Carnival Valor, 9/25/11: A "pink" review of the Eastern Caribbean.... PICTURES!!!

[Aquineas]

Entertaining review! I'm with the ~1000 other people who agree about the cornbread (I was tempted to post a link to the "Cornbread" scene in the Eddie Murphy/Martin Lawrence movie, "Life", but I won't due to language in the scene. Suffice to say, if you've seen the movie, you know the scene :-) ).

Edited October 5, 2011 by Aquineas

[Winterstale]

We sail (ourselves) in the BVI every summer -- August & September are VERY quiet months down ilon -- lots of places actually close down for both months and start re-opening early/mid October. We have friends who move their boats to specially designated hurricane-safe (relatively speaking!) areas. St. Thomas is a big starting point for charterers - we take the ferry from there to Tortola every year to pick up our boat so we almost always spend at least one night on St. Thomas coming or going - long way from L.A.!!

[gapearl]

DAY 5- SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

 

We got into port very early. I was up at 7:45 and were off the ship by 9. I came to San Juan on a land vacation 2 years ago and have been here more times than I can count with work, so I’m very familiar with Old San Juan. The original plan was to take the trolley up to the fort, walk around, take some pictures, and head back to the ship. There are two forts you can visit in OSJ. There’s San Cristobal, which is smaller and closer to the port, and El Morro, which is HUGE and a bit further up. Both of these are within walking distance if you’re in good shape and can take the heat. The temperature was about 87, but the heat index was more like 233, almost unbearable. As soon as we walked out of the terminal, there were men offering us tours. The first guy approached us for a tour for $20 pp. No thank you. We walked a little further towards the trolley stop and another guy offered us the same tour for $10. Now these guys all had on the same shirts and I think the tours are run by the city. Another lady told me they’re not allowed to charge you more than $10. That first guy tried to pull a fast one on us. We decided to go ahead and do it because my mom didn’t want to do a lot of walking in the heat. We were on an air conditioned van that probably held about 30 people. The tour lasted an hour. We stopped at a few points of interest for some pictures.

 

Our guide first took us through New San Juan and then through Old San Juan last. We passed the old Bacardi factory, which is now a library. Puerto Rico has a bad economy recently like everyone else- 19% unemployment. In 1917, Puerto Ricans became US citizens thanks to The Jones Act. They don’t pay federal taxes and can’t vote in the US presidential election, but they do pay social security. We passed the capitol building which is made of marble imported from Georgia. It cost $3 million to build, but would cost $90 million to build today. I took a tour of the capitol building on a previous SJ visit and it’s simply beautiful on the inside, literally all marble. The El Morro Fort walls are made from limestone and it took 248 years to build. Also, if you have a business or residence in OSJ, it’s against the law to paint your building the same color as the one next to you.

 

 

This house is on the market for $1 million! :eek:

 

 

The marble capitol building.

 

 

A little bit of Old San Juan.

 

 

I love the streets like this.

 

[gapearl]

Pictures by El Morro Fort.

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

The tour was pretty interesting. I saw some parts of the city I hadn’t seen before, and you can’t beat the $10 price. At the end, we were dropped off in the middle of OSJ, 2 blocks from the ship, and paid on the way out. We stopped at a souvenir shop so my mom could pick up a few things and then headed back towards the port. We stopped at The Sheraton OSJ for a few minutes to try our luck at the casino there. Nothing. Also, fyi, there’s a CVS right by the ship if you need anything. It’s across the street from the ship and down to the left, past the Sheraton.

 

Back at the ship.

 

The duty free shops here are THE BEST. EVER. Everything was cheaper than I’d ever seen and was buy 1, get 1 free. They had tequila there that you would pay $21 for here in the states going for 2 for $7.95. Dewars and Smirnoff were 2 for $9.95, 750 ml bottles. You can only mix and match bottles that are the same price, I bought 2 bottles of Cruzan Rum Cream for $9.95. I really wanted some of that tequila, but I already bought a ton of rum the day before in St. Thomas and really didn’t have room in my bags (or my mom’s) for all that.

