Vista review. Cruise out of NYC.

Hey guys.

I am just a few hours back from my Vista cruise out of NYC and thought I would do a review while things are still fresh in my mind.

First off, let me start by saying that I LOVE Carnival. I have sailed on many different ships in the past, including Celebrity, Princess, Royal and Norwegian. Carnival is by far my favorite line. This review is MY opinion of the positive and negative aspects of the Vista only, and I will not be reviewing our ports of call (which were amazing by the way).

A little about me. I am 45 years old, married with a 10 year old son, and I work full-time for NYS Courts. When I cruise, I like to relax with my family, spend some time in the casino and I usually get my money's worth with the Cheer's program. I went on this trip with my son and husband, and also my parents. My folks are in their late 60's and seasoned cruisers.

On to my review.

Embarkation:

My husband works a side job with his uncle's limo company and we were fortunate enough to get a great deal on a limo to take the 5 of us to the port and back. We live in Upstate NY, about 4 hours away.

My folks are platinum, and my family purchased FTTF, so we didn't have any time restrictions on arriving to the port. We like to get on the ship early, so we arrived around 10:00 in the morning. We were allowed into the holding area, but the port security was not set up yet, so we waited with a small group of people until around 10:30 for security to screen us to the check-in desk. This terminal was small for the number of people that would be sailing, so staggered check-in was probably a good thing. We breezed through security and got into the priority check-in line. After completing check-in, we were directed to the priority holding area. There was some confusion as to where we were supposed to sit, and were asked to move twice because we were directed to the wrong area. It was frustrating, but hey, we were on vacation so we just rolled with it.

Around 11:30, the announcement was made that they were going to start loading Diamond and Platinum and suite guests, and then FTTF. Since my folks were traveling with us, they chose to wait and board when FTTF was called. Big mistake on their part. I have NEVER seen so many priority guests before on a cruise. To be fair, I have never sailed such a large ship before, but the priority guests just kept coming. It seemed like FOREVER before they finally allowed the FTTF guest to board. But, before we knew it, we were walking up the gangplank and taking our first steps aboard the Vista.

First Impressions:

We are Atrium people. We love having drinks in the Atrium bar before dinner, or upon returning from a port day. To me, the Atrium is the HUB of the ship. A gathering place for the masses to relax, listen to music and have some drinks. This Atrium is, for lack of a better word, unimpressive. Gone are the glass elevators and the stories upon stories view upward. Instead, the Atrium consisted of three floors and then - GASP - a ceiling. This made the space seem closed up, small and sterile. This was the number one complaint we heard from other passengers regarding ship design. Everyone missed the GRAND Atrium.

The Atrium does have a cool funnel shaped cone in the center of the bar that goes to the ceiling that changes colors and shows different designs and videos like sea life. That was pretty cool. But I would take the traditional atrium designs over this one every time.

From talking to the staff on board, we discovered that the Atrium was designed to accommodate the Imax theater that is on this ship. Most people on our sailing seemed to think the Imax theater was a neat, novel idea, but they would forgo it for the old style Atrium. And at $12.00 a pop to see a movie (and a charge for popcorn) most people DID forgo it.

The Shops:

Above the Atrium on the next 2 floors are the Carnival Fun Shops, and A Cherry On Top. These are your standard shops with a variety of merchandise you see on every Carnival ship. However, we didn't see some "staples" that we usually do like the rum cakes, although I could have missed them somewhere. The nice thing about Cherry on Top on this ship is the inclusion of an ice cream shop. There is an additional fee to get an ice cream at this location, but for $2 to $3 dollars it seemed like a fair deal. We had Cheers so we did the milkshakes which were included in the purchase instead, but we saw a few people taking advantage of this ice cream location.

Casino:

The casino on the Vista is comparable to the Dream Class ships. Not a bad size, but when you are sailing with over 4000 people, it could get crowded at night and a challenge to find a machine. They do have a good variety of slots (I don't play table games so can't really comment on those) and we saw a lot of people winning throughout the cruise. The machines seemed to be hitting. There were a lot of jackpot winners for over $1K. Sadly, I was not one of them.

