Z reviews Voyager! 13 Jan 2008

[Cindy]

This was my 7th cruise, my 6th on Royal, my first on a Voyager (Eagle) class ship.

Voyager is beautiful. Quite different layout from Vision class so it took me most of the week to learn the ship.

 

My initial impression is that I really missed the glass and openness and airiness of Rhapsody and Splendour. That said, the Promenade is about the coolest thing I have ever seen on a cruise ship. It's amazing, whoever thought up the concept is brilliant.

 

I'm really enjoying your review! You're bringing back memories of our first cruise on a Voyager class ship (Explorer) in 2006. We had a lot of trepidation before that trip, and we were convinced the ship was going to be way too big and crowded. Much to our surprise we really liked it, and the ship grew on us as the cruise went on.

The thing I thought was ridiculous before that cruise was the Royal Promenade, but after experiencing it, I totally agree with you...I came away thinking, "How cool is that?!"

Anyway, I appreciate your review, and I'm getting excited for our trip on the Voyager, my third cruise on a that class of ship!:D

[tray]

Yes, I'm posting them as patience permits. They're a PITA to scan, then I have to transfer the files from my Windows box to my Unix box and then from that machine to the machine that has my local web server. So it takes me a while. I might do all the Compasses and do the Ocean Adventure stuff later, if that'll help.

 

THANK YOU!!! I love the acronym PITA!!! I didn't realize it was such a pain, or I never would have asked you to do them. I really, really appreciate you taking you personal time on a day off to do this! Let me know if there's ever anything you need from my cruises, as I'm sure we'll run into each other again on the cruise boards!:p

[vssy]

Okay, about the performance. Words are not coming to me. The ice show was AMAZING. Maybe even more amazing than the Promenade (bite my tongue)!!! I can't emphasize enough if you do anything while on the ship, go see the ice show.

 

Z, do you know about how long the ice show lasts?

 

Thanks again for posting these fabulous reviews!!

[terri23]

well c'mon now with the next installment - we leave on the same cruise Sunday and I want it all! :)

[zantedeschia]

Have I said how much I like the Cafe Promenade? Tasty sandwiches, yummy cakes and pastries, the selection changes daily. Fresh fruit, bananas, apples, oranges (but no grapefruit so I had some kiwifruit). Coffee and tea. Doesn't hurt that the stairs by our room came out right by the Cafe Promenade. Whoever says the food is not good on Voyager surely has not eaten in the Cafe Promenade.

 

In the Windjammer for breakfast today, I got soymilk in under 2 minutes. Must be a record. Last night at dinner Angela told me they tried the WJ for breakfast and liked it much better than breakfast in the dining room. There are 5 beautiful watermelon carvings but no grapefruit!

 

I don't get up early enough for the Sunrise Stretch so I grab Jonathan and go up to the Sky Bar, the meeting place for the Walk-a-Mile. There I meet Lou, who says the exact same thing about the Roatan hike as Jonathan's friends - that it got worse on the way down with the mud and the ropes. This Walk-a-Mile is done unlike any I've done before. The guy shows up, gives us our Shipshape Dollars, then we walk. Lou says she didn't get a Dollar the first time she tried as they would not give them out after you've finished, you have to be there at the beginning.

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the CGI one) is on TV. Next (with Nicholas Cage) is in the Screening Room today.

 

We haven't been getting any towel animals so I ask Lowell for one. He gives us a scorpion tho Alex insists it's a lobster since she thinks it's supposed to be a sea animal. As if there's some sort of towel animal theme going on.

 

Right before lunch I had an appointment with the Loyalty Embassador. I made an appointment because she was never there whenever I went by to check and there were never any NextCruise forms out. Her appointment book was filled so make your appointments early in the week if you want to see her. She was also skipping entire blocks of evening appointments cause she was attending C&A events and such. When I told her I wanted to book a NextCruise, she thought I was saying 'my next cruise' so we went through a minute of miscommunication. :eek: Then she told me I just needed to fill out the form but since there never were any out and I've read here that people have filled out the form, turned it in and had their booking number lost, I thought I'd play it safe. She couldn't turn up Scott's C&A number and I found out later when I looked at the confirmation that she spelled his name wrong. :p When I told her I was thinking the March 30 cruise, she insisted I should book now to lock in the rate. I didn't divulge the reason I'm waiting is because I want a last minute deal which surely will be cheaper than the current rate.

 

In the room, Jonathan asks me for the camera because there's a rainbow. He keeps it and wanders around the ship taking snapshots.

 

Today I want to eat lunch in the dining room and I invite both the kids to come with me, which they do. This turns out to be quite the interesting lunch.

 

We were seated with Doug, a 60ish travel agent and his 40ish companion whose name I didn't catch. Doug was an extreme card, quite the flamboyant character who fired out joke after joke after joke. I say jokes because I'm not sure I believed what he was saying was true. He reminded me of Scott, or perhaps how Scott would be when he was 60ish. When we told him his birthday was the same as Alex's, he quipped, "Did you turn 60 too?"

