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Voyager of the seas from Hong Kong to Singapore 8-October 17


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Day 7 – port day Chan My Vietnam.

 

It’s the 7 days which ussaly I hate as it is the last day and packing is required but in this 10 days cruise its just another port day.

We arrived to the port of Cahn My , nothing to tell about this port as it is in the middle of nowhere although the green mountains around are nice view.

The port is around one to two hours from the main attraction around.

For the  shore excursion we choose today to go to Hoi An which is a small city one of the Unseco sites in Vietnam.

The tour started at 10 AM which gave us some extra time to sleep. We went on the bus and drove via the city of Da Nang which is now a big resort city.

The view from the bus was amazing, very green scenery and some mountains. At the morning we had rain showers , lucky for us it was only after we were on the bus.

We arrived around 12 PM to Hoi An directly to a restaurant to eat lunch, nothing special about the lunch it was typical Chines food not even really Vietnamese but it was ok.

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After the lunch we went to a tour in the city , the city itself is nice but quite small , how small ? well it seems to me that you can cover most of the sites in about 20 minutes.

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After the tour we got some free time so we went around and finally decide to do some foot massage (6 $ for 30 minutes) .

The tour guide told the group to meet between 3:15 to 3:30 and in 3:30 we will all go to the bus.

We went back at 3:25 to find our group already left , apparently most of the people arrived at 3:15 as they did not found anything to do there…

We asked one of the other tour guides to call our tour guide and he came to take us to the bus.

I usually hate people that delays the all group but hey they said 3:30 …

We went on the bus to get the “humiliated” applause from the other group , well Since we were on time I did not felt too bad.

The next stop was the highlight of our tour , it was bicycle ride in a village near the city.

It was so nice cycling between the rice fields, as the weather was perfect and the wind was blowing to cool us down.

The cycling reminded me my childhood when I use to  cycle  in the village where I was born..

We cycle for about one hour until it became dark.

 

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He did not asked for money to take his picture :1_grinning:

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The way back brought us to the shore area of  Da Nang and the  area looks amazing during the night.

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We arrived back to the port around 7:15 few minutes before the ship was schedule to leave.

Extra info will be tomorrow as we are very tired and should catch some sleep.

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Day 8 – Sea day , YHAAA  no need to disembark

 

Although it is a sea day we woke around 7 AM (I guess the fact the VB was left open contributed to that) and went to eat the regular breakfast, it was again very full for this time of the day but we found a table.

I guess the fact that no many other option to eat breakfast exists contribute to the high occupancy.

I did my way around 9 to the third guest lecture , this time it was about making better decisions, this time I was very tired as I slept only 4 hours but the subject was interesting and the lecturer really know how to keep the ordinance awake.

After the lecture I took the best decision I could take (you see I learn from it) and went back to the room to catch some sleep trying to close the gap from last night.

I woke up after hour and half to do some steps around the ship trying to find new places which I never visit yet, I found one, the deck that can be accessed from the Solarium  and overseas the helipad and the bridge.

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I thought to go to the rapid art sell just to see who is still buying art work after all the different articles which were published on the company who run those sells but I missed it already.

I met my spouse and we went to the WJ for lunch, while loading some food on the plate I noticed a very ecological awareness   kid who took some french-fries but some were spelt on the counter, the kid was not confused and as he did not want to waste any food hearing about all the hunger issues in the world, he collect the french-fries with his hand and put them back to the general pile.

I would like to thank this kid for saving me from allot of empty calories today.

 

Some info about the people on this cruise:

The majority of passengers are Australians, next are coming from the UK and then Germany and the US , so most of the announcements are  given in English following by German.

Not many children on this cruise comparing to the West  Europe and Caribbean cruise I attended in the past, in general the population seem to be older but there are passengers from all ages.

 

During one of my stroll I started to count the rescue boats, well the numbers are not adding … there are 26 boats, each can carry 150 passengers which comes to total of 3900 + the 24  inflatable boats that can carry 35 people each, total off 800 seats.

Quick calculation showing 4700 total seats, now as far as I know there are 4000 passengers and at least 1500 employees.

 I am sure I am not the first one that notice it , I must missed something ,what is the answer to this riddle ? , are the rest of the people supposed to swim after the boats in there live jackets (at least the water are warm in China sea, not sure regarding the sharks).

