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

[tilocke88]

Love your reviews! Following, excited to hear all about the Vista!

[Adam Rose]

Great so far!

[RiotAct]

Ha, that's hilarious how they wanted you to disrobe for the haircut! I'd be a little apprehensive too.

[lele100]

STAFF: As always, the staff onboard the Vista was excellent. From what I was told by a Carnival trainer, only the best at each position get the opportunity to sign a contract on the newest ships. Some get to volunteer, others are selected. It showed here. Now keep in mind that this was the inaugural cruise so the crew was still learning some things as was evidenced by the waiters in the MDRs walking around with table maps. There was also some communication issues the first couple days with port embarkation. We were hanging out with a member of the entertainment team and we got to listen to a whole plethora of radio calls come into him with different instructions on what to do with the passengers that were waiting to disembark at the port that morning. It was actually pretty funny (as a bystander) to listen to what the employees have to deal with from their own bosses.

 

The crew at Guest Services were great too as I witnessed a whole slew of people degrading and generally being downright mean and rude to these people and all they got was a smile in return. Seeing how this was the inaugural and the crew had little time to prepare for 4,000 passengers, I would grade them: “A-”

 

SPA: The spa is located on Deck 12 and offers Thermal Suites including an infrared sauna, a dry sauna, an Aroma Steam Bath, sensory showers, changing rooms, Relaxation Room, Treatment Rooms and a Fitness Center with a separate cycling studio. Even though Lady Trip and Trippette had a less than ideal outing on our last cruise with the spa staff, we decided to give them another try and to splurge with a couples’ Elemis Aroma Spa Seaweed Massage. That’s a fancy way of saying they wrapped us up like mummies in some smelly seaweed.

 

OK look, I’m a very stereotypical guy. I like cars, tools, guns and football and not necessarily in that order. My favorite smell is Hoppes No. 9 (mix in a little freshly cut wood scent for an increased effect). In other words, I like to keep things simple. For example, what happened to the primary color wheel? I mean, what the heck is “fuchsia” for crying out loud! “Boysenberry”?? What the "BLEEP"? The “pleasures” of a spa are pretty similar to me. My finger nails are too short to be manicured, nobody is touching my feet (at least not without getting kicked in the face!), and those “deep tissue” massages feel more like Mike Tyson is using my back for target practice than some beautiful Swedish masseuse gently easing your troubles away like you see in the movies.

 

The last time I got a massage was when I lived in Beijing, China. It went something like this:

 

ME: “Hi, I would like a haircut”

 

LITTLE CHINESE MASSEUSE: “No problem. Take off clothes.”

 

ME: “What??”

 

LITTLE CHINESE MASSEUSE: “You take off clothes now.”

 

ME: “But I just want a haircut!”

 

LITTLE CHINESE MASSEUSE: “Yes, I understand English. Take off clothes.”

 

ME: “What the heck do my clothes have to do with having my hair cut? I only want the hair up here cut,” as I desperately pointed to my noggin’.

 

LITTLE CHINESE MASSEUSE: “You silly man. Take off clothes!”

 

This went on for some time until a giant of a man named Bobo walked in and explained that a massage was part of their standard spa haircut package and I was to only take off my shirt. If I wanted to wake up the next day and have my nose located in the same area of my face that it currently resided in, then my pants needed to stay on. Of course I haven’t been to a barber or a spa ever since!

 

Needless to say, Lady Trip was quite shocked when I surprised her with this spa treatment. She never expected to ever have me as a spa partner. Unless that massage table just happened to be located on the sidelines of Gillette Stadium during a Patriots game and the cheerleaders were the masseuse! Ahhhhh…..huh? Oh sorry, I drifted off there for a second. Anyways, the massage was fabulous. All of my aches and pains from the heavy touring that we’ve been doing so far had melted away. Of course, they tried to sell us a ton of overpriced spa products that I would never ever touch or allow any of my friends to even know that I possessed them. However, I was far too relaxed to even care and simply gave them my credit card and even signed up for another couples’ session! Our spa therapists, Simona and Elma were outstanding! Overall grade… A+++.

 

Next up...Miscellaneous ship areas and items.

 

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That sounds great, do you mind me asking how much a couples massage cost?

[trippingpara]

That sounds great, do you mind me asking how much a couples massage cost?

