My very detailed Carnival Victory review from December 9-16, 2012

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[deladane]

Enjoying your review, looking forward to more of it.

 

Thanks! There's plenty more to come soon, I promise! :)

 

 

Thanks for the review!

 

Thanks :)

[boaterette]

I love your review.

[dnmccoy]

Tagging this...we are planning on doing the southern after the western

[Mrs.C05]

Great review. Looking forward to reading more.

[deladane]

Tagging this...we are planning on doing the southern after the western

 

I love your review.

 

 

Thanks!! :)

[deladane]

Great review. Looking forward to reading more.

 

Thanks!! :)

[deladane]

Sorry it's taking so long to get the review posted. Unfortunately, I've been working all week and I can't work on the review while at work :( I promise to get a bit more posted tonight, and I will have lots more photos to post once I get to the part where I am on the ship! :) Thanks for your patience!! :)

[JennN]

Looking forward to the rest! We go out of PR on the Valor in April (our second time on the ship) and while my friend lives in PR and I was there in 2003 (and swam in the bio bay!), it's super helpful to read about PR and your experience. Looking forward to reading about embarkation and the rest :)

 

Thanks again!

[deladane]

The next stop was for lunch at a restaurant inside the rainforest (literally 3 minutes down the road from the last waterfall).

 

The restaurant:

 

The menu:

 

Breadfruit:

 

They had a wide variety of food for such a small restaurant, including chicken or pork shish kabobs for $6, and a few different local food items. The food was not included in the cost of the excursion, so be sure to either bring money to buy lunch, or bring some food with you on the bus (as Beth and I did, since we didn't want to risk not liking the food options and being starved all day! haha) We had about an hour to eat, and then got back on the bus to drive out to the bioluminescent bay for the kayaking portion of our trip. The drive took about 45 minutes, and when we arrived, they gave us some time to get changed into bathing suits, put on lots of bug spray, and pay for the excursion with either cash or a credit card. Then they handed out the life vests and helped us put them on, and they gave us a brief explanation on where we would be going through the mangrove canal out to the bay.

 

The map of where we kayaked on the tour:

 

 

 

We had 4 different instructors to help us throughout the excursion, and one of them had a camera to take photos of us along the way. I also brought along my waterproof camera, which came in handy later in the night (stay tuned to find out why!)

[deladane]

We paired up and the instructors helped us get into our kayaks, and then we paddled across the marina to enter the canal. Our tour left the docks around 6:30pm, so it was still somewhat light out, but by the time we got through the canal, it was totally dark. Paddling inside the canal was a bit scary because the branches from the mangroves came out into the water, and it was hard to see where they were so we kept crashing into the branches! Also, we often heard the sound of something plopping into the water, and we later found out that we were kayaking passed some flying fish! The kayaks had lights hanging off the front and back, so we used that light to guide us through the canal, and eventually we made it out into the bio bay.

 

The instructors gathered us up and explained that the bioluminescence occurs when the phytoplankton in the water get stirred up, and they give off a glow. It was a pretty, sparkling effect, and you could especially see it if you dropped some water on your dark bathing suit. With all the research I did, I anticipated that the entire bay would be glowing, but the effect wasn't nearly that bright. Nonetheless, it was still interesting to see, especially considering how rare this plankton is and how few places in the world have it. Here is a photo of us in the kayaks as taken by the instructors:

 

 

After a few minutes kayaking around the bay, it was time to head back into the canal. Unlike our trip out, it was now pitch black outside and impossible to see where the mangroves were. Also, there were now other kayakers entering the bay on their tours, so we had to make space for two-directional traffic in the alraedy-too-narrow canal! It was seriously like kamikaze kayaking! Every man for himself! We kept crashing into the mangroves and into the other boats, and then there would be a pile up of multiple boats! I even got hit with an oar a few times! Fortunately, no one fell in the water, but even if we did, it wouldn't have mattered much because the water is only 2 feet deep in the canal. The instructors told us that if we fell in, we should just stand up instead of splashing around and freaking out that we might drown haha This is where my underwater camera came in handy... I used the flash from the camera to see where we were going! Here is a great photo to capture the moment as we crashed into a tree:

