Voyager of the Seas Illness Sydney-Perth Sailing?

I was recently on Voyager of the Seas the March 16-April 1st Sailing into Fremantle. In the last few days I noticed a lot of people with a cough. The day I got home I got a cough, fever and rash everywhere. Has anyone else gotten these symptoms or been diagnosed with anything from the voyage? Doctor is doing a test for Legionaires just to be sure. I called RC and they said there was 'no reported illness' on the vessel. Given how many people had such a bad cough in the last four days I can't imagine nothing was reported.

Austex

Also just off Voyager. DH and I both have had, and still have the cough. Met many people also suffering.

Sad you are not feeling well.

But put 40 people on a bus and 1 or 2 will go home coughing.

Put 400 people on a plane as a percentage will get a cough.

Put 4000 on a ship and ...................

I taught Outdoor Ed for many years that involved excursions every few weeks. People always got a cough after sharing air with others.

It is sad and so annoying but I don't think it is a 'sick ship' problem.

And I'm not being mean saying that, it's just a fact of humanity.

R

Oh I understand the risk of getting sick on a ship/mass transit. Just was looking to find out if anyone had any diagnosis other than 'head cold' as I was experiencing some unusual symptoms that has my doctor stumped. No offense taken. I have come out in hives/welts from head to toe on top of headache/fever/cough. I have never experienced this before whenever I have gotten a virus before. Doctor doing test to rule out Legionaires and wondering if there was any other direction to give him.

Austex

I was on the sailing before March 5 to 16. I also came home

with fever, cough, rash on chest, high blood pressure & fast pulse.

There were a lot of people coughing & splattering after our detour cruise to Tasmania.:eek:

Went to the doctor & was given medication which I did not respond to even after a week of taking. Was sent for blood test & chest x-ray for suspected pneumonia. Results came back that I did not have pneumonia. I was given a strong antibiotic & am now well.

Still none the wiser to what I had. Doctor put it done to a flu virus.

I hope you feel better soon & your test results come back all clear.

DH and I (both 51) took a bus (full) from Vancouver to Seattle after our Alaska cruise last September. We were, without a doubt, the youngest people on the bus. The coughing was so bad I literally started counting the seconds between coughs. The longest period was 32 seconds. I have no idea how we did not get sick after that. Being a health care professional, I cannot tell you how many times I have been in a room with a patient and have had to nicely ask them to cover their mouth when they cough. When they refuse (and this has happened..I even had one man get offended and say, "What are you worried about? I don't have nothin"), I wear a mask on to protect myself. I cannot afford to be out sick because people cannot be considerate of those in close proximity.

I just got off the voyager on april 1st. And both wife and i got a cold with coughing as well. Ou tablemate to health services and they told him he was the 150th person to come there with a cold(mid cruise). My wife is a nurse and she felt all that she an i had was a common cold. We treated it a that with the medicines we had with us and we are both fine now

Hi, my husband and I also got off Voyager April 1st and are both suffering colds and coughs. I do have a slight rash appearing so will monitor it closely. I know of numerous cases of the cough that were on board and some quite severe , bordering pneumonia type illness. I think the standard reply by RCCL is to deny any problem, but not a doubt there were many cases on this cruise. I am a nurse also and was disturbed to hear the deep chesty coughing of many passengers in the windjammer at breakfast on the last day. I think that such large passenger numbers increase the spread, I also wonder if the air conditioning enhances the spread?? Just a thought.

Sue.

Not on that sailing but just wanted to comment on the symptoms. Have you been tested for strep throat? Some people develop a rash and not a sore throat when they have strep throat. My son is one of those people, rapid strep test will not show strep but the longer one does for him at least.

Hope you all feel better soon.

Ok, thanks for the advice re the strep throat and associated rash. I will keep a good watch for worsening symptoms, but hopefully we will get better soon.

I had the worse ever Cold/Flu in my life on our AU cruise. Had to go to the medic for antibiotics and it took weeks to get better after we were home. I think those AU bugs are doozies!!!:eek:

Take care of it and hope you feel better soon.:)

How are you going Bearone? I am currently head to toe in hives/rash getting worse everday. Day 4 and still have a fever/cough. See Doctor tomorrow with results of blood tests. He was quite perplexed last he saw me. Will mention strep when I see him next.

AussieTex

Hi Aussietex

We are improving slowly, thank goodness. We took our overseas friends that we met on Voyager to our GP today with 'the cough' and they were given more antibiotics. I hope you feel better soon and that your illness is nothing nasty.

