southernbelle27

This is from the March 10th sailing. I wrote this right after disembarking but life got in the way and it sat in my notes file until now. This will be a long review that I broke into sections with input from my family. My parents (in their 50s)a and my brother and I who are college students. This was my first Norwegian Cruise, I have cruised many times on Carnival and once in Royal Caribbean. The ship: 3 stars The ship was hard to get around on. There is not a single deck you could walk around the entire ship on so there was a lot of walking around. And up and down one floor to get around something. The bars/ Restaurants close early which was annoying. Most every bar and restaurant was closed by 11:30-12am including the buffet. The only things open past 12am was O’Sheehan’s bar/restaurant, the skyline bar (the night club) and the casino. The skyline bar closed at 2:30am. This was unusual to my family not having anywhere to grab quick food late at night. The District Brew House was a favorite to sit and play cards but unfortunately did not serve food (snacks) until 5:30pm. It was also closed a few time in the afternoon when we went to go play. The Food: 5 stars Excellent food at every restaurant we tried and every Dinning room. The main dining rooms (Taste, Savor, and the Manhattan room) all had many things we all wanted to try and we were never disappointed with what we ordered and they had great wait staff. We ate at the steakhouse and it also was excellent, expensive being an al carte restaurant but was great food. We also tried food republic and the sushi was excellent and it was a nice place to sit and eat and not overly expensive. Be careful here however because you order from an iPad and the food comes out to the table as the food is finished being prepared, one of our meals did not come until everyone else was finished eating. The ports: 2 Stars Jamaica was fine, weather was perfect for us as we just went to Margaritaville and ate lunch. Great food and drinks but VERY expensive. Grand Cayman was kind of a bust. It was cold and rainy but since we had book an excursion through the ship (stingrays and turtle land and sea adventure) we still went. It was a long day of driving around to “Hell” And a rum factory (rum factory was not in the tour) and then we finally Got to the turtle farm. We felt rushed through the turtle farm and only help a turtle for 30 seconds before moving on. The stingrays where also a disappointment. We had don’t the Stingrays 6 years earlier and there were thousands of stingrays in the water to the point you had to not pick up your feet to not step on them. This time there were about 15 boats of people and 6 stingrays. The guide had to catch the stingrays and it again was a quick picture and you’re done. The pictures then cost $50 to have them emailed to you if you wanted. Great Strip Cay A nice day but very very hard to get a chair. We got off the bat at 11pm and never did get a beach chair and needed up sitting at the Bacardi bar the whole day. It’s a nice island and I look forward to seeing what they have done with it in a few years. Tendering however took forever and two of four stops (here and grand Cayman were tender ports) is a lot of waiting for a tender. Nassau We did the Atlantis Aquqventure. Very neat place to see but very expensive for what it is. For younger kids (y’all enough to ride the rides but young enough to still be scared and enjoy the park) would enjoy this a lot. For two college kids it was a lot of waiting and a very expensive day for what it was. The “Lazy River” was the highlight of this park. It is very cool but not very lazy. The Crew Members: 5 stars Very great staff. While the ports were not the most fun they always had water, popsicles, cold wet hand towelettes and a great welcome back for us and it was really a nice touch I have noticed the other cruise lines are lacking. They were also HUGE on clean hands. “Washy washy wash your hands wash you had wash your hand washy washy wash your hands” will forever be in my mind in a good way. Sinks are found around the buffet area as well as a crew member ready to squirt your hands clean. The Shows: 1.5 Stars We attended the comedy club multiple nights, the supper club, the midnight show and the Brat Pack. The comedy club was good but if you saw the same comedian twice you will see mostly repeat material. The supper club was terrible. The food was okay at best and the show was boring. The Midnight Show was great until about 30 minuets in when there was a obvious lack of plot and the songs all started to sound the same. We left 60 minuets into the show and t showed no signs of ending anytime soon. The Brat Pack was better in that it had somewhat a plot and the performances were entertaining with more dancing. The cruise overall was 3 stars. Had some amazing things and some things that could be improved.

