I'm sitting on deck 5 waiting to end this horrible cruise. I call it horrible because of the ship. I was so excited to get on the new big ship Vista. And this ship is the worst. I've been on numerous other carnival ships. And this one is bad. It is like being in a dungeon. It is dark and cramped. There are no walkways within the ship that are open with windows. You walk in dark crowded hallways. You can't find elevators because they are tucked away. This ship is not open and welcoming. Oh and you have to walk thru casino. Thru the smoke. Now way around it. What happened to having a grand atrium that makes u go wow. The main area of ship is only 3 stories tall. 3rd to 5th. Wow....what a disappointment. Now the crew was amazing. The food and shows were a disappointment. Very boring trip. I will never intentionally book another trip on this ship. Read Less

On the vista all the buffet food was so terrible we couldn't eat it, it was either over cooked or just plain bad. the dinning rooms food was better but most of the nights the food was not excitable. this was the worst ship I have ever been on, most of the time they closed one buffet line and everyone had to go to the other line, which the food was so terrible we didn't eat. all the other ships I have been on had excellent food on the buffet, so what was their problem. Also they need to have one elevator just for the handicap cause people are so rude to them. we had to wait for 6 times to get my sister on an elevator cause people were so rude and wouldn't let us on they would cut in front of us. the dis embarkment went well cause we talked to the cruise director and she told us how to get my sister off in a faster way. Read Less

A little background on me: I started cruising in 2005. This was my 39th cruise, but only 2nd on Carnival. I’ve done 27 cruises on Norwegian (everything from inside to Garden Villa; one booked), one on Costa (our first cruise!), four on Princess (two booked), one Disney, three Celebrity, and one Royal Caribbean. My first Carnival cruise was on the Carnival Victory, a 5-day Canada/New England sailing in September 2007. The only reason I went was that it was so cheap! About $200 solo. For $200, I suppose I received value for what I paid. My memories of that cruise are: I was probably the youngest passenger aboard; the sidewalks rolled up at about 9:30 every night (thank goodness Carnival lets its crew out to play at night, or I would have been quite lonely!); the never-ending fog; the worst congealed eggs benedict I’ve ever had; the shoe-leather veal that the waiter so kindly tried to warn me off of; the sinfully comfortable bed in my inside cabin; the generally run-down condition of the ship (I later learned it was shortly away from a drydock). So, twelve years later, here I find myself booked on another Carnival cruise. Why now? We recently moved back to Central Texas, so Galveston is our new homeport. Carnival is the big player there. (Royal Caribbean also sails from Galveston – not sure if we’ll give them another try.) I was also attracted to the exclusive areas – named Havana – on Carnival’s two newest ships, the Horizon and Vista. Having someplace, aside from my cabin, to escape the crowds is necessary to my sanity. The Vista currently sails alternating Western Caribbean 7-day cruises year-around out of Galveston. The Details: Carnival Vista, 9/14/19 – 9/21/19. Ports: Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Honduras; Belize City, Belize; Cozumel, Mexico. Stateroom: Havana Cabana (HE), #5206. The Havana Experience The shared space in the Havana has a small pool and two hot tubs facing aft, two covered gazebos with chairs to dangle your feet in the water, several covered lounging beds, ample chairs and loungers, and a bar. In order to book a Havana cabin all occupants must be 12 years of age or older. The Havana pool area is open to all passengers after 7 p.m. We rarely saw non-Havana passengers there; perhaps other passengers thought it was always off-limits? Havana passengers receive a colored wristband to identify them. The deck staff were extremely attentive and friendly – to us, at least. We saw them throw several non-Havana passengers out a few times. I appreciated their diligence. A bonus for me: I had NEVER previously been in a cruise ship pool because I saw lax enforcement of the “No Swimmies” ban on several ships, and even then, most cruise ship pools I’ve seen have been totally gross by the end of the first day. Not a problem in the Havana! Crystal clear and sparkling all the time. One of my best memories will be of hanging at the edge of the pool and gazing over the ship’s wake. There are a small variety of cabins in Havana, including some aft-facing balconies and suites. I had my eye, though, on the Havana Cabanas: regular balcony cabins on deck 5, which instead of having a balcony, feature cute wrought-iron fenced patios facing onto the Promenade, a chair, lounger, and a swinging hammock chair. (DH was sold at “hammock chair”!) Each end of the Havana Promenade has a locked gate, ensuring that the only people wandering back and forth in front of one’s patio will be other Havana guests. We booked the port-side, third from the end, and rarely had anyone walk past. I have read noise concerns from others about noise bleeding from the Havana Bar area. We did not have this problem, but there was frequently noise bleed in the evenings from Ocean Plaza through the balcony, but not enough to disturb our rest. As with most of the newer cruise ships, we found ourselves having to share a few outlets to charge our multitude of devices. And, as with most of the newer cruise ships, the cabin’s power is triggered by a keycard in a wall outlet just inside the door. (The outlets cease to operate/charge without a card in that slot.) Our steward kindly had pre-placed a blank card for this purpose. We were also provided separate keycards to open the balcony door from the patio. (My understanding is that the Horizon doesn’t have this feature.) We liked having the sofa, which converted into a bed, to lounge on while in the cabin. The large flat-panel television featured the typical cruise ship stations along with several documentary-type shows created specifically for Carnival Corp. There was also a large array of on-demand movies, probably about half of which were offered at no charge. We would have had plenty to watch had we never left the cabin. I have rarely seen such closet space in a cabin of this size, more than ample hanging and drawer space. There were sets of three shelves on each side of the bathroom mirror, again, more than ample. The bathroom had a shower with curtain, the stall being large enough so one didn’t suffer the indignity of the attack of the shower curtain. Even when we indicated we would reuse our towels, they were replaced with clean ones. Our cabin steward kept our Cabana spic-and-span clean. This cleanliness and attention to detail permeated the ship. They were always working about, cleaning away, along with the sprucing-up we’ve come to expect on a well-maintained ship. What was different was that each crew member we saw actually seemed to enjoy their jobs. (To be contrasted with ones we’d previously encountered on other lines, who seemed to truly hate their lives.) One could conclude that Carnival’s reputation for being fun also extends to the crew. We’d frequently see crew singing and dancing away as they polished and scrubbed, especially when they thought no one was watching. That’s telling, I think. The Food Given my previous poor culinary experiences on Carnival, I was curious to see how this experience would measure up, but also certain I would find enough edible to not starve in seven days. I found the main dining room to exceed expectations, but granted, my expectations were low to begin with. I’ve gotten to a point in life where I’d rather not eat than to eat bad food, but eat I did. Considering this is essentially banquet-type food, they did rather well. The prime rib arrived medium as requested, with an ample amount of horseradish. The lobster tail was cooked to perfection. Desserts were divine. The menus displayed a good amount of variety and imagination. We had Your Time Dining, meaning that we had no set time or table. We were always able to go to the dining room within two minutes of requesting a table on the Hub app (more on that later). Two of three sets of servers were quite good; the third was extremely overly gregarious, to the point that we took pains to avoid him the rest of the cruise. The remainder of our meals were spent in specialty restaurants, and this is where the Vista really shone. The first night was in the Fahrenheit 555 steakhouse where a first-night special offered a free bottle of wine. Not top shelf, but not the lowest, either. (Layer Cake, I believe?) We later shared a bottle with two gentlemen at the next table, and learned part of why the Vista’s Fahrenheit 555 earned a Wine Spectator award – the manner in which the wine was decanted was an art in itself. The meal began with an amuse-bouche, which we later learned varies day by day. The assistant waiter presented us a variety of bread options while warning us that much was to come, and not to eat too much bread. (I told him his mother raised him well.) Dinner began with stuffed mushrooms (delectable!) and French onion soup gratin. I opted for the surf-and-turf, a petit filet and whole lobster tail. Side dishes are abundant and varied. The waiter presented a variety box of salts from which to opt to season one’s steak. Rounding out the meal was a chocolate dessert which was all about the presentation and which promptly sent me into a sugar coma – I can’t recall its name. It was decadent. We spent a second dinner in the steakhouse, with the same exceptional food and service. Especially considering what some other cruise lines are charging for their steakhouse, Fahrenheit 555 is well worth the $38pp price of admission. Our second specialty dinner was at Bonsai Sushi. Having been raised in Hawaii, an exchange student in Japan, and in general a student of Japanese language and culture, my expectations were not high. I’ve eaten my fair share of pedestrian sushi, both on land and at sea. Was I in for a surprise! We opted for the “Ship for 2,” which began with miso soup. The presentation was superb and would make any Japanese chef proud. This attention to aesthetics carried over to the arrival of the ship, where the salad, Bang Bang Bonsai roll, California roll, and 6 pieces of nigiri (2 tuna, 2 salmon, 2 shrimp) were beautifully arrayed alongside artfully carved garnish. The tuna was buttery, a testament to both the quality of the fish and the skills of the sushi chefs. And unlike most other California roll offerings, Bonsai’s crab was the real deal, not the white fish masquerading as crab that most restaurants use. Total bill, with an extra appetizer, sake, and beer: $28. JiJi Asian was our final specialty restaurant stop. Each $15 prix fixe meal includes a choice of one appetizer, one entrée, a side, and dessert. Our meal began with another amuse-bouche, then we dug in with the Nanjing-style Duck and Jade Shrimp Har Gao, followed by Peppered Beef and Singapore Chili Shrimp, accompanied by jasmine rice and Chinese broccoli. I thoroughly enjoyed my Rose Crème Brulee, and the fried wontons with lychee in tapioca pearls and coconut milk looked yummy. Everything was very tasty. As with Bonsai sushi, the presentation was impeccable. Mention must be made of the specialty restaurant offerings at lunch. Both Jiji and Cucina del Capitano are open for lunch: Jiji features a Mongolian wok, while Cucina offers design-your-own pasta bowls. Both are included in the fare price. Bonsai Sushi is open for sea day lunches with its regular menu and à la carte prices. Also included, open on sea days only, is Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que. These people take their smoked meats seriously, where the delicious aroma of meats smoking over hickory can be detected nearly 24 hours prior to opening. Being Texans we’re a pretty tough barbecue crowd, but we found it to be more than acceptable. I could have happily settled for a full bowl of the mac and cheese. Guy’s Burger Joint is open every afternoon on the Lido deck. You order your burger from the grill, then have a full complement of garnish to choose among at the toppings bar. I judged this burger to be far better than any other sea-going Lido burger, but as I later confided to DH, “I wouldn’t cross an ocean for it.” I prefer my burger juicy, not crunchy. Give me Five Guys over Guy Fieri, any day. And what’s a cruise food review without talking about the pizza? Again, we’re a pretty tough crowd, having lived in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut area for over seven years. Cruise ship pizza is usually a glance and a pass. For us, it’s all about Neapolitan pizza. Imagine my surprise, when walking past Pizzeria del Capitano, when I saw several large cans of San Marzano tomatoes! Feeling peckish one afternoon at the Havana pool, I decided to put the Hub app’s pizza delivery service to the test. Click – Margarita pizza. Click – authorize payment ($5). Click – mark on the map where I’m sitting. Click – take a picture so my delivery person knows what I look like right now. Wait. Twenty minutes later my smiling delivery person arrived with a fresh and cooked-to-perfection Neapolitan pizza! Thin, hand-tossed, crispy crust, delectable tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, a smattering of fresh basil. Oh, Carnival… You had me at San Marzano! And speaking of the Hub app… This was far more useful than I ever could have imagined. The entire week’s entertainment lineup pre-loaded, ready for the bookmarking. Handy pop-up reminders of all bookmarked events. Easy tracking of restaurant reservations. Simple and quick to request a table for Your Time Dining, bypassing the long lines. I am certain there are features that I never discovered. Quite a little gem, this Hub app. Finally, the one place I frequented more than I could possibly frequent any bar: The JavaBlue Café. Within a short stumbling distance of my cabin – in fact, its proximity was one of the reasons I selected the cabin I did. Specialty coffees, milk shakes, floats, and spiked versions of all of the above, along with a selection of both included and for-fee pastries. The barista, known affectionately as “Java Joe,” is always so happy and sparkly that I maintain he chews roasted beans, skipping all the intermediary steps, before starting his shift. Gotta love a man who remembers my order on the second day and can look at me first thing in the morning and not wince but smile and treat me like a princess. Joe, I’ll miss you most of all! The Entertainment We are not ones to participate in many of the scheduled events/activities on board, so I can’t comment on much of the entertainment offerings. The electric strings trio who played in the atrium several evenings were always ones we would stop and enjoy for a brief period. We overheard some of the 80’s party in the atrium while we enjoyed taiyaki with ice cream in Cherry on Top – a good mix of music, lots of people in costume, and it looked like people really enjoyed it. There were another couple of bands that sounded quite good that played evenings in Ocean Plaza. The Vista – and her sister ship, Horizon – has an IMAX theater. (This was another selling point for us!) Ticket prices were about 60% of what one would pay on land. The IMAX theater features daily showings of your standard IMAX museum documentaries. Additionally, Carnival premieres major motion pictures onboard the same day they open on land. Films showing when we boarded were “It, Part 2” and “Hobbs & Shaw;” the following Thursday evening “Ad Astra” came aboard. We opted for the latter, in addition to the “Pandas 3D” documentary. I realized we’ve gotten spoiled when DH leaned over to me and asked, “Don’t these seats recline?” Despite this, they were comfortable enough. The picture and sound were both great. There is also the Dive-In Theater on the Lido deck, which offers new movies such as one might find as new digital download releases. The Bottom Line Over 2,500 words later, it’s time to get to the critical question: Do things that cost less necessarily offer lesser value? Whether or not I have lots of money to drop on a cruise, I do value, well… VALUE. The Bottom Line: Yes, for us, the Carnival Vista – along with the Havana Experience – provided us a great value. We would certainly do it again. Read Less

