Happy Birthday AMERICA!
Our breakfast was good and semi-fast, although the service was better the day before. After breakfast we went back to Ocean Plaza to try and find good seats as we were going to be playing several games of Trivia for the rest of the morning. We were on a mission to get the "Golden 24K gold (plastic) piece of ship on stick" that Carnival gives to trivia winners.
One of my favorite parts of a cruise... The morning omelet! WHY CAN'T I MAKE EM LIKE THIS AT HOME???
Our first trivia game was a Genius Test. This was basically a sheet of paper with 30 syphers/codes on it and then it ranked you based on your score. We arrived late and did not have the full time to complete this mission and scored 19/30. I think if we would have gotten back to Ocean Plaza on time, we could have done better.
Then it was time for Golden Girls trivia. We have watched this entire show on Netflix one time through so we knew we would not win this one but it was still fun to play. My mother-in-law, Jackie, loves this show so I would intrigued to see how well she would do. Our final score for the Golden Girls trivia was 12/20.
Then it was time for the "Independence Day" trivia about July 4th. We weren't quite sure what to expect from this trivia and we ended up doing very well with a score of 16/20 and went to a tie breaking round for the grand prize. The tie-breaker question was "In feet, how tall is the Statue of Liberty". Chris has never been there and I was not sure so we guessed 700 feet and the answer was 152 feet. The other person won and we took SECOND PLACE! Bummer!
Then it was time for the trivia we were most excited for... The Office! We have been on 10 other Carnival ships that have done trivia before but never seen a The Office trivia. We are very avid fans so we were excited to try this out for the first time. We were not at all surprised when we got 20/20... But we were not the only ones with this perfect score. In fact, there were 4 groups total with a perfect 20/20 so we had to have a tie-breaker question again. This time it was a little more detailed: What was the name of the run Michael has in honor of Meredith. We didn't know it at the time but there are 18 words in this title. We got 9 out of 18 but the winner got 12 out of 18. We took SECOND place again! Always a bridesmaid... never a bride!
All of this morning trivia was being hosted by one of the FunSquad workers named Keegan from South Africa. He was so fun and we really enjoyed him and the trivia. As he was setting up for the next trivia, which we had not planned to attend, Chris jokingly said "Do you have anything for 2nd place? That is all we've done all morning." He jokingly said no and then Chris said "Hey It's July 4th. What if I sang the National Anthem and got a Ship on Stick?" Keegan just laughed and said "Let me think about it" and then went on his way.
We didn't really have plans so we decided to stay and play the "Wheely Big Trivia" as part of a large group team. We REALLY WANTED THAT SHIP ON A STICK. Chris played with a team and carried them with his random knowledge but our team did not win.
At the end Keegan had a question about quadratic equations and of course Chris knew the answer but Chris asked which song it was based on. (Did you know there were songs to help you remember the quadratic formula? I didn't, apparently Chris can sing it to several tunes including "Pop goes the Weasel" and "Rolling in the Deep") and Keegan said "Oh yeah you're our song guy. Come on up". And then you guessed it... Chris sang the Star Spangled Banner in front of the entire Ocean Plaza full of people and he did a FANTASTIC job. It was REALLY SPECIAL.
Listen to Chris sing the National Anthem above...
WAY TO GO CHRIS! You sang it like a PRO!
For being from South Africa, Keegan really got into this performance!
Way to go Chris!
You EARNED that Golden Ship-on-a-Stick!
This was SUPERB! You've gotta try it out!
After lunch we stayed at the Ocean Bar for a little while before going back to our cabin to try and enjoy more balcony time. We stayed on the balcony (STILL in the shade, btw) for about an hour before Chris tried to lay down to take a nap. I was not feeling a nap so I went roaming around the ship. I wanted to try and find a place to sit in the shade but at this point of the afternoon, there were no chairs to be found. TIP- The main pool, tides pool and water park area were PACKED with people. Try to do these things on a PORT DAY as there will be less crowds! I ended up walking most of the upper level decks a few times before going in to shop at the FunShops.
Balcony time is my favorite time!
The view from our balcony... PRICELESS!
The waterpark area on the Vista is well laid out and did not seem as crowded as the Magic or Breeze.
The main pool area... There were some chairs (and chair hogs) here but not in the shade so I opted elsewhere.
The Tides (aft) pool area. It was not as crowded as the day before but the water was still too murky looking for me!
Chris and I met up at the coffee shop for another afternoon coffee. This is such a great perk of the drink package as I could have as many specialty coffees and frappes as I wanted without having to worry about the bill at the end. We then went to the shaded side of the Deck 5 Lanai and found a clamshell type of chair in the shade so we laid out for a little bit but there was no breeze so it got stagnant.
Coffee round 2 for me with my edible straw!
Carnival is now offering edible straws instead of the paper straws. These are weird but so much better than the paper ones. They offered chocolate, lime and strawberry that we saw!
