great Alaska cruise on Vision of the Seas 6-30-7-7-06

[Majesty Fan]

My husband and I and 10 family members did the Vision to Alaska! All I can say is wow! This was not my first cruise it was my 22 cruise and second on Vision to Alaska last was in 2000. We flew into Seattle 3 days before the cruise and explored Seattle. I encourage everyone to have at least 1 full day in Seattle as there is so much to do. We stayed at the Silver Cloud hotel for $125 AAA rate. They had a shuttle to take you anywhere in downtown Seattle and even took us farther than that if they were not busy. We did tip them a few dollars everytime we used the shuttle. They had a cont. breakfast every am plus free use of the washer and dryers. We did the duck tour. We had a blast doing this and saw the SleepLess Seattle houseboat. We did the Boeing plant on our own. We rented a car for just the tour and turned it in after we came back from the tour. We did the Seattle Acquarium, the Locks, the Market go after 10am when everything is open. We had a hard time ajusting to time we live in FL so it felt like 8am when it was only 6am. We took the shuttle to pier 30 at 11am Friday and we were one of the first people there and used Diamond check in and within 2 minutes they opened boarding. Pier 30 has a very long ramp to board so if you have difficulty walking you might want to use a wheelchair. Plus it is pretty steep. Along they way they were selling Alaska base ball hats for $5 and binoculars and sun glasses too. Once on the ship we haeded to the Windjammer on deck 9 your cabin will not be ready until 1pm. I got the coke cup which is much bigger than on other cruises and is $6 per day per adult. We split the wine package between 6 adults and paid $100 per couple for 10 bottles of wine. The WIndjammer is where we ate breakfast and lunch. Lunch had a nice salad bar with lots of toppings and dressing as well as breads and fruits plus they always had mashed potatoes, carved meat, fish, and another vegetable, plus they had small sandwhiches, wraps and panini's, plus on the other side were pasta's, soup, rice, and some ethnic foods plus juice, lemonade, tea. Desserts there was sugar free item plus fruit plus a lot of mouse, roulage not my favorite something chocolate and some sort of tart or pie plus cookies. On the other days there had hot dogs hamburgers and fries. For Breakfast they had nearly everything you could want for breakfast, pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs. scrambled eggs with salmon, cereal hot and cold, biscuits, gravy, grits, french toast with toppings. danishes, doughnuts. We did eat 3 times in the dinninf room for breakafast. I had the omlete and french toast. It does take quite a bit longer to eat breakfastthere. We never ate lunch there. The solarium was open everyday but the first day and had hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, fries, taco stuff. We then went to the cabin at 1pm. We had a inside cabin on deck 3. It seemed bigger than our inside we had on the Enchantment in Feb. There was a small TV, safe able closet space. Our bags came around 530pm and we had early diner so had somethign to wear in our carry on bag plus a bathing suit. The towels they give you are small for the pool so I ordered one of the Royal Caribbean towels. We heaed to the pool and it was heated! Both pools and they do have salt in them. By the pool they had a raffle that would go on and you could put your name in. I put my name in and did not get pulled. They had some music by the pool. It was a warm sunny day and my husband and I got sun burned! WHo would ever think you would get sun burned by the pool on an Alaskan cruise! They had the typical sail away party. We met are cabin steward but we rarely saw here the entire week. She mad some cute towel animals for us too. We had deck 4 acquarius dinning and had Rolando, Ila and Jackie Chan or Jackie LEggs for the HW. The food was good. Our wait staff was excellent and they allowed us doulbe portions or extra's too. We had a comedian the first night and he was pretty funny. He had another show which was adult later in the cruise but we did not go. The prductions show was better the one later in the cruise. We had the Coasters on the ship and they were fabulous! They will sign autographs, you can buy CD's. I bought a CD and they signed my bag. Later that night was 70's night. They bar manager was making sure they were no kids up there. They did have family night one night in the cruise. There were 2 midnite buffetts One was early in the week and was chocolate buffett on deck 4 by the centrum and the other was the galla in the dinning room on the last sea day. My cousin and I did the shopping talk and got the coupon book and got a free strip of cards for bingo. We played bingo but did not get anything. The seaday was sunny but of course windy. To me the ship did not feel rocky. We played some trivia and won! We got the Royal Caribbean Key chain. They were people in the pool and hot tubs and people climbing the wall as well. Our first port was Juneau and it was pretty to see us sail into Juneau. We stood on deck 5 and watched as we sailed in. We were at the AJ dock which mean a mile walk to the town or a $2 bus ride so we opted for the bus ride. For Juneau we booked a whale watch tour with Capt Larry. Our whale tour was awsome! We had a whale breach right in front of our boat! We saw at least 10 or more whales plus sealions. We had at least 3 hours on the boat. We had a naturalist on board called Capt Shawn. We then went to the Medenhall glacier which was nice but we were so hungary as we missed lunch that we huuried back to the ship for our diner! After diner we went back to the town as we weren't sailing until 11pm. There were lots of jewelry stores, not much different than the caribbean, but they did have some native stores. I got some stacking dolls for my collection. T shirts were pretty cheap as were sweatshirts too. We had drinks over at the Red dog. Our next Port was Skagway. Hubby and I did the 4X4 tour with Frontier Tours. It saved us about $70 by doing it with them. It was jsut us and the tour guide. You follow the train most of the way but you can stop for photos along the way plus you can hear the history going up and down. The lead car has a guide that tells the history too. We stopped just passed the Canadian boarder at a Eagle Preserve where they raise sick and injured Eagles. We got to pet 2 baby Eagles. The town is more jwelery sotres but some native things as well. The Red Onion Sallon was packed so we ate on the ship. Again it was a $2 ride to the ship. The Christmas shop has some wonderful nativity sets. Our next Port was Icy Straight which only allows 1 ship per day. You have to tender on this port. We did another whale watch tour which would have been really good had we not seen the whale breech on the other tour. It was a big boat that held at least 100 people. They had coffee, hoty chocoalte. This was the only cold day we had the rest of the days it was warm and in the 60-70's. There used to be a large salmon cannery there but now it is just a mock up. There mostly native people selling there things. This was pretty high prices. We did find some cute Christmas ornaments and a bear claw necklace and earings. Our last port was Victoria Canada whic recquired another bus ride at $3 we only had 7 hours in port so we opted to just walk up and down the streets and waterfront. We saw the Empress hotel. High tea will cost you $80. ALong the waterfront was many people selling painting and art work. ALong the streets are these wonderful painted bears. The ship had something for everyone. We used a lot of our C&A coupons for photo,s drinks. I did get several flashing drinks which was nice but use your coupon for these was they can run pricy $9.99. They ship had severla good sales during the cruise. I collect staking dolls and bought a big one for just $20. My husband found his cologne which we can't find here at home. I had bought on the Navigator an inch of gold and for some reason it was too small so they gace me another 2 inches for free. They had some cute Christmas ornamnets as well as some nice native looking necklaces as well. We had wonderful weather we had all sunny days but one day at that was a sea day with temp from 60-70's. I never did use any of my cold weather clothes like polar fleece, gloves, T neck or hiking shoes. I wore mostly capris and had a light sweatshirt. We had a great time and can't wait till Hawaii for 07!

