Carnival Victory Review with lots of Photo's--July 5-12, 2009

[dz63]

The buildings in Old San Juan date back to the 16th and 17th century. They depict beautiful, colonial architecture painted in bright, tropical colors.

The hanging balconies also add to their old world charm.

 

 

 

At the end of a street (Calle Cristo), we came across The Bell Tower (Capilla de Cristo).

It was built in 1753 and is located next to Pigeon Park (Parque las Palomas).

 

 

We walk up another cobblestone street in Old San Juan, shaded with beautiful tropical vegetation.

 

 

This cobblestone street is very narrow!

 

 

Even though the boys complained about walking around in the heat, the old town of San Juan was very interesting to visit. The high walls, the fortifications, the monuments, the old colorful buildings depicting colonial architecture, the hanging balconies and the narrow and steep cobblestone streets certainly takes you back in time. There is so much to see and experience in Old San Juan. I would love to come back and explore the town some more. . .who knows. . .maybe I’ll get the chance too. . .someday. . .

 

Well. . .this concludes our Southern Caribbean vacation. We flew home the following day. We saw a lot and we did a lot on this wonderful, action-filled vacation. For those of you still planning your Carnival Victory cruise and pre and post cruise activities, I hope the information which we shared in our review will be of help to you.

 

Thank you everyone for your comments and questions.

 

 

Happy Cruisin’ Everyone!

 

 

cz

[cruiseawaits]

Simply Said.......BRAVO!!!!!!!

 

 

 

AND

 

 

MUCH THANKS

[lilone]

WOW!!! That was great review. It sure makes me want to cruise the Victory.

[harrodsfan]

I heard a tip for digital cameras, to help identify it in case you lose it. Write out your name and address (or work phone number if you don't want anyone to know the address of an empty house) on a big sheet of paper, and take the very first picture on the camera of that paper. It might help someone to return it, or at least the chip, if it is found by an honest person.

 

A great idea and a fun review!!

[HarperSays]

Excellent review! Thank you for taking the time to share your vacation. We are on this cruise in October and thanks to your pictures, we are even more excited!

[shamrockace]

That was a wonderful, detailed description. Were you able to dock at each island?

[dz63]

That was a wonderful, detailed description. Were you able to dock at each island?

 

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed our review and yes, we were able to dock at every island!

[CruisinCutsie]

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed our review and yes, we were able to dock at every island!

 

 

Spectacular review and photos dz63!!! This is what I've been waiting for. Incredible amount of information, best excursions to do and who to book with, and wonderful pictures of every detail :D We are looking at sailing on this cruise in May 2010 and your review makes me want to go today!! Thanks so much for sharing your family's awesome Caribbean adventure with us all :D

[dz63]

Spectacular review and photos dz63!!! This is what I've been waiting for. Incredible amount of information, best excursions to do and who to book with, and wonderful pictures of every detail :D We are looking at sailing on this cruise in May 2010 and your review makes me want to go today!! Thanks so much for sharing your family's awesome Caribbean adventure with us all :D

 

:)Thank you CruisinCutsie for your kind words!

I'm glad you found the review helpful.

Have a marvelous cruise!!:D

 

cz

[catzdebbie]

Hi

Thank you for your pics and review. We are thinking of doing this cruise with a stay in Barbados next year for my DH 50th birtday. it looks like you all had a great time.

Debbie

[hutat]

Thank you,Thank you,thank you for taking the and and having the patience to let all of us know how spectacular this ship and it's itinerary is.I will be on this ship on Feb.21 and with all your photos and information I think I will have no problem whatsoever. Did I thank you enough?:D

[kthylyn]

Wow! Thanks for the pictures and the review. Can't wait for our cruise on the Victory in February!!

[nbrown]

Wow! This is the best review!!! Amazing pictures!

I'm from Puerto Rico...these pictures really make me miss the Island!

We are leaving in 17 days in the Valor to Belize, Honduras, Conzumel and Cayman Islands....San Juan will be definetely the next! Thank you for sharing! You have a beautiful family.

[jennat]

Wow, what a great review. I am seriously considering this cruise for next year. You make a convincing argument to do it. Could you give me a general idea of how much you spent on excursions? I am trying to figure out a budget and with this many stops that is certainly a consideration. I realize it depends on what you do on each island. I am just looking for a general idea for a family of four. (is $400 a stop....less, more)

Thank you for all the work you did. WOW!

[dz63]

Wow, what a great review. I am seriously considering this cruise for next year. You make a convincing argument to do it. Could you give me a general idea of how much you spent on excursions? I am trying to figure out a budget and with this many stops that is certainly a consideration. I realize it depends on what you do on each island. I am just looking for a general idea for a family of four. (is $400 a stop....less, more)

Thank you for all the work you did. WOW!

