I travelled during spring break to getaway from west coast. This is my third cruise with carnival cruise line. I will recommend this cruise to my friends and family members in the near future. At first my husband did not want to travel this time. Although he reallly really enjoyed this cruise. We had a lot of fun and had plenty time to relax. We love the music old scoop and the jazz music a lot. My husband ended up on the stage singing with the live band Let'S get it on to me. We had a ball. Best cruise experienced ever the staff is supper friendly and helpful. Beautiful ship and this ship had something for everyone. We love the Cayman island execursion we had so much fun. We also had some of the Cayman Island traditional food. We spent time with the local as well. Jamaica waterfall excursion great choice Read Less

We decided on this cruise because of all the amenities and entertainment. The only thing is the beds were a little hard. Besides that everything else was pretty good. Our cruise director Matt was AWESOME, he makes this cruise alive and knows how to keep people going and pumping. I have to not so positive notes: the pools are too small and the pictures are very pricey. Overall our trip was a very good experience that we will definitely repeat. Carnival Vista hit the right spot. The Ports were Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman & Cozumel. Beautiful ports but you definitely need a tour. We did from an outside vendor, it was awesome. Jamaica beach next to port perfect choice for the family and to try a beach after a day at sea to get lost and relaxing. Tried the local beer a great choice for our taste and expand knowledge. Read Less

I chose this cruise because my family was going on the same dates. I booked late so no balconies were left. Ended up with interior Deck 8 Forward (8233). This was the smallest room I have ever booked on a cruise and for the length of time I brought lots of clothes that didn't fit in small one door closet and three drawers for two of us. I learned my lesson to just take a deck 1 exterior room next time. My family had these rooms and was double the size of ours. I didn't meet our steward until day 3. He did great job of getting me ice each night and left us little towel animals each night. My only gripe was that the Sheets were stained and warn. The pillow cases had heavy beeding. We were originally signed up for anytime dining but changed to early dining as soon as we boarded the boat. The reflections dining room was of less quality than any other ship we've sailed on before. It was very closed in with low ceilings and blocked views out the windows. The other dining room where we ate breakfast each morning was much nicer and had that two story open feeling. Our waiter and waitress we had every night became like family. Our waitress Chi Chi was very friendly and took very good care of the kids we were traveling with. They are three and five and she made sure their meals came right away each night. Our waiter Edward would do magic tricks for the kids and was very personable sharing his hopes of getting promoted into management. The wait staff opened up to me about the long hours they work daily and that they strictly work for tips so the more families they can serve each night the better money they make. Sometimes they have to give quality and sacrifice quantity so that can affect their pay. I disclosed right away I'm in Human Resources so they were very willing to answer any inquisitive questions I asked. Every staff member I came across on this boat was very friendly. I only had one instance where I had to get direct and that was when I tried to eat lunch at the Wok (free till 2:30pm daily) for the fourth time they turned me away at 1:45 stating there's a 50 minute wait. I explained it was the fourth time they're turning me away in a week and I will wait. We were the last ones served in the restaurant that day but it was a nice tasting lunch. We thoroughly enjoyed the three "At Sea" lunch days. Breakfast at the Mexican restaurant was good too. Lunch there was just OK. We had lunch a Guy's Burger one day and it was OK. When we first got on the boat we went to the Guys BBQ. The meat was very salty and the sides were not very good. Food all 7 nights in the dining room was fantastic with so many variations for every diet. We had the opportunity to see all 4 comedians on this cruise. They were all great. Cheeky Charlie was the comedy club manager & she was great fun. We spent lots of time in the casino because they incentivize you after earning 100 points. Learned too late to do all gambling on one card so we would have double the chances to get entered into drawings. As far as Ports on this boat I was thoroughly impressed with all 4 Ports. We