Anyone Know What's Up With The Carnival Vista?

[RockHoundTX]

Overall, trading Jamaica/GC for Roatan/Belize is not a bad trade when on Carnival (done both routes about a dozen times each).

 

In Jamaica, you will notice that about half (or more) of the passengers won't get off the ship (and that number is probably 80%+ for people that have been there before). Super sketchy place. If you are on an excursions you are "usually" OK, but not always (just do a Google search). I have been to 36 countries and Jamaica ranks #1 on my list of unsafe places. Got off the ship and took the shuttle to the beach once. Never, never again.

 

On the flip-side, GC is the exact opposite. It is one of the safest, non-pushy places ever. Don't really care for taking the water tender but overall one of my favorite locations.

 

As for Roatan, the Carnival private beach is great (and totally free). Better yet, there is some really spectacular snorkling just off the pier (just bring your own mask and snorkle). No real reason to leave. Stayed on Roatan for two weeks back in 2018 at a B&B and had a fantastic time. Incredible diving, good zip-lines, and decent food. The town itself is REALLY run-down but you can avoid that (but still felt safe walking around unlike Jamaica).

 

Belize is OK but you really need to take an excursion. Stayed 2 weeks on Caye Caulker in 2017. Unsafe to be outside in Belize City after dark but perfectly fine during the day (just a little dirty). If you take a tour in Belize, just make sure to use Carnival since some of the ruins are pretty far away and have been on a few cruises where folks did not make it back on-time (speedboat broke down, etc.). You used to be able to safely take a water taxi to one of the islands but don't think that is possible now that the time in port has been shortened significantly. If you want an excursion, the swimming with the sharks and stingrays is cool (but very crowded). Did that as a private tour when I stayed on Caye Caulker with the family and will never forget that one.

 

I have been on Vista twice in the last 9 months and have another scheduled for December. Food on the first trip was BAD (as in, food poisoning bad). This was during the peak Covid time when half the staff were quarantined so probably the main reason. On the second trip (May) the food was generally OK but there were many substitutions due to supply chain issues. The ship was still understaffed but not nearly as bad as the previous cruise.  Hopefully the Vista is back to full staffing by now and the crew can remove their masks so that we can see their smiling faces.         

[Retiredmedic]

On 9/19/2022 at 7:53 PM, BasicSailor said:

👎

That's why we are now traveling to Florida cruise at least one out of our two cruises a year. Love living just minutes from Galveston but you can go to those ports only so many times and you're sick of them.

[BlondieB]

On 9/20/2022 at 2:21 PM, dmet0225 said:

We went to LFK when we stopped in Roatan on our Vista cruise at the end of July.  They allowed us to pay when we arrived rather than pre-pay.  A few of items to watch out for:

 

1.  If you do the monkey/sloth tour as part of your day through LFK, it's a cluster trying to get them to drive you to and from the place, which is right down the street.  It's also a cluster trying to get one of the staff to take you back to the cruise port when it was time to leave.  People who booked the LFK trip through a 3rd-party vendor received much better service.

2.  We were eaten alive by sand flies.  I had to get steroids from my doctor due to the terrible itching from the DOZENS of bites.  Make sure to bring bug spray.  In all of our previous cruises, we've never experienced that problem.  

3.  Make sure you're clear UP FRONT with your server if you get the full island tour regarding the food/drink tokens that are provided and included.  He told us we could use our tokens to order anything off the menu.  When it came time to leave, he insisted that it was NOT the case, and that you only got the "island plate" for the food, and that we could not use the free tokens since we ordered something different off the menu.

Thank you very much for info on LFK. I am 100% planning on the sloths. I will definitely bring bug spray and look into an outside vendor because I'm not trying to stress out over getting back to the port

[RockHoundTX]

Just an FYI that bug spray works for mosquitos but not for sand flees. For sand flees you need to slather on baby oil or get one of the local products (but the local products can be hard to find sometimes). As long as you are on a groomed beach (one that is raked every single day) the sand flees won't be too bad. However, if you do a "walk on the beach" to ungroomed areas and have not planned accordingly, your legs will look like a bad case of the chicken pox in no-time flat. 

