Vision of the Seas~B2B~Spanish Immersion~Feb. 8th & 15th~My Diary

[maxs mom]

One more:

 

 

Same resting routine for the afternoon. Sanjay....the Hotel Director....sent us a bottle of wine with hors d'ouvres this afternoon. Of course there was another beautiful sunset tonight:

 

 

 

 

Almost ready for dinner, but not quite.....enjoying that sunset!

 

 

Someone forgot to use sunscreen today......can you say raccoon?

 

 

Lots of children in the CL tonight, but they left after a while and were well behaved. The head of Housekeeping....Ester, from Germany....was I the CL this evening. She stayed and chatted with us for a very long time!! She said she loved hearing about our cruising stories, but who knows.......she was very, very nice. We got a picture with her, but it came out very blurred.

Edited March 11, 2014 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

We had reservations at Chops tonight at 8:30. The restaurant was pretty busy tonight, but they were ready for us and we had a nice table. The waiter remembered us from last week. We ordered quickly and had fast service.

 

I got my usual.....Chops salad, petit filet.....Mud Pie.....all excellent. john also got French Onion Soup and onion rings. yum!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No casino for us tonight ........Bad Casino!!!

 

It was time to turn into pumpkins!

[Sianli]

My husband and I are enjoying your review so much!! Thank you! We are doing the April 19th and the repo. We are diamond and I made all of our anytime dining reservations for 8:30, being used to the diamond lounge closing at 8:00. It looks like dining is all done later on these sailings and I wondered if you know the diamond lounge hours? I am afraid I may have scheduled our dinner too early! Thank you again!

[maxs mom]

My husband and I are enjoying your review so much!! Thank you! We are doing the April 19th and the repo. We are diamond and I made all of our anytime dining reservations for 8:30, being used to the diamond lounge closing at 8:00. It looks like dining is all done later on these sailings and I wondered if you know the diamond lounge hours? I am afraid I may have scheduled our dinner too early! Thank you again!

 

Hi.....glad you are following along. The lounges on this sailing close at 9. We usually like to stay til they close, but that's just too late for us.....and nobody was ever in there anyway (I'm talking about the CL). We never used the DL. 8:30 is a good time to eat, I think. You can easily change your reservation time on the ship. I never make ours until we get on the ship anyway.

Edited March 11, 2014 by max'smom

[smeck]

We have clips like yours to hold our towels in place. Invaluable for windy days on deck.

Edited March 11, 2014 by smeck

[maxs mom]

Thursday ~ Feb. 20, 2014 ~ Curacao

 

Up early and had the CL to myself. Only a handful of folks at breakfast. Jane and Jim and their friends.

 

 

It was another beautiful day. I can't remember so many beautiful days in a row on a cruise. Just perfect conditions. We docked on the Outside this week.

 

 

 

 

We got lucky and caught a taxi with other people out to the beach this morning so it was only $5 pp. The driver once again dropped us off at the Lion's Dive Hotel. We walked on out to the beach and got our same chairs there and got all settled in.

 

 

[maxs mom]

The Wi-Fi automatically connected and it was pretty good most of the day. The beach got very crowded at one point, but then people began to leave. But it was very quiet at the beginning and end of our day here. It was very enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

Here's a shower built into a tree!

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

We stayed here until around 2:30 and caught a taxi back to the ship.....luckily with others, so it was $5 pp again.

 

 

Same routine when back on board.....a nice relaxing afternoon on the ship. Sail away was around 4:00. Not as dramatic as sailing away from the inside. But this was our last port and it was kind of sad!

 

 

Someone from Guest Services called us this afternoon to ask about the noise we experienced from up above. We only told Betsy about it....jokingly. We never complained to anyone. There's not a whole lot they can do about it and we realized that. Anyway, they wanted to offer us a 20% future cruise credit off our next cruise (or...this is good for one year). We certainly didn't expect that and that was very nice of them!!

 

Tonight was formal night and there was a suite guest party, but when we went up to the Viking Crown, there was hardly anyone there.....so we went on into the CL. We were the only ones there for the entire evening. We still had a nice time chatting with Betsy and our bar server.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 11, 2014 by max'smom

[kaseyoz]

Now you have a real reason to book another cruise .....to use up that credit. :D

 

Must have been so tough writing all this while you froze at home. Hope things are improving.

 

Looks like John did at least wear a hat looking at his rather red face.

[Tropicalgal2]

Tuesday ~ Feb. 18' date=' 2014 ~ Bonaire[/u']

 

So he came back out and we walked on down to the Divi Flamingo resort and bought at day pass there for $10. Turned out to be a good decision. We had one of their pools practically to ourselves all day....had a nice lunch and just got some really first class relaxation in. This was our headquarters for the day:

 

Jane Welcome back to the living! ;) Ice can be SO bad in NC ! ! ! Hated it more than snow when we lived there. :(

 

About how far is it from the ship to Divi Flamingo? How far passed the "second" pier? How long of a walk was it?

