the_lovely_voyage

We walked up to the Serenity and got in line for the salad bar, Fresh Creations. The line stood still for a good 5 minutes while workers were bringing up clean bowls from wherever they go to be washed. Not the best design if they’re going all the way to the galley to be washed and then need to be brought back up to deck 15. It was VERY windy outside and not conducive to building a salad in open air. The lettuce and spinach were covered by plastic lids and really hard to get to with tongs, and some of the salad toppings were also flying around. Trying to hold onto your plate while serving flying food was not a pleasant time. We decided that eating outside was not a possibility so we went down to the Pub & Brewery to eat lunch and buy our very first fishbowl. What an experience that was! Also very surprising how quickly you make friends while sipping a fishbowl, as several people approached us to ask what we were drinking or how to get one. So fun!

I promise I shared some of it with my husband!

Our next agenda item was Big Bang Theory trivia in the Ocean Plaza, which was fun and jam-packed full of BBT lovers. Unfortunately we did not win, because we’re apparently not die-hards like some other people, even though we’ve seen every single episode. Boo. At some point we made our way back to the room where we discovered our super sweet gift from John Heald, the senior cruise director and brand ambassador for Carnival. Fun Tip: if you write on his FB wall about 2-3 days before your cruise, with your name, room number, and occasion you’re celebrating, he will try to send you a little gift to your room. A please or thank you won’t hurt the cause either! I had my husband write on JH’s wall for my birthday/our honeymoon, and I am so happy that he took the time to send a little gift. AND WE GOT A SHIP ON A STICK! The trivia wouldn't prove very fruitful this cruise, but I'm so glad we still walked away with a "24K gold ship on a stick."

We tried our hand at sports trivia before heading to the Horizons MDR for our first dining room experience of the cruise. Overall it was pretty tasty and we definitely left very full. We had Your Time Dining, so we showed up at the check-in on Deck 5 right next to the Java Blue/Shake Spot venue and were given a ticket to head down to Deck 3 for the MDR. There was maybe one person ahead of us in line, and I don’t think we ever waited more than 5 minutes between getting to the check-in line and getting to the doors of the MDR to be seated immediately. It seems like a pretty good system to me, because there’s no lines outside the MDR. My husband had the braised ox tongue that “melts in your mouth” (that’s a direct quote, ladies and gents). He also was so excited about trying the Indian entree because I had told him many people have positive things to say about it, and he is officially now one of those people. He said it was delicious and he’s looking forward to getting it again. I had the peach soup and loved it, but wasn’t a huge fan of my BBQ spareribs as they were just alright and not noteworthy (yet here I go making a note...). We split a s’more parfait and OH WOW I wish I got two and I wish we had even more than that. It was incredible. My husband had the double roasted pineapple and that had amazing flavor as well.

Horizons Bar

A blurry picture of the Indian food:

We saw Amor Cubano in the main theatre and really enjoyed it. I will confirm what most others say about the theatre (Liquid Lounge) on the Vista- it’s not great. The seating isn’t well planned and the lines of sight are sometimes interrupted by giant posts. We did find seats early enough that weren’t too bad, but I really don’t enjoy the theatre layout as a whole. The show was pretty great and I’m glad we went. The comedian, John Floyd, on the other hand, was not entertaining and we left within 10 minutes of it starting. Thankfully we were right by a door in the back so we didn’t cause a lot of disturbance by leaving. The Limelight Lounge is a nice space to the comedy shows, but you absolutely need to show up 20+ minutes before showtime if you even want a chance at a seat. Also, I am confused why they named the Limelight and Liquid lounges very similar names. Maybe that's just me. We decided to head to the room and get ready for Aruba the next morning before going to sleep.

Another beautiful Dreamscape:

Bonus Portrait we had taken:

UP NEXT: Tuesday, Aruba

Monday, November 6th 2017, Sea Day:

The day started with another dose of Blue Iguana breakfast burritos and huevos rancheros, which I’m now super craving as I type this. We rushed over to the Sky Ride at 8:50am and got in the line that was already forming. There were nine people in front of us, and the line quickly extended behind us. The staff working the Sky Ride were doing their safety checks and opened pretty close to 9am. The line moved pretty quickly and my husband was riding by 9:20ish. We decided that he would ride first and take the YI action camera and I would hold on to our electronics, then when he returned to the platform I would ride. I know this might not be the most considerate thing to do, but other people were able to ride in between our turns and we didn’t hold the line up by doing this. The workers found other single-person riders to ride next to us, so we weren’t wasting anyone’s turns.

