Fantastic 4 Winks
Review of the North to the Pacific Coast – Vision of the Seas
So call me Nelly negative or what they call someone who sees the negative in things, but I can not ignore the negatives, and to be fair, I should not. So let me state up front that this review will have some negative points in it, but let me also say that we did enjoy our cruise and would do it again.
Our first were cruises on Royal Caribbean Monarch of the Seas and Carnival Paradise. Both ships have cruises out of Los Angeles (Long Beach) to Catalina and Ensenada. Both are smaller ships of their respective lines and are the basis of any comparison I did looking at this cruise. Of course it would be like comparing an SUV to a VW, but if the monarch a Bug class and in the case of Paradise a Bug Party!
When we reserve this cruise our expectations were a little lower then if we register a regular route for a ship because it was a repositioning cruise. Happens I should not have lowered our expectations so much, the cruise ship had its full crew and the entertainment was scheduled for a 7-night cruise as we We were on a cruise of five nights, it gave us more entertainment options that did not need entertainment, once they have found ways to entertain us same, the boy who "do not disturb" came in handy.
We arrived at noon to check in around (wanted to get to the room early, we had seen each other in a week), what seemed to be a good time as we were able to walk to the check-in and was promptly treated by one of the agents. A few minutes of paperwork verification, visualization of passports, taking blood (not much) and pass a credit card (They wanted to keep him, but I would not let them) and we were directed aboard the ship. We learn something new about this cruise that we suspected earlier. Arrive early to check in our work for us and gets on board quickly. Score!
Boarded the ship and headed to the Windjammer Restaurant for buffet lunch. This was the first of a few disappointments for the cruise. The food for lunch was boarding dry and pleasant, like the kind of food to cook the kids at home when it's your turn to cook, compared with Monarch we were very disappointed and expected was not the norm for the Windjammer. Unfortunately, this proved to be the norm for the Windjammer on this cruise, but a glass of lemonade a few things have improved and gave it a spicy flavor. Every time I ate at the Windjammer found the food to be dry and relatively mild, I looked around the restaurant and peeked into the kitchen, but I have not seen my children to work, had some dishes that broke the pattern, but not many.
When the cabins were available in visited our cabin and when we had an inside cabin layout the room made me feel more then our previous visits to Monarch (They say that shaving makes things look bigger). Our cabin was created together with the bed configuration Queen, which pleased us since we do not have to request it. Furthermore, our Crown and Anchor Books and Terry robes that were part of our bonus reserves were in the waiting room for us. One disappointment here was we did not see our cabin attendant until day three of the cruise, which could have been because the "Do Not Disturb" sign, but we were careful not to have to leave during most of the time they are supposed to be going to the rooms. While he was tending our cabin, it really does not seem interested in dealing with all personal care that may have had. Fortunately, we do not have. The only time we saw our attendance was when he gave us a survey of customer satisfaction and showed his section. I'll give him credit, he took care of the room, but there was no personal touch and it seemed he had a hand.
We love the layout of the ship and how easy it was to go from one area to another. We were in the Centrum bit and quite liked the music that was often visited this area. Also enjoyed playing tag and hide and seek in the ship. The problem was that hid together and nobody came looking for us, so I was a little worried at times. It was one of those trips he met a lovely young woman named Sandie who was enjoying his first solo cruise. What a sweetheart, she was wonderful and always had a lobe who follow her around. She always had a drink in hand, due to the commitment of the wait staff. Evidence that a single person can enjoy a cruise without a wingman. I just hate to see your account at the end.
The meeting compulsory drill was quite fast and meet our leader had a great attitude and did what he could to make to gather all drill more enjoyable, then it might have been. It may have been a little too much for him to be doing the shuffle and twist and dive, but it was interesting to see it fun. He also did a faithful imitation of the cruise director and captain. I think I've seen floating outside the ship at one point, but that may have been a trick of my eyes.
Dinner in the Aquarius Dining room was fantastic, we were not disappointed because the quality of the food or the service we received there. We eat dinner at Aquarius every night, breakfast every morning, but lunch twice. Our waiter and assistant waiter was very attentive, after the first night (Well, second night, Sandie was a bad influence for Karla, she had her drunk and could not find their way to the dining room with me trying to guide her. She kept insisting it was the door aft of the ship, which would have led us to wake up behind the ship. Karla did not drink too much and one night she drank more than she had in months, Sandie also drank her under the table and I suspect that Sandie could have drunk a platoon of Marines under the table.) waiters called us by name as we were coming, we had our favorite drinks waiting for us and made us feel at home (as opposed to our children that make us feel that there should be at home.) When the Windjammer Aquarius offset disappointed.
