Thanksgiving day cruise review - Carnival Valor 2017

Thanks for the great review! We are booked on the Valor over Thanksgiving, 2018. I know you went to the steakhouse for dinner on Thanksgiving, but did you happen to notice or hear if they served turkey in the MDR that night?

Great pictures and review! I feel like I was there with you guys! :D

Loving the pictures! What beach is this?

 

Was muster inside?

 

Been a long time since Cozumel, we need low key 5 days since it is for NYE and my birthday :cool: lots of drinking and dancing in 18 days!

 

Nothing better than the spa shower for us ladies!

 

Parasailing is so peaceful!

 

Was there a glow party?

 

Thanks!

Hey there, the beach is at Carlos and Charlie's in Cozumel. No, mister was outside but it was freezing cold for a change instead of hot. I think I like the heat better.

Yes the low key 5 day or even 4 day cruises keep me sane in between my 7 day cruises. I would like to cruise every quarter, but work gets in the way.

The spa shower is one of those little miracles on the ship. Very little known fact about cruising, it's all free of charge and usually empty after 4pm or so.

I absolutely must parasail again. It was so fun.

No glow party this cruise. There was a deck party Saturday night .

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Really enjoying your review. When I saw the picture of you in the air looking down at the water my stomach dropped!!! Awesome family.

Thank you so much for reading. I love reliving the trip too. I thought I would be afraid looking down but the higher up we got, the more fun. It was weird, it didn't feel like I thought. I thought it would be like if you were on a roller coaster. It was incredibly smooth going up and even coming back down.

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Thanks for the great review! We are booked on the Valor over Thanksgiving, 2018. I know you went to the steakhouse for dinner on Thanksgiving, but did you happen to notice or hear if they served turkey in the MDR that night?

Hey there, we will be going again thanksgiving 2018 as well. I can't remember if they had turkey in mdr but they did have it on lido . They had carved turkey, and all the fixings. I would almost guarantee that if they had it on lido that they had it in MDR.

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Great pictures and review! I feel like I was there with you guys! :D

Thank you so much for reading. I get so much from this site and reading everyone's reviews and viewing pictures so I want to give back. It is really awesome to see what we all enjoy when we cruise. And I am most excited to see new people cruise, the excitement is infectious. I will post more tomorrow. And already looking at 3 cruises next year, unless I can squeeze in a fourth. Might have to do Vegas or something in between to keep the other folks happy. They love to cruise, but not as much as I do.

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Wonderful review! Thanks for writing this.

Thank you so much for reading. I get so much from this site and reading everyone's reviews and viewing pictures so I want to give back. It is really awesome to see what we all enjoy when we cruise. And I am most excited to see new people cruise, the excitement is infectious. I will post more tomorrow. And already looking at 3 cruises next year, unless I can squeeze in a fourth. Might have to do Vegas or something in between to keep the other folks happy. They love to cruise, but not as much as I do.

 

 

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I totally agree!! I get excited about our upcoming cruises by reading reviews and looking at everyone’s pictures. I’ve learned a lot too, so I’m not just passing time, this is educational. I need to remember this, so when my husband asks what I’m doing, I can say...”studying”. [emoji16]🤥

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On Saturday, when we back to the port, we walked around for quite a bit, shopping and people watching. Although we didn’t intend to stay off the ship long, we ended up within the last group of people boarding the ship. Once onboard, we wanted to shower and get ready for dinner that night. Our plan was to eat on the lido deck that night. We ended up meeting in the lido area and eating burgers but we missed sailaway because we were indoors.

The deck party was scheduled that night and since the evening was nice, we planned to attend. The deck party was a lot of fun, the Fun Squad did a good job. After the deck party, we went to the nightclub, the piano bar. We also attended a performance in the showroom that was fun and short. We went to the casino to take my niece since was now 18 and could legally go there. We wanted to show her what it was about and she gambled $20.00.

Here are pictures of my son at the deck party.

Son at deck party

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Son in cabin

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On Sunday, we woke up - it’s the dreaded last sea day. I hate the last sea day and the last day in general, but this gives me encouragement and hope because I just look forward to booking my next cruise.

We went to brunch and our whole party was able to attend.

We went to the lido deck afterwards and the menu is posted here:

Sea day lunch menu

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After brunch, we went back to the deck and grabbed some chairs. They had some family pool games going on and groove for St. Jude. It was a nice day out and a lot of people enjoying the beautiful weather.

We planned to attend the Thriller dance class in the theater and sat outside until it was time to start.

Son on the lido deck-

The Thriller dance class started right on time and we were asked to come up on stage. The lady walked us through the steps and we had fun going through each one until the"finale", where we did the whole dance. It was a lot of fun.

Thriller dance class-

Waiting for thriller-

Waiting for thriller again -

In the theater -

Our entire family was on that cruise also. We were celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary. We also had a wonderful cruise. I loved the Valor. We have been on the bigger ships lately and I had forgotten how much I like that size ship.

