Carnival Cruise Line has had a lock on what cruise travelers looking for a good time at sea have had in mind for decades.  Known for a good chunk of that time as simply “The Fun Ships”, their mission was clearly defined and much more than a slogan.  Ask anyone who has ever sailed with Carnival and odds are they would agree.  Covering the evolution of Carnival , we have seen new ships and onboard programming rolled out as the Fun ship experience evolved.   Similarly, new Carnival Vista is promising more than ships of the past, perhaps setting Carnival off on a bit different course.  I’ll find out first hand on a short preview look of the ship sailing from Barcelona.  Before we get there, a rundown of unique features to be offered on new Carnival Vista:

Breeze + Sunshine = More Than A Lovely Day At The Beach
The short answer to what Carnival Vista is all about comes easy:  Take Carnival Sunshine, smush it together with Carnival Breeze, add some nicely thought out new features and out of the oven comes Carnival Vista. Something along those lines will no doubt be the Twitter version travel agents will use to sum up what we saw at a New York City reveal for Carnival Vista.  But to stop there would be unwise. Carnival Vista comes at a time when a maturing core of cruise travelers (self included) have grown up with the line and first-timers are entering the booking arena.   Carnival Vista looks to be a cruise travel option that will appeal to both long-time Carnival fans and future fans as well.

Much like how Princess Cruises‘ Royal Princess was a natural extension of what that sister-line had been doing for decades, Carnival Vista will prove to be no threat to the onboard experience fans have come to expect.  To the contrary, Carnival Vista will satisfy that core base of passenger if not enable them to evolve as well.  Bringing to Vista all the elements of the line’s Funship 2.0 initiative, covered here like a blanket, Carnival wanted more.

 

New Carnival Vista Features

On the heels of Royal Caribbean‘s Quantum class of ships with standout, ground-breaking features set to bait passengers and onboard programming designed to reel them in, Carnival could have gone down that road as well.  Smartly played, the Funship line considered its past, looked to the future and liked what they saw, in both directions.  Vista class will propel Carnival well into the future with hardware that will enable unique cruising experiences.  But enough talk about that for now.

Highlights of new Carnival Vista include:

• SkyRide, a breakthrough suspended open-air cycling experience;
• In and Out features on a variety of venues, accessible from inside the ship and an exterior promenade intended to connect passengers with the sea
• The world’s first IMAX^® Theatre on a ship;
• An onboard brewery where they make their own beer, in multiple flavors
• An expanded water park featuring the colorful Kaleid-O-Slide, the line’s first raft-riding water tube slide;
• Seafood Shack, a delectable New England-inspired eatery;
• Unique Stateroom configurations, catering to families

Go back a few years and Carnival’s FunShip 2.0 initiative was the new layer on top of standard fare.  Now, Funship 2.0 is the standard fare with new Carnival Vista features layered on top of that.  Expect to see big winners rolled out to other ships after Vista sets sail.

In the first of a series of posts about new Carnival Vista, appearing in this space over the next few months, here are artist renderings of what passengers will see.  We’ll dissect every element along the way to the Carnival Vista’s 2016 debut.  Stay tuned, new Carnival Vista should be an interesting ride.

Renderings- Carnival Cruise Line