Pirate's B2B on the VISTA! Jan. 8-22 Review

Hello CC family!

I am returning back to "real life" after spending a wonderful 2 weeks on the lovely Vista. I have learned that a method of dealing with my PCD (Post Cruise Depression) is writing a review and re-living my vacation, so I figured that as I try and get thru the suitcases of dirty laundry I would start this review. :)

A little background info: this is mine and DH's very first back-to-back cruise, which we were super excited about! It was also the cruise were I turned platinum....YEAH!!!!! :cool: We had a lot to look forward to with this sailing: we had some exciting excursions planned (including the Behind the Fun tour), we were sailing with friends we had met on a previous cruise, we booked a Havana stateroom....it was shaping up to be pretty awesome! Everything had fallen into place perfectly, and then, as seems to be my luck with the past few cruises I have gone on, a wrench got thrown into the plans.

Mother Nature decided the day before we were to depart for Miami was the perfect time for a snowstorm. :mad:

Now, for my friends up north, you can laugh, but for us southern people 8 to 10 inches is a lot of snow, and that is what they were calling for our area. I kept waiting for them to change the forecast, but when Friday rolled around they were still calling for that accumulation in our area, and the snow to start about 7 that evening. DH and I decided that it would be best for us to head down to Miami that night to get the heck out of dodge before the roads got bad. My mom (our pet sitter) agreed to come over early, and I settled in to wait for my workday to end at 5:30. But, at 2:30 the snow started, and I decided to leave work at 3 so we could leave NC even sooner. I got home, we threw our bags in the truck, and hit the road at about 4. This is what we left behind:

The drive to Miami was uneventful, and after 1 Starbucks stop, 2 gas fill-ups, and 2 potty/leg stretching breaks we arrived at our pre-cruise hotel at 5:30 Saturday morning. I had decided to stay at the Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon because they offered a Park & Cruise package that included free breakfast, up to 14 days free parking, and a free shuttle to the cruiseport (no return shuttle after the cruise tho). The total for our stay was $315.27, but when you factor in 14 days of parking at the Miami port it wasn't a bad price at all! What impressed me most about this hotel though was the customer service. When we arrived at 5:30 a.m. we went inside just to ask if they knew of a decent place to grab breakfast and kill some time before check-in, which was at 3. The guy at the counter clicked a few buttons on his computer and informed us that he had a room that was available if we wanted to go ahead and check in then, for no extra charge, so we could go ahead and crash and then enjoy Miami later that day. He also told us we could go ahead and grab breakfast before going to our room if we wanted to so we didn't have to go eat somewhere else. :eek: We gladly accepted his offer and checked in and grabbed some breakfast. It was a simple buffet with eggs, a loaded bagel thingy, cereal, yogurt, waffles, and juice. The food was decent.

We crashed until about 10, and then went to the front desk and asked about the shuttle that they had that ran to the Dolphin Mall. It was $10 round trip per person, and ran until 8:30 at night. Chris wanted some ear buds for music on the ship, and we figured it was a way to kill some time. We hopped on the next shuttle over, and we spent the entire day at the mall. We enjoyed lunch at Cheesecake Factory (I love their fish tacos!), and dinner at PF Chang's (Kung Pao chicken, mmmmm!!!). By 8:30 we were both exhausted and upon returning to the hotel, we crashed. Tomorrow was embarkation day!!

Finally, the day is here! After 565 days of planning, I get to cruise on the Vista!!

Since we had checked into our hotel so early, we had first dibs to sign up for the shuttle to the cruise port. Chris and I decided on the 10:00 shuttle, and we got to the Miami port by 10:20. We waited outside for a few minutes until they began letting people into the terminal, and once they began letting people in the check in process was quick and painless. Boarding began around 11, and we were some of the first people onboard...thank you platinum status! Upon stepping onboard, I was immediately drawn to the dreamscape thing in the atrium.

Now, let me just say...Vista is a gorgeous ship, and although the atrium and dreamscape grew on me over the course of our 2 weeks onboard, I found myself missing the grand atriums of all the other Carnival ships. I love the tall ceilings, the glass elevators, and the "crazy" décor. To me it is part of the fun of the ships, it gives them each their own unique personality. Vista is pretty in her own way, but the atrium just underwhelmed me.

