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

PS1818

By PS1818,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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PS1818

PS1818

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Thank you so much for taking the time to do this review!

 

I am also a fan of the guavaberry coladas. I can't wait to get more this year! It was my favorite new drink of the cruise. I think I still have the pink cup!

 

You are welcome! Haha I have 2 cups now!

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PS1818

PS1818

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Do you happen to remember how much that Guavaberry rum was.... We had some of those coladas and they are good. I have a friend going down there next week and want them to bring me some back.

 

I didn't buy any this trip so I didn't really look, but when I bought it last year it was $20 I believe for a pretty large bottle.

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PS1818

PS1818

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I had tried my luck on Price Line for the very first time and got the Raddison Ambassador in the Condado area for $109 for Sunday night. I thought this was a good deal considering it was the tail end of the San Sebastion Festival and most hotels would still be pretty full. I was a tad concerned about the hotel because I had read quite a few bad reviews. But I figured we were only staying one night and we would probably be so tired we would just be sleeping and laying around. We arrived at the hotel before 9 am and figured we would just leave our bags there and find something to do until 3 pm check-in. I went to the check in counter and talked to the very nice woman at the desk and explained we had a reservation and knew we couldn't check in yet but we'd like to leave our bags. She looked up our reservation and was so excited to tell us that she actually had one room ready and we could have it! We were beyond thrilled!! We were so tired and not real excited about hanging around for the next 6 hours. All we really wanted to do was relax.

 

So we headed to our room and were very pleasantly surprised to find a very nice, clean room with a king bed and large balcony. This hotel is not on the beach but only a block away. We decided to drop off our bags and explore. We first headed to the roof where there is a nice pool and bar. We wandered into the continental breakfast area in a very nice area called the Ambassador's Club. I'm sure we weren't supposed to eat because technically we aren't hotel guests yet...but we had a room key to get in and we were hungry. They had waffles, fruit, bagels, cereal, toast, donuts, and much more. It was actually pretty impressive. We ate and then continued to explore. They have a casino in the hotel, a bar that had a live band and dancing later that night, a coffee bar,and a restaurant. It was all very nice, clean, and friendly. I couldn't find any fault with this hotel at all.

 

We walked outside and down the block towards the ocean. It is a very easy and short walk. There was a beach at the end of the block that was really nice. The water here is rough though. We never swam but it was very pretty. We took a path that leads along the ocean towards Condado beach where all the big resort hotels like the Marrriot Stellaris are. Our hotel was only about two blocks from here. The walk over was very pretty although there were a few homeless people sleeping along the path. We turned and walked back up to the street level and walked back to our hotel. There are many shops like Walgreens, CVS, and high end shopping in this area. There was a Subway, Burger King, and many sit down restaurants all within a very short walk from our hotel. It was a really nice area.

 

We ended up having lunch at Subway and then relaxing for most of the afternoon. We tried our luck in the casino and lost. P is a New England Patriots fan so we went to find a place to watch the playoff game between them and the Colts and to have dinner. Right across the street is a place called...The Place. We decided to watch the game there because it was an open air place that was lively and they had lots of large screen TV's. We ordered beer and burgers. The food was pretty good but the service was really slow. We didn't really care because we were watching the game so we weren't in a hurry. P was happy because the Pats won so we headed back to the hotel and reorganized our bags. We had an 8 am flight so we had to get up pretty early. We decided to watch the Seahawks-Green Bay game from bed, and then went to sleep. We got up early and checked out of the hotel. There was a taxi waiting right outside to take us to the airport. The airport was very easy to navigate. Just be sure you go through the USDA check point before you go through security. They place little stickers on your bags and send them through a scanner, be careful because the stickers fall off easily. This took about 1 minute, there was no line. Then we made our way to our gate and had an uneventful flight home.

 

Our room

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Balcony

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Restaurant in the hotel

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Bathroom

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The ocean isn't far

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Rooftop pool

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PS1818

PS1818

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I tried to think of all the things that I had questions about when planning and had scoured these boards to find the answers to. Obviously these are my opinions and observations and I'm sure everyone will have different views. But this is what I think.....

 

FOOD:

 

The food on the ship was good enough. Not great, but we never went hungry (in fact I gained 6 lbs. :eek:). The MDR food was actually way better and fresher tasting than I had expected. The buffet food tasted good but was not awesome...seemed the same most of the time with just a few changes daily. The burgers and pizza were very good. The burritos, fish and chips, and deli sandwiches were average. The specialty restaurant "Scarlett's" was fantastic!!

