Great cabin. Well designed. Only complaint is that the patio doors "slam" loudly so we were woken up in the mornings by neighbor kids going in and out of their balconies. Family harbour lounge is a tremendous feature.

I liked Pisa, but Carnival's excursion was awful and we never booked any more. $200 for a bus ride with 80 people, a monotone guide who spoke through walk-talkie earpieces which were inaudible, standing around talking on the sidewalk instead of going in to see the sights. My daughter and I ditched the group and explored on our own which was way more fun.

English speaking driver picked up our family and drove us around in a nice Mercedes van. He pre-purchased skip the line tickets for us at the Colosseum and Vatican, and even made lunch reservations for us to meet my mother while in Rome for lunch by the Trevi fountain. He took us all around Rome's most popular historic sites, was informative, interactive and personable. This personal private tour cost the same as Carnival wanted for a large-group bus tour. Be warned: Colosseum and Vatican are outrageously crowded. We literally mosh-pitted out way through the Vatican and had little opportunity to actually view or absorb anything.

We hired a private guide to take our family to Pompeii, Herculaneum and Mount Vesuvius in a Mercedes van. Our driver, Gino, was a fun colourful character who liked to sing Italian music and doted on our kids. The company provided an English speaking private  tour guide solely for our family to help us interpret the Pompeii and Herculaneum sites. Benedicto is an actual archaeologist who studies and works on the excavations at both sites when not giving tours for extra cash. Even our young children were transfixed for the 4 hours of archaeological guiding. Gino then took us for lunch and up to hike Mount Vesuvius before taking us back to port. Again, this private tour cost the same as a Carnival bus tour with 80 people and walkie-talkies. This was the highlight of our trip.

Hired a an English speaking driver off the boat. We said we wanted to go to Knossos then Elounda for Lunch and Agios Nikolas, which he did before dropping us at the Heraklion Museum. Great trip. Again, half the cost of what Carnival wanted for a big bus tour (we saw those poor sods at Knossos all bunched up, listening to walkie talkies, unable to see or hear anything).

Our family hired an English speaking driver off the boat. SAid we wanted to see Lindos, some Villages, and hit the beach. The driver had a Phd and was highly informative throughout the trip. He took us to Lindos, an ancient monastery, a nice beach (where we had a languid lunch at his friend's beachside Taverna), a centuries old family-held ceramics shop off the beaten path (we dropped too much money there - the family spoiled us and doted on us exclusively), and ultimately his own residence where he had large orchards  -giving us bags of fresh grapes and oranges. He dropped us in Rhodos which is a beautiful old walled city founded by the crusaders. He charged me 270 Euro for 7 hours of driving my family all over the Island and taking us anywhere we wanted, adn to neat places we never thought of. I highly recommend hiring Greek drivers to guide you over a large group bus excursion.

Notre Dame de La Garda was nice, but the city itself is ugly and covered in Graffiti.Cab drivers at the port were rude and scammy

Marseille

Did not get a lot of time to see the city.

Barcelona

- We were charged a mandatory $500 fee for "gratuities" at the end of the cruise, despite having already paid a 15% mandatory gratuity which was added to all of our food and beverage purchases on board, plus the "extra" tips we felt obligated to pay when presented with our bills each night which had a nice blank "gratuity" line inviting you to tip more above and beyond the 15% already added to the bill.At the end of the cruise our sail & sign account ($3,000 USD) was almost equal to what we paid for our room ($3200 net of port fees), despite our family having spent 7 days of the 10 day cruise on shore eating our main meals in the local restaurants!

Carnival Vista Review

Fun, clean and pretty with lots to do, but expensive.

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Family Harbor Cove Balcony

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Marseille

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