Review: Carnival Valor - Eastern (May 4-11, 2008)

[thunderbird1]

Great review! Sorry you got sick, but glad it passed quickly.

 

Keep the pictures coming!

[Cruisinini]

Day 5: Wednesday, May 7, 2008

 

ST THOMAS & A PIRATE: We ordered room service breakfast the night before and once again they came 5 minutes prior to the time I gave them of 8:15am. They are quite efficient! We were to dock at 9am. Again we turned on the TV to see where we were. Love being able to do this! Since we had gone out of the U.S. when we went to the Bahamas and St Thomas is a U.S. territory we had to go through immigration before we could exit the ship. Immigration consisted of going to the disco, One Small Step, getting your sail & sign swiped and an immigration official glanced at your passport. People on early excursions got to go first around 9:30am, I think, then they called for the rest of us at 9:45 and it went very quickly.

 

I felt better debarking this time since I knew a little better what we were doing. Our excursion wasn’t until noon so we weren’t in a hurry but still got off the ship by a little after 10am. The photographers took our group photo again and an individual photo with a woman dressed as a pirate. DH’s pirate photo turned out really nice so he ended up buying it. Maybe he just thought she was hott, I dunno haha, but it was a good picture.

 

WE WANT A TAXI: We wandered through the port and followed signs to the taxis. We had considered renting a car but in hindsight I’m really glad we didn’t. Maybe another time we will. People here drive a bit crazy, the roads are small as well as hilly and they drive on the left side so some intersections were a bit confusing because they weren’t necessarily 4 way stops in nice pretty right angles.

 

Once we got to the taxi dispatch we were confused what to do next and just stood there looking around. The taxis here are mostly open air truck/van vehicles with bench seats in the back so they can carry several people at once. After standing around and observing other people, for a short bit, we noticed official looking people in blue shirts directing people to taxis. I guess they were taxi dispatchers. So we found one and told them where we wanted to go. They either tell you to stand in a group or quickly look around and point to a taxi to get on. This was a new and interesting experience. It works very well because they group people in a taxi going to similar locations.

 

We ended up running after a taxi that a dispatch woman flagged down for us that was about to leave the port. We got to ride up front with the taxi driver since the back was full and he gave everyone a tour pointing out places on the northeast part of the island that we were driving through on our way to the east end of St Thomas. The taxis like to beep at each other, as they pass, in greeting I suppose. The first stop was at Coki Beach/Coral World. Then it was our stop at Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, he was nice enough to take us to the top of the hill where the main lobby was located. He then took the rest on to Red Hook to go to St John I’m guessing since that’s where a ferry departs from.

 

WYNDHAM SUGAR BAY RESORT & SPA: We walked around the lobby as our directions said that from the lobby we’d see signs to the pool, beach and water sports center. Well you don’t go into the lobby as the map is outside where the taxi dropped us off. Oh well it was a nice lobby. The bellhop noticed us looking at the map and asked to help us and directed us where to go. They have a shuttle for the lazy people but we figured it was downhill and we were early so why not walk.

 

You walk partway through some of the hotel buildings, there are several buildings built on the side of the hill, then down a wooden staircase with tropical vegetation all around. There are really some beautiful views of the nearby hills, pool, and ocean.

 

(Below: View as we were walking down to the pool/beach area.)

 

(Below: View from the pool area up to the hotel.)

 

You walk across a bridge over the pool and down into the pool area. We noticed the water sports center on our left which is just a little hut but decided to explore first since we were early. We walked along the beach, around the pools and waterfalls. We saw 2 ducks actually swimming in the pool!

 

(Below: Ducks in the pool.)

 

We found a fitness path near a pond behind the pool area. We saw many more ducks including babies, other waterfowl, and lots of iguanas in this area. It’s pretty cool to watch these creatures. We planned to eat lunch before our excursion but I don’t think the grill opened until 11:30 or 12 so we had to wait.

 

(Below: Iguanas!)

 

Checking in at the water sports hut was quite simple, the lady wanted to see our confirmation email which all I think she wanted to see was how much money we owed them. We paid and she sent us to the hut next to her to collect our snorkel equipment. So far everyone we’d encountered at the resort was VERY friendly and glad to help if you had questions or needed something. Not sure if it was a customer service thing or island culture or both, either way it was much appreciated. I had contacted Island Marketing ahead of time and asked if there would be a place for us to store things and they said the water sports hut would keep it for us. They allowed us to store our backpack with cameras, money, id, etc with them (inside on the floor haha). Really I think I would’ve felt safe leaving it under the umbrella table near the boats and jet skis down by the water as well. But, this way we knew someone was with it at all times so that was nice.

 

(Below: View from the resort’s beach.)

 

The previous jet ski excursion was running a little late but that was ok as we found a hammock in the shade on the beach to lounge in until they showed up. Can a vacation get much better than this!?

 

(Below: Beach amenities -- near the end of the beach where it's slightly more colorful is where all the water activities depart from.)

