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

[KSDispatcher]

I want to add my THANKS for the great review....we board the Victory on January 13th.....We've been to all of these islands once except St Kitts so its fun seeing sights we saw the last time we cruised that itinerary in 2008.

[deladane]

Deladane,

 

Just missed you again!! Here's a picture of your water taxi from Jalousie Beach (yellow boat on the right). I remembered the sticker about "Wind and Sea tipping the vessel". We were there with Spencer Ambrose's tour.

 

Paul

 

 

That's so funny that you spotted our bright yellow boat! Were you at Jalousie Beach during that downpour of rain? I was out in the water snorkeling when it started, but I realized that all my belongings were sitting out on the beach, so I got out of the water to go rescue my stuff and bring it under an umbrella to stay dry. I noticed lots of people from Spencer Ambrose eating their lunches under the umbrellas, so maybe I borrowed some shelter under the umbrella you were using too haha I wouldn't be surprised if you did eventually pop up in one of my photos since we seem to have similar taste in port activities :)

[deladane]

I want to add my THANKS for the great review....we board the Victory on January 13th.....We've been to all of these islands once except St Kitts so its fun seeing sights we saw the last time we cruised that itinerary in 2008.

 

How exciting that your cruise is just 10 days away! I hope you have a fantastic time! Be sure to come home and write a review so we can all hear how your cruise went :)

[chosbor2]

Swimming with the sea turtles was definitely one of the highlights of my vacation! There are a bunch of small boats that take people out for some snorkeling, and they all charge about the same $20 for 1-1.5 hours and include snorkeling masks and life vests (and the boat I took also included rum punch). They all seemed to run the same way as Neville, where there is one guy who walks up and down the beach all day looking for people who want to go snorkeling, and the other guy stays on the boat going out and back with new people all day. We really liked Neville and had a great time with him, but I have a feeling the boats are all pretty equal and it probably doesn't matter which vendor you use.

We were the first people to arrive at Boatyard that day, and started seeing the vendors at about 9am. It doesn't really matter what time you go out, but I would assume that the later in the day it is, the more other swimmers from other excursions you will see. It is way better to go early and have the turtles all to yourself. We decided to go out pretty early because we knew it would be a rainy day, so we wanted to get out there as soon as we saw a break in the clouds so we wouldn't have to swim in the rain (not that it really mattered since we were wet anyway! haha) The excursion lasted about an hour and a half from pick up to drop off, and we stayed at boatyard from 8:30am until about 2pm. Hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions!

 

Thanks so much, that was perfect!

[deladane]

The guides told us we could have 1 hour to spend at the beach before he would come back and get us with the water taxi. From the dock, he said the lounge chairs towards the left were free for us to use, but that the chairs towards the right were reserved for people staying at the resort. All of the beaches in St. Lucia are public land, so there was nothing to stop you from putting your towel down in the sand on the resort side- you just couldn't use their lounge chairs. I dropped off my bags and immediately got in the water for some snorkeling. This area is famous for it's snorkeling, and it lived up to my expectations. The one problem was that the water was a little choppy from all the water taxis coming in and out. I didn't have a noodle or life vest or anything, so it got very tiring trying to fight with the current to stay afloat. Also, there was a helicopter tour that kept circling over me, but with my head in the water looking at the fish, I kept freaking out that I was swimming under the motor of a water taxi!

 

Here is a photo of the free side of the beach:

 

 

Me with the pitons:

 

 

This was the resort side of the beach:

 

 

And here are some photos from snorkeling:

 

 

 

Self portrait in front of the Pitons:

 

 

The beach had surprisingly clean bathrooms, and they also had an outdoor shower to get the sand washed off our legs. After an hour, we got back in the water taxi and headed back towards the van. It started pouring rain while we were on the boat, so that wasn't quite as scenic as the ride to the beach! The rain felt like knives hitting your head as we sped through the water! At least I was already wet from swimming!

[deladane]

Our next stop was the waterfall and botanical gardens. Fat Man told us we would only have 10-15 minutes at this stop because it was getting late. Since I had skipped out on swimming with the waterfall in Puerto Rico, I jumped out of the van and went straight to the waterfall to get a few minutes of swimming time!

