Just back from Valor...May 1 Cruise...the Good and Bad

[sharecruises]

Sailed on Valor May 1...my 2nd time on this ship

 

Had a great cruise, great friends with me....super ports...nice time

 

Good and Bad will be covered here

 

Ship looks great....like new...sparkle and shine

 

what a great place to hear about Osama Bin Laden Justice: on the Valor with it's "heroic" theme....and USA Flag theme lobby LOL

 

That was nice :0

 

Valor just had dry dock and they added the nice Serenity deck above the spa in the forward area...just like Glory

 

however they did not redo the cabins as they did on Glory....no flat screen tv...and our bathroom could have used some help

 

Our shower head was loose, the tubing was old and worn and it would spin around and hit you in the face first couple days....reported to room steward several times....he said he "adjust" it....but it still did not work. I had to call desk/maintence and get them up there to replace it then it worked fine. It was simply worn out....but the steward should have seen to this IMHO. I did not enjoy a face full of water and it sprayed my dress on elegant night as I hung it in bathroom while I showered

 

I am very allergic to down and feathers and when I board my card beeps for special needs...they are "supposed" to remove the down and/or deep clean if smokers were there

 

On Valor this did not happen.....despite asking him several times the down was still in the room when I came back from dinner....I called and then finally had to put the comforters outside the door myself as my eyes were starting to water and I was sneezing. We did not have blankets first night. <sigh>...Next day he finally brought the acrylic blankets

 

Buffet was fine, food good and lines not too bad

 

One thing cheapened...my Jan 29 cruise on Glory still had the trays in buffet...now just a super large plate...harder to get your food and bring back.

 

Also never saw anyone with ice tea/lemonade/coffee trays on Valor as we saw on Glory....but we did see Lots and Lots and Lots of drink pushers LOL

[sharecruises]

Good things>>> loved the serenity area...not too hard to get seats....loved the aft pool...also adult and non smoking

 

Enjoyed the Promenade and Atrium...duo from Philippines who sang and played relaxing/pop music....good singer

Alex the guitar player was very good...he often played by the casino

 

Food was good for the most part. Omelet stations were not too crowded....lines went fast....very tasty and cooked to order. Much better than the scrambled eggs on buffet. Bacon police were pretty generous <grin>

Deli was good, Fish and chips good...cervice was excellent...I only ate there 2x however, wish it was open longer hours

 

Dining room food was good to great....lobster tails excellent and they did bring seconds with no problem. Mostly "hits" with a few misses (more later)

 

I enjoyed the ports....but Mahogany Bay was somewhat of a let down and next time I would do a tour there. I did Fins and Flippers when I was there before but it is now called Maya something and pretty expensive tour.

 

Grand Cayman...another $10 tour LOL>>> hell, dolphins, rum cake factory drop off at Royal Palms

 

Royal Palms was wonderful, improved...new free pool for over 18s....we had a huge cabana and padded couches....great service...just spend $10 on food or drink. We had yummy frozen drinks....shared huge mound of calimari and fries, tasty and not greasy. We were able to leave our stuff there and go in the beautiful water, clear and blue...lovely day beautiful beach. Not crowded and would highly advise this :)

 

Belize....went out side tourist village and got carriage ride around town for $15 *(they wanted $25 in village)...great time....great driver/tour guide D'Andre....much interesting info about Belize. I have done cave tubing and Altun Ha before so this was something different. Nice time...yes poor but to me not scary....enjoyed the flea market outside the port...cheaper prices. Good times

 

Cozumel : decided to walk to town...3 1/2 miles...hot but lots of pesky shops on they way LOL. Stopped at a beach bar for drinks...and then walked more. Went to the 2 large stores where the locals shop...one is more like Wal Mart and one more like Target "Tar- jay" LOL....in fact it is owned by Target. Pretty interesting.....no one spoke English and all prices were in Pesos.

 

Bopped around town and shopped and taxi back to port $7 total. Nice time

 

Shows : great singers and dancers, the guy singer a little weak but pretty good.....the 2nd show Far from Over was great but oh my they need to "retire" that couch on the Nightclub Express...that show is tired. The entertainers were good but the songs are so blah. The intro looks so old and worn out. Far from Over is a much better show IMHO, 80's songs

 

Punchliner comedy club was great....saw all 4 comedians over the week and enjoyed. Frank Del Pizzo is super IMHO.

