Vista review: new CCL cruiser perspective

[Cafedumonde]

Good call on not doing Seavis. We did it and the island had lots of sea grass so it was hard to go in the water and snorkel. And the lunch wasn't that good. Parts of the excursion was good though. Not sure if I would try it again.

 

Doug

It seemed like it got mixed reviews. I just wish there were more options in la Romana.

[Cafedumonde]

Interesting review. Other than "no atrium" - I'd say your review sounds a lot like my experience on Glory. The floors in the buffet were dangerously greasy/slippery all the time and I saw multiple people tumble. It was pretty bad. The food in the MDR was pretty darn good. And you hit the nail on the head with the staff. There is something about the Carnival staff, the way they are treated, compensated, or something... that makes them so clearly happy to be there working. It's noticeable how good the service is overall. All the bad reviews for Vista is why we decided against it for next year and went with NCL instead.

Dh and I love NCL. The buffet is night and day. NCL'S food has an edge over Carnival but the atmosphere is night and day.

[Cafedumonde]

I'd actually say the Golden Corral is far better than the Carnival buffet. We found it pretty much inedible. The first time in a long time that we made a point of avoiding the buffet on a cruise.

We just could not stand the atmosphere. :(

[Cafedumonde]

I am enjoying your thorough and thoughtful review.

 

I so agree with your comments about Carnival employees. They are Carnival's greatest asset.

Thanks!

[Cafedumonde]

I was looking at ncl too but the price for our timeframe is so much more than carnival, we were on the Glory a few weeks and my family wants to try something different as the vista or another cruise line

 

 

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We find the prices on NCL sometimes go up and down so to book with them I keep checking back. Carnival for the most part seems to start low and go up.

[Cafedumonde]

Thanks for taking the time to do the review.

Thanks for reading!

[Cafedumonde]

We need a 6 day next June or July my thread is called Vista cove, balcony or deluxe ocean view? Which would you choose? I can go on the Dream for 7 days but we have already done it! Any advice would be great thanks!!

 

 

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I know this isn't directed towards me, but I would do Cove, unless you find you do not use balconies and then I would go oceanview.

[Cap'n Ron]

I personally don't think you can go wrong with either. The balcony is a big deal for us, so that may push us to NCL. Our kids, however, preferred the Carnival Kids Club to NCL's. I say that with a grain of salt, however, because I have read many reviews where people report their kids absolutely loved NCL's kids club.

 

 

 

Thank you for the input and help! We did decide to go with the Vista, as I think it will be of more interest to our kids. Plus the split bathroom design, like Disney's setup, is a plus for the ocean view cabin on Vista. We're very excited, only 167 days to go!

 

 

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[Cafedumonde]

I have done the Jewel and Jade (same class as Gem) the jewel was a balcony cabin and Jade was a mini suite. I found for 2 of us there was plenty of room for our clothes. I really like NCL has drawers. On my previous Carnival cruises I don't recall having much storage for folded clothes.

Looking forward to the Vista May 2018

 

 

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Great to hear about the Gem class. You'll have a great time on the Vista.

[Cafedumonde]

Anytime Dining on the Dream- as of now, you get your buzzer at the hostess stand in the MDR.

I hope it is still that way when we are on it next August 2018 (yes, we decided to keep it!).

[Cafedumonde]

Thanks for the great review, very helpful. Do you recall what the charges are for IMAX and the Thrill theater?

I think Imax was $12.95. Not sure about Thrill theater, it was sold out when we looked at it. You can book things at the beginning of the cruise for later in the cruise. I recommend this especially for Thrill theater. Also the entire week's schedule is on the app if you want to look ahead and see what will be playing.

Edited August 27, 2017 by Cafedumonde

[Cafedumonde]

The other ships have the life jackets & safe in the first closet. So where are they if the AC unit is in the third one?

There are two in one closet, and there were two more under the bed.

[Cafedumonde]

We booked the Sanoa Isalnd excursion. It is still amongst my top five favorite excursions.

There were a lot of positive reviews on Tripadvisor.

[Cafedumonde]

We actually like it. It was just wife and I. Yes, you have to check in and can do it anytime between 530-930. The first night we got in right away. The next night they said it would be 15 minutes for the 2 of us or we could eat with others. We ate with others and from then on, when we showed up, we said we'd eat with others if we could be seated right away. We enjoyed all our dinners.

 

Doug

We loved our dinners too. And the system ended up working out, but I still do not understand why you had to go to an entirely different place to get a ticket. Couldn't they have just processed people at the restaurant? It was not like you were getting a reservation. It was for immediate seating. You could not go early and reserve something for later.

