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

[Jamman54]

We have passed Washington DC and are now driving through Baltimore, Maryland…..

 

 

To the right is Baltimore Harbor. If you look closely in the background, you can see the collapsed Key Bridge…..

 

 

 

 

We pass the Cruise Maryland Terminal……

 

 

We are entering the Fort McHenry Tunnel…..

 

 

 

 

An hour later we were now in Delaware and approaching the Delaware Memorial Bridge…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are back in New Jersey and the New Jersey Turnpike…..

 

 

 

This sign on the New Jersey Turnpike cracks us up. It’s only an exit before we get off to head home. There will never be a Bucc-ee’s in New Jersey as long as it’s illegal to pump your own gas…..

 

 

At 3:15pm we have made it back to Somerset, New Jersey and our first stop is our neighborhood Ruby Tuesday’s……

 

 

We toast to another fun adventure and two more cruises completed. The End.

 

Coming up next: Our final thoughts, observations, and ramblings!

[luvcruzing]

Thanks, Jeff, for a fun review and for your and Pattie’s collaboration. 

[jimbo5544]

On 5/22/2024 at 5:31 AM, Jamman54 said:

Good morning Cruise Critic Family! Please excuse us as we will not be posting anything new today as we are observing a rather somber anniversary. IYKYK. We'll be back tomorrow to continue with our adventure. We hope to wrap up this review this weekend. Have a great day! 😎

Memories are the ties that bind, enjoy those good memories.  We have very good friends who experienced what you guys went through.  Good vibes to both of you, hope to cruise with you guys again, it has been a LONG time.

[grima625]

Great review Jeff and Patti!  The wife and I will be doing an inside Havana cabin on the Horizon in September. 

[Knights on the Beach]

Oh shoot, Jeff and Patti are already back home in New Jersey. I only took a few pictures on our last sea day so not much to post. We did our morning routine - Coffee/Pepsi Zero @ Ocean Plaza Bar and Blue Iguana for breakfast. We tried to go to Serenity but it was packed. Instead we went to the hot tubs by the Tides pool for a bit then spent some quality time with John and Ricky at Red Frog Rum Bar.

 

 

 

Guys for lunch.

 

 

 

We went back to the room to pack and shower for dinner and saw our last towel "animal" of the cruise. I hate this one, every time - it's like a stab in the heart.  🤷‍♀️

 

 

We were a little early for dinner, so we went to Ocean Plaza Bar for a couple drinks, then we popped up to the buffet. It was actually very good that night - except for the mashed potatoes, they were weird. Every other night the mashed potatoes were the best side on the buffet.

 

 

 

After dinner, back down to deck 5 so we could go to Pixels to pick up our Platinum gift - toiletry bags again. Then off to the lobby bar where Melissa told us we missed Jeff & Patti earlier. So Melissa made us "Patti drinks". 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was pretty quiet there. I guess everyone was either packing or at dinner. One more drink from Yanti - White Peach Sangria.

 

 

 

Then we went back to Ocean Plaza to give Setyo a goodbye hug and get one last cruise drink. It was time to call it a night by then.

 

[nybumpkin]

3 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

 

 

 

Thank you for the Kings Dominion photos! A long, long time ago (okay, 1978), our high school band in South Jersey went to Winchester for a band competition and then went to Kings Dominion for one of their parades. Doug and I sat under a tree and talked about where life might take us; we got the "get married" part right, but never imagined we'd spend more than 40 years in Upstate NY. At any rate, Kings Dominion always brings back good memories for us.

 

And many thanks to you and Patti for showing us what next year's cruise might look like!

 

[Jamman54]

2 hours ago, grima625 said:

Great review Jeff and Patti!  The wife and I will be doing an inside Havana cabin on the Horizon in September. 

