scomar

Leaving on Monday, so thanks for the info. Don't expect sun, actually expect bad weather, so instead of bring shorts, bringing sweats. How's the library--this is usually my first stop? Do you know checkout procedure--grab and go, check out sheet or staffed?

 

Thanks.

Check out was smooth, no check out sheet. Didn't have to wait but a couple of minute at our assigned debarkation area, but then was funneled in to a big line of people. This took about 15 minutes in line with people and their big luggage. Not sure why they didn't to self debarkation.

I try to stay away from libraries when I am on vacation:D, so we never made it by the library.

Sounds like you had fun. We went on the valor in November and enjoyed it too. My sister paid for FTTF and got all the perks except on debarkation, we were in our cabin instead of in the lounge so we ended up getting off with the crowd. Serenity deck was quiet ,it's times with plenty of chairs. Which comedians did you see? We didn't enjoy the ones in October and didn't make any shows in November.

 

 

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Sorry I can't remember their names, probably too much alcohol ;p

Glad you had a good cruise! How late than expected did you get your luggage?

 

 

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We were told our luggage would be delivered 4 hours after we handed it to the luggage handlers, but it was more like 6 hours. We saw a lot of luggage that did not have FTTF stickers on them being delivered long before ours, but it was not a rel big deal.

So we used Faster To The Fun (FTTF) for the first time to sail on the Valor, loved it. The only issue experienced with it, is we did not get our luggage early as it states we would. We did love getting on the ship as soon as we checked in (11:15AM) and the short Guest Services line (really loved this), most the time I went to guest services the line was 10 to 20 people long. Either there was only one person in line or no one in line at the FTTF line. Also, going straight to your room and dropping off are carryon bags was fabulous!! There are signs at the doors to the hallways leading to the cabins saying the rooms are not ready, but we just went in and straight to our cabin, all the while trying to stay out of the way of the hard working stewards. Our Sail & Sign cards were in our mailbox when we got to the room.

The ship’s exterior is really showing its age as you could see a lot of rust spots, as a matter of fact while in Cozumel her sister ship Freedom was docked next to Valor and you could see the rust spot on her as well in almost the same areas as the Valor. The Freedom’s deferred maintenance led to a funny sighting as it departed from Cozumel. As the ship was departing when it was dark out the lit up Freedom sign with the R burnt out it now said Feedom . It is interesting that both these ships built 2 years apart showing the same signs of exterior deferred maintenance; make one wonder if these ships are getting ready to be retired or maybe it time for a dry docking. The interior of the ship was in pretty good condition for her age and did not see anything that I would make note of. Our cabin was an aft wrap around, which has a huge balcony. I mean you could fit 15 people on there easily, almost seem a waste of space for just the two of us. Cabin was in good order, plenty of shelf space in the restroom. There were not enough hangers in the closet. We asked for 6 more and our steward brought us 15. He kept our room up very well and always kept our ice bucket full as we requested. Also we were having trouble with the two twin beds pushed together that made up our bed, kept separating. We requested a mattress topper and boom he had it on and did not have another issue with it. Our room steward was great his name was hey you, that is not the way it is spelled but it is how he pronounced it.

We did not eat at the MDR so no report for that. Buffet was limited on the choice of food, but they did have the other stations such as the seafood shack, the Mexican food, Guys (loved guys), deli, I had a great pastrami on rye (also omelet station in the mornings) and pizza, which in my opinion was just okay. Oh yes the BBQ station which is upstairs from the buffet, had some pretty decent BBQ. Pulled pork, beef and chicken. You can have all three on the same plate if you as for it. My favorite was the pulled pork, very tender and juicy and this is coming from a guy who lives in Kansas City (we have over 100 BBQ restaurants here). BBQ beans not so great. Room service food for the one time we did it was not so good. I order a BLT and it had 3 slices of bacon, thin tomato slice with a one inch thick lettuce slice.

