REVIEW: Carnival Valor to Southern Caribbean Oct 6-13, 2013 OUR FIRST CRUISE!

[michiganredrose]

Did you need a passport to cross from the French to Dutch side of St. Maarten. We had thought about just spending the day at Maho Beach but now I'm thinking that tour may be a better idea so we can actually see the island.

[Chelleum]

Great Review and pics!! I was on the Valor the week after you 10/13-10/20, I picked some of the same tours. Hopefully, I will be able to write a review. Its been hectic with school.since I been back.

 

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[KPfromCT]

LOVED your review!!!!:D Thank you for taking the time to do it....I know it's a lot of work. The Valor is on my list, as I love her itineraries. How would you say the overall "condition" of the ship is? Alot of wear and tear? Or nice? We cruised on the Breeze in April, so it makes it hard to go back to an "older" ship:o:o But I just cannot get past this itinerary.:D

[hockeyluver]

:eek:H N:eek: DONT TELL ME ITS OVER....

 

Thanks for the great review!!!

[sjn911]

I am on post 109...this is going to be a Cruise Critic armchair travel time day..

 

Reviews like your are so fresh, delightful, and full of joy in spite of any snag that they are a true respite and joy and excitement builder to keep at it...travel saving and fluff and pain working on it..you are an inspiration..off to church and then back to read...thanks sooo much for this review, I am sold for discovering Puerto Rico more and seeing more by cruising from there..you rain forest side was so inspiring..we had friends that went often from Montana in the 90's there, I think they even bought a place for a while......My very best to you...Sarah

[MrsRissB]

Lovely review. Thanks for sharing.:)

[valentinebaby1]

We've also toured with Bernard (himself) in St. Maarten and made many of the same stops. Your review and pictures brought back the memories. This is one of my favorite reviews ever!

 

Aw:o thank you! We saw Bernard briefly, he took another smaller van with the shopping group I think.

 

We've also toured twice with Bernard as our guide and the tour was basically the same except we went to Rima's Beach World to shop for about 20 minutes at the beginning, instead of feeding the iguanas. :( Like the idea of seeing the iguanas better.

 

We'd definitely tour with Bernard again! Loved the iguana stop!

[valentinebaby1]

Did you need a passport to cross from the French to Dutch side of St. Maarten. We had thought about just spending the day at Maho Beach but now I'm thinking that tour may be a better idea so we can actually see the island.

 

No passport needed. There wasn't even an official "stop". we just stopped to take pictures of the sign saying we were crossing over. If I'm not mistaken, the airport is busier in the afternoon, so spending a whole day there might be overkill. Although there is the Sunset bar off to one side...hubby walked along the whole beach but I stayed in the middle area. Other than Sunset bar, there's not a lot of space for lounging, no chairs and umbrellas...and there are large boulders that you kind of have to climb down to actually get in the water. I would say do the whole tour, and make sure you do the Island Tour II which gives you more beach time at Orient Beach and brings you to Maho in the afternoon when it's busier. We were there "off season" and still got to see a couple of big and small planes land, and a couple of big and small planes take off, just in the short time we were there. There should be be plenty of activity at the airport regardless of what time of year you are there.

 

Great Review and pics!! I was on the Valor the week after you 10/13-10/20, I picked some of the same tours. Hopefully, I will be able to write a review. Its been hectic with school.since I been back.

 

Sent from my LG-MS770 using Forums mobile app

 

Maybe we passed you on our way off the ship! I hope you had a fantastic trip like we did! I'd love to read your review :)

[valentinebaby1]

LOVED your review!!!!:D Thank you for taking the time to do it....I know it's a lot of work. The Valor is on my list, as I love her itineraries. How would you say the overall "condition" of the ship is? Alot of wear and tear? Or nice? We cruised on the Breeze in April, so it makes it hard to go back to an "older" ship:o But I just cannot get past this itinerary.:D

 

