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Carnival Victory 12/4-12/11 - First Time Review

SBthud326

By SBthud326,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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SBthud326

SBthud326

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Hello all! I've read so many great reviews on here while getting ready for my past cruises that I wanted to take the time to write one this time since I didn't after my Valor cruise last year. My name is Suzanne, I'm 30 and I traveled with my cousin Joslyn and her boyfriend Josh, both 21. I've traveled around the world quite a bit, and Jos went on the last cruise with me, however this was Josh's first so I wanted to make sure it would be quite special for him. We flew down to Puerto Rico 2 days early, both to give us some extra time in a place that Jos and I love, and to ensure that crappy midwest weather wouldn't hamper our plans. We also stayed a night post cruise, since this was such a port intensive itinerary and it turned out to be a very good idea for an extra day of relaxation.

 

PreDay 1 I flew into San Juan from Dayton, OH on Airtran. This was my first time flying with Airtran and it was ok. I know airlines have cut down on their in flight services, and it’s a small thing but I guess I just expect on longer flights to be given an full can of soda. Airtan doesn’t, though they did offer a refill of the small cup you got. Like I said, it’s a small thing, but I don’t do well in planes do to my claustrophobia and every little bit helps.

 

Landed in San Juan around 4:15 and met my cousin and her boyfriend out by baggage claim. They came from Omaha and we were fortunately able to time it so that we all got in at the same time. We waited a bit for our bags, then went out to get a taxi to our hotel. I really like the fact that San Juan regulates the cab fares between zones so you always know what you will be paying. The only thing I noticed different from our previous trip to San Juan was that previously every cab we got into had a sticker on a window that had all the zones and fares mapped out. Not a single one did this time. Exiting the airport there was a stand for taxis and a guy was directing people, giving them a sheet with fares on it and he told you upfront what the charge would be. Ours was $19 with 3 bags to our hotel in Condado.

 

We stayed at the Comfort Inn San Juan, for $109 per night. It was only a block from Condado beach, and a nice little hotel. Nothing extravagant and there were repairs going on while we were there, but the rooms were nice and clean and the pool was really cute. We went to Orozco's for dinner friday night since I had read good things about it and really wanted mofongo. The food was excellent (we had the corn fritters to start and chicken, shrimp and lobster mofongo for dinner), the pina coladas (our traditional first drink in Puerto Rico) were decent and it was just a gorgeous night.

 

Saturday we went to the beach for most of the day. We rented chairs for $5 and just enjoyed the sun since we weren't sure how much we would get on the cruise since it was the start of rainy season. There was a really neat market in the green square by the beach that looked like it went most of the day. There were a few vendors walking around, but none of them were pushy, and one guy had fantastic looking meat empanadas that I really wish I had tried but didn't since we had just eaten lunch. There was also a "model" in a red sequin dress taking pictures on the end of the beach where there was a sidewalk area. I say "model" because she really only knew one pose, lol. That didn't stop the creepy old men on the beach from taking pictures of her though! Saturday night we headed into Old San Juan and did a little shopping. We had hoped to meet a group from our role call at Señor Frogs but we got there early, sat in the bar and never found anyone. We had a good time anyway, especially with the DJ walking around pouring shots down your throat! And I managed to talk them into making me a viking hat out of balloons. My Scandinavian ancestors would be so proud.

 

Here are a few pictures, and next I'll get to our Sunday excursion with EcoQuest and embarkation.

 

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SBthud326

SBthud326

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Day 1 EcoQuest, Old San Juan and Embarkation

 

