Nassau, The Bahamas: a brief walking tour. One of the comedy acts on the ship later joked about this port of call, saying "That was a nice street." There were basically three or four shops along the street, which repeated over and over: booze, tee shirts, diamonds, repeat. We had already been to the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, and were too tired from yesterday's arrival travel to try any of the other shore excursions available in Nassau. The Voyager was only in port from 7:AM to 2:PM, and we decided not to push it on the first day. jpmeyer.com
Voyager videos! These are the videos from our spectacular Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines "Voyager of the Seas" adventure. All of us fit comfortably in the "Royal Suite" stateroom. This was an Eastern Caribbean cruise, and so we have videos of Nassau (Bahamas), Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands), Old San Juan (Puerto Rico), and Labadee (Haiti); the trip began and ended in Miami.
Here's a photographic recap of our trip on the Voyager of the Seas, from start to finish.
This is what the Voyager of the Seas looked like to an eight year old with a digital camera. She took pictures of items nobody else saw, at angles to which nobody else would have access! Great job!
A different mood to the Royal Promanade of the Voyager of the Seas. This is the last day of cruising; tomorrow we disembark. Most people are busy packing, so it's not as crowded. Last minute sales abound! If you're going to buy a tee shirt or a sweat shirt, wait until the last evening of cruising. Again, night time lighting is not kind on the little digital camera, but you get the mood.
04:26
Day 7: Last evening's entertainment aboard the Voyager of the Seas
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has put on one impressive show after another this week, and the closing credits were no exception. Our Captain reads from a letter he received from a ten year old boy, explaining why he would like to be Captain of a ship when he grows up. Then, our Captain regaled us with a song on the guitar. After the rest of the entertainment, our Cruise Director Graham handled the closing credits.
At the time, it seemed like we were taking too many pictures of the unique architecture of the Voyager of the Seas. Now it seems we should have taken more. Our stateroom, our home away from home, seems like a pleasant dream, just a distant memory. Dinner with our waiters became a very friendly nightly event. Each evening, our napkins were folded into different and imaginative items. Not only did our head waiter and his assistant provide consistently excellent service, they also kindly showed our children how to fold their napkins into transient art works. Then someone asked if the tablecloth could be folded into a chicken. The video answers that question!
Eating, eating eating. So much eating aboard the Voyager of the Seas.
If you're not a smoker, you'll have to hold your breath as you walk thru the casino. Not the best video footage, but you get the mood.
Royal Caribbean was the first cruise line to incorporate an ice skating rink onto a cruise ship, and the Voyager of the Seas was the first ship to have it. We could be skating at our local rink for all the viewer knows, but those bright blue skates give it away: we were on board! It is delightfully disconcerting to enjoy winter sports one minute and then look at the warm Caribbean sky the next. Wonderful! We'll sleep soundly for our adventures tomorrow in Labadee, Haiti, aboard the Wave Runners!
02:31
Day 5: Formal Night again, and the evening's entertainment in the La Scala Theatre
Again, it's inconvenient to drag our formal clothes on vacation, but we do look good! Of course, Royal Caribbean does not requires that you dress formally unless you're eating in the main dining room that night. There are lots of other options available, including room service at no extra charge. Then off to the La Scala Theater again for this evening's stage show. This evening was another Broadway review, professional and entertaining. But the night is not done. Next: Our turn on the ice!
03:17
Day 5: Old San Juan walking tour, then back on to the Voyager of the Seas
From the pastel colors of Old San Juan, we make our way back to the Voyager of the Seas. Back on board, there's lots more to do. We explore, we swim, we eat, we in-line skate, and we climb the rock wall again. Royal Caribbean has literally packed in too much for us to do in one week!
02:43
Day 5: San Cristobal Fort, San Juan National Historic site slideshow
El Morro and San Cristobal are both part of the San Juan National Historic Site, a part of the U.S. National Parks Service. The rest of the site includes bastions, powder houses, and most of the wall that surrounds the city of Old San Juan. The other fort at the western end of the entrance to San Juan Bay is called San Juan de la Cruz, on the Isla de Cabras. This intense defense system kept Spain's power intact in the New World, for centuries. The significance of Puerto Rico's pivotal role regarding the wealth of the Caribbean sometimes gets lost in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" fantasy.
