Californiacruizers

The kids club had a really organized system of dropping off and picking up. The kids were given a name badge and when they entered the lobby area they would find their name tag while the parent signed them in. Here are a few pics that I snapped during open house. As you can see we were the only ones in there yet the ship was sold out.

Camp Ocean Check In desk

Play area form toddlers

Main Play Area/Gathering place

kid sized restroom

After the sail away I wanted to tour the kids club since it was open house. I was empty when the kids and I arrived. There is a small library inside the kids club that you can go read or play games with your child at anytime.

We sat out for a bit but had to get changed for the sail away party. Remember I mentioned I was sailing with 230 others that I'd met online. Well I organized a meet and greet during sail away on the lido deck. I asked that everyone wear a bright colored lei so that we would recognize one another. I will come back and add picture of the meet and greet later, I believe they are on my son's phone. By sail away time many of us had already said hello and were chomping it up like old friends. I never met a strange this entire week. So many people in leis it was really quite nice that many people participated. This is just the beginning of an awesome adventure.

After lunch we headed back to the room to change into swim suits. Our luggage was already waiting. Note how our luggage was the only luggage down the entire length of the hall. FASTER TO THE FUN ROCKS!!!

We were in our swim suits and in the pool by the time the flood gates of passengers began to pour onto the lido deck. Many were pulling or carrying luggage. Meanwhile we were having a good old time lounging around.

My son's plate of baked beans, brisket, mac-n-cheese and one of the Sweet and Zesty sauces.

My daughter's plate of greens, baked beans, bbq chicken, and mac-n-cheese (this small portion I asked for)

One strange thing about Pig and Anchor is that they do not have drinks for purchase nor a water or juice dispenser like the buffet. Instead my son Langston had to go inside near ocean plaza to the Shake Spot to get drinks for our meal.

I really expected more from Pig and Anchor. I left full but disappointed the only thing that was seasoned well was the meat. You cannot violate the Southern Code of cooking collard greens.

We dropped off our things in the room and headed to lunch. At this point only priority and FTTF fun guest were on. The kids and I went to Pig and Anchor on deck 5 which I read was a little known spot to grab lunch as most run to the buffet on the lido deck. There were only 2 people ahead of us in line. So a total of 5 including my family found this sweet spot so far. The food was tasty but on the cold side. Again nothing to get upset about. I like my food piping hot. The portions were huge. I asked for a "little" on my daughters plate yet he portion was bigger than mine. I hate to waste food so I tend to eat my food plus whatever my daughter does not finish.

There is no charge for Pig and Anchor

Various sauces to try

The only others in line

My plate of collard greens(not seasoned or cooked fully at all), brisket, baked beans, mac-n-cheese, and coleslaw.

There were two closets to hang clothes and another with shelf, drawers, and a safe. More than enough room to store our things.

I also packed a pop up hamper for dirty clothes.

Room Tour Continued:

As previously mentioned our television was on and this was on the screen. I though this was a really nice touch. I felt so welcomed.

I hung up and birthday banner for my son using magnets above the TV

My daughter and I also decorated the door. One thing that I found was that the door itself was not magnetic, rather only the sides were. I wasn't able to hang the decor as planned so this had to do.

Once on board it was time to active my plan which was based on months of reading reviews and cramming over the deck plans. The kids and I headed to find our room. I booked room 1257 one deck one with was a Deluxe Ocean View.

The room was clean and spacious. Everything was in good repair. The lights and television were already on yet there was no card as I previous read in the slot to keep on the electricity. I'd asked for the bed to be split into two however here's what I found when I walked in. This was not a big deal at all. My daughter and I shared the bed and my son slept on the sofa bed.

Some how I overlooked the fact that this room can with a split bath. There was a shower, sink toilet in on and a shower,bathtub, and sink in the other. This came in handy when trying to get everyone together at once.

Shampoo and Body Wash in both:

Transportation to the port

The following morning, we woke up excited that the day hadfinally arrived. We showered anddressed. I’d already packed a few pastries in our travel backpack. There werenot smashed and not very pleasing to the eye at all. I need some coffee so wewent to a small room that we saw the night before right next to the frontoffice that had a vending machine. The kids got drinks however I was indesperate need for coffee. We started towalk down the street from the hotel, yet quickly turned back as it was TOOHUMID for us Californians.