I spent so much time studying other reviews, trip adviser report, photos etc of all the islands and what to do, that's all I've spent my time on the internet doing for nearly the past year! So at least writing the review is filling that void now. I'll be sad when it's all done :(

 

As far as the condition, since this our only cruise I have nothing else to compare it to, to be honest. We didn't feel there were any real issues. I can't really think of anything that we noticed as far as wear and tear. On our departure day we spent some time in the lounge chairs on the lido deck waiting for our time, and watched as they were re-varnishing all the woodwork around the pools. The crew was amazing and kept the ship so clean! I would guess the biggest difference would be it seems there are so many other restaurant choices with the Breeze than on the Valor...but with only 1 sea day and it being so port intensive we didn't have time to even eat at all the restaurants on the Valor. I feel like we spent very little time on the actual ship! I would not hesitate to book on the Valor at all.

 

:eek:H N:eek: DONT TELL ME ITS OVER....

 

Thanks for the great review!!!

 

Well I still have one more day to our adventure so there's a little bit more before it's over!

[valentinebaby1]

I am on post 109...this is going to be a Cruise Critic armchair travel time day..

 

Reviews like your are so fresh, delightful, and full of joy in spite of any snag that they are a true respite and joy and excitement builder to keep at it...travel saving and fluff and pain working on it..you are an inspiration..off to church and then back to read...thanks sooo much for this review, I am sold for discovering Puerto Rico more and seeing more by cruising from there..you rain forest side was so inspiring..we had friends that went often from Montana in the 90's there, I think they even bought a place for a while......My very best to you...Sarah

Aw, thank you so much :D glad to know I've inspired others! A few of the others we met didn't really like Puerto Rico and I'm not sure why because we loved it. I don't know if it's just personal preference or if they had specific issues. I think we just had the attitude that the whole trip was an adventure and that this is probably a once in a lifetime shot for us so we didn't let little things bother us along the way.

Lovely review. Thanks for sharing.:)

 

Thank you!

[jaxie001]

Great review...Thanks so much for sharing!

[michiganredrose]

Thanks so much. Went ahead and booked Bernard's Tour #2 for our Feb cruise. Loving this review.

[JKirkN]

I am on post 109...this is going to be a Cruise Critic armchair travel time day..

 

Reviews like your are so fresh, delightful, and full of joy in spite of any snag that they are a true respite and joy and excitement builder to keep at it...travel saving and fluff and pain working on it..you are an inspiration..off to church and then back to read...thanks sooo much for this review, I am sold for discovering Puerto Rico more and seeing more by cruising from there..you rain forest side was so inspiring..we had friends that went often from Montana in the 90's there, I think they even bought a place for a while......My very best to you...Sarah

 

If you can, make sure to come to Puerto Rico at least 2 or 3 days (more if you can!) before your cruise and rent a car! The best food is when you are driving up to the rain forest and there are locals selling food from little tents or from the back of their trucks on the side of the road...it's AMAZING! We had the most amazing tacos and codfish fritters (bacalaitos)!!!

 

-Jim (DH)

[valentinebaby1]

Great review...Thanks so much for sharing!

Thank you for reading!

 

Thanks so much. Went ahead and booked Bernard's Tour #2 for our Feb cruise. Loving this review.

 

You'll have a great time!

[valentinebaby1]

If you can, make sure to come to Puerto Rico at least 2 or 3 days (more if you can!) before your cruise and rent a car! The best food is when you are driving up to the rain forest and there are locals selling food from little tents or from the back of their trucks on the side of the road...it's AMAZING! We had the most amazing tacos and codfish fritters (bacalaitos)!!!

 

-Jim (DH)

 

Why, hello hubby <3 and yes he speaks the truth!

[valentinebaby1]

OCT 13, 2013-day 11

It was a sad, sad morning :(

 

 

We had to say hello again to San Juan,

 

 

which meant goodbye to the Valor and our first cruise. We weren't flying out to go home until the next day, so we were in the one of the last debarkation groups (#22), which was scheduled to be off the ship around 11am. We got everything out of our room and moved out to spend our last few hours on the Lido deck. We had breakfast, and found a couple lounge chairs in the shade. I apparently fell asleep.