 

He'd be going along and then turn to his companion and go remember when I got kicked out of that hotel in New Orleans? And she'd murmur an agreement. When they lost me was when they alluded to missing something the night before because they'd been in the brig. Now I'm pretty sure if you get tossed in the brig, they don't let you out.

 

I told them they would have been perfect for the Love & Marriage Show. His response caused a roar of laughter at the table -- he said there was a slight problem -- they were married but to other people. A few minutes later he sheepishly admitted they weren't married but he and his companion were long-time friends. This is when he lost me and I figured he was a chronic bull$#!++er.

 

For lunch I had the Nicoise Salad, which this time was more potatoes, last time I had it, it was more tuna. Still delicious, but it needs more green beans.The anchovy was a nice touch. For dessert I had the mango cheesecake, and the chocolate creme brulee, both delectable. Jonathan's picked up on what I do and orders 2 entrees here, 2 appetizers there.

 

I've had no phone service all day. I had tried to turn it off back on the day I was angry, but with the slow network and the slow T-Mobile website, I logged off after 7 minutes of non-response. Now I'm thinking maybe it did take effect.

 

Today is the wine tasting, an even I always attend. This time I grew highly piqued at events and left early. It started out great, I was seated with a lovely Mexican woman and two younger people, never figured out if they were siblings or boyfriend/girlfriend. At least one was an offspring. They were from San Antonio and the older woman had been living here so long, you could hear a Texas twang combined with her Spanish accent.

 

What got me vexed was, well several things did. This was the first time I'd been when they had only 2 red wines, not 3 plus 3 whites. Then they would pour us barely a splash while at tables next to us, they were pouring 3 times as much! This was not just me, other people at the table were seeing it as well. One of the wines was a Beringer White Zinfandel, I'm sorry I don't go to wine tastings to drink white zin. The guy running the show even made jokes about the white zin, likening it to kool-aid. One time I called someone over because they had skipped the woman sitting next to me and they poured for her, another time I asked them to pour more but the person walked off. The final straw was when I thought they had missed our table entirely but the others went look, they're still pouring. They were, but I said, screw that and left. They were pouring the fifth wine, the first red wine, which was the beaujolais (dammit I wanted to try that one).

 

And you know, I missed the Dollar Bill Folding for this! ;) :o

 

When I first went to wine tastings, there'd be maybe 4 tables of people. This time the dining room was full. If the wines didn't suck maybe I could deal with it but I think that's my last wine tasting.

 

I'm ticked, I need a diversion so I head up to the champagne bar, where I find Glen. Pleasant conversation and 5 or 6 glasses of champagne later, I'm doing a lot better. Oh, did I say how great Zlata was? Yesterday I told her that my favourite champagne cocktail was the one with the rosewater, which she had already done earlier in the week for the special. Well, just for me, she made it the special again today.

 

In the elevator, there are some very silly people. When the elevator voice says, "Going UP" they mimic, "Hurry UP!" with the same inflection. I think they've had a little too much happy juice this afternoon.

 

Tonight is the magic show featuring LaRaf. Since I like magic acts, I invite both the kids to attend, they agree. As usual, I wander down there with Jonathan. A block of seats has been roped off because they're using the space in the act. This means less seats for us and as there are no seats available in a row that I'd usually sit in, we go all the way to the first row, where we find 2 empty seats. Since I'm still not real sure about Alex, we sit down. Five minutes later she shows, so I move over 3 seats to a lone empty seat (I was kind of amazed there were 3 open seats on the first row). After a few minutes, the person next to me offers to move over into my seat so I could sit with my kids! Such a magnanimous gesture, I was so honored someone would do that! (as opposed to the seatsavers)

 

The beginning was a lot of drawn out theatrics and posturing which bored me. As for the illusions themselves, I don't think there was one I hadn't seen, plus I knew how one of the stunts was done, plus I suspect the lady with the shirt was a plant. However, don't let this put you off. The show was still enjoyable and had a few surprises and LaRaf were personable enough that I do recommend it.

 

Speaking of LaRaf -- after the initial dramatics, they -- being Larry and Raphael -- come out to talk to the audience. Bare chested they were and OMG.

 

OMG. Let me go into Southern Belle mode and fan my face lest I faint.

 

Talk about bulging biceps and rippling muscles and washboard abs you could probably cut diamonds on. Alex pipes up she normally doesn't care for older men but she had to admit Raphael was tres hot.

 

Whew. OMG.

 

Anyhow. After the last stunt (which they played up quite a bit) I said I wasn't impressed as I knew how it was done. Everyone within hearing distance wanted to know! (so I told them)

 

At dinner, I notice they haven't been scraping the crumbs off the table all week. And they're still not refilling the water. :( My phone chimes with a received message, the network is back.

