REVIEW: Carnival Valor 8/21-8/28 - LONG!

[xlivin0naprayerx]

Warning: Review is EXTREMELY long. I will post it in parts, because it is almost midnight so I cannot write the rest right now. Also, I'd be happy to answer any questions, once I finish my review. Enjoy!

 

Carnival Valor

 

August 21-28, 2005

 

7 Day Exotic Western Caribbean

 

 

 

Embarkation – We got there early – about 11:15 AM. Lines inside were already pretty long. I cannot really comment first hand on how bad embarkation was, because my dad was in a wheelchair so we surpassed ALL lines. We were on by 12 noon. Others said it took them up to 2 hrs and 45 min to get on board. Yikes! We were able to go straight to our room, our steward said just close the door behind us and he would finish up later.

 

 

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Cabin – We had cabins 6407 and 6411 on the Upper Deck, both balcony cabins. The cabins seemed smaller than we remembered from the Victory. PLENTY of storage though. I must remind people to check ALL storage spaces before they leave. We were surprised when we opened a drawer under the sofa bed to find clothes from the last family to stay in the room! Seriously, there are so many cabinets and drawers, we were amazed. We were right over the Promenade, but had no trouble with noise. Door slammers were a problem, but many-a-time it was my sister slamming her balcony door next door! I yelled at her quite a few times about it. Also, we had three people in our cabin, myself sleeping on the sofa which was converted into a bed. VERY comfortable. LOVED the duvets.

 

 

 

Our room steward was friendly, but I never even knew his name.

 

 

 

The bathroom also had a lot of storage space, with 6 shelves on the mirror for toiletries. The showerheads were fantastic, and we loved the Lever 2000 body wash dispensers in the shower.

 

 

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FOOD

 

Lido Buffet (Rosie’s) – Breakfast buffet was a bit disappointing. I ate breakfast in the dining room three days because of it. Scrambled eggs were always cold, as were the hashbrowns. Most of the time we had the danishes and such. We only ate lunch at the buffet the first day. It was decent, with a lot of choices. We were also one of the first hundred on board, so there were no lines. We never ate dinner at Rosie’s.

 

 

 

Pizzeria – Pizza was good, but I only ate it twice. The first time I was handed a lukewarm slice. I wanted a specialty slice, but couldn’t justify waiting 10 minutes for it.

 

 

 

Fish and Chips – Standard fish and chips, except that they give you potato chips AND French fries. After finding a hair fried onto my fish, I lost my appetite.

 

 

 

Deli – Had a reuben twice, and it was delicious both times. The lines were often 25 people long for the deli, though. My parents also enjoyed the pastrami.

 

 

 

Grille – French fries were good, and they give you the works on the bun. I don’t eat any lettuce, onion, etc on my burgers, but it was good to have choices. Not a great place to go if you like your burgers a certain way. Only ate half the burger, since I like mine juicy red and all the burgers were well done. Food was good, nonetheless.

 

 

 

Chocolate Buffet – This took place on SATURDAY at 12:00 noon in Rosie’s. The capers did not mention the time or place of the buffet, so that is just FYI. Myself being the world’s BIGGEST chocoholic (anyone who knows me can confirm this), I waited 25 minutes for it to open, so that I was the first in line. Sampled almost one of EVERYTHING, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Although I had a hard time tasting the lemon in the chocolate lemon cake, the pear in the pear chocolate cake, etc, they were each superb. I was surprised that they did not have strawberries or bananas to dip into the chocolate fountain – they had pineapple, honeydew, and cantaloupe. I’ve never enjoyed a buffet this much in my life.

 

 

 

Washington Dining Room – Firstly, let me say that we booked in December for this August 21 cruise, and still did not receive the seating we requested. More about that later on in the review…

 

 

 

We had the 5:45 seating in the Washington Dining room, aft. Our table was upstairs, table 577. It was a table for four, and they stuck an extra seat on the end for the fifth member of our party. We were disappointed to be sitting by ourselves, because we like to meet new people. It wound up being good though because we showed up at 6:15 every night because that is what time we requested in the first place.

 

 

 

Our waiters were John from India and Wesley from Haiti. The service was OUTSTANDING. They were very attentive. The first night, I ordered a Diet Coke with my Fountain Fun Card, and every night after that they made sure that there was a Diet Coke waiting for me at my seat as I showed up for dinner.

 

 

 

The food was very good on most occasions. If we didn’t enjoy something though, we simply ordered something else and it was there within minutes. The lobster was not the best we’d ever had, but I love lobster and still enjoyed it very much. My father enjoyed the chilled soups each night. My favorite desserts were the flourless chocolate cake, cappuccino pie, tiramisu, and a Grand Marnier soufflé on the last night.

 

 

 

This was our first time in an aft dining room, and we definitely would rather be in the mid-ship dining room. The vibration of the engines was felt EVERY night. Luckily, I have no problem with seasickness.

 

 

 

Scarlett’s Supper Club – BRAVO! Well worth the $30 per person. NO ONE should miss dining at Scarlett’s. The food was amazing, and all beautifully presented. I felt like I was on Iron Chef because all of the dishes were so gorgeous. The lobster bisque was superb, and the Porterhouse steak was huge! I ran off after coffee and dessert, but wish I had stayed as the rest of my party informed me that after the bill was paid they were presented with truffles! Anyhow, DO NOT miss the opportunity to dine here.

