solongshakespeare

Just get there early if it's a big event.  The Sports Bar is small.  We cruised last summer during the World Cup and ended up standing in hallway outside even though we got there 20 minutes early

I had one booked when Vista was in the Mediterranean and took an upsale to a suite because Havana was an unknown factor at that point. To this day it remains one of my biggest regrets. The pool area on Lido is always packed and you have to fight for a lounge chair. From the reports I read, Havana is almost never crowded… even on sea days. The private balconies are not really private, but they don’t see a lot of traffic. In 44 days I’ll get the chance to see if I’m right in guessing that Havana is the way to go.

What time do they start letting people off ship in Long Beach

I’ve been out of Long Beach 4 times (twice with FTTF). I usually use self assist debarkation and have been off as early as 7:30 and never later than 8:30.

We have used SuperShuttle out of LAX, and they will provide a car seat for snow additional charge. Our last time out we rented from Avis since our flight got in at 5am. We were able to rent a car for the morning and drop it off a mile from the port for $87 (with a car seat included). It allowed us to stop for breakfast and pick up a couple of bottles of wine to take on board.

Debating cruising Horizon in June.

Can sail Vista same price.

A little worried about new ship hiccups with Horizon, even though she will have so many new features, compared to Vista.

Itineraries aren’t a game changer, nor is port.

Thoughts?

 

 

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The one thing I would worry about is the customer service aspect. We travelled on the Vista in June of last year, and several things weren’t up to Carnival’s usual top notch service. The crew was new to the ship at that point and hadn’t quite jelled and they were still learning about the ships unique features. We are giving the Vista another go this June.

We have were able to take our foster sons and daughter on a cruise with us with the permission of the OCS caseworker… and the state payed for their airfare. We ended up adopting all three of them and just got back from a second cruise

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We have always found that our sea days were s little rougher and chillier than other days- but nothing that kept us from enjoying the ship. Coming from Alaska, it was actually more comfortable on those days.

I second Alchemy as our favorite place. We ended up spending most of our bar tab there and enjoyed every drink and the top notch service. Can't wait for a Caribbean Manhattan on our cruise in 1 month.

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We were also on the June 11th sailing. We used Euros and dollars (and at one point a combination of the two)

Kusadasi was one of our favorite stops and we got great deals on genuine fakes.

We had the same issue with service problems and a menu that was just "meh". We utilized the alternative restaurants on 7 out of the 10 and had great experiences at all of them.

We found that the menus in the MDR were not what we hoped for and that the service was lacking (and we typically praise the MDR as one of the highlights of the cruise).

We had several items we ordered that were forgotten (soup seemed to be the main culprit). I had heard from several posts that the food was served cold, and I have to confirm that it happened to our table on several items. Drink service was abysmal. No one would ask us if we would like a drink, and after the bar staff didn't appear I ended up ordering through our waiter. I ordered a "Grey Goose vodka martini" and got a grapefruit martini instead. I laughed the first night… the second night it was a little frustrating. But most frustrating was the lack of items that truly sounded good to us. We would check the menu each morning and ultimately after 3 tries we never found anything that would draw us in.

Before you jump up to the Lido, you might want to check out some of the alternative options. We had tremendous service and terrific food at all of the alternative restaurants. The steakhouse was the most expensive at 35 a person, but the others were well priced and we never left disappointed. We loved Bonsai sushi, and they remembered our names by the second time we showed up (something our waiter in the MDR was unable to figure out even on our third try). Reservations to JiJi and Cuccini Capitano must be made in advance. We got wait listed a couple of times and never made it in, but were able to on the days that we prebooked a couple of days in advance.

We are just waiting to walk off Vista after a 10 day from Barcelona. We only ate in the MDR 3 times due in part to the port schedules, but also in large part to the menu and service. Both were not up to the same standard that we experienced on our previous cruises. There were lots of options for alternative dining, and we ended up trying them all except the Seafood Shack.

No problem. We are loving the cruise and the suite has been nice… but with all of the ports we haven't had too much time to truly enjoy it.

A couple of quick reflections:

The key card to turn on the lights and outlets is annoying. I would love to charge my electronics while I'm gone, but it requires leaving the key card in.

However, there are more outlets than we are used to and there are two USB ports. It's a nice addition, but it would be nice to have those closer to the bed.

The closets are adjustable to meet your needs. We discovered today that you could easily add or take away shelves based on your needs. There are turn switches in the back that make this possible.

The storage in the suite is less than we are used to. The closets are smaller and the are fewer drawers than we have had in balconies on our other cruises.

The bathroom alone is worth the price of admission. To be able to shower and not feel claustrophobic is a thing of pure joy. To have two sinks allows for fewer squabbles about getting ready in the morning.

The suite has been fun, but it's a luxury that we will forgo next time when traveling with the kids.

The balcony might be big enough for a lounger and two chairs, but it would be hard to open the door at that point- they swing out.

Our cabin was almost ready and we were one of the first on. Our steward said we could drop our carry ons off and head up to the lido and he would be done in 15 minutes.

We never got any bottled water as part of the suite, but we had purchased four cases at $3 a pop though the fun shops so we have had more than enough. Our fridge can hold 15 bottles at once.

I am 6'4 and my feet have not had a problem staying in the bed. It is just as long as my king bed at home.

I'm in one right now (7384). What would you like to know?

You pay for group admission to the Colosseum and Vatican City in cash to the guide when you get there. We were only in line at the Colosseum and Vatican City for about five minutes. We paid directly on line for our tour without any issues… but you might try contacting them if you are.

A glass of wine from the bar is included. The library has a self service wine bar that you can choose various pours from… none of which are included in Cheers.

The port intensive schedule has made it difficult to get the maximum value out of it… but I have certainly tried.

We sprung for the case of water delivered to our room to take off in port with us. With temperatures in the 80's this was a must. I have also used Propel powder with them to help catch up on electrolytes lost from the previous night of imbibing. The fridge in our cabin holds about 15 of these bottles and we paid 3$ for a case of 12.

If you stick to standard drinks (i.e. Beer, rum and coke, gin and tonic), then it might be hard to get the value. We have had 3 ports that start before eight and get back around five. If you like higher end drinks then you can easily get the value. We love Alchemy and have had 5+ drinks there every day making it worth the price.

A couple words of caution. You can't get doubles with cheers even though I have had drinks with three or more shots in them. I like a double bourbon on the rocks (and they will try to upgrade you to a double until they find that you have cheers) but it's not allowed

Second warning is to bypass the wine bar. I got a $22 charge and had to go read the fine print to find that Cheers does not cover it.

We arrived at 10:00 with fewer than 100 people waiting at that point. Boarding started at 10:45, and by 11 we had our first drink in hand.

We were only in the Sistine Chapel for 10 minutes. We were in Vatican City for 2 hours. We stayed at the Colosseum for around 45 minutes.

We saw the Sistine chapel. We spent about 10 minutes in there. We met up with another van, so we were considered a group and got in without a long wait. It was not a stop and look at everything in depth tour… so the Vatican Museum was a quick blur, but seeing the Sistine Chapel and St Peters was an awe inspiring experience.

Michaella was with us from the start at the Colosseum until she dropped us off at the Van to go back home. We paid the 99 euro price