Vision of the Seas - what have they done to you and your creew?

[Garyorient, Chigwell, Essex]

Just back from a 4 day cruise ex-Southampton.
To preface, Vision was the first RCCL ship I cruised on under 2 years ago August 2009.

• Staff rude and diffident without the glimmer of a smile on their faces
• Dining was a chore, taking 2 hours on 3 off the 4 nights to get our main course served (on one night, the "Headwaiter" came to us and told us there would be a delay because George was stuck in the kitchen whatever that meant
• Head waiter pranced about like a pompous idiot with an inane grin on his face but made no attempt whatsoever to rectify any of the problems.
• I went on this cruise with 3 friends none of which had ever been on an RCCL or Celeb cruise in their lives. Two of them had over 300 nights each cruising Saga, Cunard, Princess and NCL and the other spent over 40 nights crusing on Cunard. As a big big UK RCCL cheerleader I hoped that I might get a couple of converts to the cause.

I have to say that the dining experience was so poor, the staff were so uniniterested, the bar staff so apparently lazy both compared with my first Vision cruise and also with the other ships I have cruised with, that not only do I not have an arguement with my friends views on this, but I actually have to assess for myself where and how to have my own next cruise which is awful, as, thus far I have never cruised (as a paying customer) with anyone else other than RCCL (apart from a 2 nighter on MSC).

We very politely addressed these problems on a daily basis but eventually got so tired with it, that I decided that I would take issue when I get home, as I did not intend to let this incompetance spoil my holiday more than it already had.

Up until this cruise I had always pre-paid gratuities and always tipped on top of the pre-paid amount. For some reason I did not on this cruise, and I am pleased that I didn't. The only person who deserved any sort of gratuity whatosever on this cruise was my cabin attendant, to whom I amply rewarded him for a job superbly done.

I write these comments in sorrow far more than anger, since I am going to have to reassess my holiday options now, and I never felt this would ever happen, until I ran out of cruises or ships.

[mcmullon, Ashford]

Just got back from same cruise.

We found our stateroom attendent was brilliant & very helpful. Staff in Windjammer very good clearing tables & helpful. Waiting staff in main Restaurant were not good. First night took two & half hours to dine & therefore missed the show. Last night it took an hour to get our starter after ordering, with no apology from our waiter.

We are booked on the Brilliance of the Seas in August & hope that this will be a lot better if not will have to look elsewhere for our next cruise

[Garyorient, Chigwell, Essex]

I am hopeful it was a one off due to circumstances, but I feel it may be the way RCI are going.
Cutting staff back, increasing duties........... although I do feel that the poor staff attitude will clearly result in a loss of revenue for RCI as we certainly did not spend anything like we would normally do and we had problems being served.

[mcmullon, Ashford]

We also felt that the attitude of the shop staff was very poor. Most of the time they ignored us & were chatting amongst themselves, the shelves looked like they had not been replenished properly & we were generally very disappointed with all the shops on board.

[rbvb, preston]

At the begining of April we cruised on Splendour OTS, a sister ship to Vision, and had excellent service from all of the "hotel" staff especially the area head waiter. I suspect your bad experience in so many areas could have been caused by poor senior management at hotel director level....Richard B

[Neil Down, Southampton]

Just back from a 4 day cruise ex-Southampton.
To preface, Vision was the first RCCL ship I cruised on under 2 years ago August 2009.

• Staff rude and diffident without the glimmer of a smile on their faces
• Dining was a chore, taking 2 hours on 3 off the 4 nights to get our main course served (on one night, the "Headwaiter" came to us and told us there would be a delay because George was stuck in the kitchen whatever that meant
• Head waiter pranced about like a pompous idiot with an inane grin on his face but made no attempt whatsoever to rectify any of the problems.
• I went on this cruise with 3 friends none of which had ever been on an RCCL or Celeb cruise in their lives. Two of them had over 300 nights each cruising Saga, Cunard, Princess and NCL and the other spent over 40 nights crusing on Cunard. As a big big UK RCCL cheerleader I hoped that I might get a couple of converts to the cause.

I have to say that the dining experience was so poor, the staff were so uniniterested, the bar staff so apparently lazy both compared with my first Vision cruise and also with the other ships I have cruised with, that not only do I not have an arguement with my friends views on this, but I actually have to assess for myself where and how to have my own next cruise which is awful, as, thus far I have never cruised (as a paying customer) with anyone else other than RCCL (apart from a 2 nighter on MSC).

We very politely addressed these problems on a daily basis but eventually got so tired with it, that I decided that I would take issue when I get home, as I did not intend to let this incompetance spoil my holiday more than it already had.

Up until this cruise I had always pre-paid gratuities and always tipped on top of the pre-paid amount. For some reason I did not on this cruise, and I am pleased that I didn't. The only person who deserved any sort of gratuity whatosever on this cruise was my cabin attendant, to whom I amply rewarded him for a job superbly done.

