Erik Arellanos

Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean International
Ship: Voyager of the Seas
Sailing Date: August 26th, 2001
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Voyager of the Seas is the greatest ship on earth!  Last August 26th, my family and I went on one of the greatest vacations you could imagine.  We left late Friday night from our home in Las Vegas, NV for Miami.  We arrived early the next morning at Miami with lots of expectations.  Before leaving, I made sure I read every possible piece of information I could find on Voyager.  It was very helpful to read the reviews on this website and see the different experiences people have had aboard beautiful Voyager of the Seas, so for my review I'd like to break my experiences down into little sections like most reviews do.  I think it helps the reader understand better.

PRE-CRUISE… MIAMI!

As I was saying, we arrived at Miami early Saturday morning and we immediately went to our hotel in downtown Miami.  The Sheraton Biscayne Bay is a nice, comfortable, affordable, well-located hotel in the Miami area.  We had a beautiful room with views of the pier.  Since it was Saturday, we saw Explorer of the Seas docked at Royal Caribbean's pier.  It was wonderful to see the majestic ship and how it dwarfed the other two Carnival cruise ships (I believe Destiny & Fascination but I'm not sure).

Later on that day, after a nice nap, we got a rental car and we set off to Bayside Marketplace.  This is a really nice, open air, shopping mall that's literally right in front of the pier.  We got to see Explorer closer & we imagined how Voyager would be the next day.  We had a nice meal at Hard Rock Café, since it's in our tradition to visit the Hard Rock Café at every place we visit.  The rest of the day we spent driving around Miami just by following a map, and personally, I think we did great with the amateur tour guide thing.  I think we got to see most of Miami.  I'd rather recommend people who don't know Miami to take the Post-Cruise Tour of Miami offered on board Voyager, it's less costly and you'll really get to see all the sights.

EMBARKATION

After a nice, yet somewhat costly (by Vegas' standards) breakfast at the Sheraton, we left for Enterprise's offices down the street to return the car.  There they took us in a van to the pier.  By the way, if you can, don't eat anything before going to the ship, it's just a waste of money, just get to the ship early and go up to the Windjammer Café where you can have yourself a nice meal, and all included in your price already!  Anyway, do get to the ship early, it was about noon when we got there and it was packed.  The ship was fully booked (all 3,600 of us) and it was quite a mess.  I had read on some reviews that embarkation had gone smoothly, but for us it took us quite some time.

The lines were really long to get your ship cards and there was quite a mess to go up to the gangways.  After we were in line for about half an hour we finally got everything ready and we headed for gangway B, but there was a really big line there already so they started sending people down to gangway A, but when we got to A they sent us back to B and then back to A, so it was a real big confusion.  After a couple of walks down either end of the terminal we finally went up to Gangway A, which leads to the forward of the ship.  As I had read, the gangways are not air-conditioned, so it was really nasty in there.  There was a big build-up of people by the place where you take your Bon Voyage photo and they were only letting people one party at a time.  After much waiting we finally got on the ship, and believe me, the wait was well worth it!

THE SHIP… WOW!

We walked aboard on Deck 4, we walked straight into the Forward Centrum, which is the forward end of the Royal Promenade (Deck 5), the Casino (Deck 4), the La Scala Theatre (Decks 3 & 4), and Cleopatra's Needle (Deck 5).  We walked up the floating stairs up to Deck 5 where the Royal Promenade is.  The Promenade was stunning!  It's unbelievable how they could build such a thing on board of a ship, we couldn't believe it, it was wonderful!  We walked along the Promenade all the way to the Aft Centrum towards the Elevator lobby.  Our Cabin was #8645 (more on the cabin later).  After we left our stuff we were carrying we ventured off to get acquainted with the ship.

First stop was Deck 11, the pool deck.  We walked along the pools, they were all nice and big, the main pool area has two pools and 4 whirlpools.  This area was always crowded and full of children so we preferred the Solarium area.  This area is beautifully appointed in a roman forum setting.  There's a really nice pool with some nice water features and two large whirlpools.  The chairs are all nice and comfy, and if you're not too fond of being in the sun for too long, the Solarium has lots of relaxing shades to relax and watch the world go by.

Deck 13 is the sports deck, I'm not a big sports fan so we didn't spend much time here.  The little put-put golf is great though, really fun to play on day's at sea.  In-line skating we never got to do, but it seemed like people were having a blast.  On days at sea they always have some sort of basketball or volleyball contest at the basketball court.  My brother participated in the volleyball contest and won 2nd place.  He seemed to have fun… like I said, I'm really not a big sports fan.  The rock climbing wall seemed fun as well, my brother, the sportsman, tried it as well and he said it was a blast, me and my mother would rather stay on deck and watch him pull his stunt.