This was our first cruise and with dates we had for a vacation we knew it would be during hurricane season & we would be on the Vista. We chose to go out of Galveston. Didn’t get to explore much but what we did see was pretty. We flew into IAH. On a side note do NOT use shuttlefare.com, they left us stranded at the airport and we had to come up with a plan B. Vista is a big girl lol. Again our first cruise so I was excited and stunned when we got to the port lol. We were actually early for our embarkation and they told us to go on in anyway. We had a short wait then they started calling sections and we were on the ship before our scheduled port check in time on our pass. Carnival has some great customer service, everyone we came in contact with was nice. Our ship, from what I understand, sailed at full capacity because of other cruises that were cancelled out of Florida due to Dorian. We personally never felt like there was over 4 thousand people on the ship. A few times there was a small wait but nothing major. I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the Vista and I can tell you it’s really not bad. Yes the ship is cut up a bit. We actually had fun finding areas around the ship. Eventually I’ll get to be on another ship to compare it to lol. We had a cove balcony and loved it! We had coffee delivered in the am and would sit on the balcony and watch the ocean. Entertainment: the “play list shows” were not impressive to me. They are good, don’t get me wrong. They do a lot of over singing notes and the sound system is way to loud for that size of a venue. I plugged my ears a lot and then we politely left. We tried it a couple times. The comedy shows were funny no matter if you went to the family time or the adult time. We volunteered for the magic show and were blown away by the magician. My husband loved all the trivia they have on board. Really there is so much to do you can stay busy all day or do nothing a relax. Ports: our first port was Montego Bay. We didn’t do an excursion there, just got off the boat and looked at the couple little touristy shops in port. If you want to see Jamaica you have to do an excursion, there is nothing close to the port. Our second port was the Grand Caymans, we did the sensational stingray swim. We loved it. Our captain was BeBe (not sure of spelling) very nice crew and they made sure everyone had time with the stingrays and were great about helping if you needed extra help. Pictures were very nice and only 40 dollars and they air dropped them right to my phone. I would recommend them. Our last port was Cozumel and we did the VIP dolphin swim. Our guide was Louis and he was wonderful and answered all questions and very attentive. I can’t remember the trainers name but he was great. We swam with Maria. Amazing dolphin and experience. It was on my bucket list and I was like a kid in a candy store. I loved every minute. The pictures were way to crazy expensive, close to 200. We actually only liked 2 pictures but they wanted almost 80 bucks for just 2. They wouldn’t negotiate a price so we chose to not buy any. The other staff were to busy talking to themselves and drinking. We ended up going back to the ship early. I wouldn’t do it again but if you do want to swim with dolphins and learn about them this was great just be aware of picture prices and other staff. We really had an amazing first cruise, we did your time dining and with the hubb app it was easy to check in and then go to the dinning room. All the food was good. We didn’t eat in any of the specialty restaurants so I don’t know about those. Guys burgers were wonderful. If I had a negative about the ship, it would be the market place buffet area. It gets very warm in spots but if you walk around a little you can usually find a cooler area in there to sit. The cruise director, Kendal Fire was good. She kept everyone entertained. We are now addicted to cruising and have already booked another cruse, with the time we have we actually end up being on the Vista again lol Disembarking wasn’t to bad. Would go even smoother if people would follow instructions lol but it did go reasonably quickly. Read Less

Only reason I sail from Galveston is it's only a four hour drive. Other than that it's the worst cruise terminal in the world. After traffic was backed up for a mile Galveston P.D. finally decided to get someone out at 1230 to direct traffic. Wait in line to turn, why, we'll just act stupid and cut in front of everybody whos' been waiting. Seven days of people that don't know how to shut a door without slamming it. Balcony door or cabin door, doesn't matter. People who only care about what their doing. Wait on elevator just to find someone one floor down having a conversation just holding the door open. We watched, that car had been idle for quit a while. The drunker and more stupid you acted the better you got along with the entertainment staff. Had drunk with his pitcher of whatever drunk in the Punchliner trying to save two rows of chairs threating to fight everybody, running up on stage like he owns the place. Does the staff do anything? Of course not he's what Carnival Stands for. Not the Fun Ships, we're the Drunk Ships. Try to eat in the Reflections Dining Room. Hope you like yelling across the table, because we don't know what an inside voice is. I will admit that once you could get your waiter to understand what you wanted over all the noise the food in the MDR was pretty good. Though I have yet to get a baked potato that was cooked all the way through. Don't know why guest services has a phone number. Tried calling three different times and after being left on hold for 15 minutes each I gave up. Finally got room steward to get cloths line fixed in shower. Unlike other cruise lines where you call one number for all specialty dining on the Vista you have to know the phone number of the restaurant you are trying to reach. The problem, they only publish the number to one specialty restaurant a day in the daily paper. So, if you didn't save yesterdays or the restaurant you want hasn't been listed yet the only way to get a hold of them to make or change a reservation is to go to it. Why are there urinals in the mens public restrooms? Every time I went into one there was a large puddle of urine on the floor. Ship is only few years old and flies are already a problem. On a good note, there was plenty of seating in the Market Place Buffet. They do need to add those hand wash stations to all their ships, also there could be more of them. It seemed as if about by Friday they were hinting to get us off the ship. Sausage is not supposed to be Rare and the gravy for biscuits and gravy was cold. As was anything from Blue Iguana. Went twice and both times both items were cold. Unless you're a fan of fat and gristle stay away from Guys BBQ. Lines are way too long and for what you get small portion and a plate of mostly fat and gristle, to sit out in the sun and poke at, not worth the wait. Main stage shows. I don't know why Carnival thinks were at a Rolling Stones concert. Just because you turn the volume up to 11 doesn't make your mediocre performers any better. Two of your three females thought they were a lot better than they actually are. The only one with a decent voice was the short blonde. Other two terrible, but hey, it was loud. Only way Carnival can justify the space for a library any more is to put a bar in it. First time I've seen that. I guess we need to have every inch of free space has to sell booze. Read Less

