Vista BROKEN - BUYER BEWARE

Carnival Vista Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 27

Overall rating:

1.3 out of 5
Verified Review
Carnival Vista

7 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)

Sail date: May 07, 2022

Ship: Carnival Vista

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 9230

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

1. 3 ½ hour embarkation – standing on your feet in the sun in long line with bags 2. No food onboard upon embarkation 3. No instructions for muster 4. Safety briefing provided while guests are mustering - hence only half of the passengers get to hear them 5. Standing in line for 33 minutes to get 2 spoons of food 6. Food Manager Vikas Beri is Missing in Action 7. Location of life vest in case of an emergency not provided 8. Broken equipment on board – lied about skyride 9. The Vista is permanently broken due to an accelerator issue and is scheduled to be repaired on dry dock in August. In the meantime, driven by corporate greed Carnival is operating a broken ship that is unable to cruise at optimal cruising speed of 24 nautical miles/hour. Maximum speed is barely 17 nautical miles/hour. As a result the ship docks late at every port and hours available at each port have been drastically cut down at the last minute. No more than 5 hours at each port, late embarkation and disembarkation week after week. 10. Ship arrived late and we could only start disembarkation past 11 am resulting in flight changes and extreme delays getting home. 11. Disabled Vista is being operated on a late schedule knowingly and deceitfully week after week 12. On board entertainment consists of 7 moderate at best performers that put on random and unplanned shows 4 nights – same group, no variety very underwhelming. 13. No auditorium with theatre seating…....just flat seating ...Tiny Liquid Lounge with a complete mess…..capacity of less than 800 guests in a ship with 4000+ guests.....long lines and arguments just to get a decent seat starting 30 mins before the show. Shows cannot be booked in advance! 14. Horrible food service – Food Manager Vikas Beri completely unresponsive, MIA and will not get back to the guest despite multiple calls to Guest services and messages sent to him 15. Sous Chef, Rama at their so called “high-end” Fahrenheit 555 steak restaurant responded rudely that if meat is under seasoned to use the salt and pepper shakers at the table and walked away. 16. No organization and coordination – On deck music playing at the same time movie has started…took over an hour of complaining to turn the music off. 17. Pool side movies randomly cancelled in multiple occasions without any update or notifications. Guests wait for hours and leave. 18. One area in the buffet smells disgustingly bad – no cleanliness 19. Broken water and drink dispensing stations 20. No designated smoking areas in the casino – smoking permitted in the entire casino and walkways through the casino....had to walk through the smoke-filled casino to get to the dining room each day exposing to second hand smoking and disgusting smell 21. 100% booked cruise with Carnival selling rooms at cheap throw away prices and lucrative on-board credits while understaffed with crew – Only about 1100 versus 1400 22. Restaurant closes at 9pm and refused to be seated at 9:09pm even though it is advertised to be closed at 9:30pm 23. Rude, loud and boisterous cruise director, Kendall Fire whose only job is to be a cheer-leader 24. Simply disgusting food in the restaurants – only exception include pizza (if you are willing to stand in hour long lines) and Guy Fieri’s burgers (if you eat beef/red meat). 25. Basic amenities in the Spa broken such as non-working heated benches, water barely warm in the hot tub, etc. 26. 1 of 2 hot tubs at the adults-only Serenity section broken – hence only one hot tub available BEWARE THE VISTA IS BROKEN. AVOID, AVOID AVOID! GREEDY CARNIVAL IS SELLING THE CABINS AT A LOW PRICE TO SOMEHOW MAY MONEY AT THE COST OF INCONVENIENCE TO GUESTS UNTIL THE SHIP IS REPAIRED IN AUGUST. STAY AWAY BUT IF DESPERATE CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK BEFORE BOOKING. DISGUSTING AND UNACCEPTABLE

Embarkation

1 out of 5
3 1/2 Long lines in the hot sun

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5
See details in general comments below

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5
See details in general comments below

Entertainment

1 out of 5
See details in general comments below

Service and Staff

1 out of 5
See details in general comments below

Ship Quality

1 out of 5
See details in general comments below

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
Cabin steward Carlos was excellent. However no soap, moisturizer, loofah etc provided.

Ship tip

VISTA IS BROKEN AND DUE FOR REPAIRS. STAY AWAY

Ports of call

Galveston, Texas

1 out of 5
DISGUSTING...See details in general comments below

Cozumel, Mexico

1 out of 5
COULD ONLY STAY HERE FOR 4 1/2 HOURS....See details in general comments below

Disembarkation

1 out of 5
DISGUSTING ....See details in general comments below
Was this review helpful? 27

22 Comments

Schlinger    2 years ago

Wow, thanks for letting us know ! I was considering the Vista, but not anymore. So helpful, thanks a lot ! 👍🏻

Dworgrum    2 years ago

Hmm..I was on the 5/7/22 sailing on the Vista and don’t recall any of these problems. The embarkation problems were somewhat outside CCL control. True, the ship was about 2 hours late getting into Galveston due to the engine problems, but the biggest issue was the 4 hour traffic jam getting to Galveston due to road construction. Once onboard, things went about as expected. Understaffing is widespread in the cruise industry due to Covid and problems obtaining visas for foreign crew members. There was no shortage of food at anytime during the cruise. Ship was about 80 % of capacity.

