Live From the Victory... Full Moon(s) cruise

[missmickie]

Have fun, Bob!!

[BABYJOSIE98]

Taking our Daughter on this ship for her 16th Birthday celebration in May!!!

 

Can't wait!!!

 

Have a couple cruises to hold me over until then....

[celticd1]

Great start! More, more, more please!!! :D

[Kokomo_Man]

The great Victory full moon(s) adventure.

 

 

 

Day 0

 

 

I have been derelict in my job as a cub reporter on the full moon(s) adventure. I have been concentraring on my primary duty… testing the quality of frozen concoctions at each of the ship’s bars. Anyway… I’ll try to catch you up on the day.

 

Day0 has been a combination of ups and downs. Of course, a day on a cruise ship is an “up” no matter what… it’s always better than most any other day even if there are ups and downs.

 

The day started off with a sleep in. You’ll find that I do that as much as I can. It is a cruise after all. Then I ran across the first character of the day just as we were catching the shuttle to the port. There she was… the tattooed lady. I don’t mean that she had just a few tattoos… she was covered.

 

Almost every inch of skin that was exposed had a tattoo… all of both her arms, her shoulders and most of her neck. She had a tank top on and her chest and back, as far as I could see (tee hee) were completely covered. Her tank top ended in the bottom of her back and there was some kind of buzzard trying to escape from her pants.

 

Fortunately, she didn’t have her face tattooed. Instead, she had a battle with a steel loop machine. She had two loops in her nose, one in her lip and seven more for her ears. She also had two large… think 253 penny nail… dangly earrings hanginging from each ear. Oh… least I forget, her hair was mostly purple… bright purple.

 

Now least you think this is some twenty-something hottie… she was probably in her mid forties. I’m sure that escaping buzzard was at one time a beautiful eagle. When I have a chance I’ll post a pic.

 

The best laid plans... - I originally planned on posting a lot of pics while I was on the cruise. My intent was to upload a batch of each day’s pics overnight and then post comments the next day. This was all based on Carnivals implied promise that all of the ships would have an unlimited internet plan by now. Well, that never happened so I’m going to post a few “teaser” pics as I go along, but most of them will be posted after the cruise is over.

 

As soon as we arrived at the port we started meeting up with old friends. First there was Billy… he had to come up and pinch my nipple as soon as I saw him. (It’s a long story.) Then his wife… I call her the Queen Bee… came up and pinched my butt. (An even longer story.) It’s good to see old friends.

 

As we boarded the ship there were a load of other friends and so I just had to have a few frozen concoctions to help me hang on with them. By the time of the Mustard Drill, I couldn’t find the hot dogs. Oh… that’s a muster drill… that’s very different… never mind.

 

I mentioned “ups and downs”. Beside the lack of unlimited internet, the other “down” was seating for dinner tonight. First off, we had requested one of those large tables with friends. What we got was a booth for four with one stranger and one friend. What was worse was that the benches for the booth were so low that we all felt like little kids sitting at the adults table. I’m 6’2” and the table was chest high for me. And the benches were so low that my but was well below my knees. All very uncomfortable… My advice is avoid the boots at all costs.

 

Before we even sat down, we said that the booths were unacceptable. But the Maitradee did nothing. I was patient… figuring that I would wait till the initial rush was over and then we could get stuff fixed for the next day. Even with that, the answer was still no… there was no way we could change tables. I haven’t given up yet, but it’s not looking good. More on this tomorrow.

 

After dinner it was off to the piano bar and a couple more frozen concoctions to help me hang on. There were lots of friends in the piano bar. The entertainer was “Piano Bar Bob” (I’ll get his full name later.) Piano Bar Bob is reputed to be one of the better guys in Carnival’s piano bars. He wasn’t supposed to be on here for this cruise. A guy nick-named “Joe Hollywood” was supposed to be on. Joe also reputed to be very-very good but he was “dismissed”. I don’t have the whole story but Joe is one of the reasons I booked this cruise. Anyway, although Piano Bar Bob is no Ron Pass, he is entertaining and will keep me amused for the cruise.

 

That said, I did not “close down” the piano bar as has been my usual practice lately. After the piano bar I watched several of my friends donating their money to Carnival in the casino.

