Voyager review 12-10-05 to 12-17-05 (long)

[KelJ]

This was a Voyager Eastern Caribbean cruise with my family of four (sons 10 and 13). We were in JS 9254. This was a second cruise for my husband and me. I am just going to touch on the highlights of each day.

Day 1 - Very early flight from Pittsburgh to Miami. Used RCI transfers, which we won't do again. Were stuck at the airport for two hours waiting for a shuttle and then it took quite a while to get on the ship, long lines, but we were in the Windjammer at 1:30 eating lunch. Our room was decorated for my husband's birthday. We didn't have our luggage by the time of our early-seating dinner, so we had to go wearing our jeans and tshirts -- as others did too. Hubby's birthday cake was in our room after dinner. By 10:30 we were still missing one piece of our luggage. Checked with guest relations and then I started going up and down the halls on deck nine and found it misplaced in front of another cabin. Whew! No show tonight, too exhausted.

Day 2 - Nassau. Had booked a room at Atlantis, so spent our short day there. It was wonderful -- and not crowded AT ALL. Formal dinner tonight, then saw Vibeology. What great singing voices!

Day 3 - At sea. Slept in. Ordered room service for breakfast. Meet & Mingle at High Notes. Nice to put faces to names! And I won the coveted RCI aqua mouse! Ice show at 5:00 -- what talent! Welcome back party with the Captain. Tonight's show was Paul Boland, Man of a Thousand voices. He was quite good.

Day 4 - St. Thomas. We did the BOB excursion. It was so much fun, and we highly recommend it. The snorkeling was great too. Shopped in the afternoon. Hubby surprised me by buying me a very nice ruby ring at Cardow to replace one I had lost. Bought a great steel pans CD. Lobster night. Delicious! Hedi brought me three I think! He kept saying "Need me to fill up your shell?" when he would take my empty tail away! No show tonight.

Day 5 - San Juan. Took a cab to the forts. It was like 94 degrees. Then we took a cab to the Mall of America to cool down and do some last-minute xmas shopping. Formal dinner tonight. Saw the Knudsen Brothers tonight. They were wonderful -- our favorite show.

Day 6 - Labadee. What a great day! The kids loved the water park and the slide. I loved the Coco Locos! Tonight's show was Broadway's Rhythm & Rhyme. We were so tired. DS10 and I were falling asleep and headed back to the room. DH and DS13 said it was okay.

Day 7 - At sea. Tried to sqeeze so much in -- swimming, in-line skating, rock-climbing wall. Lunch in the dining room. Hated saying goodbye to Loretta (our ready-to-please room steward who made such great towel animals), Hedi (our waiter who was more than amazing) and Szylvia (our wonderful assistant waiter). Handed out tips (we paid cash), saw the Farewell Show, which was enjoyable. Packed up our luggage and put it outside the room.

Day 8 - Breakfast at the Windjammer. Waited in LaScala for our color. We were light blue with an estimated time of 11:00 to 11:45. We were called at 10:30 and were off the ship by 11:30, got immediately onto the transfer bus to the Miami airport.

We ate dinner in the dininig room ever night, so we never ate in Portofino or Johnny Rockets. We would have tried Portofino if we had been disappointed withe the dining room food, but that didn't happen. We all really enjoyed our food every single day. There is so much to choose from that it's easy to find something you like. And as long as I'm not preparing the food or cleaning up, I am easy to please!

My kids were not interested in Ocean Adventure. They did spend a good bit of time in the arcade.

Four of us were very comfortable in a J.S. There is so much storage, including a very large walk-in closet. Our room steward brought us clean towels twice daily.

We bought three soda cards (for hubby and two kids). I am an iced tea person. We also did the seven-bottle gold wine package. We only drank six bottles and gave the remaining bottle to Hedi instead of bringing it home.

The things I brought along (thanks to tips from all of you) that made things so much better: Over-the-door-shoe rack for back of closet door, a highlighter, magnets to post the Cruise Compass on the door daily, magnet hooks to hang the kids' seapass laniards to keep them from getting lost, suction cup toothbrush holder for bathroom, clothespins to hold shower curtain down, travel alarm clock (a must have!), underwater disposable cameras, extra wire hangers which we just left there, bathroom air freshener, pop-up hamper, ziploc bags (for wet clothes and for seashells), luggage straps which made it so easy to spot our luggage, padded envelope for all of those pictures we bought on board.

Husband and DS10 saw dolphins from our balcony. We also saw flying fish. The seas were quite calm. Didn't feel much rocking at all, but I took a Bonine daily -- just in case. Husband wore his seasick patch daily. Kids never complained about seasickness at all. We felt the ship's movement the most in the LaScala theater.

As for bars and bands and nightlife, we were in bed every night by 11:15!! Never did Bingo either. Had a bit of luck in the casino one night.

I had a blouse cleaned on the ship (DH was giving me a bite of steak, which fell off his fork onto my plate, which splashed on me). It came back perfectly.

I wore a dress every night to dinner except one night I wore a pantsuit. DH wore a suit to formal nights. Kids wore ties and docker-type pants to formal nights -- no jacket. We didn't see many tuxes at all. DH and kids wore docker-type pants and polo shirts all other nights to dinner.

We will sail Voyager again, hopefully next December on the Western Caribbean route which includes Labadee.

If you have any questions, please ask away.:)

 

Link to our pictures: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingReg.jsp?Uc=bxy4atv.w9769fj&Uy=xsqw60&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=693593601003_76111001907

[lakerat2]

:p Great info. Enjoyed the pictures. We are taking our first cruise on NOS to western caribbean ( Labadee included). Boy the kids got excited when they saw the pictures. I found your "list of things that made the trip better" a real help.

 

Enjoy your next cruise.

Thanks

Sophie ( lakerat2)

[KelJ]

:p Great info. Enjoyed the pictures. We are taking our first cruise on NOS to western caribbean ( Labadee included). Boy the kids got excited when they saw the pictures. I found your "list of things that made the trip better" a real help.

 

Enjoy your next cruise.

Thanks

Sophie ( lakerat2)

 

Glad to have provided some helpful info, Sophie. We booked a western this time, and we purposely picked one that had Labadee on the itinerary. I hope your kids enjoy it as much as ours did!:)

Kelly

[NickAndysMom]

Sorry for the double posting. I meant to post this under another thread, but am not sure how to remove this post.

 

Labadee looks great! My kids will love it. Are adults allowed in the waterpark area, too? I can't wait for next February.

 

Does anyone know if there is a charge for the waterpark or for the splash bash area?

 

Thanks for your help!

[KelJ]

Sorry for the double posting. I meant to post this under another thread, but am not sure how to remove this post.

 

Labadee looks great! My kids will love it. Are adults allowed in the waterpark area, too? I can't wait for next February.

 

Does anyone know if there is a charge for the waterpark or for the splash bash area?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

I responded to your post on the Labadee thread. :)