Valor Western Review, 6-25 to 7-2-2006

This review is a bit late in coming and rather long, but hopefully some of the info will be helpful to future Valor cruisers. I had extensively researched the Valor (and our ports) here on Cruise Critic and it really paid off because we always knew pretty much what to expect.

Pre-Cruise: My wife and I flew down a day early for this cruise and we were very glad that we did. Our 11:55 flight was delayed until 1:00, which meant we might not make our connecting flight in Atlanta so they also booked us on a later flight just in case. As it turns out we were able to make the flight, but after we landed in Miami we had to wait about 45 minutes during a thunderstorm before the ground crew could come out and direct the plane. It also took us longer to arrive in Miami because they were flying around some bad weather. The delays really didn’t matter too much because although we had made the connecting flight, our luggage did not. Rather than take a chance on the airlines getting our luggage to our hotel before we left for the port the next morning we just waited for the next flight to arrive from Atlanta hoping our luggage would be on that flight.

While waiting for our luggage I thought about how we had done our Carnival luggage tags. We always wait until we pick up our luggage from the airport before we put those tags on…… the reason being they might get torn off during the flight. I was thinking that if our luggage had to be taken directly to the port it would have a better chance of making it to the correct ship and our cabin if it already had the Carnival tags on them. Next cruise the tags will go on when we check our luggage at the airport, and if they get torn off we’ll just replace them at the port if we don’t have enough extra tags with us.

The next flight finally arrives and our luggage made it! We were starting to get a bit worried because they were just about the last pieces off. We had almost given up hope, but they finally showed up. We had booked a room at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami so we hopped into a taxi ($28) and finally checked in at 10:00 PM (we were hoping to get there by about 6:00). We were pleased with the hotel and the location, especially after they informed us we had been upgraded to a suite.

One nice feature of this hotel is it is right across the street from Bayside Marketplace where there are shops, bars and restaurants. Since we were tired and frazzled from our flight, delays, and luggage hassles we went to the first restaurant in Bayside that we came to, Bubba Gumps. We enjoyed the food here and the service was very good, and if you ever make it try the onion rings on a stick. It had been a long day so we walked back to the hotel and got ready for bed.

Cruise Day: About 5:15 am I got up and peeked out the window and saw the RCCI Freedom of the Seas pulling into dock. A little later I saw a Carnival ship pulling in, but I couldn’t tell if it was the Valor or the Elation. We were only on the 3rd floor, so a room higher up might have a better view.

We had decided to get our luggage down to the lobby and eat breakfast by about 8:30 because we had heard that the elevators are hard to catch if you wait until 10:00. The hostess seated us quickly and also checked our bags until we finished. The Holiday Inn has a breakfast bar that is actually two sections. One section has more of a continental selection: fruit, cereal, bagels, etc., while the other section has things like eggs, bacon, pancakes, etc. For full price you get both bars, but since we weren’t that hungry we opted for just the continental bar.

We finished eating and walked outside for a little bit, but were ahead of schedule for catching a taxi to the port. Finally sometime after 9:30 we picked up our bags and the hotel got us a taxi. It is a short taxi ride to the port and I think with tip it was about $15. We arrived about 10:00 and the luggage porters greeted us with a big “Welcome to the Valor”, and then the “we are the last guys to handle your luggage before it gets to the ship” speech. At least they were friendly about it so I tipped them $5.00 for 3 bags and we made our way to the terminal.

This is a new terminal from what we used last year on our Victory cruise. Since we were so early they directed us right to the VIP check in (even though we weren’t VIP’s). There we checked in and were given our gold S&S cards, then we headed to the security checkpoint, but they said they weren’t open yet. Back where we checked in were some chairs and a large group that looked like a wedding party.

Eventually the wedding party group started going through security so we fell into place and also went through. This is where the longest wait occurred for embarkation, and I’m guessing we stood in that line for at least an hour or more. I was wearing my Cruise Critic hat and we met another member from our roll call (Chris, her husband Bill and their three sons). It was nice to finally meet someone from our roll call and we enjoyed chatting with them while we waited.

