Carnival Valor - April 10. Very Nice!

My wife and I just returned from the Valor's Easter Caribbean itinerary and had a great time! I know I am on dry land, but the house is swaying - the last day was a little rough but nothing that interfered with our activities.

This was our first cruise so I thought it might be interesting to some to hear our initial comments. Since it was our first cruise, we have nothing to compare to other than our expectations. I will try to limit this to our impressions as others have covered the Valor in some detail.

Embarkation: We arrived at the port at 11:30 am and of course it was already crowded. We were on board a little before 1 pm. We were able to use the Skipper's Club but we had to track down a Carnival employee to see how this worked - there were no signs or other information posted. Once we found her, we we taken to a lounge where we were registered, then rejoined the line through security.

After security we went directly to the 2nd floor and joined the line to get our Sign and Sail cards. By that time the boarding had begun so we followed the flow up the escalators. Here there was moving sidewalk, which ended up not helping as when we got off the moving sidewalk the end of the line was about 1/2 back toward the pier. Nice thought, but pretty useless.

I would conclude that using the Skipper's Club probably saved 10-15 minutes. Certainly not worth paying extra for.

Note: I rented an Enterprise car at the airport as we arrived a couple of days early so we could do some touring. It turns out you can drop the Enterprise car at their office in the Hyatt and take their free shuttle to the port. This saved us an hour + $30 taxi fare. Also we stayed in Miami Beach so car really isn't essential, there are lots of taxis and lots of places to eat and drink close by (plus of course the beach).

Cabin: When we finally got on board, after the boarding photo then the security photo, it was shortly before 1 pm. We had received confliting information on when the cabins would be ready - one said 1 pm, one said 1:30pm. So we asked a Carnival crew member when we got on board and were told we could go to our cabin although it would not be ready. When we got there, the cabin steward, Linda, was putting the final touches on it. So we were able to meet her plus drop our carryons and get to see our cabin.

We were in a Cat. 12 suite, 7312, port side, mid ship. I didn't bring a tape measure but estimate the size to be about a 20-25' square. (If you do the math, that is quite a large variation in area - from 400 to 625 sq ft.) Maybe a better way to look at this is to describe what was in the room: A king size bed with 2 night stands with lamps; 2 chairs; a coffee table; a couch that could easily seat 5 and that folds out into a bed; an end table; a desk and chair; 3 closets; a minibar; a tv on a stand with VHS/DVD player under, and safe over; an 8 drawer chest a little smaller that a man's typical chest of drawers; a dressing outside bath with counter space and wash basin; and the bathroom.

The bathroom had double sinks; a toilet (of course!), a bidet; a shower/tub combo with Jacuzi.

The balcony was 20 to 25' long and a bout 4' wide. There were 3 chairs and a table, and another 1-2 chairs could have been added with no problem. (5 chairs would probably have been bit tight.)

As mentioned we were on the port side. This being our first cruise, I don't know what is standard but the Valor docked with starboard side to the pier in all cases. Maybe it varies or maybe that is the Valor way of doing things. The point is we were not able to see the dock as we arrived or departed.

Room summary: More that met our expectations. Large, for the most part quiet (other than when the group from Kon Tiki booze cruise came back on board!), comfortable furniture, pretty good location for getting around the ship.

(As others have noted, you cannot traverse the ship from forward to aft on every deck. If you get on the wrong elevator you can end not being able to go where you want without going up a deck or two. The maps provided don't help figure this out, you'll just have to learn by making mistakes or asking crew members.)

Cruise Director, etc. As noted elsewhere, the Cruise Director Josh Riffe does a nice job. Not always on the PA announcing stuff, just some key activities. He had a very good orientation talk as well debarkation talk. The orientation talk provided lots of good info, but got tedious when he reviewed every single shore excursion in some detail. A significant number of people left during that.

The debarkation talk was also very useful. In addition to providing procedures for debarkation, representatives from all departments along with the senior staff were brought in to be recognized. 4 employees were presented with employees of the month awards. It was very moving to see all of these people get a standing ovation. The chief safety officier was also recognized for the rescue at sea of an overboard passenger (more below).

"Super Shopper" Cathy also presented a talk on shopping in St. Thomas and St. Martin. The preferred shops program allows a person to buy from selected shops knowing Carnival will guarantee the purchase. Very nice. But this became a long infomercial as Cathy reviewed all of the shops, and even had a special guest to push ammolite. We left this one too.

It should be noted that these talks a broadcast several times on the ship's tv system.

