Sea Day #1 and Formal Night... Perfection!
Easily the TACKIEST shirt I have EVER owned but it seemed appropriate!
After we walked Deck 5 with our coffees, we went to Sea day Brunch in the Horizon's Dining Room on Deck 3. When we arrived at 8:15AM, when they opened, there were about 100 people waiting. Once they opened the doors we noticed a delay in getting people seated. It turns out that one of the changes post-covid is a new check-in system. TIP- Use the Carnival HUB app to "check in" to Sea day Brunch, Port Breakfast and Your Time Dining. Once your table is ready they will notify you in the app. Then all you have to do is just show up and show them your phone with your table number. At first this seemed weird but it turned out to be a HUGE blessing. You can request your table as you leave your cabin and by the time you actually get to the dining room, your table is ready. We realized that you would not be able to request a certain waiter or table but the system is set to seat people only with their party. Meaning NO SHARED TABLES. This is one of the best things to come out of the Pandemic! I am not sure if Royal Caribbean, Norwegian or other cruise lines have a system in place like this but Carnival did a GREAT job with this new procedure!
The view as we stepped off the aft elevators to the Horizon's Dining Room. All of these people waiting for tables... But didn't realize you can reserve on the app.
CHEERS... Our first drink on the drink package!
Sea day Brunch was a great experience and the service from Sehrgi was fantastic. The new menu was not outstanding for the early breakfast we wanted but we enjoyed it none the less. We were reminded about the problem with dining on Carnival... The Dessert stall. This proved to be true on sea day brunch as they do not take your dessert order until AFTER you finish you main meal. I really wish they would take the full order at the beginning.
After breakfast we ventured up to the Lido Deck to check it out around 9:15am. There were not very many chair hogs as most people were actually sitting in their chairs. We went to the back to get a view of the aft but it was not as picture perfect as I had hope due to the Havana Pool on Deck 5 blocking our view. TIP- This is my personal opinion but I hate this part of the Vista!
The view I wanted...
The view the Vista gave...
A day at sea is ALWAYS better than a day at work!
This was near perfect and something I was longing for since February 2020. FINALLY!!!
While we were walking around the outside decks, I noticed the Skyride was open and had a VERY SHORT line so I ran back to the room to get my tennis shoes on and got in line. I was only in line for about 10 minutes before it was my turn. TIP- There is a weight limit to this ride of 225 pounds and EVERYONE (even the 8 year in front of me) had to get weighed! We both got on the scale and then go in the SkyRide. I ended up paired with a Grandpa as his two grandkids went together. He asked for the outside so he could pedal over the ocean and I obliged as I was just a little nervous of the unknown. This ride was INCREDIBLE...so invigorating and exciting. The secret is... I started on the inside and by the end of the ride, my bicycle was on the outside! This was SO AWESOME!
This was SO COOL!
This was AWESOME! I am so glad I was able to do this!
We then went to the atrium bar for some mimosas before going to play the Carnival 50th Trivia in Ocean Plaza. This was a trivia all about Carnival and we did not do well answering only 7/20... But we came in SECOND PLACE! The winners scored 8/20. After trivia we enjoyed some balcony time to enjoy watching the sea pass by. This is one of my favorite things about a cruise. It is so incredibly peaceful and even in the middle of the day, we had complete shade in our Cove Balcony. It was PERFECT!
The Mongolian Wok menu. You can come here EVERY day for lunch and still not try it all. There are so many combinations!
TIP- The Schezwan sauce is the BEST and NOT TOO spicy!
My 1st SEA DAY lunch! YUMMY!
After lunch we walked around to try and find some lounge chairs in the shade but they were few and far between. We tried on Deck 11 and Deck 12 but all of the chairs were either taken or not in the shade. We then tried to go back to Deck 5 to try and walk all the way around the ship but much to our surprise, you cannot do that on the Vista. That was a big disappointment to us. We eventually went up to Deck 15 to check out the Serenity Adults Only area. TIP- There is literally ONLY ONE elevator that services the Serenity area. Be care to choose the correct elevator as most of them in the forward lobby only go up to Deck 12.
The Carnival Vista Serenity Deck 15 Forward.
