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Valor New Years Cruise Review


GabbyCooks

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Hello everyone!! I don't post much, but read religiously. I wanted to share our review because I have found so much valuable information in the reviews here.

 

We are from Dayton, OH and there were 9 of us sailing. My family: me (35), hubby (38), DS1 (21), DS2 (15), DSGF (22). My sister's family: Sis (39), Sis DH (50), DN1 (18), DN2 (14). This was me, hubby, and DS2's second cruise. DS2, DN1, DN2's 3rd cruise. Sis and her DH 4th cruise, and DSGF's first cruise.

 

We sailed Carnival Valor leaving Miami on Dec 30, with ports in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios. We booked this cruise in February using early saver. Right after we booked the price jumped by a couple hundred dollars. However, we did get some price drops over the summer before final payment. We upgraded from portholes to oceanviews with one of the price drops.

 

We DROVE (eeeeek!!!) two cars from Dayton OH to Miami FL without any trouble. Took us right about 20 hours. We left Ohio with 10 inches of snow on the ground, so were loving watching that temperature rise all the way to Florida. We jumped up 60 degrees overnight! YAY!!! (However, we dropped the other way on the way home and that sucked! lol)

 

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We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Miramar FL, which we got for a steal thanks to my sister's Marriott points. We ended up getting 2 rooms for $25 - that can't be beat. The hotel was about 30 minutes to port. It did not have free breakfast, but $10 for buffet breakfast. We decided to just wait until we boarded to eat.

 

Saturday night we headed to Bayside and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. The food was decent, overpriced, but decent. We wondered around Bayside for awhile taking in the sights, then headed back to hotel. We stopped at a Publix just down the street from our hotel to pick up soda, wine, monsters, water, etc.

 

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Then finally...It's Sunday!!! The day we've been waiting for!! After much research, we decided to park at on off site location. We booked thru Global Airport Parking which uses the garage on I believe NW 2nd St (I can look up the address if anyone wants it). We had two cars and paid $117.00 (so under $60 each) for 7 days. The husbands dropped the other 7 of us off at the port, along with the luggage around 11 AM. They then drove to the garage (they got a little lost) and caught the shuttle back. They arrived back at port around noon in a white shuttle van with the words Premier in blue. I do not have any pictures of the garage since he dropped us off first, but I will say that we were happy with their service. My husband is much more peticular about the car than me, and he was fine with it. They caught the shuttle after the cruise within 10 min of exiting the building with no problems.

 

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We had received the "Urgent Notice" email from Carnival telling us not to arrive before 1 PM, which we ignored. The husbands got back around noon. We entered the building, had our boarding passes and birth certificates checked (we all used Drivers License and Birth Certificates with no problems), went up the esculator and thru security. They shook all of our "loose" water and soda, but didn't open the sealed soda. Not an issue either way, we didn't smuggle anything, we ordered BV. As we were walking away from the "shaking" table, they were calling for a dog to come to that area (shrug). We then got our Sail and Sign cards and boarded immediately with no wait.

 

We headed straight to the Lido deck for lunch and drinks. I had Mongolian Wok, and it was delicious. Of course we had a few DOD's and they were giving out free champagne, so we had some of those as well.

 

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Our rooms were ready right at 1:30, so we went to check them out. We were in 1232, an oceanview on the riviera deck.

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We had ordered Bon Voyage liquor about 2 weeks before the cruise. It was waiting when we arrived.

 

I had emailed the Player's Club back in March and was told we qualified for the Standard Bon Voyage package. I had no idea what we would get. We received Chocolate Covered Strawberrys (to die for!) and that night at dinner the brought us a $15 photo credit thingy. I was happy with that and used it to buy our boarding pic and one other dinner picture.

 

Our bags were all delivered within minutes of getting to our room. We unpacked and my sister decorated our doors.

 

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Next up was Muster drill. We went straight to the life boats (last cruise we met in a lounge first). We had to wait a little while, but it was painless for the most part.

 

We headed to the "secret deck" for sailaway. We went to Deck 7 forward and there were only a few people out there. It was perfect! Windy, but perfect.

 

 

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After sail away we went to the Ivanhoe theater to sign the 2 youngest boys up for O2... My son turned 15 on Dec 9 so would be in Club O2, my nephew turned 14 on Dec 7 and we were hoping to get him moved from Circle C to Club O2 to be with his cousin. We were told many times this probably wouldn't happen, however, we spoke with the Club O2 director, Anndrian and he agreed to let my nephew move. Whew!

 

Time for dinner! We had early dining in the Washington Dining Room. Our waiters were Winnie, Enis, and Martin... we adored all three!!! Tonight I had the beef brisket and was pretty disappointed, it was very fatty.

 

The evening was consumed with casino, karaoke, and I can't remember what else. We skipped the Wlecome Aboard Show.

 

Sometime during this evening though...our ship stopped. My sister noticed it had stopped, but we thought she was crazy. We did not see any of what happened, but it was announced that we had rescued 4 cubans from a raft. It was rumored they had been at sea for 15 days! The last night at sea we stopped again for the Coast Guard to pick them up from us. Crazy!!! I wish we would've seen this happen.

