Carnival Vista Review
Huge disappointment and may have been the end to us cruising with Carnival!
Rating by category
Additional details
We chose this cruise because it was a new ship and we used to love carnival. We have not been on a cruise for several years because we built a cabin in the mountains and were spending our vacations there for a while. We remembered how we were waited on and pampered and the wonderful food and just how relaxed we were after cruising the more than 2 dozen cruises we went on....so, we thought it was time and booked the Vista because it was a new ship and stated that it had lots to offer. We did not come back feeling good about much at all. 8 days to the exotic southern Caribbean February 11 -19, 2017 on the Vista changed how we viewed cruising and the Carnival Line all together.
We live in Florida, so Leaving out of Miami was no big deal.
Embarkation was Smooth...No problem...took about an hour.
Cabin Review
Balcony
The rooms were nice and we met our cabin steward which was the best part of our trip. He was wonderful! Everyone on board that we spoke to had a really good experience with their cabin stewards. The problem with our room was that we purchased a balcony cabin...it wasn't the lowest level cabin either. It was mid-range level Balcony. When we walked on the balcony... there was no privacy at all. The balcony was one floor up from a jet out of the barbeque restaurant. Who ever was on the lower deck can talk to you and see into your room. It was loud and noisy all day because it was a restaurant open for lunch and at night, people would sit out there and talk, smoke or whatever and we couldn't sit out on the balcony and have any privacy. Also, the lights were on which made it bright in our cabin and we always had to keep the blinds closed or people could see in. I did go down and complain, but they told me that they were full to capacity.
Port Reviews
La Romana (Casa de Campo)
we were told in the excursion orientation that you shouldn't get off the ship and there was nothing to do if you didn't have an excursion booked. We liked a few but they were booked up and nothing else was worth spending that kind of money to us, so we didn't leave the ship. That was disappointing
Bonaire
We did walk to the town and shopped, but again...over booked cruise, couldn't get the excursion you wanted so we didn't book one.
Grand Turk
we stayed at the beach near the ship...it was nice, but there were two ships in port that day. We were good for an hour, got a chair and it was nice...then it got so packed you couldn't see the water. People were crammed in every square inch. we left and went back to the ship.
Aruba
we weren't in port long and we wanted to see the island and go to the beach. we hired a taxi driver for a tour with another couple we met on the ship and had a nice 2 hour tour and drop off at the beach. We did enjoy that. The reason I gave it 3 stars is because we were only in port till 3:30...hardly enough time to see ARUBA. such a long trip for a few hours.