Just back from Valor 3/26-4/2 (long)

[Mack704]

For the past couple of months, I've been reading reviews, threads, posts, just about everything I could find about the Valor, her sister ships, other ships in the fleet, and Carnival. I've been thoroughly enlightened, entertained, informed, and educated. To show my gratitued to all of you, my fellow CCers, I'd like to give a little back. So here goes.

 

As backround, DW and I are in our mid-fifties, We've cruised previously on Carnival, Celebrity(X), and Royal Caribbean(RC), and Carnival. X and RC just last year. X Oct. 2005 and RC Feb. 2005. I may make some comparisons or contrasts. I may make some comments. I may make some observations. I may interject what my DW or our travling companions thought. But remember, this is my take on things. I'm going to give opinions, facts and circumstances as I experienced and felt them. I may address certain items I've read on here before without preface. I hope most of you will pick up on my points.

 

EMBARKATION

 

I had intended to arrive at the Port of Miami early. Our flight was delayed over an hour and then the Limo sevice was another 30 mins. late, so we arrived at the port right at prime loading time. Both lines were long. We got right into the funpass line. Didn't have time to gripe. Moved right along. We were on the ship in 30 - 45 mins, tops. Every one seemed to know what the were doing. They were courteous and friendy.

 

CABIN

 

We had cabin 8457, aft balcony, 8C, veranda deck. We're spoiled. We had aft balcony cabins on both cruises last year. Cabin size was similar, but we had a much larger bacony on the Valor, 60 sq. ft. Most are about 40. There aren't many that big on the Valor. We were lucky to have been able to book this specific cabin. Our cabin steward was nice enough. Twichell is his name. Our stewards last year were much more animated and interactive with us. No complaint here. Our friends' steward must have been more pro-active in their cruise, because they gave extra tip. We did not.

 

FOOD AND DRINK

 

Some people eat to cruise. I cruise to eat. This area is definitely high priority with me. Let's start with the buffet, Rosie's restaurant. Very high marks here. Such variety. Fish & Chips on deck 10. Wonderful! DW and I love fried oysters. These were great. Tempora fish. Marvelous! Crispy batter outside, tender flaky fish inside. My friend had the boulabase(sp) twice. So, I guess he liked it. Deli was good too. Like every CCer I've read says, delicious ruebens and turkey sandwiches. Lots of variety. Pizza was good. Burgers and dogs were great. Oriental was OK. The buffet itself was great also. Plenty to choose from. Salad bar. half a dozen cold salads/entres, hot veggies and entres, and hand carved meats, a different one every day. I saw a couple different kinds of roast beef, pork shoulder, ham, turkey, etc. Oh, and don't forget the desserts. Delish. We ate lunch there every day. The only complaint here is it was all there only for lunch. I could have easily eaten every meal at Rosie's. But at dinner the choices at Rosie's were limited. By the way, there were always places to sit, near the window downstairs, upstairs on deck 10, anywhere you wanted, and there were 3500 guests on board this cruise. The tables were cleaned up timely too.

Didn't quite understand why, but the food in the formal dining room was not as good. We ate dinner there every night but one. Each night I tried at least 2-3 different entres. That was about 15 different main courses. I'd say maybe there was one great one, 2-3 in the good category, and the rest were fair at best. My dining companions all ageed with me. The appetizers were pretty good for the most part. The soups, well it was rare to find a real tasty one. The last couple days no one ordered soup. Same with the salads. They weren't cold and crisp. Ceasar salad was OK. Desserts were ok too. But, the food was edible. I ate dinner. We ate dinner. Probably too much dinner. Never went to bed hungry. Actually too full every night.

I must say at this point that on X and RC, most of the food I had in the formal dining room, lunch and dinner, was superb. They both also offered alternative appetizers like shrimp cocktail, and alternative entres like strip steak and salmon, every night. The Valor did not. I asked. I'm not touting X and RC, just stating facts and my opinions. And I want to add that our servers were fabulous. Noemi was sweet and personable. Juan was right there when we need him. And the coke lady was great too. She had glasses of ice and whole cans of coke waiting for us every night. We all gave all three of them extra tip.

