Carolyn Smith

Age: 51 to 60
Occupation: travel writer; legal secretary
Number of Cruises: 21 to 49 Cruises
Ship: Vision of the Seas
Sailing Date: June 11th, 2000
Itinerary: Alaska Inside Passage

ALASKA BOUND ON VISION OF THE SEAS

Vision of the Seas is the last, and perhaps loveliest, of Royal Caribbean's Vision-class series of vessels. For a more complete description of her public areas, and an overview of her accommodations, onboard activities (including children's programs) and dining venues, check out the general review here on Cruise Critic. Since our four prior Alaska cruises have been on Princess and Holland America, this review will include only brief comments on selected aspects of the general onboard experience (feel free to email me if you'd like more detail!) and focus primarily on cruising Alaska cruising "Royal Caribbean-style." 

Expansive windows throughout the Vision's public areas, the Solarium with its retractable roof, promenade deck, and numerous balcony staterooms make this ship ideal for the often unpredictable cool, misty weather along Alaska's Inside Passage. A bridge cam (that was working) and in-cabin updates on weather, wind, and ship's position (that were not working until the last night of the cruise) would be especially helpful to passengers in inside cabins but useful for everyone since daily updates on this information from the bridge at noon were not broadcast on outside decks and especially difficult to hear in the Solarium and Windjammer Cafe.

Our Category K "larger inside stateroom" forward on Main Deck was more than adequate for two people. A word of caution: avoid the first 6-8 cabins adjoining the Centrum on Main Deck unless you want a constant serenade from the "quartet of the week" holding court near the Champagne Bar. On our cruise the very loud jazz group would have driven me bonkers by the second day! 

Prior to cruising on the Grandeur of the Seas earlier this year, I had not sailed on Royal Caribbean in over six years and decided to reserve comment on dining and the general cruise experience at that time since I was surprised to find it significantly below the standards on Princess and Holland America ships we had cruised in the interim in several areas. Unfortunately, our week on the Grandeur doesn't appear to have been a "fluke" as many of the problems on Grandeur were also apparent on Vision of the Seas, especially with regard to dining, evening activities, shore tour staff, general demeanor of the crew and, on the Alaska itinerary, in providing passengers with every opportunity to take full advantage of this often once-in-a-lifetime cruise.

As on Grandeur, the general impression was that crew who work for tips are friendly, efficient and anxious to please but those do don't go about their jobs in a very perfunctory manner. Boutique salespeople were often engaged in deep conversation amongst themselves, cruise staff often spoke only when spoken to (if at all), and wait staff in the Windjammer buffet area never offered to carry trays, refill beverages and often left tables uncleaned for several minutes during very peak times. Dining room service at open sitting meals was "hit and miss" and bar service was spotty at best. On three occasions we were automatically served an the "upsized", more expensive drink (availability of these is noted in small print on the bar menu). 

On the end of the spectrum, dining room service from our assigned waiter and assistant waiter was absolutely top-rate (as it had been on the Grandeur) and among the best we've experienced on 30+ cruises. The requisite "rate us excellent, we are responsible for the food too" speech was given almost apologetically and I, for one, find it very unfair to hold my waiter responsible for poor food preparation in the galley. It's my choice whether to send something back if it's unsatisfactory and one wonders if this linking of food prep to the wait staff's service and rating actually skews the comment cards to inaccurately reflect many passengers' true of opinion of one or both of these areas.

Ships' photographers were reasonably restrained in their artificially created photo opps and turned out lovely photos, but the upsizing of embarkation and selected other pictures throughout the week to 6x8" (who has frames that size?) and then charging $9.95 for them is ridiculous!

Dining hours, which are often adjusted on an itinerary such as Alaska or Europe when passengers are returning throughout the day from often long (and in Alaska, damp!) tours, seemed to be geared more to the convenience of the crew and galley rather than the guests. 

