Cruise/Vacation Recap
We recently went on an eight night cruise on the Carnival Vista. Now we have said before we wouldn’t do an eight night cruise again, and after this cruise that’s a hard line for us now. Eight nights is too much for us with the amount of sea days we had.
Let’s start from the beginning…
Leading up to the cruise was stressful! We were cruising with another couple (Josh and Meredith) so if you know me, I try to do as much as I can for anyone cruising with us.
Thursday night (night before leaving for Florida): Friends came over to stay the night so it’s a quick out in the morning. Plus their adult son was watching our boys for the week so I wanted Bear and and Atlas to have time with us and him there before we left for so long. Ordered some pizza because why not? It was quick and we were busy finishing up last minute stuff.
Friday, September 4th (driving to Florida): Left in the morning because we like to be early. James and I are early risers all the time! Grabbed some Starbucks on the way out and hit the road! So this is Labor day weekend cops are out in full force! And we found that out when we got pulled over. Cop gave us a warning, sent us on the way. Whew! Kept driving. About an hour later…pulled over again! Cop gave us a warning before checking his system. He said if he had checked his system first, he would have written a ticket. Whew! Bullet dodged!
Stopped at Buc-ee’s (not because we love the place. Don’t get us confused with those crazy Buc-ee’s people). It’s an approved bathroom for me, Josh really likes it and we needed gas. It was also pretty much the halfway point for us. Got something to snack on and headed back onto the road where the cruise control was set and we continued our way to Florida.
I have to admit, heading into Cape Canaveral had me missing it big time! But Florida just isn’t home to us. It will always hope a special place in my heart though. I AM however, a Wawa crazy person, and we don’t have those near us…not yet. (Wawa! If you read this, we need one in Augusta, GA or near Aiken, SC!)
Checked into the hotel first…this was an experience (and not a great one). We stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriott Cape Canaveral Cocoa Beach. Now if you’ve traveled with us before, you know we prefer Marriott’s as they have always done decent in the past. Guess this one just didn’t get the memo. Let me first take you back to before we booked the hotel. Called about a government rate (Meredith can get those). They said, “do that online when booking.” Okay. Cool. Go to book, no where to do it. Call back. They say, “you can do it then when you check into the hotel if there isn’t a place online.” Alright. Awesome. Book the hotel. We got a two bedroom, two bathroom suite (because two couples makes life easier).
Get to the hotel. First they are having the hardest time checking in the person ahead of us. Seriously, I felt so bad for the dude. Finally after a few, they get him checked in. Our turn. Ask about the government rate. “Oh you had to do that online.” Explained the situation and that I talked to someone from their exact location about this. Lady shrugged and said, “oh well.” Another lady comes up and says, “We don’t do those here.” Then why did someone tell me you did?! It’s whatever. We are here now. Get the room keys, and head up to our room. It’s hot. Most are. So we all kick the AC down as far as we can because I know for a fact James and I can’t sleep if it’s really hot. Josh likes cold, Meredith prefers warm.
Head to Wawa to get an iced coffee, pull money out and just be happy to be back in a Wawa again. Head to Walmart to get a couple of things real quick.
After that, headed to….can you guess?
If you guessed Fishlips, YEP! Favorite place to eat in Port Canaveral. Sat outside, had a great waitress. Enjoyed the water view, the food and some games while we ate.
Dinner was quick then we headed back to the hotel to relax a bit before the next day…
Saturday, September 5th (Embarkation Day!): Got up and made our way down to the continental breakfast. Now I never have high hopes for these because they are free and all, but this one was by far the worst. The only thing I could choke down was the English muffin which is pretty hard to screw up as it comes out of a package.
After ‘breakfast’, we headed back to the room so we could get ready. Josh and Meredith had to run out, so we let them take the car while James and I showered and got ready for the day. Had I checked the tub completely, I would have seen what looked like a poop smear down the side of the tub. But it was already check out day, so I wasn’t going to demand another room. Got showered quickly, dressed and then we just hung out for a bit before heading to the parking.
