K&B's Excellent Adventure to the S Caribbean on the Valor (Sept 19-30) *pic heavy*

[pixiedust777]

Loving the review we leave in 12 days for this cruise and you are making it hard to wait:D

Your pictures are beautiful.

Please keep the review coming!

[ktinnc]

Hey y'all! Don't give up on me yet. I pinky promise I'm coming back...remember in the very first post i warned you it could take weeks or even months to finish it but I will finish! lol

 

As expected work is INSANE!! And my sister had a baby last week - we are an extremely close family so I spent the night at the hospital with her one night an at home with her kids one other night...she had a csection so needs extra help right now. Auntie Katie to the rescue :) Sooo....be patient..I promise...I haven't given up on the review...:)

[hockeyluver]

Hey y'all! Don't give up on me yet. I pinky promise I'm coming back...remember in the very first post i warned you it could take weeks or even months to finish it but I will finish! lol

 

As expected work is INSANE!! And my sister had a baby last week - we are an extremely close family so I spent the night at the hospital with her one night an at home with her kids one other night...she had a csection so needs extra help right now. Auntie Katie to the rescue :) Sooo....be patient..I promise...I haven't given up on the review...:)

 

congratulations auntie!! :D and congrats to your sister.

 

take your time, as long as you are done by January 24th :p

[Perfect Stranger]

Your excellent photography really shows the beauty of San Juan!

 

Love your review!

[shelkate1]

Katie, We boarded the Valor the day you debarked. It's been wonderful reliving my trip through your review!!

[Dirkgun]

Your excellent photography really shows the beauty of San Juan!

 

Love your review!

 

I completely agree. San Juan is such a great place to look at anyway, but when you get good pics of it, they really can tell the story. PS I hope she comes back to continue.... :D

[ktinnc]

I completely agree. San Juan is such a great place to look at anyway, but when you get good pics of it, they really can tell the story. PS I hope she comes back to continue.... :D

 

She hasn't forgotten..I promise :) I'm working 18-19 hours a day right now....but I may be able to get the next part up this weekend. The pics are prepped...just need to write it up :)

[Dirkgun]

She hasn't forgotten..I promise :) I'm working 18-19 hours a day right now....but I may be able to get the next part up this weekend. The pics are prepped...just need to write it up :)

 

 

I know how time consuming reviews can be.... what with all the uploading of pics (and deciding which to add etc) then the writing of the story getting things in order and trying to keep up with life. I am subscribed so Waiting patiently.

[2 cruzen]

Great review so far! I ate the same thing as you at Barrachina's. I loved this itinerary back in February. Looking forward to the rest!

 

Is Barrachina's easy to find. Want to have the piña Colada there. Thanks

[NancyRogers1]

Loving your review can't wait for more. :)

[ktinnc]

Is Barrachina's easy to find. Want to have the piña Colada there. Thanks

 

Yes it's very easy...there are only a few "main" streets in Old San Juan.... we just put the address into my iphone (used the mapquest app I believe) and said we needed walking directions and it took us right there. It was pretty much the first place we went upon arrival to OSJ...so if we had done any exploring first, we would've already had a better feel of the area and would've been able to find it even easier if that makes sense. :)

[ktinnc]

Part 4/Sunday, Sept 22, 2013 (continued)

So remember how at the verrrrrry beginning of my review/trip report I said it may take days, weeks, maybe even months to finish this thing…yup….I was right. Yes, I left y’all hanging for almost an entire month since my last post. As expected, I’ve been insanely busy with work (15-18 hour days) and then my sis had a baby! We’re an extremely close family so that meant I stayed at the hospital with her…helped out with the big kids the next night etc. So yes she birthed the baby but we all helped out once she arrived! Ok…sooo….on with the review. Today we will finally make it on the ship!!

Let’s see…where did I leave off? Oh yes….we had just checked out of our amazing hotel…the Hotel El Convento…. I was sad to leave but super excited to be heading to the ship! Bye hotel!







One of the hotel staff grabbed a taxi for us and had our bags loaded up in it by the time we got outside (from checking out of the hotel). We had a young, chatty, friendly driver. The cost was $12 plus $1 per bag. It was a pretty short ride (maybe a mile or mile and a half) but it was worth every penny especially in that heat and with all of our luggage.



We left the hotel around 12:15pm and were onboard the ship by 12:35pm! Check in was super easy. We didn’t wait in any lines…just dropped off our luggage with the porters when we got out of the taxi (they were there waiting), took a couple pics of the ship, walked into the terminal, went upstairs, got checked in, went through security, stopped for a couple minutes to peek at the duty free shops (said we’d come back down and get some water later but we never did), and before we knew it we were boarding the Carnival Valor!