 

That’s all for now. I’ll add some more musings for Day 0 in the morning.

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo

[Kokomo_Man]

The great Victory full moon(s) adventure.

 

 

 

Day 0 – Part 2

 

 

I have a couple of odds and ends for you from Day0 and then it’s time to go on an adventure.

 

On Day0 I usually spend an hour or two doing a “walk-about” on the ship discovering all the places and interesting venues on the ship. But… even though this is my first time on a Triumph class ship I was already familiar with the layout… it’s almost the same as the Conquest class ships (Valor, Glory, Freedom, Liberty, etc) that I’ve been on seven times. The Triumph class is a bit older, so it’s a bit smaller, but the layout is nearly identical.

 

I did check out the Serenity area. It is quite a bit smaller than on the Conquest class ships but they all same kind of the nice deck furniture and sitting areas the larger ships have. There are also two large hot tubs that could probably hold 20-30 people each. I like hot tubs, but I’m not sure I want to be in them with a hoard of strangers. I’ve always thought of hot tubs as being an intimate place to spend some… ummmm… errrrrrr… “quality time” with that someone special. I don’t think that someone special is Fred… especially if Fred is trying to put the move on Wilma.

 

Another note about the “Mustard Drill” – I couldn’t understand a word the Cap-i-tan said. His thick Italian accent was much worse than other Carnival Cap-i-tans. One would think that after the problems the cruise industry has had in the recent years… think Concordia… they would have pre-recorded announcements that everyone could understand… kinda like the airlines now do. Yes, it’s great for the Cap-i-tan to say gouuud mourning ladeeeees and giiiintleman… we are in the beeutiiiifulll Car-iiii-beeeean. But something as important as safety information should be in clear language.

 

That’s all for now… it’s on to more adventures.

 

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo

[nybumpkin]

Bob, looking forward to the rest of your review! Carnival Victory was our first cruise, 9 years ago. As much as I love her, though, I completely agree about the booths in the dining room - and I'm only 5'2." Thought I needed a booster seat.:p Same case with the booths on the Lido deck.

[Kokomo_Man]

The great Victory full moon(s) adventure.

 

 

 

Day 1

 

 

I’m coming to you this morning from my favorite spot to people watch… the pool on the Lido Deck. I mean…. Aaaarrrgggggh! Good morning to you me hearties. I be coming to you this mornin’ from the pirate haven of Nassau. Arrrgggghhh! Twas the best home a pirate ever be knowin’. That is till the scurvy dog Woodes Rogers came here and took away the pirate livelihood. He ended the way of the bretherin and ended the golden age of piracy.

 

This not be a place for fake pirates the likes of Missssster Sparrow, peg leg Pete nor Long John Silver. Nay… this be a place for the real pirates of the golden age. Pirates like Blackbeard, Capt’n Jack Rackham, and the two famous female pirates Anne Bonny and Marry Reed called Nassau home.

 

When cruise ships enter the port today there is a very narrow channel to get to the docks. The ships must enter the channel very carefully because everything else in the bay is far too shallow. The channel was dredged for cruise ships.

 

Back in the golden age the shallow harbor was one of the main reasons that Nassau became such a pirate haven. The pirate ships were mostly shallow draft sloops. They could sail into the harbor, but the big “man of war” ships would run aground. If the “man of war” tried to send their small row boats into the harbor, then the pirates could pick them off before they ever reached shore. So the “man of war” ships had to stay off shore and the pirates could wreak havoc with them under the cover of darkness.

 

Woodes Rogers (the scurvy dog) was made Governor of Nassau by the authority of the King of England and tasked with “cleaning out” the Pirates of the Caribbean. Amnesty was offered to all that would give up their piratical ways. Those that didn’t take the amnesty were hunted down and hanged. Indeed, many were hanged including Capt’n Jack Rackham. Marry Reed and Anne Bonny were sentenced to be hanged. But their fate is a tale to be told by “The Naked Pirate”.

 

The water in the harbor here at Nassau has what I think is the prettiest in all the Caribbean. It is a turquoise blue that I haven’t seen anywhere else. There is a little lighthouse out at the end of the jetty that protects the harbor and I’m sure must be on the cover of hundreds of Nassau travel brochures.

