Carnival Victory May 16-23, 2010 Southern Caribbean Cruise Review with photos

[Cardex]

This was our 2nd cruise on the Victory.

I kept a blog of our trip and am turning that into this review.

Hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions please ask.

 

 

May 15, 2010

On Our Way to San Juan

 

The view of the New York skyline from our gate at the Newark airport.

 

 

Our flights here were great and we arrived on time.

Beautiful views of Puerto Rico on our approach to the island and saw a rainbow.

The weather here is warm and a bit muggy and wonderful.

 

 

Our hotel is the Sheraton OSJ and it is right across the street from the cruise pier so in the morning we will just have to walk across the street to board the Victory. Our room is small but lovely with a very comfy bed.

 

 

We went out for a walk around old San Juan. We saw a lot of the same sites we saw when we were here with our kids in 2007. There was an outdoor market and lots of people walking around. We stopped and bought some wine since we are allowed 1 bottle each to take onboard but you have to take it when you first go on.

 

 

 

 

Back to the hotel to freshen up and then we met some of my cruise critic friends down in the lobby. We then walked to Barrachina (birthplace of the pina colada). There were about 35 people all from the cruise critic message board. Wayne and I both had a pina colada and we split 3 appetizers for dinner. There were flamenco dancers dancing while we ate.

 

 

After dinner we wandered around – the temperature was wonderful. The long day of traveling caught up with us and we went back to the the hotel.

[Cardex]

At around 1:30am the emergency alarm went off at the Sheraton. An announcement came over the PA system announcing it was not an emergency and then it was repeated in Spanish. Wayne barely woke up but my heart was going a mile a minute. It took me a while to go back to sleep. Later that morning we hear the reason why the alarm went off – an EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!! Wayne's comment was he was disappointed that he slept through his first earthquake.

 

I got up around 8am and let Wayne sleep in. Showered and got ready and when Wayne woke up his cold was gone!! He felt so much better. We went up to the rooftop deck to see the Victory.

 

 

Then we headed out for breakfast to a place I had read about (and Rachel Ray recommends) called La Bombonera. We had a Spanish danish called a Mallorca and it was filled with bacon, eggs and cheese with powdered sugar on top – it was wonderful!

 

 

We also had 2 small pies which we split – one cheese and one meat. The meat one was really good but the cheese one (cream cheese I think) didn't have a lot of taste. This restaurant was very busy but had really fast service and the guy bussed our table while I was still eating.

 

We headed back to the hotel to pack and at 11am checked out and headed to the Victory. There were a few people in line and lots of cabs picking up people leaving the ship. A porter took our luggage and we headed to the VIP lounge (nice perk that came with our suite). No lines, we had our key card in minutes but then we had to wait in the VIP lounge for everyone to get off before we could get on. At 12:20 they came to get us VIP's and we passed a room full of people to board the ship. We were number 8 & 9 to get on the ship.

 

First thing we did was buy a FunShip drink and toast our trip (and my birthday). Then we went off to get reacquainted with the ship. Took lots of photos and walked around. We stopped for a small bite to eat (mainly fruit) and at 2pm went to see if our room was ready.

 

 

It was so we dropped off our stuff and went back out to explore San Juan. We had a lovely day walking around. I bought a pair of sandals to match a dress I had brought with me and Wayne bought a Panama Hat.

 

 

 

 

We got back onboard and our luggage had arrived! We unpacked and rested a bit and then headed for dinner. We went to the dining room and I had the shrimp cocktail and the sweet & sour shrimp and Wayne had the gazpacho and the steak. We both had the warm melting cake and Wayne had the cheese plate.

 

Wayne's note: I knew I would need my fix, so I got a coffee card at the coffee bar so I could have Latte's and cappucino's in the mornings. You get a deal if you buy them in advance, and I knew I would be drinking them.

[Cardex]

We woke up at 7am to a beautiful sunny day.

 

 

Went up for breakfast at the buffet, then we met our tour guide with “Godfrey Tours” at 9am.

We were driven to the main shopping area of Charlotte Amelie and given 3 hours to spend shopping/sightseeing. The store clerks and barkers here are very aggressive. Everyone wants you to come into their store. Most of the stores were jewelery stores and we weren't shopping for jewelery. When I booked the tour we were given the option of 1, 2 or 3 hours of shopping and had I known I would have only done 1 hour of shopping. We then went on an island tour, stopping at various places to take photos, see the sites and learn a little history.

 

 

Then it was on to Coki Beach for a 2 hour beach break. While walking on the beach, these people were waving at us and saying hi – neither of us recognized them. They were 2 couples (Cari & Chad and Cherly & Greg) from our flight down, who were also on the cruise critic message board. We stopped and talked for a bit and then this big dark cloud moved in and Wayne and I decided to go to the bar for a beer in case it rained.

