For my recent cruise onboard Voyager of the Seas, my dad and I decided to RoyalUp from an interior guarantee stateroom to a spacious ocean view.

About two months prior to the cruise, I found a cheap sailing from Galveston, Texas, so I decided to book an inside guarantee cabin. The main reason why I selected this cabin was because of the cost. The interior guarantee cabin was $1,154 for a five-night Western Caribbean sailing. This price included gratuities and fees for the two of us. 

Because this was an inside guarantee cabin, I was not able to select its location on the ship. Of course, I always prefer to get a cabin midship for the smoothest sailing possible. I tend to get motion sick, so being in the middle of the ship is ideal for less movement. 

However, from my experience with inside guaranteed cabins, the staterooms assigned usually end up being in the very front or back of the ship. For this sailing, we were assigned a cabin in the front of the ship. 

Read more: Royal Caribbean cabins to avoid

Before leaving for Galveston, I kept receiving emails from Royal Caribbean about their RoyalUp program. For those not familiar with RoyalUp, it is essentially an opportunity to place a bid to upgrade to a nicer, usually larger, cabin.

I only used RoyalUp once before, and it was a positive experience. In October 2022, my family went on a fabulous 12-night Holy Land cruise onboard Odyssey of the Seas. My sister and I bid $300 per person to upgrade from our interior cabin to a junior suite. It was so worth it! Because of this positive experience, I was intrigued to place a bid for my trip on Voyager of the Seas.

Four days before embarkation, we decided to pull the trigger and place a bid through RoyalUp. Pretty much anything would be an upgrade from our interior guarantee! We ended up placing bids on four stateroom categories. What’s great about RoyalUp is that you can bid on multiple cabin categories, therefore increasing your chances of being upgraded.

The next day, we received the email that our bid was accepted! For an additional $130 per person, we upgraded to a spacious ocean view cabin. 

We were hoping our new cabin would be located somewhere in the middle or back of the ship. When I looked up our cabin on the ship deck plans, I laughed when I saw that our cabin was now in the very front of the ship, overlooking the helipad!

As mentioned earlier, I get motion sick fairly easily. Being in the front of the ship, I was worried that there was going to be even more movement. This is the risk you take when you RoyalUp - you won’t know where your new cabin is going to be located. If you have a location with your current stateroom selection that you’re satisfied with, RoyalUp might not be the best option for you, as you do not have a say on the location for accepted bids.

Nonetheless, we were excited our bid was accepted and we got to stay in a more spacious cabin.

Our cabin, 9502, was situated on the port side in the forward part of the ship. The cabin was quite roomy at 211 square feet. We felt as though the beds, couch, and carpet were in good condition, even though the ship was built in 1999. 

The first thing I noticed in our cabin was the window and view of the helipad. This view was especially beautiful at sunset. There were two curtains - one heavy one to block out the light and a decorative one in the front. I figured these would help keep the room extra dark, which is something I actually prefer about sleeping in interior cabins, as they have no natural light. 

The beds were separated upon arrival. This was per our request prior to embarkation. Next to both of our beds was a side table with a drawer and an open compartment. One side table had a phone on top that took up the majority of the space.

Each bed had a wall light above our heads. Next to my dad’s bed was a light switch that turned on and off all the lights in the cabin (except the vanity).

As soon as you walk into the cabin, you are met with a large closet. The closet had multiple hangers, along with wide, wire shelves for all the clothes we packed.

Our cabin also included a huge couch. It was nice to have another place to sit other than our beds. It was so big that I thought it might be a sofa bed, but this was not the case. We decided to line up our shoes under the couch for easy viewing and access.

The vanity is a great feature of the cabin because of all the storage. It had nine drawers: six deeper ones and three shallow ones. I found the shallow drawers hard to use, especially since one had a hair dryer in it, rendering it unusable for other things. On both sides of the vanity were glass shelves for additional items. 

On the left side of the vanity was a TV that could swivel slightly. I tried to swivel it toward our beds, but it didn't move as much as I thought it would. There was a variety of channels to browse through, but I didn't spend much time watching TV.

Above the TV was a safe and two deep shelves for more storage.

Below the TV was a mini cooler. This cooler was useful primarily for keeping water and sodas cool. It didn’t get super cold like a refrigerator would. 