 

All in all a great cruise and ports

[golfadj]

Thanks for the review. Sailing on Valor next Jan.

 

Have been on her sister ships and like the variety of food on Lido.

[marshabear]

thanks for the review...we have the same port stops on the Glory next week...we plan to go to Royal Palms too.....it sounds wonderful!! :)

 

 

 

Marsha

[New2Cruising24]

Thanks for the review, we'll be on Valor in October...reading up for our first Carnival cruise :)

[sharecruises]

CUTBACKS

 

IMHO the CUTBACKS were really evident on this cruise

 

Yes, they have been happening for some time but now they are really getting annoying

 

Buffet :

 

no more trays....just large plates

No one pushing the lemonade/ice tea/coffee cart...but drink servers are there to sell drinks

 

Buffet.....Italian, Italian II....American , American II....what is up with that??

what happened to Indian buffet?? Asian buffet???

 

they did have a French Buffet that I liked a lot...really good fish dish on that

 

I thought the food was good on the buffet but much less quality

 

also the salad bar was not as well stocked as the one on Imagination just last December....what is up with that??

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Entertainment : total cutback

 

I really miss the semi production show.....it has been replaced by the cheezy Newlywed or whatever "game" show....what a bore

That used to be in the afternoon...an ok thing to watch if bored and then see it again and again on tv...but as others say this is NOT an evenings entertainment

 

Very blah

 

We had a wonderful Motown show singer on Valor when I sailed on her before...Marcus Allen I think?? Now...the marriage bore show ....<sign>

 

I skip jugglers and stuff like that....I did enjoy the Punchliner club instead. But all in all the cutback in entertainment is obvious

 

2 piece Reggae duo....just so so.

 

Good guitar player solo...pop/soft music duo who were good

3 piece Latin group (not my thing, can't comment. I like some Latin/pop music but this was nothing I recognize, no Miami Sound Machine haha)

 

4 piece "rock" group...not great

 

just so little entertainment here

 

very bad staff IMHO>>> less trivia or events....and what they had were not fun like on the Glory. They were haphazard, held on a couch in promenade with noise of casino and tv blaring.....on Glory they held trivia in ATRIUM...and it was a lot of fun

 

One gal in particular needs a new job....heavy set British gal...she reminded me of the bored/ignorant teen on the Little Britian TV show LOL

very nasty and arrogant.....

she also "helped" with selling the Bingo cards and was very rude, rushed through trivia, just a jerk all round

 

Goose Newman was ok as cruise director but never saw him around the ship. Jorge on Glory was sooo much better...much more "fun" ship style

 

Legends show is really old and boring....and this was worst ...one of the guys who did Sonny Cher old routine didn't even know the words..it was not very funny

 

all in all....the only really good show was the Far from Over IMHO

 

 

Past Guest Party?? well I missed it....my (inept) room steward put my invite on the pile of junk they put in the cabin....watch sales, art auction junk, buy the bedding flyer etc...so I missed it

 

I did complain at front desk and to their credit they sent me 2 drink tickets ($5.50 ? value) which was a nice gesture. IMHO this was just not a greatly organized ship however

 

Fun Farewell...not highly publicized...but held in theater...got one cheap rum punch....servers were sparse...not a great fun farewell like we had on Glory and yes, even on the Destiny the fun farewell was better. They held those in the aft lounge not the theater and you could get more drinks and move around

 

This fun farewell was more music from the 4 piece rock band. (yawn)

 

No one from cruise staff led the farewell...the singers didn't sing....just a bore...bye bye...farewell...hope you had fun and buy some more stuff

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Mahogany Bay.....walked rather than use the flying chairs...long line for them so good luck on that

 

Power was :out: on the Mahogany Bay beach.....lucky for the riders the chairs were moving tho

 

I used the ladies room before hitting the beach....lucky me...water was not flushing...no lights...all the shops on the beach were dark or closed cause of the power outage

 

No frozen drinks and no food at the beach bars...beer and mixed drinks were there...they brought in ice

