The Inaugural Vista's Official Trippingpara Mayhem in the Mediterranean Review

[trippingpara]

I'm loving your review!! Your photos are gorgeous and your sense of humor really has me laughing! A very enjoyable read and great info! Looking forward to hearing more! [emoji1]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

You are far too kind! Thank you, I appreciate the nice comments and am glad that you are enjoying it. We met quite a few Virginians on the cruise as well as in the various ports. The only warm article of clothing I had was a Virginia Tech sweatshirt so I wore it a lot in the early part of the cruise and I got a lot of comments from Virginians about it.

[trippingpara]

Great review with gorgeous pictures. Looks like I will need a trip to Venice!

 

Thank you very much, and yes, you do need to make a trip to Venice!!

[trippingpara]

Once again, WOW! It was a different kind of beautiful than it was earlier in the day. The lighting was subtle, just enough to highlight the beauty of the plaza. I was afraid that they would have giant spotlights shining on everything, washing out the natural beauty of the buildings. The plaza was busy but nothing compared to what we had seen earlier in the day. The plaza is so large that it could swallow hundreds of people in a blink of an eye. We strolled around for a while before we headed back towards Rialto. Of course, on the way we had to stop for an authentic Italian gelato. Holy crap Batman!! Now, I’m a hardcore ice cream man. I would buy ice cream by the 55-gallon bucket if I could. Most evenings, I probably have more ice cream coursing through my veins than blood! So you know that some Italian gelato was a required staple of my diet during the cruise. If you’ve never had a true gelato, then you need to go break open your kids’ piggy banks, trust accounts, college funds and whatever other saving plans you have and buy some tickets to Italy. Now. Right now. Go. Why are you still here? Oh, no kids? That’s okay. Go rob a bank. I do believe that gelato envy is an acceptable defense in most states. Of course, this is assuming that you do not have the immediate funds available to purchase airline tickets at the moment. If you do, God bless you and get moving!!

 

Seriously now, the gelato was quite delicious. It then started my need to acquire a gelato at every stop in our cruise. It was quite easy to do as there are gelato stores everywhere! Thankfully!! We quickly made it back to Rialto (courtesy of those arrows!) and decided that we wanted to take a gondola ride. Hey, when in Venice….! Now, they are rather expensive (€100 for a 35-minute night ride – day rides were slightly cheaper at €80 I believe), but you just have to do it at least once. So glad we did! I’m not known for being overly mushy or lovey-dovey. Again, I’m pretty much your stereotypical guy. Pizza, beer and a good football game on the big screen at the local bar sounds like a wonderful evening out to me. Of course, Lady Trip has a slightly different opinion on that! God bless her for dealing with me!! Needless to say, a romantic evening was not on the tip of my frontal lobe when I walked up to a gondolier and asked for a ride. I was thinking, “hey, this would be cool to cruise around on the water when no one else is around!” I’m a fanatical water guy too. I love being on, in or under the water.

 

Okay, let me set the stage so to speak. It’s dark. Silence abounds. Soft lighting illuminates the hidden corridors of small canals winding off into the distance. Calm water gently laps against the hull of the gondola. An amazing mellow baritone voice peacefully starts singing in Italian. Your best friend and soulmate snuggles up to you and lays her head gently on your shoulder. No matter how many times I tried to think of the starting lineup for the Boston Red Sox, I had to surrender my man card and admit, that this was romantic as hell! Like having a gelato, this too is a requirement when visiting Venice. It was so worth the money!

 

 

 

 

Our gondolier was outstanding! He had an amazing voice and he also explained a few things as well. But mostly, he left us alone to enjoy the peace, tranquility and romance of gently floating along the quiet canals of Venice at night. But alas, like most great things, this too came to an end. When it was over I handed him €150. It was worth it. I knew I was giving him a very large tip but he helped to create the perfect cap to a perfect day in Venice. I thought he was going to marry me when he saw the tip. He was very grateful and I’m glad I was able to make his night just as much as he had made ours.

 

The Carabinieri is Italy's national police force and is a part of the army. They are separate from the Polizia which are the state police.

 

 

 

This had been an exhausting and incredibly long day. We had a busy day lined up for us on the following day so it was time to hit the bunks. And hit it we did. Like zombies! I pity our neighbors, as I’m sure our room was one giant snorefest!

 

 

Coming up…St. Mark’s Museum and Cathedral from Above tour and Doge’s Secret Itineraries tour.

 

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Edited May 21, 2016 by trippingpara

[Michelle236]

Some more shots of Piazza San Marco at night

 

 

Trip,

 

Your pictures are utterly amazing and really make me want to make this journey to Venice (Maybe when Vista2 comes out ) :)

 

I love them all...but am really drawn to this one. So looking forward to the rest of your review. Thank you for all your time in putting it together.

