Voyager of the Seas 12th July 2008 Review

[charliegirlac]

Ok I know it is a little late but we were travelling for 4 weeks after the cruise so I have only been back a couple of weeks. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer.

 

A bit of background – we are a married couple in our late twenties celebrating our honeymoon. This is our second cruise with Royal Caribbean and first on a Voyager class ship.

Our cruise was in the middle of a six week vacation. We are from Australia and so used the air fare to full advantage. We flew from Liverpool to Barcelona with Easy Jet. The flight was comfortable but a late taking off so we arrived in Barcelona after 11pm. The airport was very busy and the line for cabs was long but moved extremely fast. The ride to the hotel H10 Itaca was around 15 minutes and cost around 20 Euro. We had been told rooms are small in Europe but it was really tiny. So tiny the bed actually touched the bar fridge! We were not there for long so it didn’t bother us too much. We woke up the next morning around 8am even though the alarm was set for 9 – a tad excited! We had breakfast included in our stay but we just had some toast and fruit as we knew we would be eating well on the cruise. We checked out of the hotel and they offered to call a cab. We hadn’t even walked out to the kerb and the cab was there. I was a quick 10 minute ride to the cruise terminal and the cab cost less than 20 Euro. Our luggage was taken swiftly by a porter and we mingled with others waiting to board. Security wasn’t open yet so we had to wait around 10 minutes. We passed through security and walked in to the massive check in desks for RCI. It is very modern and seems to work very efficiently. Check in took less than 10 minutes. We went to the departure gate where there are a few little shops and the escalator that leads to the ship. We had to wait around there for about 10 minutes until they began to let people on to the Voyager. There were two stations to walk up and get your sea pass. We were ushered to one but alas the little machines did not work. After about 10 minutes they took us to the other station to have your photo taken and then we were on board! We explored the ship, grabbed a snack at Windjammer and then some more exploring. I got the soda package and we bumped in to some ppl from our roll call at Ben and Jerry’s. We made our way to the cabins and waited for about 15 minutes for the cabins to be ready. We had been carrying around some heavy carry on as the hotel wasn’t big enough to repack our cases after the Easy Jet flight (read only allowed 20kg in checked luggage thus hand luggage VERY heavy!) The opened the hall doors to the cabins and we made our way down. We had an inside cabin on deck 9. We love inside cabins as I love total darkness and quiet when I sleep. I just sleep so well on cruises. We got a shock when we opened the cabin door – two single beds! We were about to ring the cabin steward when he walked in behind us – he was very nice and asked if there was any thing he could do for us. My husband requested we have the beds moved together for a start seeing as though we are on our honeymoon! We had muster drill around 5pm so we unpacked by husbands case then grabbed our life jackets and leisurely walked to the dining room for our muster station. That way we didn’t have to walk with our jackets on (a trip hazard I think!) and got a seat in the dining room while we waited for the drill to be over. We went up to the top decks for sail away and it was very nice leaving Barcelona although not a party atmosphere like when we cruised to Alaska a couple of years ago. We had an early seating dinner and so by the time muster was over it and we had sailed away it was a tight squeeze so we decided to go to Windjammer for dinner. They have the two side bits cordoned off and send you around to the back at the Island Grill. I was very happy with the food and they had the same foods that were on offer in the dining room in addition to many other things. One of my favourites was the pasta station. They would cook freshly for you what ever pasta with your choice of the many ingredients on offer. They also had roast meats, vegetables, chinese, sushi, pizza and a wonderful range of desserts, fruits and cheeses. After dinner we went via the cabin and my case had arrived. We unpacked that and then headed to the promenade for the Island Frenzy parade. It was bright and colourful with the RCI singers and dancers. We then went to the Schooner Bar to meet up with some of the people from our roll call. We didn’t make the 25 needed for an RCI sponsored meet and mingle so we made our own. It was nice to put faces to the names and meet people that we were doing a private tour with. As we chatted and laughed we all noticed the ship was rocking. We laughed at people trying to walk until we stood up to go and wondered how many drinks we had! I started to feel a little yucky from the rocking so we went to bed. I woke at 1am and the ship was really going. I turned on the TV but the bridge cam screen that we had on Serenade last time that told us the weather and speed etc wasn’t on. I got back to sleep purely because of the comfy bed and darkened room. Some ppl had been complaining about the heaviness of the new bedding but I found it lovely.

