(FINALLY) Yet another Valor Southern Caribbean review Sept. 14-21, 2014 with pics

Well I want top start out with a little disclaimer. There are other Valor reviews that set the standard so darn high (see: pghsteelerfan, bfhokie78, stormy weatherman, gapearl, cbell21219 and Nicole721) that I would be inclined to say that if you already read one of those, not to expect too much from this one ;-) I went on this cruise on a budget so I will be reviewing this from a “on a budget” viewpoint. Meaning we took some excursions at some ports and did almost nothing at others. Food porn will be limited but most of the food will be reviewed for quality, at least. I can’t comment on airport, taxis, or much about San Juan from a tourist point of view since I live 20 minutes from the pier so this is from a local “tourist” point of view. We didn’t do much other than relax while in the boat (work days area PITA for us and we were so darned relaxed…). I work in the Hospitality industry in PR so I might rant a bit on service quality at times so feel free to scroll down if I get too long winded. Also, this is me and my wife’s first cruise so bear with me on this review :-)

Embarkation and first night

We drove ourselves into San Juan around 2:30pm on Sunday and anxiously left our bags with the porters at the terminal entrance and proceeded with our carry-ons to the gate. My “carryon” was a backpack so I carried a 24 mixed pack of water/soda bottles on my arms all the way through all the process and into my cabin (first lesson learned: get a darn carryon with wheels for next cruise!!). Apparently everybody that received the call or Email saying to arrive at the terminal no sooner than 3:00pm decided to be very punctual and arrive at 3:00pm because it was packed!! (We had a few last minute strings to tie before leaving so we couldn’t make it earlier). The line crawled for about 35-40 minutes until we were finally pointed to a clerk at the counter to check in. That 24 pack was a PITA to move/carry/drag/push on that line (review first lesson learned!). We went through the TSA metal detectors, on to the gangway and just by the “adult liquor check-point”. These guys didn’t bat an eyelid my way even seeing that my 24 pack of bottles was not completely sealed and had a mix of water and soda bottles. We took our security pictures upon boarding the ship and on to our cabin. Now, this ship looks like a quarter-mile long on the outside and on the inside it seemed like a mile from the lobby elevators all the way aft on port side to cabin 7434. All this process took no more than an hour but take into consideration that it was rush hour at the check-in counter when we arrived. If it’s not that busy, it should take no more than 30 minutes. Oh and by the way, while my wife traveled with her passport, I did so with my Puerto Rico driver’s license and my birth certificate without a hitch.

We dropped everything in the room and headed out to Lido deck to eat some lunch. Don’t really remember what was open or closed but we had sandwiches at the Deli which were just ok to a bit above average and some things from the buffet. I had some salad with a piece of roasted pork that was dried as heck! (They should take some pork roasting lessons in Puerto Rico). I also had some Tilapia that tasted more like soggy cardboard than fish. If you’re not a seafood person you wouldn't have liked it and if you are, you'd still not like it.

Came back to the room about an hour later and found one of our two suitcases there already. The other one took about an hour and a half extra to arrive. This is when we met our room steward Trisna (guy) We unpacked, relaxed for a while and a few hours later, as night fell we headed out to the dining room to eat.

The ship and cabin

To me, being inside a cruise ship for the first time, everything was “ooh, aah” but I have to admit that the Americana theme of the ship can sometimes be a bit too much. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it but I kinnda wished they would tone it down just a notch in a few places. On the other hand, my wife loved it. More interesting was the fact that she preferred the overall look of the Valor to the look of another cruise she took a year ago, the Allure of the Seas. She said the Allure’s decore, despite all her bells and whistles, is too toned down and on the edge of boring. At least that was her opinion…

We had cabin 7434 aft on the port (left) side of the ship. This is one of the L-shaped, 8B extended (twice the length) balcony cabins. The cabin itself was clean and organized but I noticed the protector pad for the suitcases I have seen on other pics was nowhere to be found, also the linens for the bed was a bit different than what I had seen in pics here (not a biggie, just for those that are into small details).

