My first Review - Victory Cruise - July 15-22, 2012

Ok, I am going to take a stab at my own Victory Review. This is a little selfish as it is mostly for me, to remember and document our trip. I wanted to stick to the basics, but I can tell by my first draft that it might be lenghty. But the short version is WE HAD FUN!

Travelers: Myself (50), DH (60), and our DS (18)

# of Cruises – 1 each, but we have never cruised together!

Departing from Dallas, Texas on Friday morning, July 13th – 5:45am flight, 50 min layover in Atlanta, we walked right over and got on our connecting flight to San Juan with no problems. Landed in San Juan at 1:30pm.

Pre-Cruise Hotel – Sheraton Convention Center – I used my points and was able to book a room for Friday and Saturday. I would like to say this was a great experience, but it wasn’t. First there was some confusion when they booked the room using cash and points… I purchased points…knew that was a bad move. They would not refund my payment, but did put all the points back on my account. Also, I had wanted the Sheraton in Old San Juan, but when I got my confirmation it was the convention center. We arrived at the 3:30 check in time, but we were told we would have to wait for a room – they called us two hours later. We dropped our stuff off and went sight-seeing.

Note: this hotel is at the convention center. They have conventions! A co-worker had been there a couple of weeks prior and said they did not have a good experience, they thought there was some kind of prom or something going on as kids were running all over the place. For our visit, it was a basketball convention. Hundreds of kids running around, clogging the elevators, screaming in the hallways…after much mumbling and complaining about the crowd, I told myself to stop and get used to it because we would soon be on a ship with lots of people so I better get over it. Two days, room service and two days of parking my total bill was only $200. The price was good, we were not at the hotel much as we really wanted to see San Juan and was loving it! However, I DO NOT recommend this hotel for your pre-cruise visit.

Car Rental – We decided to rent a car since we would be there about two days prior to our cruise and we wanted to travel freely about the area. My husband got a good deal through price line. Note: The rules for renting in San Juan require that you show proof of comprehensive coverage or buy theirs. We left that document at home and could not get through to our Insurance agent, so it added an additional $40. Plus we paid $16 a day to park at the hotel. Parking in Old San Juan proved to be very inexpensive.

San Juan – We LOVED San Juan. If you cruise out of San Juan, I feel it is an absolute must that you spend time there. Although our shipped sailed to many other great ports, I would have to put this at the top of the list. I will provide details in the next post on what we did while we were there.

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

Looking forward to it as well. We are on her in a couple of week (8/19). My understanding is that the cruise director Felipe got off with you. Did they happen to mention who was filling his shoes?

Can't wait for the rest of your review. The Victory is one of the ships my cousin is considering for our family trip next August (when it ports our of Miami, I think). I hope you got some great pictures of the ship!

We are going on this cruise next June. Looking forward to your review!

We are cruising this itinerary in March but on the Valor so I am looking forward to your review of the islands!:)

Looking forward to it as well. We are on her in a couple of week (8/19). My understanding is that the cruise director Felipe got off with you. Did they happen to mention who was filling his shoes?

No, they didn't mention it if I heard it. I know the assistant cruise director was leaving. Felipe mentioned that he may soon be moving up. Nice young man, and he was very good, yet I don't remember his name.:eek:

Can't wait for the rest of your review. The Victory is one of the ships my cousin is considering for our family trip next August (when it ports our of Miami, I think). I hope you got some great pictures of the ship!

You know, I didn't really take any pictures of the ship this time. Primarily because there are so many on this board already and after having looked at all of them prior to my trip, nothing on the ship was a surprise to me. I did take pictures of our room and will post them and discuss. We had a 4J, room 1003..and we really liked the room and the location.

You are off to a great start, keep it coming.

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

San Juan – Lunch at El Hamburgure

After checking or luggage with the folks at the Sheraton, we headed out to lunch. It was 3:30 already and had planned on eating an “authentic” Puerto Rican lunch. We stopped at the first place we came to… “EL Hamburguer”. It smelled great. Had lots of locals and was right across the street from the ocean. The menu contained several different types of hamburgers. The most interesting being a hamburger with wine in the middle – yes, we ordered one. Everything tasted great and the price was reasonable…but of course we realized that was because the hamburgers were more like sliders! LOL, DH and DS had to order a second one each.

The view from the road across the street from the little "hole in the wall" burger joint was great!

After lunch, we traveled into Old San Juan to see where the ship would come in and we wanted to take in at least one of the forts if possible. We found great parking just a couple of blocks behind the infamous CVS. I think it only cost us about $2.50 to park there for the evening. We walked the streets, enjoyed the architecture, the people, the pigeons! and finally found Castillo San Felipe del Morro also known as Fort San Felipe del Morro. It was getting late, but someone told us it did not close until 7pm...so off we went. We arrived just a little after 6 but it was already closed. No worries. It was a beautiful part of the evening to walk around and enjoy the perimeter of the fort, the grounds, the sunset. I would love to take a lunch and a kite and stay there for an entire afternoon. It is simply breathtaking. Again, I had seen several pictures on CC, so I thought it might be a bit of a let down, but it was not.

I could not believe the kids were wanting to be that close to the pigeons! Yikes :eek: (sorry, but I am not a bird lover).

The graveyard next to the fort was quite beautiful. But was someone trying to get out???

Ok, I am still at work and the Olympics opening ceremony is tonight. This is quite fun. I will have to get some of my DH's pictures. He has the good camera. All of mine were taken with the panasonic I bought for underwater use. Go team USA!

Looking forward to your review. We were on this cruise in April, it was our favorite so far!

Great start we were in PR in March for our cruise - we stayed at the Intercontinental. It was nice & quiet and we loved the beach!

You know, I didn't really take any pictures of the ship this time. Primarily because there are so many on this board already and after having looked at all of them prior to my trip, nothing on the ship was a surprise to me. I did take pictures of our room and will post them and discuss. We had a 4J, room 1003..and we really liked the room and the location.

we will be on a 4J on the lido deck on our B2B how did you like it? looking forward to pix of it.

Go Canada Go :D

Looking forward to the rest , we cruise in 72 days :) We are also staying at the Sheraton Convention Center , but we got a really good price and we wont get in until Saturday at 8pm , so just for one night we hope it works out :)

Enjoying your review and photo's.

More more morrrrreeee!!!

Hi Jimbo! we are on the same cruise departing 08/19! only 3 weeks to go:D

Looking forward to it as well. We are on her in a couple of week (8/19). My understanding is that the cruise director Felipe got off with you. Did they happen to mention who was filling his shoes?

Thank you for your review and photos.

Great stuff so far...

Interested in seeing shots of the ship as we are thinking of sailing her in Oct 2013 when she repositions to Miami

Hi Jimbo! we are on the same cruise departing 08/19! only 3 weeks to go:D

Not to steal the thread, but come over and join the roll call!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1536241&page=9

Really looking forward to your review...I am sailing the Victory from San Juan for the second time in September, I just love the itinerary!

Thanks for taking time to post your review and pictures...helps us get through till our cruise! :D