Good cruise on Valor ,but not quite as good as two years ago.

[nature person]

This was my families fourth cruise in five years. Wish we discovered how much fun and relaxing a cruise is long ago. We have enjoyd both the Liberty once and the Valor twice.We have also and one cruise on royal Caribbean.

 

We were just off the April 14th southern Caribbean cruise. We love the islands everywhere,but the southern caribbean is my favorite. We are always defending Carnival cruises , service,food, cleanliness were equal both lines. I felt the food actually better on Carnival. RC had poor grade for its deserts especially, a lot of gelatin infused stuff that made the texture not appealing. I found the RC Serenity a little step above in Decor though. A lovely ship. Going with my mil,sil,our two daughters and their spouses ,make Carnival a better option cost wise for my husband and I.

 

We enjoyed the Valor two years ago to the western carbibbean. Liked the ship and looked forward to this cruise. Over all...we had a great time again. We blocked out all the recent problems seen on the news and happily went off to have a wonderful family vacation.

 

There were however a few blips n this cruise that we noticed . I always get very attached to the wonderful cruise crew,they are all so polite and very hard working. This was the first cruise where we had an unfriendly cabin staff person.John from the first day was sullen acting and resented any questions or small requests. We are very warm to staff,so it did not come from any attitude on our end. First was when one of our robes was badly ripped and stained from past users. I asked if he could maybe give us another. We got a frown and an attitude expression but did recieve a better robe. Later , days into our cruise,my husband spilled hot coffee on himself when the ship rolled. It was too much of a mess to use, we left it with the wet used towels as we do ,all in a ball together in the shower for laundry. That evening we found that same soiled ,wet robe back next to mine on the room hooks. Yuk....pretty gross. Again John acted peeved to give a replacement . Did not make a big thing of it , but was disappointed .

 

The dinner entreesand appetizers were amazing as always, fantastic table staff. PK. Was our main server and we loved him. A sweet guy. But..oh no the deserts on menu have gone towards the royal Caribbean style in some ways.. :(. Example.. The cheesecake texture has changed to that gelatin added texture and the side dishes of ice cream with cake etc. now is icy and flavorless. The cherries jubilee a big disappointment. Oh no....they joined the dark side.

 

Last disappointment was dining for breakfast in the dining room . Unlike our dinner experiences with our wonderful friendly ,attentive servers at dinner in Washington ( we miss you PK! ) we often found the breakfast staff were clipped and not very friendly. Never experienced this ever in past. Always had fantastic staff interaction thru out ship on every cruise .

 

Please don't jump on me for these observations..still love Carnival, but it was not as great in service and food as other times.

 

We did enjoy our dinners together,wonderful after all doing our separate things all day. Entres were great. We loved the shows,even after seeing them on last cruis. They do an amazing job. We squeezed all we could out of each port! Great excursions,lovely scenery. None were carnival excursions. We went for a second time on the Cosol st. Lucia day tour. It's great!

[Cruising Golfer]

I understand that it can really suck when one or two people make your cruise less than you would expect!:(

I am also glad that you did not let it ruin you good time.

So nice of you to report it to us in a way that showed you have been there before and did not expect royal treatment because you are special. Yesterday someone posted a rant about Valor and it really got my goat! It took all I had in me not to ream this guy a new one!!!:confused:

Thank You for an honest report of the poor treatment.

Hope you next cruise will be everything you hope for and more!!!:D Enjoy!!!

C.G.

[ShanteS]

This was my families fourth cruise in five years. Wish we discovered how much fun and relaxing a cruise is long ago. We have enjoyd both the Liberty once and the Valor twice.We have also and one cruise on royal Caribbean.

 

We were just off the April 14th southern Caribbean cruise. We love the islands everywhere,but the southern caribbean is my favorite. We are always defending Carnival cruises , service,food, cleanliness were equal both lines. I felt the food actually better on Carnival. RC had poor grade for its deserts especially, a lot of gelatin infused stuff that made the texture not appealing. I found the RC Serenity a little step above in Decor though. A lovely ship. Going with my mil,sil,our two daughters and their spouses ,make Carnival a better option cost wise for my husband and I.

 

We enjoyed the Valor two years ago to the western carbibbean. Liked the ship and looked forward to this cruise. Over all...we had a great time again. We blocked out all the recent problems seen on the news and happily went off to have a wonderful family vacation.

 

There were however a few blips n this cruise that we noticed . I always get very attached to the wonderful cruise crew,they are all so polite and very hard working. This was the first cruise where we had an unfriendly cabin staff person.John from the first day was sullen acting and resented any questions or small requests. We are very warm to staff,so it did not come from any attitude on our end. First was when one of our robes was badly ripped and stained from past users. I asked if he could maybe give us another. We got a frown and an attitude expression but did recieve a better robe. Later , days into our cruise,my husband spilled hot coffee on himself when the ship rolled. It was too much of a mess to use, we left it with the wet used towels as we do ,all in a ball together in the shower for laundry. That evening we found that same soiled ,wet robe back next to mine on the room hooks. Yuk....pretty gross. Again John acted peeved to give a replacement . Did not make a big thing of it , but was disappointed .

