mamiamjo

I realized that I didn’t put a grade for the bars. I think there are plenty of options and probably something for everyone.

Overall Grade: Very Good

7 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

So I obviously feel like a big world class schmuck because I actually thought the Sid posts on his not live were intended in kindness and support. I thought they were fun and pro-Sid and that he’d be extremely flattered and jazzed that so many people feel they are his friends enough to participate. 
 

I didn’t think anyone was making fun of him at all until it was suggested here, and the couple of posts I added were also in no way intended to make fun of him, but anyway I certainly got the message. 

 

 If it’s really going to be perceived as hurtful to Sid then someone can probably report it and good chance everything would be deleted before he gets off the ship Sunday. 

I feel the same. I thought it was pretty much people missing Sid's review and adding in the fun as a compliment. I did post one or two as well, but nothing derogatory toward Sid. Some of the later posts, I could see how they could be taken as making fun of him, but still I don't really think the people posting them are intentionally trying to do so.

1 hour ago, KarmaCruisers said:

I really screwed the pooch today man; 8:30 is really cutting it late for me to eat dinner.

So you'll have to stay up to 3:00am to make up for the late dinner. 😉 

9 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

I slowed down cause, you know, an English teacher from my freaking school in suburban Dallas just walked up. WHAT IS HAPPENING??! 
 

It's a regular class reunion! Good thing you didn't have your nametag on for this one 🤣

Bars & Lounges: Overall we really enjoyed the plethora of bars including several themed bars on this class ship. With that said however, we didn't even come close to getting to all of them. 

I tend to prefer to order from the bar itself rather than using a bar waiter/server as I find it's most often faster that way. The exception, on this cruise was in the Punchliner where we did use a server. DW also used a waiter while playing in the casino (although I did not) and she found the service to be a bit erratic at best.

The following are my thoughts on my experience at the bars I ordered from. I had no problem getting a drink directly from any bar within 5-12 minutes. Now, I do tip $1-$2 for each drink order which I find helps get us better service. Not surprisingly, I received the fastest and friendliest service from the bar that I frequented (and tipped) most often, which was the Casino Bar. Ravi was the best bartender that I encountered there, but there were quite a few that were also quick and friendly (sorry I need to do a better job of recording all their names).

I really enjoyed the Watermelon Crush from The Watering Hole, but sadly, we never made it back there after embarkation day 😞 . Maybe due to our cabin location, which was on 17 Forward, we just didn't really make it back to the Deck 8 Aft section very much at all after our initial tour which means we also did not get a drink from the bar in Summer Landing.

Another bar on deck 8 that we did not use was the Havana Bar. It was closed for a private function (wedding I think) as we embarked and was used for trivia and other functions on a couple of days that we went by there so we missed this one as well.

I really liked the decor and vibe from the Red Frog Tiki Bar. It was crowded on embarkation day (as expected with only one Beach Pool area bar) but I was still able to get a drink (Hula Girl) within 12 minutes. Later during the cruise and on port days it was less crowded and easier to get a drink even faster. I enjoyed the second level (deck 17) better as the view of the Lido deck was better from up there.

We also liked the Serenity Bar, but we only got a drink once from there

The Aquaria Bar was nice for when we were watching something at Celebration Central but I'm not totally sure what their hours are.

The Alchemy Bar is one of my usual favorites but we really only made it there once as we waited for dinner one night. This is probably due to the way things are spread out and the fact that they have Latitudes and Golden Jubilee themed bars one deck below. Fahrenheit 555 has a great bar set up on this ship as well as it is visible and accessible to anyone walking down the hall in that area. We used it once plus the drinks we had when were having dinner at 555F. 

I also liked the theming of the Golden Jubilee and the Latitudes bars on deck 6. I especially liked the Pimm's Cup from Latitudes which reminds me of the Cucumber Sunrise from Alchemy.

For whatever reason, we did not make it the Tropicale Bar nor the Piano Bar on this cruise (maybe on Jubilee). Another bar we missed was Bar 820. I did look at their menu and nothing really jumped out at me at the time.

So as you can see, with all the variety of options we missed quite a few bars but we still had plenty to drink and we had a great time. We received very good service from each we bar we did visit and we are looking forward to visiting some of the ones we missed on the next Excel Ship we sail (we have Jubilee currently booked for next year).

41 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said:

This evenings ensemble 

and JFC! just checked into MDR..90-90 minute wait!! People must want that free lobster!

