CARNIVAL VISTA "YOUR TIME DINING"

Thanks for that.. I'm gonna guess it opens prior to when seating starts. that seems to be the key.

@Yankee47,

I don't recall when it opened but I always went about the time they opened for dining. I like to eat early so I can party to 2am-3am uninterrupted, then I get a pizza

[quote=Hauteden]

I was on Vista in December 2018. I had My Time Dining. As others have mentioned the Check-in Station is one Deck up from dining area. Only on the first night did I have any sort of wait. I attribute this to everyone learning the process. But overall It was very straight forward. Get a ticket, walk down one deck, present ticket, and was sat with no waiting. On the first night there we some people who did not know to go to the Check-in Station.

THANKS HAUTEDEN...when does that check in station actually open for biz?

I was on Vista in December 2018. I had My Time Dining. As others have mentioned the Check-in Station is one Deck up from dining area. Only on the first night did I have any sort of wait. I attribute this to everyone learning the process. But overall It was very straight forward. Get a ticket, walk down one deck, present ticket, and was sat with no waiting. On the first night there we some people who did not know to go to the Check-in Station.

We have only sailed Carnival cruises. We have mostly stuck with Spirit and Conquest class ships and have had great cruises with only minor hiccups. We tried the larger ship-Breeze- and were not impressed with the ship layout, food option/service, etc.

From reading about the larger ships from this and other posts, we will stick to what works best for us. Bigger does not mean better and it seems the bigger ships bring on a new host of issues to contend with.

All a case of live and learn and grow with the experiences.

After we got settled in on food, it was "all and all a good cruise" We sailed on Vista in January and we had a great time on that cruise, thus going again. As stated we never had to go to your time dining, and it was new to us. We could not see any short staff problems as the waiters said all crew stayed in a hotel when ship was in dry dock. All got back on prior to leaving Freeport Bahamas. The shows were great, the cruise director was new and she was great, we ate at the farenhieit 555 steakhouse and no problems there. The cruise was a good cruise once we got our dining down pat. They were testing the motors (I was in Navy) as I was watching the speed on t v so that part in our Naval jargon was a shakedown cruise. They maxed the speed for a couple of hours and went back down to slow. Had 2 power outages before leaving Cozumel, but that was fixed. Lots of teens running around in the middle of the night, but I ignored them as I am a driver training instructor and I am used to them. They are a show to watch themselves. I dont know if they change stuff because the ship is so big, but in a previous post we had breakfast problems also. We decided big ships are not for us. We just got off Dream a week before Vista and that is big enough for us.

That wasn't an enjoyable experience, to say the least. Im not gonna obsess about it, because its so far off, but that really sucks.What about specialty restaurants onboard? any confusion?

I read your comment re that 4 day affair right after drydock, and hesitated to comment, because you said "all in all" it was a good cruise (doing that from memory)...but it sure didn't sound like it at all..given your comments there, dyou think this is one of those "shakedown things" to get the bugs out?

I can answer as I just HAD to experience this mess on the Vista. All the time we take early dining option on all carnival cruises. The dry dock Vista cruise we got on, they FORCED us to eat at your time dining, a first for us. You get to stand in line to get a ticket to dine at the Horizons restaurant, the line is one deck up from the restaurant. The clerk crew member checks you in to the computer, gives you a printed ticket and says go down to next deck to the restaurant and there will be a 5 minute wait. We get there and the line is all way back to the stairs, more like an hour and 5 minutes to wait. we decided it wasn't worth is, so the rest of the cruise we ate on Lido. The Vista needs to get act together on that one. No more huge ships for us. Gonna book rest of cruises on conquest class ships.

wow….I understand completely..we didn't like the seating on BREAKAWAY to see Cirque in the "SPIEGELS TENT" the first time so we passed...it looked more like an Army mess hall and not at all comfortable. second time we bit the bullet and said ok, lets see the show regardless...as luck would have it, we got "premium seating" practically free...we wound up in a lil horseshoe "booth" for two!! smack dab in the center...VERRRRY nice...and believe me it was just dumb luck.

But I'd love to have a lil tete a tete with the beancounters who figure these venues out...

No reservations on Carnival. It's first come first served, but they had chairs like in a high school auditorium and no place to set a drink and... I just didn't like it. Hoping the fixed it.