D and J

Age: 34
Occupation: Electrical Engineer
Number of Cruises: First Cruise
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean International
Ship: Voyager of the Seas
Sailing Date: July 14th, 2002
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

WARNING: This is a very long review, may entertain, may bore, read on and find out.

Here’s my first cruise review from my first cruise. I first want to acknowledge cruisereviews.com for providing this site with great information, and Linda Sparrow for answering my questions when I emailed her about her review of the June 16th cruise. Thanks to Lori at Redden Travel in South Bend for her work on booking the trip at a great price and helping out with getting us un-upgraded…

We had a inside room on deck 6 planned but were assigned an outside window-room on deck 2. The window would have been nice but not at the expense of being put in the bowels of the ship. Lori had us back in an inside cabin on deck 8.

We chose this cruise because of its itinerary and things to do on the ship. This was our honeymoon cruise and wanted to have fun as well as relax. I jokingly say I regret sailing on the Voyager of the Seas because the ship spoiled us in every way possible. In reality, we will only consider the Voyager or one of her sister ships for cruises in the immediate future. Now, it’s not perfect but it truly is “Like no Vacation on Earth”. (If you go on this cruise, get use to hearing that phrase). Now I’m going to try and take you on a day-by-day recollection of our trip.

Sunday - Embarkation

We woke up at 3am to leave for the airport. By 4am we were on the road leaving South Bend, Indiana headed for Chicago’s Midway airport. We dumped off our 1-way rental right in the airport’s garage and took the 8am ATA flight headed for Miami. The ATA flight crew ignored all non-Hispanic passengers leaving a bad taste in selecting this airline. Anyway they got us to Miami in one piece. I had planned on taking the SuperShuttle van to the port but after examining the fixed prices for taxi rides, we went with it rather than waiting for a van to fill up. The SuperShuttle costs $9 per person and the taxi was $18 plus tip, so it was pretty much a wash. We got our first view of the ship as we drove up to the port. We couldn’t wait to get aboard. Our taxi driver dropped us off right in front of the ship’s terminal around 1:30pm were it was busy with people. A guy was queuing the luggage to have it loaded on the ship by the skycaps. Within 10 minutes we were assigned a skycap that proceeded to tell us that since this was the last time we would see him, now was the proper time to tip. We gave him $1 per bag and watched as he prompted others for money. He left our bags on the ground while he did, so we waited until we saw him load our bags on his cart. With our carry-on packs we headed for the terminal. We went up an escalator or two and found a couple long lines where you more or less “check-in” to the ship. Here is where they go over your passport info, establish your on-board credit and issue your ship passes (like a credit card). Each person in your party has one of these and it is used to get on and off the ship, enter your cabin, and buy things on the ship. Waiting in this line seemed to take forever as our luxury-ship awaited us! Finally with passes in hand we went up another escalator where there was another line. This is where we had our first experience with the RCCL photographers for a keepsake of us boarding the ship. Next we walked up to what looks like a check in station. What happens here is you slide your card into a slot (again, get use to this procedure) where they have you look down into a camera for a mug shot. When you get off the ship you scan your card so they know when you left and when you come back so they know you’re onboard. Your mug shot is displayed to make sure someone isn’t impersonating you trying to board. Good idea. Now we take the gangway to the ship where we were greeted as we stepped on deck.

We entered on deck 4 of the ship. There are small maps on the walls all over the ship letting you know where you are and pointing out other places you might want to go. We headed for deck 8 so we could hunt down room 8335. The room was a great size and the twin beds were already put together for our mini honeymoon suite <grin>. We had a desk, TV and a luv-seat. There’s plenty of room under the bed(s) for the luggage so it’s stored out of the way as the closet was very ample. The bathroom was a good size – far from the horror stories I heard about on other cruises. I’m a large guy and had no problems with room. Another note – the room has a hair dryer built into the desk so you don’t need to take one. We headed up to Windjammers for lunch as we waited for our luggage to be delivered to the room. It’s no new news to people reading these reviews that the food rating is “good” to “great” so I’m not going to harp too much on food. (by the way I gained 10 lbs during this week) We made several trips to our room anticipating our luggage. During one of these trips we meet our cabin attendant Cathy-Ann. She was very sweet and kept our room in great shape. As our 6pm dinner time rolled around Cathy-Ann told us that we could go to dinner in shorts and t-shirts on the first day because they know most people didn’t get their luggage yet. Dinner is where we met our tablemates for the first time. Selecting who sits with who is where RCCL could pay more attention. We assumed that we would be sitting with people about our age and possibly other newlyweds. Instead we had Andy and Joshua (a father-son combo) and another couple from Montreal, Canada that didn’t speak English. We thought of requesting a different table but we did enjoy the Andy and Joshua’s company. I’m glad we didn’t move. We also met our waiter, Vilas from India, and assistant waiter, Karen from the Philippines. Vilas kept us VERY happy with making sure we enjoyed the food we had. If we weren’t 100% happy with it he’d offer to bring us something else, sometimes without even asking. If we liked something, he automatically brought more. (Did I mention I gained 10 lbs?) Karen, kept our glasses full and made sure we didn’t have to wait for dressings or other condiments. After dinner we found our luggage inside our room where we took out the swimsuits and headed for the pool. Since I was up since 3am, my memory gives out on what if anything we did after that.

