KaiBlue

We usually pick port side because we started out with enough port side cabins that now I just intuitively know which way is the front or aft when I leave my room. Had a starboard side recently and I swear I spent the entire cruise confused:) Plus more carnival ships have smoking on starboard than port side. After a cruise long ago where we could smell it on our balcony, we now try to avoid that.

He ran it on our August sailing.

Ship - Vista Deck - 10 Stateroom # - 10294 Stateroom Category – Standard Balcony Starboard or Port Side - Port Side Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – better than expected since this was one room off the main pool deck area of deck 10. Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - no Balcony View - no obstructions - balconies even had privacy dividers between them (small pieces of metal that stuck out from the ship between the balconies so if someone was at the rail next door, you couldn't easily see them). Any specific problems with this cabin? Since this was right off the main pool area, the hallway with the elevators in the center of the deck was always very hot. So much so, that the heavy emergency door leading to the cabin hallways was always kept shut. These doors took quite a bit of effort to open. Cabin also had a broken shelf in the closet and curtains were dirty. Any other comments? - We enjoyed the convenience of a lido deck cabin.

On our more recent cruises, we have seen more 'visible' security. And some have been bigger people that look like they can handle themselves, all of which I appreciate. Enforcing the rules consistently, I think the word would get out and maybe quell some of this behavior. And I think the kids curfew time is way too late - no reason for a kid to be roaming alone or in a group of kids at midnight. Not sure if it's true, but on our last cruise supposedly they were fining parents who's kids were breaking the rules of the cruise contract. Whether true or a rumor, it would be great if parents feared this and thus took a little more care to watch their kids.

We will probably never sail Vista again - perhaps it was just the completely changed itinerary and a cruise ship full of disgruntled people that soured the entire mood. Everywhere you went, people were complaining. That's just not us and I think unfortunately it really just brought the entire experience down. The whole experience was off - for us mentally because we had to scramble to change plans (trying to cancel stuff before cell service was cut off) and obviously also for the crew as they had to adjust ports and sea days vs port days (almost everything ran late according to when they were scheduled on the app).

For the fated 8/10/24 sailing we were generally running around 8 knots for most of our entire trip - I think we got up to 12 once after our extended stay in Freeport during which they were doing repairs, but that was short lived and we went right back to 8. However, the next stops were always very close so no need to go fast.....

I'll take a look at them then. I've heard that they are supposed to be very comfortable shoes.

I had read in an online review that the Oofos were extremely slippery when wet? both the shoe bed itself and the bottom as well. I take it that hasn't been your experience....

I'm wager they lost money on this one. Supposedly about 700 people left the ship after the announcement was made (combine that with the OBC and FCC and I can't see how they would have come out ahead).

My husband wears Keens on cruises but honestly I didn't even think about them for women's shoes - I'll take a look!

Thanks! I actually have an older pair of OluKai but found that they weren't as comfortable as my Teva's. Might have to take a look at the tread as I'm sure they would fine for limited walking.

Wondering if anyone has some good suggestions for flip flops that won't slip too bad on wet cruise decks? I recently fell pretty hard on deck from wearing ones that I hadn't noticed had very little tread left and now I'm really nervous about an upcoming cruise. Need some new shoes but not sure what would work best. I might have to go to more of a hiking type sandal but really would like to have some flip flops as well. Any suggestions of something that has worked for you ladies? TIA!

We were on this sailing of the Vista and feel like the $400 obc and 25% future cruise credit was fair but we had our adult daughter in our cabin with us and the FCC is per individual and I don't think she will have the chance to use it. Wish they would allow it to be transferred especially if in the same cabin. Although I think they should have given the 'opt out' before people boarded, it really wasn't going to matter to us - vacations planned, summer school break to work around and money sunk in a flight/hotel already. I can say that I think they did the best they could given that they got us to 4 replacement ports (2 being Princess Cay and Half Moon Cay both of which I enjoy) and I know it had to be a tough week for the crew (many passengers were being less than kind). We have the Horizon booked for almost the exact same cruise in October and hope that one is a 'go'. Fingers crossed!

Hi @tweety33! Sorry to hear about your leg - that is not a good way to end a cruise. Hopefully you are healing nicely at this point? I'm sure others can weigh in as well as I'm not the best at noticing times but the tour was great! It picked up right outside the port (they queued us inside the gates then took us out to the vans - probably like 14-20 passenger vans - I didn't count). First stop was perhaps 20-25 minutes out at a small roadside stand where they demonstrated cigar rolling (we purchased some for my brother in law) and offered up samples of Mamajuana and coffee/hot chocolate. Also had a small gift area there (jewelry etc). There were restrooms there. Our guide, Logan, was fantastic and spoke to us the entire way telling us about his country - you could tell he was proud of it! Next stop was maybe 10-15 minutes later at a 'casa typica' where the matriarch Blanca welcomed us and showed us how to make coffee (we were able to have some) and Logan showed us through the typical DR homestead and explained everything we saw. At the end Blanca had DR ice cream (frozen pineapple juice) ready for us to take back on the van. I do not recall if there were bathrooms here to use. Ten more minutes and we were at at Chukka outpost (my phone pings it at Luperon) where they sat us at picnic tables and brought out the fixings to make mofongo. We were expecting this to be like a snack but once we had made our own small bowl of it, they kept bringing out more of the ingredients (my husband made two full bowls!) so it was really a meal. Excellent - best mofongo I've ever had. Then we had about 1 hour to go down to the beach. A guy got us an umbrella and we tipped him but there was no cost beyond that. It was great to be able to get into the ocean and sit and watch the beauty for a bit. There was a small gift shop there and bathrooms. Then back on the van to get to the ship - that took about 45 minutes maybe? But Logan entertained us the entire way. They dropped us back off where they picked us up. All in all an excellent tour in our opinion! Very happy we did it! Let me know if you have any specific questions that I didn't answer.

Thank you Patti and Jeff! The Vista is our next cruise in August and it will be our first time on her. Really appreciated all of the pictures so we can get 'the lay of the land'. Going to try JiJi's for the first time!

For those of you that use TA's, can I ask if you are using one of the online companies (some that seem to only do cruises?) or are you using a local agency? i've seen some good prices with the cruise ones (not sure they are enough to make me want to relinquish control mind you...). The only time I've used a TA in the past 20 years has been on a Disney trip where the TA specialized in Disney and got block hotel pricing (so I saved quite a bit) but I knew someone who had used them, so I felt comfortable. The only TA I'd trust for cruises at the moment would be my automobile club travel agency.

Could be. The excursions opened about months ago and I booked the one at that time. They might be completely overhauling them. As noted, we have plenty of time and I was surprised they had any excursions open this early.

Update: I cleared my cache and was able to open the excursion pages for the ports by right clicking and asking it to open in a new tab - but they are all blank. Perhaps there is an update or something going on for our sailing - who knows. I'll wait it out and see if the issue resolves. Thank you @PacnGoNow for the tip about printing the travel summary! That is exactly what I needed to see everything in one spot (and mostly to confirm what I have already booked). Wish it was this easy just by looking at the personalizer)....

@Cruisemeister2002 Wow - that's some crazy mix ups by Princess! We tend to book non-cruise ship excursions and I'm leaning toward doing that again on this cruise. Everyone - thank you for all of the suggestions. I am currently using the new app - but will have to uninstall and reinstall if it's not working in a few days. When we booked this cruise, it was under the old app but I have since deleted that. Sounds like the excursion issue is happening for others and not just me. I've tried both Edge and Chrome with no luck but will also have to try clearing out the cache which i haven't tried yet. Thanks for all of the suggestions. I didn't use a travel agent because frankly, I haven't felt the need to in many many years. I have an excellent current rep for Carnival and also had one for Royal but haven't cruised them in awhile. I am a hands-on planner for our land vacations and didn't see the need to use a TA and get a person in the middle of the equation.

We booked our first Princess cruise last December for the far-off date of June 2025. So far, using the old and now new app and website has been clunky/glitchy at best. Very difficult to see what you have already paid for (you have to go all over the place to find the information). Yesterday, we noticed that the one excursion that we had already booked through Princess had the time changed when looking at it in the app. I used the chat function today and was told that they didn't see the original time we had booked. They obviously canceled the time we had booked but we got no notice of this change. And to boot, none of the 'view excursion' buttons are working to check it for myself (I used 2 different browsers over the course of the last 24 hours and still not working). Representative told me it was because too many people are using the function at the same time. That doesn't sound like a reasonable excuse but perhaps it is given how terrible the app/website is. Anyone else not able to access the 'view excursions' pages? I have to cancel this excursion now and hoping it goes back to my credit card and doesn't become an issue.....

A lot of good suggestions here. I would add that as a mom of 3 daughters who are now all grown, I would agree with @silvercrikhix that preparing your daughter about the potential for her to be approached by an older person is helpful. That way she will feel a little more armed in how to handle the situation. If she stays with a group, I'd say most people would leave them alone (and not think she is older) but my daughters have been approached by older men while standing practically next to me and I saw their confusion on how to handle the situation. I think discussing it with them helped them feel a little more in control during a situation that can seem odd/frightening to a young teenager.

We ask for robes from our stewards and have never had a problem getting them (and we aren't in suites or spa cabins).

Thank you for the responses. I looked it up and we are in port with 2 other large ships (they both get in at 8am and one leaves same time as us while the other leaves just 1 hour before us so that doesn't help our situation at all). Sounds like we should just head to Palm Beach and hope to find a spot to sit on the sand- I don't care about getting a lounger for such a short period of time.

I tried this recently on the Venezia due to all of the people saying how good it was on this site. Unfortunately I didn't care for it at all - perhaps mine was the off one - but it didn't have much flavor at all and what it did have was kind of 'off'. Is it supposed to be a sweet/smokey kind of BBQ? That was what I was expecting.

They had several sales, particularly as the cruise went on (last day they were selling hats/coverups supposedly for around $5 but I didn't inquire as to the specifics - was a huge line up of people wanting to shop past the table they set up). They have the chocolate extravaganza on the last sea day at lunch in the lido. Line was too long for us to bother with it (discovered of the same cakes were at the Sweet Spot section of the other side of the lido buffet line). Two formal nights (was the 2nd and 2nd to last for our 11 night sailing). Deck 5 goes all the way around but the aft section is reserved for the Terrazza cabins - however even if you aren't in one of those cabins you can access that area after 7pm each night.