Wetern Caribbean (2008)

Prolog

We started planning this cruise right after we returned from our previous trip to the Mexican Riviera on July 7th, 2008. Since we had won a free cruise, in a Bingo game, we were given a “window” by Royal Caribbean and decided to use their cruise to the Western Caribbean's during the week before Christmas. I made the arrangement with RCCL, made the airline reservations and we started to count the days.




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Day 1: Sunday, December 14th, 2008

We woke up at 3:00 AM and headed to LAX for our 6:00 AM flight to Houston, Texas. The flight was pleasant and we landed at 11:30. Representatives from RCCL were waiting for us. They picked our luggage and we climbed the awaiting bus, which took us to Galveston and to the awaiting cruise ship: Voyager of the Seas.





After the checking in procedures, we climbed the stairs to the 9th deck and found a very comfortable and large cabin with a king-size bed, very large balcony, walk-in closet, sofa and couch in a “living area” and plenty of space to put our belongings.

We left our cabin and climbed two flight of stairs to the Windjammer Café’ on the 11th deck where we had a light lunch and then started to “tour” the ship and discovered a beautiful vessel: The ship is a revolutionary marvel of naval engineering. It features a one-of-a-kind ice-skating ring (on the 3rd deck) , a Promenade (on the 5th deck) with side café’s and shops, a rock-climbing wall, a basketball court and a mini golf course (on the 12th deck), a very large casino hall, 3 pools 3 Jacuzzi’s, a huge game & fun room for the kids and much more.

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Voyager of The Seas became the world's largest cruise ship when it entered service in November 1999 it weighs 138,000-ton and can accommodate 3,110 guests plus an additional 1,500 crew members.

After a short “Life Boat” drill we entered the fabulous dining room for our first dinner of the trip. At our table we met Mike and Marcia from Angola, Barbara and Ray from Texas and Jess with his two daughters Cindy and Betty also from Texas.

After dinner we signed up for the Internet services and went back to our cabin. The luggage already made their way to our cabin. We spent few minutes to unpack and after taking a hot bath we climbed to our comfortable bed at around 9:00 PM.

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Day 2: Monday, December 15th, 2008

After a 12 hours sleep (!) I woke up and headed to the Windjammer café’ for a delicious breakfast. Tova opted to sleep some more and I could not blame her as we had a very long day yesterday and since this was “a day at sea” it only made sense that she should catch up on her sleep.

After breakfast I walked 5 times around the 12th deck. There was a trail and 5 rounds are equal to one mile. I then met with Tova at the two-level (7th & 8th decks) Library, where we used the Internet, checking our email.

At lunch we met a very interesting couple: Betty and Wayne, who are cruising the world every 5-6 weeks. This cruise was their 89th (!). Wayne told us (jokingly) that since his wife is a lousy cook and since he loves to eat (and it shows!) he decided to use the cruise ships as his food source…

After lunch I took my book and spend a couple of hours reading it on the 11th deck under the blue and sunny skies with comfortable temperatures in the 80’s.

After a short nap we dressed up, as tonight’s attire was formal, and joined our group at the
dinner table.

We then went to the La Scala Theater and enjoyed an hour of music performed by World Champion Pianist, Ryan Ahern. His solo piano arrangements were electrifying and the music style ranged from Broadway to Boogie-Woogie. His famous hand speed was mesmerizing to see and listen.

We returned to our cabin around midnight.

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Day 3: Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

We woke up at 6:30 AM and rushed to the Windjammer Café’ for a delicious breakfast. The ship docked at Cozumel, Mexico, located on the Yucatan Peninsula (East side of México, in the Caribbean). Ancient Mayans considered Cozumel a sacred shrine and referred to it as Ah-Cuzamil which translates to "Island of the shallows" At that time, the Mayans would sail from the mainland to the Island to worship the goddess Ix-Chel, goddess of fertility and wife of the god Sun.

