B2B on Carnival Dream Western & Carnival Victory Southern Caribbean! Review w/Pics!

[Midwestgal]

All I can say is WOW!!! What a great review and the pictures are just awesome. I too am looking forward to your Victory reviews. Thanks for sharing.

[cruisingcouple2008]

So far it's been great! I love your details and pictures a bunch!

I am sitting on pins and needles wating for the Victory part too.

 

 

Shon just curious what was your Carnival Spirit cruise you just took was it a Hawaii one?

[shonandsuzie]

Shon just curious what was your Carnival Spirit cruise you just took was it a Hawaii one?

We wish!:) It was actually the Mexican Riviera. Our dream is to do a hawaiian cruise!

[cruisingcouple2008]

We wish!:) It was actually the Mexican Riviera. Our dream is to do a hawaiian cruise!

 

 

ooops Sorry... as you can see Im doing it in April believe me its a dream for me too. I booked this in July 2010.....so its been a longtime coming... anyway I was just looking for some recent Hawaii reviews .... sorry....but its not too late to join us...;)

[SBthud326]

Come on Victory review! I'm on it in 19 days!

[Joie]

can't wait to sail the Dream next year....good review.

[texascat]

Thank you for the review...I totally loved the photos and review! Glad you had a good time.

[kymmc3]

Our table mates actually did Maya Chan. They loved it. Very relaxing, they said it didn't even reach its 50 person capacity, and they enjoyed the free drinks. I believe it is $50 per person?

 

The Jungle Beach Break is also open bar at Uvero (where the pictures were taken), and is $39.95 per person with free transportation through Carnival.

 

If I were just going for the beach, I'd probably try Maya Chan next time just because I've already been to Uvero, but I was quite happy with Uvero (there were more than 50 people there, but it is so spread out, it still felt empty and very exclusive. The facilities and beach chairs/beds/hammocks felt very upscale.

 

The main difference is that Uvero has water sports equipment for rent (jet skis, kayaks), whereas Maya Chan, to my knowledge, does not.

 

I'd be quite happy with either option, so I guess it depends on where your group's preferences lie and if the extra $10 makes a big difference to you or not. Everyone that goes to Maya Chan raves about it, but I thought Uvero was worth a 5/5 rating as well, so it is pretty much a toss up for me.

 

Hope that helps!

 

We were actually on this sailing with you :) and I was cracking up as I was scrolling through your mens hairy chest competition pictures when I spotted our teenage daughter!! :p Too funny!!

 

Anyway, I thought i'd comment in regards to Maya Chan, becuase we DID do Maya Chan. We enjoyed this, however, I don't think I would do it again. I was nice and private, the owners are wonderful and more then hospitable. There is clean restrooms, and freshwater showers. The area/land is beautiful and it was beyond peaceful. The open bar was yummy (and always kept your glasses FULL) and lunch was AMAZING. My downside to this was the beach area. There wasn't a beach that could could actually "swim" in, becuase of the sea grass. The water wasn't blue like we'd expected it was more green/brownish, yet still clear. They had floating water "chairs" i guess you could call them to use to enjoy the water, however had we not had the chairs to sit in I wouldn't have wanted to walk in the water. the plants still rubbed along your legs/bottoms while sitting in the netting. If your looking to enjoy the water by swimming, this is not the beach for you. They do however have kayaks (free, inlcuded in your cost) to use at your leisure, and they have snorkeling equiment available too. They will take you out on your own to snorkel, just ask. They also had sand golf? i think it was called. We did have fun, dont' get me wrong, but I wouldn't pay the cost to go again (we are a family of 5 and paid $260) simply becase we LOVE hanging out in the beach, swimming in the water etc, and weren't able to do this here.

[brilliantseas]

Carnival Dream Exotic Western Caribbean - October 1-8, 2011

 

Day 7 - Fun Day at Sea (our cruise is almost over :()

 

We used our last sea day to kind of relax and recuperate from the four consecutive days in port followed by late nights at the shows and comedy club. I think we slept until lunch on the last day? After lunch, we enjoyed some time on deck and in the whirlpools and saw The Game of Love, sometimes referred to the Marriage Game or Love and Marriage. This is one of the funniest shows of the entire cruise; something not to miss. It is a PG-13 show as some of the subject manner can be a bit inappropriate for younger ones, although the majority of the humor will go right over their heads. I won't spoil it for those who have never seen the show before except to say that it is a not-to-be-missed show on every Carnival cruise.

