This was our 30th anniversary cruise we travelled in a party of 12. Embarkation was a nightmare compared to other cruises with RCI . We had balcony cabin on deck 8 which we found comfortable and a good size. Food was very good but the anytime dining system they operated was crazy queueing on deck 5 to find out whether you were eating on deck 3 or 4. Only ate twice in main restaurant where food service was ok but ordering drinks to accompany your meal was a nightmare. Drinks came after your 3 courses. Throughout the ship we found the ship vastly understaffed and lots of them were either rude or unhappy. Too many rude staff to mention although we found several good ones. Cabin staff were lovely and looked after us really well. Bar staff throughout ship were rude with a few exceptions maybe because they were understaffed and unhappy was the reason for this but carnival should address this. Couldn't believe that some of the 15 per cent gratuity we paid on every drink went towards the staff,s plane ticket home DISGRACEFUL CARNIVAL. Entertainment on ship was really good some great bands in ocean plaza where we would finish off our night. Port calls were good but carnival trips were a rip off. taxis are much cheaper than carnival transfers into towns. Would I travel on carnival again No. If you purchase the cheers drinks package make sure you order the most expensive brands and get your money,s worth. Read Less

This was our first cruise so I cannot compare to other cruises. Family of 5 with 8,10 and 17 year old so had 2 cabins on 1st Deck. The rooms were very good and clean and beds were extremely comfortable. The boat overall is excellent for families as lots to do and kids had a great time. Below are comments on the main parts for us: Swimming pools - very small and filled with salt water which is not pleasant. The slides and kids fun pool is great. The enforcement of towels being removed after 40 mins is very hit and miss. Dining - overall the food was dissappointing it was ok but not brilliant. Breakfast was good at the buffet (lido market place) continental and cooked eggs, bacon, pancakes etc. Lunch - guys burgers were great as were the pizzas, went to the Asian at lunch which was not good so would not opt to pay a charge to eat there in the evenings. The Lido marketplace was good at lunch with good selection. Dinner - the horizons resteraunt was not very impressive and food was same as the lido market place but with waiter service which was appalling. Most of the waiters did not seam to be organised or well trained or managed. Do not go to deck 5 to register for dinner if you are on anytime. Just head for deck 4 the upper level of Horizons as we got seated quicker this way. Dress code is a joke. As this was our first cruise we did not know what to expect so we ensured we dressed appropriately such as collared t-shirt or shirts in evening and suit with no tie of elegant night. The resteraunt basically allowed anyone in which was annoying sat opposite to someone in vest, swim shorts and flip flops! The shore excursions are extortionate and shuttle buses were seriously overpriced. The crew even scared people about going off the boat independently which was very underhanded. For example I booked a train to Rome in advance and They were telling people the train would take over an hour and a half when it only took 40 mins. We did not use the drinks packages as we do not drink alchohol and the drinks available were fine for us. Entertainment was very good and even though Matt the cruise director is from uk he definitely acts for the US audience but he does a great job of getting people to enjoy there stay. The kids club was also excellent and our younger ones enjoyed it. But our 17 year old son found little catered for him as there is nothing for the over 18's and due to being American drinking is for over 21's. The ship has fantastic potential but really needs better management and training of its staff as the feel of service was very disjointed. Guest services were very hit and miss some were very helpful and others were terrible, the same with the waiting staff. Overall we did have a great time and the boat is great for families and above comments are being critical but honest. I would recommend for families. Read Less

travelling with another couple that hadn't had but wanted a Europe experience so ports of call were important to help give them a 'flavour'. Thought the new ship looked fun and liked the itinerary and the exclusive Havana area. Thank goodness for our Havana booking! Although only one of the whirlpools was working the pool area and bar exclusive from 7am-7pm was the trip saver. Other ship pools too small and merky to handle all these children and no pool and only one working whirlpool in adult serenity area. Carnival needs to help staff with enforcing waterslide expectations (it is wild and safety is high risk), Enjoyed the ropes course and the Sky Ride but be prepared to wait at least 30 minutes and only open 1-6. The noise from the basketball court above the lovely Capitanio pasta restaurant is terrible. No where to eat after 11pm unless you wanted to line up with 50 teens for pizza, or go to your cabin for room service. Dining menu offered a good variety, quality and presentation was average; wait staff were very hard working and fun dancers! We went to almost all the bars and restaurants. Guest services were very pleasant as were the shore excursions desk and the staff at Pixels. Ken was top notch at the Piano Bar (hope he gets paid well); the entertainment had packed venues: this week were 4 comedians, opera singer (lovely but not appreciated with Carnival clientele), hypnotist, ships singer/dancer troup. The Pub was always filled and we really enjoyed the Red brew and the vocalist-guitarist. The activities were delivered by excellent cruise director Matt and his assistants ( and of course the volunteer travellers!). Could offer some more on sea days. Shore excursions are often available once on the ship although the on-line pre-booking appears sold out -so check at the desk. Most of the excursions are priced competively and we had excellent tour guides in Rome and Naples. There were a mix of nationalities on this trip and that will likely change when Vista comes to the Caribbean. Carnival needs to revisit Havana access, staff was amazing enforcing to cabin holders only, but the wear and tear of the area was obvious as after 7pm there was no restrictions of age. It is a fun ship with swarms of children. Read Less

As with all reviews a lot comes down to taste. Personally we liked the modern fresh style on the ship. The one sea day was quite crowded but other than that had a great time on deck. Water world was great fun as were the sky ride and ropes. Loads of activities for all ages. The food wasn't great in the main dining. It promised a lot but just didn't deliver. Often bland/dry/overcooked. I know they are feeding a lot of people but it was fairly poor but as I say that may come down to personal preference. Top tips: DRINKS - we had the cheers programme, never got anywhere close to the 15 drink limit but once you've had a glass of wine or two($10) beers ($5) and a few cocktails ($10) it soon becomes worthwhile. You tend to drink more because you have it, but nice not to get a scary bar bill at the end! The kids had bottomless bubbles which unless your kids drink gallons of fizzy drinks you could live without and certainly get away with giving them soft drinks you have got for yourself ( sorry carnival). The only way the monitor it is with a sticker on your card. There is fruit juices available at breakfast time and then got apple juice with dinner. They can get cartons of milk(chocolate) at breakfast and they are available in the harbour lounge from the fridge all day. There are machines serving tea and coffee and lemonade iced tea and water available. Don't drink the water bottles in the room, stupidly expensive just get a glass from the machine. DINNER - kids menu is the same every night, we just ordered off the adult menu for our kids which they were happy for us to do EXCURSIONS - from what I could tell the carnival ones are horribly overpriced. For example the trip to Pompeii was something like $100 each. We got off the ship came across a shuttle bus, charged us 15E (kids were free) for a direct return to Pompeii, loads easier than public transport. Some people reported that carnival were charging for transfers at certain ports where these were available free locally ( not sure which port this was) CARNIVAL HUB- thought it was really cheeky that they charge you $5 per person to use the chat facility but helped us keep track of our daughter as obviously phones don't always work when out at sea!! SMOKING AREAS - these for once were fairly plentiful ! But shouldn't panic the non smokers as the smell didn't seem to travel Apart from the gripes about the lifts, occasionally grumpy bar staff, and a cramped cabin (but there were 5 of us, it was snug!!) the vista was good fun and good value for money. Read Less