 

beach was ok, liked 7 mile better....but it was nice. Loungers were free and many were in shaded areas

 

would have been better with electricity <grin>

 

I left and went back to the ship rather than brave the ladies room cause by this time it was getting "ripe" in there JMO

 

Shops at top of hill were mostly open but no lights.....same junk, different island....same stuff that they have at Grand Turk...

same stuff you can buy here at Fort Lauderdale Beach just different names written on them....mostly made in China LOL

 

I would def get a tour next time, go outside and find a driver. Live and learn.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Food was good in dining room but went a bit downhill.....last night the prime rib was very fatty and not good at all...also the "seafood newberg" was not up to usual standards...pretty skimpy on seafood IMHO

 

~~~~~~

Service was just OK>>> no assistant...never learned waiters name...very rushed.....good if you just order all at once, don't ask for anything extra...

 

The "shows" in dining room were pretty good tho we were on bottom by window so had to go up and watch.....staff seemed to be pretty into the dancing and the assistant maitre d gal led the singing and had a nice voice

so that was pretty good

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

Real cutback in staffing IMHO>>> just less people....more mess on the lido....hardly saw any officers in white.....the "entertainment" crew was not memorable...surly British gal, short guy with white hair who introduced comedians...neither friendly......"Squishy" led the Bingo and he was more visable and a bit more friendly

 

No one cared if you used the sanitizers which were sometimes empty

If something was missing...."Go to the other station".....ie, no lemons at the drinks station.....so told "go to the other station"...thanks LOL

 

My Jan 29 cruise on Glory had better staff IMHO and better buffet food IMHO. Better entertainment too. I have only been on one NCL cruise (little sky)...but they have sooo many white suited officers, hand sanitizers are mandatory....and a fun staff

 

~~~~~~

Summary.....good cruise and ports.......but I really hated the marriage show pushed off as a night's entertainment and I really missed having a good "cover" band

[sharecruises]

thanks for the review...we have the same port stops on the Glory next week...we plan to go to Royal Palms too.....it sounds wonderful!! :)

 

 

 

Marsha

 

I really loved Glory this past Jan....they did a great remodel there. Cabins are great

 

Yes, Royal Palms was fantastic...they have ? 8 cabanas I think...only 2 in use, one of them ours....just fantastic

 

Don't bother to rent the loungers for $7 IMHO>>> just go and get a cabana

 

The food was great, servers were nice and fun to talk to about the island...one of them was from Atlanta

 

Pool is clean and nice....over 18 ONLY

They told us it was built for a party last year for the Jamaican star singer Sean Jean. Just beautiful place....felt like South Beach :)

[spideyfam]

Gald you posted a review. Thank you!!

 

I agree with the entertainment. On the Pride last month, The Marriage Show was in the evening, too.

[Stelerz36]

Thanks for the review,we are looking forward to the Valor on 5-29-11 !!

[csunshine860]

I really loved Glory this past Jan....they did a great remodel there. Cabins are great

 

Yes, Royal Palms was fantastic...they have ? 8 cabanas I think...only 2 in use, one of them ours....just fantastic

 

Don't bother to rent the loungers for $7 IMHO>>> just go and get a cabana

 

The food was great, servers were nice and fun to talk to about the island...one of them was from Atlanta

 

Pool is clean and nice....over 18 ONLY

They told us it was built for a party last year for the Jamaican star singer Sean Jean. Just beautiful place....felt like South Beach :)

 

Hi,Would you be so kind as to give more info on Royal Palms - where to book and costs etc. how long was port stop, etc. Thanks

[golfadj]

They did the Marriage show as evening entertainment on Miracle in Feb and thought that was awful. Hopefully this will not be fleetwide.

 

Between Legends (same old, same old) and Welcome Aboard (same old, same old) less entertainment for us.

[John&John]

They did the Marriage show as evening entertainment on Miracle in Feb and thought that was awful. Hopefully this will not be fleetwide.

 

Between Legends (same old, same old) and Welcome Aboard (same old, same old) less entertainment for us.

 

Wouldn't have minded the marriage show on that showless night of the Deck Party and Superstar Live we also had the the Liberty.

 

I wish they could at least move the show schedule around to at least offer punchliner on the Mega Deck Party night.