The Great Adventure! VISION OF THE SEAS 12-Night Med Cruise: A Full PICTORIAL Review!

[JD26]

I am really enjoying your review. Thank you so much I have never been to Europe and I am wondering how you picked up your euro's? Did you use an ATM or stop at a bank? Thanks again. Our trip is October 19th.

[Carrie10026]

JD26 I'm hijacking this... we love Europe as you can see from my profile pic of me and the hubby in Rome! We use to just exchange at the airport usually in Charlotte (that is where we normally fly from). However we found that we can order euro though our bank (wells fargo) at a way better rate! they have to order it in and it takes a few days we did it in increments of 500.00 so check with your local bank. Just a suggestion then your all set before you go! Have an amazing voyage!!!!!

[Nicole721]

I'll be waiting up tonight, but enjoy the show if you must LOL

 

It was definitely...interesting LOL.

 

I am really enjoying your review. Thank you so much I have never been to Europe and I am wondering how you picked up your euro's? Did you use an ATM or stop at a bank? Thanks again. Our trip is October 19th.

 

We used an ATM. We didn't want to pick up our Euros in the US because the exchange rates are poorer here and by using an ATM, we were able to withdraw as we needed Euros. This was particularly helpful because one, Euro coins are heavy and the bills are flimsy and we didn't want to carry more than we needed on us and two, we didn't want to take out more than we needed and then come home with Euros and exchange them again (which would, again, be at a poor rate that we'd lose more money on upon a second exchange).

 

My sister has a bank account that reimburses her for all ATM fees, so we were able to withdraw across every country we visited (and on the ship's ATM) without incurring additional fees. ATM's were everywhere, from the airport to the ship to the piers, so we never had any issue finding one where we needed one :)

Edited August 24, 2015 by Nicole721

[JD26]

JD26 I'm hijacking this... we love Europe as you can see from my profile pic of me and the hubby in Rome! We use to just exchange at the airport usually in Charlotte (that is where we normally fly from). However we found that we can order euro though our bank (wells fargo) at a way better rate! they have to order it in and it takes a few days we did it in increments of 500.00 so check with your local bank. Just a suggestion then your all set before you go! Have an amazing voyage!!!!!

 

Thank you for your help. I bank at Wells Fargo, so I am going to ask my banker.

JoDee

[JD26]

It was definitely...interesting LOL.

 

 

 

We used an ATM. We didn't want to pick up our Euros in the US because the exchange rates are poorer here and by using an ATM, we were able to withdraw as we needed Euros. This was particularly helpful because one, Euro coins are heavy and the bills are flimsy and we didn't want to carry more than we needed on us and two, we didn't want to take out more than we needed and then come home with Euros and exchange them again (which would, again, be at a poor rate that we'd lose more money on upon a second exchange).

 

My sister has a bank account that reimburses her for all ATM fees, so we were able to withdraw across every country we visited (and on the ship's ATM) without incurring additional fees. ATM's were everywhere, from the airport to the ship to the piers, so we never had any issue finding one where we needed one :)

 

 

Thank you. I have a couple of options to check on. I am from the old school. We did travelers checks for years. Ha... Your review is enjoyable and helpful. I hope you realize how much everybody appreciates it.

 

JoDee

[PCWalton1]

Thank you for the report and all the lovely pictures. We were in Barcelona in 2010 and it's enjoyable to relive our trip through your pictures. :)

[BrooklinNorth]

I subscribed to this thread yesterday, and I am thoroughly loving it. We are taking our 1st Med cruise next September, yes a whole 384 more days. So I'm in that glorious research and planning stage. So keep it coming girl, I love the details and the pictures, you have a great eye!

PS gotta stay until the end, we're doing Paris pre cruise and going from Barcelona to Paris via train too. I can't wait to read all about your adventures!

 

Lori :p

Edited August 24, 2015 by BrooklinNorth

[Hailzmick]

NICOLE!!!!!!!!

I was on your cruise & I had read your previous reviews. The only thing I regret about our whole vacation, (7 weeks all up & 2 cruises) is not coming up and saying hi to you guys. If I don't know someone, I become super shy... (As usually I'm super loud!)

