Rosethorn40

To OP, what itinerary did your BIL travel? Our Douro River cruise was a little different as the tips had to be paid in cash as opposed by credit card when we settled our bill. It had something to do with how the Portuguese government taxes tips. If it was a situation like that maybe the cruise director mentioned it to ensure those that wished, could have the opportunity to get cash from an ATM.

Or maybe the cruise before had a large number of non-tippers, and the CD was trying to make up for it.

On the Vista a few weeks ago we did not take our life jackets to Muster Drill, nor did we stand in the hot sun packed like sardines. We went to a dining room where our sign & sail card was scanned to ensure we had attended. Maybe they are phasing standing in the sun out.

I agree with others that comparing a 4-day Carnival cruise with a Celebrity cruise isn't an apples to apples. Really different demographics. I've only been on one Celebrity cruise (With another booked), and really enjoyed it, but I have also enjoyed my five Carnival cruises as well.

You may want to look into Super Shuttle. I know they offer service from Reagan National Airport to BWI and surrounding areas. They may offer service from the cruise port to the DC area. I was quoted $55 for 2 from National to BWI.

did you tell your waiters? they would have bought out a candle in his dessert

 

NEVER ever leave it up to others to just know its a special occasion just because you put it on the booking. Most people will not even see your booking

It was the night we did the Chef's Table and it was in the notes because the maître 'd commented on it when I confirmed our reservation. Its not a big deal (Didn't ruin my cruise or anything), but I've never had to say anything before (Carnival or other lines) when celebrating a special occasion at sea, and they did give us a special dessert on our anniversary without us saying anything.

Thanks for your review!

Do you know if you can go to JiJi's and grab a drink at the bar? I don't know that I'll make it there for dinner, but I'm intrigued about this Bali Sunset....

I didn't see a bar because we were seated so close to the entrance, but it must have been near by because the drinks came fast. I would guess the rum bar could fix it as well.

opened on sea days only? what about the embarkation day?

 

I would go here instead of the JiJi for lunch on the day we get on

Yes, it was opened the day we embarked.

Spot on. We were at Chalonne sur Saone but Lyon would be better.

 

Photos

 

 

We hit Arles on May Day, hence the populace dressed up.

Thank you for sharing your photos of your trip to Southern France. Its my turn this November (with a 3-day Paris extension) and I am so looking forward to it.

Enjoyed reading your review. Our first Viking cruise was on the Odin (Danube-Christmas Markets 2014) and we were very pleased with the Viking product. We took another last year, and I just made final payment yesterday on our third.

Glad you had an enjoyable trip.

Can't wait to see that table. A 12 top is the largest I've seen on Carnival so far.

I see I'm not the only one that found "that" table memorable. I took a picture of it because I had never seen a table that big on a ship. The lack of a tablecloth did not ruin my cruise, and I don't think it smacks of "High School Cafeteria", or at least not any high school I went to. But then I didn't attend school in Greenwich, CT

We didn't go to any shows, or the Piano Bar (Always meant to, but we are getting old, and seem to turn into pumpkins by 9:00 PM).

I didn't think the elevators were as bad as some have stated. Yes, its true that when you pushed a button an open, empty elevator didn't immediately appear, but we never had that long of a wait. Compare that to the Royal Princess in which you may have to wait for several elevators to come to the deck you were on before you could actually get on one, and then they stopped at Every.Single.Deck.

Overall I thought the service was good. Were there a few times I thought it could be better? Probably, but again, one needs perspective. If you worked 7 days a week, 12+ hours a day, would you be "on" for every single minute. If you are truthful the answer would be no. Five years from now I won't remember the service, heck, I'll be so old by then I probably won't remember anything.

So, did I like the Vista? Short answer is yes, I thought it* a beautiful ship, with lots of options for activities and food, in fact so many, there were parts of the ship we never saw (Like deck 4). Would I sail on her again? Probably, but only if we had a Havana cabin on deck 5. I would also try to pick a week without so many kids. Was this my all-time favorite cruise? No, but it was far from my least favorite cruise either.

That's it, all I have to say (At least for this year). Happy sailings and a Happy New Year to all.

On our last day we went to Cherry on Top, as I wanted to get my husband a birthday sundae. It was very busy (About 4:30 pm). I guess people needed their candy fix. The line moved very slowly, but finally we got our sundaes. They were $2.50 for a small, or $3.50 for a large. Fee free softserve was available on the lido.