 

The conversation seems to be more even but that may be because tonight I'm seated next to Randy, the epicenter of the discussion. Proximity certainly helps.

 

For dinner I had the mushrooms in pastry which are always good, the asparagus soup, peach soup, and contrary to everyone else not the lobster but the prime rib. Silvio later brings out a plateful of lobster and shrimp and I nab a lobster, which turned out to be tastier than I remembered. I think Silvio might have done this cause earlier in the week someone jokingly threatened him with a negative review and I think Silvio took it a lot more serious than was intended, as the crew are wont to do.

 

Because I missed the Beaujolais and because there are so many red wine drinkers at the table, I have a glass of the Beaujolais. It's nice, lots of cherry notes (cherry being my favourite fruit). I didn't have dessert, I think it was because I had imbibed too much champagne.

 

We are told by the Captain that tomorrow night we're leaving Progresso early, at 5pm instead of 8pm because of declining weather (sounds like a cold front is coming through). He tells us we're proceeding at 14 knots which is so slow it feels like we're crawling. Or maybe it feels slow cause it's a larger ship.

 

More to come.

[zantedeschia]

Z, do you know about how long the ice show lasts?

 

It's the same as a show in the theatre, about an hour.

[zantedeschia]

Oh, I forgot about the Love & Marriage Show! As I was walking back to the room from breakfast, Eric, our Cruise Direction makes an announcement to remind us to catch the repeat on Channel 17 I think it was. He says it possibly was the funniest L&M show he's ever done. I don't believe him as the snatches of the show I've previously caught have been pretty prosaic.

 

I enter the room and there Jonathan is, watching the recap of the Love & Marriage show. I have to admit, Eric was right, it was pretty funny in the extreme. What made it so was the older couple. He would ask a question, the wife would give the most bizarre answer, in fact, it would be an answer to a different question. Then the husband came back and gave the same answer! Eric was pretty floored. Then it was time to question the husband, he would give the wrong answer and the wife came back and gave the same answer! It got to the point where I thought the two collaborated beforehand. Like "if this question or a question like it is asked, give this answer." But how would they know they would be picked? I don't know, it was wild.

 

I did something I'm not supposed to do, I gave both my wine discount coupons away. One to Randy who used it on the next bottle of wine he bought and one to Ken who had bought a package but I suspect he used it the next time they went to the champagne bar. There is no way I would have drank 2 or 4 bottles of wine over the course of the week but these people were drinking more than 1 bottle of wine each every night. If my kids drank wine then sure but oh well.

 

I'm going to scan a few things, then start on the next installment.

[zantedeschia]

I forgot to list the wines!

 

Macon-Villages which was a white burgundy.

 

Danzante Pinto Grigio.

 

Beringer White Zinfandel.

 

Piesporter Riesling. (didn't catch the vineyard)

 

Kendall Jackson Cabernet

 

Beaujolais Villages.

[Paula_MacFan]

*I almost didn't recognize the woman in the show cause she went from platinum blonde to brunette and around a B cup to a DD :eek: ).

 

 

Z, Los Pampas Gauchos use one of the RCCL dancers from the ship as the female part of their act. I have seen them several times, and always a different woman. (Unless he picks up a new girl friend for each cruise? lol)

 

I agree with you that their act is very enjoyable and high energy. Do not miss the Artistry in Fluorescence part of the show. It is pretty neat.

 

Hypo

 

I thought he introduced her as 'his wife'? Or is that just part of their act? The things I saw her do couldn't be done by just anybody.

[Paula_MacFan]

.

Our captain was Gerry Larsson-Fedde, who was very visible and quite the character. He would tell Confucious Say jokes at the end of his noon reports, except he called them "Ancient Chinese Proverbs". Some of them off-color, I wonder if he knew he was telling dirty jokes? For example: Man who fart in church sit in own pew, well that one's obvious. Then this one: Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night. :eek:

 

I believe it's supposed to be a play on words, i.e. 'gets no peace at night'. You can interpret the rest on your own. Although I did think it was funny when he said it. I enjoyed his daily witicisms. At least he has some personality!

[zantedeschia]

I believe it's supposed to be a play on words, i.e. 'gets no peace at night'. You can interpret the rest on your own. Although I did think it was funny when he said it. I enjoyed his daily witicisms. At least he has some personality!

Yes the jokes are very punny!

[bilyclub]

I was at that Love and Marriage game. I think the old couple rehearsed. On every ship I've been on, the old couple is the ones that have been married the longest and volunteer to do the show. They were married 65 years, so were a shoe in. They got 5 out of 6 right, inspite of giving anwers that did not match the question. The old man let it slip when he told the CD, you didnt say famous, when they asked who he would like to be stranded with on a island.

