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Vista July 14 cruise review.


Carol Jones
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Trying to do this review while on line so bear with me. I always scour cruise critic before I cruise looking for reviews of the boat I will be on (funny my auto correct changed critic to crutches...I changed it back... but that might be a better description for the site). I’ve read so many recent reviews that were tremendously helpful ( big thanks to Sid 9169, AmBear and Californiacruizers). Thought it was time I should give back....

 

We (myself, husband and son-21 year old home on summer break from UGA (Go Dawgs!! Woof woof!) live in the central and complete west part of Georgia. The drive to Miami was going to be 9 or so hours and we couldn’t leave until my Hubby got finished work Friday 3pm. Too tired to make it all the way to Miami so we got a hotel (Quality Inn) Fort Pierce ( about 2 hours out) not a luxury hotel by any means but clean and sufficient for the night. Got up and ate breakfast ( hotel provided) Made our 2 hour drive to Miami. I sometimes talk to people that say they would never drive that many hours. We do all the time! We have several times driven to key west (13 hours) and NYC (20 hours). When the kids were young there were 5 of us sailing so saving money that would otherwise be used for airline tickets has helped us be able to travel as we have. My 21 year old son (only 1 of the 3 still at home) turned Platnium on this cruise.

 

Embarkation- So hot and congested! We got there right at 11. Still many getting off the boat in the way of those trying to get on. The workers had to keep making announcements asking people that had departed to move to the other side of the street if the were waiting to be picked up. I was initially concerned about the crowd but was on ship in 15 minutes. Why people with 1 pm check in time get there at 11 am, I will never know. Yes, people do this. After we went through security when we got in the big building, we could barely move through because so many people were gathered. Not really in line, just in the way. I heard someone tell another person there time was 1 but they were going to try to go ahead and get on. This just makes it bad for everyone. IMG_0267.thumb.JPG.6b7c242d2dfa04d2b55e8069fff4b5ec.JPG

 

 

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Initial impression of ship. Very clean. Pretty. Much more toned down than many of Carnival’s ships. I didn’t miss huge atrium with glass elevators. I know many do. We enjoyed funnel screen. Made our way to the room. Mid ship balcony on lido deck 10264. Great location....very close to lido but couldn’t hear it....,Nice decor, room seems wider than others we’ve had, frig worked well, nice size tv, nice temp (some ships have rooms that are so hot) handy shelves on vanity, nice long mirror on the inside of the closet door. There is extra storage on the bottom of the couch. It has two pull out drawers. Not as much closet space as other Carnival ships. Thank goodness we always bring extra hangers ( that I leave in the room) as we sure needed them!! Also, I’m really missing not having a reading light on the back of the bed. The only light you can use for this is the bedside lamp and it puts out way too much light for the other person in the room to be comfortable napping/sleeping while the other reads. The room is fine for 3 but if we had 4 it would be tight.

 

 

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Disappointed to hear Matt Mitchum would not be our cruise director. He just left for vacation. We are going to have Adam Cornes. Havent heard of him. I’m with holding judgement and will keep you posted on him.

 

Meet room steward, Suantara. Very friendly and efficient. I have a CPAP machine and mentioned that I forgot to bring the extension cord. He was more than happy to take care of that for us. He had one waiting in the room for us when we returned. I mentioned that I liked having ice and he had that here in no time. We picked up the fun times from the room. Here is the first day. Sorry I know the picture is not the greatest.

 

Went to look for lunch. I had read that Ji Ji Asian kitchen, which has an extra $15 charge for dinner has but is free for sea day lunches. During this time it’s called mongolian walk.I took a picture of the sheet you use to order lunch. My husband got muscles and calamari. I got chicken with lo mein and vegetables and also an Asian salad with fried wontons. My son got rice noodles with beef. See below for photos. To be completely honest we were totally unimpressed with this and decided to look for something else. Anyway, I don’t think we will be coming, but I took a photo of the evening menu.

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More of Ji Ji’s menu82b43990e633f3aec6640e72afe858a9.jpg

 

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My son loves Carnival’s pizzas so we got a pizza and checked out the aft pool then we made our way toward the anchor and pig for barbecue. Excellent pork butt and barbecue chicken. My husband really liked the collards. I didn’t much care for the potato salad it was a little odd. Really it’s more like potato wedges covered in a yogurt sauce. 2919a8737f7960f508cd2bdb1d5e0e9f.jpg78940dcc14c732f2f1464b67f4f46be4.jpg

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We walked by the bonsai sushi place. Looked at the menu and we are considering checking this out later in the cruise. DH loves sushi.

 

Next to the red frog pub So my husband and son could sign up for the brewery tour. They will be going tomorrow at 2:30. I have read several places that you should sign up on the first day because the tours typically sell out. I’ll give you more details on that tour later.

 

Went back to the room and rested for an hour or so before the muster drill. Our muster station was in the casino. This was so much better than being outside in the extreme heat and not having a place to sit, but the casino is very very smoky and I wondered if that would be a problem for some people that have asthma and other respiratory issues.

 

 

On the way back to our room I stopped by the dining room to take a picture of the posted menu for the evening. I knew we would not be eating there because we had reservations at the Fahrenheit 555 steakhouse but thought someone might want them. Pardon the purple lighting on the pics. 99bc288b0e425cdc02a59a45d4a295d6.jpg

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Dessert menu from first night. 630277700ca8bd84e59d9ab4266ba085.jpg

 

We went to the steakhouse for dinner. $35 per person and includes gratuity. The people that work here were all very very friendly. They knew we were celebrating my birthday and they brought us all a glass of champagne. How nice!! Before our appetizers came they gave everyone a complementary mini hamburger slider. I am not sure if you can tell the size by the pic but it is about the size of a half dollar. Cute and tasty. See below for some some pictures of our appetizers: salad, tuna tartare, pork belly, shrimp cocktail. This meal was off to a great start but it was about to get better much, much better. Our yummy entrées were the cowboy steak, the surf and turf and the wagyu steak. We had mashed potatoes, onion rings, mushrooms and macaroni and cheese for the sides. Everything we had was VERY delicious but probably the wagyu was the best of all. For dessert we opted to get the table art. This is a pretty cool experience where the chef comes to your table and creates edible art right there on a very large cutting board.The centerpiece of the art is the chocolate sphere. They also gave us a free bottle of house wine for visiting on the first night or we could’ve had any other bottle of wine for 50% off. Since we had just purchased the vineyards package we decided just to go with the free one. It was OK. Not great, but not bad. I let DH drink most of it.

 

Steak house photos...903b9dde32d0d22e00aa0b3dbce8814e.jpg

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We walked around a bit and stopped to hear a musical trio playing in the atrium. They played electric violins and were AMAZING!! They were playing hits from many different decades.

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Went to to casino and played slot machines for a bit. I made $80 and decided to stop while I was ahead. Winning some made me feel better about spending over $20 (after extra tip) for two really girlie drinks I had at the Havana bar. We were all very tired and didn’t do any extra entertainment for the night but I’ll include the weekly schedule.

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SUNDAY

Wow did we sleep late and it felt great. I think that one of the bonuses of being on a longer cruise is that you don’t feel like you have to do everything on the only Sea day. You have time to take it easy and relax.

 

Today is the World Cup final and we are huge soccer fans. The kids played and my husband and I have both coached soccer. Anyway, we called guest services to find out if it was going to be televised on the ship and were told their technician was working on getting it in the sports bar.

 

We went to sea day brunch. I got steak and eggs but didn’t get pictures. We ended up sitting with a nice couple from California so we chatted a bit and I didn’t get to it. I’ll do that later and I’ll post the menu too.

 

 

We used our free drink coupons the room steward left in the cabin to get two beers, unopened. My husband plans on drinking those later in the day. A beer with breakfast, yuck! I can’t even imagine that even if I liked beer!! IMG_0364.thumb.JPG.bfb1ade67c5ebedc87c1febbbbf795a0.JPG

 

We all have the carnival hub and their chat plan. My son and I got the stay connected value plan and I’m thinking I’ll post the info on that if you’re interested. We ended up being able to stream and watch the World Cup on my sons phone. Wanted Croatia to win but congrats France.

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Thank you so much! I'm on her the 28th yipeeee!

 

question - I see the huge line and yet you were in in 15 minutes? Are you platinum? FTTF?

 

Are there 2 regular outlets and 2 usb ports?

 

thank you!

 

Hope you're having a blast!

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Also if you go to any comedy or main shows - about how long are they? I love comedians and try to see as many as I can but love the other main shows and it's hard to know how to plan if I don't know long the shows are lol!

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Nice review so far! If you have time can you get a picture of the Shake Spot menu for me with the spiked shake flavors?;p

 

 

 

Yes. I’ll swing buy there this evening. Also, just so you’ll know- everyday they make fresh gelato at the lido marketplace. Some of the flavors they’ve had so far are: Raspberry, vanilla, coconut and tiramisu . I had tiramisu today and it was great

 

 

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You are making my day!! We board on Sunday!!! Steakhouse first night too! How is the dress code first night steakhouse? Thanks!!! Such a detailed review!!! Much appreciated!

 

 

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The dress code the first night was much like the dining room. I saw it all- shorts to very dressy. I just wore a simple dress and my guys wore slacks.

 

 

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