Vista Trip Report with photos and videos!

[ABQrobin]

So I am not going to do a day-by-day report this time, just didn't take good enough notes.  I did take lots of photos and videos to share though.  

 

A little about us...  just regular working folks, late 50s-early 60s, retired military, one grown kid who lives in Houston now.  We used to only go on big scuba diving vacations every year, mostly to Cozumel but other destinations around the world too....then we started getting old and all that crap.  So we started cutting back on the crazy intensive go-go-go trips, we both had a few surgeries taking us out of diving to recover.  The idea of cruising NEVER entered the equation until that point - we wanted to go on vacation but didn't know where or how without scuba diving.  A cruise was the answer - that was back in Oct 2014, our first.

 

This Vista cruise was our 10th cruise, all on Carnival.  Yes, we liked it more than we expected.  We have done a couple of scuba trips in between cruises but really don't think they are necessary anymore as we want to do some topside activities now, things we never had time for before.  We have found cruising to be the perfect fit of travel, new places, activities, and budget for us.

 

So.... we were on the 8-day Vista cruise April 13th-21st.  We had booked for the Vista in the previous fall but had to cancel as we decided to sell our house and buy a newer one more to our needs.  So we booked this cruise and were both looking forward to seeing the new Vista, see the hype about it for ourselves, and see the infamous Matt Mitcham cruise director extraordinaire.  

 

so here goes....  

 

Day 1:  Saturday, Embarkation

Yes, getting to Galveston from the airport in a nightmare...nuff said.

We finally got onboard, our room was balcony 6425, right above the Havana area.  LOVED it.  Nice and quiet and close to everything.  One floor down was Promenade with all that stuff, stairs and elevators just around the corner.  Perfect location, just perfect.

 

 

 

Lido was a total madhouse.  I guess they had a late start boarding due to Coast Guard regular inspection taking too long.  So the entire ship was there on Lido trying to get food.  Luckily this was the only time we saw it this crazy, which is amazing in itself.

 

Muster drill was in the dining room.  Vista has all indoor areas for this, so no standing outside in heat or cold or rain... been there, done that.

 

The Sailaway party was great...and our first glance at Matt Mitcham.  

Here's my video:

 

 

 

We enjoyed the whole Sailaway...  our last cruise it was pouring rain outside so it didn't happen.  THIS was fun for everyone....

 

FYI ----   my videos on Vimeo.... if you want to watch them full screen on your desktop computer, just look at the lower right corner and hit the "expand" icon next to word Vimeo.  They are all HD.

 

more to come!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by ABQrobin

[Jerseygirl1416]

Yay! I love your reviews. Great sail away video. Made me wish I was there!! Thanks for taking the time 😊

[ABQrobin]

Thanks Jerseygirl1416...  I will have lots of photos, hits and misses for the ship, etc.  Hope to post more tonight.

[ABQrobin]

okay, got a few minutes.... I will continue on with Day 1.

 

We had been told in order to do the Brewery Tour to go into the Red Frog Brewery on Deck 5 and sign up the first day...so off we dashed.  Its a cool little brewery and made my DH giddy with excitement (he belongs to brewers assoc and does homebrewing, etc).  And...............................  we were informed the Brewer was not onboard this week, oops, sorry!  No tour.  Crap..

 

 

 

 

 

more.....

[ABQrobin]

That was a big blow....  he had been looking forward to doing the Vista for over a year.  Poo.

 

So we continued to stroll around the ship and try to get our bearings.  This ship was definitely laid out differently.  

 

Leaving Galveston...

 

 

more later.....

[jbethel11]

5 hours ago, ABQrobin said:

Yes, getting to Galveston from the airport in a nightmare

I am planning to fly from NYC to Houston Hobby the day before, and stay in near the airport too. What's your choice of transportation? What advice do you have?

 

5 hours ago, ABQrobin said:

our last cruise it was pouring rain outside so it didn't happen.

Our last cruise had an indoor sail away party in the Royal Promenade! Horrible idea, (but in those circumstances, the best)! 

 

17 minutes ago, ABQrobin said:

Brewery Tour to go into the Red Frog Brewery on Deck 5 and sign up the first day...so off we dashed.  Its a cool little brewery and made my DH giddy with excitement (he belongs to brewers assoc and does homebrewing, etc).

How much was the tour per person? Was there a cap on the maximum amount of people who could attend the tour?

 

5 hours ago, ABQrobin said:

had to cancel

Did you book Early Saver? If so, did you have to pay the charge?

