Victory Cruise May 15 - Great Cruise!

Quick review of our Victory Cruise May 15th to Key West and Cozumel:

Embarkation: Had FTTF. Loved it. I think we were on by 11:30am. Husband was first on line for deli I was among the first for Pizza. His Reuben very good, my pizza yum! FTTF was great for the two times I had to go to the Guest Services desk!

Key West - Docked at the Naval Shipyard. Did the ship sponsored Bar Crawl. It was lot's of fun. There was a trolley line to get back to the ship, but we were feeling great so we had fun. Everyone was so quiet on the way to town, but coming back everyone was feeling chatty and having a blast. Wish we could have stayed longer and I see a land based vacation there in the future.

Cozumel - Did the Cozumel Bar Hop. So much fun! I highly recommend it.

Disembarkation - The line was a little long, but it moved. We had no problem getting off, finding our bag and getting an Uber.

Food on ship - I did not notice any real difference between the old menus and the current American Table. We had anytime dining and only had a wait on Elegant Night and that was only about 10 minutes. The service was excellent whatever section we were in. Did not miss the table clothes. We had breakfast once in the MDR. The eggs were overdone on the eggs benedict (I even ordered the bernaise on the side to see if that would ensure the eggs were freshly poached, but it did not help). Everything else was fine. Had the buffet for breakfast one morning. Again with the overdone eggs benedict. The so-called bacon police was very generous with the serving. Lines were not crazy. French toast was good. Did the sea day brunch. I ordered steak and eggs. Asked for the filet rare, came out medium. I did send it back and got a new rare piece that was very good. I asked for runny eggs, but the yolk was set. I guess it is hard to do light cooked eggs. That is the only complaint I have about the food.

Lunches we had deli sandwiches, the comfort food buffet section and one day I had the lobster rolls from the Seafood shack. They give you a beeper when you order and it took about 20 minutes, but it was pretty good. They don't split the rolls, just pile the lobster on top so it is a little awkward to eat, but the rolls was drenched in butter and soooo good. They give you 2 lobster rolls and fries with your order. Not the best I have ever had, but not the worst either. I enjoyed them. I think the charge was either 12 or 14. I thought it was worth it for the bread alone.

Dinner-We ate every night in the MDR. The rolls were great. Food was good. Not gourmet, but not crap either. I had the flat iron steak for the first time ever and it was not that bad. It was night one. It was not hot, but it was not stone cold either. I could have sent it back, but did not. This was the only night the food was not hot. Amazingly nothing slid off onto the floor despite the lack of table clothes. LOL. We had no problems getting drink service.

Bars- We had Cheers and it was completely worth it for us. Loved the Sirens bar and the Alchemy Bar. The cocktail service in the casino was excellent.

Smoking - The only place I noticed smoke (except the smell of weed on our balconies which we did not mind) was the casino and that is to be expected. I never smelled cigarette smoke on our balcony. I never smelled it near the sirens pool.

We did check out the Serenity section the first day and it seemed nice. The sea day we did find a section one deck up from the sirens pool with tons of deck chairs and a nice breeze.

I had pre-ordered a bottle of vodka and it was there waiting when we got to our room. I also ordered 4 bottles of beer via rewards points from the Carnival CC. It was supposed to be there on day 1, but it did not arrive. I inquired at the customer service desk and the guy said that their records showed a Day 2 delivery. It was delivered on Day 2. No big deal.

The ship was very clean, and the staff friendly. The photographers backed off if you said no thank you. The only show we saw was the Love and Marriage show which we have never done before and it was very funny. We kept meaning to make it to the comedy shows but the lure of the casino was too much. LOL. We heard from people that the comedians were great. Matey was funny but not obnoxious which can be a fine line.

Cabin Steward - We only saw him on the first day when he had us check the form for service. We told him am, but not until after 10am and he never came before that. We also asked to always have ice, and we always had ice. We never saw him (I think he must have had an invisibility cloak, because we never even saw him servicing other rooms), but our room was always cleaned after 10 and we got our towel animals and fun times every night. No noticeable change in the level of service.

We did a pre-cruise day in South Beach and 2 post cruise days in Fort Lauderdale. We flew into FLL and ubered to Miami. I highly recommend Uber. We never waited more than 5 minutes for an Uber anywhere even at 6am when we left our hotel in Fort Lauderdale!

Overall we had a wonderful time and will sail with Carnival again.

Please feel free to ask any questions.

Glad you had a wonderful time. Thanks for the feedback.

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I was on your same cruise, to celabrate my 60 Birthday on the 17

We do have a lot of fun in Cozumel

we went to the Money bar and love

It!!

In key west we went to ft taylor beach

and was good.

We have a lot of fun. The Victory is not my favorite ship but is ok.

Thanks for your review. It's strange, of all the ports we've visited Key West is the one I would like to stay in for several days.

