Valor Southern Caribbean review with pictures and Fun Times - better late than never

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

These are all of the beach just past the Hilton

 

 

 

 

 

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A lot of rocks or coral in the water here

 

 

 

This is the lifeguard hut. The life guards all had a great sense of humor and were a lot of fun

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

When we got back to the ship, we paid and tipped our driver then browsed the cruise center shops before getting back on board. I was looking for a t-shirt for myself but didn’t find one that I liked. I was able to find Christmas ornaments for my friend and for us. Since this was our first time in Barbados since I started collecting refrigerator magnets, I got one of those and also shot glass for a friend of mine who collects them. We probably spent about 45 minutes going through the shopping area then went and got pictures of the “Welcome to Barbados” sign and of Valor before getting back on.

 

Cruise center shops

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

The large building of shops closest to the dock. This is the building we walked through to get to where the taxis and the other shops

 

DH at the "Welcome to Barbados" sign and Valor in the background

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

Our cabin!!!

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

There were three guys playing Caribbean music right outside the ship, which was nice to listen to while waiting in line to get back on. Once back on Valor, we went right to the cabin to drop our stuff off and I really needed some water, which I was getting out of the faucet in the bathroom. DH told me we’d be getting DOD’s pretty soon, but I was really thirsty and told him that if I didn’t chug some water that I’d be chugging a DOD and that might not be a great idea. He agreed. Before we went up to the Lido Deck grille, I had to see what was going on with my camera and thought I’d try the other battery that was charged (I bring two, always charging one while the other is in use). When I turned the camera on, it came right on…it’s working…wahoo!!! I changed the batteries just in case and recharged the one that was in the camera.

 

After that we went up to the Lido Deck grill for some lunch and a DOD. We got what we wanted from the grill and easily found a table to eat at, outside along the windows. When we were done we went to the Argonaut Pool bar for a drink. Today’s souvenir cup with the Disco Ball cup and that was another one that I didn’t have yet. The drink that came in it was called “Rum Punch Fever Disco Ball”, which was not the drink of the day. This was another drink that was very good and again, if anyone has the recipe, I’d love to have it. We stayed up on the Lido Deck till we finished our drinks and went back to the cabin.

 

We were both tired and wanted to get a nap in before sailing away from Barbados. We slept for an hour but it didn’t seem like it. We got up, freshened up, and were getting ready to leave the cabin when we heard all kinds of yelling and cheering…pier runners??? I have to say that I had no idea what a “pier runner” was and never even heard the expression before reading about it here on CC. Yep, these two were definitely pier runners. DH said it was too bad he didn’t have the video camera handy. Come to think of it, a few minutes before we witnessed the pier runners, they were paging two people on the ship so I’m guessing it was these two. We decided to get a few pictures from our balcony before going back up to the Lido Deck and realized we could see the Barbados Hilton, where we spent the day, from the ship. I never looked from the beach at the Hilton to see if we could see the ship from there. We also noticed what looked to be about100 kegs, must have been some party!

 

Pictures from our balcony

 

Could that be the Barbados Hilton where we spent the day???

 

That would be it!!!

 

Carlisle Bay from our balcony

 

 

Must have been some party

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

As I mentioned, Barbados isn't the most scenic port from where the ship dock, but it IS a beautiful island with gorgeous water.

 

The band playing the steel drums

 

Next picture would have been the pier runners, but I'd rather not post it. I would hope to never be a pier runner, but if I was I wouldn't want my picture posted all over CC.

 

We went up to the Lido Deck after that and got DOD and headed up to Panorama Deck 10 for sail away from Barbados. We stayed up there for a little while to watch the sunset, which looked like it was going to be a nice one and got a few pictures. There were clouds way out in the distance and even though we got some good sunset pictures, we never did see the sun drop on the horizon. I was hoping to see the “green flash” that I’ve read about on CC when the sun sets on a clear horizon, but tonight wasn’t going to be the night. After a while we went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner.

 

This is one of the several frozen Hurricane drinks that Stiliyan made for DH during our cruise. I tasted each one and they were good. I wanted those souvenir cups though

 

Sailing away from Barbados.

 

This is Brandon's beach where we almost spent the day until we found out there were no facilities. We walked to this beach (about a mile walk) when in Barbados on our honeymoon in 1992 at sunset. That time we were in Barbados from 8AM - 10PM.

 

Zoomed in on Brandon's beach - yeah, no facilities that I could see

[pghsteelerfan]

More of sail away from Barbados

 

 

 

 

 

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Pier we just left from

 

 

 

The Hilton

[pghsteelerfan]

Carlisle Bay

 

 

 

DH

 

Me

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Good bye Barbados...hope to be back soon!

 

Wonder if I'm the only one who gets a lot of pictures of the "Whale Tail" funnel...