Finally they led us up some stairs to a large room with a lot of chairs. I’m not sure why we weren’t able to wait here instead of standing in line downstairs because we were only in this room for 5 or 10 minutes before we were able to head on to where they took our boarding picture and then onto the ship to wait in line to get our picture for our S&S cards. This went rather quickly and we were cut loose on the ship at about 11:50, the earliest we have ever been on a ship!!!

Since the halls to the cabins were still closed off we headed right up to the Lido pool bar and promptly got our first DOD’s from Sergey who became our favorite drink waiter on this cruise. Sergey was from the Ukraine and we chatted with him for a short while and then just enjoyed being on the ship so early! I had tipped Sergey an extra $1 in cash for our first drinks and continued to do so and later it really paid off (I’ll explain that later). By now it was raining in Miami, but we had our DOD’s and a seat at the pool bar so all was good. Once we had the souvenir (plastic) Carnival glass I was able to get it refilled with Miami Vice’s for $4.95. I headed into the buffet area and picked up some food from the buffet, and then a roast beef sandwich from the Deli (the Deli is very, very good). Then it was back to the bar area to continue drinking and eating.

Sitting in the bar area we met another couple from our roll call who were on their honeymoon, and then Chris and her husband came by and we talked to them for a while….. very nice people and our cruise was off to a great start.

Cabin: Somewhere around two or so we decided to check out our cabin so we headed down to the upper deck aft where our “L” shaped cabin was located. Since we are OPC (Ocean Player Club) members I had contacted the casino host via e-mail about a week before our cruise and our cabin was nicely decorated with the Bon Voyage package and a fruit basket. We really enjoyed the layout of this cabin and the larger balcony made it extra nice. This cabin does not have a sofa, but we really didn’t miss it at all. It was also nice that the bed was facing the windows to our balcony. We had plenty of storage space for the two of us, and even the wife’s extra large suitcase fit under the bed for storage.

This cabin is right above the Eagles lounge, but what little noise we heard never really bothered us at all, and we would stay in one of those cabins again in a heartbeat.

We didn’t actually meet our cabin steward, Mart, until the next day but he did a great job that earned him an extra tip at the end of the cruise.

At this point the DOD’s and Miami Vices started to take their toll so I can’t remember if our luggage was already in our cabin, or if it came right after we got there. We sat out on the balcony for a while, unpacked some of our clothes, and I put up our Cruise Critic door sign. I had printed it off and had it laminated before we left. I had some magnetic holders that are made to stick on a business card and I had cut one in four pieces with one piece on each corner on the back of the door sign. The sign stuck right to the outside of the door and stayed there the whole week. If you want a copy of the Cruise Critic door sign and name tags here is a link (in Word format so you can type in your screen name before printing them off):

http://www.user.shentel.net/cbarden/ccdoorsign.doc

Next was the muster drill, which was pretty painless. Right outside our cabin was a set of crew stairs where we went down one deck to our muster station. It wasn’t too hot or crowded and it didn’t seem to last all that long. Then it was back to the cabin for a short nap before our 6:15 dinner in the Lincoln dining room.

Sorry, but this is a lot longer than I expected so I will have to break it down and continue later.

This second section of the review will cover the dining room and the food we had on the ship:

Dining Room: We were pleased to discover that we had a table for two (#126) in the dining room. Our wait team was Vaughn from St. Vincent and Imade from Indonesia. We really enjoyed these guys and they made our dining time a lot of fun. They had two other 8 top tables in addition to our 2 top so they kept pretty busy, but our service was never really lacking. We often ordered more than one starter, entrée, and/or desert without any problems.

This was our first cruise with the new menus and I was pretty impressed. Not a whole lot has changed, but I really believe that on this cruise the portions were larger than they have been in the past. Except for a steak that was over cooked the first night, everything else we ordered was very good and cooked to order. Rather than an extensive night-by-night review I will just cover some of our favorite foods that we had in the dining room. Below is a link with the new Carnival menus for anyone who has not yet seen them (days 4 and 5 were switched around on this cruise):

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=340472

A word of warning here if you check the dinner menu on the TV in your cabin; there were two nights that the menus were switched around. That isn’t a big deal, but if you want to make sure of what is on the dinner menu head down to the dining room sometime after lunch and the menu will be posted outside. I noticed the same thing happened last year on the Victory with two nights being switched around on the cabin TV.