I was a little disappointed that while we got a special dessert on our anniversary, There was no recognition of any kind (Special dessert, a note, nada) for husband's 60th birthday, and this was the main purpose of the trip.

Next up: Final thoughts and Wrapping Up

I would keep trying - They actually had 3 tables during our cruise. They had initially only planned 2, but because of demand, they added the 3rd, so get on the waitlist if nothing else.

 

They still had the old menus.

 

We started out with the 4 appetizers in the galley before moving to a little side room off the Black Pearl Dining Room for dinner. Then it was course after course, and by the time we got the the Wygu beef, it was just a sample, because we couldn't finish it.

 

They said it would probably be at least 3-4 more months of testing on the breeze before the new menu make it to the Splendor, and now with it leaving the Carnival fleet, they may not change it at all. So if you enjoyed the old menu, you can probably still get it on the Splendor, at least for the time being.

Does each ship have its own Chef's Table menu? We just got off the Vista and we had; Pea Soup, Pork Belly, Lamb, Sea Bass, Quail, veal, a light citrus dessert, followed by a chocolate desert.

There was one more area of the ship I particularly liked, and that was the library. There is a bar there, but I never saw it*opened. What I did like about it was the two chess tables set up for playing. My husband is very good. Me, not so much, but I gamely played several games with my him, losing every single time (But I did get a few "That was a surprisingly good move" or "Now you're annoying me"). Fortunately there were some decent chess players on board, and my husband did manage a few games with worthy competitors.*He still won, but at least they gave him a run. I was gratified by the number of young people I saw playing chess as well. They also had tables for board games and cards, and I saw a number of families taking advantage of the facility.

Outside of the library, on the lanai (Deck 5) there were some nice padded loungers, perfect for reading a book.

The lanai area had several nice areas for relaxing, and looking upon sea views, including one for smokers, and the other side, smoker free.

My favorite place to get a drink was the Rum Bar on deck 11, by the main pool. My favorite drink from there was the Beachcomber. Very potent.

Husband like the Stout in the Red Frog Pub.

Hi there,

I'm enjoying your review. I'll be on the vista in a week or so. Can you tell me what's in the Bali sunset? I also wonder if the havanna bar has a drink menu of items not normally served at the other bars. Thanks

Yes they do. I tried a Cuban Ice Team (Long island tea, only a bigger focus on rum).

Thanks for your informative review! I will be on the Vista on March so am getting really excited and reading all the reviews I can!

 

I always buy the thermal suite pass on board (I don't recall it ever being available ahead of time online in the past) but it seems that buying it ahead of time gives you a little discount? This time I'll just be buying it for myself as my niece isn't old enough yet. $109 for 6 days sounds like a pretty good price!

Do buy it ahead of time, as it will save you some money. If you sign on to the Carnival web site, and go under manage my cruise, look under the spa options. For us I had to go to page 8 (The last page). I saw it listed only as a couple's pass months ahead of time, then it disappeared for a while, came back as a couple's pass, and finally, about a week before we sailed I saw single passes available.

Have a great cruise!

Can I ask what was so bad?

Here's the Gist of it

Just got off the Vista 17-24. Overall rating a C.

Piano Bar was excellent

Alchemy Bar was excellent

Guys Burgers was the highlight of the meals......

Ship itself was very pretty, but poorly designed.

4000 passengers travelling:

2 guys making pizza (was awesome) but needed more capacity there, or a few more guys.

Front desk (waited over an hour on the first day to correct the mess they made with our cards) need more than 3 or 4 ppl working guest services with 4000 passengers.

Service in all the restaurants was sub par. If you give someone a baked potato at dinner, they shouldn't have to wait 15 mins for sour cream......

They must have gotten a good deal on Braised short ribs because they were served 3x in the dining room, and in the meat lasagna

It looks like they had a bad crew and things didn't work smoothly. I had a good time, but probably won't cruise Carnival again and def not Vista. Too many passengers and the amenities did not scale with the amount of cabins.

This was our 6th or 7th cruise with Carnival.....

Hi there,

I'm enjoying your review. I'll be on the vista in a week or so. Can you tell me what's in the Bali sunset? I also wonder in the havanna bar has a drink menu of items not normally served at the other bars. Thanks

Bacardi limon, orange & pineapple juice, grenadine. Sometimes the simplest of ingredients have the best taste.

