Vision of the Seas 4 night cruise review - May 22-26

Can't believe its been a month since the cruise! I was meaning to post a review before, can't believe its taken me so long.

By way of background, we are a mom-daughter cruising duo. I'm mid-30's, Mom is mid-60's and we are the only members of our big family that like to cruise. We've been on one Holland America and three Carnival cruises before, all in the last 3 years. This was our first RCL cruise. We picked it as we were looking for a short getaway around Memorial Day and this cruise went to Cozumel which we had never been to. Plus it was newly refurbished and with the temptation of trying a new line, we were hooked!

In looking at a couple of other reviews I've done, I realized they were more like travel diaries, with a day by day account. This time, I thought I'd just hit on the key points that might be of interest, as people may have different itineraries, etc. Also, I'll have a lot of comparisons to Carnival, as that's what I have the most experience with.

Getting There - we live in NYC and flew down to Fort Lauderdale the morning of the first day. We did carry on and loved it! No stress about waiting for your luggage and seriously, we packed in so many items in our carry ons, we still didn't get to wear everything! Highly recommend going carry on if you can do it. We have an 8-day cruise on Carnival coming up in late summer and are seriously debating if we can do carry on again, maybe send a bag of laundry out midway through the cruise, etc.

Ship - Vision of the Seas is BEAUTIFUL! I honestly think she is maybe the prettiest ship we've ever been on. She was recently refurbished from top to bottom, and they did a great job, she feels like a new ship! Loved the carpets, upholstery, and the lobby, dining room, etc. - just about everywhere! The colors were so soothing, I definitely liked the decor more than Carnival's ships, except maybe the Carnival Breeze. Also, having sailed on much bigger ships, we actually really liked the smaller size - you could walk end to end really quickly and it made getting around really easy. We also loved the Viking Crown Lounge, its so relaxing to sit there during the day. I also really liked the Solarium, its really nicely laid out. We tried the Park Cafe the first day, and while the menu is limited, it made for a nice change.

Cabin - we were in a JS on Deck 8, mid-ship on the port side. Great location, very close to the elevators and central atrium. We loved the cabin, it had all new furniture and bedding and a nice large balcony. RCL's balconies are bigger than Carnival, which i really like. The bathroom was also nice but I feel like Carnival's Ocean Suite bathrooms are a touch more high end, nice countertops and tiling. But overall the cabin was very nice and comfortable and even with two women, we had loads of storage space! The beds were very comfortable and I enjoyed sitting out on the balcony for hours. We have also liked Carnival's Ocean and Grand Suites a lot so maybe its a tie here. Space wise the JS and Ocean Suites are comparable.

Service - here it was a bit hit and miss. We met our cabin steward the first day, who immediately told us that he was stressed out as he had so many cabins to look after. That just struck me as odd to say to someone on the first day. We are pretty neat and pick up after ourselves, so we tried to not make any extra work for him - but the only two requests we did have seemed to bother him. The first request was for ice on the first day, I had called Room Service and they told me to ask the steward, who said no, I needed to call Housekeeping so there was a lot of back and forth on that. Finally, Room Service sent up an ice bucket. Second, we needed more of the little bottles of Elemis body wash and lotion they provide, as there were two of us and with the heat, we were showering twice a day. We had to repeatedly request extra bottles, leave out notes every day, etc. Also, the first day, I noticed that the dressing table surface was dirty, which i cleaned off myself. In the Dining Room, the service was more friendly, but again, you could tell the staff were really overwhelmed by the number of tables they had to cover, which sometimes made for delays getting the food and bar service was especially slow. But, I want to emphasize, that except for the room steward, all the staff we met were super friendly and could not have been nicer! Particularly Assistant Maitre'D Sudheer - our dining table assignment was messed up the first night and he really went out of his way to fix it and came by every night to ask how we were doing. Top notch!

Food: I know this is very subjective, but I am going to say it - I liked Carnival's Dining Room food better :) RCL's food was well prepared but we found the menus unimaginative at best, stodgy at worst. Also, we are big seafood fans and found little to no seafood in the regular dinner menu. There was lobster available for an upcharge. But on Carnival's regular menus, they have at least one shrimp/fish dish every night, and often more than one. Also they have Asian dishes, etc. Maybe RCL's menus are more varied on longer cruises? However, the Lido buffet was excellent, we actually liked it better than the dining room and it definitely beats Carnival's Lido.