This is the biggest ship we had ever been on so I was extremely excited! Past ships (can’t remember if I said already) were the Carnival Ectasy for me (with my family when I was in college), the Carnival Fascination (for hubby and I – our honeymoon), a ship/cruise on Royal Caribbean (a girls trip) and most recently the Carnival Fantasy out of Charleston with my in-laws and our son.

 



 



 



Boarding!! Eeeek…just looking at this picture I can remember how excited I/we were!

 











We boarded on Deck 3 where the main atrium/lobby is…. there was a lot going on…music, staff, people everywhere… we had to stop for a minute and think where to go first. Then we heard somebody say the cabins were ready – sweeet! So we grabbed an elevator and headed for Deck 6 where our cabin was located allllllllllllll the way forward. Cabin 6212. There was only 1 cabin closer to the front than us if that tells ya anything.

 

[ktinnc]

Part 4/Sunday, Sept 22, 2013 (continued)

 

I let Brian open the door and it was so fun to surprise him with our cabin. He knew there was going to be a balcony but he didn’t realize we’d have the big window and that the cabin was going to be “so big.” (He was expecting a porthole for some reason..lol). We spent a little bit of time in the cabin checking things out….we looked over the Fun Times and tried to figure out what we wanted to do for the day. At this point we had pretty much decided getting off the ship and going back into San Juan was just not something we wanted to do – we were enjoying a cabin with AC and a big bed (as opposed to our hotel the past couple nights). While we were in the cabin our room steward came by and introduced herself (Sunantha). She asked if we needed anything so we asked her if she would clear the mini bar (so we would have room for the drinks we brought with us) and she did that in the evening when we were out.

Here’s some pics of our cabin – 6212..

































We loved our cabin and spent a good chunk of time in there daily relaxing….our home away from home. In the shower they provide shampoo and body wash…I usually bring my own but Brian used what they had. The shower had great water pressure and got plenty hot. There were a few little samples in the bathroom but nothing super exciting….some drink mixes, coupons, a disposable razor and a breathe right nasal strip sample. I loved that there were so many shelves in the bathroom – you can sort of see them in one of the pics…there were 3 shelves on each side of the mirror (so 6 total) and they were open/glass so I could see/grab whatever I wanted very easily. It was so nice to be able to keep things neat but accessible the whole week.

[ktinnc]

Part 4/Sunday, Sept 22, 2013 (continued)

 

We decided that the first thing we would do is go up to the Lido deck and get lunch and then after that we would explore the ship and I would take pics of everything for my review. When we were leaving our cabin I said to Brian…”let’s check out the ‘secret deck’ before we go up to Lido.” So we took a left out of our cabin (instead of a right) and went and found the “secret deck.” It’s not really a huge secret but you definitely have to know that it’s there because the doors you go through to get out there don’t really look like anything special. We took a few pics….it was the deck right underneath the Bridge. I think if we hadn’t had a balcony room we would’ve spent some time out there during the week because I think it stayed relatively quiet.

 



 



 



 



 



 

We headed up to Lido deck and got some lunch. While we were walking around and checking out all of the food options we ran into one of the girls I had been talking to from our roll call. I started a roll call on here way back in January (after I booked) a bunch of us started talking on here but eventually the group moved over to "the site that shall not be named" because it’s just easier there. By the time we left we had almost 100 people on there. It was a very active group and a lot of fun to share the excitement/anticipation of the trip with others that were just as excited. We shared ideas of what to do for excursions, what to pack, etc. So anyways, we met her and she introduced us to her family and we chatted for a few minutes and then we went our separate ways and finally sat down to eat! We sat by the window and looked out at the water and Old San Juan and we both shared how we were enjoying the moment (just eating together) and that we were looking forward to the week.

[ktinnc]

Part 4/Sunday, Sept 22, 2013 (continued)

 

After lunch we went back to the cabin for “just a minute,” before we were going to go explore the ship and take pics. Well, Brian got comfy watching football so I decided…what the heck..it’s vacation…I think I’ll lay down with him for a few minutes and relax. Before I knew it I was waking up and it was almost 5:30pm!! Wooops – guess I needed it. About an hour before I laid down I had started getting a sore throat so I figured a little rest would be good. When I got up Brian decided to go up to the sports bar to see if he could find the football game that wasn’t on our tv in our cabin. While he was gone I made a few phone calls home and then I turned on some music on my phone and started unpacking. I love being able to put everything away and make the cabin our home for the week. At one point I looked up and saw this gorgeous sight out of our cabin window…. so I took a few moments to soak it in and thank the Lord for all of our blessings. Life isn’t always perfect or easy, but how lucky are we to be so fortunate to be able to have the means to take a trip like this. I prayed for good weather and safe travels for all….and then I jumped in the shower because we had dinner reservations coming up!