Below is a link to the bar menu for JiJi's. If we had gone back I would have tried the sangria.

https://www.carnival.com/~/media/Images/explore/dining/menus/ji-ji-asian-bar-menu.pdf

How was the service at JiJi? how long did it take? Also did you go to Cucina? if so how was it there and how long did it take? Thanks

Service at JiJi's was excellent. I don't remember how long we were there, but we didn't wait long for food (Its cooked right there). After two Bali Sunsets I wasn't remembering much :)

We didn't go to Cucina for dinner, but did go twice at lunch and the service was good. Lunch was served quickly, we were in/out in less than 45 minutes. Again, the food is prepared at a nearby kitchen, not the main kitchen on deck 3

Because we spent days relaxing in the Havana Area and evenings in the Thermal Suite, and in-between eating, there wasn't too much time for other activities. I had wanted to try the IMAX, but being the only person in the world that doesn't watch Harry Potter world movies, I had no desire to watch "Fantastic Beasts......" and husband didn't want to see "Dr. Strange"

The last night the Dive-In movie was "Finding Dory" and husband was okay with us (okay really just me, he napped) watching it. The other movie that night was "The Secret Life of Pets" Other movies shown were fairly recent, which was an improvement over our cruise 3 years ago on the Magic when they showed "Forrest Gump," "Sweet Home Alabama" and other older movies that had been shown on TBS for years.

We went up to the sky ride a couple of times, but it always seemed to be closed. The hours were posted at 9-4:30 on sea days, and 11-4:30 on port days.

But my favorite thing to do was trivia, and they offered it a lot. Usually in the Ocean Plaza (Deck 5 aft). I was getting my Ship on a Stick, just needed the right categories.*Several days into the cruise husband and I finally won a coveted trophy in Decades. Husband was satisfied, but I kept going back*if the*category was right. Lost in Broadway, but won in another Decades game, History (Gave my trophy to the runner up because I was impressed he went toe to toe with me, and came oh so close, and was half my age), and tied with a perfect score of 20 with three other teams on the final day in Movie Quotes. Trivia was usually hosted by Fluffy, and she is loads of fun.

There were other games besides trivia in the Ocean Plaza, so there are lots of opportunities to win a worthless piece of plastic, currently holding court with our trophy from the Magic (Musicals), and my medal from trivia on our Celebrity cruise on the bookcase. *

Fluffy, a member of the entertainment staff

Look at him grinning, like he actually knew any of the answers

Breakfast was served in the buffet every day of course, but of course its usually a mad house up there. Seated breakfast was offered in the Horizons Restaurant between 7:30-9:30, but except one breakfast in the lido buffet we ate every morning at*The Taste Bar. The Fun Times state its a Continental Breakfast, but its so much more. Yes, they offer wheat and white bread for toasting, and croissants as well as banana bread. But they also have scrambled eggs, hard-boiled eggs, bacon and sausage. Fruit, cottage cheese, cereal (Cold & Oatmeal), and even baked beans. You can get either apple or orange juice as well. And best of all it was on deck 5 aft, just off the Ocean Plaza. Never crowded, we could just walk up and serve ourselves.

The Horizon's restaurant was opened on sea days only for lunch from 12:00-1:30

We had Anytime Dining, but never used it. As its been widely reported, one has to get in line on deck 5 to get a table assignment for the 2-story anytime restaurant, and then go to deck 3 (or 4?) at the appointed time to actually get in. We heard of people having to wait an hour for a table, which is not how anyone wants anytime to work. I think the problem was too many people wanted dinner between 6:30-7:30, and with being at full capacity that just wasn't possible. People told me if the went at 5:30 there was no wait, and the line on deck 5 would dissipate at about 8:00. If you are on a sailing with a lot of kids (Families are going to want the earlier times because of the little ones), and you can be flexible, save yourself the aggravation and go later.

And finally (As far as food is concerned) pizza. I have to put in my two cents about pizza. I just don't understand all the angst about pizza. Yes, there were usually lines and waits for pizza. But you need to have a little perspective; there were 1200+ kids on board, kids love pizza, kids eat a lot of pizza, and quite frankly, wasted a lot of pizza. The pizza area could have been twice as large and they couldn't have kept up with demand. The pizza isn't even that good. We all have a place on land that we feel makes the BEST pizza in the world, Carnival's can't even come close. So why, would you waste precious vacation time waiting in line for something that wasn't even that good, when there were other choices to keep from "Starving" to death? My husband witnessed something that was probably a fairly common occurrence; There is a line, waiting for the precious pizza to come out of the oven, suddenly a group of teens come by and spy a friend waiting in line and "join" him/her, and the poor person who thought they were second in line finds himself 8th or 9th. He protests, words are exchanged. Security shows up and make the kids go to the back of the line, but warn the man if he doesn't calm down he could be kicked off the ship. Man did calm down and get his pizza, but it probably didn't taste that good after that. Off soapbox now.

if we wanted a 3rd course could we have it? there is 2 of us and we share but there is like 3 entrees we like

I don't know for sure, but I don't think it would be a problem. The steakhouse menu clearly states that additional entrees may have an additional charge. I don't recall seeing that on JiJi's menu.

