We didn't do any excursions at all for this leg, just walked around the ports on our own. The only exception to this was in DR, where we were off the ship for about 15 minutes in the secure port area, then right back on to enjoy an empty ship. I felt very safe walking around in Aruba, GT and Curaçao, especially Curaçao.
We waited a maximum of 5 minutes for Guy's and BI. However, we did have a wait for pizza of a little over 10 minutes a few times, they really understaff that place. And I'm saying that from a perspective of a dude that has been in the pizza industry for over 30 years. There were so many times when only 1 guy was working the entire place by himself, I really wanted to jump back there and help the poor guy out - I felt really bad for him. We also only waited a maximum of 10 minutes for Guy's Pig and Anchor - definitely worth the wait!
We also ate at JiJi's and Cucina for lunch many times, there was never a wait for Cucina but JiJi's filled up really quickly on sea days, so there was often a 15 minute wait for that. We did learn however, that you can order both to go if you don't want to wait for a seat. There were people that would do that, then take it down one deck and eat in the Lido.
The deli on Lido was a hot mess most of the time, there is no signage for cueing up to order, so there are people everywhere not knowing what to do, they need to do something better with that. The funny thing is, they have stancions set up there to cue people but it doesn't give any direction on what side to line up on, I mentioned this to guest services on about day 9 of our 14 days and no signs were ever put in place. By the way, their salted dark chocolate chip cookies are amazeballs! I can't tell you how many times I stopped there just for those.
The only specialty restaurant we did was Fahrenheit 555, service was impeccable and the food was fantastic! I would definitely put it in the same category as Ruth's Chris, Morton's and Flemings. It's a huge bargain at only $35/person.
We had set dining for the first, (6:00) seating, our service team for the first leg wasn't that great at all, the second leg was a completely different story - they were fantastic! Never had any issues with them!
We approach CCL with a
DCL attitude - get there early and wait for them to open. We usually got to both attractions about 30 minutes before they opened and were always within the first 10 people in line. There were a couple times when there was no one at Skyride, so we were able to go around continuously 3 times straight.
Overall, I really wish CCL would extend their hours for Guy's, BI and Pig and Anchor, but it certainly won't stop me from booking Vista or Horizon again. I would absolutely do this itinerary again in a heartbeat, loved having an 8 day cruise and the water down south was so much warmer than up higher on the Eastern and Western itineraries. I really want to be in the Havana cabins though, I love the cabana patios and the pool is never crowded during the day, so peaceful.
I think a lot of the negative reviews of Vista are from seasoned CCL cruisers who just like the other ships better. Their first impression of Vista is bad because she doesn't have the soaring atrium all the other Carnival ships have. I feel the same way about so many of the people here on the Dis that don't like the Dream class ships because they started on the classics.
Feel free to hit me up with any other questions, I can talk cruises forever!