 

 

Soon our number was up and it as time to go. One last photo of the Lido deck

 

 

We went down the elevator when our time was called, and we gathered on deck 1. We had to wait a few minutes before they let us off the ship, but everything went smooth and was organized.

 

After getting into the port building, it was time to find our luggage, and it was right where it was supposed to be. It took awhile to get through customs, but once we got to the front of the line we handed over our customs form and ID. Even though we had indicated the actual number of bottles of alcohol, we weren't stopped and didn't have to pay any duty on the extra couple of bottles.

 

Of course as soon as we got out of the port building, with our very heavy suitcases in tow, it started pouring rain...again.

 

I had read that Barrachina's restaurant would store luggage for free, and I had read that there was some other place near the port that stored luggage for free, we ended up paying $3 per bag and stored them right across the street at a restaurant called Aloha. Barrachina is a bit of a hike, and we never found the other location that was supposed to be free, so we figured it was worth paying the money since we still wanted to see some of the Old San Juan. We were given a scrap of paper with a number on it and the luggage was just sitting in the dining room, so I was super paranoid about leaving it all there, but dragging it around was simply not an option so we decided to take our chances.

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

We had 3 goals for Old San Juan. #1 to find Fatty's Restaurant and eat, #2 to find Barrachina and have Pina Coladas and #3 to find the Coach Outlet store :)

 

The rain was absolutely dreadful. I had one umbrella (we left the house with 2, but remember when I said it was pouring rain at home that morning? Well, one of the 2 umbrella's didn't survive the loading of luggage into the car that morning, so we were down to just 1 umbrella with us). We weren't completely sure where we were headed, and we tried to find a map of OSJ but it seemed like every place we looked they were out of maps.

 

 

We asked a couple people for directions to Barrachina and headed in that direction. I think we walked a couple blocks in the wrong direction a couple times, seemed like we were were never going to find it. Finally, just as the rain started letting up we found Barrachina!

 

The place was very pretty, with a center courtyard that would have been nice to sit in if it wasn't so wet.

 

 

We ordered Pina Coladas and an order of nachos to share. The Pina Coladas were AMAZING! The best we've ever had!

 

 

After relaxing there for a few minutes, and drying off a bit, we decided to head out and find Fatty's. We called Yvette to be sure she was open, and she was. Hubby, with his amazing sense of direction, remembered exactly where we needed to go, and we headed off in that direction.

 

At this point it had started to warm up again after the rain and we were heading north, which is uphill for the most part. So getting to Fatty's was a bit of a hike!

 

 

Edited October 28, 2013 by valentinebaby1

[valentinebaby1]

It was a long hike, I won't lie. We found what we thought was the right street, so hubby called Yvette to be sure. She stepped out of the restaurant to wave to us as we made the hike up the last hill to her place.

 

 

 

Fatty's is a 4 table hole in the wall. By no means is it fancy, and I'm not even sure how I heard about it, but what I did hear was that the food was amazing. It's a blend of Jamaican, West Indian and soul food. We were so excited to finally be there! We had to wait for a table, but only for a few minutes. There was one family of 4 that were tourists, and the other 2 tables were locals.

 

 

 

Yvette treated her guests like family. She had a special of the day, which was some kind of curry chicken with rice for $8. If you ordered the special it was basically ready to serve with no wait. If you ordered off the menu, she cooked it made to order. She was a one woman operation. The 2 tables of locals already had their food and she was just taking the order for the family of 4 when we arrived, and she apologized for the wait. The family ordered off the menu so she had several dishes to prepare, and she took our order, which was one daily special and an order of jerk chicken. She asked if we wanted them served together or if we wanted the daily special right away, and we opted to take the special then and the jerk chicken when it was done, since we were sharing both plates.

