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Vista March 4th - 10th review

declansdad

By declansdad,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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declansdad

declansdad

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Debarkation Day.

 

OK time to finish this off but before I do I neglected to mention that we celebrated our son's 17th birthday on the last sea day. At dinner our fantastic wait staff brought him an individual birthday cake and they all sang him happy birthday with the group at the next table joining in.

 

Saturday - Back in Miami.

 

With FTTF we could have been off the ship very quickly but we opted to wait until the very end. We were staying in Miami for the night and didn't want to get to the hotel too early. We were out of the cabin by 8:20 and headed for the Horizon dining room for breakfast. We got there just before they stopped serving. After breakfast we simply headed to the Liquid Lounge to wait for the last call.

 

Things we moving slowly as there was only one gangway open and we were finally called around 10:15 or so. I ended up getting separated from everyone else and when I got to Deck 3 I didn't see them so I started off the ship. Declan and I started texting when I couldn't see them in the line that wasn't moving and we realised that they stayed on board looking for me and ended up being the last 3 people off the ship. Getting off took a terribly long time! By the time we cleared customs and got outside it was nearly Noon. There were only 3 customs officers working so it took some time to get everyone through.

 

Outside the terminal was mass confusion as there were still lots of people trying to leave as other people were arriving waiting to board. The traffic in the pick-up area was nuts and it took about 10 to 15 minutes just to find the Lyft driver. We were staying at the Doubletree Grand by Hilton on Biscayne Bay and it took only a few minutes to get there. The room wasn't ready so we checked our bags and headed out to walk around.

 

We planned on meeting a friend for dinner and the Miami Heat game so we opted to walk to the arena to get tickets. They had nothing available so we ended up trying Ticketmaster, StubHub and finally Seat Geek before we found what we thought were good tickets in the 300 section. Unfortunately the picture Seat Geek showed of the view wasn't accurate. They showed the view as being at the front of the 300 section when in fact we were in the second last row.

 

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Before the game we ate at the Bayside Marketplace in the Tradewinds Bar and Grill. Decent food and service plus an outside table. There are lots of choices here if you are in Miami and need a place to eat. It is also close to lots of hotels that have easy access to the Port.

 

After the game, the Heat won, we headed back to the hotel as we had a 7:30 am flight out of Fort Lauderdale and wanted to get some sleep as Sunday was going to be a long day. The bonus was this was the night the time changed and we lost another hour!

 

The Doubletree was great and if you can get a view of the bay you won't be disappointed. These were taken from our balcony.

 

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Some final thoughts:

 

FTTF made getting onboard fast and easy. We had stuff dropped off in the cabin and were off to eat before many people even left the terminal seating area. With Carnival increasing the costs for this, it may not be worth it in the future; we'll have to wait and see.

 

We have read that many people don't like the Vista as its decor was too plain and it was hard to get around. We thought just the opposite. The decor had a fresh new look compared to the other Carnival ships we have been on; it had a much more modern look.

 

Getting around was very easy. We did use the stairs much more than the elevators so that helped. Most of the restaurants, bars and most of the entertainment options were all located decks 3 through 5 so they were easy to access. The only problem we found, and it was minor, was that many of the shop setup tables around the Atrium on deck 4 and 5 and this did cause some congestion at times.

 

We ate all our dinners in the Horizon Dinning Room except for one and that was in the steakhouse. We found all these meals to be very good and had no complaints. The service in Horizon was fantastic and we had a wonderful time chatting with our waitstaff. The waitstaff in the steakhouse were pretty formal at the start of the evening but they became more friendly as the evening went on.

 

The Playlist Production shows were all very good and Flick was a fantastic show, don't miss this one. The lounge does have problems though, the sight lines are not the best in the balcony and the main floor has some issues as well. I would recommend that you get there a bit early and sit on the main floor as close as you can. The singers and dancers were all very good.

 

The Cruise Director and his staff. Matt Mitcham is an amazing CD! We've never paid much attention to the CD in the past but he made sure everyone had fun and were entertained. His staff were also pretty good and were all visible throughout the cruise. There was one guy that did try to emulate Matt a bit too much and as a result it came across like he was trying too hard.

 

Entertainment - there was plenty both day and night. If you couldn't find anything or find something you liked, you weren't trying.

 

Overall this was a really fun cruise and we wouldn't hesitate to sail on the Vista again in the future.

 

Thanks everyone for bearing with me while I get this report completed, I hope that you enjoyed it and I hope it helps someone just a little bit. Happy to answer more questions if there are any.

 

Here is one last video to finish things off.

 

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