And then it happened. While in line for the SkyRide, I met the type of person who writes those terrible, over-the-top horrible reviews of Carnival ships. I don’t think she had a single ounce of fun in the 48 hours she had been on the ship. She shared that normally she sails from Europe on smaller fancier ships and she totally regretted sailing on the Vista because it was filthy (the plates in the hallway really got to her) and the people are loud and rude and the embarkation was a nightmare. I really do kinda feel bad for her and I hope she found some enjoyment at some point on this beautiful cruise. I always make it a point to acknowledge that a trip is what you make of it, and if you want to find the negatives then you will. Yes, there were a few room service plates outside doors in the hallway- that’s where they’re supposed to go. Am I going to let that ruin my cruise? Absolutely not.

To make up for that sidebar of negativity, here’s our footage of the SkyRide!

My husband's trip on the SkyRide. He said his footage was so shaky and full of motion because he couldn't stop looking at everything! I suppose that's valid when you're on this awesome ride!

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My trip on the SkyRide. I tried to be more conscious of the camera and move my head steadily and smoothly. Personally, I like my video better 😃

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The SkyRide was super fun, and slightly nerve-wracking. I never thought I’d be that high off the deck on a cruise ship riding on an open-air bicycle and even though I was belted in with two different safety mechanisms, it was still a little scary. But also so much fun! The dip when going from the inside to the outside was much faster than I was expecting but also provided a jolt of adrenaline. If you’re a thrill-seeker or even willing to go out of your comfort zone in a safe way, I would very much recommend trying the SkyRide. Also the design and engineering involved is really just remarkable and inventive.

He's ready to go!

There I go!

After experiencing the SkyRide, we walked around the lido and other sun decks before getting to the lanai on deck five. We grabbed a two-person circular lounger and sat there looking out at the ocean for a bit before deciding we were burnt and needed shade. The weather was incredibly beautiful and we were really enjoying the views, so we found some seats underneath the overhang of Bonsai Sushi and stayed there for over an hour reading, napping, and enjoying refreshing beverages. It was so relaxing and refreshing. As I look out at the snow-covered, 9-degree weather of Iowa right now, I’m really missing this moment I just described above.

For real, can this be my everyday?

Thanks for your excellent review so far. I feel like I was there with you. But that would be weird since you were on your honeymoon. LOL!

LOL Love it!

I'm so glad to hear that you're enjoying the review and it feels so real!

Congratulations on your marriage! Really enjoying your review. Please post the menus!

Following as we are going on this cruise in May. Loving your review so far, the pictures are amazing!

Many thanks to you both for reading the review and for your compliments, so happy to have you here! I will keep at it with the pictures and will be sure to add the menus. Thank you again!

Congrats on your wedding and thanks for sharing your cruise with us! [emoji1]

 

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Ahhh Willdra's reading my review! My husband and I LOVE your Vista and Magic reviews so much- your humor and personality are SO much fun to read! Thank you for the kind words and for reading along!

Really enjoying the pics and review! We finally have another cruise booked to look forward to. Doing an 8 day Southern Caribbean cruise on the Horizon so I'm interested in the Vista as it will be very similar.

We love love the balcony cabins but due to the price difference, we usually get the category 4J rooms. This time we are splurging on ourselves to celebrate our 30th anniversary,(six months late), and can't wait. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

So exciting! And HUGE congratulations on your anniversary (and for spoiling yourselves a little bit!). Wishing you a wonderful trip.

We're visiting the Horizon in March 2019 on a Western itinerary, and very much looking forward to seeing the sister ship. Thank you much for following along!

Congratulations and best wishes on your marriage! Hubby and I will be on the Vista in just over week, can't wait! I was on her in March 2017 with my niece so it will be my second time, and hubby's first. I'm really enjoying all your photos. Thanks for taking the time!

Thank you so much for your kind words! I hope your Vista trip is fantastic and your husband enjoys the magic of this beautiful ship. I'll keep plugging along so hopefully you can see some more pictures soon!

