Valor 1/22-1/29 Western review Part II

[wystiria]

Continuing from Part I

Valor 1/22-1/29 western review part I:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=289441

 

 

 

Dining – Food!

Ok I will start with the main dining rooms! Our group had 3 tables in the Lincoln Dining room, an 8 top, a 10 top and a 4 top. I actually made seating charts for each night so that everyone in our group got to move around and sit with everyone else. I know this is different than what normally happens but when you travel with 20+ people I have found this is the best way to make everyone happy. It went really smoothly and our waiters – although a littler surprised int eh beginning – took it in stride.

 

The food in the Main dining room was good and some times bordering on great. What we found was in some cases it really depended on how fast it got from the galley to our table. In the case of the sweet and sour shrimps (first night) 3 of us ordered it, 2 of us got it warm and it was good – the third person got it HOT and it was GREAT! The temperature really made a huge difference in this and some other dishes!

 

In the Valor they have installed computer stations where the head waiter plugs in the orders. What we watch happen again and again was our waiter would recive his tray of what ever course we were about to eat and it would be short at least one dish – now honestly I can’t say who was at fault – the waiter because he filled out the computer wrong, the galley who loaded the tray or the assistant who went ot get the tray. All I can say is almost every night someone was short a dish. Now our Waiter was great about going and getting it – but it did seem to be a lot more work. This is NO WAY ruined our experience! *laugh* but we did start taking bets on who wouldn’t “get to eat” each night.

 

My happy surprise is for once I got all of my Red meat cooked to order!!!! Ever have I been on a carnival ship and actually gotten a true medium rare (warm red center) on the Valor I was pleasantly surprised and for the filet, prime rib, and Beef Wellington they were all Medium Rare – I was HAPPY!

 

The desserts were ok – I figured out that you had to try the ones with the most unappetizing names to find the good ones *laugh* REALLY. Like the Prune cake or what have you was very good and so was the verbena custard with basil ice cream….the pinaple and coconut custard was good as well as the Bitter and Blanc. Really you just need to go out on a limb and for once I was rewarded. As for the crème brulee mine is better….

 

Rosie’s

The buffet is divided in to two sections, the aft being the American food and the forward portion is the taste of the nations. We found the food to be decent….I never did eat the breakfast as they had boxes of Prea (sp) meal supplement and that is something that I like plus it has the vitamins that I forgot at home *smile* so I had a lot of that….I also smuggled a number of them off the ship and found they made a great snack between dives!!!!

 

Fish & Chips.

The fish and chips was really good! And I especially liked the calamari, onion and zucchini fritters! YUM Plus they had nicely seared Ahi Tuna here as well. What most stood out was the serving ware though! It was really funky stainless steel – it took a bit of convincing to get my husband to give up the idea of smuggling off a set!!!

 

Coffee

Ok the coffee is so bad on the Valor that is deserves it’s own paragraph!!!!!! First off I am a coffee lover and for the most part I drink a dark French roast – I even grind my own beans every morning so I am critical of coffee – well carnivals not only fell short, it was barely worth drinking for the caffeine. I was on the Destiny in May and it was not this bad.

 

To save all of coffee addicts carnival now is SELLING gourmet coffee in a number of places. Rosies has a few spots. Honestly I think they make the coffee sooooo BAD so that you will buy their more expensive and ONLY decent coffee!! That was the worst part – I would have been ok with the extra charge if it was GOOD coffee but sadly it wasn’t. I found the only thing that was really good was the hot chocolate and hot white chocolate…..make sure you try these and they use Ghirardelli chocolate!

 

Sushi

The sushi “booth” on the promenade deck is open every night starting at 6pm. I found the sushi to be ok – nothing fancy like you would find at home. But definitely better than what I have seen on other ships in the carnival fleet. You certainly won’t be served rainbow rolls or Yellow tail. But there was some decent white fish and tuna rolls. For the most part they serve Maki – but they do have some Tuna Sushi that was good.

Pizza, Deli, Grill etc.

These venues were all as good as I remembered them – nothing better or worse than any other ship. The only thing I did find was that there seemed to be the worst lines for the grille…..might have been my timing though!

 

Scarletts

The Husband and I ate at Scarletts Wed. night of the cruise. We picked this night because we found that the menu in the Lincoln dining room was the least to our liking. When we first arrived at Scarletts we were seated at a 2 top right in front of the kitchen. On the valor Scarletts has an open kitchen which you can watch them cooking your food. This is pretty neat except when you are sitting close to it!! The kitchen made the are very hot and also it was really loud so we had trouble hearing each other. We politely asked the hostess to move us and she did – to a much quieter table towards the back of the starboard side of the venue. We were VERY happy about this!

 

The food in the supper club was outstanding!!! We both had the Porter house and it was perfectly cooked. Really I like my steak to be able to run across the table (according the husband) and I was happy. The appetizers were also great – the shrimp in the cocktail were HUGE nothing like what they serve down stairs! And the beef carpacio(sp) is also out standing. We also really enjoyed the French Onion soup!

 

I was disappointed with the desserts but by then I was so full I could have cared less. Also the presentation was great! And the Sommelier was pretty knowledgeable about wines so we were impressed.

 

I have to say I like the supper club best on the spirit class ships – they have the glass in the whale tail and this really is so much nicer. But other wise I wouldn’t’ change a thing about the Valor Supper club!

[missliad]

keep it coming!! This part of your review was my favorite --- FOOD! Yay! :D

[LCSTest]

Awesome review, thanks for the effort!!!

[wystiria]

Thanks - I am trying to keep typing - sooo much I want to remember to pass on :)

[HMK]

I love you review so far! Very detailed!!! My only disappointment I am hearing so far is how bad the coffee is. We are going on The Valor in August, and my wife and I are big coffee drinkers....

Did it have any flavor? Was it watered down?