REALLY late Valor notes...Sept. 9, 2016 sailing

It just occurred to me (finally) that I did not do a TR for our cruise on the Valor. We sailed in September. Rather than do a trip report, per se, I'll list some thoughts...some things I didn't like and some things I did.

I want to say first off that it was a good cruise. My 8 previous cruises were great. I'd like to share why this was only "good". I sent these thoughts to Carnival. I did not ask for any form of compensation (full refund, fruit basket, Platinum-for-a-day, ship on a stick, etc.). I wanted to tell them of my experiences only because I hope doing so will make my next cruise great again. This may be on the longer side...apologies for that.

It was the little things...a LOT of little things. Again, to re-iterate, this was a good cruise.

S&S cards.

We had FTTF and boarded the ship early. We went to the sports bar for a drink after putting our carry-ons in the cabin. My girlfriend tried to buy a drink and was told her S&S card was no good and couldn't be used. We got the card only 30 minutes prior (maybe less). We went to Guest Services and were told the card had been de-activated. What? We just boarded. And already there is a problem with the card? GS fixed it and we carried on. One little thing was not going to make this cruise not great. Later in the week, I think Thursday, I went to purchase our embark photo. I was told my card was not working. I went to GS and was told my card had been de-activated. What? I had been using it all along with no problem for several days. They actually issued a new card. The GS rep also offered me a drink credit...I didn't ask for it, but it was appreciated. It worked fine afterward, but still, in all previous cruises, no problems. But both of our cards had problems this time.

Again, it was a good cruise.

The HUB app.

We downloaded it ahead of time to use onboard. Also, we paid the $5 charge for the messaging function, which we thought would be great. The messaging function worked only about 1/3 of the time. We'd send each other messages but they'd never be received. What was the point of having this? We AGAIN went to GS and showed them. The girl there tried it, and of course it worked. But we showed her the chat windows on our phones and showed a message sent on one phone and no such message received on the other phone. We were both refunded the $5 fee but told we'd keep the service and to use it...or try to. The other thing was the schedule of activities on the HUB app. about 1/3 of the time, it would not list the locations of the activities. For instance, it would list trivia at a particular time but not say where it would be held. All in all, to us, the app was a failure.

It was still a good cruise, and there were some really good things...I'll get to those.

Food.

I'll start with the Sea Day Brunch. We went both mornings. I ordered the steak & eggs both mornings. The second morning it was served without the small basket of fries and the Hollandaise-y sauce which normally come with the dish. The meal itself was very good. And I did not need either of the two missing items the second morning. But the inconsistency is what bothered me. Why were these not included the second morning? I took it as a sign of someone who was just not paying attention or maybe did notice it but didn't care enough to fix it. I did not mention this to anyone as, again, I didn't really need these things.

We went to the Dr. Seuss brunch and were really not pleased with our experience. My meal was excellent. The steak & eggs were cooked very well and tasted great. The little basket of fries wasn't presented, but I don't know if it should have been at this brunch...and I really didn't need it. My girlfriend's meal, on the other hand was not good. She ordered eggs over easy (same as me) and got eggs over hard. Hey, it happens. They offered to remedy this and that was fine. What came back this time was worse...cooked harder, to the point of there being browning on the eggs. By this time, I'm almost finished with my meal. They offered to remedy this again, but by the time they came back, I would have had an empty plate...and we're assuming the eggs would be cooked properly, which we both doubted.

Before all of this, they offered juice. I declined, but she ordered some OJ. About two minutes after the juice was delivered, with her glass being untouched and completely full, another server came by and asked if we'd like juice. We both declined and she pointed out that she had a full glass in front of her. He brought her some anyway. Was he simply not paying attention to us? Why even ask? Should he not have been able to know by seeing a full glass that she didn't need juice at that time?

Then there is the coffee incident...incidents...many incidents. We asked for coffee when we sat down. While drinking our coffee, we had several servers come by the table every few seconds (yes, every few seconds...it was that often) asking if we needed a refill. It got to the point that it became a nuisance and did anger me a bit. LET US EAT!!!!! Was this a joke to them? I don't know. The maître 'd came by our table after hearing about our egg troubles and we told him all of this. He credited the $5 cost of the brunch, which we did not ask for. The experience still left an unpleasant taste in our mouths.

The first two nights in the MDR were interesting. One of our servers (I won't mention their name and throw them under the bus) kept getting orders wrong and delivering plates to the wrong people. When told of this, the server shrugged it off as if they didn't care. After one diner mentioned this to the team leader, that server took care of the other tables in their section but didn't come back to ours...and that was fine by all of us there. It seemed that there were issues every night. In fact, it was not until night number 6 (of an 8-day cruise) that everyone at the table got exactly what they ordered...or so we thought...we were wrong. My girlfriend ordered coq-au-vin. Her meal came and she ate it and was enjoying it. We asked another tablemate who was eating the same thing how they liked their coq-au-vin and they told us they were eating the lamb. She thought nothing of it as she figured chicken cooked with wine would be darker in appearance. In retrospect, maybe the flavor should have given something away. They had taken her order incorrectly and brought her lamb instead of chicken. So night number 6 and still they're getting things wrong.

But even with all this, it still was a good cruise.

Seat saving.