There is never a steak, prime rib, or other beef entrée offered that I don’t order and all of them were very good and cooked to order (except the NY Strip the first night). I also always order the lamb, and the first night’s offering of Duet of New Zealand Lamb was excellent (as always), and more than made up for the one over cooked steak. The other lamb entrée, Braised Leg of New Zealand Spring Lamb, on Wednesday, was also very good. The prime rib, fillet, most beef dishes, and the lobster we thought were very good on this cruise.

For some reason this was the first time I have ordered Chateaubriand on a cruise, but it won’t be the last! Along with the Chateaubriand I also tried the Whole Roasted Quail filled with a Delicate Herb Stuffing. Our waiter, Vaughn, tried to steer me clear of this but I tried it anyway. I’ll have to say that I have never realized how little meat there is on a quail. I think there is more meat on a very small chicken wing than I found on this quail.

On to the starters: One entrée that is missing from the new menus is the roast duck. On Wednesday when I saw Smoked Duck & Caramelized oranges as a starter I thought I’d give this a try. Once again, Vaughn tried to steer me away from this but I wanted to give it a shot. This reminded me of three one-inch strips of raw bacon, each one rolled up. It just wasn’t what I was hoping to see.

If you like shrimp then you’ll want to try the Mississippi Delta Prawns, and as always they were very good. I also tried the Pumpkin soup for the first time on a cruise. It seems like something you’ll acquire a taste for, but by the time I finished it I decided it was something I’d like to have again. I also wanted to try the Strawberry Bisque, but I didn’t want to order three starters on the same night, so that will have to wait until next year. I also thought the Lobster Bisque was quite good.

 

Not too much to say about the salads so I’ll skip to the deserts.

 

One of my favorites, Decadence of Chocolate, is no longer on the new menu, but I think I have found a new favorite with the Bitter Chocolate Melting Cake they now offer on day 3! That same night they also have a Raspberry Verbena Crème Brulee, which might be my new #2 desert. Another new desert was the Bresse Panouille, but I actually found this meringue type of desert to be too sweet. Bitter and Blanc is still offered that same night so you might want to try that.

 

Breakfast and lunch in the dining room: We ate breakfast twice in the dining room and lunch one time. This is something you should try on a cruise because the food is good and you don’t have to worry about lines up on the Lido buffet.

 

Lido Breakfast: I thought this was as good as the dining room, mainly because I love the made to order omelets. There can be long lines, but we went either early or later and never had much of a wait. We also ate there on the last morning and I was impressed that there was not much of a wait and they still had the omelet bar open.

 

Lido Lunch: It’s hard to beat the Deli for a great sandwich or head up one level to the Fish and Chips for some great food (be sure to try the fritters)! We never had much of a line, but again we were either earlier or later than the rush times.

 

We never tried the pizza on this trip, but I’m not a huge fan of Carnival pizza so I never went out of my way to pick up a slice. It is available 24 hours a day if you want to try some, and most CC members seem to really like it.

 

Ice Cream (soft serve) is also available 24 hours a day and that is also a nice touch that Carnival ships offer. I tried a chocolate milkshake one night from the Coffee Bar on the Promenade Deck (you pay extra for this) and I thought it was very good.

 

I had better add that on Saturday from about 11 to 2 is the chocolate buffet in Rosies. I suggest you try a piece of that huge hunk of fudge that they carve with a knife!

 

Room Service: Room service was always pretty fast and friendly. One morning they did not deliver what we had placed on our door tag the night before, but when we called they said they did not have the order. We suspect that someone took the tag off our door as a prank. Room service offered to redo the order ASAP, but we just shot up to the Lido for a quick bite of breakfast instead. I ate so much in the Lido or dining room that I never was hungry enough to order a BLT or toasted PB & J from room service on this cruise. We would tip the room service waiters a couple of $$ and a mini-bag of M&M’s for our coffee/hot chocolate in the morning.

