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Jim Zim's Full Review: Carnival Vista 8-Day Southern Caribbean in a Havana Suite


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Hello, cruise lovers! I'm Jim Zimmerlin from Grover Beach, California. Everyone calls me Jim Zim. I cruise with my wife, Kellyn. (Rhymes with Helen.) This is my full review of our recent 8-day Southern Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Vista.



 

Get comfortable, because this is going to be a very long review with a whole bunch of pictures and videos. It took me two weeks after my cruise to edit and tweak all the photos and videos! Any time you see a video on the screen, just click the triangle in the middle of the picture to start the video playing. In a few cases, there will be videos or other content that I don't feel is "mandatory" for you to look at to follow the story. In those cases, I'll just put hyperlinks in to the text, and if you have lots of time, click on the hyperlink for the extra content. If you're in more of a hurry, don't click the hyperlink. Let's consider all the hyperlinked stuff as "bonus content". For example, you can learn a lot more about me and what I'm interested in at my web site. But you do not need to visit my web site to appreciate the story I'm about to tell you about our cruise on Carnival Vista. Got it? OK, let's get on with the story!



I've sailed with Carnival 27 times for a total of 181 days at sea, and the best of all of those Carnival cruises was this cruise on the Carnival Vista. It had been a few years since my last Carnival cruise. I had cruised every class of ships in their fleet, in cabins ranging all the way from a cheap inside stateroom without windows all the way up to

. I felt like I had pretty much experienced everything Carnival had to offer, so for the last few years I've been sailing with some of the other cruise lines... including Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Viking Ocean Cruises. Adding up all the cruises I've done since my first in 1996, I've now done 42 cruises!



I first started hearing about the Carnival Vista back in 2015. The thing that fascinated me most was hearing that Carnival was going to try something new: A special area at the back end of the ship, known as the Havana area, where a small group of passengers would have access to an exclusive swimming pool, Jacuzzis, and loungers... an area that all the other passengers wouldn't have access to. That would keep the Havana area very un-crowded, and provide a quiet little oasis at the back of the ship for those passengers who were willing to pay a little higher cruise fare to get an un-crowded, relaxing cruise experience.



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A Jacuzzi in the exclusive Havana pool area at the back end of the ship







It was obvious to me that Carnival had noticed the success that Norwegian Cruise Line was having with "The Haven". The Haven is Norwegian's exclusive un-crowded area on their newer ships. Not only is there a pool, Jacuzzis, and a sun deck... but also a restaurant and bar, and every Haven passenger has the services of a butler and a concierge. I've sailed in The Haven on Norwegian Cruise Line three different times now, and they were all exceptionally great experiences... but lately, NCL has been jacking up their Haven prices and it's been getting unaffordable. Carnival's Havana experience has some similarities to NCL's Haven, but at a hugely lower price.





It's interesting that Carnival's version of "The Haven" bears the incredibly similar name "Havana", isn't it?



Back in 2015, when I first started hearing about the Havana area on Carnival Vista, I heard that there would be four special suites that would be larger and more luxurious than all the other Havana cabins. I set a goal of staying in one of those Havana suites... but they're so desirable that they were among the first to sell out when bookings opened up for Carnival Vista. To get one, I literally had to book a cruise two years in advance! It was hard to wait all that time, and to read all the great reports from people who got to experience the Carnival Vista before I did. In the last few weeks before my cruise, my anticipation was so high that I literally had a daily countdown going at my desk at work.



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Finally, all that waiting and anticipating came to an end in the last week of September... and it was time for my wife and I to fly to Miami for our cruise on Carnival Vista.



 

That's the back story. Hopefully you're comfortable now, and ready for the whole rest of the story. Let's continue...

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The Havana Pool Area





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Since the #1 most incredible feature of the Carnival Vista is the un-crowded Havana area at the back of the ship, this story is definitely going to start there.

 

To truly understand what all the fuss over the Havana area is about, you have to first think about this picture of the mid-ship pool on the Lido deck of Carnival Vista:

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The Carnival Vista is the largest ship in Carnival's fleet, and it's absolutely huge. The week we were aboard, there were 4600 passengers... and on some weeks, there are even more than that. Imagine competing with 4600 other people for a spot in the pool, or a lounger nearby. On a beautiful warm day sailing the Caribbean, it's an absolute zoo out there on Lido deck at the mid-ship pool. And look at the clarity of the water in the pool! (Or more accurately, the lack of clarity.) The shape of a dolphin is painted in deep blue paint on the bottom of that pool, but you can't even see it through the murky water in that photo. I know you're probably thinking the water is murky from kids peeing in it... and that may be part of the problem... but I think it's mostly from sunblock that has washed off of people's bodies.

Now compare that last photo to this photo of the pool in the Havana area, which only 130 guests booked in Havana cabins have access to:

 

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When it comes to cruising, one thing I've learned after 42 cruises is that it's far better to share a swimming pool with 130 guests than it is to share it with 4600. (Or 6700 on the biggest Royal Caribbean ships!)

