Review: Tons of PICTURES, Vision of the Seas: Panama,Cartagena,Curacao,Bonaire, Aruba

[sailawaybellaluna]

It's not a storage issue. I've used too much bandwidth. I guess I have to wait and resurrect the review on May 2 when my allotment is renewed, or pay...

[travelplus]

After dinner, we walked around the ship a bit.

 

One thing I will say about this "Immersion Cruise" is the crowd is really really fun and passionate about having a good time!

 

And I don't mean that in an obnoxious, everyone is loud and drunk sort of way. They are really involved in the activities, whether that be in the Centrum or out by the pool. You could feel the energy, and it made it even more enjoyable!

 

I had received a call from RCCL (two actually) prior to sailing to "warn" me about this being an "Immersion Cruise". Apparently, some people are uncomfortable by the majority of people speaking Spanish, and the shows, etc. being in Spanish. I was excited about that fact, and not concerned at all! Everyone had the same goal - to have a good time, enjoy a beautiful ship, and explore new places. In fact, I think someone without any Spanish language skills would still have a great time - they did an excellent job of translating nearly everything I attended.

 

I had read a short review mentioning chaos in the buffets, not waiting in lines, etc. etc. We didn't experience any of that. That being said, we didn't eat in the Windjammer and we had a private table for our family each night. But I thought the diverse group of people on board made it even more interesting and lovely. My parents had considered traveling with us, but they both have some food allergies and we thought the food would primarily be from Central and South America. That was not the case. It was the typical cruise fare.

 

I went to the casino the first night to play a few dollars on the slot machines, and was so surprised how empty it was! And that was the case every single night! There weren't more than 5 - 10 people in there! Perhaps they came later. This crowd stays up LATE! The activities seemed to start a little later than they would on a typical cruise departing from a US port. This didn't bother us at all.

 

One thing about our fabulous aft balcony cabin is that it was directly above the Some Enchanted Evening Lounge, which meant karaoke every night! It wasn't too terrible, and usually ended around 11:30pm (which was when I went to sleep each night). At one point, the rendition of "Tell Me Why" by the Backstreet Boys could be sung along with, word by word! :D

 

To bed early in preparation for a HOT HOT HOT day in Cartagena, Colombia!

 

I'm actually off in two hours time for an Immersion Cruise from Santos(Sao Paulo) Brazil-Barcelona with my Father. We are staying in Sao Paulo for a couple of days and then a night in Santos before the cruise.

 

I wanted to take this immersion cruise because I love the Brazilian Culture. My Cousin married a Brasilero from Belo Horozonte and I have relatives in Rio who are going to take us on a tour.. We have a tour planned in Salavado De Bahia and in Teneriefe Canary Islands with the last port in Malaga.

 

There are so many Americans who have never traveled outside of their comfort zone and are so surprised to learn about the Immersion Cruise. I told an agent at Royal Caribbean that they should not waste a call on us as I knew it was an Immersion cruise from the start and would have not booked it if I did not want this experience.

 

Sure enough this agent told me a story about a family who booked an Immersion Cruise without even knowing and they got so upset they wrote in to the Corporate Office demanding a refund, asking why they were never told about it and why should they have to cater to the other culture. Man I could not hold back my laughter.

 

In the best priced itinerary is on Aero Mexico/TAM new airlines to try out and we have a 5 hour tour in Mexico City to begin our adventure.

 

I really don't like the nickel and diming of our American Carriers. Even on the short San Francisco-Mexico City flight they offer a Cold Meal with complimentary Alcoholic Beverages compared to the Untied Flight that offers nothing except Buy On Board.

 

On TAM they also offer you three meal choices in economy as well as complimentary alcoholic beverages , a Personal Inflight Entertainment System and a hot breakfast. What more can you ask for?

 

I will see how this Cultural Immersion Cruise goes and would consider booking another one as the activities will be different than our previous two trans atlantic cruises. I'm glad we took two Trans Atlantic Cruises before this one so we know what is going on even if we don't speak or understand Portuguese fluently.

 

Actually Royal Caribbean was rated #1 in Brazil so I'm sure the standards of this cruise will be higher for us Americans because they have to keep their standard high. We may even get better meals and service due to this. They consider Royal a Premium Brand in Brazil. So we shall see(:.