 

Scarlett’s: We really couldn’t decide on a night when we wanted to go there, and since we had a great wait staff, a table for two, and the dining room food was so good we just never made it.

 

To be continued.....

The Casino: As I mentioned earlier in the review the casino host had decorated our cabin and also left a fruit basket. On the last night of the cruise she also had a bottle of wine delivered to our table at dinner.

 

I thought the casino had a very nice selection of games and slots, but the slots were very, very tight. On our next cruise I might spend $20 a night at the slots and then play some Blackjack. We both spent way too much in the slots on this cruise, but we had a good time. The slots are set up so you can place your winnings in what they call a “players bank” on your S&S card. You can also use the money from this “players bank” to transfer money to a machine at no charge. If you decide to do this you won’t have to carry around a bucket full of quarters (or nickels or dollar coins). They remind you to cash out your “players bank” on the last night at the cashiers cage. You can also charge money to your S&S card directly from a slot machine, but there is a 3% charge for each transaction. The drink waiters in the casino were always present and very friendly.

 

Ports/Excursions: On this cruise I had booked independent tours at three of our ports and we decided to just head for a beach and relax at our last port. We selected this cruise because of the ports and we were not disappointed.

 

A quick note about the ships time: During DST the Valor sets the ships clock back one hour on Monday night, and then they set it forward again on Friday night. This put the ship time the same as Grand Cayman, Isla Roatan, and Costa Maya, but one hour ahead of Belize.

 

Grand Cayman (Tuesday): For this port we booked the Nativeway Rays, Reef, and Rum Point excursion. This was a great decision and since there were only two other couples who showed up it was almost like a private tour. CC member Autum Sun did a pretty good review of this tour with pictures so I’ll just list that link:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=296735

 

I will add something about the tender process on the Carnival Valor. Since we set our clocks back on the ship we were on the same time as Grand Cayman. Since we arrived at 7:00 I was concerned about getting on a tender in time to check in with Nativeway at 8:00. I had printed out our e-mail confirmation with the tour times and asked at the purser’s desk how we could get off the ship in time to make the tour. The lady I talked to said to just go down the stairs (near the pursers desk) to deck 0 at about 7:00. It was very easy and we were on the first tender and arrived before 7:30.

 

Isla Roatan (Wednesday): For this port we booked horseback riding with El Rancho Barrio Dorcas. Four other members from our Roll Call also booked this tour (the extended cruise ship special). We all had a blast, and rather than give out details I’ll post a link where another CC member has already posted a review with pictures:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=174186

 

We arrived in Isla Roatan at 11:00 and we were told where to go and they would call for a van to pick us up. The ride ended at Foster’s Resort (beach) at West Bay and the total cost of $60 included a free drink, use of the beach, and a ride back to the port in plenty of time to board the ship.

 

Belize (Thursday): We had booked cave tubing with Yhony for this port and were really looking forward to going. We had about 12 members from our Roll Call also signed up for this tour. Wednesday night it was announced that all of the cave tubing and water sports booked with Carnival were canceled due to rain earlier in the week. The other members that were going in our group decided that our tour with Yhony would also be cancelled. The wife and I took a chance and took an early tender into Belize and found that Yhony was still set to go.

 

Yhony explained that the cruise ship tours don't have enough guides to safely handle the tons of people they book on the tour. Yhony had one guide for about every six tubes that were in the water. Each group was linked together and the guides made sure we had a safe trip down the river and through the cave. The river was higher than normal and a bit fast, but we had no problems.... we all had a great time! We did have to cancel the extra cave they normally do because the water was higher and that cave didn't have as much "head room".

 

They also explained that the National park would not let them go if the conditions were not safe, and Yhony had checked with them both the night before and that morning to make sure it was OK to do the tour.

