Review Victory 03/05/06

[KruznKel]

We arrived 3 days prior to the cruise to spend sometime in Miami. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami, no complaints from us besides an unruly younger couple next to us screaming and yelling the 1st night. Taxi from MIA to the hotel was $26 tip included. We really enjoyed Bayside lots of interesting cafes along the bay and tons of things to buy. We went to Bongo's for supper on Thursday night, it was quite good and not that expensive. Friday we headed to Bubba Gumps, again very good.

Sunday ...

We headed to the pier around 10ish.. cab cost $15 incl tip. Arrived not alot of people around, our cab driver drops us off right where the porters are, I moved the luggage next to the bin as Matt was paying for the cab, a porter said I will take care of that. He was friendly no mention of tipping so we tipped him $4.. $1 per bag.

On to the terminal.. There were people in line all dressed up.. later found out they were a wedding party. When we entered I walked right upto the security area and asked where the skippers club was, they pointed to a door so we went in there. Matt was alittle leary saying I don't think we should be here. Anyways after about 15mins I ventured out and found a police officer who assured me we were in the right place. 10 minutes later a Carnival employee came in, since we were the only ones in there he went and got somebody else they returned and voila all checked in. Only one other couple showed up in the lounge for skippers club tho.

At 11am the 1st Carnival employee came back retrieved our tickets and 2mins later came back with our S&S cards. We then headed thru security where he had someone escort us to the 2nd floor and then over to the VIP waiting area. The wedding party was there along with the 4 of us. Three other couples showed up, and then wow about 150 people all TA's. AT 11:30 the wedding party boarded, then the TA's then us, onboard pictures taken and sitting at the Tritons pool bar having our first funship special at 12:01pm.

I noticed on our S&S cards that they had given us 5:45pm seating for dinner, that was not going to work for us, even tho we only ate in the dining room twice. We went down to the Atlantic dining room along with about 20 others in line and got it changed no problem to 8pm a table for two.

We went to our cabin, CAT11 Empress deck I was very impressed. Beer arrived at 3pm from wellwishers no questions asked. Unpacked our bags went back to the lido deck for a few more drinks. I had 5 this day was feeling quite good I must say.

Muster drill was quick and easy, we arrived later than most and were not squished to the back.

Sailaway was great as we had to do the turn around in the basin.. made it extra special I found.

Off to dinner was good, nothing to write home about tho. We are not big on fancy foods probably why we didn't go to the dining room more than we did.

Monday ...

Sea Day Well woke up to room service loved the coffee myself, nothing compared to Tim Hortons but it did the job all week. We went to check out the ship, visit the shops. The ship is beautiful always being cleaned no complaints that we saw.

Around lunchtime I was not feeling to good, I had been taking the ginger pills but they weren't working for me. Seas were only 1.5 to 4 feet so by no means was it rough. I went back to the cabin took some gravol with ginger, headed to the lido to the deli had a great turkey sandwich on a country roll, by 5pm I was feeling better but not good enough to make it to dinner.

Tuesday ...

Most of the day was at sea, I was feeling great today, ventured to the lido for a good brekkie, just lazed around most of the day. 5pm arrival in San Juan it started to rain as soon as we docked, but stopped about 10mins after. I had nothing planned for this port. I wanted to goto Senior Frogs, but since Matt doesn't find sitting at a bar entertaining (doesn't drink that much) we stayed on board at the Triton pool bar!!

We did go to dinner this nite as it was open seating, we both had the filet mignon was very good. Matt ordered 2 no problems. After dinner back to the lido pool bar as they were having a sail away party tonight which was quite fun.

Wednesday ...

St. Maarten we arrived around 7am it was beautiful. We had no tour booked here, we were going to goto Maho beach but that didn't happen. We got off the ship and walked to the water taxi $5pp for the day. Well we ended up winning a free prize and going on a tour of the island for free, listening to a 90min timeshare sell. LOL There were 13 of us in the cab ride back and guess what we all won the same prize even tho we scratched different letters.

After we returned from our free tour, we walked along the beach area and found a nice restaurant and I had a great green salad (huge) and Matt had chicken and ribs.. we both enjoyed it. Then went for a stroll before heading back to the water taxi. We did not goto dinner tonite we went to the buffet and the Med restaurant and thouroughly enjoyed it. Early night since St. Thomas was in the morning and I was looking forward to this port the most.

Thurday ...

