Vista Photo Review: November 2017, 8-Day

Nice job! Looking forward to more. :)

Following. Great report so far����

Thank you to both of you! So glad you're enjoying it.

How is that Sony camera for low light pictures?

Pretty decent. For the price we feel like it works well. Certainly better than an iPhone. I will try to find a low-light photo and post it later.

Next time in FLL, try Rocco's Tacos on Las Olas Blvd. We went there this past Aug prior to our anniversary cruise - it was really good. The Molcajetes was awesome

Oooh thanks for the tip! We won't be in that area until March 2019 but I have bookmarked it in my internet folder for that cruise.

Only 534 days to go before I'm on the Vista! LOL!

 

Looking forward to your review!

You can do it! Keep reading reviews and building the excitement :)

Thanks for the great start. We start our drive to Miami Jan 19 for our B2B (6 day, 8 day) on the Vista. Looking forward to more info. Also, congratulations on the wedding and honeymoon.

Oh a B2B sounds absolutely fantastic! We definitely could've done another week on the Vista. Thank you for the congratulations!

Wow can’t wait to hear about your adventure! Please bring some Funtimes! Interested in the 6 days!! Thanks

I have all of the FunTimes as well, so even though it's about the 8-day, maybe it can help answer some questions!

Looking forward to the rest of your review and I’m going to check out your blog - 2 weeks for us! This will help us get excited [emoji3]

WooHoo!! Almost there :D I'm hoping to crank out multiple posts in the next few days to help build the excitement.

Saturday, November 4th- Embarkation Day:

We were up around 7a.m. and headed down to get breakfast, which was pretty good for a complimentary meal. Turns out that a lot of higher-end hotels require you to pay for breakfast, which is ridiculous; my two biggest criteria when booking a hotel are free airport shuttle transportation and free breakfast, otherwise it’s a no-go. I had MJS booked for shuttle service from Hollywood to the Port of Miami, so we called around 8 to check-in for our 9:30 pickup. We were the only two people from Hyatt Place, and all of the other customers were across the small driveway at Hyatt House, so we walked over there at 9:30 to meet the shuttle. We encountered some traffic on the way to Miami but nothing major, and we still made it around 10:15. After dropping people off at another ship, we made it to the Vista! After having this trip booked for 687 days, it was crazy that we were in front of the ship and almost onboard!

Around 10:25/10:30am, we hopped in line, which was already VERY long. We had 11am check-in time and I was really questioning if everyone else in this extensive line had the same time or if they were trying to cheat the system. Regardless, it didn’t matter, as the line starting moving at 10:35 and we were through security and found a seat in the boarding area by 10:50. They didn't even look at our 12 pack of soda or bottles of wine, as a heads up. The moral of this story is, long lines don’t necessarily mean long wait times. The first boarding group started at 11:11 and we had boarding group 4, which came up quickly. We were on board around 11:45 and had drinks in our hands at noon. We finally made it!!

Yes, we were "that couple."

It didn’t even matter that we received notification that due to “operational considerations” we would be delayed leaving until 10p.m. Some people seemed really upset about it, and I suppose if I gambled I might be annoyed too, but since I don’t and the bars were fully functioning, I was totally good! We took our drinks and carry-on bags to deck 11 to some pretty comfy seats and started people-watching on the pool deck.

Here's a little video of the steel drums, the excitement of embarkation, and a brief time lapse.

Go Full Screen for your viewing pleasure:

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After soaking in the beautiful reality of being on the ship, we made our way to the Mongolian Wok, sneakily located inside Ji Ji’s, instead of in the Lido where it used to be on other ships. We quickly noticed that the basketball court is located right above the restaurant, as we heard dribbling the entire time we were eating. It might not be as much of a problem at dinner as it was at lunch time, but I couldn’t help but think about the poor planning or soundproofing of this design. We were seated at a window seat and had a lovely view that made the experience that much more awesome. The Vista absolutely delivers its namesake all over the ship. The food from the wok was delicious and we would totally recommend that option for free lunch. We never visited again for the rest of the trip, but not for any negative reason; there’s just so much to eat all over the ship! We enjoyed the décor in Ji Ji’s as well.

JiJi's lunch menu. Just put an X in the items you want, and they'll bring it to your table when it's ready.

My delicious lunch!

