Voyager of the Seas 1/14/-1/21

Just back from the Voyager of the Seas and we really enjoyed ourselves. I'll do a day by day and add some notes at the end. On this trip it was me, my husband (DH), his parents (MIL and FIL), my parents (mom and dad) his brother (BIL) and his daughter age 4 (niece). This trip was to celebrate our 10 year anniversary as we got married on Grand Cayman. First time on Royal Caribbean.

1/12 - leave IL after work and drive through blizzard with high winds. Stayed overnight just past st. louis

1/13 - finished drive to New Orleans. Arrived around 5pm, stayed at Weston. Walked around french quarter and had dinner.

1/14 - Cool but sunny day, took cab to ship at 11am. They charge a flat rate of 8 dollars per person (i think) which I think is steep because it's only a five minute drive but they say it was set because everyone goes to the cruise with all kinds of luggage. Boarding was a piece of cake and we were on the ship by noon. I got two bottles of pepsi through in my backpack with no problem but had read up on all other stuff so had no luggage issues. We hung out in the scooner bar till our rooms were ready at 1pm.

We all had rooms in the same hall on 6th floor over looking the promenade. Our rooms were wonderful and much more spacious than I anticipated. There are so many storage places that after unpacking it felt very nice. Had some food at the cafe promenade and watched the Saints playoff game in studio B. After some initial confusion with our dinning table (they only had 6 set and we had 8 in our party) we had a lovely dinner. DH was very tired and fell asleep while I watched the opening night parade from our room.

1/15 at sea - Still a bit cool and windy but we spent some time in the hot tubs and reading in the sunshine today. Also explored the ship and really enjoyed all the little bar areas. The ship is simply spectacular even being a bit older I didn't really notice outside of some color schemes being outdated in the rooms and carpets worn in some areas. Everyone was really impressed.

1/16 at sea - This day was a bit of a bummer because the wind was close to 50 mph and the ship rocked a lot! They had top deck closed and finally closed off all outside stuff by late afternoon.

1/17 Jamaica - We were supposed to go to Falmouth but because of the high winds we were routed to montego bay. This would have been fine expect me, dh, and my parents had booked our excursion to dunns river falls which is on the other side of the island. This is only time during the trip we received bad service. We went to the excursion desk to cancel because we didn't want the long drive and she tried to convince us mo bay would actually result in a shorter drive time. When we pressed her on how this could be or to show us she got confused and then just refunded our money. When we asked her about mo bay options she didn't have a clue and just handed us a random brochure. She was asian and I think think the language barrier was the real problem. My dad asked someone else with the same result. We finally found an english speaking staff member who was very helpful.

Dh's family and I ended up taking a taxi to a beach, my parents stayed with their tour. We told the shuttle driver doc cove but he dropped us at Aqua Sol instead insisting it would be nice. Not sure why... It was nice enough but they did have people asking us to buy stuff including weed every 10 minutes which was annoying. It rained off and on the first hour then cleared up. My parents thought dunns river was nice but the drive was very long and they barely made it back in time.

Went to the ice show that night. I really enjoyed the show but I have to say I was disappointed in the theme. It was all about astrology and tarot cards which I personally find very offensive. I thought that they could have kept the theme more neutral (sun, moon, nature, etc) without having to have all the tarot card stuff and appeal to more people.

1/18 - grand cayman - weather was perfect! We tendered to the island which took 30 minutes waiting for the tender to fill up. Five cruise ships total in port. I have to say it looks very different than 10 years ago when I was last there and I was disappointed by the chaos and crowds but what do you expect with so many ships? We went to the Grand Old House for our anniversary lunch and it was delightful. Then we walked next door to Smith cove where we actually got married and enjoyed the beach for a couple of hours. We arrived back to tender at 2:45 with the last tender to leave at 3:30. It took us an hour and a half to get back on ship!:eek: The lines were insane for the three ships getting ready to leave. There had to be a thousand people in line. Our ship didn't leave until almost 5pm. What a nightmare. They really need to build a dock because the tendering process is terrible.

