What do you think about the Carnival Vista?

[happy cruzer]

Just read a review which seems very strange:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=697784

 

I've had noro and do wonder what would have if it started the night before disembarcation.

 

Thanks.

 

[dallasdan]

I love the Vista because of the Havana area.  I do wonder about some of the complaints.  I have never waiting more than 30 minutes for YTD even with a big group.  I can see long wait times if you are trying to go at peak times like formal night when if first opens.  The other complaint about missing a port, what could Carnival have done.  It must have been high winds wouldn't allow them to dock.  

[staceyglow]

The fact that this person gave the cruise 1 star in every category tells me all I need to know.

 

They obviously wanted to slam Carnival as hard as they could.  And I am guessing that if there really was Norovirus on a cruise from last month, there would have been other reports of it on CC by now.

[dallasdan]

What amenities would be closed?  The skyride?  I am also thinking they were the only ones that were sick.  Carnival does a good job of notifying everyone of a norovirus outbreak.  They wouldn't keep that quiet.  

[chadvarner85]

I was on this ship. It is true that they had issues with the check-in app and YTD. it was always a long wait. It is what we expected being on a spring break cruise with that many people. And although it was sunny on the day we went to Roatan, there was extremely high winds. Carnival made an attempt to dock the ship but was unable to safety do so. Which is why i think most to TOP deck amenities were closed. As far as Noro, don't know anything about that. i would assume it would be in Carnivals best interest not to have a sick family walking around spreading germs.... 

[chadvarner85]

On another note, was not a fan of the Vista. This was our 8th different Carnival cruise on our 8th different ship... these was my least favorite. Just a personal preference.

[ChuckF]

The Vista has had some issues with propulsion some months ago.  Not sure if those have been resolved.  It may require a dry-dock to permanently fix the problem.  It is my understanding that this may have caused some cruises to have to by-pass scheduled ports, or leave early to make the next destination on time. 

 

Other than that, we have no problem with that class of ship.  Although it seems very much like the Dream class with more people. Unless you stay in the Havana area. 

[happy cruzer]

How was the dining room for traditional seating?

 

Looking forward to the ropes course, IMAX and skyride. 

 

Hopefully in Sept, the crowding won't be so bad.

 

Thanks.

[talkorpi]

Vista was my least favorite ship I have been on out of my 5 Carnival ships layout wise.  Not saying that it was all terrible but I feel like Carnival did everything they could to maximize capacity at the expense of public space and it was really obvious.  It was very crowded and I did not like the layout.  I'm sure that having Havana was nice but the lack of a full wraparound promenade deck was kind of a dealbreaker.  Also the atrium is tiny and cramped and the theater design is truly awful with zero good seats.

 

It did have a lot of good dining options and I do like the decor alot but unfortunately the bad layout and overall design took away from those things.

Edited April 25, 2023 by talkorpi

[Cruising_Addict]

I’m going to be honest, I didn’t read the review because they lost me when they called it a “boat” in the title. I have sailed on the Vista before and loved it. The Havana area on that class of ship is the absolute best. We had the pool pretty much to ourselves the entire cruise. At most there were only ever 2 or 3 people in there with us. I would book the ship again in a heartbeat and I would encourage everyone to form their own opinions, don’t base them off other people’s because some people are just miserable with life in general and can’t ever be pleased. 

[kinaida]

We had a great vacation on the Vista. However, I have to say that I didn't love the ship either. The atrium was underwhelming and I thought that the layout was confusing and cramped. It needs a dry dock to freshen it up and to fix the propulsion issues. We made all of our ports (April 2023) but we only stayed for a few hours at each one; the last tender from Grand Cayman was at 1:15 pm - I would have preferred more time at each port.

 

However, the staff was friendly and incredibly hard-working. The food was decent - the specialty restaurants were very good and the MDR was a little disappointing but it's hard to complain about being served a 3 course meal every night. Our family had a great vacation and for the price point, we were very pleased with our experience.