On the vanity, there were two outlets for charging our electronic devices. This is pretty standard for older cruise ships, so I was not surprised. While I wish there were more outlets throughout the cabin, two was enough for me and my dad.

When I opened the door to the bathroom, I wasn’t expecting blue and green colors! This certainly dated the cabin and reminded me that the ship is, in fact, over 20 years old.

Behind the left mirror were three shelves for various toiletries. I didn't need this extra storage, so my dad utilized it. Our stateroom attendant was very attentive and made sure we had plenty of towels to use throughout our sailing.

The shower (or as I like to call it, a space pod) had plenty of hot water and good pressure. It also had the all-in-one soap if you forgot to pack your shampoo or body wash. I prefer to bring my own shampoo and conditioner when I cruise because this soap dries out my hair. The shower felt just a little bigger than the one in an interior cabin, although still small.

More thoughts about the cabin

Since we changed our cabin only three days before embarkation, a few things were missing from our stateroom, including our Crown and Anchor robes and special toiletries. Our cards also didn't work for our cabin, so we had to go to Guest Services right away to make sure we could access our cabin.

Our stateroom attendant was wonderful! He brought extra blankets for us and gave us a paper Cruise Compass every night on our beds (per our request).

Towards the end of our voyage, we found out our cabin was directly below the bridge. This was not a problem - we rarely heard noises from the deck above us. I would have expected more noise, but it was very quiet. The only time we heard noises that woke us up was when we were docking in Cozumel around 7 a.m.

Right by the window was a sign that read, “Kindly keep curtains closed to avoid light from reflecting onto the bridge.” This was one of the first things that I noticed when seeing our stateroom for the first time. 

One night around 10:30 p.m., we got a call to our stateroom. My dad confusingly answered it and then told me it was from the bridge. They told him to close our curtains because some light was reflecting on the bridge. We told them our curtains were closed, but after hanging up, we pinned the curtains together with clothes pins to be extra sure no more light was escaping our cabin. 

Because we were in the very front of the ship, there was little foot traffic throughout the day and night, making the cabin location pretty quiet. Every night, I slept soundly (except when I woke up to my dad’s loud snoring).

Our sailing was so smooth - I never got motion sick! I was so relieved. Two sailings before, I saw on social media that Voyager of the Seas sailed through a rough storm. I was hopeful we would have smooth seas, and we thankfully did.

We liked being on the ninth deck for this cruise. Many upper-deck public venues, like the Windjammer and pool deck, were located only two floors above us, although they were in the back of the ship. Just a few decks down were the Royal Promenade, Star Lounge, and Diamond Club.

We were mostly surrounded by staterooms in the front of the ship, so we found ourselves walking towards the aft of the ship often. We always had to cut through the pool deck or one of the lower decks to get to the gym, food, spa, etc. We didn’t mind, as a little exercise is welcomed on a cruise. 

So, was I glad we did RoyalUp? Would I do it again? Yes! My dad and I were very pleased with our spacious ocean view cabin. Considering the ship's age and how she went through a $97 million Royal Amplification in 2019, Voyager of the Seas, including the cabins, are in good condition. I'd definitely recommend our cabin to future cruisers.

Another Royal Caribbean cruise ship has returned to service after being shutdown due to the pandemic.

Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas will set sail on Friday after a two-year operational pause.

Voyager of the Seas will begin welcoming guests in Barcelona, Spain, and then depart for a cruise itinerary in Northern Europe. The itinerary will consist of a 9-night voyage that will feature five stops, including that of Cartagena, Gibraltar, Lisbon, and Amsterdam.

Voyager will conclude the sailing in Copenhagen, Denmark. Currently, Voyager of the Seas is scheduled to remain in Northern Europe for the remainder of the summer cruise season.

Royal Caribbean already made one change to Voyager's sailings when the cruise line announced scheduled visits to Russia would be skipped due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Instead of visiting Russia, some of Voyager of the Seas' sailings will go to Germany and Poland.

Some of the ship’s voyages this summer will sail to regions such as the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia. These summer cruise itineraries aboard Voyager of the Seas will largely consist of 7 to 11-night cruises. Many of these itineraries will visit countries such as Sweden, Estonia, Denmar, Finland, Germany, Poland, and Norway.

