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

[pghsteelerfan]

My Virginia/Pitt friend. I hope that everything is alright back in the 'burgh. Thank you for reading along and for posting such nice comments about my review! There is still a ton more to come! I've been working most of the day today just going through my photos from Kotor - and that's only our 2nd port!!! Oh vey, what did I get myself into!?

 

Thankfully, everything back in the 'burgh is getting back to normal...I came very, very close to losing a family member and I'm still trying to get my head around that, but my family member is alive, pretty much recovered, but there will be some limitations and restrictions, but nothing really life changing. Thank you. I am again thinking about cruises and wishing we had one booked. :D But definitely looking forward to the rest of your review. No pressure from me, I know how much time goes into them. What did you get yourself into? I was thinking the same thing when I did my last one, but this one is going to be great. :) Forgot to mention, I just love the "Mayhem in the Mediterranean".

[disneygal94]

twnsy2k - you're thinking of Lou the Glue's trip report. His video of the Sky Ride is on this page, near the bottom.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2360126&page=6

[shortstop95]

Loved your review and all the pictures!! We will be on the Vista August 18th!! Very excited can't wait!!

[trippingpara]

Thanks for your review. I have enjoyed all or your great reviews and this one is no exception. We Hope to do a similar itinerary later this year.

 

Loved your review and all the pictures!! We will be on the Vista August 18th!! Very excited can't wait!!

 

 

Thank you so much for the kind words. You guys will love the Vista and the itinerary can't be beat!! Any chance one of you could sneak us in your luggage?

[trippingpara]

Thankfully, everything back in the 'burgh is getting back to normal...I came very, very close to losing a family member and I'm still trying to get my head around that, but my family member is alive, pretty much recovered, but there will be some limitations and restrictions, but nothing really life changing. Thank you. I am again thinking about cruises and wishing we had one booked. :D But definitely looking forward to the rest of your review. No pressure from me, I know how much time goes into them. What did you get yourself into? I was thinking the same thing when I did my last one, but this one is going to be great. :) Forgot to mention, I just love the "Mayhem in the Mediterranean".

 

Glad to hear that your loved one is going to be okay. That has to be scary! I'd get through this review a whole lot faster if work would just stop getting in the way!! As you know the Trips, where ever we go, there's always a little bit of mayhem going on!

[annamg]

I've read your reviews in the past and have loved them. I was looking forward to this one too because I'll be on the Vista in January, but I can't see the pictures after your first few in Venice. I've tried on Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Explorer. So frustrating.

[annamg]

Oh, I can see some just not all. I had to move farther into your review

[trippingpara]

Oh, I can see some just not all. I had to move farther into your review

 

Thank you for reading along and your patience. I wish there was a way that I could go back and delete those posts with the missing photos for everyone. Very frustrating. Grrr!!

[trippingpara]

Fun Times for Kotor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up...the surprise port of Kotor!

 

 

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[trippingpara]

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Wednesday, May 4th - Kotor, Montenegro

The sounds of Volbeat once again filled the room waking us up. A bit too early if you ask me but this was going to be a tender port so we wanted some extra time. Plus, one of the highlights of visiting Kotor is the sail in through the very narrow inlets that snake their way through the mountains into the port. I quickly got myself ready and grabbed my camera gear and bolted off to the secret decks. I set up my spot and mounted my GoPro to film our sail in (I hope to post that video a bit later - however some yahoo grabbed my camera that was mounted while I was filming and decided to move it all around and stare into the lens, so I have quite a bit of editing to do and hopefully be able to salvage the video. Why do people feel this burning need to grab things that are not theirs and start playing with them???) Guess I should not have stepped more than five feet away from the mounted camera so I could take still photos with my dSLT.

 

Anyways, here are a few shots of us sailing through the narrow channels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice the HAL Eurodam in the distance...

