Carnival Vista Review/thoughts - Southern 8 day - July 1st

The Serenity Area has Mens and Womens Restrooms outdoors but no showers or saunas. If you mean does the Spa area have those facilities, the answer is yes;however, the Locker Rooms are shared by all, meaning there are no Locker Rooms dedicated to the Thermal Spa area. There are separate Mens and Womens Locker Rooms that have Lockers with self selecting combo locks; 2 individual showers -a small one and a larger handicapped one. The Men's side had a small toilet stall and a much larger handicapped toilet stall and a small sink/lavatory . And last a small dry sauna. These Locker Rooms are available for anyone to use, whether or not you paid for the Thermal Spa.

I didn't really use the Serenity area so someone else can prob answer this better then I can. I didn't see any changing rooms I am sure there is a bathroom close by. I didn't see any showers or saunas

 

 

 

 

You can check out the link below

 

https://johnhealdsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ED.CD-Schedule-5.3.pdf

Great review! I was also on this cruise and just wanted to add a couple of my own thoughts.

I had a great cruise and it is indeed a great ship! Just several bullet points

• There are two new menus;The Deli at the buffet area and Port day Breakfast at the Dining Room. I have made separate post about this in this forum.
  
• The theater is indeed TERRIBLE and just so you know, if you are on the upper deck, there is NO SEAT that you can find that doesn't require you to look through the glass barriers/railings. It's annoying and forces one to wait in line to get a seat on the main floor.
  
• Serenity Area: My only problem with this space is the way it is constructed the sea breeze doesn't get there so sunning there gets real HOT! This is the 2nd time I've been on the ship, and it was that way both trips. Others have remarked the same too.
  
• My only other complaint has to do with the Fitness Area. I am a seasoned cruiser and have been on many other cruiselines, but this is the ONLY SHIP where passengers have to compete with employees for gym space. As I have previously said this is my second time on the ship, and on both trips when I went to use the gym in the afternoons I had to WAIT for employees to finish using the weights and machines. That should NEVER be the case!
  

Great review! I was also on this cruise and just wanted to add a couple of my own thoughts.

I had a great cruise and it is indeed a great ship! Just several bullet points

• There are two new menus;The Deli at the buffet area and Port day Breakfast at the Dining Room. I have made separate post about this in this forum.
  
• The theater is indeed TERRIBLE and just so you know, if you are on the upper deck, there is NO SEAT that you can find that doesn't require you to look through the glass barriers/railings. It's annoying and forces one to wait in line to get a seat on the main floor.
  
• Serenity Area: My only problem with this space is the way it is constructed the sea breeze doesn't get there so sunning there gets real HOT! This is the 2nd time I've been on the ship, and it was that way both trips. Others have remarked the same too.
  
• My only other complaint has to do with the Fitness Area. I am a seasoned cruiser and have been on many other cruiselines, but this is the ONLY SHIP where passengers have to compete with employees for gym space. As I have previously said this is my second time on the ship, and on both trips when I went to use the gym in the afternoons I had to WAIT for employees to finish using the weights and machines. That should NEVER be the case!
  

Do you have a photo of the new MDR breakfast menu?

Do you have a photo of the new MDR breakfast menu?

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

Thank you kwokpot. The reason for my curiosity is that I found that the showers in RCCL's adult only area were bigger than the cabin showers and much easier to shave my legs in, so I would bring my toiletries to those showers at the end of the day. I also liked sitting in the dry saunas every once in a while. I am happy to know where to find them on the Vista.

Sent from my SM-T810 using Forums mobile app

I didn't ever use the hot tubs since I have one at home so I don't know the exact number. In general though It seemed like it was a little less then a normal ship. I don't remember seeing any on deck 5 which had a ton of wasted space with chairs that nobody ever used. I believe all the hot tubs was on deck 10. I will go through my pics and see if I can find any pics of hot tubs.

I love the open spaces/chairs on deck 5, used them a lot. During the day it's quiet and you have a lovely view. Not wasted space at all.

I love the open spaces/chairs on deck 5, used them a lot. During the day it's quiet and you have a lovely view. Not wasted space at all.

I thought they could have cut back on the amount of chairs they had around deck 5 and added something else. For me personally they wasn't a reason to ever go outside in deck 5 other then to eat guys BBQ. In general I thought they was to many chairs and stuff that was out of the sun (counting upper decks) to each is its own though.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Great review! I was also on this cruise and just wanted to add a couple of my own thoughts.

 

I had a great cruise and it is indeed a great ship! Just several bullet points

 

• 
   
  
• There are two new menus;The Deli at the buffet area and Port day Breakfast at the Dining Room. I have made separate post about this in this forum.
   
  
• The theater is indeed TERRIBLE and just so you know, if you are on the upper deck, there is NO SEAT that you can find that doesn't require you to look through the glass barriers/railings. It's annoying and forces one to wait in line to get a seat on the main floor.
   
  
• Serenity Area: My only problem with this space is the way it is constructed the sea breeze doesn't get there so sunning there gets real HOT! This is the 2nd time I've been on the ship, and it was that way both trips. Others have remarked the same too.
   
