Vista Photo Review: November 2017, 8-Day

[the_lovely_voyage]

Using (Ctrl and + ) should help zoom in the photos. They're also a little bit larger on my blog: http://thelovelyvoyage.blogspot.com/2018/01/carnival-vista-fun-times-monday-and.html

 

Fun Times for Monday, 11/6/17- Sea Day:

Fun Times for Tuesday, 11/7/17- Aruba:

Edited January 14, 2018 by the_lovely_voyage

[the_lovely_voyage]

Wednesday, November 8th, Bonaire!

We started the day with room service breakfast on the balcony, complete with very prompt delivery service at 6:58am for a 7-7:30 window. I literally rolled out of bed, hair looking super attractive, grabbed a buck and opened the door. I'm sure the wonderful room service staff enjoyed my freshly woken look! We prepped our food and headed out to the balcony. The ocean colors that exist in the Caribbean are just so beautiful; maybe retirement (in 40 years) will allow me to live on a cruise ship for longer than seven days every 9-12 months. *fingers crossed!*

 

This military ship was floating outside our balcony this morning:

Remember that $50 spa credit WE got from our room steward? My husband was very giving (one of his best qualities) and said that I should book a massage, even though we’d still end up paying like $70 on top of the free money. I went to the spa for my 8am Swedish Massage and was in the massage room by 8:10. I really like the view they have in these rooms, but they’re pretty pointless for me as my face is only staring at the floor or ceiling for a majority of the time. My massage therapist was very nice and friendly, but not the most graceful, so the massage was a little jarring at times. Overall it was a very nice time to relax. I was back to our cabin at 9:15am and we packed up and headed off the ship around 9:30.

Very nice window in the massage room:

Here was the first of three photographed Dreamscapes!:

One of the first things I saw getting off the Vista. Good morning BEAUTIFUL waters!

 

There's our ride!

[the_lovely_voyage]

Today’s journey would take us to Plaza Beach Resort Bonaire per a recommendation from Cruise Critic reviews. We decided we would walk to the resort from the port, which was pretty okay despite the heat and sun as well as some confusion early on. Here’s a highlighted route of how we got there if it can help others:

Walk south from the ship on a paved path along the water. Go as far south as you can before running into Divi Flamingo Beach, what I have marked as a black rectangle. You might have to backtrack a few steps to make the original left turn to the main road. Turn right when you hit the main road and continue south of the sidewalk until walking right into Plaza Beach Resort's metal entrance gate. It's about a 15 minute walk, 0.8 miles. It was very warm on our walk but it wasn't too bad of a hike, and there's a sidewalk the whole way.

Maybe I should come to expect photos like this from my husband:

 

Once we got to the property, we headed through the entry gate and down to the right to the activities building. We bought all inclusive day passes (which ended up be half day passes…more on that later) for $70pp and had access to the pool and beach, loungers and beds, and food and drinks. We had no problem ever finding a spot to sit and the views were INCREDIBLE! I would definitely come back here if I return to Bonaire and would recommend the Plaza Beach Resort as a day trip for other cruisers. We had a pretty lazy day on the beach and loved every second of it. We made sure we were under trees and a palapa but somehow still ended up with pretty intense sunburns. Whoops. The pass included any drinks from the bar, and we had access to a buffet from 12-2pm, I believe. We never used the pool area but I took a few pictures to highlight how nice it was. The bathrooms were a little ways away from the beach and somewhat complicated to find the first time. I had read that people have had to pay $1 to use the bathroom, but we went multiple times between us and never were asked to pay anything, so I can’t really provide clarity on that situation. We also took time to take our Hawkeye Flag picture, unfortunately in selfie-form.

View from our first seating area:

 

View of the Vista from the buffet area:

 

Seriously not edited, the water is just this amazing:

GO HAWKS!

[the_lovely_voyage]

At one point during the day, I observed something flopping in the water near the beach so I walked

over and noticed two parrot fish near the rocks. I don’t think I had ever seen parrot fish in person before and only knew what they were due to another Cruise Critic reviewer's posts (Thanks Mitsugirly!). Super cool! There were also several small yellow crabs crawling around in the sand, so I would issue a note of caution when walking around. Luckily they seemed pretty hesitant of people and would rocket underneath the sand when people approached. Later in the afternoon I went to the bar and was informed that because I only had the half-day pass, my bar service ended at 3pm, but she would give us one more round since we didn’t know about that. Turns out I bought the All Inclusive day pass that is only good from 10a-3pm. Plaza Beach Resort also offers a Full A-I pass that is valid from 10a-9pm for $99 per person. I don’t think I’d pay more money to have an all day pass since that would mean returning to the ship when it’s dark out, but it could be worth it to others. I would say the liquor pours were very generous and I feel like we got our money's worth for 70pp.

