Voyager Med Review

[StevenA]

We just returned from an October 28, 2008 Med cruise on the Voyager of the Seas. What a fantastic trip; we arrived a day early and stayed in Barcelona at the Regina Colon Hotel. Very nice hotel, rooms were on the small size but very clean and modern as well as close to the Cathederal and Gothic District. Here's a tip, when we informed our taxi driver of the Colon, he was confused, we discovered that I threw him off by referring to the "hotel", he knew it by "apartmento", so make sure you have the address as well as name of your hotel for the taxi drivers. I did get hit up by the infamous carnation lady who tried to pick my pockets for cash, stay away from any one wanting to "give" you a carnation, it's a distraction scram.

On our embarkation day, everything went smooth and we were onboard within 15 minutes. We boarded at 11:30 am with no problem and our room (Jr Suite 1644) by 1:00 pm.

The Voyager was in great shape and the new bedding was very comfortable. Since this cruise was port intensive we did not do any shows and had the late seating for dinner (9:00 pm), it was kind of late for dinner and most days we had between two to three hours from the time we got back to the ship until dinner, not enough time for a well needed nap, but plenty of time to catch a snack on the promanade deck.

Service in the main dining room was exceptional as usual, the food was actually quite good on this cruise with enough choices for everyone. The prime rib was particulary good as was the various fish dishes. Also, we found that they served lobster during lunch as well as during dinner on different days. Room service was on time and had our order right every time. Our room attendent was a saint having fresh ice for me everyday for my sore knee.

Here's the scoop on the ports:

Marseille: Arrived on Sunday, not much open on Sunday, but do take the little tourist train (3 euros ea RT) to the Cathederal, well worth the visit to the top for the view. Otherwise, it's a spa day onboard.

Villafrance: Skip Monaco/Monte Carlo and spend your day in Nice and Villafrance, Nice for the big city adventure and Villafrance for quiet relaxing afternoon on the bay, best sunrise/sunset of the entire trip. Very romantic setting.

Livorno: OK, I'm going to shoot myself for letting everyone know about the BEST kept secret in Italy, the Cinque Terre. Forget Florence and Pisa, book the ships tour to Cinque Terre, it was worth every penny. You travel by bus to La Spezia where you hop on a small boat for the trip out to the Cinque Terre passing Portovenere, a beautiful village on the coast, from there you travel to the five villages for an unforgettable day of the "real italy". For a detailed description, please get a hold of Rick Steves DVD on Italy, you won't be sorry.

Rome: what can I say but awesome, and yes, save your money and do it yourself by taking the train and walking the city. We saw lots of "tour" groups running though sites due to time constraints with little time for picture taking. By doing it yourself, you can determine what you want to see and how much time you want to spend at each location. Taxi's are very inexpensive, but make sure the meter is on so to not get robbed by the driver with excessive fares.

Naples: We hired a private driver/guide (Pleasent Travels) and they were the best, on time, informative and made sure we saw everything we wanted. The cost was the on the low end versus a number of other companies and worth every penny. We spent the day doing Pompeii (with private guide), Amalfi, Ravello and Positano.

Our day at sea was uneventful, relaxing and heartbreaking at the same time knowing that our trip was near the end.

Leaving the ship was a breeze, we were off by 8:30 am and checked into our hotel by 9:15 am. We stayed at the AC Villamari, a very nice and modern hotel.

By far, the best part of the trip was the new friends we made, Frank/Yvonne from Pittsburg, Eric/Karen from California and John/Taryn from Nebraska. It was the best time ever.

StevenA

[suzyluvs2cruise]

We'll be on the Voyager 11/14 for a TransAtlantic cruise. Thanks for your review. Glad to hear you were pleased with the ship and had a great cruise.

 

Did you notice if RCI is enforcing the new "no alcohol" policy at embarkation? We'd like to try some Spanish wine in our cabin and had heard they weren't as strict with the new rules in Barcelona.