Vision ot Seas mini cruise review (incl. MTD desaster)

[mike@sea]

This was my 19th cruise, most on RCL. We picked this mini cruise because of its great port of calls (Bergen and Geiranger Fjord). The price was OK, but it wasn´t a bargain.

The Vision is an older ship, both in age and decor. It does not come across a luxurious ship at all. Having sailed on all RCL ships or at least classes, I can honestly say, that the older ships to me appear not attractive at all anymore. The Vision has a nice spa area, a decent sauna, in contrary to the Splendour (same class of ship), but it still is far from being a wellness oasis. The gym is eqaully bad/small as with the Splendour.

Most other public rooms are not really attractive either anymore. They might have been 10 years ago, but they are completely outdated today. Worst place on this ship is certainly the Viking Crown lounge with its "disco". The room is downright ugly, the dancefloor way too small and unattractive, the DJ does not deserve his name ( What is wrong with RCL, when it comes to dj´s and music ? Why is it so difficult to get a decent dj whi plays decent and up to date music? No, we don´t want to hear R&B-Hip Hop, nor the same 70´s music all the time! No matter which ship you go, they all play the same terribly boring music, that people are tired of hearing ! And please get rid of the Village People! After so many years it is not funny anymore and does not help getting people in the party mood. Only once, on the Navigator in 2008, RCL was able to provide an excellent disco experience. The dj was fab and the place was rocking every night till the wee hours. People had a wonderful time, and RCL made lots of money on drinks. That was once in 19 cruises !! So, if someone cares, it works, most of the time, with RCL unfortunately noone cares. And that goes with so many things on the ships! The disco on the Vision thus was mainly empty (despite having so many younger people on board!), due to the bad music and bad smell of cold cigarette smoke. Nobody cared. Entertainment in other venues on the ship was not much better. I have never been so bored on a ship before. Matt Sole as CD was OK, nothing special. If he´d done a better job, we´d have had a better time, very easy.

Production shows: We gave up after seeing the terrible "Boogie Wonderland" show. Definitely the worst show ever seen. Terrible choreography, bad singers, bad sound, bad dancers. What happened to the good shows? The rest of what was being delivered on stage during the cruise ( one juggler - nice, one Motown group - mediocre, one illusionalist - mostly awful and one other prod. show which I cannot rate ) was mediocre at best. Call that entertainment ?- Don´t think so!

-

Dining. Oh where to start. As a "frequent" cruiser, you know what to expect. The menus never change and one doesn´t expect too much. There are always a few nice dishes, many though are uninspired and appear completely different to their description. The food taste on the Vision was good! Presentation something else. Windjammer was OK. The one on the Vision is rather small and the line up of food / queuing not up to todays standard either.

-

We tried "My Time Dining" for the first, and I can honestly say for the very last time. This is where RCL absolutely doesn´t have their act together. What are they thinking? I don´t think, anybody ever thought the concept through. The way they do it, it can´t work. No matter where you sit, or when you go, you will constantly find waiters and fellow passengers walking by, disturbing your meal. You feel like sitting in windjammer. Tables around you are either, full, empty or in the process of being cleaned again. There is constant action around you. Very disturbing. The opposite of a relaxed fine dining experience! Don´t expect attentive service at all, the waiters will not be able to cope with all this, because they have several tables, that are all at a different stage within their meal courses. Nightmare. Expect your ordered food to sit and wait (an get cold!) at the counter for quite some time too, because of course the waiter can´t getting bothered to get the dishes table by table. Wine service. What wine service? It is always nice to pair a decent dinner with some nice wine. Well, with RCL you soon learn to rather spend your money elsewhere. Wine reccommendations? Sommelier, or someone that at least looks occaasionally if your wine or water glass is empty? Forget it! So why on earth should I spend money on expensive wines if RCl doesn´t provide appropriate service? So, to sumn it up, the dining experience with RCCL is far from being fine dining and needs urgently being revised, because it is still one of the main factors of the cruise experience for most passengers.

Menus is another issue. Yes, you have a lot of variety and no, you don´t get hungry. But why is it so difficult to bring on new dishes at least every year? With customers from all over the world these days, it must be possible to bring on more "world-food", steps beyond the good, but boring Indian dish that one finds on the menu every day. Better vegetarian options, lighter options. Can´t be that difficult to be a bit more up to date and innovative.