[zantedeschia]

I was at that Love and Marriage game. I think the old couple rehearsed. They got 5 out of 6 right, inspite of giving anwers that did not match the question. The old man let it slip when he told the CD, you didnt say famous, when they asked who he would like to be stranded with on a island.

The part that made me suspect was when the woman lost her composure and broke into a smile, then as quickly as that regained her composure.

 

During Los Pampas Gauchos, in the segment where they pull a couple out of the audience, while the lead guy is doing his act with the female of the couple, direct your attention to the back. You'll see the woman from the act coaching the male participant on what to say.

 

And I still think the woman wearing the shirt in the LaRaf show was planted in the audience. It was too coincedental she was sitting in the front row plus the shirt didn't match the rest of her outfit.

[wolfganghowell]

As a onetime reluctant participant ( Mr Wolf made us sit too close, I thought the magician was terrible and refused to make eye contact so *&(^it if he didn't pick me - I still want to kill the husband for making me go to the show), while doing the trick he did whisper to me very quickly some brief instructions. The rest of the night people kept thinking I was a plant and asking me if I was in on it. I wasn't but they can instruct you so that the audience is unaware of it.

[zantedeschia]

My telephone reads Telcel GSM this morning, one would think we were in Mexico!

 

As we're approaching, a pilot boat comes up to greet us. I find it amusing that in a foreign country, the pilot boat reads PILOT in English.

 

For a port day, the Compass shows some events I might have checked out. Usually there's nothing of interesting happening on a port day. Sudoku challenge, hey I think I"m pretty good at sudoku. In High Notes, Crayola Art, what the hell is that?!

 

Speaking of sudoku, in the library every day there's a sudoku puzzle and the daily trivia. The library is two stories and is combined with the Internet room. There's an internal staircase connecting the 2 floors. What I don't like about this library is there are no tables that one can sit down at to do their puzzles, only cushiony chairs and low coffee tables.

 

Premonition is playing in the Screening Room today.

 

Our shore excursion today goes to Uxmal. It's an hour and a half bus ride both ways, so I give the kids a bonine each as a prophylactic (I don't know about Jonathan but Alex has been known to get carsick).

 

I have heard several different pronunciations of Uxmal. I've always pronounced it oosh-MALL. Anna who is Mexican tells me that is incorrect, the x is a tz sound, making it ootz-MALL. I've also heard ooze-MALL and ooks-MALL. Our Mayan guide pronounces the x as a sh, same as me, which is what I thought. I would think a Mayan would know how to pronounce his language.

 

Progresso is an interesting port. The inlet is very shallow, too shallow to accomodate a large ship. So they have built a 2 mile long pier (if you build it, they will come). I did not know how this would work and I did not want to miss this excursion so I got the kids up bright and early and we were down before they had the doors open, waiting to debark.

 

Oh yes, I repurchased Alex's ticket the day before. The irony being they refunded her credit card but recharged back to mine. :confused:

 

We get off the ship and not to worry, the tour guides are all right there, and the tour buses are parked behind the little shopping center. I picked Uxmal over Chichen Itza for several reasons - I thought it'd be less crowded, the travel time is slightly shorter and the grounds of Uxmal are a bit more compact. Our guide told us there were 48 people signed up for our tour but for Chichen, there were 438! On top of that, there are tours headed there from other places. Way too many people for me.

 

The kids take off shopping and I get concerned because they start leading out tour groups before the designated time. They return before I get frantic. The buses are those comfy air conditioned coaches. The sack lunches aren't too bad, tunafish snack packs, canned fruit, salted nuts, a cookie, a muffin, and a capri sun juice pack.

 

The causeway looked scary narrow but was wide enough for 2 large vehicles to pass, such as a truck and a bus. Barely.

 

The 1 1/2 hour trip wasn't as bad as I thought. As far as driving there yourself, the roads were very well marked and it was smooth asphalt paved roads all the way. If you're adventurous, I do think you can drive there on your own.

 

About 10 or 15 minutes before we arrived, they made a rest stop. There was no running water in the bathrooms as poor Alex found out as she wanted to wash her hands after petting some mangy dogs. The gift shop was weak but there were cold drinks for sale.

 

Uxmal. The ruins are pretty nice, of course there's the impressive Temple of the Magician right at the front. They don't let you climb anything anymore because about 8 months ago some woman at Chichen Itza fell down the temple and did not survive. I wasn't impressed with any of our guides, the guy on the bus spoke good English, but his accent was thick, and the guy who took us around the ruins just wasn't all that riveting.

 

During the tour, I ran into Lou! I leaned over and whispered, "Quit following me!" I asked her if she was on the cruise by herself. She said no, her husband was the type that just slept and ate and watched tv and read books. Amazing that she was able to drag him onto the cruise.

 

I won't go into detail on what was there other to say they were restoring the ruins and had them about 30% restored. Jonathan took some nice pictures and I'll start posting those when I've finished the review.

