Best Vacation Ever
Carnival Vista Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 35
7 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)
Sail date: August 06, 2022
Ship: Carnival Vista
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 2293
Traveled as: Family (young children)
Reviewed: 2 years ago
Review summary
Take this cruise! 7 days was just long enough to feel like a legitimate vacation - I can't imagine taking a shorter cruise. Although the port stops can feel a bit rushed (with only 5-6 hours in each port which is typical of any cruise) you get 3 full days at sea to relax and enjoy all that the ship has to offer - so there is a great balance in that. We had such a great experience (minus Jamaica) that even though we just got off the ship we are itching to book another cruise! Carnival was so good to us. Staff were top notch and so kind. I would even give Jamaica another shot, now knowing what I know, I would probably just stay at a resort at that port. Your trip is what you make of it, and we had a blast with Carnival and we'd do it again!Embarkation
Our ship left pretty much on schedule. Luckily, I had an early boarding time and arrived about 30 minutes prior, so we were able to get through security pretty quickly and boarded right on time as our boarding pass allowed. I don't believe they were checking boarding times, however, as I didn't see them make anyone wait for their time to be called.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
While not all of the food was 5-stars, you have to remember there are thousands of people on board that they have to feed and palates they have to please. Overall, it was a great value with the unlimited food. Kids menus were available everywhere for picky eaters. Unlimited ice cream was a definite crowd pleaser for the kids as well. I highly recommend eating breakfast in the restaurant rather than the buffet if you want the best breakfast experience, but no matter where you went on the ship, food and drinks were plentiful. Guys Burgers and Pizzeria del Capitano were delicious as well!
Onboard Activities
We visited the pool at the back of the ship daily. The pool in the mid just seemed much smaller with higher traffic and didn't have hot tub, so the pool in the aft was the way to go. We loved the pool and lying out to tan. We also enjoyed the Skyride and waterslides. If the line weren't long for the Skyride I wouldn've done it a second time.
Entertainment
We enjoyed the Playlist Production shows, especially Flick. Nothing could top Flick, honestly, with it's theatrics and illusions. Wish they had more shows like Flick instead of just straight musical shows (which the rest were)
Children's Programs
We had heard so many good things about the Kids Camp Ocean, but honestly, my 10 yr. old did not enjoy it. She said even though they are separated by age group, they are still all in one room, so the smaller kids were disruptive and loud, which interfered with her experience. She asked not to go back after only 40 minutes there. One positive experience was the Towel Animal Folding Class, which is separate from the Kids Camp. It was fun to see the kids attempt to make them, and nice that they offered such a class. Only downside was that it was held in a lounge with very limited spots (considering everyone had to have enough space to lay out a towel in front of them) and many adults wanted to fold which took space away from kids, which I felt was very selfish of the adults.
Service and Staff
The service was top notch. You really didn't have to lift a finger on this ship and staff were so friendly. We loved our waiters, Percival and Alexander, and our room steward, Nengah. It is so important to pay your gratuities and also have cash on hand to give extra tips to your waiters, room stewards, bartenders, etc. that work hard 24/7 to give you a great experience.
Ship Quality
Cleanliness 5 stars. On a 7-day cruise, you get to know your ship's layout pretty well. We were happy with it, but a complaint would be the Vista's Liquid Lounge. There are a lot of seats in there that are rendered useless because there are pillars and/or speakers obstructing your view. On a crowded night, sometimes you're just stuck in a that bad seat. We also saw families come in late and remove the Reserved for Handicap signs off of some seats which was pretty awful. No one stops them either. Pools could have been larger as they both were pretty small and therefore got crowded quickly. Adults would hog it and all the edges to sit and drink, which, I understand it's their vacation too, but the water got up to 5-6 ft deep so that left kids having to swim around the deeper areas just because it was all that was available. A larger, separate pool, for kids would have been even better! Adults weren't really swimming anyway, just drinking in the pool.