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We took a taxi from the port and arrived at the “Ferry Dock”. Some 4 miles away, where we boarded a ferry, which took us to Playa Del Carmen or "Playa" as it's known to the locals. It is located in the middle of the Riviera Maya in the state of Quintana Roo.

We hired a driver and after an hour drive we arrived at our destination: The Mayan Ruins at Tulum, which stands on a bluff facing the rising sun looking out on views of the Caribbean'a Sea that are nothing less than spectacular

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The Tulum ruins that rest majestically on the Tulum landscape draw on the average 5,000 tourists each day, partially thanks to its location, which is close by to Cancun and Cozumel.

The Tulum ruins carry the history of the Mayan people and most structures were actually constructed during the Post-Classic Era between 1200 and 1450.

The city was occupied by Mayan people up until the Spanish conquest of the Yucatan peninsula, but was fully abandoned by the end of the 16th century after smallpox epidemic, blamed on the Spanish.

Today, parts of the Mayan ruins of Tulum have been restored for tourism purposes and although Local Mayans continued to visit the temples to pray, these acts were abandoned in the late 20th century, when tourists became too numerous.

We spent the next 3 hours touring the amazing site and learning from a book we had purchased earlier, about the Mayan culture and traditions.

We returned to Playa Del Carmen and found out that we had just missed the ferry back to Cozumel and that the next ferry will depart only in about 2 hours.

We strolled around Quinta Avenida, also referred to by Americans as 5th Avenue, a pedestrian only, cobblestone lined street which spans approximately 20 blocks. Along 5th Ave. we found a variety of restaurants, bars, clubs, and of course many shops. We sat at one of the Café’s and had a delicious cappuccino.

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We boarded the ferry at around 3:00 pm and opted to sit on the upper deck where we enjoyed a cold beer while listening to a live band playing a variety of Spanish Folklore songs.

We were back at our ship an hour later and after a much needed shower joined our new friends at the dinner table sharing our adventures. Mike and Marcia, who had planned this trip to enjoy scuba diving in the Caribbean’s, had much fun at a resort in Cozumel.

After dinner we enjoyed the “Music in Motion” production at the La Scala Theater, starring “The Royal Caribbean Singers & Dancers”. It was without a doubt the best production show we had seen on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

We were back in our cabin at 11:00 pm.

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Day 4: Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

The ship arrived to Roatan, Honduras and docked at Coxen Hole.

After yet another delicious breakfast at the Windjammer Café’ we left the ship and hired a taxi driver to take us around the city.

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The driver, who had a pretty good English vocabulary, gave us a short description of this beautiful island:

The Island’s history, which includes many disputes between the Spaniards and the British during colonial times, with the British actually controlling the islands most of time, has given the island a unique heritage. English is so widely spoken in the Island, that some people don't even speak Spanish, despite the fact that this is the official language of Honduras! Roatan is a long island, measuring almost 40 miles in length and with a total landmass of 49 Square miles. The island has a mountainous backbone and is totally surrounded by coral reefs, offering superb diving as well as excellent fishing.

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We visited French Harbor, which is perhaps the most bustling community on the island. It is home to one of the largest fishing fleets in the Western Caribbean and is the economic motor of the Island, with many of the banks in the island located precisely here.
On the outskirts of French Harbor, a local islander has set up his own Iguana Farm. We visited the site. Tova, who is afraid of reptiles, decided not to enter the farm. I purchased the ticket ($8 – even though it was advertised for $1 on the internet) and met with the owner, Arch, who told me that there are over 2,800 iguanas of four different species living on his property in French Key.

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The encounter with the reptiles was overwhelming as scores of them were crawling on the main paved road and tourists were feeding them with huge leaves. Not far from the main activity I found a cage with two sad-eyed monkeys.

We continued our trip and arrived at the top of a hill where a magnificent view of the island and the harbor took our breath away.

There we also found a large complex of condominiums, occupied mostly by “foreigners”, who purchased the units for a bargain price. The name of this place was Parrot Tree Plantation.

