Vision of the Seas Review

3.5 / 5.0
1,211 reviews

This Year in Jerusalem

Review for the Middle East Cruise on Vision of the Seas
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cruise pup
10+ Cruises • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Oct 2011
Cabin: Large Ocean View Stateroom

This cruise turned out to be a bargain and so was the airfare to and from Istanbul. I spent a few days before the cruise in Istanbul since hotels were ridiculously cheap. Unfortunately the weather was miserable for the entire stay. Transfer to cruise ship was very easy and boarding took no time at all. I was on the Vision about 12 years ago and it was nice to see that it has held up very well. I love the Centrum with all of that daylight. Much better than the Royal Promenade design which to me is like a shopping mall. The Vision, being one of the older ships in the fleet now, doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but it has an honest to goodness solarium with a glass roof which came in handy the first few days when the outdoors was too cold. If only the pool temperature was as warm as the tv report claimed it was. The spa area was also nice with decent sized sauna and steam rooms (separate for ladies and gents). The "secret" relaxation room nearby is wonderful but was already full on the 2nd day. How did everyone find out?

My cabin was a standard ocean view cabin located on Deck 4 a stones throw from the Centrum. There was a door to keep out the noise but when there was a big music event in the Centrum you would hear the music each time the door was opened. But it really wasn't a problem because the music did not go on for all hours. The cabin was smallish but comfortable. One thing that was annoying is that you had to request ice. It wasn't automatically placed in the cabin by the steward. But in my steward's case, it probably would have been forgotten anyway. He was the worst in 74 cruises. He operated in a very passive aggressive manner and seemed to ignore whatever I asked. I found that most of the staff were friendly but incompetent on this ship. Same was true of the dining room staff. On a port intensive tour breakfast needs to be served quickly and this team just wasn't capable of it and kept making excuses about the galley being slow. But that doesn't explain waiting 10 minutes for a waiter to take your order.

Due to the schedule I actually chose sleep over dinner and skipped a number of meals. But I ate well in port where you could sample some wonderful Middle Eastern cuisine. The food on board was nothing to write home about anyway. Oddly enough, I had been on another RCCL cruise (Explorer) a month earlier and the food was much better and service was exceptional.

Cabin Review

Large Ocean View Stateroom

Cabin G
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