[Marlebd]

It's not a storage issue. I've used too much bandwidth. I guess I have to wait and resurrect the review on May 2 when my allotment is renewed, or pay...

 

Oh nooo! We leave tomorrow! We are in panama now, please tell us something about aruba y curacao pleaseeee! Some tips and what can we do... help us please

 

By the way your son is extremely beautiful!! I loved him =P

 

Marleny

[KansasK]

Thanks for this great review. The pictures are wonderful. I'm so happy that the cruise went to so well. You are blessed with a great family!

[KansasK]

Is anyone having trouble viewing the pictures? I started out seeing the pictures and then they all turned to a small Photobucket square. I can right click it and see the picture in a separate window. This happened at work on a Mac and at home on a Windows computer.

 

Just wondering.

 

I missed what was posted above, sorry.

Edited April 19, 2014 by KansasK

[sailawaybellaluna]

I'm actually off in two hours time for an Immersion Cruise from Santos(Sao Paulo) Brazil-Barcelona with my Father. We are staying in Sao Paulo for a couple of days and then a night in Santos before the cruise.

 

I wanted to take this immersion cruise because I love the Brazilian Culture. My Cousin married a Brasilero from Belo Horozonte and I have relatives in Rio who are going to take us on a tour.. We have a tour planned in Salavado De Bahia and in Teneriefe Canary Islands with the last port in Malaga.

 

There are so many Americans who have never traveled outside of their comfort zone and are so surprised to learn about the Immersion Cruise. I told an agent at Royal Caribbean that they should not waste a call on us as I knew it was an Immersion cruise from the start and would have not booked it if I did not want this experience.

 

Sure enough this agent told me a story about a family who booked an Immersion Cruise without even knowing and they got so upset they wrote in to the Corporate Office demanding a refund, asking why they were never told about it and why should they have to cater to the other culture. Man I could not hold back my laughter.

 

In the best priced itinerary is on Aero Mexico/TAM new airlines to try out and we have a 5 hour tour in Mexico City to begin our adventure.

 

I really don't like the nickel and diming of our American Carriers. Even on the short San Francisco-Mexico City flight they offer a Cold Meal with complimentary Alcoholic Beverages compared to the Untied Flight that offers nothing except Buy On Board.

 

On TAM they also offer you three meal choices in economy as well as complimentary alcoholic beverages , a Personal Inflight Entertainment System and a hot breakfast. What more can you ask for?

 

I will see how this Cultural Immersion Cruise goes and would consider booking another one as the activities will be different than our previous two trans atlantic cruises. I'm glad we took two Trans Atlantic Cruises before this one so we know what is going on even if we don't speak or understand Portuguese fluently.

 

Actually Royal Caribbean was rated #1 in Brazil so I'm sure the standards of this cruise will be higher for us Americans because they have to keep their standard high. We may even get better meals and service due to this. They consider Royal a Premium Brand in Brazil. So we shall see(:.

 

I hope you have a wonderful time! When I worked in international relief/development, we had an office in Belo Horizonte that I spent a week in - I loved Brazil!

 

And I definitely agree with you about the American airline carriers...We flew Copa on this trip and had amazing service. Every meal was a hot meal + free wine!

 

Enjoy!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Oh nooo! We leave tomorrow! We are in panama now, please tell us something about aruba y curacao pleaseeee! Some tips and what can we do... help us please

 

By the way your son is extremely beautiful!! I loved him =P

 

Marleny

 

Hi Marleny,

 

If you scroll to the previous page, you can read about Curacao. We went to the Lion's Dive and absolutely loved it!

 

At the moment, I've used too much bandwidth from my Photobucket account (which is why the pictures disappeared), but if you click on them, them will still take you to my photo stream and you can see them.

 

In Aruba, we disembarked the ship and walked across the street to the bus station (literally, across the street - next to the handicrafts market). We paid $2.30 each and took the 10 minute bus ride to MVC Eagle Beach. We rented chairs that were $5 for 4 hours or less, or $10 for all day. MVC has a restaurant named Tulip that you can order food and drinks to go. They do NOT offer beachside waiter service.

