Attn LIBERTY & VALOR cruisers: Detailed Review of Valors Last Cruise from Puerto Rico

[deladane]

Sunday, March 22 ~ They kicked us off the ship!

 

We woke up to Calvin on the intercom at 7am announcing the first zones who could debark from the ship, packed our bags and brought them with us to breakfast at 8am in the dining room. This was our first time eating breakfast in the dining room (unless you count brunch on the sea day). The menu offers most of the same items offered at the Lido buffet, but it was great to have the waiters serve us while we were sitting relaxed at our table and without dealing with the crowds at the buffet. Plus this is the only place you can order the baked apple and turkey bacon (two of my favorites!) I also had the fried eggs and the hash browns.

 

We were seated at a shared table with 2 other groups- a 3-some of ladies, and a couple who have been sailing on a Carnival ship since September! Once they mentioned that, we had a million questions that they were happy to answer. They said that they spent a few weeks on each ship and then changed ships to try out different itineraries. They planned to stay on the Valor the following week when it sailed up to Orlando, and then they would head home for the first time in 6 months (but with plans to cruise again in May). I told them I aspire to live their life when I retire haha It would be amazing to basically live on a cruise ship! Although I suppose eventually the novelty would wear off and it wouldn't feel like a vacation anymore.... it would just morph into everyday life. Either way, it's certainly something to dream about!

 

We finished breakfast at 8:45am and heard an announcement that debarkation was paused due to a long line at customs. After 15 minutes, they announced that non-US passengers can debark. They only let the non-US people off for the next 45 minutes so we just sat in the lobby and checked our email and Facebook while we waited our turn. They finally called for US citizens to debark again at 9:50am. We got off the ship and there was a long line to get into the luggage terminal. Once we entered, we paid for porter to take us to customs and to a taxi. Looking at how the other lines were moving, I think this only ended up saving us 10 minutes because there were a lot of other porters on line in front of us before going through customs, but at least it made it easy to get a taxi. By 10:20am, we were in the taxi, and we got to the hotel by 10:35am.

 

For our post-cruise stay, we wanted a hotel on the beach so we could relax and reflect on our vacation before heading back to the real world. Last time I was in Puerto Rico, I stayed at the Marriot Stellaris in Condado. I would have stayed there again this time, but the room cost close to $400 for the night.... not a chance!! After a bit of research, I discovered the beach community in Isla Verde out by the airport. There were lots of hotels to choose from, but in the end, we decided to stay at ESJ Towers. We were both very pleased with this hotel. Our room was huge and had a full kitchen (not that we had any use for that, but it was nice to have), and our balcony had a view of the ocean. Our rate also included breakfast for 2 at the hotel restaurant, 2 free cocktails, free wifi in the lobby (we would have had to pay for it if we used it in the room... good thing our 3G worked just like in the States so we didn't need the wifi!), and use of the pool and beach facilities. One downside is that beach chairs and umbrellas are not included- they charged $2 for chairs, $4 for lounge chairs, and $10 for umbrellas on the beach (it was free by the pool).

 

We were checked in by 11am but our room wasn't ready yet so we left our bags with the porter and headed down to the beach.

 

 

 

We got towels from the locker rooms and put them under the shade of a palm tree. We stayed out there for an hour or so, then went back inside to check if our room was ready, and it was! The porter retrieved our bags and helped us bring them up to our room.

 

 

 

 

The view from our balcony: ocean to the left, airport to the right...

[deladane]

After getting settled in our room, we set out in search of somewhere to eat lunch. There are a bunch of restaurants out on the main road where the hotel is located so we walked around a bit and looked at a few menus to decide where to eat. We settled on a restaurant called Piu Bello because they had a fairly extensive menu and we figured we could both find something good here. It was basically a diner, and was half-full with a mixture of locals and tourists.

