We stayed in the family harbor cabin which had 2 showers and access to a private lounge for family harbor guests. While the family harbor lounge could be nice, the ship did not have anywhere to place dirty dishes - so it was always a mess. Our cruise nightmare began when we had to wait three hours to embark on the ship when we arrived at our scheduled time. Apparently, Carnival was late arriving to port in Miami which began the spiral effect of waiting line hell - e.g. in the heat the cruise ship even ran out of water to give people sweating in line and the bathrooms had no toilet paper. Carnival tried to make up time to reach ports which created a high degree of motion on the ship - many passengers were sick or unable to sleep due to the extreme rocking motion. Next, we were told that the ship was unable to dock in Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos due to the weather. Carnival did not find an alternative port or try to compensate guests in any way - e.g. at least a free drink for each passenger for the inconvenience. Carnival customer service people need training in service recovery as they continued to quote Carnival terms and conditions stating that they did not need to do anything for passengers if the itinerary changed due to weather. However, guests that had been up for hours stated that Carnival did not try to dock at all.

The food in the dining room was horrible and the service was so slow - the lobster on "formal" night was like rubber. Do not expect late night buffets or special food during your cruise on the Vista. At night, your only option outside of the dining room hours is 24 hour pizza. Unless you budget to eat at the specialty restaurants every night, you will have bad food. The room service options are also extremely limited on this cruise - so that does not become an option after a bad meal.

The cruise director is great and does try to make the ship fun - but he does not have a lot to work with as the quality of the shows is pretty low. To compensate, he tries to make the shows more interactive by ending as a dance party in the Liquid Lounge. The other theme for this cruise is everything is an extra charge - from poolside fast serve restaurants (e.g. seafood shack) to the theaters. When you add up all the extra charges coupled with poor service and food, you will be much better off booking on another cruise line.