Tammyd549

Meeting people, especially in the hot tub (those convos always seem to be most entertaining)

And the decadence to literally do whatever you want, whenever you want , without much effort.

I also LOVE boarding the ship for the first time, something about that feels amazing!

I've searched threads but found very little regarding actual costs to expect. I just contacted Larry's limo and they want 160 for a limo and 130 for first available vehicle (all in, tax, tips, etc)

From the pricing I have found on other threads, this seems high, I had expected it to be in the $100 range, am I mistaken?

Tia!

I have the city mini GT with the bigger rubber wheels...

 

What did you do with the car seat once at the destination you wanted to go?? Carry it with you???

I didn't actually take my toddler to Bermuda, I was there with my teen daughter BUT, if I did, what I would do for the 3 days is:

Day 1 - Take the Ferry to Hamilton, stroller only, walk around , maybe take the city bus to some sights.

Day 2 - Take cab to Horseshoe bay beach, with the car seat, no stroller. Less people there the second day, cab will drop you off about 50-100ft to the beach, easy to walk, set up for the day and just keep the car seat with you. There is washrooms, concessions, umbrella rentals, everything you need.

Day 3 - Stay close to the pier, walk around , take baby to the playground, splash pad, enjoy the empty ship, pick up supplies, if need be. The dockyard has plenty to do.

I would check the 2 car seats and 1 of the carry ons and get on the ship at your designated time [emoji41]

 

 

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Duh! I didn't even think of doing this lol. Thanks!!!

Some shows can be booked online in advance and the rest is when you board. The comedy shows book up the first night so, plan on booking those as soon as you board. They do change over the week so, I would be 2-3 , we only booked one for the second night and were not able to see anymore because the line ups were too long for us in the stand by line.

Temperatures are subjective, I would err on the side of caution and bring a sweater if you tend to get cold.

Spa pass was THE BEST money I have ever spend on a cruise, hands down.

If my check in time is 11-11:30, are we able to show up at 1pm and cut the line? Or do I have to wait in line with the current time slot? Just wondering if I'm better off to change the time slot so that I'm not lugging around 2 car seats, 2 kids and 2 carry ons for several hours before the rooms are ready.

Tia!

Excited to come back to Carnival after a few NCL cruises, and SUPER excited to be on the Vista!

One of my favorite parts of my NCL cruises have been the yummy Indian food on the buffet, does anyone know if they have Indian food on the buffet on the Vista?

TIA!

I just got off the Breakaway to Bermuda this past August. I also am a mom of 3 , youngest being 2. So, thought I may be able to offer some food for thought on your questions :)

Firstly, I would not cancel the crib request. You can always re-access once you get there and have them take it away , if need be but, trust me, you want a toddler contained in a crib at night, whenever possible. Even getting ready or going to the bathroom, it's nice to have a safe place to "plop" him when need be. You will probably push it up to the bed, move the side table and still have access to the couch. It will be tight but fine.

You will also be fine to shower him, you could also just do sponge baths, it's only a week, make do, unless you have alot of extra room in your suitcases, it's not worth lugging around anything extra, in my opinion. The shower head comes off, he will probably love the novelty.

Is your city mini a new one with rubber tires or the older version with the smaller tires? (I've owned both!) If it's the newer one, I would consider a smaller stroller but, make sure you have one that reclines and has a good sunshade (like the city mini), if that is not possible, just take the one you have. I'm taking my newer city mini with me on our cruise in January.

Transportation is going to be a bit of a personal issue. The bus takes ALONG time to get to places compared to a taxi, we compromised and used the shuttle vans BUT I did not have a toddler on that trip. We travel with our car seats (but I have purchased a light weight car seat for travel, it's a lifesaver!) and I think we would probably opt for a taxi and car seat if we went to Bermuda with the kids but, it would depend on where we were going, etc. Lots of options in Bermuda, it's such an amazing place, so safe and so friendly. I fell in love and wouldn't hesitate to take my kids back there.

As far as staying busy on sea days, there is lots to do. He may be tempted with the water park area, it's sooo nice so, you may want to avoid that , so you can avoid a tantrum lol. There is a nice toddler playroom you can take him to. take him to the buffet for treats, take him into the lounges/bars to watch live music, the waterfront has great "day beds" that you can snuggle up on and nap or read books or play with small toys. Tons of areas to run around. He may even enjoy the small toddler ropes course, depending on his walking ability. You won't run out of things to do.