I write these comments in sorrow far more than anger, since I am going to have to reassess my holiday options now, and I never felt this would ever happen, until I ran out of cruises or ships.

At the begining of April we cruised on Splendour OTS, a sister ship to Vision, and had excellent service from all of the "hotel" staff especially the area head waiter. I suspect your bad experience in so many areas could have been caused by poor senior management at hotel director level....Richard B

[Garyorient, Chigwell, Essex]

No, this particular George was unfortunately our Roumanian waiter.
If he was hotel director I would have understood why he was in the kitchen, but our waiter beingstuck in the kitchen was quite simply bizarre to say the least.

[essex38, Hadleigh]

We just got off vision, the ship was really nice but the food was OK but nothing more than that and there was less choice than on other lines we have sailed with, i preferred eating in the windjammer as the food was better than in the restaurant and the resteraunt service was a bit slow.

The ice cream machine on the ship was nice and the kids really enjoyed that freedom. One of the difficulties they have is catering for so many nationalities and they did that quite well, but the standard of food was local value restaurant type fair, nothing wring with that unless you are looking for the true gormet experience.

[Davepri, OXFORD]

George the Hotel Director - Vision of the Seas April2011

Can anyone remember George's surname? A real gentleman - I would like his surname to back up a complaint that we lodged with him, which he was going to forward to 'Head Office - Miami' reference false claims by Customer Service staff that the ship was full out of Lisbon, when in fact, the Captain announced at cocktail party #1 the the ship was only 2/3 full!!! We wanted to pay for an upgrade but were told 'nothing available'!!

[swintontraveller, Swinton]

3rd time lucky trying to post !!!!
I was on this cruise , have 'names behind the tags' list
Hotel Director was Jorge Lynch from Costa Rica.
Antony Doyle was Food and Beverage manager

[Norfolkgal, Norwich]

We just got off vision, the ship was really nice but the food was OK but nothing more than that and there was less choice than on other lines we have sailed with, i preferred eating in the windjammer as the food was better than in the restaurant and the resteraunt service was a bit slow.

The ice cream machine on the ship was nice and the kids really enjoyed that freedom. One of the difficulties they have is catering for so many nationalities and they did that quite well, but the standard of food was local value restaurant type fair, nothing wring with that unless you are looking for the true gormet experience.

Thanks for the tips - we are going on Vision in 5 weeks time for first time and will try " dining?

[Norfolkgal, Norwich]

Just back from a 4 day cruise ex-Southampton.
To preface, Vision was the first RCCL ship I cruised on under 2 years ago August 2009.

• Staff rude and diffident without the glimmer of a smile on their faces
• Dining was a chore, taking 2 hours on 3 off the 4 nights to get our main course served (on one night, the "Headwaiter" came to us and told us there would be a delay because George was stuck in the kitchen whatever that meant
• Head waiter pranced about like a pompous idiot with an inane grin on his face but made no attempt whatsoever to rectify any of the problems.
• I went on this cruise with 3 friends none of which had ever been on an RCCL or Celeb cruise in their lives. Two of them had over 300 nights each cruising Saga, Cunard, Princess and NCL and the other spent over 40 nights crusing on Cunard. As a big big UK RCCL cheerleader I hoped that I might get a couple of converts to the cause.

I have to say that the dining experience was so poor, the staff were so uniniterested, the bar staff so apparently lazy both compared with my first Vision cruise and also with the other ships I have cruised with, that not only do I not have an arguement with my friends views on this, but I actually have to assess for myself where and how to have my own next cruise which is awful, as, thus far I have never cruised (as a paying customer) with anyone else other than RCCL (apart from a 2 nighter on MSC).

We very politely addressed these problems on a daily basis but eventually got so tired with it, that I decided that I would take issue when I get home, as I did not intend to let this incompetance spoil my holiday more than it already had.

Up until this cruise I had always pre-paid gratuities and always tipped on top of the pre-paid amount. For some reason I did not on this cruise, and I am pleased that I didn't. The only person who deserved any sort of gratuity whatosever on this cruise was my cabin attendant, to whom I amply rewarded him for a job superbly done.

I write these comments in sorrow far more than anger, since I am going to have to reassess my holiday options now, and I never felt this would ever happen, until I ran out of cruises or ships.

Oh dear, we are booked on this ship for first time in October; still, pre-warned is pre-armed as they say! Would you recommend that I go straight to reception and have pre-paid gratuities removed from my account?

[lilbeethoven, Southport]

Due on the VOTS in a couple of weeks. First time on RCI so lets hope they've had a crew refresh..BTW why do people copy the whole of a review to reply. Its not necessary and just takes up space.

[Norfolkgal, Norwich]

Due on the VOTS in a couple of weeks. First time on RCI so lets hope they've had a crew refresh..BTW why do people copy the whole of a review to reply. Its not necessary and just takes up space.

Sorry, don't know how to edit it; help accepted!

[lilbeethoven, Southport]

Sorry, don't know how to edit it; help accepted!

Norfolkgal: Just do a reply not a quote reply.