 

The food was every bit worth the hassle to get there! It was so delicious!! While we worked on the first plate, she had the family of 4's food ready to serve. She called the 2 kids up to her counter and told them to set the table, and then had them take the plates to the table as well. It wasn't done as a gimmick either, it was really just like a mama talking to her kids. When they were done the kids cleaned up the table too. It was so fun eating there! Several others came in while we were eating/waiting and it was obvious that she was loved by the locals. She was really a delight!

 

The family of 4 went to pay for their food, and she only takes cash. They weren't prepared for that and their meal came to around $50. They had $55 on them, and the dad asked if there was any ATM around there so he could get cash. He said he wanted to tip more than just $5, but she insisted it was fine, and sent them on their way.

 

After we finished our jerk chicken, which was by far the best meal we had all week, the restaurant was pretty much empty at this point and we chatted with Yvette for a little bit. She is actually from St Kitts, and the week before when she was closed she had been visiting her daughter in Texas. We thanked her for the wonderful meal and even got hugs from her, and we took a photo together outside after she walked us out:

 

 

There she told us that a friend of her's had made her lovely sign recently, and unfortunately had spelled Fatty's wrong. She said it should be Fatty's, not Fattie's but she loved her sign so she let it be. So with tummies full and we had dried off completely at this point, it was time to meet the last of our 3 goals of the day; to find the Coach Outlet.

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

Now, I wasn't sure if we even found Coach, if I'd even be able to buy anything, as I had never been to a Coach outlet before and I wasn't sure what the pricing would be but I was hoping to find something I liked for under $100. I told hubby at this point that we didn't have to go, since I knew we had spent more on the trip than we had originally planned, but he said he didn't want us to leave and for me to regret not going. I wasn't even sure where Coach was so we looked it up on the phone and discovered that we had nearly passed it earlier, it was very close to Barrachina. Since most of the walk back to that area was downhill, we figured we might be able to find it.

 

We took out time and wandered a bit, and checked out some of the booths set up with crafts and things.

 

 

 

 

We walked through the square that has tons of pigeons,

 

 

We saw several fountains and statues

 

 

At one point we rode the trolly for a couple blocks, and finally made our way to Coach!

 

 

The Coach store was very nice, and we were handed a coupon for 50% off our purchase. I'd read before about these coupons so I'm guessing they are available any time? But they were good off sale prices, and nearly everything was on sale. I found a purse that I liked and was having a hard time deciding on the color option. It was regularly $298, on sale for $160 and then 50% off, so the final price was $80! I picked a tan and pink purse, and as we were getting in line to check out, hubby said I needed to get a wallet to match, aww! But they didn't have a wallet to match that purse exactly, so I ended up swapping for a tan and brown purse to get the matching wallet too. Thank you hubby!

[valentinebaby1]

After that we decided we had done all we wanted to in OSJ, considering the forts were still closed due to the gov't shutdown. So we decided to head back to the port and collect our luggage, which we were hoping would still be there, and head out of OSJ and back to the Courtyard Isla Verde for one last night before heading home the next morning.

 

We walked back to port, and as soon as we got close to Aloha's restaurant to get our luggage, it started to pour down rain again! Of course it was pouring rain, it only seemed to do that when we had luggage to deal with! But at least all the luggage was still there, and we walked it all back across the street and easily found a cab to take us to the Courtyard.

 

We took our last photo of the Valor, through the taxi window in the rain. Luckily the rain helped to mask my teary goodbye. I feel so silly even admitting that, but it was so hard to leave that time knowing we wouldn't be back.

 

 

The ride to the hotel wasn't very long, maybe 15-20 minutes. We got checked back in and this time our room was on the 6th floor. Even though the day was still kind of dreary, we wanted to get right back out to the beach for one last dip in the ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

After spending the rest of our daylight hours in the ocean, we headed in and stopped in the pool. Sometime during the week we were gone, they had started some renovations on the pool so half of it was closed down, including the whirlpool. But there was a small heated pool that we enjoyed for a bit before heading back to our room.

