Voyager April 4, 2010 Review

[Paul65]

Hey!! Just back from a great week aboard the Voyager of the Seas. I won't take time to post a full review tonight, but it was a great cruise, overall. Highlights were Upachaya Snorkel Tour in Roatan, some of the guest entertainers (The Texas Tenors, Etta May), nice table-mates, excellent dinner at Portofino and the service from all the staff we encountered.

 

It was another rough embarkation day in Galveston (fog), and there was an incident involving a missing teenager well past curfew the third night, just before arriving at our first stop in Roatan, which had Captain Frank giving a rather stern announcement the next morning.

 

Anyway. Great overall. More details later. Cheers and happy cruising!!

[allesonwonderland]

Glad you had a good cruise, can't wait to read your review!

[Paul65]

OK...I'll give you Part I, before I turn in for the night.

 

Embarkation Day:

We drove to Galveston and arrived at the pier around 1:00pm. It was foggy, and we had seen a sign on the highway about the ships being delayed, so we were somewhat prepared. We were able to hand over our luggage to the porters, but the ship was nowhere to be seen, yet. An RCI rep. came up while we were unloading and said we should come back between 6 and 7pm and that they would be giving everyone $20 credit per person to cover us getting lunch on our own in Galveston.

 

So, we bumbled around the island for a while, stopping at a little Mediterranean place for lunch and Sonic for ice cream (to counteract some of that garlic in the lunch). Around 4:30, we headed to EZ Cruise Parking, where we had reserved a spot. It took a while to get parked, though, because the lots were full, so we had to what for departing passengers to clear out.

 

Back to the terminal around 5:45 or so, and there were still people getting off the ship and mobs of people waiting to get on. It was somewhat chaotic, and I think it could have been organized better, but it was going to be a difficult situation, no matter what. Anyway, it took a while, but we were on-board about 7:30 and were pleased to find all of our bags already at our room. We met our cabin steward, Allen, who was quite friendly and helpful, despite the fact that he didn't know what the plan was for dinner. We had early seating, which he said we had already missed and suggested the WJ. We checked the dining room, though, and they were treating it as open seating for the first night, because of the messed-up schedule.

 

Dinner was nice, and we got the chance to meet a few first-night-only tablemates. As we finished dinner around 10pm, there were still passengers boarding. We just went back to the room, unpacked our things and got our cabin organized, then just turned in for the night. It had been a long day, but not too bad, if you were willing to go with the flow. The ship pulled out of port at around midnight, with the assurance from Captain Frank that they he would still be able to get us to our first port on time.

 

More later. G'night!

[LBumb]

ok great start

[Rancher Dave]

Look forward to the rest of your review. Please expand on the missing teen...was he/she found in some other teen cabin and just forgot to get permission or tell parents...I would hope as a teen it would be ask permission, but oh well.

[tray]

My mom was on this cruise and had a wonderful time! She had made friends with the missing teen girl's family prior to her going missing and said they were a wonderful tight-knit family. I will try to retell what she was telling me this morning. The missing girl was apparently 13 and had gone back with some other kids to their room and fell asleep. Her mom got worried when she wasn't in by curfew (this isn't a girl who is a wanderer, goes out at home, etc), went to look for her, couldn't find her, asked for help from the ship and woke her parents up (the girls' grandparents) to let them know the girl was 'missing' before they heard it on the overhead announcement. Apparently my mom said they had temporarily stopped the ship for fear she may have gone overboard, but thank goodness she was found and all was well. My mom said the 13 yo was very remorseful, felt really bad about inconveniencing everyone on the ship, and was embarrassed about all the ruckus she had caused.

 

That is all I know about that incident. She also mentioned a drug bust when they were disembarking today (does anyone know anything more about that?) and an injury of a passenger during one of the parades (someone fell off of a chair or bar stool or something during the parade and the nurse and doctor took them on the portable gurney). Wow....so much excitement for one cruise!! She said the weather was great (a little foggy/overcast the last day but lots to do on the ship), the food was great, the shows fantastic and service great. I can't wait to read the reviews to be continued on this thread!!! :) Welcome home!

[printingchick]

Planning on this cruise for next year. Anxious to read the rest of the review!!

[Paul65]

OK. I thought I'd mention dining next, as that is always a big topic. To start off, I'll say that I've never expected the food to be super-gourmet, so I'm usually not disappointed. I realize that they're trying to feed 1500+ passengers all at the same time, and that is, almost by definition, banquet fare.

 

But, let's start with talking about the service, because we went on the Voyager two years ago, and that was one of our complaints. Our dining service was lack-luster, at best, on that cruise. This time, Shelley and her assistant (Gustavo, I think it was) more than made up for it. They did a wonderful job. The water glasses were always full; the bread basket was always there when you needed it; we never felt like the service was slow or rushed; special requests were almost always fulfilled perfectly (once, my wife got a salad coated in dressing, when she had ordered it on the side, but that was quickly taken back and corrected).