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. There is so much for children to do. As well as the kids clubs there is an arcade, water works, sky course, sky ride, mini golf, basketball court etc. There is a minimum height for the sky ride and the high ropes sky course. The queue for the skyride is horrific and carnival seriously need to sort this out. When we are docked since 7am till 6pm, why is the skyride only open 1pm-6pm?! We got to the skyride at 12.45pm and there was already a queue - we waited 50 minutes. Most of the time the queue was over 1hr30mins long. Small children, although they might meet the minimum height requirement for the sky ride, will probably find it difficult to cycle up the incline. There were so many children that got stuck and had to be rescued by the staff. There is hardly ever a queue for the high ropes - however, if someone in front of you wants to come back then you all have to go backwards. There is 1 easy route and 1 difficult route. The waterworks is really fun. There are 2 water slides. The queue for the yellow slide is always longer as the height requirement is lower than the Kaleidoslide. The Kaleidoslide needs a rubber ring which you need to get from the bottom of the slides. They show 2 'dive in movies' per day and you can get popcorn from the bars on deck 10 and blankets from the towel bar. The Imax shows 3 different movies. Our choices were a documentary, finding dory and suicide squad. It is $12.95 per ticket. There is also a 4d Thrill Theatre which also is an additional charge. The adults only section Serenity was good...except there is no pool! 2 hot tubs and no pool! The bar also is meant to open at 1pm, but when we were up there it opened somewhere between 2-3pm. This meant we had to treck down a few decks to get a drink. CABIN - We had an inside cabin on deck 2. The cabin was lovely and clean. Our stateroom attendant was lovely. They work 9am-12pm and then 6pm-9pm. Rooms get a sign similar to a 'do not disturb' that has 'crusin' on one side and 'snoozin' on the other. When you leave your stateroom and want the bed made in the morning you put 'cruisin' on the door so the attendant knows you are out. You will do the same in the evening. If you are in the room put 'snoozin' on so they know you are inside and wont bother you. It was a really simple but effective system. Inside the room is a mini fridge, flat screen tv, double wardrobe with shelves, drawers and a safe. The bed was so comfortable. The bathroom has a shower curtain on the shower which i was not a fan of to start with. However, this makes the bathroom seem much more spacious compared to a cubicle. There are also breakfast cards to hang on the door for breakfast to be delivered to the room. There is a room service menu but I found this not to be as extensive as the room service provided by Royal Caribbean. You have to phone the order through too. I much preferred ordering via the TV. You are able to call other staterooms. However, we got woken up at 4am to the phone ringing. We kept getting phone calls from another guest who kept getting the stateroom number wrong. We ended up unplugging the phone as it was so loud and annoying. SERVICE - The bar staff are rubbish on deck 10. They don't seem to know where drinks are kept and once even thought we were being served even though the person in question was the only person manning the bar! The same cannot be said for the girls on the Alchemy bar though. They are really friendly, quick at serving drinks and just amazing. I found it more entertaining watching them make cocktails than the evenings entertainment. I witnessed one member of staff in a suited uniform using the bathroom by the Horizons restaurant and DID NOT wash her hands. Gross. PORTS - Barcelona: you cant really get off and wander on your own. Messina: You can definitely get off and wander into town without paying for transport. Naples: Very run down but the town centre is straight opposite the cruise port. I would definitely recommend the excursion to Herculaneum. Its only 15 mins by coach and takes about 2 hours to get around. The ruins are in better condition than Pompeii as it was covered in mud rather than ash. The site is much smaller but you will get bored of walking around especially in the heat. Rome: Rome is actually 90 minutes away from the cruise port. You cannot get off the ship without an excursion or transfer. It is a ship yard. There is a train station in the port and you can get the train into rome. Livorno: Pisa is only about 15 minutes away (the excursion brochure said 45 mins) Pisa requires tickets to get into the tower, baptistry and cathedral. These are usually included if you purchase the excursion through carnival. Marseille: Carnival offered a transfer to the town centre for $17 per person. Palma De Mallorca: Canival offered a transfer to the beach (very close to Magaluf) for $20 for adults and $17 for children. SHOPS - The shops are NOT DUTY FREE in European sailings. They charge a 21% tax yet are still closed when we are docked. There is a jewellery shop selling Effy jewellery, a watch shop, the cherry on top shop (quite expensive for the sweets in there), Rum Cay which sells clothes and carnival branded merch. There is also a shop called Portside that sells some food and also toiletries and medicines etc. (The sorts of things you forgot to pack) Matt the cruise director was brilliant even with his cringey catch phrase - "Bye....I said bye" (Only cringey as I am British like he is and he says the last part in a bad american accent LOL) He did a Q&A on the last day and it was SO good. He really answers any questions and you can get a good insight into cruise life. I would definitely recommend going to this. In conclusion, this was my first Carnival cruise and it will probably be my last. They definitely are a fun ship and will be brilliant for families with kids or young people. The food seriously lets it down and the organisation of the main selling points for the ship (Sky ride). With other big ships like the ones from Royal Caribbean, Carnival really need to up their game. The ship was ok but not amazing. Read Less

We chose this cruise because of the so called party atmosphere and youngish passengers. this is our 4th cruise having sailed with Royal Carribean, NCL and celebrity. This will be our last time on carnival! We knew the standards would be lower than other ships we have been on but still expected a good level of service from a brand new ship! We have no kids and don't mind a few kids about but we didn't expect 1200!! we normally don't go on a cruise in the 6 weeks holidays but loved the idea of the 12 nights and especially because this was one of the rarest cruise its iterates going to the port of Dubrovnik. We had a good holiday but I would say the ship has a lot of cons and all I could think of for pros were: Good for kids! Lots of flumes, we heard kids clubs were great and the burrito bar!! I think that's literally it! Cons: arrived at 1.30 pm - you walk through the atrium and it certainly doesn't wow you! As usual when you board you get lots of people that look like they should be on the set of Shaun of the dead or some zombie movie! We went to our cabin soon after (knowing that the cabin may not be ready) we were met by a confused steward who seemed shocked to see us! We asked if we should come back and he said no the room is ready! I wasn't expecting black hairs in the sink and literally sticky stuff on dressing table ! He'd clearly not cleaned! He said he had 26 rooms to clean in 3 hours & I totally understand they are pressed for time. However we would have happily come back later! I asked him to hoover the floor at least, and he just grumbled I'll get the Hoover ! It was quicker to do it myself I had to move furniture out the way for him! The room just didn't get cleaned so I had an officer say they will deep clean the room! Next day our steward had been removed from the deck and we never saw him again! Other people said they had good stewards but probably just our luck! The first formal night was too early only 2nd night into the cruise!! We had a dinner sitting at 8.15 pm every night but some people really wanted to get in the restaurant for that time but had any time dining! The queues for anytime dining were long on a formal night (up to an hour wait!) Like others have said no white table clothes on tables (didn't bother me) but it does make the evening tables look a little more special! Only being picky here! Service was slow in the dining room but food was ok! We enjoyed the songs and dancing the waiters did at night half way through the meal! But you did think they looked bored half way through! That was the only time they raised a smile! Lido buffet was nicely layed out but limited food choices like other reviewers have said! Hardly any fresh fruit! All you could eat was gratefuit and melon! I asked for any strawberries, and was told they only had them on cakes for garnish!! Finally sun beds! Like everyone has mentioned sun beds are a major issue! We only sunbathed once on the serenity deck (adult only) obviously everyone else with no kids wanted to go there! We set our alarms for 5.15 am knowing that people got up earlier than that! We got the last sunbed at 5.30am and all the others were taken! People had taken duvets out and slept all through the night! Not only did we feel groggy but you could only be away from your sun loungers for no more than 40 mins so if you wanted (like my other half) to play football then I had to stay looking after the sun loungers and couldn't relax without looking at our watches! on the serenity deck there was a nice salad bar (but again massive queues!) One sea day we had enough so got a sunbed in the shade (again) had a fight to get it! I went down one time to get a drink from one of the pool bars called red frog and queued for half an hour just to get a Diet Coke ! People pushed in and were served before me! The bar staff woman said I don't know who was first ! A kind man shouted again for me to get served but she didn't wanna serve me! Rude! Then finally got served by another waiter they said they had ran out of Diet Coke! They were giving the kids cans instead of out the pump so ran out of soft drinks!! What do they expect with 4,000 people! I asked if the other pool bar was open and they said not till 4pm! The staff admitted they were short on staff and struggling to cope! The layout of the ship was poor! You could not walk all the way through like most RC ships! To get to the horizon resturants for breakfast you had to go right to the end of the ship past the pixels gallery and down then back on your self! So confusing! Matt the cruise director loved the sound of his voice ! Even when we came into ports he woke us up and we could hear him from inside the cabin! Then daily announcements about the bingo and other lame entertainment! To be fair Matt did a good job of being upbeat but on sea days twice in a row we had an HOUR long documentary about celine Dion and then the BeE gees! I mean come on carnival! Where's the live bands at sea?? ? Awful entertainment! Because everyone could bring booze on board people drank in the cabins which meant the bars were dead! And rowdy people had cabin parties with kids that should have been in bed at 3am running around the ship! The balcony doors were not sliding and they slammed shut all day and every day! So u just heard banging of doors and furtniture etc! We only had 4 hours of sleep on average each night! And normally we stay up late drinking but didn't feel like it this time! Comedians were ok but not that funny, and the red frog bar just played me and my cousin ( a good pair of musicians) but they were on every night and just got boring!! We were so stressed in the first few days that we booked a massage in the spa! We do not normally have massages as there so over priced but needed one to relax! We had a couples one and had our masseur cough all over us plus speak in there foreign language over us whilst massaging! Then asked for a tip on top of the 15 % gratuity! We said no so they just told us to go giving us no water nothing ! We complained and was refunded the whole 342 dollars! I'd say we enjoyed our holiday but didn't enjoy the ship! The cabins were OK! Lots of space in the balcony cabins but the balconies were small! A if your looking for all round service, food, entertainment, etc get yourself on a Royal Carribean or our fab celebrity! But then again we loved the award winning shows on the NCL! This cruise has not put us off cruising, however we would not recommend cruising in the school holidays and especially with carnival ! Happy cruising Read Less