Headed to Port Parking Space which was about five minutes from the hotel and basically right across the street from the cruise ships. They were absolutely amazing! So organized. Pulled in, they checked us in and got our bags from the trunk and put them in front of our ships section. We parked the car (in a great spot). The cool thing about this place is they put you on the shuttle to the port by ship. So if you are on the Carnival Vista, you will only be with others for that ship. Which I loved! Didn’t wait long, shuttle came, took us to the port. Took about five or six minutes with traffic.
Got to the port and sent the bags with the porter. Now we were early. I took a photo at the Parking Space at 9:40am. We knew we would be waiting around the port for a bit (our arrival time was set for 11). So I figured, we’ll find a shady place to chill out for a bit. Started walking and someone from the port asked us if we were coming or going. Told them we were coming. They told us to walk right now. Huh. Okay.
Got inside. Matt was amazing! He checked us in so fast, was funny, attentive and really knew how to start someone’s vacation. Took less than five minutes for both of us. Walked over to security, again. Super quick.
Then Carnival did something we’ve never seen before. I’m not sure if this is just a Port Canaveral thing for all cruise lines, just a Carnival thing or what…
They had us walk to one section and place all our carry on bags on a solid line then stand back against the wall. They brought a drug dog to come and check the bags. Once we were all cleared (except for one guy who seemed to get held back). We headed to sit down and wait for our boarding group to be called. I believe we waited no more than 15 minutes. Boarding time called, walked through the zig zags to that embarkation photo people. Got our photo. Went up to the second floor for another check of our boarding passes and down the hallway to the gangway we went!
Ah, stepping onto that gangway is a special kind of feeling. Then stepping onto the ship for the first time, another special feeling.
Smiled, said hello to the ship we would call home for the next eight days and headed to the elevators to go up to lido!
Now, if you been on Carnival you know the biggest hype on lido deck.
Yes. Guy’s Burgers. We were sitting down enjoying our burgers at 10:50am. Just over an hour from parking lot to lido. That’s how quick they were with embarkation. Holy cannoli batman!
After an early lunch on lido we headed around the ship to check things out, give a quickish tour to Josh and Meredith. We were able to drop our bags off a little early then headed to Guest Services to add some cash to our accounts.
Brant was awesome! Super friendly, ready for another long week!
From that point until sail away we just relaxed. Checked out this or that. Went to the room when they were open and unpacked our carry on’s (checked luggage wasn’t there yet).
Went up to deck 11 to watch sail away. Now I’m not one to get angry at people face to face, but there was a woman who was standing kinda near us and jumping into our conversations every chance she could. I get it, we are on a ship, in a public space, but ma’am, if we didn’t acknowledge you and talk back, we clearly don’t want to!
After sail away we went back to the room, our luggage was there! So we unpacked and relaxed a bit before dinner. We got a call while unpacking from the Maitre D about another guest. Apparently their bookings weren’t connected so they weren’t sitting together/near each other. He asked if he could move us from our four top table to a six top with another couple. That’s fine.
Headed to dinner right after five. First, I’m going to post this now and probably later. Our wait staff was the absolute BEST! I mean they were on point the entire time, super friendly, chatted with us each night. It was literally one of the best we’ve had. I would cruise Carnival again if I was promised that exact team! Oh, first night. Other couple never showed. The Maitre D did come over to our table to thank us and offer us a free drink for either that night or the following night, we picked the following night as it would be formal night.
Sunday, September 6th (Sea Day One): Omelet time!! So many of you have probably seen before that James and I have omelets every day on a cruise. It’s the only time James will eat breakfast every single day. We got up, grabbed breakfast and quickly realized that we should have brought a tumbler cup with us. So we headed to the shops, found some cheap $20 ones with a handle (literally perfect for the cruise!) Also, got sucked into buying that charm bracelet. It’s cute and it was fun going for the charms even though they cost money. We did eat in the sushi place for lunch. It was really good. I love going there even though it’s an additional charge! The day was pretty relaxing. Just hung out, people watched…there were some interesting people on our cruise (and I’ll get to one of them here shortly). We did try the Pig n’ Anchor. It was good. The meats were the best. The sides definitely needed salt!
This was formal night, so we took our time to get dressed up (which we don’t mind doing at all). Got the one formal night photo I ask for on every cruise.