 

Michelle

[Sugar67]

I have been anticipating this since I found out Tripp was heading to the Vista!!! Thanks so much for doing this great review!

[RNsoon2beNP]

Awesome review. Thanks for being SO thorough. Cant wait for more pics

Edited May 21, 2016 by RNsoon2beNP

[rtw68]

Ahhhh, a photo-filled Vista review! Thanks for doing this. Cannot wait for our turn in April 2017! :D

[trippingpara]

Some more shots of Piazza San Marco at night

 

 

Trip,

 

Your pictures are utterly amazing and really make me want to make this journey to Venice (Maybe when Vista2 comes out ) :)

 

I love them all...but am really drawn to this one. So looking forward to the rest of your review. Thank you for all your time in putting it together.

 

Michelle

 

Thank you so much. Maybe we'll meet on the Vista 2! This photo is one of my favorites too.

[trippingpara]

I have been anticipating this since I found out Tripp was heading to the Vista!!! Thanks so much for doing this great review!

 

You are very welcome!! We toured several ports during this cruise with an awesome couple from PEI. Small world!

[trippingpara]

Awesome review. Thanks for being SO thorough. Cant wait for more pics ��

 

Ahhhh, a photo-filled Vista review! Thanks for doing this. Cannot wait for our turn in April 2017! :D

 

Thank you for the kind words. I never knew that going through 8,000 photos would be this difficult. I need to tell Lady Trip to not let me take some many photos next time!

[trippingpara]

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Friday, April 29th – Venice, Italy

 

We woke up this morning to the soft and soothing sounds of Magnolia Blvd by the Butcher Babies. Of course, that’s if you consider a frontal lobotomy soft and soothing! Now the Butcher Babies are actually one of my favorite bands and their songs make for a wonderful alarm clock. It is absolutely impossible to remain asleep during one of their songs!

 

After retracting our claws and prying ourselves off of the ceiling, we turned the alarm off and started to get ready for the day. We packed our things up and headed down for some free breakfast. We generally don’t expect too much from a hotel when they offer free breakfast. But this was surprisingly good! I had pancakes, eggs, prosciutto, cheese, bacon and a hard-boiled egg all washed down with several cups of delicious coffee with latte.

 

Once we were done with breakfast, we checked out of Hotel Rialto (left our luggage there) and headed down to San Marco for a pair of tours that we had scheduled. We quickly found our way down to the famous piazza. It’s amazing to see just how few people were down there. One cool thing we got to see from our hotel balcony was to see Venezia come alive. The water buses were packed full with locals coming in from the mainland to open the shops and cafes for all of us tourists.

 

 

 

HAL's Eurodam slowly sails by as she pulls into Venice. We would follow the Eurodam into several ports and she turned out to VERY helpful in Kotor.

 

I loved this one with Lady Trip looking off into the distance. Non-posed photos can be great too!

 

Our first tour of the day was the Skip the Line Tour of St. Mark’s Museum and Basilica from Above. Basically, it was a tour of the basilica and its museum upstairs as well as entrance to the upper terrace overlooking the plaza. It turned out to be a private tour! Awesome! Our guide, Paulina was very pleasant. I loved listening to her explain everything. The Italian version of English is very entertaining as they add an “a” to the end of every word. I don’t mean to make fun of them. It truly is entertaining as it turned the standard, rather dry English language into a pretty sing-songy version.

 

I always pick on my friends here in New England for their accents. They seem to have a love-hate relationship with the letters “a” and “r”. If a word ends in an “r”, they drop it. Like ‘car’. They pronounce it as “cAAAH”. No “r”. On the other side, it a word ends in an “a”, they add an “r”. Like ‘idea’. They pronounce it as “I-Dee-er”. No “a”. Of course, they pick on me too for my accent. Wait!...I have an accent?! Anyways, I think I just took a writer’s version of a left turn at Albuquerque there. Sorry about that. Where was I?

 

Oh yes, our tour of St. Mark’s Basilica. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed in the basilica or the museum. I really wanted to get some photos of the original horses (the Triumphal Quadriga) that were “acquired” from the Turks in Constantinople in 1204. The originals are now housed inside the museum upstairs of the basilica. They used to be outside on the loggia but were moved inside to protect them. Replicas now sit on the loggia overlooking the piazza. The basilica itself was absolutely amazing!! I so wish I could have taken photos to show everyone here. Think jaw-dropping beauty coupled with “how the heck did they do that?!” construction and you have an idea of what it looked like in there. It was a fairly short tour, lasting only an hour and a half. Which was a good thing as we had a booked a tour next door at the Doge’s Palace right afterwards.

