Voyager from Bayonne review

We just came back from nine days on the Voyager leaving from bayone. I was in Aft cabin #8690 with my wife and 13 year old son. My parents were in a promenade cabin.

We all had a Great time, the Ship is magnificent very similar to the Navigator.
The weather was great. We enjoyed all the ports. The ship never stopped at Freeport Bahamas, we were supposed to stop at an oil refinery and they had an accident at the dock. We were surprised that they didn't tender us in like we did last time when we went at Freeport.

We have 2 major complains with RCI.
1) Getting to Bayone was very easy, droping the luggage and parking took only a few minutes. We waited 2 HOURS in line to get our seapasses. They said that the computers went down the night before (as a computer programmer for 28 years I didn't buy that they could fix it overnight). They knew who was comming on the cruise a few month ago (since we had to pay in full 72 days prior to the cruise). They didn't have the seapasses were not printed?. RCI blew it on this one.
2) We had the corner aft cabin #8690. The cabin was great with a large balcony that had no obstructions. There was an old lady in the cabin next to ours #8692 she was a chain smoker (her husband died of cancer) and the worst part was that the smoke came to our cabin thu the VENTS!!. We complained to our cabin stuart and the front desk, we even left her a note requesting that she smokes on the balcony. She smoked at 3AM, 4AM and 5AM we didnt sleep for a few days. She finally moved on day 7.

The following are not complaints just remarks.
Jonny Rockets sucked, the service was so bad that it took 20 minutes for my wife to get a glass of water after asking 3 different waiters. The hamburgers and fries were much better at the windjammer.
To the heavy set 70+ years old lady in a bikini thanks.
And to the young ladies in bikinis Thank you.

The shows were good, the Ice show was excellent not to be missed.
The cruise director James Andrews was fantastic, one of the best that we ever had. We even had a chance to talk to him a few time.
We had great service. My son enjoyed the pizza at the cafe.
Getting off the ship was very fast and easy. Many people didn't want to get off the ship first since they were serving breakfast and were ready to serve lunch, the icering and the climbing wall was open and many people were in the jacuzzi.

Art Auction: We did it again, bought 3 original prints. We have no idea where we are going to put them, we don't have any more walls. We didn't like the auctioneer, he was like a carpet salesman and was deceiving the 1st two auctions about the Rembrents and the signed in plates prints. The last few days he was a little better about explaining the art work.

We met many nice people including a couple that remembered from the Galaxy a couple of years ago. We also met a group of people from Israel and we found out that they were my sister's neighbours.

I won a computer mouse for knowing more than anyone else about RCI on the meet and mingle. I guess watching all these documentaries about cruise ships paid off.

Again Voyager is a great ship and we had a great time. Ezi

Thanks, Ezi for the review. It sounds like they're ironing out the disembarkation.We're sailing on 7-16. Can't wait! Was the Freeport stop turned into an at-sea day? How formally were people dressed on the formal nights? Tuxes/gowns?

Every cruiser is fully entitled to his opinions and impressions. It always interests me how very differently people can see things:

[quote name='ezi-amy']We just came back from nine days on the Voyager leaving from bayone. I was in Aft cabin #8690 with my wife and 13 year old son. My parents were in a promenade cabin.

We all had a Great time, the Ship is magnificent very similar to the Navigator.
The weather was great. We enjoyed all the ports. The ship never stopped at Freeport Bahamas, we were supposed to stop at an oil refinery and they had an accident at the dock. We were surprised that they didn't tender us in like we did last time when we went at Freeport.[/QUOTE]

Another person who was on this cruise posted that they made an announcement that the accident had damaged the pier so that NO ships could dock: large (cruise ships) or small (tenders).

[QUOTE]We have 2 major complains with RCI.
1) Getting to Bayone was very easy, droping the luggage and parking took only a few minutes. We waited 2 HOURS in line to get our seapasses. They said that the computers went down the night before (as a computer programmer for 28 years I didn't buy that they could fix it overnight). They knew who was comming on the cruise a few month ago (since we had to pay in full 72 days prior to the cruise). They didn't have the seapasses were not printed?. RCI blew it on this one.[/QUOTE] RCI doesn't print them up ahead of time; they are prepared on the spot as you check in, by those very computers.
[QUOTE]2) We had the corner aft cabin #8690. The cabin was great with a large balcony that had no obstructions. There was an old lady in the cabin next to ours #8692 she was a chain smoker (her husband died of cancer) and the worst part was that the smoke came to our cabin thu the VENTS!!. We complained to our cabin stuart and the front desk, we even left her a note requesting that she smokes on the balcony. She smoked at 3AM, 4AM and 5AM we didnt sleep for a few days. She finally moved on day 7.[/QUOTE]This is hardly Royal Caribbean's fault! Unfortunately for non-smokers, smoking IS permitted.

