Carnival Victory Review (with a toddler) - Feb 3-8 2014

[*Cassie*]

As we were drying off it started to rain. It didn’t last long at all, though. It was already over after we came out of the changing room.

We then walked through a couple more shops before going back to the ship for lunch. Andrew grabbed food from the buffet (French) and I grabbed a little of this and that from the grill for me and Sophia. I liked the grill food other than the nachos, they have a very different texture. I think they were flour rather than corn chips.

 

 

And of course, dessert. I really liked the banana pie. I thought most of the buffet desserts through the week looked better than they ended up being. A lot of them were very dry. Most were just ok.

 

 

After lunch we went back to our cabin for a nice, long nap. Actually, longer than I was expecting. We had wanted to go to the movie trivia, but she slept right past that. She was even still napping when Andrew told me it was getting close to sail away time. I told him to go on up and I’d stay with her. She woke up just in time for us to catch it, though!

 

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

 

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

We watched sail away up on the deck and then found a spot to sit until the dinner buffet was started. Dinner tonight was ok, probably my least favorite of the week.

 

 

After eating I could tell Sophia needed to work off some of her energy. We walked over to see if the library was empty again, but I think this was the night they had the Chef’s Table going on in there. So we went to see if anything was going on in the theater and it was empty, so we let her loose.

 

 

 

 

Before long though, they had a Beatles trivia starting, so we moved on.

 

We found an empty chair up on the deck. It was always so loud out there. We found one back as far as we could, so it wasn’t too bad, but I don’t understand why it was playing so loud. I can’t even remember what was on, might have just been music, but we didn’t stay too long. She wasn’t wanting to sit so we just went back to our room.

 

 

And our towel animal for the evening. Not really sure what this one is exactly.

 

 

I was really bummed the Love & Marriage Show wasn’t until 10:05 tonight. On our last cruise I was thinking it was during the afternoon on a sea day, might be wrong, but it was one of my favorites and I was disappointed we would miss it. They do show it on the TV in the room though, so we caught most of it the next day.

 

Up next…. our second day at sea!

Edited February 18, 2014 by *Cassie*

[*Cassie*]

Your daugher is such a cutie.

 

We (I really mean I) collect a magnet from everywhere we go too. :D

 

Thanks! Yeah we unfortunately didn't think to start this tradition until a few vacations in, so we're missing a few but I hope to get one for them all eventually.

[geneparmesan]

Enjoying this review! My wife and I had planned to go on this same cruise, but had to change to a different ship. Your daughter is adorable - we have a 17 month old daughter ourselves, so a lot of your situations are very familiar to us!

[*Cassie*]

Enjoying this review! My wife and I had planned to go on this same cruise, but had to change to a different ship. Your daughter is adorable - we have a 17 month old daughter ourselves, so a lot of your situations are very familiar to us!

 

Thanks for reading! Yeah, cruising with a toddler is definitely different but we still had a great time!

[*Cassie*]

Second Day at Sea

 

 

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

Ah, breakfast time again! Yum!

 

 

 

 

 

After breakfast we went back to Camp Carnival. It was pretty much empty again. Eventually two little girls from Poland, I believe, came in.

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

While Sophia played we listened to the two CC workers talking with the other mom first about Poland, one of them was from somewhere near there, and then about their lives on the ship. It was really interesting!

Once Sophia seemed to be getting bored we moved on. We went to find a deck chair to sit on. As usual, that didn’t last too long. So we went back to the cabin so Sophia could get a nap in before lunch.

Lunch today on the buffet was Caribbean. Andrew grabbed some food from there, I got some things from the grill for Sophia and picked up a turkey sandwich for myself at the deli.

 

 

 

 

At 1:00 they had the one activity we participated in the whole time. Harry Potter trivia! It was going on at the casino stage.

 

 

 

We got completely annihilated…

 

 

[*Cassie*]

Sophia was getting very antsy sitting around for that, so we went to search for an empty room to let her down to run. The theater was empty, so we let her loose.

 

 

 

She had so much fun going back and forth in between each row. Easy entertainment! She wasn’t so happy when we told her the fun was over, though… haha

 

 

Since we were in the forward area, we decided to go up to the forward deck again. It was once again completely empty. We even went down a couple decks and they were all empty. So a nice, quiet area if you’re searching for one.

 

 

Then we walked back to the Lido to grab some ice cream. While there I caught a pic of our trail.

 

 

[*Cassie*]

It was nap time again, so back to the cabin we went. I was looking forward to this though, since I had brought along the book The Divergent and was really getting sucked in, so I enjoyed the reading time!

She once again napped much longer than we were expecting, which ended up causing us problems later on. It was already almost dinner time, so we changed and went up for that.

On our way up there we caught the end of the sunset!

 

 

Dinner tonight was good, desserts were just ok.

 

 

 

The show tonight was Vroom and it was on at 7, so we were looking forward to attending that.

 

 

Just as it was starting though, Goose came over the speakers and announced that a fellow passenger was having a medical emergency and we would be making a detour stop to Nassau so he could seek medical attention. I never heard what the problem was, but I hope it wasn’t too serious and he was ok!

 

Then the show started again.

Now remember earlier I said Sophia had an extra-long nap? Yeah, she would not sit still so we had to leave after just a few songs. Oh well.

[*Cassie*]

We went up to the Lido deck and grabbed a deck chair. They were playing Water Boy so we watched that for a bit.

 

 

 

Then we went back to our cabin and called it a night.

 

 

 

Up next… Little Stirrup Cay!