I'm absolutely loving your review so far... I had to take a break from doing mine as I started a new business & everything has been super crazy!!!

Keep up the awesome writing!

Hailz xxx

[Mapleleafforever]

Thanks so much for this review, I'm loving it! We'll be cruising out of Barcelona next May and I think I've now found my pre-cruise hotel based on your positive experience, Hotel Miramar. Looks great!

 

Can't wait for more!!

[Nicole721]

Thank you. I have a couple of options to check on. I am from the old school. We did travelers checks for years. Ha... Your review is enjoyable and helpful. I hope you realize how much everybody appreciates it.

 

JoDee

 

Thanks, JoDee! And have a wonderful cruise! I hope you enjoy yours as much as I enjoyed mine!

 

Thank you for the report and all the lovely pictures. We were in Barcelona in 2010 and it's enjoyable to relive our trip through your pictures. :)

 

I'm glad you're enjoying it! :D

 

[Nicole721]

I subscribed to this thread yesterday, and I am thoroughly loving it. We are taking our 1st Med cruise next September, yes a whole 384 more days. So I'm in that glorious research and planning stage. So keep it coming girl, I love the details and the pictures, you have a great eye!

PS gotta stay until the end, we're doing Paris pre cruise and going from Barcelona to Paris via train too. I can't wait to read all about your adventures!

 

Lori :p

 

Thanks, Lori! :D More coming your way -- I hope you enjoy!!

 

NICOLE!!!!!!!!

I was on your cruise & I had read your previous reviews. The only thing I regret about our whole vacation, (7 weeks all up & 2 cruises) is not coming up and saying hi to you guys. If I don't know someone, I become super shy... (As usually I'm super loud!)

I'm absolutely loving your review so far... I had to take a break from doing mine as I started a new business & everything has been super crazy!!!

Keep up the awesome writing!

Hailz xxx

 

Ahhh Hailz! I wish you would have come say hi! I love meeting fellow CC mates! I'll check out your review -- it'll be fun to re-live the cruise through someone else's eyes!

 

[Nicole721]

Thanks so much for this review, I'm loving it! We'll be cruising out of Barcelona next May and I think I've now found my pre-cruise hotel based on your positive experience, Hotel Miramar. Looks great!

 

Can't wait for more!!

 

We're looking at another Europe cruise out of Barcelona next May, too. Maybe we'll see you at the Miramar ;) I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

[Nicole721]

Goodbye, Miramar

 

On days where our trip moves from hotel to cruise ship, we’re usually up with the sun. If the early bird gets the worm, the early cruiser gets no lines. In line with just about everything else about this trip, though, there wasn’t much that followed our usual cruise routine – Stephanie was the only one who woke with the alarm at 8:00, Mom didn’t wake up until 9:00 and having slept through all of that because I sleep with earplugs in on vacation, no one woke me up until 10:00. But that was okay – we were so close to the port that we could see the ship from our beds and the sun was bright and beautiful, promising a gorgeous day ahead for our first day on the Vision of the Seas.

 

We had breakfast out on the terrace – the chocolate croissants and cava we’d purchased the evening before – and toasted to the next phase of our big adventure.

 

 

 

After breakfast (and a toast), we grabbed our bags and checked out of the hotel. Everything about Hotel Miramar exceeded expectation. The room was perfect (and best of all, huge!), the staff were kind, courteous and helpful and the grounds were stunning. I said it once but I’m going to say it again because I almost never see it mentioned in hotel recommendations: I can’t recommend this hotel enough.

 

 

The door staff were helpful in helping us get a taxi big enough to fit all of our luggage (and we had *a lot*, but this was a l-o-n-g trip!) and we headed off towards our new home for the next 12 days.

[Nicole721]

Embarkation

 

The cab ride from the hotel to the port was around €17 (including €7.20 in luggage fees – remember, they meter differently in Spain than they do in the US and you will be charged per piece of luggage) and took less than ten minutes. As we descended through Montjuic, I almost felt like I was in Beverly Hills, where lush palm trees and dense foliage line each side of the street.

