Zacnlinc

And to repeat:

Post #4 is very true! No GE at Long Beach port as we returned today from Ensenada.

Fortunately we opted to do the self-assist departure. Less that 30 people in the room with us and we zipped off the ship and was in an Uber within 10 mins after leaving the ship.

What happened to the review. Nothing loads when I click on the link. Off to Ensenada in 14 days!

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From what I've read people did both...some even just carried on the bottle

Exactly!! Word spreader fast as often people were just loading up with the largest bottle of their choice and walking on the ship. Bottle in hand or in the obvious duty free bag. There was no need to try to hide it. I don't even think they cared how many bottles a person had as I carried on three and my partner had four in the backpack.

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Yeah, Ephesus was indeed a major draw for us when selecting that cruise. With it being an inaugural cruise was just icing on the cake.

Sorry about your allergies NCTribeFan. One person in our group we dubbed patient Zero as the arrived in Venice with a "cold" and then slowly all of got some for of that awful coughing that could be heard around the ship. Maybe it was allergies for all of us as well and we wrongly blamed Patient Zero!! Oh well!!

Holding out for "Vista II" info as we're mostly likely going on another cruise until late 2017 at this point. Time for us to just settle with vacationing on land in tropical spots for a few days at a time.

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That's a great idea!! B2B with last Med cruise then TA!! I just might have a good selling point to getting a group of folks together again.

But I will have to say, they liked the inaugural cruise idea a lot and our stay in Venice was excellent!!

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Shame the CC closed our inaugural roll call so abruptly!!! Waaaa!!! I finally unsubscribe dot the now closed thread!!!

Vista S&S card still in my wallet though. Guess I need to remove it before I try to use it again to paid for something!! LOL

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I have no desire to ever sail on Vista 2. I'll go one time on the Vista just to experience the weird layout, but it's a one and done.

 

 

 

The remainder of my cruises will be on Dream or Conquest class ships.

I wasn't bothered at all by the layout of Vista. I actually thought it was a great way to deal with crowd control as I often felt as though there weren't "that many" people on the ship at times.

One thing I wish carnival would do would do-away with the up selling of things on a per purchase basis. It would be great if they had a "Cheers-like" program for say the seafood shack and the sushi spot ( forget the name of it). But with it costing extra, I will say the places were never crowded with a line though!!

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The Splendor came over brand new, fresh from a summer in the med. I can't think of another cruise line (at least lately) that put a brand new ship on the west coast. All that said, they had trouble filling her there without discounting....

It's too bad that the Mexican Riviera Started to be come unsafe despite the government's efforts to keep tourism spots safer.

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Oh, yes. The official Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle.

 

As had been noted when it was first announced here that Carnival was starting these, it was printed in the FunTimes which, as we all know, is left in your cabin the night before.

 

We were only receiving one copy. Normally, I'd pick one up at one of the bars the next day so I'd have a copy to bring home.

 

Well, our party was to take place at 4:00 on Tuesday, 5/4, Palermo port day. That was one of the days that we were back a bit late (although not nearly as late as some of the Carnival excursions).

 

Apparently someone at some point during the day on the van had mentioned seeing the party listed in the FunTimes. I didn't overhear that conversation so I wasn't aware until we were back on the ship, and it was about 3:55. We'd signed all four of us up. I stated that I hated to sign up for things and then not show up. Fearless Leader barks at me "SO GO!"

 

I didn't really want to go, so didn't, but it's the principle of the thing. I personally didn't talk to anyone that did, although I didn't pursue the subject. My feeling is that everyone will sign up for these things, maybe 50% will show, and then when the turnout is poor, they'll drop them. And then people will complain of CUTBACKS! Well, do you really expect Carnival to devote the personnel (and food and drinks) needed for xxx people at a party and then have less than half show up? As a shareholder, I hope they discontinue them if that's what happens.

 

The VIFP party was originally scheduled for 4:00 on Friday, 4/13, our last day. Before we even left the ship that morning, Matt announced that they were going to postpone it until 5 to give people a little more time. As I already posted, we were way late getting back and weren't even on the ship until just before 6, so I didn't go to that one, either.

 

Just two more things I'd planned to do and just didn't have the time.

I totally agree with you indeed. I missed the FunTime notification too. But like you, we were late returning to the ship as well. In fact we part of the cluster of busses (4 busses) that went to the southern side of Sicily to view the ruins in Sargento. What was supposed to be a 2 hr buss ride in one direction was actually a 3+ bus ride due to road construction! 6 hrs on that bus was not the excursion bus ride any of us expected!

We booked Vista Suite for Alaskan cruise and it was great... One thing to consider also is to avoid deck 8 since it's right under Lido.

Movement of chairs late night/early morning was a warning my TA gave me when we booked our suite. We booked deck 7 instead. Great views indeed...

