Vision of the Seas Review - Dec. 27 - Jan. 3

[Sles23]

Hey Everyone,

 

Just off the Vision of the Seas and thought I'd give a daily review of it. We stayed on deck 7 in a balcony room and late dinner seating. Itinerary was as follows: Tampa, At Sea, Roatan, Belize City, Cozumel, Costa Maya, At Sea, Tampa.

 

Embarkation: We arrived at the Tampa terminal around 9:45am and while there were still quite a few people whom had just gotten off the ship waiting for rides, we had a porter come right up to our taxi and took the bags we were checking. We walked in to the terminal and had to wait about 10 minutes for them to be ready to check us in. We started the check in process around 10:10 and were done 10 minutes after that. We then had to wait about a half hour before they started boarding the ship but by 11am we were on board the Vision.

 

We walked around most of the ship and found it to be very clean and beautiful. It is a smaller ship but everything was easy to get to and hard to get lost on the ship. After eating lunch in the WJ, rooms were available around 1:15. We were on deck 7 in a balcony room and the room was made up correctly and was very clean. I use a CPAP machine and our room attendant was able to get me an extension cord and distilled water right away. We didn't start to receive any of our bags until about 4:30 which was after we sailed away. 2 of our bags never showed up and it turned out they were held by security to be checked (turns out they hold bags that have little bottles of water in it). No one told us this and we had to find out by ourselves around 7:00pm. This was about the only thing that went wrong for the week on board.

 

We went to the welcome aboard show (only one show for all guests) which was the comedian Al Ducharme and then had dinner in the MDR. Our waiter had a tendency of putting all appetizers, soup and salad on the table all at one time which we did not like. We asked him to serve one meal at a time and he did that the rest of the week. They also had an aerial show in the Centrum at 945.

 

Day 2 - At Sea: Went to the pool early to get a seat and had breakfast and lunch in the WJ. Weather was great so mainly sat by the pool all day watching football on the big screen. Ship had activities going on but my wife and I mainly sat by the pool all day. This was the first of two formal nights and was also the first of two production shows. The show was titles "Broadway Rhythm and Rhyme." Did not enjoy the music selection of the show but singers and dancers were good. Show was at 10:15 for second seating guests.

 

Day 3 - Roatan: Went on an excursion to Gumbalimba Preservation Park. This was a lot of fun. Took pictures of birds and monkeys sitting on our shoulders. Great tour for all ages as long as you like animals. Saw many lizards as well. Show this night was The Drifters. They are past their prime but still a fun show. Was a 6:30 show for second seating guests. Al Ducharme then performed late night adult comedy at 11:15. We didn't like the menu in the MDR so we ate at Izumi that night. We both had the hot rocks and enjoyed the meal. Was nice and relaxing but took about 2 hours for dinner which we didn't mind.

 

Day 4 - Belize: Went on the Lamanai and New River Safari Excursion. Found this to be a waist of money. The Lamanai ruins were great to see; however, it took an hour bus ride to get to the boat for the River Safari. Then the boat ride took an hour to get to the ruins. Didn't see much on the River Safari either. Then after walking the ruins, had another hour boat ride back to the bus and then an hour bus ride back to the ship. This was a long tour and spent most of the time on the bus or boat. I don't recommend this tour; especially given the cost of it. There was no true show this night except for the VOS Orchestra. They also did the Love & Marriage show at 10:15 for all guests. My wife and I ate at Chops and loved it. The bacon appetizer was to die for as was the Cream of Mushroom soup. Well worth the money.

 

Day 5 - Cozumel: This was New Year Eve. Didn't book an excursion as we have been to Cozumel many times. We got off the ship and walked around and walked the main strip. We docked in the main downtown dock instead of the normal RC dock as there were two RC ships in that day. There were 6 total cruise ships in Cozumel that day but walking around downtown was not bad. We did a little shopping and then went back aboard the ship. This was the second formal night and was also lobster night in the MDR. The lobster was served with shrimp but I can't eat shrimp. I asked my waiter for extra lobster and no shrimp and he gave me 6 half lobster tails instead of the 2 that came on the original order. They did not limit me at all and I could have had more if I had wanted. The show this night was the Las Vegas Tenors. Second seating guests had the early show at 6:30. It was a good show and they were fun to watch. The ship had 4 parties going to ring in the New Years. They had a balloon drop in the Centrum but they ended up dropping the balloons about 30 seconds too early. I was at the Poolside Party but could see in to the Centrum so was nice to see both parties going.

