The Use of Decision Trees in Planning Your Vacation (This is Science!)

Last night I was pinning on my new Places You'll Go Travel's Pinterest page, that incidentally still only has 3 Followers.... (Could use a little help here people!!!!) when I began to think of all the places that I really need to go.  You know, just little places like Istanbul, St. Petersburg (the one in Russia, not Florida), Patagonia, Bali, Casablanca... Nothing big. It made me think about just how big the world is and how difficult it is to narrow down the places you really NEED to go.  It's a hard thing to do!

I think that we need some kind of trip prioritizer in this world and I feel like someone is going to have to take this bull by the horns and start the work on it. Now this won't be available to you for use by November 30th. Unlike some politicians, I know my limitations. In fact, if you are looking for a website, it may never be ready. But perhaps this will give you a head start on planning your next trip.

Now, I'm no rocket scientist or software engineer so I'm just going to go old school and free hand a little decision making template.  (This is how we used to rock it at the former employer who shall not be named.) The first thing I have to do is decide what sort of climate I'm looking for.... Mountains? Beach? Rain Forest?  Then I sort of have to look at Price and then the next consideration I might have could be accessibility.  After all, if you're looking to travel in a few weeks, it might be kind of difficult to put together travel visas and sherpas so close to your travel date.

Then you have to decide if you want to travel domestically or internationally.  If internationally, do you want an exotic location?  There are really a lot of things to consider!  This could be a very complicated decision to make.  Here's a look at what I have come up with so far.

I know, I know... You can't believe I used a spiral notebook, right?  Well, you work with what you've got. But I think you can see from this what a complicated process it is to decide where to go on a trip.  I mean, it takes a lot of thought to decide between Nepal and Bali.  The elephants as pack animals part of it almost had me sold on Bali. But then if you start thinking about having your very own sherpa to guide you up Everest and you know.... the fact that you are going up Everest....  Nepal almost becomes a no brainer.

But hey, let's not discount Galveston.  See Galveston in there just below Ft. Lauderdale and Miami and just above Bora Bora. Go ahead, just try to tell me one other instance in which Galveston will EVER come in above Bora Bora.  But if you are looking for a US beach on a budget, it's really the only winner in that category!  So where do you think I should go next summer, Nepal or Galveston?  Hmmmm...  I might need another decision tree.

Wrapping up the Familiarization Cruise

Today we need to get back to talking about the short travel agent familiarization cruise I went on with Royal Caribbean last week. In my last post concerning this trip, I told you all about the ship.  After all, that was the point of the trip to check out Vision of the Seas and see all the things they did during the revitalization. Again, it was beautiful and as I've said before, I like these smaller Vision Class ships so it was ideal for me.

Bay Scallops Au Gratin

So we actually got on the ship on Sunday. However, only travel agents and their guests were allowed on board Sunday and as I mentioned previously, Sunday as part of the travel agent schmoozing thing, drinks were free. On Sunday evening, we were not assigned a table for dinner. We all just went to the dining room and they seated us.  Our table consisted of 4 travel agents and 4 guests and dinner was at 5:30 which I'm not crazy about.  But it turns out there was a method to RCI's madness.

Not sure what my entree was, looks like some sort of fish.

At dinner we had fun, made some new friends (Thank God! - This will come into play later on) and then followed the crowd out to the Centrum after dinner for a presentation.  In the Centrum, we were treated to the first performance of the aerial acrobat crew.  They were good. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I really hate these performances. They scare me. I can't stop thinking the entire time about one of them possibly falling and so I can't enjoy it.  But I played along and watched with not much more than a cringe on my face.

While we waited for whatever was going to take place there was a little bit of dancing, champagne was passed around and everybody just generally had fun.  I was thinking that the ships Captain would come out and say a few words, since that is usually what happens when they pass champagne around on a ship.  But to my surprise, when people started being paraded out onto the staircase in the Centrum the people who were to speak were Adam Goldstein and Richard Fain!  If you are not a travel agent, your probably thinking, WHO?  But if you are a travel agent or a travel geek, your thinking WOW!!!  Adam Goldstein is the President and CEO of RCCL and Richard Fain is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  They both spoke briefly about the ship, RCCL, and their relationship with travel agents as well as expressing support for crew members throughout the company from the Philippines following the typhoon.