We have chef's table booked on our upcoming cruise. I sure hope they do not do it on elegant night however! Hoping for the new menu as we did it two years ago.

It was kind of a bummer that it was on the first elegant night, but we still dressed up, so that was nice.

I also forgot to mention that since it was on the elegant night (lobster night), we were told that on the last night of the cruise we could say the Chef would let us have lobster since we missed it. They checked that we indeed did Chef's Table that elegant night and voila, we had lobster the last night of the cruise!

Chef's Table looked amazing! I passed last time we were on Carnival and am questioning my decision!

Hopefully there's another cruise in your future and you can reconsider then! It's definitely a hefty price tag but a truly unforgettable experience.

Please do

We have late dining but plan to eat at the steakhouse at least once, this will help us plan

Yes! I would love to see those Menus and TYIA!!

Sounds good, I will be sure to post menus!

While sorting through my pictures, I realized that I also have pictures of all of the MDR menus. If anyone is interested, I can post those as well!

I should have clarified, the addiction started 8 years and 4 cruises ago, but after getting pregnant on our last cruise 4 years ago, we took a break and had a couple babies ❤️ this will be our 5th, but first with my kiddos.

 

 

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Aww very fun! I suppose this starts their love of cruising then!

Ooops, forgot to post the Fun Times for the first two days!

The photos should be high-quality JPGs so zoom in to read clearly if needed.

As a reminder, this is all being copied over from my blog. Here's the direct link to these two Fun Times, where they appear on my screen a little larger: http://thelovelyvoyage.blogspot.com/2017/12/carnival-vista-saturday-and-sunday-fun.html

Fun Tip: If you use a PC, click your "Ctrl" button and "+" (plus) button to zoom in, and "Ctrl" and "-" (minus) button to zoom out.

Saturday November 4th, 2017

Sunday, November 5th, 2017

Wow thanks for the helpful input! How much is the chefs table? Thanks

No problem! On the Dream and Vista classes, it's $95pp, on the other classes that carry it, it's $75. There's also a 15% or 18% gratuity on top of that. I know that there are currently two menus out in the fleet, and I believe the one that I had is the newer version. I feel like I just read that they're making the new menu go fleet-wide in the next few months.

Wow I really want to try the Chef’s Table now, thanks so much for that great review. Oh and I had no idea you could tour the Red Frog Pub, I can’t wait to tell my hubby. We are staying in the Havana so hopefully we won’t have to go to Serenity too much. Great review so far!

I so highly recommend it! And the Brewery tour was informative, fun, and provided lots of beer! Try to go there on the first day to sign up, as some time slots filled quickly. If you don't see the sign-up on the bar, just ask a friendly bartender!

The Havana deck area will definitely be a lot more private and less full than the Serenity, I bet you won't have any problem finding a seat!

This is already one of my favorite cruise critic reviews! Thank you for taking the time! I’ll be on the Vista in 27 days for our first cruise as a family with my husband and two toddlers, so excited!!

Wow thank you so much for that wonderful compliment!! I hope you have an awesome cruise! So begins the addiction :cool:

So don't self pour, like that tip! ;)

Yes! It definitely was fun but when we got a glass mostly full of foam, the fun ends quickly.

Very pretty veal dish:

Dessert was the final event, and it came in multiple parts. We switched from the red or white wine service that had been flowing heavily all evening to a port dessert wine, which was my first foray into the drink. Not my new fave, but I did like trying it out. The citrus cream dessert was again another feat of food engineering, complete with elderflower “caviar” and lime "snow". Wow, it was probably the stylish dessert I’ve ever had! Until the next dessert that gave the snow/caviar dish a run for its money. The chocolate hazelnut log with basil moss looked far too fancy to eat, but it was so tasty! Of course at this point I’m incredibly stuffed and can’t even fit more water into my full belly, when they deliver special desserts to a few different people at the table, including singing Happy Birthday to me, to celebrate my birthday being a few days later. Such a cute little cake and yummy too, but I will say that the Chef’s Table desserts took the cake. Hehe puns.

