Carnival Valor 11/14/22-11/18/22 Review (pre and post cruise)

[cruisinsly]

I will be updating this as often as I can before, hopefully during, and after the cruise.

 

Hi everyone. I have never written a review on here – but I have read a lot of reviews from all of you that was willing to share.  This has been one heck of a few years.  We have several cruises that were cancelled due to Carnival and the pandemic.  We just let them keep our money and would switch our sailing for later out.  Finally, we decided to choose a date so far out that we figured it would not be cancelled.  We decided to book the Mardi Gras for 2023.  Wait!  What?  I know – this has Carnival Valor as the sailing. We booked the Mardi Gras over 600 days out from sailing. Just to give you a little background of us.  Sorry if all this bores everyone. But it leads to the cruise – I promise!

 

I ended up losing my job and then my husband was offered a much better job than what he had.  This meant we would need to uproot our family (son and two doggies) and move to another state.  So, the day after Thanksgiving 2021, we moved from the Nashville area to Alabama.  Definitely hated leaving my family (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma) behind – but this was a fantastic move for us.  Now for the “heck of a year”!

 

We moved into an apartment after staying with our friends for 3 weeks.  Yup – I wasn’t even able to put up a Christmas tree. BUMMER!  We knew that we did not want to stay in this apartment forever, so we had started the process to get everything we needed for a VA loan so that we could purchase a house.  Husband started his new job and absolutely loves it. I am back to being a stay-at-home mom for now.  I will find a job – when the right one come along. Yes, I am looking, just haven’t found what I wanted.  Anyway, back to the house. We decided that it would just be better to go ahead and build a house. We found the community, the lot and the floorplan that we wanted.  We have been so excited to get this house built and move in.  Closing is August 5.  WooHoo. 

 

But the information we needed for the VA Loan has been just crazy.  Husband was in the USMC Reserves forever back when he was younger. All of his information is at the National Archives (nothing is digital with them).  They received the response in February 2022 that we needed the information.  At the end of that month, husband had a heart attack.  I got him to the hospital and left our 17 year old son at home with the doggies.  My aunt came and stayed with him while I was in the hospital for almost 2 weeks with my husband. He ended up having double bypass.  Was out of the hospital a few days after surgery and back to work 3 weeks later.  I had him out walking EVERYWHERE!  Walmart, Kohls, Target, walking trails, etc. LOL 

 

So, between the house and his health issues, I decided that I just wanted to get away.  I mean – I needed this and so does he.  I looked at beach properties and just other places that were a few hours from us and the prices for a hotel was crazy high.  Just for the fun of it – I pulled up the Carnival website. I did not have any real dates that I wanted to look at.  But the two nearest Ports to us are Mobile and New Orleans.  I looked at both of those and the best rate and date came up as the Carnival Valor, out of New Orleans for November 14, 4 nights with an inside cabin. I usually will only go with a balcony, but since we have had a full year (paying deductibles, etc) and we have another cruise coming up in January – Inside was it!  For the two of us with all taxes, prepaid gratuities and insurance it is a total of $517.72.  Yup, only $258.86 per person.  Our son has since turned 18 and will stay at home with the doggies.  Our best friends (since high school) live only 5 minutes away and will be there if he needs them or anything.

 

This is now the planning stage!  Oh fun.  I went ahead and put this on a courtesy hold for a few days to make sure that husband could get the time off from work.  Once he got back to me, I paid the deposit and insurance and finalized it. 

[cruisinsly]

So, in August, I wrote all of this so I could remember what was going on, etc. It sucks getting older and not being able to remember like I once did. lol

 

I received an email from Carnival to upgrade our room from an inside to a balcony for $100 extra.  Nope, not per person, but total. I jumped on it.

 

Instead of playing on the internet, I should be packing.  We have built a house and our closing is in a few days.  Instead – I have cut my finger and had to get 4 stitches.  Bad thing is it is my pointer finger on my predominant hand. UGH!!  Only me. 

 

As I have taken this break from packing, I have decided to make my tags for my cruising ducks that I am going to hide.  I have 8 total. I can hide 2 a day.  This will be my first time hiding ducks. I have yet to find one.

[ninjacat123]

Great start and I am looking forward to the rest!  Made me gasp when you wrote that your DH suffered a heart attack and I am wishing him great health moving forward.  Yay on the balcony upsell!!

[cruisinsly]

1 hour ago, ninjacat123 said:

Great start and I am looking forward to the rest!  Made me gasp when you wrote that your DH suffered a heart attack and I am wishing him great health moving forward.  Yay on the balcony upsell!!

Thank you.  Yup, in his early 50s and had a heart attack.  Bless his heart - he walked out to our car at our apartment complex, turned around because he forgot his phone and walked all the way back and then back to the car again.  He had been having pain for the whole week and (as a former Marine), just ignored it and thought it was gas. UGH!!  That one little trip to the hospital turned out to be 2 weeks and bypass surgery.  He is doing great now.  He says that he feels like he has a new motor. lol  

 

The balcony upsell was awesome. I have yet to tell him that we got it.  I am trying to wait until we are on the ship.  He asked the other night if we got an inside room and I was like "yup".  

[pcvtmom]

Enjoying this already, and you're not to the cruise part, yet!

[cruisinsly]

Well, we have moved into our new house (August 5).  Closing was quick and painless. Moving is not though. Lol  I am still unpacking boxes and stashing things away. UGH!! 

 

I continue to check and see if there are any more upgrades.  So far, none.  At the time that I wrote this, we have been in our house for a little over a month and everything has finally started to simmer down.  I am currently studying for a certification in my degree field so I can get back to working and help pay for this house.  I am also looking at our trip to New Orleans and trying to decide what to do while there, if anything.  We have decided to stay at the Hampton Inn Convention Center for two nights.  It is near the port and they have a special for stay and cruise.  We got it for $389 plus parking for $17 a night.  Breakfast is included.

 

I also reserved a New Orleans tour by foot of their haunted areas near the French Quarter.  It is a free tour, but I had to pay a service fee of $5.50 total for me and the hubs.  I am VERY excited about this.   We will pay a tip to the tour guide once we get there.  

[cruisinsly]

7 minutes ago, pcvtmom said:

Enjoying this already, and you're not to the cruise part, yet!

Thank you!  As we travel, I plan on taking pictures that I can post too!  Stay tuned.

[TrqoisWtrs]

8 minutes ago, cruisinsly said:

We have decided to stay at the Hampton Inn Convention Center for two nights.

This is one of my favorite hotels.  The breakfast is awesome - make sure you go around the corner to the left - more yummy stuff!  (Hopefully its the same as precovid.)  Ask for a refurbished room with the huge wall of windows.😊

 

 

[cruisinsly]

5 minutes ago, cruisin*tigger said:

This is one of my favorite hotels.  The breakfast is awesome - make sure you go around the corner to the left - more yummy stuff!  (Hopefully its the same as precovid.)  Ask for a refurbished room with the huge wall of windows.😊

 

 

Nice!!  Thanks for the tip.  I will ask for the refurbished rooms.  I had reserved the Embassy Suites and decided to switch it to this one.  Needless to say - we are both very excited!  Last time we were in New Orleans, I was pregnant with our son!

[ninjacat123]

Last time I was in NO my DDs were 3.5 and 1.5 years old.  Now they are 20 and 22.  Gotta hit NO soon.  Your hotel looks snazzy (thx cruisin*tigger for the pics) and the tour sounds great!!

[cruisinsly]

15 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

Last time I was in NO my DDs were 3.5 and 1.5 years old.  Now they are 20 and 22.  Gotta hit NO soon.  Your hotel looks snazzy (thx cruisin*tigger for the pics) and the tour sounds great!!

Thats about how long it has been since we were there. lol  The hotel does look pretty neat. I cant wait to check in tomorrow!  Yes - thank you cruisin*trigger for the pictures.

[cruisinsly]

I went out on a limb and purchased the steakhouse for the first night. We normally do not go, but since it is just me and him – I reserved it!!  We usually have our son with us and we just never took him to the steakhouse. He was younger and could be, well, a kid and we just did not want to get in there and have a meltdown or anything. It was a pick and choose your battles kinda thing. Ok, so he mostly wanted to go to camp Carnival and we would have to nearly tie him up and drag him to dinner with us. Lol  Anyway -I am very excited to go to the steakhouse. It has been many years since we have been to it.

[cruisinsly]

Happy Birthday Marines yesterday!!  EEEKKKKK – getting excited.  I am all packed.  Hubby finished up his packing.  Today is Veterans Day and he has the day off. We have loaded the car.  Going to get to bed early since we are getting up early to be out of the house Saturday morning by 4:30am to travel to New Orleans.  I also have my cruise ducks ready to go!  Oh, and the job situation for me – I was offered a position and start mid-December. YAY!!

 

On another note, Hubs has had one skin cancer removed each week for the past 3 weeks. Looks like we will not be doing much fun in the sun!  No beach for us.

[RockinRobin]

We stayed at the Hampton Convention Center in April.  Not really close to the Quarter, but an easy Uber or a nice long walk if the weather is good.  You are just a few blocks and an easy walk from Riverside mall and also Mulates Cajun Restaurant.  Highly recommend you go there at happy hour and sit at the bar.  In the evening they have live music.  Lots of fun.  No reason to get into all that mess on Bourbon Street!   And on another note, cruising out on the Mississippi from New Orleans is fantastic.  Try not to go eat until after dark as you will want to be out on deck and watch the river roll by. Amazing.  Have fun!!

