Carnival Vista: 6 Day Western Cruise Review

[jam19872016]

Debarkation:

 

My final view from my balcony.

 

 

 

Debarkation went pretty smoothly getting off the ship. Once in the terminal we came to a halt and did not move for about five minutes. Not sure what the holdup was but it didn't last long and then the line moved pretty quickly. Not as smooth getting through Port of Miami as on the last trip, but still much better than it used to be. I also loved the ease of getting in my car and leaving - no need to wait for my shuttle. As long as I am not tight for money, I will definitely be parking at the port again in the future.

 

Summary:

 

Dining:

 

The Vista has the largest variety of dining venues of any Carnival ship. I am sad to see that they are no longer installing Tandor on their new ships, that place is yummy and was always a favorite lunch time treat for me on the Splendor. There were many dining options that I did not get a chance to try, but I will summarize the options I did try.

 

Brunch on sea days is always a favorite of mine. The food is fantastic but the service tends to be pretty bad. I am not sure why and it is pretty consistently bad across the fleet. Even on ships where I found dinner in the MDR to be top notch, I typically (although not always) have bad service at brunch. The Vista was no exception and while I found a lot of the staff to be indifferent, I would say our server at brunch was visibly annoyed at our presence.

 

I am not often up for breakfast when sailing with M, but when I am and brunch is not available my go to breakfast is the breakfast burrito at Blue Iguana. I loved the burritos here as well as the burritos at lunch time. It is pretty standard across the fleet and if you enjoy them on other ships, you will love them here.

 

The deli is on the new menu with pre-made sandwiches. I find their new sandwiches to be an improvement over the old but I guess I am in the minority on that one. If you have not tried them yet, go into with an open mind. Don't just assume they will not be good because they are pre-made. Even though they were not pre-made before, do you really think the ingredients were freshly prepared on the spot when you ordered? The freshness of the ingredients is the same just already put together, and I find that the quality of bread and meats they are using now are superior to what they used in the past. M was also able to order a sandwiches to her specifications instead of how it was pre-made, and they happily did it with no trouble.

 

I also loved Guy's BBQ that is only available on sea days and embarkation day. As others have said, go there on embarkation day as the lines are quick before others have discovered it. I went again on the last sea day and the line was pretty bad. This is not going to be the best BBQ you have ever had, but remember they are feeding thousands of people who all have a different idea of how BBQ should be prepared and I think for cruise ship BBQ, it is pretty darn good. A definite step up from the Old Fashioned BBQ available on the Conquest class.

 

If their is one weak spot in Carnival's lunch, I would say it is their buffet. This is pretty typical I have found for Carnival. It is not that the food itself is not good, but rather at any given meal, there are only a few items to choose from with 90% of the buffet being salad and meats and cheeses. Not much in the way of real food. I don't expect fine dining, but at least on par with a Golden Corral would be nice. I did like the addition at the buffet of hand scooped ice cream, but would like to see more than two machines so that they can keep up with the demand. Also the lines tend to be rather long. No problem, there are plenty of other options to choose from and I would recommend trying one of those.

 

I tried each of the specialty restaurants on the Vista for dinner except Cucina del Capitano.

 

The steakhouse features the new menu. If there was one specialty restaurant I was a bit let down by, it would be the steakhouse. The food was not nearly as good (although not bad) as it used to be. I would still try it again on a different ship, but I think if I found the quality to be the same I would not continue to spend the extra money to dine here.

 

Likewise at Jiji, although I ordered items I have liked before and craved for quite a while, I found the quality of the ingredients to not be on par with the quality used on the Sunshine. It was not that it was not good, just not as good as I remember. The service at Jiji was great, and really the only great waitstaff I had all week.

 

The food at Bonsai was delicious. I also loved that they had new options added to the menu and tried a couple new items. An all around great meal although portion sizes are a bit small for this heavy eater. I don't think that would be a problem for most people with a normal sized appetite :)

 

I only went to the MDR twice so I may not have a large enough sample size to judge the service overall. But the two nights I went, I was not impressed. No happy and smiling hostess greeting us when we arrived or asking about our meal and service as we left. The waitstaff seemed disinterested at best. There were no issues with being served in a timely manner, just issues being served with a smile.

