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

[FloridaGram]

I am enjoying your review so I am signing up so I do not miss anything! I have been to St Thomas,St Maarten and San Juan but not your other ports so I am really looking forward to your pictures.

 

What kind of purse did you use? I like how long the strap is and it seems a little bigger than some I have seen.

[deladane]

I am enjoying your review so I am signing up so I do not miss anything! I have been to St Thomas,St Maarten and San Juan but not your other ports so I am really looking forward to your pictures.

 

What kind of purse did you use? I like how long the strap is and it seems a little bigger than some I have seen.

 

Don't worry, I have tons more photos coming your way :)

 

The purse I'm wearing around Old San Juan is from LeSportsac. I bought it about 8 years ago and absolutely love it because it has tons of pockets, it's very light weight, and extremely durable considering how it's still in perfect shape after 8 years of abuse. The strap is adjustable, so I usually wear it cross body when I'm doing a lot of walking or on vacation, but I adjust it to a shoulder bag for everyday use. Unfortunately, I looked on the LeSportsac website and it looks like this model has been discontinued.

 

I bought a similar purse from Old Navy last year, and I loved it so much that I went back and bought it again in a different color so now I have two of them haha It has padded brown faux-leather shoulder straps and an adjustable nylon cross body strap so it can be worn either way. The bag looks small when I'm wearing it, but it has a very wide bottom so it can hold A TON of stuff without seeming like a clunky bag. I can put in a Subway foot-long sandwich AND a 1-liter bottle of Smart Water, and still have tons of room to spare for my wallet, camera, cell phone, etc. And since it's made of nylon, it is light weight and durable. Here is a link to the purse on the Old Navy website...

 

http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=7374&vid=1&pid=330719002

 

It comes in a variety of colors and it's on sale right now for $15! What a steal! I saw a ton of them in my local Old Navy store yesterday and was tempted to buy it in a third color, but I resisted haha

[MRVEGAS711]

This is going to be a good one!

[WiscoGirl32]

Thank you so much for this review!! I watch my phone like crazy for new updates to this review! We leave for sunny PR in 19 days to get away from the Wisconsin cold! Can't wait! You are doing a great job with all the details and pictures!!

 

I have a couple questions! Does the gelato cost extra? I'm assuming yes, along with the rest of the things offered at the specialty cafe. What kind of other things did they have there?

 

Thanks again!!

[deladane]

This is going to be a good one!

 

Awww thank you! :)

 

Thank you so much for this review!! I watch my phone like crazy for new updates to this review! We leave for sunny PR in 19 days to get away from the Wisconsin cold! Can't wait! You are doing a great job with all the details and pictures!!

 

I have a couple questions! Does the gelato cost extra? I'm assuming yes, along with the rest of the things offered at the specialty cafe. What kind of other things did they have there?

 

Thanks again!!

 

Thank you so much! That's so nice of you to say :) You will have a fantastic time on the Victory!! I never bought anything from the specialty coffee place, but I know they sell a few types of fancy coffees, some cakes/cookies and dessert-type stuff. I'm not sure of those prices though. Unfortunately, they also charge for the gelato but it's pretty reasonable- I think it was like $2.95 for a small and $3.95 for a large? Something like that. Sorry I can't be more specific but maybe someone else knows a better answer??

[WiscoGirl32]

Thank you so much! That's so nice of you to say :) You will have a fantastic time on the Victory!! I never bought anything from the specialty coffee place, but I know they sell a few types of fancy coffees, some cakes/cookies and dessert-type stuff. I'm not sure of those prices though. Unfortunately, they also charge for the gelato but it's pretty reasonable- I think it was like $2.95 for a small and $3.95 for a large? Something like that. Sorry I can't be more specific but maybe someone else knows a better answer??

 

Thank you! That is perfect information! Anyone else that knows, feel free to chime in! :)

Edited December 30, 2012 by WiscoGirl32

[mainescout]

Thank you for the great information and review. We will be on the Valor in 49 days. We will be arriving a day early so it's been great finding out what you did before the cruise. Looking forward to hearing about the different islands since we have only been to San Juan and St. Thomas before.

[SMSACE6]

Thanks for your excellent review! I love the photos, and the detailed info on San Juan. I have always wanted to get back there, for more than a few hours on a cruise. The itinerary out of San Juan is also something that appeals to me very much. Thanks for your detailed and balanced review!:)

[divinmule]

Looking to book this cruise for August. Your review is awesome!!! Thanks!!

[deladane]

After snorkeling, I sat in the shade for a few more hours and then we got ready to leave around 12:45pm. While we were packing up our bags, a huge iguana came over to the lounge chairs and caused quite a commotion!

 

 

 

 

We walked out to the front circle of the resort and a standard 12-person van taxi was waiting, so we got in and headed to the shopping area in downtown Charlotte Amilie. We went into a few of the stores, but everything was more expensive than we wanted to pay, and we didn't buy anything. We asked for directions to walk back to the port, and were told to go down to the water and turn left at the straw market, and then just walk along the water on the sidewalk all the way back until we saw the short cut through the yacht club. You literally cannot miss the cut through area:

 

 

 

 

The walk was about a mile, took us less than half an hour, and it was flat and paved the entire way. It was fun to see the ship across the water as we walked back:

 

 

 

 

Once we were back on the ship, we went up to lido for lunch and it was PACKED!! I was starving and didn't want to wait in the long buffet line, so i ordered a slice of the De Chevre pizza (goat cheese, mushrooms, and roasted garlic with mozzarella cheese and no sauce) from the aft pool area. It was ready in about 15 minutes and was well worth the wait:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

After lunch, I went back to the cabin to drop off my bags and saw the letter waiting with our new table assignment. I think the maitre d misunderstood what we asked for because she changed us to the late seating time, and that was not okay with us! It was about 3pm at that time, so we decided to hang out around the ship and get ready for dinner, and then we would just show up at the early dining time and try to straighten it out then. Sure enough, we found the maitre d at the Pacific dining room at 6pm when they opened the doors and he had no trouble finding space for us at a 10-person table. I think that was the table for solo travelers, as our tablemates were two male solo travelers, one female solo, and two men who traveled together but each had his own cabin. I am not sure if anyone else was assigned to our table or not, but no one else showed up all week so we always had a few empty chairs (and access to extra silverware when needed!). Overall, dinner took us an hour and 45 minutes, and the conversation flowed easily with getting-to-know-you small talk. Here are some photos of my meal:

 

 

smoked duck and caramelized oranges

 

 

assorted seafood, newburg style

 

 

warm choc melting cake

 

 

Everything tasted great, and I think this was one of my favorite dinners of the week. Almost every night at dinner, the waiters would get up on the serving tables or on the stairs, and dance and sing. Our assistant waitress was one of the 6 or 7 people to have to wear the costume, and she always looked totally miserable while doing her dance. I kind of felt bad for her by the end of the week because every time she was up there, she never smiled and she always looked like she hated doing the dance. Here she is with her typical facial expression:

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we walked around the ship for a bit, watched the Monday Night Football game in the Sports Bar, and then I went to the first of the adult comedy shows of the night. The comedian's name was Johnny Millwater and he was okay, but not great. He did have some funny jokes (I especially appreciated the joke about how annoying it is that Chic-Fil-A is closed on Sundays, and why can't they just find some Jewish people to cover the Sunday shifts? haha) After the comedy show, there wasn't much else going on so we just went back to the cabin for the night.

 

 

[deladane]

Thank you for the great information and review. We will be on the Valor in 49 days. We will be arriving a day early so it's been great finding out what you did before the cruise. Looking forward to hearing about the different islands since we have only been to San Juan and St. Thomas before.

 

Thanks for your excellent review! I love the photos, and the detailed info on San Juan. I have always wanted to get back there, for more than a few hours on a cruise. The itinerary out of San Juan is also something that appeals to me very much. Thanks for your detailed and balanced review!:)

 

Looking to book this cruise for August. Your review is awesome!!! Thanks!!

 

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments! I really appreciate it! It does take a bit of time to put the review together, so I'm glad that you are all enjoying it!! :)

 

Happy New Years Eve! :D

[cruisingagainsoon]

Enjoying your review, 8 of us are sailing on the Victory on January 13th.

