Just back from Valor(Aug 20-27th)

Just back from the Valor today. Always sad to leave the ship. I will have a longer review in the next couple of days. We had a good time and enjoyed the cruise. BUT....the were a couple of things that could use some improvement.

We were on the 9th deck (Lido)excellent deck, central to a lot, pools, Rosie's etc...We had an inside room(quad)and actually had 5 people. My youngest sleeps in a crib. My son was booked into my sister in laws room, but our family of 5 all slept in one room. We confused the room steward at first, but he quickly adjusted to the 5 of us inthere. It was crowded, but no big deal. Camp Carnival was great. My 7 yr old had the best time. My 12 yr old son was only feeling "So so" abouthis group. I guess not a whole lot of participation from that age. My2 yr old...well.. she liked it at first. She is a child who has never been in daycare. She was there a couple of hrs each night. 2 night we got phonecalls from Camp carnival, that my little one was crying. No problem... she enjoyed the show with us in the Ivanhoe theatre.

Rosies...I felt only was so-so(Have been on RC.. they had a much better buffet. The pizza was ok, not great. I compared it to bowling alley pizza. With that said, my kids ate A LOT of it. Dining room staff at dinner was excellent. We had 5:45 in upper level of Washington Dining room. "Delvin" was our waiter and did a great job.

For all you fashion police out there...You would all be shocked on Dining room dress....Before you all fall over and faint... One night we counted 15 pairs of jeans walking in. Yes, I said 15...We sat 3 tables infrom the hostess and I saw everybody walking in. One lady came in with shorts, and flip flops...Nobody was turned away.. not one comment was made.

Thats all for now.

If you have any questions please ask...

Looking forward to your review. We did Valor in January and agree that the dining room attire was not what we would have expected. To much casual attire. The Hostess should really say something, but to each his own.

Hello Jackie, Did you do the eastern or Western Caribbean? What excursions did you do? Thanks Bill

For all you fashion police out there...You would all be shocked on Dining room dress....Before you all fall over and faint... One night we counted 15 pairs of jeans walking in. Yes, I said 15...We sat 3 tables infrom the hostess and I saw everybody walking in. One lady came in with shorts, and flip flops...Nobody was turned away.. not one comment was made.

Thats all for now.

 

Thanks for the post -- as we're sailing the Valor in 13 days, I'm reading all the Valor posts and really dreaming. ;) We're very excited.

Bummer about the casual dress though. I went out and bought a formal and borrowed another...seems I didn't need to! ;) Hope I won't be very, very out of place. :o

Bobol

I am so sorry to hear about jeans and shorts being allowed in the dining rooms. That is the one thing we love about crusing. Makes it so special.

Hello Jackie, Did you do the eastern or Western Caribbean? What excursions did you do? Thanks Bill

We did the Western Caribbean. We planned our excursions along the lines with my 2 yr old. Meaning, we didnt pick the long ones. In Grand Cayman Islands, we did the Stingray sandbar tour. We did all our excursions through Carnival. I really enjoyed this, and so did the kids. My 7 yr old screamed at first, then went back into the boat, and then abut 10 minutes late came in the water with the rest of us. Our boat held about 25 people, it was notover crowded. Going to the boat we had a nice AC bus. Coming back, we had a school bus that was not AC.. I was a little mad about this. It was hot. Not only was it hot, we were all hot and sticky from the dip in the water, then to ride on a bus with no AC... it did not feel good.

In Roatan We did the Pirates Monkeys and birds tour. I LOVED this. The park is beautiful and the monkeys were great. We all got to hold them, and they were the funniest/silliest things. We had one of the Carnival Camera men on the tour with us. He filmed a lot of us. We ended up buying the excursion CD from this tour.

In Belize, we did the Belize city tour. It was basically a bus tour for about 2 hrs. It was interesting, not that exciting. We did very little shopping in the first 3 ports, due to my 2 yr old. BY the time the tours were over, it was lunch and naptime, so we headed back to the ship for lunch and naps. In Costa Maya, we did not have an excursion. We walked around the first marketplace, which is VERY overpriced. We took a bus to the next town, which cost use 3$ each, no charge for my 2 yr old. We walked around the beach area, negotiated prices on some small stuff. My 7 yr old had her hair braided. We stopped for drinks. I had a yummy Mango Margarita from one of the bars. The cab ride back was only 2$ per person, again no charge for my 2 yr old. The weather was VERY hot and humid for all the ports. It was to be expected.

Thanks for the post -- as we're sailing the Valor in 13 days, I'm reading all the Valor posts and really dreaming. ;) We're very excited.

