First Cruise: Detailed review and photos of our Carnival Vista March 17-24, 2019 trip

[MJSailors]

I have a suggestion re:seasickness if you are planning another cruise.

Taking ginger candies with you and eating green apples or drinking ginger ale (made with real ginger ) can help with the nausea.

Staying mid ship and on lower decks help dealing with the motion of the ocean.

I hope you continue with your review - it is interesting reading !

[MzShae]

We always stop at Mega in Cozumel. They have a great wine selection and it's cheap. We also get Mexican candy & snacks there. 

[grandmarnnurse]

Following. A great review so far! I’ve passed the store Mega several times on past cruises and never checked it out, but think I will next time.

[KmomChicago]

I suggest taking your Bonine or non-drowsy Dramamine at bedtime each night.  I sleep well and most of the drowsy factor has worn off by morning, but it's still keeping you from being seasick all day.

 

It's an antihistamine and if you are not used to them they knock a lot of people right out.

[JaniceB]

Looking forward to more of your review and I agree with Kmom above, take the Bonine at night.

[Ideb]

Thanks for all the advice on motion sickness. I did buy some ginger candy called "Gin Gins" and brought them along, but I think the rocky seas and the way Alex felt we just thought it would be better to take the Bonine right then. Next time, we'll take it at night to prevent getting sick. Luckily for us, the rest of the week the weather was beautiful and the seas were a lot more calm and that was the only time any of us felt sick.

[Ideb]

After walking around inside Mega for a while, we decided to get a taxi and go back to the port. We shopped some more there and bought some shirts and souvenirs then went to Three Amigos restaurant for a bite to eat. We weren't really hungry but just wanted to get something to snack on and drink before getting back on the ship and have a little taste of true Mexican food.

 

 

[Ideb]

 

Eating and taking advantage of ours phones working (kinda). We were free to use them on our At&t Mexico plan but data didn't work too well around the port area. I'm sure there are some places that offer wifi, but we made do with the signal we had.

 

 

A view of the cruise ships in port from the restaurant

 

 

We took some pictures outside Three Amigos

 

[Ideb]

After we ate, we walked over to the small free beach at the port area and took some pictures and just sat and enjoyed the view for a little while.

 

 

[TrqoisWtrs]

We did a land vacation in Cozumel years back, and stayed in a condo near the grocery story.  It was awesome - the store let us keep our shopping cart to get our stuff back to the condo.  We pushed it down the sidewalk and up the elevator and into the kitchen to unload there.  It was hilarious!  😄  An employee had come with us and he took it back to the store, with a good tip from us of course :)

 

 

[mississauga]

Great review so far and more so for a first time cruiser.

[Ms. Fun Bunch]

Enjoying your review.

[Flytko]

Just got back from our Vista cruise.  We got to enjoy two times the Cozumel.  Debating on doing a review.  😎

[Ideb]

I feel so far behind. I would like to this get this cruise review done but this time of the year is so busy. As a teacher, it seems like so many activities are all in April and May and there's so much planning and end of year testing to be done. I'll just keep adding more as I can. I have all my photos in a folder on my computer so it's just a matter of getting them uploaded.

 

Back to our first port day in Cozumel:  I believe we were in port until 6:00 pm.  We went back to the ship early. I  can't remember exactly what time, but I think it was around 3:30 or so. We stopped by the Family Harbor lounge and afternoon snacks were out. There were BLT and PB&J sandwiches, pico de gallo and chips, some regular potato chips, brownies, cheesecake and chocolate cake. We had a little snack then went to our room and got ready to go to the pool. We went up to the Lido deck and Austin got in the water for a while. The pools were way too cold for me, but I did get in a hot tub for a little while. It was nice on port day. I actually had the hot tub all to myself for a few minutes. I also had my choice of loungers. I found one in the front and watched Austin play in the pool. Alex was already sitting in a chair playing on his phone.

 

We found a Vista life preserver and I wanted pictures of each of us in front of it. It was turned the wrong way and it tried to turn it so that the ship's name could be seen. I was afraid to move it too much because I didn't want anyone to think I was tampering with it but I've since seen other reviews where the cruisers picked up the life preserver from the rack and took a picture holding it. 

