The plan was to take a cruise with my wife and two kids, and that's exactly what we did. While I rate this a 3 out of 5, let me share with you why. First, it comes from my last cruise i took on a Royal Caribbean (Oasis of the Seas) so comparing that mass of a beauty to the vista isn't fair. The comparisons though were night and day. On the Vista food varied but the downside was that for general buffets breakfast on the lido deck, pork products were the only thing served. As a non-pork consumer this was disheartening. What's worse was when I made the request for Turkey bacon I was told no which prompted me to speak to a manager because I'd I can spend thousands of dollars to be told no or to be told go to another restaurant on the ship, you just lost me as a customer. The silver lining in that dark cloud came in the last day at sea where my wife and I had reservations ay the 555 Farenheit Steakhouse. This was of course a extra money Restaurant but let me tell you from the service to the food, it was world's apart. The crazy part was the price as it was very inexpensive considering the quality of the food for a 4 course meal. The things that will really make your head spin are the ridiculous prices to pay extra on the ship as to say the cruise wasnt expensive enough. If you purchase photos that the crew took at shore ports and around the boat, just for the option to download to your phone costs 15$USD!! If you get prints, it's an additional 5 dollars. I did a cost analysis on just a guesstimate for passengers and general price paid if every room cost the same, which I know isnt the case, I went off of how much I spent and multiplied it by 4500 passengers and you get close to 500,000 that was made off of purchasing the cruise. I didn't account for the alcohol or non-alcoholic drink packages purchased, the IMAX, or thrill level movie theater (which was a waste of money) the seafood bar, or the gift shops or the ridiculous amount they charged for a couples back massage for 50 minutes, or a pedicure where they tried selling you foot products! Some takeaways were the stateroom attendant, the kids care, the cruise director, the places we visited, the 555 Farenheit Steakhouse, the piano bar sing along, the gym (although was small) and the basketball court (which had to uneven sized rims) my downsides included: ludicrously high prices for things on board, the bland list of activities especially for the sports enthusiast (basketball games could have been a huge event, instead they had a game of knockout which was pretty fun) redundant food choices for the nightly dinners which didnt arrive hot but luke warm, the performance events which wasnt the best, but not the worst. All in all, I would travel on a carnival, but I'd have to see what cruise considered by other travelers to be the best one. For now, Royal Caribbean remains the King of the World as my choice of cruise travel!