Valor 12/4/2011 - First Time Cruiser's Review!

[BriLam]

Ah, too funny! We saw you in Cozumel, told you we'd find you in Roatan and came through on that promise, and now you found us here. Hilarious!

 

Lauren says, "make it a double!"

 

We had a great time talking with you all. I see you're booked on the Breeze on 12/2/12. We're talking about doing the Liberty on 12/8/12 to St. Thomas, Nassau, Grand Turk and San Juan. Not sure where your itinerary takes you, but looks like we're just missing each other!

 

Hi guys great review we where there at Nachi Cocom. We where crazy group from St Louis. I want more rum punch.

[BriLam]

Many thanks for the complement. We loved Nachi, and would absolutely go back.

 

You beat my prior reply to another poster by minutes, but I mentioned we are talking about the Liberty in 12/2012 already. I'm sure it'll be booked sooner than later!

 

I love the "tandem" review with both of you posting. Didn't you just love Nachi Cocum? I can't wait to go back there. I had the best massage I've ever had. So, are you busy planning your next cruise??? So glad you had fun and keep the review coming as I'm really enjoying it!!!

[StingRaysfan]

Thanks for the review of Nachi! We will be there in 4 days! :0) YIPPEE!

 

You will love the Liberty with the eastern itinerary.. my favorite by far! Except we went to HMC instead of Nassau!

[BriLam]

Ah, enjoy! If you have any other questions about Nachi, ask away. Also, my wife has about 2,000 photos of the place, too, if you'd like to see anything else. I'm only exaggerating slightly.

[GAHart]

We have been to Nachi twice this year LOVED it best value out there. We are booked on that Liberty cruise next year already looking forward to the Funship 2.0 upgrades.

[gelo7]

Nice review.

[crewsweeper]

Below is what I e-mailed to our family members who wanted to keep in touch with us :)

 

How to use the online forum

 

1. Go to www.carnival.com
   
2. On the top right of the page, click on ‘Community & Buzz’
   
3. In the middle-right of the page, click on ‘Login to FUNVILLE’ and a window will pop up
   
4. You will need to create a user name and password
   
5. In the middle-right of the page, click on ‘Forums’
   
6. Scroll down until you see the section titled ‘User Groups’
   
7. Under that section, click on the link for ‘Currently Onboard’
   
8. Look for the column titled ‘Thread’ and follow that down until you see your family's post. (We named ours 'Lauren and Brian take the Caribbean' so it was easy to spot. You can also have the family bookmark this page on the internet so it brings up the page immediately without having to go through the above steps).
    
   
9. On the right side of the screen, click the button called ‘Post Reply’. This will bring you to a screen to write what you want. Once finished, click ‘Post Message’ and it will take you back to the posted message.
    
   

 

That is a great tip and very clear instructions! This works wonderfully for just staying in touch. And you don't even need to pack a netbook or laptop for the cruise.

[BriLam]

Nice! Are you part of a roll call set up yet for the Liberty cruise?

 

We have been to Nachi twice this year LOVED it best value out there. We are booked on that Liberty cruise next year already looking forward to the Funship 2.0 upgrades.

[BriLam]

Definitely not necessary to bring a laptop or netbook, but we enjoyed using the free WiFi in the Port of Miami while waiting for embarkation and writing to our family on the Carnival board from our room and balcony. The onboard connection is horrendous, so it was nice to relax in the room while it took an hour and a half to post to the Carnival board. Okay, not that long, but still.

 

I believe my lovely wife even began researching our next cruise while still onboard (you can access Carnival's entire web site, of which the forum is part of it).

 

That is a great tip and very clear instructions! This works wonderfully for just staying in touch. And you don't even need to pack a netbook or laptop for the cruise.

[LamenLaur]

Thursday 12/8/2011 – Belize & Second Elegant Night

Apparently some people were upset that the last elegant night was being held on a port day and not the last sea day. Didn’t bother us! :)

 

We thought for a long time about Belize and really didn’t find anything that we wanted to spend our money on in terms of excursions. We also didn’t read amazing things about the port either, so we decided to stay on the ship. It turned out to be a rainy and windy day, so I’m glad we stayed. After breakfast on the Lido deck, we made way for the Serenity deck. I love how they have hammocks there, but I wish they had more! I think it would also be nice if they had a covering over the hammocks so you could hang out there in case it rained. It got too cold, so we walked down a deck and sat on the couches.

 

We participated in the ping pong tournament (6 people showed up) and the mini golf tournament (4 people showed up). We then attended the General Knowledge Trivia and Geography Trivia. Although…the Geography Trivia was not what we expected. It really wasn’t about geography at all lol. One question I remember was 'where do wild horses still run free in the desert?' I thought it was going to be more like naming states and state capitals.

 

One thing that I would love to see is that Carnival made one section of the ship for smoking. I don’t care about people smoking on their balconies, but I don’t feel like eating lunch on the Lido deck and getting a side of second hand smoke. And it’s also not fair for all the children running around. I’d like to see them pick only one secluded spot just for smokers that is away from the food and crowds on one of the higher decks.

 

We had a reservation for Scarlett’s Steakhouse for dinner at 6:30pm. We were told that it would take approximately two hours, but we were done in about one hour. When I made the reservation, I was told they had only 5:30pm, 6:30pm and 8:30pm open. While we were there, it must have been only about 1/3 full. Our waiter brought over items that were compliments of the chef. I forget what my husband was given, but I had a Mushroom Cappuccino and I tell you it was amazing. For an appetizer my husband had the Lobster Bisque and I had the Ahi Tuna Tartare. For dinner my husband had the Ribeye Steak (he said that it was a bit too fatty for his liking) and a side of mashed potatoes. I had the Grilled Lamb Chips and a side of sautéed mushrooms. The lamb was one of the best I’ve ever had. For dessert we shared the chocolate sampler. There were 4 small dishes arranged on one bigger dish. It included: White Chocolate w/ Lime Sherbert and Banana Panacotta, Roasted Almond Ice Cream, Tiramasu and Bailey’s Irish Cream Ice Cream w/ Chocolate Fudge.

 

We caught the early showing of ‘Far From Over’, which was their 80’s themed dancing and singing show. I thought it was done pretty well. The break dancers that were part of the show did a demonstration in the American Lobby right after the show too. We played the slots a bit, caught Robert singing and attempted to dance a bit at the club. I have to say there were no more than ten people on the dance floor lol.

[BriLam]

- I was very glad we decided to stay on the ship instead of venturing out to Belize. It was nice having one more day on the ship and, honestly, there wasn't anything that made me want to make the trip off the ship. And after my Grand Cayman tender experience, I was thrilled not to have to worry about doing it again. I did consider taking advantage of the situation and taking the tender to port and just walking around, but seeing photos and hearing reports of what the area was like changed my mind. It was funny hearing some folks come back, hear we didn't go off the ship, and tell us they should have done the same. Bottom line is we were happy with our decision, and that's really all that matters. When I read some folks here saying you should never skip a port or should never do xyz when in a certain port because that's not experiencing the country properly, I just shake my head.

 

- One of my favorite parts of the ping pong tournament occured after I made it to the semifinal round. I am not a big ping pong player by any means, but I can hold my own. So I get to the semifinals and see the person I am going to play practicing with someone else. I then saw the other two playing to get into the finals and they were both excellent, excellent ping pong players. So I thought to myself, "Okay, I'll win my game since my opponent looks so-so like me and then get my arse handed to me in the final." So we start our semifinal game and do one practice round and I still believe what I thought earlier. We then actually start playing and this guy starts serving hardcore, just like the two in the other seminfinal game were. HE'S A RINGER!!! I then proceeded to get my arse handed to me anyway, but one game earlier than expected. It was still a ton of fun.

 

- I'm big on geography, so I was excited to kick some butt in the trivia game. Then I heard the questions, which I was also assuming was "name this capital" or "name the state between New Jersey and Connecticut" or something along those lines, and didn't even bother trying to participate.

 

- I'm not big on smoking, but it bothers me less because I don't have asthma as Lauren does. I don't think it was labelled as well as it could have been (or we just didn't notice the signs) because we actually ate lunch in a smoking area on the Lido and had no idea why people were smoking around us. Then it was pointed out we were in a smoking section.

 

- I have to say, I was expecting a great experience from the steakhouse and was disappointed. That's not to say I didn't like it at all, I did, I just thought the food would be better. I've had some excellent steaks in my years (which aren't that many) and this steak was far from it. It was quite fatty and the taste just wasn't there, even with the five-spice rub I chose (and I usually get my steaks with some sort of rub on it). I also wasn't impressed by the appetizers. Dessert doesn't count since I don't really eat it as it's too sweet for me, but I did taste what Lauren ordered and it was quite good. Bottom line is, I'm not sure if I'm just used to excellent steaks when I go to a true steakhouse or if we caught this place on a bad night, but I wasn't thrilled. That said, I'd definitely give it another shot.

