Vista (01/13/19 Sailing) Review: The good, the bad and the 'drunk' room steward?!

[cscurlock]

The least the steward could have done is top the bottle off to the line with some water from the bathroom.  That's 5 star service right there.  End sarcasm.  Love Murphy Goode.  At the end of the day you can't sugar coat a turd and make it taste great. Hope Carnival reads this and takes some action. 

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, Dgshooter said:

Sorry you had such bad experiences.

 

I was on the same cruise. As you said YMMV, my experience was quite different. 

 

My DW and I loved the main dining room for dinner and breakfast. As we had purchaced CHEERS the wait staff made sure our wine glasses were never empty and they would bring two bottles of Pelligrino at a time! And the food, the steaks arrived to the table rare and medium rare as we ordered (the first time that has ever happened on a cruise for me) the lobster was cooked perfectly, juicy and tender not the dry rubber I've experienced in the past.

 

Our room steward was great. Asked us when we wanted to have our room serviced (10 am) and without fail when we came back to the room it was made up with the towel animal of the day on the bed (or hanging from the vent in the instance it was a bat).

 

The only down side for me was the port operation. After parking in the port parking lot, the shuttle driver dropped us off and told us the wrong place to take our luggage. We ended up dragging our luggage through the terminal to the ship. Arrgh!

 

Aside from the rough start we had a great time and I would recommend the Vista.

Carnival's number one rated ship, finished 2nd to a Crystal ship at the most recent Travvy awards.

Edited February 2, 2019 by jimbo5544

[Pyrate13]

Lost my sympathy with the snide comments about the "ancient woman" and hiring "dinosaurs". I guess us older folks should just die off. 

[LittleYiaYia]

8 minutes ago, Pyrate13 said:

Lost my sympathy with the snide comments about the "ancient woman" and hiring "dinosaurs". I guess us older folks should just die off. 

 

Me too, that was a turn off right from from the start. 

[NovCruisin]

18 hours ago, ShakyBeef said:

 

The attacks you are experiencing from certain individuals here are just what always happens when anyone dares express their discontent with a negative detail of their cruise.  There is a particular type here that cannot refrain from personal attacks on a "complainer", usually with the aid of ridiculous hyperbole and intentional obfuscation.  One of the tried-and-true standbys of these operators is the introduction of the phrase "ruin your cruise".  So it has always been, so it will always be. 

 

I've taken a 2-year break from CruiseCritic,  just to come back and find out the only thing that's changed is the website format.  The set design of the stage is a little altered, but the actors remain the same. As does the script.🙄

 

Don't let it get to you.  Those of us who don't wear red funnel-shaped blinders and have fully functioning brains with reading comprehension skills can appreciate your balanced review and your perfectly understandable reaction to an unsatisfactory experience.  And I, for one, appreciate you sharing it with us.

I appreciate your response. I think too many have sunk cost fallacy and for that, they will never see the review for what it is...a pro and con accounting of my cruise. At this point I'll leave it to the individual reading to take from it what they may and make their own minds up.

 

To the last two posters who were offended by my 'ancient' / 'dinosaur' remarks, sorry but not sorry. This woman was well over 70+ and had no idea how handle the 'gizmo' at check in. There are just certain jobs that seem obvious that someone shouldn't do; I have limp noodle arms and I don't try to have a job lifting heavy objects...it is what it is. I'm not offended by this, I just find a job that I am good at...which is pushing paper behind a desk all day 😋

Edited February 2, 2019 by NovCruisin

[Pyrate13]

Age has nothing to do with it, "gizmos" do incur issues that even you might not be able to fix and she very well could have been having problems with the reader all day.This was just one instance where it occurred while you were checking in and she may very well be excellent at the job for all you know. Our local grocery has a card reader on one of their registers that continually has problems, take the same card to the register/reader right alongside and it reads just fine. Nothing like being judgmental based simply on apparent age.

[NovCruisin]

6 hours ago, Dgshooter said:

Sorry you had such bad experiences.

 

I was on the same cruise. As you said YMMV, my experience was quite different. 

 

My DW and I loved the main dining room for dinner and breakfast. As we had purchaced CHEERS the wait staff made sure our wine glasses were never empty and they would bring two bottles of Pelligrino at a time! And the food, the steaks arrived to the table rare and medium rare as we ordered (the first time that has ever happened on a cruise for me) the lobster was cooked perfectly, juicy and tender not the dry rubber I've experienced in the past.

 

Our room steward was great. Asked us when we wanted to have our room serviced (10 am) and without fail when we came back to the room it was made up with the towel animal of the day on the bed (or hanging from the vent in the instance it was a bat).