 

 

As we were ordering it started to pour. It rained long enough for us to get another beer. It was actually kind of fun sitting there watching it rain. When the rain let up we went and walked the beach. At 3:45pm the tour bus picked us up and continued the tour on the drive back to the ship. We were back on board by 4:10pm.

We met up with Cari & Chad and Cherly & Greg for some sushi, pizza and a drink since we all had missed lunch.

Wayne and I went for dinner around 7pm. Wayne had the smoked duck for the appetizer and lamb chops for the main and I had beef tenderloin with peanut sauce for the appetizer and beef stroganoff. For dessert we split the tiramisu and the bitter and blanc (a chocolate bread pudding). When we were done the waiters came by and sang happy birthday to me and had a piece of coconut cake. Wayne says he didn't have anything to do with it. I asked for something to cover the cake so I could take it back to the room and was told that no food could leave the dining room. When I said I was too full to eat it the head waiter found a cover and let me take it...

Wayne and I went walking around the ship. One thing we miss that we did on the NCL Jade - on the promenade deck you could walk completely around the ship but on the Victory you can't. This had been a great way to walk off dinner. There is really nowhere outside that you can walk except by the pool area which is really crowded and busy.

[LBumb]

great photos. i haven't had a carib in sometime.

[Cardex]

We had a leisurely morning since we weren't docking until 10am.

We woke up around 7:30 and had coffee delivered to drink on our balcony. Later we went up to the dining room for breakfast. Then went and walked around the ship watching us get closer to Dominica (pronounced Do min nee ka). Beautiful views!

 

 

Once docked we left the ship and met our tour guide with Antours to go river tubing. There were 7 people on our tour and we had a great time tubing. We were on the river for about 75 minutes. It was a blast!!

 

 

After tubing they had some yummy rum punch or local Kubuli beer (Wayne had both). Not a fan of the beer but the punch was good.

When we got back to the ship we went to the buffet for some lunch and then went back out to look around.

 

 

Not a lot to see so we walked around for a bit and then came back on board.

 

 

Tonight is dress up night (one of 2 dress up nights) but we are not dressing up tonight. We went up to the buffet for dinner and then sat by the pool and watched Terminator Salvation on the big screen.

[SoonerOne]

Ok, it's Friday afternoon and I'm at work, ugh! This place is empty, even the parking lot:eek: What am I doing on a Friday afternoon, Memorial Day weekend, still at work:rolleyes:???? I know, reading this new Victory review:D Keep it coming.......

[scooter90]

Please keep this going...I'm enjoying it and love the pictures!

[Cardex]

Another sunny day. We woke around 7am and went for breakfast at the buffet.

Met up with our tour (Scenic Barbados) at 9:30am. We had a great tour of the island starting with a church built in the 1600's. Then we drove along the west coast, across the middle of the island to the east coast and then to Bathsheba for photos (beautiful!).

 

 

Then we were dropped off at the beach at the Coconut Court Beach Hotel (chairs here were free) for 2 hours. The beach has a mile long boardwalk so Wayne and I walked it – what a wonderful walk!

 

 

Barbados is very beautiful.

We got back to the ship around 3pm and went for a burger. We got back off the ship for a little shopping and then went to the cabin for a nap (not sure if it was the sun or the rum punch that made us sleepy). Avatar was playing on the big screen by the pool at 6pm so we went and watched. Wayne had a slice of pizza and I had some bread and cheese. When the movie was over we took some dessert back to our cabin to eat (yummy Kahlua chocolate mousse).

[Cardex]

I woke early today (6am) so I grabbed my camera and went up to take some photos and let Wayne sleep. Took some great shots of the Pitons which are 2 pointy mountains at the end of the island.

 

 

We don't have a tour booked for today so we took our time getting ready. After breakfast we got off the ship and walked around the stores at the dock. Then we took the water taxi across to the main part of town. Once we left the main building we were bombarded with offers of island tours. Very aggressive and after a while very annoying. We found a local market with crafts and farm goods and the sellers there were also aggressive to get us to come to their table to see what they were selling.

 

 

I could tell Wayne had had enough so we started walking back to the water taxi. On the way back we passed a man who was selling water and local Piton beer so Wayne got a beer and I got a water as it was very hot (hottest day we have had so far I think). We took the ferry back and walked around the dock shops and Wayne got another beer – actually they had a 2 for $3 special so he got 2 :). While we were sitting drinking our beer/water it started to rain and then just as we were getting ready to go back on the ship it started to pour. The rain only lasted a few minutes and then we went back onboard.

We went up to the buffet for lunch and it was Mexican day (it is a different country everyday).

Walked around a bit and then came back to the cabin to read/nap.