 

It did get a bit warm but there was lots of shade to which our guide always led us under. There are a few steps to climb as well, but nothing like trying to scale an 850' ridge. The steps were narrow and uneven, made of stone. Someone pointed out it is easier to navigate them if you walk down diagonally, or on your butt of course.

 

The trip back was uneventful, we did not stop at the rest stop on the way back.

 

At the ship, I go to the Cafe Promenade to grab a bite. I'm really liking the Cafe Promenade. There's a guitarist playing Spanish type music in the Promenade, he's pretty good.

 

A guy in the elevator spots my 12 Metre bag (that I used to carry our stuff on the bus) and asks me what ship I was on, I say Serenade. He meant in the 12 metre challenge! Oh, Canada II but that's a yacht!

 

Meet the Robinson's is playing on TV in the room. It's a lot better than the reviews said.

 

It's time for champagne specials and Glen is there! I ask about his wife, she's playing bingo. I'd much rather pass the time drinking champagne cocktails than play bingo. Zlata is wonderfully attentive as usual.

 

Happy Feet is playing on TV. None of us likes this movie.

 

I get a phone call, it's the Houston Ballet! "I'm in the middle of the Caribbean," I snap and hang up. I swear.

 

It's almost time for sailaway, considering we're sailing 3 hours early, it's time for the "see if anyone gets left at the pier" gameshow. They're only calling one name over the intercom!

 

I go out, there are 3 large, dark birds hovering alongside Voyager, hanging in one spot. I dash up to the top deck to try to get a better look, but the one closest picks that moment to veer off.

 

Back down on the railing you could see these birds settling on a rocky strip across from the ship. In vain, I ask someone, "Any idea what those birds are?" "Do you mean the ones with the pterydactyl wings?" she responds. The appear to be some sort of gull or tern. My Audubon books are for North American birds, not sure they'll be in there.

 

It is getting dangerously close to 5pm and still no sign of our wayward passengers. Then at 4:57, *three* minutes before we were to sail, a white van pulls up by the gate on the near side of the building with the ships. Six people spill out and hoof it down the pier to much cheering on the ship. I'm thinking to myself they must've been having a cow driving down the causeway. We leave to a lovely sunset, no sign as yet of this impending weather.

 

Our closet door broke! Came off the hinges! I inform the first steward I see about it, he says he'll call it in. It's fixed when we get back from dinner.

 

Tonight at dinner I think we've finally gained rapport but I think this is due to Ken. Ken shows up three sheets to the wind. And he is a talkative drunk. So much he holds back the meal cause he's talking and not eating and the person he's talking to (which was Carol) is talking back and not eating. Anna gets to the point where she puts her hand over his mouth and tells us to ignore him and finish eating. Silvio is quite cognizant of what's going on and serves the rest of us the next course ahead of Ken. As the evening progresses, we all get pretty silly.

 

For dinner, I had the banana-orange juice soup and the tomato salad. Alex is trying the fruit soups by now but doesn't like this one because it's too citrusy (she has a problem with acid reflux and takes Zantac for it). This is all I have written down. I know I could barely touch my entree because I had been eating all day and I don't think I ordered dessert. The problem is this is one of the new menus that no one seems to have and I can't turn it up. I think I'll start a new thread asking for people to take pictures of the new menus.

 

We finally managed to get the cocktail waiter to come by, the only day we succeeded in this. Not for lack of trying. They're usually wandering the dining room and if they're not, a request will turn one up. The shot of the day was a B-52, the loving cup silver. I slipped it to Alex. The lack of water refills, the non-brushing of crumbs, cold coffee, are minor inconveniences, and now I realize we've hardly seen the head waiter. I'm not sure I even know who he is.

 

Both kids crash and burn right after dinner. I had left a pair of sunglasses out to show the kids they would be incorporated in our next towel animal, and sure enough they were on the monkey hanging from the ceiling. Yesterday we had a huge alligator with chocolate mint eyes. Alex says there was a dog previous to that but she had torn it apart which might be why I didn't think we were getting towel animals. And of course the scorpion so we got 4 towel animals in all.

 

Crown and Anchor gifts are here tonight. Two canvas bags which I think are kind of nice and and I receive a platinum pin tho Alex does not. Also the invitation to the Platinum/Diamond lunch tomorrow.

 

We eventually get to the inclement weather, the seas once again becoming rough. This is the rockiest cruise I think I've ever been on.

 

More soon.

[wsantelope]

Z -

First THANK YOU SOOOOOO mucn for all your hard work with this review and all the time you've put into scanning and posting everything. You are MUCh appreciated!!! :)

I do have a question about the Compass's and maybe some "Techie" person can answer this if you can't....my problem is that they are either soooo big when I open them that I have to scroll way up, down, over, and back to read from one line to the next.

Zooming out makes them too small and there is nothing I can read.

