Carnival Valor Review! Southern Caribbean Dec 15th with PR and Island Itineraries :)

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

good stuff! GF and i are going on the liberty soon for the same ride. how long was the taxi ride fron conando area to the ship?

 

Hi inlinesick, you'll love it! It was about 20 minutes. We went early in the day though, before traffic started picking up to the port. I saw the traffic building up later in the day so time-wise it might be longer as more people are heading to the ship. If I remember correctly that ride was about $25 and it may have been pre-established from our hotel (which would help and it wouldn't matter so much how long the ride is). Let me know if you have other questions!

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

We stopped a few times to see views of the Pitons - I loved seeing them from a distance.

 

Here's a picture of me taking pictures of the Pitons ;-)

 

 

Maybe this is the picture I took???

 

 

After driving through more towns and fishing villages, we entered one of St. Lucia's first settlements, the town of Soufriere. Here is a picture of the square:

 

 

Then we headed to the sulphur springs. You can definitely smell the sulphur as you head to the springs and mud baths! They ask you to hop in a pool of VERY HOT water first to rinse off. I was surprised by how hot the water was. Other people seemed to have no problem hopping in, but I just couldn't. Then they bring buckets of mud down from the volcano area and everyone covers themselves with it... for some reason, I was expecting to sit in a mud bath...so it was a little different. People were having a lot of fun with it though and as you can image, all kinds of pictures were being taken. Here are a couple pictures of the mud bath area.

 

They bring the mud down from this direction:

 

 

And here's a picture of the really hot bath:

 

 

And here's another picture of the sulphur springs:

 

 

And more coming soon - especially of one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen!!

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

Pretty soon we'll get to the point on the St. Lucia tour where we hop in a boat and continue on by sea (and go to one of the most amazing beaches ever)!

 

Here's a shot by the water as we're getting on the boat:

 

 

But I did want to mention a couple other things on the "at land" part, too. First, Herod's mom's lunch really was fantastic. Here's a picture of the corner of her patio with one of the Pitons in the background.

 

 

After lunch, we went to the Toraille Waterfall. It's a 60 foot waterfull surrounded by lush plants and in a little pool. The water was FREEZING. Many of our group members (including my husband) were brave enough to stand right underneath it... I got pretty close but then headed out. ha Something to think about - you may want to pack and wear water shoes on this day...because a lot of these areas are rocky and shoes helped (my sandals doubled as water shoes in a pinch).

 

Here are pictures of the waterfall:

 

 

 

Then we got in the boat and we were on our way to Jalousie Beach (also known as Sugar Beach)!

 

Here's an image from the water:

 

 

Next up, pictures from the beach! :D

[kpatterson721]

AHH!! These pictures of St. Lucia are beautiful! Can't wait to go there in a couple weeks!!! :D

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

AHH!! These pictures of St. Lucia are beautiful! Can't wait to go there in a couple weeks!!! :D

 

Thanks kpatterson721 :D St. Lucia was one of my favorite ports!!

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

And then we were at Jalousie Beach - it was GORGEOUS!!

 

There was a part to the left of the beach (if you are facing inland) reserved for snorkeling and for tours. The area to the right of the beach is attached to a very pretty resort built on the hills. My husband and I had brought our own towels, so we headed to that "hotel" area and set up there. We swam and took pictures and marveled at how pretty the area was! Here are more pictures, because I could look at them all day...

 

 

 

We had about an hour and a half to enjoy the beach. Then we hopped back on the boat and continued our tour by sea. One of our stops was Marigot Bay - very beautiful! Here's an image:

 

 

We also rode through the "Tunnel of Love" - I had read that this tunnel has been used in movies.

 

 

The rest of the ride was around 30 minutes. We were dropped off at port and had about 30-45 minutes before we wanted to re-board the ship. It was enough time for light shopping and to grab a drink.

 

Then we got back on our home away from home, and watched St. Lucia as we pulled away!!

 

[valentinebaby1]

I couldn't find this thread the other day when I looked, even did a search for Valor and didn't see it...so glad I came across it again. St Lucia is so beautiful, I can't wait to go back there in Sept! I'm also looking forward to hearing about your time after the cruise in Puerto Rico. We did this cruise in Oct 13 and are going back in Sept, this time spending a full week in Puerto Rico (4 days before and 3 days after, which was the cheapest option for our airfare). Looking forward to other ideas of things to do in PR.

