Mountainbreeze's HUGE Victory vacation review!

[mountainbreeze]

Thank you for your reply, you all seemed to have enjoyed the water taxi sooo much! It looks very exciting...:D

Going on our first trip to MIA in Nov and cruise in Dec.

 

The water taxi was very good, much better than an ordinary cab would have been. I'm glad we tried it

[Pellaz]

Heh, you beat me to this....

 

I understand your excitement at getting the first glimpse of your ship... but that wasn't your ship! That's a Fantasy-class ship... the one that followed your ship out of the Port of Miami. Notice that it doesn't have any balconies. That wasn't your ship, I'm afraid!

 

She was almost certainly Carnival Imagination. My first Carnival cruise, so I have a particular fondness for her. :)

 

Really enjoying the review. We are 15 days from sailing and 13 days from leaving home for the drive!

Edited September 29, 2013 by Pellaz

[saltybones]

Great Review! More Please! Thanks for feeding us some great cruise fodder!:D

[brycman95]

Your review is awesome! My bestfriend, her 10 yr old daughter and I are going on the same cruise the week of Thanksgiving! We are all first time cruisers and are super excited! We are going down to Miami and staying at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami for a couple of nights so your review is very useful! We are DEF going to use the water taxi!

[mountainbreeze]

Heh, you beat me to this....

 

 

 

She was almost certainly Carnival Imagination. My first Carnival cruise, so I have a particular fondness for her. :)

 

Really enjoying the review. We are 15 days from sailing and 13 days from leaving home for the drive!

 

Yes, I screwed that up :) Sorry for the wrong picture!

Glad you are enjoying the review, your cruise is coming up very soon! Are you packed yet??!!

[mountainbreeze]

Great Review! More Please! Thanks for feeding us some great cruise fodder!:D

 

I'm so glad you are enjoying this review! More coming TODAY........I think I have 2 or 3 days to post today.

Be back shortly with Grand Turk and HMC

[mountainbreeze]

Your review is awesome! My bestfriend, her 10 yr old daughter and I are going on the same cruise the week of Thanksgiving! We are all first time cruisers and are super excited! We are going down to Miami and staying at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami for a couple of nights so your review is very useful! We are DEF going to use the water taxi!

 

So glad I could help :) You will love the Victory, I had so much fun on that ship! I have a post coming up with a tour of the ship too

[mountainbreeze]

Sorry I didn't get to post anything over the weekend. To make it up to you, I have an extra long post today.

 

I'm going to start with my pics of the Carnival Victory, then I'll post Grand Turk Day and HMC day.

I'm writing the Nassau day right now, and I should have that ready to post tomorrow.

 

 

This is not a "complete" tour of the Carnival Victory.

These are only the areas of the ship that I visited on my cruise.

 

 

 

 

THE CARNIVAL VICTORY!!

Deck 1- Riviera Deck - Passenger cabins

Deck 2 - Main Deck - Passenger cabins

 

 

When you enter the ship, you are in the Lobby- on deck 3

The lobby bar (deck 3)

Lobby ceiling - I loved the green glass!

[mountainbreeze]

Glass elevators in the lobby

 

Entrance to the Atlantic Dining room just off the lobby area

Inside the Atlantic Dining Room

The Shore excursion desk in the lobby. This is where you book shore excursions for the islands you visit.

 

 

Guest Services desk in the lobby. This is just like the front desk at a hotel.

 

Seating in the lobby with the big staircase up to deck 4

[mountainbreeze]

At the very front of the ship on deck 3 was the Caribbean Theater. We saw all of the bigger shows here.

There are entrances to the balcony levels of the theater on decks 4 and 5

The balcony in the Caribbean Theater

Our favorite spot to sit to watch all the shows in the Caribbean Theater. Balcony level, straight back from the stage.

[mountainbreeze]

Going up to Deck 4 - Atlantic Deck

 

 

Above the Lobby on Deck 4 are the Photo Shops. This is where to go to look at and buy any pictures the ship photographers take of you

The library is on deck 4. They have board games and books you can check out during your cruise.

 

A statue in glass in the Library. It was about 3 feet tall. It's probably carved out of solid ivory and worth a bazillion dollars.

 

 

Also on deck 4 was the Cigar Bar, but you can't smoke in there. It was a beautiful big room that I thought was wasted space. We never saw anyone in here.

