Tim,n,Sue

We're in 8543 which is in the middle too! I'm so glad I found these cabins! I actually book the Vision because of them. So glad I did and now know I'm going to be "WOWED". Thanks all of you for the info. Also, I printed the rules for the Slot Pull out, so thanks for posting them. How in the world am I going to make it until February?????

Here is my email. Send me a note and I will send you the Slot Pull score card Excel file and the picture of the Panoramic window.

mickey-mouse@rogers.com

Hi Tim,

 

Orlando says he sent Bill 5 or 6 emails with their chess games annotated with his observations and explanations, but he hasn't heard back. Please ask Bill if he got the emails. Orlando loved playing chess with him and with Yves. For him, it was the best part of the cruise.

 

Also, I wish I had given you my email while we were on Vision because I would like to keep in touch with you guys. Here it is: salsabarb at aol.com.

 

Hugs,

Barbara

I do not think that Bill has received the emails. Bill and Andrew came in for dinner tonight and we played cards and looked at pictures. I will pass your email on to Bill so he can contact you directly.

I'm wondering if I could just bring a hole punch myself?

We bring our own hole punch. Never had a problem.

Hello Vision Cruisers, both old and new!

 

Cruise Critic just published my review of our Vision TA in April. It is on the front page under "member reviews". It sounds a lot like Tim's review because we all thought it was wonderful!

 

We had one of the Panoramic View cabins and loved it. Our cabin, 7084, had the bed by the door and the sofa by the window seat. The one in front of us (forward) had the bed by the window. It was very spacious, and we could see everything. The window is not floor to ceiling, but definitely big enough go give you that WOW feeling when you enter the cabin.

 

Highly recommend these cabins and the Vision. It was our best cruise ever!

 

Barbara and Orlando

Barb, Bill and Andrew are driving down for lunch today. I am making my Chicken Havana dish, lots of garlic. Chess will be a topic for discussion.

I believe you have 60 days to x-fer a reservation to a TA. RCI has a form to x-fer the reservation to a TA. Your TA should know about this and, if not, the they can phone RCI to find out where it is on the website. Takes a few minutes to complete and about 48 to get the x-fer completed. Painless.

It would be great if you could post the rules for me.

 

You went in a PV cabin and loved it. Now I'm even more excited. This cruise is way too far away!!! Be sure and post the picture when you figure it out. Where is the bed located? Is the sofa by the window so you can sit and look out? I especially like to look out at the water and watch the waves at night - I think I could do that every night forever ! Thanks for your info, Anne

Will post the spreadsheet and picture shortly.

We went into two different Panoramic cabins. One has the bed by the window and it was nice. The other had the couch by the window and we preferred that BUT both rooms are really nice.

Thanks for the great review. My friend and I will be on Vision February 6, 2016. I was already excited about it as I booked one of the new panoramic staterooms on deck 8. After this review, I'm even more so!! I noticed you all had a Slot Pull. Can you give me some help setting one up - they sound like so much fun. Also looking forward to meeting Capt Liz - she sound great! And, Elvis, got to know him on Jewel - he's great too!! Wish I was going sooner. [emoji3]

Here are my rules for the slot pull. If you have any questions just use this thread to ask them. I also try to get a large number of key chains to hand out to the people who get $0.00 on their pulls. I call them the key chain of shame. The casino managers usually are very agreeable to this.

SLOT PULL RULES

We are going to have the slot pull IMMEDIATELY after the M&M.

Cost is $15.00 per person. I do not handle the money during the pull. Each person will feed their own money into the machine.

We usually use a $1.00 machine (Wheel of Fortune is the preferred machine) that has a max bet of $3.00 so everyone gets 5 pulls for their $15.00.

I have created a form to track and record the outcome of every pull. I will also total up each persons’ turn. I will write your name down when you arrive. Once the first person has made a pull the sign up will be shut off and no new people will be allowed to register or participate.

PLEASE NO SMOKING DURING THE SLOT PULL.

After each person has had their 5 pulls we will cash out the machine. Only paper money or casino coins bills will be paid out, no change. Any extra money will that cannot be divided equally amongst the total number of players will be given to the person who made the most money on their pulls. If there is a tie then the money will be divided equally between the people who made the most on their pulls.

I am going to try and get prizes from the ship. The prizes will be handed out in the following manner.

