VOYAGER REVIEW--PART ONE

[Angel in FL]

Just a little background information on the two of us sailing.

Linda, 50--this cruise was a gift for my birthday from my baby sister. I'm married, two grown daughters and this is the first ever vacation without any of them.

Karen, fortysomthing, gave me the cruise, single and fancy free.

Day One:
Karen & I both live on the east coast of Florida so we used a bus service called "Cruise Connections" to get us to the port. Not a bad deal $45 round trip. They drop you & luggage right at the pier. I must say coming over the causeway and seeing the Voyager docked just takes your breathe away. She is a beauitful ship and towers over all the other ships.
Got off the bus between terminals 4 & 5. Was directed to terminal 4, showed our tickects, us the escalator to the first check point. No line just put our carry on luggage on machine to x-ray it, walked through metal dector, which I set off. Back to the other side, it seems as though my watch,matching bracelet, nominatins bracelet & medic alert bracelet were a bit too much metal. Took off a few bracelets and breezed through. On to check-in. Just a short wait in line and we were at the counter. We had filled out all the documentation on line, so showed our passports, credit cards, and they issued us a sea pass and we were on our way!

Had to stop for the traditional Welcome aboard picture(was a really bad picture) and we were on the ship. We were on Deck 6, room 6287, which overlooked the Royal Promenade. What a great room. Two beds, window seat, and a small couch. It took us just a few minutes to unpack our carry on bags and off to see the ship.

First stop was the Windjammer for lunch. Had a great lunch, found a table beside the window that looked out on the intercoastal.

On to the Royal Promenade to register for the give aways at the Voyager Expo. This was like a street fair where different places from the ship had displays. Wine packages, Portofino's, sea explorations, spa... hung around for the drawing didn't win anything but was fun to just be part of the crowd. Stopped at the Cafe Promenade for some of those cookies everyone talked about. I had one coconut cookies and was hooked for the rest of the week. The ship hadn't even left dock and I'd blown my diet! Oh well, there's always next week.

Next up was the dreaded muster drill. Everyone up to their lifeboat, with those wonderful life vests on. Finally muster was over, back to stateroom to store life vest and out to deck 11 for sailaway. We had a great spot at the rail and were land side, so as the ship moved away all the people driving on the road honked & wavied. People actually pulled off the road to watch the ship go by. Three long blasts on the ship's horn and we were offically underway. Wavied good bye to the Coast Guard escort and watch Miami slip away.

We went back to the cabin, Karen's luggage had arrived so she un-packed while I watched the people go by on the Promenade.

Late seating dinner so we went to the Welcome Aboard show first. Was an okay show nothing that great. Our dining room was the Magic Flute on deck five. Off to dinner.

A word here about the food. I don't know where everyone eats but the reviews about the food on this ship were just awful and I figured I loose some more weight if the food was that bad. The food was great. Not five star great but good enough that you didn't go away hungry. Karen even ordered the dread "Ranch Steak" on night. It was very tender, and had a nice flavor. Her ranch steak was better than the New York Strip steak they had on Saturday night for dinner. So if you are sailing on the VOS, go with an open mind about the food and you won't be disappointed.

After dinner I think the excitment of the day caught up with both of us, so we walked the ship a little tookthe stairs back to our room and promptly went to sleep. Tomorrow CoCo Cay.