 

Tonight was a Thai night in the WJ  , including some Thai chicken and Thai beef with Tom Yam Soap that was so spicy that I could not finish it and I like spicy food, the rest was very good.

To contradict  the Tom Yam it I took the excellent Chilled mango soup 

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We relaxed the rest of the evening, both did not care about the evening show which was performed by  the ship singers.

About 10:20 I went to Studio B to watch the quest show, Although it is my fifth cruse this is the first time I  am watching it , why ? well I don’t have a really good answer. The game was very funny  which made  me sorry for missing it until now , I even participate in some of the quest , don’t worry did not gave up my pants or shirt as did not want to scare anyone . Our team took the second place.

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Going to sleep now , tomorrow is the last port day and we need to go up early , but I am sure I will also catch some sleep in the bus.

 

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Day 9 – Port of Pou May which is the gate to Ho Chi Minh.

 

Nothing really to write about the port, it is cargo port 80 miles from Ho Chi Minh (AKA Saigon).

We went down from the ship to take our daily tour , this time we have  chosen  to do the  Panoramic Ho Chi Minh tour.

Going out from the ship was very quick, immigration did not even bother to check our landing cards.

We went on the bus and started our journey to the city,

Ho Chi Minh is under huge development right now and you can see many skyscrapers in the way to the city center.

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We started our tour near a Chinese temple, not much different from the temples we already visit but as always with those kind of temples they are nice and highly maintained. The stop was supposed to be for 10 minutes but last to be 30 minutes as the lines to the bathrooms were very long … Some of the places are not that ready for so many visitors at the same time.

temple2.thumb.jpg.9a1e2e1fa881a6db3b332f54d3c32a38.jpgtemple1.thumb.jpg.fb774f262a8accaf8ef3feaf3843aaaf.jpgOur next stop was yet another temple, that time it was Vietnamese temple, that’s it no more temples for me in the next few month , I gut temple fatigue :1_grinning:

We stayed at that temple for 15 minutes and continued to the city center and to the Grand hotel area were we got 2,5 hours of do it your own trip which I much appreciated.

We went around the nice old buildings  and checked some stores, after being tired from the continues need to negotiate for everything we found a big supermarket which we always like. Fixed price, good verity and ability to buy things like local coffee and local candies.

Once we completed with the shopping, we found an nice coffee shop to eat lunch in.

Although it was not real Vietnamese restaurant it served some interesting fusion plates like Tacos and Hamburgers.

 

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Lunch was quick and we still had some free time so we went (yes you start to see the  pattern)  to do a 30 minutes foot massage , as you see we both became addicted to 7 $ foot massage.

Around 3.15 we met again with the group and headed to the next stop, the former presented palace. This is the palace of the South Vietnam presented that was in use until 1975.

The building is kept today as museum, I guess to show the corruption of the former regime

 

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We had another quick stop at the French Cathedral.

Later we went back to the ship, arriving around 6:30 PM not before our bus was stopped by the police for speeding.

The food today was all about Indian food (Matt, you  missed it) which means no lobsters this cruise.

We went to see the Ice show which was, as always amazing, I think that this is the only show which is a sure thing in RC cruises.

Went to the Casino after, maybe I will have separated review about the casino, during the time I was there they announce the emergency call Alpha,Alpha,Alpha in Studio B which mean medical emergence , I found out later that one of the performer injured during the second Ice show , later on we came to knew she is all right, but hearing those emergency codes in the announcing system never feel good.  

Tomorrow is the last day, its going to be a sea day or as I call it packing day.

 

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Day 10 – Last day Sea day.

 

Well even for a ten days cruise there is an end, although it is the last day I don’t really feel that bad as I used to feel on the pervious cruises last days , maybe because we are not flying back yet , maybe since 10 days is the perfect amount of days , not sure.

For a sea day it was a perfect Sunny day,  the sun was shining all day long while temperatures were not really high.

We took advantage of it and went to do last effort to get some tanning (otherwise no one will believe us we were on vacation) , the wind was blowing lightly which helped to feel better on the deck.

Today again the clock was changed, now we are back in the original timing as we approaching Singapore, First time for me that they are changing the clock like that on  a cruise but it make sense for many activities.

