MINI PHOTO REVIEW: Carnival Victory Cruise 01/30/14-02/03/14

[Aoumd]

Just got back six days ago from a WONDERFUL time on the Carnival Victory and figure I'll do a mini photo review. I think I'll shake up the format on this one, and post a text review first (below), followed by photo highlights. Enjoy!

 

After multiple polar vortexes in the past month, it was great to escape to shorts and T-shirt weather for a couple days. I went as part of a group of four: myself, my brother, one of my best friends and one of his best friends (my wife wanted to come and was originally booked, but has a new job and didn't have vacation time yet).

 

Food was good, not a single thing I ate all four days was bad or disappointing, which is a better batting average than most restaurants. I had the steak and prime rib in the MDR as well as plenty of fruit in the buffet, pepperoni pizza and soft-serve, lox and cream cheese bagels and omelettes. Not the healthiest, but I was on vacation and it tasted good (I should point out that I had a pedometer on me and walked 20,000-25,000 steps a day, burning well north of 1,000 calories walking each day of the cruise, so I don't feel QUITE as guilty).

 

Entertainment Two big highlights here: Cee Jay Jones and Angela Johnson! Cee Jay Jones was one of the Punchliner comedians and he was HILARIOUS when we saw him on the adult show. And Angela Johnson was PHENOMENAL in the piano bar, not just with her incredible memory of music but the atmosphere she set for the entire bar. Didn't go to any of the big shows, because I spent way too much time in the casino playing penny slots. And playing penny slots. And playing penny slots. Didn't win, but it's a fun splurge I seldom do other than at sea.

 

Weather a rainy start in Miami but excellent the rest of the cruise. Felt so nice to be in a T-shirt and shorts, even at night.

 

Key West was a great walking town. We went to the Southernmost Point, took some photos, walked back and got lunch and key lime pies on a stick at some local eateries.

 

Cozumel was great as well. My friend and I are big mass transit nerds, so we rode the Ultramar high speed ferry from Cozumel to Playa Del Carmen, walked around, got souvenirs, and enjoyed a few drinks before returning to Cozumel on Mexico Water Jets' competing high speed ferry.

 

This was the Super Bowl Cruise, and the Big Game was on both on the Seaside Theatre on Lido Deck as well as the aft lounge (where the comedy is). I watched part of the game, then went to explore other things on board as the game seemed to go very Seahawk very fast. I should mention for others crusing Super Bowl in the future: you'll need to stake out your chairs in the morning. Chair hogs did swoop down, but I also saw lots of people who sat down in the morning and then didn't leave their stuff unattended very long all day either. I avoided most of this by standing, rather than sitting, to watch the game (just like I would do in a bar!).

 

Embarkation and Debarkation: this may have been Carnival Victory, but both were a complete breeze! We got to the terminal embarkation morning about 11:30 AM and were on board eating lunch shortly after 12. We disembarked with Group 3 at 8 AM for the Everglades shore excursion. All shore excursions debarked as Group 3 from the Caribbean Lounge, and it could not have been more than 10 minutes from when they called our group to go ashore until we were through customs/immigration and out of the terminal getting on our bus.

 

Staff this one is short and sweet: they were consistently amazing!

 

I'll try and post Fun Times later on, but here we go with the PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS, in no particular order:

 

First sight of our ship, when my friend and I were in a taxi from the hotel we stayed in pre-cruise to the hotel my brother and his friend stayed in, to meet up before heading to the cruise together.

[Aoumd]

The cabin hallways were lined with murals of Carnival's early years. Mardi Gras (a.k.a. CP Ships' RMS Empress of Canada) is pictured here. Pretty much every ship from the Mardi Gras well into the Fantasy Class was represented.

 

This electronic map of the ship's route was on Deck Five and always attracted a lot of attention.

 

Carnival Victory sunning in Key West.

[Aoumd]

Sun coming up between Key West and Cozumel.

 

Blueness of the water docking in Cozumel (with the pilot boat as reference). I still can't get over how blue the water was!

 

Cozumel at night.

[JayMo]

Thanks for posting!

 

I'm on this ship twice this year and of course after I book, I keep seeing horrible reviews.

 

My biggest concern is that the carpet in the cabin is gross and the shower grout is nasty and falling off and there is mold in some bathrooms.

 

I keep seeing different reviews (and video :eek: ) of that.

 

Any insight?

[Aoumd]

Some of Key West's native inhabitants walking the streets as they normally do. After countless hours spent playing Plants vs. Zombies 2 on my commute in the past few months, my first instinct upon seeing the local fauna wandering about was "uh oh do I have enough lightning reeds and spikeweeds?!"

 

Ultramar ferries at Playa Del Carmen's beach.

 

Mexico Water Jets Ferries at Cozumel (for those from the DC area, doesn't the paint job look similar to Washington Metrobuses?!).

[Aoumd]

Thanks for posting!

 

I'm on this ship twice this year and of course after I book, I keep seeing horrible reviews.

 

My biggest concern is that the carpet in the cabin is gross and the shower grout is nasty and falling off and there is mold in some bathrooms.

 

I keep seeing different reviews (and video :eek: ) of that.

 

Any insight?

 

I did not notice any mold in my cabin or on the grout in the bathroom. The one thing I noticed in the bathroom was that sometimes the normal 5-second delay in the toilet flushing (from when you hit the button to when the toilet flushed) took 1-2 full minutes, but the toilet did flush and it didn't bother me (now, had the toilet not flushed at all, that would be another story).

 

I did find some photos of my cabin and bathroom and here they are, this was 1409.

 

[Aoumd]

Some random shots of Playa Del Carmen:

[Aoumd]

Lido at 8am Super Bowl Morning. Within the next two hours nearly all the deck chairs would be taken with people already staking out places for the Super Bowl.