[Cruisinini]

Day 5: Wednesday, May 7, 2008 (continued...)

 

WILD JET SKI RIDE #1: Our Jet Ski group consisted of 3 jet skis: 1 for the guide, 1 for DH and me and 1 for another couple so we were a small group of only 5. I let DH drive as he had a small amount of experience and I had none. This was good as the guide didn’t give any guidance up front, he just motioned for us to follow him.

 

Off he went at high speed bouncing over waves. The guide had the luxury of standing to absorb the bounce of the waves but since there were 2 of us we had to sit. Wow was I grateful I wasn’t the one driving. DH later said he was glad I wasn’t because it wasn’t easy out there. After we left our somewhat calm inlet the waves got to around 3-4’ in the open water. The guide never really slowed down so I hung onto DH for dear life.

 

I was quite glad to have on sunglasses as they protected my eyes from the wind and water. We were going fast enough that I wasn’t really afraid of losing them as they were plastered to my face by the wind. I kept trying to comment on things to DH but this only resulted in my teeth slamming into the inside of my bottom lip which hurt!

 

With all that said it was actually VERY fun and quite the adrenaline rush! We jet skied to Christmas Cove at St James Island. The water was calm here and our guide anchored us a little ways from the shore as watercraft are not allowed to get to close to shore due to the fragile coral.

 

CHRISTMAS COVE SNORKELING: Once anchored our guide spoke to us. I wouldn’t say that he was unfriendly because he was quite nice and answered any questions you asked him. He just seemed like he was similar to DH, just doesn’t say much unless it’s worth saying. He told us to meet back in 45 minutes and pointed out the locations where we would see the most underwater. While we snorkeled, he just chilled on his Jet Ski and called people.

 

When I first looked under the water there wasn’t much to see but some small seaweed covering on the bottom. I panicked at first with the snorkel gear because it kinda freaked me out having to breathe through a tube. I had played around in a swimming pool when I was younger with snorkel equipment but that was a long time ago. I did quickly figure it out and was fine, being distracted by the cool things to see underwater probably helped. When I saw my first fish I was so very excited to see it. It wasn’t very big but I just thought it was cool. I pointed at it and tried to talk to DH through the snorkel tube. Haha words don’t come across very clear when spoken through a snorkel tube but we usually figured out what each other was trying to say.

 

(Below: Lots of coral.)

 

We made it over to an outcropping of rock near the shore where there was some brain coral, that’s about the only kind of coral I could identify so I was quite excited. It really is a neat world under the sea especially in such clear water. We then swam out to a tiny island (rock outcropping?) not too far from where we our jet ski’s were anchored. There was a lot more coral and fish here. We saw needle nosed fish near the surface, schools of small fish, 3 squid, and DH also saw an eel tail hanging out under a rock. On the way back to the Jet Ski’s we saw a couple of sting ray gliding along the bottom. I thoroughly enjoyed this snorkeling experience. It’s really great exercise and we had sore muscles the next day!

 

(Below: Yellow Fish)

 

(Below: Eel Tail)

 

(Below: Squid -- the brownish oblong blobs with a stripe down their back.)

 

(Below: Sting Ray we saw near where our jet ski’s were anchored.)

 

Oh and don’t forget sunscreen in places like your shoulders, your upper legs near your swimsuit ladies and most especially your ears. My ears got burnt BAD and it was quite painful. (Note: It’s a month later and I still have a tiny bit of peeling, they’ve peeled about 3-4 times!! But no other ill effects.) This was my first real sunburn so to make it about halfway through the cruise before getting one I felt pretty good about that. Perhaps SPF 55 had something to do with that haha! Before we left my sister teased me I wouldn’t get a tan but I did and I didn’t get burnt as quickly so it all worked out in the end. The sun is definitely more intense the closer you get to the equator.

 

WILD JET SKI RIDE #2: I think our guide’s mantra was jet ski as fast as you can or don’t jet ski at all. Haha so off we went again at high speeds. I think the highest we clocked it on the speedometer was 55 km/h, it didn’t do mph but we later converted that to be about 35mph. After we left Christmas Cove we circled St James Island which is uninhabited and had a lot of cactus growing on it which I thought was interesting. Once we hit open water the waves were probably 5-6’, significantly larger than on our way out. Again thank goodness DH was driving.

 

I was more prepared for the wild experience this time and really enjoyed the exhilarating trip back. When we got back to the resort’s beach, the guide was happy to take our photo on the Jet Ski at our request. All in all I thought it was an awesomely fun experience and VERY enjoyable.

 

(Below: DH and I on our jet ski, it was VERY bright that day.)

[Cruisinini]

Day 5: Wednesday, May 7, 2008 (continued...)

 

IGUANA GRILL: The appropriately named Iguana Grill was open when we got back and we were quite hungry so we both ordered an $11 fish sandwich with fries. A bit expensive but it was very good so we didn’t mind so much. Most of the buildings, restaurant and bars are open air with no air conditioning so there were a variety of birds large and small wondering through and they kept us entertained.