 

Day 6 - Costa Maya: Not much to this town, yet still beautiful. We took a shuttle for $3 per person to the main public beach. Workers were there to help us get chairs to lay on and they would get us drinks as well. Water at the beach was great. Did a little shopping there as well and then took a cab for $2 per person back to the ship. They had their second production show this night titled "Boogie Wonderland." I enjoyed this much more than the first production show. Again though, second seating guests had the early show time at 6:30. They also did the quest Adult Game Show at 10pm and this was fun as always.

 

Day 7 - At Sea: Laid around the pool again since the weather was great. Watched Football on the big screen by the pool. They had Bingo in the afternoon and many dance classes and trivia going on around the ship as well. We packed our bags and had them out by 11pm this night. Went to the show, which was comedian Dave Burleigh, before dinner and then ate in the MDR.

 

Day 8 - Debarkation: We were group 4 and they were running about 20-30 min late in getting groups off but was not a big deal for us since we were staying in Tampa for the night. Once we got off, we found a porter right away to help with our bags. We found our bags fairly easily and waited in short line for Customs. I believe from the time we walked off the ship to getting in a cab, it took no longer than 25 minutes. It was extremely easy for us and had no problems.

 

Overall, we both loved this cruise. We have been on many cruises, large and small ships, but we both had a relaxing and great time. We loved the size of the ship and enjoyed the itinerary. The cruise Director, Steve Davis, was not as great of a director as others we have had in the past. However, he did not take away from our great experience.

 

We would recommend this ship to anyone and outside of a few hiccups, we didn't have many bad experiences.

 

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions.

 

Shaun

[TexCruise371]

Thanks for the review! We sail on Vision on Feb 21st! :D

Edited January 6, 2015 by TexCruise371

[KruzMor]

Thank you for the review, Shaun.

 

Can you could help us out here? We're sailing later this month on the Vision and have heard the ship stays on Eastern Standard Time and does not switch to port time. Was that your experience? Thank you.

[kftw]

Thanks for the review. Looking forward to our time on the Vision.

[Sles23]

Thank you for the review, Shaun.

 

Can you could help us out here? We're sailing later this month on the Vision and have heard the ship stays on Eastern Standard Time and does not switch to port time. Was that your experience? Thank you.

 

 

 

During the first sea day, we switched from Central Standard Time and stayed on CST until the night we left Costa Maya. We then switched back to EST heading back to Tampa.

[KruzMor]

Again, thanks for the great review. We have only cruised Royal once so this helps out with the activities on board. And thanks for the info about the time.

[jelliot4]

Great review. We were on the same trip as the author, let me add some additional perspective. First of all we concur in that we had a great trip with very little issue and almost none of the negative experiences many posted late last year.

My party of 4 arrived at the port at 10:40 via Parking Doctors shuttle, with rapid porter assistance. We were checked in with no wait at all, got our pictures taken and were on board at 11am. No lounge time.

We did my time seating, and missed the show, but did see the Vision just fit by 9 ft under the Sunshine Skyway bridge. This was kind of cool if you are easily amused by such things.

 

The Sushi demonstration includes free Izumi samples, a nice bonus on the first sea day.

 

The production shows were well done, even though Boogie Wonderland was a bit too Disco for this aging Rock and Roller, We did enjoy the Las Vegas Tenors Headliner show, expecting to be lulled to sleep, and finding ourselves singing along with three very dynamic Tenors singing Rock and roll, to Classic Italian opera. Quite good!

