Carnival Vista Review: Day 9 – Sea Day & Exploring the Vistafeatured

On our ten day Carnival Vista itinerary, eight of those days were port days (and one was embarkation day), which meant on this brand new ship with all kinds of new features and new things to explore, we only had one sea day to do it all in.

We’re pretty adept at packing our days with as much activity as we can. Frequent cruisers usually are – with only hours to spend in any given island or country, there’s not usually time to waste. You have to take advantage of every single moment.

Our work was cut out for us on the Vista.

When we sailed on our first Mediterranean cruise last year, I’d written that I was glad we did it on a ship like the Vision of the Seas, which had no bells and whistles and allowed us to focus on the ports without feeling the pressure of getting the most of a more modern ship. It’s actually kind of funny looking back on that given that we decided on the Vista for this year’s trip.

This ship was unlike anything we’ve ever sailed on. We’ve been on 17 Carnival cruises, two Royal Caribbean cruises and one Princess cruise. We’ve been on a lot of ships (…even when you count the excessive number of times we’ve sailed on the Carnival Miracle). We’ve been on the antiquated Paradise and the larger than life Allure of the Seas. But the Carnival Vista is a new flavor of cruise ship. It’s not comparable to the Harmony of the Seas or Epics of the cruising world, but it’s like Carnival took the Breeze (one of the best in the fleet, in my opinion) and elevated every aspect of it, from the dining venues to the entertainment areas and everything in between.

And we had one day to immerse ourselves in it and we weren’t going to miss a moment.

Or, at least, that was the intention.

What we didn’t intend on was sleeping in an extra hour, which was technically an extra two hours because ship’s time moved an hour ahead overnight ahead of our arrival in Greece, which was in another time zone than our previous ports. So when we woke up at 9:00 am, it was really 10:00 am.

We woke up to the news of the missing Egyptair flight, which made things a little more somber – we had contemplated flying to Egypt on Egyptair when we were planning our post-cruise for this trip, and the debris was floating up near Crete, our destination the next day. It was hitting a little too close to home. We kept an eye on the news throughout the day, but there were no announcements made onboard, no changes to ship security or itinerary, and business went on as usual.

And business as usual on a sea day means Sea Day Brunch. We frantically searched for our drink tickets and for the life of us, couldn’t find them anywhere in the cabin. So we gave up on a round of free drinks and headed to the dining room for brunch.

I noticed a few changes and cutbacks from the usual brunch experience right off the bat: no tablecloths, first of all. I know that’s been a hot button issue for some, but nothing that necessarily would be considered a deal breaker for us. Also gone is the pastry basket that usually sits on the table filled with muffins, pound cake slices and croissants. Instead, a server came around to serve us our choice before our meal began. Neither of these things matter to us, but we know they do matter to some. We found the food to be tasty and the service to be friendly, so we really couldn’t ask for much more on a complimentary dining experience.

As we were leaving brunch, we checked the GPS on our phones to check to see how close we were to the Strait of Messina and Mount Stromboli. One of the parts we enjoyed most of our sea days on our last Mediterranean cruise was the scenic cruising days passing through the Strait of Messina and observing Stromboli. I was a little more than surprised to see that we were not only out of the straits, but we were pretty far out. We must have passed through either late at night or in the very early morning. Either way, I was a little disappointed it wasn’t mentioned – I would have loved to see the Vista navigate through the channel.

After brunch, we headed to the Havana Bar to pick up a couple of Cortaditos (Cuban coffee whipped with sugar) as we made our way to the Havana Pool Deck. Every day until 5:00 pm, the Havana Pool Deck is exclusively for the use of passengers traveling in Havana cabins (Interior, Cabana, Balcony and Suites). We weren’t sure what to expect when we arrived, but we certainly hadn’t been prepared to see a near empty deck and pool at 11:15 am on a warm and (mostly) sunny sea day.

Despite the fact that the deck was nearly empty, I thought it was funny to see that the chair hogs were still making an appearance on this cruise. Many loungers were saved and empty, even when the deck was mostly empty. We also noticed a few people would wander in without the Havana bracelet on their wrists, but given how empty the space was, we didn’t care enough to say or do anything. We spent over an hour enjoying the hot tub, which offers great views of the water and horizon. The pool offers even better views, but was entirely too cool to enjoy.