 

I always go up on deck to watch as the ship pulls in. Standing up on the top deck gives a magnificent view of Hog Island… errrrr… that’s “Paradise Island”… where the massive Atlantis resort is. The “real” name of the island is Hog Island, but the developers renamed it thinking that tourists would be less likely to want to visit “Hog Island’.

 

I say I always go up on deck when pulling in… that is except for today. This morning I was still checking my eyelids for cracks. I had a couple of extra frozen concoctions to help me hang on yesterday and well… this is a cruise. I’m NOT going to set an alarm clock.

 

I was quite surprised at the long lines at all of the buffet places (inside and outsidee) this morning. I didn’t go to get breakfast until around 9:00 A.M. because I figured that most folks would be off the ship. I guess most folks figured the same thing. So you should keep that in mind if you are on this itinerary.

 

That’s all for now. It’s time to go get some good coffee, donuts, and my internet fix at Duncan Donuts

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo

[framerman]

Hey Kokomoman. Glad to see you back!! Been reading your reviews since your fateful trip to Montevideo!!

[khaide612]

Thanks for the great review!

 

I was just looking at the deckplan on Carnival website & it shows Steakhouse & something labelled Fish & Chips on Deck 10 Panorama but when I look at the Steakhouse section of website it doesn't list the Victory as having one. Is it there? That would be awesome.

[Crusin Karen]

LOVE the Victory. LOVE the colors in the atrium. Thanks for sharing your cruise with us. Can't wait to read more! ;)

[Kokomo_Man]

The great Victory full moon(s) adventure.

 

 

 

Day 1 – Part 2

 

 

This is my fourth trip to Nassau in about 11 months. So this time all I wanted to do was a bit of a walk-about and then stop in at Duncan Donuts for my internet fix. Right next to Duncan Donuts there is a Conch fritter restaurant. They also have free wi-fi… free if you are eating there. I don’t eat Conch, but this place has the best lasagna I’ve ever had in the world. Go figure… a Conch fritter place in Nassau with very good lasagna.

 

Nassau is one of those places that you can organize your own tour if you do just a little homework a little in advance. You can reserve all of the Atlantis (Hog Island) stuff on line with the internet. Besides Atlantis itself, there are other places there with “day passes” to all their activities. Transportation via water-taxi or regular taxi is available right there at the port for $8.00 per person, round trip.

 

Or… you can do a walk-about like I do these days. The Pirate Museum is a block from the Duncan Donuts. It costs only about $12 per person to go through there. I enjoy it (of course) and I have spent hours there. If you are not a piratologist like me then you can figure on going through it in an hour or two.

 

Everyone talks about the “Straw Market”. I’m less than impressed these days. If you haven’t been there before, then it’s a good place to go as a curiosity you can talk about at dinner. It’s just a walk-through and even though I’ve been there a few times before, I seem to always go.

 

But these days the Straw Market has lost most of its previous character. A couple of years ago they constructed a new building and now it’s just hundreds of vendors stuffed into the building… all selling just about the same thing… all selling a load of tee-shirts.

 

Before the “new” Straw Market” building, lots of the merchants used to sell knock-off Coach purses. But now, those in the new building are all prohibited from selling them. I suspect the real Coach store in Nassau had something to do with that. Not to worry… if you want to find the knock-off Coach purses (Cooch purses as I call them) just ask around inside the Straw Market and someone will point you to a girl standing around out front.

 

The girl will take you over a block and down an alley to where all the Cooch venders are. Don’t worry about going down the alley… at least don’t worry in the day-time. There are three or four merchants with shops in the alley and when I got there lots of cruise ship passengers were in the area inspecting the wares. There were literally thousands of Cooch purses. It seems that most of them go for $30-$60 depending on style and what the merchant thought they could get away with.

 

We didn’t buy anything in “Cooch alley” and just walked around the rest of the shopping area in “downtown” Nassau. It’s different than most cruise ship ports in a couple of ways. First, it’s a lot bigger. There are a couple of long streets through the town and several side streets connecting everything. The second thing that always amazes me is that is all the high end shops. Besides the Coach store… and of course the ever present Diamonds International… there is a Rolex Store, a Gouchi and several others.