did ATV tour on Grand Turk and glad we did as not as much to do on this island say the other 3. Then in Puerto Rico we took taxi off the boat to Bacardi Factory. This was a great thing to do since it was raining the day we were there. We did not make it to the fort because of Weather but if I could request more time in Puerto Rico that would be my only gripe. We explored some of the shopping right off the boat since it was close and convenient. Then when we arrived at St Kitts we took a taxi for 5.00 a person to the beaches farther away. There are men in green shirts right when you exit the boat. There's the 3.00 beach, 5.00 beach & 7.00 beaches. Our 5.00 beach was amazing with rental of two chairs & umbrella costing us $15.00 and bucket of 6 local beers for $15.00. They had showers and free internet as well as jet ski rental services available right there. Our final day was in St Maarten and I wish we would have done an excursion from the boat. We took water taxi over to Dutch side for 7.00 per person but it didn't feel like we got much accomplished. They had a beach with chair rental there too but we had just done it in St Kits. All fun excursions were sold out so boook this one early. Over all I will probably not take a cruise on this boat again because I couldn't get used to the closed in feeling on this boat. There was only one area inside with view of multiple levels. The dining room felt closed it. It overall felt too closed off with very few places to get outside views except through smoked glass. Debarkation was a little bit of a nightmare on this boat. First they start yelling out to exit the boat at 7:00 am when we were in the casino for the final drawing at just midnight. Then they start yellin every 10 minutes to keep exiting. We did not go to the debarkation meeting so we didn't get tags to get off until much later. We decided we get sleep and eat breakfast in dining room but the sleep part was cut short. When I went to pick up our liquor purchases they put three bottles in a two bottle holder so the handle broke. Add for 4 bottle box if you buy 3. Easier when getting to your car/airport. Read Less

We sailed the Vista March 24-April 1. There were 4 families all with teenage boys/girls. One family always cruises Carnival and convinced us to try a spring break cruise. I have not been on a cruise in the last 15 years so I spent a ton of time looking at reviews for the Vista. My family typically rents villas/condos or stays at resorts in the Caribbean so here is my cruise experience/opinion regarding Carnival and the Vista. The Good- *Embarkation was simple...yes, some long lines but it constantly moved. *Ship was clean upon entering. *Balcony cabin 9455 was clean and in a great location!!! *Cabin steward (Norman) knocked on our door first day. Introduced himself and asked how we would like the room serviced. He was very attentive and we tipped cash that same night as a small thank you. He took good care of our cabin. *Fahrenheit 555 is well worth the $35 charge. *Staff onboard said hello and were friendly. *The ability in the evening to find an uncrowded place for a drink was easy!! *Pizza..not sure who said it was terrible but it was actually good pizza and way better than anything found on the buffet. Long lines sometimes though! *Dining options. *Java Blue for coffee and milkshakes (spiked or not)! *Wifi was good. I bought the value plan, not the cheap social plan and had great service and access to VPN emails. *Tides pool bartenders...we tipped a $1 each time and had great service. *Debarking was "open" from 7am to 8am and we took full advantage of that! The Bad- *Having to wake up at the crack of dawn (think 7am ish) on sea days to get a decently located deck chair. By 10am, there were simply no chairs available. *Main dining room...food wasn't great and neither was the service. *Buffet...food wasn't great and lines were pretty long for breakfast. I learned after that first morning to choose other options. *Serenity Deck has no pool and loungers are always taken (at least I think, as there were always towels in them but rarely saw people enjoying them). *Red Frog bartenders ignored many guests and we never went back after the first day. Sad as my husband loves micro-brewed beers. *Getting some type of gastro-intenstinal virus onboard :( The Ugly- *Drunk, ignorant grown adults puking in the pool (closing both on sea days). *People not paying attention to their young kids. I have kids but when your kids are like 4 years old, don't leave them unattended in a hot tub and let them tumble down the stairs and have random fellow passengers help her up and have to go look on the deck to find her parents!!! *People dropping food and not picking anything up. LIterally just left and walked