 

 

 

 

 

The botanical gardens are on the same grounds as the waterfall, and it was very small and limited in the types of plants they had. This was our last official stop of the tour, so we dried off, got back in the van, and started the hour and a half long drive back to the port. About half an hour into our drive, Fat Man pulled over in front of a local house and got out of the car. He came back a minute later with a bag of cookies for us to sample! It was like a drive through cookie stop haha

 

We continued on the road for another half hour and then Fat Man pulled over again and got out of the car. He came back a few minutes later with a huge bag filled with some of the tastiest bread I've ever had, and it was literally steaming hot right out of the oven! He also passed around some pieces of cheese, which tasted great when they melted in the hot bread!! And no, the shape of the tip of the bread did not go unnoticed haha...

 

 

 

 

We finally got back to the port at 3:45pm. Originally, I think we were supposed to have some shopping time at the end of the excursion, but I think he just took us back to the port because we were running so late. I think that is my only complaint about the tour- it is advertised as being around 6 hours... we left at 8:15am, so we should have been back to the port by 2:15pm. We ran an hour and a half over, and cut out the shopping time! Some people in the van were getting worried that we would miss the ship! I had a great day, and I didn't think it felt like too long of an excursion, but I think Cosol needs to let people know a more realistic time frame of close to 8 hours on the tour.

 

I realized I left out two photos I wanted to share. The first was of me drinking the Piton brand beer at the breakfast stop. I'm not usually a big beer drinker, but I really enjoyed the Piton beer and had 3 bottles of it over the course of the day:

 

 

The second photo was of our van for the day. As I mentioned before, it was air-conditioned and could hold up to 15 people, but we only had 10 in our van so it was comfortable and we had a few seats to spare to hold our backpacks:

 

 

Once we got back on the ship, it was time to get ready for formal night #2!

 

 

[deladane]

The dinner options were less exciting this night since lobster was not on the menu. However, I was super excited for my escargot!

 

escargot

 

 

seafood platter

 

 

chateaubriand

 

 

grilled jumbo tiger shrimp

 

 

After dinner, I went to the second big production show of the week, called Vroom. I enjoyed this show significantly more than City Lights. For one thing, the girl dancers had costumes that covered their butts! But I also enjoyed the song choices better, and it was a more fun vibe than the other show.

 

After the show, we ended up at the casino bar where they were playing name that tune for 70's music. Considering neither of us were even alive during the 70's, I had fairly low expectations for our knowledge of 70's songs, but we had no where else to go so we stuck around and gave it a shot. It turned out to be a lot of fun! I was very proud of myself for correctly knowing 13 of the 15 songs! After that, we walked around the ship a bit more looking for something to do, and eventually gave up and went back to the cabin to get ready for bed.

 

 

[chill6x6]

Your tour in St Lucia looked pretty dang good! You certainly got your money's worth! Looks as if you saw and did quite a LOT! That looks like it would be a pretty good excursion for ME! HAHA!

[BubMunkeyBles]

We're planning on doing the same tour in St Lucia, glad to see it looks decent. :)

[sjn911]

Oh this is just wonderful....St. Lucia and your plans look perfect!!! Wonderful....looks like heaven to me..one of my most looked forward to Caribbean stops...pictures always feel like Hawaii to me there...those Pitons, waterfalls etc...you give me a good giggle..so cute self portraits...

[fbe2228]

Deladane,

We've been spotted! In your "photo of the free side of the beach", there is a man in a blue shirt standing under the blue sign in the middle of the picture. To the left are two vacant lounge chairs. To the left of those chairs is Melissa laying in a chair and me kneeling next to her. It's kinda blurry, but it's us!

 

We were in the water snorkelling during of the downpours. Not a big deal. We covered our bag with a towel, and the rain only lasted a few minutes.

 

Thanks again for doing such a good job on the review. I know it takes a long time to write all that you do and attach all the pictures, but it is appreciated!

 

Paul

[deladane]

Your tour in St Lucia looked pretty dang good! You certainly got your money's worth! Looks as if you saw and did quite a LOT! That looks like it would be a pretty good excursion for ME! HAHA!

 

We're planning on doing the same tour in St Lucia, glad to see it looks decent. :)

 

I really enjoyed the tour in St Lucia. I love how we got to see pretty much everything on the island in 8 hours, and you definitely can't beat the price (especially since it included two light meals and all you can drink beer/rum punch/soda/bottled water) I would highly recommend Cosol's tour, but just be aware that it lasts longer than he advertises, and you will likely cut it close with getting back to the ship on time. I had no doubt that we would make it back because Cosol wouldn't want to risk the bad publicity if one of his tours missed the ship, but it seemed a bit rushed at the end and we had to skip our shopping time.

