Prior to sailing on the Vista earlier this year, the Dream class (Dream, Magic, Breeze) was by far my favorite class of ship. Based on some of the reviews I had read, I expected that would remain the case after sailing on the Vista. I was wrong. I left that ship torn on which class was my favorite.

Atrium

On Vista I love the dreamscape and that they added more seats to the bar making it a full circle bar. The additional seating is a step up putting them on the same level as the rest of the bar stools but on a shorter stool. I’m not a fan of sitting at those bar stools but I think that’s good for people who can’t climb up on a full size stool. And if the regular bar stools are full I’d rather have one of those seats than no seat.

I like that they moved the stage back from the bar. On the Dream class the stage is directly over the bar making it difficult to see if you’re sitting at the bar.

The big losses going from Dream to Vista are the glass elevators and the fact that you could see all the way down into the atrium from deck 10. They used that empty space to put in the multiplex. I do like having the multiplex available in case there’s a rainy sea day.

Room

If you’ve read my reviews, you know for me the rooms are about location, location, location. I always try to book a lido inside room. I won’t be able to speak about the differences specific to ocean view or balcony rooms.

Here is the quick overview look at my rooms on Dream, Breeze, and Vista.

The first thing that stood out to me was the size and quality of the television in this Vista room compared to the other ships.

The Vista TV has multiple ship cameras with much better quality than the Dream class. I left the ship camera on all the time during the day. It was like a virtual window. On the Dream and Breeze I almost never used the ship cam channels.

The next difference I noticed was the lack of a third closet. My belief is that the removal of that third closet aided in the upgrading of the air conditioning unit for the room. The AC was significantly better than any cruise ship room I’ve stayed in.

The desk is smaller. But you really have two of them with one under the television.

Vista adds a second power outlet and two USB connections. The Dream class doesn’t have USB connections at the Desk. Dream has only one power outlet while the Breeze has two. They are adding lamps that have USB connections on the Dream as existing lamps need to be replaced. In my two cruises on the Dream last year, I did not get one with a USB lamp.

Another small upgrade is the refrigerator cabinet opens along the wall where on the Dream class it opened in the middle of the room. This can be significant for those who believe leaving that door open keeps the items in the refrigerator colder.

There weren’t many changes in the bathroom. I do wonder if this hat rack would impact the people who use over the door shoe organizers in the bathroom.

The bathroom door is more difficult to open or close but if you open it halfway, it will stay open halfway.

I would recommend using caution when it comes to connecting rooms on the vista. This particular room is not a connecting room on the other ships I’ve been on. I didn’t expect that to change on Vista but it did. As a result I could hear everything that went on in the next room and I felt like I couldn’t turn on the TV late at night because I knew they would hear it.

Internet

I know some prefer to totally disconnect on vacation. But for those who want or need to stay connected, the Vista class offers a significant upgrade.

My internet opinions are based on the premium plan. I can’t speak to the value or social plans.

Last year Carnvial added a ton of wireless access points on the Vista class ships, including one in each cabin.

Normally when I get on a ship I stay on my AT&T plan and don’t switch to the ship WiFi until I lose AT&T. That results in me not having very good internet in the cabin. On Vista I switched immediately and had good enough internet in my cabin to stream audio and video.

This success continued all over the ship for the entire week. I never had a problem streaming audio or video on the Vista internet. I was able to upload pictures and videos at will all week.

On the Dream class streaming audio was rare and video streaming was non-existent. I could upload pictures but not videos. There would always be one night where it would take multiple attempts to upload a picture. Most days it would take less than a minute to upload a picture. But usually one night per cruise it would take 5-10 minutes to upload a picture.

Main Dining Room

I always book Your Time Dining so I won’t be able to speak to the differences of assigned dining on the two ship classes.

On Breeze and Dream the Your Time Dining was in the midship dining room. They sent everyone to the deck 3 dining room entrance by the atrium to check-in.