Edited December 31, 2012 by cruisingagainsoon

[deladane]

Day 6- Tuesday at Sea

Tuesday was the one and only sea day. I wanted to eat breakfast in the MDR since this was the only day we'd have the time to do that. Plus, I wanted to redeem my past guest drink voucher! Beth only eats cereal for breakfast, and she preferred to sleep in, so I went to the MDR alone at about 9am and was seated at a table of 10 people who all walked in around the same time. I also like eating breakfast in the MDR because it's fun to see how many different waiters fuss over you- one for the water, one for the coffee, one for the danishes, one to actually take your food order, etc. I got the baked apple, french toast, and turkey bacon:

 

 

 

 

 

We ended up chatting at the table for an hour and a half! When we were done eating, I ordered my free cocktail, with the intentions of drinking it up on Lido deck (since 9am is a little too early to start drinking if you ask me! haha) I got The Cruiser, which had Malibu rum, vodka, peach schnapps, pineapple juice, orange juice, and cranberry juice. It sounded like a good morning drink, and it tasted delicious!

 

 

 

 

They served it in a glass, so I carefully carried it out of the dining room, up the elevator, and straight to one of the lido bars and asked the bartender to transfer it into a plastic cup so I could drink it on the deck. By then, it was about 10:45am, so I found Beth and we sat together in our lounge chairs. As I already mentioned, there was absolutely no trouble finding lounge chairs, even on the sea day. Beth had saved me a seat next to her, but that wasn't really necessary as there were tons of empty chairs. As the day went on, I was worried about getting burned, so I pulled a lounge chair under the overhang from the deck above next to the stairs, behind where the band plays. There were about 20 other people who did the same thing, since there isn't any other shade near the pools. It was a beautiful day with clear skies and a light wind.

 

 

 

 

I am not one to sit around and do nothing all day- I get bored way too easily, and despite my best efforts to read my book, I get distracted every time someone walks by because I like to people-watch. Perhaps the only downside to me of having just 1 sea day is that the ship has to cram all the typical sea day activities into one day, so there are a lot of scheduling conflicts! I enjoyed watching the ice carving demonstration, hairy chest contest, and paper airplane contest while on Lido deck. The only time the Lido deck looked crowded all week was during these contests:

 

 

 

 

At 1pm, I went down to the Atlantic dining room for the wine seminar. I had called guest services earlier in the day and was told it costs $10, which I thought was very reasonable for 5 glasses of wine. Well when I got there, only one other person showed up! The hostess said this would be the third week in a row when they had to cancel the wine seminar due to lack of interest. I think a lot of the problem is that 1pm is prime time to be up on Lido enjoying the activities on the sea day, plus a lot of people would think 1pm is a bit too early to drink all that wine. I suggested that they may have a better turn out if they moved the seminar to later in the afternoon. As a way to apologize, they offered us each a complimentary glass of wine, so I happily took my second free drink of the day back up to Lido and enjoyed my Chardonnay with some seafood stir fry from Chopstix.

 

 

 

 

Next up on my agenda was the Love and Marriage show at 3:15pm. By then, I had enough time outside so I didn't mind going inside to the theater for a little break, and I was glad I went. The cruise director Hennie was very funny as the host, and I spent most of the next hour laughing. After the show, I went back to the cabin to get ready for formal night.

[deladane]

I was very impressed and surprised with how the guests onboard participated in formal night. I saw a handful of men wearing tuxedos, although most wore suits. And I saw many women wearing floor-length gowns, which really impressed me knowing how much luggage space that would require! A few people chose to stay casual, but overall, most of the guests were dressed up. Even the Puerto Rican teenagers were dressed up, wearing what looked like their fancy quincinera dresses! Here is a photo of Beth and I outside the comedy club:

 

 

 

 

Tonight's dinner included the ever-popular lobster entree. I thought the lobster tasted good, but it was a bit tough in consistency, likely due to being overcooked. The tiger shrimp that came with it were surprisingly good though. I also ordered the prime rib, and I was very impressed that they actually cooked it to order (I love my meat rare!) The stuffed mushrooms were served in the escargot dishes, and they tasted pretty good.

