Review: Victory 8/4 - 8/9 Canada (Long)

[CTMak]

Just back yesterday. Overall it was great. But here it is in detail. I'll try to provide some tips\recommendations\sugestions that I would have liked to know before the cruise -- maybe you'll find them helpful. If you have additional questions, just post it here or e-mail me: ctmak@optonline.net

 

BACKGROUND

 

We cruised with 3 other couples. Five of us went to college together (I met my DW in college) and the 3 spouses all of whom had met before. We graduated over 30 years ago but lost touch and then reconnected 3 years ago and decided to get together and do this. This was our 13th cruise -- 6 on Carnival, 3 of Cunard Sea Goddess, 2 on SilverSeas, 1 each on Celebrity and Costa. 2 of the couples have cruised extensively but not on Carnival, and this was the first cruise for the other couple.

 

SUMMARY

 

As I said, it was terrific. The weather could not have been nicer (especially after the posts I read about fog and rain and cold.) The seas were the smoothest I have ever experienced. The ship was in great shape we all thought. PROS: Food, shows. CONS: Nothing really except IMHO St John is just not that exciting a port.

 

NYC Terminal

 

The other couples are from the Boston area and spent the night at our house in CT. We drove to the terminal in 2 cars and arrived about noon. It was easy and hassle free. (We were the only ship in port so maybe that had something to do with it.) It took no more than 10 or so minutes in line and we were on the ship in no time. TIP: what we did was drop the others off at the luggage drop and went up to the roof to park and this is what I would recommend. They gave the luggage to the porter and waited for us inside the terminal. We parked next to the ship and took an elevator/escalator down. We found this way better than all of us going to park and then schlepping the luggage down the elevator and escalator. Beware: parking is $30 per day ($150 for this cruise) and you pay up front. They take MC and Visa but not Amex.

 

The rooms were not ready until 1:30. In fact, the corridors were closed so you couldn't drop off your carry-ons. So we had lunch on Lido deck and then went to the SPA to make appointments. Our luggage was waiting for us after we toured the ship and we were completely unpacked by the 4:30 Muster Drill. TIP: the prime times for SPA treatments tend to fill up very quickly -- especially for the sea days. If you want to do SPA, sign up ASAP after you board.

 

SAIL AWAY

 

It seemed the ship began pulling away at the end of muster drill so it was a race back to the cabin to drop off life jackets and then be on deck. The weather was beautiful, and sailing down the Hudson with Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Verazzano Bridge (duck!), etc, was spectacular! TIP: Where to view the Sail Away? Most people were on the top decks and that's fine. However, a little known Carnival secret is the front decks on Deck 6 (Upper Deck) and deck 7 (Empress Deck). Just go all the way to the front on either deck, left or right doesn;t matter. On the same side as the cabin doors is a doorway which leads to a forward deck. We did this and we were SO glad we did. Besides us there were maybe 6 other people. We were facing front. Plenty of room, you see both sides left and right (versus being on a top deck with everybody else, 3 deep at the railing on one side, turning your head and/or body to see forward.) In fact, if you read Radio's post (great post Radio -- Thanks!) and looked at the picture of sailing down the Hudson, Radio was on Deck 7 in this spot. In one of the photos, one of our group members was in the picture on Deck 6. Great spot when entering or leaving any port.

 

DINING\FOOD

 

We had the late seating -- 8:15 -- and I recommend this highly. Of course if you have little (and not so little) kids, this would be difficult. In fact a big reason for the recommendation is the lack of little kids at this seating (nothing against little kids, I was one myself once and so were my children, but ....). But also, for example, the sail away was at 5:00 -- tough to watch and make the 6PM seating. Plus rushing back from the ports to hurry up and shower, dress and eat at 6. Not for me. we ate all our dinners in the Dining Room as we had a table for the 8 of us. DW and I also had our b'fasts in the dinning room. Lunches we ate at port; sea days I had the Deli (great Ruben sandwiches,). Pizza was surpisingly good.