-

I am currently thinking of cancelling my 2 remaining RCL cruises for 2010 and 2011 due to the fact, that I am not willing to pay that much money for a mediocre product anymore. RCCL, it is definitely time to wake up and start bringing your product into the 21st century! Your individual staff are mostly great and do a wonderful job ( we did have a great, the best balcony corner aft stateroom), our room attendant from Brazil was as attentive and excellent as we are used to!), but your overall product needs a huge makover and a much closer look at the details! Do it quick, because competition is getting bigger and better!

[celle]

Sorry you didn't enjoy the ship.

 

What about the itinerary? Anything there that you liked?

 

I'm interested in the ports, because we're considering a similar cruise.

[andante]

Hi Mike,

We are doing the same cruise next week.....arghhhhhh! Never been on RCI before, and we have booked MTD! Now hoping that this because this is a new line to us the novelty may distract from some of the issues you found.

Anyway, question is did you find anything to do in the two ports that you would recommend? Thanks

[ChipLondon]

Mike whilst you are obviously entitled to your opinion, I cannot agree with all of your comments. I went onto The Vision a month or so back and felt that the ship was in excellent shape for its age, I am also back on for the sailing next week. It is also unfair to compare the disco activity with The Navigator, as all of the Party Nights on the Nav are held in the Promenade not the disco, this leaves the disco free to be more up to date, The Vision has to use its Viking Crown as the entertainment area for all styles of party, therefore the themed events are in the early part of the disco hours and it then progresses onto the more "up to date stuff", I personally like the VC on the Vision, but each to their own. However I do agree that menus need to be updated more often, if RC want clients to cruise on a regular basis, it is time to review the menus.

[ChipLondon]

Andante, relax you will love The Vision, I personally do not do MTD, because I prefer an allocated table. The restaurant on the ship is lovely, and comapres well with the newer ships, trust me I have sailed on all but 3 of the Royal ships.

[MAZANDSTEVE]

I agree totally with your comments on MTD, we had the same experience on the Brilliance, our chairs were constantly being bumped by waiters or people leaving, I know what you mean and also the food was not that great either, but Chops and Portofino were excellent . However the Brilliance was a beatiful ship. Hope your ports made up for the down falls.

[sidari]

We sailed on the Brilliance prior to Maz and Steve and never once had problems with MTD or people either entering or leaving but like them and other people we were dissapointed in the choice of food!! it does need to be looked at if RCI wants to retain its passenger base for the future! ...so come on RCI take notice.

 

We are also on the Vision in 2 weeks time so it will be interesting to compare it to the Brilliance and the report by the OP... it would be unfair to compare it to the Ruby Princess.

[celle]

We sailed on the Brilliance prior to Maz and Steve and never once had problems with MTD or people either entering or leaving but like them and other people we were dissapointed in the choice of food!! it does need to be looked at if RCI wants to retain its passenger base for the future! ...so come on RCI take notice.

 

We are also on the Vision in 2 weeks time so it will be interesting to compare it to the Brilliance and the report by the OP... it would be unfair to compare it to the Ruby Princess.

 

I have no experience of MTD, but we recently spent 24 days on Legend OTS (same class, similar age to Vision) and we really enoyed her.

 

I don't think I'd have any worries about cruising on Vision.

[mike@sea]

Regarding the ports: Boarding in CPH was easy and efficient. Rooms were ready by 13:00h as always. Ships computer system later broke down which lead to longer lines each time we went off and on the ship throughout the cruise ( manual (!) check on who comes and goes. ). Bergen as first port was great. Easy to walk the city, beautiful side streets, nice cafes, shops etc. We were there on a sunday, unfortunately everything was closed, other than the little fish market. With 3 ships in port it was quite busy and the streets filled quick. Super long lines all day in front of the funicular/cable car up the hill, if you care to do so. We opted not to and walked the streets instead. Did not regret it. Will definitely go to Bergen again.