Food: Except for Scarlett's (the supper club), food was average or below. There were some good things, and a couple that were not. The crab cake appetizer was excellent as was a shrimp and mussel appetizer. Lamb chops were fair, Louisana shrimp main course was good, pasta was just OK. Biggest disappointment was the Beef Wellington. It could be ordered 2 ways - medium rare or medium well. I ordered medium rare and got something closer to well done - actually almost dry. The re-order was not much better, not a dry but with a stringy texture as opposed to the expect firm cut.

Vegetables and sides were good. Veggies for the most part were not cooked too much. Other sides were good. Salads were pretty poor. Small in size, weak dresssing with little flavor.

Lido Deck: I suppose with a name like "Rosie's" (for Rosie the Riveter), the designers were trying to establish an industrial feel for the buffet. Well, they suceeded. I was expecting a little more decorated, refined area, but instead got the manufacturing plant's cafeteria with lots of stainless steel and industrial style food to go along.

The buffet had good salad items, a selection of main course items, sides and good deserts. Main course items included, on different days, roast beef, chicken, turkey, ham, pasta (every day), etc. Certainly edible but not memorable. Also note that there are 4 buffet lines - 2 on the aft side of the central serving area, 2 on the forward side. Sometimes that have different items as a main course on each side.

Also on the Lido Deck is deli serving hot and cold sandwiches (Rueben was good); 2 grills serving burgers and 'dogs (I was told the hamburgers were very good); a pizzieria - I can say the sausage pizze was tasty; Fish 'n Chips - also good; and an Asian cookery which neither my wife or I tried.

Which brings us to Scarlett's: Excellent and worth the $25/person charge. We ate there 2 times and had excellent meals and service. We had sea bass; veal chop; lobster; and surf 'n turf (not all at one meal!). All excellent as were the salads and sides. Service was much more relaxed and at a pace you would expect if dining in a very fine restaurant. The wine steward, Amit, is super and will help pick out a nice wine for you meal. I was told that Scarlett's was fully booked on Saturday night but there were some empty tables. Maybe they were puposefully not booked? You can book Scarlett's immediately upon boarding or by calling them or visiting.

Amit also had a couple of wine tastings on the sea days. They were $10/person. The first one featured US wines, the second international wines and food pairings. If there is enough interest from those attending the first 2, Amit will put on a tasting of premium wines at $30/. All of these were well worth the expense; Amit knows wine.

Dining Service: Our waiter George from the Philippines and Osman (?) (renamed to Primo by one of our tablemates) from Costa Rica did a good, professional job. I did feel rushed, though. As soon as we sat, menus were in our hands. Moments later, orders were requested. In most cases this was even before the cocktail waitress had taken our order. I realize when you are feeding hundreds or thousands of people things need to be kept moving but this seemed a bit excessive.

Table: We were at table 302, 8 pm seating, Washington Dining Room. We were not traveling with others so were assigned tablemates, all of whom were very pleasant and enjoyable. One couple was from north Texas; one couple(who were suppossed to be at the 5:45 seating but showed up at 8 pm) from Edmonton; then the 4 who were really assinged to the table - a couple from Toronto with their life-long friends from Jerusalem. We got along fine and enjoyed our meals with them.

The table location, however, was in my opinion pretty poor. We on the lower level of the Washington Dining Room, in the very forward part, against the port windows. It really seemed like we were out of the main activities, sort of like a table near the kitchen, which we were. We didn't want to request another table, because we really enjoyed our tablemates, but I was disappointed in the table and certainly let Carnival know.

Shore excursions, entertainment, etc: We went on shore excursions in each port and found them as described in the literature. If anyone has specific questions, I will be happy to respond. (We went on the Pearl Island snorkling, Historic Pirates tour and shopping on St Thomas, and Island tour and bay cruise on St. Martin.)

We only went to 2 of the production shows - both on the formal dinner nights. We really like the Monday show - lively, lots of singing and dancing. Friday's show left us a little cold - 80's music most of which was unfamiliar to us, didn't seem as dynamic, hard to say but not to our liking.

There were plenty of other activities of course. While my wife and I didn't want to sit on the deck, I walked around on the decks on sea days around 7:30 to 8:30 and always saw deck chairs available. If anyone is interested I can tell you about one guy who snatched a chair right from the under the watchful eyes of 2 people.

Bars: Another disappointment for me. I like to have a cocktail or 2 prior to dinner. Room served didn't work - see below - so I searched for a nice place to have drink before dinner. The Bronx Sports Bar - a little too smoky and pretty small; casino bar - smoky and noisy; bars on the Lido Deck - not exactly where you want to be if dressed for dinner; Lindy, Eagle, Paris - I don't know when they open but I didn't see anyone in them at cocktail time. So I finally settled on Winston's Cigar Bar. Nice bar, friendly bartenders, good drinks. Obviously being a cigar bar, smoking was permitted but the ventilation system handled the smoke well.