 

 

We both got cheeseburgers and curly fries. The burger was okay, but those curly fries were delicious!! It might not have been the most authentic Puerto Rican food, but we realized we hadn't had a burger all week and were both craving it!

 

 

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to sit out by the pool. When we arrived, we were disappointed to see that there was very limited shade and almost all of the lounge chairs were occupied.

 

 

It must have been at least 10 degrees warmer by the pool vs. down at the beach between the cement floor and lack of a breeze, so we gave up and went back to the beach. On our way, we stopped at the pool bar to get our free drinks. We could choose anything from this list of frozen drinks or the other list of cocktails.

 

 

 

[Cruisertommyboy]

Dana, thank you for the time and effort you put into this review. I got a lot of useful information from it for our upcoming cruise on the Liberty.

 

I would hope to sail with you and J sometime, you seem like a fun couple.

Thanks again

Tom

[deladane]

Dana, thank you for the time and effort you put into this review. I got a lot of useful information from it for our upcoming cruise on the Liberty.

 

I would hope to sail with you and J sometime, you seem like a fun couple.

Thanks again

Tom

 

Thanks Tom!! I still have a few more posts to finish up our time in Puerto Rico, and then a summary about various parts of the ship :)

[deladane]

We found a shady spot to lay our towels down on the beach and hung out there for a few hours. At around 4pm, we went back to the room to get showered and changed so we could get to happy hour at the hotel bar. We noticed a sign outside the bar earlier in the day that said they had $3 beer and wine, and $4-$5 frozen drinks so we knew we wanted to check it out. The bar itself was a bit weird... it was on the inside of the hotel so there weren't any windows. Wouldn't you think that a hotel located on the beach would want to build their bar somewhere with a pretty view?? I ordered a strawberry daquiri and J got a pina colada.

 

 

Both were delicious (but beware of brain freeze!!!) We asked the bartender to make round #2 to go so we could drink it on the balcony outside. We both opted for the pina colada this time, and the bartender offered to make it with Bacardi 151 for no extra charge. Score! Those drinks were soooo good! And there was a little extra after he poured our drinks so he gave it to us in a third cup. For $8 total, we ended up with 2.5 drinks that were double the normal strength... sounds like a great start to the night if you ask me!

 

 

After we finished our drinks, we asked the lady at reception to recommend a good restaurant for mofongo. After our fabulous lunch last Saturday, we knew we wanted one last serving of mofongo before leaving Puerto Rico. She suggested we go to Platos, located just a few minutes walk to the left of the hotel on the main road.

 

 

 

We ordered a few things to share for dinner: a salad with spinach, gorganzola, almonds, craisins, and pears; an appetizer of deep fried cheese and a passion fruit dipping sauce; and of course, chicken mofongo with garlic cream sauce. All of the food was fantastic and we were grateful for the reception lady's recommendation.

 

 

 

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and repacked our bags. This morning, we kind of cheated because we used our beach totes as a third bag, but we needed to consolidate down to 2 bags each to get on the plane tomorrow. We went to sleep knowing that our Caribbean vacation would be over in a few hours.

[deladane]

Monday, March 23 ~ A loooong day of travel

 

After 8 months of planning, and 11 days in the Caribbean, our vacation was over. We got up an hour before the alarm went off, so we packed up the rest of our belongings and went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. They had a buffet set up with make-your-own belgian waffles, eggs, breakfast meats, cheeses, pastries, bagels, and cereal. It wasn't as extensive as the breakfast buffet on the Valor, but it was more than enough for us. After breakfast, we went back to the room to grab our bags, then checked out of the hotel.

 

One last selfie on the balcony before checking out of the hotel:

 

We waited a few minutes while they called us a taxi, then drive to the airport in under 10 minutes. The airport in Puerto Rico makes you put your luggage through a special USDA scanner to make sure you aren't bringing any produce off the island, and you need them to put a sticker on all of your bags before going through security. It's a good thing I knew to do this because we didn't see any signs or instructions indicating that you needed to go through the extra check point. The people in front of us said that they got up to the front of the baggage check line only to find out they had to go back and get their stickers before checking their bags. We got through security quickly, and before we knew it, we were on the plane.