Let me start off by saying we chose this particular ship because of the skyride, once we got on the ship and everything was paid for we were then notified that this guy ride was down and that we would not be accommodated for it. We spoke to carnival about it and guest relations while on the ship and no one seemed to care. Also beforehand I did call and ask if my husband could bring his very expensive straight razor on board the ship at the time I was told that that would not be a problem a straight razor would be fine so we took it with us. Once we got into customs it was immediately confiscated and we were not allowed to have it. I spoke to carnival about it again at guest relations and there was nothing they were going to do about it, I called once we got home and ask them to go over the phone call, I was then told it would take 72 hours for them to listen to the phone call. They also told me that the guy I spoke to did not notate in his notes anything about the straight razor, so therefore I was wrong. so basically because some guy in a call center didn't get his notes right and do his job right I'm more than likely not going to be reimbursed for the very expensive straight razor I was told would be allowed. The ship was very boring and did not have a lot to do. Everything is very overpriced, and once you're on the ship you're basically at their Mercy. once you have paid in your sailing they don't care to listen to any concerns or accommodate you in any type of way. Upper decks are very loud we were on the 9th floor and could hear people stomping above us at the bar for most of the night. My husband and I paid $150 to have unlimited bubbles for the week when we would ask for a soda it could take anywhere from five to 10 minutes to get it we would have to ask multiple times to get a drink and when ordering a soda in room service we were charged the regular price of $3 a can regardless of us having the bubble pass. The elevators were atrocious very hot and just quickly learn that they could hold down a button and it would skip every four SO waiting for an elevator usually took 10 minutes or longer. Again this stuff didn't care. We were also told when booking that we would have a $25 credit per person on the ship once we got on the ship and left Port we noticed that the money was not on our sail & sign card again we went to guest services and that money was never put back on the card and we were never reimbursed. Carnival may be one of the cheapest Cruise lines at first glance, but it's definitely worth spending a little more to be treated a lot better. Shame on carnival Cruise lines! We will never book here again! Read Less

We choose to get away for a week and to see Mahogany Bay, Honduras, Belize and Cozumel, Mexico. The service on our cabin is excellent Darang provided us with everything we needed, clean our cabin and replenishes us with fresh towels everyday. Our Dinning room experience was also magnificent we were served at the Reflection Dinningroom of 3 excellent waiters Wibiyantha, Surya and Joel. Who make sure that our dining experience is a marvelous one and an experience we will never forget. Our friend's birthday and they went and over in greeting her a happy birthday. At the Lido deck Raxel, Manilyn, Joel, Zandra, Carlos, and Levender are excellent in helping us out, clearing and serving us with good food. My friend forgot her cellphone and Levender found her phone and my friend was able to get her phone back. Hows that for honesty. The friendly Raxel was very helpful in providing us future cruise with Carnival. She demonstrated her friendly and willing to serve the customer in the Lido deck and cheering and playing with the kids. The Cruise Director Kyndall Fire is funny and entertained us in the show, and in Bingo. Myra and Cattleya t the Pixel assisted us in our pictures and tolerated our changeable mind and was very patient with us even we went back and fort with the pictures. We end up satisfied with our pictures which we end up getting 40 pictures plus our canvasses. Cloud 9 spa was excellent Tiffany gave me a good service with my Ionithermage. I feel fresh and with more energy and was able to do the gym. Excellent crew We will surely cruise with Carnival Vista again. Read Less

Was the worst carnival experience we ever had. By day 3 I cried & wanted to come home. First night/morning we had a young intoxicated girl enter our room at 4am!! We called security and nobody could explain how she was able to enter our locked cabin. They had maintenance check key locks and door the next day to say nothing malfunctioned and they would just reprogram door. So I was worried about someone entering our room the entire week. We purchased spa thermal package for $250 for the week and unfortunately should have just saved our money for something else. The spa was always packed with people so really no quiet zen time ever. The showers in there didn't work easily with so many knobs. The dirty towels were almost always overflowing. The sauna with essential oils just smelt like a musty room. There was dried blood leading into 1 of the spa rooms & when I reported it to staff they said ok. On day 3 I discovered my purse was missing and security said cameras were not pointing to the area my bag was. Really? The camera was right there. I guess it wasn't working but they aren't going to say that. Our dinner in the dining room was the only great thing about this cruise. The food was great but our servers had so many tables to tend to they were constantly sweating. They were so nice I could over look that. They cared large trays with so much food and ran back & forth for at least an hour. Then expected to perform a dance!! Wow. These poor guys. We only saw our room stewart 3 times the entire cruise because they were short staff. That is what we were told by other staff. The halls were constantly full of trash & dirty plates that people would place outside their doors. Short staffed meant that these things didn't get picked up for hours- more than 12 hours on 1 day. It was awful!! When I called carnival after the cruise to advise how unhappy I was with everything I was told they would have a manager review my concerns but I would not be contacted by anyone. Wow again. Such poor customer service. Also the skyride which is the main attraction was down the entire cruise! So newer, larger and better attractions just means more rooms to charge people and less amenities and less employees to service more people. I don't know how carnival thinks this is ok. I booked 4 cabins for me, my kids & some of their friends. I guess carnival got their money and that is all that matters. Read Less

The main attraction for choosing Vista was the sky ride. This ship went out of a service for almost 2 weeks to fix the propulsion issue, why did they not service the sky ride(first problem)? There were 5 adults and 4 young adults (17-21) only 1 liked Vista. This was cruise number six for 4 of us with Carnival. Embarkation and disembarkation went well, cabin(great), service(great). The second problem we en counted was no air conditioning as soon as we stepped unto the ship. It felt like outside. There were fans on the floor all the way to the lobby. The elevator ride to the 10th floor was no better. The 10th floor lobby and the cabin had air conditioning. The cabin did not cool as well as other ships (Breeze,Magic,Freedom) the thermostat has no digital readout, only red bars for heat and blue bars for cold. The third problem was the minimal air conditioning in the buffet(Lido). The middle was ok, but on either end near the pools you could fell the heat. The fourth problem was the temperature of the food in the buffet, it was always too low and the choices of food could have been better. Thank goodness for Guy's Burger Joint!! This ship also lost power while we were away our 3 rd excursion trapping my elderly in-laws in the elevator. They had to walk 2 flight of stairs to their room. For the amount of money spent on this ship it should not be having these problems on a continuous basis. It's like this ship was built with no plans or means to fix something if it breaks. We always hate to leave the ship on the final day but we were happy to leave today. We are also planning another Carnival cruise next year but not on Vista. Read Less

