leite

Oh and by the way, Great Review!

Thanks and i'm glad to have answered your question... :)

I have a question about the Dr. Seuss Breakfast? Our kid is 24 yrs, also he is on his own and lives in Florida, so he will not be going with us on our 2 week Alaskan cruise in Aug on the Splendor. Now the question is, since my DW and I love Dr. Seuss would it be weird if we went to this breakfast.................................with no KID(s)? ......LoL:D

Absolutely not weird... I saw a few tables with grown-up folks only and they were the ones hugging the characters with the most passion :D:D:D.

Go for it!!!!!

Really enjoyed reading your review. Your family is awesome. We were on the Vista in November and thoroughly enjoyed the ship.

 

 

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thanks for reading it.

We really liked it too. I just wish there more days in order to enjoy all the ship has to offer.

Snow Snow and more Snow !!!! 44 Days and counting until the Vista !!!

 

We didn't book until January 11 - so the lowest rate for us on Southwest was going to be $418 USD. I got $460 CDN return from Toronto - so this time it made sense. Also I'm a single woman - not a family - AND I had VISA gift cards from work - so it made sense this time.

It sure does...

Enjoy the Vista and please ensure you fly the day before :D

We are from Niagara as well, we fly spirit to Fort Lauderdale from Niagara Falls New York, got really good deals this time for our feb 24th sailing on the Vista. $55/person round trip, we sail twice a year so we don't check a bag we only have the free personal item each. its a great deal, if you get your tickets at the airport you save the passenger usage fee of $75 for 2 ppl:cool:

Hi cruzinwoodsfamily, I realized forgot to reply to this comment. I have looked before at Spirit and Allegiant, from Niagara Falls, US. My concern with them is the same with Frontier (1 flight a day only) and the possibility of a cancelled flight and the issues to rearrange the 5 of us on a different flight.

I agree the savings can be huge..

Thanks for reading...

Thanks for the review! I really liked how you rated the dinners, and I got some great tips for our upcoming trip. Thanks again for taking the time.

Thank you...

This was my goal while writing the review and I'm glad it's going to help others.

Great review! You mentioned that you didn’t see others handing out envelopes at dinner, but I want to tell you you’re not alone. My family has the automatic gratuities in place then gives out envelopes to the wait staff on the last night. Also, we give $20 at the beginning of the cruise to our stateroom attendant and $20 at the end, like you did as well.

You have a great looking family and I’m glad your family has recovered from “the bug”.

Thanks for taking the time to write your review!

 

 

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Thank you.

Yes, I was surprised by that. I remember envelopes everywhere on our last two cruises before this one (Disney and Carnival).

I really enjoyed reading your review - Thank you so much for sharing :) (Your English is very good)

thanks...

Google is your best friend before posting - LOL

Thank you for sharing your cruise experience. It was very educational. :) Lovely family. I'm sorry to hear about the barfing.

Thank you.... It's the second they all get sick on a Carnival cruise: Gabriel and David in 2011 and Gabriel, David and Lucas now...

It won't turn us down for cruising again, but I'll be even more strict on washing hands often next time.

At least this time, it was only Gabriel for one day. When David and Lucas had it, the cruise was over.

Thanks....

You didn't go see the 2014 World Cup in person, did you? Cause if there was ever a reason to go back home...lol! ⚽

 

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I sure did and even got to watch a game live: Brazil and Mexico in the first phase.

My wife and Gabriel got to watch Mexico and Netherlands (round on 16s) and even were on TV when the Netherlands scored the winning goal - lol.

Those games took place in my home city: Fortaleza.

Great memories!!!!

Great review !!!! I'm a fellow Ontarian living just north of you. I usually fly Southwest out of Buffalo, but found decent flights out of Pearson for a change.

I'm heading out on the VIsta at the end of March. Can't wait !

Hello neighbor, how are you enjoying the now storm today in our beautiful province???

What would you consider a decent price for flighting out of YYZ? I couldn't find anything under CAN 370.00 (direct flights) versus U$ 190.00 from BUF. When you add parking for the week (or taxi back and forth) in Toronto, it becomes too much.

Flying from Buffalo (Southwest) gives us 2 free bags per person plus the ability to buy stuff in the US on the way back (grocery, drinks, anything). It's a win-win for us.

I would really love to fly from Canada, but for a big family like us, the difference is too much...

Thanks for reading it...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and adventure with us.

Thanks for reading it...

My goal is always to help others with my (limited) cruise experience, helping to pay back all the great advice I received here...

Great review!!

thanks... Have fun at the Vista....

Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us!

Thanks...

I applaud you for being honest on your review. I tried to do the same here showing the good and bad.

You got a good looking family. Hope you had a nice time. :cool:

Thanks... We did have a good time, being with my family is always good (for up to 2 weeks, at least :D)....

