Just back from Vision of Seas Cruise

[Meltiphil]

To sum it up in one word, WOW. I have never had so much fun on vacation as I did on this cruise. To start from the begining you would think we were going to have awful time. Our orginial flight at 630am was canceled and that was painful having to sit at the airport for 3 hours longer, after getting up extremly early. But the crew on vision was absolutly wonderful. They were in good moods, very helpful, and a lot of fun. Our stateroom attendent was John from India (if I'm not mistaken) he took very good care of our room and us in general. (PLEASE FOLKS, TIP YOUR STATEROOM ATTENDENTS, THAT IS ALL THEY GET)

 

The food in my book was good as well. We ate a lot in the windjammer, which was good. However I did notice that there were a few leftovers they would bring in from the dinning room the night before. Which it did not bother me, the food was still good. The main dinning room food was good, except for me half the time I was not sure what I was ordering. They seem to name the main dish something I have never heard of, however we were all pleased with it once it was brought to us.

 

In the main dinning room the waiters one night got all together and sing and dance for us, it was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed it very well... The flag parade was wonderful, it is amazing that all these people from all over the world can come together and get along and all live in the same amt of space for months on end and actually get along and seem to enjoy what they do.

 

Captian Stein was great as well, very funny guy. I guess one of the funniest stories I have on him is one from our table mates in the main dinning. Every morning Capt. Stein would come on and update on the location and whereabouts, etc...usually about 8 am or so, not big deal for us bc our intercom in our room did not work. We were normally up anyways so we heard him most of the time by being out and about. But our table mate, the guy works for a casino and is not a morning person, but Capt. Stein changed that for him...Capt. Stein announcement would wake him up every morning. It was hilarious to here this guy tell us how he was awoken up this morning by the Capt. Stein. Guess you had to of been there, but it was quite funny.

 

Getting on board to the ship was not to bad, the line was very long, but moved quite fast.; the only one complaint I can think of as far as the road to getting to the ship was the person who was "a rep from RCCI" was not all that great or helpful. Being our first cruise we were not to sure where to find the rep, so we moved on to the luggage area where we found her. She told us bluntly that we were to haul our luggage thru the airport with no help from her. Luckly we were smart enough to rent a cart to help us out, we had more than 2 people could carrry. What really got me, she had a cart herself that she was using as a leaning post and did not even offer to help us by offering us to put some of our stuff on her cart, I guess that was just out of the question. Then she continued to tell us that we go here, there, etc,,,,about a mile thru the airport to get to the bus for the transfer, but if we were to get lost, just ask someone they can direct us. I finally told her to let us follow her and we would be okay. She was not in a very good mood, and would not be someone whom I would send to make a 'first impression' of a cruise line.

 

One major snag in the trip which really no one could help or prevent, the ship had to turn around in order to meet the 'coast guard' to come a get a man who had fallen and hurt his head pretty bad. Therefore this delayed our arrival to Skagway "I believe" But the captian gave us extra time in that area to make up for the lost time. We actually had one of our excursion canceled bc of this, but it was really no big deal for us personally, and no on seemed to complained about the 'turn around', it just made being on the ship a lot longer.

 

The ports Skagway and Juneau was wonderful, lucked out to have pretty weather in Juneau actually the locals said it was a 'hot' day. Somewhere in the mid 70's. Skagway was a bit cooler, but a nice day. The excursions we took were the trip on the bus and train ride back to the Yukon, very good. We were luckly enough to have a wonderful young lady who was the tour guide on the bus. her name was Katelyn. A young college lady but made the trip very fun and she seemed very knowledgeable regarding the areas we were going to see. The sencery was outstanding and beautiful. The lunch in which we received on this excursion was very good as well.

 

IN Skagway we rode the 'ski' type deal up the a mountain view which was very pretty view from the top. Could not believe the amt of snow that was still lingering around... Seen the Mendenhal Glacier which is very pretty...and shopped. Had a good day in Skagway.

 

The last port was Prince Rupert, BC Canada, I would have to give this place a thumbs down. Why they stop there I dont know!!!!!!! The weather was awful rained the whole time, plus the town was half shut down due to a lot of rain, making mud slides I guess. Some of the roads that go through the town were closed and the residents had not received any mail for about 3 days when were there. We walked thru a grocery store just see what it was like, well they were sold out of a lot of stuff, like milk, and water. Shops? Well they dont exist if you ask me, very, very little shoping is avaliable in this town. The town mall is a joke, one store is like a Wal Mart, and maybe a few other misc stores, I bet there is not 10 stores in this mall, so dont even attempt the walk it takes to get there. I wished RCC would just delete this one from its itenerary.

 

Would I do this cruise again, Sure in a minute, with hopes they would delete Prince Rupert. What would I do different, I would scheld my own flights by having us come in the day before, and leave the day after the ship gets back. But being a first time cruiser and not knowing what I was really getting into I was very pleased.

 

Alaska is beautiful, Vision was very clean, and for the folks who do not smoke, and was worried about having to contend with the smell, trust me, smoke does not linger on this ship. I was impressed how they had smoking areas designated and non smoking areas labled. This was big concern of mine being that I have allergies, but I had not a problem. I have not problems with people who smoke, it is just my 'nose' cant handle it. hahaha

 

Any question on my review please ask. I'm sure I have left some things out, so just ask. Have a wonderful summer by going on a CRUISE.