Back from Victory

[IHATESNOW]

I was going to do a full blown review but I honestly don’t feel like taking all the time so I will just give a quick rundown on here. First off I have taken several Carnival cruises and the most recent to this was the Destiny Southern Caribbean 2007, so I do have others to compare to.

The Pros-

1. Great itinerary if you are big on having a lot of ports to visit.

2. Ship was clean and well maintained.

3. Some of the bar servers did an excellent job.

4. The two comedians they had were entertaining.

5. Embarkation and disembarkation were pretty quick & painless.

6. The Ionian bar and ship orchestra were both excellent.

The Cons-

1. The drinks were watered down and really just not very consistent at all.

2. The food was mediocre at best in the sit down dining areas and the buffets were hit or miss.

3. Our waiter had no personality whatsoever. He deserved a tip for working hard but nothing beyond that.

4. The pools & hot tubs were also hit or miss as far as being open or not.

5. Some areas were closed to private parties several times during the week.

I won’t get into great detail of why I highly doubt that that I’ll sail out of San Juan again and I’ll leave it at that. I don’t want to nitpick because I still had a great time, after all it’s what you make of it and we made the best of it. I was with a large group of good people and a week in the sun beats the snow any day. Everyone needs to judge vacations for themselves but for me I will say, friends & family aside, I had better cruises.

[NCTribeFan]

I'm really looking forward to our Victory sailing in May. I cannot wait for that 1 pre-cruise and 2 post-cruise days in San Juan, either!

 

Given that we'll be doing island tours every day, and the fact that the only pool I've ever set foot in was the one in the spa on Glory, I won't even notice pool hours.

 

I expect to be so tired every night that I figure I'll have dinner, maybe visit the casino for 30 minutes, then go to bed! :o

 

As long as my waiter is efficient, I don't care about personality, but that's just me. I just want my food and any requests attended to in a timely manner.

 

Would like to hear what you did in the various ports, though!

[jjgoo]

thanks for the info

[TITISSA]

I'm looking into the Victory for Feb. 2010 and would like to know what you did at the ports. You didn't like the crowd the ship attracted from sailing from San Juan? TIA.

[*Luv2Cruz*]

I'm pretty sure we went to the same ports on the Destiny and it was excellent.:D For those of you who are asking about what to do at some of the ports, see my reveiw below for 5/08! We're looking to go on the Victory in 2010, probably May again!:cool:

[Cigar Dude]

I'm still looking forward to our cruise on Victory in September! :D

 

A bad day on a cruise ship sure beats the heck out of a work day! ;)

 

I don't expect perfection. We'll have fun, I guarantee it!

[summercruisin']

Thanks for sharing. Sorry you were disappointed, and glad you made the best of it. I, too, have been on several Carnival cruises and found my most recent one (in Oct) to be less-than-perfect compared to the others. I had many of the same "complaints" and was especially disappointed by the food and the dining room experience. Both were just okay. Still had LOTS of fun and still plan to book another as soon as I can. Hoping the next one is better! :)

[travelntreats]

Thanks for sharing. Sorry you were disappointed' date=' and glad you made the best of it. I, too, have been on several Carnival cruises and found my most recent one (in Oct) to be less-than-perfect compared to the others. I had many of the same "complaints" and was especially disappointed by the food and the dining room experience. Both were just okay. Still had LOTS of fun and still plan to book another as soon as I can. Hoping the next one is better! :)[/quote']

Gotta say I have to agree with you.... my past Carnival experiences have been less stellar than in years past.... but then I paid more for cruises many years ago and still feel that when we were paying a higher fare, we were getting a higher level cruise experience. Not bashing just Carnival on this... as I have seen the declines in HAL, =x=, Princess and RCL too !

[summercruisin']

Gotta say I have to agree with you.... my past Carnival experiences have been less stellar than in years past.... but then I paid more for cruises many years ago and still feel that when we were paying a higher fare, we were getting a higher level cruise experience. Not bashing just Carnival on this... as I have seen the declines in HAL, =x=, Princess and RCL too !

 

You may be right that the service is parallel with the cost. I sure hope not. I'm hoping this past one was a fluke and not an indicator of things to come. :cool: We still have a great time on the islands...just found ourselves snoozing on ship a little more! I was a bit worried at first that I was just getting cruise burnout, but nah....not possible! :p

[TheVegasMan]

We were on the Victory at the end of Nov 2008 and enjoyed the stops tremendously. We did have a few problems with the unruly kids and adults that were on the ship. They would take over the pools and jacuzzis, loved the people that came on the cruise with no swimwear and would be in the pool or jacuzzi in jeans and t-shirts.