I was not on your cruise however I was on a panama canal cruise last year on Legend - some of the people on the cruise had come down from Canada to Fort Lauderdale and then they were going onto the panama canal. I was told that the two weeks before that a severe bronchial cough was rampant on the ship and some of the people were still coughing. We were almost done with the cruise but by the time I got to Cabo San Lucas I was very sick with a head cold and a very bad cough - no fever or rash. I had that cough for about 3 weeks and the day we arrived home my DH came down with the same thing. Don't think it's too unusual for a head cold or cough to run rampant on a ship due to the close proximaty of everyone, it did however ruin the last few days of my cruise and quite sick for several weeks after our cruise.

Hope your diagnosis is not serious and you recover soon.

Voyager of the Seas April 2015, out of Freemantle - Having sailed with other cruise lines I have a significant amount of underpinning knowledge to give towards this review ...

First things first - this is a very american style ship attempting to embed itself into the AU cruising market, as has other cruise lines before it, however, it has not done anywhere near the market research of other lines or simply does not include it into their duty of care or goodwill factor of customer service. 'They are here to make money and not friends', was the overall impression of a significant number of the passengers of the cruise we recently undertook. It is a very large ship and booked to capacity, they can afford to lose first time cruisers or those who have never sailed with them before, who are not satisfied with the overall RCL experience once tried, as long as aussies want to keep trying this cruise line and RCL can keep them curious.

You cannot rely on having the majority of your passengers recreate on some new toy attractions (flowrider, rockclimbwall, skate rink) to provide evidence of overall high standard of accommodation (cleanliness, laundry of bedding, maximum utilisation of passenger cabin facilities), hospitality (food and beverage, dining facilities, bathroom facilities) and duty of care (safety standards, quality of product, customer service education and information, allowance for age range of passengers) - customers are simply not that stupid.

Having sailed on a number of different cruise lines, we can safely say we have never felt so controlled and manipulated, as to how we recreate in our valuable spare time paid for with our hard earned money, as we experienced on this cruise. We were very alarmed by a number of security issues on board, that could have been so easily and significantly managed so much better. Travellers need to be aware that the AU Gov expects them to behave as the legal guardians of their passports and you can be fined, penalised and incur replacement costs for irresponsible care, misuse or theft of your passport. Indeed, the DFAT (Dept Foreign Affairs & Trade) website which is responsible for AU traveller education and warnings, clearly states that you do not hand over your passport unless you are under arrest/detention for some reason. Yet the first thing, this US Cruise Co. does is make you surrender your passport on embarkation, under the proviso that it is needed for visa arrangements for port visits/tours. If you do not hand it over, you do not board the ship and lose your money and time that YOU have paid for. Importantly, no where in the customer education that we were issued prior to check in and board, was this published or disclosed to us. However, we were required to advise RCL of all the details contained within our passport, weeks prior to departure as part of our booking process - so this begs the question - do they really need to confiscate a National Identity document, that you are the legal guardian of, when they already have those details? On any other ship we have been on, we have been respected to manage our own passport entry and evidence stamp at any port visit that required it - so what is the importance for RCL to be in custody of a document that does not belong to them - does the airline confiscate your passport for the duration of the flight? Indeed if RCL is so concerned with security issues, why can anyone who enters a passengers' cabin, simply turn on the cabin TV and access your private financial information in the form of your online cruise account and restaurant reservations for dining options that demand a surcharge (these details are not password protected or require a PIN to open. The return of passports required thousands of passengers to line up at a single point of storage, at a venue that had been double booked, resulting in waiting times of up to 4 hours for some passengers in very long lines with no proviso of duty of care for frail, injured, non ambulant, unwell or elderly customers - the words "shambles, complete debarcle, criminal neglect' were frequently used.

Acommodation - Our cabin upon embarkation, had rubbish, bottle tops, coins and other assorted items all over the floor. The sheets has significant staining post laundering, which was alarming in size and colour. The small fridge in cabin, is so small and under performed it did not keep drinks cold, let alone make ice or be foodsafe to keep fresh food in. This forces people to eat and drink outside of the cabins except for room service options, which are extremely limited. For 6 out of the 13 days of the trip, our balcony was completely covered in black soot rain. It started at night which we did not detect and resulted in permanent staining of expensive formal attire, which we had to try and clean as soon as possible the next morning in our cabin bathroom as importantly for families in particular, this ship has no passenger laundry options of any kind other than the ships laundry service which is not cheap to use. A number of days into the trip the badly worn and stained hallway carpets were very damp and smelly and attempts by the ship did not remove the source of the damp or the pungent odour.

