Anyone Know What's Up With The Carnival Vista?

[JCrewz]

We are sailing on The Carnival Vista out of Galveston on November 12th.  We got an email today that the 7-day itinerary is being changed due to "maintenance work" on the ship.  We are being rerouted from Grand Cayman and Jamaica to Belize and Honduras with extra time now being allotted in Cozumel because the Vista cannot achieve the necessary speed to make the original route.  We are being credited $50.00 pp for the change in plans.

 

It appears this work will be going on from October through February.  Has anyone been informed of what the issue(s) may be?

 

Also, does it sound like the added ports are a fair substitute for the skipped ports of call?  We have never done a weeklong Caribbean cruise, only the 5-day out of Galveston.  Any other thoughts or observations are welcome.  I sure enjoy the great insight shared on Cruise Critic.

Edited September 20, 2022 by JCrewz
misspelling

[JT1962]

Vista has had propulsion issues for several years. If you do a Google search, you will see they had issues in 2016, 2019 and earlier this year. Obviously whatever is wrong has not been permanently repaired.

[Theosprey247]

It’s a wash.

Belize = GC if you like Mayan ruins and snorkeling (or SCUBA). 

 

 

[BlondieB]

We are on the 11/12 sailing as well.  Grand Cayman is my favorite island behind the hard to get to Jost Van Dyke so I'm pretty bummed as neither of those ports, for me at least, can compare.  I'll be fine I guess as long as we don't skip Cozumel.  Must get my Mr. Sanchos fix ;)

[psikic]

By the way for both of you on the 11/12 sailing, here is the roll call!  

 

[JCrewz]

Looking forward to the cruise, BlondieB.  We like the bars at Cozumel, but my wife loves getting her massage down on the beach.  Jamaica may not be a bad omission with all the rain they got from Fiona.

 

Thanks for the reply.

[BlondieB]

yeah I could take or leave Jamaica.  But, we are taking some friends on their first cruise and Jamaica was where we were doing the dolphin swim because that was her "must do" item.  She can do it in Cozumel though.  I've already done it so I'll be letting Julio at Mr Sanchos keep me hydrated 😄

[Guest BasicSailor]

23 minutes ago, JCrewz said:

Belize and Honduras  👎.

 

[Guest BasicSailor]

25 minutes ago, JCrewz said:

Grand Cayman and Jamaica

👎

[BlondieB]

Guess I'm going to mosey on over and see what the latest on Little French Key's drama is for Roatan and if they're still asking people not to pre-reserve/pay. 

[JT1962]

10 minutes ago, JCrewz said:

Jamaica may not be a bad omission with all the rain they got from Fiona.

 

Unless I missed something, Fiona did not get within 500 miles of Jamaica and they have not had any rain related to that storm and it does not look like they’ve had much, if any, rain in the past week. Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic got the main damage so far and it appears to be headed north into the Atlantic with Bermuda being possibly in the path.

Edited September 20, 2022 by JT1962

[JCrewz]

5 minutes ago, BasicSailor said:

👎

BasicSailor, what's wrong?

[JCrewz]

2 minutes ago, JT1962 said:

Unless I missed something, Fiona did not get within 500 miles of Jamaica and they have not had any rain related to that storm and it does not look like they’ve had much, if any, rain in the past week. Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic got the main damage so far and it appears to be headed north into the Atlantic with Bermuda being possibly in the path.

JT....thanks for the correction.  I need to work on my geography.

[Guest BasicSailor]

1 minute ago, JCrewz said:

BasicSailor, what's wrong?

Sorry , you just named four of the least popular ports for me. Harassment by the locals Jam, Hon, Bel. 

G.C, once you been there, done that. You're done.

[JCrewz]

14 minutes ago, BasicSailor said:

Sorry , you just named four of the least popular ports for me. Harassment by the locals Jam, Hon, Bel. 

G.C, once you been there, done that. You're done.

I guess they are fair substitutes.

[Joe817]

30 minutes ago, BasicSailor said:

 

Different strokes for different folks. Have you been to Belize or Honduras??  We have. Last August, 2021. I LOVED Belize. Mahogany is a new favorite as well. One of our best cruises ever.

[Guest BasicSailor]

25 minutes ago, Joe817 said:

Have you been to Belize or Honduras??🤣

I actually drove a tender back to the ship in Belize while the operator stood aside for a break 😀 But yea! A few times over. Here's hoping the Vista gets her problem repaired and in order.