Went to see the comedian, OMG they were good!!! Ge there early it fills up fast. We did not go to any of the other shows; we are not big show people. Alchemy Bar was excellent, great drinks and service. Tell them what you like and they will make a drink from what you tell them. My wife and I go out to a dance club every other weekend to dance (freestyle) usually with a DJ, I know not bad for being in our mid-50s . So we did frequent the disco (One Small Step), I get the name since it is set up like you are on the moon, but not really a good name for a place you dance. Best DJ ever there. I asked for a couple of songs, couple of songs later he played one, then came on to the dance floor while we were dancing to asked me again what the second song was. He then played that song right after the one we were dancing to. Never had a DJ do that before and we dance a lot. This ship had some of the best bartenders I have experience in my 9 cruises. They remember your drink and name after just getting one drink from them.

One of our favorite places was the serenity deck (it has two levels) on the top level are two hot tubs with a great view, no kids at all!! Overall we had a very good cruise. This was over New Year’s Eve and we had an epic celebration. Being out on the Lido deck with most of the other ship passengers at the stroke of midnight was amazing!!! This also was our most relaxing cruise, as we did not do any excursions. We have been to Cozumel before and will be there again in a year. Progreso did not interest us and stayed on the ship, which seem to be the case with a lot of people as the ship was pretty busy for a port day. Unfortunately we only had one day of sun on our 5 day cruise and on our last sea day we headed right in to a cold front moving into the Gulf of Mexico with 35 mph North winds and 11 foot high seas, temp was about 40°, wind chill was really cold. They had the sea sick bags out at the elevator lobbies, but we did not need them. My wife and I were eating lunch on our last day and there were a few people walking out on the deck with coats on and hoods over their head. I asked my wife “Is this what an Alaskan cruise looks like?”

Debarkation was very smooth, but it was a long line to get out.

Let me know if you have any questions.

This is not a "tendering" question/poll.

This is a question about Grand Cayman.

When the seas were too high in one area our ship just went to another part of the island to land the tenders. The tour companies all seemed to know the alternative location. This was at the end of October.

You cannot know ahead of time how the sea will behave!

Well if you want to get technical, which it seems you like to do, at least on this post. This is polling people to see their experience with tendering to GC. So it is a tendering question, just about a specific port.

Hello my first cruise......and don't know wat to expect.....im taking my daughter and one of her friends.....will I be lonely.....cause I knw my daughter probably don't wanna hang with me the entire trip

I have always found it pretty easy to make friends on a cruise ship. Sitting at the bar or in a hot tub, about half the time some one will strike up a conversation. We have made friends with people for the entire cruise and in some cases beyond.

Look at it this way, you already have something in common with almost everyone on the ship, you all like to cruise;p

Just my opinion- take it for what it's worth... but if it were me and my cruise was any time in the next few weeks, I'd be calling Carnival TODAY to find out what the heck is going on, not depending on us here on Cruise Critic for a definitive answer... if I paid for FTTF I'd be expecting to see it on my boarding pass and my luggage tags.

 

If your cruise is still more than a few weeks away, I'd probably wait and check back before Christmas to see if this was just a temporary computer glitch. If not, I'd be calling!

Good advice shady. I would also take my receipt to prove you paid for your FTTF as well, just in case the computer glitch affected what they can see on your account.

Color is deck specific so make sure you ask for the orange sticker. Is your cabin on deck 6 by chance?

OK. I confused this with what I read about the Orange stickers put on the luggage for FTTF.

It's not for getting on the ship, but rather through ports of call security. They have always said to take a picture ID with you onshore, however, it's spotty on which ports actually check or not. Last cruise I think only Cozumel did. I know Nassau did every time we went there. San Juan is strict too. But when you board the ship, yes all you need is the S&S card.

Interesting, I have been to 21 Caribbean ports and have never been asked for a photo ID from port security. Maybe I need to take some ID with me next time.

If you are Diamond/Platinum/FTTF you can go to your cabin. Others will be ready around 1:30pm or when they make an announcement.

 

As they go to the cards in the mailboxes you will also get a card like the one I previously posted. Here is the one from Glory in October.