 

lele100, the costs range depending on what type of massage your getting and the length of the massage. We ended up doing two different spa sessions (on two different sea days). The first session was the Elemis Aroma Spa Seaweed Massage for 75 for $350 (or something close to that - I don't have my bill with me) and then our second session was the Thai Herbal Poultice Massage which they extended to 100 minutes for $190 and they also included a facial as well. Well worth the money!! And I thought I hated spas!

[trippingpara]

The Official Trippingpara Review – Diary Style

 

Okay, enough with the Cliff Notes, now it’s time for the meat and potatoes of my review. Let me give you a little background about us. As I mentioned earlier, I’m Trippingpara but you can just call me Trip. I’m in my mid-forties and work in upper management for a large international manufacturing company. I’m a pretty laid back guy that loves to travel and goes pretty crazy with planning trips. I think I missed my calling as a travel agent. You should see my Excel spreadsheets outlining our itinerary, back up options in case our primary excursion falls though, options to eat, etc. I won’t even get into my packing lists!! Oy vey!!

 

Joining me on this adventure was my lovely wife who we’ll call Lady Trip. She is in her early forties and works as a paralegal specializing in international biotech patents. Not quite sure what that means, but it sure sounds important! And she must be very good at it. The partners of the firm act like the world is going to end every time she goes out on vacation! When she told them that she was going to be gone for 3 weeks with no email/phone access…well, you would have thought she had committed some sort of heinous crime against humanity. Those stuffed suits bloody well had a coronary, were resuscitated and had another coronary with a stroke on the side just for maximum effect. They are a little overly dependent upon her but that’s another story for another time.

 

On my last review of the Liberty, everyone got to meet our beautiful daughter, Trippette. And like most people, instantly fell in love with her. Unfortunately, Trippette will not be joining us on this adventure. She just returned 2 days before we departed from a week of fun in the sun aboard the Splendor in the Western Caribbean with her boyfriend. Since her boyfriend is a pretty good guy, let’s give him a name. We’ll call him Mr. Keep-Your-Hands-Off-Trippette-Until-Trip’s-Six-Feet-Under. Yep, that’s a good name. From the sounds of her vacation, it looks like we created a cruise monster! I know many of you will be disappointed that she will not be in this review but I can guarantee that you aren’t even half as disappointed as she was!! But she will vacation again with us next year on our regular annual land vacation to Hawai’i as Lady Trip and I renew our wedding vows.

 

This trip was originally designed to be a land/cruise vacation to the Galapagos Islands with a post cruise trip down the Amazon River and a jot down to Machu Picchhu in Peru. Lady Trip wanted to treat me to my dream vacation for my birthday. She started squirreling some money away a couple years prior thinking before she knew it, she would have all the money saved up. Well unfortunately, it seemed for every dollar that she hid away, the trip expenses grew by the same amount. She was getting nowhere fast and it was wearing on her. Seeing this, I finally suggested that we look for a different vacation. We wanted something big yet was in our original budget plans and this cruise fit the bill. After much debate we selected the inaugural run because we liked the itinerary the best and afforded us the ability to see some other parts of Europe that we probably wouldn’t have been able to see on our own. We quickly slapped our payment down and advised our local government officials that the Trips were headed to the Mediterranean! Better dust off those diplomacy manuals and call the UN! That crazy Trip family is crossing the big pond again!

 

Anywho…this trip was a first for us on many grounds. It was our first trip to the Mediterranean together (I had previously enjoyed a ride around the Med as a young jarhead Marine courtesy of the U.S. Navy – they do make excellent taxi drivers!). It was also our first cruise overseas and our first time to many of these countries.

 

Preparations for this cruise started in earnest about 8 months prior. It was exhausting researching all of the different ports, currencies, languages, etc. But it was so fun too! We were glued to all of the various sites that were monitoring the construction of the Vista.

 

A POSTER ON CRUISE CRITIC: “I just heard from my PVP that the Vista will be delayed!”

 

ME: “What? Son of a…..!”

 

A POSTER ON 'THAT OTHER SITE': “What does a PVP know? My best friend’s second cousin’s hair dresser’s dog in Italy just tweeted that the Vista is done and ready to sail!”

 

A POSTER ON CRUISE CRITIC: “Oh yeah? Well your second cousin is a moron and my dog just peed on the hair dresser’s dog.”

 

ME: “What the heck is a tweet?”

 

JOHN HEALD TYPING IN HIS UNDERWEAR: “Of FFS!!”