After lunch, we headed to the Red Frog Pub (this quickly became our favorite venue) and ordered a flight of beer. My favorite had to be the Java Stout, although it isn’t heavy as a normal stout would be (something about people not liking full-bodied beers while in the hot sun, pfft). My husband liked the IPA and enjoyed several of those throughout the cruise. We signed up for the brewery tour for the next day, Sunday, at 2:30pm. They had a physical sign up sheet on a clipboard at the bar, and there were offering three time slots for the Sunday sea day. We saw many tours occur throughout the week and they were promoted in the Fun Times and over the announcements from the Cruise Director, Steven Schwartz (more on him later).

A self-serve station and a flight of beer (they did not come from the self-serve taps):

In order left to right: Thirsty Frog Red, Caribbean Wheat, Java Stout, Port Hoppin' IPA

We wandered deck 5 until they announced that our rooms were ready, and we headed down to see our first-ever balcony in room 2305. We were incredibly surprised with the decorations and gifts lining our room, and felt very fortunate that we both have parents who bought honeymoon packages to help us celebrate. Not only did we have cute hanging decorations that stayed up all week, but we received a chocolate cake, a bottle of champagne, two different sets of champagne glasses, a Carnival beach towel, and two different picture frames. Shout out to our parents for the lovely gifts!

Cove Balcony 2305

Cove Balcony 2305

Standard Bathroom:

Very delicious surprise cake!

We headed out to the balcony to watch the organized chaos that is a homeport day for deliveries, luggage, and logistics. My husband also noticed there was a crane moving large equipment around and onto the front of the ship, and a company whose name indicated that it did underwater work had equipment next to the ship. From this, we quickly gleaned that the “operational considerations” were due to maintenance or repairs, and our late departure was to ensure that whatever needed fixing would be done fully and appropriately.

We dropped off our carry-on bags and grabbed all of our camera equipment to head out to explore the ship. We visited the majority of decks 3, 4, 5, and 6, including stopping for a drink at the sports bar and watching college football and seeing the lobby area of the IMAX theatre. This would be the last time we ever went near the IMAX, so I’m glad we visited briefly to take a few pictures.

We then headed to the atrium and people-watched while waiting for our muster drill to start, since we were in the Reflections dining room right off of the atrium. The muster drill took a fairly long time to get through the whole thing, but I did appreciate the ability to sit in a chair instead of standing on a hot outside deck in the sun. After the muster drill, we booked it to guest services to ask a few questions about when the pin/bottled waters for VIFP status would show up in our room and what the extra OBC on our account was. In case you ever stumble upon a weird amount of OBC (ours was something like $29.25 per person), it could be port/tax refunds, which ours was because the itinerary was changed.

I LOVE the Dreamscape!!

(This amazing funnel-shaped LED screen that displays both static and moving scenes)

UP NEXT: Saturday, Embarkation Day continued

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I am glad you mentioned the Mongolian Wok because I was wondering about that.

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Following. We’re going on the Vista in March..can’t wait. Excited to read the rest of your review!

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I am glad you mentioned the Mongolian Wok because I was wondering about that.

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Sure thing! If you have any questions about that or anything else, just ask!

Following. We’re going on the Vista in March..can’t wait. Excited to read the rest of your review!

You're almost there! I hope this adds to the building excitement!

Saturday, 11/4- Embarkation Day, continued:

Deck 4:

Horizons Restaurant

Liquid Lounge:

I'll take a bar like this in my house please:

Limelight Lounge/Punchliner:

Loved these awesome 3D murals/photos on the staircases:

Deck 5:

Piano Bar

Library Bar:

Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse:

Bonsai Sushi:

The Ocean Plaza had palm trees!:

We went back to the sports bar again to catch up on more college football (can you tell how we like to spend our Saturdays?) then moved on to exploring the sun decks, including the lido and the Serenity. We were very impressed with the adults-only location as it had multiple two-person sun beds and cuddle pods (what’s the actual name for these?) as well as a ton of chairs and tables. Unfortunately this would be the most empty we ever saw it, as it was often very hard to find a seat, let alone two seats next to each other. Stay tuned for my encounter enforcing the 40-minute rule later in the week. The full bar at the Serenity was awesome, and a bug upgrade from our Liberty trip in which the bar was a little hole in the wall. We also loved the concept of the salad bar and couldn’t wait to try it out on a sea day.

We also watched the Carnival Glory and NCL Escape sail away, and enjoyed waving at other cruisers beginning their trip.

