Carnival Vista Review 1st Oct 2016. -Oh No I`ve lost my anchor!!!

Hi, my name is Mark age 51yrs and I am a cruise addict. This was my 12th cruise.

My first cruise was in 1997 on the Carnival Inspiration.

First let me explain my title for this review. My partner in life for 27yrs died a few weeks before this cruise he was also only 51yrs old and he did a lot of the planning for our cruises. He was with me on all my previous cruises so I was very sad after all his hard work in planning this cruise that he would not be there on the Vista enjoying this fantastic ship and crew.

I was not sure whether I could do a review without him here to help me, but I have decided to give it a go and try to do it on my own and that I would dedicate this review to him. :)

I was not completely on my own on the cruise as my brother was also booked to join us on the cruise.

I was on my own in Barcelona though for my pre-cruise stay. Obviously there were a lot of sad moments when I thought how Kieron would have liked this or that but I just had to get on with it and somehow get through this holiday without him.

I did enjoy many parts of the holiday with my brothers support and I also met some lovely people on this cruise, which is one of the many things I love about cruising.

Anyway onto the review. First off a pic of the Vista in Rhodes which is the only place she was docked where you could get a full picture of her in all her glory without anything blocking the view. :(

I will post new portions of my review as often as my workload will allow. I only get 2 days off a week so this is when I will try to post as much as possible.

Also this is my very first time doing this so please do forgive the mistakes and things I get wrong in the review. A huge thing I did wrong was not to get pictures of every menu or every thing that I ate. I did however get quite a few pictures for you to enjoy.

As well as doing this for Kieron I also wanted to give back to my fellow cruise critic reviewers who have helped me over the years in researching my cruises.

So lets get started, Kieron wish me luck. :)

We started by booking the cruise in March 2016. I had seen lots of reports of the ship and wanted to go on her. Also it was time to go back on Carnival as our favorite cruise of all time was on our first ever cruise on the Carnival Inspiration.

We nearly always book in September when all the kids have gone back to school :D.

We always book a balcony cabin as Kieron would not go in a inside cabin as he felt cramped and confined in one. I however would go in any cabin as long as I was on a ship the room was not important.

We were booked mid-ship on deck 9 in cabin 9339. This was a great cabin and I really enjoyed it in this cabin.

I will start off with my pre cruise stay in Barcelona and then go on to the cruise itself.

I pack very late before a holiday so this is my case being packed only the day before the trip began :eek: .

I set off on the 28th September from my home in LLandudno North Wales UK.

I traveled on the train to Manchester Airport at about 11.30am. I was very apprehensive going on my own and have to say I did start to cry when the train pulled up to the station as I thought about Kieron not getting on the train with me. I pulled myself together and boarded the train to the Airport.

I was staying in a hotel very close to the airport, it was the Premier Inn on Runger Lane North near the M56/J6. There are 2 Premier Inns next to each other and this is the view of the one opposite the one I was staying in.

As the sun was going down I took a few pics of the room I was staying in.

Another view from the window,

Thank you for taking the time to write this review. I am so sorry for your loss. My DH and I have been on 10 cruises together with # 11 and 12 booked for spring. We have often discussed whether we would cruise by ourselves when the other was gone. I don't doubt it would not be the same but also feel it might be somewhat therapeutic. Of course we wouldn't really know unless we did it.

Thank you again for doing this and God bless you as you go through the grieving process.

Thank you for taking the time to write this review. I am so sorry for your loss. My DH and I have been on 10 cruises together with # 11 and 12 booked for spring. We have often discussed whether we would cruise by ourselves when the other was gone. I don't doubt it would not be the same but also feel it might be somewhat therapeutic. Of course we wouldn't really know unless we did it.

 

Thank you again for doing this and God bless you as you go through the grieving process.

Thanks for your kind words, it just goes to show you never know whats around the corner, so live life to the full as much as you can.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the review.

Mark.

Sorry to hear about Kieron.

Thank you for doing a review of Vista.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for taking the time to review. In some small way I think it will help you doing so and I'm sure your partner would have wanted you to continue to enjoy cruising and encourage you to write your review.

Good luck... Look forward to it. :)

You are very brave for taking this cruise without your partner and for writing about something so personal. I bet Kieron would be proud of you.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

So sorry to hear of the loss of your partner. I can't imagine how difficult it was to go on this cruise without you soulmate of so many years, but thanks for the review. I love the pic of your suitcase -you are a light packer like me

Sent from my iPad using Forums

A few pics of the room

Sorry for the poor light on this one

So at about 6pm I went down to get something to eat from the restaurant. Premier Inns usually come with a restaurant attached, here it was a Thyme Restaurant, which has a basic pub bistro menu.

I enjoyed my meal which was Gammon and egg and pineapple.

Food porn alert,

There is also a costa coffee in the hotel and a bar serving alcohol. I just had a coke.

The place was very busy and the staff were under pressure but I found them to be friendly and welcoming.

I went to bed early as my flight was at 6.25am, so I had to be up at 4am at least to be at the airport 2hrs before the flight.

The stay at the hotel did not however go to plan. I live in a home without a bath only a shower, so I was looking forward to my first bath for 2 yrs only to have my hopes dashed when the hotel had no running water that evening as there was a water supply problem in the area.

I went down to reception to see what was the problem and was given 2 small bottles of water to see me through till morning. I was not very happy at all about this but there was nothing they could do about it.

There was a kettle in the room with tea and coffee so I had a brew then went to bed.

I got up at 3.45am and started to get ready to leave.

I had booked a shuttle that the hotel provided for £3 to take me to the airport. It cost £6 from the train station to the hotel.

As I checked out a manager asked me if I had enjoyed my stay, I said not really as I was looking forward to taking a bath before going to bed. As I was not totally satisfied with my stay the manager refunded me the cost of the whole bill which was £69.50. Needless to say I was happy with this and thanked her and went on my way to the airport.

Sorry to hear about Kieron.

 

Thank you for doing a review of Vista.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for your kind words and welcome to the review.

Thanks for taking the time to review. In some small way I think it will help you doing so and I'm sure your partner would have wanted you to continue to enjoy cruising and encourage you to write your review.

 

Good luck... Look forward to it. :)

Thanks les37b, I am sure it will help and Kieron definitely wanted me to do a review.

You are very brave for taking this cruise without your partner and for writing about something so personal. I bet Kieron would be proud of you.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks renaroo for such kind words and I am glad I did this cruise. He was always in my thoughts throughout it.:)

So sorry to hear of the loss of your partner. I can't imagine how difficult it was to go on this cruise without you soulmate of so many years, but thanks for the review. I love the pic of your suitcase -you are a light packer like me

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks for your kind words simplelife, I am afraid the suitcase was full by the time I was finished though as I leave my shirts and trousers till the last minute before closing the case.:D

I was flying with Ryanair for the first time. They were not as bad as I had been expecting, everything went smoothly and I was soon landing in Barcelona after only 2 hrs flight time.

I was picked up at the airport by my private transfer to the hotel which was extremely nice. This is where I am not as thorough as I would have liked to be as I did not get any photos of the car. Sorry but this will become a theme throughout this review I am afraid as Kieron was the organizer and I just let him get on with it as I am very laid back and a go with the flow kind of guy.

Anyway I arrived at the hotel on the 29th Sept. at about 11am. The room would not be ready till 1pm so I went across the street where there was a great cafe bar serving great coffee Latte for only 1 Euro a cup. Needless to say I had rather a lot of these over the next couple of days.

Here is the hotel I was staying at, The Hotel Condado.

I was sure there was a picture of the coffee bar but I cannot find it. There was also about 70 pictures which would not load onto Photobucket for some reason so I will have to do the review without them. :mad:

So sorry to hear of the loss of your partner. So glad you had the strength to continue on with going on the cruise without him. Wonderful start to your review. Looking forward to reading the rest!

At 1pm my room was ready so I dumped my things in my room, got washed and changed and went for a walk around my hotel to familiarize myself with my surroundings. I had studied the surrounding area on my computer using Google Earth so I had a rough idea of where to find the Sagrada Familia which was not far from my hotel. My hotel was just off one of the main roads in Barcelona, Av. Diagonal. It was a good 50min walk for me to get there. The weather was a beautiful sunny day about 28C. I have been 3 times before to Barcelona for other cruises so I did know my way around a little.

I love the buildings in this city, they are stunning in my view.

Anyway I arrived at the famous Sagrada Familia.

Opposite the church was a pretty park.

So sorry to hear of the loss of your partner. So glad you had the strength to continue on with going on the cruise without him. Wonderful start to your review. Looking forward to reading the rest!

Thanks for your kind words and welcome to the review.

Some more pics of this amazing church.

Oh no a selfie where did that come from :D

Now some pics from the other side, is this the back or the front?

I then had an ice-cream which cost a fortune 6 euro for 1 scoop but I was very hot by then and needed to cool down.

Then after a rest started my walk back to the hotel.

I passed this on the way.

I arrived back at my hotel.

I went to my now favorite spot for a 1euro coffee latte and a snack of chicken wings bbq for only 2euro.

Again sorry for no pics of this. :(

I went back to my room for a shower and got changed for dinner. I walked down one of the roads off Av. Diagonal and found a nice looking restaurant to eat at, again sorry no pics but the steak I had was delicious.

Having been up since 3.45am I decided to call it a night and went to bed.

The next day 30th Sept I woke up at 8.30am which is late for me and went down to breakfast which was included in my hotel package.

Here is the breakfast layout,

Some more pics of breakfast, which was great by the way.

They even had hot items.

So sorry for your loss... Memories never pass and new memories will continue.

Your review is awesome ---> Thank You :)

Great start to your review. Bringing back our cruise from July. Sorry for your loss.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thank you for taking the time to review, and I'm truly sorry for your lose. I'm glad you decided to still go on the Vista and I understand what it means to take that first cruise without someone being there that you had loved dearly. I had always cruised Carnival with my mother, my best friend, since I was very young. Our last cruise together was in 2010, on the Dream. I lost her exactly one year later. She had plans for us to cruise on the Carnival Magic once she was out of the hospital, but that day never came. It was 6 years before I finally booked another Carnival cruise, on the Vista, for this past August.

I understand how difficult it is to prepare, worrying if your cruise will be so filled with reminders, and knowing things will just not be quite the same without our loved one there. I'm glad you pushed on, instead of waiting for years as I did, because even after all that time, I was constantly thinking to myself during my voyage how my mom would have loved this or enjoyed that. This first cruise after losing your partner will definitely have been the hardest. But hopefully you made some new memories, met some great people, and next time, it will be easier. And thank you for being honest about what you were going through.

Thanks for your review, seeing your Barcelona pictures remind of our Vista cruise in June. I'm very sorry about your loss, I hope it was a good trip for you.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums