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.

Day 3: Good morning, rock climbing wall!

Sunrise over the Caribbean Sea. Then it’s off to challenge the rock climbing wall, after which more pictures of the Voyager of the Seas are presented.

St. Thomas Snuba

Snuba in St Thomas! OK, the video is just of us snorkeling, but the adventure was to snuba. Someday I’ll invest in a submersible video camera. Snuba is a combination of SNorkle and scUBA. You wear a weight belt, and learn how to breathe using a scuba-style regulator before you submerge 20 feet below the surface. Your air tank is in a small raft on the surface, and you are connected by a truly unobtrusive hose. Very exhilarating, if you’ve never done more than snorkel before. My favorite part was swimming above and thru someone else’s bubbles.

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.

Day 6-7: Kathy’s pictures

Here’s a photographic recap of our trip on the Voyager of the Seas, from start to finish.

Day 6-7: Katharine’s pictures

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!

Day 6-7: Royal Promanade walk-thru with sales!

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.

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.

Day 7: Afternoon, evening, and our last dinner at sea

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!

Day 7: Bridge Tour, part 2, Voyager of the Seas

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…