Vista review: new CCL cruiser perspective

An unsensored view of the Vista through new Carnival cruiser eyes:

Background: previously cruised with NCL and Disney, prefer NCL. DH, me, two kids 8 and 9.

Carnival Vista 8/12/2017, 8 nights, four ports (Grand Turk, la Romana, Curacao, Aruba)

Embarkation:

A complete mess. Never experienced anything like it. This was the first of many times during this cruise where we remarked that in some ways Carnival does not seem like a seasoned cruise line. Our boarding pass/IDs were checked literally at least 6 times by different people in addition to actual check in. Lines were intense and slow moving.

First impressions of the ship:

1. No atrium. There is an area that seems like it was intended to be the atrium, but it was incredibly small, reminded me of an inexpensive but nice hotel lobby and had antiseptic lighting- almost no outside light. Many things on the ship are too small, for example the tucked away customer service desk that has people approaching it from every which way because the line is not clearly marked.

2. Insufficient air conditioning. We wondered if it was broken but concluded as the cruise went on that the design of the ship (many open doors to outside) contributed to the lack of air conditioning. In our individual cabin it was superior, but the public areas only had pockets of air conditioning. Stairwells and elevators in particular were often if not always unbearably hot and sometimes lended an almost 3rd world quality to the ship.

3. Buffet area was too small, too hot and generally grimy. Tiled floors were often (if not always) wet and slippery as though from grease. Chairs and tables were almost all sticky even after being wiped down. As the week went on we noticed that people paid no attention to the buffet dress code, nor was it enforced. It seemed like half the people coming into the buffet area were straight out of the pool or off the beach. A lot of people did not seem to shower regularly (except for the 2 elegant nights when we were shocked by how many people dressed up and how great everyone looked). Dirty plates were often piled on tables in the buffet for some time before being removed.

4. It was a breath of fresh air to walk into our Cabin. We were 4 people in a cove balcony and it was very clean, everything spotless. Room steward genuinely friendly and attentive. We requested service 2x per day and for the third and fourth bed to be put away daily.

Overall experience:

1. Employees: Carnival has awesome employees who work very hard to genuinely make your vacation a great experience. Every employee we met over the 8 nights was happy and hard working. Sometimes they looked too hard working but still happy. Carnival must treat their employees decently because we did not encounter any employee dissatisfaction on any level. Our room steward went above and beyond and did everything he could to make our cruise exceptional. He surpassed any room steward we have had on other lines, with one on NCL a close runner up, always genuinely friendly and thorough.

A special shout out goes to Matt the cruise director, who seems to have cult following and is such an effusive, warm person. Part camp counselor, part Vista CEO, Matt rallies everyone on the ship and makes it impossible to not be excited about the cruise- every single day. But even with such excellent employees, the ship often seems understaffed. This was evident in the buffet and on pool decks as well as in the main dining room where service was excellent but sometimes slow. Food lines were often long, the cafe (Starbucks) could be a 30 minute wait, and a lot of areas needed more cleaning.

2. Food: Food is not a priority for us, as long as it is decent, but the food on Carnival is amazing. There are endless options on the Carnival Vista and here Carnival puts other lines to shame in a major way. The main complementary dining room is lovely and each night's menu accomodates nearly every taste. We also loved the food on NCL and give their buffet a slight edge for food, major edge for atmosphere, but Carnival wins in the Main Dining room and Carnival has many more free (and completely mouth watering) options than NCL.

(Breaking here but will continue later today!)

We are looking at the 6 day next summer and the cove also was it big enough for 4? Thanks for the review so far any pictures

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Looking forward to the rest of your review. I'll be on this itinerary next month.

I was on this same sailing, I pretty much agree with everything but the food, guys, the iguana and the BBQ place were pretty good but the rest was like Golden Corral (rest home food)

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Your comments on embarkation are interesting. I just sailed Vista in April and I have never gone from the cab to my stateroom quicker. Can I ask what your check in time was? Were they having computer issues or something?

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Great start!

BTW my favorite line so far is Disney.

Loved your take on the 'almost Atrium'.....we have been on many CCL ships, and by far the Vista's decorating (aptly put as a 'cheap hotel lobby) and design is by far the worst! In total agreement with you about venues that are 'too small' and very few windows to see the ocean from public areas....not our favorite either. And the theatre is atypical to CCL - the Vista's is just an abomination!

Ahh, yes, but Matt Mitchum is the savior to any Vista cruise.....he is INCREDIBLE and makes the experience a fun one none the less!!!

