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Vision review- 2/14/15


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Our trip-

Vision Feb 14-21.

We had to interior connecting cabins. Rooms 4061 and 4063…..just down the hall from the Centrum. I was nervous of the noise ahead of time, but it never was a problem.

 

 

We left from upstate NY when it was -6 with 6 inches of new snow. We were SO ready for warm weather. No problem with our direct flight. We stayed at Sheraton Suites Tampa Airport (Westgate, possibly). It’s a hotel we would not stay at again. Problems with maintenance made our stay less than pleasurable. We were so ready to get out of there, we called for a taxi around 9:30. We were at the port and checked in by 10:30. We are Platinum and I think we were on board by 10:45.

 

 

 

 

 

Our first views of the boat:

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This is the waiting area after checkin.

 

 

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The first picture I texted to a friend was me on deck 11 with a soda cup at 11:02am. Before we could have done that we had to have gotten the kids checked in to Adventure Ocean (muster station bands) and bought soda plans. I was pretty happy with the time frame.

 

On board and in the sun, chilly for Tampa, warm for us.

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We took pics of watching them load the beer.

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Other pics from boat.

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My traveling group included DH, DS 10, DD 8, DF, and myself. Also on board was someone I worked with...we discovered last school year that we would be on the same sailing.

 

At dinner, we were seated with another family that lives in the same town we do and their kids went to a different elementary school than ours. (We have 4 elem schools). Small world.

 

During dinner, DH left to get these pics as we sailed.

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Day 2

 

Because of how horrible we slept at the hotel the night before, we were in bed pretty early on day 1. DS and I were up darn early so we headed up to walk on deck by 6:15am. DS is a soccer nut and having a week off from practice was going to be hard. We soon realized that running on deck was not going to be a great idea (wet deck), so the treadmills it was. They were full by 6:45. Leisurely breakfast where the child tried to see how many pastries and bacon he could eat in one sitting.

 

 

 

Empty pool:

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Sunrise:

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Us hardy northerners miss the sunshine and the kids were in the pool by 8:30.

 

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No problem with deck chairs that day. Our Meet and Mingle was at 11am (not the best time for sun lovers). Not much happened this day but the pool and the cool little RC cooler for $30 with 5 Angry Orchards in it for me. (I did not drink them all that day). Our cabin steward kept ice in my bag until they were gone. Refills were $25.

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Kids went on the rock wall. They do the one at our local YMCA, but this was better because there was sun involved.

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Big screen at the pool deck. They show an endless loop of a Canadian based “Hidden Camera”type show. But it did switch over to this and DS was so excited.

 

 

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The day we boarded was Valentine's Day. They had some decorations up in the Centrum. They also did a few decorations for Fat Tuesday.

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Sunrise and treadmills again.

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Luckily, this would end by day 4.

 

Day 3 was Roatan. My DH went diving through a ship excursion was was happy with it. The other 4 booked with Victor Bodden. We did a private tour and added on the ziplining (kids and I), along with the monkeys.

 

Here is one on the guys we saw. He did sit on our heads and shoulders and he loved sunflower seeds. He would even check your pockets to see if you were hiding any.

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Escapee:

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DD chatting with the escapee:

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It was pretty easy to find our driver. Victor Bodden emails pretty clear directions on how to find his drivers. In all of my trips so far, this was my first time to Roatan and I had been looking forward to it.

 

pilot boat:

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I made it!

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pic from on top of the hill near the airport:

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Our driver was kind and very informative. We asked a TON of questions.

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More pictures on the monkey part of the excursion

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This is a lemur. There were 2 and we were able to pet this one.

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For this bird, we were able to go in and interact with, but the kids were not fans of the bird's claws.

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Love this pic

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Now, on to the part I was unhappy with. Ziplining. I'm not a fan of heights but I did it anyways. My issue came when I got hurt on one of the platforms. I could not do the 'run and jump off' that my kids were doing, instead I lifted my legs and let gravity win. Well...gravity won. I am not petite, nor am I obese. But when I picked up feet, bending my knees, my knees slammed into the platform. 50 cent piece abrasion on my left knee. Which bled, a lot. But because I was with my kids, I did not make a big deal about it because I did not want them to be worried about me. And all my 1st aid stuff was in the camera bag down on land. So, I dripped blood for 8 or 9 platforms. Yup..not a good thing. We had our guide and a photographer with the 3 of us...I'm guessing the photographer could of gone to get a napkin or something. But, no, that did not happen.