There doesn't seem to be an in between or a manual adjustment.

I've tried to change the text size from small to largest for viewing and that doesn't change anything.....My technical skills only go so far!

I just wonder if there's something I'm doing wrong or if someone can tell me how I can shrink to fit thise to my screen or even if I just could scroll up and down instead of side to side too....? :confused:

I wonder if I could get them to print out in a way that's workable?

I have XP Professional if that makes a difference to anyone....

Large is better than nothing....if someone can't suggest anything don't worry I'll live!

Thanks!!!

[Choozin Croozin]

when I opened the file it was very small so I just hit file, print preview, and if it doesn't fit on the page the way you want, at the top (center) it says something about size (can't remember what) and I had mine on 150% and they printed out beautifully. I actually have them all highlighted and ready to go now:D. Hope that helps.

 

Z, thanks again for spending all that time posting those for us. It helps the "anal" in me, and that need to have everything planned out ahead of time, to relax. LOL

[zantedeschia]

All week I've been noticing events missing from the Cruise Compass. Other people have commented on this too. Not sure why, I think it's because originally we were supposed to have a 4th port day and when that got cancelled, they didn't schedule them back in for whatever reason. AFAICT, there were:

 

No horse races

No cocktail seminar

No cooking demonstration

No Quest

 

This morning, the declining weather has met us in full force. There are 50 knot winds across the ship and all open decks have been closed. My boyfriend sends me a message: It's COLD and WET! Alex's bf sends her a message: It's cold and rainy....

 

This means no walk-a-mile so Jonathan and I go up to the fitness center to treadmill. I'm sluggish from overeating yesterday and I'm looking forward to lunch so I'm eating light and exercising.

 

Charlotte's Web is on TV.

 

Jonathan wants to have breakfast in the dining room because he has discovered he likes the eggs benedict (An aside - Jonathan was a very picky eater as a child and I never made an issue of it, feeding him what he wanted. I think it's neat that as an adult, he's very open to trying new and different foods, and finding he likes them). They start to seat me in the corner which I reject, then Silvio spots me and insists I sit there because he's serving that area. So I change my mind, only to be told that area is now full. :mad:

 

We're seated further back by the window with 4 people who only talk amongst themselves and a couple that doesn't talk at all. :p I order soymilk, bran cereal and grapefruit! To have the waitress inform me they've run out of grapefruit but they did have it earlier in the week. :mad: I ordered eggs benedict instead but only ate the eggs (which were cooked too hard). The orange juice was fresh squeezed and that pretty much made up for the loss of grapefruit. The party of 4 were talking about a spicy omelet that had allegedly had salsa and black beans and there was mention of jalapenos, for those who are wondering if they're Texanizing the menu. Our waiters were Anna and Tanya.

 

I thought I'd get Alex some quarters so she could gamble. I took $4 we had gotten from the coupons and an additional $20 I got from the casino cashier and wandered over to a machine, slipping a $5 bill in it. Cash it out, get some weird token. I'm like *****? So I put it back in, play one game figuring I'd cash out again. Machine stops, nothing happens. That's when I look and see it's a $5 slot. :eek:

 

Okay, I won't make that mistake again. Manage to cash the rest of the bills out in quarters.

 

Jonathan wants to buy the Cruise in Review CD. I tell him he has a Seapass card and he's allowed to use it -- such a wonderful son, hasn't bought anything all week, so I think he's warranted.

 

We get our departure tags and mine are very last! It's like I always get the very last tags! Bozos at work scheduled me to work 2:30 to 11pm even tho I requested the day off. I went to the purser's desk and whined and after initally saying no, he produced red 1 tags, which will allow us to debark an hour earlier. This is when it dawns on me the reason I always get last departure is probably because I live in Houston and the drive from the pier to our house is about an hour and 15 minutes, give or take.

 

Forgot to mention one of our platinum perks we received earlier in the week was the robes. The kids used them, I did not.

 

We're rocking so bad from the weather, barf bags appear on the stairwell railings. Alex is getting a little green around the gills so I give her a bonine. Takes about 2 hours to work and about the time she pops back up, Jonathan is feeling queasy and asks for one. We're in the 15 to 18' range on the seas and the further north we go, the colder it gets.

 

Time for the platinum/diamond lunch. We leave Jonathan because we're not sure it would be copacetic to take him, he doesn't mind. I assure him he will be platinum on his next cruise. :) They take the invitations so I don't have one of those to show but I ask for a menu, I'm allowed to take it, I will be scanning that.

 

I ask to be seated at a table further back, they misunderstand me and think I've asked for a table for 2. When that is cleared up, we're seated with 2 women to our right, their 2 husbands next to them and another couple next to the husbands which we never get to know cause we're always talking to the ladies and the other couple is always talking to the husbands. It had to do with the seating arrangement, we were at one end at a table for 10.

