First Time Cruising on a Budget! Valor Review: Southern Caribbean Itinerary Feb 15-22

[nutocruzing]

Hello Everyone!

 

It’s been just over a month since we booked our first cruise (ever) on the Carnival Valor out of San Juan for the week of February 15, 2015. It was a bit of a whirlwind trying to plan for the cruise (while in school full time) when we had never been on one before! So I spent a LOT of time on here looking for tips and hints (and to try to figure out how to pronounce “Lido” since I figured it would be embarrassing to screw that up!). I figured the least I could do to give something back would be to write a review of our experience, particularly from the point of view of someone who had never cruised before. While I can’t guarantee I will remember to comment on all of the things I was wondering about myself, I will do my best to answer any questions people might have about the cruise or cruising in general (to the best of my ability). So, please bear with me as I have never posted my own thread on here before and I'm learning by trial and error.

 

A bit about me: My boyfriend (I’ll call him DBF for short consistent with the DW and DH trend on here) and I are both in our mid-twenties (though I just turned 26 and DBF likes to tell me that I am now in my “late” twenties… well if I am, I’m in denial), and we’re both finishing up professional degrees at a school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Hence the driving desire to get down south for our spring break! Although the weather hadn’t been too bad for winter at the time of our booking, by mid-February the temperature was hovering somewhere below -20C (below 0F) and we were really looking forward to the Caribbean Sea and sun.

 

 

Me trying to take a selfie with DBF and him goofing off

 

 

Me giving DBF a dirty look for messing up our selfie - forgive the looks, these photos were taken on the second leg of our journey after a night in the airport and no morning shower :S

 

We hadn’t originally planned on cruising. The original plan was to wait for some last minute sales to all-inclusive resorts in Cuba. But the prices weren’t really going down and after a friend of DBF suggested cruising, I thought I would look into it, even though neither one of us had ever been on a cruise before. Making matters worse, DBF’s favourite kinds of vacations involve spontaneous trips around places like Eastern Europe and couch surfing – we both worried about how the relatively intense structure of a cruise would go over with him. But after seeing the prices and what we considered to be a to-die-for itinerary with Carnival we couldn’t resist.

 

We were lucky to be able to find relatively affordable flights… with one caveat… a 12 hour lay-over in each direction. But we weren’t going to let that stop us from getting down south for a week during one of the worst winters in a long time. This is a bit of another theme for this cruise – unlike many people who frequent this board we weren’t concerned about the duty-free shopping, or the balcony suites, or the casinos… we wanted to vacation on a budget while still making the most of the opportunities available to us on a cruise with 6 out of 7 port days. Additionally, the Canadian Dollar is well below par at the moment and we were quite conscious of that fact throughout the trip as well.

 

We did still have some apprehension about Carnival – I knew that lots of families frequented the line and the last thing we wanted was to be surrounded by screaming children while we were attempting to relax (DBF was more adverse to this than I was!). But I figured that it wasn’t really high season for cruising with children and we crossed our fingers for the best.

 

For this review I plan on providing a day by day breakdown (with pics!), brief sub-reviews of things like dining, services and excursions, and a final top ten of the trip. Hopefully this review will be helpful for everyone, but especially for young couples, first time cruisers and those who are on a budget. I look forward to having you follow along with me as I re-live our 7 days in the sun.

 

Up next: our planning process, packing and spending the night in the Philadelphia Airport :eek:

[KoalaLou]

I am looking forward to your review! My family and I board the Valor on March 15! Living in Kitchener, ON, I can certainly relate to the cold weather. Can't wait to see some palm trees and put my feet in the sand! Thanks for taking the time to do this review!

 

 

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[boaterette]

I am enjoying your review. Looking forward to more.

[kesham13]

Excited for your review! We are also a "mid-twenties" couple and will be sailing on valor may 30th. Can't wait to hear about the MDR and all the other delicious food!

[IslandBound79]

We leave in two weeks!!! So excited to read your review!

[Gallivanting Souls]

Looing forward to your review. I have never been on a Carnival cruise and like the idea of budget!

[Jennifer925]

Heading out on the valor sunday March 1st!

[peteukmcr]

Subscribing!

