Detailed Photo Review of Southern Caribbean Valor Cruise from Puerto Rico 3/15/15

[deladane]

Hi Cruise Criticers,

Every time I come home from a cruise, I spend several weeks compiling my photos and writing a very detailed review to post on Cruise Critic. I find so much value in the reviews that other people post on Cruise Critic when I am doing research for my cruise, and I see this as my way to pay it forward. I have always used Facebook to host my photos for these reviews because I didn't have an account with any other sites, and because I already posted all my photos on Facebook anyway so it was easier than uploading them to multiple sites. Unfortunately, Facebook seems to do weird things with their photos and shortly after I posted each of my reviews, the photo links stopped working The photos are such an important part of the review, and it really bums me out that all my hard work was for nothing, and that people who find my reviews in the future won't have as much information for their research.

 

I just came across the website Flickr, and that seems like a more reliable site to host my photos. Looking at reviews that other people have written, it seems as if the Flickr photos are visible months and years later, which is fantastic! Since it is not possible to edit old posts, I have decided to re-post my review with new links to the photos so that hopefully people can benefit from the work I have done. I am just going to copy and paste the text from the original review threads, not all of the comments, so hopefully it won't take me too long. This is really meant to help people who come across the reviews in the future, so if you have already read my reviews, feel free to ignore this thread! That is, unless you feel like re-reading it :D haha

[deladane]

Attention LIBERTY & VALOR cruisers: Detailed Photo Review of Valor's Last Southern Caribbean Cruise from Puerto Rico

 

I think I am setting a new record! Somehow this is my 3rd Carnival cruise in the last 3 years, as well as the 3rd time my ship has changed itineraries shortly after my sailing! I sailed on the Victory in 2012 on the Southern Caribbean route from San Juan, but then it switched homeports with the Valor a few weeks later. Then I sailed on the Sunshine in September 2013 on a 12-night Mediterranean cruise which only had a few more sailings in Europe before she came over to the Caribbean. And now, once again, I am sailing on the Valor on her very last sailing out of Puerto Rico before she switches homeports with the Liberty! I'm starting to think that Carnival looks at my cruise bookings to decide which ships should change home ports haha

 

Anyway, I always write a detailed photo-filled review after my cruise (see the links in my signature below if you would like to read them!), but I sometimes wonder if anyone benefits from it since most people only think to search for reviews of their ship, but when the ship changes itineraries and home ports, the old reviews become obsolete. I hope that some of you may find this review helpful, be it because you are sailing on the Valor and want to hear about the ship itself and see some current photos, or because you are sailing on the Liberty and want some ideas for planning what to do in each port on this very port-intensive itinerary. Worst case scenario: no one finds this review of any use, but I get to re-live my amazing vacation as I write it, and will end up with a travel log that I can look back on when I miss having sand between my toes. It's a win win! As I always do, I will make all of my posts in a larger purple font so it is easier to find the review posts in case you want to skip over the comments.

 

So let's start at the very beginning (It's a very good place to start...) Back in July, my boyfriend (he doesn't want me to use his name on Cruise Critic, so I'll just call him J) and I were drinking margaritas on my patio, and talking about how much fun we had on our July 4th weekend trip to Vegas. We agreed that we wanted to travel somewhere together again, maybe in March for my birthday, and I suggested that we should take a cruise. I loved every port on the Southern Caribbean itinerary I took on the Victory a few years ago, so I suggested that we take the Valor cruise. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so we are quite far from Puerto Rico. I was scared to think of what the flights would cost us, but it was worth a shot. If the flights were too pricey, we could always look into taking a different cruise from Florida or California. I checked the JetBlue website and was totally shocked! They had roundtrip flights from San Jose (our closest airport) to Puerto Rico for $464 each!! The flights were not direct (which I knew, because we can only fly directly to NYC or Boston from San Jose), so we would have to connect at JFK airport in NY. So basically that meant that we were paying $116 for each leg of our flight (CA to NY, NY to PR, and back)! Holy cow!! I usually pay close to $500 just to fly from CA to NY! This was such an amazing deal on flights that we knew we had to book them ASAP. Fingers crossed that there won't be a late-winter blizzard in NY to mess up our plans!

 

After the flights were booked, we called Carnival to book the cruise. I went back and forth a lot on what type of cabin we should book. On my last two Carnival cruises, I was very happy in my inside cabin mid-ship on deck 7. We were two floors up from the bars and nightlife, and two floors down from the buffet and pools on Lido deck. The problem was that on both of those cruises, I had the 'two twin beds' set up (the first cruise was with one of my best friends, and the second was with my mom). We arranged the beds to be perpendicular to each other, and had a ton of open floor space in the middle of the cabin so it never felt cramped. I also really liked the value of booking an inside cabin since I spend very little time in my room and prefer to invest most of my budget into activities in port.