Tonight is the second dress up night so it's back to the buffet for us. Then we took our dessert out to the pool to watch the movie Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

 

 

Since I am not a Harry Potter fan I went back to the cabin and had a bath (the jacuzzi is great). Since I was up so early is was an early night for me.

If I had to do this port again I would definitely book a tour.

[Cardex]

I will be back later with the rest of the review

[Jeans*Fanatic]

Thanks so much for this review!! I will be on her this coming Sunday! 2 days and can't believe it! Looking forward to reading the rest! :D

[Cardex]

Another early morning and another beautiful island.

Today we didn't have a tour planned so we decided to get off the ship and see about getting a tour first and then shopping/sightseeing later.

 

 

As soon as we exited the secure area there were lots of tour/taxis. The first guy that came up to us is the one we went with. His name was Lyndon and he was great.

 

 

 

We drove to see Frigate Bay where you see the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other – just beautiful.

 

 

Then we drove around and ended up at Cockleshell beach with Nevis (the neighboring island) 2 miles in the distance. This beach was gorgeous! There were 4 poster beds being set up with white cotton drapes blowing in the breeze and turquoise and orange pillows – I wanted to spend the day there but we had only negotiated a 2 hour tour.

 

 

This was the prettiest beach I have seen and I think St Kitts is the prettiest island I have been to (with Barbados a very close second). When we got back we walked around a bit and then stopped for a beer. The bar was very pretty with sofas overlooking the water/ship.

 

 

We went on board for lunch and then back off for more shopping. Walked around the town which also had a market today and then back to the touristy area. For Wayne today was the hottest (at least the most humid) so we stopped for another beer break (yes we are on vacation!). We were back on board by 3 and then sat out on our balcony. We had a great day in St Kitts!

 

[Cardex]

We had another tour booked for today so we were up early for coffee and breakfast.

We met the tour at 9am and headed off to see the island. This is a lovely island and we got to see a lot with stops for shopping along the way. We spent 2 hours at Orient Beach (my favorite beach in the world at least so far!)

 

 

More shopping and a beer and then on to Maho Beach to watch the planes land and another beer.

 

 

This beach is right at the end of the runway and the planes look like they are going to land right on the beach. Also when they take off, the engines blast the beach. Wayne stood there with another guy (Vince) from our tour and they both got sand blasted and Wayne's hat went flying into the water – lots of fun (at least to watch). On the drive back to the ship the driver had more beer for us (it's a good thing the beer here comes in a smaller size than at home or we would have been loaded) This was our favorite tour and our favorite island.

We were back from our tour by 3pm and went up to the buffet for a burger. Got back off for a quick walk around the port area and then back on board for the last time. We walked around the ship for a while and then I went back to the cabin to pack and Wayne went and grabbed a bite to eat (and brought me back an ice cream).

[Cardex]

I woke at 5:30am and we were just pulling up to the dock. Our room service coffee arrived at 6:30 and we sat on the balcony and watched all the activity until the noise drove us inside (not relaxing like other mornings).

 

 

We went up to the buffet for our final meal on board and then back to the cabin to get our stuff. We originally had tag #1 for our luggage but since we were in no hurry to get off and we knew some people had early flights we switched tag #'s – big mistake. There was a computer problem and it took an hour to go from tag 15 to 17 so we sat up by the back pool (and the ice cream machine) and waited and waited... Finally at 11:25am we were off the ship.

We grabbed a cab to our hotel (Marriott Stellaris). It was too early to check in so the hotel stored our luggage and gave us a pager (which only worked on their property) to let us know when we could get into our room. We went out to look at the pool and the beach.

 

 

Just as we were going to walk on the beach there was a huge clap of thunder. We looked at the sky and saw a very dark cloud moving our way and I knew it was going to rain any second. We made it inside just as the rain started. So we sat in the lobby and waited and waited... Finally around 1:30pm our pager went off and we got our keys and went to our room. What a pretty room!! And the bed is soooo comfy.

 

 

The rain had let up so we went out for a walk. The street in front of our hotel was having a street fair so we walked around. Stopped for lunch; Puerto Rican sampler plate, empanadas and bread – yummy and a beer. We walked down to the rich area with Cartier, Gucci, and similar stores and then down to the beach. Then back to the fair which was great (and very busy).

Early days make for early nights.

[Cardex]

We woke to our final morning in San Juan and it was beautiful outside. We left our room by 8am and went down the street to the same place we ate at yesterday (Danny's International - this was the only place we saw that offered breakfast). It was tasty and a great price.

 

 

Went back to the hotel to look up an address of a bike store and off we went to try and find it. The area we walked through was kind of sketchy but not too bad but I didn't want to walk back through it. We walked for 1 ½ hours and still didn't find the store but we did find a beautiful beach.