 

Overall the food exceeded our expectations. I hadn't been on Carnival since 2005. We sailed on Celebrity this year at Valentine's day. The food on Carnival, I thought, was vastly superior to Celebrity in every way as was the service. The others in our party agreed that the food was terrific. Again, we're not talking Michelin rating, but for a mass maket cruise ship better than expected. The couples with us who sailed before: 1 felt the food was slightly better than RCL; the other felt that RCL's food was slightly better -- but all liked the food.

 

CRUISE DIRECTOR

 

Malcolm -- "Malcolm in the Middle" -- Burn was the CD, and I thought he was terrific. He was funny, entertaining, not full of himself, and energetic. It's funny since one person I met at breakfast said she thought Malcolm wasn't "visible" enough with announcements, and videos a la John Heald. I thought it was a distinct positive -- I appreciated the fewer interruptions. We cruised with John Heald on the Liberty in Europe in 2005 and he was great! But after 12 days on that cruise John can give you that "in your face" feeling. Malcolm was excellent.

 

PORTS

 

St John.

 

Not a very exciting port. DW and I did not sign up for any excursion though the rest of our party did (not the same ones.) we left the ship and walked to the right into town and up to the market. That was kinda neat. Then we walked back to the ship and went left and walked up to the reversing falls. It's about a 30 minute walk -- perhaps a bit longer. Crossing the bridge you get a terrific look at the reversing falls in all its fury -- white water, large whirpools, etc. We did, however, walk to the second restaurant (one of two) and they have a 15 minute movie about the falls for 3 bucks each. It was a bit strange as they take you down to the basement of the restaurant where there's a wide screen TV, a DVD player, and some chairs. we were the only ones there. But the movie was surprising well done and very informative -- well worth it.

 

Then we went to the first restaurant and had lunch overlooking the falls. We really lucked out as by this time "slack tide" was happening (the times for slack tide is posted in town.) This is when the levels of the Bay and the river are equal and all the currents, white water, whirpools just stop. It's as calm as can be -- simply no movement. And this is when all the boats move from one body of water to the other. This lasts about 20-30 minutes then the water levels begin reversing and the fury begins again -- except in the other direction. It's quite amazing. If you go and slack tide is convenient, I strongly suggest you go about a half hour before and stay a half hour after.

 

Halifax

 

We did Halifax tour and Peggy's Cove -- about 3 hours. The weather was great so it was fun and interesting. In the afternoon we just went to the Harbor walk on our own (to the right of the ship) had lunch and browsed the shops. As luck would have it, it was the first day of the international Buskers festival. Buskers are street performers. And there were bands playing and all sorts of things going on. Great fun!

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

A Carnival strongpoint! I'll go through each venue.

 

Shows:

 

Terrific! Basically, 4 shows: the welcome show, Living in America and Vrooom -- production shows; and the Legends show. All of us went to all the shows except the Legends show which I and 2 others from our group attended. Vrooom especially was great -- lights, lasers, pyrotechnics! And it was their second performance of the evening -- don;t know how they keep up the energy. Amazing! It was infectious. Standing Ovation and deservedly so. Even the Legends Show was good. (Karaoke winners dress and sing like various stars: Elvis, Sinatra, Madonna, etc.) Sometimes these Legends shows can really bomb but they did a great job.

 

Comedians:

 

One was great; the other - absolutely horrible! Happy Cole did the first R-rated midnight show and he was fantastic! Make no mistake about it: it was dirty -- but tremendously funny. Everybody loved him.

 

The second guy -- a fly-in named Craig Carmean -- began with a filled room (the back lounge where Karaoke is held). I think since the first guy was so funny people thought that this show would be good as well. There was standing room only. After 5 minutes people started leaving in droves. After 10 minutes he was openly heckled ("Why don;t you say something funny"). Part of his act was playing a guitar and singing which, actually, he was pretty good at. So someone from the audience said out loud, "Quit talking and just play the guitar." He was nasty and unfunny. As an example, he made fun -- and nasty stuff -- of the mentally and physically handicapped: some of whom were in the audience. Just uncalled for. And it wasn't just us "ol' folks." A table of 20-somethings (though they looked younger but they were getting served drinks) left after about 20 minutes. We left just after them.

