Here comes my Victory review!

[bruisin4cruisin]

My wife is the big planner, she thinks of all the little details most men would not even notice. I take my hat off to her on this one.

 

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review.

[funinthesun1964]

Reading this brings back memories. We did this cruise in February. You can read my review in my sig. If interested. Looks like you had fun!!!! I will be checking back for more.....

[trippingpara]

My mother-in-law joined us in St. Thomas!

 

 

Hey! We must have the same mother-in-law!!

 

Seriously, good review and loving the photos!

[ratherBcruizin']

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who Dey!

 

Following along, this is one itinerary I have always wanted to do, but still waiting...

[Rarejules]

I just did this same cruise and I can't get enough of her reviews. In fact when you were boarding we were debarking:)

[first_time_cruiser180]

I will be sailing on the Victory Dec. 2/12 and am loving your review.. Can't wait to read and see more.. :)

[bruisin4cruisin]

Who Dey!

 

Following along' date=' this is one itinerary I have always wanted to do, but still waiting...[/quote']

 

Of all places, I got to watch the Bengals whoop on NY in Puerto Rico on Fox. I can't get a Cincy game in Dallas unless it is primetime, but go out of country....lol.

[4hunters]

I should probably tell you, I forgot my camera on the ship, so these photos are taken with my phone. Somehow, I was able to take 800 pictures, even when I forgot the camera at one of the ports...ha ha.

 

 

 

 

My mother-in-law joined us in St. Thomas!

 

 

I see you're a Bengals fan - I'm sorry... ;) Enjoying the review!

[bruisin4cruisin]

Day 2 was sea day....the one and only sea day. We ate breakfast in the MDR, headed to the casino and the shops and then ate lunch in the MDR. We did some more walking around, some hanging in the rooms, then went to tea time. After tea, we went to the art auction. I enjoy people watching and laughing at some of the prices on stuff. Of course, we go there with an open mind, and at the second auction, we made a purchase of 2 pieces to add to the 4 that we got in March. This artist is one of the few decorating things my DW and I agree on, so we do not mind buying it there.

Dinner time came rolling in and after dinner, we went to the comedy shows. Funny, funny, comedians. Happy Cole or Happy Jones....was one of them, can not remember the other. Happy was funniest. Then, off to bed.

[bruisin4cruisin]

Day 3....Barbados. We had planned the Snorkel with the sea turtles excursion with Tiami. We booked both excursions thru Carnival this time, we usually venture on our own, but we wanted to be safe.

Since the excursion was a 12:30, we took our time getting off the ship and heading to the shops. The humidity was super high that morning because of a few showers that came thru. We were spending the rest of the day in the sun, then under cloud cover for a while. It never rained on us, but we could see it falling around us.

Here are some pictures of Barbados and our excursion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bruisin4cruisin]

It was kind of fun, but not completely. I got to see a turtle or 2, but as you can see, it was a very close encounter with people, more than turtles. We did not use flippers since we are bundled so close together, and you touched everyone on the boat if you were in the water for more than 10 minutes.

Don't get me wrong, it was a good excursion.....you will see why after a few more pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bruisin4cruisin]

After being with the turtles, they opened up the bar. Most excursions will give you a complimentary rum punch or two....my wife had about 15. They went thru 2 litres of rum, and that was just adding more to the already mixed rum punch. If you were of age, you were drinking. I had three drinks, so I stayed sober. Always one in the crowd, right? Well....this is what it looked like when we were coming into port at 4 o'clock.

 

 

 

Most of the people had ventured to the roof, the music was on and the dancing had to come to an end as we parked the catamaran.

[bruisin4cruisin]

Dinner that night was room service. The BLT was a lot better than I thought it would be, since I got like 1" of bacon. My step-brother and SIL were staying in for room service as well. They told everyone about a party on the Lido at 9:30 they were going to be hosting, and they did not make it. Of course, everyone we met after that day said they did not make it out of their staterooms that night.

Next stop, St. Lucia!

[bruisin4cruisin]

Before we go to St. Lucia, let me tell you a few things about our stateroom.

1. The shower was kind of nasty. Looked like it could use some new grout.

2. We had two power outlets in our cabin, located below the mirror.

3. We had a medicine cabinet in our bathroom...don't believe I have had one on any of the other ships. I used it to put my toothbrush in so it didn't get sprayed with cleaners...remember that thread?

