Arizonagirl14

We were on the Valor last year starting on December 26th and it was still decorated.

We did the Chefs table on the Valor last December and would do it again in the future. I thought it was wonderful and well worth the price. It all depends on the individual just like anything else dealing with food. The entire experience was great; the service was impeccable; and we even had entertainment during the evening dining experience.

Pace yourself so you can enjoy each and every course!

I don't think so, it comes from your attached card. We did $300 one time and $150-200 the other times.

My first " drink of the day" within the first couple of hour of embarkation... The vacation has begun and time to unwind and enjoy the week ahead!

Just use your sign and spend card...sign and sail card. You can go to the casino and transfer some to the casino, transfer some to your "casino account" and play a little bit, then go and cash out your casino account . It shows as a transfer from your debit or credit card to you cruise account. No fees, no cash advance fees it.. Simply a cruise ship charge. We did this 4 times on the Valor this past December. I use a debit debit card for my "card of record" so its equal to using an ATM without the fees. Just a thought.

And when you get in the ship go and apply it to your account.

I bought the plastic reusable luggage tags. We print our tags and just insert them into the plastic holder. They work well and can be used on future cruises.

We were on the December 28, 2014 cruise on the Valor. We dropped our luggage off at around 11am and then went to explore San Juan some more, as we were there for 2 days prior. We came back at 1:15 and walked directly in and were checked in within 10 minutes and in the boat shortly afterward. Very easy!

I also do as suggested make a cup of sweet ,hot tea and pour it over a glass of ice. It is much better than the iced tea they have in The dispensers.

We were on the December 28th cruise on the Valor. It was an easy embarkation. We dropped off our luggage with the porters at 11:45 am. We left and went exploring until 1:15 pm. We walked right up and checked in. Our room was ready when we boarded.

Since the embarkation process is longer than most cruise ships, it stretches out when people arrive to check in, so this cuts down on the congestion.

One tip when you return.... We came down to find our baggage and the lines to exit were horrific! We had a porter gather our luggage to take to a pre-arranged post cruise excursion. Once we retrieved our luggage the porter just breezed though the "porter only" customs line. We were though the easy customs line in less than 5 minutes; it was definitely worth the tip to the porter not to stand in the much longer exit lines.

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We were on the December 28-Jan 4th Valor cruise and also spent 2 extra days in San Juan. I am already looking at when we can book again. We fell in love with San Juan and truly loved this cruise.

We can not wait to return to beautiful San Juan!

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Additionally the service was excellent. We never had to ask for anything. The ladies were always there to refill our glasses before we needed them refilled and everything ran extremely well.

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We ate there on New Year's Eve at 6:30 pm. Excellent service and the food was great. And I am picky about service and quality of food!

My steak and lobster was excellent. My steak was perfection--ordered it medium rare and was wonderful. The lobster was excellent.

I ordered the dessert sampler and I liked 2 of them. Nothing was wrong with the other choice, it just wasn't my favorite. My husband liked them all.

He ordered the apples in the crust and stated they were excellent.

I thought it was very nice overall. We had done the chefs table the night before which was also excellent as well.

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Just back from the Valor December 28th Cruise from San Juan. We had ATD and loved it. It was out first time. The very first night we found a waitstaff that we liked and asked for them the 4 nights we dined in the Lincoln room. They were great and I saw no difference in this and set time dining except the flexibility to dine we we wanted.

We never had to wait any of the 4 nights, and we dined at various time( anytime between 6:15 and 7:45 pm).

We were served promptly and did not encounter slow service as some have discussed in previous posts.

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St Thomas-ferry to St. John. Beautiful

Barbados-went just to the left of boat year. I believe it was Copacabana ;beautiful but much quieter than boatyard. 2 Banks beers for $6 USD.

No beach in St. lucia

St. Kitts we did the 1 hour city tour and then went to the carambola beach club. It was beautiful. No peddlers and fantastic facilities. (Island Paradise tours) $30 p/p . Chris, out tour guide , was awesome. Chairs and umbrella extra. It is a nice facility and would go there again.

