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

[Ideb]

We took some photos of the gorgeous sunset

 

[Ideb]

We walked around the ship and while walking through the Pixels gallery on deck I saw someone I recognized on the photo wall. Of course I was buying this photo.

 

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Ideb

[Ideb]

Some more night time entertainment on the Lido deck before bed.

 

 

[Ideb]

Last night

 

[Ideb]

Debarkation morning tv message

[Ideb]

After sailing 2069 nautical miles we were back in Galveston

 

Map of Galveston Island

 

View from the ship's camera

 

Backed to where we started: parked with RC Liberty of the Seas behind us.

 

[Ideb]

We went to the mdr for breakfast.

 

I had waffles, bacon and hash browns.

 

I should have gotten pancakes as Austin's looked much better.

 

We asked if they could cook a hamburger for Alex like they did on a sea day brunch morning but no such luck. Breakfast only that morning. He gave it a try but didn't eat much since he really does not like breakfast foods.

[Ideb]

We went back to our room and got our luggage which was already packed. We went up to the Lido deck to wait to disembark. We really weren't in any hurry. I wanted to get home reasonably early since we had work and school the next day but I wanted to enjoy as much time on the ship as possible that last morning.

 

We all got an ice cream cone and walked around dragging our luggage and listening to announcements. Disembarkation was going really slow. They started late and there was a long wait in between floors. 

 

We went to Pixels and bought some more photos. If you spent $75 total you got a free tote bag with a Carnival logo on it. I bought enough to get it. There were signs up about a special deal but it was for the new people coming on the ship and only good for the first day or so of the cruise.

[Ideb]

We walked around deck 5 and went outside to sit and watch the workers loading the ship. We felt something fall on us and looked up to see workers scraping the railing so we went back inside.

 

 

 

[Ideb]

Last look around.

O

 

 

 

[Ideb]

Our floor was called so we got in an elevator to go down to the lobby deck, got in a long line and just followed along until we were on the gangway and off the ship. K sent me a text. They were just in front of us. She could see us. The line split into people with passwords or birth certificates. As people with birth certificates moved to their line there were just a few people between us and we asked if we could get with our traveling buddies and some nice people allowed us in.

 

 

 

 

We got separated again though as she had to declare the alcohol she bought on board. We finally made it through customs and out of the port and didn't see K or J so I wasn't sure if they were still inside or had already left to go to their car. I saw the shuttle belonging to EZ Parking and we decided to go ahead and go to our car and see if they were there or wait on them if they were behind us. 

 

The shuttle driver misdirected us to the shelter for Royal Carribean. I told him they dropped us off at the Carnival one and I thought we were supposed to get picked up there but he said he was pulling over to the RC side to pick up some people there. Instead of allowing us to board there he told us to go to the RC shelter and wait. We walked over there and a different shuttle was pulling away. The guy said if he knew we were coming over there he would have had the driver wait. I told him the driver who was just pulling in told us he was going to give us ride to the parking lot. He said that guy was just pulling in and it would be 30 minutes before he left again. I was frustrated since I had paid the 20 dollars extra for the shuttle and would have to wait that long so we decided just to walk back to the parking lot. From the shelter next to the port to cross the street and walk to the lot was about 4 blocks total so not a big deal. It would have been easier to ride the shuttle instead with all our luggage but we made it.

 

K and J were already there at their car. She said they had walked right out and got on a shuttle. We loaded our luggage in our car and headed for home. 

 

There was construction and an accident on the highway before we got to Houston which slowed us down for well over an hour. We stopped in Madisonville, Tx at Woody's Smokehouse for a bite to eat and fuel up. They sell barbecue there and it's pretty good. It's always one of our stops when we go on a trip to Galveston and the boys like their beef jerkey so we had to buy some before we left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Ideb

[Ideb]

After fueling up we were on the road again. We made good time and it seemed like we were back in Dallas quickly. K called me and said her Dad had called her and said the weather was about to get bad and we should be alert for it.

 

We came through an area that just had hail north of Dallas in the Mckinney area. It looked like snow on the highway. Crazy seeing this when we had just come from a tropical vacation. We were lucky though that we missed it and made it home safely before dark.

 

 

Whew! I've been slow about getting this review done but I've enjoyed looking through all my pictures and looking for the ones I wanted to post and reliving the cruise in my mind. It was a great experience. We all loved our cruise and can't wait to go again. 

[tigereye]

Thank you for a great review. I enjoyed every day of your cruise and all the photos made it special.

[Ideb]

1 hour ago, tigereye said:

Thank you for a great review. I enjoyed every day of your cruise and all the photos made it special.

Thank you so much for saying this. It's far from perfect and all the typos and left out words (things I didn't notice I did until it was too late to edit them) make me cringe. Still, I enjoyed doing it and I'm glad to know someone enjoyed reading it. 😍🙂

 

[Poorplaya]

Great review, really enjoyed all of the pictures and information. Thank you for taking the time to post everything.

[pghsteelerfan]

I just finished with the last part of your review.  I really enjoyed it and thank you for taking the time.  You have some beautiful pictures!

 

[CoasterGuy]

Nice review and glad you enjoyed your first cruise. You picked a good ship.

[Ideb]

13 hours ago, CoasterGuy said:

Nice review and glad you enjoyed your first cruise. You picked a good ship.

Thank you so much. We loved Vista. We've booked another cruise on the Dream. Hoping we like it as well.

[cruisequeen4ever]

Good for you squeezing in a cruise before your oldest leaves the nest! It was cool you and your friend could brave the new cruise world together. 😀 

[missingmaui]

Thanks for posting your review!  We'll be on the Vista on October, and I cannot wait.  It's always fun to get a little preview of what's to come.  🙂

[jjjhill]

I really enjoyed this review. Thanks for sharing.