 

This time around, I would be cruising with my boyfriend so we would have the 'one king bed' set up. Based on photos I have seen in other reviews, I knew that the one big bed in the middle of the inside cabin would leave nearly no floor space, and I was afraid we would be tripping over each other all week. That lead me to consider an oceanview cabin. It would be nice to have a couch to sit down on, and the extra square feet would be great for having more space to walk around. I ruled out a balcony cabin because they were twice the price, and there's plenty of public outside space if we want to be outside so no reason to spend the extra money on that.

 

Once I decided on the oceanview cabin, I had to choose a deck. I definitely wanted to be mid-ship. The kitchen galley for the Valor takes up most of deck 3 mid-ship, and I have read many comments on these boards about the risks of having a cabin below the galley because they start preparing breakfast very early in the morning, and I did not want my beauty sleep to be interrupted by the banging or cleaning or whatever it is that they do up there! Our cruise was in March to coincide with my birthday, but I know that also is when colleges have spring break. It made me a bit nervous to book a cabin on deck 1 during spring break, fearing that college kids would pick the cheapest deck on the ship and pile 4 people into all the inside cabins, and then be really loud and annoying at night. In the end, I decided to ignore my fears and we went with cabin 1301: a mid-ship oceanview cabin on deck 1 (hoping that spring breakers would stick with cruises leaving from Florida instead of flying to Puerto Rico).

 

Now that our cruise was officially booked, it was time to start the countdown!!

 

 

This dry erase board hung on my fridge and I updated the countdown daily. I also picked up these 2 jars and filled them with one piece of candy for every day until we left for the cruise (I had candy corn in my jar, and J got peanut butter M&Ms- he was very happy with the candy choice I got for him haha). It was so fun to eat one piece of candy together each day as we looked forward to our upcoming vacation.

[deladane]

I spent the next few months researching on Cruise Critic and getting back into cruise-planning-mode (I really missed all the planning I had to do for the Mediterranean cruise in 2013!) I became obsessed with reading reviews and checking the ports of call boards for more information. J spent a lot of time teasing me for all the time I spent on Cruise Critic haha He claims that he likes to plan things and be involved, but I don't think he knew how much of a planner I am until we started planning this cruise. We booked the cruise 8 months in advance and we had a lot of other things going on through the fall, so J didn't want to worry about the cruise until after New Years. Well that just wouldn't work for me! Half the fun of taking a cruise is all the anticipation and time spent planning for it! To me, the planning makes me feel like I am already partly on vacation, so there was no way I would wait until January to start my research. I continued to secretly research on Cruise Critic, and took lots of notes that I could share with J when he was ready to talk about it.

 

A few months after we booked, there was a big shake up on Cruise Critic: the Valor and the Liberty were going to switch home ports in March! After a brief freak-out session, I checked my booking and was happy to see that I was not affected (although I would have been thrilled if the swap happened in early March and I'd get to sail on the Liberty, I was just very thankful that we booked the 3/15 sailing and not the 3/22 sailing which was now essentially cancelled and turned into a repositioning cruise to Miami). As it turned out, we were taking the last sailing for the Valor on the Southern Caribbean route. I was a bit nervous that this would somehow affect the quality of my cruise. Would the staff be slacking off because it's their last cruise on this itinerary? Would the ship stop re-stocking and run out of supplies? I was hopeful that the staff would step up and give us a fabulous vacation experience, but it did make me a little worried.

 

Then, in mid-November, I got a call that JetBlue cancelled the 10am flight we were scheduled to take from JFK to SJU, and they put us on a 6:59am flight instead. The slight problem with that is we were taking a redeye from California the night before, and we weren't landing until 7:24am! It might be kinda hard to catch that connecting flight if we are still hovering somewhere over Pennsylvania!!

 

After some time on the phone with customer service, they were able to put us on a 2:15pm flight that afternoon. It was definitely annoying that they just took away our Friday afternoon of touring Puerto Rico, and that we would have to check into the hotel and grab dinner fairly late considering we wouldn't get much sleep on the redeye the night before. At least on the bright side, my parents live 10 minutes from JFK airport, so we would get to have brunch with them during our layover! This is why you should never book flights on the day of the cruise! Luckily we were flying in on Friday so there was no chance of missing the ship as a result of this change. We crossed our fingers that this was the only hassle we'll have to deal with for our vacation!!

[deladane]

Thursday, March 11 - Vacation Time!

The day had finally arrived! After a full day at work, and a quick gel manicure for me, we were officially on vacation!!!

 

 

We went out to dinner at a local pizza place, then headed to the San Jose airport for our redeye flight to NY. Neither of us sleep well on planes, so it was a long night, but the flight was otherwise uneventful. We pulled away from the gate 10 minutes early, and landed in NY 30 minutes early. My TV was broken (as it nearly always is), and the flight attendant gave me a $15 voucher as compensation... which I accidentally left in the seat-back pocket on the plane. Oops! I guess whoever sat in that seat after me will get a surprise if they check the pocket haha I didn't sleep at all, but at least I got to watch a few episodes of House of Cards and Girls.

 

 

Friday, March 13 - Friday the 13th is no joke!!

