Review of Victory March 26

[KAP]

My family and I sailed on the Carnival Victory the week of March 26. This was our second cruise as a family. Last year we were on the Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas. I have a 14 year old son, a 10 year old daughter and a 5 year old son. I chose the Victory based on price and itinerary. Overall we had a good cruise and I feel we got our money’s worth. We made reservations 9 month early for two inside cabins on the main deck. It seemed like about every two month, we would get a call from our PVP at Carnival telling us they were giving us a free upgrade. We moved up the decks until we were on deck 10. One week before our cruise, we got a call that we had been upgraded to outside cabins on deck 11 with floor to ceiling windows and an interconnecting door. For us, these were great cabins. They were large and roomy. We could lie in bed and watch the ship come into and leave port. We were right next to Camp Carnival and just below Club O2. The Lido deck was just a short walk away and the elevators outside our cabin were the ones used for disembarking at each port. I thought these were great cabins. You would hear deck chairs being set up each morning at 7 a.m. so late sleepers might have an issue.

We flew into Miami on a red eye from Seattle one day early and learned an important lesson. We reserved hotel rooms for Friday night even though we knew our plane didn’t get in until early Saturday morning. The idea was to go directly to the hotel, catch a couple of hours of rest then sightsee the rest of the day. I made reservations through Priceline at the Holiday Inn in Coral Cables. I called up the Holiday Inn several weeks prior to arriving to explain our late arrival. I also called again on Friday night before our plane left and confirmed our arrival for early the next morning. I was assured both times that rooms would be available. We got to the hotel at 7:30 Saturday morning and guess what, the hotel had given away our rooms. I could tell that the front desk staff was embarrassed and I was a little upset. They got us a room within an hour and a second room by 1 p.m.. I called Priceline and was told they would look into the issue. I haven’t heard anything from Priceline. During the course of the week I talked to three or four other families that had the same thing happen to them. The moral, many hotels in Miami will not hold rooms for early morning arrivals even if they say they will.

If you have to take a red eye, I suggest arriving one day early. We were really wiped out on Saturday and I would have hated getting on the ship that day. The Holiday Inn was nice and located right close to the Miracle Mile. If you love window shopping this would be a great choice.

We slept in Sunday morning then left for the ship at 10:30. We got to the Pier at 11 walked right up to the paperwork desk. Within 10 minutes we were sent upstairs. The ship wasn’t ready for general boarding so we sat in a large waiting area for 10 minutes. Boarding started and the only wait was trying to find our sign and sail cards. The paperwork person’s handwriting was sloppy and they thought it said 9 instead of 4. That was only for 5 minutes. We went through the obligatory picture and were on the ship. The whole process was smooth and took less than an hour.

The ship was fairly crowded. Mostly families with children as you would expect during spring break. We set sail promptly at 4. The weather was beautiful and continued that way for most of the week.

At dinner, we met our head waiter, Serena from Romania and her assistant Duang from Thailand. They were great and we really enjoyed them all week. Dinners were good all week. The only real complaint I had was I got bored of the salad choices and I didn’t care for many of the deserts. I like chocolate and there really weren’t many chocolate deserts. My family started ordering brownies and cookies from the kids desert menu at the week progressed. The buffet was typical but good for breakfast and lunch. I like fried eggs and you can’t get those in the buffet but that problem is easily solve by going to the formal dining room. We ate some breakfasts and lunches in the formal dinning room just to mix things up. I really liked the deli but at times the line was up to 20 minutes long. My kids loved the pizza and hamburger. We all ate lots of soft serve ice cream (suggestion to Carnival, open more ice cream machines 24 hours a day. The lines to the one area could get long). We never used room service. We got drink cards for the two older kids and they really paid off. In the dining room, our drink server would bring extra pop for my wife and 5 year old every night at no charge. I think she did it because we had the drink cards. Overall, the food was very good. We definitely were never hungry for more than 5 minutes.

Monday, Wednesday and Saturday were our sea days. Our youngest hung out at Camp Carnival and definitely loved it. The staff was primarily eastern European and had a different style than the mainly Canadian staff of our Royal Caribbean cruise. The programs were less organized and structured. It worked great for the younger kids but not to well for our 10 year old. Our 10 year old used Camp Carnival to meet some other girls her own age and then stopped going to many of the organized activities. Camp Carnival for 12 to 14 year olds really didn’t work. Since our 14 year old is almost 15 he went to Club O2. The older teens just hang out and talk but that is what they like. I noticed most of the younger teenagers that couldn’t go or just didn’t fit in to Club O2 had to fend for themselves. In my opinion, sea days on the Lido deck are to be avoided unless you like hanging in big crowds where many people are drinking and the hot tubs for kids are packed. We learned quickly to wait until about 3 p.m. to go swimming and hot tubing with the kids as the crowds started to die down. Chair hogs are alive and well on the Victory so be prepared to get a chair by 7 or 7:30 if you want to lay out in the sun all day. The water slide is fun. I was surprised at how long it was for being on a ship. The lines to the water slide never seemed to be to long. It does take getting used to sliding in salt water. Yes adults can have fun on the water slide.

Tuesday was port day in Costa Maya. I would suggest walking right through the port area and take a taxi to the charming fishing village of Mahahual. You can spend a great day there on the beach. We wanted to see the ruins at Chachoben. We went with Ivan and David at Native Choice and had a great tour. David gave us so much information that the other tours don’t get and the group was much smaller than the ship tours. All of our kids enjoyed the tour, even our 5 year old. We got back to Mahahual and had some time to chill out on the beach.

Thursday we were in Grand Cayman and I have one word of caution, be prepared for crowds. There were six ships in port and it was wall to wall people everywhere. We had an early tour on Soto’s and needed to get off the ship early. There was a slight tender problem and we got to our tour 15 minutes late but they had waited for us. One point I would make is don’t be bashful getting in line with the ships tours. No one was checking if you were on a ship tour or private tour for the first tenders. Soto’s was great. They use a small boat that holds 20 to 30 people. The water was a little rough. The place we stopped to snorkel had lots of fish and even our 5 year old got in the water. One piece of advice, if you have young children, bring your own life jacket that fits. Soto’s did have snorkel gear that fits young children. Getting in and out of the water is fairly easy for most generally able people. We went to the stingray bar. We loved the stingrays but hated the crowds. There must have been a five or six hundred people there. Our helpers from Soto’s got right in the water and caught some stingrays. We got to touch and hold the rays. Many people on other boats weren’t getting that chance and tried to barge in on our party. I liked the experience but it would have been wonderful with a much smaller crowd. We got back to the port at 12:30 and went back to the boat for lunch. My family stayed on the ship and I went back to port. Just south of the port terminal (easy walking) is Eden Rock where you can snorkel. I had my own snorkel gear so I rented a locker for $4 and snorkeled for an hour. The snorkeling was great with many different varieties of fish. By the time I headed back to the ship, the tender lines were getting long. I stood in line for 20 minutes.

Friday, we were at Ocho Rios. We had hired Marva Shaw through the internet to take us around and she did a great job. She has a small van for families like ours and a larger van for larger groups. She depends almost entirely on the internet for business so I want to highly recommend her. Marva took us to Dunns River Falls, the Whiter River for tubing and Regae Beach. She is flexible as we hadn’t originally planned on going to Regae beach but she had no problem taking us. Marva also showed us a little local color by stopping and buying us some sugar cane and bananas, both of which were yummy. Dunns River Falls was great and the whole family climbed it including the 5 year old. Watch out for the vendors at the top of the fall as you leave. They are incredibly pushy. We love tubing. I just stayed close to my 5 year old and he had no problems. We stopped half way down and jumped off an overhang into the river. The river guides were incredibly helpful and earned a good tip. We got done earlier than expected and wanted to go snorkeling. Marva suggested Regae beach even though you had to pay and entrance fee because it would be much less crowded. Regae beach is beautiful and quiet. You can buy food and the restrooms were very clean (that comes from my wife). Unfortunately, the ocean was fairly active and there was so much sand in the water that the snorkeling wasn’t good. On a calm day, I believe it would be great. You do have to swim about 100 yards from the shore to reef where you snorkel. We would have loved to stay at the beach longer but we were really worn out after two straight port days.