Hospitality - Never have we heard so much negative feedback in regard to wait times, quality of food and selection of beverages, as we did on this ship. The formal dining room in particular was understaffed, food quality tasted of the cook/chill/ reheat method and was an american menu that had very little reflection on the variety and quality of fresh produce that australians prefer to order and consume. Very little in way of australian range of beers, wines or champagnes - mostly american and expensive. The specialty restaurants which demand a surcharge of between $25 to up to $70 per head, just for food items were very hit and miss and waiter service ranged from arrogant and misleading to complacent and downright dishonest WITH the exception of one venue - Giovanni's table. This small tasteful italian eatery felt like it had landed on the ship from another planet. The decor, staff, food and service was exceptional and RCL should take a good hard look at this team and how they go about business. Food in buffet is very american and often hard to find a seat. Outdoor bar areas close very early for travels into hot, humid tropical waters which does not allow for one of the main things aussie travellers love most - relaxing under the stars on the top decks in the middle of the night, after a session at the show, nightclub or casino, and having a coldie, debriefing on the days activities, friendly arguments about the worlds problems, big laughs about who cheated at mini golf, knowing they do not have to rush, because the bar closes 1030 - 1100 pm, forcing everyone inside to purchase a drink, which could not be purchased more than one at a time or less than 10 minutes apart. Drinks packages were described as 'Sneaky, Greedy' in that many people bought them thinking the price they paid covered the duration of the cruise and was not a daily charge, due to lack of sufficient/correct/current printed education and very poor explanations provided by too few and too language challenged staff, allocated to spruik these packages. Items advertised on the packages were either not available or not honoured by RCL and this was particularly offensive, as it was not due to abuse by the owner of the product/package which can cost up to $80 AU a day and still only includes few wines, beers and cocktails. Some very obvious cocktails were priced 70 cents more than the package allowance, yet purchasers were not allowed to pay the extra 70 cents for these cocktails - you have to wonder what the thinking is there? On some of the busiest decks and entertainment venues, bathrooms contained single male and female toilet cubicles for areas designed to cater to hundreds of people, resulting in frustration and distress for frail or elderly. Many public areas were lit by heat generating bulbs which compounded environmental factors aboard the ship. What many people did not realise was this voyage did not stop at the beautiful asian waterways or harbours of the destination countries, but instead anchored at large major industrial ports (very noisy/smoggy if you chose to stay on board) and no tender boat service were used. Excursions were started with an often very delayed bus trip for hours to get to where tours started only to be rushed through tours in an hour or two, in what should have been a comfortable afternoon, only to be rushed back to a bus and get back to a ship late to have missed their allocated dining time or chance to see a show. Ironically, the day after disembarkation, the ship travelled back to the beautiful area of Na Trang in Vietnam and employed the tender service, rather than herd all the passengers onto late crowded buses from an industrial port hours away - what message does this send to aussie passengers about RCL's care factor to them as a client base? "We've got your money, now shutup and get on the bus".?

Customer Duty of Care - This was wildly inconsistent throughout the ship. Badly maintained safety strips on steps were located around the corner from smooth marble steps and unlevel paving that wet feet added further traction issues to. Circular stairs were far to narrow for adult feet to tread confidently. Pool deck events were boycotted and seriously endangered by the fact that the live band/dancing area was allocated to one that was constantly slopped over by the pool right next to it - a safety risk to electrical gear for performers and those few who did attempt to dance, many slipped and fell and were only supported and attended to by their fellow passengers - no management presence was evident to provide supervision of these events. Pools were far too small for size of ship and number of passengers - many people developed illnessess after 3 or 4 days in pools/spas. These were significant illnesses which required IV treatment from Med Clinic eg Strepthroat. Many had rash from Spa usage.No drinks in glasses were allowed at pool deck tables yet people hijinked around in the spas with glass stubbies in hand? Pool deck staff were run off their feet and suffered genuinely due to lack of numbers and management support - interestingly RCL used recent refurbishment to increase the number of cabins/passengers by hundreds - where was the matching staff ratio?. The bones of the ship felt very cramped compared to other ships for us who have no mobility issues, so must have presented a challenge to those who did. We spoke to a 74/75 yr old couple who boarded late at the port due to a delayed flight and were advised all the porters had embarked and they would need to carry their own luggage up the gangway onto the ship and they had booked one of the largest suites on the ship. Customer Service education or information was often non existent or misleading or simply not honored. Daily program activity information was constantly repeated on the hardcopy newsletter each day, wasting massive dollars and paper - ironic for a line that promotes themselves as eco friendly (Save the Waves campaign). I repeat, Aussies are easy going and very patient, but they are far from stupid. Entertainment which was organised on sector/deck basis did not allow for allocated dining times - no one thought to cross reference many organisational aspects - resulting in lots of double ups and very poor communication from area managers in terms of entertainment and hospitality, which unfortunately flowed onto passenger inconvenience.

