Voyager of the Seas Picture Review Dec 2012 Australia & New Zealand Cruise

[Iluvcruising2]

Thanks for your wonderful and generous review! We are on the VOS from Sydney to Perth in February and your review was beautiful. Thanks and happy travels to you and your family.

 

Glad you liked it & thanks for your well wishes.

[Iluvcruising2]

Another amazing review! I felt tears well up reading about your last night as I know how sad that is, knowing you have to get on to make way for many other excited cruisers to board.

 

It has made me so much more excited for my cruise and by the way we are in your old cabin 7694 and looking forward to it!

 

Can't wait to read your next review

Were is your next cruise going to be to?:)

 

Hope you have a great cruise!

 

Our next cruise will be on the Legend (revitalized) this March, sailing out of Singapore. That 7 nighter only has 2 ports (Brunei and Kota Kinabalu). More for us to chill out. :)

[Iluvcruising2]

Thank you for your beautiful review Iluvcruising2 - absolutely loved it and you helped make my whole family comfortable with cruising - we will be sailing for the very first time in 3 weeks (!) on the Voyager to NZ!!

Thank you once again for sharing your journey with us! Cheers :)

 

Glad you liked it.

 

Your first ever cruise? Great! If you catch the cruise bug, like us, you'll be on many, many more!

 

Take care and have lots of fun onboard.

[Iluvcruising2]

Fantastic review. Thanks for making it so detailed, it's prepared me well for my first cruise (which is on Voyager) in a few weeks.

 

Hope you have a great cruise!

 

Wash hands, take all precautions, don't catch Noro on board.

 

But catching the cruise bug (to go cruising again and again) ain't bad!

[Iluvcruising2]

Good choice. This restaurant has been around for many years and it's one of the better restaurants for yum cha (that's what we call dim sum over here) and good fresh seafood. How do you find the prices here? When I go back to Singapore and Malaysia (which is not very often at all) I pig out and eat non stop because it's so cheap over there and I miss the food!

 

The Australian dollar is very strong.

 

Overall, we found prices in Australia to be fairly high for most things, including food.

 

Glad that you like the food in Singapore and Malaysia. Plenty to eat here.

[truffles2]

Excellent review! Enjoyed every word and picture.

[musicorn]

Thank you for your beautiful review Iluvcruising2 - absolutely loved it and you helped make my whole family comfortable with cruising - we will be sailing for the very first time in 3 weeks (!) on the Voyager to NZ!!

Thank you once again for sharing your journey with us! Cheers :)

 

I will be getting off when you are getting on. I hope you enjoy your first cruise and I will make sure we look after the ship for you.

Edited January 5, 2013 by musicorn

[Agutaya]

I noticed a convenience store – EZY Mart. I think this was the turn of Arglye Street and Harrington Street, at the Rocks area. Next time, maybe we can stock up on bottled water from here before we board the ship!

 

Already planning on next time?! :) Thanks for the review. We too look forward to next time with you.

[Iluvcruising2]

Already planning on next time?! :) Thanks for the review. We too look forward to next time with you.

 

Yes. We'd be very happy to sail out of Sydney. The South Pacific islands look interesting. Also sailing to other cities in Australia would be fun.

 

Even sailing to NZ again is possible, though not in the near future.

[marquisite]

Well done on a very detailed review :D. I'll be on VotS when it repositions from Fremantle (Perth) to Singapore in March 2013. I assume MDR dinner menus will be pretty much the same as this will be a 14 night sailing.

 

You are right that no ship tours take you to the Luge. We noticed that too.

 

That's interesting, I was on a P&O Australia NZ cruise in 2011 and one of their shore excursions was the luge. There were a few other Rotorua-based options, too. I wonder why RCI does not offer it?

 

A short sidetrack.

 

Thanks to New Zealand for exporting the Luge to the world. The Luge is also available in Singapore (Sentosa island) and my family just went on a ride last weekend. We're happy that we have tried the original (in Rotorua) and now an offshoot in our home country!

 

I've been on the Rotorua luge (all three routes) and enjoyed it. How does Sentosa Island's adaption compare?