The casino bar is circular and in the center of the casino. It opened at 9 and was never overly crowded. There was usually only one employee working the bar, and sometimes it took awhile to get a drink, but the employee that served us all cruise long had a great sense of humor and was very engaging in a teasing sort of way. Some people may not have appreciated her style, but my family LOVED her. On our last sea days the casino was open 24 hour. My folks and I liked to play after breakfast with a mimosa or bloody Mary while the crows were still light.

There were a few different slot tournaments, and they were very popular. I played in one and it was a lot of fun. As someone who likes to visit casinos, I would rate this one as very enjoyable. And, although I saw a lot of people smoking in the casino, I was never bothered by smoke unless I was sitting directly next to someone with a lit cigarette.

...speaking of smoking...

Smoking Section:

No one in my family smokes cigarettes, but my husband does enjoy a cigar some nights after dinner. We were told there would be a "Cigars Under the Stars" night on this Journey's cruise, but that never happened. More on the Journey's Cruise later.

The first few days, my husband was very happy with the locations where he could smoke. Gone are the days of the Cigar Lounges, and cigars are not allowed in the casino, but there was a nice area on deck 5 and a small but PRIME real estate on deck 11 overlooking the lido. And that is where the problem started.

On the nights they would have the Dive-In movie, non-smokers would sit in the designated smoking area to watch the show. These same people would then complain loudly about the smoke. One woman went as far as to cover her head with a towel, wave her hands around like a mad bird, and cough repeatedly while my husband was trying to enjoy his after dinner cigar IN ONE OF ONLY 2 SPOTS DESIGNATED TO SMOKE CIGARS. He took the high road and left, but he did tell the drama queen that if she didn't like smoke she may not want to park herself in the smoking section and expect everyone else to cater to her. Like my husband said, she had all of deck 10 and the other side of deck 11 to enjoy. To guilt my husband for smoking where he was allowed was pretty ballsy. This was a pretty common complaint from the other people utilizing the smoking section on deck 11.

So....if you want to truly sit back and relax with a smoke, you may want to do it on deck 5 where on one seemed to give a crap.

UP NEXT. Lido deck.

Great start! Looking forward to reading more of your review. Thanks for taking the time to do it.:)

Great start to your review. We sailed the Vista in July out of Barcelona and were on her again for the naming ceremony in New York, and got off a couple of hours before you got on. Can't wait for the rest of your review.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Enjoying your review so far!

As a non-smoker I find the large smoking area on deck 11 over lido to be very annoying, I feel it should have been more aft. The whole area smells. During this NY cruise it was much more used then when I was on the Vista in Europe - now that's a surprise! :eek:

Thanks for the review!

I'm not a smoker, but I think I would have said "Excuse me, ma'am, but your're seated in the smoking area" and stayed put. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

I can't wait to read more! Thank you so much!

To continue with my Vista review.

Inside Cabin - Deck 9.

We are typically balcony people, but for this 11 day cruise we had to try and stretch our budget a little further. We have had inside cabins on other Carnival ships, so we were pretty confident in booking our mid-ship, inside cabin that slept 3.

Our cabin number was 9356 and was a quick walk up one flight to the Lido deck. The location of this cabin was great and our room steward was awesome. This cabin had the pull down bunk for my son.

The cabin consisted of a small table WITHOUT side drawers for storage, a king bed and a pull down bunk, two small side tables on either side of the bed and a stand with 3 open shelves on the side, and a small fridge below the t.v. It also had ONE closet. What! I had packed casual and formal wear for 3 people for 11 days and one closet just wasn't cutting it. I don't remember any other inside cabin ever having one closet but I could be wrong. The storage in this cabin was horrible. We ended up storing a lot of stuff in our suitcase under the bed and it was next to impossible to keep our cabin organized and clean. Our solution....not spend a lot of time in our cabin. LOL. Seriously though, this was the worst designed cabin for storage I have ever stayed in, and I use all the tricks like over the door storage bags and metal hooks for the walls.