[SlotCarKing]

Very excited for your review! I have the same trip on March 15thh, also with a 12 hour overnight layover in Philly.

[nutocruzing]

Yay! I'm glad to see that some people are already following along! I can't guarantee how fast I'll be able to get through this because it's the height of midterm season for me but I'll do my best.

 

I won’t lie to you; I spent the majority of the three weeks between booking and leaving for our cruise planning. It was too exciting to resist. For those of you unfamiliar with the itinerary, the Valor (though I understand it switches with the Liberty in the next few weeks) runs the Southern Caribbean tour leaving from the port of San Juan and stopping off in St. Thomas U.S.V.I. before heading down to Barbados (one day at sea) and then hopping back up to San Juan with stops at St. Lucia, St. Kitts, and St. Maarten. I wanted to have some things planned, but I know myself, and having things too well planned leaves me very disappointed if things don’t work out, so I mostly had ideas in mind. We knew we weren’t going to book too many of the excursions through Carnival as they were largely out of our price range, but in the end, I had only booked one tour ahead of time.

 

The plan before leaving was to head to the Green House in Charlotte Amalie (St. Thomas) for lunch (my family have been there multiple times and we love it but DBF had never been), before getting a bus/ taxi to either Sapphire or Coki Beach (hoping to avoid the entrance fees of Magen’s Bay). Nothing planned for the Fun Day at Sea other than a bit of studying (midterms coming up) and some tanning (weather provided). In Barbados I had planned either to go on the Tour of Mount Gay Rum Distillery and then to a beach within walking distance, or to the Boatyard. In St. Lucia, we just knew we wanted to get to the Pitons. In St. Kitts I had booked our only tour, an Island Tour with Royston Tours based on the incredible reviews I had read both here and on Trip Advisor. For St. Maarten I was wide open (this would turn out to be a mistake as you will hear later) with thoughts of either Maho Beach where the airport is, or perhaps some sort of biking around Phillipsburg (it felt appropriately Dutch). I feel like I had done the right amount of planning: heavy on the research, light on specific bookings so that we had some flexibility based on things we heard while we were on the cruise and also depending on the weather.

 

In the last couple of days leading up to the cruise I developed an obsession with packing. Wanting to save money (and also knowing that everyone on here says over-packing is an epidemic among new cruisers) we wanted to bring only carry-on if at all possible. So I did several “practices” of the packing – putting everything I thought we would need into our carry-on to see if it would fit and also meet the weight restrictions. In the end it worked, and we each even had a few items we never wore!

 

Here’s a quick list of all the things we brought with us for those first time cruisers trying to get an idea, and also to prove to those who have each family member bring a gigantic full sized suit case plus carry-on that it’s entirely unnecessary! I’ve also included a few tips on things like toiletries which all have to meet the carry-on restrictions and some other items we found useful to have while on the cruise.

 

• Various personal electronics including their chargers and a splitter as the rumours are true, only one North American outlet in the room!!

• Two empty water bottles for excursions (and to bring mix back to the cabin) (hint: make sure these are empty for the actual flight part!)

• I brought a small foldable beach bag with us which was convertible into a back pack – though of course, if you were willing to completely empty your carry on back pack it would serve mostly the same purpose as well

• Toiletries: this one was a hard one (especially for a woman!) but as a woman with fine curly hair I knew better than to bother with bringing hair products etc given the fact that I tend toward looking like Monica from Friends when I’m in a humid environment and I knew I would likely wear my hair up most of the time. We brought a couple of small things of toothpaste, my liquid makeup (e.g. mascara and liquid foundation), conditioner (they have shampoo and gel in the showers but it certainly could be better quality so you may want to consider bringing these as well if you have the space), hair gel for DBF, small sunscreen and bug spray (we knew we might need to buy more but wanted to at least bring some), hand lotion, hand sanitizer, and my contacts. With all that, we still had room for some hot sauce souvenirs on the way home. Things like deodorant don’t need to go into the airport quart baggies as long as they are solid. We also learned that safety razors are acceptable in carry-on! Who knew?! I might be missing something but I think that was the gist of it. I also brought a few hair accessories, extra makeup items (though with the amount of time you spend in the water you don’t need much really) and some costume jewelry (I left the expensive stuff at home for fear of losing it).

• I also brought a small pharmacy including Gravol for motion sickness, Pepto Bismol, Advil and Benadryl as well as band-aids.

• Formal wear: full length gown, and three cocktail dresses for me; tux, and a suit plus three dress shirts and two polos for him (this was incredible overkill for even the elegant nights and by the end he was wearing shorts and polos to dinner and I was wearing jeans BUT it serves the point of showing how much we brought with us!) Additionally he brought a tie and a bow tie. He never wore the tie.

• Shoes: dress shoes, runners and flip flops for each of us (I also brought a pair of wet shoes in anticipation of rocky beaches near snorkeling areas)

• 5-6 T-shirts each

• 3 pair shorts for him, 2 capris, and 2 pair shorts for me, 1 pair jeans each

• 2 swim trunks for him, 3 bikinis and a 1 piece for me

• 1 sweater each

• 1 rain jacket each

• ALSO: 1 life vest (inflatable), 2 masks and 2 snorkels

 

We fit all of this into our carry-on meaning one small back pack each plus a duffle bag for DBF and a hard case on wheels for me.

 

Here's a picture of our stuff from the Philly Airport. It actually looks like a lot but though we occasionally had to sky check my bag, they never tried to stop us! That's $100 saved ($25 per bag each way)

 

On Valentine’s Day we would be flying out of Toronto in the evening on the first leg of our trip headed for Philly (yup, those 12 hour lay overs were overnight!). On the Friday before both DBF and I finished up our last assignments due before we left. I (struck by who knows what kind of bizarre desire, probably a romance inspired one) decided to watch Titanic while I finished up packing, validating our travel insurance and going to the spa to … ahem… “prepare” for a week of bikini wearing.

 

The next day was going to be a whirlwind. DBF had planned a brunch date with some friends of ours, and then we were to pick up my parents at the airport as they were randomly coming into town as we were leaving.

 

Side story – I’ve always gotten a little motion sick, ever since I was a child. It has been much more mild lately, but the last time I had been on a boat the sea had been rough and I got a bit sick. I was a little worried about this on the ship so I ordered motion sickness bands online since they had always worked for me when I was a kid. 2 weeks later… still no sea bands. Luckily, my mom thought to pack my old ones and brought them along with some snorkel gear for us to borrow.

 

The day seemed to fly past. After a quick early dinner with my parents near the airport (including Margaritas for DBF and I to get us in the vacation mood) we were on our way to Terminal 3 at Pearson International as we would be flying US Airways for our first time as well. Quick note: We actually thought the service was pretty good on this airline. The staff were friendly and professional, and even though a couple of our flights were delayed (mostly for de-icing reasons as those of you from the north will be able to relate to). I would fly with them again although it was a bit frustrating to find our flight home from San Juan had no in-flight entertainment. It sounds like a petty/entitled thing to complain about but I am terrified of flying and I find the video really helps to distract me.

 

Anyways; back to our main story. We had to arrive quite early at the airport for customs so we sat around for a while (~2 hours) at our gate before they were ready to board. It was a particularly cold day on February 14th and we were taking a regional jet so we were boarding from the ground and the doors had to be opened directly to outside for us to reach the aircraft. The staff person responsible for scanning tickets was wearing a full on parka and was rushing us all along to get on the plane saying that she didn’t want to freeze for any longer than she had to (I don’t blame her! I was wearing a rain jacket because we didn’t want to have to deal with our winter coats while in Peurto Rico on our last day).

 

After a lengthy wait for de-icing (see picture below; strangely they sprayed us with green foam which I had never noticed before though it makes sense as a way to ensure the entire plane is covered) we were off! Philly was in the midst of a high winds warning so the flight was quite turbulent. I was less than pleased knowing I still had at least three flights ahead of me over the next 8 days. When we arrived at Philly we had to decide something: spend the night in the airport, or find a hotel. Well, turns out the decision was made for use because according to booking.com 95% of the hotels were booked in the city and none of the ones near the airport had any rooms left. Sounds hard to believe but it must have been due to the romantic occasion.