 

Sad faces at the end of our vacation...

 

The flight was smooth and uneventful, and JetBlue let us watch movies for free since the satellite TV doesn't work over the ocean, so we watched The Imitation Game (great movie!). Just like our outbound flights, we had a layover at JFK airport in NY, but this was only a 2 hour layover so it wasn't long enough to leave and hang out with my parents. Our first flight landed on time, so we went to the food court and got something to eat for dinner. When we got to the gate for the second leg of our flight, we saw this:

 

 

I have flown on a lot of JetBlue planes, but this looked more like JetGreen haha I didn't notice any Jets players on our flight, although that wasn't too surprising haha

 

 

This flight was also very easy and we landed back in San Jose, CA at 10pm, 13 minutes early, but 16 hours after we left the hotel that morning. By the time we got home, it was 11pm, but our bodies thought it was 2am, and we both had to work on Tuesday, so we went straight to sleep.

 

Up next: a little more info about the Valor and a few other aspects of the trip, but until then, here's another fun photo:

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

When we got to the gate for the second leg of our flight, we saw this:

 

 

I have flown on a lot of JetBlue planes, but this looked more like JetGreen haha I didn't notice any Jets players on our flight, although that wasn't too surprising haha

 

 

I didn't realize Jet Blue had the NFL logo jets too?!?! I'm curious if they have any others. Since you're from NY, are the Jets or Giants your favorite team? That would be so cool to actually fly on it.

 

We saw our first one, the Pittsburgh Steelers plane (our team) on the runway taking off from a layover in Charlotte on our way to Jamaica for a week vacation in 2007. On the return flight from Jamaica, we actually flew on the Philadelphia Eagles plane. Can't complain though, smooth flight and got us home safely. LOL!!! There was something in the my hometown paper (still read Pittsburgh newspaper on-line, we delivered it as kids) about the logo jet debuting in Pittsburgh (a few days after we saw it in Charlotte). US Airways had NFL logo jets for the cities their hubs were in. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Arizona Cardinals.

 

Pittsburgh Steelers logo jet on the runway before takeoff from our plane:

 

Our plane, Philadelphia Eagles logo jet, at the gate:

 

I know you have a little more left to your review and am looking forward to your thoughts of Valor and the other aspects of your trip. Sad to see it coming to an end though, as I have really enjoyed this one as much as your others.

[deladane]

I didn't realize Jet Blue had the NFL logo jets too?!?! I'm curious if they have any others. Since you're from NY, are the Jets or Giants your favorite team? That would be so cool to actually fly on it.

 

We saw our first one, the Pittsburgh Steelers plane (our team) on the runway taking off from a layover in Charlotte on our way to Jamaica for a week vacation in 2007. On the return flight from Jamaica, we actually flew on the Philadelphia Eagles plane. Can't complain though, smooth flight and got us home safely. LOL!!! There was something in the my hometown paper (still read Pittsburgh newspaper on-line, we delivered it as kids) about the logo jet debuting in Pittsburgh (a few days after we saw it in Charlotte). US Airways had NFL logo jets for the cities their hubs were in. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Arizona Cardinals.

 

Pittsburgh Steelers logo jet on the runway before takeoff from our plane:

 

Our plane, Philadelphia Eagles logo jet, at the gate:

 

I know you have a little more left to your review and am looking forward to your thoughts of Valor and the other aspects of your trip. Sad to see it coming to an end though, as I have really enjoyed this one as much as your others.

 

Oh wow! That's very cool that they make planes like that for all the different teams. J is a big Jets fan so he really got a kick of it. Thanks again for reading along! I was wondering if anyone was still following since there haven't been many comments lately haha

[csharp419]

I am waiting to hear more about the valor... Will be sailing her in October... Loved the review but not on the same itinerary... But you have me dreaming of future vacations

[pcrum]

Loved the review. It's such a pleasure to read such a well written (and photographed) review! Sounds like you had a lovely trip! I do love San Juan!!