 

Piano Bar

 

I love piano bars! But .... We stopped in the Irish Seas Piano Bar on several ocassions. The guy played well enough and he sang on-key. But all the songs kinda sounded the same. The bar was never more than 25% full and you could always get a seat around the piano -- usually the hottest seat in the house. Kinda lacked energy. At least the times I/we were there he didn't seem to engage the crowd. for example: even though he had Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar" on his song-suggestion list -- a piano bar staple - he had to open his music book to play it. Strange. It wasn't bad, just wasn't good. Disappointing.

 

Others

 

We didn't see the Magic act. The band playing on Promenade deck (outside the casino) seemed good. Always plenty of people dancing so that's a good sign.

 

Casino

 

Lost $100 each of the first 2 nights playing Let it Ride and Black Jack (to the guy on my left with the Red Sox cap: you never, EVER, stand on a soft 15 -- ever!!!!) But came back strong with 3-Card Poker ending up $150 ahead for the trip. So that was good.

 

Disembarking

 

The ship docked at about 7 AM. We were using Self-Assist which means carrying your bags off yourself. The instructions were to wait until your deck was called which we were doing. TIP: Our cabin steward, who was terrific, told us to wait in the Caribbean Lounge (the large show theatre) rather than in our cabin and said it would be faster. we asked if that would be OK and he assured us it would so that's what we did. We got there and in about 5 minutes a Carnival employee came in and said if we were ready we could go. So we did. Not a single person in line to get off the ship or at customs. It was great. we were off the ship, basically, as fast as we could walk.

 

Also, they changed the procedure a bit. I would recommend you go to the disembarkation talk as it was very helpful -- and this from an experienced cruiser. And the CD Malcolm actually makes it entertaining believe it or not.

 

So again, we had a blast! Any questions just let me know.

 

CT Mak

[Carnival Game]

Thanks for your trip report.

 

We sailed on the Victory in the spring and loved it! We thought all the shows were terrific, especially Vrooom. Too bad Malcolm stopped doing his Silent Film Skit show. He made me laugh until I cried.

[CTMak]

Thanks for your trip report.

 

We sailed on the Victory in the spring and loved it! We thought all the shows were terrific, especially Vrooom. Too bad Malcolm stopped doing his Silent Film Skit show. He made me laugh until I cried.

 

Sounds like it would have been funny. Woo Hoo!!!!!!

 

CT Mak

[Carnival Game]

He'd pick people out of the audience, one at a time, demonstrate something they're supposed to do (without talking), and the people would never get it right. He was blowing a whistle, making hand gestures telling them to go, stop, etc., and did a good job looking humorously frustrated. We knew the second (later) show would be different with new people so we went to both of them. He was hilarious.

[nybumpkin]

Thanks for the great review! Was the walk to the Reversing Falls difficult at all? We will be visiting Saint John for the third time when we sail next week (:D) and we haven't made it there yet. We walked the Harbour Passage last year and I figured since we're docking at Long Wharf it will cut that much time off the walk to the Falls.

[CTMak]

Thanks for the great review! Was the walk to the Reversing Falls difficult at all? We will be visiting Saint John for the third time when we sail next week (:D) and we haven't made it there yet. We walked the Harbour Passage last year and I figured since we're docking at Long Wharf it will cut that much time off the walk to the Falls.

 

Not too difficult. The first part is quite nice -- they have a walkway along the water. The second part -- the sign says 0.9 kilometers but it seemed longer than that -- is out on the sidewalk past a steel factory so it wasn't the most attractive walk. It was fairly flat though.

 

We walked both ways after doing a lot of walking in the AM. If worse comes to worst, you can always take a taxi back from the falls. But if the weather is nice, the extra walking goes well with all the extra eating!!!!!!!

 

As I said, it's about 30 - 40 minutes each way.

 

Enjoy!

 

CT Mak

[rebeljohn]

Thanks for posting your review.............enjoyed reading it..............

[CTMak]

You are welcome!