Alright, so here’s where the fun started. Remember we got moved to another table? Well getting moved was the best ever!! Here’s why. We looked over at the next table and there was the CUTEST older gentleman and his wife. He was in a tux and her dress was beautiful! We nicknamed him ‘Old Money’. Why? He just had that look (not in a bad way).
After dinner we changed and headed up to see the show, Flick.
We were not impressed. Honestly, I feel like the show was a waste of my time. Right after though, we booked it down to the comedy club. Aldo Marachlian was the comedian. He was pretty good! he interacted with the crowd which is always hilarious.
Monday, September 7th (Sea Day Two): Guess what we had for breakfast? Omelets! This was a very relax, boring day. We did our normal morning routine (yes we have one of those on vacation too!) Showered, people watched for a while. Just checked out the things we didn’t see before. We did go get our daily charm for the bracelet. For lunch we did the free Italian restaurant, Cucina Del Capitano. It was a pasta dish and good as always! It was another just casual day/night. So, later that day Josh actually ran into ‘Old Money’. he explained who we were and all that jazz and he and his wife took it very well! This started the rest of the cruise of fun! During the comedy show that night for Keon Polee, it was getting packed in there! Who walks in the door? Old Money and his wife. They were looking for a couple of seats. Where we were sitting was back against the back wall with a table in front of us and a couple of stools in front of that. So we waved them over, told them to sit in front of us. It was so cute and awesome to enjoy another really good comedian.
Tuesday, September 8th (Aruba): We weren’t arriving in Aruba until 1pm so we have plenty of time in the morning. Got our omelets, got showered, got my charm. Relaxed a short bit before heading to the Military Appreciation Gathering. Guess who was there?! Old Money!!! He was in the Army and he did stand up to talk toward the end and talked about Honor Flights. If you don’t know what that is, go to honorflight.org and look for one in your area! (Do it because Old Money said so!) But also it looks to be a great cause and experience. Right afterwards we beelined it to JiJi Asian Kitchen for their free lunch. We weren’t overly impressed. It was good, just not knock your socks off.
Getting into Aruba so late really threw us off so we mainly just got off the ship, walked around the stores (you know me and Del Sol. I have to stop by each one just because!) Did that, checked out Diamonds International for their free charm. Got a magnet and honestly after just looking around for a bit, headed back to the ship. We made it in time to get ready and go to dinner. We weren’t leaving Aruba until 10:30/11:00pm. It was really pretty to see the port in the dark like that. We didn’t do much that evening but look at Aruba and then headed to bed.
Wednesday, September 9th (Curacao): AH! My second favorite port! (First will always be Grand Turk). We were in port early, so of course, James and I got up early, showered, made sure our bag was packed and headed for….yep. Omelets! Got some ice in my tumbler to take off the ship with our oversized bottle of water.
Headed back down to our room to meet up with Josh and Meredith and head off the ship.
Now, while this is my favorite port, I was very disappointed in the tour we took. So much so, I wish I would have gotten a photo of their name and blast them. Their ‘bus’ (which was actually a van) was over stuffed of people and barely AC. (now AC is not 100% needed on a tour, but if your AC sucks, allow us to open the windows). It was just gross being packed in there. There was a lady from another ship that was rude as hell and honestly, I hope she gets food poisoning. The tour though was okay. Next time, I’m skipping these mofo’s right at port though and going for the good tours! The last time we went we had the BEST tour. That was ten years ago though, so naturally I didn’t expect them to still be there.
Anyways, got to go to the Blue Curacao factory where the liquor is made. Also got to get myself some Polar beer!! (If you ever read our review from the last time, James got a bottle of Polar beer and it was one of the only ones I liked! We’ve only been able to find it for sale in Curacao, but it’s made in Auburndale, Florida). After the tour, we searched for a Del Sol and bought the girls a couple of color changing shirts. Then I was on a mission to get a hoodie from Curacao. I have a Grand Turk one. James found me one. It’s a zip one (I don’t have a lot of those), and it’s purple!! So it’s perfect!
After that, we made our way back to the ship, grabbed a bite to eat and then relaxed a little before dinner.