Lexi

[vickiw0318]

Glad to hear you had a great cruise. We did too when we sailed on her on June 2!

[westcoastboy]

Majesty,

Thank you for your review! I'm glad you had a great time! Are you saying that you all swam outside on top? Sounds cool! We're going next year for the first time. Thanks again!

[MNmom]

Thanks so much for your review!!! We are sailing on Aug. 18th and can't wait!! You mentioned the pools were heated...yeah!! Did you use them on Friday after getting on the ship?? We love to have lunch and hang by the pool but I didn't think they were open until the first day at sea. It would be great to use them while we are still in Seattle. How was the nightlife? Where did you spend your evenings? We are also traveling with 10 people and everyone keeps asking me all of the detail cuz this is our 9th cruise...1st to Alaska!!

 

Thanks again. Your review was great!!

 

MNmom

[cheche01]

I loved your review, we are sailing on the Vision to Alaska on Sept. 15, I think it might be a bit chilly but this is my first time to Alaska and I am looking forward to it.

Is the Vision a nice ship? How was the food in the dining room?

 

BTW- My husband was in the Airforce and we lived in Panama City for 7 years and loved it!

 

Chris :)

[ZigNKat]

Thanks for the review!

 

We leave next Friday (I can't wait :D ) on the Vision!

[berd0625]

Here's my review of the same cruise - Vision to Alaska

6/30-7/7/06

 

My daughter, 16, and I had a wonderful time. We flew out of CT the night before and stayed in Seattle at the Red Lion South. Not my favorite place, they originally put us on the 2nd floor and they have no elevator, and we had lots of luggage. I sent my daughter to the room with the biggest piece, and she came back and told me there was no bed! After I made sure it wasn’t April Fools, I went to the front desk and firmly requested a room on the 1st floor with a BED! Request granted.