1/19 - Cozumel - another perfect weather day. Dh's family and I went to paradise beach, my parents did the tulum / beach tour. Paradise beach was simply paradise! We really loved it and it was a great choice. My parents however were very disappointed with their tour. We warned them of the travel time but they said the whole thing was very rushed and they barely got any time to do anything.

1/20 - at sea - had perfect weather and the pool decks were packed all day. Even though it was crowded we never had a problem finding deck chairs and when facing the sea it didn't feel crowded. The mardi gras party was crazy! We climbed the climbing wall, went rollerblading and enjoyed the sun all day.

1/21 - did the self check out where you can leave earlier and carry your baggage out which I highly recommend. we were off the ship by 7:30 and on the road by 8am. Drive was easy on the way back.

Other Notes:

I was initially concerned about no self service iron available but upon your advice sent dh's dress shirts and pants and a few of my things to be ironed while unpacking the first day. It turned out fine.

We were SO impressed with the service from our waiter, assist. waiter, and room steward. We gave them all extra tips because the service was really outstanding.

I had asked on here about renting snorkel equipment and heard no, but I asked at the dive shop on board and they do rent either separates for 10 dollars each or as a set for 20 dollars.

We tried many of the shows and some we liked, some we didn't. Some that we didn't like our parents did so they did a good job of having something for everyone. The two female singers have amazing talent.

Kept seeing the private party going on in Cleopatra's needle with awesome music and wanted to join in but it was private event each time. Was there a way to get invited?

Was disappointed in the hours the buffet was open and the snacking options. The hours they had seemed to create long lines. For example they didn't change to lunch till noon so it was INSANE during the noon hour. Then they are closed in the afternoon so the cafe promenade had HUGE lines while the buffet was closed. We weren't overly impressed with the food quality and lines there so we ate in the dinning room every day and at some lunches.

For those asking, they did not have any zumba classes.

We really enjoyed the ship and staff and had a nice vacation overall.

Thank younfornyourn review we will sailing in about a month.

I'm doing the same cruise in 5 weeks.

I've been looking for a review or comments from a past cruiser.

I'm from WI but we are flying down, not driving.

Other Notes:

I was initially concerned about no self service iron available but upon your advice sent dh's dress shirts and pants and a few of my things to be ironed while unpacking the first day. It turned out fine.

 

 

 

They do not have a laundry room on each floor with a free iron to use? That would not be good......... We are on the 3-17-2012 sailing.

We are on Voyager starting March 10th, so thanks for posting. :)

Thanks for posting your review. We're doing this same itinerary in 3 weeks.

Our first time sailing out of NOLA and am super excited about it:D

Was the itinerary scheduled that way or was it changed due to weather? We are on the March 3rd sailing and stop at Cozumel first.

Was the itinerary scheduled that way or was it changed due to weather? We are on the March 3rd sailing and stop at Cozumel first.

Yes, our itinerary was scheduled to be that way, we just detoured to motengo bay instead of falmouth because of the wind.

No they don't have self service laundry on each floor like Princess does. This was a big turn off for me but we spent 13 dollars to have everything we wanted pressed and I hung the rest right away

Nice review.

Sailed in November. Embarking was crazy !!! Ship was 4 hours late leaving!!!

We loved our trip so much we are leaving again on the Voyager January 28th.

Have they got the embarking down now?

Was the itinerary scheduled that way or was it changed due to weather? We are on the March 3rd sailing and stop at Cozumel first.

Because I'm sometimes anal retentive, I had recently looked at the routes this ship takes each week. Sometimes a ship will go Eastern Caribbean one week and Western Caribbean the next.

But Voyager is going Jamaica, Caymans, Cozumel one week and then Cozumel, Caymans, Jamaica the next.

All 3 sound fun, so I don't care what order

nice review

Great review! We'll be sailing on the 28th! Driving down from the Quad Cities. Thankfully no snowstorm in the forecast! YAY for that! Leaving straight from work tomorrow night!

Great review. We are on Navigator out of NOLA in December, this itinerary but backwards!

Thanks for the review as we are there 1 month from today and we are a family of 5 on our first cruise!!!