SATURDAY JAN 27th AND SUNDAY JAN 28th – BACK TO REALITY

I woke up at 7 AM and saw we were already docked, we no longer had a view of the ocean and waves but of a building (port terminal).

We woke up and went to Family Harbor for our last breakfast. It was probably the only time that was crowded, it was hard to get a table, we were using the sofas initially to eat. As we were eating and my sister’s family had not even showed up yet, the lady working at Family Harbor mentioned they would remove the breakfast items in 10 minutes. After that, Lido would still be available. I rushed, got my sister’s family to take the items a minute before they started taking everything away.

Family Harbor started to get empty. In 30 minutes, we were the last family there (the 13 of us). As I went to check the status of debarkation on the 3rd deck, it was a real zoo. Really hard to walk by, people upset thinking I was trying to skip line, but there was no one on the 2nd floor giving information.

As I finally got to someone to get information, I heard Matt on the voice system asking people NOT to come to the 3rd or 4th deck, until their tags or decks were called. Matt also explained the team was working hard but debarkation was very late.

This was confusing to me. At the same time, they were calling people by deck number (but only those with their own bags, who decided for self-assist debarkation) and by tags (people that left their bags outside the night before).

Back to the family harbor, I decided to try the cappuccino machine they have there. It was very good (for being free) and I asked myself how come I went the whole week without trying it. Do yourself a favor: use that machine if you like coffee/cappuccino/espresso.

David and Tales spent over an hour playing a Lego XBOX game and Gabriel and Yago also played after them. It was a smart idea to wait there, seated in comfort.

I still had time for one last cone of ice cream when they finally called our tag (10) to leave the ship. Big line up as we used the stairs to get to the Atrium but eventually we left the ship and retrieved our bags.

This was a sad moment as it was when we said goodbye to my sister’s family. We don’t know when the next get together will be, unfortunately. It had been exactly a year since last time we saw them in January of 2016, when we went to Brazil on vacation.

They were meeting some Brazilian friends living in Miami now and would be going shopping for the afternoon as their flight wasn’t from Orlando until the next day. A few hugs and tears and their shuttle came before ours (funny that their shuttle was scheduled every 45 minutes and ours with Alamo was every 20 minutes but came in late). There were a lot of people trying to board the Alamo bus but the driver was strict, only allowing people with a reservation to board.

My dad and Eliane stayed with us as we had 5 in our family (therefore had space in the car). When we got to the airport, I decided to try and see if they could check in their bags already for the night flight from Miami. American Airlines accepted this and I completed their check in, getting their boarding passes at that time (around 12:00 PM) for a 7:55 PM flight.

We then dropped them off at a Walmart for some last minute shopping and went to meet some friends that used to live in Canada and have lunch at a new Brazilian restaurant in Miami: Coco Bambu, in Miami Beach. I left a review on TripAdvisor for this restaurant. Funny thing to go to the restaurant, we passed Carnival Vista both ways. As we were coming back from the restaurant, Vista was getting ready to leave (a bit past 4:00 PM) with lots of people on Lido deck waiving and another Carnival ship was actually moving already, passing Vista and honking. Perfect timing…

We finally picked up my father and Eliane and dropped them off at Miami Airport, driving to our airport (Fort Lauderdale, Southwest doesn’t fly to/from MIA) for our flight at 8:45 PM. We stopped to fill up gas and returned it at FLL.

At the airport, the shock that vacation was over hit us, changing from running shoes to boots and carrying our winter jackets with us in the plane.

From there, we went the plane and right after flying, Gabriel and Lucas slept. Close to arriving in Buffalo, Lucas threw up on the plane. Similar to when it happened to Gabriel, we hoped it was a single occurrence from a busy day, but he did it again on the taxi going to the hotel in Buffalo (StayBridge Suites - we booked a park and fly for coming back, since our flight arrived close to midnight) and did it 2 or 3 more times that night at the hotel.

On Sunday morning, we woke up, had our breakfast, stopped at Walmart to do grocery in Buffalo (way more variety than doing in Canada and better prices) and drove back to Mississauga.

We got lucky and the weather was good on Sunday (8C or 46F) with no snow on the roads or driveway back home. To confirm the kids had a bug, we "needed to have" the last kid getting sick as well. Around 4:00 PM that Sunday, it was David’s time. Same as with 2 brothers, he did it 3 or 4 times but was good enough to go to school the next day.

My final impressions and some last minute information I forgot to list:

- Vista is a big ship and there were a lot of things we didn’t do (restaurants, rides, trivias, piano bar, nightly shows, bingo, etc).

- We don’t gamble and I’m allergic to smoke so I can’t comment on the casino.

- Food was very good everywhere.

- I noticed several folks working there didn’t seem too happy. There were exceptions and I listed them here (again, our perspective).