 

The food in the MDR was okay and I LOVE the new baked alaska. Hands down it is my new favorite dessert and was better than the dessert in any of the pay restaurants. Many of the items I have ordered before did not taste as good as they have to me on past trips. This could be a result of menu fatigue. I have been fortunate enough to sample the same MDR menu quite a few times so this could be the problem. In fact I am sure it is at least part of the problem, but the fact that two out of three specialty restaurants that I've only been two a couple times also seemed to be not as good, I tend to think maybe the food itself is also partly to blame. That is not to say the food was not good though, I did still enjoy most of the items that I ordered, and a tablecloth does not impact my enjoyment of my meal either way.

 

Room service continued to be so bad as to be effectively unusable. This is consistent across the fleet for me on each and every ship I have attempted to use it late at night. This was the last week before the new room service rolled out and it will be interesting to see if the service improves now that there is a charge. I never wanted to say it before, but I feel like if Carnival won't staff it (because that is the issue, it is grossly understaffed) then they need to add a fee, but a flat fee like on other lines. The fee structure they have now is insane.

 

Overall I enjoyed the quality of food on the Vista, and there is for sure no lack of variety. I do not feel like it is on par with the quality on other ships but I think if you enjoyed the food overall on your other cruises with Carnival, you will still enjoy the food offered on Vista. The service overall was not bad, just completely indifferent.

[jam19872016]

Public Spaces and Cabin:

 

As others have commented on this thread and many many other threads and facebook pages, the design of this ship is pretty boring. It is very beige and overall just blah. If I had to use one word to describe it though, it would be "uninspired". It is painfully obvious that no thought was given in any way on how to design the interior of this ship. There is one exception to this that I would like to share as I thought they were all gorgeous. The stairway art.

 

 

I wish I had taken a picture of all these, they were a very gorgeous addition to an otherwise bland ship and this one was my favorite. M's favorite was an closeup of a starfish.

 

Did this impact my cruise? Nah. The same way the tacky designs on many ships don't impact my cruise, neither does this. But I do prefer the crazy, wild, flashing neon of ships of the past and I would love to see a little more thought put into the Horizon but I won't count on it, or let it effect (affect?) me one way or the other.

 

This was my first time in a balcony thanks to a chance to upgrade. I learned something about myself this cruise. I am not a balcony person. I am so glad I had the chance to try it out but it is probably not something I would do again and certainly not something I would ever pay full price for. I was really surprised by how warm it was, I expected the ocean breeze to keep it cool out there but man it was HOT. I do not enjoy being hot (weird that I live in Florida, and that I love to cruise the Caribbean isn't it?) and found it too hot out there to use most of the time. I loved it in Florida when it was still cool, and late at night once the sun went down. But I imagine in the summer when it is always hot in Florida and the Caribbean, I would never be able to use my balcony and be able to enjoy it. When it was cool enough though - I absolutely loved it.

 

Entertainment:

 

I didn't get a chance to join in on too much of the entertainment, but all the Carnival standards are available including live music, comedy shows, production shows etc etc. The comedy shows always had a line and any time I passed by a show in progress it was standing room only.

 

The production shows were never a problem getting into, although I hear that there are many poor lines of sight. I love arriving early to catch the pre show entertainment, so the two shows I saw I had no problems getting a good seat. Both shows were new to me. One was Lip Sync Battle which I did not really care for. The other was America Rocks! which I thought was great. Very good energy from the performers and one of Carnival's better shows but you should still not expect Broadway or Las Vegas quality, as it won't deliver.

 

The best rock show Carnival puts on is still The Flying Scotsman which is Chris Williams' one man show. That leads me to my next point. I loved Matt Mitchum, I felt like he lived up to the hype surrounding him. But.... I don't think he is the best CD I've had. That remains a tie between Wee Jimmy and Chris Williams. You will still have a great cruise with Matt he is a fantastic CD and as M said "he's easy on the eyes".

 

My main form of entertainment was the casino. We've all read review after review about the poorly designed show lounges but I don't see a lot of talk about the casinos (unless it is to complain about the smoke). I guess that is because the casinos aren't as frequented as the show lounges and for that I thank you, because that casino is TINY.