 

After we showered, we laid down for a few minutes, and were going to go down to the lobby to one of the restaurants for dinner. We both fell asleep and woke up several hours later. We decided to just skip dinner and stay in bed.

 

In the morning, we had no idea how much time we would need at the airport, since there is a separate agriculture check to go through first, and we had read stories where people got through very quickly and other stories where it took people several hours to get through ag and security both. Our flight left around 11:30 am, so we decided to go get a cab around 8am.

 

They have cabs waiting basically at all times at the airport, so we hopped right in and were off, and it was all of a 5-10 minute drive to the airport. We were very concerned about the weight of our luggage...

 

We couldn't put any of the alcohol in our carry ons, since obviously it's liquid. Which meant we were keeping our fingers crossed that we wouldn't be over the 50 pounds per suitcase. An extra checked bag would have cost us $125 and anything over 50 pounds would have cost us $100 (or vice versa?). Either way we were hoping not to have to pay.

 

We found the agriculture check, which had no one waiting and got through that just fine. They put stickers on the luggage which gave us the ok to check them in so we headed to the Delta desk where we weighed the luggage...

 

Gulp...

 

One was 55 pounds, the other was right around 51. We only had to make a small adjustment, so we moved some things around, and checked them again...49 and 49 pounds! PHEW!

 

But this now meant that our carry ons were pretty loaded. We each had our small carry on suitcase, and I had my purse, another bag, and my bag from the Coach store with my new purse in it. He had a backpack and a shopping bag also. We decided to have breakfast, since we had plenty of time to spare, and that gave us a chance to rearrange our carry ons and consolidated my purse into my other bag, and that left me with 3 items, and he had his suitcase, backpack and one shopping bag. We just kept our fingers crossed that no one would yell at us for having too much stuff.

 

After breakfast we still had over an hour to wait, and we dozed on and off, but finally it was time to say goodbye to Puerto Rico and our fabulous trip :(

[valentinebaby1]

The flight was on time, and everything was smooth, and we watched Puerto Rico as she disappeared behind us.

 

 

 

 

We saw some more of the Bahamas from the plane, but didn't fly up the Florida coast like we did on the way down.

 

 

We landed in Atlanta to change planes before heading home to Omaha.

 

 

Our daughter picked us up at the airport, and wouldn't you know it, it was pouring down rain...again!

 

So that's it! Thank you to everyone who read, and if anyone has any questions hubby and I will be happy to answer them!

 

 

 

[cruisinJenF]

Loved loved loved your review!!! Thank you!!! It was like reliving my July cruise!!

 

I was hoping you would post a pic of your new purse :)

[Perfect Stranger]

I'm so glad you finally got a wonderful vacation with your husband. You seem like such a nice lady.

 

This review was so enjoyable.

[jenischmeni]

We (mom, dad, at-that-time 17 YO DD, 15 YO DS) cruised on the Valor 7 years ago and loved it. (Different itinerary then.) At that time, I figured it would be our only cruise ever and we made the most out of it. (Just like you did!)

 

Here we are 7 years later, the kids are now grown (25 YO DD, 22 YO DS) and we're back to looking for a cruise for the us, the kids, and their spouse/mate. So, see? You may get back on that ship sometime in the future!

 

We hadn't really decided which ship/itinerary to take but I was leaning towards the Valor's current itinerary. After spending much of Sunday reading this post, I think my mind is made up and the Valor won.

 

Thanks for such a sweet review with great pictures. After reading your posts, I'm ready to pack my bags right now. (We'll be going in June.) I loved your sweet spirit and kind nature. Your posts were a delight to read and were the kind of things that I'd want to know. Especially helpful were your posts about San Juan. DH was a little reluctant to leave out of San Juan but after seeing your photos, I think you won his heart over.

 

I've already emailed a link to this thread to the kids so they can read your review too. (And probably get as excited as me!)

[oneboysmom]

Loved your review!!!! Thanks for taking the time and doing this. You seem like a really fun couple and would love to know when you're going to take your next cruise and join you guys!!