1st Timers - Victory 2/21 Why we chose it, review - "Sexist"

[Haysiedaze]

Here are a couple more Coral World/Coki Beach Shots and a few from Condado Beach in San Juan.

 

Palm trees and the surf in Fenruary...nice.

 

 

Hanging 10 on a palm tree.

 

 

Mom and kids at Condado.

 

 

Father son walk in the surf at Condado.

 

 

 

 

Meeting Omar our 300 lb Sea Lion.

 

We learned about camoflauge while snorkeling on Coki.

[Momto2PrncChrmgs]

Great review so far. We're also usually Disney people, trying out our first cruise July 4 on the Victory! Can't wait to go home and re-read your review so I can see pictures. Stupid work firewall! :rolleyes:

[Haysiedaze]

I only attended one show during the week, VROOM. Some of the CC group that had seen it on other ships thought it was just okay. They thought other ship shows were better. For our family it was a great time (being a first timer has its benefits). We all really liked the lead singers and the dancers were fine. My family still talks about the embarrassed look on my face (yep I am really shy ;) ) when the female singer plopped down next to me and started singing to me. I also have the face of my daughter burned into my mind from when the Macho Man dancers ripped off their pants and were left in their underwear. Her hand went up to her face and her mouth was agape in surprise or was it shock :rolleyes: ? Either way it was priceless. Well worth the effort to see this show in our opinions.

 

My wife and daughter also attended the ventriloquist and the early comedian shows. They really enjoyed both shows but some of the jokes were over my daughters head (not an issue or a surprise to us). On their comment cards at the end they both wrote that either one of the two shows would have been just as good and funny without the off color language. They felt that that should have been saved for the late shows. Our kids I am sure have heard worse at school but I am just relaying what they wrote. In any event my wife and daughter loved going to the shows. One issue I had was that the seat backs are very low and I found them to be a little uncomfortable, again no big issue just a minor inconvenience to me personally.

 

Here is our impression of the food on Victory. We ate all our meals in the Main Dining Room. We had an early seating in the Upper Pacific Dining Room. We had plenty of time to get cleaned up after our island excursions. It did help in Dominica (our first Elegant Night) that my wife came back before us while we were snorkeling at Champaign Reef to begin the process. We had excellent service (nope the servers did not learn all of our names, we survived this just fine).

 

I think I am safe to say that we enjoyed the appetizers very much in both the quality and variety. Each night we ordered 2 or 3 depending on the selection. My favorites were the steak salad, the smoked duck and the escargot. My daughter ordered French fries as her appetizer along with the cold fruit soups and/or the fruit cocktail. She thought the Peach Soup was kind of tasteless (I tried it and agree) but the other two (strawberry and cherry if I remember correctly) were very good (her words). My wife also loved the escargot.

Someone from our CC group had corn chowder at the later seating that was served cold. We did not have this problem with it or other soups at the early seating (unless they were supposed to be served cold).

 

There was enough of a selection on the main course menu so that we always found something to our liking. Were they gourmet quality? Nope but they were pretty darn good. We cook most stuff bland at our house as my daughter tends to be a picky eater. My wife, son and I were thrilled that there was actually spices used in the dishes. Our meals were served hot and cooked as ordered. My favorite was a medium rare Chateau Briand that I found to be excellent. I had both lobster and Prime Rib on the first Elegant Night. Both were on the good side of the scale (I get fresh lobster here in NH a lot and there isn’t a comparison). I had prime rib again later in the week and it was on the excellent side then. Like any restaurant one night can be better than another for the same meal. There were a couple times when the meat wasn’t cooked quite right for people at our table. They simply asked the waiter to have it redone and it was handled quickly and without issue. All in all it was fun being waited on hand and foot (we missed it when we got home) and we enjoyed our meals. Our dinner companions were awesome.

 

The Lido Deck Breakfast Buffet is just what you’d expect eggs, toast, bagels, English muffins, fresh fruit, yogurt, ham, bacon (no bacon police present when I went), sausage, cold meat, waffles, pancakes, cereal (hot and cold), pastries and French toast. I would consider this standard breakfast fair most anywhere I have traveled. I never got to try the omelets. I can’t think of what we were missing. It was buffet food and what we expected in terms of quality.

 

The Lido Deck Lunch Buffet was (again our opinions) great. We ate lunch on it every day. There were never any long lines except on Debarkation Day. While some complain about the lack of variety we found the opposite. We never did get to try all that was offered.

