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Carnival Valor Review! Southern Caribbean Dec 15th with PR and Island Itineraries :)

BlueSky_ShinySea

By BlueSky_ShinySea,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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BlueSky_ShinySea

BlueSky_ShinySea

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Went in to finish reading, but uh oh, the dreaded Photobucket message, so no pics. :(

 

Ditto -- no pics. :(

 

 

Hi cruisin*tigger and tandemcruzr! Thanks for letting me know about the pictures. The pictures are fixed now... and lesson learned to me about how to post pictures on Cruise Critic :D

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BlueSky_ShinySea

BlueSky_ShinySea

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Thank you so much for your awesome review!! You have become my new travel guide as we will be taking this cruise in November. I was wondering how much it cost to rent the kayaks? Thanks again!!

 

Hi blueshine - glad I can help!! We rented the kayak for 4 hours (you could also do a full day kayak) and it was around $25-30. Let me know if there are any other questions I can try to answer :)

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BlueSky_ShinySea

BlueSky_ShinySea

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Thanks for the heads up about St. Kitts. We changed our plans and will be renting a jeep to tour the island. Very good review!

 

Hi ColKlink, That's great!! I hope you have a great time.

 

Since you mentioned you're renting a car, I thought of a couple other things:

 

- There was another stop we would have liked to make but couldn't find it. If you can, you may want to look up "Dieppe Bay" where there is supposed to be a black sand beach, and it's where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. We may have seen it from afar...but couldn't be sure. I'm posting a picture of what we think it might have been below.

 

- At the place where we saw the black volcanic rocks, there were signs saying not to climb down and walk around them. Since I've seen pictures of people right on the rocks on other reviews, you may want to see if there are more areas to see them.

 

- Grab a map from the rental car agency. It came in handy a couple times to have the local map with the touristy sites on it. :-)

 

Maybe this is Dieppe Bay??

_SK45_zpsnqwbcizr.jpg

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sjn911

sjn911

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This just looks fabulous and an itinerary I so want to do...you just could really do a back to back with all these islands to see a little more and still be within a good price compared to other more expensive cruises...I feel this is Carnival's greatest cruise and so exciting to see places that would be prohibitive to stay at the level you get spoiled on a ship.

 

Thanks so much for sharing a delightful time..

 

What was the entertainment; playlist or more of a band for shows? and food..New? ..old menu? Tablecloths in DR? Cold fruit soups avbx? Was the piano singing bar fun? Just little things I like and am interested in but no requirement..just preferences..the old menu..thank you and sorry if I missed this skimming the review...Sarah

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tandemcruzr

tandemcruzr

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Hi cruisin*tigger and tandemcruzr! Thanks for letting me know about the pictures. The pictures are fixed now... and lesson learned to me about how to post pictures on Cruise Critic :D

 

What camera were you using? Would love this itinerary. :)

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ColKlink

ColKlink

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Hi ColKlink, That's great!! I hope you have a great time.

 

Since you mentioned you're renting a car, I thought of a couple other things:

 

- There was another stop we would have liked to make but couldn't find it. If you can, you may want to look up "Dieppe Bay" where there is supposed to be a black sand beach, and it's where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. We may have seen it from afar...but couldn't be sure. I'm posting a picture of what we think it might have been below.

 

- At the place where we saw the black volcanic rocks, there were signs saying not to climb down and walk around them. Since I've seen pictures of people right on the rocks on other reviews, you may want to see if there are more areas to see them.

 

- Grab a map from the rental car agency. It came in handy a couple times to have the local map with the touristy sites on it. :-)

 

Maybe this is Dieppe Bay??

_SK45_zpsnqwbcizr.jpg

 

excellent - Thanks again

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BlueSky_ShinySea

BlueSky_ShinySea

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What camera were you using? Would love this itinerary. :)

 

Hi tandemcruzr, It is a great itinerary! You get to see a lot of fun islands. I was using a Sony Cybershot. I have one that's a few years old and is around 12 megapixels. It's very easy to use though and I've always liked it a lot. :-)

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BlueSky_ShinySea

BlueSky_ShinySea

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This just looks fabulous and an itinerary I so want to do...you just could really do a back to back with all these islands to see a little more and still be within a good price compared to other more expensive cruises...I feel this is Carnival's greatest cruise and so exciting to see places that would be prohibitive to stay at the level you get spoiled on a ship.

