My latest cruise adventure has quite a bit of a backstory to it. Originally, I was booked on the Carnival Vista out of Port Canaveral for an 8-day cruise with stops in Aruba, Curacao, and Grand Turk, sailing on September 7, 2024. However, as I’ve written about in different articles here and here, that particular cruise was canceled due to ongoing issues with the ship’s azipods, which will require the ship to be taken out of service for repairs.
More Trouble for Carnival Vista: Cruise Cancelled Amid Ongoing Propulsion Issues
I think we can all sympathize with those who were planning on a fun vacation, suddenly having it canceled on them days before embarkation. This was the case with some friends of mine who I was supposed to be sailing with. They don’t have the flexibility I have and were left scrambling to find an alternate cruise or some other type of vacation to fill the void.
They managed to book a shorter sailing for the same week on the Carnival Conquest out of Miami, which, as of today, I won’t be on… but you never know, as much of my travel plans are done very (extremely) last minute. Which is why I’m on the Vista right now!
A little before 4 p.m. on Thursday (8/29), I got a call from my Carnival rep asking if I wanted to get on the Vista on September 1st. This cruise had its itinerary modified due to the ship’s issues, and there were a LOT of people canceling it as they didn’t have any desire to go to Freeport and Nassau in the Bahamas.
It was one of those offers that you couldn’t refuse—a free inside stateroom, just pay taxes and port fees. I took her up on it but upgraded to a balcony stateroom for $130, and here I am. So let’s get to it!
This six-day adventure will sail close to home since the ship’s speed is limited due to one of the azipods being out of service. So, in addition to Freeport and Nassau, we’ll also be stopping at Holland America Line’s private island, Half Moon Cay. Carnival Corporation, which also owns Holland America, recently announced that beginning in 2026, they will be utilizing this island even more for Carnival Cruise Line ships once a new pier is built that will be able to accommodate Carnival’s Excel-class vessels (Mardi Gras, Celebration, and Jubilee).
Carnival to Visit Half Moon Cay More Often Beginning 2026 Once Pier Built
Saturday afternoon, I received a text and email from Carnival advising guests to delay arrival at Port Canaveral by 30 minutes. Normally, ships get into port starting around 5:00 a.m., but with Vista unable to sail at top speed, she was not going to dock until 9 a.m.
Now, knowing that the ship would not be in port until 9 a.m. and the time it takes for customs to clear the ship before passengers are allowed to disembark, asking people to just wait an additional 30 minutes was just ridiculous.
Normally, if debarkation begins at exactly 7 a.m., if you’re lucky, embarkation for the next cruise would begin around 10 a.m. once the ship reaches a zero passenger count.
That’s three hours.
With Vista arriving at 9 a.m., theoretically, embarkation would begin around noon.
I arrived at Port Canaveral a little before 1 p.m. and was greeted with a complete cluster! Boarding started around 12:45 p.m., and they had lines of people snaking around the outside of the terminal, backed up inside the parking garage. There were no Carnival representatives going around telling anyone what was happening, just a single security guard pointing people to the end of the line. There was no access to bathrooms, so one family had their kids use the parking garage as a toilet. To top it off, it was drizzling.
People were angry, and rightfully so.
At 2:20 p.m., I finally made it inside the terminal to security, and at 2:40 p.m., I arrived at my stateroom.
To say this was the absolute worst embarkation experience in nearly 100 cruises is an understatement. But the fun didn’t stop there.
Once onboard, the cruise director was making repeated announcements asking all guests to proceed to their assigned muster stations to scan in. Since COVID, nearly all the cruise lines have switched to self-mustering, or e-mustering. Instead of grabbing your life jacket and heading to your assigned lifeboat station, now all you do is go to your assigned meeting place, have your cruise card scanned, and you’re good to go.
With this new way of mustering, I’d hate to be in a situation where you needed to abandon ship, as nobody would have a clue what to do!
With it being 3 p.m. and our sail-away time set for 4 p.m., it was off to the muster station. I was met with yet another long line and plenty of angry, miserable, and frustrated passengers. There was one crew member scanning cards, and the process was taking forever. He was joined by another crew member who kept attempting to scan cards with her device, but her device wasn’t working.
Passengers who went to her were directed to go to the other crew member, who had his own people to contend with.
After getting my card scanned, I went back to the room to unpack and get away from the chaos that was unfolding downstairs.
For this cruise, I’m booked in a standard balcony stateroom, 8336, on deck 8 forward. The room has two twin beds that can be combined to a full and a pull-out sofa. USB ports and power outlets are limited, as there are only two of each located at the desk.
