Carnival is an inexpensive cruise line compared but the dining experience was poor We sailed on the Celebrity Silhouette two year. ago and had excellent food. I met the chef and all but kissed his spatula. We sailed on the Carnival Vista last year and the only decent place to eat was Guy's burger joint. We won't be going back to Carnival.We were on the RCCL Allure five years ago and it was good. But it seems that the overall quality of dining room food is going down especially on Carnival.Carnival cuisine used to be OK but not the last couple of times we have sailed. The dining room service was good but due to congestion there were a lot of minor accidents. The cabin service was good and was never late. The room service menu seemed limited compared to past cruises even compared to other Carnival cruises we have taken but it was delivered fairly promptly. Guys burgers and the Bar B Q was the best food on the ship I wish I could have eat there every meal. The entertainment was good . The rock and Roll show was entertaining to a boomer like my self. The Carnival shows are among the best I have seen The only reason I can see to sail on Carnival is the low price, but I only get so much time off and it is not worth spending it on an inferior cruise, We sail next on the RCCL Brilliance and hope it is a good experience Read Less

The dining room dinners were standard cafeteria dinners. Nothing was served hot. In order to have a excellent meal, make reservations at the Steak House or JiJi’s before your cruise. The sushi bar is also good. It will cost extra, but at least you will get a couple of good meals. The dining teams everywhere were really good at working with you if you have food allergies. The service was good everywhere. The crew worked their tails off keeping the ship clean all of the time. We loved our Room Steward. He did a great job of keeping our stateroom in tip-top shape. If you book a shore excursion, make sure it’s not overbooked before you go. My family went on the catamaran excursion, and there were not enough seats or life jackets for everyone on board. Our favorite ports were Curaçao and Aruba. La Romana didn’t have much, and we were warned of high-crime areas. Read Less

Warning, this is a long review! If you want the "Cliffnote" version, yes it was amazing and, I most certainly recommend it! My wife and I booked this cruise as a "get-away" vacation, and it did not disappoint. The new Vista class from Carnival has plenty of options for all ages to enjoy every moment of vacation. The food in the main dining room, 6PM early dining, was delicious and served hot every night, and the new dining options add even more to the overall experience. Guy's Burgers was by far our favorite venue, but other options like the Blue Iguana Cantina, Cucina del Capitano, and the Lido Marketplace we're all amazing as well. The buffet on this ship has many more intriguing options throughout the cruise than previous cruises had; I would recommend giving it a shot before passing it off as your standard buffet menu. Another exciting addition was the Shake Spot adjacent to the Ocean Plaza. Milkshakes and coffee delights while playing trivia and other assorted games, yes please! As far as activities go, there is plenty for all ages to get involved! For the more adventurous, you have the Skyride and Skycourse to test your limits on the high seas. Right below those two attractions is the Sportsquare; you'll find bean bag toss (Cornhole for Southerners like myself), multiple foosball tables, pool tables, ping pong (table tennis if you want to be fancy about it) galore, and a great mini golf course. There's also the Club area of the Sportsquare that contains bowling (paid game), more ping pong, and Skybilliards- billiards with small soccer balls! There's also the aforementioned trivia, fun-squad lead Hasbro games, Bingo, and an IMAX theater and 4-D Thrill Theater for those days when you might have had more than enough sun. All of the crew members we encountered were pleasant and cheerful as always, including our stateroom attendant and dining room servers. Our only complaints, yes there were a couple, are of the lack of smoking signs and the entertainment shows. For the smoking situation, there were not many (I didn't even see one) visual indicators of smoking areas. I don't like smoke, but I especially don't like breathing smoke in when relaxing in a hot tub, beating my wife at ping pong, etc. I would be even more upset with this if my wife and I had children on board inhaling the smoke. I also noticed a couple passengers moving ash trays to different seating areas, and I feel that this should be more strongly enforced. Now for the entertainment...I've alwaysoved the shows on cruises, even though I was harshly skeptical prior to my wife convincing me to attend one. This cruise, I feel that the focus was more on technical aspects and visual effects rather than the actual show. The dancers were incredible as always, but the vocalists weren't the best suited for the chosen shows either. The ports of call were incredible! I had only been on Western Caribbean itineraries prior to this trip, and was thrilled with every port of call. Grand Turk has pristine beaches, great snorkeling, and a Margaritaville to top it off! La Romana has deep forrests filled with amazing scenery and animals, Curacao has a gorgeous downtown area with a floating bridge (don't be worried if you're on it when it opens for a ship, just watch for others' facial expression of the surprise movement), and Aruba has beautiful waters and natural pools to spend the day. All in all, I strongly recommend the Carnival Vista, and the 8 day Southern Caribbean itineraries. Read Less

