Vision of the Seas Review

3.5 / 5.0
1,211 reviews

Fjords are hard to see when covered in fog

Review for the Baltic Sea Cruise on Vision of the Seas
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BasTyra
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Sep 2013
Cabin: Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

The three off us signed up for the 7 night Norwegian Cruise. We are all 46+ . I enjoy cruising because it is an opportunity to visit different cities without packing and unpacking. The ship and ship's activities are of lesser importance to me. Two of us really enjoy outdoor activities like hiking, boating and biking while the third of our group prefers the city tours. I did not do much homework before booking this cruise. My first indication that this would be "more looking" and "less doing"' vacation came when I went to book shore excursions. There were not a lot of 'activities" to choose from. The vibe of this cruise was definitely for an older crowd. Going in September after school started meant few kids.

Our first stop was Kristiansand. We arrived Sun morning and of course it being Sunday all the stores were closed. The weather was overcast as well. My friends and I along with 2,000 other people walked up and down the streets of this town looking in windows and taking pictures of the old style houses. There was not much else to do. For shore excursions in Kristiansand we were offered Setesdal Mineral Park, Scenic Drive to Vest Agder Open Air Museum, Historical Walk at Odderoya and a typical Norwegian Forest Walk. We chose the Mineral Park. It was nice to get out of the city and see the country. The tour leader gave us some good history on the region. We had the opportunity to learn about the activities that the locals enjoy (white water rafting, hiking and other outdoor activities - wish these were offered..). The mineral park was interesting - a huge private collection of minerals from the region and a smaller collection from the rest of the world.

Our second stop was Stavanger. Regrettably it was raining when we arrived. We disembarked and walked around the town for a couple of hours. The town was pretty white wooden houses with red slate roofs - but again not much to do. We visited a fort...looked in shops.....We had booked the Leyesfjord (sp?) boat tour for the afternoon. I was really excited about this one since we had not seen a fjord yet. We boarded the boat and traveled about 1.5 hrs up the fjord. If the weather had been nice I am sure this would have been an excellent excursion. A few other hardy souls and I stayed on the observation deck getting rained on. The guide did a good job offering up a description of what we could NOT see due to fog. The rest of the folks stayed below in the boat. My companions said they had a hard time staying awake in the warm/crowded interior.

Cabin Review

Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

Cabin D2

The cabin was wonderful. We were upgraded - I would not have paid full price for it though - I usually take an interior cabin but for this cruise we splurged and paid for a Jr Suite with a balcony. Our upgrade to a major suite gave us two bedrooms- one we named the cave - it was small and dark (good for sleeping) - just big enough for two twin beds and the other (master) was large - and very light. The master had a convenient door to the balcony. This room came with a large living room, a mini fridge and most importantly 2 bathrooms!

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