Vista Vacation: Embarkation Day

Embarkation Day!

Alex, our driver from George's Taxi, arrived promptly at 11:30 like he said, and we were soon on our way to the port. Alex told us the cruise port was a short twenty minute drive from our hotel in the Acropolis area - but it seemed much quicker for us to get there. I'm sure it was because we had such a great time chatting with him! Upon our arrival at the port, we unloaded and waited for a Carnival representative to grab a porter to take our luggage. In the Caribbean, the porters are everywhere, and you basically left your luggage at the curb. This time, it was much more organized - and safer. A Carnival representative was present to greet you, and appoint a porter to your luggage. It always gives me a peace of mind to see someone take my luggage.

It was starting to get crowded so we said goodbye to Alex and headed into the tent for check-in. We made it in line just before the rush. The passengers after us were seated, and given a number to be called for check in. Unfortunately, the tent was a furnace. It was a white tent - a green house essentially with four air conditioning unit, one in each corner - not enough! Thankfully, our check-in was quick, and our Carnival customer rep was also very friendly. Immediately after we were given our Sail & Sign cards, we were headed straight to the ship for boarding. I practically ran through the terminal. I was sad to say goodbye to Athens, but I was stoked for the ship!

The Vista is a gorgeous ship. She was shiny, new, and ours for the 10 days! I'll have more pictures of her as we visit each port. As we boarded the Vista, we heard an announcement letting us know that our cabins were ready. Perfect timing! We were booked on a category 6M Oceanview at the end of the hall on Deck 3 (more on this later). These cabins had two bathrooms - one with a shower, and one with a bath. Only one toilet though, so we had to play nice.

Our Large Porthole!

I had just stuffed myself with a gyro during boarding so I was in no rush to visit the Lido Deck. We decided to take a quick walk first to check out the ship. I'm sad to say that we never got a chance to go on the waterslides. It looked like a lot of fun, but the weather never really warmed up enough for us Caribbean cruisers.

Here, we have the Red Frog Pub & Brewery, and some seating on Deck 5 - there is a Taste Bar to the right, and the Cafe on the left, both of which are not photographed (I know, I suck, sorry). They played Bingo here as well.

Here, we have the Skybar (sports bar) and the casino, where my boyfriend liked to spend his nights.

And here, we have the Reflections dining room, with the new American Table menu, which was still being prepped when we decided to peek in to find our table. Funnily enough, we were actually seated just around the corner by the second pillar in the photograph. We also popped by the Havana Bar, which we never used. It looked amazing though.

The Atrium Bar

We headed up to the deck to watch the sail away. It was a very windy day, once again, in Athens, so I headed back inside as the boyfriend took some pictures.

We had a late seating for dinner at 8:15 pm, so we took a quick visit for a snack on the Lido Deck before heading back to our cabin to unpack. We also decided to take a quick nap before dinner. This is our first cruise with a late dinner seating. The reason we chose it was because we were at port every day until at least 6 PM. We specifically chose this cruise, this itinerary because we were interested in each, and every port. We really didn't want to rush back for the early seating.

Because it was the first night of our cruise, we didn't expect much from the dining room. We had an unusual arrangement - two different headwaiters ended up serving us throughout the week. Imade from Bali made an impression on us. He was very friendly, and loved to joke with us. Our other headwaiter was Milo. His name tag said he was from Serbia, but he told us he was from Croatia. He was a quiet fellow, and didn't chat with us much during our time in the dining room.

Nothing jumped out at me on the menu, so I ended up ordering the chicken. The boyfriend ordered the steak. I had Vietnamese salad rolls to start (very hard, and dry - my family is from Vietnam, so my mom makes pretty awesome salad rolls. I could tell these had been made hours earlier. I understand appetizers are pre-prepped, so salad rolls were probably not a good idea, as the rice paper wrap hardens when its refrigerated), and he had the calamari (unfortunately, no batter as pictured). For dessert, he had the Carnival chocolate cake, which came in a cute arrangement of Mickey (How did they know! We absolutely love Disney!), and I had the tiramisu (very sweet!). It was really nothing to rave about, but it filled our tummies and we were content.

