Voyager 3-24-12 review

[tmann4]

Just back from VOS 3-24 to 3-31. Overall the trip was great. I have read a lot of negative reviews about Voyager and found most not to be true. I am not going into a lot of detail about the whole trip, but some things that may be of interest. There were 3650 people on our cruise and about 1000 of those were kids. Guess the ship holds 3700. Spring break. At night it was hard to use the sports deck, mini golf, hot tubs, etc because the kids were everywhere. Oh well. We made due.

 

Day 1 - We arrived at NOLA around 10:30 and dropped our luggage with at the curb where the folks hauled it off to the ship. Tipped them some $'s and off to security we went. Very quick and easy process. Stood in line to get SeaPass for about 3-5 minutes and headed to waiting area. It isn't very big and not enough room for everyone. You could pre-purchase your soda sticker and got our mug while we waited. We also booked our Portofino dinner reservation as well. I tried to book Portofino about 1 1/2 months ago and couldn't. I called RCCL and they said it looked full for the first night. However, when I asked the Worker at the Portofino booth he said there was no problem. We waited until around 11:30 and they boarded a large group. Some travel agency group, so I was told. Then it was a cattle call and half the folks in the waiting area got in line. I asked one of the workers how the boarding process worked because there was no information given. She told me they board the Top C&A members first, Suites, Gold members and then everyone else. They finally got on the intercom and told everyone the boarding process. I wish they would have done that right from the start so everyone would be standing in line for so long. Made it more difficult for the folks who were supposed to board make it to the entry. I would say we were on the ship by 12:15.

 

We were in our room by 1pm. It was my anniversary so I surprised my wife with flowers delivered to the room and the decorations. the flowers were beautiful for $39. A little disappointed some of the streamers in the room had fallen. But that was fine. We had five pieces of checked luggage. 3 showed up around 2. The other 2 didn't show up until 7. Real bummer to go to Portofino all dressed up and all I had were tennis shoes. My shoes were in one of the bags that didn't get there until later. Remember earlier I couldn't get an on-line reservation. We got there at 6:30 and we were the only group in the restaurant. By the time we left there were 3 other groups. Not sure why I couldn't book my res on-line. I thought the meal was good, but not much better than the MDR. Don't think I would do it again. However, the service was excellent and it was nice to try it.

 

MDR service was fantastic. Drinks always full and food was good. Our DD has celiac and is a vegetarian. It was a challenge finding something for her to eat. However, they brought us the next night's menu and had her pick what she wanted. They would prepare it ahead to meet her dietary needs. It was wonderful. Michael and Ryann from table 571 were fantastic. I think it was the best service we had ever had in the MDR dining. We have been on 5 cruises. Windjammer was good. Lines got long at times. I like the set up with stations on FOS much better. I don't like the buffet lines that VOS has. We made it work and usually always found a table to sit. Day 1 was the only time we couldn't find a table and sat our by the pool. I liked the BBQ they did everyday by the main pool. It was good.

 

Entertainment was a little disappointing in La Scala theater. We went to all shows except Welcome aboard. The two Broadway shows were lacking. We were on FOS and their shows far surpass the VOS shows. The stage sets were not exciting and some of the songs were nothing we had heard of. They had two guest musical performances. The Drifters (three of the original singers) and Domenick Allen (Supposedly a former member of Foreigner). He was very talented. Just thought the La Scala entertainment was lacking and my expectations were high based on FOS. The ice show was good and entertaining. Even my 17 year old DS liked it. The Farewell show with Randy Cabral was the best. He is a comedy/juggler. I had seen him on a previous cruise and really thought he was funny. We all laughed the whole performance.

 

We had a medical emergency on day 2. From what I understand someone had a heart attach. It was around noon or so and the captain came over the loudspeaker and said the ship was turning around and heading back toward NOLA. A Coast Guard helicopter would meet us in route. About 2:50 that afternoon the helicopter landed on the helipad and took the man to New Orleans. Guess he had surgery and is doing ok. Hope the pics post. Here is the helicopter that landed and also you can see on our stateroom TV the loop we made. We still arrived at our first port of call on time which was nice. Just glad they were able to take care of the man and get him to a hospital. Guess this is why travel insurance is so important. Very expensive helicopter ride I am sure.