Prizes are based on the initial 5 pulls only. Highest total amounts won. If there is a tie then the person who got the most on any 1 spin will win. If there is still a tie then whoever won the highest amount on the earliest spin will win. If there is still a tie then we flip a coin. We will continue to hand out the prizes until there are none left to distribute. Good luck to all.

Tim and Sue,

 

I'm not at all surprised! I could have told you so, and maybe I did the last time I saw you. Captain Lis is wonderful, but so is Captain Marek. They make a great team.

 

I'm booked on VI in June and Oct and Marek will be there both times. I would prefer to have one trip with each of them, but couldn't work around some scheduling to do it.

 

However, I think it's time for Lis to move to another ship. I do not have any inside information, just a hunch.

 

Hope to run into you sometime this year!

Hey Beth, good to hear from you. Are you on the Harmony TA next year?

I have to admit that I was a little wary of the smaller ships but not after this cruise. I have one of the corner aft JS's booked for the next TA in April 2016.

Thanks for the great review. My friend and I will be on Vision February 6, 2016. I was already excited about it as I booked one of the new panoramic staterooms on deck 8. After this review, I'm even more so!! I noticed you all had a Slot Pull. Can you give me some help setting one up - they sound like so much fun. Also looking forward to meeting Capt Liz - she sound great! And, Elvis, got to know him on Jewel - he's great too!! Wish I was going sooner. [emoji3]

I can post the rules here for you.

As for the Panoramic cabins we visited one on the Vision during the Cabin Crawl. I went on the crawl specifically to look at the Panoramic cabin and it was excellent. You will not be disappointed. I have pictures of the panoramic cabins but have not been able to figure out how to post them on CC.

Hi Shofer, DW and I are on the balcony of our hotel in Barcelona waiting to also board the Vision tomorrow. We grew up in Dupage county, IL, she in Addison and I in Villa Park. Maybe we will see you onboard.

Enjoy your cruise on the Vision.

Nice review Tim, we really enjoyed it, cannot believe it's nearly 3 weeks since we got off! The whole crossing was fantastic, usually we never remember the Captain but she was fantastic with her daily announcements "GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING!".

Hello Rich. It was great to see you and Steve again. It was a great cruise on a really nice ship with a fantastic crew starting with Captain Liz. I hope to see you pop up on another roll call we are on. Take care and enjoy the around the Horn cruise next year. Cheers.

To rent or not is completely your choice but please do your due diligence before renting anything. Accident scams, gas station scams etc are prevalent throughout Mexico as well as many other places. Here is a link to a story that will give you some information on a worst case scenario.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/religion/enid-pastor-finds-god-in-mexican-jail-cell/article_48dd993a-2543-5c7a-9bec-12f8b10bb198.html

Again, spend a few moments to google Cozumel scams; it may help you make up your mind. At the very least it will give you some insight in what to look out for. Take care and have a great cruise.

We were at the very first showing of CATS on the Oasis westbound TA in November 2014. The scenery and costumes were outstanding and the actors talented BUT it moves far too slowly for us and was boring. I was resigned to being there for 2 1/2 hours as my wife loves the theatre but she asked if I wouldn't mind leaving at intermission. Didn't need to be asked twice. A large segment of the audience did not return after intermission.

Cats is a love it or hate it show and as long as it is done in its entirety you will see large numbers of people exiting at intermission. I felt badly for the cast but not badly enough to stay for the second half. RCI badly misjudged a large segment of its audience in choosing Cats.

Easier thing to do is open up the case. It takes up more room under the bed but it works.

Great idea!!

Was there a "Mr Denis" winning big on a poker machine almost every night?

I am not aware of this person.

Nice review Tim & Sue. Wish you would join us on the westbound!

 

PS Thanks again for all you did on the eastbound.

If I knew what I know now I would love to be on the westbound but we are doing the Serenade 14 day Snowbird cruise with a lot of family and friends. I hope to see you and Tom again in the near future perhaps April 2016 on the Vision. Food for thought.....

Thanks for the mini review. We will be on the Westbound. Sailed last November from Tampa with Cpt Liz, will miss her this year.

 

Could you tell me who led the choir please?

We recently did a Panama Canal transit on Princess and I sang in that choir. Although I enjoyed it, the staff member in charge was a dance teacher, not musician or singer, and it made for difficult rehearsals.

Hopefully Barbara (relaxatsea) will come back and answer that. I believe that it was a singer who led the choir and it was very good. They sang one night before the 2 shows. The first song was The Lion Sleeps tonight and the second song escapes me. I know Barbara enjoyed herself.

Love the concierge MJ and Diamond Concierge V. I don't know which band you had but the one I had in March was superior.

Jerry was probably the casino host you are talking about. He is also wonderful.

The crew makes this one on my favorite ships.

 

 

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The name of the Casino Manager was Wayne Riley. The casino host was brand new and did not understand what a slot pull entailed so Wayne stepped in to help him out. Got my $15.00 back plus a dinner at Chops. Not too shabby.

Thanks for the great review. We will be on her June 9. Was Captain Liz staying on?

Yes she was staying on. her rotation started March 21 and if the rotation lasts 10 weeks she should be on vacation around the end of the first week in June. That is just a rough guess-timate. I hope we have both Captain Liz and Steve Davis for next years TA. If not it will still be a great cruise.

BTW I should mention that the Vision guest choir was the highlight of our cruise. Sorry I missed that in my initial post Barbara. Please give our best to Orlando.

We recently took the eastbound trans-Atlantic on the Vision and if this wasn’t our best cruise ever I would be very hard pressed to come up with one better. We have been diamond plus for about 3 years now and I only put that in to show that we have been on more than a few cruises. What made this cruise so special?

Normally the Captain and Cruise Director are of little to no importance for us but on the Vision that changed. Captain Liz was everywhere and she was incredibly outgoing and friendly. She attended so many activities with her entire leadership team that we had never seen before. When the leadership team is so visible, outgoing and involved it percolates down to the entire staff and on the Vision it showed. The entire crew and staff were excellent and we cannot say enough positive nice things about them. The last we saw of Captain Liz was on disembarkation day as she was at the gangway saying farewell to the disembarking guests.

The CD Steve Davis is a man possessed. He must not sleep and he, too, is everywhere. He had so many activities planned (talent shows, birthday party for the Vison, crew shows etc etc) that the eight days at sea just flew by in no time. Even though this was his last cruise before his vacation he, too, was at the gangway wishing farewell to the guests. And a first for us in a long, long time Steve hosted the M&M. It was an excellent M&M, one of the best we have had in years.

The food was very good and we did not have a bad meal. The nightly entertainment was, for the most part, not what we enjoy but that is not to say that it wasn’t good, just not for us. Many people had very positive comments about the entertainment.

I ran a slot pull and the Casino Manager was present for the entire pull. As first prize he gave a dinner for 2 at Chops with an excellent bottle of wine. For organizing the slot pull he gave me dinner for 2 at Chops as well. I have run a number of slot pulls and that was a first. BTW. We put in $15.00 and got $15.00 back.

Sue and I generally like the bigger ships and I was a little worried about the size of the Vision being too small for us BUT the Vision, although 17 years old, looked great and we loved the theatre love seats for the few shows we did attend. We had such a good time we signed up for the same cruise on the Vision in April 2016.

Can’t wait until next April but we have some other cruises to start planning for as well.

Just looked on the RCI website and it clearly shows up on Deck 5 in the Deck Plans, between Cupcake Cupboard & Guest Services.

 

It even shows up there as well on Allure's Deck Plan for the future layout from 05-Jun-2016 to 23-Apr-2017.

Yes the Café Promenade is labelled on the deck plans for the Allure and the Oasis but it is not labelled as such on the Harmony deck plans which prompted my question for the Harmony. I would guess that they just missed typing in the label but ....

Noticed that website deck plans do not have a Café Promenade where the café should is on both the Allure and Oasis. Is this a typo or is RCI planning something NEW for the café area?

Thanks for confirming the info for us straight from the CD himself.

Normally we don't really care about CD's BUT Steve Davis was fantastic. Head and shoulders above all the other CD's we have had. The man cannot sleep as he is everywhere. He and Captain Liz made the cruise one of the best, if not the best, cruise we ever had.

We learned early on to print off copies of everything and take them with us. I also keep a hardcopy of all documents and payments, including out Set Sail account for at least 6 months. Have had a few occasions where it has saved us.

The RCI IT dept couldn't organize a one man parade. Pathetic.