Surprisingly, on a ship the calibre of the Vision, one would not expect the "burger bar" to consistently be the best food onboard but the Solarium Cafe which served up individual made-to-order pizzas, burgers, hot dogs and perfectly seasoned, crisp french fries daily from 10-6:30 and again late at night was very popular all week with young and old alike. For the health conscious cruiser (who, unlike me, doesn't "chuck the diet" during cruises), or those on a medically restricted diet, this option is obviously not satisfactory. 

Food in the Windjammer Cafe for breakfast and lunch was mediocre. Many "hot" lunch entrees and breakfast items were lukewarm at best and eggs most mornings, except for the hearty made-to-order omelets, were cold. The breakfast menu in both the dining room and Windjammer was the same throughout the week. Lunch buffets were very limited compared to those on Princess and Holland America and afternoon "snacks" from 4-5 p.m. were the same small tuna, ham or turkey sandwiches very day, ice cream and desserts. There were no salads or fresh fruit. Interestingly, the desserts (cookies and a warm dessert such as bread pudding, apple crisp) during "snacks" were much better than those in the dining room. 

Menus in the Aquarius Dining Room offered up a good variety of entrees, appetizers and desserts at lunch and dinner and, for the most part, food was well presented, hot when it was supposed to be, and quite good. The "always available" menu is a plus for the more finicky eater and a vegetarian selection was offered each meal. The lobster, however, was hard, rubbery and filled with crabmeat stuffing (but we were warned!) and desserts were generally "essence" of chocolate, key lime, cheesecake etc. One or two creamy chocolate desserts were divine but otherwise it remains a mystery how the same pastry chef (do they have two?) could come up with only one or two delectable desserts in the dining room in seven days and produce such mouthwatering treats in the Windjammer!

Entertainment, long known in the industry as one of Royal Caribbean's strong points, was average at best in lounges and for cabaret shows. The main production show "Rhythm Nation" ran way too long but the celebrity entertainer, Susan Anton, whom we went to see out of curiousity more than anything, has a decent voice, great stage presence, and was surprisingly enjoyable! As on the Grandeur Caribbean cruise there were very few evening activities although in Alaska, when everyone is pretty much up and on the go early each day, this wasn't as much of an issue for me.

Alaska a la Royal Caribbean:

We pretty much let out friends, who were cruising Alaska for the first time, take the lead in selecting our shore tours and ended up with a nice variety of excellent tours. The two tours we prebooked with Royal Caribbean prior to sailing went off without a hitch and we thoroughly enjoyed the White Pass & Yukon Railway excursion in Skagway and the tour of Totem Bight State Park in Ketchikan. I highly recommend sitting back and enjoying the White Pass RR and purchasing either the informative video ($7.99) or postcard pack (about $3.00) onboard the train instead of trying to finagle the perfect "shot" although there are plenty to be had especially from the back of the cars. The Totem Bight tour which was only $5.00 more than those offered by the locals left immediately on arrival leaving more time in town afterwards. In Juneau we went whale watching on the Awesome Orca with Captain Larry of Orca Enterprises and it was, in a word, "awesome"! This is a first rate operation located right across from the tramway in Juneau. His price is on par with wildlife cruises offered through ship tour desks, but he takes a much smaller group (ideally no more than 22-23) and the onboard naturalist, Jeff, a delight! Orca can also coordinate glacier flightseeing and other tours in Juneau for you. In Haines I prearranged a tour with a local, Steve Hayes, of Yeshua Tours who also offers tours at the dock. Steve is a native of Haines, knowledgeable, reasonably priced and his van was much preferable over the big buses trying to navigate this picturesque little town and its surrounding environs.