We spent the morning with my parents during our layover. I hadn't seen them since the fall, so it was nice to have a few hours to catch up (and any chance I get to have a NY bagel makes me happy!!) They drove us back to JFK and we found out our flight was delayed by an hour. Originally we were supposed to get to PR by 1:15pm. Then it got pushed back to a 6:15pm landing. Now we wouldn't get there until nearly 8pm. Definitely a crummy way to start our trip, especially considering we didn't sleep at all on the redeye last night. After a few hours, we noticed they kept pushing our departure time later and later, one hour at a time! Long story short, the plane we were originally scheduled on was delayed by 2 hours from leaving Tampa due to mechanical problems. Once it finally took off, it was diverted to Richmond, VA because one of the runways was closed at JFK so there was no where for it to land. Our flight ended up being delayed by over 4 hours, and we didn't end up landing until 10pm. So much for our plans to get some mofongo and mojitos for dinner at Punto de Vista! I bought an over-priced sub-par salad from the airport for dinner. In total, it took us over 24 hours to get from San Jose, CA to San Juan, PR. We had our fingers crossed that we wouldn't have any more problems on this vacation. This is the reason you should never fly in the same day as a cruise!!

 

We landed in Puerto Rico at 10pm, quickly hopped in a taxi to Old San Juan, and arrived at our hotel by 11pm. Taxis in Puerto Rico have regulated prices based on zones... it cost $19 for the taxi, plus a $2 surcharge for gas, plus $1 for each of our suitcases (we held our backpacks on our laps and were not charged for them). We prebooked a room at the Hotel Plaza de Armas a few months before the cruise. It was a good thing our flight didn't get cancelled since I prepaid for the room and it was nonrefundable if you don't cancel with at least 24 hours notice! I called the hotel from JFK airport to let them know we would be arriving late, and they reassured me that someone would be available to help us check in whenever we arrived. The hotel was a quaint boutique hotel in a great location in a plaza in the middle of town. It was walking distance to both of the forts and all the restaurants and hotspots in Old San Juan. We could have even walked to the cruise ship port if we didn't have luggage to drag behind us! The hotel was a bit old, but it was clean and had both an air conditioner and an elevator (two must-haves for our hotel!) The one strange thing was that the hotel had a large open layout between the floors. I have stayed in Embassy Suites hotels with the same open layout and never had a problem, but I guess the walls are thinner in the Hotel Plaza de Armas because we could hear people talking in the halls of every floor, and we could hear people slamming their doors on every floor... all night long! We tried to use the fan from the air conditioner to dull the hallway noise, but it was definitely noticable. We were so exhausted from not sleeping on the redeye that we both slept through the night, but it is something to be aware of if you are a light sleeper. I am very disappointed in myself... I never took photos of the hotel room!! I usually try to take room pictures when I first walk into the hotel room or cruise cabin, but I was so tired from the long day of travel that it slipped my mind. Sorry Cruise Criticers!!

[deladane]

Saturday, March 14 ~ Do they have pie in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico for Pi Day?

 

After a comfortable night's sleep, we woke up ready to enjoy a full day of exploring Old San Juan, Puerto Rico! We left the hotel and walked 4 blocks east to have breakfast at Cafe Mallorca. When we arrived at around 10am, it was busy, but there was a table available for us to be seated immediately. I loved that they had a guy playing a trumpet at the front of the restaurant... such a quaint atmosphere!

 

 

We both ordered mallorcas with eggs and cheese. While the waiter was quick to take our orders and bring us our food, we had very slow service in waiting for our bill, and then we had to wait in a slow-moving line to pay at the register in the front of the restaurant.

 

 

 

We left the restaurant at around 11am and walked a few blocks to San Cristobal fort. With little white puffy clouds dotting the sky, the views from the fort were amazing! We spent a little over an hour walking around and taking lots of photos.

 

 

 

The view looking back towards the cruise pier... tomorrow, the Valor will be docked here and waiting for us to board!!

 

[deladane]

 

 

 

Looking west towards El Morro fort

 

I found a fun app that lets you edit your photos with lots of different effects. I really love how these turned out....

[deladane]

After we finished at El Cristobal fort, we spent 20 minutes walking through the city to El Morro fort. The walk was mostly flat with a few moments of uphill climb, and there were narrow sidewalks the whole way. I love the cobblestone streets and how colorful all of the buildings are!

 

 

 

 

This must be the most beautiful cemetery in the world!

 

It was very windy as we walked across the huge lawn to the front of El Morro (notice my hair blowing in the wind!) There were lots of people flying kites and enjoying a picnic with their families on the lawn. If I lived in San Juan, I imagine that I would spend a ton of time out here too!

