Cruise-ginity lost on Carnival’s Victory – 10/7-10/14 Review

[trippingpara]

I want to thank you for posting this review. The Pics are AMAZING. The Victory was our first ship and it is also the most recent Carnival Ship I have been on. She was just as good on cruise number 8 as she was on cruise number 1. Your pictures make me feel like I am there one more time!!!

 

Thank you so much, I really appreciate the kind words. We can't wait to go on her again!

[trippingpara]

I have read a lot of discussion in regards to whether or not one can see stars at night when at sea. I have spent a lot of time at sea as a Marine and was always amazed at the nighttime sky and couldn't wait to show my wife what it truly looked like.

 

If you are anywhere aft of the bridge (Serenity decks, Lido Deck, etc.) you will only see the brightest stars just like you would in the city. However, when we went to the secret deck on Deck 7 (forward and just below the bridge), we could see a ton more! The entire forward bow section of the ship is blacked out so the ship's officers can see clearly at night (you will see the red lights that are on in the bridge so they won't lose their nightvision by having regular lights on). It took us a few minutes to see them all as our eyes adjusted to the darkness. You are still getting some ambient light coming from the back of the ship that will lessen the sharpness and clarity of the stars but you will still way more than you will ever see in a city. We could even faintly make out the Milky Way band.

 

If you go out onto the secret decks on Decks 7 or 6, a word of caution. There are no lights on the deck and there are stairwells leading down to the decks below. It is very easy to accidentally fall down those stairs if you are not paying attention. I would suggest going out there and then stopping for a couple minutes just outside the door you entered the secret deck through before you move around. This will allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness before you walk around. You will then be able to clearly see the stairwell as well as the stacked loungers.

[trippingpara]

Tuesday, Oct. 9th – Somewhere in the Caribbean Sea

 

Ahh, finally a morning with beeping or crowing roosters! (My travel alarm clock beeps and my DW's phone has an alarm that crows like a rooster - there is no chance of sleeping through those two alarms!!) Since we had no port to hurry up and get to, we decided to eat a relaxing breakfast in the MDR. We were accustomed to eating at a table for two for dinner so we were surprised when they escorted us to a table for 8. Luckily for us, though we were seated with 3 other very pleasant couples. The funny part is, 3 of us were all in the same industry – small world!

 

We actually spent most of the day chilling in the pools (yes, we have heard all the stories about the pools – since we are divers, we know what is actually in the waters that everyone flocks to and has no problem jumping into. Thus, we are not scared away from a pool). Any ways, we did get a chance to see the Newlywed Game. Friggin’ hilarious!! Gotta love people, they will say the darnest things! We tried to go see the adult seating for the comic, but it was packed, standing room only. Guess we need to go to the Adriatic Lounge more than 15 minutes before show time.

[trippingpara]

Ice Carving

 

 

Sea Day is also the first formal night and the parade of photographers on the Promenade Deck. We had decided to do this formal night right since it was our first cruise and first formal night. So I dusted off my trusty tux with a white dinner jacket and polished up my black and white spats. My DW whipped up a tasty little blue dress that matched my blue bowtie nicely.

 

I didn't see anyone in the MDR that was not dressed up to some extent. Some had dress shirts and slacks while other guys had suits and there were several that had tuxes on. There were also a couple in full military dress including a Marine in his dress blues Ooorah!!)

 

Here's me chilling out at the Serenity Deck after dinner celebrating our 15th anniversary with a little bubbly.

 

My DW

[BenjiRodney]

Loving the pictures getting me excited to do this again in 2 weeks.

[trippingpara]

Loving the pictures getting me excited to do this again in 2 weeks.

 

Thank you so much. Any chance you can sneak my DW and I onboard with you?

[Coolcruise02]

I feel your pain about the split football household!

 

Our family is life time BROWNS fans and our DD goes and marries a guy from Pittsburgh! Somehow they work it out. :)

[Melismass]

Great Great Great Review! Your pictures are some of the best I have seen. Cant wait to see the rest of your port pictures. Im getting ready to visit several of those ports myself in 97 days, but whose counting!

Edited October 22, 2012 by Melismass

[trippingpara]

Great Great Great Review! Your pictures are some of the best I have seen. Cant wait to see the rest of your port pictures. Im getting ready to visit several of those ports myself in 97 days, but whose counting!