I booked SAS Transportation to take us to the port. I wasable to book in advance online and the cost was only $15.00 per person. Thecompany sent several text messages to say the driver was on his way. The driver arrived in a very fancy blacktravel van. He explained that he had a few others to pick up and then we would beon our way. There was a very nice group of retired individuals already in thevan who were going on a transatlantic.

We stopped a hotel and picked up a family of 5. The momtapped me on the shoulder and said, “Are you HP?” I said, “The one and only”. She and I were members of the other group together.Her husband even recognized me. We stopped at another hotel and an older gentlemantraveling solo sat in the front seat. He turned around and yelled “HP isme_____!” (I forgot his name). The partyhad begun, and we weren’t even on the highway yet. “Hey HP!” would be the theme of the week as Icounted down with over 230 people.

We arrive to the port around 10:30ish. We climbed out of thevan and a porter appeared from nowhere. I’d already had my $5.00 bill foldeddiscreetly in my hand. Once the porter took my bags I slipped him the $ and hewent on his way smiling back at me. I could tell this made a few of the otheruncomfortable as they did not know that a tip to the porters were somewhatcustomary. The kids and I walked towardthe Carnival entry and there was already a line wrapped around the building. Myson grumbled something about we should have arrived earlier. To which Ireplied. “Calm Down Charlie Brown”. Wehad Faster to the Fun. Since this was my first cruise I had no idea what thiswas or why it was needed. My countdown partners highly recommended it. They would stalk the site daily for it to open. The day that it opened for purchase (2weeks prior to our sail date) I received a text from one of my countdownbuddies saying it was open. It was sheer peer pressure that made me buy it. Letme tell you it was the BEST darn $89.95 that I’ve spent in my life. I felt likea Rockstar all week.

Total check in time with FTTF was less than 7 minutes andbefore we knew it we were seated in a special section. I kid you not everyone inthis section knew one another I cannot tell you have many people I hugged and greeted.

Regular Check-In Line:

Faster to the Fun Check-In Line:

Hello everyone,

I sailed Carnival for the first time and am soexcited to share my very first review. I’ve read lots of amazing reviews andgain lots of useful tips and hope that I have pay it forward with thisreview.

Background

My name is HP and as you can probablytell form my Cruise Critic username I am from California, Los Angeles to beexact. Sailing with me were my two children. My son Langston turned 15 on thecruise and my daughter Ellington is 5. I'm adding a few prices so that 1st time cruisers get an idea of what everything costs.

Booking and Flight Info

We sailed for the first time on the NorwegianSky in 2015 on a 4 day to the Bahamas. For a 1st time cruise itleft a lot to be desired. It was an older crowd, same activities each day andthe entire ship would be a ghost-town at 9:30 or so. It rained and there seemedto be no back up plan other than announcement about board games beingavailable. My daughter was too young for the kids and my son was too shy.Needless to say the WOW factor was lacking. So, in booking this cruise I wantedto try a newer ship with all the bells and whistles. I took one look at theCarnival Vista and was S.O.L.D! The Sky Ride absolutely BLEW MY MIND. I booked a 6 Day Vista for April 15-21 Deluxe Oceanview Total $ 1,922.75 for three passengers.

Sail Date Debacle

The idea was to sail during Spring Break andcelebrate my son’s birthday. My son’s birthday is April 18th.

Usually whenever Easter falls in Aprilspring break is always the week of my son’s birthday. Excitedly I paid thecruise deposit only to discover Spring Break was two weeks prior to the cruise.At this point it was 200 days out and I had already started excitedly countingdown with a very active FB group. There was no way that I was going to re-book.The kids would just have to miss a week of school after all you only live, onceright? I reached out to all their teachers and ask for assignments that wouldotherwise be missed. My daughter was given a packet of Kindergarten assignmentsand my son was told he could make up his work upon return. Little did he knowthat would bite him in the butt later.

