Voyager Review--Singapore to Hong Kong 6/29/19

[taxatty]

DW and I are both Diamond. This was our first time on a Voyager-class ship. We took this cruise with trepidation because of the numerous negative CC reviews about the ship and its clientele, but it was the only extended SE Asia area cruise  that we could take this year. Suffice it to say that the ship was in decent, although not perfect condition, we had no issues with anyone on board, and we had a great cruise.

 

1. Pre-cruise, we spent a number of days in Hong Kong, Siem Reap (for the Angkor temples--very worthwhile) and Singapore, traveling between each of them on inexpensive flights. Don't take this cruise without spending time in Singapore--it really is unique.

 

2. Embarkation, debarkation and port stops were all relatively quick and painless (helped by being in a suite), except for the one tender port where there was a very long line in the hot sun to get back on the ship--however, one of the Suite Concierges located us in the line and helped us skip it (no, that act didn't bother us too much on a 100 degree day).  It was an easy 15 minute taxi ride from our central Singapore hotel to the cruise dock. Lots of extension cords (including a small one I had), surge protectors and other contraband were confiscated from luggage upon embarkation and kept in the bottom deck Naughty Room during the cruise. We were one of the first off the ship in Hong Kong (we walked off with our own luggage) at 6:15 AM (when I then retrieved my extension cord from a table when exiting the ship). Beware--it can take awhile to get a taxi at Kai Tak as they only come one by one. We got to the Hong Kong airport by 7:45 AM via taxi to Kowloon Station and the Airport Express train. This let us very quickly and easily check in, get our boarding passes and drop off our luggage at the airline counter at Kowloon Station before the quick train ride to the airport and was cheaper than taking the taxi all the way to the airport. Even with the time needed to go through various immigration checks and carry-on luggage screening and walk to the distant terminal gate, we made our 11:30 AM flight with hours to spare.

 

3. We had a full (Grand) suite for the first time on RCI. We liked the extra space, the big bathroom and balcony, and the associated perks (especially the line-skipping at various times, the reserved ice show and other entertainment seating and the bridge visit). The Grand Suite was very comparable to our only prior suite (on the Coral Princess). We booked it 13 months before the cruise at a rate cheaper than or comparable to the usual JS per day price, so doing so was a no-brainer for us. Shortly thereafter, the JS price substantially exceeded our GS price (when available) and stayed that way.

 

4. The vast majority onboard appeared to be Brits, Aussies, and US, with a smattering of Spanish and Portuguese speakers, and maybe 20% Chinese and other Asians. None of the crowding, cutting in line or other "cultural differences" I've seen in other reviews of this ship made an appearance. A section of the casino was cordoned off for Chinese high rollers (all signs in Chinese) but I never saw anyone there--in fact, this was the emptiest I've ever seen a casino on a cruise. In contrast, the bars and pool areas were almost always very busy. The MDR had its usual menus (but see below) and the entertainment was almost entirely presented in English (and was generally quite good).  We were told that the immediately prior shorter cruise was totally different by some B2Bers--most of the pax were Asians, and the ship's food and entertainment were shifted accordingly.

 

5. Michelle Oliveira, undoubtedly the most voluptuous CD on Earth, was constantly seen everywhere on the ship and did a nice job along with Kitty, the Activities Manager, who handled our CC Roll Call Meet & Mingle party on the first sea day (I'm still upset from not winning one of the RCI backpacks at our Meet & Mingle raffle 😄).

 

6. When it came to choosing the large, bright, lively Diamond lounge on deck 14 (with the next door overflow area)versus the dark, mostly empty Concierge lounge for suite guests on deck 9, we went with the former unless we needed the help of the terrific suite Concierges, Xinxin and Jian, both of whom did a lot for us on the cruise and made or fixed all of our specialty restaurant reservations. Francisco, the Diamond Concierge, was also great.

 

7. We chose the new Unlimited Dining Plan. After various price fluctuations, the UDP ended up being $199 for 9 days (although we were off the ship one day) which we thought was a great deal. It will be very difficult to go back to the MDR (we saw the latter's menus because we were in a suite and could have ordered off the MDR menu for room service, but we never did except once for breakfast). We never ate at the MDR or JR's and only once (upon embarkation) at the Windjammer and didn't miss any of them. The specialty restaurant choices on Voyager are effectively limited to Giovanni's, Chops and Izumi, but that wasn't a problem for us. We ate lunch on sea days at Giovanni's and Chops. There were plenty of choices on the menus for us not to be bored, and it was nice being served each meal in a pleasant, quiet restaurant table arrangement instead of the massive, hectic, noisy MDR or the frantic Windjammer (we've done many RCI cruises where those were the only places we ate). We didn't try going to more than one of them in an evening. Breakfast was mostly at Giovanni's at it was the venue set up for suite guests, and it was also an enjoyable experience. We really enjoyed everything we ordered at Giovanni's and Chops except one branzino entree that seemed to have been frozen for too long.The sushi at Izumi was mediocre compared to our local Japanese restaurants but the hot rock cooked food was delicious. The various desserts (and the pizza in the Promenade Cafe for snacks) have definitely improved from our prior RCI cruises. 