So, the thing that attracted me to Carnival Vista, and which prompted me to book a Havana cabin, was the un-crowded pool area at the back of the ship. Because when I'm on vacation, I'm all about the water. I want to be swimming at one of the world's best beaches, or relaxing in a swimming pool or Jacuzzi, during just about every day of every vacation. I honestly couldn't care less about touring historical sites, or attending art auctions, or learning about the local people and the way they live. After 25 years at my "real job", I'm getting tired of working now. Retirement is a few years away. When I can take a week away from work, just send me somewhere (Hawaii, Mexico, or the Caribbean are fine with me!) where the water is warm, the food is good, and where a Margarita or a Malibu-and-Coke can be easily obtained. That's all it takes to make me happy on vacation.

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I liked this shaded seating area in about one inch of water at the Havana pool.

It's no fun getting a sun burn on vacation, so a shaded spot like this is a great place to sit and enjoy a drink.

The Havana bar is literally just a few feet from this spot.









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The Havana pool area is for the exclusive use of passengers booked in Havana cabins, until 7 PM.

After 7 PM, any Carnival Vista passenger is welcome to come and enjoy the Havana area.

I didn't see very many people do so, though. A few came and looked around, but not very many stayed.









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This shows a portion of the sun deck on the edges of the Havana pool area.

Just about every time I was here, there were loungers available.

However, those round day beds in the upper right corner of the photo were super popular

and were usually chair-hogged very early in the morning with a towel and a personal item.

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Here's a better look at those day beds.

There were a total of six of them in the Havana pool area.









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In my opinion, Carnival should add padded covers to the loungers in the Havana area. This is a photo of some loungers in the Serenity Retreat on deck 15, and this is what I think the loungers in the Havana area should be like. Without the padded covers, the wicker loungers in the Havana area aren't really all that comfortable. However, when you step out of the pool or a Jacuzzi and you're dripping wet, it's nice to sit on a lounger without a pad, to dry off without getting the pad all wet for the next guy.





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On days when the ship is moving from west to east, you have a great view of the sunset from the Havana pool area. But because that typically happens around dinner time, a lot of cruisers miss it.





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This photo gives you a realistic look at the Havana area at mid-day on a sea day.

Almost all the seats are in use, but there are still a few available.

At that little hut on the left, you can pick up a fresh beach towel.









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Our friends, Liz and Kimble, were sailing with us this week, but NOT in a Havana cabin. They had their daughter with them, and families with kids under 12 years old aren't allowed to book Havana cabins. So, we were unable to have them hang out with us in the Havana pool area during the days, but after 7 PM we could invite them in. One night, we all had the best chat out here in the comfortable seating area near the Jacuzzi... on a delightfully warm night in the Caribbean.

It's especially great that the Havana area sits on the the fifth deck of a 15-deck ship, and at the rear... because this means the Havana area is quite nicely protected from wind. Imagine a cruise ship sailing in to the wind. If the ship is travelling at a speed of 15 knots, and the wind is blowing at 20 knots, that creates an "apparent wind" of 35 knots... nasty conditions if you're sitting somewhere exposed to the wind. It has always baffled me why Carnival builds their "Serenity Retreat" on the top deck, and at the front of the ship, on many of their ships. That's a horribly uncomfortable place to be on a windy day. On Carnival's Spirit-class and Fantasy-class ships, the Serenity Retreat is at the rear of the ship and is quite nicely wind protected. And on Carnival Vista, the Havana pool area is perfectly placed at the rear of the ship, down low, to offer some very nice wind protection.



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I don't know whether it's always this way, or if it was intentional, but several days during our cruise I noticed that one of the Jacuzzis was noticeably warmer than the other. I really appreciated this, because in the early morning or late evening hours it was nice to get in a somewhat warmer Jacuzzi... and during the heat of the day it was more comfortable to be in the slightly cooler one.



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I have to assume that the water in the Havana pool is pulled directly out of the ocean and not heated... because at the beginning of our cruise the water in the pool was noticeably cooler than it was a few days later. Notice that in this picture that most of the people are not actually in the pool. The water was just slightly too cool for that during the first couple of days of the cruise. But then one day, I dipped my toes in and noticed the pool was noticeably warmer than it had been the previous day. We had been sailing south, and had gotten in to warmer waters of the Caribbean. I have to assume that they had drained and refilled the pool overnight. For the rest of the cruise, the water in the Havana pool was a much more comfortable temperature, and a lot more of the Havana passengers got all the way in the pool.

This next picture is NOT a real picture! This is a rendering of what the ship's designers wanted the rear end of Carnival Vista to look like. The actual ship does indeed match up to the "artist's concept" quite well. I'm including it here simply because it gives you a pretty nice overview of the Havana pool area... from an angle that would be impossible for me to get from my camera!



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HavanaPool.jpg

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Some Perspective To My Story

 

When my wife and I started cruising back in 1996... we did it on a shoestring. We booked the cheapest inside cabin we could find, on the shortest cruise we could find, from the closest port to our house. We crammed two adults and two kids in to a tiny cabin, and we were thankful to be able to afford such an extravagant vacation... since up until that point, just about all of our vacations had consisted of driving to stay at a relative's house somewhere.

My wife and I enjoyed that first cruise, but the kids really didn't enjoy it all that much! So, there were no more cruises for our family for the next twelve years after that. But once the kids flew the coop, Kellyn and I started cruising again. We were still financially supporting two 20-somethings, so our cruises for the first couple of years after that were still on a limited budget... but at least we could usually afford a balcony cabin.