Where do I begin. We had a wonderful cruise. The cruise director, Matt, is the best I have seen. He motivates people to have fun and seems like a genuinely nice guy. There were so many deck parties, dances, etc. which made this ship the most fun we have been on. However, not everyone was in fun mood. There needs to be a better way to reserve deck chairs. We were almost in fights over lack of chairs. Everyone wants to hang around Lido deck but there aren't as many chairs. There are chairs all over this ship on different levels empty because everyone crowds to lido. Speaking of levels, this ships has a layout that I never could get used to. It seems everything is in the middle of ship on different levels. Around day 7 I finally had some idea where things were. Even though this ship is biggest, it seemed smaller than other ships. A lot more closed in areas. I think they crammed so many things into this ship, it takes away from openness. The ship was hot in many areas. Toilets were overflowing in public bathrooms, the elevators were too slow, thankfully we were on deck one and didn't have far for dinner. Dinner was disappointing. Not enough staff, took way too long. Food was good, our waiter good, but they needed help. No time to talk much or entertain. The buffet was very good on this ship. We are there most of the time. We didn't do anything that required extra cost. The entertainment was outstanding (piano bar, violins, America Rocks show, comedians). The kids club seemed great for kids. The ports were beautiful. We will probably not sail on Vista again but a smaller ship. Read Less

We chose the Vista because it is the newest and largest ship to this point in the carnival fleet. We assumed the ship would be better than previous cruises and we are not hard to please. First it has the most difficult public restrooms to find. I have been on smaller Carnival ships and the restrooms were always very easy to find. The Lido buffet is the worst one I have ever seen on a cruise ship. The other food options were good but not great. I really believe Carnival is lowering the quality of the all inclusive food options to make you want to pay for the Steakhouse, seafood shack, etcetera. The entertainers tried really hard but they just didn't have the voices or dance skills to pull it off. I will give them a pass because I was on a cruise and not expecting a broadway cast. The rooms were very clean and our room attendant was excellent and very friendly. The only issue with the rooms is that you would think by now they would have more electric outlets to plug in your electronic devices. The service in the MDR was excellent and we thought the food was good but once again not as good as other cruises. The swimming pools were very small for a ship this size and always very crowded. We had to wait forever for the elevators so we just took the stairs all the time and I found out just how out of shape I am LOL!! I have not given up on Carnival but I won't be going back on the Vista again. Read Less

Great vacation, loved the ship. We traveled with a group of 24 and from working with group reservations to getting on the ship everything was seamless. I like the new system for getting on the ship and receiving your keys in your mail slot at your room. They have really streamlined and gotten rid of the lines. This is our 8th cruise on Carnival and they didn’t disappoint. They have scaled down on their staff but I’m on vacation and not in a hurry to go anywhere. We did wait slightly longer to get our dinner, the wait staff have more tables to cover than when we first started cruising and our room steward has more rooms to clean. As long as you understand how hard these people are working for you it shouldn’t stress you out waiting a few extra minutes. We ate at Ji Ji’s And the Italian restaurant $15 per person, both restaurants were excellent. The only restaurant I didn’t like was the Mexican restaurant and the Seafood shack. Read Less

All of the buffet food offered in the lido dining room was horrible. The quality of the food offered in the main dining room was pathetic!! I had to pay separately to eat at the seafood shack or steak house because it was the only food I could tolerate. You could tell after the first bite that carnival was not focused on taste or quality only on pumping out lg amounts of slop to satisfy the masses. Also, I paid top dollar for a soe balcony that is advertised to have all spa amenities included!! What a joke, the spa pool and heated chairs were always full and I wasn't able to spend a single moment enjoying any of it. Not to mention the Elwin's toiletries that are said to be provided daily were only delivered 3 xs on an 8 day cruise.( shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion and bar soap). I asked my room stewards 3 times for it and she said I'm sorry ma'am, I don't have enough!!! Then the adults only serenity spa area was so full every day by people who get up at 4am and put their towels in all the chair until midnight even though they weren't even sitting in the chair it blocked all other guest from having a chance to relax!! The play list production performers sounded like dying screaming donkeys and the comedian was a giant flop!!!The only thing great about the entire cruise was our shore excursions.. I have sailed with carnival for 9 cruises and this was my final straw!! I will pay the extra money for royal carribean because carnivals quality , customer service and entertainment has disappointed me for the last time!! Complete trash , a total waste of my money and time!! Read Less

