Voyager Review...9/19..9/25

[ConnCruise]

Just got off the Voyager this morning. Our overall experience was very, very good. First the weather really cooperated. It was smooth sailing and a lot of sunshine for much of our trip up to Canada.

The boat: This uber ship has just about everything you would want in a floating resort hotel. I won't go into the specifics as most folks are familiar with the innovations of the Voyager class boats. Just a personal note: After 49 years of not knowing how to ice skate, I finally took a lesson and spent several hours on ice and can now skate a little...not a pretty sight yet...but who knows..Anyway the ice show was quite good, the young, international group of skaters extremely talented. By the way, these same professionals also give the lesions to the beginners...so take advantage...

After 5 years the Voyager still looks pretty good...a bit of wear and tear here and there, but it looks like they do their best to keep everything "ship shape."

The Food was fine. The Windjammer buffet is a bit tried, they could use a bit of innovation there, but the food is plentiful. We had dinner in the Magic Flute 4 of 5 nights and found the food to be quite good. The best way I could describe it would be to compare it to the fare you might get at a fairly upscale wedding. Our head waiter and waiter were both real professional and did their very best to keep us happy. The only issue with our waiter and Royal Carib...is the darn comment cards. The wait staff lobbies quite hard and makes it clear that bad ratings for them equal bad consequences. This is not the first time we've experienced this pressure on Royal and I wish they would find another way to handle customer feedback.

Our room was always made up on time and our room steward was pretty invisible most of the time.

The gym was large and well equipped, but the treadmills and weight machines are starting to show their age.

We went to the opening night show, hosted by the cruise director, (a way over the top English guy. As the week went on, he became kind of hard to take...He really talked way too much and was not really too funny.) The musical show was good and they had a comedian who was very funny. I think the Platters performed during the week, but we missed that one. As I mentioned above, the ice show was great, although a portion of the show was a "fake" competition, hosted by the ever present cruise director...Skip the silly stuff and just let the athletes skate.

Embarkation was fine. We got to the port at about 2.30 and got right in. We waited in the terminal about 1 hour before we got on the ship. While we were waiting they had food and drinks available and a big screen TV with the Giants/Redskins game...Folks here who suggested parking in the long term area first and then unpacking and wheeling their stuff to the terminal were correct. They even have a shuttle to make the walk a bit shorter. Remember; keep to your far right when you near the terminal and go straight to the parking area. Staff did try to point us to the drop off area, but we just told them were going to park first. Debarkation was a little confused, (cruise ship lines could learn a few things from ski areas or the Disney folks about handling large lines of people) but it was not too bad. I think it’s more a problem with the makeshift setup at Port Liberty, (the boat docks some distance from the terminal so passengers need to take a shuttle bus to the boat.) Again the process was only mildly annoying and we were out of there on the Jersey Turnpike fairly quickly.

Overall, we had a great time. Royal Caribbean does a fine job. We would certainly travel with them again. (Our group had over 15 cruses with this line)
I think we got very good value for our money.

[winkelmann]

Thanks for posting. Glad you had a good time. We're looking forward to making the trip in October. How were the ports?

[ConnCruise]

Halifax was an interesting, moderate sized city, with a very busy port. We walked up the hill to the citadel, which caps the hill, just above downtown. It’s maintained by Parks Canada and the tour was very interesting. Naturally, it’s hard to get a real feel for a place after only a few hours, but the people seemed very friendly. (Tip: if you stand at a crosswalk, cars stop. so don't get right up to the crossing area until your entire group is ready to cross. I'm used to Connecticut drivers, who speed up when they see a pedestrian in the crosswalks)

Saint Johns is a smaller port city, also built onto a hill. We walked through downtown and went to a few interesting shops. The folks there are also very welcoming. They pass out roses to the women and pins to the men as a welcoming gift.

[joanna0627]

thanks for the great review! Just a quick ? how were the leaves? have they started to change yet? we're on the 10/17 cruise and I hope there are some leaves left. thanks...

joanna

[Irishwhiskey]

I was on the same cruise last week and all the leaves were still green.You should get the full effect by mid Oct.Bring the camera!

[bobbie0253]

Thanks for the review! We did this cruise back in May and were on the Voyager for her "first" sailing out of Bayonne. We liked the ports so much that we booked a 7 night CA/NewEngland on Princess for next month.

The Cruise directors name is Richard Spacey. We too got a bit tired of him.

We had almost exactly the same experience regarding this ship and the ports.

I took TONS of pictures, if anyone wants to see them...use this link.....

[url]http://public.fotki.com/bobbie0253/voyager_of_the_seas/[/url]


Bobbie :)

[capsfan]

Bobbie, your photos are great! Thanks for posting them! Now, if only November would get here!

[jankowski]

We were also on this cruise. It was as good as described above so I wont drag it out. But the color was starting to turn, so should be wonderful for you.

 

I hated to get off the ship and come home. I almost left my coffee mug on the window sill, and my husband said to me, "Go ahead leave it there that would mean we just need to book another cruise and go again." So I beleive he liked it also.