 

ALSO, sadly I lost control and dumped the remaining $950 of that $1800 worth of gift cards..plus $1000 of my own.

stupid too because I actually had ran the $950 up to $1500; so I’d of only been out of pocket $300. Buut I’m an addict and probably abou to throw another $1000 away trying to chase SOME of it. 

Sorry about the losses 😞 We had a 90 minute wait on Lobster night last week also 

10 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said:

To remind myself I need to get to 4819 points tonight

So is that your new target? Based on $12,000 in?

1 hour ago, TxTeach79 said:

It’s happened three times now. But this was the drunkest I’ve been. 

You’ll be featured in next year’s student production of “I know what you did last summer”, the musical! 😂

2 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Expect them to be 90% as most dragon/lightning link are set there; but I think the MINIMUM they can be is 80%

I'm no expert but I had read somewhere that cruise ships didn't have a set minimum average return 🤔

5 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

I tested yesterday and it was negative; symptoms got a lot worse in the past 24 hours but it was your post a few hours ago that reminded me to try retesting. I ran 2 tests today and they were both VERY positive. 

Thanks and sorry to hear about the accident. What a huge pain to say the least.

Sorry to hear that you got COVID, I hope you get well soon.

I just tested positive also 😞

22 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

It’s 80’s night. There’s a Carnival 80’s photo backdrop and a Back to the Future backdrop. Lets see if I drink enough to get my photo taken in front of either!

"Great Scott Marty!" 🤦‍♂️

11 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

Guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s a crew member named Anus. I just saw him cleaning in the casino. It’s definitely Anus. I may offer him $50 for his name tag later. Stay tuned. 

Got to keep Anus cleaning or is that gotta keep cleaning the Anus?

Restaurants: Overall we really enjoyed the various food option on this ship. We had Your Time Dining which is pretty standard for us now a days as we really like the flexibility and options it provides. In no particular order here's what we thought of the different restaurants on board...

MDR: We only ate in the MDR twice. Once for Sea Day Brunch and for the second Elegant Night. It seems from this and our previous cruises that the SDB has gone down a bit in service and quality. This cruise we saw a longer than anticipated wait for a table only to find that there were many tables not being used, so I can only surmise that the issue is staffing and not capacity. The service for brunch was also slow. Slow to get our drinks, place our order and receive our food. Also the quality of my Steak & Eggs was not the best. My eggs were way over cooked (supposed to be over easy) with almost crispy whites and mostly dry yolks. The steak was similar to the striploin offered at dinner, but nothing special.

For our Elegant Night Dinner, it did take 90 minutes to get a table, but it was peak dinner time on lobster night so that really didn't surprise me. The service this night was much better than brunch and the food was really pretty good. We enjoyed it 😎

Lido Marketplace: We tried the buffet for lunch and dinner and weren't really impressed. It seemed that the choices were very limited and the quality was so-so. I tried the roast beef from the carving station on two days and it was very tough and not too flavorful both times.

The best thing I found at the buffet was the Gelato station 🙂 Especially the coconut and the salted caramel flavors!.

Shaq's Big Chicken: Overall we enjoyed Shaq's and especially their fries which we like better than Guys Burger Fries. The chicken was pretty good, but didn't see the need to have every sauce be a version of BBQ. Even the ranch was BBQ Ranch. How many BBQ sauces do you need? We liked the Omelet but the biscuit tasted like cardboard or some other weird material, not like any other type of biscuit I've ever had.

Guy's Burgers: Guy's tasted the same as on other ships and we did enjoy it for lunch. I would like to see them make their fries like Shaq's though. Don't get me wrong, we liked them but not as much as we liked Shaq's

Time Fries: We liked having the options that Time Fries offered but with limited hours and having only one option each day kind of limits it.

Chi-Bang: We only tried it for dinner, and it was ok, but not as good as our local Mexican or Chinese restaurants. I would probably not eat here if it were to become an upcharge restaurant.

Fahrenheit 555: The steakhouse was very good as usual and we really enjoyed it

Cucina del Capitano: This restaurant was as expected. I don't particularly care for pasta and I'm not the biggest Italian food fan (unless you count pizza), but the Chicken Parmesan was good and the Tiramisu was very good (but small). The Spinach side though was more of a pureed spinach than what I had expected, but it tasted ok.

Rudi's Sea Grill: We were both very pleased with Rudi's. The service was great, and the food was very good. Add to that watching the sunset while eating dinner and it really made our evening. 

Miami Slice & Deco Deli: We enjoyed the pizza and the deli on two occasions each and liked the food and especially how quickly the lines moved and we were able to get served. Much better than the other class ships we've cruised

We never made it Emeril's, Java Blue or Blue Iguana on this cruise and didn't even miss them which just speaks to all the different options they have.

Next year when on the Jubilee, we'll need to be sure to add them to our list.

Overall Grade: Good+

On 5/27/2024 at 7:23 PM, Jamman54 said:

Our final thoughts, observations, and ramblings!

 

What follows is not in any special order or importance, just what pops into our minds concerning our two weeks aboard the Carnival Vista.

 

When the Carnival Vista was introduced back in 2016 we were not impressed. To us it was just a “Sunshined” Dream Class ship. They both were 14 decks high, and 122 feet wide. The Vista was just 51 feet longer. We’ll get back to that 51 feet later.

 

Now why do I say “Sunshined”? The Dream Class has the three deck high Main Show Lounge. On the Vista they made it a two Deck Liquid Lounge and filled up Deck 3 below it with cabins.

 

The Dream Class has that soaring ten deck Atrium with the glass elevators. On the Vista the Atrium is only three decks high and no glass elevators. Above that they have added an Imax Theater and even more cabins. They did give us the Dreamscape to try to make us forget the soaring Atrium with the glass elevators!

 

The Dream Class has the Limelight Lounge all the way aft on Deck 5. On the Vista the Limelight Lounge was moved down to Deck 4, and Deck 5 aft was filled with cabins. But here is where things got interesting. Remember that 51 feet we talked about earlier? That 51 feet extended up to Deck 5, and supported the new Havana Area. The cabins added to Deck 5 aft became higher cost Havana Cabins, with exclusive access to the Havana area. Now that intrigued us, especially since children under 12 were not allowed.

 

We were planning  to book a Havana cabin on a Vista Class ship in 2020, but we all know what happened then. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, our first cruise back post Covid was on the Horizon, but not in the Havana Area. We did learn that we didn’t need a Havana cabana or balcony, and that an inside cabin would do just fine. We confirmed this with an inside Havana cabin on the Panorama in 2021, and then booked the inside Havana cabin for our Vista B2B.

 

We felt that this was one of our best cruises ever, because it was our most relaxing cruise ever. Having access to the Havana Area everyday was heavenly, and with the Cheers Package even better. It never really got crowded back there. We really didn’t need to get off the ship, and at most ports we just got off to stretch our legs and check out the port area. We did have Pool Cabanas at Amber Cove and Grand Turk, but Pool Cabana days are relaxing as well. As we neared the end of our cruise Patti said to me that she wished we could stay on another week. I agreed! After we got home we immediately booked a B2B on the Horizon in April of 2026 going to the Western Caribbean and the ABC islands, and of course we booked the same Havana inside cabin for the two weeks!

 

Once again we did not go to the MDR for any of our dinners. We enjoyed our dinners at Bonsai Sushi, Fahrenheit 555, Cucina del Capitano, and JiJi’s (the best!). The other days the Lido Marketplace was just fine. Most of what was being served in the MDR was being served there anyway. At times a salad, the Deli, or some pizza was all we needed.

 

I’m pretty sure that we had drinks at every bar on the ship, but the three bars we frequented the most were the Havana Bar, Lobby Bar, and Alchemy.

 

At the Havana Bar huge thanks to Jendra, Kiran, Katherine, & Lin! You never let our glasses get empty! Also kudos to Jerlyn and Khim who handed out the towels, swabbed the decks, and brought us frozen fruit several times a day, every day!

 

We also spent a lot of time at the Lobby Bar and had a lot of fun there. How can you not when you had Melissa, Yanti, and Mustafa taking care of you! You guys are the best!

 

We had a great trio of mixologists at the Alchemy Bar. A huge shout out to Aleksander, Janko, and Goran!

 

I have to give another big shout out to Setyo at the Ocean Plaza Bar who made my coffee for me every morning. Simply outstanding!

 

We didn’t go to any of the shows since there wasn’t anything that we hadn’t seen before. I did manage to see every comedian on the ship for the two weeks at least once, and I thought they all did a pretty good job.

 

My Husband Daycares for this cruise were The Paddock in Aruba, and Karel’s Beach Bar in Bonaire. I highly recommend either one of them!

 

On every cruise we meet some of our fellow Cruise Critic members. This cruise we had the pleasure of meeting Knights on the Beach (Beth & Mark). What a great couple, and we shared quite a few drinks together during the two weeks. They had also done the B2B. We look forward to seeing them again at sea or on land. Thank you Beth for sharing your photos and experiences during the course of this review!

 

My mind has gone blank, so if you have any questions at all we’ll be more than happy to answer them for you. If I think of anything else, I’ll be sure to post it.

