By
Rebecca Gibson |
Fincantieri officially handed the 133,500gt Carnival Vista to Carnival Cruise Line at its Monfalcone yard in Italy on 28 April.
Designed as the largest Carnival ship to date, Carnival Vista will accommodate 3,936 guests and offer various industry firsts. These will include a suspended cycling experience called SkyRide, a Thrill Theater with multi-dimensional special effects, the first IMAX Theatre at sea, Carnival’s largest WaterWorks water park, and several new areas for younger passengers. The ship will also feature a two-level Cloud 9 Spa with a thalassotherapy pool, four steam chambers, the line’s first infrared sauna and hamam, ‘experience showers’, and an indoor cycling studio. The adults-only Serenity retreat will offer the line’s first outdoor massage huts.
Other new features include Carnival’s first New England-inspired Seafood Shack, the line’s first onboard brewery RedFrog Pub, an expanded Havana Bar and a new Havana Pool. Meanwhile, the ship’s main dining rooms, Reflections and Horizons, have been completely redesigned by BigTime Design Studios. Vista will also offer many of Carnival’s popular Fun Ship 2.0 dining venues and bars in an expanded Lanai area on Deck 5.
Accommodation has also been upgraded to include the line’s first Havana Cabanas and a Family Harbour area with staterooms, a communal lounge and a concierge desk.
“Carnival Vista is a spectacular addition to our fleet and we can’t wait for our guests to experience all of the ship’s exciting new features,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “Carnival Vista will provide our guests an opportunity to create a lifetime of wonderful vacation memories while offering our valued travel agent partners another exciting vacation option to market to their clients.”
Carnival Vista will sail her inaugural cruise from Trieste, Italy on 1 May 2016. Following this, the ship will operate a schedule of eight- to 13-day Mediterranean cruises from Barcelona, Spain and Athens, Greece until October 2016. Carnival Vista will then reposition to New York, US in November for a pair of 11-day voyages before launching a year-round Caribbean service from Miami, US.