Just off the Valor 2/14/2010-2/21/2010

[mxmom]

We had a great time on this cruise but there were still a little bit of frustration too.... We were two couples in our fourties... My DH and I have cruised Carnival, Disney and Royal Carribean. The other couple have done many more lines then us.. This was our 10th cruise so we are somewhat experienced with how things run...

 

We flew out of Michigan on Friday the 12th... As we arrived to the airport we realized that our flight was delayed due to weather (air tran stated) our flight was to leave at 6:30 pm. The weather in Michigan was great it was weather from atlanta GA that was the issue. We were delayed two hours so to the airport bar we went to find comforable seats and just hang out as we were all really excited about our upcoming vacation. Well 8:30 came and no plane.. We were then delayed until around midnight. (we did book our own flight and not through the cruise line) well a long story short... There was mechanical issues first with the plane then the weather in atlanta (where the plane was coming from) was really bad sooooo here we sit at the airport waiting for our plane to arrive.... Air trans did bring in pizza for us and we also did receive free travel vouchers. So I was really glad that we were not flying in the day of our cruise because I would of been a wreck. We finally arrived at our hotel Holiday Inn port of miami at around 4:30 am. Both of our rooms were next to each other and we had the view of the port. As we were arriving at the hotel some of the ships were just docking and that was really cool being up to see the ships coming in. There were two when we arrived and when we woke in the morning there were 5 ships there.

 

Saturday 02/13/2010

 

Well we woke up at around 8:30 and we all got ready to go out sightseeing.. We ate breakfast at the hotel and was going to do a city/boat tour of miami. The tour was a good one we really did enjoy ourselves and was able to see many things that we would of never seen had we just drove around on our own. The weather was not the greatest it was cloudy with only a high in the 60's. But better than home and we were on vacation so we just went with it... The boat ride was fun and it was really neat seeing all the houses of stars. The boat ride was a little chilly but we just tried to remember back home its colder... We ended up at the marketplace across the street it is a huge mall. We ate dinner at a restaurant called The Knife. It was a different kind of buffet style restaurant.. They had a buffet of sides/salads etc... Then you went to the grill and you could get anything beef, chicken, seafood... It was really a cool place and I highly recommend it. So we called it a early nite because we were all exhausted from the long nite the day before.

 

 

Sunday Day 1

 

Valentines Day!! Well the weather was still a little chilly and it was pretty windy also. Well we woke to look out our window to see our ship and many others which was really exciting. We went to breakfast then walked around the mall across the street a little more then back to the hotel to get our taxi to the port. The hotel did not have transfers but Taxi's for $5.00 a ride so all of us just took one Taxi over to the port. We arrived at around 10:30am there were still some people debarking when we arrived. We dropped our luggage off and into the terminal we went.. We received zone 3 card. We went to the kiosk and registered and it went really smooth no problems then onto receiving our cards with no issues. Then going to sit and wait till our zone was called. With it being Valentines day there were alot of weddings. So we believe that was the hold up for boarding the ship. As we were waiting for the announcement that they were starting to board the ship Carnvial reps played a trivia game with us and it did make the time go by faster. Finally around noon they started to board. We were on the ship in no time and to Rosie's for lunch. By the time we finished lunch our cabins were ready so we heading there to check them out. We were in cabin #8253 and our friend were in #8255 (Verandah deck balconies right next to each other). We like the location of our rooms and we met our room steward right away and fell in love with him all week.

We went to check out the ship and just get used to the layout. When we returned about an hour later our luggage was already there. So I unpacked quickly so we could go wander around some more.

Well soon enough it was time for the muster drill (we did not have to wear our lifejackets). The drill itself was somewhat of a joke. They play a recording of what you are suppose to do in case of an emergency but not one person around us was listening to this. There was a big group next to us that had probly around 10 kids with them and the whole time we could not hear what was being said because of the noise from the kids playing. The carnival employees kept trying to quiet them down with no such luck. As we were walking away I could hear one of the employees telling another what a joke that was and how no one would listen to her.

Big Tex our cruise director stated that we had over 1000 kids on board for our cruise (yippee))) When you leave yours home you really don't want to deal with others... But I must admit with that many kids on board they really did keep them somewhat contained. There were only a few times that we had any issues with kids. Our cabins were right outside the elevators and stairs. On one nite we were coming back to our cabins at around 1:30 a.m. and there were a group of kids that were playing with the elevators. The only reason I know this is because when we were walking through security was there reprimanding them. So one of our neighbors had called to complain about them.

 

For dinner in the washington dining room. We had a booth for the four of us. Our waiter was Gregory (eeyore) and his assistant was Diana. By the end of our cruise we just called Gregory eeyore because that was his personality. He talked just like him and was always in slow motion.. We did have mediocre service. The food was good we all enjoyed our dishes but sometimes it just seemed that we were forgotten. Our water glasses were only filled maybe once during dinner every nite even though we had asked repeatedly for more. But we just brushed it off most nites and just went with the flow. Certain nites he never offered the ground pepper or grated cheese for our salads. We did notice that many of his tables arrived at all different times and we just kind of chalked that up to why he was all over the place.