I want to go into some details to clear up some of the things I have read about these cabins. First, they are VERY quiet overall. Passenger traffic in the hall was almost zero the whole cruise and (at least on my week) no kids were running around at any time. Now, vibrations and ship’s movement: while not to the point of being an annoyance, you WILL feel vibrations in the room from the engines and thrusters but only when maneuvering and when approaching the docks. You will feel it and hear it from various points of the room and you will hear vibrations from the decoration and from the tube (really??) TV. Like I said, not a deal-breaker but it will wake you up if you’re a light sleeper. Cabin was roomy in our view. The mini fridge stopped working a few hours into the trip but was quickly exchanged by the crew the next morning after leaving a Post-it on the mirror for the steward (more on this later). Outside was another story. The “wood” flooring was dirty and after walking on it for a moment and looking at your feet you notice it has not been cleaned in a long time. There was some very noticeable rusting as well where the metal part of the floor met the railing.

On this balcony there is a door to a big electrical junction just to the left of the cabin balcony door (looking out from the room). As you will see in the pics, it would not close and also had rust. Oh, and there was two chairs, a lounger and a small metal table in the balcony.

Another thing, if you are not a smoker, hope and pray the passengers in the next few cabins towards the bow (front) aren’t smokers either. We had days with strong wind, no wind and some wind and EVERYTIME someone lit up a smoke in any balcony towards the bow, we had cigarette or cigar smell over in our balcony.

Our room steward was Trisna and this guy was on top of everything all the time. I asked him to refill a collapsible cooler we took with us with ice and he did so twice a day, every day. Every time he saw us he was very friendly, humble and available. Even when I had a request for him, which I mostly wrote on Post-it notes in the mirror, he actually wrote back in the same note to let us know he had done what was asked. We had towel animals 5 of the 7 nights but even though we took them and put them in the window they were taken down when they left another. The CD for the Valor is Felipe and he was a blast! You’ll never see the phrase “woohoo” in the same light after you spend a week on the Valor.

We spent some time during the trip in the casino (smoker’s paradise) and it can be a bit overwhelming if you’re not a smoker and actually came out ahead a bit playing craps. Now, I work at a casino in PR so this might be a biased comment but I noticed that dealers were a bit inexperienced and pit bosses and supervisors usually didn’t give a crap about players. They seldom acknowledged players even when you gave them your S&S card to get rated. The pit bosses/supervisors just looked at the game or simply chatted between them all the time. These people would never work in a casino in PR I can tell you that. We also spent most of our leisure time on the ship in the aft, adults-only pool and whirlpools. It was quiet for the most part but some 20-something Puerto Rican guys had a portable wireless speaker one day blasting music. Now, being Puerto Rican I liked most of the music they had but, even I found it VERY inappropriate to have this going on on the ship. A lot of people seemed annoyed because of this but my opinion is that this should not be allowed to happen by Carnival personnel. It’s not like they didn’t have mostly latin music on the pool speakers already. BTW, chair hogs in this area were mostly absent the whole trip. There where loungers available I’d say almost all the time when I went or passed through the area. The forward pool area was almost always jam packed, hectic and noisy. Made going to that area to get burgers and fries (grill is located by this pool) an adventure everyday. As far a I know, no sports or programs other than the morning news were shown on the Lido big screen during the day, just the two nightly movies. We visited the Serenity deck a few times and it was always almost empty day or night.

Forward Lido pool

One thing you will learn to say A LOT if you’re not a heavy or even moderate drinker is “no thanks”. Waiters at the pools, casino and lobby areas were at times annoying. Sometimes the same waiter would ask multiple times in a very short period of time if you wanted anything to drink. I know it’s their job to sell, sell, sell but come on…

Here are some extra pictures from the ship:

If you look closely, there's a circle around the balcony of the room. As you can see, the balcony is twice as long as the regular balconies.

Lobby atrium and panoramic elevators.