 

 

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Ship Décor – Overall, I was not too fond of the ship décor. The Valor cannot even compare with the Victory in this aspect, in my opinion. While it did not take away from our cruise, I felt that the Americana theme was overdone. Stars and stripes were EVERYWHERE, including a picture hanging over the toilet in our stateroom! Still, I LOVED the Bronx Bar, being a Yankees fanatic. Though Rosie’s green décor was not gorgeous, it did not take away my appetite as others have said it had. The Promenade was stunning. The pink in the Dining Rooms did not bother me, and I loved all the molding and details – especially the window sills. Very Beauty-and-the-Beast-like. The Caboose was beaten up already, and the ship is only about a half year old. It was very sad how many games were broken and how much graffiti there was on the chairs. We also found it odd that the glass elevators in the Atrium were tinted. I loved the décor in the Ivanhoe Theatre.

[mc'smom]

Good Review...

 

Go Yankees GO !

[xlivin0naprayerx]

PORTS OF CALL

 

Belize City, Belize – We did Cave Tubing. We booked through Coral Breeze instead of through Carnival, and saved about $40 per person by doing so. Our tour was Carlos “Speedy” Gonzales and he was great. They met us at the pier when we got off our tender and away we went. The ride to the caves was about an hour, but be forewarned that there is about 6 miles of dirt road you must drive on to get there. As Speedy had warned, it was the longest 6 miles of my life. The 6 mile dirt road took about 30 minutes to go. Speedy gave us some information about Belize on the ride, and was happy to answer all of our questions. The hike through the rainforest was nice, but I don’t recommend it for the elderly or injured – keep in mind that you have to carry your tube the whole way. Cave tubing was lots of fun, although my sister and mother were scared at sometimes because although everyone has a headlamp, the caves are pitch-black. After we were done, we were treated to lunch at a Belizean restaurant, where the food was very good. Barbeque chicken, rice, fried plantains, fruit punch, and a pastry was served. Our group had only 14 people in it as opposed to 45 through Carnival, and we were very satisfied with Coral Breeze. I highly recommend booking with them. We were back at the tender location with about an hour to spare.

 

 

Tendering was not that bad for us – we just told “Dangerous” Brian (assistant cruise director) of our independently booked tour and he sent us on a tender with a Carnival tour.

 

 

 

Be sure to book an excursion here, as there is not much to do in Belize City itself.

 

 

 

Roatan, Honduras – Here we planned on taking a cab to Tabyana Beach, but the prices for cabs were quite outrageous - $10 per person. So, we ditched that plan and decided to just go into town. After about 45 minutes of walking to nowhere, we decided to return to the ship and enjoy the rest of the day onboard. The island is very poor, and we were hassled many times by kids for money. It wasn’t worth it for us to stay.

 

 

 

DEFINITELY book an excursion here. Even the excursions to the beach were cheaper than taking a cab for our group of 5.

 

 

 

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands – Spent the day at the beach. Tendering was much quicker this time, as we were docked only about 5 minutes from the pier. We waited for the general disembarkation announcement rather than waiting in line for a tender ticket. We went to 7 mile beach, and the water was beautiful. My sister’s boyfriend rented snorkel equipment for about $15.

 

 

 

Cozumel, Mexico – All of us, save my father, caught a cab to the beach. It was a free beach right next to Playa Mia. Playa Mia was $10 a person admission. The water here was also very clear, but there was a lot of seaweed and such in the water. The cabs were very inexpensive. We also picked up souvenirs at the shopping center built at the pier, which was not there when we cruised to Cozumel 5 years ago. They make you walk through a very long duty-free shop to get off the pier, though. The lines to get back on the boat were pretty long around dinner time when we went back. Also, since we were in Cozumel from 11 AM – 11 PM, there was open seating for dinner this night. We chose to dine in the Lincoln Dining Room this night, and it was a nice change of pace.

 

 

 

My father booked a pricey fishing tour through Carnival. The fish weren’t biting.

 

 

 

After we got back on board, it started to pour. That didn’t stop most people from going back out to party though. Everyone in my party headed back out to Fat Tuesday’s, except myself.

[photocruiser]

We were on the same cruise with you. Wonderful time.

 

The only negative remarks we have are that as the ships keep getting larger with more passenger capacity, and Pier C remains the same, the bottleneck will get worse during embarkation and debarkation. We experienced a fistfight as people were cutting in line on Sunday, the 21st. Debarkation on the 28th was no picnic either as there were maybe 4 or 5 immigration officials to handle the crowd.

 

Everything else was wonderful because we planned to have fun. I am not a food afficionado. In fact my favorite food this trip was at Mambo's at Bayside in Miami and on Goff's Cay in Belize. This is not to say that the ship's food was good or bad. I didn't go hungry!

 

I wish there were more at sea days so we could have relaxed more... 4 ports in 7 days. We usually experience only 3.

 

I am glad that the Conquest that sort of followed us at Grand Cayman and Cozumel went on to Texas instead of NOLA.

 

We had a lot of memories and I need to upload my Flash cards so I can print photos. I took about 500 high rez shots. I paced myself so I would have about 80 shots of Tulum in the Yuccatan, but my card took a dump. I do believe I have decent shots of the main buildings.

 

Lets go Mets

 

Photocruiser

 

Paradise 2001

NCL Star 2002

Valor 2005

[photocruiser]

http://home.earthlink.net/~mlangsam/index.html

 

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Enjoy,

Photocruiser