My wife and I choose this cruise because we wanted to see Europe and this seems the perfect way to do it. We planed this trip over a year ago and since we had not had a vacation in the last fe years we thought this would be perfect. So here is my impressions I hope this helps give you a different perspective on this cruise and ship. Again this is my perspective and pardon if I come across as pissy over details but when you plan for a year and spend north of 10k on a trip I think I have the right be picky on details. 1. Let's just start by saying the cruise the stops, tours, locations were wonderful and meet all of our expectations and flat out nailed it. 2. We booked a suite and looked forward to it, about 2 months before sailing we decided that since we were in this far and it's a new ship go for it and get Grand Ocean Suite. We got room 7311. 3. Ok some embarkation day (easiest ever at Barcelona) there where five large ships leaving at the same time traffic was tough to get to port but once there easy breezy right on. I know we had priority boarding but still lines were moving very quickly. 4. Get to room (YEA) well not so much. Coffee station was missing coffee and creams (nespresso) type machine. Then looked around room was clean but shoes and other stuff still in closet from last guest. I am sorry but when I get on I like to this it is my room and it just for me this gave me the checked into a hotel look. Called to have stuff removed and went out to enjoy ship. 7:00 pm bags finally got to room meet steward and had to ask again to have stuff removed I guess the call to house keeping never got to steward. 5. Ordered Deluxe Wine Package as we enjoy a decent Chardonnay and we had cheers we like a bottle in our room at night to enjoy balcony. 6. 2nd night asked room service for a bottle of Kendal Jackson (not great but not bad) and was told they do not honor bottle tickets in room service. What? ok, so go to bar get wine and wine bucket and go back to room. Ok not happy but I can live with it. 7. Day 7 Ran out of Diet Coke (btw) they have no road stations so get used to kids bum rushing bars for sodas, kind of hard to have a drink and chat with new friends with ten kids lined up between you asking for soda. Also went to get wine and out of Kendal Jackson but's it's ok we will give you Barefoot wine which I could have got and the cheap wine package I asked why I paid for x and got y? too bad we just ran out. 8. We ate at Steakhouse (brilliant did it twice), Chiefs Table (brilliant must do separate table in galley just wonderful worth every $), Italian $ restaurant (no so much pretty plain, not worth money) We did Seafood shack and had Lobster Rolls (oh heavenly). Lido not back standard food but I really like the decor and restaurant feel. Main dining was our time and worked great good food but menu did not really change got boring after a while. Taco's and Burgers were good. 9. Last night still pissed about wine options, we go to Photo place and it's packed I speak to the attendant and he says oh you can use your carnival hub app and you can choose your favorites and order them from your phone digital copy to iPhone later. Great we are off to a show. (shows very good) 10. Next morning 7:00 Get off I do not see a final bill I ask and I was told trying to go green so go to guest service to get it (have you seen the line on debarkation day?) and my flight leaves so we leave get transfer to airport now in airport I open hub to buy my pics. And find out it does not work off the ship. I called and they said call carnival later to get them. 11. Long flight home late flights transfers etc 21 hour travel day, by the time I call Carnival about it on Late Friday I was told to call back next day. Called back Sat was told call back on Monday Photo department is closed. Called back Monday they said would look into all my concerns and call me back, it's Tuesday no call back, I will try again tomorrow to be fair and give them chance. But I cannot explain how pissed I will be if I lost all my pics. They Photo guy should have been explicit, you can get them later TONIGHT before you leave the ship. Ok, so here is my summary: Just because the ship holds 4k people does not mean then can server 4k people effectively. Matt the cruise Director was absolutely Brilliant and made the cruise very enjoyable. Service was below order drink in dinning room good luck getting ti before you are done. Each night or through out the day we would come back to the room with some beverage drink, soda, coffee and cups would pile up bead made but breakfast still there at 2:00 in afternoon got to point were we just started putting stuff in the hallway just to get it out of the room. Personally I think if you pop for a suite or larger you should get free wifi and enhanced service. If I come to the dinning room when do I need to ask for the same table or near same table each time can't you keep track of my preferences and know where I want to sit? We liked a table to two by the window ( I know everyone wants that) but we were fine with waiting they have a bar (no bartender) but a bar so after complaining they started having a bar tender there and I thought that was the point come in if your table is not ready have a drink at the bar and then be seated. Also I heard when I looked at my bills on-line I got nailed for VAT Tax in EU but I am US so I should not have to pay so with cheers and wine buy I was still charge 1-3 $ per drink as a tax, What is the point of cheers that is supposed to be all inclusive. I will have to work with my Credit Card company to deny those charges when I asked Carnival on Monday's call they did not know what I was talking about? Again Service very lacking. I have another cruise (suite again) next May if they do not come up with some credits are something to mack up for this I all cancel and switch to RC or NCL. I like Carnival because I like the low key fun atmosphere but service must still be there. Side note: Music Awesome Jeff Car, Havana Band, Piano Bar, all great. Bar and host staff Very good if you are in line of site! Well my 2 cents. Read Less

just returned from 12 days on the Carnival Vista. This is our 4th cruise and our first with the Carnival. The ship is new but does lack the wow of the Royal Caribbean, it a fun ship rather than an elegant ship. The layout is a bit confusing but by the end of the cruise we had mainly cracked it. The Cruise Director has definitely got what it takes to add fun to the adventure and reminds me of a young Will Smith, loved by all the ladies young and old, to my husbands dismay! The embarkation was swift and simply we arrived at the terminal and it took us about 20 minutes to get on board, boarding started at 11.30am; our room was ready for about 1pm. The room wasn't as good as on the Royal Caribbean and was a bit plain. The balcony was very small and we found we had to house our luggage on the balcony, as the live jackets and couch cushions were housed under the bed. The main bed was very comfortable with feather quilts but the sofa bed was like a brick with no give and was uncomfortable for my 11 year old. Apart from this in general the room was sufficient with the room attend efficient. The free room service is very limited with only sandwiches, continental breakfast and a couple of deserts; the rest of the menu chargeable. There was a selection of free movies in your room to watch and some more up to date films being charged at $4.99. There is a fridge in your room but don't buy the in room bottled water at $3.75, if you have an adults drinks package you can get small ones free from behind the bars. The room also provides adults with dressing gown which is a nice touch. We went with some friends we selected a set 8.15pm dining time which was great and we found the food in general good quality especially the soups, the deserts were also great. Our friends selected my time dining and after 2 nights of waiting over an hour for a table we complained and got them allocated to our table. The upper decks felt inundated with children, the Royal Caribbean appear to deal with this better whether it is due to the layout? The swimming pools are sea water and very cold, although getting in them with all the children is a difficult task. We found the staff mixed in their attitudes the main problems were the bars where staff at times were rude, however Carnival should address this as they work a 9 month contract with no days off at all!! MOST ANNOYING THINGS 1. On the sea days sunbeds were a big issue, you needed to be up by 5am to get a sunbed and to guarantee one in a good spot many people were sleeping out, we did witness incidents with sunbeds where security was called. There simply isn't enough sunbeds for the amount of people, the most annoying thing was when people reserved sunbeds for their children who then spent most of the day in the pools and on the sports court. Labels was put on by Carnival Staff with a 40 minute removal time but many people just returned removed the sticker and disappeared again. 2. We purchased the drinks package which allows each adult up to 15 alcoholic drinks in a 24 hour window, this is not cheap and with a 15% service charge added on we were discussed to find that with no prior notice they had decided to add on to each drink you acquired a 10% tax which Carnival later agreed was due to the amount of British on the ship and the quantity they drank!! Some of the entertainment was good but with no grand theatre or cruising cast, Carnival had definitely cut down on the cost for entertainment but there was always something going on and a comedian show of some form every night. I never witnessed before as many children drinking alcohol and saw a child of about 10 fall off a buffet as he was drunk!! There is no curfew time for children to be with their parents and they ruled the ship with many running down corridor loudly at night. After saying all this however we did have a great holiday and didn't sit there moaning all day, I'm just pointing out a few of the bits to be aware about. I thought some of the food was great but the market place was a bit limiting, my son likes plain food at lunchtime you couldn't even get jacket potato or mash. We had a good time but will be returning to the Royal Caribbean for our next cruise Read Less

First time we've cruised with Carnival and I think it will be the last. Nice ship but lacking the wow factor. The dining system is crazy - you have to go and book a time 15 minutes before you want dinner. Sometimes the queue was so long to reserve your allotted time that you ended up having dinner later than you wanted. Who's idea was that? No adults only swimming pool. The serenity area which is adults only was lovely but impossible to get a sunbed unless you got up at 6 a.m. and why isn't there an adults only pool in an adults only area? Impossible to get into one of the pools because it was filled with children and again, impossible to get a sunbed on "days at sea" unless you got up at 6 a.m. Taxed on EVERYTHING!!! $4.69 for a bottle of water in your cabin? Disgusting! Food was average. The Lido Marketplace for breakfast was the same limited menu every single day. Lunch was not very appetising. The Horizons Lounge for dinner was nice but very slow service and again lacked the wow factor. We refused the drinks package at $600 per adult; shocking amount of money. The children's drinks package was for juice or fizzy drinks not water; water had to be paid for by both adults and children. Are you encouraging obesity and rotten teeth for our kids? Lovely cabins and beds were very very comfortable. Staff work very hard and were all lovely. Ports of call were excellent but we did not book the tours with Carnival, far too expensive. How can you justify your prices? Even their shuttle bus from ship to port was $17 per person when the local bus was $5 return. Sorry Carnival but we will return to Royal Carribean in future, definitely a cut above Carnival. Read Less

It's probably easier to list the pro's and cons of this Carnival cruise.... Pro: -Embarkation onto the ship was absolutely fine/seamless. -Lovely staterooms, nice and spacious (had a balcony room) -Lots of things to do, especially for children and teens -Food varied and to a good standard Cons: VERY rocky on what seemed to be calm sea Very busy in communal areas (seems more like a ferry at times) Not enough beds/seats for number of passengers (on sea days), we saw actual fights nearly breaking out!!! Staff are quite abrupt and not particularly friendly, closed bars early and would only serve other staff in the nightclub towards the end of the cruise Carnival charge a 10% Euro tax on top of all the other extras...which we had no idea about until we actually got on board. Cruised with Royal Caribbean before this & would probably go with them next time Read Less

The ship was huge, needed a sat nav to find your way around. Sailing was a very exiting experience The cabin was awesome Dining wasn't all it should have been, not enough staff to be efficient, had many problems with the service due to staff shortage which let the customers down. Entertainment was ok, Matt was great, not enough shows for families Despite the staff being very pleasant and welcoming I feel they were let down by shortages The excursions were expensive and a rip off it would make more sense to have made it cheaper and worth the time to see the countries at there best My granddaughter was disappointed as she could not watch any shows after 9.30 pm I would certainly cruise again but I will research the best prices and value for money Carnival Vista needs to be better staffed, we certainly would not do this cruise again due to not being what we expected for the amount of money it cost. Big shame, I would say 90% of the customers were disappointed us included, far to packed to enjoy this beautiful ship . Read Less

This is my 3rd Carnival cruise, prior to this we had completed one Caribbean cruise on the Breeze and one med cruise on the Sunshine. I have also cruised on the Disney Magic in the Med. I have to say I was very disappointed in this cruise. It has been 2 years since I took my last CCL cruise and I feel that cutbacks in terms of staffing and food have materialised. The good: Embarkation Dis embarkation Ports of Call The CD (Matt) I have sailed with him before and he was excellent then too. The sky ride/sports deck area Havana pool area. Steakhouse, fabulous food and service Ji, Ji as above. Balcony cabin was excellent, it seemed larger than the one I had on the Sunshine. There were three of us in the cabin, deck 8 by the aft elevators, never heard any noise, other than the inconsiderate neighbours who always slammed their doors! It wasn't very difficult to prevent the door from slamming. The ship was lovely and clean, as were all dining area. I liked the new look dining tables with no cloths, I felt they looked more modern, but they do need to add a coaster for the water glass. I liked the way the outdoor seating on deck 5 worked, it was just a shame you couldn't walk around the whole of the ship during the day due to the Havana area being there. The staff were lovely, always smiling, but at times there seemed not to be enough of them especially in the bars, long time waiting to be served. I couldn't understand why people had to queue up for times for MTD, unless this was the Blue and Red cards. I was Gold and every night I just went straight to the restaurant and was given a table straight away, as I had done on my previous cruises. My son loved the cruise, as always made some great friends. He ate with his friends nearly very event no in the dining room and had a great waiter. Not so good Food, lots of the same fruits every day. No berries, just melon, a small amount of pineapple and tinned peaches. They ran out of lots of things, soda, English bacon and cereal. At the start of the cruise there were 8 lots of boxed cereal to choose from towards day 7 there were only 5 types left and then later on in the cruise we were down to three. The chocolate milk also ran out too. In addition they also ran out of popcorn boxes too, so no popcorn one night. Food hit and miss in the main dining room. It was okay but nothing special. Barbecue was nice on sea days. Crowded area of the ship, this ship on sea days felt very very crowded. Especially aft on deck 10 and 11. There seems to be more wind breakers up on Senerity than the Breeze and it was very hot up there. No pool in Senerity, this would be a nice enhancement to the Horizon. Entertainment, this is an other area where cutbacks seem to have been made. We were on a 12 night cruise and I only recal seeing shows advertised with the dancers for 5 evenings. The new show was very good, compared to previous Carnival productions I have seen. We didn't have comedian shows every night and some nights they clashed with the Carnival main show so we missed then, especially at the beginning of the cruise. Some nights we didn't have enough to occupy the evening compared to our previous Carnival cruises. Casino seemed very cramped too and the smoke was horrendous, much worse than other ships. VAT on the drinks package I won't repeat what others have said about this. Interestingly on our cruise we paid VAT on every drink we purchased on our drinks package, all our ports were EU, yet the cruise on 18/08 again all EU ports did not, why were we charged VAT and they were not? Room steward did not introduce himself. I also felt that Carnival ripped people off with the cost of port transfers. Although I guess it could be argued that people should do their own research. In Dubrovnik they were charging €17 for a return transfer each. The local bus which stopped at the bus stop right outside the terminal building was around £2.00 return each. Yes you did need local currency. In Corfu they told people that it was 25 mins into town, yes if you walked, there was a free shuttle to the terminal and then a bus for €1.70 one way. I think Carnival were charging $20 return for the same trip. Again the same in Sardinia to the beach. I heard a number of guests complaining about the quality of tours too, for example one guest told me that she had booked a trip to Cinque Terre and was told there was a private boat to the villages, passengers were put on the local ferry. Another shared her experiences with her private trip to a vineyard in Sardina, this was a coach trip to the local wine bars in the centre of town, not a scenic drive through Sardinia. We did enjoy our cruise, I met some great people and the ports as always were wonderful. Sadly this time Carnival did not live up to my expectations. Read Less