Sunday we were up and out early as we had an excursion planned with EcoQuest. We've used them in the past and just had incredible experiences (the main one being a hike up a river in the jungle by Caguas, a rappel down an 85ft waterfall and zip lines back down) so we decided to try their zip line course in Carolina. It was a very good decision. We were picked up at our hotel about 830am and taken out to Campo Rico in Carolina, a huge family owned property that hosts horseback riding, cave exploration, ATV adventures and the zip lines and rope bridges we would be doing. When we got to the ranch we were greeted by Ludgardo (which made me and Jos very excited as he was one of our guides in Caguas and we had a great time with him). We filled out the paperwork and met Sahid, our other guide. We started the excursion with some kayaking around the property, and it was beautiful. They somehow have multiple different eco systems coexisting on the land and it's amazing. It was also cool to see the iguanas sunning themselves in the trees. After kayaking for a bit we went up some rope bridges to take us to the first of 5 zip lines. It was very safe, Ludgardo and Sahid were very good about making sure we were harnessed correctly, and aware of safety instructions, and any time you stepped off a platform, even for a bridge, you were secured to a safety line. The zip lines here were much longer than the ones we had done previously, including the longest one in Puerto Rico. It's like 1000ft long and it feels like you are up there forever! The last zip line takes you right into the bar, haha, where you have lunch with the guides. The lunch was chicken and rice with fried plantains and it was fantastic. We also had the best mojito I've ever had in my life (and believe me, I've had a few!).

 

After lunch our taxi driver took us to the cruise pier. We got there around 13:30 or so and walked in. We got our bags on the conveyors and headed up to check in. There was maybe 20 people in line ahead of us, and we only waited about 10 minutes. Once we had our sail and sign cards we were able to go right onboard. We walked past all the duty free shops and went to security. My bag was tagged with an orange plastic tag (and rightfully so since I had our wine) and we walked onto the ship. At the entrance I was directed to the table next to it so they could check my bag. I told him it was our 2 bottles of wine for the 3 of us, and opened it and showed him. The guy at the desk was ok, but the security guy at the door was rather rude and yelled at him to check everything, including my cousin and Josh. The crew member was nice about it but geez, their bags weren't tagged and he checked everywhere, and I mean everywhere! Finally the security guy was convinced we didn't have anything else and let us get on the ship.

 

First impression, I like the decor a lot more than the Valor. I loved the patriotic theme on the Valor, but it seemed every room we were in had a much more relaxed color scheme, and the theatre was gorgeous. We went up to the Lido to hang out a bit before our room was ready at 230pm. We checked early but the doors to the hallway were closed, so we went back at 230. We had an ocean view room, 1383 and we were on the side of the ship that was to the port pretty much at every stop. I don't remember our Stewards name, or his assistant, but they were very nice and VERY efficient.

 

After dropping our stuff off, we got back off and walked around Old San Juan for a while. We've spent a decent amount of time here before so we walked along the waterline and there was all kinds of stuff going on. Live music and venders all over. We walked along the outer walls by the Governor's mansion and through the San Juan Gate. By that time we were ready to grab our soda to bring on and stopped at the CVS that is just a couple blocks from the pier and got back on. We got ready for dinner and went to the open seating. I read in previous reviews that people complained that the wait staff didn't try too hard on this night, because these wouldn't be their normal people. I could see that to some extent. It wasn't the best service we got but it wasn't bad. We got everything in good time so nothing really to complain about. I had the fried shrimp (my favorite!) and the other two got the pasta with sausage. They had WCMC for dessert and I tried the Black Forest Cake. All was very good. After dinner we went and did some karaoke, went to the safety briefing, then went to the sail away party. We were up there a little early and tried to find our roll call group but they weren't there yet. So we went up to the main pool area and came back later. Must have been a short meeting cause they were already gone! I think Carnival does an excellent job with the entertainment aspect of the deck parties, and it was very exciting getting to see the sail away at night. We partied for a while, sang some SuperStar Live karaoke, then went to bed to rest up for St. Thomas.

 

 

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SBthud326

SBthud326

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Lovin' your review so far. I just loved our trip on the Victory. It is one I would definitely do again (and plan to) Keep that review coming. They are time consuming .... so thanks for doing it. :D

 

Thank you! They are certainly time consuming, one major reason that I never got my Valor review written, too many things to do at work when I got back. :D

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SBthud326

SBthud326

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I am loving your review! We are doing the same cruise February 5th. So I make sure I read all reviews. Your's is great.

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch 4g

 

 

Thank you. I did the same thing, I think I read every single Victory review that was on this board and actually, if I took a collective knowledge base averaged out over all of them, it was pretty much exactly what I got, haha.

