I was a little apprehensive before
sailing on Vision of the Seas. In researching her beforehand, I read
that the ship had never had a major refurbishment since entering
service in 1998. This sounded unusual to say the least and I
wondered if I would find some worn out and outdated ship upon
boarding.
My concern turned out to be entirely
unwarranted. The ship was in marvelous shape. In fact, I found her
in better condition than her sisters in the Vision class that I have
sailed. I saw no signs of wear. She does not have all the features
of Allure of the Seas but then you can't really expect a smaller ship
to offer such a panoply of features.
What Vision does offer instead is a
cruise experience on a personal scale. Her size is conducive to
interaction both with your fellow guests and with the officers and
crew.
Vision has a good senior team as well.
Captain Srecko Ban is a dynamic young officer who likes to interact
with the passengers and to lead by example.
I met Joao Mendonca when he was Food and Beverage Manager on Allure of the Seas. There
he played a key role in developing that ship's innovative dining
operation. Now that he has been promoted to Hotel Director, his
talents are being used to create memorable cruise experiences for
Vision's passengers.
Vision is scheduled for her first
major refurbishment in September 2013. This is part of a fleetwide
program to roll out some of the features of Oasis of the Seas and
Allure of the Seas to the rest of the Royal Caribbean fleet. The
plans are ambitious and when completed will give guests on Vision
more dining and entertainment options.
The transformers will have to be
careful, however, to ensure that Vision does not lose the character
and ambiance that she has today. Those are more valuable than
physical features.
The home page for our profile of
Vision of the Seas is at:
http://beyondships.com/RCI-VOS-Profile.html
The photo tour and commentary about
the ship begins at http://beyondships.com/RCI-VOS-tour-1.html
We also have a menus page with the new
Royal Caribbean menus being used on Vision.
http://www.beyondships2.com/vision-of-the-seas-menus.html
Our conversation with Captain Ban is
at
http://www.beyondships2.com/vision-of-the-seas-captain-interview.html
Mr. Mendonca talks about Vision today
and outlines the changes that will be made during the refurbishment.
http://www.beyondships2.com/vision-of-the-seas-interview-hotel-director.html
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