Review: Vision of the Seas - July 16 - 23, 2011 - Baltics

[cruiseequalsfun]

Below is a somewhat short review of my recent cruise. If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them! Overall, it was a fantastic cruise! While I may mention a few disappointments in the review, in general no real complaints at all, it was a fantastic cruise with some wonderful ports!

 

Ship: Vision of the Seas

Date: July 16 - July 23, 2011

Itinerary:

Saturday - Depart Stockholm, Sweden

Sunday - Helsinki, Finland

Monday - St. Petersburg, Russia

Tuesday - Sea day

Wednesday - Riga, Latvia

Thursday - Gdansk (Gdynia), Poland

Friday - Visby, Sweden

Saturady - Arrive Stockholm, Sweden

 

Background:

This was my 10th cruise on Royal Caribbean and 14th cruise overall. I am in my mid/late 30's and cruised with my sister. This was my first cruise as a Diamond crown and anchor member. We spent 8 days pre-cruise touring Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm so we were fully adjusted to the time by the time we boarded the ship.

 

Ship:

Overall I was pleased with the ship. I did not see any wear and tear. They did close the outside pool for 24+ hours to clean it in the middle of the cruise which I found odd. I am not sure if it was an emergency cleaning or a planned cleaning, but I've not been on a cruise where it was closed for so long.

 

We were in an inside room on the 7th floor, almost mid-ship. We never heard any noise at all from the room and I liked the location. Two floors away from the Pools/Windjammer and just 2-3 floors away from the dining room, theater, shops, etc.

 

Everyone - crew and passengers seemed to be very nice and friendly. It was a sold out cruise and not too many kids (100? is my guess). They indicated it was a record for number of countires on this cruise - with people from 59 different countries. Also, there were only 400 repeat RCL cruises onboard so a lot of 1st time cruisers and / or 1st time to RCL.

 

Dining:

We had My Time Dining which had both it's positives and negatives. We did MTD last year and enjoyed it as we were always at a table of 8-10 and it seemed liked we dined with several of the same people each night. On Vision, the first night we were at a table for 2 and inquired about a larger table. They indicated that the ship only does MTD for your party and that you will never sit with others due to many groups and so many different languages on board. This was a slight disappointment as it is always nice to meet other people. We did have the same waiters every night and they were great though. And being just the 2 of us, dinners went by quickly!

 

In general I thought the food was good. No complaints from me, but I am not a "foodie" either. We ate breakfast in the Windjammer every day and I only wish the bacon was cooked longer! The last day (departure day) they seemed to be lacking somewhat on choices, not sure if it was because we were later than most that day or it was planned. All but one night we had dinner in the dining room and the food was good there too. For lunches we primarily ate in the ports and sometimes would come back for a snack in the Solarium or Windjammer when we got back on the ship.

 

One very minor complaint about the Solarium Cafe is that the night of the midnight buffet (that started at 11:15) that occured in the Solarium around the pool area, is that about 10:30 I tried to get a cookie from the Solarium Cafe as the compass indicated it was open until 2am. They claimed they were closed due to the buffet. If that is the case then they should have noted that in the compass and the sign in front of the Solarium Cafe!

 

Solarium Pool, Spa, and Gym:

We enjoyed the solarium pool area pretty much every day for at least an hour or two. It was nice to relax in the hot tub after a day of sight-seeing. The only complaint was the lack of enforcement on the adult only area. They did open the pool up 4 hours a day to kids due to the colder weather, but even outside of those times children would be in the pools. Also, all day long kids could be in the solarium running around, using the chairs, etc. I asked about that as in all my prior cruises the whole area was adult only. They indicated that the Solarium could be used by anyone but children could not be in the pools/hot tubs outside of the 4 hours a day. I definitely don't recall that from prior cruises. In general none of the kids were loud or acting inappropriately so it was ok, just not what I have experienced in the past.