 

- Not sure if the clubs get busier as it gets later, but we were there close to midnight, I believe, and it was quite empty. Still, we had a nice time busting out our moves like Jagger.

Edited December 16, 2011 by BriLam

[sjn911]

Your review is a "blast"..and you really are a fun couple..and ahhh I do remember 27..a wonderful year..LOl..Sarah

 

I am copying your fabulous instructions...for family contacts..that is great..Sarah

[newdestination]

Very nice review!

[LamenLaur]

Friday 12/9/2011 –Roatan

So to start things off, I had heard so many negative things about Mahogany Bay. We wanted a slow, relaxing day so we booked the ‘Relax on the Beach’ package through Carnival. This included a clam shell, two loungers, two water floats and rides on the chair lift. I have to tell you, we had such a great day.

 

We were supposed to be docked by 7:00am, but it didn’t happen until 7:45am. It was pouring on the way in, so we didn’t know what to expect from the day. We got down to the beach around 8:30am and took the chairlift. It was nice because you got to see a lot of views that you wouldn’t get walking the path in. We rented one set of snorkel gear and were shown to our clam shell. Like I said, pre-booking was the way to go. A few hours later there wasn’t an open lounge in the house. After relaxing and reading for a while, we made our way down the long pier all the way to the left. We were told that the best snorkeling was out there and they were right. Snorkel to the way left of the pier and not in the sectioned off swimming area. I saw so many beautiful fish. One was this gorgeous Angel Fish that was as big as my head. There are a lot of rock formations out there that are worth checking out.

 

We grabbed some food and sodas from the restaurant behind the chairs. They also have waiters walking around for you to order drinks from. I caught a good half hour nap before we made our way back to the ship. The sky wasn’t looking too great, so I knew rain would be coming eventually. As soon as we got into our room there was a downpour. I feel bad for those who got caught in it. We didn’t leave on time due to some stragglers taking their sweet time back to the ship. The last one on was a younger girl who didn’t really make an effort to hurry. The people were clapping and yelling at her from their balconies to get moving. So funny.

 

I completely forgot what we had for dinner this night, but I'm sure we had the cake for dessert! We caught Bingo, because the Fun Times said the winning amount was $1,000. Well, it turned out that you would only win up to $1,000 off your Sign & Sail Card balance. What crap lol. Don't write one thing and get people excited when it isn't what they though it was :p We stayed for the Liar's Club, which stunk. There is a panel of three employees where one of them was given the right answer and the audience had to guess whose answer was right. It wasn't fun, so we left after the first question. We caught the hypnotist show and it was absolutely hilarious. We definitely got a good laugh!

[BriLam]

Not too much to say regarding Roatan that Lauren didn't say. I really enjoyed the day, as well.

 

- We were there with the Legend, in fact, we went everywhere with the Legend that week. There were maybe 10 stragglers spread out amongst 10 minutes or so and every single one was from the Valor. We were the last ship to dock, so the Legend couldn't leave without us leaving first. A man and woman who turned our to be the last ones to board were taking their sweet time and finally started running. But, the woman stopped running and started walking again. So I yelled to the man, "Just leave her!"

 

- The hypnotist show was great. After the show, we went to the American Lobby to sit and listen to some music. I ran to the restroom and recognized the hypnotist at the urinal. I waited until we were both washing our hands and said to him, "I was really worried you were going to hypnotize me while taking a leak." He laughed and we talked briefly.

[sjn911]

You guys are hilareous...love the photo of a tropical chairlift...have been on them in the summer a few times here...but a tropical one...ahhhhh...Sarah

[golfadj]

Thanks for the review of Nachi! We will be there in 4 days! :0) YIPPEE!

 

You will love the Liberty with the eastern itinerary.. my favorite by far! Except we went to HMC instead of Nassau!

 

Will take HMC over Nassau any day of the week.

[BigeLG]

Ah, too funny! We saw you in Cozumel, told you we'd find you in Roatan and came through on that promise, and now you found us here. Hilarious!

 

Lauren says, "make it a double!"

 

We had a great time talking with you all. I see you're booked on the Breeze on 12/2/12. We're talking about doing the Liberty on 12/8/12 to St. Thomas, Nassau, Grand Turk and San Juan. Not sure where your itinerary takes you, but looks like we're just missing each other!