 

 

 

We went down early and once again communication among the Carnival workers was a bit lacking to say the least. One person would tell us to go to one place while another would tell us to go elsewhere. It was frustrating and once again I tore into one of the entertainment staff when I hit my limit. Wouldn’t you know it…? It was the same poor guy as yesterday! Good ol’ Orlando from Jamaica. Or as we found out, “Blue Magic” as his call name was. Once again, he took it like a champ and immediately calmed me down. I normally don’t get frustrated or angry enough to confront employees but for some reason, I was just done with being run over all the ship due to poor communication.

 

Orlando did a great job explaining everything and vented himself on some of the challenges that they were having with communication for the morning debarkation (far too many chiefs trying to override each other’s decisions). He immediately sent another member of his team to grab us a tender ticket (we ended up with the first tender) and told us to wait with him and he’ll ensure that we get on a tender okay. This was our first experience with a tender which probably did not help matters as we had no idea what to do. A few minutes later Orlando escorted us (and about 100 other people) down to Deck 0 to board the tender. It was huge!!! This was the first time we’ve ever seen a tender that can handle 400 people before! Once we docked the tender at Kotor, we were off and running across the old medieval city towards the northern gate up to the old fort that sat high above the city.

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Here's some shots as we made our way towards the dock on the tender...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let your eyes follow the mountain up to the top. There is the fort that we were intending to climb to. Yep, there's the path weaving its way back and forth up the side of the mountain. What the BLEEP were we thinking??!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Here are some views as we made our way towards the northern gate of the city which was the entry way to the mountain walls and the fort above...

 

 

That bench was a bit on the large side!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up...the climb!

 

 

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[cruisingbajan]

Wow...that sail in to Montenegro is really amazing. That in itself is a reason alone to take this cruise.:)

 

Of course your great pics bring it to life as no one else can:). Simply amazing.

[uprivermama]

I'm absolutely loving your pictures and your commentary! I, too, find the debarkation process at ports to be terribly conducted--no one seems to communicate amongst the crew!

 

I remember Orlando from our Breeze cruise. He seemed like a very nice guy, and it sounds like he handled your frustrations very competently.

 

Also, you have exquisite taste in music. If you haven't caught a live Volbeat show, you should try if they're ever nearby. They put on a great show, and bring all the kids in the audience up at the end to play with them onstage! Did you know they have an album coming out on June 3rd? They've released some songs already that I'm really liking.

 

Continue on, you're doing an amazing job!

[trippingpara]

Once we were at the northern gate of the city, our first and primary stop was just 1,350 steps away. Up. A rocky mountain. Yes, there is a comma in that number. And I don’t mean steps as in that silly Fitbit I wear daily that constantly reminds me how few steps I take in a day. I’m talking one thousand, three hundred and fifty steps up the side of a steep and rocky mountain. And these weren’t the little easy to stroll up kind of steps. They varied from a little shallow step to ones that you needed a step ladder to get up. I was very proud of the progress that I was making as I climbed my way up the side of the mountain. At least until a 90-year-old lady whipped past me like I was standing still shouting “step aside Sonny.” This was said of course with a Virginia Slim tucked firmly in the side of our mouth! Lady Trip just looked at me and shrugged with a crap-eating grin on her face. I almost mouthed off to the arrogant little speed demon but at that point I was quite positive that she would have kicked my butt with one hand tied behind her back all without spilling a drop of her Metamucil. So I did what any God-fearing, red-blooded, ‘Murica loving, married man would do…I shut up and continued climbing!

 

 

Apparently rock throwing is a popular sport in Kotor

 

 

The view over the city as we slowly make our way up the mountain

 

 

Looking up at one of the switchbacks

 

 

The Vista sits at anchor in the harbor

 

 

A bit further up...not quite half way yet. Notice the little baby sized French cruise liner pulling in. Now how cute is that?!

 

 

Inside the little church on the side of the mountain

 

 

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Edited June 2, 2016 by trippingpara

[angelofsin]

Great commentary, great photos, and definitely a great review. Definitely excited about trying the Vista in April 2017. while I am not much of an international traveler these photographs have certainly given me reason to reconsider my notions of international travel.

[trippingpara]

Wow...that sail in to Montenegro is really amazing. That in itself is a reason alone to take this cruise.:)

 

Of course your great pics bring it to life as no one else can:). Simply amazing.

