We chose the Vista simply for one reason---it was a brand new ship. We'd been on the Breeze a few years ago just months after it got to Miami and were very happy. We've now been on several Carnival ships (and NCL and Celebrity) and consider ourselves loyal CCL cruisers! First of all, let me say that a few negative things about the ship itself did NOT ruin the cruise for us! The weather was beautiful for January and we loved the ports we went to.

Embarkation started off strangely. We had selected a "check-in" time of 11-11:30am several weeks before. To this day, I have NO IDEA what that meant! We arrived at about 10:30--asked about the 11:00 check-in and were told to just wait in line. We were given "Zone 3" and sat down.

We had a balcony cabin and were very happy with this. Our cabin steward was great! We both thought, though, that this regular balcony seemed a little smaller than on previous ships. We had two small lounge chairs and a table and we always seemed to be moving out of the way of the door. Read more