 

We decided we really liked the resort so decided to stay and enjoy it instead of taking a taxi to Mountain Top which I’m sure was a great view since the day was so clear. But, it wasn’t really on the way back to the port and we liked the idea of relaxing. DH enjoyed playing around in the pool, especially the waterfalls while I just sat poolside reading. A lady came around with pieces of fruit on toothpicks for guests so that was quite nice! We both felt really relaxed staying there and just enjoyed the atmosphere.

 

LIVING THE RESORT LIFE: We didn’t have to be back on board until 7:30pm but we decided to head back around 4:30pm. From the hotel entrance it was very easy to get a taxi back with the help of the bellhop. We were able to get in an air conditioned taxi van. This taxi driver drove like our Jet Ski guide rode the waves. DH said he tripled the speed limit at one point.

 

We drove along the southeastern part of the island through Red Hook on the way back to Havensight Dock. He took 4 passengers to a nearby resort then it was just us the rest of the way. About halfway there I decided to put my seatbelt on, he was driving just a bit too crazy for me and I was getting bounced around. We had to make a quick pit stop to fill up on gas and let me tell you, I won’t complain as much about our gas prices as there’s were around $1 more than ours!! When we got closer to the port a local hailed the taxi and he wanted to go to the port as well so that made me feel better since I knew the taxis liked to have a full load and he had to travel a fair distance to take just the two of us back. Back on board we took some panoramic photos and watched the sun start to set.

 

(Below: View of Charlotte Amalie)

 

(Below: Freedom of the Seas)

 

(Below: Aft Pool Area (aka "Adult’s Only Area")

 

(Below: Rosie’s Restaurant)

 

We headed to our cabin to take showers and get ready for our dinner at Scarlett’s Supper Club. Since Scarlett’s is on deck 10 and we were ready a bit early we wondered around outside, took pictures, watched us sail away and enjoyed the lights on the hills of St Thomas. St Thomas is really beautiful at night.

 

(Below: Leaving St Thomas at night.)

 

(Below: Carnival Valor at night.)

[Cruisinini]

Day 5: Wednesday, May 7, 2008 (continued...)

 

SCARLETT’S SUPPER CLUB: After a long day of activity and exploration we were hungry enough to consume a large meal, we hoped. Scarlett’s was definitely one of the nicest restaurants I have ever eaten at. They pull out your chair, put your napkin in your lap, and things randomly appear/disappear from the table as you may or may not need them. It was what I would call a 4.5 course meal. With no prices on the menu and only the $30/person cover charge I felt I could freely order anything without feeling conscious about affordability. Before we ordered they brought out a cart to show us the different cuts of meat.

 

Shortly after we ordered out came a small taste of food that we were told was "compliments of the chef." I got a small cup of asparagus vichyssoise and DH got shrimp something or other. So this was our first half of a course.

 

(Below: Compliments of the Chef Shrimp Sample)

 

Next, out came our appetizers/starters. I tried escargot for the first time and it was prepared quite deliciously and DH tried beef carpaccio in which the beef is raw…it was interesting, not bad but I wasn’t a fan of the texture.

 

(Below: Trio of Escargots)

 

(Below: Beef Carpaccio)

 

For the next course, we both ordered the same spinach salad with exotic mushrooms.

 

(Below: Baby Spinach Salad)

 

We also ordered the same main course of surf and turf. It included a 4 oz filet mignon, half a lobster tail, a pumpkin ravioli, and asparagus in phyllo dough. So delicious!!

 

(Below: Surf & Turf)

 

Then for dessert I ordered a chocolate ensemble and DH got an apple tart. I felt like I needed a wheelchair to get me out but it was nice the meal was stretched over 2 hours and really the portions were of a good size, in other words not large.

 

(Below: Desserts)

DSCN2755

 

GOOD NIGHT ST THOMAS:We decided to skip the show tonight, which was the Motown Sounds of Marcus Anthony. Since our dinner finished around the same time the show started plus we were just really tired after a long day. When we got back to our room, waiting for us was a frog towel animal.

[ThePatientOne]

Again, great review.. Keep 'em coming

[scottsgal]

Your review is excellent. We're sailing the Valor Thanksgiving week - love your pics in the review as well.

[5xcruiser]

Great review! Can't wait to hear the rest of it. Leaving in 3 weeks on Valor! So excited. Me, DH, DD (19) and DS (16). Looking forward to a great week. Keep the review coming!

 

Carnival Valor (6/29/08)

Princess Caribbean (09/2005)

Carnival Conquest (11/2003)

Carnival Destiny (04/97)

RC Sovereign of the Seas (09/1990)

[dmdiver]

Love all your detail & the pics. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[debster818]

Can't wait for our cruise October 19th on Valor. Just wish I knew what to do at the ports.

[gypsyrose]

Love your review and all the pics. How was the surf and turf? The lobster looked kinda small.

[XCruiseMe17]

Awesome review. I love the pics. What kind of camera did u use for your underwater pictures?