 

The only down side for me was the port operation. After parking in the port parking lot, the shuttle driver dropped us off and told us the wrong place to take our luggage. We ended up dragging our luggage through the terminal to the ship. Arrgh!

 

Aside from the rough start we had a great time and I would recommend the Vista.

I am glad you had a nice vacation 👍 just because I had some hiccups I wouldn't want anyone else to not enjoy their trip! That stinks about the shuttle issue; we parked across the street at the Park N Cruise, it was a nice and easy walk across the street from the ship.

[Shaded Lady]

Thank you for the review... the issue about the wine aside, I'm more concerned about the fact that you found the ship 'dirty'. The age of the ship doesn't really impact the things you mentioned (dishes left untouched, slow service) so much as the attitude of the crew. We're cruising on Vista in 4 months and I was originally concerned about the service issues I heard reported, but then the complaints seemed to taper off.

 

So now in this thread I've heard 2 conflicting reports- I guess it's just a hit or miss situation and we'll have to wait to see what happens on our cruise.

[NovCruisin]

4 hours ago, Shaded Lady said:

Thank you for the review... the issue about the wine aside, I'm more concerned about the fact that you found the ship 'dirty'. The age of the ship doesn't really impact the things you mentioned (dishes left untouched, slow service) so much as the attitude of the crew. We're cruising on Vista in 4 months and I was originally concerned about the service issues I heard reported, but then the complaints seemed to taper off.

 

So now in this thread I've heard 2 conflicting reports- I guess it's just a hit or miss situation and we'll have to wait to see what happens on our cruise.

Just make sure that if anything goes wrong, you never come back and report it! You'll suddenly become a stuck up 'B' who thinks she is better than everyone while at the same time so cheap she is just looking to get something for free! 🤣

 

All joking aside, I do wish you well and hope you have a nice cruise. 

[Lottacruises]

Was the steward drunk?

[Shaded Lady]

1 hour ago, NovCruisin said:

Just make sure that if anything goes wrong, you never come back and report it! You'll suddenly become a stuck up 'B' who thinks she is better than everyone while at the same time so cheap she is just looking to get something for free! 🤣

 

All joking aside, I do wish you well and hope you have a nice cruise. 

 

I'm sorry you took such a beating for the simple act of reporting your experiences, your opinion. It's not right! You know what you saw, and how you felt, and much as some might disagree with it, it doesn't change that it was yours.

 

In spite of how some people on Cruise Critic treat others (anonymity doesn't forgive mean-spiritedness!) I hope you won't let that stop you from continuing to post your thoughts, your opinions. I may find I completely disagree with you when I sail on the Vista, but that just means that our experiences were different, not that you were wrong, or less of a person because it doesn't match what I experience. And if I post my opinions, it doesn't make yours any less valid.

[jimbo5544]

8 hours ago, Shaded Lady said:

 

I'm sorry you took such a beating for the simple act of reporting your experiences, your opinion. It's not right! You know what you saw, and how you felt, and much as some might disagree with it, it doesn't change that it was yours.

 

In spite of how some people on Cruise Critic treat others (anonymity doesn't forgive mean-spiritedness!) I hope you won't let that stop you from continuing to post your thoughts, your opinions. I may find I completely disagree with you when I sail on the Vista, but that just means that our experiences were different, not that you were wrong, or less of a person because it doesn't match what I experience. And if I post my opinions, it doesn't make yours any less valid.

Fear not fare maiden, the op is posting away over on the Royal boards....all is well. I do agree with the last sentence tho.  

[pohlerbear]

It would be hilarious if OPs roommate took a swig of wine after she marked the bottle to mess with her

[CdrescherRBL152]

On 1/31/2019 at 4:25 PM, NovCruisin said:

Disclaimer: This is MY EXPERIENCE; YMMV.

 

The last time we took a Carnival cruise was on the Magic out of Galveston to Key West and the Bahamas. We have been on Royal, Celebrity, Holland and Carnival. Carnival was our least favorite but that was in 2014(?) and with the new Vista coming to Galveston, with the addition of the Havana it was too tempting to pass up!! We got (IMO) a steal of a deal! We booked in June 2017 for a January 2019 cruise in Havana aft balcony 7467 for....$2,300!! I was more excited that DH, but as the time drew nearer we were both excited to get away from the "cold" of Dallas 😉 This was our first cruise out of Galveston in January and I was very nervous about the infamous fog, but we had no issues whatsoever!

