Carnival Valor--tell All Thread !!!!

[SomewhereBeyondTheSea]

I was on this ship last year and will be returning again in 3 weeks. I can't remember what show they had on the first night. Does anyone know this?

[Adam185]

I was on this ship last year and will be returning again in 3 weeks. I can't remember what show they had on the first night. Does anyone know this?

According to the capers from an April cruise, the opening night is a Welcome Aboard show with the CD, Dancers, and a Comedian. We will be there in just over 4 weeks.

[SomewhereBeyondTheSea]

Thanks :-)

[Lostn78]

Just returned from the 4/30 sailing. You will have a great time aboard a wonderful ship with a wonderful crew. It was a dream trip for my wife and me. We did the Western cruise and the ports are fantastic. Take good care of our ship and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.:)

[SomewhereBeyondTheSea]

Just returned from the 4/30 sailing. You will have a great time aboard a wonderful ship with a wonderful crew. It was a dream trip for my wife and me. We did the Western cruise and the ports are fantastic. Take good care of our ship and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.:)

 

 

How was the show the first night?

[WILDCC]

I am going on the Valor for our honeymoon on June 24, 2007. We are first time cruisers if you have any comments or secerts about the curise on the valor it would be greatly appricated.

[5668200]

There is a group of 9 of us (that might increase) booked for Feb. 4. Can't wait! Sounds like a great ship.

[ngl116]

My DH and I will be sailing on 10/1 Western Itin. We are celebrating our 2 year anniversary! :D And this week we are celebrating double digits until we sail.

 

Thanks for all your posts, I didn't know about this thread, and needed a little pick me up today.

[bp traveler]

Anybody else booked for this cruise?

 

We can't wait - it is a pre-cruise before we check out the Freedom in Europe!

[kelz66]

It's a great ship! You all are going to love it. :D

[hockeyluver]

Thanks for all the great information. You can never have enough info.

[tigermaroon2]

Here's my review again of the Valor in case you missed it....

 

Written and posted 9/11/06

Valor Western Carribean 9/3-9/10 2006

 

First day back at work after being on the Valor all last week. What an AWESOME trip to the Western Carribean. For the price, this one is a really good deal. I'm going to break this report down into sections...it will be long....but I'll try to double space between the sections.

 

 

EMBARKATION: (A+) We got really lucky. Our flight landed at 11:40am and we were at the pier via limo by 12:30. Once we got unloaded and tipped the porter, we went inside and found the lines were very long. There are two seperate lines for the fun pass cards that are filled out...and then there are the VIP lines which are much shorter. Well, as we entered, we asked the Carnival employee which line was for the fun pass. She said both and directed us to the VIP line. We were standing there when another Carnival employee came up and asked if we had VIP priveliges. We said we were told by the lady to go to this line. He went and asked her, and she said yes she told us that....and I told him I didn't think it was fair to ask us to move since she had directed us there. He agreed...so we got the VIP check in....we were on the ship in less than 20 minutes. I can't complain about embarkation but if I'd been in that slow moving line, I might feel differently.

 

THE SHIP: (A) We boarded and got our little deck map and started to explore. We immediately made our way to our cabin, which was ready for us so we dropped off our carry-on bags and went out to explore. This is a LARGE ship...so it took some time to see it all. We didn't think that the decor was gaudy at all (although the pink color schemes in the dining room aren't the prettiest think in the world). If you can't find something to do on this ship, then you won't find anything on any ship. The ship was very clean....there were no foul smells anywhere (except the cigar bar).

 

The layout is a bit confusing in terms of getting to the dining room since you have the galley in the middle and have to go up a level to walk all the way to the rear of the ship if you're in the Washington...but this is nothing new in terms of ship design. You just have to remember where you are and if you are confused there are deck plans by each elevator.

 

We stayed in an interior cabin on the Panorama Deck. VERY quiet and very convenient to the Lido deck pool/bar/Rosies/etc. Our cabin steward was very nice and with a small tip when we met he unlocked our fridge and removed the wet bar contents for our wine we carried on with us. He said he thought "that was a very good idea to bring on wine". We saw him frequently through our cruise and he would bring us wine glasses and anything else we needed. We'd tip him a dollar or two and then left him some extra at the end of the trip.