Geiranger was beautiful too. We were the first ship in and docked right at the end. Tiny little village with a few shops ( note : cheaper than the shops in Bergen! ) . These filled quickly. We did a Fjord cruise which I first booked via RCL, and later cancelled, when I found out I could book it online direct for almost € 50 per person less. There is a tourist info right at the pier where you can book the same tour. It leaves 4 times a day. Try to get the earliest one (which requires you get off the boat first, which might be tricky because the first tenders are tours only ), because the later ones fill up due to more ships in port ( Costa Mediterranea came behind us ). http://startup227.customers4.travelize.se/Rejse/uk/EXPLORE-GEIRANGERFJORD-1-114.html

The tour was nice, not worth the amount RCL wanted for it though. You have an option to hike up to a farm midway, and later being picked up again by the same boat on its next tour. We booked it but cancelled last second, when we finally saw, where we were supposed to climb up. Way too dangerous unless you are there on a dry day ( otherwise very slippery ! ). Don´t even think going with sneakers! You literally have to climb!

 

Regarding the ship: After being on the Splendour for 2 weeks in March and now on the Vision, I can honestly say , that the old decor, colour theme and interior of the ships doesn´t do anything for me. I love the Radiance class ships. They look classy everywhere, despite them being 9 years old. The older ships to me just look outdated. Their gym and spa is not up to date, way too small. The bars too small and nested in the hallways. Viking Crown lounge too small and smelly of cold cigarette smoke. Splendour at least had a concierge lounge, Vision has nothing. Splendour had very charming staff which made up for some of its shortcomings, Vison might have too, but with 5 days on it, I can´t tell.

Entertainment was really bad. The pianist in the Schooner bar was awful with music playing way too loud over loudspeakers.

They had a reggae(!!) band at the pool deck. Imagine sailing away from Geiranger through the majestic fjord, listening to reggae/caribbean music.... Well done and thought of RCL ! Nobody looks at the details. The disco was empty every night. Did anybody care ? Don´t think so. We had the pleasure of listening to the music of the crew party one night (via our aft balcony ). Boy, I wish I was invited. They had the party I was looking for with music I wanted to dance to. The disco the same night was deserted, mainly due to the evers so boring and always repeating 70/80 music Royal seems to think passengers want to hear. No, I don´t want to hear "Its raining men" or "I will survive" on every ship at every night!

 

On the Navigator, they had a proper DJ who did what he was payed for. He played actual music and kept the dancefloor full. People had a ball. We did not leave the ship that night, despite being in Ibiza, THE party island, simply because we had what we wanted on the ship. Thats´how it should be. But, of course, if nobody cares or thinks about the product and the details, then of course this ain´t happening.

 

So all the shortcomings of the ship itself (being old and outdated), the terrible entertainment, the lack of details, the horrible MTD experience, the ever so boring food, lack of innovations, lack of a decent concierge lounge, no crown & anchor activity, left a bad taste in my mouth and for the first time made me thinking of cancelling my future cruises.

[celle]

Regarding the ports: Boarding in CPH was easy and efficient. Rooms were ready by 13:00h as always. Ships computer system later broke down which lead to longer lines each time we went off and on the ship throughout the cruise ( manual (!) check on who comes and goes. ). Bergen as first port was great. Easy to walk the city, beautiful side streets, nice cafes, shops etc. We were there on a sunday, unfortunately everything was closed, other than the little fish market. With 3 ships in port it was quite busy and the streets filled quick. Super long lines all day in front of the funicular/cable car up the hill, if you care to do so. We opted not to and walked the streets instead. Did not regret it. Will definitely go to Bergen again.

Geiranger was beautiful too. We were the first ship in and docked right at the end. Tiny little village with a few shops ( note : cheaper than the shops in Bergen! ) . These filled quickly. We did a Fjord cruise which I first booked via RCL, and later cancelled, when I found out I could book it online direct for almost € 50 per person less. There is a tourist info right at the pier where you can book the same tour. It leaves 4 times a day. Try to get the earliest one (which requires you get off the boat first, which might be tricky because the first tenders are tours only ), because the later ones fill up due to more ships in port ( Costa Mediterranea came behind us ). http://startup227.customers4.travelize.se/Rejse/uk/EXPLORE-GEIRANGERFJORD-1-114.html

The tour was nice, not worth the amount RCL wanted for it though. You have an option to hike up to a farm midway, and later being picked up again by the same boat on its next tour. We booked it but cancelled last second, when we finally saw, where we were supposed to climb up. Way too dangerous unless you are there on a dry day ( otherwise very slippery ! ). Don´t even think going with sneakers! You literally have to climb!