Then there was a toast, the aerial people did there thing and the party moved out to the pool deck. While all of this was taking place the ship had set sail but with no real location to go to.  I mean, I'm sure that they had a plan for where we would go since the Coast Guard probably requires that.  But we were only leaving port so that the casino and shops could open.  We were to be back in Miami the following morning to let some of the travel agents who weren't staying for the entire 3 nights off and to bring on a big group of paying passengers for a 2 night cruise to the Bahamas.

At dinner our new friends Margaret and Nikki had told us that they had gotten a letter in there cabin telling them that if they were staying on the ship for the entire trip, they needed to be in the theater the following morning between 7 and 8 a.m. to check back in. We were to bring our passports and Sea Pass cards with us. We had not gotten a similar letter in our cabin.  But we decided that we should do this anyway.  Thank goodness we had met them at dinner and they had gotten that information.

So we got up the next morning bright and early and went to the theater.  After a few minutes in line, we got new Sea Pass cards.  This time our Sea Pass cards had an 8:30 PM dinner time and a dining table number which we hadn't had previously.  Things were starting to feel a little more normal.  Following the trip to the theater, Jenny and I went to the Windjammer for breakfast and then made our way out to the pool.  Nikki from dinner the previous night was sitting behind us at the pool and we had prime chairs.  I had personally never gotten seating like this at the pool on a ship.  I had just gotten myself lathered down with some SPF 30 and posted a comment on Facebook meant to make my friends green with envy when Margaret came rushing up and informed us all that she had just been told by another passenger that there was a mandatory travel agent seminar taking place somewhere on the ship and she and I were supposed to be in it!!!!!

This was my view when I was informed that I was supposed to be in a class....

Here's proof that I was in the class.

So Margaret and I rushed to our cabins to shower and change and then found the class and sat in the back trying to act like we were there all along. The parts of the class that I didn't miss were very informative and will help me going forward.  There was probably even more helpful information that I missed.  Margaret and I were both really upset that we were unaware that the class was taking place.  I must say that if a schedule of all the things travel agents were supposed to do during the cruise had been handed out when we checked in on Sunday, I would have been much happier with the entire event.  I'm not sure how all the other agents found out about this class.  But I'm at least glad that I didn't miss all of it!  They gave us a lunch break around noon and we found Jenny and Nikki and all ate together before going back to class until 3 PM.

Then at 3 we had our 2nd muster in 2 days because all the new passengers were on board.  As we left the class, we were given beach towels, baseball caps and coupons for excursions the next day in the Bahamas that I carried to muster with me. Jenny and I had already booked an excursion for the Bahamas so following muster we went to the Shore Excursions desk and changed our excursion to the one that the coupon was for.  It was an all day water park thing at Atlantis. Then as we left port again, we stayed outside and took pictures of the sunset before going to get dressed for dinner.  When we entered our cabin to dress for dinner, we had gotten the letter that Margaret and Nikki had gotten the day before telling us that 11 hours earlier we were supposed to be downstairs to re-check in.  Better late than never, I guess....

As we stood outside taking pictures, I began to feel a little queasy.  I don't get seasick so I wasn't concerned about that.  But my stomach was not happy about something.  After sunset, we went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner and I still wasn't feeling any better. At dinner, we were at a table with 5 travel agents, 4 guests and a Business Development Manager from Royal Caribbean.  One of the travel agents was pretty young and well into her cups and intent on garnering all of the BDM's attention.  So I mostly talked to the other travel agents and their guests.  But I still wasn't feeling well.  Without even realizing it, I ordered the same appetizer from the night before and ate most of it.  But by the time the entree came out, my stomach was in full protest mode.  There was no way I was going to be able to eat that meal and keep it down.  So after a few bites, I stopped eating and I had no dessert which is totally bizarre for me on a ship.

I told Jenny that I wasn't feeling well and we went back to the room after dinner.  I got ready for bed and Jenny went out for a while.  For about the next 15 hours, I was in bed the entire time except when I was making a dash to the bathroom.  Jenny got up the next morning and went on our excursion alone.  She ran into some people from dinner the night before and spent some time with them during the excursion.  Around 1, I got out of bed and decided to get some hot tea and went up on deck for it.  From there I was able to see Atlantis as I passed by a window.  Then I went back to the cabin and made another dash to the bathroom.  Jenny got back on the ship around 3 and around 6 I decided that I wanted some soup.  We wound up having dinner in the Windjammer.  My dinner that night consisted of clear beef broth, bread and water.  But I felt much better!

