Carnival Vista wrapup

I haven’t, in the past, done wrapups of cruises, except the long ones. This cruise, on the Carnival Vista, was just 6 days. But it was remarkable in some ways, so I will do a quick wrapup.

Highlights:

• Casino winnings. I left the ship up $2,400 and Marlene was about $900 to the good. So we won, combined, about $3,300. This is incredible, especially since neither of us could recall ever winning anything in a cruise ship casino.
• The ports of call. We didn’t do anything spectacular in any of the ports – or much that was even memorable – but these ports (Nassau Bahamas, Amber Cove Dominican Republic and Grand Turk) were three new ports for me. Considering that I have done more than a dozen Caribbean cruises, being 3 for 3 on new ports is pretty amazing.
• The cost. The cruise itself cost just $250 (plus port taxes), an incredible bargain. Couple that with our casino winnings and it was, hands down, the best bang for the cruise buck ever.
• The in-cabin entertainment. The Vista had a large number of on-demand movies and some interesting TV channels (e.g., TCM). This makes the Vista way better than the Luminosa in this respect.

Lowlights:

• The buffet. This ship simply does not have enough serving stations for its 3,900 passengers. The breakfast lines the first morning were the longest we have ever seen – probably over 100 people in each station line. Simply unacceptable.
• The buffet food. It simply wasn’t very good or even interesting. The scrambled eggs at breakfast were runny and tasteless.
• The elevators. They were slow. And, like the buffet, were too few to serve the passenger volume. At disembarkation we, along with many others, walked our heavy luggage down rather than waiting perhaps an hour for an elevator.
• The condition of the ship. It had a “beat up” look. The exterior was rusty and the interior was dirty and worn. I was told that it is scheduled for refurbishment and it certainly needs it.

Other facilities – the pools, sports facilities, night clubs, comedy venues, etc. – were adequate (and better, in most cases, than the Luminosa). But I would expect no less.