Embarkation day is always a little tiring for us. It takes us the day to settle into the ship. So like good boys and girls, we headed back to our cabin to unpack a bit more, and turned in early for the night. Our first port was Kusadasi, Turkey. As I had mentioned in an earlier entry, we were originally supposed to dock in Izmir, but unfortunately, because it was on the U.S. travel advisory alert list, Carnival cancelled the port. Kusadasi is great replacement. For those who still wanted to visit Ephesus, it was still an option. Since we had already been there before (see here!), we had planned to walk around the port, and do a little shopping... and of course, as some of you may know, search for my tartinis!

I hope you're enjoying my trip report. Stay tuned for my entry on Kusadasi this weekend.

Want to start from the beginning? Navigate through our trip here: 

Pre-Cruise (I) - Pre-Cruise (II) - Embarkation (1) - Kusadasi (2) - Rhodes (3) - Sea Day (4)

Pre-Cruise: Adventures in Athens (Part II)

We spent on our third day in Athens touring around the city on the Athens Open Tour (Hop-On-Hop-Off) Bus. We had purchased our tickets the day before for €15 per person for two days. It was the cheapest option, which was why we decided to go with it. We took the bus to Syntagma Square. We walked around for about five minutes when we realized the stores looked really familiar. We were just here yesterday. We were in Plaka! Then, it dawned on us: Everything is super close in Athens. Who knew? It seemed so far on the map, but Syntagma Square ended up being a brisk 15 minute walk from the Acropolis.

We had seen the Athens Public Market on the bus, but no stop in the area meant we had to walk backwards from Syntagma Square. The fruit, vegetable and meat market (Varvakios Agora) is a lively place. I love seeing how markets operate overseas, and discovering all the different types of fruits, veggies and meat available to the people. I work in the produce industry, so I especially like looking at all the fruits and vegetables. The buzz from the merchants and locals in the many halls of the agora is an exciting feeling, even if you're not buying anything.

We had dinner reservations that night at our hotel restaurant, Acropolis Secret Roof Garden Bar Restaurant. The food was delicious but our meal at Liondi was still number one in our books. We had a grilled octopus, and a Greek salad as starters. I had a chicken souvlaki, while the boyfriend had fish.

Now the big draw to having dinner at the expensive hotel restaurant was the gorgeous unobstructed view of the Parthenon at night. While we did have an amazing view of the Parthenon throughout the night, it was not easy to photograph (especially without the proper photography equipment and the many people crowding around the restaurant). You really need to be there to soak it all in.

From Athens, we board the Carnival Vista. Embarkation Day is up next! Haven't read Part I yet? You can read the post here!

Pre-Cruise: Adventures in Athens (Part I)

There is always a bittersweet sadness that overcomes me when I finally realize that my vacation is over. But what better way to relive the memories than to write a full trip report? After almost a week of jet lag, we're finally starting to get back into routine. Perfect timing for me to start my trip report this weekend...

After a quick taste of Europe in 2014, we decided immediately we wanted to go back. We'd been looking at Royal Caribbean cruises for a while, before the Carnival Vista came our way and offered inexpensive cruises to Europe in mid 2016. Royal Caribbean has become our favourite cruise line but it was a new ship and cheap prices, how could we say no? So 15 months out, we jumped the gun and booked the third sailing of the Carnival Vista to the Mediterranean. It took forever for embarkation day to come, with two new jobs and a new home in between. But the day finally came (and went, sadly), and I have to say, this was one of the best trips of my life. My experiences were all so culturally rich, and I had such an amazing time (and delicious food) overseas.

Let's jump right in, starting with our pre-cruise stay in Athens and the ports - my favourite part of cruising - then our post-cruise stay in Barcelona. I'll get into the fun ship during Embarkation Day.

