Allison & David's Carnival Valor (3/2/14) Anniversary Adventure

[ucfalli]

Intro:

 

When it came time to planning a trip for our 1st wedding Anniversary, we looked at many options. Cruise and non cruise. This southern Caribbean itinerary on the Carnival Valor is one that I have been watching for awhile. The price was right and it had great new ports that we hadn't been to. All the ports but St. Thomas and St. Maarten would be new.

 

When I brought up this trip to David he was excited about it and he gave me approval. We just had to wait to December 2013 to make sure David wasn't going to be taking any classes in the spring semester. I booked it as soon as I could so David couldn't change his mind. ;)

 

Background:

 

David and I were married March 2nd 2013. Just so happened the Carnival Valor cruise left on our anniversary. Our last cruise was an Alaskan cruise on the Carnival Miracle. I did a trip report for that adventure that you may remember us from.

Skagway, Alaska

I am 31 (a physical therapist) and David is 29 (adjuster at major auto body shop). We are from Orlando, FL. This is my 5th cruise (4th on Carnival) and David's 6th cruise (5th on Carnival). I am the planner in the couple and I planned all our excursions through private vendors. I will be reviewing all of them as well in this trip report.

 

The Trip/Cruise Itinerary:

 

02/27/14: Leave Orlando for south Florida

02/28/14: Flight from Ft Lauderdale to San Juan Puerto Rico

03/01/14: El Yunque Rainforest, Luquillo beach, and kayak tour

03/02/14: Board the Carnival Valor (Bon Voyage!)

03/03/14: St. Thomas USVI

03/04/14: Sea Day

03/05/14: Barbados

03/06/14: St. Lucia

03/07/14: St. Kitts

03/08/14: St. Maarten

03/09/14: Return to San Juan and flight back to Fort Lauderdale

 

I used my Kodak easyshare sport for all water photos, a few with my Canon Powershot SD1110 and iphone 5, and the majority with my Canon T4i.

 

I will try to post as often as I can! So please be patient :D

 

Edited April 12, 2014 by ucfalli

[Mrsfabo]

Your wedding pic is gorg!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[KPfromCT]

Beautiful wedding picture!:D:D

Cannot wait for this review.......

Really wanted to do this ship/itinerary this year, but DH thought it was too port intensive.

He likes his "sea days":rolleyes::rolleyes:

Sooooooooooooo, I'll just live vicariously through you.

[ucfalli]

Pre-Trip:

2/27/14

 

We drove down to South Florida the night before to stay with my parents before our flight out of Fort Lauderdale to San Juan. We ended up getting a better flight deal and it gave a good excuse to see my parents. After working half a day I got a mani/pedi (very rare occasion for me) and spent the rest of the day scrambling around and packing (once again wondering why vacations take so much work :rolleyes:). Once David got home from work we ate a quick dinner, I made sure Poko (my cat) was all set up, and we were on our way to South Florida. We got in pretty late, so only got to spend a little bit of time catching up with my parents.

 

Side note: We decided to not bring Poko down to South Florida this trip and decided she would be happier at home with people checking in on her since we would only be gone only about a week. For those who read my last review, you know that Poko went into shut down mode last time... not eating, drinking, or moving for a few days. It caused a bit of stress needless to say.

This is Poko ...(meow!)

 

 

Day 1: Flight to San Juan

2/28/14

 

We woke up way too early for me at 5am. Quickly ate and packed up. We had originally planned on having my father drop us off at the airport but a couple weeks before he tore a tendon in his foot, had foot surgery, and now was unable to drive. We parked at the Park n' Fly. Was quick and easy and we got to the airport very shortly after. It always surprises me how busy the airport is so early in the morning. The line for the baggage check thankfully went quickly. We then made our way to go through security and were randomly picked to go through the TSA pre-screen line. Was our first time and it felt very odd not having to take off shoes, belts, and jackets! Felt like we time traveled back to what it was like at the airport pre 9/11.

 

Shortly after arriving at our gate boarding started for our Jet Blue flight to San Juan. The difference is amazing between a flight on Jet Blue with a free checked in bag vs a flight on something like American Airlines. There even was opened overhead bins after take off!. Everything just went faster. Each seat also had one of those personal TV's. We both ended up getting sucked into watching Gravity again. In no time, about 2 hours later, we were landing in San Juan!

 

In a side note: Jet Blue automatically gives you the whole can of soda!.

 

Good bye rainy Fort Lauderdale!

One of those movies that suck you in

 

 

Hola San Juan!

The airport at San Juan isn't large, you just have a walk surprisingly far to get your luggage. After getting our luggage we headed to get a cab. The cab line was moderately long, but it went very quick. They have someone writing on up on a paper your destination, how many bags you have and what the cost will be. I was highly impressed. It was the best set up I have seen at any airport. I believe the cost was about $24 pre tip for the cab with our bags.

 

We soon arrived at our hotel, the Sheraton in Old San Juan. It was shortly after noon, and our room wasn't ready so we left our bags with the bellman.

 

We made our way towards El Morro. We took photos along the way and ended up walking along the old city wall. We found out that it ended right by El Morro and that you can't get directly to the fort from down there, so we backtracked a little. The views were worth it though and thankfully there was a breeze!

 

[ucfalli]

Your wedding pic is gorg!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Thank you! It's one of my favorites :D

[ucfalli]

Beautiful wedding picture!:D:D

Cannot wait for this review.......

Really wanted to do this ship/itinerary this year, but DH thought it was too port intensive.

He likes his "sea days":rolleyes::rolleyes:

Sooooooooooooo, I'll just live vicariously through you.