Getting of the ship was a snap as deck 11 is the first one called. We caught a taxi to South Beach where I had gotten rooms on Priceline at the Richmond. This is a older hotel right on the beach. It caters mainly to couples and we felt somewhat out of place but you couldn’t beat the location. The Lincoln Road Mall was nearby which is a great place to people watch and eat. I have to admit South Beach was a shock to me. My sons and I went to the beach and were enjoying just laying around. A big group of young people sat down next to us and the next thing I knew all the girls were topless. I got up to look for a different spot and discovered about half the women everywhere were topless. Now some would have no problem with that but it just isn’t something we are use to. Just be warned. We caught a taxi early the next morning to the airport no problem and had an uneventful flight home.

Once again, it was a fine vacation. Our first cruise was more of an adventure just because it was our first. I would recommend the Victory to anyone.

[cathyoo]

Thanks for the great review. Sounds like a perfect family vacation. I take it you enjoyed your first cruise on RCI. Did you find many difference between the cruise lines. RCI was my first and Carnival my second, third and soon to be fourth.

 

I have a good time on every cruise but now I want that platinum card so I guess I'm stuck with Carnival for the next 6 years.

[caprcorn28]

Hey KAP ~ Great to see that you enjoyed your cruise!!! Great review with a lot of details!!! I am hoping to post mine later today! We had a fabulous time as well!!

 

My DH would definitely agree with more ice cream machines open 24 hours...I have an ice-cream radar (of sorts! lol) so I never had a problem finding one, but the more the better would definitely be welcome!!

 

We love Miami and South Beach - but good to warn some people that aren't "aware" of the toplessness...it could take some by surprise, that is for sure. Most of the women that we have ever seen that have been topless were ones that "really shouldn't be" ... so it has never kept anyone's attention for long! :rolleyes: We stayed up on North Beach this time...there was fewer topless sunbathers, but still nothing worth 'seeing'...I say that with men in mind...;)

[bucket_O_beer4john]

Thanks for the review! We're on the Victory in a little over 2 weeks, so I'm soaking up every review I can find. The spring break rush should be over, so I don't anticipate as many kids.

 

For your next cruise, you can get fried eggs at the buffet - just go to the omelet station. I never do because the line always seems longer than I'm willing to spend - I just don't like omelets or eggs that much.

[toledo]

Great review, KAP. I agree with everything you said. We arrived at Stringray City at 12:30 and there were even more people there.

 

Someone explained to me that the chocolate they use is different than the chocolate we have here in the U.S. I remember eating a piece of chocolate cake and I couldn't taste any chocolate. Overall, we loved the food and I just bought a Carnival Creations Cookbook on ebay for $5.00.

 

You are lucky to have gotten rooms on Priceline for those dates. Sorry they gave away your rooms. I use Priceline all the time and that has never happened to me. I couldn't get anything for the 3 day pre-cruise and bid up to $250/night. I ended up gettnig the Sheraton Bal Harbour for one night (post cruise), but it was north of Miami Beach. We drove down to South Beach to eat at the News Cafe. Never made it to the beach there, but I guess that's a good thing.

 

I, too, would love to hear how Carnival compares to RCCL.

[scsagh]

Great review, KAP. Was fun to meet you and your family on David & Ivan's tour. We have to agree about the differences in the Kid's Club between Carnival & Royal. Both DD10 & DD14 preferred RCI. If I ever get around to doing a review, will try to post other comparisons. Bottom line for us, both cruise lines have some things that we liked better than the other. My husband says if you could combine the things he liked best from each it would be the perfect cruise line!