Sunday 13th July – Villefranche

We woke to flat seas and clear skies. We had breakfast and went to guest relations to ask about attire for the Monte Carlo Casino. The shore excursion info said we needed to have long pants and men should have jackets. The lady at guest relations said no shorts, capris, t-shirts etc. So we went and put on long pants, and nice shirts. My husband wore a collared t-shirt and in a back pack we put in a business shirt. We bumped in to some CC friends in the line for shore excursions and they were coming to ask the same question. They also went to change in to long pants. This was a tender port which is why we chose a RCI tour. We had booked the Monte Carlo and Grand Casino tour. Because we had a RCI tour we didn’t need to worry about tender tickets as your shore excursion ticket acts as your tender ticket and you can be on the first tenders off the ship before they start to call the general tenders. Tendering was calm and well organised. We walked around the gorgeous village of Villefranche . It has a lot of little alleys, paths and lots of stairs. Walking through the alleyways every now and then there would be a gap for stairs which gives you a great little view down to the sea. Gorgeous. We met up with our tour near the pier and then you walk to a citadel where the buses meet. The only problem is to get from the car park to the road it is two lanes but there is only enough room for one bus. The congestion was shocking and it took us about 15 minutes to get on to the road – the bus driver had to back up the road a number of times. The guide was a little tricky to understand at times as she had a thick Italian accent but had fantastic knowledge of the area. The bus parks at a car park and you go up to the top of the rock of Monaco. We saw the oceanographic museum, the apartment Princess Caroline lives in, the cathedral where Rainer and Grace were buried and the parliament buildings. We walked up to the castle where Prince Albert lives. It had great look outs and views of the old side of Monaco and the new side. We where given around 30 minutes to explore. There were shops and some restaurants. We had to meet on the hour at 3pm in front of the place for the changing of the guard. From there we walked back to the bus. On the way we chatting with the guide (Sabina) and we asked about the dress code for the casino. She told us that is was only after 6pm that these dress codes came in to effect – any other time just about any thing goes! She said she wondered why we were dressed the way we were! We got to the bus and we drove to the casino via the grand prix tunnel. The bus is not allowed to park so they drop you off on the side of the road and you have a steep hike up to the casino. It is up hill the entire way – you walk a good section of the grand prix track before hitting the stairs for the final hike up to the casino. You have to check your bags in at the casino and you only get one entry inside – no passouts. The casino was very decadent and elegant – but there are people walking around in shorts – I don’t mind if you look neat but some people from our tour where wearing board shorts that you would swim in. Just didn’t sit right. We had about 1 hour free time at the casino. The surrounding area is beautiful – if you walk around to the back of the casino you have the most beautiful views and can window shop at all the expensive stores. The walk back down to the bus was a lot easier! We got back to Villfranche and went back to the ship to get ice show tickets. There was no queue and there was plenty of tickets available. It was formal night and the Captain’s reception tonight. We had already made the decision not to go to formal night due to lack of suitcase room but we wandered down to the promenade to catch the Captains address. Leo the CD came and said that the Captain would not be making it tonight as there were very high winds and that is why we were yet to leave Villefranche and he was unable to leave the bridge. He promised that he would do his address at the second formal night. With that we made our way to the peek-a-boo bridge to see what was going on. We had to laugh at seeing the Captain in his tux talking to the other members of his team. He gave us a wave and not long after that they closed the peek-a-boo bridge due to high winds. Rhythm and Songs show was on tonight in the La Scale theatre and it was very good with a series of songs from Broadway.

[charliegirlac]