 

Thanks again for the great review! I look forward to reading your closing thoughts.

[jlajr]

...I was wondering if anyone was still following since there haven't been many comments lately haha

 

I check back every once in a while.

[deladane]

Thanks again for all of your comments! Ok, let's wrap this thing up! I wanted to end the review with a few general points about other aspects of the trip...

 

-Weather- We were extremely lucky with the weather during our cruise. We had brief periods of rain on Saturday while we were exploring San Juan and the forts, and it was chilly, cloudy, and drizzling for part of the day in St. Thomas, but other than that, we had beautiful sunny skies the whole week. The temperature was in the 70's and low 80's with fairly low humidity every day, so there were some times when we were just getting out of the ocean and I felt a bit cold! I remember commenting on how strange it was to feel chilly in the Caribbean haha That was definitely better than the super hot and humid weather which I was anticipating!! I would definitely cruise in March again if this was typical weather!

 

-Cabins- The cabins on the Valor are the same layouts as the same category of cabin on the other Carnival ships I have been on. I really liked that every cabin had a mini-fridge. We emptied the drinks when we were unpacking and put them on the top shelf of the closet for safe keeping. We then restocked the fridge with all of the beverages we brought onboard and that kept everything cold enough for us. I also really liked having a couch in both of the cabins, since I am used to only being able to sit down on the bed in an inside cabin. There was a storage drawer under the couch, but we had more than enough storage space in the closets and dresser so we didn't need to use the under the couch drawers. The mattresses were both comfortable, and the sheets and towels were clean and soft. The decor and color scheme was a bit dated with that ugly orange hue, and you could tell the furniture wasn't brand new (some of the drawers didn't close all the way, and there were nicks in the wood), but none of that was really a big deal to me. In both cabins, the showers didn't have any place to put down your shampoo. On previous cruises, we always had a small metal triangle-shaped shelf in one of the corners of the shower where I could put my shampoo and conditioner bottles, but for some reason, they don't have this on the Valor. I had to balance my bottles on top of the shampoo/soap dispensers very carefully, so that was a bit annoying. It's not a huge deal, but if you have space to throw one of those dollar store shower caddies into your suitcase, you might want to do it!

I will say that there were some maintenance issues which need to be addressed. I already talked about the constant clanging noise from our original cabin 1301. Another issue in that cabin was that every time we showered, there was a big flood in the bathroom. We were careful to keep the shower curtain inside the rim of the shower, but there was always a ton of water on the ground after we showered. I finally realized that the drain wasn't draining, so the water filled up in the shower like a bathtub, and once it reached the top of that 2 inch rim, the water overflowed into the rest of the bathroom. I mentioned it to the maintenance guy who came to listen to the clanging noise, and he sent a plumber up right away. This was on Monday night when we were heading out for dinner, so we left the plumber to fix the shower. We ended up moving cabins right after that, so we never showered in 1301 again to find out if the drain was fixed, but I assume it was.

 

-Stewards- Both of our stewards, Uzama and Ali, were pleasant and competent. They cleaned our cabin each morning, and provided turn down service with a towel animal each night. They kept our ice bucket stocked and replaced our wine glasses and champagne flutes without asking. They were always friendly and addressed us by first name every time they saw us. If we needed anything, they were usually around the halls in the morning and evening, and other than that, we left them messages on a dry erase board and they brought whatever we needed. In a way, maybe they were too thorough because they both took away our towel animals the next day! We wanted to save them through the week, and took them off our bed and put it on the windowsill for safe keeping, but when we got back to the cabin the next day, the towel animals were always gone. I guess we were supposed to specifically tell them that we wanted to collect the towel animals? Not a huge deal, but something to think about if you are planning to make a towel animal collection through the week!