Sometimes you are lucky and can travel in a bubble on board a cruise ship immune to the negatives and customer dissatisfaction - but I doubt there will be many on the trip we took who will have achieved this, based on the hundreds of passengers who could not wait to get off Voyager of the Seas.

This begs the question - what did RCL do really well on this ship?

They got you on the ship quickly and they got you off the ship quickly - and wonderfully fore those who got to experience it, they left Giovanni's to get on with the job of great customer service, even when the ship's stores had run out of menu items, they provided a guenuine apology and lovely alternatives - they are the epiteme of a flagship restaurant on board a cruise ship and really made the cruise for many diners onboard. Hopefully they will jump ship to another line and many more passengers can be treated like australian clientele - understanding, forgiving, easy going but far, far from stupid.

Voyager of the Seas April 2015, out of Freemantle - Having sailed with other cruise lines I have a significant amount of underpinning knowledge to give towards this review ...

 

First things first - this is a very american style ship attempting to embed itself into the AU cruising market, as has other cruise lines before it, however, it has not done anywhere near the market research of other lines or simply does not include it into their duty of care or goodwill factor of customer service. 'They are here to make money and not friends', was the overall impression of a significant number of the passengers of the cruise we recently undertook. It is a very large ship and booked to capacity, they can afford to lose first time cruisers or those who have never sailed with them before, who are not satisfied with the overall RCL experience once tried, as long as aussies want to keep trying this cruise line and RCL can keep them curious.

 

 

You cannot rely on having the majority of your passengers recreate on some new toy attractions (flowrider, rockclimbwall, skate rink) to provide evidence of overall high standard of accommodation (cleanliness, laundry of bedding, maximum utilisation of passenger cabin facilities), hospitality (food and beverage, dining facilities, bathroom facilities) and duty of care (safety standards, quality of product, customer service education and information, allowance for age range of passengers) - customers are simply not that stupid.

 

Having sailed on a number of different cruise lines, we can safely say we have never felt so controlled and manipulated, as to how we recreate in our valuable spare time paid for with our hard earned money, as we experienced on this cruise. We were very alarmed by a number of security issues on board, that could have been so easily and significantly managed so much better. Travellers need to be aware that the AU Gov expects them to behave as the legal guardians of their passports and you can be fined, penalised and incur replacement costs for irresponsible care, misuse or theft of your passport. Indeed, the DFAT (Dept Foreign Affairs & Trade) website which is responsible for AU traveller education and warnings, clearly states that you do not hand over your passport unless you are under arrest/detention for some reason. Yet the first thing, this US Cruise Co. does is make you surrender your passport on embarkation, under the proviso that it is needed for visa arrangements for port visits/tours. If you do not hand it over, you do not board the ship and lose your money and time that YOU have paid for. Importantly, no where in the customer education that we were issued prior to check in and board, was this published or disclosed to us. However, we were required to advise RCL of all the details contained within our passport, weeks prior to departure as part of our booking process - so this begs the question - do they really need to confiscate a National Identity document, that you are the legal guardian of, when they already have those details? On any other ship we have been on, we have been respected to manage our own passport entry and evidence stamp at any port visit that required it - so what is the importance for RCL to be in custody of a document that does not belong to them - does the airline confiscate your passport for the duration of the flight? Indeed if RCL is so concerned with security issues, why can anyone who enters a passengers' cabin, simply turn on the cabin TV and access your private financial information in the form of your online cruise account and restaurant reservations for dining options that demand a surcharge (these details are not password protected or require a PIN to open. The return of passports required thousands of passengers to line up at a single point of storage, at a venue that had been double booked, resulting in waiting times of up to 4 hours for some passengers in very long lines with no proviso of duty of care for frail, injured, non ambulant, unwell or elderly customers - the words "shambles, complete debarcle, criminal neglect' were frequently used.