 

It is by far the most cramped casino that I have ever been in which really surprised me because it is such a large source of revenue for Carnival. I cannot find a source anywhere of the size of the casino that I believe to be accurate. The only size I could find was about 2900 SQ Foot which can't be accurate as the Conquest and Dream class have 9000 SQ Foot casinos. It is smaller, but not that much smaller. It also has 10% more slots and table games than is available on the Conquest and Dream class (again assuming I am getting correct numbers, I didn't count them) but in a smaller space. M has said she would not sail a Vista class ship again because of how poorly designed the casino was. A pretty bold statement (and not one I think she would stick to if I said I wanted to go lol). I would still go if the price was right, but it was a major disappointment how bad they messed up with this design and really just speaks to the overall ship-wide lack of concern for designing a ship with any kind of "wow" factor to it.

 

Service:

 

I can't really say I had bad service overall. I will say this is the most disinterested crew I have ever sailed with. Nobody appeared to be doing anything but going through the motions. Few smiled or acknowledged me or could care less that I was there. Some seemed bothered that I was there. It was nowhere near the level of service I have come to expect from Carnival. It is below the level of service I expect from my local grocery store. Again it was not that service was bad, it was just not what I expected - at all.

 

The one shining exception was a lady at guest services. On any other ship she would just be another smiling cheerful face, but on this ship she was the ONLY smiling cheerful person I ran into (outside of the entertainment department of course).

 

I might have had the best steward on the ship. On day five of the cruise (Cozumel) while I was enjoying time at Nachi Cocom sharing experiences with my cruise mates, I was surprised to hear from a couple groups in different areas of the ship that they had STILL not met their steward. The guy from the Fantasy who had been on Vista two weeks prior said he also did not see his steward the entire week. Don't know if he was on the 6 day or 8 day, but either way you NEVER saw your steward all week?

 

Mine was visible and got the job done. I was ready to write him off the first day because of something left behind that was so gross I won't even mention what it was. It was in a spot you would not think to look, but if you are doing ANYTHING more than a quick spot cleaning you would notice it anyway. Worse, M cleaned it herself for fear he would think one of us did it. But there really were no further incidents and after the mess I did make after over enjoying the open bar in Cozumel, he earned the additional tips I left him. Sorry you had to deal with that.

[jam19872016]

Overall:

 

If you sail the Vista looking for something to complain about, you will find it. At every turn. I realize pretty much every aspect of this summary was negative. I do believe in calling it like I see it for better or worse. That is the "critic" part of cruise critic. It ain't all sunshine and lollipops lol. That being said, I still had a great time and if you are an easy going type of person, there is no reason you can't have a great time on this ship.

 

You know what type you are, if you read the reviews and you think "man that atrium looks closed in and tiny" and "there sure are a lot of people everywhere" or have any reservations about the ship, skip it, this isn't the ship for you. If you are only worried because of the reviews you read, don't overthink yourself into making a bigger deal out of it than it needs to be. There is nothing wrong with the ship and no reason why you can't go and have a great time.

 

Looking Ahead:

 

After 12 cruises in a row on Carnival, I will be sailing Norwegian Epic on 3/24 for my next cruise. This has nothing to do with Carnival or the Vista. Really, twelve in a row on one line is a little tiring. I am excited to mix it up a little and compare how things are done on another cruise line.

 

I have been spoiled with really great casino offers for free or very heavily reduced cruises early on. Since late 2016 though, the offers have gotten harder and harder to come by. They are cutting back on offers to everyone, not just me. They have made the business decision to stop providing the level of comps they used to and do not care if they lose our business as a result. Their bookings are strong and there are new gamblers to replace us everyday.

 

Other cruise lines are not following Carnival's lead, almost every major cruise line is expanding their casino comp programs. The problem is why pay full price on another cruise line when even the crappy premier offers are worth something. That was why finding urcomped.com was a godsend. I signed up, took a screen shot of my Carnival offers as well as a picture of my Sail&Sign card and the offers started rolling in. I took them up on an offer for a comped NCL cruise. There is a $20 daily "admin" fee that NCL charges which is a little annoying, but still a much much better deal than anything I have gotten from Carnival lately. I can't wait to see if I can continue to get great offers from NCL and/or urcomped.

 

I will be joined on this cruise with my mom, who has had mixed feelings about cruising. Some people will look at a glass and say it is half full. She will look at that same glass and say it is almost completely empty and that someone is out purposely trying to sabotage her glass of water. Our last cruise together was on the Splendor, and that trip really won her over. I am hoping we can keep the streak alive on NCL.