 

 

Overall, it was a great experience and looking back on it, it was a lot of fun, but while I was in the canal, I was definitely freaking out a bit! We wore our aqua socks and bathing suits under the life vest. I would recommend only wearing things that can get wet because we were SOAKED by the time we finished. Also, I would recommend doing the 6pm tour instead of the 8pm tour because at least we had some daylight on the way out to the bay. I can't imagine going both directions in the pitch black! Here is the group photo from after the tour:

 

 

After we got out of the kayaks, they gave us about 10 minutes to change into dry clothes, and then we rode for an hour and a half back to OSJ and were dropped off at our hotels. Beth and I were dropped off at Plaza Colon at 9:30pm, and we were starving! The big festival was going strong at that point, so we had to squeeze through all the people to get down the street and back to our hotel. We dropped off our bags and wet towels, and headed back downstairs in search of something for dinner. After checking out all of our options, we ended up back at Siglo's restaurant (the place we had our second breakfast that morning). Outside the restaurant, they had a huge thing of paella mariscos which they were serving for $5 per plate. I had actually wanted paella the previous evening at Barrachina, so this really hit the spot, and you can't beat the price for the size serving they gave me! I didn't even finish it!

 

 

I forgot to include this photo earlier, but this is what Siglo's Restaurant looked like from the outside. It's kind of annoying that they still had the stand set up outside from the street festival, but you get the idea of the blue shingled roof.

 

 

 

After dinner, we went back to the hotel to rest up for embarkation day on Sunday!

[deladane]

Hi everyone! I just needed to vent my frustration... This morning, I typed up a long post all about embarkation day and added in 6 photos, and when I hit submit, an error page popped up! When I clicked on the back arrow to go to the previous page, of course the entire post was deleted. I spent a solid half hour fighting with the cruise critic website trying to get it to load properly but I just kept getting tons of error messages. Eventually, I had to give up and leave for work. I see that I am able to submit posts now from work, so fingers crossed that it's still working by the time I get home and have access to my photos to continue on with my review! If so, you can all look forward to lots of ship pictures from embarkation day :)

[LynnAnne]

Thank you

[Kak86]

Can't wait for the next installment.

;)

[deladane]

Day 4- Embarkation day

After months of planning, embarkation day finally arrived! We went up to the roof of the hotel and sure enough, we saw the top of the ship peaking over the buildings:

 

 

The hotel did offer a breakfast on their roof deck, but they charged $5 and only offered fruit, dry cereal, and a few danishes, so we decided to go back to Siglo's for breakfast. I got a cheese omelette with some of the best whole wheat bread I've ever had!:

 

 

Then we went back to the hotel, we asked the guy at the front desk to call us a taxi, and went upstairs to grab our bags. By the time we got back downstairs and checked out, the taxi arrived. It drove us 4 blocks and two avenues down to the cruise terminal, and we paid $15 plus $1 for each suitcase. We arrived at terminal 4 at 9:55am and the passengers from the previous cruise were still debarking. We were directed to wait in a line behind some barricades, and there was only one family in front of us. Clearly we arrived very early, but we figured we may as well just go to the terminal because we had nothing else to do at the hotel anyway!

 

They opened the doors to let us inside at 10:55am, and there were probably only 20 people total in line at that point. We went upstairs, took the embarkation photos, and immediately went to check in. There was no wait at all for checking in, and there were multiple Carnival employees on hand to keep things moving smoothly. By the time we checked in, 3 large parties had gone ahead of us and we got zone 2 for boarding. We sat in the waiting area until 12:40pm. At that point, we decided to see what was in the duty free store. They had a half liter of Finlandia vodka for $4, so we figured it was worth a shot (no pun intended!) and we bought it with hopes of successfully sneaking it onto the ship. At 12:45pm they called boarding zones 1-5, so I rushed to finish paying for the vodka and we got in the security line. After going through the metal detectors, I put the vodka in my backpack and we proceeded up the ramp to board the ship. Outside on deck 3, they had a table set up to take the liquor bottles but we just walked passed it and went straight to the sign and sail card photo, and then boarded the ship. We were on board around 1:15pm and went straight to our cabin to drop off our carry on bags. Our cabin was ready so we unpacked a few things before going to find the maitre d about our dinner table assignments.