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Monday, Sea Day, Formal Night, New Years Eve

 

We slept in some and then had breakfast on the Lido. I can't remember much of what we did during the day. I know I played in the slot tournament, and didn't place. DH and I also walked pretty much the whole ship to just look around. Otherwise it was a low key day resting for New Years Eve

 

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We did watch some of the Hairy Chest competition. We also noticed many chairs occupied by only towels. I didn't lay out at all on this cruise, but just by observation did not see them enforcing the 40 min rule.

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I'm so mad at myself for not taking a picture, but the menu tonight was changed some for New Years. They had Lobster and Prime Rib, but no Spaghetti Carbona. I cannot for the life of me remember what replaced that and what else was different.

 

There were party hats waiting on our table for us and we received noise makers when dinner was done. I had lobster and it was good.

 

We went straight to Lido after dinner to claim our table for the New Years festivities. We played cards and ordered drinks to pass the time until the party.

 

The party was amazing!!! Truly one of the best nights of my life. We had so much fun. We've never gone anywhere on New Years so this was great. We didn't have to drive anywhere, the kids could do their own thing, just wonderful!

 

Most of my pictures from this night turned out blurry... lol

 

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We went to bed probably around 3 am. Again, I can't explain how much fun we had. Will definitely plan on booking another New Year's cruise.

 

That's it for tonight. I will start with Cozumel tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

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Thank you for reading!

 

We'll continue with Tuesday, New Year's Day, Cozumel

 

We didn't book any excursions for Cozumel. With it being New Year's Day we didn't want to commit to anything in case we weren't feeling "well" lol. We decided to just go downtown and shop.

 

We caught a cab at the port to downtown, we were able to fit all 9 of us into a van and it was $20 each way. We were let off across from the pier downtown. We wondered around the shops, bought a few soveniers. Eventually, went to Senor Frogs and had a margarita. Then stopped by Starbucks to use their free wi-fi. We easily found a cab back for the same price.

 

We had planned on going back to the ship to eat, then getting back off to explore the port area. We were all exhausted and stayed on the ship for naps after lunch. I wanted to watch for pier runners but was asleep. I guess there was 2.

 

 

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What a great review! Our family of 18 were also on board and had a spectacular time. We actually watched the entire rescue from our three deck 6 balcony cabins. I'll try to post a pic of the raft. Btw cabins 6367, 6371 and 6375 are to be avoided if you don't like noise! Directly over the casino stage! Made great use of earplugs all week.:D

 

Edit: can't get the raft pic to post nice and big like the OP's. if anyone wants to share the trick I'd be glad to post it.

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That afternoon we played some trivia. My sister and I both won Ships on a Stick, yay!! We were so excited, it was kinda sad. lol

 

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After dinner we attended all 5 comedy shows. Our comedians for this night were Jack Mayberry and Al Romero. Both were funny, but not hilarious. We liked Al Romero better. Jack Mayberry was funny, but more of just a joke teller. Either way we went to all the shows, we love the comedy club.

 

 

Weds, Sea Day

I didn't do much this day and am actually having a hard time remembering it. I know we had breakfast on the Lido. Then I did laundry...fun! My 15 yo wears atleast 4 shirts a day so I brought little Tide packets and some dryer sheets. I got quarters from Guest Services. It was $3 to wash and $3 to dry. My husband had to tape the dryer shut because it kept popping open.

 

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I'm sure the evening was full of dinner and casino. We went to the midnight Comedy show with Al Romero as it was the only new show, the others were all repeats. We enjoyed him, but the 1st night was better.

 

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What a great review! Our family of 18 were also on board and had a spectacular time. We actually watched the entire rescue from our three deck 6 balcony cabins. I'll try to post a pic of the raft. Btw cabins 6367, 6371 and 6375 are to be avoided if you don't like noise! Directly over the casino stage! Made great use of earplugs all week.:D.

 

 

I'd love to see it! I wish we would've watched it. It's pretty amazing. I did see pictures of the raft on a news website.

 

Thank you everyone for reading!

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Thursday, Grand Cayman.

 

Our original plan was to take a bus to 7 mile beach. A few weeks before the cruise some of our group started to show interest in doing Stingray City. We looked some online, but decided to try our look on booking at the pier. We wanted to get off the ship early so we all ordered room service breakfast. We got on the tender around 8:30 with no wait.

 

Once in the pier we found "Local Stingray Tours" offering Stingray City with 1 snorkel stop for $25. It included transportation and they would drop of us at 7 mile beach on the way back (we decided not to do the beach afterwards and they took us back to port).

 

Stingray city was amazing! I'm so glad we did it. My sister and I chickened out, but everyone else held the stingrays and my hubby kissed one. We had about 30 minutes there then another 30 minutes a little ways away to snorkel.

 

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That night we went to "Gravity Defying Comedy" starring Dana Tison. This was great! I didn't think I'd be into a juggler, but we loved him! I didn't take any pictures, but definitely check him out.

 

Tonight was the deck party and mexican buffet, but I went to bed around 10 PM. The past few days were really starting to catch up with me.

