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

We had not sailed aboard the Vista and wanted to try it out. This was my 16th. Carnival cruise. I had carried a book that I wanted to study and on sea days there was not a spot (even on our balcony) that was quiet enough. The music that was playing on the speakers in the Ledo dining areas was absolutely HORRIBLE. The food on the buffet was not as good as you would get at Luby's Cafeteria. Thank goodness for Guy's Burger! The crew did a great job and was very friendly and that helped. The majority of the passengers I saw were aged between 55 and 85. For this crowd the Dive-in movie was something like "The ant man vs the wasp". Really, If Carnival is going to purchase their movies from the Wal Mart five dollar box they should arrive earlier before the selection becomes that poor! This ship was not as open as the other Carnival ships and it was crowded. The casino was totally filled with cigarette smoke. We had selected the anytime dining. You had to go to one floor to sign into the dining area and then travel to a totally different floor to access the dining room. I typically go to the seaside brunch on each sea day and the dining room each night. I only went to the dining room one time this cruise and that was more than enough. The ship was clean and our room was pretty good. Read Less

I plan to post a more detailed review on our cruise but overall we were pleasantly surprised by the Vista. Based on reviews we had read we were expecting a ship that was crowded, long lines, etc. but basically it was the same as other ships we have sailed. The good: + The crew - everyone we dealt with with were polite, professional and contributed to us having a great cruise. + A big shout out to Matt who must have been born to be a Cruise Director, he really is a natural and contributed to our cruise experience. Funny, funny, funny... + Music - I finally have been on a cruise that I liked (most of) the music. From the band Farmer to the Piano player (Josh) and the other musicians, "the horns" etc, we really enjoyed the music. + Music #2 - Actually had live music for one of the shows, not too many cruise ships doing that nowadays and it was a pleasant surprise! + The food - we did not have one single bad experience related to food. From the MDR, Steakhouse, Iguana burritos, Guys burgers as well as the buffet, the food exceeded our expectations (this is one area we were really concerned based on some reviews we had read) + Big TV - we had an Ocean suite and while we didn't watch it that often it was nice to have a full size TV in the room! ++ A big "thank you" to the medical crew that took care of my better half, very professional, friendly, understanding and efficient - really exceeded my expectations! The not so good: (and really these are minor, certainly didn't take away from the cruise) - The design of the Liquid Theater is OK but could have been better. At two floors it is smaller than the theater in the Breeze, the floors are flat so back rows don't have a good view, additionally, the posts block many views as well. I took a few pictures that better show that I will have in my review. - Balcony had 3 chairs and one table, would have preferred one chair, table and lounger. - Disembarkation - They parked us in the Reflections restaurant but we couldn't hear the announcement and subsequently were delayed getting off the ship. This can be improved on, someone should be in these areas making announcements (I heard that other areas had the same problem). Read Less

I chose Vista because it left out of Galveston and I live in Austin. I thought the Vista would be really nice since it is just a 2 year old ship. I am a Gold Carnival Cruise Member. I am a Premiere Casino member. This was a Premiere cruise. Since I mostly play video poker when I am on board, the casino is the most important thing for me. The casino is smaller than other cruise ships I have been on. The air flow was non existent, the ceilings were low and the smoke was as thick as a knife. The bar was in the middle and took up a huge amount of space. There is no live music area or sitting area in the casino. There were 400 premiere members on board for the raffle prizes. This was the largest number of premiere members I have ever seen on a cruise. The chances of winning a raffle prize was very small. Prizes should be scaled according to the number of premiere members. When we arrived our beds were not configured in the correct way. We wanted twin beds. We had a queen bed. In the middle of the night, a large picture fell off the wall and hit me. The stewart came in the next morning and took a picture of the fallen picture. He said he would send it to maintenance to get the picture rehung. I said I didn't want it hung. I came back a bit later and the picture was hung over my bed. Dining service was bad. We were asked if we would sit on a group table. We said OK. When they tried to seat us on a round table there were already 2 parties on the table. They tried to seat my sister and I on opposite sides of the table. We complained and were reseated on a table for 2. We were never offered a refill on our coffee at most of the breakfast and dinners we went to. I think they were very understaffed. When we were trying to leave, we found out we were locked out of our safe. I don't know if they have a reset button that automatically changes everyone's combination or if something weird just happened to our safe. Bottom line, I have a cruise scheduled for Alaska in May for the whole family on the Carnival Legend. I almost cancelled it. Read Less

This being my 17th cruise with Carnival I was a little disappointed with the ship. Don't get me wrong the ship is beautiful but the changes from the older ones were not what I expected. There are fewer elevators so this causes waiting times and long lines. We found the solution to this problem was to get on any elevator whether going up or down. The main atrium, while very pretty, looked like it was built around the bar with what appeared to be less seating than the older ships. The main lounge (where the stage shows are performed) was a big disappointment. There was half the seating of the other ships and at one of the shows they even removed some of these to add a platform. The upper level had very little visibility as there are columns blocking most of the view of the stage. Back to the good stuff: The food, staff and service were excellent, as usual. The ports of call were what we have come to expect from our favorite cruise line. The stateroom (we had a balcony) was better than previous ships. The decor was bright and cheerful. We will be sailing with Carnival again... just on a older ship - Breeze, Magic, etc. Read Less

