Vision of the Seas 4 Night Short Break
While on Boudicca in June 2008 with Pam, we bumped into Gary Boles and his friend Allan.  Gary told us Vision of the Seas was coming to Europe in 2009.  This was exciting music to my ears as I fell in love with that ship three months earlier when I did the Mexican Riviera cruise from Los Angeles with Amy.  When I got home I looked at the Royal Caribbean site.  Last I'd heard she was doing year-round cruises from Santo Domingo in 2009 after leaving LA.  The repositioning in April 2009 was to Harwich, which was rather disappointing.  It would have been nice for her to have called into Southampton on her birthday, the port she left on her maiden voyage in 1998.  The majority of northern European cruises were four nights but they were worth considering.  Then the prices became silly.  The Harwich to Oslo, with an overnight in Amsterdam from the 3rd-7th May started from £113 for a guarantee inside in January, coming down to £98 a month later.  Of course, typically for a US company, these didn't include taxes which you only discovered near the booking completion.  On the 16th February, my partner, Patrick Patton, surprised me by telling me to book.  He was on Queen Victoria so I had to take care of everything though he said he'd reimburse me when he saw me.  I'd had a rotten morning with the news Celebrity Equinox was going to be early and we were unable to move so this cheered me up.  I found a really cheap flight on the BA site from Oslo, which Patrick also told me to book for us both.  Meanwhile, I arranged the Premier Inn for the night before the cruise while he did the Travelodge at Terminal 5 for our return.  The cruise was paid on the 20th.  We were given Large Interior Stateroom L-3519 on the 5th March.  However on the 17th March - ironically St Patrick's Day, he dropped the bombshell he'd accepted a job starting the 4th May on Jewel of the Seas so would be flying to Miami on the 3rd!  He never even told them he was already booked as a passenger on one of their own ships that week and asked for a compromise.  He kept promising to make it up to me by getting me on Jewel.  I'd contacted the UK office of Royal Caribbean by email because I knew I'd get upset explaining but they never replied after three attempts in three weeks.  In the end on the 6th April I was forced to phone since they were frankly useless.  I had tried already on the 3rd but was put through to the person who answers emails for some reason who then put me through to Miami.  I spoke to Patrick's boss, Rob Waterfield, who was willing to compromise but his agent, Gary Parkes, wouldn't.  Perhaps it had something to do with him not knowing Patrick's medical certificate expired on the 21st April while I did, meaning he accepted a job knowing he could fail to get another.  With these delays it left me and Rowan, who had said she would go instead, in limbo.  Patrick assumed it was a simple matter of cancelling a cruise.  I told him they'd want to know why and they did.  As he was unable to provide a letter stating why he could no longer go, we were hit with various charges.  It ended up costing more to clear up the mess he caused. So with Patrick behind me, we focused on the cruise.  Rowan had never done a Royal Caribbean before so it was a whole new experience.  Would she like Vision?  Would she like their cruise experience?  I'd had to book a new room at the Premier Inn in Harwich since Patrick wasn't going and we arranged to meet at Victoria on the 2nd May, with her taking a taxi from Paddington.  My old friend Robin Prichard drove all the way from Romford to pick us up and take us to the hotel.
After a bite to eat at McDonalds en route, we arrived at the Premier Inn and took our stuff up to the room.  Unfortunately, with it being a family room (their version of a twin), we didn't have a view of the port.  Celebrity Constellation was in, their first ship of the season and her last season from the UK.  Robin drove us to the Harwich Foot Ferry for the 5pm departure, which took an age to find since there were bugger all signs for anything in that town.
After Robin left at 10.30pm, we decided to have an early night.  Originally I'd intended to go and see Funchal arrive for 8am in the morning.  But as the Harwich Foot Ferry was so bloody far away and there really wasn't any good nearer viewing areas, I changed my mind and hoped to see her from Vision.  It wasn't to be though since after disembarking passengers she left while we were still at the hotel.  It was a lovely day on the 3rd, bit nippy but sunny, and we saw her from the car park.
We'd booked a taxi for noon but some bitch nicked it!  It was in my name so that was naughty of her.  Another turned up quarter of an hour later.  He was just about to leave when I went to reception and told the girl about mine.  She rushed after him.  He took us to the ship and was funny.  Glad we had him in the end.
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			(C) Copyright Patricia Dempsey 2nd, 3rd-7th & 17th May 2009 Not to be reproduced without permission