Vision ~ B2B ~ 5 Nights ~ July 21st & 26th: My Diary

[MADflyer]

Thanks for that info......very informative!

 

I am, of course, very happy to see your review. I have been privileged to sail 3 times in JS 8588 and was surprised to see that Ashton is still onboard in the same section.

 

I, as well, share your distaste for crowds and that location along with the easy Spa and Park Café access with the 'secret staircase' make Vision ideal for us.

 

That said, I had Liberty pass us just off that corner balcony in April and was inspired to book a quick sailing out of Barcelona in May. I was surprised to get the 'Welcome Home' from several crew members that remembered me from the Transatlantic the year prior on Liberty.

 

I look forward to the rest of your review.

Edited August 5, 2014 by MADflyer

[mommabean]

Thanks Jane, for doing this review. As I sit in a doctor's office for hours I'm sure, I have something way better than a magazine to read. Your reviews are the best. I better get started. :)

[Kik35]

Jane- Always enjoy your reviews. Beautiful balcony!! We sailed to Bermuda on the Vision in June and loved Bermuda, of course and loved the ship. Can't wait until you head to the beaches!!:cool:

[FLACRUISER99]

I am also sailing on the 9/1 Bermuda trip & really enjoying the preview.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[maxs mom]

Mad......isn't Ashton the best? We were so glad that we had him for both cruises!

 

Gina!! You're not on a cruise? How odd! I'm getting a haircut right now, but will be back to this shortly. It will consume the rest of my day

 

Kik.....great beach days this trip.....stay tuned!![/]

[Justmekaren918]

Next' date=' it was back to the cabin for some reading and relaxation time on our wonderful balcony! And here it is:[/size']

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, I can't wait to get my time in 8088! Such an awesome review!

[maxs mom]

OK.....so where was I?

 

So it's formal night tonight and off to the CL we go at the regular time. Hardly anyone there again. I'm sure people are taking advantage of the three drinks loaded on their cards and our Pinnacle friends were eating with the Captain tonight. So we just had a toast to ourselves!!

 

 

 

Salud!!

 

 

Love the view from up here:

 

 

 

And we love hanging out up here with Betsy!!

 

[maxs mom]

We had reservations at My Time Dining for 8:30, so we head down there just a little ahead of time. Well........the line for MTD was backed up almost to the elevator bank. It was complete chaos. What often happens on these formal nights.....is that inexperienced cruisers are busy getting their pictures made.....there is a show in the Centrum and they are careless about getting to their reservation on time. We've seen this time and time again on many of the ships. This backs everything up. We just looked at each other and said, "Screw this!" and instead of getting upset or mad about it.....we just went to the Windjammer for dinner.

 

No problem......we've cruised so much that this did not bother us. As a matter of fact.....it was VERY pleasant in the WJ.....no waiting for courses to be delivered, etc. The food was fine.....nothing to get excited about, but we found some very tasty items plus I got to make an awesome salad! There was hardly anyone here and Alex, the WJ Maitre'D, was so nice to us.

 

Formal night in the Windjammer:

 

 

I also got to have some yummy rice pudding for dessert! We were done with dinner well before 9 o'clock! We didn't know what to do with ourselves. So we went to the casino where I promptly lost (what else is new!) and John won.

 

We went ahead and turned in after that. This was waiting on us in our cabin. I think we turned the clocks back again this evening. Loved getting this extra sleep!

 

[maxs mom]

Wednesday ~ July 23, 2014 ~ Roatan, Honduras

 

Up early this morning. It was just a little rocky in the night. I went to CL this morning for my coffee and visited with Betsy for while. Great morning views form here:

 

 

Breakfast in the CL always looks good and is usually there by 7AM.

 

 

We didn't dock until 10 this morning, so we had plenty of time to enjoy our breakfast. Super Mario is on the Vision all summer and we finally ran into him this morning at breakfast. We sat at his table. We have met before and it was really good to see him again. It was a nice reunion! What a nice man! We were the only table in the D/D+ area once again. Great service!

 

After breakfast I ran down to Deck 2 to check out some beach towels. You have to do this here if you are taking towels off the ship. A little inconvenience, but not too bad and I can see why they do this.

 

We had plenty of time to get ourselves ready for the beach. We didn't clear until 10:20. I was excited to get to this port because it is one that we haven't been to before. It looked like a neat place:

 

 

 

As soon as Capt. Lis gave the all clear we headed down to Deck 1......actually we had to get off the elevator at Deck 2 and walk down. Lots of people, but things moved quickly.

 

We dock at one of the two piers here called Coxen Hole. Quaint little place, perhaps not quite as convenient as the other pier area called Mahogany Bay. Carnival was docked there.

 

 

[maxs mom]

Nice little port area:

 

Lots of souvenir shops and I think there was a Diamonds International there, but that's about it.

 

 

Since we hadn't been here before, I did a little research with Island Marketing and booked a beach excursion with them. We have had very good luck booking with them on Cozumel ad Costa Maya, so we thought we would give this a shot. We booked the Adventure Beach Excursion (or something like that.....I know the word "Adventure" was in there.) It was $38pp and included a welcome drink and all equipment for snorkeling and kayaking. Plus very safe transportation. That's important!

 

We had directions on where to meet our driver, but this particular gate was closed and under construction. But we figured it out and met our driver right outside the port area. Yikes......it was HOT here! We had to wait on 4 more people. They finally showed up and we were on our way. We had about a 30 minute drive to a place called Fantasy Island! (Ha!)

