letsgo39

On 11/9/2021 at 12:54 PM, mstoltz said:

As I plan our 2 day stay in London for next August, I have a question about the Buckingham Palace changing of the guard.  Most reviews on youtube show huge crowds and recommend arriving hours in advance.  Ugh, not an option.  A couple reviews recommend starting at the remote locations of the new guards and following them to Buckingham Palace and then following the old guards to their barracks.  Also some recommend the Horse Guards.  

 

Any thoughts? I enjoy watching ceremonial guards.

On 11/6/2021 at 11:21 AM, ladysail2 said:

Just in case, plan for a Covid test in case we still need them to embark the ship. Hopefully we won’t, but you never know.

We have 2 days in London before going to Dover. Where would we get our Covid test if they are required? We are fully vaccinated.

If they got back late, they should have stranded them. Waiting for them just rewards and encourages tardiness.

 

DON

Nice! Who put you in charge Get over yourself.:rolleyes:

Our family had 2302,2306 and 2304.No complaints of noise at all.Great location.

Thanks for update. We are booked in 2306...any updates on that ?? Hope I lined up deck plans correct...don't think there is a lifeboat overhead?? Love the cove balconies :)

We were in 2306 on the June 11th cruise and you are correct,no lifeboat over head. Enjoy your cruise.

We had a group of 7 family members most of us are Gold but not all.We were ATD and usually went to dinner about 7 to 7:30. We never had to wait at all and we were always seated at a lovely table with a window where we could see the wake.We also sent someone to deck 5 to check in on the 1st night but were told it was not necessary to do that again.

We were on the June 11th cruise and had ATD. I did not see one tux.I did see sport coats and maxi dresses though although most men just wore long sleeved dress shirt and tie.

I'm currently in 10296 on the Carnival Vista. Great inside stateroom but with one major problem...the IMAX is right under me. Suicide Squad plays at 730 and again at 1030pm until well after midnight. My walls and bed actually move and rattle from the primarily bass sound. You can physically see the walls of the cabin moving in and out. If you are in bed it almost throws you off and onto the floor. Guest services offered me earplugs but don't realize that is not the problem and they have no other rooms available for the next 10 days of my cruise. I am up at 6am every morning for early tours to Rome Naples..etc. I do not care to stay up until 1am every night. IMAX is great theater but it has ruined my cruise on the Vista.

Sorry you are having such a terrible cruise.First the french fries and now the IMAX theatre.Or was it the other way around.? Life is just not fair. Honestly your post about the Imax is the first complaint I have read.We were on the June 11th cruise and everything was great.Hope it gets better.

I absolutely love Guy's burgers and French fries! Have had them on many Carnival cruises and on the 2nd voyage on the Vista in May. I am currently back on the Vista for a 12 night voyage (August) and find the burgers wonderful but the fries almost inedible!! For 4 days now I find the fries fat cut..sort of like steak fries. The oil tastes rancid and they must have run out of the special Guy's seasoning. The burgers are great but throw the fries in the garbage!

WE were on the June 11th Med cruise and loved the fries.They were the same as they were on other cruises and not thick cut.I would love to have a Guy's Burger and fries right now.:D

The Vista was scheduled to dock at the port of Kusadasi today but the port was cancelled. It was replaced by a sea day.Guess that VAT tax will kick in for this cruise.

We had Coves 2306 and 2302 and there were no lifeboats above us.It was exactly the same across from us on Starboard. I believe all the other cabins have lifeboats overhead but it should not be a problem as you will not get a lot of sun anyway. It is very hot in the med so I am fine trying to keep my cabin cool.Way to hot to lay out in the sun.

Our group of 7 had 3 rooms at the Hotel Continental Barcelona prior to our June 11 Vista cruise.It's fun to get rooms with a balcony overlooking Las Ramblas. The hotel has a 24 hour buffet with free wine,soda and beer and ice cream plus food. We stayed here in 2011 and liked it so much we came back.The location is fantastic at the top of Las Ramblas next to Placa Catalunya.All the HoHo buses start at Placa Catalunya.

It's $5.00 a day. We were on the June 11th Cruise.

Our group of 7 recently cruised on the new ship the Carnival Vista on June 11th,2016. We were 2 teenagers,18 and 16,1 25 year old 2 parents,50 something and 2 grandparents in our 70's.Right away you can see it could be a challenge to keep everyone in this group happy but Fabrizio from All Around Italy did it and did a great job.

