Valor Review May 28 - June 4, 2006

[jerseygirl3]

Carnival Valor Review – May 28 to June 4, 2006

 

 

 

Passengers: My husband (age 46), myself (age 51), our four sons (21, 22, 24, 25) and three of their friends (all experienced cruisers, except two of the friends for whom this was their second cruise)

 

 

 

Precruise: Spent one night in two Jr. Suites at Holiday Inn Port of Miami. Got it for a government rate ($113/night). The hotel is certainly not lavish, but suits the purpose for a prenight stay. Had lunch at the Latin Café (very good and the mojitos are outstanding) and dinner at Bubba Gumps (always consistently good).

 

 

 

Embarkation: “A” - Since there were 9 of us and we’d need at least two cabs, the hotel concierge arranged for us to have a large van pick us up in the a.m. to take us to the ship. It was $5 pp. That worked out well. He picked us up at 11:15 a.m., and we were onboard the ship by 12:30. The lines seemed long, but they moved fast. We were asked not to go to our cabins until 1:30 because they were still cleaning, so we walked around the ship to kill some time. The buffet was already open on the Lido Deck .

 

 

 

ShipDecor: “B” For some reason, I expected it to be really cheesy, but I was pleasantly surprised. Now, I won’t go so far as to say the ship was beautiful (I prefer the understated elegance of Celebrity or Princess), but it was very nice. I loved the retro look of Rosie’s (Lido Buffet). The dining room was fairly elegant as Carnival dining rooms go. The public areas were nicely done. I honestly couldn’t find anything offensive when it came to décor. The spa/gym was very nice, as were the staff, but unless you got there when it opened at 6 a.m., or went later in the day, it was difficult to get on any of the machines. We opted to walk the jogging track in the morning rather than wait for machines.

 

 

 

The ship was kept spotlessly clean. As soon as a drink was finished out by the pool, somebody was there to retrieve it. Unlike the Liberty, where empty glasses were left unattended all day.

 

 

 

Cabins “A” - We had a balcony cabin on Deck 8 (8236). Cabin 185 sq. ft., balcony 35 sq. ft. No complaints at all. Plenty of room, good location. I do wish Carnival would lose those tacky leather pulls they call handles on the dresser drawers. And bring your own hairdryer. Not only does the one they provide have lackluster power, but you have to continuously hold down the “on” button for it to work. Our kids had oceanview cabins (1340, 1352, 1362) on Deck 1. Those cabins were very spacious (220 sq. ft.).&nbs p; If you are prone to motion sickness, though, I wouldn’t suggest getting an oceanview cabin on a deck that low. When you look out the window and see the ocean rushing by, it can get to you. While there is less motion on a lower deck, looking out at the ocean when you are that low is dizzying. All cabins had dispensers mounted in the shower stall with liquid soap (cucumber/green tea) and Dove Shampoo with Conditioner. There was also an amenity basket that contained his/hers disposable razors, mints, toothpaste, mouthwash, etc. The bathrooms had plenty of storage space and the showers were comfortably roomy (disclaimer…I’m 4’10”)

 

 

 

Food: “A” – We found the food to be much better than what we encountered on the sister ship, Liberty, in February. Dining room food was consistently good. It could have been served hotter, as most entrees were at best lukewarm when they arrived. Rosie’s Lido buffet food was very good. Fish ‘N Chips was also much better than the Liberty. The Deli was outstanding; the kids loved the grill (the grilled chicken sandwich was very good). And all agreed the pizza was great. Didn’t try the Asian station, but that looked good as well. Sushi Bar opened at 6 p.m. and was also very good. However…….the lines were loooooooooong. You really had to hit the Lido Deck stations at off times, otherwise, you waited quite a long time. The grill was the biggest offender, followed by the deli. The difference between the Liberty and the Valor, though, is that the Valor food was worth waiting for. The Café Jave served outstanding coffee, latte, cappuccino, Danish, pastries, etc. for a fee. The coffee was so good; we made it a habit of going there almost every morning after our walk and again in the mid-afternoon (I remember the days when we used to hit the bar in the mid-afternoon…oh well, I digress).