 

I don’t know if this is really “downtown” or just the grande tourista area. Perhaps the next time I’m here I’ll rent one of the scooters available right at the dock compound and tour more of the island. They are only $40 per day. A word of caution to any of you considering this too. Don’t do it if you are not proficient at riding motorcycles or scooters. We saw one family of four that rented scooters and it wasn’t looking good.

 

One of the teen-aged kids had clearly not ridden a scooter before. To compound things, they drive on the left side of the road and traffic in “downtown” Nassau is ferocious. Before the teen-aged kid got a block away from the rental place he was running the scooter over curbs and scattering pedestrians. Yeooowwwww!!!! I hope they made it back to the ship before sail-away.

 

After a couple of hours in town, we headed back for the ship.

 

I’ll stop here… it’s play dress-up night at dinner so I’ve got to get ready and at least pretend to like wearing a tie.

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo

[Kokomo_Man]

I have adequate Wi-Fi today... not the crap Carnival trys to pass off on us... so I'm posting a few pics. I'll post a bunch of them later when I've go good access, but for now I hope you like these.

 

First, here's a pic of the Serenity area:

 

 

 

 

And here is a pic of the waterslide.

 

 

 

 

And this last one is of the little lighthouse at the entrance to the Nassau harbor. The Atlantis resort is in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Later

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo

[Anyislandwilldo]

Looking forward to reading your next post. Great job on the reviews!

[ColoradoJayhawk]

LOVING this!

We are doing the same trip in a few weeks!

[SooNet]

Can't wait to read more - we are on the Victory again in December. Looking forward to this getaway.

[Kokomo_Man]

Just a quick note to answer a question and then I'll get on to the next post... no, there are no specialty restaurants of any kind on the Victory... not even a steak house. I think the reason is that this ship is 30 or 40 feet shorter than the Conquest class ships so there's no room.

 

Also, the Victory has not had all the "2.0" updates. :confused: That means no Red Frog Pub... no Guy's burgers, no Alchemy, and several other things that the upgraded ships have.:confused:

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo

[Kokomo_Man]

The great Victory full moon(s) adventure.

 

 

 

Half Moon Cay... errr, Full Moon Cay

 

 

I really am a beach person… really, I am. But usually when I go on a cruise I don’t want to have a beach day. If I wanted to go to the beach, then I would just go to a beach. I wouldn’t go to all the trouble and expense of a cruise and then just to go to the beach. I do understand it when folks that don’t have a beach want to go… or folks that really live in the frozen tundra want to get away to the beach. But why take a cruise to do that?

 

Well… Full Moon Cay may be something of an exception. Even after all my Carnival cruises, this is my first time to Full Moon Cay. Remember yesterday when I had lots to say about the magnificent water at Nassau. I have now changed my mind… the water at Full Moon Cay matches it. It may be even better.

 

And as beaches go, it’s a very nice beach. The beach is wide and the sand is a fine white grain. It is a very large area with zillions of chairs… enough for anyone that wants one. There’s no worry about chair hogs here.

 

They also have a variety of cabanas. The cost seems a bit high, but Carnival does not “police” the number of people visiting the cabana. So… it would be easy to split the cost between a group of friends. You wouldn’t want to abuse it too much but friends stopping by is what cruisin’ is all about any way.

 

I did a huge walk-about down the beach. I was looking to find out if there was a good snorkeling place. The main area is just a large sandy bottom area… which is the best for a regular beach but is poor for snorkeling because the sandy bottom does not attract sea life. So I decided to walk down to a rocky/coral area that looked like it may be a kind of area that would attract sea critters.

 

I don’t know how long the beach is… probably about a mile. There were people and beach chairs only about half the way. After that there were plenty of secluded stretches if you are looking for a little “alone time”. Now you wouldn’t be completely alone because of guys like me come strolling down the beach, but you would be alone enough

 

After you get out of the main area where the people are you have to also watch your step… horse apples! I discovered the stables for the horse rides were about 100 yards off the beach. They have an area where the people mount the horses. Then they head down the beach and into the ocean. This is where you can get some of those amazing pics of people riding horses in the ocean. Just be careful of the apples.

