Valor Review 1/29 - 2/5

[Sisters of the Sea]

Valor Review

January 29 – February 5

 

I just returned from an excellent, fun-filled cruise aboard the Valor and wanted to share my experiences.

 

We flew into FLL from Detroit the night before and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Air/Seaport in FLL. The hotel shuttle picked us up from the airport. The next morning we had arranged a 15-passenger van through Larry’s Limo to take us to the Port of Miami.

 

Embarkation in Miami was painless. We arrived at 11:00 and were on board by noon. There was a small security line that kept moving and a longer check-in line, but we were very happy just to be moving after reading horror stories.

 

I wasn’t bothered by the décor of the Valor as some have described. I am always amazed at the detail that goes into any ship. I would say the lime green, diner feel of Rosie’s was a dramatic change from any other ship I’ve been on. I welcome the difference and who wants to see the same old stuff anyway?

 

There were 15 people in my group, all of us stayed in 8A balcony cabins on the Lido deck. We all agreed that the convenience of being on the Lido deck was wonderful, but the noise level in the hallways seemed to echo. Not from anything above or below us, but general talking and slamming of doors. The movement on the ship was probably more than I have experienced on any other cruise, from beginning to end. Not sure if this was just weather, or being on the 9th deck, or being closer to the front of the ship – just reporting what we experienced. We also had some complaints about the balcony doors not fitting properly and whistling all the time.

 

I’ve had better cabin stewards, but most things were taken care of by leaving him a note. Our cabin was still not ready at 3 pm so we sat on the balcony and waited. Not sure what the problem was, but he did come in once and say he was working on it.

 

We sampled the grill, the pizza, self serve ice cream, the deli, the dining room, and Rosie’s. The food was great and we had superb service in the dining room with Mark from India and Valeriej from the Ukraine. Mister V, the Maitre ‘d was also very friendly and visible! On the first day, he helped us get our group seated in the same area and came by every day after that to say hello. I can’t forget to mention the chocolate buffet – yummy! They had many chocolate things but my favorite was the chocolate fondue fountain.

 

Ron Pass in the piano bar is as good as everyone says he is. He’s the total package – talented, funny, and knows how to work a crowd. I had friends who were in the piano bar every night from start to finish and they really enjoyed it. I’d usually stop in for a few songs and a couple of Socials! each night and then be on my way.

 

I went to most of the shows, comedians, singers, etc and except for 1 comedian, all were excellent. It was nice to see the 80’s production since it is exclusive to the Valor and fun to relive all those 80’s moments. I wasn’t a fan of the female singer in the main production shows, but the guy was good.

 

We participated in bingo and gave more money to the casino than I care to admit.

 

Our cruise director was Rebecca Llewellyn. She’s not your typical comic Carnival CD. No funny business from her and she’s the first CD I’ve had that didn’t do the Newlywed game. We had plenty of characters sailing on board the ship, so entertainment was plentiful. Others have written enough about Rebecca, so I’ll leave it at that.

 

Our ports were Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. In Nassau we did a bit of shopping downtown, then took a taxi to Atlantis to look around. We saw the fish tanks and visited the casino. Quite a place.

 

In St. Thomas we had arranged a private tour through Sunny Liston with his wife Angela. She was at the port waiting for us and we all piled into an open air safari truck to sightsee. We shopped downtown, visited Mountain top, Drake’s seat, and then went to Sapphire beach for the rest of the afternoon. On the trip home, Angela dropped some of our group at Havensight to do some more shopping and took the rest of us back to the ship. One note about St. Thomas – if you’ve set up a private tour, give yourself a couple of hours to get through customs. We set up the tour for an hour after the ship docked and that wasn’t enough time to get through the lines.

 

In St. Maarten we had arranged a private tour through Victor Bryan (via Sunny Liston). Somehow we missed each other and ended up doing a 3 hour tour in a taxi van. We had 2 sightseeing/picture stops and shopping in Philipsburg and Marigot for $15/person. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Great Bay Beach (downtown Philipsburg) sitting in front of Pirates of Paradise having burgers and drinking sand pails full of Bushwackers.

 

Finding deck chairs was never a problem on decks 11 and 12. It was the chairs right around the pool that were at a premium. And yes, people were saving deck chairs.