Happy sailing.

How much was you uber from FLL to the port?

Thanks for the feedback - we'll be on this cruise on 3 July & we can't wait!

Regarding Uber, we took it from FLL to our hotel in South Beach and it was $41.75. Cheaper than a taxi, so much better than a shuttle because we did not have to make any stops.

Thanks for the review, we will be on the Victory in 6 days and can't wait.

Enjoyed the review, thanks.

Thanks for your review!

Regarding not having Guy's burgers, did you eat at the poolside grill? What kind of food did they have there? We've only been on one other ship (Fantasy) which only had one pool. Being that there are more pool areas, did you find that it was less crowded in those areas? Lastly, what kind of room did you have, and what were your thoughts on it?

Thanks again for taking the time to help! We cruise in Aug. and are really looking forward to it!

Brianna

I know they had hot dogs the day I went to the "comfort" section of the buffet. I saw people with burger and fries I assume they got at the grill. The days we had lunch on board we had Seafood Shack, deli, comfort section or pizza.

We don't swim in the pools, but we did hang out at the bar near the "adult" pool. The pool itself seemed crowded, but there were lounge chairs available and you could always find a table back there. There were also lounge chairs available one deck above. The most crowded was of course the sea day. There was a sign on that pool saying adults only and I did see a guy taking his young child out of that pool on the first day. I am not sure if it stayed that way the entire cruise because we did not focus on the pool, but I rarely saw any children in the entire area during the whole cruise even though the pizza pirate was back there.

We had a balcony on Deck 7. There were 2 chairs that had adjustable backs and a table. The room was renovated so it had the flat screen tv and new bathroom. We also had a couch. We loved it. There were 2 closets, plus another space with the safe and life jackets. There was also a bookshelf or whatever it was that you could put clothes on. I think there were only 2 drawers, plus the one with the blow dryer (which was sectioned off so only 1/2 the drawer was really usable) but we had no problem fitting out stuff into all these different places. The bathroom had shelves on each side of the mirror to put stuff too. We had a refrigerator too!

I know they had hot dogs the day I went to the "comfort" section of the buffet. I saw people with burger and fries I assume they got at the grill. The days we had lunch on board we had Seafood Shack' date=' deli, comfort section or pizza.

 

 

We don't swim in the pools, but we did hang out at the bar near the "adult" pool. The pool itself seemed crowded, but there were lounge chairs available and you could always find a table back there. There were also lounge chairs available one deck above. The most crowded was of course the sea day. There was a sign on that pool saying adults only and I did see a guy taking his young child out of that pool on the first day. I am not sure if it stayed that way the entire cruise because we did not focus on the pool, but I rarely saw any children in the entire area during the whole cruise even though the pizza pirate was back there.

 

 

We had a balcony on Deck 7. There were 2 chairs that had adjustable backs and a table. The room was renovated so it had the flat screen tv and new bathroom. We also had a couch. We loved it. There were 2 closets, plus another space with the safe and life jackets. There was also a bookshelf or whatever it was that you could put clothes on. I think there were only 2 drawers, plus the one with the blow dryer (which was sectioned off so only 1/2 the drawer was really usable) but we had no problem fitting out stuff into all these different places. The bathroom had shelves on each side of the mirror to put stuff too. We had a refrigerator too![/quote']

Thank you! I appreciate your time in responding to me!

 

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Thanks for your thoughts.

We were also on the Victory May15-19 & had a great time. Cruise alot on Carnival but first time on Victory. We had a very nice newly renovated inside cabin on deck 8. Decorated like the Breeze & newer Sunshine cabins. It did have a refrigerator-but it was hiding in one of the closets!! Not a problem, cause I always put the suitcases, life jackets, room guy's plastic bag of extra sheets all under the beds, to make more room in the closets. Nice new flat TV & you can check your carnival onboard statement on it, no menus though. Did find the main cabin lights to be much too bright, so we used the mirror & beds lites instead. Need any card to put in slot for lights to work in cabin, like the newer ships & hotels in Europe. I just bring an old carnival roomkey card, or use our aarp card. (Dont want to forget to take out our current room key card from room & get locked out)

Buffets lines very long, esp first day, because there are not as many choices for lunch as other carnivals. Deli & china spot were shorter on first day (no mongolian wok, or mexican or guy fieri burgers) Extra seating on deck10, but no food up there like other ships. No steak house, etc. but do have steakhouse entrees for $20 on dinner menu. We were compted one nite by casino, & I believe that they helicoptered in the delicious steak from a ship with the steakhouse(only kidding)-tasted the same & so so good.

All the staff were wonderful & friendly. Still have real bands at the shows(not the taped music with the digital back screens. The Music Power band by the casino was the best, played there every nite till late. Dont miss the fun singalong trivias at nite with the cruise director.