It's back again!

[olefin]

Had a great cruise to the Western Caribbean aboard Royal Caribbeans, 'Voyager of the Seas'. We took our family, 7 adults and 1 teen. All had a great time. We all drove to Galveston to board the ship. They live in west TX but their drive was longer than ours.

This was our first cruise using Royal Caribbean. It's the most beautiful ship we have ever been on! The Promanade looks like a large mall inside the ship. There is 3 levels of inside cabins above the Promanade that have windows facing the Promanade.

Our suite had an outside balcony and was very nice but not quite as nice as the one we had on Holland America. The bed was poor and the couch was uncomfortable. But I will say the service people were the best we've had and the food was very good. Royal Caribbean has the best disembark procedure we have ever used! Amazing how smooth the 3500 people left the ship. The embark also went fast.

And I used my Inratio2 on the ship. It's GREAT for traveling!
Also my INR was 4.9 and had I still been on monthly testing I would have got way out of control.

A sad note... The Galveston area still shows the effect of Hurricane 'Ike'. The drive from Beaumont to Galveston passes many miles of where beach front homes were once located.

I took the picture below as the ship left Galveston that afternoon the day we disembarked. Hope they all enjoyed it as much as we did.

 

[Ross]

Good to have you back! I envy you. I really do.

 

[hall]

That looks like one heck of alot of fun. Good for you. Glad you are back.

 

[CThrock]

Dayton,
That's a really cool ship, I could spend days just shopping on it. Glad you are back and had a good time, you deserve it.
Are you going to post any more pics? I hope so!
Crystal

 

[njean]

Welcome back Dayton! So glad to know you had a wonderful time on the cruise & I'm looking forward to more of your pictures!

 

[catwoman]

Beautiful photo! Very tempting for an armchair traveler to dream about a cruise.

 

[skeptic49]

Nice picture! Royal Carribbean does a nice job providing very enjoyable cruises.

Best wishes,

Jim

 

[terryj]

Glad you are back. We have never been on a cruise but that is going to be the first thing we do when we retire next year. We are looking into the Alaskan cruise.

 

[dick0236]

Glad you are back. We have never been on a cruise but that is going to be the first thing we do when we retire next year. We are looking into the Alaskan cruise.

Include a "land tour" into the interior or Alaska if you can. My wife and I took a cruisetour on Royal Caribbean a couple years ago. It was a remarkable trip. Alaska, for us, was "a trip of a lifetime". I have never seen soooo much unspoiled geography and nature.

We have done several cruises into the Gulf and they were all great fun, but the Alaska cruisetour was the best. I agree with Olefin, cruising is a great way to vacation.....and with the economy down, the prices are getting better and better.

 

[olefin]

Crystal, that's one ship that has plenty shopping places. My wife made them all.
And I'll have some pictures uploaded in a few days.

Thanks Ross, Hall, Jean, Terryj, Catwoman and Tim.

Terryj, you will like Alaska. We plan to go again. Out first time we did the Inside Passage and loved it but next time will do the land tour like Dick suggested.

We try to take our family on one cruise a year and then wife and I do one or two. For several years after I retired we never tried cruising... we didn't think we would like it. Our first was a cruise of the Hawaiian Islands... we been hooked ever since.

 

[CThrock]

Dayton, Your wife is my kind of gal. "Shop till you drop."

 

[olefin]

CThrock, I drop pretty fast when it comes to shopping. In fact I usually stay home and leave the shopping to her. Although I did follow her around some in the ship stores.

 

[ShezaGirlie]

Dayton...glad y'all had a good time..! For a different experience next time you might want to try http://www.cruisewest.com/ . The ships are small and no shopping, but what an experience..!! I've been on more than several of their ships and they were all 'grand' in their own way.

 

[Karlynn]

Glad you had a good time Dayton. I've only been on one cruise and that was the Mediterranean on Royal Caribbean's Splendour of the Seas. Our kids were in high school and we had such a good time. Although now that they are older, we're finding out more of the shenanigans they got into while on the ship. The passengers were mainly European, and if I see another 65 year old man in a speedo or a 65 year old woman in a bikini - it will be too soon.

I keep trying to get our group of friends to find a cruise to go on together. It is a carefree way of traveling to some neat places.

Welcome home!

 

[Bridgette]

Neat to see you back Dayton, and what a great holiday you must have had.
Looking forward to more of your photos.

Bridgette

 

[Eva]

I am happy you had a great vacation, Dayton, and I look forward to more photos!

 

[olefin]

Thanks ShezaGirlie, we thought serious about Cruisewest in 2006 when we did Alaska. But instead went on the Empress of the North.
It's a small ship, only 250 passengers but it was extremely nice! The tickets cost more than the big ships. One reason, all shore excursions were included. We did the 7 day Alaskan Inside Passage. I think it was called the American West Steamboat company. They have since gone out of business. The Empress made national TV couple years back when it ran aground and started taking on water. All passengers had to be evacuated but the ship wasn't damage too bad.

Thanks Karlynn. I got a laugh out of "the 65 year old man in a speedo or a 65 year old woman in a bikini".

Reminds me of when we took our daughter and son in law last spring on Holland Americas Zuiderdam. Most all the people were oldies like wife and myself. As we were boarding my son in law says to me, "can you imagine what this bunch will look like in the wet tee shirt contest.

Thanks Sue, glad you still get to enjoy going to the mall. There were lots of folks in wheel chairs on the Zuiderdam.

Thanks, Bridgette.

Thanks, Eva.

 

[halleyg]

We went on that same ship back in 2000 - it IS beautiful... what an unforgettable vacation, and glad you had one as well!