AryMay's January Photo Review of the Victory

[AryMay]

Thanks for the great review, and thanks also to the people who posted in it and brought it to the top of the board so I saw it. :)

 

I'm strongly considering Victory for a cruise out of Miami in October and it was great seeing pics of the ship. We were on Liberty about two months ago and I'm comparing the two, since they are the same class but Victory won't have her upgrades to FunShip 2.0 before October. Trying to figure out what dining options beyond the "usual" Victory will have......

 

It was nifty seeing a write-up about the scuba excursion at Coki Beach. I did the Snuba excursion on our cruise, which is handled out of Coral World next to Coki. I was really happy with it, but I wish I'd brought my own snorkel gear from the ship since we had 90 'bonus' minutes to kill...and Coki Beach was a few steps away. Coral World itself is pretty cool, and it was included in the excursion price, but darnit, snorkeling would have been fun, especially since we had already missed our call at Half Moon Cay.

 

 

There was this from your review....

 

 

 

 

This is so amazingly true! At various times a lot of the doors to the deck were blocked by, e.g., photographers' backdrops and such, but we found it almost always empty, and my sister could smoke on the starboard side.

The deck actually looks quite 'retro,' with few nods to modern design, and we decided it looked a lot like something you might have seen on Titanic, but without that nasty salt-water aftertaste. :)

 

Just realized this review had been bumped up again! Thanks to everyone who has taken time to read it!

 

I am definitely a fan of using the outdoor deck along the lobby on sea days. Actually the first time we were on the Victory (2005) the deck was lined with padded deck chairs...similar to what you find on the Serenity Decks now.

 

Out of six cruises the only time I couldn't use the lobby deck was on the Legend. Apparently it was the muster station for lifeboats so they were not allowed to put deck chairs out there. So disappointing...

 

I have my eye on the Liberty for next summer. I would love to check out the Funship 2.0 improvements. The Breeze also is on my list...if it just wasn't so much more expensive.

[Pellaz]

Out of six cruises the only time I couldn't use the lobby deck was on the Legend. Apparently it was the muster station for lifeboats so they were not allowed to put deck chairs out there. So disappointing...

 

This was largely the case on Liberty, as I recall. Still, it was great to escape out there and relax, and those nifty wooden benches are out there. I'd kinda like to buy one for home. :)

 

I have my eye on the Liberty for next summer. I would love to check out the Funship 2.0 improvements.

 

The addition of a few bars on the Lido Deck didn't really affect me much since I'm not a drinker...although ironically I got the best service from ANY server -- including the MDR staff -- from a server at the Red Frog Pub. :)

 

I -do- like me some good food, and Guy's Burger Joint and the Blue Iguana Cantina were both excellent. My sister spoke very highly of the Fish'n'Chips place, too, but I don't 'do' seafood. It's hidden above the Lido Buffet, up some stairs, but the sign for it is small.

 

Gotta add that we both thought the 24-hour pizza from the Pizza Pirate station was surprisingly good!

 

Although I'm probably going to settle for a Victory cruise next fall, the other ship I'm considering is... Liberty again! Same itinerary, too! I really enjoyed it. [Missing our port-call at Half Moon Cay, not so much...]

[rob6465]

I apologize for the gap in posting…too much going on at work and then we went away for the weekend.

 

Picking up where I left off…

 

After dropping off our carry-on bags and decorating our friends’ cabin we got back off the ship to do a little exploring in Old San Juan. Getting off the ship was easy…except they routed you sort of a weird way that took you round-about and involved a lot of walking just to get out of the terminal.

 

This pirate ship was docked right next to the Victory. For a fee you could go onboard and get a tour.

 

 

We looked around trying to find where the free trolley stopped. There was a tourist info booth across the street from the ship, but…no one was there. We did find a brochure on the trolley routes and debated what to do. There was a stop nearby, but since we hadn’t seen ANY trolleys yet we didn’t want to waste our time just waiting.

 

Instead we just started walking in the direction of the fort which we could see (San Cristobal). I had imagined that it would be a long walk and we were surprised to find out just how close it was…but it was an uphill walk to get there. Once we figured out where the entrance was we paid our $3 admission fee and went in.

 

 

 

It amazed me that there were so few people in the fort on a Sunday afternoon. The weather was beautiful and we just took our time wandering around checking out pretty much all of the fort.

 

 

Bob was taking his time enjoying all of the displays so I sat on these benches and called all of our kids back home...mostly just to make them jealous since Minnesota was having freezing rain and snow all day!

 

 

 

 

As one who was born in Puerto Rico but have not been there since 1998(before i got married)been trying to convince wife to take a cruise that stops in san juan. Son got married on magic last year and this year i cruise on 49th birthday. Maybe next year on 50th birthday. Were you able to buy t-shirts/caps in san juan?

[AryMay]

As one who was born in Puerto Rico but have not been there since 1998(before i got married)been trying to convince wife to take a cruise that stops in san juan. Son got married on magic last year and this year i cruise on 49th birthday. Maybe next year on 50th birthday. Were you able to buy t-shirts/caps in san juan?

 

I loved old San Juan and hope to get back again some day! I don't think we bought anything when we were there. We tend to spend more time seeing the sites and not so much time shopping.

 

Hopefully you will get a chance to do a cruise that stops in San Juan soon!

[SailingRNC]

Love your reviews and the beautiful pictures!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[AryMay]

Love your reviews and the beautiful pictures!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Thanks! Ever so often I go back and read them again myself...so many great memories! :)

[smplyblessed619]

I came back and re-read this review...You have some of the best pictures ever. Thank you for taking the time it takes to put this wonderful review together... I am planning my second cruise now and have to make sure I have at least one day to recuperate as I'm looking at a 7 day itinerary. Thanks again...

[AryMay]

I came back and re-read this review...You have some of the best pictures ever. Thank you for taking the time it takes to put this wonderful review together... I am planning my second cruise now and have to make sure I have at least one day to recuperate as I'm looking at a 7 day itinerary. Thanks again...

 

Uh-oh...sounds like you are getting hooked on cruising! Are you considering the Victory...or the Southern Caribbean? Just wondering.

 

With the price of airfare I won't even consider going for less than 7 days. I hate flying and if I am going to go somewhere I want to stay long enough to make it worth the effort of getting on a plane! We are doing our first 10 day cruise in December...yippee!

 

Good luck on your cruise planning...and hopefully you will come back and do another review? I enjoyed your Destiny review...it is a fun way to re-live the memories, isn't it! :)