REVIEW - Voyager of the Seas - 3/31/11 to 4/6/11 Lots of Pics!

It is time for my extensive review of our recent family spring break trip on the fabulous Voyager of the Seas from March 31 thru April 6. This was the second family cruise (my fifth and DW’s 6th)– myself, DW and DD’s (10 and 7 – now hotshots at cruising and gold C&A members - lol). Last year we sailed on the Radiance of the Seas out of Tampa. Here is a link to that review:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1392222

This will be a long review with a load of pics. I took a total of 577 pics (only 20 or so of the family –haha!) with the rest being of the ship and ports of call. During the planning for this cruise and the previous years cruise I was on CC nearly every day looking for nuggets of information. I was never disappointed by the fine folks here who take the time to try to make other’s vacations better so I hope to do the same. One thing I realized was that there was not a lot of info on the Voyager. It had been overseas so information was scarce. So I hope to try to fill in some of the gaps.

We sailed from New Orleans (and arrived there 2 days early to spend some time in the Big Easy - an 834 mile drive from Cincinnati, Ohio) so I will include some info about NOLA and how the port operates there (not great!). I will be posting many pics (this year I brought a charger to be sure to avoid the problem I had last year of a dead camera – Duh!) as well as scanning in compasses, Adventure Ocean program material, embarkation material, disembarkation material, and other various and sundry things including the great drink menu from the Pig and Whistle English-style pub on the Promenade. I also will rate food in MDR (we did the 8:30 seating this time around), other food venues, entertainment, housing and housekeeping (we were all the way forward overlooking the helipad in 6502), bars/nightclubs/lounges, excursions and ports of call, ship personnel to the extent we had contact, and anything else that comes to mind. I will happily answer any questions to the best of my ability.

The Hilton Garden Inn - Convention Center

The Rooftop Pool

The hotel was about 6 blocks from the French Quarter - and the great Bourbon Street. Just exit the main entrance, make a left and head down S. Peters Street. It is that easy. The hotel is also across the street from the convention center and the port is behind the convention center. So you can't beat the location. You also pass Harrah's casino along the way.

Initially we had difficulty booking a hotel in NOLA that weekend until we figured out - it was the NCAA FINAL FOUR weekend!! Very high priced rooms! DW is a Hilton Honors member with tons of points and we used many of them to get the room for 2 nights. As a result of the final four, NOLA was jumping with tons of events. Bourbon St. was a mess as usual but quite enjoyable. Just a note - don't take your kids down there! It was an eye opener! I knew it was nuts but there were some things I didn't expect so we moved over to Royal St. with the art galleries and ate dinner at the Royal House for some authentic creole cooking and it was excellent. I was able to slip away for a hurricane at Pat O'Brien's and it was worth every delicious drop.

The next day (day before sailing) we went to an NCAA sponsored event at the Morial Convention Center called BracketTown. It was the fan fest event for the NCAA and the kids loved it with lots of hands on events. They also had those new coke machines that had hundreds of flavor combinations that are rumored to be making an appearance of some of the RCCL ships this fall. I must have tried 30 different combos so it will be great when the hit the fleet.

Some swimming and then a streetcar ride from downtown through the Garden District past Loyola and Tulane Univs. capped the eve. Only hours until we boarded and I was quite excited.

The next morning we were greeted to this view from our room:

The Voyager peeking over the convention center. I'll get into port access and parking shortly but the garage in the left of the pic is $12 per day and they heavily push cruise parking. It is accessed off convention center drive on the other side and down the street of the "Whale Lot" but is not connected to the port in any way. I was chomping at the bit and DW says "Why don't we wait until 1pm or so to get on" I had an absolute conniption!!!! I wanted on now (it was about 8am)! After a quick breakfast in the hotel we decided to take our car to the port and attempt to park in the Whale lot as I had read about on these boards. (The hotel allows cruise parking for $10/day but we wanted quick access upon our return since we had a long drive home). You have to proceed down convention center drive to the end then take a left (cant remember the street name but it is well signed) and loop around the convention center. Pass infront of Mardi Gras World (where they make the floats for the parade) by making a left and you are now headed to the Erato St. terminal (Carnival and NCL). A little further down is the Julia Street terminal where the Voyager was waiting!. Here is a view of the traffic at the port.

