Without Valor- a Mini Review

[LatinaInTexas]

My very first Carnival cruise was on the Valor 5 years ago and I loved it. My next cruise after that was on Oasis of the Seas and I discovered I liked big ships and didn't love Valor anymore lol.

What a horrible experience you had. I would have been miserable for having wasted precious vacation time.

Tried MSC last year and trying NCL in May, just looking for new and different experiences. 

[Purvis1231]

We sailed on the Valor right before Thanksgiving. We found the ship in a good state of repair, the crew hardworking and friendly. The entertainment was good, but we missed the big stage productions of the past. The food was mostly good and as expected. WE ate mostly in the buffet during the day and most nights at the MDR- no major complaints.

[2Shoes2Go]

Our experience, on Valor, has been consistently good. We expect an interesting crowd. The crew works hard and have always been friendly. They do their best in often difficult situations.
We’re spending a little time on her, starting Monday and look forward to seeing some old friends. 

[Jamman54]

2 hours ago, 2Shoes2Go said:

Our experience, on Valor, has been consistently good. We expect an interesting crowd. The crew works hard and have always been friendly. They do their best in often difficult situations.
We’re spending a little time on her, starting Monday and look forward to seeing some old friends. 

Enjoy your time on the Valor!! 😎

[Lee Cruiser]

6 hours ago, 2Shoes2Go said:

Our experience, on Valor, has been consistently good. We expect an interesting crowd. The crew works hard and have always been friendly. They do their best in often difficult situations.
We’re spending a little time on her, starting Monday and look forward to seeing some old friends. 

Same.  We have taken a January cruise on Valor twice (2020, 2022) and will also be on it next week.  We've always had good experiences.  Hopefully, this one will be the same.  Our daughter and son-in-law were on it in November and they had a good time.

[Tiger0613]

You can go to deck three to see the water.

 

I don't go for the musical acts.  I don't go to the dance club.  I don't drink alcohol or coffee.  Because of these things, I never notice rowdiness since I spend alot of time in my cabin.

 

On the Valor, I only go to the welcome show, love and marriage show, and the Deal or No Deal show.  I hate America Rocks and Country Road.  I have never heard any of the songs in Country Road.  Epic Rock is just so much better than America Rocks.  They aren't even in the same league.

 

On my last cruise on the Valor, service in the dining room was extremely slow, but the food wasn't bad.  I don't eat steak.  I was about 10 minutes late on the third night(8:15pm seating) for reasons I don't remember, so I expected to get my food later than the others in my section.  I wasn't late by choice.  By late, I mean 10 minutes past the official start time.  The doors likely opened about 5 minutes before the official start time.  At 9:05pm, the people that arrived on time still didn't have their entrees.  There were two booths, one 6 or 8 person table, and one 2 person table(my table) in my section.  There were only 7 people total.  I didn't receive the first of my two appetizers until 8:50pm.  I got tired of waiting, so I left and never went back.

 

I haven't witnessed any discrimination or hatred out of New Orleans or Mobile.  I did, however, see about half of the theater walk out when the two guys were singing during the welcome show on the Inspiration on the 8/15/16 sailing out of Long Beach.

[Indytraveler83]

1 hour ago, Tiger0613 said:

I haven't witnessed any discrimination or hatred out of New Orleans or Mobile.  I did, however, see about half of the theater walk out when the two guys were singing during the welcome show on the Inspiration on the 8/15/16 sailing out of Long Beach.

 

To be clear for everyone: I didn't claim any open or obvious discrimination.  It's staring that lingers too long, or saying "excuse me" to people they squeeze past except us.  Little bits of impolite behavior that let's one know they aren't welcome, when everyone else is.

 

I've never sailed long beach (and it's much too far away to realistically consider), so I can't speak for that.

 

As a previous folks have mentioned, we've had good experiences out of Miami.  I'm curious as to if Port Canaveral would be similar?  Both of those ports are usually the cheapest to fly to for us.

[terryinal]

Well I have been on 73 cruise's and just got off Valor yesterday and had a great time. I had no problem with anything. Not saying you didn't but for me I love the smaller ships and had a good time

[Indytraveler83]

3 hours ago, terryinal said:

Well I have been on 73 cruise's and just got off Valor yesterday and had a great time. I had no problem with anything. Not saying you didn't but for me I love the smaller ships and had a good time

Bad cruises are a new thing for me.  This was #8, and while we've had bad things happen before, this was our first cruise we wish we wouldn't have gone on.

 

Obviously the plumbing issues are a somewhat unusual situation, and the "fit" with other passengers is something else as well.  But what are your best ideas to ensure a good time on the older ships?  We sail Spirit in August and could use all the suggestions we can get. 

[icft]

19 minutes ago, Indytraveler83 said:

Bad cruises are a new thing for me.  This was #8, and while we've had bad things happen before, this was our first cruise we wish we wouldn't have gone on.

 

Obviously the plumbing issues are a somewhat unusual situation, and the "fit" with other passengers is something else as well.  But what are your best ideas to ensure a good time on the older ships?  We sail Spirit in August and could use all the suggestions we can get. 

Just my opinion, but I think you just had bad luck. Unfortunately with the cutbacks bad luck happens more often these days. I recently did a comment on our December cruise on Glory and more recently on our January cruise on Glory. Two significantly different experiences on the same ship one month apart.

 

A recently new (to us) problem that you touched on is the condition of cabins. Back when there were cabin Stewards the Steward was responsible for the condition of the cabin and had the authority to get things fixed. Apparently the Stateroom Attendants of today are only expected to clean certain surfaces, make the beds, know your name and bring robes and ice if requested. No one is responsible for the condition of the room. Passengers are now responsible for reporting problems. We have noticed telling the Stateroom Attendant about problems rarely produces results. I don't think they have any authority to make the maintenance people do anything. But customer service has been Johnny-on-the-spot for us, though not always easy to contact. On our last two cruises we arrived to cabins with unacceptable problems that were quickly rectified once we contacted customer service.

 

Boorish fellow cruisers has become a fairly constant problem since covid. I noted in my comments on our January cruise that it was one of our best cruises in a long time greatly because for the first time in a long time everyone we came across was courteous, polite and friendly. That was a first for a post-covid fully booked cruise (the masked post-covid cruises still had civilized passengers) and made all the difference. One thing we do avoid is cruises of less than seven days. There are fewer boorish passengers on the longer cruises in our experience. We recently booked our first cruise on NCL. When talking to the Personal Cruise Consultant he asked what we were looking for on NCL different from Carnival. We told him housebroken passengers.

 

See how your next cruise goes. We also are contemplating the possibility cruising in current conditions may no longer be something we want to do and are taking it a step at a time. So far the pluses outweigh the minuses, but the gap has narrowed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[momof3cruisers]

On 1/19/2023 at 12:48 PM, Indytraveler83 said:

 

You'll have to let me know what you think of the Spirit.  I'm seriously reconsidering our Spirit cruise.  We got it at an epic price that we will never get again, but I also can't do another shipboard experience like this. 

I’ll tell ya my advice, don’t go on Spirit again. I ended up stopping writing my review of our two weeks on that ship because it was so depressing reliving it all. I feel complete empathy in your regret in using four of your vacation days. My husband took TWO WEEKS off of work and it sucked. The first week was frustrating but okay, the second one had us both deciding to never sail Carnival again. It was just so bad. That said, I already had a cruise booked for two weeks from now with our son and if it’s not significantly better, I’m permanently out. And this coming cruise I turn Platinum so that is quite a bummer. 
 

im so sorry your cruise was such a disappointment. I truly understand.

 

[jsglow]

We've reported minor repair issues to our steward on each of our last 2 cruises and had them fully resolved/repaired within 2-3 hours.

[Hoosierpop]

I do find a difference in passengers out of different ports. For example, Miami has a lot more people from NY/NJ than other ports, so you get a few more people with grumpy attitudes. I mean, I get it. Living in NY/NJ must stink, but it’s vacation.

 

Having said that, there has never been a cruise where I’ve let passenger behavior affect my enjoyment. Unless someone physically assaults me, I just don’t care. Why other people being rude affects people is a mystery to me. 

[eastoftheboston]

On 1/19/2023 at 12:48 PM, Indytraveler83 said:

 

You'll have to let me know what you think of the Spirit.  I'm seriously reconsidering our Spirit cruise.  We got it at an epic price that we will never get again, but I also can't do another shipboard experience like this. 

I was just on the Spirit last week. You'll love it. I wasn't sure about an older ship, but everyone raves about Spirit so I gave it a try. (We also got an AMAZING once-in-a-lifetime price). You never feel crowded, and the staff was great. I wrote a review but haven't posted it yet. We were surprised how much we enjoyed the food (if anything I thought my chocolate melting cake was too melted, never overcooked LOL). The violinists and other live entertaiment played in venues all over the ship and didn't conflict with dinner. 

We did anytime dining but they worked to put us in the same area each night so the staff knew us by name and took great care of us. 

The 80s Playlist show was awesome, the others were just ok. Just be aware of that.

Also, I am also part of a same-sex couple and my husband and I never felt anything but welcomed by everyone, staff and passengers. I hope you have the same experience.

[Indytraveler83]

7 hours ago, eastoftheboston said:

I was just on the Spirit last week. You'll love it. I wasn't sure about an older ship, but everyone raves about Spirit so I gave it a try. (We also got an AMAZING once-in-a-lifetime price). You never feel crowded, and the staff was great. I wrote a review but haven't posted it yet. We were surprised how much we enjoyed the food (if anything I thought my chocolate melting cake was too melted, never overcooked LOL). The violinists and other live entertaiment played in venues all over the ship and didn't conflict with dinner. 

We did anytime dining but they worked to put us in the same area each night so the staff knew us by name and took great care of us. 

The 80s Playlist show was awesome, the others were just ok. Just be aware of that.

Also, I am also part of a same-sex couple and my husband and I never felt anything but welcomed by everyone, staff and passengers. I hope you have the same experience.

 

I appreciate the advice.  We are in a similar situation as far as price, we booked Alaska at that crazy rate when they were pulling ships from Australia and into Alaska and trying to fill bookings. We were originally on Freedom, but got transferred to Spirit.  

 

I did a few bock bookings on other lines for Alaska, and ironically HAL was the cheapest, though still at 50% more than we are currently booked at.    I get that Alaska is a different thing entirely, and if we can just have a functional cabin with decent food and tamer passengers we will be good.

 

Trying not to overreact to one bad cruise, but also not eager to book on Carnival again until we see how it goes on the Spirit.  

[Indytraveler83]

16 hours ago, icft said:

Just my opinion, but I think you just had bad luck. Unfortunately with the cutbacks bad luck happens more often these days. I recently did a comment on our December cruise on Glory and more recently on our January cruise on Glory. Two significantly different experiences on the same ship one month apart.

 

A recently new (to us) problem that you touched on is the condition of cabins. Back when there were cabin Stewards the Steward was responsible for the condition of the cabin and had the authority to get things fixed. Apparently the Stateroom Attendants of today are only expected to clean certain surfaces, make the beds, know your name and bring robes and ice if requested. No one is responsible for the condition of the room. Passengers are now responsible for reporting problems. We have noticed telling the Stateroom Attendant about problems rarely produces results. I don't think they have any authority to make the maintenance people do anything. But customer service has been Johnny-on-the-spot for us, though not always easy to contact. On our last two cruises we arrived to cabins with unacceptable problems that were quickly rectified once we contacted customer service.

 

Boorish fellow cruisers has become a fairly constant problem since covid. I noted in my comments on our January cruise that it was one of our best cruises in a long time greatly because for the first time in a long time everyone we came across was courteous, polite and friendly. That was a first for a post-covid fully booked cruise (the masked post-covid cruises still had civilized passengers) and made all the difference. One thing we do avoid is cruises of less than seven days. There are fewer boorish passengers on the longer cruises in our experience. We recently booked our first cruise on NCL. When talking to the Personal Cruise Consultant he asked what we were looking for on NCL different from Carnival. We told him housebroken passengers.

 

See how your next cruise goes. We also are contemplating the possibility cruising in current conditions may no longer be something we want to do and are taking it a step at a time. So far the pluses outweigh the minuses, but the gap has narrowed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think we had assumed something different prior to this cruise.  Both of our cruises in 2021 and 2022 were the best we've had and we were really eager to keep cruising in this current era.  However, they were both out of Miami on the Horizon, and maybe location/ship was far more important than we realized. 

[Indytraveler83]

14 hours ago, momof3cruisers said:

I’ll tell ya my advice, don’t go on Spirit again. I ended up stopping writing my review of our two weeks on that ship because it was so depressing reliving it all. I feel complete empathy in your regret in using four of your vacation days. My husband took TWO WEEKS off of work and it sucked. The first week was frustrating but okay, the second one had us both deciding to never sail Carnival again. It was just so bad. That said, I already had a cruise booked for two weeks from now with our son and if it’s not significantly better, I’m permanently out. And this coming cruise I turn Platinum so that is quite a bummer. 
 

im so sorry your cruise was such a disappointment. I truly understand.

