First Cruise - Carnival Valor - Feb 16th

[mr.chris.]

Well my wife and I did a brief one night re-positioning cruise on Norwegian about 10 years ago. Left Seattle at 4pm and got off in Vancouver BC around 8am. Enjoyed it but....

 

So we've booked our family for the Feb 16th sailing on the Valor out of San Juan. Wife and I and our two boys 12 and 17 years old.

 

Looking forward to it. Never stepped foot on a Carnival boat and while I've heard mixed opinions, I imagine having limited cruise experience and what seems like a busy but exciting itinerary should make for a fun vacation.

 

Any thoughts or opinions, must do's for this trip?

[RuthlessBoss]

That itinerary is a huge one. Check your roll call for your date. Also check the ports of call section.

[Aplmac]

You're in such Big Trouble now! :D

 

VALOR does one of Carnival's most popular routes

one that folks do over and over again.

 

 

 

Start planning your future cruise addiction problem NOW...

-and how you're going to finance it.

 

 

 

.

[happy40th]

Well my wife and I did a brief one night re-positioning cruise on Norwegian about 10 years ago. Left Seattle at 4pm and got off in Vancouver BC around 8am. Enjoyed it but....

 

So we've booked our family for the Feb 16th sailing on the Valor out of San Juan. Wife and I and our two boys 12 and 17 years old.

 

Looking forward to it. Never stepped foot on a Carnival boat and while I've heard mixed opinions, I imagine having limited cruise experience and what seems like a busy but exciting itinerary should make for a fun vacation.

 

Any thoughts or opinions, must do's for this trip?

 

I'm on that cruise too Go to Roll Call find the Valor then look for 2/16 There are tons of posts of people's itineraries...

[Aplmac]

.

 

So we've booked our family for the Feb 16th sailing on the Valor out of San Juan.

Wife and I and our two boys 12 and 17 years old.

 

Looking forward to it.

Never stepped foot on a Carnival ship and while I've heard mixed opinions,

I imagine having limited cruise experience and what seems like a busy but exciting itinerary should make for a fun vacation.

Just realized I'm on your cruise!! :eek:

 

 

You board at San Juan on Sunday 16th.

We board at Barbados on Wednesday 19th!

as one of about 40 cabins that board at Barbados(where we live).

 

 

If you see a guy on the ship wearing a cap full of pins, that'll be me.

Introduce yourself. ;)

 

 

 

.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Aplmac

[bartoncab]

My husband Dave, myself and 15 year old son will also be on the valor on feb 16. We have cruised NCL, princess, Holland American, Celebrity and Carnival. each of the lines has their own special qualities. Holland American had the best food and service, however it is an older crowd. Which we still enjoyed. Celebrity also had great food and service. NCL had great entertainment, pay restaurants were good, buffet food ok. We were on the Epic on Feb break week and it was too crowded for me, no chairs at the pool. We sailed on the carnival dream but the ship was not working correctly and we DIY not go to the ports that we were suppose to. We are going on this cruise because of the ports. St. Lucia is beautiful,

 

You will enjoy your cruise no matter which line you take! Just enjoy your time with your family!

 

My son, Adam, usually checks out the kid program on the first day. The kids will usually get a group together, and then you will be lucky if you see your kids at all!

[michiganredrose]

We are on that cruise too, we have a great roll call going with some fantastic ideas of things to do.

 

We will have my 14 year old daughter, my 16 year old son and my son's 15 year old best friend. I make them all go to the orientation/mixer on the first night and then they can decide how involved they want to be in the teen clubs. It at least gives them a chance to make some new friends and find some new people to hang out with on the ship.

 

We are super excited about this cruise! Can't wait to get away from the Michigan winters.

[mr.chris.]

Thanks everyone, yes the family is excited.

 

Travelling from Seattle makes it slightly longer than we'd typically do for a week vacation.

 

We are flying out early Saturday the 15th, via Chicago, Miami and then finally San Juan. Waited a little long to book a room but got one. Staying the the Verdanza Hotel.

 

On the back end there was roughly a $300 per person difference in airfare coming home Sunday vs. Monday so we are staying Sunday night in San Juan at the Sheraton Old San Juan right across from the terminal. Heading home Monday morning via Miami, Dallas and San Francisco.

[BenjiRodney]

We love this itinerary, we did it 3 times so far. Valor is a wonder ship and an excellent crew.

[Aplmac]

Travelling from Seattle makes it slightly longer than we'd typically do for a week vacation.

 

We are flying out early Saturday the 15th, via Chicago, Miami and then finally San Juan.

 

On the back end

there was roughly a $300 per person difference in airfare coming home Sunday vs. Monday

so we are staying Sunday night in San Juan at the Sheraton Old San Juan right across from the terminal.

Heading home Monday morning via Miami, Dallas and San Francisco.

That's a lot of Air Travel. You're very brave. And tolerant(of airports,etc)!

 

 

For us, we hop in a car and we are at the gates of the Bridgetown Port in 10 mins. literally!

and then on board maybe 20 mins. later, if that. End of pre-cruise travel!

 

Just comparing our extremes of travel-before-boarding.

Couldn't be more extreme in our two cases

now could it?

 

.

[mr.chris.]

I don't mind the air travel that much. I grew up an airline brat (dad is a recently retired HAL captain). So spent thousands of hours and millions of miles travelling by air.

 

Kids on the other hand are not looking forward to it. But you do what you must do. No non-stops whatsoever from SEA to SJU.