 

The two ladies turned out to be captivating conversationalists. One was 75, the other 69. "Are the two gentlemen your husbands?" "Unfortunately," is the droll reply. I recognized one accent but couldn't place it -- turned out to be a New Orleans' accent. I'm like duh, my bf is from New Orleans. But they are not with the 99.9 KTDY group. They are loyal to Royal and when Grandeur left NOLA, they drove to Houston for their yearly cruise. While they liked Voyager, they expressed preference for the smaller ships and Tampa was too far for them to drive (over 4 hours longer). Understandable given their age. I was impressed by their energy, I hope I'm still as active when I'm 75! The lady who is 75 tells me several times her son sings in the Magic Flute in the New York Opera so she collects everything she can that mentions the MF dining room, including the invitation, and the menu which she plans to send to him.

 

The lunch we were served was arguable the best food I had on the cruise. There were 3 appetizers which everyone got, then 2 entrees from which we chose one. The first appetizers was a duck pate. Alex refused to touch hers. "Looks like cat food." "That's because it *is* catfood." The next course was a truffled potato soup served in a cappuccino cup. One of the ladies coveted the cup and wanted to pinch it, the waitress nonchalantly answered, "I'm very busy, too busy to see everything." The cup was slipped into a napkin. The third appetizer was a very tasty bit of shrimp tempura.

 

The entrees were filet mignon with a mushroom sauce and sauteed mahi mahi. I thought the beef was a little tough for filet. Dessert was the flourless chocolate cake which Alex didn't like as she's not big on chocolate. Two wines were poured -- a chardonnay and a cabernet. Our waitress (which I believed was Anna from breakfast) correctly surmised Alex was too young to get a glass (she doesn't look her age which she'll appreciate more as she grows older). Anna, like Silvio, was from Romania, there were a lot of Romanian crew on board.

 

Catch and Release is the movie on TV this afternoon. I think the reason I didn't get to the gym as much this cruise is cause we were always in the room watching movies (and I justified it was because there were so many port days).

 

Forgot to mention the day before I wanted to make sure I was up early so I filled out a room service menu, asked for 7am. We got the call at 6:39am. Jonathan, the earlybird, went to the Windjammer for breakfast at 6 in the morning.

 

Walking through the Promenade to the champagne bar for the specials, I see little Ocean Adventure kids dressed in costume. Then at the bar I hear the music but it doesn't click until someone mentions the AO circus just ended. Will have to catch that next cruise, as I don't remember seeing the "pirates" in the dining room this.

 

Shouldn't have had champagne so soon after the 3 glasses of wine I had for lunch as I'm still a bit tipsy, so I fortify myself with a sandwich from the Cafe Promenade. I'm growing very fond of the Cafe Promenade. Let me tell you, 18 foot seas and inebriation are a fun combination.

 

I've always caught the farewell show, so I once again request the company of my children. For a change of pace, Alex goes down first and selects the seats. She picks seats in the balcony, all the way back in the center of the row.

 

The headliner is a comedienne, Karen Mills. She's not the funniest comic I've ever seen, but she's entertaining. What's really neat is Capt. Gerry made an appearance, playing guitar and singing "God Bless Texas." How appropriate!

 

Tonight at dinner, Angela and John are no-shows, it's their night to go to Portofino's. The conversation reverts to what it's been most of the week, but this is the last night so I don't care. I get the shrimp ceviche, Alex does as well because of the excellent conch ceviche we had in Roatan. However, she refuses to touch it because it "looks gross." The mistakes they made were they left the shrimp in large pieces, plus I don't believe they left it in the marinade long enough, giving it the wrong appearance and texture (it tasted okay). Silvio makes the mistake of saying it's because it's raw, causing other surprised exclamations from some of the other diners.

 

I also had the cauliflower soup, which was too bland, and the blueberry soup. I got the papparelle with fresh peas which was very good, and the salmon cause I need my Omega-3's. I tipped the salmon from the second plate onto my pasta, which made people think I had ordered something different. For dessert, the sugar free guava napoleon, cause guava is my 3rd favourite fruit don't you now.

 

Ken is wondering why I don't have the tip envelopes, I let him know it's because I pre-paid earlier in the week. Ken wonders if the servers are aware that one has already paid. I assure him they most definitely know who has pre-paid the tips and I elaborate how some people like to tip extra with the envelopes or use the envelopes for cash instead of paying with their Seapass cards. Randy asserts that it's proper etiquette to hand out the envelopes because people need the face-to-face personal interaction to let the servers know that they have been compensated.

 

Alex has no desire to gamble so I return to the casino to convert the quarters back into cash. This is a good thing, because I have forgotten to retain enough cash to tip the porters. I slip a quarter randomly into a machine but it won't play. Then I see it's a 3-play minimum machine, stick 2 more quarters in, but it won't let me cash out. I repeat my previous mistake, but this this time it only costs me 75 cents, not $5. :o The teller dumps all my quarters in a machine that tidily counts them, I end up with $18.25 and go what the hey and play the lone quarter and lose it. Ohwell. Total casino loss = $6.