First night dining

View from our first night table

I’m sure other folks have pictures of the menus in their reviews so I’ll skip that part. We had “Any Time Dinning” and arrived at the Lincoln Dinning Room around 8:00pm. The lower part of the room is for “Any Time-ers”, upper part for assigned (or so I was told). We didn’t have a problem that night or any night, as a matter of fact, getting a table for two. Now, some have stated that the tables for two are very close together and in part it’s true. But the closest we saw them was about two feet apart at the top and not really uncomfortable around other dining folks. But space depended on location. Those surrounding the center part of the dinning room were more closely spaced than those near the windows. One reason might be that the former, they join them together to accommodate larger parties, the latter were not moved at any time. They still use traditional table cloths in the Valor, BTW. Bread was brought to the table within a few minutes. The bread was hit and miss all week, sometimes arriving very hot, others feeling like the previous day’s bread. I forget what my wife had (probably shrimp) but she mostly ate seafood all week and liked everything.

This night I had the chicken strips starter and a flat iron steak (medium-well). The chicken tasted very good and was pippin’ hot. The steak was a bit overcooked, warm and (at least for my used-to-spice taste buds) was un-flavorful. Dessert was Crème Brule and Chocolate Melting Cake. Both were the highlight of the day/night’s food offering for us.

The muster drill was a freakin’ mess. It lasts too darn long and not because they say the announcement in English and Spanish (a translation that, by the way, some times was very poorly done to the point that I, knowing both languages, could see how some Spanish speaking passengers could end up wondering if what they said makes any sense) but because it seemed like the crew couldn’t get all their ducks in a row properly quickly and they took a long time pausing between the English and Spanish parts. In my opinion, stations are poorly identified and finding yours the first time can be very confusing. It also tends to be very awkward and downright uncomfortable if you don’t like your personal space invaded since they insisted we stand shoulder to shoulder (and I mean literally touching shoulders) for an extended period of time. If you think meeting new dinning partners at dinner is a pain, this will surely make you make you feel worse.

I've seen many sunsets from different parts of Puerto Rico but this was one from a different perspective.

The sail away party was crowded as apparently usual with tons of people dancing but there was a second, improvised party that started when a few Puerto Ricans came out with Panderos (a hand instrument made of leather skin stretched around a wooden ring kindda like the top a drum but without the drum itself) and started playing and singing on deck 10 aft near the Sky Roof of the aft pool (no pics, sorry). In a few minutes there were about 50 people dancing and singing. And not all were locals… After seeing the silly dances from the Sail Away party and a few pics of the ships we went to bed around 1am.

Day 2: St. Thomas

We got up just before sunrise to see the ship sail into St. Thomas. The sights as you enter the bay are simply beautiful.

We got a pilot boat shot from all the islands

BTW, if you’re interested, the ship docked in reverse with port side towards the pier. My wife and I have both been to St. Thomas once before (she did it on the Allure, I was there for a weekend) so there were few things we were interested in that we hadn’t done before. Our fist option was for a jet ski rental but at $115 for a 40 minute tour for both, we found it a bit overkill for our budget. We decided to go to Coral World to take the mini-sub tour. Taking a friend’s advice, I called shortly after docking to see if the sub was available and the response was downright stupid in my opinion. I was told that (at 9:30am) they had no idea if the sub would go out that day because they only took it out if they had a certain minimum number of people for the tour. They told me to get to the park and wait to see if they had enough quorum during the day to take the sub out. I explained that we were in a cruise ship and didn’t have all day to simply wait and see and all I got was a “well sir, I guess it’s your decision to make”. I am not kidding!!! We decided not to go to Coral World that day (or ever as a matter of fact) and simply browse the shops in Heavensight and Downtown Charlotte Amalie.

We had breakfast at the buffet and, having read bad reviews about the eggs I went hesitantly. Well, not only were the scrambled eggs not bad at all, everything but the rice porridge was very good. My wife said it tasted just simple mashed rice and water with no flavor. After pigging out at breakfast we went to disembark for the first time. (leasson learned #2: no matter what floor you are, only the bow (forward) elevators go down to deck O where you disembark).