 

Yet another view of the beach. As you can see, it's pretty rocky at the shore, but this pier makes swimming/snorkeling easily accessible:

 

Pool Area:

We laid on the loungers until 3:30pm local time and walked back to the port area. Unfortunately the Kralendjik port area was nothing like yesterday in Aruba and only had a few shops to go into, which was very disappointing. We found our souvenir and got back on the ship to cool down in the cabin with some more Netflix. Aside from the sun being very hot, our day in Bonaire was so fantastic and beautiful. On day five I already knew this was the best cruise I’ve ever been on!

 

Another Dreamscape, this was was awesome:

After resting for a bit, we made our way to the pub around 5pm for beer and games before getting hungry for dinner around 5:30. We wanted to try out Bonsai sushi, and we sat at the sushi bar to watch the sushi artists at work. The food was very tasty and we would suggest trying it out. I had the shrimp tempura roll (omg yum) for $7 and my husband had the spicy tuna roll for $5, which he confirmed was “very spicy but excellently made." We also split a serving of edamame that was plentiful for only $2, and the teriyaki steak small plate ($8) that was perfectly cooked and so full of flavor. Although it's kind of a bummer to pay for extra food on a ship full of "free" food, we really enjoyed Bonsai and will definitely consider eating there again. I think the price was really comparable to Iowa sushi prices, so that wasn't a problem.

 

Sitting at the sushi bar:

We returned to the pub at 6:30 for more games and drinks, played trivia in there at 7:30, and then walked around the ship to take more photos, because why not? We made our way into the piano bar at 9pm, where we had a fun yet interesting experience. The pianist was fairly talented at both playing and singing, and clearly had a large fan base of mostly ladies crowded around the piano. People were singing along and having a great time, as were we. My only complaint is this very uncomfortable rule that the pianist had: clap and cheer when people enter the bar, and boo at people as they leave, even if he’s playing and singing. This was awkward, and pretty rude and disruptive to make noise at people while the pianist was performing, even though it was his rule. We stayed for 30-45 minutes before wanting to check out something else, and despite our best efforts to sneak out, we still got booed at. Maybe I’m being too sensitive about it but why shame people? Blah. I think we went back to the room after our long day in the sun to get ready for Curacao.

 

Third Dreamscape for the day:

UP NEXT: Wednesday, Curacao

[PurdueChefAmber]

Great review! How did you watch Netflix?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[the_lovely_voyage]

Great review! How did you watch Netflix?

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I appreciate that!

I had downloaded probably 10 hour-long episodes of a few of our favorite shows on the day before the trip, so we were able to watch those since they were saved to my iPad

[didugger]

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.

Hi!! We are doing a B2B on the vista 1-21 and 1-28. Hope to see you!

Fred and Diana Dugger

[the_lovely_voyage]

Thursday, November 9th, Curacao

 

What better way to wake up on my birthday than being on a cruise ship that’s pulling into Curacao?! Sure beats the 2015 birthday that was embarkation day, although that was also pretty cool. We started the day with Blue Iguana breakfast (we like that we’re consistent, albeit sometimes boring) and check our folio charges on the Carnival Hub app. Quick plug, get the app! The app itself is free and lets you look at deck plans, Fun Times, food and bar times, and your account charges. You can buy a one-time $5 charge to use the messaging part of the app, that allows you to message other Hub users, as long as that person pays the $5 charge as well. I’ve used the Hub app on both cruises in 2017 and really enjoy it. While checking the app, I noticed that we had two drink charges from the previous day that were certainly not ours. One was a drink at like 2am when we were sleeping, and the other was at a bar when we weren’t in there. I’m not sure how that happens, but I’m glad we checked it. We headed to guest services and the woman said she’d temporarily remove them and email the two bars to check if these were valid charges or accidents, and if they said they were accidents, the charges would stay off the account. I thanked her for her help, but really, how would a bartender remember if he saw me at a bar 18 hours ago or not?

