Semi-Live Voyager for 33 nights beginning May 1, 2024

[mil76]

Hey JC, following along.  Doing 19 days on Anthem in June so this will bridge the time nicely.  Still trying to convince the DW that taking a flowboard (or two) to Europe is worth the excess luggage fees.

 

Voyager and I have an issue.  Still haven't cruised her, but had one cruise cancelled by the shutdown and on the 2nd try I tested positive before boarding her in Copenhagen.

[RobInMN]

31 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

Our first cruise, and first RCI cruise was the Majesty of the Seas.  Is she still in service as something?  The largest cruise ship in the world in 1996 when we sailed her.  Smaller than anything in the fleet now.  

Ours also. It was a weekend neighborhood thing.

While I thought all 3 Sovereign class ships had been scrapped, only her 2 sisters have been. Apparently Majesty is currently owned by Seajets, and "laid up" (whatever that means other than out of service) in Piraeus, Greece. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majesty_of_the_Seas

Not sure what a ferry company is going to do with a former cruise ship, but their wikipedia page says that they've purchased 4 and plans for them are yet unknown.

 

[wolfganghowell]

We checked out Jimmy's once since we had heard good things - walked in while the restaurant was closed and never made it back.  It is a further distance from our usual hangs. The new terminal in Galveston is awesome so I'm sure you will have a good embarkation!

[xpcdoojk]

2 hours ago, mil76 said:

Hey JC, following along.  Doing 19 days on Anthem in June so this will bridge the time nicely.  Still trying to convince the DW that taking a flowboard (or two) to Europe is worth the excess luggage fees.

 

Voyager and I have an issue.  Still haven't cruised her, but had one cruise cancelled by the shutdown and on the 2nd try I tested positive before boarding her in Copenhagen.

Scared me!  Thought you were going to say the wave sucked

 

jc

[xpcdoojk]

1 hour ago, wolfganghowell said:

We checked out Jimmy's once since we had heard good things - walked in while the restaurant was closed and never made it back.  It is a further distance from our usual hangs. The new terminal in Galveston is awesome so I'm sure you will have a good embarkation!

Much better than old terminal

 

in WJ

 

jc

[mil76]

Hopefully this guy doesn't show up today.  He came by when we were in Galveston last week on Harmony.  Didn't even sign the waiver or do the boogie board test!  Left a deposit on the wave so they had to shut down the rest of the day to sanitize.

[xpcdoojk]

41 minutes ago, mil76 said:

Hopefully this guy doesn't show up today.  He came by when we were in Galveston last week on Harmony.  Didn't even sign the waiver or do the boogie board test!  Left a deposit on the wave so they had to shut down the rest of the day to sanitize.

Ha!

 

sitting solarium watching dolphins. 
 

had to watch 2 videos to sign waiver. Had to take my board out to show it to the man. He kept calling the groves on my outlaw strips. I finally gave up on correcting him🤪

 

jc

[xpcdoojk]

Did the BOGO at Giovanni’s had booked pre cruise.  There was nobody there, they tried to charge me again, even though I told the maitre’d what we were doing the first two nights.  Finally got it sort of straight.  They had a welcome aboard music dance, food and champagne/mimosa for the diamonds and above.  We arrived as the band was finishing up.  Not a bad event.  The Crown Lounge is weird on deck 5 outside the star lounge.  The typical VCL and diamond lounge combo that I am used to, like on Adventure in 2022 out of Galveston, I much prefer.  O, well.  

 

Being a very lowly D+ will be almost halfway after this cruise I am not very much aware of the Pin world.  However, a new Pin that we knew from previous cruises, and a couple that we met last night seem to think that the old Pins resent what they call baby Pins.  They don’t seem to want to hang out with the “real” Pins in the SL/VCL.  All seems a bit weird to me.  I tried to explain we made diamond back when they had the nightly diamond event.  Then we did our first sailing in 2013 with a real diamond lounge.  There were 3 Pins on the sailing, everyone wanted to meet them, and they made a show every time we saw them. In 2024 with well over 100 Pins on this sailing and over a thousand D or higher.  The days of being super unique are gone.  I am guessing some of that clouds this experience for both the real and baby Pins.  

 

JMHO and YMMV

 

jc

[cruiselvr04]

On 4/29/2024 at 8:27 PM, xpcdoojk said:

Yes, it is a challenge.  I am very much a person to travel.  Confinements are limitations. That is hard, and always an obstacle,

 

Our parents are gone now and we are recently retired so our travel has opened up.  We do have a fur baby.  Fortunately we have daughters who really like her and they will keep her.  We were gone 2 months to Australia and NZ and the dog did fine.  This fall we’ll be gone 36 days again but I know she’ll be well cared for. 
 

