Carnival Vista Review: Day 14 – Debarkationfeatured
In ten days onboard the Carnival Vista, the worst thing about the Vista was having to leave the Vista.
It was so nice out that we had our last breakfast al fresco as we waited to debark
I think we’ve been on, like, 20 cruises by now. This might have been lucky #20. Some are more distinct than others, but they all blend together sometimes. It never gets any easier to leave. I think it was harder this time, too, because we just didn’t feel like we had enough time to enjoy the ship as a destination. I tried to. Between the jet lag and sheer force of will, I wasn’t sleeping much on this trip (except for, apparently, my daily naps on shore excursion tour busses – those were consistent). But after touring 10+ hours a day, I didn’t have the energy to go to the piano bar for a martini-in-hand singalong or dance in the Havana Bar or even just sit in the Alchemy Bar. There’s so much I wish I could have experienced that we just didn’t have time for, or the energy for in the time we did have.
But this kind of disappointment only speaks to just how magnificent the Vista truly is: we visited eight of the most beautiful cities in the Mediterranean, and we only left disappointment we didn’t see more of this ship. But the Vista is new. We’ll have plenty of chances to sail her on a less intensive Caribbean itinerary for years to come.
Our Platinum status gets us Priority Debarkation and Zone 1 stickers. But our flight to Switzerland didn’t leave until early in the evening, so we were in no rush to get off the ship. I didn’t wake up until 6:30 or so. We lingered in the room for awhile before we packed up and headed to the Lido deck for one last round of arepas (and, of course, the obligatory farewell to my amigos at the Blue Iguana Cantina).
The last arepas are always the best arepas
We made a stop at guest services and by the time they were on zone 19, they also mentioned that luggage would only be out for an hour and a half after they called a zone number and at this point, I was pretty sure our zone was called, like, two hours ago, so we headed into an elevator (which was chartered, by the way, by Cashflow Courtney solely to transport people from Deck 3 to Deck 0 – I haven’t seen this on a Carnival cruise before but a great idea to keep things moving) and headed off the ship. Debarkation was quick and easy. You don’t go through customs like you do through the Caribbean, so we grabbed our luggage and walked out. It took no more than five minutes.
Unlike Caribbean cruises, there’s no customs to go through on Mediterranean cruises — you can grab your luggage and leave
Athens International is just over an hour outside of Piraeus, which sounded like it’d be an awfully expensive cab ride, so we booked transfers onboard the ship for $37 a person. Getting on the transfers was quick and easy (so much so that they didn’t even check or collect tickets). There were multiple motorcoaches lined up and running frequently. And that’s how it ended: we caught our last glimpse of the Vista as the motorcoach pulled out of the lot and began our ride to the airport.
Until next time, Vista!
Well, it doesn’t entirely end there. The Vista wasn’t our last stop and we weren’t heading home from Athens. But it was time for a new adventure: for strolling along the Limmat, shopping up and down the Bahnhofstrasse, eating as much cheese fondue as we could and meeting up with old friends. Next stop? Zurich, Switzerland!
Zurich bound! Goodbye, Athens!