away. The Carnival staff is staff, not personal servants. *People leaving glasses/plates anywhere and everywhere. The elevator! The stairways! Yes. They did. *People complaining about every little thing. In the steakhouse a woman didn't enjoy her ribeye (after clear clarification on the marble and cut of meat). She was given a free meal, free wine, free dinner at another "for fee" restaurant (for her and her husband) but that still wasn't good enough. She wanted all 9 dinners of her group for free. These people are the ones ruining it for other guests and ultimately raising overall prices when carnival has to shell out "freebies" to bitching passengers. If you cannot afford a vacation and have to complain to get things for free then perhaps travel ever other year and save money to enjoy yourself with worry of cost of the trip. Overall it was a nice trip as we were with great people and the Carnival staff did a nice job given the fact they have 4,000 passengers onboard. If I were to cruise again, I think I would consider Celebrity or RCCL to perhaps step up the dining experience and hope that fellow passengers learn how to pick up after themselves and complain less! You're on vacation so why spend so much time complaining and being unhappy!? Read Less

This was our 5th or 6th Carnival cruise, but definitely our last. The last 2 or 3 Carnival cruises we took, we noticed a definite decline in several aspects of the cruise experience in regards to food quality, drink quality, and service. This cruise was a new low.The ship itself was fine, pretty average. Staterooms the same. On this cruise though, we made the mistake of going during spring break. I've been on 17 or 18 cruises, and I've never seen anyone puke in the pool. On this cruise, it happened 3 times in 2 days. On one of the 3 sea days we had, someone puked in the main pool, shutting it down for the day because the ship can only discharge into the ocean at certain times, and they said 9 pm was the soonest they could drain the pool. It sucks, but accidents happen. What made me mad was when the drunk people who had "taken over" the main pool with volleyball equipment they brought on board had to leave because someone puked in the pool (presumably one of them), they proceeded to take their operation to the back of the ship to the Tides pool, taking it over and resumed their game despite staff passively saying that's not allowed, but doing nothing else. 10 minutes later, there's puke in that pool and it had to be shut down. So now, here we are in the early afternoon on a sea day with 80 degree temps and no pool to enjoy because ship staff failed to intervene with these obviously intoxicated people. Several people complained to guest services, including a platinum member that was with us, but to no avail. We were offered a couple of drinks and a dinner upgrade, but there was little to no acknowledgement that we lost about 1/2 day of our cruise because we could no longer enjoy a pool anywhere on the ship due to a failure on the part of ship staff. They did admit they failed, but said it was against their "policy" to reimburse passengers for these inconveniences (several of us requested that Carnival credit our stateroom accounts the equivalent of 1/2 day of our cruise fare to compensate us for having no available pools for half of a sea day). One of the most disappointing things was that one of the passengers who went to guest services with us on this issue was a Carnival Platinum member, Carnival shareholder, has spent close to $100,000 cruising with Carnival and was treated as if they were a first time cruiser. I felt sick for them and their brand loyalty (which I think is over). Earlier that day, I had already been to guest services to complain that the ship's exhaust was peppering the Tides pool area with black and rusty soot from the engines. It ruined several shirts of people in our group as well as the drinks we were holding. Carnival did pay for the ruined clothing after a failed laundering attempt. 17/18 cruises, never seen that happen with soot raining down. There were a few bright spots on this cruise, however. The Red Frog Pub was a great hangout spot. Never too crowded, great staff, and great food and drinks. Dining staff was hardworking and went above and beyond every night. I wouldn't recommend paying the $20 extra for the 555° Steakhouse upgrades. The lobster we ordered was way overcooked (the steamed lobster on lobster night is better) and the filet was mediocre. Definitely not worth the $20 upgrade and most definitely not worth the $35 pp fee to have dinner in the steakhouse. The 24/7 pizza and Guy's burger joint were awesome. The lines prove that is a very popular feature. Our stateroom was average, but there was something next door in a service area that sounded like metal creaking really loud whenever the ship was moving, and it would go on all night long. This was loud enough to disrupt our sleep. If you are considering going on this ship, I would avoid stateroom #2367 for this reason. Overall, Carnival has again proven to me they are the "Walmart of the waves". I'm actually kind of embarrassed to say I've cruised with them as often as I have, but no more, especially having seen how they treat their top tier members. Ouch. Read Less