St. Thomas Well what can I say I was up watching us dock around 6am. We were on the port side and we could see all. Our tour with Godfrey was not scheduled until 11am so we went up to the lido again for some good brekkie. Just relaxed then at 8am went to immigration was painless there was nobody there. Left the ship at 10:30am looking for Godfrey. I happened to see him drive by so we backtracked and he was parked waiting just for us, we were the only 2 on the 11am pickup.

Overall this was the best experience on this cruise, we went to Coki beach. You can find out so much on the port of call boards about this tour we highly recommend it.

Back on board dinner again at the buffet was good. Oh and I finally found the Siren's bar aft pool this evening. As we were leaving St. Thomas seemed the weather got worse, seas were 12-14ft. I didn't notice a thing but Matt was looking alittle green in the gills, so he went to the pursers desk and got some pills and went to crash. I stayed and enjoyed a bucket of beer with all the others that were not sick..

Friday-Saturday..

Sea Days Nothing exciting just lounging around the lido deck enjoying the music the sun and the people.

Saturday met up with a couple we met on the Godfrey tour CC members and hit the Piano bar had a great time.

Sunday back again..

Overall had a great time .. can not wait for the next one.!

[big_duck]

Nice review Kel. Nuthin' like your first time, eh? ;)

[KruznKel]

Nice review Kel. Nuthin' like your first time, eh? ;)

 

Thanks Don, I missed alot I am sure.. I told Matt to read it and add anything he wanted:eek: (dunno that I want that tho):p

 

Ya we had fun now for the next and then the next!!!:D

[TheAnswerIs42]

Other than I wanted to go to the Ionian bar to see what the Cigar selection was like, and didn't get a chance...

 

The only downside was the trip out of St. Thomas. We had to cut between the Dominican and Cuba in order to quit from rolling. That was the only real downer of the whole cruise.... Well that, and we didn't get a monkey towel animal :D

 

The Timeshare presentation bit in St. Maarten was a joke (not a good one either), but Kelly wanted to go. I got out-voted. There were a few places in St Maarten that had good Jewellery and cheap hooch, but I wouldn't buy unsealed tobacco there, I looked @ 2-3 humidors and they all had tobacco beatles. If you want Cuban leaf, buy here, but buy in Tubos or a sealed box of cigars and ship them home.

 

Definitely though, St. Thomas was the highlight. Godfrey gave a great tour, and apparently the Banana Daquiris have some bite.

[jenjens1023]

You said you arrived in St. Martin at 7am. My itinerary says 11am. Is this a change? Or does it always dock that early?

 

Did you dock or tender? Cruisecal says there will be six ships in port that day and we would be #5 if arriving at 11. That sounds like it means a tender, which my DD hates (she cried all the way from the ship to the dock in Belieze--at she was14!). It looks like the bay is pretty calm, as opposed to the roughness at Belize, so that may help her (or lots and lots of Benadryl!)

[dms_cruisers04]

Kelly, nice review.

 

jen, the consensus seems to be that CruiseCal isn't totally correct as of late.

Example; it had Elation docked in Belize the other day, and it was actually parked at Galveston picking up passengers.

Someone mentioned it's been off since Sept. :confused:

[KruznKel]

You said you arrived in St. Martin at 7am. My itinerary says 11am. Is this a change? Or does it always dock that early?

 

Did you dock or tender? Cruisecal says there will be six ships in port that day and we would be #5 if arriving at 11. That sounds like it means a tender, which my DD hates (she cried all the way from the ship to the dock in Belieze--at she was14!). It looks like the bay is pretty calm, as opposed to the roughness at Belize, so that may help her (or lots and lots of Benadryl!)

 

Ooops sorry.. It was 11am we arrived.. dunno where 7am came from that musta been when I was having my morning coffee on the balcony:D

 

We docked.. there were only 4 ships in port Glory, RCI, Princess and us .. As I remember that is all the pier can hold..

[nybumpkin]

Other than I wanted to go to the Ionian bar to see what the Cigar selection was like, and didn't get a chance...

 

We never even found the Ionian Bar when we sailed on Victory; we did manage to find Alfred's on Conquest. It took us two trips on a ship with this layout to figure out how to get there. We get to learn all over again on Legend. (You're a Douglas Adams fan, I take it?:D )

 

Kelly, nice review - glad you had a good time:) !

[WillieBluffU]

Great review Irish!....It looks like you got to St. Maarten real early...I would love to arrive at 7am instead of 11am!...I am assuming you were supposed to arrive at 11.

 

Any of you past Victory East Cruisers know if this is the norm?