Dining Options
Vision of the Seas is a “vision” into what the future of dining aboard all cruise ships will be like. The Vision of the Seas offers guests the option of traditional dining in the ship’s two level main dining room or the option to dine in an alternative restaurant for a small charge.
Vision’s main dining room, Aquarius, is split into two levels and offers guests either traditional dining at set times or “My Time Dining,” which allows guests to choose their time and table for dinner.
Guests who prefer specialty dining have the option to dine in four additional restaurants: Chop’s Grille, Giovanni’s Table, Izumi, and the Chef’s Table. Chop’s Grille is Royal Caribbean’s signature steakhouse, offering guests a wide variety of steaks, sides, and salads. Giovanni’s Table is the revitalized Italian restaurant, offering guests an array of traditional seafood, pasta, chicken, and steak dishes. Izumi is a newer restaurant for Royal Caribbean ships, offering guests fine quality, traditional oriental dishes that can be ordered in combinations or ala carte.
For a casual and complimentary meal, guests can choose to dine in the Windjammer Cafe, the ship’s buffet style restaurant. Guests can choose from varying entrees and side dishes at the buffet’s plentiful “islands,” including pizza, pasta, hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, fruit, desserts, and a variety of other dishes. In addition to serving a casual lunch and dinner, the Windjammer also serves a full breakfast buffet. Guests can also enjoy small pastries at Cafe Latte-Tudes complimentary. The Park Cafe also allows guests to enjoy made-to-order salads, paninis, and small pastries.
Dining Quality
While Royal Caribbean has traditionally been ranked lower than other cruise line’s when it comes to dining quality, I was pleasantly surprised by my dining experiences onboard Vision of the Seas. Food throughout the complimentary restaurants and the specialty restaurants was consistently appetizing and prepared quite well. I feel that Royal Caribbean has taken notice of some of their critics and is beginning to right the ship when it comes to dining quality.
Entertainment & Activities
While Vision of the Seas is one of Royal Caribbean’s older ships and doesn’t offer as many amenities for her guests as newer ships do, Vision of the Seas offers plenty to keep her guests busy throughout the day.
Guests can choose to catch a variety of high energy production shows, comedy acts, or cabaret acts in the ship’s main theater, Masquerade. However, the show you can’t miss is the aerial acrobatics show in the ship’s Centrum. Acrobats dance, twirl, flip, and perform other amazing stunts all while suspended from wires at the top of the Centrum. Guests are able to grab a range of views from either below the show or along the railings on the balconies on each level. The show is one of the newer entertainment options onboard Royal Caribbean ships, and can currently only be found on a select number of ships, Vision included.
For guests who prefer nightlife, Vision of the Seas offers a great number of options. Guests can sing along with the piano man in the Schooner Bar, go dancing at Club Sabor, enjoy music and cocktails in the Viking Crown Lounge, or find a comfy spot in the Centrum and enjoy a few drinks at the R Bar. Needless to say, the night is young and there is plenty to do.
Vision’s Lido deck also offers a ton of water and sports activities. You can take a dip in her main pool, catch a movies on her poolside movie screen, cozy up in a hot tub, relax in the adult’s only Solarium, play shuffleboard, or have a relaxing massage in Vitality At Sea. One deck up, guests looking for a challenge can climb the ship’s rock wall and gaze over the open sea.
Staterooms
During the Vision of the Seas’ recent renovation, staterooms were not untouched. Staterooms were refreshed and even received new flat screen TV’s. Some staterooms underwent major renovations in their private bathrooms, receiving new tile, updated splashbacks, and storage cubbies for towels and toiletries. Balconies onboard the Vision of the Seas are slightly larger than industry standards, allowing guests more space to spread out and watch the sea roll by. Overall, the staterooms onboard Vision of the Seas provided comfortable, spacious, and cozy accommodations for her guests.
Service
Royal Caribbean prides itself on Gold Anchor Service, and the crew onboard my sailing exemplified the standard Royal Caribbean has set forth. Crew members were smiling and offered warm greetings to passing guests. While service in the dining rooms and restaurants could be slow at times, the wait was forgiven by the warm, hospitable service shown by the waiters. Overall, the crew onboard Vision of the Seas delivered an accommodating, comfortable, and relaxing cruise.
