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My honest thoughts and ramblings on the 12/11 VISTA cruise.

gapearl

By gapearl,
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gapearl

gapearl

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Hey guys! I’m just off the 12/11 Vista 5 day sailing. I will not be doing a full picture review but I do have a lot of rambling to do. This was my 16th cruise on Carnival and 18th cruise overall and I was solo. My thoughts are always fair and balanced. If I thought something was good I’ll tell you how awesome it was, but if something was awful I’ll tell you that too and won’t hold back. I have both positives and negatives to say about this cruise. Please don’t interpret the negatives as complaints, as they’re not, but I’m simply stating what I experienced on my cruise. I didn’t take any notes so everything is off the top of my head and not really in any kind of order.

 

 

Embarkation was hectic, but I believe this was only the third Vista sailing from Miami. I arrived at the terminal just before 11 and people weren’t being let in. The priority line was maybe 100 deep and it was about 20 minutes before people were let in. Several check in staff I encountered were a bit clueless as if they didn’t have proper training. You don’t receive your keys at check in now, but rather they are placed in your mailbox outside of your door. It was about an hour total for me, but many people that weren’t priority spoke of it taking them 3 hours to get on the ship.

 

 

My first impression was that the atrium was small. Beautiful, but SMALL. There was a violin duo that played in the evenings for added ambiance. They played some pop hits and I enjoyed listening to them in passing.

 

 

I had a 1A porthole. My stateroom was spacious, but there did seem to be less storage space- drawers, shelving, and I think there was one less closet too. My cabin steward was awesome, very friendly and efficient. He gave my room both morning and evening service without asking if I wanted one or the other.

 

 

I was in the Reflections Dining Room for the 8:15 pm seating and was pleasantly surprised to see Michelle, my favorite waitress ever from my Magic cruise last year, arrive at my table. She remembered me being there with my family for my birthday. This was her first cruise back from vacation and first day on the Vista. I noticed she had two 10 tops, an 8 top, and a two top. I don’t know where her assistants were but they weren’t noticeable the first two nights and I honestly didn’t think she even had any. She poured our water, brought pitchers of lemonade (by request from my tablemates), brought us bread, took our orders, brought out the food, brought condiments, cleared our dirty plates, brought dessert menus and dessert, I mean she literally did it all. Dinner was taking 2 hours because she appeared to be doing everything on her own for 30 people on a ship she was unfamiliar with. Her assistants really didn’t show up until maybe day 4 and I still didn’t see them much. Now in their defense I don’t know what they were doing behind the scenes, but all I know is I saw Michelle doing everything. Nights 3 and 5 I ate at early the buffet and came to the MDR for dessert only. I didn’t want another 2 hour dinner and wanted to be out in time for the comedy shows.

 

 

The first night continued on as a bit of a mess. I called room service around 12:45 am. After being on hold for maybe 10 minutes, I was eventually disconnected. When I called back, I couldn’t even get through but just got a busy signal. I called guest services to see if maybe they could put me through and I didn’t get an answer from them either. I got busy signals to room service and guest services for another 10 minutes. Either they just stopped answering altogether or their lines couldn't handle the volume of calls. When I did finally get room service again, it was another 10 minute hold and I gave up after trying for 30 minutes. Many people had the same thing happen to them. People said the pizza line had a 2 hour wait. You basically went hungry the first night if you wanted a late night snack.

 

 

All that being said, all the food I had was delicious. Everything was good and I don’t have one food complaint. Bitter and blanc was available on night 3. The line for Guy’s was almost always long. However I never noticed long lines at the buffet. I think people went for it because it was the most convenient being right out by the pool. The BBQ line moved quickly when I tried it (it’s only open on sea day afternoons). I’m not sure if there was a crowd at JiJi’s or the Italian restaurant since they also have a free lunch. There were many new cruisers and perhaps they didn’t know of all of the many free options.

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gapearl

gapearl

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I bought the full wifi package for $48 and it was fast with a strong signal. Even videos on Facebook seem to load at a decent speed. I was even able to get a signal at the beach directly in front of the ship in Grand Turk.

