My Carnival Valor Southern Caribbean review!! With 2 days in Old San Juan !

[boaterette]

I am really enjoying your review. I have been to San Juan on a cruise but have not sailed on a cruise from there. I am wanting to though. I know what you mean about the bonine. I have been on over 25 cruises and the first one I thought I had gotten over being sea sick so I quit taking the pills. I got so sick I was miserable. So now I take it every day and sometimes depending on the seas I have to take it twice. But I do love cruising.

[Detroit Donna]

 

 

I have always had severe cases of motion sickness. Even on a straight road, if I am not driving or sitting in the front seat or the middle of the back seat, I will get really sick. I have tried sea bands, meclazine, and ginger pills and none worked for me. Last year on the Epic I started taking Bonine the day before our cruise. I know you are supposed to take it every morning. On the 5th day I decided not to take it because I felt fine and I could hardly feel the ship moving so I thought it would be okay. Well that evening I had to leave the table at dinner because I was so sick. It ruined me for the whole night. Well fast forward to this cruise and I was a bit worried because I knew there would be more noticeable movement on the Valor due to it being much smaller and I don't know if it has stabilizers like the Epic does. So I decided I would just take the Bonine and hope for the best. The Valor was rocking most of the time. It was actually surprising how much it moved. But it never once bothered me! I was so happy!! And now I swear by Bonine. It is the only thing that has ever worked for me. BUT you have to take it every single morning. EVEN is you feel like you will be fine. The thing about motion sickness is that you have to prevent it from happening in the first place because once you feel sick it won't go away. Okay....moving on.

 

 

 

Next up...Cruise day 2. St. Thomas, Coki Beach, and Scuba Diving!!

 

 

I swear by Bonine too! I read a great tip to take it every night before bed so if there are side effects, you don't feel them. I knew Dramamine made me feel sleepy so wasn't sure what Bonine would do and by taking it before bed, I still don't know what it does. LOL

 

Loving your review BTW. My husband is from Puerto Rico so we visit there about twice a year and I look forward to it every time. We are taking this cruise on 15 Feb and your review makes me want to leave today! I told my husband about the wonderful apartment you rented and he said his mom would be upset if we stayed somewhere else. He's right and he loves her cooking anyway. Also, you were very SMART to not go to the area next to the cemetery.

 

 

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[GaMtnMom]

We booked the Valor but we were switched to the Liberty. We sail out on April 5th and we are staying 2 days prior to the cruise in San Juan.

 

Love your writing style and your sense of humor. I have been looking for more Southern Caribbean reviews as another poster said - so many have started and not finished - so I really appreciate the effort you are putting in to this. We still have 70 days till we cruise so I love reviews and doing research. Can't wait for more!!

[AimeeAndJoel]

Such an awesome review so far! Looking forward to the rest! We are doing this itinerary in June on the Liberty and we are so excited! We are New Zealanders (living in Australia) so we have been trying to learn as much as we can about cruising 😄

 

 

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[Cruisegirl6]

Mjones what time of the year did you go on the FOS? Was there a very bad storm you were in? I have been on her twice and her sister ship LOS twice NEVER did we feel those ship rock.

 

Impatiently waiting for more your making this not only interesting and informative but fun!

[PS1818]

I am really enjoying your review. I have been to San Juan on a cruise but have not sailed on a cruise from there. I am wanting to though. I know what you mean about the bonine. I have been on over 25 cruises and the first one I thought I had gotten over being sea sick so I quit taking the pills. I got so sick I was miserable. So now I take it every day and sometimes depending on the seas I have to take it twice. But I do love cruising.

 

 

Thank you! Sailing from San Juan is so nice because there is no way one can only spend 8 hours there and actually experience it. 2 days wasn't long enough for us. Bonine is great!

[PS1818]

Such an awesome review so far! Looking forward to the rest! We are doing this itinerary in June on the Liberty and we are so excited! We are New Zealanders (living in Australia) so we have been trying to learn as much as we can about cruising 😄

 

 

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Thanks! Our dream vacation is Australia and New Zealand! I learned everything I know from all the great info on cruise critic.

[PS1818]

We booked the Valor but we were switched to the Liberty. We sail out on April 5th and we are staying 2 days prior to the cruise in San Juan.

 

 

 

Love your writing style and your sense of humor. I have been looking for more Southern Caribbean reviews as another poster said - so many have started and not finished - so I really appreciate the effort you are putting in to this. We still have 70 days till we cruise so I love reviews and doing research. Can't wait for more!!

 

 

Good plan! Thank you! I know, I ran into that problem with the southern reviews as well. I know they are a lot of work but I don't know why you would start one and not finish. Even if you just spent 10 minutes and posted a little bit every day... Eventually you'd finish.