 

Thank you so much, I really appreciate the kind words! I will do my best to keep them coming! I underestimated how long it would take to sort through the photos and to write the review. Oh vey!

[trippingpara]

I feel your pain about the split football household!

 

Our family is life time BROWNS fans and our DD goes and marries a guy from Pittsburgh! Somehow they work it out. :)

 

My dad always told me that I was born wearing a Browns jersey. Unfortunately my oldest sister is a hardcore Steelers fan (I think she did it to spite me and my father). So by the time I married a Steelers fan, I was already pretty accustomed to living in a split household.

 

Now if we could just get those Browns to start winning....

[ibcnusoon]

Great review, I'm subscribing! Looking forward to sailing her in 27 days!! :D

[trippingpara]

Great review, I'm subscribing! Looking forward to sailing her in 27 days!! :D

 

Thank you! You are going to love it!

[kimmyg726]

Great review and your pictures are awesome!

 

We were getting on the ship as you were getting off. It's great to hear what other folks think of the same cruise.

 

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review!

Kim

[sweetcurves]

I have had my eye on this cruise for a long time...I love the idea of so many ports on so many pretty islands.

 

Thanks for the review and pics!

[trippingpara]

Wednesday, Oct. 10th – Bridgetown, Barbados

 

This was our second diving island. We got up early and headed for breakfast on the Lido Deck. After grabbing some grub and wolfing it down, we promptly got off the ship as soon as the gangway came down.

 

The Barbados Coast Guard part of the Barbados Defence Force

 

Breakwater Harbor

 

This was actually taken on our return to the ship

 

We quickly found Andrew from EcoDive standing where he said he would be. We all hopped into his truck and he gave us a little tour of Bridgetown as we drove to his shop (right on the wharf near the Chamberlain Bridge). Once we were at his shop and kitted out with all of our equipment, signed all of our waivers and agreements, were we ready to hit the water. Andrew gave us a great pre-dive briefing and ensured that everyone understood the plan and verified our abilities (it was me and DW, a couple from Ireland and their friend who is also from Ireland but now lives in Connecticut).

 

Once all of the I's were dotted and T's were crossed, we headed out.

 

Cruising south out of the wharf next to Chamberlain Bridge.

 

 

It was about a 5 to 10 minute boat ride out to our dive spot. The first dive was in the Carlisle Marine Park to see the 6 wrecks laying there (the Eillon, the Bajan Queen, the Berwyn, the Ce-Trek, the Cornwallis and the Barge). They are all sitting right by each other and are in fairly shallow water (between 15' to 50').

 

We saw plenty of chubs, snappers, cardinals, sergeant majors and other reef dwellers playing around the wrecks.

Edited October 23, 2012 by trippingpara

[trippingpara]

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second dive was a drift dive on a reef near the old fort. The conditions here were a bit choppier so we backrolled off the boat together and did a free descent as a group to the top of the reef. We cruised down along the side of the reef and saw spotted eels, moray eels, a couple of Barbados Turtles, some large reef squids, some flounders and a ton of various reef dwellers. Both dives were great and Andrew and his crew were great. We highly recommend EcoDive Barbados.

 

Since both parties (me and DW and the Irish trio) had cameras, Andrew didn’t dive with his. Traditionally he dives with it and takes photos for everyone and sends them the photos. I wish he did as the batteries in my camera died part way into our first dive and I didn’t have any spare batteries with me on the boat. Dooh!!!

[trippingpara]

After the dives, we rinsed our gear and changed into dry clothes. Andrew offered to drive us back to the cruise terminal but we wanted to see some of Bridgetown so we headed off on foot. We walked up the wharf a little bit and crossed the Chamberlain Bridge and snapped a few photos there. Right at the base of the bridge is Hero’s Square and their Parliament Building. After snapping a few dozen more photos, we then headed through downtown back towards the cruise terminal.

 

Chamberlain Bridge

 

The Parliament Building

 

WWI Memorial

 

Statute of Horatio Nelson

 

Downtown Bridgetown

 

Near the terminal, we stopped at Pelican Village which is a large crafts centre with brightly colored buildings with locally made wares.

