Allison & David's Carnival Valor (3/2/14) Anniversary Adventure

[teetmo]

can't wait to read the rest!

[ucfalli]

Day 3: All Aboard Continued

3/02/14

Video Arcade... largest I've seen on a cruise:

Club O2 (thought it was too young looking for the age group, had an oddly young train theme):

Java Cafe:

Shogun Club Casino:

We went by the spa, but we couldn't just peep in without getting hassled with one sale pitch after another, so we left very shortly after.

 

I hated how you couldn't see out the windows while on the treadmill. They were angled low and down. This gym was felt much smaller also then the one of the Miracle (which was multi-leveled), but there always was plenty of open machines.

[ucfalli]

Day 3: All Aboard Continued

3/02/14

Area with ping pong and other fun things:

 

 

Scarlett's Steakhouse:

Not a fan of this tiered deck style:

Mini Golf:

 

 

 

[ucfalli]

Day 3: All Aboard Continued

3/02/14

 

Camp Carnival:

After checking out the Valor, we headed back to our room and changed/showered for our anniversary dinner. I made reservations in advance for Scarlett's Steakhouse. It was our 1st anniversary and I think the first night is the best, since you get a choice of free red or white wine. Plus the first night on the Valor is is open seating for dinner since people are still boarding during dinner time.

We checked out the taste bar (yummy!):

Love this photo of us:

 

[Coolcruise02]

Enjoying your great review and pretty pics!

[trvlgrl422]

Thanks for the review! I am sailing with my husband in June. Looking forward to hearing about the ports!

[Cjh1975]

Thank you for your review, am enjoying it so far. We're on this cruise in July and we're also flying JetBlue. Since we've never flown that airline before I was glad to hear you had good things to say about them.

 

I love JetBlue it's my favorite airline to fly. Also once they come around with the snacks, if you want more you can walk to the back of the plane and help yourself. The blue chips are good

[ucfalli]

Day 3: All Aboard Continued

3/02/14

 

After watching the sunset we headed for our dinner at Scarlett's. Once again it started with a compliments from the chef: mini hamburger for the guys and tomato soup for the ladies. I really want the mini hamburger next time. Do any ladies have experience with asking ahead so they don't get the soup? This is our second time doing the steakhouse and it was once again a delicious experience.

 

The escargot at the steakhouse are delicious!

Yummy filet Mignon:

We had our leftover wine sent for us to use in the dinning room. Then it was time for the safety briefing. Out of all our cruises this was most definitely the most painful to get through. We didn't even show up right away and we still had to stand for quite a bit of time until they started. It honestly felt like forever.

Once the drill was over we headed to the "secret deck" on deck 6 for sail-away. Once we got past old San Juan we headed to the lido deck to check out the sail-away party. They had a great Latino band on this cruise. Soon enough we were sleepy and headed to bed cause tomorrow was St. Thomas!

 

[ucfalli]

Day 4: St. Thomas/St. John

3/03/14

 

So today had the worst weather forecast out all the ports. I believe it was a 50% chance of rain. So I woke up oddly early at 6:30am and peaked upstairs to check out the weather. Yay!... it looked very nice.

A Royal Caribbean ship also coming to dock:

The chef making the omelet was very humerus for the morning.

 

 

[ucfalli]

Day 4: St. Thomas/St. John

3/03/14

 

After breakfast we gathered all our stuff for the day and headed off the ship. It was around 7:45am, so we were one of the first ones off the boat. We boarded an open air taxi right by the ship and it filled up in a couple of minutes. We headed to Red Hook to catch the ferry to St. John. I had gone back and forth about taking a cruise excursion or heading to St. John on our own. In the end I decided the flexibility was worth doing it on our own. The price is slightly less for on your own.

 

The taxi ride out to Red Hook is quite twisty and hilly. Took about 25min to get to the ferry. Glad we weren't driving! You need cash to buy your tickets for the ferry. I believe the round trip is $14 per person. The ferry boarded right around 9am and was about a 20min ride to St. John. We sat up top (which gets filled up pretty quick).

 

Red Hook Ferry:

Right after getting off the ferry there are people directing to different taxi's depending on where you are going. We talked to a guy about wanting to see the island, see the Annaberg Ruins, and to spend sometime at Trunk Bay. He told us to not take an island tour, but to take a separate taxi to Annaberg and then a taxi to Trunk bay. Big mistake. Should of never listened to him.

 

We found that the taxi drivers on St. John weren't very friendly (well at least the ones we experience). I wouldn't expect them to stop at any of the view points unless you are doing an island tour. Our driver just zoomed on by.

Since we were there so early, we were the only ones at the Annaberg ruins (was nice and peaceful though). We chatted with some nice volunteers at the ruins. They told us that the taxi's aren't as common there, we'd have to wait probably till the next ferry came in with the next group on people before we saw another taxi.