Deck 14 is home to the beautiful High Notes club, instead of a jazz club, which it was intended to be, it seemed more like a Latin dance club, but since we are Latin, we loved spending time here.  Lots of dancing going on and on the first night the place was bumping!  The Latin group was called Azucar, Tabaco, y Ron, translated to English, Sugar, Tobacco, & Rum.  They were from Colombia and by the end of the cruise we had become good friends with the trio.  Also, our friend Miguel from Chile, who was a bartender at High Notes, will be missed.  He was of great help when we needed to get around the ship.  Also on Deck 14, the Viking Crown area, there is a golf themed bar, Hole 19 which never seemed to crowded, a private room called Cloud Nine, and a card room which always seemed to be full of board game enthusiastic called Seven Hearts.

>From there, we went back down to the dining rooms (Decks 3, 4, & 5).  Deck 3 is home to Carmen, which was our dining room, Deck 4 hosts La Boheme, and Deck 5, Magic Flute.  All the dining rooms are elegantly appointed and we specially loved the beautiful chandelier in between the three dining rooms.  As I had read on a few reviews, the cuisine isn't so great, it was better than I expected though, most of the items I had were really good, some were somewhat bad though, the service more than makes up for whatever the kitchen lacks.  Our waiter, Jorge from Portugal and assistant waiter Marylinn from South Africa were both warm and gracious when serving us.  We miss being pampered the way we were onboard.

As I had read on some reviews, they say to go to the Matri'd to go check your table assignments, since this was our first cruise, we didn't have time to go see the Matri'd since we were so excited about looking around the ship.  In any way, it all worked out fine cause our tablemates decided to never come back after the first night (change of table or something) so we dined by ourselves the rest of the cruise and we loved the privacy, it would have been nice to make friends though, but we loved it anyhow.  Also, we didn't have to make any changes since we got the Main seating as we asked for, and our table was just fine for the three of us.  I also read that you should make reservations for the Portofino restaurant, or that you should try the Island Grill once during the cruise, but we just loved the whole dining in the dining room that we never even thought of going anywhere else.

THE WINDJAMMER CAFÉ

This is Voyager's breakfast/lunch area, the food is ok, not too great, but it was sufficient.  We never got to lunch though, we always got there at the end of breakfast just as they were setting up lunch, so we were too full to come back to lunch so we'd just wait till dinner.  Personally, I was unimpressed by this area, I think RCCL could've done a much better job, they had already outdone themselves everywhere else on the ship, I think they should've outdone themselves here too.  In any case, the Windjammer is still a nice place no matter what, the food is ok, the views are nice, and service is as good as anywhere.

JOHNNY ROCKET'S

Johnny Rocket's is the burger joint aboard.  I had read about it on the reviews but it wasn't until I was in Miami that I saw that Johnny Rocket's is a chain of fast food places just like McDonald's or Burger King, with much better quality though.  Just as the reviews said, the food here is great!  You should really try the milkshakes I wish the burgers could've been bigger, but if you're really that hungry you could always have two.  We ate here a couple of times and the wait wasn't so long, and even if the wait would've been longer it would've been worth it.

LA SCALA THEATRE

The La Scala Theatre beat my every expectation, I always thought that ships would have small lounge-like theatres, but I had forgotten I was aboard Voyager of the Seas.  The theatre is a beautiful work of architecture; it's better than some of the showrooms I've seen here in Vegas.  They always provided with something fun for us to go see at the theatre after dinner.  There were a couple of comedians, but we really liked "El Gaucho", it was this Argentinean comedian/musician that was really good.  He does this thing with the "boleadoras" (something the use in the Argentine Pampas), which was absolutely great.  Also, the production shows, "Dreamscape" and "Broadway Rhythm & Rhyme" were outstanding.  The cast does an outstanding job.  Kudos!

STUDIO B ICE RINK

The Studio B Ice Rink is on Deck's 3 & 2 and it's quite amazing to see such a thing.  This is something you really have to see to believe.  The rink is not too big but it's more than enough for the space provided, designers did a great job on this.  We never went ice skating but we heard many kids say great things about it.  If you plan to go do remember to bring your pants and socks with you.  The "Ice Jammin'" show was really great.  The ice performers do a great job for such a limited space.  They received a standing ovation and they deserved it.  We would've liked to see it again, but tickets are limited since the venue only holds so many people so they limit the people that can go.

