Repositioning Cruise New York to Galveston
Vision of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 51
14 Night Southern Caribbean (Cape Liberty To Galveston)
Sail date: October 23, 2017
Ship: Vision of the Seas
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 2085
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 7 years ago
Review summary
Great Itinerary on a smaller sized Vision of the Seas ship. Excellent service from both dining and cabin staff. No waiting in lines. Food good and served hot.Embarkation
Cape Liberty in Bayonne NJ is located in a very industrial area. The "Tear Drop Memorial to 9/11" from Russia is a must-see if embarking at Cape Liberty. The terminal itself is nice and embarkation went quickly and the people at the counters were friendly.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We only ate in the Main Dining Room or Windjammer (no specialty restaurants). The food was better on the Vision than we've experienced on other RC ships, maybe because the ship is smaller. The food was always served warm/hot and the steaks/beef were always tender. The wait staff were always friendly, quick, and we were in and out fairly fast. We did My Time Dining, but not the part of requesting a particular waiter/time every night. We showed up at various times and there was never a line. We always requested a table for 2 and that's what we received. We usually had a different waiter and location but all the different waiters were equally great. We did the Windjammer for breakfast and lunch. Sometimes it would be so chaotic in the Windjammer trying to find a place to sit, we would take our plates to the Solarium and get a table there where it was calmer. The wait staff in the Windjammer were very friendly and helpful.
Onboard Activities
The Vision does not have any of the bells and whistles the newer RC ships have. A tiny rock-climbing wall is the only physical activity they have. Two pools. The main pool in the middle of the ship has the most activities going on but not that many. Mostly people just laying around. There is a Solarium Pool that is really low-key with mainly people reading or playing cards or games. Very quiet, relaxing location if that is what you're into. We mostly played Trivia, went to a lecturer on sea days and that's about it. We would have preferred more activities to choose from. We're not into art auctions, bingo, spa (sales) talks, or the casino. This itinerary was port-intensive so having sea days without much to do wasn't horrible but would have preferred more games and physical things to do.
Entertainment
Thought there would be more Headline entertainment with comedians, magicians, etc. but mainly strange entertainment or production shows. One night they showed the old movie "Dirty Dancing" in the theater. I wouldn't mind watching a movie or two in the theater at night but a movie from the 80's????
Children's Programs
No children of our own. It appeared to be only 4-5 children on board. All we saw were very well behaved.
Service and Staff
I'm giving 5 Stars for the Service and Staff because the dining and room attendants were all excellent. Very friendly and accommodating. However, I would only rate the The Cruise Director's Activity Staff 2 Stars. One staff member was more "mature in age" and she was so rude to the guests. Two of the staff members were from Mexico and could barely speak English and those were the two the Cruise Director had doing Trivia!!! Trivia always took twice as long to play because no one could understand what the question even was. One was always late to events, one time saying she'd just rolled out of bed (at 3 PM) and she looked like it, too, her hair wasn't even combed and was obvious she didn't even want to be there. There was one guy from England who was very, very good, though, so I will give kudos to him.
Ship Quality
The Vision is an older RC ship and is quite small to the new ships, but it is in very good shape and has been updated inside very nice. I was very impressed with her appearance.
Cabin / Stateroom
Even though we booked this cruise seven months in advance, the only cabins available were Inside Cabins. Cabin 2085 is designated a "Large" Interior but there is nothing "large" about it but I knew that when I booked. Located on Deck 2, two doors from aft elevators, it was a very convenient location, especially for port days as Deck 1 is where the aft gangway was located. We opted to split the beds to twins to give us "more floor space" which actually worked out very well. We also put the "little table" in the closet to free up more floor space. There was very little closet and drawer space and we ended up putting some of our more-seldom used clothes in packing-cubes under the bed (along with our luggage). The bathroom looked like it had been completely re-done with new flooring, shower and sink plumbing fixtures, vanity top, sink, and a narrow floor-to-ceiling cabinet. The water pressure was very "forceful" and water "extremely hot"......you could probably brew a cup of tea with it. The location was quiet and during nights of rocky seas, just a gentle rocking let you sleep like a baby. Be sure to download a "digital night clock app" so you can know what time it is as an inside cabin are like sleeping in a cave.