We returned to the room and opened the champagne that was gifted to us by my parents. I also thought it would be great to film it, so here’s that for your viewing pleasure (make it full screen):

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We sat on the balcony and sipped the champagne and watched the terminal and hard workers down below. The balcony was a good size for the two of us and I didn’t feel as nervous out there as I thought I would. Unfortunately, we only enjoyed the balcony a few more times throughout the whole week, and we quickly realized that for us, it’s not worth the extra cost. I was a little worried about the saying that floats around out there (Heh, cruise pun) about “Once you try a balcony you’ll never go back.” I thought that by splurging on a balcony for the honeymoon, going back to an oceanview would be terrible. Luckily for us, I think we enjoy the oceanview more as it gives us the sunlight and views, but without the added cost that we never really enjoyed the benefit of. I know MANY cruisers will disagree and that’s okay, it just leaves one more balcony space for you to book!

We were so excited for the chance to finally try out an Alchemy Bar (the Liberty was always packed) and our time officially arrived at 5pm when the bar opened and we headed up to meet AnnaMaria (a Cruise-Critic renowned mixologist) and try something out of our comfort zone. My husband ordered a spicy pineapple martini and oh my it was awesome! A fun fact about me is that I don’t do spicy, at all. The chili I make is fairly mild, I don’t eat chicken wings if they’re coated in anything but sweet BBQ, and I don’t even like black pepper on my eggs. That being said, this drink was phenomenal. It certainly had pineapple and the heat of the spicy jalpenos was there, but it was a gentle burning aftertaste instead of an in-your-face spice. I actually ordered a few over the week because they were so interesting and delicious. Also, AnnaMaria really does live up to the hype- she’s fun to talk to and the way she makes the drinks is an art form. We visited her multiple times throughout the cruise and really enjoyed talking with her.

Forty is the New Twenty and the Spicy Chipotle Pineapple Martinis

Next stop was the sports bar to cheer on our Iowa Hawkeyes (This was the game where they DESTROYED “The” Ohio State Buckeyes!). We met a couple that were also Iowa alums and several other Hawkeye fans, which really made my heart happy. I tend to wear a lot of Iowa gear whenever we travel because there are a lot of Hawkeyes across the country and love finding good company on a cruise or in a random Caribbean country. After seeing our big win, we headed up to the Seafood Shack for dinner. This is an upcharge dining venue but we had read some really good things about the lobster roll and we knew we needed to try it. A single order of the lobster roll ($12) actually comes with two filled rolls and a huge pile of fries. I apparently was too busy eating to take a picture! The buns they use were a buttery amazing goodness and the lobster was pretty great too. We were able to have a view of the Miami skyline all lit up at night since we still hadn’t left port.

We made a quick stop in the room to change so we could head up to the spa and get a start on using our Thermal Spa Suite 8-day couples package. We’re not really spa people, but we sure do enjoy relaxing and thought that this would be a nice wedding/honeymoon gift to each other. The 20% off online sale sure helped make the decision easier too! We checked in at the spa's front desk and got stickers put on our Sign & Sail cards and two white wristbands (like the rubber Livestrong bands that are removable). We were also given a keycard to get into the thermal suites. The changing room has lockers that are activated using a number pad and you create your own 4-digit code.

There are four different thermal suites/rooms as well as four aromatherapy showers, eight heated stone/tile loungers, and a whirlpool (not a thalassotherapy pool). The first night we were there, the aroma-steam room wasn’t working, which was a bummer. It did get fixed and was awesome for the rest of the week, however. The infrared room was very nice and warmed my core. The dry heat room and the regular steam room were INCREDIBLY toasty and I couldn’t stay in there for longer than a minute. I spent most of my time on a heated lounger, and my husband tried out the aroma-shower and the whirlpool, which was very warm and he enjoyed for a while. It was nice to have another adults-only place to relax, and the view from the giant windows was also a huge bonus.

The dessert in our room called our names, so we headed to the room and ate cake on the balcony while watching sailaway. Whatever problem that was delaying our departure must have gotten fixed ahead of schedule, because we sailed away around 9 instead of the previously noted 10pm. After cake, we went to the Ocean Plaza and listed to the band Sweet Soul Six perform country songs. We closed the night watching more football in the sports bar before heading to the room for much-needed sleep.

UP NEXT: Sunday, November 5th, Sea Day

Come back......I'm loving your review!

your Mrs & Mr shirts are adorable - by the way congrats on the wedding

I am enjoying your view. Great pictures!

Hmmm good to know about the steam room—the one on our NCL cruise was the same, face-melting hot! Luckily the sauna was fine. That’s sort of a bummer. Did you find the pass worth it even though you couldn’t use the steam room and sauna? Were the loungers easy to come by? Thanks for all the great info.!

Hmmm good to know about the steam room—the one on our NCL cruise was the same, face-melting hot! Luckily the sauna was fine. That’s sort of a bummer. Did you find the pass worth it even though you couldn’t use the steam room and sauna? Were the loungers easy to come by? Thanks for all the great info.!

We used the spa pass 6 of the 8 days, I believe. We were always able to find at least one open lounger in there, and sometimes there were multiple open. On days when there was only one lounger, my husband and I switched places, one person laying down while the other used the thermal rooms and then switching after 15-20 minutes.

I wouldn't necessarily spend the money for another thermal suite pass in the future, even though it was such a great and relaxing experience. It sort of felt like one more thing we had to do to get our money's worth, so instead of laying outside in the sun or listening to music, there were times I felt like we had to be in the spa. The time I spent in there was great- I LOVED the aromatherapy steam room and the infrared room was fairly relaxing too. I'm not sure if the spa life is the life for me. Maybe in the future when I don't feel the need to explore a ship, then I might reconsider.

On the other hand, my husband super enjoyed the pass and has said that he'd like to get one again. He could handle more of the heat than I could, and he loves sitting in the whirlpool too, so I think that he feels like he got a better deal and experience. So a future pass isn't totally off the table but it's not where I'd like to put my money right now.

Come back......I'm loving your review!

your Mrs & Mr shirts are adorable - by the way congrats on the wedding

Aww thank you! I love hearing that you're enjoying it. It's unfortunately a tedious process between writing, uploading photos, and copying all of that over from the blog. I promise I will have more tonight/tomorrow! Also I appreciate the congratulations :)

I am enjoying your view. Great pictures!

Thanks so much for following along!

Congrats on your wedding! Loving your pictures and review-thanks for taking the time to post both. We're sailing the Vista next year. It looks like fun!

Congrats on your wedding! Loving your pictures and review-thanks for taking the time to post both. We're sailing the Vista next year. It looks like fun!

I appreciate that! Thank you for following along- it's so fun to know that other cruisers enjoy the review.

Sunday, November 5th, Sea Day:

My husband woke up early to head to the gym at 7:45am, but he quickly returned saying that the gym was packed and no machines or benches were open. So we got ready for the day and went to Blue Iguana for breakfast. My husband discovered his love of Blue Iguana on the Liberty cruise we took in April 2017, so he was very excited to have his first of many breakfast burritos on this trip. I decided to branch out and try my first-ever huevos rancheros. Oh wow had I been missing out! As previously noted, I can’t do spicy food, but this was well-balanced and not very spicy. It was so super delicious, and you’ll start to see a pattern of our breakfast choices throughout the review. You also apparently won't see any pictures of breakfast because I was always just so hungry, heh oops.

Morning Balcony Shot:Quick note, in room 2305 there are no lifeboats above the balcony, which I planned on purpose. It really helped open up our view, even though you can see one a few rooms over.

Another morning view:

We previously had signed up for the Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle and received our “tickets” to the event in our room on embarkation day. The event was scheduled for 9am on the first sea day, which I thought was a poorly picked time, as most people are either sleeping or just getting up for breakfast. Because I had been pushing the Meet & Mingle on the Roll Call, I figured I was obligated to attend and we went to the Limelight Lounge at 8:55am. There were only two other people in the room at that time (Shoutout to Sarah and Phil!). Eventually people started coming in (15 total) and even Hugo the Entertainment Director was there. We stayed until 9:45 and actually had a very nice time meeting other people and talking about our cruising experience. Hugo gave us a few insights about the life of an Entertainment Director, and told us that he would be getting a break at the end of 2017 before heading to Europe to kick off the Horizon in April 2018. Hugo also told us that the crew really likes the IMAX because they’re on the ship for 8 months and it gives them a chance to feel like they’re back on land and doing a normal activity.

