Thoughts on the new Carnival Vista

[DCLDVC1]

Great review. I can't wait to try the Vista. The Family Harbor Suites and Lounge look awesome.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Loving this review...I sail her in 6 months!

You are going to love her, she's a wonderful ship and Matt Mitcham is an awesome CD

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Great review. I can't wait to try the Vista. The Family Harbor Suites and Lounge look awesome.

The Harbor Lounge was great looking, large buffet area and great seating. I didn't take any pics of it though.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

OTHER OUTDOOR AREAS: Also outside on decks 11-14 was the ropes course, Sky Ride*, miniature golf, foosball, ping pong, jogging track, a complete outdoor gym, basketball/volleyball court, 2 waterslides and an indoor area that had beverage service, miniature bowling lanes and a fun fusion game of soccer and pool+.







*Sky Ride is an overhead suspended bike ride on elevated from deck 14 that provides amazing view as you pedal your way around the deck. It was awesome up there but the line can get a little long, I heard some people waited about an hour for the chance to do this. We got up there about 10 minutes before they opened and were number 8 inline so we only waited 20 minutes max. It was a great time and I’d definitely do it again.





+Soccer and pool game was a huge pool table about 8” of the ground that you stood on and used balls slightly smaller than volleyballs to kick the solid and stripe balls into the pockets like pool. It was a great time and I’d love to have one of those in my house.



CABIN: As I said earlier, we only travel in connecting inside staterooms. DCL crushes the Vista in terms of space and décor, I really missed having a sofa to relax on while in the cabin, not that we spent that much time in there but it would have been nice to have one while I was waiting for my wife and kids to get ready at times. The beds were fine but not nearly as comfy as DCL and the linen quality didn’t come close, they are platforms frames so we were able to store our suitcases under them without any problems. On each side of the bed was a full nightstand with a door for tons of extra storage. The also had an LED light surrounding all four sides of the mirror at the vanity that my wife loved for doing her hair and makeup. The TV was fantastic, it was a 35”-42” LED with a great picture and was personalized with our names, every time we turned it on, it said “Welcome to ________, Justin and Jenna” and had a picture of the port we were in or a beautiful picture of the Mediterranean on the sea day. I also thought it was great that you could access all your pictures from these TV's as well as the Carnival Hub app on your phone. BTW, the app was fantastic for texting with eachother, it never failed. It also had the FUN Times (like the Navigator) on it





I thought that was a cool little thing they did for each room. I also really liked the showers in the bathroom and the fact they were a step in shower instead of needing to step over the side of the tub. We’re also at a point in our lives where we don’t need tubs because our kids our teens but I do understand the need for the tubs on DCL. There are also 2 very nice quality waffle weave robes in the closet of each cabin, I was shocked how many people I saw using them in the pool area.

SERVICE: All in all I thought the service on board was very good. The crew could be hit or miss just like I’ve experienced on DCL, but they did lack a certain amount of refinement that DCL trains their CM’s with. I did feel like the majority felt pride in their job and did their best to make the guests happy. Our main dining room server has worked for Carnival for 17 years, the only job he’s had since his early 20’s. Once again there wasn’t the over the top, do everything you can to oblige every request as you find on DCL, but that is ok with me. Our room steward was excellent! He took care of our cabins timely and efficiently, always smiled and addressed us by name in the halls and kept our cabin clean and stocked. He also made sure we had these babies every night!



Carnival just uses bulk shampoo/conditioner and bodywash in the showers in pump dispensers on the wall. There was hand soap at the sink and that was about it for bathroom amenities, no H2O products here.

CLEANLINESS: This is something I think we all feel is of high importance, and a huge reason while we continue to cruise with DCL. The cleanliness and maintenance of the Disney ships is truly remarkable. I did think the Vista was a very clean ship but didn’t see nearly the amount of general cleaning going on like I’m used to seeing on DCL. The funny thing about this is the perspective from DCL vs. non-DCL cruisers. My parents and aunt’s couldn’t believe how many people were constantly cleaning the ship, while my wife, kids and I couldn’t believe how few, (in comparison), there were. So it’s really not a matter of the crew not keeping it clean but for us who have become accustomed to the Disney way, it was certainly lacking. The higher ups at Carnival also made some bad choices for flooring on the Vista that show wear and spills very easily, better choices should have been made to disguise that kind of thing. An example of this is the carpet on the stairs and landings, plain dark brown carpet is not a good choice, it showed everything. Also, in the Lido Marketplace Buffet a very neutral cream tile would not have been my choice as a restaurant guy. But the colors did lend to a nice tranquil relaxed feeling overall on the ship and it was by far not a sensory overload of color and whimsy. Overall, I came to the conclusion that the Vista was clean but not pristine, that is the best way I can describe it. They also did not have crew members outside the buffet and MDR handing out hand wipes as you entered, they did have battery operated hand sanitizer’s at all the entrances and also in the buffet area they had quite a few of the water hand sanitizer’s that DCL has in the kids clubs, those things are great and I’d really like to put them in my restaurant!!

