Vista 7/1/16 8 day Med Review - a Vista like no other

[Micahs Grandad]

One of the things I neglected to mention was the enhanced way of boarding (and also getting on and off the ship at ports) that Carnival is using on the Vista. It is an iPad with a bar code reader that scans the bar code on the sign and sail card. It worked quite well, I assume they will roll this out across the fleet.

 

As the time approached for the muster drill (our station was the Reflections dining room) we moseyed down there a couple of minutes early. I was surprised to see them using the scanners to scan peoples cards as you entered. I did still see someone walking around with a clicker counting as well. The muster took about a half hour and then it was time for sail away.

 

About time they started doing this. Princess has used a similar system for a couple of years at least and this way they know who has to checked into muster drill and who hasnt.

[jimbo5544]

Was the bar code reader faster than the "ding" machine?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

It did seem to move faster, they always had at least two of them going. The interesting thing is that when I looked at the pic that came up for me it was from our last cruise. Not so for other people....not sure why, maybe tied to how long ago it was? I tried to snap a picture and got my hand slapped a bit for doing so. :o

 

While we are on the subject (sort of), they are also using the same for pictures taken. They ask your cabin number before taking a picture and the occupants for that cabin show on the screen. Likewise, when you go down to pixels, there are iPads setup and you log in to see all of "your" pictures.

[jimbo5544]

About time they started doing this. Princess has used a similar system for a couple of years at least and this way they know who has to checked into muster drill and who hasnt.

 

It seemed to help the process.

[jimbo5544]

Was the bar code reader faster than the "ding" machine?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

By the way, it still "dinged"

[jimbo5544]

I did forget to mention that before muster, we went down and I had my first Guy's burger of the cruise. I thought I had read somewhere that they thought it tasted different, but it sure tasted like a Guys's burger to me. The other point is that I never found Guys to be very crowded, people for sure, but not long lines.

[jimbo5544]

After muster, we hung int eh dining room a bit and thought it would be easier to grab an elevator and then ran into Ken Byrnes. Ken "the singing Maitre'd" is an old friend whom we had not seen in a while. We actually had an issue with the groups department and they could not/would not add the the last three cabins to our late seating and our table groupings. They said you had to wait till you got on the ship.

 

The wife pulled out Ken's business card, and emailed home before we left and he replied he would take care of it that day (which he did). We thanked him again, he swung over at dinner 4 times during the cruise to make sure everything was OK. Our waiter, upon seeing this the first evening, came by right after he left and asked if everything was OK. We said yes, no issues what so ever, and she asked if there was something, please ask her and she would get it taken care of. I said no problem (and there were none).

[jimbo5544]

I wanted to stop back in the room before we met up with the rest of the crew on 10 aft for sail away to get my camera. When we travel I bring a little digital thermometer, which I put out so I can see how warm or cool the room gets (the wife thinks I am crazy...:o). Upon entering the room, I gazed over and saw that it read this.

 

 

[jimbo5544]

I cranked the wall thermometer up a couple of degrees. The other thing I noticed is that the A/C was much more like a hotel room version rather then just the vents on older ships. You could here to fan switching on and off (blowing of air), different...but better.

Edited July 14, 2016 by jimbo5544

[grandmacani]

Going on the last med and TA. Appreciate your time doing this review. I think those of us who are going at a later date are just soaking this all in. Can't wait to see more😎

[jimbo5544]

Going on the last med and TA. Appreciate your time doing this review. I think those of us who are going at a later date are just soaking this all in. Can't wait to see more😎

 

Thanks, doing it is as much for me (keeping it fresh) as for others:D Lot's more pictures including lots of ports pictures. Hope I don't bore everybody.;)

[jimbo5544]

Going on the last med and TA. Appreciate your time doing this review. I think those of us who are going at a later date are just soaking this all in. Can't wait to see more😎

 

There sure is a bunch of you doing the last med cruise and the TA. Wish I were among them, maybe Vista II.

[KPfromCT]

Really enjoying this!!!:D:D

Cannot wait to see more pictures of the ship!!!

 

Patiently waiting for more.....:o

[LisaH]

We will be on the Vista in a Havana Cabana Suite in February. I am very excited to read your review. I was thinking there would be more reviews out there than there actually are.

 

Looking forward to yours and thanks for sharing.

[deladane]

....and one more. It seems that a lot of hotels have their pools on the roof tops, which I thought was kind of cool. Here is one we could see from the top of the bull ring.

 

 

haha I took a photo of the same hotel after I ate dinner on top of Arenas! How funny that these people had zero privacy while swimming in that pool! Thanks for posting such a fun review! I'm loving reliving my time in Barcelona and looking forward to reading all about your cruise! :)

[LisaH]

i wanted to stop back in the room before we met up with the rest of the crew on 10 aft for sail away to get my camera. When we travel i bring a little digital thermometer, which i put out so i can see how warm or cool the room gets (the wife thinks i am crazy...:o). Upon entering the room, i gazed over and saw that it read this.

 

 

 

awesome!

[jimbo5544]

Really enjoying this!!!:D:D

Cannot wait to see more pictures of the ship!!!

 

Patiently waiting for more.....:o

 

Sorry for the delay, our other business had my attention and more importantly tied up the PC where the pics resided all last night. I will load some more pics of the ship shorty.

[jimbo5544]

We will be on the Vista in a Havana Cabana Suite in February. I am very excited to read your review. I was thinking there would be more reviews out there than there actually are.

 

Looking forward to yours and thanks for sharing.

 

My pleasure, I have some pics of some Havana Cabana rooms and a video (if I figure out how to post it) but not a HC suite. I have also tried in vein so far to book one (we do have a HC balcony (same one in video actually) and a 6th floor aft wrap booked for April and August of next year. My guess is that we may see more of these on Vista II. More news on HC rooms coming up later on some stuff I got the scoop on.

[jimbo5544]

haha I took a photo of the same hotel after I ate dinner on top of Arenas! How funny that these people had zero privacy while swimming in that pool! Thanks for posting such a fun review! I'm loving reliving my time in Barcelona and looking forward to reading all about your cruise! :)

 

LOL, that is kind of weird, thanks for the kind words on the review. More coming soon.

[jimbo5544]

awesome!

 

During the diamond event I happened to be sitting next to the chief engineer. He told me the A/C is dramatically different on this ship as were many things. They are still learning the ropes.

[jimbo5544]

OK, so I was going to intersperse some ship pictures along the way in the review, but let me put some up now. Some may be duplicated from before, if so I apologize in advance. Here is the aft pool and tides bar, we spent most of our time here (which was not a lot of time on this cruise). For whatever reason, the times I walked by the main pool, it seemed less crowded. Possibly because it was not your typical Caribbean cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

Looking down at the Havana Cabana pool

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

Pics from deck 12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

Main pool area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

Some of the shops (closed as we had not left yet)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[skywalkr2]

It looks like the new designer based the atrium on Star Trek.