And yet another Victory 8/11 review...

[nybumpkin]

Well, cruise #6 is over and cruise #7 awaits in February. This was our third Canada cruise on Carnival Victory – three years ago this was our first cruise (just to see if we’d enjoy cruising) and we were hooked. We’re a family of five - mom and dad late 40’s and sons 16, 11 and 7. We had a great time; no, the weather did not cooperate completely, but you can’t have everything. We live about 2 hours north of NYC, so this is an easy cruise for us. Earlier this year we sailed an 8-day cruise out of FLL on Liberty; the Canada cruises on Victory are a nice getaway for us, with no flying or hotels required. I’m going to do a day-by-day review, followed by my thoughts on the different aspects of the overall cruise. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some photos in the next few days as well.

 

We arrived at the terminal around 11:15 and were having lunch (and a Funship Special) on Lido deck by 12:30. Parking was no problem, and the lines in the terminal were long but they moved. Our cabins were ready at 1:30 - balcony cabin 8364 and inside cabin 8366 right across the hall. (When one son asked about why we didn’t get them a balcony cabin too, I replied that when they have the money to pay for a cruise, they can have the cabin of their choice. Until then, they’re in an inside.) We met our CC roll call friends at 3:00 by the aft pool – hi to duchess, mom23boys, sorcamc and carma3. It was nice to meet all of you. Lifeboat drill was at 4:30 and we actually sailed a few minutes early. What a beautiful sailaway! The weather was great and there were lots of boats in the harbor. We stayed on deck until we sailed under the Verazzano, then went to dinner. We had 6:15 dinner in the Atlantic dining room, just as we requested. After dinner, DH went to bed (he has a bad leg and was just too tired), while I registered the kids for Camp Carnival, then visited the Irish Seas Bar and went to the Welcome Aboard Show.

 

8/12/07: Day at Sea. This was a great day, weather-wise, after reading all the reports of bad weather. It was sunny and warm, and Victory’s Lido deck looked more like a Caribbean cruise than a Canada cruise. All the deck chairs were taken (a first for me on this itinerary), the slide was open, and there were lots of fun deck games. The pools were cold (64.4 degrees), but the hot tubs were full. I noticed a sense of relief among the crew; as CD Malcolm explained, the three previous cruises had very poor weather and everyone was very excited to have such nice weather. Dinner this night was formal. I would describe dress as 5% very formal, 5% very casual, and 90% just fine for formal night – jackets and ties for men, nice dresses for ladies.

 

8/13/07: Saint John. In contrast to the previous day, our day in Saint John was cloudy and cool with occasional showers. No fog, though! We decided to walk the Harbour Passage, which runs along the waterfront to the main bridge. We got some nice pictures (hopefully I’ll be able to post them). You can walk over to the Reversing Rapids, but given DH’s bum leg we decided to skip that portion of the walk and go back into town. We walked up to the City Market, which is a fascinating market with food, crafts, and souvenirs. Our main goal was a bag of Canada wintergreen mints; oldest son fell in love with those the first time we visited Saint John, and the version we can get in our supermarket is but a pale imitation. Yes, we did find the mints! Yes, they’re gone now! Yes, he’ll have to make do with the supermarket version now! We then went to Grannan’s at Market Square for lunch, then back to the ship. Oldest son found a knit winter hat in the market next to the pier – he spent most nights of the rest of the cruise proudly wearing it. After we sailed, the fog rolled in. And it stayed….

 

The past guest party was at 5:00 after we left Saint John. There was a second party at 7 for the late seating.