 

[deladane]

We spent another hour or so walking around El Morro and taking photos. There were brief periods of light rain, and very dark skies in the distance, but it was tolerable and there were plenty of places to seek cover from the rain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

 

Check out the amazing view from the women's bathroom! haha

 

By now, it was 2:30pm and we hadn't eaten since breakfast so we were starving. We considered walking across the city to Punto de Vista (where we originally planned to eat dinner last night but didn't get to because of our delayed flights), but we knew it would take at least 20 minutes and then we would have to walk back to the west side of the city to continue touring. On the way, we past a restaurant called El Patio de Sam on Calle San Sebastian advertising their trifongo. The menu looked good so we decided to eat there instead. We were seated on their beautiful enclosed patio:

 

 

The menu was a little pricey for lunch, with $15 each for chicken mofongo and trifongo, but we were on vacation and knew we wanted to try the local cuisine, so we ordered it anyway. Both dishes were excellent and totally different! We had never tried it before and didn't know what to expect. While both are made from mashed plantains, the mofongo is has the consistency of lumpy chunky mashed potatoes, whereas the trifongo is deep fried and crispy. I had read a few reviews where people mentioned that the mofongo is only good with a sauce on top, so we got the creamy garlic sauce for both dishes and it was delicious! I seriously wish I could have that for dinner tonight haha

 

Trifongo:

 

Mofongo:

 

While the food was excellent, the service was verrrrrry slow. We were there for over an hour and a half! I was starting to get the feeling that it wasn't as much the individual restaurants providing slow service, but rather a cultural difference. We were tourists with things to do and places to see. We didn't want to spend half the afternoon eating lunch. I think the Caribbean and Puerto Rican culture is more leisurely and slow-paced, so to them, it is normal to leave us alone and let us enjoy our meals. Unfortunately, we were hoping to eat a quick lunch and get on our way to continue exploring the town. I guess we weren't quite relaxed and in full vacation mode yet!

 

Anyway, once we left the restaurant, we out through the old city gate:

[deladane]

We walked along the outer side of the fort walls and along Paseo del Morro until we reach the fountain and Paseo de la Princesa.

 

 

 

There was a little street fair with a few vendors and places to buy snacks. J got a small cup of coffee to drink as we walked around.

 

 

We continued a little further until we reached the CVS on Calle Marina near the cruise ship ports. Since we only used carry on bags, we both needed to buy big bottles of suntan lotion. The prices were basically the same as a regular CVS in the States. We also bought a bottle of champagne to bring on the ship. We then went back to hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.

 

Barrachina was located directly around the corner from our hotel. I called the restaurant in January to make a 7:15pm reservation for the flamenco show. We were seated in the 3rd row of tables, and immediately ordered some pina coladas. Barrachina claims that they invented the pina colada. I don't know if that is really true or not, but either way, the drinks were very good!

 

 

 

We both ordered the chicken caribeno for our dinners and it was light and tasty.

 

[deladane]

The flamenco show lasted for one hour and it was very entertaining. They had 4 girls and 1 guy who took turns dancing and they were all very talented. It made for a unique way to enjoy our dinner.

 

 

 

After dinner, we went to the SuperMmax supermarket in the Plaza de Armas. We bought an 8 pack of cans of Diet Pepsi, 3 bottles of club soda, one bottle of champagne (we intended to make mimosas at breakfast so we needed a lot of champagne haha), and 2 boxes of Gasolinas. I am fairly sure that you can only buy Gasolina in Puerto Rico. It is basically a Capri Sun for adults! They have a few flavors like rum punch and mojito, and are filled with vodka/rum/tequilla based fruity drinks in individual pouches with a straw inside so you can drink it on the go. It was perfect to bring in our tote bags to the beach! And even better, it only cost $1 per pouch! Can't beat that!!

 

We then went to the Walgreens right across from the SuperMax and bought a bottle of whiskey and pineapple rum. By the time we got back to the hotel, my pedometer said we walked nearly 18,000 steps today! Being on vacation is hard work! haha

 

Up next: Embarkation Day!

[deladane]

Sunday, March 15 ~ The Tides of March

 

Nearly 8 months after booking our cruise, it was finally embarkation day!! We went to breakfast at Waffle-Era, a little restaurant 2 blocks from our hotel.

 

 

They had a huge menu with lots of regular or iced teas, and tons of sweet and savory waffles. The waitress spent a few minutes reviewing the menu with us and suggesting the most popular options. It was a bit overwhelming, but in a good way! They serve their waffles either as a half- or whole-portion, so we decided to get a whole Caneloide for me so I could give one quarter of it to J, and J ordered a half-portion of the Honey Almond Blues. We each had 3/4 of a waffle and it was the perfect amount (we wanted to avoid over-eating, knowing how much food we'd eat for the next week!).

 

 

 

 

After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and grabbed a taxi to the cruise port. We arrived at the terminal at 10am, and there were about 30 people already waiting to board. They were still debarking passengers from the previous cruise, but they opened the doors at 10:30am and we entered terminal by 10:40am. They directed us up the escalators where they first took our embarkation photos and then directed us to line up for check in. It took until 11:10am to get checked in because they only had 5 or 6 people working the counter. No worries though! We chatted with the couple standing on line in front of us, and before we knew it, it was our turn to check in. I was shocked that we got zone 1 since I thought that was usually reserved for Platinum/Diamond/FTTF, but I later realized that they just board those passengers separately before starting to call the zone numbers. The cruise terminal in San Juan has very limited seating, but since we were so early, we easily found seats.