The show placed on the main stage were nice, but once again we were disappointed by the lack of vision of some of employees. There was a large group on the cruise that had to use the main theater and the team changed the show time for second show on Monday night, without notifying guests. From what I understand when the curtain lifted, there were about 25 people in the audience, since most of the public showed up 15-30 minutes after the show started, because hoped that the show started at 10.45 and 10.15 hrs. This part of the show was supposed to have been amazing with man-eating tigers (Actually, I ate a man) and an act where the dancers of all melded into a writhing heap, which would have been seen. * Wink *
On the last night of the cruise the main entertainment was a pair of jugglers comedian, to the extent that the comedian jugglers go they were good. But the highlight of the show was not the jugglers themselves but their "victim" of one of his acts. The jugglers looked for a boy to join them on stage and had him lying on the stage, they were going to handle the bowling balls on it. As part of the comedy act of the juggler dropped one of bowling balls. The guy who got sat down, looked at the jugglers, got up and promptly left the stage back to his parents. They apparently did not expect this answer because then she tried to convince the boy to join them on stage. This cruise has a lot of kids on her and this boy was the only child in the audience, so they started to bribe him to return to the stage. They finally bought him a bribe of $ 10. He turned them on stage and had him lie down and the second juggler told him that he would establish. When he was laid across the boy juggler another. As soon as he got settled the boy sat down again, they started asking him not to leave, but the boy apparently did not leave without the money, he got up and put back on the other side of the juggler than expected, putting it next to the juggler with the bowling balls. This caught the juggling of surprise again, because the two began to laugh, the act could not continue for a good 30 seconds while they have control of himself. They then performed a bit of juggling. When the boy gave the money they were short a dollar, and the boy said that aloud, then turned to the jugglers and demanded the rest of your money. We know (or at least strongly suspect) that was not staged, because the boy in question had dinner on the table beside us every night and so at dinner, he asked them about it and they were all excited about what had happened and his brother was invited to the final show and recreate performance.
Snacks in the Solarium restaurant I took a few times and was deeply disappointed by the quality of the food and the attitude of the staff, I think my children were hidden in the back room and coaching staff here. When I asked something of Staff Solarium I was made to feel as if my request was an imposition or annoyance, who preferred much more to keep talking with fellow crew instead of serving the guests, as well as my children.
The waiters and bartender in the Schooner Lounge was aware of us as people and we were impressed with how much they seemed to worry about our trip. The best bartenders are the ship Rommel, Dordi, Diego, Orlando, Nestor, Tish and Karl. They did a very good job of helping Sandie corrupt my bride of 23 years. The bartenders, waiters, waitresses and live on tips and this group has been gaining each additional tip that they have some of the other services on board the ship can take classes there folk.
Casino staff of board games do not seem to know what they were doing, it seemed I had to constantly remind them that they did not pay the bet, do not remove a lost bet, paid my earnings to another player, or they just do not seem to understand their own games. My biggest disappointment came at the Casino Texas Hold-In table, which was opened only once during the cruise, was approached by a merchant who does not seem to understand the game, and had an outrageous 10% rake to $ 10 per game, most poker rooms, including the poker table on the Carnival Paradise, rake only $ 3 – $ 4 per hand rake and bottom that when you do not have a complete game this casino seemed to figure that they could have the players for everything they could.
Internet access, both in the ship terminals and wireless was sporadic at best. Many times I had five bars when I was mobile and could not even connect ships to the server to sign in. By using the terminal vessels that rarely was able to pass the login screen and was signed to several times when I tried to go to Gmail or other forums. This could be seen as positive, since it limits my time online and I could not go to any sites girlies. * Wink *
Our stop in San Francisco, CA was great. We crossed under the Golden Gate Bridge around 6:15 am and the lighting was great. We have been in before and that the bridge looked small, but in passing it is magnificent and a vision that many people do not. We docked at Pier 35, which is one of the oldest cruise terminal on the west coast. Unfortunately, this terminal is more a warehouse, then a processing facility, but not sufficiently serve as a gateway to the city for us. We do not take any excursions but we disembark and stroll along the waterfront to Fisherman's Wharf and then over the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory (A must-stop in San Francisco). Then pay for a Metro Day Pass and took the cable car to Chinatown, which proved to be an interesting ride. Then took the tram back to the Fisherman's Wharf and the tram back to the ship.
Disembark the ship in Victoria, BC was a chaotic mess in previous trips to the corridor of elevators was down to the pavement of the corridor to guests can line up the upper deck and can not be ignored by the elevator at the beginning of the crowd which allows latecomers to pass in front of other guests were waiting patiently for the corridor to be placed and opened to disembark. Instead guests who feel no need to wait in line was permitted to pass front of other guests and were being directed to put the activities director, this really hit a sore point for me.
When we arrived at our final port Vancouver, BC changed things very well. While we had to wait for the group to be called in one hope of the salons and enjoyed some of Seattle's best coffee served by a lovely young lady who gave me the news that the Vision of the Seas will assume that the routes 3-Night/4-Night Baja Monarch of the Seas currently handles the next year or so, that means I'll get several visits to the Vision as LA is the best place for a getaway weekend now.
While I was very negative in this review general who liked us, but we can see several areas where the crew of the Vision of the Seas could improve if this is the reflection of his normal attitude. I hope we can schedule a visit in view when you're on a regular route and we can see that a trip would then be like.
Our adventure holidays for those continues with a cruise on Norwegian Star one night and a home on Amtrak Cascades travel, so watch for reviews of these trips.
About the Author
Tom Truxton lives in Portland, Oregon, is the father of 4, a website developer and with his wife also operates a home-based travel agency and website at http://www.timeenoughtravel.com.
justin bieber love story ep. 4
|
|
Quiz Game Land $1.99 4+~~Undercoders~~Undergames S.L.~~http://itunes.apple.com/app/quiz-game-land/id321340382?uo=5~~2009, Undergames, S.L.~~1.5.2~~4815765~~29162867~~http://www.undercoders.com/Quiz-Game-Land.html~~http://www.undercoders.com/contact.php |
|
|
Quiz Game Land Lite $0 4+~~Undercoders~~Undergames S.L.~~http://itunes.apple.com/app/quiz-game-land-lite/id337264728?uo=5~~2009 Undergames, S.L.~~1.5.2~~4815764~~29650278~~http://www.undercoders.com/Quiz-Game-Land.html~~http://www.undercoders.com/contact.php |