[Texasgalsa]

Such beautiful pictures! I'm getting SO excited to go! 32 days!

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

I couldn't find this thread the other day when I looked, even did a search for Valor and didn't see it...so glad I came across it again. St Lucia is so beautiful, I can't wait to go back there in Sept! I'm also looking forward to hearing about your time after the cruise in Puerto Rico. We did this cruise in Oct 13 and are going back in Sept, this time spending a full week in Puerto Rico (4 days before and 3 days after, which was the cheapest option for our airfare). Looking forward to other ideas of things to do in PR.

 

Thanks valentinebaby1! That's so great that you get to go back! We would have liked to have even more time in Puerto Rico before and after - it's nice that you will, there are tons of things to do. :)

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

Such beautiful pictures! I'm getting SO excited to go! 32 days!

 

Hi Texasgalsa! That's the way I felt, too...haha I was counting down the days until we left :D

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

And then, the next day, we were in St. Kitts!!

This was another day I had really been looking forward to. This was a complete DIY day. We pre-arranged a rental car and developed an itinerary that would take us completely around the entire island and even give us beach time.

 

We woke up early, grabbed our routine omelet from the station in the back, and prepped for a big day out on the island. I'm starting with a few pictures from the ship and port.

 

Here I am looking out at the St. Kitts port - another cruise ship was already docked. The Valor went in aft, which was great, because we had an awesome view.

 

 

And here's a shot of the port as it started coming into view.

 

 

As you walk off the ship and get past all the requisite photographers, other tourists, etc, you'll pass an entry-way into the port area (that has stores, restaurants, etc.). Here's my husband standing in front of it. You can see we really loaded up - we brought our own shade for the beach and he has a backpack with towels, snacks, changes of clothes, everything. haha

 

 

We walked through the port and entered the city. We pre-reserved a car with Avis Rent-a-car (we made the reservation through Avis' website). It was very close to the port, just a block or so away. (Just to give you an idea of where it was, the ship docked in the Bassaterre area of St. Kitts. If you look closely at a map, you'll see where the dock is and you'll see "Bay Road." The Avis office was slightly down to the right (east) on Bay Road, a block or so away. It had a big sign and was very easy to find.) Also, a big note, people drive on the LEFT of the street in St. Kitts, so if you decide to rent a car, make sure your driver is ok with that. :-)

 

Overall, our plan was to drive the northern part of the island first and then travel south to the beaches. There is one main road that goes around the entire island - on google maps, it appears to be called Cayon Street - so we followed that. There are several sights to see along the way, and it was a very fun way to see the island.

 

Here's a shot of our rental car on the side of the road, where we pulled off to take a couple pictures once we left the town area.

 

 

In the next couple of posts, I'll talk about some of the specific places we went in St. Kitts. Our first stop was the Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor. It has the ruins of an old sugarcane planation and it makes very pretty batik fabrics. I had read about it before we left but we weren't 100% sold on going... as we drove down the street though, we saw the sign and decided to check it out.

 

Getting up to the manor was fun, you drive through this very lush tropical tunnel:

 

 

There's a parking lot at the top of the hill and it was free to park. We arrived before any other tour buses so we had the place to ourselves for a few minutes. :-)

 

Here's an image of the sign at the entrance:

 

 

More on St. Kitts coming up!

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

Our first stop in St. Kitts was the Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor. After parking, we walked a bit and explored the very well-maintained grounds. There was no charge to do this or to explore the shop. (There may have also been a more extensive tour requiring an entrance fee.) The women making batik were very friendly and explained the process to us. After watching them for a few minutes (and they patiently allowed us to take a video), we bought a few small gifts in the shop and then continued walking around the grounds. There were some very pretty views and an old bell tower.