After we took these pictures I found at least 5 other life preservers around the deck that were already turned the right way 😅

 

 

 

 

 

[Ideb]

Some other pics from the Lido deck that afternoon:

 

 

 

[Ideb]

We watched the Carnival Miracle that was docked beside us all day leave ahead of us.

 

[Ideb]

After Austin got his swim time in, we went back to the room. I always enjoyed seeing our names with a welcome greeting on the tv in our room.

 

 

[Ideb]

That night we only talked to K and J briefly. They were going to karaoke and we went to Hasbro: The Game Show. I didn't really care for this very much. I would rather have seen a Playlist Production show, but this was what they were having in the Liquid Lounge that night.

 

 

 

[Ideb]

Afterwards, we went to dinner in the mdr. I took pictures of the menus, but for some reason I didn't get pictures of the appetizers or entree-just my desserts. Yes, plural! I wasn't sure which dessert to get so I ordered two, but definitely had a favorite. I had the vegetable spring rolls. They were crispy and okay. Nothing to write home about.

 

 

My main course was the steak tacos from the port of call menu from Cozumel. Again-just okay. The steak was kind of chewy and tough and just regular store bought flour tortillas that didn't taste that great.

 

 

 

Since I didn't really enjoy the appetizer or main dish and only ate a little of each, I ordered two desserts to try: the apple pie and the  chocolate Tre Lech cake. The apple pie was pretty good. I only took a couple of bites of it because the chocolate Tre Lech cake was out of this world. Probably my favorite dessert of the whole cruise.

 

 

Mmmmm......

 

 

 

 

[Quilcruisers]

Take your time.  I know writing reviews are time consuming, but they help so many. I remember coming here before my first cruise and I learned so much. I also went to the library and checked out cruising books, yes, it was that long ago. I like to tell my story and help others who might wonder. A lot of things are not common knowledge, like you can get more than 1 entree in the dining room, or you can ask for all appetizers, or even skip right to dessert. Plus, telling the story will help you relive the fun times on the ship and hopefully push you to book the next. 

[JaniceB]

Great pictures, years ago that sandy beach went right to the water.  We stayed in the port our first cruise and the kids played right there.  It was 1995, so not as many ships.  We had $1 Coronas, those were the days, LOL.

Edited April 23, 2019 by JaniceB

[Shaded Lady]

12 hours ago, Ideb said:

Afterwards, we went to dinner in the mdr. I took pictures of the menus, but for some reason I didn't get pictures of the appetizers or entree-just my desserts. Yes, plural! I wasn't sure which dessert to get so I ordered two, but definitely had a favorite. 

 

Since I didn't really enjoy the appetizer or main dish and only ate a little of each, I ordered two desserts to try: the apple pie and the  chocolate Tre Lech cake. The apple pie was pretty good. I only took a couple of bites of it because the chocolate Tre Lech cake was out of this world. Probably my favorite dessert of the whole cruise.

 

 

Mmmmm......

 

 

 

 

 

And the problem is???  I've skipped main courses if the appetizers and desserts are the things that jazz me on the menu, so 2 desserts seems perfectly appropriate to me!!!

[Ideb]

8 hours ago, Shaded Lady said:

 

And the problem is???  I've skipped main courses if the appetizers and desserts are the things that jazz me on the menu, so 2 desserts seems perfectly appropriate to me!!!

The only problem would be what the desserts do to my waistline, but I got lots of steps in every day while we were on vacation so I didn't do too much damage. Oh, and those may or may not have been the only desserts I had that day 🙃

[Ideb]

After dinner Alex went back to the room and Austin and I walked around the ship for a little while before going back to our room. I spent a lot of time just walking for exercize.

 

We walked around the Cabana pool because it is open to everyone after 7:00 pm and we wanted to see it. It was so dimly lit it was hard to see it very well.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ideb]

We walked around the atrium and took some pictures in front of the changing funnel scenes.