Our Carnival Vista B2B - Havana Style - (with pics!) - 4/14/24

[Jamman54]

Patti heads over to where they rent the Water Equipment…..

 

 

 

Here is all of the rental information…..

 

 

 

 

Patti checks out the Caribbean Fish Spa…..

 

 

 

 

 

Patti heads back into the Plaza…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[TravelGirlinDallas]

I didn't realize the water at that port was so brown. Not what you normally think of in the Caribbean.

 

The pool view from your cabana is great, though!

Edited May 10 by TravelGirlinDallas

[mamiamjo]

1 hour ago, Jamman54 said:

We’ll get back to Patti shortly, but I have left the Pool Cabana and made my way to the alcove…..

 

 

 

I have great memories of being here last January on the Celebration with the Tribe Cruise. My friend Jim and I hung out here most of the day drinking beer and having a great time with Tribe members such as Vic & Donna, Amy, Pam, and sid. We went through five buckets of beer that day. Pat and Patti did the picture tour together. Great times! I will make some new friends today as well. Here are some of my views from the alcove…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed watching the zip liners going overhead all day long…..

 

 

Now back to Patti who is getting some pictures of the pool area…..

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

Love the AC pics! 😎

[sid_9169]

1 hour ago, Jamman54 said:

We’ll get back to Patti shortly, but I have left the Pool Cabana and made my way to the alcove…..

 

 

 

I have great memories of being here last January on the Celebration with the Tribe Cruise. My friend Jim and I hung out here most of the day drinking beer and having a great time with Tribe members such as Vic & Donna, Amy, Pam, and sid. We went through five buckets of beer that day. Pat and Patti did the picture tour together. Great times! I will make some new friends today as well. Here are some of my views from the alcove…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed watching the zip liners going overhead all day long…..

 

 

Now back to Patti who is getting some pictures of the pool area…..

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

I remember hanging out in that exact spot back in January!... Good times:)

[willf]

Jamman54: Was wondering if I could get your opinion of the food on Vista.  We were on Glory in Dec 2023 and the best place to eat was the Pizza Pirate and Blue Iguana.  The rest was mediocre at best.  Guys Burgers, which I eat all the time were so bad I only had three the entire cruise, which was a Journeys cruise.  The Vista Cruise in June is 2 things to us: 1. To celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary  and 2.To see if the food is better and Glory was just a outlier or the food is just as bad as Glory. 

We are not picky and normal fair on Carnival, prior to Covid, was just fine.  The Dec 2023 cruise was our first cruise back and we are worried that Carnival has cut the quality of the food. 

[Jamman54]

27 minutes ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

I didn't realize the water at that port was so brown. Not what you normally think of in the Caribbean.

 

The pool view from your cabana is great, though!

That is the reason we would never get a Water Cabana. 

[Jamman54]

15 minutes ago, sid_9169 said:

I remember hanging out in that exact spot back in January!... Good times:)

Yes, they were!! 

[Jamman54]

6 minutes ago, willf said:

Jamman54: Was wondering if I could get your opinion of the food on Vista.  We were on Glory in Dec 2023 and the best place to eat was the Pizza Pirate and Blue Iguana.  The rest was mediocre at best.  Guys Burgers, which I eat all the time were so bad I only had three the entire cruise, which was a Journeys cruise.  The Vista Cruise in June is 2 things to us: 1. To celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary  and 2.To see if the food is better and Glory was just a outlier or the food is just as bad as Glory. 

We are not picky and normal fair on Carnival, prior to Covid, was just fine.  The Dec 2023 cruise was our first cruise back and we are worried that Carnival has cut the quality of the food. 

We are not foodies, and food is such a subjective subject. Let me say that we never went hungry. We never went to the MDR for our two weeks aboard, except for the Diamond Lunch. We ate once at the steakhouse, once at Cucina, once at Jiji's, and three times at Bonsai Sushi. The other times we ate up at the Lido Marketplace. We didn't have any issues in what we ate. Sorry, I can't explain any more than that. 

[Jamman54]

Here are some random Plaza views and shopping opportunities…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[willf]

Thanks, we are not foodies foodies and Carnival has always had good food.  Glory could have been an outlier, we hope so.  Carnival is our preferred cruise line however we are doing Holland America next February because it has a cruise that is going to some islands we have never been too.    

[Jamman54]

Here are some more shopping opportunities…..

 

 

 

 

 

You can get Dominican Republic information here…..

 

 

 

 

Amber Cove doesn’t have any beach access. This beach belongs to the property next door……

 

 

This bar and gift shop is very quiet…..

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[MJSailors]

Thank you for your postings and Patti’s photos.

It looks like there were few people at Amber Cove the day you visited. Was it because you were early arrivals there?

MJ

[Jamman54]

Fresh coconut for only $5…..

 

 

This is the famous Amber Cove sign…..

 

 

This is where you got to pick up your excursions or leave the property…..

 

 

Patti is once again back in the Plaza…..

 

 

 

Looking up at the Sky Bar…..

 

 

Patti’s last group of shopping opportunities….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

4 minutes ago, MJSailors said:

Thank you for your postings and Patti’s photos.

It looks like there were few people at Amber Cove the day you visited. Was it because you were early arrivals there?

MJ

It probably was because we were the only ship in port that day.

[Jamman54]

Patti is going to make her way up to the Sky Bar, but first she stops by the Pool Cabana to check on me. She finds me in my spot…..

 

 

 

Patti starts her walk up the hill by the bottom of the waterslide…..

 

 

 

Here are some views from the top of the waterslide…..

 

 

 

 

 

Patti continues to walk up the hill. Here she passes the Hillside Cabanas…..

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[mamiamjo]

32 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

It probably was because we were the only ship in port that day.

That will do it 😉

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, Jamman54 said:

That is the reason we would never get a Water Cabana. 

totally agree

[Jamman54]

Patti makes it up to the top of the zip line…..

 

 

 

Apparently they frown upon zip lining upside down…..

 

 

The staff are preparing the harnesses…..

 

 

 

Here are some views from the top of the zip line…..

 

 

 

 

 

Patti is almost at the Sky Bar…..

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Patti has made it to the Sky Bar…..

 

 

 

 

She awards herself with a pina colada……

 

 

Here are some random views from the Sky Bar…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over at the Carnival Vista they are testing the starboard side lifeboats…..

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Patti returns to our Pool Cabana where she took these shots…..

 

 

 

 

 

Here is our server, Randall…..

 

 

For the next couple of hours we hung out on our deck having a few drinks. Around 1:30pm we pay our drink tab, ($95 + tip), and head back to the ship…..

 

 

We waited and looked for Alfredo but we didn’t see him, so we had # 14 take us back to the ship……

 

 

 

 

Once back in the cabin we found that I Gede had left us today’s towel animal…..

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

We went up to Guy’s Burger for a late lunch and then made our way back to the Havana Area. We hung out back there having a drink until sail away. We are sailing away from Amber Cove…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued……

[mamiamjo]

Nice views from the Zipline and Sky Bar. Glad to see Patti got herself a drink while she was up there. Also nice view of the pool area from the cabana. Looks like you had a relaxing time in Amber Cove 😎

[Knights on the Beach]

2 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

We are not foodies, and food is such a subjective subject. Let me say that we never went hungry. We never went to the MDR for our two weeks aboard, except for the Diamond Lunch. We ate once at the steakhouse, once at Cucina, once at Jiji's, and three times at Bonsai Sushi. The other times we ate up at the Lido Marketplace. We didn't have any issues in what we ate. Sorry, I can't explain any more than that. 

 

We ate in the MDR 3 times for dinner during our 2 weeks onboard Vista - it was OK. Not amazing but not awful. Diamond lunch was definitely way better. We also ate dinner at Jiji once (amazing) and steakhouse once (a step above MDR but not as good as it was on Freedom a couple years ago). Other nights we either grabbed a burger at Guy's, pizza (both as delicious as always), deli (pretty good for the most part) or something from the buffet. Buffet food ranged from awful to delicious. If we got something that wasn't good, we went up and tried something else - or got pizza. There were actually two nights that we found food in the buffet that was outstanding - better than our meals in the MDR. One night they had ham at the carving station and the other night they were carving some kind of beef (I can't remember what it was) and both were excellent.

 

For lunch, we ate at Cucina and Jiji several times - both are just so delicious. Other days we had pizza, Guy's burgers or tacos/burritos from Blue Iguana. We may also have grabbed a snack here and there from the buffet during lunchtime. No complaints at all about anything we had for lunch.

 

Breakfast was usually fruit from the buffet and/or Blue Iguana - everything was good. Every cruise I say we're going to sea day brunch or breakfast in the MDR and we rarely do, just don't want to spent that much time on breakfast.

Edited May 10 by Knights on the Beach

[Jamman54]

When we went back to the cabin we found that the laundry that Patti sent out this morning has been returned…..

 

 

 

I’m going to hang out in the cabin for a couple hours relaxing and working on pictures. Patti wants to get some pictures of some of the performers so out she goes again.

 

As she passes the Ocean Plaza she hears the Solo Guitar Sounds with Ron…..

 

 

Next she captures the Dreamscape in the Atrium Lobby…..

 

 

Juno Smile are performing Country Music there….

 

 

 

Patti checks out the IMAX Theater on Deck 7 forward…..

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued….

[Jamman54]

Patti pops into the Piano Bar shortly before Roger gets the party started…..

 

 

 

 

Patti heads up to the Deli where she orders a turkey and swiss with an order of fries…..

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, Patti stops by the Red Frog Pub & Brewery where Clinton is playing the steel drum……

 

 

Patti heads back to the cabin for the night. In the meantime I have made my way to the Limelight Lounge for the 8:45pm 18+ comedy show starring Damon Sumner. I’ve got my “punchliner”……

 

 

That’s Matt the Comedy Host…..

 

 

Damon Sumner on stage. He was really funny. I gave him an 8.5 out of 10…..

 

 

Afterwards, I made my way to the Lobby Bar where I had a few drinks with Melissa. I got back to the cabin around 11pm.

 

Here are the cookies that we received for doing B2B cruises. There were five cookies on that plate at one time. Patti and I had already eaten two each. They were good!

 

 

 

Today’s Cheers count: Patti = 1, Jeff = 7. For the day (-4), for the cruise (+8).

 

Coming up next: Our second fun day at sea!!