The cruise was terrific. One of my favorites so far (I have been on 6). The ports were all wonderful (except for Helsinki, could have skipped that one).
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Everything went smoothly and was relatively quick considering we were a party of 8.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Main dining room was great and we had a wonderful wait staff who were very friendly and accommodating especially with my 22 month old grandson. We couldn't have asked for better!
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
The gym was small and always crowded. I attempted to work out on a few occasions but I gave up. The weather was too cool to really enjoy the pool. I did attend the napkin folding classes which were very good. Also attended some fitness dance classes which were good too.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Mostly the entertainment was good. However, the house band, while very good, always played the same songs. After 11 days, that got pretty repetitive. They need a larger song catalog.
Children's Programs
3 out of 5
My grandson was put in the day care for 2 days. It was excellent. However, on that note, my son had called Royal Caribbean to make sure they could babysit my grandson on the two days we were in St. Petersburg and Berlin. They neglected to tell us that babysitting is only available if you book your excursions thru Royal Caribbean. Fortunately, the St. Petersburg excursions were thru RC but the Berlin one was booked with Shore Excursions and RC refused to babysit my grandson. My son was unable to attend the Berlin trip and we are currently trying to see if he can get a refund due to the circumstances. RC did offer my son a free dinner with wine to make up for it but it would have been better to have the babysitting.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Our room steward, Donna, was wonderful as well as the waiters in the main dining room.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Everything was kept clean and orderly despite the ship being older.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
The cabin was fine. The bed wasn't as comfortable as I have had on other ships. Our cabin steward kept things very orderly and clean.
Ship tip
Vision is a nice enough ship, although I do prefer the bigger ones. The staff is wonderful.
I did the excursion to Berlin. While the visit to Berlin was good, it's too far to really be worthwhile. The traffic getting to Berlin was awful so we lost about 1 hour of visiting sites. Since the time was cut short, it was basically riding on the bus, getting off a few minutes, snapping some pictures and back on the bus. I do not feel that it was a worthwhile excursion. I would stay closer to the pier if I was to do this again.
Wonderful! Did the 2 day excursion and visited Peterof, Hermitage, etc. It was great. We saw a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the museums and summer & winter palaces.
I really think we could have skipped this port. After seeing the beautiful churches, etc. in St. Petersburg, the Rock Church simply doesn't cut it. I would have preferred staying an extra day in another port.
Things were a little disorganized because the ship neglected to call our disembarkation number in the location where they told us to go. However, once off the ship, it was easy to locate our luggage. It was just a lengthy line to get a cab, but all in all. It was okay.
Thanks for the review. Just wondering how the ship is since it is an older Royal Caribbean ship. We are going on this ship in December and was just curious as to how it rates
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