 

 

The thrill theater was as fun as I remember from the Breeze. I caught Just The Rides on a sea day and it was a cute 15 minute show. Admission for one movie is $5.25. Unfortunately there is no unlimited pass like on the Breeze, where you pay $13 or something and get to watch as many movies as you want all cruise. I didn’t catch the price of the IMAX movies. I remember Dr. Strange was playing but don’t remember what else. They had popcorn and candy for sale before you enter the theater.

 

 

The sky ride looked like fun when it was working. I went up one morning and was told it was closed due to moisture on the track and to come back later in the afternoon. Probably three people from the roll call said that happened to them too but their names were taken and they were able to cut to the front of the line with no waiting when they returned. I was not given this option. Another lady from the roll call said she was in line the last day at 4:20 pm and they closed it down an hour early. It was scheduled to close at 5:30 pm, but because the line was longer than 5:30 they stopped letting people go altogether. I would think they would have at least honored the people that had already been in line for 20-30 minutes and just stopped allowing people to get in line but they didn’t.

 

 

The platinum/diamond party was very well attended. Drinks were free flowing as usual but I didn’t see many trays of appetizers.

 

 

The Liquid Lounge doubled as the nightclub was packed late at night. The DJ’s went a little crazy with the strobe lights. Instead of flashing them for a few seconds, they were flashing them for a minute or longer and did this a lot. Those lights are hard on the eyes, my goodness lol.

 

 

The comedy show lines were I-N-S-A-N-E. The Punchliner was held in the Limelight Lounge, deck 4 aft. You have to get in line and wait to be let in, which is usually about 10 minutes before show time. Also you have to exit after every show. The line would extend all the way through the casino. Think about that. The 20-30 minute line for the comedy show went more than half the length of the ship. When the line started moving, people that had not waited would cut in front of people that had been waiting for 20 minutes. It was crazy. Manny Oliveria is not to be missed and is truly funny. Don’t think you’re safe sitting in the back and not the front row. He picks on everyone in the room lol. :D

 

 

Generally speaking all of the venues seemed to be smaller than on other ships.

 

 

Quest was played one night. I wanted to join a team but the Liquid Lounge was already so packed and there was nowhere to sit by the time I made it in, and there was at least 100 people behind me also trying to get in. I went upstairs and just watched from the balcony. It was hilarious and a lot of fun, but definitely the raunchiest I’ve ever seen. Please don’t bother coming if you’re easily offended. :p

 

 

The casino was one of two smoking areas on the ship. As a nonsmoker, it could be pretty bad when I was in there. I did hit $100 on a slot machine and that went straight to my sail and sign bill.

 

 

Pay attention when calling on an elevator. Some stopped at deck 3. Some stopped at deck 10. If you’re going all the way down or all the way up, make sure you’re pressing the button for the right one.

 

 

Gone are the days of searching for your pictures in a sea of thousands. They don’t print photos, but will ask for your stateroom number before your photo is taken and they are available digitally within a few hours. You can view them with your own device through the Carnival Hub app or view them on one of the ipads in the Pixels gallery. When you see a picture you like, you pick your size and then place your order, and you can also order the digital file for $14.99. I think this is great and long overdue. I do wonder if photo sales will be down since you can screenshot the pictures you like. Yes they will have a watermark, but many won’t care about that. Also I wonder what they do about lost pictures when a photographer enters a wrong room number. I had a family's Grand Turk pictures entered under my number. How would they be able to be viewed by those folks? Is there a system for that?

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gapearl

gapearl

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The Havana Bar had a live band with a dance floor that mostly stayed empty when I was there. I never really saw more than 20 people in here. It’s a shame because they were good. The second night, the band had a break and the Fun Times had that Latin music would be played. The DJ played mostly Latin music, but also played some reggae and the occasional wobble. The party was supposed to be going here until 1 am, yet at 12:30 am he started talking about the last song was coming soon. Huh? My experience has been that the evening venues will stay open if there’s a good crowd. Well this was the one night the Havana Lounge was packed! I can respect the fact that people want to get off work on time and not stay after hours. But if there’s a room and dance floor full of people dancing and having fun, at least close when you’re scheduled to close and not 15 minutes early.