I chose this shop because we went on it in march 2017 and we had a blast. We (4) took a 8 day southern to aruba etc and we had mike as the cruise director. He was amazing so we came back and this time we have matt. Personally i enjoyed mike as a cruise director better. We saw mike all over the ship dressed in different funny memorable outfits. The love and marriage game was better last year. The massage spa treatment was great last year. This year i was thinking of getting one but because of lizelle (one of carnival receptionists reps on deck 11) wasn’t very pleasant. I don’t deal with attitude so i chose not to get a couple massage this year. The food was great at breakfast lunch and dinner. I have 2 favorite waiters/waitress. Juan martin very pleasant and funny. Tells some really funny jokes and elena the headwaitress. She’s amazing. Bubbly and fun. My favorite food last year was the blue iguana. This year it wasn’t hot. So i only had a bowl one day. Last year guy burgers burgers were burnt. This year they are amazing. I think i ate one everyday. Lol. Pizza line is always long. Need a second maybe even a 3 rd person to help out to keep the line down. Ping pong is one of our favorite. We played everyday and if balls weren’t available. Staff would make them readily available. Red frog game peices need to be replaced. A lot the the pieces on shuffleboard were broken. Comedy was pretty funny. I missed lip sync battle. Our girls enjoys o2 for pre teens. Fun and games available. One of my favorites is mz. Drums on the steel drums. You will be amazed at her talent. The shows on the older ships to be are better. I wonder whatever happened to the ice sculpting and the day for different ethnic foods on the lido deck?? The gym area was great but what i noticed on this cruise was we weren’t able to use the steam room unless you pay for it. Why on earth would they charge for this now. On any previous cruise steam and sauna was readily available at no charge and was great after a workout. Thumbs down for this one. I will say the sauna is still free. Room service- our room steward was excellent for both our balcony room and our girls room. He did a excellent job in maintaining and keeping it tidy. Ashbin is his name i believe. Some employees would greet you and some wouldn’t. Overall i give it a 8 for customer service. The halls and i will still continue to cruise with carnival. I love the excitement and adventures. Oh. Just remember they have pigs and anchor (bbq) on deck 5 open only sea day. As well as jiji asian and cucianas italian available 11-2 free daily. Read Less

I'll split this into a few subtopics and rate what I did and did not like. This is only the second cruise I've been on, so I'm by no means an expert but I'll compare it to Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas. Embarkation/ disembarkation (Good): Very easy, painless process. No more difficult than RCI to embark and disembarkation was excellent (we arrived back early and chose to bring off our own luggage). Very good process with little waiting in line. The Ship (Okay): The ship was impressive and had a lot of activities to take part in, some of which I thought were great and others I think are a little unnecessary and meant social areas had less space as a result. Firstly, the cinema is a nice extra and is reasonably priced, but I found it took up a lot of space meaning other areas seemed more cramped. This added to the strange layout of the ship and meant there was no real central social area. It wasn't a big problem but it did make the interior feel more enclosed compared to the Allure, which had a lot of social space. The water slides, Skyride and ropes course are great fun, but be prepared to line up for them. Sometimes the line could extended to the bottom of the steps for the slide meaning it was a 5/10 minute wait and the Skyride line often exceed an hour on sea days (note that if weather deteriorates they can close this at any point). Nonetheless, I think they are great additions to the ship and we really enjoyed them. There was a variety of bars and places to eat, but for some reason the ship just felt like it was lacking in things to do. The comedies and entertainment all took place in the same places, meaning there was little choice on what to do at any given time. On the Allure, there was lots of activities to take part in at the same time, but there didn't seem to be much choice on the Vista. The ship did also seem overcrowded at times. I don't think this is confined to this ship and we experienced the same on RCI, but there was a line for pretty much everything on the Vista. This was most prominent at breakfast, which I will go into later. It was also impossible to get a sunbed if you didn't come down early in the morning, the hot tubs were normally full and there was always long lines for food. I found the layout of the decks pretty standard and I liked the adults only area. However, the staff didn't seem to enforce the rules regarding adults only (there were clearly people there under 21) as well as the "no saving sunbeds" rule. Another criticism was the location of the outdoor smoking area (deck 10 starboard) which is next to the pool and a busy walkway. It was probably the windiest part of the ship and there always children walking past (which seemed to defeat the idea of a smoking area). I felt really uncomfortable smoking next to children and people sunbathing. This seemed to also be another rule that wasn't particularly enforced. I saw people smoking outside of the designated area regularly and none of the staff said anything. From a safety perspective, I felt its something that should really be enforced. All in all, there were aspects of the ship I really liked, but the layout could be better. The Cabin (Good): We stayed in a cove balcony cabin and were really impressed. The room was clean, spacious and the bed was incredibly comfortable (I'm a flight attendant and better than most hotel beds I've stayed in). The balcony was lovely and worth the extra money. From the outside, it looks as though you wouldn't be able to see anything from the cove balcony as it below the lifeboats, but this completely isn't the case. It's nice being low down as you can see and hear the waves hitting the ship and its a lot more private than the standard balcony rooms. It was also a great price (we paid just £50 more each to upgrade from Ocean View). We really liked the room and the only negatives we had was that there was a shower curtain rather than enclosure and only had shower gel/ shampoo in a dispenser attached the wall, rather than miniature bottles, but this is us being pernickety. The room was cleaned to a good standard by the friendly housekeeping team and had everything we needed. Another thing we loved (that I don't think RCI have) is the launderettes on every floor. It cost 3 USD for the washer and 3 USD for the drier as well as 1.50 USD for detergent. There was also a free iron and ironing board. We really liked this idea and it was so handy if you like ironed clothes or forgot to pack a few bits. Dining (Okay): There are 3 different dining sittings, early (18:30), late (20:30) or my time dining. We chose the my time and really liked the flexibility. We're late eaters and liked that we could go for dinner up until 21:30. With my time, you check in at deck 5 and they allocate your table and give you a wait time before heading to deck 3. We didn't wait at all for dinner on any of the days and really liked not having a set dining time. When you arrive at the restaurant, you are shown to your table by the front of house staff (Tanusree was fantastic, she would greet us by name everyday and, after having 2 bad tables at the start of the cruise, endeavored to make sure we had nice tables every night after. She was probably the friendliest of all the staff we came across and was extremely helpful). The setting isn't particularly grand but it's not unpleasant. There is no tablecloth except for formal nights and this didn't bother us at all. There is no dress code on casual nights and its common to see shorts and t shirts. Formal nights do have a dress code (no jeans/ t shirt/ short sleeved shirts) but this was never enforced. After reading reviews regarding food, I had low expectations but was actually pleasantly surprised. I don't think the food was as good as RCI, but I didn't think it was bad either. I liked the "taste of port" menu which had specialties of where you were that day and I liked the majority of the food most days. My partner had the steak a few times, it was nice most times apart from one tough cut. The thing that let the dining experience down was the service. It was pretty inconsistent, some days good and some bad with different waiters each night. At RCI, the service was excellent and our waiter knew us all by name, giving recommendations each night. We didn't get that at Carnival and I would assume this was due to my time dining. I wouldn't have minded being served by different