- My fitbit charged recorded close average of 18000 steps during the ship when my average in land is around 12000. I tried my best to use the stairs as much as possible (probably 90% of the times). Even though I ate like those were my last days on Earth while on vacation, I managed to gain only one pound (0.5 kg) those days. This was something that was a concern to me at the beginning, having lost 35 pounds (or 15 kg) the year before through exercise and eating better.

Would I go back? Probably, if the price is right.

Any trip with my family is great and the days went by very fast, so my overall review is a positive one.

Ideally though, we’ll try other ships/itineraries in the future.

If I can help with any questions, please let me know. I learned a lot about Vista here and writing this review is a way to try to pay it forward to others…

FRIDAY JAN 26th – SEA DAY

We woke up around 8:15 AM. I asked how Gabriel was feeling and he said he was better. I woke up with a bad headache, probably for not sleeping well the night before to help Gabriel several times (and why not admit this, stressed about it). I took a couple of Tylenol pills but the headache persisted until we reached Miami next morning (less strong after the Tylenol, but still there).

We got ready and went to Reflections for the Dr. Seuss breakfast.

For those who have been to Disney, this is a similar experience as a character breakfast there. They decorate part of the restaurant in Blue and Red (Reflections, same one we were using every night), have a special menu for that morning and 3 or 4 characters come every few minutes for pictures and their autograph (which is actually a stamp). Differently from Disney, you can’t take a picture with your camera, only with Carnival one to buy later (I don't know why, but I was thinking we could take pictures with our camera, maybe because we were paying extra for the breakfast? Wishful thinking...) . They also had a beautiful ice artwork of the Cat in the Hat by the exit of the restaurant.

You can see the menu here: https://www.carnival.com/~/media/Images/explore/fun-activities/menus/green-eggs-and-ham-breakfast-menu.pdf

As soon as we sat down in our round table, with the ship moving up and down more than any other morning on this cruise, Gabriel told us he would prefer to go back to the room. He told us he wasn’t 100% better and was getting dizzy and didn’t want to eat. David and Lucas only asked for a box of cereal each. Elane ordered the yogurt Parfait only and I asked for the filet mignon with fried eggs.

I didn’t think I was going to eat but the steak and eggs was so good, I forgot about the rocking, headache and ate it all. As Tales’ green eggs arrived to the table, Elane excused herself and left the restaurant :D.

That was just too much for her, the tip of the iceberg. I ended up eating her yogurt, which was delicious with fruits on top. Lara ordered the pancakes and didn’t touch them, so I had my third breakfast that morning. The pancakes were fresh and the whipped cream delicious.

So, for me, the breakfast was totally worth it :D, everything was excellent. For the other members of the family, not so much. Even though we had taken our “things shirts” (bought at Universal Studios), below is the only picture the whole family took together before Elane and Gabriel went back to the room.

I asked for another yogurt for Elane (since I ate hers) and took it to our room to give it to her. Gabriel kept resting and Elane was trying to organize all close all bags. I then remembered Matt had mentioned the process for debarkation would be different this time (something new Carnival was trying).

In the past, you would go to Guest Services and get a tag number and that’s when you would debark. Matt mentioned this didn’t work well as people wouldn’t like the number they were given. Instead, now they were giving the tags for you to choose based on your preference from 1 to 36. I went with Lucas to the area close to the main pool around 12:30 PM and there was a line to choose your tags.

This was the only time I personally exchanged words with Matt. I picked up tag 10 (first number available when I went there) for our group of 3 rooms and asked him (he was around the pool area helping sell some T-shirts) if he knew what time approximately we would leave the ship with that number. He mentioned around 8:50 AM or so.

I also noticed today the whole water park (even kiddie rides) and Sky Course and Sky Ride were all closed. You would see the Carnival guys in red shirt running Sky Ride every so often measuring the wind speed but they never opened for a second during the 2 sea days on this cruise. Not sure if this is normal, but a heads to others to try to do it on port days if you REALLY want to ride them.

I went back to the room, gave the tags away to Elane, my sister and Eliane. Elane went to Lido, had some lunch, I stayed in the room trying to rest.

As she came back (she ate in the room), she asked me to get some more ham and cheese pastry from the buffet and Gabriel asked for the same. I didn’t have lunch that day, still full from my 3 orders at breakfast but did see the gelato of the day: salted Caramel, only one I didn’t like the whole week (too salty) and passion fruit and I tried one bowl of each.

At 2:00 PM, Gabriel went to watch his movie (alone, his cousins and even David had not watched the first 2 movies of the series) and considered the best movie ever :p.