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Our next stop was the highlight of the day: We visited the Butterfly Garden. This tropical butterfly garden exhibits a variety of butterflies native to Honduras and the Bay Islands.

We saw the following varieties: common owl, zebra, helicopter, firecracker, julia's, sunset long-wing, monarch, and queen.

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The garden is also a home to many hummingbirds, and a small collection of parrots, macaws, and toucans that have been acquired as rescue birds.

The birds were mostly very friendly.

Outside the butterfly garden we found a variety of tropical fruit trees, including cashews, hog plum, island plum and breadfruit as well as many birds of colors and sizes. There was also a fawn, which was abandoned by his mother and was now raised by the garden’s owners.

We continued our tour of the island and arrived at the community of West End where heavy rain has welcomed us. Wes stopped for coconut milk, sold by locals on the side of the road for a ridiculous price of $1 each.

We returned to the ship an hour later and after a shower we once again met our friends at the dinner table.

Tonight’s show was at the Ice Skating Ring where we enjoyed the performance on ice by an International cast, featuring a guest star named Vladimir.

Later on that evening we joined Eric, the cruise director, as he put some of our fellow shipmates through the matrimonial test of time, in The Love & marriage Game Show.

We returned to our cabin at 12:30

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Day 5: Thursday, December 18th, 2008

The ship arrived at Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico.

After breakfast we left the ship and hired a taxi driver for the day.
We drove for about 50 miles and arrived at the Mayan City of Chacchoben. For many years the ruins, symbolized the greatness of one of the most brilliant civilizations of the world. Today, it has become the most visited site by tourists visiting Grand Costa Maya. The site takes its name from the village located 11 KM away that keeps the same name. At this time the original name of the ruin site is not known, nor the name of any of its leaders. Therefore the official name for now is Chacchoben: “The Place of the Red Corn.”

The area in which Chacchoben is found is known as “The Region of the Lakes” due to the number of Lagoons and low land areas wet the year round, along with so many others that become flooded during the rainy season.
The first human inhabitants date back as far as 1000 B.C, though evidence found during excavation, shows that most of the ruins there date back to around 360 AD.
In the pre-classic period the area was a farming community. This great city was part of one of the greatest and most brilliant civilizations of the world. For the next thousand years or so it was abandon and hidden by the jungle.

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In the 1940´s a young Mayan man set out to find the perfect place for his farm and to raise a family. Inside the jungle, covered by many tall trees he found the ruins. He settles here in the once great city of his ancestors and raised his 8 children here with the ruins as their backyard. What a wonderful playground they had. Then in 1972 an American Archeologist Dr. Peter Harrison came and made the first professional exploration of the site.

The project mapped and officially reported the site to the Mexican Government. In 1994 the National Institute of Anthropology and History opened a new chapter in the history of Chacchoben opening a restoration project. In the year that followed 2 complexes were excavated and restored. In the years to come more of the secrets of this site are sure to come to light. The next chapter came in October of 2002 when the Government settled an agreement with the community of Chacchoben. The site was expropriated from the Mayan family that had been the guardians of the site for so many years and was officially opened to the public.

We visited 3 pyramid structures. Climbing on them is prohibited but after looking around and making sure we were not watched we climbed 2 of the pyramids. At the top I found a sacrifice site, where human beings were sacrificed to the Mayan gods.

In the literature we collected at the entrance I found out that the sacrifice were done mostly to

prisoners but in many occasions the Mayan people volunteered to be killed and be sacrificed as it ensured their after life in Heaven.

We toured the site for about 2 hours and then returned to Mahahual. We entered a restaurant at Tequila Beach and enjoyed their Ceviche (a form of marinated citrus-appetizer), guacamole, salsa and chips along with local beer.

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We then strolled on the path, parallel to the Caribbean Sea, shopping and even given a massage on the beach, by two local young women.

We return to the ship and joined our table at the dining room for a delicious Italian dinner. At the end of dinner, the waiters sang the traditional O Solo Mio as we all clapped our hands.

