Lynne Cooper

Age: 26
Occupation: Administrative Assistant
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship: Voyager of the Seas
Sailing Date: May 13th, 2001
Itinerary: Labadee, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, Cozumel

Our Honeymoon....."Voyager of the Seas" on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.  We had a fabulous time on this ship and in the ports of call.  I would definitely recommend this cruise to someone else, however there was one major problem we had and I will get into that more.

The ship of course is Gigantic and so beautiful, and I have to say with 3602 guests on board, I never felt crowded.  Sometimes at the Pool, but that was only on days at Sea. I mean, where are you gonna go really?  The dining room service was so awesome and our waitress Isabel was a doll, who I wanted to take home with me.  We sat at a table for 2 because after the first night we got switched from our table of 10 after 6 of the guys who were with another group requested to be seated somewhere else.  But I liked this way better.  The food was unbelievable, and the choices they gave you every night were just out of this world!  I have also heard complaints about the food too, but I had none!  Neither did my husband.  There were more utensils on the table that are EVER needed, in fact they remove some for you before you even get the chance to use them.  It must have been for looks.

Our cabin, a suite (so it said in the brochure apparently) was small, but I can understand why.  To make room for all of the wonderful things this ship has to offer, like the 3 story mall, the shops and restaurants and ALL OF THE BARS!!  There were so many choices but our favorite was 'High Notes'  it was a Jazz Club, but it was our favorite because the floor to ceiling glass looked out over the entire front of the ship!  It was awesome watching sunsets there!  There was a 2 story theater that sat over 2000 guests and the Ice skating rink put on a show like I've never seen before.  The whole ship was brass, marble and tile and glass.  Very fancy. 

We were able to see the ship from the Airplane as we landed in Miami, that is how big the ship is!  Then when it was docked next to other ships, it dwarfed them!

Labadee, I was nervous about this island because I wasn't sure what to expect since some of the reviews are mixed here.  However, we thought that there was plenty to do and if you didn't want to do anything you could do that too.  They have hammocks all over the place and plenty of lounge chairs for everyone.  We snorkeled on our own here and while there isn't much to see it was still a lot of fun.  We did the Waverunner tour and that was also a lot of fun.  Oh and the banana boat ride was great too.  Tip, if you want to enjoy more of it, don't take the front seat!  Most of the time my eyes were closed because there was so much splash coming in my face.  It rained at the end of the day as we were getting back on ship, but that didn't really bother us.

Ocho Rios, I did not like Jamaica at all, although when we were on the tours from the cruise ship, I had no problems.  We did the Dunns River Falls trip, of course and there was also 2 shopping stops that our tour made as well. And in the early morning, we took a water taxi and snorkeled on our own.  I got stuff in some corals and got really scared and started freaking out because it was full of black sea urchins.  My husband and the water taxi driver came and got me out though!  I have heard a lot of people say not to book your tour to Dunns River on ship, to just do it on your own.  Well, I personally disagree with this.  While I'm sure we would have saved money this way, I was scared of the people, I felt harassed the entire time we were on land and I would have been scared to get into a cab and do a tour by ourselves.  I had offers to 'smoke', " Hey you like sum Hash Mon?"   they practically pull you into their stores to buy anything and everything, to take a taxi and just about anything else you can imagine.  They would follow us too...it never ended.  I was glad to leave there.  Dunns River though was great.  We climbed all the way up during a thunderstorm.  If you've seen Forest Gump and the part where he is talking about the rain coming sideways, from underneath him, and every which way, well that is what it reminded me of.  The splash from the falls and the rain mixed into a very wet experience!  But it was still a lot of fun.

Grand Cayman,  Ok, I am ready to move here.  Unfortunately I don't think I have enough money for that.  We absolutely loved this island.  It is so gorgeous and the water is unlike anything I've ever seen.  It's a turquoise color and so clear.  Here we did a lot of shopping, stopped at the Hard Rock Café and went on another snorkeling tour.  It was really awesome.  We snorkeled in 100ft or more of water and it never felt like it to me!  We also snorkeled at a Shipwreck site and that was fascinating too.  I was very sad to leave this island.  We had to be back on ship by 3:30p.m.

Cozumel, We liked this island 2nd best.  Well what we can remember of it anyway!  In the morning we had another tour, and you will never believe what we did here... snorkeling!  Yup! haha... I actually have to admit I was disappointed in this.  I have heard that Cozumel was awesome for snorkeling and we saw basically nothing, after I got stung for my second time by a Jellyfish, I got out of the water and went back to the Catamaran.  The other couple we were hanging around, well the wife, got stung 5 times!!  I guess the Jellyfish there like girls!  After snorkeling our Catamaran took us to a Private beach for Kyacking and lounging around on water mats.  That was great.  The Catamaran also was giving out Free Beer and Margaritas.  Another plus.  After we got done in the morning, we went back to the ship and showered and headed back out into town.  We ended up at the infamous Carlos N Charlies.  Oh my goodness is this place fun!!  We ended up drinking a little, ok A LOT too much, and thank goodness the taxis are right outside of the restaurant.  I vaguely remember getting a Property of Carlos N Charlies Stamp on my butt!  We danced on our table and when they found out we were on our Honeymoon and that it was our 1 Week Wedding Anniversary, they practically killed us with FREE Sex on the Beach shots!  The food there was awesome too!  Who'da thunk it?

My BIGGEST and only complaint is the way they Disembark.  They give you these flimsy color coded tags to be put on your luggage and leave outside your door the night prior to departure and you tear off the marching tracking number and keep that with you.  They call you off the ship by color.  No problem.  You go to a carousel like in an airport and wait for your luggage.  The only problem is that half of the tags get ripped off somehow by the time it makes it the 5 feet from the ship to the baggage carousel.  So out of 3602 people on the ship, my husband and I were the 2 people who, after waiting 2 HOURS, did not have our luggage.  A RCCL rep found some other exactly identical luggage and only THIS luggage had ID tags on it.  I immediately copied the peoples names and phone numbers, would you believe they were from Philly too?!?!  Luckily our RCCL rep was able to get in touch with USAirways and we were able to grab the stupid people off the plane that took our luggage and we were also able to get the luggage off the Airplane!  However, when we got to the airport these people didn't have their luggage because it didn't go through customs with us.  I wasn't about to take it  through!  We questioned RCCL why they don't check peoples bags and they said that they should but they don't!  So basically anyone can walk off with anyones luggage.  I do not understand why RCCL wont let you take your luggage with you.  I also don't understand why those people that took our luggage never even checked to see if their names were on it!  The wife said to me, "Well I opened it and saw a Pink bathing suit!"  I said, "There IS NO PINK BATHING SUIT IN HERE!"  So then she said, "Well, I saw this shirt," as she picks up one of my husband's shirts "and it looked like my husbands"  Oh we were so mad!  We were suppose to catch a 12:15 flight and we weren't even at the airport by 11:15 yet.  We had to run like crazy to get out flight!  BTW, our flimsy color coded tags, our name tags and even our ribbons were ripped off our luggage somehow.  But it all worked out in the end!

All in all, it was a great trip, the ship is beautiful, there is so much to do, the ports are great.  I almost feel cheated being that this is our first cruise experience, how will any others compare to the Voyager?   I would go again tomorrow, only this time I would use a carry on!

Ask a Question About Royal Caribbean Cruises

Ever thought about becoming a home based travel agent? Check out my web site for home based travel and cruise agents located at;

Home Based Travel Agent