Once in the Serenity we tried to find chairs but there were none available. The shade was almost non-existent in this area of the ship. Even the bar was in the complete sun. The best part of the Serenity was the Fresh Creations salad bar area just outside this adults only area. This was similar to a Salata on land but lacked a bit in flavor. We were so hot just from walking around trying to find chairs, we just took the salad to go back to our fully shaded balcony. TIP- It took about 9 minutes just to get an elevator up to Deck 15; keep that in mind!
Fresh Creations on Deck 1
We enjoyed more balcony time in the shade before Chris laid down to take a nap and I went hunting for a chair again. I was lucky to find a clamshell type of chair on Deck 11 aft. I was able to enjoy shade and a quick nap in between people watching.
This is why I cruise... The feeling of watching the open ocean is PRICELESS!
This is my idea of a perfect sea day!
The Tides Aft Pool around 3PM... The water was... MURKY and nasty!
There are only 2 pools on the Vista and only 4 hot tubs TOTAL. Keep that in mind if this is your thing... These were almost always FULL and for lack of better words... GROSS!
I met up with Chris for afternoon trivia in the Ocean Plaza and this was the first time we felt the other 4,700 passengers. Even with a bigger Ocean Plaza, we felt a little crowded. We played the Superhero, Comedy Movie and Guess that song trivia games but did not place in any. TIP- We LOVE trivia on cruise ships and it is a great way to stay cool, meet new people and WIN PRIZES! Carnival offers a 24 karat gold piece of (plastic) ship on stick if you win a trivia. It makes for a GREAT souvenir and bucket list item for each of our cruises.
Evening
The clouds had come out so we grabbed a coffee from the Java Blue Cafe and then went back to the balcony to enjoy a nice cool breeze before we took showers and got ready for formal evening.
Early evening on our balcony... PRICELESS!
My heart is SO FULL!
To start our evening we went to the PG Comedy show in the Limelight Lounge. I had read to get there early but we missed our opportunity and got there about 15 minutes before the show and there were NO SEATS at all. We stood around for a minute and then out of nowhere came Imean (The comedy show manager) and he took us way to the back to get seats. Thanks Imean. Bob Biggerstaff, the comedian, was funny but not THAT funny.
The Limelight Lounge at 7:25 for a 7:30PM show!
TIP- GET THERE EARLY!
Once the show was over, it was time for our Late Dining dinner in the Reflections Dining Room on Deck 3. Since we went to the Steakhouse on night #1, this was our first experience with the main dining room. The doors opened at 8:10 for the 8:15pm seating and we found our table. As per most cruise lines, we were at a table ALONE but literally packed in like cattle to the two other parties in our line of tables. We were so excited for our first MDR experience and the AMAZING menu on this formal night.
Little did we know how bad this experience would be. It took about 20 minutes just to get our order taken due to the VERY large party our wait staff was also taking care of. This party turned out to be very slow, rude and obnoxious. Once we finally got our food, about 45 minutes after we sat down, the appetizers were all wrong with the other 2 parties in our line of tables and many were COLD. These issues continued as the party of 16-20 people were demanding more and more of our wait staff time. Even the party next to us, who had gluten free needs, had their order messed up. It was a HUGE HOT MESS. After about 90+ minutes and multiple mistakes, I went to the maitre'd to explain our frustration. Mario and Mariana, the maitre'd of the Reflection Dining Room were extremely apologetic and even sent more waiters to help our section. In fact, by the time our dessert order was taken it was after 10PM and most of the passengers in the MDR were gone.
We finally finished around 10:15pm, 2 HOURS AFTER our seating time. As we left I explained how good our waiter was but he was overwhelmed. I also asked to be moved to another table is possible. This was the absolute WORST dining experience we have EVER had on a cruise ship and we were so anxious to see if this was the NEW NORM or we just had a bad night.
After dinner we made our way to the Red Frog Pub to listen to live music and enjoy our drink package. The music, drinks and service were great and really lifted our spirits. We called it a night just after midnight and went back to our room.
It was a great first day at sea and we were SO HAPPY to be back on board.
Up Next... Mission Accomplished on Sea Day #2.
God is Good... ALL THE TIME!
Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas- March 2019
The Norwegian Breakaway- November 2018
Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas- 2018
Carnival Legend- ALASKA- 2016
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