Willdra's Visual Carnival Vista Oct. 15-22 Review

[Jamman54]

You're killing me Willdra! 😁

[willdra]

I ordered Shrimp Cocktail, Grilled Tilapia, and Roast Leg of Lamb, no dessert. W ordered the Ceviche, Broiled Striploin Steak rare, and WCMC.  It took almost an hour to get the first course. The dining room wasn’t crowded either. We all talked and we learned that not everyone knows where the ship is going and what they’re doing. Those 2 ladies still thought we were going to Montego Bay and Grand Cayman in addition to Cozumel. Errr. That’s old news. We received that info via email from Carnival a month ago. Even if you didn't get that memo, the app tells you where you are going.

 

There have been numerous opportunities to find out where your cruise is actually headed. Numerous. Did she not pay attention to any of them?? I guess not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jamman54]

Hope your tilapia didn't taste "fishy". 🤪

[willdra]

W and I helped them as much as they could be helped over an hour and a half. We were thankful when the food came, so we could eat and go. We didn’t come here to "work", and that's exactly what that was. Whew. 

 

After dinner W wanted to go to the Pandora Store onboard to see if I wanted the cruise ship charm. They had it advertised in the app but it didn’t say how much it was. We also needed to add gift cards to our Sail and Sign.

 

 

 

We went into Pandora and looked around. There was a salesperson who asked if we needed help. I asked how much the charm was, and she said $40. I liked it and it was inexpensive, so I said “Ok I’ll get it”. Right when I said that, another lady came in and I guess she was so excited to see an employee speak Spanish, that she started talking to her, and asking a lot of questions about her job, and her home. Ma’am go and fill out a job application if you’re that interested. Don’t you see her trying to work? We stood there while they were talking, and the salesperson finally asked me “Did you want to get it?” Uh yeah. I told her that I said I wanted it, but the other lady came in talking so she prolly didn’t hear me. She apologized and the other lady left. I wasn’t upset. I know it’s hard to be the only one working in a store trying to please everyone. I also know that it must get lonely in there by herself. I'm sure she welcomed anyone coming in just to talk sometimes.

 

I made my purchase, then we went to load the cards. The kiosk was broken on that Deck, so we went down to Guest Services to add the gift cards. We walked right up, and it was done in about 2 minutes. This meant that we still had tons of time before the next activity. We decided to fill it by going to get a sandwich from the deli (for later. much later) and making my tea. That way we wouldn’t have to do anything after the Deck Party.

 

 

 

[willdra]

5 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

Hope your tilapia didn't taste "fishy". 🤪

 

LOL!! 🤣 I wanted to send mine back because it wasn't fishy enough, but I inhaled it as soon as it came out, thus destroying the evidence. 😆

[willdra]

We hung out in the cabin until it was time to go to the Comedy Club. It started at 10, but I think we went down there at 9:30. The comedian was JR Brow. He was very good. Go see him if you have the opportunity. At 10:27 W and I snuck out of there and went to the Lido. The Mega Deck Party was at 10:30. We had already missed some of the Halloween costume contest when we arrived. There were some very cute, creative, costumes. I don’t even want to know what it took to put some of them together to bring on a cruise. They were all winners to me (my vote doesn’t count). The party officially started after the contest. They did the usual line dances. The Lido was packed solid when we got up there. There only a few tiny spaces left to stand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

I didn’t want to get stuck up there trying to get an elevator when everyone was trying to leave, so we dipped out before it was officially over.

 

Back in the cabin, it was time to get ready for the next day. I was excited to be able to walk off of the ship for a few hours. Roatan is an easy port day for us, and we were looking forward to it.

 

Before I fell asleep, I said a prayer thanking God for vinegar. I don’t know what brilliant individual decided that we needed vinegar in our lives, but may God bless all of their descendants. I would’ve quit after the first whiff of that horrific scent, but they persevered and gave us a liquid that you can use to drink, eat, make pickles, make red velvet cake, make buttermilk, clean stains out of your carpet, clean your makeup brushes, get rid of mildew, clean your shower, and so much more. Just Genius. We are not worthy.