Heavensight mall was a disappointment so we walked to Pueblo supermarket and then to Kmart to compare prices on specific liquor we were looking to buy. What we found out was that with the exception of Cruzan rums (which were on sale at Pueblo for $8.95 (1L), It's not really worth the 15 minute walk all the way to Kmart or even looking for better deals in town.

We found the best liquor prices at Heavensight. We then took a cab ($4 each, one way) to town. All I got to say is that at the end of the trip I finally realized that St. Thomas had really lost its “cheapest in the Caribbean” crown. Unless you’re buying watches or jewelry and are prepared to haggle vehemently, you will likely find the same or a better deal at other stops (except Barbados). We still bought a few bottles of liquor, some homemade hot sauce from Glady’s Café (if you’re a hot sauce person DO NOT MISS THIS ONE, you will not find it at any store, ANYWHERE), another taxi ride back to port and got back in the ship. BTW although we didn't take it, the sky tram was operational at all times while we were docked.

We dropped our liquor at the collection desk and went up to Lido to eat. We settled on burgers and fries from The Grill. The burgers were good, fries were so-so. The chicken nuggets/strips were very good too. We took our food to our cabin and after eating we went to the aft, adults-only pool for a while. We got back to the room just in time to see that we had a pier-running couple that got to the ship at exactly 4:59pm (ship was sailing at 5:00pm) after a couple of horn blares. They got a rousing applause from the balcony passengers that were watching. We sailed out of St. Thomas as soon as they got on the ship.

Thanks for the review; always happy to refresh memories of Southern cruise, looking forward to hearing about and seeing all the ports.

Keeping me primed for next year. Interesting to hear a locals take on the cruise.

Beautiful pics:)

Enjoying your review, looking forward to the rest.

Enjoying getting the perspective of someone who lives in the Caribbean! Thanks for taking the time to do a review!

Yea!!! I've been looking forward to to your review and you've got a great start and I'm looking forward to reliving our time on Valor. I'm also enjoying the pictures too and LOVE your sunset picture in PR from Valor, it is just beautiful and a good preview of things to come. :) When we were on last year, it was pouring down rain when it would have been sunset, but hopefully we'll get another opportunity some day soon. I know in March next year, Valor and Liberty are switching places. We were just on Liberty this past April and DH and I both agree that of all Carnival ships we've been on, Liberty wins for best decor. Everything seems to flow together and the colors are very nice. We enjoyed Valor last year, but it was the itinerary the stole the show. LOL!!! Thank you for the "shout out" about my review. I am really enjoying your review and looking forward to more...no pressure...in your own time. :)

Enjoying your very honest review! Keep it coming!

My impressions on St. Thomas have changed over the years. Yes, prices on most things are still competitive, but this has stopped being THE shopping stop of the Caribbean. Taxis are...whatever. Some don't even have working seatbelts or A/C. I don't care how long or short the drive is, if it's not one of the safari-type vehicles there's no reason not to have A/C on a hot and very humid place like that.

This little guy here and a few sea birds followed us almost until nightfall almost coming to the railings. People were throwing food at them and they were making all kind of maneuvers to catch it mid air. Had everyone on the balconies entertained for quite a while.

We went down to dinner around 8pm and apparently most of the "Any timers" did so as well. There was a small line at the restaurant entrance but it was moved very fast. but then we realized it moved fats because they were handing out these pagers because there were no available tables. We requested a table for two and were handed one also. But our wait was of no more than 10-15 minutes. We were seated in a "stand-alone" table (the ones between the windows and the center of the main dining area where the big tables are) which had more space between the tables than the ones closer to center. Anyway, tonight our head waiter (I forgot his name) was basically a no show. He stopped to say hi when we were seated and once almost at the end of dinner. Everything else was handled by the assistant waiter. I don't have a picture of the menu but the food was excellent!!