I always arrived within the first 30 minutes of the dining period and I always had to wait in line. On most nights that line was short. On elegant nights and the final night of the cruise, that line was usually longer.

On Vista they added a Your Time Dining check-in desk on the promenade deck next to the coffee shop.

They also added an option to check-in on the hub app.

If you prefer to walk up to the dining room and check-in (as I do) that option is available on both the 3rd and 4th decks. I tried that on both decks and never had to wait.

You can check-in at the desk on promenade deck as early as 30 minutes prior to the opening of Your Time Dining. The other options don’t open until Your Time Dining begins.

They added bar seating to the Vista dining room, which is where I chose to sit. It was usually empty or near empty and I had some good conversations with the bartender. He was from Dominica and his daughter graduated from the same college as I did.

Sea Day brunch seemed about the same on both Dream and Vista class ships. They both had long lines during peak times. I would usually show up a little later (10:30-11am) for a short line or no line.

Additional Dining Options

To my knowledge all ships in both classes have the following with litte to no difference between them: Lido Buffet, Deli, 24 hour pizza, Guy’s burgers, BlueIguana Cantina, Guy’s BBQ, Seafood Shack, and an Italian restaurant on deck 11 that serves pasta for lunch.

The Vista class ships have split that deck 11 Italian area in half and have JiJi’s Asian restaurant in the other half.

JiJi’s serves as a sit down Mongolian Wok during lunch where the Dream class has their Mongolian Wok in the buffet.

JiJi’s quickly became one of my favorite lunch spots. I really like the wontons they serve and the ability to order Mongolian Wok off of a menu.

While Dream and Breeze have a Bonsai sushi restaurant, Vista has a larger one. Horizon and Panorama add a Bonsai Teppanyaki.

Comedy Club

This area and the main lounge are the source of the majority of the complaints I’ve heard about the Vista class.

The Dream class has a nice big comedy club in the back of the ship with plenty of seating, a full size bar, and a good amount of standing room only in both the bar area and the back of the club. It is my favorite comedy club setup.

In order to put the Havana bar and pool area in the back of the ship on Vista, they had to move the comedy club. They moved it to deck 4 which is largely underutilized on the Dream. Dream and Magic have a conference room in this area. Breeze does have the thrill theater down there.

The problem with the comedy club on Vista is they made it too small. They removed the bar. They have a set of two doors in the front of the club and two doors in the back of the club but they only allow you to use the two doors in the back. In retrospect they should’ve put four doors in the back.

Standing room only is almost nonexistent. I did it a couple of times. There’s one small area where you can stand and not be blocking anyone. If you stand there you’re blocking the door to the service bar. Since there is no bar all of the drinks come from the service bar. If you stand in front of the entrance doors people are coming in and out. Employees come in and out. I’ve seen them rolling ice chests to and from the bar during a comedy show.

The Comedy Club is one of my favorite parts of the Dream class and my least favorite part of the Vista class.

Main Lounge

The Main lounge is the other controversial area on Vista class. It was designed to be more versatile. It has a full bar and removable seating on the lower level. This is because it was intended to double as a night club. That idea didn’t work out as they planned and the comedy club now doubles as the night club, leaving them stuck with a main lounge that has less overall seating due to a bar and removable seating they never have to remove.

I didn’t experience problems with a lack of seating in the main lounge on Vista. I would imagine it’s more of a problem during spring break and summer when there are three times as many children on board.

Bar serivce is better with a full bar in the lounge. On the downside that also adds the distraction of lights, bottles banging, blenders running, and people talking during the shows.

They did have a late night comedy showcase in the Main Lounge two nights. It was a great venue for comedy.

Night Club

As I mentioned the main lounge was initially intended to double as a night club, which is why it was built with removable seating and a full bar.

They have since decided that wasn’t a good idea, moving the night club to the comedy club. The comedy club also has removable seating but lacks a bar.