 

baked stuffed white mushrooms

 

 

broiled Maine lobster tail and jumbo black tiger shrimp

 

 

prime rib

 

 

caramelized apples on puff pastry

 

 

After dinner, we went back to the cabin to pack up our beach bags for Barbados, and then I went to the first big production of the week- City Lights. I usually enjoy watching Broadway-style shows, but I wasn't overly impressed with this show. I thought the costumes were somewhat inappropriate for a family-friendly show, considering the girls were wearing nothing but thongs to cover their behinds. The singing and dancing was okay, but not great, although I guess I should cut them a little slack considering how rocky the ship was haha

 

After that, I went to see the other comedian, named Mark Simmons, and he generally went for the dirty jokes and for the shock value. He made a lot of jokes about smoking pot, which I didn't personally find to be funny but many others seemed to enjoy it. After the comedy show, I went back to the cabin to rest up for Barbados.

 

This was our towel "animal" tonight- We weren't exactly sure what it was supposed to be... maybe an eskimo?

 

 

[chill6x6]

I've really enjoyed your review!

 

I have a similar itinerary sailing out of San Juan aboard the Celebrity Summit in November. We will hit St Thomas, St Maarten, Barbados, St Lucia, and then sub Antigua for St Kitts.

 

I realize how much trouble a review is trust me! Many of us really appreciate it! :)

[sueandtimj]

Thanks for doing this review. We're sailing on the Valor in March and I love reading what you did in each port.

[2PinaColadas]

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:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sapphire Beach is one of favorite beaches in the Caribbean. Wish I was there now. Glad y'all had a good time there.

[flatman]

Glad to read a more negative review for a change. Sounds to me that you easily find the things wrong before you find the things right. I don't need or want to read anymore.

[dawnvan]

deladane Thank you for a wonderful review!! Appreciate all your time and Opinions!!! Flatman there are alot of us enjoying this review. Maybe you are the one who should keep your negative comment to YOURSELF!

[sjn911]

Thoroughly enjoying all the time and effort and info and remembrances of your vacation in your review, photos, your adventures, Deladane...I know you had a great time and appreciate what your opinions are..thanks soooo much.

 

Happy New Year and many appreciate this who do not post too!!!

 

Sarah

Edited January 2, 2013 by sjn911

[pezhead]

Totally enjoying your report--keep it coming.

 

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

[deladane]

Thanks for doing this review. We're sailing on the Valor in March and I love reading what you did in each port.

Thanks! I hope you have a fantastic time on your cruise in March!

 

I've really enjoyed your review!

 

I have a similar itinerary sailing out of San Juan aboard the Celebrity Summit in November. We will hit St Thomas, St Maarten, Barbados, St Lucia, and then sub Antigua for St Kitts.

 

I realize how much trouble a review is trust me! Many of us really appreciate it! :)

I sailed on the Summit back in 2010, but I did the other itinerary (St. Croix, St. Kitts, Dominica, Grenada, Tobago). My review from that cruise is still in my signature below, but unfortunately all the photos are gone thanks to Webshots changing their site :( I LOVED sailing on Celebrity, so I know you will have a great cruise! :)

 

Glad to read a more negative review for a change. Sounds to me that you easily find the things wrong before you find the things right. I don't need or want to read anymore.

I'm sorry you feel that way. I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion...

 

Sapphire Beach is one of favorite beaches in the Caribbean. Wish I was there now. Glad y'all had a good time there.

I totally agree- I think Sapphire was by far my favorite beach of the week! I loved the color of the water and the beautiful views of the other islands. I really wish I was there right now too! :)

 

Thoroughly enjoying all the time and effort and info and remembrances of your vacation in your review, photos, your adventures, Deladane...I know you had a great time and appreciate what your opinions are..thanks soooo much.

 

Happy New Year and many appreciate this who do not post too!!!

 

Sarah

Thank you Sarah for your kind words :) I really appreciate it! Happy New Year to you too!!

 

Totally enjoying your report--keep it coming.

 

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

Thanks! I just have a few more things to write up and then I will continue on with the posts about Barbados :)

[deladane]

deladane Thank you for a wonderful review!! Appreciate all your time and Opinions!!! Flatman there are alot of us enjoying this review. Maybe you are the one who should keep your negative comment to YOURSELF!

 

Dawnvan, I'm glad you are enjoying the review! It's people like you who make it worth all the time and effort involved in writing a review :)

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Glad to read a more negative review for a change. Sounds to me that you easily find the things wrong before you find the things right. I don't need or want to read anymore.

 

Wow. Its a good review with both good and bad. I guess some fanatics cant take any criticism of their pet brands.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Rottweiler Puppy