 

 

Thank you so much for the kind words. The sail into Kotor is like sailing into a Norwegian fjord not a port in the southern Adriatic Sea!

[trippingpara]

I'm absolutely loving your pictures and your commentary! I, too, find the debarkation process at ports to be terribly conducted--no one seems to communicate amongst the crew!

 

I remember Orlando from our Breeze cruise. He seemed like a very nice guy, and it sounds like he handled your frustrations very competently.

 

Also, you have exquisite taste in music. If you haven't caught a live Volbeat show, you should try if they're ever nearby. They put on a great show, and bring all the kids in the audience up at the end to play with them onstage! Did you know they have an album coming out on June 3rd? They've released some songs already that I'm really liking.

 

Continue on, you're doing an amazing job!

 

Thank you so much for such kind words! Orlando was a great guy! He really knew how to calm me down. He had a very calm and cool manner but also had a great sense of humor. We ended up chatting with him throughout the cruise. The debarkation process did actually get better as the cruise progressed. The first couple though were doozies!

 

We got to see Volbeat last summer with Hell Yeah and Five Finger Death Punch. They were great! Listen to Michael Poulsen's band just before Volbeat (Dominus), its quite different. They were considered to be Denmark's version of Metallica. I think they mean in popularity not sound!! We listen to Sirius XM a lot and they are playing Volbeat's new stuff. Digging it!

[trippingpara]

Great commentary, great photos, and definitely a great review. Definitely excited about trying the Vista in April 2017. while I am not much of an international traveler these photographs have certainly given me reason to reconsider my notions of international travel.

 

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to post such nice words and comments. With an itinerary like this on a ship like this, you can't lose!!

[Jamman54]

All caught up again. Wonderful review and pics!!

[retiring soon]

Hi all!

 

Loving your review.:D The pictures are gorgeous. Between your report on Kotor & my TA's, who just returned from an X cruise it's now something on my wish list! I won't be going to the top of that mountain for sure!!:eek: Looking so forward to the TA on the Vista.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[trippingpara]

And the climb continues....

 

 

Son of a....how much further is it?!

 

 

A Russian Orthodox church

 

 

 

 

Still going....

 

 

Looking across the harbor at the Vista

 

 

Yes, I have a thing with frames inside a frame

 

 

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[trippingpara]

This is seriously someone's house. Are you flippin' nuts?! Someone would have to pay me to live there!!! Who needs a gym membership when you have a front walkway like that!!

 

 

A little model like view

 

 

 

 

Looking down on our climb up

 

 

Another model like view

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

This bridge was a wee bit rickety!!

 

 

It took us an hour and a half to climb those steps to the top. My main goal was only to make it to the church that is roughly half way up the mountain. Then someone there told us to go up a bit more so you can get the church in your photos looking down on the city. Smart man! Onward we went. I knew that Lady Trip really wanted to go all the way to the top. I had a pretty severe knee injury in the Marine Corps that really made this climb a struggle. But there is no sense in doing something difficult if you’re only going to go half way. So onward again! We (read that as meaning “me”) had to stop a lot to rest my knees. It was really starting to get painful but the gorgeous views kept egging me on. The amazing thing is that there were people from all walks of like making the hike. There were a lot of us that were resting at each switchback and the best part were a couple very enterprising young men that dragged a cooler full of beer up to the top of the mountain. Those were some smart business men!!!

 

 

 

We made it!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Once we were at the top, the views were absolutely stunning!! I could show hundreds of photos that I took from up here but the truth is, there were all of the same view from just different angles. We spent some time exploring the fort before we began our journey down. It only took us 30 minutes to reach the city. Needless to say, it was a bit quicker coming down!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old meets new

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Once we hit the main city center, we started exploring the beautiful ancient city. The views from down at ground level were just as beautiful as above! The next couple hours were spent strolling these narrow streets and alleyways. Hundreds of photos were taken. No animals were injured during the filming! Unfortunately, we (along with most people) were concerned about getting a tender back to the ship. So we hopped back to the dock and jumped onto a tender headed back to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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