Ports of call
Cape Liberty (Bayonne), New Jersey
Located in very industrial location of Bayonne, NJ. There is the Tear Drop Memorial to 9/11 from the Russians that is a must-visit. It is located in the port right next to where the ship is docked. If you ever sail from Cape Liberty, it is a must-see monument with an interesting history of how it ended up in Bayonne.
Thumbs Up
8
Love Bermuda. Have been there on many occasions both on land vacations and cruise ship sailings. So much to see and do there. You do not have to do a ship excursion in Bermuda if you do a little homework before you go. Great public transportation available with helpful bus drivers. Beautiful beaches and scenery. Very safe-feeling island.
We had never been to Bonaire before but knew it was known for it's snorkeling and scuba. We took a water taxi from the port, $20 pp round trip to Klein Beach and snorkeled. It was an excellent place to go with surprisingly few other people there.
Took a tour from one of the local tour guides. $25 pp for a 3 hour island tour. His name was Kenny with a loud strong voice. He showed us the island highlights. Also took us to the Curacao distillery for a tour. Then to the Hata Caves ($9 pp extra but very much worth it). Then took us to see the flamingos. They were kind of far away so pictures didn't come out too good, but OK nonetheless. We were supposed to end up at a beach but it started raining with lots of lightening so he took us to a Hilton Hotel instead where we got to look around for a while. After being dropped off at the pier, we found excellent WIFI. The rain subsided so we walked to the touristy part of the city and saw the unique opening bridge and the colorful buildings and shops. Weather did not cooperate but we had a good time anyway.
Beautiful beaches on Aruba. We took the public bus ($5 pp round trip) to the far north end of the island to Arashi Beach to snorkel. After we snorkeled a while, we walked along to the road to the very end of the island. A great day.
Love Grand Cayman and usually go to the beaches via public transportation for $5 pp round trip but the weather was not cooperating with more rain than we wanted to deal with so just walked around the town and shopped for a while (not really our "thing") and then back to the ship.
We always go to Chankanaab Marine Park in Cozumel to snorkel. Again, while sunny out, it was also very windy and the waves and water were the roughest we've ever seen. It churned up the sand and made the usually crystal-clear water very murky. We snorkeled for a while and then got out and explored the rest of the park we usually don't see and took lots of pictures. $21 pp for park entrance and $12 taxi each way. Still love Cozumel so 5 Star rating.
Not a fan of Costa Maya. It's what I call a "fake port" that was built by the cruise line(s). While they keep "improving" it with more buildings and such, the only ones who benefit are the cruise lines after they take their cut of the merchants' sales. We did get off the ship and walk around, though, and take some photos of the newer additions to the port. Too bad this port does not have a "real beach" as the water is beautiful there.
We did not dock in Progreso until 1:00. 2:00 before we got into town. Since it gets dark by 6 PM, there was not enough time (in our opinion) to take a tour to Merida or the ruins. We would have rather spent longer in Cozumel or had another sea day than visit this port. Since we had not been there before, we thought we would give it a chance. First, the actual pier is about 4 miles long so there are shuttle buses that take you along the pier to the town of Progreso. Some people on the shuttle bus actually refused to get off the bus after they saw the town! But we got off and were immediately surrounded by the most aggressive sales people ever. We mostly ignored them as there was nothing they had that we wanted and walked to the beach area. I don't know how it is on a "normal" day, but the day we were there the water was terribly churned up by a previous storm (????) or something and the water looked so awful (a greenish-brown color) that one would not even be able to see their feet if they stepped into it. Lots of seaweed, too. We walked on the sidewalk along the beach and took pictures and stopped into some of the shops. We're glad we went ashore on this trip but if we ever have another stop at this port we will not get off the ship.
Since we do a lot of cruises out of Galveston, it is mainly an embark/disembark port for us. But there is things of interest in Galveston if one chooses to come in a day or two early or stay a day or two later. There is so much history here. 5000 people died in a hurricane in the early 1900's and there are museums that give that history. Moody Garden is very interesting and one could spend the whole day there. It would be nice if the cruise lines would have Galveston as a Port of Call.
Disembarkation
Most of the people sailing in/out of Galveston are from Texas, Oklahoma or Louisiana and drive to the port. Therefore, many, many, many people do self-disembarkation. We've found that Carnival handles self-disembarkation much better than Royal Caribbean. Somebody from RC needs to take a Carnival cruise to see how it should be done.