 

The GOOD:

 

* Check in was actually not too bad. We selected our check in time, arrived ON TIME, and got to "cut the line" for people checking in on time. There was a ridiculously long line for people arriving early and/or late and you could tell they were eyeballing our quick line 🙂

- SIDE NOTE: The bad within the check in process was the ancient woman checking us in who had no idea how to handle the electronic scanners for our passports. She kept swiping and swiping and ended up bending one of our passports. She was ready to send us "upstairs" to check in and initially refused to let us try a different person for check in (because she was claiming it was her machine that had "been acting up all day"...it seemed like user error to us). Eventually we basically forced her to let us check in at the neighboring kiosk and BEHOLD it worked! I am not counting this against Carnival because I don't know if it is the City of Galveston Port or Carnival that employs dinosaurs.

* The ship was designed nicely. I know some don't like the design but we did!

* The food!! This was the biggest shock to us, honestly! Of all the preconceived notions we had going into this cruise, the food being good was not one of them! Places we loved: Sea Day Brunch (those croissants are ridiculously good!); Guy's Burger; Bonsai; Cucina del Capitano; the Steakhouse. Places that were pretty good: Guy's Pig and Anchor, Blue Iguana. Places that were our least favorite: Main Dining for breakfast and dinner.

 

The BAD:

 

* The ship is TIRED. Basically the only reason I could convince DH to go on this cruise (he is more of a land vacationer) is because it was a NEWish ship. Man oh man! That ship is ready for dry dock. 

* That leads into not only being worn down but the ship was DIRTY. I am sorry but there was a lot of Carnival employees standing around looking busy but not actually cleaning and you could tell. The first thing we noticed when we entered our cabin was it did not feel clean. There was dust everywhere. The balcony looked like it had never been cleaned and not once did they hose it down. Every cruise we have ever been on the crew cleaned the balconies by hosing them; not this one. Also, the Havana area was not clean either; especially the pool! The first day when we went out on the balcony we both looked at the pool, looked at each other and thought...WELP that was a waste of money for the "Havana" because there is no way I am swimming in that! 🤮

- SIDE NOTE: The Havana (inside) was always freezing! It had to have been in like the 50's every single day. 

- SIDE NOTE: The staff at the Havana area were by far the least friendly of the ship. We went there 1 time during our 6 night cruise and ordered a drink and they seemed put out by having to serve us. Same goes for the towel area. The chick seemed angry that she had to come over there to see if we wanted to check out towels.

 

The UGLY:

 

* While we did our best to enjoy this vacation and remember that anything was better than working, there was a "situation" that got us out to a VERY bad start and I am not sure the vacation feeling ever fully recovered. When we first got on board we immediately wanted to get down to business in relaxation mode, we cracked open a bottle of wine and stood on the balcony watching the birds at port before getting the muster drill notice. The muster drill said not to bring any drinks with you (which when we got to our station, some did not listen). So we left our bottle of wine (opened - it was a screw top) and headed off to muster. Don't ask me why we thought of it but we marked our wine line on the bottle and left. When we came back, our luggage had arrived outside our room and our two welcome bottles of water had been delivered....but we were SHOCKED....SOMEONE SERIOUSLY DRANK OUT OF OUR WINE BOTTLE (see photo)!!! We immediately grabbed the bottle and went to guest services. Sadly the line was so long. As we stood there, two employees asked if they could help us (before we got to the front desk) and after explaining to each of them we got the same response - no way, our employees would never do that, they know that is very serious...basically they were insinuating we were lying! When we reached the front desk and explained again, we got the same responses and that the room service manager would come to our room to speak with us. We told them what happened, when it happened...it would be simple enough to figure out who went in our room during this narrow window of time. When the room service manager came to our room, she was even more dismissive. They did not apologize, they did not offer to replace the bottle (obviously we weren't going to drink it now...it looked like someone took a swig out of it), she simply said they will let us know. Two or three days later we got a message telling us that they would be giving us two free drink coupons. It was a fine trade of value, it was an $11 bottle of wine, it was the principal of the matter that NO ONE ever checked the cameras, NO ONE even believed us....why would I spend my vacation standing in line, talking to multiple people, and messing around with this stupid thing if it wasn't true. We were both so disgusted with the WAY Carnival handled it. Later (on either the last or second to last day) we spoke with some other manager and told her if they weren't going to investigate for their customer, they should at least investigate for their own liability. An employee who steals a guests alcohol...we could be talking about a one off or we could be talking about an employee who has an alcohol problem. Either way, it was disturbing that Carnival NEVER bothered to check the cameras...there was literally a camera right outside our room.

 

* The one and only time we ate in the Main Dining for dinner was the first formal night. After dealing with the headache I described above, we thought we were done dealing with an incompetent customer service desk...we were wrong. We tried to order a bottle of San Pellegrino with dinner...NOPE, our room card was declined and we had to go to guest services...AGAIN. After going there we were told that it was because our credit card wasn't linked to the account, which is a lie; I personally did the check in and I know I linked it to mine and my DH name. Plus we had been on board, charging for the last two days with no problem. So back up to the room to grab our credit card and then back to guest services to "link it".