Monday – First Day at Sea

Since I’m an early riser I got up around 7 and headed up to the outside jogging track. It takes only 5 laps to make a mile, which was a challenge on this first day. The wind was so strong it made it hard to move forward as you rounded the front of the ship. At this time the ship wasn’t busy. There were only a few people jogging or walking outside and hardly anyone inside. After my jog I picked up my camcorder and shot the majority of the ship video when nobody was around to block my shots. Once Justina woke up we had breakfast and headed for the pool deck. By the time we got there the majority of the deck chairs were taken… not used, just reserved with towels or personal effects. Since we just wanted to worship the sun we found a pair of chase lounges looking over the Solarium (adult pool). Every once and a while we’d cool off in one of the pools which felt larger than what they looked in the brochures

The pool deck is broke up into a community area and an adult area. The community area has 2 pools, 2 small hot tubs and 2 larger covered hot tubs. It also has a bandstand where a great Jamaican band played regularly. I never would have thought I’d like the sound of steel drums so much. The community area is surrounded by multiple levels of deck chairs and feels much more open than the adult area. The adult area (Solarium) is more closed in and doesn’t have as much sun. There’s one pool there and 2 large covered hot tubs. We really liked the Roman theme of adult area and spent most of our pool time there, however, finding a sunny chair was a rarity. The RCCL was also real good at escorting kids out of the area when they missed the 2 small “Adults Only” signs.

We stayed up for the “honeymooners” party in “The Vault”, which is a dance club on deck3 - forward. This party was kinda lame. They only played slow 80’s love songs and didn’t promote mingling. On the plus side of the party, there were complimentary champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, caviar, and other finger foods. The champagne was strong and the chocolate on the strawberries was like a “magic shell” coating. If you make this party try and mix it up with other couples so you can hook up later. We met another honeymoon couple, Amy and Andy (another Andy) that we hooked up with later.

Tuesday - Labadee, Haiti

Land! Woke up and jogged another mile with the view of Haiti’s shoreline. There was no wind to contend with today… just people blocking the track. After breakfast we gathered our snorkel equipment and tendered (took a small boat) to shore. To do so we needed to pick up tickets for specific times to travel to shore. I think they did this more to keep track how many people went to shore more than anything else. Once on the island we went to the second beach and found a nice spot for some chairs. There are locals there that want to get them for you and clean them off for a small tip so bring a couple singles. We weren’t sure if a floatation device was required to snorkel so we played to safe and rented a couple vests. They also have masks and tubes there if you don’t mind renting that kind of stuff and you can put it all on your card from the ship. We saw all kind of fish and even some squid! Also on this beach you can snorkel over by the rocks on the right and you find some small shells for souvenirs. The earlier you go, the better the selection. We then headed over to the flea market, which was filled with locals desperate to sell you something. It looked like each vendor had a row of stuff to sell and was pretty much the same stuff the other vendors had. Justina took a liking to a tin sun cutout that a vendor was asking $25 for. We got her down to $12. If you don’t care to barter my advice is to steer clear of vendors outside of the red building and the building itself and go to the building in back. It was more like a regular shop without the pushy salespeople. We then headed for the buffet that the ship had brought ashore for lunch. This food was primarily the same as the stuff on the ship with BBQ ribs and chicken. After lunch we relaxed on the beach and snorkeled some more. We had left or gear on our chairs as we had made a “You watch our stuff we’ll watch yours” deal with the people next to us. Then back to the boat to relax and get ready for dinner.