 

Pictures of batik making:

 

 

 

Pictures of the ground and the bell tower:

 

 

 

This looked pretty to me - the drying batik fabric swaying in the breeze:

 

 

When we finished at the batik shop we headed back up to the car. At this point, many tour buses and other cars were pulling in and quite a crowd was heading our way. If you're driving, you may want to hit this stop first or possibly come a little later in the day. It was fun to check out though and I recommend you do so if you have the time. We probably spent about 30 minutes there.

 

Our next step was the Brimstone Hill Fortress. I'll post photos from that soon! :)

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

Our next stop on the drive around St. Kitts was the Brimstone Hill Fortress. (As we were driving clockwise around the northern part.)

 

The road was a little narrow up to the fortress, but it was no problem at all! (Be sure to drive slowly and be on the watch for other cars and buses.) About halfway up, we were stopped at a welcome booth. That's where we paid our entrance fee (it was $10/person) and received a little brochure. We were offered an audio tour (for a fee) but we decided to pass.

 

Then we headed up to the top of the hill and parked in a general parking area. There was a gift shop, snack area, and there were restrooms. We spent about 45 minutes walking around the fort area, and really enjoyed it! Plus it's always great crossing another UNESCO World Heritage Site off the list, right?!

 

The fort has a few historical/museum-y displays in the lower level, and we walked through those, too. Pictures of the fort are below.

 

Here's a view looking out from the top of the fort:

 

And one of the front of the fort:

 

This is looking down from the fort at the parking area and the next hill (we walked on that one too and had gorgeous views):

 

And one more of the fort!

 

After leaving the fortress, our next goal was to see the volcanic formations (aka the "black rocks" on the northern side of the island). Here are a couple random pictures taken out the front window on the drive there. :-)

 

 

 

And next up, the volcanic rock formations!

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

Our next stop in St. Kitts was the volcanic rock formation. As a note - this is very difficult to find via car. There is no sign (?!?!) from the road (even though there are vendors at the bottom, so you would think they'd make something to let tourists know where they are). We happened to be driving behind a tour bus and saw it turn off the road to the left but didn't know why. We actually passed the turnoff and I happened to look back and saw a couple vendor tents. We turned around and a resident was out sweeping her driveway, and she smiled at us and pointed down the street. So that's how we knew where to go!

 

When we got down to the clearing, we saw a horse-shoe shaped vendor area and many people offering items for sale, a picture with a monkey, snacks, etc. We didn't really stop at too many of the booths, but we headed down to the edge to take pictures. You have a really pretty view from the edge of the clearing and overlooking the rocks.

Here's an image of the rocks:

 

Our next goal along the drive was to visit Ottley's Hotel & Restaurant on the eastern side of St. Kitts. We read a couple reviews that suggested it as a place for lunch, and I was really interested in exploring the on-site rainforest walk.

 

On the way there, we drove under a small bridge for the St. Kitts Scenic Railway. (At several places along the drive, we intersected with the train tracks.) I thought it was interesting that a small train car rides in front of the larger train - probably to make sure the tracks are clear. Just in case you're planning to take it, here are a couple pictures:

 

The small train in front:

 

 

The scenic railway:

 

After a bit more driving, we made it to Ottley's. There was a sign from the road and it was really easy to find. It is very pretty there, I could see how people might want to host events or weddings. The hotel and restaurant are set up on a hill which allow a great view of St. Kitts and the water. After our lunch we walked a bit of the on-site rainforest and then headed back out. :-)

 

Here's an image of the grounds:

 

And of our lunch:

 

And here's the start of the rainforest walk:

 

We didn't walk the entire thing, but reviews said that it takes about an hour to walk. It's a great option if you're seeing the island on your own and want a chance to walk through a walk-forest on a guided path. The beginning of the walk is a bit steep, so you'll want to wear decent walking shoes. :-)

 

After Ottley's we headed south on the island towards Timothy Hill!

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

After visiting Ottley's, we headed down south to the beach areas. While on the way, we stopped at Timothy Hill. There we saw a very pretty view of the south area of the island.

 

 

We continued on to Cockleshell Beach. We drove around some of the different beach access points and found a parking spot. We didn't have much time at the beach, since we spent a pretty long day out on the island, but we did have time to walk the beach and take a short swim (the water was a little on the cooler side, though!).