[Cafedumonde]

We booked through Pro Excursions. Everything about the excursion was wonderful. Calm, clean ocean, delicious island buffet, excellent narration and education about La Romana on the way to our stops. We stopped at a couple of snorkeling spots and saw really cool ocean life.

I'd book this again in a heartbeat.

We will look at this one if we go back to La Romana. How did you meet up with the excursion? At the port or did you meet them someone else?

[mjonis]

We are trying the msc Seaside next year, so we'll see!

 

Seaside is probably very different from Divina (new ship design, etc).

 

I'm hoping MSC can get their act together, so we're hoping that reviews for Seaside after about 6 months after initial sailing will be good, but given that it's been 9 months since our Dec. Divina sailing and I'm still seeing the same compaints/issues (not with the ship), I'm not holding my breath.

 

Hope your sailing goes well and that the service is good!

[Hogladyrider]

Enjoying your review!

 

We sail on Vista for the first time in March 2018 doing Southern Route.

 

I find reading reviews very interesting. Everyone has their own style of cruising. Before we retired we cruised to get away from phones and internet and enjoy the ports of call and the balcony in our cabin.

 

When Dream first launched it got horrible reviews, I mean horrible. Since we lived close to Tampa and Port Canaveral those were our departures ports of choice. We sailed Dream THREE times and loved her each cruise. We fell in love with the cove balconies. We loved being close to the water and not having the glass on the balcony, the breeze thru the steel opening on the balcony was wonderful.

 

Our all time favorite balcony was on Liberty one of the rear aft wraps, we only left our cabin all week to get food and bring it back to the room!

 

We cruised Magic last winter and again enjoyed our balcony and the movies under the stars.

 

We are past all the food choices and we enjoy anytime dining and especially when Carnival added the option of ordering a steakhouse meat for a nominal fee in the dining room.

 

We enjoy people watching and we see so many folks that for them cruising is a big annual vacation and they feel the need to "get their monies worth" so they eat every chance they can get and so much food is wasted.

 

We admit we do need to branch out and spread our wings and try other cruise lines after 20+ Carnival cruises. I just am not their yet but close because we like the laid back style of Carnival as we do not enjoy dressing up. We travel light and we have adjusted our lifestyle in retirement to live with less and it is wonderful.

 

Our first non Carnival cruise is on the horizon as we want to do Panama Canal and it may be HAL as they have lots of choices.

 

Our favorite ships in the Carnival line are the Legend, Spirit etc, they have the dome over pools and are the perfect size ship in our opinion unfortunately the cruise lines opted to go bigger.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to share your cruise experience with us!

 

Susan

[helene109]

I know this isn't directed towards me, but I would do Cove, unless you find you do not use balconies and then I would go oceanview.

 

 

 

Thanks we loved our balcony a few weeks ago it was L shaped! Yes my husband would miss it but we have never had the deluxe ocean view so hard to decide

 

 

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[Cafedumonde]

Seaside is probably very different from Divina (new ship design, etc).

 

I'm hoping MSC can get their act together, so we're hoping that reviews for Seaside after about 6 months after initial sailing will be good, but given that it's been 9 months since our Dec. Divina sailing and I'm still seeing the same compaints/issues (not with the ship), I'm not holding my breath.

 

Hope your sailing goes well and that the service is good!

I know, it doesn't look good. We keep reading reports of the Meraviglia. Generally very bad. We might end up cancelling in the end depending on early Seaside reports.

[Cafedumonde]

Enjoying your review!

 

We sail on Vista for the first time in March 2018 doing Southern Route.

 

I find reading reviews very interesting. Everyone has their own style of cruising. Before we retired we cruised to get away from phones and internet and enjoy the ports of call and the balcony in our cabin.

 

When Dream first launched it got horrible reviews, I mean horrible. Since we lived close to Tampa and Port Canaveral those were our departures ports of choice. We sailed Dream THREE times and loved her each cruise. We fell in love with the cove balconies. We loved being close to the water and not having the glass on the balcony, the breeze thru the steel opening on the balcony was wonderful.

 

Our all time favorite balcony was on Liberty one of the rear aft wraps, we only left our cabin all week to get food and bring it back to the room!

 

We cruised Magic last winter and again enjoyed our balcony and the movies under the stars.

 

We are past all the food choices and we enjoy anytime dining and especially when Carnival added the option of ordering a steakhouse meat for a nominal fee in the dining room.

 

We enjoy people watching and we see so many folks that for them cruising is a big annual vacation and they feel the need to "get their monies worth" so they eat every chance they can get and so much food is wasted.

 

We admit we do need to branch out and spread our wings and try other cruise lines after 20+ Carnival cruises. I just am not their yet but close because we like the laid back style of Carnival as we do not enjoy dressing up. We travel light and we have adjusted our lifestyle in retirement to live with less and it is wonderful.