Harder for us is being available for the grands and being involved in their lives.  We try to plan so we can be home for graduations, ballet recitals, band competitions. That does limit when and how long. We don’t want to miss too much!
 

Have a great cruise!  Our first TA is next spring.

[Tree_skier]

On 4/29/2024 at 4:10 AM, xpcdoojk said:

I am starting this thread because we fly out tomorrow for Houston, and I woke up at 4 something AM worrying about all of the things that I need to do, even though, I have done most of them already!  Went to bed last night with tornado sirens wailing, went outside on the front step to see the storm.  It seemed completely underwhelming, so I came inside after a few minutes expecting to see wind.  However the Welsh Terrier, Rodrhi, was impressed by the amount of rain, and despite me standing in the backyard with my umbrella encouraging him to do his business.  He pretended to.  This morning first thing I found was a piddle.  He is very good about not having accidents that said, the storm timing and rain level convinced him to let the consequences flow.🤣  One worry, of course, is the dog on his own for 35 nights.  We are spending 1 night in Galveston pre-cruise at the TownePlace Suites, and 1 night at a Hyatt Place in Frankfurt before flying home after our cruise ends in Ravenna, Italy.  I have 3 people and a vet (boarding) involved in his care.  I prefer to have someone house sit, but as we and our friends get older it is harder and harder to do that.  So, a near friend will spend several hours a day baby sitting for 17 days.  My eldest nephew will come take him to the vet for most weekends and bring him back.  Then our friend and former co-worker, Nurse Sally,  of my wife, Krystal, will take him to her house for 11 days plus take us to and from the airport.  I know the math doesn’t work and he will be kenneled at the vet for 13 nights.  He is a perfectly healthy three year old, but I prefer the vet to a regular kennel.  On a sad note, those who have followed my past threads might remember Lord Wellington, aka Wellie our Wire Fox Terrier, we had to put him down around the first of the year, right before our 3 plus month Airstream adventure.  He was a good boy almost 14.

 

Enough downer stuff.  

 

I hope the people on these cruises feel free to join in.  Adding insights from their perspective.  My perspective as many of you know is not typical!😂  

 

Now on to the important stuff.  We booked these cruises with a member of this forum, who will go unnamed but not un-appreciated, who is currently I believe on a cruise himself.  The TA of 15 nights was very reasonably priced (as most TAs are), but the 11 night cruise departing from Barcelona was not. We were able to get a corner aft on the TA with lots of space for my gear to dry between trips to and from the FlowRider.  (Board, board shorts, rash guards, and wetsuit are all packed as they were job 1 of planning).  The last leg of the cruise is expensive but not quite as bad as the middle cruise.  We are booked into the same cabins for the last two cruises a balcony on deck 12.  

 

Airfare was booked using frequent flyer miles.  I think the flights to Houston on American Airlines cost me $11.20 and about 16,000 miles.  We booked a Lufthansa flight from Venice to Frankfurt for about $300 outright including an extra bag for by Flow Board.  Then we spent about $300 more on the United flight along with 75,800 miles for the trip home mostly because we upgraded to economy plus seating.  I will now devote no more time to accounting unless specifically asked.  😉

 

Hopefully, this thread will benefit someone else’s planning, as I am always trying to pay forward all that I have learned from many of you in this forum. 

 

JC

 

Attached are some pictures of Rodrhi from the inside of the airstream.  The last two are of Rodrhi and Wellie doing what they do best.

I can't believe I am 4 days late to this party... Clearly I'm letting work and life get in the way of CC fun.  I'm looking forward to catching up and following along JC.  I'm hoping to do something similar for 2026 and am anxiously awaiting the next release of itineraries.

 

Enjoy!

[wolfcathorse]

Is it Capt Ervin as master?

[dmrichards26]

@xpcdoojk - While you're onboard for so long...

 

Would be very curious and appreciative if you can probe the staff for any info to confirm the rumored 2024 drydock for Voyager or get any details on what upgrades they might be doing!

 

I don't think it's been confirmed anywhere, but she has a gap in her schedule between the October 14th 9-night sailing and the November 10th 16-night transatlantic sailing back to the US.

 

The TA cruise leaves from Barcelona, Spain and Cadiz, Spain is a very popular port for shipbuilding and drydocks.

[xpcdoojk]

I know that the captain’s name is Carl.  When he speaks over the speakers, I can’t understand his full name.  I only know it is Carl because it was an answer to who wants to be a millionaire as we were in the star lounge because there was no seating in the crown lounge.  Dinner again at Giovannis good but the service was slow a lot more people in there last night.  