We then went back to the Ocean Plaza bar and joined in on the movie trivia. Chris did fairly well but not enough to participate in the tie breaker.
Then it was time for MY FAVORITE trivia... FRIENDS trivia. I have won this on 2 other Carnival ships in the past and have gotten 3 Golden ship-on-a-stick for this trivia. I was determined to get a Vista trophy as well. Sure enough, I answered 20/20 and was in the tie breaker challenge with 3 other girls. I was very confident in the tie-breaker question and was the 2nd to answer out loud. The 4th girl gave and answer and then asked to change it to my answer (Which was super shady). Her and I were correct and then we had an additional tie-breaker question. Once again I was very confident and WON! That is the 3rd ship IN A ROW I have won the FRIENDS trivia! I got another Golden Ship on a stick but it, too, did not have the VISTA on it!
We were just excited to have TWO!
My FRIENDS trivia trophy!
I will be playing for #5 on the Breeze in September!
After FRIENDS trivia we went to the Havana Bar on Deck 5 AFT. TIP- The Havana Pool and Deck is exclusive to those who have Havana cabins but the Havana Bar area is available to anyone. It was rarely busy or crowded and the bartenders were fabulous!
We then went walking around the ship and the Lido Deck in particular to check out the Lido Buffet food. Since the previous night in the MDR was such a hot mess, we were not sure if we would have to come to the Lido Buffet to eat. The food looked so gross and was not appetizing at all. However, there was not a line at the Pizza Pirate so we grabbed a few slices. TIP- The pizza service and overall quality has gone UP since our last Carnival cruise in 2019. We were impressed! You can take the ready slices already made or you can make your own personal size pizza if you are willing to wait 10-15 minutes.
One thing I REALLY miss is the list of items on the buffet at the beginning of the line. None of these even seemed interesting enough to try... so we skipped it!
Pizza Pirate pepperoni pizza was pretty good actually and at this time (6-6:30pm) you could walk right up and get a slice or place an order!
Happy Fourth of July!
We then went and got in line for FLICK in the main theater. We had seen this show before but it is one of our favorites of any cruise line or show. While we were waiting in line we saw Kyndall Fire, the Cruise Director. We grabbed her real fast to take a picture as it is a tradition of ours. And that made our entire cruise a success... Mission Accomplished! We have the Ship-on-a-Stick and we have a picture with the CD.
The Vista was a SUCCESS!
Thank you Kyndall Fire... You're the best!
Kyndall is towards the top of our CD list. It's hard to be the Flying Scotsman, Schwartz and Cory Rogers but she is right up there. She is the most personable and friendly CDs ever. She was not afraid to walk right up and shake peoples hand, dance with them or just about anything. VERY FRIENDLY!
Once we got into the Liquid Lounge Theater, we found 2 seats at the back that were raised a bit to see the stage better. They were on barstools but we didn't care. Chris noticed that his seat was not as stable as he would have liked so we switched. The older couple who took the 2 barstools beside us also mentioned the seats being wobbly. The FLICK show was the last show of the current Playlist Cast onboard the Carnival Vista. In fact, the oncoming cast was sitting right behind us watching this production. The show was incredible and continues to be our favorite cruise ship show. Not to mention, we ended up having the BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE with our random barstool chairs!
Our view from our seats. Quite possibly the best seats in the house
(for viewing...)
This cast was phenomenal.
After the show we walked right into the Reflections Dining Room and I stopped to ask Mario, the maitre'd, if there was a different table we could sit at due to the huge party being part of our waitstaff's load. Mario moved us over to a corner at a table for 4 but we had it all to ourselves. He apologized again and he, too, agreed that the party was terrible and he even said "They nearly killed my waiter last night". From that point forward, we had one of the best overall MDR experiences we have EVER had in 19 cruises. Our new waitstaff was fast, efficient and friendly. Ricky, John and Jenny were great! It made for an extraordinary MDR experience. Thank you Mario... You saved our cruise!
After dinner we wanted to listen to live music so we tried the Piano Bar but it was packed so we went to the Ocean Plaza to listen to the Vista Rock band before we went up to the Lido Deck for the July 4th Deck Party. This deck party was AWESOME but kind of gross. There were SO MANY PEOPLE and it was so hot, humid and sticky! It felt way to close for post-Covid times. Even pre-Covid, this was too close for comfort! After about 5-6 songs, we decided to bail and go get water and AC. We ended our night at the Piano Bar and this pianist was so talented. We called it a night shortly after mid-night.
This is the PERFECT way to spend July 4th!
Happy Birthday America!
We loved the Deck Party... But it was TIGHT!
This truly was a BANNER day as Chris sang the Star Spangled Banner and we walked away with not one but TWO Golden Ship-on-a-Sticks AND we got a picture with Kyndall Fire!
Mission Accomplished!
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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