Only downside to Winston's is it served as a main route for people going to dinner on the 4th deck in Washington Dining Room. Since on several occaisions I was the only one at the bar, I felt like I was on display! (But that didn't stop me from drinking there!)

Service Issues: We had a couple of little problems with service. On Sunday evening I wanted to put together a bag of laundry for the next morning, but could not find a laundry bag or list. My wife wanted to pre-order room service breakfast, but again there was no ordering hang-tag. So as instructed I dialed the number for our steward, let it ring twice and hung up. This was about 6 pm so she was on duty. There was no reply by the time we left for dinner but we did see her in the hall so got what we needed.

The next morning I wanted to call to let the steward know I had laundry to be picked up. At 7:30am I followed the same procedure with the same result. This time we didn't see here before going to our excursion so just the left the laundry. It was picked and returned that afternoon.

Monday evening prior to the Capitan's Cocktail Party (which was pretty useless in my opinion; let me know if you want details), we decided to have a cocktail on our balcony. So at 6 my wife called in our order. When it still hadn't arrived at 7, we cancelled it.

Also Monday night we found the light on my nightstand didn't work at all, and a bulb was burned out on the lamp on my wife's nightstand. I didn't trust trying to contact the Room Steward so on Tuesday morning I went to the Purser's Office and explained the problems relating to the service, and then the lamps.

It seemed to have worked. The next time I called the Room Steward I don't think the phone on the hook before she was knocking on the door. And someone followed up later that afternoon to be sure the lights had been fixed. When mine hadn't he called the electrican then called be back to say fixing my light would take some time so they would return when we were at dinner - which they did.

Formal nights: I guess 95-98% of the men wore dark suits, the remainder tuxes. Some open shirts, even a couple of shorts. Interesting no one did anything to stop them from entering the dining room.

Man Overboard! While we never got the full story, there was a situation in which some fell or jumped overboard. Rumor was it a man who lost lots of money gambling; another was that it was crew member. What did happen is this:

About 3:15 am Thursday, an announcement was transmitted throughout the ship: Code Bravo Port Side. This was repeated a couple of times. Of course it blasted us awake. It was also obvious the ship was slowing and turning. My wife went out on the balcony and told be come out. We could see the ship's spotlight moving across the water, then could see a light on the water, then smoke and flame. I thought maybe a small boat had caught fire.

Then I heard from the balcony next to use someone say that Code Bravo meant man overboard. By now the ship was stopped and was pointed directly at where the person was in the water. We could thus not see anything. I turned on the TV but the bow cam also showed nothing.

About this time, we could see preperations being made to lower a life boat (#20 in case anyone cares). This was probably 15-20 minutes after the first announcement. It seemed to take forever to extend the boat over the water, then drop into the water, release the cables, then get underway. Because of the position we could see nothing that went on to actually rescue the person. 10-15 minutes later the life boat reappeared, and again it seem to take a long time to attach the cables, then raise the life boat.

The only other announcement heard was from Josh Riffe who came over the PA and said something to the effect he had just witnessed a maginifcant rescue and the the "guest" (his word) was now safely back on board. (Actually at the time of the announcement the life boat was still in the water although attached to the lifting cables).

That was the end of it - it was about 4:05 am when we went back to bed.

The only other word on this was during the debarkation talk when it was mentioned that the chief safety officier who lead the rescue received a cut requiring 7 stitches during the rescue. The next day I talked to another passenger who saw this officier being carried down the steps on a strecher.

Summary:

Will we cruise again? YES

Will we cruise on Carnival again? Undecided. We paid a lot for our cabin but not sure received the level of service, etc to reflect that. I think we need to do better research before deciding which cruise line best fits our needs.

Will we go to the Eastern Caribbean again? We certainly could as there is lots more to see there, but probably will try something different next time.

If anyone has specific questions I will try to answer. I will not be at my computer all day but will respond as quickly as possible.

stl82

Thanks for the info. :)

We had that same cabin the week before and the light bulbs were burned out the entire week! Linda was very ill - didn't work for several days, so we just let it go, but I chalked it up to her not feeling well as the reason for the rather lackluster service.

thanks for taking the time to post your review!:)

Triplelutz:

Thanks for note about Linda. We saw her every day so she was working again but maybe still not 100%. Working on a cruise ship is not easy. 7 days/week, 5 to 8 months at a stretch prior to getting home for a few weeks, demanding guests, rolling seas, etc. Sounds glamorous on the surface but it takes some special people to do that. And their accomodations are not like 7312 either!