Tonight we went to the Punchliner comedy club to catch the first part of the adult comedy act. I can't remember his name but it was a heavy-set guy. About 80% of his jokes hovered around sex and women and his love of women. Don't get me wrong... yes it was mostly funny, but this guy came across more as a deviate than a comedian. I found myself looking around the room looking at women's faces while laughing to see some laugh and some cringe. At the end of his short act he pushed his CD for anyone interested. As far a I saw, no takers... We left for the room but took a detour to the Serenity deck for a while before calling it a night.

This is how our day started!! But I got "The Stare" when I commented that He's gotta love AD/DC because "that cloud looks like the Black Ice tour train stage set"...lol. But I digress... We went up to Rosie's for breakfast and most of the buffet menu was all the same with a few exceptions like the sausages (different type every day). We walked the ship from bow to stern to see the shops and a few different places of the ship like the "secret" deck in the front of the ship and the shops. Echoing some other reviewers, there are absolutely no good "deals" on the ship. Maybe on some liquors and even that is a bit of a strech. Last night of the cruise maybe...

Back to the room, got into our bathing suits and off to the pool. We spent our pool time at the aft pool and whirlpools. We didn't encounter any chair hogs during the cruise at any time. Chairs were readily available poolside and not many people were at the pools at any given time. We had a bite of the awesome pizzas but I was like, "really??" when I ordered a prosciutto pizza only to find out it's a cheese slice with a cold (room temp) slice of prosciutto thrown on top after the pizza is done. But the peperoni, 4 cheese and mushroom ones were very good. We then have had lunch inside Rosie's but instead of the buffet my wife had a burrito from the Burrito Bar and I went to the Mongolian Wok. Those burritos were STUFFED! And the food from the Wok was good.

Tonight was elegant night and to say the least, at least for the "Any-timers", most everybody was dressed up. At least no one was under dressed. There was a good vibe at the lobby from a latin music band.

There was some wait for tables but it wasn't more than 15 minutes. Tonight's service was excellent!! The food was hit and miss. The bread was cold and kindda hard. I had the mushroom starter and it was mehhh. Not much flavor at all. My wife had the alligator fritters and they were very good. My main dish was the Prime Rib (excellent) and my wife the lobster (excellent as well). Our waiter overheard my wife comment on the smallish size of the lobster and lack of butter and a soon after appeared with a second serving of lobster and two cups of butter. I can't really remember tonight's desserts. Took some pics from the ships photographers, danced a bit of salsa at the lobby and went to bed.

On Wednesday we arrived at Barbados. It was a beautiful morning when we got into port. This is an industrial port and as you can see we parallel parked behind a small freighter.

While we were at breakfast I finally got my "cool whale tail shot"

When we got to Barbados almost all the shops at port were closed. All the same, I think this was the most expensive port of all. Taxis were lined up just outside the terminal separated into tour buses and regular taxis. There's a big sign to the right of the taxis lines with posted rates but make sure you set the rate before getting on the taxi. Also these buses range in size from big accommodating vans to small, European type vans. If you happen to get one of the non air conditioned vans you will bake inside until the van is full of people that are going in the same general direction. We went to Carlisle beach ($5 per person one way), specifically we went to Lobster Alive since we wanted some peace and quiet while on the beach.

This is the view from Lobster Alive. We passed on renting chairs since we took our beach towels to simply lay on the sand. I mean, come on...why would I go to a beach to lay under an umbrella. I wanted sun!!! A few minutes after arriving we were approached by one of the "vendors" to go swimming with the turtles right at the beach. This is one of the things we had on our list so we accepted and paid the $20 per person and were escorted to a double deck boat that was in tip-top shape. They had some rum punch (good and strong) and had all the snorkel equipment as well as life vest available for those who need them and all the equipment was in very well-kept condition.

