Vision of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Although this is a smaller ship in the Royal line, the crew does a fantastic job of packing in the fun! All of the expected elements of a good Royal cruise are there; friendly bartenders, pool games, rock climbing wall, and an entertainment staff who never stops trying. For a four day cruise there are just enough activities to keep even very active cruisers happy. However, on a longer cruise savvy sailors might be left wanting for more shops or clubs on-board or some monotony/repetitiveness in the compass. The casino is adequate but I have seen more variety on the larger class of ship. However they also have a really good art gallery staff and the Centrum is beautiful. So I would highly recommend this cruise for a 4-ish day trip but any longer I would suggest finding a bigger ship!

(Pictured: Final evening's Thriller performance with Entertainment leader and guests)

We are always looking forward to our next cruise. We've been using BJ's Travel for years without any problem. Always an excellent price, great service, follow-up. Love the Park and Cruise at Best Western O'Donnell St. in Baltimore with free parking for the duration of your cruise, free shuttle to and from the boat, free hot breakfast, all for one night's stay. Once you go ROYAL, you stay LOYAL.

A group of us girls celebrated my birthday. We had a spectacular service. All crew staff went above and beyond for us. Will definitely be back to Royal Caribbean.

Large group 20+ friends went, friendly staff, clean ship, Windjammer was great with very friendly staff and very helpful.

Never again. We are avid cruisers and have tried Royal now 3 times... This will be our last. First night I was served something I was allergic to, which caused a throat reaction and not being able to breathe correctly. Through a comedy of errors and poor service - I missed the first four days of the cruise due to sheer stupidity. The medical team gave me DayQuil... To which the first ingredient I am ALLERGIC. Main dining room staff apologized but blamed the kitchen. Medical team could not tell me anything and would not listen to what I needed (having had this allergy my whole life). I was offered a "future cruise credit valued for one day" and had to ask for my gratuities to be withheld as we did not dine in the dining room again due to service. Buffet was average. Rooms were outdated but we expected that. Ship was dirty and poorly kept up.

The Cruise was perfect, but January the seas are a little rough

Good for a quick stress reliever. Enjoyed our cruise and look forward to the next one.

Overall it was a very good cruise! Get a table with Nadya as your waiter.

In 2013 I had done a trip to New Zealand and thought nothing could beat this, I was wrong. These ports and excursions with our friends was out of this world. Best trip ever.

All the ports were wonderful but the ship was very boring. No fun activities or things to do... Same ol trivia and shows each day. Staff was great and hospitable especially Waiter Evangelisto, Head Waiter Amit and Assistant Waiter Shakti!!! I would endure this again just for them! Loved those guys, they made a lasting impression:-) 

Overall the cruise was great even though we missed one port due to big waves crashing over the peir. It was a much needed rest day for my wife and I. If you have enough time to go to San Pedro when you get it on Belize city I highly recommend it. 

First, let me start by saying this is our 6th cruise, having previously sailed with Princess and 4 times on Disney. We had a great time, but things were just not up to what I expected. That being said, we already booked our next cruise with Royal Caribbean!

So here goes. First cruise out of Tampa. Port is easy to find, and you can drive right up, unload your luggage and then park. Parking was $105 for the week. Getting checked in was quick and painless. Once on board our room was available by 1 PM, which was quick compared to other ships I've sailed on. The ship was diverted before the first stop due to a medical emergency on board. OK, I can't be upset about that because I'd want them to do the same for any of my loved ones. But as a result, we went to Cozumel twice, instead of Roatan. I've been to Cozumel 3 times before, so that was a disappointment. Everyone's ship-booked excursions for Roatan were promptly refunded.  

On the other cruises I've taken, they were always taking your photo, and pushing you to buy the packages, which I never do. On this ship, the photographers were there, but didn't pester you to take your picture, which was nice.

The crew were all very friendly and helpful! I had only one bad interaction where the woman screwed up our room service order, which took more than a half hour to receive, and we didn't eat because it was wrong. When I called her to complain, she claimed it was my fault. It was too late to place another order. Two nights in the main dining room (both very early) we had to wait a while to be served. There were several who were really nice and went out of their way to be excellent. More than once I asked for two appetizers or two entrees. Once he brought me two portions because he thought "it was too small!" We had MyTime Dining, and if you don't have a reservation, you wait in a line next to the people with reservations to be seated. But our wait times were not excessive. The first night, she gave me a slip with instructions for making reservations, but I never did, because that defeats the purpose of

MyTime Dining. I love the flexibility of eating when we want, but I miss the old way of having the same servers for the whole voyage.

My 9 year old loved the kids club! My 16 year old wouldn't go near the teen center, which seemed like it was just a room. The game arcade had maybe 8 games, none of which were any fun. Plus Air Hockey. 

You have the freedom to adjust the mandatory gratuity amount to your own discretion, but in my mind, taking money off for one bad server only penalizes all the good ones, because the tips are averaged out among all the crew.

Food: Just OK. We ended up eating at the specialty restaurants 4 of the 7 nights. The buffet was good, but not great. Breakfast was the worst. Sausage gravy that tasted like paste from art class. The turkey and pork sausages were both lousy as well. We tried the main dining room once for breakfast and the menu was the same. Not what I would have expected. There was a cafe in the adult section near the spa that had great sandwiches, which we sadly did not discover until about the 5th day. 

