Carnival VICTORY-What EXCURSIONS did you take???

[imdawn]

We are looking into booking Carnival Victory, because of all the great ports it stops at. I am trying to get some information together for a family reunion type cruise...so thanks for the info in advance :D

 

On Each Port stop please tell me:

1. What excursion you booked?

2. If it was through Carnival or Independently booked?

3. Approximately how much per person and if you would recommend it?

 

4. Also what hotel you stayed at in San Juan and approximately how much it was?

5. Did you just stay night before cruise and fly home same day cruise came back into port or did you stay another night in San Juan?

Thank you SOOOO much for your help!!!! Cruise Critic helped me SOOO much with planning our first cruise (our honeymoon cruise) and we had the time of our lives on that one!!!

[tiggerman101]

My review with a bunch of photos is in my signature. It is a bit long, but you can skim it. This as my favorite cruise, but it can be a lot to plan for. have fun!

[HarperSays]

We stayed one night before and one night after in OSJ at Sheraton (right across the street from the port terminal). Loved the hotel and loved exploring OSJ.

 

St. Thomas - took a cab to Magen's Bay Beach.

Dominica - private excursion with Levi from Bumpiing Tours (our favorite excursion)

Barbados - private excursion with Thriller - snorkeling with sea turtles

St. Lucia - private excursion with Spencer from Spencer Ambrose tours (our other favorite excursion)

Antigua - private excursion with Lawrence of Antigua (didn't care for this tour)

St. Kitts - took a cab to Cockleshell Beach.

 

Itinerary wise this was our FAVORITE cruise. You just can't beat the itinerary and we loved not having any sea days and waking up to a different island every day. We HIGHLY recommend Levi in Dominica and Spencer in St. Lucia. They are both highly recommended on the ports of call boards for each.

 

Also, check out tiggerman101's review. It was awesome and that's where I got some good info on excursions for our cruise back on October. I would love to go on this same cruise again this year.

[cherbear4000]

i booked with cosol in st lucia (www.cosol-tours.com). i would recommend it. It St. Thomas (we have been there many times) we took a taxi to Magan's bay. In Barbados we did the malibu rum tour through carnival. I liked it. you tour the factory, get a few free shots and a mixed drink, then spend time at their beach. In Dominica we did the river tubing through the ship.

[*Luv2Cruz*]

See my Destiny 5/8 review below from our similiar ports!;)

[Scarlett824]

This was my favorite cruise too. We flew in the morning of embarkation and were on the ship by noon. Post-cruise we stayed at the Sheraton across the street from the pier for 3 nights. I got it for around $100/night through Priceline. It was just ok. I would have rather stayed at a resort type place with a nicer pool and a beach. This hotel would probably be a better pre-cruise stay since it is within walking distance to the ship.

 

Excursions:

St. Thomas - Coral World Sea Lion Swim ($106 pp) - booked directly with Coral World. Then Coki Beach. Loved the Sea Lion swim, but would have rather went to Sapphire Beach.

Dominica - Tour with Levi Baron from Bumpiing Tours ($60 pp) – booked with Levi. HIGHLY recommended.

Barbados – Beach day on our own – Accra (Rockley Beach). Beautiful beach, nice relaxing day.

St. Lucia - Tour with Spencer Ambrose from Splendid Tours ($65 per couple) - booked with Spencer. HIGHLY recommended.

St. Kitts - Catamaran Fan-Ta-Sea (Booked through Carnival – I think it was $100 pp) Had a blast! Clean catamaran, awesome crew and great food/drink.

 

We also stopped at Antigua, but you will be stopping at St. Martin. I haven’t been there in years so I have no advice. I hear Orient Beach is beautiful.

 

Good luck planning. This is a wonderful itinerary. And IMO, a balcony cabin is a must with this cruise. :cool:

[scraphappylady]

Well, that's pretty cool! Like you, our first Carnival cruise was the Legend (family version for that one), then our next one was the Victory (just the two of us!) I have to say, though, the Victory was my favorite. If you have the time, feel free to skim through my review (linked below). It's long, but hopefully will give you a flavor of what we experienced.

 

 

My one recommendation for the Victory would be to take an extra day in San Juan, on either side of the cruise, if you can afford it. Not only does this allow you to leisurely leave your hotel the Sunday you embark and still get onboard early, but staying a day after the cruise gives you more exploring time in PR, plus the luxury of avoiding the inevitable airport crush as four or five ships come into port at once the following Sunday.

 

Enjoy your trip!