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

OTHER THINGS: On the last morning of the cruise the hotel team put together the “Towel Animal Invasion,” every lounge chair and many other surfaces at the pool had towel animals on them, it was incredibly cute and I can’t even begin to imagine how long it took them to do it. Upon a very close look I did notice the animals were held together with packing tape so they must store them for every sailing, it was a really cool sight to wake up to the last morning.







CRUISE DIRECTOR: For our cruise it was Matt Mitcham, he is young, very energetic, and a lot of fun. The CD plays quite a different role on Carnival than DCL, he was everywhere on the ship and led all the deck parties, and was really a huge part in our enjoyment of the cruise. He led the FUN Squad and they did a great job in all the activities on the ship.







This man could easily be my future son-in-law if my daughter had it her way!!!

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

THE SHIP ITSELF: I absolutely love the Disney Fantasy; as a vacation destination and as a mode of transportation. With that being said and as much as I didn’t think I’d ever utter these words: "I love the Carnival Vista equally, if not more." The layout was fantastic and the public areas just made sense and never felt crowded. There was never a lack of seats anywhere, and once again, we had over 4500 passengers 1500 crew members on board. Here are a few pictures of different areas that didn't quite make it into this report.




“Dreamscape” LED lighting effect in the Atrium, it spans deck 3-5 and changes colors/patterns all the time


Movie Screen from deck 12, the track in the background is the Sky Ride




Both above are the Red Frog Pub


Steak House: Fahrenheit 555


More of the Dreamscape



Atrium stairs



They served cake one afternoon at the pool for "World Ocean Day"

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Menu from the Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast, this was the only food we paid additional money for and it was a whopping $5/person


Daughters Green Eggs and Ham in the background and my son had cereal encrusted french toast



I had Steak and Eggs and it was fantastic, excellent Filet, not Ruth's Chris worthy but better than Outback


Interior hallway for the Cloud 9 Spa rooms, these are a different category of room that have unlimited access to the Cloud 9 Spa facility, similar to the Rainforest Room



Interior wall decor for the regular cabin hallways, it was definitely a Caribbean beach theme



Seafood Shack pay counter service restaurant. In my opinion a completely wasted part of the ship, hardly ever saw anyone there and I hope they do away with it.




And this is why I love cruising so much, you just can't see stuff like this anywhere else

FINAL VERDICT: So as you can probably already tell, we loved our 8 nights on the Carnival Vista. We had a ton of fun, felt safe, ate good food and just had a great experience, there is definitely a reason these are called the "Fun Ships." We enjoyed it in a different way than DCL, not better or worse, just different. We are all looking forward to our next trip on her for an 8 night Southern Caribbean, (Aruba, Curacao, Dominican Republic and Grand Turk), for 6/3/17. Once again, price drove us to the initial booking, only $5200 (including gratuity and insurance), for the 4 of us, whereas we would’ve been above the $10,000 mark for the same week on the Fantasy for a 7 night eastern cruise, (which we’ve already done). At this point we would consider other Carnival ships but probably just their Dream class ships, which was the class built before the Vista class. We are also looking at booking Vista II, (name hasn’t been released yet), in the Mediterranean for summer 2018. If Carnival follows the same timeline of Vista, they should start selling cabins in January 2017, maybe this time we can score a Havana Cabana! Does this mean we won’t be on DCL ever again? Not at all, both lines have something to offer us but in different ways. We have B2B Mexico cruises booked on the Wonder in October 2017 that we are looking forward to and who knows what else we’ll book in the meantime on other cruise lines. I’m so happy we tried the Vista as we’re no longer afraid to try something different and we realized we have no desire to be loyal to a certain cruise line. We can sail the itinerary and line that best suits us at the time we are looking to sail. Other cruise lines also offer us the chance to try different locations that unfortunately DCL just can't do yet because of the size of their fleet.

Thanks for reading this and I apologize for it being so long but I really don’t feel there is anything I could have left out. If you have any specific questions, please ask.

Happy Sailing,

Jack

 

[Disneymadhouse]

Thankyou for your report. We very nearly booked the Vista for this August. But DCL pulled us back! So we are on the Magic again, doing nearly the same itinerary as the Vista for more money, and one night less.

One thing that did put me off the Vista a little was the pool area. From what I remember from my research, there isn't a kids pool as such, and the water in the pools is salt water. Would you be able to clarify please. You know, just in case I am tempted again!

Claire

 

[Hundredacre]

Great trip report. Do you sign up for the dr.Seuss breakfast before getting on the ship?

