Just back from VOS - Galveston TX

[snowshh]

Just got back from the Voyager, cruising out of Galveston, TX. I will be happy to try to answer any questions.

 

If your captain is "Captain Garry", don't miss his singing and guitar playing!

[39august]

Do you know how long Capt. Garry will be on? Having read so many posts about him, I hope he is still there for my April 6 cruise.

[CruzinSuz]

He'll be gone by then. My friends had dinner with him onboard on both 1/13 sailing and the 1/20 sailing and he was going home to Norway in about 3 weeks she said. I'm disappointed because we sail 2/24 and I think he'll be gone.

[slimknyzer]

What a shame. We sail on 2/17 and were hoping he would still be on board. I have heard he is quite the character with his daily updates, singing, and all around nice guy. Oh well, I guess we will just have to have fun.....otherwise. LOL

 

cheers = Slim

[dixie54]

Welcome back! Did you like the dining experience? Dining room, Chops, Portifino, Cafe Promenade, Windjammer? Which were your favorites and what was your favorite things to eat at each?

 

How was the entertainment? Was the Solarium nice to sit and relax in? Were the pools ever warm enought to swim without freezing?

 

Would love any tips you would like to share. We sail March 2. We are getting very excited!

[Riley's Mom]

What type of cabin did you have? Balcony? OV? Did you like your cabin and location.?

How was your dining room experience? Were the servers good? Did you eat at Johnny Rockets and if so, how what it?

Thanks,Carla

[Riley's Mom]

How was the food and service inthe dining room? Did you go to Johny Rockets? How was it?

 

What cabin did you have ? Was it a balcony? Did you like the cabin and location?

Thanks,Carla

[snowshh]

Welcome back! Did you like the dining experience? Dining room, Chops, Portifino, Cafe Promenade, Windjammer? Which were your favorites and what was your favorite things to eat at each?

 

How was the entertainment? Was the Solarium nice to sit and relax in? Were the pools ever warm enought to swim without freezing?

 

Would love any tips you would like to share. We sail March 2. We are getting very excited!

 

My DH and I always have dinner in the dining room. We had a great waiter named Cem (pronounced "Gem") and asst. waiter. We had early seating which now is 5:30pm. Don't know when that changed from 6:00pm. This was a little early for us. We did eat at Johnny Rockets for lunch one day. The day we ate there they opened at 1:00pm. I was there early and there was already a line. Got a seat at the counter and was able to save a seat for DH who arrived late. They bring you onion rings and french fries as soon as you sit down. They come back and take your order. There is a "cover charge" these days and it was $3.95. You also have to pay for any beverages except water. Because we are Diamond members now we only had to pay for DH's strawberry shake. We both had hamburgers, onion rings, french fries and I had a cho sunday. Next time I'll ask for no oreo cookies in the sunday though, ha! All other lunches we ate at the Windjammer. The wait staff dance and that was really cute, esp. one guy

 

We missed the first lunch on Sunday (day of sailing) because they did not begin boarding until 4:30pm due to fog. We had arrived about 10:45am and the ship had not even docked! I could just imagine what those before us were thinking about re-arranging their flights!!! We were able to enter the terminal however. LOTS of people had to sit on the floor or stand. It wasn't good, but there was nothing to be done and so we managed. I hated we missed lunch that day because the fruit tarts they have in the Windjammer the first day are one of my favorites. It's the ONLY time they have them all week.

 

We did not eat at Portifino and I didn't hear anyone else talk about it.

 

I did have a sandwich at Cafe Promenade, hot cho., cookies and one other dessert. DH loves the oatmeal raisin cookies (when they aren't over baked) and I love the coconut ones. Tried the double cho. ones (or something like that) and they were good too. They usually have these in the Windjammer also, but sometimes not. If not, we always check the Promenade.

DH did have a slice of pizza. The turkey sandwich was very good I thought.

 

My favorites at dinner are: Duck (they had it two nights), escargot, strawberry bisque, chilled watermelon soup, chilled banana mango soup (that was new and GOOD). Of course I had lobster on one of the formal nights. You can always have more than one if you like. I had shrimp and steak also. Most nights the men of the table would say their steaks weren't quite done enough. Medium well was QUITE PINK, so you need to let them know if not okay. DH usually doesn't send anything back, but I would if it happened to me. The baked potatoes were very good and you could have them any night you wanted. I ALWAYS order plates of fruit and cheese for the table for each night. We had a table of 6 each night and they brought 2 plates of cheese and 2 of fruit. They will bring that each night ! It's usually brought just after the bread is "delivered". I've been doing this for years. This was our 13th cruise. Don't forget you CAN have more than 1 dessert....I did several nights. They have a little warm cho. cake that was very good. It's just too hard to choose sometimes!! DH had vanilla ice cream I think every night...geezzzz!!

 

Entertainment:

 

Day 1: Welcome Aboard Show : This was at 10:30pm for both dinner seatings. Starring the comedy of Bruce Gold. I thought he was pretty good.

 

Day 2: Paul Boland "Man of 1,000 voices". It was okay. There was a late night act also for 18yrs and over only. Neither of us went to the late one.

 

Day 3: Broadway Rhythm & Rhyme staring the RCCL singers and dancers. I guess I've just seen too many of these.....not my favorite any more. BUT also at 10:30pm they had country & southern rock night in Studio B staring Capt. Gerry. Great! They invite people down to teach them to line dance, etc.

 

Day 4: Comedy of Jim Colliton.....thought he was better than first guy.

 

Day 5: The Magic & Grand Illusions of LARAF. Some was pretty good.

 

Day 6: Music In Motion - RCCL singers & Dancers again. I didn't go - watched a good movie in stateroom.

 

Day 7: Farewell show. Featuring Capt. Gerry - He's great on guitar and singing - don't miss. Also "Los Pampas Caucho" and featuring The artistry of Fluorescense. That was what I call "black light". It was very good. I think this was the best farewell show I've seen. Of course they tell the same jokes at the end as usual.

 

The ice show was good. DH liked the one on Explorer better, but still a good one.

 

Note on formal nights (2): DH decided he didn't want to wear a coat. He wore a shirt and tie the 1st one and just shirt on 2nd one. Oh yeah, he did wear pants! We had no problems in the dining room with this dress attire. We saw one guy in jeans which I thought was a bit much on a formal night.

 

Because of late boarding on the first night you could wear jeans to dinner. Most people didn't have their luggage yet anyway. Also the Muster Drill which is usually before you leave port was posponed until Monday morning at 10:00am.

 

The pools were suppose to be 78 degrees but we didn't try them. There were lots of folks in the hot tubs. Many were relaxing in the Solarium - asleep or reading.

 

DH did run each morning on the outside track. When it got too busy up there he would finish up in the gym.

 

We both gained between 3 - 4 lbs. One guy with us gained 10 lbs!! That should tell you something about the food, ha! I love the soft ice cream machines but not DH.

 

Anymore questions, feel free to ask!!

[snowshh]

What type of cabin did you have? Balcony? OV? Did you like your cabin and location.?

How was your dining room experience? Were the servers good? Did you eat at Johnny Rockets and if so' date=' how what it? [/size']

Thanks,Carla

 

We had a balcony stateroom on Deck 9 (#9352). It would have been nice to be just a little closer to the elevator, but it was still very nice. Last year we had a Jr. Suite - we checked a few days prior to sailing and got an upgrade for almost nothing -around $67.00 per cabin I think. That was great! I have found out that the cruises out of Galveston are almost always full which means no upgrades. So many Texans drive to port.

 

I just answered in a previous post about Johnny Rockets.

[snowshh]

Sorry you won't get to have Capt. Gerry. He was fun at 41 yrs. old!

[houstoncruisers2001]

My DH and I always have dinner in the dining room. We had a great waiter named Cem (pronounced "Gem") and asst. waiter.

 

Are you serious? We had Cem on our first week of our back to back and he WAS great.

 

We ate at Portofino's, twice. It was well worth it and I thought I'd never say that. I hate paying extra for anything. Ana & Steven were both outstanding waiters in Portofino's.

 

Johnny Rockets was ok. The onion rings & oreo sundae were really good. So was the dancer in the black hat.

 

We also thought the food in the dining room was pretty good, but we also thought the entertainment was pretty good, too.

 

The captain and cruise director were the best we've ever had.

 

The pools were cold, but we were in them quite a bit. The solarium pool is real chilly when the sun goes behind the ship, but we still went in. Just jump in quick.

 

The hot tubs weren't really hot and we tried them all. The one in the spa was hardly used and it's huge.

 

Since we had a promenade cabin on deck 6 I spent a lot of time running down to the Promenade Cafe on deck 5 for snacks & coffee. It was a great place.

 

Loved sitting at the British Pub having a tall draft beer and people watching while the wife got dressed for dinner. You can smoke inside both the pub & sports bar so grab an outside seat if smoke bothers you.