 

And now here are our future cruise plans. On August 31^st  2024, we will be boarding The Carnival Venezia from our homeport of New York, on B2B cruises to Bermuda and Canada. It just so happens that Lee Mason will be boarding the ship the same day as us, to take over as Cruise Director. It should be fun.

 

2025 will be a special year for cruising for us. To start off, we will be making a mega road trip that will take us to New Orleans and Galveston, two ports we haven’t sailed from, on two ships we haven’t sailed on. On March 31^st, 2025 we will be boarding the Carnival Valor in New Orleans for B2B 5 day cruises to the Western Caribbean. Upon return we will head over to Galveston where on the next day, April 12^th, 2025 we will board the Carnival Jubilee on a 7 day cruise to the Western Caribbean. That should be some adventure!

 

Then in September we will be flying out to Seattle, where on September 26^th, 2025 we will be boarding the Carnival Spirit for a 15 day cruise to Hawaii. It will be great to go there once again! Will any of you be sailing with us? If not, we’ll be bringing the cruises to you!

  

 

Before I end this, I have to thank my beautiful wife Patti. I couldn’t do these adventures, these reviews, or live life without her. She is my best friend, my rock, and a heck of a photographer! I’m happy to report that her recovery from her foot surgery is going very well, and she’ll be ready for action when we board the Venezia!

 

 

Speaking of photography, the photos you see on these reviews are only a small portion of all the photos Patti takes during our cruises. If you would like to see the whole package, there is a link in my signature for our Cruise and Vacation albums. Feel free to check them out if you are so inclined.

 

 So, until next time, may you have blue skies and calm seas!!!

Loved your review Jeff! Sorry to see this one over 😞 It also looks like we are going to just miss you on Jubilee next year as we are getting off when you are getting on (unless I can convince DW to do a B2B, but it's the same itinerary so not sure that will fly). 

Looking forward to your next cruise 🙂

1 hour ago, KarmaCruisers said:

It’s not gambling if you pretty much know the expected outcome. (As well as have the advantage)

When I play, I just call it "donating"

4 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

@sid_9169 whenever you go through this poor man’s attempt at managing a Sid thread in Sid’s absence, please know our foolishness is intended to show you how much we admire you and missed you this week during your not-live.

Absolutely! Well said😎

2 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

LOL whaaat the? happy Cole’s show JUST LET OUT and the next show in 30 minutes the line is alresdy mobbed deep. 
forrrrrget that, ain’t NO comedian on CARNIVAL that funny (but I mean, lolz at the line)

SO, to bed I go..at least to watch TV/youtubez for an hour 

 

We found comedy show lines were long until they started to let in and then the lines moved quickly and we were always able to find decent seats ( not front and center but not bad) even if we just showed up when they started letting in.

43 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said:

JFC! Absolutely BRUTALIZED in the casino!

my $2000 wash only returned $1477, my lowest result yet!

so after 3200 spins; the machines that are supposed to be around 90% return; are returning 81%!
I need a REAL good night on this next (last) play session! Not even just break-even I need to WIN!

in other news; I stopped by the host desk and asked for some money for Emerils’, no problem, $60. (Which is more than enough for me!)

Glad to see that worked for you! We missed Emeril's will need to try harder on Jubilee 🙂

1 hour ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Worked for a while in my cabin

Then at 5; came down and hade a Con Lechon sammich from the Deli

 

Had one last week and really enjoyed it 🙂

10 hours ago, mommio said:

Hey, we need our Sid fix!

Yeah, even if it’s just a bunch of faux “Sid Pretenders” 😂

1 hour ago, KarmaCruisers said:

I tried that once before and they looked like they had no idea what the words “comps” was…

We had a similar experience. No comps offered through day 5. DW approached Mihaela (casino host. Not sure of spelling), who said that all the restaurants were booked? Which didn’t make too much sense to us as they could’ve given us credit for Bonsai or Seafood Shack or Emeril’s or whatever. We just shrugged it off.

Then the next day the same casino host called us in the cabin to offer us dinner at Rudi’s. I told DW that see, maybe her asking, prompted the offer, but DW informed me that when she had asked the casino host about the comps, she never told her, her name. 

2 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Just watched Manny Acosta’s comedy set..pretty funny.

also; just saw the dancing lion/dragon go into ChiBang; which I missed damnit haha. Maybe they’ll come back when I’m in there shortly.

From last week 

Spa Balcony Cabin: We were in Spa Balcony Cabin # 17283, which we enjoyed overall.