 

He (Gordon) revealed that he would be on the Voyager till mid Jan 2013 before taking a 3 month break. (...) Later in 2013 (I think he said October), he would rejoin the Voyager (I think he said in Singapore), and bring her Down Under again!

 

Wow, I was looking forward to seeing what Gordon was like on the March 2013 repositioning. I wonder who will take his place as Cruise Director? I would have thought he would stay on until the March repositioning cruise and have someone more appropriate for the Asian market fill his spot once VotS resumes the Asian itineraries.

[sassy12]

Thanks for the memories! You visited many of the same sites we did on our December 2009 Australia/New Zealand cruise.

 

We would love to go back to New Zealand again. And, that's funny because all my life I wanted to go to Australia and never gave a thought to NZ. While we enjoyed the Great Barrier Reef, Ayres Rock, Melbourne and Sydney immensely we were surely surprised at how much we loved New Zealand. I'm ashamed to say that I did extensive research on sites to be seen in Australia and no research on NZ. We really enjoyed the excursions we chose and time just walking through many of the cities but had I done research we would have enjoyed them even more.

 

So, that's one more thing on my bucket list - go back to New Zealand!!!

 

So many places to visit - so little time - not to mention the money!

 

Thanks for the wonderful review.

[enidcruiser]

Didn't notice if anyone answered your question on the salad.

In the USA we call the leafy green in your salad arugula but it is called rocket in Australia or in England. Thus the name for the green leafy part of the salad being called rocket.

Makes for a very tasty salad, rich in vitamin C, kinda peppery.

 

I enjoyed your entire review of an area that we have yet to visit.

Thanks for the detailed pictures and reviews of all you saw.

[Iluvcruising2]

Excellent review! Enjoyed every word and picture.

 

Glad you liked it and thanks for letting me know.

[Iluvcruising2]

Well done on a very detailed review :D. I'll be on VotS when it repositions from Fremantle (Perth) to Singapore in March 2013. I assume MDR dinner menus will be pretty much the same as this will be a 14 night sailing.

 

That's interesting, I was on a P&O Australia NZ cruise in 2011 and one of their shore excursions was the luge. There were a few other Rotorua-based options, too. I wonder why RCI does not offer it?

 

I've been on the Rotorua luge (all three routes) and enjoyed it. How does Sentosa Island's adaption compare?

 

Wow, I was looking forward to seeing what Gordon was like on the March 2013 repositioning. I wonder who will take his place as Cruise Director? I would have thought he would stay on until the March repositioning cruise and have someone more appropriate for the Asian market fill his spot once VotS resumes the Asian itineraries.

 

Not sure why RCI doesn't offer excursions to the Luge. I thought it would make for an interesting outing. The Skyline Gondola is nice.

 

Sentosa's Luge track (only 2 trails) is shorter than Rotorua's. A round-trip at Sentosa (ride down and chair lift up) takes 15 minutes, compared to 20 minutes at Rotorua. Nevertheless, we had plenty of fun at Sentosa.

 

However, I thought the Rotorua's track was extremely bumpy compared to Singapore.

 

I'm not sure who would take Gordon's place.

[styxfire]

I don't know how you didn't drop from exhaustion by the end of this fascinating cruise! I will probably never get to cruise to the places on that itinerary, so I'm grateful to you for letting me live a little bit through your adventures

[charliegirlac]

Glad that you are liking it!

 

Which are your ports for your upcoming South Pacific cruise? We are also looking doing a South Pacific cruise in the not-too-distant future!

 

The Australian passengers we met onboard our recent sailing told us good stuff about them.

Our ports are

01-Dec Sydney, Australia 17:00

 

02-Dec Cruising

 

03-Dec Cruising

 

04-Dec Nouméa, New Caledonia 08:00 17:00 Docked

 

05-Dec Lifou, Loyalty Island 08:00 17:00 Tendered

 

06-Dec Vila, Vanuatu 08:00 17:00 Docked

 

07-Dec Isle of Pines, New Caledonia 10:00 17:00 Tendered

 

08-Dec Cruising

 

09-Dec Cruising

 

10-Dec Sydney, Australia 06:30

 

I haven't visited any of these ports (other than Sydney) before and we really aren't sure what we are going to do there as this will be our first cruise (any holiday!) with our then 1 year old daughter. We are going on Radiance which is the smallest ship we've been on, but should be ok as it has had it's vitilization and has many of the loved things from other ships.

