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Vision of the Seas - Photo Review - 1/10/15 VOS


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01VisionTitleCard.jpg

A Vision of the Seas postcard and shot of it approaching the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa.

 

 

Hi everyone and welcome to our review. Mrs. Winks and I are just back from a 7-Day voyage on Vision of the Seas and are pleased to report it was a wonderful experience, overall. The ship’s amenities and crew’s professionalism exceeded our expectations – which came as a nice surprise especially in light of the browbeating this vessel has been taking here on the Cruise Critic forums lately.

 

02Vision.jpg

Re-boarding the Vision while docked in Costa Maya

 

 

The Vision is becoming one of those rare birds in the mega-line fleets: An older ship that combines unique and updated features - with a refreshing ability for passengers to navigate its decks quickly and efficiently without feeling crowded. With few exceptions, the crew members are passionate and willing to please. The ship’s artwork and overall décor are a wonderful surprise. Vision makes the most with what it’s got… even if "what it’s got" isn’t bumper cars, a Flowrider or Chicago playing in the theater.

 

Of course, there were a few hiccups along the way. But does any cruise ever really go flawlessly? I’m not even sure I would enjoy one of those, come to think of it. What doesn’t kill us - or get us thrown off the ship - makes us better cruisers, right? But any momentary lapses in service or expectations were quickly dashed by something else that went right.

 

03BadWeather.jpg

A cold and grey start to the cruise

 

 

Sadly, the most pronounced hiccup for this voyage was the decidedly cool and cloudy weather that failed to disembark in Tampa and accompanied us throughout the initial part of the sailing. This was the first time we’ve experienced that! But that’s something no one on the ship could do anything about anyway – other than once again, putting in the additional effort to make the cruise memorable despite that.

 

 

04Winks.jpg

The professional caliber of your cruise critics

 

 

I’m sure you’re all clamoring to hear about the other hiccups. And we’ll get to those. But first some perfunctory background is in order – just so you have a better sense of who we are and where we’re coming from.

 

This was our 9th cruise on Royal Caribbean. Our Crown and Anchor level is diamond. We’re pretty much loyal to Royal… though other cruise lines have tempted us away occasionally when their offers are decent and their embarkation dates are a fit. We have cruised on Princess five times and Celebrity once. We’re from NY. Travel as a couple (ie not with kids, family or friends). My wife is a sun freak who likes to bake on the beach.. to which I play a red lobster, enjoying the contemplative time in the shade - bathed in sunscreen - but always end up burning to a vibrant crisp anyway.

 

 

05PortShot.jpg

Ports of call... for some reason missing Cozumel

 

 

Our sailing dates for this cruise were Saturday, January 10th to Saturday, January 17th, 2015. The itinerary featured the Western Caribbean ports of Roatan, Belize City, Costa Maya and Cozumel. The ship made all stops and everything was pretty much on time.

 

On this trip we attended our first Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle, watched NFL Playoff games, went on the ship’s bridge tour, dined at Chops, won a free lunch at Giovanni’s Table, and chose My Time Dining for our main dining room nights. We bought the ship’s all-prints photo package, stayed onboard during a port day (just to see if we could do it) and we didn’t indulge in any of the drink packages. We brought on a bottle of wine and a bottle of champagne, found a bottle of bubbly waiting in our stateroom courtesy of our travel agent, and did most of our drinking in the beautiful Concierge Lounge or at ship bars using our Diamond card privileges.

 

06Stateroom.jpg

Suite life on the Vision

 

 

We stayed in stateroom 8016 which is a Grand Suite located towards the forward half of the ship, right below the passageway from the Windjammer to the main pool area. Yes, you do hear the occasional thump or wheeled cart noise from Windjammer activity, but it’s nothing crazy.

 

When we were researching this cruise, we were dismayed with how little had been written about the suites themselves or suite life on Vision in general, so there’ll be a more pronounced bias towards this in our coverage, but there should be enough info and laughs everyone can enjoy regardless of their experience or status on the high seas.

 

So that’s the Reader’s Digest version. What follows is a reasonably detailed trip report with lots of photos of both the ship amenities and the activities we undertook on shore. As well, we’ll post the Cruise Compasses and main dining room menus from each day - plus other assorted documents from the voyage.

 

Up next… a brief overview of our pre-cruise night in Tampa and our chilly embarkation.

Edited by WinksCruises
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We live about an hour and a half out of New York City, so we were up at 4:30am to load up the car and drive to the airport. This is always a lot of fun when it’s only a few degrees out! But it made us appreciate our ultimate destination all the more.

 

 

201Temps.jpg

What we left in NY

 

 

In the end our 7:30 am Jet Blue flight out of NYC on Friday ended up leaving just after 9am because of heavy snow. We had waited too long between de-icing and takeoff clearance, so we were delayed additionally as the aircraft got another bath of the goopy spray. For our troubles, they offered us free in-flight movies. The rest of the flight went fine, and even if this had been our cruising day, we would have made it on time. But in the Northeast in January, flying on embarkment day is like playing slots in the Casino Royale. Plenty of chances to lose! Later, when we caught up with Cruise Critic member, Canadian Tyler, we learned his flight from Buffalo had been totally cancelled, so they scrambled, successfully, to make another one. Lucky!