Make sure and bring enough baby supplies (diapers, wipes, etc), but there is shopping available in Bermuda and they do have some on the ship, just make sure you keep in mind everything will be about 3X the price. There is a great playground and splash pad right in the port area, it's walking distance from the where the boat docks and would be a nice spot to take him, I never heard about it before my cruise so, it's not well advertised. The 24 hr pub was very kid friendly, I wouldn't hesitate to take my toddler there. I would also not arrive too early for check-in, there could be a long wait, I would wait till like 1pm and then go, you will be able to walk right on and go straight to the room. You should also bring a baby float for the water, a portable sun shade and some small toys/books, this is why I wouldn't bring the tub, you will have plenty to bring as it is!

We had an amazing time on the Breakaway and in Bermuda, I'm sure you will too! Enjoy!

I've ordered perfect weather from July 29 for 11 days (3 in Barcelona afterwards);)

 

And I'm bringing my binoculars to watch the runners lol:D

Hi Karen!

If you see this, would love to hear about your cruise, and the cabin! I'll be in the same one in January :)

Hope you had a great trip! :)

Thank you for the review, looking forward to our same cruise in April, 2017! How was the entertainment? Can you book Rock of Ages more than once? Thank you. Oh and the spa pass? Was that one of your booking options? Or did you get that when onboard? What did it include?

 

 

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We didn't go to Rock of Ages or Burn the Floor, but we did enjoy Second City, a lot and wish we had booked shows there every night. After the first night, Second City was sold out for the rest of the cruise. You can book multiple shows , just not the same night.

I bought the spa pass online before we left. It's available 90 days prior to your cruise and they only sell 120 , I think. It includes full access to the thermal suite and lovely change rooms. There are a couple tour videos on YouTube, look it up, much better than me trying to describe it :)

Doing this cruise with 2 kids next year. We're the kids with you? I'll have a 3.5 and 7.5 year old. Tips for kids?

 

 

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My littles didn't come on this cruise so I didn't experience the kids club or anything. One tip I can offer is that when in Bermuda, there is a fantastic play ground and splash pad right near the ship, towards snorkel park. I know my kids would have loved it.

Also, bring floaties for them. Blow up pool noodles or something like that, we really enjoyed ours.

And definitely buy one of the sundaes at OSheenans, their eyes will pop out, so big and fun!

If I think of more, I will let you know :)

Here are my tips, in no particular order:

My first tip is not actually mine, I got it off a CC board and it was the main tip that made our cruise so enjoyable. ZIG when everyone ZAGS!! For example, don't eat dinner at 6. Have a snack at 4 and then eat at 8, you will have your pick of any restaurant, no reservations needed. Swim at dinner time, no crowding at the pools hottubs. Don't try and get off the boat immediately in Bermuda, if you can. We stayed on board till after lunch, enjoyed the pool and waterslides and empty spa. Try and be flexible and don't do what everyone else is doing at the same times they are doing it.

Port side mid ship or forward has the best views. We were port side , mid ship, 10th floor and I really think this is the best location on the ship , 11/12 floors would have been fine too. We had the best view sailing out of Manhatten and faced the dock while in Bermuda (not sure if this can change though) sailing down to Bermuda we enjoyed the sunrises and then had shade for the hot afternoon. If you prefer sunsets going down, you will want starboard.

Special foods are at the front of the buffet. ALWAYS do a walk around before selecting food at the buffet, they have random things at certain stations, especially at the front and you could miss out on some yummy things. Case it out first ;)

Dinner reservations do not show up on the app. Bit of a pain but we actually ended up cancelling most of our reservations anyways as we were enjoying the buffet and OSheenans so much

Don't try and go to guest services till after 9 on first day or better yet, just wait till the next morning. I had an OBC credit missing and it was all cleared up at 8am on the second with no wait in line.

We did the first day spa special, 75 min massage for price of 50. We were shorted some mins and should have complained but I just started my vacation and was not in the mood to complain lol. Spa is nice but don't expect it to be the same quality as a land spa. The massage rooms were noisy for both of us and the sales pitch was hard, a little too hard in my opinion. It was a joke for us for the rest of the trip.