This was a long awaited family cruise. We upgraded to a spa balcony cabin and was looking forward to a week of relaxation and time with family. I am a long time cruise traveler. This was the worst experience! The worst week! My thoughts were that I wish I could have departed the ship but of course you are trapped on it until you return to port. Our cabin was a nightmare! Wet floors on the first day. A ship worker coming into the room over and over to tell us their had been a bad leak. They set up two giant blowers in the tiny cabin and we were stuck with the noise and trying to climb over the blowers when we wanted to move about or go in and out. In the bathroom I scalded my hands as the sink only had scalding water. They had to repair that twice during the trip. Every night at around midnight a terrible loud mechanical sound that shook our cabin would wake us up. I spent most of my cruise either on the phone with or at the guest services desk. Every night the same. Call..and be told we had to wait while they sent someone to check out the noise. So we were stuck waiting up each night while the person they sent to 20 to 45 minutes to come to our cabin and the spend time trying to explain the noise as by then it would stop. The noise usually lasted about 10 to 15 minutes. I finally decided to record it and the ships head of house keeping heard my recordings and let guest services know it was loud but kept insisting they had no idea what it could be. At first we thought it might be a one time deal but this happened all week long each night and our peaceful vacation of rest was turned into involuntarily Up All Night. Guest services could have cared less! We were told nothing they could do. It was also disturbing that all 3 showers in the Spa were not working properly. And one of the main steam rooms did not work properly the entire cruise. And though Carnival knew it we didn't find out until Thursday into the cruise that we were right next door to a maintenance room on the side away from the way we leave our cabin. We found out because of added disturbing noise and maintenance workers going in and out of that room and slamming the door over and over. We paid close to 3k for the trip. After I found a member of housekeeping in the hall at midnight and asked if he could come listen to the noise as it was happening and he told guest services on the phone how awful it was they issued me and my cabin mate a $75 credit each. $150 credit against 3k? And after this credit they started working non stop in the room next to us. We were woken to hammering and metal falling constantly on the metal floor. Drilling. Talking. The door slamming as they went in and out constantly. We just wanted to get off of the ship. This long awaited trip had been ruined and outings with family were missed due to lack of sleep. They woke us up hammering on Friday morning around 6am. The noise went on all day long as I was too exhausted to leave the cabin. I was trying hard to get just a little sleep. But the banging was non stop and I called guest services once again and asked if they knew about the non stop noise? They said they did. They told me mechanical issues were being repaired and they did not know how long it would go on. I went to Guest services and asked them why they has forced us to be up each night trying to explain to them the noise when they had known all along the source of the problem and why they hadn't just moved us to another cabin. I was told the cruise was fully booked. I asked for a refund for our trip and was told the best they could do was another $150 totaling $300 against our almost 3k week fee. And that the work would continue in the maintenance cabin. And it did. All day until my I finally went into the hall and asked two of the maintenance workers if they knew how long they would be working? I asked if they had any idea the noise that was in our cabin. It was so terrible. I wish I could load my videos so everyone could really see how little Carnival cared about us as guests. I think my lack of sleep and the fact that I was holding my head from a massive headache was visible to the workers. Though guest services didn't care these guys went in the room and talked to their supervisor and came out and told me they were going to stop for the night. It was just after 8pm. That was on a Friday. The one day the Spa jacuzzi was roped off and out of order for use. It was also the only night of the 7 day cruise that we did not get woken up to the horrible noise that was so bad it shook our cabin. They once again started the banging at 6 am the next morning. I know guest services knew the whole time what the problem was. For them to keep us up each night after being woken up from the noise and making us wait for people to come to the cabin and then doing the non stop maintenance once they gave us the small credit was horrible. I would have given this cruise a zero if that was an option. Getting back home with a letter from onboardi with a multiple list of cabin complaints and calling the main office really did nothing to much to make me feel any better. Customer service on that end was horrible too. And dont depend on Chase credit card company to help you if you want to make the dispute with them. Apparently no matter what your experience and I'm sure Carnival knows this is that if you complete the entire cruise no matter what your issues they consider it a valid charge and will not help you either. So unless you are willing to jump ship in the middle of the ocean or fly back from a different country Chase credit card will do nothing. It's a shame our trip was so disturbing and disappointing. I sincerely hope this experience does not happen to anyone else or that Carnival takes responsibility when it's due to their faulty equipment when someones entire vacation turns out to be a nightmare and the best part about the experience is when you can get OFF the ship! Since we were so occupied with this situation all cruise we really didn't do much else. We went to the casino which seemed a little cramped. Not much room to move around in. The food in the main dining room was very good. Lots of choices. But the wait staff seemed preoccupied this trip and in too much of a hurry. Sometimes it took a long time to get food and extras we asked for such as ice tea or lemon etc. The main attraction and one of the reasons we booked the cruise was the Sky Ride on the Vista. But it was down the entire cruise Out Of Service. The water slide was fun the two times I went down and the pool area seemed nice though we never got in it. Read Less

This was the fourth cruise out of Galveston for my husband and me. We’ve always cruised Carnival and had great experiences until this time. Overall, I was grateful to be on vacation and a bad cruise is still better than no cruise, but the Vista had many disappointing moments. The sky ride was broken. The steam rooms and special hot tub were broken in the upgraded spa area. Our Carnival excursions were run poorly or started 30 minutes late...which had never happened on my prior cruises. The theater was like a conference room. The performers were talented, but the music in the shows seemed off. I really feel like I didn’t get a good value for my money in several instances. On a positive note, the service and food all over the ship was excellent! The lines for anything were never too long. The other passengers all seemed really nice. Read Less

So many problems with this cruise most related to the cabin. We were accommodating at first even with the carpet being wet and blowers running to dry it out upon arrival....not exactly a great first impression. Had we only known that was only the beginning of the problems with this stateroom. Anyone considering cruising on the Carnival Vista should be aware this ship has multiple problems associated with the spa so if that's one of the "features" that attracted you to this cruise you will be well beyond disappointed. Along with the sky ride being broken the entire trip, the aroma therapy room also being broken the entire trip body sprayers in Cloud nine were also inoperable. The food and entertainment were great but if you value your sleep,rest and relaxation DO NOT book anything remotely close to cabin 11236. I'm currently awaiting to debark tomorrow and that will truly be the highlight of this trip. See cabin review below Read Less

What went well... 1. We loved the breakfast in the Horizon Restaurant. It was always hot and good variety from skillet pancakes, to french toast to scrambles and much more. We only ate at Lido deck one time for breakfast. 2. The pasta bar at Cucina was Excellent. 3. The servers in the Lido area, main dining room, etc. were phenomenal...always checking to see if you needed anything. Our stateroom steward Ron was excellent, very nice and genuinely asked how our day was going and remembered our names. We were in Room 7451. 4. The shows were GREAT in the Liquid Lounge and we loved the Havana Bar area with live Latin music. This area was open to the public after 7pm for whirlpool, etc. The violinists were great in the main lobby area. 5. We went as a couple with no kids and really liked the Serenity Adults only area on the 15th deck. 6. Embarkation and debarkation was super smooth and the best we've experienced. 7. Kyndall Fire the cruise director was very engaging and hilarious. 8. Pictures are all digital on the ship instead of the huge wall of paper pics that take forever to find. You can also see pictures on your TV in your room, and your balance. 9. Our aft ship state room was very nice and cozy. 10. We loved Roatan and Belize ports of call. We didn't get off the ship in Cozumel - we'd already been there 3-4 times. So we made it a lazy day. 11. Guys Burger Joint...yum.....Lido Deck was OK......nothing spectacular. Main Dining Room food was pretty good overall. 12. We met so many nice people and fellow cruisers and people were genuinely nice to each other..not all, but most. 13. Ship layout can be very confusing but you'll find your way. 14. Comedy shows were hilarious - we had Caroline Picard, Billy D. Washington, William Lee Martin and Dan Chopin and we went to the 18+ shows. Too funny! What was tricky.... 1. Lots of walking the stairs from slow or full elevators. 2. The 24 hour pizza would get crowded fast after dinner was over. They make it fresh so if the line is long, be patient because it's quite yummy. 2. Too many kids in the whirlpools and main pools. It was kinda ridiculous that kids are everywhere..........OMG. We didn't bother to do any main pools just the Serenity adults only whirlpools. 3. The view in the Main show area was bad in some areas due to polls all over the place. Get there early for a good seat but shows were AWESOME> 4. The smoke in the casino was terrible. We had to walk through it to get to the comedy show area and my clothes smelled like smoke. Beware! 5. Elevators were hot most of the time. Be warned. 6. The spa seminar we went to on accupuncture was not a seminar - they asked us to come back at 4:30 and we spoke to DR. Vu who couldn't answer our questions about fertility and asked how do you spell ovary and follicle. WOW. We signed up for a manicure since we got a $50 gift card but we got there and we were asked to come back since they were 'backed up' and were told there was a $7 tip. We just cancelled. What needs improvement.... 1. Carnival needs to be more strict and enforce the 'no reserving seats' policy, especially in the Comedy Club. One girl tried to reserve 10 seats for her family when the doors opened and she was telling people these are taken.....and it was happening during the whole cruise. All people need to do is come together as a group...simple as that. 2. Too many kids............I repeat, too many kids.........some of them ran and stomped at 12am and would push all buttons on the elevator for fun. Our next cruise will be in fall when there behinds are in school. 3. Blue Iguanna was disappointing because they served stale taco shells on one of the days. I didn't go back after that. 4. Not sure if Carnival can monitor this but in Belize, we did the Calypso Train Tour and it was $42 but we got it for $39 after Carnival guest services said it was sold out. The guys in port were selling for $25 but we found out they didn't take people to the train at all but to some non A/C van that almost ran out of gas. Read Less

We booked the cruise for end of summer, we had to stand in line at guest services 4 times the first day, because our cards wouldn't work for purchases or as our room keys! So our first day we stood in line at guest services for over 1.5 hours trying to get keys to work. At supper we were on anytime dining, so we went to dinner in dining room, we were greeted and seated. After 20 minutes, I asked a waiter, who would be taking care of our table? He immediately said I will send someone over shortly. If anytime dining is a problem for the staff, then do away with it! We didn't ask for anytime dining, that's what we were given. If carnival wants the vista to be there flagship, they missed the bar!! They have tried to include everything and left out the basics. An example of this, the casino is on the fourth floor, and there is not a mens restroom. The casino dealer told me the restroom was on 3rd level for the men. Makes no sense. If you have a womens restroom go ahead and spend the money for a mens restroom too. Again Thursday evening we are standing in line at guest services, card is not working again. They have our credit card on file, all charges are to go to the credit card, and guest services said our card is inactive, but she didn't know why? Guest services reactivated our card, and now we can make purchases again. Guest services has been a nightmare!! Supper on Thursday night, I ordered lobster tail which was an additional $20, the waiter brought me 2 lobster tails, I cut into the first one and took a bite. It was like a rubber band, overcooked!! I informed the waiter that it was not good, he kindly took it away, and explained that I would not be charged the $20 for the lobster. I thanked him for not charging me. Generally the table is cleared and then dessert menus are brought, not tonight! My wife was still eating her supper, and here comes the dessert menu. I know this was because I returned the overcooked lobster. Highlight of the cruise for us was the comedy show on Thursday evening and Mr. Sanchos at cozumel. Mr sanchos is not a carnivasl excursion, but is worth every penny. JiJi Chinese restaurant is a great place to eat! Cost like 15 per person, but you get way more food, than you can eat. Unfortunately, we have already booked the vista for December. Hopefully we will have a better experience in December. Read Less

