The Lovely Voyage

Saturday, November 4th- Embarkation Day: We were up around 7a.m. and headed down to get breakfast, which was pretty good for a complimentary meal. Turns out that a lot of higher-end hotels require you to pay for breakfast, which is ridiculous; my two biggest criteria when booking a hotel are free airport shuttle transportation and free breakfast, otherwise it’s a no-go. I had MJS booked for shuttle service from Hollywood to the Port of Miami, so we called around 8 to check-in for our 9:30 pickup. We were the only two people from Hyatt Place, and all of the other customers were across the small driveway at Hyatt House, so we walked over there at 9:30 to meet the shuttle. We encountered some traffic on the way to Miami but nothing major, and we still made it around 10:15. After dropping people off at another ship, we made it to the Vista! After having this trip booked for 687 days, it was crazy that we were in front of the ship and almost onboard! Around 10:25/10:30am, we hopped i...

Friday, November 3 rd : Pre-Cruise We woke up at 4:15a.m. and, in a groggy yet excited state, got dressed and ready for the airport. My very generous chauffeur (he prefers father) drove us to Midway airport, with a quick stop at McDonalds first. For some ridiculous reason, Midway decided it needed to class up the place and get rid of all of their fast food restaurants, including the coveted and surely financially profitable McDonalds. After 10 years of early flights, it’s a tradition (or habit) for me/us to get McDonalds breakfast at the airport, and when I was preparing for the trip, I read the tragic news about the removal of the eatery. Thankfully, my dad decided he would take a detour to McDonalds (jeez, how many times can I say this name in one paragraph?) to enable my love of Egg White Delights. We arrived at the airport around 5 am and did self-check in at a kiosk, which is a fairly quick and easy process. For the first time in years, I checked luggage on the plane, which i...

Introduction:  Photo Review of the Carnival Vista sailing from November 4-12, 2017. We booked this 8-day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Vista back in December 2015. We were recently engaged and had started the wedding planning process, which of course includes the honeymoon! We ONLY had to wait 687 days to get on the ship and experience the magic of the newest ship in the Carnival fleet. We were swayed by the SkyRide and the Red Frog Pub & Brewery, as well as several other awesome features. The itinerary was also AMAZING, and we couldn’t wait to experience 4 brand new-to-us ports, including San Juan, Grand Turk, St. Maarten, and St. Kitts. Unfortunately, we fast-forward August/September 2017 when multiple hurricanes hit the Eastern Caribbean and sustained unimaginable amounts of damage. The video footage coming out of some of those islands was truly gut-wrenching. We understood the need to change our itinerary, and although it was very upsetting, it wasn’t near ...

Saturday, April 22, Day at Sea: [Archived from April 2017] We were up by 8am and headed to the Blue Iguana Cantina for breakfast burritos. They were really good and I’d definitely recommend them. On my Vista trip this fall, we’re looking forward to more Cantina meals, including arepas and huevos rancheros. Can’t wait! After breakfast, we grabbed a drink and headed up to the Serenity for a while to enjoy the weather and ocean. I also noticed that the internet worked really well early in the morning, but as the day progressed it became harder to use (presumably because more people were using it as they woke up). We purchased the $5 Social Package for the day to make sure we were checked in for our flights, check in with our families, etc.   On our way to breakfast, I saw these friends hanging out by the pool! We made a stop in the Lobby Bar for a drink and perused the Pixels gallery, which still prints out all of the photos they take, which is truly a waste of money and paper...

Friday, Nassau, continued: [Archived from April 2017] After a few hours and multiple drinks, we walked back to the ship in a slightly altered state and did some shopping for our friends- luckily we didn’t spend too much money and nothing was regrettable. We headed back to the room to put our stuff down and to get ready for Sports Trivia and dinner. To our delight, the bathroom sink was fixed while we were at the beach, hooray! It took 24+ hours, 4 direct contacts with guest services, and our room steward had seen it once. Honestly I was slightly annoyed that it took that long to get fixed and at a point where it could be used to brush teeth, wash hands, etc., but I was mostly relieved that it finally was repaired. I didn’t expect a gift or an apology of any kind, I just wanted a working sink. We headed to the Flowers Lobby Bar on deck 3, where a kids game competition was taking place. We sat and enjoyed the scenery and a drink before making our way up two flights to the Skybox Sports...