LIVE - VISION Med and Greek Isles - 6/11-23

[grapau27]

5 minutes ago, aring75 said:

 

It wasn’t that we didn’t enjoy Pisa. We definitely spent more time in Florence, and I suppose I did kind of gloss over our time in Pisa somewhat. Be aware that Pisa will be a rather short stop. Even if you stop and look at everything (I added a photo of the map of the Square of Miracles which is where the tower, church, baptistry, and museum are all located). We liked it here, and we kind of felt like the tower was one of those “icons” that we really wanted to see at least once. However, I would definitely schedule the bulk of your time in Florence. There is a ton to see there. 

 

 

Absolutely agree.

Florence is what the Renaissance era is all about.

 

 

[bobmacliberty]

Thanks.  Sounds like a day trip to say that we've seen the Tower is about right. 😀

 

[mariefisher]

I have loved reading your posts. I have a question, what time did you disembark on the last day? What time do you think is the earliest flight you can book from Barcelona?  Thank you again for taking time from your vacation to do this! 

[Biker19]

9 hours ago, mariefisher said:

 What time do you think is the earliest flight you can book from Barcelona?  

At least 4 hours after scheduled arrival.

[gooners1968]

13 hours ago, mariefisher said:

I have loved reading your posts. I have a question, what time did you disembark on the last day? What time do you think is the earliest flight you can book from Barcelona?  Thank you again for taking time from your vacation to do this! 

Last year on our Vision cruise we were 1st off the ship and used RC transfer back to Barcelona airport. We were at the airport at 7.30am for our 10.35am flight.

[voyager70]

20 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Absolutely agree.

Florence is what the Renaissance era is all about.

 

 

 

Agree. Pisa is all about the tower, but like you said not much else.  And I found the vendors to be very aggressive.  It's fun to see once,. but Florence is stunning.

 

[makiramarlena]

had such a good time aboard Vision for Mediterranean and Adriatic cruise last year! Enough so that I've got her booked out of San Juan in February.

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, voyager70 said:

 

Agree. Pisa is all about the tower, but like you said not much else.  And I found the vendors to be very aggressive.  It's fun to see once,. but Florence is stunning.

I agree.

We love Florence.

[aring75]

17 hours ago, mariefisher said:

I have loved reading your posts. I have a question, what time did you disembark on the last day? What time do you think is the earliest flight you can book from Barcelona?  Thank you again for taking time from your vacation to do this! 

 

7 hours ago, Biker19 said:

At least 4 hours after scheduled arrival.

 

^^ I would agree with this. While you may be able to leave earlier, I’m not sure I’d chance it.

 

3 hours ago, gooners1968 said:

Last year on our Vision cruise we were 1st off the ship and used RC transfer back to Barcelona airport. We were at the airport at 7.30am for our 10.35am flight.

 

That’s excellent that everything went so smoothly for you! Wow, that was quick. They called the first people who were carrying their own luggage at 7:30 for our cruise. And the there were four ships in port, two of which were the Oasis and the NCL Epic. Leaving the port area was slow-going for us. Luckily, we weren’t in a hurry. Our flight didn’t leave until 2pm. 

[aring75]

Just to let everyone know, I am getting all my info together for tours, the Key feedback, overall impressions, etc. It’s just that we headed right back to work so things are pretty rough during the day. I haven’t forgotten though. Promise!!

[bobmacliberty]

7 hours ago, gooners1968 said:

Last year on our Vision cruise we were 1st off the ship and used RC transfer back to Barcelona airport. We were at the airport at 7.30am for our 10.35am flight.

Similar experience for us but we took a taxi.  We were at the Delta counter before it opened.

[zooma]

4 hours ago, aring75 said:

Just to let everyone know, I am getting all my info together for tours, the Key feedback, overall impressions, etc. It’s just that we headed right back to work so things are pretty rough during the day. I haven’t forgotten though. Promise!!

 

This is such a great review, with amazing photos. Thank you for taking the time!

[Sorry Muffin]

After reading your review, I"m really getting excited about my cruise on Vision this Sept.  We will be doing the reverse of your cruise, and have been informed that Malta as been replaced by Crete

 

Once again thank you for sharing your review

 

Mary Louise

[grapau27]

18 hours ago, Sorry Muffin said:

After reading your review, I"m really getting excited about my cruise on Vision this Sept.  We will be doing the reverse of your cruise, and have been informed that Malta as been replaced by Crete

 

Once again thank you for sharing your review

 

Mary Louise

Shame about missing Valletta Malta but you will love everywhere else and the heat and humidity will be a lot less in September so you will be more comfortable in port.

[James4me]

On 6/14/2019 at 11:09 AM, Biker19 said:

Or share the walk up with the donkeys.