 

Disembarking was just as smooth as getting on the ship, but we were lucky in that our color was the first to be called. We had the same passenger van from Larry’s pick us up and we were on our way. Our tags were called about 9:45 and we were back in FLL at our hotel by 11.

 

Let me know if you have questions.

 

SOS

[iluvdoxies]

We've had the pleasure of sailing with Ron before--he's just great !

 

Glad you had a good cruise.

[Wennfred]

Others have written enough about Rebecca, so I’ll leave it at that.

 

Great review, thanks, I will be sailing in March, this is the first I have heard of Rebecca.

 

Thanks

[Sisters of the Sea]

She was leaving the ship with us for vacation, so you may have another cruise director in March. You'll enjoy the ship, we certainly did.

[oceanlvr1016]

Great, we're cruising Valor in May, so Rebecca will be back.:(

[loves2Travel68]

thanks for the review. Sailing on the valor in just 9 days!

[cruizing with teens]

Thanks for your review, we are sailing the valor end of March and are very excited!!

A few questions about your stop in St. Thomas.....

You mentioned you went to Saphire Beach, did you like it? we were thinking of doing this on our own as we may want to spend more time there.

As well you mentioned Havensight Mall, how close is it to where the boat docks? We were under the impression that we could walk there easily from the boat, is this the case?

Would you recommend the tour you took?

Thanks so much!!

[Sisters of the Sea]

Hi there. We liked Sapphire Beach, but I guess it depends on what you are looking for. We wanted something less crowded. We got there about 2 pm. There is a resort right there which has a bar and restaurant area. There was plenty of room on the beach. Chairs could be rented for $5. I didn't see any umbrellas but shade could be found if you wanted it. There were restrooms. Snorkelling is not very good, but we did see a couple of fish. No jet skis or water sports that we saw. We just wanted to hang out in a beautiful place and that's exactly what we did.

 

Havensight shopping is pretty close to the ship and there is a shuttle that runs from the shops to the ship, if people are unable to walk the distance. It didn't appear to be that far but after a long day I was glad to be dropped off next to the ship.

 

The tour in St. Thomas was wonderful, but like I said it was a private tour with just our group. We went to some of the places the tour groups went to, but had some more flexibility about how long we stayed and shopped.

 

One more thing about sapphire beach. We got there about 2 and talked to our tour guide about picking us up again at 5. (This is ship time, not island time. Island time was 1 hour later). She said the sun would be starting to set and recommended she pick us up at 4:30. We were glad not to be driving through those mountains at night. So you may want to take that into consideration when going to the beach.

[tweety1]

Thanks so much for your review. DH & I are sailing on the Valor as our 1st cruise in April. It was great to read your opinions & experiences.

[cruiser0418]

Thank you for the great review. I am leaving on the Valor on February 26th-Eastern. My main concern is packing the right attire for the ship. I am very cold natured. What was the weather like on board, especially on sea days on deck? I realize I will probably need a sweater in the dining room and Rosies.

[Sisters of the Sea]

Cruiser--

 

We mostly needed the long sleeve shirts or sweaters in the theater. Pretty chilly in there. At night, if you're going to be out on the deck, you may need something long sleeve too.

[snowy owl]

I was on this same cruise. I get cold very easy. My dh would have the room as cold as he could get it so I would get up in the morning I would put pants and t shirt on for the day by the time I got up on lido I was wishing I had on shorts. I wore both short sleeve shirts and long in the dinning room and I was ok both ways, ( I like to be warm though). In some of the other areas on the ship I was cold. We all had a great time we were happy with everything about this ship. The food was all good, the service was good and yes I would hear people complain about things but I thought they were kinda wrong. My opinion. There could of been some things done differently but I have noticed that every ship seems to do things different. I would go again in a heart beat I just don't have anybody that can go right now.:D If you have any more questions I might be able to help. We had teen agers with us too.

[Starz723]

Thanks for you great review. Ill be sailing the Valor in July and going to the Western Carribean.

 

I will be on the Lido deck, Cabin 9258. Were you near this cabin? I got upgraded 3 levels to cat 8D when I booked. I was told this is a good upgrade to a desireable deck. Ive been on the verandah deck on the Legend and had alot of motion, but that was due to bad weather. Im hoping this is a good choice.

 

Did they have a guest talent night or some kind of Karaoke contest?

 

Thanks for any info.

[kchesneylover]

It is so nice to read other people's positive reviews about the Valor. You mentioning the colors in Rosie's took me right back to the spot we were sitting at while staring out into the deep blue, beautiful ocean. I got engaged on the Valor.