 

After that, we took another bus back (not the same one, this was more of a micro-van) for $2 each. Did a little shopping and jumped back on board!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Is anyone having trouble viewing the pictures? I started out seeing the pictures and then they all turned to a small Photobucket square. I can right click it and see the picture in a separate window. This happened at work on a Mac and at home on a Windows computer.

 

Just wondering.

 

I missed what was posted above, sorry.

 

Hi KansasK!

 

It seems I've used too much bandwidth from my Photobucket account. :mad:

 

Sorry about that. You can still click the pictures and it'll take you to my photobucket stream where you can see them.

 

I'll continue with the review next week when I get more bandwidth!

 

Thanks for reading along!

[CruisinGirl777]

Looking forward to when you get more bandwidth :). Great review!

[Tropicalgal2]

And I definitely agree with you about the American airline carriers...We flew Copa on this trip and had amazing service. Every meal was a hot meal + free wine!

Enjoy!

 

COPA is Compañía Panamá. They are GREAT. :) Like you said you get a hot meal on their flights in regular class! We love it because they have direct flights from here to many cities in America! :D

 

When flying to Central or South America, they are worth checking out! They are what airlines USED TO BE! :p :)

[librarylady19]

Hope you come back to finish the review!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Edited April 22, 2014 by librarylady19

[vnyislesv]

im going on this boat in may, your pictures dont show!!!

[dblane]

Looking forward to your continued review after you get your pics back.:)

[sailawaybellaluna]

Yay! My bandwidth issues on Photobucket are fixed! Will work on writing the rest of my review this week!

 

Thanks for your patience and reading along! :)

[librarylady19]

Excellent! I'm looking forward to reading more

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[zambonis]

We are sailing on vision at the end of May. First time cruisers. Your pictures of the ship are great. Thanks.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[sparkymom]

Looking forward to the rest of the story.... It's like closing a book for a while- you really don't want to :)

[kayehall]

Yay...you are back!! Great review. Love the pics. Your son is quite the handsome young man. It's good he travels with you. I am scheduled on the Vision Nov 6th for her repositioning to Tampa. I am getting so much more excited reading your review!!

[jjy1130]

can't wait to read the rest!!

 

We just booked in the adjacent room! Did you have any problems with noise?

[sailawaybellaluna]

Thank you all for your compliments and reading along!

 

So, I WILL be back this week to finish this review, promise!

 

Of course, my laptop (with all of photos on the hard drive), completely died. Thankfully, I just recovered all of the pics. I will upload them to my new laptop and Photobucket and THEN I will continue!!! :p

 

can't wait to read the rest!!

 

We just booked in the adjacent room! Did you have any problems with noise?

 

No, none at all! The door didn't rattle, and I could barely hear a thing! One evening I could hear a bit of their television, but that was all! You will LOVE the cabin!

 

For everyone else going on the Vision soon, I wish I could tag along with you! Such a lovely ship with friendly staff!

[sailawaybellaluna]

So so sorry for the delay! Photobucket fixed my photos, and then I dropped off the face of the earth for 3 weeks!

 

I'm committed to finishing this review, so here we go!

[sailawaybellaluna]

When I last wrote (over a month ago!!), we were just ending our time at the Divi Flamingo Beach Resort.

 

I can't recommend this place enough for people visiting Bonaire. It was absolutely perfect for our family.

 

And, we only had a short 5 -minute walk to get back to our ship.

 

Once we got back on board, we enjoyed a little sail away from our balcony...

 

 

 

And a view of the Divi Flamingo as we were sailing away:

 

 

We got back and decided to enjoy our balcony and just order room service for dinner. I went to the bar and ordered a bushwacker (it wasn't on the menu, but was definitely one of the best $8 I've ever spent)!

 

We called it an early night...Washed our swimsuits, recharged our camera batteries, and got ready for Aruba the next day!

[sailawaybellaluna]

The next day we arrived in Aruba at 7am. The view from our balcony was stunning!

 

 

We were dressed in swimwear with our beach bags, sunscreen, camera and bottled water and off the ship by around 8:30.

 

 

About two weeks prior to sailing, the itinerary changed, and they switched up all of our islands and times! We didn't mind, since Bonaire was the only tour we had booked and they accommodated. I was happy with the change because we got more time in each port, EXCEPT Aruba. Aruba was cut very short - with an all aboard time at 3:30pm. We didn't mind, but I think several people were frustrated by this.