 

What did you get for the day pass? Was it just admittance and WiFi?

 

Thanks again for taking the time to post your happenings and your photos. They will help others. Just wish RCCL was coming back to Panama next season! :( It has been GREAT while it lasted! :)

Edited March 11, 2014 by Tropicalgal2

[maxs mom]

Now you have a real reason to book another cruise .....to use up that credit. :D

 

Must have been so tough writing all this while you froze at home. Hope things are improving.

 

Looks like John did at least wear a hat looking at his rather red face.

 

Well....it was a strange ice storm. It was cold and icy all day on Friday, but then the week-end and the last two days, we've been able to wear shorts!! But when the power was off, it was much colder inside than outside. We made out OK, but if we didn't get power back when we did......I think we would have had to move to the crazy house!!

 

Thanks for stopping by!!

[maxs mom]

Jane Welcome back to the living! ;) Ice can be SO bad in NC ! ! ! Hated it more than snow when we lived there. :(

 

About how far is it from the ship to Divi Flamingo? How far passed the "second" pier? How long of a walk was it?

 

What did you get for the day pass? Was it just admittance and WiFi?

 

Thanks again for taking the time to post your happenings and your photos. They will help others. Just wish RCCL was coming back to Panama next season! :( It has been GREAT while it lasted! :)

 

The Divi Flamingo is about a half a mile from the ship. Not a bad walk at all.....and John is handicapped. We just took it slow. And the $10 was admittance, Wi-Fi, and a fruit punch.

 

Oh .....I would definitely cruise from Panama again. This was an amazing 2 weeks! Oh well......

[maxs mom]

Dinner in the MDR tonight was Prime Rib and Lobster (Giant Shrimp). The service was somewhat slow tonight. It seemed an eternity between courses. Everything was good, though. I had Grand Marnier Souffle for dessert.

 

 

 

We hit the casino tonight. John won a respectable amount and I broke another machine! The $10 bill that I fed the machine got all scrunched up and an attendant had to come and get it out. I then proceeded to go on a losing streak. With my casino allowance almost depleted for the week.....we went to bed.

 

As usual, we checked in on the Centrum on the way back to the cabin.

 

 

Loved these swans that Cheryl made for us tonight:

 

[vanvleckeren]

Thanks for your review. It brought back nice memories of the two Baltic Sea cruises that I took on Vision in 2010 and 2011.

 

The Vision class is my favorite class. I just got back from a very nice cruise on Splendour, another Vision-class ship.

 

It was a South American cultural immersion cruise that sailed from Santos (Brazil) and went to Argentina (Buenos Aires) and Uruguay (Montevideo and Punta del Este).

 

I too noticed that everything was later than I'm accustomed too, and the ship was deserted early in the morning. I really liked the shows they did in the Centrum involving acrobatic acts.

 

I'm glad you had such a good time.

[SherriZ366]

We stayed here until around 2:30 and caught a taxi back to the ship.....luckily with others' date=' so it was $5 pp again.

 

 

Same routine when back on board.....a nice relaxing afternoon on the ship. Sail away was around 4:00. Not as dramatic as sailing away from the inside. But this was our last port and it was kind of sad!

 

 

Someone from Guest Services called us this afternoon to ask about the noise we experienced from up above. We only told Betsy about it....jokingly. We never complained to anyone. There's not a whole lot they can do about it and we realized that. Anyway, they wanted to offer us a 20% future cruise credit off our next cruise (or...this is good for one year). We certainly didn't expect that and that was very nice of them!!

 

Tonight was formal night and there was a suite guest party, but when we went up to the Viking Crown, there was hardly anyone there.....so we went on into the CL. We were the only ones there for the entire evening. We still had a nice time chatting with Betsy and our bar server.

 

 

 

 

Great about you getting the credit for a future cruise. We got one when we sailed on EN in October because the water did not stay hot for the second shower. They tried to fix it but were unable to. We had upgraded to a GS when the price went down to below what we had paid for a JS so the credit was pretty good. We applied it to our May 4 FR cruise. We had to wait about a month before the certificate came in the mail and was recorded by Customer Relations. Edited March 12, 2014 by SherriZ366

[Familygoboston]

This resort in Bonaire is not real fancy' date=' but it's kinda neat!

 

A bar and restaurant are right there and you can walk down into the water and snorkel.

 

 

 

We ate here every night of the week, 25 years ago! We stayed at a dive hotel (in both senses of the word;)) next door, and without a car, this was the only place we could go for dinner, glad to see it hasnt changed much! (Though they added the bridge and palapas!)

 

We took a sunset cruise on a steel hulled sail boat called the Iltshe...it was beautiful and the snorkeling was the most colorful and the largest fish I've ever seen, even taking into account I've snorkeled in the Galapagos and Bora Bora!