 

Those poor donkeys🙁 having to lug up the hill everyday people.  I’d never do that.  

[erby2283]

On 6/27/2019 at 3:45 PM, aring75 said:

Just to let everyone know, I am getting all my info together for tours, the Key feedback, overall impressions, etc. It’s just that we headed right back to work so things are pretty rough during the day. I haven’t forgotten though. Promise!!

Was just wondering what your thoughts were about the Key.  Getting worried about the tendering issues in Nice and Kotor for our sailing since we have private excursions. However, we are the only ship in Nice that day and in Kotor, we arrive at 9 and the other 2 ships don't arrive until 2pm.  Hoping the tendering won't be so bad but am thinking about getting the Key to help with tendering concerns - just not sure it's worth the price.

[aring75]

17 hours ago, erby2283 said:

Was just wondering what your thoughts were about the Key.  Getting worried about the tendering issues in Nice and Kotor for our sailing since we have private excursions. However, we are the only ship in Nice that day and in Kotor, we arrive at 9 and the other 2 ships don't arrive until 2pm.  Hoping the tendering won't be so bad but am thinking about getting the Key to help with tendering concerns - just not sure it's worth the price.

 

So...I wrote up an entire end-of-cruise review and I KNOW that I posted it. At least, I'm sure that I saw it posted, but now it's nowhere to be found! I have been having trouble logging in, but I don't know if that has anything to do with it, or if I just messed it all up. I had my impressions of the Key program in with all of that, but I'll give you a quick recap of what I said.

 

The Key on Vision:

 

Boarding the Vision in Barcelona was fast. Super fast. We didn't need the Key (although we were in a Junior Suite so we went through a slightly shorter line - but not much). 

 

Baggage drop-off was a confused mess. We asked twice where we could drop ours off but both people said we had to take our things to our staterooms which would be ready at 1:00pm. We tried to just go to the theater and check for ourselves, but we were stopped and told drop off was not available. I could probably have pressed this issue further, but since we only had two bottles of wine chose not to.

 

Chops lunch was great. Loved sitting in a quiet space for lunch on boarding day instead of dealing with the madhouse that is the buffet. Service and food were both good.

 

Internet. Internet speed in our cabin was horrible. In most of the public spaces it was adequate. We generally purchase at least one package to keep in touch with work so we would have spent this money on ourselves anyway.

 

Rock climbing wall hours. The key participants got one, yes one hour for our entire TWELVE DAY CRUISE. Now, I don't know how crowded the rock climbing wall gets, but geez. One hour?

 

The priority tender tickets were the best part of the key program for me. We didn't have to wait in line for tender tickets. We didn't even have to request them. They were waiting for us and we used them to walk right on to the first tender to Santorini. Not only that, but whenever we were ready to go ashore, we went straight to Deck 2 and showed our card with the key symbol on it. For every port. We didn't always go to the head of the line (sometimes they were boarding RCL tours if it was first thing in the morning), but they worked us in between tour groups. This worked out great for our private tours with early hours.

 

Disembarkation. Our disembarkation breakfast was in Chops on our final day. Again. it was quiet and relaxed with great service. When we were finished we could leave at any time. Our luggage was in a special "Key" area.

 

 

Would I purchase the Key for myself? I guess it depends. On this cruise it was $19.99 per day. For ships like the Vision, personally there is absolutely no way I'd spend more than that. They have a rock climbing wall, but no other amenities like Flowrider or skating rinks, etc. Internet was okay at best. It would all come down to whether or not I had private tours and wanted to be off the ship ASAP in the morning (and would I be willing to pay for that - for this port-intensive, early morning tour cruise the answer would be, "yes"). Plus I do believe the Chops lunch and the internet hold some value.

 

I hope this helps you. If you have any other questions about the Key or anything else, let me know. 

 

[cruisequeen4ever]

Awesome blog; thank you! Have you planned your return trip to Europe yet?? 😆

[aring75]

8 hours ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

Awesome blog; thank you! Have you planned your return trip to Europe yet?? 😆

 

Lol, no not yet. But we have a B2B this fall with he President's cruise and two land vacations planned. Going to need something for next year. Would love to try a northern European itinerary!

 

Looks like I gotta start researching again. 😁

[Monthend]

Thanks so much for the review. It brought back memories of our cruise from Barcelona. It also was great reading about the vision and the delicious menus.We are sailing on a Caribbean cruise the end of March.

[carolinagalcruise2011]

Thank you for posting this review! I'm trying to plan for a Mediterranean cruise in the fall with my parents and deciding which itinerary I want to go with.  Your photos of Greece is gorgeous and now making me lean more for the itinerary with more stops in Greece!  😊