After hearing so much about Royal Caribbean, my family and I finally decided to spend a long weekend together on board Voyager of the Sea. Here are some tips and our itinerary to help you maximise your time on board the cruise ship.
Pre-trip
Go to Cruise Planner to pre-purchase dining / beverages / Internet etc packages. Remember to add "My Time Dining" to your purchase so that you are free to choose your dinner time at the main dining room (Sapphire Dining Room) and do no have to spend time queueing to enter the dining room. The Cruise Planner closes 4 days prior to the sailing date.
Do your online check in to expedite the process at the pier. The online check-in platform closes 3 days prior to the sailing date.
What to bring
1. Check-in luggage
We board the cruise in Singapore, and the check-in process is almost similar to that of boarding a flight at the airport. Upon reaching Marina Bay Cruise Center, you can check in your luggage at the counter, and then the luggage will be send directly to the room. This will save you a lot of hassle of carrying your luggage around while you complete the rest of the clearance process or roaming around the vessel before the rooms are ready.
2. Highlighter
Voyager of the Sea offers many programs & activities, and such programs and activities are detailed down on a cruise compass. The cruise compass will be placed in your room daily. To avoid missing out any activities and to better plan your time on board, bring along a highlighter to highlight activities you would like to participate in your cruise compass.
3. Empty water bottle
Although you can get beverages almost anytime at the cafes or buffet area, it is still good to bring along a water bottle, so that you can stay hydrated, and it's also useful to bring it along for your shore excursions. A water dispenser is situated at Adventure Ocean (Deck 12, next to Video Arcade).
4. Socks & Long pants
1 of the highlights of Voyager of the Sea is the presence of a ice-skating rink (Deck 3). Hence, do not miss this chance of trying out ice-skating, no matter whether you know how to skate or not, since there is no additional charges to try out this activity. Bring along a pair of socks and long pants as it is compulsory to wear them when entering the ice-skating rink.
5. Swimsuit
1 of my favorite past-time on board is soaking in 1 of the many warm jacuzzi available on board the vessel, and we also saw many people having fun at the Flow Rider. Hence, do not leave your swim suit at home and prepare to get wet!
6. Hair Conditioner
For a 3-4 days trip, I usually do not bring along my hair conditioner in order to free up my luggage space. However, my hair became very dry and hard towards the end of the trip, probably due to soaking too much at the jacuzzi or a difference in water quality on board. Hence, remember to pack a hair conditioner to maintain the glow of your hair.
7. Universal Adaptor
The type of plug socket used on board is the USA type of plug socket. As such, bring along an universal travel adaptor to charge your mobile phone or camera or electronic gadgets. Alternatively, you can also charge your electronic gadgets using the USB connector on the TV in your room.
8. USD
If you intend to buy anything on board the vessel or try your hand at the casino, bring along some US dollars as this is the main currency used on board. Do also remember to activate your credit card for overseas travel.
Our Itinerary
Day 1 - On board
Our official check-in time is at 12.15pm, but we reached Marina Bay Cruise Center at around 11pm, and managed to board the cruise before 12pm. You'll be required to surrender your passport during the clearance process in exchange for a room card, which is also your identification card on board. You can charge all your expenses to the card, and these expenses will be charge to your credit card if you choose to activate this option when doing your check-in / online check-in. Since the rooms are not ready till 1pm, we headed to Windjammer (Deck 11) to have our lunch, and then roam around the upper decks to enjoy the skyline of Singapore.
View of the Singapore skyline
Our rooms are the inner state rooms without a balcony at Deck 7. On the way to our room, we saw our luggage along the corridor, waiting to be send to our rooms. We took the luggage with us to the room instead of waiting for it to be send to our rooms.
We explored Deck 5 and the casino shortly after checking out the rooms.
While the crowds are still busy eating or checking out the rooms, we took dip at the jacuzzi. The Flow Rider is also available for you to test your surfing skills. As most people are busy settling in, the queue is relatively short. At 4pm, there was a compulsory muster drill, and after that, we spend the rest of the day watching the DreamWorks Parade (Deck 5, but we watched it from Deck 7), having dinner at Sapphire Dining Room, and watching the super impressive ice skating show (Studio B Deck 3).
Day 2 - Hello Penang
We started the day by hitting the gym, before wasting all the efforts at the Windjammer, where we had our buffet breakfast. The Windjammer offers more choices during breakfasts & lunches than the Sapphire Dining Room, so we had all our breakfasts & lunches at the Windjammer during our trip.
We then roam around watching the arts pieces on auction before getting into the queue to try our hands at ice-skating and rock climbing.
We reached Penang at 2pm, but we only disembark at 3.30pm to avoid the crowds. The disembark process was quite easy, all you need to do is to follow the directions, get your room card scanned, and off you go to your Penang adventure!
As this is not our first time in Penang, we did not visit the tourist attractions like mural paintings or clan jetties, but spent our time enjoying the local foods, from nyonya kuehs (pastry) at Moh Teng Pheow, to char kway teow (fried noodles) at Siam Road, to curry noodles, rojak etc at New Lane Hawker. Prior to our travel, we bought a Malaysia SIM card so that we can travel around easily using Grab, a ride hailing service via a mobile phone app.
See also: Penang - Where to Go, Eat & Buy!
Moh Teng Pheow
Siam Road Char Kway Teow
New Lane Hawker
The vessel will set sail at 11.00pm, so everyone will have to be on board by 10pm. We returned to the vessel at around 7pm and continued with some activities on board before calling it a day.
Outdoor movie screening by the pool
Musical at La Scala Theatre
Night party by the pool
Day 3 - Cruising Day
We spent much of Day 3 watching the world go by, admiring the sea view, playing games, and soaking at the jacuzzi. There are some mahjong sets available on loan, but they are not available on Day 3 as they are being sent for cleaning. Nevertheless, there are some card games available at the library (Deck 7).
If you are interested in shopping, this is also a good time to indulge in duty-free shopping, just like what we did, as there are multiple items on sales since this is the last day of the trip.
We collected our passports in the late afternoon, following the announcements/instruction on the cruise compass. Since we have linked the room card to our credit card, there was no need for us to settle any bills.
At the helicopter pad
We had some fun playing this floor ball kind of game, although we are not sure what is this game really called.
Bingo Game
Dinner was at Sapphire Dining Room, where the waiters put up a wonderful singing performance since this is our last night on the cruise. Most dinners dress up for this last dinner, although it is not really compulsory. After dinner, we were entertained by a magic show put up by an Australian magician.
La Scala Theatre for the magic show
For those who would like their luggage to be carried out of the vessel for collection at the pier, the luggage has to be placed at the door for collection at night. Since it is fairly easy to disembark and we want to avoid any delays, we did not use this service.
Day 4 - Bye Bye Voyager of the Sea
Our official disembarking time is at 9am. After breakfast, we bade farewell to the Voyager of the Sea, and a truly relaxing vacation over a long weekend.
Day 4 - Bye Bye Voyager of the Sea
Our official disembarking time is at 9am. After breakfast, we bade farewell to the Voyager of the Sea, and a truly relaxing vacation over a long weekend.
