Carnival Vista Review

Not an amazing first impression of Carnival

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Carnival Vista
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jessicamoss1209@gmail.com
2-5 Cruises • Age 30s

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Sail Date: Aug 2016

We booked this cruise through cruise nation. 2 day stay in Barcelona followed by an 8 day western med cruise on Carnival Vista. There were 8 of us travelling together and we did explore Barcelona before the cruise. To be honest, I don't think I would go to Barcelona again as I did not find much to do there apart from the obvious sight seeing. The embarkation process was busy but smooth. The employees at the Barcelona cruise terminal are very efficient and friendly. We got onto the ship on deck 3. This puts you straight into the atrium/lobby. The atrium is pretty but I found that it did not really have that 'wow' factor like some atriums do. As standard for embarkation day, most of the lifts were out of use for the transportation of luggage. This meant that it was absolute mayhem trying to get a lift. We ended up walking from deck 3 up to deck 10! The main lido deck is good. This is where you will find the pool (salt water), some poolside showers, public restrooms, Guys Burger Joint, Blue Iguana Cantina, Red Frog Rum Bar and Blue Iguana Tequila Bar. There will be 2 pool towels in your stateroom but you can borrow additional towels from the towel bar by the pool. If you forget to take these back and take them home, then you will be charged $22 per towel.

FOOD - The food on carnival vista is not amazing. Guys Burger Joint is very nice as well as Blue Iguana Cantina (you can get burritos and tacos here). However, these are not open 24 hours - the only 24hrs food place is the Pizza place by the Tides pool. I was really disappointed in the variety of food in the Lido Marketplace (this is the buffet restaurant). It is a huge restaurant but they do not utilise all of the food counters. The choice of food is not incredible. When you cruise, food is a huge part of the experience and I feel Carnival lets its customers down here. We ate in the Horizons restaurant a few times. We did my time dining. You get 4 waiters (yes, 4!) yet the service is not the best. A lot of people seemed to complain at the Q&A with Matt the cruise director about the my time dining. You have to go to the Java Blue Cafe on deck 5 to book a table and then wait up to 15 minutes. You then have to go to either deck 4 or 3 for your table at the time given. When we ate in Horizons the starters never came out all at once. This meant some of the party had finished their starters before anyone else had had theirs. The drinks waiters were shockingly slow and found it difficult to understand mixer drink orders (such as Tia Maria and diet coke) The menu choice in the Horizons restaurant was ok and it changed each day. Its a shame because the food selection in the buffet on Celebrity was amazing. Carnival have this crazy policy where if you buy a drinks package, you HAVE to buy it for the other person in the room too. This meant the other people we were travelling with spent $1000 on an alcoholic drinks package that only one person wanted to use.

ENTERTAINMENT - If you like bad singing and dancing then the Carnival shows are for you. The singers are good, but they sing songs that are way to big for them. Try belting out whitney houston after dancing for 20 mins!! There was only 1 show that was not singing and dancing and this was a hypnotist. This show was the only on where we struggled to find a seat. I prefer shows like on Royal Caribbean where you have a variety like magicians, comedians and acrobatics. The other entertainment staff are good. They run a lot of trivias in the Ocean Plaza deck 5.

Cabin Review

Port Reviews

Barcelona

Barcelona was a bit smelly. I would recommend an excursion so you can skip the line at the cathedral.

Taormina (Messina)

you can just get off the boat here. You do not need to walk far until you are in the main town centre.

Rome (Civitavecchia)

You cannot really do anything here without doing an excursion. Rome is actually 90 minutes away.

Marseille

Carnival offered a transfer to the centre $17pp

Palma de Mallorca (Majorca)

Carnival offered a transfer to the beach $20 for adults and $17 for children.

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