Good choice. That's a home run! 😁

[Jamman54]

1 hour ago, Knights on the Beach said:

Oh shoot, Jeff and Patti are already back home in New Jersey. I only took a few pictures on our last sea day so not much to post. We did our morning routine - Coffee/Pepsi Zero @ Ocean Plaza Bar and Blue Iguana for breakfast. We tried to go to Serenity but it was packed. Instead we went to the hot tubs by the Tides pool for a bit then spent some quality time with John and Ricky at Red Frog Rum Bar.

 

 

 

Guys for lunch.

 

 

 

We went back to the room to pack and shower for dinner and saw our last towel "animal" of the cruise. I hate this one, every time - it's like a stab in the heart.  🤷‍♀️

 

 

We were a little early for dinner, so we went to Ocean Plaza Bar for a couple drinks, then we popped up to the buffet. It was actually very good that night - except for the mashed potatoes, they were weird. Every other night the mashed potatoes were the best side on the buffet.

 

 

 

After dinner, back down to deck 5 so we could go to Pixels to pick up our Platinum gift - toiletry bags again. Then off to the lobby bar where Melissa told us we missed Jeff & Patti earlier. So Melissa made us "Patti drinks". 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was pretty quiet there. I guess everyone was either packing or at dinner. One more drink from Yanti - White Peach Sangria.

 

 

 

Then we went back to Ocean Plaza to give Setyo a goodbye hug and get one last cruise drink. It was time to call it a night by then.

 

What? No pictures from your travels home? Oh, I forgot you live two miles from the pier! 😁

 

Thanks for another great set of pictures,  and thanks for sharing your pictures and experiences from both cruises. It was a pleasure to meet and hang out with you guys. We hope we get to sail with you again in the future, and if we're in the area we'll have to get together! 😀

[Jamman54]

1 hour ago, nybumpkin said:

Thank you for the Kings Dominion photos! A long, long time ago (okay, 1978), our high school band in South Jersey went to Winchester for a band competition and then went to Kings Dominion for one of their parades. Doug and I sat under a tree and talked about where life might take us; we got the "get married" part right, but never imagined we'd spend more than 40 years in Upstate NY. At any rate, Kings Dominion always brings back good memories for us.

 

And many thanks to you and Patti for showing us what next year's cruise might look like!

 

Hey Kathy! Thanks for hanging out with us again. It wouldn't be the same without you. We made quite a few trips to Kings Dominion. Sometimes we would drive down from New Jersey and stay a few days,  and sometimes we would stop on our way back from Florida. Loved that the Waterpark was included in the admission. 

 

You're going to have a great time on the Vista, especially if you have a Havana cabin. 😎

[Knights on the Beach]

8 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

What? No pictures from your travels home? Oh, I forgot you live two miles from the pier! 😁

 

Thanks for another great set of pictures,  and thanks for sharing your pictures and experiences from both cruises. It was a pleasure to meet and hang out with you guys. We hope we get to sail with you again in the future, and if we're in the area we'll have to get together! 😀

 

We failed miserably with the debarkation and trip home photos. 😂 What I should have taken pictures of was the old grouchy red card man who started yelling at our Platinum group who had priority debarkation. 🤦‍♀️ We did self debarkation and our letter instructed us to meet at Liquid Lounge on deck 4 at 7:00 am. We knew it would be difficult getting an elevator if we waited until then so we headed down around 6:30. They were having everyone line up their luggage in the middle of the room and then take a seat. We were in the second row. When it was time to debark, they called us by row to walk over and grab our luggage then follow the crew member to the the elevator bank. That was when the sh*t show started. They had two elevators reserved for the Platinum self-debark group that were only going from deck 4 to deck 3 and back. Some people who were not with our group ran in front of our crew member to barge into the elevator in the right in the middle of us getting on, practically running over. Whatever, they must be in more of a hurry than us. Then we got off the elevator and that's when old grouchy red card man started yelled at all of our priority self-debark group that the line was behind him. 🤔🤷‍♀️

 

To be continued from the car shortly! lol

[ZoeyVictoria]

8 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Hey Kathy! Thanks for hanging out with us again. It wouldn't be the same without you. We made quite a few trips to Kings Dominion. Sometimes we would drive down from New Jersey and stay a few days,  and sometimes we would stop on our way back from Florida. Loved that the Waterpark was included in the admission. 

