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 Royal Carribean Southern Caribbean cruise

Nadi

First off I want to state that I am a Diamond member and as of writing this not far from Diamond Plus.

The stops here were different which was one of the things I chose.

Curacao

Aruba

Cartegena Columbia

Grand Cayman

Cozumel

For those of you who do not know Curacao and Aruba are arid they are not tropical.  So if you are looking for lush green vegetation it will not be there.  Not quite going to Vegas but not far from it either.  Cartegena the dock is in the ship yard.  They unload container ships in front of you while you are in the dock.  If you get off of the ship you will be mobbed by aggressive street peddlers like you have never seen before.  Cartegena is Tropical and sets on the outskirts of the Amazon.  They have a bird sanctuary you can go to without leaving the port. **Recommend**.  Grand Cayman is super nice and Cozumel if you have been on Royal much you will go to Cozumel.

Let me get the dining out.  I usually get the unlimited dining.  Infact I will never cruise again without having it before boarding.  This trip it was not available and to this day Royal can not give me a reason why.  It was available once I got on but it was not worth the price they were asking.  $52 a day per person.  Or $900+ for a couple.  The dining room and windjammer this cruise was way below what I had had on other ships.  the dining room was exceedingly horrible.  There is one thing I like above everything else in the dining room and that is Royal Caribbeans Creme Brulee.  Not offered the entire cruise.  The tiny steak I got was actually good but none of the rest.  The shrimp cocktail was watered down and mushy.  

Voyager only has the standard 3 premium restaurants.  Chops, Giovanni's and Izumi's.  Izumi's is not my cup of tea.  

There is no Hibachi, no Johnny Rockets, no Dog House.  And there was no unlimited Dining.  So you are stuck with pizza a buffet and the dining room.  No you are not going to starve.  But as far as food could not wait to get off the ship and go to a restaurant.   The Shows were good.

Room was good as you will see in the rating but your balcony is tiny!!  60 sqf  you get two upright chairs and a table.  That is all that fits.  The Balconies cannot be joined.  If you do not travel with friends and family it's probably not a big deal.  I do and it's an issue.  Which also magnified the food issue.

If you travel with friends and family the ship is aweful.  For the experience you will look past some minor inconveniences but there are just too many to give anything good to say about the ship.  I do not participate in dress up.  I am easy going and some of the ticky tack things I see other people stating about not seated in the right place or the attendent not remembering your name.  I do not think the issues I stated were so ticky tack.  Will hope that my experience will help others to make informed decisions.

9 Day repositioning cruise

It was been a while since we have cruised with Royal Caribbean.  We have cruised this same itinerary with Royal about 15 years ago.  We chose this cruise because we really like waking up on a different island every day.  We are not fans of Sea Days.  

I had read a lot about the changes on Royal ships since the beginning of 2023, and was prepared for them.  

The new once-daily cabin service didn't bother me in theory. When we embarked on Voyager and met our cabin attendant, we asked for morning service as we would be off the ship each day.  We asked for ice to be replenished again in the evening. While he provided this for us every day, it was the only thing provided other than the morning service. I was surprised that when we had napped in the afternoon, our bed coverings weren't pulled up when we came back to our cabin late at night.  We received fresh towels each day, but if we showered in the afternoon, they were not replaced in the evening.  While I knew I wouldn't receive a full service in the evenings, I didn't realize there would be NO service at all.  As I have learned from reading many blogs and sites, the cabin attendants are working as many (or more) hours as before.  Their # of cabins to service has increased by about 60%.  I saw this first hand when I realized how far down the hall my attendant was working on other cabins.

The food in Windjammer was TERRIBLE (In my opinion, almost inedible)!  We HAD to eat there on embarkation day, as we didn't purchase the KEY, so it was the only option.  Another day we returned to the ship around 3 pm and had not had lunch - so again it was the only option.  On both occasions, I tried several different things, and basically ate only enough to hold me over until dinner.  The food was sooooo bad. I would NEVER eat there if there are any other options.

In the MDR, the food quality was much better.  The portions were smaller than I remember in the past, but I think that is a good thing.  There was one evening when I ordered a salmon entree.  There was another entree available of a spring pea risotto.  I asked if I could have a small portion of the risotto with my salmon, and was told no.  The new policy does not allow anyone to have 2 entrees at the same time.  I explained that I didn't want a full second entree, just a side-dish portion of the risotto to eat with my salmon.  I was told this could not be done.  Sure enough, when I finished my salmon entree, my server brought me a full portion of the risotto entree.  I sent it back explaining I didn't want it.  I think this policy is ridiculous.  While I understand they are trying to reduce costs, my request was not even considered.