We'd decided to spend three days in Athens before our cruise. We arrived in Athens on Saturday morning. We were greeted by our courteous driver, Alex, from from George's Taxi. George's Taxi was recommended by a fellow cruiser, and it was the best decision we made. During our drive to the hotel, Alex gave us a tour of Athens. He was such a welcoming fellow - and so easy to talk to, we decided to book our transfer to the port with him as well.

Day 1 was a write off. We arrived at our hotel, Divani Palace Acropolis, early, and waited for our room. When we were finally checked into our hotel, we took a short nap before heading out for dinner. We ate at God's Restaurant for our first Greek meal. The food was similar to something we can get at home, but we were tired and it did the trick. The restaurant had a fun plaque on the wall about the Ten Rules of Drinking (bottom right). We had a laugh reading it.

The next morning, we woke up early to explore. It was a windy, overcast day so we definitely needed a jacket for the cool weather. Our hotel was a super convenient ten minute walk from the Acropolis. Note: If you do purchase your tickets at the door, there is a quite a queue - we waited for twenty minutes. There were two different options, we could purchase tickets for the Acropolis and the Theatre of Dionysus (€20) or tickets for all eight of the archaeological sites in Athens (€30). We didn't think we would have enough time (or energy) to see all the sites, so we opted for the Acropolis tickets.

The Parthenon is amazing in person. It is as breathtaking as I had imagined. The sun had finally come out, so the blue skies were the perfect backdrop for the temple. Because the citadel is on a hill, you get a gorgeous view of Athens from the Acropolis. From here, you can see the entire city and Lykavittos Hill (another hill, reached by funicular railway, which had a chapel, a restaurant and an open-air amphitheatre on the top) in the distance. Another amazing view was the statues of the Caryatids on the Erechtheion, once again, overlooking Athens. On the way down from the temple to the theatre, we met a four legged friend.

After one last walk around the Theatre of Dionysus, a major theatre dedicated to the god of plays and wine, we left the Acropolis. Athens is a very walkable city, just like Rome. In minutes, we'd walked over to the Temple of the Olympian Zeus. Since we didn't purchase the tickets, we took a peek of the majestic columns from outside the gates. Just outside the temple was another monument, the Arch of Hadrian, a gateway which was built for the emperor. You can see the sun peeking in and out of the clouds in our pictures. Without the sun, it was definitely chilly in Athens.

From there, we headed to the Plaka, an old historical neighbour in Athens. The area is a labyrinth of stores and homes, which we explored the neighbourhood until it was time for dinner. For our second dinner in Athens, we did a little bit more research and decided to eat at a Trip Advisor recommended restaurant, Liondo Traditional Greek Restaurant. We ordered roast lamb and grilled octopus. We were happy to report the food was much better than the first night's. Opa!

That's it for Part I of our Athens stay! Read Part II here!

Accommodation Talk

Wow, has it really been two months already?

Since moving out from my parents' place back in November, I've been keeping busy with home life. Unfortunately, groceries don't buy themselves and bathtubs don't clean themselves.

The good news is I've been slowly doing some planning on the side. We managed to book both hotels for Athens and Barcelona. We'll be staying by the Acropolis in Athens, and in the Eixample neighbourhood in Barcelona. The hotels are definitely pricey. I entertained the idea of booking our accommodations through Airbnb, but ultimately, I didn't really feel comfortable about it. We'd already done Airbnb in Rome a couple of years ago and we didn't particularly love it. Unfortunately for us, we didn't have the most pleasant first experience. Our contact was hours late in meeting us, and we never met the owner. The apartment wasn't cleaned well prior to our arrival. The second shower was literally a locker, so the four of us shared one bathroom. After that experience, we decided to stick with hotels as long as the price was decent.

We are now officially less than 50 days away from our sail date! I'm definitely very excited about this cruise, and thankfully, time has been flying by. The next step is to book our tours and excursions, my favourite part (other than outfit planning). I'll keep you posted, and this time I promise I'll be back in two weeks, not two months!

Hotels with Views of the Acropolis & La Sagrada Familia aka "Hotels I'm Not Staying At"