Valor 6/5/2005 Review! Long, detailed and organized!

[thejman]

I was on the 6/5/05 sailing of the Carnival Valor….

 

Arrival in Miami – We stayed at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami the day before the cruise. The hotel was actually very nice and cost $83 for the night booked a few months in advance. The taxi ride from the airport to this hotel was about $20.

 

Embarkation – We left the Holiday Inn about 11:45 a.m. and arrived at the port baggage drop-off curb at 12:15. Even though the port is only half a mile away, there’s a lot of traffic getting into to. Once we dropped our bags off, though, embarkation was a breeze! It took 25 minutes MAX from the time we gave our bags to the porter to the time we boarded the ship. I found the port facilities to be more than adequate handling all the people. Also, the A/C was working fine!

 

The Ship: It is a beautiful ship and the design and layout is very nice. I had no problem with all the floors not going through. I simply walked forward or aft on my level (Empress) and then went up or down to where I needed to go. It worked great. The design of the ship actually helps break up all the people and makes the ship feel larger. I would expect future Carnival ships to be similar in design.

The theme throughout the ship is very cohesive, tasteful and classy. There is detail in this ship EVERYWHERE – after 7 days I was still noticing little details in the decorating and design. The original paintings at the landings of each staircase are really cool, too!

 

 

Food and Dining:

Rosie’s is where you’ll be doing a lot of eating. I found the buffet’s to quite good with a lot of variety throughout the day for different meals. In addition to the buffet’s, the pizza, hamburger grille, fish and chips, deli, oriental and ice cream are all within Rosie’s restaurant. The hamburgers, ice cream and pizza were great. I didn’t try the fish and chips, deli or oriental places. I personally liked the décor of Rosie’s – it was very retro and gaudy, but it works. This is a 2-level restaurant and it’s designed very nicely – I never had trouble finding a seat and never waited more than a few minutes in the buffet lines.

 

 

Main Dining Rooms: The valor has two main 2-story dining rooms. I was in the Washington Dining Room on the upper level. My girlfriend and I had a table of 2, but we ate we some other people 2 nights when their tablemates didn’t show up. The food in the dining rooms was pretty good as far as I’m concerned – it’s much better than what I eat day to day, so I was happy. The desserts were far and away the best, though. The filet mignon was also very good! I also can’t complain about the service or anything else in the dining rooms. 1.5+ hours for dinner each night can get exhausting, though. I really liked the dancing each night before dessert, but some people don’t.

Scarlett’s: A very nice little restaurant with great food and service. It may or may not be worth $30 pp to you. The wine is also very expensive for what it is. If you’ve never done a supper club before, go ahead and do it, but I probably wouldn’t do it twice. Make sure you are hungry, though, before you go!

 

Room Service: Absolutely SUCKS! The waiting time sucks, the food sucks, the menu sucks, and everything about room service is horrible. I tried room service twice and each time it took well over 1 hour to get my food. The first time I received half of my order and the other half was not what I ordered. Also, the food the bring you is good for two bites. So, if you want a sandwich, you should order 2 or 3, not just 1. The second time I ordered room service, it took 1+ hours and they brought the correct food, but the portions got even smaller. They should just throw room service out all together, or do a better job of it.

 

 

Shows: The Ivanhoe theatre is awesome. There isn’t a bad seat in the house, and if you got to the show 15 minutes before start time, you could basically sit anywhere you wanted. The comedians Anthony Acosta and Jim Brick were very good with both their R-rated shows and normal shows. R-rated means R-rated, though. The cerebal palsy comedian sucked, though. Nobody was laughing. They should do away with him. I didn’t see either of the musicians but the last show “Valor Idol” was pretty good as well as the juggling comedian. The Las Vegas style 80’s show was the best, however. I thought part 1 was much better than part 2. Both of the lead singers could use some work on their vocals, but, hey, it’s only a cruise ship!

 

 

Lounges and Nightlife: The Lindy Hop looked cool but I never went in there for more than 5 minutes. Paris Hot was for karaoke only and was always too full to find a seat. One Small Step is the dance disco and has an awesome atmosphere and plays a pretty good variety of music. It was never very crowded, though, for some reason. The most people I saw on the dance floor at one time was about 15. The Eagles Lounge is really nice and should be utilized more often. It was basically shut down after 8 p.m. each day. They hold the Captain’s Cocktail Party and the art auctions in there, both of which were a lot of fun. Winston’s Cigar Lounge was a really cool place if you’re the type who likes to hang out and smoke cigars. I never went into the Bronx Bar or Hero’s. The casino was pretty nice, but I swear to god the slot machines and all other electronic games are fixed. When the video blackjack machine gets 5 blackjacks in a row on more than one occasion, something is up. It’s probably best to stick to the table games in the casino.

 

 

Pools: I found the pools to be somewhat small but adequate for their purpose. You don’t really go on a cruise to swim laps. The water slide was open and is fun for all ages. The 5 hot tubs on Lido Deck were never overcrowded but could stand to have the temperature turned up a bit. Overall, I thought it was a very nice lido deck and I never had a problem finding a chair at any time of the day. Even though it wasn’t raining, they had the sky dome on the rear part of the lido deck closed one day. It’s a really cool feature and I’m sure it works perfect for rainy days.

 

 

Spa: The spa facilities are pretty nice. The sauna and steam rooms and very large and overlook the ocean. There is also a “hidden” whirpool in the spa that not a lot of people ever discovered; this one is also indoors. I didn’t use any of the spa’s optional services.

Crew: I found the crew to be very attentive, hardworking, cheerful and friendly. No problems whatsoever here. The Captain seems like a nice guy and is respected by the crew.

 

Cabin: I had an interior cabin and found it to be perfectly adequate. I’m glad I saved the extra money for a future cruise. My steward did a good job of keeping everything up, and I had a new towel animal each night. They have an outdoors video camera that you can watch on the TV, so that served as our “window.” To me a window room just wouldn’t be worth it, although I can see the appeal of a balcony room. We were room 7236 on the Empress Deck forward. It was a quiet room with no complaints.

 

 

Ports:

Bahamas: Sucks. I’ll stay on the boat and get a discount massage next time.

St Thomas: We went to Trunk Bay on St. John which was awesome.

St Marteen: Nice little island – we rented an ATV and drove around – no matter what they tell you, you WILL get lost. The map they give you shows 1 road. There are about 90 million roads. We eventually found out way back, though. We stopped at Orient Beach, which was really nice.

 

 

I could write more, but I’m done…thanks! Feel free to ask questions….

[losuds63]

Hope you enjoyed yourself and wanted to know how would you rate the stablizers on the ship did it rock alot out there or was it smooth just curious thanks!!

[thejman]

Hope you enjoyed yourself and wanted to know how would you rate the stablizers on the ship did it rock alot out there or was it smooth just curious thanks!!

 

The ride was pretty smooth. I get motion sickness pretty easy and it didn't bother me. There were some days where you could defintely feel the rocking, though. You will know that you are on a boat. It's just a very subtle rocking back and forth. A lot of it depends on the size of the ocean waves, too.

[vac4fun]

Hi there, we where on the same cruise, wonder how I could miss you among only 3500 people.

 

I agree with most of what you said, I just wanted to add a few things that I had read about prior to our sailing in order to give my 2 cents worth.

 

First one was that I thought that Brent Mitchell the cruise director was very good. He kept you informed about all the happenings without being a constant moron on the loud speakers.

 

Second, I also was able to get deck chairs at any time without having to be up at 6:00 am to save one.

 

Next is Scarlett's, I agree that you have to go hungry, there is a lot of food in very generous size servings, plus we kept getting free samplers from the chef to try out.The presentation and service was superb, we had a team from Australia serving us ( Simon & David) they did a super job!:D

 

Overall, the crew was attentive, courteous, and in the Washington Dining room both our servers Ari & Ronny made us feel like family.

 

Also, if you go to St Thomas do yourself a favor and make reservations with Godfrey Tours, Godfrey is by far the BEST! He picked us up at the pier, took us shopping, sightseeing (and he pointed out every detail of the island), and to Coki Beach, which was fantastic, as we fed the beautiful fish with a very nice lady from Boston, who is now retired and living in St Thomas, if you go to Coki, look for her in the water by the rocks, she goes about four times a week to feed the fish.

Anyway, back to Godfrey, he charges $20 per person, and it is a steal, you will get excellent service from him, we had a blast in his safari bus during the tour, screaming at all the other buses and just generally having a blast :D

 

If you are booked on the Valor, you will have a great time, so sit back, eat, and enjoy!