 

Bummer about the casual dress though. I went out and bought a formal and borrowed another...seems I didn't need to! ;) Hope I won't be very, very out of place. :o

 

Bobol

At dinner, I would comment to my sister in law about the attire people picked for the dining room. Now, I didnt overly dress for the dining room. On Formal nights I wore a nice skirt and blouse. ON the other nights I wore dress pants and a shirt. I followed the no jeans and shorts in dining room. I was so shocked/surprised to see the amt of jeans and shorts that walked by me. After reading these boards for so long I thought that would never be allowed. I reread my capers several times thinking I missed something about the dress code. On the last day of the cruise, we all felt like being rebels;) ... we all kept our day clothes on, which was shorts and tshirts. We figured we followed all the dress codes up to this point.

Dont get me wrong.. on formal nights I did see some very fancy dresses, and even some men in Tux's... but they were the minority.

How was staying on the Lido deck? I'm going on the Valor in January and staying in one of the last rooms towards the front of the ship on the Lido deck.

I followed the no jeans and shorts in dining room.

I understand regarding the shorts:eek: nowhere does it say you can't wear jeans.;) Of course formal nite you would look tacky and out of place.

Darnit! I just went a bought a new suit for my cruise in a couple of weeks. I could have just brought some cut-offs and wife beaters for formal night:eek:

Welcome back Jackie. I was on the Miracle (the Valor docked right next to us) last week in Costa Maya. Hope you enjoyed it.

We did the Valor exactly a year ago. Wonderful trip. After leaving Cozumel and on our way back to Miami, we hit 12 ft. swells. This wasn't bad. I think that was the only time the weather was bad. We arrived in Miami on Sunday Aug, 28. Katrina had just hit and we flew home parallel to Katrina. We live in CA.

Wonderful boat, crew and service. My only critique were some of the PAX who were impatient waiting for embarkation.

Check my website with photos of that trip.

http://home.earthlink.net/~mlangsam/index.html

Photocruiser

Hey Beachgrll2l-I was on the lido last week in cabin 9208, and my MIL was in 9209...the 2 end inside cabins....LOVED IT!!! I always want to stay on the Lido from now on!!!! We had a cute room stewardess from Thailand make up our room. She was quiet, but did a very nice job! You'll love the Lido deck, and it goes across so you can take it to any elevator. Have fun! I have a review posted also that I wrote today you can take a look at!

How was staying on the Lido deck? I'm going on the Valor in January and staying in one of the last rooms towards the front of the ship on the Lido deck.

I loved staying on the Lido deck. We had an inside cabin 9239. We were about 5 rooms from the elevator. It was great waking up early and walking outside . You walk past the elevators and around the corner and you are outside on the Lido deck. It made it mighty easy to come and go to Rosies several times a day ;)

Welcome back Jackie. I was on the Miracle (the Valor docked right next to us) last week in Costa Maya. Hope you enjoyed it.

Yes, saw your ship docked right next to ours. Funny thing, 2 of the Carnival Miracle crew members ended up on our ship:p ... I thought it was odd that they made an annoucement for 2 crew memebers from the other ship.

Good morning!

I am traveling on the Valor on September 17. We are visiting Cayman, Costa Maya, Rotoan and Belize.

Is this the trip you took? Do you have any words or must do's at these places? We only booked 1 excursion and that is on Cayman. But we are hoping that you can do things on your own at these places.

In Belize and Rotoan, what is it like? When we gt off the boat is there a place to shop at or walk to a beach?

Any advice would be great!

Costa Maya sounds cool. I have been to Cozumel and i heard it is kinda the same.

If you can email me with any info, it would be great! I have not heard a lot of these 2 places.

Thank you again!

Nicole

info@shipanythinganywhere.com

I hate to hear people not dressing for dinner. I guess I'll be overdressed - as always. DH is not going to be happy with me because I making him wear a suit. :( I really just want a nice picture of us. I guess he can change after dinner if he wants.

Well, at least we'll look good. ;)

Wow, you didn't like the pizza? Me and my cousins who went on the trip with me thought it was great. I can remember it only took the kids five mins before we got back on the boat after excursions, that they were down in Rosie's filling up on ice cream and pizza! I thought their food was awesome - I missed it terribly after we left ....enough to make you gain five hundred pounds - but take advantage of it while you can!!!

JackieH, do you have any pics of your cabin? We have it in July.

JackieH, do you have any pics of your cabin? We have it in July.

Wow, this is an old post :)... I actually forgot about it;) .

Sorry I do not have any pictures on the computer of our room. Its funny, I do have some pictures we have been scrapbooking lately of our cruise. Me and my kids just got into scrapbooking(not good at it, but its fun)..Its fun to look a those pics again. How ironic to find this post, as we are going on our next cruise(RCCL)in Aug...

I hope you have a great time..So you are going to be in the 4 person room...it will get cramped and crowded but no big deal if you dont spend a lot of time in there.,.,

Have a great cruise...let me know if you have any questions :)

we have 2 side by side cabins - 3 in one and 2 in the other - should be okay.

we have 2 side by side cabins - 3 in one and 2 in the other - should be okay.

Yes you will have plenty of room them..Deck 9 is an awesome deck, so close to so many things without having to take the elevator, the buffet and just being outside.