 

Funny thing yesterday, previously, I have participated in my roll call.  Someone from Texas asked if there was a place to do bible studies.  I am not a particularly religious person, but I mentioned that there is a chapel above the VCL and that I am sure if you asked permission they would let you use it for your group.  So, I get back to the room and my wife asked what is this about a bible study, this is when I am soaking wet returning from the advanced FlowRider session just before dressing for dinner around 5PM.  I gave her a look, like, Huh????  She said someone from cruise critic had tracked me down because they knew I wanted to attend with them.  She assured them that I didn’t.  How the heck, did they track me down?  Now I am extra paranoid.  They obviously did it thru guest services.  O well.  Just remember when you help people they may try to save you!  🤣

 

Speaking of the FlowRider, I am a bit worried to share this information because this cruise while not quite a unicorn might be the closest I have seen in a long time.  There are 8 blue bands on the ship at this point.  Which means we usually have 5 or 6 in line.   There are a full boogie boards during mixed wave, but the line has never gotten to double digits, and many of those are one and done kids.  As almost always there is someone you have liked and sailed with before in that small number of 8. In this case Gabby and Daniel from Switzerland, we sailed together on the Navigator in 2016 to Norway.  So nationalities of the 8 are 4 from USA, 2 Switzerland, 1 Germany, 1 Canada.  If there is a best of the best it will be a competition between Switzerland and Canada.  Yesterday the wind was mid 20knots with the ship doing 19 plus directly into the wind.  Since, I am goofy I was surfing into a rain storm everytime I was turning from the port side.  People getting wet on the starboard side, we have reversed the line due to this.  (Don’t worry this bit is only for Flow Nuts). The wind was so strong the top of the wave is way difficult, as it a lot like a formula one car going into the corner and not having the same wind everytime.  Pretty easy to lose control.  I am boring so I rarely fall, but I rarely can do the entire ride at the top as I always prefer to do.  

 

I will try to find out about a future dry dock, but I have yet to have a conversation with an officer ranking high enough to have a clue.  I don’t think the sports desk manager, Roo or the diamond concierge will have a clue!  

 

JC

[xpcdoojk]

So far I am the oldest Flowrider. Not a good thing

[OldCaver]

We were on the Voyager last week, disembarked just before you barked - er, embarked. It was quite a fun cruise.
If DeLorean (the band) is on the ship, make sure you go see them. They're fantastic.

We found the food to be superior to some other cruises, in both the MDR and the Food Jammer.  Crew was exceptional, with one exception (see what I did there?). The wait staff in the Star Lounge was worthless, as once the promoted activities were done, they stopped going around asking if we needed anything, preferring to chat up a small group of cute passengers next to the bar. I assume their contract was up with this sailing, and they didn't give a rat's patoot anymore. Hopefully, they aren't on the ship with you.
 

[xpcdoojk]

I try to be positive because nobody likes a whiner, but the adjustment to the new and improved menus started last night.  First 2 nights we did Giovannis BOGO.  Last night had a 7PM MTD reservation.  We decided after uncomfortable seats in the Crown Lounge we needed to leave so we wandered into the Crown Lounge, and the nice Pins we had just left followed us a few minutes later which was awkward so we snuck out and decided to go to dinner early.  So, about 6:15 we showed up got into the unlabeled have reservation line, promptly seated and we were out at 7:05PM.  I call that a win!  The food was very good.  The menu sucked.  It is sort of like the menu (it was Italian night) had removed all of the good stuff and left you with the things nobody ever ordered.  Again, my dinner was good, but there was no shrimp cocktail, no snails, one salad, the same Caesar salad I had at lunch.  Again, the food was good, but the menu sucks.  Krystal had the chicken breasts and hers was not as tasty as my short ribs.  I have avoided the MDR since they changed, and since this is 33 days, and the price of unlimited dining has more than doubled since last year on the Anthem, I am being forced to adjust.  

 

Again, I think the food is good, but I am not happy about it.  😂

 

We are in Nassau.  My body already aches from the FlowRider and we are off to the Baha Mer resort to ride the FlowRider.  I am stupid.

 

jc

[xpcdoojk]

The wave here is crazy steep. I am like a noob. 

[xpcdoojk]

Back on ship. Some unartistic pics

[xpcdoojk]

So, last night at dinner the maitre d visited with us, realized we were on the ship for 33 nights, and since our last night is in Split, Croatia (where he is from) decided to tell his underling to set up a table for us each night on cruises 2 and 3 so we wouldn’t have to do the line thing.  Not sure why he felt the need, and I am not even sure I am happy with the arrangement, but apparently, it is our future.  Another issue with the food or two that I find annoying, was in the past you could always get a sherbert instead of ice cream, I have tried twice, no such option, apparently.  Another thing we miss are the pumpkin seed rolls, but like all of my other issues the bread in the basket while it never changes has been very good.  It is hard to be unhappy, but I endeavor to find flaws, but can’t quite turn them into tragedies.  The last issue with food, is the starters.  I have had more Caesar salads on this sailing than I have had on my last 5 total.  It is often the only option on the menu.  That seems insane to me.  