Tonight’s show featured Tony Tillman, a truly a dynamic entertainer. Often compared to Sammy Davis and Ben Vereen, this Baltimore native, who now lives in Las Vegas, has traveled the world giving knockout performances to enthusiastic crowds. Tony Tillman's fast-paced and energetic style helped him secure an opening act spot with Bill Cosby that lasted over ten years.
We returned to our cabin at midnight.

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Day 6: Friday, December 19th, 2008

I woke up at 9:00 am. Tova was still sleeping and I decided to spend the sunny and warm morning for breakfast on the deck, I then walked for a mile around the 11th deck and read my book in the pool area.

I joined Tova around noon and we both enjoyed the “Holiday Ice Spectacular” in the Ice Skating Ring.

Lunch we had at the Johnny Rockets restaurant and enjoyed a huge juicy burger, fries, onion rings and delicious milk shake. We tried to recall when was the

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last time we had such a good burger but could not remember.

After lunch I sat at the casino’s blackjack table and won over a hundred dollars in about 20 minutes. I used the money I had won to buy myself a nice watch in the Jewelry shop on the 5th deck.

At 4:00 pm we joined other Jews on the ship for Shabbat Services and after dinner we watched the Production Showtime of Broadway Rhythm & Rhyme at the La Scala Theater.

Later on we returned to the theater to have few laughs watching the adult late night comedy of Chas Eistner.

We returned to the cabin at 1:00 am.

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Day 7: Saturday, December 20th, 2008

We woke up at 9:00 am.

After breakfast I used the same routine of yesterday as I walked around for a mile, and then did some reading of my book.

Lunch was special since we were invited to have lunch with the Captain and his officers. We sat at a table with the Assistant Hotel Manager of the ship. His name was Jean Claude, a nice Frenchman, who told us about himself and his life.

After lunch I enjoyed the hot water of the Jacuzzi for about an hour and then went back to the cabin to nap. When we woke up we watched one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen.

Tonight’s dinner was the “Farewell Dinner” as we were scheduled to leave the ship tomorrow morning. We said our goodbyes to all of our new friends; to the crew members we had met and then returned to our cabin to pack.

We left the two big luggages next to our cabin in the hallway to be picked up by the crew.

Tonight’s show featured Los Pampas Gauchos the entertainment group from Argentina, who danced and sang with so much energy.

We returned to our cabin at midnight.

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Day 8: Sunday, December 21st, 2008

The ship returned to Galveston.

We woke up at 6:30 and after breakfast we took our personal belonging and then sat at the dining room on the 5th deck, waiting for our “color” to be announced so we could start the departure process.

We were scheduled to be called at 9:00 and leave Galveston towards the airport at 10:00. However, we were called at around 10:00. The bus left the port of Galveston at 11:00 and arrived at Houston International Airport only at 12:00. We rushed through ticketing and security but still missed our flight to LAX, which departed at 1:00.

We finally boarded another flight two hours later and arrived at LAX in the early evening

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12/22/08
Note: I wrote to RCCL and complained about their tight schedule for the passengers, who need to catch a flight in the afternoon. I suggested in my letter, to let those with scheduled flights depart earlier. I have not received their reply yet.

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1/11/09

I received RCCL response today. Here it is:

From: web_cruise_comments@rccl.com [mailto:web_cruise_comments@rccl.com] Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 9:15 AMTo: aviram@pacbell.netSubject: SR#1-499134920/Bk#5029526/Oren

Dear Mr. Oren:

Thank you for your e-mail regarding your cruise vacation onboard the Voyager of the Seas.

We have built a foundation on the premise of customer service excellence and we sincerely regret to learn of the difficulties you endured at the end of your cruise vacation. Every sailing is orchestrated with the intent of providing our guests with the highest standard of service possible and the most memorable vacation experience. Our primary goal is for our guests to enjoy the best possible cruise vacation and we regret that we did not meet your expectations.

