Carnival Victory June 10-17 - Southern Caribbean plus Pre Cruise **pics**

[cojuqui]

Hi Cojuqui,

is there anyway you can let me know of the website where you printed out the map with the trails and details of el yunque? we are visiting in august and are also doing pre cruise renting a car and im having such a hard time even finding the exact addresses. This map would be of great help once we are inside atleast. Thanks! and im loving your review i Cant wait to read more:)

 

Thanks. I am enjoying writing it and reliving my trip.

Go to puerto rico day trips dot com. all one word

 

then type /el-yunque-trail-map/

 

Hope this works for you. That site is great for info about PR.

 

 

Connie

 

PAST CRUISES:

 

Celebrity Solstice 6/26/09 Eastern Mediterranean

Carnival Conquest 08/10/10 Eastern Caribbean

Carnival Victory 06/10/12 Southern Caribbean

[WiCruiseDreamer]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this review. I love the pictures and am looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

Candy

[cojuqui]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this review. I love the pictures and am looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

Candy

 

 

Thank you so much, I am glad you are enjoying it. You never know how much detail and pictures people want. I hope it's enough but not too much.

 

 

 

Connie

 

PAST CRUISES:

 

Celebrity Solstice 6/26/09 Eastern Mediterranean

Carnival Conquest 08/10/10 Eastern Caribbean

Carnival Victory 06/10/12 Southern Caribbean

[ymillo]

Thanks. I am enjoying writing it and reliving my trip.

Go to puerto rico day trips dot com. all one word

 

then type /el-yunque-trail-map/

 

Hope this works for you. That site is great for info about PR.

 

 

Connie

 

PAST CRUISES:

 

Celebrity Solstice 6/26/09 Eastern Mediterranean

Carnival Conquest 08/10/10 Eastern Caribbean

Carnival Victory 06/10/12 Southern Caribbean

Youre great thanks soo much:)

[cruisenv]

Loving your review! Your photos are wonderful. Can't wait to read and see more.

[cojuqui]

Youre great thanks soo much:)

 

You're very welcome. I'm glad it worked for you. Hopefully you can get some other tips and such from that site.

 

Thanks "cruisenv". Glad you're enjoying it!!!!

 

 

 

Connie

 

PAST CRUISES:

 

Celebrity Solstice 6/26/09 Eastern Mediterranean

Carnival Conquest 08/10/10 Eastern Caribbean

Carnival Victory 06/10/12 Southern Caribbean

[hockeyluver]

.

 

 

DD, 2 nieces and I went to the secret deck on Deck 9. We had great views of El Morro lit up at night as we sailed by. It was so beautiful.

 

.

 

how was the view from deck 9? We are booked in one of the 4J cabins on that deck. One of those windows will be our home for 9 days :)

 

Loving your review, even though we are doing a different itinerary I have been to all your ports and I am enjoying seeing them again. I would love to go out of San Juan one day and spend a few days precruise, thanks to your pictures and review.

[cojuqui]

how was the view from deck 9? We are booked in one of the 4J cabins on that deck. One of those windows will be our home for 9 days :)

 

Loving your review, even though we are doing a different itinerary I have been to all your ports and I am enjoying seeing them again. I would love to go out of San Juan one day and spend a few days precruise, thanks to your pictures and review.

 

The view from Deck 9 was great. You are going to love it I'm sure. We were in a 4B on Riviera and even that view was nice. Sailing out of San Juan was fantastic. DH and I have said already that we want to do this itinerary again without the kids someday and do some different activities.

[gelo7]

Great review.

[cojuqui]

Today was our only sea day. Still woke up fairly early and headed to the track for an early morning walk. I wandered around the ship a bit too.

 

 

 

 

 

We decided we were going to have breakfast in the dining room since there was no where we had to be at a certain time. I ordered the Eggs Benedict. I was a little worried after reading some reviews on them being served cold and dry but I was pleasantly surprised. They were delicious with a side of corned beef and some bacon. Delicious. Later in the morning I checked out the Trivia Fun Challenge. It ended up being about current and past laws in different countries and then states. I tanked big time, but it was fun hearing about the different laws. Before lunch we went to the Shopping Show and found it very interesting. All the deals to be had at the different ports sounded pretty good. I wasn’t really in the market for anything special but fun to listen anyway. We had lunch at the buffet and finished up just in time for my sister and I to participate in the Digital Scavenger Hunt.

 

Strawberries in a tuxedo

 

 

See evil, hear no evil, speak no evil **bonus**

 

 

 

Human pyramid **bonus**

 

 

 

We came in second place. It was pretty close. The winners scored 55 and we scored 50 points. Fun tracking down different items and getting people to pose for pictures for us. It was great to do something with her.

 

 

 

Connie

 

PAST CRUISES:

 

Celebrity Solstice 6/26/09 Eastern Mediterranean

Carnival Conquest 08/10/10 Eastern Caribbean

Carnival Victory 06/10/12 Southern Caribbean

[snoodel]

Hey Connie,

Loving the review so far. :)

My wife and I are doing the Victory this September on our first B2B.

Can you tell me what the one thing you highly recomend to do in the ports would be?

And anything we should skip?

Thanks.

[Coolcruise02]

Great review, can't wait for more!

[AtoZgirl]

Yay!!! Another Victory review :)

[cojuqui]

Sea Day Continued.

A couple of us wanted to go to the Diamond and Gemstone show so I went along. . It was very interesting learning about different diamonds and you guessed it, gemstones. I had wanted to check out the Love and Marriage show but never made it there. I had also wanted to meet up with a few people from the Roll Call but didn’t find them. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with the family. DH, my sister and I played the Music Trivia Challenge and we won a gold ship on a stick.

 

 

It was a fun time for us to figure out songs and sing along.

 

Tonight was the first Elegant night. We got all dressed up and planned to take some pictures before dinner but it was so crowded that we didn’t get a chance to take them until after dinner. We were so concerned with us all fitting into a background and all we didn’t end up taking enough of combinations of us all as I would have liked to. When we were done, we were a little tired from being lined up and pushed that we never even thought to go somewhere with our cameras and take pictures of us all. If photos are important to you, don’t forget to take your own. Overall I was happy to have got the whole family picture of all of us together and then separate pictures of my mom and sisters and I. Those were the most important.

 

 

 

 

 

The sea day went by way to fast and before we knew it , it was time to head to our cabins and get ready for tomorrow.

[cojuqui]

Hey Connie,

Loving the review so far. :)

My wife and I are doing the Victory this September on our first B2B.

Can you tell me what the one thing you highly recomend to do in the ports would be?

And anything we should skip?

Thanks.

 

Thanks so much, I am glad people are enjoying it. So jealous that you will be doing a B2B, one day.....

Honestly I had been planning our activities since last November so I had pretty much planned the things that were on the top of my list. My top three would definitely be Barbados and swimming with the sea turtles (we did it on our own). Second would be St Maarten trying Snuba for the first time. We used Blue Bubbles Watersports and would highly recommend them. Third would be St Lucia and the Zipline. We booked directly with Treetop Adventures and paired it with their biking trip. A full day and worth every penny.

 

There was nothing that we did that I would skip. DH went to the Yoda museum in St Maarten while myself, my sisters and mom took the bus over to Maho Beach. He said he would skip it if given the choice again.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for the review and all the great pictures.

[momof3cruisers]

Thank you so much, I am glad you are enjoying it. You never know how much detail and pictures people want. I hope it's enough but not too much.

 

 

 

Connie

 

PAST CRUISES:

 

Celebrity Solstice 6/26/09 Eastern Mediterranean

Carnival Conquest 08/10/10 Eastern Caribbean

Carnival Victory 06/10/12 Southern Caribbean

I think you have a great balance. I love all the info on your pre cruise activities. Do you have more pics of areas around the ship? We'll be sailing her after she gets to Miami.

[erewhon]

Great review and photos, Thank you.

[cojuqui]

Barbados

Definitely one of the greatest and most memorable days of this trip. We were going on a segway ride, but not till 1 pm so we didn’t rush this morning too much. Apparently it is a habit now to get up early and walk a bit in the morning with my sister. Something I am really enjoying since I have only seen her twice in past 5 years. We made the trip to the buffet again this morning and loved every bite. I like that there have been a couple different things there each morning to spark my interest. After we ate, my group headed out and off the ship and walked to the Princess Alice Bus Terminal.

 

 

It was only about a 10 -15 minute walk and the view of the ocean while walking was great. We headed out of the port area thru the big archway and just kept walking past the craft shop area and the terminal was on the left hand side. We asked and a couple minutes later boarded the bus towards Speightstown. We were headed to Payne’s Bay to hopefully swim out and swim with the sea turtles. We told the driver where we wanted to get off and it was no problem. Probably about a half hour bus ride. Once we got off the bus, we walked between a couple hotels and arrived at a stunning beach!!! We rented a lounge chair for $5 and headed into the water. The swim was a bit far out to where a catamaran tour had arrived but I am a pretty good swimmer and was able to make it just fine.

 

 

I swam out first to see what kind of swim it was since DH isn’t as confident of a swimmer. He used a life vest I brought along and made it fine too, but it turned out when he went out, I had taken my youngest to the restroom and even though I swam out again, we missed each other out there and didn’t get to take each other’s pictures with the turtles. I still got some wonderful pictures. It was awe inspiring swimming with the turtles.

