For starters, our Suite was upgraded automatically by Royal Caribbean (Owner's Suite), and it was a very nice surprise. We love cruising out of Sydney, and always plan on a few extra days in the city. This cruise was 12 nights, with 2 stops in Fiji, Vanuatu, Mystery Island, Isle of Pines, and Noumea. The beaches on Mystery Island and the Isle of Pines were absolutely beautiful.
The Explorer is still a very nice ship, despite it's age. The food in the Dining Room and Windjammer Buffet was very good...pretty consistent with the other ships in the fleet. Chops Grill was outstanding, and our waiter, Alfredo, made it a great experience. Our Suite Concierge, Elizabeth Wong, was the best we have ever experienced. Wonderfully engaging, pleasant, and knowledgeable. In addition, the bar service provided in the Lounge by Jose and Eka was excellent.
Both embarking and disembarking were a breeze. Finally, our 
agent, Patricia Opera, was once again outstanding in every way. Patti has helped us select and plan cruises for several years, and we use her services exclusively. We would highly recommend her to all cruisers...new and experienced.
Ports of call were excellent. Evening dining room choices were very limited although service was excellent. Dress code in dining room very poorly enforced with many people dressing casually wearing jeans, tennis shoes and t-shirts. Formal dining evenings were also severely lacking in proper attire. Ship smelled badly in some of the hallways and also outside decks. Must have had some plumbing issues. The wood rails in certain areas of the ship, were severely worn needing sanding and varnishing and also some rust.
We enjoyed all the sea days...I think there were six in all. Food was not as good as Celebrity cruises but if you didn't like a dish you could always order something else. In fact they often suggested that. Luckily there is an adult swim lounge area. We loved the promenade. The library was in a poor location - sort of the middle of a pathway and above a game playing area so noisy. We loved watching the people on the Flowrider. There is always something to do on this ship. The acts were not big productions but rather comedians, hypnotists, singers. The ice show was outstanding. spectacular in fact. Certain muster stations went on certain days so that worked out well.
Two years ago my husband and myself took the same cruise but for 2 weeks. This year we wanted to celebrate our wedding anniversary and my son's school graduation. The day that we were supposed to celebrate, dinner was a disaster. My daughter and I are lactose intolerant, we had already picked our special food a day before, and we were told that they had a surprise for us. When we arrived for dinner, they make us wait for 45 minutes, even thought we had a reservation for 6:00pm, and once we were at the table, we had to wait for another 35 minutes. We couldn't even enjoy the show at the Scala because it was too late. We also notice that the ship is lacking service and some areas and bathrooms were liking.
We've taken 8 cruises on RCCL over the last 16 years and have watched the quality steadily decline. We have also cruised with Celebrity , NCL, Princess and Carnival, so we do have a basis for comparison.
The service has declined, probably due to noticeable reduction of staff, to just average. Many of the staff appear unhappy or overworked. Food is just average; no entree that we had in the main dining room was exceptional. The Voyager is in need of some repairs as well; nothing major that we noticed, but little things.
Three of the four ports of call were nothing special. I guess an island is an island whether it is in the South Pacific or the Caribbean. The island of Mare had a lovely beach with a coral reef about 100 yards out where the waves broke; beautiful.
We arrived in Sydney 5 days ahead of cruise and it was a wonderful place to explore on our own. It was the highlight of our trip.
We've taken 8 cruises on RCCL over the last 16 years and have watched the quality steadily decline. We have also cruised with Celebrity , NCL, Princess and Carnival, so we do have a basis for comparison.
The service has declined, probably due to noticeable reduction of staff, to just average. Many of the staff appear unhappy or overworked. Food is just average; no entree that we had in the main dining room was exceptional. The Voyager is in need of some repairs as well; nothing major that we noticed, but little things.
Three of the four ports of call were nothing special. I guess an island is an island whether it is in the South Pacific or the Caribbean. The island of Mare had a lovely beach with a coral reef about 100 yards out where the waves broke; beautiful.
We arrived in Sydney 5 days ahead of cruise and it was a wonderful place to explore on our own. It was the highlight of our trip.
This cruise was great and relaxing. It was our first time cruising and we really liked the convenience of getting to different islands/ports without having to pack/travel/unpack. In the future I'd book a cruise with more port stops as we got a little bored on the sea days. The food was pretty good, lots of sodium, but that's really the best you can hope for with buffets.
The excursions to other islands was well worth the money. The Chops Grill was worth the money. Please remember to get a visa before entering the country.
Getting on the ship in Singapore was a huge mess. Hours and hours of waiting and the ship ended up leaving about 3 hours late.
All ports that required us to tender were a mess also. The cruise director was actually Boo'ed off the stage one night as guests were so upset. In short, it appeared they had not actually run tenders before.
The food in the dining room was on par with what I have had in my 10 + other cruises. Food options and quality outside of the dining room were a huge let down. The windjammer food was horrible. It was a rare occurrence when you actually found food that was hot, compared to luke warm or cold.
The ONLY other non paid food options outside of the windjammer was a small sandwich shop on the 5th floor that handed out small sandwiches horrible pizza slices that reminded me what we got in school lunches 35 years ago.
Very enjoyable Asian cruise,Need more clothing for sale on trip and I LOVE CRUISING BAGS.Room kept clean and all request responded to promptly .Food was good.staff always greeted you with a smile.Used good tour companies and guides used good understandable English.
The variety of activities onboard was excellent. We enjoyed the ice skating, rock climbing, sports court, flow riders, etc. The nightly entertainment was also very good.
Tour – not enough staff to manage the people in the staging area.
Bathroom – had smell, shower floor side broken, sink slow drainage, toilet moldy
Stateroom – attendant did not change the glasses in the bathroom each day
Ice Skating – no direction on how to sign up
Windjammer – hours too short, plastic cups with stains – porcelain cups ok
Photo Gallery – cannot access photos when ship is in port
Deck 11 – forward starboard door to outside broken – can go out, but cannot re-enter – informed staff, but still not functioning the next day.
Poor air conditioning and air circulation throughout entire ship
La Scala Theater – seat drink holders do not fit any of the cocktail / wine glasses
Compass – many errors, especially on timing
Compass – no inserts on port of call with map and shuttle information, as with other cruises
Free port shuttles on other cruises, but not this one.
In 2010 my sister and I had the good fortune to cruise on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas -top of the line experience. Since that time we have cruised every year on other cruise lines and always agreed that RC was our best in every way. We were not disappointed for the most part - Voyager of the Seas was a different model but RC has such a superb ambience throughout. Here are some of the things we were thrilled with: Outstanding RC orchestra; excellent headline shows except for a couple which I will address later; great food; friendly and helpful staff and crew; Park West very personable, efficient - thoroughly enjoyed interaction with them. Enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere and the attention to the children's enjoyment, even though we did not have any children - just nice to see the ship's interest in their wonderful overall experience even opening the ice rink for their enjoyment. Excellent ice show - went twice - still wanted more!!!
Special kudos to the Captain who kept his ship under control - hardly any rocking to and fro - not one night did the ship rock me to sleep - darn!!! Special mention of the excellent service by our room steward, Inyoman Yoga; servers in dining room, Dinesh and Xuetin and Vinkada; Sean and Seananna O'Conner, Tanya, Brittony, Preston and Li, the art gallery crew; everyone in the buffet and Café Promenade. We had one great tour guide at The Isle of the Pines, Aina - so personable and very informative.
Now some of the things we did not enjoy. The hypnotist show - he had a very offensive and rude attitude towards the audience. The magician who needed better technology so we could see what he was doing when mingling with the audience thus did not enjoy this show. Felt a little cheated with short stay in Auckland NZ - after travelling so far (US) then having to be on ship so early.
Suggestions: more 24 hour eating places; more food coverage especially after returning from excursions; more iced tea coverage throughout the ship, especially the Café Promenade and do not be afraid to put "ice" in the iced tea; would have been nice to hear the announcements in our room.
OVERALL: it was a relaxed, "have fun" environment!!!!!!
Royal Caribbean is still #1 in our book.
Everything in the ship is excellent except the experience of dealing with people who are in charge of visa/access entry. Most of passengers in this group are Chinese citizens and elderly with age over 80 who have applied all necessary visas and access entry before departing. However the people who are in charge of verifying the documents didn't collect them in the beginning and called elderly in the mid of first night after long & exhausted travel from China. They had very bad attitude and horrible warning if they don't come down to deliver the documents right way and they would be punished. It was the first night and left very bad memory to our guests.
The experience was nice and pleasant, except for the dining hostess. American Airlines promised that they would help coordinate seating for our party of 18. Instead, when we arrived, our group of 18 was broken up during dining. Sometimes we were seated on different floors and sometimes on different sides of the room.
Excellent experience.
The only negative experience was the Photo Dept. Misleading signs posted at the Kiosk. Staff not trained to help and serve the customer. Photo cost were prohibitive ( cost of a disk cost 10 cents) Your charge was $5.00. Better to charge an affordable price, people would buy more and with each photo shared at home, would advertise Voyager of the Seas, which means more business.
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The ship is in desperate need of refurbishment. Many of the common areas showed excessive wear and tear. Many of the exercise machines in the spa had minor problems, were missing parts or showed excessive wear.
The push to buy premium dining packages was relentless, to the point of being obnoxious.
The high speed internet onboard was very slow most days, not much faster than 2G cell service.