free air offer, I contacted our TA who made the necessary requests with RSSC. Because we were doing a pre- and post- stay on our own, we paid the $100 pp deviation fee to customize our air requests. We submitted a ranked list of air choices to our TA. RSSC was able to accommodate our first choice both ways. I also liked that we received our flight confirmations almost 6 months prior to the cruise by paying the custom air fee. I contacted each of the airlines after we received our flight reservation info to change our seat assignments to suit our preferences.

 

I found the RSSC documents and pre-cruise info on the website to be adequate but not great. I actually went to the HAL and X websites where I found a lot more info about most of the ports we were going to be visiting. This message board was the best resource, of course.

 

Flights

 

 

We connected in Newark on the way to Copenhagen from DFW. Our return from Stockholm connected through Chicago. Our domestic flights were on AA and our international segments were on SAS. All of our flights were very uneventful and on-time. On SAS, I had our seat assignments changed to 31 A,B as soon as we received our flight confirmation from RSSC. These seats are at the front of the rear cabin. They’re a bit more forward than the center section of seats and there’s an exit door in between this row and the bulkhead which provided LOTS of legroom. Aside from the slight annoyance of passengers lining up for the lavatories immediately following the meal service, these were great coach seats.

 

Embarkation

 

We took a taxi from our hotel in Copenhagen to the pier and arrived around 1 PM. There was no line. We we’re directed to the theatre where we received our ID cards and some general info. I was surprised to find that they were serving lunch in Compass Rose as well as at the pool grill. After lunching in Compass Rose, we hung around the entrance to Signatures for about 10 minutes before they opened for reservations and then went directly to the spa to make massage appointments for later in the week. We wandered around the ship for a few minutes before they announced that the cabins were ready. Our luggage was waiting for us when we arrived.

 

Stateroom & Other Facilities

 

Our stateroom was great and did not disappoint my months of anticipation. Our in-suite bar setup was already there as requested on our guest information form. Our stewardess changed out the selection of soft drinks to match our preferences and the fridge was restocked with these soft drinks and water each day. I asked if we could have some orange juice in our refrigerator as a mixer for the vodka. Our stewardess said they didn’t have bottled orange juice available, but that I could order it from room service whenever I wanted it. I would have felt a little silly just ordering orange juice, so I always ordered a shrimp cocktail and crème brulee at the same time. The sacrifices one must make. . .

 

The suite was very clean and very well maintained. The wood detailing and cabinetry was a very nice touch and added to the warmth of the stateroom.

 

The closet is an actual closet with room for quite a bit of clothes, luggage storage, a small shoe rack, and lots of hangers. There is also a built in chest of drawers, some shelves, and a safe. Very impressive. I actually took pictures of the closet to show our friends who have, like us, made do with more of a cabinet than a closet on past cruises.

 

The bathroom was also very nice. We are not “tub people” so the full-size tub was lost on us, but we definitely enjoyed the glass shower and plentiful glass shelves above the counter. The small toiletries rack in the shower was a bit of a problem for us. The bottom had ridges (to keep water from accumulating I suppose), but the small bottles of shampoo, etc had a very had time staying on the rack and kept falling to the floor. Also, the entire rack came out of the wall bracket several times sending everything to the floor.

 

The bed was good, but not overly comfy. After the first night, we asked our stewardess if she could put an extra duvet between the mattress and the fitted sheet to make the bed a little softer. She happily accommodated us and we slept better for the rest of the cruise.

 

The balcony was very nice as well. We have always opted for a balcony in the past. We used it quite a bit as we were coming into our leaving ports. I also enjoyed sitting out on the balcony with the small blanket provided in our stateroom before going to bed. Very relaxing.

 

The rest of the ship was also very clean and well maintained. We never used the self-service laundries or the computer center. The casino was small but nice. We managed to play blackjack most nights and didn’t lose money overall which was a bonus.

 

The spa was really the only disappointment. We found the spa facilities to be more luxurious on Celebrity Millenium. I enjoy using the sauna to relax after sightseeing and Voyager’s sauna was very small, as was the steam room. My wife and I also both had massages as well. The spa desk messed up my reservation and I ended up with a 50 minute massage rather than the 80 minute massage I booked. Also, the tables, linens, and atmosphere in the treatment rooms were not particularly luxurious or soothing either. While I recognize that the size of the facilities has to be limited on a ship of Voyager’s size, I would have expected a more luxurious spa experience from RSSC. Of course, this didn’t impact the overall enjoyment of our cruise – just want to point out the few areas where there might be room for improvement.

 

The weather on our cruise was beautiful and we were able to soak up some sun on deck in our swim suits on several days. There were always chairs available and I suppose the deck attendants would have brought out more chairs if needed. We didn’t try the pool, but the hot tubs on deck were nice and didn’t seem to be crowded – at least when we were on deck.

