If I fit it all, last part of VOS review, 7/16/04 sailing!

Day 10 – Departure

Another early day for me. I got up to see if the cell phone worked (it didn’t), and to watch as we approached the city. Visibility was lousy. I went back to bed for a short time.

Got up, went out to see as we approached NYC. Nice views, even on a cloudy morning. Got cell phone service, but it was a little early to make any calls. This time, when we passed under the Verazano Narrows Bridge, I was on Deck 13 above the Sky Bar. I got to see both the front mast and the smoke stacks as they cleared the bridge.

Had breakfast, then went down to declare to U. S. Customs my purchases.

OK, how Customs worked for our cruise: If you are NOT a U.S. Citizen, you MUST meet with U.S. Immigration at Cleopatra’s Needle after we dock.

If you ARE a U.S. Citizen, and you have exceeded your limits ($600 per Caribbean island, $800 total, 1 bottle of liquor per adult, 1 carton of cigarettes per adult, carrying over $10,000 in cash), you had to declare it to Customs. We did this by filling out the form and presenting it to Customs in the Conference Room (Deck 2, forward) after we docked. As long as you don’t exceed the absolute limit of cigarettes and are not bringing in any Cuban cigars, they figure out how much it costs, and make note of it on the form. (We had gone past the limit for liquor, so we ended up having to pay $3 per bottle in duty. This gets paid at the terminal, cash only.)

It appears nobody gets to leave the ship until Customs and Immigration are satisfied.

Next, you wait in public areas until your color is called. (This has been gone over many times, so I won’t elaborate.) Once your color is called, you go to Deck 2-Aft. You walk down the stairs with your carryon, and wait for them to let you exit and go onto a bus. When leaving the ship, you will need to show your photo ID to the Customs agent by the gangplank.

The bus will take you to the terminal. You go to the appropriate color area for your luggage, pick it up, get a porter (another $2 per bag), and go to your car, bus, whatever. On the way out, you need to hand in your customs form. If you owe money, you go to the cashier and pay it. Otherwise, there are agents waiting to grab the form from you as you leave. You don’t leave until this is done, and you can’t go back once you have done it.

Now, where do you wait before being called? I saw a number of people hanging out on Deck 2 waiting for their color. Not comfortable, crowed, and boring. Stay away! The ship was showing TV Shows in the La Scala Theater. I didn’t want to fight that crowd. It didn’t take long to decide on the 19th Hole on Deck 14-Aft. In general, the Crown Victoria area on Deck 14 is very quiet. Seating is comfortable and the space is roomy. We hung around with “cruzeluvr” and DW while waiting our turns.

Now, the best part was when we did get called, we were only a few steps from the elevators, and we were the first ones on. If anyone else wanted to get on, they would have to see if they could fit.

Interestingly, this worked even better. When our color was called, we went straight to the elevator and went down, non-stop, to Deck 2. We could see a number of people heading down the Promenade to get to the elevator. Because we were so quick, we beat the crowd from the theater and the front of the ship.

Once our color was called, it took a little time to work through to the bus, to our luggage, and paying our duty, but it didn’t take as long as it could have. (I am glad I took a bus. The car area was a zoo.) Our color was called at 12:30, and the bus was dropping us off not far from our home by 3:00.

Cell Phone Service Summary:

I know from some of the postings, and from my own curiosity, that some people want to know if their Cell Phones will work. Because of that, here is what I found during our VOS from Cape Liberty cruise. I use Verizon Wireless and have an America’s Choice Digital National Plan, but I did talk to some people who use AT&T.

On the day we left New York Harbor, we had cell phone service for quite awhile into the evening. At one point, the service was dropping in and out, but it would remain up long enough to be able to make a short call. Later in the evening, I found several people still making calls. When I checked my phone, I found it had a more stable signal. I went to bed before I lost my signal. From the next day on, nothing.

At George Town, Grand Cayman, AT&T users reported they did have a signal and were able to make calls. They were unable to tell me if and how much a roaming or long distance charges were going to be. My Verizon phone still had no service.