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the whirlpools, at the casino, and enjoying one of the giant pieces of carrot cake from the coffee shop. For those who have not seen the cakes at the coffee shop, they are literally so tall that the dome lid sometimes does not fit over it without touching the frosting. It is that big (and that good).

 

By evening, we started to encounter some rougher weather. While it wasn't initially storming, the seas got steadily rougher as the night went on. By dinner time we were getting sea spray on our balcony on deck 8, so I can only imagine what those that ventured onto the Promenade or the cove balconies were experiencing. We also got a nice light show after dinner from the thunderstorms in the distance.

 

Speaking of dinner, the last night was perhaps the most disappointing in the main dining room. Other than the prime rib, the rest of the menu kind of felt like it was designed to use the leftovers from earlier in the week.

 

New England Crab Cake - 4/5

I am a big fan of crab cakes, and the ones on Carnival are made with lump crab meat and cooked on a flat top to give them a nice crust - much better than a breaded and fried crab cake. I enjoyed them, and the remoulade complimented them very well. I would have given them a 5/5 if they had not been so dry.

 

Panko Crusted Jumbo Shrimp - 2/5

This is the same as the Sweet & Sour Shrimp entree earlier in the week, but without the sauce that makes them taste so great. While they came out hot, without any kind of sauce to add another dimension to the dish, it just kind of tastes heavy and greasy, to the point where I only ate two of the four shrimp. Not good.

 

Having not cleaned my plate, I was offered another entree to replace the dish that I clearly did not care for, but I declined. Instead, I decided to splurge on two desserts.

 

Grand Marnier Souffle - 2/5

I know there are many people that love this dessert, but it is just not for me. The orange vanilla sauce is very good, but I just can not get over the fact that my dessert smells and has the texture of baked eggs. Too much like a sweet quiche for my liking.

 

Cappuccino Pie - 5/5

This is a dessert that I love. It is like a sweet coffee flavored ice cream pie. Not overpowering like some coffee ice cream can be, this has just enough coffee flavor to break up the richness of the ice cream. I wish I could get this dessert at home.

 

After dinner, we went to the gift shops to purchase some souvenirs. I was a little disappointed that they were sold out of the more common sizes of virtually every sweat shirt and jacket. This seemed to be a common theme in the fleet, as I couldn't find a size L of either of the sweat shirts or jackets that I liked the most on either the Dream or the Victory. The only Carnival logo zippered sweat shirt that they had in all sizes was the less expensive one that is sized S/M, L/XL and XXL (I guess so they have to carry less inventory), but the S/M was tiny and the L/XL was so big and baggy that I walked away disappointed.

 

After doing some shopping and dropping the souvenirs off back in our room, it was off to the Punchliner Comedy Club for one last evening of adult comedy. While it was a lot of fun, the heavy seas were taking their toll on a lot of people and it was noticeably less busy on the last evening. My friend made it through about 1 1/2 shows and then headed back to the room because the motion was just too much for her. I was feeling it a little as well, but managed to stick it out for the midnight show before turning in. This was the most motion I've felt in any of my four cruises.

 

Carnival Dream Exotic Western Caribbean - October 1-8, 2011

 

Day 8 - Debarkation

 

By the time we woke up we were already in Port Canaveral and they were just starting to make announcements for self-assist debarkation, a little before 7am. With the sea sickness from the night before, we ended up waiting until the morning of debarkation to pack up our room. We scrambled a little bit, but by the time they were announcing zones 1 and 2, we were ready to go. A little secret that they don't tell you until the morning of debarkation is that if you elect to do the self-assist debarkation, you don't have to get off the ship right when they call self-assist. You can get off any time after self-assist is called, and by waiting half an hour or so after they start, it is much easier to get an elevator and debarkation seems to be much less crowded.