 

NOT TO MISS: Paris Hot Lounge...next to the Washington Dining Room (tucked in a corner across from Lindy Hop Piano Bar). We missed it til the last night. They had an AWESOME band (Latino-American's but playing southern rock) and they were GOOD! Music Connection was their name.

 

The internet cafe is hard to find and you do have to go through Winstons Cigar Bar which I don't understand. They have a meeting room through this little hallway on the other side of Winstons...they should have put the internet there...and the meeting room on the other side of Winstons where the internet is. You'll see what I mean when you get there.

 

THE FOOD: (A+) No complaints here. Everything we had in the dining room was delicious. Our waiter, Imade, made sure everything was hot and served on time. They were a bit slow on Sunday night, but after that it was great service and good food. The appetizers are a bit small in portion, but they make up for it with the portions on the entree. Our waiter did seem to get a bit agitated one night when I ordered steak instead of anything on the menu, it was more like he couldn't understand why I didn't like anything on the menu. But then he brought me the best filet I've had in forever. Anyway, most nights we were sooo full that we passed dessert.

 

THE ENTERTAINMENT/AND ENTERTAINMENT STAFF: (B)The Cruise Director is Darcy Kneivel. No relation to Evil Kneivel. I think she's only been doing this a few weeks as a Cruise Director. Not sure which ship she came from or when she got promoted. But I seem to remember her saying something about just being a CD for a brief while... She was adequate. She wasn't really annoying or overbearing but just informative. Not intrusive and constantly on the intercom and not making stupid jokes when she was giving talks and stuff. We saw her out in the disco having a good time one night. It seems she does a very good job. We only saw a couple of shows...the Monday night dancers/nightclub show was "ok" and the hypnotist show was sort of funny. We watched part of the Legends show on Saturday night and it was decent but some of those people just couldn't sing. We did go to some of the auditions in the Eagles lounge as well and some were sooooooo funny.

 

The activities director, Dan, is a real jerk though. He hosted the Survior on the first day out on the deck. On Day 2 at Grand Cayman we had to get a tender ticket...and so we went in and he was there. I asked where to snorkel from the shore at GC and he got really really smart about how he is an expert diver. I asked "Which beach do you reccommend to snorkel from here?" ANd he said in a very smart voice "None of them" and proceeded to give some big technical explanation. Of course I'd printed off my cruise critic stuff and knew what beaches others had said were good. More later. But I thought this guy was a jerk. The bartenders and everyone else were very polite and friendly and would always speak.

 

PORTS OF CALL: (A)

 

Grand Cayman - Tendering wasn't a bad thing at all. Went very smooth. We got into Georgetown and went to SeaGrape beach ($10 for two on a taxi). We snorkeled the reef there, which is about dead as far as the coral goes, but saw quite a few fish and found a beautiful conch shell in the water. It was indeed a beautiful beach. We took the public transportation (bus..actually a van...back for $2.50 each....). Did the shopping...and spent wayyyy too much at Senor Frogs. They list the prices in Cayman then charge you American....wayyyyy too much...but good.

 

Roatan Island - THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PORT. We did the Tabyana Beach Break. A 30 minute bus ride on a school bus over the mountains to the other side. This is the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. We snorkled out to the reef about 50 yards off shore and once you go through some of it the water drops off to about 150 feet and is clear clear clear to the bottom. All kinds of beautiful fish, unspoiled coral and just amazing. They have a bar there with Honduran beer (but there are some vendors out on the beach selling 3 beers for $5) and also a restaurant there. Highly reccommend this excursion. We stayed all day as the shuttles ran every 30 minutes to the ship.

 

Belize: We did the Goff's Caye snorkel tour. About a 30 minute boat ride to a small island of probably two or three acres in the middle of the ocean. The water was a bit rough as there was a current...we were in 15-20 feet of water..it was murky but the coral formations were FANTASTIC. The only problem with this excursion is that about 40 people go and they make you snorkel behind a guide holding a life ring. You are contstantly getting kicked, bumped and rubbed up against by other people because of the way the tour works. Definitely wear the snorkel vest as the current is very strong. They do let you off at the island to snorkel there first if you prefer...then everyone goes back to the island for an hour or so. Absolutely gorgeous.

