Mexican Riviera Cruise Reviewed by Paul Mc.

This is a newer ship then Grandeur of the Seas, and again, she's somewhat larger at roughly 78,000 tons. She's also markedly classier then her sister- much cooler artwork throughout the ship and less glitzy then Grandeur. Her dining room, the Aquarius, is much brighter then the subdued lighting on Grandeur's. Food preparation and service seemed a big improvement over both the Majesty and the Grandeur but the bar waiter in the dining room was just plain terrible. Food taste was impeccable- even in the oft maligned Windjammer Cafe. The Windjammer on Vision was quality all the way (okay- maybe the scrambled eggs were egg-beaters... but for real eggs, go to the Aquarius- Windjammer's for those on the run!)

This Cruise was our first with a balcony cabin and BOY ARE WE HOOKED! How did we ever live without one? The cabin was #7066 located on deck 7 (Commodore Deck) not too far from the Centrum which is an excellent landmark for getting around this gorgeous ship. The cabin featured two twin beds (already meshed together as a queen- Hooray!), a small "living room" with a couch (which doubles as a fold out bed) and table. Across from these was the gargantuan make-up table (which Diane loved) and plenty of drawers for clothes. In this same assembly was our safe, TV and small refrigerator (which our cabin steward always kept full of ice!). The bathroom was the BIGGEST yet in a typical passenger cabin - at least as big as my bathroom at home. There was probably enough room for three people to fit in it- not that we plan large parties in the bathroom. The shower had a circular wrap around curtain (so cool) and adjustable/removable shower head and shampoo dispenser. There was also a hairdryer in the room as well as bath robes!

The Crew and Staff for this cruise were incredible- every soul I passed always has a quick smile and/or "Hello!". All sales aboard were completed with "It's been my pleasure!" The Vision of the Seas and her staff are to be commended for their excellent and professional customer service. Even the ship's Captain was fun and funny- telling jokes at the captain's reception party- I've never seen a captain do stand up! The passengers were all having a great time.

The shows aboard the ship- which were housed in a wonderful theater- were only okay (I've seen much better acts on the line's sister ships) however, the RCCL performer's show, Rhythm Nation was a spectacular review. The comedians were very good as well.

Our ports of call were good to great in the order of visitation: Cabo San Lucas is a naturalist's dream where you can see sea lions sunning themselves on exquisite rock formations (Land's End) and Cabo also has some nice beaches. Mazatlan is a shopper's paradise and the Papalanta dancers (not to be missed here) are a great slice of Mexican traditional dancing. The beach resort we visited (Los Sabalos) on our side trip had a great beach and nice Mexican buffet! Finally, Puerto Vallarta was the gem of the bunch- we visited the gigantic Mayan Palace complex with it's enormous pool and beaches. Puerto Vallarta was much more cosmopolitan in outlook. As you'll notice, all of our side trips included beaches and I should point out that there were people selling wares on all three sites- mostly in Cabo but very few in Puerto Vallarta. None were rude and all knew the meaning of "No thank you..." (Unlike the beach hawkers on Grenada).

Vision - Mexican Riviera Reviewed by Marc

The Ship - Vision
Nicely refurbished in many area's, smaller than I am used to but nicely laid out in general. Beautiful dining room, theatre is very nice and quite large, Centrum, pursers desk, excursions desk all very open and accessible. It reminds me of a nice hotel lobby. The pool is good sized and with 4 Jacuzzi's it even seemed larger than the Radiance Class. Great library, card room (used quite a bit too), internet lounge was never busy and worked as fast as any ship I have sailed. The beds were being changed out to the new Freedom comfort mattresses before, during and after our sailing. I am sorry that ours was being converted as we LEFT the ship! There are definitely some real problem areas with this ship. I found 2 public areas - the center of the Windjammer buffet and nearly all of the outside promenade deck that wreaked of sewage smell and old musty mopped floors. In general my wife and I both found the maintenance on the ship, particularly the public restrooms were very poorly maintained and sometimes even filthy. This was surprising to me as I have never experienced this any Royal ship. We noticed the vibration of the vision is quite noticeable nearly anywhere on the ship. I'm not sure why.

