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Vista 8 day April 21st Review

kc58ab

By kc58ab,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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kc58ab

kc58ab

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Hello. I'm a few days back from my 6th Carnival cruise aboard the Vista. I'm going to do a quick review as I have in years past.

 

I'll start with I'm 41, married, mother of 2, from the Midwest. I took this cruise with my daughter (21) and a group of friends. My hubby stayed home to make sure our son (18) went to school....his senioritis is getting bad ;p

 

None of us had been on the Vista before. Several in the group (we had 10) wanted to try it. This cruise was about $300 pp more than similar itineraries out of Miami. Apparently people are willing to pay more for a newer ship. Worth it? I won't spoil it this early....

 

Several in the group, myself included, decided to book the flight through Carnival. It was comparable price wise at the time of booking. I also liked the concept that Carnival's dime gets you to the next port if there were issues with the flights.

 

More to come....

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We flew into Miami and got checked in at the airport before our transfer. This was much faster than at the port! The Carnival transfer was pretty timely from check in until leaving for the port. We arrived at port around 2 and while we got to skip the longer check in line it took a bit to get onboard. They had emailed prior to the cruise to let us know they had unplanned maintenance on the Skyride and it would be out of service during our cruise. In addition they would only have one gangway for embarking and disembarking. I’m sure that was the cause of the delay. I’d hate to have been in line at say 12 to check in at the port....

 

 

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Thanks everyone for following along.

 

So when we got onboard and dropped bags only thing open was guys and we had late dinner so burgers it is! The Ringer was just as good as I remembered. The line was long, but they do a great job of moving along pretty fast.

 

Next up, yep the dreaded muster drill. I don’t understand why people try to skip out, it’s required by law so just get there so the rest of us don’t have to wait on you while they page you over and over. Good news is they said all muster stations were indoor on Vista! Definitely a big plus if you have ever stood outside in the heat packed like sardines before.

 

 

 

 

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From here the order is blurry so I’m going to hit overall subject wise.

 

Food: We ate in the MDR every night but one. The food was great as usual and the staff was fantastic! By the 2nd night Sumbatra had all 10 of our names down! Every night multiple times he called each of us by name. I don’t know what anyone could realistically complain about with the MDR with my experience anyway.

 

One night my daughter and I tried the Italian place. I really enjoyed it. And the food was great and the service. The portions are Huge!! If you go I recommend you order the cannolis off the kids dessert menu. They were amazing!

 

Blue iguana tacos are pretty hard to beat. I had them for lunch several days. The menu says chicken, pork, or fish. I did ask one day if I could get steak on a taco since it is on the burrito side and they obliged. I wish I tried that sooner [emoji16]. Also note if you like guacamole they don’t have it on the bar but they do have it up on the burrito side you just have to ask for while you’re ordering your tacos.

 

We had pizza a few times late after comedy and it is still in my opinion very good.

 

We did sea day brunch and breakfast in the MDR several times. The food and service was just like at dinner, fantastic. The new broken egg sandwich is yummy totally recommend it.

 

 

 

 

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My daughter and I both enjoy the comedy shows and went to several.

 

We caught Tommy Drake, Arvin Mitchell, Tim Young, and Scotty K.

My

favorite was Scotty K ‘s Music and Mayhem. Lots of laughs in that one. His last two weren’t as good, but still entertaining. Arvin was my least favorite seemed to mainly just roast random people in the audience although he was funny. Had a crack at a loud “platinum”.

 

 

 

 

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I wish I had caught more shows, but it’s hard to fit them in on port days with dinner and comedy. I did catch flick and it was good. Worth the watch for sure. I also caught the lip sync battle show off for the first time. Hilarious [emoji23] especially with Matt as the CD. Go see this if your on his ship for sure entertaining.

 

Speaking of Matt, I’ve never put that much thought into the CD but he does a great job of entertaining. Very personable, funny, and it doesn’t hurt he is easy on the eyes too [emoji6]

 

Also caught the white night and music trivia with Matt. All were good times!

 

Another first for me was the piano bar. Mat, yes Matt with 1 T is very talented. Stop in for this too!

 

 

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As requested [emoji41]

 

Ports: This was my first time at each of these ports.

 

Grand Turk: Great port. Beautiful water, free beach right at the port. Spent first half of the day at Margaritaville which is also right at the port. They have an enormous pool area. Again free [emoji41]Then walked the beach down to Jacks Shack and chilled for awhile. Stop by they have a cute pup that does tricks, less crowded, reasonable drinks and food.

 

San Juan - read online prior to going that the city has free trolleys and several stops so I had planned on taking one of those to the forts. When I got there anand realized that the schedule didn’t align with the time I was there so I ended up walking to one of the forts close by. Definitely a must see and i’m not a history buff. But it was very interesting and had some gorgeous views from the top. I also loved the colorful little buildings around town. I really enjoyed San Juan and hope to go back again with my son and husband, they would’ve loved the fort.

 

 

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St Kitts:

 

My daughter wanted to do the $140 catamaran, snorkeling, and beach excursion but it was sold out when we got on board. So if you’re looking at that one I was suggest you book it in advance. We ended up going with the other catamaran and snorkeling that was about half the price but no beach break or food included. The views from the water were very pretty. And the snorkeling time was ample and I saw several fish I hadn’t seen before unfortunately I forgot my waterproof camera and I was afraid to use my iPhone. It does have an open bar and on the way back drinks are flowing freely.

 

 

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Be prepared when you come back to port there are guys there that will come up to you and practically toss their monkey on you. I told them no as they approached me, but my daughter wanted one so she didn’t say no. After he quickly put monkey on her he grabbed her phone and took what turns out was 1 picture but said I took 4 pics for $20. I told him I wasn’t giving him that he took it before we agreed. I did give him $8 which I think was more than fair.

 

 

 

 

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