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

We jumped into one of the confusing lines waiting to get into the Palace. We had to play the annoying tourist card as we were being ignored (along with dozens of other people) waiting in line. We eventually jumped the line and then got stuck in and ignored in the other line. So I once again grabbed an employee and asked in broken Italian for help. Thankfully this gentleman was able to help us. Once we got our tickets, we made our way to the assigned meeting point for the Secret Itineraries tour. I spotted a couple wearing one of the shirt designs that I posted and sold online. That was sorta cool! Thank you for buying some of my shirts!!

 

Our tour took us into the original prison area of the Doge’s Palace. We got to see where the famous Italian lover, Casanova was held. I always thought he was imprisoned for sleeping with someone’s wife. It turns out he was jailed for being a magician and a freemason. Yikes! I guess I should hide my masonic ring!!!

 

One of the original prison cells inside the Doge's Palace

 

This was Casanova's cell. Compare the size of the chair to the door and ceiling. That should give you an idea of how small the cell was. Keep in mind that Casanova was supposedly 6'2"!

 

This is where they would torture prisoners by hanging them up by their wrists until they confessed. Above this room, were more prison cells where prisoners awaiting their questioning could hear the screams from below.

 

The library inside the Doge's Palace

 

We also got to see the various suits of armor and weapons that they Venetians carried when they raided their enemies.

 

 

 

At the end of the tour, we had the ability to go on the regular Doge’s Palace tour but we were concerned with getting to the train station on time so we slowly made our way back to the Hotel Rialto to collect our bags and hopped on the water bus to the Santa Lucia train station.

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

A few minutes later we arrived at the Santa Lucia train station. We boarded our train and made our way over to the mainland to the Mestre train station. From there we headed towards our next vacation spot, Trieste, Italy. The train ride was pretty uneventful. We just sat there watching the Italian countryside go by. Our interest perked when we could see the Monfalcone shipyard and the giant whale tail sticking up over the buildings. There she is!! We were surprised to see just how close Monfalcone was to Trieste. You could actually see the shipyard smokestacks from the pier in Trieste. It turns out that we saw the Vista about 30 minutes before she let go of her lines and headed out into the Adriatic Sea for the first time since her sea trials.

 

 

 

The mighty Dolomites towering over the Italian countryside

 

The mighty Dolomites towering over the Italian countryside

 

Trip just chilling on the train

 

Anyways, we finally pulled into the train station in Trieste. We collected our luggage and started walking towards our apartment. It was about a 15-minute walk. Pretty easy actually. We stayed at the Piazza Grande apartments which were located right next to Piazza dell’Unità d’Italia (the only plaza in Europe that sits on the water). We found our apartment only to discover that there was no one there to check us in. Grrr! I pulled out my phone and after several attempts, I was able to get a hold of the caretaker, who turned out to be only 10 feet down the street walking towards us. Whew, crisis averted! We had the penthouse suite. Which means we were in the attic. It was a really cute (albeit small) apartment with a view of the amazing piazza next door.

 

 

We dropped off our luggage and headed out to the piazza to have a look around. As I was taking a gizzilion photos, I noticed something familiar on the horizon. Yep, a whale tail! The Vista was sailing towards Trieste! We were so excited. We then decided to head out to the old town and grab some vino and birre. And that my friends, put an end to another lovely day in Italy.

 

Coming up next…No Vista and a whirlwind tour of Slovenia!

 

[coldinerie]

Hay Trippingpara, I heard our hometown boy was on Vista. We are heading out June 3. Great to read your reviews and see your photos. Thsnks for taking the time to post.

[trippingpara]

Before we get to Slovenia and the complete lack of the Vista, let's take a little peak of Trieste...

 

Piazza dell'Unita d'Italia

 

 

Piazza dell'Unita d'Italia

 

Piazza dell'Unita d'Italia - notice the seagulls just chilling on the statue at the top of the building

 

And there she is!!! You can actually see the Monfalcone shipyard that she just left

 

And the cruise terminal that the Vista will be docking at

 

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[trippingpara]

Hay Trippingpara, I heard our hometown boy was on Vista. We are heading out June 3. Great to read your reviews and see your photos. Thsnks for taking the time to post.

 

Hey ColdinErie! Has it warmed up yet there? You are going to have a blast on her! Check out Bobby Borgia's show in the Liquid Lounge. He's from Erie too!

[Club Disney Chandler]

I just wanted to say how much I love your review so far, we're boarding the Vista on 6/3, first timers on CCL.

 

Also, your pictures are amazing! I don't know if you've ever seen pictures printed on thin sheets of metal and finished in high gloss but your's would be perfect for that. I first saw some like that in the art gallery on the Disney Fantasy, (I wanted to buy one to start our art collection but my wife had other ideas for $600). I also saw some in Hawaii last year. Your's really would be breathtaking finished that way. I know Sam's Club used to do them in the photo department but don't know if they still do.