We booked this cruise on the Carnival Vista for several reasons: 1) We wanted a 7-day cruise out of Galveston, 2) we enjoyed the cove balcony on the Breeze so much last year we wanted that again, and 3) we wanted to see Grand Cayman instead of Roatan or Belize like last year. Embarkation went pretty well. We had a 1pm appointment and by the time I got back from parking the car it was just after 1. The boarding area was busy but things moved along and we only had to wait a few minutes to get to our cabin at 1:30. We dropped out carry-ons and headed for a pasta lunch on Deck 11 which was very good. After lunch, we met our room steward and asked for evening cabin service. After dinner, we went to Red Frog and decided to order a couple of beer samplers - Cheers wouldn't be activated until the morning after departure. It seemed like from the menu that we could pick any four beers to sample, but apparently it's a fixed set. Neither of us like IPAs but figured as a sample it'd be ok. However, after we put in our order at the table it seemed like our waiter disappeared. The place wasn't that busy, and it was a simple order, but my wife had to hunt down the bartender to get our order. Not a great start. We had your time dining in the MDR. The waiters on our first two evenings were lackluster and service seemed a bit slower than on the Breeze. The food was a bit off in quality also. Later in the week we found a wait staff we liked (head waiter Muliawan) and ate in his area the rest of the week. Muliawan kept us well supplied with bottled water and drinks for our meals and was very engaging with us and the other tables in his area. Sea Day Brunch - I prefer the old menu and not the new one. However, the 12-hour French toast was good. Bacon was also good, and sausage seemed better than last year. Port day breakfast - Waffles were bland and seemed like they had been made well in advance. Pasta and Asian lunch - Both very good. Guy's Burgers - Good and the line always moved faster than I thought it would Pig and Anchor - Not bad, except the brisket was always dried out. Sausage was the best, pork butt good, chicken just OK. Good coleslaw. Shake Spot - Had a regular and a spiked one here. Very good, probably will pay for at least one next time if I don't get Cheers again. Wife and son said steak and miso soup at the sushi bar was excellent and well worth the money. Lido buffet - Only ate the occasional snack or dessert here. Always way too crowded. It was nice they put cereal off to the side so you could get it without a line. Room service breakfast - Forgot one item which they brought about 10 min later. Breakfast sandwich was awful - I had two bites and couldn't finish it. Biscuit was dry and stale. Drinks - Wife and I decided that they had skimpy amounts of alcohol. I walked out of the MDR twice with my fourth glass of wine in under 90 minutes and had a two-glass buzz. I really wonder if Carnival arranges for "special" beer/wine/liquor to be used for their drinks that is underpowered. Generally good bar service from most. Piano 88 - I don't like the new setup. On the Breeze, you could drop by for a couple of songs, or find a seat depending on how long you wanted to stay. With an enclosed room, it's more of a hassle to come in late or leave early. Our piano player was a bit antagonistic towards the crowd, which put them off of singing along, which also didn't help the atmosphere. Limelight Lounge - some idiot on the Carnival design team approved having eight 3-foot pillars in the middle of the lounge. I'd say maybe 30% of the seats had an unblocked view of the stage. Carnival's half-***ed solution was to put two 60" monitors on either side of the stage. I could watch comedy shows on Netflix in the cabin if I wanted to see comics on TV. Saw 18+ shows from two comics - one was a B, the other a C-. Sky Ride - Busted on the third day, down the rest of the cruise. Probably same design team as for the Limelight. Slides - These were pretty good. We stayed on the ship in Jamaica and no lines at all in the early afternoon. IMAX - Saw "Spider-Man: Far from Home" here at a later showing. About 30 in the theater. Good IMAX experience but not sure it was worth filling in the atrium. Internet - Had the middle tier plan which we shared on our devices. Worked well almost everywhere on the ship. Good speeds for email and Twitter - this was an improvement over the Breeze where the speed was barely enough to support text emails. HUB app - Also worked better than on the Breeze last year. Not sure if it was because of better wifi or an improved app. Promenade (and public spaces in general) - It really sucked that the Havana area blocks the deck aft. Also, there is more "stuff" on Vista's promenade and I think more panels to block the wind. I enjoyed taking a couple laps on the Breeze's promenade in the evening or at night, but it was not at all enjoyable on the Vista. The Vista just seemed more crowded in general. Atrium - The Breeze's glass atrium elevators and full-height atrium gave it a very open feel like a high-rise hotel. The Vista's truncated atrium with the pixelated funnel was not a good substitute. Tenders in Grand Cayman worked very well, only short waits on/off. Similarly quick to walk on/off in Cozumel, but both directions we were not with the big crowds. Debarkation was OK. Once our number was called (14), we kept moving along for the most part. Our checked baggage was waiting for us inside. We were through Customs by 10:30 and on the road by 11. Read Less

This was my 44th Carnival cruise and 68th cruise overall, so I do have lots to compare it to! With all the propulsion problems going on, we expected Carnival to greatly reduce prices to sell out the June 29 cruise that was postponed to July 1 and turned into an 8 day cruise. I monitored prices daily and when it dropped to what I was comfortable paying, we booked. Good thing we did not wait any longer because by the next morning the sailing was closed. We also love the ports of Cozumel and Costa Maya and were very happy with lots of sea days and those 2 Mexican ports. For the first time in years we booked a balcony guarantee and within minutes received our cabin assignment. We were put in 8462, an 8C. I was quite busy taking care of everything we normally do over a period of months in just 4 days. We made our parking reservation at EZ Cruise and this was once again a good decision. We arrived, parked the car only a few spots from the shuttle pick up area, immediately got on a bus, and it departed with only 6 people on the bus. We gave a porter our luggage and walked down to the Priority entrance. We walked right in at around 11:30am and immediately checked in and cleared security with no one ahead of us. We then proceeded upstairs and boarded the ship. We went straight to the cabin where we were met by a nice young steward. Within 5 minutes we had our ice and bathrobes. We unpacked our carry on bags, filled the safe and headed up to the Lido for lunch. We were conveniently located near the aft elevators, so we always used that to access the Lido. The food line back there was rarely busy and there were loads of seats available. After lunch we went down to deck 5 to check on our table location. We were assigned a table for 2 in late dining, but did not like the location as the table was only inches from the next table. Darko, the Maitre D said he had just the table for us and put us at Table 174 in the Reflections dining room. It was a great, very private, table for 2 tucked away in a corner. The first night we had reservations at Cucina del Capitano and because we are gluten free we stopped in to pre-order our first night dinner. It was another excellent GF meal with Nonna's meatalls, Caesar salad, GF chicken Parmesan, a side order of GF pasta and lemon sorbet for dessert. We were surprised that it was not busy at all. Even though we were Diamond, we were refused a reservation for the steakhouse for the first night, and offered the 3rd night instead. We decided to cancel that reservation after meeting our waiter and having such great GF food and service in Reflections from Edi, Larimer and Yulius. We also enjoyed visits from Inna, the hostess from the Ukraine and Darko from Serbia. The first sea day we made sure we went to Brunch in the aft dining room. We had a wonderful waiter, Smitha, from India. She was fabulous. We also ordered our GF meal for that night since we had been in Cucina the night before. Brunch was wonderful as usual. The next 2 mornings at breakfast we were given window tables overlooking the wake, but the service was not nearly as good as we received on that first morning, so for the rest of the breakfasts and brunches we requested to be seated in Smitha's section. She was so friendly and efficient and remembered our preferences to the point where she could predict what we would order. We also received visits every morning from our favorite hostesses Inna from Ukraine, and Mini from India, who remembered us from our January cruise on the Vista. Inna even came to see us the morning she was in charge of the Dr. Seus Breakfast! On the 2nd night, just before second seating, the power went out. It had gone out for about 5 minutes earlier, when I was getting a shower, but came back on quickly. After waiting about 15 minutes for it to go back on we climbed the stairs from deck 3 to deck 8. By the time we arrived at our cabin the aft section had power so our cabin had lights, AC and working toilets. We changed clothes just in case something else happened. They were really good about making announcements to keep the guests calm. The cruise director, John Heald and the Captain took turns making announcements every 10 minutes. Finally, around 9:15 they announced that dinner service was resuming, so we went down to the dining room and had our dinner. Lots of people had changed clothes due to the A/C being out, but they welcomed everyone, even if wearing shorts or jeans on elegant night. We spent a couple of relaxing sea days either on our balcony or by the aft pool enjoying the great weather and calm seas. The sailing was really smooth aided by a sailing speed of between 9 and 13 knots. The day before we were to reach Costa Maya, we had to make a stop off Cozumel to let off a member of the crew who needed to be hospitalized. They originally said our arrival in Costa Maya would be delayed until noon, but we got in a bit earlier than originally scheduled. We booked a day at Costa Maya, so we got right off and walked to the check in point. After a short wait we got in a taxi with 3 other guests and were the first to arrive at Costa Maya. We were greeted warmly by the staff, given a short orientation and shown to our chairs on the beach and offered rum punches and guacamole and chips. Sadly, there was lots of seaweed and the staff worked feverishly to clean it up. I took a walk and found the pool tucked away in the trees and we moved there. The loungers were super comfortable and we were just steps from the bar. Our waiter came and found use there, took new drink orders and brought fresh guacamole. We had a super relaxing morning there. Then, when it was time for lunch we went to the restaurant, filled our plates and returned to our loungers where we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming, sunning and chatting withe fellow guests. They asked what time you wanted to leave and just our scheduled time they came to tell us our taxi was ready. We had the same driver and were quickly back at the pier. It was a delightful day and totally worth every penny. In Cozumel we went to the dentist for our 6 month cleaning and check ups and then headed downtown. It was so sad to see downtown practically deserted, even though there were 5 ships in port. The Museum was closed too. We had lunch at Palmeras, which was tasty, but a little pricey, and then headed back to the ship. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the aft pool enjoying the ship while most were ashore. We had more super calm sea days back to Galveston and arrived in port right on time. I will say the Priority debarkation was a joke They had Platinum, Diamond, FTTF and all the wheelchair people in the Reflections dining room with no separation between groups. The wheelchair people did not get off as they were supposed to when their decks were called. As soon as any wheelchairs were called they all headed for the door and clogged the entry when those who had not been called were sent back. Others, who were in none of the Priority categories entered the dining room through the back entrance and clogged the aisles with their luggage, so that when the cruise director finally came to call the Diamond guests, we had a difficult time getting through. It was our first time ever not having a separate place to wait and not having any pastry, coffee and juice offered. Once we got in the terminal, we got a porter and quickly moved into the immigration line. They had just opened a new line for the porters and we walked right up to the front and were seen by the CBP agent immediately. Because we had not been to Belize or Roatan, the agent just glanced at the passports and did not scan them. We were finished in seconds and on our way to the EZ Cruise shuttle. We put our luggage out the night before and were off the ship, through CBP and in our car by 8:40 and home before 10:00am. We sailed the Vista at the end of January 2019 in a Havana Cabana and came away hating the ship. Yes, we liked the Havana pool, but we detested the constant pounding of the Latin music to the point that we abandoned the Havana pool for the aft pool most days. While our waiter at dinner in January, Pierces, was the highlight of the cruise, the rest of it was so bad that we swore that we would never sail the Vista again. Well, I found I can be bought by a low price. But, I also know that if I sail the Vista again I won't pay the premium for a Havana Cabana. The crew on the Vista this trip was so much better than the crew that was on in January. It was a different Captain, Staff Captain and Hotel Director this time and I think the crew was happier with this management team and it showed. Captain Vittorio Marchi was wonderful as was Staff Captain Nick, who took the time to explain all the problems in detail to my husband at the Diamond event, and Alina the Hotel Director was so sweet. We remembered each other from sailing on the Liberty in 2016 with her. I am not going to rate the entertainment. We have seen the production shows over and over on multiple ships and did not go this time. We did go to 3 comedy shows before dinner and enjoyed them. We also enjoyed listening to the Polaris String Trio every evening before dinner. Read Less