The next day, when sailing near the Florida Keys, I found my Verizon Cell Phone showed an analog/roaming signal. The signal came and went. It did not seem to be stable enough to make a call.

At Freeport, Bahamas, I stayed near the boat. While there, I found a very stable analog/roaming signal. From an earlier call I had made to Verizon Wireless, I was told if I did get a signal, I could make a call, but I would be charged a Roaming and Long Distance charge. I believe it would have cost me a little under $1 a minute. I did not make any calls. As we left Freeport, so did the signal.

On our last day at sea, I purposely checked my phone throughout the day. Even though we had sailed within a reasonable distance of the Outerbanks, I could not get a solid signal. My phone would get an analog signal that would sometimes switch to digital. It wasn’t stable enough to use. I found I could not dial out.

On the day we came into NYC, I found I did not get any signal early in the morning. An hour later, when we were in sight of the coast, I had a great signal.

I hope this helps.

BTW, don’t forget your charger! I talked to a few people who figured their phones would keep a charge for the week. It didn’t.

Final Summary:

This trip was for us to be a get-away without kids. It was something for us. The trip satisfied that purpose. In addition, it was on a wonderful ship, with good staff.

Was it perfect? No: A couple of times, our room was missing something (once, the large towels, once ice). Service at dinner was sometimes uneven at the beginning of the cruise. We couldn’t always get someone to take our drink order. The teens were a little out of control in the afternoons and evenings. Elevators were sometimes too full. This meant having to consider taking the stairs or taking an elevator the wrong way to go the right way. Taking tenders meant having to wait until they were full. It was warm and a little muggy almost every day. The ship does rock a little when in the Mid-Atlantic.

Having gone through those things, we went with a Good Attitude. All of the things listed above are small things. I didn’t let any of it bother me. Instead, we enjoyed the experience. Then to add taking a cruise on such a magnificent ship! Even though there were about 5000 people on the ship, it did not show any real wear. The public rooms were all really nice (although a couple of bars smelled of cigarette smoke). It was (usually) pretty easy to move about the ship. While most lounge chairs were occupied during the day, you could usually find something if you were patient and took the time to look. (Yes, the Lounge Chair Patrol was at work. I didn’t see them, but you could see the results.) The crew had a really good attitude and appeared to really want you to have a good time. The Cruise Director, James Andrews, could be seen around the ship talking to the passengers, then would do a great job of MC’ing whatever show he was running. (Listen for one of his jokes after the curtain goes down.)

We enjoyed the unexpected. This meant everything from our waiter giving me a soda without charging me on the last night, to our room steward giving us a bottle of champagne because he forgot to leave ice in our room one night. (We didn’t make a stink about the ice. I had just gone down to the Café Promenade and got some, myself. Problem solved!) (We shared the champagne with our dinner table mates.) We had a great time just talking to people. This included everyone from someone we met for 15 seconds on an elevator, to anyone we just happen to be sharing an experience with (such as sitting, watching a sunrise, or whatever). We even enjoyed razzing our waiter after we saw him ‘talking’ to some girls for awhile, and not even seeing us. (He didn’t quite ‘get’ it. We made sure he understood it was in fun, and not a complaint.)

We had a great time! Everyone, and everything contributed to it. Royal Caribbean and VOS provided a great place to do it. The staff provided great service. (Perfect, no. Human, yes.) The people were (mostly) friendly. So, do I recommend Royal Caribbean? Yes. Do I recommend VOS? Highly. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. (Actually, we are celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary next year, and are considering either an Alaska or Hawaii cruise. Maybe we will see you there?)

OK, so what discounts do I get for being a member of the Crown and Anchor Society? J

Thanks babchia's dh for a very interesting and thorough review. We'll be going on the VOS Canada cruise in October and you gave us alot of useful information. Glad you had a good time and Happy Anniversary.

I can't believe it! Babchia did it!

I finished that review last night, and gave it to her today. I had expected her to add some additional comments before posting it. She left it mostly intact (except for some minor corrections). Then, after all of that typing, I found it funny she took (I think) 11 posts to get all of the parts in.

