Carnival Valor Review 8 night 4/28-5/6/12

[brensr41]

Carnival Valor Review 4/28-5/6/12

This is my first review and I really just want to pay it forward for all the help I have had from this large and very knowledgeable cruise critic family. Thanks everyone who has answered my many dumb questions. Little back ground on us we love cruising this was number 7 since 2008 and we are both pretty laid back. So I will tell you about the things we did but no real rants because or view is we are on a cruise and lucky to be and there wont be anything to drag us down. Please feel free to ask questions and I do have the fun times and a scanner but don't know how to work them so I will get the DW to help at some point this week. I will be walking back into 6 twelve days this week at work so please stick with me even if I don't finish in 2 or 3 days. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Pre-Cruise

We drove over Friday from Ft. Myers. Stayed at the Miami Hilton Downtown and had a wonderful view of the port. Not to sure of the cost per night because I used credit card points but I would highly recommend this hotel for a pre or post cruise stay. It had a great lobby bar and the breakfast buffet was one of the best i have had at a hotel. There was a fee for breakfast(8.00 I Think)but again this was included with our credit card points. Cab fare from the hotel was pretty cheap. It was only 9.50 plus tip of course. It seemed like everyone in Miami got a tip from me! Forgot to mention I said we drove over so why did I use a cab? We rented a car and drove over because the price of parking is ridiculous. Rented from avis and it was only 27 dollars each way and with cab fares and gas refills in the car I only spent about $80.00 which is still cheaper than driving my V8 truck over. The rental was a ford focus and it got sick mileage. Less than a quarter tank each way. Dinner pre cruise i had done a bit of research on and the boss(wife) decided on a restaurant called Area 31 inside if the Epic Hotel. Great views as it was on the 16th floor and we opted to dine on the outdoor terrace which was nice because the weather happened to be great that night. Great atmosphere and the food was good too! DW had the scallops and loved it. I had the sirloin and it was good but not great. I had originally wanted the pork bellies(reviews said they were best thing on the menu) but they had ran out that night. Overall I would say try this place but it is a bit pricey sirloin 32.00 and the scallops were 28.00 but a great time. Where they get you is on the drinks. I love me some Jim Beam and its only 5.50 on the ship so I figured maybe 6 or 7 tops so I continued to indulge and when we got the check the meltdown began a little 6 @ $10.00 per plus the DW drinks so the total bill was $180.00 and over half was drinks. After dinner back to the hotel bar to catch the end of the Tampa Bay Rays game and a few cheaper drinks.

Embarkation

Woke up crazy early(4:00) the watch the Liberty & Valor come into port around 5 a.m. It was nice Liberty came all the way down the harbor to turn around but not the Valor. I did get a few good pics(432)which I am working on and will do my best to post as many as I can as soon as I can. From there the norm got the DW up at 8 a.m., breakfast, shower, pack the little we unpacked, and off to the port @ 10:30. I dont remember the terminal number but it was not the usual carnival location. Upon entering the terminal there was a good sized line waiting to get in through the initial security screening. Kind of a cluster and it seemed as if no one knew where to go. Once inside I realized we were in the NCL terminal and anything with the logo was covered up with paper and tape. So i did understand the slight delays with everything. No worries I am on vacation. Once checked in with the agent we did not get our sign & sail cards and were told to go upstairs to get them. There was no real direction so we wondered to the opposite side of the terminal and we saw some people lining up and figured thats where we needed to be. We had zone number 6 and were on board by noon. So total time to check in and wait was an hour which was not to bad. I am not a big fan of Miami and much prefer ft. Lauderdale or Tampa but really wanted to be on the Valor so you work with what you have. We went right up to the lido for lunch and the line at the wok was already crazy so we settled for some salad which always seems to be the least populated line on the first day and we tend to always go there. As standard rooms ready at 1:30(Balcony 8225 forward) muster at 4 and sailed at 5. All luggage had arrived by 5. We got cozy on the balcony and enjoyed sail away. I had been a little nervous know that we would not have Goose as CD and boy was I wrong Matt Mitcham was great. In my opinion he has been the best CD yet for us. He and the asst. CD were both young and full of energy and that energy seemed to run through the ship. I have never seen so many people participate in every activity. First night dinner was at the steakhouse and there is still free wine. Server came up and asked if wanted the red or white. It was painless and we were happy. Thanks everyone who had threads about the free wine. The dinner was excellent ribeye for me surf and turf for the DW. The chef came around and spoke with everyone dining that night to make sure everything was perfect and it was. Reluctantly I went to the welcome aboard show because it is the same on every ship but we did and after called it a night. I have tried uploading photos but it says a security token is missing can anyone help with that or maybe i can just put a link to facebook.

[cruiseclues]

So far, you're doing pretty good on your first review...anxiously waiting for your photos, too. :)

[Ron_L]

I have tried uploading photos but it says a security token is missing can anyone help with that or maybe i can just put a link to facebook.

 

I don't think you can post pictures here that are on Facebook. Put the pictures on a photo hosting site like Photobucket. Then just copy the IMG Code link that is shown on Photobucket for each picture and paste it in your post where you want the picture to show up.

[brensr41]

I think i have it figured out. Photo from dinner night before cruise and Valor atrium

[brensr41]

I don't think you can post pictures here that are on Facebook. Put the pictures on a photo hosting site like Photobucket. Then just copy the IMG Code link that is shown on Photobucket for each picture and paste it in your post where you want the picture to show up.

thanks for the help

[brensr41]

view from dinner Area 31 @ epic hotel

 

Bronx Bar

 

atrium

thanks for the help eveyone

[brensr41]

Saturday morning from hotel room

sail away

[phabric]

Enjoyed reading your review. Looking for more. My Daughter and her boyfriend were onboard with you.

[brensr41]

Sea Day #1

Thought from the first day. The only thing I didn't like about going to the steakhouse first night was not getting to meet our table mates. Woke up kind of early around 7:30 open the curtain to a very dark gray sky. That tended to be the story of the day with rain all day. So just about all the outdoor activities were cancelled but not the master mixologist which was held in the atrium lobby kind of a fun place for it with all the people watching from three decks high. We attended fun aboard and shore excursion talk and then up to the steakhouse for the cooking demo. Cooking demo was nice they prepared a 4 course meal and you were able to sample the dishes. It was the mushroom soup, mushroom and feta(i think)salad, rosemary infused chicken, and tiramisu. Everything we sampled was great and I am not the biggest fan of mushrooms. From there we headed to the fun shops so I could annoy my DW by watch shopping. I ended up buying a great watch. It was one I have been looking at here at home for a while and I ended up getting 50% less than what I have seen locally. I was very glad I waited. If you are into watches they have a great selection of multiple brands and something for every price range. We ended up spending a great part of the afternoon in the sports bar. Sunday a great day for sports especially since the rain had not stopped. Nenad (liked to be called Ned) was the bartender and was a lot of fun, great conversation and poured great drinks. We visited this bar every night before dinner. Hung around the sports bar until about 5:30 while walking back and forth between the casino. This was also formal night and we had to head up to the room to get ready. Dinner was good I had the prime rib and the DW the lobster. A little upset we didnt get to meet our tablemates again tonight. Between dinner and the show we headed back to the sports bar to watch the Rays vs. Rangers. We are big baseball fans. The show for the night was Midnight Express. It was very similar to the one we saw on the Legend in October but I think a few of the number were different but the same theme. I didnt mind it was still very entertaining and it was defiantly a "vegas style" show. After the show we headed towards the piano bar. We give it a chance on every ship but have never enjoyed one of them. Around 11:30 we head in and the guy was good, played well and not a bad singer. At midnight it got fun he asked someone to close the door and proceeded to talk about almost being fired from carnival for a few of his original songs. He did a disclaimer about what you were about to hear and it was funny. His songs were great absolutely adult in nature but so much fun. If you are not offended easily please go see him he is so much fun. One of my favorite parts was when someone would come in the door he would say "look who it is" and the crowd would answer "holy sh*t" and that was what he used as the factor on whether or not they should be in there. It was so much fun and it would become a nightly stop!! Almost forgot to tell you his name Brad Alexander. Whatever ship you are on if he is there please see him. I cant say enough how much fun we had. We actually closed the bar down that night leaving around 2 a.m.

 

 

cooking demo

 

 

 

piano bar

 

steakhouse

[vivavegas]

Loving your review! Looking forward to reading more, more, .... Thanks!:)

[cawagner]

Loving the review so far:D

[Eeyoregon]

I have tried uploading photos but it says a security token is missing can anyone help with that or maybe i can just put a link to facebook.

 

If your photos are on Facebook, you have to right click on the photo and select copy image then click the square on here that is light yellow and has a mountain on it and paste in the box that pops up. Super easy but time consuming as you have to each one individually.

 

Looking forward to more of your review...and photos!

[Eeyoregon]

Oop's I forgot to subscribe to this thread so here is a little bump.

 

More please :D.

[B40 Tha Cruisa]

Great review so far - We were on the same cruise, but don't believe we bumped into eachother. Weather was so-so, but we go lucky in port most days.