 

I ate Chinese twice and enjoyed it both times. I had a Rueben at the Deli, great. My daughter found she could order grilled cheese sandwiches at the Deli, she loved them. Really how can you screw up 2 slices of bread and some American cheese anyways :confused: ? We all found the pizza to be very, very good, On Saturday we agreed to have pizza for breakfast. My son and I split a freshly cooked pepperoni one and my wife and daughter a cheese pizza. Both were cooked fresh (imagine not having slices ready at 7:30 am?). This was followed up by some soft serve ice cream. We had some happy kids (mom and dad weren’t too upset either)!

 

Here are a couple of suggestions. We ate breakfast in the main dining room (MDR) twice. It was very nice sitting and being served. You can get eggs cooked as you like them. Make a point of it if you have the time. Secondly on Debarkation Day GO TO THE MDR for your breakfast. We went there around 7:45 am had a leisurely breakfast served by 2 nice wait staff. I had a couple eggs over easy (perfectly done), hash, hash browns, toast, juice and coffee. When we came back up to the Lido Deck there were long, long, long lines at the buffet. Use the MDR!

Next up thoughts on Elegant Night

[aam3]

A great review so far with some excellent tips! We are sailing out on the Pride next weekend and are hoping that some of your tips will transfer to that ship!

 

Thanks:D

[cruzngma]

My Grandparents lived in Madison, NH on Boulder Road for many years. I remember going there and driving somewhere for Lobsters. They were always better then any others we had.

[Haysiedaze]

I have read threads on here where people believe that both Elegant Night and the Dancing/Singing Waiter Shows should disappear. To a family like ours that would be a shame. We dressed up as did our whole table both Elegant Nights. Most people in the MDR did. If you do not want to you do not have to. Yes it was a hassle to pack the extra clothes but we felt it was worth the effort. To each his own as they say.

 

Below will be a some pictures from them. Notice anything about them? See the common thread... happy people having fun :D . Parents and kids sharing a great time. Isn't this why many people choose to cruise?

 

We also posed as a family and had the two kids pose for pictures around the ship. No charge for the seating. We bought a family portrait and one of the two kids (they are holding hands, miracles happen on cruises). Cost us $40. Well worth it. We do not get a chance to dress up as a family often.

 

My wife and our waiter dancing, look smiles.

 

 

 

2 of our CC friends and dinner companions getting into the spirit of things, more smiles.

 

 

 

 

My daughter in the room with her towel animal still in her dress with her island bought jewelry on feeling good about herself.

 

Looks like a very proud boy getting ready to go to a dress up event.

 

 

Here is a mother and son dancing, their faces tell the story, big smiles, lots of love.

[luvscruising2007]

I want more:D:D:D:D:D:D

Thanks for your review and sharing your pictures.

[SenatorsFan]

Had to laugh at your comment about your kids posing together and miracles happening because it's so true. Two years ago, I got a wonderful photo of my 2 sons (now 17 & 12) together and looking happy to be together, too :D, that I just treasure. We've had some nice family shots taken, but this one is extra special. Keep up the good work, I'm enjoying your review and pictures.

Heather

[breezycruiser]

After reading your first post about the sexist competition:p I was so happy to see you posted a review! Thank you for sharing your story and pictures with us!

[Prairie_Gal]

I'm enjoying your review very much!

[Mypapaya]

I'm enjoying reading this. My cruise is at the beginning of April, and I'm glad to see that the excursions I planned on Barbados, Dominica and St. Lucia are the same ones you took and that you enjoyed them so much! Thanks so much for sharing!:)

[Haysiedaze]

I have to believe until you are actually going to board a cruise ship for the first time, you really have no idea just how big and grand they are. I joked on our roll call about how people would be able to tell it was us on the ship by looking for the family of 4 walking around looking up and saying wow. Inside I thought, yea right, I am beyond that, it won’t happen :rolleyes: . I am here to tell you I did not say wow once (lower case wow at least). After about 5 steps onto the ship I look up and without thinking say "WOW". Another 5 steps, "WOW LOOK AT THAT", 5 more steps and "WOW CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS IS A SHIP"! Okay take a deep breath and stop acting like a kid. Yes we were cruise virgins. We can’t compare Victory to any other ship. I will say we found the interior design to be very enjoyable, kind of fun and certainly would not call them over the top. We did not get bitten by any of the infamous Sea Horses.

 

I sat on the balcony one day and started looking very carefully around the area. Yes there were a couple small areas of corrosion, they were very minor. I owned a boat and fished the Buzzards Bay area of Massachusetts for years. I know what a difficult environment the ocean can be for any vessel. My opinion is that Carnival works very hard and does a very good job of maintaining their fleet, if the Victory is any example. I had to purposely look very hard to find corrosion (something I would never do if I had not read negative reviews on CC). Also there were people cleaning at all hours of the day. Disinfecting hand railings and any other public area that passengers come in contact with seemed to be their major focus (as it should be). There were people cleaning spots on the carpeting in the passageways daily. All rest rooms I went into were clean. Some of our CC group did get sick (1 admitted it was self induced, a drink or 2 too many while taking medication). One was a day or so after we boarded and one the last night of the trip. Was it from the ship or maybe from something they ate or came in contact with on shore? Who knows, what mattered is they did get sick. Our family was very fortunate we all stayed healthy. We did make a point to use the hand sanitizers that are prevalent around the ship.