But please do give CCL another chance......thus far, no other ship is like the Vista (however another in the same class is coming out, the Horizon, and we will stay away from that one too unless we hear that MANY improvements are made!)......most have lots of windows, bigger venues, much better theatres, wonderful many storied atriums with glass elevators going all the way up to the lido etc!!!

3. The ship: The Vista is utilitarian and has many, many places for the variety of activities that go on daily. There are areas that are quite nice-- we found the main dining room, Horizons, very pleasant, contemporary decor but with an old fashioned vibe, if that makes sense. But overall there is little to no theming, and no "wow." Some restaurant/bar theming (red frog pub, etc), but minimal. The top two decks have loads of things to do, much more than on most ships, but there is nothing cute or visually inspiring on this ship that would make you stop to look. Yet... our kids had a lot of fun up there on the two levels of mini golf (open 24 hours unlike DCL where we were chased off by an employee around 9 on our last cruise), foosball, sky ride, ropes course, huge waterslides and large water park. Large pools open until 12 (if I remember correctly). There are no official lifeguards but there are security people around who do appear to be watching the pools and employees watching the slides. Except for the buffet and food lines, there were no areas of crowding. We felt everything was sized well, but ceilings were almost always low which contributed to the utilitarian feel of the ship. There were endless deck chairs on multiple decks, never a shortage of space. And we found they left the deck chairs out. On dcl in particular they put the deck chairs away very early at night which is incredibly annoying.

4. Our cabin. I touched on this in first impressions. Cabin was somewhat spartan but very clean (our top cabin priority). Storage space was lacking, as we also find in DCL. NCL is the king of cabin storage. There is no divider curtain as on DCL. Bathrooms are small but adequate. The shower floor and bathroom floor are almost contiguous which seemed a little too utilitarian to us. There is a pretty large flatscreen tv (maybe 32 inches) but it does not move so only faces the master bed. The minifridge cooled our water that we purchased ice cold. Being close to the water in the cove balcony created a kind of white noise effect from the surf so that you did not hear neighbors.

We watched a Dream Cruise special on AWE TV about the Vista. We were not impressed, she really looked crowded.

We are looking at the 6 day next summer and the cove also was it big enough for 4? Thanks for the review so far any pictures

 

 

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Yes, we thought the cove was big enough for four, but we do not spend a lot of time in the room. We ordered coffee and pastries to the room every morning and there were a couple of afternoons when we "slept" for about an hour while the kids watched Boomerang. The cove balcony does not have the curtain room divider, but not a big deal for us.

I was on this same sailing, I pretty much agree with everything but the food, guys, the iguana and the BBQ place were pretty good but the rest was like Golden Corral (rest home food)

 

 

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Lol. We only grabbed a couple of things at the buffet, but it sometimes looked a bit like that. It was just so unbelievably crowded in there. Did you go to the main dining room? We thought the food there was great. We did a lot of Guy's Burgers and pizza.

I have sailed Carnival I think more than any other line but was most recently on NCL. I am surprised at your comments on the storage in the cabin. We are three sisters who travel together often and all of us were surprised at the lack of storage on the Pearl. We were in a mini suite and usually have an OV or balcony on Carnival and Princess.

Seems like a lot of people make comments on the chopped up small spaces on Vista. Glad the outdoor areas were fun for you. Hope you had a great trip overall. Thanks for what seems like a fair and balanced report.

Was on the same cruise and haven't started my review yet. I agree with lots of this. The lack of an atrium and some areas did seem crowded and we too thought the A/C wasn't working in lots of places. The staff was always working and we had no problems with them. We ate in the Main Dining Room every night and we loved the anytime dining. As for other places, we really liked the Pig & Anchor (free lunch only on sea days). The white pizza was good as were the burritos and Guy's burgers. We really didn't do the buffet.

Matt was awesome as the cruise director. Overall, we found more positive than negative.

Doug

Thanks for your comments. Haven't been on the Vista yet (next January.)

Been on many Carnival cruises in balconies and OV's and never seen a "room divider."

Please tell me what that is.

I guess you will not be going back to the Vista.

We loved the Vista, but I can see where you comments about the decor being boring in some areas would come through. She does lack some character in some places as far as theme is concerned, but I personally love things like the Red Frog Pub and them brewing their own beer on board. That made up for that IMO. I don't recall a "theme" to her at all if I'm remembering correctly.

5. Entertainment/organized activities. We only saw one evening show and it was entertaining but unsophisticated. It involved movie songs and our kids enjoyed guessing which movie each song went with. We meant to go to more evening performances during the week but just never got to it. We saw a couple of comedians and they were excellent. We attended a thoughtful event honoring the military because we happened to walk by it. The tea time on sea days was a favorite for one of our kids. The movies on deck at night were like magic under the stars- best sound system we have experienced at sea. The Imax (showing Dunkirk and Planet of the apes) and Thrill Theatre are great options. Also a lot of fun: trivia, bingo, and loved the hairy chest contest (New York!). Alright, so we are not from New York but love the attitude.

6. Camp Ocean. So I don't really know what goes on behind that door they pretty much close in your face, but our kids LOVED LOVED Camp Ocean-- and our children are a hard sell. Our children are cavalier about DCL's rather ornate and fancy kid clubs. They say that NCL's kid club is "like school," so we were not expecting much from Carnival's kid club. From what we could get out of the kids (boys, so they don't reveal a lot), it was "old school," run more how things were run when we were kids when everyone wasn't so self-conscious and kids could just be. Our kids would run into "friends" all over the ship (gleefully), which was new for us. We had not thought about it before but our kids had never made "friends" on any other cruises. We loved the vibe of the counselors at Camp Ocean as they sign the kids in and out, genuinely attentive and laid back at the same time.

Your comments on embarkation are interesting. I just sailed Vista in April and I have never gone from the cab to my stateroom quicker. Can I ask what your check in time was? Were they having computer issues or something?

Our check in time was either 11 or 11:30 (I will look it up). We got there around 11:40. I don't think they were having computer issues. It was very strangely organized and was not working. It did cross my mind that maybe we got really unlucky and that something was going on behind the scenes causing the craziness. Hopefully..

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Great start!

 

BTW my favorite line so far is Disney.

We do like Disney but just a bit over them. Definitely over their prices!

Loved your take on the 'almost Atrium'.....we have been on many CCL ships, and by far the Vista's decorating (aptly put as a 'cheap hotel lobby) and design is by far the worst! In total agreement with you about venues that are 'too small' and very few windows to see the ocean from public areas....not our favorite either. And the theatre is atypical to CCL - the Vista's is just an abomination!

Ahh, yes, but Matt Mitchum is the savior to any Vista cruise.....he is INCREDIBLE and makes the experience a fun one none the less!!!

But please do give CCL another chance......thus far, no other ship is like the Vista (however another in the same class is coming out, the Horizon, and we will stay away from that one too unless we hear that MANY improvements are made!)......most have lots of windows, bigger venues, much better theatres, wonderful many storied atriums with glass elevators going all the way up to the lido etc!!!

We never warmed to the "atrium," but the rest of the ship started to grow on us a bit...:hearteyes:

We watched a Dream Cruise special on AWE TV about the Vista. We were not impressed, she really looked crowded.

The buffet was the worst spot for crowds (really awful). The sun decks and pools were well sized. Theatre a bit small but all other venues seemed fine to us.

I have sailed Carnival I think more than any other line but was most recently on NCL. I am surprised at your comments on the storage in the cabin. We are three sisters who travel together often and all of us were surprised at the lack of storage on the Pearl. We were in a mini suite and usually have an OV or balcony on Carnival and Princess.

 

Seems like a lot of people make comments on the chopped up small spaces on Vista. Glad the outdoor areas were fun for you. Hope you had a great trip overall. Thanks for what seems like a fair and balanced report.

This is a good point. We have not yet been on the Gem class (I think that's what it's called) on NCL, just newer NCL ships, which have storage and shelves in every nook and cranny. Going on the Gem next year so my view on NCL's storage may change. But the Vista is Carnival's latest ship. It seems like they should have been more creative with storage in the room.

Was on the same cruise and haven't started my review yet. I agree with lots of this. The lack of an atrium and some areas did seem crowded and we too thought the A/C wasn't working in lots of places. The staff was always working and we had no problems with them. We ate in the Main Dining Room every night and we loved the anytime dining. As for other places, we really liked the Pig & Anchor (free lunch only on sea days). The white pizza was good as were the burritos and Guy's burgers. We really didn't do the buffet.

 

Matt was awesome as the cruise director. Overall, we found more positive than negative.

 

Doug

Looking forward to reading your review!! We also loved Pig and Anchor.

Thanks for your comments. Haven't been on the Vista yet (next January.)

 

Been on many Carnival cruises in balconies and OV's and never seen a "room divider."

 

Please tell me what that is.

It is just a curtain that you can pull across the room, not a big deal, but if someone is sleeping you can sit on the other side of the curtain and watch tv, etc.

I guess you will not be going back to the Vista.

We'll see... :cool: