Carnival Vista- 11/10 Friday, Sea Day- Post One
Friday, November 10th, Sea Day:
How do I get a Dreamscape for my house?
We started off with Sea Day Brunch in the MDR and found it to be just alright. The conditions were very cramped. I'm talking like, stick my elbow out to the side and I'd be very close in someone else's personal bubble. It makes it hard to stay out of others' conversations when you're basically eating side to side while at physically different 2-top tables. The food was good but really no different than the Lido breakfast. We had brought some champagne down with us and ordered orange juice to make our own mimosas, which was a nice twist to start the morning off with. We didn't have to wait too long for our food to arrive and we're pretty quick eaters so our visit there was probably under 30 minutes total.
What we lovingly call "The Willdra Special" (if you haven't read Willdra's AMAZING reviews on Cruise Critic, you're doing something wrong. She is a hundred times more witty and funny than I could ever hope to be and her photos are fantastic!). She always seems to have this breakfast combo so my husband wanted to try it out!
Even though we had received a ship-on-a-stick from Mr. Heald, we were greedy and in search of a true trivia win, so we attended three different trivia events that morning with no luck (or skill). It was very nice to not feel rushed to get of the ship or have to do anything in particular, so we decided that being lazy in the spa for almost two hours was definitely our next task. Between the thermal rooms and the heated loungers, I was sufficiently relaxed. There's something about reading a good book and having an awesome view through giant glass windows that adds to the whole pampered on a cruise experience. I'm also realizing that as I type this, I don't have a lot of pictures to add because, who takes pictures in a spa? But I agree it makes it more boring to read- sorry!
After changing from our long morning session at the spa, we headed to Guys Burgers for lunch, and found that there was basically no line at 1pm, which was nice. We brought our food to our favorite venue, the Red Frog Pub & Brewery and played card games while enjoying lunch and a few beverages. Still not entirely discouraged at our lack of trivia wins, we made our way to the Ocean Plaza for yet another attempt at a ship-on-a-stick. Guess what the outcome of that was?
Spoiler: We didn't win. I would like to clarify though that we consider ourselves fairly intelligent people who know a lot of random things, but apparently not enough to win a Carnival trivia event. One day, it will happen. And I will be ecstatic.
The smaller, yet also cool, casino bar Dreamscape:
We watched some Netflix on our balcony and enjoyed the weather and views. Which reminds me, I received a question from a reader that I thought might be helpful to answer in a more public setting. We have a Netflix subscription and recently discovered that some (not a whole ton) shows allow you to download episodes to your device so you can watch offline. In preparation for the trip, I downloaded multiple episodes of the Great British Bake Off and The Office, as well as a movie that I can't remember now. It was an awesome discovery and something I'll definitely plan on doing on future trips. We watched an episode of the Bake Off before heading to take a nap. Turns out, relaxing at the spa and the balcony actually made us more tired than going out and doing things in port.
It was the last formal night on the trip so we gussied up and went to dinner. Quick Note that I'm still really impressed with how Your Time Dining works on the Vista. I'm very much a fan of checking in and having a table basically ready for us by the time we make our way down two flights of stairs.
My husband ordered the pasta fagioli soup for his appetizer, but unfortunately found it very flavorless and not a great texture. He will eat a lot of different types of food, including some leftovers from the fridge that are on the edge of questionable, but really didn't enjoy this soup. He felt terrible asking for a new appetizer but I reminded him that Carnival really enjoys plumping people up with their food and that he was allowed to ask for something else. Our waitress was so nice about it, but he still felt badly. He got the crab cake instead and really like that choice. I had the salmon teriyaki I believe, which was pretty good, and we loved the Spanikopita.
After dinner we walked around the ship and took more formal pictures at a few different venues. I really like that the atrium has photographers and their set up on levels 3, 4, and 5. It makes it very easy to walk around and quickly spot which backdrops look good. After smiling far too much and being blinded by the camera flashes, we found our way to the Pub/Brewery at 7 for trivia and did really well, making it through 2 sudden death rounds before ultimately succumbing to a loss.
One of the many pictures we took that night. Loved the set up in the Havana!
We saw Tommy Drake perform comedy at the 9:30 show, but arrived at 9:10 and found a fairly decent seat. The lines of sight aren't fantastic in the Limelight Lounge, so that combined with how packed it gets so quickly makes for some challenging views most of the time. We were determined to stay awake long enough to actually make it to dance at the club, and we actually felt like tonight was the night since we took that afternoon nap. After the comedy show, people had to clear out so they could quickly turn it into the dance club, so we went over to the sports bar and grabbed a mix drink and talked to the bartenders.
We hung out the club for a solid 2 hours, which is crazy how fast time flies when you're dancing like a fool. I really don't claim to have a ton of dance skills, but I do enjoy music a whole ton and burned a lot of calories while attempting to show off my moves. Let me tell you that dancing to the Wobble with a room full of strangers is absolutely a highlight of the trip. We stayed at the club until 1, when the late night munchies overtook us and we went in search of food. We discovered the lido deck had Late Night Snacks, including an awesome meatball sub, Mexican pasta salad, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, and cookies. It was so delicious that we got seconds (and thirds). After wheeling ourselves back to the room, we watched some more Netflix before falling asleep around 2:30am. We're in our mid-twenties but I can tell you we've only stayed up that late about 4 times in the last year. That college energy is definitely gone.
A pretty terrible picture, but I felt bad that I didn't have many from the day!
UP NEXT: Saturday Sea Day (Our last day!)
LINK: Saturday, Final Sea Day
How do I get a Dreamscape for my house?
We started off with Sea Day Brunch in the MDR and found it to be just alright. The conditions were very cramped. I'm talking like, stick my elbow out to the side and I'd be very close in someone else's personal bubble. It makes it hard to stay out of others' conversations when you're basically eating side to side while at physically different 2-top tables. The food was good but really no different than the Lido breakfast. We had brought some champagne down with us and ordered orange juice to make our own mimosas, which was a nice twist to start the morning off with. We didn't have to wait too long for our food to arrive and we're pretty quick eaters so our visit there was probably under 30 minutes total.
What we lovingly call "The Willdra Special" (if you haven't read Willdra's AMAZING reviews on Cruise Critic, you're doing something wrong. She is a hundred times more witty and funny than I could ever hope to be and her photos are fantastic!). She always seems to have this breakfast combo so my husband wanted to try it out!
Even though we had received a ship-on-a-stick from Mr. Heald, we were greedy and in search of a true trivia win, so we attended three different trivia events that morning with no luck (or skill). It was very nice to not feel rushed to get of the ship or have to do anything in particular, so we decided that being lazy in the spa for almost two hours was definitely our next task. Between the thermal rooms and the heated loungers, I was sufficiently relaxed. There's something about reading a good book and having an awesome view through giant glass windows that adds to the whole pampered on a cruise experience. I'm also realizing that as I type this, I don't have a lot of pictures to add because, who takes pictures in a spa? But I agree it makes it more boring to read- sorry!
After changing from our long morning session at the spa, we headed to Guys Burgers for lunch, and found that there was basically no line at 1pm, which was nice. We brought our food to our favorite venue, the Red Frog Pub & Brewery and played card games while enjoying lunch and a few beverages. Still not entirely discouraged at our lack of trivia wins, we made our way to the Ocean Plaza for yet another attempt at a ship-on-a-stick. Guess what the outcome of that was?
Spoiler: We didn't win. I would like to clarify though that we consider ourselves fairly intelligent people who know a lot of random things, but apparently not enough to win a Carnival trivia event. One day, it will happen. And I will be ecstatic.
The smaller, yet also cool, casino bar Dreamscape:
We watched some Netflix on our balcony and enjoyed the weather and views. Which reminds me, I received a question from a reader that I thought might be helpful to answer in a more public setting. We have a Netflix subscription and recently discovered that some (not a whole ton) shows allow you to download episodes to your device so you can watch offline. In preparation for the trip, I downloaded multiple episodes of the Great British Bake Off and The Office, as well as a movie that I can't remember now. It was an awesome discovery and something I'll definitely plan on doing on future trips. We watched an episode of the Bake Off before heading to take a nap. Turns out, relaxing at the spa and the balcony actually made us more tired than going out and doing things in port.
It was the last formal night on the trip so we gussied up and went to dinner. Quick Note that I'm still really impressed with how Your Time Dining works on the Vista. I'm very much a fan of checking in and having a table basically ready for us by the time we make our way down two flights of stairs.
My husband ordered the pasta fagioli soup for his appetizer, but unfortunately found it very flavorless and not a great texture. He will eat a lot of different types of food, including some leftovers from the fridge that are on the edge of questionable, but really didn't enjoy this soup. He felt terrible asking for a new appetizer but I reminded him that Carnival really enjoys plumping people up with their food and that he was allowed to ask for something else. Our waitress was so nice about it, but he still felt badly. He got the crab cake instead and really like that choice. I had the salmon teriyaki I believe, which was pretty good, and we loved the Spanikopita.
After dinner we walked around the ship and took more formal pictures at a few different venues. I really like that the atrium has photographers and their set up on levels 3, 4, and 5. It makes it very easy to walk around and quickly spot which backdrops look good. After smiling far too much and being blinded by the camera flashes, we found our way to the Pub/Brewery at 7 for trivia and did really well, making it through 2 sudden death rounds before ultimately succumbing to a loss.
One of the many pictures we took that night. Loved the set up in the Havana!
We saw Tommy Drake perform comedy at the 9:30 show, but arrived at 9:10 and found a fairly decent seat. The lines of sight aren't fantastic in the Limelight Lounge, so that combined with how packed it gets so quickly makes for some challenging views most of the time. We were determined to stay awake long enough to actually make it to dance at the club, and we actually felt like tonight was the night since we took that afternoon nap. After the comedy show, people had to clear out so they could quickly turn it into the dance club, so we went over to the sports bar and grabbed a mix drink and talked to the bartenders.
We hung out the club for a solid 2 hours, which is crazy how fast time flies when you're dancing like a fool. I really don't claim to have a ton of dance skills, but I do enjoy music a whole ton and burned a lot of calories while attempting to show off my moves. Let me tell you that dancing to the Wobble with a room full of strangers is absolutely a highlight of the trip. We stayed at the club until 1, when the late night munchies overtook us and we went in search of food. We discovered the lido deck had Late Night Snacks, including an awesome meatball sub, Mexican pasta salad, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, and cookies. It was so delicious that we got seconds (and thirds). After wheeling ourselves back to the room, we watched some more Netflix before falling asleep around 2:30am. We're in our mid-twenties but I can tell you we've only stayed up that late about 4 times in the last year. That college energy is definitely gone.
A pretty terrible picture, but I felt bad that I didn't have many from the day!
UP NEXT: Saturday Sea Day (Our last day!)
LINK: Saturday, Final Sea Day
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