RCCL offers solid -- and 'improved' -- cruise experience on Vision of the Seas

Having cruised for 20 years, it is refreshing to see that Royal Caribbean has maintained, if not enhanced, its level of service and cruise experience.

A recent 12-night cruise of the western Mediterranean out of Barecelona offered a refreshing resurgence in service, food and organization.

To be fair, this cruise may not be for everyone for several reasons.  The itinerary originally included Nice, France, Rome, Venice, Salerno, Bologna, Italy and Kotor, Montenegro. Due to port conditions in Bologna, Split, Croatia was added to the itinerary.

While the itinerary is outstanding, several of the ports are 60 to 90 minutes from excursion sites.  Rome is a prime example as the port of Civitavecchia is easily a 90-minute ride depending on traffic.  Also, as is the case with Mediterranean cruises, excursions are generally geared around historical sites including cathedrals and government buildings, so young children may not be interested in many of the excursions.

Itineraries can impact a variety of things on a ship, including the number of languages announcements are translated in, entertainment and even the number of formal nights. On cruises that have lengthy excursions, there may be fewer formal nights.  On cruises 12 nights or longer, RCCL indicated there maybe “two or three” formal nights. The challenge here, especially for women is packing, especially if they want to have separate outfits for formal nights. Getting an answer from RCCL prior to a cruise is a challenge as shoreside communications are often vague and a call to a customer service center is often punctuated with pre-cruise selling.

As for dressing on formal nights, it seems that passengers on European cruises, tend to dress more formally. While the port of embarkation may factor into this, both cruise director Steve Davis and Alexander Ferby say that the tradition is “fading”.

Another reason this cruise may not be for everyone is that the ship was the Vision of the Seas, a smaller ship that is 20-years old.  While the ship is elegant, despite its age, don’t expect all the whistles and bells found on RCCL’s mega ships.  The ship has a capacity of 2,514 passengers and capacity for 742 crew members. It is scheduled for renovations and updating in November.  RCCL did not respond to queries about the extent of the planned updates.

This compares to the Symphony of the seas, which made its maiden voyage in April and has a crew of 2,200 to serve a maximum of 6,680 passengers.

 The size of ship is of course, a matter of personal preference, but the size of the ship should not impact the quality of the cruise experience, or in the case of the mega ships, the resort experience. Still, the Vision of the Seas offers the standard venues from a fitness center to rock climbing wall. As expected, the pool area is the center of outdoor activity. A solarium is earmarked for passengers over 18.  The solarium on the Vision of the Seas has a retractable roof, which was open only once (as near as were able to tell) on the cruise. While keeping it closed cuts down on wind, it also cuts down on fresh air while sitting in the sun. Both the solarium and pool deck are now staffed by life guards, which make sense.

There were a few appreciable things that Royal Caribbean did on our last cruise that were marked improvements. First and foremost, we did not see the in-your-face selling as soon as you got on the ship.  In fact, the embarkation welcome was one of the best I can remember.  There was music playing in the Centrum as you boarded, and crew members were all sporting “welcome aboard” shirts, which is a far cry from the “buy your drink package” shirts and tables on our last cruise, which was on the Navigator of the Seas in June or last year.

Does the size of the ship dictate the intensity of the salesmanship? It might, but it shouldn’t.  We noticed that the amount of pitching at the entrance to the Windjammer for Spa treatments and Specialty Restaurants was milder than on previous cruises.  Again, it’s not clear if this is dictated by the size of the ship or an overall RCCL corporate policy.

Maintenance

Despite passengers who leave trash, empty glasses and plates everywhere, the maintenance staff on board the Vision of the Seas does a more than credible job of keeping the ship clean. If you’re an early riser, you will find maintenance staff working as early as 5 a.m.

The effort to keep things neat and orderly can also be found in the complimentary dining venues (we did not dine in the specialty restaurants) where wait staff does a nice job of keeping tables clear of used dishes and tableware. Areas where the attentiveness falls off, but only slightly, are the lounges during off periods.

The quality of maintenance spilled over to other venues on the ship. Fitness equipment in the workout center is brand new and the condition of the sauna and steam rooms in the locker room was excellent. 

Cabin

We had a standard balcony cabin, which offered a surprisingly among of storage space.  To no surprise, the bathroom is small. The biggest annoyance is a shower curtain instead of a door.  However, in the scope of things, that's minor.

Dining

An apparent yardstick for the quality of any cruise is the food. Again, looking only at the included dining, this cruise seemed to show a marked enhancement in RCCL’s food. The food in the Windjammer reflected a steady variety which passengers can depend on. Nothing stands out in my mind as a proverbial “OMG you gotta have this…” but in terms of overall quality and the aforementioned variety, it works well. RCCL has done a nice job of reducing wait times in the Windjammer.  Two things of note here; the first is the ordering made-to-order omelets. Rather than give your order to the cook, a staff member takes your order and name and then places your order.  While it does cause a minor logjam by people who insist on hovering around the omelet station, it frees up passengers to get additional items while their omelet is being prepared.

Secondly, RCCL adjusts the Windjammer hours so on those days when excursions leave very early, passengers have the chance to dine without sprinting to their excursion waiting area.  This is something that was not done on 2017 Baltic cruise, so it is a welcome change. The Windjammer typically begins serving breakfast at 7 a.m., but on days where excursions leave early, it opens at 6 a.m.

RCCL has gone to great lengths to maintain a healthy environment. Staff is available at the entrance to the dining room and Windjammer with hand sanitizer. They continue to find ways to avoid transmission of germs in the serving areas. For example, hot food is covered with what appears to be a cloth napkin. As unusual as it may seem, it appears to be more effective than passengers constantly touching a hard surface like the handle on a lid.

As for the dining room, we found service and food on this cruise. As is the case with any measurement of service, it depends on your crew. Our table staff and the area head waiters provided attentive and pleasant service. The food quality and portions were really quite good. One area that we noticed a higher level of quality was in the desserts. My wife (the dessert expert) thought they had much more flavor than on previous cruises.

We encountered one issue with a fish entrée that was listed as “seared” when it appeared to be poached, and not very well at that. Our waiter and head waiter expressed concern and told us our concerns would be relayed to the kitchen staff. The head waiter took our name and cabin number for reasons unbeknown to us and later told us the chef was taking the item of the menu. A nice gesture, but since the menus are preprinted, the chances of that appear slim. But at least there was some perceived concern.

The dining room open for breakfast from 8 to 9:30 a.m. and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on days at sea. It’s worth a visit. While I did not have breakfast in the dining room, I did not miss a chance to have lunch there. In addition to an impressive list of menu items, the dining room also features a buffet that offers an impressive array of items from tacos to fresh shrimp. The buffet also includes a made-to-order salad bar that is exceptional. We experienced this on last year’s cruise and were very impressed by this adjunct to menu items in the dining room.

We also found the “Park Café” option to be a pleasant surprise. On the Vision of the Seas, it’s located in the Solarium and offers early morning breakfast, starting at 6 a.m. midday dining and a late-night menu from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. While it does not offer a full menu, there is a nice assortment of items.  During afternoon hours, sandwiches, fries, salads are readily available.

Entertainment

Shows and overall entertainment on the Vision of the Seas is varied and held throughout the day. Performers can be found in the Schooner bar, Crown and Anchor lounge and in the Centrum. The performers on our cruise were pleasant and not over powering.  Centrum entertainment include a classical duo, Latin dancing and even an encore performance by “The Beatlemaniacs,” a Beatles cover band which performed in the Masquerade Theater. What make the Centrum entertainment fun is that it captivates passengers on multiple levels. It also provides dancing opportunities, which encourages a lot of passenger participation.

As for the headline shows, the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers perform exceptionally well. My expectations for headline performers were accurate – some were good while others are, well, past their prime. Exceptional entertainment was Tracey Shield who performed “An Evening with Celine Dion” and the previously mentioned “The Beatlemaniacs.” Both shows had a vibrancy the time well spent.

Embarkation and Debarkation

For the second cruise in a row, both were basically flawless. The wait time to disembark was minimal and the process, at last from our end, was efficient. It is, however, important to note that a specific port may be more efficient than others. While we found both Barcelona and Southampton (London) to be outstanding, I’ll give a tip of the hat to Southampton. When you leave the ship in Barcelona, you need to “hire” someone to take your luggage from the storage area to your transportation. It’s a minor thing, but a bit unusual.

The loyalty program works well. Separate lounges and complimentary beverages, snacks and appetizers add a nice perk. Service in the lounges (at least what we experienced in the Diamond Lounge on our last two cruises) has been exceptional. One quirk about RCCL’s loyalty program is that while your perks are good on all three lines that Royal Caribbean owns (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Azamara Club Cruises), if you decide to sail on a Celebrity cruise, you will not get credit for that cruise. Offer credit seems like a way to encourage cruisers to stay within the RCCL family. Airlines, such as United, give you credit for flights on their “Alliance Partners.”

Overall, RCCL continues to provide a more than solid cruise experience.  Perfect? No. But it’s not as horrific as some wags on social media would want you to believe. Yes, there are cruise lines (so I’m told) that may include more things such as soft drinks – but at a price. RCCL continues to try and balance things to accommodate a wide variety of cruiser. If nothing else, keep an open mind. The ship, itinerary and even port of embarkation can play a role in how a cruise is handled.

There’s a very good chance that complaints you may have about a cruise are not the result of something a cruise line, such as RCCL, did, but may very well be the result of actions by fellow passengers.