Help me choose - Vista or Celebration?

[kj_connections]

I'm deciding between 2 itineraries:

 

Carnival Vista - leaves from Port Canaveral visiting Aruba, Curacao and Celebration Key (Oct 4-12)

or

Carnival Celebration - leaves from Miami visiting St. Thomas, San Juan, Celebration Key (Oct 12-19)

 

No I cannot do both 🙂  For the Vista, I like the ports better.  For the Celebration...well it's a new ship!. I will have 2 kids if that matters for activities/amenities.

 

Thanks!

[RLM77]

Vista is in (or just out of) dry dock right now FWIW.  Personally, I would avoid Port of Miami at all costs - took us nearly 4 hours to get out of the garage and port area last November.  If you are looking for a newer ship that is very similar to Celebration I highly recommend Mardi Gras out of Canaveral.  The itineraries are not as good, but just about everything else is as good or better than Celebration.  Cheaper, easier parking.  Faster embarkation/disembarkation.  Slightly fewer passengers.  And the combination of Brass Magnolia/Fortune Teller is miles ahead of Golden Jubilee/Latitudes.  We have accumulated 630 cruise-nights on seven cruise lines over the past 18 years and Mardi Gras is our current go-to.  If you can deal with the queues (both virtual and physical) you’ll love it.

Rich

Edited January 28 by RLM77

[mz-s]

Celebration also does ABC itineraries from time to time I believe, so you could have the best of both worlds if you picked a Celebration ABC cruise.

[kj_connections]

10 minutes ago, mz-s said:

Celebration also does ABC itineraries from time to time I believe, so you could have the best of both worlds if you picked a Celebration ABC cruise.

Thanks.  Except I also want to visit Celebration Key 🙂

[mz-s]

31 minutes ago, kj_connections said:

Thanks.  Except I also want to visit Celebration Key 🙂

 

I understand that but my guess is nothing Carnival can do on Grand Bahama will hold a candle to ABC. It will be a nice "resort day" stop though that's for sure.

[vwrestler171]

I haven't been on Celebration, but after sailing on Mardi Gras, no ship of that class will get a recommendation from me.  Too many people and not enough public space.  I was on it while cruising was still limited to 60% and the piano bar and comedy clubs were still packed and many people couldn't get in.  Pizza line stretched back to guest services.  Rooms were narrower and the bathrooms were tiny.  i greatly prefer the Vista class ships and have been on them 5 times with a 6th coming up.  Plus the ABC islands are far better than that Celebration itinerary.  

[kj_connections]

11 minutes ago, vwrestler171 said:

I haven't been on Celebration, but after sailing on Mardi Gras, no ship of that class will get a recommendation from me.  Too many people and not enough public space.  I was on it while cruising was still limited to 60% and the piano bar and comedy clubs were still packed and many people couldn't get in.  Pizza line stretched back to guest services.  Rooms were narrower and the bathrooms were tiny.  i greatly prefer the Vista class ships and have been on them 5 times with a 6th coming up.  Plus the ABC islands are far better than that Celebration itinerary.  

Thanks. I was afraid the Celebration might be too overcrowded.  I'm booked on the Venezia and that one seems crowded too (based on passenger capacity and size of ship) so I guess we will see.

[Butterbean1000]

I would pick the Vista, one because I'm not into the mega ships and secondly, I love the ports.

[bg2310]

If you prefer the ports and that's important to you, go with the Vista. As said above, it's currently in drydock so will be refreshed and cleaned up almost like a new ship. You kind of get the "best of both worlds" of sorts per your OP.

 

Given the Celebration is basically brand new, if ports are important to you, you can always decide to go on her or one of her sister ships another time!

[vwrestler171]

29 minutes ago, kj_connections said:

Thanks. I was afraid the Celebration might be too overcrowded.  I'm booked on the Venezia and that one seems crowded too (based on passenger capacity and size of ship) so I guess we will see.

I know Vista and Venezia are similar, but im not sure if the capacities are the same.  That being said, I've never felt as crowded on the Vista class as I did on a 60% capacity Mardi Gras.  

 

That being said, I normally cruise in the Oct-Nov time frame.  

[LatinaInTexas]

I can't really remember anything about my Vista cruise that stood out except discovering JiJis but I'm assuming it was a good cruise as most cruises are.

Celebration was my favorite ship so far, loved everything about it. Didn't have any issues with over crowding, lines and so forth except at Alchemy. We got on the ship with no priority boarding and wandered over to Big Chicken and walked right up to order. 

Saw comedy at least twice a night getting great seats with about a 15 minute wait in line. Saw the Circus production show right up front of the stage arriving about 20 minutes early.

Dining times were always 5-10 minute wait.

Debarkation was a bit of a mad house but then again when isn't it? We cruised last year around Labor Day.

With kids there are many extra free dining venues and plenty of activities on Celebration. Either one will be great but I think Celebration will be better ship wise.

[sunkey1]

18 hours ago, RLM77 said:

Vista is in (or just out of) dry dock right now FWIW.  Personally, I would avoid Port of Miami at all costs - took us nearly 4 hours to get out of the garage and port area last November.  If you are looking for a newer ship that is very similar to Celebration I highly recommend Mardi Gras out of Canaveral.  The itineraries are not as good, but just about everything else is as good or better than Celebration.  Cheaper, easier parking.  Faster embarkation/disembarkation.  Slightly fewer passengers.  And the combination of Brass Magnolia/Fortune Teller is miles ahead of Golden Jubilee/Latitudes.  We have accumulated 630 cruise-nights on seven cruise lines over the past 18 years and Mardi Gras is our current go-to.  If you can deal with the queues (both virtual and physical) you’ll love it.

Rich

Agreed! We were  going to try the Celebration as we love the Mardi Gras but after looking at pictures and figuring in the trek to Miami vs Port Canaveral, it was an easy decision to just book the Mardi Gras again.

[Paelos]

I would absolutely avoid the Vista until the propulsion issues are proven to be dealt with by repairs.