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Royal Caribbean's
Voyager of the Seas
February 16 - 23, 2003
Cruise Review
by
Neil K. Gillis
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 19:58:27 -0500
From: "Neil K. Gillis" <ngillis.1@juno.com>
Subject: Review
Background: This was our 7th. Cruise over the past 12 years,
starting with CCL “Fantasy” in 1990. This was followed by RCCL “Song
of America” in ’92, “Sovereign of the Seas” in ’93, “Legend of the Seas”
in ’95, and “Enchantment of the Seas” in ’98. In ‘00, we went on
Celebrity’s “Century”.
Precruise: We were traveling, for the third time, with eight
other people, giving the party of ten an age range from the early 60’s
down to two children aged seven and three. Madeleine and I flew out
of Boston on Delta Airlines via Atlanta on Thursday, the 13th. without
any problems. The other eight arrived on Friday evening. We had booked
reservations at the Hyatt Regency Downtown with the price including a full
buffet breakfast in the “Riverwalk Café.” I became a little
nervous after booking the hotel, when I read several negative reviews of
the hotel. As far as we were concerned, the location and the hotel
itself were excellent. The hotel and the room were spotless and the
entire staff was wonderful. It was about a twelve minute walk from
the hotel to the Bayside Marketplace, which we visited several times over
the three days prior to the cruise.
On Saturday, at the suggestion of the concierge at the Hyatt, we
took a boat cruise around some of the islands, enjoying views of some of
the prime real estate in Miami, and a view of the five cruise ships tied
up at the terminal. Because of security, private boats of any kind
are not allowed to cruise past the ships along the Port of Miami.
Everyone in the group enjoyed the trip immensely. After the “cruise’
we enjoyed walking around the marketplace. The area was very busy
as the marina by the marketplace was one of several sites for the Miami
International Boat Show.
Late in the afternoon, my wife and I were walking on the terrace
behind the hotel which is next to the Miami River, when I noticed an unusual
structure hidden in some trees. It looked like a small piece of New
England that had somehow found its way south. It was a wood-framed,
yellow clap-board sided house that belonged in New Hampshire rather than
in Miami. Upon closer inspection, it was a house built by Flagler
in the late 1800’s. It had been moved to this location, partially
restored, and was being used by a restaurant as a function room and bathrooms
for the outdoor portion of the restaurant next to the Hyatt. It was
pretty neat!
We again utilized the services of the concierge to arrange for dinner
on south Beach for Saturday evening. He recommended Café Milano
on Ocean Drive and suggested that we request a table for 7:15 PM inside
the café and not on the sidewalk. This was an excellent recommendation,
because of the crowd of people walking along the sidewalk area. When
we arrived, we had the inside of the café to ourselves; much to
the delight of the two children. Everything was excellent; the food
the wine, and the service.
Transporting a group of ten people around Miami could become somewhat
of a problem. “Liccia Tours” made it easy. This is a family
owned and run business that provided us with excellent service at
a reasonable price. I would highly recommend them to any group visiting
Miami. They can be reached at Carmenlopez@hotmail.com
Embarkation Day:
After a leisurely breakfast, we left the hotel at noon time and used
“Licca Tours” to ride to the terminal. My wife and I are “Platinum
Members” in the Crown and Anchor Society which provide us the benefit
of a separate processing and boarding area. We were onboard the VOTS
in about twenty minutes. We were informed that our cabins would not
be ready until after 1:00 PM. They suggested we tour the ship while
waiting. However, just before we went aboard, a person from RCCL informed
us that our cabins were ready. My wife and I split from the others and
stopped for a bite to eat at the Café Promenaded which is located
at one end of the Royal Promenade. It was at this time that we had
our first view of one of the things that makes this class of ship so exciting;
the Royal Promenade. WOW!! We then headed to our cabin, #1612 on the port
side of deck #10.
Cabin #1612:
Originally we had a category DA cabin, but received a call from our
TA indicating that we could be upgraded to a C category cabin for a small
sum. We had never had a cabin with a balcony before and I thought
that it was time we experienced it. The cabin was by far the most spacious
we have ever had. My wife was pleased with everything. She
was shocked at the amount of storage space, including a walk-in closet.
There was enough room for a world cruise. Let me see!?
Having read that a number of people had left the door open to the
balcony at night, we were excited that we would be doing that tonight.
However, we found that it was much too humid and the further south we cruised
much too warm. Consequently, we slept with the door closed at night.
Our cabin steward was “Arthur” from the Philippines. He was
ideal; never “in your face’ but always there when you needed something.
From the first time we met Arthur, which was about fifteen minutes after
arriving in our cabin, he had learned our first names and used them whenever
we met. That may not appeal to some, but to us it was an example
of his desire to make his service very personal and memorable.
The Ship:
Even though this was our seventh cruise, my wife was somewhat hesitant
about booking on the VOTS because of the size of the ship. She feared she
would never find her way around this monster compared with the smaller
ships we had sailed on in the past. To her delight, she did not get
lost once. She found that remembering the food options were in the
stern and the theater was in the bow seemed to allow her to orient herself
all the time. Also, she could smell the coffee served at the Café
Promenade and that would provide a trail to follow. Much has been
written about this class of ship; some in the negative but most of what
I have read was in the positive. I won’t go into a detailed description
of the ship but I want to make a few observations. I think most of
the people who were critical of the ship because of its size were people
who had not been on this ship. Once on the ship, we quickly realized
that this ship was immense but very easy to navigate. As many have mentioned,
you just don’t feel crowded on the ship. The designers have provided
for the easy flow of the guests throughout the ship and provide many places
for small groups of passengers to gather. The only times my wife and I
encountered crowds were on the Royal Promenade in the evening and after
several shows in the “La Scala” theater. Under those circumstances the
crowds were appropriate and reasonable
The three level dining room, in my opinion equals that of the “Century”
in splendor. I must say I missed the view out the stern windows of
the “Century”, but the overall layout and design were equal to the “Century”.