While he was on the theater, the rest of the family went to Pixels, on the 5th deck, to buy some pictures (we bought 3 digital pictures ourselves, my dad got 3 as well and my sister got 11). It’s too bad Carnival doesn’t offer a decent package for photos. They do give some freebies if you order more (bag, USB key, luggage tag voucher to order online from back home, etc) but no real packages to give you a true incentive to order more.

Below is one of the pictures my father ordered with the 2 oldest grandsons (I love this picture!!!) and another one we bought, from Elane and I.

Back to Friday afternoon, this was when, walking with Lucas around the Lanai, I saw Guy’s Pig and Anchor BBQ (already closed for the day) and regretted for now going there the whole week (completely forgot about it). Oh well, maybe next time…

I went to Guest Services and got some envelopes for extra tip to give to Mertha and to the restaurant team. I also changed money there for smaller bills. At that time, line wasn’t bad but tripled its size later on when I took Aroldo to change money.

When I was dealing with them, they printed a copy of my balance and it was very little to pay. As I had pre-paid for Internet and my Coke card a couple of months ago, the only charges were the gratuities (77.7 per person if I’m not mistaken), the washer/dryer (9.00), Gabriel’s IMAX movie (9.95) and the breakfast for the 5 of us on that day (25.00). Subtracting the on board credits we had, total was U$ 424.45, which is not bad at all.

David and Tales asked for pizza and for the first (and only) time this cruise, I had the pizza on the 11th deck, close to the Tides Pool and hot tubs. Pizza was amazing (I tried 2 slices, one cheese, one pepperoni), so fresh, so thin.

It was time for our last dinner on the cruise. Elane and I both had the spring rolls and loved it (10, very crispy, warm and great flavor). For dinner, I had the veal parmesan which was amazing as well (10). Elane had the Rosemary Lamb shank and she gave it a 10 as well, she LOVES lamb.

For dessert, I had heard a lot of talk about the Baked Alaska, which Carnival had brought back to the menu. It was truly the only “fancy” option on the menu other than the daily Chocolate Melting Cake. We both had that and the feeling from us is that it was just a Neapolitan ice cream with merengue on top (6). It wasn’t bad per se, just too simple compared to everything we’ve had the last 6 days both on the MDR and buffet.

The waiters did the last dance and all had a whole Baked Alaka cake on their hand during the dancing, which we were offered but we all had had it already prior to the show so we thanked and declined. We gave the waiters the envelopes with extra tip on top of the gratuities in our bill (20.00 to the main server Angel, 20.00 to Sebastian for the great job as assistant and 15.00 to the third one, I can’t remember his name). To be honest, I didn’t see many people from the tables around us handing out envelopes, so I’m not sure if they gave extra tip or not (maybe they did it during dinner or at the beginning).

When we came back to our room, our bottle of cream of tequila bought in Mexico was there. We found Mertha in the hallway, gave him the envelope and thanked him for his help (U$ 20.00, on top of the U$ 20.00 given at the beginning of the trip and 10.00 from the day Gabriel was sick).

I remembered we had to return the Cisco phones to Camp Ocean. Aroldo and I went there and returned them. I didn’t tip them as the kids were only there only once for a few minutes. I really thought they were going to be there more often, but this wasn’t the case (it was the case on the Disney wonder cruise but not on the 2 Carnival ones). I’m not sure if it was because of the Brazilian cousins which didn’t speak English and they preferred to spend time together outside.

We made our way back to our cabin, put all bags outside of the room so they could be picked up at night time by Carnival staff and went to our last night on the Vista. As I was very tired from the night before, I slept well, have no idea how rocky the night was.

Sorry Gabriel wasn't feeling well. Being sick anytime stinks, but being sick during vacay is the WORST.

 

Btw, was the tequila crema de almendras (cream of almond)? If so, I had it last time I was in Cozumel. I'm not much of a drinker, but it's soooo delicious! Somebody importing into the US would def make bank.

 

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Hi...

It's this one here: http://www.liquordirect.ca/Tequila-1921-Tequila-Cream-Liqueur-P434.aspx (don't think it's the same one you're referring to).

Not only we liked the flavor, we found the bottle beautiful as well, so it's sitting in our dining room with other drinks... :D

Your’s is one of the best reviews I have ever read. You have a beautiful extended family.

Also I wish my first and only language, English, was as god as your second language! Thanks for the time you have put into this review.

Lhank you so much for the nice words, Lydia...

I truly appreciate them.

Almost done with the review, too more days to cover...

THURSDAY JAN 25th – COZUMEL, MEXICO

Today was Cozumel’s day. From all places I have been in the 3 cruises, Cozumel has the nicest port area to go in my view.

Paradise Beach (http://www.paradise-beach-cozumel.com/) is the place that has the best infrastructure in my research (for the price, you can always go to an all inclusive resort) for the following reasons:

1 – Cheap admission (3.00, kids up to 3 years old don’t pay).