In fact we're planning to book on Miracle for 2017 Mexican Riviera cruise and aft Vista Suites are still an option. Love having that extended balcony as we tend to travel with a group of family and friends and often have people over for Happy Hour and Game Night(s).

Keep in mind that when Carnival ordered the Vista and Vista 2 they didn't go super big like Royal Caribbean. I believe there is a reason for that. I think Carnival is going to bring the bigger ships to the West coast.

 

The Panama Canal Expansion is due to open 23 days from now. Once open, every one of Carnival's ship will be able to transit though it.

 

This is just my opinion, but I think the west cost is where Carnival will be looking.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd love for The Vista 2 to be in Galveston(as I'm in Fort Worth).

 

On a side note as for its name, I have a script that data mines raw trademark data from several international sources and I did find that the "Carnival Bliss" was recently filed for by an individual(not carnival corp like the other ships) and its in a pending status. It probably doesn't mean anything as it doesn't fit the name hint given, but who knows.

Forget about Long Beach.

I for one am all for Carnival on the Wes Coast indeed since we're up here in San Francisco with a new cruise ship terminal Carnival. Hint Hint.

Having sailed to Alaska from the NW and am planning a cruise now to the Mexican Riviera from Long Beach, you need to come to San Francisco!! Hell, I'd even consider a cruise to Hawaii and it's 4 day of being at sea before reaching an Island of Hawaii..

No, the diamond and platinum party was on Fri May 13 at 5 pm

Bam! My bad. But I do recall we were, yes, late for arrival from our carnival excursion to Avignon. Think we arrive just before 6 and the ship didn't leave until 7-ish.

Glad we opted to take Carina's excursion this time around as the ports times changed once Kotor was added.

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There was a meet a greet for CC on the Inagural cruise and it was posted in the Fun Times, it was on Tues May 10 @4 pm in the Havana bar. We were in Palermo that day and had to be back onboard by 3 pm

Oh! Ok. That was the same day they had the party for diamond and plats if memory serves me correctly. I recall on that day the carnival excursion we were on returned from Sargento around 4 pm or there after. There were plats on our bus and they were mad about missing the party over missing the ship! LOL. Details are starting to fade already!

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Well that settles that!!

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Was on Inaugural cruise and heard guest services telling another person at the counter that they could bring wine and spirits back on the ship while Vista was in EU.

Saw it happening in Dubrovnik, our first port of call and followed suit myself afterwards. Glad I didn't get the Cheers program. Still bought drinks on the ship as well.

Just wish they'd allow this in the US cruises but people over do it and go crazy!! We don't do the short cruises or ones overlapping with holidays for this very same reason. Still see crazy stuff, but not as much!!

Although the Vista is a very attractive ship, I sadly must report that it is the worst for cigarette smoke of any ship I've ever sailed. Smoking is permitted in the casino (deck 4) which opens into an atrium decks 3-5. I have a deck 6 forward cabin and can smell smoke every night. It permeates the entire ship like no other.

This wasn't my experience as well. Even though I was on deck 7 mid-ship, I never smelt cigarette smoke in the hallways while visiting friends that had rooms closer to the casino. I even walked through the casino and commented that it wasn't "that smoky" as I was expecting!

I recall reading something about the ventilation system installed on Vista was actually circulating the air in the casino and surrounding areas 4x more than one any other ship in the fleet thus far!

Kudos to Vista designers!!

I've read one of the first reviews for the Vista and it stated there is an ATM on board that gives Euros. Can someone confirm this information?

Confirmed.... Euros became available maybe on Day 2 or 3 on the inaugural cruise. I can attest to this as I did a withdrawal I think on day 5. But on Day 1, I was in line at Guest Services and witness this guy exploding with yelling at an agent that "they were gonna get him some Euros as we were promised they'd be available at the ATM on the ship!!"

When it was my turn at the counter, I asked the Euros and she said that the ATM is giving US dollars which seemed odd to me since there was no place to do a currency exchange on the ship.

But it was by chance that I was walking by guest service again and notice on the monitor something about getting Euros on the ship. I inquired and was told that the ATM is now giving Euros. At this point I informed others in my group that failed to convert money prior to boarding the ship or while in port. Lines at some currency exchanges were too long and/or the exchange rates were a total ripoff!!

Are you talking about the CC and CCL Meet and Greet? If so, I don't one ever materialized for us on the inaugural cruise. No email sent to us and I for sure didn't see it mentioned in the FunTimes like they said it would be.

But if you're talking about the Plat and Diamond M&G, the one they had on the inaugural was our last port of call at 5 PM. They had to reschedule it from 4 PM after they were bombarded with complaints.

