Carnival Vista July 23rd 2022, from a Carnival Newbie!

[AJSkarbo]

Hey all!

I have been lurking on these boards ever since I finally booked my first Carnival cruise a couple weeks ago. I have been on RCI a couple times and once on HAL, so this will be a fun new experience for me! I will attempt to answer any questions about the ship if I can! I hope to also post many photos along the way. I am not the best photographer but do try to catch lots of memories along the way.

 

About us:

I am mid-30s, moved to Texas about 9 years ago for work and I LOVE it. I am travelling with my boyfriend and his teenage daughter. This is the first cruise for both of them so I am really hoping it goes well and they catch the cruising bug like I did. 

 

Our travel:

I currently live about 7 hour drive from the Galveston cruise port. That is much to far to drive morning of for me so we are staying tonight at the Courtyard Marriott in Galveston. My dad lives in Tomball so we made a full day of the drive and went to see him for dinner. Thankfully, that means we missed most of the traffic! I love the hotel, the room is very comfortable and the staff has been very friendly. They even have complimentary smores kits for the fire! The teen loves smores but we both wish we would have brought our own crackers and bought cheap walmart skewers, the ones they provided were too short. We have a 10am check in time but since its almost impossible to get some teens out of bed in the morning I am mentally telling myself to be flexible! We reserved Galveston Park and Cruise as it is right across the street from the terminal and I have heard it is very easy to get to when disembarking. 

 

 

[Joe817]

Wow! What a great start! I love it! I hope you enjoy the Vista as much as we did. We cruised on her on a 7 day back last Aug.-Sept. What ports did you stop at? We stopped at Mahogany Bay,  Roatan, Belize City and Cozumel. We had a great time. Hope you all did too! 

 

Your pics look great! Thanks for sharing! 👍Can't wait to hear more about your trip. If you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them if I can. 

[WioK]

The hotel looks like a lot of fun !   We are on the Vista on Aug.20th to Montego Bay, Grand Cayman & Cozumel, would love to hear about any excursion you try as we will be on with 2 Teens , especially in Montego Bay.    Also when is the 1st Formal night in MDR - is it your 2nd or 3rd day ?   Hope you have an amazing cruise and your travelling companions catch the cruising bug !   looking forward to the rest of your review !!

[Rudyard]

Welcome to Carnival and a very belated welcome to Texas! Looking forward to your thoughts on Vista. I'll be on her for the first time in December. 

[princess76021]

14 hours ago, AJSkarbo said:

Hey all!

I have been lurking on these boards ever since I finally booked my first Carnival cruise a couple weeks ago. I have been on RCI a couple times and once on HAL, so this will be a fun new experience for me! I will attempt to answer any questions about the ship if I can! I hope to also post many photos along the way. I am not the best photographer but do try to catch lots of memories along the way.

 

About us:

I am mid-30s, moved to Texas about 9 years ago for work and I LOVE it. I am travelling with my boyfriend and his teenage daughter. This is the first cruise for both of them so I am really hoping it goes well and they catch the cruising bug like I did. 

 

Our travel:

I currently live about 7 hour drive from the Galveston cruise port. That is much to far to drive morning of for me so we are staying tonight at the Courtyard Marriott in Galveston. My dad lives in Tomball so we made a full day of the drive and went to see him for dinner. Thankfully, that means we missed most of the traffic! I love the hotel, the room is very comfortable and the staff has been very friendly. They even have complimentary smores kits for the fire! The teen loves smores but we both wish we would have brought our own crackers and bought cheap walmart skewers, the ones they provided were too short. We have a 10am check in time but since its almost impossible to get some teens out of bed in the morning I am mentally telling myself to be flexible! We reserved Galveston Park and Cruise as it is right across the street from the terminal and I have heard it is very easy to get to when disembarking. 

 

 

Thank you for doing this! We have a trip coming up on her in a couple of months! Can't wait!!

[AJSkarbo]

Good morning from the Vista! 

Yesterday was busy so I didn't have time to post. We had a 10am arrival time at the port but didn't end up getting there until about 1030 due to traffic. We stopped at the terminal and the porters were ready to get luggage out so we passed off our check bags and went hunting for our parking garage. It was a little tough to find but since we were driving our Chevy 3500 pick up, they had a special spot for us right in the corner and even used a golf cart to drop us right across the street from the terminal. 

We did use Verifly, and it made the first check in spot very easy. Barely waited in any lines until security. And even security only took about 5 minutes. I showed our 2 bottles of carry on wine and off we were to the check in desk. 

 

Again, there was a line but we were only in it for a few minutes before I was showing my passport and my traveling companions' birth certificates and we were off to the gangway!

 

First stop was ice cream for the teen. She thought getting ice cream any time of day was the best thing ever. They grabbed some buffet food and I had to partake in a fun ship!

 

I thought she was going to want to hop right on the water slides, but instead she was all about the sky ride. So I grabbed a pizza while they went to try it since I didn't board with closed toed shoes.

Our rooms were ready right at 130 and our bags were already stacked right next to the door. We went ahead and unpacked and decorated the wall next to our door since our magnets didn't work right. 

As you can see we have done a little bit of traveling together in the last couple years. Once I had my shoes we went back up to the sky ride so i could try it out. Walked around a bit and watched the sail away party.

Then back to the room to recharge phones! We caught the golden hour on pur forward balcony!

We started getting hungry so we headed to the lido for a snack, which wasn't the smartest idea since we have late dining at 815 but we still enjoyed it. I meant to get pics of showtime but was having too much fun enjoying the show. Ended dinner with the famous melting cake! The teen requested extra ice cream and rated the MDR ice cream better than the lido. We plan to try cherry on top next for a full comparison. 