 

 

Well maybe think about the Breeze

,

2/2/2012 Miami, FL ---- 4:00 Pm

 

12/3/2012 Fun Day at Sea ---- ----

12/4/2012 Grand Turk 7:00 AM 2:00 PM

 

12/5/2012 Falmouth, Jamaica 11:00 AM 6:00 PM

 

12/6/2012 Fun Day at Sea ---- ----

12/7/2012 Nassau, the Bahamas 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

 

12/8/2012 Miami, FL 8:00 AM ----

[BigeLG]

A Photo you may like.

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/%3Ca%20href=http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2743491480012554337wrMPGv%20target=_blank%3E

[LamenLaur]

Nice shot! Brian took his from the pier but you got a much closer photo :)

[LamenLaur]

Saturday 12/10/2011 – Sea Day

Today was a relaxing day for us. We had breakfast in the Washington Dining Room and caught the magic seminar afterwards in the Lobby. I got to assist in one of the card tricks, so that was neat. We went to the Lido for lunch and this is where they were having the chocolate buffet. I wasn’t thrilled with what they had. It was one of the moments where you wanted a piece of chocolate cake, but they didn’t have just that. They had the more gourmet cakes. They did have a chocolate fondue, however!

 

We had our last dinner on the ship and said our goodbyes to Wilbur, Roy and Marija. We participated in the Gender Showdown in the Ivanhoe Theater and of course the girls won! I will let my husband tell you how we won, because he was sitting in the audience while I was making an ass out of myself on stage :p We stayed for the Big Screen Trivia (they played theme songs and you had to guess what movies they were from) and Beat the Game Show Host. We ended the night playing slots in the casino and listening to Robert again on guitar.

 

Sunday 12/11/2011 – Debarkation

We docked in POM around 6:30am. We picked to do the self-assist debarking (we carry off our own luggage) and I tell you that’s the way to go. If you want them to take your luggage, you’re called by zones and could be waiting a long time. We left our room to grab breakfast around 8:00am and we were off the ship by 8:30am waiting to go through customs. I think that we waited about twenty minutes to get through the line.

 

We did witness an unfortunate event while waiting in line. There was a couple in front of us waiting for customs. The woman had a blue bag that she dropped from about a foot off the ground and it started leaking. There were two bottles of alcohol in there. The bottle of tequila broke and started leaking. I tell you it was STRONG because I got a headache within a few minutes from the smell lol. The man was not happy at all. She was trying to apologize and you could tell he was furious. I'll let my husband go into further detail about this incident :eek:

 

We got to the airport and we got put on standby for the earlier flight (10:45am) back to Newark. Regardless if we got on or not, our bags were going on the earlier flight. It turns out that we didn’t get on, so we were taking our normal one at 1:10pm. If I could send my bags on an earlier flight every time, I would absolutely do it. When we get to Newark, we went to the QOH desk and picked up the bags without having to wait at the baggage claim.

 

We can't wait to cruise with Carnival again next year :D We'll need to beat our record of two ships on a stick and eight medals!

[BriLam]

Nice photo!

 

While we'd love to join you, I'm not sure I'd be able to convince myself, nevermind Lauren, to take anything shorter than a 7-day! Plus, we went to St. Thomas on our honeymoon and would love to get back there and the Eastern Caribbean.

 

Well maybe think about the Breeze

,

2/2/2012 Miami, FL ---- 4:00 Pm

 

12/3/2012 Fun Day at Sea ---- ----

12/4/2012 Grand Turk 7:00 AM 2:00 PM

 

12/5/2012 Falmouth, Jamaica 11:00 AM 6:00 PM

 

12/6/2012 Fun Day at Sea ---- ----

12/7/2012 Nassau, the Bahamas 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

 

12/8/2012 Miami, FL 8:00 AM ----

[BriLam]

- I was quite thankful to have one more day of relaxation after Roatan before our vacation ended. But, before I knew it, that day was gone. I think the whole trip could be summarized as having gone by quickly but also nice and slow, if that makes sense. Those are the best vacations.

 

- As mentioned earlier, I am not a dessert person. I'll take a pizza or a steak over dessert any day. So, as you could imagine, the chocolate buffet did absolutely nothing for me.

