First Review: Victory Feb. 3-8 family of 5!!

[beckyk329]

Great review! We have been to Grand Turk on 3 separate cruises with Carnival. It rained each and every time!. Last trip it was sunny so we got off and found a great location for the day and within 30 minutes, wooosh! rainstorms that stuck around the rest of the day.

Conclusion: Hope we are not on your ship if it goes to Grand Turk!!

 

I also want to commend you. I've been looking at reviews for years and in 99% of the time, the oldest child is moody, sad, making faces, etc. Not your daughter! She was happy and smiling whether she was alone or with her little siblings! Congrat's for raising a sweet child!

 

Aww so sorry :( what a bummer!

 

And thank you for the wonderful compliment. As a parent you can't hope for better than when someone comments and congratulates you on the kind of person your child is. I appreciate it greatly, and so does she (I had her read what you wrote;)). Made her day too!

[beckyk329]

Love the review! Was it quiet surrounding your cabin location?

 

Not one bit! I know I've heard of people hearing anchors and such. Nothing! Oh, well, maybe I take it back. The first 2 nights when the seas were rougher.. if there was an exceptionally big wave, it would kind of thud. But that was nothing to interrupt sleep, as we only noticed it when it was silent in the room.

[beckyk329]

You have a wonderful family. Love the review so far! My wife and I are going on our first cruise in April, and it's on the Victory. Just love the pix. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your cruise.

 

Thank you. I hope you have a blast!!:D

[beckyk329]

So the drinks were really tasty at the party. And hubby had one too many:rolleyes: No worries about the kids though folks. If/when my DH has a nip to much he turns into a 5yr old giggling little boy:p (not some drunken mess, which we've seen come out of there:eek:) and we rarely drink at home so we are light weights on top of everything!!

 

We proceed to head back to the cabin for a bit, and just have some fun and laughs while the buzz wears off. (Please don't point fingers, we had everything under control)

 

We took around 100 pictures within the next hour, but I'll just share a few!

 

 

 

[beckyk329]

 

 

 

 

 

[Dina7]

Our cruise went to Grand Turk last summer & we found that it was very difficult to go in the water because the bottom was so rocky. Other people were complaining about the same thing. One guy came out & had cut his foot. My DH walked further down the beach to see if it was better, but it wasn't...still very rocky in the water. He didn't walk down as far as Jack's Shack thoough. How was the water or I should say, how was the sand in the water? Was it rocky at all?

 

We're going back to Grand Turk in June & would love to be able to go in the water other than at Margaritaville.

 

Really enjoying your review, btw!

Dina

[beckyk329]

Our cruise went to Grand Turk last summer & we found that it was very difficult to go in the water because the bottom was so rocky. Other people were complaining about the same thing. One guy came out & had cut his foot. My DH walked further down the beach to see if it was better, but it wasn't...still very rocky in the water. He didn't walk down as far as Jack's Shack thoough. How was the water or I should say, how was the sand in the water? Was it rocky at all?

 

We're going back to Grand Turk in June & would love to be able to go in the water other than at Margaritaville.

 

Really enjoying your review, btw!

Dina

 

It was not fine sand by any means. It was more coarse, but nothing that caused problems. And yes, we ended up a good 1-1 1/2 down from Margaritaville. I can't think of anything like you experienced, but we didn't go near the water at the beginning of the stretch. I hope you guys have better luck on the next trip:o

[beckyk329]

We then headed out, we were tired of our room. We browsed the shops again. Nothing new today:rolleyes: Then we stopped by customer service desk and asked for a deck of cards. He handed each of my kids their own deck. Nice guy, and pretty smart too. Since those cards are pretty flimsy they had the first deck ruined by that night. We hung out in the lobby area and then played on the lobby level deck watching the sunset. It was GORGEOUS.

 

Have I mentioned how much I love taking vacations with my family? (No, that was on fb, get it together woman) But I love these people and love spending time with them. We find fun in every move we make. Some of you have mentioned that we look like a fun family. Well, we're not. We're quite boring. We just have fun doing whatever we do, and there is the key! (and imho, cruisers are just happier people in general:rolleyes:)

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2014 by beckyk329

[Justcrusin]

Great review Becky. Was Jack's beach worth the extra walk? We stayed on the main beach last time, but this time we have our kids and it looked much less crowded down there.

[beckyk329]

All these are right outside the lobby area.. those decks, we find, are always pretty empty.