 

DRINKS:

 

The bar drinks were always excellent. You could tell that they are all trained to make them the same and they were consistent from bar to bar. I found that on NCL, when I would order a drink at one bar and than another of the same drink at a different bar, I would get a different drink. We thought the coffee was very good. The water at dinner was good as well. The milkshakes were not good.

 

SERVICE:

 

The service on this ship was top notch. SOOOO much better than we experienced on NCL's Epic. The bar servers were every where all the time. I never had to go to the bar or wait long for someone to ask me if I wanted a drink. Not even the free drinks in the casino. They were right there every 10 -15 minutes asking if you wanted another. Our room steward was just the most amazing guy. I was in awe of how happy he was to be there. The service in the restaurants was also very good. The only person I can think of that I couldn't describe as "great" as far as service goes, was one of our assistant waiters. And it wasn't that he was giving bad service, he just seemed unhappy.

 

SHIP:

 

I loved this ship. Like I said earlier, I was prepared to not love it because it's older and doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the newer ships. But I loved how it was laid out, I thought the decor was cool, it was very clean, and our cabin was very comfortable and had tons of storage. The shower was amazing, the bed and the bedding were very comfortable.

 

FTTF (faster to the fun):

 

I had read after I purchased it that FTTF wasn't worth it if you left from San Juan. I would buy this again in a heartbeat. It saved us a lot of standing in line during embarkation and debarkation, and when we had to go to guest services. They have a separate line for platinum, gold, and FTTF guests. There was a couple times we needed to go to guest services and there was always a line. But we just walked right up and were helped within seconds. I thought it was worth every penny.

 

FELLOW PASSENGERS:

 

Since this cruise left from San Juan there was a large percentage of Puerto Ricans on board. I had read about how much they like to party and can get pretty wild. They do like to have fun but it was never at the expense of our fun. I never witnessed anything that I thought was over the line in any way. Everyone that we came in contact with was nice, polite, and respectful. The thing that struck me about these big Puerto Rican families that travel together was how much they seemed to genuinely like each other. I wouldn't dream of traveling with my large extended family lol. But they were all really happy to be together and having fun. It was actually quite interesting. I think there are a large number of American families that could take some lessons from this culture.

 

PORTS & EXCURSIONS:

 

This was a very port intensive cruise. We enjoyed all of the ports but our favorite was St. Lucia. It was SO beautiful, lush, and green. The water was the clearest I have ever seen, and the people were very nice. We had booked an excursion in every port except for St. Maartin. All of our excursions were booked through private vendors and not through the ship. All were near perfect and we had no worry's of being late to the ship. If you do your homework and check Trip Advisor, Cruise Critic, and Yelp, you can find some great places and things to do at much less cost than booking through the cruise line.

 

WEATHER:

 

With the exception of a few short rain showers in San Juan, St. Thomas, and St. Lucia the weather was perfect. It was always around 80 degrees. The water in all the ports was warm and comfortable.

 

OVERALL:

 

Overall, this was the best trip I have ever been on. Everything went the way we had planned and we had a blast. Even the slightly negative aspects of the trip were not big deals at all. I think if you decide to have a great trip you will. If you decide to let little things bother you and ruin your trip, they will. Just like almost everything else in life, you can decide how you will let things affect you. If you are a negative person, you will experience negative things. If you are a positive person, you will experience positive things.

 

I hope everyone enjoyed this review and if you have any questions just let me know and I will help if I can. If you are taking this cruise in the future I hope you have as great a trip as we did! Our next cruise will be on a Royal Caribbean ship. The theory behind this is we will have been on Princess, NCL, Carnival, and RCC. Then we will decide which line we like best overall and that's the one we will cruise for the most part. So far Carnival is winning.

 

Take care everyone!

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pghsteelerfan

pghsteelerfan

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I just finished reading the last update and the final part of your review and have to tell you that I really, really enjoyed it and you got great pictures. So happy that you had beautiful weather in St. Kitts. When we went, it rained most of the day but we loved what we were able to see. It's weird but when I started getting to the end, I felt the sadness of a cruise ending almost as if I was on the cruise myself. I'm so glad that this was one of your favorite trips, our Valor cruise on this itinerary was our favorite as well and I'd love to do it again and hoping that next time, we can spend a few days in San Juan. There is so much I want to see and do there and I'd be happy to spend a week there for vacation.