 

Our first non Carnival cruise is on the horizon as we want to do Panama Canal and it may be HAL as they have lots of choices.

 

Our favorite ships in the Carnival line are the Legend, Spirit etc, they have the dome over pools and are the perfect size ship in our opinion unfortunately the cruise lines opted to go bigger.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to share your cruise experience with us!

 

Susan

Thanks for sharing your experience! We are very excited about the Dream. It will be our first time sailing out of New Orleans. And glad to hear you love the Legend because we are thinking about taking it to Alaska summer 2019. We were thinking about the NCL's Bliss originally, but after our last cruise we learned there is something special about Carnival... I love reading about other people's cruise experiences in trip reports too. Opens up a whole new world. Or worlds. :)

[Cafedumonde]

Thanks we loved our balcony a few weeks ago it was L shaped! Yes my husband would miss it but we have never had the deluxe ocean view so hard to decide

 

 

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What a great photograph! Really captures the essence of cruising. My husband is also the balcony lover. I like it too but don't have to have it. If you try ocean view do it when it is hot and maybe you won't miss the balcony as much. We found we did not use the balcony as much in August as we did last December.

[helene109]

What a great photograph! Really captures the essence of cruising. My husband is also the balcony lover. I like it too but don't have to have it. If you try ocean view do it when it is hot and maybe you won't miss the balcony as much. We found we did not use the balcony as much in August as we did last December.

 

 

 

Thanks so much!! He is up for trying something different going to look at the deluxe ocean view thinking it is a 6 day not sure if that matters with the balcony and checking the price of family harbor rooms

 

 

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[FlamingJune1967]

"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. "

Thanks for this very detailed and honest review! We are on Dream in Nov - and have the cove balcony. I had planned to ask for twice daily and beds to be put away - but was afraid from all the comments I had heard lately that that may not be received well by the steward. My thought was that we were paying gratuities X4, so why should I feel awkward about wanting basic service that I have gotten on all our previous cruises? However, it looks like it might be a non-issue - so I am relieved!

[Cafedumonde]

"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. "

Thanks for this very detailed and honest review! We are on Dream in Nov - and have the cove balcony. I had planned to ask for twice daily and beds to be put away - but was afraid from all the comments I had heard lately that that may not be received well by the steward. My thought was that we were paying gratuities X4, so why should I feel awkward about wanting basic service that I have gotten on all our previous cruises? However, it looks like it might be a non-issue - so I am relieved!

 

When our room steward introduced himself the first day, he asked if we would prefer morning or evening service? I asked if it would be possible to have 2x per day really to get fresh towels. He said right away no problem and was very warm with me. I probably would not have asked about the beds being put up daily, but my husband is not self-conscious at all and wrote our room steward a note the first morning before we left the room. He asked if he could please put the beds up and down every day and look at the bathroom sink because it was slow draining. When dh was writing the note I was thinking great he will hate us. When we got back to our room sometime in the afternoon, everything was impeccable-- the sink draining very quickly. Our steward stopped by that night to talk with us and said he had gotten our note and said he would put the beds up and out again every day unless we changed our minds to let him know and asked if there was anything else to keep communicating. He was not annoyed at all but very, very nice. He asked us daily if everything was okay with the room and to let him know if we needed anything. If having the beds up is important to you, I would not hesitate to ask. It was totally a non issue-- our room steward was completely normal about it. I think some people prefer them open and maybe that is part of why they do that as the default. Our room steward was amazing and we ended up tipping him extra which we do not always do. Have a great cruise!!

[Hogladyrider]

Thanks for sharing your experience! We are very excited about the Dream. It will be our first time sailing out of New Orleans. And glad to hear you love the Legend because we are thinking about taking it to Alaska summer 2019. We were thinking about the NCL's Bliss originally, but after our last cruise we learned there is something special about Carnival... I love reading about other people's cruise experiences in trip reports too. Opens up a whole new world. Or worlds. :)

 

Reminder on the Dream you can not walk the length of the ship on one of the floors as the kitchen and dining rooms are there you must go up or down a flight of stairs.....if you remember this and carry one of the small ship maps with you all will be well. We had no problems mastering the ships layout!

 

I cruised Spirit in Alaska and loved the ship and the cruise, we did the roundtrip out of Vancover and Glacier Bay. Vancouver is an amazing city and we flew in the night before the cruise stayed at the Blue Horizon and we walked to the port from the hotel the next day, it was all downhill. The day we returned to Vancouver we stored our luggage at the port in a locker and we picked up the Hop on Hop off trolley right at the port and toured Vancouver as we had a red eye out that night. Stanley Park is a must if in Vancouver as is the Capillano Suspension Bridge.

 

Safe travels and happy cruising!

Susan