Carnival Vista Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Had a pretty good time for the most part. Food, staff, activities were all really good. Had issue with AC in cabin, as it needed serviced. They were good about getting it fixed. Actually there were heating and cooling issues thru the entire ship. Hot spots in places. Elevators had excessive wait times. Loved the live music entertainment. The first set of comics were good, but the last two were horrible. 

The beautiful ports we visited made the cruise exciting. Also loved exploring the ship and the good meals in the dining room. We were on the Havana floor and that was so special. The floor was private until 7:00pm so not crowded at all. We had an oversized balcony that even had a swing on it.

Carnival should do better especially with the accounting and billing department at guest services. Our first stop was suppose to be grand Turks and they didn't dock there the ship was very shaky water dripping on you at certain points while eating I was harassed one day about smoking at one section so I moved them the following day I see people smoking in the same section and wasn't told anything then the 3rd day I wasn't even smoking and was approached carnival gave me 20 dollars drink vouchers for that which wasn't worth anything because I don't drink ....

Carnival stole my 4 bottles of Jamaican Rum. You ask me to surrender it to you till the last night and then "lost". I was so upset by the treatment of myself from guest services and stewards like it was no big deal. I cried all day Saturday at the airport.  I feel as though I can not trust carnival with my belongings again. 

The Guys Burgers on board were excellent, we ate there several times during the cruise. The ship is beautiful and so many venues to dine in that we didn't get to try them all on our 6 day cruise.

The guest services staff went above & beyond our expectations as we had a medical emergency back home while we were sailing. A close friend and neighbor had a heart attack & was in ICU. They let us call home several times to check on him and to comfort his long time girlfriend we he passed away.

Our only negatives about the ship would be the limited, uncomfortable seating in the theatre (Liquid Lounge) and the Limelight Lounge where the comedians performed. Another issue we had was with the elevators. They were slow & stopped at every floor.

being with my grandkids,food was so so not that good we did not get to go to grand tunk so that was a great disappointment and they give us a 3hour extra in bahamas,not much to do there was looking forward to grand tunk so we should have gotten more then our taxes and port fees back.

the ship is big and neutrally decorated with colorful surprises everywhere.  they need more elevators and they need to be air conditioned.  the water rides were great as were the shows.  service a little slow.  we did not get to go to grand turk and not enough activities to take the place og grand turk

So many of the same complaints from many of the other passengers that I spoke to..Understaffed,overbooked,mediocre food,ridiculous queues and waits for EVERYTHING,from elevators to lido deck buffet and my time dining check in on deck 5 and then have to go to deck 3 to be seated,closed hot tubs,serenity spa closed 2 days out of 6. Skipped port of Grand Turk with a bogus explanation of wind. Small show areas, lack of cooling in those areas and elevators tripping hazzards everywhere I probably could go on and on but will admit there were saving graces entertaiment,activities and CD (Matt and crew) as well that I traveled with a large group and WE made our vacation GREAT despite the multitude of problems on the Vista which is why I give it a 6 3/4 out of 10

The ship was great with nearly 4000 passengers on board. Fun activities, food, entertainment ,  & staff. I was traveling with my handicapped 86 yr old Mother, son & his fiancee .  Mom & i had a handicap room which was awesome .  She was assisted at buffets by on board staff which was great. This was her 2nd cruise with 10 years in between .  Getting off in Jamaica was only possible because wheelchairs were available as the dock to shore excursions distance was too far for her. We did not get off in Nassau because wheelchair assistance was not apparently available .  We had a wonderful time but embarkation /debarkation was a nightmare .  I put her thru the handicapped entrance to board & Carnival staff made her comfortable. I personally handled her oxygen concentrator & CPAP bag arranged thru our reservation .  I put each separately on the security belt with my one carryon bag & in no more than 30 seconds the CPAP bag was gone. The security staff took us to embarkation office who helped us a lot. We were taken to checkin with NO special handling except the Wheelchair . They took us to guest services on the ship & after about 30 mins a passenger came up to us as they had inadvertently picked up her CPAP bag off of the security line. 2 hours to board was ridiculous for a special needs person. While debarking we were herded like cattle to a slaughter with no wheelchairs available until we got on the ramp off the ship. Six elevators were So crowded. There must be a clear opportunity for special needs passengers to get on & off the ships BEFORE the 99% of passengers who don't have physical ailments. This should include families with very young children .  Again, we had a very good time but there has to be immediate changes to the boarding process as the airlines have done for quite some time. The special needs passengers need to have this preferential treatment getting on & off. 