 

 

Luckily, we didn't need to use our chairs for very long... They started boarding at 11:30am, called zone 1 at 11:40am, and we were on the ship at 11:45am!! Let the cruise begin!!!

 

[deladane]

We went right to our cabin and it was ready so we dropped off our luggage and went up to the Lido buffet for lunch. This was my first time cruising on a ship with Mongolian Wok so I knew I wanted to try it out today! It is set up with empty bowls at the end of the line and you get to take as much as you want of two types of noodles and about 10 different veggies. When you get to the front of the line, there are 3 protein options (chicken, beef or lamb, and a seafood option) and only the chef handles the raw ingredients. Finally, you choose a sauce: black bean is mild, Thai BBQ is a little spicy, and schezwan is very spicy. I always enjoy made-to-order food options because I am picky about ingredients, so this was my ideal meal! The steaming hot bowl of noodles was as delicious as I had hoped!

 

 

 

After lunch, we went back to the cabin to unpack. While the decor is a bit dated (the orange color scheme screams 70's to me!), and the furniture is a bit banged up and shows its age, the cabin was clean and well laid out. I liked that the bed was on the far end of the cabin and the living space was closer to the bathroom and closets. There was more than enough storage for the 2 of us (we didn't even need to use the big drawers under the couch), and we had enough floor space to walk around without tripping over each other.

 

 

As you can see in the photo, they did upgrade the tv set in our cabin. While I could care less what type of tv set they have since we rarely turned the tv on, I did like that the flat screen tv gave us access to a second electric outlet! We had to unplug the tv to access the outlet, but who cares? The flexibility of a second outlet was way more valuable than whatever sales pitch for shore excursions was airing on the tv haha

 

I already mentioned that we purchased a few bottles of liquor last night. Just like when I cruised on the Victory in 2012, it was very easy to smuggle our alcohol onboard. We put the Gasolinas and liquor in a separate small bag. When we went through the X-rays, they put an orange zip tie on the handle of the bag. After we walked away from the X-rays and were out of sight, I put the tagged liquor bag into a larger beach tote with the zip tie hidden on the bottom. Once we got through the tunnel and up onto the ship, we just carried the tote bag and the rest of our carry-ons past the guard as if everything was normal. They had a table set up to the left where I assume they were collecting contraband liquor bottles, but we had to walk to the right to get to the doors to enter the lobby, so we probably wouldn't have seen the table if we didn't know to look for it. No one questioned us at all and it was a very easy process. I know this is a very controversial topic on Cruise Critic, and we did also purchase several drinks from the bars on board so it's not like we didn't pay for our fair share of drinks. We just wanted to have a few bottles to mix our own drinks in our cabin while we were getting changed for dinner or whatever. Here is our supplies for the week (not pictured: the 3 bottles of club soda and several cans of Rockstar energy drink since I don't drink coffee but need a caffeine source... they were part of our soda allowance though, so not technically contraband!)...

 

 

After unpacking, we spent the afternoon in a hammock on Serenity deck while sipping on our Funship Specials. That drink really does pack a punch! I was a bit disappointed that they no longer have the souvenir cups that say "Best Day Ever," especially considering they still charge the same price as when the drink did include the souvenir!

 

 

[deladane]

We also took some time to walk around the ship and take some silly photos...

 

 

 

 

We later left the ship to go back to the duty free shop to buy some fancy champagne for my birthday. They made us exit down to the ground floor before reentering the terminal to get to the duty free shop. While we were downstairs, we decided to leave the port to go take a quick photo with the ship in the background...

 

 

After we got back into the terminal and bought a nice bottle of champagne, we went through the same security point as before. This time, when we got to the guard at the end of the tunnel on the outer deck of the ship, he did search our shopping bag from the duty free store because we didn't have anywhere to hide it, but that was no big deal because everyone is allowed to bring 2 bottles of wine/champagne per cabin on board. This was our 3rd bottle of champagne for the cabin but no one was keeping track that we already brought 2 bottles on board haha

 

Tonight we had reservations for dinner at the steakhouse. The main dining room has open seating on the first night of cruises from San Juan because of the late all-aboard time and muster drill. I remember the service being sub-par on the first night of my 2012 cruise, so we wanted to avoid that experience tonight. I have never eaten at a steakhouse on a cruise before so I didn't have anything to compare this experience to, but was excited to try something new.

 

 

We purposely booked our dinner on the first night of the cruise to take advantage of the free bottle of wine. When we arrived, our waitress said we could either order a bottle of the house red or white wine, or we could have 50% off the purchase of a different bottle if we preferred. We opted to upgrade to a bottle of Kendall Jackson Vintner's Reserve Sauvignon Blanc since I had read reviews indicating that the free bottle of wine is not very good. Also, the dress code at the steakhouse is more relaxed on the first night... They would have allowed us to wear shorts, and I think it is considered 'cruise casual' like the regular dining room on the first night.