 

The way the Super Bowl was meant to be seen, on a big screen in shorts from the tropics.

[KPfromCT]

Thanks for the review!:D:D Keep it coming.....LOVING the pics.....

[Aoumd]

We went on the Everglades Airboat Ride and Tour shore excursion after returning to Miami which worked out pretty well. Here are some gators which are part of the mini-alligator show the airboat place puts on:

 

We rode the airboat into the Everglades and got to see some gators in the wild, but my photos of the gators out here weren't as great:

 

Finally, an appropriate warning:

[Aoumd]

Thanks for the review!:D:D Keep it coming.....LOVING the pics.....

 

Thanks!

[Sarah@Sea]

Thanks for posting!

 

I'm on this ship twice this year and of course after I book, I keep seeing horrible reviews.

 

My biggest concern is that the carpet in the cabin is gross and the shower grout is nasty and falling off and there is mold in some bathrooms.

 

I keep seeing different reviews (and video :eek: ) of that.

 

Any insight?

 

I was on the Victory in October and carpet and shower were fine. I will never understand the concern about shower grout on cruises or at hotels, maybe there is some discoloration in the corners, I don't know I'm on vacation I'm not down on my hands and knees inspecting every inch of the shower, and I would love to know how clean people's showers are at home? Really? I must say also I don't make a habit of touching the shower walls and corners, and I'm fat, very fat so yes I could bump into the wall by accident but never was it a concern, not nasty or anything, normal wear an tear as I would say.

[Aoumd]

I was on the Victory in October and carpet and shower were fine. I will never understand the concern about shower grout on cruises or at hotels, maybe there is some discoloration in the corners, I don't know I'm on vacation I'm not down on my hands and knees inspecting every inch of the shower, and I would love to know how clean people's showers are at home? Really? I must say also I don't make a habit of touching the shower walls and corners, and I'm fat, very fat so yes I could bump into the wall by accident but never was it a concern, not nasty or anything, normal wear an tear as I would say.

 

My experience was just like yours. I've learned to take bad reviews with a grain of salt. That's not to say I completely don't discredit them, with nearly 1,400 cabins on the ship it's possible a few might not be at the same standard as others. But if anything, on EVERY cruise I've been on I have seen staff consistently scrubbing, and have always been impressed by the cleanliness of the ships I've been lucky enough to sail on.

 

Hope your Victory cruise was great this past fall!

[agc291]

We were getting on the Victory as you were getting off. We had great service, and for the most part everything was clean. The ship is old and is showing some wear but like others mentioned I am on vacation, not worrying about that. The ship is our favorite and we will be sailing her again in the future. We will most likely wait until after her dry dock next spring. Glad you had a good cruise. We did as well.

 

We are also from NOVA and came home to such nasty cold weather. I was tempted to turn back around and book another cruise. I dont think work would appreciate it that....

[Aoumd]

We were getting on the Victory as you were getting off. We had great service, and for the most part everything was clean. The ship is old and is showing some wear but like others mentioned I am on vacation, not worrying about that. The ship is our favorite and we will be sailing her again in the future. We will most likely wait until after her dry dock next spring. Glad you had a good cruise. We did as well.

 

We are also from NOVA and came home to such nasty cold weather. I was tempted to turn back around and book another cruise. I dont think work would appreciate it that....

 

Howdy neighbor...yeah I felt like doing the same thing and yeah I couldn't either because, well, I was coming home to a big deadline at work. I liked the Victory, more so than the similar-design Glory when DW and I sailed on it in 2011 (which was a fine ship, I just liked Victory better). Glad to hear you had a great cruise too!

[sjn911]

Thanks so much...she looks just great...Sarah

[Waterfreak2009]

Thanks for the review. Sailing on Victory on the 27th and was a little worried after reading all the bad reviews. This puts my mind at ease a bit. :)

[Sarah@Sea]

My experience was just like yours. I've learned to take bad reviews with a grain of salt. That's not to say I completely don't discredit them, with nearly 1,400 cabins on the ship it's possible a few might not be at the same standard as others. But if anything, on EVERY cruise I've been on I have seen staff consistently scrubbing, and have always been impressed by the cleanliness of the ships I've been lucky enough to sail on.

 

Hope your Victory cruise was great this past fall!

 

It was by far our most enjoyable cruise! And I'm looking forward to my next!

[Sarah@Sea]

Wondering if you had or saw any of the same MDR staff I had in October, I hope some are still there next month when I sail. Headwaiter, Carlos, Assistant waiters Enis and Yoga and bar MDR Ming? Maitre'd Christina?

[PR0318]

Nice review with some very nice pics!! I was on the same cruise, it was a fun cruise.

[vniemo2]

Great review, we were on the same cruise and also enjoyed it. Tried a porthole cabin for the first time and loved it.

[Bibble]

OP - any chance you have the FunTimes from this cruise?

[Aoumd]

Nice review with some very nice pics!! I was on the same cruise, it was a fun cruise.

 

Thanks!

[Aoumd]

Wondering if you had or saw any of the same MDR staff I had in October, I hope some are still there next month when I sail. Headwaiter, Carlos, Assistant waiters Enis and Yoga and bar MDR Ming? Maitre'd Christina?

 

I don't remember the names of the dining room staff, but do remember that they were good. I do feel bad for the staff though, as there was sometimes a bit of a wait between times they came by. This isn't the fault of the staff, this was the unfortunate result of recent cuts that put more tables to each waiter...every single time I saw dining room staff they were diligently doing their jobs.

[vniemo2]

OP - any chance you have the FunTimes from this cruise?

 

 

I have the fun times from this cruise.

 

 

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