First Cruise: Detailed review and photos of our Carnival Vista March 17-24, 2019 trip

[rob6465]

Thanks for the review. Wife and I are cruising on Vista December 7, 2019. Excited to see the ship, even though wife not excited about the lack of elevators by atrium...lol

[bigwill25]

59 minutes ago, rob6465 said:

Thanks for the review. Wife and I are cruising on Vista December 7, 2019. Excited to see the ship, even though wife not excited about the lack of elevators by atrium...lol

 

Wow

[Ideb]

1 hour ago, rob6465 said:

Thanks for the review. Wife and I are cruising on Vista December 7, 2019. Excited to see the ship, even though wife not excited about the lack of elevators by atrium...lol

Rob, since Vista is my one and only cruise ship so far I can't compare to the ones with the glass elevators, but as I said a few posts back, I was kind of expecting more of a "Wow" feeling when we first walked in. Now I want to go on a different cruise ship other than a Vista class to see what those are like. Don't get me wrong, the Vista is gorgeous and we came to love it. I would love to be on her right now, but in my opinion, she is more sleek and contemporary rather than all out glamour.

[Ideb]

3 hours ago, Bimmer09 said:

 

Hi, that cat  which shows up in the link to my Cuba review is not ours but belongs to a poster who responded. I don't know how it came to be attached to the review URL. Our cat shows up on the first page of the review. I see your cat is looking out over Civitavecchia harbor in Italy!

We'll be there again in October 2020 on Azamara.

Enjoying your review....

Norris

Ah, yes beautiful Snowy. I remembered her being mostly white. I had to take a sneak peak of your Cuba review to see a picture of her.  I read your review of your cruise from Rome, but I didn't know that's where my kitty is in my borrowed clip art picture. I can't wait to get caught up and read your latest reviews. 

[Ideb]

I should add that I took the pictures of Guy's Pig and Anchor on another day of our cruise and the food service was closed. It was pretty busy on embarkation day and there was already a short line when we got there. We were concentrating on getting food and a place to sit and eat and I didn't think about taking pictures.

 

Also, I just noticed that there's the word "the" by one of my photos which resulted from me not really knowing how to use the text wrap with the pictures. It's not giving me the option to edit it now so I guess I will have to leave it.

 

[rob6465]

36 minutes ago, Ideb said:

Rob, since Vista is my one and only cruise ship so far I can't compare to the ones with the glass elevators, but as I said a few posts back, I was kind of expecting more of a "Wow" feeling when we first walked in. Now I want to go on a different cruise ship other than a Vista class to see what those are like. Don't get me wrong, the Vista is gorgeous and we came to love it. I would love to be on her right now, but in my opinion, she is more sleek and contemporary rather than all out glamour.

Agree. We've never had a bad experience on any cruise. As a matter fact our best cruise was one that 2 ports got cancelled..lol We had more fun on that cruise than when our son got married on Magic in 2012.

[Ideb]

We knew it was getting close to time for the muster drill so when we heard the announcement, we were ready to go. We went up the stairs one floor to the Horizon dining room. I've read where people say how awful it is-crowded, no place to sit, etc. Our experience was the total opposite. Our sail and sign cards were scanned and we went in. There was plenty of seating in the huge dining room. They had the chairs pulled out from the tables. Some people I know from our home town sat down next to us and we chatted a bit. That was the only time I saw them the whole week. We listened while a crew member called names. I guess these were people who hadn't shown up yet. A few minutes later they got started. We were shown how to put on the life vest and were allowed to leave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2019 by Ideb

[Flytko]

Really nice review so far, my family and I are booked on the Vista leaving next Saturday, 4/13.  I'm glad that you are in the family harbor area which is where we will be located. Stateroom 2443.

 

Excited to see more.  This will be mine and my wife's 3rd cruise, our first two were on the Magic.  It will be the first with our twin boys.  

[Ideb]

After the drill, we went up to the lido deck and walked around. Austin pointed out to me that they were unhooking the lines so we knew we were about to start moving.

 

 

 

wwe

[Ideb]

I told the boys they should turn off the cellular data on their cell phones. I took out At&t's cruise plan for my phone only. I wanted to have one working phone in case anything arose where I might need it. Also, I was hoping it would work well so I could show my husband that he can go on a cruise and still stay in contact with his business. It worked well for texting the whole trip as long as I was out in public areas or the hallway by our room. It would work in the room but I could write him a text then open the door and step into the hall until it sent which was usually pretty quick.

 

The only time I actually used it for calling was after we got back on the ship after our day in Roatan. I couldn't call out for some reason. I kept getting a recording which was in Spanish and I don't know what it said. I tried dialing with a 1 before the area code and then without a 1. Neither worked so I texted my husband and told him to call me. He called right away and it worked just fine so I don't know why I couldn't call out.

 

I just got the $50 plan with 50 minutes of talk time and unlimited texting. I didn't get any data because I thought another $50 for 200 mb was too much. I purchased the Carnival Value wifi plan and with both of them I felt like I was able to use my phone pretty much like I do at home. I shared my wifi plan with Alex and he really used it more than I did. Austin didn't complain about not having use of his phone until the last 2 sea days so Alex shared time with him. This worked out well for us but if we all get to go again, I will get Alex his own plan and just share with Austin.

[Ideb]

More pictures we took while sailing away

[Beachiekeen]

So happy to find this review, will be on the Vista in two weeks (but different itinerary).  Can't wait to hear how you enjoyed your first cruise!