 

Here is a summary of our excursion costs:

 

St. Thomas (Airforce 1 Papa Bear - Sightseeing & Beach Tour) $25 per person.

 

Dominica (Antours - Emerald Pool & River Tubing) $47 per adult, $35 per teen, $25 per child.

 

Barbados (Scenic Barbados Tours - Harrisons Cave, Sightseeing & Accra Beach) $60 per adult, $30 per child.

 

St. Lucia (Spencer Ambrose Tours - West Coast Delight Tour) $65 per adult, children 1/2 price.

 

Antigua (Gordon Tours - Best of Paradise Island Tour) $40 per adult, $30 per child.

 

St. Kitts (St. Kitts Tour Store - Zipline Safari) $302 special rate for family of four.

 

I did a quick calculation and for two adults and two children, this averages out to about $200 per island. This does not include any food purchased on the island. We ate lunch back on the ship at every stop except for St. Lucia. In St. Lucia, Spencer fed us a nice barbeque chicken lunch and so many snacks and drinks that we actually came back to the ship completely stuffed!

 

Hope this helps!

[jennat]

Wow, you did a lot of work to answer my question. I sure do appreciate that. That helps a ton. What is next for your family? Any other cruises planned?

[dz63]

Hawaii has always been on our list of places that we would like to visit. A Mexican Riviera cruise would be interesting too. But both will take a lot of saving as they are very expensive for us to do from Ontario.

[jennat]

When you are interested seriously in Hawaii e-mail me.....mjcrouch4dv.net. We just did that trip and I have some tips for doing it really cheap for you. Maybe I can help you like you helped me!

[MrOCT31]

I've enjoyed this review as well and am planning on doing this cruise in 2011. I showed it to my 11 year old and all she does is ask me when are we going on that trip!

As for Hawaii, I've been to the various islands over a dozen times and while you can do it "cheap" what seems to big the big issue right now is airfare! We were in Maui beginning of 2008 and were able to get direct flights from LAX around $370 per. Nowadays, flights to Maui seem to run in the high $600's which really puts a crimp in going there as we are a family of 5 and what used to cost about $1700 is now upwards of $3000 just to get there! We can fly to Florida for a cruise for around $200 per so that pretty much decides what we'll be doing for the foreseeable future! But we love Hawaii I just wish it was a bit cheaper to get there. To bad the smaller airlines like ATA folded, they had great deals.

[dz63]

It really adds up with a family of five! Our flights to from Toronto to Miami in 2007 for our Western Caribbean cruise on the Triumph were $550/pp. But, flights have come down in price significantly this year. For our cruise on the Victory, we flew out of Detroit (3.5 hour drive from our home) to San Juan for only $350/pp. We thought that was a real bargain. We found the lowest airfares on Kayak.com. In addition, on the Triumph and Victory, they are able to accomodate 5 people in a cabin - that helped to make it little bit more affordable.

 

If we lived in CA, we would definitely drive to the port and cruise the Mexican Riveria. We were even considering driving 12 hours for a cruise out of Baltimore this summer, but decided on San Juan because of the neat itinerary.

[nursesmilely]

thanks alot,that was a wonderful review,amazing pictures,lovely family.man u make a great tour guide,thanks again.We will be cruising on the victory on the 23-5-2010 and also thanks for the tour prices that help so much,boy we cannot wait this will be my 4 criuse on carnival and it will be about 18 of us.

[trvlqueen]

OK, you sold me! I was seriously considering the Victory for our girls cruise next year ... now it's a definite. I just have to find a date and get everyone moving towards booking. Thank you so much for the great review and all the photos. It was really nice to see someone focusing on their vacation instead of nitpicking the ship.

 

By the way, I think Victory looks beautiful! So glad you had such a good trip. I can't wait to get there myself!

[brampton32]

Many thanks for the wonderful and very informative review.

What a lovely family you have.

[michiganmom2]

Hey, just found your review. It was GREAT!!! My DH and I are sailing the Victory 1/31/2010 so your review was so helpful and now i am even more excited (if that's even possible!) for our first cruise!!! Thanks for sharing all of your experiences with us!!

[Yes We Can]

The road signs were in Spanish, and the traffic was pretty heavy, but we didn't find it difficult to navigate around the island. Oeste = West, Este = East, Norte = North, Sud = South. We did not know any Spanish and found our way around pretty well.

 

 

Are you saying that there are no English signs in Puerto Rico:confused: