Vista Vacation: A Taste of Turkey

Once upon a time in Kusadasi, Turkey, we found a convenience store by the port and decided to check it out. As we walked in, several crew members were heading out to pay for their snacks. Two of them were carrying a stack of dark pink packages. I wanted to know what they were. In the snack aisle, we found dark pink packages of raspberry tartinis. I’m a sucker for sweet snacks, so we decided to buy two packages to see what the fuss was all about. Best decision ever. They’re the best snacks I’ve ever had. Since then, I’ve been waiting to return to Turkey to buy more tartinis.


Our first port of call was the sunny and hot, but windy resort port of Kusadasi. We were in no hurry to get on land, so we grabbed lunch on the Lido Deck first. Our first stop was the convenience store. Unfortunately, the tartinis were not at the store. I swallowed my disappointment, it was okay. We headed down the street to do a little shopping for some souvenirs and Turkish delight. 

Outside the fish market, an older gentleman was sitting at his produce stand, with a small, adorable puppy sleeping in a gourd labelled "VOTKA" - we later found out that it did indeed translate to vodka. Stray cats roamed the area freely. As we explored the area, we found a small grocery store. The boyfriend likes checking out the deli, so while he did that, I hurried to the snack aisle. There they were. My tartinis! They even had new packaging! Unable to hide my excitement, we grabbed ten packages (yes, ten!) for the road.  

Probably not the best idea for that to be our first purchase, as we spent the rest of the day holding the tartinis. We walked around more shops, but nothing else interested us. Most of the merchants in Kusadasi either sold fake brand name bags, clothes and shoes, or leather jackets. We headed towards the ship, and found a nice path along the sea. It was very windy, but it gave us a beautiful view of the ship, and the other side of the shoreline of Kusadasi, where the resorts were.  

There were tourist binoculars along the path, and we had some liras to get rid of, so what the heck! We decided to take a closer look. Across the bay was resort town indeed, with beaches along the coast. Liras well spent. It was about time to make our way back to the ship. On our way, we stopped for a cappuccino. There was also a Starbucks at the port, but when in Europe... We love their cappuccinos, and we very much prefer it over Starbucks. Most, if not all, cafes in Europe offer complimentary wifi when you make a purchase. We did purchase an internet package on the Vista, but we found that it had been quite spotty, so whenever we had the chance, we would purchase a cappuccino and enjoy some wifi off the ship. Nothing like sitting by the sea in Turkey, enjoying a cappuccino without a care in the world! 

It was good timing. All aboard time was at 6 PM - so once we were on board, we grabbed a pizza to share at Pizzeria del Capitano (which is opened 24 hours, and yes, we needed an appetizer before our appetizer!) and we got ready for dinner, which was the late seating at 8:15 PM. Dinner was a doozy (I honestly cannot remember what we ate but it was much better than the first night). We only got a few pictures, as seen here:  

We returned to our cabin to change, and found a towel animal, the good dinosaur, made by our stateroom attendant. We found that our turn-down service was often done before dinner, which we didn't mind. Less work for the guy, I guess! He would clean it after we left in the morning, and come back to turn down a completely clean room. On the program for us that night was the comedy club. J.R Mccollom, and Tom Foss were the comedians of the night. We enjoyed both their shows. We were lucky enough to have six different comedians throughout the cruise. And yes, we did have a favourite - but more on that later!

I hope you enjoyed reading about our relaxed "on-your-own" day at the port day in Kusadasi. If you're ever in Turkey, I highly recommend visiting Ephesus. It's a beautiful piece of history, and it is one of the most well preserved archaeological sites. It can definitely get crowded and hot as most sites do, but it is not to be missed. Another amazing adventure is the House of the Virgin Mary, which is believed to have been the last home of Mary. We were lucky enough to have visited both during a previous cruise, and though it was tempting, once was enough. If you're interested, you can read about our visit to Ephesus here. Unfortunately, for brevity, I left out our stop at the House of the Virgin Mary.

Our next port of call is Rhodes, Greece. It was another "on-your-own" day for us, but after that, it's all Carnival excursions! I am going to try to update every three days, so stay tuned!

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)

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!