On this sign the last sentence says you have to have photo ID and your S&S card. Is this something new? Last time I was on Carnival (and other cruise lines), all I needed to board from a port stop was the S&S card and when they scan it a picture of me pops up.

I just check for our Dec, 30th sailing and FTTF shows on our boarding passes and luggage tags. Plus the luggage tags show the Orange color to indicate our luggage is FTTF.

My husband used them on one of our past cruises. I measured him myself using their guide and then I called the phone number that was on the website. We went over the measurements again, it was recommended to get the jacket a little larger than the size we originally had for extra room and then we were told after boarding we can pick up the tux after sailaway. No problems. Got to keep the tux for the whole cruise and turn it in the night before disembarkation or you had the choice to return it right after you used it . Your choice.

Looks like they updated the website, but it's the same company that supplies a lot of the cruiselines. No worries. Good experience here.

Very cool. Was a little apprehensive as I have never used a formal wear rental service for a cruise before.

Thanks so much for your reply.

Has anyone used the Cruiseline Formalwear website to rent formal wear on board?

I know you have to give them your sizes just as a tailor will measure you for a suit or tux. How was the fit? How was the overall experience? Do you have to pick it up somewhere on the ship r do they deliver it to your cabin.

We are on a NYE cruise and I will need it the second night of the cruise.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Not tech savvy. What is the mailbox> Is it a physical location? Thanks.

Yes physical. Looks something like this.

Thanks all for the good suggestions and the laughs!

If any one has some more ideas please post them.

Thanks!!

You are correct... FTTF puts you in the priority boarding group (with Diamond, platinum and Suite). You will wait in a special area and be the 1st group that boards the ship...usually around 11:30. Your SS cards will be in your mailbox outside cabin door. But if you want a drink immediately once you board...they will scan the bar code on your boarding pass which is the same as on your SS card

Thanks so much for the information!

You will use your boarding pass to charge items to your account until you retrieve your S&S. Not sure how the other ports do it but in Miami last week they had a separate line for early/late arrivals and you could stand in that line until they could process you.

We are sailing out of Galveston as well, but we have FTTF. As I understand it with FTTF, we can check in as soon as we get there (11 or 11:30) and we will be able to go directly to our cabin after boarding.

Will the S&S card work that early or do you have to use your boarding pass until a certain time?

What are your favorite things to do on the Valor when you stay during a port day? We plan on staying on-board at the ports stops because we have been to the port before.

Sleeping in is on the top of our list :D

Odd that the system doesn't distinguish between general queries and made booking queries.

 

I guess the system designers never thought to let customers know that the service was "temporarily unavailable". You know, like the back in 10 minutes sign on store doors. The ones that don't tell you when the 10 minutes started :D.

Totally agree.

I'm on the Jan 13th sailing. Hoping to change my cabin in a few days,currently booked on veranda under the Lido. Do you think cabin changes can still be made at this time?

I'm guessing once they get rooms assigned, you should be able to change to whatever rooms not yet assigned.

These guys are nudists?

 

:cool:

Buddhist Nudist?;)

I found one: https://discipleguide.org/church-leaders-cruise/

Maybe this is the large group Carnival was talking about assigning rooms and the reason why the Valor is not showing up?

Have you figured out what type of large group? We were on a sailing that happened to have a group that was about a third of the pax. Some sort of singer. Took the over the ship, showtimes were changed, other rooms couldn’t be used.

 

 

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Carnival did not specify what type of group or how large. They just said large group.

I hope so. I'm not in the position to make a call right now so thank you.

No problem. Anything to help out a fellow cruiser and CC member:)

I had my Valor sailing missing on "My Cruise Manager". Asked if anyone on CC had the same experience and one other is also with the Valor. Hope this puts some peoples minds at ease.

Just got off the phone with Carnival web support. They are telling me that the Valor (web services) are closed as they are a signing rooms for large groups, which Carnival must wait to do until final payment is made for those groups. I asked if they are doing the same thing with the Valor Jan. 13th sailing and they said they were.

I asked if this process could take days to do and they said it cam. They said it should show up in the next day or two.

Here is the link to the original post that it was missing: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2565455