 

 

Just as we decided we had walked enough the sky darken and it looked like it may rain. We went into a gas station and had them call us a cab. We went back to our room to pack up our stuff and checked out at noon (check out time was 11am but I had asked for a late check out time of 12) and it was pouring out. We arrived at the airport at 12:30 for our 2pm flight. The flight was a little late leaving because the arriving flight was late but we ended up arriving on time in Newark. I am writing this as we wait for our flight to Halifax.

Great flight from Newark to home but when we finally made it through Customs and went to get our checked bag it wasn’t there! Off we head to the missing luggage desk to fill out a form.

We got the hotel shuttle back to where we had parked our car. Left for our drive home at 12:15am and arrived home at 1:30am and in bed by 2am.

Our missing bag was delivered on Tuesday May 25 at 5:30pm :)

 

We loved our vacation!! We will definitely cruise again but will probably not do another Caribbean cruise. We love to walk around and there is just not enough for us to see on the islands. We are not big beach people (but we did have a great time at Orient beach) we just prefer Europe and all the wonderful places there are to visit there.

[Cardex]

Thanks so much for this review!! I will be on her this coming Sunday! 2 days and can't believe it! Looking forward to reading the rest! :D

 

Have a great time!!!

[nicnayl]

Thank you so much for the fabulous review. It was great to see pictures of the river tubing, that is one excursion we are considering.

[duchessuta]

Great review! I was going to write one but can't figure out an easy way to put pictures in posts without having to upload them all to photobucket or something similar.

[kenrod]

Thank you Cardex for the wonderful review! The pictures were excellent and I enjoyed reading your narrative. We did this cruise two weeks earlier and your review brought back a lot of memories.

 

Thanks a bunch!

[Joanns6569]

I woke at 5:30am and we were just pulling up to the dock. Our room service coffee arrived at 6:30 and we sat on the balcony and watched all the activity until the noise drove us inside (not relaxing like other mornings).

 

 

We went up to the buffet for our final meal on board and then back to the cabin to get our stuff. We originally had tag #1 for our luggage but since we were in no hurry to get off and we knew some people had early flights we switched tag #'s – big mistake. There was a computer problem and it took an hour to go from tag 15 to 17 so we sat up by the back pool (and the ice cream machine) and waited and waited... Finally at 11:25am we were off the ship.

We grabbed a cab to our hotel (Marriott Stellaris). It was too early to check in so the hotel stored our luggage and gave us a pager (which only worked on their property) to let us know when we could get into our room. We went out to look at the pool and the beach.

 

 

Just as we were going to walk on the beach there was a huge clap of thunder. We looked at the sky and saw a very dark cloud moving our way and I knew it was going to rain any second. We made it inside just as the rain started. So we sat in the lobby and waited and waited... Finally around 1:30pm our pager went off and we got our keys and went to our room. What a pretty room!! And the bed is soooo comfy.

 

 

The rain had let up so we went out for a walk. The street in front of our hotel was having a street fair so we walked around. Stopped for lunch; Puerto Rican sampler plate, empanadas and bread – yummy and a beer. We walked down to the rich area with Cartier, Gucci, and similar stores and then down to the beach. Then back to the fair which was great (and very busy).

Early days make for early nights.

 

Thank you for the review and the pictures of the hotel. We sail in 4 weeks and have booked the Marriott as well. Is there anything good or bad you can tell us or we need to know?

[MsRed318]

Great review! I have a quick question...did you find this itinerary exhausting? I was looking at this cruise but I'm not sure how I would like not having a sea day.

 

Thanks

[dolfndreams]

Thanks for the pics and review. This was my favorite cruise so far, brought back great memories. I'm heading back next year, thanks for the river tubing review. I think you've tipped me in that direction, have to try it next year.

 

Did they do any island touring before the tubing? Loved Dominica, very beautiful.

[Cardex]

Great review! I was going to write one but can't figure out an easy way to put pictures in posts without having to upload them all to photobucket or something similar.

 

Thanks duchess, it was nice meeting you and your Mom.

 

Here are a couple photos just for you :)

 

 

 

I have a few more photos from the beach that I can email to you if you want.

[Cardex]

Thank you so much for the fabulous review. It was great to see pictures of the river tubing, that is one excursion we are considering.

 

We had a blast river tubing and I highly recommend it!!

[Cardex]

Thank you for the review and the pictures of the hotel. We sail in 4 weeks and have booked the Marriott as well. Is there anything good or bad you can tell us or we need to know?

 

The Marriott is a wonderful hotel and I loved our room but there is not much to do or see in that area but the beach. There was a street fair the night we stayed which was great but without that we would have taken a cab (or bus) back to Old San Juan (which we love!).

Have a great cruise!