 

Nothing else to report other than I stayed up until 11:30 packing. Bleh. It's weird seeing my kids in bed by 10:30pm. We still have the 50 knot winds and the 18' seas and it's really cold outside on the balcony. We were looking for Conquest with the binoculars, but did not spot her.

 

One more short report to come.

[Riley's Mom]

Thank you for taking the time to post a review. You were very thorough....

 

I do have a question regarding the lunch dining room seating....I always requested a table to myself when I entered the dining room. I do not feel comfortable dinnig with strangers at lunch. [at the same table].. I prefer to take my time and read a book/magazine.. Did you not request a table for just yourself and kids or did the waitstaff not allow you ???

 

Just wondering..

 

Will you be posting your photos soon??

 

Thanks,

Carla

[zantedeschia]

Thank you for taking the time to post a review. You were very thorough....

 

I do have a question regarding the lunch dining room seating....I always requested a table to myself when I entered the dining room. I do not feel comfortable dinnig with strangers at lunch. [at the same table].. I prefer to take my time and read a book/magazine.. Did you not request a table for just yourself and kids or did the waitstaff not allow you ???

We did not request a small table. I kind of like the gamble of finding out if we'll have interesting tablemates or not.

 

Will you be posting your photos soon??

Oh, yes. Slogging through the compass scans made me forget about them. Thank you for reminding me.

[Rancher Dave]

Generally we ask for a small table at breakfast and lunch. We were standing in line and helped out a couple of fellow CC folks who were a few behind us in line and were afrais of getting stuck at a table with the folks in-between us who were really out of control I was actually was really glad to have Jill and Dave join us as they are wonderful folks. We saw them often and chatted in the lounge on a couple of times as well, it was really nice.

 

What was most funny is they were right behind us in line to check in, and I thought to myself that could be them...but didn't say anything although it came up when we had our informal M&M that afternoon.

 

Unless I know I am going to get a good conversation, I usually at breakfast and lunch want to eat and go.

[SWEETSEA]

Rancher Dave...Rumor has it you bought those horns! Is this True?!?!

[Rancher Dave]

Rancher Dave...Rumor has it you bought those horns! Is this True?!?!

 

That is true. Please do tell if you saw that other than on the Who wants to own Voyager Longhorn thread.

 

Here is a picture of the horns and flags, and for that matter home for our cruise. We actually as you see below had NYE already booked so do we end up on 2 trips in Dec-April range or change around the rez...have not figured that out yet. (Ship not included.)

 

 

Ironically I have been chatting via email with the gentleman who hosted the auction on behalf of RCCL and StarLight StarBright. Because I am on the missions board of our church the more I learned about how charity auctions work on Ebay, I started digging to see if we can run some auctions to raise funds for various mission projects we have going that fall under our 503c. God works in interesting ways at times as if I had not wond the horns I would never have known so much about auctions on ebay for charity. :)

 

I am working on a welcome to the ranch BBQ for the horns. (I need to get with the moderators here to get the ok to talk about some of the plans as they may result in more help for the same charity chosen by RCCL.) DW is in the dark on some of the plans going on but to her the ranch is my toy...although really it is one of our family businesses which yes, I am about the only one here who works on it.

 

I wish tomorrow was not Brownies for DD and DW (tribe leader) as we could otherwise head down to VOS to see the horns on the ship in person. Could also wish B2cruise from Dickinson a happy sailaway.

 

Stay tuned as I am able to share more details.

 

btw "Rumor Has It" is the cow in the picture below...really is her name as she is registered, I just call her Rumor. Her son is my herd sire but you have to go to my profile and my website to get his name and see his picture to know how his name came about.

[wsantelope]

when I opened the file it was very small so I just hit file, print preview, and if it doesn't fit on the page the way you want, at the top (center) it says something about size (can't remember what) and I had mine on 150% and they printed out beautifully. I actually have them all highlighted and ready to go now:D. Hope that helps.

 

Thanks! That worked perrrrrfectly! ;)

[LoneStarJeffe]

Also, if you have Microsoft Office installed, try opening with Microsoft Office Picture Manager. RIGHT CLICK on the file and select Open with... and choose Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Once the picture is open, there is a very handy zoom control on the bottom right that allows you to select the exact size you wish. Using Picture Manager makes it real easy to just slide the control and see immediately how the picture expands or shrinks.

 

when I opened the file it was very small so I just hit file' date=' print preview, and if it doesn't fit on the page the way you want, at the top (center) it says something about size (can't remember what) and I had mine on 150% and they printed out beautifully. I actually have them all highlighted and ready to go now:D. Hope that helps.

 

 

 

Thanks! That worked perrrrrfectly! ;)[/quote']