Citrus Cream:

Chocolate Log:

Mini-Cake:

In sum, the Chef’s Table was an incredibly special and memorable experience and truly the best food we’ve ever had. I’m SO fortunate and happy that I was able to give this gift to my husband and to know that he wanted it so badly and loved it so much really makes the night that much better. Seeing the hard work and organized chaos that goes into preparing all of the meals on a cruise ship that feeds 4,000 guests was impressive. Talking with some of the chefs and hearing their experiences in the kitchen and with Chef’s Table was a unique moment that added to the whole night. The event didn’t feel rushed and we really felt catered to and spoiled, quite honestly. We had good wine and great company, and I would absolutely recommend this dining experience to anyone who is willing to be a little adventurous and have a culinary journey unlike any other!! We were done at 9:15pm, so I think it took about 3.5 hours, but it was so worth the time and money we put into it!

We rolled ourselves to the sports bar to watch some football and let all of the delicious food settle in our overfilled stomachs. The Havana was the next stop on our late night tour and we were so excited to walk around the outside area and see the pools lit up and look out into the dark nothingness of the ocean. The Havana seems like an awesome concept, although it is a little hard to enjoy the sun deck at 7:30pm when the sun is gone and the nights get a little chilly. The Havana bar decor is so colorful and inviting, so we stuck around to listen to music and watch people dance.

Maybe someone can fill me in on this question- When we went, the musicians were speaking Spanish to the crowd; is this how it always is? I totally loved it and we stayed for about 20 minutes dancing in our seats. I used my 6+ years of Spanish classes to understand some of the comments they were making, but I knew I was missing out on some of the jokes they were telling. We didn’t ever make it back to the Havana bar so I’m not sure if there are nights that they do speak English in between songs. After a long day of exploring the awesome things Vista has to offer, we went back to the room and crashed.

UP NEXT: Monday, November 6th, Sea Day

We took a walk around the galley while the next course was being prepared, and saw how soups and brothers were made, the food ordering system from the dining room to the galley, and platters of lobster since it was formal night. We also got a crash course in making Warm Chocolate Melting Cakes, which really had me craving one but I knew we were in for a fancier set of desserts that night. We also saw this cool visual of how the plates should look before going out, so that waiters can make sure everyone is getting uniformity in their food.

We returned to the lamb course, which was probably my husband’s favorite of the night. I also enjoyed it, including the beets that really tasted like the dirt they were grown in, which is weird yet cool. The next course is the one that really makes my mouth water and my belly grumble. Poached sea bass with passion fruit-flavored “caviar” that’s really just molecular gastronomy at its finest. Wow this dish was flavorful and smooth and I really need another plate of it right now. It was followed up by the quail dish and although it sounds like an abnormal food choice, the flavors were fantastic. I don’t think I’d elect for quail as a course in the future, but hey why not when it’s Chef’s Table?! The last dinner course was a smoked veal, and they provided quite the show when serving it. I wasn’t a huge fan and gave my last few bites to my husband since he was loving the lamb earlier, but it was neat to try it.

Poached Bass- I need more!

Quail Dish:

Smoking Demonstration:

Sunday, November 5th, 2017, continued:

We were asked to meet in the atrium around 5:30pm I believe, and we checked in with two ladies who work at the Chef’s Table. After waiting for our group to fully assemble, we were led through the dining room and into the galley. This in and of itself is really just the coolest thing. Not too many people can say they’ve stood in a cruise ship’s galley, and seeing some of the logistics that go into running a place like that is, to the fullest extent of the word, awesome. We were directed to stand around a large prep table and find our names. This was the intro/cooking demonstration part of the night, which included champagne, kalamata olives, parmesan, and some really interesting sounding yogurt pops that were actually super delicious. I don’t want to spoil the whole experience so I’ll leave some mystery!

We were then directed into the specially-built Chef’s Table room with floor to ceiling glass windows peering into the galley. The room is very exquisite and there’s so much to look at. We started with a few types of bread/crackers, then went into the spring pea soup. It was an crazy bright green color and very much tasted of both spring peas and matcha. It was good, but I couldn’t really get over the pea flavor. I liked stirring the soup with the bamboo brush though! The pork belly and shrimp, next course, was also good and one of my husband’s favorite courses.

Pork Belly:

Sunday Sea Day Continued:

After finishing our beers, we went to the Serenity where I was super disappointed by the amount of chair hogs. I have never encountered chair-hogging to the intensity that I did on the Vista, which was an unfortunate amount. We did find two chairs, although they were those little yellow cabana chairs instead of a full lounger, so my tanning session wasn’t off to a strong start. We stayed for about an hour before making our way back to the Red Frog Pub & Brewery for the 2:30 pm Brewery Tour!

