Detailed Photo Review of Southern Caribbean Valor Cruise from Puerto Rico 3/15/15

[deladane]

The party ended at 5:40pm (maybe their watches are fast since it started and ended 5 minutes earlier than expected), and we went up to our balcony, and then to the secret deck all the way forward on deck 6 to watch the sunset and sail away. It was beautiful and the perfect place to watch the views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

Sorry for the abundance of sunset photos... it was just so amazing out there that I couldn't narrow it down any more than this haha

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of my favorite photos of the trip...

[deladane]

As we were heading back inside, we noticed that one of the forward facing cabins (maybe considered an obstructed oceanview?) had their blinds open. In case there is any question about if people on the secret decks can look into your cabin if you leave your blinds open, I think this photo will answer that question!

 

 

I'm glad no one was getting dressed while we were out there!!! I do think it's important to note that this was after sunset so it was dark outside, and their cabin lights were on inside, so that is probably why we could see in. When we went out there during the day, I do not remember obviously being able to see in to the cabins (but we didn't actively try to see in, so it is possible that we could have).

 

We were full from all the snacks and drinks at the past guest party, but decided we should at least go to dinner for a light meal. We got there around 8pm and were seated immediately. I had the beef brisket for an appetizer, and the short ribs for dinner (I guess I was craving beef that night!). No dessert tonight!

 

 

 

We were stuffed after that so we skipped dessert. Plus, that allowed us to get to the comedy club in time for the 9:30 show.

 

 

There were 2 new comedians on board tonight. Up first was Vera something (I can't remember her last name), and we didn't care for her so we left after 5 minutes to check out the piano bar. We stayed there for a half hour or so, sang along with a few songs, then went back to the comedy club to check out Tim Young's show. We thought he was great and fully enjoyed his show! However, by the time he was finished, I was nodding off in my chair (not because I was bored... Just from the exhaustion from another long day in the sun!) so we called it a night and went back to the cabin.

 

 

We turned off the lights at 11:55pm, and I fell asleep right away... 5 minutes shy of being the birthday girl!

[ladygal4.4]

You said that you "turned gold". On my 5th day of my next cruise(it's an 8 day cruise) I will be gold eligible. Will they promote me early, or do I have to schedule another whole cruise before I get my official gold status

[BSUGrad]

You said that you "turned gold". On my 5th day of my next cruise(it's an 8 day cruise) I will be gold eligible. Will they promote me early, or do I have to schedule another whole cruise before I get my official gold status

 

You will be considered Gold on the first day of the cruise where you officially qualify.

[Crooznmama96]

What a cool idea with the candy countdown! Totally going to steal that idea!

[deladane]

You said that you "turned gold". On my 5th day of my next cruise(it's an 8 day cruise) I will be gold eligible. Will they promote me early, or do I have to schedule another whole cruise before I get my official gold status

 

Your question was already answered, but just to confirm... I only had 23 days in my bank as of boarding the Valor, so I wouldn't technically be Gold until day 2 when I reached 25 days. They gave me the Gold sign and sail card from day 1, so I am pretty sure that is their policy :) You can actually check with your boarding documents... it listed me as Gold and J as Blue from the time we booked the cruise, so yours will probably list you as Gold right now too :)

[deladane]

What a cool idea with the candy countdown! Totally going to steal that idea!

 

haha thanks :) We already have our candy jars set up for our upcoming Celebrity cruise too! It is a fun tradition to keep us looking forward to the cruise months in advance (and I picked pretzel M&Ms this time... yum!!)

[deladane]

Saturday, March 21 ~ Birthday celebration on a speed boat in St. Maarten!

 

Today was my birthday and we had a fun day planned. After we booked the cruise, I checked to see how many ships would be in each port with us each day. Most of the time we only had 0, 1, or 2 other ships with us, but today we would have 6 big ships! I could only imagine how much traffic there would be and how crowded the beaches would get!! So I knew immediately that we needed to find an alternative option. After some research, I found a speed boat tour that left from a marina located 10 minutes walking distance from the port. That meant we wouldn't need to worry about taking a taxi or sitting in traffic on the way back to the port in the afternoon. There were 2 companies offering similar tours: Mike Robinson and Bob Cass. They both left from the same marina, both cost $109 per person, lasted from 10am to 4pm, made a few snorkeling stops, and included water/soda/beer on board and lunch on a beach. They had slight differences in where they stopped to eat lunch and what order they visited the snorkel stops. The reviews were excellent for both captains, so I emailed both of them to get some more details about booking the tours. Captain Bob never replied to my email, but Captain Mike wrote back within a day, and he replied to several follow up emails to answer all of my questions. I was impressed with his help, so I decided to book with him. I also requested that we be placed on his boat for the tour, as I had read reviews that some people ended up on boats with other guides but I couldn't find any reviews specifically recommending another great guide. All of the reviews about Mike were excellent so I wanted to be sure we would have the best day possible. Mike said he would put us on his boat as long as he was working that day (he wasn't sure if our tour would fall during his vacation time). This was back in August, so we agreed to touch base again closer to the tour date. About 2 weeks before the cruise, I emailed Mike to confirm that we were all set and he replied that we were.

