Live Voyager of the Seas Baltic Cruise (by way of a short stay in London & Copenhagen) May 22-29th

[RJ257]

2 hours ago, CatLadyFemme said:

Update 2.0.  Timothy’s shift ended, so no electric cord tonight and no reading lamp. Will try again tomorrow. I am slightly irritated because it would make my evening less painful, and my sleep better, but I can definitely survive without. However, as a disability activist, this makes me very worried for other disabled folks that also requested one and *need* such an item, perhaps because they need to charge their power chair, or run a more necessary machine. Again, recognize that folks are new and I certainly am not going to go Karen on anyone, but find this a bit frustrating.

 

It also appears that even though I downloaded books to read from my library, the app requires a modicum of internet to open, so am booklets. Luckily, I brought a few paper books as well. I will just have to read with the overhead light on, at least until MrCatLady falls asleep!

 

sweet dreams everyone.

Congratulations on tenure! I was on the Allure sailing in April. Enjoying your review.

[Norwaylady]

Hope things goes better🥰 

There are lots of new crew and training is on full speed. So we could see lots of improvements in many areas and "safer" crew in their job from my saling 1-8 and 15-22.may.

 

-If the internett is awful in your stateroom/zone. Tell the internett staff.

They had to reset a wifi repeter or change the box? on my deck, 6-aft. But suddenly I had internett that worked. I couldn't use internett in my bed/balcony, I only had 1-dot on the wifi scale on iPhone/Mac but after the rese/fixt it went to 3 again and I could call by FaceTime🙂  I know others on my sailing had similar problems. 

 

Enjoy your sea day☺️ And hopefully all twerks are solved during the day!

 

[CatLadyFemme]

I love sea days! Slept so well. We are usually lower, around deck 6 if in a balcony or deck 3 with an ocean view, but being on deck 12 meant we got a little bit of swaying, which rocked me to sleep like a baby! Woke up to a view of the water with fog rolling in, so was not too surprised by the fog horn going off every few minutes. Apparently on the upper and bow decks, you hear it VERY clearly. Put in my Loops for a bit to help block it out. Finished unpacking, and then MrCatLady came back for the gym (he said it was SUPER crowded and that people were strolling the track which made it nigh on impossible to run), he showered, and we head down for coffee and lunch. 
 

Saw Timothy on the way down to ask about the light (they are now supposed to fix it while we are out) and extension cord (he found one for me!), so that’s a relief. Swung by the Wi-Fi stand; was told that we should not expect to have good Wi-Fi in our room. Which seems…weird? But ok. He was coughing a lot behind his mask, so we just smiled and nodded and headed to the nearest hand sanitizer. Glad we are masking!  
 

The coffee line on the Promenade was outrageous, and walking through was crowded as they were having a cornhole tournament indoors (whhhhy???), so we headed straight to the MDR, which was much less overwhelming. My celiac safe meal order from last night came through just fine (the sides from the Atlantic cod for an appetizer: roasted cauliflower, spinach, and this amazing caper vinegarette, and the butternut squash risotto), while MrCatLady didn’t see much he liked on the entrees, so did the wedge salad and mozzarella sticks. We will probably swing by the WJ later to get him more food.

 

 

Now, we are chilling in the R Bar, which had decent signal. We both had some emails from anxious students (we both are teaching online courses this summer), so answering those. MrCatLady grabbed another iced coffee and a Pellegrino, while I am enjoying a mint berry delight without the vodka (reminder that many drinks can be made as mocktails, even if not advertised as such!). I missed my napkin folding class, so will have to try for it on day 7 (though have taken one before, so it may just be more of the same), and we are debating whether to do the pool and hot tubs next or…?

[backsbanny]

1 hour ago, Norwaylady said:

Hope things goes better🥰 

There are lots of new crew and training is on full speed. So we could see lots of improvements in many areas and "safer" crew in their job from my saling 1-8 and 15-22.may.

 

-If the internett is awful in your stateroom/zone. Tell the internett staff.