The Cabin
I actually find it ironic that Sue and I had such a different perspective on this one. I also had a midship interior cabin. I have never had a suite before, as she typically does, I usually have a standard balcony or outside cabin. I thought this inside was ridiculously small and uncomfortable. The shower was 30" round. It was like trying to put on a pair of socks inside a telephone booth. The cabin to me was extremely claustrophobic. The TV is a 13" from 1970, the closets have decent space. We had 2 lights that flickered continuously. When I mentioned it to our stateroom attendant she said "oh it's not that bad, it's kind of like having a disco in your cabin"! laughed, it was a good line, but it was never fixed.

The Food
In the main dining room it was excellent, just like all the other RCI experiences we have had. They have an very nice menu, great variety, excellent meats, seafood and the best soups I've ever had. The service was pretty slow though. Normally 2 hours each night. My biggest problem with the Vision though is the lack of dining options. It's the Dining room or Windjammer. That's it. No alternatives and poor selection and quality in the Windjammer. The food there was average to poor. All items were precooked - burgers, waffles, eggs, omelets etc. There was no 'made to order' service at all. This made for cold, stale and unappealing buffet food.

The Entertainment
Excellent with a great variety. Drifters, Carl Banks, a magician, 2 comedians and a good 'singers and dancers' group from the ship.

The Ports - Cabo, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta
For first time cruisers, these ports will work OK, for experienced cruisers they will be disappointed. PV was quite nice and tropical, relaxed and beautiful. Cabo has a rich and classy Marina with Yachts from So. Cal, Ruth Chris, high end shops etc. But 1 block away it seems to become nearly 3rd world. I have to say with many of my clients flocking from Hawaii or the Caribbean to Cabo, I am at a loss. I don't get it at all. The water is gorgeous blue, but don't turn around cause the rest, in my opinion, ain't much to look at.

Embark/Disembark
This was the slowest and latest check in process I have yet to experience. I think it is very important to note that I usually do not check in until 2-3 on most cruises. This one had us arrive on an early flight at 730am. After a cab ride to San Pedro. We sat on a rusty metal bench outside the terminal from 830 until 10am when they invited us into the check in lounge. We waited there until 11am, checked in and waited until 1230pm in a waiting lounge before they allowed us to embark. Cabins were not ready until almost 2pm! Disembarking took 1 hour. The problem in San Pedro is that there is usually only 1 ship docked at a time and they seemed very skimpy on labor. There were 4 customs agents for the ship of over 2,000.

Vision of the Seas Cruise Review

First, a little background; we are mid-fifties and have been on about 25 cruises. This was offered at a great time for us as I am recovering from an accident in July where I ended up with a fractured pelvis and right arm. We had never sailed RCI and I could experience first hand some of what a disabled traveler goes through. We also had never had a cabin smaller than a Sky Suite on Celebrity and always plan our cruises for times when there would be few (if any) children on the ship. So, you can see we really planned this as a learning experience!

As always, we flew to the port the day prior to the cruise on a non-stop Frontier flight DEN to LAX. I had wheelchairs requested for the airports - that went smoothly and the attendants were very nice. It?s also really nice to zip right through security! After claiming one bag at the carousal and watching it empty out and all the other passengers leaving ? we discovered that our big bag containing almost all our clothes was missing. Frontier wasn?t able to locate it in the system but took the report and if found it would be delivered to our hotel. We taxied to the Best Western Sunrise in San Pedro ? a couple blocks from the World Cruise Port. Next morning still no bag and it had not been found in the system. Luckily I have a brother that lives in Long Beach that said he could take us to a store ? but it would have to be really quick as he (a realtor) had an open house in a couple hours. We bought our cruise ?finery? and a new suitcase at Wal-Mart. Oh well; at least we knew we would be able to change clothes. Luckily everything will be covered by our UATP and/or American Express Platinum insurance.

At the pier my wheelchair arrived quickly after giving our bags to the porter and we were checked in within about 10 minutes. Our Celebrity Elite status transferred over to RCI as a Diamond member so we were able to go through that check in line as well as receiving all the other special amenities. Cabins weren?t available yet, so we were taken to the Windjammer buffet. My wheelchair attendant took us all the way through the line and to a table. The rest of the cruise I walked with my cane. At about 1:30 the cabins were opened and we went to ours ? 4463 an inside cabin near midship. That evening our missing bag was delivered to our cabin ? Frontier had found it and delivered it in time!