8/14/07: Halifax. We didn’t know we were docking until we felt the thrusters kick in a little before 9 – then we walked over to the port side and saw that we were at the pier. Up until then, the fog was so thick we might as well have been out in the ocean, for all we knew. We hired Jonathan Duru from Your Cab to take us to Peggy’s Cove. He gave us a great tour – roads off the beaten path. He hoped to show us some harbor seals, but it was just too foggy. We spent about 45 minutes at Peggy’s Cove, then returned to Halifax along a different route. Jonathan dropped us off downtown, where the Busker’s Festival was going on. Buskers are street performers; we saw musicians, jugglers, magicians, comedians, etc. And by midday, the fog did clear. We went to Stayner’s Wharf for lunch (Keith’s Ale on tap!) then enjoyed the entertainment, did some shopping, and were back aboard. Then the fog rolled in again – it cleared sometime overnight.

 

This was our third trip to Halifax – the first two times, we did a lot of walking downtown, visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, walked up to the Citadel, took harbor tours, etc. This was something a bit different, and I’m glad we tried it.

 

8/15/07: Last day at sea. This sea day was windier and a bit colder than the first, but there were lots of deck activities going on. We tried the miniature golf on deck 12; golf was very popular on both sea days. I found it very amusing to try to play golf on a moving ship in the wind; the ball had a mind of its own. I gave up keeping score. Aside from that, we played cards, did some reading, and packed up.

 

8/16/07: Debarkation. I had every intention of getting up early to arrive in NY Harbor, but only partially met those intentions. I did wake up in time to go under the bridge (around 5:30), but when I saw it was still pretty dark I figured I’d get lousy pictures and decided to go back to bed. We finally docked around 7:00. Victory has gone to the zone debarkation you may have read in reviews of other ships; first they do self-assist, then they debark by zones listed on luggage tags they give you the day before. Zones 1-5 are reserved for VIP and foreign nationals’ debarkation; we were Zone 15, and were off the ship around 9:30. (We don’t do self-assist; generally we’re not in a hurry.) This was the easiest debarkation in NYC of the four we’ve done to date – the porter was able to bring our bags right up to the parking area, instead of having me and kids wait at the curb with the luggage while DH brings the car around. Even with a dead car battery (the dock maintenance staff gave us a jump), we were home by 12:30.

 

Cabins: We had great cabin stewards, Hong and Bei. Hong especially was great; he noticed a maintenance problem with the Pullman in our sons’ cabin and had a repair person there within an hour. He always took time to talk with us and kept our cabins immaculate. Our cabins were Verandah deck, port side aft; we could hear people walking on the Lido deck at night, but we really didn’t have any other noise issues with the cabins.

Food: As noted above, was had table 123 in the Atlantic dining room for 6:15, which is what we requested. Our wait staff was Agusto and Kristian, and they were great. Agusto liked showing our youngest son some magic tricks; he was still doing them this afternoon. He also saw youngest trying some of our lobster, and brought him his own plate (after he ordered something else). No complaints about our food at all. Jean-Pierre was our maitre’d; he was very entertaining and took the time to go around the dining room and talk to guests. (Someone we met commented that the maitre’d in the Pacific dining room was next to invisible.) We did both breakfast and lunch at the Lido buffet, and they were fine. There were lines at times, but nothing I thought was out of the ordinary for a buffet. I never waited long for food.

 

Staff: The CD was Malcolm Burn. We sailed with Malcolm two years ago when he was the assistant CD on Conquest, and it’s nice to see him with his own ship. He was funny and not terribly intrusive with announcements. His signature line is “Woo Hoo”; I think some people may have tired of it, but there were enough folks going around saying “Woo Hoo!” that I think it rubbed off. Malcolm’s assistants were a lot of fun with the games.

 

Activities: There were lots of activities going on; I did bring home my Capers and will try to get them scanned (I’m having some computer issues currently). Lots of bingo games, trivia games, hairy-chest, ice carving, newly-wed/not-so-newly-wed, etc. The streak continues - we came home with a ship-on-a-stick for trivia! We also went to tea the first sea day (it was very popular and they didn’t have nearly enough servers for the event) and did the galley tour the last sea day. (Open to everyone.) There were also a couple of groups that booked this cruise and performed during the cruise – a band and a dance troupe. They got their own listing in the Capers with a “not affiliated with Carnival” note. We didn’t go to the shows; we’ve seen “Vrooom” and “Living in America” twice, so we figured we wouldn’t take up space in the lounge. I just wish there were more options for people not attending the shows – most of the musical venues were closed during the show.

 

Music: The Lido band was “Tropical Fire,” and they were very good. Maybe calypso music sounds funny on a Canada cruise, but it worked well on our cruise (would you rather listen to a bagpipe?) “Simple Friends” was the casino bar; I agree with Dance4fun’s earlier review that this band was completely misplaced. They were a good dance band, but no one could dance in this venue. Peter Kraft was in the piano bar; he was pretty good and had a good following, but what is it with piano players who need to play“New York State of Mind?” Back in February on Liberty, we spent two hours in the piano bar and heard it twice. This past Tuesday, we showed up in the Irish Seas and it was one of the first numbers Peter performed. On vacation, I’m really not in a New York state of mind…. There was a good jazz trio in the Ionian Lounge, which was our favorite lounge. I’m not a smoker, but DH likes a cigar and this was a great venue – they were a good group. Sorry, no reviews of the disco or the acoustic player. Marcie was the karaoke hostess; we’re not into karaoke, but our oldest son and some of his Club O2 friends showed up for karaoke one night wearing their bathrobes. Marcie didn’t miss a beat; she called all of them up to do a rendition of “Splish Splash.” I’d like to have a recording….

 

Kids’ Activities: Camp Carnival was great for both our 7 YO and 11 YO, even if the “Hunt for Funship Freddy” didn’t result in a Freddy sighting (I assume there was a mis-communication on Freddy’s part). Our youngest came home with a number of art projects that he really enjoyed making, and the counselors for both groups were very good.

 

Again, with our oldest son, he decided to have a separate vacation; we saw him on shore and for dinner. The last night the Club O2 kids decided to pull an all-nighter; Dan almost made it, but decided to take a nap from 3 to 5 a.m. I think we’re lucky he managed to make it off the boat this morning.

 

In all this, have I missed anything? If there’s something I didn’t cover, ask away!

[bb2842]

Thanks for your review. I enjoyed reading it. What night is lobster night? Thanks again.

[luv2cruise777l]

Great reveiw! Thanks for sharing!:)

[ItaliaAmerCruzLady]

Thanks for a great review, we also enjoyed this cruise last summer.Wish we were going again!

[buddyjo143]

Thanks for your review. I just read another from your same sailing (will withhold the name to protect the innocent ;)) and she thought there weren't enough activities. You thought they were just fine.....Who to believe, who to believe....

 

Every cruise is based on opinion. Thanks for sharing yours. I liked the Victory and you actually have me pondering doing the 5 day one year (did the 4 day this year).

[rebeljohn]

Enjoyed your review.............I like the day-by-day format...........Thanks for posting it........

[nybumpkin]

Thanks for your review. I enjoyed reading it. What night is lobster night? Thanks again.

Lobster was on the first sea day (formal night). I should have mentioned also that one thing I appreciate about Carnival's dinners is that the portions are a nice size - not too big, not too small. I never left the dining room feeling over stuffed. But if you want seconds, or two appetizers or entrees, you can order them.

 

I also forgot to mention that the midnight buffet took place in the Mediterranean Restaurant on Halifax night. We went through for picture taking at 11:15 and the food looked wonderful, but we didn't come back to sample - just a little too late for me.

[Kempa]

Given the title of the topic, I thought I shouldn't create a new one for my review, but just tag along this one.

 

We live in Maryland. We left on Friday, stayed at a hotel in New Jersey, and drove to the pier on Saturday morning. We arrived around 11:45, dropped the luggage off with the porters, and parked on the pier rooftop. We were at the line around 11:55. They kept us off to the side while they were allowing the early arrivals in. It didn’t take long for our line to be called, go through security, and stand in line by deck. For some reason, our line (deck 8) was the longest, and the slowest to move. The other lines had about 20 or 30 people at a time, and moved pretty quickly. Ours had about 150 people and was very, very slow. We waited for a long time, and finally checked in. We boarded the ship around 1:15. I think that the system can be improved, especially if the person supervising the lines sees that one line is getting too long. The cabins were not ready until 1:30, so we ate at the Lido’s Mediterranean Café (the buffet line), and then went to our cabin.

 

Our cabin steward was Andres. He introduced himself to us and did a fantastic job overall. The cabin was always clean and tidy, and he kept our cooler full with ice for the water bottles. He helped us whenever we had a request, and kept our cabin well supplied with towel animals.

 

Sailing out of New York was fantastic. We went first to the Spa and Sky decks, but these were pretty full. Then we decided to go to deck 7 in front of the ship. Thanks to all who mentioned the “secret” doors. They were easy to find and not secret at all. The front decks were not full at all, and we could see ahead without having to crank our necks and look over other people. We could also see the pilot through the bridge windows, looking at the course and making adjustments from time to time.

 

We had dinner at the Atlantic Dining Room. Our head waiter was Parta, and his assistant was Glenn. They did a good job, but not fantastic. They were attentive and efficient. We enjoyed the singing and the dancing in the dining room. It made dinner more memorable. We were seated at a table with three very nice couples. We looked forward to dinner and never missed one.

 

The food in the dining room was generally good, with a few great items and a few items that need improvement. Most of the time beef was overcooked and stiff unless you ordered it rare. One night we ordered the filet mignon, and it was hard and tasteless. We both sent it back and asked for the fish instead. Parta brought it quickly. The formal night we both ordered the lobster, and it was very good. Parta brought everyone a second lobster. My wife’s second one didn’t taste good, but at that time we were already satisfied, so she ate half of mine. The desserts were also very good, especially the melting chocolate cake. I tried some more adventurous desserts, but my wife stuck to the melting chocolate cake and was not disappointed. One night the waiter brought my wife a birthday chocolate cake, courtesy of our travel agent. That was fantastic. We shared with our tablemates, and only ate half of it. The waiter took it back to the kitchen and brought it out again another night. I would rate the dining room food 7 out of 10, the lobster being a good 9, and the filet mignon a 4.

 

The Lido buffets were a whole different experience. There are 4 buffet lines, two in the Mediterranean Buffet, and two on the open deck. In addition to that, there is pizza and burgers on the Siren’s area at the back, and deli and Chinese on the sides. The buffet food was generally bland and cafeteria-style. There was nothing memorable there. We tried breakfast and lunch and were disappointed. The lines were not long at all, and one could probably get in and out of the buffet line in a few minutes. I had a Reuben from the deli once and it was OK but not fantastic. We had Chinese once and it was good. The burgers were very good, and the pizza passable. The only good thing I can say about the buffet is that we never had to wait for a table. We could always find one. Service wasn’t good either. Once I got my napkin and cutlery. My spoon was dirty, so I went back and got another set. This one was missing the spoon altogether.

 

The number and variety of activities was good. The only exception was dancing music. The disco was pretty much dead most of the time, and we couldn’t find any music that we liked to dance to. Maybe we were there at the wrong time. The shows were good. The dancing was well performed. The female lead was fantastic: a great dancer and a fabulous singer. She has a very powerful voice. I don’t know how much longer she will be doing cruise work. Some scout will find her eventually, and take her to Broadway or London. We watched the comedian’s first show, and he got us laughing very hard. He was very funny and very entertaining. We saw the magician’s show, and he was also very good. Not too many tricks, and the flow of the show seemed to be a little broken up. We didn’t think that he put down the lady that he called from the audience or the young boy. His tricks were good. Malcom Burn (not Burns!) is a very good cruise director. He kept most people informed and entertained. His “woo hoo” is pretty infectious. I was screaming “woo hoo” and having a good time.

