My husband and I (mid-40's) and my two teen-aged sons (16 & 17) cruised on the beautiful RC Voyager of the Seas February 24th through March 2nd, 2008. This was our 8th cruise and the second cruise for our sons. This was our first cruise on a Royal Caribbean ship and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We have previously sailed on Carnival (5 times), NCL (once) and Princess (once). This Western Caribbean itinerary took us from Galveston to Cozumel, then to Roatan, on to Progresso, and then returned to Galveston. This was our first trip to both Roatan and Progresso.

We live less than 20 miles from the port and were dropped off by a family member around 11:00 a.m. Since we had e-docs, we had to fill out our luggage tags at the pier but this only took a few minutes. The porters seemed really busy, so we filled the tags out ourselves and then put our luggage on the luggage carts ourselves. We were ready to pay the suggested $1 per bag to our porter, but none stepped forward to help us so this ended up being completely self-service. Then we were off to the security area and on our way to the check-in area. Check-in was a breeze and we were directed to a section of chairs to sit in until boarding began. Others who came after us were in the standing-room only section. After sitting for about 15 minutes they started the boarding process which was handled in a very orderly way. Those sitting in the chairs were allowed to board row by row, followed by those who were standing. They snapped a quick family boarding photo, and before we knew it we were onboard the beautiful Voyager of the Seas. The beautiful atrium and royal promenade greeted us and we were off to tour the rest of the ship. After we dropped off our carryon luggage in our room, we made our way to the Windjammer to enjoy the welcome aboard buffet. I was glad that someone from Cruise Critic had recommended the honey-stung chicken which was delicious. We then realized that we had eaten our first meal on the Voyager and it was only noon! This was the largest ship that our boys had ever sailed on and they were anxious to check out the rock climbing wall and teen area. We played some ping-pong, shot some hoops and got our bearings around the ship. We purchased a soda card for our youngest son. We could tell this was going to be a wonderful family vacation!

We were able to enter our rooms about 1:00, so after more touring around the ship we checked out our room. We had an inside room and even though it was crowded at times, we enjoyed the togetherness. The boys' bunks folded down from the ceiling and could be folded up during the day when not in use. All of our clothing fit in the drawers and closet area and our luggage fit neatly under the beds. The bathroom was small, but the rounded shower with the sliding door was a nice arrangement and made it seem roomier than other cruise ship showers that I've seen. Our room steward, Collin, introduced himself to us and made sure we knew how to reach him if we needed him. He was very friendly, but unobtrusive. He kept our room spotless which was no small feat (especially with 2 teen-aged boys in residence)! We enjoyed the towel animals that he made for us each evening - especially the alligator and the bat! They were so cute! Read more