Just got off the New Year 2019 Cruise on the Vista. I’m going to do as detailed as a review as I can so I’m going to section it off so you all can read details where you want. I am also going to give a 1-5 star rating on each section. Dinning 4 Stars Most of the food on the ship was great! Nothing was absolutely amazing but having been in multiple cruise lines I think it was on par if not slightly above the last few I have been on. We ate in the Dinning room most nights and every night there were at least one or two items we wanted all wanted to try and most items were delicious. We also did the steakhouse on NYE. It was good. Not fabulous. It was slow service compared to JiJis or the dining room. The food was good but just good not great. JiJis was also good not great. Some things were absolutely amazing and some were meh. Lastly the buffet. I found it pretty terrible for a carnival cruise. There were four different lines but they all had the same 5-6 dishes and most of the time they were not good. So overall the food was great but was lacking in Some areas. Entertainment 5 Stars We went to the Playlist show and it was so much fun! We were singing along and just having a great time. We also went to most of the comedy shows and enjoyed them all. We never sat second floor in the liquid lounge but did see that weird blue glass up there. We sat in the middle and edges in the liquid first floor and never had a problem seeing. The comedy club in the limelight lounge seating was 50/50. Sitting in the middle was great but if you go to far to the edges on the sides you can not see the stage and you end up watching the screens provided instead. Nightlife 2 Stars The night club sucked. Being a young 20 year old that is something I look forward to. They turn the limelight lounge into the night club and the bar is slow. There also was never more than 20 people dancing at a time and then you had people just sitting around the edges watching. It was odd. I also didn’t find the DJ to be more than a guy just playing the music. The Casino is where I spent most of my time after 11:30pm because that’s when everything else around the ship pretty much ends. Staff 5+ Stars The staff was absolutely amazing. Day one we met a waiter on the back of the ship Named Rachel. She would see us anywhere from the pool deck to the comedy clubs to the shows and always gave us outstanding service. We absolutely loved her! Our dining room staff (enter names) were fantastic. We had a big group and they also had us served in a timely manner. They would go out of their way for extra items and even would bring us the extra appetizers to try. Lastly the Dealers in the casino. I had two that stuck in my head. I played Blackjack and Roulette with them both. Paolo from Peru was funny and so friendly. He would say hi to me when I was just walking by and try and get me to play the table. I would then find him up getting pizza before going to bed and he also made sure to say hi. Dennis was also amazing. He would mess with me and make fun of my mistakes (which were often in blackjack as I was learning). He then make Roulette so much fun the last night I went and got more money to play the table longer with him. (Both of them took lots of my money so yes they do their job well and I need to learn to gamble better). Room Steward 1 Star I separated this out from the staff because this was the only staff we didn’t like. To start day one out beds were together. No biggie we talked to guest service and they said it would be fixed that night. It wasn’t. Again not a huge deal. We left to room with 3 notes. Once for the beds to be separated, one for ice to be left and a third with a tip on it. We came back that evening to get ready for dinner and the room had not been touched. So we had no clean towels to get ready for formal night and our beds were still together. We had to go down the hall for towels and call the head of guest services to get the room cleaned that night. The whole week we never had enough towels. Even when we asked for me. Is it now the new normal on carnival to only come once a day? It’s been a few years since my last carnival cruise but I removed them coming twice a day like on the other cruise lines. Embarking/Disembarking 4 Stars Getting in the first day was great we didn’t ever have a weight. Getting off the last days was obnoxious. You waiting forever to get on an elevator when your floor was finally called and then you waited for about another 20 Minuets before you even got off the ship. The wait was not what bothers me most. It was being In wall to people. It was not exaggerated that the one of the few on this cruise that you realized how many people were on that ship was during disembarkation. Jamaica 4 Stars We did the bamboo raft excursion and it was a fun relaxing experience. It was neat to see Jamaica from that view. The bus ride was only about 20 minuets each way and the tour guide was great. Would definitely suggest this tour. It was also interesting in this port that we were late getting in. So the long tours (Dunn’s river falls) were all late returning. The ship waited no problem however it was freaky for those on those tours traveling because they were driving around Jamaica in the dark with police escorts apparently not stopping at stop signs, lights and speeding on busses so they didn’t enjoy that part much. Grand Cayman 2 Stars The port it’s self was nice. We did the Stingrays and run point beach. Stingrays are a must in this port. However I wish our tour had only been the stingrays. It was a waste of time to go to the beach. We had a little over and hour and since our excursion met super early not many of us ate breakfast. The beach was the first chance for food. We waited for over an hour after ordering and was told it would still be another 20 minuets. They knew when we sat down that there was a group excursion that had pre paid for food that was in front of us in line (even though we were there first) and didn’t ever tell us. We eventually got our money back for our drinks and left because our tour was leaving. It was a waste of time on the beach (that we never got to even enjoy) and a bigger waste of time boating over to the beach and then boating back to the island. Then when returning to the ship Cozumel 5 Stars We did Mr. Sancho’s and it was awesome. Great food, great service and just a fun atmosphere. We enjoyed it so much we came home and made reservations for them on our next cruise in March.