 

You're going to have a great time on the Vista, especially if you have a Havana cabin. 😎

Kings Dominion was my first experience at a water park when it first opened in 1992. I was curious but scared, then I watched a heavyset middle-aged woman slide down into no more than 18” of water, lie on her back with her face barely out of the water and scream for help 😂. I figured if she survived, I would be okay. Still going to water parks to this day, but no Kings Dominion since I moved in 1994. 
 

Did you stay at the motel or campground on site?  We camped there and used the shuttle bus that made a continuous loop between the park, motel, and campground. Good times with our teenagers. 

 

[matt082600]

Another great review!  Jeff and Patti, you did a fantastic job, as always.  Thanks for sharing your adventure with us!

[Knights on the Beach]

So when old grouchy red card man started his bellowing, no one but us paid any attention to him. Everyone kept going in front of him but I hesitated. I mean, he was much older than us, respect your elders and all that. So I shut my mouth and we let OGRCM and his lady pass by us, which we regretted a few minutes later. About 5 minutes later, we scanned our cards one last time and were off the ship.

 

Walking through the gangway to terminal 6, OGRCM and his lady walked very slowly and spread out more than I thought was humanly possible so no one could pass by them. Eventually they had to turn off to wait for an elevator so we finally were able to get around them and walk at a normal pace. Through facial recognition and off the ship at 7:09. 

 

We walked up to the taxi stand and gave our address to the lady at the taxi stand. She wrote it up, we paid $25 for the 3.5 mile trip and another lady walked us over to the waiting taxi and gave him the paper with our info. We chatted with the driver who asked where we're from, etc. Then he asked why we're staying at a hotel if we live in Cape Canaveral. I said we're not, you're taking us home. Then he asked if my name is Sherry. Nope. Taxi stand lady wrote down the drop off was for Sherry going to the Radisson. 🤷‍♀️ No wonder he thought I was crazy telling him to turn left when I did. 😂 It worked out fine and we gave him a good tip. We got out of the taxi in front of our condo at 7:19, 10 minutes after we walked off the ship. An hour later I got a text from a friend asking if we needed a ride home. We were already unpacked by then. lol (We're only 2 miles from the Mardi Gras terminal so we love it when we cruise from there, home in 5 minutes.)

 

Jeff & Patti, we sure enjoyed our two weeks with you and look forward to seeing you again! Next time you cruise from Port Canaveral, let us know and we'll even go to Fishlips with you. And we don't go there just for anyone. 😂 Then we'll take you to Ellie Mae's Tiki Bar. I'm looking forward to hearing your final thoughts on the Vista B2B. Thank you both for spending time with us and giving us a look at the Diamond life! We need 75 more days and I only have 28 booked in the next 19 months so we need to get cracking! Until next time ....

[Jamman54]

1 hour ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

Kings Dominion was my first experience at a water park when it first opened in 1992. I was curious but scared, then I watched a heavyset middle-aged woman slide down into no more than 18” of water, lie on her back with her face barely out of the water and scream for help 😂. I figured if she survived, I would be okay. Still going to water parks to this day, but no Kings Dominion since I moved in 1994. 
 

Did you stay at the motel or campground on site?  We camped there and used the shuttle bus that made a continuous loop between the park, motel, and campground. Good times with our teenagers. 

 

We used to stay at the hotel on site across the parking lot. I think it was a Best Western. 😎

[Jamman54]

48 minutes ago, matt082600 said:

Another great review!  Jeff and Patti, you did a fantastic job, as always.  Thanks for sharing your adventure with us!