 

 

Side Note: Our cabin steward was doing the absolute most with these towel animals! He gave this one a BBL, and that has to be hard to do! 

 

 

[willdra]

Random Picture Dump

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[emm126]

6 hours ago, willdra said:

LOL😂😂 I only use Concur when I absolutely have to. I leave all of the important stuff to the professionals. 😉

 

We loved Vista and we would go again if given the opportunity. ♥️🛳🛳♥️

 I don't think concur is so bad. Although I don't really book on it- we can call or email to book our business travel, I do my expense reports on concur. What triggered me, was you doing ADP and having to track down an employee for their time! Last month when I was on the Horizon, I emailed 1 person twice and the 2nd email was do you not want to get paid??  I don't get people sometimes. Enjoying your review, you are so funny!

[Ladyfunk25]

12 hours ago, willdra said:

 We stopped by the gym on the way to get some of the white towels. We don’t like sitting on the cushions or the pillows directly. 1. Because ewww, not loving the possibility of parking it in somebody else’s body fluids, and B. the cushions and pillows in Serenity induce sweating. Cringe. So we stop by the gym to get a few extra towels before plopping down somewhere.

 

Oh, this is a great idea about the towels!  I don't like the feeling of those cushions either.  We're going to be in a spa cabin on our April cruise on the Magic - it will be a cinch to grab towels at the gym then head up to serenity!

[richbum]

This is such a great review. Can't wait to read the rest!

[willdra]

Roatan Realness

 

I’d set my mental alarm for 6:50. I woke up at 6:40 and grabbed my phone. My physical alarm was going off at 7. I officially got out of bed at 7:10. Not too bad.

 

Right when I got up, I looked outside to see the deal. I was carefully opening the curtain, cuz the night before they put those "balcony cleaning tomorrow" tags on our door. I didn’t want to give some poor balcony cleaner the worst shock of his life, so I just barely peeped out. The sun was shining, and we were still moving slowly. I could see some land which meant that we were close to the port. W got up about 15 minutes after me.

 

The move was to go to the sit-down breakfast instead of the buffet. We hadn’t done it in a long time, so I wanted to see if it was still good. We also wanted to get off the ship at a decent time, so we could find good seats. I didn’t reserve the covered loungers this time. They’re kinda hot inside. I can be hot for free. No need to pay for discomfort.

 

When W got up, I ascertained that sometime during the night he had been replaced by Grumpy Smurf. Again.  Typically, when Grumpy Smurf arrives, I try to be extra patient. If not, then we would have a real "Ike and Tina in the back of the limo" situation. IYKYK. You can’t hit Grumpy with a bunch of words or questions. Keep it simple. Use 1- or 2-word phrases. Don't make eye contact. Grumpy will go away usually after coffee and food. Just you wait. As soon as Grumpy Smurf is a little less Grumpy tho, I will tell him "Look Grumpy Smurf, if you're gonna keep showing up on our cruise, I need payment for your share of the cruise price". Tuh. 

 

 

[willdra]

GS and I got ready and checked into the restaurant on the app. Again it was a short wait. We went right to our table and I was glad that it was in the middle and not to the back of the dining room where we usually are. I love the décor in this dining room and this was the first time on this trip that I’ve gotten to enjoy it. We got a 4 top too yall! Maybe the table gods listened to my plea. Or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

When our server came by, I ordered the Waffles, Omelet, and Bacon. Grumpy ordered the Smoked Salmon and the Broken Egg Sandwich. GS liked the Salmon. He didn’t like the Broken Egg Sandwich. He said it was dry and the bread was too hard and crusty. He ordered another portion of the Salmon to make up for it. My Omelet was good. The Bacon was a little crispier than I like, it but I still ate it. Cuz Bacon. The Waffles were thick, and not for me. I didn’t eat them after the first bite.