The next morning we disembarked but our flight wasn't scheduled to leave Miami until 6:30.  We had booked an excursion prior to the cruise for Wednesday in Miami.  It was supposed to take us on an airboat ride in the Everglades.  During the airboat ride, they were supposed to store our luggage and then they would take us to the airport getting us there around 4 which would be perfect. We found out on Sunday, that this excursion had been canceled because they didn't get enough people on it.  So, we arrived at the airport around 10:30 Wednesday morning and changed our flight to an earlier one and came on home.  We still spent several hours in the airport, but at least it wasn't all day.

I will say that even though I got sick and totally missed seeing the Bahamas, a sick day on a ship is still better than a work day in any corporate office.  So, I can't complain.  I will look forward to doing another familiarization trip in the future.  But I think next time, I'm going to annoy the hell out of everyone I can find asking questions about where I should be and when.  It's really my only complaint about the entire trip, that I felt so uninformed the entire time. I hope you get a chance to get on board one of Royal Caribbean's newly revitalized ships going forward. If I can help you get there, let me know.  I have 8 cabins reserved on Navigator out of Galveston this June if you want one of them all you have to do is let me know.  I don't even need a deposit until after Christmas.  Have a great Tuesday!

It's Not a Tourist Attraction Without Tourists

Here's something I don't understand about many of the people I see taking photos while I'm on vacation.... Why do they stand around so long waiting for all forms of human life to leave the scene before taking a picture of a monument?  I get that you don't want another tourist to be in the foreground or to appear to be the center of your focus.  But aren't tourists part of what a tourist attraction is all about?  By definition a tourist attraction is a place that attracts tourists.  So what kind of loser tourist attraction are you portraying in your photo if there are no tourists there?

Sunday morning I went down to Dealy Plaza in Dallas. The 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK is this week.  So, I thought it was an appropriate time of year to go down there and get a few photos for one of my Pinterest boards. I certainly don't want to be down there next Saturday. It will be nuts! But I thought the Sunday before the anniversary would be a good time for a visit.

I've visited Dealy Plaza a number of times, mostly on weekends when someone is in town and is interested in going.  Every time I have ever been, there have been a number of people milling about on the grassy knoll and even standing in the middle of the street on the X that indicates the vehicle's location when the fatal shot rang out.  I really feel that those people, many of whom were not even born when the event took place, are what the site is all about.  Why would someone want a photo of the grassy knoll with no one standing on it? Good luck trying to explain to your friends back home what that is.

I can just hear that conversation now....
"Hey Homer, why'd you take a picture of this grass?"
"It's the grassy knoll."
"The what?"
"You know, the grassy knoll near where JFK was shot!"
"Oh, where's the car?"
"Well that was 50 years ago, I took this picture last week."
"Hmph!  Just looks like grass, are you sure you didn't take this picture in your backyard?"

It's sort of hard to justify plane tickets to get to Dallas, a night or two in a hotel and a rental car to take a few pictures of some grass and an X painted on a street.  People have to be in the photo or it's meaningless.

So Sunday while I was down there it was interesting to see the number of people who stood impatiently waiting for all human life to leave the area so they could get a picture of empty grass or street.  Bizarre! On the other hand, my subject matter may have been totally skewed in the other direction.  The focus of almost every picture I took was the tourists themselves.  It's shocking how many foreign tourists visit the site regularly.  While I was there on Sunday, I was within earshot of a group of Germans, French people and some people who I think were from China. I saw license plates from Alaska, Virginia and Louisiana on cars parked along the street.

What's really weird is that no matter where they are from, they will risk their life to run out in traffic and get their picture taken standing on that X or to take a picture of the window of the School Book Depository from the X.  What's so compelling about the X?  The funniest thing about the area Sunday was that someone has put a big sign up that reads "GRASSY KNOLL".  Ummmm... Really?  Thanks for pointing it out.  I never would have known otherwise....

Here are a couple of pictures of various tourists standing on the X.  They literally go out in the street and wait while another person is getting their photo taken and then move onto the X themselves all while cars are blowing their horns at them.  Folks, that's dedication!

