Just back from valor 7/24

[drrich]

Review to follow. I have been on at least 10 cruises- this was the best.

[robinsra]

I was on the same cruise I will write my review also. It was a great cruise

[BENNETT531]

Oooh. Very excited to hear about it. We are booked on the Valor for our first cruise in Nov. Glad to hear you loved it!! Give us all the details :)

[LBumb]

sounds great

[dewats784]

Looking forward to reading the reviews. We sail on the Valor next January. Looking forward to the Serenity deck!!

[rhondab0511]

Can't wait to hear it!!! I'm so excited, finally officially less than 2 months away for my turn!!!!!

[drrich]

So the best plans, to write this great, thorough review....... sorry this took so long. I will try to hit as much as I can.

The cruise was fantastic, in a nutshell. A bit of background. I am 46, my wife is 44. Two girls, 13 and 9. I have been on Rccl, Holland America, Princess, and NCL. This was my first Carnival Cruise. Again, here are highlights- feel free to ask any questions and I will try to answer

 

We stayed in a Grand Suite. The room was more than large enough and super clean. There were 2 sinks in the bathroom, and one sink in the make-up area just outside the bath. There was a tub with jaccuzzi, and bidet. Refrigerator, safe, and flat tv that swiveled so it could be watched from the bed or the sofa (which opened for the kids to sleep in). Our cabin steward was awesome. There was no backed up plumbing, no odors from the sinks or toilets, etc. There were no "suite perks",besides priority boarding, but that is not important to us. since food is included in the cost of a cruise, I think other lines utilizing a "concierge lounge" is a waste. Maybe in the Four seasons, some free cheese and breakfast is good, but who needs that on a ship.

 

Dinner: had late seating. since there were 4 ports on this western carib trip, and we did not want to rush back to the ship to get dressed for dinner, this was a great option for us. If I had to do it again, however, I would choose anytime dining. We have done that in the past on Princess, and were hoping for great tablemates to share our excursion adventures with, etc. we were seated alone, (just the 4 of us). while we could have switched, I think the large tables were reserved primarily for large groups. I think anytime would have afforded us the opportunity to meet others more easily.

 

Food: I think I would rate it as "very good". It was always tasty, hot and delicious. I think with the exception of holland america, it would rank as the best cruise cuisine I have experienced. While the buffet did get boring after a while, sit down dinner had great selections, and our waiter always gave us his suggestions, which were usually correct. Dinner did take quite a while, though. probably close to 2 hours. After a long day on the beach and in the sun, a long meal was not my greatest desire, but it was fine.

 

The ship itself: to follow

[drrich]

more to come

[drrich]

ok, so let me skip the ship for a moment, and discuss the ports of call.

 

Grand Cayman: we booked at the last minute (and I really do mean the last minute-- ipad email last minute) the stingray- snorkel excursion. From what we read on cc, we chose not to go with Carnival, but booked through "stingray sailing .com". It is a small dad and son operation that takes you to stingray city on a catamaran with fewer people than the carnival tour. Let me tell you- the experience was awesome, and this company was the way to do it, in my opinion. Very small group, friendly service, and this was a "do not miss" experience.

 

Roatan: we immediately hired a taxi to take us to west bay beach (tapanaya??). The beaches are together, I believe. we ended up in west bay beach. It was by far the prettiest beach I have ever been to, including St John and St Barths. The water must have been 90 degrees. the only problem was aggressive locals hitting us up to purchase shells, have our hair braided, etc. We paid 10.00 for 2 chairs, and that solved the problem. an armed security guard kept the locals away from us for the rest of the afternoon. I felt as if the people who stayed in "mahogany bay" which is really nothing more than a fabricated beach courtesy of the Carnival company, really missed out at this port.

 

Belize: again, took a non carnival tour; cave-tubing.com was the very best experience possible. We did ATV and cave tubing combined. We were escorted by greyhound bus, they fed us cashew wine along the way, served us lunch on the way back, and our tourguide keith had so much "personality" that he kept us laughing the entire day. It was an awesome day.

 

cozumel: Nachi cocom beach resort. I had read some great reviews of this place, and we did have a blast. It was open bar all day, all inclusive food fun in the sun. Each group gets its own tiki umbrella in the sand near the ocean, and gets private waiter service. The only thing that disappointed me was not the fault of Nachi. In my mind, I envisioned a five star hotel, which only allowed 100 guests from cruise ships, as they say in their ad, to create a non crowded, peaceful day. Well, there was no hotel, no beautiful bathrooms etc. this is strictly a beach area, with a covered dining area, bar pool etc. dont get me wrong, great experience, just not as i had imagined. By the way; the water in Roatan was much warmer and clearer than cozumel, just for the record.

[drrich]

so the ship itself, and my experience:

 

-they take so many photos of you, and have so many backdrops available it is almost impossible not to want to buy a photo

-skip the bingo, it is a sucker bet. 20.00 for 15 minutes of play,- 5 quick games really. they must have had 200 players (do the math-- 4K), and gave away 100.00 "prize" per game-- heaven forbid 2 winners SPLIT the 100. I wish I could run that kind of "bingo" operation from my stateroom!

-we were on the ship by 11am, but NONE of the rooms were ready until 1pm. the area with the rooms was sectioned off until then, not even possible to see if your particular room was "ready" early, as I read

-instead of trying to sneak alcohol on board here is what to do: call Bon Voyage cruise company with credit card in hand. For about the same price as what you would pay in any liquor store, they DELIVER to your room whatever you want: you name it, they have it. We paid 40.00 for a full liter of Goslings Rum (the same as in any store), and brought our own pepsi on board (you are allowed 12 per person). This allowed us to make our own drinks to supplement what we bought at the bars on the ship. The only caviat is that what you dont drink you must leave on board. That was not an issue for us.

 

tbc

[drrich]

I wonder why this is not showing up when i search valor??

[Islandbear]

Great review. Keep it up.

 

We are booked on Stingraysail.com :) Glad to hear it was good

[Isasprings]

Great review.

[ferfoodle]

ok, so let me skip the ship for a moment, and discuss the ports of call.

 

 

Roatan: we immediately hired a taxi to take us to west bay beach (tapanaya??). The beaches are together, I believe. we ended up in west bay beach. It was by far the prettiest beach I have ever been to, including St John and St Barths. The water must have been 90 degrees. the only problem was aggressive locals hitting us up to purchase shells, have our hair braided, etc. We paid 10.00 for 2 chairs, and that solved the problem. an armed security guard kept the locals away from us for the rest of the afternoon. I felt as if the people who stayed in "mahogany bay" which is really nothing more than a fabricated beach courtesy of the Carnival company, really missed out at this port.

 

 

 

.

 

Really? An armed guard? What was he armed with? And they say Belize and Jamaica are not safe...

[drrich]

In Belize, they had giant machine guns, in roatan, all the security had handguns holstered. Don't let that deter you, it's another part of the world, and we are just not used to it in the us. My kids and I (mullet?) were asked hundreds of times about braids by locals, and we never did it. Every local accepted a nice "no" and moved on, no matter if they were trying to sell us shells, braiding, or whatever. No danger felt on our part.

[drrich]

Ok, I'm typing on my iPad, so excuse errors. I have been to grand cayman a couple of times now, and this time we did stingray city. It was awesome, as I said. If you don't do that, we had great experiences in the past doing a snorkel excursion. The snorkeling in grand cayman in awesome. I know 7 mile beach is supposed to be great, I think we spent some time there last cruise, but I cannot speak for that now. In Belize, if you have done cave tubing before, I suggest looking on these boards for a great beach. We did the full day cave tubing and atv, so I cannot answer any questions regarding anything else.

 

A far as the adult only area, we checked it out when our kids were doing their thing, And it wasn't for us. I like the action of the main pool area, but just a personal preference. If I want really soft loungers, I will stay home around my pool!

[cawagner]

so the ship itself, and my experience:

 

-they take so many photos of you, and have so many backdrops available it is almost impossible not to want to buy a photo

-skip the bingo, it is a sucker bet. 20.00 for 15 minutes of play,- 5 quick games really. they must have had 200 players (do the math-- 4K), and gave away 100.00 "prize" per game-- heaven forbid 2 winners SPLIT the 100. I wish I could run that kind of "bingo" operation from my stateroom!

-we were on the ship by 11am, but NONE of the rooms were ready until 1pm. the area with the rooms was sectioned off until then, not even possible to see if your particular room was "ready" early, as I read

-instead of trying to sneak alcohol on board here is what to do: call Bon Voyage cruise company with credit card in hand. For about the same price as what you would pay in any liquor store, they DELIVER to your room whatever you want: you name it, they have it. We paid 40.00 for a full liter of Goslings Rum (the same as in any store), and brought our own pepsi on board (you are allowed 12 per person). This allowed us to make our own drinks to supplement what we bought at the bars on the ship. The only caviat is that what you dont drink you must leave on board. That was not an issue for us.

 

tbc

 

LOL thanks for that chuckle :D and yes, we learned our lesson on our first cruise to NOT play the bingo anymore. By the way, great review so far...pictures?

[1stime cruiser]

I was on this cruise and my wife was Aretha Franklin in the Carnival Legends show! Great cruise!

[iTouch]

Really? An armed guard? What was he armed with? And they say Belize and Jamaica are not safe...

 

The armed guard makes it safe...