Carnival Valor Cruise Report

[Donna&Lou]

My sisters and I take a cruise each year and this year's cruise was on

The Valor leaving Miami 3/26/06. I've previoulys cruised on HAL.

Celebrity,Princess and RCCL. Our cruise on the Valor was a most

enjoyable cruise much to my surprise.

 

Enbarkment a breeze, though parking was a nightmare because I didn't

get to the ship until 3:00 and garage was full. Finally found a spot at

the other end of the port. Off to a bad start but it was my fault.

 

What a HUGE but beautiful ship. Not easy to navigate so be sure to get

the ship's map from guest services because you're going to need it.

 

Cabin # 6235 Balcony, was large and had plenty of storage for us girls

and all of our shoes! Bathroom was spacious, shower great with good

pressure had lots of goodies (razors, bodywash etc) Pump Dove bodywash

in shower was a plus since I forgot mine. Loved having a terrycloth

bathrobe. Comfy beds with nice linens and wonderful cabin steward.

Cabin had only one electrical outlet so be sure to take a multiple plug

adaptor.

 

Dining: Washington Dining Room... wonderful food and service both at lunch and dinner.

Fish and Chips on upper floor of Rosie's the best oysters, tuna and

fish. Deli great sandwiches. I don't do buffets so I can't personally

comment, but my sister said it was not great. Scarlet's is a

must...most wonderful upscale restaurant with great atmospeare,food and service, well worth the $30 surcharge.

Pool area: Grill and Pizza was very good esp at 3 in the morning after casino closed.

Always a midnite buffet looked great but I was always to full from dinner to eat (late seating)

I had requested a large table and was very dissappointed when we were asssigned a table by ourselves surrounded by families with kids very loud and distracting...requested a change and was notified that we were re-assigned a large table right next to the captains table...was the best table on the ship...so don't hesitate to ask for a change if you're unhappy with your dining seating.

 

Entertainment: Casino a blast and lots of PPL winning, pleasent dealers

pulling for you to win. Shows just so-so not near as good as the MSC

Opera that I cruised on last month. Don't miss the final show Legions

was the best.

 

Dis-enbarkment also was one of the best organized ones that I've ever had.

 

I took wine on board (6 bottle, paid a cork fee of $10 per bottle), a case of bottled water and a pint of Scotch and Bourbon for our in-cabin coctails. Security didn't say a word!

 

I've never cruised Carnival before because I thought... to many drunks,

a brunch of roudy kids and inferrior food and service... well I was wrong we had a wonderful time and I will definitely cruise Carnival again...not in the

summer or on holidays when the kids are out in full force but

off-season. The cruise was a nice mix of families, couples and single ppl having a very good time.

 

If you have any questions you can email me at djtinga@yahoo.com

[audraz2]

How was the noise level on that deck?

[swatts1]

What did you do in the ports? Glad your trip was wonderful and I really appreciate your taking the time to post!

[Donna&Lou]

The only noise distraction was the usual toilet flushing...in fact we all couldn't believe that we didn't hear any sound from adjoining cabins or from the Ivanhoe Theatre and Casino.

 

I cruise often so we've done all the usual active excusions now I just book tours online or wait until port to grab a tour. St Thomas Grofreys Island Tour...Nassau grabbed a taxi tour for $20 did the island and then ended up at Atlantis for about 30 mins...St Maarten, shopped,

sat at one of the nice beach hotel restaurants had drinks and people watched and then did an 2hr island tour $20 also.

 

We met ppl that was on the NCL Jewel and they said everything was wonderful except the tours and ppl from the new HAL Noordam which they raved about!

[caribbean dreams]

Thanks for the great review, we will be on the Valor in July.

Can't wait!

[Donna&Lou]

To SWallsl in Gulfport:

 

Hello I noticed that you live in Gulfport and was wondering how the recovery effort is coming alony? I did relief work there for a few months and really am worried about the whole Gulf Coast area...I miss going there, we use to go to the Beau Rivage 6-7 times a year. Hope your property and family survived without much damage or injury.

 

Donna

[TravelWorks]

Great Review...

We also really enjoyed the Valor in December...

I am glad you got to see that Carnival is great...

I keep trying to convince my friends to come with us on these newer boats...but they just can't get past the Name of Carnival.

One of my friends finally came in December...

Hook, line, and sinker...

She is coming again with me next year...

I wish more people had an open mind...

We love Carnival...

especially the desserts!:)

 

Happy Sailing..