 

Of course, arriving in Tampa was not the paradise we’d been envisioning all week from our sub-freezing hovels in NY. The temperature was in the low 50s and it was windy. Quick baggage retrieval…. 25$ cab ride to Marriot Waterside Hotel which is located just a few miles from the port. Checked in just after noon. Spent the afternoon having lunch and a few beers in their Champions bar – instead of going to Riverwalk because it was so chilly. This ended up being a stupid move, since this area of Tampa has a lot to offer including a maritime museum and aquarium, which, in retrospect, we both regretted missing.

 

After our lunch we strolled along the Riverwalk up to a nearby Publix grocery store to pick up wine and toiletries. There was also a Walgreens within walking distance. On the way back, we grabbed dinner at a food truck serving ribs and mac & cheese. And then called it an early evening.

 

The Marriott itself is spacious. It’s a full service property, located on an active marina. It has a Starbucks, good sundry shop - where we stopped to pick up a couple of packs of M&Ms with the intent of passing along to crewmembers, a Waterside Grille, and the aforementioned sports bar. Again, we wished we hadn’t fallen victim to a combination of being up early, the cold weather, and the offerings of the pub - which were all made for lame excuses for not exploring the more colorful offerings of the area like the historic Ybor district.

 

 

202TampaMarriottWaterside.jpg

The Marriott we stayed in pre-cruise

 

 

We got up at 6:30am and went to the Riverwalk to see the Vision docking. It was 45 degrees! But fun to watch the ship come in, circle about and back into her mooring. And it was good to see she was on time… because we had heard horror stories of her arriving late, often times due to fog.

 

203VisionDocking.jpg

The Vision docking on Saturday morning - Jan 10

 

We had a breakfast buffet at the hotel’s Waterside Grille (ugh a buffet, what a way to start a cruise vacation, but it was a good one.) We then packed up, got our carry-ons in order and then went down to the lobby where we caught a 6$ cab ride from the Marriott to the pier.

 

More later… including embarkment, our first impressions of the ship and our chilly sailway.

 

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We are going on the Vision May 3rd, leaving from Barcelona on a 13-night European Cruise. First time to Europe and, we cannot wait, so, the photos of the Vision are a perfect preview.

 

We are also looking for a camera to to take great, quality photos of our trip, and, cannot help notice, that the camera you used, has provided such clear and crisp photos.

 

Would you mind telling us the make and model of your camera. I need to get myself the same camera for our cruise, since we are looking to purchase one.

 

Thanks

Dave

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We live about an hour and a half out of New York City, so we were up at 4:30am to load up the car and drive to the airport. This is always a lot of fun when it’s only a few degrees out! But it made us appreciate our ultimate destination all the more.

 

 

201Temps.jpg

What we left in NY

 

 

In the end our 7:30 am Jet Blue flight out of NYC on Friday ended up leaving just after 9am because of heavy snow. We had waited too long between de-icing and takeoff clearance, so we were delayed additionally as the aircraft got another bath of the goopy spray. For our troubles, they offered us free in-flight movies. The rest of the flight went fine, and even if this had been our cruising day, we would have made it on time. But in the Northeast in January, flying on embarkment day is like playing slots in the Casino Royale. Plenty of chances to lose! Later, when we caught up with Cruise Critic member, Canadian Tyler, we learned his flight from Buffalo had been totally cancelled, so they scrambled, successfully, to make another one. Lucky!

 

Of course, arriving in Tampa was not the paradise we’d been envisioning all week from our sub-freezing hovels in NY. The temperature was in the low 50s and it was windy. Quick baggage retrieval…. 25$ cab ride to Marriot Waterside Hotel which is located just a few miles from the port. Checked in just after noon. Spent the afternoon having lunch and a few beers in their Champions bar – instead of going to Riverwalk because it was so chilly. This ended up being a stupid move, since this area of Tampa has a lot to offer including a maritime museum and aquarium, which, in retrospect, we both regretted missing.

 

After our lunch we strolled along the Riverwalk up to a nearby Publix grocery store to pick up wine and toiletries. There was also a Walgreens within walking distance. On the way back, we grabbed dinner at a food truck serving ribs and mac & cheese. And then called it an early evening.

 

The Marriott itself is spacious. It’s a full service property, located on an active marina. It has a Starbucks, good sundry shop - where we stopped to pick up a couple of packs of M&Ms with the intent of passing along to crewmembers, a Waterside Grille, and the aforementioned sports bar. Again, we wished we hadn’t fallen victim to a combination of being up early, the cold weather, and the offerings of the pub - which were all made for lame excuses for not exploring the more colorful offerings of the area like the historic Ybor district.

 

 

202TampaMarriottWaterside.jpg

The Marriott we stayed in pre-cruise

 

 

We got up at 6:30am and went to the Riverwalk to see the Vision docking. It was 45 degrees! But fun to watch the ship come in, circle about and back into her mooring. And it was good to see she was on time… because we had heard horror stories of her arriving late, often times due to fog.

 

203VisionDocking.jpg

The Vision docking on Saturday morning - Jan 10

 

We had a breakfast buffet at the hotel’s Waterside Grille (ugh a buffet, what a way to start a cruise vacation, but it was a good one.) We then packed up, got our carry-ons in order and then went down to the lobby where we caught a 6$ cab ride from the Marriott to the pier.

 

More later… including embarkment, our first impressions of the ship and our chilly sailway.

 

 

Sounds like our weather and we always do the River Walk as well.

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