Vision of the Seas--What to expect?

[Bruin Steve]

We will be on Vision of the Seas August 5 for an 8-night Western Mediterranean cruise (Barcelona--Sete--Toulon--Corsica--Ibiza--Mallorca--Cartegena--Valencia--Barcelona).

We were last on Vision of the Seas back in July 2008.  Have been on a lot of newer, bigger ships since.

We originally booked an OV cabin to save a few $$.  Looked at the RCCL website and realized the OVs are a mere 126 square feet (Really?).  So, we are now in a balcony--supposedly 195 sf--#7110.

Looking at the deck plans, I realize there aren't many balcony cabins on the ship--by my count, only 196 of them, almost all on Deck 7.  And another 96 suites --on Deck 8...So, less than half of the staterooms have balconies--and only on two decks?  They've learned a lot on ship design since 1998!  I feel fortunate to have gotten one of those balcony cabins...

 

I've also read some of the recent reviews--mixed, some particularly bad...

OTH, we are not expecting one of the big, modern ships.  We'll be back in the Western Med on Symphony in April.  And we just, a couple of weeks ago, got off Navigator.  This itinerary, of course, is EXTREMELY port intensive.  We are looking at the ship as a place to sleep and eat and , hopefully, see a show every night (Yes, a couple problems with that on the Navigator cruise we just got off...and I've read some reviews stating entertainment was underwhelming on Vision).

 

We're not doing a drink package because, as Diamond C&A, we get those four nightly vouchers--Hopefully, we don't have the same problem with vouchers magically disappearing as they did on Navigator!  

 

A few questions:

--For pre-dinner drinks, even with the voucher thing, we like to go to the Diamond Club--which is hopefully less crowded.  How is the Diamond Club on Vision?

 

--Aside from the production show(s), what other etertainment has been onboard lately?

 

--How dressed have people been getting for Formal Nights?  On Navigator, it seemed almost no one dressed and we saw more Shorts/T-shirts at dinner than we've ever seen before.

 

--Anything else "new" we should be aware of?  Any improvements of late?

 

Thanks...

Edited July 24, 2022 by Bruin Steve

[smokeybandit]

Most bad reviews of older smaller ships are just people complaining that it's not a brand new gigantic ship.

[Saab4444]

 A little more dress code than in the Caribbean, no European would wear shorts for dinner in the dining room in Europe (maybe a few but not many..).

[shipgeeks]

The note about OV cabins being 126 square feet is wrong.  I see that's what is on the deck plans, but we book OV cabins on sister ships all the time, and they are plenty roomy.  I don't know why RC has not corrected that; TAs have.  If it were me, I would go back to an OV and save the $$.

[Bruin Steve]

19 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

The note about OV cabins being 126 square feet is wrong.  I see that's what is on the deck plans, but we book OV cabins on sister ships all the time, and they are plenty roomy.  I don't know why RC has not corrected that; TAs have.  If it were me, I would go back to an OV and save the $$.

Naahhh...

We prefer a balcony...just for fresh air, clear photos when arriving in port early morning and a little more space...and we only paid $135 pp more for the balcony.  On an 8 night cruise, that's just another $33.75 per day.  we usually book a balcony unless we can save over $400-500 moving down to an OV.  When we originally booked, that number was around $1000, so we booked the OV...