 

Acommodation - Our cabin upon embarkation, had rubbish, bottle tops, coins and other assorted items all over the floor. The sheets has significant staining post laundering, which was alarming in size and colour. The small fridge in cabin, is so small and under performed it did not keep drinks cold, let alone make ice or be foodsafe to keep fresh food in. This forces people to eat and drink outside of the cabins except for room service options, which are extremely limited. For 6 out of the 13 days of the trip, our balcony was completely covered in black soot rain. It started at night which we did not detect and resulted in permanent staining of expensive formal attire, which we had to try and clean as soon as possible the next morning in our cabin bathroom as importantly for families in particular, this ship has no passenger laundry options of any kind other than the ships laundry service which is not cheap to use. A number of days into the trip the badly worn and stained hallway carpets were very damp and smelly and attempts by the ship did not remove the source of the damp or the pungent odour.

 

Hospitality - Never have we heard so much negative feedback in regard to wait times, quality of food and selection of beverages, as we did on this ship. The formal dining room in particular was understaffed, food quality tasted of the cook/chill/ reheat method and was an american menu that had very little reflection on the variety and quality of fresh produce that australians prefer to order and consume. Very little in way of australian range of beers, wines or champagnes - mostly american and expensive. The specialty restaurants which demand a surcharge of between $25 to up to $70 per head, just for food items were very hit and miss and waiter service ranged from arrogant and misleading to complacent and downright dishonest WITH the exception of one venue - Giovanni's table. This small tasteful italian eatery felt like it had landed on the ship from another planet. The decor, staff, food and service was exceptional and RCL should take a good hard look at this team and how they go about business. Food in buffet is very american and often hard to find a seat. Outdoor bar areas close very early for travels into hot, humid tropical waters which does not allow for one of the main things aussie travellers love most - relaxing under the stars on the top decks in the middle of the night, after a session at the show, nightclub or casino, and having a coldie, debriefing on the days activities, friendly arguments about the worlds problems, big laughs about who cheated at mini golf, knowing they do not have to rush, because the bar closes 1030 - 1100 pm, forcing everyone inside to purchase a drink, which could not be purchased more than one at a time or less than 10 minutes apart. Drinks packages were described as 'Sneaky, Greedy' in that many people bought them thinking the price they paid covered the duration of the cruise and was not a daily charge, due to lack of sufficient/correct/current printed education and very poor explanations provided by too few and too language challenged staff, allocated to spruik these packages. Items advertised on the packages were either not available or not honoured by RCL and this was particularly offensive, as it was not due to abuse by the owner of the product/package which can cost up to $80 AU a day and still only includes few wines, beers and cocktails. Some very obvious cocktails were priced 70 cents more than the package allowance, yet purchasers were not allowed to pay the extra 70 cents for these cocktails - you have to wonder what the thinking is there? On some of the busiest decks and entertainment venues, bathrooms contained single male and female toilet cubicles for areas designed to cater to hundreds of people, resulting in frustration and distress for frail or elderly. Many public areas were lit by heat generating bulbs which compounded environmental factors aboard the ship. What many people did not realise was this voyage did not stop at the beautiful asian waterways or harbours of the destination countries, but instead anchored at large major industrial ports (very noisy/smoggy if you chose to stay on board) and no tender boat service were used. Excursions were started with an often very delayed bus trip for hours to get to where tours started only to be rushed through tours in an hour or two, in what should have been a comfortable afternoon, only to be rushed back to a bus and get back to a ship late to have missed their allocated dining time or chance to see a show. Ironically, the day after disembarkation, the ship travelled back to the beautiful area of Na Trang in Vietnam and employed the tender service, rather than herd all the passengers onto late crowded buses from an industrial port hours away - what message does this send to aussie passengers about RCL's care factor to them as a client base? "We've got your money, now shutup and get on the bus".?