 

The ports of call were interesting. We didn’t do any of the tours. Saint John receives the ship in great style: a singer in the morning, and they give out roses and pins to the passengers getting off the ship. As the ship sails away in the afternoon, a piper played on dock. The city is relatively small, and there isn’t much to see. We just walked around and enjoyed the historic part of town and the market. Halifax is much bigger. It was pretty foggy most of our time there, so we didn’t get to see much of the city. We walked around the waterfront and met with relatives, then went to lunch at Salty on the waterfront with them. Later we went to their house for the afternoon, so we can’t say much about the city.

 

The first day at sea was bright and warm. The weather was very good and appropriate for a day at sea. We attended some of the activities and had fun. The second day at sea was very windy, so the higher decks were not comfortable at all. We watched the Caribbean band a little, and attended the art auctions.

 

I saved the worst for last. Debarkation seemed to go fairly well for other cruisers, but I was in the foreigners group. The ship was divided into some 30 numbered groups, and called in order. Foreigners were to report to the Adriatic Lounge at 8:00 AM so we could gather our documents and disembark, going through US Immigration. This took very long and was pretty much a nightmare. Others have reported on this earlier, and it was as bad as they said. The ship probably has around 3000 passengers. So each numbered group should have about 100 passengers. The foreigners group probably had around 500 passengers. We waited in the lounge for about 45 minutes. The projection TV was on CNN, and it was quite loud. When one of the passengers complained that she couldn’t hear the announcements over the PA system because of the TV, the crew member replied that since we were all foreigners, we wouldn’t understand English anyway. She could have replied that the cruise director was just calling the numbered groups, and that wouldn’t make a difference for us because our group would disembark separately. When they finally let us out of the room, we had to stand in one of the cabin hallways in a very long line that moved very slowly. We got to the ship door and checked out with our S+S cards. Then we stood in another line to get our documents back. Then we stood in the immigration line that seemed to take forever. We were in the Adriatic Lounge at 8:00 and only got our suitcases around 11:00 AM. Three hours is just too long. My suggestion is that Carnival divide the foreigners group into more than one group, and call them to the Adriatic Lounge at different times. This way we could have stayed on the upper decks or in our cabin waiting, instead of standing in lines. It could and should be done better.

 

We booked this cruise for a few reasons: it was close, so no flights; we needed a vacation; and the price was right. We usually go to a bed and breakfast in August to celebrate our anniversary, and this year we decided to spend a little more and go on a cruise. We enjoyed the cruise immensely, and would recommend this one to anyone who is not a total snob. If you go in knowing what you will get, you will not be disappointed in the whole, as we weren’t. We saw some things that need improvement, but we had a lot of fun.

[nybumpkin]

For some reason, our line (deck 8) was the longest, and the slowest to move. The other lines had about 20 or 30 people at a time, and moved pretty quickly. Ours had about 150 people and was very, very slow. We waited for a long time, and finally checked in.

It was probably the slowest line because it was our line as well - we joke that we jinx any line we're in! Glad you had a good cruise.

[Kempa]

So it was YOUR fault! Sorry we didn't get to meet onboard. We got to the meet and greet a little late and didn't find anyone there with the leis. I was the guy walking around with a goofy sun hat wrapped in yellow and green leis, if you saw me.

 

Aren't you the one with the three kids? I think I saw your family in Saint John on the boardwalk, near the Hilton.

[nybumpkin]

So it was YOUR fault! Sorry we didn't get to meet onboard. We got to the meet and greet a little late and didn't find anyone there with the leis. I was the guy walking around with a goofy sun hat wrapped in yellow and green leis, if you saw me.

 

Aren't you the one with the three kids? I think I saw your family in Saint John on the boardwalk, near the Hilton.

I think we were on Lido deck until a little before 4, then figured we'd probably go make sure we had lfe jackets for the boat drill. Sorry we missed you! You probably did see us by the Hilton - that's where we started walking the Harbour Passage. (It's probably one of the few times anyone saw us with all 3 kids at the same time!)