 

There were other groups there also, so it seems the private operators were all set to go. I'm sure there are conditions where they won't allow any tours, but if you are booked with a private operator you might want to tender in to make sure.... if it isn't safe they won't take you, but there are conditions where they can go, but the cruise ships tours won't.

 

If we ever have a chance to go cave tubing again in Belize we will book it with Yhony, they were very safety conscious, watched out for us, and showed us a great time. If you go over to the Belize Ports of Call forum you will find all kinds of info on cave tubing.

 

Costa Maya (Friday): OK, this was the day we decided to just find a nice beach and relax. It was also the day we decided we’d become members of the “hole in the fence” club and try to visit the Chac-Chi resort that is just to the right of the port area. The owner of the port area has built a cement wall to prevent cruise ship passengers from going over to the Chac-Chi resort, but there is a thread on the Ports of Call forum where CC members have reported ways to get there by going through a “hole in the fence”. The following (very long) thread has all the info on how to get to this resort along with some great pictures:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=291724

 

There were 6 other Roll Call members with us as we searched for the “hole in the fence”. Unfortunately, as we wandered along in the area previously described we discovered they had just put up a new fence that did not yet have any holes! There were a few other people also looking and we discovered a spot where we could go under that new fence! This resort is a favorite place for cruise ship crew members to go and get away from the crowds, and it turns out that one of the other people who went “under” with us was the captain of the other cruise ship in port and his family!

It was a beautiful place to relax and enjoy $2 Corona’s, $1 sodas, and free chips and salsa. As CC members come back from this resort they report the latest directions and methods to gain entry into Chac-Chi, so if you want to go there stay current on the latest posts in the thread I listed above.

To be continued.....

The Captains Party: This was held on Monday night in the Eagles Lounge (deck 5, aft), and there is one for the early seating and one for the late seating (dinner). This is where you get to meet the captain and are served free drinks and Hors' Dourves. The free drinks are little glasses brought around by waiters on trays. It is reported that if you go directly to the bar you can order whatever drink you’d like, rather than be limited to what is on the drink tray (leave a nice tip if you do this). This is when tipping our new best friend (Sergey, the Lido pool bar drink waiter) paid off. Right after we got a couple of free drinks from a server we spotted Sergey, also serving drinks. After a couple of minutes he came over and said, “Oh my gosh, John and Wanda, wait just a minute!” He then returned with two full size Miami Vice’s for me, and two Pina Colada’s for the wife! What a nice gesture.

 

In the past, included in the Hors' Dourves were some tasty little meatballs in a delicious sauce. This time the meatballs didn’t have the sauce and we thought they were pretty dry. I can’t remember the other things they were also serving, but I’m not a big Hors' Dourves type of guy anyway.

 

Monday night is also the first formal in the dining room so we went to about three photo stations to get our pictures made before we went to the Captains Party.

 

I guess now is a good time to get what people wore to dinner out of the way. I’m not real concerned with what someone else wears as long as they are clean, neat, and polite. With that being said, I would say most pax adhered to the dress code. Not everyone wore a tux, but most had on at least a nice shirt and a pair of pants.

 

Entertainment:We didn’t go to many of the shows, I was hoping for the hypnotist act but never saw it listed. I did go to one of the late night comedy shows and it was pretty funny.

 

Most nights the waiters did some singing/dancing in the dining room, but it didn’t seem to interfere with dinner like on the Victory last year. Still, I’d like to see them cut it down to maybe just two nights so the wait staff doesn’t have to rush around so much.

 

One night we were privileged to witness some special dining room entertainment by two Carnival passengers. That’s right, at the 6:15 seating in the Lincoln dining room two male passengers got into a fight! Seems one (or both were pretty drunk) and one of them either said something to the other guys wife, or one guy asked the other one to tone down his swearing (depends on which version you heard about). They were not sitting at the same table, but one of them got the other one into a choke hold and punched his face a couple of times. We heard the commotion, but the actual fighting was over fairly quickly. I didn’t get up to watch, but a young man sitting close to us did and reported back with the news. By the time he got over there they were squaring off across from each other mouthing threats. Seems like it took a while for security to finally arrive, and when they did one was escorted out the front and one was escorted out the back of the dining room. The next night one of the waiters said that one of them was still eating in our dining room, but the other couple had been moved to the Washington. I guess this happened on either Wednesday or Thursday night.