DECK 4

Deck 4 is home to many different things, including the casino, the Aquarium Bar, and the entrance to "The Vault" nightclub (actually you have to go through Deck 3 to get in, but there's a door on Deck 4 which is supposed to be the entrance).  My mother and brother really liked the design of the casino, to me it seemed too busy with details and it didn't stick to the nice, pleasant theme of the rest of the ship, it looked more like pictures of Carnival ships I've seen.  Also, I was unimpressed because after all, we are from Las Vegas where casinos are far more glitzy and far, far, far, larger, so please don't pay too much attention to my opinion of the casino, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The Aquarium bar is really nice, the Latin Band and the Rosario String Quartet often play there as well as some other performers.  The atmosphere is relaxed and we liked to spend time there after dinner prior to going to the show.  The Vault is a superb nightclub, the futuristic design is wonderful and everyone seemed to be having a blast when we were there.  The Vault is open till the wee hours of the morning and it seemed to be packed with action every night.  Personally, I like quieter spots with softer music, but my brother really enjoyed The Vault (as you can see, we're totally different).

THE ROYAL PROMENADE

The Royal Promenade is the centerpiece of the ship, this is a nice, airy place to be.  Highlights of this place are the Café Promenade, where the pizzas are great and there's a wide variety of snacks as well as coffee and other drinks, it's open most of the day and it's always busy.  The Pig n' Whistle pub, which we never really went to, is full of the good people from England.  It was really funny one night cause they had karaoke there and there were these three British girls that were completely drunk singing "Girls Just want to Have Fun", I bet they were!

The Scoreboard is a sports bar and like I said, I'm not a sports person, but since my brother is, we spent a few moments here every so often just so he could catch up with his games.  The bar is nice for those who want to stay in touch with their sports, personally, I liked the fact that onboard, you forget the rest of the world exists.

Cleopatra's Needle is on the forward end and it is a really nice bar, however, it never seemed to draw much attention with the groups that played there.  The only times when the lounge was completely full was on Karaoke night.  There were three of them during the cruise and we went to all of them.  It was great fun, there were some true talents and some not too great ones.  Toni will be forever remember for her rendition of a 70's disco hit that had everyone on their feet (not because she had a good voice, but let's just say because of her "effort").  Thank you Toni, if you ever read this, for a WONDERFUL moment at Cleopatra's Needle.

CABIN #8645

Our cabin was an inside cabin and surprisingly, it wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be.  Space was just enough for the three of us, although I must admit for 4 people it would get a little crowded.  Drawer space and closet space was more than adequate, and since it was out first cruise, we over packed, but we still had more than enough room for all of our stuff.  It seems the only smart packer was my brother.  Word of advice, just bring your beach clothes and your night clothes, that's all you need.  We brought a whole bunch of other "resort wear" and we never even wore it once, I guess you could say we took our clothes on vacation to the Caribbean.  As I was saying, our cabin was lovely in every way.  I particularly liked the bathroom, it was really cool, the shower is round and the doors slide open like a space pod, very ingenious.  The Interactive TV system is great, we got to purchase our "Explorations" through there and we got to beat the lines down at the Exploration Desk on Deck 5.

The cabin assistant, oh god… I don't remember his name… Well let's just say he did everything expected.  We had a lovely towel animal every night and we miss having our beds made for us twice a day.  He would also bring down and put back the bunk bed we had, it made the room much roomier during the day.  Also, he delivered the Cruise Compass every night to our room.  The Compass in infinitely helpful, we carried it everywhere and made sure we never missed any of the events listed.  I don't have much experience on other cruise ships, but from everything I've read they say that the Compass is the best, and it really is, it was so easy to see all that was going on, and believe me, there's plenty to do.

THE PORTS… LABADEE!

Well enough about the ship now, I hope you got enough info to answer all your questions, I wanted to cover everything, but it would take me for ever.  Well, after a gorgeous day at see we arrived at Labadee, Haiti.  This is RCCL's private island, the beaches are nice, but not the greatest, and the food was good.  Best of all, everything was free.  It was sad to see all those people at the flea market desperate to sell their stuff, we would've bought something, but naively, since we knew it was RCCL's island, we thought they'd take our SuperCharge card at Labadee so that's all we brought with us and we couldn't get anything from here.  Don't forget your money!

OCHO RIOS, Jamaica

Ocho Rios was a really fun experience.  We booked the Dunn's River Falls tour for this place.  The price was affordable and the tour guide was great.  We even got a class of Patois (the Jamaican native language) so everything was "Irie".  Dunn's Falls were an absolutely great experience, the water was kind of cold, and me and my mother aren't very fond of cold water, but in a hot Jamaican day you soon forget you're in a river of cold water and it just seems really refreshing.  We formed a big human chain of about 30 people, and headed by an experienced guide, we claimed almost to the top.  Don't forget your water sandals if you want to climb or else you'll either have to buy some or rent some.  From Dunn's Falls we went to a couple of shopping center, I'm also not fond of shopping but my mother enjoyed it.  Lots of duty free shops, but be careful, you could get ripped off.  From there we just went back to the ship and spent a lazy afternoon at the solarium sleeping.  Would've liked to try the beaches of Jamaica, but there didn't seem to be a nice one close to the pier.

GRAND CAYMAN

Grand Cayman is beautiful!  There are no words to describe the immense beauty there is in this place.  From the ship, we took the tender down to the main terminal in downtown Grand Cayman, we had asked a staff member from RCCL to tell us where a good beach was so we could go relax, he said we should go to 7mile beach, we thought of taking a taxi, but he said we could just walk there.  WRONG IDEA!!!  We walked and walked and walked and walked and couldn't see a nice beach, finally we decided to go down to the beach and walk on the beach till we found a nice beach.  More walking, more walking, more walking, and who knows how much later we finally arrived a beautiful beach.  The white, powder-like sand was gorgeous, the walk was worth it, but I don't recommend it at all, only if you love long strenuous exercise, if not take a taxi, but be really careful with the taxis, you should either know exactly what the change from US$ to CY$ is or change some US$ to CY$.  After we spent a few hours on the beach relaxing after our strenuous walk, we decided to take a taxi back to the dock, another WRONG IDEA!!! The taxi driver ripped us off, I believe he charged us like $12 US for the three of us and I gave him a $20 US, he only gave me back like $3 CY and come to find out, he was supposed to give me like $6 CY, it wasn't much, but we still felt betrayed by the Caymans, so be careful with the change of currency.

Other than this somewhat bitter experience, the day was just fine, we stopped at the Hard Rock Café for some souvenirs and we walked around town for just a little bit before returning to the ship.  We were glad to be going on RCCL and not Carnival because their tenders were heading back for the ship full of people and the crowd waiting to go back to the ship was huge, at RCCL the line wasn't long and the tender barely had about 20 people on board.  Thank god for RCCL!

COZUMEL, Mexico!

Cozumel was our last stop before heading back for Miami, it was also, in my opinion, the best port.  Unlike Jamaica, and Grand Cayman, Cozumel seems a lot more modern and organized when it comes to the terminal and getting a taxi.  There's a nice mall right on the terminal with lots of Mexican goodies.  For Cozumel we bought the Cozumel Beach Break, once again it was affordable and it was a good choice.  The beach break included access to a private beach club, which had a pool, a few bars, entertainment and a gorgeous beach.  I think the best deal was that we could drink anything we wanted and it was all included.  We had a lovely day just laying around doing nothing.  We also got to snorkel, they have some ruins they placed down at the bottom of the sea so you can explore, lots of fishes and lots of other good stuff.  I would've liked to have more time though to go to town and look around, too bad we had to go back to the ship so we could make it for dinner.

OTHER DETAILS

I hope I've covered pretty much everything, but I also wanted to note all of the good stuff the dining rooms have.  On a couple of nights the waters do a little show for everyone.  One night they sang to us a lovely Italian song, another day they walked around with flames on their heads, and on another day we all danced the Macarena.  It was all great fun and it was sad to part.  Also the cruise director, Jeff Martin was great.  He should have a show of his own, he's really funny and he does a great job.  The Krooz Komics are a crew of clowns that go around the promenade most every day doing all sorts of funny things, they really crack you up, specially the banana bit they play before on of the shows.  There area also all sorts of activities by the main pool, we never go to any of them cause we were always sleeping at the Solarium.  Also, I'd like to make a special mention of our Head Waiter, Davey from India, he was great, he even got us a second round of Lobsters on lobster night.  Thanks Davey!

DEBARKATION

This I had heard some bad stuff about, but instead, it went by as smoothly as can be.  It took them a while to call our color though, and the people are asked constantly not to stand by the doorways but they still do.  When our color was called there was a huge crowd by the Aquarium Bar and the doors out to the gangway and I thought we would never be able to get out, but it was really only a few of us that had the tags that had already been called and the rest was just people that were standing there for no reason.  If people would follow instructions everything would be so much easier.  We were sitting at the Scoreboard lounge on the promenade and it was nice and quite and not crowded, if everyone would use all of the public spaces it would be much better.  Our baggage was waiting for us already and we just grabbed a cab and left for the airport.

It was an awfully sad moment to see the ship slip away as we drove further.  I have to admit it brought tears to my eyes to say goodbye to the life that you become accustomed to having aboard a cruise ship.  It was the greatest experience of my lifetime and I think we're going to cruise yearly now.  Currently we are planning a trip to the Southern Caribbean aboard Adventure of the Seas (the latest ship to be launched by RCCL) in May of 2002.  Hopefully, this vacation will be just as great as it was with Voyager.

I hope with all my heart that this review has been helpful, if you are still deciding weather to go on a cruise or not, don't hesitate about it.  GO! You'll never regret it, believe me, and if you're already booked to go, you'll have a great time, I assure you will, and please, write a review when you come back for the rest of us to read how it went with you!

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