They had to reset a wifi repeter or change the box? on my deck, 6-aft. But suddenly I had internett that worked. I couldn't use internett in my bed/balcony, I only had 1-dot on the wifi scale on iPhone/Mac but after the rese/fixt it went to 3 again and I could call by FaceTime🙂  I know others on my sailing had similar problems. 

 

Enjoy your sea day☺️ And hopefully all twerks are solved during the day!

 

Yes. I was aft on deck 6 and internet worked really well on my stateroom.I was worried at first before boarding reading the posts here about the internet issue but on deck 6 aft it worked great all week long even at the balcony!

[DragonOfTheSeas]

CatLady--Thanks you for taking us along with you. We hope you have a great trip.  I am very interested in your experiences on this cruise.  We will be on Voyager July 31 from Stockholm to Copenhagen.  

 

One thing I am interested in is how close to downtown/old town or main sites is the place Royal Caribbean docks.  . . . or do they provide a type of transportation to this area without taking a ship"s tour?  We understand this would likely not be free. TIA

[adam7392]

Great review so far, loving the detail and pictures.  Are they showing any decent movies in the evening on the giant screen by the pools?.  It's something we really like when sailing on Princess.

[CatLadyFemme]

46 minutes ago, adam7392 said:

Great review so far, loving the detail and pictures.  Are they showing any decent movies in the evening on the giant screen by the pools?.  It's something we really like when sailing on Princess.

Yes! Spencer, King Richard, the new James Bond, The Eternals, plus both new Addams Family and Clifford the Big Red Dog. I love that too!

[CatLadyFemme]

After lunch, we relaxed for a little, enjoying my heating pad courtesy of the extension cord (my reading lamp is working now too!), and headed to the Solarium. I had see a few folks in pool earlier, so even though it was 55 degrees (13 Celsius), I put on my suit and hopped in. It was nicely warmed, and I felt happy giving the poor lifeguard something to focus on. MrCatLady gave it a quick go, but decided that while it wasn’t as bad as the marmite, black pudding, or pickled herring, it was not for him. I, on the other hand, am Coloradan turned Michigander, and found it delightful, and got to do a bunch of my aqua therapy exercises. After this, I joined MrCatLady in the hot tub for a bit, and chatted up some folks.

 

 

Then we dried off and headed to WJ for a quick snack and fresh squeezed orange juice. They *do* have a GF section on this ship, though pickings were fairly slim, so I grabbed olives, melon, and cheese from elsewhere on new platters that were just put out. Emptiest I have ever seen a WJ!

 

 

Back to the heating pad and changing for the first formal night! Elmer remembered our drink order, and had tasty GF bread, a Perrier for MrCatLady, and a sprite/cran/lime for me. I should not that there are no lemons on board the whole ship, including giving limes with seafood dishes. I actually prefer limes, but recognize it as a continuing sign of supply chain issues everyone has experienced.

 

 

For dinner, MrCatLady did the calamari (“it was good”,) the lemon butter cod (“it was ok”) and the Grand Mariner soufflé (“it was good” definitive sounding). I had the avocado melon salad (good, a bit boring, glad I had an extra lime to squeeze over it), pumpkin soup with no bacon (tasty), an attempt at the Crunchy Tofu Peanut Tacos (back story; on Allure summer 2019, our head waiter Simon hooked me up with these. They were SO good that I asked to have them again for lunch the next day. Every cruise since, I have tried to get them again. They have never been even close to the same, and these were the worst. There was no taco; they are usually served with flour tortillas, but twice I have had them in corn hard shells. They were not crunch, at all; a first. There were no peanuts, nor peanut sauce. There were no other veggies. It was pretty bland tofu served with a spicy chili sauce. I tried to get through a few bites but it was so meh, and I had already had two starters, so I just told them not to worry about it…which of course results in them offering 2 million things. Finally, to help my head waiter feel better, I let him bring me a baked potato, which was fine), and crème brûlée (also fine).  Not a winner of a dinner tonight, though all the staff seemed much less stressed than yesterday, which was nice. Elmer offered to have mocktails brought to me future nights, which of course I accepted with delight!