 

I swear I lost a bunch of my hair with all of the “it’s sailing on time…no, it’s delayed…just kidding, it’s on time….sike! It was just sunk by a midget submarine!” Of course with me being such a trip research fanatic, I already had Plan B and C prepared just in case the inaugural cruise was cancelled. But alas, the word came down…she was ready to sail!! And so, that is how we ended up sailing the Mediterranean Sea aboard the Carnival Vista!

 

Our trip officially started on Wednesday, April 27th. We both attempted to work during the day since we had a redeye flight to Europe that evening. Do note the use of the word “attempted”. I looked like I was working like a maniac. I had papers flying all over my office with the phone to my ear, typing furiously away. Reality: I spent most of the day throwing papers around my desk trying to find all of my cruise docs that I had printed up earlier, as I sat calling the bank and other necessary parties to notify them of our trip all the while typing furiously away at some notes for our dog/house sitter. Man, I actually broke a sweat too! My boss was very proud of me! He told me that he’d never seen me work so hard before!

 

We ended up cutting out of work a bit early in order to run over to Boston’s Logan Airport in time to catch our flight. Okay, so Lady Trip is able to just “run” over to Boston’s Logan Airport since she works in downtown Boston, right on the harbor and is just a stone’s throw away from the airport. Me on the other hand…? Well, I work in Connecticut near the Rhode Island border. So it’s a wee bit more than just a jog down the street! Unless you live in Maine, then it’s like going to the corner store to get some milk! Sorry, I digress…It was a cross-Atlantic redeye to Dublin, Ireland on Aer Lingus followed by a jump flight over to Venice, Italy. One of the really nice things about living in the Boston area is the availability of cheap flights to Dublin. Sometimes it’s nice to live in Little Ireland.

 

Next up...Venice, Italy and a buttload of photos

 

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[lele100]

lele100, the costs range depending on what type of massage your getting and the length of the massage. We ended up doing two different spa sessions (on two different sea days). The first session was the Elemis Aroma Spa Seaweed Massage for 75 for $350 (or something close to that - I don't have my bill with me) and then our second session was the Thai Herbal Poultice Massage which they extended to 100 minutes for $190 and they also included a facial as well. Well worth the money!! And I thought I hated spas!

 

I will have to convince my hubby into doing this with me. Thanks

[trippingpara]

________________________________________

Thursday, April 28th – Venice, Italy

We arrived at Boston’s Logan Airport with the requisite 3 hours for international flights. We easily breezed through security and strolled around the international departures wing of Logan Airport. We eventually sat down to grab a bite to eat and have a drink. When we sat down, we had plenty of time to eat however by the time a waiter actually decided to stop by and wait on us and then deliver our food, we had to rush out of there to start boarding our flight. I swear they had to travel to Idaho to get the cow for my burger!! Anyways, we flew to Dublin on an Aer Lingus flight. The flight was very uneventful (the way we like them!). It was a redeye flight that landed us in Dublin at 5 am local time. Since we had not slept a wink on the flight over, we were in need of some serious coffee to keep us going. So we made our way over to the only place that was open at 5 am in the Dublin Airport…a bar! The place was hopping and everyone was drinking. You’d think it was 11:00 pm on a Friday night not 5:00 am on a Thursday morning! Not wanting to be left out, we ordered an extra-large coffee with a couple shots of Jamison tossed in for good luck. Not sure if it really brings you any luck but it sure as heck does wake you up!! Our next flight was a direct hop over to Venice. It was about a 2.5 hour flight and was also very uneventful.

 

Hey look, I figured out how to do that 'selfie' thing!!

 

You know you're in Dublin when...

 

Our chariot in Dublin

 

Our chariot in Venice

 

Our room at the Hotel Rialto

 

Hotel Rialto. Our room was the small balcony on the left hand side. Awesome views of the Rialto Bridge and the Grand Canal

 

The hotel was centrally located within the city and just minutes from anywhere that you may want to go. The rooms were reasonably priced (for Venice!) and also included a great breakfast for free each morning (but the coffee wasn't free - odd.)

 

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[Surrealistic]

Hi Don,

Glad you & Christine made it home safely. So enjoying your thoughts on the cruise thus far. Ready to relive all those marvelous moments we had on the cruise through your review. Helps with the post traumatic cruise disorder I am currently exhibiting. :D Can't wait for the next installment!

 

Christine

[trippingpara]

Let me back up for a second and return to our flight in from Dublin. Although the flight itself was uneventful, we were delayed at the beginning of the flight. The captain came over the loudspeaker and announced that we will have to wait on the tarmac for 40 minutes due to the French. “What? What the heck do the French have to do with an Irish flight?” Well, apparently, the French airlines and their employees had decided to strike which was impacting their air traffic control capabilities (we were going to fly over French air space). By the end of this cruise, I’m pretty convinced that labor strikes are a favorite pastime in Europe as we would run into strikes a couple times during our cruise.