staff each night, but the level of service by each was so different. Some would talk, some wouldn't. None gave recommendations and some wouldn't bring fresh cutlery between meals (those who did put them on the bare table). I wouldn't say the dining experience was poor, but it wasn't as good as RCI. Maybe the staff could have a little more training and this would improve? Entertainment (poor): I felt this was where the ship was really let down. A lot of reviews praised Matt (the cruise director) but I wasn't as impressed. Matt was very funny and friendly, but some of his team seemed to have a different agenda (when I say some, I by no means mean all). It appeared that some of the team were failed stage wannabes who wanted to be the center of attention. I found it took away from the people it should be about, the guests. This is just my opinion. I also found the quality and range of activities poor. I didn't see many of the shows as none appealed to be (none were big name stage shows) but the one I did see, I wasn't particularly impressed with. Apart from the shows, all the other "entertainment" consisted of Matt standing on the bar in the atrium or on the seats around the pool (for deck parties) and doing dance routines, getting guests to join in. The music was extremely repetitive (we could predict every song that would come on) and it was pretty much the same thing every night. It was very American focused and I didn't find it entertaining. After the "entertainment" was finished, they would always say to head to the lounge (a club) but at that point, all of the staff would disappear. This was the biggest let down from Carnival and RCI was a lot better. Apart from the mainline entertainment, there was a piano bar (which I found better than the main entertainment) and a band in the Havana bar. There was also another mainline band in the lounge area and either some singers or violinists in the atrium (who were both very good). Past 11pm, most entertainment would dry up leaving you with the choice of the piano bar or the nightclub. I'd go with the piano bar as the nightclub played the same music constantly! All in all, a little disappointing on the entertainment front. Other likes: - Download the Carnival app, I thought it was great. You can book excursions, see whats going on and download professional photos. - The salad bar at the adult only section of the ship was a simple but wonderful idea. I got bored of unhealthy good and this a nice touch. It would just be nice if it was open more often, it was only open 1-3 on sailing days. - The bars never seemed to be too overcrowded meaning it didn't (normally) take too long to get a drink. - The price for the cruise itself we found to be reasonable. If you want to keep costs down, you can (soft drinks package/ cove balcony rather than a standard/ reducing gratuity costs etc.). Other dislikes: - Everything is an added extra. Soft drinks cost more, if you buy a drinks package its limited to 15 per day and the spa is extremely expensive. As with other cruise lines, there are pay- for restaurants (which I didn't think were overpriced) but it all adds up. I think the cost of most amenities was inline with RCI with the exception of the drinks package which was overpriced and limited, unlike RCI. - Some days there seemed to be too many announcements from Matt the cruise director. It was seemingly constant and got annoying. - The DJ played the same music, every day both on the deck and the nightclub. It was too repetitive. - As soft drinks were chargeable, there were no soft drinks stations like RCI. This meant that kids had to go to the bar and wasn't as pleasant for them. - The restaurant was severely overcrowded at breakfast. You could be waiting for 20 minutes just to get to the front of the buffet. I think Carnival really need to look into this. We got around this by ordering room service. - The restaurant had strange opening times. Breakfast ran late but there would be gaps between meals. This wasn't a problem on sea days, but on port days you could get back on board at 4pm feeling peckish and the restaurant was closed. There were other dining options but nowhere to get anything healthy. The rumors: When I read other reviews there were a couple of things I picked up on that I thought I should clarify. - I don't think you can feel the moment of the ship more than other vessels. i'ts a ship, it moves, of course you'll feel it. I don't think it was excessive though. - I didn't think the Casino was overbearing with smoke. Obviously people can smoke there but I don't think it's worse than any other casino. The issue may be that its more centrally located on this ship. - The pools did look a little green. I'm not sure why, it may be a chemical imbalance