More to come tomorrow...........

We are sailing on Voyager on May 15 out of Dubai.

I am really looking forward to hearing all about the ship and your thoughts

Great start..new to RCL myself..sailing out of Singapore in June on Voyager...can't wait for your review...room?...can't wait for xtra info:D

I took a total of 577 pics

Only 577!? I took over 2,100 on my Allure cruise last year! :p

Love the review, keep it coming!

Keep it coming!

We were on that same cruise and each of us had a camera but we always forgot to "capture" the moment.

Maybe you caught us! :)

Can't wait for the review; I love reading reviews!

Just an FYI, I almost skipped over it, though, as I thought the review was over a year old...your title has the year "2011" instead of "2012". :eek: I thought at first that perhaps an old thread/review had been resurrected. When I saw that you were mentioning the Final Four, I realized you were, indeed, in NOLA in 2012. :)

Can't wait for the review; I love reading reviews!

 

Just an FYI, I almost skipped over it, though, as I thought the review was over a year old...your title has the year "2011" instead of "2012". :eek: I thought at first that perhaps an old thread/review had been resurrected. When I saw that you were mentioning the Final Four, I realized you were, indeed, in NOLA in 2012. :)

Good catch. Didn't even notice!

great start

Can't wait for the review; I love reading reviews!

 

Just an FYI, I almost skipped over it, though, as I thought the review was over a year old...your title has the year "2011" instead of "2012". :eek: I thought at first that perhaps an old thread/review had been resurrected. When I saw that you were mentioning the Final Four, I realized you were, indeed, in NOLA in 2012. :)

Very good catch! I didn't notice! Was copying some of my old info and that got input in error. I've emaild the moderator to see if it can be fixed. does anyone know if I can fix it? I have looked around for and edit (generally too late for an edit) but nothing! Oh well! The review must go on!

I was down there for the Final Four and yes it was a giant party all weekend :D. I remember seeing the ship in port and wishing I was on that instead of just hanging around town. Can;t wait for more pictures and the rest of the review.

…..As you approach the Julia St. terminal there are only 2 lanes for all vehicles. Right lane for dropoffs and left lane to park in the Whale lot. I dropped off the gang with the luggage and then squeezed out of the dropoff zone to try to find the Whale Lot. I saw the police directing traffic. Listen to the police! They will direct you! If you do as I did and ignore them you will have to drive all the way around the block and it was a mess during the Final Four. I wont try to give directions – just watch the cops. Once I figured out where to go it was pretty simple – pay $112.00 for the week and park you car! I wondered why they called it the Whale lot! Check out the pic!

Duh! I made my way back to the terminal. It took nearly 30 minutes to loop around the block but it is only a five minute walk from parking to the terminal crossing over some railroad tracks. Here is a pic of the Voyager and Viking Crown beyond the Riverwalk Mall (the mall is right next to the terminal):

Picked up the gang and luggage and proceeded to security. Security was a breeze but it was crowded by now and around 12:15pm. Had 2 Dasani water bottles in my bag – no problem. Because of the lines they were moving folks through pretty quick. Then onto check in. had my setsail pass, passports and credit card ready to go. Here is a pic of the waiting areas:

And the lines...

And then this:

We are almost there!

Now some pics of our approach to the ship:

Better get that luggage on! We are ready to sail!

More pics!

We are on the Voyager of the Seas!