With each passing year, I was making a little more money (thanks IBEW and those annual wage increases!) and the kids were costing us a little less. So, over time, our vacation budgets slowly increased. In 2010, we stayed in a suite for the first time. In 2011, we were able to afford to fly to Miami for the first time and do a Caribbean cruise. We started to do a lot of back-to-back cruises. In 2013, thanks to the profits from

, we were able to splurge on the most expensive suite on the Carnival Sunshine, the Captain's Suite. In 2014, with ad revenue from YouTube getting even stronger, we were actually able to do six cruises in a single year... including our first experience with luxury cruising in The Haven on Norwegian cruise line!

I must be the luckiest guy in the world, because here in 2017 I totally lucked in to a lucrative situation at my "real job" which will provide a big financial boost for the rest of my years there, until I'm ready to retire somewhere around 3-5 years from now. And my YouTube channel has turned in to a huge deal, providing an incredible extra income that I never expected.

The reason that I'm telling you all this is that I know I'm incredibly blessed, and that most people can't afford what I'm about to describe to you. Please understand that it hasn't always been this way for me. I've worked hard since I was 20 years old (and that was 40 years ago) and finally now I am able to enjoy some rewards from that hard work. I know that not everyone has been so blessed, and I understand how reading some of this story might frustrate some readers who aren't able to afford this kind of vacation. I wasn't able to either, for quite a long time, but finally there are rewards from years of hard work and good choices... and a little bit of luck. I hope some day you will be as fortunate.

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Carnival Vista Cabin 5234





As I mentioned earlier, when I first started hearing about the Havana area on Carnival Vista, back in 2015, I heard that there would be four special suites that would be larger and more luxurious than all the other Havana cabins. I set a goal of staying in one of those cabins, which are known as "Havana suites". Let me give you a tour...



The Bedroom:

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The Living Room:

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The couch actually converts to two small beds, if I'm not mistaken.

In a video which I'll share with you a little further down the page, you'll see what I mean.





Perhaps the best thing about the Havana Suite is the shower:

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My shower at home is nowhere near as nice as this!

 

 

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A small detail I appreciated was that the rainfall shower head could be tilted.



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On deck five, there is a long row of 14 Havana cabins and suites that share an unusual design feature. Each has a large 100 square foot patio that backs up to a shared walkway leading to the Havana pool area.

 

 

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Each of the Havana balcony cabins on deck five has a really cool feature... a swing!

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When Carnival publicly released artist's renderings back in 2015 that showed what this row of Havana cabins on deck five would look like, they showed the regular Havana cabins as having just patio furniture and the Havana Suites as having swinging hammocks. I remember thinking at that time that the hammocks were the coolest Carnival innovation since Guy Fieri burgers... and the hammocks were actually the main reason that I spent the extra money to book a Havana suite instead of a Havana cabana.

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An artist's rendering of the original plan for the balconies of the Havana Suites



Sometime between when the ship was designed and when it was built, Carnival must have decided that the hammocks were impractical. (You probably would have swung in to that fencing way too easily.) So, the final design evolved in to no hammocks for the suites, but swings for all the cabins along that row. Here's how the patios of all of those Havana cabanas and suites look in real life:

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As you can see in the photo, there's a pretty great view from those patios! What is not quite as apparent is that those three pieces of patio furniture are not very comfortable. My wife totally LOVED the swing, but she's a small person. The swing wasn't comfortable for me as designed. If the back of the swing's seat had been taller, it would have been a lot better for me. That middle piece of furniture is just a complete oddball. I heard several other Havana guests say how uncomfortable it is, and I completely agree. The back is set at WAY too steep of an angle, and it is not adjustable. At least they put a padded cushion on it. With my wife in the swing, I defaulted to that little chair in the middle since it at least had a cushion. But I sat upright and did not lean back. They really screwed up in not adding cushions to the lounger on the right. I can't really understand the thought process in not adding cushions to the lounger on the patio of the most expensive suite on the ship. And the lounger sits way too low to the ground... so if you do relax on it, it's VERY difficult to get out of it. I sincerely hope that they do not stick with this arrangement on Carnival Vista's upcoming sister ship, the Carnival Horizon.

I always do a lot of photography and videography when I'm on a cruise ship, so one other little problem with being in a Havana cabin on deck five was the big glass wall at the edge of the ship. If you're just looking at the view from the patio with your eyes, your brain easily ignores the fencing and the glass. But as a photographer and videographer, it presents a problem. There's only so many shots you can take through the glass before you want to find an unobstructed vantage point. I found myself walking to the elevator quite often, to shoot photos from deck 12 or 14 in order to not shoot through glass.

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While we were at sea, a finch flew directly in to our neighbor's patio window

and knocked himself out cold. Our neighbor revived him!

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Enough about the patio... let's go back inside to look at a few details of the Havana suite...





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This photo of the bedroom shows the very generously-sized television facing the bed. Also note that I've closed the curtains between the bedroom and the living room. Those curtains were a very good idea. If you have an extra family member cruising with you and sleeping on the couch, you can slide those curtains closed to create some privacy between the two rooms. With my wife and I just travelling as a couple, I still found those curtains useful because there were times when she was sitting out on the patio, in the swing, reading a book. She would usually leave the patio door open so that she would feel like she wasn't in "time out" on the balcony. If I needed to change in or out of a swimsuit, I could easily create a little privacy by closing those curtains... and my wife didn't feel like she was locked out on the balcony.