CHANGES IN POLICIES VERY EVIDENT

This was our third time on the Voyager of the Seas.  Once in October 2022 for a New England / Canada cruise and again on December 2022 for a Caribbean cruise from San Juan.  The ship is older and smaller than a lot of the newer ships today, but has just about everything you would need for a week long cruise.  

The staff and crew are wonderful - didn't have to wait too long for a drink at any of the bars.  We had seen just about all of the major shows before (and the skaters and singers / dancers are all very good) but one of the acts, "Two Funny Guys", was exceptional.  

We were in a Junior Suite and it was a great size with a king-sized bed.  The room needed a bit of upgrading as some of the furniture was a bit beat up and there was some rust on the door frames and bathroom door but our cabin steward was excellent and kept the coffee maker full of coffee pods for us.

There were a ton of kids onboard which surprised us since most school vacations and spring breaks were already passed.  Pools and hot tubs were really crowed in the late afternoon as passengers came back from excursions. There was a line out the door of the Windjammer buffet the first morning so the Royal Promenade cafe is a good option for the first-morning onslaught of the buffee.

3rd Time Is The Charm

We've been on over 70 cruises, and this one was the worst. Our cabin wreaked of tobacco smoke. The casino wreaked of tobacco smoke. The pool area wreaked of tobacco smoke. Smoke was coming through the ventilation system. It got to the point where it was nauseating. We felt sick. The ship sold cartons of cigarettes... buy three get one free.

 In addition, Wi-Fi on the ship didn't work. Our connection was repeatedly dropped within minutes, or even seconds, of connecting. Even during off peak hours, the internet connection didn't work.

The ship's response to these problems was, "There's nothing we can do about it." 

We have nothing against Royal Caribbean. We would love to continue taking cruises on Royal Caribbean. If one day, Royal Caribbean addresses these problems, we would look forward to cruising with them. 

In the meantime, there will be no more Royal Caribbean cruises for us.

Cabin reeked of tobacco smoke

The ports of call were great, a different one every day and no sea days.  

Service was exceptional from room steward, waiters, bar tenders and cruise directors.  

Main dining room food quality was way below our expectations compared to the 3 other Royal Carribean cruises we have taken. 1/4" New York Strip, come on....  

Specialty restaurant, Chops, was fantastic, especially because of our waiter Stefan

Food in Windjammer buffet was as expected.

 Lack of food available around pool was missed, ie hamburgers and hotdogs.  Cafe Promenade was a good venue for pizza and small "sandwiches" & desserts.

We saw 2 great shows on this cruise, the ice skating show and Sebastian Tree (music). Sebastian is an outstanding performer.

We purchased a deluxe drink package and were disappointed.  The drinks were very weak and when we asked for a double we were told that was not possible.

I hope this review is helpful to future cruisers.

I had a lot of problems getting my future cruise credits applied. After 2 telephone calls that lasted over 3 hours each and sorting through the FCC's, I still had issues. I called again and spoke with a "manager" who assured me she would sort through this and call me back - she never did. In desperation, I reached out to RCCL's corporate office, where I was assisted by Tamika - who completely turned this experience around for me. She was incredible. She provided me with updates as she sorted through the mess of FCC's from several cancelled bookings. She was able to locate and apply my FCC's to a new booking. I can't stress enough what a difference Tamika made in restoring my confidence in RCCL. Had it not been for her, I would never have sailed with RCCL again. 

We booked Voyager of the Seas out of San Juan for a Southern Caribbean itinerary. The ship is older, so my expectations were not high, but we booked this cruise for the itinerary, not the ship. It is an absolutely beautify ship. I was so surprised. Even though the dry dock refurb on this ship occurred over 5 years ago, it still looks brand new. The carpets look new, the walls are immaculate, the color scheme is soothing and modern. The common areas of the ship are beautiful - especially the main dining room. Our suite was beautiful, spacious, and comfortable. The service onboard from our waiters, room steward, and concierge was very attentive and friendly. The food was pretty good - especially Chops - which was delicious. We loved having breakfast in Chops every morning and the suite lounge cocktail hour and appetizers were wonderful. 

We were disappointed with the quality of on-board entertainment. We did really enjoy a Night with Adele. She was fabulous and the ice show was very good and the skaters were very talented. However, we really missed the big stage performances of years past. We have seen a lot of shows on ships - from Grease on Independence of the Seas to Norwegian Getaway's Million Dollar Quartet (still hands down the best show ever on a cruise ship). We love the acrobatic shows and the big productions and really missed that on this ship. We also were not impressed with the comedians. 

We felt the ship lacked food options like a grill poolside or a sports bar with complimentary bar food. 

