Help me pick!! Valor/Victory or Triump vs. Empress RCCL

[LegalCat]

Helllp! Ok now I'm confused... here is the cruise we have been considering:

 

Empress of the Seas

April 29, 2005, leaves out of San Juan, PR on a Friday and returns to Ft. Lauderdale on a Thursday. The ports of call are: St Thomas, St. Maarten and Hispaniola.

Cabin: Oceanview Stateroom, 139 sq feet, $1,288.50 total for two people including taxes/fees

The next size up cabin would be $500 extra total for 157 sq feet and $700 for 194 sq feet/Balcony.

As this is a kind of get away and not our "splurge" vacation, we don't think the extra $500 or $700 is called for on this cruise.

We will have to fly to San Juan and the airfair will cost us $355.20 total for a total cruise cost of $1,643.70

 

NOW, my dilema is... the price seems good, although it was cheaper a few days ago, I'm hoping it may go back down or will go down after I deposit and hopefully we can get an upgrade or refund.. no big deal...

 

The other options are:

 

Carnival Victory, May 1, 2005 sailing

goes to San Juan, Tortola and St Thomas

 

Carnival Valor, April 10, 2005 sailing,

goes to Nassau, St Thomas and St Maarten

 

Carnival Triumph, May 7, 2005 sailing,

goes to San Juan, St Thomas and St Maartin

 

Because we can get a friends and family discount through Carnival, and we live close to the Port of Miami we wouldn't have to pay any airfare, we should be able to get a balcony stateroom on Carnival for about the same price, maybe even less, to the price of the oceanview cabin plus airfare on the Empress.

 

Please give me your opinions. Also if we fly to PR, we will be flying in early the morning of the cruise... we don't anticipate this being a problem as we fly to PR all the time without problem.. we live in Miami so its not like we might get snowed in or some thing... but it also means that we won't be spending extra time except one afternoon in PR, so thats not really a factor in the decision.

 

My husband thinks it will be fun and unusual to fly to PR to catch the ship and then return back to Ft Lauderdale...

 

I look forward to your comments ;)

[Bran8778]

Victory

[Rescue156]

Either of the 3 Carnival ships.

 

 

My parents did Emperess of the Seas. They say noooooooo.

[LegalCat]

I picked the Victory. I actually had decided on the Valor, it was only $40 p/p more than the Victory but a newer ship, etc. for the same sailing date. But, when I called my reservation agent, she was able to give us the CFF discount on the Victory but not the Valor as its still a new ship.

 

We were able to get an 8C/Balcony for actually $10 less total for the entire trip (cruise/airfare vs. cruise) on Empress so it seems like a much better deal, it goes round trip out of the port of Miami which is right next to where we are, so no airfare, and its an extra day, a sunday through sunday versus friday through thursday, and we get a bigger cabin with a balcony. Yay. Hope we made the right decision.

[Bran8778]

still a good choice Legalcat!!

[LegalCat]

Thanks Bran :) I think we will be happy.. we haven't NOT been happy on a cruise yet.. so I'm sure this will work out great :)

[interalia]

The Valor....we just got off...definately!

[robsvacation]

I've been on the Empress (pre-renovation however) Trimuph and Victory.

 

I can not tell you enough how small the standard cabins are on Empress. It's breathtaking, plain and simple. The bathroom reminded me of an airplane bathroom. The joke was to wash in the shower simply soap up the walls, slip in and spin, which would be funny except it was really close to being true. The cabin was furnished nice enough, but be prepared to dress in shifts, one sitting on the bed while the other dresses, The floor space is really that limited. Also, because of the design of the ship avoid the lowest two decks of cabins and anything directly above or below a bar, noise insulation is limited.

 

The remainder of the ship is nice, compact but well designed. The dining room, casual buffet and Artium all stood out as particularly nice spaces. The complete walk-around deck is also a standout. I was on the Empress for a repositing cruise, deck space is an issue with very limited space around or even within sight of the pool on sea days. Remember, this ship began life as a project called "Future Seas" as a ship designed specifically for short cruises, it shows in the overall design. Tiny Cabins, Nice ship, too crowed pool deck is how I would sum it.

 

Victory and Triumph as pretty much the same ship, although I found the decor nicer and a tad classer on Triumph. Cabins are large but fairly plain, however there's room to move about in all classes of cabins. These ships are somewhat ackwardly laid out. While there is plenty of deck space, I find the design somewhat closed in feeling, but if you don't mind being on an upper deck (by the top of the waterslide) there is plenty of space and more views. Fitness centers are great on these ships.

 

Valor I can't comment too much on, however it does feature a new cabin design for Carnival which looks a little nicer (if still somewhat plain) and there is the speciality restaurant. Also, Carnival is a little lax in fixing things so a newer ship can be plus with them.

 

All things considered, for the same price I'd lean towards Valor.

[LegalCat]

Welp, with the discount we were able to get, we got an 8C on the Victory for $833.40 per person including taxes/port etc, the same 8C on the Valor would have been $478.00 MORE per person including taxes/port etc.. so we saved over $900 by going on the Victory instead of the Valor... we can always go on the Valor later in the year once we can get the CFF discount on the Valor, lol...