My Diary: Vision B2B ~ Feb. 27th & Mar. 5th

[maxs mom]

It wasn't raining quite as hard back at the ship, but we were still drenched when we got back. I noticed the photographer on the Oasis making pictures of everyone coming back on the pier looking like drowned rats!! I thought that was a good idea. People were making cute poses.

 

 

The view from my balcony:

 

 

We had a nice time to rest this afternoon. We made it to the CL on time and visited once again with Norm, Karen, Franca, and Bill.

 

 

 

Christian, the bar tender, brought Franca and me a chocolate martini tonight and spelled Happy Anniv in them since it was Bill and Franca's anniversary. (They met on the Vision back in the 90's). The martini was yummy!

 

 

 

Tonight's dinner in the Windjammer was terrible. You know if I can't find anything in there to eat.....there is a problem. The best thing I had on my plate tonight was a hot dog weenie!! I DID have a good dessert, though.....an ice cream sundae. You can't mess those up too bad!

 

I didn't want to go right back to the cabin tonight so I insisted that we stop by the casino for a bit. I didn't do very well, but John played a machine over in the corner by the Spin to Win machine. He ended up winning over $400 ad he was a happy camper!

 

 

[maxs mom]

Here are a couple more rainy day pictures at Nachi Cocom that I forgot to include.

 

 

This is a new bar area that they have put in out on the beach. Nice addition.

 

[maxs mom]

What a great way to spend the day, thanks for the photos Jane. Looks like the weather was significantly better on week 2.

 

Yes.....so glad that we had better weather on week 2. I have better pictures from that week! One of the plusses of B2B's.

[maxs mom]

We have Nachi booked for the 14th (on the Vision 9th-16th) it will be our first time to Nachi... we have been to Cozumel many times, but this is our first time booking something like this. So glad to see you like it so much to return every time!!

 

and thanks for the Review.. it's been a great read!

 

I hope you have a good day. Some days are better than others. Once you book something like this.....you just keep coming back.

[hipster1]

Hi Jane!

Slightly off topic,but I just want to say thanks for recommending The Tiki Bar in Barbados a few months back. It was the best beach day we had!!! I always look to your reviews to find all the best beaches/resorts to go to:)

 

Thanks!!

Ali

[PCWalton1]

Jane,

Thanks for the report, we missed seeing you on here. All the lovely pictures are helping us to get through our current dry spell of cruising. :)

[maxs mom]

Friday ~ March 4, 2016 ~ At Sea

 

Nice to have a sea day on the way back to Tampa. We had breakfast, then spent some quiet time in the CL with more coffee. I was able to get some journal writing done, some reading, and check on e-mail and Facebook. With my D+ coupon I get internet the last 4 days of the cruise. Some days are better than others. Today was not that good as everyone was trying to get on line.

 

 

At 12:15 I went to have Lunch with an Officer in the dining room. We just ordered from the menu....nothing special. Some ships have nice special menus and they truly make it special. This was just OK. I ate at the table with the Environmental Officer, Morton, from Norway. He was on his last week on the Vision and will be going to the Harmony. (We met many crew members that would be leaving the Vision soon.....going to other ships).

 

On the table when we arrived were two plates of sushi and a plate of crab cakes. Well.... based on the reaction of my tablemates you, would have thought they had placed a plate of worms on the table. These folks were not about to touch the sushi. One man even said to me that he was an American and he was not about to eat anything like that!! Wow! Oh well......I had all that delicious sushi to myself.....and it was delightfully good!! Again.....even with these well cruised and travelled folks.....there was lots of cluelessness. The wine was flowing and that was a good thing! I just ordered the Caesar salad and had a small dessert. I enjoyed the wine and meeting some new folks.

 

 

 

 

After lunch we went to the photo gallery and got our two pictures. We hardly had any made this week so the choice was not hard. We got our getting on board photo and this one from Costa Maya.

 

 

We also did some shopping in the shops on board. I got a new bathing suit cover up.

[maxs mom]

Hi Jane!

Slightly off topic,but I just want to say thanks for recommending The Tiki Bar in Barbados a few months back. It was the best beach day we had!!! I always look to your reviews to find all the best beaches/resorts to go to:)

 

Thanks!!

Ali

 

Hey There! Oh.....I am so glad you enjoyed the Tiki Bar!! For the life of me.....I can't understand why anyone wants to go to The Boatyard in Barbados when there are so many other options. But different strokes for different folks, I guess. Good to hear from you!