2 - Clean restrooms (I forgot to mention how dirty the Jamaica restroom was when I used it, luckily for #1. :)

3 – Huge heated pool that kids can use.

4 – Free wifi that works well (in fact, only place we went to this time where Internet worked well the whole day).

5 – Reasonable price for food.

6 – Beach toys (18.00 per person if you want to use them)

7 – Other services, like massage, jet ski, parasailing, if you want to pay for them.

They do ask you to eat or drink at least 10.00 per adult, but we knew this wouldn’t be a problem as we planned to have lunch there anyway.

This was my 3rd time at Paradise Beach and the family going with me all agreed it was the nicest place from the 3 we went to.

Today we woke up a bit later and had decided to have breakfast at the Lido buffet due to the fact the ship wasn’t docking until 10 AM. After we ate, we went back to the room, got our things and got off the ship.

From all port areas, I liked Cozumel the most (we were at Puerto Maya port in Cozumel). You have to go through a big store selling everything (perfumes, candy, alcohol, cigars, etc). Then you get to a little villa, with lots of props perfect for pictures and several other stores.

We went to the taxi area and I have just realized (after seeing the menu below posted by singinalot, I’m stealing it again), I made a mistake. When I saw the prices, I thought they were by person (not by taxi). So, in my head, I was going to pay U$ 15.00 per person to go to Paradise Beach return. However, after reading the prices again now, I realize that was the price per taxi each way.

So we could have gone in 2 taxis for U$ 102.00 return (one with 8 people, the other with 5). Maybe even less, I don’t know if Theo and Lucas would pay. Instead, I booked a private van that charged U$ 14.00 per person return (driving waiting there for us), so U$ 154.00 for our group. No big deal, I guess…

As we were arriving in the parking lot of Paradise Beach, our driver (Spider) offered if we wanted to get the beach toys for U$ 15.00 as he could get us a deal. I thanked him but didn’t think the kids were going to go since they had done that in Jamaica and I know they LOVE a pool (more than a beach).

We paid the entrance fee and got one of those nice beach beds by the pool (not sure if this is what they are called) along with several beach chairs for our group.

Kids went right away to the pool with my dad and Eliane watching the little ones. I had taken a floater I bought in Canada and it was a big hit for them to play in the pool. I also took a picture there showing how stressed I was that morning.

Elane and I went to the beach area and took some pictures. There was a couple taking pictures for their wedding, which should convince you it’s a beautiful place to take pictures. They have a pier going to the water, really pretty.

We started ordering some drinks: beer for my dad and Eliane, pina coladas for us and the kids and coconut water. At some point, kids got hungry and ordered a burger each . Burger (came with fries) was pretty good size, I had a bite from each sandwich and tasted pretty good.

Elane called our waiter (by coincidence, also called Angel) and asked for a fried fish. She was disappointed when she was told they don’t sell fried fish anymore. When we asked why, Angel mentioned Americans are not a big fan of fried fish, so they took it out of the menu.

We were having a really good time, Internet connection was great, we called Elane’s parents via WhatsApp and then the kids asked to go to the beach area. I called Angel and asked if we could still have the deal of the beach toys for U$15.00 each. He went to talk to someone and came back, apologizing saying it was only valid before we entered Paradise Beach.

This was maybe 2:30 PM and the 5 oldest kids started bugging to use the kids toy. I told Elane to go to the beach and pay for them. A few minutes passed and Elane came back, mentioning she negotiated at the beach for the kids to go for 10.00 each, using the (true) argument they would use it for less than 1.5 hours.

A few minutes went by and she came running from the beach asking me to go there. She mentioned (and she was right) although the toys were only a few meters away from shore, the smaller kids (Lara, David and Tales) couldn’t reach the bottom of the ocean and she was afraid for them.

I stayed there with Aroldo helping them in all toys. When I asked the time, someone mentioned it was already 4:10 PM. I told the kids it was time to go, but they went back to the pool one last time which was very warm at this time. In the meantime, I called Angel, we paid the bill. They add 20% gratuity if you use the credit card, which I didn’t mind ,as the service was good and we had a really great day.

Spider was waiting for us and drove us back to the port. We went back through the store where they were serving a very good drink, cream of tequila (blended with ice). I liked so much I went all the way past the store, where Elane was waiting already) and asked her to come back and try. She loved it too and we decided to buy a bottle (U$ 23.00) to take it home.

This was my first time (ever) buying alcohol in a port during a cruise. Process is easy though, Carnival takes it when you board back and give you a piece of paper, indicating you will get the bottle on the last night of the cruise.

As it was already 5:00 PM when we went back to the ship, we went straight to Family Harbor, got one of those little sandwiches they have there for between lunch and dinner just to get us by until 6 PM. Gabriel took his shower and stayed on his bed, lying there, which I thought it was weird (he never admits he's tired).

We got ready and went for dinner. As we sit and wait for the menus to arrive, Gabriel mentioned he wasn’t feeling well and would skip dinner. This is not Gabriel at all so I decided to go back to our room to see how he was doing 3 minutes after he left the restaurant. He was lying in bed, so I took the Camp Ocean phone and told him to call us in case of issues. I then realized the battery was dead, but I thought: no big deal, I’ll go to Camp Ocean and replace the battery. Arriving at Camp Ocean, as per Murphy’s Law, they were closed and there was a sign saying they would be back at 7:30 PM.

As I was going back to the cabin, I hear the announcement from the Captain: the trip back to Miami that night would be “bumpy” due to ocean conditions and high wind.

I told Gabriel I would check on him later after dinner. He reminded me to go to the IMAX theater and ask if he could reschedule his ticket to see Maze Runner to next day. I ran to the 6th deck and the guy working there said: no issues. I selected the 2:25 PM section for him to see on Friday.

Back to the restaurant, I skipped appetizer as they had ordered already and were eating. Elane had the flatbread (9) and she said it was very good, but TOO big for an appetizer. For main entree, I ordered the Tiger Shrimp Creole. The shrimp itself was amazing and it reminded me of a Brazilian dish called “shrimp bobo”. The rice could have been more cooked, I still give it a 9. Elane had the pork chop and she really liked it too (9). For dessert, we both had the Chocolate Tres Leche (10). Once more, Carnival does have the best desserts.

In between dinner, I checked with the receptionist of the Reflections restaurant and she saw they had availability for the Dr. Seuss breakfast next morning (for the 2nd seating only, at 9:45 AM). I asked my sister’s family if they wanted to go (it costs 5.00 per person) and they did want to. Eliane and my father decided to skip, but I made the reservation for the 11 of us.

After dessert, I left before everyone else to check on Gabriel. As I open the door, I could smell he had thrown up. He was back in his bed but the toilet and floor were all dirty. He told me he had already called Mertha to help cleaning up. I saw Elane coming down the hallway, gave her U$ 10.00 to give it to Mertha and quickly went to Ocean Camp to replace the battery of the phone. Why? I still had hope to see the “Flick” show at 8:15 PM that night. My brother in law and my sister went and saved me a seat, but I ended up getting late there with all this and they had turned the lights off to begin the show. I still tried to find them in the lounge, but no luck. For the record, they loved the show and mentioned we should have watched the shows for the other nights.

I started feeling the ship rocking more than usual and went back to the room, where Elane had stayed with Gabriel. Even though she told me to go watch the Spider-Man movie under the stars, I wasn’t in the mood anymore.

Around 10 PM, David showed up in our room with his cousins and that was the end of the night (for the others, except Gabriel and I). At that point, we were still hoping Gabriel was just too tired and that this wasn’t a bug he had caught. We were wrong. He still threw up 3 or 4 more timed overnight and I was the one who woke up to help him every time.

During the cruise, we reinforced with the kids the importance of constantly washing their hands and using the sanitizer they have on the ship everywhere (by the way, I watched in one of the TV channels on the cruise they use a special sanitizer on the ship, much more efficient than the one you can buy at a local pharmacy). I can truly say they did it. In fact, at some point, Gabriel asked me to get one of those “hand washing machines” from the buffets or family harbor to our home as he said they were very easy to use.

Still, they caught some bug, similar to our first Carnival cruise where, until we went on the Disney one, we were thinking it might have been sea-sickness but we realized it wasn’t after a perfectly fine cruise on the Disney Wonder.

I agree with you- Grand Cayman has my favourite beach visited so far. Thanks for the cabana photo as we have one booked for our cruise too. Looking forward to your Cozumel stop.

Oh, we loved Cozumel and it was the best day for us (until later in the evening :D). I'm almost done writing that day, hopefully later on tonight or tomorrow morning...

Thanks for following along...

WEDNESDAY JAN 24th – CAYMAN ISLANDS

Cayman Islands. Probably the most beautiful beach I have seen in the Caribbean (with Cayo Santa Maria, in Cuba as a very close contestant). We had been there in 2011 and had gone to Royal Palms, located on the famous 7 mile beach (which, according to Matt, on one of his announcements, it’s actually 6.5 miles).

As I explained before, our goal for all the stops was for a beach club to enjoy the ocean. Royal Palms (https://royalpalmscayman.com/cruise-ship-visitors/), from my research, was the best. They even have a pool there but kids are not allowed to go, so we didn’t even to go to the pool area.