 

 

Oh! I asked our waiter how many people are onboard, because it has seemed so empty. 1500; approximately 40%. Really lovely cruising like this. Vibes of a river cruise with the benefits of a mid sized ship!

 

After dinner, we strolled a little, took a rest in the room (and you guessed it; more time with the heating pad! My back has been killing me for several weeks at this point. I forgot I couldn’t use my heating pad in London or Copenhagen, because while I brought adapters, I didn’t bring converters! Shame shame) before heading to the theater to see Broadway Rhythm and Rhyme. Despite getting there with only 15 minutes to spare, the theater was not even 10% full, even a minute before start time. I felt really bad for the performers.

 

 

And then it all went downhill. The CD came out an made a super fat phobic joke (to the man by the hot tub in a Speedo; if you cannot see your toes, you should not be wearing it). As someone who is fat and gets comments like these and more all of the time, it was super offensive and made me not want to go back to the pool in case I end up the butt of the next joke.

 

Then the show began. I love performance. I was a theater kid through college and did community shows. Also have done costuming, set design, crew, staff managing, and light board. Usually we enjoy most of the shows on board, even if some are a bit cheesy. The only one we ever really didn’t like was a similar musical based show on Enchantment in 2018. This was way worse. 

 

The costumes, to start. The women were all in white shiny Lycra unitards that did not flatter ANYONE. Like you could see every bump, rib, crevice, etc. and they looked uncomfortable. It wasn’t just these; there were very weird Cabernet like outfits for the Chicago section (yep, they mashed up those two??), and some blue wet look latex dresses for Dreamgirls, and a plethora of other choices that made me grimace. The cast was almost entirely white, so having three white women put on black hair styled wigs to sing for Dreamgirls felt a bit icky, and the short cut wigs they were made to wear throughout the show reminded me of bad ladies bowl cuts from the late 80s.

 

Then there were the awkward mashups. Like, why would you mash up “I am 16 going on 17” with “Trouble” from the Music Man and “I’m getting married in the morning,” etc (including having the singer of the first dressed like an anime girl with pigtails)? Plus add that they rearranged all of these songs and more to the point that the two of us, huge musical theater buffs, could not understand which songs they were at least half the time. Plus West Side Story does not need a jazz beat, and some of the songs were simply not right for the singers’ ranges.  One song even had feedback.

 

We also almost walked out because of the sharp lighting directly in people’s faces and strobes. At least a third of the songs, I had to have my eyes covered, as I am super migraine sensitive, and these were constant. It was like an ABBA concert up in here. There was also clearly a missing dancer; I am hoping it was not because he was hurt. 

 

I wanted to like it. I usually love this type of show. But I am not sure if this was an issue of them trying to be cool and failing, or just several people’s visions crashing into one, but I would not waste my time on this if we did it again. Not sure we will be seeing the second show, and that is very unusual for us.

 

Processed our feelings about the show, watched the sunset, grabbed some tea from the cafe, and now in the Star Lounge, listening to a pretty good singer and her band.

 

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

4 hours ago, CatLadyFemme said:

And then it all went downhill. The CD came out an made a super fat phobic joke (to the man by the hot tub in a Speedo; if you cannot see your toes, you should not be wearing it). As someone who is fat and gets comments like these and more all of the time, it was super offensive and made me not want to go back to the pool in case I end up the butt of the next joke.

😲 😳😧 I had trouble focusing on the rest of your post, 'cause ... WOW. Just not okay 😠

 

Granted, if I had my way, nobody would wear Speedos in public, even if they look like Chippendale dancers. 😉 But telling people what they can and can't wear because they're too fat/thin/tall/short/hairy/pale whatever ... that needs to stop, period, and when it's coming from someone whose job it is to help you enjoy your cruise ... well, let's just say that I'm glad there's a survey at the end of every cruise. 😑

 

P.S. Not that my opinion should matter in the slightest, but I think you are rockin' that swimsuit. 