Edited March 24, 2016 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

Jane,

Thanks for the report, we missed seeing you on here. All the lovely pictures are helping us to get through our current dry spell of cruising. :)

 

Hey, Bill!! Thanks!! Where are you off to next? Surely our cruise paths will cross one of these days!!

[CRUISEMAMI]

Hey, were have you been??

 

 

Hey where, not were!

Autocorrect stinks!!![emoji849]

[cjmx]

Jane,

thanks so much for this awesome review. it has been so helpful. My family will be on the Vision soon.

This will be our Our Diamond Cruise, so we our looking forward to it.

 

Do you happen to have any advice re: getting off in Roatan from the ship, we have an excursion with Victor Bodden and he states it is imperative to get off early?? I am concerned about that long line that you guys went through, yuck.

 

Hopefully we will cross paths in the CL someday

 

Caroline

[maxs mom]

Jane,

thanks so much for this awesome review. it has been so helpful. My family will be on the Vision soon.

This will be our Our Diamond Cruise, so we our looking forward to it.

 

Do you happen to have any advice re: getting off in Roatan from the ship, we have an excursion with Victor Bodden and he states it is imperative to get off early?? I am concerned about that long line that you guys went through, yuck.

 

Hopefully we will cross paths in the CL someday

 

Caroline

 

Caroline......will you be able to use the Diamond Lounge on this cruise? If you can, then I suggest that you talk to the Diamond Concierge to see if she can help you. If not, then I would suggest that you start working your way down to deck one as early as possible. They don't like for people to,start congregating down there, but maybe get off the elevator at deck 2 or 3 and see what the situation is. When you dock late like that.....everybody is ready to go at the same time. Usually the line will move quickly. You just have to be patient.

[PaulS]

I always read your reviews and have taken your beach recommendations several times. I just noticed the post about the Tiki Bar in Barbados and googled it because we have gone to the Boatyard in the past. It looks like a great place, but it apparently is for sale. For $ 3,000,000.00 I guess I could go there all of the time. Hope it is still open when we go to Barbados again in February.

[PCWalton1]

Hey' date=' Bill!! Thanks!! Where are you off to next? Surely our cruise paths will cross one of these days!![/size']

 

Hawaii on Radiance in about 3 weeks. Some day :)

[maxs mom]

I always read your reviews and have taken your beach recommendations several times. I just noticed the post about the Tiki Bar in Barbados and googled it because we have gone to the Boatyard in the past. It looks like a great place, but it apparently is for sale. For $ 3,000,000.00 I guess I could go there all of the time. Hope it is still open when we go to Barbados again in February.

 

Oh, wow! It has changed hands and names a couple of times since we have been going there. It should be ok. I like quieter and less crowded places. Mthat's why I am not a fan of The Boatyard.

[Destaw71835]

I love your reviews! What a nice surprise to come to CC and see a new one from you!

 

The beach in Costa Maya looked amazing!

 

I can't want to read about the second leg of your cruise.

[Stopemocide]

I'm looking forward to your second leg photos as well-I was on the March 5th Vision sailing for my first cruise and I didn't take enough pictures. I'm reliving it through everyone else's photos instead.

 

Thanks to the gentleman who emailed me cake decorating photos-they are a prized vacation memory.

[mpoole3]

Nice to see someone else love Nachi as much as I do. I'm going there twice next week on my B2B. I thought of worse places to visit twice in one week! :D

I've also never seen them bring out bubbles to greet you, nice touch. I've been there before when it rained, what can you do...

 

Loving the review!

[jrosecox1]

We booked at Nachi Cocom based on a friend's referral. She has been going there for years and loves it. She did say that if you get there earlier then you have a better chance of getting the little tiki umbrella than just two chairs on the beach.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[maxs mom]

I love your reviews! What a nice surprise to come to CC and see a new one from you!

 

The beach in Costa Maya looked amazing!

 

I can't want to read about the second leg of your cruise.

 

Yes......we will definitely go back to Maya Chan. Our total bill there was $118.....you pay in advance. Their communication with you beforehand is amazing. We also love a little place in town called Nohoch Kay.....also all inclusive. Very convenient to the ship......great food......excellent service.

[maxs mom]

I'm looking forward to your second leg photos as well-I was on the March 5th Vision sailing for my first cruise and I didn't take enough pictures. I'm reliving it through everyone else's photos instead.

 

Thanks to the gentleman who emailed me cake decorating photos-they are a prized vacation memory.

 

Sorry we didn't get to meet! Say hello next time! Glad you had a good time. Cruising is addicting.