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Thankyou for your report. We very nearly booked the Vista for this August. But DCL pulled us back! So we are on the Magic again, doing nearly the same itinerary as the Vista for more money, and one night less.

One thing that did put me off the Vista a little was the pool area. From what I remember from my research, there isn't a kids pool as such, and the water in the pools is salt water. Would you be able to clarify please. You know, just in case I am tempted again!

Claire

The main pool is deeper on the Vista but the deck 10 aft pool is not quite as deep. That pool was very quiet and peaceful. My pool at home is salt so I honestly don't notice when a pool is salt water or not.

 

[Love2Cruz]

I agree with you....though a bulk of my cruises have been on Carnival, this summer I tried MSC in the Mediterranean and am now a fan of them as well. No reason to limit yourself to one cruise line. I would like to try RCCL, but not their Oasis class ships, they are just too big though I would like to try their Freedom class.
I also love DCL but can only sail their short cruises due to price...I take a lot of vacations and if I can take two 7 day cruises for the price of one DCL...then I'm going with another cruise line. Maybe I'll snag a deal one day.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Great trip report. Do you sign up for the dr.Seuss breakfast before getting on the ship?

No, we made reservations the day we got on the ship and they charged our account the day before the breakfast. Typically, they only have the Dr Seuss breakfast on sea days and they also several other Dr Seuss activities that day. There were a couple games in ocean plaza, a parade and then the telling of the Cat in the Hat in the lounge with selected parents playing the roles of some characters, it was pretty funny.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

One other thing I just thought of which I liked about the phone app was I had instant access to my families on board account. It give me a running total of all of us plus it had the individual accounts. It was very nice.

And for what it's worth I never felt nickel and dimed. We told our kids they could each spend $10/day on specialty ice creams, shakes or desserts and they bought a couple virgin pina coladas and that's it.

We considered the steakhouse for dinner but decided against it. That reminds me also, CCL has some of the steaks from the steakhouse available in the MDR for a $20 up charge instead of the $35 steakhouse charge. You don't get the sides and desserts like in the steakhouse though.

Along this thought, if you eat in the steakhouse on embarkation day they give you a free bottle of house wine or 50% off any other bottle.

Also, for the European cruises they do not restrict alcohol being brought on board. People were allowed to bring whatever they wanted back on the ship at all ports, beer, wine and hard alcohol were all allowed.

 

[TestingH2O]

OTHER THINGS: On the last morning of the cruise the hotel team put together the “Towel Animal Invasion,” every lounge chair and many other surfaces at the pool had towel animals on them, it was incredibly cute and I can’t even begin to imagine how long it took them to do it. Upon a very close look I did notice the animals were held together with packing tape so they must store them for every sailing, it was a really cool sight to wake up to the last morning.

What a fun idea! I would love to see that.

Dreamscape” LED lighting effect in the Atrium, it spans deck 3-5 and changes colors/patterns all the time

Oooh! That's very cool looking.

Daughters Green Eggs and Ham in the background and my son had cereal encrusted french toast

I cannot imagine how excited my daughter would be to see that French toast.

I didn't realize Vista II was already in process until recently. DD will be 6 in the summer of 2018. My parents are interested in going back to Europe too. I'll have to keep my eye on that. The Southern route is also interesting.

I'm more than willing to explore other lines, but it's tough convincing the rest of the family right now.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

What a fun idea! I would love to see that.

Oooh! That's very cool looking.

I cannot imagine how excited my daughter would be to see that French toast.

I didn't realize Vista II was already in process until recently. DD will be 6 in the summer of 2018. My parents are interested in going back to Europe too. I'll have to keep my eye on that. The Southern route is also interesting.

I'm more than willing to explore other lines, but it's tough convincing the rest of the family right now.

My daughter was the biggest sceptic in our family and now she's the biggest Carnival cheerleader of the 4 of us. Go figure.

I just read last night on cruise critic that Vista III will be in 2020, I don't know if that's true or not though.

 

[LeslieG]

I've been looking forward to your review. I was on the same Vista sailing, and I loved the ship. I have sailed about 13 times on DCL, and my biggest complaint is their lack of dining options. I really love the anytime dining concept, and plus Vista had so many other options for lunch and dinner. Loved Guy's Burgers. And having sailed DCL so many times, then menus are the same, the shows are the same, the activities are the same. I'm just getting kind of bored with it. The Vista had so many things to do and so many places to eat, we just scratched the surface on our 8 day cruise because of it being so port intensive. We are anxiously awaiting the release of the dates, pricing and itineraries for Vista 2 for Europe in 2018.

I agree about the poor design choice for carpeting and such. It did appear in constant need of cleaning, but I actually did see a lot of cleaning going on in the common areas. The whole ship has a very modern design feel to it.

I'm actually considering another Vista cruise just so I can concentrate on the ship and what it has to offer since I feel like we missed so much.

