Carnival Valor 7/1/2012 Review with Pictures!

Hey everyone! We have been home from our cruise for a couple of weeks now, and everything has finally settled down enough for me to write a trip report!

I went on this cruise with my mom, dad, aunt and uncle to celebrate my 23rd birthday. Although it was not my favorite itinerary, we had an amazing time and cannot wait to return on another Carnival cruise ASAP!

Our trip began the day before (6/30) with a late afternoon flight from New Orleans to Fort Lauderdale.

From the FLL airport, we called SAS transportation to give us a ride to the Comfort Suites in Miami. A quick thing about SAS-- we have used them for our previous Ft. Lauderdale cruise on the Freedom, and every time they have been on time and very cordial. I definitely recommend using them!

Upon arrival to the Comfort Suites, we were skeptical of the area/distance from the cruise terminal. Another huge negative we faced was that it was late, and we were starving! To our surprise, there was no restaurant in this hotel and we were not in the mood to explore around very far. So, we arranged our transportation to the port and checked in to our room for the night.

Here are pictures of the room:

After dropping our stuff off, we headed down the street to the McDonald's we had seen from the window in our room. After grabbing our burgers, we stopped at the gas station outside of the hotel to get some waters and went back to our room to get ready for bed.

At this point I was beyond excited to board the ship the following day, but I was exhausted! It was nearly midnight and we were set to leave the hotel early the next morning. I pulled my sheets back, and low and behold there were several hairs (we wont go into what type of hairs I believed them to be.. but YUCK!). I quickly made the call to the front desk to request new sheets be brought to us as soon as they could. After 45 minutes and no word on the sheets, we called again. The gentleman at the front desk said they had sent the person to the wrong room and that he would be there shortly. A couple of minutes later a security guard comes to the room with brand new sheets. The man was clearly not used to making beds, and struggled tremendously with the task at hand. After feeling sorry for the man, my mom and I told him we could get it and he was very relieved!

The following morning, we woke up and headed down to the lobby where they served a continental breakfast. There was a selection of juices, coffee, pastries, cereals, fruits, and even a waffle maker so that guests could cook their own. We then waited in the crowded lobby until 10:30 am for our shuttle to the VALOR!

All in all the Comfort Suites was clean and decent for staying a night. We got the room for $119, and it was located fairly close to the port. The staff we encountered at the front desk was very friendly, and they solved our problem fairly well for it being so late at night!

To be continued...

We arrived at the cruise terminal and found that the porters had quite a chaotic system going on. Luggage was everywhere, and these men were working VERY hard. We tipped our porter and proceeded to the security area. After making our way through the scanners, we walked up the stairs to the VIP check-in room.

Here is a view of the terminal:

Upon entering the VIP room, we handed an employee our check in papers and were told to take a seat. Inside the room, lemonade and water were offered and within literally a minute or so we were called to the desk. Check-in was a breeze, and there was NO wait at all. We were then allowed to proceed to board the ship!

Here's the complaining part again... I HATE that the photographers are stationed before getting on the ship. It just adds way longer of a wait, and I am personally not a fan of a picture where I am bogged down with carry on luggage. We skipped the picture opportunity and proceeded onto the ship.

As soon as we were on the ship, we headed straight up to the lido deck to eat some lunch. I headed straight for the burrito bar and got a chicken and bean burrito, and let me tell you... it was sooo good! Today they also offered strawberry cake pops which were pretty legit as well.

After lunch, we bought a bottomless bubbles pass and went around the ship to explore.

Jeanne's Wine Bar

King Boulevard

Video Arcade

Togo Sushi

Java Cafe

Shogun Club Casino

The Dream Bar

The American Lobby

Lincoln Dining Room

We booked an ocean suite for this cruise and the location was so convenient!

Vanity Area:

Bathroom:

Room:

Balcony:

More to be continued later!! Stay tuned! :)

Enjoying your review! Looking forward to reading more! Thanks for sharing.:)

Thank you Brittney. Great review and great pics:)

Thanks y'all! I'll post more tonight when I get home from work!

The view from our balcony before we left:

After exploring the ship and sitting in the lobby people watching, we went and met up with my aunt and uncle for a bit. Before the safety drill, I went up to the lido bar and got a rockstar to drink. We got to the safety drill a couple of minutes past the 3:40 pm time, and had to wait around a good little bit for everyone to get settled. The crew member in our section confiscated my drink, but let other people keep theres. I was not a happy cruiser at this point!

After the drill, We went back to the room and watched sail away from the balcony. We went and checked out the fun shops briefly and headed to the casino to play some slot machines. After losing $40.00 super fast, my mom and I decided to play pool. We went to the Bronx Bar (the sports bar by the casino) and got the pool sticks and balls. It was definitely the most fun I've ever had playing pool! After playing pool for a little while, we went back to the room to get dressed for dinner.

We had late seating in the aft dining room (the Washington dining room). We were a little late for dinner, and found that we were at a booth with just the family. It was very nice to be able to eat dinner just as a family for once! Not that I don't enjoy meeting new people, it was just nice!

So for appetizers: (and no I didn't order all of these)

Tropical Fruit Plate

Chicken Tenders (delicious!)

Caesar Salad

Entrees:

Sweet and Sour Shrimp

Beef Brisket

Also this night, my aunt got the tofu to try and be adventurous... she said it was not really something she would ever want to eat again. haha.

Desserts

Diet Orange Cake

Vanilla Creme Brulee

This cruise was definitely the worst drink service we have ever experienced on a Carnival cruise. Now, I know the servers are very very busy during dinner.. but we had 4 different servers and could hardly get a glass of water refilled!

My uncle asked for a glass of iced tea, and one of the servers brought him some hot tea instead. So my uncle didn't really understand that he had to brew his own iced tea... he put the tea bag in his ice glass and poured hot water over it. The end result was awful, and he was very upset. hahaha! The rest of us got a great laugh!

After dinner, we went to the Eagles Lounge for karaoke. The karaoke guy (Ashley) was not that exciting, and just went up to random people holding microphones in their faces to help the singers out. This seemed to bother some people...

The Eagles Lounge

Around 11:30, they began to set up for super star live (where you get to sing karaoke with a band). The host came out with an amazing rendition of a Journey song. That girl could sing! We hung around and ordered some drinks, and watched other guests sing for a little while.

Drink menus for super star live

The Twilight Zone (left) and Lightest Sea Breeze (right)

after karaoke, we were tired so we went back to the room and slept in preparation for the day which we would spend in Key West!

Up next Day 2-Key West!

Loving your pictures of the Valor. We will be on her in March but doing the southern Caribbean!

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

I'm enjoying seeing pics of your cruise on the Valor too. We'll be sailing on her next March for the Southern itinerary (like previous poster). Can't wait. The drinks look yummy! I wish I liked sweet cocktails. I wish I could find something just semi sweet. They look so pretty:D.

Can't wait to see more from your cruise!

The ship docked in Key West around 8 am, so we got ready and went up to the lido deck to get some breakfast before leaving.

We stepped off the ship and decided our plan of action was to walk around and explore.

We walked a short ways to Mel Fisher's Maritime Museum, and decided to buy passes to enter.

It was very interesting to see all of the artifacts they had recovered from the Atocha. My favorite room was of course where all of the jewels, gold and silver were. If only I could buy that 73 karat emerald! haha. Of course at the end of the museum tour, they have a gift shop where you can purchase small fake coins or the real stuff they recovered. If you find yourself if Key West then definitely check out this museum!!! It even looked as if they were adding a Harry Potter wing (which has absolutely nothing to do with the maritime aspect... but ok.)

After the museum, we decided to explore some tourist shops. I found one where I could pick out the shirt, and they would screen print the design on there for you. The man made the cost out to be very cheap, and made it seem like I got two free shirts... but before I knew it I had spent $94 on 4 t-shirts. Yes, I got ripped off. Oh well, I was on vacation so I got over it.

Word of advice definitely look out for cheaper options in Key West! My aunt and uncle when in the Everything for $5 store and bought wayyyy more stuff than I got for the same amount!

After shopping, we were pretty hungry so we walked a short ways to Sloppy Joes. Of course I had heard of these infamous sloppy joes and HAD to try one.

My mom ordered the Sloppy Quesadilla, which was pretty delicious as well.

Pictures of Sloppy Joes

After eating, we wanted to check out Hemingway's house... so some of the locals pointed us in the direction. It was a pretty long way the direction we went, but it could have definitely been shorter had we gone the correct way!

When we got there, the line was rediculously long so I just held my camera over the fence and hoped for the best.

We decided to go back to the ship and along the way I saw a pretty cool looking church..

We got back to the ship and went back to the room to watch the sail away. Once the casino opened, we went and played some slots and I actually won $100 dollars! At that point I was up $60! We went down to Winston's Cigar Bar and sat there until it was time for dinner.

Appetizers:

Entrees:

I wasn't a huge fan of the vegetable enchiladas, so the server exchanged it out for a flat iron steak. The steak was wayyyy better!

Desserts:

After dinner we were pretty tired, so we explored a little bit and then went to bed early.

Up next Day 3- Sea Day

Enjoying your review and great photos.

These are great! I look forward to your continuing review. I will be on the Valor in Jan. 2013 so I'm really excited to hear your thoughts

These are great! I look forward to your continuing review. I will be on the Valor in Jan. 2013 so I'm really excited to hear your thoughts

What a great review!! Wonderful pictures!

Really liking the review so far! We're sailing on the same itinerary and we also booked an ocean suite.

Thanks for your review! Doing the repositioning cruise to San Juan on 2/3 of next year.

How do you attach the large pictures. All I ever get is this:

thanks for your review. Keep it coming!

Thanks y'all!!! I'll try to get the next day up ASAP!

And to attach large pictures I'm using a photo sharing website that gives the HTML code