4. Our stewards name was Arleigh. He was an okay guy, but not very personable.

[dogsx3]

I will be sailing on the Victory Dec. 2/12 and am loving your review.. Can't wait to read and see more.. :)

we will be on that cruise also. Getting closer now. It is nice to get a preview by reading the reviews.

[ibcnusoon]

Leaving tomorrow for this cruise!!!!!!! :D

[Pellaz]

Loving the ship photos... Was just on Liberty and I'm considering Victory for next year...before her upgrades :( , so the pix are really handy in comparing the two.

[bruisin4cruisin]

St. Lucia, to me, was the most aesthetically pleasing island. To be far, we got off the ship, turned right, went onto the boat that was taking us to snorkel between the Pitons, came back to the pier...so we did not get to see a lot of the island. We did a little shopping at the pier, but not too much. Honestly, it was same stuff, different port. I found that most of the islands were that way. I have a key chain from every place my wife and I go on my backpack and they were the same, just a different name, for the most part. It was difficult enough finding one I liked enough to put it on the backpack, let alone finding one that was different than the last one I liked.

So, here is St. Lucia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bruisin4cruisin]

I had 3 things on my list of things to do on this trip.

1. El Morro

2. The Pitons of St. Lucia

3. Maho Beach

I was not disappointed in the Pitons, just mislead by my lack of research..lol. I thought they were 2 peaks coming out of the water, and by snorkeling "between" them, you were in an area that would be relative to a channel. Well, the Pitons are part of the mainland and by snorkeling between them you were basically in a cove. That was the main disappointment in the excursion, like I said...my lack of research. The second disappointment was that they dropped you off and parked the boat 200 ft out. I had a leaky mask, vest and snorkel and there was no quick remedy. Fortunately, my step-brother is not a big snorkeler, so I grabbed his gear and got back in the water. The snorkeling was amazing, though! I saw huge schools of fish, unfortunately deleted that video, though. The water was not super clear, but I was able to get some good videos and photos. Here are some of my favorites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bruisin4cruisin]

Once we got back on the boat, they opened up the bar and offered some rum punch....there was only 1 taker, the DW, and she only had 1. I guess the other 3 learned from their mistake the day before. Either that, or they were afraid of what might go out.

It was now the turn for some other folks to have a good time, dancing and singing on the boat. We sat up front and watched the flying fish and took in the scenery.

Here is the Victory as we were pulling back up to the pier.

 

[bruisin4cruisin]

Our next stop was St. Kitts. My step-brother had been on the lookout for a new watch, so while he was doing that, the DW decided she would monkey around a little bit.

 

 

 

 

The cost was $10 for the pictures, well worth it since that is something she had read about on CC and was looking forward to seeing and doing. You just can't put a price on monkey love. Am I right or am I right?

[bruisin4cruisin]

After hanging with the monkeys and shopping at about 5 places for a watch, we grabbed a cab and headed over to Shipwreck. We got a pina colada there, it was okay, and then ordered some food. I grabbed the jerk pork sandwich and my DW got the jerk chicken plate. I am going to be completely honest....I can't tell which was better! If you go there, do not be afraid to eat the food, it is that dang good.

Once again, the water called and my SIL and I grabbed some snorkeling gear, $5 for mask and goggles, and headed into the water. Now, there are signs to be careful of the sea urchins there. Heed the warning. There were sooo many there, I did not take the time to count and the water was fairly shallow, so a close encounter will freak you out. It freaked me out, lol.

I had 2 scares, the sea urchin that was in 2 feet of water and the current was pushing me towards and the wall of jellyfish I swam into. The jellyfish were not harmful, but when you wave your arm into something like that, and then see more than you can count thru foggy goggles, you will freak. I decided it was time to get out of the water after fright-fest number 2 and I was right...10 minutes before we had to leave the beach to go to the taxi.

Here are some of the Shipwreck snorkeling/beach photos.

 

 

 

 

 

[bruisin4cruisin]

On the way back to the ship, the taxi driver pulled over to check out the views at a spot that shows the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other. In this picture, the Atlantic Ocean is on your left and the Caribbean Sea is on your right.

 

[Coolcruise02]

Great review!