 

 

Out of curiosity, was your Spirit cruise to Alaska or a Caribbean port?  A lot of what I've been reading had her initial Caribbean return to service as awful, while reviews seem to have trended better since she started in Alaska again.   

[Jamman54]

16 hours ago, momof3cruisers said:

I’ll tell ya my advice, don’t go on Spirit again. I ended up stopping writing my review of our two weeks on that ship because it was so depressing reliving it all. I feel complete empathy in your regret in using four of your vacation days. My husband took TWO WEEKS off of work and it sucked. The first week was frustrating but okay, the second one had us both deciding to never sail Carnival again. It was just so bad. That said, I already had a cruise booked for two weeks from now with our son and if it’s not significantly better, I’m permanently out. And this coming cruise I turn Platinum so that is quite a bummer. 
 

im so sorry your cruise was such a disappointment. I truly understand.

 

Currently on the Spirit and having a great time with no real issues. Can I ask why the Spirit was so bad for you.  You didn't give any reasons why you were so unhappy. 😎

[MJSailors]

@Indytraveler83  I would suggest that you try a Celebrity cruise.

We have sailed on three Celebrity cruises out of New Jersey and have never experienced boorish,rude behavior by passengers. Celebrity sails out of Florida and Bayonne NJ as well as Puerto Rico. We are a husband and wife couple,but  we understand that Celebrity is a comfortable cruise line for gay passengers.

If you do fly to board a ship out of Miami, you may want to fly into Ft Lauderdale or West Palm Beach airports and either rent a car or hire a car to get to Miami airport, although I do not find Ft Lauderdale airport pleasant either. Our preferred airport is West Palm Beach.

Your vacation time and money are worth more than spending them on a ship where you are not comfortable and satisfied with the experience.

MJ🙋🏻

 

 

 

 

 

[MJSailors]

@Hoosierpop My husband and I have cruised out of NY and NJ numerous times on Celebrity,NCL, Cunard and Princess since we began cruising in 2004.

Since we live on Long Island,NY, the ports of Manhattan,Red Hook,Brooklyn and Bayonne ,NJ are home ports for us. 

On the nine cruises that we have taken from these ports,we have never experienced rude,boorish or uncivilized passenger behavior.

We have enjoyed each of those cruises.

IMHO,your comment about people from NY,NJ having grumpy attitudes is unfair. You are making a blanket statement about a group of people perhaps based on stereotypes. Pardon me, but I think you are making a biased statement.

Also,saying that “living in NY/NJ must stink” is also an unfair statement.

There are many excellent areas of both states that people are pleased to call their home.

Again,your statement reflects a stereotype that you believe to be correct.

Have you ever spent some time in NY and/or NJ ? Do you personally know anyone from either of those states? If you either visited or were friendly with some NY/NJ people, you may have a different perception of the places and people.

MJ

[Indytraveler83]

20 minutes ago, MJSailors said:

@Indytraveler83  I would suggest that you try a Celebrity cruise.

We have sailed on three Celebrity cruises out of New Jersey and have never experienced boorish,rude behavior by passengers. Celebrity sails out of Florida and Bayonne NJ as well as Puerto Rico. We are a husband and wife couple,but  we understand that Celebrity is a comfortable cruise line for gay passengers.

If you do fly to board a ship out of Miami, you may want to fly into Ft Lauderdale or West Palm Beach airports and either rent a car or hire a car to get to Miami airport, although I do not find Ft Lauderdale airport pleasant either. Our preferred airport is West Palm Beach.

Your vacation time and money are worth more than spending them on a ship where you are not comfortable and satisfied with the experience.

MJ🙋🏻

 

 

 

 

 

 

You actually hit my first alternative choice on the head.  RCI and NCL are too similar to Carnival to justify the switch to either of them in my opinion.  Celebrity and Virgin are the top contenders for my business I'd Carnival loses it.  I've resisted the more formal cruise lines based heavily on restrictive dress codes that don't feel like vacation.  However, I may have to concede that one...

[Jamman54]

23 minutes ago, MJSailors said:

@Hoosierpop My husband and I have cruised out of NY and NJ numerous times on Celebrity,NCL, Cunard and Princess since we began cruising in 2004.

Since we live on Long Island,NY, the ports of Manhattan,Red Hook,Brooklyn and Bayonne ,NJ are home ports for us. 

On the nine cruises that we have taken from these ports,we have never experienced rude,boorish or uncivilized passenger behavior.

We have enjoyed each of those cruises.

IMHO,your comment about people from NY,NJ having grumpy attitudes is unfair. You are making a blanket statement about a group of people perhaps based on stereotypes. Pardon me, but I think you are making a biased statement.

Also,saying that “living in NY/NJ must stink” is also an unfair statement.

There are many excellent areas of both states that people are pleased to call their home.

Again,your statement reflects a stereotype that you believe to be correct.

Have you ever spent some time in NY and/or NJ ? Do you personally know anyone from either of those states? If you either visited or were friendly with some NY/NJ people, you may have a different perception of the places and people.

MJ

I'm New Jersey born and raised and I love my state. Nobody's ever called me grumpy! 😁 Sail away from New York is the best bar none. If anyone chooses not to sail from New York due to a perceived people problem,  that is their problem, not ours! 😎

Edited January 22, 2023 by Jamman54

[MJSailors]

@Indytraveler83 Regarding dress codes on Celebrity. In July,2019, my DH and I went on the Celebrity Summit for a cruise to Bermuda with a younger couple and their two children ,ages 12 and 8. Both my husband and the Dad of the children decided before the cruise that they would take dress pants,long sleeve dress shirts and ties for dinner in the MDR. They were comfortable and totally accepted in the dining room.

On “formal night” I recall seeing two men wearing tuxes. Our gentlemen wore ties on formal night,other nights,they wore open shirt collars.

Celebrity,like so many cruise lines,have relaxed the dress codes. Gone are the days of tuxes,dinner jackets and long gowns worn by passengers for the formal nights. We,being of a different generation, regret that this has happened, but go along with the changes.

While Celebrity has relaxed the dress codes, I do not think that you will see shorts,T-shirts  or backwards worn baseball caps at dinner in the MDR.

I agree with your assessment of NCL. We sailed on NCL Dream,many years ago and really enjoyed the cruise. We returned to NCL in 2017 and 2018 on the Breakaway to Bermuda from NYC because of the convenience of the home port and our love of vacationing in Bermuda. We did enjoy the two cruises,but felt the vibe was not for us and we would not choose NCL if we ever return to cruising due to Covid concerns.

One of my husband’s doctors took his family on a Breakaway cruise and his impression was that it was like Caligula and was not pleased with the experience.

But,that is why there are many cruise lines to choose from. What pleases one person, is a disappointment for someone else.

MJ🙋🏻

 

 

[knagl]

On 1/19/2023 at 11:48 AM, Indytraveler83 said:

You'll have to let me know what you think of the Spirit.  I'm seriously reconsidering our Spirit cruise. 

 

For whatever it's worth, we did a B2B on Spirit for a total of two weeks last month out of Miami, and it was excellent. We ate in the MDR every night and certainly some dishes were better than others, but the food was overall very good.

 

For music, there was a string trio, an acoustic guitar guy, a really good small band, and the piano bar.

 

Service was great, everyone was friendly, the ship was in very good condition (especially considering its age), and I wouldn't hesitate to cruise on it again.

 

[Hoosierpop]

1 hour ago, MJSailors said:

@Hoosierpop My husband and I have cruised out of NY and NJ numerous times on Celebrity,NCL, Cunard and Princess since we began cruising in 2004.

Since we live on Long Island,NY, the ports of Manhattan,Red Hook,Brooklyn and Bayonne ,NJ are home ports for us. 

On the nine cruises that we have taken from these ports,we have never experienced rude,boorish or uncivilized passenger behavior.

We have enjoyed each of those cruises.

IMHO,your comment about people from NY,NJ having grumpy attitudes is unfair. You are making a blanket statement about a group of people perhaps based on stereotypes. Pardon me, but I think you are making a biased statement.

Also,saying that “living in NY/NJ must stink” is also an unfair statement.

There are many excellent areas of both states that people are pleased to call their home.

Again,your statement reflects a stereotype that you believe to be correct.

Have you ever spent some time in NY and/or NJ ? Do you personally know anyone from either of those states? If you either visited or were friendly with some NY/NJ people, you may have a different perception of the places and people.

MJ

There are a few friendly people in NY/NJ. But they just moved to Florida.