[Cruisinini]

Love your review and all the pics. How was the surf and turf? The lobster looked kinda small.

 

The surf & turf was delicious. The lobster was small as it was only half of a tail but honestly I don't think I could've eaten anymore. You could order a full lobster tail by itself as an entree if you wished.

[Cruisinini]

Awesome review. I love the pics. What kind of camera did u use for your underwater pictures?

 

Heh, we used an old (6+ years) Canon Powershot digital camera that DH had purchased a waterproof housing for. It wasn't our main camera so if it did get wet it wasn't the end of the world. But, the real key to our underwater pics is actually Google's Picasa. Under where you edit the photo, there is a basic fix called "I'm Feeling Lucky" so I just used that and it worked wonders clearing out the cloudy look of the photo. As an example, here's the before/after of the sting ray photo:

 

Before...

 

After...Tada!! :)

[Cruisinini]

Day 6: Thursday, May 8, 2008

 

GOOD MORNING ST MAARTEN: Today was our last port of call and it was in St Maarten. This is an interesting island because it’s actually occupied by 2 countries, the southern half is the Dutch side spelled Sint Maarten and the northern half is the French side spelled Saint Martin. We docked around 7am but since we had no excursions planned we decided to get up a little later. As we did most mornings we turned on the TV to see what was outside, it was really neat to be able to do this from your cabin. We ate breakfast at Rosie’s and enjoyed the view before exiting the ship.

 

Our plan of action was to shop for souvenirs/gifts in Phillipsburg, the capital city of St Maarten, then later to catch a taxi to Maho Beach to see airplanes land at Princess Juliana International Airport. This airport is known for it’s landings and take offs because the runway is so near to the beach that it looks like the airplane is going to land ON the beach. Search YouTube for videos and you’ll see…it’s actually quite impressive.

 

PHILLIPSBURG SHOPPING: The port at St Maarten was actually the nicest and cleanest one we had been too. You can take a taxi, water taxi or walk to Phillipsburg. Since it was only a 15 minute walk we decided to do that. There were signs to guide you but at one point it’s slightly confusing because you’re led into a parking lot. There are no more signs at this point but you can see the shops across a small bridge so we headed off in that direction and followed another couple that seemed to know where they were going. We walked along the shops facing the beach and people would come right up to you trying to sell you things. DH totally ignored them but I couldn’t find it in myself to be rude so if they were persistent I at least told them no thank you and that appeased most.

 

(Below: View to the port from Great Bay Beach which is parallel to Front Street in Phillipsburg.)

 

 

We then explored the main shopping street called Front Street. It’s a very small cobblestone street with tons of shops crammed right up next to each other. Mostly jewelry and some electronic shops, it was hard to find a good ol’ souvenir shop. We went into a Swarovski store as I really enjoy their crystal creations. In Del Sol we found t-shirts for several people including myself, these shirts are white while indoors and turn colors when in the sunlight or UV light in general. Outside of one of the del sol shops was a local weaving baskets out of some palm plant so we bought one for $15. Usually you can get prices lowered but we figured it was a good deal and didn’t feel like haggling for a price. At least he was a local, most of the shops are owned by Indians, the ones from India that is.

 

(Below: Some of the many shops along Front Street in Phillipsburg.)

 

 

We also found a shop called the Yoda Guy. This is owned by the gentleman that helped create Yoda for the Star Wars movies. He has a LOT of paraphernalia, artwork, copies of scripts from the original movies. For any Star Wars fans it’s really neat plus the gentleman is there and you can talk to him. He gave us a discount on some artwork since we were cruise ship passengers. He signed and dedicated the piece we decided to buy for my Dad, who is a big Star Wars fan. It wasn’t a t-shirt like most souvenirs we got but hey I thought it was pretty cool and DH really liked it too and thought he got the best gift we bought for anyone haha.

 

We then explored Back Street which kinda got a little shady looking. We bought a couple of Gatorades from a street vendor, they looked like locals and I hoped that since the bottles were sealed they were safe to drink. (As of today I can report no ill effects.) I got a pink flavor without a label which I assumed from the taste was guava berry or something native like that, DH’s was orange and it had the label.

 

We were quite hot, tired and hungry by this point but I wanted to find a well known Belgian chocolate shop which was on Old Street. I took us a little bit to find it but unfortunately wasn’t really impressed with it but I didn’t try any chocolate either. We were quite tired from walking a lot but we decided to walk back to the ship anyway even though we still needed a couple more gifts. Exercise is good for you! Around the port it was really windy for some reason and I kept having troubles keeping my hat on my head and holding onto all my other things. DH was amused but I was not.

 

MAHO TAXI OR LACK THEREOF: We dropped off our purchases in our cabin and went to Rosie’s on Lido to eat lunch. Oh, DH liked to call the Lido deck the “eat-o” deck since that’s where the food was.

 

(Below: View of the port in St Maarten from the top of the Valor. There's a lot of construction going on to expand the port I'm guessing.)