[ABQrobin]

27 minutes ago, jbethel11 said:

I am planning to fly from NYC to Houston Hobby the day before, and stay in near the airport too. What's your choice of transportation? What advice do you have?

 

Our last cruise had an indoor sail away party in the Royal Promenade! Horrible idea, (but in those circumstances, the best)! 

 

How much was the tour per person? Was there a cap on the maximum amount of people who could attend the tour?

 

Did you book Early Saver? If so, did you have to pay the charge?

 

We flew in once to Hobby and stayed at the Marriot right by airport, then took the Carnival shuttle the next morning, first one.  Worked great.  This time we flew in the day of cruise and ended up on last shuttle, not our fault, airport was a madhouse and not enough shuttles for everyone.  If you have more than 2 people, then Uber etc might be better.

 

Brewery tour - i think it is $25pp, but you get a pitcher of beer and glass to keep, so worth it.

 

Yes, we had booked the other one and got a $100 penalty ($50pp) to move to another cruise.  

[jbethel11]

6 minutes ago, ABQrobin said:

 

We flew in once to Hobby and stayed at the Marriot right by airport, then took the Carnival shuttle the next morning, first one.  Worked great.  This time we flew in the day of cruise and ended up on last shuttle, not our fault, airport was a madhouse and not enough shuttles for everyone.  If you have more than 2 people, then Uber etc might be better.

 

Brewery tour - i think it is $25pp, but you get a pitcher of beer and glass to keep, so worth it.

 

Yes, we had booked the other one and got a $100 penalty ($50pp) to move to another cruise.  

Yeah, a family of four would fair better in an Uber! It's like 1/4 of the price, and we could use that excess money to buy Bottomless Bubbles and Excursions lol!

 

Was Carnival at all sympathetic when/if you called? Or no...?

 

 

[ABQrobin]

12 minutes ago, jbethel11 said:

 

Was Carnival at all sympathetic when/if you called? Or no...?

 

 

 

it really was okay, I didn't think we would get any deposit back honestly, but we cancelled before the final payment was due, so that helped.  The lady understood we were in the middle of buying a house and selling ours and that is not the time to go on vacation.  So no ugliness...plus we already looked online and had decided to do the Vista in April instead, so we had that prepared as our place to put the rest of our deposit money.  Worked out fine.

[Gettys84]

7 hours ago, ABQrobin said:

So I am not going to do a day-by-day report this time, just didn't take good enough notes.  I did take lots of photos and videos to share though.  

 

A little about us...  just regular working folks, late 50s-early 60s, retired military, one grown kid who lives in Houston now.  We used to only go on big scuba diving vacations every year, mostly to Cozumel but other destinations around the world too....then we started getting old and all that crap.  So we started cutting back on the crazy intensive go-go-go trips, we both had a few surgeries taking us out of diving to recover.  The idea of cruising NEVER entered the equation until that point - we wanted to go on vacation but didn't know where or how without scuba diving.  A cruise was the answer - that was back in Oct 2014, our first.

 

This Vista cruise was our 10th cruise, all on Carnival.  Yes, we liked it more than we expected.  We have done a couple of scuba trips in between cruises but really don't think they are necessary anymore as we want to do some topside activities now, things we never had time for before.  We have found cruising to be the perfect fit of travel, new places, activities, and budget for us.

 

So.... we were on the 8-day Vista cruise April 13th-21st.  We had booked for the Vista in the previous fall but had to cancel as we decided to sell our house and buy a newer one more to our needs.  So we booked this cruise and were both looking forward to seeing the new Vista, see the hype about it for ourselves, and see the infamous Matt Mitcham cruise director extraordinaire.  

 

so here goes....  

 

Day 1:  Saturday, Embarkation

Yes, getting to Galveston from the airport in a nightmare...nuff said.

We finally got onboard, our room was balcony 6425, right above the Havana area.  LOVED it.  Nice and quiet and close to everything.  One floor down was Promenade with all that stuff, stairs and elevators just around the corner.  Perfect location, just perfect.

 

 

 

Lido was a total madhouse.  I guess they had a late start boarding due to Coast Guard regular inspection taking too long.  So the entire ship was there on Lido trying to get food.  Luckily this was the only time we saw it this crazy, which is amazing in itself.

 

Muster drill was in the dining room.  Vista has all indoor areas for this, so no standing outside in heat or cold or rain... been there, done that.

 

The Sailaway party was great...and our first glance at Matt Mitcham.  

Here's my video:

 

 

 

We enjoyed the whole Sailaway...  our last cruise it was pouring rain outside so it didn't happen.  THIS was fun for everyone....