We had all been to Rome and Livorno(Pisa and Lucca) in the past and I decided it was time to see something else so I contacted Fabrizio the owner of All Around Italy for suggestions.

On June 13th Fabrizio picked us up at 8 am in Livorno and we all piled in to his spotless van for our all day tour.We headed first to San Gimignano a place we had never been and it was absolutely charming.Next we traveled to Florence because only my husband and I had been there previously. We ate lunch in Florence at a pizza place which though not fancy it was fine for our busy day.Fabrizio was right there to pick us up and keep us laughing all the way back to the ship on time of course.

The next day there was Fabrizio again when we exited to ship in Civitavecchia and we were all off to Orvieto. We shopped in this charming hilltop town and had a wonderful lunch at a very nice restaurant that I will never forget.The food was fantastic! My husband and I had Truffle Lasagna and I never in my life had anything so fantastic.yum yum. I wish I could have it now.Everybody was very happy with everything they had for lunch. What a great choice of a restaurant. We left Orvieto and headed to Tarquinia where we toured the Etruscan burial sites and after that we headed to the museum. We stopped for delicious gelato at a place right next to the museum.We headed back to the ship and said a sad goodbye to Fabrizio. We all absolutely loved him. What a great guy.

Fabrizio was able to get us very close to all the attractions which was important to my husband and I with our somewhat limited mobility.He was always there waiting for us at our meeting places.Fabrizio is very knowledgable about Italy history and he was able to keep our whole group amused and engaged for both days.Not a easy task with such a diverse age group.Considering the different ages he sure did a great job.Plus that he is one of the funniest people I have ever met and the rest of our group thought he was too. We ALL laughed a lot in those 2 days.We have traveled to Europe now 16 times and Fabrizio is the best guide we have ever had in all those trips.The tours were 600 euro each day which included a 50 euro discount for booking multiple tours.

Absolutely not true although the food is so bad I can't imagine wanting to order more than one entree.We just got off the Vista and everything was great except for the quality of the food in the MDR.The hamburgers were delish and I wish the hamburger place would be open past 6 PM. This is the opinion of my DH and I.Your opinion might vary. The Vista is a beautiful ship.

We were there last week and had a wonderful tour with Ephesus Shuttle.We used our U.S. money just like we did in 2011.We had a delicious meal at a local non touristy restaurant and our total was only about $68 for 6 people for a wonderful lunch.

Ephesus Shuttle is a great company to use for Kusadasi.I used them a few years ago and just booked them again yesterday for our group of 7.

On FB we have seen daily pictures from people cruising now and John Heald has been posting videos everyday. I feel I know where everything is already.

Absolutely! We have reserved a tour with a private company that I actually feel is safer than a big bus tour.Excited to see Ephesus again and show it to my son and Grandson.

Although, no excursions are currently showing up as of yet.

 

 

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I just reconfirmed our tour with Ephesus Shuttle and the price actually went down for our group of 7 to $385.00.Kusadasi is closer to Ephesus than Izmir is.

:D

Now, I am wondering about our June 11th sailing! This subject has not failed to keep me on my toes, while we count down. Haha

 

 

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Kusadasi is showing on the Carnival web site excursion section as the port on June 19th.

This is not a good situation.

 

Summer cruises not stopping at a non EU port are needlessly taxed at over 20%.

 

We were never told this when booking.

Because Izmir was on the itinerary when you booked.That is the only port that was not EU.

Is Izmir out for July also?

 

 

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They have not made a decision yet on any time after the first 4 cruises.

The problem is this: In order to avoid the VAT tax, the ship has to find a port in a non-EU country. And the only possible non-EU countries (other than Turkey) are in the Adriatic Sea. The May 1 inaugural voyage is the only trip that includes the Adriatic Sea. All of the other Vista sailings do not go north of Malta or Crete. In other words: The non-EU Ports in Montenegro and Albania are too far north to be included on any of the other 17 Mediterranean itineraries. The best that could be done for the other Vista sailings is to substitute a stop at another Greek Island (Mykonos, Santorini, Crete or Malta).

The June 11 sailing does go to Crete and Rhodes.

We only cruise in Europe and the number of men in a Tux is very small.I think everyone should wear whatever they want but you will not be uncomfortable if you decide not to pack a Tux.Most people do some traveling before or after the cruise and luggage space is limited.