We went to Scarlet's supper club one night. Fantastic! I guess that's where they kept all the great dinner entres. Every thing from soup to nuts, so to speak, was terrific, except.....the desserts. Three of us got the same dessert. Something with orange slices. It tasted burnt, as opposed to carmalized. And we had to wait nearly an hour for the dessert course. We were about to ask for the check when they brought the dessert. That was the only glitch in the service. Otherwise they were great. We were there for nearly 3 hours. Two would have been enough.

 

I've got more, but I'll have to continue later. I type with one finger and it's tired. Mean time if anybody has any questions, I'll be glad to address them when I continue later.

 

Harvey

[pstow]

! Crispy batter outside, tender flaky fish inside.

 

Now if I could just remember that comerical!!:rolleyes:

[tiggerpooh]

sounds like you had a great time. I'm also going on the valor in may. Which route did you go, east/west?

[Mack704]

East -- Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Martin

We always have a great time....attitude, mindset. We know we will!

[brwneyez424]

Sounds like you had a good time... cant wait to hear about the rest of the trip from you. We will be on the Valor on May 7th same Eastern Itinerary. We are counting the days. Please keep posting want to hear about everything. We are going to go to Scarletts also just dont know which night yet.

[Mack704]

To continue:

 

ENTERTAINMENT and ACTIVITIES

 

They actually had 4 shows: The Welcome Show, like a preview show, the first night; Two production shows, Las Vegas type; and on the last night, an amateur show, featuring legend preformaces by the guests. The production shows were on par with all the cruise lines we've been on. They're always entertaining. It's not Vegas or Broadway, but yes, good entertainment. Gotta remember. These kids are mostly late teens-early 20s. A lot of hard work goes into these produtions. We took the back stage tour. Got a lot of info. Interesting. Don't miss it if that's your thing. And the Legends show was a hoot. We enjoyed it. On the other nights, they had singers and comedians. The CD, Brett Allen did a magic show. Missed that one. Was all OK.

SLOT MACHINES ARE TIGHT!

Did not hang out on the pool deck. Not sun-worshippers.

Don't know why anyone would want the premium lounge chairs right next to the main pool. The music is way too loud. We spent no time with the outdoor games and stuff. That's just us. So, I can't comment on the chair hogs. Some of the indoor games they divise are cute. That newlywed/notsonewlywed game is a hoot. Plenty of bingo. We didn't play. We stopped playing on our last cruise. Don't know why. Just don't do it.

There are 22 bars and lounges on the Valor. That's what they tout. The sing-a-long piano bar: walked in there once-walked out. Too smoky, small, enlosed space. The Paris Hot: a little larger, still a little smoky, nice band good music. Spent some time there. Jeanine's wine bar: nice place, wide open, good martinis, nice before dinner.

 

Some final comments, (unless I can think of some more to say).

 

Out of 3500 guests on board, at least 1000 were kids, from college age down to infants. Didn't bother us a bit. Most were well behaved. Did not see one drunk teenager. For that matter, didn't see any blatent, intrusive uncuth, unruly drunks at all. Not that I was looking for them. But after reading some other posts on here, I noticed that they were not noticable.

 

I was, however, looking for attitude amoung the staff. I can say confidently I did not notice one poor attitude amoung any and all staff. Everyone, from the waiters to stewards to mechanics to officers to the social staff to the entertainers, yes everyone was pleasant, helpful. efficient and friendly. Yes, they made some mistakes. But they were quickly corrected. If something wasn't right or I needed something, I just spoke up and it was taken care of. How anyone could make a blanket statement that the entire staff hated their jobs and didn't want to be there, just by the look on their faces is not fair. (Or truthful)

 

That's all for now. Like I said before, any questions, It'll be a pleasure to answer.

 

Harvey

[Wennfred]

Harvey, welcome back, I was on there the week before you, and youre right the Fish and Chips are the best. We also had a great time, good reivew. Thanks

 

Fred

[swatts1]

Harvey,

Thanks for taking the time to write reviews. We are booked on Valor/Eastern in May. Will you write about the port calls? So glad you had a great time.

[JackieH]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. We are going on the Valor(Family of 5)in August, but the Western Caribbean. I still enjoy reading everybodys reviews of the Valor.

[fern1226]

Harvey:

Great review. How was the weather, especially, Nassau and the water temp? We are thinking about the same cruise around the same time.

