Valor Southern Caribbean review with pictures and Fun Times - better late than never

[pghsteelerfan]

I am enjoying your review so much!! Thank you for putting in the time to post such great information and beautiful pictures. Hope to take this cruise one day soon :)

 

Thank you for taking the time to read it. It's just my opinion, but I think this itinerary is one of the best because these are some of the most scenic islands we've seen. We took a similar cruise for our honeymoon in 1992, our first cruise, but it's been so long and memories of what the islands looked like have faded. After our cruise on Glory (Eastern Caribbean), I got "addicted" to CC, especially the reviews. Then I saw a Victory (Valor took Victory's place for the Southern out of San Juan) review loaded with pictures and decided then that itinerary would be our next cruise. If you get the chance, do it, you won't regret it. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

more please! more please!- this is the best review ever!! -I am actually waiting to see what you got up to in St Kitts before I plan my day there!!!- we go in a few weeks.

 

 

I haven't booked the jailhouse break- I booked the land and see with the ship (its only our 2nd ever cruise and I was worried about going away for such a long day on an independent trip) but I am now wishing I had book spencers trip.

 

We can't wait to go and your review it getting us soooo exited - your photos are amazing. My DH who never usually bothers to look at what I am planning - he just goes with the flow -kept asking last night if you had written about St Kitts yet.

 

Thank you for following and I'm getting ready to start on St. Kitts now and will try to get as much done as we can.

 

For St. Lucia, we were actually looking at the ship's excursion since they had one similar to Spencer's Jalousie Beach Break, but it only allowed an hour and a half at Jalousie Beach compared to the four hours with Spencer. We were kind of nervous about doing an excursion not sponsored by Carnival, but after reading reviews posted by others about Spencer's tours and how he has set times to make sure he has everyone back at the ship, we felt comfortable but had our passports just in case.

 

I hope I don't let you down with St. Kitts (our one "rain out" day), but it's coming up now. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

Day 6 – Friday, May 10, 2013 – Basseterre, St. Kitts

 

Today's Fun Times

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

My alarm clock went off at 6:00AM and I got up and went right to the balcony to see if we could see St. Kitts yet and we were just passing Nevis, St. Kitts’ sister island but could also see St. Kitts off to the left. There was a mix of clouds and sun, just like every other morning and the top of Nevis was covered in clouds. DH got up a short time later and we sat on the balcony and got pictures and video. I needed my caffeine fix, so I walked the flight of stairs up to the Lido Deck, got my coffee and came back to the cabin and had that on the balcony while DH got ready.

 

Nevis

 

 

St. Kitts

 

Nevis

 

St. Kitts (left) and Nevis (right)

 

Nevis

 

I took so many pictures from our balcony because the sky kept changing

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

Southern end of St. Kitts (zoomed in)

 

We noticed those dark clouds building up over Nevis

 

Sun's rays coming through the clouds

 

Closer view of previous picture

[pghsteelerfan]

 

That looks like rain

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

That is definitely rain

 

While DH was getting ready, I sat on the balcony with coffee getting pictures as we got closer to St. Kitts

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

When DH finished getting ready, it was my turn and when I was done getting ready, we got several more pictures on our balcony since it appeared that Valor was going to back into the dock. After getting those pictures we went to Panorama Deck 10 for better views, and more pictures, as we were docking before going back down to Lido Deck 9 for breakfast. By this time, it was cloudy and the mountains around Basseterre were covered in clouds, so we could really only see Basseterre. After getting the pictures and video, we went down to the buffet for breakfast and went back to the cabin after that to get what we’d need for the day.

 

 

 

Views of Basseterre, St. Kitts as Valor was backing into the dock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2013 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Even though cloud covered, what we were able to see was beautiful

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

Our plan for St. Kitts was to go to Cockleshell Beach, which is at the southern end of the island and was supposed to have great views of Nevis. I’ve seen pictures of Cockleshell Beach that others added to reviews and that’s where we wanted to go. We also knew from the CC Port of Call boards that it would be a 20 – 30 minute cab ride and would cost $7.00, per person, each way if the cab was full. We got off the ship and went down to the entrance of the Duty Free shops where they had signs for taxis. A gentleman asked us where we wanted to go and we told him and he directed us to a bench. We had to wait about 15 minutes before they had enough people to fill a cab going that way. The cabs were vans and our driver, an older gentleman, introduced himself, but I have forgotten his name. There were seven other people besides the two of us, all going to different beaches, but all in the same area. Cockleshell Beach was the last stop but we were still there by 10:15.

 

 

 

From what we could see from the cab, St. Kitts was beautiful, even though it was cloudy.

 

 

Carnival Valor from the cab window

 

 

 

More from the cab window

 

[pghsteelerfan]

More from the cab window on our way to Cockleshell Beach

 

 

 

When we arrived at Cockleshell Beach at the southern end of St. Kitts, we were the only ones there and were immediately able to get covered loungers at a place right next to the Reggae Beach Bar. I think DH told me those were $5.00 each, which we thought was very reasonable.

 

Cockleshell Beach

 

 

Since there isn't much shade on the beach, if the sun is out, most of the loungers you can rent also have umbrellas

 

 

Cockleshell Beach (just to the right of the Reggae Beach bar) looking out (south) towards Nevis, which is mostly hidden by clouds

[pghsteelerfan]

It was mostly cloudy but the sun was peeking out now and then. I walked to the end of the beach, which isn’t too far.

 

 

Shells and coral in the water

 

 

 

 

When I reached the end, there were better views of Nevis, although it was still mostly hidden by clouds. I'd seen pictures of this area, posted by others in reviews, on sunny days...they were breathtaking.

[ibcnusoon]

Reliving our cruise from last year! We LOVED this itinerary!!

 

Great review, looking forward to the rest.

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

Cockleshell Beach does have darker sand, but I wouldn't consider it a "black sand" beach. There was seaweed and a lot of shells washed up in the areas where there weren't loungers but the beach was raked pretty well in the areas with loungers. The water was warm and somewhat clear but nothing like Barbados and St. Thomas. They had roped off areas for swimming because there were boats coming in and dropping people off.

 

On my way back from the other end of the beach it started to rain. We thought we’d just wait it out since it usually rains for a while and stops in the Caribbean. Well, it didn’t stop, it started pouring and it was coming down in buckets. DH and I decided that was enough so we grabbed our belongings and went back to the spot where our cab driver dropped us off with the hopes that there would a taxi waiting. Our driver was still there so we went over and told him we were giving up on the beach and he said he’d take us back but it would be $14.00 per person since it was just the two of us. We were just going to pay him but he told us that one of the other couples that he dropped off at another beach didn’t like it, started walking back towards port and another cab picked them up. They wanted to give Cockleshell a try, so the other cab brought them back. Our cab driver talked to them when they got out of the other cab and they told him they were going to be in the Reggae Bar. We went and found them, joined them at a table, and told them our driver was still there and that he was would take us back and that he’d asked us to find them and see if they also wanted to leave now due to the weather. They’d each just gotten a beer but said they were ready to go since it was still pouring and didn’t look like it was going to clear out but wanted to finish their beers first. We told them to take their time since our driver said he would wait. They told us about the other beach and how there were no facilities and the beach was very messy and covered in seaweed. I forget which beach they had gone to, but it was on the Atlantic side. They told us that the just decided to start walking with hopes they’d see a cab and flag them down. Once they got a cab, they told him they were looking for a clean beach with facilities, so that driver brought them to Cockleshell. While we were waiting, several more people started arriving at the Reggae Bar. We asked on of the gals working there if she had any idea if this was just one of those typical Caribbean rain showers where it will rain for a half hour then stop, but she didn’t think it was because it was dark to the east. She said if you see “blue sky that way”, as she was pointing east, “the weather will be nice”. After what seemed about 20 minutes later, our new friends were just finishing their beers and we saw that the sky was blue to the east and it stopped raining a short time after that. We all agreed that we’d stay till 1:00PM and sit near each other so that if it started raining again, we’d go together and get our driver to take us back to the ship. We told our driver what our plans were and he said he’d be there waiting for us whenever we were ready. That was good to know.

 

 

 

We went back to our loungers and the other couple got loungers nearby. Now the sun was out, so I walked down the beach again to get more pictures since it was much prettier with the sun out. I could also see a little more of Nevis, but clouds covered the top half the whole time we were there.

 

 

 

Some pictures from my second trip down to the end of the beach

 

 

I thought this was very cute

 

 

 

Seaweed and shells. I found several nice ones and kept them as "natural" souvenirs from St. Kitts

 

 

 

Nevis is still half hidden in clouds

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Reliving our cruise from last year! We LOVED this itinerary!!

 

Great review, looking forward to the rest.

 

Thank you for reading. We really loved this itinerary too and would love to do it again. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

Yes, that's a chicken. He was in the grass behind the beach at the western end of Cockleshell beach.

 

Still not the view I'd hoped for, but it's better than none.

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

At the end of Cockleshell beach there is a little path that I think may lead to another beach, but I didn't venture that far

 

Where that path goes up a slight hill, there are some really nice views of Cockleshell Beach

 

It's also rocky along the coast in this area

 

Cloud covered Nevis

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

On my way back I found this guy, sitting up in the sand with his little legs curled up. I don't know how he got there, whether he washed up or if someone else put him there, but he was still alive. This is no place for him...

 

...so I went out into the water and put him back.

 

When I got back to the loungers, we were in and out of the water and ended up talking to others from Valor. One of the groups, three gals, were from my hometown and as it turned out, one of them graduated from the same high school that I did, 20 years after me. We still knew some of the same people. Well, I knew the parents of some of the people she knew. What a small world. I recognized one of the three from Sapphire Beach, in St. Thomas. I talked to her for a few minutes there and asked if that was her. It was. We all agreed that we had the same taste in beaches. We ended up visiting with the three of them for a good half hour. Around that time, a big yellow boat pulled up and people were getting off coming up to the beach. One of the couples were our cabin next-door neighbors who we met on the taxi in St. Thomas so we ended up talking to them until it was time to meet with the other couple and get our cab ride back to the ship.

 

The big yellow boat. It was the ship sponsored snorkeling excursion with a beach break at Cockleshell Beach

 

 

It had also gotten cloudy again and was starting to sprinkle and rain was on the way. Our driver was still there waiting for us and we asked him if he could stop at the famous overlook on Timothy Hill where you can see both the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. On the ride back, it started raining harder again and I tried getting a few pictures out the window. We stopped at the overlook and got out for pictures, but it was raining and the only pictures I got had rain drops on the lens. The guy with the donkey and monkey were also there. I think he charges for pictures, but we weren’t interested. We got the overlook pictures and back in the cab because of the rain.

 

 

 

This was from the cab window on our way back

 

 

 

This would have been a spectacular view on a clear day

 

[JohnTRN]

We were looking for the spot where you can get a picture of the ship from the fort. We could see Carnival Valor, well, we could see her “whale tail” but that was it. It turns out that view is over at the other fort, Castillo de San Cristobal. We walked over to Castillo de San Cristobal and found the spot, got our pictures then started the downhill walk to get back onboard Valor.

 

Great pic! Just 'borrowed' that for my desktop. We sail with Hockeylover in January, so getting excited.

 

John

[pghsteelerfan]

I think this is North Friar's Bay (Atlantic side)

 

 

 

 

From the overlook on Timothy Hill of the narrow part of St. Kitts where you can see the Atlantic (left) and Caribbean (right). I was really looking forward to this stop after seeing so many beautiful pictures posted by others. My plan was for a nice one to hopefully frame and hang in our home but my pictures came out a little different than all of the other ones I've seen and could not avoid raindrops on the camera lens

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Great pic! Just 'borrowed' that for my desktop. We sail with Hockeylover in January, so getting excited.

 

John

 

Thank you and glad you can use it for your desktop. :) I'd love to cruise in January or February sometime, especially to break up the cold of winter. I also think it would be neat to see the ship in port after dark with all of the lights on. I hope you all have a wonderful cruise. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

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