 

Anyhow, we got off the ship and explored the pier area and the posh mall down the street (All the major high-end chain stores were to be found). I made a stop at Starbucks to get an Aruba mug, since I collect their city mugs.

 

We found the bus stop - directly across the street from the pier gate, behind the crafts market. We purchased tickets for $2.30/each (they didn't charge for Oliver), and we made our way out to Eagle Beach.

 

I had decided that MVC Eagle Beach was where we'd spend the afternoon. Thankfully, the bus driver was very kind, and shouted out as we were approaching, so we knew when to jump off.

 

It was only a 10-minute ride, and we were so proud of ourselves that we only spent $4.60 to get there in total!

 

Eagle Beach was very beautiful - white sand, blue waters:

 

 

I was excited (and thankful!), to be in Aruba for the day, but I must admit: I don't think the ambiance was as amazing as it was in previous islands we've been to. It was a beautiful large beach, but without the vegetation/mountains/palm trees that make beaches so special...Again, no complaints, just my observation. We live about 15 minutes from Laguna Beach, and I personally think that's more picturesque!

 

Anyhow, back to the MVC. It's quite basic. Not a fancy resort with bells and whistles. The chairs are mediocre, but there are palapas for shade. We snagged some chairs and the guy came by to charge us. He was pretty insistent we pay $10/each, but I had contacted the resort and was told it was only $5/each if you were only going to be there 4 hours or less (which we were). Thankfully I had printed out the email, and he honored the price.

 

The MVC does not offer beachside drinks/food service like Lion's Dive in Curacao or Divi in Bonaire, but they do have a restaurant called "Tulip" across the road at the resort. It opened at 11am, and they made food to go and drinks is plastic cups for you to take to the beach. I ordered another "bushwacker" (YUM!), and we got Parmesan Truffle fries to go. (Amazing).

 

...More to come

[sailawaybellaluna]

My little guy had purchased a huge plastic iguana near the port in Aruba that morning, which provided HOURS of entertainment at the beach!

 

We buried it, swam with it, scared people with it, etc!

 

 

 

 

My husband loved sitting under the palapa, taking in the beautiful view:

 

 

 

Around noon, we noticed several other RCCL guests began showing up. Many of them had done "island tours" which dropped them at Eagle Beach. As I heard in other ports, people I spoke with were really disappointed in the excursions! Aruba was no different. They said they felt pressured to shop and basically, sat on a bus. I believe they only had around 1 - 1.5 hours at Eagle Beach. I hate feeling rushed and herded around, which just confirmed, that most of the time, cruiseline shore excursions aren't for us!

 

Eagle Beach really isn't a place for snorkeling...I love snorkeling but was advised that Malmok is the place to do it on Aruba. Unfortunately, there aren't really the right amenities for my family there, so I chose not to snorkel, and we just relaxed...

 

We saw the Holland America ship sail in around 1pm and dock:

 

 

More to come...

[sailawaybellaluna]

Around 2pm, we decided to head back to the port...

 

This was the "bus stop" in front of the MVC resort. I snapped this photo quickly, and it turned out to be one of my favorites! What a beautiful bus stop! If only they looked like this in LA! :)

 

 

We didn't see the type of bus returning that we had originally snagged for $2.30...After waiting about 15 - 20 minutes, I started getting nervous. I am ALWAYS back a good hour before the all aboard time - cutting it close stresses me out!

 

But lots of micro buses were stopping and honking at us. We found one that had some open seats, and only paid $2 each to return! Again, we were back at the port in 10 minutes, having only spent $4! We were so proud of ourselves with the cost savings!

 

We meandered through the market for 15 minutes or so. I found an artist hand painting ornaments, and I purchased one. It turned out to be one of my favorite souvenirs from this trip, and only $10!

 

 

Once returning to our ship, we ordered a little light room service and decided to relax on the balcony before getting ready for formal night.

 

I was surprised you can't order a bottle of wine from room service? But no worries, I just popped down to the Schooner bar, where they got me a bottle of Chardonnay with an ice bucket to go!

 

 

It was also fun taking a closer peek at the Holland America ship that had docked directly in front of ours:

 

 

Next up: our final formal night!