I took advantage of the extra time and finally completed the book I brought with me, I considering leaving it here contributing to the library to reduce the weight we need to carry.

We did the packing as always which did not took much but we tried to organize it in a way we will not require to repack after the two days we are planning to spend in Singapore.

Our schedule departure time is 10 am  but I do hope it will go quicker although we don’t have big plans for tomorrow yet.

The WJ toady finally served sea food, not lobsters but shrimps, Calamari rings and mussels, it was nice but due to heavy demands they did not allow to take it ferly but served it to your plate (you could get more if you wanted later).

After dinner we  went up to the deck to catch the final sunset overt the ship

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Also we saw this creature neat the closed towel deck , seem he was heaving fun.

 

Tomorrow I will final summary but this was a very good cruise and I enjoy almost every minute.

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Day 11 – Disembarkation day:

 

Well this sad day arrived were we had to say goodbye to the ship ,

The process was very smooth , our numbered was called exactly the time they estimated (10 AM) and from the ship to the taxi (including Singapore immigration)  and it took us 10 minutes , I wish every disembarkation process will be like that.

The Taxi we took brought us in 5 minutes to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and we got our room much earlier than expected so we had enough time to change, go to the roof and enjoy the amazing infinity pool.

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Now for quick  summary:

 

Room – VB inside was excellent does not make sense to pay money for outside room, balcony is a different story.

The Ship – well maintained, you hardy see the age on this ship and if I did not knew I would guess its age.

The itinerary  – very interesting, I do recommend to visit south East Asia on a cruise.

The food – Ups and downs , mostly we were eating in the WJ which most of the time was good but repeated itself too much. The food in Giovanny was the best, Chops disappointed us , but mainly due to the service.

Service in General – very good , no complain here.

Pool area – Also very good, enough chair were empty even in sea days, if not on the first deck then on the second.

Most missing - SABOR !!!

Entertainment – Not the best , there were some ups and downs here also , Liked the ice show (as always) less liked the home productions..

Will I  go on the Voyager again – Yes as long as it in an interesting route , for the Caribbean I will still prefer to be on one of the Oasis ships.

 

 

I would like to thank my spouse for understanding all the times that I told her:

“I must take the internet now as I need to updated the live blog”

“Oh, don’t eat it yet, let me first take a picture of the plate”

“Wait for me two minutes, this is a good picture that I can use for the blog”

 

Thank you all for reading and comment, hope you liked it as much as liked written it, for me it  was a very nice experience.

And may your next cruise will come as soon as possible.

 

Yuliya and Assaf

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18 hours ago, Traveler said:

I would like to thank my spouse for understanding all the times that I told her:

“I must take the internet now as I need to updated the live blog”

“Oh, don’t eat it yet, let me first take a picture of the plate”

“Wait for me two minutes, this is a good picture that I can use for the blog”

My wife can relate to all of this!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Voyager Casino review:

 

Hi all, 10 days after the cruise and as promised I am bringing the separated casino review which I visited from time to time.

As the Voyager of the seas sells half of the year in south East Asia the casino is adjust to the  Chinese population, which means:

1.    No crap table, instead there is an automatic machine with some 3 cube games, not really took the time to understand how it works. Did not matter to much as I saw that in other RC casinos were you have the crap tables the odds is 1:1 which is very bad to any reasonable  crap player  (don’t ask me for details, I am just repeating what experienced people than me said J ).

2.    Less slots machines – almost 20% of the casino space was occupied by high roller baccarat room which had 8 tables inside. This room was never opened during the time I was around.

3.    75% of the slots  machines are the Chinese type (machines with Chinese good luck symbols , lots of dragons and jade figures)

 

Table games:

 

1.    Blackjack – 6 to 8 blackjack tables, hand shuffling, 8 decks, the dealer take his second card at the end which create huge pressure on the last player.
Table limit – during the day (sea days) the minimum was 6 $ during the evening 10$ never once I saw any tables above 10$ , lots of open seats  when I was around.
There was  a bonus game of getting two face/10 cards (queen of hearts I think the name)

2.    3 card poker – 4 tables, limit was all the time 10$, six card bonus (with the dealer card)  

3.    Texas Holdem – 2 to 3 tables, 10 $ minimum - most of the times the tables were empty.

4.    Baccarat table – actually mini baccarat, one table always occupied, did not checked the minimum.

5.    Roulette – one table

 

Smoking policy:

 

Like any Royal Caribbean ship the casino is one of the limited places people allow to smoke, many are taking advantage of it.