 

Baha Mar, is nice at least the water park is.  The slides all were good, worked well and felt very safe and well maintained.  The FlowRider is huge, but completely stupid.  We arrived before the park was open and had to wait a bit to get in.  When we got there we put a few things in a locker $15.  We went to the wave pool (not FlowRider) and found a couple of chairs on the sand with an umbrella had our pick of a couple of hundred,  I went and did the two slides that don’t require a tube or a raft.  They were fast and good.  So, about 10:30 now, I check in on the DW and she would like a cocktail and a bottle of water.  So, off to the burger joint/bar next to the FlowRider, there is staff there, so I go to place an order one Bahama Mama and a water.  I am told they are not open until 11.  So, off I go to the FlowRider.  

 

Got in line there were 3 or four kids doing boogie board on the left side of the wave that looked like a regular ship wave, maybe a little steeper but very similar.  The right side with the rubber air filled divider looked much steeper and it had a crash area that dropped off to the right, very strange looking.  You entered either by holding a rope or the staffs hand from the board at the bottom.  Their boards are very much damaged and battered, but it hardly matters.  The people in line in front of me were able to stand on the wave until the rope was released and all crashed immediately.  My first try was the best and it was horrible.  I used the rope, made a couple of small turns let go, made two turns pretty good and then up the wave, weight immediately on the front foot, and wipe out.  People in the line, were saying how good I was, and I am like OMG, I am freaking horrible.  The next three rides were without rope, and I never got close to being able to ride the wave.  Off to the bar for that cocktail.  Bahama Mama $15 and the 10 ounce can of Italian water $12. 

 

Dutifully off to the DW where I got the where have you been drill.  Lunch was included, as the cruise menu.  Choice of chicken sandwich, fries and a fountain soda, or a burger or a Caesar Salad.  DW had the chicken, I had the burger.  Burger was ok, the ketchup was weird, the fries were hot, but not awesome and the coke was fine.  The DW’s chicken was pretty much over cooked and almost inedible.  After lunch we did the lazy river about 3 laps 10-15 minutes a lap, after first lap, we stopped at a bar on the river and got another Bahama mama that we shared. Then we went to the raft slides.  First one was a really good ride a lot like the power plant ride at Atlantis for two.  Downside to it was there are two lift sections and at those you get totally soaked with not hot water.  Then the 5 person raft, which can be done with two, which we did was a bit less exciting, but still good.  

 

After the rides we hung out at a beach chair again at the wave pool where I did those slides again, and I played in the wave pool for about 10 minutes, then rinse the sand off, and we wandered thru the limited shops and around the whole park, then another sit for 20 minutes waiting for 3:15 to catch the bus back to the ship.  

 

That is pretty much our whole day.

 

jc

[Ocean Boy]

How was that $12 can of Italian water?

[xpcdoojk]

Tasted like water.  

[xpcdoojk]

4 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

How was that $12 can of Italian water?

it was a nice can.  I like it better than the flip top bottles they give you for you diamond drinks.  

[dani negreanu]

5 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

since our last night is in Split, Croatia

 

JC, thank you for taking time from your vacation to bring us along.

 

Following, as usual, this time even more, since we're also booked on Voyager for September (if the "situation" will be resolved by then...).

 

The main reasons for booking this particular cruise were Kotor and Split. Never been there.

 

Wishing you and Krystal a wonderful cruise 🌺

[lovesthebeach2]

1 hour ago, dani negreanu said:

 

JC, thank you for taking time from your vacation to bring us along.

 

Following, as usual, this time even more, since we're also booked on Voyager for September (if the "situation" will be resolved by then...).

 

The main reasons for booking this particular cruise were Kotor and Split. Never been there.

 

Wishing you and Krystal a wonderful cruise 🌺

We have been to Kotor ( don’t miss the sail in and the sail out), but hadn’t been to Split.

So…last year when the World Cruise segments opened, I immediately had our awesome TA book us a B2B on Serenade. which will have stops in both those ports as well as other stops in Croatia and Malta, which I had planned to visit Hagar Qim, which I was so excited to see….but Royal changed the port in Malta so that excursion was cancelled unfortunately.  I’ll be sending positive vibes to you so you can do your cruise on Voyager.

 

EDIT to correct that I did rebook an excursion in Malta that WILL be visiting Hagar Qim after all! I don’t know how I missed that.

 

EDIT

Edited May 5 by lovesthebeach2

[xpcdoojk]

Temps cooling as we are heading east by north east now.  Winds were calm this morning, but are picking up now.  High was about 71F today or about 22C.  Had two excellent FlowRider sessions from 9-11:30AM and from 2:45-5PM.  I think I fell once in each session, because I had my wet suit on, and like carrying an umbrella it stops the rain/falling.  I think it is 80s night.  Off to the Crown lounge for snacks.

 

ciao