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SBthud326

SBthud326

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I'm leaving tomorrow from Vandalia to drive, yes drive to Miami to get on the Valor. Good to see a good review from a fellow Daytonian.

 

Oh my gosh, driving? Wow. I'm learning how to drive long distance since I moved here 4 months ago and it's an 11 hour drive back home to Omaha. I'm getting better at it, though it's a good thing my dog is usually with me to get me awake! :eek:

 

I hope you have a safe trip, and enjoy the Valor. If you can find OK (literally that's what his name tag says) the bar server or Coco the head waiter in the dining room, they are WONDERFUL!

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SBthud326

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Day 2 St. Thomas

 

We didn't have anything really planned for this port, initially we wanted to go parasailing and planned to do so through Carnival, however once onboard we stopped at the Shore Excursions Desk and were told that Carnival had put a halt to all parasailing due to the US Coastguard's inspection. What he didn't tell us and I think I read somewhere on here is that there was an accident not that long ago and someone was killed? Very unfortunate, and disappointing to us as we were very much looking forward to this activity. So we got up and it was very overcast and rainy and we decided to eat breakfast and sleep a little more (with 2 college kids, they were all about getting all the sleep we could, lol). So around 11 we checked again and the clouds were breaking up so we decided to do some shopping. I've been to St. Thomas before with NCL but I believe we docked at a different spot. Right off the ship there is a large collection of shops, the typical souvenir, t-shirt, jewelry and liquor places, along with a couple places to eat that had some very good looking chicken grilling and good beer bucket specials.

 

We decided to take the SkyRide up to Paradise Point to get some pictures. I don't remember exactly how much it was, I'm thinking around $25 for the ticket. Once we got to the top the views were absolutely gorgeous. There is a bar up top that had someone playing live Caribbean music, but we didn't go down to it. We just walked around and took a bunch of pictures, then decided to head back down and go lay by the pool on the Victory since the sun was out.

 

The pool was a great idea because this is where we met Eko, the bar server. He was walking around with the drink of the day and we stopped him to order. He very quickly became our favorite server and we tipped him in gratitude. Probably the best thing we did on the cruise because this led to some free drinks during the rest of the cruise. He was always happy to see us and we even had our own special handshakes with him. So if anyone sees him in the near future, tell him Suzanne, Jos and Josh say hi!

 

After getting our tan on, we got ready for dinner. This was our first night at Anytime Dining. Jos and I did this on the Valor last year and loved it. So when we went to get seated, we asked the Maitre' D for a fun section and he gave us Teck's section. We didn't move the rest of the trip. I think we made an impression on Teck that night because we were little piggies at dinner. I couldn't decide on what appetizer because they all looked SO good that night, so I ordered 3 and the other two followed suit. Needless to say, by the end of dinner, we were absolutely stuffed! We (in various combinations) tried the potato soup, fried shrimp, wilted spinach salad, tom ka gai, and shark roll. All were delicious! For dinner Jos and I had the beef stroganoff and Josh had the pork steak. And somehow Josh and I managed dessert (it was no little feat, let me tell ya!). And it was SO worth it, we both had Bitter and Blanc. YUM!

 

After dinner we did the usual walk around, played a little in the casino, did some karaoke and went to bed. Sea day tomorrow! I LOVE sea days.

 

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Yukon Gold Potato Soup

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Fried Shrimp

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Shark Roll

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excalwop

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SBthud326;

Suzanne, Am enjoying your review and those photos

Would like to know what section you had for your time dinner and your waiters section He sounds like a good guy

Will be on the 15th Jan Victory Cruise. 2nd Southern cruise but 1st time on the Victory.

Paul

29 days to go

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cruisequeen93

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Oh my gosh, driving? Wow. I'm learning how to drive long distance since I moved here 4 months ago and it's an 11 hour drive back home to Omaha. I'm getting better at it, though it's a good thing my dog is usually with me to get me awake! :eek:

 

I hope you have a safe trip, and enjoy the Valor. If you can find OK (literally that's what his name tag says) the bar server or Coco the head waiter in the dining room, they are WONDERFUL!

 

It's always nice to see fellow Nebraskans on the board. What part of Omaha are you from?