We just got off the Vista on Sunday, and while this is not going to be a comprehensive, day by day review, I’ll give you my thoughts on the Vista, the issues she had, the pros we found with the ship and some of the cons… First of all, this was our first family cruise. In addition to my hubby and me, our daughter, son in law and 10 year old grandson cruised with us- it was the first cruise for SIL and grandson, 3rd for my daughter. We booked to standard balcony cabins on Lido deck, 10236 & 10240. It was our first time on the Lido deck and we all decided we loved the location, especially my GS who was never more than 2 mins from his next soft serve ice cream fix! The cabins were good, not noisy (I was originally concerned that Lido noise might make it that far forward, but it was never an issue). The only problem experienced was with the door slammers- this was by far the worst cruise for people slamming doors constantly! But the good news was, for the first time since we had a balcony, we had zero issues with people smoking on their balconies. We drove to Galveston on Friday with our grandson and stayed in a 2 bed, 2 bath suite at the TownePlace Inn & Suites on Seawall Blvd. Location was great, the suite was perfect as my daughter & son in law drove up Friday night. It includes a basic breakfast which was all we needed before boarding Saturday morning. We had FTTF so we left the hotel about 9:15, dropped our checked luggage at 9:30 and while the rest of us waited in line with the carry-ons, DH & SIL parked at EZCruise (no shuttle option- easy 5 min walk for hubby & SIL). We received the ubiquitous email asking us to delay our arrival by an hour but we disregarded, and check in started around 10:00. We waited in the boarding lounge until around 11:45 when boarding began. Our rooms were ready and our suitcases were already delivered! We dropped our carry-ons off and went to grab some lunch. So for the issues Vista had… for those of you who were not aware, on Jun 12 Carnival notified us that she was having propulsion issues (hmmm- where have I heard that before??) and our ports would be changing from Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel to Mahogany Bay, Costa Maya and Cozumel… 2 new ports for me, so I wasn’t really concerned! While we were waiting for muster, about 2:45 the captain made a mysterious announcement about some changes to our itinerary, and that a letter was being delivered to all pax. If we had questions, they would be meeting everyone in the Limelight Lounge to answer them. I walked down there and got a copy of the letter, which basically said the propulsion issue was worse than they thought, so Mahogany Bay was being dropped, and we were being extended to an 8-day cruise! If people wanted to get off they could get a full refund, but if we stayed onboard for the cruise, we’d get $200 pp OBC, 50% Future Cruise Credit and the 8th day free, including wifi, Cheers and Bottomless Bubbles. The discussion in the lounge was outrageous- all I could hear was people screaming at the Carnival staff about how they hate Carnival, Carnival did this on purpose just to spite them, Carnival owed them! One woman wanted to stay on the ship for the current cruise plus get a 100% refund for it AND a 100% future cruise credit! Entitled much? To us it seemed like a win/win for us and that Carnival was doing their best in a bad situation so we opted to stay on for the cruise. The only concern I had was them waiting so late to make the announcement- 3 PM an hour before planned sailaway- almost everyone was onboard and many, like us, were already unpacked and ready to start our cruise! They gave everyone til 6 PM to decide if they wanted to get off. We had muster at 5:15 and we sailed around 7:30. Our speed the entire week was not an issue- we were able to make all our planned stops on time and the boat was as smooth as ever due to the slower speed. Another plus- Carnival worked with all the Galveston parking locations so we didn’t get charged for the extra day. Some Pros about the cruise: Our cabin steward, Anjana (said to call her Ana, I was the only person who knew how to pronounce her name properly!) was amazing! She managed both our cabins, with people taking naps, coming back & forth and not giving her any opportunity to establish any flow, yet she handled it like a champ! She offered us both times a day for service but went on to say, if it was a problem, she’d do whichever we wanted, if we didn’t want the intrusion. We opted for twice a day but made it clear that all we expected in the evenings was fresh ice. FTTF- worked very well for us this trip. Early check in, early access to cabins, priority line at Guest Services were all really beneficial. The checkin process was messed up because the previous cruise went to Belize and that always causes delays with CBP and Customs on their return (hence the request to delay arrival at the port by an hour) but we didn’t find that to be an issue, until all the priority boarders were in the lounge and they started allowing the staggered check in time groups to check in- with about 1500 passengers left to disembark, the port computers went down and they had to stop disembarkation as well as check in. Those with a later check in time were stuck waiting longer outside than the earlier folks because of this. This caused about an hour’s delay in boarding. Lido Buffet- it had some really pleasant surprises! The new cakes are in fact as delicious as everyone has claimed, HOWEVER they are only served in one spot in the buffet (the furthest aft Sweet Spot) and ONLY at lunchtime. At the other Sweet Spot closer to the front they had 2 flavors of gelato every day. OMG!!!! It was the best! I thought several of the items from the new Deli menu were pretty good (the wraps, the buffalo chicken sandwich) but my favorite, the Reuben missed the mark just a bit- instead of pressing it as Reubens normally are, they just toasted it, like they do at Subways… I found it made the bread hard and prone to cracking, so the sandwich fell apart. But it was still tasty! Bonsai Sushi was outstanding! I’ve been on a keto diet for 4 months so sushi has been off my list but I spoiled myself on the cruise and loved the food from this place! Another pro, not specifically about Vista but Carnival in general, was how they handled the whole Vista propulsion issue… other than notifying us too late, they made the tough decision to modify the next 2 cruises (departing June 23 & Jul 1) to be exactly like ours- same ports, same duration (8 days) and then CANCEL the next few cruises and take the ship out of commission and get her repaired in Freeport. Too often in the past they’ve allowed the sick dog to limp along for too long before making that call. I know a lot of people were probably pretty disappointed to miss their cruise, but hey- Carnival provided a 100% refund PLUS a 100% future cruise credit to those on the cruises that were canceled! Plus they are allowing a certain amount toward changed flights etc. Oh, another thing- often if you get an extra day that you didn’t pay for, it won’t count towards your VIFP points… not this time! They’re giving everyone credit for the full 8 days, even though we only paid for 7! Unlike some previous cruisers, I didn’t find Vista crowded at all. Food venues, shops, getting off in ports- it didn’t seem any worse than other smaller ships I’ve cruised on- in fact, in some cases it seemed a lot better! Now for some Cons: Matt Mitcham was off the week of our cruise and was replaced by Cookie Adams. Some of the early reports were that people really liked him. Don’t count me in that group! He was fatuous, dismissive and completely disorganized this whole cruise, IMHO! He made a point of calling out during the 80’s party about how he was the # 1 Carnival Cruise Director… the day after Matt Mitcham was named the CD of the Mardi Gras! Really, Cookie? Food- MDR- staff was kind of mixed- surly and inattentive, happy and very helpful. And the food, which I’m normally a big cheerleader for, was just, meh… a lot of it was cold, and had obviously been sitting quite a while. I’m normally the person who eats in the MDR every chance I get but this cruise we only ate there once for the Sea Day Brunch and three times for dinner. Camp Ocean- for the 9-11 year olds, it was pitiful how few activities they had planned for this age group. It seemed those younger and older were given a lot more attention and things to do. Mostly video games and even they were not really age-appropriate (too young). Another frustrating thing was that none of their activities are listed in the Fun Hub activities list, which would have been really helpful. Liquid Lounge- I have to agree with everyone’s assessment of this location- what was Carnival thinking? If you’re not one of the first folks in the lounge forget about being able to see anything half decently. We only went to one show because of this. I must say though that we really enjoyed Studio VIP and I would have liked to see some of the others that I hadn’t seen before. Disembarkation- As I mentioned we had FTTF. They told us to be in the Liquid Lounge by 7:45 with all our luggage. We were there by 7:20 but it was pure chaos. They had people putting their luggage in the middle section, supposedly in rows and at 7:40 started calling people by rows of luggage to debark the ship. But those who showed up last just walked off the ship well before us! And it was really slow! Normally we’re off the ship and in our car before 8, but this time we didn’t leave the parking lot til after 8:30! I can only imagine how long it took the rest of the folks to get off the ship! All in all, if I had to weigh the good with the bad, it was still a great cruise, because I didn’t have to cook, or clean and I got to spend time with my family. And nothing bad enough happened to prevent me from sailing on Vista again, just not right now! We came home to an offer to jump right back onboard for Jul 1 with a bunch of OBC and FCCs, but we decided no, we were good for now. But the day after I got home, I did book a Premier Aft Wrap balcony on Freedom for Thanksgiving next year, using the future cruise credits they gave me! So that’s my family cruise… it was over 18 months in coming, and it felt like it was gone before I knew it. But I still love cruising best of all! Read Less

This was my first cruise with my 11 year old daughter. We planned for months and were excited to spend minimal time on the ship and go to our planned stops- Jamaica, Cayman and Cozumel. Carnival announced 4 days before the cruise that the ship was having mechanical issues and could not get to Jamaica but was being redirected. After an initial disappointment, we sucked it up and chose new itineraries in the new places we were going. Everything was planned for months, time off work and airfare purchased. We left AZ at 3 am and got to the ship on time. Onboarding was easy, but once we got on board we were told of another itinerary change- we were only going to TWO stops in Mexico and staying on the ship an extra day. We could have gotten off the ship for a full refund, but having traveled with a child who would be more disappointed that the entire vacation was called off was not an option. I spent a fair amount of time on board trying to change excursions, waiting in line to talk to guest services and had to buy service to call the airlines and change my flights, which were non refundable. I dropped an extra $800 for one way tickets back to AZ since the cruise was extended the extra day. I emailed Carnival (since I never actually got to talk to guest services because of the wait time) and was told that mechanical issues were out of their control. The excursions we booked were canceled at the last minute because of the rough seas- and we couldn't get anything else because they were sold out, due to the itinerary change. While Carnival offered 50% off the next cruise, I am wondering why they think I would remotely want to cruise again based on this terrible first experience? The only saving grace on the ship was the staff. They were great and we had fun watching the shows. But after 4 days sailing, we were a bit stir crazy, and our first excursion was sitting on some less than wonderful Mexican beach. I didn't book a cruise to sit on a ship for an extended period of time- I booked as a means to get to exotic locals and have some adventure. Adventure it was not, and mechanical issues are certainly within the control of a company that manages ships. Departure was fine for us but we were also one of the first called off the ship. The room was fine, food was fine, but the hassle pretty much ruined the only vacation we have taken in three years. If I wanted to sit on a beach in Mexico I would have rented a house and driven there. Carnival is assisting with the airline ticket payments but overall, it was not worth the frustration or hassle, as we didn't get to do much of anything that was planned. They gave on board credit which I used for a massage to try and destress from it all. Read Less

We had not sailed on this class of ship before nor been on this itinerary so we were very excited. Embarkation was a breeze. Our boarding window was 12 - 12:30 PM. We walked up at 12:01 and were on the ship within 15 minutes. Debarkation was the opposite, however. It took us 6 hours to get from state room to the sidewalk. We were given a few explanations but the most common one was that CBP computers went down. This was not Carnival's fault but certainly was not pleasant. We really enjoyed this ship. I've seen reviews of horrible lines and poor service and we didn't experience any of that. Our room steward was excellent and we had no complaints whatsoever. Lines for things like Lido buffet and pizza were longer at peak times but that is to be expected. And they moved quickly, in my opinion. We showed up 10 minutes early to shows and activities and had no issues finding seats/participating. I agree that some seats in the Liquid Lounge are poor because of the pillars that block the view. We used the Hub app to check into Any Time Dining for dinner and never waited more than 15 minutes for a table. The food quality was excellent. Two fish dishes were slightly bland but that's the worst I can say about the MDR! Lido options were usually very good. I did note that most of the cakes seemed to be the same on the inside with a flavored frosting/decoration on the outside. Chocolate cakes were the exception and very good. Pizza and Guy's burgers were excellent. My son enjoyed Camp Ocean and the arcade as well as the America Rocks show and IMAX 3D movies. Our ports were Cozumel, Belize City, and Roatan. We did a beach day on our own in Cozumel but used Carnival excursions for the others. The water shuttle process in Belize was easy and we loved Mahogany Bay in Roatan. Read Less

I am a frequent cruiser and have cruised RCCL, NCL, Disney, Celebrity, and Carnival all in the past. I find that Carnival has the best deck parties and just seems more fun in general. However, this ship deserves the poor reviews. The Pro's: Great Deck parties Stage Show Flick Sports Square and all it entails like Sky Ride and Ropes Course The Thrill and Imax theaters Guys Burgers, the Lido Deli The Con's: Horrible Dining Room Experience- I was unable to eat any of the meat dishes I was served. We had one waiter for our table for 12. The service was extremely slow. Drinks were hard to get, and even harder to get a refill. Cabin Steward: I only asked to have ice delivered twice/day and service in the evening. I repeatedly had to request ice, and my beach towels weren't replaced. I had to find him and ask about it and he said he ran out of towels before he got to my room. WHAT??? We also didn't receive any debarkation information. We got it from other family members. Elevators: SUPER SUPER SLOW. I took the stairs. Liquid Lounge: Seating was awful, as others have stated. Punchliner Comedy Club: Not enought seating. If you arrived 30 minutes early, you still may be standing. Debarkation: Total nightmare. Took us about 1 1/2 hours. I read that it took others up to 6 hours. We had Faster to the Fun. We actually had a fun vacation, and I will probably cruise Carnival again in the future. However, I had a Panorama cruise booked for next June and I cancelled it this morning. I don't want to sail on a ship that is a sister to the Vista. I really didn't like the layout or the closed in feeling of it. If the shows and the dining room experience are important to you, I wouldn't recommend this ship. Read Less

This was our third Carnival Cruise in the past 5 years, all of which left from Galveston. This was our first cruise more than 5 nights. We chose this cruise because it fit a very specific time table in June of 2019. We're from Texas and have visited Galveston before but not this time. I'd recommend spending some time in Galveston if it's your first time, there's plenty of history, food, and fun nightlife places to enjoy. We had pre-booked parking at EZ Cruise Parking, ($80) and we had no problem embarking within our window. My wife and I were very happy about our room. It was an interior room but had a "walkway" view at the very front of the ship on the Lido deck, so we did have a window which had a great forward view. We went to the show on the first night which was a kind of preview of the shows for the rest of the cruise and we were hooked. We saw every show and they were all very good. The Cloud 9 Spa and exercise rooms were fantastic, especially the "Thermal Rooms" packages which we purchased for the entire cruise. We went almost every day, enjoying the mineral tub, eucalyptus steam rooms and saunas. The food was very good, but not as good as I expected. I just thought the other cruises we'd been on the food was better, especially the breakfasts, and specialty dining rooms. We only went to the dining room once for breakfast and it wasn't good, so we stuck with the buffet the rest of the cruise and it was a bit plain. The dining rooms were much better at night, our favorite meals of the cruise were in the "Dine Anytime" or Horizons Dining room. We did spend extra on the steakhouse and the "Captains Italian" restaurant, both were disappointing base on what we had done before. Guy Fieri's Burger Joint was fantastic, and so was the Pizzeria. The IMAX was an interesting feature and we took advantage of a showing of "Dark Phoenix", it was a very enjoyable experience. We spent a lot of time on the Serenity Deck (21+) and we highly recommend the salad bar there, the hot tubs up there were just the right temperature too. We only did one excursion, in Belize we did the "jungle buggy, zip line, cave tubing and lunch" excursion and it was worth it. We saw many reviews complaining about bus times, wait times, etc. and we didn't mind it at all. In fact our guide was so good the bus trip to the excursion went by without much notice. (FYI, go to the bathroom before you get on any bus or tender) In Roatan, Honduras, we hung out at the "free" beach for most of the day and it was great, especially for those of us who can't do more than one day at a time on a beach. Plenty of good drinks and places to relax, I'd recommend renting a clam shell shade for the day. Matt the Cruise Director was the best / funniest we've seen. The ship is huge, I wish I would have had more time to explore it all. We would definitely recommend the Carnival Vista and I'd like to visit Belize again, I'm a bit done with Cozumel, lol. Finally, getting off the ship was a nightmare, all kinds of issues with the computers at Customs. The kick you out of your room at 8:45, we didn't get to head to the gangway until after noon, then stood in line at customs for an hour and a half. I know it wasn't Carnival's fault, but they didn't or weren't willing to make things easier for us. Read Less

This cruise was a family cruise with 2 grandparents, two toddlers, 1 teen, and 9 adults on the Carnival Vista sailing out of Galveston, TX to Cozumel, Belize and Mahogany Bay. This was my 7th cruise and 5th with Carnival so I am getting to the point of knowing what to expect when cruising and I'll share my thoughts on this one. EMBARKATION This was the first time in 7 cruises that I felt like I basically showed up and walked right on the ship. I wanted the Faster to the Fun when I first booked the cruise, but it was sold out which was a good thing because it wasn't needed. We had a 12:30 - 1:00 check-in window and were in our rooms by 1. TIP: Bring a backpack to carry on your wine, (soda) pop and the things you might need before you can get to your room and luggage. Check everything else in with the porter so you don't have to drag it on the ship. SHIP We chose the Vista because it was one of the newer bigger ships and we like to try different ships. I felt the Vista was very clean, the decor (for Carnival) was nice and there was tons to do onboard. If you are the type that likes to just stay on the ship from start to finish, I don't think you could ever be bored and not find something to do everyday. The biggest perks on this ship for our family were the waterpark and slides, Skyride, Rope course and the hot tubs which I felt were never crowded. We also did the Thrill Theatre which was fun for a one time try. One of the biggest complaints I've read about this ship were the missing glass elevators. I didn't feel it was ever crowded enough on the ship to miss them. Wait times were busy during high peak hours, but we just used the stairs in those cases. TIP: Enjoy all of the aboard activities during non-peak times when possible. If there is a port you are staying on the ship or a big event happening you are not interested in, then go take advantage of the pools, slides, rides, mini golf etc.. We didn't get off the ship at Mahogany Bay until mid afternoon and had a great time in the pools. CABIN We all had balcony cabin on the Lido deck (10) and I can't see ever booking a cruise without those cabins. You are right there were everything is happening - food, activities, bars, movie theatre and more. Our cabin was nice. Wasn't noisy aside from the balcony door slamming occasionally. The stateroom attendant always kept our ice filled, cleaned our room twice a day and asked if we needed anything from time to time. FOOD & DINING We didn't use the buffet's for any food, because we didn't need to as there were so many other options. We did get deserts from the buffet area and really like the Gelato ice cream. Favorites were Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana Cantina (great tacos) Pizzeria, Deli and a few others. Never stood in line for anything more than a couple of minutes tops other than for the pizza that still wasn't that long. We had early dining and had a great wait staff. I am not a picky eater and love to try different things and found there was a very good selection of food. Love the "Ports of Call" selections. However, I do feel like the dining room food was not as good as our previous Carnival cruises. Tasty, maybe just not as flavorful as past sailings. TIP: If you never been on a cruise or just didn't know, you can order as many things as you like at the dining room. Didn't like your spare ribs? Order something else off the menu. You can also get hidden items like the Banana Split if you ask the waiter. Also if you are not a fan of the sauces or spices they put on then ask to have your meal served plain and then have them bring you a particular condiment you like. ENTERTAINMENT We did a couple of the comedy club shows and they were funny. Trivia is always a family favorite and we finally got to bring home a Ship on a Stick trophy. Movies Under the Stars is always a great way to relax for us. We didn't do the shows at the main theatre, but heard they were good. Cruise Director Matt is the best in the business. Always had us laughing and threw a great deck party. TIP: If you want to take advantage of the onboard entertainment get the whole group there early to get good seats. Saving seats is frowned upon and should be. There is nothing worse than getting to a show early and finding one person has ten seats saved. DRINKS We are not big drinkers, except on cruises. This was the first cruise where we decided to try the Cheers program. Worth the money if you take advantage of all they have to offer - milkshakes, specialty coffees, (soda) pop, and 15 a day in alcoholic drinks. I felt like there were plenty of opportunities to get your money's worth without having to try and get to your drink limit. TIP: For the Cheers program, always ask for premium liquor in any of your cocktails. Since you cannot use your drink package on the first day of the cruise leaving the Galveston port, bring on your own bottle of wine to have the first night. Don't plan on drinking much on a particular day? Get a couple shots and put them in your rooms mini fridge for when you do. PORTS AND EXCURSIONS Cozumel - This was some of our family's fourth time at this port and always a favorite. Plenty to do on this island without buying an expensive excursion. We decided to take a taxi to Sky Reef and had a lot of fun. It was less than $200 for 7 of us to snorkel, have a drink, get a backrub, taste some tequila and enjoy the area. TIP: Do some research and you will find plenty of things to do at Cozumel fairly cheap with just a taxi ride to them. Belize - We did buy an excursion for this one as we felt it was safer to do. We did the Cave tubing with lunch and it didn't disappoint. The bus ride was long to and from the place but our guide did a great job of keeping us entertained - Yeah Man! Cave tubing was fun and interesting. Lunch was tasty and I recommend getting the Cashew wine for the trip back. TIP: Bring water shoes and some cash for the gift shop. If you have health issues, keep in mind that there is a little bit of a trek through the rain forest including walking up some wooden stairs all the while carrying your tub. Grandparents had a little bit of a struggle keeping up with the group. Mahogany Bay - This was your basic beach port with amenities. Nothing fantastic, but we had a relaxing time. It's nice to have a port where you can get off the ship, stretch your legs and not have to pay for anything. TIP: No need to bring snorkel gear to this place. Really nothing of worth to see here. DISEMBARKATION Worst part of the cruise in my opinion. Carnival is not totally to blame, but things could have been done better. I didn't care for the way they provided the information for the disembarkation process the night before getting off the ship. Didn't hear the announcement or see that they had a stand for the tags so we ended up not getting any luggage tags and had to carry off all of our luggage. Oh well, lessons for next time. Due to customs issues there was a super long wait to get people off the ship as well as having to stand in a long line to get through customs. If you are carrying all of your luggage, have toddlers and senior citizens, standing in a long line for over an hour can test your nerves. TIP: Don't be in a hurry to get off the ship. Go enjoy a nice breakfast at the dining room. Kick back and relax in your cabin until you have to get out and then go find a nice place to sit until they call your deck to leave. Also, find out the disembarkation process the day before leaving if you want luggage tags. VISTA EXPERIENCE The whole family loved this ship and had a great time. There was plenty to do for all ages and never felt we didn't get our money's worth. For a big ship with lots of people nothing was ever crowded, and did about everything we wanted to do onboard. Other than disembarkation, we never had any problems with the whole process from booking to being on the cruise. FINAL TIPS: First time cruisers do plenty of research. Watch videos, read reviews and find out what you can before you go. This will help you have a better time while onboard. Watch the Cruise TV in your cabin to see what's going on and read your Fun Times. Have a waterproof watch on so you know what time it is and allow you to be early to the activities and entertainment. Relax, have a good time and remember that you are not a work, you don't have to cook, clean or make your bed. Happy Cruising! Read Less

When we first entered the atrium, it was just like someone’s extra large living room with extra number of chairs and a bar. The decor is simplistic and lack of the grandeur ambience other carnival cruises we have been on(total four carnival cruises so far). This actually goes for the whole cruise ship. A lot of activity and small areas for sitting with nice chairs but the whole design of the ship feels claustrophobic. Buffets have very limited options and it was disappointing because buffet is one of the things we enjoy on cruises. Guy’s burger used to be available until midnight on other ships but stops service at 6pm today (not sure if it is the same hours everyday). Not sure if this is a way to get people go to fee based restaurants which there are four or five. We enjoyed JI JI Asian fusion restaurants and went twice. Formal dining is not at par with other carnival cruises either. There is IMAX and thrill rides which is nice if you are willing to pay for it. There are more photos purchase options like downloading on your phone , USB or prints but the problem is the photos are displayed digitally instead of prints and the digital prints have carnival logos all over and I ended up ordering photo in which my face is twisted but that specific detail is blocked . We booked two excursions and despite of the high price we did not even get a bottle of water for drink. I would be careful to go with carnival and read reviews first before I take carnival cruise again. Read Less

I sailed on the Vista with my husband and two teenagers. We had such an amazing time. Even though the ship was full you could still find a quiet place to read or just enjoy the view. My husband has food allergies and the staff in the main dining room was very accomodating, making sure his food was prepared properly. We had your time dining. I wasn't sure if we would like that but we ended up loving the flexibility of it and the ability of check in via the Hub app. And we never waited more than 10 minutes for a table. We enjoyed several of the comedians and the Playlist productions. Our kids loved the Club O2 and made several friends. The Cruise Director, Matt, was amazing and kept things fun. We also loved the Polaris trio that played in the atrium. We had balcony cabin 8382 and loved the location. It was convenient to the Lido deck as well as the main dining room, the Limelight Lounge, and Liquid Lounge. I would definitely sail on the Vista again! Read Less

This was our first time on the Vista, our 19th to date. We have only cruised CCL and this was 14th different ship. We were not impressed with a few things that might be okay for others, we are mature but young at heart and enjoy most activities on board. The biggest disappointment was the atrium in main lobby what a shock no more glass elevators lowered ceiling, sure vortex was cute but lobby was not the same. It seemed the designers tried to cram as many areas as they possibly on ship . Huge mistake as while on board I heard this from many veteran cruisers. Who ever designed the elevator system should rethink this design as it was the worst we have ever experienced. CD Matt was great but trying to relax at the pool in the morning and have the morning show blast us out volume wise should be addressed, have a crew member monitor when they start to make sure we are not blasted with it. The show it self was fine and informative. Lido food court seemed to be very warm most of the time and yes I understand with that many people it will get warm.. once again a crew member to check periodically.. All restaurants BI,RFP, were always quick and fresh. Steak house we waited over an hour to have main course brought to us. We were at 5:30 seating 3rd in line to be seated the second table ate and left before we got our main course. we always do SH and always excellent, But when ast. mgr. explained it was what we ordered I just had to put this in. They did comp us a dinner two nights later at 8:45 anyway in closing the Vista is not for us. we prefer smaller ships . Cruise on :) Read Less