 

After guest services, we walked over to the Reflections restaurant to meet for our shore excursion, Discover Curacao Island Tour from 8:30-12. I think the Vista docked early so people were let off at 8 instead of 8:15, which is cool except for our shore excursion was supposed to meet at 8:10 in the MDR, so when we got there we were ushered outside. We had to stand outside on the pier while waiting for our group to gather and leave instead of inside, which was a little inconvenient. We walked to the bus at 8:30 and met our tour guide (John Paul) and our bus driver (Tony). John Paul was very knowledgeable and shared a lot of good info with us (no I haven't fact checked it but I'm going to trust it's true):

 

-Curacao is 70 miles away from Venezuela & Colombia.

 

-Curacao is Dutch, is 38 miles long, and holds 150k people from 139 different countries.

 

-6 months of the year sees an average of 122 inches of rain, then the other 6 sees only 12 inches. Wow!

 

-Children born in Curacao learn four languages by the age of 12 (including English, Dutch, and Spanish). [side note, I wish that more American elementary schools taught languages, instead of waiting until middle/high school. Scientific proof says that kids learn a second language better than older children/adults.]

 

Our first stop was the museum and it was cool to see the immense amount of mahogany that was used to build homes and furnishings, but I didn’t get too much out of the stop. We took a detour to the salt flats to see super pink flamingoes hanging out in large groups. The homes across the country were so colorful, just as the downtown area of Willemstad is, and I started dreaming of what tropical color I would paint our house in Iowa 😉. During the drive we were warned about these manzanilla fruit trees, that are basically super poisonous apples. So dangerous to the point that you can’t even touch them. So of course, that scary news really just terrified me; what happens if one falls on me?! Thankfully I never found out. Heads up if you ever get the chance to visit Curacao, though.

 

The Curacao Museum

 

That's our tour guide, John Paul, who provided a tour of the museum. This is an awesome piece of glass artwork with a map of the Caribbean.

 

The flamingo drive-by we participated in (only shooting photos, of course). You can see a whole lot more in the distance.

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by the_lovely_voyage

[the_lovely_voyage]

Our next stop was Hato Caves, above-ground caves that are reportedly very warm and full of bats. I was very hesitant about the bats but I can proudly say that I survived and the bats weren’t anything like I imagined. They stayed on the ceiling of the cave and didn’t fly around us or swarm the invaders of their caves. I may have gotten pooped on, which was a little gross, but maybe it’s good luck just like a bird’s is? We couldn’t take pictures in the caves except for one room where we were told to snap away, so we did just that. We proudly represented the Iowa Hawkeyes yet again! The caves were so hot, so our sweaty goodness was captured in the photo as well. There are very large fans throughout the caves, but it didn’t do much to cool things down. Overall, we had a great time exploring these historically important caves. Our tour guide was funny, friendly, and full of information, and that all added to the experience.

 

Entrance to the cave property:

 

 

We're definitely glistening with dew in the warm caves, but had to show off our Hawkeye pride down in Curacao!

 

 

After a quick bathroom and refreshment break, we all loaded back on to the air-conditioned bus (ahhh, relief) and drove over to the Landhuis Chobolobo Curacao liqueur factory. WooHoo! When we arrived at the Curacao factory, it was instantly clear that the operations of the drink are very small. Very, very small. So small that our tour guide gave us a tour of the process of where Curacao began and found its inspiration, all the way through the bottling process. I'll be honest, it's not like any brewery or distillery factory I've ever been to, and I wish it was more in-depth and interactive. At the end of the tour, there was a worker at the factory/shop preparing little shots of three different flavors- tamarind, orange-colored Curacao, and coffee. Tamarind is a flavor I've heard of through Food Network shows but I don't think have ever tasted. I can now say I have- and it's awesome! That was easily our favorite of the three.

 

We elected to buy two mixed drinks, the Tamarind Mule (tequila, tamarind Curacao, ginger ale, lime) and the Red Devil (orange juice, pineapple juice, rum, and red Curacao). Both of the drinks were $8 each, and they were strong and delicious and wow, I'll take another right now please! When we first arrived at Chobolobo, we were told that we wouldn't have a lot of time there, so unfortunately we didn't really have a chance to sit down and enjoy the drinks in the sun. After getting the drinks and taking a selfie, we headed into the gift shop to do a little shopping. Fun Fact: Curacao liqueurs are pretty hard to get in the USA, aside from the classic Blue option. I didn't know that while we were shopping, and if I had, I would've bought more than we did! We bought a medium-sized bottle of the Tamarind flavor (we're hooked!) and a little gift pack of a few other flavors. We checked out and headed back onto the bus so we weren't left behind, and took our time finishing our drinks there.

