Attn LIBERTY & VALOR cruisers: Detailed Review of Valors Last Cruise from Puerto Rico

[sjn911]

Deldane..thanks so much for another of your great reviews...you and your boyfriend look great together..so happy to be sharing again in your travels....Muchas Gracias, Love, Sarah

[mrpayroll]

We visited El Morro last trip and are looking forward to seeing El Cristobal in May. Loved walking along the outer wall of El Morro and going in the gate to the city. Saw many of the cats that they have around to take care of the rodents. :)

[Fldw126]

love the pictures- what app are you using?

[deladane]

Deldane..thanks so much for another of your great reviews...you and your boyfriend look great together..so happy to be sharing again in your travels....Muchas Gracias, Love, Sarah

 

Aww thanks so much! More coming later today :)

[deladane]

We visited El Morro last trip and are looking forward to seeing El Cristobal in May. Loved walking along the outer wall of El Morro and going in the gate to the city. Saw many of the cats that they have around to take care of the rodents. :)

 

Haha yea San Juan is all about their stray cats! We crossed paths with many of them but I didn't catch them in my photos. When you go to El Cristobal, make sure to look out for the views over the city because they are beautiful and totally different from the views at El Morro! Have a great cruise :)

[deladane]

love the pictures- what app are you using?

 

Thank you! The app is called Sketch Master... it has a ton of different filters so it's a lot of fun to play around and see what it can do to your photos! And the best part is: it's free!! :)

[deladane]

Ok, let's finish up Saturday, shall we?

 

We walked along the outer side of the fort walls and along Paseo del Morro until we reached the fountain and Paseo de la Princesa.

 

 

 

There was a little street fair with a few vendors and places to buy snacks. J got a small cup of coffee to drink as we walked around.

 

 

We continued a little further until we reached the CVS on Calle Marina near the cruise ship ports. Since we only traveled with carry-on bags, we both needed to buy big bottles of suntan lotion. The prices were basically the same as a regular CVS in the States. We also bought a bottle of champagne to bring on the ship. We then went back to hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.

 

Barrachina was located directly around the corner from our hotel. I called the restaurant in January to make a 7:15pm reservation for the flamenco show. We were seated in the 3rd row of tables, and immediately ordered some pina coladas. Barrachina claims that they invented the pina colada. I don't know if that is really true or not, but either way, the drinks were very good! It was a little odd though that we had to stir them to mix in the tequila... couldn't the bartender take care of that for us? It probably would have been less messy that way haha

 

 

 

We both ordered the chicken caribeno for our dinners and it was light and tasty.

 

 

[deladane]

The flamenco show lasted for one hour and it was very entertaining. They had 4 girls and 1 guy who took turns dancing and they were all very talented. It made for a unique way to enjoy our dinner.

 

 

 

After dinner, we went to the SuperMax supermarket in the Plaza de Armas. We bought an 8 pack of cans of Diet Pepsi, 3 bottles of club soda, one bottle of champagne (we intended to make mimosas at breakfast so we needed a lot of champagne haha), and 2 boxes of Gasolinas. I am fairly sure that you can only buy Gasolina in Puerto Rico. It is basically a Capri Sun for adults! They have a few flavors like rum punch and mojito, and are filled with vodka/rum/tequila based fruity drinks in individual pouches with a straw inside so you can drink it on the go. It was perfect to bring in our tote bags to the beach! And even better, it only cost $1 per pouch! Can't beat that!!

 

We then went to the Walgreens right across from the SuperMax and bought a bottle of whiskey and pineapple rum. By the time we got back to the hotel, my pedometer said we walked nearly 18,000 steps today! Being on vacation is hard work! haha

 

Up next: Embarkation Day!

[panamatiger]

Nice review Dela.

 

We also did the So. Caribbean 6 years ago on the Victory. Love Old San Juan.

 

Did you notice any "changes" within the island stops that seemed significant to you since your previous Victory sailing

 

Garry

Edited March 28, 2015 by panamatiger

[lovestocruise19]

The candy countdown idea is cute! I, too, also love the planning part of the cruise. DH and I will be cruising on the Valor in January 2016 with my parents. It will be their first time ever cruising and I'm so excited to be able to share DH and my love for cruising with them. Loving your review so far. Looking forward to the rest!

[Cher222]

Thanks for the review, I am enjoying it! We are going on the Liberty 4/26, did a cruise on her a few years back from Miami to Eastern Caribbean and loved it. Very curious about the adult Capri Suns lol, I think we would really like them, did they let you bring them on the ship?? I would like to do that but I would hate to have them taken away.... thanks :)

[sds1arm2]

Excited to keep reading your review. We are on Liberty June 7th! Just booked flights last week (I pretty sure I waited too long based on the price I paid), but the positive is I just got a $180 price drop on the cruise today!!

[Cruisertommyboy]

Deldane, thank you for taking the time and effort to do this review. The information has been very helpful.

We are staying at El Convento but don't arrive until 130 on Sat afternoon. Going to eat some Tapas at the hotel and then a managers reception at 5. We were planning on going to Barrachinas that night for dinner and show, but the reviews have been spotty. So I am rethinking Sat evening.

My question is did you notice many food trucks around. Many travel channel thingys rave about the food truck fare so we might try that instead. Going to one of the forts early Sun afternoon before heading to the ship. Thanks for the recommendation of El Moro

 

Tom

[Dolly1952]

Deladane looking forward to what you have to say about the Valor as we will be boarding her on April, 17th.

