wlandenberger Cruise Review on Carnival Vista on Feb 03, 2019

Carnival Vista Cruise Review

wlandenberger

Contributor Level: Second Mate

Reviews: 5

Helpful Votes: 65

Overall rating:

5 out of 5

Sail date: February 03, 2019

Ship: Carnival Vista

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Sailed on the Feb 3, 2019 cruise. The cruise is actually a 4.7 but you can't rate it that way. Vista is a big ship for sure. Had one of the Havana Cabana cabins #5206. Overall another successful Carnival cruise which is why we keep sailing in this line. Pros. -Embarkation very smooth. Arrive at 11:38, on board by 12:05. Did not have faster to the fun. -MDR food was vey good execpt for one night. Service however was slow. We were at a table for 2 and there was a large table of 12 that got most of the attention. -lido food was surprisingly good, best I have had on Carnival and I am not usually a lido food fan. -Guys burgers was a disappointment compared to other Carnival ships I have been on. The taste was just off. -The Italian eatery was outstanding in everyway. Excellent food. -JiJi kitchen was horrible. No flavor at all, we didn't even finish it and ended up going to the Sea food shack. -Seafood Shack was great, worth the $6 upcharge. Great shrimp and clams. -Shake Spot, get the island delight shake, it is outstanding. -Havana bar had great drinks and the nightly Cuban band was the best on the ship. -Havana area is private during the day but I don't think we would do a Cabana again. The patio lounge and chair is so low to the ground you might as well be sitting on the deck, hard to get up from. Some noise issues but not bad. -Cruise Director Matt. The best I have ever had on any cruise ship on either Carnival or RCCL. -Nightly shows were outstanding. Much better than on the Sunshine last year. -Comedy shows were also excellent. Cons -Comedy club is to small for this size ship. If you did not get there 30 minutes you would likely have to stand if you could get in at all. -Elevators. Every review that had complained about this are being truthful. Sometimes had to wait 10 minutes for a car. Often a car would not even stop on you floor but go past to another floor. -The Atrim. This is the most underwhelming atrim I have seen on a cruise ship. No wow factor at all. -Adult area is hard to get to on Deck 15 as only one Elevator goes there. Because we were Havana guests we did not use this much. -Ocean plaza seating is a joke. Some one at Carnival must think that all guest are 110 lbs and have a 30 inch waist the chairs are so narrow. -Disembarkation was not organized well, very long lines. Not Carnivals. fault but it did not help that we got the customs agent that had to question every person in detail. For every one that cleared in our line, 5-6 would clear on the lines on either side of us. Shore tours -Not well organized. Got to the liquid lounge at 7:45 for an 8am departure as we were instructed to do. Got off the ship to a tender at 10:30am. Not sure what the issue was. Then waited another 45 minutes on shore for the tour bus. -Did the Top Ten of Belize. Terrible tour, 4 hours of complete boredom, run down bus. The tour guide liked to hear herself talk. At the last stop and everyone wanting to get back to the ship she insists on taking 15 minutes to tell us about the Amish on the island since there were some of that faith in a pickup truck next to us in the parking lot. Only when she was finished could the bus move. -Priates, Monkeys and Birds on Rotan. Great tour but be careful, there is far more walking here than the tour description indicates. The korean buses they use on these tours are really cramped, no leg room and poor A/C. Overall another successful Carnival Cruise. Vista is not my favorite Carnival ship, that honor continues to go to the Carnival Pride, but I preferred it to the Sunshine or the Glory. The crew was very happy and went out of their way to help you. Our cabin steward wad outstanding, our MDR staff was good but we have had much better on the Pride, the Dream, and the Liberty. But they were better than on the Sunshine and far better than on the Glory. Matt is outstanding as the cruise director and freely interfaced with everyone. Our next cruise is in 2.5 months on the Ecstasy, hoping it will also be good too.

8 Comments

cruisereckoning 3 years ago

Thanks for the review

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KevinOMReb 5 years ago

Odd. We got off and we’re on the bus to airport in less than 30 minutes.

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DFromATX 5 years ago

Sounds great!

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allthat815 5 years ago

Great detailed review on your experiences. I agree with some and don't agree with others, but not everyone likes the same things and that's ok. Glad you had a great time anyway. Surprised you didn't like JiJi's. Thought it was one of the best specialty restaurants we've been to, but like I said, not everyone likes the same things

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sterld2126 5 years ago

Great review.

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LMG1988 5 years ago

Oops!! I meant: we took the stairs!! Not the elevators. Almost all in our party constantly used the stairs.

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mason2x 5 years ago

My chiropractor just sailed Vista and he too said the atrium was ho hum. He also complained about slow elevators. I'm still looking forward to my April cruise. We rarely use elevators or hang in the atrium anyway. I'm hoping to like Vista as much as we did Magic back when she sailed out of Galveston.

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LMG1988 5 years ago

Very thorough review. We were a party of 12.... but we all didn’t eat in the dinning room every night. Great service, but we were not the ones to get all the attention. Hehe We thought the Vista was awesome, but still didn’t see & experience all the ship offered. I really liked the colors & some aspects of the atrium, but, yeah..... boring; terribly boring. I wonder if it was designed that way to keep people away. LOL We can certainly agree that the chairs are narrow in the ocean plaza and on the Lanai. Fine for us though. We mostly (almost always) took the elevators.... but, certainly, we could see an issue for those who needed them.

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