 

Here is our waitress showing us what each cut of meat looks like:

 

[deladane]

Ordering dinner at the steakhouse is different from in the main dining room- you are allowed to order one soup/salad and one appetizer, or two appetizers if you prefer, one entree, and one dessert. I ordered the escargots bourguignonne and beef carpaccio for my appetizers, the surf and turf for my entree, and the cheesecake for dessert. We could also order a side dish so I had the sautéed mushrooms. I thought the food was excellent, but I think I liked my dishes more than J did, as he said his filet mignon was bland.

 

First, they gave us a little something courtesy of the chef. I was given a tiny bowl of tomato soup but J was kind enough to trade with me because I don't like tomatoes. Here is my teeny tiny hamburger. It was yummy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I expected the food to be very good and I wanted to make sure I had enough space in my stomach to try everything, so I purposely ordered things that I knew came in smaller portions. I think that was a good decision because everything was delicious and I was able to enjoy it all without feeling overly stuffed! The downside to eating at the steakhouse was that the plague of very slow service struck again. It took 40 minutes to get bread on the table, let alone our appetizers. We had 6:30pm reservations and they had to rush us through dessert at 8:45pm because the muster drill was about to start.

 

After dinner, we ran back down to our cabin and waited for them to announce that it was time to go to our muster station. Our steward already got to our cabin for turn-down service and left this little guy on our bed...

 

 

While we were waiting for muster, we heard this strange clanging noise. We couldn't tell where it was coming from, but it sounded like it came from the closets or the bathroom. The noise sounded like pieces of metal banging together, and we heard a loud "clang" every 3-5 seconds. We didn't know what it was but decided to ignore it and hoped it would stop soon.

[BcIcemen]

Looking forward to the rest of the review. We are doing this cruise in Nov. on the Liberty. Do you have photos of the American table menus?

[deladane]

They called for everyone to go to their muster stations at around 9:40pm. Luckily it was a cool night so it was comfortable to stand out on deck 4. The drill lasted about 15 minutes total, then they released one side at a time (port side went first... of course we were on the starboard side). We went straight up to deck 10 forward to the secret deck to wait for sail away. I was greatly looking forward to this as I have sailed from Puerto Rico twice before, but I have yet to watch the sail away. On my Celebrity cruise, my dinner time was during sail away (they have fixed dining times on embarkation day and sail away was at 8pm), and it was raining during sail away for my Victory cruise so they moved the party inside to the disco. I had my fingers crossed that the weather would hold out for us this time around so I could see the city and the forts as we sailed away, and I was not disappointed! We were the only ones out there for a while, but 5 or so people joined us by the time the ship sailed away. This made for a pretty amazing place for a mostly private view as we sailed past OSJ and the forts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we got past El Morro, the view turned to total darkness as we sailed out into the ocean. We went back down to the Lido deck and joined the Cruise Critic meet and greet party for a few minutes, then went to guest services to let them know about the clanging noise. The girl at guest services came back to our cabin with us, but we didn't hear the noise so we figured it had fixed itself. We thanked her and she left so we could get ready for bed, looking forward to a day in St. Thomas tomorrow!

[deladane]

Looking forward to the rest of the review. We are doing this cruise in Nov. on the Liberty. Do you have photos of the American table menus?

 

Oh yay! I hope you find lots of useful info about what we did at all the ports! The Valor still had the old menus in the dining room, so I don't have the American Table menus. I've actually never sailed on a ship that has those new menus, so I'm sorry I can't offer much help in that department :( Maybe try doing a search in the Carnival forum for "american table menu"... I'm sure someone else has posted them! Please let me know if you think of any other questions :)

[deladane]

Monday, March 16 ~ Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas

 

When we woke up at 7:15am, we were already docked in St. Thomas and we could see people getting off the ship out our window. We got ready and went to breakfast at the Lido buffet. It was very hectic and crowded, and we waited 15 minutes for an omelet!

 

The port area in St. Thomas is so beautiful with all the little white boats contrasting against the deep blue water and bright green hills...

 

 

We left the ship and walked through the little shopping area to the taxi stand. A taxi to Sapphire Beach cost $10 per person each way, plus tip. We ended up in a minivan with 7 passengers instead of a big open air taxi like most people. It was really nice to have the air conditioning, but it was a long ride and we had to drop some people at Coki Beach on the way so that took extra time. It took 35 minutes total and we arrived at Sapphire Beach a little after 10am. There was already a lot of people there, although I wouldn't say it was crowded. We paid $9 each plus tip for lounge chairs, and the girl set them up where we requested under a tree for shade. Little did we know that it would be overcast and cloudy all day with occasional drizzle, so we didn't really need the tree's shade. There was a light breeze and it was slightly cool all day. I only took my cover-up off to take a few quick photos, and it was too cold and the water was too choppy to snorkel in the ocean.