 

Dining

 

I had definitely managed my expectations for the dining experience with RSSC based on comments on this board -- particularly with comparisons to other luxury lines. However, we were extremely pleased with the meals and the dining room service on board. We had planned to try all of the dining venues on board for dinner during our cruise (including the reported course-by-course room service), but we couldn’t drag ourselves away from Compass Rose for the evening meal. We did eat at Signatures once which I’ll comment on in a moment. There was a great variety of dishes in Compass Rose. I had fish most nights. My wife had beef or chicken most nights. For the most part, we were able to find an appetizer and soup that intrigued us. The salads were a little less imaginative to us, but still very tasty and well prepared. Dinner service was always relaxed, but not slow. The included wine was very good and, as reported by previous posters, RSSC must have a policy to never let a glass get less than half full. My wife has slightly pickier tastes in wine, so I actually packed two bottles of her favorite German Riesling as a surprise for her. We took them to the dining room with us the first night. From then on, either on sight or after the briefest of reminders, the wine steward would serve my wife her wine and keep her glass filled as well. On a couple of nights, the very bright sun was shining in the windows on one side of ship. We (and most of the other diners seated next to these windows) asked to have the drapes closed so that we could actually see the person across from us. For future cruisers, you might make note of the position of the sun as you head out to dinner each night and ask to be seated on the opposite side. This problem may have been more pronounced on our cruise since the sun set so much later. Desserts were perhaps the only dining disappointment. The selection each night was fairly limited and while the desserts were tasty and well presented they were a bit bland to us. Luckily, we were able to have crème brulee (our favorite) in our stateroom most afternoons which helped to fill our overall need for sweets.

 

The food at Signatures was very good, but, too us, the overall experience was perhaps slightly less favorable than Compass Rose. The room itself is not particularly beautiful. The service, except for the silver covers on the main courses when they are brought to the table, was perhaps even slightly less formal than the service in Compass Rose which was contrary to our expectations.

 

We never managed to make it to La Verandah for dinner, but did have breakfast and lunch there several times. Breakfast was good, but nothing to blow your socks off. Lunch was better to us. A very nice selection of salads and desserts accompanied a more limited and less impressive entrée selection. The atmosphere and service in La Verandah was definitely more upscale than our previous experiences on Celebrity. One day in port, we were “parked” next to the Crystal Symphony. We overheard some of the La Verandah staff commenting about the apparent lack of table cloths in the corresponding restaurant on the Symphony. They were not impressed. We thought it was funny.

 

We also had room service breakfast several times. We dutifully filled out the card and placed it outside our stateroom at night. We wrote in special requests and they were always fulfilled. Breakfast arrived at the earliest time in the range given. In fact, one morning it arrived about 5 minutes early and I had to jump up and thrown on a robe before answering the door.

 

We attended afternoon tea one day and found the selection a bit limited.

 

Entertainment

 

I won’t say much about this. We are not much for cruise ship entertainment. That’s not why we go. In fact on our last cruise, because we had our son with us who was 10 months old at the time, we never went to one of the shows and didn’t miss it at all. We did try to go to a couple of shows on the Voyager, but never made it to the end. We always sat in the back of the balcony since we assumed we might get bored with it. Since I’m not much for this sort of thing, I hesitate to rate the entertainment in the main showroom on Voyager. But heck – why not?? We thought it was all pretty poor, especially the featured artist (David Cant??). But again, it didn’t affect our overall enjoyment of the cruise.

 

Overall Impressions

 

Since I may have blown a few of the small shortcomings on Voyager out of proportion for the sake of a balanced review, I do need to say that this was perhaps the most perfect vacation my wife and I have ever been on. The flights were fine. We got our luggage. The ports were varied and interesting. St. P was a jewel. The weather was, I think, unprecedentedly (word??) beautiful for this season in the Baltics. The food was wonderful. The service was great (with no tips expected). The stateroom was incredible – how will we ever go back to less than 350 sq feet? And the closet . . .

 

Also, a word on demographics since that’s always a topic of discussion. The crowd on this cruise had a decidedly older slant, but not as much as we expected. There seemed to be others on board our age. There were also some middle aged folks with teens on board as well. We don’t set out to meet people on vacation so our interactions with other passengers were somewhat limited to discussions in the casino or when we ran into people we recognized in port, but everyone we talked with was very nice. There only seemed to be a handful of passengers on board who had an air of snobbishness about them. No more than you’d expect to find at any upscale event or venue.

 

My personal hope is that RSSC will not change dramatically over the coming years. We’re at a point in our lives when we can only do vacations like this once every few years, so it may be a little while before we make it back to RSSC.

 

I don’t think I’ve provided any new info to this board, but I wanted to repay all of the info I received in advance with a brief recap of our experience. Be happy to answer any questions.

[PaulaJK]

Thank you for writing regarding your cruise expereince.

 

Nice, balanced reporting. Glad to hear that you enjoyed

 

your trip.

[suni]

Thank you for the great review! I will be on the Voyager for the first time next month. :D

[dogsbestfriend]

Thanks for a very nice and detailed review! We are going to the Baltics for the first time next June on the Voyager and I appreciate your comments....

[traveller333]

Very good review of the Voyager. It brings back fond memories of our Baltics cruise. This is an itinerary I could do over and over again.