 

We did not have any spa treatments while on-board, but did take advantage of the sauna and steam room which was nice.

 

We used the gym once and I used the jogging track once. The gym is quite small, but I think it is that size on all the Vision class ships. Since we did so much walking in ports, we really did not plan to use the gym much anyway, just the sea day.

 

Weather:

We definitely lucked out on the weather department. The weather was fantastic in all the ports. 70's to low 80's. Many days had a high percent of rain, but as I recall only in 1-2 ports did we have a few rain drops and not even enough to break out the umbrella. We did have a few nights of big storms that we sailed through and the sea day morning it rained until lunchtime, but overall we were extremely lucky weather-wise.

 

We did arrive back to Stockholm on the departure morning over an hour late. We heard it was due to weather, but other crew indicated engine issues and/or port traffic issues. So not sure what the real reason was.

 

Entertainment:

We attended 3 parties, all occurred between the 1st and 2nd dining times. The first was the Captain's Party on the first formal night (Day 2). On the 4th night (Casual) was the Welcome Back Party. The 5th night was the Platinum and above party. All were the same as I've been to on past ships. The Platinum and above party though was a lot smaller crowd. For example, only 44 Diamond members on the cruise!

 

Also we met the requirement for a meet & mingle party and that was held on Day 3, the sea day. While the roll call did not have many posts on it compared to previous cruises, it was definitely nice to meet everyone in person. Everyone we met from cruise critic was so nice! They had some drinks (fruit punch) and a bit of food and 2 members of the activity staff attended, welcomed everyone, and did several raffle prizes.

 

The shows in general were ok. They did some "annoying" things at the begining of each show that I've not experienced in the past. They always seemed to show a goofy video and the activity staff would do a game. I could have done without that, but it was only 5-10 minutes. The cruise director did show a few slides and talked about a few key points of interest for each port before the show too. I thought that was a nice point. The following were the shows:

Saturday - Welcome Aboard show with Peter Rosendahl - a world record unicycle champion

Sunday - RCL Singers and Dancers - Broadway Rhythm and Rhyme

Monday - Russian Folkloric Show (we missed this one and they even recorded it and re-played it the next day, but we missed that too!)

Tuesday - Emperors of Soul

Wednesday - Backbeat Beatles

Thursday - RCL Singer and Dancers - Boogie Wonderland

Friday - Farewell show and Duo Enchantment (acrobatics)

 

We always went to the 9pm show (when there were 2 shows) and all shows were 100% packed, standing room only! I have not seen that high of attendance in a long time for the nightly entertainment.

 

The other "shows" were not well attended, including even Quest. Typically Quest is standing room only and at least half the room was empty. Perhaps it was due to language issues? Also, they did not do Love and Marriage show which I always find entertaining. Not sure it RCL has removed this show or if it was just this ship.

 

The casino was never crowded at all. I don't think they made much money off the casino this cruise! Even when I spoke to the cashier in the casino she mentioned it being very quite our cruise, especially compared to the prior week's cruise. We did some slots a few minutes a couple of nights, but that was it.

 

Embarkation/Ports/Disembarkation:

 

Stockholm - We spent several days pre-cruise in Stockholm and had the Stockholm card. Therefore we used public transportation (bus) to get to the cruise terminal from the hotel. We new in advance that it would be about a 5-8 minute walk with luggage following the blue line to the terminal so we were nice. We boarded very quickly, but I think we were lucky. I heard others that got there before us had very long lines at security. Ours were maybe 5 minutes. Also, after security we got our boarding cards immediately, no wait in the Diamond line, but the other line was so long I imagine people were waiting in line 30 minutes or more.

 

Disembarking on the last day was very easy for us. The ship did offer shuttle service to central station and the airport, but we had pre-purchased the local bus service tickets. We did self-disembarkation which ended up being a good decision since the ship was late. We had no issues getting off and walked to the bus stop (5-8 minutes away). We took the bus to Central Station where we stored our bags in a larger locker (60 SEK) for the day while we did more sight-seeing.

