Valor July 6 Short Review and Video

[Confuzzled]

This was our first cruise on Carnival, previously having only sailed on NCL. We had a wonderful time and would sail Carnival again, although we did have a few issues. I want to emphasize that any negatives we experienced were FAR outweighed by positives and we would absolutely take this cruise again.

 

The ship: The ship was beautiful and very clean. The over-the-top decorating added to the feeling of fun. Carnival lives up to it's goal of being a "Fun Ship," with activities happening all over the ship at all times. Because of all the ports, we didn't get to experience as much on the ship as we would have liked, but loved every single port and wouldn't trade them for more sea days. Like most ships I've been on, I wish we could have walked from one end to the other without going up and down levels. I grew weary of the crowded elevators and the competitive dynamic involved with getting on and off. Also, maybe it's just me, but I had a very hard time determining which elevator was dinging and arriving and also if the arrow was pointing up or down.

 

Balcony room on Spa level: We had booked a guaranty and didn't get our room assignment until three days before sailing. We were thrilled with our location. It was nice to have a quiet, serene room and floor to retreat to when needed. The smell of lavender and herbs wafting through the hallways was nice. The sliding door was a big improvement over the typical balcony door. I loved being so high up and enjoyed a little sun at times. The only time we were aware of a lack of privacy was during a few sail-aways and it really wasn't an issue at all, but added to the special feeling of leaving port for the open sea. My husband, a pasty white man with precancerous lesions, had to stay inside a few times when the sun was low on the horizon on our side of the ship because he didn't want to put on sun screen just to sit on the balcony, which is only partially covered.

 

Food: We had some very delicious meals and some mediocre meals, but nothing bad or inedible. We experienced a bit of inconsistency in food quality. We had ATD but chose to eat with other people several times and enjoyed meeting new people or eating with those we had met during the day. I have celiac and preordered meals in the MDR every night and never got sick after eating in the dining room. I would, however, caution anyone eating at the buffet. Do not take advice from anyone but the Lido chef as to what is safe to eat. I learned this the hard way and spent my first evening sick.

 

Service: We were always served well and in a timely manner. Nobody was ever rude or unfriendly. Our room steward kept our room in good order and greeted us every evening as we went to dinner. Guest services responded to my issue with the gluten ingestion on Lido by immediately arranging a meeting for me with the Lido chef. However, possibly due to understaffing, we never felt the level of friendliness and attentiveness we had previously experienced on NCL. I was told by several Platinum guests we met and dined with that they were also experiencing the same thing on this cruise and assured us that it was not typical of Carnival. They said the service on most of their Carnival cruises they had been on was much better than on this particular cruise. The attendants seemed rushed and harried and unable to take the time to have a conversation. Again, we never received bad or incompetent service, so I really have no grounds for complaint, it was just not what we expected. It certainly didn't keep us from having a fabulous time!

 

Overall, we loved this cruise and given the itinerary and cost would do it again in an instant! The ports were incredible!

 

 

My husband videotaped a lot and will be posting videos of our excursions, as well as this one of the ship. He's already posted one of our day in Puerto Rico. I'm not sure if it's against the guidelines to post video links here of excursions that mention the operators' names. If anyone knows, could you let me know? He mostly puts up videos of airplane take-offs and landings (he's a pilot) so the cruise videos will be going up slowly.

 

I'm happy to answer any questions. I know I left out a lot.

 

 

Kris

[MzOhioLady]

I enjoyed the Videos! Thanks for posting. I do have a question. How much did it cost for the Corkage Fee? It is a one time fee? Or did you bring your own wine opener?

[Confuzzled]

I enjoyed the Videos! Thanks for posting. I do have a question. How much did it cost for the Corkage Fee? It is a one time fee? Or did you bring your own wine opener?

 

We brought our own opener and opened it in the room. It's $15 per bottle if they open it for you, which is more than we paid for the wine.

 

The four bottles actually represent two trips onto the ship, carrying two bottles each time. We brought the first two when we initially boarded and the second two after we toured the forts and reboarded. We also carried on a 24-pack of bottled water. They put an ugly orange zip-tie on my backpack the second time, with no explanation as to why. It stayed there until I got home a week later and nobody ever said anything to me about it so I still don't know if it was because of the wine or something else.

[MzOhioLady]

Okay thanks for the Information! I appreciate the quick response! :)

[Dirkgun]

Thanks for posting this. I am glad you had a good cruise. They are great Islands on this itinerary. We have done it 2 times before. Both on the Victory before they traded places in march of 2013 (see reviews in signature). Loved the videos of the valor as well as the ziplining in St Lucia and the forts in San Juan. We have to wait until January to go again. Thanks for taking the time to do a review.

[fergusonvt]

Glad you like the Valor. We took our first CCL cruise on her last year, the repositioning to San Juan. After 2 NCL cruises we really enjoyed ourselves and have another booked in 2016 after going back to NCL for next year. We didn't like our RCI cruise this year nearly as much as our Carnival cruise and it was a lot more expensive. I thought the MDR's between NCL and CCL were pretty comparable but thought the buffets were better on NCL although I loved the CCL salad bar. We loved the Valor and would have booked her again for 2016 but wanted to try a cruise out of NOLA that didn't go to the standard 4 NCL western Caribbean ports.