Amy

[swatts1]

To SWallsl in Gulfport:

 

Hello I noticed that you live in Gulfport and was wondering how the recovery effort is coming alony? I did relief work there for a few months and really am worried about the whole Gulf Coast area...I miss going there, we use to go to the Beau Rivage 6-7 times a year. Hope your property and family survived without much damage or injury.

 

Donna

 

Actually we lost our home on the water. We are waiting for plans from the architect and hope to start the new stronger, higher home in a few months. We were fortunate in having ample insurance so are better off than many. Thanks for coming here to help. Volunteers continue to pour in and we appreciate every single one. Things will be bad for a long, long time but there are signs of hope everywhere. Work at the Beau is going around the clock and they plan to reopen Aug. 29 - better than ever.

 

Thanks for your concern....

[CBXRAY]

Great report donna...

 

Will be sailing on the valor in a few weeks(4/23):D !!

 

What day is best to eat at scarletts?? And what's the best way to make a reservation? thx

 

Can't wait for our fun in the sun:)

 

Take care,

 

chris

[Donna&Lou]

Hi Chris:

Book your reservation for Scarlett's Super Club ASAP like right when you get onboard, they do get booked quickly. +If you can arrange your dining schedule around the Dining Room for breakfast, lunch, and dinner or FishnChips, the deli or Grill, you will find the food to be great. Oh yes they had a Mexican Buffet late one night that was awesome!

 

The one big dissappointment on the Valor was the entertainment, hopefully other acts will be onboard while you're there. The cruise director is a nice guy but boring, except for the Legends Show where he was a blast!

 

Any other question just ask.

[SunTravels]

Thanks for the review!

What night would you suggest Scarlett's? I was thinking Wednesday.

[missliad]

Id like to know the answer to the above question also. Thanks!

[clgcrusier]

I was on the Valor first week in March and absolutely loved it! I also thought the shows were great, however, this was only my second cruise, so I do not really have much to compare with! I thought the 80's review was pretty spectacular-would have been happier if it had been the 70's! :D We were on the Lido deck and it was a fabulous location-no noise whatsoever. However, there was someone down the hall and you could smell "incense" burning there day and night. Made me a little uncomfortable given all the stuff in the news about the cruise ship fire in the last few weeks. I'm surprised it was never checked out by security, it was so obvious. I guess they're too busy checking luggage for booze-LOL!

There were some spring breakers on our cruise that I heard afterwards caused quite a few problems for some cruisers, but other than some antics at the pool, we never encountered problems.

The layout of the ship is a bit odd, but the majority of the activity seems to be on the Lido deck (9), or the Promenade deck (5). I think the hardest part for us was the Lincoln dining room-you can enter from various locations and it looks the same from both sides-we really got turned around where our table was when we went to supper after the Captains's party (or maybe it was the cocktails :p )

I had read so many horror stories about embarkation, disembarking, tenders, etc., that I was really dreading it. It was all an absolute breeze-I thought they were very organized! The worse one was Belize-the delays were more due to rough seas and the tenders had a hard time, so it took awhile to get off, but all in all, not a big deal. Of course, we did not have a tour scheduled for that one, I think for people who did it might have been more of a problem.

My favorite stop was Roatan Island. It is not as commercialized as the other ports, which I liked. Some areas of the island were quite poor, however, the people there were so nice. We had booked a tour through Victor Bodden of Bodden tours. I would recommend him to anyone-Julio was our guide. Self taught English and very knowledgeable. We just wanted a general tour, so went all over-to the Iguana farm, Fantasy Island, saw beaches, shipwrecks, shopping. . .$25 per person, they're yours for the day! Beware of the traffic, though! They drive like maniacs, and the roads are about as big as sidewalks!

Cayman Island was fine-did a submarine ride and shopping.

We were supposed to go to Costa Maya in lieu of Cozumel, but the port was closed due to high winds. That was the only rough sea day. One note to people considering this itinerary-I've read that Costa Maya gets closed A LOT for that reason!

All in all, a wonderful time. We are planning our next trip on the Liberty-a very similar ship, from what I've read!

[clgcrusier]

Oh, never did eat at Scarlett's but most people raved about it! If you are a chocolate fan, wait til you see the chocolate buffet. . . most of the food was very good at Rosies, but breakfast food always seemed cold by the time you get to your table. If you do the made to order omlets it's much better, and doesn't take too long. Dining room-very good, however, I'm not a seafood or prime rib lover. So when I asked If I could order a sirloin or something off the menu, they said "sorry, we only have filet if that's ok!" Guess what I ate most of the trip! :D

My friends were first time cruisers, and they were very apprehensive. Now they are walking in that post-cruise daze, wondering when they can go next. . .2 more cruisers to add to Carnival's pocket! :rolleyes: