Dave Westport

Age: 49
Occupation: Senior VP Marketing
Number of Cruises: 5
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship: Voyager of the Seas
Sailing Date: January 3rd, 2005
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Overall, unless your expectations are very modest, you cannot honestly believe that the staff and management on this ship is up to the task of treating you like you would expect to be treated on a cruise:

Examples --

Upon entering the ship: No one introduced themselves, no one showed us to our state room, no one even offered (nor was available) to offer us directions to our state room. It was much the same as checking in to a Days Inn -- you have your room number -- go find it on your own.

Dining -- even on the first night, no one showed us to our table. We met our waiter but not until we found our table, in a large mass of tables, three stories and hundreds deep and wide. Only a small number on the table would i.d. it was "ours."

Pool Deck -- you must bring a towel from your state room -- no towel service at the pool. Even an ordinary resort hotel offers that much, really!
No food is offered on deck -- that's disappointing too. The pool itself is out of service on some days until 2 p.m., for real!

Guest Relations and Excursion Desk: Long lines, short stock answers, very unhelpful, not trained to resolve issues, answer questions, or to give basic information about ports, transportation, and meeting places; and few suggestions are offered, and not much help or service. Very poor and the long lines of people are upset almost all the time. It's not a happy place on the ship.

State Rooms - very decent -- we had a very nice attendant -- this was a positive.

Shops -- this is probably the ship's best asset, lots of good shopping on board, but in contrast, very few offerings (considering the size of the ship) for restaurants, variety, etc.

Entertainment - ranged from super good (ice skating shows and one late night comic act) to very cheesy and poor, on other nights. For example, the singers for Broadway night didn't seem to know the songs they were singing.

Communications - very poor throughout the ship. Lots of language barriers, and poor attitudes. (Not blaming employees -- it's a reflection of management.)

Overall - I give this ship a grade of "B plus" in terms of the vessel, the appearance, and the size; but I give the staff itself a grade of "C minus" and an overall grade of "C minus" for the experience. In contrast, I found the experience aboard Holland America's mid size ships to be better than R.C. Voyager, and I found even NCL's mid size ship to have more offerings for the dollar than this ship.

I would not do another cruise on this ship.
 

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