[deladane]

Oh this is just wonderful....St. Lucia and your plans look perfect!!! Wonderful....looks like heaven to me..one of my most looked forward to Caribbean stops...pictures always feel like Hawaii to me there...those Pitons, waterfalls etc...you give me a good giggle..so cute self portraits...

 

I have never been to Hawaii, but I do agree that St. Lucia is a beautiful island! It actually reminded me a lot of Dominica. I hope you get the chance to visit St. Lucia sometime soon :)

 

Deladane,

We've been spotted! In your "photo of the free side of the beach", there is a man in a blue shirt standing under the blue sign in the middle of the picture. To the left are two vacant lounge chairs. To the left of those chairs is Melissa laying in a chair and me kneeling next to her. It's kinda blurry, but it's us!

 

We were in the water snorkelling during of the downpours. Not a big deal. We covered our bag with a towel, and the rain only lasted a few minutes.

 

Thanks again for doing such a good job on the review. I know it takes a long time to write all that you do and attach all the pictures, but it is appreciated!

 

Paul

 

HAHA Finally! You made it into my photo! I wonder if we'll cross paths on any other days of the trip :) Did I end up in any of your photos?

[deladane]

Day 9- Friday in St. Kitts

On Friday we docked in St. Kitts. This was my only repeat island for the itinerary, as my cruise two years ago docked here as well. Last time, I took an island tour through Liz Pereria's Tour Store and I really enjoyed it. This time around, I went for a more active excursion and tried my first attempt at Stand-Up Paddleboarding. We pre-booked a tour through Konu Pelikana and our guide, Nick, picked us up at the port at 8:30am. As it turned out, there were only 4 of us booked on this excursion and the other two people were a couple we met on our Cosol tour bus in St. Lucia. It was great to have such a small group, and even better to share the excursion with our new friends Katie and Damian.

 

Backing up a few hours, I wanted to mention something that happened that morning... My alarm clock went off at 6:40am, and 10 minutes later, someone came on the loudspeaker system and announced "Operation Brightstar on deck zero". I didn't know for sure, but I had a strong feeling that this was Carnival's code for a medical emergency. We didn't hear any other announcements, so we got ready for the day, ate breakfast on Lido, and then got into the elevators to get off the ship at 8am. When I pushed the deck 0 button in the elevator, it wouldn't light up, so I hit the button for deck 1. When we got down there, there were about 30 people already waiting and the staff had put up a barricade across the stairs so we couldn't walk down to deck 0. At this point, we figured out that there was indeed a medical emergency, but we never heard any announcements about delaying getting off the ship. At 8:15am, someone came up and removed the barricade and we were able to leave the ship and meet our tour guide on time. There was an empty ambulance sitting on the dock, so I assume that they held the passengers until another ambulance could drive away with the sick passenger. Due to HIPAA laws, I knew that we would never know for sure what happened to that passenger, so I can only hope that he/she was okay.

 

 

 

 

Nick met us at a parking lot behind the stores in the port, and we drove up the coast. He made a brief stop at Timothy Hill to see the amazing views. Here is a photo of Beth, me, Katie, and Damian with the Marriott resort in the background:

 

 

 

 

And here is a view in the opposite direction where you can see the Atlantic Ocean on the left and the Caribbean on the right:

 

 

 

 

Next, we drove up to another overlook for a view of the coastline where we would be paddling. Nick told us that we would paddle a little over 2 miles until we got to a beach, and then he would ride back to get his truck to pick us up.

 

 

 

 

We got back in the car and drove down the coast to a tiny parking lot where Nick's family usually docks their boat. Nick unloaded our boards from the back of his truck, and we got ready to go. The shore was very rocky, but Nick helped us get on the boards and briefly told us the easiest way to stand up and paddle. Amazingly enough, I found it fairly easy to balance on the board. I struggled a bit with controlling the direction the board drifted and I moved much slower than everyone else, but overall it was a fun way to see the island.

 

Nick offered to hold my underwater camera so he could take a few photos along the way. He had cargo pockets with a zippered closure on his swim trunks so I figured it was safe for him to hang onto the camera. We spent about two hours paddling up the shore, taking a break mid-way to sit on our boards and rest, or to swim if we wanted to. At the end of the tour, we reached the Carambola beach club and I asked Nick if I could have my camera back. He reached down for his pocket and said he didn't have the camera- did he already return it to me? At this point, panic set in as we realized that the camera had fallen out of his pocket and he didn't know when! Luckily I had uploaded my photos onto my iPad every night on the ship, so I knew I didn't lose all the photos I had taken all week, but I was really upset about having lost my brand new underwater camera. Nick left us at the beach club and went back up the coast to look for the camera. I knew it was highly unlikely he would find it, but the camera was attached to a bright yellow floating wrist strap, so all hope wasn't lost. Fortunately, none of us had any excursions booked for the afternoon, so we weren't in a rush to get back to the ship and we sat at the bar and ordered a few drinks while we waited for Nick to return. Stay tuned to find out what happened!