St. marten-Maho beach was a blast.

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Not available on the ship.

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Just returned on Jan 4th from the New Years cruise. We had a blast!

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You can contact the steakhouse for the Chefs table beforehand. Our Chef's table was on Tuesday evening. (There was a 2nd one on Thursday night on our cruise.)

That would have been the first formal night, but ours was moved to Wednesday, New Years Eve. The 2nd formal night was on Thursday.

You will receive a letter the first night telling you when the Chef's table is scheduled.

I did not attend the past guest reception, as this was our 2nd Carnival cruise.

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You will not go hungry on the ship, as with most cruises. We thought the quality was good in all venues we tried. They also have a burrito area, pizza, grill, wok, buffet, and fish and chips, and MDR. We did anytime dining which we had never tried before. It was fine as we found a waitstaff the very first night we liked.

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I believe they had some carving everyday along with hot entrees. I only ate the lido lunch 2 or 3 times as we were in port other days. Each day at Rosie's (lido dining) had a theme... American, Italian etc) . I did have Virginia ham one day at the carving station.

I believe there is gluten free pizza. I never ate the pizza, but my husband said it was good.

I never ate anything past dinner.. Sorry. There was a Mexican buffet late one night but could not tell you which evening, maybe Wednesday or Thursday .

Also room service is available 24 hours... Salad, sandwiches etc. not the MDR dining room menu, though. We ordered a mid afternoon lunch after returning from port. I had a tasty BLT and my husband had a grilled cheese, which he liked as well. Room service is free.. Just tip you delivery person.

We did the continental breakfast several times, as we are not big breakfast eaters and were usually heading off ship fairly early.

We did the seaday breakfast and it was good. The wait was not too bad for this meal.

Hope this helps.

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The Chefs table is a special meal for 12 or so people with the head chef. It is $75 per person. It is 8 courses and wine pairings. It was a wonderful experience. Highly recommend it. You can email the steakhouse for the valor and request reservations.

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Just returned on Sunday. Taxi is so much per cab( I think up to 4 people) plus $1 per piece of luggage. We came on a few days early but from Condado it was $21 plus $3 for our luggage.

I never found free wi/fi except at my hotel. (Maybe I didn't look too hard, as I was on vacation.) We have Verizon and could not get a signal--I believe this recently changed in San Juan.

All aboard by 8:30

Muster 9:30 ish. pm

Sail away is 10pm.

If you want to see the forts at night head directly upstairs following the muster; we were past them fairly quickly.

Most importantly--enjoy. Loved the cruise and loved the Valor.

For debarkation, we were group 8...the port was busy. They called groups 3-8 at one time. We had a porter take our luggage to the van for a post cruise activity and we whizzed thru customs and bi-passed the long lines. Best tip I ever spent! We were through in less than 5 minutes as they have a line just for portered luggage. Highly recommend it.

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We just returned on the Valor this past Sunday on the San Juan /southern Caribbean tour. We absolutely loved this ship. Excellent, excellent customer service; great food even at Rosie's Buffett. ( one day they had a wonder roast leg of lamb at the carvers station).

The ip entertainment was great. The show and with Dave was awesome. All the musicians were fantastic and Eliana can sing!m. We listened to them every chance we could.

We did the Chefs table and it was fantastic. Chef Santosh and staff were excellent.

We both agreed we would do this itinerary again and we would definitely sail on the Valor again.

We tried Fish and chips, the grill, mother MDR, the steakhouse, and the wok. Although the wok was not my favorite, most people seemed to like it.

Hope this helps.

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Cruise cash is specific to the individual cruise, so it should be used first, I would assume.

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We switched when they had the 36 hour sale. Always said I wouldn't do a guarantee, but it was $800 less than our original price; the location of the room mattered less at that time. We received our room assignment last week, 35 days prior to sail. We are happy with our empress level balcony room( we were on Lido); we are happier with the $800 savings!

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