Older Ship, Had Fun But Man-oh-Man Does the Ship Need Maintenance & Upgrading

Item: Voyager of the Seas
Rating: 2.5
Author: tx356

Voyager of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

tx356

Contributor Level: Third Mate

13 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 6

Overall rating:

2.5 out of 5

5 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 04, 2024

Ship: Voyager of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 9338

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 months ago

Review summary

Had never tried a 5 day cruise before this year, didn't see the point -- a lot of planning, organizing packing and travelling just to get on the ship and back off. Well sometimes, 5 days is enough. These ports get old and having been to both too many times we did not get off the ship. The port days are nice on the over-crowded ship since most people did get off. I hope the ship gets into dry-dock soon. There was a great deal of visible wear and obvious deferred maintenance that needed attention. I'd go on Voyager out of Galveston again, but I hope to have better choices to consider first. With all the shops Carnival currently sails out of Galveston, with Princess, Disney and now MSC coming -- Royal will have to do better.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

The Galveston terminal was great. Very fast getting on-board.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

We had the unlimited dining package, and this ship has limited speciality dining so we ate a lot of steak. It was good, not the best in the fleet though. However the crab cake at Chops was the best I've had on and Royal Caribbean cruise.

Viking Crown Lounge

2 out of 5

My favorite lounge on the ship, but on this old ship they have carved off one large section of the VC for the private "Suite Lounge" and another section for Izumi. That leaves the VC as a sliver of it's former self in the center of the area it used to be -- and it feels small when the ship is sailing at or above capacity.

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

Limited options and unfortunately the ship double-books some venues: scheduling two very different competing activities in the same venue at the same time. One example was a relaxing musical event and then a teen *indoor* archery at the same time in High Notes (old Viking Crown lounge.

Entertainment

1 out of 5

The shows were so lame. They all seem the same on the older ships, Royal needs to show them some love.

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

With only a few exceptions this crew only did their job and very little more.

Ship Quality

2 out of 5

Cleaning was ok, not as clean as a new ship would have been.

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5

Cabin was ok size, but well worn and desperately needing a deep cleaning. It seems like they're hitting the high spots and ignoring the rest. Crusty, crystalized urine on the floor/wall by the commode in that cabin.

Ship tip

Casino is same size as her sister ships, but the casino has the fewest slots and the worst mix. For having so few slot machings the layout is tragic, chair on one maching is almost touching the chair on the machine behind it (throughout) and passengers are forced to squeeze & bump.. Awful. Don't get me started on the smoke...

Thumbs up

Disembarkation

3 out of 5

Crew should put more effort into getting guests off in groups rather that just allowing a free-for-all. Massive extremely slow lines that the new terminal can't handle.

10 Comments

Ruby13 8 months ago

Sorry for your experience, but the voyager is an old ship

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

gacritter 8 months ago

We were on Voyager to the So Caribbean in Feb last year. Ship looked good, and we had tons to do. Casino was a great time, poker and black jack tournaments were a blast....made better by winning! Sorry you had a bad experience. Housekeeping needs to tighten up!!

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

javawoody 8 months ago

Thanks for the post

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

basssacker 8 months ago

Thanks for your review

Thumbs Up 1

Flag

cruising2004 8 months ago

Thank you for your review.

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

Gwbigdog 8 months ago

Thanks for sharing

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

HeavySeas 8 months ago

Thanks for sharing

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

RetiredRay 8 months ago

I noticed on a few of my last cruises that house keeping is getting sloppier. We pay higher crew salary supplements (aka ’tips’) while the lines cut the room service to once a day and double or more the number of rooms each staff have to care for. The staff just plain do NOT have time to clean the rooms anymore like they used to. That said, some staff are turn and burn types, others are “how many breaks can I take and still ‘finish’ on time”.

Thumbs Up 1

Flag

picalo 8 months ago

good honest review. I especially appreciate your attention to the slot machines on the diffrent ships. I think everyone can agree with you that being on board on port days is a nice experience. thanks for the review

Thumbs Up 0

Flag

TiffyTaffy 8 months ago

The ship seems to have extreme problems related to cleanliness. I hope you took photos and provided to RCCL. I don’t think this is representative of the brand whatsoever. I’m surprised you had all these negatives.

Thumbs Up 0

Flag