 

Thanks again for helping get even more excited about our cruise!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[trippingpara]

I just wanted to say how much I love your review so far, we're boarding the Vista on 6/3, first timers on CCL.

 

Also, your pictures are amazing! I don't know if you've ever seen pictures printed on thin sheets of metal and finished in high gloss but your's would be perfect for that. I first saw some like that in the art gallery on the Disney Fantasy, (I wanted to buy one to start our art collection but my wife had other ideas for $600). I also saw some in Hawaii last year. Your's really would be breathtaking finished that way. I know Sam's Club used to do them in the photo department but don't know if they still do.

 

Thanks again for helping get even more excited about our cruise!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Thank you for such kind words. I will have to look into having some printed on metal sheets. I have seen that before and they are beautiful. You are going to have a blast on the Vista and welcome to Carnival, I'm sure you're going to love it!

[trippingpara]

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Saturday, April 30th – Slovenia

 

Once again, we had to retract our claws and pry ourselves off of the ceiling. I may have to seriously reconsider my choice of music for my alarm clock! As our heart beat slowly returned to normal, we did our normal morning routine and rushed out quickly to grab some photos of the Vista moored just down the street from us.

 

As we entered the Piazza dell’Unità d’Italia, we saw the giant white side of a ship moored at the cruise terminal. But something seemed off…as we got closer there was no whale tail. Just a bright yellow smokestack with a giant blue “C” in the middle. A Costa ship. Where’s the Vista?? It turns out that the Costa took Vista’s berth so the whale tail had to wait for Costa to leave before she could stroll on in. Patience my little padawan. After watching her being built for over a year, I was anxious to see her in person. Soon, I had to keep telling myself, soon.

 

The Costa Mediterranea

 

The Costa Mediterranea

 

Early morning view of the Piazza dell'Unita d'Italia

 

We booked a tour through Tours by Locals. It was called the Photography Tour of Slovenia. Vid, our guide picked us up at our apartment in Trieste (even though he’s based out of Ljubljana). We started the tour by heading down south to the Slovenian coast of Koper. It was a beautiful little seaside town. We spent about 45 minutes touring its medieval city center and even drove down Hollywood Blvd with their palm trees imported in from Southern California (apparently the mayor of Koper has a love affair with America).

 

Koper's 15th-century Praetorian Palace

 

12th century Cathedral of the Assumption

 

One of the world's oldest continually operating coffee houses

 

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[trippingpara]

Here are some more views of Koper...

 

Walking the narrow medieval streets of Koper

 

 

Here's a shot I forgot to show earlier. This is overlooking Trieste. You can see from Monfalcone, Italy all the way down to Croatia from that vantage point.

 

Socerb castle, Socerb, Slovenia. This is the vantage point overlooking the Bay of Trieste

 

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[trippingpara]

After touring around the Adriatic coast of Slovenia, we then turned northeast towards central Slovenia to see their capital, Ljubljana. We were going to see Congress and Preseren Squares, City Hall and the infamous Dragon Bridge. It was interesting to see the change in scenery from the rocky coastline to the farmland of central Slovenia. Very picturesque. We spent about an hour and a half touring their Austrian inspired old town, their university, a gorgeous Catholic church and an open market. This city and its people were so friendly and beautiful!!

 

A man playing a gusle in a traditional Montenegrin outfit

 

University of Ljubljana at Congress Square

 

University of Ljubljana at Congress Square

 

Ljubljana Grad or castle of Ljubljana sitting high above the city

 

Entering into the old town of Ljubljana

 

This is...well, it's a...aww heck, I have no idea what this is!

 

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[trippingpara]

Some more sights of Ljubljana

 

 

Inside the Ljubljana Cathedral

 

A flower vendor at the Central Market

 

A vegetable and fruit stall at the Central Market. I have never seen such fresh vegetable and fruit before

 

One of the four dragon statues on Dragon Bridge

 

Taken from Dragon Bridge looking over at Butcher Bridge which is commonly called Lock Bridge since thousands of lovers have placed a lock on the sides of the bridge to ensure they remain together forever.

 

Next up...Bled Lake and Castle

 

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[BigBertha81]

I am loving your review and the pictures are awesome. **We want more, we want more**

[cruisingbajan]

Wonderful review and ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC PHOTOS!!

 

I have seen some great photos on CC but these are without a doubt the best I have ever seen!! Your colours are so vivid and lighting is superb!!

 

Absolutely Brilliant!!

 

If you have not guessed already...I really like your photos:p;):D

[sweethart9510]

Yea!!!!! I just finished a review and I was like wonder what Trip has been up to? Hopefully a vista review and lo and behold my prayers are answered!!!! I'm excited for this review [emoji119][emoji41][emoji106][emoji38]

Edited May 22, 2016 by sweethart9510