Behind the Scenes...

[steadyone]

I’ve done it twice before, Triumph & Liberty. Hopefully Carnival is still doing the best part of the tour. Maybe two or three hours after the tour, you will find some delicious goodies in your stateroom

[Pellaz]

Has anyone done this on the Vista? Was it worth it?

 

 

I did this tour on Vista two weeks ago. It was good, although a bit different from other $95 Behind the Fun tours I've done.

 

The good:

 

The Engineering Control Room was almost worth the price of admission by itself. Vista is a new ship and the digital hi-def displays and the "tactical table" are REALLY nifty. Made me think we were in CIC on a warship. :)

 

The bad:

 

-- Our tour seemed a bit rushed, and we did not get to do some activities I've done before. For example, we did not get to go to the actual theater stage, but had a presentation in the wardrobe area. We also did not go by the brig and the morgue, or the crew laundry.

-- We did not go onto the ship's prow for a group photo by the ship's bell as on previous ships, but we had a group photo taken with the brewmaster at the Red Frog Pub instead. (You also get a sample of their craft beer.) I was told this change was NOT made due to our windy sea-day but is normal for the Vista.

-- In the past your three photos were delivered to your cabin the evening after the tour, but on Vista you have to go to the Pixels Gallery between 7 and 10pm that night to pick up your photos. Thankfully, the process was quick. I don't know if you lose your photos if you don't get there in time to collect them, though.

-- Our visit to the bridge seemed a bit more rushed than on previous tours and we were only shown the thruster controls on one bridge "wing."

 

The usual:

 

-- Some of the presenters were almost impossible to hear, including the chef de cuisine in the galley and the laundry manager in the main laundry. This is an ongoing issue with the BtF tours, which I think should include a smaller number of participants (10 or 12 instead of 16) and also make use of a small powered mic and speaker setup for presenters in loud environments. I've suggested both changes repeatedly on the survey they give to participants, but to no avail.

 

The TL;DR: it's worth the money, especially for a first-timer, but it was far from the best BtF tour I've done. This one was number 7.

[sunshower9]

-- Our tour seemed a bit rushed, and we did not get to do some activities I've done before. For example, we did not get to go to the actual theater stage, but had a presentation in the wardrobe area. We also did not go by the brig and the morgue, or the crew laundry.

When we did the tour on the Vista, our guide told us that they normally don't take you by the brig and the morgue, but our tour was a few minutes ahead of schedule so she took us there because we had a little extra time.

[Pellaz]

When we did the tour on the Vista, our guide told us that they normally don't take you by the brig and the morgue, but our tour was a few minutes ahead of schedule so she took us there because we had a little extra time.

 

Huh, interesting. Our guide (a guy, the ship's training officer as usual) told us that he'd show us the brig and the morgue IF there was time.

Our accompanying security officer told us that they'd had to use the brig on the previous cruise for an unruly patron, which was kinda neat. It isn't used that often.

 

We also got to see into the Captain's cabin, but only because the door was open on the way to the bridge. We were quiet as we passed, without being told to be. (He was facing away from us toward the window, using a computer.)

 

I just remembered there was something else not mentioned or covered: a crew cabin. Usually the tour guide will show photos of a crew cabin during the stop in the Training Center, unless by some rare chance you get to actually see a crew cabin while transiting the crew area (which happened on one of my tours). In our case I don't recall any mention or photos of them.

 

Seems like every BtF Tour is slightly different, but they are well-worth the time and the cost if you have ANY interest in how a floating, moving city operates.