 

-Anytime Dining- I have mixed reviews about our experience with anytime dining. This was the first time I have tried it, and I am not sure if I would do it again. Maybe on a cruise with weird port times that extend into the evening on some days but not on others, but probably not on an itinerary where we are back on the ship by 5pm every day. Most days we only had to wait 5-15 minutes to be seated, but our experience on the 1st formal night was horrible with a 1 hour wait, followed by extremely slow service. We were seated with a different wait staff every night (except Monday and Tuesday when we had the same staff), and we were always seated in a different area of the dining room, so we never had a chance to bond with our wait staff like I usually do. I know we could have requested to be with the same staff on subsequent nights, but we never found a staff that was so amazing that it would have been worth a longer wait time to be seated in their section. Another issue I had with anytime dining was that the times of the evening activities like the shows in the main theater and the comedy shows lined up better for the fixed dining times. If we wanted to catch the 8pm show, we had to go to dinner at 6pm, so why not just have the early fixed dining time then? When we went to dinner at 7pm, we didn't finish on time for the 8pm show- we usually finished around 9pm and then had to kill an hour before the 10pm show. Maybe anytime dining would work better if the ship allotted more tables for it and more wait staff to serve them so the meal didn't take so long?

As a side note, we noticed something a bit strange with how they serve the food. We usually ordered more than one appetizer and entree per person (there was never an issue doing that and the waiters never questioned it... I love cruising! haha), but the waiters would only serve one item at a time per person. Sometimes we wanted to eat things side by side instead of filling up on one entree and not having enough room for the second entree. Or we wanted to share one appetizer like the veggie spring rolls (yummy!!!) but then also have another appetizer on our own. Well even when we requested it, the waiter would not bring out more than one dish at a time per person. I understand that they are not allowed to do it normally because people would complain that the second dish was getting cold, but why can't they do it when we are requesting it?? We are assuming responsibility for any potentially cold food (since we usually planned to eat the dishes at the same time, this would not have been an issue anyway), and we are initiating this request so it's not like we would then follow up by complaining that too much food came at once. It just seemed really strange to us that the waiters had to speak with a manger before serving us more than one dish at a time (and that was after them outright refusing to do it and us basically having to beg for it!). In the end, it would save the waiters time because they wouldn't have to check on us to see when we were ready for the second dish, so if a passenger requests it, you would think they would be happy to oblige! Guess not!!

 

-Serenity Deck- Despite having a lovely balcony which we loved using, we also spent a lot of time on Serenity deck. In fact, this was the only public outdoor space I used aside from the secret decks. I loved the firm cushions on all the lounge chairs and sun beds, I loved that there weren't any children running around, and I enjoyed being able to hear the music from Lido in the distance but not super loud right near me. We used the hammocks a few times and they were fun, but there were only 4 of them so they weren't always available when we wanted to use it, and there was no shade covering them, so once I got my sunburn in Barbados, I didn't want to use them anymore. There was also no clamshells on the sunbeds. This was disappointing because I had seen so many other reviews that showed the sunbeds having some shade (I guess that was just on other ships though). There were always sunbeds and lounge chairs available every time we went to Serenity, but I think that is because none of them are in the shade so most people only use them for a short time and then try to get out of the sun. There were lots of couches in the shade from the deck above, but they were usually occupied.

 

-Cruise Director- Our cruise director was Calvyn because he was covering while Felipe was on vacation. I thought he was fine, but J was really irritated every time he came on the loudspeaker. Every time Calvyn referenced the name of the ship, he said "the BEAUTIFUL Carnival Valor"... it seemed a bit unnecessary. Isn't that for us to decide if the ship is beautiful or not? haha On my Victory cruise, I noticed there were a lot of announcements made in Spanish (sometimes they were ONLY made in Spanish so we didn't even know what they were saying because they never did it in English haha), but I didn't notice nearly as many Spanish announcements on this cruise. Perhaps it's because Calvyn doesn't speak Spanish and there wasn't anyone else available to make the announcement? Anyway, it made for fewer announcements over the course of the week and that was fine by me!