 

We felt a little worried being left at the ruins since we didn't know when the next taxi would come. The volunteer's suggested that after we were done to walk up to the previous stop to the start of the Leinster Bay train, since catching a taxi there easier. Was a short walk uphill. Luck has it we waited about 15 min till a taxi showed up, dropping some people off and then taking us to Trunk Bay.

 

[Bases5]

Great review We are doing this Iten in Sept.

Not to jump ahead but since you were flying jet blue to FLL, I was wondering what time was your return flight, and how was it.

They have a 11:20 am flight that I would love to take, but I am little worried about making it on time.

[bunchesofun]

The main negative for me was the horrible layout. You constantly can't get from one end of the boat to the other due the kitchen galley or the dinning rooms at the lower down decks. It is also to me very awkward to get to certain specific areas. Mainly the mini golf (you have to walk though the basketball court area and dodge people playing and the gym you have to enter from either the women's or men's locker rooms. I found it really odd that David and I always had to split up when we went to the gym.

 

The crew were great and the boat was clean and tidy. Just wasn't a fan of the layout at all.

 

I totally agree with you about the layout being poor. We were used to the Pride where every deck you can walk from one end to the other. We found it a pain to have to go down to maybe deck 5 go forward, come up and then back track to where you wanted to go. One time my dd and I cut through the dining room during the day while trying to get to the internet room.

[poppadevan]

Great Review!! Looking forward to the Islands. Thanks for sharing.

[Jenny in TX]

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review.

[valsdancin]

Day 3: All Aboard Continued

3/02/14

 

After watching the sunset we headed for our dinner at Scarlett's. Once again it started with a compliments from the chef: mini hamburger for the guys and tomato soup for the ladies. I really want the mini hamburger next time. Do any ladies have experience with asking ahead so they don't get the soup? This is our second time doing the steakhouse and it was once again a delicious experience.

 

 

 

 

 

I've been to the Steakhouse on the last 3 ships I've been on and received a different amuse-bouche every time. My last experience they tried to give me one with seafood, which I do not eat. I handed it to my date because I knew he would eat it and took his cream of mushroom soup instead. Our table mates (my roommate and her date) also did not want the seafood option and were able to get the cream of mushroom soup instead. It never hurts to ask if you want something different. :)

[ucfalli]

So excited! Looking into the Valor for this November! Thank you for the review and I can't wait for the other pictures!

 

Your welcome! :D

[ucfalli]

can't wait to read the rest!

 

Thanks! More is coming...

[ucfalli]

Enjoying your great review and pretty pics!

 

Thanks for reading!

[ucfalli]

Thanks for the review! I am sailing with my husband in June. Looking forward to hearing about the ports!

 

Thanks....Lucky you!

[ucfalli]

Great review We are doing this Iten in Sept.

Not to jump ahead but since you were flying jet blue to FLL, I was wondering what time was your return flight, and how was it.

They have a 11:20 am flight that I would love to take, but I am little worried about making it on time.

 

We ended up flying Southwest on the return flight. We ended up saving a lot of money by doing that. Only downside our flight wasn't till around 4pm.

 

I think you could make the 11:20, you'd just have to make sure you are one of the first ones off the boat and are ok with that stress... :D

[ucfalli]

Great Review!! Looking forward to the Islands. Thanks for sharing.

 

 

Thanks!... More to come

[ucfalli]

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review.

 

 

Thanks! :D

[ucfalli]

I've been to the Steakhouse on the last 3 ships I've been on and received a different amuse-bouche every time. My last experience they tried to give me one with seafood, which I do not eat. I handed it to my date because I knew he would eat it and took his cream of mushroom soup instead. Our table mates (my roommate and her date) also did not want the seafood option and were able to get the cream of mushroom soup instead. It never hurts to ask if you want something different. :)

 

That's interesting. I thought it was always the tomato soup or burger.

[ucfalli]

Day 4: St. Thomas/St. John Continued

3/03/14

 

 

 

[ucfalli]

Day 4: St. Thomas/St. John Continued

3/03/14

 

We made it to Trunk Bay in no time. The water was very rough today. It seemed to appear that almost half the beach that would normally be there was taken up by the waves coming ashore. Since there was very little beach, it was very crowded. The water color was beautiful, but honestly I wasn't impressed by the actual beach experience. We luckily found a little bit of beach in the shade to relax. Every once in awhile a wave would come even higher then others and would get those that set up too close all soaked. We tried to warn several people...

You can see how high the water line went by the wet sand...

So I went into the water for a little bit to check out the snorkeling. Honestly was the worst snorkeling I have done. The water was very choppy and murky. Very few fish and corals.

 

This is what it looked like....

 

They had a lifeguard on duty on a paddle board.