I loved that even though we had My Time Dining, we had the same waitstaff team most nights and they were able to remember our preferences, etc. Ronnie and Xi were our team and they were absolutely phenomenal. We were sad when we didn't have them one night.

We had Arya as our morning waiter in Chops grill and for our dinner there one evening. He was excellent and we really appreciated how he took care of us. As I said before, the food in Chops is just wonderful. I like my steak well-done, so I am always surprised when it can be cooked all the way and still be tender. The crab cake was wonderful as well and so was the goat cheese salad – however I couldn’t eat it all because I was trying to save room for the steak, which I still couldn’t finish. Our breakfast in Chops was also very good. 

Our stateroom attendant, Atul was wonderful and very good at coming in after we were out. Our cabin was magically cleaned every morning and our ice bucket was full (which is very important to me) every morning and every night. He made sure everything was perfect when we returned from dinner. He accommodated my requests for a new hair dryer and for a softer pillow. He was extremely attentive and personable. We really appreciated him and all he did to make our vacation wonderful – including not knocking on our door in the mornings before we were awake and ready to head out – he never did that. He always waited until we were gone before he came in to clean. I have no idea how he coordinated with our random schedule.

Our concierge, Thaires was amazing. She answered all of our questions, helped us with any requests we had, made recommendations for shore activities, dinner plans, etc. She made sure we were always informed with what was going on, our suite benefits, and necessary things. She made sure that the suite lounge had delicious food every evening. She even had playing cards for us to use. I wish I had written down the names of our servers in the suite lounge, but those guys were wonderful. They made the best drinks on the ship. We really enjoyed the benefit of having the suite lounge available to us.

The hotel director was wonderful and we really appreciated the special treats that came to our room unexpectedly. 

We enjoyed our sea day of lying on the deck near the pool. There were plenty of chairs. 

Lastly, we really enjoyed the Royal Caribbean app, but I would recommend some type of notification being added to it so that when someone sends a message within the app, there is an alert - or at least a red dot on the app icon (like a text message would have). This was the best way for our group to stay in touch with each other, but we did not always see messages for several hours after they were sent. 

All things considered, we would definitely cruise with RCCL and the Voyager of the Seas again - beautiful ship, wonderful crew, amazing vacation!

Beautiful ship!

This was our 10th cruise and first with Royal Caribbean.  Previously we sailed with Princess and Carnival.  We were hoping that Royal would provide a good mix of fun/entertainment without uncivilized fellow passengers ruining the trip and it pretty much met our expectations.

The Good:

Embarkation was pretty simple/quick

Cabin was clean and functional

Descent standard balcony

Service throughout the ship was good to excellent

Nice variety of entertainment - never bored!!!

Ship, while dated, was clean/maintained

App worked well

We liked the ship layout and Promenade deck

The things could be better (but didn't ruin our trip):

MDR food.  Mediocre in both taste and quality.  Seems like cruise lines are pushing people to the upcharge speciality dining.  The lobster died in vein.

Pizza - blah even the comedian joked about it.

Overall food options seem to lack - especially on the pool deck. I'm sure some of the larger ships have more choices.

Bed too hard.

Ship shore excursions were over promised and under delivered for the most part.  We did not get the value sold to us.

First time with Royal

Overall this was a great cruise with minor issues. We flew into SJU on Saturday and stayed at the Caribe Hilton. Nice property and easy drive from the airport. We were prepared for major traffic on Sunday, but it was not as bad as I was expecting. We had The Key and arrived about 10:45am. We were staged and moving in about 11:30. Being the first group, we were through check-in and onto the ship in minutes. We dropped carry-on luggage at The Key designated area and went to lunch in the MDR with the Chops "partial" menu. We were on the pool deck by 1:30 and rooms were ready about 2:15pm.

Bar service was good for the week, but selection struggled at times with running out of specific items. Overall I thought the new MDR menus were an improvement and the food was better that the past few years. Service struggled a bit and I am not sure if that was due to staffing shortages or large numbers of new staff. Our waiter said the company lost a lot of experienced staff during COVID.

Stateroom attendant was wonderful with cleaning and turn down. No issue with the room at all. Wi-Fi was intermittent all week.

Shows were poor, in our opinion. Left early for most of them, Volume was extreme. I  feel that I hear worse than others so if it was loud to me, I cannot imagine what other thought. Ice show was cheesy, but it is always amazing what they can do with so little space. No Quest on this sailing and Love and Marriage have been tamed down (I am thinking because people still insist on bringing their minor children). It took some of the humor out of it. Questions were "what is your wife wearing tonight" and "which of your spouses family member would you not want to be stranded with". Spicy, I know.