 



 

Brian came back to the cabin and we both got ready for dinner. On the first night of this itinerary there is no assigned seating in the dining room(s) because a lot of people aren’t even onboard the ship – some haven’t checked in yet and some are in San Juan since we didn’t sail until 10pm. It’s “open seating” so I had decided prior to the trip that this would be the night that we would go to the steakhouse instead. Scarlett’s steakhouse (located on Deck 10) is a specialty restaurant. They don’t have steakhouses on all the ships – in fact this was our first cruise that had one. The fee per person is $35 (as opposed to free food on the rest of the ship), but you’re paying for the experience and higher quality food. We couldn’t find the steakhouse at first (guess we should’ve explored the ship earlier as planned..haha) but eventually made it in time for our 7pm reservations and we were seated at a table for 2. The service was good as was the food. After reading so many reviews I thought it was going to the best meal I had ever had in my life. It was good and we enjoyed it but it wasn’t over the top crazy good – but maybe I just had really high expectations at that point. I had the 9oz filet mignon and that was delicious. The caesar salad was ok and I didn’t like my appetizer (the portabella mushroom starter)…but that’s ok. I figured I might as well try something different since I was on vacation! Brian had the crab cake as his appetizer (which he loved) and I think he got the surf and turf. After ordering they send out a little “complements of the chef” kind of thing…I had tomato soup (I think…I forgot..lol) but they sent Brian the tiniest burger I’ve ever seen….we got a kick out of it!

 





When the meal was over it was time to get dessert…but we were pretty full..so we decided to have one dessert to share in the restaurant and then bring one back with us to the cabin for later (cheesecake). We had the chocolate sampler in the Steakhouse and it was yummmy. Brian wore dress pants and a polo and I wore a long/maxi dress. We saw a couple of people dressed in jeans/”casual” but for the most part people were dressed up. As I mentioned above, the fee was $35 pp and I think we left $10 extra for a tip even though it’s included in the $35. I think it was worth the money and it was fun to do something different/special so I’d definitely go again on another cruise.

 















 

After dinner (around 9ish?) we went to the cabin or a few minutes and saw our fist towel animal! A seal…or as some people call it..the famous V----…… towel. (I can’t say it..My mom is reading this…lol).

We were surprised that before we left the cabin they came on the PA system and did the majority of the safety/muster drill. It was in Spanish and English so we were glad to be comfy in our room. After that part was over everyone had to go to their muster station for the rest of the drill. It didn’t take too long at all – and of course gone are the days where you have to actually bring/wear your life preserver!

[ktinnc]

Part 4/Sunday, Sept 22, 2013 (continued)

 

Once the safety briefing was over we headed to Lido for the sail away party. We got a couple of beverages and enjoyed the music/dancing/party. I love the vibe on the first day of a cruise. Everyone is always so excited for the week ahead (including us!)

 



 



 



 

[ktinnc]

Part 4/Sunday, Sept 22, 2013 (continued)

 

 



 



 



We stayed until we passed the forts and then we headed back to our cabin close to midnight. We thought it’d be romantic to sit out on our first balcony and share our cheesecake dessert ….well it was hot and we didn’t like the cheesecake so were were out there less than 5 minutes and then called it a night..lol! Oh yea – we are party animals!





Up next….St Thomas!





I hope you read this installment slowly because it may need to last you another week or so lol. Sorry....it took 3 hours this a.m. just to put this little bit together and I already had the pictures picked out, prepped and uploaded. I also had the majority of my text written in my journal...it just takes time.. :) I hope you'll stick with me!

[Handsome58]

up, great job. "SOME IS BETTER THAN NONE!"

[boaterette]

Great review. See you in a week or so.:D

[oceanaire]

Thank you for taking the time to share with us.

We have to wait til March to be on the Valor.

Can't wait for more:)

[MarriedInStThomas1807]

Anxiously awaiting more!

[Kridder]

Enjoying your review! Looking forward to reading more!

[babsee101]

Subscribed to your awesome review! Very much looking forward to your next installment! :)

[maureencruiser]

 

Frickin' Hilarious! :D

 

The balcony at the hotel is called a French Balcony, just in case you ever see one again.

 

 

[Shilee11]

Great review so far!!! What side of the ship was your balcony? I booked the starboard side and I was wondering how the views were?