Valor review- Aor.24 sailing

[sunflwr19]

First of all I would like to say that I had a great time. I am having vacation withdrawal this morning. I will try to cover the things that stood out to me. Sorry for any typos, grammar, etc; I am writing quickly. By the way, I know some people like to know about ages- so I am a mid-twenties female.

 

 

Embarkation

 

Lines...lines...lines! I thought this process was horrible; took us over 2 hours. We sat in one line to get our sail in sign cards for about 20 minutes. After that, we sat in another line for about 30 minutes to get through security. After security, we sat in a bunch of "S-lines" (for over an hour). After that room, we waited in line to get through the terminal, up the stairs, and to another line so we could get our picture taken I don't know how the older guests were able to stand this long. One the lines started, the went pretty quickly. But the lines were not moving most of the time. Once they herded us into a room. It was a while, before anyone would start the process in that room. My advice would probably be don't get there early. I heard that the people that came around 12:00 went through the process much quicker.

 

 

 

Ship

 

Once we were on the ship, I was amazed. It was a beautiful ship. We went exploring and eventually settled down in a lounge chair on the deck. All of the bars are nice. The only bar we were disappointed in was the Bronx Bar. My fiancé was a little upset that they didn’t put ESPN on very often. During the day, the TVs were turned to the 3 major networks, so there were soaps on all afternoon. I’m sure you have heard it before, but there was a lot of saving chairs. By the second or third day, we completely gave up on getting a chair anywhere near the pool (or decks overlooking the pool). Same situation in the lounges! One person would save five or six seats. And I saw people putting scarves and sweaters across couches and seats to save them too. I noticed a red scarf stretched across a bench in a prime location, and the woman and her husband did not even show up until after the show started. The cruise director, Josh Riffe, was very good. But I think they said he was getting off the ship with us. I am not sure for how long though. The service on this ship was extremely good. Our waiters, Ramil and Sorenel, were EXCELLENT. By the third day, Ramil could guess what my fiancé was going to order. The crew was friendly and helpful. They were more polite and well-mannered than a lot of the passengers. I was really worried about sea-sickness on the ship (I get motion-sick easily); but it wasn’t that bad at all. The only time I felt sick was in the Washington dining room. It is at the back of the boat and I felt it rocking quite a bit. But it didn’t seem to bother anyone else (including my fiancé). There first few nights I took Dramamine, but it put me to sleep. So I went into a diving shop in one of the ports and got Triptone. It is a motion-sickness pill that divers use because it doesn’t have the drowsy effect of other medications. You can usually find it in diving shops or in some drugstores.

 

 

 

Food

 

Overall, it was good. I don’t think it was my kind of food though. I would say that they had a lot of “fancy” dishes (in both Lido and dining room). I like more “plain” food. Therefore, I ate at the grill and pizzeria a lot for lunch. But there were usually long lines for the grill. Which brings me to another thing. Again, long lines!! There were usually long lines for the buffet and grill. Peak times (around noon) were the worst; but we ate at different times and there were usually always lines. We kind of forgot about the deli, so we didn’t eat there. I ate at the Oriental place once (kind of forgot about that one too) and it was good. The room service menu did not have much, but the service was very quick.

 

 

 

Shows

 

We didn’t go to all of the shows. We thought, overall, the comedians were pretty good (their R-rated shows). We didn’t care too much for the first Las Vegas style show; I think we were a little too young for the music. But other seemed to enjoy it. The second (80s) was good. The break-dancers were excellent! Valor Idol was a neat show; although, we only had five people participate.

 

 

 

Nassau

 

Not sure what you should do here. We didn’t want to go to Paradise Island and spend a lot of money if we were going to be in port for only a few hours. So we went to Cable beach. All of the hotels had beach chairs in front of them. We didn’t see anyone lying on towels so we sat down in one of the chairs. But when the beach started to get crowed and hotel guests were looking for chairs, I felt guilty and we got up and left.

 

 

 

St. Thomas

 

This was our favorite port. We took a tour through Godfrey. It was great; I would highly recommend him! Some of the islands had their “Carnival” going on last week, so downtown St. Thomas was very busy and some parts blocked off. So we skipped the shopping part of the tour. He took us to a few lookout points, including the Mountaintop. He drove us on a tour of the island. And then he dropped of those who wanted to go to the beach for two hours. I was set on going to Magen’s Bay, but he talked us into Coki. He said it was 3x clearer. I was glad he did. Coki was a beautiful beach and we had a great time. I think he dropped some people off in downtown if they really wanted to go shopping. Normally, he would have taken the tour for a two-hour shopping portion at the beginning of the tour. If you go to Coki and want drinks or food, go to the little bar at the back. It has the word “mailman” or something in the title. It is much cheaper and the bartender is great. He was squirting moonshine in everyone’s mouth (so be careful if he tells you to “open up”)

 

 

 

St. Maarten

 

We took a cab to Orient Beach. Advice- don’t take a cab with 3 or less people; it is $18 per person each way! If you fill the cab with at least 4 people, it goes down to $6 per person (8+ = $5). If you are bringing children, this would probably not be the beach for you. There were a lot of topless women. On the far side of the beach is Club Orient (clothing optional). Many of the nudists were not afraid to cross the stone line and walk along the regular beach without clothing! We thought it was quite amusing; but you might want to be careful with children. We sat in front of the Pirate Bar. You could get 2 beach chairs, an umbrella, and two free rum punches for $14. In my opinion, it was worth it. Their food was also very good, and prices were very reasonable. I think frozen and mixed drinks were $4 and beers were $2. We had a ribs and chicken platter and it was $9.

 

 

 

Overall, a great trip! If you are going on the Valor, you should have a great time. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[MamaParrotHead]

thanks so much for taking the time to write the review. 3 weeks from today we'll be in Nassau on the Valor! woo hoo!:D

[MizzouMary]

Hello, and thanks for the great review. I have a question about Orient Beach. Where did you have the cab driver let you off to go to the beach in front of the Pirate Bar? Also, did you notice any vans or larger vehicles for cabs? We have 7 in our group so we would end up with 4 in one car and 3 in the other. Thanks for your help.

[whines1]

where are the cheapest places on this trip to buy achol to bring home i will be on the valor next week and anything

[sunflwr19]

mfinn- Orient Beach is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Our cab dropped us off right behind Club Orient (there is a little parking lot) and we just walked over to the Pirate bar. And don't worry about fitting people in a cab. Most cabs were vans. Even the smaller vans will fit about 10 (they have those seats that fold down in the isles).

 

 

whines1- We didn't do much shopping. But I heard that downtown St. Maarten is always the best for liquor prices. Whatever you do, don't buy it on the ship; it is a few dollars more expensive for everything (in my opinion). We bought some at the shop as soon as you get off the ship. We could have probably found better deals downtown, but we were tired and didn't feel like making the trip. We paid 7.99 for Stoli's and 8.99 for absolut. But like I said, I'm sure the prices would be a dollar or so less downtown.

 

If you have any more questions, ask away!

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

thanks for the review. i am going on the valor but on the western caribbean. sounds like a nice ship :) did you go to the special dinning room? (i believe it is 20 dollars a person)

[sunflwr19]

We didn't go to Scarletts. But I have heard only good things about it.

[c85f9]

I also just returned from the APR24 sailing on the Valor and had a great time!! (I am 23) Just so you know, the cheapest place BY FAR to buy liquor is in downtown St. Maarten. Just hop the water taxi (right off the pier-only $5 round trip) and hit the main street, Absolute was only $5.95, way cheaper than anywhere else! Hope this helps!