Victory Review 1/1/06

[PACrew]

First,

Let me start by saying that I plan to make this a fair, yet optimistic review. I am writing this because i relied on these boards and thought it would be fair to share my experience

I am not going to complain about little things that are trivial that do not make a difference in a vacation experience. i.e. Whether or not there is a piece of rust on a balcony will not ruin or make me think less of a cruise ship. (considering they operate in salt water). I will make some recommendations though so your experience can be even better. That being said, let me preface this...I have cruised on 6 different lines and have experienced different levels of service, food, entertainment, and quality. I must say, I was pleasantly surprise by some things with carnival.

First, Ill start in the beginning.

Embarkation.

Really wasnt a big deal. It was no worse than waiting to ride a line at a theme park If you get there before 1030, you are golden and will barely wait. If you drive there, a word to the wise...between 930-1030 traffic is crazy as people are trying to leave from the previous week also...plan ahead. Overall, it wasnt that bad and I was in line 1130. We were eating by 1230.

Cabin

Balcony, 8th deck..awesome...much larger then the previous lines I have been on. It was clean, well stocked and the cabin steward was on the ball...didnt miss a beat...barely talked to him but he was good. There were 3 couples in our group spread out on deck 8 and all had a good experience.

Ship

I would say immaculate. Very clean, they were always working/cleaning on something. Now, given the fact that the ship us 5 years old and carries 3k people a week, expect some minor wear but nothing major. It didnt distract from the trip or stand out. The ship looked great given its age. If you dont want wear, pick a ship that is less than 1 year old.

Food

The food in the dining room was great. I was really surprised so were others in our group. The food on the buffet wasn’t bad either…there was always something. The lines..most I waited was 10 minutes. I waited usually till after 1pm. If the ship was in port, there were no lines at all. THe pizza, sandwiches were great. Obviously, lines like Celebrity have better food but Carnival was easily comparable to NCL.

Service

Dining room…our waiter was awesome. We left him extra money even. However, on a down note…the bar service was horrible at our table. We said something to our waiter and he took care of it best he could. However, I will say other tables were fine with bar service…just luck of the draw.

Now, service on the Lido deck was another thing. Carnival is way too pushy on the drinks. I felt like I was in a Mexican village craft market. I felt forced to buy drinks. We just bought them so no one would bother us at some points. It was really quite ridiculous. In addition, the drinks are more expensive on carnival and any other cruise line. Friends in our group were on RCCL last march and paid significantly less. BUT, the drinks were strong and good.

Entertainment

The CD was ok, he wasn’t really around much. The comedian first night was great. The shows were ok, rather corny at some points. THe casino was tight. Play tables. The disco was happening every night…it was big and there were always people in there. Piano bar cool also. The cigar bar was a cool place to chill

Ports

We had great weather at all of them. Costa Maya …go into town. Beers are a buck to 2 and you can get chairs and cheap food. Grand cayman wasn’t a problem. Get off the boat early and come back around 2 - 230 pm ( last tender was supposed to be 33pm)…there was no line at all. Jamaica…no problem here also. Margaritaville…awesome, could spend the whole day there.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Given the price we paid…it was a great value ( except drinks ) We had an awesome time. A word of warning to all those reading reviews. Don’t get hung up on minor things people complain about. The ship is great and you will have a blast. Remember, life isn’t perfect no matter where you go but carnival did a great job. We will cruise carnival again.

[VentureMan_2000]

Thanks for the review.

[CrazieNCruisingGypsy2]

Thanks for the review, we'll be on the Victory 2/5/06!

[Seydlitz]

Thanks for the great review, I will be sailing on her in a few weeks :)

 

 

jerry

[gram4haley]

I appreciated the review. I will be sailing on the Victory on Sunday!

[Beach Cruiser]

Thanks for the review. I haven't seen much on the Victory. We will be leaving this Sunday 1-15-06.

[Gwynie1]

hi!

thanks a lot! we will be on the Victory this sunday too!

cannot wait..

 

bye Gwynie