An Alaska cruise is a voyage through a scenic wonderland, from the remote wilderness of British Columbia's inside passage, to Alaska's dramatic glaciers and mountains, unique wildlife and a culture steeped in Native tradition that can only be fully appreciated and enjoyed when enhanced by a knowledgeable and interactive onboard staff. For passengers who are not taking a tour of the Alaskan interior, the Inside Passage cruise is their "Alaskan experience" and in this aspect, Royal Caribbean falls woefully short of Princess and Holland America. The most glaring deficiency is the lack of on-deck commentary by an onboard naturalist in Hubbard Glacier (or Glacier Bay), Misty Fjords and other areas of interest and while entering/leaving ports of call. This commentary has been excellent on each of our four prior Alaska cruises, so imagine my surprise when the Captain announced that due to "Alaskan law" (who knew???), no commentary would be heard on the open decks in areas Hubbard Glacier and Misty Fjords! Not only was commentary not made on the open decks, but there was no ongoing commentary in the interior public areas or cabins in these areas and only perfunctory comment prior to entering them. Several "enrichment lectures" were held in one of the lounges during the cruise but these were not well-publicized. On checking with others who have cruised this summer on Crystal, Princess, Holland America and even one Celebrity ship, to this point Vision of the Seas appears to be the only ship adhering to this "law." If this lack of detailed, throughout-the-ship commentary is in fact Royal Caribbean's policy, it should be stated as such. 

The shore tour staff knew very little about the ports of call. It's only good business for the cruise lines to encourage passengers to book shore excursions through their tour desks, but personnel staffing that desk should have a working knowledge of each port and what it has to offer (hiking trails, cabs, sites of interest in town, restaurants etc.) to assist passengers who may want to spend a little time poking around on their own after a tour. Not everyone "does their homework" before a vacation, and mst passengers cruisers rightfully expect this type of information to be available onboard.

Not only was the shore tour staff not knowledgeable about our ports, the the ongoing tour talk by the shore tour manager on in-cabin TV was for the most part a mere recitation of the brief descriptions in the written tour information but had several glaring errors. One of the most notable was with respect to tours including the bald eagle preserve near Haines. During only one of several tour descriptions did he mention that the eagles leave this area during the spring and summer and migrate back during the mid-late fall, making the mid-September cruises the only time one will see even a fraction of the preserve's huge winter population. 

The ship's "shopping expert" was basically a jewelry salesperson and knew very little about the art galleries and uniquely Alaskan stores on the ship's "recommended" list, much less other stores in our ports. Diehard shopaholics were disappointed to find that maps of Juneau and Skagway including descriptions and locations of the recommended stores weren't available on our cruise, but one wonders how difficult it would have been to type the name and address of each store on the back of the map before photocopying them. I'm not an advocate for shopping recommended stores, mind you, just commentin on the lack of initiative to solve what some perceived as a major problem here!

In short, do you know how to spot whales --and are you lucky ;)? What are the cruising areas between ports where you are more likely to see them? Do you know why glacial ice can be black, blue or white? What is calving and what causes it? What's that glacier to the left just south of Juneau? Did you see the humpbacks near Endicott Arm -- and do you even know where it is? What island is Ketchikan on and how did it get its crazy name? Who first explored Hubbard Glacier and surrounding environs? Why are those planes taking off from "nowhere" near Yakatut Bay? How did Juneau get its name and what are those ramshackle buildings in the cliff near the port? Did you see the Desolation Point lighthouse? Have we arrived at Seymour Narrows yet? Oh, and by the way, did you see the orca feeding near there? On Princess the captain often slowed or even stopped the ship to watch whales feeding.. If you cruised on the Vision of the Seas and you know the answers to the above questions, you've cruised Alaska before and had a good onboard experience and/or done your homework including getting a really good map! If you thought you'd learn something about all that gorgeous scenery floating by because your friends who cruised on Holland America, Princess, Crystal or NCL last year raved about the onboard naturalist, please come back again -- believe me, it's even better the second (or fifth time around)! Was this a fluke? One hopes so, especially since Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises recently announced the formation of a new venture, Royal Celebrity Tours, to provide passengers with expanded, "in house" tour options in conjunction with their Alaska cruises beginning in Summer, 2001 and plan to introduce two new ships, Radiance of the Seas and Infinity, respectively, in Alaska. This is a huge undertaking and one that Holland America, Princess and Cruise West, pioneers in Alaska cruisetouring, have continued to tweak and improve over the years. One wonders, however, considering the major deficiencies found onboard Vision of the Seas despite RCI's presence in Alaska for some time now, how long it will take this operation to get up to speed.

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