DFromATX    2 years ago

Wow, I can’t believe I’m still hearing about issues with this ship. We were supposed to cruise on her BEFORE the pandemic when she started having issues and our cruise got cancelled. We got a full refund, FCC, and $600 OBC. Little did we know at that time what was to come. Long story short, two weeks ago we said “hellooooo Mardi Gras!” Yep, we used our credit on a different ship. Vista is at my home port but I’m kinda scared to try it out! And you know what else?? Port Canaveral has Galveston port beat. Even with the health protocols, we were on and off quick! Galveston has always taken forever!

tkaye    2 years ago

Sailed on Vista for the first time for the Sailabration cruise. It is definitely not my favorite ship. Was a one and done with her. I still had a wonderful time. Being on any ship beats working any day!

leog    2 years ago

Carnival is definitely having some issues. I think all can be attributed to $$$$$$$$.

rlhorner    2 years ago

We sailed Vista a few months ago and have no complaints. The staff worked so very hard to make sure our needs were met at all times. I’m thankful for the level of service we were provided. Our cruise was wonderful!

Dumfy75    2 years ago

Sorry you hated your cruise. I think the mistake you’ve made is you’ve complained about SO many things that even though some of your grievances are more serious and could be valid, they are lost in among the petty things. I mean if you complain about something like no loofah, nobody is going to take any of your valid complaints seriously. I would be more shocked if there WAS a loofah!

sycamoregrill    2 years ago

We were on the Vista in January and didn’t have those problems. Hope the boat motor gets repaired in August during dry dock.

337Tray    2 years ago

So how do u really feel 😳

Luv2Cruise2014    2 years ago

We were on the Vista a couple of months ago and we didn’t have any of those issues. Wow 😮

MitchellJamesH    2 years ago

I was on this cruise. Not fake news. Most of the comments were accurate. I did have a great time and love the Caribbean. But. This was a more disappointing experience when compared to other similar cruises. Port times cut was most disappointing. Overall I loved my vacation.

javawoody    2 years ago

I guess you were not happy

redlegbillsfan    2 years ago

I was on this cruise and there are some valid points to this review, but overall it was a great cruise for me. Third time on Vista since the restart and yes there were a few more problems than normal, but with the right attitude it was a joy. I feel sorry for the poster for not being able to enjoy the great weather and pure relaxation available to all of us. Every staff member I had interactions with were great as usual and Kendall is one of the best cruise directors sailing. The food could have been a bit better in the buffet and we needed more transparency on the ship propulsion issues. Carnival was not ready and able to properly handle embarkation and disembarkation. Reviews do not need to be all positive, but I do think this was a bit over the top and not fair.

msxenia    2 years ago

I got a loofa scrubby at the spa.

jallaway    2 years ago

I can't ever remember seeing a loofah on a Carnival Ship, but they may have served them once in the buffet covered in gravy

AuntPinkie    2 years ago

Just curious, when were loofahs available?

AuntPinkie    2 years ago

Sorry this cruise didn’t meet your expectations. Hope your next one (with whoever) is better. If we hadn’t had some of these issues on the Spirit recently, I’d say hogwash. I do know however that you can get to the dining room without walking through the casino on the Vista. The theater has been set up that way since the beginning (one of my dislikes for this class of ship). Others have enjoyed the Vista since it’s return to service. I hope it really is going into dry dock in August because we are booked for January. So maybe some of the complaints are legitimate (or not) try to move on. By the way my last review is not certified and I promise it is real.

marreg30    2 years ago

John Heald the Carnival brand ambassador has made a statement acknowledging the broken motor which is why they can’t stay in port as long. That makes me nervous wondering if there is a backup plan if everything brakes and people are stuck in the middle of the ocean. People on other pages haven’t come up with a list of complaints that this person has encountered so it may be a wait and see what happens during your own cruise.

DebandMarkC    2 years ago

We’ve been on the Vista twice since the restart and had a great time. Happy that you weren’t on it with us!

Kracka    2 years ago

I bet you're a really fun person to travel with.

GigiComeaux    2 years ago

This isnt fake news. We were in the Dream and Vista was having many issues engine being one of them. Now the Dream the food - buffet was disgusting, pizza disgusting. Entertainment sub par. A/c in many rooms was cool at best more often warm. We have been in the Dream before so huge disappointment. Staff wasnt to kind either.

walkingdeadcrz    2 years ago

I would of said fake until my April 30 Breeze. Experienced many of the same. So much that I canceled 4 carnival cruises at a significant cost to me.

Other reviews of this sailing