We sailed on the Vision of the Seas to Venice, Dubrovnik, Montenegro, VilleFrance, Livorno and Salerno and I greatly enjoyed ourselves.
We embarked from the port of Barcelona and it was a breeze. We were on the ship within 20 minutes of getting to the dock.
The ship is in great shape, especially for its age and we love the smaller size with just 2,000 passengers. The public rooms were spacious, the pools nicely maintained and the atrium was lovely. We cannot complain about the food, as we always had good choices with plenty to eat. We ate breakfasts and lunches in the Windjammer and all our dinners in the main dining room. Our waiters, Jose and Iluana, were wonderful. I can't understand people complaining about the food--we both gained a few pounds and enjoyed every meal.
Our cabin was spacious and although the picture window was usually wet, we could see out of it. The cabin had a loveseat and small table along with the vanity and chair. There were plenty of hanger and places for storage. I don't like shower curtains, but the bathroom was the usual small size with shampoo, conditioner and soap bars provided--no lotion. It was clean and quiet.
We took. The ship's bus $12 round tip, to the city gates and bought tickets with our credit card to walk the walls. It was a beautiful walk and it took us about an hour and a half to walk all the way around. We were fortunate that we were the only ship in port that day because there were plenty of people on the wall and through the small town alleys. The shop keepers and restaurant owners took euros with no problem.
We tendered into Kotor and enjoyed walking around the town. It is a UNESCO heritage town and has lots of alleys and picturesque areas to photograph. There are several pretty churches and lots of shops and restaurants.
Sail in and sail out are beautiful from the ship. It was very easy to get into town with public transportation. It is a short walk from the ship to the people mover. We took the people mover to the circle near the vaporetta. We bought 24 hour vaporetta tickets with our credit cards since we were going to be there overnight. We took the vaporetta to St Marks Square and went into the cathedral and walked around the square. We walked to the Rialto Bridge following the good signs and took the vaporetta back to the people mover. The next morning we again took the people mover and vaporetta to St Marks where we visited Dogges Palace. It was very interesting. The shops around St Marks are very expensive and you can find the same things much cheaper nearer the Rialto.
VilleFrance is beautiful. It is a tender port and we stood in line 30 minutes when they gave them out so we could get tender number 2. We took a private excursion with Kultours and it was fabulous. We went to Nice, Monte Carlo and the hill town of Pielle. We had a picnic overlooking the hills and had a magical day with Ingrid. The train station is not too far from the town and some people took the train to Nice. The only way to see a lot in one day is on an excursion as things are far from each other. The ships excursions are expensive and crowded so I recommend a private one.
Since we have visited Rome several times, we joined a group from an online excursion group and visited Assisi and Orieveto, which was marvelous. We drove 2 hours through the Tuscan countryside seeing vineyards and olive groves to the lovely town of Assisi. We had 3 hours there to visit the beautiful Cathedral, have lunch and shop. We then drove to the hill town of Orieveto where we had an hour and a half to see the town and wander around. It was a full day, but a memorable one.