 

Argonaut Pool

 

Hot tubs above Argonaut Pool

 

 

When on Glory I noticed these lights and wondered why they were tilted - it's because those are what are turned on during the deck parties and they rotate

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

DH getting video and pictures

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Doorways on Lido Deck 9 going from the interior out to the Argonaut Pool bar - one of our favorite hangouts. The outside tables in the picture are the ones right above our cabin. I got this picture on our way back to our cabin to get ready for dinner

 

We sat out on our balcony, watched the sunset and got pictures

 

 

 

The shells I found at the beach that day at the Hilton - love these souvenirs and they don't take up a lot of luggage space

 

The undersides

 

I took pictures of the shells just in case they ended up getting confiscated for some reason. I didn't think they would be because they were empty, but ya never know. I never saw anything like these before.

[pghsteelerfan]

When we were getting ready for dinner, Camelo stopped by clean it. DH told him we were getting ready for dinner and would be at least a half hour and told him not to worry about it, so there would be now towel animal, Fun Times, or chocolates that night. I did pick up a copy of the Fun Times sometime the next day since I wanted the full set.

 

When we got to dinner, our tablemates weren’t there and it was just the two of us. We had more time to talk to and get to know our wait staff. They came around with the shot glasses that night but the guy walked right past our table, so I didn’t see what they were. No biggie, I had all the different colors they had, so that was fine. After dinner we went up to the second Mega Deck party and we each got a Captain Morgan rum & coke at the Argonaut Pool bar and noticed they had these flashing shot glasses, so I had to get one. I didn’t get the shot, just the glass. I asked Benji if there was any way to turn it off because they are bright the last thing we needed was a strobe light keeping us up that night. There is a small button on the bottom of it that will turn it off. We sat up there till we finished out drinks then ordered another to take back to enjoy on our balcony before calling it a night. The Mega Deck party was in full swing at this point, but I used my earplugs and they were definitely a big help that night. I knew we’d be getting up early the next morning for our day in St. Lucia since we had an excursion booked, so it wasn’t a late night for us.

[pghsteelerfan]

I'm wrapping this part of the review up for tonight. I'll be coming up to our day in St. Lucia next. This may be the longest part of the review. St. Lucia was one of our favorite islands because of the beautiful scenery. From getting up at 5:30AM and going out and seeing the island and it's famous Pitons from our balcony at sunrise to all we did that day. There will be a ton of pictures and I'll need to get all of those in order.

 

To be continued...

[pc2425]

LOVE your review! We will be on Valor in 41 days....can't wait and this is making me more excited! This will be my 11th cruise but I have never been on a cruise where people start and end their cruise at a different port. So I'm wondering...is there another muster drill in Barbados for the new people? I

[pghsteelerfan]

LOVE your review! We will be on Valor in 41 days....can't wait and this is making me more excited! This will be my 11th cruise but I have never been on a cruise where people start and end their cruise at a different port. So I'm wondering...is there another muster drill in Barbados for the new people? I

 

Thank you for reading and I hope some of it will also be helpful to you in some way. Reading reviews before our cruise was a big help, especially places to see that I didn't know much about, like Sapphire Beach and also Jalousie Beach in St. Lucia (coming up next).

 

No, there isn't another muster drill in Barbados. There is only the one, in San Juan at 9:30PM (everyone, including those who get on in Barbados, have to participate). There was another Mega Deck party the night we left Barbados.

[oncruisecontrol]

Your pictures are beautiful. I especially loved the ones of St. Thomas.

[silvercrikhix]

Thank you for the info on the red roofed bldgs on Sapphire Beach.

You have some gorgeous photo shots!

Love this one---a picture is worth a thousand words shot:

 

http://s934.photobucket.com/user/H_B_G/media/05-08-13%20Valor%20Barbados/100_6668-1.jpg.html

[pghsteelerfan]

Your pictures are beautiful. I especially loved the ones of St. Thomas.

 

Thank you and I just LOVE St. Thomas. Actually, all of the islands on this itinerary are very scenic. I'd heard about Sapphire Beach before but didn't know much about it or what it looked like. It was from reading other reviews and actually seeing pictures that made our decision to go there very easy.

[pghsteelerfan]

Thank you for the info on the red roofed bldgs on Sapphire Beach.

You have some gorgeous photo shots!

Love this one---a picture is worth a thousand words shot:

 

http://s934.photobucket.com/user/H_B_G/media/05-08-13%20Valor%20Barbados/100_6668-1.jpg.html

 

You are quite welcome. We really enjoyed Sapphire Beach and I wouldn't mind going there for a week either. Thank you about the photo shots. We were on a similar itinerary on our honeymoon 21 years ago but I only had a film camera then and didn't get all the pictures I wanted. Now that we have digital, there was no limit as to how many I could take. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

Day 5 – Thursday, May 9, 2013 – Castries, St. Lucia

 

 

Today's Fun Times