Doing a great job on your review. Thanks for taking the time to do it, they are definitely more time consuming than you would think..... but so worth it. It really does help you relive the trip and brings the memories back, plus you can go back and read it yourself later to see the fun you had. Again thanks and it is great to get your perspective on things.

The first food item on right side on embarkation day he white with sprinkles looks like a melted snowman with a carrot nose perhaps. :rolleyes:

These guys on the "swim with the turtles" boat were on top of things all the time. The helped with the equipment and they go in the water with you both at the area where the turtles swim and at the shipwreck. There's also someone spotting on the boat making sure nobody wanders off too far from the group. There was in incident where a kid from a big group they picked up a bit after us tried to use the slide in a way he wasn't supposed to, only to get a foot caught on one of the supports and slicing it open. They quickly took out a first aid kit, stopped the bleeding, cleansed him and patched him up with calm and professionalism. There were other boats around the beach doing the same thing but what we experienced was that this guys were the more straightforward of the bunch.

This was another boat but did not come from the beach and as you can see, it is packed!

Left of Lobster Alive...

The Boatyard was to the right of Lobster Alive. Not much happening there that day.

When we were dropped off at the beach we hung around for a few hours and headed back to the ship. There were always taxis ready and waiting at the Lobster Alive parking lot. I noticed that since we were the only ship docked, none of the places that rent chairs were really full. Not by a long shot.

Our trip back to the ship was more relaxed since the driver was more friendly and not only talked to us most of the way but also pointed out a few places of interest as well. We were going to go shopping in Bridgetown but after seeing the lackluster (at least for us) mix of stores and the fact that there seemed to be very little "tourist" traffic there we decided to go straight for the ship. We went straight up to Lido deck for lunch and settled on burgers from the grill on the forward pool.

I suddenly noticed that sail time had come and gone and we were not moving. I peaked out of the balcony to see the gangway out but no horn blares or people running the pier. Turns out they were installing a radar pod on the ship and the techs were not done by the time we had to be going.

You can see the frustration and anxiety from the bridge crew here...

We finally got going around 6pm and we went to dinner around 8-ish. This night's dinner was a disappointment overall. I had the French onion soup and it was warm at best and had no flavor at all. I decided to try the flat iron steak again but no dice... While it was very well cooked, still tasted like no seasoning was used at all. I don't remember much else from the meal or afterwards because we were beat and went to bed before midnight. Next stop, St. Lucia!!!

Do you remember which nights were formal nights?

Thanks!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Today was the day we were looking forward to the most since today was going to be the only excursion we would be taking on this trip. But we got a bit worried when we came into St. Lucia and it started pouring rain. Now, being from PR I know all about passing showers but this one was pouring down hard and when it stopped, the skies weren’t clearing up at all.

We hoped for the best and went to breakfast. Today we decided to try the omelet station and ended up hating ourselves for not going sooner. The omelets were very good and the ingredients you pick out were very fresh. Once we finished breakfast, the skies had finished with the waterworks and we were ready to go.

This is where the ship docked:

This is where it apparently was supposed to dock:

We disembarked and headed straight to the terminal exit where we were going to meet up with the Spencer Ambrose guys for our tour. I tell you what, we were very excited about this tour and these guys did not disappoint. There was some confusion and some lack of organization at first but they explained that the ship usually dock on the side of the bay opposite to where it had docked that morning and they had to rush to make changes when they saw the ship kept sailing past the dock they were waiting at. The adjusted quickly and we were ushered to a waiting Spencer and his speedboat. We had the “Land, Sea & Beach Adventure” tour and our hosts for the first leg of the tour were Spencer himself and his daughter. We sped along the coastline in one of his speedboats. These things can haul a**!!!

(yeah that's me!)

Along the way we stopped at a crack in the wall of a cliff. This is the “Bat Cave” where thousands of bats live. You will see them move, screech and you will smell the guano. The only way to reach this is by boat and they take you right up to the cave.

