Just got off Victory July 3rd.

My husband, my 14 year old daughter, her 13 year old cousin and I sailed and stayed in an ocean suite thanks to upswell fairy. Here are some quick tidbits of information.

FTTF: We purchased FTTF for about $49.50 which covered everyone in our suite. I definitely felt it was worth it. We boarded the ship around noon and got to go through priority line to board which had no one in line so we practically walked right on the ship and was able to go straight to our room. Luggage came quick and getting to use the priority line for guest services made it all worth it. I felt guilty at times when the other line was so long. We were on the first tender off the ship too which was awesome. We were just told the night before to go to guest service and wait for a guest service person to escort us to the tender. We also received number 1 tags for getting off the ship at disembarkation.

Food: pretty good for a cruise ship feeding so many people. My husband compared the food to the Allure. A couple nights my husband and I ordered two appetizers apiece with no problems. We encountered lines two mornings tying to eat breakfast in main dining room but the rest of the mornings were smooth.

Pools: the girls complained they were crowded.

Casino Bar: bartenders were great but music was a little too loud for me. A good note is the sushi station is right there. Free

Suite: obviously showed wear but I know the dry dock is coming soon. AC worked great.

Jamaica: took a tour with Mark Morris to Dunn's River Falls. I can't say enough about how wonderful he and his wife were. Well worth the money. Great CLEAN van and he gave us tips on how to handle the locals if needed but we never had to because we weren't overly pressured to nut things. His wife walked us down to beach at Falls and carried our shorts back to van to wait for us. Awesome experience. We thought about staying on ship because of all the negative feedback about Jamaica prior to sailing but I am so GLAD we didn't.

Grand Cayman: did snorkeling, starfish, and stingray tour with Nativeways. Excellent experience. Our tour guides Solomon and Andrew did a superb job. I highly recommend them.

Photos Onboard: plenty of opportunities to get pics taken. Being a scrapbooker I get suckered but limited myself to 10 of the overpriced pics. If you buy 3 you get a free ship pic. At 6 the give you a photo mug and at 10 you get a jump drive and for an additional $9.99 they will put 10 of your photos that you purchased on there which I thought was good because it allows me to print more at home.

Comedy shows: the girls loved the family friendly ones and came home still trying to repeat some of the jokes.

They did have a late night Mexican buffet on the lido deck one night and a chocolate buffet one sea day at lunch time.

I think I have recapped the main things. If you have questions feel free to ask.

Sharon

Kentucky

Thanks for the review! I will be on the Victory in February. :) Glad to hear FTTF worked out so well, we have purchased it too.

Thanks for the review! I will be on the Victory in February. :) Glad to hear FTTF worked out so well, we have purchased it too.

I know some people have said it wasn't worth it but I felt it was worth every penny. It was nice getting to the room early, tendering first in Grand Cayman, having a short guest service line, and etc.

My husband, my 14 year old daughter, her 13 year old cousin and I sailed and stayed in an ocean suite thanks to upswell fairy. Here are some quick tidbits of information.

 

FTTF: We purchased FTTF for about $49.50 which covered everyone in our suite. I definitely felt it was worth it. We boarded the ship around noon and got to go through priority line to board which had no one in line so we practically walked right on the ship and was able to go straight to our room. Luggage came quick and getting to use the priority line for guest services made it all worth it. I felt guilty at times when the other line was so long. We were on the first tender off the ship too which was awesome. We were just told the night before to go to guest service and wait for a guest service person to escort us to the tender. We also received number 1 tags for getting off the ship at disembarkation.

 

Food: pretty good for a cruise ship feeding so many people. My husband compared the food to the Allure. A couple nights my husband and I ordered two appetizers apiece with no problems. We encountered lines two mornings tying to eat breakfast in main dining room but the rest of the mornings were smooth.

 

Pools: the girls complained they were crowded.

 

Casino Bar: bartenders were great but music was a little too loud for me. A good note is the sushi station is right there. Free

 

Suite: obviously showed wear but I know the dry dock is coming soon. AC worked great.

