darcien007

Thank you! You are so sweet to answer even though your trip is over. So you kept you canon on Beach the whole time even underwater? Sounds simple enough to me, coz once I figure out how to change the settings I want to leave it alone. Did you have to soak it in the sink after each beach day?

I will def get back on this page and share some pix and thoughts on our trip.

That looks like a lot of work!! I think I will just have to go to Barbados and eat me a few of those.

Carnival Victory !!!!

 

I am extremely excited to FINALLY put together my review on my latest cruise on board the Victory.

A little bit of information about myself .. Cruise junkie/ Photography lover/ adventure seeker/ Travel Addicted. 24 years old and I live in sunny Miami Fl :cool:

This would be my 7th cruise ( lucky no.7 ) & 4th with Carnival.

Overall... I LOVED IT !!!!! This cruise, itinerary has definitely made it to my top favorite !!!!

 

Keeping in mind that there are already lots of reviews on the Victory, I will mostly share my pictures, and also give you lots of information on the excursions, since hubby and I definitely took advantage and did something DIFFERENT in every island ;)

 

Random Thoughts:

- Best Itinerary Carnival offers.

- Whoa very GREEN ship :eek:

- Different ambience when sailing off the caribbean ( lots of spanish speaking )

- Best crew ever! Room attendant (Fernando) greeted me with a smile and by my full name every single time.. never failed. so sweet

- Ice cream every night, no excuses!

- Comedy shows were AWESOME and always new material

- Wish I would of packed more beach, relaxed cloths as thats what you really need!!

- The week flew by quick.. but memories will be forever remembered.

 

 

Port by Port Excursions..

I will talk about my experience on each port, what we did and how we liked it... will try to give as much info. as possible.

 

Day 1 - Embarkation and Puerto Rico ( too much rain, no excursion )

Day 2 - St Thomas - Beach day at Magens Bay

Day 3 - Sea Day

Day 4 - Barbados - Silver Moon Catamaran - Private ( Highlight of the trip for me ) ;)

Day 5 - St Lucia - Land & Sea conv. ( with Carnival )

Day 6 - St Kitts - ATV Adventure ( with Carnival ) second best overall.

Day 7 - St Marteen - Private tour of the island and Maho Beach

Day 8 - Back to Miami.

 

 

Stay tunned :)

 

All photos taken with Iphone, Cannon D10 Water Camera & Nikon D3000 Professional camera. ( If you would like to know exactly which one I used for the photos ask me. )

 

Hi there, we are due to go on this cruise 9/16/12 and it is sooooo slow getting here. I have a couple questions. I did just treat myself to the Canon D10 which I am saving to use on this trip. I am going on the Silvermoon cat tour and wonder if you kept your camera on Auto or did you have to change settings at all. I hate to read directions and am hoping just to keep it on one setting and not mess with it. Takes me forever to figure out then I lose the photo op.

Since we have to be under 5he 50 lb in baggage with I find impossible to fathom you mentioned you wish you would have brought different clothes. In what way? I am hoping to bring a sundress for the evenings in the MDR and then just bathing suits with cover ups during the day. What would you reccomend? Would dresses be uncomfortable up on the deck at night. Or would you just wear PJ's out on lido for sail away : )

Also, since we have to run up and get coffee in the morning can I do that in my p.j's too. : )

Really LOVED your review. Very imformative. We leave on this cruise in September.

I really want to buy that camera you used. It is still about 230.00 on Amazon. Hopeing to see it come down a bit before we leave.

Now, where are all your food pictures...LOL I hear the Victory does not have escargot anymore : (

Hi LOved Loved Loved your review!! I am going on this cruise 9/16/12. I have also booked Silver Moon.

I have a question in regard to what to pack. I noticed you had long pants on at night on the Lido. Since we have a 50 lb limit. I am trying to be efficient in my packing.

Did you find you needed a jacket or long pants very often? I am thinking just bathing suits and cover ups during the day. Do you agree that works for the day. The only nice clothes would be for dining on the ship...

St Maarten

 

We arrived at St Maarten as scheduled and decided (prior to the cruise) to do the island on our own to just the destinations we were interested in.

 

The taxi cab station was a short walk from the port where you sat down according to the “signs” they had on it as to where you wanted to go. Taxi’s where there waiting and pulling in and out with not much of a wait.