We were back on the ship at 11:30, had lunch (Caribbean food today), and then changed into my swimsuit for some pool time and to hit the waterslide. Since everyone was off the ship, there was no line! I sat out by the pool for a few hours and caught up with Romy to watch sailaway at 3:30.

 

Lunch was delicious! The Jamaican curry chicken was really good.

 

 

View from the top of the water slide.

 

 

Sailaway from San Juan.

 

 

 

[gapearl]

Past guest parties were held at 4 and 5:15 pm, and we went to the 5:15 party. Free drinks and appetizers were plentiful and flowing. If you’d like a nonalcoholic drink, they do have a fruit punch to offer. It has a regular straw in it, not one of the little ones, so be on the lookout for the big straws. The ship’s band played some music and Funship Freddy came around to say hi to everyone. The band played a slow song and all the couples were asked to come to the stage for a slow dance. I, along with all the other single ladies in the room, sat there looking like this :rolleyes:. A drawing was done for a free dinner for 2 to the steak house. Back to the room for a shower and a nap after a few blue margaritas and rum punches.

 

 

 

 

Is Freddy going in for a kiss or is he about to pull a Mike Tyson with my ear?

 

 

Steakhouse dinner drawing.

 

[Delta Dear]

Love your review as always. Thanks. The cornbread wins the funny post of the CC boards for the year.

[LBumb]

great job

[steelerjen]

I love reading your reviews. You do such a great job, and as many have mentioned you are very beautiful. Keep up the good work girl!

[gapearl]

Entertaining review! I'm with the ~1000 other people who agree about the cornbread (I was tempted to post a link to the "Cornbread" scene in the Eddie Murphy/Martin Lawrence movie, "Life", but I won't due to language in the scene. Suffice to say, if you've seen the movie, you know the scene :-) ).

 

I don't remember that scene, but I think I might have to head to youtube to look it up. ;) Thanks for reading!

 

We sail (ourselves) in the BVI every summer -- August & September are VERY quiet months down ilon -- lots of places actually close down for both months and start re-opening early/mid October. We have friends who move their boats to specially designated hurricane-safe (relatively speaking!) areas. St. Thomas is a big starting point for charterers - we take the ferry from there to Tortola every year to pick up our boat so we almost always spend at least one night on St. Thomas coming or going - long way from L.A.!!

 

I never thought about people repositioning boats during hurricane season. Interesting.

[gapearl]

Love your review as always. Thanks. The cornbread wins the funny post of the CC boards for the year.

 

Thanks a lot for awarding me the title of funny post of the year! :p I can be quite the comedian when I want to be. Please bring back a review of your Bermuda cruise. I enjoyed reading your last one. Lots more to come soon!

[gapearl]

great job

 

Thanks a lot!

 

I love reading your reviews. You do such a great job, and as many have mentioned you are very beautiful. Keep up the good work girl!

 

Thanks for the thumbs up! I have so much fun writing these. I gotta take more cruises to write more reviews. :D Thanks for the compliments as well!

[gapearl]

Food porn coming now!

 

Mushroom soup appetizer.

 

 

Turkey with mashed sweet potatoes.

 

 

Lasagna.

 

 

Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and vegetables. It was pretty good. A little more seasoning wouldn't have hurt, though.

 

Filet.

 

 

My mom loved the apple pie!

 

[gapearl]

Rex did some more magic tricks for us at dinner. This guy is awesome! Tonight was they danced for us. It was either “Low” or “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire. I may have my days mixed up with the dances, but they did do both during the cruise.

 

 

 

 

Be sure to check out the martini bar, deck 5 aft, across from the disco and right before you get to the Eagles Lounge.

 

 

I think it was $30 for this! It was 4 martinis in 1 big glass.

 

 

[jhale]

I don't know if anyone already answered this, but they do have chicken sausage & turkey bacon in the MDR for breakfast. I'm with you, they could put some on the buffet as well!

 

Loving your review! You've got the cutest cruise dresses!

[gapearl]

I changed into some jeans and a tee right after dinner. (Can ya believe it? I still rocked my stilettos with my jeans though. :)) Not much was happening on the ship until the deck party. It started at 11:30 pm and was packed! It went on for at least an hour. We did all the usual line dances. Everson wanted to get this outrageously long conga line going. Wobble- I do. Cupid Shuffle- I do. Electric Slide- I do. But I don’t do conga! I went up and got some pictures instead.