 

8. The ship needs its upcoming extended drydock. The elevators were not always reliable and there were worn and rust spots on our balcony and around the ship, but everything seemed to be functioning. None of that wear and tear significantly affected our cruise.

 

9. Three of the four port stops required one to two and a half hour land trips to get to most places you'd want to see. If that's a problem for you, don't take this cruise. One stop that worked out very well for us was taking the Bangkok On Your Own RCI overnight bus trip ($50/PP) from the Laem Chabang port to Bangkok. As with the UDP, the online pre-cruise RCI price changed constantly for the bus ride. The bus dropped us off at the Central World mall in central Bangkok around 3:00PM on day one. We spent the night at a hotel a couple of blocks away from the mall (there are several good choices) and left our luggage there until just before we left Bangkok. Staying so close to the pickup/drop off point made the trip logistically very easy. The 24 hours or so in Bangkok gave us plenty of time to do sightseeing (done or arranged on our own) eat very well and do some shopping at the huge malls in the area. We then caught the bus back to the ship at 2:30 PM the next day. This shore excursion was a good quick introduction to Bangkok, but we're planning to go back and spend more time there someday. For the three Vietnam port stops we used the same tour company (Dung Pham--very reliable, worked out well, guides/drivers met us with personalized signs at each port stop, we paid during or after each tour in US$) as arranged by another CCer on our Roll Call (thanks, Carol!) in small group vans. Each trip went well and included good lunches, although we would have liked to spend much more time shopping in Hoi An and we can handle only so many religious sites.

 

I'd be happy to answer any questions.

[kernow]

Thanks for the review. We are doing a 9 night Singapore to Hong Kong in Feb but on Quantum. I think your itinerary may have been a bit different as we do not have the overnight in Bangkok, just a day visit (we've been before so not going into the city). We then have 3 stops in Vietnam.

 

Did you happen to notice if the ship offers any excursions in Hong Kong? We have a late flight and not sure how we will fill the time.

 

It's interesting to hear the passenger mix, I was expecting mostly local people onboard. Were the MDR menus that you saw similar to the usual or were there a lot different foods?

[taxatty]

The ship offered debarkation bus tours of Hong Kong ending at the airport for those with later afternoon flights. The MDR menus I saw looked like the usual RCI ones with various Western-style choices and an Asian and/or Indian main course.

[kernow]

Thanks, that's good to know about the debarkation tours, think we may opt for one of those.

[hopebh]

Hello TA,

 

We were on the cruise and we really had an awesome time.  The elevators were.... special, but considering the reviews that I've seen on here I was pleasantly surprised that we didn't see more signs of age.  Its going to be a nice ship once its out of dry dock. 

 

I asked a few of the staff about the lack of guests from China and was told that it was due to the length of the cruise.  

  

Singapore really is a lovely city, isn't it?  We spent 2.5 days there before the cruise and was really impressed how they have an entire city of malls below ground as a way to avoid the sun.  It really is a pretty city but someone commented that all you need is 4 days and you'll see all there is.  And that felt kinda true.

 

Other than HCMC, we loved the three other ports.  I'm still surprised that all of Vietnam has a total of 5 stop lights, but it seems to work for them and made driving around seem like a game of Chicken. 🙂.  Of the ports, Hoian was my favorite.  What did you think of the ports?

 

[chrismch]

Did you have a few days in Singapore before the cruise? I was there years ago, but after watching Crazy Rich Asians and seeing how much the city has grown, I am ready to go back there again!

 

What were your other ports? Did you do other tours with CC members?

[kernow]

Did you not like Ho Chi Minh? It's one of the places we're really looking forward to.

 

 

Can someone tell me if there were formal nights on the cruise and if so did people dress up? I've read somewhere that the cruises out of Shanhai don't have them so wondered about Singapore cruises.

[nekzaadvakil]

6 minutes ago, kernow said:

Did you not like Ho Chi Minh? It's one of the places we're really looking forward to.