 

After that, my mom and I will be sailing on the Magic on May 26 for her birthday/retirement cruise. I hope you will all join me for another review on the Magic and that I might see some of you over on the NCL boards for an Epic review.

 

Happy sailing everybody!

[cruisequeen4ever]

I enjoy reading your casino themed reviews! Keep them coming!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[jam19872016]

I enjoy reading your casino themed reviews! Keep them coming!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Thanks! Glad you like it. I'll have another one soon :D

[CARNIVALCRUISE3]

I love your detailed and honest review, and the amazing pictures that you took. I live in Miami(30 minutes away from the port) and have sailed aboard the Vista twice, and will be sailing on it for the 3rd time in July. On my last four cruises this past year(aboard the Vista twice, Victory, and Splendor), we have only seen the steward 2-3 days. I miss the days when you would see them everyday, and they would come around in the morning and evening after or before cleaning the cabin asking if we needed anything. They are being assigned too many cabins. The service everywhere it's not like it used to be. On your next cruise, you must try the Italian restaurant. It is so delicious. We always eat there 3 nights.

[jam19872016]

I love your detailed and honest review, and the amazing pictures that you took. I live in Miami(30 minutes away from the port) and have sailed aboard the Vista twice, and will be sailing on it for the 3rd time in July. On my last four cruises this past year(aboard the Vista twice, Victory, and Splendor), we have only seen the steward 2-3 days. I miss the days when you would see them everyday, and they would come around in the morning and evening after or before cleaning the cabin asking if we needed anything. They are being assigned too many cabins. The service everywhere it's not like it used to be. On your next cruise, you must try the Italian restaurant. It is so delicious. We always eat there 3 nights.

 

Thanks for the kind words, glad you liked the review. I can't say that I've had a "bad" steward but there has been a noticeable decline in service, likely through no fault of their own but like you said being assigned too many rooms. I have peeked on their carts a couple times and saw their list of rooms - most seem to be assigned 35-38 which is an awful lot of rooms.

 

I have booked Cucina on my next Carnival cruise on the Magic. I'm taking my mom on her birthday. I'm looking forward to trying it out :D

[CARNIVALCRUISE3]

Thanks for the kind words, glad you liked the review. I can't say that I've had a "bad" steward but there has been a noticeable decline in service, likely through no fault of their own but like you said being assigned too many rooms. I have peeked on their carts a couple times and saw their list of rooms - most seem to be assigned 35-38 which is an awful lot of rooms.

 

I have booked Cucina on my next Carnival cruise on the Magic. I'm taking my mom on her birthday. I'm looking forward to trying it out :D

 

 

I always take my mom on her Birthday. I will be taking her in July! She loved the Vista!

[jam19872016]

I always take my mom on her Birthday. I will be taking her in July! She loved the Vista!

 

We almost booked the Vista for her birthday but went with Magic instead. I left it up to her, but I am glad she chose Magic, it is closer to home and we get an extra day for the same price.

[aztekpm]

Thanks for the review, still haven't sailed on the Vista, for some reason can't seem to pull the trigger!

 

I'm glad you're taking your mom on the Dream, the Epic might not be her cup of tea, especially the way the rooms are set up. I sail NCL too and will look for your review!

[jam19872016]

Thanks for the review, still haven't sailed on the Vista, for some reason can't seem to pull the trigger!

 

I'm glad you're taking your mom on the Dream, the Epic might not be her cup of tea, especially the way the rooms are set up. I sail NCL too and will look for your review!

 

We are going on the Epic. I am hoping she enjoys herself but yea there are a lot of bad reviews on that ship. We'll see. I did warn her about the bathroom situation though, what a strange design.

[aztekpm]

There is a curtain, but the rooms are tight. At least she knows going in what to expect.

 

Me personally as long as I'm on the water I'm good. I do like balconies tho, can spend hours out there doing absolutely nothing!

[jam19872016]

There is a curtain, but the rooms are tight. At least she knows going in what to expect.

 

Me personally as long as I'm on the water I'm good. I do like balconies tho, can spend hours out there doing absolutely nothing!

 

Lol, when we were booking my mom said "the rooms are going to be bigger than Carnival right?" Imagine her surprise when I told her Carnival has the largest standard room in the industry. I'm pretty easy going, and even I am a little worried about the room. I am still beyond excited though to try something new :D:D:D:D