 

As for food quality, I never had a bad meal, but it ranged from just OK to excellent. There was almost always an Indian curry entree each night, and they sounded interesting, but there was always something else I preferred to order for my meal. One night, though, I asked if I could try the curry in addition to the garlic tiger shrimp I had ordered for dinner. Wow! It was really good! If you like Indian cuisine, I recommend you trying one of them. I don't know if they were all as good as the one I tried, but it was nicely spicy and just had a really good flavor. We ate a Portofino on Friday, which was the second formal night and also "lobster night," so we didn't eat in the main dining room that night, but we actually went to the dining room w/ our son. He ordered the prime rib (medium-rare), and it was actually very good. Most of the table had the fisherman's plate that included the lobster tail. I didn't try that, but didn't hear any complaints.

 

For me, other food highlights included the cold fruit soups and other fresh fruit appetizers, one fish entree that I had mid-week was particularly good, but I can't recall the title of the dish (will have to find some posted menus to remember), my wife had a starter salad on the last night that was topped with Morroccan-spiced chicken that was very tasty and the filet and tiramisu in Portofino were both outstanding.

 

Breakfast and lunch were typically in the Windjammer and were pretty good. I usually ate very light at breakfast, so enjoyed having lots of fresh fruit, yogurt, breads and oatmeal available. I did the made-to-order omelet one morning and found it quite good. I also had a made-to-order stir fry one day at lunch, which was also very good. We did one lunch in the MDR and enjoyed it. The salad bar for MDR lunch was very nice. The last day was Platinum/Diamond luncheon. The wine was plentiful and drinkable (tasted even better after the third glass :D), there was a soup, salad, choice of fish or chicken entree and a rich, chocolate cake dessert. It was all good, except the dessert, which was exceptional (if you are a chocolate-lover). Outside of the Portofino tiramisu, it was the best dessert item I had all week.

 

So...That about covers food.

[printingchick]

Thanks, but you're making me HUNGRY!!!

[Paul65]

The ports of call Roatan, Costa Maya and Cozumel. Here's a brief description of what we did:

 

Roatan: Booked the Upachaya Snorkel Tour online (independent tour). It was a fabulous snorkel tour. They take a maximum of 10 people. We got off the ship as soon as we were cleared and met the driver across the street from the pedestrian exit of the terminal area. Once everyone was there (only six of us that morning) we walked a couple block to where his van was parked. The driver, Marko, was very nice and pointed out some landmarks along the way to the Upachaya Retreat on the north side of the island. One of the things we passed was the city dump, which was not the most picturesque part of the island, but don't let that worry you. :D We arrived at Upachaya after about a 15 minute drive and met Barb (owner) and Al (snorkel captain). On the way to the boat, Barb told us about the place they had built and pointed out all the various things they had planted. (They are from Wisconsin and moved to Roatan 3 yrs ago.) The tour itself took us to two beautiful snorkel spots and was some of the best snorkeling I've ever done. The second spot include a drop-off, where it instantly went from about 10-15 ft depth to much deeper than you could see. Awesome time. We had a nice snack in between the two snorkel spots and had a cooler loaded with beer, soda and water. We finished up around noon and were back at the pier by about 12:15. We got a bite to eat on the ship, then browsed the shops in the terminal and also in the "straw market" area outside the terminal. It was pretty nice, and we never felt like the vendors were too pushy.

 

Costa Maya: There were three ships there that day; the Voyager, Carnival Dream and Norwegian Jewel. I had been to Costa Maya a few years earlier and had a wonderful, relaxing day on the beach. We planned to do the same this trip, but were disappointed, because everything just seemed too crowded with three large ships docked. We took a taxi into town, but the beach areas all seemed pretty crowded, and we couldn't walk more than five feet with out someone trying to sell us a cigar or a massage or a beach chair. We walked along the water for a while and were left alone a bit more there, but we didn't stay. Just went back to the ship after a walk along the beach. We went back out to the pier area later and browsed the shops, after the Carnival ship had left, but the shopping wasn't that good.

 

Cozumel: Wife decided to stay on the ship and have a quiet day pampering herself at the spa and relaxing. DS and I went to Chankanaab and did more snorkeling, saw the botanical gardens and Sea Lion show. We ran into our tablemates and hung out with them for a while. It was a really nice day there. I was a little paranoid later, because I found out that my son had "drank the water" from a fountain, while I was getting tickets. He didn't get sick, though. (Phew!)

