Vista revisited (Havana Cabana this time)...... A fairly lengthy review with pics

After a brief hiatus of not doing a review (our NYE cruise aboard the Pride), I thought I would come back and give another review of the Vista, this time with a Caribbean flare (Last one was a Med cruise)..... Join me for another Vista....of the Vista.

Welcome home Jimbo!! Looking forward to another one of your great reviews! (y) :D

Yeah! Can't wait :D

You should do one on the Pride too .

Alright I only read a few. Yours is one....let's go.

On the Vista in August. Not havana though - so please more than just that:D:D

Looking forward to it.

Yay can't wait! Sailing in a Havana premium balcony room in 2019.

So it's like that, huh? Teasing us and leaving us hanging?! Let's see the pics and hear the scoop!!! Come on, you know I am impatient [emoji4].

So it's like that, huh? Teasing us and leaving us hanging?! Let's see the pics and hear the scoop!!! Come on, you know I am impatient [emoji4].

LOL, my butt was dragging yesterday. Started it with intentions of doing a lot when I got home from from work. We did two errands and the wife had a couple of travel issues and I sat down on the couch waiting for the PC (much easier to post than the laptop or iPad) and turned on one of the hockey games and poof the next thing I know it was 12:45......

More coming today.

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You should do one on the Pride too .

There was more than a few of the same sailing so I did not want to drown the CC airwaves. That said I do have some wonderful pics and vids of NYE which are pretty cool.

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Waiting patiently - well, maybe not so patiently!! Interested in reading what you thought of the Havana area, and if it was worth the extra expense.

Great timing, I will be in Havana in 2 weeks on the NCL Sky. Looking forward to your review.

Looking forward to it!

Great timing, I will be in Havana in 2 weeks on the NCL Sky. Looking forward to your review.

I think jimbo5544 is reviewing the Havana area on Carnival Vista - not Havana, Cuba!! :D

I will be in the Havana on the Vista May 20th really looking forward to your review ..

I think jimbo5544 is reviewing the Havana area on Carnival Vista - not Havana, Cuba!! :D

Sorry Hannibel54, pe4all is correct, it is the Havana Area of the Carnival Vista, not the city. That said, we would really like to visit the city (and the rest of the country, def on our bucket list.

So this particular journey started after we had booked our Med cruise on the Vista some time ago. We were on the fence about what type of room we wanted for that cruise, had the same room booked that we just had on this cruise, and then let it go :loudcry: when after contemplation, we decided that on the Med cruise we would not be able to enjoy the cabin as much as we would like. So we gave it up, only to be snatched up by my wife's cousin who frequently travels with our groups.

We decided that as soon as the bookings opened up (they did a small time later) we would book a cruise on the Vista in the Caribbean, and again take this room (cabin 5240).

During the Med cruise we saw the room again (visiting her cousin) and were even more happy we had booked the room again for this cruise.

While we usually travel in groups, some small and some fairly large (as example, we have a group going on the Pride in July that is well over 100 people and over 40 cabins), but for this cruise it was just the DW and I celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary (I was 12 when we got married;)).

We travel a fair amount and while we do land trips, the majority are cruises. We certainly enjoy Carnival ships, their crew and the way they approach all the above, read that as FUN. This was to be our 34th Carnival cruise. For whatever reason we have sailed ships multiple times (although on this particular sailing there was someone we met who has sailed on every single Carnival ship). We are Diamond status on Carnival and also both are part time TA's so we know some of the management team and consider them friends.

As a brief interlude between our Med cruise and this one, we were invited to the naming ceremony in New York and did a sleepover on the ship and got to participate (to a really small degree) in some fo the fun tied to a naming ceremony. We also had a NYE cruise on the Pride with our oldest two daughters and their families. We have 5 grown children and 15 grand children......

On our past sailing on the Vista, we very much enjoyed the ship, and while it was not unexpected, as a little surprised and some of the ..... let's say not so positive comments on the Vista that I have heard and read. Part of this review, and our sailing, was to take another look at some of things that we experienced, look at what others have said, and give our feelings on the ship having sailed on her again.

For anyone who cares, here is a link to my previous review. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2377186

...on to the Vista sailing....

As is frequently the case with us, we book early for a host of reasons, then the wait begins..... The week of this cruise happens to be a school break week in the northeast. That meant we had to book airlines out pretty far in advance as well (close to the maximum). We normally fly Delta when we can, I maintain enough miles to keep my Gold Medallion level and the perks are most of the time worth it for us to continue to fly Delta. We always look at all options when flying and things like different airports (our home airport is BDL in Hartford) and round trip vs one way. For this trip, in worked out that it made more sense from a couple different perspectives to stay flying out of BDL but use one ways, Jet Blue going down and Delta coming back. This would be a very significant decision on our part.

We almost always fly in the day before, especially during winter month cruises and also during heavy travel weeks (like this one). Because we were flying down Jet Blue we were going into FLL. Also due to the flight times (arriving at 9:15 PM) we decided to get a room near the airport and then go down to the port in Miami the next morning. I worked half a day and then we headed up to the airport.

The previous two days, there had been severe storms through the southern states. To be honest as I look back on this, it did not even hit my awareness from a travel perspective, but more of a concern for the people that lived in the path of the storms.

We parked in one of the long term lots and headed over to the terminal. As we walked thru the door we could tell that something was not right, The line to the Delta ticket counter was down to the end of the building. After we checked out bags, and approached security, the monitor showed every single Delta flight either delayed or cancelled. As previously mentioned, this was a spring break week in the northeast and there must have been about 4,000 unhappy passengers.

The flight we would have been on if we had chosen Delta as we almost always do, never took off that day and flights for the next day were severely delayed as well. There are two lessons to learn here folks. The first is its better to be lucky than be good and the second is Travel Insurance is something everyone should strongly consider.

Down in FLL, we retrieve our bags and and head out to the hotel shuttle area. Luck was holding out as the hotel shuttle as sitting at the curb. A 5 minute ride to the hotel, quick check in and relax a bit and then hit the sack. Next up embarkation day.

Saturday Embarkation

Down at Breakfast at the Hyatt House, we met some people and heard more than a couple of horror stories regarding the Delta flight issues. These were unique in my experience, things like giving up hope, hoping in cars and driving down from the Northeast area etc.. Pretty wild considering there was not snow involved.

At about 9:45, we were tired of sitting arounf and I went on my phone and requested Uber. The app said 8 minutes and true enough the car pulled up right on time. We did economy provate, $31 door to door and way cheaper and better than other transfer options. We had received a letter not to show up before noon but said we can wait in the hotel or at the port so.....