 

 

 

Since one of our sons was turning 22 years old on this cruise, we decided to eat at Scarlett’s Supper Club that evening. The food was outstanding, but the service was somewhat lacking. We’ve always been very impressed by the service, but this time it just wasn’t that great. I had preordered a very small birthday cake for my son (mostly as a token of his birthday, not for dessert), but for some reason I suppose the waitress thought we didn’t need/want dessert. She sounded surprised when we asked to see the dessert menu, and then never offered any of us coffee. This was the first time I didn’t tip over and above the $30 fee (which includes the gratuity).

 

 

 

Service: I find it hard to give a general grade here, because some (most) was outstanding but some was terrible. Our cabin steward, Suphol, was one of the best we’ve ever had. Shortly after arriving, we requested four extra pillows, and they were promptly delivered with a smile. Suphol never walked past us without greeting us by name (I kinda got used to being called Miss Jo-Ann, but Mr. Bob is balking at referring to me that way now that we’re home!). Our cabin was kept spotlesslessly clean. When I asked for a longer shower curtain (the one in our bathroom was about a foot too short, and we kept flooding the floor), he replaced it immediately. He was the best! I can’t say the same about the cabin steward our kids had. One cabin had no issues. Their cabin steward did his job, although they never did meet him. He may not have gone overboard with anything, but he did what was expected. However, the other two cabins were practically not attended to. In one, the toilet kept shooting out water every time it was flushed. It was reported to the cabin steward, but nothing was done. The cabin steward made up the rooms only once/day, thereby creating a problem for towels if you wanted to shower once in the morning and once in the evening. If the kids had told me this earlier, I would have tried to rectify the problem, but they didn’t tell me until the next to last day of the cruise. Also, one of the kids cabins never got embarkation forms or luggage tags the last night of the cruise. The kids stated their desk area was never once cleaned. Wrappers, dirty glasses, etc., were never picked up.

 

 

 

The dining room service has a problem. I’m not sure who’s to blame here. Our waitress, Daniela, tried to do her job, but it was apparent something was amiss. Her asst. waiter would pour water and then leave, never to be seen again. She had to take orders, repour water, bus the table, serve the entrees, take the dessert orders, serve the dessert, etc. She apologized many times that half the table would get their appetizer and it would take another 15-20 minutes before the rest of the table got theirs. She told us “there is a problem in the kitchen” more than once. I’m not sure why this happened, but I saw several of the waitres ses speaking with the maitre de and it seemed that they were complaining about some sort of “issue.” The wait staff is horribly overworked and every night, we’d just have our entrée placed in front of us when the lights would dim and the maitre de would shout “IT’S SHOW TIME.” I’ve really grown weary of this. I think it is demeaning to the staff and it really puts a crunch on the time they have to serve. It seems like they are trying to rush through dinner so they can don ridiculous wigs and jump on the tables and dance on command. Lately Carnival has the most unpolished dining service I’ve encountered among all the cruiselines and that’s ashame. Either Carnival has cut back so tremendously or the wait staff is not p roperly trained. But Daniela has been on 10 Carnival ships, so she’s no novice. But she could barely take a moment to say hello before she was rushing off trying to track down our food that wasn’t showing up. I will definitely address this issue on the Comment Card. I hate to give the actual wait staff a bad grade, but something is going on that reflects badly on Carnival’s dining service. We encountered a similar situation on the Liberty this past February, with the exception being that the food on Valor was far superior to Liberty. The beef dishes were outstanding. < /P>

 

 

 