[PS1818]

I swear by Bonine too! I read a great tip to take it every night before bed so if there are side effects, you don't feel them. I knew Dramamine made me feel sleepy so wasn't sure what Bonine would do and by taking it before bed, I still don't know what it does. LOL

 

Loving your review BTW. My husband is from Puerto Rico so we visit there about twice a year and I look forward to it every time. We are taking this cruise on 15 Feb and your review makes me want to leave today! I told my husband about the wonderful apartment you rented and he said his mom would be upset if we stayed somewhere else. He's right and he loves her cooking anyway. Also, you were very SMART to not go to the area next to the cemetery.

 

 

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Ohhh that is a good idea! I would just worry that the full affect of it would be wasted on the hours that I'm asleep. I don't really feel much side affects from it tho. Dramamine and meclazine just make me so tired. I got a prescription for meclazine from my doctor because I had vertigo from a super bad ear infection a few years ago and I felt like I was spinning on a merry-go- round for a week solid. The meclazine is basically high powered Dramamine. It worked for the vertigo, but only because it made me sleep the whole day. You don't really know you're dizzy if you're sleeping lol. So it wouldn't be good for cruising because I don't want to sleep my vacation away. Bonine doesn't make me sleepy at all.

 

Than you! Lucky you!! I want a mother in law that lives in PR! Yeah.... I researched La Perla a lot. Some people will say that I was being a wimp and that nothing would happen and it's like any other slum. But we didn't belong there and they don't want us there. Plus, I didn't think it was worth the risk just to take some pictures and be able to say we did.

[Input122]

I smuggle too. And I don't think that carnival really cares. They allow you two bottles of wine and at our hotel when we went on the valor out of Miami the guy said we could have two bottles per person. It's actually one bottle per person so we ended up with 4 bottles in our carry on bag. The lady from carnival said don't worry it's Christmas have a good time.

[PS1818]

I smuggle too. And I don't think that carnival really cares. They allow you two bottles of wine and at our hotel when we went on the valor out of Miami the guy said we could have two bottles per person. It's actually one bottle per person so we ended up with 4 bottles in our carry on bag. The lady from carnival said don't worry it's Christmas have a good time.

 

Haha yes! I was under the impression that it was only San Juan that it was easy to smuggle from!

[beanies098]

Such an awesome review so far! Looking forward to the rest! We are doing this itinerary in June on the Liberty and we are so excited! We are New Zealanders (living in Australia) so we have been trying to learn as much as we can about cruising 😄

 

 

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Which sailing will you be on? We're going in June on the liberty as well! :-)

[Input122]

Carnival is much easier than Norwegian supposedly they scan everything. We went out of Tampa for New Years on NCL and I bought a box of wine. I wrapped it in aluminum foil and then Christmas paper and put it in my suitcase. It arrived untouched. Norwegian says you can bring as many bottles of wine as you want only there is a corkage fee of $15 per bottle ridiculous. Wine bags are great for many things. I fill them with water and freeze them. Then use them in my cooler. My food doesn't swim around in the melted water, and when it melts. I have a bag of water. I love to go camping as well as cruising.

[CallmeGee55]

Which port did you embark from? I have seen conflicting reports on which port. We will be embarking San Juan on October 11th and returning 18th. Hoping it's one of the ports in Old San Juan. We wanna try and get in as much Old San Juan as possible. Thanks

[dudaze11]

Haha yes! I was under the impression that it was only San Juan that it was easy to smuggle from!

 

I have always been told that San Juan is the easiest. Has something to do with who runs the check in process. I seem to recall that the Port of San Juan operates the point where smuggled booze would normally be confiscated instead of Carnival agents and they don't care what you bring in so long as it isn't illegal. Great review so far. My wife and I lived in Seattle for 3 years while she was in school at UW. It was a great time.

[lmares1968]

Bonine was my savior on our cruise in November. I was using the Transderm-scop patches and they made my food taste horrible. Our ship (Navigator of the Seas) was having stabilizer issues and I thought I was going to die. I finally switched to Bonine and it made a huge difference. I took it right before bed and I never noticed any side effects.

[PS1818]

Good morning St. Thomas!! We woke up bright and early and very excited for our day. We were going scuba diving for the very first time. We have snorkeled a lot and decided we should take it to the next level. I found a PADI dive center on Coki Beach in St. Thomas that offers a “Discover Scuba “class. Most of the ports have a dive center that offer these types of classes but we chose to do this in St. Thomas because it is a beach dive. Meaning you don’t dive into the water off of a boat. You start slow and walk into the water. We thought this would be a better, gentler way to do it for our first time. I contacted the dive center and easily set up our time and paid a 20% deposit. They send you information and a medical waiver to look over. The only thing on the waiver that slightly pertained to us was my ear issue. I was a bit nervous about it (especially because it was so early in our cruise and I didn’t want to be ruined for the whole rest the trip). But I was willing to see what might happen. I knew from reading the info that if I couldn’t get my ears to pop or I was too uncomfortable to go any deeper, I could go shallower or get out altogether. That was the other reason we chose this particular dive center and not a boat dive.