We were SO excited about the brewery onboard and couldn’t pass up a chance to see the inner-workings of the place. The brewmaster, Colin, is awesome and we were very delighted to meet him since he was the one that started up the brewery when the Vista first sailed in May 2016 and we’ve seen different videos interviewing him and highlighting the brewery. He gave us a lot of info about the brewery and the challenges of brewing onboard a ship.

Colin and my husband:

Setup:

The setup of the tour was about 10 people sitting between two tables, and each table had pitchers of beer on them. We also had an empty flight of glasses in front of us. As Colin explained that specific beer, we would pour some into our little glass and taste it. We tasted their four core beers and two specialties, and had plenty of samples at that. Along with my husband and myself, there were three other men at our table, and we had lots of fun throughout the tour. Lucky for me, the Java Stout wasn't a favorite at my table, so I got several extra pours of that and let the guys have my IPA servings. We saw the different tanks Colin uses during the brewing process and got a full tour of the two areas that beer visits before being tapped.

Glass Brewhouse:

Sorry for the blur, operator error after beer sampling (husband, not me :halo:)

Holding Tanks:

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We also got a pint glass that’s exclusive to the tour, and a certificate of completion as well as a free pint of beer during the cruise. The total cost per person was $25 and we definitely thought we got a great value with everything that was included. I’ll reiterate that we got plenty of beer and left feeling pretty good after the 1.5 hour tour/tasting. Colin said he’ll be moving to the Carnival Horizon, travelling over to Europe in February 2018 and having things ready to go for the first cruise. We have our fingers crossed that we’ll be able to see him again on the Horizon when we make it on in the not-too-distant future!

Upon returning to our room to get dressed for our next adventure, we found a $50 spa gift card from our room steward congratulating us on the wedding. I know that most anything in the spa costs more that $50, so they’re still making money off of people who might not have spent money there in the first place, but I do still think it’s a nice gesture. We changed into classy attire and headed down to the atrium for an experience that I was so thrilled to gift to my husband: the Chef’s Table!

Sunday, November 5th, Sea Day:

My husband woke up early to head to the gym at 7:45am, but he quickly returned saying that the gym was packed and no machines or benches were open. So we got ready for the day and went to Blue Iguana for breakfast. My husband discovered his love of Blue Iguana on the Liberty cruise we took in April 2017, so he was very excited to have his first of many breakfast burritos on this trip. I decided to branch out and try my first-ever huevos rancheros. Oh wow had I been missing out! As previously noted, I can’t do spicy food, but this was well-balanced and not very spicy. It was so super delicious, and you’ll start to see a pattern of our breakfast choices throughout the review. You also apparently won't see any pictures of breakfast because I was always just so hungry, heh oops.

Morning Balcony Shot:Quick note, in room 2305 there are no lifeboats above the balcony, which I planned on purpose. It really helped open up our view, even though you can see one a few rooms over.

Another morning view:

We previously had signed up for the Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle and received our “tickets” to the event in our room on embarkation day. The event was scheduled for 9am on the first sea day, which I thought was a poorly picked time, as most people are either sleeping or just getting up for breakfast. Because I had been pushing the Meet & Mingle on the Roll Call, I figured I was obligated to attend and we went to the Limelight Lounge at 8:55am. There were only two other people in the room at that time (Shoutout to Sarah and Phil!). Eventually people started coming in (15 total) and even Hugo the Entertainment Director was there. We stayed until 9:45 and actually had a very nice time meeting other people and talking about our cruising experience. Hugo gave us a few insights about the life of an Entertainment Director, and told us that he would be getting a break at the end of 2017 before heading to Europe to kick off the Horizon in April 2018. Hugo also told us that the crew really likes the IMAX because they’re on the ship for 8 months and it gives them a chance to feel like they’re back on land and doing a normal activity.

