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Having landed at Copenhagen Kastrup airport at around 1pm which was 20 minutes early we picked up our luggage and headed outside to find a Taxi to get to the port at Nyhavn, the journey took around 20 minutes and the fare was 291 Danish Krone .... much lower than some people had mentioned having paid on the Europe boards in one case 400 Dkr !
Below are our Observations of the Vision which also contains what we consider to be a few compalints as well.
Having filled in the usual questionaire about health issues we were onboard very smoothly within 30 minutes of arriving at the port, we had decided to book an inside cabin for this trip which was located on Deck 2 cabin 2605 .... like most other cabins on RCI ships it was clean and Tidy though the woodwork of the wardrobe and draws are looking a little tired though still very functional, a downside was that your sea pass account is not available on the TV on the Vision of the seas... these cabins do not have a fridge.... our cabin steward Alberto from Porto Rica was a great laugh and nothing was a bother for him.
The ship itself though 10 years old, in General is in very good condition though the outside of the Hull looks like it needs to be taken into Drydock and re painted.
We again had mytime dining as we did on the Brilliance back in June, sadly this didnt appear to be working very well on the Vision, on boarding the ship we made a Dining reservation for 8pm that night....we arrived at 8pm only to be told that we would have to wait!! at 8-25 we were finally shown to a table for the 2 of us.... a wait of 25 minutes! .... the food for a first night was quite good. We booked a table again on the 2nd night again for 8pm and once again we had to wait this time for 15 minutes,the food was good but not as good as the 1st night.
we gave the MDR a miss for 2 nights and chose to eat in the Windjammer but returned to the MDR on the last night .. again at 8pm and once again had to wait for 10 minutes... the food had improved and was very good.
Our waiters Szilvia from Hungary and Walter from Peru along with their assistant waiter Carla from Brazil were Excellent.
There were times when tables around the MDR were left for long periods uncleared despite that some waiters and their assistants appeared to be polishing cutlery despite people waiting for tables !!
The Windjammer on the Vision was a nightmare at Breakfast regardless of trying different times, mainly due to what can only be described as Table HOGS around the exterior windows, everyday we watched people who had clearly eaten and been there maybe 30 minutes still sat at these tables after we were leaving having eaten our breakfast despite the fact that they could see others wandering around trying to find somewhere to sit .... one woman we saw was on her own at a table for 4 with her eyes closed!! .... RCI are you reading this? you really do need to sort this problem out and have the main person in charge of the Windjammer moving these people so that others can sit down and eat before their food goes cold as ours did on 2 occasions due to these ridiculous and selfish people.
The Breakfast food and Lunch time fare was in the main quite good and in the 2 evenings was also good although one of those was cut short due to Rough seas of around 8 to 13 foot waves which also saw the Cancelation of that evenings show which was moved to the last sea day in the Afternoon and one which we both enjoyed.
The Some Enchanted Evening Lounge at the Aft end of Deck 6 is very bright with a great Colour scheme and good views out from the rear of the ship, the Schooner bar being smaller on the Vision did on a couple of nights appear over crowded making it awkward for people to pass on their way to the Some Enchanted Evening Lounge. The Viking Crown Lounge gives great views out from all around but it is designated as a Smoking area!
The Spa area and pool was also a great place to sit and relax as well as having the pool and hot tubs.
There were around 2,000 people on the Vision and being an older and smaller ship and heading for a colder area did on many occasions look crowded probably due to people not wanting to use sunbeds ... though a few did brave the winds.
Our arrival in Bergan started with cloudy skies and within 10 minutes of leaving the ship the rain started which lasted until around 3pm, despite the weather we decided to take the Funiccular up Mount Flo ein, at the top ther was nothing to see due to it being very misty, cold and raining.
After having taken a break for a Hot drink we again went outside where the mist slowly began to break and we were able to get some pictures of the Vision down in the port. After going back down the rain seemed heavier than earlier in the day and after about 2 hours we headed back to the ship to dry off and warm up.
Sunday morning started cool and a little cloudy until around 10-30am when the Sun started to shine down on the fjord at Geiranger and it became warm enough for some people to wander around in T shirts, we followed the road uphill for a while to get some pics of the ship and the Fjord. In the afternoon we had pre booked a boat trip on the Fjord which lasted for around one hour and 30 minutes and went to the end of Geiranger fjord and back.
Back at Nyhavn port we were off the ship by around 9-30 which went quite smoothly, collected our luggage and headed for the Rail station past the long long long line of traffic which stretched from the main road junction all the way to the ship! how long people took to get to the airport in a taxi is anyones guess.
For those of you planning this trip in the future and using the Train to get to the centre you can buy tickets at the shop at the station just incase your Visa card will not work in the ticket machine or you do not have coins to pay for them.
Overall we enjoyed our trip but with a few complaints which are summerised below .....
Windjammer .... table HOGS need to be moved on after they have eaten and at a future refit if the ship is not sold on needs to be moved Aft, one of the designated smoking areas is immediatley outside the Windjammer on the Starboard side and that could do with moving.
Mytime dining .... needs improving on the Vision.... also with the mtd the tips are prepaid and include the Head waiter ... who in our case did very little if anything to get tables cleared or help cut down waiting time for people ....RCi should consider some way that this part can be given to another individual if you feel that the HW has not done his job!.
Also we found the ships photographers to be a pain when eating in the MDR and one of the waiters made a complaint about it.
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It's always good to hear about the positives and the negatives on the various ships.
Originally Posted by sidari
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