[icft]

I didn't read the referenced review, but I can tell you what we think of Vista. We sailed her once, said we would never again sail a Vista class ship and we haven't.

 

They designed it to feel cramped and crowded. They did their best to make you feel like you are a rat in a maze on land. I guess they want to appeal to folks who are susceptible to motion sickness and don't want them to realize they are at sea so they went for the crowded mall in Phoenix feel.

 

Just my opinion.

[freewilly]

She is headed to dry dock January 2024.

 

[JimmyTheSaint]

This may appear odd, we've sailed all three Vista ships but it's our least favourite class of ship. The best things onboard are the crew, fun squad and specialty dining. In my opinion JiJi's is the best specialty dining of any cruise line we've sailed with. 

 

The design and layout of the Vista class is seriously flawed. They have the worst theatre at sea, very cramped comedy club, very underwhelming atrium and a huge waste of space Imax. We only cruised this class of ship for the itinerary not the ship. A lot of the flaws of Vista have been addressed with the Excel class. That's a class of ship that's an attraction regardless of the itinerary.

[Jamman54]

To us the Vista Class is just a "Sunshined" version of the Dream Class. They added 50' to the stern to support the Havana area,  got rid of the atrium to add more cabins to the upper decks, eliminated deck 3 of the theater to add more cabins. Added cabins to the aft on Deck 5, which are the Havana cabins. That being said we only sail on this class if we have a Havana cabin. The Havana area on the Vista Class is awesome. 😎

[THL1313]

We are sailing on Vista over Thanksgiving for the first time.  We have sailed MG, all the Dream class ships, Sunshine, Fantasy.... We have a cove on Deck 2, now I'm second guessing this choice.  We had choice of MG and Vista, but Vista cruise is an 8 day with a port stop in St Thomas, which we have never been, so that was why we choose Vista.  We are laid back, like casino, and chilled outdoor areas.  

[Rollin Tide]

46 minutes ago, THL1313 said:

We are sailing on Vista over Thanksgiving for the first time.  We have sailed MG, all the Dream class ships, Sunshine, Fantasy.... We have a cove on Deck 2, now I'm second guessing this choice.  We had choice of MG and Vista, but Vista cruise is an 8 day with a port stop in St Thomas, which we have never been, so that was why we choose Vista.  We are laid back, like casino, and chilled outdoor areas.  

We must know each other or something.  Cuz everything you just mentioned (sailing on her this Thanksgiving, MG, all Dream class, etc.) applies to us.

[THL1313]

1 minute ago, Rollin Tide said:

We must know each other or something.  Cuz everything you just mentioned (sailing on her this Thanksgiving, MG, all Dream class, etc.) applies to us.

Thats too funny!!  We'll definitely have to meet up!  😛

[Pellaz]

We enjoyed our cruise on the Vista, but we were already prepared for some of the negative aspects (atrium, theater, etc.)    

We were very pleased with the dining options and we liked all the outdoor space -- the lanai deck and its seating were great to get away from the crowds.   I would say that the ship benefits from good weather and really suffers from bad weather, which limited our enjoyment the last part of the cruise.  

 

We DID happily cruise on the Horizon last year (same class) and we will again do so this October, although the Havana area really "made" it for us last year.  Alas, no Havana cabins available for us this fall.  😞  

 

[ProgRockCruiser]

5 hours ago, Pellaz said:

Alas, no Havana cabins available for us this fall.  😞  

We're sailing on Vista later this year, also not able to snag a Havana-area cabin.

 

I just started a mock booking for our sail date to see if any had popped up, and there is a Havana interior available for $1000 more than what we're paying for our non-Havana balcony, and a Havana Cabana cabin available for over $6000 - yeah, hard "no" on both of those options.

 

We've never sailed on a Vista-class, and although excited to try a new class of ship, some of the negative comments I've read here make sense, thinking about how other classes have approach things, such as the atrium, main theater stage, comedy club, etc.

 

But I'm sure we'll still have a blast - we always do!  As long as Alchemy, Guy's, and the Lido bars are still there, we'll be set food/drink-wise...