We have cruised with a number of cruise companies, the itinary looked great and a new ship. Last year we sailed on Royal Carribeans then new Anthem of the Seas and had a great time, the appeal was a new modern ship,with a good itinary. Overall the cruise was good however. Embarkation. Very poor took over 2 hours to board the ship compared to minutes on recent cruises with other cruise lines. Drinks Package: advertised as US$ 49:50 per person per day. Omitted to mention the huge service charge plus the extra tax on every drink purchased . Actual cost for two on a twelve day cruise was Us$ 1500 +, US$ 300 more than advertised. More like Pirates of the Mediteranean Bar Service. The bar in Serenity does not open until 3pm on Port days. This means you have to go down 5 decks to get a drink, even after you have paid a fortune for a drinks package. Food: on the whole was good, however there were clear signs that the ship had run out of a number of items towards the end of the cruise. Diet Coke, salads not available for the evening meal . I can not be sure, but it looks as though the ship only takes on board supplies in Barcelona. Trips: Very expensive and most can be done a lot cheaper from the ports or booked on line before departure. In Sardina the ship announced a shuttle to the beach at 10am, long after their expensive trip to the same beach had left ! Sun beds: on sea days all sun beds were taken by 7:30am. People slept out to reserve sun beds. Yes people were taking their duvets and sleeping in the Serenity adult section . We were on deck 14 just below Serenity and sun loungers were being dragged across the deck from 4:30 am. Sadly a British disease, our American passengers just did not get it. Dining: we switched from your time dining to second sitting fixed time very quickly, waiting time for your time was very long And some nights people were not being seated until after 10 pm. This is a very well thought out ship, with something for everyone. Bars, entertainment , staff are all quality. There is everything any child could wish for. The top deck films are well attended at night, and the water park in full swing all day. We had a good cruise, but this was in spite of, the extortionate pricing, although one way to compensate is to cancel gratuities which can be done after they have been applied to your account. You can then tip individuals you feel deserve to be tipped. Overall a success , lovely itinerary just a shame the unnecessary niggles took away the wow factor experienced on other cruise lines. Read Less

It was their newest ship. Arrived 3 days before to explore Barcelona, great idea! The terminal was very well organized. Ship's lobby has very nice artistic colorful center light that changes themes daily. The ship still has some things missing in their standard labeling of exits , staircases. The cabins are basically the same as their other ships, balcony is same, their TV is upgraded, information to passengers has improved so you can be informed at all times. The entertainment has to improve. Activities like Bingo there was not enough room for participants to sit...more than half of the people were sitting on floor. Their night entertainment area chairs were uncomfortable to sit. Their outdoor activities is good and diversified. The sky ride is good but the line to get on takes too long. Bowling you need to pay! Dining rooms need to be able to organize better when there are groups. Food variety is not the best. If you cruise regularly it is almost identical on all. They do have a new section Havana Club which has a slight variety. If you eat late dinner sitting you cannot see the entertainment, after dinner,, so you see the early show and arrive late to dinner! There is something that they are outstanding in all their ships, it is the service received from all their employees be the cabin members, restaurant, buffet, guest services, shore excursions, etc. The ports were good and very easy to get into the city, shore excursions have great variety for all different types of activities. The casino still has to improve their ventilation system. You come out of there your clothes and hair retain the smoke odor when you remove them. It should have some sort of fragrance to disguise the smoke odor. The shops in the ship have not improved, need variety. Their new way to see your pictures is very innovative, great for tech smart people but for non savy individuals is a challenge. Read Less

Since this was our third cruise on Carnival, the overall layout and the "Fun Ship" features of previous ships were familiar on the Vista, even though it of course had new elements as well. However, we didn't find these novelties sufficiently attractive for ourselves (which, of course, is a purely subjective view). The Skyride is unique, but due to extremely long waiting lines due to extremely slow boarding (due to extremely bored personnel), it is about one minute of biking for which you wait at least an hour - do the math. The IMAX is nice and features very current movies (including the premiere of "Suicide Squad" in our case), but you pay 12.95 per ticket. The "Thrill Theater" is a very small multidimensional movie theatre primarily geared towards an audience age 10 and below (even though there was an adult "thrillogy" late at night which we didn't check out), with very short movies adding up to about half an hour (at 5.50 per guest). The "excitement" includes soap bubbles, (very cold!) wind, water sprinklers, and very poor 3D glasses (paper!). The Liquid Lounge is no longer a classic theater, but features in-house productions only for which a larger auditorium is clearly not necessary, so the choice to reduce it to almost club size was a smart one). The pools are as ridiculously small as on other Carnival ships, but with a passenger number exceeding 4,000 by far, it gets absurd. Essentially, the "Beach" and "Tides" pools are whirl pools with no bubbles. The splash zone for kids ("WaterWorks") is slightly bigger than on other Carnival ships, but the two slides are less attractive (so there were hardly any queues after the first day, which speaks for itself).Unfortunately, the staff was less prepared than on previous ships to enforce the "no deck chair reservation" policy, so most of the times, you saw hundreds of deck shairs with neatly folded towels on them with no-one around for hours. Equally, the staff "supervising" the pools chose to ignore the fact that kids were jumping into it from all sides (despite the fact that - of course - this was not allowed). One thing that we found odd was the very obvious vibration of the ship whenever it went just slightly faster (15 knots or more), even in completely quiet waters. Sitting on the toilet then came with a free leg massage most of the times :-) Oddly enough, the vibration was less obvious in slightly rougher conditions. On the positive side, there are many more outdoor areas to sit and relax, not only for the various bars and specialty restaurants. The food is at least of the same quality as on other Carnival ships, but we found the main dining room (in our case, the "Reflections") considerably better than on previous cruises. (The grilled salmon for the first time ever on a ship was actually exactly on the point when served, so the workflow in the galley was obviously improved). The Lido Marketplace self-service was OK, with a very smart layout of tables, which means you always found a nice place to sit, even during peak hours of breakfast (again: we are talking about more than 4.000 passengers!). Service was pretty efficient throughout the ship, everything went smoothly. As to the cabin, see below. A very positive aspect was the Internet package offered - 99 USD for premium access (including Skype) for the entire cruise (i.e. until actual debarkation), and the connection was mostly excellent and high-speed. The shore excursions and the shuttle service to the various cities was extremely well organized, with hardly any waiting times (which is very impressive in light of the fact that literally thousands of people want to get off the ship around the same time). All in all, the Vista is a ship to return to, but not urgently. Read Less

We embarked the ship at 4pm therefore it was seamless, we were probably the last one's on the ship therefore no line-ups. We travelled with our 12 year old. The downside of the 12-14 year old camp was it was closed all day until 4pm which that didn't work for us since she didn't want to come on excursions with us. After a few days, I contacted the younger camp counsellor and enrolled my daughter in the 2 to 11 camp. The ship was not what I expected for a 2016 ship design. It was mediocre in design, the atrium did not have a wow factor like other ships. If I would design a ship, the atrium would be the focal point. The show lounge "the liquid lounge" was too small. We went once and left early since it was overcrowded and very uncomfortable. We weren't impressed with the show either. The Horizons dining room was ok but again no wow factor. The food was very bland and the wine over priced, for a bottle that normally you pay $8.95 was $24.00. The buffet was not very good in the lido, very repetitive. The breakfast choices for the room service was awful, cereal, yogurt or bagel. The entertainment during the day at sea were non existent. The pools were way too small for 4000 people, water was cold. The pool at the back of the ship was unbearable due to the smell from petroleum (smelly). We played mini-putt (nice course), played billiards. The cabin was very small, 70's design. They could've had a better set up for the shower (a shower curtain, how tacky). We did not take any shore excursions with Carnival, we did them all on our own. We rented cars or took shuttles on our own. We had sailed with Carnival Breeze in summer 2012 and that ship impressed, this time not so. The service was good in our cabin. As far as the staff, you could tell they were fed up, not personality, ambiance or enthusiasm. The future calls for robots to take their jobs. It's our last Carnival cruise. Read Less