Edited May 24, 2022 by la_croisiere_s'amuse

[ckmommy]

56 minutes ago, la_croisiere_s'amuse said:

 

 

P.S. Not that my opinion should matter in the slightest, but I think you are rockin' that swimsuit. 

I agree--super cute suit!!!  Enjoying your review.  Glad you found the a place to get internet and are helping your students.  I have college kiddos--I think it would be hilarious to know their Professor is on a cruise!  The age of the internet is such a great thing.  Enjoy Stockholm.

[crzndeb]

5 hours ago, CatLadyFemme said:

I should not that there are no lemons on board the whole ship, including giving limes with seafood dishes. I actually prefer limes, but recognize it as a continuing sign of supply chain issues everyone has experienced

If you have not discovered Pure Lemon and Lime packs, they are the best. Sprinkle  on anything needing lemon or lime, and they are the best. You won’t know the difference from the real stuff. And easy to pack. I buy the 100 packs on Amazon.

[CatLadyFemme]

8 hours ago, crzndeb said:

If you have not discovered Pure Lemon and Lime packs, they are the best. Sprinkle  on anything needing lemon or lime, and they are the best. You won’t know the difference from the real stuff. And easy to pack. I buy the 100 packs on Amazon.

These are so cool; thank you for sharing!

[John&LaLa]

9 hours ago, la_croisiere_s'amuse said:

😲 😳😧 I had trouble focusing on the rest of your post, 'cause ... WOW. Just not okay 😠

 

Granted, if I had my way, nobody would wear Speedos in public, even if they look like Chippendale dancers. 😉 But telling people what they can and can't wear because they're too fat/thin/tall/short/hairy/pale whatever ... that needs to stop, period, and when it's coming from someone whose job it is to help you enjoy your cruise ... well, let's just say that I'm glad there's a survey at the end of every cruise. 😑

 

P.S. Not that my opinion should matter in the slightest, but I think you are rockin' that swimsuit. 

 

Speedo jokes are a staple of cruise ships. I'm sure I'll hear it again 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

On 5/22/2022 at 4:42 PM, darthvadrouw said:

Unfortunately, there are no Freestyle machines on Voyager, you need to get your soda at a bar.
Regarding  Voom, it's very bad on Voyager even the surf&stream one, last month it was nearly impossible to connect to any site all trip long.

That is great , I would hate carrying around a cup to get a drink ! 

[CatLadyFemme]

29 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

That is great , I would hate carrying around a cup to get a drink ! 

Even when you are on a ship with Freestyle machines, you only need a cup if you want the fancy flavors. You can always get soda from a bar as well.

[CatLadyFemme]

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Speedo jokes are a staple of cruise ships. I'm sure I'll hear it again 

This is one reason I don’t like most straight comedy. There are so many ways to do humor that doesn’t involve targeting marginalized folks. Oh well. Just means I will events where the CDs talk. Don’t get me started on the cis het patriarchy of the love and marriage show 😭😂

[CatLadyFemme]

Today we docked in Stockholm around 9am. Our excursion met in the theater on level 3, and headed out at 9:30 for the Stockholm Highlights and Vasa Museum tour. Our bus was designed for 48; we had only 16 on board, which was lovely and helped us to feel safer. We did a lovely drive around Stockholm, with V, our excellent tour guide. Learned a lot, especially as it has been 17 years since I was here, when I lived in Germany in college. 
 

 

 

Today’s excursion included time at the Vasa Museum, which houses the only ship from the 1600s preserved with 98% original parts. This is particularly special to me, because when my parents went on their honeymoon in summer 1970, they saw it in the process of being restored. When I visited Stockholm when I lived in Germany, I visited the Vasa museum, and now I have seen it with MrCatLady (MxCatLady; you’re up next!).

 

Such a neat museum! And what is a trip to Sweden without ligninberry juice? Add that to the amazing vegetarian meal of the day at the museum cafe (grilled halloumi with spring asparagus, potatoes, hazelnuts, and pea shoots), and I loved the visit just as much as I did back in 2005! Also, the museum is SUPER mobility accessible, which was much appreciated.