 

When Grumpy got the second order of Salmon, he slowly morphed back to W (prolly cuz it tasted fishy). Thank goodness. I was tired of tiptoeing around that freeloader.         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

Now that W was back, we talked about stuff and finished eating. For some reason I was extra loquacious at breakfast. I had way too many words ta say. Unusual for me in the morning.

 

After we consumed what we could, we took a few pictures then left. We decided that we weren’t missing a thing by going to Lido breakfast. I doubt we would go back to the Dining room unless it’s for brunch. Walking down the hall, we thought our cabin was getting cleaned, but it was the one next door. We knew ours would be next, so grabbed our stuff and rolled out.

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

The exits to go ashore were on Deck 0. We walked all the way forward and caught an elevator to Deck 1. Then we walked down to 0 and dinged off.

 

When we got off of the ship, we walked thru Dufry first. Then we were a little surprised that Carnival had the photographers in front of the "Roatan Mahogany Bay" sign. I don’t think I've ever seen them over there. It was like they said “Oh y’all like this sign? Then you gotta pay for pictures in front of it!”

 

I wanted to go into Del Sol. However, there were ton of bodies in there. We couldn’t figure out why, so we kept it moving. We didn’t have passes to the skyride this time, so we (gasp) walked down to the beach. It’s really not that long of walk. 

 

We kept going straight across the bridge. We had all of the options available to us at that time. It was around 9:20 am, and not that many people were out. We chose 2 loungers with the most shade as possible. I wanted to order a drink next, but I also needed to potty. #Choices. My internal body monitor said potty first. So I did. Listen to your body. It tells you important stuff. I like the potty in the green building behind the cabanas. It’s less crowded and there are fans in there so it’s not so hot. It’s also a nice bathroom (for a beach). 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

W and I settled into the loungers that we picked.  Now it was time for a drink. When we got a server, I ordered a Hurricane in the Huma Huma size.

 

Wooooooo. That’s all I can say about that Hurricane. That’s a drank with a lot of liquor y’all! It was $17 so I just gave the server $20. As I sat there sipping and talking to y’all, W went to snorkel. Before he left, he ordered beer. From 2 different servers by mistake. The first server brought his beer before he left. The other came by after W was gone. He had the nerve to ask me questions about the beer order. Sir I’m discombobulated right now, and I can't be in charge of what everness that is. That Huma Huma Hurricane had me folded up, and I was incapable of all decision making, and everything was hard.  All I could do was dig into W's bag, find his wallet, and pay the guy. Dassit. Put the drinks down now and leave please man. If you have any further questions, please hesitate to ask.

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

We brought a lot of cash this time. We wanted to only use cash here, cuz they take your card with them, then scan it elsewhere when you use a credit card. In my line of work that’s a horrible practice, so we tried to avoid having someone take our card to lord only knows where to (possibly) clone.

 

When I think about it, it’s the perfect scam. They could clone the card, charge it, and since we don’t usually have innanet, we wouldn’t even know until a week later. Nope. Not doing that. Thank God it has never happened, and I want to keep it that way.

 

When W got back, we sat and enjoyed being outside. I remembered to send my POV pictures to my team, cuz last time they thought I was mad at them when I didn’t send any beach pictures. It was so funny when they let me know they didn’t appreciate not getting "My Daily View" pictures. I thought I was sparing them the agony of being at work while I was at the beach, but I was wrong. They wanted to live vicariously thru me. Can't blame 'em. My life is pretty fabulous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

We stayed out until around 2. W wanted to look for another old man hat and some other randomness on the way back. I didn’t need or want anything. Turns out W couldn’t find what he was looking for, so we went back to the ship. We were hungry from being out that long. I think I had a burger from GBJ but I didn’t take a picture so I’m not 100% sure. I also have no idea what W ate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did know that I was exhausted. I’m pretty sure I sleepwalked back to the cabin, and I started my nap somewhere in the hallway. W was tired too cuz he took a nap with me, and he was still sleeping when I woke up. It was around 6:30, so we got ready and went to dinner. This night was called Silent White Night. W and I remembered to pack our white. We were ready and a little excited for it.