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This view of the bedroom, from a slightly different angle, shows the closets that are located between the bedroom and the bathroom. I would describe the amount of closet space as "adequate but not generous". It's basically the same closet arrangement you'd have on almost any cabin on any Carnival cruise ship from recent years. It was a little surprising to me that they didn't splurge on more generous closets for the most expensive suite on the ship. We were fine with it, though. It was enough space for us.

 

I think the reason it surprises me comes from our three previous experiences in suites on Norwegian Cruise Line. NCL suites are somewhat over the top! They are hugely more expensive than Carnival suites, so I guess it makes sense. But if you ever want to splurge on a cruise that takes most of the great things about a Carnival cruise and then boosts the pampering and the "amazing lavish suite" quotient by a factor of about a hundred... give The Haven on NCL a try sometime.

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This photo does a better job of helping you to visualize how the bedroom area is connected to the living room and desk area. Note that the curtains separating the living room from the bedroom have been slid behind the shutters. One other thing to notice in the photo is the small passageway between the desk and the end of the orange couch. It's enough room to get through there when no one is sitting at the desk, but if Kellyn was at the desk working on her makeup, or if I was at the desk using my laptop computer, the only way for the other person to get from the bedroom to the patio was to jump up on to the couch and over. Awkward design.

It's time for our first video.



Still photos can only go so far in giving you a look at our suite.

A video does a MUCH better job.

Please take a look:



ew_vn1_V1xE

If you'd like to watch the video in HD on YouTube,



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I've been looking forward to this review and really enjoy reading your reviews and your website. You sold us on the Haven Spa Suite on the Norwegian Escape, and based on that review, we took an upgrade to the Haven last summer and it was the best cruise we have had so far. I cheated and read all of the Vista review on your website, and want to thank you for the info on the "VIP Cruise and Snorkel" excursion in Aruba, as we have now booked it for next summer while we are on the Sunshine. We sail on the Vista in February, and cannot wait to experience all she has to offer. Keep up the great work, and thank you for all the hard work you put in providing these reviews and recommendations.

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Every night while we were out at dinner or a show, our stateroom steward would clean up our suite, turn down the bed, and leave us a towel animal. On this particular night, he also left us each gifts for being Platinum in Carnival's loyalty program, and an invitation to a special event.

Speaking of the stateroom steward... Carnival changed something important since the last time we cruised with them, two years ago: No more snoozin'/cruisin' sign. For those of you who have never cruised with Carnival before, that's there version of a "do not disturb / make up room" sign. Anyway, now the only choice is snoozin'... and I think that's too bad. I always found it very convenient to use the cruisin' sign to alert the stateroom steward to a period of time when we would be away from the cabin for awhile, giving them an opportunity to do their thing when we wouldn't be around. What we ended up doing in lieu of a cruisin' sign on this cruise was to just make a point of finding the cabin steward (they're usually working on a cabin not far from yours, with the door open) and letting them know that we were leaving, and when we'd be back. This seemed to work well, and our cabin was usually all fixed up by the time we got back. Of course, if you're going to be gone for long periods of time, like on a shore excursion, there is no need to do this... they know you'll be gone.

I really liked the fact that the Havana Suites have TWO televisions. In addition to the one in the bedroom, there's also a slightly smaller one at the desk, which can easily be viewed from the couch in the living room. I liked to leave the living room TV set to the map channel, which not only shows the current location of the ship, but also the wind speed and wind direction.

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It's really handy to be able to see the wind speed and wind direction when you're in your cabin. Sometimes in the comfort of your cabin, even if you have a balcony cabin, you have no idea of what the actual conditions are outside. If you're thinking of taking a walk from your Havana cabin at the back of the ship to somewhere on one of the upper decks at the front of the ship, knowing that there's a 40 knot wind blowing on to the port side of the ship is very useful. In that case, you'd be smart to take a path that puts you on the starboard side of the ship, which will seem much less windy than if you had walked along the port side.

Overall, we very much enjoyed our stay in the Havana Suite, but there was a downside to the location. The Havana bar is located very nearby, and just about every night there's a Cuban band that plays there. On some nights, they play until 12:30 AM.

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The bass notes from the band were easily heard through the walls, as we lay in bed at night. When I looked at the deck plans, I realized why! Take a look at the little symbol shaped like a grand piano in the Havana bar in the deck plans. That's where the band sets up.





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So, I had managed to book us in to the cabin (5234) that is literally closer to the band than any other Havana cabin. Before the cruise, I thought that the big white thing in the deck plans of the Havana bar was the bandstand. Nope. That's the bar. The band sets up where the piano is in the deck plans... literally just twenty or thirty feet from our bed. No wonder we heard so much noise from the band at night! If you book a deck five Havana cabin and you want to get a little further away from the band than we were, pick a cabin like 5212 or something near that. Don't go all the way down to the end, though... 5202, for example. Down there you'll not only be dealing with noise from the elevators, but also a totally different band that plays in Ocean Plaza, just forward of 5202. Actually, something on the starboard side of the ship, like 5207 or 5209, would be a safe distance from the elevators, the band at Ocean Plaza, and the band in the Havana Bar. Just keep in mind that if you want a Havana Suite, the largest Havana cabins, your only choices are 5233-5236.