 

 

Pics from the photographer. Some came out good, some not so much. The price was $20. I paid it without seeing all the pics because I just wanted to get out of there after getting hurt. Eventually, I was able to get peroxide and a bandaid.

 

oops, this was from my camera I brought.

 

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now...his pics

first platform. None of them had railings.

 

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bummed by some of the quality

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But, he got this. I did not try this!

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Hi, great review, we are sailing on her in April. We are driving over early from Orlando on the morning of the cruise, how far is the port from the city, can you embark and then go back ashore and sightsee?

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So, the initial walk up was not bad. I think there were 12 platforms, but I could be wrong. The lack of railing caused me to hug the trees on occasion when landing on one side and having to move to another side. One other piece of advice, keep your legs up high when coming in.

 

My daughter did not have enough weight (65 pounds) and twice she did not make it to the platform and the guide had to go 'get' her. She stopped about 10-15 feet from the platform and he went out and pulled her in.

 

tandem

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I remember hugging this tree

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another fuzzy one

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After we left the zipline/monkey spot, we had lunch at some small roadside restaurant the driver suggested. The choices were fish or shrimp, broiled or fried. Great lunch. He stopped at the Cameo Factory before heading back to the ship.

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Hi, great review, we are sailing on her in April. We are driving over early from Orlando on the morning of the cruise, how far is the port from the city, can you embark and then go back ashore and sightsee?

 

We did all of our transportation by taxi/shuttle, but got stuck in traffic each time. Airport to hotel, hotel to pier, pier to airport- so accurate times I do not know.

 

There was a small shopping area that was at the port, but it wasn't much. The Tampa Aquarium is next to the port but I would guess you would need at least 2-3 hours to see it.

 

Sail away was 3pm, so I am not sure I would chance it. I don't know if you could exit the ship after you got on. But I guess you could give your luggage to the porters, then walk around a bit, then get on board if you don't have a ton of carry on stuff.

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Enjoyed following all your pics! I cruised the Oasis the same week you cruised the Vision. It did start out pretty cool out, but with the sunshine for this Western New York (Buffalo) resident, it was heaven!! You must try the Oasis---so much to do onboard for kids! We traveled with 2 adult sons and their families, and had a ball! My favorite spot was Central Park.

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This is what one of the rooms with 1 bunk down looked like.

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Day 3 may of been the day that the Chop's Surf and Turf was 50% off in the MDR. (or day 4) The other family ordered it and it was a pretty good sized full lobster and filet that was delivered about 10 minutes after their regular dinner selections were delivered to the table.

 

Next up: Belize and cave tubing

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last day we did this:

 

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While I was taking pictures, DH was in line at 6:45 to get tender tickets and we were on the first tender. I don't recall what time we got off the ship, but here are some pics from when we were in our tender.

 

Another tender waiting:

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The boat's back end. Notice how high up the rock wall is.

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We booked our cave tubing with cavetubing.bz and were very happy with everything! Their employees were easy to spot and we were directed to an area on the breakwall to wait for others to get off the tenders. This is a view of the ship (can you see it) from where we were waiting.

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Once we got to the cave tubing place (the drive was about 45 minutes, not including the time we had to wait for another family to meet up with our bus), I was ready to go. We did have to drop off some people for their ziplining adventure. I assured my kids we would NOT be doing that again.

 

Changing rooms/restrooms:

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Members of our group getting life jackets and helmets.

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The tubes:

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We did a ship excursion on Carnival in Belize before kids and we had to carry our own tubes. Gasp! Not this time. At the end of our leisurely trek though the woods, our tubes were waiting for us! I didn't think to bring the bug spray as we were going to be in the water, but I forgot all about the walk to the caves. Each kid ended up with 2 bites, but neither one of us adults did. (My df did not do this excursion with us)

Edited by sara mom
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We went through 2 caves. This is where you enter the water.

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A note about the tubes...some had the hole in the middle and some were solid in the middle. That made me happy! The kids were given kid sized ones.

 

Yes, there were fish in the water.

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Entrance into 1st cave.

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Great photos. Thanks for sharing. Looks like you had a great trip...well, despite the zipline incident with your knee. Ouch. Are the kids supposed to hang upside down on it. Hmm...giving me second thoughts trying it on our ship :D

 

Never heard of cave tubing before. Looks like fun and quite an adventure.

 

How did your little one like the Pullman? They're so smart for extra beds without taking up room.

Edited by LuCruise
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