That being said, this cabin also had one of the most comfortable beds of any ship. And the bedding was so comfortable. I just snuggled into my bedding every night and fell asleep amongst my clutter. My 5'4, 10 year old son was also very comfortable in his bunk bed.

This cabin has the lighting where you need to insert some type of card (folded paper also worked) to work your lights. We kept folded up paper in that slot the whole cruise and never took it out. We discovered that if you don't keep something in that slot, when the lights go out, so does your ability to charge your electronics. As long as something is in that slot, your electronics will charge, even if you turn your lights off.

You did hear a little bit of noise at night in this cabin from the lido deck above, but it wasn't very bad and easy to ignore. The cabin was also equipped with two nice bathrobes and your standard cruise ship bathroom.

Not to get off topic but lets talk bathrobes. I get you are on vacation, but come on people! Would you wear a bathrobe to lunch when you are at home. Or in a casino. Or shopping at a store. I have NEVER seen so many people wandering around the ship in bathrobes. I can understand if you take your bathrobe to the lido deck to slip into after a chilly night of hot-tubing, or maybe while relaxing on a deck chair for a Dive-In movie, but for a drink at the Atrium. To each his own. It just gave me something to chuckle about. I'm sure there were people chuckling about my 7:30 a.m. mimosa EVERY SINGLE MORNING so live and let live.

The Lido Deck:

The lido deck on the vista was standard carnival with your typical Guy's Burgers, Cantina, Red Frog and Blue Iguana. For the record, we are Team Red Frog. Alyson at the Red Frog was a lot of fun and had my drink ready every morning. I loved hearing about her travels on the cruise ships.

In the middle of the lido is the main pool, but instead of hot tubs on either side, there are gazebos with wooden seating and a central table where you can soak your feet and enjoy a drink. This was a nice place to relax after a long day in port, but I really miss the hot tubs in the main lido area. We like to grab a drink at the end of the night and watch the movie while soaking our whole bodies in the hot tub, and not just our feet in the pool. There are two hot tubs on either side of the aft pool, but we would have like some in the main section as well.

There were plenty of deck chairs and other seating on the main lido section, and there was never an issue finding a place to relax. Chair hogs on lido did not appear to be a problem on this cruise. I think they were all on the Serenity Deck.

There is a towel hut on this deck and you were not required to sign out the towels like on some ships. That was nice.

Aft Lido:

I really liked the aft area of the Vista lido deck. On one side is the pizza location, and on the other side is the Crab Shack (more on those on my "food" portion of the review). There was plenty of tables and little nooks to sit and eat or just enjoy the day.

Near the middle of this area is a circular bar with some of the nicest bar staff around. One morning during a surprise rain storm they took my beach bag and book and set it behind the bar to keep it dry for me. It's those little things. As mentioned above, near the back of this section is the aft pool and two hot tubs. We spent a lot of mornings hanging at the bar and relaxing in the pool or hot tub. The water in this pool was pretty warm and it was never very crowded.

The skyrider goes over this area of the ship, and it was fun to watch the people peddling their cars up above.

As with the main lido area, seats were plentiful and we never had issues with chair hogs in this location.

Sports Deck:

One of the things we were most looking forward to was the sports deck and the Vista does not disappoint. Carnival really got this area right.

There are a few different sections to the sports deck which run from deck 12 to deck 13. On the OUTSIDE area of Deck 12 you have pool tables, mini-golf, shuffle board, foosball tables, ping-pong tables, a walking track, outdoor gym equipment and a twister game painted on the floor with the spinner mounted on the wall. The best thing about this area is that you don't have to go to the main lido deck to check out pool cues or golf balls or ping pong balls. Everything was available and ready to play. The bad thing was that you didn't have to go to the lido deck to check out pool cues or golf balls, etc., so people tended to not pick up after themselves or return the equipment to where it belonged. Sadly, there were a lot of golf balls already missing and one of the pool cures was already broken. Come on people, this is why we can't have nice things.

