CARNIVAL VALOR Eastern Caribbean (September 11, 2011 (with Pictures))

[valancy1]

Great review, have you guys thoght about where your going on the next cruise? Sally and I are looking but havent decided anything yet. Tell Barry we said Hi.

Brent

 

Brent, check your email... I wrote yesterday but it didn't send. I resent it just now and it looks like it went through. Let's talk, please! :)

 

Barry was thrilled to hear from you.

 

We have our options open, but sent a suggestion...

 

Write when you can.

 

Debra

[SANJOSEGAL]

Hi Debra its great reading your review especially since we were on the same cruise with you experiencing the same things. The best thing about reading reviews is seeing different perspectives than your own. We were on the Valor last year before it went into dry dock. We loved it then and we loved it this time too.

 

This time we stayed on the Lido deck and fell in love with the convience of that deck.

 

At HMC we didn't get to the ship as early as we usually do because we had to wait for our group to be ready. The result was by the time we got to choose a cabana many were already chosen. I ended up choosing cabana #1 and we loved it. I understand many people chose not to be in the thick of it yet others thrive on it. I really didn't feel bothered by the extra foot traffic near our cabana. Yet we were with a bunch of 20 yr olds so they loved all the action being close to one of the bars, and daily activites was so much fun. The kids participated in many of the games put on by the ship activity director.

 

We have been to Puerto Rico a few times and love it, love it. We actually moved to the Valor cruise just because the Freedom cruise dropped Puerto Rico from their itinerary after we booked. We did the Segway tour our kids were blown away with the beauty and history we saw on this tour.

 

In Grand Cayman we booked a snorkel trip while the kids partied at Margaritaville.

 

St. Thomas we booked a private sail/snorkel trip with Island Girl. The water was really rough that day so getting out to the snorkel spot was pretty scary. My daughter actually felt really sea sick. We did that exact trip in 2009 and it was amazing. I guess Maria was still effecting the water conditions.

 

As for the emergency evacuation a announcement was made concerning what was going to be happening. I was laying in bed around 11 PM when I heard the announcement in the hallway. We were instructed to not take any flash photography of the helicopter as to not blind the pilots. I took a few steps out of my cabin to the Lido deck, had a seat and watched it all go down. The crew had blocked off the top half of the Sun Deck with chairs to keep people back. They also put ribbon across the stairways going up near where the band plays. People were still running up to the top of the stairs trying to get up there that was pretty annoying to me. The helicopter looked to be landing somewhere on the AFT by the golfing area. As the helicopter was coming in I guess someone started taking photos so the activity director and another staff member went running over there screaming no photography, no photography. Can you believe how stupid some people can be. Then 2 crew members came running down the stairs go to the pool and untie a pole used to clean the pool. They ran up the stairs with it and disappeared behind the tail of the ship. From what I heard the winds were too high so the helicopter left hoping for the winds to die down. I'm not sure if you remember that it was raining that night and pretty windy. Finally it did come back and took the woman off none of which we could see because it was in a area not visable by us. The next day I visited the medical office and asked how the person taken off the ship was doing. They said she was fine resting in a hospital. They would not reveal what she suffered from for reasons of privacy.

 

I'll add a few photos once I'm home to help with your review. We loved the Valor so much we booked it again for next year Oct. 13, 2012.

[Froufie]

We have been to Puerto Rico a few times and love it, love it. We actually moved to the Valor cruise just because the Freedom cruise dropped Puerto Rico from their itinerary after we booked. We did the Segway tour our kids were blown away with the beauty and history we saw on this tour.

 

Would love more details on the segway tour!! Name? Cost? location/length?

 

Thanks!

[SANJOSEGAL]

Would love more details on the segway tour!! Name? Cost? location/length?

 

Thanks!

 

Name: Segway Tours of Puerto Rico, website: segwaytourspr dot com

Cost: For the 2 hrs tour which is what we did $84.00 plus tax

Location: Walk off the ship go left off the ship down the side walk to the next building pier 2. You will see a small coffee shop on your left the Segway office is a few doors down from the coffee shop.

 

 

 

Here is a link to my photos from our cruise it starts off with our time in Miami so just skip over those unless you are interested. http://photobucket.com/Fennellfamilycruise

[Froufie]

Wow - thanks so much for the great pics and info - seems to be a popular tour! :D:D (my luck I would fall off the darn thing or get caught in traffice or something!)

[valancy1]

[quote name='SANJOSEGAL']Hi Debra its great reading your review especially since we were on the same cruise with you experiencing the same things. The best thing about reading reviews is seeing different perspectives than your own. We were on the Valor last year before it went into dry dock. We loved it then and we loved it this time too.

I'll add a few photos once I'm home to help with your review. We loved the Valor so much we booked it again for next year Oct. 13, 2012.[/quote]

I would love for you to add photos to this review! And thanks for the Puerto Rico reference. I believe that we probably had a skewed view because we had nothing planned and didn't know what to do. I coincidentally read an article by Anthony Bourdain just yesterday about some fun-sounding things to do in PR that we'll have to try. I would LOVE to do the Segway thing for SURE!

But one of the things I wanted to say is WE are looking at the 10/13/2012 sailing on [I]Valor[/I] as well! HOW FUN.

We didn't get to meet this last time, but it would be fun to meet up... I haven't joined the roll call (if there is one) on this future sailing yet because I'm not officially booked... once I am, I will get on over there and hopefully feel like part of the group.

P.S., thanks so much for sharing about the medical evacuation; we didn't know and I honestly heard nothing about it (and we were awake).