Mini Review: Victory 4-day cruise

Hi all,

To say thanks for all the help I got from this board in planning our trip I thought I'd add a small review of the Victory and our trip to Key West and Cozumel.

Pre-cruise: We flew to Miami 3 days before our cruise and spent one night in Florida City and two in Islamorada. We cycled at Shark Valley, did a boat trip at John Pennekamp park, walked on the old Seven Mile bridge and ate some very tasty things. We returned our rental car to the downtown Miami Avis branch and were pleasantly surprised to find they had a free shuttle to the port.

Embarking: Thanks to the Avis shuttle we arrived at the port just after noon. There was a short line to get our key cards but we were on board in around 45 minutes after arriving. As we got on at deck 3 and our room was on deck 1 we went down to see if it was ready, and luckily enough it was so we dumped our carry on bags and soda.

The cabin: We had 1206, so right at the bottom and second from the front. It is a upper/lower bed arrangement (so a small single bed and a pullman bunk). Because of the bed arrangement the room felt really spacious, the sofa was under the Pullman so there was a lot of floor space. The cabin has two port holes and we really appreciated the natural light. The only minor issue, that presumably will be solved by the dry dock, is that some of the tiles in the shower were loose. The shower itself was great, really hot and with great water pressure. Our steward, Ivor, was lovely - always chatty and really prompt with new towels and paperwork. The room was £12, so about 15 USD, more than the bottom level inside cabin, and was totally worth it.

The ship: We were pleasantly surprised with how Victory looked. Yes, she is a little dated (salmon pink everywhere!) but other than a couple of lifts (elevators) being out of action we saw no ongoing maintenance or really anywhere that actively needed it. Personally I found it a little claustrophobic, the lobby area was very dark and the promenade deck (5) always seemed really busy with the casino and the hordes of photographers. Deck 9 (lido) was pretty awful - noisy all the time (or so it seemed), the pools and hot tubs were full almost all the time, and you had to contend with people wandering around with plates of food. The back of the boat wasn't too bad, but our favourite spots were the 'secret' deck at the front of deck 9 and outside on deck 3.

The food: the food in the main dining room was pretty good (we ate dinner there one day and had the sea day brunch), the buffet was OK but really badly laid out (e.g. salad, then hot food, then more salad, and getting the sides before you knew what the main dishes were). The grills were OK (they were usually the quickest), but we enjoyed the deli and Chopsticks. The star was the ice cream on deck 9 though, it was better than what we got in the main dining room! Another winner was room service breakfast. We did this twice and enjoyed it thoroughly (cereal, bagels, fruit plate, toast, coffee and juice).

We also did the Chef's Table, and this was thoroughly enjoyable. Some of the food was a bit lacking but it was all beautifully presented and imaginative, and most of the courses were delicious. The champagne and wine were free-flowing and the atmosphere was great. We ate the main meal in the Indian Library. There were 8 of us in the group and everyone was lovely and interesting. We were all really stuffed afterwards, even those who'd barely eaten. The chef and his team were great, and the whole evening made us feel very special.

The staff: as I've said our cabin steward was great but a lot of the other staff were just about cordial and some were almost rude (not to us, but we saw a couple of seniorish staff speaking quite rudely to waiters, etc, very publicly which we didn't feel was appropriate). We felt quite ignored both times we ate in the dining room, and the dancing that interrupts the meal at around 9pm was a little annoying as it meant we had to wait a long time for our main course. The cruise director was OK, he was quite funny but often quite difficult to understand on the PA (as was the captain) and we felt we often weren't given information that would help, or information that conflicted (opening/closing times of the buffet, for example, didn't match what was in the Fun Times).

The ports: We liked both ports (Key West and Cozumel), we could have done with another hour in Key West and an arrival an hour earlier in Cozumel. Our shore excursion in Cozumel, to Chankanaab, was a bit odd as by the time we got there we only had about an hour before things started to shut down. The snorkelling was great but we only had 45 minutes in the water and we would have liked to go back in the water but the dive shacks started to close. I don't know how much benefit the people on the all inclusive version would have got because the restaurant seemed to be closed about 2 hours after we arrived, so if you'd been snorkelling and/or watched the sea lion show you'd have had very little time to eat.

Getting back on board at Key West involved a long line, Cozumel wasn't so bad and they were very lax with taking booze off people. The person at the scanner would tell you to go to the table but the people at the table were paying no attention and just chatting with each other so most people just walked right by.

On the sea day it was really windy so the Serenity deck, running track and golf were closed so deck 9 was CHAOS until relatively late on when people started to get ready for dinner.

To sum up: This has got much longer than I intended, sorry! In short we had a fun time but we got a bit bored and frustrated with the pools being so busy and the lack of activities that didn't involve a) the smoky casino or b) buying stuff. The Chef's Table was totally worth the money and we really liked our cabin. I don't know that we'd do a similar cruise again, we don't really like sitting doing nothing and we struggled with not having a quiet place to call our own. On our next cruise to Alaska we have got a balcony, so I hope that solves that problem!

I don't mean this to sound like a whinge, we did enjoy ourselves and it was a cheap and easy way to spend 4 days, but I don't know that I'd hurry back.

Thanks for your thoughts.

You will love your Alaska balcony. Enjoy!!

Thanks for your review. We are considering this same cruise and itinerary in May.

Do you remember what night was your Chef's table? I know it is subject to change, but just trying to get an idea from someone who recently did this cruise. Thanks!

Hi,

Our chef's table was on the last night of the cruise, the sea day. I'd highly recommend it!

Thanks for your review! I am looking forward to a 5 day eastern itin in October. :)