 

Side note…. Before I get too far ahead of myself I should let you know that I booked all of our excursions on my own. The only time I have ever booked a shore excursion through the cruise line was in Alaska. And that was only because it was my first cruise and I didn’t even know you could book them yourself. I know that some people are nervous to do this because they are afraid the ship will leave without them. But usually the tour operators have someone else on the tour who did book it thru the cruise line. So you know they’re not leaving those folks behind. And since they are on the same tour as you, by default, they’re not leaving you behind either. In the case that there is no one else on the tour who booked thru the cruise line, don’t worry. As long as you do your research and find tour operators who have a good reputation, you will be fine 99.9% of the time. The reason I don’t say 100% of the time is because I’m sure someone who knew someone’s aunt’s sister’s cousin has a story of missing the boat. But these tour operators live and die by reviews. So they are going to do everything in their power to make sure you are back on time. We have never once even been semi-close to missing the boat. We also are smart and don’t pick excursions that say they get you back at 4:00 when the ship leaves at 4:30. So there’s that. The nice things about booking yourself are that it’s usually a lot cheaper and a lot less people on the tour. We very much hate being herded like cattle.

 

Ok…back to St. Thomas. So we booked the 11:30 spot because the 9:30 spot was reserved for the cruise ship bookings. So we decided we would have a leisurely morning and eat in the MDR for breakfast because we had time and had never done it before. We had also hung our room service card on our door the night before to have coffee, juice, and pastries delivered at 6:30. Even though I knew we were going to eat in the MDR I wanted to see how this worked on Carnival. They were right on time and the coffee was hot and fresh unlike NCL’s coffee delivery. At around 8 we headed to the Washington Dining room….we were sat quickly at a table for 8. They wait to take your food order until the table is full. So if you have somewhere to be I wouldn’t recommend it. It didn’t take long tho (probably 10 minutes to fill the table) and they gave us coffee and pastries/bread while we waited. There was a couple who had an excursion that asked if they could hurry up and order, and they ate quickly and left early. The food was good…not much different than the buffet breakfast tho. So we finished breakfast and made our way off the ship, by now it’s about 9 am.

 

We then walked to where the taxis are and told them we wanted to go to Coki Beach. They put us on an open air bus type truck that was filled with people going to the same place, and we were on our way. The cost was $9 pp plus tip. The ride took 20 minutes. We arrived at Coki and walked from the road to the beach. My first impression of the beach was that it was really pretty. I had read some reports that it was “ghetto”, crowded, and dirty. When we got there at about 9:30 it wasn’t crowded at all (it did get crowded around 11:00 but it was never really that bad). It had really nice sand, beautiful water, and services. Immediately we were greeted by our server who introduced herself and offered us food and beverages. We declined and throughout our stay there she stopped by to check on us a few times. She was always nice and never pushy like I had expected from what I had read. We paid for 2 chairs and an umbrella ($5 per chair, $10 for umbrella) which they set up for us in a great spot. We also paid $5 for a locker because we would be gone scuba diving for 2.5 hours and didn’t want to leave our stuff unattended. The $5 was refunded when I turned in the key. We really liked Coki Beach. There were a lot of locals and a few vendors but they never bothered us. The only semi- annoying thing that happened was a local asked me if I wanted to buy weed when I was on my way to the bathroom once. And I wouldn’t even considerate it annoying…it was pretty funny. I had heard about this happening and was hoping I might be a “victim”. Not because I had a desire to smoke weed on a beach in St. Thomas – but because nothing like that ever happens to me lol. I know it is a big deal to some people. But here in Washington it’s legal to sit on your front porch and smoke a doobie (do they use that word anymore??) if you want to. I personally don’t want to…I have school, and work, and responsibilities. But to each their own. So anyway…

 

The Coki Beach dive shop is at the end of the right side of the beach (if you are facing the water). We went and checked in, paid the balance, and were given snorkel gear which was included in the price of $80 pp. They told us to come back a few minutes before 11:30 to start our class. So we snorkeled by the rocks that are near Coral World in front of the dive shop. It was pretty good snorkeling, not the best of the trip, but still really good especially for off beach snorkeling.

