Group Cruise Vision of the Seas July 3, 4Day

[irishgal432]

Pre Cruise- Embarkation

 

 

We were a group of 10 sisters/nieces and daughters sailing on the July 3rd 4 night to Cozumel. We range in age from 5 Adults Late 40-50’s and kids 25,18,17,16,14. I have cruised about 7 times with Royal mainly in suites, the rest were first time cruisers.

 

 

 

I am giving you an honest opinion of the experience, both bad and good. Some is a little nit picky, but that just shows how good the service and experience was if that is all I could find wrong.

 

 

We were in 1 Grand Suite and 4 Balconies.

 

 

We stayed at the Crown Plaza Port Location. Great hotel. I got a last minute travel club price of 77.00 including taxes. They have a free shuttle to the airport and the taxi for 4 people was 15 to the port. There is a Total Wine/Publix about .8 mile away and you can walk easily. I would do it at day not at night. No breakfast was included, but it did have a somewhat reasonable restaurant on site.

 

 

 

 

We got to the pier 21 at 9:45. There was a separate door for suite entrance and we we were allowed to go inside and sit on chairs before going through security. They opened up the doors at 10:15 and allowed non-priority members in. They checked our paperwork and put us through security at 10:15.

 

 

We were checked in and put in the suite lounge by 10:30. My daughter and niece were the first ones on at 10:45.

 

 

General Cruise notes

 

 

We went to guest services to get extra keys, yet their systems were not up yet to process cards and had to come back. My sister bought a soda package as well right way. That never showed up on her bill later in the cruise, even though she signed for it. We tried to get it resolved and charged, but they told us to come back to speak to someone who wasn’t there at the time. I gave up after that.

 

 

We hung out at the pool until the Windjammer was open around 11:30ish. We ate in shifts. The Windjammer is very small and the selection wasn’t as great as on other ships, but there was plenty to eat.

 

 

 

Rooms were open at 1pm. I had asked for a champagne bucket and ice ahead of time from the concierge which I do on most of my cruises. She told me she would have the steward put one in. I think there was miscommunication some where along the line. There was only the standard ice bucket with ice in the room which doesn’t fit a champagne bottle. HINT: If you go to the bar and get an ice bucket from the bar with ice you will be able to get ice right away versus waiting until late in the afternoon. That way you can have cold wine with dinner.

 

 

 

We had a table for 10 at 6:00pm dinner. I have to say they were the best wait staff I have ever had on Royal. (Disney was the best) Jorge and Ephraim. One thing different was that instead of Dinner promptly at 6:00, they had a range of time you could come. The first day was 6:00-6:30. The rest were 5:45-6:15. Our waiter did say it wasn’t posted in the compass but we could come as early as 5:30, he also thanked us for all coming at the same time (no stragglers) he said it made his job easier. Our table of 10 was finished with dinner in about 1:30. One night he brought out a special cake for my daughter and niece who graduated.

 

 

My sister and I went to the Concierge lounge at 5:00. It was small, so they opened up a small portion of the Viking Crown next to the lounge. You could get any drinks from the bar, not your standard CL drinks, however, that did cause a little bit of a delay in getting service. Normally, the CL waiters are always on top of your drinks, but here we had to search for waiters. Again, they had to leave the lounge and go to the Viking bar to get the drinks, so I am not complaining just an observation. I would rather wait a bit and get any drink than be limited to normal CL drinks. They did have wine set out next to the food so you could refill at if you wanted. We met several people in the lounge, most were long-time cruisers who were enjoyable to talk to.

 

 

 

We went to a Suite party in Chops with the Officers. The drinks and food were great. They had canapes, tiriamsui and sushi. Not your normal CL snacks. We met many officers, however I did not meet the Captain. I do not think she was in attendance. This was also the first time I was not invited to a bridge tour or galley as well.

[irishgal432]

Shows

 

 

Sorry, I do not remember the comedians name. He was from New Jersey. The kids went to the Family comedian and thought he as funny. The adults went to the late night comedian who was funny, but we were so tired we almost fell asleep.

 

 

We also went to Tony Tillman. He was more than a singer, he did a little talking and jokes. He was enjoyable.