 

Jamaica: took a tour with Mark Morris to Dunn's River Falls. I can't say enough about how wonderful he and his wife were. Well worth the money. Great CLEAN van and he gave us tips on how to handle the locals if needed but we never had to because we weren't overly pressured to nut things. His wife walked us down to beach at Falls and carried our shorts back to van to wait for us. Awesome experience. We thought about staying on ship because of all the negative feedback about Jamaica prior to sailing but I am so GLAD we didn't.

 

Grand Cayman: did snorkeling, starfish, and stingray tour with Nativeways. Excellent experience. Our tour guides Solomon and Andrew did a superb job. I highly recommend them.

 

Photos Onboard: plenty of opportunities to get pics taken. Being a scrapbooker I get suckered but limited myself to 10 of the overpriced pics. If you buy 3 you get a free ship pic. At 6 the give you a photo mug and at 10 you get a jump drive and for an additional $9.99 they will put 10 of your photos that you purchased on there which I thought was good because it allows me to print more at home.

 

Comedy shows: the girls loved the family friendly ones and came home still trying to repeat some of the jokes.

 

They did have a late night Mexican buffet on the lido deck one night and a chocolate buffet one sea day at lunch time.

I think I have recapped the main things. If you have questions feel free to ask.

 

Sharon

Kentucky

I thought that a suite you had can with all that. Why did you pay 50.oo

Thanks for the review!! It sounds like you had a good time. I am anxiously awaiting my turn :)

What were some of the tips you were given to handle the locals in Jamaica?

Great review! I'm so happy to hear that things are well on the Victory. We'll be on it in November as the first part of our honeymoon.

I'm particularly glad to hear that the Mexican buffet was on. It was also not surprising that the kids complained that the pool was crowded, I think it pretty much always is. I know that many people like the FTTF option, but I just don't think it's worth the extra 50 bucks.

That's good that you enjoyed Jamaica. Thinking of staying on the ship while it's docked there, is crazy. There's nothing particularly wrong with JA's reputation. Many of the negative comments are from people who haven't seen much of the world yet. One should definitely go and enjoy the island, because it's quite beautiful. I cannot count the number of times that I have been to Jamaica, (I've also spent many summers there as a child), and I can tell you it's not a place to be missed.

Overall it looks like you give a thumbs up to the Victory . We look forward to checking it out.

Thanks!

Mountainbreeze

You handle the locals in Jamaica the same way that you would handle the locals in Morocco, France, Beijing, or anywhere else. If you are aggressively approached, you just politely say no.

Regardless of where you are in the world, the annoying part is not so much being approached, it's being approached by 100 different people. No matter how patient one is, it will test anyone after the 25th person has asked you to buy the same "handcrafted" souvenir, LOL.

My advice is to just say "no thank you" or "I have no money", and just move on. Above all keep a smile on your face and don't answer rudely.

When you travel, you represent America, so represent well!

I thought that a suite you had can with all that. Why did you pay 50.oo

You don't get that with Suites. At this time, the only perk for a Suite, is priority embarkation and early debarkation.

I thought that a suite you had can with all that. Why did you pay 50.oo

Several of the perks with FTTF are not available to suite guest. I was able to bypass the regular guest service line and use the Platinum and Diamond line. Before anyone flames me save your breathe I didn't make the rules. That's why I mentioned in my previous post that I felt guilty at times being able to use that line while the other line was so long. They added the FTTF to the sign for the diamond/platinum line. For tendering in Grand Cayman I was told the night before (I asked guest service) to come down to guest service in the morning when I was ready to tender and they had reserved tables to sit out until a Carnival representative escorted us Dow to get on the first tender boat.

I personally thought for $50 per cabin that it was worth it.

Thanks for the review!! It sounds like you had a good time. I am anxiously awaiting my turn :)

 

What were some of the tips you were given to handle the locals in Jamaica?

They told us to not make eye contact while walking past their booths or shops and when approached to politely so no thank you and keep moving. It worked perfectly. I felt there was a presence of authority walking around Dunns River Falls. I saw several uniformed gentleman. At one point walking through the maze of vendors heading back to the van I kept my eyes focused forward, not giving eye contact and saying NO thank you on the occasional time I was approached and one man asked if I was a cop. LOL I wasn't sure why he asked but I just politely smiled and said have a good day and I kept walking.

All in all I was not "hounded" anywhere near like I had expected based on reviews I had read. Maybe it was an atypical day but it was great for my family and I.