mr.chris.

Cruise Day Four:

St. Lucia...

This would prove to be probably the most frustrating day of the cruise in certain respects. But it still wasn't a horrible day.

I had made arrangements with Spencer Ambrose Tours for the four of us on their "Western Delight" package. This included a van tour of the volcano and then Jalousie Beach for a couple hours.

Everyone up early to grab breakfast at the buffet and down to the meeting spot by 8:15. It was pretty crazy, multiple tour companies trying to meet in the same spot and it appeared as if there were more people there for tours than they planned on.

After 40 minutes or so of waiting we were finally walked about 3 blocks to our van. But we then had to fight through surprisingly horrible traffic for such a small town to another location to pick up someone from their hotel. Finally about 9:45 we were back downtown to view the cathedral. After about 5 pics my camera died. After making a few calls it was clear it was not something that could be fixed during the trip and in fact would cost more to fix than replace. I also brought my EOS-M (mirrorless interchangeable lens camera) which while not perfect was certainly better than nothing. But this pretty much set my tone for the day.

The driver we were assigned from Spencer seemed like a taxi driver he uses for overflow passengers. He seemed to do the best he could but it wasn't a smooth tour. We wound up trading passengers at some point to ease seating a little. At the volcano there was a massive traffic jam on our way out because of someone going the wrong way and not being able to back up. We were also told we could only look at it from the first lookout point near the road and not go to the other one because of time, but then we were given the okay to go walk the 100 feet to the better lookout point.

From there we went to the falls and got to admire them for a couple minutes before being hurried off to lunch. Lunch was a bit of a short buffet line type experience in a small restaurant that was converted from a house. Food was good and the restaurant owner very friendly. But it was hot and crowded and quite a few of us had to stand for a lack of seats.

From there we went to the boat dock nearby to take the boat to Jalousie. It was also suggested we pay the additional difference between this tour and the speedboat tour in order to have time at Jalousie. The way they said it and went on about it, it really felt like some arm twisting. Okay fine the kids wanted to ride the boat anyways but he kept insisting my 12 year old was an adult price (I had to show him the email from Spencer stating he was the child price) and then he kept adding up the $15 per person difference but $15x4 people he kept saying was $120 more. Anyways got it worked out but ultimately it seemed they didn't want to run a van back through traffic and it was easier and more convenient for them to put everyone on the boat. Just simplify it then and eliminate our version of the tour. That way everyone is on the same page from the first moment and there is no confusion of misunderstandings.

Anyways Jalousie beach clearly is a beautiful beach. There is a dock to one side and the larger portion of the beach to the south of the dock is reserved for the resort there. The smaller portion is used by Spencer and at least one other tour company. It was not kept as nice, crowded, etc. Still we went snorkeling and had a good time but it doesn't quite play out like the brochure.

The boat ride back with "No Problem" was actually quite good and entertaining. It made me feel a lot better about what led to us riding the boat. We stopped at the pier where the RCI boat was docked first and dropped off some folks and then to the other side of the harbor where the Valor was docked. Walked off Spencer's boat and jumped in line to get back on board the Valor with about 20 minutes to spare.

Back to the cabin to get cleaned up and then the kids were off with their respective buddies. Wife and I headed to the casino for a bit before meeting the kids at 8:15 for dinner in the MDR. I don't recall the menu for that night but I do remember that the meal was every bit as good as what we'd had so far. My youngest continued to do his best to clean them out of the WMC's.

After dinner the boys groups (Circle C and Club 02) went to the show as did the wife and I. The show was "Far From Over" and although I've never been a big fan of musical type shows it was entertaining. Either that or I had sufficient alcohol in me ;)

After the show we walked around a bit, checked out the pics from formal night and wandered up to get some pizza before calling it a night.

The next day is St. Lucia and it was the one stop everyone seemed least interested in so we decided to make no plans, and effectively treat it like a day at sea and get caught up on sleep. But that changed to some degree.