The other section of deck 12 is the indoor sports area where you can find two bowling alleys ($3.00 for 5 frames), an indoor ping pong table for those windy days, a seating area and, my son's favorite, a giant pool table that you play using your feet soccer style. SO FUN!

To the back of deck 12 is the waterworks area. This is another section Carnival got right. With 2 innovated slides (one you do down on a raft) and a water play area complete with a water "dump bucket", small slides, and lots of water play areas. There is not a lot of seating up here, but most people were playing...not sitting.

One of the best days I spent was with my son at waterworks on a warm but rainy day. They did not have the pool slides open because it was windy, but my son and I grabbed a couple of the pool inner tubes, plopped down in the pool area at the end of the slide and enjoyed our own private wave pool. Sometimes you have to make your own fun.

The second part of the sports deck is deck 13 where you will find a continuation of the mini golf course from deck 12, the Skyride and the rope course. Warning....I though I read on the Carnival website where you just had to have secure shoes with a back strap to ride the Skyride, that is not the case. You need closed toed shoes. People were allowed to ride with unsecured, slip on shoes, but I could not ride with my walking sandals where there was no way they could slip from my feet. So...make sure you bring the right shoes if you want to ride. Sneakers are, of course, needed for the rope course.

The lines on sea days for the Skyride were very very long. We chose to ride the morning of our San Juan day (which was a very long day due to the cancelation of Amber Cove the day before). If you are not in a hurry to get off the ship for a port day, I recommend doing this. There was very little wait and we were able to ride a few times.

If you are physically capable of doing the Skyride, it is a must do. So much fun with beautiful views over the water. This ride lived up to the hype. At least for me.

My son and I also did the rope course that same morning. Again, there was no line or wait. However, the people manning the rope course said this was typical most days. I guess a lot of people were intimidated by the rope course.

There are 2 different rope courses you can try. Beginner and advanced. The beginner has bridges and easier crossings, and the advanced....wow. I am in pretty good shape and pretty adventurous but I was nervous my first time on this course. It is mostly an upper body workout and once you get past the initial fear, it is a blast. My son did great on the advanced side. My almost 70 year old mother did the beginner side and rocked it out. Go mom! So even if you are not sure....give it a try.

Up next...Red Frog Pub, Havana Bar, internet and Hub apps.

Thanks for the review! We also just got off the ship and had a good time. We were in a balcony and there was no difference storage wise. It was shocking the little amount of storage on this ship. They also stored linens/bedspreads in some of the drawers which we threw under the beds to free up some space. Least amount of storage on any ship in recent memory.

Awesome Review. I was on this ship also. Agree with every point you made in this review. We had a forward facing cabin with a picture window on the Lido deck. My son had a regular inside cabin that sleeps two on the Lido deck. His cabin was like they took a normal inside cabin and cut it in half. There was just enough space to fit the bed and dresser. No room to walk around. Yes they did cut back on the dresser and closet space. Loving your review and reminiscing.

Thanks for the nice words and for those of you willing to stick with me on this review. I tend to ramble, which is funny because in person, I'm not much of a talker.

So...on with the review.

Red Frog Pub:

Since my family is team Red Frog (sorry Blue Iguana) we naturally love the Red Frog Pub on deck 5. One complaint we had of the Vista is that a lot of the public spaces were the same size, or smaller, then other Carnival Ships, even though you are serving a lot more passengers. This made for some very crowded venues (and a lot of people missing out on the steak house). However, the Red Frog Pub with brewery was a perfect fit for the Vista.

