bridgetjonesni

You are literally the only person I've heard complain about Vista as a whole. There are always minor niggles on an inaugural cruise, or indeed maybe the one after that, as they work out teething problems and take on board guest feedback to improve things. If you booked one of these cruises and expected a perfect cruise then clearly you haven't done your research in advance. That's hardly Carnival's fault :cool:

Well I basically paid for this OBC and we're forced to use all of it. It's non refundable and non transferable. If we don't use this $1200 worth of OBC, we lose it. We typically don't spend that much extra money on the boat. We spend more money on land. We were planning to do most of the exploring on the ports of call on our own rather than excursions because we like to be on our own pace. :confused::(

I think there's a way around this for you. Basically you can use a loophole to do with the casino to "cash out" some of your OBC and get your money back. This thread explains how to do it, although ignore post #2 which is irrelevant and confusing:

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1963376

Apparently there's a $300 per day limit so you would need to do it a few times, and some folks say you might have to play a couple of spins each time or else the casino can lock you out of the cash out function. That said, if all else fails I think you can use your OBC to buy casino chips and then cash them in, but there's a 3% surcharge for doing it that way, which is why most folks do it the slot machine way, which doesn't incur any fees.

We booked a Havana Inside cabin on the Transatlantic back in January 2015. It was $1,334pp base rate at the time and we've since had a small price drop of $30pp. I keep checking for more price drops but I don't think anyone with a Havana cabin on the TA is going to let them go lightly, unless the Havana concept proves to be a washout in earlier cruises. I guess we'll see soon enough.

What rate did you book under? If it's one that includes price protection you probably can. Even if not, hey, it's worth a try! Good luck!

I wouldn't put much stock in the accuracy of the deck plans to be honest. If they are to be believed, those of us in Havana Inside cabins on deck 5 can only get to our rooms via our Havana Balcony neighbours across the hall :D

Last time we disembarked in Barcelona we cheated the taxi queue at the port by catching the blue bus (about €3 I think) from outside the port terminal up to Columbus monument and getting a taxi from there instead. Worth a try if it looks like you'll be waiting forever.

Barcelona Airport is great - very easy to find your way around, both on arrival and departure. If you're heading into the city centre rather than straight to the port, I'd recommend the Aerobus. They come very frequently, it only costs €5.90 and there are various stops at popular locations (full details on http://www.aerobusbcn.com/en/lines). You can also get the RENFE train from the airport to Sants station and it's about €4.10, but the trains are much less frequent and I find that navigating the train stations at both ends is a lot more hassle than just jumping on the bus outside the arrivals terminal/in the city centre. Just my 2 cents though!

Yay there are finally some excursions listed for the Vista TA! :D

No FTTF yet (keeping an eye out) and nothing yet for Barcelona, Bermuda or New York, but so far we have...

Gibraltar - Sun, Oct 23

• Pub Crawl - $49.99/Person
  
• Cable Car & Great Siege Tunnels - $79.99/Adult | $59.99/Child
  
• World War II Tunnels & Europa Point - $59.99/Adult | $39.99/Child
  
• Cruise the Rock & Dolphin Watch - $59.99/Adult | $39.99/Child
  
• Scenic Drive & Europa Point - $59.99/Adult | $39.99/Child
  
• Cable Car, Apes Den, Cave & Great Siege Tunnels - $75.99/Adult | $49.99/Child
  

Ponta Delgada,Azores, Portugal - Wed, Oct 26

• Ribeira Grande & Pineapple Greenhouse - $40.99/Adult | $35.99/Child
  
• Crater Lakes, Gardens & Pineapple Greenhouse - $40.99/Adult | $32.99/Child
  
• Crater Lakes Scenic Drive - $35.99/Adult | $29.99/Child
  
• Terra Nostra Gardens Furnas Hot Springs - $69.99/Adult | $50.99/Child
  
• Crater Lakes, Sete Cidades & Wine Tasting - $79.99/Adult | $62.99/Child
  
• Ribeira Grande, Terra Nostra Garden & Furnas Valle - $125.99/Adult | $99.99/Child
  
• Sao Miguel 4x4 Tour - $109.99/Person
  

I'm actually so glad to hear that - it used to be that UK folks couldn't get price protection, so I always used to book via the US site so I could get my Early Saver price drops, which was fine until I needed to speak to someone on their customer service line, and then the international call charges kicked in :rolleyes: But yay, that's great news!:)

Save your $$$.

That may be your opinion,but I thought FTTF was definitely good value for money for me and my family when we used it in New York last time. My mum has arthritis and I have a bone disorder in my hips, which means queuing for a long time is painful for both of us, and it also meant having our cabins ready on arrival was blissful, as we could drop off our stuff and have a rest.

That said, I've sailed from Barcelona with another cruiseline before and as another poster said above, it really is more organised than other disembarkation points. If I was sailing from Civitavecchia again, for example, I'd pay through the nose for anything that got me through that mess any quicker.

Also, to answer the question of how you know FTTF is available, unfortunately you just need to keep checking back. I check every day, for price drops and FTTF, sometimes more than once a day. Forum threads like this one and your roll call can be handy too, as other people might give everyone a heads up when it's available for your sailing.