 

Julie

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SBthud326

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Day 3 Sea Day

 

I LOVE sea days. I know this really wasn't the cruise to book for lots of time at sea, but I think we made the most of the one we had. Tonight was also the first formal night and we were really looking forward to the lobster. There was all kinds of stuff going on during the day. We slept in a bit, ate breakfast in the dining room (boy those blueberry pancakes are good!) and laid by the pool for a while. We were lucky and managed to get some sun, but we were in a really heavy bank of clouds and after a while there just weren't any peaks of the sun so we decided to do something else. We went to the Love & Marriage show, and one couple had gotten married the previous day in St. Thomas. The oldest couple was married 50 years and for the middle couple they found one smack dab in the middle at 25 years and celebrating their anniversary. I know sometimes people have said these are scripted, at least some of the answers, but there was no time for Karl with a K to tell them what to say. They were all very entertaining, especially when the newlywed husband said the wedding night was fireworks and the wife said it was memorial day-like sleeping next to the dead. And the oldest couple was hilarious, any personal questions they would both answer "private" to, he was a pastor I believe. All in all very enjoyable.

 

We wandered the ship for a while after that, just checking all the activities out, then went back to the room to get dressed up. We wanted to get pictures before dinner (and we love to get fun pictures, unfortunately most of the photographers didn't appreciate our humor and kept making us do serious ones). After hitting almost every photo booth along deck 5 we went in to dinner. We decided that we had a really good time with Teck and his team so we sat with them again. We once again ordered multiple appetizers, though only 2 apiece this time, wanted to save room for the lobster. We had combinations of the alligator fritters, stuffed mushrooms and shrimp cocktail. I really wanted the greek farmers salad but restrained myself, lol. We all had the lobster with shrimp for dinner, and it was good, the potatoes were awesome! Once we were done, Teck apparently was concerned that we hadn't eaten as much as we did the night before so he brought us another plate of lobster to share. For dessert I had the cherries jubilee, I had mentioned to Teck that it was my favorite dessert on the cruise so he brought me a double portion. Good thing I still had a little room! Josh had the caramelized apples on puff pastry and it looked really good.

 

I realize now that I forgot to post that Monday night we went to the adult comedy show with Hank McGauley. He was hilarious. We caught the tail end of Mike Panzeca, but figured we'd catch the rest tonight, after the Legend Auditions. So after dinner we walked around a bit, then went to the karaoke lounge to warm up before I tried out of Britney Spears. Yep, good old Brit Brit. I hadn't heard about the Legends Show on the last cruise until it was pretty much too late to audition (that and I found the love of my 7 days on the ship so I was rather distracted, haha). So I wanted to make sure this time I at least tried out for it. Monday had the first half of the auditions, and Tuesday was the second half, Aretha, Madonna, Britney, Garth Brooks and Frank Sinatra. They went fairly quickly as each person only has to sing a bit of the song and then the audience votes. This was apparently a popular night as the lounge was standing room only. It was a lot of fun cheering people on, especially those that we had seen at karaoke before. The girls parts got serious, but the guys were all about having fun whether they knew the song or not. I would highly recommend checking the auditions out, even if you aren't a karaoke person, they are fast and furious and entertaining. I ended up winning Britney so I got my flashing Legends pin to wear the rest of the week on the ship! After this we had a few more drinks, finished the rest of the karaoke night and went dancing before heading to bed.

 

Day 4 - Barbados up next!

 

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Aligator Fritters

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Shrimp Cocktail

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Stuffed Mushrooms

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Lobster and Tiger Shrimp

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Cherries Jubilee

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SBthud326

SBthud326

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SBthud326;

Suzanne, Am enjoying your review and those photos

Would like to know what section you had for your time dinner and your waiters section He sounds like a good guy

Will be on the 15th Jan Victory Cruise. 2nd Southern cruise but 1st time on the Victory.

Paul

29 days to go

 

Thank you Paul! We sat in Teck's section, with I Wayan and Hidayat as the assistants. They were just a lot of fun, could joke around with us, and called us by name the entire trip. Also, look for Eko by the pool as soon as you can, he's a great guy to know. :D

 

I hope you have a wonderful time in January!

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