 

 

 

 

 

[beckyk329]

 

 

[beckyk329]

Great review Becky. Was Jack's beach worth the extra walk? We stayed on the main beach last time, but this time we have our kids and it looked much less crowded down there.

 

Definitely worth it! With kids that way they can roam a bit and you don't have to say no! stay in this 5ft. square, lol:o

[beckyk329]

Then of course, we had to go freshen up for dinner.

 

 

 

After dinner we wanted to check out the family comedy show. BIG MISTAKE:mad: They say at the beginning of the show that although it's family friendly, it's not family oriented. OK, we assume, cleaner type jokes, nothing sexual and little to no cursing. Just probably the 9 year old might not get some things and the 7 would sit and giggle and pretend she understood everything ;)

 

What came out of that mans mouth was appalling. We left, along with many others after the first 5-10 minutes. Now I normally have a strict rule of not walking out of a show, I think it's rude. But I could not help it. I would have rather him sound like George Carlin than the crap that he said... (this is back to I hate the Victory crew). I have NEVER, in my life heard so many racial insults in such a short amount of time. Before we left, he had insulted blacks, Indians (not native Americans), and was moving onto Chinese. I swear my jaw hit the floor. It was just gross. and sad. and ugh. why?

 

Ok, let's forget we ever witnessed that.

 

On to the 2nd show of the trip. This one was Vroom. Better than the first, but still kind of left us all:confused: Although I'll give them this, even though it was the worst crew of dancers we've seen on any of the ships, they did counter that with having the BEST male and female singer that we've seen. We actually enjoyed their singing. On other shows, even our favs, we always want the singing to hurry up and get back to the dancing! So you give and get there...

 

Off to bed....

 

Hey Lorenzo, that's an elephant!!!

 

[beckyk329]

This is how my babies wake up on the last day:( Are they exhausted from vacation?, probably a bit. Are they depressed it's our last day?, probably a bit. It's always such a bittersweet day, isn't it?

 

 

[jmak315]

Wonderful review! You have a beautiful family :D

[beckyk329]

We head up to the Lido for our last buffet breakfast of this trip:(

 

These pictures of Cassidy kill me every time I see them. She looks just like some diva who's partied way too hard.

 

 

[beckyk329]

Wonderful review! You have a beautiful family :D

 

Thank you x2!!;)

[trvlqueen]

Nice review! I'm really enjoying it ... we're thinking of doing the same run this summer (we've done it before and really enjoyed it!).

 

Just curious about something - I noticed the kids were in the aft pool on day 1 - last time we sailed Victory, the aft was a adult-only pool. Has that changed? I know on the Dream, Breeze, Magic, the aft isn't adult only, but thought that on Victory, Triumph, and the Conquest class ships it still was - so if you can answer that (or if someone else can), I'd be very appreciative.

 

Thanks for the review - you have a beautiful family and it looks like you had a great time in spite of the crew. :)

[beckyk329]

Off to Coco Cay, Little Stirrup Cay, or whatever you call it, lol. It seems everyone likes to call it something different. We had bought FTTF for this trip mainly because this was a tender port and we saw the hoards of people who had to wait hours on the Fascination when we stopped at HMC. Well, I guess everyone was sleeping in that day because all morning they were having announcements that kept backing up the time that you could catch a tender ticket free. So about 9, we just walked right on, no FTTF needed:rolleyes:

 

A quick word on FTTF. We have bought that for every cruise since it became available, (so the last 3). And even though we didn't "use" it like we planned I still think it's great. Especially if you have kids. When we board we have a lot of carry on stuff. All the normal stuff that everyone else carries on, plus all that little people "stuff" (like their tablets & applicable cords). So it's wonderful to be able to go straight to the room to drop it off. Kills the lines- which I pride myself on having well behaved children. But even the best behaved children are tested when it comes to waiting, lol! I figured this anniversary trip we'd skip buying it, because hey, no kids, we don't need it, lines don't bother us. Hubby said buy it. He said he wants immediate access to the room...:o I can't for the life of me figure out what his hurry is:confused::rolleyes:

 

So anyway.. we're on the tender, and wouldn't you know, my little angel starts to smile again!

 

Edited February 20, 2014 by beckyk329

[beckyk329]

Nice review! I'm really enjoying it ... we're thinking of doing the same run this summer (we've done it before and really enjoyed it!).

 

Just curious about something - I noticed the kids were in the aft pool on day 1 - last time we sailed Victory, the aft was a adult-only pool. Has that changed? I know on the Dream, Breeze, Magic, the aft isn't adult only, but thought that on Victory, Triumph, and the Conquest class ships it still was - so if you can answer that (or if someone else can), I'd be very appreciative.