Our table #364 for dinner was in the lower level, the “Carmen” dining room.
The table was located by a large round window on the Starboard side that
gave us a nice view of sunset each evening.
Over the twelve years that we have cruised, we have seen the increase
in space provided for activities for the younger passengers increase tremendously.
Well, this class has wonderful facilities for the young people along with
a wonderful staff that provided the kids with a great variety of activities
the whole week. It was announced by the “Adventure Ocean” staff that
there were over five hundred young people on this cruise. This was
a school vacation week in Massachusetts, so we expected a large number
to be on this trip. I might add that from our observations all the
young people on the cruise were well behaved unlike what I have read about
other recent cruises. The two young people in our group did not want to
leave the ship at the end of the cruise because of the activities they
had experienced and the other kids they had met through “Adventure Ocean”.
We would strongly recommend this ship, if you want to bring young people
on a cruise.
Food and Beverages:
I guess my memory is getting bad as I grow older. I don’t remember
any specific details of food quality on any of our past cruises except
that, generally, the food was of good quality. This cruise lived
up to that memory. We had dinner in the dining room each night, save
for one night we went to “Portofino”. The service provided by our
waiter, “Salim”from Turkey, was very efficient and of high quality.
This was bolstered by “Marie” from the Philippines the assistant waiter,
who was especially good with the young people at the table. The head
waiter, a young lady from Sweden, was very attentive to our needs, again
with the children, and assisted Salim and Marie on several occasions.
I think that the policy of doing away with wine stewards and relying on
the assistant waiter to provide the entire beverage service including wine,
may overburden the assistant waiters. Fortunately, the head waiter
was there to help. The three made an excellent team. My only complaint
concerning the food was the filet mignon I had early in the cruise that
was almost tasteless. It probably sat on a steam table for an hour
before reaching me. On Thursday evening, we went to “Portofino” for
dinner. I must say that the setting was elegant, the service was
superb, and the food was excellent. I tried the filet mignon and
this time it was perfection. We only ate breakfast in the dining
room on one occasion and lunch on two occasions. The rest of the
time we use the “Windjammer” or the “Island Grill” for breakfast and lunch.
Madeleine preferred the “Island Grill” which is astern of the “Windjammer”;
it was less crowded and you could get individually prepared omelets
in the morning which were very good. One day we visited “Johnny Rocket”
and had a one of their famous burgers and shakes. With all the possible
venues to eat on the ship, you could almost eat each meal in a different
place during the week. In closing, the “Café Promenade” provided
you a great place to replenish if you wanted some very good pizza, sandwiches,
or cookies along with coffee, ice tea, and water. And that was open
almost 24/7.
Entertainment and Excursions:
From my experience, RCCL has always had good entertainment
throughout the week. This time my wife and I were disappointed.
We thought the “RCCL Singers and Dancers” were excellent, along with the
entire cast of “Ice Jammin’”, the ice show. Where we were disappointed
was in the quality of the “outside” entertainers. On previous cruises
we have seen first rate entertainers and singers. Unfortunately,
this time it was not so. Keep in mind, personal preference plays
a big role in evaluating much of what goes into a cruise review.
To others, it may have been wonderful. So, take our comments with
a grain of salt.
Madeleine does not care for excursions. She enjoys the days
in port when most everyone leaves the ship and allows her to have “her
pool” to herself. I joined two other members of our group in Ocho
Rios for an excursion to Brimmer Hall Plantation and Dunn’s River Falls.
I thought it was very good trip, especially seeing the “restored” main
home on the plantation. The home must have been magnificent at one
time, but even though it is represented as being restored, it still needs
lots of work to complete a full restoration. I’m sure that this is
the result of the poor economy on the island.
Madeleine did venture off the ship with me to walk around Georgetown
and to the shops at the end of the dock in Cozumel. Both walks were
enjoyable.
Disembarkation:
To everyone I’m sure the worst part of the cruise is going home.
This can be made even worse by a slow disembarkation process. Not
on this cruise. Arthur, our cabin steward asked us about mid-week,
what our arrangements were on disembarkation day. We told him that
we were not in a hurry to leave as we were staying overnight in Miami and
flying to Boston on Monday. We had a leisurely breakfast in the “Windjammer”
and cleared out of our cabin around 8:30 AM. We went down to the
two-level library to wait for our “light blue” tag color to be called.
We heard the announcement for our color around 9:30 AM. We were back
at the Hyatt by 10:30 AM!! To our surprise, the Hyatt had a room
ready for us. That was as smooth and efficient as we have ever experienced.
Monday we had an uneventful trip home to Boston and all the snow and cold
weather.
Overall:
Madeleine and I both had a wonderful time. We would recommend
this ship and itinerary without hesitation to anyone. This was made possible
by the crew and the beautiful ship we sailed on and the great people in
our group. Was it worth it? Absolutely, every penny. Would
we do it again? I can be ready in 15 minutes!!!
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