Carnival Victory ?'s

[beshears]

I have cruised for over 26 years. I have done large ships, as well as the smaller ones, and I know the Victory is one of the smaller ships. Normally I take the 7 or more days, but this time we need not quite as long of a cruise.

 

I have been reading some of the reviews on CC, and here lately, most of they have been pretty "nit picky.":( We just got off the Splendor within these past two weeks, and I had read quite a bit of "nit picking" on this one, and we found very little to complain about.

 

If you have been on the Victory within the past year, would you give me YOUR pros/cons of this ship?

Edited April 29, 2015 by beshears

[kam2718]

Sorry I havent been on the ship is about 3 years and I loved the ship when I was on it. I did read people have said it looks old blah blah...but I am guessing they did fix some things in the most recent dry dock.

 

But either way - when I sail her in 22 days I wont care if a light bulb is out...or the tile is broken on the wall. I am in the Caribbean and not at work!

[lovingCCL]

I was on the Victory on Jan. 2014. I was also just recently on the Splendor. I found both ships to be good (I am not a picky person). My dining crew and room steward on the Victory were probably my favorite ever. I liked that the Victory was on the smaller side but she still had movies at night on the big screen. I did miss not having a steak house though.

[Littlebrookfarm]

We were on Victory in February before the dry dock. We enjoyed it overall, loved the Serenity area. I will say that one area there were consistent issues with was LINES - there were lines for everything. Lines to board and we did have priority boarding with a suite, lines extending across the pool deck to get into the buffet (every day and for both breakfast and lunch), lines to get on the ship in ports (over 1.5 hours in Key West) and lines to get off the ship. The staff was actually very friendly and service quite good. Food was pretty good but the service was a little inconsistent & impersonal with the anytime dining. If you're not picky you will enjoy Victory.

 

Having recently done Triumph post Victory, I will say that Triumph has none of the issues I experienced on Victory with the lines so I have to blame the lines on Victory staff not having that figured out. We also enjoyed the Guys Burgers and Blue Iguana Cantina on Triumph and would seek that out for future cruises - not sure if they added those to Victory during dry dock, but I'm sure someone will chime in.

[njb3636]

I just got off Victory on 4/27 and I can't say I had any of the issues with lines. Buffet lines were actually unusually short on Lido and we had no problem with lines getting back onto the ship. The ship itself could use some more updating in certain areas even though it did just come out of drydock (carpets, flooring, etc). I must say that even though some areas were outdated, the ship was still very CLEAN and any crew members we came in contact with were very friendly.

[dcherry]

Was on Victory this past January. Had a great time. No line to board, we walked on around 11:30ish. Sea days saw some lines for specialty foods but not terrible and lounge chairs were nearly all taken. There was a bit of wait and some confusion getting off the ship but nothing I personally had to complain about. Food was fine, some really good, some just okay. Waffles were the only thing I thought really bad. Cruise Director was really fun as well as the other staff. Captain was awesome! He got us onto Grand Cayman when the RC ship turned away because of rough water.

[beshears]

Thank you "eveyone" for your responses. We just got off the Splendor a couple weeks ago, and some people had been pretty "nit picky" about the Splendor, and we found it to be a good ship.

 

My friend and I may just do it this Fall for a shorter cruise. She had been to the Bahamas before, and wanted to go back.

 

As someone mentioned on here, being in the "Caribbean" is all that matters, and I agree with you completely. :)

[CARNIVALCRUISE3]

I cruised on the Victory this past summer and before that 10 years ago, and she looked as new as she did back then. Carnival crew takes such good care of the ships and keeps them super clean!

[beshears]

Well the Victory is still in the "thinking" mode. :)

 

Someone mentioned the Triumph. Yes I have been on that ship a time or two, and it may be a tad larger. I really don't care of the size of the ship. It just has to do with what I see/do/personnel on the ships.:)

[Webecruzen]

Just cruised on the Victory 4/23-4/27 to Key West and Cozumel. We also cruised on her several years ago. The only enhancements we noticed from the recent drydock was the Alchemy Bar and the Updated Sports Bar. The ship was very crowded in all th public areas. We had a group of 400+ on our cruise with open drink cards could not get near the Alchemy Bar. In Cozumel the ship had a power outage that lasted several hours. When we arrived back to the ship from the beach at 6:30 the line was crazy long and crew members were telling us to go to Three Amigos or Fat Tuesday's as the ship had no power or water for the past few hours and they expected it off a few more. I asked if we would receive a credit for dinner and was told no that when the power returned the dining room would be open seating. We went to Three Amigios for close to two hours and decided we had enough and went back to the line from hell. The water was back and some lights were working. Another hour and half in the line from hell. Finally back in our room with power and water. Yeah! We left Cozumel a few hours late and the ship did not have any otherower issues thank goodness. Overall we had a great time but have to say I would not drive to Miami again to cruise on the Victory. For a short cruise the Paradise in Tampa is much closer and the ship always feels much less crowded. Going to Key West was a great additional port to Cozumel.

[teriwinkle]

I have cruised for over 26 years. I have done large ships, as well as the smaller ones, and I know the Victory is one of the smaller ships. Normally I take the 7 or more days, but this time we need not quite as long of a cruise.

 

I have been reading some of the reviews on CC, and here lately, most of they have been pretty "nit picky.":( We just got off the Splendor within these past two weeks, and I had read quite a bit of "nit picking" on this one, and we found very little to complain about.

 

If you have been on the Victory within the past year, would you give me YOUR pros/cons of this ship?

Our family had 3 staterooms on Victory in January. We ranged in age from 13-67. We were extremely pleased with the ship, the service, the food, and the entertainment. The size of the ship was just perfect. We had aft balcony cabins and were able to open the partitions making one huge balcony which was awesome. The pool area tends to be crowded on sea days, no way around that, as on most ships. The sea day brunch was just wonderful. You can read my review on the Victory if you want to hear more. I would book the Victory again in a heartbeat. If it helps, I will say that our cruise previous to the Victory was a transatlantic voyage on the QM2! As a comparison, I loved both ships. They are just different.

[beshears]

Webecrusin and Terriwinkel, thank you for your postings too.:)

[bonvoyagebites]

I know you specifically asked for recent cruisers, but I thought I would weigh in anyway. We took a cruise on the Victory in 2012, and had a great time. We personally thought the ship looked slightly dated at the time. I read in the comments that it has dry docked since then, but even without it, we had an awesome time and found no major issues with the ship. We had a super busy itinerary, with a lot of great islands. Since that cruise we have been on bigger and more elegant ships, but IMHO the bigger and more elegant ships really didn't matter to us. We were just glad to be on vacation and well taken care of. Enjoy your trip!