Oh how we loved this pub. Whether you were in the mood for a relaxing game of cards or dominos at the front of the pub, some karaoke or trivia in the bar area, or some old fashioned shuffleboard and foosball in the back, there was a little something for everyone. And....the best part of the Vista Red Frog was the outdoor area where they have gliders and tables for a mellow drink overlooking the ocean but also have bean bag toss for those looking for a little more action. We tried it all.

The best part about this pub is that it is appropriate for families with kids. My son loved coming to this pub and was always made to feel welcome.

Something new for us was the for fee menu at Red Frog with items like chicken wings or coconut shrimp. We tried both. For the small fee, both were delicious and a great midday snack. My husband likes craft beer and he said the dark beer was great. They also sell growlers and they were a huge hit.

As with most bars on the Vista, the staff at this bar was engaging and friendly. We saw a few people doing the brewery tour, but we never got around to it. It is a very small brewery so I'm not sure how much of a tour there actually was.

This pub ranged from being very quiet to flat out PACKED during karaoke and some trivia. We had fun either way.

Havana Bar and Havana pool area (after 7):

Being the cigar smoker that he is, my husband loves the Cuban culture and couldn't wait to try the Havana club. What a great place. The décor in this club is the best on the whole ship. There are couches and rockers to relax in, a nice dance floor for a little salsa with the LIVE band, and a great atmosphere. They also have a small menu of for fee food if you are interested in trying some Cuban fare.

Since the Havana pool area is reserved for Havana suite guests, we were only allowed in that area after 7 at night. You must have a wrist band to access this area from the club before 7.

The Havana pool area is a sanctuary. The pool butts up to a glass wall at the back of the ship making for some amazing views. There is a hot tub AND gazebos like on the lido deck. There is also a shower, a towel hut, a bar and plenty of seating. I would love to stay in this area on another trip. We found this section so relaxing, especially with the sounds of the band coming from inside. A must try during your stay.

Hub App:

We were excited to try the new Carnival Hub app to keep in touch with each other around the ship. Although we were excited, we were not really expecting much. Now we wonder how we ever cruised without it.

This app is very simple to set up and use. The adults used the app with their phones and my son used the app with his tablet.

Before you cruise you can download the Carnival Hub app so it will be all set. Once you get on board, you log into the app and instructions will appear on the screen on how the app works. Basically, you put your phone in airplane mode to avoid roaming charges, connect to Carnival wifi and agree to the terms of use. With the Hub app you can check when and where meals are being served, what events are going on around the ship and view any pictures you may have had taken around the ship. You can also purchase pictures on your device (a god send on the last sea day when the pixel spot was MOBBED) and tag events as favorites. When you tag an even, it will send you a reminder when that event is about to start. I'm a purest, and never thought I would prefer an electronic devise to the FunTimes print out. If you feel that way too, go in with an open mind and you may be surprised.

For $5.00 per device, you can also get the "chat" feature which lets you instant message other passengers in real time. This is a GREAT way to stay connected with your party during your trip. It allowed my son a little more freedom since we could communicate with him. Chat also has a "group" feature so you can let everyone in your party know at once what's on your mind.

This feature was very easy to use.

Since my son likes to play games and web surf on his tablet in the evenings, we decided to get the internet plan for our devices. You can get one plan for your family to share, but only one person can use it at a time, and will have to log off before another device can log it.

For our 11 day cruise, we got the basic internet plan for $90.00. BEST internet plan at sea. There is also a cheaper, social media plan available, and a high speed plan for people looking to do streaming. For what my family used it for, the plan we got worked just fine. Sure the internet speeds were a little slow, but we were always able to log on and accomplish what we intended.

Pixels (picture spot):

If you hated all the waste generated from those on-board pictures, you are going to love the way Vista handles this issue.

Whenever you have your picture taken by the on-board photographers, they ask for your room number and program it into their system. When the photos are ready to be viewed, (anywhere from 20 minutes to a few hours later) you can either pull up your pictures on your mobile device from anywhere on the ship. If you don't have a mobile device with you, you can go to the Pixel area of the ship where they have tons of ipads to view your shots. So easy. And as I mentioned before, you can even order your pics with your mobile device and it will charge it to your sail and sign card and give you a pick-up time to return for you hard copies.

