This was our first time back on Carnival in a couple of years. First the good. Vista is a nice big ship with lots of on board activities. The crew was really friendly, always smiling and went out of their way to be helpful. We had an aft balcony 9074. This is nice big cabin and the balcony is much bigger than standard and is fully covered unlike the aft balconies on the other decks. If you are subject to motion sickness this is where you want to be. We usually eat most our meals in the dining room. Be sure to download the Carnival app. You can request your anytime dining table without having to go to deck 5. The food was typical cruise food and was mostly good. A couple of times nothing jumped out to me so I got a flat iron steak and it was good. On some days they served brunch there. The steak and eggs were great. The dancing waiters at dinner were fun and invited everyone to dance with them. We didn't try any of the specialty restaurants. The lido was pretty good but anything that was especially good had a long line. The last time we were on the Glory there was a seafood shack that was part of the lido. On vista it is a charge per item place. Guy's barbque was good. I liked the soft serve frozen yogurt. The entertainment was typical Carnival which is good or bad depending on your taste. It's why we don't normally do Carnival cruises. If you are a young person that likes your music ear ringing loud and girls with very little clothes it's great. The pg comedy shows were very good. The others get fairly raw. We liked the outdoor movies. They have a counter to check out a blanket which was nice. Movies on demand in the room had a lot of good movies for free. Others were $4.95. There is music all over the ship. Mahogany Bay on Roatan is a nice alternative to a typical cruise port. You just get off the ship and walk to it. Lots of shopping and beach with lots of places to sit. Unlike every other private island we have visited none of the food was free. If you want to ride the skylift over it costs $13 per day. We got right on the ship because we didn't get there till 2:00. I am in a wheelchair and they took great care of us all over the ship. Getting off the ship we waited for a little while but were at our car by 10:00. You can see your pictures and check your bill on the tv or on your phone with the app. There was a $15 laundry charge on my bill which we did not do. They promised to take it off but never did. We used to sell cruises and have been on most of the lines and have lost count of the cruises we have been on. I don't remember hearing so many negative comments about a ship by frequent (mostly Carnival) cruisers. The fact that so many things cost extra and the long wait times for elevators and most anything worth doing seemed to be big. Also the lack of good shows to go to at night were universal. We used to live in Atlanta and had multiple ports to drive to but Galveston is limited to Carnival and Royal Caribbean. We will fly from now on instead of going on this ship. Read Less

Need more hot tubs or keep them open past midnight. We could never get in until really late because they were always full. We enjoyed the IMAX theater but it was expensive at $12.95. We expected to pay a lot less. Our steward was great and every time we had an issue with the room; he got right on it and was fixed within 10 minutes or so. I do wish that snack like cookies/cakes/fruit would be available throughout the day. There were several times when I wanted a later afternoon snack at 3pm but everything was put away and didn't open back up until 6 in the buffet area. We had late dining at 8pm. Our dining room staff were very nice and attentive with our group of 10. I do not recommend the salon as my daughter paid over $60 twice to have hair done and a 5 year old could have done a better job. The Sky Track ride was really fun but plan to wait in line for at least 45 minutes. It seems that Carnival is moving more and more towards for activities/food that cost extra. I did enjoy the new Photo shop with the digital pictures and it was very easy using the app to purchase the ones I wanted. This review may sound a little negative but we did enjoy the cruise and will schedule again with them. Read Less