Spot the Tigerhawk ;)

Morning Views:

We made our way to slogans trivia in the ocean plaza at 10am then walked around the lanai for a bit before settling into a lounger for about 15-20 minutes. The Red Frog Pub & Brewery was our next visit, where my husband use the self-serve beer tap to pour a beer. A quick piece of advice on using this machine: once you slide your S&S card, you have 10-15 seconds to pour then it shuts off, which meant that you can only pour about half a beer at once, since it comes out super foamy and you want to wait until the foam subsides so you can pour more. I love the concept of self-serve beer, and it was fun to try it as a novel activity, but we mostly resorted to order beer from the bar for the rest of the cruise because it was less frustration and honestly more beer and less foam. We also played one of our favorite games- Pass the Pigs: Pig Party. It's based on the classic game, but includes 4 sets of pigs and cards with pictures of poses the player needs to match to earn points (there are a lot of P's in these sentences; I blame the beer, hehe!). It's a very "Iowan" game, which is just comical to us.

PYOB Station:

Full Screen the video to see Pig Party and the PYOB station in action:

-kjVPxJMnYk

This is already one of my favorite cruise critic reviews! Thank you for taking the time! I’ll be on the Vista in 27 days for our first cruise as a family with my husband and two toddlers, so excited!!

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So don't self pour, like that tip! ;)

Sunday Sea Day Continued:

After finishing our beers, we went to the Serenity where I was super disappointed by the amount of chair hogs. I have never encountered chair-hogging to the intensity that I did on the Vista, which was an unfortunate amount. We did find two chairs, although they were those little yellow cabana chairs instead of a full lounger, so my tanning session wasn’t off to a strong start. We stayed for about an hour before making our way back to the Red Frog Pub & Brewery for the 2:30 pm Brewery Tour!

We were SO excited about the brewery onboard and couldn’t pass up a chance to see the inner-workings of the place. The brewmaster, Colin, is awesome and we were very delighted to meet him since he was the one that started up the brewery when the Vista first sailed in May 2016 and we’ve seen different videos interviewing him and highlighting the brewery. He gave us a lot of info about the brewery and the challenges of brewing onboard a ship.

Colin and my husband:

Setup:

The setup of the tour was about 10 people sitting between two tables, and each table had pitchers of beer on them. We also had an empty flight of glasses in front of us. As Colin explained that specific beer, we would pour some into our little glass and taste it. We tasted their four core beers and two specialties, and had plenty of samples at that. Along with my husband and myself, there were three other men at our table, and we had lots of fun throughout the tour. Lucky for me, the Java Stout wasn't a favorite at my table, so I got several extra pours of that and let the guys have my IPA servings. We saw the different tanks Colin uses during the brewing process and got a full tour of the two areas that beer visits before being tapped.

Glass Brewhouse:

Sorry for the blur, operator error after beer sampling (husband, not me :halo:)

Holding Tanks:

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We also got a pint glass that’s exclusive to the tour, and a certificate of completion as well as a free pint of beer during the cruise. The total cost per person was $25 and we definitely thought we got a great value with everything that was included. I’ll reiterate that we got plenty of beer and left feeling pretty good after the 1.5 hour tour/tasting. Colin said he’ll be moving to the Carnival Horizon, travelling over to Europe in February 2018 and having things ready to go for the first cruise. We have our fingers crossed that we’ll be able to see him again on the Horizon when we make it on in the not-too-distant future!

Upon returning to our room to get dressed for our next adventure, we found a $50 spa gift card from our room steward congratulating us on the wedding. I know that most anything in the spa costs more that $50, so they’re still making money off of people who might not have spent money there in the first place, but I do still think it’s a nice gesture. We changed into classy attire and headed down to the atrium for an experience that I was so thrilled to gift to my husband: the Chef’s Table!

Sunday, November 5th, 2017, continued:

We were asked to meet in the atrium around 5:30pm I believe, and we checked in with two ladies who work at the Chef’s Table. After waiting for our group to fully assemble, we were led through the dining room and into the galley. This in and of itself is really just the coolest thing. Not too many people can say they’ve stood in a cruise ship’s galley, and seeing some of the logistics that go into running a place like that is, to the fullest extent of the word, awesome. We were directed to stand around a large prep table and find our names. This was the intro/cooking demonstration part of the night, which included champagne, kalamata olives, parmesan, and some really interesting sounding yogurt pops that were actually super delicious. I don’t want to spoil the whole experience so I’ll leave some mystery!

We were then directed into the specially-built Chef’s Table room with floor to ceiling glass windows peering into the galley. The room is very exquisite and there’s so much to look at. We started with a few types of bread/crackers, then went into the spring pea soup. It was an crazy bright green color and very much tasted of both spring peas and matcha. It was good, but I couldn’t really get over the pea flavor. I liked stirring the soup with the bamboo brush though! The pork belly and shrimp, next course, was also good and one of my husband’s favorite courses.