 

The Past Guest Party: If I remember correctly this was on Tuesday, and like the Captains party there was one for early seating and one for late seating. Invitations and Valor pins were left in our cabin that morning. Several of us from our Roll Call were able to sit together so we had a very nice time. Sergey, our drink waiter was working this party also and once again brought us each two large drinks from the bar. They had the usual Past Guest Party things going on like the Carnival history film, etc.

 

The CD on this cruise was Brett Alans and we thought he did a pretty good job. I believe he might have been the CD on the Sensation cruise we took back in 2000 because he seemed awfully familiar.

 

Sea Days: On our sea days we slept in a little later, wandered around the ship, ate, and spent some time at the Lido bar area. The first sea day, Monday, we had the Meet and Greet for our Roll Call in this spot at 3:00. When we made the decision to hold it here we never considered the pool activities that would be going on, so it was hard to hear everyone as they talked. Later we moved inside to Rosie’s where it was a bit quieter. Although not everyone was able to make this meet, it was a lot of fun to finally meet those who did.

 

I never had problems with chair hogs because we never got much closer to the pool than the Lido bar! We had four port days where we spent time in the sun.

 

They did have a galley tour which we attended that I think was on the last sea day (Saturday). We have been on these before and find they are pretty interesting.

 

The Ship: We thought the Valor was a beautiful ship that has been well maintained. I’m sure there were some carpet stains somewhere, but we never went out of our way looking for them. There were no problems in our cabin, and even being in the aft of the ship we never noticed much motion.

 

Debarkation: They actually encourage people to do self-assist debarkation these days, but since we didn’t want to carry our luggage off the ship, and since our flight wasn’t until 2:45 we used the old method of placing our luggage outside of our cabin late Saturday night. We had planned to eat in the dining room for breakfast but we were waiting for a phone call from the Pursers desk about a $25 charge listed as wine on our S&S account. My wife finally remembered it was for the set of cook/drink books she bought during the galley tour. Who knows why it was listed as a charge for wine.

 

So since we were running a bit late we headed up to Rosie’s (the Lido buffet) to eat. I was pleased to see they still had the omelet bar open and got my last one of the cruise. We then headed down to the casino bar to sit and wait until our deck was called. When our deck was finally called it was a fairly quick 20 minutes or so to get off the ship and to get through customs. It was also a lot easier to catch a taxi from this new terminal than it was from the old terminal last year. All too soon we were back at the Miami airport to kill some time before our flight left. There was a nice little bar/restaurant right before you go through security by the Delta area. We ordered some drinks and talked with the waitress before we headed off to our gate.

 

Final Thoughts: We had a great time and I think it might have been our best cruise to date. Not everything was perfect, but it was pretty close most of the time. We gave an extra cash tip to both of our dining room waiters and also to our cabin steward. Of course Sergey, our drink waiter earned his fair share of extra tips too. We always bring a big stack of $1 for tipping, and on this cruise I’d sometimes give a tip to random crew members doing something that made our cruise more enjoyable. The crew cleaning tables at Rosies, the guy vacuuming the hall, or the girl emptying ash trays in the casino….. that and a “thank you” seemed to always put a smile in their face.

 

Thanks: I’d first of all like to thank my lovely wife, Wanda, for making this cruise special and for putting up with all of my schemes and obsessive planning. I’d also like to thank all of the CC members who have posted reviews, both of the Valor and the Ports of Call, that aided in the planning of this cruise. Thanks also to our Roll Call members who we had a blast planning with and then finally meeting. And finally, a great big thanks to Carnival and all of the crew who helped make this one of the best cruises we have been on!

 

This was a rather long and rambling review, and I'm sure I have left out some details, but if you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them.

 

John

 

Thank you for the review it was great we are leaving on 9/3 and we cant wait reading this makes it more exciting:D , we are also meeting are cruise critic friends, you gave good details.