and I don't think it would be anything to be concerned about. - The theater isn't as horrible as people make out. The main issue is that the seats aren't layered as well as the could be so it's hard to see over the person in front of you. The bottom line: We had a great cruise and really enjoyed ourselves. The main issues are the overcrowding in public areas, the strange layout of the ship and poor organised entertainment. There's lots to do in the day for all ages, its only at night things seem to slow a little. If they improved the entertainment I think it would be a lot better. In future, my preference would be Royal Caribbean, but if the price is right (we saved around 800 USD per person going with Carnival for a like-for-like room) I would chose Carnival again. Read Less

Wheelchair for security checkin - then wait in area for another wheelchair to board ship On ship at 11-50am - drinks in Lobby Bar and lunch in Lido Buffet while waiting to get into cabin at 1:40pm. Our cabin keys were in a sealed envelope outside our cabin. You can use your boarding pass to obtain drinks, etc. prior to finding you keys. Lido Buffet was average food - very long lines that move very slowly! Lobster night and service in main dining room on elegant/sea day - great and fast! Did not partake of specialty restaurants - except for lunch (free) at Italian one day Did partake of seafood bar one night - extra cost - but very good - oysters, shrimp, etc. Trivia contests were our highlight - many every day - winner gets a "ship on a stick" Entertainment in Lounge (not a theater) foer main show and comedy - outstanding! Excursions very pricey (like all cruiselines) - did Top 10 in Ocho Rios - had fun Stairwells very congested on port calls getting off ship - OK coming back on Lifeboat drill was a mess - far too much pedestrian traffic to congreate and use elevators Elevators very slow - lots out of service on first day and last day - moving luggage of course! Did not like layout of Vista (so Horizon similar) - far too much hype. However we still had fun. Pixel (photographs) - no photos - just digital imagery on screens - combersome - still very pricey ($20 for a 5x7 and 4 wallet size). Cocktails/Beer extremely pricey - 2 glasses of KJ Chardonnay - $24 - so ask for house brand In spite of any negatives - will sail on Carnival again Read Less

We normally cruise with Royal Caribbean, but we had been on 1 other Carnival and really enjoyed it, so we decided to try it again. The price was great and this was their newest, biggest ship, so we thought why not? Our group was myself, my husband and our 2 kids, ages 7 and 10. We have cruised 15+ times and this was the kids' 7th cruise. Got to the port in Miami and waited for about 20 minutes in line to show passports, etc. We had an appointment time from 11:30-12. We got in line at 11:25 and they wouldn't let us in the "on time" line, and made us go in the "early/late" line. Stupid. Got upstairs to waiting area and they were calling group 3. We had 22. Waited about another 45 minutes to board the ship. When we got on, the elevators were programmed to only drop you where the food was. Smart! We went up to the Lido Buffet. It was ok--nothing special. We wandered around for a while, checked in at Camp Ocean and then went to our staterooms to drop the luggage. We had 2 adjoining balcony cabins--8319 and 8323. They were pretty standard rooms--nothing special or outstanding. Balconies were small--just 2 chairs. I had requested online for the kids' cabin to have 2 twin beds, but that was not done. We found our steward, Arnel, and he said he would take care of it. Hung at the pool all afternoon and then went to dinner. Uan was our waiter and Obaja and Nestor were assistants. They were great the whole cruise. However, I had to order iced tea each night...I'm used to on RC having it there waiting for me by the 2nd night at dinner. Also noticed that in the dining room they have no tablecloths! Guess that's a way to save money but it makes it way less elegant and special. After dinner we looked to see what was doing and there was nothing except live music and the welcome show. This was a common theme and one of our biggest complaints--programming was sorely lacking, esp. after dinner. There was literally NOTHING to do for families, except a dive in movie or listening to music. The food overall was good. We ate at guy's burger bar and pig and anchor bbq and both were yummy. Get there when they open or you will be in line forever. We went one night to the Farenheit 555 steakhouse and it was delicious. The "art at your table" dessert was amazing. The breakfast in the main dining room was excellent. Things like grain/protein bowls, an absolutely outstanding yogurt and granola parfait, etc. The