 

 

 

Porters were plenty and grabbed our luggage quickly, and though the line for check-in looked daunting, we passed through to security pretty quickly. We’ve been Platinum on Carnival since 2011 and save for one cruise on the Allure, every cruise we’ve been on since has been on Carnival, so we weren’t sure what embarkation would look like without our usual lounge and first-to-board perks. Thankfully, it went rather quickly. Once we passed through security, our docs were checked and we were placed in a line for Gold level cruisers (…apparently that’s a thing when you have one RCCL cruise under your belt), where we took our pictures and got our cards. And from there? We walked right onto the boat. We arrived around 11:00 and it took less than a half hour between leaving our hotel and first step onto the ship.

 

 

Since we walked straight onto the ship, we didn’t spend any time in the terminal except in passing, but we noticed that there were duty free stores, liquor shops and even a bar. If you want to bring bottled water on with you, you can buy six large liter bottles for €8, which isn’t awful.

 

 

 

Unlike most cruises where you board into the atrium, boarding the Vision in Barcelona meant boarding on deck zero, so our first impression of the ship wasn’t this beautiful atrium, but rather, the crew deck. On the plus, boarding on deck zero made it easy to catch an elevator up to deck 9 (the Lido deck), so we headed up start exploring.

[Nicole721]

First Impressions

 

Our room wouldn’t be ready until 1:00 pm, so our options to pass the hour and a half between embarking and then were limited. We could walk around the upper decks. We could have lunch. We could hang around the atrium. Since we had plenty of time, we did all three.

 

We weren’t entirely sure what to expect of the Vision before we boarded. We’d watched every YouTube video we could find, read every review that came up in the search results and took in any piece of information we could get our hands on, but nothing really prepares you for being there. The Vision is one of Royal Caribbean’s older ships: she was built in 1996 and launched in 1997, making this the oldest ship we’d ever been on. Being an older ship meant less bells and whistles but a more traditional, regal design. Entertainment and dining options were more limited than they are on newer ships, but the passenger to space ratio should be better. The passenger capacity on the Vision is just over 2,400 guests, which also makes it one of the smaller ships we’ve been on (a far cry away from the 6,200+ passenger max on the largest ship we’ve been on – the Allure!).

 

And even though the ship was a little older (I was in middle school when she was first set to sea, the Clintons ran the White House and Dawson’s Creek hadn’t even premiered yet!), we were pleased to find that the ship was in near immaculate condition. If you didn’t know that the Vision of the Seas was an older ship, you wouldn’t be able to tell otherwise. No cracked tiles. No worn carpeting. No rust spots. The Vision was pristine and she was a beaut.

 

We walked through the Windjammer Marketplace to check out the lunch offerings and while the Vision doesn’t have the options that Carnival ships have (no 24 hour pizzeria, no burger stand, deli, taqueria or pasta bar), the Windjammer had plenty of offerings for lunch, each broken down into it’s own section: a salad bar with plenty of fresh veggies, meats, pastas, ready-made sandwiches, a build-your-own-burger station and, of course, a section devoted solely to dessert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2015 by Nicole721

[Nicole721]

I knew, though, that there was another option that many other cruisers wouldn’t be aware of (at least, not on the first day), so we headed forward to the Solarium and Park Café.

 

 

Hidden in the far end of the Solarium (Royal Caribbean’s Adults Only area), near where the Solarium meets the spa, they have a Park Café, one of our favorites from our trip on the Allure. Park Café offers pre-made and made-to-order salads and sandwiches, including our favorite, the Kummelweck: a sandwich of roast beef sliced fresh on a salted caraway roll with lots of horseradish and mustard.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

AND! They have fruit punch on the Vision! Carnival did away with fruit punch years ago and I don’t remember seeing it on the Allure, either, so we were super excited to find it onboard the Vision. It was a little too strong (I found it best at a 30% fruit punch 70% water ratio), but we were glad to see it as an option.

 

 

 

We settled down with our Kummelwecks and fruit punches and had a nice lunch at a table that looked out onto Montjuic. While we were in the Windjammer earlier, we were handed a flier for dining packages, so we contemplated those over lunch.

