RCCL Fan

A strawberry daiquiri?? a beef teriyaki bowl with fried rice, and sauteed veggies

Nope, I think I was drinking gin and ginger ale that night.... carry over from what I started in the suite lounge And Yes, once I sailed on Serenade for the first time and they had all the activities I remember saying, " this is the royal caribbean I grew up with, do all these silly things to get shipshape dollars and royal caribbean key chains." I loved it. Then I realized it still was alive and well on the small ships, but eliminated on the big ones, which had a "hard product" to keep you busy.

Stick around. See how it shakes out. I love that same of you get the impression I didn't like the small ship and other get the impression I did. Means I'm down the middle where I like to be.

Stick with me for more, but no I have zero positive things to say about the windjammer hamburgers

I neglected to say the Izumi dinner was amazing!! Like soo good. We don't eat Japanese often because my wife doesn't eat seafood and the girls are super picky, but everyone not only found something they liked but genuinely enjoyed it. Izumi was a winner for sure.

Day 2 At Sea First Sea days for me are usually a wash. All the last minute packing, working my butt off to get things at the office wrapped up before I leave and the travel trouble navigating the 4 of us to the ship. Usually Day 2, I sleep in, slowly leave the room and miss the first half of the day. This time I actually got up to go to the top tier party. Especially on the smaller ships I find the parties interesting as there are usually some more experienced cruisers who have wonderful stories of their years on board. I enjoyed my early morning champagne, and listening to the stories of the top cruisers on board, as well as hearing how much the ship was in transition. Many people were leaving and new staff coming aboard. They were operating with about half their usual number of crew members as Royal deals with the same thing everyone else is, a lack of workers. Enjoyed the cruise director Mey, she had lots of energy and seemed very genuine, which is so important in a role of cruise director on a smaller ship. Since some of you have expressed interest in the small ship experience, I'll break it down for you like I see it. Royal Caribbean has two products for you on your vacation activity wise The first is the hard product. That's the ship. The things to do. Rock Climbing walls, ice skating rinks, zip lines, & flowriders, and Royal Promenades and hot tubs and pools. Then there's the soft product. Trivia games, scavenger hunts, dance parties, towel making classes sexy leg contests, etc. The bigger ships are heavy on the hard products. There's so much stuff to do the staff doesn't have to work hard to keep you entertained. The smaller ships lack lots of hard product and so they go super heavy on the soft product. You will find yourself engaging in more silly activities and contests and what not, because it's how we all stay entertained on the ship. While these people not be things I'd enjoy doing on my day to day often, on a small ship where the drinks are flowing, well it's easier to do so. I had been back in the cabin a few minutes and the phone rang it was our concierge Jamie. He wanted to introduce himself to us, and asked if he could come to our suite to say hello and get to know us. Wow. I mean I haven't stayed in a TON of full suites but enough to know this wasn't usual, it was a first for us. Jamie was AMAZING. Came over talked to us and asked questions about the birthdays and anniversaries and our plans. Wanted to meet the girls and sat and chatted with them. Made sure they would have their fruity pebble treats and chocolate covered strawberries, promised to help with any reservations and genuinely had that Royal Caribbean, " I am here to serve you on your vacation, just name it" attitude that made me fall in love with this company years ago. When I do my reviews I just go through my phone and look at the photos i took and time of day to help me recall my days. And yes, I remember still being salty about last nights dinner. So I sat and looked at the main dining room dinners for the week and tried to see what I would be willing to eat if we went there, and then book our specialty dining nights around the nights I didn't see much. I wound up tossing this plan later. After that I decided to take the girls up to the pool deck for pool time, hoping we could grab some chairs while people ventured to windjammer for