 

 

Knowing our fate was likely to be a sleepless night we headed over to our terminal (A) to see if we could find anywhere to get comfortable for a few hours. I found an utterly abandoned row of massage chairs and we soon found out why; if you sit on them without paying they push something hard into your back. Foiled, we decided to head to terminal C which someone had recommended to us for having comfortable rocking chairs. Rocking chairs didn’t sound very comfortable to me but I was getting desperate. Eventually we located an information desk where they were giving out pillows, and toiletry bags including masks, mouth wash, tooth brushes and tooth paste. After eventually finding a 24 hour bakery for a late night snack and locating some prime rocking chairs we managed to get some (and I do mean only some) shut eye.

 

 

Up next: Embarkation Day! (and more photos this time I promise!)

[SteelerCruiser]

Looking forward to following. My Wife and I did this route in Nov. and are looking forward to doing it again in May with our Son. We are a younger family so glad to see through your eyes.

[LizSS]

Subbing! Love your review so far, your writing style is very entertaining!

[Weeziblu]

Looking forward to your next installment!

 

 

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[nutocruzing]

I should mention now that it is likely obvious, we had planned for our flight to arrive in Peurto Rico on the day the cruise was to depart. Many have warned against this and it is especially understandable given the unpredictable winter weather we experience up here, but we simply couldn’t get there any sooner at an affordable price given that we both had to be in class on the Friday. I will say that we had a 12 hour lay-over (with the ability to pay a small fee to change our flight to an earlier time) and our flight was scheduled to get in more than 7 hours prior to embarkation. It was a risk, but having looked at the cost of flights from San Juan to St. Thomas (and noting that they cost less than travel insurance would have) we decided to risk it. In the end it paid off as you will see below.

 

We woke up quite early on the day of embarkation mostly because I was tired of pretending to sleep. DBF actually did pretty well though getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep total. It was an effective way to save $100 but not necessarily one I would recommend on the eve of a cruise. We decided to try to find somewhere to get breakfast. DBF wanted to go back to the bakery we had gone to the night before (we had eaten these chocolate filled croissant-donut things and they were delicious!) but we knew we had enough time to kill to eat at a sit down restaurant so as soon as 6 o’clock rolled around we found one. We ended up having breakfast burritos at a place called “The Legal” (which struck me as an almost concerning name, like why do you need to specify that you’re legal, was there question?). It was delicious! Some of the best food we had all trip… or maybe that was just the overtiredness speaking? Regardless, they apparently have lots of locations along the east coast so if there's one near you I would highly recommend.

 

Mmmm breakfast burrito

 

As soon as we were done eating we decided to head back to terminal A, after verifying that despite the continuing wind warnings the flight was still on time! We actually managed to get a couple more hours of sleep in at this point which was surprising considering the stupid benches had arm rests after every other seat, but in the end I think I would have gotten more sleep there than I had in the rocking chair. Eventually they called our flight! We were literally the last zone to board but people on this flight were efficient and everyone got on and settled quickly.

 

De-icing yet again

 

After another (apparently purely precautionary) de-icing we were off! DBF had unpacked his headphones prior to leaving so he could play some last minute video games so we ended up sharing the pair that I brought. Being the nerds that we are, we selected a documentary on the Roosevelt family as our in-flight entertainment. It turned out to be pretty good. Meanwhile, our flight path was playing on DBF’s screen and he noted something funny: they actually showed the locations of notable sunken ships. He remarked that it was surprising to him that they would want to remind passengers of major accidents in transportation at a time like this and we both laughed.

 

 

This flight was actually relatively smooth, but due to the wait for de-icing we arrived a bit behind schedule in San Juan. Both DBF and I (having never been to Peurto Rico before) were surprised to see how huge and industrial the San Juan area was. Unfortunately we didn’t have the pretty coast line views coming in but we were excited to be there anyways! Added bonus to not checking bags? No wait at the carousel! Within 15 minutes of landing we were out waiting for a taxi. We could have booked a shuttle bus but the cost was $16 per person and the taxi cost us only $27 including the tip ($19 plus fees for bags). Our driver asked if we had ever been there before and upon finding out we had not, he pointed out some aspects of the city on our drive to the port.

 

First view of the Valor!

 

By the time we were at the port I was tingling with excitement. We quickly filled out our health forms and in mere minutes we were upstairs and standing in line for check in. By the time we arrived at the port it was after 3:30 (our flight arrived after 3). I knew from what I had read that the lines would likely have died down by this point but it was better even than I had imagined and we were in our cabin and unpacked before 4:30.

 

Up next: a quick cabin review!

[nutocruzing]

 

A quick review of the cabin. We were in room 1349 on the Riviera Deck. Since it’s the lowest passenger accessible deck, DBF liked to joke that we were in steerage. We had purchased a guaranteed interior cabin and I had been a bit worried about where we would end up but I was very pleased with this location. It was at the very centre of the ship, and low down which I knew would minimize the feeling of rocking while at sea. It was also below another deck of cabins so I knew there would be little to no noise from above. We were very satisfied with the interior cabin and although we actually spent more time in there than I had anticipated, I probably wouldn’t bother upgrading from an interior in the future. A quick note on the lighting situation: some people recommend night lights or glow sticks on here. In my opinion it’s entirely unnecessary. You can either leave the bathroom light on and close the door and the light glow will guide you at night, or, you can literally just lay there in the dark. It’s not that bad. And I live in a big city on a busy road with lights blaring in my bedroom window all night so I’m used to a bit of light. Most nights we slept without anything and neither of us ever had any problems. If you need to get up in the middle of the night the bedside lamps are actually quite dim and would be unlikely to wake your partner.

 

 

Storage: There was plenty. I’m not sure whether anyone has ever complained about this but there are two closets and a cupboard with shelving plus a few drawers by the vanity in the main room. In the bathroom there are about 6 shelves for you to empty your products into and we had no problem with that much space given our liquid restrictions. There was also room under the bed to put your suitcases to keep them out of the way.

 

 

This pic was actually taken on the night of the Sea Day since every time I tried before then to take a picture DBF was on the bed and messing it up before I was able to get a shot of things looking presentable!

 

Comfort: Upon first sitting on the bed DBF commented that it was indeed quite firm. BUT neither of us ever complained once about the bed. I had no trouble sleeping whatsoever and though I often wake up with a sore back when I sleep on a hard bed I never did on this trip. Maybe it was the adrenaline from excitement throughout the cruise but I’m here to say that those egg crates aren’t strictly necessary!

 

 

Bathroom: Yes, it was small, but it was very functional. There wasn’t room for both of us to be in there at the same time but there was a vanity in the main room so that wasn’t really necessary anyways. The water was a good temperature in the shower, there were no draining problems, and of all the aspects of the room, the bathroom probably showed its age the least.

 

Another bonus: the clothes line that you can pull out in the shower allowed us to dry our suits every day.

 

Condition: Yup, you can tell it’s not the maiden voyage of the Valor. There are a few scuff marks here and there and the edges of some of the wooden furniture are worn. Probably the worst sign of age was on the nightstands where the laminate edging was peeling off. But it really wasn’t that bad. It certainly didn’t take away from our enjoyment of the cruise.

 

Service: our steward was polite and friendly but we honestly only saw him once and I didn’t even catch his name tag in that time so I can’t say much about him. We didn’t get turn down service on the first night, and there were a few times that they didn’t replace the beach towels which was a bit distressing as I was required to rent them from the lido deck and I was afraid they would think we had extras and charge us for them when they didn’t find them in the room later (they didn’t). Overall the service wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t outstanding either. Probably about what I would expect given gratuities were included.

 

Coming up: our first night on the ship!

[nutocruzing]

While planning our cruise DBF’s mother had mentioned to me that when she had cruised the year before she really didn’t like the feeling of being one of thousands leaving the ship. We never once got that feeling on the Valor. Turns out, I’m pretty sure that was because the ship was no more than half full (which would explain the good prices we got). Nevertheless, we barely ever had a wait for anything on the ship and that was an appreciated surprise.

 

After unpacking our room, we decided we wanted to head to the CVS for our soft drinks and permitted alcohol. We weren’t sure where the CVS was but we guessed and we were right. Take a left leaving the port and walk past Senor Frogs and you’ll eventually see the sign. We purchased our allowed limit of Dr. Pepper and two bottles of Champagne. Note: we couldn’t bring a cork screw with us as we were only bringing carry on and there were very, very limited screw top options there. Just something to keep in mind for those of us who are purchasing our own alcohol not because we’re picky but because we’re trying to save a few dollars. Another dollar saving suggestion… check here for sunscreen if you didn’t bring any with you! I’m not sure it was cheaper (we forgot!) but in many of the ports it was upwards of $20 US for a medium sized bottle and that price made me choke.

 

photo of ship coming back from CVS

 

For those of you who are wondering, the rumours about the port are still 100% true. I never once saw anyone at security attach those little orange plastic taggies to anyone’s bag, and even if they had it would be easy to get your bag into a backpack without the security at the ship noticing. Even though there were several women who were bringing on bags that were clearly from the duty free shop they were never questioned even by the Carnival staff as we were re-boarding.

 

With that last chore accomplished DBF and I decided to explore the ship.

 

 

We weren’t really keeping a close eye on the time and eventually we realized we were going to miss the MDR dinner for the evening. Due to the muster drill on the first night, they have open seating in the MDR (like breakfast most days) and the last seating was some time around 7:30. We were disappointed but decided to try Rosie’s. I didn’t even end up taking pictures because honestly the food was pretty boring. DBF was unimpressed as I had told him that most reviews said the food was really good. It was fine, especially by buffet standards, but it wasn’t great by any means. I had pasta, he had a little bit of everything (pasta, chicken, tilapia, beans etc.). We also tried dessert here and I sadly learned that what many had said about desert on board was true. It’s incredibly hit or miss. It all looks fantastic but even the cheesecakes were very very bland. In fact, this was DBF’s main complaint about the food on board. We both reasoned that it makes sense that food is more likely to appeal broadly if it is not too strongly flavoured but there certainly could have been a healthier use of seasoning on board.

 

 

Since I mostly took pictures of our MDR food I will quickly put in my two cents about the rest of the food options on board (save for Scarlett’s as I will get to that later). In our opinion the breakfast buffet was always decent, especially the omelet’s your way. I was always very satisfied with breakfast. The grill for lunch was pretty meh with the exception of the Chocolate Buffet on the last day which made up for all the other terrible desserts we had experienced on the lido. The fish and chips (upstairs in Rosie’s) was very good with a decent selection of sea food. The burrito bar was also pretty darn good. The pizza was fine in our opinion but nothing exciting and there were often the longest lines here as they seemed not to be able to keep up with demand even with a half full ship. We often frequented the sandwich bar for mid-afternoon snacks and it was basic but pretty tasty. DBF’s favourite sandwich was the vegetable and arugula one with added pastrami. As far as we were concerned the Mongolian Wok was the worst of the food. I don’t know whether we just have better Asian food up here in Toronto, but the stir fry was all but completely tasteless. I don’t mean to say these things to be overly critical, just honest. I will get to the MDR and Steakhouse later, and for the most part they made up for the rest of the dining experience.

 

 

Slightly disappointed we headed back around the ship for some more exploring before going back to lido for the sail away party. By this time, it had started to rain. Little did I know this would be a bit of a continuing pattern on this cruise. We weren’t too keen on sticking around and getting soaked and we were still pretty tired from the night before so we just watched the line dancing from deck 11 for a bit (and there were even a few apparently well experienced Carnival cruisers up on our deck dancing along to every dance). We then headed back to our cabin with thoughts of reviewing the Fun Times for the next day and ordering room service since I didn't eat much on the Lido.

 

For first time cruisers who are wondering, oh yes, you can definitely tell that the ship is moving. This is not to say that (especially during a show) you won’t occasionally forget where you are, however those individuals who say they can “barely tell they’re at sea” are either full of it or they have some sort of inner ear problem because the seas were pretty calm while we were on the Valor but you could still definitely tell that it was moving. While we did end up ordering room service, the food was also very meh and we didn’t end up ordering it again since, in our opinion, it wasn’t worth paying the tip. Exhausted, we didn’t have a hard time passing out that first night.

 

Our first towel animal

 

Next!: A rainy day in St. Thomas

[Cruisegirl6]

Thank you for writing this and appreciate your photos too! Question, you mentioned the buffet lunches to be "meh" can you please elaborate, such as what main dishes did they offer, did they have a meat carving daily, how was the salad, bar what other items were available at the lunch buffet?

[iambumbo]

I was on the same sailing and I second the OP's observation that alcohol security at the San Juan pier was lax. We brought 2 bottles of champagne onboard and after our walk around Old San Juan, brought another couple bottles. Also got a 12 pack of beer in my checked suitcase, although a woman at our dinner table said they had caught a bottle of rum she had in her checked bag.

 

As for the previous poster's question, I thought there was a reasonable mix of food at the buffet. I'm a fairly picky eater but always found some things I liked. They tended to have theme days, Caribbean, Italian, etc. I only had lunches there but they always had a carved meat option (usually beef or ham), which were usually excellent. The pot roast and pork loin options were among the best I've ever tasted on a cruise buffet. I didn't try any but a few people commented that the desserts were very bland as the OP noted. I also agree with the OP that the pizza line was generally too long, particularly when returning from port close to sailaway time. When the buffet is closed at that time and people are getting back onboard, they should anticipate people will want something to eat and pizza is an easy fix.

 

To the OP, I'm curious if you had the same experience. I was midship on deck 8 and while the room was comfortable during the day, it would never sufficiently cool at night. Not unbearably hot, mind you, but definitely warmer than I'd have liked. Was it just our cabin?

[pghsteelerfan]

We (DH and I) were on Valor out of San Juan in May 2013 and it ended up being one of our all-time favorite cruises. Because of that, I always enjoy reading reviews of this itinerary to relive our cruise and also for other ideas since we'd love to do the same itinerary again soon. I'm really enjoying your review and I'll definitely be following along. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences.

[Crusin Karen]

Love your writing style and as an "experienced cruiser" it is fun to read your thoughts. I echo iambumbo about the pot roast. I am not usually a pot roast person (:p) but I have LOVED the pot roast on all our cruises. Their gravy is to die for! Did you ever try the burgers, hot dogs or chix fingers at the grill? Thanks for sharing your cruise with us and I am looking forward to reading more.

[nutocruzing]

Thank you for writing this and appreciate your photos too! Question, you mentioned the buffet lunches to be "meh" can you please elaborate, such as what main dishes did they offer, did they have a meat carving daily, how was the salad, bar what other items were available at the lunch buffet?

 

No problem! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. I can't elaborate too much on the buffet because I frankly kind of avoided it. We (trying to save money) often either chose excursions with lunch included, or otherwise waited until we got back to the ship which often meant nothing but the sandwich bar and pizza bar were open by then. I agree with what iambumbo had to say above in regards to the themed food. One day DBF had the buffet while it was French themed (chicken, potatoes and the like) and he found it to be pretty good. I think the themes for the day (American, Italian, French, Caribbean) could be found on the back of the Fun Times where the hours of the restaurants were listed.

 

In terms of other foods available there were always sliced meats and cheeses, plenty of vegetables and salads (these were all ok). As far as I could tell there were carved meat options most days if not every day. Once again, the food wasn't bad, it just wasn't great. There should be no reason that anyone traveling on this ship wouldn't be able to find something that they were more than willing to eat at the buffet. I can honestly say that I don't know too much about the buffet for dinner other than partaking there the first night and that food seemed to be similar to the lunch buffet food.

 

It must say something about the food to know that I can't even tell you what all of the options were! I certainly felt like there was enough variety that there were plenty of options, but enough repeating that you could enjoy things you liked in the past.

[nutocruzing]

To the OP, I'm curious if you had the same experience. I was midship on deck 8 and while the room was comfortable during the day, it would never sufficiently cool at night. Not unbearably hot, mind you, but definitely warmer than I'd have liked. Was it just our cabin?