Otherwise I thought the ship was in great shape. The carpet was worn mostly in door entries. But nothing that bad. Staterooms were in good shape and all the open areas were always being cleaned. Thought the staff did a great job.

We arrived back in NOLA around 6am and were off the ship by 8:30 and got on our 11:30 flight with plenty of time to spare.

 

 

 

[DonnaK]

excellent and very detailed review! Thanks for posting your thoughts - I enjoyed reading them

[Love to Cruise the Carib!]

tmann4, we were on the same cruise as you and you are absolutely spot on with your review! Also, I agree, after seeing that medical evacuation by the Coast Guard I would say spend the extra $$$ for the trip insurance!

 

All said, we had a great time! ... but I wanted to share my thoughts on taking a Spring Break cruise to the Western Caribbean. We are not first time cruisers and have cruised on RCCL 7 times and on Disney for the first time last year on Spring Break.

 

When you read this your take-away may be that I don't like kids ~ but please let me preface this by letting you know I am a special education teacher and also have a degree in nursing specializing in Pediatric Emergency/Trauma. There's no doubt I that I love working with and taking care of children.

 

When I booked this cruise a year ago I knew what we were up for booking during Spring Break. We were also on Spring Break with our 7 year old daughter. Although I am a teacher/RN, by no means would any of my friends ever classify me as a "buzz kill" or "boring" actually it's quite the contrary ~ that said...

 

I saw many well behaved, well mannered, well supervised children on the ship but they were few and far between. I have a kid, granted she's not perfect but as a parent I made sure I kept a close eye on her and her behavior.

 

However, I was blown away by the number of ill-mannered, unsupervised kids on board! There were more kids on this cruise than on the Disney Dream last year... All I kept asking my husband is "where are these kids parents?"

 

We love to sit by the pool, relax, drink and listen to the band. Sitting pool side in my lounge chair just observing ~ the pool and hot tubs on deck 11 looked like a scene from Caddyshack x 10. There were toddlers with the blow up swimmies on their arms in the big pool unsupervised. Being an ER/Trauma nurse my first instinct was to (proactively) jump in and pull 2 of them out of the pool as they were struggling to swim ~ as unbelievable as it may seem ~ parents/siblings no where to be found! I feared for their safety especially with the teenagers cannonballing into the pool on top of one another. I was absolutely stunned when two tweens boys chasing each other in front of the hot tubs and knocked over an elderly woman ~ didn't stop, just kept going. Poor woman, wound up going to the infirmary. I had to order another Margherita after witnessing that one! After dinner one night up on deck 12 ~ kids were swinging at each other with the clubs from the miniature golf course ~ the rest were either trying to throw the golf balls over the protective walls into the ocean or pelting each other with them.

 

The Promenade on Level 5 was like the mall on a Saturday night. Tons of kids were running, screaming, chasing/wrestling each other though the Promenade and knocking into people. Forget the Promenade Cafe you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Let's just say it looked like a cafeteria food fight. The supervisor came out and asked them leave. Although there was a curfew kids/tweens were still running around after 1:00 am. Once again, "where are the parents? Don't they ever check in to see where their kids are or what they are up to?" We took refuge in the casino, 21 and over :)

 

Midway through the cruise our daughter wanted to go to Adventure Ocean in the evening after dinner. She had a great time and the staff was amazing! I did not know this but RCCL even has a dedicated staff to children on board with all degrees of autism. The staff, most with advanced degrees in special education gave the parents on board support and an opportunity to have alone time together as a couple while their children were able to have a positive cruise experience.

 

The cruise staff was very friendly and couldn't have been more attentive. I felt badly for those on the cruise staff who wound up having to supervise the behavior of the kids with the absentee parents.

 

Special recognition to Riddim Wave ~ the Reggae Band ~ Wadley, Winston, Brian and James ~ they were excellent!!!

 

I booked our 2013 Spring Break cruise on Freedom of the Seas before we left on this cruise but I am seriously reconsidering the timing ...

 

I LOVE cruising on RCCL and they are still #1 in my book!