Carnival Victory Review - New Years Cruise 2013

[pamp0227]

I really enjoyed your reviews. I like you select my cruises for the ports and will be sailing on the Valor on 05/05. Can't wait.

[pamp0227]

I loved your review. I like you select my cruises for the ports and will be sailing on the Valor on 05/05. Can't wait.

[spikester]

What a great review. This is my favorite cruise. I have done it 4 times already. I wish they would have kept Dominica though, that was a great island to explore.

 

I wish Carnival would do 2 different southern itineraries. As much as I enjoy cruising them, I want some variety in the ports.

[SooNet]

I really enjoyed your reviews. I like you select my cruises for the ports and will be sailing on the Valor on 05/05. Can't wait.

 

Thank you! Emjoy the cruise you're going to love those ports.

[SooNet]

What a great review. This is my favorite cruise. I have done it 4 times already. I wish they would have kept Dominica though, that was a great island to explore.

 

I wish Carnival would do 2 different southern itineraries. As much as I enjoy cruising them, I want some variety in the ports.

 

Totally agree with you - if other cruise lines can offer multiple itineraries from San Juan then why can't Carnival. I like Carnival for the cost of the cruise and I don't need a whole lot of fancy amenities as I was hardly on the ship. Dominica is one of the islands that is on my bucket list - I know it hasn't got the greatest feedback from customers and that is why it was possibly dropped but I still want to visit there.

 

Like you though I would do this cruise again if I have the chance.

[iluvthe-c]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your review which has been extremely helpful in planning excursions. We will be sailing out of San Juan Feb 24th on the Valor.

I fit into a different catagory for reason to cruise. The ocean. Give me a deck chair facing out to sea and I am happy! The ship? Whatever. The ports? If there is a sandy beach, it is an added bonus!

To many more excellent cruise adventures...........Cheers!

[ILCruzr]

Your review got me excited for my cruise this weekend! The victory was my first carnival cruise 7 years ago, we didn't have a great experience but I've since cruised a few times after. You should look into the curaçao, Aruba itinerary on the breeze, that's been my favorite cruise so far. It was so fun! It's from Florida too....but looks like u had a blast!

[SooNet]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your review which has been extremely helpful in planning excursions. We will be sailing out of San Juan Feb 24th on the Valor.

I fit into a different catagory for reason to cruise. The ocean. Give me a deck chair facing out to sea and I am happy! The ship? Whatever. The ports? If there is a sandy beach, it is an added bonus!

To many more excellent cruise adventures...........Cheers!

 

Well I have to admit - I have not read many reviews that have mentioned "The Ocean" as the reason for cruising :D Now that you have said that however, I would have to admit that my DH is probably the same way. Whenever I wondered where he was I could usually find him on the balcony staring out at the ocean - in fact you may see a profile of him on some of my balcony pictures. Sometimes I would just go and watch him as he stared out on to the horizon.

 

I don't think we will ever be able to cruise again without the balcony. Enjoy your cruise.

[SooNet]

Your review got me excited for my cruise this weekend! The victory was my first carnival cruise 7 years ago, we didn't have a great experience but I've since cruised a few times after. You should look into the curaçao, Aruba itinerary on the breeze, that's been my favorite cruise so far. It was so fun! It's from Florida too....but looks like u had a blast!

 

I have not sailed on the Breeze yet but looking at the itinerary that includes Curacao it would be the only new port for me although La Romana would be new as well even though I have visited DR before! I know at some point I will be repeating ports but this was a great cruise as the only repeat ports for us were St. Thomas and St. Maarten and we still had 3 new ports.

 

In the future when we cruise we will probably have to look at cruises from Florida as the flights to San Juan are so much higher than Florida for us - it was a coincidence that this worked out for us this time. The flight was more but the cruise was less so it ended up costing about the same and we got to do the itinerary we had been longing to do.

 

Enjoy your cruse coming up this weekend. I wish I was cruising again so soon!

[ILCruzr]

I have not sailed on the Breeze yet but looking at the itinerary that includes Curacao it would be the only new port for me although La Romana would be new as well even though I have visited DR before! I know at some point I will be repeating ports but this was a great cruise as the only repeat ports for us were St. Thomas and St. Maarten and we still had 3 new ports.