 

 

Matt is truly special and is the most memorable cruise director I will probably ever have. I’ve seen for myself why people love him so much. He has this energy where it’s hard not to smile and have a good time in his presence. His deck parties were crazy fun. I would love to be on another ship with him as cruise director.

 

 

I only had one issue with a crew member. This might be petty, but I thought it was tacky. One late night, I headed up to get some pizza before heading to bed. About 10-15 members of what I assume was the entertainment staff (I assume as not many crew are allowed up here) showed up loud, obnoxious, and a couple were obviously drunk. A couple of guys were in line directly behind me standing THISCLOSE to my backside and their hands kept brushing my rear end. I was polite and turned to them like hey, I don’t know who it is but someone’s hand keeps hitting my behind. Instead of saying sorry my bad, they started laughing loudly and one of them said “I’m gay!” As in I’d never want to touch you. I was like I don’t care if you’re gay, I just want my personal space. They continued laughing and this guy then stood with his back directly to me, as if to taunt me and say eff you. When I moved, he moved, When I shifted, he followed. After a couple minutes of this, I turned to him again and asked why he was doing this on purpose. He opened his mouth but before he could say anything, one of the ladies in his group pulled him aside to her as if to say stop. No I didn’t report him, as I can handle myself with some drunk prick kid. I don’t have an issue with Carnival allowing certain members of their staff into the guest areas, however I do think behavior like this is highly inappropriate.

 

 

The ports of call were Amber Cove, Dominican Republic, and Grand Turk. I booked the 12 waterfalls of Damajagua with Iguana Mama (Google them, this is awesome) in DR. In GT I had lunch at Jack’s Shack and enjoyed some beach time.

 

 

Overall, I had a fun, enjoyable cruise. There are still some kinks that need to be worked out on this ship. The Vista is HUGE and the biggest ship I’ve sailed to date. I’m not sure that I’m a fan of the mega ships and not sure that I would book the Vista again or even the Horizon. It's just so many more people with smaller areas because they tried to cram so much onto this ship. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll be happy to answer if I can. :)

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Fighterone

Fighterone

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Matt is truly special and is the most memorable cruise director I will probably ever have. I’ve seen for myself why people love him so much. He has this energy where it’s hard not to smile and have a good time in his presence. His deck parties were crazy fun. I would love to be on another ship with him as cruise director.

 

Overall, I had a fun, enjoyable cruise. There are still some kinks that need to be worked out on this ship. The Vista is HUGE and the biggest ship I’ve sailed to date. I’m not sure that I’m a fan of the mega ships and not sure that I would book the Vista again or even the Horizon. It's just so many more people with smaller areas because they tried to cram so much onto this ship. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll be happy to answer if I can. :)

 

Thank you for taking the time to post this review, gapearl. It was great meeting you.

Yes, Matt is indeed very special.

As far as the space ratio on this ship, "28", it is indeed the worst of all CCL's ships. We agree, "too much cramming".

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crewsweeper "Live from...." Rare

crewsweeper

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Straight up..no chaser..Thanks Kim!

 

Hoping they have the boarding drill down a month from now. And the other services. That's why we've tried to avoid early cruises on new ships. Lots of off kilter out of norm expectations on the first Breeze cruise, too. Seems like since coming to the US, the crowds have gotten bigger and US based cruisers tend to go to comedy more than European based.

 

So other than the party night, how was the Havana Bar? Drink menu looks good. Was it? I know you're more night owl than I am but did you get a chance to try the breakfast there? And what about the Alchemy? Up to other Alchemys? Serenity deck looks awesome and has food; did you make it up that high? Hopefully, with a longer cruise and more sea days, we'll get a chance to do the sky ride.