 

Once we landed and grabbed our checked luggage, we took a private water taxi right to the pier in front of our new home, Hotel Rialto. Sitting at the foot of the famous Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, its location could not be beat and our room was fabulous! We had a room overlooking the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge. It was a bit on the small size but who really cared? We’re in Venice!!

 

Since our room wasn’t quite ready yet, we dropped our bags off and began exploring the city. It is a maze of canals and bridges. I had read somewhere that the best thing to do in Venice was to just get lost. That was no problem at all! I’m generally pretty good being able to figure out where I am but I was absolutely lost within minutes! There is no such thing as a straight line in Venice! Somehow, we did eventually find our way around and saw the infamous fish market (there are things sold there that I didn’t even know existed!!), the shopping district, too many churches and museums to remember and finally found San Marco. Wow is the only word that comes to mind when you walk into this plaza.

 

Let’s take a look at some of the scenes that we saw as we wondering the canals of Venice:

 

The view from our balcony

 

The Bridge Rialto

 

Walking the Bridge Rialto

 

A gondola parking lot

 

The streets of Venice

 

One of the hundreds of little piazzas that dot the city

 

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[pcvtmom]

Oh NO! I can't see the pictures in your last post.

 

I so agree with the "getting lost in Venice" idea. Piece of cake! I've never been so lost!

Edited May 20, 2016 by pcvtmom

[trippingpara]

Some more sights of Venice

 

 

Statues of the Beatles from a quirky little art museum and shop

 

 

Inside the art museum seen in the above photo

 

 

[trippingpara]

Oh NO! I can't see the pictures in your last post.

 

I so agree with the "getting lost in Venice" idea. Piece of cake! I've never been so lost!

 

 

Hmm, I'm able to see them. Is anyone else having this problem?

 

I even got hopelessly lost while following a map. How the heck does that happen??

[rocking-m-cruiser]

Trip, I'm hooked! You guys were a lot of fun!! Looking forward to the next page....

[bluwes]

I'm maybe a bit late but I'm in

[trippingpara]

Trip, I'm hooked! You guys were a lot of fun!! Looking forward to the next page....

 

Thank you so much, we had a blast hanging out with you two as well. As I go through my photos you guys photobombed several of them. Don't worry, I'll only post the most embarrassing ones! :eek:

[rocking-m-cruiser]

Thank you so much, we had a blast hanging out with you two as well. As I go through my photos you guys photobombed several of them. Don't worry, I'll only post the most embarrassing ones! :eek:

 

Oh no, please don't...:D:D

[trippingpara]

I'm maybe a bit late but I'm in

 

Welcome to the party!

[gypsydeb]

OH NO I can't see the pictures either !:(

[rocking-m-cruiser]

Hmm, I'm able to see them. Is anyone else having this problem?

 

I even got hopelessly lost while following a map. How the heck does that happen??

 

I see them, great pics.

[WinstonsMom]

I also can't see the pictures you posted today. :(

[trippingpara]

After a couple hours of strolling around lost, we finally stumbled onto Piazza San Marco. The funny thing is, Piazza San Marco is only a 15 minute walk from Hotel Rialto (when you know where you're going that is!)

 

Piazza San Marco

 

Lady Trip standing before Basilica di San Marco

 

The upper deck of Basilica di San Marco - note the 4 bronze horses that were stolen from Constantinople

 

Close up of one of the entrances to the Basilica di San Marco

 

The Doge Palace

 

The infamous Bridge of Sighs - this is the bridge that convicted prisoners would cross from the Doge Palace to the prison next door. As they looked out the grated windows they often sighed at their last look at the city

 

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[whaletaillover]

Loving the review but can't see the last number of pictures.:(

[smitty89]

No pictures for me either on the last few posts... I'm loving the review so far, your review really helped me out on our trip to San Juan!

[trippingpara]

Hmm...I'm confused as to why some of you can't see them. I didn't do anything different between yesterday and today. For those of you that can't see them, what are you using to read this review (mobile app, iPad, desktop PC, etc., and what software)?

 

I'm using Firefox and see them with no problem but I just tried to view them in Explorer and I don't see the ones from today either. Very strange!

Edited May 20, 2016 by trippingpara