Vista 2/25/17 - 3/5/17 - 8 day - GT/SJ/SK/SM

[funinthesun1964]

Returned from an 8 day cruise on Sunday. I have the Fun Times that I will scan in and post here as I had promised I would do for some people. We went to Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Kitts and St. Maarten, and had two sea days at the end of the itinerary.

 

If anyone has any questions, please ask and will try to answer promptly (in between work schedules)

 

 

Brenda

[DukeBDFan4Ever]

Excited to see the Fun Times. Thanks.

 

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[funinthesun1964]

[funinthesun1964]

[funinthesun1964]

[funinthesun1964]

[cruiselover**]

I have a question about your stop in St. Kitts. When you docked, were you near any shops, etc.? I will be on the same itinerary in April and I am interested in hearing where the Carnival Vista docked since some have reported that it is in an industrial area, rather than by the shops and restaurants.

 

I also am wondering about the Platinum gift. If you received one, could you please let me know what you were given?

[funinthesun1964]

I have a question about your stop in St. Kitts. When you docked, were you near any shops, etc.? I will be on the same itinerary in April and I am interested in hearing where the Carnival Vista docked since some have reported that it is in an industrial area, rather than by the shops and restaurants.

 

I also am wondering about the Platinum gift. If you received one, could you please let me know what you were given?

 

In St. Kitts, you are near several shops in the port area. Also, you are close to downtown where there are more shops. We walked around downtown area a little last time and I do not remember exactly what kind of shops there were, but there must have been some. I do not remember St. Kitts being an industrial area at all...and this was my third time there.

 

For the platinum gift, we were given the tervis tumbler with the picture of the ship on it. I can post a picture of it if you would like. We only received one gift, and we are both platinum. So I mentioned it to the steward, who then said he would check on it for us. In a short time, we had another one. We had a great room steward, his name was Alexis and he was from Costa Rica. Seriously, the room steward was one of the best. We took naps a couple of times during the day and we left the cabin, came back and the bed was made again! Wow!!

[the_lovely_voyage]

Thank you so much for these. We're doing this sailing in November but they're only doing it like 3 times between then and now, so I figured it'd be tough to find these!!

 

 

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[mariefisher]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review!

[old crusier]

We were on the same cruise , did you you hear the message about 2:30 am that came in the cabin ? asking for "don't remember her name" girl/woman to contact guest services . With 33 cruises we never had a announcement like that in the cabin

[funinthesun1964]

We were on the same cruise , did you you hear the message about 2:30 am that came in the cabin ? asking for "don't remember her name" girl/woman to contact guest services . With 33 cruises we never had a announcement like that in the cabin

 

 

Yes, they paged someone just before 4 am in the cabins. I slept through the other announcements - but I guess they paged in the hallways 2 or 3 times first.

 

The next morning someone asked at guest services and said that the woman had been found on the ship. I was afraid it was a person overboard situation.

[old crusier]

glad to hear , thanks for the reply

[funinthesun1964]

Sorry for the delay in posting the fun times, but I have been sick - unfortunately, I started to get sick on the ship. It became worse when I came home. I am just so tired and coughing all the time! I will continue on with posting the fun times for the cruise. ;p

[funinthesun1964]

St. Kitts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[funinthesun1964]

St. Maarten

 

[funinthesun1964]

Friday - Sea Day

 

[funinthesun1964]

Saturday - Last day, At Sea

 

[funinthesun1964]

My thoughts on the cruise:

 

We had a great time, in spite of me getting sick. Many other people were also sick, coughing was everywhere. I had a feeling I would be getting sick on this cruise because many illnesses have been circulating here in Ohio and I'm sure in many other parts of the country. Anytime you get this many people together, contagious illnesses spread like wildfire.

 

Speaking of many people - too many people for me. I did not enjoy being around this many people, it did not seem like a cruise to me - more like being at a busy shopping mall or amusement park. Everywhere I went, more people. Much more crowded than the Conquest class ships. The elevators were a problem. You waited and waited for an elevator. It seems when you did get in an elevator, it stopped at every floor. People were impatient and pressed the buttons for all cars. Then just when you thought no one else could fit in, you stopped at another deck and yes, more people crammed in with you! Wow, more than a few times we were really crammed in there. I hated that. A couple of times there were two or more cars out of service also, making the elevators even more crowded.

 

Crew members were generally friendly, there are always a couple who are not. I will say that the staff seems to be cut too thin. I didn't go to the coffee bar at all this trip, but when I passed by there was a line ten or twelve deep. One person making the coffees and these coffees take a while to prepare. In the dining room, we had a three person team, as usual, and they were not the fastest. Dinner was at least one and one half hour. I would give them a "B-".

 

Room steward was great. I mentioned him earlier in the thread. I do believe he only had our row of cabins. We always saw him in the hall. Speaking of cabin, we had a deluxe ocean view on deck 3 forward. Right past the shorex desk, walk past restrooms and in through a door. There you have a row of cabins. It was quiet in the hallway at night. You could hear waves crashing against the front of the ship. This did not bother me. Bed was very comfortable. I loved the fact that we had two bathrooms, I took the one with the tub and used that shower. DH used the main shower. Main cabin was mostly same otherwise. I liked the larger TV and how you could access more info there, as well as view your photos. I missed the lido deck pool area camera, believe it or not!