I didn't go into the museum Sunday.  I went once before. But Sunday I was strictly out taking photos of the city and enjoying the beautiful weather.  I think going forward, I'm going to try to pay closer attention to the other people in tourist attractions that I visit.  I am sitting here as I type this kicking myself in the butt for not taking pictures of the kids in St. Peter's Basilica who would walk up to a tomb of a dead pope in a glass case and make a crazy face.  Wouldn't those have been great pictures?  Live and learn.

A Close Look at Vision of the Seas

Yesterday I wasn't able to tell you about all the various areas of Vision of the Seas we were able to visit during the scavenger hunt Royal Caribbean sent us on during the afternoon we boarded last Sunday.  So I'll tell you about the rest of the scavenger hunt today.  As I mentioned yesterday, the ship is beautiful and totally revitalized.

We've already talked about the Royal Suite.  Some of the other types of cabins that we went into were the Royal Family Suite, and a Panoramic Oceanview Cabin.  The Royal Family Suite is no where near as fancy as the Royal Suite. There are no grand pianos or fancy chandeliers.  But it would be very nice for a family of 6 to 8.  It has two bathrooms one with a shower and the other with a bathtub.  So it's perfect for bathing the kiddies. There are also two bedrooms.  The second bedroom has bunks that will sleep 4 comfortably. Additionally, the sofa in the family room converts to sleep two more.  At just 486 sq. ft. you wouldn't think they could cram so much into a cabin.  But it is arranged very nicely.  The master has a queen size bed and is separated from the 2nd bedroom by the living room.

While there is no dining room in this cabin, there is plenty of space to spread out in the family room and there is a small table on the balcony.  So dining in the room is still an option, especially if you send the kids out to the nursery for babysitting or to Royal Tots At Sea for structured play time.  In fact that's the next place we'll go on our little tour.

2nd Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Family Room

Desk area with TV that swivels to face the family room

Kids programs on Royal Caribbean are second to none. But this was my first time to tour the kids areas.  I must say, I was impressed.  If I had a kid I wouldn't hesitate to put them in these areas and feel completely comfortable going about my day of leisure knowing that the kids were completely entertained and safe.  I have a friend with kids who sails on RCCL's larger ships regularly and says that her girls have always had a great time.  Her girls are getting older now and might not be as entertained on one of these smaller ships with no FloRider or zipline.  But the ship still has a rock climbing wall, a great teen area that even has a dance floor and for the smaller kids the play area looks like a blast.  The nice thing is that the areas are all split out so that there are no teens around the smaller kids and vice versa.

The thing I thought was neat about these areas was the wide open spaces for playing.  The kid to adult ratio in these areas seemed very good to me. Some areas are also set aside for adults to bring their children and play with them.  There are lots of toys and games for the kids to play with while they are there.  So there is no need to pack so many toys to bring along on the trip.  It's really kind of great.  And the cleanliness was terrific!

The lower pictures are of the Royal Babies and Tots area. There the adult to child ratio goes up even higher and the toddlers are kept separate from the babies.

There is one adult for every two children in the babies and tots rooms.  So, you can be assured that your little one is getting all the attention he or she needs.  There are 4 cribs for nap time. The colors are bright and the toys mounted to the walls are at the perfect level for crawlers. And what baby wouldn't want to be put down for a nap by a nice lady with a soothing British accent? Your kids might not want to leave!

But if this is the kids play area then, below is the adults play area.  All Royal Caribbean ships obviously have a full casino on board that is open anytime the ship leaves shore.  The casino on Vision was no different from the others.  This is generally one of the few places on board a RCCL ship where smoking is allowed.  So you will often times see the bar in the casino full of smokers.  As a non-gambler and a non-smoker, I like this.  It keeps the smokers away from me.  But if I was a gambler who didn't want to be around smoke, I would probably think this was a bad thing.  Regardless of where you fall on the smoking issue, you have to admit that this is a pretty nice looking casino!

Some of my favorite areas that we visited were the specialty restaurants.  These are brand new additions to Vision. In addition to a Chops Grille, Vision got an Izumi during the revitalization.  Izumi is located behind the Viking Crown Lounge and up one level at the very top of the ship.  I should point out that this ship only has 11 decks and Izumi is the only thing on deck 11.  So as far as actual public areas to walk around, things really only go up to deck 9.  On Deck 10 you have the Concierge Lounge which is limited to Diamond Plus Crown and Anchor members.  If you read my blog a few weeks ago about the RCCL loyalty program, you'll remember that to get to the Diamond Plus level you have to spend at least 175 nights on Royal Caribbean ships..... that's the equivalent of 25 seven night cruises.  Here are a few pictures of what you have to look forward to if you ever make it to Diamond Plus....