 

Thanks for the review - you have a beautiful family and it looks like you had a great time in spite of the crew. :)

 

As far as the pool, I saw no signs anywhere stating that. And there were 3 other families that were there. Not many I know, but it was only children in the water and nobody said anything. The only adult only thing I've ever been aware of is the Serenity areas??:confused: I could be way off, apologies if we weren't supposed to be there...

 

And thank you and we did! I think I might have thrown some people when I complained, making them think the crew affected our trip at all, because they didn't whatsoever.

[trvlqueen]

As far as the pool, I saw no signs anywhere stating that. And there were 3 other families that were there. Not many I know, but it was only children in the water and nobody said anything. The only adult only thing I've ever been aware of is the Serenity areas??:confused: I could be way off, apologies if we weren't supposed to be there...

 

And thank you and we did! I think I might have thrown some people when I complained, making them think the crew affected our trip at all, because they didn't whatsoever.

 

 

It was 2011 when we were on Victory - so they certainly could have changed the policy. CCL is really good at changing things - and I just checked the deck plans - I have 3 kiddos myself, so wasn't criticizing at all - just asking.

 

You got my curiosity up, so I went and checked the deck plans. Looks like even the Liberty may not be adult only in the aft pool anymore as the deck plan says "chill by the pool with family and friends" - no mention of adult only pool. On the one hand, this is great, because when it's raining, there's still a place for the kids to swim. On the other hand, I'm a little sad because now there is noplace to get in the pool without being cannonballed. Love kids - love traveling with my own, too - but do enjoy a little adult pool time on occasion. At least in the hot tub!

[Crusin Karen]

I am LOVING this review. lst page I thought there were 5 kids in the picture and the mom was taking the picture and writing the review! You and your DH are just as adorable as your "kids." I echo another poster's comments about your oldest DD. Nice that she wants to spend time with you! And I commend you on surviving life with 5 in an OV cabin. :eek: Very very nice family. We cruise exclusively from Manhattan because we live about 20 minutes from the port and have been to HMC and GT many times and LOVE those ports of call. So laid back and just FUN! Your pictures are just beautiful; look like postcards! Looking forward to the rest of your review and I hope you and your very nice family have many more happy times cruising! You are making such special memories to look back on and hold in your heart! :)

[beckyk329]

It was 2011 when we were on Victory - so they certainly could have changed the policy. CCL is really good at changing things - and I just checked the deck plans - I have 3 kiddos myself, so wasn't criticizing at all - just asking.

 

You got my curiosity up, so I went and checked the deck plans. Looks like even the Liberty may not be adult only in the aft pool anymore as the deck plan says "chill by the pool with family and friends" - no mention of adult only pool. On the one hand, this is great, because when it's raining, there's still a place for the kids to swim. On the other hand, I'm a little sad because now there is noplace to get in the pool without being cannonballed. Love kids - love traveling with my own, too - but do enjoy a little adult pool time on occasion. At least in the hot tub!

 

You know what.. you saying the year made me figure it out, (I think!). They must've done away with the adults-only pool once they started the Serenity areas. So now there is that space, they figured adults don't need two spaces! I've seen my share of rowdy kids at the pools, and I don't blame you!;)

[beckyk329]

I am LOVING this review. lst page I thought there were 5 kids in the picture and the mom was taking the picture and writing the review! You and your DH are just as adorable as your "kids." I echo another poster's comments about your oldest DD. Nice that she wants to spend time with you! And I commend you on surviving life with 5 in an OV cabin. :eek: Very very nice family. We cruise exclusively from Manhattan because we live about 20 minutes from the port and have been to HMC and GT many times and LOVE those ports of call. So laid back and just FUN! Your pictures are just beautiful; look like postcards! Looking forward to the rest of your review and I hope you and your very nice family have many more happy times cruising! You are making such special memories to look back on and hold in your heart! :)

 

Thank you so much for each one of your sweet compliments:o I know it's a bit harder to spot me with the fact that my eldest is already taller than me! But with a 6'2 DH, while I'm 5'2, I wasn't surprised that she passed me so quickly. And yes, we vacation just for that purpose. Thank you so much, your entire comment just made my night..

[Sarah@Sea]

Your Lorenzo WTH? towel animal comments are cracking me up! :p My BF usually destroys them after I get a picture so there isn't a chance to reuse parts. I wonder what he would have done if you left a note? "What am I?"