Cabin ? The cabin was very clean and had plenty of storage space. There was no refrigerator/minibar in it. The small dressing table/desk would have been fine, but almost the entire top was taken up by the tray with the glasses and ice bucket and 6 cans of soda (the minibar stuff). The ship was in the process of upgrading all the beds to their new luxury ones, but sadly we had the old ones ? we requested a foam egg crate topper and they weren?t too bad. As tired as I was each evening I could have probably slept on the floor! Wow, the bathroom was really small, but functioned quite well. The shower was so tiny I can?t imagine how a large person could take a shower. Vision had the best toilet flusher buttons! ? just a tiny tap and it would flush ? on all the other ships we have been on you really have to push the button hard (and break fingernails) to get it to flush. Sometimes it?s the little things that matter. The lights at the sides of the dressing table had a yellowed plastic cover so that you appeared jaundiced! I?d put on some makeup and then go into the bathroom to check how I really looked. Sadly none of the mirrors made me look any younger. L

Ship ? Vision of the Seas is one of the RCI older ships and one of the smallest. We really like the small ships so this was perfect ? it also helped that our cabin was mid-ship because I?m very slow using the cane and I tire easily. I liked the décor of the ship and most of the art onboard (I?m not meaning the art auction art). The use of glass sculpture and glass art was throughout the ship except for the focal point art in the atrium which was some sort of a stainless steel thing ? it?s not bad, just not my cup of tea. I thought the ship flowed very well and it was very easy to get around. By the end of the week we had visited all areas of the ship ? even with my slow hobbling around.

Service ? quite good. We found all the service staff to be very friendly and helpful. The crew/passenger ratio is lower than most of the ships we?ve sailed but the only thing we noticed was that things (cabin cleaning, bar orders, etc.) were a touch slower ? nothing to complain about. See my comments on dining service below.

Food and Dining ? We thought the food quality was as good as any we?ve had and in many cases more ?tasty?. Presentation was lacking in all but deserts? plates looked like something you?d get at a local family restaurant ? but it all tasted great. All the SAS participants were seated together at the 8:30 dining, but I found that I was too tired for late dinner so we excused ourselves and moved to early dining. That was a big mistake for us. It was a formal night ? we saw 3 tuxedos (one was Jim) and maybe 25 suits ? the rest of the people didn?t even make an attempt to dress up. I?m sure that all 308 children onboard were in early dining and they were all yelling and running between the tables. There were waiters hawking drinks in light-up flashing glasses. Wine service wasn?t offered to us at the table. The food was good, but service was so slow that it was 50 minutes before we received our entrees.

We had lunch most days in the dining room at a nice quiet table for two. Few people used the dining room at lunch except on the last day when it was quite full. Again the food was good, but their Brasserie 30 service (thirty minute lunch) never happened, each lunch lasted well over an hour; again just slow service.

For the rest of the cruise we went to afternoon tea in the Windjammer at about 4:30 and had an early dinner and great deserts!

Room service ? the only time we had room service was in the morning. We filled out the little door-hanger card and it always arrived promptly.

Children?s Program ? Adventure Ocean ? Since our primary mission on this cruise was to learn more about family cruising I was very happy when the SAS added a presentation by the supervisor of Adventure Ocean and allowed us to tour the facility. The actual facilities on this ship are much smaller proportionately to those on the large ships; but they were well used. They divide the children into many small age groups and provide learning-type activities for each of them. The teen disco was empty during the day when we toured, but was very cute and had a ?bar? (soft drinks), foosball table, several televisions and a Disc Jockey booth. Outside the entrance to the Teen area were several ping pong tables getting heavy use by the younger teens. All of the children?s program staff are required to have a 4-year degree and previous experience working with children. I was impressed.

Summary ? RCI seems to be excellent choice for families and younger clients wanting a high level of activity and a casual atmosphere ? the true mass-market client. It is probably not for older more well-traveled clients looking for a relaxed upscale cruise.