The young lady sitting at the computer as you walk in is viewing a photo of you that was taken as you boarded the ship.  If the person who used the Seapass card to get into the Concierge Lounge doesn't match the picture, you will be politely asked to leave the lounge.  Diamond Plus members can use this area for drinks, breakfast or just to relax.  My guess would be that if you make it to this level, you probably won't hand your Seapass card to just anybody to try to allow them access to the Concierge Lounge but I guess you can never be too careful.

As I mentioned earlier, Izumi is the only thing on Deck 11.  It is a specialty Japanese and sushi restaurant. There is an Izumi in Austin and several others around the country.  So you may have been to one on land before.  But I think a floating Izumi might be much nicer!  There is a cover charge for dining there.  A reservation is also required.  You should make your reservations prior to your cruise to have a better chance of getting in.  The specialty restaurants do fill up quickly on these cruises. We were lucky enough to get a tasting at Izumi during our scavenger hunt. I must say that it was the best sushi I have ever had.  Here are a few photos of the restaurant.

 
Just below Izumi is the Viking Crown Lounge which is open to all unless there is a private event taking place. It's a nice bar and it's where you can go for Karaoke on board as well as just a good place to sit during inclimate weather, to read, or see outside.

I've always liked going up to the Viking Crown Lounge on ships sailing out of Galveston during the winter for the sail away. It's a great place to have a relaxing drink as you pull out of port without being cold or getting wet.

One of the most exciting places we got to visit on Sunday as we ran around the ship was the Chef's Table which is located just off of the Dining Room. This is a closed room with a single table inside, which seats 16.  It costs $95 per person to dine in this room and since only 16 people a night can be in there, it fills up fast. So if you are interested in doing this, you must get a reservation on line prior to your cruise.  Dining here, you get a 5 course meal along with wines to compliment each course and the chef comes in to describe your meal.  If you are a foodie, this is a must!

We never made it to several of the places that were available to visit.  I've seen Chops on other ships before so I felt it was something I could bypass if there wasn't time.  For today, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the pool including the big new outdoor movie screen.  On Sunday, football games aired on the movie screen. Each night they aired a "movie under the stars".  Those movies are generally classics that are family appropriate.  On Monday night The Wizard of Oz was the movie.

As each of the Royal Caribbean ships goes through it's own revitalization, they get many of these updates that I've shown you.  Some get more and others get different ones.  But this is a sampling of the updates you can look forward to seeing on the older ships in the RCCL fleet going forward.  Navigator, the ship sailing out of Galveston, gets it's revitalization in January coming out of dry dock in February.  If you want to be among the first to experience some of these amazing upgrades, you know who to call! Have a great weekend and I'll tell you about the rest of the cruise next week.

Vision of the Seas!

I'm baaaaa-aaack!  First of all I must say that Vision of the Seas is a truly beautiful ship following it's revitalization. It was the first of the Vision Class ships which includes Splendor, Rhapsody, Grandeur, Legend and Enchantment of the Seas.  It was originally put into service in May of 1998 and just came out of dry dock last week following an extensive revitalization.  The ship still only carries 2,416 passengers at full capacity.  So it didn't become one of those crazy Oasis type super ships during the revitalization.  It just got some improvements, a new outdoor movie screen, lots of new carpet, several new dining options, new bathrooms in all the staterooms as well as other less visible changes.

Now I have to say that this was as much a work cruise for me as it was a vacation.  But still we managed to have plenty of fun along the way. My regular travel buddy, Jenny went with me.  We left Dallas bright and early on Saturday morning planning to have most of the day to spend in Miami seeing the city since neither of us had spent much time there previously. Arriving in Miami a little after noon, we took a taxi to our hotel the Hyatt Regency Downtown Miami.  The hotel is older but is very nice and the staff is really kind of unbelievable.

Upon our arrival, there was some sort of problem which resulted in the lady checking us in not being able to read either of our credit cards for room charges. This was really no inconvenience to us, yet she offered to comp our breakfast the following morning in the hotels restaurant for our inconvenience. What could we do but graciously accept?

Draw bridge over the Miami River next to the hotel.