 

We decided to go to Orient Beach first. Our trip cost us $18 to get there. I have to say that the island was ok, but not like I had pictured it (like a piece of paradise). We were dropped off at Pedro’s place and decided to walk to the right toward the ‘nude” part of the beach. We only encountered a handful of nude sunbathers and a nude man walking along the beach. People were right about the “scenery” there…we didn’t encounter any “hot bodies” running around and the closest girl I seen with a decent body had a thong bathing suit on and a top on. Then you have the two 300+ pound ladies baring it all. It was interesting to say the least, but didn’t bother me one bit. We walked all the way to the end where it started to get rocky. The beach itself was ok, but not the paradise beach I had imagined.

 

We walked back down close to where we had came in and just a little further and decided we would put our stuff there. There really wasn’t a need to rent chairs because we had planned on staying in the water most of the time. We encountered a few small fish in the water, but there were no reefs anywhere, so not much to write home about. The beach was not crowded at all. There were some older ladies topless on this side as well walking around and laying in the beach chairs. So you will encounter nudity even in the non-nude areas.

 

There were 2 dogs running loose everywhere on the beach and my husband LOVES animals so he made friends quickly with them.

 

About 11am we decided to head over to Maho Beach to watch the planes come in. I knew this was going to be the highlight of my day and had long waited for this day to happen and witness the low flying planes first hand that I had watched so many times on YouTube.

 

We arrived at Maho to a fairly large crowd already plane watching. Just as we pulled up, we had just enough time to get out of the van and walk down to the beach (climbing over all the big rocks) and along came a really BIG plane. It was amazing! They started coming in one after another. Small planes and big planes arrived over and over.

 

Then when we finally got a break, we decided to walk over to Sunset and get a bite to eat and a drink. The food was good and the service was very good as well. Sunset had plenty of space to eat even though all tables seem to fill up quickly, people quickly ate and went back down to the beach for more plane spotting. I believe we spent a total of $28 plus tip on the food and 3 alcohol drinks. Sunset also has a garden hose hooked up on the deck that you were welcome to hose the sand off of you. It was a nice touch and very appreciated (along with inside bathrooms).

 

There were 2 young girls (probably in their 20’s) that were sunbathing and walking up and down the beach with their tops off. They were Paris Hilton imposters with the bleached out white short hair and a very small furry dog they were acting like it was their child. LOL So, you will see nudity there as well. Just not as much. I believe Sunset does offer a free drink for those that choose to go topless there (girls of course).

 

As for the beach…I had read by many that it really wasn’t much of a beach, so I didn’t have high expectations when I arrived, but I actually enjoyed it. It wasn’t as bad as I had pictured it to be. Yes, there wasn’t much beach area and there were a lot of rocks, but I still liked it for some reason. You don’t go far out into the water before it drops off and gets deep quickly. Maybe not the best place for small children or inexperienced swimmers (even though I seen a lot of small children there). There were some REALLY big waves coming in there. It was kind of rough and would knock you down at times. Sometimes it was hard to gain your footing from the waves and they did seem to go higher and higher hitting the huge rocks down below and working its way up. I can see where this beach would not be a good choice to swim for certain people.

 

After a little more time of plane watching and a little bit of swimming, we figured we should probably head back toward the ship so that we could spend a little bit of time shopping right there at the port. I believe it was probably around 2-2:30 when we walked back to Sunset to try to get a cab.

 

Along the way back, we decided instead of taking the beach and rocks way, we would walk the concrete divider instead (since we were already at the top of the rocks anyhow from watching the last plane come in). Since we were in port about a week or so after hurricane Earl had passed, there was A LOT of sand still on the roads. It made a narrow road to begin with even narrower. If someone was walking in the street, a car could not pass. We walked along the concrete about ½ way and I decided to look back to see if any cars were coming and jump down into the street and walk to make it easier. About the time I looked back, there was a gap in the concrete…YEP, down I went in between the gap. I completely scuffed up my entire left leg from my toes to my thigh…blood everywhere and stinging pretty bad. My right foot, 3rd toe must have taken a hit because it instantly swelled pretty big. My right hand came down because of instinct to break the fall and took the worse hit. (By the time I made it back to the port, you couldn’t even see 3 of my knuckles, it was swollen so bad it looked like it could pop any minute now, and my palm was completely bruised up). Then all I can say is thank goodness for eating SO MANY MEALS on the Epic prior to this island and gaining a little added cushion to the belly (LOL) I truly believe it saved my face from something that could have turned out worse than it did. My chin was the last thing to hit and stop on the concrete. Nothing like hearing in your head a bone in your face hitting hard concrete. YUCK. My husband came running over (he had been walking ahead of me and only caught the last half of my fall as I screamed and he witnessed me hitting my face). Thank goodness for his quick reaction of grabbing me because I was seeing stars at that point and I thought I would have passed out if he had not grabbed me in time and sat me down.