James and I decided to go see the next comedian (Josh and Meredith decided to skip it). We met a nice couple and the lady reads books so naturally, I promoted a few things. 😉 Kenny Mock was pretty good. He worked with the crowd a bit, and was a bit dirty. So it was a good show!
Thursday, September 10th (Sea Day Three): Boy, these sea days were killing us! Sea day three and of course, we got our omelets. This was another cruise formal night. The day was another relax/boring day. There wasn’t much we wanted to do. We don’t normally do casino stuff and we aren’t bingo players. A lot of stuff is mainly seminars for art, guess the weight. Or sales like inch of gold, lottery draws, watch gift sets, etc.
We did buy something from inch of gold and the watch gift sets. I needed a new necklace to put my dad’s ashes on, and we hadn’t seen the watch gift sets in a while.
Ran into Old Money and his wife before dinner so we sat with them for a few and chatted. He was back in his tux and she was back in her beautiful dress. Honestly they are super down to earth, amazing people. They live in Tampa, FL.
After our lovely dinner (seriously our waitstaff was the absolute best!) We went back to the room to change before heading to the America Rocks! Show. Not. Impressed. At. All. Holy cannoli batman, Carnival must have taken a lot of money from their Entertainment department and put it into something else, because the high hopes we had for that show, sank about five minutes in. I wanted to leave, but I kept hoping it would get better. Spoiler alert: It didn’t. It got worse. They butchered songs and half the time, the dancers were dancing to something completely different. Like what?! Yeah, no thanks.
Instead of rushing to the comedy show, we just made our way to deck 11 to hang out and try to get the horrible shows out of our heads. Now I will say this is nothing against the actual performers. It’s all about the person who decided that those shows, with those dances during those specific songs would even be decent. Whoever that is, please quit your job now.
Friday, September 11th (Sea Day Four): Final sea day!! Finally! By this time, James and I were ready to be home. We missed our own bed, the boys, and gaming. But after our lovely omelets, we made our way to explore a little more, relax on deck 11 (we really liked it there), and just hang out until later that night.
We did do the Harry Potter trivia that day. There didn’t seem to be as many trivia options as there have been in the past. Each day at like 10:00am there was this Mobile trivia that they did on lido deck. We loved that. It was fun and interactive.
That night was James’s favorite night. The Steakhouse. We book this every cruise we can. It is an additional charge, but worth it. Of course we dressed nice. Got there early so we walked around the art stuff for a while. Which by the way, why in the hell was the art taking over the Library the entire cruise?! Get your own room for that or don’t do it at all!
Josh and Meredith met up with us (because they too were going to the steakhouse). We got a table in the back next to another couple who was super friendly!
The food. That food is always amazing. Now they have cut down on portion sizes. Normally I get chicken. I got steak I think once or twice (it’s hard for me to eat steak sometimes if it’s not super tender). I did get a burger. Not just any burger though. A Wagyu burger. It was massive. So massive, I only ate about half. James and Josh ate the other half. It is always a great experience in the steakhouse.
After the very nice dinner, we went back to change (well James did, I didn’t). Then headed straight to get in line for the last comedian, Chris Bowers. Josh and Meredith decided to go to this one and joined us just before the show started.
Not as funny as the other three. Still a decent show (way better than Flick and America Rocks).
We enjoyed our last sea day night on deck 11 before making our way to bed. Last port of call tomorrow!
Saturday, September 12th (Celebration Key, Bahamas): This was a new to us port. We’ve been to the Grand Bahama Island before, just not this part. We got up, saw the towel animals invasion on the lido deck, and enjoyed our last omelets for the cruise and our last Lido breakfast before heading down to our room to gather our bag for a few hours in port.
I did not have high hopes going into this. But Celebration Key surprised me. The pools are massive and very nice to just relax in, swim around in, etc. It was easy to find a good chair to put our stuff. Shopping is right there. We got there, got in the pool for a bit. Got out dried off a little and made our way to the shops. Got a few things for us, got something for the girls (because why not?) Then made our way back to the pool to enjoy the water a bit more. They had a parade come through across the bridge between the two pools (that was kinda cool to see). The locals there were absolutely rocking it!