When we were sufficiently pruny, we took our sun time to our Cabana patio. I thought the ease in convenience of being able to go from pool to patio in less than 30 seconds was one of the top selling points of the cabin, especially on less port-intensive itineraries. Location of these cabins, in general, was fantastic. Right next to the Havana Bar, steps from the bustling Ocean Plaza, above a dining room and on the same floor as the shops and show lounge (by the way — not having to wait for an elevator after a show? Most underrated convenience ever!). This cabin spoiled me for all other cabins.

When we’d had our fill of sun time, we headed in to shower off before heading upstairs to the Lido Marketplace for lunch. Because it was our only sea day, they pulled out the Chocolate Extravaganza a few days early. We forewent that in favor of tacos from the Blue Iguana and freshly churned strawberry ice cream with all the rainbow sprinkles I could responsibly put on top from the toppings bar.

And because it was our only sea day, I had to take the opportunity to run up to the Serenity deck to try out the new salad bar. There’s a salad bar with standard offerings in the Lido Marketplace, too, but this new salad bar? It’s a bar raiser. We’re talking all kinds of different lettuces (Endive? Arugula? Spinach? Frisee? Yep.). We’re talking gourmet toppings (including, but not limited to, chia seeds, pickled radishes and a variety of protein options). We’re talking at least half a dozen salad dressing options. You can do a choose-your-own salad, where you point at what you want and a salad master mixes it up for you, or one of a handful of salad recipes they already have created. I ordered a Zensalada, which had endive, spinach, chia seeds, roasted chicken, grilled peppers, pickled onions and radishes, freshly made herb croutons and blue cheese dressing and it was the best salad I’ve ever had on a cruise ship.

After lunch, we kind of wandered around a bit, but we didn’t have too much time before we had to make our own cruising version of Sophie’s Choice: with only one sea day, it meant one Tea Time. We love Tea Time and I was intrigued to see what spin the Vista would take on it. On the other hand, we’d just had lunch and there was a unique opportunity to attend a travel photography seminar hosted by Mr. Radu, one of Carnival’s senior photographers (you’ve probably seen his snaps if you follow John Heald on Facebook). We ultimately went with the travel photography class. Well, we all started out there and then Mom ducked out a half hour in to go to Tea Time and Stephanie ducked out about 45 minutes in to go nap. But I made it through the entire thing and I had zero regrets. Mr. Radu’s photographs are stunning and listening to his tips and his anecdotes on why he loves photography was inspiring. It must be some kind of life to travel around on cruise ships taking pictures of all of these gorgeous ports of call. Where can I sign up?

Afterwards, I took some time to just kind of walk around the ship and take some pictures, exploring the nooks and crannies I hadn’t gotten to yet, like the Sports Square, which has all kinds of activities, sports and even a two-lane bowling alley. And the casino, the LED funnel, and whatever else I could find. Every corner I found was more beautiful than the last. The Vista truly represents the best of the Carnival cruising experience.

By the time I got back to the room, Stephanie and Mom were already getting ready for formal night. I sat out on the patio to give them some space until it was time to get ready myself. We took an obligatory round of patio pics and then headed out.

We stopped the Taste Bar for a little pre-dinner snack as we enjoyed the live music on Ocean Plaza. The Blue Iguana Cantina was featured this evening and both of their bites were delicious. I wish they’d serve the soup they offer at the Taste Bar – it’s super tasty!

Formal Night meant an American Table menu and experience in the dining room. This meant a tablecloth instead of a bare table and water served by a server instead of placed in a carafe on the table. The food was decent – I’m still not sold on some of these new offerings – but my filet was well prepared and flavorful, and even a bit bigger than it had been in recent years!

After dinner, we headed to the lounge to see Flick!, one of the new production shows onboard the Vista. Three showings were scheduled for the evening, at 7:00, 8:45 and 10:30 pm. We sat downstairs for the 8:45 pm performance but unless you’re right up against the stage, there aren’t any good seats on the lower level, so we returned again at 10:30 pm on the second floor of the lounge, which was a much better experience.

Flick! honors songs of the cinema, featuring iconic songs from both modern and classic films. It was a really great performance and I think it’s one of the better Playlist productions we’ve seen.

After the second show, we headed back to the room to get ready for our day in Crete. We contemplated heading upstairs to check out the deck party on Serenity, but it was late, we had an early wakeup ahead of us and storms were brewing outside. As it was, the party had been moved indoors, to the Havana Bar steps from our room. But even with a deck party right outside our door, no noise crept into our cabin and we slept right through until morning.

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