 

Just before we got off the ship, they made an announcements that there would be a slight delay in the calling of zones because the heavy rain in Port Canaveral was delaying the offloading of luggage. Even waiting past the self-assist period, we were still in the first few hundred off the ship. We were through immigration and customs within about 20 minutes and from there it was off to our shuttle to head back to the Courtyard in Cocoa Beach and then back to Orlando. This was a less than ideal situation, as Port Canaveral's shuttle loading area is very poorly organized, especially in poor weather when uniforms are covered up by rain jackets and ponchos and everyone is huddled together under the roof trying to stay dry. Shuttle companies aren't assigned their own space as they are at the airport; rather they are assigned a general zone area. TraveLynx, the company that provides shuttle service for the Courtyard and many of the other hotels along Cocoa Beach, is assigned to be between Zones 2 and 3, which accounts for a line of about 20 shuttle spaces, making it hard to spot when your shuttle actually pulls in. We probably waited 15 minutes looking for a shuttle and almost missed it because we did not see it right as it pulled in. The driver was loaded and ready to go before we even saw him. I'm guessing that it would have been a little less crowded and chaotic had it not been raining so hard, but just keep this in mind when making your shuttle arrangements at Port Canaveral.

 

After getting my car back at the Courtyard Cocoa Beach, we made a quick stop for breakfast at Waffle House (we decided that we wanted to get off the ship early rather than venturing to Lido for breakfast) and were on our way to Orlando by about 10:00am.

 

My friend's flight didn't leave until almost 4:00, so we spent our rainy afternoon in Orlando exploring Mall at Millenia and the Florida Mall. Millenia is a very upscale two story mall (the newest in Orlando, I believe), and Florida Mall is one of the largest malls in the Southeast United States (it even has its own hotel). I think everyone else in Orlando had the same idea that we did to pass a rainy Florida afternoon, as the Florida Mall was so busy that it took us almost 15 minutes of circling the parking lot to find a parking space. I have never seen a mall that crowded, even at the peak of Christmas shopping season. The food court was so busy, there were people sitting on the floor to eat because there were no tables available. We ended up leaving because it was just too crowded to enjoy.

 

I took my friend back to the airport in the early afternoon and then headed back to the Country Inn & Suites Orlando Airport for the evening before flying to San Juan to join another friend on the Carnival Victory on Sunday morning.

Up Next: Carnival Victory!

 

[brilliantseas]

Cruise #2: Carnival Victory Southern Caribbean - October 9-15, 2011

 

Embarkation Day

Having spent most of the previous night doing laundry (over 5 hours due to only having one machine and a dryer that took three cycles to dry one load) from my previous cruise and only two hours of sleep at the Country Inn & Suites, it was time to head to the airport bright and early at 6:00am to catch my 8:00am flight on JetBlue to San Juan for the start of part 2 of my back-to-back Carnival cruises. Fortunately, the weather was much nicer on Sunday than it was on Saturday and the flight to San Juan was on time and other than a little chop over the Caribbean, the flight was largely uneventful. I came to find out via John Heald's Facebook page that Saturday's departure on the Carnival Dream was delayed by about three hours due to heavy winds and poor weather in Port Canaveral. I'm glad I wasn't flying in that!

 

Upon arrival in San Juan, I picked up my bags at baggage claim and met up with a friend from Pennsylvania that I hadn't seen in over four years.

 

Before I go any further, I'll give you a little background on how this trip came about. My Carnival Dream cruise had been planned for several months, but the Carnival Victory cruise was actually planned just a few weeks before the cruise. Over a year ago, I put down a deposit on a 5-night cruise with my family on the Carnival Fascination to celebrate my 24th birthday at the end of November. Since that time, I decided to start graduate school and my Fascination cruise just happened to fall during finals week, so it was clear that I was not going to be able to go in November. I had originally planned on delaying the cruise until the end of 2012, but having found myself changing jobs with about two weeks between the end of my first cruise on the Dream and the start of my new job, I decided to start researching options for a B2B.

 

About that time, one of my old friends that I met at a trade show four years earlier found out that I was doing some research on cruises and was asking about them. We decided that we would go together if we could come up with a good deal. Originally we talked about doing the Carnival Imagination 4-night Western Caribbean sailing to Cozumel and Key West, combined with a day or two at Disney, but we quickly realized that extending to a 7-night cruise would actually be cheaper than a 4-night cruise and two days at Disney, so we decided to jump at the opportunity for the longer cruise.