We relaxed in the pool a bit more. People watched. Got out, gave up our chairs to another nice person and walked around a bit before heading back to the ship. We enjoyed one more burger from Guy’s burgers and a few favorites. I have to admit, this was all bittersweet for me. Knowing that for the foreseeable future we would not be back with Carnival. So I was definitely taking in all of the things I loved.
Right before dinner we ran into Old Money and his wife again! Got their email address and was able to snag a photo with our favorite couple on the cruise! Seriously, if you are reading this, you truly made our cruise more fun. You two are lovely, amazing people and we are so thankful that we got switched on night one and were able to formally meet you and chat with you both!
Dinner was again, bittersweet. It normally always is, but it hits differently when you know you won’t be back. We got a photo with our waitstaff, tipped them and wished them well before saying goodbye once more to Old Money and his wife and heading out.
We stopped by a photo booth/person and got our final cruise photo. You know the one where James and I are kissing. The same one we’ve gotten on every single cruise.
We made our way to deck 11 for a short time before heading down to our room to finish packing, purchase the photos we wanted and prepare to debark the next morning.
Sunday, September 13th (Debarkation Day/drive home): Time to head home! We made our way to Lido (which wasn’t easy). Filled up our tumbler with juice and went back to our room to wait to debark. The thoughts running through my mind were happy to be heading home to my boys, sad that vacation is over and a little sad to say goodbye to Carnival. While I’m completely pissed with them (mainly corporate), the staff onboard is what makes the cruise. The staff on this one was amazing. The ship not so much (but I’ll get into the overview in a few).
Debarkation was the fastest and smoothest we’ve ever had with Carnival. Holy highland cow!
Our time was called (got the notification to my phone). Made our way up one flight to deck three. Was shown which way to go. Scanned cards, stepped off the Carnival Vista and walked through the gangway. Followed the employees. Didn’t even need our passports out. Scanned our faces, ushered us through, and within minutes we were outside ready to find our shuttle to the parking. Which by the way was EASY. Walked down, found our shuttle. The gentleman checked us in, got us onto the air conditioned shuttle where we waited until we filled up a bit before heading to parking.
Got back to the car, loaded up and headed out of there. Of course we had to stop by WaWa. Coffee and snacks! Drove about halfway before stopping at Buc-ee’s for gas and some more snacks.
Getting home though? Perfection! I was so excited to see my boys and just be in our own house!
Overall review/Extras:
Carnival Vista Ship: Pretty ship. Great staff! That’s about it on the pros.
The cons? Overly hot. I know it’s the Caribbean and it’s supposed to be hot, but not like this. You were sweating while at the buffet. Our room was only manageable because we had two fans going the whole time. We weren’t the only ones who thought the ship was overly hot.
Ports of Call: These we loved. We would have loved to be in Aruba earlier, but not a big stress there! Curacao, we will be back. I love this port and can’t wait to visit again!
Port Parking Space: Whenever we cruise from Port Canaveral, we are parking here! You all are by far the best we’ve parked at (and we’ve used quite a few different places before).
Port Canaveral: Love how smooth the process is. Seriously, you are like a Chick-Fil-A drive-thru line! Smoothest process we’ve ever had! Keep that up!
Carnival Cruise Lines: Y’all. Your showtimes are very lacking and need more money spent on them to be better. Your new rewards program sucks (which is why we are heading to another cruise line – and if that wasn’t a reason, the Vista sailing would have sent us to another one anyways).
Overall: Overall, we had a great vacation. There were good and bad things (and honestly, I didn’t even mention all of the bad/not so great because it’s not something that would apply to others other than James and I – although if you are nosey and want to know, feel free to shoot me a message!)
We enjoyed the people we met. The waitstaff, Old Money and his wife, many of the others. We love Curacaco, we love the Steakhouse.
We have given Carnival thirteen years of continued support. Between sailing and touring their ships, we’ve promoted them, booked them, praised them. Stepping off the Carnival Vista that Sunday ended an era for us. One that I’m slightly sad about, but at the same time, excited for the future.
Below are some photos from the cruise, to see more, I’ll have them on our Facebook page – which will be transitioning from M&J Travels (the business) to M&J Adventures (the travelers).
