Rebecca

Occupation: Student
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship: The Voyager of the Seas
Sailing Date: July 2nd, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Hello fellow cruisers! True I am only a teenager, but I would like to tell you and give you many useful tips about traveling on The Voyager of the Seas. My lovely aunt paid for the cruise for my whole family which was an extremely generous present because we could have never afforded it on our own. I was traveling with my whole family on my mom's side like aunts, uncles, and cousins. Together there were a total of 11 of us. The only other cruise I have been on other than the Voyager was the Carnival Legend and hands down, Voyager was 100 times better!

FOOD: First of all the food was outstanding in the dinning room! Everything was hot and delicious. I would recommend going to the dinning room for most meals instead of the WINDJAMMER because the meals in the dinning room were exceptionally better than the buffet. I'm not saying that if you are going on an early excursion in the morning or you don't feel like changing out of your bathing suit for lunch that you can't give the Windjammer a little visit, but the food is better in the dinning room. Some of the nights on the cruise I had the pleasure of eating at JOHNNY ROCKETS. All of the food is free, except if you want a milkshake or soda you have to pay with your card. The food is a lot better than regular Johnny Rockets so if your family doesn't feel like going to dinner one night I suggest you try it.

SEATING: On the Voyager you can either be in the early seating at 6:00 or the late seating at 8:00. Our family split up because my little cousin couldn't eat late at 8:00. So my mom, dad, and two sisters went to the 8:00 seating while the rest of our family went at 6:00. I would recommend not splitting up if you are traveling with a big family because we felt like we never saw each other. Also, if you are a night owl you should attend the later seating because there is a show after dinner most nights and if you aren't a night person it's going to be pretty hard for you to stay awake. I wish I went to the early seating because you can have a relaxing dinner then see a show and then you have the whole night to do whatever you please instead of going right to bed after dinner.

STAFF: Every employee on the cruise had a smile on their face and was making sure you had the time of your life. Our waiter Sedar, from Turkey, was the nicest person ever! If a steak was rare instead of medium rare he would go back to the chief without question and change it. Even if one of us changed our mind half way through dinner and decided that we wanted pasta instead of veal he would change it. I suggest you tip heavily on the waiters and waitresses on the cruise because they are so helpful and happy.

ROOMS: Our family stayed in the royal family suite at the back of the boat. It was fantastic! There were two lounge chairs and a table to play cards and stuff on. We had two bathrooms that were very nice except sometimes we had to get the plumber to fix the "royal throne". The beds were extremely comfortable and there was a lot of room to put your clothes and bags. The rest of the ship was absolutely gorgeous! Everything was sparkling and you felt like you were in a 5 star hotel.

ACTIVITIES: Where do I even begin? There is so much to do on the Voyager! My favorite part of the entire cruise was the 30 ft rock wall that I climbed every day. Rock climbing in general can cost up to 40 dollars just for one hour! You can go 4 times a day if wish! I truly recommend taking advantage of the rock wall even if you only want to go once. The people that run the rock wall are the nicest people. They take all the right safety precautions like wearing a helmet, having an extremely strong spotter to catch you if you fall, and having a safety mat under you. They make sure that you get to the top safely and that you have a great time. Give generous tips to the rock climbing people because they don't get that many tips and they deserve it. If you see someone named Andrew from Canada please tell him Becca from the 4th of July cruise says hi!!! Oh, and if he has no idea what your talking about ask him if he read the Da Vinci Code yet!!! Yeah, I'm a dork. Well anyway, on the cruise there is in-roller blading, miniature golf, and an ice skating rink which you should really try out at least once because it’s worth it. Also, don't bother lugging around your roller blades or ice skates because they have rentals that are just as good as your own. They even have safety equipment for roller blading so don't worry about bringing anything. If you are a runner there is a jogging track that goes around the ship outside. One lap equals a fifth of a mile, so get up early before everyone else does and go jogging!

THINGS TO DO: Well if you are an adult there is the obvious thing; GAMBELING. But for something that the whole family can do there is the GAME ROOM on the 15th floor by the rock wall and the LIBRARY on the 8th floor. My dad finished two whole books from the library on the cruise. There are also about five computers in the library that you can check your e-mail on or play games. THE ROYAL PROMMENADE on the 5th floor is great for family and also teens. Parents, you can let your kids wander around the promenade without worrying. There is so many things to do on the promenade like going to the sports bar(for adults only), getting ben&jerrys ice cream, going to the cafe' and getting coffee, bagels, or sandwiches, shopping at the perfume, jewelry, and gift shop. Also, customer service is located by the elevators on the fifth floor where almost all the time there is at least one person with a question or booking an excursion. Excursions were so much fun and I recommend you should do at least one with your family like swimming with the stingrays, glass bottom boat, snorkeling, or parasailing(it was so much fun!!!). There is 1 adult pool, 2 everybody pools, and one kiddy pool. Everyone on the cruise spent at least one day relaxing by one of the pools. If you are an adult traveling with another adult or a friend, you should go to the adult pool instead of the everybody pools because for one, from the looks of it, it looks nicer, and two, there isn't a lot of seats around the main pool and its really hard to get one so let the families and kids use the main pools and go to the adult one. If you want a chair around the pool get up early and put a towel on a chair because most of the time there wasn't one seat open.

FOR TEENS: There was something like 700 teens onboard when I was on the cruise and it was so much fun making new friends and hanging out. There is an awesome teen dance club at night from like 10 to 12 I think, which was a blast. If you want to hang out with teens your age on the cruise you should go to the dance club one of the first night because that's when everyone hooks up. Every night you get a sheet from your steward that says what activities are on for the next day for your age group. If you have a little sister or brother that is close to you age you might want to say they're a year older then they really are so you and you sister or brother can be in the same age group so you’re not alone. If you don't feel like making friends or dancing and stuff you can just spend time with your family which is always worth it and sometimes even more fun then spending time with friends.

SHOWS: The ice show was absolutely fantastic and you should definitely see it. The stage shows on the other hand were not up to scratch. The singers and dancers did have some talents, but the shows were horribly put together and most of the time didn't really make sense. If you’re in the late seating ask a friend or relative that saw the show already if it was any good because at least half the time they weren't that good. All the adults on the cruise seemed to like the adult comic so if there's a night when the kids want to stay in and watch a movie, adults go see some comedy. If anyone out there can sing please show up for the karaoke because the final karaoke show was horrible. So anyone that has some talent PLEASE-PLEASE-PLEASE sign up, everyone's ears will thank you.

AT THE END: I cried when we got off the ship because you get really attached to the ship and the people on board and you never want to leave! Take lots of pictures so that you can cherish the memories on board! Thanks for reading my review and BON VOYAGE!!!

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