 

Thank you so much for the brilliant review! I always love reading your reviews and all the interesting tid-bits you add. You are a brilliant ambassador for Singapore - another favourite location for us!

[aussiedisneyfan]

What an amazing thread. Thanks so much for all the pics and information. One of the things I noted with interested was the duty free. The Baileys price was the same as the Oosterdam. The J'adore perfume is a cheaper than one of the big online retailers which sells it for $145.

[Iluvcruising2]

What an amazing thread. Thanks so much for all the pics and information. One of the things I noted with interested was the duty free. The Baileys price was the same as the Oosterdam. The J'adore perfume is a cheaper than one of the big online retailers which sells it for $145.

 

Glad you liked it! The information you provided is interesting. Maybe I should take more photos of the duty-free prices next time. :)

[Iluvcruising2]

Our ports are

01-Dec Sydney, Australia 17:00

 

02-Dec Cruising

 

03-Dec Cruising

 

04-Dec Nouméa, New Caledonia 08:00 17:00 Docked

 

05-Dec Lifou, Loyalty Island 08:00 17:00 Tendered

 

06-Dec Vila, Vanuatu 08:00 17:00 Docked

 

07-Dec Isle of Pines, New Caledonia 10:00 17:00 Tendered

 

08-Dec Cruising

 

09-Dec Cruising

 

10-Dec Sydney, Australia 06:30

 

I haven't visited any of these ports (other than Sydney) before and we really aren't sure what we are going to do there as this will be our first cruise (any holiday!) with our then 1 year old daughter. We are going on Radiance which is the smallest ship we've been on, but should be ok as it has had it's vitilization and has many of the loved things from other ships.

 

Thank you so much for the brilliant review! I always love reading your reviews and all the interesting tid-bits you add. You are a brilliant ambassador for Singapore - another favourite location for us!

 

Sounds like you have a wonderful cruise coming up.

 

Do let us know how you found those ports! We are also interested, given that it sails out of Sydney and also that we have not been on the Radiance before.

[Iluvcruising2]

Didn't notice if anyone answered your question on the salad.

In the USA we call the leafy green in your salad arugula but it is called rocket in Australia or in England. Thus the name for the green leafy part of the salad being called rocket.

Makes for a very tasty salad, rich in vitamin C, kinda peppery.

 

I enjoyed your entire review of an area that we have yet to visit.

Thanks for the detailed pictures and reviews of all you saw.

 

Thanks for the information. I learnt something today. I like Rocket salad!

[frogger27]

New cruise director according to other posts will be Graham Seymour

[Duck111]

Thank you so much for this amazing review....and for bringing us on vacation with you!!! We will be i=on the Voyager 1 week from today!!! Can't Wait!:D

[Iluvcruising2]

Thank you so much for this amazing review....and for bringing us on vacation with you!!! We will be i=on the Voyager 1 week from today!!! Can't Wait!:D

 

Glad you liked it.

 

Safe travels!

[Iluvcruising2]

Wow, the heat wave and bushfires in Australia looks really bad.

 

Hope everything turns out ok soon.

[Brossy]

Not sure why RCI doesn't offer excursions to the Luge. I thought it would make for an interesting outing. The Skyline Gondola is nice.

 

Sentosa's Luge track (only 2 trails) is shorter than Rotorua's. A round-trip at Sentosa (ride down and chair lift up) takes 15 minutes, compared to 20 minutes at Rotorua. Nevertheless, we had plenty of fun at Sentosa.

 

However, I thought the Rotorua's track was extremely bumpy compared to Singapore.

 

I'm not sure who would take Gordon's place.

 

Good news! I found a tour company that will take us to the Geysers and if time permits to the Luge :).

 

Thanks again for all your information. You really helped with organising my holiday in New Zealand :).