 

Helsinki, Finland -

We did this port on our own. The cruise ship was offering transportation into the main city for 8 Euros roundtrip, but we purchased a 7 Euro all day transportation pass through the local bus. The bus station was only ~200 yards away. This was a great value as it also included the ferry ride to Suomenlinna Island.

 

After arriving in the town at the main square we found that we had about 15 minutes until the next ferry to Suomenlinna left so we quickly checked out some of the souviner stands in the market place.

 

We then spent about 3 hours at Suomenlinna Fortress. I had found online a walking tour of the fortress that we used but I understand the visitor's center also had some free guides as well.

 

Afterwards we returned to Market Square we used Rick Steve's self-guided walking tour of the Market Square area, Lutheran Cathedral, Uspenski Cathedral, Esplanade, etc. The walk ended at the Temppekiakio Church. Which afterwards we took a local bus to the Sibelius Monument before returning to the ship.

 

I enjoyed Helsinki more than I thought I would.

 

St. Petersburg, Russia -

10 of us from the roll call did a tour with SPB tours. It was a fantastic day. It began at 7am and finished at 7:30pm. Our guide was great. She was extremely knowledgeable. It was a custom intinerary, but we saw pretty much all the standard sights, except the Hermitage, as it is closed on Monday's. We all met and exited the ship together in case there were any issues but there were none. We were all off and through customs in a matter of minutes.

 

The tour began with ~2 hours of sight-seeing in the city with several stops as well as a subway ride. Next was a visit to a Greek Orthodox church and a visit to Catherine's palace. Next was a walk through Peterhof Fountain park and a hydrofoil ride through the city. We then visited the Church on the Spilled Blood followed by a 1 hour canal boat ride. We then stopped for some souviner shopping and bit more city sight-seeing before returning to the ship.

 

I was very, very excited about visiting Russia and the day totally exceeded my expectations!

 

Riga, Latvia -

Besides St. Petersburg, I very much enjoyed Riga, more than I thought! (Same with Visby). The ship docked at most a 10 minute walk to the heart of the old town. They did offer a shuttle service (5 Euros roundtrip I think), but it really is not needed unless you have walking difficulties.

 

I had found online a self-guided walking tour which we did from 7-Noon. We saw all the key sights as well as we took the evelator to the top of St. Peter's Church for some wonderful views of the city. We did this after the walking tour and could look out and see everywhere we walked.

 

We followed that up with a 2.5 hour bicycle tour from a company we found on-line. The bike tour went outside of the old city to the Moscow districk, Jewish ghetto area, art nuevo area, central district, etc. The guide was extremely knowledgeable and provided a lot of history on the area. Overall, I enjoyed this tour quite a bit and would highly recommend it. Google Riga bike tours and you will find it.

 

Gdansk (Gdynia), Poland -

I enjoyed this port, but I wish we had more time here. An extra 2 hours would have been nice especially since we ported in Gdynia which is 35 min train ride to Gdansk.

 

Again, this was a do-it-yourself day. We took a taxi to the Gdynia train station and then the train to Gdansk. We did a walking tour of Gdansk and even climbed the 400 stairs of St. Mary's Church for some great views of the city. We felt somewhat rushed all day to be sure we caught the train back to Gdynia and then taxi back to the port to be on-time but it all worked out.

 

As an FYI, the ship did offer for 10 Euros round trip a shuttle service into the center of Gdynia, but if there are even 2 people in your party, taxi is cheaper.

 

Visby, Sweden -

I very much enjoyed Visby! It was a perfect weather day and a great way to end the cruise. The tourist information center a few hundred yards from were you tender too has some great maps and they will even tell you all the key places to visit. I found on-line a walking tour of sorts that we used.