Monday 14th July – Livorno

We woke to a very rocky ship and a noisy wall. It was creaking with the ships movements. The Captain made an announcement at 7:45am that it was very windy and it was too dangerous to go in to Livorno. He said he was trying to make arrangements for us to go to La Spezia and we would have to tender so if you were not on a ship shore excursion you would need tender tickets. We went and got in the queue and got tender two tickets as we had planned to catch the train on our own to Pisa. We arrived in La Spezia at 10:30 and it was raining so the tender boats could only carry half the amount of people. They started to load their own ship shore excursion groups first and made constant announcements to please not go down until your tender group was called. We waited in the Aquarium Bar and chatted to another couple who were on a ships tour but it was meant to be an afternoon tour so they had to wait till the all day tours got off loaded first. We were as patient as we could be but tensions were running high as people who had planned private tours couldn’t get off the ship and others who were planning to go to Florence and Pisa where fast running out of time. They provided some time tables and some local info on La Spezia. They eventually called our tender ticket after 1:30. We got to deck 3 and walked in to pandemonium. They were not checking tender tickets and people just walked down and were getting on boats with no tickets or tender tickets that hadn’t even been called eg tender 9!! It was annoying after being patient and waiting to have other people push their way through. We met up with some other people and got a cab to the train station. We just missed a train and had to wait for an hour and a half for another one. It was 20euro for 2 tickets return and the train took over an hour to get to Pisa. We bought bus tickets at the tobacco shop within the train terminal for under 4 euro for two. You walk out and cross the road and catch the red (rossa) line bus that is directly across the road from the station. They bus was packed but it took us directly to the leaning tower. By the time we arrived at the leaning tower there was just enough time to take some photos and buy some souvenirs before making our way back to the train station. We got back to the train station around 7pm and there was a 7:38pm train back to La Spezia. The train was packed with a lot of people heading back to the ship. The Captain had very nicely extended our time in port as we had arrived so much later – all aboard was 10:30pm. The train arrived back at La Spezia at 8:50 and we followed the crowd and walked back to the tender station. We got a tender pretty much straight away and arrive back in board at 10pm. I spoke to others that had done ship tours of Florence and Pisa and their excursions were cut and they spent more time of buses than what they had to explore. They had extended the windjammer opening hours as every one was coming back very late. We went to Johnny Rockets and arrived at the right time – within 10 minutes of us being there the queue started to form and by the time we left the wait was about an hour. The Captain announced that we would be in Civitavecchia on time as he could make up time.

Tuesday 15th July - Rome

We had booked a private tour with Rome in Limo based on reviews and are extremely glad we did. We worried over the price and hoped we would be able to get other ppl from our roll call to join but knowing what I know now even if no one else came with us it still would have been worth it. We joined up with the 2 other couples we would be sharing the day with and walked off the ship as soon as the announcement the gangway was open. We found our guide who was waiting for us literally 20 steps off the ship – there was about 10 other Rome in Limo groups there and dozens of buses. We were in the Mercedes van and on our way before the tour groups even made their way off the ship. We drove to Palatine hill and bought our Coliseum tickets and then our guide Fabio took us to a hill overlooking the Coliseum and he gave us some background information using a brilliant overlay book. He then dropped us down the street and we had about 50 minutes to enjoy the amazing structure. We walked back to meet Fabio and he was exactly where he said he would be. We drove and looked at Circus Maximus and then to an overlook area where you get a brilliant view of the Roman Forum. Again Fabio gave us brilliant information – so great you felt like you where seeing what he was describing. We then went to the Spanish Steps and the Wedding Cake. We drove to a courtyard area filled with cars. Fabio told us to take our cameras and walk around the corner – we did and walked right up to the Trevi Fountain. I was astounded at the size of it. We had about 15 minutes here. We then drove up to the Vatican walls – we were taken to a lovely little restaurant and had a yummy lunch. We had bruschetta and pizza. The restaurant was very reasonably priced - 20euro for both of us. After our yummy lunch we drove around the corner and met our guide for the Vatican. Her name was Lisa and see had incredible knowledge. We made the decision just a couple of weeks before to add the Vatican guide and we were all very glad we did – we would have just stumbled around not really knowing what we were looking at. Lisa knew all about the art work and history behind all of the pieces. She made the two hours fly and we saw so much. At the end of the tour she walked us around to were we met Fabio. We made our way back to the ship and he took us to a pharmacy as I needed some penicillin as I had an infection and he said you could buy it over the counter. He took me in and spoke with the pharmacist and I walked out with some penicillian! It was very nice of him. We were back on the ship and having a drink in the Schooner Bar by around 5pm! What an amazing day – if you are in Rome I have no hesitation in recommending Rome in Limo – truly brilliant! That night we had the Crown and Anchor Welcome Back Party. We met Captain Patrick Dahlgren from Sweeden. He spoke about yesterdays dramas and said that we were very lucky as 7 ships were meant to be in Livorno and we were the only ones that got to go to La Spezia – all the others had to stay out at sea and miss a port day. Could you imagine going all the way to Italy and not going to the leaning tower??!!! Tonight was also the Ice Show. We were exhausted but decided to push through and I am so glad we did – a truly amazing experience.

