Vista Photo Review: 10-night Mediterranean Cruise from Athens to Barcelona

[TTbiker]

I don't think Kusadasi is on our itinerary:(

Do you have any recommendations for dining onboard, or shore excursions.

Thanks

[cshellz]

Following, I'm doing the 8 day next month.

[shark&minnow]

Thank you! I will be reading along. We are doing the opposite itinerary in September and staying a couple of days in Athens, so we really appreciate the restaurant recommendation. I agree that the dining room picture looks a bit like a coffee shop! On our last cruise (Miracle-Mexican Riviera) we didn't notice the dining room service being particularly slow, but maybe we were expecting more of a production for that meal, but breakfast was ridiculous! We, like you, prefer to eat in the dining room, but waiting an hour for our breakfast was crazy....we had other things we wanted to do! Serving that amount of people is an incredible feat, so I will try to be patient.:)

Thanks again!!

Edited July 11, 2016 by shark&minnow

[deladane]

Oh yay! I'm so happy I stumbled upon your review as I loved reading your prior reviews. Your son got so big!! I hope he had his fill of escargots during the cruise ;)

[nybumpkin]

Thank you so much for your review! We sail from Athens next week.

[Selenatx]

Loving your review! Thanks for doing it.

[marci50]

My brother and his fiance met us in Athens and booked an inside cabin on Deck 10. They were in 10-295, and found it to be extremely noisy!

 

I am booked in this room on a future sailing, was it noisy in general or only when there was activities and music on the lido?

[kjunea]

Wonderful review! Looking forward to more!

[javamom]

\

My brother and his fiance met us in Athens and booked an inside cabin on Deck 10. They were in 10-295, and found it to be extremely noisy! Granted, they booked two days prior to sailing and were given a "guarantee" room. So they were at the mercy of the cruiseline...

 

!

 

Do you know where the noise was from? My daughter and SIL had that room on Breeze and didn't find it noisy.

[riclop]

Following along.

[sailawaybellaluna]

I don't think Kusadasi is on our itinerary:(

Do you have any recommendations for dining onboard, or shore excursions.

Thanks

 

Definitely! I will get there...But our fave dining onboard (outside of the Horizons Restaurant) was definitely the Blue Iguana (their breakfast burritos!!!), and Guy's!

 

And we are mainly DIY shore excursion people, which I will detail in my post each day...Except for a special excursion we did in Messina (which was my birthday)!

 

Stay tuned!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Thank you! I will be reading along. We are doing the opposite itinerary in September and staying a couple of days in Athens, so we really appreciate the restaurant recommendation. I agree that the dining room picture looks a bit like a coffee shop! On our last cruise (Miracle-Mexican Riviera) we didn't notice the dining room service being particularly slow, but maybe we were expecting more of a production for that meal, but breakfast was ridiculous! We, like you, prefer to eat in the dining room, but waiting an hour for our breakfast was crazy....we had other things we wanted to do! Serving that amount of people is an incredible feat, so I will try to be patient.:)

Thanks again!!

 

Oh goodness! An hour long wait at breakfast would make me a little crazy!

 

But you're so right - they have a huge job, serving that many people! For me, it's a treat just to have food brought to me, especially when I didn't cook it and I don't have to clean up afterwards!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Oh yay! I'm so happy I stumbled upon your review as I loved reading your prior reviews. Your son got so big!! I hope he had his fill of escargots during the cruise ;)

 

Oh, thank you!

 

You have a good memory regarding my son! Yes, he has gotten SO big! And believe it or not, he is no longer a fan of escargot! :confused: We were on a short Ensenada cruise in April, and he ordered a plate. After eating two of them, he announced to everyone at the table, "Well, it looks like my teacher was right...my taste buds have changed now that I've gotten older!" And just like that, he doesn't like escargot anymore! I'm a little sad about it. He really is growing up!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Thanks everyone for reading along so far! Sorry if I'm a little slower to post...We are still fighting jet lag, and my baby girl has been sick since coming home...So momma doesn't have a lot of time on CruiseCritic! :p

 

In terms of the noise in cabin 10-295: it was my impression that it was an ongoing issue for my brother, and really quite bothersome. He lives overseas, but I've texted him requesting additional details, and when I wake up tomorrow, I should have some additional information to share!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Here are the Fun Times, as promised!

 

 

 

 

[sailawaybellaluna]

Upon returning from our day in Ephesus, we did our usual: order snacks from room service, nap (for the baby), and get ready for dinner...We were back in the Horizons dining room, and the "refrigeration" issues were still present.

 

In the evening, I ended up in the casino winning/losing/winning/losing on the slot machines and the blackjack table...:eek:

 

My parents went to listen to the violinists on several evenings as well as the comedy shows, and really really enjoyed them!

 

We went to sleep, preparing for a pretty relaxed day in Rhodes. Honestly, for some reason, we weren't too excited about Rhodes. We had decided we would just wander around at leisure, and see what we find.

 

The next morning, I was enjoying a breakfast burrito from the Blue Iguana on my balcony, with a cup of coffee as we were approaching the island. The view was gorgeous!

 

 

Well, we were pleasantly surprised! Rhodes was GORGEOUS! The gate into the city, the stone architecture, the wall, the boats in the marina, the shopping. It was all wonderful!

 

When you step off the ship, you just walk straight out of the port, veering right along the water. After walking about five minutes, you will see a small (tiny) beach on your right hand side, and St. Mary's Gate on the left. It is covered with hot pink bougainvillea. This is a great place to enter and begin your journey through Rhodes.

 

 

 

 

 

More to come...!

[micabrooks]

My husband and I were also on your sailing. Your review brought back great memories! The Vista is a lovely ship.