Please accept our most sincere apologies for the inconveniences you encountered with the bus transfers, subsequently causing you to miss your flight. A smooth journey is an important element in each of our guest's cruise package, and we view any reports of inconsistencies in this area with great concern. Naturally, we only want the best arrangements for our guests during their journey to or from the ship. As ground transportation is a service solely made for the guests' convenience, we take all comments and observations into consideration with respect to selecting or retaining our contractual relationships with the various transport companies. The providers of such service are independent contractors and are not acting as agents or representatives of Royal Caribbean International. Additionally, please be assured that our Guest Port Services Departments have been made aware of your observations in order to prevent such a recurrence.

Mr. Oren, once again, thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. We look forward to the opportunity of welcoming you back onboard one of our ships in the near future.

Sincerely,

Latoya A. Blackwood
Corporate Guest Relations

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1/11/09

I responded to RCCL as follow:

Dear Latoya,

I read your explanation for our misfortune in missing our flight and it seems that you put the blame on the "independent contractors" you had hired for the task of transporting passengers to the airport.

According to my observation, the delay had been caused not because of the bus company but because of the policy or the decisions that the ship had had for letting passengers off the ship. If our "color" would have been called earlier than 10:00 am we would have made it.

The ship should have arranged for passengers, who leave Houston Airport before 1:00 PM to be called first or around 8:00 - 8:30 am, as the process of finding the luggage, going through Custom and the trip to the airport takes approximately 2-3 hours.

Once again, let me emphasize that the money I had paid RCCL to transfer, was not used to satisfy my needs and expectations.

I EXPECT RCCL TO COMPENSATE ME IN THAT MATTER

P.S I have written a journal, regarding our recent trip. If you read my journal, you will find out how great that whole vacation was (until that last day!). I also let my readers know the details of this matter.

Please visit my journal at

http://www.aviramblog.blogspot.com


Sincerely,

Aviram (Avi) Oren

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This is RCCL respond:

Dear Mr. Oren:
Thank you for your follow up e-mail regarding your recent sailing onboard the Voyager of the Seas. We thank you for your patience and thank you for the opportunity to further address your concerns.
We are very pleased that you and Mrs. Oren joined us on the Voyager of the Seas. Your positive comments concerning your cruise experience and our staff onboard are truly appreciated. We are delighted that our staff member's exemplary service and hospitality helped make your time with us more enjoyable. We will gladly pass along your generous compliments.
As you have most likely discovered, every effort we put forth on our ships and itineraries has one goal in mind: to provide our guests with the best cruise experience possible. This goal is achieved when, at the end of the vacation, guests leave their cruise with fond memories and a desire to cruise with us again. We thank you for the time and thought you have taken to convey your impressions of the voyage. Your kind words serve as recognition of our service, and an inspiration to commit ourselves to continued excellence.
Please accept our most sincere apologies for the inconveniences you encountered regarding the transportation from the pier to the airport. The departure process can be delayed by guests who have not reported to the Customs area. Although we would prefer to let the other guests begin the departure process, United States Customs will not allow anyone off the ship until each guest has been cleared. We are always seeking ways to expedite the departure process to ensure our guests a satisfying end to their vacation experience. Your suggestions regarding an earlier departure for guests with 1:00 p.m. flights; will be dully noted and forwarded to the appropriate management for further review to prevent a future recurrence. We are, however, pleased that you were able to return on a different flight despite the inconveniences encountered at the end of your sailing.
We take all comments and observations, such as yours, into consideration with respect to selecting or retaining our contractual relationships with the various transport companies, as ground transportation is a service solely made for the guests' convenience. Although the providers of such services are independent contractors and are not acting as agents or representatives of Royal Caribbean International; we appreciate your feedback to assist us in improving this service. Again, please be assured that our Guest Port Services Departments have been made aware of your observations. Regrettably, we must respectfully decline your request for service recovery. We apologize for any disappointment with our final response.
Mr. Oren, once again, thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We hope that despite the difficulties at the end of your cruise, we can welcome you aboard one of our ships in the near future.
Sincerely,



Margarita Velasquez
Corporate Guest Relations


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