 

 

THE BEST SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN ON A CRUISE SHIP….Luis Dalton. He had a matinee Show on Day 4 (sea day) at 2:30 pm. I think most people glanced over the show and wanted to enjoy the sun and other festivities. He had 2 parts. The first was juggling and such, which was energetic and okay. He changed costumes for his Act 2. He was a circus acrobat and did some amazing balancing acts. Everyone leaving the theater said that he could have his own Vegas style show. This guy is probably about 60 years old. AMAZING! Do not miss this!

 

 

Activities

 

 

There are plenty of activities to do. The problem is there are very few clocks around the ship and if you don’t wear a watch you are constantly looking for the time. So by the time we figured out we were going someplace we were late or missed it.

My sister and niece were team leaders for Quest and our team won 2nd place. Not bad for first timers.

There was no Love and Marriage show, which was disappointing.

The Schooner Bar piano really only played the piano and did not encourage sing a longs.

 

 

The rock wall closed early due to the sun hitting the rungs and becoming too hot.

 

Service:

The bars never were crowded. Bartenders were a little slow, but not horrible.

 

 

Other than the suite, the balconies had hit or miss room steward service. The ice bucket would disappear and not re-appear, no shampoo, but when you asked you got some, but hey were not re-filled. One trash can was taken out of the room and not ever brought back in. We were charged for a min-bar item that was not taken.

 

 

One day as I was getting out of the shower and dressing, the window washer machine was crossing my balcony. It would have been nice for advance notice that windows were being cleaned.

 

 

For some reason my one daughters name appeared twice on my folio and my other daughter not at all. Had to make another trip to the room to get passports to verify who was on board, then they had to call Miami and get it straightened out. Good thing I noticed because they said she would not have been allowed off off the ship.

 

 

Our head waiter told me that our whole group could go to the Suite section in the MDR for breakfast and lunch. We had lunch and breakfast in the Suite section of the MDR and had great quick service. The main difference is we were seated right away and ordered quickly and the food came quickly.

My niece is gulten free. Our servers, bent over backwards to accommodate her!

 

Disembarkation:

Nightmare!!! Lighting hit the gangway in FLL and it fried the system. The early embarkers were delayed while they were figuring out what to do about the gangway to the terminal. We had to leave from the gangway on Floor 1. That put everyone behind about 30-45 minutes. We had an afternoon flight out of FLL, so we were not in a rush to get off the ship and started towards the gangplank on level 1 at 9:35, thinking everyone was pretty much off. People were backed up to level 4 on the stairs waiting to get off. Finally off the ship at 10:15 and onto the customs line. The agent told us there were only 75 more guests on board. The customs line was out the terminal door. We finally got out of the terminal at 11:05.

 

General Notes

My first time cruisers were very impressed with the ship, the food, the service and the entertainment. The only negative is the pool and pool deck area. I think that this class cannot sail out of Florida during the summer. It was so crowded in the pool it felt like a college spring break. Basically wall to wall people.

 

 

My 25 yo niece flew into Florida without her passport or bc. After calling Royal they did say if they can scan or copy and the seal is showing you can board. My sister was able to get her friend to scan it and send it and it worked. I was afraid she would be denied boarding.

 

 

My 17yo niece was in my care since her mother could not come traveling with a bc and photo id. I was not asked for any additional info when checking in.

 

 

I didn’t see a lot of rowdiness/drunkards/wild kids. I did see one woman giving her friend a lap dance while waiting for quest. Of course her tight skirt rose up and we got a lovely view of her thong while she was grinding.

 

 

 

They did have an officer scavenger hunt, where you had to get officers signatures. They were out an about, but I only saw the captain 2 times. Once at the Captains reception and once at walk for wishes.

 

 

The service and overall vibe of the ship is good, however I can see where some frequent cruisers can give it bad reviews, because it wasn’t necessarily the best service of the fleet (or my experiences), but it was not terrible as some say. The staff was friendly and would always have a smile and say hello.

Edited July 8, 2014 by irishgal432

[cruizinnoon]

Great review, we were on this sailing as well and I would say that you are spot on in your review. I really had a good time on this. Now to find another three day weekend to work a cruise in.

[aurelius180]

Thank you for taking the time to post a review!

 

I'm feeling much better with all of these reviews this week! :)

[cruizinnoon]

Hit the Solarium Cafe hard in those first few days. I don't know if its just my experience, but the 1st half of the cruise noone was ever there. We were able to just walk right up and pick up our food usually. By Day 3 everybody was lined up for the Brie and Parma or the Beef Kummelweck sandwich (both great.)