 

I went to the Seafood Shack on a sea day and ordered the lobster roll(s). I shared with DH. It was $12. I had to wait about 10 minutes. I received a pager and was told to wait inside in order for the pager to work. The food was good, not great though.

 

We also went to the steakhouse on Friday. The service was good and the food was good. Very good. I tried the sea bass there, I normally order the lobster ravioli (I don't like steak). DH did have a strip steak and did enjoy it. As usual, we were stuff after that.

 

We tried the thrill theater. I believe it was $5.99 per person. We chose the "Dare to be Scared". It lasts about 20 minutes. Reminds me of something at Universal Studios. The seats move, special effects, etc. It was just okay. DH and a friend got "seasick" from it. Beware if you are prone to motion sickness!

 

We loved the sky ride. We did this shortly after boarding, and lunch. You will need closed toe shoes. We also did both the water slides, the Twister and the Kaleidoslide. Holy smoke, you really fly on the Twister! The Kaleidoslide was fun, using an intertube.

 

We went to the piano bar for a couple of hours one night., and about 20 minutes for another night. Natalie was entertaining and kept it fun. My favorites have been Ron Pass and Ben, but Natalie was not boring by any means.

 

Loved the Havana bar. Nice band with brass, great vocalist.

 

Red Frog Pub had Andy the musician. He was great, but it did not make me want to stay there for hours. I liked the self-serve beer taps there.

 

In the atrium, there was a trio of violinists. They were very good.

 

Casino - two words - smoky and tight. I am a former smoker but do not like walking in the casino anymore. I did try slots a couple of times, but lost quickly. I played a few nights and gave up, losing less than $200 for the trip. I'm not a huge gambler. I did not play any bingo this trip.

 

Ports - been to them all and enjoyed them all again.

 

Breakfast in the dining room - slow. Twice our table did not receive the bread basket. Once my husband asked for orange juice and never received. Another time we asked for something else and didn't receive (forget what it was though).

 

Oh - I ordered two four packs of beer and a case of water to be delivered to my cabin. We had 6 loose bottles of beer on our desk by dinner the first night. 6 loose bottles. I went to guest services and explained that I ordered two four-packs of bud light, but only received 6 beers. They kind of acted like they doubted me, and asked if it was in a four pack. I said no, just 6 loose beers. He did comp me two drink tickets worth up to $10 each. All i wanted was my beer that I paid for, but that was fine too!

 

We went to one show, Flick. It was pretty good, but I am telling you that that theater is just dumb! The set up is dumb, I mean. Big poles blocking views, chairs crammed together so tightly that the servers can't get down the aisles. Same way with the comedy club lounge, the Limelight. Dumb set-up. I felt sorry for the drink servers! One night we were not offered any drinks and I wanted one, of course! The comedians were fair, I like the one that was one first, Dean Gaines. Jason Blanchard and Jim Brick were fair, Tony Esposito was not that great in my opinion.

 

I don't think I would cruise the Vista or a ship this large again. I enjoy the smaller ships and less crowds! However, we did have a great time, had a fun week and I am looking forward to my two future cruises that I have booked with Carnival.

 

If you have any questions, you can ask. I think I've rambled enough.

 

Brenda

[cruiseprincess23]

Can you tell me if the pools and water park area are fresh or saltwater? Thanks!

[funinthesun1964]

The water park area is fresh water, I accidentally swallowed some water at the end of the slide and it was fresh water for sure. I do believe they use salt water in the pools but I didn't actually use the pools.

[scottsgal]

We were on this cruise also and agree with what you posted. The Liquid Lounge theater is horrible, huge design flaw there. We missed the tall atrium with the elevators. The 3 level atrium made it very crowded every time we went down there. The Promenade and Ocean Plaza at night never seemed very crowded which was nice. We really liked the America Rocks show and saw all the comedians, Jason Blanchard was our favorite. We did all the specialty dining, steak house was excellent as usual and we really enjoyed JiJi's Asian Kitchen.

 

We enjoyed the cruise as you did - there are some things we really liked that are unique, Imax, Thrill Theater, Sky Ride, and Matt Mitcham best CD we've ever sailed with. Things we didn't care for - lobby, Liquid Lounge, ridiculously slow and crowded elevators, Lido deck was way too crowded and 2 pools for that amount of people is not enough, especially if you're not in the Havana area. We booked this cruise a couple weeks before sailing and for less than $500 per person for an 8 night won't complain - it was a great itinerary and glad we tried the Vista.

[Froufie]

Sorry for the delay in posting the fun times, but I have been sick - unfortunately, I started to get sick on the ship. It became worse when I came home. I am just so tired and coughing all the time! I will continue on with posting the fun times for the cruise. ;p

 

HI BRENDA!!! We were getting off the Vista when you were getting on - we just missed each other! (and hubby also got sick on the ship and still coughing 2 weeks later!!!)...hope u feel better soon!

[easyboy]

Thank your for sharing your experience, and the Funtimes.

[funinthesun1964]

HI BRENDA!!! We were getting off the Vista when you were getting on - we just missed each other! (and hubby also got sick on the ship and still coughing 2 weeks later!!!)...hope u feel better soon!

 

Hey Frouf!!! How did you like Vista? Yes, this coughing is driving me crazy! I just feel so tired and hope I am back to normal soon. Hope your hubby gets better soon too!