Vista 7/1/16 8 day Med Review - a Vista like no other

[jimbo5544]

First night dining. We had late dining, when we started cruising we had late seating and then as our kids had kids and sailed with us, we switched to early seating for the kids. This cruise was all adults, so we switched back to late seating for that reason and also, with a port intensive cruise that the ship was fairly late at some ports it just made sense.

[jimbo5544]

Quick question. We are traveling with a group of 12 and we are the only Platinum members. Most of the people are first time cruisers. Would it be possible to rejoin our friends after we get our sail and sign cards?

 

Sorry' date=' I missed your post and just saw it when I was scanning back to see if I had already mentioned something. Yes,you can meet up before going on the ship. You will have to come downstairs to where they are to board. You might have to look for them a bit, but I think it will work. Sorry for the delay in responding. [/size']

[jimbo5544]

Our dining room was right off the main lobby (on floor 3). Two things caught my attention as we went down for a drink. the first is those video tubes... the second was the entertainment. I will talk more on entertainment later, but for more than a couple of nights (maybe all...I really have it blended in my head, they had these violin players playing to different types of music. They were outstanding. My first thought was violin players on Carnival? I later found there was 4 of them and one had slipped and fallen and was out of commission during our cruise, but I really enjoyed them.

[jimbo5544]

We sought out Ken to thank him again for what he had done for us and headed to our table. He stopped by all nights but one to say ho and ask if everything was OK.

 

Our wait staff was excellent. Headed by a female waiter (only the third time we have had a female head waiter), they were more than attentive. On the second night, the head waiter asked if everything was OK, (her seeing Ken stop by) I said yes,anticipated why she was asking and said that Ken was an old friend, but if we needed anything we ask her first. All was good....

[jimbo5544]

Vista is doing American Table, and I think it is just fine. Here are a couple pics of the table and menus for those who might not have seen them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

After dinner we headed out and checked out the entertainment at the red frog, Oceans plaza and the Havana bar for a while and as we still adjusting to Europe time we headed off to bed.

 

Next up day two - our only sea day and first cruise elegant night [/color]

Edited July 17, 2016 by jimbo5544

[cmecruise1962]

I'm so excited to see this...I'm on the same itinerary in 32 days! I'm glad that you are posting the dinner menus because while I know we are going to the steakhouse on Day 1, I want to go to Jiji and Bonsai as well. I'll probably skip the Italian restaurant because of the abundance of Italian food on shore, but you never know! :D

[jimbo5544]

I'm so excited to see this...I'm on the same itinerary in 32 days! I'm glad that you are posting the dinner menus because while I know we are going to the steakhouse on Day 1, I want to go to Jiji and Bonsai as well. I'll probably skip the Italian restaurant because of the abundance of Italian food on shore, but you never know! :D

 

 

LOL, sadly, this is the only menu I captured, just wanted to give people who did not see American Table to "get a flavor" of what it is all about. I will say in advance that we had two extras, the Steakhouse (on the last night, it was for our entire group, and the only night we could get) and we added a stop at the Cucina. You are correct, the Cucina can't really compare to local food, it's whether you can sample the local food. We did a couple of times, the most significant in our stop in Naples, it was fantastic and coming up. This was such a busy cruise that we found we did not get to do everything we wanted on the Vista.

[RNsoon2beNP]

Dont cruise her until February. But your reciew is building the anticipation. Definitely following 😍😆

[cmecruise1962]

But, no worries! It looks like it is the same (except for the "local" part) as the other 8 day menu I saw...I think from the Breeze. I will use that to make my reservations and adjust accordingly! I have Anytime Dining (because I'm going with my daughter and she was frequently not hungry at our assigned time) so I won't feel bad about pulling a "no show"! Also, to me, the service at Anytime is pretty hit or miss.

 

I can't wait to see the rest of your review!

[jimbo5544]

Dont cruise her until February. But your reciew is building the anticipation. Definitely following 😍😆

 

Thanks for following along and the nice words. More coming. Ask any questions you might have along the way.

[jimbo5544]

But, no worries! It looks like it is the same (except for the "local" part) as the other 8 day menu I saw...I think from the Breeze. I will use that to make my reservations and adjust accordingly! I have Anytime Dining (because I'm going with my daughter and she was frequently not hungry at our assigned time) so I won't feel bad about pulling a "no show"! Also, to me, the service at Anytime is pretty hit or miss.