 

Originally, we discussed the 7-night Carnival Glory Eastern Caribbean out of Miami and the Carnival Legend Exotic Western Caribbean out of Tampa; but after finding a great deal (about $100 per person less than the Florida departures) on the Carnival Victory and relatively inexpensive airfare to San Juan, we decided to jump at the rare opportunity to do the Southern Caribbean itinerary from San Juan on the Carnival Victory. I think we finally booked about six weeks prior to departure, and just before the stiffer penalties kicked in for changing my Carnival Fascination Early Saver sailing. I ended up paying a $50 administration fee to change the sailing, but saved the $600 fare that I had already paid in full for the Fascination.

 

This would be my friend's first cruise (and what a cruise to choose as your first!), so she was very excited and spent a lot of time researching the ports and planning activities and shore excursions. Like myself, she finds the planning and research to be almost as much fun as the vacation itself.

 

After we met up at the airport in San Juan, our original plan was to catch a cab to the Old San Juan Cruise Pier (there are two different cruise facilities in San Juan; Carnival uses Old San Juan Cruise Pier), check in and have lunch, and then head out to explore Old San Juan and the forts and pick up a few bottles of wine at CVS before sailing. Unlike most other cruises, the Carnival Victory does not depart San Juan until 10:00pm, so you are free to get on and off the ship until around 8:30pm, I believe.

 

The ride from the airport to the port takes maybe 20 minutes, and costs $20 plus $1 per bag. Upon arrival at the port, the setup is rather unique. There is no real drop off area, so the taxis literally pull up onto the sidewalk and unload there. It was very disorganized, and it took a minute to flag down a porter to help with the bags. I personally found the porters to be very unprofessional, and I was a little worried that my bags would somehow get "lost" on their way to the luggage bins. I usually tip the porters $1-2 per bag, but after tipping the porter, he paused, looked down at our bags and said "it is 3 bags, man" and held out his hand for more. Is $5 not enough to carry 3 bags 100 feet to the luggage bins? Very unprofessional.

 

From the drop off area, we headed into the port and up the escalators to the check-in area. Unlike the other ports that I have experienced, there is no x-ray screening area at the entrance to the port. Instead, your carry-ons are x-rayed just prior to boarding. When we arrived, there was almost no line and we were checked in and headed across the gangway and onto the ship within 10-15 minutes of arriving at the port. By 12:30, we were on the Lido deck having lunch. Very efficient.

 

One thing that we immediately noticed was that embarkation in San Juan is much more laid back than at other ports, perhaps because they have almost 9 hours to get everyone onboard, and many guests flying from the States do not arrive until early-mid afternoon. The Lido deck felt empty to the point where we were the only ones in the entire upper level of the Mediterranean Buffet at 12:30pm.

 

After lunch, we headed to our cabin, inside room #9227 on Lido deck, to drop off our bags around 1:30. This was my first inside room (I've had a 4J inside room with obstructed picture window, but I wouldn't really count that as an inside room since you get the natural light from the window), and although it served its purpose as a place to sleep, I think I'll go back to at least booking an oceanview cabin for future cruises. The room itself reminded me a lot of the other inside/oceanview rooms before, except for the fact that our room was missing the chair that is has always been in the corner of my oceanview rooms (my balcony cabin on the Dream had a full couch). While it was nice to save a little money, not having that natural light seemed to suck the energy out of me and I found myself feeling tired and sleeping more than I would have had I had natural sunlight in my room. That being said, the location on Lido deck was nice and our location was far enough from the elevators that we didn't hear any noise from the public areas. The only noise that we heard in our room was a slightly annoying vibration/knocking in the wall that sounded like it might have been caused by loose wiring moving inside the wall between the cabins. I'm sure this was specific to cabin #9227 and not anything that would stop me from booking a cabin on Lido deck again. It was nothing loud enough to keep me awake, just a little bit of an annoyance when the cabin was quiet.

 

After dropping off bags, we decided to explore the ship. Unfortunately, just as we got to the aft area of Panorama deck, which overlooks the retractable roof over the aft pool area, we saw an afternoon downpour came across the water and completely soak the ship and San Juan, spoiling our plans to head out and explore Old San Juan.

 

Instead, we ended up using the time to unpack and explore the inside areas of the ship. It rained for a few hours and we had early dining in the Pacific Dining Room, so we ended up foregoing San Juan completely and decided just to stay on the ship and make the best of our first afternoon on the Carnival Victory.