lunch. That was a tall order. My wife and oldest went to the second level to lay in the sun and read and tan. Little bit wanted a hot tub but they were packed, so we opted for the pool. IT WAS FREEZING, like HOLY FREEZING. My youngest likes to jump in our pool at home even in the winter, and says " you get used to it" but even she struggled with this pool. The sun was beating down, it was warm out, but that pool water was still chilly. We started with just our feet, and slowly added more until we made it all the way in and could swim. We spent a lot of time up here, we must have missed the pool games as nothing was really going on. just folks enjoying the pool and water. There weren't many servers walking around so we had to go to the bar for our frozen concoctions but they were yummy and service was fast at the bar. We rolled through Windjammer and wow, I was unimpressed. Like I felt there was half the normal amount of food, and something I had never seen on any cruise at lunch.... leftover breakfast. Like hashbrowns and sausages, It was weird. I mean there was enough to hobble something together, but there was nothing that was really looked like anything I wanted to eat. So I passed the two steam tables and went for the center section where they keep burgers and dogs and fries I could always eat that. Wrong. The burgers were horrible, like thin meat with a kinda grainy texture to it. I had this once before on another ship and it was awful, and here it was again. So I had some unimpressive baked fish, and more boxed mashed potatoes but this time with gravy, and some salad. We got out of there quickly. After I had forgotten that my knock off mix and mingle group was meeting. We had a solid group of nearly 200 people (from the social media site everyone uses but cruise critic still hates for you to mention for some silly reason) and several of us agreed to meet in the Viking Crown to meet in person. It was a fun group, lots of first time cruisers. Tonight was formal night and I had forgotten to send my clothes off to dry cleaning to get pressed like I normally do night one. We're usually "team formal night "people, and love to dress up, take photos, I brought my tux! Tonight we were kinda half into it. Asked Jamie if he could get us into Izumi. He got us something around 7:30, later than we wanted but not bad. We went to the concierge club to sit and chat and order some drinks. WE LOVED IT HERE. We met lovely people, I had the best heavy snacks, the fried fish fingers were perfect and the girls enjoyed their pre-requested strawberries and fruity pebbles treats. I know there's a large group of you who feel all children should be left home or ride in a lifeboat following the ship let alone be allowed in the concierge club. Well my youngest stopped every night and picked up the days trivia sheet from the game room and brought it with her to the club "so i have a quiet activity to do while everyone is talking" She also insisted we take a table in the corner so as not to disturb anyone. They were scolded once on a previous cruise by an elderly couple as they used the key and walked into the club silently to join us "don't be loud in here, this is an adult place" It's been years and it kinda still haunts them. There really are some well behaved kids out there folks. Give them a chance. After our snacks, and free drinks and mingling in the club we all kinda were like we didn't even need dinner, we had a lovely time. But Izumi awaited and off we went. THIS PLACE WAS PACKED! On vision Izumi is in the Viking Crown, across two levels . The entire downstairs was full and we were one of 3 tables upstairs at first but they filled up too as the night went on. Now get this. There were 2 servers for the entire restaurant. TWO. They were running around like crazy trying to make do. The host/manager was waiting tables too trying to help. We felt sorry for them. It was just too much work. Most everyone was understanding, there was of course that one table with the raised voices unhappy, But for the most part they kept the food and drinks coming despite being overwhelmed. One or two special requests were forgotten but it wasn't anything too significant. After dinner we took in a show, I honestly don't remember what it was, but it wasn't great clearly. My oldest and I decided to wander a bit and enjoy some music, in the lobby while my wife and youngest went to bed. We sat and chatted and enjoyed some catching up which we needed before heading to bed because tomorrow is LABADEE!