[KoalaLou]

Woo hoo! I was on the same sailing as you! I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts, seeing your photos, and reliving my cruise!! Thanks for taking the time to do this review.

[swtygrl]

Thanks for doing this review! My husband and I will be doing this itinerary in September, and all of the ports are new to us except for San Juan and St Thomas. Also, I'm stealing your candy jar idea :)

 

Great review, so far, of my favorite itinerary.

Wondering how Liberty compares to Victory-size,features?

[mrpayroll]

Great review, so far, of my favorite itinerary.

Wondering how Liberty compares to Victory-size,features?

 

Liberty is larger than Victory. :)

[swtygrl]

Liberty is larger than Victory. :)

 

Thanks mrpayroll. I guess larger means more features!

Looking forward to the OP's review of the ports.

[sayvan]

Looking forward to this review continuing... Soon I hope!

[crazycatlady82]

Thanks for the review! We sailed on the valor in sept 2013, and got engaged on her, overlooking St. Thomas. She's near and dear to my heart!

 

I had told the hubs that on our 5 yr anniversary, we need the exact same room on the valor...but now different itinerary, not sure...maybe that means two cruises ;)

[Whittyone]

Now that our cruise was officially booked, it was time to start the countdown!!

 

 

This dry erase board hung on my fridge and I updated the countdown daily. I also picked up these 2 jars and filled them with one piece of candy for every day until we left for the cruise (I had candy corn in my jar, and J got peanut butter M&Ms- he was very happy with the candy choice I got for him haha). It was so fun to eat one piece of candy together each day as we looked forward to our upcoming vacation.

 

That is funny

[deladane]

Nice review Dela.

 

We also did the So. Caribbean 6 years ago on the Victory. Love Old San Juan.

 

Did you notice any "changes" within the island stops that seemed significant to you since your previous Victory sailing

 

Garry

 

Thank you! I really didn't notice any changes to most of the islands because I think their port areas have been developed for so long that it's all status quo at this point. I remember being in St. Kitts in 2010 and they were just starting to build up their port area, and in 2012, I think there was still a little construction going on, but it looks like they are all finished now as I didn't notice any construction this time around.

[deladane]

The candy countdown idea is cute! I, too, also love the planning part of the cruise. DH and I will be cruising on the Valor in January 2016 with my parents. It will be their first time ever cruising and I'm so excited to be able to share DH and my love for cruising with them. Loving your review so far. Looking forward to the rest!

 

Oh wow, that will be such a fun vacation for all of you! I took my mom on her first cruise in 2013 and she loved it. My dad gets sea sick and doesn't want to try cruising, but my mom is really pressuring him to give it a shot just once haha I hope your parents love it as much as my mom did!! :)

[deladane]

Thanks for the review, I am enjoying it! We are going on the Liberty 4/26, did a cruise on her a few years back from Miami to Eastern Caribbean and loved it. Very curious about the adult Capri Suns lol, I think we would really like them, did they let you bring them on the ship?? I would like to do that but I would hate to have them taken away.... thanks :)

 

The Gasolinas are seriously an amazing invention HAHA They sell them at all the supermarkets and drug stores, so you won't have any trouble finding them in San Juan. I really wish they sold them where I live!

 

I am not sure if anything will change with the screening/security process when the Liberty takes over in San Juan, but I imagine the rules will stay the same (as there was no change from when I cruised on the Victory, and it is the San Juan dock employees who do the screening, not Carnival employees). With that said, we put our Gasolinas in the same bag as two 750ml bottles of liquor, so we knew for sure that the bag would be tagged. I am not sure if you just had them in their own bag if the x-ray guy would notice it or not. Either way, the orange zip tie is a total joke haha Just make sure to have another empty tote bag accessible (We used those somewhat disposable promotional bags they give sell at the supermarket/walmart as our beach bags, so I had mine folded up flat in the front of my carry-on bag). If they do tag the bag holding your Gasolinas, just wait until you are out of their sight-line, pull out your spare tote bag, and put the tagged bag in the tote. Then just walk onto the ship like you own the place and as if you aren't doing anything wrong, and no one will stop you :) I hope you have a wonderful cruise, and please come back to tell us how it went (and if you could bring on the Gasolinas haha)

[deladane]

Excited to keep reading your review. We are on Liberty June 7th! Just booked flights last week (I pretty sure I waited too long based on the price I paid), but the positive is I just got a $180 price drop on the cruise today!!

 

Wow! Great job catching that price drop! A word of advice: if you want them to split the credit evenly between the people in your cabin, go to guest services on the first day of the cruise and request it. I thought I remembered them doing it automatically on my previous cruises. We happened to be at guest services for an unrelated question, and I asked to look at our accounts and we saw that the credit from one of my 2 price drops was split between our accounts, but the other one was totally on my account. Since it was 3 or 4 days into the cruise at this point, they had some trouble splitting up the credits and it got a little complicated (partly because I think that guest services employee was new and/or under-trained). They worked it out eventually and all was well in the end, but I think it would have been easier if we divided it up on the first day :) Our $160 in price drops paid for our tips so it was definitely worth a little extra leg work to do all those mock bookings in the months before our cruise!! Have a fantastic vacation and please come back to tell us how it went! :)