 

Thanks

 

CT Mak

[steel123]

CTMak--We are leaving this Thursday for the 4-day cruise! Thanks for all the great tips. We only have one stop--St. John. We are planning to visit the reversing falls. The restaurants sound great. What were the names of the restaurants? What kind of food did they serve? The movie sounds interesting, too:)

[CTMak]

CTMak--We are leaving this Thursday for the 4-day cruise! Thanks for all the great tips. We only have one stop--St. John. We are planning to visit the reversing falls. The restaurants sound great. What were the names of the restaurants? What kind of food did they serve? The movie sounds interesting, too:)

 

 

Steel:

 

Don't know the names of the restaurants -- but you can't miss them. They both overlook the "falls" and are only about a hundred yards or so from one another. The first one -- the one we ate at -- has a Visitor's Center attached in the front. After visiting the second one -- the one with the movie -- we went back to the first one simply because it looked a little better.

 

The food is sea food focused but they have pretty much everything for lunch: soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers. I had a lobster roll which was great: just chunks of lobster with some butter on a hot dog roll with shredded lettuce -- no mayonaise, no celery just lobster. DW had scallops. A bit pricey, but oh well.

 

CT Mak

[cjkumbaya]

What a great review - thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with everyone. What a neat way to renew your college friendships. Glad everyone had a nice time.

[Leo Jay]

I'm on the 7-day version in 33 days so good to hear such a great report!

[CTMak]

What a great review - thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with everyone. What a neat way to renew your college friendships. Glad everyone had a nice time.

 

CJ

 

Thanks. Frankly, DW and I were a little let's say "anxious" because it's one thing -- after 30 years or so -- to have dinner and renew acquiantences; it's quite another to spend 5 days together. Again, we were really close in college but still. Anyway, it was great. In college we spent a lot of time -- in fact almost constantly -- playing cards. If the girls were there we played hearts; just the guys we played bridge. On this cruise we found our spot on the aft deck (deck 9 by the aft pool) and everyday at about 4 or 4:30 we met there, had a bunch of drinks, and played hearts. It was Great!!!!!

 

Then we would leave around 7 and shower change and head for dinner at 8:15. Then we all went to the shows together.

 

Again, if you don;t have little ones get the late seating. don't have to rush. And a nice quiet time on deck or on your balcony before dinner.

 

CT Mak

[steel123]

CT Mak,

Thanks for your response and additional information about the restaurants. It sounds like a great way to spend the day. I appreciate your opinion on the food, too! The lobster roll sounds delicious. I can't believe we'll be there in a few days!

 

Again, your detailed review was great!:)

[Sky Sweet]

Just back yesterday. Overall it was great. But here it is in detail. I'll try to provide some tips\recommendations\sugestions that I would have liked to know before the cruise -- maybe you'll find them helpful. If you have additional questions, just post it here or e-mail me: ctmak@optonline.net

 

BACKGROUND

 

We cruised with 3 other couples. Five of us went to college together (I met my DW in college) and the 3 spouses all of whom had met before. We graduated over 30 years ago but lost touch and then reconnected 3 years ago and decided to get together and do this. This was our 13th cruise -- 6 on Carnival, 3 of Cunard Sea Goddess, 2 on SilverSeas, 1 each on Celebrity and Costa. 2 of the couples have cruised extensively but not on Carnival, and this was the first cruise for the other couple.

 

SUMMARY

 

As I said, it was terrific. The weather could not have been nicer (especially after the posts I read about fog and rain and cold.) The seas were the smoothest I have ever experienced. The ship was in great shape we all thought. PROS: Food, shows. CONS: Nothing really except IMHO St John is just not that exciting a port.

 

NYC Terminal

 

The other couples are from the Boston area and spent the night at our house in CT. We drove to the terminal in 2 cars and arrived about noon. It was easy and hassle free. (We were the only ship in port so maybe that had something to do with it.) It took no more than 10 or so minutes in line and we were on the ship in no time. TIP: what we did was drop the others off at the luggage drop and went up to the roof to park and this is what I would recommend. They gave the luggage to the porter and waited for us inside the terminal. We parked next to the ship and took an elevator/escalator down. We found this way better than all of us going to park and then schlepping the luggage down the elevator and escalator. Beware: parking is $30 per day ($150 for this cruise) and you pay up front. They take MC and Visa but not Amex.

 

The rooms were not ready until 1:30. In fact, the corridors were closed so you couldn't drop off your carry-ons. So we had lunch on Lido deck and then went to the SPA to make appointments. Our luggage was waiting for us after we toured the ship and we were completely unpacked by the 4:30 Muster Drill. TIP: the prime times for SPA treatments tend to fill up very quickly -- especially for the sea days. If you want to do SPA, sign up ASAP after you board.