[*Cassie*]

Little Stirrup Cay

 

 

hmm, Thursday again? haha

 

 

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

As I mentioned the night before we had received the announcement about the medical emergency and we would be making a stop in Nassau, and remember when I mentioned we had a lot of noise and vibration when we docked at Grand Turk, well the same thing happened once we reached Nassau. We didn’t look at a clock but assumed it was around 2:30am like they had said it would be. But it didn’t last long and we were able to fall right back asleep. Again, I hope it wasn’t anything too serious and the person is ok!

We next woke up around our usual time and got ready for the day before heading up to get breakfast. Delicious as usual!

 

 

 

We then made a pit stop back to the cabin to grab the stroller and beach gear. As soon as we slid the stroller out from under the bed Sophia tried to climb in. Guess she’s ready to go!

 

 

I can’t remember what time exactly we got to the lobby, but it was just as they were going to have to start handing out waiting numbers. We made it onto the last tender just in time, though!

 

 

There was another ship near us, however we were the only ship at Little Stirrup Cay today.

 

 

[*Cassie*]

Getting close!

 

 

 

Here is the area they pull in to and dock where that tender straight ahead is.

 

 

 

I was surprised at how large the tenders were and just how many people they can cram onto these things!

 

 

[*Cassie*]

Notice the mistake??? Um, lunch starts at 12am? haha

 

 

 

 

I would have loved to lounge in one of the many hammocks. Wish there would have been some over by the beach!

 

 

It’s like they anchored here just for the picture! Perfect!

 

 

[*Cassie*]

The first beach. Too crowded though, so we kept walking.

 

 

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

Here’s where the food was. It was currently empty other than they had some fruit out so I grabbed some grapes when we walked by.

 

 

 

 

The next beach we came to had a bunch of things to play on. Looked like fun! I can’t wait until Sophia is old enough to get out there and play!

 

 

They also had this huge slide. I remember seeing a sign about buying a wristband for unlimited rides. I’m thinking $20, but that could be wrong.

 

 

There weren’t any great chair spots at this beach, so we kept walking.

[*Cassie*]

Um, is that a chicken??? We saw, and heard, several of them all day. Wasn’t expecting that!

 

 

 

We finally settled on Barefoot Beach.

 

 

I had hoped to get in some relaxing reading time but a certain someone was way too excited to get down and play to let me do that!

 

 

She had so much fun splashing in the water!

 

 

I’m not a big fan of swimming in oceans/lakes/ponds, etc. (you’ll see why soon) so we just got our feet wet and splashed around for awhile. It also turned very muddy a few steps in, so that was enough for me.

 

 

I was shocked by how shallow the water was. People walked on and on and it was still below the waist.

 

 

[beckyk329]

Love reading your review in tandem with mine! Looks like we're both on Little Stirrup Cay today, lol. It's so fun to see how we took the same vacation, and had 2 separate vacations:rolleyes: I think that's why I love cruising. Thanks for taking the time in doing this. And btw, your baby girl is just precious! ;)

[*Cassie*]

When we got back to our chairs, Andrew decided he wanted to walk out into the water. He took off with the camera and when he came back he said he heard other people talking about there being a jellyfish sighting. He also showed me these pics. Remember when I said I don’t like swimming in the ocean? This is why. I just get a little creeped out knowing these kind of things are out there swimming around with me.

 

 

 

And I get the shivers just thinking about what might have burrowed down in this hole.

 

 

 

 

A large group of people rode by us in kayaks. I’m guessing it was some kind of excursion. Looked like fun!

 

 

 

 

Oh look, another chicken. He wasn't scared of us at all, walked right on up. Actually got a little too close for comfort, but we were able to shoo him away easy enough.

 

 

 

Sophia was ready for a nap, so I finally got some reading time in!

Edited February 20, 2014 by *Cassie*

[*Cassie*]

Once she woke up, it was lunch time, so we packed up our things and walked back over to the grille area.

 

 

 

 

They had hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, several side dishes, fruit, then brownies and cookies for dessert.

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

After lunch we walked through the Straw Market. It had the typical shirts, bags, souvenirs and really weird odds and ends that I can’t imagine why anyone would want to waste their money on. I was hoping to find a magnet, but everything was overpriced here, so we skipped it.

 

 

 

We then saw this beautiful bridge over to the left. Perfect photo op spot!

 

 

 

Right before you cross the bridge these guys were hanging out on this landing. We spotted five of them.

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

We were curious where the bridge led to so we decided to check it out. Across the bridge was a trail.

 

 

It eventually led to Royal Caribbean’s Coco Cay landing side. It was empty today, though.

 

 

 

Ha it looks like the ship is sitting on the rock!

 

 

[*Cassie*]

I can’t remember what time it was, I’m thinking a little after 2, we decided we were ready to go back to the ship. We made our way back to the dock, went through the “security” and noticed the current tender they were loading was mostly full and since we had the stroller and would need to sit in the first row we thought we would just wait for the next one. So we waited on the bench for a few minutes. We were shocked though at how many people they continued to squeeze on the tender. But eventually another one pulled up so we got in and found a seat. We ended up riding back with Sophia’s little friend, Ava, who she met at Camp Carnival the first day.

 

 

When we got back to the ship they let the top deck off first. I was once again amazed at how many people fit. They just kept coming! Andrew said is this one of those pranks where they have another door and the people are just walking in circles off and back on the ship, seeing how long until someone says something?! haha

But we finally were back on the ship and went back to our cabin to clean up and (tear) start packing. So sad! It went by way too fast!

 

 

We were supposed to set sail at 5, so around 4:45 we made our way up to the Lido deck to watch. Here’s a better pic of the ship that was near us. It was an MSC cruise ship.

 

 

We assumed they were going over to this island nearby. I looked it up on Google and that one is Great Stirrup Cay.

 

 

And Little Stirrup Cay:

 

 

 

Someone, who didn’t want to nap earlier in the cabin, was finally too tired to stay awake for sail away.