Cruise Report on the Carnival Victory 3/26/06

[toledo]

Great review, Caprcorn. You covered just about everything My husband and I enjoyed the piano bar. There are very private tables with sofas against one wall. It was actually kind of romantic. We were there the first night and he was singing all these Jimmy Buffet songs. He would sing a song for you if you through a dollar and hit his tip jar. He had to be making over $100 an hour, as most dollars missed the cup. We did notice a Carnival employee ask a man with 2 young children to leave the bar. The kids were behaving and the man looked quite upset.

[caprcorn28]

My husband and I enjoyed the piano bar. There are very private tables with sofas against one wall. It was actually kind of romantic. We were there the first night and he was singing all these Jimmy Buffet songs. He would sing a song for you if you through a dollar and hit his tip jar. He had to be making over $100 an hour, as most dollars missed the cup. We did notice a Carnival employee ask a man with 2 young children to leave the bar. The kids were behaving and the man looked quite upset.

Yeah....we sat in the booth behind Eric and a little to his right. It was a WILD night, the night that we were in there - a much different sounding night than yours!! I was so disappointed in the piano bar in comparison to other ships and those on land this time - this was just a bummer!! It would have been GREAT if there was any Jimmy Buffet, Billy Joel, Meatloaf.......God, anything like that. Oh well...the "kids" won this time!! We definitely found plenty of other things to do and have fun with, it didn't matter in the long run!!!

 

But, that's the thing that everyone needs to understand when people report on things...different experiences, same cruise!! :D

[bzott1]

Sherida that was a great review! I like the positive aspect you take on everything it was a great cruise. Meeting you and yours was a pleasure. I'll have to post a small review later. By the way tuledo that was me and my kids at the piano bar:mad:,they apologized later.:)Will talk to everyone later.

ROB

[caprcorn28]

Sherida that was a great review! I like the positive aspect you take on everything it was a great cruise. Meeting you and yours was a pleasure. I'll have to post a small review later. By the way tuledo that was me and my kids at the piano bar,they apologized later.Will talk to everyone later.

ROB

Hey Rob!! Geesh...I hope you had yourself a cup of coffee to sit back and read that novel!! :rolleyes: :) Matt was convinced that I would crash the server with the length of it....what can I say, I am a detail person!!! Besides I love talking about it!! It was so much fun!!

Matt told me about your experience in the Piano Bar - I definitely think you did the right thing! (You were telling him the story when the kids and I were watching the ship come in to Costa Maya - thus delaying us getting off the ship! LOL!!) The night that I described us being in the Piano Bar was crazy - When we walked out, there was a security thing "happening" that we didn't stay for - one of them outside the doors walkie-ing to someone else, then another showing up and walking thru. Wonder if it had anything to do with.....hmmmm

Thanks again guys!! I had fun recalling the trip as I wrote this!!

I look forward to seeing your review Rob!!!! Talk to you soon!!

[da1425]

Thanks for the review...I'm definitely pretty excited for my trip next week!

 

I'll preface this question by stating the obvious...no, I'm not going to spend my vacation watching TV...but I do like it to be on when I go to bed and while I'm waiting for my girlfriend to get ready...

 

What channels did you get on the TV? Also, what movies were playing? Can I get ESPN in the cabin?

 

Thanks!

[Daliaha]

BRAVO BRAVO... YAY!!!! That is such an awesome review... I loved it.. It made me relive the entire cruise... :)

 

If the ice cream cone dispensers run out of cones, they are located under the coffee makers in the cabinet in the aft pool area.

 

OMG that is such good advice.. I dont know how many people must of went cone-less... My daughter kept getting them from under there the entire rest of the cruise every since your DH told her... That was so sweet of him..

 

:D This has totally made me smile.. Im so tickled you posted this...

 

 

*dances with her duct tape * :cool:

 

 

-Dolly

[toledo]

No ESPN. Weren't there only about 8 channels? I noticed that 2 were out of Denver. Another 3 were Carnival channels; one showing videos taken around the cruise ship (you could buy it), one with shopping ads for the various ports, and the other just general information. Good thing you don't spend a lot of time in your room.

[keylargo9]

Great report. read the whole thing. We are sailing on the Apr 30th cruise.

[caprcorn28]

Thanks keylargo - I appreciate your attention span!! LOL :D

 

I don't remember any ESPN either...Like Toledo said, there wasn't "alot" on tv. BUT - they did have the basics - out of Colorado!! Which I thought was funny!! :) I think it was the major three - ABC, CBS and NBC. No Fox, so you're out of luck for American Idol. There was a Cartoon Network channel - our tv had the closed captioning in Spanish (which we never did change). And of course all the ship stuff. If you don't get to the "important" talks, you can catch it on the tv in your room.

 

(It was on the cruise here where I saw the show "Deal or No Deal" for the first time! LOVE it!!! I get so hyper watching that goofy show!! Love Howie too though!!!)

 

Thanks Dolly!! :p *Dancing with the duct tape too* hehehe!! I thought of you on Monday (sorry I haven't been online a lot lately - I miss our chats!!!). Our son had his first baseball game and some of the guys on the team had pants that were too big....guess WHAT they did??? Guess what they used for belts??? YES....DUCT TAPE around their waists!!!!! I bust a gut laughing at that!!!!!

[carolinagrl0925]

Cruise on the Carnival Victory 3/26/06

And it's a LONG one...my DH is convinced that I will overload the CC server when I post it! :rolleyes: ;)

 

Our precruise planning and history can be found at: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=319263 and our pre-cruise description of our flight, where we stayed, what we did, can be at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=6345254#post6345254

 

 

I noticed that people were indeed inside the terminal. We went inside. The worst that they could do is kick us back outside. It was completely ready for us. Carnival staff greeted us right inside the door with a Welcome flyer stating in effect, “…As indicated in your cruise documents, although boarding is scheduled to commence at 1:30pm, we are pleased to be able to register you for your cruise and allow you to embark the vessel at this time…” etc. The other flyer was a “Welcome Aboard the M/S Carnival Victory sheet of FAQ’s. There was about 17 FAQ’s on there. Plus another sheet of the itinerary for this cruise. Very informative for the people that may have never cruised before and didn’t know what to expect about “those first things you need to know once you get on” kind of things.

 

We went thru security and saw the separate line for the FUN PASS. I met eyes with an employee that must have seen me say FUN PASS to DH. The employee waved me over and said, “Welcome, come this way with your completed FUN PASS.” We walked right up to the front of the line that was forming for the regular check-in process and right to a Carnival Rep for check in. WoW! I was blown away! She asked for the FUN PASS and our ID and a credit card for the S&S. I signed, DH signed for the S&S! The Victory is BEAUTIFUL.

:confused: :confused: FUN PASS QUICK CHECK IN ON CARNIVALS WEBSITE? IS THAT WHAT YOU DID AHEAD OF TIME TO AVOID STANDING IN LINES TO "CHECK IN" ON THE CRUISE?:rolleyes:

[caprcorn28]

Yep, completed the FunPass online at home. We still had a "check in" process up at the counter, but it was soooo fast! The Carnival person just took our print out (of the FP), typed in what she needed to, took our passports (basically just looked at them), took my credit card that I wanted to use as our S&S cards...and that was that! Super Easy!! :D

 

Actually filling out the FunPass at home took longer than standing in line!!

[georgeb]

 

 

. Here, DH and I had been wondering when it was because we hadn’t rec’d our invites or pins yet from our steward. (*There’s a surprise. S/he hadn’t given us our towels back since we used them in MX. Didn’t actually get any for several days for the rest of the cruise, ended up buying towels in Grand Cayman – When on board, had to check them out at the counter by the pool. If you remember from the beginning of this LONG review/report, we never actually SAW our steward/ess. No idea who it was, if we had a male or female, but whoever it was, wasn’t very good at getting us things we needed. We never even saw/met our steward on that last day when they are looking to make sure that they get a tip/additional tip. *This was the first cruise that I didn’t actually, kind of wonder, if our steward was living under our bed or in the closet*…I have always had such attentive stewards. Not this time…)

 

 

I hope this steward is replaced before Jun, as we are in the same room. How did you do with 5 in a room? Our kids are all under 11 and we think this should be fine for us. Thanks for the great review.

[caprcorn28]

I hope this steward is replaced before Jun, as we are in the same room. How did you do with 5 in a room? Our kids are all under 11 and we think this should be fine for us. Thanks for the great review.

oH Gosh George!! I am sorry that I didn't see this earlier!!! I was just sifting thru some past replies and .... oops!!! :eek: I hope that you see this again!!!

 

Here goes:

 

Yes, I too hope that you get a different steward!! There had been a different steward the week before we were on, that was the woman that we met in the hallway when we boarded - she seemed really sweet and was interested in the kids, interested in us! But oh well!! Good luck! I hope you get a different one than we had!!!

 

That's kind of cool to find that someone is going to be in your exact room!! We did just fine with all of us in there!! As you probably noticed way back in the beginning of the review - our kids are 12, 9 and 5. The two older kids were up in the bunks, the bed for DH and I were pushed together for one big bed at the back of the cabin, perpendicular (sp?) to the bunks above and then a little cot/bed on the floor under the bunk on the opposite wall from our bed. It was a really nice set up with plenty of space left in the room. There are ladders for each of the bunks up top, but we just propped them along the wall, the kids were more than happy to hop up on to their beds using ours as their "step stool"!! Plus, the ladder(s) came in handy as a place to hang our towel(s).

 

Have a GREAT cruise!!!!

[karaokes]

WOW! I skimmed through your thread as I am about to embark on that same boat next month. Thanks for the link. Sooo helpful and funny at times.

[resq602]

13 days and counting for me!!! so excited!!