 

Here are some images from the beach:

 

 

 

 

After about 45 minutes or so, we headed back. We knew we had a short drive and had heard traffic could be bad at the end of the day, and wanted to make sure we made it back in time. :-) We did get caught in some traffic, so be sure to leave plenty of time if you're heading back by car!!!

 

Once we turned in the car and walked back the short block or so, we relaxed in the port area, had a drink, and talked about our day.

 

Finally, we boarded the Valor and enjoyed the view of pulling away from the port.

 

 

 

The next day, we'll be in St. Martin!

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

Our last port day on the Valor! We were happy to have a beautiful day in St. Maarten to look forward to, but also a little sad that our cruise was almost over. We knew we wanted this last day to be a "relax at the beach" day. Prior to the cruise, we researched many different beaches and decided on making the trip to Pinel Island.

 

After leaving the ship, we followed other cruisers to the front of the port area and the taxi stand. Workers were directing people to different parts of the taxi stand, based on where they wanted to go. There were tons of people going to Orient Bay, which is a little further south than the take-off point for Pinel Island. The worker directed us to a small van for which the driver would drop the others off at Orient Bay and then take us to the spot where the ferry leaves for Pinel.

 

When we arrived at Orient Bay, we decided we were happy we decided not to make that our final destination. The beach was a little narrow and the water looked choppy. It also looked very crowed (so great if you want the people watching, but we wanted to relax).

 

Then, the driver took us up to where the ferry leaves for Pinel Island. He warned us that taxi drivers don't make the trip to that area very frequently (and later we realized he was right) and he agreed to come back and pick us up later in the day. He warned us that if he got a full day tour in the meantime, he might not be able to come back and we would need to find alternative transportation (he did come back though).

 

Prior to leaving, our plan was to take the ferrry across a small channel to Pinel Island. Even when we got off the taxi, it was still our plan. The ferry was going back and forth to Pinel, and seemed to arrive every 10-15 minutes or so. The cost was between $10-15 roundtrip per person.

 

However, while we were waiting in line for the ferry, I noticed other people renting kayaks from a small shack right next door. In an adventurous moment, I suggested we do that instead. (The kayak didn't look too long, and it seemed like a nice way to get some exercise on our otherwise very relaxing vacation in which we weren't exerting too much energy - but eating a ton of food!!) So my husband rented a kayak and we were on our way. The person renting kayaks was very nice and also gave us a dry bag to store our stuff in (and to hook it to the kayak) for the trip.

 

The water was a little choppier than I expected, and the wind was a little stronger, so I was glad we decided to kayak and not to stand-up paddleboard (I had read a review in which someone did that, so I was glad we hadn't chosen to do that). Luckily my husband is pretty strong (;-) yes he is reading these) and got us across no problem, even when I needed to take a break. The whole thing was only about 20 minutes each way though.

 

Here's me in the front of the kayak:

 

Once on Pinel, we quickly found some wonderful lounge chairs and sat down. It was around $20 for 2 loungers and an umbrella. A waiter came over with a menu and helped us get drinks, and we were all set.

 

This beach was pretty awesome. The water was GORGEOUS, the views were amazing, and you felt like you were on this cool little island retreat. There were a lot of things to look at - people coming by in boats and tours, people swimming and playing in the water, and people doing water sports like kite sailing.

 

We relaxed and walked and swam, and really really enjoyed the day. We went out to swim in the beach and little fish swam all around our legs.

 

Here are images from our view point:

 

(In this one, you can see our kayak in the background, and the channel we kayaked across)

 

 

And here's an image of the chairs:

 

My husband swam to another side of the little island where we were sitting and got a shot of the chairs and area we were sitting:

 

Finally, we decided we did need to head back. We packed up our stuff, got in kayak, and headed back over to the island side.

 

We were having such a great time in St. Maarten so far!

Edited February 8, 2015 by BlueSky_ShinySea

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

After kayaking back to the mainland, we had a quick snack at a food truck in the parking lot. (We were so hungry - it was one of the best sandwiches EVER!!) Our taxi driver returned to pick us up, and drove us back to be near the port. Along the way, he told us about the island and answered our questions about living there, what it was like, etc.