 

The bar at the Cigar bar

[mountainbreeze]

Behind the Cigar bar was the Internet Cafe. For a fee you can use the internet

 

 

 

Also on deck 4 are the stairs to enter the balcony of the Caribbean Theater

 

 

 

 

 

Lets go up to deck 5 - Promenade deck

On Deck 5, above the lobby are The Fun Shops. These are the gift shops and the jewelry shops.

I didn't take any pictures in the shops. You can see them on the other side of the glass railings.

 

 

In this one, you can also see the photo shops below on deck 4

Looking over the railing down onto the lobby bar. There was a band behind the bar every night, and sometimes during the day.

[mountainbreeze]

The Candy Store - called Formalities.

Also on deck 5 is the casino

 

 

We loved the casino bar - called the Trident Bar. We would stop here for a smoke several times a day when we walked to and from our activities.

The seahorse barstools at the Trident bar

 

 

 

 

Next to the Trident Bar was a small stage. There was a band playing here every night, and most days too.

[mountainbreeze]

There is a place on the Promenade deck where you can buy yummy desserts

 

 

 

The arcade

 

 

The Caspian Wine Bar

 

 

 

The Piano Bar

 

 

The Red & Black Lounge

[mountainbreeze]

The Arctic Nightclub

 

 

 

Deck 6 - The Upper Deck - Passenger Cabins

Deck 7 - The Empress Deck - Passenger Cabins

Deck 8 - The Verandah Deck - Passenger Cabins

Lets stop off at Deck 8 - Verandah Deck and take a tour of our cabins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We'll start with inside cabin 8426 at the back of the ship.

 

 

 

 

Please excuse the "lived-in" look of the cabin. It was my kids cabin and these pics were taken on the last night of the cruise, just before they started packing to go home.

Walking in the door, there were closets on the left, and the bathroom to the right.

 

 

 

Walking further into the cabin, and looking toward the right

 

 

And looking to the left

[mountainbreeze]

 

 

 

 

My cabin was the "Premium Vista Balcony" cabin 8428. Also known as an aft-wrap.

It's located in the back corner of the ship, shown here with the black arrow

aft-wrap 8428 is at the very end of the hallway

inside cabin 8426 is on the left side in this pic

This map might help with the placement of our cabins

The circle is around my aft-wrap cabin and the arrow is pointing to the kids inside cabin.

 

 

 

 

8428 was a fabulous cabin, with the best balcony EVER!

 

 

Looking back at the door after walking in. There were 2 closets on one side. The safe was on a shelf in the first closet.

[mountainbreeze]

 

 

 

 

 

The balcony door was behind the smaller curtain on the other side of the TV.

The door on the left was the bathroom

[mountainbreeze]

The bathroom

 

 

 

And the best part, the balcony!!

 

 

This part of the balcony was around the side of the ship.

[mountainbreeze]

And now up one floor to Deck 9 -The Lido Deck

(I didn't get a picture of the Lido deck sign!!)

LIDO DECK

DECK 9

 

 

At the back of the ship is a pool, 2 hot tubs, and plenty of places to sit or lay out

Closer view of the pool

The waterfall and statue by the back pool

The pizza place

 

 

 

The pool bar

 

The ice cream machines

[mountainbreeze]

Moving toward the front of the ship on deck 9

The big buffet area. The deli and the Chinese place are along the sides of the buffet

 

 

On the other side of the buffet area

Just past these tables is another pool bar (on the left)

 

 

 

The pool bar

On the other side of the pool bar is the pool

 

 

 

 

 

And the hot tubs

[mountainbreeze]

The big screen TV

Opposite the big screen TV is tiered seating with lounge chairs

Looking at the big screen from the tiered seating

 

 

 

 

 

Above the Lido Deck, and behind the big screen is the jogging track

[mountainbreeze]

Around the back side of the jogging track. It's very windy up here when the ship is sailing

 

Getting closer to the whale tail

One floor above the jogging track is the mini golf course. It was very windy up here too

Mini golf at the base of the whale tail

[mountainbreeze]

Looking up at the whale tail. The big one is the real thing. The small one is a feature of the mini golf course

 

 

 

Looking over the rail from the mini golf course

 

 

Next we'll go over near the top of the waterslide - Serenity deck

 

 

The view from the other side

 

 

[mountainbreeze]

Behind the waterslide entrance is the Adults only Serenity deck

 

 

 

Inside the serenity deck are these cool showers. You can try them all

 

 

Places to hang out on Serenity Deck

 

[mountainbreeze]

Looking down at the hot tubs on the lower level of Serenity Deck

 

Toward the front of the ship is the workout facility

 

 

and the spa

 

 

 

 

And that's the end of my tour of the Carnival Victory!