After I knew what day our Chef's Table reservations were for I made reservations for JiJi's Asian Kitchen. This was my favorite dinner of the cruise. The food is served family style, and since it was just the two of us the suggestion was for 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and 2 sides to share. *We had as appetizers the duck and chicken spring rolls, and for entrees the peppered beef and stock pig. Sides were fried rice and Chinese Broccoli*with Ginger.*To drink we both had a Bali Sunset, which I enjoyed so much I ordered a second (That's rare for me).

Service was excellent and I wish we had eaten there a second time.

Cost: $15pp plus cost of cocktails

Grade: A+

[b]Chicken Spring Rolls)[/b]

The Duck-The "Nests" were very good as well

Bali Sunset-Favorite drink on trip

The Chef's Table to me is all about style, a performance art with the canvas being food, and one using their taste buds, as well as their eyes to experience. I can't see anyone trying to duplicate any of the recipes at home.

The first course was pea soup and I was so taken with the presentation that I forgot to take a photo. I actually liked the soup very much, even if I could taste the peas. The soup was followed by the Pork Belly that tasted fine, but wasn't any different from the Pork Belly I had tried a year earlier in Portugal. That was followed by lamb, perfectly cooked and delicious, and Sea Bass in a light, delicate sauce. My favorite dish was next; quail breast on mushroom risotto. Our last savory dish was veal, which was tasty, but all I could think of while chowing down was that I was eating a baby calf with big brown eyes. Finally we had two desserts. The first was a Citrus Crème that everyone seemed to enjoy, followed by a chocolate*dish the looked wonderful, but wasn't to my taste.

Dinner, from start to finish took 3-hours. That is because there were breaks between courses to tour some of the kitchen (Very interesting) and watch a presentation by the pastry chef on how the Chocolate Melting Cake is made.

It's been a week, and I still don't know what I thought of it. On one hand it was fascinating and I learned some things about the workings of a kitchen that needs to feed thousands. The food was good (for the most part), but for big appetites like my husband it may not be enough food. The service was on another level from any restaurant I've ever been to. But the length of time, and the cost makes it a once and done for us.

Cost: $75 when I booked, price has increased to $95 (They honored the $75 for us)

Grade: Service A+, Presentation A+, Food A-, Value B

Pork Belly

Lamb

Sea Bass

Quail

For years now I've been reading posts from people on the Carnival boards, and other cruise lines that offer it, the fantastic experiences they have had at a Chef's Table. Having never tried it before I was excited about the opportunity to do it on a ship, that had a special venue just for it. As I mentioned in an earlier post*I had reserved our spots 10-months earlier, and when I got on board it appeared that our reservation had been lost, but miraculously*found when the Maitre d' was faced with my confirmation. At the appointed time (In our case 6:30), we went to the Atrium Lobby on deck 3 to meet up with the chef. I thought it rather neat that they found all of the participates by our photos (I saw the print out) and gather us up. The Chef came out, introduced himself and escorted us through the dining room to the kitchen.

The first thing we did, was stand around a stainless steel work table and drink Champaign while we ate olives and shaved parmesan cheese. To the left of each person, on a piece of black slate, was the evening's menu, printed on thick cardstock, with your name printed on the top. I have to admit that my heart sank a little when I saw the menu. There is only one food (Other than fried bugs) that I refuse to ever put in my mouth again, and that is green beans. However, I'm willing to give any other meat/fruit/vegetable/grain a first or second chance. I've eaten Haggis for God sake, that's proof I'll give any dish a try. Anyway, the first course was Pea Soup. I just not that found of peas. The next course was Pork Belly (Had it, its okay, but feel its too "trendy"), then came lamb with something to do with beets. Beets???, again, not a favorite food. However, I wanted to be slightly adventurous, and at least there were no fried spiders, or poached crickets on the menu.

Then the Chef took olives and spun sugar around them; think tiny cotton candy on a stick with*an olive in the middle (Sounds yucky, but it kinda worked).*There were 2 other Hor'dorves before it was off to the special dining area they have, exclusively for the Chef's Table.