 

He offered to take us all the way back to the Valor, but we decided to be let off in the shopping area downtown and then walk back to the ship, instead. We walked along the walking street and shopped and enjoyed the stores.

Here's a shot of the shopping area:

 

We also went to the "Guavaberry Emporium" and had some tastings and got a very yummy pink slushy! We continued walking and eventually head back to the boat. (Something to note - the walk from the shopping area back to the port is a little lengthy, probably took about 30 minutes, but we did walk slow and stop places to take pictures.)

 

 

And the drinks you can make with Guavaberry ;-)

 

Then we were boarding the Valor again, for the last time!

 

As we did on the other nights, we headed to our balcony, and watched St. Maarten pull away, knowing we would be back in San Juan in the morning...

[DavyJoneses]

AHH!! These pictures of St. Lucia are beautiful! Can't wait to go there in a couple weeks!!! :D

 

Anticipation is almost (almost) as fun as being there.:D

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

Anticipation is almost (almost) as fun as being there.:D

 

Ha, so true!! I'm always really excited about vacations too :-)

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

The next day, we were back in Puerto Rico and our vacation was almost over. :-( Since our flight was very light in the evening, we had an entire day on the island before heading out.

 

Departing the ship was very easy. We packed the night before and planned to carry our bags out ourselves instead of leaving them in the hallway. We got up with enough time to get ready for the day, have breakfast at Rosie's Diner, and head back to our room before heading out. Leaving the ship probably took 30 minutes max.

 

Originally, we had planned to spend the day in Old San Juan, since we didn't know if we would have enough time to explore the area before leaving on our cruise. Although sure, more time would have been great, we did feel like we had enough time to get the general feeling for the city on the first day (and it was great) but that we'd like to use this day to do something different and new. So, at breakfast, we did a ton of research on our phones (ha!) and planned a day for ourselves on the fly.

 

After leaving the ship, we grabbed a taxi (there were tons lined up in front of the port, all waiting for passengers), and asked to go to to the airport's rental car center. We had reserved a car on our phones and used the airport as the pickup location, so we could drop it off later and not need additional transportation to catch our flight. The car was ready and we took off with no problems. The rental car agency provided us with a map of Puerto Rico, but we ended up using our phone's map applications to get around.

 

We were heading to the NW/W side to see the Rincon area and surfing spots, but knew we wanted to stop at the Arecibo Observatory on the way. It's one of the world's largest radio telescopes (if not the largest) and has been used in movies like James Bond GoldenEye and Contact. If I remember correctly, it was about 1 hour - 1.5 hours to get there. There is a parking lot for tourists and you walk up a hill to get to the welcome center. (Note - the hill could be considered a little steep so if you have any difficulty walking up something like that, you may want to ask if you can be dropped off at the top and someone in your party can take the car back down and park.)

 

Here's a welcome sign at the observatory:

 

You do have to pay a $10 fee at the Visitor Center. I was pleasantly surprised by the museum inside - my husband and I both liked it and felt like we walked away learning something.

 

There was a model of the telescope:

 

And some information about the Nobel Peace Prize:

 

...and a bunch of other exhibits I found informative and interesting.

 

After around 20-30 minutes, they called the visitors in for a video. (The order for seeing all of this appears to be: 1) visit the welcome center and see the museum area while you wait for the video, 2) watch a video, 3) a tour guide takes you to the observation deck and tells you about the telescope, 4) free time for you to take pictures, grab a snack from the snack bar, and 5) visit the gift shop as you walk out, since it's on the side of the building near the exit.)

 

The video was ok..it was as I would have expected. Then a tour guide took us on a platform and told us about everything. He did a good job.

 

Here are a couple pictures from the platform:

 

 

After walking back down the hill to our car, we headed out and continued west so we could visit Rincon. I'll write about that next. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

So happy to see that you went to Pinel Island on your trip! :) Our first time in Pinel Island was on our very first cruise in 1992 when we did a snorkel/beach break excursion booked through Carnival and it was to Pinel Island. At the time there was nothing there, not even loungers (put our towels in the sand), but it was so pretty. When we were on Valor in 2013, I wanted to go back to Pinel Island so we ended up booking a private tour to guarantee we'd get back to the ship on time since we'd also heard it could be hard to get a cab back to the ship. Big changes but still very pretty and we thought the changes were conveniences. LOL!!! Glad you enjoyed it and I love your pictures.