 

FYI ----   my videos on Vimeo.... if you want to watch them full screen on your desktop computer, just look at the lower right corner and hit the "expand" icon next to word Vimeo.  They are all HD.

 

more to come!

 

 

 

 

 

How did you get the video to link to Vimeo?

[ABQrobin]

I am not sure what you are asking.  I have a Vimeo account for all my videos (currently 168) and I have the ability to link them anywhere I want as owner.  Is that what you mean?

 

robin

[Gettys84]

29 minutes ago, ABQrobin said:

I am not sure what you are asking.  I have a Vimeo account for all my videos (currently 168) and I have the ability to link them anywhere I want as owner.  Is that what you mean?

 

robin

Got it. Thanks. 

[ABQrobin]

okay, one more video of the night.  Sorry the sound goes in and out a little, don't know if I was putting my hand over mic or what.  FYI - this is all with my GoPro5 black.  Really love this little thing, great quality in a small package.

 

So... we had dinner in main dining room, Your Time Dining.  Your S&S card says to go on Deck 5 to the check-in desk, not to the dining room.  We went there and they gave us a slip of paper with a table number and told us which floor (decks 3 and 4 are the dining room locations at back of ship).  We went down, got seated.  Nothing different after that.

However, we were then told that from the App on your phone you can now request the table and go directly to dining room when it says ready.  You just walk in and show your phone to person at door.... WOW, that was easy!  No need to go to the checkin desk at all.  We noticed some people still weren't used to this idea and just showed up to dining room like the old way on ships.  Either way, you get a table and same food.

 

After dinner, we walked around some more, went to listen to band in Ocean Plaza, then to Welcome Aboard show in the main theater, Liquid Lounge.  Its the same welcome show on every ship now, just the host does a little different thing with his part before introducing the Playlist Performers.  Its good so we always go.

 

After that we walked down to Lobby area and Matt was already there, doing his Thing...  

 

 

Ah yes, Matt Mitcham....  I think by the end of the first day every woman and half the men on the ship had a crush on him.  

 

more tomorrow!

 

robin

 

[modes]

3 hours ago, ABQrobin said:

okay, one more video of the night.  Sorry the sound goes in and out a little, don't know if I was putting my hand over mic or what.  FYI - this is all with my GoPro5 black.  Really love this little thing, great quality in a small package.

 

So... we had dinner in main dining room, Your Time Dining.  Your S&S card says to go on Deck 5 to the check-in desk, not to the dining room.  We went there and they gave us a slip of paper with a table number and told us which floor (decks 3 and 4 are the dining room locations at back of ship).  We went down, got seated.  Nothing different after that.

However, we were then told that from the App on your phone you can now request the table and go directly to dining room when it says ready.  You just walk in and show your phone to person at door.... WOW, that was easy!  No need to go to the checkin desk at all.  We noticed some people still weren't used to this idea and just showed up to dining room like the old way on ships.  Either way, you get a table and same food.

 

After dinner, we walked around some more, went to listen to band in Ocean Plaza, then to Welcome Aboard show in the main theater, Liquid Lounge.  Its the same welcome show on every ship now, just the host does a little different thing with his part before introducing the Playlist Performers.  Its good so we always go.

 

After that we walked down to Lobby area and Matt was already there, doing his Thing...  

 

 

Ah yes, Matt Mitcham....  I think by the end of the first day every woman and half the men on the ship had a crush on him.  

 

more tomorrow!

 

robin

 

Why would a man have a crush on Matt? Please !!!!!!!!!!!!

[ABQrobin]

7 hours ago, modes said:

Why would a man have a crush on Matt? Please !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I guess you just don't get my sense of humor.  

Matt has charisma and got people to do things, join in sign alongs, relate to little kids and big kids...  he just has the "it" factor.  He draws every audience in like a magnet and yet he is warm and genuine.  It is something special to see.

 

[jimbri]

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

[ABQrobin]

DAY 2:  Sea Day!

 

Sea Days are nice and relaxing, and this one was no different.  We did the usual, walk around, sit by pool in shade (not a sun person), watch people, relax.... and of course, eat eat and more eating.

 

Hit or Miss?

There has been a lot of hype about the new CAKES at lunchtime on the Lido.  Here is our take on them.

1.  They are beautiful.

2.  They are only at the back buffet section.

3.  There is always a line.

4.  There are always about 6 different cakes, usually there is a sugarfree one.

5.  Flavors - well the names suggest really exotic flavors as well as traditional favorites.  

6.  Taste -  here's the thing,  we had mixed feelings about the tastes.  Some of them had fancy names yet tasted nothing like the name suggested.  I found it to be about a 50/50 mix of yummy and bland.  DH thought that they were pretty good overall, but hated the clear gel glaze that topped many of them.  We both agreed the Key Lime never tasted like lime at all, very disappointing.  The elderflower was my favorite, he loved the chocolate.