Thanks for the great review! So far I have enjoyed it all....except the Husky shirt (we're a long line of WSU alumns here :D). Oh well, Huskies need love too.;)

 

You have a nice looking family and I'm glad you had such a good time! Cruising is such a perfect family vacation---kids have their stuff to do, and it's safe but even the teens like it; and the adults get alone/down time. There's plenty of family togetherness too. Pretty much nothing else offers all of that in quite the same way.

 

Booking something with too few sea days is a classic rookie mistake. The usual first timer worries are 1. I'll get seasick and 2. I'll fell trapped or get bored on a ship. It's rare that either come true.

 

Can't wait to hear the rest of your story!

I was worried about being bored. Seasick not so much, I was in fact surprised to see the number of people I did with the Scopalamine patches behind their ears.

Being from the NW and spending LOTS of time on the water in smaller boats and in big seas I wasn't the least bit worried about seasickness. We frequently go salmon fishing out of Ilwaco and Westport in 30 foot seas in a 50 ft boat.

I agree great images, very crisp and clean. What lens are you using on the 7D?

Looking forward to hearing about Barbados!!

Mostly a 24-105 F4L. The other lens I brought despite being a little too heavy was my 70-200 F2.8L IS II.

Can you give me some details on what your 12 year old did in the kids club? I have a 12 year old that is reluctant to try. Do the activities go later than 10pm? Thanks, travelling in 8 days on the Valor!

 

 

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I do know that most of their activities didn't start until 6 or 7 in the evening. They would go to the nightly show as a group on many of the nights. They had pizza making contests, dodgeball, karaoke, movies, etc. They typically had stuff going until midnight. It was mostly active type stuff, mini-golf, basketball, etc.

Our 12 year old was reluctant as well, but decided to jump in and make the best of it. As a result there was a core group of about 8 of them that became nearly inseparable and they would hang out whenever on the ship outside of dinner (we required the kids to eat with us except for the one night that both groups had their "group dinners").

I never once heard my son complain about activities being too childish for him and he'd be the first to complain if they were.

Cruise Day Three:

Day at Sea!

After Monday's stop in St. Thomas it was a sea day enroute to Barbados for Wednesday.

Originally when planning this trip I was concerned with the kids and even the wife getting bored with too many sea days and a big reason why we chose this itinerary. In hindsight this was a busy trip and another day at sea around Thursday would have been welcomed.

Everyone (well the wife and the kids) slept in until lunchtime. I was up about 8:30 and grabbed some breakfast and coffee from the buffet.

There was an ice carving demonstration by the pool that was entertaining. Movies on the pool tv screen and lots of activities elsewhere on the boat to stay busy.

In the afternoon my wife and I went to the "Love and Marriage" game show. Think along the lines of the Newlywed Game. Three teams were picked from the audience. Felipe' our cruise director was hosting. This was a total riot. The answers they were coming up with (as well as Felipe's questions) set the stage literally for a good afternoon of fun.

One of the questions was "What holiday describes last nights romance" i.e. a: 4th of July (boom boom fireworks), b: Thanksgiving (happy for whatever leftovers you got).

Well when they brought the men out to give their answers to match up to the wife's this one guys answer was "Memorial Day, cause it was like raising the dead". Poor Felipe' was so caught off guard by that he about laughed himself off the stage.

Shortly after this was over we learned there was a medical emergency that required an interim stop in Martinique. We never actually tied up to a dock. We headed in towards the harbor and a harbor patrol/coast guard type boat came out and met us about a mile or so out and they transferred the person. We then continued on and arrived the following morning in Barbados right on schedule.

This afternoon Club 02 had a "dodgeball" game. Though the rules were heavily modified. This had my 17 year old all excited. He's one of the top high school baseball pitchers in our state and has quite an arm as you could imagine. He's also very agile. This has proven to be a deadly combination when he plays dodgeball. But the modified rules evened out the playing field a little, but he still had a blast.

Tuesday night was also our first casual elegance night (formal night) in the dining room. Wife wanted to do at least one of the two formal nights up big. She had a brand new dress, boys were in shirts and ties and I was in a nice black suit. Crowds were kind of heavy with the photographers on deck 5 in Kings Blvd but we managed a few different settings before it was time to head downstairs to the dining room.