Excellent ports of call, terrible customer service in many aspects. Some awsome people some Horribke things. Our room steward was super sweet though we only had cleaning once a day. Bought the ultimate WIFI package with horrible service due to need to do job searches and staying in touch with family! It took literally 3 days for one fb post to load on the ship. It did not matter if I was online at 3 am or 5 pm the WiFi was hideous. The 5.00 hub chat was broken!! I complained about my WiFi mid week my money was refunded and they neglected to tell me they were shutting it off!! In st. Kitts our exercusion was canceled with no notice, Also wheel chair assistance was horrible returning to the port I couldn’t even get my moms name on the list we ended up walking her out!!! We were told to put my moms name on the list with the guy that had the clipboard he stated one sec and was calling a few people to be taken out. I came back up to him and he was writing down people’s names that were coming in the door after we had!!! By then we had, had it. My mom has had a knee replacement in one knee and needs her other knee replaced. She can’t walk stairs or long distances. She had decided she was going to attempt to walk from boat to cruise terminal by then we were so mad. So debarkation was awful!! When we got in cruise terminal it was nice to gather luggage and not have to fill out a customs form and easy to get a porter. I followed close behind him and he was nice enough to wait for my mom to catch up Behind us to go through customs. When we got out he was kind enough for me to follow him and took is straight to the carnival bus to go to the airport. Over all we will never sail on the conquest again this was our second journey on it, and we will NEVER go out of ft Lauderdale’s port. We have used Orlando, New Orleans, and been out of California overall ft Lauderdale carnival port is horrible. Read Less

Really a nice ship. Staff was excellent: room steward Josephine, wait staff Sunny, Ikatuk & Kadek In Crimson, bartenders Airine (sp? pronounced Irene) and Dwi at Ocean Plaza Bar (next to Alchemy), Tomislav and Harta at the casino, Nana at the Lobby Bar and Dipak at level 10 aft bar. All were EXCELLENT and recognized me by name after first day. Rock band was Excellent, brass jazz/soul band was Excellent too! (Together they were PHENOMENAL!) Steel drum lady was good as well. All other bands were “meh”. Biggest Dissapointment: 1st Caribbean cruise I’ve been on without a Latín band. No salsa, no merengue, no cha cha cha, in other words no spice. The disco was really bad too, not a soul in there probably because the music was terrible, undanceable. Food was very good to excellent. For breakfast go to the lido deck and do the omelette station. Pizza was very good too, open 24 hours. Guy’s Burgers were pretty good but Guy’s BBQ (“Pig & Anchor”) was HIGHLY over-rated. Did not do any shore excursions. Overall, good cruise. Read Less

The ship is "old" but don't let that stop you. We didn't mind the pink decor. The crew was great. The people that served food in the MDR were great and once they got to know you, they would make suggestions on what they think you would like. The hostess who seated you in most part were very nice. There was plenty to eat; as this was a "journey" cruise. On sea days they either served breakfast, lunch and dinner in MDR or brunch and dinner in the MDR. The food on the lido was pretty good and there was a larger selection including Mongolian Wok and Indian everyday for lunch. The cruise had a mid-night buffet and a chocolate buffet bot at night and during lunch. They were special. The entertainment was hit and miss. The ports were fine except we didn't go to Kona as "the waves" were too strong. Read Less

I have always bragged to others about the quality and variety of food on the Carnival Menu and buffets. BUT on the Sunshine it was the worst food ever encountered on a cruise ship. Our food was cold, crusty, and dried. The salads were browned lettuce and soups were cold. The service was extremely slow and not acceptable at all. We are both diamond VIP members with Carnival. We have sailed on over two hundred cruises and most every cruise line. We understand that booking with different cruise lines you will experience different types of food, however, cold, tasteless, no quality food is unacceptable regardless of the cruise line. The Carnival product has greatly deteriorated and is not at all like previous Carnival cruises we have experienced on most every cruise ship in their fleet! We are very concerned that this ship does not follow ADA guidelines. It was one of the most unfriendly to handicapped passengers in wheelchairs and the guests were unwilling to share the elevators even though the US law states that wheelchair passengers have first priority in the elevator use. Fellow passengers are getting more and more antagonistic toward those who cannot walk and must use a wheelchair as well as the cruise ship staff! It is interesting to note that Carnival is changing the booking mechanism for handicapped cabins. They have gone from wheelchair cabins with roll in showers to calling the same exact cabin a "walker" cabin thereby eliminating the need to accommodate wheelchair guests. It is blatant discrimination. We will carefully review our choices for cruising this year and go back to cruise line whose product we can trust. Carnival product is no longer the same. Read Less