[SoundDawg]

Ahhhh!!! A cliffhanger :eek:

 

Very good review! I am enjoying it!

[chosbor2]

I must say I am loving your review and can not wait to read the rest. So far, you are doing just about everything that I have planned for us to do in October. Glad your trip went well and it is making me very excited for ours!

[chill6x6]

I love suspense! HAHA!

[deladane]

An hour later, Nick came back, and amazingly enough, he found my camera!!!! One of his friends took him back up the coast on a jet ski, and he found my camera floating on the shore near where we stopped to take our rest break. Nick had taken out the camera to take some photos while we were sitting there, and I guess he just didn't get the camera all the way into his pocket when he put it back. I was so beyond excited that he found my camera, and I gave him a HUGE tip at the end of the day haha

 

So now that you all know I got my camera back, I can show you a few photos from our excursion...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time we got all the equipment loaded back in the truck, it was close to 2pm so we headed back to the port. We were originally supposed to get back by noon-ish, so I was very grateful that Katie and Damian didn't mind spending some extra time at the beach club waiting for Nick to find my camera.

 

The port area in St. Kitts is fairly new (they were doing tons of construction and building new stores when I was there 2 years ago, so by now it looked like they were finished with all the building). We did a little shopping and then went in search of some wifi to check our emails. I had read on cruise critic about a bar/restaurant called Ma Pau which offers free wifi. The bar area was super crowded by the time we got there, so we walked into the casino on the ground floor, and sure enough, the wifi signal worked fine from inside the casino! This was now a totally free wifi signal because we would have had to order a beer or something if we used the wifi from the bar area.

 

After checking our email, we went back to the ship for a late lunch, then spent some time relaxing on Lido deck before getting ready for dinner. Tonight's sail away wasn't scheduled until 6pm, so this was our one chance to watch the sunset before dinner while the ship was still docked. I picked up a much-needed glass of Miami Vice and headed up to Lido deck to watch the sunset after a crazy day.

 

 

 

 

[cruisingagainsoon]

So glad you got your camera back and have enjoyed your review so much. We leave on the same cruise a week from tomorrow.

[deladane]

I must say I am loving your review and can not wait to read the rest. So far, you are doing just about everything that I have planned for us to do in October. Glad your trip went well and it is making me very excited for ours!

 

Thank you! We did a ton of research on what we wanted to do at each port, and I was really happy with all of our excursions. I think we got a good balance of beach days, island tours, and adventurous activities. Please let me know if you have any questions about anything we did to help you with your planning :)

 

So glad you got your camera back and have enjoyed your review so much. We leave on the same cruise a week from tomorrow.

 

Thank you! I was sooooo happy to get my camera back :) That's so exciting that you are sailing next week! I hope you have a fabulous cruise :)

[queenschick9b]

I'm leaving next week and this was one of the most useful reviews that I have ever read! Great job and now I'm even more excited :)

[Cruiser 2 too]

Wonderful review, such beautiful photos! I will be doing this itinerary in Oct, 2013! You did a wonderful job of making me feel I was right there with you! I am so excited!,

Edited January 5, 2013 by Cruiser 2 too

[sueandtimj]

Day 9- Friday in St. Kitts

This time around, I went for a more active excursion and tried my first attempt at Stand-Up Paddleboarding. We pre-booked a tour through Konu Pelikana

 

 

Can you tell me more about this tour? I googled the name, and I googled paddleboating in St Kitts, but nothing (but your review) popped up in the search. Do you have an email address or a website for them? How much did the tour cost for each of you? Was there an age requirement? It really looks like a lot of fun.

 

Thanks,

Sue

[jjtimes6]

Really enjoying your review and photos! We did this cruise two years ago on the Victory, and are doing it again in 85 days on the Valor!

[jjtimes6]

Can you tell me more about this tour? I googled the name, and I googled paddleboating in St Kitts, but nothing (but your review) popped up in the search. Do you have an email address or a website for them? How much did the tour cost for each of you? Was there an age requirement? It really looks like a lot of fun.

 

Thanks,

Sue

 

Here Sue:

 

http://www.supstkitts.com/