 

After sitting for awhile, I hopped over to the entrance of Sunset and ask a lady there with a walkie talkie to call us a cab. There were TONS of people waiting at that point. Everyone was anxious and dishing in line to get a taxi. It was a mad house. Taxi’s were pulling up and taking people back, I was standing in line. I didn’t feel good at all, bleeding, in pain, and still feeling like I was light headed. My husband went to the lady and told her “we need to get her back to the ship NOW, she is hurt and needs help”. About that time 3 older ladies came around everyone, with Carnival beach towels wrapped around them and got in front of everyone. When the next cab pulled up, they said they had room for 3 people, the lady with the walkie talkie came over to us and told us to get in. Of course I could barely walk, so it was taking me awhile to make it there. The 3 ladies jumped in front of me and on the taxi van. SERIOUSLY??? At that point I was really upset and pissed to be exact. I started yelling at them that I was hurt, how are they going to not only dish everyone in line, but jump in a cab that was offered to me and that I needed medical attention. Never ONCE did they turn around, acknowledge that I was talking, or said a word back. But I KNOW they heard me. People are just plain rude. So the lady said she would make absolutely sure that I got in the next cab. As soon as it pulled up, they put me in it first and told the driver he was to take me (even though another family had called for the taxi for them). The family didn’t say a word about it to me, just gave me “looks” for being in “their” taxi.

 

Traffic was TERRIBLE at this time. The cab driver said that it would be quicker if he took a different way back to the port by crossing over to the French side and going around. I do have to say the area that we passed going back looked a lot nicer than the way we had came getting there. It was smooth sailing all the way into town to drop the other family off and then we were in traffic again at the port.

 

The bad part is, I ask the driver how much it would cost us to get back to the port. He replied $7 pp. The family that we were in the cab with did not speak English (other than the son riding in the front seat who had to translate everything to the rest of the family). When they got out (a stop before us at the center of town for shopping), they started gathering their money and the cab driver told them “no, it was $154 for the cab ride. YIKES! (There was only 8 of them) They didn’t speak up or say one word but was trying to get enough money together to give to the driver. I was in shock that they had to pay that and thought it was crappy that he took advantage of them for not understanding.

 

We got back to the port finally and it took me awhile to get back on the ship, but I finally made it. WHEW! I’m still trying to heal, but watching the planes come in was definitely the highlight of the day for me. I had waited so long to see them and highly suggest Maho to anyone else that would be interested. Orient, I would probably pass on given the chance to ever go back there again.

 

I just thought I would share my experience and if anyone has any questions, I’ll try my best to answer them for you based on my experience.

 

 

Here are my pictures taken at Orient and Maho. Enjoy:

http://kimbakerphotography.smugmug.com/Vacation/4th-day-St-Maarten/13875330_oysuz#1017690191_vKgcw

HaHa..I think I will stay on the ship :p

Just got back from our cruise today and am looping back to give a quick recap of our tour with Welcome Tours (Beulah Mills), http://tourstkittsandnevis.com/?page_id=2 -- especially since Burnsis (an apparent troll) typed such disparaging remarks and has never bothered to return to actually engage in a dialogue or answer any clarifying questions.

 

There were 8 of us from our roll call who chose the Full Island Tour and another 8-10 from our roll call who chose the Highlights Tour. I was one of the people on the Full Island Tour. We drove around the ENTIRE island (68 miles), led by York, our driver. I think he may have been a native of the island but I'm not positive. We stopped at Romney Manor, the Batik Factory, the Wingfield Estate, Palms Court Garden (for only $10/pp you can use this house/resort all day -- infinity pool, lounge chairs, amid a tranquil setting up on the hill overlooking the ship down below -- this is what we'll do next time since we've now had the full island tour!), saw the black beaches and lava rocks, heard the history of Basseterre, and stopped at the Ottley Plantation. If I were to do it all over again, I would plan to have lunch at the Ottley Plantation as we were only there for 20 minutes. If we had planned for lunch advance, we could have stayed there for an hour.

 

The entire full island tour only cost us $38/pp, which is what we had agreed upon in advance. Beulah greeted us at the end of the tour and thanked us each with hugs, the same way she greeted us at the start of the tour. Note that if you have less than 4 people in your group, you might be waiting for the van to fill. It's best to put your group together in advance and you'll be on your way!