 

I am sure there are things I left out, all in all it was an OKAY vacation, but when I am spending my hard earned money and vacation days....OKAY isn't good enough. I will never sail on Carnival again. All the good was far outweighed by the bad.

 

 

We ended up leaving the bottle of wine upon our disembarkation...I so wanted to leave a snarky note but we never found out who committed the act. Hope Carnival appreciates losing a customer over an $11 bottle of wine. 😔

Okay first problem with your way of thinking. The bottle of wine was in your cabin. There are no cameras in the cabins so what camera would you like  them to have looked at?  Second you no way of knowing who if anyone drink it.  And even if someone did there is hardly enough missing to get someone as you claim drunk.  As for your credit card there are any number of reasons that would be no fault of anyone for it to get decline during your cruise and thus delinked from your sail and sign account. The 2 most common are you went over your credit limit and/or did not inform the credit card company that you would be out of the country. Many credit card companies now will put a stop on your card if they see an out of country charge.  Had this happen to us on one cruise. Wife had used the card in port. That night the card was showing not linked. Guest services relinked the card we had no more problems. When we got home I called the bank, they said that the out of country charge caused the card to be blocked. When the cruise line then linked the card it triggered a response by their protection people, who saw the cruise line and knew what happened and let everything go forward.

[LUVMYGSDOG]

I would have assumed my DH helped himself to another glass of wine without telling me - lol.

 

Seriously,  we would probably just gotten a good laugh out of it and moved on - because we are on a cruise ship and going to have an awesome vacation!!

 

Kim

[hotsauce126]

On 2/1/2019 at 6:59 PM, aknguyen said:

Could they have knocked it over and spilled it?

 

Probably the most likely scenario. Based on the stories from pretty much everyone who's worked on a cruise ship, there's no shortage of alcohol at the crew bar

[RICKnVICK]

Ok here are my thoughts-

My friends and husband have heard me say this a lot.  There are so many folks who will never experience a cruise vacation or any kind of vacation for that matter.  Any cruise I get to go on, I feel so blessed.  I am not discounting the OP's feelings or experiences.  I just don't let these little things bother me.  I am on vacation, on a ship, NOT at work, and having a blast!  And, I hear people say all the time they are spending their hard earned money and taking precious time off from work.  Aren't we all doing this?  Life isn't perfect, so for me when things don't go necessarily the way I want or think they should, I just roll with it!  Because, after all,  I am on a CRUISE!  and life is too short!

I have cruised Carnival and RCCL about equal amounts and frankly, I don't prefer one over the other.  They BOTH have different things to offer and I enjoy the different aspects of both lines.  JMHO

 

Happy Cruising everyone!

Vicki

[jimbo5544]

The Op apparently feels differently.

[Saint Greg]

I either have a lower level of standards or a higher level of alcohol...maybe both. Because I've never had a bad cruise.

[jimbo5544]

On 2/3/2019 at 4:32 PM, hotsauce126 said:

 

Probably the most likely scenario. Based on the stories from pretty much everyone who's worked on a cruise ship, there's no shortage of alcohol at the crew bar

....but how would that attribute the drunk room steward comment???

[Mommawo]

7 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I either have a lower level of standards or a higher level of alcohol...maybe both. Because I've never had a bad cruise.

Best answer on here 

[PhillyFan33579]

7 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I either have a lower level of standards or a higher level of alcohol...maybe both. Because I've never had a bad cruise.

 

I agree 100%.  One of my favorite lines (I can’t take credit for it) is most people cruise to have fun, others cruise so they can complain about it. 

[Mommawo]

4 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

I agree 100%.  One of my favorite lines (I can’t take credit for it) is most people cruise to have fun, others cruise so they can complain about it. 

Just in general in life some people see things as a glass half full others glass half empty.  I really do hate to hear someone didn’t enjoy a vacation they paid hard earned money for.  I would not be happy if someone drank my wine 🍷 however can’t let it ruin everything.  

Edited February 6, 2019 by Mommawo

[Mommawo]

2 minutes ago, Mommawo said:

Just in general in life some people see things as a glass half full others glass half empty.  I really do hate to hear someone didn’t enjoy a vacation they paid hard earned money for.  I would not be happy if someone drank my wine 🍷 however can’t let it ruin everything.  

However I may actually mark my wine bottle now.   Lol. Never even would have crossed my mind and I don’t ever drink after people 

[serene56]

You could have unfairly pointed fingers are the cabin steward.   There are people that go around checking to make sure the cabins are empty during the muster drill