Activities: Again, can’t really give a grade here. My husband and I prefer early seating, but the kids like late. Having dinner at 8:30 made us too tired to attend shows, etc. The kids said their favorite part of a cruise, the piano bar, was lacking. They all agreed the piano player was very musically talented, but not the type that should be performing in the piano bar. They did say he got better as the week went on, though. They remembered having the group, Music Society, on their very first cruise and they were performing again on the Valor and they really enjoyed them. They thought the bartenders were great and were very impressed that after the first night, one bartender in the piano bar remembered what they liked to drink and even remembered each of their Sail ‘N Sign numbers without looking at their cards (and there were 7 of them!). I guess I don’t want to know what their bar tab was, ya think? We didn’t attend any of the shows, but the kids said the “R” rated comedy shows were pretty good

 

 

 

Ports of Call – Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya – We prebooked Capt. Marvin’s Stingray/Snorkeling tour in G.C. We’ve done it before, and we’re never disappointed. Capt. Marvin will be 90 years old in September and still captains the boat himself. He takes very good care of his patrons, and we love to listen to his stories. In Roatan, we hired a private tour for the day. First the driver took us to a place the kids could do a zipline canopy. It was $35 each for the zipline and the driver charged us $15 each for the day. It was well worth every penny. After the zipline, she took us to West End, which is a quaint little area with beaches and shops. We walked around there a bit, had a drink at the beach, went swimming. She took us to a local grocery store, where she recommended buying “the vanilla extract in the bottle with the yellow cap.” It was a bargain at $1/bottle and I can’t wait to try it. Then she took us to the CSI Orphanage, as we wanted to drop off some medical supplies. Our driver was Lena and she was the sweetest woman. It would have been better if her van had worked better. She c ouldn’t use the A/C because it was overheating and it didn’t seem like it would make it whenever we tried to go uphill. She continuously apologized; she felt she may have gotten some water in her gas tank. This tour company (Cynthia and Diane of Roatan) has gotten very good reviews, so I do think the car trouble was a fluke. Lena was very informative and patient. She had her little boy (8 years old) with her, as he was home from school for the day and she had no babysitter. He was so polite and well-behaved, you forgot he was even there. He was so appreciative when we stopped at the grocery store and I bought him a pack of Twinkies (or the Roatan ver sion of Twinkies).

 

 

 

In Belize, we hired Reggie’s Cave Tubing tour and again, worth every penny. Reggie sent his 23-year-old son, Jamal, to be our driver/guide for the day and he was fabulous. The van was comfortable (and the A/C worked!). It was just our group of 9 on this tour. I would highly recommend Reggie’s. His driving was safe and professional. He offered to stop anywhere along the way, even going out of his way to stop at a junk yard to get my husband a Belize license plate (my husband collects them). Our tour began with a 35-40 min. hike through the jungle. It wasn’t a difficult walk, but if one has problems walking, I wouldn’t recommend it. After the hike, we got into the river. Since there was no current that particular day, we had to paddle down the river with our arms. Jamal was very skillful in leading us past packs (yes, packs of maybe 100 people) of tours that booked with the cruiseline. At the onset of the tour, Jamal asked us if we’d be interested in having lunch at the end of the tour. He made us a reservation and our table was ready for the 9 of us when we completed the river tubing. The lunch consisted of barbecued jerk chicken, rice and beans, fruit salad, garlic bread, a homemade banana muffin with caramel sauce drizzled over th e top and fruit punch. All this for $5/pp. It was the best $5 I ever spent! If you are looking for a tour in Belize, this is the one to book.

 

 

 

Our next port stop was Costa Maya. Although the weather had been perfect up to this point, this day it was overcast and threatening rain. Three of the boys rented ATV’s and went all over the country. They had a blast. The rest of us headed into town ($3 pp for van service into town, $2 pp back from town). Majuhal (pronounced Ma-ha-wal) is a lovely, fairly undeveloped little fishing village. The street is dirt and along one side are little bars/restaurants/shops and across the street are beaches. Presumably, each bar owns the beach area across from it. After a brief downpour, the sun peaked out a bit and we spent a relaxing day on the beach. Lounge chairs were free, but you are expected to patronize the restaurant (prices were surprisingly expensive….$9 for a pina colada, and it wasn’t that good!). However, the atmosphere made up for it. They place tables and chairs right in the water, and you can enjoy your Corona with lime while the water laps at your feet (and more, as the tide comes in!). Okay, now here is the best part about Majuhal. They do massages on the beach. I had agreed to a 20 minute massage for $10, but about 3 minutes into the massage, I told the lady I wanted to “upgrade” to the 45 minute massage for $20. It was better than any massage I’ve had anywhere! They start at your toes and end at your head, even massages your earlobes. Along with the $5 lunch in Belize, the $20 massage was another highlight of this cruise.