 

On Saturday morning, we woke up early, got ready, and headed up to the Lido buffet for a quick breakfast. You can see another ship coming into port towards the left of this photo:

 

 

We left the ship by 9am to walk over to the marina. Mike's directions were a bit vague, so we weren't totally sure about where we needed to go, but there were many security guards stationed throughout the port area and they pointed us in the right direction. It was an easy 10 minute walk along a sidewalk to reach the Chesterfield Marina, and we found Mike sitting at the bar. We checked in and paid him in cash for the tour, and he told us to wait in the shade as some people hadn't arrived yet. At 9:30, Mike came over and said that we would be on Jimmy's boat. What?!? I thought you told me we would be on your boat?!? Well apparently he didn't have space for us or something, and we ended up on Jimmy's boat with a bunch of other couples who booked with Bob's tour company. I was really disappointed about this. I know the tours are similar, but what was the point of doing my research and booking with Mike if he was going to pass me off to a different company and a different guide?? Not only that, but Mike took the people on his boat and they left the marina by 9:35am. We were left waiting on the dock until 10:15am because one couple was late. They never showed up, so we ended up with only 8 people on our boat, but we didn't get going until 10:15am so our tour was 40 minutes shorter than the tour we should have been on. We had to be back by 4pm to have time to get back to the ship before the 4:30pm all aboard time, so it's not like they could extend the tour at the end. This was quite a bummer and not the best way to start our day.

 

We decided to make the best of it and enjoy the day as much as possible. Jimmy turned out to be very nice and informative. After briefly giving us some safety info, he helped us board the boat. We were not allowed to wear shoes/flip flops on board, but he did have a safe dry place to store our bags for the day. Our boat held up to 12 people, so we had a little extra space with only 8 people on the tour. Jimmy warned us that the ride is bumpier but drier in the front of the boat, versus a smoother ride with more splashing in the back of the boat. J and I ended up sitting in the front on top of the cooler (it was stocked with water, Coke, Diet Coke, Heineken, and Coors Light), and while it was a bit rocky and jumpy at spots, I never felt like I would be thrown from my seat into the water.

 

 

Looking back towards the cruise port as we left the marina...

 

 

Once we left the marina, we sped through the water for about 20 minutes to Simpson Bay to see all the huge yachts. Jimmy took us under a bridge and into the bay and told us to grab a few drinks as it would be calm cruising for the next few minutes.

 

 

[deladane]

At some point, we crossed over from the Dutch to the French side of the island. Jimmy said we would spend the rest of the day on the French side because the waters were calmer here. From there, we sped along the coast for another 30 minutes or so, passing all the places we would return to later in the day, to get to our furthest point: Tintamarre island. This was probably the bumpiest portion of the ride, so I'm happy to report that I did not get bounced off the boat! When we approached Tintamarre, it looked like a secret tropical oasis in the sea.

 

 

Looking back towards St. Maarten:

 

Jimmy handed out snorkel masks, fins, pool noodles, and life vests to anyone who needed it. He also had a little spray bottle filled with Johnson's Baby Shampoo and water. He told us to spray the goggles and to rinse them off in the ocean, and that would prevent the goggles from fogging up. Wow did this stuff ever work like a charm! I don't know how I never knew to do that before, but I am definitely packing a spray bottle with that mixture on future cruises because it made such a huge difference! We spent about 40 minutes snorkeling here. The highlight of this location is there are a few sea turtles hidden in the grass. Unlike in Barbados where we had a ton of tourists kicking us in the face as we tried to swim with the turtles, there were only a handful of people with us in the water at Tintamarre and we could take our time and leisurely swim with the turtles without feeling crowded. I spent a solid 5 minutes completely alone swimming with one turtle off to the side of the island... it was so relaxing and intimate.

 

Ready to jump in the water!

 

Not many fish in the water here

 

Hanging out with some sea turtles!

 

[deladane]

Once we were all tired, we climbed back on the boat and sped over to Pinel Island. Jimmy anchored the boat a few feet off shore and told us we could have 20 minutes to swim ashore, use the restrooms, buy a drink, and explore the beach. There was a small trail that is supposed to have lots of wildlife, but I didn't get a chance to see it. The water here was very shallow... when I jumped off the side of the boat, I could easily stand with my feet on the sand, so we walked ashore instead of swimming hehe This beach was absolutely beautiful!! Definitely one of the prettiest beaches I have ever seen, with crystal clear water and powder soft white sand (warning: the sand further up on shore is VERY hot on your feet so stay closer to where the tides come in and out to avoid the pain! haha) I have read other reviews where people spent the whole day here and now I know why... I could definitely see spending a whole day on Pinel Island if (when) I return to St. Maarten again. I wished we could have spent more than 20 minutes here, and I know the original tour I booked with Captain Mike was scheduled to eat lunch here, so I was a little upset that we had to miss out on that opportunity because he changed our boat.

 

Sorry for the blurry photo (I think there was water on the lens), but I just wanted to show how shallow the water was, even this far from shore. I am 5'2" and the water only came up to my waist

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

Swimming back to the boat:

 

Once everyone was back on board, it was time for lunch. We headed back in the direction we came from until we got to Grand Case Beach. Jimmy told us we would be eating lunch near the orange umbrellas on this beach:

 

 

We had to swim ashore again, but the water here is much deeper than at Pinel Island. While lunch was included in the excursion price, it did not include drinks so Jimmy offered to carry a dry bag ashore for us with our cash or anything else we needed (I brought my suntan lotion!) Jimmy took our lunch orders: we had a choice of chicken, ribs, or fish, and either rice and beans or french fries as a side. Once we got to the beach, we found that most of the lounge chairs in our section were occupied by other people's towels. How ironic that I hadn't even thought about chair hogs on the ship all week, but I found them on our excursion. We were able to find 2 chairs that were not directly next to each other, but they were both in the shade so we took them.