[duchessuta]

We are looking into booking Carnival Victory, because of all the great ports it stops at. I am trying to get some information together for a family reunion type cruise...so thanks for the info in advance :D

 

On Each Port stop please tell me:

1. What excursion you booked?

2. If it was through Carnival or Independently booked?

3. Approximately how much per person and if you would recommend it?

 

4. Also what hotel you stayed at in San Juan and approximately how much it was?

5. Did you just stay night before cruise and fly home same day cruise came back into port or did you stay another night in San Juan?

 

Thank you SOOOO much for your help!!!! Cruise Critic helped me SOOO much with planning our first cruise (our honeymoon cruise) and we had the time of our lives on that one!!!

 

I am leaving for the victory in 2 days!!! So, while I can't answer the recommendation part of your question, I can answer some of the others.

 

1. All of the excursions we booked independently were after reading GREAT reviews from people that had taken them. They are all independent except for in St. Kitts (b/c to do the train you have to go through the cruise line) We are booked for the following:

 

St. Thomas: Air Force One - It was $30pp

Dominica: We had originally booked the aerial tram thru the cruise ship but cancelled it and decided to make it a "sea day" (after we shop at the market next to the port).

Barbados: Scenic Barbados Tour - $30 or $35 pp We are doing the 2 hour island tour and the 2 hours at the beach. I emailed him and we are paying after the tour is completed

St. Lucia: Spencer Ambrose Tour - $35 pp. It is very much like Cosol, but there will be far less people. Not to mention we emailed him and could alter the tour as I have really bad asthma and cannot go to the volcano b/c of the sulphur. He was GREAT at responding to emails and changing the tour for us.

St. Kitts: Scenic traing (Through the cruise line)- cost was about $90pp

St. Maarten: Shoretrips St. Martin Island and Beach tour. $57pp This one will take you to both sides of the island, let you do shopping on the French side and drop you off at the beach (chair and umbrella included) for as long as you want

 

We are flying in the day before and staying at the Sheraton. We will be leaving the day we get back to San Juan b/c our flight doesn't leave until after 5pm. This gives us PLENTY of time. We will even have time to do a quick island tour (through the ship) and they will take us to the airport once the tour is complete. And I believe that one is around $35pp.

 

Hope this helps!!

[duchessuta]

Oh, I forgot...the Sheraton was around $115 for our Saturday night stay. :) But we are directly across the street from where the Victory docks. So it is very convenient!

[GGonza]

Oh, I forgot...the Sheraton was around $115 for our Saturday night stay. :) But we are directly across the street from where the Victory docks. So it is very convenient!

 

Who did you use to book Hotel best rate i can find is about 180.00 we are going 9-12-10 and staying the sat ,before cruise we planing to stay at Sheralton if we can get a good rate

[MrCo9]

We stayed the night before and left the day we got back. We stayed at the Marriott and it was free when I used my Marriitt points I accumulated through work.

 

The only Carnival excursion we went on was the 5 star catmaran cruise in Barbados, we thought it was worth the $100 each we spent. Next time we're in Barbados we'll take a cab or bus to Payne's Beach and see the turtles on our own.

[dolfndreams]

Love this itinerary, going back next year:

Stayed day before and day following at HJ Plaza de Armas in old San Juan, very central and decent room able to leave luggage and loved having no crowd at the airport the morning after the cruise.

Old San Juan: Segway tour, absolutely loved it $90 2hr tour.

St. Thomas/Johns: Did Carnival Island tour of St. Johns, think it was $65, ok tour and got great pics but wouldn't repeat it. Planning Papa Bear I think for next year.

Dominica: Bumpiing Tour: $47, excellent tour ( I think it was best of with Chmpagne reef)

Barbados: Silvermoon 24 person Catamaran, very good but planning a 12 person next year. Great company though and loved swimming with the turtles, worth the cost $90 for the 24 and $100 next year for a 12 person with Calabeza.

St. Lucia: Cosal, what is there to say that hasn't been said:) Great tour for $65.

St. Kitts: Rose and Jims Taxi, Great tour enjoyed the island, $45 a person (4 people).

St. Maarten: Captain Alan 3 island Snorkel, surprised to find this was one of my favorites, thought I would be too tired by this point but it was the perfect ending, only 5 people, great snorkeling and awesome guide, I think it was $100 or $110, well worth it.

 

Have a great time.

 

I know everyone says this is an exhausting itinerary but I came home very relaxed, I found touring all day and relaxing all night the perfect combo, the least I've ever spent on board having too much fun out all day:)

[bythehex]

i booked with cosol in st lucia (www.cosol-tours.com). i would recommend it. It St. Thomas (we have been there many times) we took a taxi to Magan's bay. In Barbados we did the malibu rum tour through carnival. I liked it. you tour the factory, get a few free shots and a mixed drink, then spend time at their beach. In Dominica we did the river tubing through the ship.

 

I recommend Cosol too. We had the best day ever! You get more than your money's worth and see the true beauty of St. Lucia.

[Minoushka]

Go whale watching in Dominica .You must book with Carnival.

WOW .WOW WOW

The University of Dalhousie lends them equipment to follow the whales real up close .Nice Catamaran AWESOME experience saw quite a few Moms and Kids

Go on this one Crew is VERY nice!!!

 

Michele

[reddgrits]

We sailed on the Victory for our 25 wedding anniversary last November,loved this itinerary! We stayed at the Embassy Suites pre cruise and really enjoyed this hotel.The nightly manager's reception was a nice treat with free drinks and snacks.The free breakfast was very nice too! We ate supper at the Outback which was inside of the hotel.Our excursions were as follows:

St. Thomas:Air Force One Just us and PaPa Bear Himself

Dominica:Champagne Reef Snorkel

Barbados:Took a cab to Lobster Alive Paid $15 and got 2 chairs, umbrella and 3 rum punches each!

St Lucia:Catamaran to the Pitons

Antigua:Catamaran Sail and Snorkel

St Kitts:Beach Extravaganza Frigate Bay

We loved everything!:)

[Cardex]

We sail on the Victory on Sunday May 16.

I will be keeping a blog of our trip if you want to follow along

http://2010southerncaribbeancruise.blogspot.com/

[jpg1747]

This is my second time on this cruise. First was with Princess a couple of years ago. Some of the ports are the same.

 

St. Thomas - Been there many times, done the island/shopping tour before. Going to spend some time at Coral World/Coki Beach this time. Still not sure if I'm going through Carnival or do this on my own.

 

Barbados - Did the island tour last time. This time I'm doing a turtle snorkel and the wildlife reserve through Glory Tours.

 

St. Lucia - Did the island tour last time. This time I'm doing the land/sea (catamaran) tour to the Pitons through Carnival

 

St. Kitts and St. Maaren - first time at both - going to do private tours with some beach time. Haven't picked local tour companies yet.

 

Dominica - First time here - going to do the river tubing and local sights through Carnival.

 

San Juan - Last time I came in a day early and stayed at the Sheraton. Did a local tour to the rainforest before the cruise. Been here many times before and have done the OSJ tour and the Bacardi tour. There's a great self-guided walking tour of OSJ that you can download from the Fodor's site.

[duchessuta]

Who did you use to book Hotel best rate i can find is about 180.00 we are going 9-12-10 and staying the sat ,before cruise we planing to stay at Sheralton if we can get a good rate

 

 

I booked with Expedia. I booked it with my flight.

[Momto2PrncChrmgs]

We are going on the Victory for our first cruise in July, so while I can't tell you what's best to do this is what we have planned (with 2 kids ages 7 and 3).

St Thomas-Coki Beach, husband will Helmut dive

Dominica-private tour with Reyno ($200 for the 4 of us)

Barbados-Shasa catamaran and Turtle snorkle (3 hr, no lunch $60pp adults, 30 each kid)

St Lucia-we don't have anything planned except lounging at the pool and waterslide

St Kitts-taxi to go see Brimstone Fortress and then maybe Cockleshell Beach

St Maarten-taxi to Maho Beach to watch the planes.

 

The first few days are going to be absolutely exhausting, so we'll do less as the week goes on to hopefully decompress!

[imdawn]

I probably should have asked this at the beginning and of course you absolutely don't have to answer! I am getting the question "How much is do you think the WHOLE trip is going to cost?" :o

 

I am guessing it can be quite cheap or quite expensive depending on the room type and the excursions you do, amount you spend onboard, etc....when we went on our Honeymoon cruise on the Legend (4 port stops) we had a Balcony Room and swam with dolphins you name it! Time of our lives!

 

With this cruise I suppose with a couple extra port stops it can add up pretty quickly-also airfare might be more expensive from Michigan to San Juan than it was to Florida, but I just keep looking at the big picture-like most of you have said-it was YOUR FAVORITE CRUISE!!! I am dying to take this cruise and we will probably end up going regardless if any other relatives want to go, but I am just trying to show them that it CAN be a good price.

 

Anyways IF you want to share what you spent on your ENTIRE trip (type of room, airfare where you flew out of roundtrip, total excursions, total everything) I would find it VERY helpful in trying to pitch this to my family members ;) As for us-we started planning for this as soon as our feet touched land in March! Can't wait!!!!

[imdawn]

Also-THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH to all who have answered-lots of great stuff here for me to check out and research and LOTS of reviews to read over the weekend!!! :D

 

I can't wait to see these ports in person-they ALL look like paradise!

[TortieGal]

This is going to be a little long.... :o

 

We sailed a few weeks ago and I loved this cruise! It's the first one that I've left saying I want to do again. We used our 50% swine flu discount so the cruise cost as much as our airfare. To save money on hotels, we booked precruise through Hotwire and postcruise through Priceline.

 

Precruise we were at the Sheraton Convention Center. We paid $113, not including taxes and the resort fee. It was a nice hotel but there is nothing around it. There is a hotel restaurant (limited menu) or else we would have had to eat downtown.

 

Postcruise we were at the Sheraton Old San Juan. Got it for $80, not including tax and resort fee, on Priceline. It is a busy hotel but we liked it. We were in group 1 so were at the hotel before the rush. They let us pre-check in and then took our bags so we could go explore.

 

In terms of excursions, this was the first cruise I did everything independently.

 

St. Thomas - Taxi to Emerald Beach. A few hours there and then Paradise Point. About $80 for the day. (One word: Bushwackers. :o)

 

Dominica - Bumpiing Tours with Levi. Great tour and they took care of our non-swimmers so they could also enjoy Titou Gorge. Tour was $40.

 

Barbados - Turtle/Shipwreck snorkel with Silvermoon. This was my most favorite excursion ever. Was pricey ($110) but we did the 12 person catamaran tour. When we saw how packed the Carnival tour was, it confirmed this was a wise choice. They fed us and kept us "hydrated" ;) all day.

 

St. Lucia - Tour with Cosol. Thorough tour but it was a long day and AC wasn't great on our bus. Great way to see lots of the island but I wouldn't do it again. I seem to be in the minority when it comes to not being able to rave about how wonderful this was. Tour was $65.

 

St. Kitts - Beach day at Cockleshell. Taxi, chairs/umbrella, 1 drink were about $30.

 

St. Martin - Tour with Bernard. Lots of info along the way with a couple of hours at Orient Beach, about an hour at Maho. Tour was $35.

 

Even with 2 beach days, we were tired at the end. I highly recommend going easy in at least one port. :)

[duchessuta]

Also-THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH to all who have answered-lots of great stuff here for me to check out and research and LOTS of reviews to read over the weekend!!! :D

 

I can't wait to see these ports in person-they ALL look like paradise!

 

Oh...there are SO many reviews on the Victory, it's GREAT!! :D I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of them. That is where my mom and I got many of our ideas for our excursions.

[PreciousCruiser]

Loved, loved, loved this cruise. Not sure how much the total cost would be, but I will say this. It is worth every penny in my opinion. Just save your money and do it!

 

St. Thomas - Air Force One with Papa Bear (AWESOME)

St. Lucia - Cosol Tours (ALSO AWESOME)

Dominica - Bumpiing Tours (AGAIN AWESOME)

Barbados - Just took a taxi with some others for an island tour and stop at a beach (very nice).

St. Martin - Bernard's Tours (ALSO AND AGAIN AWESOME).

St. Kitts - Just took it easy and hung around the port and town area.

 

All of our tours were booked on our own via email and did not have to pay until the end of the tour. I would highy recommend all of the tours we took to anyone. You just might want to plan/reserve ahead of time to make sure you get a spot.

 

We stayed at The Sheraton in Old SJ when we got back for one night and that was so nice cause we just crossed the street, from the port, checked in, enjoyed touring Old SJ, shopped returned to the hotel and that evening were able to watch 3 ships sail away that night from the top deck of the hotel. What a way to end the week. I read nightmare stories about The Sheraton being crazy (ck in) and it did seem to get that way at some point. We got there about 9:30 am, did a pre-ck in (the room wasn't ready), and they took our luggage. We toured around and when we returned about 3:30 our room was ready and we had a good experience. Some others seemed to be pretty outdone with their experience and I hated that for them. I think the key is to get there as early as possible. Sounds like if you go with Priceline, that's the way to go for a good hotel rate. We pd. $140.00, but heard others got it for $80 or so thru Priceline. Airfare for us was about $340 pp (2 months in advance) from N.O. to S.J. roundtrip and that rate kept going up, up, up when it got closer.

[lidodeck gal]

Which islands offer the best snorkeling that rivals Cozumel/Isla Roatan?