Thanks for coming along for the ride! 😀

[Jamman54]

3 minutes ago, Knights on the Beach said:

So when old grouchy red card man started his bellowing, no one but us paid any attention to him. Everyone kept going in front of him but I hesitated. I mean, he was much older than us, respect your elders and all that. So I shut my mouth and we let OGRCM and his lady pass by us, which we regretted a few minutes later. About 5 minutes later, we scanned our cards one last time and were off the ship.

 

Walking through the gangway to terminal 6, OGRCM and his lady walked very slowly and spread out more than I thought was humanly possible so no one could pass by them. Eventually they had to turn off to wait for an elevator so we finally were able to get around them and walk at a normal pace. Through facial recognition and off the ship at 7:09. 

 

We walked up to the taxi stand and gave our address to the lady at the taxi stand. She wrote it up, we paid $25 for the 3.5 mile trip and another lady walked us over to the waiting taxi and gave him the paper with our info. We chatted with the driver who asked where we're from, etc. Then he asked why we're staying at a hotel if we live in Cape Canaveral. I said we're not, you're taking us home. Then he asked if my name is Sherry. Nope. Taxi stand lady wrote down the drop off was for Sherry going to the Radisson. 🤷‍♀️ No wonder he thought I was crazy telling him to turn left when I did. 😂 It worked out fine and we gave him a good tip. We got out of the taxi in front of our condo at 7:19, 10 minutes after we walked off the ship. An hour later I got a text from a friend asking if we needed a ride home. We were already unpacked by then. lol (We're only 2 miles from the Mardi Gras terminal so we love it when we cruise from there, home in 5 minutes.)

 

Jeff & Patti, we sure enjoyed our two weeks with you and look forward to seeing you again! Next time you cruise from Port Canaveral, let us know and we'll even go to Fishlips with you. And we don't go there just for anyone. 😂 Then we'll take you to Ellie Mae's Tiki Bar. I'm looking forward to hearing your final thoughts on the Vista B2B. Thank you both for spending time with us and giving us a look at the Diamond life! We need 75 more days and I only have 28 booked in the next 19 months so we need to get cracking! Until next time ....

Wish we could have been home in ten minutes. It took us longer than that just to reach I-95!

 

We'll be sure to let you know when we're down there again. We're looking forward to Ellie Mae's! 😁

[Stallion]

On 5/18/2024 at 6:16 PM, Jamman54 said:

The ship was docked at 12:15pm, and they began letting passengers off about a half hour later. We’re going to wait for the rush to subside. Walking out to the back of the ship we can see the Symphony OTS docked across the way…..

 

 

Patti looks down at the Havana Area. Looks like some other people aren’t leaving the ship today…..

 

 

 

 

Crowds of people are lining up for their shore excursions…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

Hey that looks like my cabin on the Vista-ah the memories

[Jamman54]

23 minutes ago, Stallion said:

Hey that looks like my cabin on the Vista-ah the memories

Which one? 😎

[Stallion]

9 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

Which one? 😎

From Patti's 3rd picture, I think I was 8th floor on right side of center-8476 I think

Edited May 26 by Stallion

[Jamman54]

3 minutes ago, Stallion said:

I think I was 8th floor on right side of center-8476 I think

Very nice! 😎

[marsh-angler]

Great review Jeff! We'll be back on the Vista in October.

[we b cruzin]

Thank you for sharing your experience! We will be on the Vista next May.

[DeanDeeDee]

I really enjoyed following your cruises.  Thanks for taking the time and for all the pictures your wife shared.

[DebOinKC]

Thanks Jeff & Patti for the pictures and another great review!

 

[Tennessee Rose]

On 5/1/2024 at 3:54 PM, Jamman54 said:

Hello Cruise Critic Family! My beautiful wife Patti and I have just returned from another cruise adventure. This time we were aboard the Carnival Vista for B2B cruises.....

 

To be continued…..

I'm finally starting on the ride with you and Patti. Had planned to take a little break after just today finishing SaintGreg's latest, but I keep falling behind! I always love your reviews tied in with Patti's gorgeous photos, and always find new and interesting tidbits to add to my cruise info. Here we go!!!!