CARNIVAL VISTA "YOUR TIME DINING"

I am surprised no one has answered yet! My answer will a bit off as I didn't have to get a "slip" to go in. Like you on NCL, we have enough sea days we bypass that line. Since you like to eat early go to the designated spot as soon as it opens. There will be several tables for two by the window open, after getting your "ticket" you will be in a nice area to sit, drink (if you want) and people watch. The Vista had one level of on of the dining rooms set aside for YTD as most of Carnival ships do. I'm sure after the first day, you'll find it easy and know how to get in quickly. It has been a while since we sailed the Vista, but that was our observation. Wish we were going with you.

Thanks for the reply..I felt sure you would...I don't mind getting there a little early to avoid lines and confusion, but it seems theres another "there" before you go "there"...something about "registering" for dinner on deck 5 near some restaurant JAVA something...which apparently has its own lines...THEN go to the MDR for your table...eh????? BTW, the reason we're forgoing our exalted status on NCL (that and .50 y'know) is because we got one of those HAVANA SUITES...the thing looks almost as sexy as where we spend our days on BREAKAWAY CLASS on NCL...you only live once...

The Java is the coffee bar and on the way to the dining room where YTD is held (if I remember correctly). We like eating early as well. Enjoy your Havana Suite. Looking forward to your "stories". By the way, don't be put off by the auditorium, unless they have done something, it is horrible and not like most of the Carnival fleet. Rumor has it they plan to continue this way on the new builds, but with all the passenger complaints I hope not.

Remind me when you are sailing on the Vista????

THanks muchly for the info...I thought it was on a different deck. So apparently there is another "stop" for YTD...I keep an open mind. And as for the auditorium...these ships get bigger and bigger, and theres no way they can accommodate even half the passengers on any given show time. I can remember when reservations weren't even needed, but not anymore. and THIS is why we work so hard BEFORE the cruise "scheduling" stuff and making reservations. Id be willing to guess there are relatively way fewer people who do that, judging by the number of lost souls wandering around at all hours. Not to mention how quickly some venues fill up, even right after a new schedule of sailings is announced. savvy cruisers do their homework.

VISTA comes after the two each on GETAWAY AND BREAKAWAY. its FEB 2021.

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.

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...

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.

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?

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.

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.