Bonaire

Bonaire and the city of Kralendijk

Bonaire is one of those islands that is a must-see if you enjoy cruising.  I didn't know what to expect and, frankly, didn't expect much.  The best part of my visit here was a complete lack of pushy vendors.  If there's one thing I can't stand, it's pushy vendors.

Sadly, I didn't purchase anything here because we were also scheduled to visit Curacao and I figured the prices and selection would be better.  Wrong.

We spent our time walking through the down, stopping for ice cream in a small shop and enjoying the quiet of the town.  We were the only ship there, so the place wasn't overrun by tourists.

On to the cruise...

Our first stop on this cruise was to Grand Turk, an island we've visited before. What's best about this place is the free lounge chairs lined up on either side of the pier.  Interestingly, Grant and I decided to skip the lounge chairs and instead enjoy a walk on the beach and through the Margaritaville area with the pool and the music and the shops and the bars.

This is Topher.  He's the mascot of the bar known as Jack's Shack. I don't know how old this dog is, but he's legendary and I hope he's around a good long time.

Horses are available for rent, though I always thought these were guided tours.  This woman was definitely a tourist and I'm not sure how she ended up on the beach by herself.

This is where the action is: music, food, drink, swimming.  Grant and I aren't "action" people and typically avoid this sort of thing.

John Glenn was here back in 1962 when his space capsule Friendship 7 splashed down nearby.

The Ship Post #5

I'll post just a few more photos outlining some interesting things on the Carnival Vista.

Carnival is known for its towel animals.  On a sea day, you can expect to see towel animals overtaking the pool deck in the morning.  Normally the animals would take up space on the loungers, but the rain foiled their plan.

One night we visited the piano bar, featuring Ben.  Ben encourages audience participation with sing-alongs, hats, wigs and other accoutrements to add to the fun.

The ship has an Imax and Thrill theater and we checked out both.  The Thrill theater was lame.  We saw a 15-minute short film called A Beautiful Planet and I expected the seats to move around.  They didn't move, though there were a few surprises meant to make the audience feel they were in the movie itself.  The Imax theater was much better and we visited it several times.

Finally, Carnival now has something new with their Pixels photo gallery.  Whenever our photo was taken, the photographer would ask our room number.  Pixels had touch screens throughout the area and by logging in we could look at all our photos and decide if we wanted to purchase any.  The only drawback is if the photographer doesn't type in your room number correctly.  I think this couple might be looking for their photos.

Up next, the actual cruise. Off we go!

The Ship Post #4

Now I'll move from food to other parts of the ship.  The atrium is a little different from other Carnival ships.  It covers only a few floors, has no glass elevators, and has an LCD funnel with interesting video which changes each day.

Stringed group playing Christmas music.  It was nice!

We really love the pool on the Lido deck.  This ship has the Dive In Movies, which our locally based ship does not.  We love, love, love movies under the stars with accompanying popcorn and a blanket.  We had rain one night, but that didn't stop us!

We tend to start our day on the Lido deck at the buffet, called the Marketplace on this ship.  Breakfast and coffee and Kindles lead into a lot of sitting and staring out the window on sea days.

In the photo below, notice the umbrellas over the tables.  This ship had many cute touches that made it quite different from most ships we've been on in the past.

There was music all over the ship.  Carnival started taking away the live bands and replacing them with DJs.  That might work on a short booze cruise, but not on longer cruises with an older crowd.

The ship not only had a hellacious water slide, it also had something called a Sky Ride.  I should have taken a ride, but didn't.  Grant did, though.

I tried to remove the above photo, or at least move to the other lido deck foodie photos, but the website I'm using won't allow me to do such a thing.  Sometimes I love technology, sometimes I hate it.

The Ship Post #3

Down from the Pig and Anchor was one of our favorite places to park it and read. This area remained open and clear of crowds for most of the cruise, which I appreciated.  I know we have a balcony, but I also enjoy watching people walk by.  People watching is one of my favorite activities on a ship.

Another of my favorite places to eat was the Pizzeria del Capitano. It's free and open 24 hours.  The Quattro Formagi (I know I'm not spelling that right.  It's a four cheese pizza with a white garlic sauce) was probably my favorite pizza.  I tried to stay away from it, I really did.

This is located in the back of the ship at the aft pool.  The Seafood Shack is on the opposite side of the ship from the pizza place, but it's not free and has things like fish sticks, fried shrimp and chowder.

We both liked the area, the view and spent plenty of time back there.

Aft pool just near the pizza place.

This nice lady is sitting at our table. Humph.

This is the view from our pizza table.

Note the line.  I had to time my visit right.

There are so many places to eat and snack on this ship.  I didn't weigh myself when I got home.  I didn't want to. :-\

Ice cream and frozen yogurt open 24 hours a day.

Breakfast at the main dining room.  I ordered the Froot Loops French toast. I was surprised at how good this was.

Typical room service lunch.  BLT and chips.

There's a chocolate extravaganza on the last sea day.  The lines for this are insane and the desserts mediocre at best.  This is what I stood in line 30 minutes for.

Most mornings a nice young lady would wheel by breakfast baked things.  This was a cinnamon brioche that was really very good.

Cherry on Top is the candy/ice cream store (for a fee).  Grant and I both tried the ice cream.  We agreed it wasn't all that great or worth the extra cost.