 

Thanks for the info about the ports, Mike.

 

We love the Radiance class ships too, but we still enjoyed the Legend. Don't think we'd like the monster ships!

[sidari]

Mike .... did you use Euro`s or Norwegian Kroner ? to pay for stuff ? thanks for the info about the shops.

 

Dave.

[mike@sea]

We payed in NOK´s which we pulled from the ATM´s that you can find anywhere on land. From what I could see you were also able to pay with USD or € , plus it is very common to pay even the smallest amount with your credit card. Either way, they take your money... ;-)

[sidari]

Mike ... thanks for that info ... :)

[nycruiser80]

Sorry to hear this! I know the Vision class is older I just returned from the Legend. She looks a bit worn but very well maintained maybe the Vision needs some extra TLC.

 

I actually had the opposite with My Time. I thought the service was very attentive and it was a pleasure to choose different times to eat especially cruising the med. Some of the excursions tire you out and you may want to choose a later time. As for the constant flow of people in and out I don't fully understand why that would make it less then a fine dining experience. Any shore side restaurant is like that including high end places I have been to. Infact, I too noticed many tables empty by me! I thought that was a nice feature.

 

Anyway don't be so qucik to dismis RCI. I am not loyal to one line I love all cruises lines....but I have been on many cruises as you have (26 and counting) and from time to time and ship to ship (even within the same cruise line) service and food experience can be different. For example I cruised NCL twice.....actually the Dawn. It was a wonderful cruise.....with great food, service and the freestyle worked like a charm. Then last year I cruised the NCL Spirit. While I had a nice cruise....service was not good and the food was really lousy. Dining room service was so bad, after 20 minutes of waiting I got our own menus! I just snuck to a waiters station and took some. But in the end I would cruise NCL again. Maybe they had an off week or possibly it was the management on that one ship. You never know.

 

You may want to try a more traditional approach when it comes to the dining experience......Celebrity does not have my time and Cunard does not either. Though with RCI you can choose traditional as is the case with other major lines like Princess, Carnival and Holland. The only line that has no seatings would be NCL.

 

Another suggestion is start to go upmarket meaning start trying lines like Oceania, Crystal.....while they are much more money I beleive the service and quality is much better then RCI or any other mass market cruise line.

[steponboard]

There was nothing I liked about MTD. The service was slow and inattentive. I would never choose MTD again.

[John Henry on CC]

This was my 19th cruise, most on RCL. We picked this mini cruise because of its great port of calls (Bergen and Geiranger Fjord). The price was OK, but it wasn´t a bargain.

The Vision is an older ship, both in age and decor. It does not come across a luxurious ship at all. Having sailed on all RCL ships or at least classes, I can honestly say, that the older ships to me appear not attractive at all anymore. The Vision has a nice spa area, a decent sauna, in contrary to the Splendour (same class of ship), but it still is far from being a wellness oasis. The gym is eqaully bad/small as with the Splendour.

Most other public rooms are not really attractive either anymore. They might have been 10 years ago, but they are completely outdated today. Worst place on this ship is certainly the Viking Crown lounge with its "disco". The room is downright ugly, the dancefloor way too small and unattractive, the DJ does not deserve his name ( What is wrong with RCL, when it comes to dj´s and music ? Why is it so difficult to get a decent dj whi plays decent and up to date music? No, we don´t want to hear R&B-Hip Hop, nor the same 70´s music all the time! No matter which ship you go, they all play the same terribly boring music, that people are tired of hearing ! And please get rid of the Village People! After so many years it is not funny anymore and does not help getting people in the party mood. Only once, on the Navigator in 2008, RCL was able to provide an excellent disco experience. The dj was fab and the place was rocking every night till the wee hours. People had a wonderful time, and RCL made lots of money on drinks. That was once in 19 cruises !! So, if someone cares, it works, most of the time, with RCL unfortunately noone cares. And that goes with so many things on the ships! The disco on the Vision thus was mainly empty (despite having so many younger people on board!), due to the bad music and bad smell of cold cigarette smoke. Nobody cared. Entertainment in other venues on the ship was not much better. I have never been so bored on a ship before. Matt Sole as CD was OK, nothing special. If he´d done a better job, we´d have had a better time, very easy.