[brensr41]

Day #3 Grand Turk

Up and out early headed to the beach! Just to the beach at the end of the pier though. The day started out a little dark with some light showers but we waited it out and it turned out to be a pretty nice day. We were literally the first 2 chairs at the end of the pier which turned out to be great for people watching and my DW is a professional people watcher. After a few hours at the beach we browsed around the shops in the area and had appetizers at Margaritaville. Margaritaville had a huge pool with a bar in the pool and a flowrider at one end. Pool was free even if you didn't eat there but I'm sure the flowrider had a fee. Headed back to the ship for an early sail away @ 2:30. Past guest party was broken up to early and late seating depending on your dinner time. We attended the 5:15-6 party. For those who have not attended a past guest party it is 45min of free alcohol and appetizers. The CD drew a name for free night at steakhouse then said "we know what you are here for so everyone get there drink on" then the live band performed. After we had more to drink at the Bronx Bar and ended up hanging out there till our 8:15pm dinner time. Finally we met our table mates and they turned out to be a great couple. After dinner they accompanied us to the comedy club. The two comedians were Al Romero and Donnell Grey. We didn't care for Al Romero at the Welcome Aboard show so we only saw Donnell Grey's adult show. We enjoyed it and found out there are drink specials only in the comedy club to include buckets of beer (don't remember price), only $3 more for a double and $2 more for a floater. After getting out of the comedy show we introduced the late night piano bar to our table mates. Another great time and plenty of laughs. On this night the only thing going on in the theatre was "The Marriage Show" which we skipped.

[brensr41]

Grand Turk

Margaritaville pool

Grand Turk Shopping @ port

Grand Turk Beach

Thought this was a good shot of the Lido pool

Piano Bar

[LetzCruze]

So want to read the review but can't with no formatting. Can you pretty please use paragraphs/indents/line spaces?

[brensr41]

Great review so far - We were on the same cruise, but don't believe we bumped into eachother. Weather was so-so, but we go lucky in port most days.

I agree we got lucky with the weather. How did you like the CD?

[brensr41]

Day #4 San Juan

Sail in to San Juan has to be my favorite out of all the ports. The Forts are amazing whether you are sailing in or departing. This is our second time at San Juan and we didnt have anything planned. A couple we met the previous day invited us to go to them to the Bacardi Rum Distillery. This was very easy to get to and very inexpensive. We went to pier 2 to catch the water taxi over to other side of the island (name of destination started with "C" cant remember actual name) there is a sign on the pier that says Bacardi Distillery. Water taxi was $0.50 per person each way. Once off the water taxi they will immediately guide you to a parking garage where there is a bunch of taxi's. It is $3.00 per person each way. No entry fee for Distillery tour. Tour itself was ok but you never actually see the distillery. You watch a video, see a mock up of the original distillery, area where you can play a video of how they make the rum and can smell all the different rum's. From there they take you to a bar where they show you how to make a mojito. After the tour they give you 2 tickets per person for free drinks. They will let you try any of the rums including exotic flavors with any type of mixer (no frozen blends for free). For $10 you could buy either a Pina Colada or Mojito this includes the plastic souvenir glass it came in as well as a shot glass (see pic). Mojito made with real sugar cane and fresh mint. DW had Pina Colada said Mojito was much better (she doesn't even like mojitos). Total tour and drink time was 2 hours with water taxi total tour 3.5 hrs. Water taxis come every 30 min.

We returned to the ship for a late lunch and had steakhouse reservations for a second time. The steakhouse did not disappoint this time either. I cannot say enough about the food we both got the same meals as first night. After the steakhouse the main show in the theatre was Dana Tison Comedic Juggler. We have actually seen his show twice before this cruise. He is really good same act that we saw in October aboard the Legend but still worth seeing. Comedy club had no shows this evening and we called it an early night because we had an early excursion next morning in St.Maarten.

[brensr41]

So want to read the review but can't with no formatting. Can you pretty please use paragraphs/indents/line spaces?

Tried to double space for you but once it posted it went back to single spaces. Will try to indent on upcoming posts.

[brensr41]

San Juan

Bacardi Mojito and shot glass

 

DW at Free Bacardi Bar

 

18oz Ribeye only food porn pic

[brensr41]

Random Ship Photos

Lido Pool

 

Serenity Area

 

Aft Pool

Casino

 

Martini & Wine Bar

[Time2CruiseAgain]

Can't wait for more!! We will be on the Valor this Saturday!

[blaine84]

Review is looking great, we're taking the Valor for a 6 night next month, so we're loving the photos of the ship.

[ETDub]

We are heading out on her on June 3rd for our honeymoon, the piano bar sounds like my kind of place after midnight.