 

Customer Duty of Care - This was wildly inconsistent throughout the ship. Badly maintained safety strips on steps were located around the corner from smooth marble steps and unlevel paving that wet feet added further traction issues to. Circular stairs were far to narrow for adult feet to tread confidently. Pool deck events were boycotted and seriously endangered by the fact that the live band/dancing area was allocated to one that was constantly slopped over by the pool right next to it - a safety risk to electrical gear for performers and those few who did attempt to dance, many slipped and fell and were only supported and attended to by their fellow passengers - no management presence was evident to provide supervision of these events. Pools were far too small for size of ship and number of passengers - many people developed illnessess after 3 or 4 days in pools/spas. These were significant illnesses which required IV treatment from Med Clinic eg Strepthroat. Many had rash from Spa usage.No drinks in glasses were allowed at pool deck tables yet people hijinked around in the spas with glass stubbies in hand? Pool deck staff were run off their feet and suffered genuinely due to lack of numbers and management support - interestingly RCL used recent refurbishment to increase the number of cabins/passengers by hundreds - where was the matching staff ratio?. The bones of the ship felt very cramped compared to other ships for us who have no mobility issues, so must have presented a challenge to those who did. We spoke to a 74/75 yr old couple who boarded late at the port due to a delayed flight and were advised all the porters had embarked and they would need to carry their own luggage up the gangway onto the ship and they had booked one of the largest suites on the ship. Customer Service education or information was often non existent or misleading or simply not honored. Daily program activity information was constantly repeated on the hardcopy newsletter each day, wasting massive dollars and paper - ironic for a line that promotes themselves as eco friendly (Save the Waves campaign). I repeat, Aussies are easy going and very patient, but they are far from stupid. Entertainment which was organised on sector/deck basis did not allow for allocated dining times - no one thought to cross reference many organisational aspects - resulting in lots of double ups and very poor communication from area managers in terms of entertainment and hospitality, which unfortunately flowed onto passenger inconvenience.

 

Sometimes you are lucky and can travel in a bubble on board a cruise ship immune to the negatives and customer dissatisfaction - but I doubt there will be many on the trip we took who will have achieved this, based on the hundreds of passengers who could not wait to get off Voyager of the Seas.

 

This begs the question - what did RCL do really well on this ship?

 

They got you on the ship quickly and they got you off the ship quickly - and wonderfully fore those who got to experience it, they left Giovanni's to get on with the job of great customer service, even when the ship's stores had run out of menu items, they provided a guenuine apology and lovely alternatives - they are the epiteme of a flagship restaurant on board a cruise ship and really made the cruise for many diners onboard. Hopefully they will jump ship to another line and many more passengers can be treated like australian clientele - understanding, forgiving, easy going but far, far from stupid.

welcome to cruise critic

So did you make another booking whilst on-board? :) Stopped reading at some point, but just wanted to say that collection of passports for pre-clearance at next port of call is not restricted to just this one voyage or cruiseline.

Franticadventures , we too were on the same cruise as you . But our trip was so differant than yours , i would even go as far as saying i would of thought we were on differant ships . We have cruised several times and have always had our passports taken from us .The ports we stopped at are unfortunately located sevel hours from cities , however we have stopped at these ports on othe cruise lines and the all tie up at the same place . The beverage package we bought for AU$53 covered all alcohol beverages except for high price wine and champagnes. Not sure why you would be charged for cocktails priced higher than a certain amount. We were drinking variois cocktails and spirits and never were charged . We found all restaurants to be very good and all service from everyone exceptional. Our only issue was dealing with some wingeing Aussies who thought they should be getting 5star service on a cruise that is classed as casual . We met many people onboard and have kept in contact with a few , alll had an excellant time . We are now going to book next years relocation cruise from Sydney to Singapore .

Sad you are not feeling well.

 

But put 40 people on a bus and 1 or 2 will go home coughing.

Put 400 people on a plane as a percentage will get a cough.

Put 4000 on a ship and ...................

 

I taught Outdoor Ed for many years that involved excursions every few weeks. People always got a cough after sharing air with others.

 

It is sad and so annoying but I don't think it is a 'sick ship' problem.

And I'm not being mean saying that, it's just a fact of humanity.

 

R

We've been on about 35 cruises and don't recall hardly any coughing from the passengers...especially reports of a fever & a everywhere rash. :)

Voyager of the Seas April 2015, out of Freemantle - Having sailed with other cruise lines I have a significant amount of underpinning knowledge to give towards this review ...

 

First things first - this is a very american style ship attempting to embed itself into the AU cruising market, as has other cruise lines before it, however, it has not done anywhere near the market research of other lines or simply does not include it into their duty of care or goodwill factor of customer service. 'They are here to make money and not friends', was the overall impression of a significant number of the passengers of the cruise we recently undertook. It is a very large ship and booked to capacity, they can afford to lose first time cruisers or those who have never sailed with them before, who are not satisfied with the overall RCL experience once tried, as long as aussies want to keep trying this cruise line and RCL can keep them curious.