 

 

 

 

Lunch was ready in 20 minutes and it was worth the wait! The fish was very fresh and delicious! I easily could have eaten a second portion haha

 

[deladane]

After lunch, we had a few more minutes to hang out on the beach, but I really just wanted to continue on with our day. By now, it was 2:30pm and I was getting nervous about getting back to the ship on time. After a little prompting, Jimmy came over and told us it was time to leave. We swam back out to the boat and went 2 minutes out into the water to reach Creole Rock.

 

 

Rumor had it that Creole Rock offers some of the best snorkeling in the Caribbean so I was really looking forward to our time here. Jimmy said we could have 25 minutes to snorkel here, and he showed us where the best spots were to find the fish and coral. He also warned us that there is a lot of fire coral and sea urchins, and instructed us to avoid touching it (obviously!!). I jumped in the water as soon as we were anchored and swam for a few minutes until I reached the most incredible underwater experience I have ever had! There were so many colorful fish and interesting types of coral, and I felt so lucky to be able to see it all first-hand.

 

 

 

 

 

Poor attempt at a selfie with the coral in the background

 

[deladane]

Our 25 minutes ended far too quickly, but by now it was after 3pm and we still had a long way to travel. I am fairly sure Jimmy was driving much faster on this leg than he had earlier in the day, but at 3:30pm, we arrived on the shores of Maho Beach. I spent some time here in 2012 to watch the jumbo jets landing at the airport. Unfortunately, those planes only arrive in the morning and early afternoon, so we missed all the action. At this time, there were just a few smaller planes landing and it wasn't nearly as exciting as the last time I was there.

 

 

 

We only stayed for about 10 minutes, and then we had to get on our way back to the marina. I know this photo is a little blurry, but I just wanted to share it because this was another speed boat traveling back to the marina alongside our boat (and you can also see one of the cruise ships behind it leaving port).

 

 

 

We arrived back at the marina promptly at 4pm. We gathered our belongings, tipped Jimmy and thanked him for a (mostly) wonderful day, quickly used the restrooms, and went to the little store at the marina for some free ice cream! They had those little paper cups of ice cream that you get as a kid with the wood "spoons" and we could choose between vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, pistachio, and rum raisin. I had the pistachio and J had the rum raisin. We enjoyed our refreshing treat on the walk back to the ship. We got back by 4:20pm, so we didn't have a chance to do any shopping at the port (we knew that we would be back close to all aboard time so we hadn't planned to shop there anyway).

 

Looking back, we had a fantastic time on this excursion. It was a bit rocky in the beginning, and I am still disappointed in how Mike switched our boats because I really would have loved to eat lunch on Pinel Island, and I think the day would have been more relaxed if we were on the boat that started at 9:30am instead of 10:15am, but Jimmy was great and the beauty of the island speaks for itself.

 

 

[deladane]

Once back onboard at 4:30, we ran up to Lido for a snack since we were still hungry after the ice cream and didn't want to wait until dinner. When we got there, they were cleaning up from the chocolate buffet. I had assumed this would be long over by the time we got back to the ship, and I hadn't planned on participating, so I was thrilled to see they were still serving stuff. When we got to the end of the line, there was a crew member holding a sign saying the buffet was closed. What?!? But there is still cake there and I wanted a piece!! I asked if we could quickly get some food, and she said no. I then resorted to begging, and pulled the "it's my birthday" card! I figured I had nothing to lose and I really wanted that chocolate cake! There were other people next to me who also wanted some of the chocolately yumminess, so the crew member gave in and let us take a plate. There weren't many options left and they were literally clearing the cakes away as we walked down the buffet, but at least we got a few little things to try. I didn't take any photos because it was all so hectic and rushed, but they had a few types of chocolate cake, chocolate cookies, and some fruit to dip in the chocolate fountain. Pure chocolate heaven! It's the little things in life! haha

 

We took our plates to go and headed up to our balcony to watch one last sail away. At 5pm, they announced 3 names over the pager system... it looked like we would have a few pier runners coming our way! It was exciting but nerve-wracking at the same time, not knowing if these 3 people would get back to the ship or how long the Captain was willing to wait for them. There were golf carts running up and down the pier and soon enough, we saw all 3 people come back to the ship. Everyone was cheering and clapping as they walked up the gangway! In the end, they were only 10 minutes late, but they were lucky that the ship waited for them because I have read stories of people getting left behind in similar situations.

 

The last few people going up the gangway before all aboard time:

 

Here are the guys on the bridge trying to see if those pier runners are on their way:

 

With everyone back on board, we could finally set sail!

 

 

After sail away, we got showered and ready for dinner. It was finally time to break out that fancy champagne J bought at the San Juan pier duty free shop!!