 

We left for Terminal 30 around 11:30 and were there before noon, and in the Windjammer by 12:30. This was the easiest embarkation we’ve had yet, very quick and organized. Just make sure you go up the right ramp when boarding, I was half way to HAL before I realized my mistake. We ate and went to our cabin at 1 pm, and our luggage was already there! We were in outside cabin 4536, right next to the stairs and elevator, and down the hall from the dining room. Great location. Our room steward was Ornelio, and he was the best ever! He always worked around our schedule, and even let us keep our bags in the cabin until 9 am before disembarking. He got an extra tip and a very nice write up.

 

We left Seattle on deck 10 forward, and the views of Mt Rainier and Mt Baker were fantastic. The Meet and Mingle was Saturday at 12:15, and probably one of the better attended ones I’ve been to. It’s so nice to meet people early on that you see and talk to the rest of the cruise. The Gold C&A gift was a small Vision tote bag.

 

This was the first cruise that we had late dinner, and it was an excellent choice. We would be in the dining room at 9 pm and the sun was shining like it was noon! We were at table 164, and our original table of 10 ended up being a table of 6. We sat with a couple and their 2 teens, so my daughter and I both had good company. The menu was not much different than other cruises I’ve been on, although the menu referenced fresh Alaska Salmon instead of Norwegian Salmon you see in the Caribbean. We are not food critics, so I would say the dinner in the dining room was more than adequate, and sometimes excellent. I love the scallops and risotto appetizer they serve on Italian night, I ordered 2. My daughter had steak several times and said it was very good. I stuck with mostly fish and was very pleased. Our waiter was Levison, he was not very jovial but took good care of us. Our assistant waiter was much more personable. We ate all of our other meals in the Windjammer, which was standard buffet fare. Because we had late dinner, we usually went to the WJ for tea, which was really a smaller version of lunch. You will never go hungry on a cruise. My daughter had some treats from Café Lattitudes as well. Formal nights were not as formal as I’ve seen on other cruises, and casual nights were very casual.

 

We had absolutely gorgeous weather. Every day was sunny and in the mid to upper 70s, except for the day we cruised the inside passage, which was cloudy and in the low 60s. We brought a whole bag of sweatshirts, heavy shoes, fleece, etc and never opened it. I wore my Crocs all week. People were in the outdoor pool every day. I spent an hour by the pool soaking in the sun and drinking a cold one in Juneau myself.

 

We did not attend any of the shows this cruise, and only played bingo once. However I did meet Keith Williams the cruise director out on deck the first day, and he remembered me and was very friendly all week. My daughter attended a number of the kid’s activities, and oftentimes they would just end up hanging out and playing cards. She liked Voyager class better as there are more places to “hang out”. I spent most of my spare time in the casino; if anyone else was there I was the lady playing 3 card poker all week. I ended up $600 ahead, even though I was up to almost $1000 at one point. Lots of big, big slot ($2k-$6k) winners the first 2 days, and the inside passage day.

 

We booked all our excursions though the ship this time, although you can certainly book locally for a lot less.

 

In Juneau we went river rafting down the Mendenhall River. It was beautiful, we had great weather, and I got a sunburn. After that we went to Mendenhall Glacier, I could have stayed there several hours just taking in the beauty, but they only gave us an hour on the ship sponsored bus, I’m not sure why. It was so nice out people were swimming in Glacier Lake!

 

In Skagway we went dog sledding. This was not on a glacier, but on a wheeled cart on a dirt path. The ride itself was pretty short, but we had an interesting talk afterwards by of the mushers, and then a good amount of time with the puppies! The ride there and back was very entertaining, and we had a photo stop or 2. We also took the White Pass Train Midnight Run, and the only word I can use to describe everything was majestic. I would have liked to have gotten off, but that wasn’t offered on this excursion. We were still back in time for dinner.

 

In Icy Strait we went on the whale watch, and again everything was awesome. We saw about 12-15 whales, lots of sea lions, and bald eagles. We had one whale come right up under the boat, and another breach. My favorite picture is of a sea lion with fish in its mouth and the eagles swooping in trying to steal it!

 

In Victoria we did not book anything in advance. We took the bus into town and went to the Wax Museum, which was great fun. We also had proper tea at a local tea room, it was only about $25 for 2. Victoria is a beautiful city with lots to see within walking distance.

 

On Friday we left the ship at about 9:30 and were at our hotel by 10:15. We stayed at the Sleep Inn Seatac, which I highly recommend. We stayed in Seattle until Sunday, and went to the Market, the SciFi Museum and Experience Music Project, and the Space Needle. Another great city to visit.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our Alaska cruise, and hope to return someday. The only thing I wish we were able to do was cruise up to the glaciers, maybe next time! :)