 

At the very end of the beach you start getting into a rocky-coral area. You can see it from anywhere along the beach or from the ship before you get off. I figured this might be a good snorkeling area. But when it starts to get rocky there’s a sign that says:

 

Warning

 

 

Proceeding

 

 

Beyond this

 

 

Point is

 

 

Dangerous

 

 

And Prohibited

 

 

So… of course I walked beyond that point as far as I could go. I just followed the other footprints. There were a few people snorkeling there and everyone said that it was fantastic with lots of tropical fish of all sizes. I kicked myself for not bringing my gear… next time.

 

All in all, it was a very nice day. And if you want to go snorkeling, bring your gear and you can do that too. There’s a lot of places you would have to pay for a snorkel excursion to do that and at Full Moon Cay it’s all free here.

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo

[BABYJOSIE98]

Just a quick note to answer a question and then I'll get on to the next post... no, there are no specialty restaurants of any kind on the Victory... not even a steak house. I think the reason is that this ship is 30 or 40 feet shorter than the Conquest class ships so there's no room.

 

Also, the Victory has not had all the "2.0" updates. :confused: That means no Red Frog Pub... no Guy's burgers, no Alchemy, and several other things that the upgraded ships have.:confused:

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo

 

Do you find the ship still enjoyable without all the bells and whistle's of the 2.0 updates? We were on the Breeze and loved the Red frog pub and the Burgers and it was just wonderful!! I booked the Victory for our daughters 16th Birthday because it is a shorter itinerary and the price was great and we want to do a couple days at Disney too. So we have been on many ships and always manage to have a great time....I am sure we will love it if we go with the right expectations. Just wanted to get your thoughts.... We are booked for May 17th.

[Kokomo_Man]

BABYJOSIE98 (Michelle)… I’ll be doing a full review at the end of this cruise, so for now I’ll just say that I’ve had fun on every ship I’ve ever been on. I do prefer the “2.0” ships but I haven’t let that stop me from going on those without the upgrades.

I’ll have the Grand Turk post up in a little while.

Bob

Searching for Kokomo

[Kokomo_Man]

The great Victory full moon(s) adventure.

 

 

 

Grand Turk

 

 

There’s not a lot for me to tell about Grand Turk. It’s primarily another beach day. Oh sure, there are a lot of tours offered, but I’m not thrilled to get on a bus to go see the town and then be taken to a different beach. The beach right at the dock is quite nice… not as nice as Half Full Moon Cay… but just fine and the water is great. Other excursions include half a dozen snorkel tours and a couple of “stingray” adventures. I’m sure these are all fine but there are better places for most of it… especially the stingray tours. Actually, I recommend that everyone should go on one of the stingray tours, but the best place is Stingray City in Grand Cayman. Those are amazing.

 

Since this is my third visit to Grand Turk we decided just to spend the day with friends at Jack’s Shack. I wanted to stop in at Margaritaville for a frozen concoction to help me hang on… and for my internet fix, but the internet was down. So we moved on down to Jack’s Shack where the internet was very good. By the way, Margaritaville does have a huge pool area and one of those FlowRider wave machines… great fun.

 

It has occurred to me that I’ve been saying “we” a lot of the time but I still haven’t mentioned who “we” is. This cruise is with my beautiful daughter Wendy. We originally were planning on SCUBA diving in Grand Turk but she wasn’t able to this trip so we just spent the day chillin’.

 

Jack’s Shack is just down the beach and as long as strolling along the beach for about a half a mile doesn’t bother you, then you can just walk. For those that drink such things, beer is only $2.00 each. For me, a margarita was in order, but they didn’t have any *SadFace*. Not to worry, they do have a variety of other “boat drinks” at reasonable prices.

 

There is also a friendly, weird dog there named Topher. He’s really a Labradoodle (or something like that), but I’m sure there’s a gopher in his family tree. He spends a lot of the day at the water’s edge digging holes in the sand in search of crabs… or something he never seems to find. The dog will also go out in the ocean, stand up on his hind legs and just walk around enjoying himself.