I ordered both my prints through my app and it worked perfectly.

However....there is a bad part to all of this. In the past, you could get an 8X10 picture for one price, or a 5X7 for a cheaper price. Now, all the pictures are the same price (I think it was $19.99). If you don't want an 8X10 of a picture then you can have a 5X7 and 4 wallets. Um. I really don't need 4 wallets of a picture of me and my husband at dinner or of my son posing with a fake pirate. So we ended up not getting as many pictures as we did on other cruises. We just don't have room for a lot of 8X10's, and wallets seem silly.

Piano Bar:

I have done the piano bar on a few different ships and they have been hit or miss. The number one indicator of the success of a piano bar is or course, the Piano Man. Ben was the Piano Man on the Vista during our sailing and he was a blast. Ben made everyone feel like they belonged to some silly, secret club where it's ok to wear stupid hats, sing off-key, high five your neighbor and, after 11:00, get a little naughty.

Ben is the complete package. Charming, engaging, funny. The atmosphere was both relaxed and energized. It felt like walking into the Cheer's Bar where everyone knows your name.

My dad is not a big joiner and wasn't very interested in the piano bar. We all sat around the piano the first night and he chose a spot behind the pole. By the end of the night he had a picture of Ben taped up to the pole, was wearing a squid hat and oversized glasses, and requesting songs with the best of them.

Again....think a sing along is not your thing or you didn't enjoy it in the past? Try it on the Vista and tell Ben that Tracy and her family said Hi.

Up next. Food! And the secret of the Sports Bar.

I had a inside cabin on deck 1 and it was very spacious with 2 closets..one closet had the safe,drawers and a self.the other was a normal closet. there was also some shelves by the mini fridge

I had a inside cabin on deck 1 and it was very spacious with 2 closets..one closet had the safe,drawers and a self.the other was a normal closet. there was also some shelves by the mini fridge

At first I was super jealous of you! What the heck? Why did YOU get two closets. Hee hee. The I realized that you had the same set up I did but what you consider two closets, I just consider one.

On all my other cruises there was TWO of what you describe above. The double doors that have the safe and shelves on one side and the clothes rack on the other is the first closet, and then there is usually another door with an additional clothes rack and usually additional shelves under that for storage.

Kudos to you for being such an awesome packer and organizer though. I will be bugging you in the future for tips cause to me there was nothing spacious about the set up.

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the awesome look at the Vista; I'll be sailing in October. Can't wait for the rest of your review...and the cruise, either!

Thanks for the extensive review.

Wow this is one of the most complete reviews I have ever read. Thanks for posting this.

Take care,

Vinnie

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Ha!!! Totally agree with you on the robes.

Standing in line with 20 people at 8pm at Guest Services with 1 robe wearer...inappropriate yet hysterical.

I'm not a smoker, but I think I would have said "Excuse me, ma'am, but your're seated in the smoking area" and stayed put. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Yup, I would have invited her to the other side of the ship, and continued my smoke.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to do such an amazing job on your review. Following along avidly! Glad you had a great time! We are sailing in March in a Havana Balcony. Hoping it is worth the price difference. :-)

On the TA the leg from Bermuda to NY the Serenity area was empty. Even the clamshells next to the water and one of the best kept secrets is the amazing salad bar there.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Forums mobile app

What a great review! I sail on Vista in 52 days and can hardly wait!

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this review. We sail in 10 days and can't wait.

Cannot agree more that Ben is the absolute best. One of the main reasons we booked this cruise.

Great review! Can't wait for more. We sailed on the Vista in September but our itinerary was so busy that we knew we missed a lot of the ship. Your review made me realize how much of the ship we did have a chance to utilize. Guess we will have to book another cruise on her.

Thank you so much for the extensive review. We're on the Vista in January and I've been searching for more information. Love all the details and suggestions!