Dr. Seuss breakfast was fun and the theming was great from the decor to the food. Our excursions were not great at all. Our river tubing in Jamaica was horrible. Unorganized, they didn't have gear for us, there were 50 people tubing with 2 guides, we got back late and they had to hold the ship for us...just a complete disaster. We ended up getting a 50% refund for this. We did stingray city/starfish point in Grand Cayman and it was pretty good. Another issue--tendering in Grand Cayman. The papers in the stateroom said if you had an excursion booked you needed a tender 45 minutes before. It never said to get a ticket. So we went down early to get off and everyone has stickers with numbers. We were told we needed a ticket. We said no, we had an excursion. They said we had to get a number and my husband basically said NO--this was not communicated. They let us in line and off the ship. Camp Ocean was a huge disappointment. Our kids have practically lived at the kids' club on previous ships. The first night they went and when we picked them up BOTH kids said it was horrible and boring and they didn't want to go back. Our son is 10 and he said they read them "The Cat in the Hat." Understandable that he was bored. It stunk for us because we didn't have any adult free time because they hated the kids club, and we didn't want to force them to go. In the past they were mad when we picked them up! The water slides were fun for the kids. We did enjoy the sky ride, ropes course and mini golf. The pool is 2 decks below the water slides, so if you want to keep an eye on your kids, you need to kind of choose an area to stay in. Debarkation was also unorganized. We are used to telling the cabin steward what time you want to/need to leave, and having luggage tags assigned accordingly. Not on this ship. Luggage tags were available on the pool deck on the last sea day starting at 12. We got there at around 1:15 and the lowest number available was group 19, which meant getting off after 10am. Really?? What is to stop people from grabbing a bunch of the lower numbers? There was no attendant, there were just tags on a board and you took whatever. We went to guest services and got group 8, which was between 9 and 9:45am. In the morning we ate in the main dining room and at around 8:15 we went to the main area. They were calling group 1. We came to find out that was DECK 1, not group 1. They were calling based on where your room was! We finally decided what the heck and just joined the line moving out. Nobody asked what our number was and we got off the ship. Our luggage was waiting, no issues. Again, stupidly done. Other issues--we had a 6pm reservation at the steakhouse and our stingray excursion was running late. We knew it would be tight getting all of us showered and ready by 6. We got back to the ship and tried calling the steakhouse. Nobody answered. We called guest services and were on hold literally 20 minutes and nobody answered. We did make it to the steakhouse on time, but when I told the host we called with no answer, she told me their phone was working fine, and implied it was my phone that had the problem. Liquor...we bought liquor in Grand Cayman. Instead of it being delivered to our stateroom, we had to go to the second floor of the dining room where clueless housekeeping staff were running back and forth trying to find people's orders. Overall the ship was underwhelming. It's not beautiful. Service was decent and everything was clean. However, the lack of programming for families and the dismal reviews of camp Ocean will keep us from booking another Carnival cruise. Read Less

I always cruise royal caribean or norwegin, this time, since it was my husband's birthday i decided to go with carnival's newest ship, Vista. As soon as i stepped onto the ship, and saw there was no welcoming party or crew standing with drinks, i knew this was not going to be a good cruise. There was no glitz or glam about this ship at all!!! They had one big design in the middle of the bar on the third level. The entertainment sucked!! Be prepared to stand in long lines for food AND, THE FOOD WAS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE, even the crew we spoke to complained of the food (the friendly crew anyway...) the bathroom in the cabin was not the cleanest. Carnival does not give anything away, they nickle and dime you for everything. Other cruises usually have a 1 hour free happy hour. Even with the "captain ball" they will serve champagne to everyone, not carnival, they only served the champagne to the important crew that they were introducing, then told everyone to raise their glasses, what glasses!!!! This i thought was a total slap in the face! Worst cruise ever, i wish i could get my money back! Read Less