Vision of the Seas~B2B~Spanish Immersion~Feb. 8th & 15th~My Diary

[maxs mom]

I'm really enjoying your review. And retirement does seem to agree with you - I think you look younger than you did on your last cruise!:D

 

Oh.....you are too kind! Glad you are enjoying it!

[maxs mom]

Jane,

You are posting too fast, I want to savor this. :D Looks like the two of you had a fantastic time. Thank you for posting all your pictures and reporting on what looks to have been a fabulous cruise.

 

We are taking the cue from you for beach days in January when we embark on Oasis for a western cruise. Nothing but beach, beach and beach for Labadee, Falmouth and Cozumel. :)

 

Hey Bill! Don't worry ......there's plenty more to come!

 

And beach days are the best. That's all we ever do any more......except for that snorkeling trip that kicked our butts! We are totally out of the touring business!! Only the beach for me!!

[maxs mom]

Jane , enjoying the review so far , look forward to reading the remainder , Bryce x

 

Hey There Cruise Buddy!! You certainly have a lot of cruises booked! Good for you. We're all about last minute these days!! Hope all is well across the pond!

[maxs mom]

Thanks for taking the time to write another great review. So happy to see you enjoying your retirement!

 

Hey!! Another cruise buddy heard from!! And you are cruising .....like real soon!!! Yes.....retirementland is wonderful!!! Bon Voyage!

[maxs mom]

Loved your review Jane. I am now considering altering our beach in Aruba. Our current plans were to take the kids to Eagle's Beach, but the beach you went to seems so nice. Since you've been to both -- which do you think 3 teenagers would like more?

 

Hmmm! Don't know much about teenagers. Actually.....they would probably like Palm Beach best. Lots of activity there and other teenagers......that's why we avoid it!! Nikky Beach is small and relatively quiet. Eagle Beach is pretty quiet, too, but a lot longer. I don't know if that helps or not.

[maxs mom]

Jane I am loving your review!! Thanks for taking the time to write it and for posting your awesome pictures! Looking forward to more! :)

 

And yet another cruise buddy stops by!! So enjoyed your reports from your recent Legend cruise. I so love these smaller ships. I see you're cruising on the Explorer again.

[maxs mom]

I am so enjoying your review, I have read quite a few of them. I believe you also know our dear friends Lisa and Guy from Tucson. We will be having dinner with them on Saturday. I told Lisa today that you had a new review of the Vision, she said you usually send her a copy. Looking forward to the rest of your review. :D

 

Hey!! Nice to hear from friends of Lisa and Guy!! I was waiting until I was almost finished before I send this out to them, so if you see her or talk to her.....tell her it will be on the way soon! Thanks for saying hello!

[maxs mom]

Beryl.....I see your elevator question was answered. Thank you...Piepkorn!! I hope the elevator doesn't give you problems when you are on the Vision. That walk from 10 to 11 is not a real easy one either. Good luck with that.

[SherriZ366]

Hey Sherri! You will love the ABC islands.......we loved visiting them two weeks in a row!

I know we will. We were in Curacao on a land trip in 1975 or 76. I'm really enjoying your review and making a few notes.

[SherriZ366]

All aboard was at 3:30 and sail away was at 4. Don't miss this sail away.....it is beautiful!! Here are some shots from the sail away:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm so glad you got such great shots of the sailaway. We saw ships sailing away from the land but this is totally different. Also in the 70's the ships were so much smaller that they all docked inside.

 

A lot of the buildings look the same as they did in the 1970's.

Edited March 5, 2014 by SherriZ366

[SherriZ366]

With the Vision moving to Tampa, it is another option for us. About a 6 hour drive.

[britty1]

Hey!! Nice to hear from friends of Lisa and Guy!! I was waiting until I was almost finished before I send this out to them' date=' so if you see her or talk to her.....tell her it will be on the way soon! Thanks for saying hello![/size']

 

That is exactly what she told me, she would get your review when it was finished. I will tell her that your review will be on it's way, however I will see it as you go, great review. thank you for sharing. :D

[kayehall]

With the Vision moving to Tampa, it is another option for us. About a 6 hour drive.

 

I'll be onboard bringing her over to TPA!!! Can't wait. And seeing the pics in this review have made all the more exciting!!

[spinnychick]

Thanks for sharing the great review. We are on Vision in November and seeing all the pics is helping to build the excitement for sure.

[maxs mom]

OK.....Back to that last sea day.......

 

The weather was so nice today. I took a walk along the promenade on Deck 5. There was no wind at all. Got a few pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

We had lunch in the Windjammer and then some quality rest and relaxation in the cabin and on the balcony this afternoon.

 

 

The CL was once again empty this evening. Julie and Joel came in to say goodbye. They ate at 6:30 and said that it took forever in the MDR this evening.

 

 

Oh.....one thing I forgot to tell you about this Concierge Lounge. You can order any kind of drink you want and it appears. Frozen drinks, special drinks....anything. So tonight I ordered my cruise favorite.....a frozen mojito.

 

 

 

Carolina would be working somewhere else next week, so we said good-bye to her. She was just delightful.

 

[maxs mom]

So this was Valentine's Day and we decided to eat at Giovanni's Table this evening. Big mistake!! The place was packed. Everybody else had the same idea AND they were seating people that did not have reservations. Large parties. They were just not staffed to handle all of this. The service was very slow. I got the scallops, a Caesar salad, and the shrimp entrée. It was good, but someone was very heavy handed with the garlic on everything. But the service was just soooooo slow that it just wasn't an enjoyable experience. All these large parties wanted separate checks.....it was just a nightmare. They kept coming around and apologizing. My bad for booking on Valentine's Day!! We had two different desserts. This was John's:

 

 

And this was mine: (Tiramisu)

 

 

I've not ever been impressed with the desserts in GT. They are just good......not WOW!

 

We ordered coffee, but there was so much upsell here that it must have been some special kind of coffee because we were charged for it!! I really don't like when that happens. Anyway ......we finally finished our meal.

 

 

We avoided the casino tonight and headed straight for bed!!

 

Look what we found in our hallway!! And none of these were ours!!!!! :D Ha Ha!!

 

[JimAOk1945]

OK.....Back to that last sea day.......

 

The weather was so nice today. I took a walk along the promenade on Deck 5.

 

Great pictures! Question: Does the exterior promenade encircle the entire deck?

Edited March 5, 2014 by JimAOk1945

[Sugar*Magnolia]

And yet another cruise buddy stops by!! So enjoyed your reports from your recent Legend cruise. I so love these smaller ships. I see you're cruising on the Explorer again.

 

I'm back for more awesome reading of your review! I'm glad you enjoyed my Legend posts' date=' its nice to hear! Yes, we switched from Celebrity Summit to Explorer. We turn D+ on this cruise and it will be our last hurrah before she leaves us as her Home Port...I'll miss our yearly on Summit but very excited to become D+ on the ship we have the most nights on![/font']

[maxs mom]

Great pictures! Question: Does the exterior promenade encircle the entire deck?

 

Yes....I believe it does. There were areas blocked off on this day so I didn't walk all the way around. I love walking here when it's not windy.

[maxs mom]

I'm back for more awesome reading of your review! I'm glad you enjoyed my Legend posts, its nice to hear! Yes, we switched from Celebrity Summit to Explorer. We turn D+ on this cruise and it will be our last hurrah before she leaves us as her Home Port...I'll miss our yearly on Summit but very excited to become D+ on the ship we have the most nights on!

 

Congratulations on turning Diamond Plus. I think you made the right decision to do that on the Explorer. We really enjoyed our last Explorer cruise. I hope we can squeeze one more in on her before she leaves Bayonne.

[maxs mom]

Saturday ~ Feb. 15, 2014 ~ Colon ~ Turn Around Day

 

We had a nice smooth ride back to Colon. We docked VERY early this morning and they really got everybody off the ship in record time!!

 

We got up early this morning and went to breakfast......they even have the special breakfast area open on this day! Yay!! They were running out of butter at this point and had to slice some butter off a big block for our breakfast this morning.

 

 

When we were going back to our cabin after breakfast we just happened to see Julie and Joel rushing back to their cabin after breakfast and they gave us a good-bye wave. It was very nice hanging out with them this week.

 

 

There were about 13-14 guests staying on board for the next week and we were to meet in the R Bar at 9:00 so we could get our new sea pass cards. This was done in a very timely manner (handled by Luis at Guest Services). All we had to do was go down to Deck 1 and punch out with the old card and punch in with the new one. Quick and easy. We were done with that by 9:30. Usually on a Back 2 Back.....there is a special lunch on board this day....but evidently, on this ship...they don't do that for less than 15 people. Here we are waiting for our new Sea Pass cards.

 

 

We had to change cabins today. We booked so late that we were not able to get the same cabin for both legs, but this was a fairly painless process. Our new cabin steward, Cheryl, actually had our cabin ready for us BEFORE we woke up!!!! And we were up early! We were able to get totally moved before 9:00, so when we came back on board with our new sea pass cards we were able to get unpacked in our new cabin.....8568. Our old cabin steward, Ashton, moved all our hang up clothes and we rolled our suitcases down.

 

Here is our new and fabulous cabin steward, Cheryl. What a sweetheart!!

 

 

This cabin looked exactly like the other cabin, so I won't post a picture.

[MADflyer]

I really enjoyed that they had full breakfast in the special area on deck 5 on disembarkation day. Angelito surprised me by having eggs benedict ready for me that morning. Really fantastic service.

 

When we arrived to Colon in November, they did not open for breakfast until 7 am and then had our Shorex meeting time for the transfer and tour at 7:20.

 

Did they start opening this again at the usual 6 AM for disembarkation day or leave it at 7am?

 

I realize this might not have affected you on the B2B.

[smeck]

The best part of a Back to back is a back to back review, unless of course your onboard.

[maxs mom]

After we got all settled in our new cabin, we headed for the Solarium and had it to ourselves until the new crowd got on.

 

 

 

 

We had lunch there at the Park Café followed by a visit to the ice cream machine!!

 

 

After lunch we went back to our cabin via the secret staircase. There we rested for most of the afternoon.

 

 

I took a brief walk around to see the newcomers getting on. I noticed the Equinox also docked in Colon. Must have been a port stop for the day....not sure.