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

So happy to see that you went to Pinel Island on your trip! :) Our first time in Pinel Island was on our very first cruise in 1992 when we did a snorkel/beach break excursion booked through Carnival and it was to Pinel Island. At the time there was nothing there, not even loungers (put our towels in the sand), but it was so pretty. When we were on Valor in 2013, I wanted to go back to Pinel Island so we ended up booking a private tour to guarantee we'd get back to the ship on time since we'd also heard it could be hard to get a cab back to the ship. Big changes but still very pretty and we thought the changes were conveniences. LOL!!! Glad you enjoyed it and I love your pictures.

 

Hi pghsteelerfan - thanks for your note!! What is really funny is that your review of the Valor is one of the reasons we went to Pinel Island :-) I had shown my husband your pictures and we talked about wanting to check it out. We really did like the restaurant and the loungers that were there and I think a private tour was a great way for you to do it (to cut down on the worry of whether a taxi could come back). What a pretty little island! So belated thank you for your recommendation. :D

[BlueSky_ShinySea]

After visiting the Arecibo Observatory, we continued towards the west coast. We wanted to visit the Rincon area and see surf spots. Puerto Rico is known for having some great waves and we wanted to feel it out for potential future vacations to that area.

 

Along the drive, we saw many little areas we would have loved to stop at and spend more time. Since we were running short on time, and needed to be back at the airport in early evening, we couldn't devote as much time to this side trip as we would have liked to.

 

We continued on our way and knew we entered Rincon when we saw this sign over the road:

Rincon was a really neat area - it was hilly, lush, and had tons of cool little homes and beach areas. There is one main road heading through the entire area and then others branch off. We also noticed a lot of little restaurants that would have been fun to go to if we had more time. (Overall - this would have been a great area to spend a couple days in and really explore.)

 

We stopped at a couple beach spots. Here's a picture from the first one:

 

And then we went to a surfer beach called "Domes."

 

A lot of people were in the water, on the beach, or doing other activities on the sand. It was a lot of fun and we wished we had a couple hours to hang out there.

 

 

Next to Domes, there was a small recreation park with a pretty lighthouse and some benches. I didn't get a picture of this, but here's an image of another beach taken from the park:

 

Since we were watching the time, we knew we needed to head out... after a long several hour ride back to the airport, we were sad the vacation is over but we were ready to head home. We checked into the airport and didn't have any problems on the flight home.

 

And the next day was back to work for both of us...

 

Overall, we had a really fantastic time on this vacation and can't wait for our next one. We've already started planning... :-)

 

Thank you for following along!

[babsee101]

Thanks do much for putting this great review together. I am sad that it had to end! :(

Edited February 8, 2015 by babsee101

[pghsteelerfan]

Hi pghsteelerfan - thanks for your note!! What is really funny is that your review of the Valor is one of the reasons we went to Pinel Island :-) I had shown my husband your pictures and we talked about wanting to check it out. We really did like the restaurant and the loungers that were there and I think a private tour was a great way for you to do it (to cut down on the worry of whether a taxi could come back). What a pretty little island! So belated thank you for your recommendation. :D

 

I'm glad that the review I did was helpful to you in deciding on Pinel Island and so glad that you enjoyed it. I love your idea of renting the kayaks to get over there. I'd love to go back again next time we're in St. Maarten/St. Martin. I just love it there.

 

I just finished the rest of your review and sad to see it come to an end. Your review is the first one I've read with a trip to the Rincon area of Puerto Rico...it looks beautiful there! You may have helped me decide on another thing to do next time we get to Puerto Rico. :) I told my DH that I'd love to spend a week in Puerto Rico sometime. There is so much to see and do and every time I read a review that includes a pre or post-cruise in San Juan, I get more and more ideas.

 

Thank you for taking the time to do a review of your trip. Your pictures are beautiful. I hope you get a chance to cruise again soon and if so, I'm hoping you do another review. :)

Edited February 8, 2015 by pghsteelerfan