 

Chobolobo Curacao Factory

 

Bottling process:

 

Drink menu of the tasty bevs they were creating at the outside bar:

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by the_lovely_voyage

[the_lovely_voyage]

Happy Birthday (and painful sunburns) to me!

 

Once back on the bus, we had the option to be dropped in downtown Willemstad for shopping, or at the Vista port area. We had planned to shop and get ourselves back to the ship, so we opted for Willemstad. We were dropped off at 12:25 ship time, so the tour was extended by 25 minutes and that was totally fine with us! After being dropped off and walking across the floating bridge, we made our way to Cafe Plein and ate outside. The seating area felt very Parisian and I very much enjoyed it. My husband likes to go around saying it was Parisian, even though he's never been to Paris and is clearly just trusting my judgement. We took pictures with the big Curacao sign, which is so cool! The food at the restaurant was incredible and came in very large portion. I had the Croque Madam and had no clue what to expect but very much enjoyed it. Be aware that if you go, the water comes from bottles and you have to pay for it, unlike virtually everywhere in the U.S.

 

I spy those famous colorful buildings! (and the Holland Zuiderdam):

 

 

The famous floating bridge:

 

We're so tiny, hopefully you can spy that Hawkeye flag!

 

 

Sitting at Cafe Plein with a nice view

 

UP NEXT: Curacao, continued

Edited January 15, 2018 by the_lovely_voyage

[the_lovely_voyage]

Curacao, continued:

We did a little shopping while walking back in the "Broadway of Curacao," the main shopping strip full of luxury brands and tourist souvenir shops. We grabbed our little trinkets and gifts and kept walking towards the floating bridge and beautifully colored buildings. We took many photos of the very classic street of buildings and took time to look around and take in the colors and scenery. These colored buildings and the atmosphere of Curacao are the main reasons the my husband says today was his favorite port stop of the trip. I'll agree, it was simply wonderful to experience, on my birthday no less, and I would jump at the chance to go back.

My handsome husband in beautiful Curacao!

It was so sunny, my eyeballs couldn't make an appearance:

SO PRETTY. Can't believe we actually made it here. My husband grew up with artwork of these buildings in his house, so very cool he got to see it in person. Curacao was his favorite stop because of the colors, culture, and atmosphere.

 

The amazing Vista

After returning to the ship and getting into our cabin, we saw that our assistant room steward decorated the mirror to wish me a great day. I was very surprised and delighted at this simple gesture, and it added to my day's celebrations. We also received a birthday cake towel creation that I totally loved. My husband and I enjoyed some more of the honeymoon cake we received on Saturday (is 5 days in the "fridge" safe? Who knows, maybe we just got lucky) and hung out on the balcony for a bit. The spa was our next stop and it was pretty empty since all-aboard had just occurred. We took time to unwind from a busy day and enjoy our pass. We didn't spend long there as we had a 5:30 reservation at Cucina del Capitano for my birthday (I love pasta), so we made our way back to the room to change.

 

Quick snap from the waiting room in the spa area.

A little video composition of downtown Willemstad and our tour guide play the 47-bell Carillon at the Curacao Museum:

F386y1vCIxE

[the_lovely_voyage]

We found ourselves in the corner of an empty restaurant at 5:30pm. Turns out we must eat dinner way earlier than most other people, because it took quite a while for the room to gather a crowd. The service we had there was fantastic and professional, and the food was phenomenal. It was VERY much worth the $15 per person, check it out! We split two appetizers, the calamari that was delicious and the burrata that was pretty good, and the tomatoes on the plate were sweet and tasty. The Captain's Favorite Insalata was very good but slightly overdressed, per my husband's comment. My husband had the pappardelle for his main course and it got completely demolished, haha. He couldn't get enough and definitely walked away stuffed, I had the Linguine Alfredo with Shrimp and it was SO amazing and rich and I would absolutely order that again. I opted not to get a side, but husband has the roasted broccoli and liked it.