 

After dinner was the welcome aboard show. I have to say, Savannah is very sweet and funny! We enjoyed her part of the show!

 

After the show, the teen wanted a chance to win a squishmellow in the arcade. Arcades are one of our family activities so we spent some time and money there. 

And after that we were spent! Back to the room for some wine for me and relax time. Today is a sea day and I am waiting for the morning show while my companions are resting. We plan to hit the sea day brunch and hopefully get some water slide time in!

[AJSkarbo]

19 hours ago, WioK said:

The hotel looks like a lot of fun !   We are on the Vista on Aug.20th to Montego Bay, Grand Cayman & Cozumel, would love to hear about any excursion you try as we will be on with 2 Teens , especially in Montego Bay.    Also when is the 1st Formal night in MDR - is it your 2nd or 3rd day ?   Hope you have an amazing cruise and your travelling companions catch the cruising bug !   looking forward to the rest of your review !!

We have a carnival excursion purchased, River tubing. I will be sure to post how it goes! 

[AJSkarbo]

Good morning from Sea Day Brunch! The internet is painstakingly slow today so I may just get started and finish up later on today. 

Yesterday was very much a "do as little as you want" cruise day. 

I woke earlier than my travel companions so I headed to the morning wave show. It was ok, but not something I would choose to do again over something else. 

 

By the time that was over everyone was awake and ready for breakfast so I made our reservation for the sea day brunch. I highly recommend the birthday bellini. It was sweet and delicious.  I had 2! No pics of breakfast cause I forgot, but I has the 12 hour French toast and it was great! My boyfriend had the steak and eggs and it was actually a very good cut of steak. 

 

After breakfast we went to general knowledge trivia. Didn't win the ship on the stick but Amin was hilarious and we had a good time. 

 

Then we headed out to the deck, relaxed on a couple loungers we found and spent some time on the sports court playing Foosball, mini golf, and corn hole. We have been trying to catch the basketball court not as full but haven't had any luck yet. We also watched the ice sculpting. 

 

I had a guy burger for lunch, i can't compare the fries to "before" since this is my first time on Carnival but they weren't the worst I've had. 

 

I signed up the teen for the build a bear at sea and she had a blast. For those of you wanting to do it with your kids, plan on spending about $50 for a bear and outfit. I was happy spending it as she had a blast and even brought him to dinner!

[Rudyard]

9 hours ago, AJSkarbo said:

I woke earlier than my travel companions so I headed to the morning wave show. It was ok, but not something I would choose to do again over something else. 

This is one of those activities where the CD can make it so much better. My last two cruises we had Cookie as our CD and his morning show was hilarious. Of the ten total days of those cruises I think we went to his show seven or eight times. My other Carnival cruises I went to the show on the first sea day and that was it. 

[KmomChicago]

I like the Wave show as well. Kyndall was always fun.

[kelkel2]

19 hours ago, AJSkarbo said:

Good morning from Sea Day Brunch! The internet is painstakingly slow today so I may just get started and finish up later on today. 

Yesterday was very much a "do as little as you want" cruise day. 

I woke earlier than my travel companions so I headed to the morning wave show. It was ok, but not something I would choose to do again over something else. 

 

By the time that was over everyone was awake and ready for breakfast so I made our reservation for the sea day brunch. I highly recommend the birthday bellini. It was sweet and delicious.  I had 2! No pics of breakfast cause I forgot, but I has the 12 hour French toast and it was great! My boyfriend had the steak and eggs and it was actually a very good cut of steak. 

 

After breakfast we went to general knowledge trivia. Didn't win the ship on the stick but Amin was hilarious and we had a good time. 

 

Then we headed out to the deck, relaxed on a couple loungers we found and spent some time on the sports court playing Foosball, mini golf, and corn hole. We have been trying to catch the basketball court not as full but haven't had any luck yet. We also watched the ice sculpting. 

 

I had a guy burger for lunch, i can't compare the fries to "before" since this is my first time on Carnival but they weren't the worst I've had. 

 

I signed up the teen for the build a bear at sea and she had a blast. For those of you wanting to do it with your kids, plan on spending about $50 for a bear and outfit. I was happy spending it as she had a blast and even brought him to dinner!

How does build a bear sign up work? I’d like to do it with my kids. Is it in the app?

[AJSkarbo]

On 7/26/2022 at 5:54 AM, kelkel2 said:

How does build a bear sign up work? I’d like to do it with my kids. Is it in the app?

Yes! You make the reservation in the app then once you get there they pick out the bear and accessories and you pay then. Looks like it's on both sea days for us. 

[AJSkarbo]

On 7/25/2022 at 8:16 PM, Rudyard said:

This is one of those activities where the CD can make it so much better. My last two cruises we had Cookie as our CD and his morning show was hilarious. Of the ten total days of those cruises I think we went to his show seven or eight times. My other Carnival cruises I went to the show on the first sea day and that was it. 

Good to know, I like Savannah as CD but it wasn't very well attended so that might be why, not much energy to feed off of. 

[AJSkarbo]

Internet is working better again and I have time to catch up as we are still cruising into Cozumel this morning. 

After build a bear it was time to start getting ready for fancy night.  We got ready then made our way to the show Flick. We enjoyed it, but had to leave early as we had late dining. We decided for the rest of the trip we would rather rush through dinner and go to the late show rather than leave the show early. 

Then we enjoyed the Dive in Movie of Dune. I hadn't seen it before. It was ok, but the popcorn was NOT. First and last time I ever pay for it. 

 

[Rudyard]

11 hours ago, AJSkarbo said:

but the popcorn was NOT. First and last time I ever pay for it. 

It wasn't even worth it when it was free. We usually bring various snacks from Buc-ee's to eat when we're watching the movies.