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2/9/2014 Carnival Valor Southern Caribbean Cruise

cbell21219

By cbell21219,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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cbell21219

cbell21219

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Ok so I am going to try and bang this review out today but there is a high chance of me not being able to finish it all in one day. So lets get to it.

 

A little background information on us, So you can understand what kind of person is writing this review. My name Chris and my wife is Jill and this cruise was just the two of us. We are in our upper 20's to lower 30's and LOVE CRUISING. We are not picky and we don't complain if something is not just perfect. We are the type who can change plans in the very last minute and make things work just as well and still have a blast. We cruise to see different locations and are very very busy during our vacation. Not a lot of sitting around not doing anything. Of course we love a good beach day like everyone else but I can't take a full week of doing nothing but sitting around. I can do that at work if I wanted!!! So now that you know a little about me an my wife. ON TO THE REVIEW.

 

 

Oh and I know reviews can get kind of messy with lots of people posting before it is complete, so just look for the big blue text and you will know it is part of the actual review. For any questions I will answer back in red so people who want to read straight through can do so.

 

 

DAY ONE: San Juan

 

This is just an amazing town that I fell in love with as we walked the blue brick streets. Yes it has the touristy feel to it the closer you get to the piers, but if you start to wander farther up the hills you will find this city has a great local feel to it. There are so many great little cafes and eateries that when you walk in you feel like you could be miles and miles away from the closest tourist trap. just one example is Cafe Malloraca. This place was absolutely amazing. We had breakfast here the morning of our cruise and if there is anything I can push you to do is try this place. The malloracas are simply amazing. If you don't know what they are (neither did I) think of a lightly fried funnel cake with ham, bacon and cheddar inside with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. After breakfast we spent the rest of the day walking the city. (Side note: We spent a day before the cruise in Old San Juan but I am going to mash it into this one day. We stayed at "Da house" and I will review it on Trip Advisor but feel free to ask any questions) We went to see the pier were our boat was

 

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And then walked down towards where all the locals had there goods they were selling set up. If you walk to the very end of street there is a beautiful fountain.

 

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Past the fountain is a walkway that is a walkway that will lead you around the base of the island up to the San Juan Gate and pass that is Fort Morro (spelling???) It was a bueatiful walk just know before you do it once you walk about half a mile the path way ends and you have to go back. There is no sign saying such, but the walk is a great way to burn off those malloracs!! This is the view from the walk we took.

 

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cbell21219

cbell21219

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Anyways. So after our walk around the coast of Old San Juan we are both pretty thirsty so we find a local vendor selling ices for two bucks and we get one and continue walking back towards the pier, that is when we found this lookout on to the ship.

 

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about the time the ices had melted we had made out way back down to the boardwalk that connects all the piers together and Jill fell in love with this Seahorse art piece.

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We grabbed our bags from the hotel and dropped them off at the baggage area then went back out to just sit and watch all the people getting on and off the ship. I will say that around 9:30 to 10:00 it was crazy packed full of people. So we just found a quiet place to sit and relax. These concrete chairs are actually quiet comfortable.

 

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As the sun was setting we decided it was time to board and I ot one last shot as a land lubber before I boarded my Fun Ship.

 

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cbell21219

cbell21219

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We got settled in our room and then went up to have dinner. We had My time dining and all My time dining is in only the lincoln dinning room. I forget what we had but nothing in the dinning room was ever not good. This is were we first got introduced to our wait staff Arnold, Clifford, and Clara. These people are fantastic. I truly felt sad about leaving at the end of the cruise because we would not see these guys anymore. Just purely amazing people and if anyone is heading to the Valor soon and you have My time I promise if you ask for Arnold it will be worth it. Just tell him and Clifford Miriam and Chris say hello.

 

So after dinner we headed up to watch San Juan sail off into the distance. Jill also beat me in chess :(

 

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cbell21219

cbell21219

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So you got to the pier at 9:30/10AM but sat out side the boat until Sundown before boarding?

 

Huh?

 

I was hoping to hear how the boarding process went.....

 

The boat doesn't leave port until 10 at night. We dropped our bags around 9:30 to 10 and didn't check in until later that night. Boarding was no different then any other ship. Show them your passport and boarding pass then go through security and get on the boat.

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cbell21219

cbell21219

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DAY TWO: St. Thomas

 

So we woke up and went to the dinning room for breakfast. A little information about us, we never eat on the lido deck, I think it all tastes like crap except for the ice cream lol. So we eat in the dinning room for Breakfast and Dinner and make sure we are off the boat for lunch. After eating breakfast we went up top to see a panoramic view of the island and it was goegous.

 

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once we took in the views we headed down to get off the boat. We already had plans for the day which included renting a boat and traveling the coast line of St. john then coming back around lunch and going to Meghans Bay. So we caught a taxi to Red hook / Oasis Marina and found our rental agency. After filling out all the paperwork and me checking over the boat we were on our way.

 

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We left the Marina and headed towards St. John.