On our way to visit San Cristobal, we took a driving tour of "New" San Juan, Puerto Rico. Royal Caribbean was very good about arranging our day trips for us. Additionally, the ship does not leave if one of the ship-sponsored shore tours has not returned on time. The same is not true if you use any other touring method! Here we were teased with gorgeous beaches passing us by. At least we know where to stay next time we return.
00:59
Day 5: The Voyager of the Seas Arrives in Puerto Rico; morning watermelons
Royal Caribbean's flagship sails past Puerto Rico's Old World Fort El Morro. If you let your imagination go, you can imagine canons and muskets firing at you from all five levels of the fort. Fortunately, the guns are now silent, and a small water escort was all the Voyager needed to get into it's slip. As the ship was docking, we had breakfast, and at the end of this sequence, you can see examples of the magnificent watermelon art we enjoyed every day.
04:56
Day 3: Walking around the Grand Promenade of the Voyager of the Seas
The Grand Promenade of the Voyager of the Seas is a stretch of the ship that is cosmopolitan, eclectic, international, and never for a moment boring. In this snippet, there is actually English spoken at one point! Every time we walked this corridor, the mood was different, the people were different, the lighting was different. Here's the late-nite set. (That's especially obvious when the drunk guy plows into the shoulder of the other guy.) The lighting was tough on the little digital video camera, but you get the mood.
01:22
Day 4: St. Thomas driving tour slideshow, and the end of Voyager of the Seas Day 4
As the Voyager of the Seas sits in Charlotte Amalie, we get a driving tour of St. Thomas. For only $45M, the undeveloped island of Hans Lollick (and it's little neighbor) can be yours! That's just a short rowboat ride from Magan's Bay Beach, consistently voted one of the most beautiful beaches on the planet. President Bill Clinton stayed at one of those not-so-little villas in the pictures (but who remembers which one?). From Mountain Top, the highest point on St. Thomas, all neighboring islands are visible. The day is finished with dinner and a show. Clearly, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines packs too many opportunities for fun into one day!
Lovely, lovely pictures of the outer islands of St. Thomas as the Voyager of the Seas approaches Charlotte Amalie, plus some pictures of early morning sunlight on the insides of the ship. Then, some Snuba, that combination of SNorkel and scUBA, is presented in still pictures, but is really best experienced in person. By the way, this location was at least a 20 minute drive from the ship. It was comforting to know that the Voyager of the Seas would not leave until we returned, exclusively because this was a Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines sponsored trip. If we had hired our own taxi, for instance, and it broke down on the hills of St. Thomas, the ship could leave without us.
Royal Caribbean was the first Cruise Line to have an onboard ice skating rink. Not exactly big enough to play a regulation NHL Hockey game, but they do a lot with what they have. Here's a couple minutes of highlights from the show on the Voyager of the Seas. Later on in the trip, we get to take to the ice ourselves. (We're not as graceful.)
06:24
Day 6-7: Parking the Voyager of the Seas in Miami; last breakfast in the Windjammer Cafe; Closing Credits
We awoke before dawn to watch the Voyager of the Seas do it's $600 million dollar parallel parking job. Apparently, dock space in Miami is rented in millimeters. There was no room to spare! More packing, and one more memory-laden tour of the Royal Suite. Our last breakfast in the Windjammer Cafe, including a video walk thru of the available food choices. The Miami skyline looks beautiful in the morning.
This is the rest of our Bridge tour of the Voyager of the Seas, the flagship of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. In this segment, we all get to try out the $10,000 Captain's chair. Very comfortable, very confident, very commanding. Some good views of the scooter that the construction crew gave the Captain. You really have to want to watch a bridge tour to sit through both halves of this video slideshow, but as the "First Mate" (?) tourguide points out, "apparently only special people can have bridge tours." Well, of course we are special, but the difference between us and the 3,000 other people on board: we asked for a bridge tour...
This is the beginning of our tour of the bridge, and what a magnificent bridge the Voyager of the Seas has! The bridge is so vast that the construction crew gave the Captain a scooter to get from one end to the other. In this segment, we learn about emergency preparations for on-board disasters. The "black box" of the ship, computers that control individual systems, bulkhead door controls and so much more was presented. Not as high tech as the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, but just as intense.
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