 

-Lido Buffet - We ate breakfast here every day except the sea day brunch and debarkation day, and we ate a late lunch here on most port days. We never ate dinner at the buffet, so I can't comment on that. They have several long cafeteria-style lines that offer the same foods at each station (2 across from the Mongolian Wok, just forward of the deli/burrito bar, and 2 in the main section that opens up where they have the stairs leading up to the deck 10 seating area, plus 2 smaller areas near the mid-ship pool). There were almost always long lines to get food when we were there. The Mongolian Wok and Burrito Bar turn into omelet stations in the mornings, as does the grill near the mid-ship pool (although every time we walked past this area, it was closed and they were still setting it up... perhaps it is opened a little later in the morning? I never saw it opened the entire week haha) The food options at breakfast were basically the same every day: eggs, potatoes (sometimes home fries, sometimes those yummy fried round crispy potato thingies), breakfast meats, some variety of eggs benedict (with salmon, ham, etc), pancakes or french toast, waffles, bagels, melon, and cereal. The food had more variety at lunch, with a different theme each day (Caribbean, American, Italian, etc.), plus they had the Burrito Bar, Mongolian Wok, Deli, Fish and Chips, Grill, and Pizza Pirate. I was boring and ate Mongolian Wok nearly every day (because I LOVED it, not because I couldn't find something else to eat lol), but J was more adventurous and tried different things each day. Most of the desserts were dry, but the cake pops were AMAZING! I have no idea how they keep them so moist, but we had them several times throughout the week and they were awesome every time! The flavors changed too- Strawberry on day 1, chocolate and other flavors later in the week.

One thing I want to address here was the hours when the buffet was opened. We thought that the buffet and the other Lido food options were open at weird times, since almost everything was closed when we wanted a snack at 4-6pm before dinner or after 11pm as a late night snack. Yes, the pizza is opened 24 hours a day, but since they don't have pizza already prepared, we didn't want to wait 15 minutes for them to make a fresh pizza for us. Plus, there was always a huge line there because it was the only thing opened and everyone else was also waiting for pizzas to be made for them. There were several nights that we got up to Lido at 11:10pm only to realize the deli closes at 11pm... that was a bummer! We could have ordered room service, but we usually just wanted a quick bite to eat and didn't want to wait up until room service was delivered. I never felt like I was forced to go hungry, but it would have been nice if some of the food options on Lido were opened either through the afternoon until dinner time, or reopened again later in the evening. Maybe even have a different one opened on those off hours each day on a rotating basis? Fish and Chips on Monday, Wok on Tuesday, Burritos on Wednesday? I don't know if Carnival would consider doing that, it's just an idea!

 

This photo was taken from the stairs in front of the tiled Rosie picture... the top of the photo shows the Fish and Chips station upstairs, and below you can see the buffet lines and the desserts area:

 

-Customer Service- Like most other customer service situations, it's just a matter of finding the right person who can help you. The first time we went to customer service, the girl who helped us must have been new or something because she really didn't know the answers to any of our questions. We wanted to know about the breakdown of our two accounts and she couldn't explain it to us, and she was basically useless in dealing with the clanging noise (we spoke to her 2 or 3 times about that issue). Once we met Sylvia, everything changed! She was fantastic and was able to easily resolve our cabin issues. I wish we had met her on the first day- that might have saved us a lot of time and hassle!

 

-Decor- In general, I was not a fan of the decor on the Valor. It was too flashy and gaudy for my taste. Clearly this is not something that will ruin my cruise, but I just tend to prefer the calmer and more serene decor on newer ships. I forget where I heard this, but the Conquest class ships were all named and themed about patriotic pro-US things after 9-11, so that kind of made me like it better, but overall I just thought the decor was too loud. Here is a photo from the lobby... The lighting around the faces of the presidents on each deck kind of scared me- it reminded me of when you hold a flashlight under your chin while telling ghost stories at a campfire haha

 

 

 

-Drinking water on the ship- On some previous cruises, I noticed a funny taste to the water on the ship. We didn't notice any issues with that on the Valor. We filled up our water bottles after breakfast in the Lido buffet area every day (yes we were careful not to touch our water bottle to the spout where the water comes out!), and the water always tasted fine. I will say that it comes out of the pump slightly warm in temperature. We both prefer room temperature water and always ask for no ice in our waters at restaurants, and even we needed to put ice in the water from the buffet haha

 

-Food Quality- Service issues aside, I enjoyed all of the food I ate in the dining room and at the buffet. Everything was served warm (the Mongolian Wok was always so hot I had to let it sit for a few minutes to avoid burning my tongue when I ate it!), and the presentation was lovely as usual. The food all tasted very good, and it makes me sad that the MDR menus will be changing soon because I really enjoyed everything I ate there.

 

-Spring Break- There were more school-aged children than on my previous September, November and December cruises, but I expected that considering many schools were on spring break this week. I was pleased to see that there were very few college-aged kids on spring break on the ship. I did notice a few groups, but nothing like I was imagining! We didn't spend much time near the main pool mid-ship on Lido Deck, so it is possible that there was more of a spring break crowd there, but I never noticed any super drunk teenagers around the ship or when I passed through on the way to the buffet.

 

-Things I never got to do but meant to: Prior to taking the cruise, I had a mental list of tons of things I wanted to do around the ship. As you can see from my photos, I never got around to taking pictures of each public space on the ship like I usually do. I also never tried the Taste Bar, martini tasting, water slide, trivia, or mini golf. I guess that falls under the category of you can't do EVERYTHING on EVERY cruise! haha I guess that means we need to take another cruise!! J... are you reading this???? ;)

 

Well folks, I guess that concludes my review. Thanks to everyone for their kind words, and I hope you all enjoyed reading along and found some useful information to help plan your cruises! Please let me know if you have any other questions!

[Tutontow]

Thanks so much for this review. No doubt about it most Carnival ships are on the gaudy side.

 

You sound like us. There will always be some issues but we don't let it ruin our vacation.

 

Any idea who all the faces are by the lobby bar. I recognized Washington, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt but I have no clue on the others. Some I couldn't tell if they were a man or a woman, although I think it was a woman because they were wearing a choker.

[deladane]

Thanks so much for this review. No doubt about it most Carnival ships are on the gaudy side.

 

You sound like us. There will always be some issues but we don't let it ruin our vacation.

 

Any idea who all the faces are by the lobby bar. I recognized Washington, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt but I have no clue on the others. Some I couldn't tell if they were a man or a woman, although I think it was a woman because they were wearing a choker.

 

haha nah, I have no idea who those faces are of in the lobby bar. I actually didn't look that closely- I think I just assumed they were generic faces but not specific people! Oops! Maybe it was all of that sensory overload from the bright colors ;)

[valentinebaby1]

Thanks for putting this together! I love reading reviews of the route or ship we're doing soon...it helps pass the time until vacation arrives! I know how much work it is to do a review so thank you!

[jlajr]

Thanks again for the review, and for the final wrapup.

 

I hope that you don't have to wait too long for another cruise, and we don't have to wait too long for another review.

 

Maybe someone else will go with you - or you could go solo... :)

[deladane]

Thanks for putting this together! I love reading reviews of the route or ship we're doing soon...it helps pass the time until vacation arrives! I know how much work it is to do a review so thank you!

 

Aww thank you! I remember enjoying your Valor review, and I hope you will come back to write a review after your Liberty cruise :) It's such a wonderful itinerary- no wonder so many of us keep repeating it on different ships! haha

[deladane]

Thanks again for the review, and for the final wrapup.

