Just Off The Victory November 6th to Nov 13th.

[BenjiRodney]

Currently on my way home, will start uploading 800 plus pictures and will do a full review and recap of this trip. It was the BEST CRUISE EVER, so much in fact we have decided to do it again next year. I had hoped to have started the review by now, but USAirways made to good of an offer in San Juan yesterday to give up my seat, a 550 dollar travel voucher, a hotel 1 block from the beach and a first class upgrade today, so here I sit with a couple of hours to kill waiting for a flight back to Charleston, WV.

 

if you have any specific questions about the ports or the activities on this ship please ask and I will do my best to answer. I plan a full day by day breakdown with pictures, so stick around for tomorrow evening and Embarkation day rundown.:)

[rockraiders]

Looking forward to your review. I'll be on the Victory in 130 days!

[smurfm69]

This was our favorite cruise too! Great ports!

[lgerrish]

Can't wait to read your review and see your photos. We'll be on the Victory in April and have yet to book a pre-cruise hotel for the night before the cruise. Any suggestions?

[frito58]

We love cruising out of San Juan have cruised 4 times out of there . Although I will say the Victory wasnt our favorite ship I love the stops. Nice getting the free air that will help.

[karma54915]

Oh I cant wait to read your review - I sail Victory in 32 days and over Christmas too! Sooooo excited. Glad to hear you had a great time.

[ibcnusoon]

Yeah! A Victory review, we sail her in oh, many many many days from now.

 

Subscribing and looking forward to your review and pictures!

[Jenna1983]

Did you fly through Charlotte? I heard them calling for people interested in taking another flight for the $550 voucher while waiting to fly back to Baltimore at 4:30. It looked packed when I was trying to decide where to eat!

 

And it was a great trip/ship! I have never had as wonderful of a cruise as I had on this one. I still can't catch up on sleep though. My body doesn't want to adjust to the time difference! lol I'm debating doing this itinerary again or trying the cruise to Curacao and Aruba!

[Bribrittmom]

Oh I cant wait to read your review - I sail Victory in 32 days and over Christmas too! Sooooo excited. Glad to hear you had a great time.

 

My family will be sailing with you.Can't wait!

[folio#]

I am also looking forward to your review! We are sailing on the Victory January 1st. It has been a long time since we sailed out of San Juan and can not wait! I could see why you gave up your seat......who wouldn't want one more day in San Juan.

[CaFireCaptain]

Sailing on the Victory in 129 days, looking foward to your review and pics.

[chay]

Currently on my way home, will start uploading 800 plus pictures and will do a full review and recap of this trip. It was the BEST CRUISE EVER, so much in fact we have decided to do it again next year. I had hoped to have started the review by now, but USAirways made to good of an offer in San Juan yesterday to give up my seat, a 550 dollar travel voucher, a hotel 1 block from the beach and a first class upgrade today, so here I sit with a couple of hours to kill waiting for a flight back to Charleston, WV.

 

if you have any specific questions about the ports or the activities on this ship please ask and I will do my best to answer. I plan a full day by day breakdown with pictures, so stick around for tomorrow evening and Embarkation day rundown.:)

 

I hope they make us that offer in a couple of weeks! Looking forward to your review.

[smurfm69]

Can't wait to read your review and see your photos. We'll be on the Victory in April and have yet to book a pre-cruise hotel for the night before the cruise. Any suggestions?

 

We stayed at the Marriott Stellaris in the Condado area and loved it! Very nice pool area and it's also located right on the beach. There are lots of places to eat within walking distance and a Starbucks right across the street. When we do this cruise again, we will stay at this hotel again. We got it for $100/night on priceline.

[BenjiRodney]

Did you fly through Charlotte? I heard them calling for people interested in taking another flight for the $550 voucher while waiting to fly back to Baltimore at 4:30. It looked packed when I was trying to decide where to eat!

 

And it was a great trip/ship! I have never had as wonderful of a cruise as I had on this one. I still can't catch up on sleep though. My body doesn't want to adjust to the time difference! lol I'm debating doing this itinerary again or trying the cruise to Curacao and Aruba!

 

 

Yes I took the 550 dollar voucher and the hotel 1 block from the beach and got a First Class upgrade on yesterdays flight.

[BenjiRodney]

Can't wait to read your review and see your photos. We'll be on the Victory in April and have yet to book a pre-cruise hotel for the night before the cruise. Any suggestions?