 

I'd like to get back, but like the old you, have had to follow the school vacations and haven't come up with the ABC's on our vacation week. I'm so glad to see you enjoying the retirement! I'm semi retired (work PT and volunteer) but with the last of my own kids just ready to graduate next year; this is my last year having to do the "vacation weeks" and planning years in advance just to get decent flights and prices! I'm already planning to visit mom for over 2 weeks in FL next year, with no need to travel Sat - Sun, I can get a cheap flight!:D

 

And while we've booked DDs graduation cruise on her spring break in 2015- we are going to try the "last minute" deal for our winter cruise, since we don't need to arrange child care months in advance! It's very freeing, I can see it in your face you are more relaxed!

 

I just got off Enchantment and am surprised at the similarities since they have both been "upgraded". I rather enjoy the changes, especially the Park cafe! I'm putting any upgraded Vision Class ship back on my list of potential cruises for the future:D Someone asked on my review if there is a water fountain in the centrum on Enchantment- I didn't see it, is there one on Vision?

 

Sorry to be long winded, finally all caught up and enjoying your review!

Edited March 12, 2014 by Familygoboston

[BillB48]

A couple of quick questions for max'smom.... Were the regular dining times 7 and 9? Also do you recall what time My Time Dining started?

 

Thanks

[maxs mom]

Great about you getting the credit for a future cruise. We got one when we sailed on EN in October because the water did not stay hot for the second shower. They tried to fix it but were unable to. We had upgraded to a GS when the price went down to below what we had paid for a JS so the credit was pretty good. We applied it to our May 4 FR cruise. We had to wait about a month before the certificate came in the mail and was recorded by Customer Relations.

 

We have already gotten our certificates. They look really official!! Wish the prices of that May 4th cruise would come down.

[maxs mom]

Thanks for your review. It brought back nice memories of the two Baltic Sea cruises that I took on Vision in 2010 and 2011.

 

The Vision class is my favorite class. I just got back from a very nice cruise on Splendour, another Vision-class ship.

 

It was a South American cultural immersion cruise that sailed from Santos (Brazil) and went to Argentina (Buenos Aires) and Uruguay (Montevideo and Punta del Este).

 

I too noticed that everything was later than I'm accustomed too, and the ship was deserted early in the morning. I really liked the shows they did in the Centrum involving acrobatic acts.

 

I'm glad you had such a good time.

 

 

Thanks! We really enjoyed the Spanish Immersion. Glad you did, too.

[maxs mom]

We ate here every night of the week, 25 years ago! We stayed at a dive hotel (in both senses of the word;)) next door, and without a car, this was the only place we could go for dinner, glad to see it hasnt changed much! (Though they added the bridge and palapas!)

 

We took a sunset cruise on a steel hulled sail boat called the Iltshe...it was beautiful and the snorkeling was the most colorful and the largest fish I've ever seen, even taking into account I've snorkeled in the Galapagos and Bora Bora!

 

I'd like to get back, but like the old you, have had to follow the school vacations and haven't come up with the ABC's on our vacation week. I'm so glad to see you enjoying the retirement! I'm semi retired (work PT and volunteer) but with the last of my own kids just ready to graduate next year; this is my last year having to do the "vacation weeks" and planning years in advance just to get decent flights and prices! I'm already planning to visit mom for over 2 weeks in FL next year, with no need to travel Sat - Sun, I can get a cheap flight!:D

 

And while we've booked DDs graduation cruise on her spring break in 2015- we are going to try the "last minute" deal for our winter cruise, since we don't need to arrange child care months in advance! It's very freeing, I can see it in your face you are more relaxed!

 

I just got off Enchantment and am surprised at the similarities since they have both been "upgraded". I rather enjoy the changes, especially the Park cafe! I'm putting any upgraded Vision Class ship back on my list of potential cruises for the future:D Someone asked on my review if there is a water fountain in the centrum on Enchantment- I didn't see it, is there one on Vision?

 

Sorry to be long winded, finally all caught up and enjoying your review!

 

Wow! That's neat! Yes.....waiting on those last minute deals really pays off. Glad we don't have to follow any kind of schedule any more!

 

No....not really a fountain on Vision. But I know what they are talking about. Can't remember what Vision Class ships have those. It's just water that comes down a wall. Maybe Splendour and Legend.....not sure'

Edited March 12, 2014 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

A couple of quick questions for max'smom.... Were the regular dining times 7 and 9? Also do you recall what time My Time Dining started?

 

Thanks

 

Bill....dining times are 7:00 and 9:30. I'm not sure about MTD.....maybe 6:30?

[BillB48]

Bill....dining times are 7:00 and 9:30. I'm not sure about MTD.....maybe 6:30?

Thanks... just curious because the people at Royal told me MTD was also at 7 and every other time I've used MTD they opened a half hour before the first seating. Just wondered which might be correct. Thanks again.

[dreadpirate3]

TY for the wonderful review. We will be on her in June.

[berylde]

We will be a table of 7 for first seating. Do you recommend Deck 4 or 5 for dining?. Also like to "people watch" and be by railing or window

 

This will be our first cruise on Vision class

AND

our first Owner's Suite!!