 

Speaking of dining on embarkation night, one thing that we did not know until we showed up at the Pacific Dining Room on embarkation night was that embarkation night (in San Juan only, not for those who embark in Barbados) is all open seating due to the fact that embarkation is still going on and many others are still out exploring the city. This means that you can dine at any time the dining room is open and will be seated with the people who arrive around the same time that you arrive in the dining room. This will NOT be your permanent table for the rest of the cruise, nor will it be your usual dining room waitstaff. We found this to be a slight detractor as many of the staff seemed less motivated to provide good service on the first night, knowing that these would not be their guests for the rest of the week and it would have no effect on their tips at the end of the week.

 

Carnival's dining room menus are the same fleetwide for 7-night cruises, so I already knew the menu and knew what I liked, and as much as I was tempted by the Chicken a la Greque (I loved it on the Imagination), I decided to repeat my selections from the first cruise and have the Sweet & Sour Shrimp and the Vanilla Creme Brulee, both of which were very good. I won't take the time to review them again individually, but you can jump to page 1 if you are interested in reading more about these dishes.

 

After dinner, we continued to explore the ship before the 9:30pm muster drill and sail away. Unlike the Dream, which uses lounges as muster stations and simply shows a video about where your lifeboats are located, the Victory makes you actually muster on Deck 4 by the lifeboats and stand 4-5 deep while you watch a demonstration of how to put on the life jacket in two languages.

 

Speaking of languages, that was one of the other unique things about cruising from Puerto Rico. Almost all announcements are made in both English and Spanish, sometimes with the Spanish announcement first (in the case of the safety drill), and sometimes with the English announcement first. Throughout the cruise, the evening entertainment options always included at least one or two Spanish-language options, many of which took place in the Ionian Room (the former cigar bar) on Deck 4, just below the dance club, or on the stages near the casino bar or atrium bar. The comedy shows and production shows are all in English.

 

After the muster drill, we headed to the "secret" deck on Deck 6 forward (Go all the way forward on Deck 6 or 7 in the stateroom hallways. There are doors at the end of the hallway that lead out onto public decks just below the bridge that overlook the bow of the ship.) Decks 6 and 7 are both public, while 3, 4 and 5 are crew only decks because they can only be accessed from the front of the theater. This is a beautiful and secluded place to watch sail away. Sail away in San Juan is simply beautiful, due at least in part to the nighttime departure. Seeing Old San Juan and the fort all lit up as you head out to sea is an amazing sight and one that I only wish I could have captured on camera.

 

Up Next: Day 2 - St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.

[brilliantseas]

In the mean time, here are some pictures from around the ship to enjoy while you are on the edge of your seat waiting for my review of St. Thomas.

 

Adriatic Aft Lounge on Carnival Victory

This is where the Punchliner Comedy Club and the Superstar Live Karaoke take place.

 

Club Arctic Dance Floor

Club Arctic seating

 

Promenade Deck near Coral Seas Cafe

 

Casino Bar

[brilliantseas]

Atrium Bar on Carnival Victory

 

Library set up for the Chef's Table

 

Carnival Victory Atrium

 

Carnival Victory Atrium Ceiling

 

 

[Kentucky60]

After shopping, we decided that we would grab a snack and some drinks at Senor Frogs or Carlos N Charlies. Carlos N Charlies looked fairly dead (maybe 10 people inside), so we decided that we would head upstairs to Senor Frogs to look for a more upbeat atmosphere. As we were being seated, we quickly realized that we were the only ones in the restaurant! Not the atmosphere I had hoped for, but we decided to grab a drink and enjoy the view from our table next to one of the balcony-style windows and see if anyone else showed up. We also had the dessert nachos (cinnamon sugar tortillas with three different flavors of ice cream, squirted with chocolate and caramel squirt guns), which were quite good, if not too sweet to go with our frozen cocktails. We stayed for almost an hour and never saw another person. By the time we left, it was about 3:30 ship time (2:30 Cozumel time) and they were closing up due to lack of business. Two yards and the dessert nachos set us back about $35, including tip. We had a good time, but it would have been a lot more fun if it had it's normal party atmosphere.

 

 

 

 

After Senor Frogs, we decided to head back to Puerta Maya with no real plan other than taking a few pictures, browsing the duty free shop, and making sure that we were back onboard the ship in time for sail away.