Also while up there waiting in line for pictures they were filming for the DVD of the cruise. The assistant cruise director Eric was going around interviewing fake Olympic Gold Medal Winners in make believe events. For those of you that saw it played on the ship or bought the DVD it was my youngest son that was interviewed as the "Car Stereo Dash" winner.

Headed off to dinner and had kind of an odd experience. Nelson was top of his game as always but Inacio our drink/beverage dude totally forgot us. Main course was on the table and he hadn't even asked us for a drink order. We aren't ones to complain and just had water but Nelson stopped and asked us why no drinks so I mentioned no order was taken. Not sure what conversation took place between him and Inacio but the rest of the week our drinks were on the table waiting for us when we walked in!

After dinner we went to the 10:15 show in the Theater and it was entertaining. Again here though getting a drink proved impossible. Twice I had orders taken but drinks never delivered. From this night on I would just get drinks directly at a bar and carry them in.

Both boys were off with their groups from Circle C and Club 02 respectively though to my surprise both groups attended the show and the boys seemed to enjoy it.

Off to bed knowing that Barbados awaited us in the morning.

.....

For those that asked I was shooting with my Canon 7D primarily (more on that in St. Lucia) and my Canon EOS-M as a backup with a handful shot from my phone which does better than most.

Martinique

Cruise Day Two:

St. Thomas!

No real plans in mind for this stop. We figured we'd just get up and wander off the boat and wing it. Maybe do the tram or a little shopping.

Up around 7:30 we headed to the Washington Dining Room for breakfast about 8:20. Meal was about what you'd expect for breakfast in a hotel type situation. Everything tasted fine though the bacon was the razor thin, kind of cheap type bacon. That said bad bacon is still better than no bacon and no one really complained. Eggs and the rest tasted just fine. Service was perfect.

Walked off the boat about 9:10 and by this point any crowds there might have been had clearly thinned out as we walked straight up to the kiosk and punched our cards and walked out, no lines, no delays. After wandering a few minutes around the shops right there off the boat we decided we'd head over to the sky tram. On our way however my wife decided she'd rather do some sort of tour of the island.

Tried negotiating with a few of the cab/bus/safari rig drivers there and got prices all over the place and they were very pushy. Finally found a guy that wasn't pushy and quoted a pretty fair price. $120 for 4 hours for the 4 of us.

Drive covered a few scenic points including a longer stop at the Mountain Top for banana daiquiris and photos. One stop had a lot of people selling junk and being quite militant about it and he intervened and got them to leave us alone. He was quite knowledgeable about the island and it's history and the kids really enjoyed his stories. I'll be darned if I can remember his name though.

At the end he dropped us off downtown and we wandered around a bit picking up some souvenirs and such. I will say walking down the street the jewelry store owners were way over the top trying to lure you into their stores. It really degraded what would have been otherwise a very nice day.

From there we walked back to the ship via the trail/sidewalk through the yacht harbor.

Back on the boat we went up and had a late lunch/snack thanks to the grill on the Lido Deck. Boys went off and jumped in with Circle C and Club 02 respectively (we had to talk them into it and it wound up being there favorite parts of the cruise. Both made lots of friends they are still in contact with since leaving).

Wife went and took a nap and I just lounged a while near the pool.

We had requested and received the late dinner seating at 8:15pm. We had eaten dinner on departure night during open seating in the MDR so this would be our second meal there but first with our "official" staff.

Whether by luck of the draw or what we wound up not only in a section relatively close to the door making ingress and egress a little faster but we probably landed the section with the best staff on the boat. Our waiter for the cruise was Nelson. He was simply awesome, and I don't mean just good at his job but awesome. More about him as the week goes on. His assistants were Gabor a nice young man from Hungary and Anak a very quiet man from Indonesia who didn't say much but always had a smile on his face. Drink steward was Inacio.

I don't recall what everyone ate, other than my youngest son who went with the burger, that's a 12 year old for you. Everyone was quite happy with their meals and dessert was creme brule' for myself and my 17 year old. Wife and youngest selected the WMC. Kevin my 12 year old like it so much he ordered 2 more. Nelson was happy to oblige.

