Vista review: new CCL cruiser perspective

[bUU]

We never warmed to the "atrium," ...

That struck me from the very first YouTube video I saw of the Carnival cruise ship interiors: They're definitely not buying into the Royal Caribbean ethic of having much interior space "wasted" as open space.

[meatloafsfan]

I think the somewhat blandness of the ship is intentional when it comes to the Vista - most of the older Carnival ships have extremely creative interiors and have often come under fire for having far too much "glitz and neon". Carnival has probably swung too far to blandness in it's effort to get away from the Joe Farcus designs.

 

Great review so far.

[jimbo5544]

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.

Most Carnival cabins have three closets when you enter a room. On the Vista there are two, where the third one was, there now is an individual AC unit.

[jimbo5544]

Enjoying your review.

[Steve-Carol]

Enjoying your review. Will be on the Vista Sept. 23.

[Cafedumonde]

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.

 

I think the theme might have been something like contemporary beach casual, but just a guess. Generally, we found it fell flat. The area on deck five with the Taste Bar where they also held trivia and other events and had the Blue Java Cafe-- was there any identity to that area? And the bar right there kind of crammed in behind the revolving door-- we never could figure out if it even had a name. The buffet was just blah. I agree though that some venues (like Red Frog Pub, Guy's Burgers, Havana area/bar, la Cucina, Jiji's) had great theming and atmosphere. We commented that it would have been great if they had expanded the Havana theme throughout the ship- or something like that.

[Cafedumonde]

That struck me from the very first YouTube video I saw of the Carnival cruise ship interiors: They're definitely not buying into the Royal Caribbean ethic of having much interior space "wasted" as open space.

We have not been on Royal yet but have watched utube videos. Yes, Carnival does seem to be going in a very different direction, more utilitarian (sorry, I keep using the same word!). Really nice to have a variety of cruise options out there.

[Cafedumonde]

I think the somewhat blandness of the ship is intentional when it comes to the Vista - most of the older Carnival ships have extremely creative interiors and have often come under fire for having far too much "glitz and neon". Carnival has probably swung too far to blandness in it's effort to get away from the Joe Farcus designs.

 

Great review so far.

 

We have not been on other Carnival ships but have watched walk throughs on utube. Still I think to get a real feel for a ship you have to get on it. When I was younger, I think I would have been put off by the Farcus designs, but now that I am over 40, all of that appeals to me. I would love to see one of his ships. I agree that the Vista seems very different and that Carnival made the conscious decision to change course. We commented that maintenance and upkeep will be a lot less expensive on the Vista than on the ships with more detail. It does seem like Carnival is focused on affordability--and on the Vista- they also seemed very focused on families with children.

[Cafedumonde]

Most Carnival cabins have three closets when you enter a room. On the Vista there are two, where the third one was, there now is an individual AC unit.

That is interesting because we noticed the bump out and the vents and wondered if there was an actual unit in there. I am now realizing that the panels in the hallway with the beach themes (and other themes) must provide access to the a/c unit for maintenance. We assumed those were just storage closets. The a/c was dreamy in our room. We tend to kept our a/c around 75 at home just to save on the bill, so it was a real treat stepping into our own vacation icebox. But I don't know what was up with the rest of the a/c on the ship.

[Cafedumonde]

Enjoying your review.

Thanks!

[Cafedumonde]

Enjoying your review. Will be on the Vista Sept. 23.

You can probably see where this review is headed... you will have a blast!

[Cafedumonde]

Not sure if I will get back to this later today or not-- back to work and school.

[mbrownferrier]

Enjoying the review! Thank you

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Cap'n Ron]

Enjoying the review, thank you for sharing your experience! Having sailed NCL, would you recommend Vista and this itinerary over the Getaway? We are planning to take our two kids on Vista next February, but found Getaway for a few hundred more, so we are considering switching to NCL (balcony on Getaway vs. Oceanview on Vista). Their first cruise will be on the Disney Fantasy in December, so not sure how that transition will go. Appreciate any input, and look forward to the rest of your review. Thank you!