Susan

[vesw01]

My DH and I are booked for the end of Sept and are really looking forward to it - same IT. Would love to hear about what you did in port -- and any costs that you can think of (cab rides, tours etc)....

 

Also, I noticed you mentioned about the steak issue in the dining room - it was my understanding that you can have steak anytime - that they don't have it on the menu but they always have filets and strip steak - did you find that was not true?

 

 

One more question, what night did you eat at Scarlett's on and did you book when you got on the ship? We are really looking forward to that portion of the cruise.

[June Bug]

I'm asking one of the same questions as Ves...

 

1. So the steaks aren't available even though you ask for them specifically at dinner time? I found they were on the conquest...is this different now?:(

 

2. How about your ports of call? We are traveling Eastern Carribean for the first time, I would be interested in knowing how you liked each location and what you did at each place :D

 

Thanks so much for the review!;)

June

[nikita]

Harvey,

thanks so much for the great review. Can you be more specific about the Legends show? What "legends" were portrayed. Was it a contest? How and when does one audtion to get into the show (not me, my DD is a singer). How many people got to perform and what time does the show start? Thank you for any info on this.

[Mack704]

First, I'll talk about the ports. Didn't particularly care for the fact that the stay in Nassau was from 7 am to 2 pm. Especially because it was the next day after embarkation. After being up at 3:30 am, traveling, boarding, eating, Welcome show, etc., we were POOPED!! So we slept in - didn't get off the ship until around 11, spent an hour or so shopping and went back on the ship for lunch. What we had planned to do, however, was maybe visit the Atlantis, or take a cab to the Wyndham and spend some time at the pool/beach - I read about both of those in these posts! You need to get off the ship by 8 or 9 to do that - I recommend it!

 

Been to St. Thomas a couple of times - took an excursion with my kids once, catamaran to a private cove, went to a beach and took an open-air taxi tour of the island, shopped and ate lunch in a downtown restaurant - this time we wanted to see St. John. But again, got off the ship too late, spent 3 hours in taxis, ferry boats, and water taxis, did nothing but made friends with a young honeymoon couple, and were EXHAUSTED!!! I recommend a ship's excursion that suits your fancy, or explore on your own, but get off the ship early! Lots of great beaches on St. Thomas!

 

Now, we did something on St. Maarten! We took a cab to the French side and spent a few hours on Orient Beach! Had lunch at a nice beach cafe, caught some rays, took a little dip. Lovely afternoon! Weird thing though - the cab we took to Orient Beach was an 'unofficial' cab - the cab association called him a "gypsy" and wouldn't let me return to the dock in his car! Didn't want to start an international incident, so we took a licensed cab back to the dock.

 

After checking the weather before we left, and it looked like it was going to rain everyday, it seemed as if someone or something knew to bring the sun out on the islands, because when we were docked, the weather was beautiful - 80's everyday and sunny! The water at Orient Beach was perfect!

 

Now about steaks. It's been my experience in the past - X, RC and Carnival too - that alternative entrees were offered in the form of grilled chicken, salmon or strip steak. I specifically asked our Noemi, our head waitress, and she said that's the way it USED to be. Now, Carnival only offers grilled chicken or filet - every night, if you wish. No advance notice necessary, but no salmon and no strip steak.

 

Legends - James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Madonna, Brittany Spears, Ricky Martin, Frank Sinatra, Garth Brooks, Elton John, Elvis, Gloria Estefan - might be missing one or two - can't remember. They had auditions at 11:30 pm Tues., Wed., and Thurs. nights, and then rehearsal Friday and the Legends show Saturday. DW and I got a kick out of it - they weren't all great, but it was fun!

 

Scarlett's - we made the reservation Monday morning for Tuesday evening. Wanted to go early in the week, in case I wanted to go back again later in the week! It was wonderful, but I got plenty to eat without having to go back! By the way, that was apples not oranges that they burnt in that dessert (instead of caramelized)! Already ate too much before the dessert anyway!

 

Nice talking to all of you! Be glad to continue if you want me to - hit me with your best shots!

 

Harvey

[nikita]

Harvey, thank you so much for your information on the Legends night. I have really enjoyed your comments! thanks again.