Willdra's Vivacious Carnival Vista May 14-20 Cruise

[alreadypacked]

Great review!! Thank you!

 

Been on probably 16 or 17 Carnival cruises, but started to branch out to other lines a few years ago--and jumped ship; still love the Carnival board...

 

Best comprehensive info from posters and reviews!!!

[Cafedumonde]

Embarkation Day

Cabin Photos

 



 

 



 

 



 

 



 

 



 

beautiful cabin. superfun review!!

[Destaw71835]

[emoji23] at your husband's food [emoji599]

 

 

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[willdra]

Cruising on Vista in a little over a week and loving your review! Funny and great info!!!

 

 

 

Thank you!! [emoji2]

 

 

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[willdra]

1st Sea Day

 

Part 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a wonderful review! It looks like we are going to have to have the #OOTD or make that plural; outfits of the day! You look so pretty in your outfits and I don't know WHY you would wear spanx!! You do not need it....but then I get the southern girl not going out without her hidden helpers on!!

 

You and W are just the cutest!!

 

 

 

LOL!!!! Thank you so much [emoji4]!!

 

 

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[willdra]

Great review!! Thank you!

 

 

 

Been on probably 16 or 17 Carnival cruises, but started to branch out to other lines a few years ago--and jumped ship; still love the Carnival board...

 

 

 

Best comprehensive info from posters and reviews!!!

 

 

 

Thank you [emoji4], and yes I agree! I learn so much from reading these reviews! Plus it really helps me to pass the time between cruises. [emoji170][emoji170][emoji924][emoji170][emoji170]

 

 

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[willdra]

[emoji23] at your husband's food [emoji599]

 

 

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Thank you for reading along! [emoji16]I loved the new cabin style with the drawers in the closet and the extra outlets. It really felt more modern. [emoji7][emoji1474]

 

 

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[willdra]

[emoji23] at your husband's food [emoji599]

 

 

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LOL he was so serious too! [emoji44][emoji33]

 

 

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[JaniceB]

Those shrimp do not look buffalo at all but glad they tasted good.

[TravelLots]

I'm not mad at your husband's food alarm! Actually, it gives me ideas....!

[mskriskros]

Love your review. My family will be on the Vista in August. I cannot wait.

[Frank12]

Keep it coming!

[willdra]

Ocho Rios Port Day

Part 1

 

 

I woke up around 9 because I sensed a disturbance in the force, and I was hungry. There was food being cooked somewhere, and it was calling my name! The gym should have been calling my name, but for some reason it was silent this morning. Yay me!! I opened the curtains to see what was up and it was raining cats, dogs,and gophers outside. Mother Nature had zero chill today, and she was ticked off! W got up when he heard me bumping around the cabin. We made ourselves presentable to other humans, then strolled out to the elevators to take us up to that Utopian society where food just appears in front of you. Some people call it the Lido Deck. The only requirement in this amazing place is for you to pick out what you want and carry it to your table. That's a rough life right?Picking up food is hard. Since it was our only option at the time we took one for the team!

 

Before we go there tho, I need to add that the elevators are extremely slow on this ship. I'm sure there are several factors attributing to this, like kids pushing all of the buttons, people holding elevators for family who aren't there yet, and/or malnourished underpaid elephants below deck doing the pulling. Whatever the reason, give yourself plenty of time if you have to use the elevators. Take some reading material in case you get bored easily, or walk if it's only a few flights up or down. Your thighs will thank you later! Or your thighs may go into shock, then lock up on you and refuse to take you anywhere else. Tough call.

 

After what seemed like centuries, the elevators came and we were taken from 2 to 10. Apparently, this is where the entire ship decided to meet up! There were crowds all over the place! W and I split up and went to pick out our first meal of the day, which was an exercise in extreme randomness. We had a little of everything that we love. I remembered to get arepas from the Blue Iguana which was wonderful (that I remembered something and the arepas!). Everything else was just stuff that I maybe had a taste for. We ate slow, talked, and just basked in the beauty of being on vacay. We pulled up our pictures from Elegant Evening on the Hub App and surprisingly we liked them. I loved being able to view our pictures on the Hub App. No more going and digging thru millions of pictures only to find that my eyes were closed, or there was a big chunk of spinach stuck in my teeth. Yuck! Nobody wants to see that, or pay $20 for it! No thanks!

 

Breakfast

 

 

 

[willdra]

Ocho Rios Port Day

Part 2

 

At some point we decided we would prolly not be getting off today in Ocho Rios. It was just too unattractive out there. Even though I wanted to go, it wasn't catastrophic cuz we've been to Jamaica 6 times. 4 of those times we flew there directly and did the All Inclusive thing.We were good whether we got off or not. Also I didn't see an excursion that was dying to be done in the Fun Ashore booklet when I looked either. This was good too cuz Carnival canceled and refunded all of the excursions for the day. Our procrastination and indecision worked out for once! Look at God!

