The cruise itself was fine. I don't feel like gave us all the information needed, like departure times from ports, special dress up nights and other events we should have been aware of. Due to lack of communication on their part, we lost quite a bit of money.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The food was great. Bring lots of hand sanitizer for the buffet.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
be sure to bring closed toed shoes to do the sky ride!
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Loved the shows and comedians!
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Our waiters Summy and Michael were outstanding! Loved our room steward as well! (For the life of me, I am forgetting his name! So sorry! but he was great!)
At the end of the cruise, it was brought to our attention that they were short staffed...we couldn't tell, the service was outstanding.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
It amazed me how everyone was cleaning all the time! That being said...even with all of the protocols, 3 out of the 4 of us did get COVID. Not sure what else could be done about that though. They could not possibly clean more than they already did and the ENTIRE crew wore masks the entire time.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
It was great!
Ship tip
Be aware that VISTA leaves ports earlier than any other ship. We lost quite a bit of money because we scheduled excursions that we could not complete due to the early departure of our ship...yet amazingly, the ships that departed after us, still got to the next port before us.
Loved Belize, but were scammed when it came to our excursion. We signed up and paid to do the cave tubing. We got a half hour into the van ride to the river and they pulled over and told us the river was too high due to the rain. They knew darned well BEFORE we ever left the port that we were not tubing! The tour guides didn't even have swim suits on or with them. Our only options were to go back to port or do some Mayan ruins...didn't get any money back.
Vista left this port at 3:30...didn't know that this was going to happen until we arrived. We had a snorkeling and private resort excursion planned and paid for. We were unable to do the private resort that included all beverages and food due to our ship leaving port so early. Again...we were out all the money. Not sure why we left earlier than the other Carnival ship docked there because even though the other ship left much later than the Vista, it still got back to Galveston before we did.
Hate to keep bringing it up but wonder how much the propulsion issue is affecting port times. Ccl does send out itineraries but often changes that week due to issues like fog, ports construction and motors.
The port times are outlined when you book. Carnival has always communicated when there are changes either via email, announcing it and papers in our mailbox.
The ship doesn’t set the departure time. It is the harbor master. We’ve sailed Carnival often. They are obnoxious with announcements regarding the times to return to the ship (at least to us). You can get a written daily paper or follow the HUB app. Sorry you felt uninformed!
Itineraries containing port arrival/departure times are provided when you book a cruise. CCL is also good to send out updates ahead of time if those times change. And as others have pointed out, those times are in the HUB app.
Step one when booking independent excursions... review the published arrival and departure time and build in a safety buffer. Believe me they wanted the tubing to be open and were monitoring if it could be open. That's a big money maker for them. The nightly meal themes and menus are available for the entire cruise...as well as the port times..on the hub app as soon as you board.
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