[MJMDM]

We're going on the Valor on 8/14/05. How do you book the Godfrey Tour?. Does he have a website?

 

Thanks for the advise

[gatorgirl1202]

Thank you for the great review! MJMDM......we will also be on the 8-14-05 sailing!

[Wennfred]

Thanks for that awesome review, I will be on the Valor 19 March 2006 and already booked the Holiday INN, at 131.00 because we needed a 3rd bed and non-smoking. I got that the Cab fare was only 20.00 from the Airport, how much was it from the Hotel to the port the next day? Did you take a cab?

 

Also about Room Service, maybe you can answer this one or someone else, Can you order room Service the night before so that it will be waiting for you when you wake up lets say around 8am?

 

Thanks again for the Review.

[Wennfred]

We're going on the Valor on 8/14/05. How do you book the Godfrey Tour?. Does he have a website?

 

Found it online:

http://www.godfreytoursvi.com/

 

http://boards2.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=157057

[islackmore]

did you book the ATV's through carnival?

 

how much did they cost?

 

I'll be on the valor this sunday!

[thejman]

Thanks for that awesome review, I will be on the Valor 19 March 2006 and already booked the Holiday INN, at 131.00 because we needed a 3rd bed and non-smoking. I got that the Cab fare was only 20.00 from the Airport, how much was it from the Hotel to the port the next day? Did you take a cab?

 

Also about Room Service, maybe you can answer this one or someone else, Can you order room Service the night before so that it will be waiting for you when you wake up lets say around 8am?

 

Thanks again for the Review.

As far as I know, you can only book breakfast room service in advance for the morning. If you want lunch for the next day, order it before you go to bed, take some plastic baggies and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

 

I didn't take a cab from the Holiday Inn to the port. I bummed a ride from some nice family of 20 from Kentucky. :) It took about half an hour, though, due to all the traffic. I'd imagine a taxi would have been $20. The return taxi ride back to the Holiday Inn (no traffic) was $5.60.

[thejman]

did you book the ATV's through carnival?

 

how much did they cost?

 

I'll be on the valor this sunday!

No, Carnival doesn't really have anything like ATV's or jet ski's. I just found some guy on the pier in Philipsburg. 1 ATV was $70 for the day. Be warned, though, you'll get passed about 1 million times driving around the island. If I had to do it again, I'd just spend a few extra $$ and rent a Jeep. It would have been MUCH safer.

[OC Mom]

Spa: The spa facilities are pretty nice. The sauna and steam rooms and very large and overlook the ocean. There is also a “hidden” whirpool in the spa that not a lot of people ever discovered; this one is also indoors. I didn’t use any of the spa’s optional services..

I have been hearing a lot of people talk about the spa services. Which services/facilities are free? Is the whirlpool co-ed?

[thejman]

I have been hearing a lot of people talk about the spa services. Which services/facilities are free? Is the whirlpool co-ed?

The whirlpool is co-ed but nothing else is. You can use the whirlpool, steam rooms, saunas, lockers (if you can find one empty) and gym for free.

[mnsawyer]

Also, there are lots of free demonstrations, etc., at the spa - I went to several on the Glory.

 

I believe the HOliday Inn has a breakfast buffet that is part of the overnight stay but maybe that is just a specific package. Bayside is right across the street and you can get breakfast there - Starbucks, food court, etc.

[losuds63]

Also, there are lots of free demonstrations, etc., at the spa - I went to several on the Glory.

 

I believe the HOliday Inn has a breakfast buffet that is part of the overnight stay but maybe that is just a specific package. Bayside is right across the street and you can get breakfast there - Starbucks, food court, etc.

 

 

I understand women volunter for demos at spa is that right thxs------------that will give me free time at the casino without her breathing down my neck you know like guys day out or something

[Mrsdeedee]

Nice review. It seems we have the same attitude. I also enjoyed the disco on the Victory. some nights it was packed while others it was empty. It confused me because i know some nights u are tired and feel like skipping it but for as many people there were on boards I was surprised it was a little more crowded.

 

I also think the amount of time we are going to be at Nassau is going to be a waste. I'm only getting of the ship to show my kids the island.