Just got back from an 8 day southern cruise on Vista 05-27. We had a blast! I read so many reviews prior to boarding that I felt it only right to share one of my own. My husband and I are in mid 50's with mid 30's attitude:) We stayed at the Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon the night before. They have a great deal that includes, lodging, parking while on the cruise and shuttle to the port. Embarkation was really easy. We arrived early for our scheduled time and were told to go in the early/late line instead of the appointment line. However, it didn't hold us up really. We arrived at the port at 11:30 in the pouring rain and was on the ship by 12:30. We had your time dining for the first time and LOVED it. It was so very nice to be able to go to dinner whenever we were ready. We went all different times. From the first night we were seated in James' section. He was a great guy! His service was fantastic and he always had a smile on his face, or was dancing or singing! We requested his section and each night were sat there. All the food in the dining room was good, no complaints. We had lunch at Guy's BBQ- wonderful!, Guys Burgers- Great, and the Blue Iguana- my favorite! We did not see the big deal in checking in on Deck 5 and then going to Deck 3 for dinner. We never stood in line more than 5 minutes and most nights there was maybe 1-2 people in front of us. As far as the buffet goes, both my husband and myself didn't really care for the selection at lunch/dinner. I found the cakes, as pretty as they were to really not have any taste,surprised me. They all pretty much tasted the same to me. With my research I was really looking forward to Matt being our cruise director. I was a little disappointed when I read that Emma Nixon was the CD for the trip. But my disappointed was short lived. Emma literally made this cruise! She is the sweetest, funniest, most energetic girl I have seen in a long time. I loved her costumes and her interaction with all the guest. She was simply wonderful! We LOVED the comedians, the fact that they have so many different ones during the same cruise was a surprise. We enjoyed both the PG and 18+ shows. The seating wasn't the best in some places but if you knew that, as we did, we always went early. Same goes with the Liquid Lounge. We watched the Lip Sync Battle and that too was really good. The 2 cruisers chosen to participate were great sports and did an awesome job! We did try out ping pong, putt putt, the water slides and Serenity Deck. We did not go to IMAX because they were not playing anything I was interested in seeing. The ports - Grand Turk was beautiful. We booked a snorkeling trip though and were pretty disappointed. Saw very few fish. La Romana- Did a dune buggy ride that was really fun. My husband tried really hard to scare me and he succeeded! We drove to a sugar cane farm and then through all kinds of roads. Some of the kids hold their hands out for a high 5. Although we really enjoyed the ride, there wasn't really any scenery to speak of. Curacao- very pretty, tried snorkeling again to no avail. The waters were really really rough. Had a really hard time even getting out to where we were supposed to snorkel but then didn't see anything. There was a sunken boat as they said but the water was so rough you could barely see it. We then relaxed at the resort area which was good. We walked to the floating bridge and took pictures. Aruba- by far our favorite! Gorgeous blue teal, green waters. We rode jeeps along the coastline and it was great! Very rocky and dusty but it is what we signed up for. The views were breathtaking. I would say that this would be the port that most people that haven't cruised maybe think all ports are like. On disembark day we had some weather issues so were not allowed to leave the boat until about 11:45. I know the guests waiting to board were very excited to see u leave! Overall it was a fantastic cruise I would do again in a heartbeat. If I had to mention any cons- the pools are super small and unfortunately have a kind of sunscreen scum that forms by mid day. However the guy at the pool is constantly trying to sweep it out. The Serenity Deck is right next to the water slides LOL not very serene. Also we signed up for the Behind the Fun tour as soon as we got on the ship. We did go to the galley, the storage room, the engine room, the laundry, and the bridge. We thought it would be more of a look at the ship while at work, but it was more of a tour through these areas that were cleaned and polished for show. Thought the tickets were expensive for what you get. Other than that we had a perfect time! Read Less

We chose this cruise because it was going to Aruba & Curacao, two islands we haven't been to. We wanted to make it a special cruise on a special ship. We started our adventure by flying in a day early and landing in Fort Lauderdale. Then we took a bus to the train station and rode the train to the Miami airport, then called our hotel and were picked up by their shuttle, all in all it took three hours from getting off our plane to get to the hotel. Just part of the adventure. We were taken to the ship by the hotel run shuttle, gave our bags to the porter and off again to check in, quite quickly if I might add. When we boarded the ship our room was ready we dropped off our carry on's and went in the search of food. We chose Guy's Burger, Yum. The ship is very impressive with the exception of the chairs in the Liquid Lounge. We did during our cruise check out everything on our check list. We did enjoy the SkyRide (twice) the water slides and Sky Course. The Serenity Deck was always full with no place to sit. We did enjoy the MDR but passed twice due to the meals not being of our liking. The Dive in movies were good but always started when we were at dinner, then you could not find seating. We did enjoy all four ports. They did have a daily creative creations on Sea days and they were great. My biggest disappointment was that they did not have any 3XL Vista T-shirts. We did enjoy the cruise but did not see anything above our expectations. We did have rain leaving Miami and returning to Miami, extra sea time waiting for the port to open. We would do this itinerary again, maybe on a different ship. Read Less

We choose the vista because the Havana section sounded perfect for adults. We had room 7458 which had its own large deck area that overlooked the private Havana pool and spas as well as a nice sized room with a comfortable king bed as well as a couch and desk area. There was also plenty of closet space. The bathroom was smaller but functional. We loved our steward Lalaine who took excellent care of us and all our needs. She came twice a day and seemed to just appear whenever we wanted something like ice etc. She deserves special recognition for her efforts. Thank you Lalaine and the rest of the staff as well. Supreme friendly people willing to help wherever and whenever. We appreciate the positive staff so much! Loved the pizza place and the sit down dining area which served some interesting and delicious food. Also tried the Italian restaurant which again was excellent for a reasonable extra charge of $15 per person. Worth it! Also liked the spa and gym areas both inside and out. We loved the IMAX theater and thrill theater too since we went many times and enjoyed all the movies for a reasonable fee. Good tomes and great memories with my family who also stayed in the Havana section. Hope to see you soon Vista! Read Less