 

The dinner entreesand appetizers were amazing as always, fantastic table staff. PK. Was our main server and we loved him. A sweet guy. But..oh no the deserts on menu have gone towards the royal Caribbean style in some ways.. :(. Example.. The cheesecake texture has changed to that gelatin added texture and the side dishes of ice cream with cake etc. now is icy and flavorless. The cherries jubilee a big disappointment. Oh no....they joined the dark side.

 

Last disappointment was dining for breakfast in the dining room . Unlike our dinner experiences with our wonderful friendly ,attentive servers at dinner in Washington ( we miss you PK! ) we often found the breakfast staff were clipped and not very friendly. Never experienced this ever in past. Always had fantastic staff interaction thru out ship on every cruise .

 

Please don't jump on me for these observations..still love Carnival, but it was not as great in service and food as other times.

 

We did enjoy our dinners together,wonderful after all doing our separate things all day. Entres were great. We loved the shows,even after seeing them on last cruis. They do an amazing job. We squeezed all we could out of each port! Great excursions,lovely scenery. None were carnival excursions. We went for a second time on the Cosol st. Lucia day tour. It's great!

 

No flaming from me! Thank you for an honest review. I appreciate you giving details about your cruise experience. I'm sorry about your steward. I haven't sailed since 2007 though so I'm going in with an open mind about the changes everyone talks about here. I'm glad you had a good experience overall though. I'm looking forward to sailing the Valor in August.

[takevtr1]

Hi Nature Person,

Glad to see that you enjoyed a majority of your cruise vacation. I along with ShanteS (we are not together, but we are both on the same roll call) will be on the Valor for her 8/4 sailing.

Maybe your crew were at the end of their contract and were getting very worn down - not that should be an excuse for being unfriendly, but maybe there were some circumstances that you were not aware of.

 

Can you fill us in on what you did for shore excursions? I see you went with Cosol, as I m doing (also for a 2nd time), but what else did you do? We also do not take Carnival excursions.

 

Thanks for the great review,

Mitch....

[takevtr1]

Hi Nature Person,

Glad to see that you enjoyed a majority of your cruise vacation. I along with ShanteS (we are not together, but we are both on the same roll call) will be on the Valor for her 8/4 sailing.

Maybe your crew were at the end of their contract and were getting very worn down - not that should be an excuse for being unfriendly, but maybe there were some circumstances that you were not aware of.

 

Can you fill us in on what you did for shore excursions? I see you went with Cosol, as I m doing (also for a 2nd time), but what else did you do? We also do not take Carnival excursions.

 

Thanks for the great review,

Mitch....

[mamk]

We were on the April 7th. cruise on the Valor and enjoyed all the islands. This was our 5th. cruise on Carnival and will cruise with them again. For the price we paid, it was a real bargain. One of the very popular things to do at night was the Comedy Club in the Eagles Lounge. It's a large room and some nights it was standing room only. We had some pretty good comedians on our cruise that kept us all laughing.

[takevtr1]

We were on the April 7th. cruise on the Valor and enjoyed all the islands. This was our 5th. cruise on Carnival and will cruise with them again. For the price we paid, it was a real bargain. One of the very popular things to do at night was the Comedy Club in the Eagles Lounge. It's a large room and some nights it was standing room only. We had some pretty good comedians on our cruise that kept us all laughing.

glad to hear that. looking forward to our 8/4 sail.

I love going to the comedy shows, those guys always make me laugh.

[bunchesofun]

Thanks for the short review. We sail on the Valor in 35 days so of course want to read all we can about the ship and itinerary. I guess with a staff of around 900 people, someone has to be not quite as nice as the rest. It just seems like you got them. Glad you didn't let it ruin your trip, unlike some people who post bad experiences here.

[kathy884]

The Valor will be our next cruise. Thank you for sharing your experience.

[PrettyHazardous]

Thanks for this update and your honesty, will you be doing a full review of a cruise? Not many ppl are doing them at this time:confused:.

[dallas52]

too bad a couple of people can make a difference in a cruise, i have alway wondered how the workers are always happy. most times they will get rid of someone with such problems as you decribed if they know about them. did you tell anyone on the ship? sorry it spoiled some of your cruise, but glad you enjoyed it. we havent been on the Valor but we took the Victory out of San Juan. hope you enjoy your next cruise.

[Leo's Rule]

You may want to inform John Heald of this. Not that you're trying to get the person in trouble, but maybe they can make sure he's talked to and the next guests he services won't be treated the same way.

 

And thanks for the review. I sail her in July!

[OntarioTraveller]

Thanks for the review.

I saw on previous posts that you had booked a 4J room on this cruise.

How did you like it??

[OntarioTraveller]

Sorry I had the wrong poster.....