 

[Nicole721]

We walked around the open decks for a few minutes before heading inside to see if our room was ready.

 

 

We walked through the shops (almost like a shopping mall!) and took a peek into the theater (which was incredibly regal) before heading to deck 3 to find our cabin.

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

Our New Home

 

Royal Caribbean’s cabins are significantly smaller than Carnival’s cabins – we knew this going in. We also knew that the chances of Stephanie and I feuding decreased as our cabin to passenger space ratio increased. On a seven night cruise, we could usually deal with just about any room. For a 12 night cruise, we needed the most space we could get. We were going to book a balcony room until availability opened up for a Family Oceanview room, which had two distinct sleeping areas and a separate sitting area. Enough space to sleep six, so plenty of room for three. Room 3032, a forward cabin with no noise issues but a bit of motion (which was fine for me since motion makes me sleepy and being on vacation, I needed some rest whether I wanted it or not).

 

 

The moment we walked into the room, we knew we made the right choice. The room was more spacious than any stateroom we’d been on since the last time we traveled in a suite. Tons of counter space. Tons of closet space. Tons of sitting space. Tons of…space. You get the picture. And a large window for natural light. We were more than pleased.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

 

 

 

You see those outlets in the last picture? No need for adapters on the Vision of the Seas. You’ll need them in Barcelona and just about anywhere else you travel in Europe, but you won’t need them on the cruise ship.

 

As we were settling in, our cabin steward came to introduce himself and handed us his business card, letting us know to call if we ever needed anything.

 

Too eager to stay in the room, we headed out to explore the rest of the ship.

[Nicole721]

Getting to Know the Vision

 

First step on our walk was deck six, to spend our onboard credit on an internet package (getting me to turn my phone off for seven days was a feat, but getting me to do it for twelve was going to be impossible – it’s just too long for me to feel comfortable disconnecting with work and, you know, Instagram and Facebook). On our way, we found Café Latté-tudes, the coffee bar, which is also where Ben and Jerry’s is. Both the coffee drinks and ice cream are priced a la carte (unless you have a beverage package that includes specialty coffee drinks), but the treats they have out are for free – you just need to ask for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

Just past Café Latté-tudes was the internet café. They have computers there for use but we just wanted to sign up for a wi-fi package so we could use our phones/iPads. I think ours ran us $240 for unlimited use on two devices (which wasn’t restricted to two devices per se, just two at the same time, so if I logged out, Mom and Stephanie could both be on, or I could log out of my iPhone and onto my iPad while Stephanie was on hers). I know internet prices are a bit of a hot topic, but broken down, that was roughly $11/day each for two of us and we had some onboard credit. I think we also got a small discount for being a repeat cruiser, too. No regrets on the internet package.

 

We headed downstairs after activating our internet plan for our first glimpse of the atrium. The atrium onboard the Vision of the Seas is understated but quite lovely. The R Bar is located on the bottom floor of the atrium (deck 4, if I remember correctly), which is a posh space to grab a drink and a prime space for people watching.

 

 

[Hailzmick]

Thanks, Lori! :D More coming your way -- I hope you enjoy!!

 

 

 

Ahhh Hailz! I wish you would have come say hi! I love meeting fellow CC mates! I'll check out your review -- it'll be fun to re-live the cruise through someone else's eyes!

 

 

 

Oh my, it's super long and with hundreds of pics!!!!

Just means we might have to cruise again together!!! :-)

[Nicole721]

While we were down in the atrium, we decided to sign up for a dining package. We were already planning on dining at Chops and Giovanni’s, so using the package basically gave us a free meal at Izumi. After we signed up, they urged us to head up to Chops because they were going to do a galley tour of some of the specialty restaurants.

 

 

The tour was just beginning as we got there. First, we were led into the galley area for Giovanni’s. Chops and Giovanni’s share a galley that is broken down into different sections. They walked us through, explaining the different areas and doing some small demos. They offered a tasting of Chops’ Crab Cake and Giovanni’s Mushroom Risotto while we were down there. I didn’t try the crab cake (though Mom gave it rave reviews), but the mushroom risotto was so, so good.