The top , top Sundeck was best for sail away , you can almost feel like you are going to touch the bridge when going under, very special experience

Bringing wine on was simple and painless. We didn't do the beverage package, just a great base deal for our cruise and are still happy for saving so much money as we didn't need unlimited beverages. There is room for 2 bottles of wine In the fridge without having to remove anything.

Bring water bottles and travel mugs, came in so handy.

Bathroom has a ton of storage, main storage is limited, lots of shelves but no drawers so if you are not using the sofa, I would ask the room steward to remove the bedding from the drawers below and you will have a ton more storage space.

If the is something loud going on in the atrium and you want to eat at OSheenans, just ask to sit in the back, you may get a beautiful window seat and it's pretty quiet.

More to come later....

Just reread my post from last night, and I apologize for the spelling issues, I'm typing this from my iPad and forgot to spellcheck before posting :)

As I mentioned, we really enjoyed our cruise, although I have 2 small kids at home, this cruise was taken with my 19 yr old daughter.

We LOVED the spa pass, absolute best money you can spend on the ship, if you are able to go regularly. We went at least twice day. Was never too busy except for the afternoon on the second day at sea.

Food was really good for us. We never made it to any of the dining rooms lol. We ate mostly at the buffet, OSheenans, room service and Sushi. We also ate at Ocean Blue, meal was just okay but service was amazing.

Speaking of service, we found the service all over the ship top notch. Everyone was happy , smiling and so nice. Only one grumpy person we ran into the whole time and that was a person at the ropes course. Service was a main part that made our trip so enjoyable.

We swam in the pool almost every evening before dinner, we eat later than most people on the ship so enjoyed an almost empty pool pretty much every day. The salt water is so nice to swim in the buoyancy was fun.

Waterslides were fun but a little scary, never saw any major line ups myself but I'm sure there were some line ups on the sea days.

My next post will be my tips. These I wrote down as I went, I should have made more detailed notes on our activities on the cruise but was so busy having fun, I didn't get a chance.

Happy to answer any specific questions though :)

Haven't had a chance to read the previous responses but to answer the OP question .... YES !!! !! !!!!!!

Hello all,

First time reviewer so bare with me. I apologize for the late review but better late than never. I hope to add some pics but they will mostlybe by request only, so if you want pics of something in particular , let me know oterwise, I will post what I can :) I'm a stay home mom with 2 small kids and have VERY little free time on my hands and will post what what can :)

I wanted to above all, provide some tips for people to help make their cruise even more awesome than it already will be. I had Ana amazing cruise and planning to book the exact same one for June of next year.

I will start by a short summary of our cruise , then add my tips for making your trip the best it can be

I want to apologize in advance to my roll call peeps, I totally forgot to print out/write down the details of our meet up and never made it :( feel so so bad but, hope it was great. It was a small groups and I had really hoped to go. Felt so bad about this the whole time :(

We flew in on the Friday, into Newark, stayed at the Marriott at the airport, it was awesome. shuttle , serivice , food , location , all could not be beat for 105/night. So so pleased with that decision.

Rented a car the next day and drove to the Jersey Shore, was so fun, had amazing Lobster in Point Pleasant, was way to hot for the beach but enjoyed the view. Had a great day and caught up on some sleep.

Sunday morning took a cab to Hoboken , cost about 60 , had leisurely breakfast at the W hotel, they held our bags and we walked the waterfront and had An amazing morning enjoying the skyline and view before taking the water taxi over to midtown and then a quick cab to the pier. highly recommend this method of getting to the pier for anyone arriving into Newark and not having a lot of luggage :)

Check in was pretty quick. Start to finish, less than one hour , we arrived at 11 and were on board by noon.

Rest of our cruise is going to be pretty vague as I did t take detailed notes but am happy o answer any questions.

We LOVED our cruise , not much to criticize but we are easy going people and could see how uptight people could be critical of this ship. I understand the previous negative reviews but for me the good outweighs the bad and I can't wait to book this cruise again!

Debarkation was a breeze, not sure what all the fuss was about. We chose to walk off, went down at about 8:30am and we were off by 9:15, in a cab headed for Times Square.

I hAve TONS of tips that I really want to share, will have to add them in tomorrow as I'm so tired tonight.

I will try and attach a few pics in the meantime, hope they work :)

It's like this...

 

[YOUTUBE]-88LTsh9m4s[/YOUTUBE]

That's awesome! And so accurate at the same time!

