Ematic81

Nice pics can't wait to get there in november

Part 5/Monday, Sept 23, 2013 (cont)

 



 



 



 

 

We had ordered room service the night before to arrive between 6:30 and 6:40 – they came close to 7am. It was just a “pre-breakfast.” Toast & jelly and milk for Brian, a bagel/cream cheese for me and some ice for my diet coke! We had a little something to eat (in between taking pics) and got ready for the day including getting the beach bag packed and Brian (my red headed husband) doused himself in his first round of sunscreen.

Once we were ready we headed to the Washington Dining Room for breakfast. They have open seating every morning and instead of fighting the crowds at the buffet on lido deck you get to relax and have your food brought to you. We always go to the MDR for breakfast vs Lido. Because I wasn’t feeling well I was moving a little slow getting ready in the cabin so by the time we got to breakfast it was looking pretty iffy on if we would get to eat and get to our excursion on time. We were sat with 2 other couples…both were very nice and we had some nice conversation. After our yummy (but scarfed down) breakfast…. (omelette, fruit and turkey sausage for me; eggs, bacon and toast for Brian) we had to run and get off the ship for our 9am excursion. We didn’t know how far we would have to go when we got off the ship to where our meeting place was since we had never been to St Thomas before, but thankfully there wasn’t much of a walk at all. We had to wait a few minutes anyways so it worked out perfect.





Since we had never been to any of the islands before, we decided to do some type of excursion at each port. For St Thomas we decided on Sunny Liston’s Shopping, Sightseeing and Beach Tour. (Who am I kidding, I decided on all the excursions…hubby just showed up..lol). Sunny picked us up in his open air taxi and drove us into Charlotte Amalie for the first part of the tour – shopping. He dropped us off and we had 3 hours to shop/do what we wanted. So we get dropped off and we’re like hmm..what should we do now? lol We knew we were going to just walk around and browse but I didn’t know where the shops were or anything (guess I should’ve planned this part a little better. So the first thing we did was walk across the street to take a pic of the ship from where we were.

 

 







We were talking about where we should go next and I can’t remember why but for some reason I looked in our beach bag for something. While I was doing that, Brian says…”OMG I can’t find my sail and sign card.” What? You’re kidding me right? Cuz that’s something he would do. No…he said he couldn’t find it. Sooo…let me back up. For those of you that don’t know, the sail and sign card is how you get on/off the ship, it’s your room key and it’s how you spend money on the ship (you charge purchases to your card and at the end of the cruise they charge you for the total to your CC or you can put cash on the acct). In any case…. when we had walked off the ship (had to have the card for it) I had said to Brian, do you want me to hold onto your card with mine? I put mine in our waterproof wallet that we were going to keep our money/id/sail and sign cards in. He says…no I’ll hold on to mine just in case something were to happen at least both of us wouldn’t be out of luck. So he had put his SS card in the back velcro pocket of his swim trunks. He had volunteered to wear the wallet around his neck (that’s how you’re supposed to wear them) but at the last minute decided to tuck it into his pocket too. Well when he pulled out the wallet to pay Sunny (before we got off at the first stop) his sail and sign must have fallen out?!?

 

Sooo…we’ve been off of the ship 10 whole minutes on the very first day and my husband has already lost his sail n sign card. OMG…what do we do? So we went and sat down on a bench and regrouped….looked through our beach bag etc and couldn’t find it. So we decided to just go on about our day and hopefully they would let us back on the ship later! So we take a look at the shopping map they had handed us when we got off the ship and made a plan.

 

We browsed through some of the shops and just tried to have a good time. We aren’t big shoppers but we still had fun. At one point we decided to call the 800 number at Carnival and ask about Brian’s card. After like 20 minutes on hold (on a phone battery that was almost dead because I hadn’t planned to use it except to take a few photos) I talked to a lady who laughed at our panic and said to go have fun and not worry about it…she said it happens all the time. Whew!! Back to shopping.

 

WE got a few little gifts for family and we found a drug store so I could get some cough drops and cold medicine. Wow – expensive! It was $18 for a box of Advil cold and sinus!



We were amused by all the tactics the shops used to try and get shoppers in their doors. Free gifts, free drinks and even use of their private restrooms! I wanted to get one piece of jewelry on this trip instead of a bunch of junky souvenirs so I was happy to find a pretty starfish necklace. Bonus: while we were finalizing our purchase I got to use their restroom..haha.

 



 

I realized the only pic I took during our shopping trip was of Tiffanys….because Brian had no idea what it was..lol. We went in there just for the heck of it and he almost fell over at some of the prices..ha.

 



 

 

At 11:45am we went back to our meeting spot so we could finish the rest of our excursion (sightseeing and beach ahead!). I’m going to stop here for now because the pics aren’t done uploading, but I’ll be back tomorrow with more. The big question is….did we ever find Brian’s sail and sign card?!?

lol I remember Sunny had his SS card!!!

Get your in laws to send you the card info. That should be all you need as you can setup you onboard spending account online. Let them know during check in I'm sure they will work something out. Or even contact carnival today with in laws on conference call with card info. Have a great time

I haven't left carnival, but my biggest gripe is the shows they suck I concur. I will probably try another cruise line after my carnival cruise but only to have something to compare to. I'm not exclusive to carnival but I enjoyed all 4 of my cruises with them.

Oh please, that's like saying a Cadillac CTS and a Chevy Cruze are the same because they have 4 wheels, a radio, and are under the General Motors umbrella. CCL and Princess are operated very differently.

and your comment is even more absurd. whats the price difference between a cadillac Cts and a chevy cruze. CCL and Princess are operated differently and priced differently. Bottom line is people need to stop having champagne taste with beer money. dont just compare carnival to other cruise lines with obviously higher prices. you wouldnt book a room at the hilton for $200 per night and then expect the same type of service and amenities at motel 6 when you only paid $49.99 per night would you??

For me cruising is about being at sea, the ports, the food, the casino, and service. All of which I think carnival does very well. I don't book a cruise to go rock climbing, I don't book a cruise to ice skate. Why do I want to ice skate in the carribean anyway?? I admit the entertainment as far as shows suck on carnival but that is a minut factor for me. Now that I discovered the greatness I having a balcony cabin I rarely leave my cabin anymore. So paying more money for RCCL or NCl doesn't make economic sense to me

Loved Belize hope there's some kind of mistake, and she makes it there

I'm know I'm late, but just wanted to say your review was all that!!! Best of read by far!!! I see you have a nice sized fan base consider me a new one!!! Lol!! Looking forward to my cruise on the Valor in september!! Thanks for Sharing!!!

P.S. you're fine as hell!!! Lol

Does anyone know if there will be alot of noise in 8258 on CCL Valor!! It is right behind elevators and atrium, but has cabins below and above!!