Carnival knows its business, and we were impressed by the large number of young passengers, so the Carnival "anything goes" style is obviously attracting people. But it's not really for us. First the bouquets and thanks - Vista is a lovely ship and our Havana Aft View cabin was beautiful. The entire Havana area is beautiful and we felt privileged to have access to it. The quality of all the food we experienced on Vista was excellent - in Horizons and in the Lido Marketplace. The WiFi was the best we have ever had at sea and by far the best value that we have experienced at sea. The Carnival Hub app is also great. The entertainment was excellent, and Cruise Director Matt is excellent. Despite almost 4,000 passengers we never had to wait in line to leave or re-board the ship, and our embarkation experience in Barcelona was great - maximum 20 minutes from taxi to being on the Vista. Now the negatives - and I acknowledge that several are simply due to our preferences. We like tablecloths,and we like to have appropriate cuttlery. Formica-topped tables in the MDR are not really for us. No saucer for your coffee cup means you must just rest your spoon on the table top. At breakfast you receive 1 knife and 1 fork and must re-use them through the meal. At dinner they will replace the single knife and fork for the main entree, but you must use the single knife for all purposes including buttering your bread. The Horizons MDR decor is very drab, decorated in brown and olive coloured formica - it seems that the designers watched "Mad Men" and thought that it showed contemporary U.S. decor. Our worst experience was the laughingly named "Your Time Dining". It is anything but that. Although we prefer to dine later, in order to avoid long queues and long waits we learned to eat at 7 every evening when there was less demand. One evening we waited 90 minutes for a table and the next day they sent some cake to our cabin by way of apology - like you need cake on a cruise ship! We've never before experienced such a lack of drinks servers - Carnival could have made more money from us if we'd been able to find a drinks server. Though food quality is excellent, the menu is not lavish - some evenings the list of entrees included 2 pasta dishes and roast chicken, so not what we usually expect on a cruise ship. Other than the appalling experience with YTD, our worst experience was having a Havana cabin on deck 6 which is immediately above the Havana Bar - please be prepared to experience VERY loud Cuban music until 12.45 am each night - it is so loud it is like the band is in your cabin. Read Less

We were so excited to have the opportunity to experience this brand new ship. On the surface - it did not disappoint. The public areas and facilities were impressive. We travelled as a couple (52,46) and felt it was more geared towards families with children. But that said there was plenty for adults to enjoy. The pool areas were fine, as were the sports facilities. Despite a capacity of around 3500 passengers - we never struggled for somewhere to sit. It was vista by name and vista by nature - making good use of outside space (e.g outside seating at the bars etc). Some nice shady areas too - giving you choice of "sol o sombre". The entertainment was varied and well organised. No expenses pared on the main shows: exciting, vibrant and interactive. The comedians were ok - but geared towards the American client. There was always a good range of live music throughout the ship - ranging from acoustic sets to the more vibrant Cuban beats. Now the downside: it was probably the worst food ever experienced at sea! With the exception of the burger and pizza bars - the rest of the food was dire (& who wants to eat burgers and pizza all holiday?). We chose "anytime dining". What a performance! First of all you had to check in on deck 5. Sometimes you would be asked to proceed straight to the dining room on deck 3. Otherwise you would be given a pager which would alert you when a table became free. Not too bad... Arriving at the dining room, you are met by the maitre'd, who would then hover for a waiter to become free to escort you to a table. Asking for a table for two - you would end up virtually on the laps of the next guests as the tables were ridiculously close together. You were the. Left until another waiter came to pour water from a plastic carafe. (No table cloths either - a hanging offence in our view!). Yet another waiter would produce the bread basket until someone from the bar would take orders for drinks. Eventually someone else would come along and take your food order. On paper, the menus looked ok. The reality was sadly different: fatty cuts of meat, bones left, and a tendency to drown everything on a bitter red wine sauce. Thank goodness for the desserts - the only redeeming feature of each meal. But you can't go all day on sugar! Waiter service was also poor - with guests on the next table being served over our shoulders, cutlery missing for the next course, meals being served out of synch with each other. The lido buffet was equally poor. Everything looked grey or beige... Such a shame! A deal breaker from our perspective and we would be unlikely to travel Carnival again. We would agree with other reviews - the persistent Butlins-style announcements were irritating. The cruise director was very self indulgent and loved the sound of his own voice - yet had very little of substance to say. His port talks were mortifying! The staff appeared to make a huge effort towards the American passengers - leaving the remaining European passengers feeling invisible and under valued. We appreciate this all sounds very negative - but a few more gripes: $6 for a glass of fizz on formal night (formal night: another joke! There was actually a woman wearing hot pants in the dining room with her rear end on show! Shorts and flip flops were preferred over cocktail wear. Try doing that on P&O or RCI etc... We would also concur with the criticism re: port shuttle charges. Shocking! Read Less

Our second cruise, the first being on P&O Ventura. Liked the ports of call and also trying out a brand new ship sailing from Barcelona. Having had a great one night stay in Barcelona, the first problem however was our pick up from the Hotel to the Ship. Took a taxi in the end - not Carnival's fault. Embarkation not too bad considering number of passengers involved. Cabin was Havana Premium Balcony near the back of the ship and whilst adequate was not roomy. One fault with the room was that the bathroom door opened outwards toward the bed and had a very sharp edge to it, raised off the floor, and I did end up with a small cut to my foot. Use of Havana pool area during the day was a great thing for us though and also a quiet area to have breakfast some days. I think the Med was a try out for the ship moving to the US later in the year. I was quite surprised at the number of Americans on board however and most things seemed to be aimed at them, as mentioned by other reviewers. Evening Dining - you had to book 15 mins in advance of eating and it was pot luck where you sat in Horizon Dining Room. Sometimes you felt as though in a thoroughfare, with waiters stacked up with trays 5 plates high. This could be dangerous I feel. Also some waits were experienced, but I have to say we found the meals to be excellent and most of the waiters very helpful. Deck10 Buffet Dining - bit of a free for all but good choice most of the time. Lots of food available but a lot of wastage also. The Deli was useful for just ordering sandwiches to order etc. Burger Bar and Pizzas are definitely worth trying out. "Matt, Cruise Director" (as he likes to call himself) was excellent and should be on TV! Service - if you like queueing at Customer Services then go for it. They did not find a higher chair for balcony as requested and end of cruise bill differed from actual, but they were very helpful in trying to sort out our pick up from the Ship. Entertainment - okay. One comedian we encountered was very funny indeed. Shore Excursion Desk- I found the gentleman there most helpful in trying to rearrange some trips we had pre-booked as I had a bad back and had to change for something less strenuous. Definitely 5 star. Spa Talk - informative and useful. However $75 for a cut and blow dry expensive. Drinks - $8.95 for cocktails and if not on some sort of package a good option. I felt I did not get great value out of the Bubbles package over the 8 days because we went on a number of trips. Debarkation (as they called it) - Felt a little like we were being pushed off - luggage was waiting on shore for collection quite early and I would have preferred to take own luggage off and stay on the boat longer. Not fully explained. Overall , experience was good though. Probably a better option for groups/families of all ages. A Fun Ship as they say. Read Less

The kids clubs are amazing and our kids loved it. We had fixed time dining at Reflections and service is so SLOW, the waiters try their best but seems untrained, we got our orders mixed up several times Food is somewhere between poor and average - not outstanding Guys burger is a 5. Blue Iguana is a 3+. Lido 3. Reflections 2+. Entertainment is either shows or stand up comedy. We attended at least one of those everyday. Comedy crew changes often but does not help on quality. The shows crew is the same each time, even that the theme, music, clothes are changed, it gets boring in the end. A 3 for their enthusiasm. The Cruise Director Matt is a 5! The ship itself is brand new which of course is a plus, but we did not like the layout. The wow feeling at the mid atrium is missing and it is complicated to find your way around. After 8 days on board we still got lost. The elevators are slow and have a complicated system. The small casino has a smoking area and the air circulation does not work well there, it smells and you can see and smell smoke all the time. The sky track bikes are awesome, but queue is huge at all times and the activity is e.g. not open during the whole day on port days, which for us does not make sense.... All in all we find it hard to point out the differentiator that would make us choose carnival again. Read Less

We have been on 8 different Carnival Cruise ships, we booked our trip on the Vista a year in advance and were so excited to be on the 7th sailing of this new vessel. Overall, the ship is beautiful and the activities are plentiful. But as frequent Carnival cruisers, we were disappointed at several aspects of the new ship. First and foremost was the Liquid Lounge. The seating is horrible. Carnival removed the fixed bench seating with tables, for these cheap small chairs, no tables, and smaller lounge. Chairs can be moved all over and navigating through the room is hard, impossible if your in a wheelchair. No place to put your drinks, and if you want to sit in the middle of a row, everyone else has to get up to allow you in and out. Like being in a baseball stadium. Made watching the shows less enjoyable. Second was the dining room. Only had table cloths on formal nights, food was OK, same old choices and more extra add ons $$. Staff was also cut down to two instead of 3 per section. More choices on this ship for dining and drinks for extra $$. No more chocolates on bed at night, bingo prices are outrageous, the scam pull tabs they sell are ridiculous. The prices for the onboard photos are insanely high. More and more Carnival is finding new ways to extract more $$ from you on board. Bottom line is that we did love the ship, we were just very disappointed that they have gotten very cheap with the little things and are constantly charging you for more and more services like room service that they never used to. Read Less

We had been really looking forward to our trip on the Carnival Vista. This would be our 4th cruise and the first where we have been brave enough to take our 3 year old daughter. We also took nan too so the ship needed to cater for all generations. Arrival We travelled to Barcelona where we encountered trouble with a missing buggy for our daughter where easyjet service was awful and we missed our transfer, despite ringing our transfer company (booked by igloo/planet) to explain the situation and being told the driver was outside – he had already gone. Eventually we got to the port with buggy and waited ages in many queues despite being in the priority queues. The longest embarkation we have had. We got to the desk and they hadn’t got our room keys so had to wait for these, we were given wrong directions to get on the ship as staff were not educated on the routes we should take with a buggy. Stateroom We stayed in staterooms 9445 & 9449 next door to each other. The staterooms were a lovely size and very clean. There was plenty of storage with the under bed storage coming in very useful. Large TV, fridge, air conditioning/heating, free calls between rooms, Sockets and 2x usb ports. Hairdryer a basic one. Bathroom a good size with a nice shower. Attendants did a great job of keeping it clean and came in twice a day. They were also very friendly and intrusive. Each evening had the important we had a towel animal. Great location as very close to the Lido and pool area, however also nice and quiet. Water is available in the stateroom at about $4 per large bottle. Dining We were disappointed with the dinning on the ship. The food was ok, however I have had better on a number of ships. The food and food service would be the main area the ship needs to improve to meet up to expectations of other ships we have been on. The Lido was open in the morning until about 3:30, then again 5:30-9:30. There were times when food was dried out and inedible. Breakfast included continental, full cooked British/American and an omelette station. At lunchtime there was limited choice of options of meals that actually went together. E.g Meat but no cooked veg or potatoes. however there was plenty of salad. We had previously been used to Lido being open for afternoon tea when you come back onto the ship or late night snacks, however this was not the case. Guy’s burger joint was open most of the day until about 9pm but I really didn’t fancy trying it as both the burgers and fries (with skins on) looked really greasy, although they apparently tasted better than they looked. The only place you could get inclusive food late was the Pizzeria which always had a massive queue. One of my husbands treats on holiday is to go for supper after the evening entertainment out on deck however he was extremely disappointed not to be able to. Room service was available with tipping expected. There were no trays so you could take food/drink out with you, instead you have to use a large plate. My husband has a nut allergy (possibly my daughter too) and we were disappointed with the lack of labelling and cross contamination of items with nuts. For example the same scoop used for hazelnut and non nut ice-cream. A number of days he couldn’t eat any dessert served in the Lido due to the way they were serving the desserts. Inclusive cold drinks only consisted of water, bitter lemonade or iced tea, a cordial of some kind would have been nice. There were many times where cups/milk/ice cream cones had ran out over the trip at some of the stations. Team and coffee was available, however fruit teas were charged extra. There was ice cream available 24 /7 which my daughter loved and at lunchtime there was an area that made fresh ice cream which were gorgeous. The main restaurant decor was fine, but not as grand as other ships. My husband compared the decor to a Weatherspoon, to which I have to agree. I had read reviews about the lack of table cloths, which is fine if this is reflected in the price however along with the decor and lax dress standards in the evening it does remove some of the grandeur of the cruise experience. On a dressy night guests were in the main restaurant in jeans and t-shirts. The food was better quality than the Lido although the service was extremely slow and lacking of dinning etiquette. (E.g. Plates removed whilst others eating, I was asked if I wanted to use my knife and fork again for the main, soup spilt all down the side of the dish). Some staff really tried to make an effort with service but lacked training and an understanding of the food on the menu. We had My Time dinning which worked great with having a little one as it allowed us to eat earlier and we missed the queues, however if I’d have wanted to eat between 7-8 double queuing would have been annoying. (You had to queue up to book a table, then queue to be seated) For a few hours around lunchtime Cucina del Capitano and JiJi Asian restaurant were open as part of the inclusive food (extra $ in evenings). The food in these restaurants was fantastic quality more in line with what I would have expected from the main restaurant. The ship wasn’t as hot on enforcing hand hygiene as I have seen in the past, although there were plenty of gels around and some really great hand washing machines in the Lido. Public areas were kept very clean and tidy. Entertainment & Activities The splash area / waterpark was great fun and fairly quiet whilst in port with very little queuing. This was a great safe area for my toddler to play in, she loved it. So did we, as the main pool was freezing and a bit deep for taking a toddler into. Pool towels were available so no need to take your own. We went of the sky ride twice and really enjoyed it although our first go we queued for about 1 hour. We were advised that the queue is the shortest just after 1pm and in the middle of the cruise, the next time we went on it we only waited about 10 minutes. There were plenty of other activities in this area including a sky rope course, crazy golf, pool, football pool, twister, table tennis, gym equipment. We didn’t use the activities which were an extra charge which included the IMAX cinema, thrill theatre, 10 in bowling, arcades, and casino. I may have gone to the Imax had there have been a decent film on however there were better films on the lido movie screen. We watched a couple of movie in the evenings by the lido pool, where you could also get some popcorn. Most nights there was entertainment in the liquid lounge. The in house entertainment team and director did a great job, especially with the music / dance show. Some of the external acts were not quite as good. The punchliner comedy club was great, most evenings being able to watch a number of really good comedy shows. There were various bands around the ship, all very talented and friendly – my daughter loved to dance to the music. Matt – your wake up calls every morning are really annoying when we get into port and 30 minutes after. Any chance you can put them on the TV as a morning video instead to save waking everyone up  ….other than that you were a great cruise director My daughter attended the kids club a few times and kept asking to go back which was a good sign. She came out with various craft activities she had done. We were given a phone so we could be called if there were any problems which was great for peace of mind. There was also a small area next to the kids club where you could play or read (loads of Dr Zeuss books). She loved the Dr Zeuss Cat in the Hat parade and the show despite never seeing the cat in the hat before. There were other activities available such as bingo, games and quizzes but we didn’t do these. Ports & Excursions We had planned not to do any excursions as based on previous cruises we know we can do them much cheaper or we had already been to most of the locations. However we did do a last minute trip to Piza which was advertised the morning we were at the port. Just a short trip out at an affordable price which was well worth doing to say you have been to see the leaning tower. Had I had pre booked the more expensive tri to Pisa I would have been a bit miffed about this last minute offer. Various ports had these last minute deals. We tended to just wander around the ports on the days we decided to get off. The best ports for this were Rhodes and Kusadasi as you come in really close to the town/beach area. Naples is also worth a wonder around, however if it’s the first time at this port I would have taken the last minute Pompeii trip. Pompeii is a wonderful place to see Hub App Great for checking opening hours, activities and photos. Frustrating an extra $5 for chat functionality per person. Disembarkation Having a 9pm flight we were really disappointed to find out that we had to get off the ship by 9:30 am. Other ships had allowed a later stay on which was what we were hoping rather than a 11.5 hour wait. We didn’t disembark at the time we were supposed to (8am ish) due to our long wait and so waited to the last minute to get off. This meant that we got straight off and collected our cases with no queuing – very hassle free. We found out that there was a luggage drop in Athens airport for 6Euro per case, and Athens Zoo is only 15 minutes away from the airport so we spent the day at the Zoo. It’s a lovely Zoo and was much better than a day at the airport. Summary My review is slightly tainted based on the bias of previous comparable cruises I have been on in the past. For me the Carnival Vista did not meet my expectations due to the dining experience, lack of grandeur and the fact it felt like Carnival was constantly trying to find ways of getting more money from guests all of the while. The areas the ship excelled were the staterooms, activities and entertainment in comparison to other ships. Would I recommend a trip on the Vista? ……well it depends on what type of cruise you are after and how much you want to pay. If you enjoy quality service, grandeur and virtually everything you want inclusive then this cruise ship is not for you. If you are after a fun, casual ship and happy to pay out for extras then you’ll love it. Would I go with Carnival again? …. Only if I got the cruise at the right price, out of choice I would go on my next cruise with Royal Caribbean. Read Less