 

I'm not sure if it was just your cabin, or whether you might prefer for it to be more cool than I do, but I definitely never felt uncomfortable in the room. If anything, I seem to recall turning down the A/C at one point (and remarking that I didn't notice much of a change). Honestly, I found the ship in general to be a little too cool. It's funny, people assume us Canadians deal well with the cold but the reality is that I'm pretty used to wearing long sleeves and sweaters when it's cold out, so walking from the deck into the A/C'd parts of the ship when in shorts and a t-shirt was often pretty shocking for me.

[Texasgalsa]

Following! : )

[nutocruzing]

We didn’t worry about getting up bright and early in St. Thomas (although we still woke up well before 9), because our plan had been to laze around on the ship before grabbing lunch in downtown Charlotte Amalie and then heading to the beach after that. I was glad we hadn’t bothered to rush either because… it was raining! :( I’ve been to Charlotte Amalie a few times and it’s always been stunning weather so I was a bit bummed that the weather hadn’t cleared since leaving San Juan.

 

Omelet my way, plus sausages and hashbrowns

 

It was really only sprinkling so we decided to get our things together and hope for the best. After grabbing breakfast and packing our beach bag including towels and snorkel gear, we headed off down to 0 deck to de-board. We managed to avoid all of the taxis and walk toward downtown ourselves. This is completely do-able and a good way to save a few dollars. It was about a 20 minute walk to the downtown area. If you walk along the port you actually avoid most of the tourist targeted shopping. Like I said above, we weren’t here to shop but to sight-see so we were happy to attempt to avoid these areas. Within seconds of being downtown however, we came across a man who was obviously trying to direct cruise ship passengers up a street toward the jewelry stores etc. Upon viewing my bare hand the man exclaimed that he saw an engagement ring in my future and tried to point us, too, in that direction. DBF laughed (maybe a little too hard I later told him) and we carried on. To be honest I don’t like to get “harassed” by those trying to sell me expensive things (DBF says it’s because I’m too nice) so I was happy to try to avoid them.

 

Two other ships were in port with us, a Royal Caribbean and the Celebrity Equinox

 

By the time we got down town it was barely after 10am. We needed to kill some time. I knew of this neat little antiques store which specialized in ship wreck themed items (old coins, maps form the 16th century etc.) and I wanted to drop in. To my surprise it was still closed! I was worried about what this meant for our day, thinking that this must be a holiday of sorts. Luckily we saw that the Green House was still open but we wanted to wait a while more for lunch so we decided to walk up a random street, away from all the vendors and towards signs for “Bluebeard’s Castle” which we had seen while walking toward downtown. I was less than thrilled with the amount of stair climbing that this route involved but we figured it would be a good view at the top. However, Bluebeard’s was not the tourist location we thought it might be. So, we wandered back down local streets toward downtown.

 

 

Even after giving in and wandering the streets with the vendors it still wasn’t 11 am so we decided to walk a little further away from downtown and see what there was to see. The answer was not much, but by the time we made it back to the Green House, it was almost noon. So, we ordered what I consider to be some of the best chicken wings in the world (go with the jerk wings) and pina coladas.

 

With our waitress Petra

Quick note: the Green House has very very good food and drinks, and GREAT happy hour deals (1/2 off some apps and 2 for 1 drinks). Unfortunately we weren’t there for happy hour so it ended up being a bit pricey. For those who might visit (they also have locations in St. Maarten) keep them in mind for happy hour though it likely won’t work for most cruisers since happy hour doesn’t start until 4:30.

 

Looking out toward the ship we knew that the weather was not brightening up. We weren’t sure we wanted to waste the money to go to and from the beach only to find bad weather (plus we were still pretty tired) so we decided just to head back to the ship. Luckily the antiques store was open by this point so we took a quick peek in there before moving on

 

 

Along the way back we had our first close encounter of many with wildlife on the trip and every time we saw so much as a chick I cooed about how cute they were which prompted DBF to remark that we should have saved the money and gone to a petting zoo instead! What can I say, they were cute!

 

Up next: Afternoon on the ship!

[rzyjzq]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Thanks for taking the time to do it. I'll be on the Liberty in April on the same itinerary so this helps pass the time. I've been to the Green House on St. Maarten and totally agree with you about their great happy hour!

Susan