 

Roatan for us was Fun and Sun with Victor Bodden, this was a well done Island tour, visit with the Monkeys and Toucans at the Victor Bodden office, and a beach day at Banana Rama beach resort. Great value at $30

 

in Belize we did the Cave Tubing and zip lining with cavetubing.bz. It went very smoothly despite early morning rain during the bus ride. Personally find it amusing the RCCL shore excursion makes you carry your tube to the river, 30 min walk, while our tour they delivered them to the river for us. The zip was 7 platforms and a real good time. For $65, hard to figure why you would pay $150 and then have to drag your tube.

 

In Cozumel we found RCCL to have a fairly competitive price and did the ruins and island tour with them. Our Guide, Jesus was quite knowledgeable especially about the Mayan culture, very informative. This was our first ever RCCL excursion, we will pay a small premium for then in Future, Although the Cave tubing was ludicrously marked up.

 

In Costa Maya Native Choice took us to the Chacchoben ruins with are essentially 3 large Mayan Pyramids and some other areas a little over an hour from the port. The only bad thing was the walk to the office from the ship, advertised as 4 blocks, let's just say they were big blocks. The guide was good, but not as good as Jesus. This tour was also substantially lower than the RCCL price.

 

We found the food good in MDR, excellent at the Park Cafe and found the Windjammer disappointing. The selection and quality of the windjammer food was definitely limited and sub par. Ironically we lucked into a Galley tour and watched them ruining the hamburger meat. The raw patties looked OK to me, and I could have made a good burger with them. Unfortunately the process they used of cooking until past well done, and aging in a pan ruined them. Just saying.

 

Don't let people scare you, Vision is clean, comfortable and in our experience well run. We did not experience a lot of crowding except for the activities in the Centrum, which was packed for anything scheduled there.

 

Great trip

 

 

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[KruzMor]

Jelliot4,

 

Thank you for the review. More great information for our upcoming cruise.

 

Regarding the tubing in Belize, were there rapids at all? One in our group is considering this, but is wary because she is not a good swimmer.

 

Thanks!

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your review, glad you had a great time.

[jelliot4]

No Rapids, there are a couple of spots with current, but this is a flat water float trip. With Cavetubing.bz they use carabiners to raft tubes into groups of 8. Life jackets are used, they should not be overly concerned

 

 

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[KruzMor]

Thank you very much for those details. Helps a lot

[sara mom]

Thanks so much for your review! We are doing similar excursions next month with 2 of the same companies (Victor Bodden and cavetubing.bz).

[2catfamily]

We were also on this cruise and I felt that the staff did an amazing job for a New Years Eve cruise.

On New Year's Eve was well planned with music never stopping and having 2 parties with food at midnight up on the pool deck.

The Cruise Director Steve and his staff did a wonderful job making my family enjoy ringing in the New Year. I have been on other cruises on New Years and this was by far the best.

I feel for being a "young man" Steve Davis ranks up as one of the better Cruise Director

[2catfamily]

No Rapids, there are a couple of spots with current, but this is a flat water float trip. With Cavetubing.bz they use carabiners to raft tubes into groups of 8. Life jackets are used, they should not be overly concerned

 

 

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My husband was on the one tubing with the Crystal lagoon and he had to swim across the lagoon with waters being 45 feet deep with about 100 steps to climb afterwards.

[AllmanJoy89]

Thanks for the review! We will be on the Vision NEXT January. Just curious, did you stay in a nearby hotel the night before? If so, where???

[Sles23]

Thanks for the review! We will be on the Vision NEXT January. Just curious, did you stay in a nearby hotel the night before? If so, where???

 

We stayed at the Tampa Marriott Waterside the night before and the day we got off the ship. Was a nice hotel. It's a $25 flat rate ride from the airport. It also was only 2 minutes from the cruise port. Cabs to the port were $3 per person.

[Mystaken]

We stayed at the Tampa Marriott Waterside the night before and the day we got off the ship. Was a nice hotel. It's a $25 flat rate ride from the airport. It also was only 2 minutes from the cruise port. Cabs to the port were $3 per person.

 

If you can't get a reservation at Marriott Waterside, Embassy Suites is right across from it and less expensive. Not as nice as Marriott, but less expensive and still in a great location.

[cruiseclues]

Thank you for your enjoyable detailed review... :):):):)