This was the first formal night on the ship. Per advice of friends that took cruises in the past I didn’t take the formal thing too seriously. I wore nice pants, a shirt and tie and was underdressed. (Justina looked great though) Next time I’ll take a better suit or take advantage of the tux rental deal on the ship. If you take your own suits, make sure to have them pressed right away. We tried taking a travel iron along and it didn’t work well. After I gave up with the travel iron I read the pressing order form in our room to find that service takes a day. I should have done this as soon as I got on the ship, so don’t delay. Dinner was great and now Karen was automatically bringing my drink of choice - pineapple juice.

I THINK this was the night we went to the “Not too Newlywed Game”. I highly recommend this show, as it’s pretty damn funny! Make sure to go early to watch (or try out for) the auditions. Jeff, the highly entertaining cruise director, had four age groups of contestants to work with and it was a riot.

Wednesday – Ocho Rios, Jamaica

The boat actually docks at Ocho Rios (eight rivers) so you can come and go as you please. We originally didn’t have any excursions planned for here but my new wife insisted that we do the Dunn’s River Falls. More on the falls in a minute. First we had one hour to kill so we decided to walk to a couple of local shops for souvenirs. After wading through dozens of taxi drivers bugging to take us somewhere or sell us illegal substances, we made it to the Tahj Mahaul shopping center. We didn’t have enough time to look through all the shops and were even bugged to buy drugs in there by other “customers”. We could have done without leaving the dock. Anyway, about the falls… I didn’t want to do the falls because it didn’t look that fun but my wife insisted. I’m glad she did – the falls were fun. We booked the $43 boat ride excursion through RCCL the night before. When we got off the boat they handed us tickets to the falls that had a face value of $20. We enjoyed the climb, as the water only seemed cold at the beginning. It was a great cool down for the very hot day. All of our belongings were left on a table where a local watched over them for a tip when we got back. I was uncomfortable about this because how would she know whose stuff was whose? I saw later that there are pay lockers available near the falls, so keep that in mind when you’re asked to leave all your valuables on a table. The boat trip there had fruit punch served. On the way back we were treated to rum with a splash of punch… Not many went back for seconds but Jus and I had three each and felt pretty good when we got back to the ship. As we neared the ship the dancing began to give the impression that we partied all the way there and back to those watching on the pier. Truthfully, if we had started dancing at the beginning of the boat ride back, we would have been to pooped by the time we got back to put on a show for the dockside onlookers. The tip jar emerged when we were getting off the boat so you might need a few more singles ready if you felt you had a good time. They were also selling a CD with the music we were listening to on the boat trip to the falls. Next time I go I’ll get one of those abundant taxis to take us to the falls and save some money to buy bottles of rum, which we did anyway right before getting back on the ship. When you get back to the ship, they take your rum and deliver them to your room on the last day of the cruise so you can pack them.

Now back on the ship we changed clothes (half crocked) and enjoyed talking about our day with our tablemates over dinner. Another note here - Andy bought the wine package on the ship for one-hundred-something where you get a bottle of wine each night for dinner. He deemed it a great deal for the quality of wine. He often shared the wine with Justina and I. Any left could be saved for the next night or taken up to the room. After dinner we went back to the room for a short nap before heading to the ice show. I recommend it so pay attention as to when the tickets will be available. They’re free, but you’ll still need to get tickets. It’s very entertaining. Later we went to the parade in the Royal Promenade which led too a party on the pool deck that is not to be missed! It was close to midnight… the stars were out, the band was jam’mon, people were dancing and food was lined up along the sides of the ship for another feast! (10lbs, remember!) The dancing was led by different crewmembers, and a conga line eventually formed around the deck that concluded with a limbo. This was great way to end the Jamaican day.