Free beer courtesy of Curtis

Once in our room, we checked in with our families, checked things out and prepared to head out and explore Miami.  We walked around for 30 minutes or so just looking for a place to have lunch.  Finally around 2 PM, we decided to go back into the hotel and ask the concierge for help in finding a good pub or sports bar for lunch.

He told us about a couple of places and gave us a map with directions to get to them and then suggested that the hotels sports bar was probably just as good and obviously much closer. So we decided to check it out. With that the concierge, Curtis, walked us over to the bar in question showed us to a seat near the windows so that we could watch the boats and ships go buy on the Miami River and found our waitress Shannon. When Shannon arrived, Curtis announced that he would be buying our first drinks and left us to have lunch.

Empty Sangria glasses

During our second round, and while eating, the rain began.  This wasn't just a light shower, it was a full blown downpour!  Well, never let it be said that Susan Meyers and Jenny Stankus don't have enough sense to stay in out of the rain!  So, we ordered another round and watched all the yachts coming back up the river to get out of the storm.  Before Curtis got off from work for the night, he came back by a final time to check on us again and suggested a drink that was apparently the bartenders specialty.  It contained watermelon and basil.  And I must say, it was pretty darn good and again, Curtis bought the round.  So, all in all, we spent a cheap if not uneventful evening in Miami.  One of these days, I'd still like to see South Beach and Miami Beach but for now, I'll just tell you that the people at the Hyatt Regency Downtown Miami, know how to treat a guest!

The next morning, we enjoyed our free breakfast at the hotel before making our way over to the port which was a $12 cab ride from the Hyatt.  We were at the port before noon and after a short wait for the Coast Guard to clear the ship following the revitalization, we were allowed to board along with the other travel agents and their guests. Upon boarding,we received a bag, which included a tee-shirt, some fliers and a brochure.  Since we weren't able to get to our rooms until 1 we were redirected to the R Bar in the Centrum. This is sort of a hub on a Vision Class ship.  It is the area that the main elevators look onto.  With the revitalization, the 4th floor is the R Bar and the base of the Centrum, the 5th floor contains Guest Relations, the Shore Excursions desk and more seating and also looks out onto the Centrum, the 6th floor contains more seating, the computer area and still another view into the Centrum. Floors above that open up to the Centrum but have no seating areas.

 Most of the time in the R Bar a live band performs, if that isn't taking place, you just might get to see an aerial acrobat show taking place much like a Cirque du Soleil performance.  The performers dangle and dance from 5 stories high and it is pretty amazing and is a highlight of the revitalization.

Photo of the Centrum from the 7th floor which is all rooms.

The Centrum from the 4th floor looking up.

I must admit that Royal Caribbean does know how to make travel agents happy.  Their first tactic was to let us all know immediately that from the time we arrived on board through midnight, all drinks were free! Folks, I'm not sure RCCL will recover anytime soon from the dent several hundred travel agents and their guests put into their liquor stocks in one afternoon and evening. Additionally, they were not pouring the cheap stuff.  I will warn you that you should never allow your guest to "surprise" you with a drink order just before muster.  It could result in a dirty martini that creates gaps in your memory.  But prior to that fateful dirty martini, we went on a scavenger hunt of sorts arranged by RCCL that sent us around the ship searching for new suites, specialty dining venues, bars, children's areas and amenities.  This was great since it allowed us to become acquainted with various parts of the ship that we might not get to see otherwise.


One of the more amazing locations was the Royal Suite.  This might be my only opportunity to ever see a Royal Suite, so I thought I would share.... Yes! That grand piano IS inside the suite.  When you consider that most of the cabins on board a ship are less than 190 sq. ft. this suite at 1,087 sq. ft. is pretty darn nice.  However, unless you are a pretty good piano player who spends a lot of time in the bathroom, you might get better use out of one of the family suites which has less extraordinary bathrooms but sleeps up to 10 people depending on which suite you chose.

Shot 1 of the bathroom

Shot 3 of the bathroom

Shot 2 of he bathroom

Shot 1 of the master bedroom

Shot 2 of the master bedroom

Balcony which can be accessed from living room or master bedroom

Living Room

Living Room

Royal Suite Dining Room

Tomorrow, I'll tell you more about the terrific things on board the Vision of the Seas.  For now here is a picture of my chocolate souffle on the first night.