Embarkation- Embarking went fairly smooth. We arrived at the port around 11:00 and we were on at about 11:20ish. Since they divided the sections of "embarkers" into categories by the following things- C&A status, deck of stateroom, it made it a lot faster. The longest part of embarking was taking the two welcome aboard pictures. Although you can skip this....no one did. On this particular cruise there were two back drops to take the picture, and you were definitely persuaded to do both.

Ship/ ship layout- The vision is the newest of the class. Many ppl say that there is obvious signs of wear-and-tear but i didn't happen to see any. I guess i am just not the person who tries to find the imperfections:). The layout is nice and convenient. Deck six and five have most everything you need and decks 9-11 are the more active decks. And in between those there are the decks with mainly cabins. The centrum is gorgeous and the dining room looks beautiful. There is quite a bit of art on the ship which adds a nice touch. All of the public areas are really clean and nicely laid out and designed. You constantly see crew members cleaning and making sure that everything is just right! Stateroom- My family had a superior oceanview, which had a balcony. We had a jr. suite on our prior cruise, since we loved the balcony we had to get it again!. The price difference between the two rooms is quite a lot but i found that you could fit a family of 4 just as comfortably in the SO and we did the JS. The bathroom was small but there is a nice vanity area that you can use outside of the bathroom which is really convenient. The bed was very comfortable and the pullout bed was a little stiff but nice.

Activities- The CD was John Blair and his wife Katrina. They were great! They were both really upbeat and had a great attitude the whole cruise. They planned some nice activities too. ATLEAST two types of trivia everyday if not more, plenty of pool deck games and competitions, several afternoon and late night movies in the masquerade theater ( The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bee Movie, Blades of Glory, The Game Plan, Night at the Museum, and one more that i can't recall), karaoke, lots of game shows (love and marriage, the quest, majority rules, who wants to be a millionaire), and a lot of seminars and demonstrations! They were really fun and we were always on the go from activity to activity. The rockwall was nice, and the pool was small but also nice. Food-and service- We had a table for 4. Our waiter's name was Joy (a man from india) and our asst. waiter was Michael. Micheal was rather slow at getting the bread,and drinks going the first night but by the third night he was getting better. Joy was very efficient and kind. He worked really hard and suggested entrees to us to try. The food was awesome! Most everything i had was great! Here were my favs- spinach dip, key lime pie, all pastas, prime rib, filet of beef, tuscan tomato soup. I didn't like the dessert sampler or the grilled pork chop as much. The windjammer was mainly hit and miss. The veggie spring rolls were to die for and the honey stung chicken was awesome. The dining room's lunch menu didn't look very appetizing so we mainly ate in the windjammer or the solarium. The windjammer also had good deli sandwiches. The solarium has the best fries and hot dogs ever! The pizza not so much. Read more