Last week, fans of Voyager of the Seas and Royal Caribbean were surprised after spotting her name in an unexpected place – the Port of Los Angeles cruise schedule.
According to screenshots of the Port of Los Angeles cruise schedule on an unofficial Royal Caribbean Blog, the Voyager of the Seas will be offering regular three and four-night sailings out of LA from June through December 31, 2021. The 2022 port schedule for Los Angeles has not yet been released.
The newly refurbished Voyager of the Seas, which made her Sydney comeback this year with new amenities and a fresh coat of hull paint, usually returns for her summer Australian season by mid to late October.
So Voyager’s regular sailings out of LA till December 31, 2021 sparked rumours among cruisers that Voyager of the Seas might be counting down to her last season here.
Some 35 comments appeared on a Royal Caribbean’s Facebook page – Cruising Royal Caribbean From Australia – as the rumour mill gained momentum. Was it just a seasonal sailing? Or was she gone forever? The questioners turned to Cruise Passenger – and we asked Royal Caribbean?
Then, another mystery: all of Voyager’s sailings were removed from the cruise schedule of the Port of Los Angeles.
What is going on? You can’t spirit away a 138,000 tonne ship!
Cruise Passenger contacted Royal Caribbean to try and confirm Voyager’s deployment and they said: “We typically confirm new itineraries 18 months in advance so we will have some great new sailings to announce in the next few months. I’ll let you know when we have confirmed details we can share.”
On Port Authority NSW’s cruise schedule, Voyager of the Seas is still scheduled to return on October 24, 2021 to make regular sailings through April 18, 2022.
But Royal Caribbean’s Australian website currently has no sailings available to book on Voyager of the Seas past April 2021.
The return of Royal Caribbean to Los Angeles, where they currently don’t have a vessel, has been highly anticipated for many years. Los Angeles’ last homeported Royal Caribbean ship was the Mariner of the Seas back in 2011.
So where do you think Voyager of the Seas will be sailing in 2021?
Currently onboard VOTS on a 6 night Tasmania cruise. Been a few changes since the $90m facelift, but mostly cosmetic. You can no longer access the fore or aft of deck 12 as they have added more staterooms. Popular Johnny Rockets 60’s diner is gone sad to say, but they have added 2 water slides if that’s your thing. The Viking Crown lounge is smaller than ever, being slowly consumed by more dining venues. The Vault night club on deck 2 has also gone. Updated poolside furniture is a welcome addition, as is the replacement of the wobbly circular tables. But they have added some terrible, cheap looking wooden seats that are so low one needs assistance to get up off them. The pool deck is now unnecessarily cluttered IMO but there are now life guards standing sentinel over the pools complete with rescue equipment at the ready. Hot tubs on pool deck & in solarium are still frequently out of order as are the ‘scenic’ elevators. Even when they are working, they randomly refuse to allow you to select a particular floor, resulting in a walk up or down a flight of stairs. Balconies, mine anyway, still showing the ships age with significant amounts of surface rust visible. Some new carpet throughout etc but hard to see $90m USD worth of improvements.
She is 21yo & must surely be nearing retirement, it must have 50 tonnes more paint now than when it was built.
I hope the Voyager of the Seas returns to Australia, we love this ship with its layout and keen to sail again with its new fit out.
Would be a shame to see it relocated when she should be in Australia.
I, for one, do not care. I did a Christmas cruise in 2019 just after the ship had been refurbished. There was not much evidence, apart from the general areas and the hull, that much had change. Certainly our owners suite was not touched, the smoke alarm beeped for two days despite our request to have it fixed. a large rust area in the bathroom was painted a couple of days out from Sydney. The spas in the adult area did not work properly. One closed as out of order for the last three days. There was a noravirus alert. The staff in the buffet area were terrible in their cleanup of tables with cursory wipes and a flick over the backs of the chairs. Guess they don’t get ill. In general not a great cruise. Food was good, service in main dining good. The line up to get into the main dining is a joke. If you book you wait in line if NO booking you are ushered to a table.
I’m wondering. How many Sydneyx Sydney the Solstice, Eclipse will be doing this year 2020./2021