 

If you roam back this way, looking forward to more of your thoughts and opines.

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thepants

thepants

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Straight up..no chaser..Thanks Kim!

 

Hoping they have the boarding drill down a month from now. And the other services. That's why we've tried to avoid early cruises on new ships. Lots of off kilter out of norm expectations on the first Breeze cruise, too. Seems like since coming to the US, the crowds have gotten bigger and US based cruisers tend to go to comedy more than European based.

 

So other than the party night, how was the Havana Bar? Drink menu looks good. Was it? I know you're more night owl than I am but did you get a chance to try the breakfast there? And what about the Alchemy? Up to other Alchemys? Serenity deck looks awesome and has food; did you make it up that high? Hopefully, with a longer cruise and more sea days, we'll get a chance to do the sky ride.

 

If you roam back this way, looking forward to more of your thoughts and opines.

 

My husband and I LOVED the Havana bar area. Food and drinks were excellent. The Latin band was on fire and really fun to listen too. We were in an aft balcony but on deck 8 so we couldn't enjoy Havana until after 7. Serenity was great. Packed on sea days but we were able to find 2 lounge chairs and we waited long enough that when a Cabana came open we got it. The salad bar was great but slow moving. We stayed about 4 hours on that deck and felt completely relaxed. We only wishes they had a small pool on that deck.

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rogers417

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We were sailing with you Kim! We have sailed mainly with RCI but this was our 8th Carnival Cruise. Kim's post reflect in my thoughts also about the ship. Without going into to detail. VISTA to us was just like Breeze, Dream, and Magic.....with LESS. Less water areas, less space. Lines were crazy at Guys & late night pizza. Public spaces just seemed smaller. Hopefully this problem is address in future builds. Crew were nice, bartenders were un-involved, no smiles, no talking, probably just overworked. We still had a blast with our party of four. Wifey played in the quest game....nuff said.

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Fla Senior

Fla Senior

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I just want to ditto your comments about Manny Oliveria. He was one of the best that I've seen. Love that Don Rickles style of humor. We went to six different adult comedy shows over our 11 days. Each time we got there 30 minutes before showtime and were about 25 folks from front of line. Never had an issue. Guess we were lucky.

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cruizinisthebest

cruizinisthebest

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Hey Kim!!!

 

YOu know your reviews are one of the few I read. I appreciate all of your feedback. Thanks!

 

I'm a little bummed because originally we had planned to be on this same sailing. I could have met you!! In the end, we didn't want to take the kids out of school so we are going on the Vista in August instead. Geesh I hope the kinks are worked out. And one thing Carnival needs to do in general is hold the comedy shows in larger venues. Honestly. It seems like the bigger the ship, the longer the lines to get in. And I'm one that likes to go to the comedy shows ever single night.

 

What a creep the dude was in the pizza line. Ugh!

 

What's up next for you??

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gapearl

gapearl

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Thanks Kim. Great review. I hope to sail with you one day. ~Bianca

 

Sent from my SGH-T999L using Forums mobile app

 

It's a shame you couldn't make it.

 

Straight up..no chaser..Thanks Kim!

 

Hoping they have the boarding drill down a month from now. And the other services. That's why we've tried to avoid early cruises on new ships. Lots of off kilter out of norm expectations on the first Breeze cruise, too. Seems like since coming to the US, the crowds have gotten bigger and US based cruisers tend to go to comedy more than European based.

 

So other than the party night, how was the Havana Bar? Drink menu looks good. Was it? I know you're more night owl than I am but did you get a chance to try the breakfast there? And what about the Alchemy? Up to other Alchemys? Serenity deck looks awesome and has food; did you make it up that high? Hopefully, with a longer cruise and more sea days, we'll get a chance to do the sky ride.

 

If you roam back this way, looking forward to more of your thoughts and opines.