The bathroom itself is your standard Carnival bathroom that’s found on all non-Excel-class ships—plastic sink/vanity and a shower with the dreaded shower curtain.
The balcony has a small table and two chairs. It’s not the largest balcony, but it does have enough room where you can sit in the chair facing the ocean rather than having to sit sideways. Yes, I have had balcony rooms where you had to do that as it was VERY narrow!
Carnival Vista Balcony Stateroom 8336 Tour
This is my second time on a Vista-class ship, the first being the Carnival Horizon, and the layout and amenities are exactly the same. There are just a few design tweaks and name changes to venues; otherwise, it’s cut and paste. I’ll discuss the condition of the ship, some of its public spaces, etc., throughout the week, so be sure to stay tuned!
One thing I did not like on Horizon is the atrium, and my feelings are the same with Vista. The atrium is very bright and sterile and just doesn’t feel welcoming for some reason. The large LED signature element, while cool ten years ago, suddenly feels dated and cheap.
At 4 p.m., the party was up on the Lido deck for the sail away, where the Fun Squad was ready to turn frustrations into smiles with the signature kickoff party of the cruise. After all, a Carnival cruise would not be complete without the Cha Cha Slide.
We were joined in port by Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas, which left first, followed by the Vista, and then MSC Seashore. As we departed Port Canaveral, there weren’t any SpaceX rockets on the dock, but the autonomous drone ship, “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” was docked. Just a few days earlier, a Falcon 9 rocket landed, then toppled over on this ship, which prompted a brief grounding of Falcon 9 launches by the FAA.
For dinner, I decided to hit up the ship’s Italian restaurant, Cucina del Capitano. On Carnival’s Excel-class ships, the menu is slightly different, and guests can dine once for free. On non-Excel-class ships, Cucina will set you back $24 per person, an increase from $18 per person when I was on Horizon EXACTLY one year ago, September 1, 2023!
I didn’t make a reservation, but walked up to the restaurant at 8 p.m. and was given a nice table by the window. My server, Sharon, came over to introduce herself, take my drink order, and drop off some “fresh baked bread,” which turned out to be cold.
A bit disappointing, as that bread is delicious!
I started off with the antipasto, which was an assortment of Italian meats, olives, and eggplant. A solid choice and something you can’t really screw up!
Next was the mussels and clams. Normally, this appetizer has mussels and clams, both of which are in the shell, as shown below.
However, this particular time, the clams were… clam strips.
Not sure if this is the “new” way of preparing the dish or they were out of clams, but regardless, it was a tasty dish even though the clams may have been from a can.
For the main course, I went with the Tomahawk Pork Chop and a side of gnocchi. The chop was cooked medium, quite tender, but wasn’t seasoned. A good grind of salt and pepper on it brought it to life and saved the dish.
The gnocchi added that bit of starch, but I regretted not getting a side of pasta instead, as they were quite boring and bland.
I skipped dessert.
After dinner, I wandered around the ship and stopped at various places for a few cocktails. My first stop was at the atrium bar, where I asked for a Hendrick’s and tonic:
“We don’t have Hendrick’s.”
How about Tanqueray?
“We don’t have Tanqueray.”
What do you have?
“We only have Bombay.”
Ok, can I have it with a lime?
“We don’t have limes, but I have lemons.”
I then went over to the Alchemy Bar, which is always the most popular bar on any Carnival ship due to their craft cocktails, where I happened to run into someone I worked with at Walt Disney World. They were waiting for someone to come take their drink order, so I hung around and waited with them.
15 minutes later, without anyone coming to take the drink order, I left.
Over to the Red Frog Pub, where the beer pong tournament was taking place and the “bros” were doing their best “bro-ing.” One of them came over to the bar where I was sitting and yelled, “where’s the bartender!” I said he just went in the back.
The bro proceeded to go behind the bar and knock on the door to get the bartender.
I said, “are you that desperate for a drink?”
“Yeah, I’m desperate.”
He then proceeded to order a Long Island “really, extra strong” and made it a point to tell the bartender, “there’s a $10 in it for you if you make it really, really strong.”
He was visibly intoxicated and probably should have been served a “strong” bottle of water, but he got his Long Island and went back to doing what bros do best… whatever that is.
I was going to end the night with a cigar under the stars, but it turned out to be raining, so I called it a night.
On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, Day 1 of this adventure was about a 1.5 due to the chaotic, disorganized mess of embarkation and mustering, and a few dings for the evening bar service.
Day 2 will be spent at sea as we head towards our first port of call, Half Moon Cay. As always, thanks for following along, bro.
Fun Times for Day 1:
The Fun Times for September 1, 2024 can also be downloaded as a PDF by clicking here.