 

 

Can someone tell me if there were formal nights on the cruise and if so did people dress up? I've read somewhere that the cruises out of Shanhai don't have them so wondered about Singapore cruises.

We just completed a 7N Best of Japan cruise on the Quantum from Beijing. We did not have a formal/chic night. Our first cruise in 10 which did not have a formal night.

 

Nick

[hopebh]

4 hours ago, chrismch said:

Did you have a few days in Singapore before the cruise? I was there years ago, but after watching Crazy Rich Asians and seeing how much the city has grown, I am ready to go back there again!

 

What were your other ports? Did you do other tours with CC members?

 

Singapore was a very cool city. I believe that Marina Bay Sands opened in 2012, so yeah, a lot has changed in a small a,out of time.

 

We were overnight in Bangkok, then we had day ports in HCMC, Nha Trang and Danang/Hoian.

 

We did private tours and transfers the entire cruise but the OP joined other CC members on some of the day excursions.

Edited July 15, 2019 by hopebh

[hopebh]

1 hour ago, kernow said:

Did you not like Ho Chi Minh? It's one of the places we're really looking forward to.

 

 

Can someone tell me if there were formal nights on the cruise and if so did people dress up? I've read somewhere that the cruises out of Shanhai don't have them so wondered about Singapore cruises.

 

We didn't care for Ho Chi Minh, but different strokes and all.  You may love it.   We were actually going to cancel and stay on the ship because after watching hours of YouTube videos we didn't think we'd like it.  Ultimately  the tour company rep talked me into it and we were glad that we went but have no desire to return.

 

There were two formal nights. We ate at Giovanni's the first and passed out after a tour and slept through the second.  The folks in Giovanni's weren't overly dressed up.

 

[kernow]

1 minute ago, hopebh said:

 

We didn't care for Ho Chi Minh, but different strokes and all.  You may love it.   We were actually going to cancel and stay on the ship because after watching hours of YouTube videos we didn't think we'd like it.  Ultimately  the tour company rep talked me into it and we were glad that we went but have no desire to return.

 

There were two formal nights. We ate at Giovanni's the first and passed out after a tour and slept through the second.  The folks in Giovanni's weren't overly dressed up.

 

Thanks for the reply. 

 

Was it just that Ho Chi Minh was so busy? I've seen the videos where it seems almost impossible even to cross the road. We're leaning towards a ship tour  (doing the other ports independently) because of the distance and the traffic.

[hopebh]

1 minute ago, kernow said:

Thanks for the reply. 

 

Was it just that Ho Chi Minh was so busy? I've seen the videos where it seems almost impossible even to cross the road. We're leaning towards a ship tour  (doing the other ports independently) because of the distance and the traffic.

 

It wasn't that it was crowded because I requested that we stay away from the overly touristy areas, and for the most part, we did. There was just an awful lot of traffic, motorbikes, no stop lights and a lot of beeping.  We weren't keen on spending a lot of time on war stuff or shopping so that limited the things for us to do.   We did like the city more than we thought we would, it just was never going to be our cup of tea.

 

A few of my friends on FB told me that we didn't enjoy it because we did it wrong. 😀

 

The funny thing is that we enjoyed Bangkok.

 

Both Pham (that the OP used) and Smile (that we used) are pretty good at hosting the small CC tours and are in both Danang and HCMC. The issue with us joining the OP tour or doing the Royal tour is that I just didn't want to spend 12 hours on a bus. We were back on the ship in 9 hours.

 

My free advice is if you do go to Danang/Hoian, start/join a cc small group tour. Big busses aren't allowed in the city center so the drop off and pickup is quite a walk to/from the cool part of Hoian.

[kernow]

At the Da Nang/Hue port we are planning on a beach day at a resort hotel nearby. DH saw someone had done this on one of the FB groups and we thought it would make a nice relaxing day.

 

What did you do in Nha Trang? We're thinking it will be easy to get a bus or taxi into the city and explore on our own.

 

We've been to Bangkok a couple of times previously on land trips and it's one of my favourite cities in the world, just don't think the time there will do it justice on this trip as we don't have the overnight.

[hopebh]

11 minutes ago, kernow said:

At the Da Nang/Hue port we are planning on a beach day at a resort hotel nearby. DH saw someone had done this on one of the FB groups and we thought it would make a nice relaxing day.

 

What did you do in Nha Trang? We're thinking it will be easy to get a bus or taxi into the city and explore on our own.

 

We've been to Bangkok a couple of times previously on land trips and it's one of my favourite cities in the world, just don't think the time there will do it justice on this trip as we don't have the overnight.