 

The menu looked good but all I had was a Cuban coffee, basically an espresso. The Havana deck area was nice! There's a sign saying wristbands are required to enter but I don't know if this is enforced during the day. Anyone can come hang out at night without one. The Alchemy Bar always had a crowd but I never stopped by to try anything. I went to Serenity late one night to get some air, but never went during the day. I really didn't do much this cruise and didn't get around to seeing or attempting to do everything. Even if I had gone into this cruise planning to write a review, it would have been hard to cover this massive ship in just 5 days.

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gapearl

gapearl

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We were sailing with you Kim! We have sailed mainly with RCI but this was our 8th Carnival Cruise. Kim's post reflect in my thoughts also about the ship. Without going into to detail. VISTA to us was just like Breeze, Dream, and Magic.....with LESS. Less water areas, less space. Lines were crazy at Guys & late night pizza. Public spaces just seemed smaller. Hopefully this problem is address in future builds. Crew were nice, bartenders were un-involved, no smiles, no talking, probably just overworked. We still had a blast with our party of four. Wifey played in the quest game....nuff said.

 

I'm sure we met at some point then, huh? In all my cruises I've never seen some of the issues I did with this ship. At least all the crew I encountered were all friendly. Was wifey one of the twerkers? LOL :D

 

I just want to ditto your comments about Manny Oliveria. He was one of the best that I've seen. Love that Don Rickles style of humor. We went to six different adult comedy shows over our 11 days. Each time we got there 30 minutes before showtime and were about 25 folks from front of line. Never had an issue. Guess we were lucky.

 

I saw Manny on my cruise last month too. He's one of the best I've seen and is a nice guy outside of work. Some people were lining up an hour early. The only way I could get in line 30 minutes early was to leave dinner early. Then if I wanted to see the second show it was impossible to line up early when coming out from the first one. Even being towards the back of the line, I was always able to get a good seat up front because there always seemed to be a few single seats around. People traveling in pairs or groups at the back of the line were out of luck and basically had to stand at the back of the room.

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gapearl

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Kim thanks for all your points and i'm beginning to have have my doubts about my upcoming cruise on the Vista as the reviews are not the best so it may be 1 and done for us also.

 

I'd love to hear your thought when you return and to see if there might have been some improvements.

 

Hey Kim!!!

 

YOu know your reviews are one of the few I read. I appreciate all of your feedback. Thanks!

 

I'm a little bummed because originally we had planned to be on this same sailing. I could have met you!! In the end, we didn't want to take the kids out of school so we are going on the Vista in August instead. Geesh I hope the kinks are worked out. And one thing Carnival needs to do in general is hold the comedy shows in larger venues. Honestly. It seems like the bigger the ship, the longer the lines to get in. And I'm one that likes to go to the comedy shows ever single night.

 

What a creep the dude was in the pizza line. Ugh!

 

What's up next for you??

 

Awww thanks! It's too bad you weren't on this one. The Liquid Lounge was probably the largest venue on the ship and was maybe half the size of the lounges on other ships. I don't think having it there would have worked either. Everything is just smaller because there is more. The pizza guy definitely rubbed me the wrong way. :rolleyes:

 

Up next for me are more land trips. I've got Costa Rica, South Africa, and England all tentatively planned for next year. I'm taking the dance cruise again and might cancel NCL Escape and replace it with another land trip. :)

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cjnix29

cjnix29

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Thanks for the insight, Kim! I have the Vista booked for next October and have been wavering on whether or not to switch ships. Some of the things you brought up are the things that have concerned me. Do you think some of these will get resolved with more time in the Caribbean? Did you feel like there was a different vibe between Havana guests and the rest? I often wondered, on NCL with Haven guests, etc., if the rest of the population feels like inferior passengers.

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bunnyette

bunnyette

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Another great review, I am a bit disturbed about that incident with the drunk crew member, while you could handle yourself what if that was a 16 yo girl? Maybe a note to the CD without mentioning names. He could then at least talk to the group as a whole.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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chong67

chong67

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I read the atrium is small to make room for the IMAX theaters upstairs. I like to see that liquid LED lava thing at the atrium.

 

I am getting on this ship next week. My first time on Carnival. Value for your $? I shall see.

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