I know that seat saving in the main theatre is not permitted. I know Carnival staff also know this. I wish they'd do something about it. On more than one evening, at the main show in the Ivanhoe theatre, numerous people would be saving seats for their friends/family. On one case it was a woman saving almost a whole row, 3rd row, centre, downstairs. I suppose I could have been a jerk and sat down anyway? I suppose I could have reported this to Carnival staff present in the theatre. Oh wait, there was no staff in the theatre...I looked. Carnival cannot and should not be responsible for the actions of its passengers, but staff should be present in case they're needed and should enforce the rules (NOT wanting to start a discussion of rule enforcement).

Serenity Deck.

Speaking of rules...what part of "serenity" do people not understand? The first two days, I spent (or tried to) some time up there and it was hardly serene. A few groups of people were being loud and boisterous. Don't get me wrong, they were happy and having fun, but were way too loud for that environment. How loud were they? I was listening my a personal music player with headphones. My playlist included Van Halen, Guns n Roses, Cheap Trick and other rock bands. I could still hear these people. I reported this to GS and was told I simply needed to say something to the staff on Serenity deck. And then I become the bad guy? The staff are there. They're not deaf...they hear the racket. I do not understand why they couldn't have said something or called security.

It was still a good cruise.

Fun Shops.

I was most disappointed in the selection in the Fun Shops. What I was looking for were ship-specific t-shirts and other items. I found very few shirts, and most not in my size (XL/XXL). As to other items, there were quite a number of things identical to things I purchased on the Dream 4 years ago, so why would I want the same thing with the only difference being the name of the ship on it? The majority of the t-shirts available were generic carnival shirts listing a port on them or a map of the Caribbean...some of the ports we didn't even visit on this sailing.

Normally I would let them go, but there were so many little things that happened on this cruise...in my eight previous cruises, I can think of a total of TWO things I may have said something about. One involved an entree in the MDR which was not to my liking because the meat was dry (Fascination 2010) and the other was a shore excursion in St. Thomas (Dream 2013) which was hardly as advertised. I just had to speak up this time. Again, I don't want anything. Yes, I do. I DO want something. I want my next cruise to be great.

As I said , there were good things. There were, actually, a lot of good on this cruise. I would like to recognise some people or things that stood out.

Jax, the karaoke hostess. She was so great.

Alixander & Lidia. Two of our servers in the MDR, Washington dining room, table 327, early seating.

Jan, bartender in the sports bar. Very friendly and pleasant, Ukrainian if I remember correctly. Enjoyed being in there chatting with him about hockey and vodka.

Don't know his name, but the solo guitarist most nights in the atrium. Enjoyed listening to him several nights.

TJ, acting Cruise Director. He was great. I know he was filling in for Cassie who was at the Mother Ship for the CD conference. Never sailed with Cassie before, but I'm glad she wasn't there and he was. We really liked him.

Music overall was better on this cruise than any previous...especially the atrium guitar guy, Music Boardwalk and Moore & the Foreigners.

Thenford Grey tours in St. Kitts was great. We had Mr. Grey himself as a guide and found him to be most knowledgeable. Also, it was kinda like having Morgan Freeman as our guide for the day.

If you're still here, thank you for reading. I warned you this would be a long one. And for the 864th time, it was a good cruise. It wasn't great like all the others before. We're booking the next one in a week or so and all I want is for it to be as great as all the others before.

I love your attitude about everything! Glad you still had a good cruise!

Wow, your post was so refreshing. You had legitimate concerns, but you didn't make a huge deal of them and you did not let them ruin your cruise. I do agree that Carnival needed to be apprised of all the situations. You have a great attitude and I'm sure your next cruises will be wonderful.

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We also were on that same cruise! It WAS a good cruise, and like you, we enjoyed it very much. There were a few things, some like you mentioned, that we encountered as well. But not being complainers, just filled out my survey and gave my opinion when we got back. The MDR (we also had early seating, aft dining room but don't remember the name of it) got a little chaotic at times, and our service was slow most nights. They did a great job, but were slow about it. My biggest complaint was the casino and the smoke, but that's a dead horse and no need in beating it! Just go first thing in the morning and you don't have that problem! Enjoyed reading your post, brought back the memories of a good cruise, and am looking forward to sailing out of Miami on Splendor on March 5th.

We also were on that same cruise! It WAS a good cruise, and like you, we enjoyed it very much. There were a few things, some like you mentioned, that we encountered as well. But not being complainers, just filled out my survey and gave my opinion when we got back. The MDR (we also had early seating, aft dining room but don't remember the name of it) got a little chaotic at times, and our service was slow most nights. They did a great job, but were slow about it. My biggest complaint was the casino and the smoke, but that's a dead horse and no need in beating it! Just go first thing in the morning and you don't have that problem! Enjoyed reading your post, brought back the memories of a good cruise, and am looking forward to sailing out of Miami on Splendor on March 5th.

We were also in the aft dining room, in the back corner (starboard side). Interesting that you thought the MDR service was slow. Ours, while often incorrect, was actually about the quickest we've gotten out of the MDR in several cruises. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that at our 8-top, only 6 of us were there each night and we were all there within just a couple of minutes of the dining room opening every night...so no waiting on anyone. We averaged about 1:15 (or less) being done with dessert and leaving...and that was without rushing.

Lol, we were in the very front outside row, starboard side, ya'll probably passed us to get out! We had a group of 10, and were always there as soon as they opened. I don't know why they were slow most nights, we got out between 7:15 and 7:30 about the last ones out. They didn't make any mistakes, so I don't know why. We weren't picky or anything, our group was just slow. I sometimes wonder if they're working back and forth between dining rooms or something. Anyway, looking forward to March 5th!