Help me choose...Escape vs. Vista?

As I have not sailed either cruise line, I am looking for some feedback from those of you who have. I am posting this question in both the NCL and Carnival forums.

Trying to decide between these two options for family cruise in March. The Escape is a 7 night Eastern and the Vista 6 night Western.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Kim

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Just my humble opinion....

Better ship = Escape over Vista

Better cruise line = NCL over Carnival

Better food = Escape over Vista

Better itineraries = Vista over Escape

Better suites = Escape over Vista

.....you'll probably get the opposite answers on the Carnival board. :D

Just my humble opinion....

 

Better ship = Escape over Vista

Better cruise line = NCL over Carnival

Better food = Escape over Vista

Better itineraries = Vista over Escape

Better suites = Escape over Vista

 

 

.....you'll probably get the opposite answers on the Carnival board. :D

Hard to imagine a 6 day itinerary better than 7 days, depends on which ports you have visited previously.

If both were 6 nighters, I'd call it a draw and say book whichever is less expensive. But because Escape is 1 more night, she would be my recommendation.

We've done both ships (in Europe)

We preferred the layout of vista, lost a of outdoor spaces, never felt crowded whereas epic sometimes felt overcrowded in public areas, lack of seating in bars and buffet etc

Service much better on vista then epic; often wait a while to get drinks on epic and more often then not only one person behind the bar!

Food - epic better then vista

Nighttime entertainment - more consistently better on epic although vista did have some good nights but lacked somewhere to go late night (if that's your thing) other then an outside pizza bar or the casino?!

Daytime activities - vista beats epic hands down.... hardly anything happening on epic during the day, Vista had lots happening activity wise along with ropes course, skytrak, water slides etc etc

Hope that helps!!

cbowls30, the OP is asking about Escape, not Epic.

Though Escape does bear one similarity. Escape was the most crowded ship on which I have ever sailed.

I've done Breeze and Escape, so not an exact comp.

Food - escape, by good margin

Drinks - much cheaper breeze

Outdoor films - breeze by a ton

Balcony rooms - no difference

Shopping - breeze

Casino - escape

Daily events - breeze

Lido - breeze

Cruise directors - tie

Live bands - tie

Embarkation and disembarkation - escape by good margin

Truthfully, I don't think you can go wrong either way. I love CCL and NCL. 7 days vs 6 is a mismatch, unless one itinerary is much better.

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I would book a 7 day Eastern over a 6 day Western any day. That being said, I really want to get on the Vista! I'm waiting until prices go down a bit.

Recently off the Escape and it's the first cruise I've been on that I would do again. Was our best cruise out of the 8 cruises we've done.

Vista is on my list because of the itinerary ( Southern Caribbean) hopefully in 2018.

If price is comparable I would do the 7 days. Really you can't go wrong with either.

We have not done the Vista yet, due to high prices. Just did the Escape (our first NCL ship) this past October and loved it, so much we booked it again for next May! We never felt crowded, the Escape is huge! Due to the promotions going on, we were able to get the free dining and drinks and loved both of them perks as well. The balcony rooms are very nice, especially like the bathrooms on the Escape over the Carnival ships. We found that we preferred the food over Carnival (not crazy about Carnivals new menus) and the entertainment does not even compare to what we have seen on Carnival. We do hope to try the Vista as well in the future;)

The last time we sailed on Carnival which was, I admit, several years ago, some of those "activities" someone upthread mentioned included things like pillow fights over the pool, "model your wife's lingerie" and things of that nature.

Hopefully, Carnival's attention to safety details has improved since we sailed (we are going on the Vista this coming spring as part of a reunion) and the company has stopped with the absolutely constant "marketing" announcements.

These are the very same two ships we looked at for our March cruise coming up. We were picking cruise based on ship vs. itinerary. DS 21 was interested in a large newer ship, but not a mega RCCL one. Call us jaded, but all these different Caribbean ports while lovely are looking pretty similar these days. Our last cruise too was out of San Juan and pretty port intensive, so we were thinking more sea days for a change of pace. Both my son and my dad (both who are going on this too, like to have several sea days when they can).

We were planning on the Vista, but then DH received a freebie promotion for one balcony room for two people (just taxes to pay). We were booking three rooms, however, for our party of six. With the promotion included costs were pretty close. Otherwise for our dates the Escape was more expensive. It is a one night longer cruise too.

In the end, we went NCL as we have mostly just cruised on Carnival, and we thought it would be fun to try something different (an entirely different line vs. just a new ship). We did NCL once long before too (March of 1992). Carnival and NCL, however, are the only two lines we have ever done. And we don't cruise all that often. We do more land vacations, but do tend to squeeze in a cruise every five years or so.

I think Carnival is a good value and we actually like their food, think they do a good job for the price and number of people that they serve. Better entertainment though sounds great and NCL is known for that. The Carnival comedians were very good, but the other entertainment while fine wasn't really anything to write home about. Not that that is a big deal to us really, but some good Broadway type shows does sound like fun.

The dining thing is a dilemma. One thing that sounds really fun is the NCL freestyle dining -- we'll do three specialty restaurant as part of the free at sea promotion. On the other hand, we just loved the set dining time and eating in the main dining room with our same waiters and waitresses on Carnival. There was never a problem finding something on the menu we really liked and that same touch base time with our group each night was really a cruise highlight (Everyone in our party loved it.)

I don't think you can go wrong with either choice. DS in particular would really like to try the Vista sometime too. From the looks of the ships, he liked that one a little better than the Escape.

I looked at the Vista over the Escape we are currently booked on for March 2017 with DW last night. The Vista came in at about $1,000 more for 8 days with 4 stops while the Escape was 7 days with 3 stops (both balcony rooms that accommodate 4). I will admit, I tend to view Carnival as a lower quality line even though I have not sailed on her. So I wanted to give this new ship a chance to see if I could erase those preconceived notions when it comes to their newer ships. But I couldn't stomach the $1,000+ more plus the fact DW and I have beverage package on NCL. And gasp, $100 in free arcade tokens and 50 free photos. Those were the promos when I rebooked in May to drop the price of the cruise by about $1,000 (due to kids sail free or whatever it was). Also, I am hoping I could use that extra $1,000 toward bidding toward a Haven room if that opportunity to presents itself just to see what that's all about. I would love to give the Vista a try someday though. I don't think it would be a bad experience!

We are Carnival Platinum cruisers, and just got off the Vista....

Our impression and the impression of many others was -- the Vista has a terrible layout. It almost appears that things were crammed into spaces without much thought for passenger flow.

If this tells you anything.... I am here looking for information on the escape because I am growing tired of Carnival and its bullsh*t, and strongly considering sailing NCL for our next cruise.

We are Carnival Platinum cruisers, and just got off the Vista....

 

Our impression and the impression of many others was -- the Vista has a terrible layout. It almost appears that things were crammed into spaces without much thought for passenger flow.

 

If this tells you anything.... I am here looking for information on the escape because I am growing tired of Carnival and its bullsh*t, and strongly considering sailing NCL for our next cruise.

6 Carnival cruises

1 RCI

2 NCL

The Escape by far is the first ship I would cruise again.

With the free at sea promo , getting drinks included and 1 other perk ,NCL is actually less expensive than Carnival.

Thanks for all of your very valuable responses!

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