 

All in all, a good time at the ports, except for Costa Maya being too crowded. If I'm ever there again, I might have to plan an excursion, rather than count on a relaxing beach day.

[Texas Cruise Girl]

We were on this cruise as well and had a great time....except for getting on the ship so late, but I know that was out of anyone's control. Great review!

[Paul65]

OK. I must say that the entertainment on this cruise was some of the best I've seen on a ship. The RC singers and dancers were very good, as always, but if you've seen those shows before, it is not really that much different from ship to ship. The ice show was also impressive, but not much different from the previous time. They had a guest performer, though, Larissa Sherman, who was amazing. She was spinning I don't know how many hula hoops at once and doing things that seemed impossible on solid land, much less on ice skates on a moving cruise ship!

 

Guest entertainment included The Texas Tenors, a finalist act from last year's America's Got Talent competition. They have phenomenal voices and put on a really good show with a touch of comedy. Also on the ship was comedian Etta May. I did hear a few people say that she wasn't really their brand of comedy, but we were nearly rolling on the floor during her show, and most of those around us were, too. The farewell show featured a ventriloquist, but we missed that show, so I can't comment.

 

The cruise director, Mike, had a good personality and did a good Captain Frank imitation that was a hit with the passengers. We really enjoyed the late-night comedy show "Liar's Club" that featured Mike, Etta May and the regular comedian, Keith. We didn't go to Quest, but I've seen it a couple times and am not as big a fan as many people are. Then there was Simona, who was on the CD staff. She was a hoot (whoo, whoo!) at some of the events and leading the line dance classes.

[Paul65]

So, not everything was perfect, but there really weren't any big issues of note. But I'll give you a run-down of some little niggles here and there that weren't quite perfect. One is that the interactive TV never worked. I tried a few times to check our Seapass account and was never able to. I'm not sure if this was a ship-wide problem or just our account. I didn't report it, just because it wasn't that big a deal to us.

 

A few of the cutbacks were noticeable since our last cruise two years ago. No more pillow chocolates at turn-down, the C&A coupons went from not very useful to even less useful. The only one that we ended up using was the 2 for 1 glass of wine. Portofino menu had been condensed to a three-course menu (starters, entrees, desserts) just as the MDR menu had earlier. They used to have pastas separated out as a separate section on the Portofino menu, but not any more.

 

I already mentioned the embarkation problems. They were mostly weather related, but there was some lack of organization. It was more chaotic than it had to be. And, of course, there was the missing teenager incident that woke me up in the wee hours of Wed. morning, but a lot of people slept right through it.

 

On the first full day, DW and I decided to go to the Solarium hot tub in the late evening. Turned out we couldn't get a pool towel, because they close down the towel exchange at 7pm. That was a bummer, but we were prepared for it the rest of the week.

 

But...One of my main complaints from the last time on the ship was much better this time, and that is the smoke. I could barely use my balcony a couple years ago, because of heavy smokers nearby (especially one cigar smoker), but I only once noticed smoke when out on the balcony this time. It also seemed less smoky in most of the public areas. I don't know if they've done something to help with this, or if it's just normal variation from one trip to another. But it was a good thing.

 

That covers most of the important parts of the trip. I'll add other comments, if I think of any important details I've neglected to tell you already. If you have any questions, I'll answer them, if I can.

[Stevesan]

Cozumel: Wife decided to stay on the ship and have a quiet day pampering herself at the spa and relaxing. DS and I went to Chankanaab and did more snorkeling, saw the botanical gardens and Sea Lion show. We ran into our tablemates and hung out with them for a while. It was a really nice day there. I was a little paranoid later, because I found out that my son had "drank the water" from a fountain, while I was getting tickets. He didn't get sick, though. (Phew!)

 

All in all, a good time at the ports, except for Costa Maya being too crowded. If I'm ever there again, I might have to plan an excursion, rather than count on a relaxing beach day.

 

First, thank you for the review. I'm new to RCI and am especially appreciative of your comments.

 

Permit me to make an observation about the drinking water at Cozumel:

 

The Yucatan geologically is a large slab of limestone. It's porosity effecitvely filters the water making it safe to drink

 

Having visited Mexico City and suffering from the "Revenge", I understand your apprehension. Fortunately, visitors to Yucatan do not have the same concerns.:)

[Paul65]

First, thank you for the review. I'm new to RCI and am especially appreciative of your comments.

 

Permit me to make an observation about the drinking water at Cozumel:

 

The Yucatan geologically is a large slab of limestone. It's porosity effecitvely filters the water making it safe to drink

 

Having visited Mexico City and suffering from the "Revenge", I understand your apprehension. Fortunately, visitors to Yucatan do not have the same concerns.:)

 

Well, that's good to hear, but I'll still be somewhat paranoid, as my first experience with Cozumel involved having lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, which we thought would be safe, and we all got sick. It could have been just bad luck, though, and something that doesn't normally happen there.