Thursday – Georgetown, Cayman Islands

Here’s where we saw other cruise ships. Boy they look small compared to the great Voyager! We again had to tender to shore but this time it was first come first serve and boats ran all day. We got on the island early and headed for Captain Marvin’s Tours which I heard about here on cruisereviews.com. This privately booked excursion was a great recommendation. The shop is only a couple blocks down on the right from the docks in a pale yellow building. We had got there too early and saw the 3 hour tour leave. That tour looked pretty full (20 people) and wondered how bad ours would be for the 2 hour tour. Originally Jus and I were the only two going but by the time we left, there were 10 of us. A van ride took us to what looked like a home along the channels where we met our guide, Chris. Chris did a great job and showed us a good time. The ride out to the sandbar takes a while so don’t get too anxious. We first stopped off at “the aquarium” to do some snorkeling. This was neat to be so far away from land yet in neck high water. Chris supplied us with floatation vests and fins to move around better. Afterward we boated over to the stingrays. The water is about waste high here so no floatation vests are needed. Also no fins or any type of footwear is allowed as it might harm the ray’s environment. Chris had us wade to a spot away from the boat and we waited there while he went to get a ray for us. As he came back we saw he was guiding a large black ray under the water. Man was it big. There were a few other’s following as well. As the rays got to us they brushed up against us like cats wanting attention. Some of them pushed straight at us looking for food. Now I know what the cooks feel like back on the ship when the buffet opens! Chris lifted one of the rays into the air to show us the underside to see its mouth. We had taken a waterproof camera and I got a great shot of this. (email me if you want to see it) He then showed us how to properly feed a ray and we each had a chance to. As they say, time flies when you’re having fun and it seemed that the food was gone before we knew it and the rays eventually lost interest and swam away. Next time I’m going to buy my own food to keep the rays around a bit longer! The personal attention that Chris gave us was great and I would recommend Capt. Marvin’s to anyone. I made sure to show my appreciation by giving him a well-deserved tip. Back on the island we did some shopping before heading back to the ship and again enjoyed sharing the days experiences with our tablemates.

Again, I’m not too sure but I think this was the night we saw the boy band “All for One.” They were the first celebrity performers of the cruise. They played a couple songs I recognized including “I swear” which I remember as a pop version of a country tune.

Friday – Cozumel, Mexico

I got up early and headed to the fitness center. I chose to jog on a treadmill as we sailed into Cozumel. Something off the Starboard side of the ship caught my eye. Dolphins. I tried pointing it out to the guy jogging next to me and he thought I was nuts, but eventually he saw them too. That was the extent of my dolphin experience. I hit the weights and then went back to the room to get ready for going ashore. By the time we were done with breakfast, the boat was docked. Here the ship was docked, so we just walked off. There are two dock areas in Cozumel. Our ship was at the older dock. You basically have to walk through a mall of sorts to get to where you catch a cab. This is where you can choose your fun. You can rent a jeep, scooter or just jump in a cab. We were told that the scuba shop we wanted to get to was 2 miles down the road and the cab would cost $6. So we took the cab along the coast to Papa Hogs Scuba Shop, another excursion I picked up outside of RCCL’s menu. Of the MANY scuba shops I came across on the web, Papa Hogs seemed to have the best reputation. The facility is decent. (later we saw more professional LOOKING outfits down the road) We got there early and had to read a long chapter on scuba do’s, don’t and why’s. Our brief return to college physics and biology was due to the fact that we have never dived before. We took the “resort” package were we got to go down 25ft under the waves. We filled out the liability wavers and headed to shore to suit up. Julie was our personal instructor and taught us the important stuff we needed to be able to do… i.e. recovering a dropped regulator and getting water out your mask while under water. (you just can’t go to the surface if the regulator pops out of your mouth – bad, very bad) After we experienced first hand how heavy a scuba tank is, we worked our way into the water. It would be nice if they had a better path. We feared slipping on a rock and falling with that heavy tank on our backs. But, we made it in without incident and practiced our new skills. Once we proved that we knew what we were doing we headed out into Papa Hog’s private reef. All the reading and training was worth it as we were treated to an up close view of the reef’s population. We saw all kind of fish including small jellyfish and eels. Julie made sure we didn’t miss a thing as she pointed out the sites. She also kept a close eye on us to make sure we were okay. We checked our air supply and saw we had used half of it up so we started heading back in. Climbing out of the water we were reminded of the heavy packs we had on our back and made it over the rocks back to shore. Justina was all smiles and sold on scuba diving (she’s looking into classes for when we go back). This private excursion only costs $55 per person and well worth it! There was a premium to use a credit card for payment and without thinking things through I used my last 100-dollar travelers check. I really wanted to tip Julie for her GREAT service but I wasn’t even sure if I had enough for our cab rides. (I’m still waiting on an email back from Papa Hogs with Julie’s address so we can send her something now that we’re back) The famous Carlos and Charlie’s was another 2 miles down the road and since our cash was running low, we walked. This area is where the new dock was and it was VERY nice and right across from Carlos and Charlie’s. We scraped enough cash to get a couple drinks but had to turn down several offers for “head shots”. However, a group partying next to us actually bought us a couple when they saw us turning the waitress down. Thank you! It was too early though – the place wasn’t hopping yet. We headed out to look over the area. Justina decided to have a couple braids put in her hair and we bought a couple souvenirs and Cuban cigars. We went back past Carlos and Charlie’s, where it had become a bit crazier. We decided that we didn’t have enough cash left so we chalked it up to “next time” and headed back to the ship. A $7 cab ride got us back to the boat where we spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool. The boat left an hour late because some of our shipmates neglected to get back to the ship on time. Remember to understand the ship time/shore time thing. After dinner we headed up to Andy and Joshua’s cabin to check out a balcony room. Nice? Yes. Worth it? No. We broke out one of the Cubans and discussed life over a bottle of wine.