I hope my comments didn't come across as too negative. As stated, we had a great time and wish we were just leaving Nassau like we were at this time last week. My wife thinks maybe I'm too picky at times but prior to retirement I was a quality assurance manager so was always pushng for perfection in our products and services. Guess I can't stop now.

stl82

Stl82,

Great review, thanks.

Quick question, you mentioned renting a car from Enterprise and returning it at the Hyatt. Which Hyatt was that? We will be renting a car the day before our cruise in July and what you did sounds perfect for us.

Thanks again for the thorough review.

Joedog,

The Enterprise office is in the Hyatt at 400 East 2nd Ave in downtown Miami. We were not fimiliar with the downtown area so it is a bit confusing but we were able to find it without with only a couple of missed turns. You just stop in front of the hotel, follow the signs to the Enterprise office and they will come out and check in your car.

We have also found Enterprise has much better rates than Avis or Hertz if you are willing to drive a car with 20k+ miles rather than 5k. To save $30+/day, I'll take Enterprise.

stl82

PS: I am not an employee of Enterprise!

what were the shows every night like

whines1,

Afraid you're asking the wrong person! We only went to 2 shows - the ones on the formal nights (Monday and Friday). My wife and I are not really night people and with all of the activities during the day we were pretty beat after our 8 pm dinner.

We both thought the Monday night show was great. Really excellent singing and dancing, lots of energy, just a good time. We were divided on the Friday show: my wife enjoyed it, I didn't. Hard to put a finger on exactly why I wasn't impressed. Maybe it was because the music wasn't fimiliar to me, I just don't know. Seemed to have the same amount of dancing, singing, etc. but it didn't click for me.

Look around on these boards as I have seen lots of other comments on the shows and comedians.

stl82

thanks for the reply

Thank you for the review. We are leaving Sun. and was wondering about the St. John's Island Tour. It is has the ferry, then a tour in a safari truck through the national park stops for photographs and then to Trunk Bay. We are family of four, 2 girls 9 & 14 and wondering if it was worth the money or just make our way there ourselves. One more question. Do you know do the soda cards, include lemonade and ice tea. Have one child who is a pop junkie and the other one who only drinks water, ice tea and lemonade. Thanks.

M&NMom:

Sorry I can't help regarding either the St. John's tour or the soda cards. My wife I took a tour of St. Thomas - we'll save St. John's for the next cruise! I do know that orange juice and iced tea are free all the time (maybe grapefruit juice too?? Seems there was a choice of a couple of juices.) at the drink station. We don't drink soft drinks so really didn't get any info on the soft drink cards.

Hopefully someone else will read your questions and respond. You might also go to the general Carnival board and see if you can find anything there.

stl82

Thank you for the review. We are leaving Sun. and was wondering about the St. John's Island Tour. It is has the ferry, then a tour in a safari truck through the national park stops for photographs and then to Trunk Bay. We are family of four, 2 girls 9 & 14 and wondering if it was worth the money or just make our way there ourselves. One more question. Do you know do the soda cards, include lemonade and ice tea. Have one child who is a pop junkie and the other one who only drinks water, ice tea and lemonade. Thanks.

Soda Cards cost $32. Ice Tea and Lemonade are FREE and are available in Rosies.. in multiple places 24hrs a day. Bring a tall cup with a lid and straw. I would fill it with Ice and Ice Tea and bring it to the pool. The cups they have are small plastic cups.. Okay for one drink.. We took a couple of these plastic cups.. loaded up our big cup and brought it to the room in the evening..

IF you want to can go to the gift shop and buy your daughter a Carnival Cup..with a lid and straw...

As far as the st. Johns tour..if there are four of you. You would need to catch a cab to the ferry then when you arrive get a cab to the beach and reverse it when you return. You do have to pay close attention to the ferry schedules etc.. so you are back on time.

It might me less stressful to book the tour and relax and enjoy your day..

We filled it up and took it off ship with us.. for the day..

Thank you both. I will add tall cups to my list of things to pickup. Are alcohol drinks as expense as they say? Though as this is a family vacation for us, I don't expect we'll be over indulging. However I would like to bring something for our room when getting ready at night or nite cap sitting on the balcony. Is this as taboo as I feel it is? Thanks. Can you tell we've never cruised?! Thanks

Very Nice review thank you for sharing your experience with us fellow cruisers we will be sailing the Valor in June and can't wait.