March 18th Vista cruise mini review

My husband and I just returned from a six day western Caribbean cruise on the Vista. This was our first time on a Carnival ship since most of our cruises have been with RCI.

We like the Vista and only had a few complaints. We thought the ship was beautifully designed with the exception of not having a big promenade with glass elevators. When you enter the ship you first see a circular bar and the funnel. The funnel thing was neat, but I think it needs a finer resolution to give a more realistic feel. I did just feel that I was walking into a bar and not a cruise ship.

We had a balcony cabin on the 8th deck. This was our first balcony and I will be hard pressed to spend for a balcony again. Friends of ours, who cruised with us, were disappointed since their last cruise was on a RCI Freedom class ship that has balconies about the twice the size. I could tell why. The balcony felt tight and we hardly used it. The cabin itself was nice and very clean. We had to fiddle with the TV to change the viewing setting because it was too dark. We changed it from Cinema to Sports view.

This is a big ship and has too many things to do on just one cruise. We spent sea day mornings on the Sports deck walking the track and using the outside exercise equipment. I was able to ride the Sky Ride four different times and loved it. I also did the easy part of the Sky Course once, but found that fear of my balancing abilities has come with age for me and after getting through the easy one, I didn't attempt the hard one. But, I did appreciate the around ten-year-old girl behind me with encouraging words that I can do it as I paused at some of the obstacles. :) I can just imagine what was going through her head as she waited for this old women to get through it. lol

Loved the food options. Never did make it to the BlueIguana Cantina, but we did try Guy's Burgers and the Pig and Anchor. Both were great. The burger place is available everyday, but the Pig and Anchor is only available for lunch on sea days. My husband wasn't impressed with the bar-b-que, but I was. We also had lunch when we got on at JiJi's Asian Kitchen. Great food.

The Lido deck has the Market Place, which is the buffet dining area. I was very impressed with this place. The design really separated the food areas from the seating areas and the place was huge with many food options. We never found this place too busy or too crowded. Seating was always available. The mornings we ate here we went to the Omelet Bar and never waited. Great omelets.

Walking around the ship, we found many outside seating areas to just relax. Some were covered if you didn't want direct sunlight. There are at least three pools, each with whirlpools, although one is in the Havana area and only open to non-Havana cruisers after 7:00 pm.. I also always saw pool chairs available at any of the pools.

My husband and I enjoy comedians and this ship had two on it. Shows were usually at 5:30 pm, 7:30 pm and 11:30 pm. Both comedians had PG-13 and R rated shows. Loved both versions from both comedians. We didn't catch Flick, but we did see American Rock. It was fine, nothing to write home about. It seemed just like a typical cruise production. We also watched the final Lip Sync Battle. We really enjoyed that one. The man won, but the woman - she was sixty-five years old but looked and danced like a much younger woman. Very impressive.

All of the cruise staff was very nice and professional. The MDR food was fantastic, better than RCI, in my opinion. I didn't make it to the late night events like the White party. We always plan, but then we never can stay up that late. We rise too early.

We stayed out of the casino, when it was our choice. Our Munster drill was there and we had to go through it while in line waiting for the Grand Cayman tenders. The casino stinks. It smells like stale smoke. It causes me to appreciate my parents even more since they were non-smokers and not growing up around it made it easy for me to never be tempted to start.

I would recommend this ship, but I won't return since I have too many other ships that I want to try.

Say.... By chance did you notice if March Madness basketball games were on TBS? Or was it Mexican TBS and no college Basketball?

Thanks!

(A Bracket fan) haha

Thanks for the review.

Thanks what did you do on the islands?

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you for your review.

Keith