Upon boarding we went straight to the Shore Excursions desk to book the Behind the Fun Tour. Thanks to our Carnival MasterCard points as well as booking the first leg of our B2B onboard the Sunshine in 2015, we had some onboard credit to use. We have always talked about doing this tour, and we decided to go ahead and do it this time around. The price was $95 per person, and it was held the morning of the last sea day. More on that tour coming up later in the review. :)

Once that was booked, we headed to our stateroom, #5231, to drop off my carry-on. When we booked this cruise, we had originally booked a Havana interior cabin. However, when I decided to book the January 14 leg and turn this into a B2B, our original stateroom was not available for both legs. I really didn't want to have to pack up our bags and move mid-cruise, so I decided to just pay the extra and book a Havana balcony. The balcony was nice, but honestly, with the access to the Havana deck area we didn't need it. Most of our outside time was spent on that awesome aft area! We loved the room, and the location (deck 5 aft) was excellent...down 2 levels to our dining area, down 1 level to the Punchliner, and we were right there next to Ocean Plaza and Alchemy.

I failed to get a pic of the room looking straight in....sorry. Here's the desk area:

Hallway

Our 1 complaint was that storeage space seemed to be somewhat lacking on the Vista...we only had 2 closets, then the other closet had the safe, 2 shelves, and 3 drawers.

Bathroom sink area. The Havana toiletries (lotion, body wash, shampoo, and soap) were replaced as we used them.

Thanks for posting. We have 1 month to go. Sailing Feb 25th. [emoji924]

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Shower area

Couch area

And now for the part you have all been waiting for...the "balcony" area.

There is also a chair that you cannot see in this picture. The furniture was quite comfortable. Our only complaint about the balcony was that the gate latch that they have on the balconies would jiggle open in rough seas, and then the balcony gate would slam. This happened not just to our balcony, but a few of our neighbors' as well, and it always seemed to happen at night. They slam pretty loud! We ended up taking one of the belts off a bathrobe and tying our gate shut each evening to avoid having this happen. Problem solved!

Now, on to the wonderful Havana area!

These were VERY comfy! And amazingly, you could snag one of these even at 9 in the morning, unlike at Serenity! I think there were 6 or 8 of these on the Havana deck.

Hot tub/shady pool seating

Shady Pool seating

The pool

I'm just going to go ahead and say it....I am spoiled now! I loved the Havana area, absolutely LOVED it! So did DH, he said if we sail Vista, Horizon, or any other ship with the Havana area on it, we have to book in it. The deck area always had chairs available, the pool never had more than 1 or 2 people in it, and it was just a nice, relaxing area.

After exploring our stateroom and Havana area, we were hungry! We headed up to Lido, and I indulged in my one and only Guy's Burger of the entire 14 days.

It was Ok, not great, the highlight of my lunch was the fresh churned ice cream that a friend from a previous cruise (hi Jo!!) had told me to look for. It is in the Sweet Spot at lunchtime only, they have 2 different flavors each day and toppings! Today they had coffee and another flavor, I forget what it was. I had coffee with chocolate sprinkles....yum!! Seriously...if you sail on Vista, forget that stuff that comes out of the ice cream machines and go for the fresh churned stuff!

We explored the ship after eating, and I made a point to go check out the gym as I have recently started working out to get healthier. So for any gym rats out there, here are some pics:

Our luggage arrived shortly before muster drill, and we were able to unpack some and begin to get settled in before heading to the muster. We were assigned to the Horizons dining room, and it was nice to sit down in the cool for the safety briefing instead of having to line up on the outer decks! It was quick and painless, and by 4:40 or so we were released.

We had 6:00 reservations for the steakhouse, so once muster was over we went back to the room to make sure we were presentable for that. We love the steakhouse, it's a great way to start off the cruise. I love the entryway to the Vista's:

Our compliment from the chef: mini cheeseburger. It was fantastic! Just give me a meal of these...

Portobello Mushroom....it was delicious!

Baby spinach & blue cheese salad...it was also delicious!

Filet mignon with 3 peppercorn sauce. It was good, a little chewy for my taste though.

I forgot to take a picture of my dessert, the chocolate sampler, but I can tell you it was good. Not as good as on other ships, I am not sure what was different this time, but it was still good.

With very full bellies DH and I walked around the ship. Andy, the guitar soloist who was on the Pride with us last March, was playing in Ocean Plaza, so we listened to him for a bit. We love Andy, he is a great entertainer and so easy to listen to.

At 9:45 we went to the Welcome Aboard show in the Liquid Lounge. Matt was pretty funny, and we enjoyed it, but here is one of my complaints about Vista: I hate the Liquid Lounge! It is a terrible, terrible layout. There don't seem to be any good seats in there. They don't stagger the seating, so you are either looking at someone's head, or a pole, and the second level isn't much better. That was a big complaint that we heard over the 2 weeks that we were onboard, people seemed to feel the same way that we did. We still enjoyed the shows we went to, but sometimes we didn't get to do much more than just listen because we couldn't see the stage.

After the show we headed back to the room to call it a day. I guess I am becoming an old lady, I was tired from the excitement of the day and couldn't stay up late!