[Joe817]

1 hour ago, BasicSailor said:

I actually drove a tender back to the ship in Belize while the operator stood aside for a break 😀 But yea! A few times over. Here's hoping the Vista gets her problem repaired and in order.

Indeed. Thanks. I found Belize beautiful, along the lines of the movie: "The Year of Living Dangerously".

I loved it. 

[dolphinsfan246]

Really strange that the “maintenance” is taking place all the way out through February. Makes me wonder if the repairs are only happening while the ship is in Cozumel? Using the extra time each stop to  do a little bit each time. 

-

As for the itinerary change personally I think you now get a better itinerary but I know everybody has their preferences and specific reasons for wanting to go certain places. Sucks that this change effects so many cruises and people. 

[mommyof3texans]

The odd thing is that our Dec 10 sailing on the Vista was not on the list of impacted cruises, that seems odd to me. 

[jazzydiver]

16 hours ago, JCrewz said:

Also, does it sound like the added ports are a fair substitute for the skipped ports of call?  We have never done a weeklong Caribbean cruise, only the 5-day out of Galveston.  Any other thoughts or observations are welcome.  I sure enjoy the great insight shared on Cruise Critic.

JCrewz, you mention having done a 5-day Caribbean cruise before, but not which ports you have been to in the past.  If you haven't been to any of them, I'd say it's a fair trade.  I guess I'd also say it's a fair trade as long as you aren't having to repeat any port that you for some reason you may have disliked in the past.

 

I am on a back-to-back on this cruise, and the change means I'm now doing the exact same cruise twice rather than having a varied itinerary.  However, I think it is a fair trade overall.  I think Belize City is interesting, and I'm more than happy to dive at Roatan again!  Plus getting the OBC is nice.

 

(Wondering if there's any chance they'll add a scuba excursion for Belize...there isn't one on our other booking.)

 

 

[jazzydiver]

1 hour ago, mommyof3texans said:

The odd thing is that our Dec 10 sailing on the Vista was not on the list of impacted cruises, that seems odd to me. 

That seems odd to me, too.  It seems like if Carnival thinks they need until February to work on sorting out propulsion issues (or whatever other issue there may be), that they would have used the shorter itinerary (distance-wise) for all of the cruises in that time period.  But who knows, I'm just speculating.  Enjoy your cruise! 🙂

[TN Roz]

16 hours ago, BlondieB said:

We are on the 11/12 sailing as well.  Grand Cayman is my favorite island behind the hard to get to Jost Van Dyke so I'm pretty bummed as neither of those ports, for me at least, can compare.  I'll be fine I guess as long as we don't skip Cozumel.  Must get my Mr. Sanchos fix 😉

Love Mr Sanchos! We often choose cruises that stop in Cozumel just to go there!

[Prismism]

We are on that same sailing for the 12th. We've already done the Belize/Hondoras itinerary before on the Vista, and only chose this sailing to see Jamaica/Grand Cayman. Oh well.. I've heard none of these ports are particularly great anyway. We mostly cruise to party on the ship, so no huge loss.

See you on the Lido!

[dmet0225]

18 hours ago, BlondieB said:

Guess I'm going to mosey on over and see what the latest on Little French Key's drama is for Roatan and if they're still asking people not to pre-reserve/pay. 

We went to LFK when we stopped in Roatan on our Vista cruise at the end of July.  They allowed us to pay when we arrived rather than pre-pay.  A few of items to watch out for:

 

1.  If you do the monkey/sloth tour as part of your day through LFK, it's a cluster trying to get them to drive you to and from the place, which is right down the street.  It's also a cluster trying to get one of the staff to take you back to the cruise port when it was time to leave.  People who booked the LFK trip through a 3rd-party vendor received much better service.

2.  We were eaten alive by sand flies.  I had to get steroids from my doctor due to the terrible itching from the DOZENS of bites.  Make sure to bring bug spray.  In all of our previous cruises, we've never experienced that problem.  

3.  Make sure you're clear UP FRONT with your server if you get the full island tour regarding the food/drink tokens that are provided and included.  He told us we could use our tokens to order anything off the menu.  When it came time to leave, he insisted that it was NOT the case, and that you only got the "island plate" for the food, and that we could not use the free tokens since we ordered something different off the menu.