The Cuban band in the Havana bar wasn't the only source of noise in our cabin. On deck four, directly below our cabin, is the Horizons restaurant. If you've ever sailed on a Carnival ship, I'm sure you know that in the ship's main restaurant they try to create a fun atmosphere by having the waiters dance to music at the end of the meal. The musical accompaniment to all that dancing is played on speakers which are mounted in to the ceiling of the restaurant... and the ceiling of the restaurant on deck four is the floor of the Havana cabins on deck 5. So, if you find yourself inside a Havana cabin at the same time the waiters are dancing downstairs in the restaurant, you will hear every single bit of it through the floor.

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I've been looking forward to this review and really enjoy reading your reviews and your website. You sold us on the Haven Spa Suite on the Norwegian Escape' date=' and based on that review, we took an upgrade to the Haven last summer and it was the best cruise we have had so far. I cheated and read all of the Vista review on your website, and want to thank you for the info on the "VIP Cruise and Snorkel" excursion in Aruba, as we have now booked it for next summer while we are on the Sunshine. We sail on the Vista in February, and cannot wait to experience all she has to offer. Keep up the great work, and thank you for all the hard work you put in providing these reviews and recommendations.[/quote']

Ron, I really appreciate what you said. Putting these reviews together literally takes weeks, but it's worth it to me because I know people enjoy them. How do I know that? People like you tell me. And those small words of thanks make we want to do a full review for every cruise I take, even though it's a lot of work. Thanks for taking the time to put in a good word!

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Havana%20Entrance%20-%20IMG_6889%20-3.jpg

This is the area leading from Ocean Plaza (on the left) to the Havana Bar and Havana cabins.

 

 

 

 

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This is a little sitting area that leads from the elevators to the Havana Bar

 



To help you appreciate where things like the Havana pool and the cove balcony cabins are located, I've marked up this photo of the Carnival Vista that I took as we sailed past her on a shore excursion:

Aft%20Diagram%20-%20IMG_7088%20-1.jpg

 

The reason that my diagram included the "Huge Aft-Wrap Havana Balcony Cabin" on deck 6 is that I'm thinking that might be a good cabin to try the next time I stay on a Vista-class ship. There wouldn't be noise from the Horizons restaurant, there wouldn't be anyone walking by in front of my balcony, photographs from the balcony would be possible since the view is un-obstructed by any glass, and you could easily look down to the Havana pool area to determine if it's a good time to go down there.





On the downside, compared to staying in a Havana Suite...

A much smaller bathroom and shower, with no rainfall shower head... a much smaller cabin overall... just one television... you'd have to use the stairs every time you wanted to get to the Havana pool area and back... and you'd be directly above the band in the Havana Bar.



Perhaps the solution to the noisy band problem is to move one deck up, to the aft wrap cabin on deck 7. But as you can see in the photo, the balcony on the aft-wrap cabin on deck 7 is quite a bit smaller than the one on deck 6.





Here's that same photo without the annotations,

in case you want an unobstructed view:

Aft%20-%20IMG_7088%20-2.jpg

 



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Ron, I really appreciate what you said. Putting these reviews together literally takes weeks, but it's worth it to me because I know people enjoy them. How do I know that? People like you tell me. And those small words of thanks make we want to do a full review for every cruise I take, even though it's a lot of work. Thanks for taking the time to put in a good word!

 

Thank you Jim and you are welcome! I can't imagine the time it takes to pull it all together, but my wife and I really do value your reviews and recommendations. It's nice to see you and your wife enjoying your time and looking forward to retirement in a few years. I can't wait to read your MSC Seaside and Norwegian Bliss reviews. Both should be excellent ships, and it sounds like you have a fantastic year ahead of you.

 

Enjoy and safe travels,

John

(borrowed my screen name from the movie Captain Ron, loved Kurt Russell in that roll :D)

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A Tour Of A Very Different Type Of Cabin

Now that you've had a very good look at the Havana area and the Havana suite that Kellyn and I stayed in, I'd like to give you a tour of a very different kind of cabin on Carnival Vista. Our friends, Liz & Kimble (and their daughter, Kat) were staying in an unusual type of cabin known as a "cove balcony" cabin. It's called a cove balcony because the balcony literally sits inside a protective metal cove. These cove balcony cabins are located very low on the ship, on deck 2, and if the ship were to encounter extremely rough seas, deck two is low enough to potentially get hit by a large wave. So, the balconies are engineered in such a way to be able to withstand that... including a watertight door that can be closed around the regular balcony door to keep any water out of the cabin.

Take a look at this video tour of Liz & Kimble's cove balcony cabin:







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If you want to watch the video in HD on YouTube,



 

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My friends, Kimble and Liz, on formal night

 

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Video: What I Loved About Carnival Vista





While I was on the ship, I recorded a video for YouTube that shows off some of the things that I really loved about Carnival Vista... and I pointed out a few areas for improvement, too. If you only watch one of the videos on this page, this is the one to watch:



 

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If you want to watch the video in HD on YouTube,

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A Show I'd Like To Recommend

For me, this cruise was simply about spending time at the un-crowded Havana pool area, and taking excursions to some of the world's best beaches. Everything else was just the icing on the cake. There were three big production shows in the Vista's theater during our 8-day cruise, but two of them didn't sound like they featured my kind of music, so I blew them off. But the show I did attend, I really enjoyed! It was full of "my music". Back in the 1970s and 1980s, I was a DJ and radio announcer... and some of the most memorable music of that era was disco. The "Studio VIP" show was a new version of a previous Carnival production show I had seen on the Carnival Sunshine a few years ago. I really enjoyed it.

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So, if you're a fan of disco music from the 70s, and you find yourself on a Carnival cruise ship and they have the "Studio VIP" show... be sure to attend! If you're shy, I suggest you sit up in the balcony or as far away from the stage as possible. If you're extroverted and like to dance, sit close to the stage... and you'll quite likely end up being part of the show!



 

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Carnival Vista's 8-day Itinerary

The original itinerary that we signed up for had the ship stopping at Grand Turk, The Dominican Republic, Aruba, and Curacao. However, our cruise was in September and that's the peak of hurricane season. A category 5 storm, hurricane Maria, rolled across the Atlantic and seriously impacted many islands in the Eastern Caribbean: Dominica, Antigua, St Kitts, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, and the Turks & Caicos islands, just to name a few.

Grand Turk, which was to be the first stop of our cruise, was seriously affected by the hurricane and unable to host cruise ships for a period of time following the hurricane. So, our ship was unable to stop there, and we simply had a "fun day at sea" that day instead.

However, there were no problems preventing us from visiting our three other scheduled ports of call. Let me tell you about the shore excursions we booked, and all the fun we had...

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La Romana, Dominican Republic:



"Catalina Island Beach Break" shore excursion

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Kellyn and I are beach people. We live in a beach town in California, and on the weekends we like to relax in the sun in our backyard. If the ocean water at California beaches was warm like it is in the Caribbean or the Mexican Riviera, I'd probably spend a day or two each week in the water. But unfortunately, the ocean water in California is quite cold! I think some people that visit California are actually surprised by that. You always see the pictures of the crowds at California beaches... but the reality is that most Californians don't go in the water, because that water is usually somewhere around 50 degrees for much of the year... and never more than about 60 at the warmest parts of the year. When we're on vacation, we absolutely LOVE to spend time at a nice beach with warm ocean water that I can swim in. The water in the Caribbean is the warmest in September -- that warm water is what creates the conditions that allow hurricanes to form -- so we almost always book a cruise for September, to be able to take advantage of the warmest water of the year at some of the world's best beaches.

I've been to La Romana before, but I guess it's been a few years because the passenger facilities at the port have been improved quite a bit since the last time we were there. That was impressive to see. There didn't use to be much there at the dock in La Romana, but now they have some nice shops and restrooms and things like that.

The Catalina Island shore excursion starts by meeting at the pier and waiting for everyone to gather. Once the whole group is together, you take a short walk up to the parking lot and board a nice air conditioned bus. There's a very short bus ride from the parking lot to a small pier very near where the Carnival Vista was docked. During that short bus ride, I did notice quite a few trees that had been knocked down by hurricane Maria a week or so earlier. But I didn't see any damaged buildings at all, just trees. I think hurricane Maria had brushed up against the north coast of the Dominican Republic... and La Romana is on the south coast, and didn't seem to have been hit very badly.

Once the bus finished the short ride to the small pier where a boat was waiting for us, we moved from the bus on to a tender roughly the size of one of Carnival Vista's lifeboats. If you've ever sailed to Grand Cayman or to Belize, you'll know what I mean when I say our tender was about the same size as of one of the boats that tender you to shore there.

Once everyone was on the tender, it begins the approximately 35 minute journey to Catalina Island, which lies just offshore of the south side of the Dominican Republic. The boat ride starts out with a pretty great photo opportunity... you pass right by your cruise ship!



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As you can see, the water is kind of green there at the cruise ship dock in La Romana. It's just because that dock sits right where the Rio Dulce meets the Carribean. The river water meeting the ocean water, and the fact that there is no sand there, makes the water look green.

Once the tender passes the cruise ship, it heads out in to the open ocean waters... and at that point, a few of our fellow passengers looked a little green! Let's just say that I can't recommend this excursion to anyone prone to seasickness. The water was a little rough. I thought it was kind of fun, but the little boy sitting near us sure didn't... he started looking very green himself after ten or fifteen minutes on that choppy boat ride... and eventually he puked all over his grandma.

I found this somewhat ironic, as just the night before, in the comedy club, a gentleman in his early 20's had done the same... although in that guy's case, I think it was too much booze, not seasickness, that had done him in.

In any case, we eventually made it to Catalina Island, and it truly was a little slice of paradise. There was no hurricane damage that I could see. We tipped a guy a couple of bucks for bringing us some loungers to sit on, and then eventually decided we had better not risk a sunburn on our first shore excursion of the cruise... so we forked over a few more dollars (I think it was $5) to have an umbrella to shade us. I spent most of the time in that wonderfully warm Caribbean water, but every now and then I took a break under the umbrella... and during one of those breaks, Kellyn snapped this photo of me:

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Note the beach bag sitting next to me! Kellyn is retired and loves to spend her free time at home working in her sewing/quilting/embroidery room. Over the years, she has made me a series of beach bags, each a little nicer than the previous version. Here's the current state of the art... perfect for carrying a camera, some sunblock, a beach towel, and a few other little items I like to have with me at the beach:



 

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Here's one more photo to give you a good idea of what the scene at Catalina beach was like:

 

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They did have a little shack there at the beach where you could buy drinks, although they didn't have a huge selection of drinks to choose from like you would on the ship. I don't remember seeing any food for sale at the beach, but maybe I just missed it. I wasn't really looking, as I knew the excursion would get us back to the ship in plenty of time to enjoy a nice lunch aboard.





If you like to spend time on a nice beach, enjoying swimming or playing in the warm waters of the Caribbean, this is a shore excursion I can definitely recommend.

 

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Aruba:



"VIP Cruise & Snorkel With Lunch" Shore Excursion

In Aruba, we went on another boat ride... this time in order to do some snorkeling. I like to snorkel, so this seemed like an excursion perfectly suited to me... especially when I read the full description of the shore excursion and they mentioned that after snorkeling there would be an open bar and a barbecue lunch prepared onboard.

 

If anything, Carnival's description of this shore excursion didn't go far enough to explain what was so special about it. They mentioned in the description that we would be aboard a custom built 115 foot wooden schooner, but those words didn't paint a very vivid picture in my mind. If I had seen a photo of the boat, I would have more easy realized what a special excursion this was going to be.

The wooden schooner was really cool! It was way better than travelling by a normal tender like we had the day before. The schooner had a lot of personality. The best part was that in the two rear corners of the schooner, there were daybeds... and Kellyn and I were lucky in that we were 3rd and 4th in line as we boarded the schooner at the pier. The first two people quickly looked over the schooner to decide where the best seats were and plopped themselves down on the first daybed. I quickly realized that they had made the right choice, and plopped down on the other daybed. With everyone else in more traditional seats, I felt a bit like the king of the world surveying the Caribbean from the comfort of our schooner's daybed!

So, my advice to you, if you book this particular shore excursion, is that as your tour group is walking from the cruise ship dock to the little marina where the schooner is tied up, work your way to the front of the line so that you can have first choice of seats aboard.

I liked this shore excursion so much that I put a little video together in hopes of publicizing the excursion among the cruise community. I think the video does a good job of showing you what was so great about this excursion. Trivia fact: the guy in the red t-shirt is one of my YouTube subscribers and recognized me as I walked around with my camera! We had a really nice chat.



 

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If you'd like to watch the video in HD on YouTube,

 

Our excursion guides on the schooner didn't really do a good job of explaining to everyone where the good snorkeling was at this particular site. I had actually been there once or twice before on previous cruises, so I knew exactly where to snorkel to. But I think a lot of people were just snorkeling near the boat, and missed the really great snorkeling at the rocks near shore. If you find yourself on this particular shore excursion, do yourself a favor and snorkel towards shore until you run in to some big rocks just before the beach. That's where the best snorkeling is, where you'll see lots of fish.

After the excursion was all over and we were walking back to the Carnival Vista,



I snapped this picture of her tied up to the dock in Aruba:

Carnival%20Vista%20-%20GOPR0519.JPG

 

If you're going to Aruba, there is one other shore excursion I'd like to let you know about. Kellyn and I have been to Aruba a couple of times before, and on one of those visits we did a shore excursion that we still talk about! We call it "The Maraca Bus", although on our cruise they used the official title of "Kukoo Kunuku Open Air Bus & Beach Break". The Maraca Bus excursion was so much fun! They play music on a sound system in the bus, and at each seat there is a pair of maracas. Everyone shakes their maracas and has a good time during the entire bus ride. I know that doesn't sound hugely fun, but somehow it was! Perhaps this video I found on YouTube (it's not one of my videos) will give you a better visual than my words can paint:





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One other thing to mention about our visit to Aruba...

 

There was one other cruise ship that was docked in Aruba that day, and it seemed odd to me... since during two previous visits to Aruba, I had seen this exact same ship docked in the exact same place. Here's a photo of it:

Freewinds%20-%20IMG_7206.JPG

 

It seemed like too big of a coincidence to have run in to the same cruise ship tied up at the exact same spot on three visits in a row to Aruba. So, I Googled it, to see if that might provide any clues to the situation. Wikipedia had the answer.

It turns out that the Freewinds is owned by the church of Scientology. Aruba is basically its home port and it stays tied up there quite a bit of the time.

According to Wikipedia:

The Freewinds is the exclusive training center for the highest level of Scientology. Members of the Church of Scientology who have reached the highest levels must receive their training on the Freewinds, as the Church does not deliver this service anywhere else.

 

Besides the high level training, the Freewinds is used for delivering lower-level classes and auditing services. She is also used as a recreational vessel for Scientologists. The ship hosts a "Freewinds Maiden Voyage" each June as a summit for high-ranking Scientologists at which Scientology accomplishments and plans for the future are publicly celebrated.

 

The religion's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, had researched and ministered the first levels of Scientology aboard a ship in the late 1960s. A ship therefore has particular religious significance to Scientologists.

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Curacao:



"Beach Day" Shore Excursion

If you like spending time in the warm waters of the Caribbean, on a sandy beach, an excursion that I can very strongly recommend is the "Beach Day" shore excursion that takes you to Mambo Beach in Curacao. It's especially easy to get in and out of the water, because there are no waves in the swimming area, and no sudden drop-offs. A breakwater stops all the waves and makes the water in the swimming area completely calm. Because Curacao is so far south in the Caribbean... in fact, it's just off the coast of South America, and not that far from the equator... the water is delightfully warm here.

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We've been to this beach before on a previous visit to Curacao, and I was so excited to be back. The last time we were here, I discovered that at a little bar at this particular beach, they make the best Margaritas I've ever tasted! Unfortunately, on our last visit, I didn't discover those Margaritas until about 20 minutes before we had to leave. This time, I made sure to visit that bar shortly after our arrival... and those Margaritas were just as good as I remembered. This is not a "I'm looking to get quickly drunk" Margarita... those you can get at the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar back on the ship. These Margaritas were a little lighter on the Tequila and a lot smoother and sweeter. As far as I'm concerned, it's the Margarita I will judge all others by.

Out at that rocky breakwater, there are a lot of small fish. No snorkeling gear is supplied on this excursion, but I have a good snorkel set from Amazon.com that I carry with me on vacation and so I was able to snorkel over to the breakwater and got to visit with the fish for a while. Another thing I like to do on that particular beach is to swim over to the floating wooden platform and jump off. It makes me feel 12, not 60.

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There are actually two versions of the excursion to Mambo Beach. The one we did is simply called "Beach Day" and it transports you from the ship and to the beach by air conditioned bus. An alternate version of the same basic excursion is called "Beach Break By Boat"... and as you might be able to guess, instead of a bus, it transports you between the ship and the beach on a boat, the Pelican Express, which you can see in the photo at the top of this section.

There are pros and cons to both versions of the shore excursion. The boat version leaves the ship earlier, which gets you to the beach earlier, which gives you more loungers to choose from when you arrive on the beach. The bus version would be better for anyone that might possibly be prone to seasickness, and it also gives you a little more relaxing morning on the ship since you don't have to be ready to leave quite so early as you do for the other version. However, by the time you arrive at the beach, the best shady lounger locations may have already been taken.

We did the bus version, because I like that the bus goes over the big bridge which gives you a spectacular view of the port of Curacao. However, I failed to get a single decent photo from that bridge!

At the end of the day, as our ship sailed away from Curacao, I set up my GoPro to record an interesting time lapse video of our departure. Take a look:

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If you'd like to watch the video in HD on YouTube,

 

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Casual Dining

I like to be VERY casual when I'm on vacation and that goes with eating, too. The last thing I want to do on a cruise is dress up for dinner, or have a two-hour sit down meal in some fancy restaurant. That's just not my thing! My wife is the same way, so we generally eat all of our meals in the buffet restaurant whenever we cruise. The only exception is for specialty restaurants such as a steakhouse.

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The Buffet Restaurant On Carnival Vista's Lido Deck







 

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"The Ringer", my favorite version of a Guy Fieri burger

It has an onion ring above the cheese... and a delicious sauce.

 

 

 

 

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We're quite comfortable on Carnival because it's no problem to be casual and to eat casual. In fact, they probably have the best selection of casual dining options of any cruise we've ever been on. At the very top of the list of many excellent casual dining options on Carnival Vista is Guy's Burger Joint:

Following the huge success of Guy's Burger Joint, Carnival teamed up with Guy Fieri once again to improve their existing outdoor barbecue joint. This was the first ship I've been on with the new Guy Fieri version of the barbecue, and I thought it was good. However, when our 8-day cruise was over, the record showed that I ate lunch at the barbecue joint once, the buffet restaurant once, and Guy's Burger Joint six times!





I like Carnival's breakfasts, too. I like their made-to-order omelettes, and the potatoes they serve with them. Note the Lawry's seasoned salt, which I always bring along with me on a cruise, to improve the flavor of the eggs and potatoes.



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There was a total FUBAR situation at breakfast one morning, though. The day the ship docked in the Dominican Republic, our ship arrival at the island quite early in the morning and there were a whole bunch of shore excursions with meeting times of 8:15 and 8:30 AM. The buffet restaurant doesn't even open until 7 AM, so on that particular morning the restaurant was jam-packed with people right at 7 AM who needed an early breakfast in order to be ready for their early shore excursion calls. Unfortunately, the restaurant was totally unprepared to deal with the large crowd of people that early. On a normal day on the ship, they open up one of the four buffet lines at 7 AM, a second one at 7:30, and the other two even later than that. For some reason, they treated this day just like any other in the buffet, and when hundreds of people all lined up for an early 7 AM breakfast, they simply could not handle that big of a crowd. It was a mess. It was close to 7:30 by the time I got my omelette, and then there was a second gigantic line that I would have had to stand in if I had wanted potatoes and all the other stuff with it. That simply was not going to work with an early shore excursion coming up soon.

So, I decided that I was just going to have to skip the potatoes and the other stuff on this particular day, and just ate my omelette. After breakfast, as I was heading back to our cabin on deck five, I got a very lucky break and discovered that just a little ways from our Havana cabin, they serve breakfast at The Taste Bar in Ocean Plaza. And I was apparently not the only passenger on the ship that did not know this! At the same exact moment that the Lido buffet restaurant was a total mob scene, the Taste Bar was delightfully un-crowded. I grabbed a plate and got my breakfast potatoes, croissant, and some bacon... which made me much happier for our excursion later that morning.



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Breakfast at "The Taste Bar" in Ocean Plaza, on deck five.

If the buffet on Lido is too crowded, this is the place to have breakfast.



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