 

 

 

Fellow Passengers: This ship (according to one crew member) was made up of 50% Latinos. Apparently, 23 young girls were celebrating their quinceanero onboard. Consequently, there were lots and lots of families with young children. However, they were among the nicest, most pleasant group of fellow passengers I have ever sailed with. The children were all well-behaved and everyone was dressed to the nines for dinner in the dining room. Not being of Latino descent and knowing very little about the party celebration when a young girl turns 15 years old, it was interesting to see all the girls dressed up for their quinceanero.

 

 

 

Debarkation: “A” – To those who say it’s not a problem making an early flight, think again. Our ship docked a bit late, so everything was delayed from that point. They did not begin to call those who were doing “self assist” until 8 a.m. And the general debarkation did not begin until 10 a.m. Once they began the debarkation process, it went rather quickly and was very organized. But IMO it’s not worth booking an early flight and worrying about missing it. We had a 4:15 p.m. flight, which is much later than I would have liked, so we had quite a bit of time to kill at the Miami airport. As (un)luck would have it, the airport was shut down for 3 hours because of severe thunderstorms, so our flight didn’t actually take off until 7:30 p.m. It made for a very long day at the airport.

 

 

 

Misc: The ship’s staff were very friendly. Everybody you passed in the hallway smiled and said hello. Not so when we were on the Liberty. This was a noticeably pleasant crew.

 

 

 

Overhead announcements have been markedly reduced.

 

 

 

Second-hand smoke was not bad at all…on the Liberty, you couldn’t even walk through the casino without choking on smoke.

 

 

 

The Carnival bedding is wonderful. Some of the most comfortable I’ve ever had. I usually can’t wait to get home to my own bed, but this time I hated to leave.

 

 

 

Bar service around the pool was present, but not pushy.

 

 

 

Getting a lounge chair was not too difficult, even in a prime location. Of course, if you waited til noon, it was harder. But we never had a problem getting the location of our choice.

 

 

 

We’ve all decided 4 ports in 7 days is a bit much. The kids said they would have preferred another sea day.

 

 

 

According to our kids, this was a much more sedate crowd than when they last cruised Carnival (Legend out of NYC May 2003). They found there were not as many young people their age (they were either younger teens or older adults).

 

 

 

Room service was somewhat slow, but efficient. However, the kids said their room service was very slow and they always got their orders wrong (the kids blamed this on the fact that we put them in the bowels of the ship on Riviera Deck while we luxuriating on a Verandah Deck balcony cabin!LOL).

 

 

 

I think anybody considering the Valor won’t be disappointed. It was a vast improvement over our Liberty cruise. The biggest disappointment to me was the dining room service, and hopefully that was a fluke or else it will be worked out. I definitely plan to address it on my comment card.

 

 

 

If anybody has any specific questions, please feel free to ask.

[Cruising89143]

Jo-Ann, thanks for a very nice and balanced review.

 

Gordon

[*CruiseFan*]

Great, great, great review. I enjoyed reading what you thought were the stronger suits and I love that you gave your sons points of view since I am 25 and my fiance is 27 :)

 

I was so excited to see you had posted this review -- I was really looking forward to your review!

[RyanMFitz1]

Great review..I am glad that you and your family had a great time and safe trip home.

 

Very detailed review, not focusing on the bad things and definately not LOOKING for them liek i have read on other boards and posts.

 

I cruise in August and am already excited about the Valor !!