Tomorrow...our first day at sea.

Alright friends, I will try and post 2 more days worth tomorrow, but for now, it's sleepy time! Have a good night all!

Thanks for your fantastic review! Cant wait to read along as you post! We sail in a Havanna Aft in March...Cant wait!!!

Enjoying your review so far!!

We'll be boarding the Vista on SuperBowl Sunday - 2/5/17 for 6 nights. We are booked in Cabin 7450 - Havana Premium Balcony - super excited!! Our first Premium Balcony!

Can you answer a question for me? I've been reading some reviews and have noticed that we get our Room Key Cards in the little mailbox outside of our cabins. Can you elaborate on this for me? I just find it hard to believe that this process is secure... How do I know that someone else won't come along and decide that they want my keycard for themselves before I get there??

Thank you and keep it up!

Sara

swaterbury. My family and I are on this cruise as well. Perhaps we will run into eachother onboard. Wish I had booked a Havana balcony now as heard so many good things about them. See you soon.

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Thanks for posting. We have 1 month to go. Sailing Feb 25th. [emoji924]

 

 

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Have a fantastic time!!

Thanks for your fantastic review! Cant wait to read along as you post! We sail in a Havanna Aft in March...Cant wait!!!

You are going to love the Havana area!! I wondered if it would really be worth it, and it was!!

Enjoying your review so far!!

 

We'll be boarding the Vista on SuperBowl Sunday - 2/5/17 for 6 nights. We are booked in Cabin 7450 - Havana Premium Balcony - super excited!! Our first Premium Balcony!

 

Can you answer a question for me? I've been reading some reviews and have noticed that we get our Room Key Cards in the little mailbox outside of our cabins. Can you elaborate on this for me? I just find it hard to believe that this process is secure... How do I know that someone else won't come along and decide that they want my keycard for themselves before I get there??

 

Thank you and keep it up!

 

Sara

You're going to have a great time!

The S&S cards are left in a sealed envelope in your mailbox with instructions that if the envelope is open to go to Guest Services to get new ones. I was skeptical as to the new process being secure, but when I saw the sealed envelope I felt better about it.

swaterbury. My family and I are on this cruise as well. Perhaps we will run into eachother onboard. Wish I had booked a Havana balcony now as heard so many good things about them. See you soon.

 

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Have a great cruise!!

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GREAT start to your review!!! Looking forward to the rest. :)

So if you turn platinum on the cruise you are on, do you get the benefits on that cruise?

Great start to your review, love the pictures of your cabin!

Count me in to read--leave next Sunday

GREAT start to your review!!! Looking forward to the rest. :)

Thank you Jeff!!

So if you turn platinum on the cruise you are on, do you get the benefits on that cruise?

Yes you do.

Great start to your review, love the pictures of your cabin!

Thank you!!

Count me in to read--leave next Sunday

Have a fantastic cruise! I will try and post as much as I can before you leave. :)

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. How do I know that someone else won't come along and decide that they want my keycard for themselves before I get there??Sara

if your card is not there-- report it right away

Can you elaborate more on the Havana area.

Only people who book there are allowed there?

Hi all!

pirate ~ WTG girl starting your review already!:D Loving it so far! Glad you found the ice cream & liked it. I was just thinking wonder where there's a review I can read & there yours was!!

Wow, the hotel treated you well, very decent of them!

~ Jo ~ :)

swaterbury. My family and I are on this cruise as well. Perhaps we will run into eachother onboard. Wish I had booked a Havana balcony now as heard so many good things about them. See you soon.

have you joined our roll call?

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2173555

Great start!

We will be on the Vista sailing Feb 25th in a Havana room as well. Is there a chance you have the fun times? Seems as though nobody who has been on the Vista recently has them or took any pictures of them.

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I am loving your review so far! We just booked a Havana Cabana balcony for the October 14, 2018, sailing out of Galveston. As soon as my husband saw the Havana rooms he had to have one and he usually never cares where I book our room. Seeing your pictures has me even more excited....if only our sailing wasn't so far away.

Looking forward to the rest!

Pirates!!!!

Missed you on board!:(

But our "recon" of the Havana deck, thoroughly convinced DW that our next Carnival booking will be for one of those cabins.:)

Gotta wait til I get home to view the pix but waiting to hear all about your adventures.

Crew

We will be on the Vista sailing Feb 25th in a Havana room as well. Is there a chance you have the fun times? Seems as though nobody who has been on the Vista recently has them or took any pictures of them.

I think they have them-- its just time consuming scanning etc then posting

and the stuff that happened on that sailing might not be happening on yours

Following along too. We will be doing our first ever B2B, on the Vista, in August.

We will be in a Cove Balcony, also a first for us.