When the Vista comedy club transforms into a night club they remove seating and bring in a mobile bar with a single bartender. As you can imagine, the line gets long. I used the beverage servers.

They had a limited menu which included only domestic beer. In ten cruises this marked the first time I drank a domestic beer on a ship.

The Dream Class has a dedicated night club with a full bar and 2-3 bartenders. If I order a beer they don’t have, one of the bartenders will go to another bar to get it.

Laundry Room

The laundry rooms on Vista are much larger than the ones on the Dream class. On Vista there is plenty of room to move around. There’s even seating if you want to wait for your laundry. On Dream you struggle to get more than two people in there.

Forward Elevators

I don’t like the forward elevator system on the Vista. They have it where certain elevators go to certain decks. It doesn’t impact me much because I’m usually going between 3 and 10. And all of them go to those decks. But if you’re on deck 1 or 2, not every elevator goes to your deck.

The bad part is if I want a chance at every possible elevator, I have to hit three sets of buttons. If I do that and get on one elevator, the other two sets will stay lit until an elevator from each set stops on that floor. As a result the elevators end up stopping on a lot of floors where nobody is waiting for an elevator.

Bars

The Vista Class destroys the Dream on bars. If you are on the Dream and the Alchemy, Casino and Atrium bars are full, you’re pretty much out of luck for indoor bars. Breeze and Magic do add the Red Frog Pub next to the Alchemy.

On Vista if the Alchemy bar is full you have the Steakhouse bar right next to it. Or you could walk past the Alchemy to the Red frog pub. You can walk past the Red Frog pub and get to the Ocean Plaza bar. If you walk past Ocean plaza you come to the Havana bar. Go downstairs and you have the Sports bar, the Casino bar, and the Atrium bar. There is no lack of places to drink on the Vista class.

Since the Dream doesn’t have a Sports Bar or Red Frog Pub, the Casino Bar gets extremely crowded at night. Breeze and Magic have TVs inside and outside of the Red Frog Pub allowing it to double as a Sports Bar and relieving some of the stress the Dream has on it’s Casino Bar.

Other Activities

Vista has the Dream beat in this area as well. The Thrill Theater, IMAX, Sky Ride, and Ropes Course are all things the Dream is missing. Breeze does have a Thrill Theater and a Ropes course.

On Vista the Thrill Theater, IMAX, Arcade, and Kids Club are all located in the deck 6 forward area. I found that you see less kids running all over the ship at night with all of those facilities in that area away from the bars and lounges.

Pixels

I’m not a Pixels person but this is a huge upgrade over what they have on the Dream class. Pixels on Vista has it’s own areas off to the side of the walkway. On the Dream class they are clogging up the walkways with people looking at pictures.

Exclusive Areas

The adults only serenity area on Vista added a bar and buffet but seemed more crowded than the serenity area on Dream, Breeze, and Magic.

The Vista class has the exclusive Havana area which is open to everyone after 7pm but restricted to Havana guests before that time. The Dream class does not have a Havana area.

The Vista class also has a Family Harbor area on deck 2 which includes access to the Family Harbor lounge. This is another area the Dream class does not have.

Conclusions

In general it seems guests who book the exclusive Havana area tend to enjoy the Vista more than others.

I went in expecting to not like the Vista because of the smaller Comedy Club, Main Lounge, and the lack of a dedicated Night Club.

The Vista won me over with the improvements to the cabins, internet, your time dining, the number of food and bar options, as well as the additional activities like the multiplex and the sky ride. If the Vista had a larger Comedy Club and a larger Alchemy Bar, it would be the perfect ship for me.

I enjoy both classes and will consider both for future cruises. On the Dream side I will lean towards Breeze and Magic over Dream since they both have the Red Frog Pub and Breeze has the Thrill Theater.

With the Dream and later the Breeze doing shorter cruises out of Galveston, they will be my first choice on 4 and 5 day cruises.

• Carnival
• Dream
• Vista