 

 

The steward brought us champagne flutes earlier in the day, so we poured two glasses and took the bottle with us down to the dining room to enjoy over dinner. There was only about a 5 minute wait to be seated at dinner tonight. I'm not sure if the hostess didn't see the bottle, or didn't care because it was already opened, but we did not get charged a corking fee. Once again, we arrived as the waiters were doing their little show. A word of advice: try to avoid getting to the dining room at 7:15pm if you can because that's when they do their shows and the waiters aren't available to take your orders or serve your food. It's not a huge deal since the show only takes 10 minutes or so, but when you are hungry and rushing to make it to the theater for a show, it's annoying to have to sit through the waiters dancing. I think another issue is that the anytime dining people are seated on the lower level of the MDR and there is a glass partition that blocks our view from the show so we can't see what's happening. I have always had a good view of the waiters dancing on other cruises, so I guess it never bothered me before, but this time it just seemed annoying. At least we had a wonderful bottle of champagne to enjoy while we waited!

 

 

[deladane]

Dinner was tasty as always. I had the fettuccine with mushroom sauce and chicken as an appetizer, and the sweet potato and cheddar cheese soup, followed by the prime rib for an entree, and one last warm chocolate melting cake for dessert. I had never had that pasta or soup before, but they were both delicious! I hope they're on the new American Table menus because I'd definitely order both of those again. Of course, the prime rib and WCMC are always delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

While we were eating dessert, the waiter came over and started chatting with us. I had a feeling I knew what was coming. Sure enough, a few minutes later, 2 other waiters joined him with a piece of pie with a candle in it and they sang happy birthday to me! This was my first time celebrating a birthday on a cruise ship, so it was a fun way to end the meal.

 

 

After dinner, we tried going to guest services to settle our bill, but the line was realllllly long. Instead, we went to the Carnival Legends show in the theater with plans to go to guest services after the show. The Legends show is like karaoke on steroids. They hold auditions for the show throughout the week at karaoke each night, and assign 10 passengers one of the song to perform. The passengers were dressed in costume and had back up dancers for their performances. They had someone dressed as Britney Spears, Elvis, Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and a few others. All of the passengers were terrific and I give them a lot of credit for getting up on stage in front of hundreds of fellow passengers! My only issue with it was that it seemed like Carnival cheaped out by enlisting the passengers as free entertainment instead of hiring a professional to perform like on my prior cruises.

 

When the show ended, we tried to go to guest services again, but the line was still super long. We found one of the self-service kiosks to check our accounts but it didn't work. We decided to wait it out until the morning, and just head back to the cabin to pack. One of the many benefits of traveling with only carry-on bags is that we didn't have to put our suitcases outside the cabin tonight, so we could pack a little now, and finish the rest in the morning.

 

It's always a little bittersweet to see this towel "animal" on our bed at the end of the cruise...

 

[deladane]

Sunday, March 22 ~ They kicked us off the ship!

 

We woke up to Calvin on the intercom at 7am, packed our bags and brought them with us to breakfast at 8am in the dining room. This was our first time eating breakfast in the dining room (unless you count brunch on the sea day). The menu offers most of the same items offered at the Lido buffet, but it was great to have the waiters serve us while we were sitting relaxed at our table and without dealing with the crowds at the buffet. Plus this is the only place you can order the baked apple and turkey bacon (two of my favorites!) I also had the fried eggs and the hash browns.

 

We were seated at a shared table with 2 other groups- a 3-some of ladies, and a couple who have been sailing on a Carnival ship since September! Once they mentioned that, we had a million questions that they were happy to answer. They said that they spent a few weeks on each ship and then changed ships to try out different itineraries. They planned to stay on the Valor the following week when it sailed up to Orlando, and then they would head home for the first time in 6 months (but with plans to cruise again in May). I told them I aspire to live their life when I retire haha It would be amazing to basically live on a cruise ship! Although I suppose eventually the novelty would wear off and it wouldn't feel like a vacation anymore.... it would just morph into everyday life. Either way, it's certainly something to dream about!

 

We finished breakfast at 8:45am and heard an announcement that debarkation was paused due to a long line at customs. After 15 minutes, they announced that non-US passengers can debark. They only let the non-US people off for the next 45 minutes so we just sat in the lobby and checked our email and Facebook while we waited our turn. They finally called for US citizens to debark again at 9:50am. We got off the ship and there was a long line to get into the luggage terminal. Once we entered, we paid for porter to take us to customs and to a taxi. Looking at how the other lines were moving, I think this only ended up saving us 10 minutes because there were a lot of other porters on line in front of us before going through customs, but at least it made it easy to get a taxi. By 10:20am, we were in the taxi, and we got to the hotel by 10:35am.

 

For our post-cruise stay, we wanted a hotel on the beach so we could relax and reflect on our vacation before heading back to the real world. Last time I was in Puerto Rico, I stayed at the Marriot Stellaris in Condado. I would have stayed there again this time, but the room cost close to $400 for the night.... not a chance!! After a bit of research, I discovered the beach community in Isla Verde out by the airport. There were lots of hotels to choose from, but in the end, we decided to stay at ESJ Towers. We were both very pleased with this hotel. Our room was huge and had a full kitchen (not that we had any use for that, but it was nice to have), and our balcony had a view of the ocean. Our rate also included breakfast for 2 at the hotel restaurant, 2 free cocktails, free wifi in the lobby (we would have had to pay for it if we used it in the room... good thing our 3G worked just like in the States so we didn't need the wifi!), and use of the pool and beach facilities. One downside is that beach chairs and umbrellas are not included- they charged $2 for chairs, $4 for lounge chairs, and $10 for umbrellas on the beach (it was free by the pool).

 

We were checked in by 11am but our room wasn't ready yet so we left our bags with the porter and headed down to the beach.

 

 

 

We got towels from the locker rooms and put them under the shade of a palm tree. We stayed out there for an hour or so, then went back inside to check if our room was ready, and it was! The porter retrieved our bags and helped us bring them up to our room.

 

 

 

 

The view from our balcony: ocean to the left, airport to the right...

[deladane]

After getting settled in our room, we set out in search of somewhere to eat lunch. There are a bunch of restaurants out on the main road where the hotel is located so we walked around a bit and looked at a few menus to decide where to eat. We settled on a restaurant called Piu Bello because they had a fairly extensive menu and we figured we could both find something good here. It was basically a diner, and was half-full with a mixture of locals and tourists.

 

 

We both got cheeseburgers and curly fries. The burger was okay, but those curly fries were delicious!! It might not have been the most authentic Puerto Rican food, but we realized we hadn't had a burger all week and were both craving it!

 

 

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to sit out by the pool. When we arrived, we were disappointed to see that there was very limited shade and almost all of the lounge chairs were occupied.

 

 

It must have been at least 10 degrees warmer by the pool vs. down at the beach between the cement floor and lack of a breeze, so we gave up and went back to the beach. On our way, we stopped at the pool bar to get our free drinks. We could choose anything from this list of frozen drinks or the other list of cocktails.

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

I was only on CC yesterday for a few minutes since I've been been busy but am just getting ready to sit down and take an hour break on here today and so happy to see that you're re-posting your Valor review with your pictures added back in!!! Thank you so much! :)

[deladane]

I was only on CC yesterday for a few minutes since I've been been busy but am just getting ready to sit down and take an hour break on here today and so happy to see that you're re-posting your Valor review with your pictures added back in!!! Thank you so much! :)

 

You're welcome! I'm glad you found it and I hope it was more helpful for your planning now that you can see the photos again!! :) I will also redo my Victory review, but I want to do the Sunshine cruise to the Mediterranean first.

[deladane]

We found a shady spot to lay our towels down on the beach and hung out there for a few hours. At around 4pm, we went back to the room to get showered and changed so we could get to happy hour at the hotel bar. We noticed a sign outside the bar earlier in the day that said they had $3 beer and wine, and $4-$5 frozen drinks so we knew we wanted to check it out. The bar itself was a bit weird... it was on the inside of the hotel so there weren't any windows. Wouldn't you think that a hotel located on the beach would want to build their bar somewhere with a pretty view?? I ordered a strawberry daquiri and J got a pina colada.

 

 

Both were delicious (but beware of brain freeze!!!) We asked the bartender to make round #2 to go so we could drink it on the balcony outside. We both opted for the pina colada this time, and the bartender offered to make it with Bacardi 151 for no extra charge. Score! Those drinks were soooo good! And there was a little extra after he poured our drinks so he gave it to us in a third cup. For $8 total, we ended up with 2.5 drinks that were double the normal strength... sounds like a great start to the night if you ask me!

 

 

After we finished our drinks, we asked the lady at reception to recommend a good restaurant for mofongo. After our fabulous lunch last Saturday, we knew we wanted one last serving of mofongo before leaving Puerto Rico. She suggested we go to Platos, located just a few minutes walk to the left of the hotel on the main road.

 

 

 

We ordered a few things to share for dinner: a salad with spinach, gorganzola, almonds, craisins, and pears; an appetizer of deep fried cheese and a passion fruit dipping sauce; and of course, chicken mofongo with garlic cream sauce. All of the food was fantastic and we were grateful for the reception lady's recommendation.

 

 

 

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and repacked our bags. This morning, we kind of cheated because we used our beach totes as a third bag, but we needed to consolidate down to 2 bags each to get on the plane tomorrow. We went to sleep knowing that our Caribbean vacation would be over in a few hours.

[deladane]

Monday, March 23 ~ A loooong day of travel

 

After 8 months of planning, and 11 days in the Caribbean, our vacation was over. We got up an hour before the alarm went off, so we packed up the rest of our belongings and went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. They had a buffet set up with make-your-own belgian waffles, eggs, breakfast meats, cheeses, pastries, bagels, and cereal. It wasn't as extensive as the breakfast buffet on the Valor, but it was more than enough for us. After breakfast, we went back to the room to grab our bags, then checked out of the hotel.

 

One last selfie on the balcony before checking out of the hotel:

 

We waited a few minutes while they called us a taxi, then drive to the airport in under 10 minutes. The airport in Puerto Rico makes you put your luggage through a special USDA scanner to make sure you aren't bringing any produce off the island, and you need them to put a sticker on all of your bags before going through security. It's a good thing I knew to do this because we didn't see any signs or instructions indicating that you needed to go through the extra check point. The people in front of us said that they got up to the front of the baggage check line only to find out they had to go back and get their stickers before checking their bags. We got through security quickly, and before we knew it, we were on the plane.

 

 

The flight was smooth and uneventful, and JetBlue let us watch movies for free since the satellite TV doesn't work over the ocean, so we watched The Imitation Game (great movie!). Just like our outbound flights, we had a layover at JFK airport in NY, but this was only a 2 hour layover so it wasn't long enough to leave and hang out with my parents. Our first flight landed on time, so we went to the food court and got something to eat for dinner. When we got to the gate for the second leg of our flight, we saw this:

 

 

I have flown on a lot of JetBlue planes, but this looked more like JetGreen haha I didn't notice any Jets players on our flight, although that wasn't too surprising haha

 

 

This flight was also very easy and we landed back in San Jose, CA at 10pm, 13 minutes early, but 16 hours after we left the hotel that morning. By the time we got home, it was 11pm, but our bodies thought it was 2am, and we both had to work on Tuesday, so we went straight to sleep.