[jenischmeni]

I was anxiously awaiting your review, too.

 

I will be sailing on The Valor this coming Sunday. (Same as Ashkarita.)

 

I've enjoyed your previous posts and knew that you'd write a very fair and balanced review.

 

Thanks, also, for the live updates while you were there. They were much appreciated.

[kelz66]

I'm glad you had a great time!!!

 

It's a great ship!!!:D

[Eliot Ness]

Great review Miss Jo-Ann :D ! Thanks for posting it and your updates during the cruise.

 

John

[*CruiseFan*]

Also, I'm glad you said that about 4 ports in 7 days. We were concerned about that. We really enjoy sea days and were worried that it would seem too rushed to have 4 ports and only 2 sea days. I'll have to see but they seem to share the sentiment we felt after booking.

 

Ah well, I know we'll still have a blast! Thanks again!

[Wennfred]

Carnival Valor Review – May 28 to June 4, 2006

 

The Carnival bedding is wonderful. Some of the most comfortable I’ve ever had. I usually can’t wait to get home to my own bed, but this time I hated to leave.

 

Awesome Review, I got my Carnival Stateroom Bedding set about 2 weeks ago and I can tell you I love going to sleep now !!!

 

We had Babalito and Elena and the Service was the best. But I'm glad you wrote about this because I now know to bring it up to the Maitre'd immediately if the service was lacking that bad.

 

[*CruiseFan*]

Jerseygirl -- is the maitre'd obnoxious? Ours was on Victory last year. He'd interrupt LOUDLY and say "HELLOOOOOOOOOOOO" then "IT'S SHOWTIME"

 

Thanks!

[judatt]

Thanks for the good, balanced review. We don't expect everything to be perfect and you were able to advise us of some areas that were better than others. We will be on the Valor in October with our kids (late 20s and early 30s) and are already looking forward to spending some time together. Thanks again for a great review. David

[jerseygirl3]

Awesome Review, I got my Carnival Stateroom Bedding set about 2 weeks ago and I can tell you I love going to sleep now !!!

 

I've already placed my pillow order. Got an email today that they're due to arrive June 27. Can't wait!

[jerseygirl3]

Jerseygirl -- is the maitre'd obnoxious? Ours was on Victory last year. He'd interrupt LOUDLY and say "HELLOOOOOOOOOOOO" then "IT'S SHOWTIME"

 

Thanks!

 

Ash, my kids would probably brand him "obnoxious." I thought he had a charming personality and very good looking (he's a James Bond type English man). But Carnival needs to lose the "showtime" routine. It's bad enough when they did it during dessert. On our cruise, it started just about the same time our entrees were arriving.

 

 

The asst. cruise director (can't remember her name) had a really obnoxious voice. She was a rather hefty woman with a very loud, booming voice (I think she was Australian). Whenever she came on over the loudspeaker, I practically jumped out of my chair!LOL

[jerseygirl3]

Jud, we always enjoy it when we are able to get all our kids together for a cruise. I'm sure you will have as great a time as we did.

[SunTravels]

I completely agree about the Assistant cruise director ( I think her name was Jen?!) Her voice went right through me!! They shoudl of given us a warning whenever she was going to be on the mic.

[*CruiseFan*]

Ash, my kids would probably brand him "obnoxious." I thought he had a charming personality and very good looking (he's a James Bond type English man). But Carnival needs to lose the "showtime" routine. It's bad enough when they did it during dessert. On our cruise, it started just about the same time our entrees were arriving.

 

 

The asst. cruise director (can't remember her name) had a really obnoxious voice. She was a rather hefty woman with a very loud, booming voice (I think she was Australian). Whenever she came on over the loudspeaker, I practically jumped out of my chair!LOL

 

UGH. That's how it was for us last year. The English accent though I think I can handle.

 

Our group was doing a mass e-mailing yesterday and we can all still here the guy from last year. We're scarred.

 

I'll pass it on if Steve hasn't already seen it.