  
• My only other complaint has to do with the Fitness Area. I am a seasoned cruiser and have been on many other cruiselines, but this is the ONLY SHIP where passengers have to compete with employees for gym space. As I have previously said this is my second time on the ship, and on both trips when I went to use the gym in the afternoons I had to WAIT for employees to finish using the weights and machines. That should NEVER be the case!
   
  

Thanks for adding your thoughts I didn't use the gym or serenity so I couldn't really speak on them. I know someone with us was complaining about the gym not being open longer.

Yea I walked up to the 2nd deck for like 10 second and was like this is awful and walked back down to never try it again

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you for your great review!

Thanks for your review. I begin reading it before my July 15th 8-day cruise on the Vista. I'm just off the ship and I have to say I love it. It's a gorgeous ship and it does not feel crowded despite the large number of guests. I had heard the praise of Matt the CD and thought, how much of a difference can a CD make... well, now I know. Matt is awesome- he's the life of the ship. My whole group loved him. I second your praise of No No, she was wonderful also. I loved the spaces, loved the extra non-lido lunch options. We enjoyed the Imax theatre. The dining room staff are wonderful. I feel Carnival is putting too much on the cabin stewards and we all miss the twice daily room cleanings. I plan to comment on that to Carnival. The room stewards seem stressed out with the extra workload. I liked the new paid room service options and deliveries were very speedy. We enjoyed the green eggs and ham breakfast. I did purchase the spa pass even though it was not as great as the spa on the breeze, I enjoyed it, but might not purchase again unless I was super stressed like this time. The spa does not handle crowds as well as the rest of the ship, but by later in the week it was pretty empty- early on it was packed. The gym did not seem huge but I was able to get a treadmill in the am on the first sea day, unfortunately I never made it back. The showers in the spa are not as nice as on the breeze. My toddler loved the water works area and I enjoyed it, too. I did not get to try the kaleidoscope, but the lines weren't too bad. Hopefully next time. There is so much to do, we often had to choose between 2 appealing activities at a given time. My group, wide range in ages, loved the dive in movies and the comedians.

My group unanimously would sail the Vista again. 8 days was not enough time to fully enjoy it.

Thank you for the awesome review!

Awesome review Georgiafan! Did you do an excursion in Curaco?

I forgot to bring my computer home from work so I'll finish up this review tomorrow and get caught up on comments as I don't have much left to say.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you for the awesome review!

Thank you for your great review!

Thanks for the nice words and I feel special that its over 11,000 views for my first ever review

Is Guys Pig & Anchor open on 1st boarding day or just on sea days?

Is Guys Pig & Anchor open on 1st boarding day or just on sea days?

Yes it is open embarkation day.

Is Guys Pig & Anchor open on 1st boarding day or just on sea days?

It IS OPEN on Embarkation Day!

Thank you :)

Thanks for your review. I begin reading it before my July 15th 8-day cruise on the Vista. I'm just off the ship and I have to say I love it. It's a gorgeous ship and it does not feel crowded despite the large number of guests. I had heard the praise of Matt the CD and thought, how much of a difference can a CD make... well, now I know. Matt is awesome- he's the life of the ship. My whole group loved him. I second your praise of No No, she was wonderful also. I loved the spaces, loved the extra non-lido lunch options. We enjoyed the Imax theatre. The dining room staff are wonderful. I feel Carnival is putting too much on the cabin stewards and we all miss the twice daily room cleanings. I plan to comment on that to Carnival. The room stewards seem stressed out with the extra workload. I liked the new paid room service options and deliveries were very speedy. We enjoyed the green eggs and ham breakfast. I did purchase the spa pass even though it was not as great as the spa on the breeze, I enjoyed it, but might not purchase again unless I was super stressed like this time. The spa does not handle crowds as well as the rest of the ship, but by later in the week it was pretty empty- early on it was packed. The gym did not seem huge but I was able to get a treadmill in the am on the first sea day, unfortunately I never made it back. The showers in the spa are not as nice as on the breeze. My toddler loved the water works area and I enjoyed it, too. I did not get to try the kaleidoscope, but the lines weren't too bad. Hopefully next time. There is so much to do, we often had to choose between 2 appealing activities at a given time. My group, wide range in ages, loved the dive in movies and the comedians.

 

My group unanimously would sail the Vista again. 8 days was not enough time to fully enjoy it.

I agree with everything you said between the CD, options for breakfast / lunch and activities on the ship even with 8 days still wasn't really time to adequately do everything. I never use the spa so its good to hear feedback on that. There is no doubt having a CD makes a huge difference they was always stuff to at night and during the day.

Thank you for the awesome review!

Yes I went Stand Up paddling boarding at SUP curacao I will try and get that up before I leave work if not you can check them out on facebook or they have a website. It was a good deal only 60$ including travel

Some people will say the liquid lounge is the worst thing about the Vista to me its something different and that is the ship being under staffed. I am not sure exactly how many staff is on the ship I believe a t-shirt said 1,200 range. If that's close then 200 - 400 more staff members need to be hired and divided up between cabin stewards, bartenders and wait staff.