 

 

 

We brought a few pouches of Gasolina to enjoy on the beach. I'm not sure if it was because they are only sold in Puerto Rico so the St. Thomas locals didn't know what we were drinking, or just because they didn't care, but no one said anything to us about drinking something we didn't buy directly from them. In fact, there was a big group of college-aged kids sitting next to us who were on spring break and staying on the island all week, and they had a huge cooler filled with beers that we watched them carry onto the beach and no one said anything to them either.

 

 

We took advantage and took some photos when the sun eventually came out...

 

 

 

A few other things about Sapphire Beach: I know they had some construction for the past few months. As of when we were there, the bathrooms were open, but there was still a section of the property under construction. There was one vendor set up on the beach selling jewelry and dresses, but she did not bother us or pressure us to buy anything. If people approached her to browse her products, then she answered their questions, but she did not walk up and down the beach asking us to buy stuff. There were 2 runners from the restaurant who came around with drink and food menus and could take your orders from the beach so you didn't have to get up if you were hungry. Other than that, it was a pleasant quiet day at the beach, even if it was too cold to do the water sports! I was able to snorkel here on my 2012 cruise, so if you are interested in that experience, please refer to that review.

[deladane]

There was a taxi waiting outside to bring us back to the ship when we were ready to leave at 1:45pm. It again cost $10 per person for a 30 minute ride, and the driver dropped us off near the stores outside the port. We got back on the ship by 2:30pm after a slow moving line at the gangway. First stop was to drop off our bags in the cabin (it came in handy that we could run up one flight of stairs to our cabin on deck 1 instead of waiting for the elevators), and then we went to the Lido buffet for lunch... another Mongolian Wok stir fry for me, and the burrito bar for J.

 

 

After lunch, we spent the afternoon relaxing on a sun bed on Serenity deck. I have seen photos of those sun beds having a clamshell to provide shade, but none of the sun beds on the Valor had that clamshell attachment. Today was a good day to use the sun beds because it was a bit overcast and cloudy, but I avoided the beds on bright sunny days for fear of getting a sunburn.

 

I got hungry again an hour later so I grabbed some cheese pizza (which involved a long walk all the way across the ship to the aft pizza station.) I really wanted to have the mushroom pizza but it would take them 20 minutes to cook it fresh for me and I didn't want to wait that long so I just took the plain cheese slices that were already available.

 

 

I went back to the cabin to shower at 5pm and the clanging noise came back. I called guest services and they said they would send someone up to check it out. The maintenance guy finally arrived nearly an hour later, and of course the sound stopped by then. He said he thought it was the anchor settling after sail away. I explained that it happened last night over an hour before sail away too so I doubted it was the anchor. He said to call guest services if the noise came back. I'll bet you can guess what happened next... 10 minutes after the maintenance guy left, the clanging noise started again. I called guest services again and the girl said she would come right away to hopefully arrive while the noise was still happening. She knocked on the door 5 minutes later and waited with us for about 5 minutes but sure enough, the noise remained quiet while she was there. And of course, a minute or two after she left, the clanging returned. By now, it was 6:45pm and we planned to go to dinner at 6:30pm so I didn't want to call and wait for them to come again (especially since the noise seemed to be scared of the ship staff and it always stopped when they were around!). Instead, I took out my iPhone and recorded a 1 minute voice memo of the sound. It worked great and really captured how consistent and annoying the banging was. We then headed down to dinner and agreed to forget about the banging for a few hours and we could deal with it after we ate.

 

This was my first experience with any time dining. We got to the 3rd floor mid-ship Lincoln dining room and there were maybe 5 parties ahead of us lined up to be seated. It took just a few minutes until we were brought to a table for 2 towards the back of the dining room. I had read enough Cruise Critic reviews that complain about how close together the tables are, so I wasn't surprised to see that our table had about a foot of space between our neighboring tables. No big deal! It was great to have the flexibility to eat when it was convenient for us, especially with all the clanging drama in our cabin.

 

I ordered the duck and the fried shrimp for my appetizers, the seafood newburg for my entree, and of course the warm chocolate melting cake for dessert. They brought everyone 2 ramekins of vanilla ice cream without having to request it. All of the food was served warm and it was delicious as always. I am not going to post the menus for each day since they were the same old menus that you can easily find in other reviews (plus all the ships will have new American Table menus soon anyway). I will post some food porn though!

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

We wore our green Mardi Gras beads in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day tomorrow...

 

Walking through the lobby...

 

After dinner, we went to guest services to play them the sound recording of the clanging noise. We spoke with a lovely lady named Sylvia, and she was extremely helpful. She listened to the recording and excused herself for a few minutes to speak to her supervisor. When she returned, she explained that there was one unoccupied cabin left on the ship and she offered to take us to see it. I had spent a great deal of time and energy picking out the perfect cabin for our needs, so I was worried that this new cabin would be in a bad location. As it turned out, it was a balcony cabin all the way forward on deck 7. As I mentioned at the start of my review, I am a huge fan of deck 7, and I have never been in a balcony cabin before. Maybe everything would work out well for us after all! Sylvia took us up to see cabin 7220. On the way up there, she explained that it was only available because another couple missed the cruise due to flight cancellations during a blizzard in their home city. We felt really sorry for whoever that was- it must be awful to miss out on your vacation so last minute due to weather problems!