After dinner the kids ran off to be with their groups. Wife and I stopped in the casino for a bit before heading off to the adult only edition of that nights comedy show. Tony Esposito was the comic that night and he was quite entertaining. I tried to order a drink, and three different times a server took my order only I never received my drink. This was a common and chronic theme during the cruise. Thankfully I was never charged for drinks I never received. But Carnival would have got a lot more money out of me if they could deliver the drinks!

After the show we wandered around a bit before getting some pizza as a late night snack. The pizza was a bit slow but it was really tasty. Being a traditionalist I went with just pepperoni, the wife ordered some fancy four cheese thing or something. Both were very good, great crust and ingredients.

Off to bed for us around 1:00am, it would turn out the boys in what became a common theme for the cruise turned in around 3:00am.

Cruise Day 1 - Departure Day!

Yay! Everyone was up and excited despite the 4 hour time change and long travel day, the day before.

Checkout at the Verdanza was quick and painless. No one in the family save for me wanted breakfast so we skipped it. Left the Verdanza about 10:45 headed for the cruise ship terminal. For a Sunday there was a surprising amount of traffic and it took us roughly 30 minutes from the Verdanza to the terminal.

Dropped off right in front, porter took the luggage and we walked on in fully expecting that we were too early to do much. Quite the contrary, walked right in and there was already a line about 40 people deep checking in.

Within 15 minutes we were checked in and waiting for our embarkation number to be called. We were given group 7. We wanted to go back into town for a bit so my wife asked the guy handling things there what the procedure was to do that and if there was somewhere to leave our carry-ons. He handed us a group 1 card with a smile and a wink and said to go ahead and drop our bags off in our cabins once they started boarding at 12:00p.

Sure enough about 11:55am they called group 1, we went past the liquor samples and on to security. Quickly through there and onto the boat. Swung by our cabins and they were good to go so we dropped our carry-ons and headed up to the Lido Deck for some food.

Quick snack and then we headed back off the boat and into town for a few hours. Wandered around the waterfront area and took some pics. Checked out the Sheraton Old San Juan where we'd be staying a night after the cruise. Stumbled into a street fair of sorts and hit the CVS just past Senor Frogs for some last minute needs.

So as I am quite new here and a fairly inexperienced cruiser I first wanted to take a second and share a little bit about myself and travel experiences that might add some relevance and perspective to this review.

I grew up an airline brat. Dad is a recently retired Hawaiian Airlines Captain. I myself am a commercial pilot though my aviation career lasted all of about a week in the early 1990's because I quite simply did not enjoy driving a bus.

I had cleared the million mile mark by the time I was 22. I still travel heavily for business but mostly up and down the West Coast (MVP Gold on Alaska 12 years running). Growing up I traveled the South Pacific and Australia quite heavily, a function of flexible schedule and free travel.

My wife works for that big airplane manufacturer here in the Northwest and travels quite a bit between Miami, Seattle and London for work so I'd call her a seasoned traveler as well.

My wife and I did a short repositioning cruise from Seattle to Vancouver BC in 2005 on the Norwegian Sun and that was the extent of our cruise experience prior to this.

Because of our kids sports commitments, especially our 17 year old's high school baseball season, there is no travel during spring break. This leaves President's Day week which is our school districts mid-winter break to travel. But as the kids get the full week off it works out okay. We always do one big vacation each year for this week.

I'll try and keep it as organized and coherent as I can. But it will take a few days and a few posts to get it all in.

Pre-planning:

Okay the wife and kids all were screaming "CRUISE". We all agreed on the need for warm weather as we were sick and tired of the perpetual rain, drizzle, showers and gray skies of Seattle.

I went about this a little differently as I wasn't particularly concerned with prices but very concerned with itineraries. I was also concerned that too many sea days would prove boring. I'll revisit that thought later! But along with itineraries was atmosphere. Based on reading reviews, talking with friends, etc. We decided we wanted fun more than anything else. I am not a opera and caviar kind of guy. I can dress up when I need to, wear shirt, ties and suits for work but I'm not stuffy and boring.