Saturday – Last Day at Sea

We were pretty lazy this day as we spent most of the time on the pool deck gathering up the sun. Again most of the deck chairs were “reserved” but we didn’t care too much. We headed up to the top deck toward the front of the ship. This is the highest point where you can sunbathe. We were expecting this to be the topless section, however, there were no postings proclaiming this. There were only a few people there, making it very quiet and relaxing. We had our last dinner on the ship and it was time to leave our waiters their tips. I realized that I was still a bit short on cash because I needed to get a cab back to the airport and dinner in Chicago. I wasn’t about to short the people that took such great care of us so I bit the bullet and paid the $5 service charge of the ship’s ATM to repack my wallet. We kicked in a little bit more than recommend and wrote notes of thanks on their envelopes.

Now we had to face the reality that the dream was almost over. We packed up our stuff, taking a break only to see the farewell show. The comedian was very funny. We put our luggage outside our cabin keeping a change in clothes for the next day. We headed down to “The Vault” to go dancing with the other newlywed couple onboard. We had a good time before retiring for the night.

Sunday – Getting’ off the boat.

We had orange baggage tickets so we were going to be the second group of people to get off the boat. Everyone had to be out of their cabins by 8am so we got up early, left an envelope for Cathy-Ann and headed to breakfast at Windjammers buffet. After we had our fill we went up to the crows nest (a lounge on deck 13) to wait for our color to be called. The view was great from up there but looking down on the pool deck was a bit depressing knowing it would be a while before we’d be back. So, we headed down to the Royal Promenade and sat at the Pig Whistle. Just as I got a cup of tea at the Seattle’s Best stand our color was called. We headed out the same way we came on one week before. We waited in line to get through immigration and the officer was very nice. We then went to pick up our luggage. The carrousels are exactly like those in an airport. We picked our luggage off of the “orange” carrousel and headed for the door. We stopped briefly at the customs desk as they checked our claim ticket and let us go on our way. All we had was 3 bottles of Rum, some t-shirts and misc. stuff. A quick taxi trip through the empty streets of Miami had us at the airport in no time. We eventually got on our ATA flight headed to Chicago. This flight crew was much more helpful and polite. They redeemed the airline in my eyes. After complementing them I let them know how we were treated on the flight down. My friend picked us up in Chicago and after a quick dinner in Chinatown, we took the hour drive home.

Notes on the Ship… Previous reviews had me worried about certain things with this cruise. #1 Dirty carpets – actually all the carpets were very clean. They weren’t new, but nothing like one review made it our to be. #2 Crowded or Not? – we were told that the ship was at capacity yet we found it hard to believe that there were that many people on the ship. The elevators were busy for dinner, events and shore trips, but not bad at all. The decks are short making the stairs an easy alternative. #3 Rowdy kids goofing around – not really. The kids have their own part of the ship and seemed very happy to hang out there. When we were around teenagers on the inline skating track, basketball court, or rock-climbing wall, they were polite and courteous to the adults around them. #4 Bad exercise equipment – I’m no fitness expert but I thought the equipment was first rate, and there were a couple crewmembers floating around to help the inexperienced people. #5 Drinks are expensive – I have to agree with this. We only got a couple drinks. Gratuity is automatically added to your order. The food at Johnny Rockets is free, but the milkshakes are not. If you’re a soda drinker, get the soda cards for unlimited fountain drinks. $20 for kids, $33 for adults. I took a case of diet coke for my caffeine fix.

That’s it. If you have any questions or want to see a pic email me. I’d be glad to help you out.

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