MY VALOR ADVENTURE!!! review complete with lots of Pictures, 5/18 sailing

[skidawg79]

BACKGROUND:

Just got off the Carnival Valor on Sunday and since I love reading reviews of everyone's trips on this site, I thought i'd pay it forward. Hope you all enjoy!

First of all, I'm 34, single and fairly well traveled. I've only been on two previous cruises, but this was my first time on Carnival. My other two were on Princess and Royal Caribbean. I have, however, traveled most of the US and been to 7 different countries in Europe and enjoy all different places and different kinds of travel, but definitely love crusing. This trip came about because one of my closest friends for the past 17 years, Emily, called me back in January and basically said, "I'm stressed, I know you are too. I'm planning a cruise and your either coming with me....or i'm going by myself", now who am I to argue with that! We have travelled together before and we always have a great time, within a week...we were booked on the Valor! Since im sure most of you don't want to hear about packing and all that boring crap, ill spare you the headache and get right to the trip....

Next up Pre-Cruise in San Juan!!!

[skidawg79]

PRECRUISE IN SAN JUAN:

I live in Pittsburgh but Emily lives in Allentown, and since it was over $200 cheaper to fly out of Newark and it gave me a chance to visit my mom, I found myself driving to Allentown on Friday night for an early morning flight out of Newark. We got to the airport, made it through security and saw the flight was on time, only thing left….get a bloody mary to officially start my vacation! Sat down at a breakfast place in the terminal, ordered a bloody mary and was told it was too early! I firmly believe that a bloody mary should be considered a breakfast food and Newark airport should rethink their rule of not serving alcohol before 9AM in this case! We flew JetBlue and each plane has it’s own name, ours was…. “Big Blue People Seater”….thought it was cute.

Once on board…I finally got my bloody mary…VACATION IS ON!!! J

Flight was smooth, got to San Juan on time and let me tell you…it’s like they rush you to relaxation. We landed at 1:15, got off the plane by 1:25, we were checked into our hotel (Marriot Resort and Stellaris Casino) and had a mojito in our hand at the pool bar by 2PM…..less than 45 min from touchdown!!

Look how white we are…yikes…need some sun! Luckily…we got plenty of it!

As I said before, we stayed at the Marriot Resort and Stellaris Casino in the Condado area. We got the hotel for $130/night through the priceline bidding feature. The hotel itself was nice, however the beach pool area was BEAUTIFUL! Here are some pics from around the pool and beach area.

[volacruzing]

loving your review so far, we leave on Friday for San Juan and then the Valor. Do you have any quick tips to help me out?

[skidawg79]

PRE-CRUISE CONT…..

They have beach attendants that will set you up with chairs and umbrellas free of charge…tip them of course.

Bar and seating area right along the beach..

One of the best things about this beach…there were waves!! I was like a kid in a candy store body surfing them in…however after a few mojitos I don’t recommend… lol One thing I discovered about myself on this cruise is that I have a slight problem with selfies, ill spare you most of them but some came out pretty good. Here is a wave crashing over my head.

Had a great afternoon at the beach and pool, we were only there for 2-3 hours we both already felt more relaxed than we have in a very long time. Time to get go get ready to head into Old San Juan for dinner, took one more pic of the pool before we went to get changed.

Speaking of dinner....it’s time to make it! Damn I miss being served all my meals. Next cruise, screw the souvenirs, I’m bring back one of carnivals awesome chefs and waiters! …post more a little later…

[keystonemama]

Nice start and your pictures are great.

[skidawg79]

loving your review so far, we leave on Friday for San Juan and then the Valor. Do you have any quick tips to help me out?

 

Mmmmm, Anything specific you are looking for? Alcohol wise, security is very lax at the port and there is a CVS about a 3-5 min walk from the port that you can get any last minute items at a reasonable price (including wine) that you may have forgot to pack. Things on the ship are much more expensive.

[skidawg79]

PRE-CRUISE CONT…..

Got changed and took a cab into Old San Juan. Let me just say, it’s a damn good thing we didn’t rent a car! I may still be stuck in traffic! Our cabbie was driving on sidewalks and took a detour through a building’s turn-around road and said…here’s our capital building. Who knew you got a tour with your cab fare. Cab was $15 to Old San Juan from the Condado area. Finally got there, time to walk around and find something to eat. Old San Juan is beautiful, it has a very European feel to it with the outdoor eateries and restaurants. We ended up eating at Raices, which was recommended by our hotel. I am not going to go through every meal because honestly…I don’t remember all that I ate and when I ate it all. Sorry for those of you who are into the “food porn”, but I’d rather eat it than take pictures of it. J I will just say that the food was ok. I wasn’t disappointed in the food, but I wouldn’t write home about it either. This pic is from outside the restaurant, very cool street…loved the vibe in Old San Juan.

After dinner, we walked around and just enjoyed the night. Here is the Sheraton right by the cruise port. Looked like a fun place at night, they had a band outside and a bar right along the sidewalk in front of the hotel. People were even standing on the sidewalk enjoying the band.

We were getting extremely tired from a long day of travel, beach and Old San Juan so we took a cab back to the hotel. Before we went to sleep, we took a late night walk on the beach. It was almost a full moon and I saw a photo op so I used the night feature on my camera for the first time…love this pic.

Next up…Embarkation day!!!

[wishfultraveler]

We leave on the Valor on June 29th. Love reading about your pre-cruise. I still need to book our room for the 28th and your review helped me decide where we want to stay. Beautiful photos! THANKS!