Pork Belly:

We took a walk around the galley while the next course was being prepared, and saw how soups and brothers were made, the food ordering system from the dining room to the galley, and platters of lobster since it was formal night. We also got a crash course in making Warm Chocolate Melting Cakes, which really had me craving one but I knew we were in for a fancier set of desserts that night. We also saw this cool visual of how the plates should look before going out, so that waiters can make sure everyone is getting uniformity in their food.

We returned to the lamb course, which was probably my husband’s favorite of the night. I also enjoyed it, including the beets that really tasted like the dirt they were grown in, which is weird yet cool. The next course is the one that really makes my mouth water and my belly grumble. Poached sea bass with passion fruit-flavored “caviar” that’s really just molecular gastronomy at its finest. Wow this dish was flavorful and smooth and I really need another plate of it right now. It was followed up by the quail dish and although it sounds like an abnormal food choice, the flavors were fantastic. I don’t think I’d elect for quail as a course in the future, but hey why not when it’s Chef’s Table?! The last dinner course was a smoked veal, and they provided quite the show when serving it. I wasn’t a huge fan and gave my last few bites to my husband since he was loving the lamb earlier, but it was neat to try it.

Poached Bass- I need more!

Quail Dish:

Smoking Demonstration:

Very pretty veal dish:

Dessert was the final event, and it came in multiple parts. We switched from the red or white wine service that had been flowing heavily all evening to a port dessert wine, which was my first foray into the drink. Not my new fave, but I did like trying it out. The citrus cream dessert was again another feat of food engineering, complete with elderflower “caviar” and lime "snow". Wow, it was probably the stylish dessert I’ve ever had! Until the next dessert that gave the snow/caviar dish a run for its money. The chocolate hazelnut log with basil moss looked far too fancy to eat, but it was so tasty! Of course at this point I’m incredibly stuffed and can’t even fit more water into my full belly, when they deliver special desserts to a few different people at the table, including singing Happy Birthday to me, to celebrate my birthday being a few days later. Such a cute little cake and yummy too, but I will say that the Chef’s Table desserts took the cake. Hehe puns.

Citrus Cream:

Chocolate Log:

Mini-Cake:

In sum, the Chef’s Table was an incredibly special and memorable experience and truly the best food we’ve ever had. I’m SO fortunate and happy that I was able to give this gift to my husband and to know that he wanted it so badly and loved it so much really makes the night that much better. Seeing the hard work and organized chaos that goes into preparing all of the meals on a cruise ship that feeds 4,000 guests was impressive. Talking with some of the chefs and hearing their experiences in the kitchen and with Chef’s Table was a unique moment that added to the whole night. The event didn’t feel rushed and we really felt catered to and spoiled, quite honestly. We had good wine and great company, and I would absolutely recommend this dining experience to anyone who is willing to be a little adventurous and have a culinary journey unlike any other!! We were done at 9:15pm, so I think it took about 3.5 hours, but it was so worth the time and money we put into it!

We rolled ourselves to the sports bar to watch some football and let all of the delicious food settle in our overfilled stomachs. The Havana was the next stop on our late night tour and we were so excited to walk around the outside area and see the pools lit up and look out into the dark nothingness of the ocean. The Havana seems like an awesome concept, although it is a little hard to enjoy the sun deck at 7:30pm when the sun is gone and the nights get a little chilly. The Havana bar decor is so colorful and inviting, so we stuck around to listen to music and watch people dance.

Maybe someone can fill me in on this question- When we went, the musicians were speaking Spanish to the crowd; is this how it always is? I totally loved it and we stayed for about 20 minutes dancing in our seats. I used my 6+ years of Spanish classes to understand some of the comments they were making, but I knew I was missing out on some of the jokes they were telling. We didn’t ever make it back to the Havana bar so I’m not sure if there are nights that they do speak English in between songs. After a long day of exploring the awesome things Vista has to offer, we went back to the room and crashed.

UP NEXT: Monday, November 6th, Sea Day

This is already one of my favorite cruise critic reviews! Thank you for taking the time! I’ll be on the Vista in 27 days for our first cruise as a family with my husband and two toddlers, so excited!!

Wow thank you so much for that wonderful compliment!! I hope you have an awesome cruise! So begins the addiction :cool:

So don't self pour, like that tip! ;)

Yes! It definitely was fun but when we got a glass mostly full of foam, the fun ends quickly.