Flight and Hotel

Since we were flying from Los Angeles to MiamiI wanted to fly non-stop. For me it’s less headache with having to changeplanes and the worry that my luggage will be lost somehow. For weeksI’d kept my eye on a non-stop flight on American Airlines. Life got thebetter of me and I waited until 2 weeks from our sail date to buy our tickets.I hopped on the American Airline site and the tickets were now about $600.00per person. I frantically searched other sites only to find the prices were allin the same ballpark. I ended up searching Spirit Air. Yep, that’s right thesame Spirit Air that everyone seems to hate. Last year tons of negative reviewvideos popped on YouTube, which I’d watched months prior and declared, “I wouldnever!”. Well as they say never say never. I ended up booking 3 flights fromLAX to Mia on Spirit for a total of $863.57 round trip that also included theprice of 3 checked bags. Unfortunately, the flight was not non-stop.But this close to the sail date “you get what youget, and you can’t pitch a fit”. Spirit Air offers very lowprices for flights. However as one would expect there are many, many, manyother fees that are considered “extras”. One thing is for certain Spirit doesnot hid these extra costs. The site tells you several times during the bookingprocess that certain things cost extra. You are also given the opportunity topay for these things in advance. Some of these things include:Paying for checked and carry-on Bags (yes you are charged for a carry-on),paying for more roomier seats, paying to self-assign seats, paying to printyour boarding passes, paying if your luggage was over the weight limit, andpaying for food in flight food and drinks including water… yes WATER. I prepaidand prepared for everything. I packed a backpack for the 3 of us to share.Included were snacks, entertainment, Sanitizing hand wipes, and water bottlethat we purchased once we passed airport security. Spirit chargesfor water and snacks. A cup on Ramen Noodles is $3.00. The flightwas very uneventful, the plane was on-time and clean. The flight attendantslooked a little unkempt like they slept in their uniforms, uniforms that didnot match each other by the way. I guess as long as they showed up to theairport in some form of black and yellow they were good to go!

My son Langston knocked out from the cold meds:

My daughter Ellington and her missing tooth:

Clear Skies:

Since our flight wasscheduled to arrive in Fort Lauderdale around 8pm that evening I booked a no-frills room at theMotel 6 Dania Beach the cost of the hotel for one night was $111.99 withtax. Upon arrival we took a taxi to the hotel for $13.00. He driverwas kind enough to even drive through Churches Chicken (ugghhhh the cheapestnasties chicken ever) which seemed to be the only thing open. I tipped thedriver for his patience so the total for the taxi was around $25.00. Thefront desk staff had zero customer service skills. They were not rude, but theywere indeed rough around the edges. No, one looked up or even spoke when Iwalked in. I stood at the counter for about 2 minutes before someone was said,“yes”. Not how can I help you but a simple “yes” with a whole lot of attitude behind it.So, having given them my best Claire Huxtable stare/side eye. The woman quicklygot her attitude together and was a whole lot nicer. I read her my confirmationnumber and paid in cash. I was left to find the room on my own.There were a few guys hanging out near the front office harmless yet perhapsintimidating to some. I was a little skeptical about the condition of the roomat this point, but it was what it was. My son gave me grief when we firstpulled up in the taxi. “Really mom Motel 6?” Yes, my friend Motel 6 for onenite. As you can see from the pictures below it was basic but very clean andwell maintained. However, my son was not having it. He was upset that there wasno carpet on the floor. I explained that it was Florida and with the humiditymost places and homes had bare floors. We ate dinner which consisted of nowcold chicken strips and fries and got ready for bed. Correction my daughter andI got ready for bed. Since the room was not up to my son’s standards hedeclared he was not taking his shoes or clothes off nor was he taking a shower “inTHATtub”. The tub did have a few ants in it. Ants are better that roaches,right? I forced him to shower and called it a night.I woke up find he slept on top of the covers with a hoodie on. That’s rightwith the actual hood on his head so that he would not have to touch the pillow.I promise you the room wasn’t that bad.

Motel 6 Dania Beach:

We were just on the Vista and the staff at the Kids club were awesome. My daughter is 5 we took her during the open house on the 1st nite and walked around and let her take everything in. During check in the staff would come from behind the counter and engage the child making them feel comfortable and would invite them in to have a look around. Once they saw all the others playing and having a good time the kids would gladly walk in. If the child was young and hesitant the parent would go in with the child and play for a few minutes until the kid was comfortable. The kids club on the Vista had structured and impromptu activities such as silly dance off's

or games like 123 Freeze they also gave the kids small welcome backpacks with a few items inside. There were arts and crafts,movies, music and more. There was even a Build-A-Bear party and the cruise director actually came into the kids club with his microphone and sang and dance with the kids while they waited their turn to build their bear. Each time picked my daughter up she had some type of prize. I cannot say enough about the kids club staff on the vista.