 

The Valor was a lot of fun. From the Piano Bar to the Shows to the Sauna, Steam, Shower, Whirlpool. Just a bit of advice to first time cruisers (like I was), go to the steam, suana and whirlpool the first day and utlilize it all week. We didn't know it was free until the very last sea day!

 

I had a blast from start to finish! I am so glad you had a great time!

[silentbob007]

 

I will be on the Lido deck, Cabin 9258. Were you near this cabin? I got upgraded 3 levels to cat 8D when I booked. I was told this is a good upgrade to a desireable deck. Ive been on the verandah deck on the Legend and had alot of motion, but that was due to bad weather. Im hoping this is a good choice.

 

 

I was in cabin 9262 in December .... right next door. It was great being on Lido deck, even with a balcony, as you were just steps away from sunning, food, etc. I would occasionally hear a Ding! from the elevator since the room is kind of close to the lobby, but considering the room is in the direction from the elevator opposite the deck, the room noise isn't too bad at all.

[RyanMFitz1]

I love to read everyone's comments on the valor.

 

Makes me more confident about the choice that i made. I am going on my first cruise in 12 years. I decided to go on the valor over my birthday August 27th Eastern Caribbean Cruise..

 

Thank you all so much for all your wonderful words, being a singer, i will definately check out the piano bar !!

 

Ryan

[vesw01]

If you don't mind me asking, how much was the tour of St. Thomas? My husband and I are trying to find some things to do and I don't want to book through the cruiseline.

[Sisters of the Sea]

We did a private tour through Sunny Liston. If I remember correctly it was around $40/person. We had 13 people with us so we were able to get our own transportation and driver.

[Piano Man Ron]

Hello folks

 

I'm on vacation now and will be back at the piano bar on the Valor on May 21 for approx 5 months. Hope to see you there. Bring some energy... and a strong liver! LOL!

 

Ron

[fdwt994]

Hello folks

 

I'm on vacation now and will be back at the piano bar on the Valor on May 21 for approx 5 months. Hope to see you there. Bring some energy... and a strong liver! LOL!

 

Ron

 

Shoot...I was hoping you would be there for our 5/6 cruise. Oh well, enjoy your vacation!

[shay1]

Thanks for your review, we are sailing the valor end of March and are very excited!!

A few questions about your stop in St. Thomas.....

You mentioned you went to Saphire Beach, did you like it? we were thinking of doing this on our own as we may want to spend more time there.

As well you mentioned Havensight Mall, how close is it to where the boat docks? We were under the impression that we could walk there easily from the boat, is this the case?

Would you recommend the tour you took?

Thanks so much!!

Hello,

 

We have been to St. Thomas many times. We have taken a taxi to Saphire Beach a few times on our own.

 

The snorkeling is very good at Saphire Beach (the person who said it was not probably did not go out to the reef). You have to go out a little way to some deeper water around the rocks. There is plenty of colorful fish to see. You need to go to the right side of the Beach area. We have been there when the water was rough and we could not go around to the other side of the rocks. It is a nice beach to go to not to crowded, we usually sit under the Sea Grape trees. You can arrange for your taxi driver to pick you up at set time, or just grab a taxi when you are ready to go.

 

Research the St. Thomas cc boards for more information on Saphire Beach. We have been to Coki Beach before and Saphire Beach is better.

 

I will also tell you we love to cruise (24th cruise coming up on 5/14/06 Valor) to go beneath the water :)

 

Have a great cruise.

[kelz66]

Hello folks

 

I'm on vacation now and will be back at the piano bar on the Valor on May 21 for approx 5 months. Hope to see you there. Bring some energy... and a strong liver! LOL!

 

Ron

 

Who will be there while you are away?

 

Have a great vacation!

[Sisters of the Sea]

So great to hear from you! How you do what you do every night at the piano bar is amazing. My god, the drinking alone.....

 

Anyway, the vacation is much deserved. Enjoy.

[Piano Man Ron]

Hello from Las Vegas!

 

Duane Lewis just came over from the Liberty to fill in for me while I'm on vacation.

 

Ron

[clgcrusier]

It's kind of nice to know some of you guys stay in touch with the people you entertain! Shows that you care what we think about you and what we like! I think that's a sign of a good entertainer. . . :)