 

I can't wait to see the rest of your review!

 

Thanks! more coming today. I will say this about the dining. Our cruise was the largest in terms of population on the ship to date (I heard this from multiples sources, Matt and the Captain. It was also the largest that wanted ATD, and they said they struggled when the majority showed up at 7:30 (but it did work just fine). So the aft dining room (where ATD is) is two floors and the mid ship is one floor. (like the Sunshine). I asked if they were going to swap this when she came over to the stated and was told it has not been decided yet.

[jimbo5544]

A fun day at sea and Flat Stanley

 

We awoke early as usual it was taking my body clock a while longer to get on European time and we normally walk in the mornings. We decided not to do this on this cruise since we would be walking so much (and that sure turned our to be true). We headed up a floor to lido and went to or normal spot ( we always go aft starboard side...go figure....creatures of habit) waiting for a couple of people, got something to eat and then headed out to the aft pool.

 

Before we go there, I have to talk about flat stanley. coming up.....

[aberdeener]

But, no worries! It looks like it is the same (except for the "local" part) as the other 8 day menu I saw...I think from the Breeze. I will use that to make my reservations and adjust accordingly! I have Anytime Dining (because I'm going with my daughter and she was frequently not hungry at our assigned time) so I won't feel bad about pulling a "no show"! Also, to me, the service at Anytime is pretty hit or miss.

 

I can't wait to see the rest of your review!

 

When we board we usually head straight to the maitre'd as soon as he opens. We can usually get all of the menus in daily order and we then decide which night/s we want to dine at the specialty restaurant/s. That way you don't miss out on your dining room favourites. For our August cruise we are a family of 16 so we have already booked the steakhouse and may adjust after we board if it looks like there is a better night.

[jimbo5544]

We have 5 grown kids and 14 grand children. Our 2nd oldest grand child knows we travel a lot and came to us with something they ask kids to do for their summer vacation. For those that don't know, they have this character they color and then bring around with them on their summer vacation and when they go back to school they describe what Flat Stanley did on his summer vacation. She knows we travel some so wanted us to do teh same with Flat Stanley so she could experience where we go.

 

We readily agreed, and this was to be the first trip Flat Stanley made with us. What we did not realize was how much everyone else in our group adopted Flat Stanley as well. Even the Travel Agency we are associated with got into it when we posted some pics while on the trip to their Facebook page.

[jimbo5544]

So I would like to introduce Flat Stanley, he did have some trauma along the way, but that comes later. Here he is with my sister law out at the pool on our fun day at sea.

 

 

[jimbo5544]

Darn, I hate when that happens, I selected the wrong pic size, so until I get to the next page, you will have to scroll to see all the pics on screen. Sorry about that.:(

[jimbo5544]

During the morning Flat Stanley made his way around the pool. He is a pretty friendly guy!

 

 

 

[crzndeb]

Darn, I hate when that happens, I selected the wrong pic size, so until I get to the next page, you will have to scroll to see all the pics on screen. Sorry about that.:(

 

LOL...when I saw the itty bitty print, I said, oops, there's a large picture somewhere down this page.

[jimbo5544]

Earlier in the day at breakfast, he started showing himself around as well. Then he found alongside the Alchemy bar a poster of the Periodic Table. His owner Leah studied the Periodic table in first grade (where the heck did that come from:eek:) so he wanted a picture next to that as well.

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

We always have a shared cocktail party for our groups when we cruise. This one was in the Liquid Lounge and there were 4 outer groups there with us (all more or less the same size. Usually, these occur on the last sea day....lol and it was the same this time, only it was the first full day of the cruise. We would have preferred it later in the cruise but you understood why it was not and you play the hand you were dealt.

[jimbo5544]

LOL...when I saw the itty bitty print, I said, oops, there's a large picture somewhere down this page.

 

Yeah, I know. No go backies tho.... hopefully we can move on to a new page soon.

[jimbo5544]

Here are some pictures from the cocktail party

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

and a few more...... Flat Stanley does not miss free drinks.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

It was time to get ready for our first cruise elegant night. With the slackening of dress attire, I was interested to see how this cruise would rank up. I would be pleasantly surprised on that front. Before we headed out I go the chance to grab a few pics of a sunset.