Ah Loved that junior suite! You guys enjoy!

Jimbo, are you calling me a complainer? 😉 A review or two ago people said I was a cheerleader! lol

it's about the same size, a day bigger i guess since it was the next class of ships built after Sovereign class. I will always miss Monarch, she was my ship of that class.

I voted with my feet....

Ha she's super shy, and would never agreed to that, but since she thought she was just sending a text video to her grandmother, she was herself. lol I laughed because I was like well, I don't have to do a youtube review of the room now. hahaha

There's several though.... Hyatt Place Airport East, Hyatt Place Airport West, Hyatt House Airport, and Hyatt Miami Coral Gables are the closest to the airport. Hyatt Regency Miami isn't far either. The two Hyatt Places near the airport are both fine. Done both. East is more modern in design and closer to the terminal. West is further away and is the cookie cutter original hyatt place design that you can find in every suburb across America. I've not done the Hyatt House as it has had rough reviews, but they seem to be better lately. And Coral Gables is great, wonderful hotel great neighborhood and usually a tad cheaper than the downtown miami one. It is further South which sucks if you're sailing out of Port Everglades. Most annoying is none of them offer airport shuttles, and so we've stayed at my backup hotel loyalty club of Marriott when we fly into Miami because they have solid shuttle service.

We started small ship sailing a few years ago. We really enjoy it. We also like Voyager class which is a solid compromise between small and big. I have some old reviews of each I can post if you like

Day 1 Cruise Day Woke up to a little surprise this morning.... news that Vision did not dock at it's scheduled pier 19, the weird one tucked in the corner next to the Oasis class, but had moved to pier 25 the terminal used by celebrity cruise lines. Well that's cool! After a quick stop at the drug store for some Micellar Water, whatever that is, for one kid, and bubble gum for the other, we returned the rental, and hopped in a cab (much easier than Uber at FLL) and headed to the port. Pulled up to the port, and it was empty! Like two maybe three cars and that's it. Was something wrong? Nope, Just me. Vision's a small ship and immediately upon arrival its a different experience. No crowds. I snapped a photo of Harmony and Liberty which were both docked. But Harmony was empty. No passengers getting on, she was just sitting there. So really it was just us and Liberty in port. Celebrity Terminal was beautifully decorated, a very luxe welcome to a ship. It was also extremely streamlined, you walked in two double doors, went up an escalator where you went through a metal detector and as soon as you walked through someone looked at your electronic documents, smiled, and said, you're free to board. We were from curb to ship in less than 10 minutes, and that's including the brief stop we made for a pair of lost sunglasses, which were easily found at security. Anyway, shocked at how simple boarding was, we made a beeline to the gangway and hopped on board the ship. I think all of were super excited for this trip. There were new islands for all of us, even one new one for me, which is super rare. We got on board the ship and there was our familiar old school Vision. We first sailed her in 2019, it was the one class of Royal I had never sailed, and we were scared to death we were going to be board, and the kids were going to hate it, because well, she's simple, old school, a lobby with a bar, a tiny shopping area. dining room/theater and a pool deck and that's kinda it. But we had an amazing time on Vision in 2019 my family loved the small feel of the ship even my always bored youngest called it her favorite ship. So walking back on board felt nice, like a comfy pair of slippers. Guess my wife was right... small ships are the jam. It was 10 or 11am so rooms weren't ready yet. There weren't a ton of reservations to move, switch or change like on an Oasis class ship, so, we said, lets do the obligatory first stop. Windjammer. And that's when I was like a ha! wifey, maybe you're NOT right. There was a line for windjammer that went from one side of the windjammer entrance to the other and then down through the pool deck area and back nearly to the aft elevators. In my 35 years sailing I had never seen anything like this in my life. Since it's Vision, there weren't really other eating options. Only other thing open was park cafe which also had a huge line of people fed up with the windjammer line, and then Chops.I said, we're going to Chops! We had no reservation, and I didn't care what it cost there was no way I was waiting in that line. So we walked in and were greeted by the Maitre D, and warmly welcomed to Chops. Oh were we doted on by this amazing staff. They got a table by the window, and even chairs for my daughter's stuffed animals. That comfy slipper feeling returned as we sat down, our drinks were out in minutes, and we were able to relax and talk and just enjoy being on vacation. While we sat there the maitre d came by to apologize profusely. The kitchen was closed. What! He said it wouldn't be long but for right not the kitchen was cleared out. Concerned that we were about to have 10 days of not being able to find food, I asked what was going on, and then it all made sense. Surprise inspection by the health department. Inspectors boarded the ship just as we did and immediately went to Windjammer and shut it down, removed all the staff, while they inspected the kitchen. That's why there was such a long line. No one was allowed in the windjammer while inspectors went around to serving tables, the kitchen, etc. It really screwed windjammer staff as they were cleaning from breakfast from the last sailing and trying to quickly wash, clean, and cook and prepare for the new sailing to come aboard and want lunch and then boom. get out at 11am. When they finally got the kitchen back, there was no lunch prepared and it was nearly noon. Still had dishes to wash etc. My cruise group on a social media site was blowing up with cruisers being like, "what kind of mess is this?" We also sat perplexed watching an empty Harmony back up and change directions and dock again... still no one onboard but staff. Our server told us that morning was rough, he said their pier assignments changed last minute, there was not border and customs agents to greet the ship, He was like it was just a very unusual day... including Harmony spinning around passenger less. After Windjammer the inspectors came to the small kitchen in Chops, which we could see from our table. Chef and staff were waiting outside while they went through everything, and then boom they were back in the kitchen cooking. It really wasn't a long wait and I was impressed at how quickly our meals came out after the chef got control of the kitchen back. Every time I'm in Chops I get steak but for this impromptu lunch I went with the salmon and it was amazing! Everyone enjoyed their meal, my wife had a salad which again she never does, my oldest was like you guys are crazy, she got a filet, and the youngest ordered a bowl of plain pasta and loved it and declared it her meal of the cruise. Yes, every cruise she picks one thing, and orders it 75% of the time. One cruise it was all hamburgers, another chicken, it's vacation we let her be. This time, pasta with butter and cheese... OK. We all LOVED our food. Best salmon I've had in a while, and my daughter wanted a second filet. We all were like YES!!!!! After lunch it was announced Rooms were ready and this was going to be an interesting one. Cabin 8000 We won a Royal Up bid for a No balcony Oceanview suite. This was a source of significant argument in my house. My wife kept saying "I don't think it makes sense to spend that much money on a suite and you don't have a balcony, you're just going to be looking out a porthole window, I just think this is a mistake" In her defense, she had never sailed in a room without a balcony, and she does like to have her morning coffee out there. But I was trying to win and be practical. There are not a lot of suites on Vision and from the minute we booked they were almost all sold out, just 1 or two left. I knew the chances of us getting a grand or owners suites were pretty slim, like someone would have to cancel, they were all booked. However every week from time we booked until we sailed the one lone no balcony suite was open, never booked put on hold nothing. I had never even heard of this cabin, seen it before other than the panoramic ones on the voyager class. I couldn't find many photos online, I assumed others like me didn't know what it was. I felt my chances were best taken there. It was a full suite, with suite benefits, and came with two separate bedrooms so we could have a room and so could our kids, plus two bathrooms, which is amazing, plus a sitting area. I'm like I'm sorry that's a win, even if it caused my wife to lose her beloved balcony. We got there, and this cabin was all the way forward away from the other cabins, the door was in a tiny vestibule, with one other door that let to the bridge. inside and opened the door to be greeted by a lovely desk/sitting area, gleaming marble floors, and some champagne and water. There was the separate bedroom for the kids with 4 twins including two bunks which was youngest was so excited to sleep in a bunk but oddly enough no TV in this room, which seemed just bizarre. There was a living area with long hall which the bedrooms and bathrooms were off of. I had recently been asked by Royal to help out and give them opinions on some new products they were rolling out, and while giving them feedback, I mentioned our excitement for the upcoming anniversary/birthday cruise and so they had our cabin beautifully decorated for us which was so kind. Check out a link to a video my youngest made of the room to send to her grandmother who was home watching our dogs for us while we were gone. 🙂 After getting settled in our cabin, our oldest in pure teenager mode was exhausted from school and activities, and well she wanted to sleep, and she did. We wandered the ship a little but in little ship fashion there wasn't much going on and so my wife and youngest pulled a scrabble game off the shelf in the library and wanted to play. I was like seriously, we get on a cruise ship and you guys wanna play scrabble. They did. I let them play a bit while I went to take in the views outside. I'll wax poetic for a second. I'm a pisces, so I'm a water guy, there's something about being at sea that instantly calms me, relaxes me and makes me feel right with the world. Standing on deck 5 (since we don't have our own balcony) and just looking at the water, I started to just reflect. Some of you may remember I lost my dad recently, while onboard Navigator for new years. I needed some me time and I was excited to get it. After my deep thoughts on the deck I went to join my girls for their scrabble game... only here did I point out there were playing Spanish scrabble. They died laughing. I mean my wife is Latina but doesn't speak Spanish so this is just funny. We went back to the room to get ready for dinner. Oldest was knocked out cold, and we decided to just let her sleep, while the three of us went down to the dining room. This was going to be a big deal Royal had just adopted the "infamous new menu" and everyone was saying how rough it was. I couldn't believe it to be that bad, but this was time to tell. First course I had the crab cake, It was really good. I enjoyed it a lot. I was quite concerned that it didn't have crab in it and some type of fish. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed it whatever it was. I was like OK... this is going to be fine. Then well, it was bad, really bad. Check out this plate. This was my main course dinner in the dining room, a cafeteria scoop of instant mashed potatoes, and a piece of corn, and an unrecognized "portion" of chicken that was slightly larger than two chicken nuggets. The portion size was shockingly unacceptable. I put one fork in my potatoes and it tasted purely like boxed flakes, and then the chicken was absolutely flavorless. I ate nothing. It was bad. We left the dining room and my wife who had just got off Adventure the week earlier with her mom and sister said, "we ate in windjammer every night because it was better than the dining room, the food in there was just bad". So I went to windjammer, I was hungry, that salmon from lunch had long gone. I walked into windjammer and well, I laughed. After the salad bar, there was literally the exact same food from the dining room. There were few alternate choices here, just alternate location to eat. I didn't like any of the options so just got more of the bland fried chicken and called it a night. Got back to the room and found three more bottles of champagne from different friends who bought them for us for my birthday and our anniversary. Although, one had the same card, so I think they may have delivered it twice, oh well! haha My daughter finally woke up and ordered room service, which she enjoyed and I have to say looked much better than anything I had. We unpacked, got settled, and I believe turned in early that night for bed. I'd be hungry for breakfast that was for sure. Next Day at Sea!

Which one? I'm a World of Hyatt member, so I've done quite a few.

Ha. Yes & No Yes in that KSF was definitely pre-pandemic and as a father of two AMAZING, it was the only time the sale was truly significant and made you want to run and book everything. It only happened like twice a year but it was great. Post pandemic you see KSF much more often, but the pricing doesn't change much. Typical RCI claim of a sale but they twist the numbers around the the price is only a few bucks less than it was pre-sale.

My apologies for being a little late with this review. I've been a little slower to catch up these days. This time we're reviewing the March 10th, sailing of Vision. 10 nights to Labadee, San Juan, St. Maarten, Antigua, St. Lucia, & St Kitts. Sailing with my girls... my amazing wife, and two daughters ages 9 and 14. We live in the Dallas, TX area, and I have been sailing Royal since I was my kids ages... and while my wife may have married me for my loyalty points, (kidding, i think) she and my kids have sailed enough to pretty much earned their own status in C & A. Spring Break hits each year and it's the week we celebrate two birthdays and an anniversary, and each year we choose to cruise. It's always a debate on where we're cruising. I like big ships, my wife small. My youngest likes driving to Galveston to port, my oldest prefers flying so we can more variety. Trying to make everyone happen it always an adventure. We originally had radiance booked our of Galveston to Bimini, Key West & CocoCay, but then stumbled upon an amazing deal on Vision, even with losing our deposit on Radiance it would be worth it. So here we go a semi live day by day breakdown with lots of pics. Day 0 The obligatory day before the cruise... bags packed in the family truckster to DFW airport and then the flight out to South Florida. Well it started off on the wrong foot. We picked up the girls from school, technically taking them out a day early, and headed to the airport and hit trouble. I'll spare you ALL the details, but the highlights are crazy enough. The conveyor belt that brings the luggage downstairs to the ramp was broken. So we had to walk from gate 30 to gate 1 to a working belt, and brand new employees buckling under all the extra passengers. We got to the gate --- thunderstorms, stuck for a while. We boarded. Maintenance issues. Had to wait for repairs. More thunderstorms. Then we get out to the runway, number 2 for takeoff and boom, pulled out of line, an air traffic control hold on all flights east due to traffic backups. We were on the ground in Dallas so long waiting to take off that we were able to watch an entire movie. My youngest takes her headset off and says "are we almost there" We all laughed, my teen is like "Look out the window genius, we haven't moved yet" Check out the photos and you can see daylight, then night, we still sat at the gate. Eventually we took off, dodged some bumps in the air... (let me say I'm proudly team don't recline your seat in the person's lap behind you.... ugh) and landed in Miami. Our ship was sailing out of Fort Lauderdale, yes, but I always fly into Miami because both Dallas and Miami are international hubs for the airlines. So they run some of the big widebody planes... with premium economy cabins and TV's... which really come in handy for delays like this one. Anyway, once on the ground in Miami, we pull into the gate, and wait.... apparently they couldn't get the jetbridge to move to the plane. We waited, and waited, maintenance was called, and we sat there for more than an hour. Well, I sat there. You know those people who jump up the second the plane stops and grabs their bag and just stand there even though the plane door isn't open. Well, they stood there... for an hour and a half. The captain made them all sit down because they concluded we needed to move the plane forward 25 feet to get the door open. So, 2 hours on the ground in Dallas, 3 in the air, and an hour and 45 minutes parked at the gate after we landed, trying to open the door. I was like we could have flown to Europe lol Anyway, we got off the plane, and bags came off super fast, we grabbed them, got our rental car, and went off to the Hyatt where we got some sleep because tomorrow is CRUISE DAY!!!!

I went with cruise guy and waited. Just saw the poll results, whoops. I am concerned about the 14% of those who wanted to see me as shark food. Let me get through my last work week day and then i'll get started on the review.

no idea

Enchantment has the table in the exact same space as vision. Right in the door

chops was great though

hey there. I’m on vision too! the line was so crazy, we went to chops instead. got here and found out why…. the health inspector boarded the ship and did surprise kitchen inspections. so they couldn’t cook or serve. that’s why. we were delayed eating in chops too

Just boarded vision for 10 days to southern Caribbean

I agreed 30 years of cruising under my belt and I haven't figured out anything better than paying for that limo yet.

As a business traveler, the rental car process is easy for me, I do it all the time. Typically I get off the plane while my wife and kids go to baggage claim, I hop the monorail to Hertz, grab my car (no lines, no wait, frequent customer), and pull out the lot and make it back to baggage claim and the bags haven't even starting coming off the belt yet. I'm also super familiar with South Florida driving. Not to mention it's $30 for the rental car, $180 for the UberXL/limo. Many times I do the limo as you mentioned it's just easier, but I know often times folks on this board have some method of doing things I've never thought of..... so figured I'd check.