Babchia, I will thank you later for this!

A couple of small additions I want to mention:

We brought a couple of beach towels with us. I was concerned about the $20 per towel charge if we left a ship's towel behind. By taking ours, we didn't care. (They did make it back.) In addition, they made great packing material for anything breakable when we went home (such as liquor).

We, also, brought an umbrella hanger. We used it to hang our wet towels and bathing suits in the bathroom after going to Labadee. It comes in handy wherever we go traveling.

One final thing, I don't drink coffee. (My loss.) Babchia repeatedly told me that the coffee on the ship is REALLY STRONG. (She had to add a lot of sugar and cream to make it drinkable.) Be aware of this possibility if you go on an RCCL cruise.

I really hope all of this information is useful to you. I found so much helpful information before our cruise thanks to the Cruise Critic Boards, and just wanted to return the favor.

DH

Hi Babchia & DH,

Wow, what an incredible review!!!!!!!!!!:D

I felt as though we were reliving the cruise. :)

I also have some pictures to send you, as soon as I finish sorting them out. Also have to scan some of the "professional" pictures from the ship's photographer. Will be in touch soon.

Sorry all. It appears all of the parts of the review were originally listed in separate posts.

I have copied and combined all of the parts of this review after Part 1.

Sorry about this mess.

Read the entire review at:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?postid=1744631

DH of Babchia

I read all of your pages. They are great. Thanks, it brought back memories of the week. We booked next year. Same ship, same week, same itinerary. We will do different things in each port.

Thanks again and nice meeting you at the CC party.

Robin

Did VOS have water slide?

The only water slide on the VOS is a small one for children. It is accessed at the back of the ship behind the children's programs area. You can access it by going past Johnny Rocket's.

It is themed like a light house and is cute, but it is not much for anyone but smaller children.

I am not sure, but I believe http://www.voyager-class.com has some information about it.

Babchia's DH

Does anyone know if the Ice Tea and Lemondae are free as I hear they are very very good

Going on the Voyager and just found out the Solarium isn't covered like it is on the other ships. Wondering if you can use the whirlpool in the gym if it's too cold to use the Solarium jacuzzis. Also, can you use the sauna at no charge or only with another spa procedure?

Bump

Does anyone know if the Ice Tea and Lemondae are free as I hear they are very very good

Both are free and very good.

Whirlpool in spa can be used at no extra cost.

Don't know about sauna.

The sauna and steam room are also free. There are lockers and towels in the dressing room.

Hey 1 week from now we will be on final countdown

Iced Tea and Lemonade are free when available. Just a warning about the Lemonade--it is very good if you like it SWEET. They sugar the hell out of it--I like it. When I was young I used to make lemonade with the powder...if it said to put in 1/2 a scoop, I would always put in double. Only one afternoon it was not sweet for some reason...

spanky

Does anyone know if the Ice Tea and Lemondae are free as I hear they are very very good

Thanks for the review. Going on VOS next year and wanted to know if there is free fruit punch on the buffet and did you have a safe in your cabin? :rolleyes:

Thanks for the review. Going on VOS next year and wanted to know if there is free fruit punch on the buffet and did you have a safe in your cabin? :rolleyes:

Didn't see any fruit punch.

There was a safe in our cabin

This is Babchia's DH.

There is a safe in every room. It was of an OK size. (I could have put my 35mm SLR camera in it if I wanted to.) (It was much bigger than that tiny thing I had at the Walt Disney World resorts.) There is no key: You set your own 4-digit number.

As for the free drinks, they will offer the following:

-For breakfast, they have orange and cranberry juice (plus coffee).

-For Lunch, they have Iced Tea and Lemonade (plus coffee).

I don't know what you can get for dinner. Water was always servered, and we did get Iced Tea without a problem.

You can always buy bottled water, soda, and other things (at the table in the Dining Room, or at the front of Windjammer).

I couldn't justify (money or sweets) the soda card (which includes soda and juice). I was able to get buy with an occasional soda or glass of wine (and lots of water at dinner). :-)

I hope that helps.