 

We found the crew to be friendly and helpful. I made it a point to say good morning or hi to any crew person I walked past (that’s just me) and was always rewarded likewise and with a smile. Here are a couple of interactions we had with the crew.

 

My son loves artistic things. He does origami at home. Well when he heard there was a book on how to make towel animals, he had to get one. Late one afternoon we went to the gift shop and he bought it. On the way up the glass elevators to the Lido Deck low and behold there was a towel animal demo going on (they were trying to sell the book). My son went over and proudly showed them he had the book. The steward doing the demo asked him what animal he liked. My son said monkey. He hands my son some towels. Next thing we knew my son and the steward are on the floor and he is being taught how to make the monkey. The steward was patient and made the whole thing a lot of fun. I gave him a tip for the outstanding work (yes I know it is his job). The very next day we come up the elevator and there they are again, same steward. He recognized my son called him over. They began making more animals (I didn’t tip this time but wished I had). My son really enjoyed this (Pictures to follow on this).

 

So I have now got a towel animal making machine with me. We are back in the room and all towels are now being made into animals (I had to ask him to leave a couple to shower with). He was doing great at it (more pictures to follow). He asked for a piece of paper and pencil. Okay no idea why he needs them but sure I find him some. He sat down and wrote a note to Michael our room steward asking Michael what he thinks of his towel creations.

Off we go to dinner. My son is all excited about what Michael would say. I am worried Michael (who was from the Philippines) would do nothing and I would have a sad young man on my hands. After dinner into the room we go and yes Michael had read the note and responded. He told my son that he was now a Towel Animal Master. Out goes the chest, up comes one beautiful smile on my son’s face. Over the next couple days Michael and my son exchanged notes and left each other towel animals. I thought I had booked a towel animal zoo for a room :D . Michael got an extra tip and my son and I left great reviews about him on our comment card.

 

As for the entertainers not in the shows we loved the steel drummer and his music. When we were out at the pools he is who we hoped would be there. The guitar player/singer on the other hand is dismal. I saw other reviews that agreed. Carnival could do much better with rejects from a first show in the series Americas got Talent :( . We never got to the piano bar or other lounge areas so I cannot comment on them (will have to do that on our next cruise).

[Sarapdot]

 

Once I had narrowed the choices down to a couple per island I did a Power Point Presentation for the family At the slides of each port we voted on which of the excursions to take. This added to the build up of excitement for the cruise and got the whole family involved in the planning. We sipped virgin Pina Coladas while doing it. The cruise was much more to us than just the time spent on the ship.

 

Next the excursions

 

This sounds like something I might do and I'm thinking of doing it for our upcoming cruise in Nov. We have 4 girls that need to decide on what to do. I've never made a power point though. Hmmmm??? :confused:

[newt98]

steve. how did your underwater pics come out with that new d10? i think i want to get one, but i would like to see some more actual shots.

[Wicca___Morgan]

I loved your first sexist review, classic. I loved this review also. Pepperoni Pizza for breakfast???? Wow, I wouldn't have thought of that, now it will be on my mind for my first Carnival cruise. Thank you for your review and your pictures. Wonderful.

[Head Shot]

I am fortunate to have run across this review. Great "from the heart" review.

[yesaccasey]

Excellent review! I think Carnival offers a great value for everything they do... All cruise ships do for that matter, but Carnival just has it down pat!

[cv322]

Loving this review. More please....:)!

[Haysiedaze]

[quote name='newt98']steve. how did your underwater pics come out with that new d10? i think i want to get one, but i would like to see some more actual shots.[/quote]

Mike I'll put in a couple pages of pictures from the D1. Some from St Thomas, St Lucia, Dominica and Barbados. Each island one had different water conditions. St. Lucia the clearest water and Barbados the cloudiest (although Dominica and St Thomas were more similar to Barbados).

These are St Thomas Pics.

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[Haysiedaze]

These are Champaign Reef in Dominica.


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[Haysiedaze]

Barbados.

[IMG]http://i759.photobucket.com/albums/xx232/haysiedaze/Cruise%202010/Picture142-1.jpg[/IMG]

Then this I snapped of the same turtle but you can see there was not a lot of shutter lag. I like this picture because it shows the intracate pattern on the shell.

