Carnival Victory Brief Review

[qianabb]

Hola Carnival Cruisers! I am fresh off the Victory in October and I wanted to do a mini review.

Background info:

Cruisers: My husband and I and two other couples. We are originally from Ohio but live in Florida now and met our friends for a couples vacation. My husband and I have sailed Norwegian before and this is our first time on Carnival. One of the other girls has sailed on Carnival twice, and our mission was to make the other three first time cruisers, Cruise lovers!

Itinerary: Key West and Cozumel, 4 night. This itinerary was chosen because these dates coincided with everyone's vacation time so we picked more for the dates than the ship.

 

Please be nice this is my first review ever on Cruise critic and I just wanted to give my perspective. I tried my hardest to check for typos and spelling errors and grammar errors but I'm not perfect (as hard as I try to be).

 

Let me start by saying that being a travel agent is probably really my calling in life and something I should probably seriously explore. I love to plan trips and make itineraries that are personalized for the participant and I take travel and hospitality very seriously.

 

I planned every facet of our trip down to the smallest detail starting with our onboard arrangements, researched the ports and excursions, airport pick up, parking,dining,etc... you name it I have thought of it. So much in fact that everybody just lets me do my thing and they show up at the appropriate time and place.

 

The first part of our trip is your personalized vacation package that I mail out to everyone prior to departure:

 

Fast forwarding to the day of. My husband and I drive down to Fort Lauderdale first to pick up one set of friends and then on to Miami to the Miami port airport to pick up the second set of friends. We are two hours north of Miami and of course this saves them money on transfer fees or taxi fees. Next stop The News Café on South Beach our favorite place to eat breakfast in Miami. We park around the corner from News Café and proceed to pick up our bottles of wine and champagne for the boat and we've also stashed a little hooch in our rum runners to see if they make it on the boat.

 

These were the only rum runners that I could find originally and they were in the dollar store in my city. The liquor store we went to in Miami did have some clear ones but since we already had these I did not repurchase clear ones.

 

After a great brunch,parking and then onto the Ship! Victory awaits! After reading several reviews online I went with Safe Cruise parking in Miami because for 5 days it was $40 versus $100 at parking at the port. The transfer was easy we parked on the lot, I have prepaid for our parking (which is required) our bags were loaded and we were shuttled to the ship without delay no problemos. * Sidenote: online I did notate that we had six people and they did not charge me additional at that time. Once we arrived to park, we were informed that two extra people were an additional five dollars per person. But at this point we're in vacation mode and no big deal we pay the $10 and away we go! (in the back of my mind though you know this is an issue for me lol because I like my plans to go perfect )

 

We are given :-) stickers to place on our clothes when we return so that when we come out of the terminal the drivers will know who we are and we will be directed toward the shuttle to take us back to our car. Our ship and the Bimini SuperFast fast were the only ships and in dock at that time (which I do plan to cruise at a later date).

 

Boarding the ship was as expected, did have an Ebola screening which we filled out and then we waited on line to get our sign and sail cards. The one thing that is different from Norwegian to Carnival is that when you get your sign and sail card they do not take any money for your onboard expenses and on Norwegian they did at that time and I found that convenient. I didn't add a card before hand online because I wasn't sure how we were going to handle our expenses but with that being said, I like Carnivals no pressure way of approaching the onboard expenses situation and we were able to add at our leisure. However I only saw 2 sign and sail kiosks or you could go to guest services. As you can imagine the first day this was quite hectic but we made it through and that's really my only negative for the whole trip.

 

I lied just that quick lol. Once we boarded the ship the main atrium area was quite smaller than I expected or either the sailing was completely full but it seemed like a whole lot of people at one time. But looking back that was the only time that I really experienced that feeling. We walked around the ship for a bit and decided to head to our rooms and low and behold, hold our bags were already there - quite a surprise. And guess what made it through the - the rum runners! They were safely in my husband shoes inside of a new pair of socks. I had forgotten about it but they made it onboard.

 

I will post pictures of the rooms later but I was quite surprised at the size -we had selected oceanview rooms on the Riviera deck and they were very spacious. The entrance walkway was a little narrow but there was a full bathroom with a full shower, separate toilet, full length vanity sink, mirror, complete with a medicine cabinet that you could store items in. This was quite a step up from Norwegian. The room itself had a sitting area with a couch and a table and 2 chairs, a shelf that ran along the length of the room under the mirror, king-size bed and of course the window. I was pretty impressed and we really enjoyed our room.

 

Off to the muster. The muster on Carnival was quite interesting -we lined up in rows of three shoulder to shoulder and this very hot area while the mustard was conducted. Or Norwegian we were in a dining room of some sort which of course was more comfortable.

Next stop Lido deck for sail away and drinks! This is where we met our favorite bartender for the whole trip Iwayan and we learned about the pilot boat situation. If interested you should Google it. Pilot boat captains jump off a small boat onto the cruise ship and guides the ship in or out and then again jumps back off all while their boat and the ship is moving - once we're safely out to sea.

Various Photos: Pilot boat, the girls, the guys, us at dinner, some guy who was enjoying himself a lot already on the first day lol, the atrium and the dining room performance at dinner.

 

 

 

 

More later next stop - Key West!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[GrummanTiger]

Sounds like you really put your all into the planning! Bet the carry through is great too! I'm paying attention. :)

[ReRe71]

Same here....I am sooooo detailed oriented!!! It drives my boyfriend nuts but he also knows he doesn't have to worry about anything when we travel!

 

Looking forward to your review! Will be on the January 1st sailing to the same ports...my first Carnival cruise!