Day Two:
CoCo Cay...had breakfast in the Windjammer and watch the water, papasailers. Went up on Deck 12 to get pictures of the island. As we walked by the pool area and Solaruim they were absoulety empty. As we stood at the rail taking pictures of CoCo Cay, we looked at each other the empty pool and said what the heck we're staying on board. We had the soluarium pool area almost to ourselves. We sunned for awhile and then lunch time. We went to Johnny Rockets for lunch. After eating there one time I'm over the thrill. The food was good, not great, although the onion rings were very good. If you don't tell the waiter to stop they just keep brining you more onion rings & fries! After the second bowl of onion rings we finally said stop. This was the only time we were at JR and the line formed quiclky behind us. We did not have the 3.95 per person charge, so only charge was for Karen's milkshake which she said was excellant. As for all the up roar over the extra charge, if you like hamburgers, fries, onion rings etc that much, then just pay the price as for me not worth it. At 2PM the Casino offered gaming lessons so off we went to the Casino to learn to play black jack. After a few quick hands and tips we found a table and watched for awhile. Finally got up enough nerve to join the table and walked a winners. Not big winners but hey we were up, if only we had the brains to quit then...more later.
Tonight was the firt formal night so we stopped by the Cafe Promenade for more cookies(I told you we were hooked) then back to the room for a quick nap and get ready for dinner. Had several portraits taken and then into dinner. We had great service. We could not have asked for a better waiter and assit. waiter. Evangline was our waiter and Tatjahnia was our assist. waiter. By this night both ladies knew our names and what we liked to drink. Service was prompt, courteaous and always with a smile. If anyone it lucky enough to have them on the next sailing, tell Linda & Karen say hi and hope they didn't have to clean to much. This night was also the captain's welcome aboard reception which we missed due to naps. After dinner we headed back to the cabin and bed. By we sure are party poopers...you couldn't tell by us there was any night life on the ship.

More later, any questions and I'll try to answer them as I go.

[matcris77381]

Linda, It sounds wonderful. Keep the info coming. Thanks.

[SparklyPinkCruiser]

Can't wait to hear the rest of your review!

Laura

My sweet Baby Boy born 02/22/04

[img]http://www3.sympatico.ca/lapsleyt/pics/josh_hood3.jpg[/img]
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=ff00ff&cdt=2004;10;30;16;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]
10/30/04 Voyager of the Seas - My First Cruise!

[teapot44]

Hi Angel. We sailed on Adventure out of SJ Puerto Rico and loved the ship. last week we took a trip on Majesty (a good size liner itself) but I think We're spoiled by the Voyager class ships. Looking forward to trying Navigator or Mariner in the future.
One tip though. The next time you have an opportunity to go to Coco Cay....GO to Coco Cay!
You can come and go as you please all day and still have some private pool time before dinner. Just a thought. Looking forward to more about Voyager.

Nordic Empress '93
Monarch '95
Adventure '02
Majesty '04

[CRUISE4DAVE&PATTI]

HI Teapot,
Nice to see someone from the Albany area on here. Guess people from this area are on the cruise critic. Guess I am not the only fanatic around here, that reads these posts. LOL. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[justcruzin85374]

Very nice review,...and one awesome birthday present from your baby sister!
Please post soon on the rest of the cruise.

Soveriegn 92 E. Caribbean
Majesty 95 W. Caribbean
Granduer 97 E. Caribbean
Rhapsody 00 Mexico
Vision 02 Alaska
Radiance 03 Panama Canal
Brilliance 3/29/04



Radiance of the Seas/Panama Canal 10/18/2003
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=ff00ff&cdt=2003;10;18;20;00;00&timezone=GMT-0800[/img]Are we there yet?
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=ff00ff&cdt=2003;10;18;20;00;00&timezone=GMT-0800[/img]

My bags are always packed!
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=800080&cdt=2004;3;29;17;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img] Brilliance 3/29/2004

[judyf]

I'm loving your review! I've never been on RCCL and looking forward to the Voyager. The reviews really help a first timer.

Great gift, can I join your family? LOL

If you don't mind I have a few questions from your first post.

Can you tell me more about Royal Promenade register. What time is it? This is the first I heard about it.

I can almost taste the coconut cookie!

Looking forward to part 2.

Thanks for posting.

Judy
RCCL Voyager 5/21-5/30/04
CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04
NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03
DCL Wonder 5/16-5/19/02
DCL Wonder 5/3-5/8/01
CCL Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

[cantw8]

Great review, I read part 2 first then had to find this one all the way on page 5 so I thought I would get them closer together.

Infinity Hawaii 2004
Galaxy 2003
Voyager 2002
Explorer 2001