We sailed on the Carnival Vista in October 2017 after not sailing with Carnival for years and were so impressed with the Vista we decided to sail with Carnival again. Part of this decision was based on the itinerary as well as a pretty competitive price. Overall we really enjoyed our cruise but we probably won't be sailing with Carnival again for a while especially during a holiday week. The exception to this would possibly be sailing in the Havana area of one of the Vista class ships but Carnival is really increasing the prices for those cabins since we sailed in one. More on that at the end of this review.

Being that this was a cruise over Thanksgiving week we expected the embarkation process to be difficult but it was incredible. We were scheduled to board the ship between 1:00-1:30, arrived at the ship about 12:45 or so and we onboard by 1:00. Our room wasn't ready until about 2:00 but still a very impressive embarkation process.

The ship was in overall pretty good condition but did show it's age in places. The decor was a bit odd at first but we got used to those funky eyeball things in the atrium. I personally liked a lot of the whimsical artwork in the stairways. The crew was constantly cleaning the ship and although I heard people complaining about the condition of the ship I thought overall it was pretty good. There were odd things about the layout of the ship though. It seemed you couldn't get anywhere without passing thru the casino which had a terrible smell of cigarette smoke. The adults only serenity area is located right next to Waterworks and is not very serene (even my 23 year old daughter thought that was odd). The entertainment was about average with the main shows being a little weak IMO. The comedians were all pretty good although one of them was simply insulting people for his comedy and just left everyone not really finding him funny. It was easy to find a seat in all venues and sight lines good regardless of where seated. The food on the ship was excellent in the main dining room but the buffet was probably the worst on any ship I've sailed on with the first two days being almost inedible. An odd thing is that the only drink available in the buffet other than water was iced tea or lemonade and both were terrible. Actually both were usually empty and would just trickle into your glass and it seemed they never were refilled. Read more