 

 

I also love how small the pier is, and how easy it was to disembark and embark back onto the ship. I may never go on another American cruise! (Just kidding; we have three more booked).

[anitaau]

Thank you for the review. I am following closely - leaving Texas on Friday and boarding Voyager on Sun (May 29). Last time I was on the Voyager my daughter was still in my tummy and now she is 16 and get to see the ship with her own eyes.

 

How's the weather in port? It looks beautiful in the pictures but the forecast seems to suggest a cooler overcast. 

[CatLadyFemme]

16 minutes ago, anitaau said:

Thank you for the review. I am following closely - leaving Texas on Friday and boarding Voyager on Sun (May 29). Last time I was on the Voyager my daughter was still in my tummy and now she is 16 and get to see the ship with her own eyes.

 

How's the weather in port? It looks beautiful in the pictures but the forecast seems to suggest a cooler overcast. 

That’s so neat! I bet you will both have an amazing time. It was 20 years since I was last on this ship!

 

The weather has been amazing! I brought both an umbrella and a shell/rain jacket. I wore the latter one day in Copenhagen, but otherwise, we have really lucked out. It is currently 66 and sunny! I brought my light weight hoodie on the excursion, but wound up taking it off, and leaving it on the bus. MrCatLady took his hoodie off at the museum. I will likely need to sunblock up and put on my summer hat for time at the pool.

[adam7392]

• Guessing you'll have had a formal night by now, were many people properly dressed up ?  I do like to wear a DJ/Tux but prefer it if I blend in a little rather than get mistaken for the maitre'd.  Hoping that on a Baltic cruise dress standards might be raised a little.

[CatLadyFemme]

42 minutes ago, adam7392 said:

• Guessing you'll have had a formal night by now, were many people properly dressed up ?  I do like to wear a DJ/Tux but prefer it if I blend in a little rather than get mistaken for the maitre'd.  Hoping that on a Baltic cruise dress standards might be raised a little.

To be honest, I had the same hope (given my druthers, I would have brought a ball gown I wanted to wear, but MrCatLady didn’t want to do it up more than a blazer). 
 

I would say there were a few tuxes, many more blazers/suit jackets, and a some folks not really dressing formal at all.  No tank tops and shorts at least. The later seating seemed to do it up a bit more. I think you would not be out of place in a tux, but definitely in the top third of dressiness.

[TexasRon]

On 5/22/2022 at 4:37 PM, CatLadyFemme said:

Update 2.0.  Timothy’s shift ended, so no electric cord tonight and no reading lamp. Will try again tomorrow. I am slightly irritated because it would make my evening less painful, and my sleep better, but I can definitely survive without. However, as a disability activist, this makes me very worried for other disabled folks that also requested one and *need* such an item, perhaps because they need to charge their power chair, or run a more necessary machine. Again, recognize that folks are new and I certainly am not going to go Karen on anyone, but find this a bit frustrating.

That would be a problem for me; I use a CPAP every time I sleep…even naps.  I have never had that issue onboard.  It concerns me a bit.

[adam7392]

7 minutes ago, CatLadyFemme said:

I would say there were a few tuxes, many more blazers/suit jackets, and a some folks not really dressing formal at all.  No tank tops and shorts at least. The later seating seemed to do it up a bit more. I think you would not be out of place in a tux, but definitely in the top third of dressiness

Good to know, thanks.  Tux it is then, also means I have to do a quick refresher on tying a dickie bow but not sailing till 31st July so plenty of time.  Hope the weather holds for your sailout from Stockholm tomorrow which I believe is a bit of a highlight.

[CatLadyFemme]

Once back on board, we grabbed some drinks at the cafe. We were literally the only non-staff members on the Royal Promenade for a good half hour. I spent some time checking my internet needs (have given up on any signal in the cabin) before heading to the room to change and back to the Solarium. The water in the pool was even warmer today! It was like being in my warm water therapy pool at my local PT office, so was delightful for doing my aqua therapy. Who knew I would be more compliant while on a cruise!