 

 

We exited the ship and headed to for the taxi stand to get a ride to Maho. We got to the taxi dispatcher at about 2pm and didn’t have to be back on board our ship until 5:30pm. Well, we told him where we wanted to go and he turned to the taxi drivers sitting there waiting for business (3-4 of them) and NONE of them wanted to take us. They flat out refused business though there obviously was no other business around to choose from as the taxi stand was empty of customers and just empty taxis. Since it was later in the day the best they could hope for from the cruise port would be people wanting to go into town for like $4. We said we only wanted to go for a short time, an hour or less so we would be back in plenty of time. I had heard on board it was only a 20 minute cab ride to get there.

 

After the dispatcher couldn’t convince any of the drivers to take us, to which I was kinda in shock about. He informed us that later in the afternoon the traffic gets terribly bad and it could take 1.5 hours to get back from Maho and maybe around an hour to get us there. Well that would get us back to the port right at the latest time we needed to be back on board. So we said ok and walked away. I tried not to let it show but I was extremely disappointed as this meant all I would get to experience of St Maarten was Phillipsburg and whatever I could see from the top decks of the ship. We did find the rest of the gifts we wanted in the port shops before going back on board.

 

(Note: Upon returning I read more about this on the Cruise Critic St Maarten port board. So if anyone plans to do what we wanted to do make sure you read up about traffic and such on that board before going.)

 

ENJOYING SHIP TOP AMENITIES: Since it was still early, 3 hours left in port, and not too many people on board the ship, we were able to: go down the waterslide, play in the pool, and hot tub for a while. We then took a shower and went to get sushi and brought that up to the big screen so we could watch License to Wed. So we both had gotten to enjoy a movie we each wanted to see (Transformers and now License to Wed) and saw them together, which is uncommon for us.

 

DINNER, SHOW, & TOWEL ANIMAL: At dinner, I learned from the newlyweds at our table that the taxi people may have been partly correct about the traffic situation. They had gone on an excursion with the ship and said there was a lot of traffic coming back and it probably would have taken maybe an hour at most but the traffic to Maho was not that bad and shouldn’t have taken an hour. Oh well, we tried, guess we should’ve left earlier. I’m just in disbelief that they flat out refused business since $40-$50 would’ve been more than the $0 they were getting by sitting and waiting for nothing.

 

(Below: Dessert for me was Tiramisu, yum!)

 

 

Anyway, we went to the comedian show (Allyn Ball) after dinner and he was entertaining. DH especially enjoyed him since he made bald jokes and was politically incorrect about things. Tonight was the deck party and they had the Deck Party/Mexican Buffet so we went to check it out and take pictures before heading back to our cabin.

 

(Below: Buffet at the Deck Party.)

 

 

Tonight’s towel animal was a hippo chilling out well stretched out, at least that’s what we decided he was.

 

(Below: Towel Animal – Hippo?)

[Cruisinini]

Day 7: Friday, May 9, 2008

 

BRUNCH: Today’s a day at sea, so this means we slept in, late, really late, haha it’s vacation!! It was almost noon by the time I woke up and I was hungry so I got up. DH, on the other hand, was still cutting them Z’s and not showing any movement. So I got dressed and went up to Lido to get breakfast except I went when they were switching from breakfast to lunch food and had to wait about 10 minutes.

 

I decided on fish and chips again which are so yummy but greasy which I found out later wasn’t the best idea. After eating I went to get DH and he was attempting to move around now. Of course, now he wanted to go eat so I went with him. My tummy wasn’t too pleased with the grease so I decided to eat something healthier (peaches and cottage cheese) to try and settle it and that seemed to work.

 

INDOOR ENTERTAINMENT: After brunch, we decided we would try to stay inside for the day so we could both recover from our sunburns. But, before we could stay inside we had to watch the Men’s Hairy Chest Competition. DH wanted to know when the Women’s competition would be since this one specified men. We did manage to find a shady spot next to the DJ to watch. The Santa’s ruled this competition and won it.

 

(Below: Lido Deck is very busy during days at sea and this was during the Men’s Hairy Chest Contest.)

 

 

Now we really did stay inside. We went down to the Ivanhoe Theater and ended up participating in and watching games for the next few hours. First it was the Famous Faces game which they showed 40 faces of famous people and you had to guess as many as you could. DH got 12 and I got 20. The winners got 39 correct but they were a newlywed couple that worked together, I think we could’ve gotten a lot more if we had worked together. Winners of games get a plastic ship on a stick that kinda looks like a small trophy.

 

Next was the love, sex, and marriage game which started with a LOT of people on stage. We just observed but they asked a question, usually based on statistics, with two answers and you picked which side of the stage to stand on that corresponded with the correct answer. If you were wrong you were out until there was one left.

 

Then there was the marriage game, they pick 3 couples out of the audience, newlyweds, middle of the roader’s and the longest married couple. The longest married couple actually turned out to be 2 couples that had been married for 61 years!! Since this was rather rare, Chris, the cruise director, asked the newlyweds to sit out in honor of them but they still got a free bottle of champagne. On stage each couple sat back to back and given a pad of paper and a writing utensil. The host then asked ten questions each had to answer about their spouse. At the end, they compared answers and got points if they matched. Most answers were quite amusing and some a bit risqué. The last question got the audience rolling and was a perfect way to end the game. Chris asked the wife, “if your husband had 24 hours to live and was on a deserted island, would he rather spend it with a missionary or hooker?” The middle-of-the-roader’s wife said hooker and the husband confirmed. The first set of 61-yearers wife said hooker and he confirmed. Then the last set of 61-yearers the wife said missionary and the husband said a hooker in the missionary position. ROFL!!! The afternoon, in total, was quite hilarious and entertaining.

 

CASINO & SUSHI: Since it was nearing the first dinner time, the activities start disappearing so we found ourselves wondering around the ship trying to find something to entertain us. I wanted to play something in the casino but I’m pretty clueless except for the basic idea of how to play poker and blackjack. I found a poker video slot(?) machine and decided maybe I could do that. At one point I was up a little more than 3x what I had started with but ended up losing it all haha. Then DH played a little and lost too. I watched a lady on another video slot machine and tried that but it didn’t work out either. Oh well, in the end, we only lost $5, the same DH had already spent in the arcade. Next time I either need some lessons or take someone with me that knows what they’re doing.

 

This passed some time and we could go get our daily evening snack of sushi. There were always 3 different kinds: a sashimi (a rice block with a hunk of raw meat on top), a roll with rice on the outside, and a roll with the rice on the inside. They were all very good, I never had one I didn’t like. My least favorite was probably the tuna sashimi. I tried and surprisingly liked both the eel sashimi and the rolls with tofu in them.

 

FORMAL NIGHT: Tonight was the 2nd Formal Night and there were several photography stations setup, as there were most nights at dinner time, where you could have pictures taken for free. It was starting to get crowded with all the early dinner people getting there photos taken so we headed back to our cabin to get ready ourselves. I was glad to be able to go to this Formal Night and be able to where my “fancy” dress. DH surprisingly went along with my idea of getting some pictures taken of us as we do not have many. We didn’t get all the backdrops we wanted before it was time for dinner so we had a couple more taken after dinner. The show at dinner tonight involved all the wait staff singing a song while standing on the grand staircase going from the bottom to top levels of the Lincoln Dining Room.

 

(Below: Our dinner was Chateaubriand.)

 

 

(Below: Dessert of Baked Alaska. Funny story: One of our tablemates also ordered this and asked our assistant waiter, Roderick, what the green/red things were on top and he answered salsa. I knew that wasn't true but they believed him and were looking at their dessert with much skepticism. Then he told them he was just kidding and it was actually melons. LOL!)

 

 

EVENING ENTERTAINMENT: The show tonight was the big 80s show by the Carnival dancers and singers. I’m not a big 80s fan but I actually knew almost all of the songs and it was very high energy and entertaining so I definitely enjoyed it. After the show, we went up to Lido to see the Grand Gala Buffet. This is where all the chefs get to show off their creativity and create works of art, basically, with food. It was really impressive what we got to see. Unfortunately the line was really long so we only got to see what we could see peeking over shoulders and looking down from the second floor by the fish & chips restaurant. We didn’t wait in line to get a close up because we wanted to go to the midnight adult comedy show by the comedian that had performed the previous night.

 

(Below: Cheese Sculpture)

 

 

(Below: Melon Sculpture)

 

 

Again Allyn Ball was hilarious, though he claimed to only be of average intelligence and to be very politically incorrect, he had some great solutions to the world’s problems. He was impressed by the many different nations working together harmoniously on the cruise ship and thought if the world’s leaders took a cruise together they might work things out. They might sink a few ships at first but by the 4th or 5th cruise ship he figures deals WILL be struck. Haha! Another idea was to send our militants to fight other countries militants since those seem to be the people that want to fight.

 

Tonight was a late night but another enjoyable one and the towel animal waiting for us was a monkey hanging from the lights! So cool and cute!

 

(Below: Towel Animal – Hanging Monkey)

[dommer573]

So far an excellent review. By the way, nice legs, cruisinini (the jet ski photo). I'm loving the photos and will have to include some if I do a review for our upcoming cruise. I'll definitely keep an eye out ;) for the rest of your review.

[SenatorsFan]

Really enjoying your review and all of your great pictures!:) It's bringing back fond memories of our Valor cruise in Jan. Thanks for sharing.

[ThePatientOne]

Great review.. The DW and I can't wait to sail her with a bunch of Military Veterans over Veterans day 2009... The pictures added a great deal to the story..

Thanks

[Cruisinini]

So far an excellent review. By the way, nice legs, cruisinini (the jet ski photo). I'm loving the photos and will have to include some if I do a review for our upcoming cruise. I'll definitely keep an eye out ;) for the rest of your review.

 

Haha thanks, DH agrees with you. ;) I can thank my dad for them, he's tall and thin and he kindly gave me those same genes. I'm a good 3-4" shorter than my DH but our legs are the same length!

 

Reviews with photos are the best!

[Cruisinini]

Day 8: Saturday, May 10, 2008

 

GOOD MORNING…TO THE SEA: Our last day at sea, once again, began with much sleep. Not quite as late as the previous day but almost. Unfortunately, we also ended up missing the debarkation talk which probably was kind of important since we had never cruised before but we hoped it would show up on the TV. Well, we never did see it on the TV but at least they delivered an information sheet to our cabin that evening. This morning, we did manage to make it to breakfast before they switched it to lunch unlike the previous day.

 

ICE: We watched the ice sculpture demonstration on Lido deck. He works amazingly fast. They said it usually takes a couple of hours at least but he did this one in 20 minutes! The sculpture had water just running off of it while he worked because it was so hot out. We were told it would be used for any weddings on the ship the next day in Miami.

 

(Below: Ice Sculpture of 2 love birds above a heart.)

 

 

TOWELS & GALLEYS: After the ice demo, we went to the towel animal and napkin folding demonstration. We learned how to make the seal (this is where we finally learned what it was!), a dog, and an elephant. After the towel animals some of the wait staff had a table set up where they showed us how to fold napkins. I was able to figure out two of the three. This day kind of ended up being a partly indoors day too.

 

(Below: We learned how to make elephant towel animals, so cool!!)

 

 

One of the most interesting events while we were on the ship was the Galley Tour. This started in the Lincoln Dining Room where they shared lots of interesting tidbits about the food service onboard. There are approximately 1200 crew onboard and 600 are related to food: wait staff, cooks, chefs, room service, bartenders and bar staff. They had served 16,000 pounds of shrimp to us over the course of the week. They only purchase food at U.S. ports so for this ship that would be Miami and St Thomas. I was surprised at the amount of stuff they’re allowed to dump at sea. Gray water is filtered and dumped. Leftover food, after shells and bones are sorted out, is chopped up and dumped. The captain is allowed to give the ok when the ship is more than 12 miles from any shore. The Valor had been randomly inspected by the U.S. food service inspection people just 6 weeks prior to our voyage and they received a 99%!

 

(Below: So many chocolate melting cakes!!)

 

 

(Below: Impressively carved watermelon.)

 

 

After the talk, we got to tour through the main kitchen which stretches from the Lincoln Dining Room to the Washington Dining Room. It was very clean and interesting to see how they prepare some dishes ahead of the actual service.

 

LAST RAYS OF CARIBBEAN SUNSHINE: Since it was later in the day and the sun less intense, we decided to enjoy our last little bit of time relaxing outside at our typical locale on deck 10. Then it was off to get ready for dinner and go visit our sushi guy for the last time. He asked if we were sad the cruise was almost over and offered up his cabin to hide in if we wanted to stay. Haha, I wish! Before dinner we finally went and actually watched a sunset, not sure why we hadn’t thought to do this before the last night.

 

(Below: Sunset with a ship being towed?? in the distance.)

 

 

FAREWELL FESTIVITIES: The last dinner was the only dinner that everyone at our table was actually there at the same time. We were all sad and glad in ways to be at the end of our cruise. The wait staff sang a farewell song for all the diners.

 

(Below: DH’s Last Supper – an entire Cornish Hen)

 

Tonight’s show was the Legends Show which cruise passengers auditioned for earlier in the week for such roles as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Britney Spears, Madonna, Garth Brooks, Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, Elvis and finally Frank Sinatra. Overall, I thought the show was really good. With around 3000 passengers on board I guess the odds are pretty good you can find some decent singers/entertainers. The standouts were Aretha Franklin and Frank Sinatra. Aretha was actually done by a girl that sang a couple of karaoke songs the night we were at Scarlett’s. We had heard while eating there that she was a professional singer so I suppose that’s why she did a great job! Frank Sinatra was played by an elderly gentleman who came out on stage with a black hat which he took off and had the words to “I did it my way” inside the hat for him to read. He had a really awesome voice and “brought the house down” as the finale number.

 

PACKING: With all the festivities over with we trudged back to our cabin to fill out our customs declaration form. Packing, I thought was going to be interesting as we’d bought a few items, mostly small ones but it still needed to all fit back into our carry on only bags if at all possible. But, after I sorted dirty clothes from clean clothes and put them in separate suitcases and I added the items we’d purchased, there was still room for more. It was as if I packed more efficiently than we had come which I didn’t think possible. We haven’t discovered anything missing yet so I guess we did a good job!

[Cruisinini]

Day 9: Sunday, May 11, 2008

 

WELCOME BACK TO LAND…THE HOMELAND: A sad day, the day of departure… As usual I turned on the TV and this time I was not excited but quite sad to see the city of Miami. The feeling where your heart has sank to the pit of your stomach.

 

They started debarkation about 7:30am and we had number 7 out of thirty something numbers. I was surprised we were such an early number since our flight wasn’t until almost 3pm. They actually called our number before we even left our cabin around 8am. But, we wanted to eat breakfast so we had our last meal up on Lido.

