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

trippingpara · June 3, 2016

One of Eurodam's tenders being used by Vista

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mj · June 3, 2016

Nice pictures of Kotor. Stopped last year at Kotor on the Vision of the Seas and it was a pleasant surprise.

Miss_Mono · June 3, 2016

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!

Loving your review and your pictures are absolutely amazing! Postcard like! Just wanted to chime in because not many know of volbeat and five finger death punch...my fiancé loves them...and now I listen to xm and know their music....carry on with the review.....😃

trippingpara · June 3, 2016

Back on the ship...

Now that's a tender!!

Once we were back on the ship, we did the new SkyRide (very fun but tiring after the mountainous hike we did this morning!) We then went up to the Secret Decks to watch the sailaway. While waiting we chatted for a while with several other couples also waiting. About an hour went by before we gave up and headed back inside. It turns out that there were several accidents on a nearby mountain road that caused several Carnival tour buses to be late.

So the Vista ended up departing a couple hours later than anticipated (this seemed to be a trend throughout the cruise). So we headed up to Lido for dinner and then off to the casino. Why I bother going to a casino is beyond me. I should save myself the aggravation and just go straight to Guest Services and give them several hundred dollars. Much better for my blood pressure!! Lady Trip did fair much better than me (which isn't too hard to do!). We eventually called it a night out of sheer exhaustion. Until next time...

Coming up next - Fun Day at Sea and Chef's Table

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trippingpara · June 4, 2016

Nice pictures of Kotor. Stopped last year at Kotor on the Vision of the Seas and it was a pleasant surprise.

Thank you. We loved Kotor. We were pretty bummed about losing Izmir (for Ephesus) but going to Kotor certainly eased the disappointment!

trippingpara · June 4, 2016

Originally posted by Miss_Mono:

Loving your review and your pictures are absolutely amazing! Postcard like! Just wanted to chime in because not many know of volbeat and five finger death punch...my fiancé loves them...and now I listen to xm and know their music....carry on with the review.....😃

We seem to be having an issue with quoting again. Grrr! Anyways, thank you very much Miss_Mono for the kind words. I agree that you don't hear about this style of bands too often on these boards. Rock on!

trippingpara · June 7, 2016

If anyone out there is following, I apologize for my absence. I have 2 major projects underway and one of them is going live in 2 weeks. Somehow a 3 week trip to Europe before the projects went live sounded like a great idea when I left! Now? Not so much!!!! I'll be back very soon, I promise!

pcvtmom · June 7, 2016

Still following and enjoying immensely! By the way, the sunset picture in post #304 takes my breath away!!

trippingpara · June 8, 2016

Still following and enjoying immensely! By the way, the sunset picture in post #304 takes my breath away!!

Thank you so much! That's one of the great things about a cove balcony is being so close to the water affords some great reflections of sunrises and sunsets off the water.

SenatorsFan · June 8, 2016

Since I'm enjoying your pictures and stories so much, I guess I'll wait patiently for more! :):p Good luck with your big projects.

Heather

mikayla73 · June 12, 2016

Following along and your pics are GREAT!

wajowander2011 · June 12, 2016

Wonderful review and beautiful photos. Thank you!!!

trippingpara · June 12, 2016

Following along and your pics are GREAT!

Wonderful review and beautiful photos. Thank you!!!

Thank you so much, I'll glad you're enjoying them!

trippingpara · June 12, 2016

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Thursday, May 5th – Ionian Sea – Sea Day

Ah, a sea day. I’m normally not much of a fan of sea days as we cruise for the ports. There’s nothing like waking up in a different city or country every morning. That’s why we occasionally cruise to break up our traditional land vacations to Hawaii. But after 2 straight days of extensive walking and steep hiking, my knees are brutalized. They need a serious rest! Luckily for them, we have a couples’ massage booked for today.

We grabbed our normal breakfast and headed up to the spa deck. Chris was extremely excited and I was a bit apprehensive. As I mentioned in my cliff notes version, I’m probably the farthest thing from a spa person. Deep tissue massages are about as relaxing as a wrestling match with a grizzly followed up with a couple trips down Niagara Falls in a barrel! When we checked in at the spa desk, we were escorted into a beautiful waiting room and told to fill out a questionnaire. A few minutes later, we were introduced to our masseuses, Simona and Elma. Simona, with the grayest eyes I have ever seen was from Slovenia and Elma was from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

They led us into a couple room and explained what was going to happen. They were very cute trying to comfort my uneasiness. The first step was the seaweed wrap. Once we were all covered in gooey seaweed mud, they wrapped us up in some aluminum foil blanket like Jimmy McGill’s brother Chuck in Better Call Saul. If you don’t watch that show, you don’t know what you’re missing. Any who, once we were wrapped up like some conspiracy nutjob in aluminum (it interferes with the aliens/government/pick your enemy’s brain waves!), it was all topped off a heavy comforter. It was super comfy! They then covered our eyes and started massaging our head. Okay, I was now jelly!! You touch my feet, I’ll kill ya. You give me one of those deep tissue massages, I’ll kill ya. But you start massaging my head, I’ll do whatever you want!

After the head massage, they whispered in our ears to relax. They would be back in about 15 minutes. Soft music was piped into the room. I normally don’t dig elevator music (if you haven’t noticed yet, I tend to lean towards the eh, let’s say the heavier side of music) but this was uber relaxing!! They then came back into the room (just as I was falling sound asleep) and told us to go into the shower and rub the seaweed mud off with a loofa and then apply a generous coating of sea salt oil all over our body. This would apparently rub off all of the dead skin cells on your body. Yuck! But I must say it did feel good and smelled even better. We then went back into our room for the actual massage. I was dreading this part. Elma was my masseuse and she was quite cute do I really did not want to hit her (plus she was a woman) so I prayed that she wouldn’t be too hard with it. She was surprisingly gentle. There were a couple rough parts but over all, she was great and quite relaxing.

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trippingpara · June 13, 2016

Well, the next part was the big sell. I was prepared for this and had my arguments all lined up. I looked over at Lady Trip and the steely look of determination told me that she was prepared as well. Bring it on I thought. Simona, the brunette with the icy cool eyes and Elma with the bright blonde hair and perpetual smile came in for the attack. Their tactics were sound but our defenses held strong. They lunged. We parried. The battle waged for quite some time. Casualties mounted. In the end when the smoke cleared, we limped home with over $400 in spa products and another couples’ massage booked for the following sea day! The head on attack by Elma coupled with the flanking maneuvers of Simona ultimately proved to be no match for our weak defensive line.

After the spa we went over to the sports deck and played some mini golf, did the ropes course and generally played around.

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We ate lunch at Cucina del Capitano (its free for lunch - $15 a person for dinner). The food was friggin’ outstanding!

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trippingpara · June 15, 2016

Here's a couple more shots of the spa...

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Okay, so those last couple weren't exactly from the spa but they were from the sea day!

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trippingpara · June 15, 2016

Family Harbor anyone?

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Horizons Restaurant

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trippingpara · June 16, 2016

Tonight was the Chef’s Table. We reserved this dinner several months in advance as we knew it would be a popular stop on many people’s itinerary for the inaugural. And we were right! It was sold out shortly after we booked it. If you have never done a Chef’s Table, what the heck are you waiting for??? It is friggin’ outstanding and so worth the money. Just the drinks alone are worth it! For the uninitiated, there is free flowing wine the entire night. And I mean free flowing. Yowza! It was a four-hour long experience complete with a tour of the main galley, a cooking demonstration of the infamous Hot Melting Chocolate Cake and even a magic show!

The Vista has a special room just for the Chef’s Table and it is gorgeous! It is located inside the middle of the main galley so you get to watch all of the action. We got to meet the 3 chef’s that originated the Chef’s Table (one of them is now the head chef of Carnival) and we also got the meet the senior VP of Hospitality as well as Ken Byrne.

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Tonight's menu

I wasn't so sure of the liver pate lollipop at first. But it was actually good!

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Who knew that liver pate lollipops grew on a tree!

Master Chef Soumen explains how he is making a frozen treat with specialized equipment

Lady Trip sure seems to enjoy the frozen treat!

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