Vista Rocks

Carnival Vista Cruise Review to Europe - Western Mediterranean

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 13

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Verified Review
Carnival Vista

8 Night Western Mediterranean (Barcelona Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 18, 2016

Ship: Carnival Vista

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 9120

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

The cruise ship was amazing. The staff on the ship were always helpful and smiling and asking did we need anything. I've read other reviews about the stuff being rude and grumpy and unpleasant. I have to strongly suggest that this is nonsense and one bad experience with one individual should not tarnish and entire fleet of crew. Superb service. 

 

The food was good in most cases although somethings should stay open all day. Given the amount of money we spend on these cruises, all inclusive should mean all inclusive. You need to be more transparent with your drinks packages and the limits of 15 drinks / day. it's not fair hiding information or not making it completely transparent. Also, it was a pleasure for us to pay our gratuities as they staff deserved it but a lot of people were not aware on the ship that they would have an extra charge of 300+ dollars / person at the end of their cruise. 

 

The wifi is crap and drops consistently. It's also a rip off in this day and age and should be included for free. There should be a pool for adults although it's a bit late now. The Lidl deck pool should have been designed much bigger and less seating area in that area or some form of transforming pool to deck area for films in evenings. I didn't particularly like the pools as kids were always bombing etc. Which is 100% cool as they're on their holidays enjoying themselves but it would have been nice to just relax for 2 minutes without getting kicked, punched or water in your eyes. 

 

These are all minor grumbles. Overall, the experience was amazing. Sitting on a balcony in the middle of the meditarranean sipping a beer, looking at the stars is an experience I will never forget. 

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Children's Programs

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Our cabin attendant was a legend. Extremely clean and well-maintained. Very happy.

Ship tip

You need to get an adult pool sorted and the hip hop DJ does not really appeal to a majority of european customers. it may be an american cruiseliner but you need to consider your customer base

Ports of call

Barcelona, Spain

5 out of 5

Messina, Sicily

1 out of 5

Naples, Italy

3 out of 5

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

5 out of 5

Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy

5 out of 5

Marseille (Provence), France

5 out of 5

Palma De Mallorca, Balearic Islands

5 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 13

14 Comments

cherylhindmon    8 years ago

We've always happily payed gratuities because service is always great! It's explained clearly upfront. We just pre-pay them.

DawnNYC    8 years ago

You can prepay. Also if u have 3 or more ppl in ur rm and u aren't satisfied, u can decline the gratuities. I've never had s problem. They also don't tell you this. I'm on the vista 4/8/17

kevowilson    8 years ago

Cybron3 - how do you drink for free?

WeCruiseToo    8 years ago

Thanks for the review! Glad to hear the ship and crew were great!

cbyron3    8 years ago

The issue with the cruise being written about was the VAT which was unique to the European cruises without a stop in a non EU port. Carnival didn't do a great job explaining this tax prior to the cruise. I cruise and drink for free so I didn't care but the folks who bought the cheers package were less than thrilled with the surprise.

christyluvscruising    8 years ago

Was a longer cruise

galaxy5    8 years ago

I thought the gratuity was 11.50 per day per person.

stevenstair    8 years ago

Our 14th cruise next Feb will be on the Vista an can't wait😁 🍹🚢

layne1000    8 years ago

You also can prepay gratuities up front

layne1000    8 years ago

Its posted on website based on number of days and how many

sineadyxxx    8 years ago

$300 per person at end of cruise what on earth for!!!

paulam1122    8 years ago

Room Gratuities are posted on carnival website so is the drink package gratuities limits taxes & gratuities added to drinks.

asankitts    8 years ago

I will be sailing in February to celebrate my 50th birthday with kool friends n family.

essee75    8 years ago

Well overall for the minor bumps you sound like you enjoyed yourself ... My family and I will be sailing April 2017 for nephew 16th birthday. Looking forward to it. LET'S SAIL

Other reviews of this sailing