[KmomChicago]

On 9/19/2022 at 8:26 PM, Joe817 said:

Different strokes for different folks. Have you been to Belize or Honduras??  We have. Last August, 2021. I LOVED Belize. Mahogany is a new favorite as well. One of our best cruises ever.

 

I have had good experiences at both of these as well.  In general we sail for the ship anyway so it's not really a big deal. Supposedly the ABC islands really are much better than the rest of the Caribbean but I can't say we feel like we have to prioritize getting there. 

[KmomChicago]

10 hours ago, BlondieB said:

Thank you very much for info on LFK. I am 100% planning on the sloths. I will definitely bring bug spray and look into an outside vendor because I'm not trying to stress out over getting back to the port

 

We did Daniel Johnston for the sloths and enjoyed it; it is a fairly long walk through the shopping village and up a hill to the pick up point, however they were able to drop us off closer than they picked us up.

[atxlady]

We did cave tubing in Belize and had a blast. We used Cave-tubing.com or Butts up. The ride there was fun and the tubing was relaxing. The best part is that you dont have to carry the innertube. It's waiting for you at the river. The folks on the Carnival excursion had to carry the tubes (boo). 

[jsglow]

Just to clarify info on the maintenance. They're doing it in two separate segments; not for the entire time from now until February. 

[BlondieB]

Anyone had Carnival apply their $100 per room OBC yet? 

[weezyreid]

10 hours ago, BlondieB said:

Anyone had Carnival apply their $100 per room OBC yet? 

No not yet, I keep checking lol. I’m going to call this week to see when it should be applied. 

[JCrewz]

10 hours ago, BlondieB said:

Anyone had Carnival apply their $100 per room OBC yet? 

Blondie....I haven't.   I was looking again at the email and I'm not entirely sure I understood it correctly.  It talks about refunding shore excursions and says that anyone impacted will receive the onboard credit.  Certainly, an awkwardly written email.  Everyone going on the cruise is impacted by the port changes.  So, is it just those who had shore excursions that get the OBC or everyone on the cruise?  Not obvious from the email.  I'll call tomorrow and ask and post the response.

[JCrewz]

Thank you everyone for the responses and especially RockHoundTX.  It's the kind of insight you only get on here Cruise Critic.  Very much appreciated.

[BlondieB]

7 hours ago, JCrewz said:

Blondie....I haven't.   I was looking again at the email and I'm not entirely sure I understood it correctly.  It talks about refunding shore excursions and says that anyone impacted will receive the onboard credit.  Certainly, an awkwardly written email.  Everyone going on the cruise is impacted by the port changes.  So, is it just those who had shore excursions that get the OBC or everyone on the cruise?  Not obvious from the email.  I'll call tomorrow and ask and post the response.

No everyone will get a $50obc/$100 per room max OBC for thr inconvenience of the itinerary change and Carnival excursions will be auto refunded which my group noticed they initiated on Friday

[BlondieB]

8 hours ago, weezyreid said:

No not yet, I keep checking lol. I’m going to call this week to see when it should be applied. 

Me too, I was going to give them till October. I already had $600 due to a  canceled covid cruise, some from booking a casino rate and now this.  Bar tab for the week covered 😂!! Especially since both my husband and I have drinks on them while playing in the casino 😅

[ChuckF]

It all depends on what you want to do. After going to Belize several times, I feel like I've been there/done that.  We did enjoy the cave tubing there, and there is an Eco-Park (albeit a rather long van ride) that we enjoy chillaxing at.  Although I don't dive, I understand that Belize offers some of the best.  We really like Roatan.  Carnival has a private beach area that is within walking distance from the port. I always golf in Roatan, but my wife and kids either went to the private beach, or done zip-lining and really enjoyed both activities. Probably not the best places if you want to just find a restaurant/bar to sit, drink and party.  

[d-lite-n-cruisin]

We were a little bummed as Jamaica and Grand Cayman were new to us, ports.  We wanted to swim with the turtles.  The letter didn't say how long extra we would be in Cozumel either.  We want to go to Paradise Beach.  But a cruise is a cruise and it isn't work!