 

 

Calamari and the burrata

 

Salad:

 

My husband's pappardelle and roasted broccoli

 

 

For dessert, as if we needed any more food, we had the lemon sorbet and polenta cake with mixed feelings. The sorbet was great but the cake was just alright. We also had the apple dessert that was "pretty alright." My husband also ordered the espresso corretto with sambuca, something which we had no clue what it was but sounded interesting to try. Now we know why we aren't familiar with sambuca- it's black licorice flavored liqueur, something we absolutely despise. We split the drink and virtually chugged it because we paid for it and didn't want to waste it, but we knew it was something we'd never order again. As a whole, our first ever experience at Cucina del Capitano was amazing and I would totally go back in the future. If you're looking for a fancy dinner without paying an outrageous fee, I strongly suggest Cucina!

 

Lemon polenta cake and lemon sorbet:

 

Apple dessert with caramel ice cream

[the_lovely_voyage]

After dinner we walked around the ship and took photos at the different backdrops. Kudos to my husband for putting up with it! We went to the the comedic performance of Derrick Eason at 8pm, of course showing up around 7:35 to make sure we had a seat. He was pretty hilarious and I think my obnoxious laughter even came out for this show, so you know it was good. There might have even been knee-slapping. I wish I was kidding, but he was so good. Once I was done laughing so hard I was crying, we went over to the Red Frog Pub, played card games, and listened to Tom Hanson play guitar for 2+ hours, while drinking fishbowls, of course. Tom kept us very entertained and even took my husband's request for "any Florida Georgia Line song for my wife's birthday." He performed "Cruise" (heh, fitting) and did pretty well. It definitely added another layer of special to the entire day! After many rounds of cards and polishing off the fishbowls, we headed back to the cabin for the night.

The empty glass of pride!

 

Shoutout again to my husband taking so many photos with me!

 

Still amazed by the Dreamscape

 

UP NEXT: Friday, Sea Day

Edited January 15, 2018 by the_lovely_voyage

[thesmiths]

Thanks again, great review! Love the Pics!

Did you find any out of the way seating outside where we could bring our lunch and hang out to eat?

[the_lovely_voyage]

Thanks again, great review! Love the Pics!

Did you find any out of the way seating outside where we could bring our lunch and hang out to eat?

 

Thanks so much for the kind words! So glad you're following along.

Hmm, that's a really good question. There is definitely seating on the 5th deck lanai near the ocean plaza and near the outside Guys Seaside BBQ. I don't know if it qualifies as "out of the way" but there's definitely multiple tables for eating.Outdoor space near the Blue Iguana Cantina on the Lido deck was pretty plentiful too, I think we were able to find a table every morning to eat our burrito/huevos rancheros. There may have been tables near the aft Tides pool but we unfortunately never made it there.

[the_lovely_voyage]

Hey everyone, many apologies for the delay in finishing up this review but I super appreciate anyone still reading along! I love writing these reviews and sharing my pictures and experiences with all of you, but I work in the education system and winter break is over so it's back to the grind making that money (solely to cruise more, of course). I'm hoping to finish this up super soon!

[the_lovely_voyage]

Here's the link to my blog for larger versions of Wednesday (Bonaire) and Thursday (Curacao) Fun Times!

http://thelovelyvoyage.blogspot.com/2018/01/carnival-vista-fun-times-wednesday-and.html

 

Use Ctrl and + to zoom in to read them more clearly, if necessary.

 

Wednesday, November 8th, Bonaire: FUN TIMES!

 

 

Thursday, November 9th, Curacao: FUN TIMES!

 

[the_lovely_voyage]

Link to the Friday and Saturday Fun Times:

http://thelovelyvoyage.blogspot.com/2018/01/carnival-vista-fun-times-friday-and.html

Use Ctrl + on here to zoom in if necessary.

 

Friday, November 10th, Sea Day Fun Times!

Saturday, November 11th, Sea Day Fun Times!

 

[thesmiths]

I must say, I think you have a problem.

 

Looking at the fun times and everything you highlighted is just about drink related....:)

Cheers!!

 

Still enjoying!

[AdG15]

Really enjoying your review, thank you!

[thesmiths]

What happened, only do half a cruise :-) .

 

Hope all is well!

[Trinam2]

Thanks for the awesome review.

[the_lovely_voyage]

What happened, only do half a cruise :-) .

 

Hope all is well!

 

6 days down, 3 to go.

Work has been very busy and I have regretfully not had time to post the rest of the review. It is coming.

[Hoot51]

Anxiously awaiting for your next post! Loving your review so far :)

[Dev123]

Following :)