[IMG]http://i759.photobucket.com/albums/xx232/haysiedaze/Cruise%202010/Picture143-1.jpg[/IMG]

Finally a couple from St Lucia.

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[Hammerman417]

Great review!! Love your underwater pics. Just bought D10 for our cruise next week and just wandering how you like your camera?

Paul

[Haysiedaze]

[quote name='Hammerman417']Great review!! Love your underwater pics. Just bought D10 for our cruise next week and just wandering how you like your camera?

Paul[/quote]

I thought the quality of the underwater pictures was excellent. None of the photos here were touched up (a couple were cropped). If the picture appears cloudy it is only because the water was cloudy. We had a lot of wind on Barbados and Dominica.

The buttons are large and easy to find underwater. Set the "scene mode" to underwater for the best shots. One thing you must do before using it underwater is set the screen resolution to it's brightest setting possible. At times it was not easy to see what you were aiming at depending on the direction of the sun.

I took some movies of the turtles and they came out great quality wise. I did lose the subject at times because of the sunlight hitting directly onto the screen which deminished them somewhat (I need to learn to edit them so I can remove some of the shots of just the water).

I had 2 batteries with me but never had to change one over the course of a day. I always started with a fully charged one each day.

Out of water it is okay but the 3X optical zoom is limiting (we have a Panasonic Lumix that is 12X optical zoom that we use out of water).

Overall a very good underwater camera (wish it was closer to $200 than $300).

[Haysiedaze]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]In summary we loved The Victory and the Southern Itinerary. This trip made us into cruise addicts. We are already looking into a 2011 cruise. Our choice will be based on itinerary and cost again. We enjoyed Carnival and would definitely use them again but we are not committed to that. We’d also like to add in a sea day to try it out. An island a day can be (wait make that IS) very tiring. [/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]I’d book Lido Deck rooms again in a second but we may choose to find connecting ocean view cabins to allow more freedom to either my wife and I (1 stays with the kids the other can go wander the ship) because we are still not comfortable leaving the two of them alone on the ship (we do trust them enough but whether a ship or hotel we would feel uncomfortable doing it still). While I loved my balcony I am not sure it is worth the cost to book two adjoining ones (the extra money could pay for excursions).[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Another thing we would do is to look for more ship activities to do as a family. This was first and foremost a time for the 4 of us to be together. Our kids chose not to attend Camp Carnival strictly because we were having too much fun as a family (in too short a time the kids may not want to do vacations this way). We enjoyed mini golf, ping pong and air hockey as a family. The kids loved the pool and water slide. If you read this thread you’ll see how much fun we had on the Digital Scavenger Hunt (and find out why Sexist is in my title) ([/SIZE][/FONT][URL="http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1155628"][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1155628[/SIZE][/FONT][/URL][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]) and find out why we’d try more ship activities.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]We booked excursions for each of the first 5 islands. By the 4th day we were wondering if we booked too much. At the end of that day (St Lucia and the Cosol Tour) I asked my wife if we should cancel our St Kitts Tour (Rose & Jims Taxi). She replied we came to see the islands and I think we should go as planned. We did and because this tour did not involve any hiking (well going up the steps of Brimstone could be considered a hike by some) we were very happy we didn’t cancel. We did decide not to stay at Cockleshell Beach at the end of the tour and that worked out great for us. I am glad we didn’t plan an excursion on St Maarten though. Looking back the only change I would have made is on Dominica. While our tour (Bumpiing Tour) was very well done it is a lot of riding in a van for the stops you make. We would have just taken a taxi to Champaign Reef that day.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]The most important step I made on this vacation, was joining both Cruise Critic and especially our Victory 02/21/2010 Roll Call. As first timers I cannot thank the people here and on the Roll Call enough for the advice and support we received. As I said in an email to one of the couples we traveled with “we left for vacation as a family of 4 and returned as a family of 4 with a whole bunch of new friends”. [/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Oh yea, how do I know I am a cruise addict now? I deleted all my former friends of many years in my email address book. I only left people from our Roll Call in it……….they understand what it is to cruise.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]I’ll post a few more pictures but thanks to all that took the time to read this review. I enjoyed reliving the planning and cruise with you.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Steve[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]PS: For a different view on this cruise check out this review written by another of our Roll Call members. It is from an experienced cruiser who traveled with his wife versus mine as a first timer traveling with kids ([URL="http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1157250"]h[/URL][/SIZE][/FONT][URL="http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1157250"][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]ttp://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1157250[/SIZE][/FONT][/URL]

[loan_girl]

Love these pictures of your family! Cruises are the best for family fun! Thanks for your review!