 

Cute pics!!!

Edited November 12, 2014 by ReRe71

[2ndcruiser-destiny]

I'm sailing the Victory in a few days and loving your review. Can't wait to read the rest.

[qianabb]

Review Cont.... Day1/Day 2 Key West

 

End of Day 1:

 

So after exploring the ship we had chosen the 815 dining and we were assigned to the Pacific dining room upper section. Our table was waiting for us by the window in the back which I had requested by emailing the group dining concierge prior to sailing. I was happy that our request was granted however; since we were eating at 8:15 PM each evening it was dark and you couldn't see very much and we were in the back so that meant we missed all the good stuff that was going on in the dining room below. So in hindsight next time we cruise, I will email to request that we are seated near the front.

 

We had excellent service each evening, our waiters remembered everyone's name and they were excited to see us each evening. Agus and Dewa and the crew were very accommodating. The little girl at the next table had a birthday and they serenaded her beautifully.

 

Food: Food reviews about Carnival certainly run the gamut. We had traditional foods all week but we also tried things that we had not tasted before. I felt like the food was adequate, of course I have tasted better in some instances, but I was pleased because I did not have to cook and someone was serving me and the table was set elegantly every evening.

 

I am going to give you all of the food photos at one time because I don't have as many pictures of the food as I thought that i did. Over the week we had steak, baked chicken, roast chicken lobster tail, pork chops, escargot, alligator tails and asparagus vichyssoise and shrimp cocktail. For dessert we had the chocolate melting cake, I had a banana split I believe my friend had bread pudding. *Also the ice cream on the ship was the best ice cream I've ever tasted in my entire life. I am now lactose intolerant and I did not have any issues with the ice cream at all and I had at least three servings. I also threw in a picture of our favorite bartender Iwayan.

 

 

After dinner we went to the Red Seas Lounge and listened to music and karaoke so that the men could enjoy their cigars. This is where we saw the "man down" lol. Looks as though he enjoyed himself immensely already that day.

 

 

After that, it was an early evening, about 11 or so we called it a night. We were pooped, the Ohio people had 6 am flights. The travel day is always the worst.

 

In our room, our wonderful room steward Jesse had left us our first towel animal!

 

 

Key West

 

Our Key West day was an early/short day. We were in port from 730 to 2 PM.

 

I had set out my rise and shine card the previous night so at 7 AM I had my coffee juice and pastries delivered from room service- happy me. ( Please do this so that you can feel totally pampered on your vacay and I promise you won't be disappointed.)

 

We met our friends on the Lido deck for breakfast at 8:30 where I received a call that our parasailing excursion had been postponed/canceled because of high winds. We were disappointed because we all really wanted to do that with our spouses.

 

I was also able to meet in person one of my Shipmate/Cruise Critic buddies that I had met while trip planning at breakfast that day. Her and her husband turned out to be such sweethearts and we had fun with them throughout the rest of the trip.

 

Off the boat about 930 to see which other excursion we could do. We saw a lot of interesting sites as we walked around Key West and we decided to do a shark boat excursion. The weekend we were there also happened to be the Fantasy Freak Festival hosted in Key West so watch out for the wild pictures - here they come.

 

 

Shark Boat Excursion

It's a family run company right at the port, we negotiated $300 for 6 people. This was one time I was glad that it wasn't pre-planned because the posted rates are $75 per person. Our rate included 2 hour tour, snacks, drinks and polarized sunglasses.

 

 

Back on the boat we explored, had fun up on deck in the pool and hot tub, and did a liquor tasting. We had our 815 seating for dinner, comedy show and casino. The comedians were very funny in the George Lopez Punchline Comedy Club. I'll have photos on tomorrows review.

 

We're getting old lol. I think we were pretty much done by 11 or 12 this night as well - on to Cozumel next.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[qianabb]

Sounds like you really put your all into the planning! Bet the carry through is great too! I'm paying attention. :)

 

 

Thank you! It takes more effort than I thought to do these reviews.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[qianabb]

Same here....I am sooooo detailed oriented!!! It drives my boyfriend nuts but he also knows he doesn't have to worry about anything when we travel!

 

Looking forward to your review! Will be on the January 1st sailing to the same ports...my first Carnival cruise!

 

Cute pics!!!

 

 

Thank you!!! Are you sailing Victory ? You'll have a good time either way. I hope the weather is great for you guys in January.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[qianabb]

I'm sailing the Victory in a few days and loving your review. Can't wait to read the rest.

 

 

Thank you!!! The Victory crew was excellent , I can't say enough about the service - I need another word for excellent ! I really really enjoyed my vacation, I felt really pampered.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[happy cruzin]

Can't wait to hear the rest - we have the same itinerary booked for May! 😉

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[ReRe71]

Thank you!!! Are you sailing Victory ? You'll have a good time either way. I hope the weather is great for you guys in January.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Yep, it's on Victory. We took a cruise this past January and the weather was great in Cozumel so we are hoping for the same :).

 

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Forums mobile app

[qianabb]

Yep, it's on Victory. We took a cruise this past January and the weather was great in Cozumel so we are hoping for the same :).

 

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Forums mobile app

 

 

I'm ready for another cruise already that's for sure ! Looking to possibly do the Breeze.?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Hobbsey]

I had been told that cigars were not allowed inside anymore. Apparently that has changed or I was misinformed.

 

I guess I'll bring some Cohibas when I board in January.

[atinys]

Thanks for doing this review.. We are doing the itinerary on the Victory in Sept 2015.

 

Looking forward to reading more.