[maxs mom]

Nice to see someone else love Nachi as much as I do. I'm going there twice next week on my B2B. I thought of worse places to visit twice in one week! :D

I've also never seen them bring out bubbles to greet you, nice touch. I've been there before when it rained, what can you do...

 

Loving the review!

 

I love it when you can go there (or any place) two times in a row, That's basically what we did this time in Roatan and Cozumel. You have a different experience each time. We don't mind repeating ports two weeks in a row at all.

[maxs mom]

We booked at Nachi Cocom based on a friend's referral. She has been going there for years and loves it. She did say that if you get there earlier then you have a better chance of getting the little tiki umbrella than just two chairs on the beach.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Yes.....I find it very beneficial to get out to any beach early. You will have your pick of places to sit. There are plenty of palapas there, so don't worry about that. They have some new chairs there with soft cushions. You definitely want to get those. If you get a palapa close to the pool area, the wi-fi will be just a bit better, but it can be pretty spotty here, depending on how many people are there that day.

[maxs mom]

OK.....so back to the cabin we go. We started throwing things in our suitcases. Although we weren't going home tomorrow......we DID have to change cabins.

 

There was a knock at the door this afternoon when I was getting dressed for the evening. Earlier in the week, I went to see the cabin steward for our new cabin to let him know we would be coming. So at the door was a housekeeping supervisor telling me that the cabin that I told the cabin steward that we were moving to was the wrong one. We were supposed to move to cabin 7584, but his paperwork said 7582. Well I proceeded to show him my paperwork that clearly stated 7584. But he would have none of that!! His paperwork said 7582 and we would have to go to 7582. I asked him politely to check with Guest Services and he would find out that my information is correct. But he kept insisting that we were to move to 7582. Good grief! So I finally finish dressing and go down to Guest Services, find Amanda, our friend in GS, and got it straightened out. My information WAS correct and she sent a note to the Supervisor.

 

By that time, it was time to go for drinks. There was a decent crowd in the CL tonight. We spent some time with Karen and Norm. It had been nice talking with them all week. We will miss them next week. We had a hard time getting a last drink tonight until Mieko came in and rounded up the staff. It was funny.

 

 

We had reservations at Chops tonight, so we went on down to deck 6 for dinner. I love eating in a specialty restaurant on the last night of a cruise. Chops was very busy tonight, but we had a great waiter with a big smile on his face......he was leaving the next day for vacation....and then going to The Harmony. Everybody is leaving this ship!

 

So tonight.....I was just going to eat light and I ordered the Caesar salad and a couple of appetizers. John got a big steak. He was hungry. I thought I was eating light but they brought this huge plate scallops and a crab cake that was huge!! Unfortunately someone used the salt shaker with a heavy hand once again. Oh well.......We split the cheesecake for dessert.

 

 

 

 

 

We went to the casino tonight....only to do our Spin to Wins and I won a keychain. On to bed after that. The suitcases in the corridor are NOT ours! Yippee! A good feeling!

 

[maxs mom]

Saturday ~ March 5, 2016 ~ Tampa ~ Turn Around Day

 

Up really early today....6 AM. Good Morning Tampa!

 

 

If you want to get to breakfast....like we like breakfast.....you have to get up early. The dining room closes early. Plus we had to move our cabin by 9.

 

So we went down to the regular MDR (the special area is not open this day) and sat with three other couples that were getting off. As a matter of fact, almost everyone was getting off. There were only about 14 of us that were staying on board. Usually your tablemates on this last day are amazed that you can stay on for another cruise, and today was no exception. The people that we talked to this morning wished they had met us earlier in the cruise, because they had no idea what to do in each port and they were amazed when we told them what we did.

 

 

After breakfast we went back to our cabin to finish packing up. Our new cabin was ready, so I started moving things over. We were moving just across the way to a panoramic oceanview cabin......the new ones that they made out of the library or whatever they used to have there on Deck 7. No balcony this week, but this was a really neat cabin and I would book this one again in a heartbeat. I really liked it. It was almost exactly like the D1 and I loved the picture window. This is cabin 7584.

 

 

 

 

We just moved everything ourselves....it's not a big deal. They will move everything for you, but they really don't have time and I would rather do it myself. It was all done in a very short amount of time and I didn't have to worry about it. The closet system was a bit odd, but we got used to it.

 

 

The walls were a little thinner or something because you could hear the TV in the next cabin and some conversation from time to time. Also you could hear noise from the Centrum in the evenings......music and such, but all we had to do was close the fire doors and it didn't bother us.