[Paul65]

I wanted to add this story. I did have one little mess up with dinner service. I had ordered two starters, a salad and one of the chilled fruit soups. The fellow seated next to me had been ordering extra stuff every night and enjoying all of it. I had finished my first item, but not received the soup yet, when I heard this fellow telling his wife that he hadn't ordered the fruit soup...they just brought it to him. I didn't have the heart to tell him he was eating my soup. :D

 

Shelley was a great server, though, and I'm sure she'd have brought one right back for me, if I'd asked, but as it turned out, my son had ordered the soup, too, and didn't care much for it, so I ate most of his.

 

But, yes, Al, if you happened to read Cruise Critic, that was MY soup! Glad you enjoyed it, though, and we really enjoyed our time with you and your family.

[Paul65]

I thought I should mention something about our return, since it was apparently quite rough for some passengers. After all the fog at embarkation, we were a bit concerned as we went through some foggy and rainy weather on our last sea day. All was well, when we got to Galveston the next morning. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, with only a few scattered clouds.

 

We chose to do express departure, so we kept our luggage with us. We got up early and were ready for breakfast by about 7am. We headed up to the WJ for one last time . . . While we were finishing up breakfast, we heard the first call for express passengers to start leaving the ship. We made our way back to our room, gathered luggage and headed toward Deck 4. The elevators were jammed with people doing the same, so it took a bit of time to get downstairs (we were on 8), but we got there and found a place in line to exit the ship. It was about 8:00 by then. It was a bit slow making our way off and through customs but not too bad. I'm not sure exactly when we cleared customs, but there was a shuttle for EZ Cruise Parking outside waiting, when we got out, so we got immediately onto the shuttle, waited a few minutes for other passengers, then headed to the lot. We were all loaded up in our car and leaving the parking lot at 8:54 am.

 

So, that wasn't bad, but I've heard from some of my fellow cruisers that customs got bogged down, and some people weren't off the ship and cleared through customs until 1pm or later and some flights were missed. There were various rumors about some drugs being found, which slowed things down, but I don't know for sure. So glad we did the express departure, but sorry for all those who had a long and tedious morning trying to get off.

[Paul65]

I almost forgot to cover this part. Our 12 yo son cruised with us. He's been on cruises before, but moved up to the "teen" group this time. We were a bit nervous about that, because there is much less supervision at that age. Most of the activities themselves are supervised by staff, but the kids don't have to sign in. They come and go as they please. Twelve years old seems a bit young for kids to be wandering the ship on their own.

 

But...We went with it. We brought a pair of family radios, and he had one with him, whenever he was apart from us on the ship. The bad thing is, when he was in the middle of an activity, there was usually music or talking or some sort of noise that made it so that he didn't hear us try to contact him on the radio. We always arranged for a place and time to meet back up, though, and he was very good about keeping those appointments.

 

They had different kinds of scavenger hunts, games, music/dancing, sports, rock wall, arcade and other similar activities. He had a good time with most of it, and at least we heard him, when he called us on the radio. :D Plus, he picked up a couple little items as prizes along the way; a belt clip for his Seapass card and a Royal Carib. hat. Overall, he gave the program two thumbs up.

[Paul65]

I don't know if anyone is even reading this review, but for those of you who are regular cruisers and know your CDs, I wanted to add the full name of our cruise director: Mike Swajkowski.

 

(I would have posted it originally, but I had to look up the spelling of his last name. :o)

 

He was a hoot.

[cds2423]

Great review, thanks for posting it, Mike S is THE BEST!

[Paul65]

Bumped for the poster who was looking for cruise reviews.

[ahawco]

Thanks Paul65. I look forward to reading your review later on!

[Jimnbigd]

Thanks. I was just coming off the ship when you were coming on. They did feed us lunch -- in the Windjammer (should have been called the "people jammer" because it was really crowded), or Cafe Promenade. I felt really sorry for those stuck in the terminal. I know you had your own car and did not arrive until evening, but do you know if RCI fed those stuck in the terminal? I've been a broken record on this point, but please bring some non-perishable food like cereal bars. They can be a life saver if you are stuck in the terminal.

[Paul65]

They did have some cookies and "finger sandwiches" available inside the terminal, once you were through security. Beverages were available, also. (Tea, water, lemonade)

[Paul65]

Reminiscing a bit in anticipation of our next cruise. Is Mike Swajkowski, the CD from this sailing, still with RCI? At the time he was also a poster here on Cruise Critic (DJ Mike or something like that).

 

P.S. - Sorry if I throw anyone off by dredging up a three year old review. :o