 

The new cabin was lovely... Not a single clanging noise to be heard! We were thrilled at the idea of a silent peaceful remainder to our vacation, and Sylvia said the cabin was ready immediately if we wanted to change cabins tonight. While it was less than ideal to miss out on an evening of fun on the ship, I wanted to make the room change ASAP to avoid another night in the noisy cabin and so we could get on with enjoying the rest of our cruise. We took 30 minutes to repack all of our belongings (and by repack, I mean take every plastic grocery bag we had in or cabin, plus our beach bags and other luggage, and throw everything in so it was portable... no need to cram it all tightly which would have taken way more time!), and we called for a porter to help move our bags. By 10:45pm, everything was unloaded in the new cabin and we decided to head down to the 11:15pm adult comedy show so at least we could do one fun thing tonight!

 

Tonight's comedian was Lou Johnson and he did a whole set about cruising. I guess he really knows his audience! He didn't waste any time making fun of people in the front row like most comedians do... The whole 30 minute act was filled with hilarious content about his experiences working on cruise ships. If you have a chance to go, I would definitely recommend seeing Lou Johnson's act!

 

 

 

After that, we got back to the cabin at midnight, ordered some grilled cheese from room service, and spent an hour unpacking and getting settled in our new home for the rest of the week. Overall, the experience with the clanging noise was a hassle and it wasn't ideal to waste time on our vacation dealing with it, but we thought Carnival handled the situation fairly and took care of us.

 

Mr. Monkey was waiting to say goodnight

 

Up next: our only day at sea, spent mostly outside on our new balcony!!

[LadyGal4]

I'm surprised the initial screeners only tagged your luggage with liquor in it. All of the embarkation ports I've been to the workers snag if off the conveyor belt immediately after the scanner and carry it over to a table.

[deladane]

I'm surprised the initial screeners only tagged your luggage with liquor in it. All of the embarkation ports I've been to the workers snag if off the conveyor belt immediately after the scanner and carry it over to a table.

 

Have you ever sailed out of Puerto Rico? That port is known for having an extremely lax liquids policy. I am actually curious about how things are going in Puerto Rico now that Carnival completely changed their water/soda bottles policy. This cruise was a few weeks before Carnival banned most drinks (aside from cans I think?)... I wonder if people have been able to bring plastic bottles of soda and/or water on the ship from Puerto Rico, or if that is being enforced down there too?

[deladane]

Tuesday, March 17 ~ St. Patrick's Day at Sea

 

We woke up without an alarm at 8:30am... so much for sleeping in on our one and only sea day! We went to brunch at 9:15am and ran into our new cabin steward Ali in the hallway. I was very impressed that he greeted us by name before I could even mention that we had just moved up here.

 

Brunch was in the aft Washington dining room, and we were seated immediately at a shared table for 6 people. Service was slow, but it was no different than on any other cruise and the meal took 1.5 hours total. I had the bagel with lox and cream cheese, fried eggs over hard, and turkey bacon. It was all very good and very filling! I did miss getting to order a free cocktail from being a past guest... that bottle of water just isn't as exciting haha

 

 

 

We got back to the cabin by 11am after brunch, and spent the next 3.5 hours enjoying our balcony. Being a balcony virgin, I never really understood why people obsess over having a balcony and I always saw it as an unnecessary added expense when there is plenty of outdoor public space we could enjoy for free. Now I finally understand what the excitement is all about. It is so relaxing to sit outside in your own private space, drink a glass of wine, read a book, and listen to the waves pass by. No loud party music. No screaming children. No cruise entertainment staff talking about hairy chests. Just us. Oh, and the people who work on the bridge! As a warning to anyone looking to book cabin 7220, it is very close to the port side wing of the bridge. We can see them, and they can see us! In fact, when the all access ship tour got to the bridge, we waved at them and they waved back so we know they can see us. I guess that puts a slight limitation on the privacy offered by this cabin's balcony, but it really wasn't a big deal, and it was actually kind of fun to check out all the action up there!

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

No cruise is complete without sneaking a peak of the wake off the back of the ship!

 

 

 

Tea time was at 3pm and we were both looking forward to trying it as neither of us had gone before. We arrived at the aft Washington dining room as they opened the doors, and we were seated at a shared table for 10 people. Right away, they brought us each a mini kettle of hot water, and a waiter came around to let us pick out our flavor of tea.

 

 

Then the waiters came around with various desserts. I noticed they also had cucumber sandwiches and something with smoked salmon on top, but somehow they never brought the savory items to our table. In fact, there was one of the desserts that I really wanted to try, but the waiters kept skipping our table so eventually I had to ask someone to bring it over! I'm really not sure what their system is, but it all seemed rather random. My goal was to just try a taste of each item so I wouldn't ruin my appetite for dinner. Sadly, that idea was quickly forgotten as everything was so yummy and I ended up eating more than planned.