 

 

 

 

The Mexican buffet was also tonight. I went and glanced at it. Nothing I was interested in, plus I was still full from dinner. The food did look good though, and there were lots of desserts. The disco was dead until about 1 am when it finally picked up. I headed to bed around 2:15.

 

Someone tell me what animal this is? :confused:

 

 

Up next: An AWESOME day in Grand Turk!

Edited October 5, 2011 by gapearl

[gapearl]

I don't know if anyone already answered this, but they do have chicken sausage & turkey bacon in the MDR for breakfast. I'm with you, they could put some on the buffet as well!

 

Loving your review! You've got the cutest cruise dresses!

 

NO WAY! I didn't know that! I normally don't eat breakfast at home, but I was always hungry in the mornings. A result of too many Miami Vices and glasses of wine, maybe? ;) I never even went to check out the main dining room menus. I'll know for next time.

 

Thanks for the compliment and for reading!

[jhale]

NO WAY! I didn't know that! I normally don't eat breakfast at home, but I was always hungry in the mornings. A result of too many Miami Vices and glasses of wine, maybe? ;) I never even went to check out the main dining room menus. I'll know for next time.

 

Thanks for the compliment and for reading!

 

You're welcome! And I think that towel animal is an elephant, I think :)

[CruiseOrLoose]

THIS IS NOT CORNBREAD!!!

 

 

 

Ok, technically it is cornbread because it’s bread with corn on top. However, you can’t put that in front of someone from the south and not expect to get flamed. Paula Deen would have a fit if she tasted this. Even without the corn on top, the bread wasn’t that good. It tasted very “doughy”, like it wasn’t baked long enough.

 

I’d like to make a deal with the Carnival chefs. Feel free to fly into Atlanta one day. I’ll pick you up from the airport and drive you up 85N to Peachtree Street, where our final destination will be Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles. We’ll order a basket of cornbread and dish on Dancing With The Stars and you can show me pictures of your kids. On the drive back to the airport, I’ll take you around the 285 loop to This Is It Soul Food and get you a couple dozen corn muffins to snack on for your plane ride back. You’ll be back in Florida in time for sailaway. This will give you a taste of good, southern cornbread.

 

I never thought I’d be writing a dissertation on cornbread, but this needed to be said. :)

 

Go on with your bad self! Couldn't have said it better (or funnier) if I'd tried. And you're right, Paula Deen couldn't put enough butter on what they call "cornbread" to make it taste right!

[gapearl]

You're welcome! And I think that towel animal is an elephant, I think :)

 

I was thinking elephant too, but it doesn't really look like an elephant. My initial thought was aardvark? LOL

[gapearl]

Go on with your bad self! Couldn't have said it better (or funnier) if I'd tried. And you're right, Paula Deen couldn't put enough butter on what they call "cornbread" to make it taste right!

 

You guys have me cracking up with the cornbread responses. I"m loving it. :D :D :D

[rtfnl]

My first thought to the towel animal is an aardvard that mom was going to put on the towell rack and remembered that you wanted to see it. I apologize for bringing your mom into it. Carnival could have used Jiffy cornbread mix. I'm on the Miracle in December with your review and cuted - makes me want to do a review.

Edited October 5, 2011 by rtfnl

[gapearl]

My first thought to the towel animal is an aardvard that mom was going to put on the towell rack and remembered that you wanted to see it. I apologize for bringing your mom into it. Carnival could have used Jiffy cornbread mix. I'm on the Miracle in December with your review and cuted - makes me want to do a review.

 

Jiffy would have been much better. lol Please do a review when you return! They take a lot of time to put together, but they're fun.

[YB Nrml]

I agree about the towel animal. I think the elephant and the one before, stingray, were headed for the towel rack and your mom remembered at the last second and tried to fix them up. Go on, ask her, bet she'll fess up!:D

 

Great review, awesome clothes, and you have a great outlook on life!

Edited October 6, 2011 by YB Nrml

[MissKIA]

 

 

 

This dress looks SO good on you! My favourite so far, I love it!