I agree and appreciate your perspective but I also think it really depends on how comfortable your party is with the risks. Because the consequences are vastly different between getting back late to your hotel on a land based vacation and getting back late to the port on a cruise.

This is a very important point. On our last cruise we decided to book a private excursion in Tenerife to take us up the El Teide volcano. The tour operator had great reviews, they were wonderful at communicating with us beforehand, and the tour itself was second to none. However, when we were still halfway up a mountain on the other side of the island with an hour before "all aboard", we started to worry a little. We reiterated to our driver and tour guide that we really needed to be back by 4pm, as "all aboard" time was 4.30pm but we still had to catch the shuttle bus back from the drop off point to the ship as well. They seemed very relaxed about the whole thing but time was ticking by very quickly.

When 4pm came and went, we asked if they could drop us off back at the ship instead of their drop-off point, but they said they didn't have a licence to enter the port area. :confused: We got to the drop-off point at 4.30pm, i.e. all aboard time, but we were still a shuttle bus journey away from the ship! :eek::mad::eek:

Thankfully the last shuttle bus was still there, letting passengers on, so we ran and managed to get on that. We actually didn't board the ship until 4.45pm, which was 15 minutes past the deadline. I suspect we only "got away with it" because our cruise line only had limited excursions running themselves that day, so many passengers were on private tours and subject to "Tenerife time", which seems to operate at a much slower pace! Any other port and I think we would have been out of luck.

That's not to say, "don't use private tours", but I've learned my lesson that I should tell the private tour operator that I need to back to the ship an hour before all-aboard time, just in case! ;)

Barcelona is a favourite city of mine. We've stayed in a few places but I now prefer to be near Plaça de Catalunya. It's a short taxi journey to the port and there are great train, Metro and bus connections there, so travelling to/from the airport is easy too. The hop on hop off tourist buses depart from there too, and I can't recommend these enough - Barcelona is a huge city and the sightseeing bus is really the best way to see a lot in a short time. Plaça de Catalunya is also right at the top of Las Ramblas, which makes for a nice (if somewhat touristy) walk down towards the Columbus Monument at the bottom, or you can easily veer off and explore the Barri Gòtic on foot instead.

Last time we stayed at the Hotel Denit, which was wonderfully modern. A little on the small side (but most Barcelona hotel rooms are, I find) and they also have a frosted glass bathroom door to your en suite, which was a bit weird for me. I love my husband dearly, but there's such a thing as too much knowledge of your other half (and I'm sure he feels the same!). Otherwise, for a budget option, I'd recommend it.

That said, before the Transatlantic I'm hoping to stay at the Mercer, the H10 Metropolitan, Catalonia Square, the Pulitzer, the Regina or the Catalonia Plaza (all on my "must try" list from last time!). I guess it'll depend on prices but October 2016 is a longgggggg way off :(

Still nothing for the Transatlantic (well, unless I was too slow!).

Is our Transatlantic cruise on Vista (leaving Barcelona on October 21st and arriving in New York on November 3rd) still ok? I hope so, I'm really looking forward to it!! :D I haven't heard anything from Carnival but thought I'd check here, just to make sure.

Yes, it's only cruises to nowhere and the cruises due to depart straight after cruises to nowhere that are affected, don't worry.

Another new Vista pic from FB :D:D:D Picking out my spot in the Havana pool area already ;)

Ooooh the whale tail! It's starting to look like a real ship now :D

Carnival have said they are due to release excursions (including FTTF) for the 2016 sailings in June/July sometime. I'd check for yours then too - you never know!

Another new photo from social media.

Here's another photo from a Vista tweet on Friday.

Yeah, the prices seemed to drop for only a morning (UK time), and then went back up again, but I noticed they're doing some kind of offer at the minute so maybe they're trying to see how many cabins they'll sell with that before they consider dropping prices any. I guess there's still a LONG time to wait anyway! :cool:

Just to say I noticed a hefty price drop and some new cabins open on the Vista Transatlantic this morning. My cabin isn't quite down to the price I paid for it but it's a good $600 less than it was being sold for yesterday anyway. Maybe worth a check for those who booked recently anyway!

There is a roll call for your cruise already, although admittedly not very busy.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2160617

I wonder if this will work... it's a picture Matt Mitcham put on social media yeterday. She's really coming together.

It's something like this. Have a look on Google images for "carnival 4j" for examples.

Be careful with RyanAir folks...lots of really unhappy customers for those guys (including a friend's ruined honeymoon) and they are considered the bargain basement of airlines not to mention the hidden luggage costs.

 

I can really recommend Flybe and Easyjet though from personal experience.

I agree, I flew Ryanair once and never will again. I'm 5'10" and my husband is 6'1" and our knees were completely squashed against the seat in front of us for the whole 3 hour flight. The seats are really uncomfortable too and the inside of the plane is lurid yellow and blue, which gave me a headache after an hour or so. Plus they really go for the hard-sell. Everything costs extra (changes, food, luggage, infants and even checking in at the airport as opposed to online!), then they spend the whole flight trying to sell you duty-free goods, Ryanair calendars, etc, etc. We walked off the plane and agreed that even if it cost us £100 more in future, we would go with any other airline than Ryanair. :cool:

I can second the recommendation of Flybe and Easyjet above, and also throw into the mix Jet2 and Aerlingus.

Fastest finger first for FTTF! :D