 

We first walked the walls on the outside - 2 miles long. Afterwards we walked through the inside, stopping at all the ruins and churches. Many you can even climb (carefully). One thing fellow cruisers told us that I had not read about it that there is a staircase next to St. Maria Cathedral (I think that was the name, it was the only church still in use), that takes you up for some excellent views of the town and the cruise ship. Definitely a great stop for some pictures! We ended the day at the Botantic Gardens before heading back to the ship.

 

Diamond Perks:

I mentioned the Platinum and above party, but in addition to that, in the evenings Diamond's could go to the Viking Crown Lounge for free drinks. We went there 2 times and it was never crowded at all, literally no one was there. Probably again, because there were very, very few crown and anchor members on board. They also had the breakfast room available (separate room in the Dining Room), but we never went there for breakfast.

 

The coupon book was no different than what has been posted in other posts, and some of them are very good, such as the free photo, 30 minutes of free internet, and the $2/min phone calls from your cabin! I never thought I would ever use a phone from the cruise ship but I actually made 2 very, very short calls.

 

Lasting Thoughts:

Overall it was a fantastic cruise. The ship, the staff, and the fellow cruisers were all great. Wonderful 5 ports, pretty much perfect weather, and also a wonderful 8 days pre-cruise in Copenhagen and Oslo.

 

If anyone has any questions on the ship, ports, etc, please let me know and I'll do my best to answer them for you!

[jud123]

Thanks for your review. We are leaving for stockholm on Thursday for the VOS departing on Saturday. Quick question- What currency did you use in the ports- dollars, euros or local currency??

[NCMtnBoys]

LOVED our Baltic cruise on the Vision last year. Brought back lots of memories reading your review. Would like to get to Gdansk and Riga one day (ours went from Copenhagen to Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helisinki and Stockholm, back to Copenhagen). Thanks for writing the review!

[cruiseequalsfun]

Thanks for your review. We are leaving for stockholm on Thursday for the VOS departing on Saturday. Quick question- What currency did you use in the ports- dollars, euros or local currency??

 

We had local currency for all countries prior to arriving for the ship so we used local currency. I believe for the most part all the tourist type places would take Euros but I'm sure some places won't. You may want to ask before purchasing something! I think most ports also had ATM machines in/near the port too.

 

If you have other questions before you leave, please let me know and I'll try to answer them. If not, enjoy your trip!

[cruiseequalsfun]

LOVED our Baltic cruise on the Vision last year. Brought back lots of memories reading your review. Would like to get to Gdansk and Riga one day (ours went from Copenhagen to Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helisinki and Stockholm, back to Copenhagen). Thanks for writing the review!

 

Hi there. I don't know if you remember me, but we were on a roll call together a couple of years ago. I can't recall which cruise, but I think y'all ended up cancelling and doing a different cruise. Glad you liked the review. Definitely try to get to Riga and Gdansk someday!

[christi1805]

Melissa, thank you for the wonderful review. Do you happen to know the address/location of the ship pier in Stockholm or which pier number is the cruise terminal as we will arrive on our own for the 1 Sep cruise?

[cruiseequalsfun]

Melissa, thank you for the wonderful review. Do you happen to know the address/location of the ship pier in Stockholm or which pier number is the cruise terminal as we will arrive on our own for the 1 Sep cruise?

 

Hi. It is Frihamnen 638. The below URL has more information:

http://www.stockholmtown.com/templates/page____15094.aspx

 

We took bus 76 from the Slussen bus stop (we were at the Hilton Slussen about a 100 yards from the bus stop) towards Ropsten and got off the bus at Frihamnen stop. It was a 18 minute bus ride and then a 6-8 minute walk following a blue line on the sidewalk that began about 100 yards form the bus stop. To begin, just start walking towards the ship and then you will see the blue line.

 

I believe a taxi is like 280 SEK, but don't totally quote me on that!

[christi1805]

Thanks for that!!!!

[Norwegianlatvian]

Great review, and happy to hear that you had a nice stay in Riga! Welcome back one day!