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Friday, Jamaica, 2nd Formal Night

 

We booked in advance the Sunset Jamaica Grande resort through Jamaica for a day. The price was $60 per adult and $40 per child. We chose to add on their transportation at $9 per person as well. I cannot tell you how happy we were with this. We were kind of worried about Jamaica and decided an all inclusive was the best way to go. Jamaica was all 9 of our favorite day by far! The grounds and pools were beautiful. It included all you can drink alcohol (Monica makes very strong drinks!! lol) plus lunch buffet.

 

Our Jamaica for a day rep Bryan met us at the pier at 8:45. He rode the bus with us to the resort and introduced us to Mitchell who is their representive that is at the resort all day if you have problems. Bryan took us to the cashier to finish up paying and get our wristbands. He then walked us to the next to get our towel cards. He even walked us out to the grounds and showed us around.

 

Again, I can't say how impressed we were with Jamaica for a day. Bryan did not leave our side until we were comfortable in our chairs, and then Mitchell was in the lobby all day.

 

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We loved our day here. We met Mitchell back in the lobby at 2 PM and were on the bus within 10 minutes back to the port. Again- our favorite day!

 

Tonight was formal night. After dinner we again went to all 5 comedy shows. We had new comedians tonight - Dwight Slade and John McDonnell. Both were funny, but we loved Dwight Slade. He was hilarious! The adult shows were much funnier than the family shows, but all were good.

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Saturday, final sea day :(

 

I lost my little Fun Times tear out for this day, so I don't remember exactly what all we did. I also don't have any pictures of this day.

 

I know my hubby played in the slot tournament and didn't place. We played a couple more games of trivia and didn't win.

 

I did a little packing here and there.

 

That night at dinner is when the shipped stopped again. It was announced that we were meeting up with the Coast Guard for them to pick up the Cubans we had rescued.

 

After dinner we went to trivia, 60 seconds or less, and the Liar's Club. Then I think some more casino and bed.

 

Sunday :(

We were Zone 28 and exited the ship around 10 AM. I do know next time we drive to Miami, we will definitely do self assist to get off the ship earlier. Lessons learned. We had no problem finding our luggage or getting their customs. Actually customs was a little too easy? lol.

 

The husbands boarded the Premier Shuttle within 10 minutes of getting off the ship and we were on our way back to cold Ohio.

 

That's it! I think! lol.

 

Thank you everyone for reading.

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Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for posting the pictures. I'm just so amazed that happened. I thought about them all week. Wondering how bad your life must be that you're willing to risk that. These are the first pictures I've seen of the rescue. Again, thank you for posting them!

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I will add a few bits and bobs of our experience as there is no good reason to write a review when Gabby's is so great. Hope you don't mind Gabby.

 

Valor wasn't the nicest ship we've been on. Found it very closed in and chopped up BUT that is just personal preference. It was beautiful, well maintained and the crew was excellent. We had 3 balcony cabins with 3 insides across the hall and then two more balcony cabins in another part of the ship (because my sister-inlaw can't stand the rest of us:D.)

 

We ate mostly in the dining room and all of us enjoyed the food very much. We spent most sea days up on serenity deck and usually had about 12 of us on 4 of the large loungers. The attendants were definitely removing belongings up there as we saw a couple of people go absolutely nuts on the poor crew members because of it. Apparently reading posted signs is a challenge for some.:D

 

We have a driver in Coz that we love who takes us to a beach club when we're there and in this case we had two drivers because 17 of us spent a glorious day snorkeling and lounging on the beach.

 

In Grand Cayman we did the exact same thing as Gabby with the walk off and picking up the $25 stingray/snorkel tour. It was absolutely fabulous and $$ very well spent.

 

In Jamaica 12 of us did the falls and river tubing with Phil Lafayette which we had booked online. Had a truly wonderful time. Phil was great, although a few of our teens thought he talked way too much. I liked him a lot.

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Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for posting the pictures. I'm just so amazed that happened. I thought about them all week. Wondering how bad your life must be that you're willing to risk that. These are the first pictures I've seen of the rescue. Again, thank you for posting them!

 

So true! After watching that tiny little boat bob around in those choppy seas up against the massive ship we all kept saying exactly that. How desperate must you be to attempt this? Felippe told us the doctor in the infirmary said the woman likely wouldn't have lasted another day at sea.

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I don't mind at all! I love hearing what other people did as well.

 

I've only been on the Sensation prior to this, but I agree about being closed in. The atrium on the Sensation was much more "grand" than the Valor. I commented on that a few times. It seems like the atrium should open right up to the Lido deck instead of those hallways. I did love the lido deck much better than Sensation though.

 

I wanted to do the falls, but no one else wanted to do. My dad and step mom spent a week in Jamaica a few years ago and scared us with stories of the vendors there. Oh well, there's always next time!

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The Valor is in the same class of ships as the Liberty and I think one or two other ships (Conquest, I think). Anyhow, they're all made identical within a class. However, the decor will vary greatly and some are a bit newer than others. For instance, the Valor is newer than the Victory.

 

I wonder what the ship crew did with those refugees all those days onboard.:confused:

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