Once in the red frog bar when leaving a port they had one bartender and pretty much always the bartenders would be playing catch up. As I mentioned early another thing that slows the bartenders down is having to scan and run the card when you get a free coke. I know why they are doing that, but if they remove that step along it might be enough to not need to hire anymore bartenders. The cabin steward for my mom was cleaning 32 rooms. They go around the first day and ask if you want your room cleaned and morning or night and my answer was both. The next day he only cleaned it in the morning which could have been a honest mistake with my southern accent and my guy from the Philippians. So I just left a few notes the next day and saying I wanted it cleaned both times and he did it without a problem. The wait staff for having so many tables did a great job just like the bartenders would always be playing catch up. If your looking to make small talk with any of the staff its something that none of them have time to do. It's problems like this that's very frustrating because its a very easy problem to fix

This clearly isn't a problem of the staff and its carnival fault for cutting back and trying to save $. They desperately need to add more staff and it would go a long way.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Vista. I have done YTD and always seem to have the same wait staff unless we requested a different dining area. Sorry that didn't happen for you.

I went with another 3rd party excursion in Curacao and it was a very good deal 60$ for around 2 hours SUP and that included transportation. I did this before closer to home and this one was much tougher then it was the first time I did it. The guides said it was peak wind season so having to stay close to the mango trees at first made it tricky. Unlike the people in Aruba the guides was all very helpful even when one person in our group was struggling to figure it out. They also took lots of pictures and shared them on there Facebook page for free. We also stopped and gave everyone water and a snack and let everyone rest while she told us about the area. I would definitely recommend this for anyone that's looking to do something adventurous and for 60$ its a great deal. I did the easy course and it was the right decision as they also offer a harder one. The way back it was more just paddling straight so it got to be easier. We had someone that just wanted to come along and stay on the shore and it was 12$.

After that ended we did some looking at shops around town and bought some souvenirs. The straw market stuff had the same exact souvenirs as Aruba and they had some more high end shops as well. I ended up getting some of fancy gel pillows at the Bamboo store they haven't arrived yet, but are suppose to be here next week. If you have never been to Curacao its a nice well developed place so lots of things to see and do.

http://supcuracao.com/ they are also on facebook at SUP curacao

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Vista. I have done YTD and always seem to have the same wait staff unless we requested a different dining area. Sorry that didn't happen for you.

I do prefer the same waiters like I said but all of the wait staff we had did a very good job so it wasn't a issue. In the past we have requested someone and its not been a problem.

Thanks for your review. I begin reading it before my July 15th 8-day cruise on the Vista. I'm just off the ship and I have to say I love it. It's a gorgeous ship and it does not feel crowded despite the large number of guests. I had heard the praise of Matt the CD and thought, how much of a difference can a CD make... well, now I know. Matt is awesome- he's the life of the ship. My whole group loved him. I second your praise of No No, she was wonderful also. I loved the spaces, loved the extra non-lido lunch options. We enjoyed the Imax theatre. The dining room staff are wonderful. I feel Carnival is putting too much on the cabin stewards and we all miss the twice daily room cleanings. I plan to comment on that to Carnival. The room stewards seem stressed out with the extra workload. I liked the new paid room service options and deliveries were very speedy. We enjoyed the green eggs and ham breakfast. I did purchase the spa pass even though it was not as great as the spa on the breeze, I enjoyed it, but might not purchase again unless I was super stressed like this time. The spa does not handle crowds as well as the rest of the ship, but by later in the week it was pretty empty- early on it was packed. The gym did not seem huge but I was able to get a treadmill in the am on the first sea day, unfortunately I never made it back. The showers in the spa are not as nice as on the breeze. My toddler loved the water works area and I enjoyed it, too. I did not get to try the kaleidoscope, but the lines weren't too bad. Hopefully next time. There is so much to do, we often had to choose between 2 appealing activities at a given time. My group, wide range in ages, loved the dive in movies and the comedians.

 

My group unanimously would sail the Vista again. 8 days was not enough time to fully enjoy it.

I forgot to mention that I am glad you liked nono as well I'm glad to see everyone like her as much as we did.

1.S kyride

2. Waterslide

3. Flick production show

4. Rock Production show

5. Sky Fitness Outdoors (gym beside sports deck)

6. Sky Billiards (soccer/pool)

7. Mini Golf (9 holes, on 2 decks)

8. Ropes Course

9. Billiards / Corn hole / Foosball / Shuffleboard (outside)

10. Anything hosted by Matt Mitchum or Nono

11. Havana Pool area (after 7pm only)

12. Twister outside

13. Violinist in main lobby

14. Comedy Shows

15. LipSynch Battle

* These are not in any order

* I can email these to anyone if I need to as I have them in word

*updated after I got off the ship

Is the Lip Sync Battle on more than one day? We enjoy watching it on TV. :)