Carnival Vista 8 day review with menus. June 2nd - June 10th.

[Alaskan Joe]

Following

[helene109]

We are on 7-22! Have any time dining too never had it either! Were you able to request the same area each night? Is there a good/bad time to go? Thanks we are on the 6 day

 

 

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[carnivaladdix120]

Loving your review! We sail Vista on Saturday so you’re helping me get more and more excited [emoji12]

 

 

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[ABQrobin]

We just booked the Vista for Nov, out of Galveston. Can't wait to hear your impressions.

[helene109]

Did anything seem smoother? Did you get wowed!

 

 

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[smurfm69]

Following along for the ride!

[licram]

We were on the same cruise. No WOW factor whatsoever. Bring a hacksaw to cut any meat in the MDR. Sent back a steak 3 times and finally gave up and just ate cold mashed potatoes. Atrium is terrible. Missed the glass elevators.Liquid Lounge should be bulldozed and rebuilt. No viewable areas. Worst of all my Carnival Cruises and ships. Was very disappointed [emoji22]

 

 

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[bellatsava]

we were on this one! LOVE MATT! also miss the glass elevators and the soaring atriums, this was our second Vista cruise because we loved the itinerary and Matt SO MUCH. I was a little disappointed with some of the service, but I can't wait to read your review!

[Angel91805]

Love your review so far. We are booked on the Vista out of Galveston in October, so will be following your review!

[Justcrusin]

Work hit like a ton of bricks today. Sadly there were no Guy's Burgers at work and the gas station wouldn't take the sail and sign card.

 

After dinner we headed up to the welcome aboard show. We set out to find a good seat so that we could see the show on the balcony. Hmmm, nothing good here..let's head downstairs to find a seat. Nothing here either, so we settled for a back of the theater with a pole view.

 

 

This is the most atrocious design flaw of this ship. There are few, like 80 good seats in the Liquid Lounge. We have never, ever had difficulty finding good seats on any ship in the showroom. I can't understand what the designers were thinking. It's so bad it had me wondering if they had intentionally designed it this way. Did they test the site lines? Even looking through the glass that was placed in the first row of the balcony is difficult. Shows can be heard, but not seen in this lounge. I am not exaggerating. Really..it is bad. It is such a shame because the shows are fantastic. The only way to overcome this flaw is to arrive early for the shows and sit in the floor seats (just chairs) setup in front of the stage. We arrived 15-20 minutes before the doors opened in order to get a good seat. Most ships the main lounge goes for 3 decks the 2 deck main lounge just doesn't cut it. The shows were also very crowded. I know they removed the 3rd deck in order to have the Imax theater. In some ways the compensate by having pre-show entertainment.

 

 

We enjoy going to all of the shows and would be very hesitant to select a Vista class ship again because of this (and another design flaw coming soon).

 

 

The welcome aboard show was excellent. Once again Matt's timing and comedy is on point.

[Justcrusin]

we were on this one! LOVE MATT! also miss the glass elevators and the soaring atriums, this was our second Vista cruise because we loved the itinerary and Matt SO MUCH. I was a little disappointed with some of the service, but I can't wait to read your review!

 

You are on point. We still had an excellent cruise!.

[Justcrusin]

We were on the same cruise. No WOW factor whatsoever. Bring a hacksaw to cut any meat in the MDR. Sent back a steak 3 times and finally gave up and just ate cold mashed potatoes. Atrium is terrible. Missed the glass elevators.Liquid Lounge should be bulldozed and rebuilt. No viewable areas. Worst of all my Carnival Cruises and ships. Was very disappointed [emoji22]

 

 

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Bummer. We had great food in the dining room. My filet on the second formal night wasn't tender, but I'll go in with you if you want to bulldoze the lounge. Atrium is crowded and I am with you on the glass elevators.

[Justcrusin]

After the welcome aboard show we headed to bed. Sorry, but I am past the age where I hit the clubs. If your looking for info about what happens after the shows you won't find it here. The sea is smooth as glass tonight so no chance the ship is going to rock me to sleep, but my book does a good enough job.

 

Sea Day 1

 

 

I am an earlier riser. I love to head up on deck before the sun rises do my walk / run around the deck and have a cup of coffee. Ohh, coffee. Here is a tip we bring our Tervis travel mugs with us to fill with coffee. It's nice to have a bigger mug and a lid for walking around the ship. My wife got up with me this morning (this will be the only morning this happens). We spent this time exploring the ship and finally woke the kids up for breakfast at 9:00.

 

 

Headed to sea day brunch. I feel like they have an excellent menu for sea day brunch. The food was excellent, we all had something different and it was equally good. The salmon Benedict is very good. Also, the round hash browns are very good. I understand they are fried round disks but they are really well seasoned and tasty.

 

 

After brunch we headed up on deck and scouted out some seats on deck 11, the same ones we had yesterday. This is where we would plant ourselves for the rest of the day. We enjoyed watching the lip sync battle selections and other deck games throughout the day. The girls had a blast on the water slides and in the pools. Note about the pool, there is some sort of scum that forms on the pool. I'm assuming it is some sort of mixture of sunscreen and body oil that needs to be skimmed off every half hour or so. It's pretty disgusting, but didn't bother the kids.

 

 

Lunch was a combination of Blue Iguana tacos, Guy's burgers and the buffet depending on the family member. Homemade ice cream today was coconut, which my wife loved.