 

We are equal opportunity cruisers and will go on whatever line has the price, ship and ports we want.

[Confuzzled]

We are equal opportunity cruisers and will go on whatever line has the price, ship and ports we want.

 

We are looking at short cruises out of NOLA because we could drive down and wouldn't have to pay for airfare. We might be able to fit in an extra cruise that way.

 

Next year, we are sailing on Sail Windjammer's SV Mandalay and SO excited!

 

Kris

[CMM]

Thank you for posting your review. We sail on the Valor at the end of Sept and I love to read about peoples experiences.

 

I have a question about your stateroom. We have a balcony room that has the symbol next to it that is defined " two twin beds (convert to king) and Single Sofa Bed" wondering what that would look like? Your sofa looked like it was just flat .

 

Our previous Carnival cruise had a cushioned back to the sofa.

 

Also what tour operators did you use in the different ports.

 

Thanks

[deladane]

We brought our own opener and opened it in the room. It's $15 per bottle if they open it for you, which is more than we paid for the wine.

 

The four bottles actually represent two trips onto the ship, carrying two bottles each time. We brought the first two when we initially boarded and the second two after we toured the forts and reboarded. We also carried on a 24-pack of bottled water. They put an ugly orange zip-tie on my backpack the second time, with no explanation as to why. It stayed there until I got home a week later and nobody ever said anything to me about it so I still don't know if it was because of the wine or something else.

 

Thanks for the review! I did this itinerary on the Victory in 2012 and I can't wait to do it all over again in 2015 on the Valor :)

 

Was the orange zip-tie like one of those plastic ones that you can cut off with a pair of scissors? I know there is a long distance between the x-ray machines where they check for alcohol in your bag, and the table where they collect the bottles, but when I was there in 2012, they weren't using zip-ties to identify who had alcohol in their bags. Just wondering if it's those little plastic ties? What's to stop someone (ie: me lol) from cutting it off my bag once I turn the corner and I'm out of sight??

[Confuzzled]

Thank you for posting your review. We sail on the Valor at the end of Sept and I love to read about peoples experiences.

 

I have a question about your stateroom. We have a balcony room that has the symbol next to it that is defined " two twin beds (convert to king) and Single Sofa Bed" wondering what that would look like? Your sofa looked like it was just flat .

 

Our previous Carnival cruise had a cushioned back to the sofa.

 

Also what tour operators did you use in the different ports.

 

Thanks

 

I think it was supposed to have a back but they didn't get our room set back up all the way before we got there, even though it was after 1:30 and they had opened the hallways. They were still working in there when we arrived at our room. We came back at 2:00 and they were just finishing. For some reason our room steward didn't board the ship until the next day and they were short-handed on our floor the first day. They did come and remove the ladder.

 

We booked the kayak, hike, and snorkel tour in St. Thomas through Carnival and loved it. In Barbados, we caught a taxi at the port for a city tour and a ride to the Boatyard. The tour was very mediocre, but inexpensive. We really enjoyed the Boatyard. We wanted to snorkel with the turtles using an operator from the beach but ran out of time. We wished we had skipped the driving tour and snorkeled instead. We used Treetop Adventures in St. Lucia for zip lining and had a blast. The ride over the mountain to get to Dennery is not for the faint of heart, however! In St. Kitts we used Javin for the best excusion we've ever been on! It was a very active and physical excursion with many different facets, including climbing on black lava rocks, hiking in the rain forest, and snorkeling. In Sint Maarten, we rode the ferry to the boardwalk, walked along the beach, then took a taxi to Orient Beach. Our intention was to just stay a little while and then go to Maho but we loved Orient so much we stayed all day. We stopped at a beach bar in Phillipsburg on the way back to the ship so I could taste guava berry rum and ended up being pier runners. (Along with a whole bunch of others.)

 

My husband will be posting more excursion videos as he has time in between his flying videos. The St. Lucia one was just a quickie he put up in a hurry. He'll be putting up a better one.

 

I'm glad people are enjoying the video. It makes me remember what a good time we had! (Even though I appear quite silly!)

[Confuzzled]

Thanks for the review! I did this itinerary on the Victory in 2012 and I can't wait to do it all over again in 2015 on the Valor :)

 

Was the orange zip-tie like one of those plastic ones that you can cut off with a pair of scissors? I know there is a long distance between the x-ray machines where they check for alcohol in your bag, and the table where they collect the bottles, but when I was there in 2012, they weren't using zip-ties to identify who had alcohol in their bags. Just wondering if it's those little plastic ties? What's to stop someone (ie: me lol) from cutting it off my bag once I turn the corner and I'm out of sight??

 

It could have been cut off with scissors I suppose, but I didn't have any. It was very heavy plastic. I don't know for sure if it was there because of the wine or not. We boarded with only two bottles so I wasn't actually sneaking it on or trying to hide it.

[BarJen]

Glad you had a good time, this is definitely an itinerary worth doing.

Thanks for posting the videos, helps me scratch that cruise itch until we get to sail on the Valor again.

 

Barry

 

 

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