 

Given the choice, Nha Trang is probably a better beach city since you are pretty much dropped off 5 to 10 minutes away from where you can actually rent a chair and umbrella for $10 per person.

 

We didn't go into Danang, but Hoian is a pretty cool little city.

 

We did private tours for all ports.

 

Yeah, i think that was part of the problem with HCMC; the ride was just too long to get there.

 

Are you on FB? I posted pictures from all the cities, if you want to see them. 

[kernow]

A link to your pics would be great. There seems so little info on these ports, I suppose because the ships don't sail there that often.

 

 

[Bobal]

4 hours ago, kernow said:

A link to your pics would be great. There seems so little info on these ports, I suppose because the ships don't sail there that often.

 

 

 

Agree, I'm finding it really interesting too as it's a cruise we are seriously considering at some time. I'm hoping you'll be doing a 'live from' when you do yours 

[kernow]

4 minutes ago, Bobal said:

 

Agree, I'm finding it really interesting too as it's a cruise we are seriously considering at some time. I'm hoping you'll be doing a 'live from' when you do yours 

Yes, I probably will do a 'live from', I think it will be especially helpful with so little info on these cruises.

[taxatty]

The Nha Trang area doesn't have a lot to see of interest, although our guide did the best he could to bring it to life. We're from Miami, so no need for us to have a beach day, but that would have been a good one (or if you have kids, the local amusement park) or to just go into town on your own, as would Da Nang, which has excellent beaches.

 

We liked HCMC a lot, yes, it's total chaos, but our guide did a great job taking us around town to the various sights and the War Remnants Museum (biased as you would expect but very well done), markets,  a coffee stop at the historic Rex Hotel, a good lunch, and individual rides on the cycle carts on busy streets that were a blast. We also managed to safely cross the street a few times on our own. We saw a lot in one day.

 

We weren't in a bus for 12 hours or anything close to that on any of our three tour days--maybe that was  the group that did the Cu Chi tunnels that are even further to get to than HCMC. It was 2+ hours by bus to get to where we wanted to go on every port stop except Nha Trang, but we knew that going in.

 

We'd go back to Singapore or Bangkok any time--loved them both, even though they couldn't be more different (other than both have great food and bad traffic). We've seen enough of Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong.

[hopebh]

5 hours ago, kernow said:

A link to your pics would be great. There seems so little info on these ports, I suppose because the ships don't sail there that often.

 

 

Here is the link for the entire trip..

 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AjymVjbJeo4Ige9fo5WrrhTv6H9_6Q

 

 

[hopebh]

1 hour ago, Bobal said:

 

Agree, I'm finding it really interesting too as it's a cruise we are seriously considering at some time. I'm hoping you'll be doing a 'live from' when you do yours 

 

Surprisingly enough, we would do the same itinerary again.  I didn't think I'd get my DH to agree to it, but we really had a nice time.  

[kernow]

52 minutes ago, hopebh said:

Here is the link for the entire trip..

 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AjymVjbJeo4Ige9fo5WrrhTv6H9_6Q

 

 

Thanks for all the lovely photos. 

 

We were last in Singapore in the late 90s, can't believe how much has been built since then, looking forward to seeing it all now.

[SuitesRbest]

6 hours ago, hopebh said:

Here is the link for the entire trip..

 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AjymVjbJeo4Ige9fo5WrrhTv6H9_6Q

 

 

Those Photos are absolutely fantastic and great review with plenty of info. My wife and I are sailing back from Singapore to Australia (Repo cruise) in November 6 weeks after the refurbishment of the Voyager. 2nd time on the Voyager on this same itinerary and we are Diamond members also now, great to hear that the Diamond lounge is bright and inviting as we were not Diamond members last time we cruised on.

 

We are yet to book a hotel for the night prior to embarkation so we are all ears if anyone has any good ideas at a good price for this.

Thanks in advance.

[whoopie]

On 7/13/2019 at 8:46 AM, taxatty said:

 

 

I'd be happy to answer any questions.

You said they confiscated extension cords and surge protectors. Are power strips okay? A couple typically has multiple devices to charge. 

Edited July 16, 2019 by whoopie
Confusion

[taxatty]

36 minutes ago, whoopie said:

You said they confiscated extension cords and surge protectors. Are power strips okay? A couple typically has multiple devices to charge. 

Most of the items confiscated appeared to be basic power strips. Ours was a small one with USB and power outlets with no surge protection but it was taken anyway. Between phones, cameras and other items we also had lots of things that needed charging, but we brought several US/UK converter plugs and USB/power adapters and did OK. 

[chrismch]

Thanks for all the great pictures!