 

I hope that you don't have to wait too long for another cruise, and we don't have to wait too long for another review.

 

Maybe someone else will go with you - or you could go solo... :)

 

I actually have cruised solo before (see my review from the Celebrity Summit! haha). It was a great experience, and I would definitely consider cruising solo again. However, at this point in my life, I'd rather J come with me... if I can convince him! ;) And yes, I promise that when I do cruise again, I will write another detailed photo review for you to enjoy :D

[pghsteelerfan]

I just want to thank you again for taking the time to do a review of your Valor cruise. I noticed that the Conquest Class ships all had patriotic names but didn't realize it had to do with 9/11. Nice touch by Carnival. We've been on Valor and also Glory (2010) and Liberty was the most recent (2014). Valor was our favorite cruise for a lot of reasons, mainly the itinerary, but we both agreed that Liberty wins for decor. She's beautifully done on the inside and the colors seem to flow together nicely. I'd still love to cruise on Victory someday. I love the ocean and I'm a Pisces, and even though it does look kind of tacky, I love the ocean theme of Victory. So glad you had a great time and great weather and thank you again for taking the time to do another review. I've enjoyed this one as much as your others and I hope you get a chance to cruise again soon.

[deladane]

I just want to thank you again for taking the time to do a review of your Valor cruise. I noticed that the Conquest Class ships all had patriotic names but didn't realize it had to do with 9/11. Nice touch by Carnival. We've been on Valor and also Glory (2010) and Liberty was the most recent (2014). Valor was our favorite cruise for a lot of reasons, mainly the itinerary, but we both agreed that Liberty wins for decor. She's beautifully done on the inside and the colors seem to flow together nicely. I'd still love to cruise on Victory someday. I love the ocean and I'm a Pisces, and even though it does look kind of tacky, I love the ocean theme of Victory. So glad you had a great time and great weather and thank you again for taking the time to do another review. I've enjoyed this one as much as your others and I hope you get a chance to cruise again soon.

 

Aww thanks! If you do sail on the Victory- watch out for those seahorses! They WILL bite you! haha

[Kim_KS]

I finally finished! Thanks for the great review. And for the countdown jar idea. Here's what I ended up doing my son and his girlfriend who are away at college. I found insulated mugs with anchors in them, put their names on the filled with bite size snickers - one per day - starting today. And the bonus is they can use the mug for the cruise if they want!

 

 

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[Dreamz2cruise]

I truly enjoyed reading your review - thank you!! I also cruise on May 3rd on Liberty.... can't wait! Thanks for pumping up my excitement that much more!! LOL... Nice review :)

[deladane]

I finally finished! Thanks for the great review. And for the countdown jar idea. Here's what I ended up doing my son and his girlfriend who are away at college. I found insulated mugs with anchors in them, put their names on the filled with bite size snickers - one per day - starting today. And the bonus is they can use the mug for the cruise if they want!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Ooooh, I love the idea of using the insulated mugs for your candy countdown! So much more practical than the jars I used (which are now sitting empty in my kitchen cabinet, just staring at me and saying "why haven't you booked another cruise yet?!" haha) Smart idea to use wrapped candy since the smell/taste of chocolate would probably linger in there, even after they wash it ;) Have a great cruise!!

[JKirkN]

You mentioned the cake pops... I absolutely LOVED the little round strawberry things... and I think that may be what they were. Here's a picture...they didn't have a stick or anything...but I only saw them on the first day. I REALLY want the recipe! :)

 

 

[deladane]

I truly enjoyed reading your review - thank you!! I also cruise on May 3rd on Liberty.... can't wait! Thanks for pumping up my excitement that much more!! LOL... Nice review :)

 

You're welcome!! I'm glad you found the review so helpful for your planning :) Have a great cruise and come back to tell us how it went!!