Cruise Ship: Vision of the Seas
Cruise Destination: Mexican Riviera - Western Mexico
Cruise Date: March 13, 2005
Guest Contributors: Bob and Wendy
bob7@canoemail.com
This was our 9th cruise, the first with RCI. The ship departed from LA and visited Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. We booked an outside deck 2 aft Category I cabin.
PRE-CRUISE ON THE VISION OF THE SEAS
We arrived 2 days early to see the sights at Marina del Rey (MDR), Venice Beach, and Santa Monica. We decided to blow the wad and stayed at the Marriott MDR for $200/night, across the road from Mother’s Beach. Our eighth floor room offered a great view of the marina, mountains, and ocean in the distance, and the hotel was well located to enjoy the marina activities and quickly get to Venice and Santa Monica. The marina is huge, over a mile long, and in the summer from May to Sept there will be a water taxi taking people to different spots around the marina for $1. The Visitors Center sent us a great map with info about sights to see: www.VisitMarina.com (310-305-9545).
For dinner in MDR we wanted good value and a nice view of the marina. The Cheesecake Factory is well known but has only a few tables with a good view, and a better bet is Tony P’s on Admiralty Way, entrees from $10-32, huge portions, great selections on the menu, and tons of tables with marina/sea views. Venice Beach is the famous collection of street buskers, eccentrics, hotties, and tourists. It’s about 1.5 miles from MDR, and has a 30 foot wide ocean boardwalk passing by tons of shops, sport areas such as paddle tennis and basketball courts, roller bladers, bikers, and the Muscle Beach area. Even on a cool March day there were lots of people. Muscle Beach is an open air fitness gym behind a 4 foot railing, and there were always some muscle types pumping iron where we went by. Teens and spring breakers would think this is the coolest place. Here’s the link to a good map showing the different areas there: www.venicebeach.com/n_images/vbmap.html Santa Monica is much more upscale, especially the Third Street Promenade, restricted to pedestrians only, very pretty, cute shops, tons of eateries. The famous S. M Pier is cheesy and tacky, a few entertainment rides, fast food joints, arcades. Lots of parking on the pier for $7 or under/beside the pier for $6. Nice view of the beach and waves. A cab from MDR to SM is about $10-12, and from Venice to SM about $6, or there are lots of local buses (3 companies) for $1. The SM Visitors Center sent another great map: www.santamonica.com (310-393-7593). Cab from MDR to the ship was $65.
EMBARKATION ON THE VISION OF THE SEAS
We arrived at the port at 11:45, dropped our luggage with the porters, and waited 10 minutes in line to do the Sea Pass ship card. Then we were sent to the security check area, and a welcome surprise was that passengers didn’t have to stand in line, but were seated in a lounge until their number was called. We were on the ship an hour after arriving, having lunch in the Windjammer buffet. Cruisers were asked not to go to their cabins to drop stuff off until after 1:30 to give the stewards time to prep them.
In the afternoon we met our Cruise Critic message board friends, and had some fun drinks at the pool. It was cloudy and chilly, had to keep our clothes on.
THE CABIN ON THE VISION OF THE SEAS
Our outside deck 2 aft cabin was ok, not as big as CCL, about the size of NCL, and not as well appointed as Celeb, but adequate. The bedspread looked tired, perhaps a bit worn, or just too many washings, which the steward replaced with new when requested. The loveseat also appeared to have some stains, used by too many sun-screened bodies, didn’t say anything, mentioned it on the evaluation.
Luggage fits under the side of the king bed if you lift it up, but not at the end, bars in the way. Only 2 electrical outlets, bring a power bar. Good strong hair dryer, good shampoo, bring conditioner. Free safe. Tipped steward to keep the ice bucket full, and bring an RCI robe for Wendy, great job. Stewards ask cruisers to slip the card that says Make Up Room/Don't Make up Room into the card key door slot so they can fit their work to your desired schedule. Push the black button on the shower temp control to turn the knob further for hotter water. Decent shower pressure, removable wand. On the last day we discovered the glass panels on either side of the makeup mirror on the vanity opened up, duh. We had a nice steady engine sound, we find it puts us to sleep and drowns out strange noises, but if you need quiet you should get a forward cabin.
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