With this being a new ship, and since we have a cruise booked on the Horizon next year, I wanted to take lots of pictures. We went back to the cabin to get the camera. When we got there, we saw that our first laundry package had been delivered, and we were glad because there was now one less stinky bundle of clothes in the dirty clothes bag! W sent the laundry out the day before so it's a 24 hour turnaround.

 

We started at the spa and worked our way down. We were just really taking pictures of areas that were mostly vacant.There were people here and there cuz there was nowhere else for them to go, but we got some good ones with very few peeps. This lasted for a while, and I started getting sleepy from being on vacation, and those carbs that I inhaled at breakfast, so we adjourned to our cabin. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

 

Here are some of my favorite photos from that morning:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

Ocho Rios Port Day

Part 3

 

I woke up to an empty cabin, (W doesn't really sleep in the daytime. I know. Weird.) and I wanted food. Again. Oh snap,W is rubbing off on me! A scan of the Funtimes told me that I needed Guy's in my life ASAP, so Guy's it was! Far be it from me to argue with the Funtimes. There wasn't a big line so I got lucky.When I was watered and fed, I sat on our balcony reading and making notes. W came back and we just existed until it was time to prepare for dinner. In case anyone is wondering what happens when it rains on the cruise, don't worry. They added lots of activities into the schedule to help keep everyone entertained. W found the shuffleboard tournament and the beer pong tournament interesting so he watched those. There was more trivia added as well as the Dr. Seuss parade and story time was already scheduled for today. Or you can be like me and take some long overdue uninterrupted naps. Either way, own your fun! Own it!

 

Tonight we wanted to catch the Love and Marriage Show so we went to dinner around 7:30. There was no line to check in for Your Time Dining, and we were assigned a table immediately. We had peeked at the menu when we were out earlier so we already knew what we wanted. I had the Peach Soup, The Jerk Chicken Wings, and the Salmon Cake. W had the Grilled Beef Tenderloin. Everything was good. Well except maybe the Jerk Chicken Wings. They were…..curious. The star of our show tho was the S'mores Parfait. That's what we came for. W got 2 so he could take one back to the cabin for later and I got one but I saved it for later also.That empty fridge comes in handy for dessert saving.

 

 

 

 

Jerk-ish Chicken Wings

 

Peach Soup

 

Salmon Cake

 

[willdra]

Grilled Beef Tenderloin

 

 

S'mores Parfait Perfection

 

 

 

[willdra]

Ocho Rios Port Day

Part 4

 

 

We left dinner around 8:50 so we could drop off the parfaits and change my shoes. My dogs were barking from walking up and down the stairs and everywhere in between. So the shoes had to get kicked to the curb. Literally. No shame.

 

Bingo was going in full force when we got to the theater. There was quite a few people in there too. This time not that many people left after Bingo. Yep, I checked,cuz really? Leaving after BINGO equals fix your life! By 9:30 the theater was completely full. People were standing anywhere that they could. It says a lot about a Cruise Director when his shows are overflowing! As usual the show was very funny. Matt is pretty quick on his feet and easy on the eyes too. #Bonus! The show was over too soon and it was time for our next activity. I wanted to get my "40 is the new 20" from the Alchemy Bar. There was really no one over there so we grabbed a seat and shortly after that my order was taken. I swear I could see a rainbow forming right over the bar, and I could hear a heavenly choir of angels singing as they were pouring my drink. The Alchemy Bar is the truth Ruth! Get some.

 

[willdra]

Ocho Rios Port Day

Part 5

 

 

 

Our next move was to go to the Comedy Show,since Serenity Nights was canceled and I didn't want to do the Mega Deck Party. Once we got over there, we saw the line for the comedy show which was all the way back to the casino. It was only 10:30, and we didn't want to wait that long for a bad seat or no seat. So Nope. Not the move. We recalculated and ended up walking around the shops.There is so much to see on The Vista so I was thankful that we had time to peruse her more at our leisure.

 

Even though I told my inner fat girl that we would not be eating late night snacks and unnecessary food tonight, she forced me to go foraging at 11:30. She cheats and she doesn't fight fair! Part of the buffet was open so we got in line for another meal that was totally unnecessary for our survival. The rest of the evening was spent burning zero calories, and trying to win the contest for being the laziest people on the ship. I'm pretty sure we won, just not sure who to contact for my ship on a stick. Any suggestions?

 

Before I fell asleep I said a quick prayer thanking God for vodka. Because. Yay!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]