 

 

 

Definitely a bucket list moment that I will never forget. I would have loved to be in a photo with one but am super happy to have had the experience. The kids were happy enough snorkeling around and swimming on the shore, they didn’t feel confident enough to swim out. We hung out there on the beach a while and then reluctantly decided it was time to catch the bus and head back to the ship for our 1 o’clock pick up time with Segway Barbados. Catching the bus back to Bridgetown was no problem.

 

 

We arrived back at Princess Alice Bus Terminal with plenty of time to head back to the ship.

[cojuqui]

Our driver picked us up just outside the terminal as planned and we headed off for about a 45 minute ride. The scenery was beautiful as we pulled up to the spot where we got our Segway training and started our ride.

 

 

We all got comfortable very quickly and the guides were wonderful.

 

 

We rode along the beaches and cliffs for about an hour and a half with perfect spots for photos.

 

 

 

I would definitely recommend take a tour with Jason and the folks at Segway Barbados.

 

 

We arrived back at the port in time to look around a bit and get back on board. A friend of mine gave me some drink coupons so we had fun and got a souvenir coconut monkey with one of them. A yummy blue margarita.

 

 

We checked out the Karaoke party had a blast watching all the “performers”. Perfect way to end the day.

[lala364]

Loving your review and pictures! It is a dream cruise.

[cojuqui]

St. Lucia]

we had full day of adventure schedule thru Treetops Adventure Park. All 12 of us were doing some combination of hiking, mountain biking and ziplining. Our guide, Lisa, met us at the dock at 8:30 a.m. We got all of our waivers signed..sooooo many waivers and headed off to board our van. It was our group and then another group (of 7), surprisingly also from Florida where all of our group is originally from. The drive across the island to Dennery was about an hour and a half or so. St Lucia is without a doubt one of the most beautiful places I have seen. So lush and green. The drive was crazy. Lots of steep hills and curves. So many things told to us about the island on the way there. Lots of damage still evident from Hurricane Tomas back in 2010. We learned about the banana crops also. Very interesting. We got to Treetops Adventure Park and unloaded and got stowed all of our belongings in lockers and were advised to hit the restrooms before we started. We all got helmets issued and then picked out our bikes.

 

 

The ride started off with some pretty steep hills. I’m not gonna lie, I got off my bike and pushed. After that initial hill, there were some good up and downs.

 

 

We stopped several times with a water break and learned a lot about the fruit trees. Our guide Michael, crushed fresh nutmeg for us to smell and then peeled some bark off a cinnamon tree and we got to chew it. He pulled off some neat fern type leaves and when tapped on your arm, it leaves a white tattoo. Everyone thought that was pretty cool to do.

 

 

We took a break after a while and hiked down to a beautiful waterfall area and those who wanted to could swim. I hadn’t read about the swimming part or I would have been prepared with my suit under my clothes. DH and one DS went for a swim and climbed the falls.

 

 

After that it was back on the bikes and we got a coconut demonstration where Michael opened the coconut with a machete and we got to drink from it. Very cool experience.

 

 

From there the ride was less strenuous back to starting point where lunch was waiting for us.

 

Edited July 1, 2012 by cojuqui
Add pic

[cojuqui]

We had the choice of BBQ Chicken, Fish, Hamburger or Hot Dogs. Great opportunity to try banana ketchup. We also purchased some. After lunch it was time to get our harnesses and gloves and head to the zipline portion of our day.

 

 

There were 12 cables all together. Some were longer than others of course. I think the longest was just over 800 ft and several were over 150 high. Great experience.

 

 

My mom is 78 did a great job. She had someone helping her at first until she got used to what to do and then she was off.

 

 

Our whole group loved it all. The scenery from above the trees was breathtaking. DH and I had ziplined in Costa Rica a couple years ago and we both mentioned we enjoyed this more. The group on the ziplines were great. Other than the initial wait getting started we all moved through the lines quickly and everyone was very friendly.

 

 

We took group pictures at the end of the day and we all looked a little rough around the edges. Our ride back to the port was “spiced” up a bit by Lisa bringing out a bottle of homemade spiced rum. All the adults took a shot. It was spicy for sure but delicious. We got a chance to see some awesome scenery and see a spot where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed.

 

 

The day was long but well worth it. We got back on board a little after 3:30 and got cleaned up.

[cojuqui]

Before dinner DH and I went and played a Movie Trivia game. We won another gold ship on a stick. Good times. I will say however there were only two other teams playing against us. Tonight was the second elegant night and some of us ate in the main dining room again.

 

 

 

 

I had been waiting to wear my dress and shoes. Ladies, you’ll understand. I bought the shoes back in January after happening upon them on sale and just fell in love with them. I had something specific in mind to wear with them but didn’t find it until April so was excited to wear tonight’s outfit.

 

 

 

We hung out in the Piano Bar again and then watched some more Karaoke tonight. Late night we decided to get a snack that we really didn’t need of course.

 

 

What a wonderful day.

[RuthlessBoss]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm exhausted:D