 

Thanks so much for sharing a delightful time..

 

What was the entertainment; playlist or more of a band for shows? and food..New? ..old menu? Tablecloths in DR? Cold fruit soups avbx? Was the piano singing bar fun? Just little things I like and am interested in but no requirement..just preferences..the old menu..thank you and sorry if I missed this skimming the review...Sarah

 

Hi Sarah! That's why we chose it, too - you get to see a lot of islands and it's fun to take off from San Juan. We've talked about doing it again one day.

 

In the DR, they used white tablecloths and the food was usually pretty good. I haven't been on enough Carnival cruises to say whether it was the old or new menu, but there were plenty of options for everyone. They had rotating dishes each night plus some standbys. The only downside to the dining room is that we though that it sometimes took a while for food to come out. The waiters and staff were all very nice, it's just that the food came out a little slow. Otherwise, we were happy with our meals and ate in the DR every night. Since we were on the ship over the holidays, the DR played holiday music for the first half of the cruise. They changed it back to regular easy listening music about half way through.

 

I don't remember many details about the shows. We usually popped into them every night, but after spending full days out on the islands, we usually went to dinner, walked the ship, maybe saw a few minutes of a shop, and headed back to the room... we never did make it to the piano bar, which surprised us both, because we LOVED the piano bar on the Carnvial Dream. (And that's mainly where we spent our time on the Dream.)

 

We did go to the wine bar and had some of the delicious martinis and we also went to the comedy club. The comedians were funny, the club was packed, and they had the audience laughing. :-)

 

Hope you take this cruise (or this itinerary) one day! :-)

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BlueSky_ShinySea

BlueSky_ShinySea

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Hello,

Thank your for your review. I have a Back to Back on the Valor in April and am really excited! What were some of the wear and tear you saw throughout the ship?

 

 

Hi cruiser fanatic, Wow - a back to back - you'll have such a great time!!

 

Overall, we thought the Valor was well maintained and very clean. And there are so many little details if you're really looking at the ship, like tile work, lights, decor, etc., which makes it interesting to walk through. I had read some mixed reviews of the Valor's condition before heading out, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. And it is true, you will see examples of wear and tear. Plus, some of the decor is a little outdated so you might notice wear on chairs, fabric, tears, etc. Or spaces on the rugs that are worn. And an example in the room - the couch is very comfortable and functional but the look can feel a little old fashioned. Since the colors, shapes, and decor can sometimes seem out of style, it makes little wear and tear types of things stand out a little more. We never noticed trash sitting around and we always saw workers cleaning things.

 

But honestly - there are plenty of parts of the Valor that are newer and more updated. None of what I mentioned above took away from the cruise and experience at all and I really liked the Valor (and would very happy to be on it again!).

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jagger16

jagger16

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Blue Sky,

Thank you for taking the time to post such a lovely review with pictures. Your review is not only informative and entertaining, but really practical for those who will be cruising the same itinerary. My husband and I plan to take the same cruise on Carnival Liberty in June and we will be following many of your suggestions, particularly Herod’s Tour in St. Lucia. We have also booked a room at La Concha due in part to your high recommendation.

 

I have one question and forgive me if you already said this. Can you please tell me where the port in St. Martin is located?

 

Did you by any chance see the picture of Sugar Beach in the February edition of Travel & Leisure magazine? I recognized it right away after seeing your pictures! It’s on page 36 and if you have not seen it, you may be able to find it on-line.

 

Thank you again for all of your information. I’m glad that you had a wonderful experience. Here’s to more terrific cruises in the future for you and your husband!

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pinkroses

pinkroses

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Blue Sky,

What beautiful pictures! We took an itinerary close to this in November and are doing it again this November. We did Herods Sea Tour in St Lucia but after reading your review, I think the Land and Sea will be the choice this time.

Thanks so much for your wonderful review!!

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