Ports were St Maarten, Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire. St. Maarten we did Maho Beach. We had 1st timers with us, but overall nice day. It was busy, but not crazy. Aruba we took the Bus to Arashi Beach, again busy but not crazy. Beach chairs were $10 each. Beach shack food was ok. We also stopped at Eagle Beach on the way back. Noticeable smell of poop from the treatment plant. We didn't stay long. Curacao we went to Kokomo. $6 beach chairs, good food. Beach is not the best. Bonaire we did golf carts with Bonaire Cruisers. Went to Thousands Steps to snorkel, Rincon to the Cadushy Distillery, NE coast by the windmills and Sorbon. Golf carts is something we always do so we can make our own plan as we go.

Disembarkation was quick and easy. We had a ship excursion "New and Old San Juan City Tour". It sucked. Lots of driving, little time to stop and explore. Thake the "Old San Juan On Your Own" tour or plan your own adventure. Dropped at at the airport too early.

Overall the "Good" was the food and itinerary. The "Bad" was the dining service, Wi-Fi and running out of bar items. We didn't really have any ugly.

Good Time on Voyager

I booked this ship because of the itinerary.  It was an island hopping cruise to the Southern Caribbean.  Overall, my family and I had a good time but there are definitely areas for improvement on this ship.  One of our main complaints is that we did my time dining for the MDR.  We had reservations every night and still had to wait in line for at least 30-45 minutes most nights that we ate there.  We actually ate at Windjammer more this cruise than we ever have to just avoid waiting in line.  Our suggestion is to book a set dining time (either the early or the late).  Supposedly, no problems with set dining time.  We have never had problems with my time dining before, but we have done it on the newer ships that may be more equipped to handle it.    We brought our children and specifically made sure that there were waterslides on the ship prior to booking.  Well, only one slide was working and there wasn't enough water pressure for our 7 and 11 year olds to be able to slide.  They had to push themselves down.  What's the point of having slides if you can't slide down them?  Flowrider saved the day though.  Girls had fun with that and enjoyed the hot tubs and mini golf.    As far as the kids club (Adventure Ocean), the girls had fun, but there were not a lot of activities offered.  The only night they did not have fun and wanted to leave was the last night.  They were told that they had to watch a movie and were not allowed to talk with their friends or play anything else.  Very disappointing for them on their last night with their new friends.  The food was mediocre at best.  We definitely did not starve and some things were good, but I found myself going back to the same food over and over again because other selections were not the best.  The best thing on the dessert menu is the apple blossom a la mode.  Get it while you can, because they ran out our last night at dinner.  Staff was great.  They were friendly and accommodating.  We had a junior suite.  Love the balcony and the walk in closet.  Used the closet as a separate changing room.  Plenty of storage.  No noise.

Average compared to others

This was my first cruise, and it certainly is my last with Royal Caribbean. Never again!!!

1. They screwed up our pre-registration for 6pm dining table for 2. Instead they had us listed as a group table. We said no, we had registered for table for 2. So then every evening we had to wait til 6:20 to take a "no show" table. So we were treated as a walkin, never the same table, never the same waiters.

2. Our stateroom attendant, when picking up used bath towels, not only took the used towels from the bathroom, but also took one of our personal towels we had out in our room.

3. On a shore excursions I took with me a small pocket knife so we could buy some local fresh fruit ashore, and be able to cut it up as a snack. When reboarding the ship, I was pulled aside by security which proceeded to take my knife . I pointed out that it was far less than the 4" blade length restriction. It was highly embarrassing to be held out by security, with all the other people going by seeing me being held by security. After demanding a manager and challenging security for confiscating my pocket knife, and questioning how they could justify confiscating my knife when I was in full compliance with Royal's rules, they finally gave me back my knife and let me go from security. How humiliating. The security manager told me it was obvious I knew the RC rules, and he would work with his staff to better inform them.

4. At the end of the cruise and leaving the ship, within 5 minutes of retrieving my luggage I saw they had damaged my suitcase. This was a new hard sided suitcase bought specifically for the cruise. They put a 10" crack in the side, apparently from mishandling it. I had just passed through security so I could not get back to cruise personnel. So that very moment I phoned Royal Caribbean. Because I had passed through security I was not allowed to get a "Personal Property Damage" form, and without that form, they stated the full compensation they could offer me was $50.  That was a brand new $199. suitcase.

   Why would I ever again go Royal Caribbean. So sad this was my experience with them as my first cruise. I had high expectations of Royal Caribbean, but instead this was a very disappointing experience. Never again.

Horrible experience, one problem after another, very disappointing experience 

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