Back from Voyager 4/29-5/6

What a huge impressive ship! A great time was had by all. The ship seems to be kept up very well.This was Voyager's last sailing from Miami. She is on her way to Europe for the summer, and when she returns to the U.S., her home port will be Galveston.

We live in Florida, so we left on Friday to start our 9 hour drive to Miami. We stopped that night in Palm Beach, and drove on in to Miami Saturday morning. We got to the pier around 11:30, and were inside on our deck waiting for our cabin to open up by 12:45. Our room, (JR suite 9280) had plenty of space and storage for 4. It was me, dh, and 2 ds's, 15 & 19. After we settled into our room, we proceeded to Windjammer for lunch, then did a little exploring until Muster Drill time. After that, we went to the pool deck for what was supposed to be a 5 pm sail away. We waited until we had to go to dinner at 6 with still no sail away, and no explaination(that we heard) why we were so late. Finally, in the middle of dinner, we started to move. We later found out that a large group of pax from Texas had gotten delayed enroute, and the Captain held the ship for them. We were disappointed we missed sail away, but we thought it was nice of the Capt. to wait for them.

I was impressed that we got all of our bags (10) before dinner! Our room steward Fred, and our wait staff, Dania and Christian took good care of all of us. It seemed to me that we got a little better service on the Enchantment 2 years ago, but Voyager's staff was good, too. I just felt that the "personal touch" we got on Enchantment was lost among the 3400 pax on a ship this size.

As for the ports, Dh and I have been to Nassau and St. Thomas before, so we were excited to experience the ports of San Juan and Labadee. San Juan was kind of a flop, only because the weather was rainy the whole time we were there. We had the 4 wheeler tour booked, which was fun, but we got rain soaked and had to ride for an hour back to the ship on a bus cold,wet, and very muddy!

Labadee started out cloudy and rainy, too, but by lunch, the weather turned off beautiful! We did the Waverunner tour there, and now my family has Waverunner Fever! LOL:D Labadee is a very beautiful place, but the people who live there are VERY agressive trying to sell their goods. I know this is their sole source of income, but we had a man in a canoe paddle up to us in the middle of our waverunner tour while our guide was talking to the group to try and sell his stuff. When dh told him he didn't have any money on him at the time, he asked dh for his watch!

I know this is getting long, so I'll try to wrap it up.:o Overall, the entertainment was great. The CD Simeon Baker was funny, Quest was hilarious, the ice show was spectacular, and the food was pretty good. Not great, but good. Yes, we saw people in the dining room in shorts and jeans every night, no, it did not lessen our dining experience. The Promenade was impressive and very pretty. Disembarking was a NIGHTMARE! People standing in line for an hour with no direction from the staff, and people coming from everywhere cutting in line!:mad:

We had a terriffic time, but I don't know if we will sail a ship this size again. I'm thinking maybe Radiance class next, and possibly Alaska, since we have done Eastern and Western Carribbean. If anyone has any questions, I will be glad to try and answer them!

This is my review, and my family's experiences and opinions only. Nothing negative is directed toward RCI in any way! LOL;)

Labadee is a very beautiful place, but the people who live there are VERY agressive trying to sell their goods. I know this is their sole source of income, but we had a man in a canoe paddle up to us in the middle of our waverunner tour while our guide was talking to the group to try and sell his stuff. When dh told him he didn't have any money on him at the time, he asked dh for his watch!

I know it wasn't probably funny at the time, but this did cause me to choke while drinking & reading and lose my mouthful on my monitor...:) Glad you had a great time!!!

Loved your review, wanted it to carry on!!! Many thanks really good reading!!

ck1234, actually, the guy in the canoe was kinda funny. He had all kinds of shells, crafts, and paintings in his canoe. He paddled up to each and every one of us while the tour guide had us gathered together telling us about the reefs and such. On the way back to the dock, a canoe with 3 more Hatians in it paddled right through the middle of our tour while we were all going over 40mph! We were spaced out about 100 yds. each, 12 waverunners in all , in a line, and they paddled right between the 7th and 8th runners!!:eek: The last 4 us had to swerve out of the line we were supposed to say in to avoid crashing into them!

Rachel, thanks for the compliment, I love to write, so I tend to get wordy.;)

It is not the Voyager's last sailing from Miami. We are sailing from Miami on the Voyager on December 2nd for a western carib cruise.

Last cruise for the summer... PLus, the OP forgot to mention about the extra show we all got on Friday. hough it was for an emergency and we all hope the crew member is safe and okay, but they did an emergency medical evac via helicopter.

It is not the Voyager's last sailing from Miami. We are sailing from Miami on the Voyager on December 2nd for a western carib cruise.

Oops, my bad. I was just going by what we were told by our server Dania.:cool:

Last cruise for the summer... PLus, the OP forgot to mention about the extra show we all got on Friday. hough it was for an emergency and we all hope the crew member is safe and okay, but they did an emergency medical evac via helicopter.

Yep, you're right. I left out the part about the crew member having to be air lifted away. That happend while we were right in the middle of the Jackpot Bingo session!:p I also left out how the Capt. gave us an extra hour in St. Thomas....