 

(Below: DH’s last “man breakfast” as he called it at Rosie's on the "Eat-o Deck".)

 

Then we headed off the ship, there was a bit of a crowd in the lobby but not too bad and it moved pretty quickly. We went back through the terminal, reversing the path we went to board a week ago. But, this time we were sent down to the basement of the terminal where the luggage carousels and customs/immigration officials were located. We had brought all of our luggage with us so we headed straight to the customs and immigration lines. Shortly after getting in line, the newlyweds from our dinner table ended up in line behind us so it was nice to talk to them as we waited. The line didn’t take that long, I’d guess about 10 minutes. When we got to the counter, the official looked at the front of our customs form to be sure the money we spent on items was below the duty free cut off. It was, so he turned it over and only barely glanced at the items we listed on the back. He then scanned our passports and said “Welcome back.” No searches, no scanning of baggage, no questioning but we did see them pull people at random to be searched.

 

So that was that and we were headed outside to hail a taxi. Yay for U.S. taxis, they didn’t even worry about filling the vehicle, rufusing to take you, etc just put our suitcases in the back, got in and asked where to. We were in a minivan on our way to the airport in very short order. There’s something to be said about visiting other countries that allows you to appreciate and get a perspective on what you have at home. I gotta say I have a renewed love for the good ol’ US of A!

 

MIAMI TO HOME: Since it was only mid-morning, MiamiAirport didn’t seem quite as crazy as when we’d arrived a week before. There were a lot of lines at the American Airlines counter so even though we had several hours until our flight, lines are never fun. But, out of the corner of my eye I spotted 3 computer terminals all alone that had signs by them saying boarding pass only (no baggage to check). There were no lines and an American Airlines official was standing by them. So in about 60 seconds, we were checked in and had boarding pass in hand.

 

It was off to security and the lines were about an average wait, not too bad and uneventful. Once to our concourse, we found that we were gate 51 which was at the VERY end so we walked for a long time. And so begun our 5 hour wait, it wasn’t very exciting. We saw people from our cruise including a couple of Santas, we got some expensive food and drink, looked at our cruise pictures and read books/magazines…normal airport stuff.

 

Our flight was delayed since the previous flight got in a little late but not too bad. I was sooo sleepy at this point and as soon as we were high enough in the air after takeoff to permit you to turn your devices back on I put my tray down and went to sleep on it. Apparently the girl next to me (a high school senior trip Carnival Victory passenger from the past week) and DH joined me but I apparently slept the longest, haha! The flight was pretty bumpy, probably one of the bumpiest I’ve been on but I was so tired I didn’t really care. Back home the weather was about 15-20 degrees cooler and I missed the tropical weather already.

[Chigirlcruzin]

Great review. Loved the pics. I did Valor eastern last October, and the western in April...she's my favorite ship! Would you believe in 7 cruises I never did the galley tour? Never want to drag my butt away from the Lido deck!

 

I do have one question for you...how in the heck did you pack everything in a carry-on and backpack?! I could never do that lol!

[Drew B]

The surf & turf was delicious. The lobster was small as it was only half of a tail but honestly I don't think I could've eaten anymore. You could order a full lobster tail by itself as an entree if you wished.

 

If I'm not mistaken, that is a WHOLE tail with half the shell cut away...

[Cruisinini]

Great review. Loved the pics. I did Valor eastern last October, and the western in April...she's my favorite ship! Would you believe in 7 cruises I never did the galley tour? Never want to drag my butt away from the Lido deck!

 

I do have one question for you...how in the heck did you pack everything in a carry-on and backpack?! I could never do that lol!

 

Haha, well the galley tour is more of an interesting thing to do than an exciting one. I would've probably stayed on Lido too but got a bit too sunburnt...oops!!

 

Well I read over on the fashion board about packing. I learned about rolling clothes which supposedly keeps wrinkles out, haha, didn't quite work out for me but they weren't terrible either. So I modified that idea and kinda made my own way and it worked out awesome! I laid all shirts flat on top of each other, folded the pile in half then rolled it all up so I had a big roll of shirts. Then repeated with other categories of clothes. The rolls were about as high as the suitcase when it was lying down so that worked out nicely. Then I shoved underclothes, swimsuits, etc in between the rolls. I should've taken a picture of what it looked like. Oh and my formal dress I gently folded and laid on top of everything last and took it out first and it got very few wrinkles.

 

 

 

If I'm not mistaken, that is a WHOLE tail with half the shell cut away...

 

Well, I'm not a lobster expert, that was only like the 2nd or 3rd I've ever had in my life so you very well could be correct! I consulted with DH (who grew up near the ocean & ate lots of seafood) and he said he's pretty sure it was half, it just puffed up a little when it was cooked maybe. He also ordered surf & turf and it looked like both our tails matched if you'd put them back together. At any rate, it was PLENTY of food to eat so full tail or half tail it was yummy!