Review: Voyager, Sth Pacific 27 Feb 2016

[BekkaW]

We sailed on Voyager of the Seas to the South Pacific, 27 February – 5 March 2016. This cruise it was just myself and my husband, and we had a balcony stateroom. I wanted to do a review as there are not as many reviews of ships sailing from Australia. Unfortunately I’m not too tech-savvy so there won’t be any photos! Look away now if you only like photo reviews. I will do my review around key elements of the trip as well a pre-cruise. Happy to answer any questions if I can.

 

Pre-Cruise

We booked this cruise only about 6 weeks before sailing, during a 72 hour sale event. We got a great price on a guarantee and are comfortable with the idea of not picking our own room. A few things went less well than I would have hoped – the sale terms and conditions stated that taxes, fees and gratuities were included in the price, but when we booked it the gratuities did not get added. After a few lengthy and frustrating calls to guest services I ended up emailing Michael Bayley’s office. The next day I received an email from a representative named Brittany and within 2 days she had fixed the problem and given us a small OBC to compensate for the trouble and time. I was pleased with that outcome. Voyager was sailing out of Circular Quay, which is really beautiful spot between the Harbour Bridge and opera house. We drove up the morning of the cruise, parked at my BIL’s house and caught the train about 15 minutes to circular quay station. It’s a 5 minute walk to the ship from here. We arrived about 2pm and it was not too crowded. We’re platinum so were able to go in expedited lines for check in and immigration clearance. Soon we were on the ship!

 

Cabin

Since the cabins were open we headed straight there to put our bags down. We were allocated a D2 cabin on deck 10, right under the Windjammer. I had read here on CC that these cabins might be noisy so we picked up some of those small foam ear plugs at the hardware store just in case. We never needed them! I wouldn’t hesitate to have this cabin again. We had the bed by the window and a full sized couch. The ship has been revitalised since we last sailed on her so had new carpets, linens and drapes in a blue colour scheme– all looking great! Our steward was Willy and he was fantastic, he bought us an ice bucket right away for our sail away champagne and also bought us an eggcrate for the bed the second day after we discovered that the bed was REALLY hard. That is my only complaint about the cabin, I could not have slept on that bed without an eggcrate so if you have a bad back request one in advance or straight away after you board.

 

Dining

We had late traditional dining on a big table, which is our usual preference. The first night was unfortunately terrible. We were seated with 3 adults and a small child. We said hello to no response. I think 2 of the adults could speak some English because they spoke to the waitress, but they didn’t speak to us rather conversing amongst themselves in Chinese the whole meal. The child was also quite badly behaved, pouring out packets of sugar onto the table and that kind of thing. We excused ourselves straight after dessert. The next day we asked to change tables and were told that it wouldn’t be immediately possible, so we booked into Chops for that night. It was really, really good. Great service and our steaks were beautifully cooked. We had the asparagus, creamed spinach and ‘gruyere croquettes’ which seems to be the new name for the adult tater tots. These were not to my taste but DH liked them. The specialities are not as popular so they were offering 20% off on the first night. We asked for that deal on the second night and got it – I think you could probably have gotten it any night. Pricing was $45 for Chops Dinner or $35 for lunch, before the discount. Giovanni’s was $35 dinner and $25 lunch, although we didn’t eat there this cruise. When we got back to our cabin there was a note that we had a new dinner table and we happily ate there the rest of the cruise. On the second formal night they had a half price special on the upcharge lobster in the MDR, so it was $17.50 instead of $35. We both ordered that and it was quite good. Shout out to Julie & David and Roger & Liz who were great table companions  One of our table mates was gluten free and ordered in advance every night – this seemed to be handled well and there was never a problem.

 

For breakfast we ate on our balcony a few times, in the windjammer a few times and in the dining room once. Room service breakfast came on time or slightly early every time. Lunches we mostly ate at café Promenade – the famous roast beef roll was available there every day - had the tutti salad bar in MDR once and a few lunches at windjammer also. Windjammer was pretty busy but we could always find a seat and I thought the quality and selection was good. There was a dedicated gluten free island. On Voyager class the windjammer is well set up and they also added a new bar at the entrance during the refurbishment which I though was a nice addition. The washy washy attendant became quite famous, he had a guitar and funny hats/glasses and would sing for you.

 

Ports

Our 2 ports were Isle of Pines and Noumea, both in New Caledonia. We had not been to either before. Isle of Pines was breathtakingly beautiful. It has pretty basic amenities but beautiful beaches and snorkelling on the reef just off the beach. We took our own snorkel gear but they were also selling some on the ship. It was very hot – about 30 Celsius so make sure you take sunscreen! We saw a lot of people looking quite burnt. Locals set up BBQ stands at the back of the beach and I enjoyed a fresh coconut for $4 (Australian – they will accept Australian dollars or Pacific Francs). I spoke very halting French to the vendors and they seemed to appreciate it. This was our first tender port but we found that pretty easy. About 8am that morning we had heard an Alpha Alpha Alpha call. While waiting to tender back to the ship we found out why – a man had a heart attack and had to be tendered off with the medical staff to a helicopter that landed on Isle of Pines for him. We saw the tender arrive and he was stretchered up onto the wharf and into an ambulance that took him to the helicopter. It was quite quick and looked very professional, there was a lot of medical equipment with him. I hope he is ok.

 

Our next port was Noumea which was again very pretty but is quite a big city. You dock at a working port but there is a shuttle into town. We took a hop on hop off bus around for a while and then found a little patisserie just near the shuttle bus station which one of our table mates had told us about. It was amazing! Les Petits Choux is the name, it is definitely worth a look if you go to Noumea.

 

Activities and Entertainment

The Cruise Director was Chris Brown, who is Australian. Activities Manager is Craig ‘Cuddy’ Cudsworth from the UK. They were both pretty good. We joined the progressive trivia with Cuddy which was hilarious. Shout out to Peter and Tracey who we paired up with! On the final day the winning team won by only ½ point. We also attended some of the Sudoku and crossword challenges. Roger from our MDR table went to bingo and enjoyed it. They did not do jackpots but rather gave away cash every day. We spend a fair bit of time in the casino and enjoyed the poker and blackjack tournaments. I finally managed to win a blackjack tournament! Until now I have only managed second place. There were some heavy gamblers on the ship and we saw a few free cruise certificates being given out by Jose the Casino Host. He was great, very available and the casino was overall well run.

 

The headliner show was a Queen tribute and the 3 singers were fantastic. The ice show ‘Ice Odyssey’ was also amazing and I have finally worked out the story line! The Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers were on later in the week with a show called ‘Music in Pictures’ which was songs from various movies. They were pretty obscure songs and neither DH nor I thought it was a very good show. YMMV. We participated in the Quest and came second, it was hilarious as always. There were the usual; competitions (belly flop, sexiest man etc) and a lot of movies were shown on the pool deck. Pool was busy all the time but you could get a lounger up on deck 12. Overall I would say the entertainment and activities was pretty good.

 

Overall

This cruise did have a bit of a different vibe to it than others we have taken. There were some step discounts in the month leading up to it and this seemed to attract a lot of first time cruisers. Drink packages were being pushed heavily and people were getting good use of them! I never saw anyone out of control though. Never waited very long to get a drink – they were pushing carts of beer around on the pool deck and a few times set up cocktail stations on deck in addition to the pool bar. Our room service waiter was shocked that we tipped him and I did hear a few people talking about removing their gratuities. Hopefully not too many did this. When we booked another cruise at the Next Cruise desk she priced it out including gratuities and I would suggest they should do this for all Australian cruises. Even though it was a bit different we had a great time and are going on Voyager again this time next year :)

Edited March 6, 2016 by BekkaW

[Yorkvillain]

Good stuff. Thanks Bekka.

[Iluvcruising2]

Sounds like a very different cruise. Thanks for the report.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your thorough review.

 

Keith

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report.

[roxette]

Thank you for the review.

 

I'm booked on a similar cruise on the Voyager in November, ans as you wrote, not much information about Aussie cruises around here. So once again, thank you.

[mr walker]

Thanks for your review BekkaW. Sounds like you enjoyed:). I remember you from the Sing-Syd repo in '13.

 

Only 24 days 'til our Explorer cruise, which I expect will be similar :D

[mr walker]

I'm booked on a similar cruise on the Voyager in November, ans as you wrote, not much information about Aussie cruises around here.

 

If you haven't already checked it out, make sure you join all of us on the Australia/New Zealand board here on cc - mostly friendly folk, and lots of info on cruising downunder covering most cruise lines.

[Haddonqueen]

Hi, thanks for you're review, we are on VOS in October, 1st RCI cruise. We are used to all the gratuities cos the cruise line we usually go on don't have them, they are just voluntary for good service.

[BekkaW]

One thing I forgot to mention - on the first few days there was deep cleaning going on, such as regular scrubbing of walls, doors, and handrails. Made us think there must have been some cases of Noro on the cruise before ours. Never heard anything about an outbreak on our sailing though.

[BekkaW]

Hi, thanks for you're review, we are on VOS in October, 1st RCI cruise. We are used to all the gratuities cos the cruise line we usually go on don't have them, they are just voluntary for good service.

 

I'm sure you will love it! I find the easiest way to handle the gratuities is consider it part of the cruise cost. Pay in advance, or accept the daily charge to your account, and just leave it.

[Hailzmick]

Great review.

We're on Voyager in 16 days & I'm excited!

We just did Legend in January & Chris Brown was out CD too. I wonder when he changed ships. I loved him!!!

Thanks again!

[BekkaW]

Great review.

We're on Voyager in 16 days & I'm excited!

We just did Legend in January & Chris Brown was out CD too. I wonder when he changed ships. I loved him!!!

Thanks again!

 

I'm sure you will have a fantastic time! I remember reading about Isle of Pines in your previous review and was so excited to go there. if you go to the progressive trivia, tell Cuddy that Trivia Newton John says hello :D