Carnival Victory Review with Pictures

[jennat]

I forgot to mention that Javin provided a snack of locally made coconut rolls and raisin rolls with juice to refresh us after the hike.

 

We headed back to the ship, admiring the views as we went.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We bid adeau to our new St Kitts friends and made our way back to the ship. Just to show you what a class act Javin was, here is the e-mail Karin just got:

 

Hi Karin & crew

 

 

Just wanted to extend a HUGE thanks for spending your day in St. Kitts with Shaddy & I. We had such a fantastic time sharing our home with you and your family! You guys were always smiling and taking everything in. It is always great to be with people who enjoy everything the way you did!! I'm working on getting the pictures on line but the internet seems to be in a bad mood here at home - so I might have to send the pictures with my wife to upload on Monday if things don't get faster at home, but rest assured they are on their way to the website! I hope you all had a safe and memorable rest of your cruise. If you have a chance I'd greatly appreciate it if you could review me on cruise critic - with the upcoming cruise season about to start a current review would really help people decide to make bookings. Also if you ever make it back to St. Kitts I'd love to see you all again! Please stay in touch!!!

 

Your friend,

Javin (& Shaddy too)

 

 

I obviously would not hesitate to whole-heartedly recommend this tour. The river was my favorite thing we did all week.

 

If I were Javin, I would be very proud of the tour I put together. It is a perfect balance and I wouldn't change a thing.

HOWEVER, if I was me, I would do it a little differently next time, simply because of all the touring we had already done this week. We spent a lot of time in the car and simply because of this, I would head straight to the river and spend more time there. If I were not burned out on touring, I would keep the tour exactly the same. Good job Javin!

[jennat]

THIS is actually the night we headed to the love and marriage show. Then we went to the piano bar and then to bed.

 

BTW my girlfriend on this cruise with me read my review and she commented that the piano bar was still too smoky for them and that I understated it. I was just comparing it to other small venues on cruise ships. You certainly could smell it and she said it was really bad. For what it is worth.....

 

 

 

Tonight this lady, who I imagine is part of a show or something, came into sing a couple songs with Justin. She was soooo good. Really enjoyed her.

 

Tomorrow is our last day and St Marteen......awesome day!

[jennat]

I just thought of something, I'm sure you can't change up the tour unless you have a private one.

[pjpurple6]

I must say awesome review and funny, read the whole thing and great pictures, I am joining you on the next cruise, LOL.... great tours! thanks for sharing :)

[jennat]

I must say awesome review and funny, read the whole thing and great pictures, I am joining you on the next cruise, LOL.... great tours! thanks for sharing :)

 

Well come on and join us...Same time, next year, Oasis of the Seas (10/15)

[jennat]

By the Way Here is Javin's contact information

myislandstours.shutterfly.com

 

I just saw that our pictures are on there so I am going to go and look at them now.

[navybaby1113]

By the Way Here is Javin's contact information

myislandstours.shutterfly.com

 

I just saw that our pictures are on there so I am going to go and look at them now.

 

I just checked out your pictures (and bookmarked his info for later) and they look great!

[lulu13]

I am thoroughly enjoying your review and especially your pictures. What type of camera did you use? I agree with everyone's comments that you would be a lot of fun to cruise with. We are going on this cruise in 36 days, and this review made me anxious to get there.

[starcheryl]

AMAZING photos this is great!

[jennat]

I am thoroughly enjoying your review and especially your pictures. What type of camera did you use? I agree with everyone's comments that you would be a lot of fun to cruise with. We are going on this cruise in 36 days, and this review made me anxious to get there.

 

I use several cameras. I have that new Sony DSC HX5 that Taylor Swift advertises with the panaramic...I used that for the islands and for most of the pictures. The underwater ones or the ones in the wet areas is my Olympus SW 850. I also have a canon that I LOVE but it is getting older and it doesn't always recognize the batteries so we don't put ourselves in a position to get stuck without a working camera. But that one is awesome for colors.

Thank you soooo much. That is so sweet. I love meeting new friends cruising.

[navybaby1113]

I agree that the panoramic pictures are awesome. I wonder if my camera has that feature.

[Poorplaya]

Great review, thank you for all the pics you posted so far, looks like you had a great time, and about Frenchie, she would have been some really comic relief for me if I was there, i do not think i would have been able to start cracking jokes about her if I was on that ship.