 

Pelican Village

 

We found a nice little restaurant to eat some lunch in. We were just in time. Shortly after entering the building a squall quickly lashed out and slammed into Bridgetown. By the time we were done with lunch, the rain squalls were over and the sun was back out.

 

We continued our walk back to the cruise terminal, took a few more photos, hit the stores for some souvenirs and boarded the Victory. After dropping everything off in our room we went topside to start our watch for any pier runners. We ended up not seeing too many. Bummer.

 

Again we went to dinner in the Atlantic Room. By the way, anyone that had Anytime Dining was assigned to the main level of the Atlantic Dining Room. Those with assigned times were either on the main level of the Pacific Dining Room or the second level of both dining rooms. I had read that previous Anytime Dining was always assigned to the second level of the Atlantic Dining Room.

 

We always requested to be sat with Ioan, Frank and Lazerina as our dining staff. They were great. They weren’t as funny as some of the other dining staff (there was one by us that loved to dance with the passengers – it was friggin’ hilarious to watch!). But they were extremely efficient and fast, so we stuck with them. Being a couple, we were always seated at a table for two. Now don’t get too excited thinking that you can get a nice quaint table for two like you can at your local romantic restaurant. If you so much as stretch, you’ll smack the guy at the table next to you in the noggin. Which really is not recommended. However, we were always very lucky and were placed next to some very nice couples (like Texas Rod and Keri).

 

Anywho…after dinner we just chilled about the ship until it was time for the Vroom show. It’s their Vegas-style show. I wasn’t too excited to see this but my DW really wanted to, soooo off we went. Since dancing and musicals rank right up there with nails on a chalkboard for me, I didn’t have high hopes for this show. There is nothing I hate more than watching a show where they suddenly break out into a song and start dancing in the street. I mean, come on!! Who the heck starts singing and dancing in the middle of the friggin’ street?! Sorry…there goes one of my tirades again.

 

Actually, the show was surprising good. It was funny to see that the two lead singers (the male and the female) were the leaders of the Safety Debriefing at our Muster Station. Anyways, the music was really good (more rock and roll stuff that I like) and the dancers were pretty good (I guess – heck I thought Elaine danced great in Seinfeld!). So you may not want to take my opinion of the show but my wife did like it a lot.

 

After the show, we hung out on the Serenity Deck in the hot tub and watched the night sky go by. Ahh…what a life!

[UATLB]

thanks for sharing

[trippingpara]

Thursday, Oct. 11th – Castries, St. Lucia

 

This was the day that we were very curious about. We had booked a tour with a group (that will remain nameless at the moment since we are still trying to work things out with them – I’m giving them the opportunity to fix it…if they don’t you will definitely see some postings on that group!). Any ways, they had charged our credit card twice for the excursion (sea and land tour of St. Lucia) a couple weeks before the cruise. That was a pretty good chunk of change! Since it still wasn’t resolved (or at least we could no longer tell since we couldn’t check our bank account during the cruise), we were curious on how the actual trip would be.

 

Anyways, we were told to meet them by the Information Desk inside the terminal and that they will have a sign at 8:15. We were there at 8:05 by the Information Desk and there was no sign. A good dozen or more signs from other tour operators, but not for the one we were looking for. No problem, we were early, we’ll just be patient. 8:45 still no sign of them. At 9:00 a guy shows up and says that he is with that tour group (he had no sign with him nor any other way to identify him as being with that tour group). He then tells us that he is supposed to be meeting another couple there from the ship. So we start waiting. He still has no sign. So I ask him, how is that couple supposed to know that he is for that tour group. Simple, he replies, the lady at the information desk will point me out to them. And what if they don’t go to the information desk, I ask. He just looks at me with a blank stare…sorta reminiscent of a deer in headlights. He finally goes to the Information Desk, grabs a piece of paper and hand writes the tour group name on it. I give my wife the ‘oh crap’ look.

 

After waiting 30 more minutes, he calls his boss and then tells us, let’s go. So we walk a couple dozen yards to a waiting boat. We hope in and he rockets it across the bay to pick up two more couples that have also been waiting for him. The two couples quickly board our little water taxi and our guide rockets off again. And when I say ‘rockets off’, I mean rockets off. I thought we had just entered some boat race and all I can envision is our boat being lifted into the air and smashing into a gazillion splinters like you see on America’s Most Dangerous Disasters or some show like that.