 

We had the same experience with fellow passengers on our cruise and I agree about families from Puerto Rico. We also noticed the day we boarded Valor and got back off to go and check out the forts that families were out and about together, even the husbands/fathers. Too many here are in front of the TV on Sundays watching sports. We loved seeing families spending time together and even my husband commented on that. This was the one cruise we've been on where everyone seemed to be very laid back, enjoying themselves, and it was so easy to strike up a conversation with fellow passengers both while on the ship and at the ports. Even our flight home...so many of the passengers were on Valor with us and we were sharing our experiences on the trip home.

 

Thank you again for taking the time to do a review of your cruise on Valor and I'm hoping you get an opportunity to cruise again soon so you can do another review. :)

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PS1818

PS1818

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I just finished reading the last update and the final part of your review and have to tell you that I really, really enjoyed it and you got great pictures. So happy that you had beautiful weather in St. Kitts. When we went, it rained most of the day but we loved what we were able to see. It's weird but when I started getting to the end, I felt the sadness of a cruise ending almost as if I was on the cruise myself. I'm so glad that this was one of your favorite trips, our Valor cruise on this itinerary was our favorite as well and I'd love to do it again and hoping that next time, we can spend a few days in San Juan. There is so much I want to see and do there and I'd be happy to spend a week there for vacation.

 

We had the same experience with fellow passengers on our cruise and I agree about families from Puerto Rico. We also noticed the day we boarded Valor and got back off to go and check out the forts that families were out and about together, even the husbands/fathers. Too many here are in front of the TV on Sundays watching sports. We loved seeing families spending time together and even my husband commented on that. This was the one cruise we've been on where everyone seemed to be very laid back, enjoying themselves, and it was so easy to strike up a conversation with fellow passengers both while on the ship and at the ports. Even our flight home...so many of the passengers were on Valor with us and we were sharing our experiences on the trip home.

 

Thank you again for taking the time to do a review of your cruise on Valor and I'm hoping you get an opportunity to cruise again soon so you can do another review. :)

 

 

Thank you so much for your kind words... I take it as a huge compliment coming from you, my cruise review idol :) . St. Kitts was beautiful. I have never been but A lot of people say it reminds them of Hawaii. I also felt like the cruise was ending all over again as I got to the end of my review. I guess the only cure for that is to start planning another one!

 

I think one of the things I loved most about Puerto Rico was the sense of community. It was so refreshing to see families and friends out and about enjoying spending time with one another.

 

Thanks again!

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PS1818

PS1818

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Wonderful review.....Fabulous pictures !! Thank you for taking your time to put this all together...we've never been to St Lucia but after reading your review and seeing the pics....it is definitely a must-do :)

 

 

Thank you! It's a beautiful island!

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Jennifer925

Jennifer925

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I never even thought to look into a massage at a port. I just looked into the on-board spa and they were a bit pricier then I'm used to back home.

 

 

I never thought about it either! That is until ps1818 posted her fab review! We were all set to book our couples massage but I think I'd rather pay the locals and do it beachside!!

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PS1818

PS1818

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I never thought about it either! That is until ps1818 posted her fab review! We were all set to book our couples massage but I think I'd rather pay the locals and do it beachside!!

 

Haha glad I could help! I have never had a massage in the spa before but I definitely enjoyed this one. Plus the ocean is a much better setting and very relaxing.

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dotheyes

dotheyes

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My DH and I have 2 cruises planned on the Valor; one in April and one in May

Your wonderful review has made us very eager to go.

We have 68 cruise on lots of different lines (47 on Carnival) and I have to tell you this is one of the best reviews I have enjoyed

So go on another cruise soon so we can read more of your reviews

happy cruising to you from dot and harry

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AimeeAndJoel

AimeeAndJoel

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Eeeek! You have made me so excited for our cruise of this itinerary on the Liberty in June! Thanks so much for the awesome review PS1818, loved reading every minute of it [emoji2] We were probably least excited about St Kitts (no idea why) but your review and amazing pictures have us really looking forward to it now...we are even going to look at Javin's My Island tours now thanks to you [emoji2]

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