I had $$$ casino free play, the casino was very nicely designed with the newest slots. The smoke was no worse than any other ship comparatively. We ate at the buffet , formal dining room and a specialty restaurant, "ALL" fantastic. Crew went out of their way to make everyone happy. Serenity area on deck 15 was exceptional with triple the space, cabana type clam-shell covered chairs and bar service. They even had a salad bar at lunch. Our cabin Steward was fantastic and always around if we needed anything. We have been cruising for 18 years and this was one of the best. very easy for my wife to navigate with her rollater/and cane for her to get around. We share the love among various cruise lines and really do not have a favorite. If we have the chance to cruise the Horizon again we will without hesitation. To sum it up..Great ship, crew and entertainment, especially the "Dive in" movies under the stars... they were all first run new releases..."GREAT JOB CARNIVAL". Seeyou again soon!!! P.S. have to try the donut sandwiches at the coffee shop-maple bacon-over the top!!! Read Less

This was our third cruise, second time on Carnival. I was looking for a bigger ship. Although this was bigger than the Pride, it was not like our Royal cruise a few years ago. Biggest complaint, which I will put down as still learning cruising, was the excursions. One in Belize had to be canceled after we finally all got together, as we would not have had enough time to complete the trip before the ship sailed. We had scheduled the trip with Vacation2go. I did not realize that Carnival "Owned" the ports and only Carnival sponsored excursions were allowed in the port area. We had to walk through the port, take a taxi, get picked up by a van and taken to an assembly area to meet up with the rest of the group.We were on time but when we were all assembled the tour was running late. Our other issue was with dinning. I am now handicapped. Our room was 3 from the bow and our dinning was at the stern (literally). I did not take the electric scooter or have a wheel chair so the long walk really got to me. I am also per-diabetic and have issues eating too late. After working with the staff, we were moved to another dining room and earlier seating. We had requested to be seated with others, but ended up at a table for two. Even with these issues, we will cruise again. Read Less

Cuba was one of the few places we had not visited in the Caribbean. That was rectified January 2019 on a five night cruise aboard the Paradise which proved to be an excellent overall experience. This ship was easy to navigate and not crowded like larger ships tend to be. Recently refurbished the public spaces and our suite were clean and bright. We had G3, one of two Grand Suites and the views and serenity was fabulous from Deck 14. Only complaint was the back cushion on sofa bed was easily toppled over and still would have loved a coffee maker like Carnival used to have in higher end suites. The food in the main dinning room was above average and offered wide choices. Staff throughout were friendly and helpful. Major drawback was lack of information regarding Cuban Visa procedure pre-cruise in a timely fashion, not detailed to week before and while the $75.00 fee per person was typical, it should have been clearly stated that the charge would be put on your room account. Both embarkation and debarkation were easy and painless. TIPS: Exchange US dollars for Canadian dollars or Euros pre cruise and receive a much better exchange rate at Havana Terminal Exchange. Also much better and personalized old car tours of Havana can be arranged via the internet (highly recommend Old Cars Havana) prior to the ship and was literally 1/3 longer and 1/2 the cost of Carnival offered excursion. Read Less

In a word....FANTASTIC! I would like to thank the Captain and the Crew for taking us safely from home port to home port....Thank You A special thanks to the Cruise Director, NONO, she was amazing.....Thank You The staff was amazing, from the Chefs to the wait staff to the clean up crews, all were very accommodating and courteous at ALL TIMES. The food was good and plentiful. Was it excellent, no, but you could always find something to your liking. Except the Sea Food Shack...don't waste your money, food is terrible. So just relax and have a good time. Thank You Carnival for a wonderful and memorable NEW YEAR. Constructive criticism. Easier boarding for Handicapped/ disabled passengers. Easier de-boarding for handicapped/disabled passengers. Better Signage on board the ship and at the Florida Port for handicapped/ disabled passengers. Better luggage handling for the handicapped/ disabled. More compliance with the ADA. NO SMOKING in the Casino. Read Less