 

The food was decent, not outstanding. We ate at the buffet for breakfast most days and the deli or pizza stand for lunch. The food in the dining room was good, not outstanding.

 

In St. Thomas we too the ferry to St. John to Trunk Bay. The beach is postcard perfect, the snorkeling there was ok. We found out afterwards that Cinnamon and Maho Bays are much nicer. Next time we'll go there or Magens Bay on STT.

 

Dominica we took a cab to Scotts Head to snorkel and see the champagne bubbles. We enjoyed ourselves, beware the beach there is VERY rocky.

 

Barbados we took the TIAMI catmaran to where they feed the turtles. It's amazing how close the turtles will come to you, but that is because they now associate people with food. One of the turtles even nipped at my calf, it must have thought it was a big piece of squid. We booked this tour onboard.

 

St. Lucia I went on the scuba diving tour offered onboard and had a good time. Lots of fish to see in the waters off St. Lucia.

 

On Antigua we took two cabs to Long Bay, we were quoted a price of $35 by the first few cabbies and kept walking, a block down the street we met Bobcat who tookf or $25. He took us most of the way there and his daughter met us and took us the last leg. There is a nothing fancy beach bar that serves awesome caribbean chicken lunch plate that's big enough for two $7. The snorkeling at Long Bay was good, I saw several hermit crabs there.

 

On St. Kitts we took a cab to Cockleshell Beach. This was our favorite beach for several reasons: The View, the funny vendors, the lobsters I found while snorkeling, collecting shells along the beach and the good food at the Reggae Beach Bar.

[DOTTE]

TheVegasMan,

 

We've been to all the islands on this intenirary (sp?) except St. Kitts. Been trying to decide what to do there. How long did it take you to get to Cockleshell Beach? Also, in St Thomas did you just get a cab to take you to the ferry to get over to St Johns?

 

Thanks.

[IHATESNOW]

In response to some of you who asked about the ports, I will give a quick rundown of what we did.

St Thomas-Coki Beach-paid $15 pp for round trip taxi- good snorkeling, more of a party beach

Dominica-Antours river tubing /Mr Nice- $45 pp I wasn’t too impressed with this outfit. The buses were disorganized, we had a large group and they mixed in another group who paid for a different tour. The water was rough in spots, so this isn’t for the faint of heart. However most of the operators on the river did a decent job with trying to keep you safe & moving.

Barbados- Boatyard Taxi $4 pp one way /admission$15pp- Good for people with kids as there are activities in the water. This wasn’t my 1st choice, I would have preferred Crane but I went with the flow of our group. To me though it’s too close to downtown and doesn’t really have the true Caribbean feel to it.

St Lucia-Reduit Beach-$30 for 4 round trip- I liked it here, reminded me of the Mediterranean. Although it is full of vendors and can get a little congested.

Antigua- Darkwood Beach - $10 pp round trip- we practically had the beach to ourselves and it was very nice. Drinks are a little pricey and the personality of the bar/restaurant operator left a little to be desired.

St Kitts- We just hung around the port area and immediate downtown. I wanted to go to cockleshell and in hindsight wish that I had.

IMHO-6 ports are too many but this may be because I have already been to 5 of them in the past. If I were to do a Southern again, I would go from Miami on an 8 day and get a couple of sea days in.

[TheVegasMan]

"How long did it take you to get to Cockleshell Beach?" Silly me, I rarely look at my watch while on vacation, but my best guess was about 20 minutes, no more than 30 for sure. Taxi for 2 there was $26, on the way back we shared a cab with a family of 5 and it was $6 per person.

 

"Also, in St Thomas did you just get a cab to take you to the ferry to get over to St Johns?" Yes, we took a cab to the Red Hook Ferry as we wanted to take the 8:00 am ferry Taxi was $10 per person and ferry was $6.10 pp. Taxi to and from Trunk Bay was $6 pp, ferry from Cruz Bay in St. John to Charlotte Amalie was $11.10 taxi back to the boat (2-3 mile walk) was $5 per person.

 

Ferry and cab combo was the same cost per person no matter which ferry you used. Check the following website to see which ferry best meets your schedule.

 

http://st-thomas.com/ferries.html