 

Costa Maya - This is the NEXT CANCUN. They are building all kinds of streets, laying water/sewer and everything else...this place is getting ready to explode into a tourism mecca in ten years. We did the Umvero Beach break and it's a 40 minute ride in a motorcoach...the air conditioning was great on the way out...but coming back it didn't work and with 65 people on a big bus with no windows to open and no a/c working it's like being in a tin can...you talk about HOT. Umvero was very nice....they have a FREE bar...so drink while you can to make up for the expensive drinks on board. They do the dolphin swim there too and you can walk out and watch or pay extra to swim with dolphins. We just snorkeled out and watched from under water...we were within 5 feet of them, seperated by two chain link fences. No coral to see here...but grassy/sand and there are TONS of huge starfish weighing 3 to 5 pounds....they are everywhere.

 

ALCOHOL: © One word on the ship....EXPENSIVE. A bucket of beer is $19.55 for four beers. Wine is anywhere from $5 to $8 a glass....mixed drinks more. We took our own box of wine along with a liter of Coconut Rum and a liter of Vodka. We just wrapped them in towels and they made it through fine. You do not have to go to all the trouble of pouring them into water bottles and all that stuff. There were plenty of other people who did the same thing. Another tip: If you buy in the ship store, they have GREAT duty free prices....they are now delivering your purchased liquor to your room EARLY on Saturday morning because of the new FAA regs with no liquids...so that you can pack it. So, buy liquor either in Caymans or on the ship and you have your drinks for Saturday all taken care of!!!!!!! We had ours by 9am.

 

CASINO: (B+) Everyone wins on Sunday and Monday nights...but honestly, I think they tighten the slots up in the middle of the week because no one was winning. We got ahead about $100 by Tuesday but by Friday were down and ended up down about $100. Some people were winning decent at "Let It Ride" and "Three Card Poker" tables. Did see some Roulette winning as well. My advice: If you get ahead on the slots on Sunday/Monday....don't play til Saturday. There seemed to be some payouts on Saturday as well.

 

DEBARKATION: (A) Not too terrible. We went with the traditional leave your bags out night before routine. There were some long lines in the pier because people had not taken time to fill out their customs cards right...but it moved pretty quickly and we were outside within 35-40 minutes.

 

OVERALL: (A) I give this entire cruise an A. The only negative things were the one staff member (Dan) and the a/c not working on the bus back from Umvero Beach. Otherwise everything was just great. I wouldn't hesitate to take the Valor again....on the same cruise or the eastern carribean. You can't go wrong on the Western one with the prices they offer.

 

If anyone has any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.

[Starz723]

I have a suggestion for future Valor passengers. Do not do the self assist Debark unless you really must catch an early flight out. It was an absolute nightmare!!! and it took over 1hour & 45 mins. We were crammed together like sardines and you have to drag your bags up and down stairs, then up and down escalators and across a very long hallway. Ive done self assist in New York City and it was easy. Miami was horrible.

 

Let them take your bag and save yourself a headace.

 

Marge

[luckydogone]

ToniH, and anyone else...

Here is a copy of my review when I took the Valor cruise in July of 05. We had cabins 6481 & 6483 which I HIGHLY recomend if your a family needing two rooms, not to mention the huge wrap around balcony. Anyone wanting pictures of the ship & rooms that I took along with shore excursions pics just send me your e-mail address and I'll be glad to send them to you. my e-mail address is lt2345@aol.com

 

After reading some good and not so good reviews about this cruise I went into it with an open mind understanding that 3,500 people can't do everything at once. With that in mind I knew there would be lines and probably lines for lines. Our group had 2 adults age 46 & 44 and two 18 year old girls, our cabins were 6483 and 6481

 

Embarkation: We arrived at the port at 10:00, within 10 minutes had our sail & sign cards in hand, went through security screening about 30 minutes later and were on board at 12:10. Not to bad I thought, I had allowed 3 hrs for that so 2 hrs was good for me.

 

Ship: Ship was great, everything was clean and the crew were ready to start serving us. Once you understand that decks 5 & 9 run all the way through you start to navigate around easier. Decks chairs were never a problem, we did see a good amount of saving going on but if your not instant about being right on top of the pool there were always plenty of chairs to be found. We had the wrap around cabin ( 6483 ) and loved the huge balcony. anyone wishing pictures let me know and I'll be glad to send you some. To me it was well worth it. We asked the room steward to open up the divider between our balconies making one big ole balcony to enjoy.

 

Shows: Shows were great, we went to everyone except the last one, the "Idol" show. My daughter went though and said that it was pretty good. The cruise director was Josh and he did a good job, he kept everyone informed and amused. We had early seating for diner so we made the 8:30 show, here's where chair saving got to me. I found that a lot of parents were sending their kids to the theater and having them save entire rows of seats as early as 7:15.

 

Excursions:

Belize, we did the cave tubing through Reggies Tours, cost going through Carnival was $95.00, we paid $45.00 Reggie picked us up at the dock and dropped us back well in time to get back on board. We had about 18 people in our party compared to Carnival's 481, we also got to go through 2 more caves than Carnival.

 

Isla Roatan: We went with the horse back riding and Tabayan Beach break through Carnival, cost was $84.00 per person but well worth every cent. Without a doubt the highlight of the trip. I can't say enough about the scenery you'll see on this excursion. Tabayana beach is also magnificent.

 

Grand Cayman: I went on line and through Soto's Cruises to do this. They also picked us up in an air conditioned van and took us to their dock and brought us back. They also provided fresh water and punch and the boat had a restroom if needed. Soto's charged us $30 per person and we spent time at Stingray City and also snorkeled over the reef. Carnivals price was $47.00 for just Stingray City.

 

Cozumel: We did Playa Mia beach, I booked this through Shoretrips.com for a price of $41.00. This included all the drinks we could stand ( Alcoholic and non) buffet dinner, snorkeling gear beach chairs, mats, ice berg & water trampoline, zoo visit and some other small detail stuff. The beach was great, water was clear and beautiful. It was nice to be able to walk up and get a drink and walk back to our chairs. You could walk down the beach and enjoy other smaller huts selling beer and food or just take in the scenery. Our cab cost $14.00 which we got once we left the ship around 11:15. Carnivals tour like this didn't leave until 1:00 and didn't get back till 6:00 and their cost was $75.00. We liked the idea of being able come and go as we pleased and not having to wait till 6:00 to leave.

 

Debarkation: What can I say.... long. We went to Eagles lounge and waited until 11:00 thinking that most of the people had left by then. Wrong.... still more than half the ship were on board so we got in line and waited until just about 12:30 before we were off. Knowing that by this time last week we were already on board with a drink in our hands made us feel bad for those waiting to board. I can't imagine what time they were finally able to let them on. All in all a great trip and would love to go again. If anyone has any questions please e-mail me and I'll be glad to answer anything I can.

['Bama]

I have a suggestion for future Valor passengers. Do not do the self assist Debark unless you really must catch an early flight out. It was an absolute nightmare!!! and it took over 1hour & 45 mins. We were crammed together like sardines and you have to drag your bags up and down stairs, then up and down escalators and across a very long hallway. Ive done self assist in New York City and it was easy. Miami was horrible.

 

Let them take your bag and save yourself a headace.

 

Marge

 

That doesn't match my experience (Valor Eastern Carribbean, 9/24/06-10/01/06). We did the self assist, got to deck 3 (or whichever deck you go to to disembark) (our cabin was on deck 1) at 7:00, and were through Airport Security by 8:00, in time for a (rescheduled to) 9:30 flight. We didn't have very many bags, or much to declare - maybe that was a difference?