In the end, we missed it anyway. Our Carnival sponsor shore excursion was 1 hr. late (returned at 6 PM) when we arrived at the port. Others were late as well. The ship left 2 hrs. late if my memory serves me correctly.

I believe that one bag of laundry is included now when booking a suite. No need to be platinum.

I read somewhere that this will be the case come September (6?), 2016 for suite occupants.

I personally was able to carry once three bottles of wine on without security batting an eye! They were in my carryon along with purchases made ashore. No need to hide them even. In fact a t the stop in Athens I saw several people buying the jumbo size hard liquors. And I intensionally stayed behind one guy that was carrying two jumbo ones just to see the what-if. And yes, he had no issues at all. His wife went from frowns and angry face to smiles when they cleared security. I gave him a high-five at the elevator as I let on to them what I was doing! LOL

But I will say this about your 18 yo child. Carnival will do the lip service of saying that legal age for drinking is 21 even in EU. Heard t myself and saw a couple "kids" get turned down at the bar too. They knew too it was a long shot. But they tried!

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OK, so long as I understand the rules here....

 

 

 

.....

 

 

 

What do you mean by scan your bags? Looking for booze?

 

 

 

Is it right they let you bring wine back on board in the ports to consume in your cabins? I didnt think that was allowed (apart from being put in storage) but someone is claiming they are ok about that and allow it. Maybe he was thinking about people smuggling?

To my surprise, after smuggling booze on the ship in Trieste, I heard with my own ears guest service telling a customer that while in Europe wine (and booze) are allowed.

I tested this on the very next stop in Dubrovnik as I brought two bottles of wine onboard and brought them to my room with no questions asked. At the next stop I brought a bottle of wine and a bottle of hard liquor on. After that, it was not an issue with bringing booze onboard as I saw fit. Wow!

And yeah, they had those scanners one sees at the airport as well as metal detectors. No issues at all experienced.

Well, if it were up to me, there would be no chance for me convincing my dear partner of going on another inaugural cruise if I were to pick the name of Vista's sister ship:

Using the 7-letter no Z rule but end with the letter N:

Abandon

Auction

Captain

Bitcoin

Bourbon

Buffoon

Cheapen

Chorion

Condemn

Deadman

Digoxin

Drunken

Emotion

Fiction

Glutton

Gremlin

Heparin

Inhuman

Kingpin

Kitchen

Million

Mutagen

Opinion

Reunion

Snowman

Sunburn

Treason

Unclean

Unhuman

Unicorn

Unknown

Utopian

Villain

Vitamin

I have to admit, this really has been a major concern. We've plenty of time at the beginning and end of the cruise, so which it might be preferable not to have long waits, it's also not an issue.

 

However, getting off in ports you have tours arranged or trains to catch is another thing altogether.

 

How long was it taking in ports you docked? I daren't ask at a tendered port!!!

 

This is where ships carrying just a maximum of 296 passengers is a godsend.

Was on maiden voyage and we had to Tender ashore when the ship arrived in Kotor, Montenegro. Was on a Carnival excursion so we were off the ship pretty fast and with ease. But on the return, the line was crazy long! The ship left late too! But once the 400 passenger tender ship kicked it, it was a breeze when we finally got in line after about an hour and a half stalling.

Hi can anyone staying in one of the Grand Suites let me know how the coffee situations working out.....Do they include pods of diff coffee? teas? Etc

 

How are the other perks. Water? Laundry? Chocolate on the pillow at night? Lol.

 

Are the suites just like other GS on the other ships?

 

We sail in October in one and can't wait

We had a grand suite on Inaugural Cruise. Was great! Minor glitches include the AC not working so well on our section of ship. It cycled from cooling to room temp. Often had to open doors to cool room down. Jacuzzi had a ghost. Oren it turned on by itself and often it just would turn off when used. Complains about both issues thought the cruise. Never got it fixed despite service people acknowledging the issues. Bottle of wine was a consilatory gift. Barefoot rose! Not!!

Coffee machine never used. Stored it in closet. But it looked good! Pod type. Our steward kept insisting we were plats, which we weren't, as she wanted to do our laundry. Never took her up on it as we did it ourselves. She never charged us for the waters we drank as well. Chopped it up as everything being new or she was turning a blind eye as she bore a lot of the complaint stuff about problems with room.

In the end, everything went well and we enjoyed the cruise. Not sure if we'd do another inaugural one though. Maybe. Vista 2???

Wished the bedroom was in a separate room though. Would have been nice to watch tv while partner was asleep. Wished tv was up higher on stand as well too. While in bed, you can't see lower portion of screen!

Enjoy your cruise!!!

We're here in Venice now. Most of us (group of 26) have been here since Monday!! Stoked about we only have one more day to go before we head over the Trieste and are aboard Carnival Vista!!

The party will really get going then!!

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