[cruisinsly]

20 minutes ago, RockinRobin said:

We stayed at the Hampton Convention Center in April.  Not really close to the Quarter, but an easy Uber or a nice long walk if the weather is good.  You are just a few blocks and an easy walk from Riverside mall and also Mulates Cajun Restaurant.  Highly recommend you go there at happy hour and sit at the bar.  In the evening they have live music.  Lots of fun.  No reason to get into all that mess on Bourbon Street!   And on another note, cruising out on the Mississippi from New Orleans is fantastic.  Try not to go eat until after dark as you will want to be out on deck and watch the river roll by. Amazing.  Have fun!!

Thank you for the tips. We have a ghost tour tonight and a jazz brunch tomorrow. Did not want to stay near Bourbon!  Glad to know the location is good. Told hubby that I just want a po-boy!  Can’t get a good one where we are- just not like the po-boys in Biloxi and New Orleans!

[ninjacat123]

20 minutes ago, cruisinsly said:

Thank you for the tips. We have a ghost tour tonight and a jazz brunch tomorrow. Did not want to stay near Bourbon!  Glad to know the location is good. Told hubby that I just want a po-boy!  Can’t get a good one where we are- just not like the po-boys in Biloxi and New Orleans!

Last time I was in NO I ate a muffuletta sandwich and it was AWESOME!  I'm gonna look into cruises out of NO!!😁

[cruisinsly]

After packing up the car last night, we could not close our eyes. After a few hours of tv, sleep hit both of us. When the alarm went off at 4am- I did. It want to get up. But I was spring loaded and jumped up anyway. We were finally out of the house at 450am. 
 

At 830am, we stopped for gas. Imagine my surprise as hubs came out with shakes for both. Ummmm- dude, who gets shakes at 830am AND in cold weather?

 

 

[cruisinsly]

We rolled into New Orleans about 1230pm. Traffic is a nightmare. I am sure there is a concert tonight. We arrived at our hotel while navigating one way streets. Lol. Hubs was NOT happy with traffic and wanted a drink when we got into our room. Thankfully we stopped and picked something up.

 

while hubby dealt with valet, I went in and checked us in. As I was talking to the front desk awesome ladies, they upgraded us because it is our 19th anniversary.

 

 

[RockinRobin]

Awesome upgrade!!  We loved the Hampton, it was clean and everyone was so friendly.  Nice start on your home made mini bar!  Enjoy New Orleans!

[cruisinsly]

1 hour ago, RockinRobin said:

Awesome upgrade!!  We loved the Hampton, it was clean and everyone was so friendly.  Nice start on your home made mini bar!  Enjoy New Orleans!

Completely surprise at the upgrade and very grateful. Homemade mini bar is a must. Tomorrow will be great!

[cruisinsly]

After we checked in, we walked over to the Riverwalk and saw that Radiance of the Seas was getting ready to depart. We went to Fat Tuesday and ordered two Panty Droppers! So good. We then went to Cafe Du Mondrian and I bet you all can’t guess what we got!! Stopped by the Mardi Gras store and picked up beads for our trip next year on the Mardi Gras.

 

We walked to the French Quarter and had a shrimp poboy and oyster poboy. We split them so we could both have a bit of each. As I was chowing down on the oyster poboy, I bit down on something hard. I found a pearl!!

 

we were going to do a ghost tour- but it was just too cold for us, so we made our way back to our room.  First day in New Orleans was nice. 

[cruisinsly]

We also stopped in Jackson Square and talked to this young girl and her dad. She is there every weekend selling her art. We decided to purchase one that spoke to us.

[ninjacat123]

4 minutes ago, cruisinsly said:

We also stopped in Jackson Square and talked to this young girl and her dad. She is there every weekend selling her art. We decided to purchase one that spoke to us.

Cool piece of art!  You're lucky you didn't break a tooth on that pearl😲 I love Cafe du Monde!!

[cruisinsly]

42 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Cool piece of art!  You're lucky you didn't break a tooth on that pearl😲 I love Cafe du Monde!!

Very cool. Most of her art was just too gory. This was one of a few that wasn’t. She grew up in an abusive house when young and it comes through her art as a way of dealing. 
 

i am very surprised I didn’t break a tooth also. I’m becoming a pro at finding them though. Last time we had oysters- I found 4. Lol

 

Cafe du Monde is a must!!

[ninjacat123]

3 hours ago, cruisinsly said:

Very cool. Most of her art was just too gory. This was one of a few that wasn’t. She grew up in an abusive house when young and it comes through her art as a way of dealing. 
 

i am very surprised I didn’t break a tooth also. I’m becoming a pro at finding them though. Last time we had oysters- I found 4. Lol

 

Cafe du Monde is a must!!

Sounds like a pearl necklace is in the making🤣