 

Some photos from the whole week of cakes.....

 

 

As you can see, these are not serve-yourself.  Someone slices and puts on your plate for you.  Not traditional slices, but good enough taste you can definitely try more than one.... at least that was our excuse to get 2 slices every time.  

 

 

 

 

 

[jbethel11]

3 minutes ago, ABQrobin said:

DAY 2:  Sea Day!

 

Sea Days are nice and relaxing, and this one was no different.  We did the usual, walk around, sit by pool in shade (not a sun person), watch people, relax.... and of course, eat eat and more eating.

 

Hit or Miss?

There has been a lot of hype about the new CAKES at lunchtime on the Lido.  Here is our take on them.

1.  They are beautiful.

2.  They are only at the back buffet section.

3.  There is always a line.

4.  There are always about 6 different cakes, usually there is a sugarfree one.

5.  Flavors - well the names suggest really exotic flavors as well as traditional favorites.  

6.  Taste -  here's the thing,  we had mixed feelings about the tastes.  Some of them had fancy names yet tasted nothing like the name suggested.  I found it to be about a 50/50 mix of yummy and bland.  DH thought that they were pretty good overall, but hated the clear gel glaze that topped many of them.  We both agreed the Key Lime never tasted like lime at all, very disappointing.  The elderflower was my favorite, he loved the chocolate.

 

Some photos from the whole week of cakes.....

 

 

As you can see, these are not serve-yourself.  Someone slices and puts on your plate for you.  Not traditional slices, but good enough taste you can definitely try more than one.... at least that was our excuse to get 2 slices every time.  

 

 

 

 

 

Not to deter from the topic, but the crew looks so tired. I don't know, maybe it is just me. Those cakes look outstanding, though!

[ABQrobin]

A few more cakes..... cause they're so pretty.

 

 

 

this one is blood orange sponge - sorry it is hard to read

 

 

more...

[ABQrobin]

 

Black forest cake is DH favorite cake - we were stationed in Germany for 3 years so we ate a lot of it... and this tasted nothing like what we expected.  It was just chocolate cake with cherries on top.  Total miss.

 

Also, if you don't like a lot of frosting, these cakes are not for you. I mean a LOT of frosting...on all of them.

 

 

 

more later....

[atakkat]

We too found the cakes to be lacking taste at the “Sweet Spot” on the Vista. A darn shame, they all look so good. So Elderflower and which chocolate? Did you find the gelato on the Lido? Also interested in dinner menus, as we are trying to make a reservation for Steakhouse. Did you take any pictures of the menus or remember which night was least appealing? Thank you!

Edited April 28, 2019 by atakkat

[ABQrobin]

36 minutes ago, atakkat said:

We too found the cakes to be lacking taste at the “Sweet Spot” on the Vista. A darn shame, they all look so good. So Elderflower and which chocolate? Did you find the gelato on the Lido? Also interested in dinner menus, as we are trying to make a reservation for Steakhouse. Did you take any pictures of the menus or remember which night was least appealing? Thank you!

 

He liked the dark chocolate one, guess I didn't get a photo of it.  

Yes, the gelato was a treat but you had to be there standing around waiting as it was gone within 2 minutes of the time it stopped churning.  It was a crazy madhouse.  We only got it twice for that reason.

 

We didn't take photos of the menus... all seemed to be exactly the same as every other cruise with the exception of the Ports of Call sections.  We only ate in MDR 4 of the 8 nights for that reason.  Ate at the Lido buffet twice so we could hit the Comedy Shows (more about that later) and once for the Bonsai Sushi and JiJi Asian dinners... more about those also later on.

 

Edited April 28, 2019 by ABQrobin

[ABQrobin]

Dinner this night was of course Elegant Night...which doesn't mean much on Carnival anymore.  We saw about half the passengers dressed up, and about half were still in shorts and t-shirts, even in the dining room.  

Nothing special of note, same menu as every first night Elegant night... lobster tail, creme brulee.  

 

Tomorrow - first port day:  Cozumel!

 

[JaniceB]

Great start to your review, I am enjoying the pictures and videos.

[rcprncss]

Looking forward to hearing about Cozumel.

 

I heard they give away prizes at the Welcome Aboard Show.  Were there prizes given out at your show?  Thanks.