 

In the future when we cruise we will probably have to look at cruises from Florida as the flights to San Juan are so much higher than Florida for us - it was a coincidence that this worked out for us this time. The flight was more but the cruise was less so it ended up costing about the same and we got to do the itinerary we had been longing to do.

 

Enjoy your cruse coming up this weekend. I wish I was cruising again so soon!

 

Thnanks. My parents said the breeze in Europe and loved it! It's all fumship 2.0 with the upgrades that the glory has now. La romana we did an excursion via carnival to santo Domingo, it was really cool. Aruba I wasnt a fan of, but. Curaçao is amazing. My favorite island so far, well see after this week bc I hear cayman islands is awesome....grand Turk was also great, a great beachy island. We took a tour and there wasn't much to see. Also we sailed the miracle which wasn't the greatest ship. I don't like spirit class ships. I prefer conquest :)

[chosbor2]

Thank you so much for your review. We are doing the same itinerary in October on the Valor...very much looking forward to it and collecting as much information as I can. We thought about doing a b2b and would have loved one from San Juan as this is the cruise my DH and I most want to do. It would be nice if Carnival added some other ports from San Juan.

[PPH]

Day 10 – San Juan – Debarkation day - January 6, 2013

 

We got to the taxi stand and we were able to get one right away and we were on our way to the Hotel Caribe.

 

 

----Continued

 

Love the review!! We're looking for a hotel for after our November cruise. I just looked at the rate for a two night stay at the Caribe Hilton.:eek: :eek: It looks great and may just be worth it!

[SooNet]

Love the review!! We're looking for a hotel for after our November cruise. I just looked at the rate for a two night stay at the Caribe Hilton.:eek: :eek: It looks great and may just be worth it!

 

We paid for the hotel in advance and paid $160 + taxes etc, for the one night. I am very cautious about using the online discount hotel booking sites so I booked this directly with Hilton. The total including taxes and resort fees (which many hotels in PR charge) was $200. We did upgrade to oceanview when we arrived and that was an extra $15 + taxes & fees.

 

It was worth every penny to me! I would definitely stay there again if I had the chance.

[SooNet]

Thank you so much for your review. We are doing the same itinerary in October on the Valor...very much looking forward to it and collecting as much information as I can. We thought about doing a b2b and would have loved one from San Juan as this is the cruise my DH and I most want to do. It would be nice if Carnival added some other ports from San Juan.

 

Enjoy your cruise - it's an awesome itinerary.

[PPH]

We paid for the hotel in advance and paid $160 + taxes etc, for the one night. I am very cautious about using the online discount hotel booking sites so I booked this directly with Hilton. The total including taxes and resort fees (which many hotels in PR charge) was $200. We did upgrade to oceanview when we arrived and that was an extra $15 + taxes & fees.

 

It was worth every penny to me! I would definitely stay there again if I had the chance.

 

You're right, $200 is definitely not a bad price. Looking at the time we'll be there, for 3 people in an oceanview room with resort fees & taxes it's $437/night! The Puerto Rico Tipoff (NCAA basketball) and the Rum & Beer Festival are going on so we may have high rates wherever we stay. Thanks for your review, it will definitely still be in running!!

[Detroit Donna]

Thanks so much for posting your review. We were on this same cruise but I missed half of it. I started feeling bad while in Barbados but that night, it really hit me. I may have met you on the Cosol Tour but we didn't make it. I got dressed and ready to go and went out and checked in for the tour and the longer I stood there shivering, the more I knew I couldn't go. So we apologized and excused ourselves and got back on the ship. I went to the medical clinic and found out I had a fever of 102.4! :eek: At this point, I had flu symptoms but still just wanted to sleep all the time. So we missed St. Luicia and then St. Kitts. That night I got more symptoms and went back to the medical clinic the morning of St. Maarten and was diagnosed with Norovirus and quarantined to my room for the rest of the cruise. :( With the flu symptoms, I could have left my room but didn't. Then with this new diagnosis, I couldn't leave my room but wanted to. :rolleyes: Anyway......