Entertainment: I think RCL wins here. The two shows we attended - one was 70's themed - were nice and the acrobat show was fun. But in general, entertainment is not a focal point of the cruise. The one thing I would say is, that RCL should have more live music. We aren't crazy about sitting in the Piano Bar, but a couple of nights, it seemed like it was hard to find live music anywhere else. We liked the Latin band but they didn't play enough. Definitely seems to be an area they are cutting back on.

Guest Services: super efficient. I only had one question and there was never a wait. I do remember long waits at Carnival's Guest Services line.

Embarkation/Debarkation - super smooth and efficient. We had calm seas and great weather.

Shopping: They have nice shops on board. Avoid the sale times as its a zoo.

Crowd: very nice overall. Lots of kids which i'm fine with, as I have tons of nieces and nephews, but it may bother some.

Overall verdict - lots to like here, some disappointments. Overall, I loved the ship, she is so pretty, and the cabin and shows were nice. Food was OK, and it definitely seems like the staff are stretched too thin. We would definitely add RCL to the list of cruise lines we'd look at in the future. Our cruise had a good senior rate so we did get a very good deal, think it was cheaper than Carnival.

I have pictures, so if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll try posting some tomorrow.

Questions/thoughts/comments?

Thanks for a great and balanced review.

Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

very nice review, thank you.

Baby Bear

Thanks for the review and the comparisons to Carnival. We were on Vision 10 years ago and it was the nicest ship we had ever sailed. Ten years later with lots of RCCL experience it's really nice to hear that they have done a good job bringing her up to date.

We are sailing her again for a B2B in November when they move her to Tampa for the winter. We'd love to see the pictures.

Thanks everyone for the comments! I'll try and post some pics tonight. Yes, the ship is absolutely beautiful and that really made the cruise, despite some disappointments re: food and occasional hit and miss service. Would definitely recommend the Vision!

Great review! I would love seeing any pictures you care to post, especially MDR, your room, buffet, and onboard shops. We will be on her next September.

Thanks!

Thank you for your review. I would love to see pics of Vision.

I have sailed on Vision twice in 2000 and in 2002. Later, my daughter worked on Vision in the children's dept. She thought it was strange to work on a ship she had been a passenger on previously. One of her friends is currently on Oasis in the production dept., but she has lost track of the others.

Thanks so much for the review....we board Vision this Saturday and are looking forward to a wonderful vacation!!

Thank you for the review :)

OK, so here goes with posting some pics:

(btw, I haven't done this in a couple of years, so if you can't see them, let me know)

First off, this is the Vision parked at Fort Lauderdale:

Think it works, so let's do some more!

These are some pics of the atrium and lobby, which were gorgeous!

Some shots of the Masquerade Theater.

I loved the pictures on the curtains!

Very comfortable seating. I wish our Broadway theaters had similar seating! I was at a show yesterday, and thought my knees would fall off! They make airline seats look really good!

Views of the lobby at night with the dancing:

This is the Aquarius Dining Room at night...

...And by day!

Some shots of the lobby and atrium by day...

I loved the crystal chandeliers!

Here are some pics of the pool

One of the nicest areas on the ship - the Solarium

We had a JS on Deck 8, port side. Very nice and spacious

You can see the walk in closet on the left - very important when two women are traveling together!

Nice dressing table to get ready quickly

Very spacious sitting area

The balcony was very nice and deep. We asked for a lounger to be added and there was plenty of space.

They had something one night when these two ladies came down in the chandeliers. Little bit gimmicky, but still fun:

I loved the atrium all lit up at night!

Here are some pics of the Viking Crown Lounge. Great place to hang out and relax when the sun got too strong to sit outside by the pool!

And finally, they did a very nice event in the atrium the last night when all the crew's countries got a shout out. Think there were 50+ nationalities on board between passengers and crew, which made for a nice We are the World moment!

...And all the dining room staff including the head chef came out the last night to do a walk through!

Thanks for the report!

Thank you - I enjoyed reading your report.

I enjoyed your review.

Keith

Thank you for your great review. Anyone been in 8088 recently? Looking for to being on the ship in Sept.