 

SAIL AWAY

 

It seemed the ship began pulling away at the end of muster drill so it was a race back to the cabin to drop off life jackets and then be on deck. The weather was beautiful, and sailing down the Hudson with Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Verazzano Bridge (duck!), etc, was spectacular! TIP: Where to view the Sail Away? Most people were on the top decks and that's fine. However, a little known Carnival secret is the front decks on Deck 6 (Upper Deck) and deck 7 (Empress Deck). Just go all the way to the front on either deck, left or right doesn;t matter. On the same side as the cabin doors is a doorway which leads to a forward deck. We did this and we were SO glad we did. Besides us there were maybe 6 other people. We were facing front. Plenty of room, you see both sides left and right (versus being on a top deck with everybody else, 3 deep at the railing on one side, turning your head and/or body to see forward.) In fact, if you read Radio's post (great post Radio -- Thanks!) and looked at the picture of sailing down the Hudson, Radio was on Deck 7 in this spot. In one of the photos, one of our group members was in the picture on Deck 6. Great spot when entering or leaving any port.

 

DINING\FOOD

 

We had the late seating -- 8:15 -- and I recommend this highly. Of course if you have little (and not so little) kids, this would be difficult. In fact a big reason for the recommendation is the lack of little kids at this seating (nothing against little kids, I was one myself once and so were my children, but ....). But also, for example, the sail away was at 5:00 -- tough to watch and make the 6PM seating. Plus rushing back from the ports to hurry up and shower, dress and eat at 6. Not for me. we ate all our dinners in the Dining Room as we had a table for the 8 of us. DW and I also had our b'fasts in the dinning room. Lunches we ate at port; sea days I had the Deli (great Ruben sandwiches,). Pizza was surpisingly good.

 

Overall the food exceeded our expectations. I hadn't been on Carnival since 2005. We sailed on Celebrity this year at Valentine's day. The food on Carnival, I thought, was vastly superior to Celebrity in every way as was the service. The others in our party agreed that the food was terrific. Again, we're not talking Michelin rating, but for a mass maket cruise ship better than expected. The couples with us who sailed before: 1 felt the food was slightly better than RCL; the other felt that RCL's food was slightly better -- but all liked the food.

 

CRUISE DIRECTOR

 

Malcolm -- "Malcolm in the Middle" -- Burn was the CD, and I thought he was terrific. He was funny, entertaining, not full of himself, and energetic. It's funny since one person I met at breakfast said she thought Malcolm wasn't "visible" enough with announcements, and videos a la John Heald. I thought it was a distinct positive -- I appreciated the fewer interruptions. We cruised with John Heald on the Liberty in Europe in 2005 and he was great! But after 12 days on that cruise John can give you that "in your face" feeling. Malcolm was excellent.

 

PORTS

 

St John.

 

Not a very exciting port. DW and I did not sign up for any excursion though the rest of our party did (not the same ones.) we left the ship and walked to the right into town and up to the market. That was kinda neat. Then we walked back to the ship and went left and walked up to the reversing falls. It's about a 30 minute walk -- perhaps a bit longer. Crossing the bridge you get a terrific look at the reversing falls in all its fury -- white water, large whirpools, etc. We did, however, walk to the second restaurant (one of two) and they have a 15 minute movie about the falls for 3 bucks each. It was a bit strange as they take you down to the basement of the restaurant where there's a wide screen TV, a DVD player, and some chairs. we were the only ones there. But the movie was surprising well done and very informative -- well worth it.

 

Then we went to the first restaurant and had lunch overlooking the falls. We really lucked out as by this time "slack tide" was happening (the times for slack tide is posted in town.) This is when the levels of the Bay and the river are equal and all the currents, white water, whirpools just stop. It's as calm as can be -- simply no movement. And this is when all the boats move from one body of water to the other. This lasts about 20-30 minutes then the water levels begin reversing and the fury begins again -- except in the other direction. It's quite amazing. If you go and slack tide is convenient, I strongly suggest you go about a half hour before and stay a half hour after.