Our cabin was on deck 6, and I really enjoyed going down just one deck to the deck 5 outside seating areas. Really some nice seating areas to relax, catch up on emails, etc., plus there was hardly anybody there. Did not like the full wall plexiglass though.

Another thing I really liked was the way they price their internet packages. It's just a flat rate. You don't have to worry about minutes used or MG used. And there's a few different packages. The most was I think $99 for the whole cruise.

We had an inside sideways cabin, and I thought they were just as spacious as the Disney ships. The beds were not as comfortable as DCL though. Loved the big TV. Some of the on demand movies were free, others were $4.99 I think. Would have liked them all to be free, as we spent quite a bit of time in our cabin in the evenings because we were so tired from the day's touring.

Also liked the Carnival app where you could see your photos and download them directly to your phone after purchase.

The food quality was on par with DCL, and I agree the desserts were much better. I give DCL the nod though on their soft serve ice cream. We found the dining room to be better than the buffet. There was always lots of seating available at the buffet, but I thought the set-up was confusing. I also thought there could have been a larger offering and better variety throughout the cruise too.

Bottom line, I would choose Vista over DCL any day of the week for half the price. Inside cabin was 819pp. Our 8 days flew by. It wasn't long enough to enjoy all the ship had to offer.

Thanks for the great review, Club Disney Chandler.

 

[LoverDisney]

Thanks for the report. We are booked on the Disney Dream (3 days) in this August and this our first cruise. I know that I will book our next cruise with Disney in 2018 which will be a 4 day cruise. However, for longer cruises I may look elsewhere due to the price differences. I have heard mixed reviews about the Carnival Cruise line, but your report has me reconsidering them for our future cruises.

 

[LeslieG]

Thanks for the report. We are booked on the Disney Dream (3 days) in this August and this our first cruise. I know that I will book our next cruise with Disney in 2018 which will be a 4 day cruise. However, for longer cruises I may look elsewhere due to the price differences. I have heard mixed reviews about the Carnival Cruise line, but your report has me reconsidering them for our future cruises.

I definitely am not comparing Carnival as a whole to DCL. The Vista is awesome, but their older ships are not in the same league as DCL, at least in my opinion.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

I've been looking forward to your review. I was on the same Vista sailing, and I loved the ship. I have sailed about 13 times on DCL, and my biggest complaint is their lack of dining options. I really love the anytime dining concept, and plus Vista had so many other options for lunch and dinner. Loved Guy's Burgers. And having sailed DCL so many times, then menus are the same, the shows are the same, the activities are the same. I'm just getting kind of bored with it. The Vista had so many things to do and so many places to eat, we just scratched the surface on our 8 day cruise because of it being so port intensive. We are anxiously awaiting the release of the dates, pricing and itineraries for Vista 2 for Europe in 2018.

I agree about the poor design choice for carpeting and such. It did appear in constant need of cleaning, but I actually did see a lot of cleaning going on in the common areas. The whole ship has a very modern design feel to it.

I'm actually considering another Vista cruise just so I can concentrate on the ship and what it has to offer since I feel like we missed so much.

Our cabin was on deck 6, and I really enjoyed going down just one deck to the deck 5 outside seating areas. Really some nice seating areas to relax, catch up on emails, etc., plus there was hardly anybody there. Did not like the full wall plexiglass though.

Another thing I really liked was the way they price their internet packages. It's just a flat rate. You don't have to worry about minutes used or MG used. And there's a few different packages. The most was I think $99 for the whole cruise.

We had an inside sideways cabin, and I thought they were just as spacious as the Disney ships. The beds were not as comfortable as DCL though. Loved the big TV. Some of the on demand movies were free, others were $4.99 I think. Would have liked them all to be free, as we spent quite a bit of time in our cabin in the evenings because we were so tired from the day's touring.

Also liked the Carnival app where you could see your photos and download them directly to your phone after purchase.

The food quality was on par with DCL, and I agree the desserts were much better. I give DCL the nod though on their soft serve ice cream. We found the dining room to be better than the buffet. There was always lots of seating available at the buffet, but I thought the set-up was confusing. I also thought there could have been a larger offering and better variety throughout the cruise too.

Bottom line, I would choose Vista over DCL any day of the week for half the price. Inside cabin was 819pp. Our 8 days flew by. It wasn't long enough to enjoy all the ship had to offer.

Thanks for the great review, Club Disney Chandler.

I agree about the plexiglass, I wasn't a big fan but I LOVED all of deck 5.

Do you have any pics of your cabin? We're in those for our next Vista cruise.

 

[Sytrace]

Thank you for the great review, Jack!

I really think we need to try this out or at least another newer ship in Carnivals fleet as we have only be on one of the older ships. The pictures are fantastic too!