[divetrash]

That doesn't match my experience (Valor Eastern Carribbean' date=' 9/24/06-10/01/06). We did the self assist, got to deck 3 (or whichever deck you go to to disembark) (our cabin was on deck 1) at 7:00, and were through Airport Security by 8:00, in time for a (rescheduled to) 9:30 flight. We didn't have very many bags, or much to declare - maybe that was a difference?[/quote']

 

I have to agree with Starz723. (Hi Marge!) Self Assist was really awful. Possibly it was this one time since I was on the same sailing as her.

 

They really pushed the self assist at the Debarkation Talk. We chose to do self assist because neither myself nor my nephew felt like rushing to get the suitcases packed and outside by midnight. We only had a carry on roller bag and backpack each. We didn't have an early flight so we waited until the last round of self assist was called so we didn't get in the way of the people with early flights out. It took forever. A lot of hurry up and wait.

 

Perhaps if we had been down there at 7 it would have been different. All I know is, when I go with my niece in July. I will pack and put the suitcases out the night before, then take my time getting off.

 

Laura

[vesw01]

We loved the Valor - would sail her again and again!! Ronn Pass is currnently playing in the piano bar until the beginning of Dec - tons of fun...I really miss hanging out in there!

[Irish708]

:D Just booked the family for the Valor on Sept 9th of next year! Can't wait...........

 

Was on the Imagination August 2006, loved that cruise as well. HATED Self Disembarkation:mad: !

[CruisingWChrist]

We're sailing on Valor May 29th!!! We're all getting excited & hungry for any information we can find!! We welcome any opinions/comments.

:D

 

You won't be by yourself, see ya on May 29th!

[mcandie]

Hi everyone - this is the first time I have posted, but have got lots of info from reading all the posts. I am going on the Valor on Feb. 4th and 11th 2007 on back to back cruises and am wondering if anyone can tell me if you have to get off the ship and reboard and if so - how does it work? do you have to go through immigration?

Thank You:)

[enester]

Hi everyone - this is the first time I have posted, but have got lots of info from reading all the posts. I am going on the Valor on Feb. 4th and 11th 2007 on back to back cruises and am wondering if anyone can tell me if you have to get off the ship and reboard and if so - how does it work? do you have to go through immigration?

Thank You:)

 

Yep, but it's an easy process.... the night before you'll get a letter giving you directions on what to do (where to meet, what to bring etc). For us (a couple weeks ago), we met in the Betsey Ross room where they had danishes & drinks (coffee, juice etc) waiting for us. A representative from the pursers office then escorted us - and a hadfull of other back to backers - with our cruise & citizenship documentation off of the ship and through customs. It took about 20 minutes.

 

Then your free to enjoy the empty ship!

 

enester

[cancruise]

Hi Mcandie, My wife and I and two others are also going on the valor on feb 4th & feb 11th back to back. We have done this before and it sure is a nice way to cruise, but that was on another ship years ago. Enester were you able to see if you could get an upgrade for the next week. On our back to back we were able to get an upgrade from a inside to a balcony which was a bonus for us.

[mamamruz]

We are sailing on the Valor on 10/29 (Western Caribbean) and can't wait. My question is probably dumb--but do they have alarm clocks in the cabins? Our time in the ports is fairly limited and I don't want to miss out on anything.

 

Thanks for the help!!:)

[enester]

Hi Mcandie, My wife and I and two others are also going on the valor on feb 4th & feb 11th back to back. We have done this before and it sure is a nice way to cruise, but that was on another ship years ago. Enester were you able to see if you could get an upgrade for the next week. On our back to back we were able to get an upgrade from a inside to a balcony which was a bonus for us.

 

WOW! - We were upgraded from a 4B inside to a 6B outside for both weeks whcih we were thrilled about - but no balcony. Did you get the upgrade before you left - or did you inquire during your first week?

 

enester

[enester]

We are sailing on the Valor on 10/29 (Western Caribbean) and can't wait. My question is probably dumb--but do they have alarm clocks in the cabins? Our time in the ports is fairly limited and I don't want to miss out on anything.

 

Thanks for the help!!:)

 

Nope, but you can program your phone for a wake-up call. Never did it, but I saw that you could (we brougit a little travel alarm).

 

enester