This will be a detailed review from a first time cruiser. We decided to go on our cruise to celebrate our 15th Anniversary. Our departure port was Galveston and we decided to drive down the night before and stay the night. We were not impressed with Galveston. The city did not have much to offer and seemed pretty run down. We stayed at a hotel that offered to let us park our car in their lot and shuttle us to and from the port. EMBARKATION: We had a boarding time of 12-12:30. I highly recommend to plan on leaving a little early to get to the terminal on time. It was very busy and congested on the road to get there. Once inside the terminal everything moved smoothly and efficiently. We got on the boat at about 12:30 but our rooms wouldn't be available until 1:30 so we decided to walk around a bit to familiarize ourselves. Vista is a large ship and I will talk about this a little more later. We booked a spa cabin so we decided to take a tour of the spa to pass some time and see what deals they had for embarkation day. We love to feel pampered on our vacation but be prepared- even with "savings bundles", these services were very expensive. We ended up booking 6 treatments between the two of us. I would not do this again because I did not feel like the treatments were worth the high prices. CABIN: We booked 14202, on the 14th floor forward of the ship. It was an Oceanview but had a partially obstructed view due to a walkway right in front of the window. The room was nice and exceeded our expectations. We were assuming that the quarters would be cramped but it didn't feel that way at all. The only complaint would be that there weren't enough drawers to stow all our stuff in but there was plenty of hanging space in the closet. FOOD: Overall, really impressed with the food. We ate at the buffet a few times for lunch and picked at it for snacks as needed in the evenings. We took advantage of the ice cream, although it wasn't close to DQ quality ;). We were really impressed with the dining room dinners. most of the dinners were very tasty and service was great. We had anytime dining so we had to dine in Horizons which was located on 3 and 4 Aft. Get the Carnival Hub app to be able to request a table otherwise you will have to check in for dining on the 5th floor and then go down to the 3rd. Also, you cannot walk from forward to aft on the 3rd floor. so you either have to walk through the very smoky casino on the 4th floor and go down the stairs or go to the 2nd and go up the stairs. It was a little tricky. We ate at Guy's Burger, it was good. We also tried the Seafood Shack, which my husband loved. We had dinner at the steakhouse for our anniversary and the food was phenomenal!!! if you can swing it, have a dinner there. The pizza was decent but it was very convenient. ENTERTAINMENT: We didn't do much on this, so can't review too much. We saw two comedy shows, one PG and one R rated. They were ok. We popped in one night for The cuban show and was not impressed so we ended up leaving. We played bingo one day but it was 80 for both of us to play and the game was over so quick it didn't feel worth it. We played trivia one day but this was popular and in a very small area of the ship that it was difficult to find a table. All in all, there was plenty to do but we are more relaxation vacation people so take that into consideration. SERVICE: We did not have a bad service experience. We had a great room Steward. Mostly good waiters. But Brunch on sea days the service was slow and the food was inconsistent. Lots of smiling faces and people were willing to talk and help wherever they could. DISEMBARKATION: This was the WORST!!! Carnival has a plan in place but none of the passengers actually follow it and they do nothing to discourage the "rule breakers". We decided to carry our own luggage off and this was suppose to be "express" but it was anything but. When they finally started calling floors to get off the ship, everyone just started going down to get off, it did not matter what floor they were on! since we were on the 14th floor we were trying to follow the rules and wait but by 10:30 we had had enough and just made our way to the gangway. most of the ship was already off and they had only cleared up to the 5th floor. NO ONE was following the rules they set out before. It was a complete waste of time! This needs to be fixed. So be prepared. OVERALL: As stated above, Vista is a big ship BUT the common areas feel pretty cramped. The liquid lounge seemed too small and so did the ocean plaza where they played the games. There were generally long lines with anything you wanted to see or do. Also, the casino seemed so tiny and there were many times that there was no where to play. We heard from several "veteran" cruisers that they did not like the Vista and preferred other ships in the Dream class. We are looking forward to trying one of those ships. Read Less

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

We wanted to try the Vista ever since she came out! And the Havana experience was a must! The Havana area in back and our extended balcony was Amazing! The back two hot tubs and pool was never busy,why I'm not sure! And our Bartender Ronnie was Fantastic! He knew our names and had our drinks made by the time we got up to the bar! The ship was laid out ok but kind of choppy. The Red Frog was my favorite place,it is Huge! I was my back hadn't flared up before the cruise was over! The Pig n Anchor, Red Frog,Havana Bar, and Shops were all on our deck. We tried different foods every day and still didn't get to some of the places more than once. Guy's burgers is still my fav. Another very cool option: Pizza delivered to anywhere on the ship! Just point to a place on the deck and map and in less than 5 minutes wa la hot Pizza! All in all a great ship, food great,excellent cruise! Read Less