[DancerCouple2014]

1 hour ago, Ideb said:

The only time I actually used it for calling was after we got back on the ship after our day in Roatan. I couldn't call out for some reason. I kept getting a recording which was in Spanish and I don't know what it said. I tried dialing with a 1 before the area code and then without a 1. Neither worked so I texted my husband and told him to call me. He called right away and it worked just fine so I don't know why I couldn't call out.

 

You probably needed a + sign in front of the 1 to dial to the US from a foreign country.  Took me a while to get used to that, but now all the numbers I am likely to call from a foreign country are stored in my phone as +1-XXX-XXX-XXXX.  Doesn't impact anything stateside, and it's one less thing to think about abroad!

[Ideb]

1 hour ago, DancerCouple2014 said:

You probably needed a + sign in front of the 1 to dial to the US from a foreign country.  Took me a while to get used to that, but now all the numbers I am likely to call from a foreign country are stored in my phone as +1-XXX-XXX-XXXX.  Doesn't impact anything stateside, and it's one less thing to think about abroad!

I'll bet you are right! Thank you! 

[newdestination]

Great review!  Thanks for doing it!

[JaniceB]

Nice pictures, the ship does look crowded in your first day pictures. 

[Ideb]

After the sail away and walking around a bit, I messaged K on Facebook messenger to see when they wanted to go to dinner. We went back to our cabin to see if our luggage was there. It still wasn't but our cabin steward was in our room and the pullman bed was in place and made. He introduced himself, gave me a card with his name and picture on it and asked if I wanted service in the morning, evening or both. I chose evening because I didn't want to have to worry about being out of the room in the morning if I didn't want to be. He asked if there was anything else I might need and I told him I would like some ice each day and then he left.

 

I checked my messenger to see if K had replied.  She hadn't so we walked up to their room. They were there and we went in and we talked for a few minutes and she showed me some of the things she bought to organize their stuff. An interior room is pretty cozy with 5 people sitting around in it. We discussed going to dinner and she said she had just went on the hub app before we got there to see if she could check in. Neither of us knew how it worked yet and she said it told her she had a table for 2 and it would be ready in 15 minutes. We went to deck 5 to the check-in desk and there was a line of people waiting to check in for dinner. We asked a staff member who was standing by what we needed to do since she had checked in 2 people on the hub app and 5 of us planned to eat together. She sent us straight to the desk so we didn't have to wait in the line. The staff member at the check in desk, cancelled her hub check-in for 2 and checked us all in. 

 

Our table would be ready in about 15 minutes so we walked back down to deck 2 so I could grab a sweater and to show K and J our room. Basically, it was the same as their room except no pullman and the color scheme was different because the Family Harbor area rooms are decorated in the nautical red and blue colors. Since my luggage hadn't arrived yet, I had to grab a light cheetah print sweater that I had put in my carry on because it was all I had.

 

We went back up the one flight of stairs to the Horizon dining room. We were seated at a big table close to the front of the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ideb]

I took a few pictures of food ordered at our table. 

 

 

Chilled Strawberry soup appetizer

 

 

Shrimp cocktail

 

Calimari appetizer

 

Grilled pork chop

 

Grilled Mahi Mahi

 

[Ideb]

When our waiter came around with the dessert menu, K asked about Celebrating J's birthday. She had just turned 18 a few days earlier. He had a note in his hand and asked about it being Austin's birthday. I had noted that we would be celebrating his birthday in the online check in, but K hadn't noted it for J.

 

Rex, our waiter was great about it though and brought out two plates that contained a slice of tiramisu with a candle on top and the plate was decorated with "Happy Birthday" written in icing. He along with a couple of other waiters came around and sang the birthday song to both of them. It was fun. Austin had ordered a chocolate melting cake and ice cream. He tried the tiramisu, but didn't like it and decided to stick with the melting cake.

[devinc]

Congrats on being on a cruise and Vista!  DW and I were on Vista in Jan and will be bringing the kids in May.  Take in the good -there is plenty.  What itinerary are you on?  Our upcoming is a 7 night Sat-Sat Rotan, Belize and Cozumel.  Trying to figure out the second elegant night.  Appreciate the menus.  Thx

[KmomChicago]

Having a lot of fun vicariously enjoying your journey.  Like yourself it seemed a duty to share a long review on one of our journeys after stowing away on so many other great reviews. 

 

Your first day experience was pretty typical.  Due to the stress of trying to get oriented to the ship (happy stress mostly, but still stress), I'm not sure everyone really loves getting in that first onboard lunch amongst the mass hoards.  I think we all give advice on it not so much because it's the greatest thing ever, but rather to make it as successful as possible while dodging crowds and dragging roll-on bags around behind you, to make you feel like "this cruise has officially STARTED."

 

I am charmed by your boys pointing out the various little details they notice, i.e. ropes coming off in prep for departure, just being tuned in to the infrastructure and engineering of the endeavor. Everything's an education and you never know what the kiddos are taking in.

[bakersdozen12]

On 4/4/2019 at 9:38 PM, Ideb said:

I'm not sure exactly what I expected being on a cruise ship to feel like when we first stepped on, but I sort of expected it to feel more like stepping into the lobby of a grand hotel. It was grand but still felt like a ship.

 

Unfortunately this is one of the downsides of the Vista class ships. The took away that grand feeling of the atrium. Ships before this class have atriums that go all the way up the ship and let sunlight in through the glass at the top. So, if you book another cruise on a Dream class or older ship, your first impression will likely be very different. 

[jakeawhite]

Enjoying this review! Keep up the good work!

 

We're going on Vista in June and soaking up everything we can before.

[OceansOfTravels]

Considering a cruise on the Panorama so I'll be looking at your photos to get a good idea of the ship. Thanks a ton for taking the time to write all of this!

[JaniceB]

I think I would have eaten both desserts!  Nice little celebration.