 

- Ah yes, the gender showdown. I walked into the theater late as I was getting a drink or in the little boys room or something and Lauren told me I had to go sit on the other side of the room. I laughed and went over with the other masters of the universe. Each team had a captain and those on that team had to tell the captain the correct answers if they didn't know it. All women got men-related questions and the men got women-related ones. Lauren's a big Fight Club fan, so when they asked a question about the movie, I looked to see if Lauren would pop up with the answer and, sure enough, she did. Fast forward to the final round which, and don't ask me why this was chosen as the final challenge, three or four members of each team has to squeeze their arses closed with a coin in their...coin slot, waddle across the stage, and drop it into a cup. Of course, Lauren was one of those chosen to do this. Or did she volunteer? So she used her skills well, and I catcalled from the back of the room, and the ladies ended up winning by a hair.

 

- We chose to self-disembark, as Lauren mentioned, and it was extremely easy. The only hiccup was the tequila incident. Apparently, we heard from the couple that it was a $70 bottle of tequila. Someone in back of us said they should slurp it up from the floor if that was the case. Hilarious. The smell was strong, and it was all over them and their bags as they tried to save what they could. I can only imagine what happened at the airport when the employees smelled these two reeking of alcohol.

 

- I didn't want to spend the $150 to standby (only charged if you get on the flight...friggin' robbery), but it made sense, so we did it, but never got on the flight. That flight we were on standby for was originally available to us, but we didn't want to possibly miss it if something happened and then be in crisis mode. And I didn't want to spend my last hours on the ship nervous we would miss our flight. We ended up waiting an extra two hours, and I think I would probably do it again the same way next time, but who knows. Like Lauren mentioned, the bags went on the earlier flight regardless, and it was so, so easy picking them up once we landed. We must have saved 15 or 20 minutes. A little ironic was that we flew from Newark Liberty to Miami on American, but Newark is a Continental (now United) hub so the terminal we departed from was crap and the terminal we arrived and spent 5 minutes tops in was great since Miami is an American hub. And we flew Continental (now United) back from Miami, so, once again, the terminal we departed from was crap and the terminal we arrived in was great. Still, it was the cheapest way to go and that still wins in my book.

 

I enjoyed adding on to Lauren's review and look forward to doing so again the next time we cruise.

 

Till then!

 

Saturday 12/10/2011 – Sea Day

Today was a relaxing day for us. We had breakfast in the Washington Dining Room and caught the magic seminar afterwards in the Lobby. I got to assist in one of the card tricks, so that was neat. We went to the Lido for lunch and this is where they were having the chocolate buffet. I wasn’t thrilled with what they had. It was one of the moments where you wanted a piece of chocolate cake, but they didn’t have just that. They had the more gourmet cakes. They did have a chocolate fondue, however!

 

We had our last dinner on the ship and said our goodbyes to Wilbur, Roy and Marija. We participated in the Gender Showdown in the Ivanhoe Theater and of course the girls won! I will let my husband tell you how we won, because he was sitting in the audience while I was making an ass out of myself on stage :p We stayed for the Big Screen Trivia (they played theme songs and you had to guess what movies they were from) and Beat the Game Show Host. We ended the night playing slots in the casino and listening to Robert again on guitar.

 

Sunday 12/11/2011 – Debarkation

We docked in POM around 6:30am. We picked to do the self-assist debarking (we carry off our own luggage) and I tell you that’s the way to go. If you want them to take your luggage, you’re called by zones and could be waiting a long time. We left our room to grab breakfast around 8:00am and we were off the ship by 8:30am waiting to go through customs. I think that we waited about twenty minutes to get through the line.

 

We did witness an unfortunate event while waiting in line. There was a couple in front of us waiting for customs. The woman had a blue bag that she dropped from about a foot off the ground and it started leaking. There were two bottles of alcohol in there. The bottle of tequila broke and started leaking. I tell you it was STRONG because I got a headache within a few minutes from the smell lol. The man was not happy at all. She was trying to apologize and you could tell he was furious. I'll let my husband go into further detail about this incident :eek:

 

We got to the airport and we got put on standby for the earlier flight (10:45am) back to Newark. Regardless if we got on or not, our bags were going on the earlier flight. It turns out that we didn’t get on, so we were taking our normal one at 1:10pm. If I could send my bags on an earlier flight every time, I would absolutely do it. When we get to Newark, we went to the QOH desk and picked up the bags without having to wait at the baggage claim.

 

We can't wait to cruise with Carnival again next year :D We'll need to beat our record of two ships on a stick and eight medals!

[ratherbecruzn]

Thanks for writing your review. I cannot wait til we cruise next month! :D

[pacarolinagirl]

Great review. Hubby & I can't wait to be on the Valor in May. Different ports but still a cruise. :D