 

 

 

 

As you can see, it never did really clear up while we were in Cozumel.

 

Where are the beach chairs located? Is this a bar?

[crusinpsychRN]

At the end of the pier in Cozumel there are lounges in the sand with palm trees. Very serene.

 

OP, the picture of the skiff tied at the dock was so beautiful! It'd make a great screen saver.

[brilliantseas]

Where are the beach chairs located? Is this a bar?

 

The beach chairs are located next to Fat Tuesday at the end of the dock. They are not part of a restaurant or bar; anyone is free to use them. Might be a nice place to wait for someone to finish shopping, but you will notice that no one actually spreads out their beach towel and stays because of the hustle and bustle behind you in the port shopping area and at Fat Tuesday next door. It is usually completely empty except for people taking pictures with the ship in the background.

 

There are much nicer areas to lounge in Cozumel. Head over to Paradise Beach or Mr. Sancho's and get a beach chair for $2 with a real sand beach that you can swim off of and bar service right at your chair.

[brilliantseas]

Carnival Victory Southern Caribbean - October 9-15, 2011

 

Day 2 - St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.

 

An early morning in St. Thomas after a late evening departure from San Juan means a short night of sleep and a high level of anticipation in the morning as arriving in another port so quickly after leaving the embarkation port seems almost unreal. We had breakfast on the Lido deck and then headed off the ship to find a taxi to take us to Magen's Bay Beach for the afternoon. The 15 minute ride is $8 per person, each way. Most of the taxis headed to the major destinations are the big 18 person safari vans, so the drivers must really make out when the cruise ships are in port.

 

The ride up and over the mountain to Magen's Bay provides a few opportunities to get some great photos of the cruise ships docked below. While the taxis aren't allowed to actually stop for photos (the tourism bureau wants to force you to take the tram up to the top of the mountain for $20 to take pictures), they slow almost to a stop in the clearings so you can get photos from the vehicle.

 

 

 

Upon arrival at Magen's Bay Beach, a few employees will walk down the side of the taxi and collect the $4 admission fee from each person onboard. From there, the taxi will drive just inside the gate and drop you off near the restaurant/beach bar. From there, you can rent chairs or walk down the beach and set up your beach towel anywhere along the 1/2 mile long beach.

 

 

 

 

I apologize for the salt on the lense in some of my photos; these were taken with my waterproof camera.

[brilliantseas]

 

 

 

 

[brilliantseas]

 

 

 

 

We found Magen's Bay to be a very nice beach; very peaceful mainly due to the fact that it is so spread out. There were probably a few hundred people on the beach, but the vast majority of them stayed within 100 yards of the beach bar. We wandered down about a quarter mile to the more secluded end of the beach, where were were only surrounded by about two dozen people; a combination of local families and other cruise guests from the Victory.

 

After a few hours on the beach, we decided to head back toward the bar to get a drink and a taxi back to town. On our way back, we found these guys by the restroom facility. There were probably half a dozen of them hanging out in the shade.

 

 

 

CAUTION! A word of caution to other cruisers about St. Thomas. When we went to leave Magen's Bay Beach, we got in the first taxi that we came across. It was a Chevy Astro van that was clearly licensed as a taxi, but the driver was a little unusual. He seemed older and a little rough, and was playing loud religious tapes in the van. The taxi rates are all standard in St. Thomas, so we just confirmed that it was $8 per person to go back to the cruise pier. A few hundred yards past the gate to Magen's Bay, he pulled off to the side of the road as one of his friends in a larger safari truck pulled alongside. His friend gave him something in a large shopping bag and they talked for a few seconds, and then he told us to get out of his taxi and pay him and that we were to take the safari truck back to the pier. He told us that it would be $16 because he was our driver, even though he only took us a few hundred yards. I asked the other driver, and he told us that he wanted paid too. I told him I would give him (the driver of the safari van) $10 and was going to give the other driver $6 since he only took us a few hundred yards. He repeated that he was our driver and he was to be paid the full $16. After arguing for a few minutes, the two drivers talked in some other language and the safari truck driver told us just to get in and that he would not charge us for the ride. The driver of the smaller van gave him a few dollars and got back in his little van to head back to the beach, presumably to scam more passengers. While we made it safely back to the port and did not end up paying twice, the situation left a very bad taste of St. Thomas. From now on, if I'm ever in St. Thomas again, I'll only use the large shared safari truck taxis and never an independent van or sedan taxi again.