I have wrote several views about how disappointed I was with this ship and for some reason I get no response.  Food was no good.  Had hard time getting waited on for dinner in the Horizon.  Throw up floating in pool.  Reported it and no one did anything so I could not enjoy any pools or water after that.  

First, we left the port of Miami almost 3 hours late and the captain had to make up for lost time so he sped the ship up for the first 24 hours which cause most on the ship to get seasick. Our Balcony room was super small with a stand up shower that had no room anyone to turn around in. The Balcony was small and the food on this ship was awful. The room service didn't include any drinksuggestions other than orange juice and apple juice. All the restaurants on the ship closed at 11pm except for one Pizza joint that had 2 workers who had to cook for a ship that had 4000 people on it. Not much of a variety of food at all and our 6pm dinner menu was exactly the same every night switching out only one item each night. The inclusive dinning restaurants, such as the Mongolian Wok, was only open from 12-2:30 so most people, like myself and family, didn't get the chance to enjoy one of the restaurants we looked forward to eating at the most. In fact we got there 12:15 pm and still was told there was hour wait. Is it worth an hour standing in a line for a restaurant that is going to be closing while you're eating???? We didn't get to go to all our port of calls because they claim bad weather conditions held us back from docking in Turks and Chacos. So our first two days on this ship were sea days....I just wanted off the boring ship. The sky ride and water slides were closed for most of the cruise due to high winds so the children didn't have much to do except stay in camp. I do not recommended cruising on this ship, it is a big waste of money.

We took the repo cruise on the vista from NYC to Miami. It was an amazing cruise and the Vista has so much to do on it. There are still kinks to work out that will happpen with time. It felt understaffed and our ac kept going out, carnival cruise as very fast at taking care of the ac problem though. The layout of the ship is not the best, I'm not sure how that can be fixed. We stayed in the family harbor and it's such a great thing to have on the ship, the only bad point was that kids were letting other kids in that were not booked in the th area. At times it got to be a big play room with a lot of horse play in it, hence why the doors to it got broke. 

The ship is beautiful.  And there is so much to do and see on the ship . From our room steward, casino staff  , and dining waiters: the  service  was exceptional. The outdoor nightly Dive-In Movies were great! On the bad side the Dining seating and daily dining room table request was ridiculous. As a Platinum Guest we were to have priority seating. To our surprise were assigned "anytime dining" and had to wait in line to get a table number then get in line to get seated. It wasn't until the 8th day of the cruise that we were assigned our table for 2 we requested almost 1 year ago. The food was fine but lacked the expectations of what a past guest has come to expect with carnival. Very boring menu.     As to whether or not we will cruise on the Vista again. Without Traditional Dining and our private table for 2 each night I doubt we will.

Carnival does an amazing job with embarkation.  All of my interaction with cruise members were amazing. Primarily, cabin steward, photography, entertainment and Playlist members.  The Ship is beautiful, well lit and amazing art work.  Serenity is larger than on any other ship. The offer huge bowls of personal salads on Serenity and it has 2 hot tubs. Fabulous.  The cast in the shows were amazing, gracious and super friendly.  The shows were fun. The games, dances, singing, and crafts were nice for an 11 day cruise. The rooms are smaller but who wants to spend time in their cabin.  Food options are to plentiful to mention. I loved loved the food. The premier restaurants were inexpensive and the attention to detail was phenomenal. 

During the cruise, the only valid complaint was too few elevators and the ship had several guest in wheelchairs. A very large percentage of cruisers were physically challenged. 

Pre-cruise my only con was dealing with Lora Hall, at .  She was completely unresponsive. I mentioned this several times. I considered leaving , but I now work with Paula Schwartz.  I am disappointed that she has not responded to any of my calls. And I wanted to book a NEW CRUISE.  Lastly nothing can damper my amazing - great cruise.  Thank you!!!

The vista is ok but not as great as carnival made it out to be. There is alot of places on the ship but  alot of them are small and compact. Most places are hard to move around because the chairs are very close together. The IMAX theater was great just not alot of choices to watch plus it's the same movies for the whole entire cruise. The staff is wonderful as always.