 

After a bit we checked in for our class. They only take up to 4 people per class so that they can give you a lot of individual attention. Our group was just the 2 of us and one other guy. The class consisted of about a 10 minute “classroom” lesson where they tell you about all the things you will learn like how to equalize the pressure in your ears, to NEVER hold your breath, what your equipment does, and hand signals. After that comes the shallow water part of the class. They get you into all the gear and then you walk into about waist deep water and practice all the things we learned on land. After everyone was comfortable we went slowly deeper and deeper. The deepest they take you is 40 feet. And this class counts towards becoming a certified diver. This experience was amazing!! We saw some pretty cool stuff and had a great time. The dive portion lasted 40 minutes and was worth every penny. Our instructor was awesome! I couldn’t have asked for a better first time experience. I did have trouble getting my right ear to pop but it was no more uncomfortable than being on an airplane (less painful even). After our dive we bought a couple t-shirts and tipped our guide. We had the option of keeping the snorkel gear but we were really tired so we turned it in. We went and showered and changed clothes and then relaxed on our loungers for a bit before catching a taxi back to the port. The weather on this day was mostly good. There were a couple down pours but they only lasted a few minutes and then the sun would come back out.

 

 

 

 

 

[Cruisegirl6]

:) I just never get enough lol

[PS1818]

Coki Beach selfie!

 

 

Puppies!

 

The rocks by Coral World where the snorkeling was good

 

 

[PS1818]

The view from our chairs

 

Decent snorkeling

 

3 foot barracuda!!

 

 

 

[PS1818]

Dive shop

 

 

A class before us being conducted

 

The area where they put your gear on

 

Getting geared up!

 

Pre- Scuba Selfie!!

[PS1818]

Still pretty shallow

 

Getting deeper..

 

 

This is some type of tiny crab

 

It's hard to tell but this grouper was HUGE! Our guide estimated it to weigh about 70-80 lbs. It followed us for awhile.

 

[PS1818]

A Spotted Ray!! SO COOL!!!

 

Hopefully this video link works...

 

Post-scuba selfie!! We survived!!!

 

 

 

One of those pesky down pours as we were just getting done

[PS1818]

Once we were all set to go we grabbed a taxi back to the port area. The trip took about 20 minutes. We shopped a bit. I always buy a magnet, and a Christmas ornament every where we go. In St. Thomas I also bought a really cute hat, and a sun dress.

 

We then headed back to the ship around 2:30. BTW, there was never any wait to get on or off of the ship on this trip. I had read about standing in lines for a long time on other reviews. But not this trip. Easy Peasy. Once back on the ship we were STARVING!! As most of you probably know, swimming, snorkeling, and scuba diving take a lot out of you. So we headed to the burger grill. There wasn't a long wait because there were still other options available for lunch at this time of day. These burgers are really fresh and hot. They were surprisingly very very good. As I said earlier, I really loved their potato salad and coleslaw. I probably ate it almost every lunch time.

 

After lunch we played Super Trivia-round #1 at the Casino stage bar area. We love trivia and we thought we would try to play all the rounds (one each day) and try to win the all important Ship On A Stick. Everyone knows that if you don't win a SOAS, no one will take you seriously as a Carnival reviewer. And I just couldn't let that happen. Usually if I choose to do something I have to do it right. Which meant winning a SOAS. So we played, and it was actually decently challenging. Sadly, we got 2nd place. No SOAS. And we never ended up playing again because if I can't win, I won't play. Just kidding, the times never worked for us after that first round. Oh well.....Maybe some day.

 

 

After trivia I think we probably took a nap. Then we got ready for our first dinner in the MDR. Like I had said before we were seated at a table for 4. We weren't super excited about it at first because it would be awkward if we had nothing in common with our table mates. But we loved them!! I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Carnival somehow dug into our lives and found out enough info about all of us to match us with the perfect people. Like Match.com or eHarmony does. It was like being on a blind date that works out. I know I am starting to sound a little creepy but I think we will be life long friends and have already talked about cruising together.

 

I forgot my camera the first night so I have no pictures unfortunately. I had the wilted spinach salad as a starter, the salmon and baked potato as my entree, and bitter and blanc for dessert. It was all very good. P had the flat iron steak, shrimp cocktail, and WCMC. He liked it all except the shrimp.

 

After dinner we went to the adults only comedy show. Yazeem was the comedian and he was very funny! It was a bit crass at times but I laughed almost the whole time. Then we made a $20 donation to the casino (which, for you folks who are concerned about the smugglers, is where cruise lines really make up for the losses). After that we went to bed.

 

 

Up next....Our one and only sea day and elegant night #1

[PS1818]

Carnival is much easier than Norwegian supposedly they scan everything. We went out of Tampa for New Years on NCL and I bought a box of wine. I wrapped it in aluminum foil and then Christmas paper and put it in my suitcase. It arrived untouched. Norwegian says you can bring as many bottles of wine as you want only there is a corkage fee of $15 per bottle ridiculous. Wine bags are great for many things. I fill them with water and freeze them. Then use them in my cooler. My food doesn't swim around in the melted water, and when it melts. I have a bag of water. I love to go camping as well as cruising.

 

Great idea! Yeah, we didn't attempt it on NCL because I had read they were pretty strict about it.