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

[Ideb]

We even found this little guy near the guest relations desk on deck 3. I took the photo of him after we got back to the room.

 

 

[Ideb]

We walked downstairs to go to our room on deck 2 and decided to go down to deck 1 to walk around a little more and just see if it looked the same as our deck which it pretty much did. I enjoyed walking the decks and seeing all the interesting ways people decorated their doors. This one caught my attention:

 

                               Post It Notes!     So creative  😃

[Ideb]

Austin and I went back to the room. Alex had left this undisturbed so we could see it. There was information about tendering to Belize from the ship the next morning. 

 

 

[JaniceB]

Can't wait to see the different colors of the funnel, something new and different for me.  Enjoying your picures.

[activeac]

Great review! We leave on the Vista in August, so this is perfect. Thanks!

[Ideb]

Our 2nd port day was in Belize. We got up and went up to the Lido deck to look around. There were several other cruise ships around us. The water was absolutely beautiful.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shaded Lady]

I love the color of the water in your pictures!

[Ideb]

1 minute ago, Shaded Lady said:

I love the color of the water in your pictures!

 

It was an amazing blue. So beautiful!

 

[Ideb]

We ate and walked around the Lido deck enjoying the beautiful view. I messaged K and she and J were still in their room. They didn't get up as early as us. They were planning on going to eat soon then catch a tender to shore to shop just like us. I offered to wait on them but she told us to go ahead since they would be a while. We went to the Limelight Lounge and got a number to get on a tender. We were in group 31. I could see others around us with stickers on their shirts that said 28 or 29 so I figured it would be a long wait, but it wasn't that bad. They called both groups pretty quickly, then we waited just a few more minutes and our group was called. We followed the group down the long corridor to the front of the ship and down several flights to the bottom deck. Our cruise director Joey was there with his cute catch phrase "ello, ello, ello everyone" and "cheerio, have a fun trip". After he said "cheerio" someone in the crowd always said "fruit loops" which got him to talking about how he never even tried fruit loops. He was very funny. We got off the ship and onto the tender. It didn't seem like a big deal at all, but after we got on the tender and sat there for a few minutes on the top deck, we could see the waves making the tender boat bob up and down next to the Vista and I could see how there could be times that it would be too rough to go to a tender port. Our ride over to Belize was fairly smooth and quick.

 

The boys started taking pictures once we stepped onto the tender.

 

 

 

 

I took some pictures of the Vista as we pulled away.

 

 

Photos of Belize coming into view:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ideb]

When the tender docked at the port and the boat was tied up, one of the men working on the tender opened the gate and a man on shore started to let down the walk way, which was basically an aluminum ramp that he flipped down onto the tender boat. the man on the boat grabbed it and at that moment Austin said something. I hadn't really been paying attention but I was so glad that the man working on the boat was. Where we were sitting on the back of the boat was in the space needed to let down the walkway ramp. It was pushing up again Austin's leg. I have no doubt that it would have hurt his leg very badly had the guy on shore just dropped the gate down. We immediately jumped up and stood behind the gate to get out of the way. I was so shook up, we walked on off the boat as soon as they had the ramp down and allowed us off. I wished I had tipped the man and said thank you but I really wasn't thinking at the time. As it turned out, we got on a different boat going back later so I didn't see him again.

[Ideb]

We walked around the port and looked in all the shops. We bought some t-shirts and sunglasses while we were there. 

 

 

[Flytko]

Very nice!! 

 

We had a really great tender experience in Belize.  They were so helpful, especially with us having toddlers and wheelchairs in our party.

[rcprncss]

I am enjoying your review.  Thanks for sharing.  Where was that Belize sign?  I hear there are two signs.  Thanks.

[Ideb]

On 4/29/2019 at 5:46 PM, rcprncss said:

I am enjoying your review.  Thanks for sharing.  Where was that Belize sign?  I hear there are two signs.  Thanks.

The only Belize sign we saw is the one pictured. It was in the port shopping area. 

[Ideb]

It got pretty hot walking around the Belize port that afternoon. The temperature was in the 80's and we had left temps in the 40's-50's at home so we were ready to go back to the ship after looking around for a couple of hours. We got on a tender that was just about to leave so we didn't have to wait long and in just a few minutes we were back on the Vista.

[Ideb]

Shortly after getting back on board, we went up to the Lido deck and walked around. There wasn't a very long line for the skyride so we got in line to ride it. The people working the ride were very strict about not allowing cell phones to be carried on the ride even in your pocket. We all had our cell phones but we saw people in front of us putting them down next to the ride and not one was up there except the workers and people getting on and off the rides so we felt it would be okay to leave them there.