Location: We loved that we were close to the elevators and that the cabin was very quiet. As I mentioned in the review this was probably the quietest cabin we've been in ever. No real noise form the hallway or elevators. No noise from the Lido deck (maybe because deck 17 doesn't open to the outside). We loved having access to the Spa Elevator and being just one deck down from Serenity.

What we didn't like as much regarding the location was that deck 17 doesn't have direct access to the outside. We would have to go down to 16 or lower to get to the mid ship or back of the ship. This wasn't a real problem but something to get used to. Like to go to Guys Burgers we had to go down to 16, go outside then take the stairs back up to 17 to get to Guys. If we wanted to watch a Dive In Movie or some of the deck parties from above the Lido Deck, it made more sense to just watch from 18.

Cabin Layout: I was originally concerned about the layout with the bed in the middle of the cabin. In reality, it wasn't as bad as i feared. Still the cabins are noticeably narrower than what we are used to and it is a bit tight trying to get around the bed all the time. I definitely wouldn't want to have more than two people in that cabin layout as it was still a bit congested. The good news was that I only hit my shin on the bed frame a couple of times. 🙂 

Bathroom: We both thought the shower with shower door was an upgrade over the old shower with plastic shower curtain. The bathroom was a bit tight though, if both people needed to be in there at one time.

TV: The TV was pretty big, but to tell you the truth, we turned it off when we got into the cabin and it stayed off the rest of the cruise. Also with it on the wall with the narrow walkway between it and the bed, just made it seem a bit even more crowded.

AC: As I mentioned already there is some kind of AC issue going on in the forward elevator lobby and hallways on several decks and especially deck 17. I don't know if that affected the in cabin AC temperature or not, but imagine it could have. The AC was just OK but never seemed to really fully recover. We kept it at max cool and it never seemed to get quite cool enough. During the day it was ok but we do like it a bit cooler at night when we sleep. I basically had to sleep with just the sheet and still woke up a few times from being too hot.

I still wonder if this is a maintenance issue or if the design causes the issue in that part of the ship. It makes me question our cabin choice for our Jubilee cruise 🤔

Spa Balcony Cabin Grade: Could've Been Better

Spa/Fitness Center: We really liked that we had the Spa Balcony Benefits of having access to the Thermal Suite with the heated loungers, steam and aroma therapy rooms and experience showers (I did use it twice and DW used it 3 times). We also like having the dedicated direct elevator.

The Fitness Center was good but it would be better if we could get to it with the Spa elevator as well. It also seems from our experience, that they need more weight machines and cable stations and could probably take out some of the treadmills to make room. I visited the fitness center 3 times (once to see what they had and twice to work out) and all three times at least 90% of the people were trying to use the cable, weight machines or dumbbells, making some of those areas crowded with nobody using the cardio equipment. As a matter of fact for all 3 visits put together I only saw 4 people total (total, not 4 at one time) using either a treadmill (and there are 28 of them) or an elliptical (there were 13 of them) and nobody was using the stationary bikes at all.

DW also had a massage which she enjoyed but just a head's up that they add an automatic "service fee" to the bill and they didn't let her know so she ended up double tipping.

Spa/Fitness Center Grade: Good

The Ship, Size, Layout and Crowd: Overall we enjoyed the ship very much with a few dislikes.

Being our first Excel Class ship it did take some time to get familiar with what was on which deck etc. I did spend quite a bit of time going over deck plans before the cruise and had the deck plan on my phone to refer to quite a bit as well which did help. 

We really enjoyed having all the options that the excel ships provide and we were surprised to find that with all the different venues (bars, restaurants, show rooms etc) the crowd naturally dispersed and the ship didn't feel too over crowded, except at Embarkation.

We used the elevators a lot more than we normally would. We realized that when you have to go up 10 decks to your cabin, you might not want to take the stairs 😅There was some wait usually for an elevator but nothing terrible. As I mentioned previously there is some kind of AC issue going on in the forward elevator lobbies and hallways on several decks of the ship. The temperature ranged from a bit warm to noticeably hot and humid with condensation build up dripping from the ceilings (see pictures in my review).

We did not really like the casino layout very much as it seemed to be stretched out into too narrow of a space. There is only 1 craps table jammed up against a wall/window and some of the slot machines are jammed into a corner or backed up to a wall etc. making them hard to get to.

Celebration Central is a good concept, but deck 8 was not a good place to watch from as it was too loud. Deck 7 was a bit crowded with the hallway going right through Celebration Central. We didn't even try to get seats for anything on deck 6.

Ship, Size, Layout and Crowd Grade:  Good -