Favorite part of the cruise was the food... really good and a great dinner waiter staff in dining room 3rd deck aft.  Ship was nice but not up to what I though I'd see in a brand new ship.  A bit disappointed in the main theatre, too small and seating was disjointed, but activities were good and cruise director was really good.  Lots of things to do...  pool tables, table shuffle board, outside exercise equipment, cool water slides.   Would like to have had hot tubs around the main pool.  Comedy clubs two or three times a night were nice, though a couple of the comedians were just OK... in my opinion.  Our exterior cabin (on the first deck) was awesome... lotsa room... two bathrooms... very convenient.  Cabin service was quite good.  Disappointed that we missed our first stop... due to weather.  We were most looking forward to that stop.  Also disappointed in the TV reception, but that may have been due to picking up Florida home stations, even though we departed from New York.  Hope that improves.

This was one of the best cruises that I ever took.  The staff was probably the best on any ship I have been on.  They were so attentive and willing to assist in any way possible.  The disembarkation process needed some work.  I guess because it was a new ship that things had to be worked out but it took way too long to exit the ship.  Also, leaving NY was delayed two and a half hours with no explanation.  One of the things that I would probably get rid of is the night of the midnight buffet.  People acted like they never saw food in their lives.  It was way too crowded in the dining room where it was set up.  Maybe if it were set up in a different location, things would have been different.  Another thing that I was not crazy about was the theater.  It was set up with removeable chairs so that different functions could happen in the theater.  I personally like the stationery seats.  My other complaint was having to get on a line every night at 5:15 to get a ticket to go to the restaurant for dinner, which was on a different deck than the dining room. I had the anytime dining plan. After standing on that line, I had to stand on another line in the dining room to wait for someone to walk me to a table.  It should be just one process so that it does not take a half an hour to get to sit down for dinner.  Lastly, I was very upset that I did not get to go on the behind the scenes tour of the ship.  I went the day after we set sail to make my reservation to find out that it was all booked up within the first hour of people being on the ship.  This was crazy.  I have done it before and never had a problem getting a reservation.  Since it is so popular, I feel that they should have these tours more often on the ship throughout the cruise when at sea.  I am sure that I am not the only one who was disappointed as to not getting to see the ship behind the scenes.   One of my favorite things was the bikes that went over the ocean.  That was so cool to do. The ship itself was great.  Loved all the restaurants, entertainment areas, lounges and pools as well as the gym and workout areas on the ship.  And yes, finally, there were enough lounge chairs all around the ship for lying out in the sun.  We never had to fight to find chairs.  Even by the pool.  Great job.  The entertainment staff was the best.  Matt, Cookie, NoNo,  and Mark Q were the best.  They made this trip what it was.  They were always around and participated with the passengers in everything possible.  Loved these guys.  They are so hard working.  I hope that they are well rewarded for all of their efforts.  Lastly, our cabin Steward, Sebastian, was the sweetest cabin steward ever.  He was always there for anything that we needed.  He tried so hard to please us.  He truly deserves to be recognized for all his efforts.  Great work by Carnival.  Happy to see that you still sponsor ST. Jude.

needs lots of improvement, for a new ship we expected a lot better, more staff in casino, dining room staff did not seem to know menu, and slow, never met room steward, lido area always needed tables cleared, no wait staff in lido area late at night

1.  Our favorite part of the cruise was the fabulous entertainment nightly.  Particularly, we loved the production shows and great lounge shows. We enjoyed Velvet Vibe, Essencia Strings, Scatter Horns and Mambo Magic. The dinners at Reflections were outstanding!  The hot soups were tasty and the beef was tender and done to perfection!  Ken, the Maitre'D enhanced the dining experience with his Frank Sinatra songs.  Matt was a great cruise director.   

We had an AFT Balcony Havana Cabin whereas the cabin was nice but these cabins have no privacy due to the Havana area below.  With Balcony cabins you can leave your curtains open to enjoy the view of the ocean. With the Aft cabins you cannot since the Havana area can see directly into your cabin ad balcony area.  The Havana area was great, no large crowds but would no book these cabins again.  Also you can hear the Havana bands playing until 12:45am nightly. 

This was our first experience with the American Table, very disappointing for us.  We do not eat seafood and the other items were not to our liking, They have the Steak and Chicken option but we found the Chicken overcooked and very dry. 

Overall we really enjoyed the staff and the ship.  Not as fancy as previous ships but some of the new areas were great, Skyride, BBQ