 

I try to shake that vision out of my head and just concentrate on the beauty that is St. Lucia. Luckily that wasn’t too hard as St. Lucia is an incredibly beautiful island. We blast our way around the island as our guide shouts out sights along the shore. We soon find ourselves sitting in Marigot Bay staring at the homes of Mick Jagger, Oprah Winfrey, Nicholas Cage and the like. Must be nice to have a vacation home on St. Lucia!

 

Nicolas Cage's house

 

Oprah's House

 

After checking out the sights there, we’re back off and rocketing towards the mighty Pitons. Within a matter of a few minutes, we’re slowly cruising into Jalousie Beach under the watchful gaze of the two Pitons. We then throw on some fins with mask and snorkel and roll on into the gorgeous water for some snorkeling. I’ve heard that snorkeling there is not that great so I wasn’t expecting too much. Our guide told us that Hurricane Ivan pretty much whipped out all of the coral there but it has been growing back ever since.

 

The mighty Pitons

 

Snorkeling in Jalousie Beach

 

 

 

We spent about an hour snorkeling there. Once we piled back onto the boat, we were off and running again. This time, our next stop was the city of Soufriere. We docked, jumped off the boat and crammed ourselves into a van for the ride up the mountain to see the volcano and mud baths. The mud baths were a bit touristy but what the heck, when in Rome….

[trippingpara]

So we strip down to our bathing suits and I go to climb into the mud bath. I didn’t realize that it was as deep as it was nor that there were steps into it (the water was black as black, you couldn’t see anything in it). Needless to say, I fell into the pool and smacked my kidney on the corner of the steps. Son of a….holy macaroni that hurt Batman!! As I sit here typing almost two weeks later and I am still having back problems from that fall. Take away: anybody going to the mud baths be very careful and remember that the steps are in the corner of the pool. Do not try to enter from the side!!

 

Anyways, after we’re mudded up, we go to the showers and wash off. We then hop back into the van for a short drive to a volcanically heated waterfall and pools. We were able to climb into a small cave behind the falls. That was extremely cool (and rather romantic if you’re so inclined). Are hanging out under the waterfalls, we then swam around in the heated pools.

 

 

 

 

After we left the pools and waterfall, we headed back down to Soufriere for some lunch and to see the sights.

 

 

 

My DW trying to pick up another stray

[SoonerOne]

Let's try this again...

This is one of the most beautiful pictures I've seen. Love it.:D

[ibcnusoon]

I've heard nothing but problems with every private tour operator in St. Lucia so we decided to just book a ship-sponsored tour to Jalouise beach and the Pitons and be done with it, if we have problems, we'll take it up with the cruise line.

 

Curious to hear who this tour operator was that you took in St. Lucia. I have an idea, there aren't that many that have Land and Sea excursions.

[trippingpara]

This is one of the most beautiful pictures I've seen. Love it.:D

 

Thank you so much. Its one of my favorites too!

[trippingpara]

I've heard nothing but problems with every private tour operator in St. Lucia so we decided to just book a ship-sponsored tour to Jalouise beach and the Pitons and be done with it, if we have problems, we'll take it up with the cruise line.

 

Curious to hear who this tour operator was that you took in St. Lucia. I have an idea, there aren't that many that have Land and Sea excursions.

 

Unfortunately I hadn't heard any problems with this tour operator and they had great reviews on Trip Advisor. We just gave them today as our drop dead date to refund us the amount that they over charged. After that, we're turning it over to our bank as a fraudulent charge and let them go after them. They will then no longer be able to say that they don't have any bad reviews on Trip Advisor!!

 

I was looking at two other operators and I now really wish I went with one of them! Oh well, you live and learn.

[trippingpara]

Curious to hear who this tour operator was that you took in St. Lucia. I have an idea, there aren't that many that have Land and Sea excursions.

 

Well I just found out that they are now out of business so we are turning this over to our bank as a fraudulent charge. I hear that they may be trying to come back in business so take this as a hard-earned lesson.

 

The tour group that we had booked with, double billed us and has since refused to refund us the money back is Son of Man Tours out of Soufriere.

 

They must have just gone out of business as there are positive reviews as late as the week prior to us. Well, I'll be sure to leave a not so positive review for them.