P.S. - some of you may wonder how we ate so many times in main dining if we ate at the specialty restaurants 4 out of 7 nights... Multiple dinners, OK? Don't judge me... that's how I can state the quality of the food- I ate it all!

                                       --- Hot Rock Dining at Izumi!---

The entertainment seemed geared toward the ship's demographic, which appeared to be an average age of 70. But we were pretty tired after our days ashore anyway. Movies on the big screen by the pool every night! 

Internet was ridiculously expensive, so days without email--- boo hoo. Soda was not free, but we had purchased one drink package, so we did ok. 

On our scuba dive in Belize, one of the divers was actually the guest services manager on his time off. I got to chatting with him, and he was very friendly. Back on board, he sent us an invite for our family to eat at the Chop's Grill specialty restaurant on the house! At the time of our reservation, he came to our table to meet the rest of my family! Very nice surprise!

Overall, I can forgive the so-so food and lackluster entertainment in favor of the deal we got and the friendly atmosphere. Our stateroom attendant was very attentive and friendly, and I actually gave him an extra tip! We had been eyeing a 12-day cruise for this December which encompasses Christmas and New Years' on the Grandeur of the Seas. We wanted to check out this ship first, and were interested in any deals they may have for booking on board. Glad we did, because the price was the same and they needed only $150 down per stateroom, of which I booked two, and they gave us that amount back in credit to use on the cruise we were on, PLUS another $50 for each stateroom for the next cruise! So basically FREE deposit!

In summation, I would rank Royal Caribbean third out of the three lines we've sailed, but that's not meant to be a criticism. Disney is our favorite, but pricey (we don't pay because we are DVC members, but can only cruise every so often due to the points needed.) Princess is nice, but didn't have the itinerary or dates we wanted. This cruise went to 4 stops in a 7-day sailing which is uncommon, and three of the four were places we hadn't been (Still haven't been to Roatan, sadly.) The Christmas cruise is 12 days, with 5 stops, 3 of which we've never been to. Oh, and the onboard agent was able to list WTH () as our agent, so we can possibly get more promotions through them!

If the saying "you get what you pay for" is true, then I guess we did, because we paid a very low price, yet still had a great time! Any time I started to think "Hmm..." about anything, I remembered the low fare we paid for the cruise. If the litmus test is "would you do it again?" then the answer is resoundingly "YES!" (since we ARE!!)

                                       ---Docked in Costa Maya---

                            ---Costa Maya, seen from the Ship---

                                 ---The view from the deck while at Sea---

                                        ---Sunset, Last Night at Sea---

                                          ---The Vision in Belize---

This ship was the smallest I have been on thus far. This ship showed how small it was with its service, structor and amenities of lack there of. I was disappointed and let down by this ship and Royal Caribbean in general. Food is a big part of cruising and I was disappointed a few times with the service and quality. The breakfast service in the Main dining room was very slow. My wife and I ate at the specialty dining restuarant Giovanni's Table. Most of courses were very good but dessert was weak. My cannoli was soft and my wife's tiramisu was not to standard to say the least. Our room was a Junior Suite, I was nice a big, with a touch of the little extras but, there was sounds of stomping and other loud sounds overhead at night while my wife and I tried to sleep. Later I discovered it was the workers rearranging the chairs and tables on the Pool's deck. The gym to be fair may have been a victim of surcumstance; I have never been on a ship that had so many people in shape before, so this meant the small gym was packed. The shows were ho-hum, the acrobatic wire or bungie show was lack luster and the comedy show was out dated. There were more things wrong with this ship and her crew but I am sure you get the point by now.

This ship had some nice features and like most cruise ships it was beautiful inside but the were no WOW moments for me. If you are not familiar, Wow is Royal Caribbean's current slogan and/or campaign. Also go for a bigger ship I went with ship against my personal rule of No Small Ships but it was recently "Dry Docked" so I thought I would be safe. I was wrong.

Worse cruise ever! No sleep, activities steered toward a geriatrics cruise. Was not impressed with day time and nightly entertainment. Cruise ended with me being positive for Covid which I definitely got on the ship. THE WORSE CRUISE EVER!

There was a lot to do and we had fun. The food was decent most of the time and the staff was really nice. The rooms were cleaned daily. I also really liked the photographers. I got a lot of good pictures in my photo package.

There was one inconvenience with our cruise. A pipe burst in the hallway ceiling flooding our room. Staff was immediately there correcting the problem. They worked tirelessly cleaning and drying and accommodating our needs. Things happen and the staff couldn’t have done more to make the situation right!

Great time! Great food! Great entertainment! Great service! Can't wait to come back!

Cruise was excellent. Service was wonderful. Food was decent for the most part, but Chops Grille and Giovanni's were excellent.

Loved the cruise. I will def return to Bermuda to stay on the island as our time there was so limited. This would be my only complaint that we literally were only in this pristine place for a total of 24 hours. Too little time to really explore around

It was my 72 year old birthday cruise. I couldn’t have been happier! Thanks for the cake