Cabin / Stateroom
Loved our cove balcony. We were so close to the water with nothing below us to obstruct our view. It's also private so you could walk on the balcony nude (I didn't, but I'm just saying that's how private it was from neighbors) or change clothes with your curtains open. We really enjoyed that privacy. The room was a great size and didn't feel cramped. We made great use of the space, and always slept comfortably.
Ship tip
I recommend joining FB groups devoted to Carnival Vista and even your ship date so you can learn tips and what to expect. I learned to bring magnetic hooks for inside my cabin, which I made great use of! We would leave wet swimsuits on the balcony chairs to dry, and then bring them in to hang on the magnetic hooks, as well as purses, hats, lanyards, etc. Also, cash tip on top of your gratuities to the staff that service you daily!
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
This was a 4-hour drive from where we live, so it's my preferred port to save me money from having to fly. We drove in the day before embarkation to relieve stress. We stayed at a hotel on the beach, where we could literally walk up to the water. There were so many seashells on the beach - we enjoyed that. There is also a pier with rides called the Pleasure Pier, but we didn't stop by only because it was a little rainy that day.
We did an excursion that was a bus tour followed by 2 hours on the beach. We ran into some characters there that would just hound you for money, non-stop. Every place we went, souvenirs were ridiculously overcharged (Shirt for $60, 4 keychains for $20 or 1 keychain for $10 (and the keychains were considered '50% off' -yeah right). They would act like they were giving you something for free, as they would walk up to you and hand you a cheap Jamaican flag, a cheap little bracelet, and you would say "Oh thank you!" and then they'd say "Yours for 5 dollars". What?! No, thank you. So we ended up unfortunately not buying much in Jamaica due to this. I understand there are less opportunities there to make money, but overcharging tourists is not the way. If they had souvenirs cheap, or even reasonably priced, we would have spent a lot if we felt we were getting a good deal! But we felt we were clearly getting ripped off with the high price points, so they lost our money. I was looking forward to Jamaica the most out of all the ports, but once I visited it was my least favorite.
This was the best port hands down, due to our excursion. First, we booked with Shore Excursions a year and a half in advance and they CANCELLED on us 5 DAYS before the CRUISE! I was annoyed by that, so I don't recommend them. Thanks to Shore Excursions, we were left scrambling to find another Stingray and snorkeling excursion 5 days before the trip. Carnival's equivalent excursion was already sold out. Luckily, I went to Trip Advisor and found out about Stingray City Cayman Islands, Ltd. and booked with them, for cheaper than Shore Excursions I might add. I believe our tour guides names were Jake and Andrew...they were the absolute best!!!! I recommend them. This excursion had a max of about 30 people so we were all taken care of very well and they made sure everyone got pictures with the stingrays and were able to touch and kiss them. The snorkeling was an experience I will never forget. The water here is the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life. We had the best experience here.
We went to Paradise Beach, which was awesome, with all the inflatables in the water to keep you busy. We also parasailed for the first time! The staff here were all so friendly as well. The pool looked awesome, but I honestly didn't take a dip in in because I wanted to lounge on the beach. Make sure you have a reservation, or else you won't get in. This was also the absolute best port for shopping! So many shops right at the port, and everyone is friendly, and most everything is reasonably priced. You can haggle if you want, but I rarely had to. I wish I had made more time to just shop because they had so much to offer there.
Disembarkation
Any frustrations due to disembarkation lies mostly with your fellow passengers. People don't want to follow the rules and wait for their zone to be called, which held up everything. I'm glad we ended up getting a late disembarkation ticket so we were able to have breakfast at the buffet and the majority of the passengers clog up the gangway and huff and puff. If you don't have a flight to catch, then I recommend just getting a late ticket. My zone was called to disembark around 9:50-10:00am and we were off the ship by 10:15am. Because we had passports we were able to get through customs rather quickly- I recommend getting passports for everyone in your party rather than having to bring everyone's birth certificates - it was much smoother. The only real wait we experienced was a 45-minute wait for our shuttle to take us to our parking lot, but that's just because there were a lot of people ahead of us waiting.