I am glad that you had a great cruise. We are looking forward to ours.

Carol

Hi Carol,

I was on 10 cruises and this was the 1st time that the seapasses were not printed ahead of time. Last August we sailed on Navigator leaving from Miami and all the passes were pre-printed. When we left from Balimore on Celebraty's Galaxy they had all the cards in boxes ready to be handed out, that took a couple of minutes. As a computer programmer for 28 years I know that it shouldn't take all night to fix them and if one laptop worked all the others should have.

The People next door had every right to smoke in their cabin BUT the big problem wasn't that the smoke came from under the front door or from the balcony; the smoke came from the AIR VENT our room was so smoky that all 3 of us couldn't sleep all night. My wife works in hospital, she is the infection control specialist. Now think about this if someone has an airborn virus that can travel through the vents it will spread so fast you'll have every one on the ship sick. The vent should not be connected from cabin to cabin. This was the first time that we had a problem with smoker next door.

Dress code was almost non existant in the dining room. They allowed people in shorts every night in the dining room. Formal night consisted from Tuxedos to Kids in shorts. I don't like to dress up, I never wore shorts in the dinning room and on formal nights I had a sport jacket with different dress pants and dress shirts and ties. My 13 year old son was dresses in a jacket dress pants and a tie aon formal nights.

We loved every cruise line that we sailed with, except for carnival which I know we will not sail with them again. Ezi

Thanks for your responses, Ezi. That's rather distressing about the dining room. We talk about this all the time on Cruise Critic, and people certainly have different opinions, but RCI just refuses to enforce its own policies. Shorts in the dining room at dinner are supposed to be absolutely forbidden, but if the RCI personnel don't do anything about it, there's nothing that other passengers can do. :(

Oh, and I see now what you mean about the smoking. I wouldn't have liked that at all either! You are right about the idea of free passage of air from cabin to cabin through the vents being rather unsettling.

Carol

RCI has had a very lax attitude over dining room dress for a good while now. Perhaps their ease of dress is why so many people book cruises with them. :rolleyes:

Hi Ezi-Amy,

Glad you had a good time. We'll be on the 7/30/04 cruise. Did you bring your own car and park in Bayonne? We're debating renting a limo or bringing two cars down and parking there ourselves. Any pros or cons to either of these options?

Also how was the coffee? Do I need to bring my own? I've heard in previous posts how bad the coffee was!

Thanks!

Thanks for posting your review. We were on the 5/21 sailing and we loved it. I need to book another cruise soon. Brings back all the memories!

Mom8386 - the coffee is Seattle's Best. It is very strong...just the way my husband and I like it. It is NOT bitter, does not have a burned taste, it is just delightfully full-bodied and strong... Where I work there are two coffee stations, one with weaker and one with stronger brews...everyone has their own opinion and argues that one or the other is best/terrible. I loved the coffee on the Voyager!

Ezi-ami: Do you have any of the compasses from your son's age group (12-14)? Did he go to any of the kids club activities (teen actually I guess!)? What did he think of it? How bad was it with him right above you? We have cabin 7388 in Sept and our 9 year old will be above us if I can't squeeze him across the hall with his older brothers! Thanks!

Thanks Alex Drew! That's just the way I like my coffee. It seems like such a little thing, but I do love a good strong cup of coffee. You have really put my mind at ease. Thanks!

Hello
I only drank decaffat breakfast and that was OK. My father drank reg coffee all the time and he didn't complain about it.

My wife and mother drank tea they ran out of regular decaff by Day 6. Our waiter was great he ran up 4 decks and stole reg. decaff tea from roomservice and brought enough for my mother to last the rest of the cruise. The last day they totally ran out of tea of any kind. they also ran out of a few other things (nothing major).

One more thing about our waiter Wayne from Jamaica, he was fantastic. My parents eat only kosher food (they also ae fish and from the vegaterian menu). The Wayne went way out of his way to accommodate them. Wednesday night we were joking that my father alway ate spaghetti with sauce and 2 eggs every thursday night, well guess what? Thursday night the waiter surprised us all by bringing my father spaghetti (that was not on the menu that night) with sauce and 2 hard boiled eggs.

Yes we have the compasses from the age group (12-14). They had Great activities but most of the kids didn't do any of them including my son. Its the age group, we talked to many parents with kids in the same age group and they all said the samething that they didn't want to participate. This is my son's 8th cruise and he always went to the kids programs and had a great time, last cruise on the navigator and this cruise were the only time that he didn't join the activities. He still had a great time going to the shows, he like the ice show and loved Jeff Harris the juggler; first thing he did when we got home is to check out Jeff's website. On the Navigator we went ice skating and climed the wall.
Ezi