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Royal Caribbean International

MV Vision of the Seas

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Reviewed by: Kevin Dearmin
# previous cruises: 10+
Date of Trip: January 19, 2001
Itinerary: Caribbean

The ship is very beautiful and the easiest to learn to get around that we have been on. The art work placed around the ship was wonderful. There is no movie theater on board. The food was good to excellent, with our service the highest quality everywhere we went. Always greeted with a smile no matter their position on the ship. We try not to travel with expectations, but subconsciously must have as we were a bit disappointed. We feel that RCI is riding the reputation of RCCL and has cut obvious corners. Without that mind set we would have felt the experience was better than very good. We found the cruise staff disappointing with a few highlights. The bar waiters were always there but did not push the drinks and did not hear but a casual mention about tips.

The public areas were quite spacious and dispersed the passengers well. There were only a few bad seats in the show lounges. Both indoor/outdoor pools are salt water with the inside one heated to about 92*. We did not see the canopy rolled back at the indoor pool but the area is very pretty. The jogging/walking track is on deck 10. On a hot sunny day with a little bit younger crowd there would not be enough lounges or deck space outdoors. We found the dance floors small with different types of music in different lounges. The casino was of normal size. The band (singer at the pool)was terrible and they did not play hardly at all. While in port we are used to having the band or a band from the island visited play by the pool this did not happen. They did enforce the smoking quite well now they need to put effort into the dress code.

Breakfast was a joke. The menu in the dinning room never changed and could not get a waffle. The buffets were as good as a buffet can get with lunch at the indoor pool (solarium cafe) making hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza as you ordered them. The food served at diner in the dining room was presented nicely and was of good quality and prepared the way you ordered it. We sat at the table next to the captains table and the service was out of this world. Presumably the best of the ship work this area. the waiter and asst. remembered our preferences from the first day and all but encouraged us to try more than one entree. He would mix and match things with glee. Something we found missing on other lines.

This was the first time we had an inside cabin on this low of a deck #2057. We found it very nice with a lot of closet and drawer space even for a ten day cruise. The table did get in the way for us. Our table mates now our friends had a room with a veranda on deck #8 and was large without the balcony. The shower was the same as most ships we have been on. Our room was very quiet and did not have any major vibration or movement.

We thought the entertainment was terrible with the first couple of shows. The two comedian team however were fantastic and had people rolling in the isles. The one review show "make mine broadway" was very good. John Davidson was the celebrity entertainment and was suprisingly entertaining if you can get past the first two # he does.

Our ports were Grand Cayman: which due to weather we could not go to. Jamaica: Well Jamaica is Jamaica but did find it cleaned up a bit.(only had one person try to sell me gangi)Cozumel: Seems to us the prices are getting higher and higher here. Aruba: A desert it was a holiday so 95% of the island was closed the water was nice Island mostly cactus. We went horseback riding at sunset on the beach very nice. Curacao very nice island with great snorkeling went to the tug boat.

It seemed that every state was represented and most countries. This cruise had a unusual amount of elderly (as stated by the staff) with most being 40-50 A small majority would we not have over for dinner