Jason Thompson

Age: 31 to 40
Occupation: Theme Park Manager
Number of Cruises: 3 to 5 Cruises
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean International
Ship: Vision of the Seas
Sailing Date: September 24th, 2000
Itinerary: Alaska, Inside Passage

Vision of the Seas is the last of Royal Caribbean’s Vision class cruise ships, and in my opinion, the best.  In this review, I will start with details about the ship including embarkation and debarkation, followed by my opinion on the route and ports of call.

OVERVIEW

Vision of the Seas, being about 80 000 tons, is a very large cruise ship, although not as large as Royal Caribbean’s new Explorer class ships.  It consists of 10 decks (11 if you include the Viking Crown Lounge).  The ship is extremely stable, however this may have just been due to the fact that the majority of my cruise was inside protected passages.  My only complaint would be the vibrations that the ship experienced when going at full speed.  For such a new ship, I expected it to have basically no vibrations, however vibrations were often very clearly felt throughout the ship.  Don’t let this discourage you from the ship, though.  The vibrations only occur when the ship is going a full speed, and this happens very rarely.

INTERIOR DESIGN

The ship is decorated with a lot of sculptures and artwork, including a huge metallic “thing” hanging down the Centrum lobby.  The general colour scheme is pink and orange, and this stays the same throughout all of the decks.  Overall, the ship very well decorated.

EMBARKATION AND DEBARKATION

Embarkation was, by far, the worst part of the cruise.  In fact, out of the 4 cruises I have taken, this cruise was the worst in this area.

It started first with a 10-minute line of taxis waiting to get into the terminal (and yes, if you’re in a taxi, the meter is running for this).  When you finally get out of the taxi, aggressive and rude porters grab your luggage and put it onto trolleys while you stand there and wonder what is happening.  You then are asked to enter the main terminal building, which is very crowded with no free seats to be found.  After wandering around trying to find where you’re supposed to go, you find a desk with a 2 or 3 minute line.  After waiting in the line you arrive at the desk, where you are given a number and asked to go sit down until your number is called.  To make it worse, the terminal looks more like a homeless shelter or warehouse than a luxury cruise line terminal.

About 30 or 45 minutes later, our number was finally called and we went through.  Then, at last we got to the check-in area.  But, alas, another 20 minute line waiting before we finally got to the check-in desk.

Throughout all of this, we were viewing people checking for a Norwegian Cruise Line ship.  Those people arrived, were given a glass of punch of something, and proceeded straight to the check-in desk – where there were no lines – and boarded the ship, the whole thing taking about 5 minutes.  Royal Caribbean, in my view a far superior line, should have had a much better embarkation than NCL.

Debarkation was a little better.  It was easy getting off of the ship (you get a colored tag, they call it, etc) however once you arrived back in the terminal, there was a 45 minute line for taxis.

I would recommend you arrive early (at 12 noon when embarkation starts would be best).  Not only do you avoid the lines, you have more time to look around the ship – so when everyone else is wondering where everything is, you already know!

ACCOMMODATIONS

We had a “Superior Ocean View Suite” (cat. C).  We found it to be very comfortable and reasonably large.  The bathroom was not very good – it was cramped and water pressure was often very low.  We had a reasonably sized balcony, which was great as there was spectacular scenery on the cruise.  The room was well maintained and was nicely decorated.  Overall, we were very impressed with our accommodations.  Tip: try and get a room towards the front of the ship there is less vibration there.

DINING

Despite all of the negative reviews about dining on Royal Caribbean’s ships, I found dining on this ship to be of a very high standard.  The appetizers and entrees in the main dining room were invariably delicious.  The staff were also excellent, the best I have ever had on my 4 cruises.  The waiters developed personal relationships with their customers, and did not appear uptight or ‘forced’ when dealing with passengers.  Deserts were not quite up to standard.

The Windjammer Cafe is decorated nicely with large floor to ceiling windows.  The food, however, did not live up to the views.  Windjammer staff were very efficient, I thought, and tables were quickly cleared after guests had left them.  Food in the Solarium Cafe was the regular – pizzas, burgers, etc and were all acceptable, although only just.

ENTERTAINMENT

Throughout the cruise, there was only one Las-Vegas style show.  All of the rest were individual acts – comedians, magicians, singers, etc.  I actually liked this as I prefer the individual acts.  The Las-Vegas style show was Rhythm Nation.  This had no plot – it was basically a bunch of people from different countries dancing and singing.  I found it very boring.

I like to go to bed early, so I didn’t attend any of the game shows are discos, however I hear that they were all very good.

ACTIVITIES

The whole cruise is fairly jam-packed with activities.  From bingo to sports, kids to adults, there was something for everyone.  The ship has four table tennis tables and four shuffleboard courts.  It has a video arcade and dedicated centres for kids and teens.  There are also many lounges and bars, a full shopping arcade and, of course, a large casino.  There was a huge Shipshape program, and a dedicated two-floor Shipshape center with massage and exercise areas.

Overall, the ship was superb.  I think it is the best I have ever had the pleasure of cruising on.

DESTINATIONS AND SHORE EXCURSIONS

Our cruise visited three places, Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan.  In Juneau we took a helicopter tour which was really great.  It landed on a glacier and we got to walk out onto it.  Highly recommended.

Skagway and Ketchikan were good also.  In Skagway, we took a canoeing tour which was fun.  In Ketchikan the weather was bad, and the tour we were going to go on (Ketchikan Sport fishing) was cancelled.  The shore excursions desk staff were really helpful and arranged a floatplane tour for us instead.  In the end, however, that was cancelled too!

So overall, we had a great cruise.  I would highly recommend it.  It is so much better than cruising the Caribbean!!! The culture and everything is so different, and the scenery is definitely much better – even if it is a little cold!

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