 

Upon talking to a family at breakfast on the ship that was from St. Thomas on our last day of the cruise, I found out that this is a common issue on St. Thomas and the mother suggested that we call or write the tourism bureau in St. Thomas to let them know of the issue. She said that most of the taxi drivers are not even U.S. citizens or native to St. Thomas, but rather come from other Caribbean islands and frequently take advantage of tourists. She said that the taxi drivers are bad for tourism because of the way that they treat the cruise tourists, and many of the citizens are petitioning for stricter controls over the taxi permits and for the introduction of water taxis as an alternative to the foreign taxi drivers to reduce the poor treatment of cruise ship passengers by the taxi drivers. She advised us to arrange a private tour or use the larger safari trucks next time we come back to St. Thomas.

 

I'm sure there are thousands of people who have visited St. Thomas and never had a problem, just like there are plenty of people who have had problems in other ports, but I just wanted to share the story and the word of warning about our experience so that future visitors can be better prepared and use caution when it comes to the taxis in St. Thomas.

[brilliantseas]

 

 

 

Our tax dollars are hard at work in the Caribbean. The roads in Charlotte Amalie are being repaved as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

 

[brilliantseas]

After getting back to the port, we ventured down to Senor Frog's, which is at the far end of the pier, kind of out of the way from the rest of the port shopping center. We were hoping to find a party, but I guess with only one ship in port, Senor Frog's was very quiet. Senor Frog's is also much more expensive in St. Thomas than in Mexico and the Western Caribbean. I believe a yard was $14.50 in St. Thomas vs. $12-13 in Mexico.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up Next: Our first and only Fun Day at Sea and Barbados

[brilliantseas]

St. Thomas is also the first elegant night on the Carnival Victory. Because we had early dining (not by choice - we booked late), dinner time was shortly after sail away in St. Thomas. It felt so unusual to be heading to dinner while the sun was still up. This was also the first night at our assigned tables in the Pacific Dining Room. From the appearance of the dining room, we were not sailing at capacity, which is rare for Carnival. We were alone at a four person booth. All of the booths in our row, with the exception of one, were seated with only two people. Many other tables appeared only partially full as well.

 

Being the first elegant night, I bet you can guess exactly what I ordered...

 

That's right. Baked White Stuffed Mushrooms, Duet of Maine Lobster Tail and Jumbo Black Tiger Shrimp, and the Apple Puff Pastry. See my review of the first elegant night on the Carnival Dream on page 2 for a full review of these items.

 

My friend had the Chili Rellenos, which is a poblano pepper stuffed with tomatoes, broccoli and cheese, then battered and fried. She said it was very different and very good.

 

 

Here is another picture of the Apple Puff Pastry dessert.

 

[brilliantseas]

Because of the late embarkation at San Juan, the entertainment schedule is a little different on the Victory than on other 7-night Carnival cruises. The first elegant night is also the Welcome Aboard show. This was also the fist night of Punchliner Comedy Club in the Adriatic Lounge and the first night of Karaoke in the Black & Red Seas Jazz Lounge, which also, ironically serves as the only cigar lounge on the ship. Who at Carnival decided it was a good idea to relocate the cigar lounge from the large secluded Ionian Room on Deck 4 to the same lounge that they host karaoke in? Cigar smoke and singing don't mix.

 

We caught a comedy show and a little karaoke (the guy from St. Eustatius was great!) and then turned in a little early after being exhausted from so much time in the sun.

 

The day after St. Thomas is a Fun Day at Sea, so we were also able to sleep in a little the next morning before checking out all of the daytime Lido Deck entertainment. I hope you're enjoying the review so far, and I'll be back with lots of photos from our Fun Day at Sea on the Carnival Victory tomorrow.

[JP32]

Thanks for the review, we'll be on the Victory in just over 7 weeks and can't wait:D John

[Kaseybear16]

Really enjoying the review! My husband and I sail on Victory 2 weeks from this Sunday!! This is getting me really excited!

[DJ56]

Thank you for taking the time to write this wonderful review and post these beautiful pictures! Will be sailing on the Victory next spring and getting more and more excited!!