Going back a month, I tried to reserve though their website 2 cabanas for our group of 13 (they only allow 6 people per cabana, the website says). As you can see on the link above, they rent those where you can get a cabana (big shade), 4 chairs, 4 lounges and a table. As I went on their website, it showed all beach cabanas were taken and I went on a waiting list. Cabanas are expensive (U$ 125.00) but everything in Cayman Islands is expensive (12.00 to rent a beach chair and 15.00 for a small umbrella).

Please remember the prices showed on their menu are in their local currency, so you need to multiply by 20% and add 18% gratuity on top.

We woke up at 7:45 AM and decided to eat once more at the Family Harbor. I quickly made my run to the Lido, got my omelet and back to deck 2.

To go to Cayman Islands, the big ships can’t dock as the water close to the port is very shallow. Instead, the ship stops in the middle of the ocean, you board smaller boats and they take you on a trip to the port (5 minutes). The process is called tendering.

When I went on the Disney Wonder, the tendering process there took a while. We had to go to the theater, get a boarding pass and wait to be called. This time, on the Vista, there was a letter explaining to just go to deck 0 (gangway), avoiding the 9 to 10 AM window.

At 8:30 AM, we went down and Matt was there, explaining, although the line looked long, everyone would be on the next boat. He was right. We entered the boat (except Elane, who asked the folks working there to be the last one in) and waited 5 to 10 minutes for other guests to board and off we went.

Arriving in land, we were directed to a taxi (which a really a minibus, very big van). I asked for the price and if there would be a discount for the kids (6 adults and 7 kids). The lady told us no discount. I asked everyone in our group to leave and decided to take the bus instead (2.50 per person).

If you haven’t noticed already, I’m very frugal (you can call it cheap, economical, etc) and like to have plan B for all situations.

As we were walking towards the street, we were approached by a van driver that offered us U$ 33.00 for the 13 of us (3.00 per person, with 2 little ones going free). We took it and in 5 minutes, we were at Royal Palms. Arriving there we paid the admission fee (2.00 for adults) and went inside. It was fairly early and only a few people were there.

As we passed the bar towards the ocean, I looked up and saw the sky was really blue, beautiful day. It was very warm and I risk to say it ended up being the hotter day of the cruise. Just in case, I asked the guy showing us the beach chairs if any cabana was available. He asked me how many we were in our group. Embarrassed (knowing a cabana was for 6 people only), I just answered: “lots”. He said he had the last one available, the one furthest to the bar. I quickly talked to Aroldo and we decided to take it. The guy was really nice and even brought 2 extra chairs to our cabana, which I didn’t expect.

As soon as we settled in, I saw that guy yelling to someone else at the entrance: “no more beach cabanas”. A lot of people came in after looking for one. Some left upset as, from the 6 cabanas there, only one other than ours was occupied early in the day. Later on, though, all but one had guests. I don’t regret taking the cabana. As mentioned, it was very warm that day and we could use a bit of shade here and there.

Picture below shows what the cabana looks like and it was the only picture I took showing it (not the best picture):

T

he bad thing about being the last cabana on the beach is that wifi didn’t work there. So, I went to the restaurant, downloaded my emails and synced up my fitbit. Funny enough, after noon, the beach got very crowded. As I tried to check my online banking later that afternoon, I wasn’t able to connect. Folks at the bad explained too many people were trying to use wi-fi at the same time.

I then remembered this is EXACTLY what happened 5 years ago when I went there. My tip: if you go to Royal Palms and need to use the Internet, do it at the beginning of the day.

Cayman Islands is really beautiful, that blue calm water, we spent a lot of time inside the ocean. I also took the opportunity to walk for maybe a mile to the right of the bar and passed several (pretty empty) condos. In all of them, there was a security guard but, differently from Jamaica, I had all the freedom to come and go.

We ordered a fries (huge portion) for the kids, several pina coladas and my dad ordered a couple of beers for him and Eliane.

On the way back, I went to the parking lot where they have taxis and vans available. I asked for a van for the 13 of us and, to my surprise, was charged U$ 30.00 to go back, without even bargaining.

We stopped at the entrance of the port. My sister’s family got some souvenirs and we went back to the ship. Back on the tender, Elane waited until the very last minute to get on. The rest of the group boarded and went to the back. Waiting for the boat to leave the port wasn’t so bad this time. As we got to the Vista, little boat was going up and down in the water and the process to check in was going too slow. I could see from the back Elane wasn’t feeling well but at least she was in the front. It took at least 15 minutes for the rest of us inside the boat. I noticed Aroldo (carrying Theo) wasn’t feeling well, his face was pale. It wasn’t a good experience…

The family went straight to the Lido but Elane didn’t eat anything but a small salad (still not feeling 100%). I wanted to try the (free for lunch) Jiji Asian restaurant. At lunch time, they offer free stir-fry. Similar concept to the Italian restaurant for lunch, you pick the pasta, protein (beef in my case), vegetables and sauce and they cook it for you. When I sit down to wait for my food, I saw Sebastian, from our dinner team working there. We spent some time chatting and he recommended I tried the Asian salad from there while I was waiting. Great recommendation, it was very good with a dressing I don’t remember having tried at home before.