 

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I have a gazillion pictures of the Coast line of St. john it was a great way to see the island. I would not recommend doing this unless you have quite a bit of experience operating a boat on the ocean. The open waters can be tricky to navigate in such a small vessel but for those that understand how to be safe and know there limits you will be just fine.

 

After we returned the boat we caught another taxi and headed to Mehgans Bay.

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cbell21219

cbell21219

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Once we got to the Bay we paid the entrance fee which was four dollars a person I believe. The beach was beautiful and the water was a perfect aqua color.

 

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This picture is a god example of how clear the water is. Had to bring out the waterproof camera for this trip which did an amazing job.

 

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Although, I would hate to see this beach when there was more then one ship in port cause it was pretty busy and we were the only ship there. Another side note we were very lucky in our travels because we never had any other ships in port with us except the smaller luxury liners. none of the ports ever felt crowded and it was very nice. We stayed at the beach for a little over a hour and then headed back to the ship where we got some very nice shots from some of the overlooks.

 

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Once we got back we went to our room to change and then headed toward the aft to go up and grab some ice cream. We were halted by a blue jumpsuit carnival worker saying we could no go up the stairs and I noticed the elevators were not working. So we walked to the mid stairwell and went up and then walked to the back and thats where you could smell the smoke. I noticed it was a electrical fire smelling smoke and a officer walked by and I asked if I was correct in thinking it was a electrical fire. He just smiled that smile that says " I know that, and you know that, but I cannot say that" lol so whatever no one seems to be in to big of a hurry so it can't be that bad. Although there was a annoying alarm going off on the aft section of Lido. What was funny is there was a fire alarm going off on the aft section meanwhile there was a huge party going on in mid lido near the stage. Anyways we get our ice cream and go chill at serenity.

 

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The captain comes over the speaker and says all is fine there was a fire but we will be sailing on soon and there will be no change of schedule. (Little did he know he was wrong!!!)

 

Anyways we watch the sun set over St. Thomas and see something most cruisers do not get to see, which is St. Thomas at night.

 

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After the sun sets we go down for dinner and about halfway through our meal we set sail on the way to Barbados with a seaday in between...........

 

OR DO WE!!!

 

 

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Island Hopper58

Island Hopper58

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Heading out to the Valor in 25 days.

leaving for SJPR in 22.

 

Noted to ask for Arnold for My Time Dining...

Did you ever have much wait time?

This is our first time doing "My Time" being so port intensive and also a memorial cruise with friends we didn't want to be held to a set dining time.

 

Loving your review so far, and now you leave us with a cliff hanger :eek:

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cbell21219

cbell21219

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TUESDAY: SEA DAY +

 

Ok so today is our Sea Day, the one and only on this week of sailing so we plan to do more of the things we never do on cruises. Trivia and such, because it seems Carnival is very reliant on trivia type games to fill time during the day. So we love playing scattergories at home so we decide to play on this ship. It's a different style of the game but was still fun. The point was to get a unique answer to all the questions asked by the entertainment staff. So one of the questions was to name a European country. Everyone who said something unique got a point and those who said the same thing did not. Well I answered every question with a unique answer up until the last one, I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO WAS PERFECT UP UNTIL THAT POINT. Then the final question was asked. Name something in this room. PRETTY VAUGE RIGHT?!?!?! Well guess who ruins my perfect game.... MY OWN WIFE!! So we go to the tie breaker and have to answer name one of the entertainment staff and I don't have a clue and I lose!

 

Anyways. About this time the captain comes over the intercom to tell us someone is having a medical emergancy and the ships doctor has order these people be taken to the closest hospital. So we learn our destination is now Fort-De-France, Martinique. We would arrive around 4:30 in the afternoon. And guys this was an amazing little detour. This island looks stunning, and I cannot wait to be able to see it closer. We are booked on the Splendor re-positioning cruise in November and Martinique is a port of call on that cruise. Here are some pictures of the island.

 

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We held position a couple miles from shore for a couple hours it seemed just admiring the coastline of Martinique when a storm on land popped up. That's when we were treated with this amazing sight.

 

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cbell21219

cbell21219

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After a pilot boat came and got the passenger that needed urgent medical care it wasn't long before we were off back on track to Barbados. The captain once again came over the intercome and promised this would not delay our arrival into our next port of call and we would make up ground over night. You could definatly tell he was making up time to, normally I cannot even feel the boat moving, but we were bookin it across the ocean at a pretty good rate. So we waved good-bye to Martinique....or I guess it was more of a see you soon wave and went inside for dinner.

 

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I just love this next picture. I just think it captures the serenity of being in the Caribbean

 

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Edited by cbell21219
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lostdart1

lostdart1

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This was my favorite itinerary, always fun to read reviews!

 

We are planning a return to St. Thomas in November, from what marina did you rent the speedboat?

 

I would head out to Red Hook to rent a boat....."closer to the action, so to speak". There are a number of companies that rent boats in Red Hook.

 

I believe the OP mentioned Oasis Marina which is in the lagoon area on the way to Red Hook.

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