After the summer season, Voyager of the Seas will cross over the Atlantic Ocean in September. The ship will arrive in Boston, and will set sail for a variety of ports such as Canada and additional locations within New England.

In November 2022, Voyager of the Seas will begin offering sailings to the Caribbean, from Puerto Rico, during the winter season. 

Royal Caribbean ships left to restart

With Voyager of the Seas back in service again, that leaves just two other Royal Caribbean ships to restart operations.

Radiance of the Seas is preparing to restart operations from Vancouver when she begins her Alaska cruise season.  Radiance will sail a Pacific Coast cruise just before beginning service from Vancouver on April 29, 2022.

Rhapsody of the Seas will restart when she sails from Rome on May 23, 2022 to offer 7-night Mediterranean and Greek Isles itineraries.

Serenade of the Seas had already restarted cruises, but was sidelined during the Omicron wave.  She also took extra time off to undergo a dry dock.  Serenade will join Radiance for the start of the Alaska cruises.

Readers living on the West Coast of the United States should probably sit down before reading this post, but the Port of Los Angeles cruise schedule lists regular sailings for Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas in 2021.

Beginning in June 2021, Voyager of the Seas is listed as offering regular 3- and 4-night sailings. Regular sailings extend through December 31, 2021. The Port of Los Angeles schedule does not have the 2022 schedule online yet.

Royal Caribbean has not made any announcement about returning to Los Angeles, but in the past port schedules have been good indicators of what Royal Caribbean intends to do.

Royal Caribbean's website currently has no sailings available to book on Voyager of the Seas past April 2021.

The return of Royal Caribbean to offer regular sailings from Los Angeles, or anywhere in California, has been highly anticipated for many years.

Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas left Los Angeles back in 2011 due to violence in Mexico as well as to find bigger profits.

Royal Caribbean has expanded its new app to include support for Voyager of the Seas.

Voyager now appears in the list of supported ships that can be found from within the app.

The new app is being actively developed, which means not all features area available on the app yet.  Moreover, the cruise line is slowly rolling out support for more ships.

The app is available on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store.

Royal Caribbean announced plans for $97 million in upgrades and enhancements to Voyager of the Seas.

Part of the Royal Amplified program, Voyager of the Seas will become the fourth ship reimagined as part of the Royal Amplified fleet modernization effort. She will receive a number of new first-to-market features. Beginning Oct. 21, the newly transformed ship will set sail on a series of 3- to 5-night Southeast Asia itineraries from Singapore, followed by a season down under with 9- to 12-night South Pacific cruises from Sydney, Australia, starting on Nov. 30.

Thrills

Voyager of the Seas will receive two waterslides, collectively known as The Perfect Storm.  Typhoon and Cyclone will be added to the ship to provide guests with three stories of twists and turns.

Voyager of the Seas also offers the FlowRider surf simulator, rock-climbing wall and mini-golf to compliment the new additions.

Families

Families on Voyager of the Seas will also enjoy Battle for Planet Z glow-in-the-dark laser tag in Studio B.

Adventure Ocean will be redesigned with a fresh take on the cruise line's programming for children. Kids 3-12 years old will enjoy a modern, free-play approach to a new, open layout in Adventure Ocean. A first on Voyager, a nursery for babies and tots will open its doors, while 3- to 5-year-olds can dive into the excitement in an area created just for them. 

Teens will be able to enjoy an exclusive, updated hangout, along with the addition of a laidback outdoor deck.

Relaxation

The Vitality Spa and Fitness Center will be enhanced and relocated to the aft of the ship as part of the upgrades.

A total of 72 new inside and balcony staterooms will be added to the ship, along with a Suite Lounge and outdoor area - exclusively for guests in Grand Suites and above; and the Diamond Lounge for members of Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor Society loyalty program. 

Guests on Voyager of the Seas of the Seas will also be able to take advantage of the new mobile app, which allows for check-in, planning activities, viewing onboard expensses, booking and managing dining, shore excursion and show reservations and more.

Royal Caribbean has opened bookings for Voyager of the Seas 2020 sailings from Singapore.

Voyager of the Seas will offer a short season from Singapore, between May 2020 and June 2020 to destinations in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

At the conclusion of her season, Voyager of the Seas will re-position to Hong Kong, China.

You can view all the 2020 Singapore sailings on Voyager of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas arrived for the first time at Bintan Island, Indonesia on May 2, 2019. 