[skidawg79]

We leave on the Valor on June 29th. Love reading about your pre-cruise. I still need to book our room for the 28th and your review helped me decide where we want to stay. Beautiful photos! THANKS!

 

No problem, we thought it was the perfect pre-cruise hotel. The area immediately outside the hotel isn't anything to write home about, but like I mentioned, the pool and beach area are great. There was latin music and dancing in the lobby on Saturday night as well. (the casino sucked, took my money haha). If you have any questions about the hotel, ill do my best to answer.

[skidawg79]

EMBARKATION DAY!!

Woke up early and saw it was a beautiful day out so we called the front desk for a late checkout. Took a morning walk up to the La Concha area to get breakfast at this place called Waffler Avenue. Fought away a few pigeons, they weren’t getting any of this guys waffle, and went back to get ready to enjoy a few hours on the beach before we head to the ship. Some pics from up by the La Concha hotel.

The La Concha does have a beach….this is a block up from the hotel.

Got back to the hotel, changed and thought we’d enjoy another awesome morning at the Marriot beach and pool. Yes, I am a 5 year old at heart…had to try the slide. Wasn’t too excited, only knocked one or two kids out of my way. (joking)

We were done fooling around in the pool and it was time to check out and finally start our first Carnival Cruise! Only one problem, we were locked out of our room and it was only 20 min before we had to check out. Emily looks at me and is like, “you called for a late checkout right?!?”, I’m like “I think so, I hope so, I was half asleep!” At this point, I thought to myself that it was very possible that the housekeeping people knew we were checking out late, but not the front desk. Haha. Luckily there was a phone in the hallway, called security and they let us in. Quick changed, repacked and got on our way to the cruise port at around 1pm.

[shawne71]

Lovin' the photos! My Partner and I took this cruise in January and we also stayed at the Marriott. Your review is bringing back a lot of great memories! We loved this cruise so much that we are planning to book it again! :D

[skidawg79]

EMBARKATION DAY CONT….

Cab ride to Old San Juan was much better this time of day, only took about 15 min from the hotel to the cruise terminal. My first look at my home for the next 7 nights, I was getting pretty excited!

We dropped off our checked bags and walked down to the CVS to get our wine and some other things. As we were walking in, this older couple was walking out with a duffle bag that seemed to be pretty heavy. As we got closer all we heard was…clank, clank, clank. They had to have 10-15 bottles of something in that bag. I looked at them and was like, “you actually going to try and get that on the boat?!?” They shook their head yes and went on their way. Now let me just say, Emily and I can drink with the best of them, but there was no possible way we would have been able to drink the amount of alcohol they had in that bag in 7 days! Especially since we were going to be in port almost every day. (we ended up running into them during the sail away party, and they confirmed that they got it all on board.) Now I don’t judge and I don’t want to start an argument over this. But if this couple got THAT bag on the ship, the problem doesn’t lie with the people trying to smuggle. It lies with the way the security is screening people. I mean,come on, they didn’t even try to hide it!

ANYWAY…moving on…

We got back to the terminal and the boarding process was a breeze. Went through security at the front of the terminal, got our sign and sail card, went through the x-ray machines and were on the boat in a matter of 15-20 min. Since we didn’t get there till about 2pm, our room was ready. We dropped our bags off took a tour of the ship and left to go back into Old San Juan for a few hours before we had to get back on the boat.

My first impression, I liked it. Very nice, clean and easy to navigate (those of you who haven’t been on this class ship, you cannot walk from front to back on decks 3 and 4 as the dining rooms get in the way. Go to the promenade deck on 5 to walk the length of the ship.)

Got my first Drink of the day, or daily special or whatever they call it now. It had a message for me....I would have to agree....

Aft Pool…

Promenade

I will most definitely be taking a ride on you later this week! J

[dolphin2012]

Looking forward to this cruise ourselves one day! loving you pics and review.. cant wait for the port reports.. thanks!

[skidawg79]

Looking forward to this cruise ourselves one day! loving you pics and review.. cant wait for the port reports.. thanks!

 

Thanks! This is my first full review that I'm attempting. I'll get this done eventually, resizing pics are a pain haha. You will love the ports, all have a distinctly different feel to them.

[skidawg79]

Lovin' the photos! My Partner and I took this cruise in January and we also stayed at the Marriott. Your review is bringing back a lot of great memories! We loved this cruise so much that we are planning to book it again! :D

 

Thanks! Part of my reason of doing this review is to relive it to some extent and help my transition back to the real world haha.

[olcar]

Doing this cruise in August m, getting excided

[jmcancruise]

We did this cruise last fall and have it booked again for next fall. We absolutely loved it. We have a long time to wait, so need to live vicariously through other's vacations.

[skidawg79]

We did this cruise last fall and have it booked again for next fall. We absolutely loved it. We have a long time to wait, so need to live vicariously through other's vacations.

 

Loved the itinerary....I would definitely do it again. Hope you enjoy the review. I'll try to post more later today.

[gambee's_mom]

Great start. I can see trough your pictures you have a lot of fun.:D

[junebug8]

Loving your review! I've always wanted to do this cruise. :D

[hartsnvt]

Can't wait to read your review! You're doing great so far!

[Perfect Stranger]

Beautiful pictures!

[frayedend]

Great review so far. We are going in July and staying at Marriott also. Quick question: Is taxi fare to Old San Juan per person? There are 7 of us total so things can add up quickly. I'm just hoping to have an idea if a quick ride will be $15 or $60 for 4 of us in my family.

[shipshape3]

I hope to do this cruise sometime in the near future, Love the pictures!!

[reerun25]

Great start to the review, and looking forward to reading more!!