Production shows: We gave up after seeing the terrible "Boogie Wonderland" show. Definitely the worst show ever seen. Terrible choreography, bad singers, bad sound, bad dancers. What happened to the good shows? The rest of what was being delivered on stage during the cruise ( one juggler - nice, one Motown group - mediocre, one illusionalist - mostly awful and one other prod. show which I cannot rate ) was mediocre at best. Call that entertainment ?- Don´t think so!

-

Dining. Oh where to start. As a "frequent" cruiser, you know what to expect. The menus never change and one doesn´t expect too much. There are always a few nice dishes, many though are uninspired and appear completely different to their description. The food taste on the Vision was good! Presentation something else. Windjammer was OK. The one on the Vision is rather small and the line up of food / queuing not up to todays standard either.

-

We tried "My Time Dining" for the first, and I can honestly say for the very last time. This is where RCL absolutely doesn´t have their act together. What are they thinking? I don´t think, anybody ever thought the concept through. The way they do it, it can´t work. No matter where you sit, or when you go, you will constantly find waiters and fellow passengers walking by, disturbing your meal. You feel like sitting in windjammer. Tables around you are either, full, empty or in the process of being cleaned again. There is constant action around you. Very disturbing. The opposite of a relaxed fine dining experience! Don´t expect attentive service at all, the waiters will not be able to cope with all this, because they have several tables, that are all at a different stage within their meal courses. Nightmare. Expect your ordered food to sit and wait (an get cold!) at the counter for quite some time too, because of course the waiter can´t getting bothered to get the dishes table by table. Wine service. What wine service? It is always nice to pair a decent dinner with some nice wine. Well, with RCL you soon learn to rather spend your money elsewhere. Wine reccommendations? Sommelier, or someone that at least looks occaasionally if your wine or water glass is empty? Forget it! So why on earth should I spend money on expensive wines if RCl doesn´t provide appropriate service? So, to sumn it up, the dining experience with RCCL is far from being fine dining and needs urgently being revised, because it is still one of the main factors of the cruise experience for most passengers.

Menus is another issue. Yes, you have a lot of variety and no, you don´t get hungry. But why is it so difficult to bring on new dishes at least every year? With customers from all over the world these days, it must be possible to bring on more "world-food", steps beyond the good, but boring Indian dish that one finds on the menu every day. Better vegetarian options, lighter options. Can´t be that difficult to be a bit more up to date and innovative.

-

I am currently thinking of cancelling my 2 remaining RCL cruises for 2010 and 2011 due to the fact, that I am not willing to pay that much money for a mediocre product anymore. RCCL, it is definitely time to wake up and start bringing your product into the 21st century! Your individual staff are mostly great and do a wonderful job ( we did have a great, the best balcony corner aft stateroom), our room attendant from Brazil was as attentive and excellent as we are used to!), but your overall product needs a huge makover and a much closer look at the details! Do it quick, because competition is getting bigger and better!

 

Regarding the ports: Boarding in CPH was easy and efficient. Rooms were ready by 13:00h as always. Ships computer system later broke down which lead to longer lines each time we went off and on the ship throughout the cruise ( manual (!) check on who comes and goes. ). Bergen as first port was great. Easy to walk the city, beautiful side streets, nice cafes, shops etc. We were there on a sunday, unfortunately everything was closed, other than the little fish market. With 3 ships in port it was quite busy and the streets filled quick. Super long lines all day in front of the funicular/cable car up the hill, if you care to do so. We opted not to and walked the streets instead. Did not regret it. Will definitely go to Bergen again.