 

So with your review, I am able to live vicariously through you! :) In St. Kitts we were supposed to go ziplining but in St. Maarten we were going to go watch the planes on the beach too. Also, we stayed on the Lido for the New Year's countdown so it's neat seeing the pictures of the balloon drop. :)

 

Again, thanks so much!!

[Dirkgun]

Thanks for posting your reveiw. I am just trying to get mine finished... we did the Victory on Dec 16th sailing. It was our 2nd time on this Itinerary, and loved it both times. I agree it is great doing the review as you really get to relive the experiences when you write about them.

[SooNet]

Thanks so much for posting your review. We were on this same cruise but I missed half of it. I started feeling bad while in Barbados but that night, it really hit me. I may have met you on the Cosol Tour but we didn't make it. I got dressed and ready to go and went out and checked in for the tour and the longer I stood there shivering, the more I knew I couldn't go. So we apologized and excused ourselves and got back on the ship. I went to the medical clinic and found out I had a fever of 102.4! :eek: At this point, I had flu symptoms but still just wanted to sleep all the time. So we missed St. Luicia and then St. Kitts. That night I got more symptoms and went back to the medical clinic the morning of St. Maarten and was diagnosed with Norovirus and quarantined to my room for the rest of the cruise. :( With the flu symptoms, I could have left my room but didn't. Then with this new diagnosis, I couldn't leave my room but wanted to. :rolleyes: Anyway......

 

So with your review, I am able to live vicariously through you! :) In St. Kitts we were supposed to go ziplining but in St. Maarten we were going to go watch the planes on the beach too. Also, we stayed on the Lido for the New Year's countdown so it's neat seeing the pictures of the balloon drop. :)

 

Again, thanks so much!!

 

I am so sorry to hear about your illness during the cruise. That is one of my biggest fears - that I will end up being sick and not able to enjoy the trip. I was very worried when I wasn't feeling well the morning of St. Thomas but thankfully I did end up feeling better later in the morning. I'm glad you enjoyed my report.

[SooNet]

Thanks for posting your reveiw. I am just trying to get mine finished... we did the Victory on Dec 16th sailing. It was our 2nd time on this Itinerary, and loved it both times. I agree it is great doing the review as you really get to relive the experiences when you write about them.

 

I will be sure to check out your review. I loved this itinerary and would do it again in a heartbeat and I usually like to try something new on each vacation - my new would be trying different excursions in each port!

[GreytRacer]

Thanks for your detailed review! We are doing the same itinerary in Sept. I've made it to page 5 and look forward to seeing how the rest of your cruise goes! :D

[My4Grandsons]

He was awesome and I was so impressed that he still took us on the tour even though it was just the two of us. I am sure we could have found more people to join us on the tour as it was still early in the morning.

 

He mentioned the Rainforest a few times during our tour and I thought he would be awesome to visit the rainforest with as his knowledge of the plants is unbelievable.

 

I too would love to visit Nevis the next time - just to say I've been there. However, I wonder if it is sunny there as it did seem to have a cloud over the island the entire time we visited Saint Kitts.

 

Well, I visited Nevis in March. The day was sunny. The rain cloud was on top of the mountain, where it stays very lush. When I was walking to join the tour to Nevis, DH and I saw Thenford. He remembered us and greeted us warmly.

[SooNet]

Well, I visited Nevis in March. The day was sunny. The rain cloud was on top of the mountain, where it stays very lush. When I was walking to join the tour to Nevis, DH and I saw Thenford. He remembered us and greeted us warmly.

 

So nice to hear and such a nice man. Did you enjoy your trip to Nevis? Did you do this as an organized tour and would you recommend it? If I get back to Saint Kitts I might just do the same.

[My4Grandsons]

So nice to hear and such a nice man. Did you enjoy your trip to Nevis? Did you do this as an organized tour and would you recommend it? If I get back to Saint Kitts I might just do the same.

 

The tour was from the Celebrity Summit. Water taxi ride was 45 minutes each way. There was a lunch and beach break. Six hour tour. As an aside, we enjoyed Carnival more. It had more energy. Maybe we would like the S-class ships of Celebrity.

[cruiseclues]

SooNet...Thanks for your really nice photo review...I enjoyed it a lot. :):):):)