 

The Sheraton was nice in Old San Juan, had I not used Hotels.com rewards points to cover some of the cost, I am not sure I would have paid the price they were asking for rooms.

 

USAirways put me up at the Verdanza 1 block from the beach for giving up my seat, it was a nice hotel and I would stay there again, close to many places to eat, a Walgreens for any last minute things you need and right next door to the Embassy Suites Hotel and Casino.

[BenjiRodney]

Embarkation day, we flew into San Juan the day of. Flight landed at 2pm, we purchased Carnival’s transfers to/from pier but would only need them one way as we were staying post cruise at the Sheraton Old San Juan. We collected bags, met the Carnival representative, gave them our bags (we would not see them again until they were delivered to the room.) Loaded on the bus and we were at the Pier and through check in by 3:15. This is by far the fastest and easiest embarkation ever, and the friendliest staff as well.

 

Pictures are currently being uploaded to Shutterfly and I will share the link as soon as it is ready.

 

You could get back off the ship as it did not sail until 10pm, but it was nice to just feel our way around the ship and see our new home for the next 7 days,

[BenjiRodney]

The first night at dinner is open seating and you go whenever you want to, dress is whatever you happen to have on, in case your luggage has not been delivered. 3 of the 4 peices arrived quickly, the last peice arrived shortly after 8pm.

 

It was fun to go to the mandatory safety briefing and see so many intoxicated people, and wonder would they remember what to do in the even of a Titantic event? They did make people put down the drinks for the drill. It lasted maybe 20 minutes at the most.

[BenjiRodney]

Details on the Cabin:

 

We had Cabin 1062 an 8F category balcony on the Port side on Panorama deck 10. No noise and no traffic despite its location near the poor and large screen area. Most people got off and walked out to all of the activities through Lido deck 9. So this was a nice quite location.

[BenjiRodney]

I have uploaded all of the pictures including post cruise pictures to the following shutterfly site, I could not get anyof them to attach to the postings.

 

http://rogerstraveladventures.shutterfly.com/

 

Pictures of the Carnival Glory from last November are there as well. Enjoy and I will continue with the review as well. Starting with St. Thomas.

[BenjiRodney]

If you want to know what any of the pictures are please ask and I'll be glad to spill the beans on them.

 

Please be advised that if you are taking this cruise to relax and rest, then you have selected the wrong ship/itinerary. There were times we felt busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. Way to much to try to see and do, that why we want to do it again next year.

[BenjiRodney]

St Thomas, this was our second time here. We were there last year as a stop on the Glory. This year we booked a tour with Airforce One and had the luck to get Papa Bear himself as our guide. I read many great things about him before we left. There were only 6 people booked with him that day, 4 for the tour/beach and the 2 of us for the tour. The tour should have lasted 2.5 hours, but he took his time, let us get out and take pictures, shared things with us, and took us places that the other tour compaines do not. We even got to try a sour sop drink at a farm. The weather/clouds changed pretty quick up at Mountain Top, but it did clear up and offered some great views. We ended up with a 4 hour Island tour for 35.00 per person. Well worth the cost and we would go with him again next time.

[BenjiRodney]

After he dropped them off at the beach and we took a few pictures there as well. By the way he lets you choose which beach you want to be dropped off at and how long you want to stay. We asked him to drop us downtown for some shopping. We spent about an 1 hour and then took a cab to the Paradise Point Tramway as we prepurchsed those tickets from Carnival. You save 2 dollars and you can go up and down as many times as you like. It's a 7 minute tram ride up to get some good shots of your ship.

[BenjiRodney]

We only stayed long enough to take some pictures and look at a couple of the stores. They have added a Ferris Wheel up there since our visit last year. We left and made our way back to the ship for a late lunch and then relax before finally going to our assigned dinner table for the rest of the week. We were given a booth next to the stairs in the Pacific Dining Room. Our table mates were 2 sisters from Puerto Rico who were not thrilled that they would have to speak English. This was the only night we would see them for dinner as they asked for a new table and they were moved. No big loss. It was nice to have a table to ourselves. Last year we had a great table for 8 and still talk to some of them through Facebook.

[BenjiRodney]

One thing to mention I had read many things about the locals and some being rude etc. Some were, many of the kids were really hyper. One area that I am bi-lingual in is dirty looks, this usually did the trick if they tried to cut in the buffet lines or talk through the production shows.

[BenjiRodney]

I will post more tomorrow as I have to be at work at 5:30 in the morning and drive to Maryland for a 3 hour meeting and then drive home.