Kenny

Age: 52
Occupation: business owner
Number of Cruises: 6
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean International
Ship: Voyager of the Seas
Sailing Date: July 1st, 2001
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

We have cruised five times before with Carnival and Disney so that is my frame of reference.

We had an extra sized outside cabin with a veranda (balcony).

EMBARKATION ***** (Five Stars is my best rating). They did an excellent job. You can get there as early as 11 AM contrary to what they say which is 2PM. Bags showed up in late afternoon, or very early evening. If you get to boat early it is like adding a day to the cruise.

CABIN *** It was small and we paid extra for a larger cabin. Could hardly walk around. For some silly reason it had a couch which we used for putting things on. TV set was viewable and remote worked. Drawer space limited. Adequate closet space. Toilet has limited cabinet space, extremely limited. Shower has a plastic sliding door, beats the Carnival curtains. Disney has much better cabins - larger with much much nicer bathrooms. Balcony was small, has cheap lawn furniture but was adequate. Cabin had sliding glass doors so it was bright and pleasant. Beds were small and uncomfortable. Okay so if cabins are important to you maybe this boat isn't for you or else get a suite.

RECREATION **** This boat has it all more than any other boat by far BUT it is a very crowded boat. They sell out these cruises so this is what it is like. By 10 or 11 AM the deck lounge chairs near the pool or all gone on days at sea (2 of these). The lounge chairs are awful looking big brown stains on almost all of them, detracts from any luxurious image of the cruise right away. The Rock Climbing Wall is a mob scene to get on with waits, lines, crowding etc. My kid did it once and then gave up on it which I think was typical. Miniature Golf - think lines and crowding. When an event lets out like a show or dining room the elevators are so jammed up the wait can be 10 minutes to get into an elevator so most give up and walk. We ate on deck 3 and the main pool area is 11 so that is a huff and puff climb. The elevators typically travel between decks 3 and deck 12 and are not air conditioned. They put mats down in elevators that tell you what day of the week it is, nice touch.

SHOWS ***** They have the best I saw. The ice shows are great. The main nightclub is BIG, so if you want to see the entertainers get there 30 minutes early for a good seat, again this is a most crowded boat. One day there was no show which disappointed many of us. Lots of comedians, 75% of them are very good. The MC/Cruise Director very good entertainer.

FOOD *** The food was good, not very good, not great and far far from excellent. I didn't send it back but was bored eating it. I think Outback and Fridays have better food. Disney food was awful much worse, Carnival food is much better. There is a Johnny Rockets 50's style diner that is very nice for free junk food. They have two buffets open very long hours so they are very easy to eat in BUT again crowding so finding a table can be a chore so here you are on your luxurious expensive cruise wandering around a packed dining room with a tray full of food looking for an empty table after you waited on a long line to get your food - that is what this cruise is like. Room service was typically jammed up with waits running 45 minutes or so, again crowded boat. If you really enjoy the food on a cruise you will do better to cruise elsewhere. The food barely kept me coming back to the dining room versus the buffet.

BOAT DECOR **** Fantastic looking boat.

CAMP ***** My kid and other kids simply adored the camp, here they did a GREAT job.

SERVICE *** Cabin Steward was typically good. Waiter was somewhat better, busboy was seen not heard. The service is at least most acceptable.

INTERNET ACCESS * they charge 50 cents a minute.

LIBRARY * A joke, poor selection.

MOVIE THEATRE * A joke, seats like 50 people, screen size of large screen TV, A/C was freezing, movie choices were simply BAD to me anyway.

POOLS *** Typical salt water cruise ship pools. Jacuzzis a cut above in terms of larger than usual and clean with powerful jets. They do have adult only pools and Jacuzzis

PROMENADE *** This is a New Orleans style street inside the boat. It houses several bars, a free ice cream dispenser, free pizza place, and several shops. The whole thing is about 200 yards long. The first two days of the cruise people frequent it a lot and then it loses it's appeal. They have two or three parades in the promenade but again be prepared for awful crowding.

PRIVATE ISLAND * Stay on the boat, it's a dump. 2000 people live on this island, think extremely poor people trying to sell you local trinkets and hand crafted junk. There is a big swimming prohibition on the beaches so people yell at you when you venture in the water more than 15 feet or so - undertow or whatever. Was hard to find a lounge chair. The boats to transport us to island were backed up and it took 90 minutes to get to the island, bad job here and when we got there we turned around and came back.

PASSENGERS **** It attracts a nice crowd. Carnival to me is an awful crowd and Disney is pretty nice. This is NOT a singles boat so if this is what you are looking for this is not the cruise. There were 110 honeymooning couples on this cruise, a whole lot. Lots of kids. Very few older folks over 60, lots of people in twenties and thirties. I saw no drunk (well one possible), rowdy or nasty people. You see some gold rolexes and expensive jewelry and a lot of seikos too. People are not all that sociable but are pleasant, lots were cruising with groups or families so they had very little interest in meeting others but would be most cordial. There was a LOT of Spanish spoken on the boat.

DEBARKATION ***** Great job here. Was off the boat about 30 minutes after leaving the cabin. Okay all the lines wake you up early and need you out of the cabin quick so they can make room for the next people. These folks do an remarkable job in getting everyone off quickly and easily, Carnival is the absolute worst.

ECONOMIC VALUE *** It is a kick to go out on such a big boat, but that wears off real quick. The boat is real crowded and you are aware of it several times a day. So you get all these attractions but crowding all the time detracts greatly from any luxurious feel to the cruise. Their prices are not cheap. It is an overpriced, thinly disguised mass market cruise with no luxurious ambiance left after you experience the crowds and lines all day long. Carnival is much less pretentious about it and keeps their prices way down but the crowding on both lines is the same, so you start to feel you paid about double what Carnival charges for similar treatment with worse food (I am not suggesting you take Carnival).Okay you get a broad mix of people here. A family of four coming from Chicago with airfare and a veranda may pay $7500 for the cruise and a couple from Miami with an inside stateroom may pay $1800 for the cruise so there is a broad spread in economic levels of the passengers. I myself would not return. The attractions are misleading after you realize how the crowds detracts from the experience. Peace and quiet is only in your small cabin. Forget trying to find someone you met on this boat way too big. I would rather spend more and go out on a boat that is smaller that has better food, much less crowding and a better itinerary. If you need the experience of cruising on a super liner (well in size anyway) go for it. Try to go when the school year is in full swing and there are no holidays. Several crew members told me not to cruise on Christmas with this boat but I had trouble getting them to clearly verbalize way - could be they had working over the holidays? The boat when full up has 3800 passengers. The crew says when empty it is four or five hundred less people which should make a difference, but I would think if you could find a time where this boat only sold out 65% you would have a great cruise and I mean great. I am now looking for cruises that haven't sold out since I have learned from my cruises this is gonna make a BIG difference in how much you enjoy the cruise. They have a sister ship coming into service soon called Adventurer but it is already selling out. As more and more lines add more ships there will be either empty cabins or much lower prices, LOL.

Hope this was helpful.

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