 

You cannot rely on having the majority of your passengers recreate on some new toy attractions (flowrider, rockclimbwall, skate rink) to provide evidence of overall high standard of accommodation (cleanliness, laundry of bedding, maximum utilisation of passenger cabin facilities), hospitality (food and beverage, dining facilities, bathroom facilities) and duty of care (safety standards, quality of product, customer service education and information, allowance for age range of passengers) - customers are simply not that stupid.

 

Having sailed on a number of different cruise lines, we can safely say we have never felt so controlled and manipulated, as to how we recreate in our valuable spare time paid for with our hard earned money, as we experienced on this cruise. We were very alarmed by a number of security issues on board, that could have been so easily and significantly managed so much better. Travellers need to be aware that the AU Gov expects them to behave as the legal guardians of their passports and you can be fined, penalised and incur replacement costs for irresponsible care, misuse or theft of your passport. Indeed, the DFAT (Dept Foreign Affairs & Trade) website which is responsible for AU traveller education and warnings, clearly states that you do not hand over your passport unless you are under arrest/detention for some reason. Yet the first thing, this US Cruise Co. does is make you surrender your passport on embarkation, under the proviso that it is needed for visa arrangements for port visits/tours. If you do not hand it over, you do not board the ship and lose your money and time that YOU have paid for. Importantly, no where in the customer education that we were issued prior to check in and board, was this published or disclosed to us. However, we were required to advise RCL of all the details contained within our passport, weeks prior to departure as part of our booking process - so this begs the question - do they really need to confiscate a National Identity document, that you are the legal guardian of, when they already have those details? On any other ship we have been on, we have been respected to manage our own passport entry and evidence stamp at any port visit that required it - so what is the importance for RCL to be in custody of a document that does not belong to them - does the airline confiscate your passport for the duration of the flight? Indeed if RCL is so concerned with security issues, why can anyone who enters a passengers' cabin, simply turn on the cabin TV and access your private financial information in the form of your online cruise account and restaurant reservations for dining options that demand a surcharge (these details are not password protected or require a PIN to open. The return of passports required thousands of passengers to line up at a single point of storage, at a venue that had been double booked, resulting in waiting times of up to 4 hours for some passengers in very long lines with no proviso of duty of care for frail, injured, non ambulant, unwell or elderly customers - the words "shambles, complete debarcle, criminal neglect' were frequently used.

 

Acommodation - Our cabin upon embarkation, had rubbish, bottle tops, coins and other assorted items all over the floor. The sheets has significant staining post laundering, which was alarming in size and colour. The small fridge in cabin, is so small and under performed it did not keep drinks cold, let alone make ice or be foodsafe to keep fresh food in. This forces people to eat and drink outside of the cabins except for room service options, which are extremely limited. For 6 out of the 13 days of the trip, our balcony was completely covered in black soot rain. It started at night which we did not detect and resulted in permanent staining of expensive formal attire, which we had to try and clean as soon as possible the next morning in our cabin bathroom as importantly for families in particular, this ship has no passenger laundry options of any kind other than the ships laundry service which is not cheap to use. A number of days into the trip the badly worn and stained hallway carpets were very damp and smelly and attempts by the ship did not remove the source of the damp or the pungent odour.

 