 

The workers asked how many in our group and we told her 3. She said the Australian dad and his daughter in front of us would go, then his dad (the grandpa) and I would go, then my two sons would go. However, the little girl didn't make it all the way around so one of the workers who goes by the name "Boy Wonder" got on another skyride bike and went after her. This slowed things down for a few minutes as only one side was running with actual passengers as he was bringing the little girl back in. They let the Australian grandfather go on the open bike. Since the sky course had been too difficult for the little girl who was probably around 10 years old, I worried that the grandfather would have problems. I was also a little worried it might be difficult for me. Once the little girl was back Alex went. Even though he left several minutes later, he got back around the same time as the grandfather. I was able to take pictures of him as he got on the bike. Austin and I went next. I snapped a picture of him on his bike before I set my phone down and got on my bike.

 

The skyride was so fun! My worry that it would be too difficult quickly went away. I really had to pedal hard on the first section of the ride and I kept looking back because Austin wasn't keeping up. He is a fast runner and pretty athletic so I didn't think he would have any trouble but after seeing the little girl stop and have to be rescued I couldn't help but worry about him making it. Soon I thought he made a wise choice by not peddling so hard or getting his bike to going too fast. About midway, there is a big drop. It was sort of like a roller coaster. I could see it coming but just had to go with it. It was fun though. Immediately after the drop, I had to start peddling again and this is the last part of the ride. I  slowed down a little and enjoyed the beautiful ocean view from up there as I was on the outside ride and it felt like I was over the ocean. The rails go back for the last part of the ride, a photographer snapped our picture and asked for our room number, then we parked our bikes and the workers helped us off. We grabbed our cell phones and met up with Alex who was hanging around where we got in line waiting on us.

 

[Ideb]

We went back to the room to rest for a little while then got dressed and went to the early comedy show. We met up with K and J to go to the main show.

 

One of the dreamscapes that evening:

 

 

We waited in line for a few minutes until the theater opened and we got really good seats on the lower level. Joey, the cruise director for the week, came over and started talking to us. We asked him if we could get some pictures of the kids with him. K got a picture of J and Joey and I took one my boys with Joey.

 

 

After that he went on stage to introduce the show.

 

 

 

The Playlist Production Show was Amor Cubano. I really liked this show.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ideb]

We went at the Hub app and requested a table for the five of us for dinner. 

 

 

 

K was looking forward to this night because she wanted to try the ox tongue.

 

 

 

 

 

She only ate a bite. She said it was pretty good and offered everyone a bite. There were no takers. 

 

Austin had his usual shrimp cocktails. K and I both got the fry jacks from the port of call menu. I laughed when she said they tasted like stale tortilla chips. It was a pretty accurate description.

 

 

I also had the cannelloni which was the best part of the meal. I really liked this.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2019 by Ideb

[Ideb]

I don't think any of us really liked the choices on the main menu this night.

 

 

I noticed the usual flat-iron steak was replaced with a filet so I had that. It came with polenta and ordered a side order of macaroni and cheese. They looked similar on the plate but the taste was very different. I tried the polenta but didn't like it and set it aside. The macaroni and cheese was very good and so was the steak.

 

This photo only shows the polenta that came with the steak. I ordered mine medium well.

 

 

This is K's which was cooked how she ordered it. It shows the macaroni and cheese and polenta.

 

 

J had the grilled chicken.

 

Austin had the steak also. Now that I look at all the pictures,  I'm sure that this is either my plate and the one above is his or that's my macaroni and cheese in this photo because he doesn't touch the stuff.

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Alex had chicken nuggets and fries from the kids menu.

 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2019 by Ideb

[Ideb]

Here is the dessert menu for that night.

This is the Bitter n Blanc and S'mores parfait. I thought the Bitter n Blanc was very good. I also ordered the Double Roasted Pineapple which was good. 

This was K's plate with the Bitter n Blanc and Smores parfait. I had a taste of the S'mores Parfait and it was good but we both agreed the Bitter n Blanc was better.

 

 

 

[Ideb]

After dinner we parted ways with K and J. They had another excursion booked for the next day and had to get up early. I had been texting back and forth with my husband and he said mentioned that night there was a super moon so we went up on the Lido deck to see it. 

 

I tried to get a picture with my cell phone. 

 

 

We also saw the lights of other ships around us.

 

 

We got interested in the movie that was playing on the big screen and ended up sitting down in some loungers and watching it. I believe that was the night we watched Mission Impossible: Fallout.

 

 

 

 

[Ideb]

We went back to the room for the night and was greeted by this:

[Ideb]

On Thursday, March 21 we got up for our last port day. 

 

Our greeting on the room television:

 

 

The map channel showed how far we traveled:

 

[Ideb]

We went up to the Lido deck to get some breakfast and take some pictures. Unlike the last two port days where we were surrounded by water, there was land in view. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ideb]

Roatan was our beach day. We got off the ship and walked around the shopping area of the port and bought some t-shirts, then walked to the beach.