Our entire family was on that cruise also. We were celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary. We also had a wonderful cruise. I loved the Valor. We have been on the bigger ships lately and I had forgotten how much I like that size ship.

So cool, congratulations to you! I really enjoy the valor too. I like that it has variety and easy to navigate. Of course we still took the wrong stairs or went backwards a couple of times but that is expected. I love traveling with groups but also with my husband and I.

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Thank you for sharing your family's cruise. Just booked the Valor for the 1st time. We had to cancel our last 2 cruises so we are soooo excited to sail again!

Dreaming of Floating................

Awesome Review. Thanks for sharing. I am booked on Valor for Feb 1 and will be watching the Superbowl on that last day at sea. Can't wait.This review has made me very excited to sail this ship! Thanks again.

Thank you for sharing your family's cruise. Just booked the Valor for the 1st time. We had to cancel our last 2 cruises so we are soooo excited to sail again!

 

Dreaming of Floating................

You are welcome. The valor was very nice and fun for us.

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Awesome Review. Thanks for sharing. I am booked on Valor for Feb 1 and will be watching the Superbowl on that last day at sea. Can't wait.This review has made me very excited to sail this ship! Thanks again.

Super bowl party at sea sounds so nice! Have fun. I love the valor.

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On Sunday after the thriller dance class, we went back outside to relax more on the deck. We were out there for a couple of hours until the sun started to set. It started getting breezy outside, little did we know that in another hour, the cold weather would settle upon us again. We went to dinner for our final night and enjoyed the last show in the dining room. There was a bit of wait, but not as long as the elegant night. We also planned to go look at pictures and attend the trivia in the atrium. After dinner, we went outside on the side decks to take pictures and omg, the wind was whipping, it was freezing outside. Mind you, I am born, raised and reared in Houston so anything lower than 60 to me is cold. It wasn't just the cold this time, there was no humidity and it was very windy. We took a few pictures and couldn't take anymore so we went inside. We had to stop by guest services because my cousins friend that she brought with her was on my room account and I had charge restricted his sail and sign card. Being able to get priority service at guest services, once again, paid off. My sister had FTTF and it was very well worth it for that reason too. Anyway, it was the last night of the cruise, and the line to guest service was packed the whole cruise, this was no exception. I stood in line to get his card taken care of, while participating in the 80's trivia and we had a nice time. After trivia, we went upstairs to pack as we didn't want to leave our bags out, we were going to self debark because we intended on leaving as soon as we were released. I forgot to get my free drink so we went back to the bar and got my drink, I paid .26 for it because it was over 9.00 . Went back to the cabin and packed. The next morning came too soon, I was not ready to leave but I did miss my husband so off we went. I woke up as soon as we hit Galveston and turned my phone on. We had asked for room service, cereal, toast, bagels, etc, and they were delivered at 7am. We should have been up and ready to walk out the door but in all of our chaos of putting all of our items back together, we didn't leave the cabin until 830am at last call. It's funny how the ship seemed so uncrowded until the first day and the last day. There were people everywhere. We made several mistakes that day. One, we were supposed to go wait in the lounge for debarkation. Two, we didn't keep track of time. It wasn't until my brother in law called and said people were leaving the ship, and asked where we were , that we realized we had totally missed our window of priority debark. Oh well, we all headed up to the third floor or fifth floor, I don't even remember, and went into the terminal. Now one thing I will say, if you don't have to carry your stuff off, don't carry your stuff off. If you are elderly, have small children, or have a lot of stuff, don't try to carry your stuff off. Now, we had none of the above, all of our "children" are taller and bigger than us and can carry their own stuff. But,......my mom has trouble with a lot of walking and is almost 70 years old and should not be walking up and down ramps and trying to juggle all of that. We would have been better off packing lighter, or sending our luggage the night before. Lessons learned. We made it off in 1 piece and got to the freeway in about an hour after we left the cabin. This was a great cruise, my cousin was ready to book for next year that same day and I was looking up flights for my Christmas vacation in the car ride on the way home. The only thing that soothes me from being sad about leaving vacation is promptly planning my next one. I was fortunate enough to be able to take my family to Disney/Universal for Christmas this year, we drove from Houston to Orlando and back from Friday to Tuesday. It wasn't a cruise, but it was still fun, nevertheless. Well thanks for reading and if you have any questions, let me know. Our next cruise is planned for July, 2018 and I have intentions of cruising 3 times in 2018 and going to Florida twice. God-willing.

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I know I'm waaay late to your party. But I gotta say I loved your review AND your outlook. So many people seem to use this forum to nitpick & blame the staff, who work darned hard to help cruisers have fun, for ANYTHING that goes wrong. Lastly, you have a beautiful family. God-bless & Happy Cruisin'!

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Thank you so much. Yes, we work too hard to pay for these trips to get there and complain. I am that way about most things in life. God bless you too!

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Can you tell me more about Carlos & Charlie's? Did they have loungers & umbrellas? Was their a minimum purchase like at Paradise Beach? TIA

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