 

Sent from my XT1635-02 using Forums mobile app

[lennythenose]

I was interested in your comments about your boys. My 2 are 18 and 14 now but went on their first cruise at 10 and 6. They have only been on Carnival and have loved the kids club on almost every one of their 5 (6?) cruises. The older more outgoing one especially. He actually keeps in contact on social media with friends from past cruises! The older they get the more fun they seem to have although less of the organized activities and more using the club as a meeting place or just to hang out with their new buddies.

 

I'm really enjoying your review.

[helene109]

Good to hear about the ac as we had a balcony and an inside 2 weeks ago on the Glory and the inside was so hot! But we would really miss that closet if we had 4 in a room were you able to use storage under the beds?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[mjonis]

Thanks for the info. You probably would not like the MSC Divina then (if you though embarkation was bad, try Divina, although this seems to be mostly a POM issue). Low ceilings, etc.

 

Good to know that the AC works very well in the rooms though.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Good to hear about the ac as we had a balcony and an inside 2 weeks ago on the Glory and the inside was so hot! But we would really miss that closet if we had 4 in a room were you able to use storage under the beds?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

We had four in a room and each of us had our own suitcase. We found there was enough space. The night stands have drawers as well so that was helpful. We were able to store our suitcases under the bed.

[buddylover]

That struck me from the very first YouTube video I saw of the Carnival cruise ship interiors: They're definitely not buying into the Royal Caribbean ethic of having much interior space "wasted" as open space.

 

Wasted open space??:confused: Open space is never "wasted" in much used venues on ships with 4000+ pax.....especially on the Vista, if you have ever been on her.....where there is lots of parties, evening events and gatherings with the CD....it is just CRAMMED and immovable on all three levels including the stairs.....Matt, the CD, dances on the bar table tops....this ship needed more of what you call 'wasted open space' in the much reduced closed in atrium !!

[bUU]

They're definitely not buying into the Royal Caribbean ethic of having much interior space "wasted" as open space.

Wasted open space?? Open space is never "wasted" in much used venues on ships with 4000+ pax.....

Which is precisely why I put the word in quotation marks.

[evandbob]

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.

 

Thanks for your review. I think the reason given for less closet/storage space on the Vista concerned an individual cabin A/C control unit in each cabin rather than a unit outside somewhere that controlled the airflow for a bloc of cabins.

 

We cruise with just 1 piece of carry on luggage each, so we had ample space for our clothes. However, the typical cruiser with multi bags would have difficuly storing everything they brought.

 

We also thought the cabins on NCL's Breakaway were nicer than the Vista's.

[loveysbydesign]

Thanks for your review, have only sailed on one Carnival ship, the Breeze back in 2014. We had a great time and have also sailed Disney and RCCL. Looking at Vista May 2018. My kids will be 19, 15 and 10 at that point.

[Michelle236]

Thank you so much for your review. My friend and I sail the Vista in 39 days and cannot wait. I am looking forward to seeing how I feel about some of the areas of the ship that I hear a lot of negative comments on. My last two sailings have been on the Carnival Breeze...and I LOVE LOVE LOVE her!! I will have fun no matter what, but it will be interesting to see all the changes.

[Cafedumonde]

6. Ports. All new for us. It was probably the ports and the 8 verses 7 nights that drew us to this cruise.

Grand Turk. We were the only ship in port that day. Embarkation was seemless. Matt seemed to be in charge of this process. Only sign and sail card needed: loved this. We brought a beach bag off the ship with some Carnival beach towels, bottled water, a camera, and snorkeling equipment. We were just planning on heading to the beach for a bit. We got off early and everything was pretty empty. We walked a bit down the beach and sat on some loungers which we thought were free. A woman showed up to tell us she needed some money for the chairs. It did not seem right and we told her we thought the chairs were free. She said no, "Things are free on the ship, but when you get to the beach, you have to pay." Well, we had not even thought to bring money with us because we figured the kids would last two hours max, so the point was irrelevant. We quickly decided to just move to the beach to avoid conflict. We did not really need the chairs anyway because we love sun and the kids would be in the water the entire time. We moved further down the beach to a clear spot and ended up hanging out there for about 4 hours. If you look at the houses behind the beach, Grand Turk seems generally impoverished, but what a beautiful beach. After some time, I remembered that I had read about a Margaritaville on the beach and wished we had brought money to go look for it. We debated going back to the ship to get money but felt very lazy! So next time. Getting back on the ship had a bit of a line that split into two entrances, which did not make sense. As we moved up in the line we saw Matt and a couple of officers come fix the line so that it flowed better. Overall, back on the ship in good time. Very nice to have someone switch out your towels right as you got on the ship.

[Cafedumonde]

La Romana. We debated back and forth about what to do at this port. We almost did the Seavis boat trip to Saona island but hesitated because it was all day and included food. We try to avoid excursions with food and look for more half day activities because of the kids. As I said, they are a hard sell. We also looked at the Monkeyland excursion through Carnival but it sold out as we were trying to decide whether or not thing 1 would complain for the entire hour plus bus ride each way. Also, not sure about committing to a non water based activity in August with the heat. In the end, we succumbed to inertia and ended up just getting off the ship and walking around. When we arrived in this port, there were many people on the dock, as though our arrival was a big event. Dock workers screaming, "Hola! Hola!" People in traditional dress dancing and playing music. This was the only port with a welcome party. Getting on and off the ship at the port was effortless. We got the feeling that a lot of people stayed on the ship.

At this point in our lives we live in beautiful but uneventful (not complaining) exurbia, so we love taking the opportunity to embrace our inner urban hipster. This is easily done in La Romana. We left one of the kids in Camp Ocean (he begged) while we got off the ship and tried to head in the direction of Jumbo, the grocery store I had read about online. Everyone who got off the ship appeared to be boarding some type of excursion bus. We started to walk toward an opening in the fencing and some local security tried to get us in a taxi. We said we wanted to walk and they looked at us but did not try to stop us. We walked down the street outside of the gates and came upon a large group of taxi drivers who desperately tried to get us to become passengers. We were the only people I saw walk outside of the gates. We got the impression that they were used to larger numbers of people needing transportation. We had taxi drivers nearly begging us, saying things like, "$10 for all of you for an all day tour of the city." We finally convinced them one by one that we wanted to walk and one straggler told us to walk through an alley, "much faster to town." He seemed sincere so we followed his direction and got off the main road. In the distance down the alley you could see what appeared to be a main road (which was the one we were originally on, so the cut through was a lot faster). There were a few people along the alley, casually asking if we needed a "tour guide" or wanted to buy Cuban cigars or woven hats. We said no thanks because we were in single minded pursuit of this grocery, but I later regretted not buying any of their stuff. It was sold when we came back through and they were hanging out just chit chatting among themselves. We passed a community baseball field where lots of young men were playing pretty seriously and looked pretty impressive. Later we crossed paths with some of the players leaving the field, walking, carrying their bats and gear in bags over their shoulders. They purposefully looked at us and smiled, "Hello," not hola. After the baseball field we reached the main street over the bridge which opened into what looked like it might have been a grander avenue at one time. There were security guards all along the route except for in the alley. The houses we passed there were pretty dilapidated and the road was dirt. We walked down the main road maybe about a half mile (along which we finally saw a couple of cruisers at a distance) until we arrived at the grocery. Most of the people we saw along the way seemed poor but happy and friendly. Most shoppers in the grocery were the same, but a middle class was also evident, just not dominant. On the walk back to the ship we caught up with two other cruisers who were taking photos of each other in front of the baseball field. They did not see us or did not acknowledge they did. We noticed they ended up ducking into the alley also to get back to the ship.