The Ship was new, beds were comfy and the cabin staff were excellent, that's about where it ends. I left the cruise upset and still traumatized after being verbally abused by another passenger, who called me a "F....ing fat Bitch" after I stopped to help a disabled man onto a lift. Should have reported it but didn't Other issues in my opinion: -no free internet and it worked poorly when it was available (even the cheapest motel has free internet) -Not enough pools and spas -People put personal belongings onto lounges and chairs in all areas and then disappeared for hours on end. -Tours overpriced,even shuttles into town were an additional cost. They should have been free. -Not enough elevators for the number of people on the ship. Spent considerable time waiting an mostly ended up using stairs. -Charged for drinking water in cabins, thought it was an obligation to provided drinkable water. -Witing lines for guest services on average 20 minutes Would I go again..probably not Read Less

10 day cruise on Carnival Vista. Mainly P & O cruisers but thought we would try a different cruise line company (all be it P & O are UK part of Carnival). To summarise Carnival is a lower level class than P & O aimed at Casual American Family market. We expect cruising to be on the luxurious side, being pampered which on the Carnival Vista just did not happen. We make the most of any holiday and while we still enjoyed ourselves I've listed my positives and negatives: Negatives: -No White table cloths (except 2 formal nights) - Expected to re-use knife and fork for next course (we asked for new ones and were reluctantly given them) - some of the vegetables was frozen, even the waiter admitted it comes out of the freezer in a bag like we get at home - if you were not on the drinks package you had to pay for tea and coffee in the main dining rooms - on the first formal night our table of 6 was next to the maître d' desk, felt like we were eating in the foyer. - most nights in the dining room we had a 'show time' where the staff danced to music, was funny to start with but got really annoying and embarrassing for guests that were dragged up to dance for the whole tune! - Very little drinks waiter service(except in main dining room) - has to queue for drinks, waited and waited for waiters around pool and they were just not there... Expect as Carnival have the prepaid drinks package they have their money anyway so don't care - Over 21 to drink (even though sailing in Europe they would not accept a signed waiver for our 20 year old to have a drink - come on Carnival Royal Caribbean allow this) - no duvet covers, they use a sheet on top of duvet and underneath so you get tangled up in sheets and your skin then touches the uncovered duvet that other folk have been sleeping against. Yuk Carnival who thought of that one! - balconies small ( but Britannia balconies are small too) - staff use lifts and toilets and eating areas so very annoying when in a queue for these things to find staff are making it worse. When we were leaving the lifts were packed full only to find a member of staff was in one with two large towel containers...infuriating. And in a queue for the toilets just outside the main dining room to find two staff using them... - no large theatre, so no elaborate shows- instead an IMAX cinema. - air con really really loud so much so the TV volume had to be turned up loud and very difficult to sleep (although did drown out my husbands snoring!) - room service, free sandwiches and continental breakfast, had to pay extra fir fries, pizza etc. BLT sandwich was good though ! - room service, plastic tumblers, plastic coffee pot, toast was sweet hot bread! But nice coffee and croissants - bar staff and dining room staff did not have much chat, we found out most had been working for 8 months and wanted to go home, POSITIVES - we had a cloud 9 spa room, luxury towels, Elemis bath products (although when we used them they were not refilled). Had use of bath robes and Thermal suite in spa, which we used a few times and was worth it. - Guys burger joint which is free was excellent as was the burrito bar - very tasty indeed. - lido self service restaurant could always get a seat, food was average aimed at American market but always found something good - Matt and Orlando were the main entertainers, in fact Matt did all the announcements don't know when he slept, they were superb at their job. P&O need to get folk like them on board to make the day to day entertainment better. - larger portions in the main dining rooms and had the option of more casual food such as lasagne, macaroni cheese etc as well as more formal. Although on the whole P & O food much more tasty and better presented. - round the pool area, comfy seats with cushions and foot stools, lots of shaded areas where you could still see the pool. - great daytime activities with the sports areas, flumes, pool tables, basketball etc. PORTS We tend to do our own thing so cannot comment on excursions but they looked very expensive. There was a Carnival shuttle bus to take you to Marseille for $17 each way pp, you could get a taxi for 4 passengers for €20. We were apprehensive about Turkey, but shops were good although a lot of fake goods sold openly, locals were pushy to get you into shops but very friendly. Pompeii, probably best to get a tour guide, or do your homework before you go as it basically all looks the same and the 'bodies' are in various locations which is what we wanted to see. So get a map before you go and plan your day. Other cruisers said 'Capri' was beautiful. Athens, we got the little red road train which was €6 euros, well worth it, took you various sites. This was our disembarkation port so we hired a day room in the Crowne Plaza €117, which is quite expensive but there was 6 of us and we had the room all day. Pisa, we got the €5 shuttle into Livorno centre, at the same spot we got on the 'Tuscany bus' for we think $12 each return to Pisa, can't quite remember but was not expensive and far cheaper than organised tour. Read Less

Was excited to be on a new cruise ship. The ship itself is beautiful, with many amenities and things to do. 5000 passengers is too much. Long lines at the buffets, uncaring US passengers dropping food and leaving it on floors and carpets, eating like it's their last meal (multiple plates, lots of food wasted) even though they are grossly overweight, and just plain loud and rude. Staff is nice, shore excursions are overpriced, daily cost of internet access is exorbitant. You will be attracted to the cruise based on the great price, but after tips, extras, and drinks expect to pay at least double of what your ticket prices were....or more. Main dining room menu's were adequate, but simple and boring. Best food on the ship was the pizzeria and Guys Burger Joint. If you drink, buy the unlimited plan. It's expensive, but cheaper than spending $8.95 per drink, plus tips. Unlimited Bubbles is a great value. Book shore excursions through Viator. Better tours, better guides, much less expensive. Expect to pay 35 euro PP for transportation from the port to the airport. Athens public workers were on strike when we ended our trip, so we had no choice. Smaller previous cruises on MSC or Royal Caribbean have been much more pleasant. Read Less