 

We had the early dinner time and were hoping for a large table so we could make some new friends, but were disappointed to hear we were assigned to a table for 2. We put in a request for a larger table and the maitre d told us she would let us know by 1pm on Monday via a letter in our cabin. Next we went to lido for lunch. I had the corned beef and pastrami combo on rye and a little salad:

 

 

 

I also got a DOD from one of the waiters who was walking around. The sandwich was good, although it would have been better if it was heated up, and the drink was fantastic!! After lunch, Beth wanted to stay on lido and watch the football game, and I went to walk around and explore the ship.

 

 

 

At around 3:30, we went back to our cabin to unpack. I traveled with only a carry on rolling bag and a backpack (because I was super paranoid about having my luggage lost when I changed planes either in JFK airport on the way there, or in ATL airport on the way home!), but Beth's checked suitcase was delivered when we got to the cabin.

 

Just an aside, the closets only had regular hangars, but not the kind with clips to hang skirts. We called guest services to request clip hangars and there were about 5 of them in the cabin when we got back from dinner. After unpacking, we spent a little more time on lido and then went back to the cabin to change for dinner.

[deladane]

Here are a few photos from our cabin... inside cabin on Empress Deck 7:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kclvt]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. We are on Valor in March!

[deladane]

Here are some more photos from around the ship:

 

Adriatic Lounge- Comedy Club

 

 

Club Arctic- Dance Club

 

 

Irish Sea- Piano Bar

 

 

Caspian Wine Bar

 

 

Internet Cafe

 

 

[deladane]

Lido Buffet

 

Casino

 

Seven Seas Lobby Bar

 

Sirens aft pool

 

Lido Pool (way too small, if you ask me!)

 

Clamshells on Serenity Deck

[deladane]

Coral Sea Cafe for specialty coffees and gelato

 

Gelato from Coral Sea Cafe

 

Caribbean Main Show Lounge/Theater

 

Seahorse on the door

 

Lido deck/chairs/slide

 

Whale Tail

[deladane]

Here are a few more photos from when I was wandering around the ship...

 

 

 

We got to the Pacific dining room at 6pm and were seated immediately at a table for 4 with a young couple who spoke only German and almost no English. It was a bit awkward not being able to talk to them, but it was interesting to note that the waiter brought them a menu in German. I wasn't too impressed with the menu options on the first night. Here are some pics of what I ordered-

 

Cured salmon with candied tomato

 

 

Coconut shrimp with shrimp lo mein

 

 

Chicken a la Grecque

 

 

Beth ordered the salmon but it was a thin piece from the end and very over cooked so she didn't eat it. We skipped dessert and went to lido instead. They had a nice variety of food and Beth had a piece of fish (maybe halibut? It wasn't labeled) and some green beans and both were great. The desserts were unimpressive- I tried the apple crumb cake and a cupcake, and neither of them were sweet enough for our taste.

 

We went to the St. Thomas shopping talk at 7:30pm hoping for some coupons and giveaways, but it was FREEZING in that lounge so we just took the pamphlet and left. We went back to the room to pack our beach bags for St. Thomas and waited for muster.

 

At 9:30, they came on the overhead speakers and started taking (first in English, then Spanish) but never mentioned that we had to report to our muster stations so we stayed seated comfortably in our air conditioned cabin as long as we could get away with it. At 9:40pm, they announced that it was time to go to our station, and when we got there, there was already a ton of people there. I'd suggest staying in your cabin until 9:40 to avoid extra unnecessary standing in the humidity haha

 