 

Thankfully for both of us, the more ports the better. However a sea day at the end would be greatly appreciated to recuperate. ;)

[GaMtnMom]

We are booked on this cruise for April 2015 so we still have a really long time to wait! LOL. So I am reading all I can about this itinerary and all the reviews I can find. I'm loving your review so far. Thanks for posting it!

[jjdshoe]

We are booked for February 2015, look forward to reading rest of your review.

[scgirlatheart]

Thank you for your review, am enjoying it so far. We're on this cruise in July and we're also flying JetBlue. Since we've never flown that airline before I was glad to hear you had good things to say about them.

[xowendyxo]

We are considering this cruise in March 2015.

 

SELL MY HUSBAND ON IT :))

[tallcruiser2]

Thanks for the review so far and look forward to your remaining posts. We will be sailing on the Valor in 3 weeks:).

[BettyGiggles]

And we will be on the Valor the 27th, can't wait :)

 

Thank you for sharing your trip with us!!

[springs741]

Happy Anniversary Allison and David. I feel like I know you two from your Miracle review of you honeymoon. DH and I are sailing the Miracle for the second time to Alaska later this month. This will be my first time in Vancouver and I am using your review to plan our trip. Looking forward to the rest of this review.

[ucfalli]

Day 1: Continued

2/28/14

 

Some photos along the old city wall

 

It's a nice paved path

[ucfalli]

Day 1: Continued

2/28/14

 

Some photos along the old city wall

 

Thankfully there is a wonderful breeze at El Morro. You get admmsion to both forts for 7 days for I believe $5 per person. It's a great deal.

 

A bit of a walk up to the fort

 

[ucfalli]

Day 1: Continued

2/28/14

 

Next time I am in San Juan, I am making time to fly some kites! You will see lots of people flying kites. There is always a great breeze there.

View from up top

Inside El Morro

 

[ucfalli]

Day 1: Continued

2/28/14

 

David begin goofy

 

 

A Celebrity ship had set sail

We then headed towards the Castillo de San Cristobal. It felt like a much shorter walk then the sign said it would be. I would say it took about 20 min from El Morro. Along the way I took some photos of the San Juan Cemetery. We couldn't quite figure out how to go inside it. It was right next to La Perla, so we moved on.

 

We made it to the fort!

[ucfalli]

Day 1: Continued

2/28/14

 

You see all the way to El Morro from the fort

In this photo you can how close the Castillo de San Cristobal is to the port

After the fort we were able to meet up with one of David's cousins. Most of his relatives live more then an hour from old San Juan (which on an island is far). His cousin lives much closer to San Juan so her and her boyfriend took us around San Juan.

 

Loved the streets of old San Juan

 

 

We were in the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista right before a wedding

 

 

[ucfalli]

Day 1: Continued

2/28/14

His cousin Michelle took us around to a few more places in old San Juan and then we parted ways, heading back to our hotel. I ended up booking the Sheraton at Old San Juan due to it's proximity to the port and being in Old San Juan. The options are pretty limited otherwise and we got a pretty good rate for the hotel. They have recently remodeled the rooms as well.

 

I was very happy with the room until when in the middle of getting ready for dinner the electricity went out. If you search for reviews of the hotel you will see LOTS of reviews talking about this problem. I was not happy trying to do my makeup in the dark (thank goodness for the window) and not being able to dry my hair. I guess on the bright side, good thing I had just got done showering!. I did what I could to get ready and we headed to Barrachina's for our dinner/flamenco reservation.

 

We got a pina colda to share (I just wanted to taste it).

 

 

This ended up being a big let down when it came for food. We ordered an appetizer and it never came. I determined it was never coming when they started to bring out the main dishes. I had to get up and tell our waiter. He ended up bringing it soon after and didn't charge us for it. Then our main dishes came out and they were cold (the coldest dishes I have ever received from a restaurant). I am not a complaining type of person when it comes to restaurants. But I just couldn't take how cold it was. They brought out new dishes pretty quick. We actually had a couple of managers come by and apologize. Was good to see how serious they took their service. They ended up taking a discount off our check.

 

The flamenco show was great! I would highly recommend it. The last time I saw a flamenco show was in Barcelona and this one was just an enjoyable. We were seated towards the front, so we had a good view. For the price of dinner you get a great show. Main dishes run I would say about $15 to $25. You must make reservations ahead of time. I called up a couple months before to make one. Shows are on Friday and Saturday night.

 

 

[ucfalli]

Day 1: Continued

2/28/14

 

The Flamenco show continued:

The courtyard at Barriachina's

Before heading to bed we checked out the roof top pool

[ucfalli]

We are booked on this cruise for April 2015 so we still have a really long time to wait! LOL. So I am reading all I can about this itinerary and all the reviews I can find. I'm loving your review so far. Thanks for posting it!

 

Thanks!. I read every review I could before our trip, it really helped in planning our trip.

[ucfalli]

We are booked for February 2015, look forward to reading rest of your review.

 

 

Thanks! Hope you get some good information.

[ucfalli]

Thank you for your review, am enjoying it so far. We're on this cruise in July and we're also flying JetBlue. Since we've never flown that airline before I was glad to hear you had good things to say about them.

 

Thanks! Jetblue is actually one of my favorite airlines. You will definitely see the difference. Boarding goes much better and they aren't stingy with snacks and drinks.

[ucfalli]

We are considering this cruise in March 2015.

 

SELL MY HUSBAND ON IT :))

 

The cruise itself and the excursions we did will sell him! Really all the ports on this cruise are amazing. :) Stay tuned...

[ucfalli]

Thanks for the review so far and look forward to your remaining posts. We will be sailing on the Valor in 3 weeks:).

 

 

Thanks!. You will have an amazing time!