Jamman54

Here are some more Sports Square views….. This is the new parking deck that they are building…… This is the parking deck we parked in….. This is the parking deck for Terminal 5….. Patti joins me at the Tides Bar for a couple of drinks….. To be continued…..

The chefs are hard at work….. Here you make your selections on a paper, hand it to your server, and about fifteen minutes later your food arrives. Here is our lunch….. After we eat, Patti is going to go out and start taking pictures. I’m going to go down one deck and hang out at the Tides Bar. Patti heads up to Deck 12 where she sees the MSC Seashore and the Wonder OTS at their berths……. Patti’s zoom captures the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) over at the Space Center….. Here’s a view of the Waterworks Deck 12 forward….. Patti heads back to the Sports Square. Above her the Sky Ride is open….. To be continued……

We’ve made it to our muster station. It took all of three minutes. Don’t know why this is so hard for some people. The solution would be no drinks until you do your muster! Next, we walked up two flights of stairs to drop off our carry-ons. We have an interior Havana Cabin # 5214. The cabin isn’t ready so we drop off the bags and leave….. Patti checks out the sideways cabin next door # 5208....... We decide to head up to Deck 11 and have lunch at Cucina…… To be continued…….

Old Betsy had to rest up for the return trip home!

I will but she'll also read it. Thanks so much!

These are our first drinks of the cruise. Patti is having a Funship and I’m having a Cruiser….. Across the way are Beth & Mark enjoying their first drink….. Now that we are aboard, here are today’s Fun Times…… After a couple of drinks it’s time to head to muster. Our muster station is D3 which is on Deck 3 of the Horizons Restaurant all the way aft. As we head back there, Patti gets these pictures of the Vista Casino on Deck 4….. To be continued…..

We circled around to drop our luggage off by the front of the terminal. That done, we got in the line for the parking garage. Within a few minutes they opened up the parking garage to start letting people in. We paid for our parking, ($254.66 for 14 days), and then parked in a very favorable spot on the first level. We take a picture of our location because we are very forgetful old people. The timestamp on the picture says that it’s 9:28am…… We make our way to the Priority Line where we meet Knights on the Beach, (Beth & Mark), for the first time. You’re going to see them quite a few times during the course of this review. What a great couple! Around 9:40am they let the Priority Line in. We breezed through the check-in process, security scan, and the friendly sniffing K-9 dog, and before heading upstairs to the Diamond waiting area, had our embarkation photo taken…… This is the Diamond waiting area….. From up here you can watch the whole check-in process…… At 10:35am, after a wedding party, we were allowed to board. You board into the Vista Lobby on Deck 3. The first thing that catches your eye is the Dreamscape. Patti loves these and will take a zillion pictures of these during the course of the cruise, all different….. We grab two seats at the Lobby Bar. Here are the menus…… To be continued…..

Day # 1- (April 14th) – We board the Carnival Vista!!! It’s cruise day!!! We were up at 5:30am for the big day. It’s going to be sunny in the mid 70’s today. Patti heads down the hallways to check out the ships in port today. Here’s our Carnival Vista waiting for us at Pier 6….. The MSC Seashore is at Pier 9…… The Wonder OTS is at Pier 1…… We decided to not eat the hotel breakfast today. We repacked and tagged our luggage and then loaded up the car. We have a 10 – 10:30am check in time this morning. We had read that the previous week that the parking garage didn’t open until 10am and that there was a huge line waiting to get in. We are hoping it isn’t the same for this cruise. A little before 9am we checked out of the hotel and made our way over to Pier 6….. Oh, oh. That’s the line for the parking garage…… To be continued…..

Before I continue on with the nuts and bolts of this review, I want to tell everyone how proud I am of my wife Patti. What a trooper! Let me explain. After Patti retired from teaching, to keep busy, Patti went to work for Target. Her job is to shop for other people. Now what woman doesn’t like shopping! She loves the job even though it requires her to walk miles every day around the store. The positive was that it also helped her to lose quite a bit of weight. The negative was that her feet, which were never great to begin with, began to hurt her more, especially her right foot. Over time the pain got worse and worse. Her foot doctor recommended that she quit her job. Nope, that’s not happening! Four years ago, she had had enough and had surgery on her right foot. Though it wasn’t 100% pain free, it was a lot better. She continued to work at Target, though with reduced hours, and continued to walk for miles on our cruises taking the pictures that both you and I love so much. Now since then the pain has increased in her left foot to the point that it is much worse than the right foot ever was. Having to walk “funny” is also giving her some back pain. During the last few cruises I told her to take it easy, and if we needed a shot to illustrate a point, we could use some of our many “stock” pictures. She was having none of that. So as I looked through the thousands of pictures that Patti took this trip, I wince when thinking about how painful each step was for her when taking them. The good news is that on May 17th she will be having surgery on her left foot. We hope this will make her foot pain free, but realistically don’t think that will happen, but any improvement will be welcomed. Her foot doctor will again recommend that she quit Target. Nope, that’s not happening. Will she stop walking for miles taking pictures for us? Nope, that’s not happening either! That’s why I am so proud of Patti. Love you Babe! ♥️

There were no noise issues. For us, closer to the bar is a good thing! 😁

There is a free ferry that can take you to the other side if the pontoon bridge is open. 😎

That's the Queen Juliana bridge. The pontoon bridge is the Queen Emma. 😎

I believe it will! 😁

Glad to have you aboard! 😎

The Mardi Gras heads out to sea….. Next up, the Mariner OTS departs Port Canaveral….. We were back at the hotel a little after 5pm. We began to get our bags ready for tomorrow while watching the Masters. I spent some time working on the pictures until it was time to call it a night. Coming up next: Get ready to board the Carnival Vista!!!

Patti orders the grilled brie and the scallop risotto….. I ordered teriyaki boneless wings and the fried seafood combo…. The Carnival Freedom, (Ol’ Stubby II), departs Port Canaveral….. To be continued…..

We have arrived at Fishlips……. Here are some views of the lower level of Fishlips…. We will be eating upstairs….. Here are some views upstairs at Fishlips…. To be continued……

Heading back into the Clubhouse we see that they also have a Party Room and a Gift Shop….. We enjoyed our time here. In case you were wondering, Patti beat me by one stroke on the first course, and I won by four strokes on the second course. Our plan now was to head over to the Cocoa Beach Pier and have some drinks at the Riki Tiki Bar. When we pulled in it was crazy crowded and they wanted $30 to park. That wasn’t happening, so we went back to the hotel and had drinks at the Mission Control Pool Bar……. At 3pm we decided to head over to Fishlips for dinner and drinks, and to watch the ships sail out….. To be continued……

Here are some of the exhibits on display here….. To be continued…….

Here are some more views around the mini golf courses…… To be continued……

Here are some views around the mini golf courses….. That’s not a real alligator…… These are real alligators……. To be continued…..

After breakfast, Patti needed to make a Walmart run. When she got back, we headed towards Cocoa Beach in search of some mini golf. We decided to try this one out….. Not only do they have two 18 hole mini golf courses, they also have a go kart track, an arcade, and even a small zoo…… We’re inside the Clubhouse. We are going to play both mini golf courses.….. And we’re off and running…… To be continued……..

Hey Rich, glad that you dropped in! Do you have Havana cabins? Give our best to the rest of the gang!

No Heather we didn't, but we wish we did!

Patti got these pictures from the Home2Suites side….. These were our breakfast plates….. To be continued……