Geiranger was beautiful too. We were the first ship in and docked right at the end. Tiny little village with a few shops ( note : cheaper than the shops in Bergen! ) . These filled quickly. We did a Fjord cruise which I first booked via RCL, and later cancelled, when I found out I could book it online direct for almost € 50 per person less. There is a tourist info right at the pier where you can book the same tour. It leaves 4 times a day. Try to get the earliest one (which requires you get off the boat first, which might be tricky because the first tenders are tours only ), because the later ones fill up due to more ships in port ( Costa Mediterranea came behind us ). http://startup227.customers4.travelize.se/Rejse/uk/EXPLORE-GEIRANGERFJORD-1-114.html

The tour was nice, not worth the amount RCL wanted for it though. You have an option to hike up to a farm midway, and later being picked up again by the same boat on its next tour. We booked it but cancelled last second, when we finally saw, where we were supposed to climb up. Way too dangerous unless you are there on a dry day ( otherwise very slippery ! ). Don´t even think going with sneakers! You literally have to climb!

 

Regarding the ship: After being on the Splendour for 2 weeks in March and now on the Vision, I can honestly say , that the old decor, colour theme and interior of the ships doesn´t do anything for me. I love the Radiance class ships. They look classy everywhere, despite them being 9 years old. The older ships to me just look outdated. Their gym and spa is not up to date, way too small. The bars too small and nested in the hallways. Viking Crown lounge too small and smelly of cold cigarette smoke. Splendour at least had a concierge lounge, Vision has nothing. Splendour had very charming staff which made up for some of its shortcomings, Vison might have too, but with 5 days on it, I can´t tell.

Entertainment was really bad. The pianist in the Schooner bar was awful with music playing way too loud over loudspeakers.

They had a reggae(!!) band at the pool deck. Imagine sailing away from Geiranger through the majestic fjord, listening to reggae/caribbean music.... Well done and thought of RCL ! Nobody looks at the details. The disco was empty every night. Did anybody care ? Don´t think so. We had the pleasure of listening to the music of the crew party one night (via our aft balcony ). Boy, I wish I was invited. They had the party I was looking for with music I wanted to dance to. The disco the same night was deserted, mainly due to the evers so boring and always repeating 70/80 music Royal seems to think passengers want to hear. No, I don´t want to hear "Its raining men" or "I will survive" on every ship at every night!

 

On the Navigator, they had a proper DJ who did what he was payed for. He played actual music and kept the dancefloor full. People had a ball. We did not leave the ship that night, despite being in Ibiza, THE party island, simply because we had what we wanted on the ship. Thats´how it should be. But, of course, if nobody cares or thinks about the product and the details, then of course this ain´t happening.

 

So all the shortcomings of the ship itself (being old and outdated), the terrible entertainment, the lack of details, the horrible MTD experience, the ever so boring food, lack of innovations, lack of a decent concierge lounge, no crown & anchor activity, left a bad taste in my mouth and for the first time made me thinking of cancelling my future cruises.

 

I am sorry that the cruise, the ship and the cruiseline did not meet your expectations.

 

It truly sounds to me like you are ready to move on..........and up, possibly to Regent. But don't expect much nightlife there! :)

[yogimax]

Mike, we were on the same cruise (probably spending much time together waiting for a table with MTD)

 

Some comments...

 

1. The Crown Lounge did stink of stale cigarette smoke. Not pleasant at all.

 

2. Regarding entertainment... the dancers were great, the singers were shouting instead of singing. Not good. I thought the juggler was one of the worst acts I have ever seen. My wife and I commented that we were very happy he was not using knives. The Four Tops Tribute Band was excellent.

 

3. Regarding MTD, we were thoroughly disappointed. The Head Waiter, Carlos, did his best, but the last two nights were terrible. His assitant was useless and we must have waited about 45 minutes on the last night. We almost had to beg for iced tea each night and it took an average of twnety minutes to arrive.

 

4. I agree about the Village People. Enough of it already.

 

5. Copenhagen was great for those of us who use public transportation. For example, we took the city bus to the train station and the train to the airport. Very simple.

 

6. Matt Soul, the CD, was pretty good. No stupid or corny jokes... perhaps due to the language problem.

 

7. Was it really necessary to announce the tender departures in seven or eight languages?

[John Henry on CC]

 

7. Was it really necessary to announce the tender departures in seven or eight languages?

 

I'm thinkin'............if the fifth, sixth or seventh language was YOUR native tongue, you may have felt differently!

[Albert Ross]

You may want to try a more traditional approach when it comes to the dining experience......Celebrity does not have my time ...