Then they take you to the town of Soufriere where the group is split in to those that decide for the volcano tour and those that want the mud baths. We decided for the volcano. Our driver (forgot his name) ended up being Spencer’s brother and he was very informative and easy going. We ended up with an older couple from south Texas and a family of four that basically said nothing the whole trip! Anyway, we were given a quick tour of the volcano crater, and about 20 minutes later boarded the bus on our way to Toraille water fall.

It is a beautiful place. Being accustomed to going regularly to El Yunque, I found it relatively small but the beauty was unquestionable. The water was not as cold as I expected but still very refreshing.

The waterfall is a beautiful place. Being accustomed to going regularly to El Yunque Rain Forest in PR, I found it very small but the beauty was unquestionable. For someone with less exposure to the rain forests it will be great, so don't mind my opinion on it. The water was not as cold as I expected but still very refreshing. The vegetation was stunning! I bought a bottle of banana ketchup (sounds weird but tastes better than I expected) and some local hot sauce (which I did at every port) from some street vendors outside the falls.

On our way back to Soufriere we stopped by a banana plantation but was a bit disappointed by the lackluster info that we were provided by the driver and the fact that this stop was not as exhaustive as on the other tour (West Coast Delight) that Spencer has. Oh well, more beach time!! Back in town we boarded the speedboat once more on our way to Jalouise Beach……and lunch!!

Loving the review! We are headed to San Juan on Nov 14th. DId you by chance go to the piano bar at all. We love the piano bar, but have not had any reviews about Greg Alcock.

Coming down from the falls we stopped at a lookout point for a photo-op with one of the Pitons.

When we got to Jalouise Beach there was already a group from another tour and most of the “useable” loungers were taken. But they left soon after we arrived and had that part of the beach (sand is rocky as heck and no sun) to ourselves. The other side of the beach is behind a resort but since the beach (not the loungers there) is public, you can bake yourself in the sun on that side. We made the mistake of not taking our snorkel gear with us and paid dearly for it. $10 gets you a mask and snorkel, $5 extra gets you the fins. The water was awesome and there were fish of all sizes and color in the designated area. Lunch was one of the highlights of this trip. The food (which I’m not spoiling) was amazing. Great taste, perfectly seasoned (for our Caribbean taste buds) and well prepared. They had a big cooler with water, sodas, a very good (and strong) rum punch and local Piton Beer which was very, very good as well.

Don't pay attention to the empty chairs, this was on our way out.

This is the resort side of the beach.

Spencer for our final leg of the tour: sightseeing by water. You will see small fishing villages nestled between mountains and amazing cliffs that end up in the water. Some of the spots we visited were the “fish in the rock” formation, the stunning Marigot Bay (where they will point out where the houses of George Forman, Mick Jagger and Sofia Loren are) and by the “lady Slipper” rock formation where a few local kids were cliff driving off from.

Not the best angle but use a bit of imagination to "see" the Lady Slipper.

Some more pictures from the Sea Sightseeing part:

From there it was a fast (literally) ride back to Castries and to the ship by about 3:30pm. We browsed the shops at the terminal and found nothing really appealing and continued to the ship and to our cabin to drop our stuff change and up to lido for some snacks (pizza!!

With Spencer's daughter. Thanks for an awesome adventure!!

After some snacks and a nap we got ready for the second formal evening. As with the first formal and, again at least on our cruise, everyone dressed up for dinner in the Lincoln Room. We waited about 20 minutes for a two-top and got one of the closely-spaced ones. But conversation from other tables around was not a factor at any time.

My wife said that the Jumbo Tiger shrimps were delicious as was the Chateaubriand with Bearnaise sauce. After dinner we got our pictures taken by one of the photographers (third time during the cruise) and this guy really knew what he was doing. The poses he asked of us were more natural and the best pictures we had were with him. We danced in the lobby for a while before calling it quits on one of the best days ever!!

Do you remember which nights were formal nights?

 

Thanks!

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

If i'm not mistaken it was the 3rd (day at sea) and 5th (St. Lucia) nights.