We were assigned my time dining, but we never waited more than 5 minutes. Most nights they gave us an admission slip and we didn't even need a buzzer. We prefer the set dinner time, but it worked well to eat since the shore excursions ran so late and the heat was exhausting some days. We sat on deck 3 and never had issues with heat in the dining room. Sorry to hear you did.

We never had a poor tour through Carnival and booked with them each day, but your Ephesus tour description sounded amazing. If I had known Viator also offered the same guarantee, I would have booked through it.

Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[crunchy05]

Congratulations on your baby girl! She is adorable, and your son is getting so big. I don't sail the Vista until next year. So until then I am soaking up all reviews on her.

[sailawaybellaluna]

After you walk through the gate, and begin walking up the main shopping street (called Socrates street), you will be pleasantly surprised by the shopping!

 

At first I thought the shops would just be filled with little tacky souvenirs. But I was so wrong!

 

One of the first shops you'll see is a leather sandal-maker's shop. I spoke with the owner (while trying on some sandals), and he is the third generation to have this store, and was making sandals right there in front of me! What a fun souvenir to get! (Unfortunately, I didn't get a pair because he didn't have my size in any of the styles I wanted, sadly).

 

After this, I found a few very nice jewelry shops. Several shops sell gold and sterling silver jewelry, much of which is actually made in Greece (not China or somewhere random). I bought a silver bracelet and necklace with a small anchor on it. Perfect cruise souvenir!`

 

We meandered a bit more, before I came across a shop which really caught my eye - it was full of spices, and was also a coffee roaster! I love cooking, and belong to a cooking club here in California. (Basically, several friends gather once a month, cook a dish according to a certain theme, drink wine, chat, and sometimes read/discuss a book as well). I thought it'd be fun to get them all Greek spices from this little shop, and I'm so glad I did! Each packet was a euro or less, and the shop owner was so sweet, and gave me a ton of little gift bags to package them all in! If you enjoy cooking, keep an eye out for this place!

 

 

 

Next up...a very picturesque lunch!

Edited July 12, 2016 by sailawaybellaluna

[sailawaybellaluna]

My husband and I were also on your sailing. Your review brought back great memories! The Vista is a lovely ship.

We were assigned my time dining, but we never waited more than 5 minutes. Most nights they gave us an admission slip and we didn't even need a buzzer. We prefer the set dinner time, but it worked well to eat since the shore excursions ran so late and the heat was exhausting some days. We sat on deck 3 and never had issues with heat in the dining room. Sorry to hear you did.

We never had a poor tour through Carnival and booked with them each day, but your Ephesus tour description sounded amazing. If I had known Viator also offered the same guarantee, I would have booked through it.

Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

I'm so glad your experience with dining was a positive one! I got the little admission slips too, but strangely, no one ever requested them once we got to the dining room! Ha. :confused:

 

You know, one evening they couldn't seat us where we normally sat on deck 4, and we were given table 503 on deck 3, and it was soooo nice! No "refrigeration" issues! :p (I laugh that this is what they called it, because most of the time at dinner, I was fantasizing about stepping inside of a refrigerator)! :D

 

Yes, keep an eye out on Viator excursions in the future! I've done another one in Australia, which was wonderful!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Congratulations on your baby girl! She is adorable, and your son is getting so big. I don't sail the Vista until next year. So until then I am soaking up all reviews on her.

 

Aww, thank you! She is quite high maintenance at home, but we were pleasantly surprised by what an excellent little cruiser she was! This was her second cruise, and she did awesome! Even thoughout the 2 hour dinners in the hot dining room! :p

 

You'll have a wonderful time! It is a very fun ship!!

 

I'm just sorry I don't have more photos to share of the actual ship...I never intended to do a review. But I got home and started looking for a Spring Break 2017 cruise (seriously, I have an illness), and that brought me back to CruiseCritic, and I realized I had a lot to say! Ha!

[sailawaybellaluna]

We wandered through Rhodes a little bit more, peeking around some little alleys and some roads off the main shopping street. It was so beautiful!

 

 

 

And, don't you just love seeing the Whale Tail peeking out in the background of this photo?

 

 

 

 

We stumbled across this little wine shop - right off the first main square on Socrates Street. It sold quite a bit of local wine from Rhodes, and we bought a couple of bottles and took them on the ship without any hassle at all from security!

 

[sailawaybellaluna]

After wandering a bit, we found a cute little street off of Socrates street called Menekleous. This street was full of little outdoor tavernas and restaurants, and we decided to sit and eat lunch at Romeo Restaurant. I'll be honest: I chose it solely based on the ambiance and the big beautiful trees hanging over the tables. I didn't even really look at the menu! Ha!

 

 

 

 

 

The food was good. Nothing spectacular, but very good value and fresh. We had some local house wine which was delicious, and they had special kids meals which were a bargain! 6E for a pasta dish, milkshake and ice cream. And they were so thoughtful and brought out some little toys for both of the kids. And of course, lightening fast Wi-Fi, which is always a treat while traveling!

 

Overall, we loved our afternoon on Rhodes! With such a port-intensive cruise, we had kind of decided in advance which stops we wanted to take it easy in, and which we were going to hit hard. Rhodes was a "take it easy" stop for us, and the perfect place to do that.

 

On the walk back to the ship, my son and I jumped in the water, and it was so warm and crystal clear!

 

(It was really really windy as you can see by my hair!)

 

I would definitely return to Rhodes!

[Clarea]

Enjoying the photos.:)

[brightfeather]

Sailawaybellaluna, thank you so much for taking time to do this review. I'm glad you're family had a great time and I'm really looking forward to seeing the Dailies and to our 1st Med cruse in Sept.

Thank you again! :-)

~~ Diane