I sailed with FTTF for 1st time in April and loved it. We dropped our luggage changed into our swim wear ate lunch and were in the pool by the time most passengers boarded.

We have went twice with cavetubing . bz and they are wonderful. Cavetubing is more than just cave tubing. They show you so many things along the way and it's a very interesting walk. They took my daughter when she was 3 years old and again at 5 (I think it was). After tubing they take you to the owners house and you have a wonderful lunch. Perfect way to end the day. I have 2 reviews in my signature line with pictures if you are interested. :)

NON-RELATED QUESTION: I recently sailed the Vista and have tons of pictures and wrote a review. However I cannot figure out how to post the pictures. Any advise is appreciated. Thank you.

We have went twice with cavetubing . bz and they are wonderful. Cavetubing is more than just cave tubing. They show you so many things along the way and it's a very interesting walk. They took my daughter when she was 3 years old and again at 5 (I think it was). After tubing they take you to the owners house and you have a wonderful lunch. Perfect way to end the day. I have 2 reviews in my signature line with pictures if you are interested. :)

How many were in your party?

Cruisett.com tells you what ships are in port on given days as well.

I checked directly on the Mayan Waterpark website and saw that the admission price is $100.00 per person. I live in Los Angeles and we have several water parks here and I would NEVER pay that price. We are a party of 3 and I simply cannot justify $300.00 for a waterpark especially since there are pool and water slides on the ship.

My apologies. I did not see the other thread before posting. Please disregard.

I am on this sailing as well. Looks like there are already 5 ships that are expected to call in Cozumel on 12/24. The Breeze would have been the 6th ship. Perhaps this may have something to do with the change.

I received an email last night from Carnivalstating that the itinerary for my December 22, 2018 sailing on the Carnival Breezehas been changed(the ports were simply switched around) due to “Operational Considerations”. According to the itinerary change our 1stport is now Costa Maya from Noon until 8:00pm. By no means am I complaining nor am I unnervedby this. I haven’t made any plans for this port so I still have time to find anexcursion for my children and I.

Just curious any idea what “OperationalConsiderations” mean? What could they possibly consider this far in advance? Iunderstand things change, just curious what this means or what has happened.

No need to email you can make submit the reservation request online in your cruise manager portal.

Yes, you can submit your Chef's Table reservation request as soon as you book. You will receive an email saying your reservation has been accepted/confirmed. I am confirmed for our December 22, 2018 cruise.

The bar in Ocean Plaza sold Sangria by the glass. Not sure of the name of the bar, it's on deck 5 adjacent to Ocean plaza(not to be confused with Red Frog Pub).

My kids and I sailed the Vista a two months ago in April. We were in a Deluxe Ocean View on Deck 1. The laundry room is located on deck 2 which is down the hall from the Family Harbor area. On several occasions I passed the FH area while doing laundry or ironing on formal nights. In walking past the FH area there were always families whol allowed their kids to race ahead to the entrance. There also several times when Pre- teens running to an from the entrance of the FH area. The area was always busy with families coming and going.

I LOVED the Deluxe ocean view because it had TWO bathrooms. One with a shower, sink and toilet. The other with a sink and bathtub. When booking I somehow over looked that detail. I was so surprise to have the two washrooms. The bathtub can in handy with a slow-poke 5 year old. I don't feel like I missed anything by not staying the in FH. We are booked on the Breeze for Christmas and I booked another Deluxe Ocean View with the two washrooms!!!

May I ask how long (days) was your VISTA cruise? I am doing a 49 night S.A. cruise in Feb. 2019 and I have a spreadsheet to calculate tips. Tips for excursions, MDR wait staff, Steward … I don't drink so sorry no bar staff tips... I've calculated for $3 per day for the Steward and about 20% total of excursions (Private, My Travel Agent's recommendations and Ship Excursions). I have prepaid gratuities included, calculated as part of cruise costs.

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Ramona

My Vista cruise was 6 days. There were 3 of us in my cabin( myself and 2 children)