Hi Tara,

Thank you for the review! I also am thinking of using Welcome tours on our cruise in Sept. I also really want to spend part of the day at Palm Court Gardens as this cruise is so port intensive we may want to do nothing but sit at a pool time. I know she has custom tours that would include this. I also know PCG is withing walking distance from the port so could save some money. If we do use her she would take us to PCG and then to a beach of our choice later in the day. Can you recomend a beach to go to that day? I am thinking that for 38.00 each with Beulah (116.00) this may be more than the ten dollars each at PCG and still be cheaper to taxi to a beach.

Thanks for your help!

Ok so we are three single women going on a cruise Sept. 16, 2012 on the VIctory to Southern Caribbean.

It would be SO nice if there were more than just couples on this cruise. Any straight single guys out there?

Absolutely! There were a few young childeren on board and they joined in all the fun dancing and Limbo activities. They no longer give away free rum punch but now have a full pay bar. There is free fruit punch provided. I guess it cuts down on the rowdy crowd. However that being said everyone still had plenty to drink and a lot of fun.

 

The guests ages were anywhere from 30 - 60 years old. Everyone seemed to enjoy the tour so I would recommend it for all ages and families. It was really great that you could walk right off the boat onto the beach. I would think that feature would attract elderly people and families with small children who wouldn't want swim 50 yards to the beach.

 

Hope this answers your question.

How long did the tour last? How did you get there from the ship? Did they serve any lunch/food? I will be there with my two daughters 24 & 21 and I think they would love the live music. Sounds like alot of fun!! Did you time to do anything else..like shop before heading back to ship? Did you see a lot of people stumbling back..lol

Hello, Yes, we are booked at Rendavouz in St. Lucia. I have up until Sept. to make a final decision. I am still anticipating that we will stay there, just looking at other options. This is a big trip for us so want to make sure we make the right decisiion. The beach at Rodney Bay sounds also interesting as well.

We will be in St. Lucia for the day off of a cruise ship. I don't know what to do while here. Don't really want to do a bus/vechicle tour due to bumpy roads etc.

Kind of want to relax at a nice resort/ beach during the day that has lots of things to see in walking distance.

Does anyone have a recomendation of resorts that offer day passes? I know I may be missing out on the Pitons etc. but kind of just want to relax that day.

I just booked a day pass here as we are beach people. I was quoted 60.00 pp for half day which includes lunch and use of resort facilities.

I ended up booking the day pass @95.00 pp from 10 - 6. includes lunch bevreages and use of resort. We want to get an early start at beach and pool.

This came from their reservations dept.:D

St. John Champagne Catamaran Sailaway . Has anyone done this excursion in St. Thomas? Would like some feedback as I am thinking of booking this for our 9-17 Victory cruise

Did you find a place you liked for the day pass in St. Lucia. We will be on the Victory in September.

thank you Princess. I LOVE San Diego. I believe you have convinced me to book the Rondavouz, just by virtue of the cab fare alone.

We will snorkel and tour all the other islands on our cruise.

In St. Lucia we want to eat drink and be merry. So thinking that a resort would be a nice break. I just hope I don't feel guilty that we are missing out on the "other" things to see in St. Lucia.:eek:

thank you Princess. I LOVE San Diego. I believe you have convinced me to book the Rondavouz, just by virtue of the cab fare alone.

We will snorkel and tour all the other islands on our cruise.

In St. Lucia we want to eat drink and be merry. So thinking that a resort would be a nice break. I just hope I don't feel guilty that we are missing out on the "other" things to see in St. Lucia.:eek:

How does one book this excursion. We will be on the Carnival victory in September 2012. I am traveling with my two daughters 23 and 21. We like to find party people and good music and food and drink. Is this the one?

I did read where someone said their time spent at the rondavouz was quite boring. They said it was extremly quiet there and the service was unfriendly. I really want to try sandals but but it is further away and more expensive. Any truth to the fact rondavouz is quiet and boring?

Thank you RedPrincess. Very helpful information. When is your next cruise?

One more question? Isn't Rendezvous a couples only resort. I am with my two adult daughters.

Thank you so much for this information. I will def consider roundovouz instead. I like that is is closer to the port and of course cheaper. I know you said that we should consider doing something instead in St. Lucia. What do you recommend instead. I am open to all suggestions. This is our (mine) first cruise. I am traveling with my two daughters.

The St. Lucia Sandals Grande looks amazing. I think it is 120.00 p.p. That is especially the one day I want to do just to use the pool and relax.

I am interested in this thread also. Planning a cruise to so. Caribbean Sept. 16, 2012

I want to book a day at one of the resorts in St. Lucia. Just not sure which one. We just want to relax and use their pool. Any suggestions?

I did find Sandles but not sure if that is where we want to go or not.

http://www.tikaye.com/dive-rates.php