[charliegirlac]

Wednesday 16th July – Naples

We did a ship tour to Pompeii. We all met in the La Scala theatre and were ushered in to our groups and off the ship. We were issued our radios and meet our guide Jose. We found him very annoying. He never stopped talking – which is a good thing but it was not interesting – he just rambled on the entire way to Pompeii. We got there and they took us to a cameo factory adjacent to Pompeii. We didn’t even go inside – I saw no point – I wanted to see the ruins not cameos. We made our way in to Pompeii at 9:30. It was so interesting to see all of the ruins but the guide really took the fun out of it all. He would tell us where we were going next and what we would see there – then we would get there and he would tell us the same information! Most of the other people in the group were getting annoyed as well and kept walking ahead and sitting down waiting for him to catch up. He just kept repeating himself. I also found it very odd that there were dogs all over Pompeii – they did not look very healthy either. As a pet lover I found it very upsetting. We were on the bus and heading back to the ship by 11:30. Later that day I spoke to others who did the same tour but with a different guide and they saw so much more and had brilliant guides so I guess it is just luck of the draw. This evening we went to the honeymooners party which was nice and watched ‘Finish the lyrics’ in Cleopatra’s needle. We then caught the headliner show of Las Papas Gauchos. They were 4 people from Argentina and they danced, whip cracked, played drums and spun ropes with balls on them. It was interesting and got a few laughs from the crowd.

Thursday 17th July – Palermo.

We had all intentions of doing the hop on hop off bus. As soon as we got off the ship we almost felt harassed by people trying to sell us things, wanting to take us places. We walked to where the hop on hop off bus was (there was a desk selling tickets at the pier but we wanted to look around first) and there were massive queues to get on the buses. Add to that the terrible traffic (the bus didn’t move any where for 15 minutes die to congestion) we decided just to look around on foot. I think Palermo could be a very pretty city but we found it dirty and we felt unsafe. Most of the statues and buildings in the squares were covered in graffiti. We found crossing the road to be scary and not worth the risk! We decided after a bit of shopping just to head back to the ship. A lot of other people had the same idea and it made for a nice ship day. They had a chilli cook off at the pool and the belly flop competition. It was the second formal night and the Captain did his address tonight from the Promenade. We went to the show in the La Scale theatre – it was not as good as the others – mainly because the songs were not as recognisable. We also played Majority Rules tonight.

 

Friday 18th July – Sea Day

We did a backstage tour of the La Scala theatre which was interesting, had an appointment with the future cruise consultant and had to pack our cases L We dropped our pre-paid tips off in the box at guest relations as we had never made it to the dining room all week!! Not intentionally but oh well – the food was brilliant in the windjammer so I have no complaints. There was just so much to do and it was such a port intensive cruise there wasn’t the time to sit down for dinner. We went to the farewell show and it was brilliant with a great fluro show and flying gladiators. We watched the Party around the World Parade.

Saturday 19th July

We had booked a ship tour of Barcelona and airport transfer. We had to meet in Cleopatra’s needle and we walked off the ship. The luggage area was brilliant with your luggage coming off on belts like at an airport. We were on the bus and waited there for over 20 minutes as we were missing one passanger. Eventually they decided to leave without them. The tour was really good and we viewed monuments and statues. The guide pointed out some great information. We had about 20 minutes at Barcelonas Gothic Cathedral, and about 30-40 minutes at Gaudi’s Sagrada Famalia. We also went to where the Olympic Games were and there was a nice look out over the city. The bus then dropped us at the airport with plenty of time to spare.

Final thoughts. The cruise was brilliant and very busy. We tried to pack a lot in to our days. We played many games of trivia and liked to attend social events. We used the internet and it was so incredibly slow we gave up. Friends who brought their laptops had a much faster connection. All the RCI staff encountered were very nice.

The CD Leo was not as prominent as our previous cruise. A few of our CC group commented on this and we pondered whether it was due to the complications of having to interpret in to Spanish thus making any announcements long. Either way he didn’t really make any announcements other than those at shows. The rest of his staff though were visible as they hosted many other events around the ship.

We had pretty good weather the whole cruise – we were unlucky with the winds stopping us from getting in to Livorno but we were extremely lucky to have such a proactive Captain who got us a port day any way.

My husband wrote a comment about the amount of smoking on board. Personally we find smoking any where inside to be an annoyance. I have no issue of people smoking outside but found the smoke on the promenade so thick I would often have to leave. We (in Australia) have no smoking at all indoors and maybe we are spoiled for choice but having two tables next to each other – one smoking and one non-smoking – is completely pointless. A good point for RCI though is that the same day my husband dropped a comment card in to the box we got a phone call in our cabin from the hotel manager explaining RCI’s policy and explaining the issues they have in restricting smoking inside especially on European cruises. It was a nice common courtesy call.

Cabin attendant was quick and clean and always did a stellar job. They also provided a friendly ‘hi’ and ‘how was your day?” every evening.

Overall – full of fun, extremely busy cruise and would do it all in a heart beat!