Christmas Vista: Day 1

By
Saint Greg

December 24, 2021

After boarding, I dropped my bag off in the room. They don’t have early room access right now but they are allowing diamond and platinum guests to drop their bags off in the room.

On my Panorama cruise in October my room steward was right there. He told me my room was ready and I could have early access to it. This time I had no such luck.

I’m heading to my muster station which is deck 4 in the Liquid Lounge.

I forgot this theater has booths. They definitely are not on Panorama which is Vista’s sister ship.

The muster is quick and easy these days. They tell you where to get your life vests, how to put them on, and where to go in case of an emergency.

Here is today’s schedule of events.

Here is a look at the atrium as people are still boarding.

I don’t believe Panorama had this bar stool seating here either. I believe it was standing room.

I’m going to stop by the sports bar to see what kind of football is on.

It’s championship game Saturday in the world of college football. I expected to see more than one of the TVs on college football.

I’m heading up to the Italian restaurant for for a pasta lunch.

While this lunch is generally the same ship to ship, I have noticed the bread is different on the various ships.

I went with a chicken alfredo type of bowl and added peppers.

After lunch I headed to the atrium for my standard cruise first drink, The Fun Ship.

Walking down the promenade on deck 5 it’s easy to see some of the differences between Vista and Panorama. The piano bar is on the left and the library bar is on the right. Those are reversed on Panorama.

This is a look inside the piano bar. On Panorama the left portion of this is the library bar and the right portion is part of the Teppanyaki which is not on this ship.

Just outside of the library bar is this gingerbread Christmas display. I’ve been on three Carnival ships in December. All of them have one of these and all of them have been unique.

This is the library bar. It actually has a real bar in it. I’ve never seen it open. That’s probably one of the reasons they remove the bar on future ships. On Panorama this space is the piano bar.

This is looking down into what used to be the casino bar. In an effort to reduce the number of people who use the casino strictly for smoking, Carnival removed the casino bars from their Vista class ships. This area is serving as muster station B4 today.

I probably won’t visit the alchemy bar until tomorrow since they have the expensive drinks and you can’t get the Cheers package day 1 out of Galveston. I can run up a really large bar bill really fast here.

This is where you would go to view and order your pictures.

Just past Pixels is the Red Frog Pub. They have drink specials here until 2pm.

This is the Jamaica Sunrise which is the closest they have to a Fun Ship. It’s only $10 until 2pm for this fish bowl.

My room is ready and my luggage has arrived.

This is my first time in a “4J” cabin which is basically like an interior but it adds a forward window looking out to the “secret deck.” If you are trying to book one of these rooms on the Carnival website they are listed as “interior room with a picture window.” They are difficult to get because they sell out fast.

This is the view from the window.

I like this room configuration. I’m used to having the head of the bed being where this window is. The way it is now you can actually reach that small cabinet next to the bed from the bed. That has the refrigerator in it which is nice to be able to reach from the bed.

I picked up my free bottle of water and put it in the fridge. It’s important to do that your first day out of Galveston since you can’t buy Cheers on the first day. This will keep me from having to buy water day 1.

I also think it’s easier to get to the desk from here. That’s where the only USB ports are in this room. If I’m charging my phone at night, that’s where it will be. I use my phone as my clock so if I wake up in the middle of the night and want to know what time it is, It’s nice to have easier access to the desk.

This is the standard Carnival bathroom.

The closets are the same as other Vista class ships.

I got another drink special and took it to the Sports Bar to watch some football. You have the option of getting those drinks poured into a plastic pitcher which makes them more portable.

A guy decked out in Georgia was just told they aren’t going to have the SEC championship game. He said “that hurts man. That hurts.”

I asked them to put ESPN on one of the TVs. ESPN is supposed to be the Sun Belt championship which is Appalachian State and ULL, but it’s soccer instead. It really is unpredictable what they ‘re going to have on.

It looks like Cincinnati and Houston may be coming on the other TVs.

This is the Multiplex. They have this on Horizon as well. On Panorama this area would be the Sky Zone trampoline park.

The Multiplex consists of the Thrill Theater and the IMAX. The Thrill Theater is closed due to COVID precautions but this is the waiting area outside of the theater.

The IMAX theater is open so I’m going to take a peek.

Here is a look at their snack bar menu.

Let’s head to the back of lido deck to catch sail away.

One of the good things about sailing out of Galveston is they have Shiner Bock as their “local” beer available on the ships.

I moved to the front of the ship. That is Carnival Dream up ahead of us.

The sail away party is happening on lido deck. We probably had more than twice as many people on this deck for the sail away party during my 2019 Vista Cruise.

There isn’t much going on until the tree lighting at 8pm. I decided to book the steakhouse for tonight and get the free bottle of wine they offer on the first two days.

I went ahead and booked my excursion for Belize as well.

I stopped by the room to unpack, sanitize the room, and shower before dinner.

I let the shower go a little longer to get some wrinkles out of my shirt and I inadvertently set off the smoke alarm. I told the steward on my way to dinner.

I hate these glow in the dark signs on this class of ship.

I always cover them up.

They wanted me to sit at one of the tall tables in the front window. I’m not going to be their front window display. Another solo was doing that at the other tall table. I like this spot better.

This is the pretzel bread and I believe they call it the sea salt bread. I call it the round bread. The round bread is my favorite.

The free bottle of wine has been delivered. If you are a wine person you can get a discount on a better bottle of wine. I am not a wine person so I’m just taking the free alcohol.