Hospitality - Never have we heard so much negative feedback in regard to wait times, quality of food and selection of beverages, as we did on this ship. The formal dining room in particular was understaffed, food quality tasted of the cook/chill/ reheat method and was an american menu that had very little reflection on the variety and quality of fresh produce that australians prefer to order and consume. Very little in way of australian range of beers, wines or champagnes - mostly american and expensive. The specialty restaurants which demand a surcharge of between $25 to up to $70 per head, just for food items were very hit and miss and waiter service ranged from arrogant and misleading to complacent and downright dishonest WITH the exception of one venue - Giovanni's table. This small tasteful italian eatery felt like it had landed on the ship from another planet. The decor, staff, food and service was exceptional and RCL should take a good hard look at this team and how they go about business. Food in buffet is very american and often hard to find a seat. Outdoor bar areas close very early for travels into hot, humid tropical waters which does not allow for one of the main things aussie travellers love most - relaxing under the stars on the top decks in the middle of the night, after a session at the show, nightclub or casino, and having a coldie, debriefing on the days activities, friendly arguments about the worlds problems, big laughs about who cheated at mini golf, knowing they do not have to rush, because the bar closes 1030 - 1100 pm, forcing everyone inside to purchase a drink, which could not be purchased more than one at a time or less than 10 minutes apart. Drinks packages were described as 'Sneaky, Greedy' in that many people bought them thinking the price they paid covered the duration of the cruise and was not a daily charge, due to lack of sufficient/correct/current printed education and very poor explanations provided by too few and too language challenged staff, allocated to spruik these packages. Items advertised on the packages were either not available or not honoured by RCL and this was particularly offensive, as it was not due to abuse by the owner of the product/package which can cost up to $80 AU a day and still only includes few wines, beers and cocktails. Some very obvious cocktails were priced 70 cents more than the package allowance, yet purchasers were not allowed to pay the extra 70 cents for these cocktails - you have to wonder what the thinking is there? On some of the busiest decks and entertainment venues, bathrooms contained single male and female toilet cubicles for areas designed to cater to hundreds of people, resulting in frustration and distress for frail or elderly. Many public areas were lit by heat generating bulbs which compounded environmental factors aboard the ship. What many people did not realise was this voyage did not stop at the beautiful asian waterways or harbours of the destination countries, but instead anchored at large major industrial ports (very noisy/smoggy if you chose to stay on board) and no tender boat service were used. Excursions were started with an often very delayed bus trip for hours to get to where tours started only to be rushed through tours in an hour or two, in what should have been a comfortable afternoon, only to be rushed back to a bus and get back to a ship late to have missed their allocated dining time or chance to see a show. Ironically, the day after disembarkation, the ship travelled back to the beautiful area of Na Trang in Vietnam and employed the tender service, rather than herd all the passengers onto late crowded buses from an industrial port hours away - what message does this send to aussie passengers about RCL's care factor to them as a client base? "We've got your money, now shutup and get on the bus".?

 

Customer Duty of Care - This was wildly inconsistent throughout the ship. Badly maintained safety strips on steps were located around the corner from smooth marble steps and unlevel paving that wet feet added further traction issues to. Circular stairs were far to narrow for adult feet to tread confidently. Pool deck events were boycotted and seriously endangered by the fact that the live band/dancing area was allocated to one that was constantly slopped over by the pool right next to it - a safety risk to electrical gear for performers and those few who did attempt to dance, many slipped and fell and were only supported and attended to by their fellow passengers - no management presence was evident to provide supervision of these events. Pools were far too small for size of ship and number of passengers - many people developed illnessess after 3 or 4 days in pools/spas. These were significant illnesses which required IV treatment from Med Clinic eg Strepthroat. Many had rash from Spa usage.No drinks in glasses were allowed at pool deck tables yet people hijinked around in the spas with glass stubbies in hand? Pool deck staff were run off their feet and suffered genuinely due to lack of numbers and management support - interestingly RCL used recent refurbishment to increase the number of cabins/passengers by hundreds - where was the matching staff ratio?. The bones of the ship felt very cramped compared to other ships for us who have no mobility issues, so must have presented a challenge to those who did. We spoke to a 74/75 yr old couple who boarded late at the port due to a delayed flight and were advised all the porters had embarked and they would need to carry their own luggage up the gangway onto the ship and they had booked one of the largest suites on the ship. Customer Service education or information was often non existent or misleading or simply not honored. Daily program activity information was constantly repeated on the hardcopy newsletter each day, wasting massive dollars and paper - ironic for a line that promotes themselves as eco friendly (Save the Waves campaign). I repeat, Aussies are easy going and very patient, but they are far from stupid. Entertainment which was organised on sector/deck basis did not allow for allocated dining times - no one thought to cross reference many organisational aspects - resulting in lots of double ups and very poor communication from area managers in terms of entertainment and hospitality, which unfortunately flowed onto passenger inconvenience.

 

Sometimes you are lucky and can travel in a bubble on board a cruise ship immune to the negatives and customer dissatisfaction - but I doubt there will be many on the trip we took who will have achieved this, based on the hundreds of passengers who could not wait to get off Voyager of the Seas.

 

This begs the question - what did RCL do really well on this ship?

 

They got you on the ship quickly and they got you off the ship quickly - and wonderfully fore those who got to experience it, they left Giovanni's to get on with the job of great customer service, even when the ship's stores had run out of menu items, they provided a guenuine apology and lovely alternatives - they are the epiteme of a flagship restaurant on board a cruise ship and really made the cruise for many diners onboard. Hopefully they will jump ship to another line and many more passengers can be treated like australian clientele - understanding, forgiving, easy going but far, far from stupid.

Great Information...Hopefully Royal Caribbean WILL Pay Attention.