 

The last time I was here (on the Breeze) I mentioned the awful long lines waiting to get back on-board. Well, there was nothing like that this time. Even getting close to sail-away everything seemed to go smoothly. I guess one advantage of a smaller ship like the Victory is that they have a couple thousand less people to process back on board.

 

All in all it was a very nice day. But considering we’re on a cruise, two beach days in a row is a bit much for me. Sure… I knew this when I booked the cruise. And any day on a Caribbean cruise is better than most days elsewhere. So, I would certainly do it again and as the Mayor of Margaritaville would end up saying… “It’s my own damned fault”.

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo

[Kokomo_Man]

The great Victory full moon(s) adventure.

 

 

 

Last Day – Sea Day

 

 

Friends shouldn’t let friends drive drunk. Good advice, but not necessary on a cruise ship… well at least not unless you are the Cap-i-tan. But there should be signs up in several areas of the ship… any place there’s a microphone. It should read:

 

 

Friends shouldn’t let friends Karaoke.

 

 

I do have to say that Carnival has their legends karaoke competition and some of those singers are very good. But karaoke has become a popular thing all over the ship… for those that shouldn’t. A friend of mine from South Carolina used to call those kind of sounds “caterwalls”… or something like that. I’ve heard cats with their tails stepped on sound better than a lot of what I hear around the ship this cruise… and I’m almost tone deaf.

 

You would think the friends and family of the people that can’t carry a tune in a bucket would practice a little “tough love”… tell these folks that they can’t sing! It would really be doing them a favor to keep from embarrassing themselves. And it seems the worse they are, the more proudly they stand up to the mic and wale away the loudest. If the friends and family would just tell them that singing in the bathtub should be the limit of their “entertainment” venues, they would do us all the favor of sparing us from listening to their screeeeches.

 

Dear Carnival… if you are going to continue to have the caterwall opportunities for the folks to belt out their screeches, then please… oh please, make sure that the “performance” venues are limited to places that have doors that will close to hold in all the “joyful sounds”. Save the rest of us from any more bleeding ears.

 

Today is a sea day and our last day on the cruise. Last day/sea days are always a lot of fun and a little sad. Everyone is busy trying to cram in one more glorious day in the Caribbean before having to return to their “normal” lives. The booze seems to start flowing a little earlier in the day and flows a little more liberally throughout the day. But then early in the evening the mood changes. Ice tea seems to be more the order than a frozen concoction to help us hang on.

 

Everyone seems to stop their activities a bit early on the last day. Packing needs to be done, and we’ll be pulling into port early. The Cruise Director will be on the loud speakers in the halls early in the morning with a bit of extra volume “welcoming” us back to Miami… and saying in effect, “GET OFF MY SHIP”. So instead of people closing down the bars around the ship tonight, most of the venues will be deserted early. I’m writing this in the early evening and back to “normal” has started already.

 

Speaking of closing down bars, I helped close down the Piano Bar last night for the first time this cruise. I have often been known to do that every night of a cruise but not this time. “Piano Bar Bob” was entertaining, but not addicting like a few of the other premier piano bar entertainers. That is… except for last night. I stayed in the piano bar way past my bed time. Piano Bar Bob was in very good form.

 

So, it’s time to close up this part of this “live from”. I’ll continue in a day or two with a review. I took a ton of pics so I’ll be posting them as part of the review when I get back to high speed internet.

 

That’s all for this evening… it’s time for that one last night in the piano bar and one last frozen concoction to help me hang on till the next adventure.

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo

[Pellaz]

Did you experience any delay in boarding due to the incident on the previous cruise?

 

I was on the 10/14 sailing. Boarding for everyone -- including wedding parties -- was delayed until noon. Understandably so.

 

I was just looking at the deckplan on Carnival website & it shows Steakhouse & something labelled Fish & Chips on Deck 10 Panorama but when I look at the Steakhouse section of website it doesn't list the Victory as having one. Is it there? That would be awesome.

 

Alas, no. I believe Victory is slated for FunShip 2.0 upgrades sometime in 2014. She's a good ship, but really starting to show her age.

[golfadj]

Has been an entertaining thread, and reminds me why we dont do the older Carnival ship but primarily stick to the Conquest class.