 

Up next: a little more info about the Valor and a few other aspects of the trip, but until then, here's another fun photo:

 

[deladane]

Ok, let's wrap this thing up! I wanted to end the review with a few general points about other aspects of the trip...

 

-Weather- We were extremely lucky with the weather during our cruise. We had brief periods of rain on Saturday while we were exploring San Juan and the forts, and it was chilly, cloudy, and drizzling for part of the day in St. Thomas, but other than that, we had beautiful sunny skies the whole week. The temperature was in the 70's and low 80's with fairly low humidity every day, so there were some times when we were just getting out of the ocean and I felt a bit cold! I remember commenting on how strange it was to feel chilly in the Caribbean haha That was definitely better than the super hot and humid weather which I was anticipating!! I would definitely cruise in March again if this was typical weather!

 

-Cabins- The cabins on the Valor are the same layouts as the same category of cabin on the other Carnival ships I have been on. I really liked that every cabin had a mini-fridge. We emptied the drinks when we were unpacking and put them on the top shelf of the closet for safe keeping. We then restocked the fridge with all of the beverages we brought onboard and that kept everything cold enough for us. I also really liked having a couch in both of the cabins, since I am used to only being able to sit down on the bed in an inside cabin. There was a storage drawer under the couch, but we had more than enough storage space in the closets and dresser so we didn't need to use the under the couch drawers. The mattresses were both comfortable, and the sheets and towels were clean and soft. The decor and color scheme was a bit dated with that ugly orange hue, and you could tell the furniture wasn't brand new (some of the drawers didn't close all the way, and there were nicks in the wood), but none of that was really a big deal to me. In both cabins, the showers didn't have any place to put down your shampoo. On previous cruises, we always had a small metal triangle-shaped shelf in one of the corners of the shower where I could put my shampoo and conditioner bottles, but for some reason, they don't have this on the Valor. I had to balance my bottles on top of the shampoo/soap dispensers very carefully, so that was a bit annoying. It's not a huge deal, but if you have space to throw one of those dollar store shower caddies into your suitcase, you might want to do it!

I will say that there were some maintenance issues which need to be addressed. I already talked about the constant clanging noise from our original cabin 1301. Another issue in that cabin was that every time we showered, there was a big flood in the bathroom. We were careful to keep the shower curtain inside the rim of the shower, but there was always a ton of water on the ground after we showered. I finally realized that the drain wasn't draining, so the water filled up in the shower like a bathtub, and once it reached the top of that 2 inch rim, the water overflowed into the rest of the bathroom. I mentioned it to the maintenance guy who came to listen to the clanging noise, and he sent a plumber up right away. This was on Monday night when we were heading out for dinner, so we left the plumber to fix the shower. We ended up moving cabins right after that, so we never showered in 1301 again to find out if the drain was fixed, but I assume it was.

 

-Stewards- Both of our stewards, Uzama and Ali, were pleasant and competent. They cleaned our cabin each morning, and provided turn down service with a towel animal each night. They kept our ice bucket stocked and replaced our wine glasses and champagne flutes without asking. They were always friendly and addressed us by first name every time they saw us. If we needed anything, they were usually around the halls in the morning and evening, and other than that, we left them messages on a dry erase board and they brought whatever we needed. In a way, maybe they were too thorough because they both took away our towel animals the next day! We wanted to save them through the week, and took them off our bed and put it on the windowsill for safe keeping, but when we got back to the cabin the next day, the towel animals were always gone. I guess we were supposed to specifically tell them that we wanted to collect the towel animals? Not a huge deal, but something to think about if you are planning to make a towel animal collection through the week!

 

-Anytime Dining- I have mixed reviews about our experience with anytime dining. This was the first time I have tried it, and I am not sure if I would do it again. Maybe on a cruise with weird port times that extend into the evening on some days but not on others, but probably not on an itinerary where we are back on the ship by 5pm every day. Most days we only had to wait 5-15 minutes to be seated, but our experience on the 1st formal night was horrible with a 1 hour wait, followed by extremely slow service. We were seated with a different wait staff every night (except Monday and Tuesday when we had the same staff), and we were always seated in a different area of the dining room, so we never had a chance to bond with our wait staff like I usually do. I know we could have requested to be with the same staff on subsequent nights, but we never found a staff that was so amazing that it would have been worth a longer wait time to be seated in their section. Another issue I had with anytime dining was that the times of the evening activities like the shows in the main theater and the comedy shows lined up better for the fixed dining times. If we wanted to catch the 8pm show, we had to go to dinner at 6pm, so why not just have the early fixed dining time then? When we went to dinner at 7pm, we didn't finish on time for the 8pm show- we usually finished around 9pm and then had to kill an hour before the 10pm show. Maybe anytime dining would work better if the ship allotted more tables for it and more wait staff to serve them so the meal didn't take so long?

