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Nothing Special - Anniversary and Birthday
 
Reviewed By: Richards, Hereford on 25th Jun 2009
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean Cruises Times cruised before: 6-10
Cruise Ship: Vision of the Seas Sailed: June, 2009
Destination: Baltic Age: 56-65
Cabin: Inside Occasion: Wedding anniversary
My wife and I have just returned from RCI Vision of the Seas, short Baltic cruise Stockholm/St Petersburg/Tallinn, mid-June 2009.

We've cruised before with RCI, overall good experience, but......this cruise was for our wedding anniversary and my wife's birthday, so we sent RCI Emails months in advance saying how much a VERY SPECIAL occasion I wanted this to be. Nothing. Absolutely NOTHING happened. No singing. No Cards, flowers, champagne, upgrade, meet the captain, have a tour on us, NOTHING ! What's the point in RCI saying "tell us if you have a special occasion" if they do nothing ??

Ah well, gripe over.

Otherwise we had a great time. Good weather helped. The tour guide in St Petersburg (Victoria, coach 6) was fantastic, so was Anu in Tallinn, both places well worth the visit.

The ship is getting dated and needs a refit/clean.

We saw a Beatles tribute band, who were FAB ! I saw the Beatles live in 1965, and have seen many tribute bands since, these guys are the best. 'Paul' even plays bass left-handed. Excellent night, went back to see them twice, and both times the theatre was rocking. Other nights the juggler and magician tried hard. The RC singers and dancers were on their first opening night and worked hard, but the music was out-of-tune, and 70's80's songs too obscure.

Does anyone know how to get in touch with this Beatles tribute band ? They need to stay together and make a fortune in America, I'd be happy to be their agent !

Guest Services were unhelpful, had a problem with pre-paid gratuities (which I hadn't booked) and GS insisted that I had,.....in the end my (the excellent Louise) cruise agent sorted the problem for me as RCI had a computer glitch - and not the first time my account has been wrong with RCI.

We flew into Stockholm for the cruise and the whole 4 days went well. Overall a nice holiday, that could have gone better if RCI had bothered to pay us some attention. In future we'll keep our special occasions to our selves.........


Food - Aquarius restaurant 7/10, Windjammer 6/10
Ship 6/10 (although last cruise QM2 so maybe a bit biased here), getting tired
RCI onboard guest services staff 0/10, that's ZERO for lack of helpfulness, and I saw four different staff ! Not a smile.
Restaurant staff 8/10, (thanks Rodrigo much appreciated)
Cabin attendant 8/10
Tour guides St.P 11/10 Tallinn 9/10
Check-in/departures 9/10 (met the check-in lady back at central station after the cruise who continued to be helpful with tips on Stockholm)
Cabin 5/10 was too noisy, and too much noise through-out the ship, even the library was noisy ! Needs some quiet space
Viking Crown lounge views are fantastic, however it was too smoky, seems the evacuation fans can't keep up with the starboard side smokers....who spread across the lounge without being stopped. Oh and the Scandinavian music hour was awful, not an Abba tune played all night just some dreary noise that made us move to the Schooner bar.
The jazz band in 'Some Enchanted Evening' lounge were excellent.
Indoor pool is supposed to be for adults only, but children were allowed in and spoiled this experience each day
Entertainment , Beatles band 11/10, juggler 7/10, Australian magician 7/10, Matt Sole cruise entertainment director 9/10

Highlight for me was the first evening passage out of Stockholm between the islands which was fantastic, not to be missed. We are thinking of visiting Stockholm to take the Helsinki ferry just to see this again.

And the visits to Russia/Estonia very interesting, let's hope communism is over for ever !

RCI again ? Maybe, but I'll agree the gratuities first, and not bother telling them if we have a special occasion.

Cruise again, definitely. Australia and New Zealand next............

Quality of Food3
Entertainment5
Beatles Tribute band, the best I've seen in the last 40 years !
Shore Excursions5
St Petersburg tour guide first-class (Victoria coach6). Both St.Petersburg and Tallinn were worth the tour
Staff3
Cabin attendant and restaurant staff Excellent. Guest Services staff Unsatisfactory
Children's Facilities1
Indoor pool should be for adults only, and supervised properly
Onboard Activities3
Too noisy, and smoky in Viking Crown lounge. The whole ship is TOO NOISY !
Cabins2
Too noisy, getting dated
Overall Rating3
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Question by Martin, coventry (02 Jul 09 21:55) about this REVIEW
That is interesting as I will be on this cruise soon. Did you fly into Stockholm on the same day as the cruise departure? I should arrive at Arlanda at 11.25 (all being well!) but am a little worried. On the last day I take off at 12.25 and would like to do the city tour, that will get me to Arlanda at 11.30. Will I have enough time? Is terminal 5 large? Many thanks for any feedback.
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Answer by conway, southampton (03 Jul 09 16:46) to a QUESTION by Martin (02 Jul 09 21:55)
Your braver than me I like to have loads of time to spare so have booked my flight the previous day lol! and my flight back is not until 9 at night what date are you sailing we are going monday 6th July
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Question by Martin, coventry (04 Jul 09 17:59) about an ANSWER by conway (03 Jul 09 16:46)
Yes, but I don´t have much time. I am going on 18th July so would really appreciate to hear how your trip goes. Have a great time!
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Comment by Martin, London (30 Jun 09 14:42) about this REVIEW
We went on the same cruise, sailing June 8th. Could not fault the food, the service or the ship. It was cold but cant blame anyone for that, would go again
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Comment by Cox, Winscombe (26 Jun 09 12:18) about this REVIEW
Sorry to hear of the problems on your 'Special Cruise'. I would write and tell Royal Caribbean of the upset caused by them not doing anything about your 'Special Events' even though you emiled and told them well in advance. I would kick up a real fuss as you paid a lot of money for this trip. Anyway it is nice to see that you enjoyed it. You mention of doing Australia and New Zealand next. I would suggest that you go with Princess, unless you want another trip with R/C and at the moment Dawn Princess is in dry dock for a re-fit in Sydney. the photos are super. Google princess.com/dawndrydock and have a look for yourselves. We went out to Auckland in March to sail around N/Z with Celebrity. We ahd decided to have 3 days in Hong Kong and 3 in Auckland before we sailed to help recover from the long flights and I would recommend this, but on our first full day we were told by our Travel Agent that Celebrity had cancelled the Cruise. To cut a very long story short we ended up taking a coach tour around N/Z from North to South Island and had a wonderful trip. We still aim to in the future do a cruise around NZ and Australia but probably would choose Princess. Wendy.
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