Thanks for the great review. We are headed to the Valor Aug 20, 2006 Western Carribean as well...I love reading all the reviews, it makes it more exciting.:)

Loved your review, well written.

Thanks so much for your wonderful review John. I have only 288 more days:D before we sail on the Carnival Valor. Going with a group of 17 family and friends....only 4 of us has cruised before..so I will make sure all the rest in our group reads your review too.....Donna

Thanks for taking the time for such a thorough review. Well laid-out and thoughtful. :)

Elliot Ness, Thanks for the nice review. We especially liked the food details. :) :cool: :D

Great review! DH and I are booking the Valor Western itinerary next April for our anniversary, and it's good to know it's such a nice time.

Thanks for the great review! I really enjoyed it!! We will be on the Valor in November and we have room 6473--which is supposed to be an aft L shaped cabin. Is that near where you were? If you have any pictures of your cabin I would LOVE to see them!!

 

Thanks!!

 

Holly :)

Thank you for a thorough, detailed review. A great read! :)

Thanks to everyone for their kind comments

...... we have room 6473--which is supposed to be an aft L shaped cabin. Is that near where you were? ........

Same cabin, but we were on the port side... we really enjoyed the cabin, especially the larger balcony. I hope these pictures come out.

 

Cabin Pic 1 shows bathroom and balcony door (partially visible on left side of the curtain):

 

 

Cabin Pic 2 (with Bon Voyage decorations from the casino host):

 

 

Cabin Picture 3 (note blue jeans were not worn in dining room ;)):

 

Hope this helps you get an idea of the cabin you'll be in, and have a great cruise!

 

John

Balcony Pic (hot babe not inclued ;) ):

 

 

Thanks for the pictures! I can't wait to cruise!!!

 

Holly :D

Thanks for posting such a great, detailed review! You've made me nostalgic for the cruise we (dh, dm, and df) took on Valor 10/30/05. :)

thanks for posting your review. We were on the same cruise! I loved the ports of call and did independent tours also. We were in the Lincoln dining room and instead of having fights we had the 15 year old party girls (Quinceneras or something like that?!) The first formal night they all walked in the dining room with wedding dresses on hooked onto their fathers arms with special music, next formal night they all had on pink formals and walked in with their mothers. There were over 20 of them. It was crazy - these girls are too spoiled! But fun to watch anyways. There must have been some planning to put that all together. I was wondering if Carnival has someone who specializes in those types of special events. It was well done and they were the spotlight on several nights - did you happen to see them?

It was fun reading your review but of course made me want to go back a few weeks!

......We were in the Lincoln dining room and instead of having fights we had the 15 year old party girls (Quinceneras or something like that?!) .........did you happen to see them?

Yes we saw them, and they were all decked out on the first formal night! When we were leaving dinner that night a gentleman pushing a lady in a wheelchair asked how to get to the Washington dining room. Rather than try to explain we told them to follow us up to deck 5 and then we took them down the elevator to the Washington. While they were following us down the Promenade deck all the girls and their escorts were heading down two by two in a line.

 

That was the group in front of us at embarkation that we originally thought was a wedding party.

 

John

Hello to all just wanted to say great pictures we are thinking about taking this cruise next year in april have only been on two of carvial cruise we just got back from the Destiny it was ok the ship had BIG problem's with the AC it was 85 in our room they gave us a fan and did get it down to 78 over all the cruise was good. bye for now will look in later.

Thanks for the great review!! I cant wait for our Valor cruise!! Was the choclolate buffet at night or during the day? our last cruise it was late at night and they were late getting it ready. So we didnt stick around to eat any of it .

Thanks for the great review!! I cant wait for our Valor cruise!! Was the choclolate buffet at night or during the day? our last cruise it was late at night and they were late getting it ready. So we didnt stick around to eat any of it .

It was on the last Sea Day from about noon until 2:30. Go by the chocolate buffet and get a plate of goodies and then head up to the Fish and Chips for lunch..... that way you'll have your desert ready when you're finished!

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

John