Carnival Valor May 15th Review

Hi all!

I'm pinkpod87, but you can call me pink. I have seen tons of reviews on here and after completing my 6th Carnival cruise, I felt that it was time for me to do a review of my own.

A little bit about me: I am a 29 year old doctoral student, who loves to travel. But my schedule is very limited as to when I can which is why this is the first cruise I've been on in two years. I sailed with my mom Dez, and she thoroughly enjoys the mother daughter bonding time.

This review will provide you with an indepth look into each day on the Carnival Valor sailing on May 15th, along with a little pre and post cruise activities. I regret to say that I lost all of my photos on my phone from the trip, but I still would like to review and I will just try to be as detailed as I can, without pictures. Feel free to ask questions along the way and I will do my best to answer. Now on to the review!

Pre cruise: I live in the north Texas area and my mom and I initially plan to drive down to Galveston on the day of the cruise and drop off my 10 month old cutie chihuahua named Rocky at the boarder on the way. The closer the cruise came, the more we began to think that this way going to be a bad idea, as those familiar with Houston traffic knows that you can never know what to expect on I-45! So late Friday night, we decided to go ahead and rent a hotel for Sunday and go down a day early. Of course I hadn't even began to start packing or do laundry, so now my Saturday was filled with rushing through these chores and just hoping that I didn't forget anything. I figured that as long as I had my passport, I'd be good to go! With this being a Mother's Day cruise, I figured that I better get mom something, and I decided to get us some matching cruise t-shirts. Cheesy, I know! But she loved them, and I'd be in her good graces for yet another year :)

It is now Sunday morning! Time to load up the car and head to Houston! I was able to extend Rocky's boarding reservation by a day at the Petsmart Hotel in Webster, TX, so off we went. Traffic was great! No stop and go on the way and we were able to arrive at the boarder and drop off my fur baby before heading over to Pasadena TX to stay at the Residence Inn. This was a brand new hotel that was absolutely gorgeous. It even had a put put golf course! Being that it was only 6,000 points for the night, we definitely felt that the hotel was worth it! After getting settled into the room, we decided to head across the street to the local Mexican restaurant for some fajitas. I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but I will say that the place was packed and everyone seemed to be having a great time. After a short wait, we were seated at our table and began to look at the menu. Before we fully looked at the menu, a waiter passed our table carry a tray of fajitas that looked and smelled delicious and quickly decided that we would have that. Result: great choice!! The portions were huge and the spice level was great! Plus, all the mothers received a free tres leches cake, which my mom thought was delicious!

Now with full bellies, we made the walk back across the street to our hotel and did all of our last minute preparations for the cruise, such as putting on the luggage tags, making sure the health forms were completed, and of course making sure that my mom had here cherry coke zero packed in here carry on. I will say that we were actually taking a premier casino cruise and knew that our drinks would be free in the casino, but we still decided to bring some drinks to avoid the long waits for drinks in the casino (even with tipping!). But more on that later in the review! All that was left for the day was for us to lay our heads down on the pillow to awaken to the day we had been waiting months for! Cruise day!!!

My last Carnival cruise was on the Valor out of San Juan. I can't wait for the pics to see changes if there was any from 2013. I will be waiting eagerly.

Great start! Will be following along.

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Thanks for the review.

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Can't wait to read more!!

Day 1: The day has finally come. Cruise embarkation day! Of course I woke up super early at 6 due to the excitement and to my surprise, my mom (who could sleep all day if she could was awake as well). We chatted for a bite and talked about the first food venue we would try on the ship. Mom: Guy's Pig and Anchor. Me: Pizza.

So we finally got up, got our matching cruise shirts on, and got the luggage into the car. We then went to check out and have some breakfast. Residence Inn's breakfast was awesome and included a mixture of hot and cold items to please the masses. With fully tummies and excitement brewing we decided to go ahead and make the 45 minute trek down to Galveston and park the car. Of course we had to stop at the near by Big Lots to pick up the last few essentials and then Target, and then Dollar Tree. A 45 minute drive soon turned into a two hour drive with all of our stops and finally at 10am we arrived at the parking lot to catch the shuttle to the port. Within 10 minutes, the shuttle arrived and we were on our way to the port for our 10:30 - 11:00 am check in time.

Once at the port, we quickly went through security due to our priority status due to the premier casino cruise status and got our seats in the waiting area. I will say that the regular lines were not very crowded and took maybe an additional 5 to 10 minutes. This was the first cruise where we had staggered check in and I will say that I enjoyed it better and it definitely seemed to control traffic and crowds. At about 11:30 if was finally time to begin boarding. Weddings, Diamond, Platinum, Suites, FTTF, then finally Casino Guests. We hopped up and headed down to get out embarkation picture and began the upward trek in the gangway to the ship entrance.

The time finally arrived for me to take the first step onto the ship that I had been anxiously awaiting. Being that it was only my 6th cruise and 1st on the Valor, I was still amazed at the size of the atrium and could not wait to begin exploring. We went down one floor to our room 2205 to drop off our luggage and surprisingly the room was already cleaned except for vacuuming. We also already had our first premier gift and a schedule of events for the 5 day cruise. The gift was two gray cozies for our drinks and the letter stated that we would have a cocktail party at 5pm on the first day.

After going through the premier gifts and dropping off our carry on luggage, we decided to head up to the lido deck for lunch. Luckily it was not very crowded yet, and my mom was able to quickly get her pulled pork and coleslaw for Guy's Pig and Anchor and I was able to get my four cheese pizza (minus the gorgonzola). This was the first cruise that I tried the four cheese pizza after seeing the picture that mitsugirly posted of the pizza. Thoughts? It was perfect. Not overly greasy and great flavor. My mom also loved her pulled pork and tried it numerous times over the cruise.

After finishing our first lunch of the cruise and enduring my first cup of extremely sour lemonade, we decided to explore the ship for a bit. What was supposed to be an exploration walk, soon became a walk back to the cabin to get the first of many much needed naps. Yep, nap! We were both tired and as soon as our heads hit the pillow, the snoring began. We were awakened by the announcements about the safety briefing and decided to go ahead and get up so that we could be ready for when it was time to go to our muster area.

5 minutes later... It's time to go to the muster area and before I could get my shoes back on, the steward walked into the room using a master key informing us that it was time to go. So off we went to what was a painless drill. I will say that two people led back inside from the drill because they fell ill, I'm guessing due to the heat and our current sardine packed situation. After scanning our cards and doing the drill, 3 cabins were called to complete a later drill due to not coming and we were promptly dismissed.

Mom and I headed back up to the lido deck for the sail away party to participate in the routine cupid shuffle, electric slide, and wobble as the ship sails away from the port. Our cruise director Frankie, was very animated and definitely got the party started. We even started a conga line and magically all of the dissertation worries about school quickly faded away. Drinks, dancing, and laughs ensued until it was time for the Premier cocktail party.

The cocktail party was in one of the lounges and we stepped into a lounge where country music was being sung by a great musician and we quickly found seats in the far corner. While I am not a country music fan, I will say that I did enjoy this singer and had plenty of people singing along. Now maybe this was due to the flowing free drinks and food, but for the first time in my life and was swaying from side and side and singing along with the singer even though I did not know the words and can only imagine what I was actually singing!

This review is great! I am sailing on the Valor in October, and are anxiously awaiting your next post. Thank you!

I was on the valor last year and actually liked the shows better on it than i did in the vista this year. Hated to see it move.

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So I left off at the casino premier cocktail party. After it was over, it was time to head to dinner as we had early seating. We were seated at a table for 8, which consisted of two mother daughter duos, two college girls, and a husband and wife. We all got along very well and chatted with everyone as we saw each other on the cruise. Usually my mom and I prefer a table for two, but surprisingly we thoroughly enjoyed the group dining experience and won't be so against it in the future.

The first nights menu was just okay. So much so that I don't even remember the whole menu, but I do remember that I ended up getting the salmon with broccoli and bacon mac n cheese. Food result? Mixed bag. The salmon was a tad dry and overcooked, but the bacon mac n cheese was to die for. For dessert, I got the creme brulee, and mom got the tropical fruit plate. The creme brulee was the best dessert that I had for the entire cruise. The majority of the table got the molten chocolate cake and I regret to say that not one person at the table that night gave it a thumbs up. Everyone complained that it was to dry and chalky. Chalky?! Yes, chalky!

After dinner, mom and I went to the casino and blew a measly 10 bucks before we hung out on the lido deck for awhile. The weather was great, the music was great, and the kids were definitely having a great time splashing around in the pool. I think this was the earliest night for us, as we went back to room to chill before the welcome aboard show and the next thing I new it was the next morning!

Great review. We are on the Valor in September, 111 day :D

Following! Thanks for posting, going on my first cruise this September on the Valor!

Nice post! Looking forward to hearing more - going on the Valor on June 26th

I was on this cruise as well. I was a Premier Guest too. Had a great time and I am really enjoying your review!

Were on the Valor in October. Going to Progresso & Cozumel.

I would love to see copies of your FUN TIMES.