Vision of the Seas Review
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My family of 5 recently cruised with Royal Caribbean. During our cruise, we noticed that Royal Caribbean’s food and service have decreased to a subpar level. Below I have indicated the various food and service issues we experienced:
1. The Food in the Main Dinning Rooms was Poor: The food in the dining rooms ranged from average to below average. For example, the New York steak was tough or of inferior quality, the chicken was dry, the sauces on the various pastas tasted like it came from a “can,” and the salad dressings were tasteless. Ironically, the food in the buffet was generally better than the main dining room, which I find appalling. Indeed, the customer ratings for the main dining rooms for the Vision of the Sea at various websites, including CruiseCritic.com, have decreased substantially beginning in February 2015 to “1 to 2-stars” from “4 to 5-stars.” Without a doubt, the food was the worst that we have experienced in our 7 previous cruises (including a previous Royal Caribbean cruise, 3 Princess cruises and 3 Disney cruises).
2. Some of the Ports of Call Were In Remote Locations: Rather than docking at the ports that were closest to our destination, on two occasions, we docked at more remote locations. As a consequence, we spent up to 2 hours traveling between the port and our ultimate destination. For example, we docked at La Spezia for our trip to Florence and Pisa rather than Livorno. Livorno is much closer to both Florence and Pisa than La Spezia. Therefore, we wasted approximately 2 hours in transit that we could have spent in Florence or Pisa. In another example, we docked at the Salerno port for our trip to Naples rather than docking directly at the port in Naples, wasting 90 minutes in traveling time. I assume that Royal Caribbean choose these more remote ports to save money for port fees. However, the money that Royal Caribbean saved is outweighed by the lost travel time it passengers experienced at these ports. Time is essential given that we were only at these two ports for approximately 10 hours.