After I got my plate and went to Lido, both Aroldo and my sister Chris asked if I could get them the same as myself. I went back to Jiji and got 2 extra orders.

Once more, we had the gelatos (I believe it was mango and cappuccino today), both excellent.

The kids noticed the waterslides were still open and I decided to join them. This turned out to be my luck as it was the only time I got to go on the slides (we came back from Mexico late in the day and they were all closed on the last sea day.

Something I found weird here and have no explanation. There are 2 “big” rides on the Vista, Twister (yellow) and Kaleid-o-Slide (orange). The orange one, you go on a raft and has a minimum 48 inches requirement. It’s an easy ride. The yellow one, where you just slide down is very fast, way more fun but has a minimum height requirement of only 42 inches. Go figure that!!! I went once on each ride, the kids kept going over and over.

I remembered we had some clothes that needed to be washed. Carnival Vista has a launderette with 2 or 3 washing on several decks. I went to the one on our (2nd) deck and there was one lady there indicating the machines were not working for her. I tried and indeed it wouldn’t read the sail and sign card for the U$ 3.00 charge. I called Guest Services myself and within 5 minutes a technician was there. She rebooted the terminal and fixed the problem. I started the cycle and put a reminder on my cell to come back and move the clothes to the dryer in 45 minutes. They sell the soap for cheap (1.50) but I always take it from home (I saved a couple of samples I got during the year at Costco and took them with me).

Gabriel and I decided to watch the 5:30 family comedy show, by fellow Canadian Jason Blanchard. I arrived at the Punchliner Comedy Club 20 minutes before and there was a line up but we were able to get a good seat. He was hilarious, both Gabriel and I laughed a lot. I left a few minutes before the show was over to go to dinner, but Gabriel told me what he wanted to order and stayed to the end. I wish I had watched the other comedian on the ship as well as Jason’s 18+ show, but this was the only comedy show I watched.

Before heading to dinner, I moved the clothes to the dryer. The machine was less than half full but the clothes were still pretty wet when I went to get the clothes later. I ran another cycle and, coming back 45 minutes later that night, the clothes were still humid. I then gave up and left them hanging inside the cabin until next morning, when they were finally dry. Not sure if it was a single machine issue or if the dryers just don’t work too well on the Vista.

At dinner (second elegant night on our cruise), Elane had the Chesapeake crab cake. She said it was really good (9). I had the stuffed mushrooms (9). I didn’t have high expectations but I liked a lot. As main dish, I had the duo of filet mignon and short rib. Both cuts were so tender, I give it a 10. Elane had the Teriyaki Salmon filet (9). For dessert, not too many good options today. The only one that caught my attention (and it was what I ordered) was the Amaretto Cake (9). Elane had the “healthy option”, key lime mousse (7.5).

I forgot to mention, one of the highlights on the trip was to see and hear the Violinists playing at the Atrium. Such a nice combination of a classic instrument and recent famous songs. We loved them and made sure to spend a few minutes watching them whenever they were playing. We took some more pictures that night, stopped at the shops on the 4th deck and decided to go again to the 11th deck for the kids to play.

This is when I stopped by the main pool and saw people watching a movie on the big screen. I thought to myself: WOW, how come I have not done that yet? They have free popcorn, the sound is amazing and, being so dark, the quality on the screen was awesome!!! I checked the Fun Times and saw Spider-Man: Homecoming would be playing next evening at 9:30 PM. I told Elane I would be watching it next evening and Aroldo mentioned he would join me.

We went to bed to try to rest for our last stop of the cruise, in Cozumel, Mexico.

❤ your review! Your writing is very entertaining.

 

Btw, does Leite mean 7?

 

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Hi, thanks for following... It takes me a LONG time to write and review since English is not my first language, so I appreciate the compliment.

Leite is actually my last name (Camilo Leite) and it means MILK in English.

I'm glad/sad to see that I'm not crazy regarding our experience in Jamaica...AND that I'm not the only one who liked that turkey sandwich at the deli :D

LOL...

Your review is helping me quiet a bit.

I stopped taking notes for the review on the afternoon of the Cayman Islands day. Seeing the menu you're posting is helping me to remember what we ordered every night.

The deli was very good, indeed. Again (must be the third time I say this), there are too many good options for lunch on the Vista. This is a reason to book an 8 day cruise in the future...

Mr. Tater Head's originally a Hasbro product. So, maybe that's why?

 

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Hummm, could very well be since they keep mentioning on the family harbor the "Hasbro board games" as a feature, so they must have a partnership between Harsro and Carnival.

Thanks for reading...