This was the 2nd cruise for both my wife and me. We had previously gone on the Carnival Freedom in the Caribbean, and we felt like we had a better time on the Freedom, although the Vista was fairly good as well. The Vista has a variety of things to do on the ship, including entertainment (comedy shows, game shows, live informational shows, movies, the casino, etc.), multiple places to eat, and on the upper decks, there is mini golf, billards, basketball, hanging bicycles you can ride around the ship, a large screen for movies, as well as pools and hot tubs. I also enjoyed just sitting and relaxing and taking in the views, as well as taking photos. We didn't go on any excursions, but we enjoyed going off the ship to do some shopping. I think the downside is that the stops were all generally in areas that are set up for tourists from the ship, with inflated prices and many of the same shops (Diamonds International and Del Sol seem to be common shops in these cruise ship destinations). One place where we were able to leave the tourist area was Belize - It's nice to see the actual city and see locals, buy some local fruit etc., and things are also much cheaper in the city when you leave the tourist area. One thing I was looking forward to from our last time around was visiting Moho Chocolate, a nice little chocolate shop in Belize that also makes some great smoothies, but Moho Chocolate was no longer there - We were informed that they had moved. The staff on the ship were generally friendly, and I can tell they work hard at keeping the rooms clean and keeping the ship clean overall. I often saw Carnival staff going around to sweep the decks (particularly the lido deck with the pools and some of the restaurants), as well as collecting all the plates, cups, and silverware that passengers use for food. The ride on the ship was okay, although there were times when it was a little rough and the ship swayed a bit more than usual. Regarding the food, they provide decent options, but it can get tiring eating at the buffet because they offer basically the same breakfast options every day (though there are many options to choose from, including eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, cereal, pancakes, and in some places you can order an omlette). I thought the scrambled eggs were fairly soggy. For the dinner buffet, they changed some of the items most nights, and things like salads and fruit were common every night. Also, they sometimes had fish at the buffet next to other food items, which can be a problem for people with fish allergies, since it can be fairly easy to cross-contaminate from the fish items to the other food items. It would be nice if they had kept the fish separate from the other items in the buffet. We went to one of the dining restaurants (Horizons) for dinner a few times. It was included for no extra charge, and they had some different options from what was included at the buffet. I thought the food there was fairly good overall. In that restaurant, they also did some entertainment where they had their servers dance to some music for a few minutes before dinner. I generally just wanted a relaxing dinner, but their dancing was only for a few minutes. One thing that I wasn't really happy about was that our cabin had a section of floor that was bowed up, and when we stepped on it, we could also tell there was a gap in a couple of the floorboards. We tripped on it a few times when we were in our room. We reported the issue to guest services, who came and looked at it. One of them even said they were aware of the issue in our room and a few other rooms and it was scheduled to be fixed but it had not been fixed yet. They said they would credit our account due to the floor, but we didn't see any credit show up. We tried to get a written statement from guest services saying the floor had an issue so that we could at least follow up with Carnival, but they would not provide that - only a piece of paper that included a case number on it. On the 2nd to the last night, they also sent a few people from security up to our room after midnight to check up on things - It seemed strange and a little intimidating for security to get involved in the situation. Also, on the morning when we returned to our port in the US, one of us was held up by security when getting off the ship - She was pushed by someone into a security officer, and the security officer tried to say she had been shoved. It was a weird situation after we reported our room's floor issue and we feel we were hassled by Carnival security on the last day when we were leaving. I don't think Carnival wanted to make things better for us. Although we did enjoy the cruise overall, the handling of the floor issue in our room left us with a bad feeling. And we did feel like we enjoyed the Carnival Freedom more than the Vista. The Freedom was decorated more fancy (the walls and buffet dining area in the Vista were more plain), the buffet on the Freedom was organized better, and we feel like the staff on the Freedom was more friendly when we had problems (we were on the Freedom in July 2016). I talked to several other people on the Vista who also said they liked the Freedom better, and some others who said they were not very satisfied with the Vista cruise. One person I talked to even said she had been on 34 cruises and this Vista cruise was the worst one she had ever been on. Read Less

We selected the Vista because we wanted to try a newer ship. There was so much to do, to little time to do it all. We tried Fahrenheit 555, it was fabulous! The MDR was the usual Carnival experience. We didn’t have time to do or see all that was offered on the ship. I watched a short documentary at the IMAX. I was disappointed they didn’t have real popped popcorn. They did however have it for the Dive in movie on the Lido. His was the first time we didn’t see a comedy show. I loved the Skyride! I slipped and fell in the Lido Market Place, the carpet that leads into the market place by Guys Burgers was soaked. I have a badly bruised tailbone so I wasn’t able to do all that I had wanted to. In all, the ship was beautiful, it has issues with the flow and elevators took forever. We took the stairs a lot, until I fell. Embarkation was easy, debarkation was confusing to say the least. Public restrooms were clean and staff were always cleaning and wiping down public areas. Read Less