 

We did go to most of the shows and really did enjoy them. The comedians were really good and we did really enjoy ourselves. The first comedian (not sure name) was doing his routine at midnite for the adult show. He was on a roll then all of a sudden he just ended his show and walked off. We were all sitting there surprised and wondered what happened? For the show before us he was outside the lounge signing his cd's and talking to everyone? Then for our show he was just gone?

 

I will continue soon sorry if this is all over the place but I am not a good writer..

[Hector's Mom]

Love your first name :D

 

We're on the Valor in 34 days (33? somewhere around there). Thank you so much for the review!!

 

~Dawn

[ciera123]

Looking forward to hearing more, including your thoughts on the ports. We're on the Valor May 30!!!

[mxmom]

Monday - Sea Day

 

Well we woke to cloudy skyes again... UGh!!!! But the weather itself was ok... still better than home.

 

There was alot of activities going on today we went to a couple of the trivia things going on and walked around quite a bit. Played in the casino a little while (we are up $250 at this point).

 

Not alot of stuff to report today just hanging and having fun...

 

We did discover that drink prices since our last cruise went up quite a bit though...

 

We had early seating in the dining room and went to the show tonite and it was good.

 

 

Tuesday - Grand Caymen

 

We did not have any excursions planned this whole trip. We were planning on doing a couple of city tours and then relaxing at the beaches. So when we woke to chilly weather and cloudy skyes that kind of took away our thoughts for the beach LOL!!! So we rode the tender ashore and we found a really cool guy named George to drive us around the island and do a tour then some shopping... George was awesome he had a mini van and there were the four of us and it was perfect. We could of not asked for a better tour. He even took us to his house for drinks. Then dropped us off back downtown to do some shopping. The line for the tender was not that bad for us so we were lucky.

 

Wednesday Honduras Roaton

 

We kind of had the same plan here. None of us have been to this island before so we all really wanted to check it out then we were planning on going to mahagony bay. We did the same thing here, just walked out and tried to find the best deal for a city tour. There were the usual carnival tour people holding signs of where you should meet for your excursions, then there were people behind them that had decent prices. So while we were standing around trying to figure out what our game plan was we notice to our left that there was another company that did tours that were a little more private so off we went and again had a great tour in a mini van with the four of us.. Sandra was our guide and she was very knowledgable about the island since she has lived there her whole life. We did the east and the west side. On of her sons worked at a local bar and she took us there for lunch and drinks and we had such a wonderful time meeting her family and just enjoying the locals. Once again we picked a great tour guide. She dropped us off at the port for a little bit of shopping and we were planning on going to the beach but decided to forego and just board the ship so we did not get to check the beach out but it looked like alot of stuff was going on there from the view.

 

Thursday Belize

 

We really did not have any plans here either.. LOL!!! This was another port that none of us have been so we kind of wanted to check it out.

So we had to get a ticket in at one of the lounges in order to board the tender so off we went and realised how crazy the wait was to get off the ship. We received a #6 sticker and sat to wait to be called. We were talking to others that had been there since 8:00 with the # 4 and it was around 9:30 at this time. So we waiting and about 10 minutes they called 4, 5, 6 and 7 all at once. They walked all of us down the hallways to the gangway there was a boat leaving full at about the time we got to the gangway so we board another boat at that time. It was about a 10 - 15 minute ride to shore. The boat was actually a pretty smooth ride.

 

Once there we did the same ritual tried to find a tour guide. When you walk off the tender you are in a gated area. There are guides everywhere but they are not allowed to haggle with you they are required to stay in a painted area. They were holding signs of tours so you are suppose to approach them first then they can try to sell their tours. Once again we found a nice private tour. Leonard had a mini van (again) and drove us all around Belize and he was a great guide. He took us all around for a couple of hours and showed us alot of interesting things. We had a great time.

 

He dropped us back at the port and through the gates for shopping before we boarded the tender back to the ship.

 

 

We did have alot of fun on all of our tours and each guide that we hired always went over and above for us. This was our first cruise that we did not plan our excursions through the ship. I would definetly do this again. All of our tours ranged between $20-$30 per person and we were in mini vans with just the four of us.

 

 

We really enjoyed ourselves on this cruise. There were some negatives and positives throughout the week though.

We thought that the food was awesome and had no issues there. We did not try the steakhouse this cruise but have in the past. But the service in the dining room was kind of lacking. Example with water glasses not being refilled and dishes not being taking off the table once we were done eating, never being asked if we wanted ground pepper or grated cheese, on prime rib nite never getting the au gu and sour cream for the potato even when asked. These things are very minimal and did not wreck our dinner but I just wanted to mention them.

 

We are not smokers and usually are not bothered with this but for some reason this ship must of had 80% of smokers on board.. We always get balcony rooms and have NEVER been out on our balcony and had to go back in because of smoke. It was just certain times of the day though. But even throughout the ship we noticed alot of smokers. I am not bashing smokers or want it taken off the ship. I believe to each there own. Just mentioning this. I do feel that they should have smoking sides of the ships on the balconies too though and that would of solved our problem.

 

If anyone has any questions I will try to answer.