 

Halifax

 

We did Halifax tour and Peggy's Cove -- about 3 hours. The weather was great so it was fun and interesting. In the afternoon we just went to the Harbor walk on our own (to the right of the ship) had lunch and browsed the shops. As luck would have it, it was the first day of the international Buskers festival. Buskers are street performers. And there were bands playing and all sorts of things going on. Great fun!

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

A Carnival strongpoint! I'll go through each venue.

 

Shows:

 

Terrific! Basically, 4 shows: the welcome show, Living in America and Vrooom -- production shows; and the Legends show. All of us went to all the shows except the Legends show which I and 2 others from our group attended. Vrooom especially was great -- lights, lasers, pyrotechnics! And it was their second performance of the evening -- don;t know how they keep up the energy. Amazing! It was infectious. Standing Ovation and deservedly so. Even the Legends Show was good. (Karaoke winners dress and sing like various stars: Elvis, Sinatra, Madonna, etc.) Sometimes these Legends shows can really bomb but they did a great job.

 

Comedians:

 

One was great; the other - absolutely horrible! Happy Cole did the first R-rated midnight show and he was fantastic! Make no mistake about it: it was dirty -- but tremendously funny. Everybody loved him.

 

The second guy -- a fly-in named Craig Carmean -- began with a filled room (the back lounge where Karaoke is held). I think since the first guy was so funny people thought that this show would be good as well. There was standing room only. After 5 minutes people started leaving in droves. After 10 minutes he was openly heckled ("Why don;t you say something funny"). Part of his act was playing a guitar and singing which, actually, he was pretty good at. So someone from the audience said out loud, "Quit talking and just play the guitar." He was nasty and unfunny. As an example, he made fun -- and nasty stuff -- of the mentally and physically handicapped: some of whom were in the audience. Just uncalled for. And it wasn't just us "ol' folks." A table of 20-somethings (though they looked younger but they were getting served drinks) left after about 20 minutes. We left just after them.

 

Piano Bar

 

I love piano bars! But .... We stopped in the Irish Seas Piano Bar on several ocassions. The guy played well enough and he sang on-key. But all the songs kinda sounded the same. The bar was never more than 25% full and you could always get a seat around the piano -- usually the hottest seat in the house. Kinda lacked energy. At least the times I/we were there he didn't seem to engage the crowd. for example: even though he had Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar" on his song-suggestion list -- a piano bar staple - he had to open his music book to play it. Strange. It wasn't bad, just wasn't good. Disappointing.

 

Others

 

We didn't see the Magic act. The band playing on Promenade deck (outside the casino) seemed good. Always plenty of people dancing so that's a good sign.

 

Casino

 

Lost $100 each of the first 2 nights playing Let it Ride and Black Jack (to the guy on my left with the Red Sox cap: you never, EVER, stand on a soft 15 -- ever!!!!) But came back strong with 3-Card Poker ending up $150 ahead for the trip. So that was good.

 

Disembarking

 

The ship docked at about 7 AM. We were using Self-Assist which means carrying your bags off yourself. The instructions were to wait until your deck was called which we were doing. TIP: Our cabin steward, who was terrific, told us to wait in the Caribbean Lounge (the large show theatre) rather than in our cabin and said it would be faster. we asked if that would be OK and he assured us it would so that's what we did. We got there and in about 5 minutes a Carnival employee came in and said if we were ready we could go. So we did. Not a single person in line to get off the ship or at customs. It was great. we were off the ship, basically, as fast as we could walk.

 

Also, they changed the procedure a bit. I would recommend you go to the disembarkation talk as it was very helpful -- and this from an experienced cruiser. And the CD Malcolm actually makes it entertaining believe it or not.

 

So again, we had a blast! Any questions just let me know.

 

CT Mak

 

Hi CTMak :)

 

I was on the same cruise and enjoyed your review. We were a family reunion group of five married couples and six children, including our sixteen month old granddaughter, and everyone had a great time. This was our first Carnival cruise in eight years. In the interim we have sailed Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, and Holland America.

 

The food on this cruise also exceeded my expectations. It appears that Carnival's cuisine has improved signficantly, while the food on other mass market cruise lines has slipped during the same time frame.

 

We also loved the Vroom production show and I think it is the best one I have ever seen on a cruise ship.

[CTMak]

Hi CTMak :)

 

I was on the same cruise and enjoyed your review. We were a family reunion group of five married couples and six children, including our sixteen month old granddaughter, and everyone had a great time. This was our first Carnival cruise in eight years. In the interim we have sailed Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, and Holland America.

 

The food on this cruise also exceeded my expectations. It appears that Carnival's cuisine has improved signficantly, while the food on other mass market cruise lines has slipped during the same time frame.

 

We also loved the Vroom production show and I think it is the best one I have ever seen on a cruise ship.

 

 

HI Sky:

 

What fun -- with your whole family!

 

I've cruised over Christmas holiday as well as Thanksgiving. And a cruise is -- IMHO -- the perfect venue for family reunions. All ages can kinda do what they want -- but having dinner together kinda brings everyone together.

 

Over 5 plus days family or no it can be intense. But a cruise offers everybody a chance to kinda do their own thing -- which IMHO is necessary.

 

Just me.

Anyway.....

 

CT Mak

[divetrash]

Piano Bar

 

I love piano bars! But .... We stopped in the Irish Seas Piano Bar on several ocassions. The guy played well enough and he sang on-key. But all the songs kinda sounded the same. The bar was never more than 25% full and you could always get a seat around the piano -- usually the hottest seat in the house. Kinda lacked energy. At least the times I/we were there he didn't seem to engage the crowd. for example: even though he had Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar" on his song-suggestion list -- a piano bar staple - he had to open his music book to play it. Strange. It wasn't bad, just wasn't good. Disappointing.

CT Mak

 

Thanks for your review! I'm sorry the piano bar wasn't your cup of tea. I had a great time in there on my cruise in July. I'm curious though, I've seen this complaint about piano players before about having to use a book. What I don't understand is why it is such an issue. Most all piano entertainers have a "cheat book" that contains the lyrics and often the chord progressions to the songs in their repertoire. Every single performer on land and sea that I've seen, used it multiple times in the course of the evening, even on staples. Not every song on their suggestion list gets requested every night, as a matter of fact I don't recall "I Love This Bar" being requested at all for the the four days I was on there and in the bar. With the hundreds of songs they play over the course of the cruise, it's nice to have the lyrics in front of you even on the "staples". Everyone is subject to memory lapses. Heck, I was at Billy Joel a couple of weeks ago and he had lyric sheets on his piano. And he STILL messed up the words to "Movin' Out"! One of his big hits! LOL!

 

By the way, we absolutely loved Happy Cole's midnight show too. We laughed loud and long during his whole act.

 

Happy cruising,

 

Laura

[CTMak]

Hi Laura

 

Happy was great wasn't he! He had the place roaring.

 

About the piano guys using books, it really doesn't matter to me one way or another if they use them. If he\she has the bar rockin' and is using a book who cares. The only point I was making is that he had a request sheet which was a single laminated sheet with songs and artists on both sides. Maybe 50 songs. I Love This Bar was one of the songs on the sheet. No big deal, I just thought it was a bit odd that he had to use the book given it was on his list and there were just 50 or so songs.

 

Again, he played well and could sing on key. And he seemed nice enough. But I've been in Carnival piano bars where the people were lined up 5 deep around the bar and everyone was singing into the wee hours. That wasn't the case here.

 

CT Mak

[divetrash]

Hi CTMak,

 

Ahhhh, okay, it's a perception thing then. The songs that he has on the list or any piano man who has a list is generally a suggestion list, songs he can play, but not by any means ALL the songs that they know. There's a debate about whether to offer the lists or not. Some see it as a way to display their range and also spark song suggestions from the bar. Others worry about patrons thinking that this is all they know and thinking that their repertoire is very limited. I guess it's all in the perception in the end.

 

Anyway, I hope you get a chance to see Peter in action when he and the crowd are more energetic. He really can be a lot of fun! So many things affect the piano bar, beyond just the player. They are pretty much vampires and feed off the energy of the crowd as well. I had friend on the Victory sailing right before yours and told her to make sure she got into the piano bar (I had set up a joke on her with Peter). When she got back she told me she never made it in to the piano bar because it was packed!

