VOYAGER and children

[old bag]

We just got off of the Voyager of the Seas to Canada. We loved the cruise. Sailing out of Bayonne NJ was a breeze and -- as my husband said, sure beats running through an airport with a baby or toddler to catch a plane, something we have had to do with each of our last three cruises. Trust me, even though we don't have infants or toddlers anymore, we didn't miss the run through the airport.

 

I am, however, sad to say, I didn't like the Voyager for children.

 

We were in the Family Stateroom (not the suite, the state room).

 

It was great. There was plenty of room, though the bathroom is small, the kids like the door on the shower.

 

The top bunk was missing a gaurd rail, so no one slept there, but they did like to play up there so it kept their toys off the floor.

 

The two large windows and no balcony in the front of the ship made Mom (who's afraid of balconies with children) Dad, who likes to see where we are going, and children -- who would get up and look out the window and sit in the two chairs looking for whales -- all very happy.

 

The ice skating show was great, and the kids loved to ice skate -- for the first time.

 

However, after the first day at Sea, my daughter -- 4, wanted to go home. Johnny Rockets was supposed to be open, but was closed, we signed her up for ice skating lessons, got there, only to find out she couldn't have lessons because you have to be older than 6. I even questioned them -- because of this, she missed ice skating that day because we already had other things planned.

 

We were told we could accompany them to Adventure Ocean during open family times, but those times never came. This is something that Disney Cruise line had let us do.

 

The swimming pool was shaded, which made it cold, but open so it was still breezy -- of course, this was a northern trip, but it was too cold to swim in the children's area -- lucky for us, it was warm enough to swim in the sun in the family area, but the kids really wanted to swim in the children's pool.

 

But the worse thing happened with Sprinkles (ice cream area)-- it was closed, closed, closed. Finally it was open, but out of ice cream cones, so when I asked about more cones, as my DAUGHTER was standing right there -- OH -- they said -- sure there are cones, When I pointed out they were out, the RCCL employee snapped, well then, it's closed.

 

No icecream for an adult is no big deal, but for a child? They could have given me a stinking cup and a spoon, but they had cones, we could see them. GRRRRRR.

 

The next day we were in St. John's and took a tour (photo tour, great for adults and children) and my daughter forgot all about the prior day -- I did speak with guest relations, who did give my daughter a gift, but I never really felt like my children were completely welcomed on the ship. They have adult only sections (e.g., casino, solarium) set up in areas that to get from one section to another, one either has to walk through or go up or down a deck -- it just was awkward.

 

I heard families with teenagers really enjoyed the Voyager, but I wouldn't recommend it for the younger set unless there are very few days as sea.

 

By the way, the kids also really enjoyed Nova Scotia -- they really liked Peggy's Cove, though the drive was long, they fell asleep on the way back.

[ztalumni]

Thanks for the info. We are taking our children (4&7) on the Voyager in March from Miami to western caribbean. I thought it would be like the Navigator- we took that one this year. My daughters favorite part was the ice cream- she would freak... haha!!! My kids love the adventure ocean program and spent all their time there last time. Hopefully, they will like this one. The Navigator did not have a kids pool- so that would be nice. Thanks for the info... Tiff

[cruisinfamily]

We took our then 4 & 6 year old on the Voyager last September. The kids absolutely loved it! We spent more time at the kids "Adventure Beach" area with the slide than we did at the adult pool - and our kids really enjoyed Adventure Ocean as well. There was one family night that I know of - and it was the first night. It was meant to be a "get to know you" type of thing, and a way to allow the kids to adjust to what Adventure Ocean is like. We never hesitated to let the kids go to Adventure Ocean while my husband and I were off doing our own thing.

 

As for Sprinkles - I have to admit it was closed most of the cruise. I think a lot of this is due to the type of use and abuse the machine takes - it seems to be broken or out of ice cream quite often.

 

We never worried about walking through the Casino or even the Solarium in order to get from place to place - the kids and I were never told to leave because we weren't sticking around - we were just trying to get from one end of the ship to the other...not a big deal.

 

Above all, I think the kids loved Voyager much more than my husband and I did - we prefer the smaller, more "open" ship plans rather than this one with the "shopping mall" in the middle. We have a cruise on Vision of the Seas planned for February, and I'm dreading explaining to my little guy that there's no slide...he'll be very sad! ;)

 

ps...OT: ZTAlumni - I'm a ZTA alumni from Cal State Fullerton...gotta love your screenname! :)