If you were following my social media channels in the last few weeks of August I wouldn’t be surprised if you occasionally cursed me under your breath as I shared images of our amazing adventures as one of the Carnival Cruise line Funseeking families onboard Carnival Vista for an 8-day cruise around the Mediterranean. We had an amazing time both on and off the ship seeking out the fun no matter where we were.
With nearly a year to wait between being announced as one of the lucky families to actually getting to step on board Carnival Vista I was a little bit worried that it would not live up to my expectations but I can honestly say that as a whole family we have come away completely converted to cruising and are already looking forward to our next cruise.
It is hard to write about such an amazing adventure in a short post so I have decided that I will have to write a few different posts about the different elements of our cruise. I will cover the food, activities and what we got up to off the ship separately but I thought I would use this post as an opportunity to share our overall thoughts about our time on the Carnival Vista ship and how we spent our days.
Our 8-day itinerary started in Barcelona and was then followed by one day at sea and the rest of the days in a variety of ports in Italy, Spain, and France.
We were staying in a standard balcony cabin with a King Size bed and a set of bunk beds. My photos don’t do the space justice but we were pleasantly surprised by the size of the room and the amount of storage available. We were not tripping over any of our stuff and all of the suitcases were able to be stored out of the way.
For the first 24 hours, we didn’t really know where anything was or what was happening when even though we had the Fun Times (daily ship newsletter) and the Carnival onboard app. Instead, we spent the day by the pool enjoying the sunshine which certainly wasn’t a bad thing. The one thing I will say though is that some activities are only available on sea days so if you only have one sea day make sure you check these out. We were disappointed to have missed the brewery tour which we would have enjoyed however we were lucky enough to eat at the Sea day BBQ which we happened to walk past.
Carnival Vista has a variety of pools but we soon found our favourite at the back of the boat. The girls loved it here as there were two large jacuzzi pools as well as a normal pool for them to enjoy and we loved the fact there were plenty of available sun loungers and a bar close by.
After that very first day, I enjoyed waking up each morning in a different port and seeing the view from our balcony change was a real highlight and something I wasn’t expecting to have such an impact. I left the ship most days even if I didn’t go on a shore excursion and even Elizabeth loved exploring the new towns with me.
When on the ship there was so much to do that even after 8 days we didn’t manage to do everything. From shows in the limelight lounge to a huge variety of live musicians, comedy shows, and quizzes to lots of family sports activities and even towel folding the entertainment programme was varied and full and I couldn’t ever of imagined uttering the words “I’m bored”.
We haven’t been home long and the holiday blues have well and truly kicked in. With views like this who can blame me.
I will be writing about the rest of our adventure on the Carnival Vista over the coming week. I hope you enjoy it!
I would agree that the first 24 hours was a little surreal as we found our way around. I am so glad we went to the sail away party though as it set the scene for the whole cruise