[jennat]

Great review, thank you for all the pics you posted so far, looks like you had a great time, and about Frenchie, she would have been some really comic relief for me if I was there, i do not think i would have been able to start cracking jokes about her if I was on that ship.

 

Enjoy your cruise on the Mariner. I love that ship. One of my favorites!

[frito58]

Enjoying your review, I too met the "con" man when we were in San Juan once in 08 by the Marriot , I only had enough money on me to go to Starbucks and I kind of felt bad not sure if his story was true or not. , and believe it or not we walked out of our hotel in 09 he approached me again , I never forget a face as he begins to ask if I'm an American , I ask him how his dad is if he recovered from his injuries:eek::rolleyes: he looks at me and says god bless you and heads off , my wife has this dumbfounded look as in ***** just happened. After a good laugh we walk on , Maybe I will run into him in 2011.:p

[jennat]

I couldn't believe the last day of the cruise was here. It is weird to have it be a port day instead of a sea day. The thought of packing was stressing me out a little but I was sooooo excited for St Marteen. Perhaps more excited than any of the other ports, even though we had been here several times prior.

 

In 2008 we were here and took Capt Alan's three island snorkel tour with several of our friends for the morning. We loved it so much we decided to charter him for the day.

 

I woke with a smile on my face and then looked outside. RAIN! I was so disappointed but finally decided I was going to just go with the flow. I am a little spoiled with weather, I guess. In 10 cruises, we have had only a half day of rain. Sometimes at night, at sea it would rain and an occasional sunny shower while we were at the beach but as far as gray sky rain, just the once. I certainly didn't want to stop that streak today, on our first real boat day!

 

With a smile on my face, totally a fake smile because NOT HAPPY, we went down to breakfast. We docked today at 7am. Wanting to get the most out of the day, I arranged pick up at 7:45. Genuis. The only thing I didn't think of was that this was the last of 6 great port days and getting up in the 6es on vacation....HARD! But once again, so excited about the day. We got to the dining room and it was closed. They opened at 7:30. Huh? Didn't make a lot of sense to me, but I put it in the ever thickening file of "things on this ship with regard to dining that don't make sense to me". We ran up to the buffet, waited in the long line, ate and got off the ship. There is a specialty coffee stand ($) as you enter the dining room from the aft elevators and I stopped for my breakfast there. Yummy latte.

We got to the meeting place, were picked up and on our way (after posing for the obligatory photo of course).

 

 

 

We were headed to Oyster Bay, across the island (about a 20 minute drive). Capt Alan arranges roundtrip transfers for you for $10pp if you are interested. We were.

We arrived at the dock and ended up waiting for a while for them to finish loading the boat. It started to rain and rain hard so that delayed our start even longer. I guess it is good that we weren't on the boat during the storm, might not have been very pleasant but I do hate to be told to be somewhere and them not be ready for you. Finally, the rain stopped, the boat was loaded, we were paid up and on our way. So excited.

 

 

 

 

Our Capt for the day was Francios and he was awesome. His first mate was Victor, the 13yr old son of Paul, one of the owners and he was, well, 13.

 

We were starting to see some blue peak through the clouds...come on, sunshine.

[jennat]

 

 

 

 

The ride out promised to be an exciting one. With the storm just passing by there were a lot of big waves. The speedboat flew over them, cresting and then going back down. It was a lot of fun! But kindof hard to show with pictures!

 

We approached our first snorkeling spot.

 

 

And off we went

 

[CBussey64]

Is there a link to a website to sign up for this tour? Looks amazing.

 

Driving through their village.

 

 

Next we headed to one of Javin's friends farms to look at and identify different plants (correct guess: Mango) Javin cut some sugar cane and let everyone sample some.

 

Next we headed to one of Javin's friends farms to look at and identify different plants (correct guess: Mango) Javin cut some sugar cane and let everyone sample some.

 

 

Now we were off to Frigate Bay, stopping for many photographic views along the way.