Oh yes they do now! It was announced 2 days ago that they are going live with it on Monday 31. It is being rolled out gradually across the fleet and will be fleet wide around March. Yippee, I say.

 

Another suggestion is start to go upmarket meaning start trying lines like Oceania, Crystal.....while they are much more money I beleive the service and quality is much better then RCI or any other mass market cruise line.

All 'upmarket' lines like Seabourn, Silversea, Oceania and Crystal have Open Dining which the OP seemed to dislike so much.

 

There was nothing I liked about MTD. The service was slow and inattentive. I would never choose MTD again.

I've done My time dining on my last RCI 3 cruises and would never choose Traditional dining again. Seated immediately, service is prompt, you eat at your speed, and the food was fresher and hotter IMHO.

[madforcruising]

I am sorry that the cruise, the ship and the cruiseline did not meet your expectations.

 

It truly sounds to me like you are ready to move on..........and up, possibly to Regent. But don't expect much nightlife there! :)

 

 

This was my first thought reading the OP and the second one a little further down the thread. I´m not sure if the move needs to necessarily be up, but it certainly sounds like Mike is ready to leave RCI for some time and choose another line.

[yogimax]

I'm thinkin'............if the fifth, sixth or seventh language was YOUR native tongue, you may have felt differently!

 

Then why not make announcement in forty languages to cover everyone? At some point, you have a cutoff.

[nycruiser80]

Oh yes they do now! It was announced 2 days ago that they are going live with it on Monday 31. It is being rolled out gradually across the fleet and will be fleet wide around March. Yippee, I say.

 

All 'upmarket' lines like Seabourn, Silversea, Oceania and Crystal have Open Dining which the OP seemed to dislike so much.

 

 

I did not realize Celebrity introduced that! I was away for two week and guessed I missed that!

 

Actually Crystal does have seatings that is why some debate if they should even be included in the luxury line category. I do know that Seabourn, Silversea and the like do have open seating but what I meant to say to the OP that even though they have this given the lesser amount of passengers he may find it more refined and enjoyable,

[feb29]

Sorry you didn't enjoy the vision much, however it is very difficult to compare her with the likes of Navigator.

 

I have been on her twice over the past few months (May & July) and did not expect at an time that she would be as innovative or spacious as the newer ships we have been on. Nevertheless I thought that all things considered, she was in pretty good order for her size & age. I was pleasantly surprised.

We also got a very good price on our sailings so, for us it was excellent value for money for the 4 nights. We were on a short Carnival cruise last Dec on a ship of the same age and give me RCCL anyday.

 

Yes, menus can be a bit samey, but food good. It is probably the same across most of the brands nowadays. We booked MTD but once on board decided to change so can't comment on that. Our service was excellent, especially our waiters on the May cruise.

 

Same for the shows, production show in May had better singers than in July, so just luck as to when you sail! Agree jugglers etc boring!!

 

If you are going on this ship soon, go with an open mind. It IS still a beautiful ship, just different from the newer, true megaships, but still a great cruising vacation. ENJOY!!!:)

[buffalogrill]

I was on Vision in July and agree with you about the MTD experience. I found it really stressful and it's put me off wanting to try it again :(

[heatherb1958]

we have sailed on Vision twice, albeit on the Mexican riviera route but I love the theatre upper level, the Solarium, we liked the layout of our inside cabin and the food was good in the Windjammer. We had excellent service from all staff we met.

 

MTD , 2 storys-

1) our first experience was not of our choosing:(. We had chosen traditional dining on Brilliance and been given a table in the middle of the MTD section:eek:.We had checked it out on embarkation , a table for four , we had asked for a large table, Maitre'd said we couldn't change 'til we sailed . We did not know what we had been allocated was in the centre of MTD until the nightime. It was the most stressfull meal , people coming and going all the time, so many wait staff dashing around, nightmare!! We got allocated another table in traditional area, so different.

 

2) completely different story on Jewel. We were travelling with friends who like MTD so we did it with them. We were given a table by the window every night and had excellent waiters who chose US each evening.When we walked in if a table by the window wasn't clear they cleared it quicksmart so they could serve us. We were very touched. We did like the flexibilty of MTD.