 

My boyfriend still quotes one of Happy's R-rated bits... "Did you say ti**ies?" LOL!

 

 

Cheers,

 

Laura

[bleuiz]

Hi CTMak,

 

Ahhhh, okay, it's a perception thing then. The songs that he has on the list or any piano man who has a list is generally a suggestion list, songs he can play, but not by any means ALL the songs that they know. There's a debate about whether to offer the lists or not. Some see it as a way to display their range and also spark song suggestions from the bar. Others worry about patrons thinking that this is all they know and thinking that their repertoire is very limited. I guess it's all in the perception in the end.

 

Anyway, I hope you get a chance to see Peter in action when he and the crowd are more energetic. He really can be a lot of fun! So many things affect the piano bar, beyond just the player. They are pretty much vampires and feed off the energy of the crowd as well. I had friend on the Victory sailing right before yours and told her to make sure she got into the piano bar (I had set up a joke on her with Peter). When she got back she told me she never made it in to the piano bar because it was packed!

 

My boyfriend still quotes one of Happy's R-rated bits... "Did you say ti**ies?" LOL!

 

 

Cheers,

 

Laura

 

We've generally avoided Piano bars because they are so smoky....am I correct? Where is the piano bar on the Victory? Is it near the casino?

[Sky Sweet]

HI Sky:

 

What fun -- with your whole family!

 

I've cruised over Christmas holiday as well as Thanksgiving. And a cruise is -- IMHO -- the perfect venue for family reunions. All ages can kinda do what they want -- but having dinner together kinda brings everyone together.

 

Over 5 plus days family or no it can be intense. But a cruise offers everybody a chance to kinda do their own thing -- which IMHO is necessary.

 

Just me.

Anyway.....

 

CT Mak

 

Hi CT Mak :)

 

I agree that a cruise is the best venue for a family reunion. We had two adjacent tables in the dining room for the sixteen of us and sat in a different seat every night so each of us would have an opportunity to chat with everyone at some point during dinner.

 

We also designated an area of deck 9 as a place for people in our group to find each other. This way we could either do our own thing during the day or spend time with other family members, without much planning.

[CTMak]

We've generally avoided Piano bars because they are so smoky....am I correct? Where is the piano bar on the Victory? Is it near the casino?

 

Hi Blueiz:

 

Smoking is allowed in the piano bar and you're right: typically they are way smokey. This one wasn't for some reason: maybe the smoke-eater machine was good; maybe the people in there weren't smokers. It wasn't bad at all.

 

On the Victory, the piano bar -- Irish Sea Bar -- is in the aft of the ship on Deck 5 (Promenade Deck) on the starboard side of the ship. The casino is on the same deck but more towards the center of the ship. Similar to the Liberty. On Fantasy class Carnival ships, they are near one of the dining rooms.

 

CT Mak

[mgus1]

Thanks for the review CTMak,

 

We are sailing sept. 20 on the Victory (7days) Your review really helps with some insight. One question, Do you know if they offer "Luggage Express" service?

 

Thanks again

[CTMak]

Thanks for the review CTMak,

 

We are sailing sept. 20 on the Victory (7days) Your review really helps with some insight. One question, Do you know if they offer "Luggage Express" service?

 

Thanks again

 

Thanks MGUS:

 

Not quite sure what "luggage Express" service is. As I said, we gave the bags to the porter at luggage drop off -- they were delivered sometime between 2 and 4. We used self-assist when disembarking which simply means taking the bags off yourself. If you want to get off the ship quickly and (assuming you don;t have a gajallion bags) this is what I recommend. Otherwise, they do it by zones - not by deck anymore. So first it's all the self assist folks (this is done by deck). Then all the zone luggage which was picked up overnight -- and this is done by priority (suites, platinum, past guest, etc.) In any event, you'll be off by 10:30 the latest as they have to turn the ship over.

 

The last sea day which is the day before you get back they have the $15 laundry service (whatever fits in the bag they gave you.) It's good for t-shirts, underwear, shorts etc. -- saves time when you get home.

 

Let me know if uyou have additional questions.

 

And enjoy your cruise!!!!!

 

CT Mak