Spot the Tigerhawk ;)

Morning Views:

We made our way to slogans trivia in the ocean plaza at 10am then walked around the lanai for a bit before settling into a lounger for about 15-20 minutes. The Red Frog Pub & Brewery was our next visit, where my husband use the self-serve beer tap to pour a beer. A quick piece of advice on using this machine: once you slide your S&S card, you have 10-15 seconds to pour then it shuts off, which meant that you can only pour about half a beer at once, since it comes out super foamy and you want to wait until the foam subsides so you can pour more. I love the concept of self-serve beer, and it was fun to try it as a novel activity, but we mostly resorted to order beer from the bar for the rest of the cruise because it was less frustration and honestly more beer and less foam. We also played one of our favorite games- Pass the Pigs: Pig Party. It's based on the classic game, but includes 4 sets of pigs and cards with pictures of poses the player needs to match to earn points (there are a lot of P's in these sentences; I blame the beer, hehe!). It's a very "Iowan" game, which is just comical to us.

PYOB Station:

Full Screen the video to see Pig Party and the PYOB station in action:

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Congrats on your wedding! Loving your pictures and review-thanks for taking the time to post both. We're sailing the Vista next year. It looks like fun!

I appreciate that! Thank you for following along- it's so fun to know that other cruisers enjoy the review.

Come back......I'm loving your review!

your Mrs & Mr shirts are adorable - by the way congrats on the wedding

Aww thank you! I love hearing that you're enjoying it. It's unfortunately a tedious process between writing, uploading photos, and copying all of that over from the blog. I promise I will have more tonight/tomorrow! Also I appreciate the congratulations :)

I am enjoying your view. Great pictures!

Thanks so much for following along!

Hmmm good to know about the steam room—the one on our NCL cruise was the same, face-melting hot! Luckily the sauna was fine. That’s sort of a bummer. Did you find the pass worth it even though you couldn’t use the steam room and sauna? Were the loungers easy to come by? Thanks for all the great info.!

We used the spa pass 6 of the 8 days, I believe. We were always able to find at least one open lounger in there, and sometimes there were multiple open. On days when there was only one lounger, my husband and I switched places, one person laying down while the other used the thermal rooms and then switching after 15-20 minutes.

I wouldn't necessarily spend the money for another thermal suite pass in the future, even though it was such a great and relaxing experience. It sort of felt like one more thing we had to do to get our money's worth, so instead of laying outside in the sun or listening to music, there were times I felt like we had to be in the spa. The time I spent in there was great- I LOVED the aromatherapy steam room and the infrared room was fairly relaxing too. I'm not sure if the spa life is the life for me. Maybe in the future when I don't feel the need to explore a ship, then I might reconsider.

On the other hand, my husband super enjoyed the pass and has said that he'd like to get one again. He could handle more of the heat than I could, and he loves sitting in the whirlpool too, so I think that he feels like he got a better deal and experience. So a future pass isn't totally off the table but it's not where I'd like to put my money right now.

We went back to the sports bar again to catch up on more college football (can you tell how we like to spend our Saturdays?) then moved on to exploring the sun decks, including the lido and the Serenity. We were very impressed with the adults-only location as it had multiple two-person sun beds and cuddle pods (what’s the actual name for these?) as well as a ton of chairs and tables. Unfortunately this would be the most empty we ever saw it, as it was often very hard to find a seat, let alone two seats next to each other. Stay tuned for my encounter enforcing the 40-minute rule later in the week. The full bar at the Serenity was awesome, and a bug upgrade from our Liberty trip in which the bar was a little hole in the wall. We also loved the concept of the salad bar and couldn’t wait to try it out on a sea day.

We also watched the Carnival Glory and NCL Escape sail away, and enjoyed waving at other cruisers beginning their trip.

We returned to the room and opened the champagne that was gifted to us by my parents. I also thought it would be great to film it, so here’s that for your viewing pleasure (make it full screen):

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We sat on the balcony and sipped the champagne and watched the terminal and hard workers down below. The balcony was a good size for the two of us and I didn’t feel as nervous out there as I thought I would. Unfortunately, we only enjoyed the balcony a few more times throughout the whole week, and we quickly realized that for us, it’s not worth the extra cost. I was a little worried about the saying that floats around out there (Heh, cruise pun) about “Once you try a balcony you’ll never go back.” I thought that by splurging on a balcony for the honeymoon, going back to an oceanview would be terrible. Luckily for us, I think we enjoy the oceanview more as it gives us the sunlight and views, but without the added cost that we never really enjoyed the benefit of. I know MANY cruisers will disagree and that’s okay, it just leaves one more balcony space for you to book!