One of the stops I really wanted as it has been on my wish list for many years was St. Maarten. That really narrowed down the options and this cruise on the Valor fit our travel dates nearly perfectly!

Airfare (and stops) from Seattle to San Juan are less than ideal but we were all willing to work with it.

Travel Day 1:

No sleep Friday night as we finished packing and tied up loose ends. 6:00am flight meant getting to the airport by 5:00am at the latest. Kids up and everyone showered and out the door at 4:30.

First flight was to ORD (Chicago O'hare) and a 2 hour layover which gave some time for deep dish pizza for lunch. Then on to Miami and some Cuban food for dinner.

Finally arrived in San Juan at 11:50pm local time. Smallish airport and easy to navigate. Baggage claim was fast and efficient and we were in line for a cab within 15 minutes of walking off the plane.

We flew American, not my usual airline (which is Alaska, which has a Miami flight but nothing timed to fit our needs and nothing that continued on to SJU). Being Gold MVP let me take advantage of their priority boarding at least (though again more on this later on the return flight). This made finding room in the overhead bins a little easier. On Alaska gate checked items are waiting at the gate at the other end. American takes the gate check items and delivers at baggage claim. So with 2 stops gate checking anything prior to the final leg could prove difficult.

I hesitated a little too long in finding our pre-cruise hotel and wound up rolling the dice with Priceline. Got the Hotel Verdanza near the airport (right next door to the Embassy Suites) for a surprising price of $115. I knew little of it before arriving but it would prove to be perfectly fine and in fact was a rather pleasant if not brief stay. They knew we were getting in late and although their restaurants were already closed they had some coconut and some mango frozen smoothies waiting for us so we had a refreshing snack before turning in.

It was then off to sleep........

Well off to dinner at Barrachinas, long flight back to Seattle in the late morning. Boys keep looking out the window at the Valor wishing there was some way they were going back out on it. I'll get into details in the review but that about says it all. Just a great trip.

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We are waiting on deck 5 for disembark. Awesome cruise! Had a fantastic time. Already planning next years cruise. The kids had a great time in Club O2 and made a ton of new friends.

 

 

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Same with my son Kyle, he was hesitant about o2 (concerned it would be boring) and he had a blast. Made some friends and loved what Marco put together for the group!

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Arrived back at the pier about 6am this morning. Chilling on the Lido Deck waiting our turn to disembark.

I'll do a review when we get home, staying the night in Old San Juan and flying home to Seattle tomorrow.

But the short story is a FANTASTIC cruise. Good ship with a great crew. Wife and kids are stifling tears this morning depressed its come to an end.

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I don't mind the air travel that much. I grew up an airline brat (dad is a recently retired HAL captain). So spent thousands of hours and millions of miles travelling by air.

Kids on the other hand are not looking forward to it. But you do what you must do. No non-stops whatsoever from SEA to SJU.

Thanks everyone, yes the family is excited.

Travelling from Seattle makes it slightly longer than we'd typically do for a week vacation.

We are flying out early Saturday the 15th, via Chicago, Miami and then finally San Juan. Waited a little long to book a room but got one. Staying the the Verdanza Hotel.

On the back end there was roughly a $300 per person difference in airfare coming home Sunday vs. Monday so we are staying Sunday night in San Juan at the Sheraton Old San Juan right across from the terminal. Heading home Monday morning via Miami, Dallas and San Francisco.

Well my wife and I did a brief one night re-positioning cruise on Norwegian about 10 years ago. Left Seattle at 4pm and got off in Vancouver BC around 8am. Enjoyed it but....

So we've booked our family for the Feb 16th sailing on the Valor out of San Juan. Wife and I and our two boys 12 and 17 years old.

Looking forward to it. Never stepped foot on a Carnival boat and while I've heard mixed opinions, I imagine having limited cruise experience and what seems like a busy but exciting itinerary should make for a fun vacation.

Any thoughts or opinions, must do's for this trip?