 

The driver was very nice and gave us a lot of history about the island on our drive out to the beach. We had to drive across a wooden bridge to get there:

 

 

This is an older resort, but very neat and clean.....AND not many people here at all!! My kind of place!! We got our welcome drinks (mainly just some sugar water) and made our way out to the very lovely beach area!

 

 

 

 

 

Oh look! Is that a lone palapa I see!? Oh.......I am a happy camper!!

[kayehall]

This would be my kind of place!!!

[vplsh]

Loving this review as much as your Spanish immersion one, Jane! Thanks so much!!!

 

We sail on Vision next July out of Barcelona and again next December from Tampa. We enjoy the smaller ships as well and are looking forward to it. The Diamond lounge looks great as well!

 

Thanks again. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[lancelady]

Thanks for your great review have sailed a number of times on the Vision and we like the size of this ship. Will be on 7 days in Nov.

[maxs mom]

Thanks, Lisa and lancelady! So nice to hear from others who enjoy these small ships! I just knew there were some of you out there! We love all the ships, but these are just special and the staff and crew make us feel so special and sometimes you just don't get that on the larger ships! Thanks for reading!

[maxs mom]

At Fantasy Island there is a nice pool area with a swim up bar, but it was closed for cleaning. All the water was out of the pool and they were scrubbing it down. That was OK, though, because the beach was so nice!

 

We found a super nice "Corona Commercial" type spot on the beach to hang out for the day....under a palapa.....and it was fabulous. Although it was extremely hot today.....there was a great breeze here and it was just so pleasant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

We were able to relax and read and just thoroughly enjoy this beach all day with no one around.

 

 

 

 

The water was so nice here. It was so blue and so CLEAN!! I just enjoyed laying down in the water. It felt great!!

 

 

It was shallow for a long way out and that made it easy to do some snorkeling just walking a long way out. We didn't snorkel today, but I will definitely do that next time.

 

 

The kayaking also looked like a lot of fun here.

 

[maxs mom]

Here is John doing some "Dufnering"! Those of you who are golfers know what that is!

 

 

They had a really nice buffet here that you could get for $20pp....but we didn't want to eat that much, so I just went to the bar and grill and ordered a hamburger, which we split. They had reasonably priced hamburgers, chicken fingers, club sandwiches, and salads.

 

This was the view that was directly behind us:

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at this property and will definitely return here the next time we are in Roatan. It has everything that we require in a great beach location.....beautiful beach, shade, food, and most of all....NO CROWDS!!!! Also they had free Wi-Fi in the lobby!!

 

I ran into this little guy running around near the buffet!

 

 

 

These were the very nice folks from Chicago that rode out here in the van with us. The older brother was a firefighter in Chicago and his little brother was a football player.....played for the Fighting Illini. We enjoyed talking to them in the van. They found a very private place on the beach to hang out as well.

 

 

Our driver came back for us at 3:30. We went up to the lobby around 3 o'clock to use the Wi-Fi. It worked well. We made all our friends jealous on Facebook!

 

 

What a great start to our beach days! I think this was the best one of the trip.....but the others were pretty incredible as well. You'll see!

 

 

Edited August 5, 2014 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

Our driver was there for us right on time and soon we were on our way back to the port. Since one of our passengers was a firefighter.....she stopped at the local fire station so we could make some pictures. The firefighters there welcomed him and they chatted for a little while. So cool!

 

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

We got back to the ship in plenty of time to exchange towels, have some ice cream, and rest up a little before dinner.

 

 

 

Very nice sail away from Roatan this evening.

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

More from sail away:

 

 

 

 

 

[rwright261]

Hi Jane,

 

I enjoy your reviews so much, thanks for taking the time to post them.

 

I said to my husband that I hope we are as happy as you and John appear to be when we're retired - and also still enjoying cruise holidays!

 

Thanks again, can't wait to read more.

 

Rachael

[wato1963]

Loving your review maxsmom,we are sailing on the vision next feb, and your review is making us so excited thank you

[jpodds]

These were the very nice folks from Chicago that rode out here in the van with us. The older brother was a firefighter in Chicago and his little brother was a football player.....played for the Fighting Illini. We enjoyed talking to them in the van. They found a very private place on the beach to hang out as well.

 

 

Gotta love those ILLINI! Love your review too! Great pictures. My wife and I are sailing on the Vision on Nov. 6th for her 9 day repositioning cruise. November can't come soon enough....

[maxs mom]

So we hit the CL for drinks again this evening and once again, everything was very quiet. Jannear, the Bar Manager, came in and talked with us for a very long time. We met Jannear in February and it was nice to see her again. We saw her around the ship quite a bit after this and she always stopped to talk to us and called us by name. Very friendly. It was "White Night" tonight. I dressed appropriately.

 

 

We tried the MDR again tonight and this time there was no line. But there were four women in front of us and they were causing some kind of drama. Not sure what their problem was but the hostess at the desk was doing her best to diffuse the situation.

 

We were seated soon. The table location was terrible, but we had a great waiter and asst. waiter. The table was kind of out in the middle o a walkway, so the whole evening there was very hectic. We would ask for a different location when we leave tonight.

 

 

We sat next to a delightful family from Florida and thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with them. The Dad was from Spain, the Mom was from Peru and they lived in Florida.

 

 

Our meal was excellent and the service was prompt. The hectic location put a slight damper on the dining experience this evening. I forgot what we had to eat, but I had the Orange Jaffe Cake for dessert.....one of my favorites.....and John usually gets the sugar free ice cream that is offered.