Muster was over at 9:55 and we were waiting for an elevator to the lido deck when the cruise director came on the loudspeaker to announce that it was pouring rain and they had to move the sail away party to the dance club. I missed sail away on my last cruise (on Celebrity) because it was during my dinner time (they do traditional seating times on the first night) so I was sad that I wouldn't get to see the forts and OSJ all lit up at night. The "sail away party" in the disco just wasn't as exciting- only about 100 people showed up and no one was dancing. I think the atmosphere just isn't the same as if it had been up on lido deck. Oh well! As a way to make us happy, they announced that margaritas and Long Island iced teas would be $2 off from 10:10pm until 10:40pm. The DJ put up the deal on the big tv screens in the lounge, but when he typed it in, he wrote that the drinks would cost $2 instead of being $2 off. That made for some very confused bartenders and some very unhappy guests when they heard the prices after receiving their drinks!! We stayed in the club until midnight and then went back to the cabin to rest up for St. Thomas. This little guy was waiting for us when we got back to the cabin...

 

[deladane]

Day 5- Monday in St. Thomas

We woke up early on Monday, got ready, and headed up to lido for breakfast. There was hardly anyone in line for the buffet when we arrived at 7:15am. I had an egg whites, cheese and mushroom omelette, a pancake and some honey dew.

 

 

 

 

We were off the ship by 8am and walked through the Havensight mall to the taxi stand to get a taxi to Sapphire Beach. We were assigned to an open air taxi, and waited about 10 minutes for it to fill up. The ride to Sapphire took about a half hour and there were some beautiful views along the way. The taxi cost $10 each. When we got to Sapphire at around 8:30am, there was almost no one there so we had the beach to ourselves for a while. We paid $7 each for a lounge chair and the man at the dive shack put the chairs where we wanted them (warning us that a ship tour would be arriving later and setting up right in front of the shack and suggesting that we sit further down the beach). The beach was beautiful with turquoise and deep blue water and lots of trees for shade. Here are some photos of the beach:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one problem was that it was extremely windy! I was cold and the water was rough and choppy so I was hesitant to go snorkeling. It turns out, the dive shop has foam water noodles that you can borrow for free! They also had boogie boards and snorkel equipment available for rent but I didn't look at the prices. The foam noodle was extremely helpful and I was able to snorkel for a half hour despite the fairly rough waters. The water was a comfortable temperature, not too warm or too cold, but the choppy water stirred up the sand from below so it was a bit cloudy and hard to see the coral and fish. I asked the guy at the dive shop for the best place to snorkel to see coral and fish, and he looked at the clock and then pointed me to the right of the dive shop. I swam out about 50 ft from the shore and there was tons of coral and fish to see. Be careful and wear aqua socks or something to protect your feet if you can because there is no breaks in the coral to put your feet down, and the water gets shallow at points so my heel accidentally brushed the coral and gave me a cut. Here are some photos from my snorkeling:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ucfalli]

Enjoying your review! Hope one day to do the same itinerary :)

[deladane]

Enjoying your review! Hope one day to do the same itinerary :)

 

Thanks! It was an amazing itinerary :) I feel kind of spoiled having seen such beautiful islands on my 3rd cruise... I hope the islands I eventually visit on future cruises can live up to this standard :D

[okinaw55]

Hi everyone! I just needed to vent my frustration... This morning, I typed up a long post all about embarkation day and added in 6 photos, and when I hit submit, an error page popped up! When I clicked on the back arrow to go to the previous page, of course the entire post was deleted. I spent a solid half hour fighting with the cruise critic website trying to get it to load properly but I just kept getting tons of error messages. Eventually, I had to give up and leave for work. I see that I am able to submit posts now from work, so fingers crossed that it's still working by the time I get home and have access to my photos to continue on with my review! If so, you can all look forward to lots of ship pictures from embarkation day :)

 

Anything that you post online can be pre-typed in Word. It's fustrating as hell doing all that typing and linking just to see it poof. Learned that lesson long ago. If you pre-type it in Word, you have a record of it and if a post goes bad you only need to copy and paste it again. Hope that helps in the future.

 

We're 'On Vacation' in 22 days. Looking forward to a 'Fresh' review and you're doing a great job. Also hoping you have some fun times you can scan and post as I'm sure they won't change before we leave. Keep it up. :) And Thank you.