As a side note, we noticed something a bit strange with how they serve the food. We usually ordered more than one appetizer and entree per person (there was never an issue doing that and the waiters never questioned it... I love cruising! haha), but the waiters would only serve one item at a time per person. Sometimes we wanted to eat things side by side instead of filling up on one entree and not having enough room for the second entree. Or we wanted to share one appetizer like the veggie spring rolls (yummy!!!) but then also have another appetizer on our own. Well even when we requested it, the waiter would not bring out more than one dish at a time per person. I understand that they are not allowed to do it normally because people would complain that the second dish was getting cold, but why can't they do it when we are requesting it?? We are assuming responsibility for any potentially cold food (since we usually planned to eat the dishes at the same time, this would not have been an issue anyway), and we are initiating this request so it's not like we would then follow up by complaining that too much food came at once. It just seemed really strange to us that the waiters had to speak with a manger before serving us more than one dish at a time (and that was after them outright refusing to do it and us basically having to beg for it!). In the end, it would save the waiters time because they wouldn't have to check on us to see when we were ready for the second dish, so if a passenger requests it, you would think they would be happy to oblige! Guess not!!

 

-Serenity Deck- Despite having a lovely balcony which we loved using, we also spent a lot of time on Serenity deck. In fact, this was the only public outdoor space I used aside from the secret decks. I loved the firm cushions on all the lounge chairs and sun beds, I loved that there weren't any children running around, and I enjoyed being able to hear the music from Lido in the distance but not super loud right near me. We used the hammocks a few times and they were fun, but there were only 4 of them so they weren't always available when we wanted to use it, and there was no shade covering them, so once I got my sunburn in Barbados, I didn't want to use them anymore. There was also no clamshells on the sunbeds. This was disappointing because I had seen so many other reviews that showed the sunbeds having some shade (I guess that was just on other ships though). There were always sunbeds and lounge chairs available every time we went to Serenity, but I think that is because none of them are in the shade so most people only use them for a short time and then try to get out of the sun. There were lots of couches in the shade from the deck above, but they were usually occupied.

 

-Cruise Director- Our cruise director was Calvyn because he was covering while Felipe was on vacation. I thought he was fine, but J was really irritated every time he came on the loudspeaker. Every time Calvyn referenced the name of the ship, he said "the BEAUTIFUL Carnival Valor"... it seemed a bit unnecessary. Isn't that for us to decide if the ship is beautiful or not? haha On my Victory cruise, I noticed there were a lot of announcements made in Spanish (sometimes they were ONLY made in Spanish so we didn't even know what they were saying because they never did it in English haha), but I didn't notice nearly as many Spanish announcements on this cruise. Perhaps it's because Calvyn doesn't speak Spanish and there wasn't anyone else available to make the announcement? Anyway, it made for fewer announcements over the course of the week and that was fine by me!

 

-Lido Buffet - We ate breakfast here every day except the sea day brunch and debarkation day, and we ate a late lunch here on most port days. We never ate dinner at the buffet, so I can't comment on that. They have several long cafeteria-style lines that offer the same foods at each station (2 across from the Mongolian Wok, just forward of the deli/burrito bar, and 2 in the main section that opens up where they have the stairs leading up to the deck 10 seating area, plus 2 smaller areas near the mid-ship pool). There were almost always long lines to get food when we were there. The Mongolian Wok and Burrito Bar turn into omelet stations in the mornings, as does the grill near the mid-ship pool (although every time we walked past this area, it was closed and they were still setting it up... perhaps it is opened a little later in the morning? I never saw it opened the entire week haha) The food options at breakfast were basically the same every day: eggs, potatoes (sometimes home fries, sometimes those yummy fried round crispy potato thingies), breakfast meats, some variety of eggs benedict (with salmon, ham, etc), pancakes or french toast, waffles, bagels, melon, and cereal. The food had more variety at lunch, with a different theme each day (Caribbean, American, Italian, etc.), plus they had the Burrito Bar, Mongolian Wok, Deli, Fish and Chips, Grill, and Pizza Pirate. I was boring and ate Mongolian Wok nearly every day (because I LOVED it, not because I couldn't find something else to eat lol), but J was more adventurous and tried different things each day. Most of the desserts were dry, but the cake pops were AMAZING! I have no idea how they keep them so moist, but we had them several times throughout the week and they were awesome every time! The flavors changed too- Strawberry on day 1, chocolate and other flavors later in the week.

One thing I want to address here was the hours when the buffet was opened. We thought that the buffet and the other Lido food options were open at weird times, since almost everything was closed when we wanted a snack at 4-6pm before dinner or after 11pm as a late night snack. Yes, the pizza is opened 24 hours a day, but since they don't have pizza already prepared, we didn't want to wait 15 minutes for them to make a fresh pizza for us. Plus, there was always a huge line there because it was the only thing opened and everyone else was also waiting for pizzas to be made for them. There were several nights that we got up to Lido at 11:10pm only to realize the deli closes at 11pm... that was a bummer! We could have ordered room service, but we usually just wanted a quick bite to eat and didn't want to wait up until room service was delivered. I never felt like I was forced to go hungry, but it would have been nice if some of the food options on Lido were opened either through the afternoon until dinner time, or reopened again later in the evening. Maybe even have a different one opened on those off hours each day on a rotating basis? Fish and Chips on Monday, Wok on Tuesday, Burritos on Wednesday? I don't know if Carnival would consider doing that, it's just an idea!

 

 

-Customer Service- Like most other customer service situations, it's just a matter of finding the right person who can help you. The first time we went to customer service, the girl who helped us must have been new or something because she really didn't know the answers to any of our questions. We wanted to know about the breakdown of our two accounts and she couldn't explain it to us, and she was basically useless in dealing with the clanging noise (we spoke to her 2 or 3 times about that issue). Once we met Sylvia, everything changed! She was fantastic and was able to easily resolve our cabin issues. I wish we had met her on the first day- that might have saved us a lot of time and hassle!