I think the complaints are because the Margaritaville venue on Escape hasn't really lived up to expectations. We were all excited when it was first announced. Then many on the first cruises when it was still complimentary reported how long the lines were. It apparently had a good breakfast menu too. By the time I went on the Escape they had changed to an ala carte menu that seemed overpriced for what you got and no more breakfast hours. Also no Margaritaville atmosphere other than some signs. Someone here made a great suggestion that if they just charged a small cover fee it would cut down the lines and make it seem worthwhile to those who wished to try it. Unfortunately, no one at NCL picked up on that suggestion:rolleyes:

 

Meanwhile, those of us who loved the complimentary Uptown Grill (Breakaway) and Flamingo Grill (Getaway) heard about this change. If it had a semi-decent Margaritaville experience and menu we would be happier. As it is, we are mourning the loss of great complementary open-air venues on these ships. The FG has great Cuban inspired food that you can't get on any other ship.

Ok, that makes perfect sense . I guess everyone is coming from different experiences but I totally understand this perspective. Thanks for sharing

It is not difficult in any way shape or form. Here are some of my positives:

 

1. Great offers from CAS
   
2. The crew is outstanding
   
3. The food in the specialty dining rooms is excellent
   
4. The entertainment is great
   
5. The suite experience is awesome
   
6. They added the 18% gratuity to the dining and beverage packages, so those of us who tipped on these don't have to carry cash any longer
   
7. Freestyle; you can eat when you want, where you want and with whom you wish
   
8. Non-smoking on balconies. Can't wait until the casino is non-smoking
   
9. They got rid of Nickelodeon
   
10. A la carte pricing. My meal in Cagney's just went from $35 to $26, including gratuity
    

 

These are just a few of the positive things for me; there are many more. Everyone is different and what is positive a for me is a negative for another.

This. I have no experience in the "suite experience" but I agree 1000% that everyone is different and what is positive for one could be negative for another. And all the above points are totally true to me!

I personally am looking forward to this and am actually disappointed that it won't be ready for our cruise on the 14th.

I priced out ALL 7 day cruises on newer ships out of Florida or NY for this cruise and NCL came out one the cheapest. carnival was a touch cheaper but not by much so, I have zero issue in paying for my drinks or specialty food.

Really don't understand all the complaints, but that's just me.

Starting my packing......Tell me about the hairdryer.....Is it really good, and strong??? I really don't want pack my own, but I have really thick hair and my hairdryer gets the job done pretty quickly. Will the one in our cabin do the job??? We are in a mid-ship balcony on deck 10.

When do you leave? We are mid ship deck 10 sailing Aug 14 and will have a straighter, curler and blow dryer on board as my daughter doesn't leave home without it, you are welcome to borrow if you are on our sailing :)

crusing on the breakaway in september. It's nice to read a positive review of someone who wasn't in haven and didn't just eat there and in specialty dining venues.

 

I'll be slumming it with the masses and I'm glad to see its possible to have a nice time.

We will be slumming it with the masses too in a couple weeks, I'll report back :)

The nice thing about NCL now is many (most) of their specialty restaurants, including Cagneys is ala carte, so you could just go in for drink and an appetizer , then move on the MDR for dinner, if so desired. Or reverse, have dinner in the MDR and head to a specialty for dessert :)

Thanks for sharing! We get on in a couple weeks and it's so nice to hear about happy vacations :)

My first cruise was in November 1991 on the "brand new" Carnival Ecstacy. It was the year I graduated high school and my best friend and I booked and paid for the trip all by ourselves. E181 was the cabin, inside with bunks. I'll never forget that ship as I studied the brochure inside and out for months, wish I still had it, loved those old brochures.

We were barely 18 and were allowed to drink back then, no parents required. We were also seduced by many of the crewman, well they attempted , never succeeded. Can't see that happening today.

One of my most distinct memories of this cruise was the toga party some group of guys had, managed to convince a good portion of the passengers to wear their bed sheets as clothing one night, we opted out but joined in the fun anyways and discovered they had made some type of moonshine in their cabin drawer with fruit and god knows what, it looked and smelled toxic, we never tried it but that vision never leaves me lol.

The waiters sang and performed every night, there was midnight buffets, skeet shooting, hairy leg contests and chocolate Lava cake... thank goodness the chocolate lava cake is still around!!

Hahahahahaaa!