We were so excited for the chance to finally try out an Alchemy Bar (the Liberty was always packed) and our time officially arrived at 5pm when the bar opened and we headed up to meet AnnaMaria (a Cruise-Critic renowned mixologist) and try something out of our comfort zone. My husband ordered a spicy pineapple martini and oh my it was awesome! A fun fact about me is that I don’t do spicy, at all. The chili I make is fairly mild, I don’t eat chicken wings if they’re coated in anything but sweet BBQ, and I don’t even like black pepper on my eggs. That being said, this drink was phenomenal. It certainly had pineapple and the heat of the spicy jalpenos was there, but it was a gentle burning aftertaste instead of an in-your-face spice. I actually ordered a few over the week because they were so interesting and delicious. Also, AnnaMaria really does live up to the hype- she’s fun to talk to and the way she makes the drinks is an art form. We visited her multiple times throughout the cruise and really enjoyed talking with her.

Forty is the New Twenty and the Spicy Chipotle Pineapple Martinis

Next stop was the sports bar to cheer on our Iowa Hawkeyes (This was the game where they DESTROYED “The” Ohio State Buckeyes!). We met a couple that were also Iowa alums and several other Hawkeye fans, which really made my heart happy. I tend to wear a lot of Iowa gear whenever we travel because there are a lot of Hawkeyes across the country and love finding good company on a cruise or in a random Caribbean country. After seeing our big win, we headed up to the Seafood Shack for dinner. This is an upcharge dining venue but we had read some really good things about the lobster roll and we knew we needed to try it. A single order of the lobster roll ($12) actually comes with two filled rolls and a huge pile of fries. I apparently was too busy eating to take a picture! The buns they use were a buttery amazing goodness and the lobster was pretty great too. We were able to have a view of the Miami skyline all lit up at night since we still hadn’t left port.

We made a quick stop in the room to change so we could head up to the spa and get a start on using our Thermal Spa Suite 8-day couples package. We’re not really spa people, but we sure do enjoy relaxing and thought that this would be a nice wedding/honeymoon gift to each other. The 20% off online sale sure helped make the decision easier too! We checked in at the spa's front desk and got stickers put on our Sign & Sail cards and two white wristbands (like the rubber Livestrong bands that are removable). We were also given a keycard to get into the thermal suites. The changing room has lockers that are activated using a number pad and you create your own 4-digit code.

There are four different thermal suites/rooms as well as four aromatherapy showers, eight heated stone/tile loungers, and a whirlpool (not a thalassotherapy pool). The first night we were there, the aroma-steam room wasn’t working, which was a bummer. It did get fixed and was awesome for the rest of the week, however. The infrared room was very nice and warmed my core. The dry heat room and the regular steam room were INCREDIBLY toasty and I couldn’t stay in there for longer than a minute. I spent most of my time on a heated lounger, and my husband tried out the aroma-shower and the whirlpool, which was very warm and he enjoyed for a while. It was nice to have another adults-only place to relax, and the view from the giant windows was also a huge bonus.

The dessert in our room called our names, so we headed to the room and ate cake on the balcony while watching sailaway. Whatever problem that was delaying our departure must have gotten fixed ahead of schedule, because we sailed away around 9 instead of the previously noted 10pm. After cake, we went to the Ocean Plaza and listed to the band Sweet Soul Six perform country songs. We closed the night watching more football in the sports bar before heading to the room for much-needed sleep.

UP NEXT: Sunday, November 5th, Sea Day

Deck 5:

Piano Bar

Library Bar:

Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse:

Bonsai Sushi:

The Ocean Plaza had palm trees!:

Saturday, 11/4- Embarkation Day, continued:

Deck 4:

Horizons Restaurant

Liquid Lounge:

I'll take a bar like this in my house please:

Limelight Lounge/Punchliner:

Loved these awesome 3D murals/photos on the staircases:

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I am glad you mentioned the Mongolian Wok because I was wondering about that.

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Sure thing! If you have any questions about that or anything else, just ask!

Following. We’re going on the Vista in March..can’t wait. Excited to read the rest of your review!

You're almost there! I hope this adds to the building excitement!