We were slowly, I think, making our way around the island. We were on the rough side with regards to the ocean. Javin shared stories with us about their lives growing up. He said they had donkeys that they loved very much. These mules did everything with them. They had "donkey dirtbikes" were they would use them as bikes and ride them around. They even used them to act as life guards. When they went out in the rough ocean, they would tie a rope to themselves and to their donkeys. When they needed them to, they would call the donkeys names and the donkeys would pull them out. Don't know what they did if their mouths were full of water! Devon had lost his brother to drowning a couple years back. So sad. They had a special relationship with their donkeys.

 

As we were driving around some of the villages there were goats just grazing in the open. Javin said they each belonged to someone. When asked if they would get stolen, he replied they wouldn't because if someone all of a sudden showed up with a goat and one was stolen, it would be pretty obvious.

 

 

 

This is Devon in the photo with us (not looking at the camera) Duh!

[jennat]

Coloradosweetheart,

http://myislandstours.shutterfly.com/

 

I never saw your answer.....do you work in the ER?

[IslandTime2]

Great report Jennat!!

[CBussey64]

Coloradosweetheart,

http://myislandstours.shutterfly.com/

 

I never saw your answer.....do you work in the ER?

 

 

Sorry about that, I thought I answered it ... this Halfheimers stinks LOL!!!

I used to work in the ER back in 1995 until about 1998, then worked in Children's After Hours also during that time, then on the Oncology Unit, I now work in ICU.

 

Another 2 questions, where did you find those skirted swimsuits, I have the hardest time finding a suit I like and will wear. Also the walking sandals, are they as comfy as they look? Due to gaining weight after 2 foot surgeries last year, I have issues with swimsuits and I can't wear regular flip flops on that foot anymore.

 

Thanks and your review was AMAZING. I can't wait to go on this one.

[gapearl]

OMG Jen, this is review is amazing! I've been sitting here cracking up at your jokes. Carnival should hire you as a comedian for the evening shows. :D I love the pictures. Levi was a total hottie. I need to go book his tour. ;) Frenchie sounds like a hot mess. I've had some similar interesting ladies on my cruises, but none quite like her. It looks like you and your family had a great cruise. Thanks for sharing!

[jennat]

 

Another 2 questions, where did you find those skirted swimsuits, I have the hardest time finding a suit I like and will wear. Also the walking sandals, are they as comfy as they look? Due to gaining weight after 2 foot surgeries last year, I have issues with swimsuits and I can't wear regular flip flops on that foot anymore.

 

Thanks and your review was AMAZING. I can't wait to go on this one.

 

Swimsuits....spiegal and newport news have a ton of skirted swimsuits...the floral one was from casual living usa (we both have it so we had to coordinate so we didn't look like twins.

 

The sandals are great and they are keens. They aren't cheap but they work good. search google to try and find the best price.

[jennat]

It started out as your pretty typical snorkeling trip. A couple of fishes here and there, a brain coral and several sea urchins....peaceful, serene, snorkeling in your own world. Then the excitement started. Not the da dum da dum da dum variety. Bring it down people. Just the "oh my, look, an octopus" NO one in our party actually uses the term "Oh my". That is just for illustration purposes. I think it was actually something like. "LOOK OUT, that rock is moving and grumbling. Save yourself!....Oh, it is just an Octopus" ANYWAY....we saw an octopus and got to spend lots of time with it. One of the boys kept going down and touching it. I don't think the octopus liked this. He kept switching colors really fast (he only touched it a couple of times). It was cool to see. It was moving around but staying in the immediate area.

 

 

 

My daughter swam down to get a good picture because I float like a cork. Soon we were on our way.

 

 

 

[jennat]

Francios asked if we wanted to snorkel immediately again or head on. There were some turtles right around the bend. My friends decided to go, we stayed on board and had a beer and the kids took turns jumping off the boat.

 

 

 

Just another day in paradise. I think this was the moment that I realized that I really could move down there for a year and live.

 

 

 

On to our next destination.....what a wonderful day so far.

[jennat]

 

A couple of years ago "Capt Alan" used to stop at Tintemere (with other operators) and use the "mud baths" there, which of course are healing a age reversing. They were asked to stop for environmental reasons. They had now found just as magical mud somewhere else. Amazing, huh. But FUN!

The place we stopped was Magical however. Sooo amazingly beautiful. The color of the water is beyond description.

 

 

 

 

Look how clear the water is, you can see the rocks at the bottom.