 

We had such a nice time that we opted to skip the top tier event (they didn’t have emerald pins on board anyways; have a letter stating such), and enjoy more time on the deck. Then a quick change for dinner.

 

 

Tonight, my gluten free basket included pumpernickel style gluten free rolls! I was in heaven! These were the best; so soft, so flavorful. I was over the moon.

 

 

If you followed my recent Allure review, you’ll know my ordering of the grilled avocado was a total flop, with an avocado so unripe, I couldn’t cut it with a knife. This avocado was much better and quite tasty, though also not grilled. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I had the potato soup from the vegan menu…but they didn’t put the mushrooms in it, so it had almost no flavor. The polenta fries, on the other hand, were quite tasty. I had also asked for some GF/flourless chocolate cake. Again, this is different on every cruise I order it. Sometimes it is cake, sometimes like a brownie, some times like fudge. This was like a fudgey cake with chocolate ganache on top. So so so tasty but also so rich that I could only do a few bites. MrCatLady did the seafood cake (best starter he has had so far), the arugula salad (very light and tasty), the barramundi (he said it was over cooked and pretty meh, wound up pushing food around to make it look like he ate more than he did), and the lemon curd tart (also a big winner). I had asked Elmer for a mocktail, and he came in clutch; some sort of mango pineapple situation for me, and a virgin blueberry mojito for MrCatLady. All in all, a fairly solid meal. I just ordered the coconut parsnip soup for tomorrow; I really enjoy it and wanted to drop by, but we are also going to go to Giovanni’s for an 8pm meal tomorrow.

 

 

We barely made it to our ice show seats before the show started. Gentle reader, I have good news; I was so worried after last night’s show that I would hate this too and just be seen as a crabby critic, but actually loved this ice show. It’s one of the best ones I have seen on Royal. 
 

I used to be a competitive figure skater. In fact, we went in Voyager the first time in 2002 because it was the first ship with an ice rink aboard, so my sister and I were able to cruise during competition season. We brought our skates, and they had ice time in the mornings for people who could actually jump and spin. So I always remind folks this rink is about a third of a normal rink, and doing this while at sea is amazing. Luckily for the cast tonight, we are still docked in Stockholm, so they only had to contend with the former. You could definitely tell the difference as there were only two falls the whole show, while the ones I have see at sea usually have at least one fall per person.

 

The show was somehow loosely based on Tarot, and with the exception of the Hermit and the World, I could tell which card most folks were supposed to be. The costumes were much better than last night, though for the first number, MrCatLady pointing out they were all rocking trans masc and nonbinary styles (and the woman wearing the turban/tichel was wearing the colors of the trans flag). The numbers were well suited to each of the skaters (the more funny skaters did the fun numbers, the serious ones the more dramatic numbers, the amazing spinner of a Sun did a very spin heavy number, the guy who had a blend of humor and drama skated to Creed), there was a decent plot line without hitting us over the head, and the German version of Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart was lovely, rather than the jarringly re-arranged tunes from last night. I highly highly recommend.

 

 

I am not sitting on the mostly empty Solarium deck, watching the sunset, and sending some Marco Polo messages to MxCatLady back in MI. Avoiding the 70s party (am surprised they still do this; I feel like this crowd would prefer 80s or 90s, based on the Mood performances last night), and just relaxing. May read for a bit as well.

 

oh! And first towel animal of the cruise!

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by CatLadyFemme

[CatLadyFemme]

14 minutes ago, TexasRon said:

That would be a problem for me; I use a CPAP every time I sleep…even naps.  I have never had that issue onboard.  It concerns me a bit.

Yes, that was my concern. I did get the cord early in day 2, but agree that this is an access issue. I didn’t press it because he was stressed and I was tired, but I likely could have escalated it to guest services and used my best “This is Dr. Kattari, I am disabled, and I need this cord I requested through special needs” voice (which was my plan if I hadn’t gotten it on day 2). I also didn’t have the distilled water I requested, but have since switched to a travel option that doesn’t require water, so that evened out. 
 

Sending you all the good vibes for getting what you need, when you need.