 

-Decor- In general, I was not a fan of the decor on the Valor. It was too flashy and gaudy for my taste. Clearly this is not something that will ruin my cruise, but I just tend to prefer the calmer and more serene decor on newer ships. I forget where I heard this, but the Conquest class ships were all named and themed about patriotic pro-US things after 9-11, so that kind of made me like it better, but overall I just thought the decor was too loud. Here is a photo from the lobby... The lighting around the faces of the presidents on each deck kind of scared me- it reminded me of when you hold a flashlight under your chin while telling ghost stories at a campfire haha

 

 

 

-Drinking water on the ship- On some previous cruises, I noticed a funny taste to the water on the ship. We didn't notice any issues with that on the Valor. We filled up our water bottles after breakfast in the Lido buffet area every day (yes we were careful not to touch our water bottle to the spout where the water comes out!), and the water always tasted fine. I will say that it comes out of the pump slightly warm in temperature. We both prefer room temperature water and always ask for no ice in our waters at restaurants, and even we needed to put ice in the water from the buffet haha

 

-Food Quality- Service issues aside, I enjoyed all of the food I ate in the dining room and at the buffet. Everything was served warm (the Mongolian Wok was always so hot I had to let it sit for a few minutes to avoid burning my tongue when I ate it!), and the presentation was lovely as usual. The food all tasted very good, and it makes me sad that the MDR menus will be changing soon because I really enjoyed everything I ate there.

 

-Spring Break- There were more school-aged children than on my previous September, November and December cruises, but I expected that considering many schools were on spring break this week. I was pleased to see that there were very few college-aged kids on spring break on the ship. I did notice a few groups, but nothing like I was imagining! We didn't spend much time near the main pool mid-ship on Lido Deck, so it is possible that there was more of a spring break crowd there, but I never noticed any super drunk teenagers around the ship or when I passed through on the way to the buffet.

 

-Things I never got to do but meant to: Prior to taking the cruise, I had a mental list of tons of things I wanted to do around the ship. As you can see from my photos, I never got around to taking pictures of each public space on the ship like I usually do. I also never tried the Taste Bar, martini tasting, waterslide, trivia, or mini golf. I guess that falls under the category of you can't do EVERYTHING on EVERY cruise! haha I guess that means we need to take another cruise!! J... are you reading this???? ;)

[sewut]

Now I'm curious about the carryon only. You seemed to dress for dinner each night, and you didn't mention laundry. Did you do laundry? Did you have your own snorkel gear? 11 day vacation with only carryons? Can you give us a list of what you packed? We did a 14 day B2B last January and had two medium suitcases, a carryon and a backpack.

[deladane]

Now I'm curious about the carryon only. You seemed to dress for dinner each night, and you didn't mention laundry. Did you do laundry? Did you have your own snorkel gear? 11 day vacation with only carryons? Can you give us a list of what you packed? We did a 14 day B2B last January and had two medium suitcases, a carryon and a backpack.

 

Nope, never did laundry! I used a large backpack with several sections and a standard rolling carry on bag. I actually found that I was able to bring everything that I would have wanted. Perhaps I would have enjoyed one extra pair of shoes to wear at night, but I really didn't feel that I was missing everything. I was able to fit 10 bathing suits, 6 pairs of shoes (beach flip flops, nicer flip flops, flat sandals for casual nights, dress heels for formal night, aqua socks, plus an old pair of sneakers which I wore on the plane), casual dresses as cover ups or shorts and tshirts for all 11 days, casual or formal dresses for every night, all of my toiletries and electronics (iPhone, waterproof camera, regular camera, iPad, and their respective chargers), and even my snorkel mask and goggles (no fins though)! The only thing I didn't fit was all the drinks that we bought in San Juan, and my big bottle of suntan lotion which I bought at CVS in San Juan when I arrived (and that would have physically fit in the bag, but TSA wouldn't approve of such a big bottle... oh well!).

 

I think it is possible for anyone to travel with carry-ons only, especially if you are willing to do laundry. There's tons of youtube videos about it, with ideas of how many of each item you should pack. A big suggestion is to pack things you can mix and match- so pick 2 or 3 colors and pack lots of neutrals that match those colors and you can create several outfits from a limited supply of clothes.

 

Personally, I hate doing laundry and there was no chance I wanted to do it on vacation! That meant I had to get creative... I rolled all my clothes very tightly because you can fit more stuff in the same space if you roll the clothes instead of folding them. It helps that my shoes are a size 6.5 and they fit nicely between the bars of the handle on my suitcase. All of my Caribbean cruise clothes are lightweight and thin so it's not that hard to fit a lot of options into the suitcase. As for the nighttime dresses, I just rolled them tightly and squished them in as much as I could! (except for the black and white lace formal dress- that one I folded neatly on top of the bag so it wouldn't get too wrinkled)

 

J also brought only a carry on bag and a backpack, and we packed his stuff the same way as mine except for his evening attire. I think he re-wore his pants and button down shirts twice since he only wore them for a few hours each night and they never got sweaty or dirty. He had to do some ironing for his shirts after unpacking, but that was fine because I take way longer to get showered and do my hair/makeup so he went off to the laundry room to iron at that time haha

 

I hope that helped! Let me know if you have any other questions :)