The visit is part of a 3-night cruise from Singapore, which also called at Kuala Lumpur (Port Klang) yesterday.

To commemorate the occasion, a traditional plaque and key ceremony was held onboard, whereby Voyager of the Seas’ Captain Wu Huimin exchanged plaques with Mr Nurdin Basirun, Governor of Riau Island and Mr Frans Gunara, Vice President Director of PT. Bintan Resort Cakrawala. Angie Stephen, Managing Director, Asia Pacific of Royal Caribbean Cruises was also present at the ceremony.

The Indonesian port and government delegation with the Royal Caribbean team onboard Voyager of the Seas in Bintan.

Bintan Resorts is famous for its pristine sandy beaches and boasts of 13 different types of resort accommodation. There are many attractions and all visitors are treated to a vast variety of indoor and outdoor activities. These include water and sea sports, Crystal Lagoon Treasure Bay which is the biggest sea water swimming pool in Southeast Asia,  golf at four different designer courses, various traditional Indonesian massage and spa therapies, mangrove discovery tours and the nature walks at Safari Lagoi where visitors can soak in the beauty of nature.  Guests will also get a chance to immerse themselves in Indonesian culture and tradition particular to the Riau region. In addition, they can partake in the local delicacies, especially fresh seafood that can whet any appetite and make one crave for more.

In greater Bintan, guests can enjoy the Trikora Coastal Exploration Tour which is an eight-hour adventure that brings guests to sacred caves to learn about the island’s migrant history.  On the Tanjung Pinang Highlights Tour, guests can learn about the Chinese heritage at Tian Shang Miao, a walk around 500 Lohan Temple with life-sized sculptures, Vihara Dharma Sasana temples followed by Banten's oldest monastery before ending with picturesque sand dunes and blue lagoons.

The ship will continue her Southeast Asia season out from Singapore until late June, which includes itineraries such as the 3-night cruise to Penang, 4-night cruise to Penang and Phuket, and a 5-night Spice of Southeast Asia cruise to Penang, Langkawi and Phuket.

A group of breast cancer survivors from the US, UK and Singapore led by US-based non-profit organization Send Me On Vacation, was invited by Royal Caribbean International’s Asia Pacific office to sail on a three-night cruise from Singapore to Penang over the weekend, on its ship Voyager of the Seas. As part of the group’s activities onboard, they were dressed up in mermaid costumes for a special photoshoot by the poolside, as they enjoyed their holiday at sea.

This is the second time for Send Me On Vacation recipients on sail with Royal Caribbean in Asia. The organization’s mission is to provide much-needed vacations to breast cancer survivors who need to rejuvenate and heal their minds, bodies and spirits. It empowers survivors to reconnect with themselves on a rejuvenating vacation.

Ms Cathy Backus, founder of Send Me On Vacation who sailed with the group said, “Our recipients transform into mermaids to reconnect to their inner beauty, strength and grace. The photo therapy or photoshoot that we conduct visually shows each women that they are beautiful inside and out. Experiencing a vacation after fighting breast cancer ignites the spirit and restores joy and happiness back into life after the fight.” 

“Royal Caribbean has a complimentary synergy to Send Me On Vacation in the way it fosters diversity, human kindness and inspires people to look beyond the now and ask themselves what if this vacation can take me to places I never thought I could see in my dreams, and what if I could heal because love and happiness have been restored into in my life again,” she added. 

Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas made her first visit ever to the capital of the Philippines this past weekend.  Voyager is one of the largest ships to call at any Filipino port.

Photo by Royal Caribbean International

To celebrate the maiden call at Manila, a traditional plaque exchange ceremony was held onboard between Voyager of the Seas’ Captain Sindre Borsheim and local officials namely Mr Francisquiel Mancile, Port Manager of Philippine Ports Authority and Mr Patrick Chan, Vice President for Operations of Asian Terminals Inc.

Voyager of the Seas' visit to Manila was part of a 4-night sailing from Shenzhen.

"Royal Caribbean strives to provide every traveler with the vacation experience they deserve," said Ms Marilen Yaptangco, International Representative of Royal Caribbean International in the Philippines. "This quick stop on Philippine shores is an opportunity for us to showcase the world-class offerings of Voyager of the Seas to Filipinos."