Every passenger under the age of 18 must wear a color coded wristband so that the staff can take the child to the proper muster station should there be an emergency. After you get you id pic taken for that wonderful "ding" sound you see this table with alot of wristbands. Yep! This is a springbreak cruise!:

For the record there were 3,644 passengers onboard with nearly 1,000 kids! I have to say i was pleasantly surprised. The behavior was really good. There were a few instances - such as the teens hanging off the lines that hold the flags going from the bow over the bridge. They would hang on them and pull them up and down. The older teens also tended to dominate the ourdoor hot tubs but for the most part stayed away from the solarium/

Love sailing out of NOLA. Love the city! Do NOT love the cruise terminal and parking procedures.

Still, it's a small hassle and worth it. Looking forward to the rest of your review!

Good start - looking forward to more!

I have scanned in the various documents from Day 1 but am having trouble uploading them to snapfish. So the Cruise Compass will have to wait a day or so until I figure out how to fix the problem.

We finally got onboard around 1230pm and the kids wanted Ben and Jerry's ice cream (on the promenade) so we stopped there first. Our first look at the promenade:

The rooms were ready around 1pm and we went to drop off our carryons. We met for the first and basically last time the room attendant (cant for the life of me remember his name!) but I asked for ice every day and he always had the room ready in the evening and kept out of our way. I kind of liked that! He was from Nicaragua and came on board to follow the ship to the far east (after a stop in Dubai) because he speaks Mandarin Chinese. Interesting combo. He said the room wasnt quite ready because he didnt have time to vacuum so we got out of his way. A look at 6502:

For some reason I didnt take a picture looking at the round window overlooking the helipad. Here is a pic from the pad looking back at our room:

And how could I forget this one:

After dropping the bags we slowly made our way up to the Windjammer. Since we ate breakfast at the hotel we weren't that hungry but the kids wanted something so off we went. The entrance to the Windjammer:

(That is younger dd on the left and she loved the display below!)

I will apologize in advance. some of my pics aren't coming out as well as I hoped. Note - get a new camera before next cruise!

More from the Windjammer:

I vowed to eat better on this cruise! (Yeah, right!)

I generally dont take food pics but this time around I tried to get some when the opportunity arose. I didnt really want to bother people during their dinner in the MDR by making a scene taking pics so i chose my opportunities carefully.

The legendary Honey Stung Chicken

Last year on the Radiance the Honey Stung chicken was horrible. But this year it was delicious. So I just had to have it!

We are sailing on Voyager on May 15 out of Dubai.

I am really looking forward to hearing all about the ship and your thoughts

We just got back from this cruise and stayed at the Hampton Inn Garden District for $123, and that included a free week of parking. The cab fare from the hotel to the terminal was $7. And the hotel was lovely.

Love sailing out of NOLA. Love the city! Do NOT love the cruise terminal and parking procedures.

 

Still, it's a small hassle and worth it. Looking forward to the rest of your review!

We parked off site, but we were on board in less than 45 minutes. Could not have been easier.

For those that parked off site - did you walk to terminal or cab it?

I'll have to admit I've never understood the rave about the honey stung chick. It has always been a dried, tasteless hunk of pressed hen.

It looked different on the Voyager, and we were one of the first into the Windjammer so it had to be fresh.

Tried it and like it. Maybe they changed suppliers or how they fixed it!

Great review so far.... We'll be on the Navigator of the Seas next year and I was wondering if they are similar ships? P.S. I always take pictures of my food.

I'll have to admit I've never understood the rave about the honey stung chick. It has always been a dried, tasteless hunk of pressed hen.

 

It looked different on the Voyager, and we were one of the first into the Windjammer so it had to be fresh.

 

Tried it and like it. Maybe they changed suppliers or how they fixed it!

I agree that it looked different. We came to the WJ late and it was still very good. It was terrible on the Radiance LY!

Great review so far.... We'll be on the Navigator of the Seas next year and I was wondering if they are similar ships? P.S. I always take pictures of my food.

Sister ships. But I am not familiar with the Nav relative to restaurants etc. I suspect they are the same but refurbs are happening at different times. The voyager upgrades will not happen until late 2013 I believe. The Voyager has a Portofino but not a Chops. They have a Johnny Rockets as well.