The casino is virtually divided into smoking and nonsmoking area, which means a part with many people smoking and a part that just smells heavily from smoke.

As very nearby. on deck 4 there was also a smoking area, maybe they could try limiting the smoking area , I know this issue is under huge dispute but for sure better ventilation system should be installed.

 

General observation:

 

1.    Casino cage money – you could ask to get money from your sea pass card with the 5% sucker tax, club royal member had a waiver , I notice they don’t give it to you as cache money (as I saw previously on other ships)  but as coupon for the slot machines or chips for the tables that you cannot get back until converting to regular chips , so it seems you need to decide where you want to lose your money ahead of time.

2.    They organize the usual “take off money from your account” raffle but they limited it to 500 $.

3.    They started to sell scratching cards.

4.     At the end of the cruise they gave the vouchers for people that collected enough points , I think the top was 4900 points for balcony cabin

 

Sorry no pictures from the casino, but cannot publish a post without at least one  picture from the sea , this is from the coffee house/restaurant where I am written this post.

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57 minutes ago, Traveler said:

Voyager Casino review:

 

Hi all, 10 days after the cruise and as promised I am bringing the separated casino review which I visited from time to time.

As the Voyager of the seas sells half of the year in south East Asia the casino is adjust to the  Chinese population, which means:

1.    No crap table, instead there is an automatic machine with some 3 cube games, not really took the time to understand how it works. Did not matter to much as I saw that in other RC casinos were you have the crap tables the odds is 1:1 which is very bad to any reasonable  crap player  (don’t ask me for details, I am just repeating what experienced people than me said J ).

2.    Less slots machines – almost 20% of the casino space was occupied by high roller baccarat room which had 8 tables inside. This room was never opened during the time I was around.

3.    75% of the slots  machines are the Chinese type (machines with Chinese good luck symbols , lots of dragons and jade figures)

 

Table games:

 

1.    Blackjack – 6 to 8 blackjack tables, hand shuffling, 8 decks, the dealer take his second card at the end which create huge pressure on the last player.
Table limit – during the day (sea days) the minimum was 6 $ during the evening 10$ never once I saw any tables above 10$ , lots of open seats  when I was around.
There was  a bonus game of getting two face/10 cards (queen of hearts I think the name)

2.    3 card poker – 4 tables, limit was all the time 10$, six card bonus (with the dealer card)  

3.    Texas Holdem – 2 to 3 tables, 10 $ minimum - most of the times the tables were empty.

4.    Baccarat table – actually mini baccarat, one table always occupied, did not checked the minimum.

5.    Roulette – one table

 

Smoking policy:

 

Like any Royal Caribbean ship the casino is one of the limited places people allow to smoke, many are taking advantage of it.

The casino is virtually divided into smoking and nonsmoking area, which means a part with many people smoking and a part that just smells heavily from smoke.

As very nearby. on deck 4 there was also a smoking area, maybe they could try limiting the smoking area , I know this issue is under huge dispute but for sure better ventilation system should be installed.

 

General observation:

 

1.    Casino cage money – you could ask to get money from your sea pass card with the 5% sucker tax, club royal member had a waiver , I notice they don’t give it to you as cache money (as I saw previously on other ships)  but as coupon for the slot machines or chips for the tables that you cannot get back until converting to regular chips , so it seems you need to decide where you want to lose your money ahead of time.

2.    They organize the usual “take off money from your account” raffle but they limited it to 500 $.

3.    They started to sell scratching cards.

4.     At the end of the cruise they gave the vouchers for people that collected enough points , I think the top was 4900 points for balcony cabin

 

Sorry no pictures from the casino, but cannot publish a post without at least one  picture from the sea , this is from the coffee house/restaurant where I am written this post.

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Where is this ? (Photo)

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2 minutes ago, rjac said:

Wow! That was one  hell of a trip you took, bet you racked up some air miles or points on your credit card. Enjoyed your trip report!:27_sunglasses:

Thanks, 11 hours +2   But actually I did not gain miles as I used miles for the tickets that I gain in my too many business trips :5_smiley: 

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