 

 

A few notes on Guy's burgers..they are delicious. Fully cooked (if only they made they medium) but still juicy. Grilled bun. A full toppings bar with grilled mushrooms, onions, bacon, raw LTO. There is also a tap which serves up ranch, cajun mayo, mayo and ketchup. The fries are double fried, hand cut and delicious. They said on the last night of the cruise that they serve 3,000 of these a day, I can understand why.

[Justcrusin]

After we had enough sun we headed down to change and went to the PG comedy in the Limelight lounge. Carnival, my dear friends...what in the world were you thinking when you designed these lounges? Seriously, I mean really. The comedy lounge is small and often had standing room only. The seats were weird and uncomfortable. The seats on the sides of the theater are actually turned away from the stage because you can't see well. Again the site lines are bad, not as bad as Liquid Lounge but still bad. They have screens on both sides of the stage so you can see the action on stage.

 

This comedian was forgettable, but it was something to do for an hour. Time to get ready for formal night.

[Justcrusin]

Let's talk "dress code" for a minute. Formal night was very loosely translated for many of the people on board. It was translated into hats and basketball shorts. It was translated into t-shirts. It was translated into "my belt can't hold up these pants but I really don't care". Anyhoo, this could be a whole other post.

 

We decided to take some pictures. It seemed to me that there were many fewer spots to take pictures. The spots to take pictures were crowded and usually in high traffic areas. Let's talk pictures for a minute. The pictures are no longer physically printed but can be viewed in the app. The great this is that you not only get your pictures in the app but 20 or 25 other people who you don't know. The use some sort of AI to make a match to people they think look like you. We were told by the Pixels staff that the technology "isn't Facebook". I can attest that the technology is far from Facebook. The app was glitchy even when trying to remove the peoples pictures who "look like you". The only picture we purchased for the week is featured below, It was a digital download for $14.99. I think I miss the physical pictures.

 

[CruiseTeacher7]

I have to agree with what was said about the two show lounges...too small, poor lines of sight, bad seat designs in the comedy club. I did see them constantly skimming the pool scum...thought it was vomit at first. I’m hesitant to do Vista again, mainly since I don’t need the bells and whistles

 

 

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[Justcrusin]

After pictures we headed to check in for our anytime dining. The line was long, and again the area on deck 5 is crowded and hot. After a 10 minute wait to check in we were told there was a 20 - 30 minute wait for a table, we were given a pager. The pager we are told only works within a 200 feet radius of the check in desk. Carnival, my friends, why doesn't this work across the deck? No one wants to be tethered to a pager, we want to explore the ship while waiting. We headed to the Ocean Plaza to wait for the table. We waited...and we waited...and we waited. 1 hour to be exact. We had sent the girls several times to check on the table, but the line was too long. Finally someone came into our lounge with a tablet to "help" us check on our table. She told us our table had been ready for some time. We headed down the the deck to be seated to find another line.

 

After we were seated I asked to speak to the Maitre'd. I don't want to have stress on vacation, but I felt it was worth mentioning. Apparently the pager system "malfunctioned" and they have never had the problem before (realistically they have probably had this problem before). He said the maximum wait for an anytime dining table should be 30 minutes. He told us to skip the check in desk for the rest of the cruise and come down to the dining room to be seated. I felt this was a fair resolution.

 

Dinner tonight featured the "large shrimp size lobster tails" as referred to be our waiter, Service was marginally better tonight but still inconsistent. We would find that 5 out of the 7 nights we ate in the dining room the appetizer was served at the same time as the salad. Not sure if this is a new policy, but we did't like it.

 

Our waiter brought 2 extra servings of lobster without us asking. The lobster was delicious and I think it was butter poached, which made it extra tender.

 

Dinner menu below:

 

 

 

 

We had planned to go the the "R" comedy, but this plan was squashed due do the 1 hour wait for the table. After dinner it was off to bed. Sea as smooth as glass again tonight.

[Justcrusin]

We are on 7-22! Have any time dining too never had it either! Were you able to request the same area each night? Is there a good/bad time to go? Thanks we are on the 6 day

 

 

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It's really hard to tell time wise. It seemed to be busy at different times each night. We were able to request a waiter we liked, but 2 nights we asked their section was full. I-Made on the second floor of the Horizons dining room was a great server. Not sure if they switch dining rooms on the cruises.

[Justcrusin]

We were on this cruise too. Also deck 8 forward in a balcony!

 

Now we are continuing our vacation with a mouse ;)

 

 

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Awesome! Enjoy your time at Disney, and thank you for contributing to the local economy. :)

[Justcrusin]

Loving your review! We sail Vista on Saturday so you’re helping me get more and more excited [emoji12]

 

 

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Awesome! You will have a great time. Matt is an awesome cruise director.

[Justcrusin]

I have to agree with what was said about the two show lounges...too small, poor lines of sight, bad seat designs in the comedy club. I did see them constantly skimming the pool scum...thought it was vomit at first. I’m hesitant to do Vista again, mainly since I don’t need the bells and whistles

 

 

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Agreed, the scum was nasty. I also thought it was vomit. Didn't seem to keep people away from the pool, though.

[Carol Jones]

Where’d you go??

 

 

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[Beachiekeen]

Just found this review—hope you come back! :)

[SLCruisers]

Following too. We leave on July 14th. Unfortunately, Matt is leaving that day on vacation.

 

 

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[gentlehyena]

We leave June 30th, I was really enjoying the review. Hope everything is OK?