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Carnival Victory 3/1/09 Review

phinfan63

By phinfan63,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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phinfan63

phinfan63

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We had a group of 6 friends for the March 1st sailing on the Victory. We arrived in San Juan a day early and stayed at the Embassy Suites. This was a very nice hotel and included the Manager’s reception for 2 hours of free drinks and a full breakfast the next morning. I would highly recommend this hotel.

We got a taxi around 11:30 and it was $21.00 plus $1.00 per bag. When we arrived at the port we were told that we couldn’t board until 4:30 so we left our bags with the porters and walked around Old San Juan for an hour or so. We came back to the port at 2:00 and boarding had begun. I don’t really remember how long it took but it couldn’t have been more than 30 minutes total. Easiest embarkation to date! We were in balcony cabins on the Verandah deck (8263, 8265 and 8267). Mr P was our room steward and he was the best. Always greeted us by name and kept our cabin immaculate.

We went immediately to the purser’s desk to request having the dividers open and that was done within a couple hours. Unfortunately one of the dividers either had to open across our door or our friend’s door ~ it was somewhat of a pain but it did allow all 3 balconies to act as one long one and that was worth the trouble.

Mary from our roll call set up an official meet and greet with Carnival in the Black and Red Sea bar. It was very nice to meet people we had been talking to for the last year. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to meet a lot of them due to the fact we had dinner and didn’t know we could have went earlier on the first night. Thanks Mary for setting that up for us.

Dinner was at 8:15 in the Pacific Upper Room (Table 505). We had Yuni (Indonesia) and Ever (Guatemala) and they were absolutely wonderful. The food was great every night and all of it was the correct temperature. Our table was for 8 but we were the only ones assigned. Four of us had cruised Carnival before and all agreed that the portions seemed to have been larger than they were in the past.

Yuni.jpg

Ports of Call

St Thomas: We booked a private tour with High Pockets for a day of sailing and snorkeling. This was a great day. Kathleen (the captain) and her helper Paul were the best. It was an open bar all day and the Rum Swizzles were very tasty. I think next time I will ask for an extra shot of alcohol though ~ didn’t seem to be very strong. Paul was the most personable young man and just too cute for words. Kathleen served a wonderful lunch of pasta and salad with rum cake for dessert. The rum cake is to die for! I did not snorkel but the guys did and thought it was wonderful.

Lunchwhilesailing.jpg

KathleenandPaul.jpg

Dominica: We decided to book a tour thru Beno Tours which was also a private tour for the 6 of us. It was a nice tour but very rainy (of course, it is a rainforest). We stopped at the twin waterfalls which were beautiful and we went Emerald Pool but it was raining so hard that we opted to not walk down to see it and headed back to the ship. His tour did say that rum punch would be included but there wasn’t. He did have the local beer (Kubali) and water. Everyone thought the local beer was the best.

Dominica_TrafalgarFalls3.jpg

Barbados: We decided to do a beach day so we went to Monkey Beach. It was a nice beach but not near as pretty as some of the pictures of other beaches that I had seen. Most of the group wanted to go to a low key beach and we were told that Accra/Rockley was more crowded, etc… I wish we had went there anyway. This is a beautiful island and I would love to go back and spend a week there and visit all the beaches.

Barbados_myfeet.jpg

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phinfan63

phinfan63

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St Lucia: We booked a tour with Cosol for this day. We had the 6 of us and had 6 others from our roll call and had a blast. Hi Bob, Sue, Mark, Sydney, Al and Jean J

StLucia_CosolTour.jpg

This was the cheapest tour we took all week and it was worth every penny. Bumpy was our driver/tour guide and he was excellent.

StLucia_CosolTour_Bumpy.jpg

We made several stops where we were provided with food and drink. I believe we were told there would be a twenty dollar charge if we did not deplete the alcohol so we gave it one heck of a try. The rum punch was wonderful and plentiful. There is a mobile bar that is at every stop and they even sent some in our van with us. Highly recommend this tour!

StLucia_Rainbow2.jpg

Antigua: This was another planned beach day but we ended up just shopping. I was on a quest for Sangster’s Jamaican Rum Crème and found it at the first liquor store. This is great rum crème and is only $8.95 in Antigua. We were all tired so we headed back to the ship and laid on the Lido deck for a couple hours. We talked our friend (Roger) into participating in the Hairy Chest Contest ~ Lots of fun. Roger should have won too but he took second place.

St Kitts: We walked around the shopping area for a couple hours. Very nice shopping right when you get off the ship. We had originally planned on a beach day but decided to do a island tour and then the beach. The island tour was not the best but it only cost $15.00 each so it was worth it. Our driver took us to the beach where Mr X’s Shiggidy Shack was and we stayed there for about an hour. We just ate lunch there because I knew they had Jerk Chicken (yum). It was pretty good though not as good as in Jamaica. The guys had the Bastard Fish (mahi mahi) sandwich and I actually wish I had ordered that ~ it was delicious. I’ll just attach a couple random pictures.

VictoryCruise067.jpg

VictoryCruise052.jpg

StKitts6.jpg

Debarkation: We had a 2:10 flight and were issued a Zone 11 debarkation. This was a very easy process and once we were called (around 10:15) we were off in minutes, got a porter and taxi and headed to the airport. Flight left on time and arrived home at 5:45pm.

We had a wonderful time. The ship was in great shape and the food was good. I am ready to go again!

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NCTribeFan

NCTribeFan

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Thanks for the review and great photos, only they are SO large that I can't read the text without scrolling for every line. Could the possibly be downsized just a little to solve that? Do you have a link to a full photo album where we can see other pics?

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phinfan63

phinfan63

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Thanks for the review and great photos, only they are SO large that I can't read the text without scrolling for every line. Could the possibly be downsized just a little to solve that? Do you have a link to a full photo album where we can see other pics?

 

Well darn ~ I hate that. I actually went to the test site to make sure it didn't do that and apparently I screwed up :D

 

All of the pictures are on photobucket and hopefully this link will work

 

http://s670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/phinfan63/

 

If not, let me know.

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Aplmac

Aplmac

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It is a very tiring itinerary though.

We thought we were pacing ourselves but we were worn out by the time it was over.

Half-day tours make so much sense to me.

 

You can't possibly see everything in a whole day-tour,

so why are you beating yourself to death, port after port? :confused:

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DrayP

DrayP

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Thanks for the great review--I have been on the Victory before, but leave again in just a couple of days for the "exhausting" itinerary--What a way to be exhausted, though!!Great pictures, too!

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henny38

henny38

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Thanks for the great review. We'll be sailing the Victory on 10/18/09 for our 25th anniversary, and got an aft balcony on the Verandah deck. Can't wait!

 

Being that the Verandah deck is just beneath the Lido deck, did you find that it was noisy? Since the aft balcony is beneath the aft adult pool, we thought it would be OK. I hope we were right! :-)

 

We're planning on going to San Juan the day before, as you did, and are looking at the Sheraton near the pier. Is the Embassy Suites hotel near the Sheraton?

 

Thanks again for the wonderful review!

 

Karen

Stafford, VA

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terrielynn

terrielynn

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Thanks for the great review! It just gets me more and more excited for our cruise in October! (My first balcony and my DH's first cruise) I was curious what time did they start the self-debarkation? And what time they started calling numbers. Just trying to get a ballpark plan for the trip home! Thanks!!

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lizardhowson

lizardhowson

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Phinfan63, we are going on the Victory in June. Are their refrigerators in the rooms? We are on the same deck as you in balcony cabins. Can't wait! :D

 

I thought I read a post saying Victory doesn't have mini-bars.

 

No big loss as they are not fridges anyway, just mini-bars and barely cooler than the cabin temp.

 

We're planning on going to San Juan the day before, as you did, and are looking at the Sheraton near the pier. Is the Embassy Suites hotel near the Sheraton?

 

Likely not, as they had to get a taxi to pier. Old Sheraton is right caddycorner to pier #4, close enought to walk, even with luggage.

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NCTribeFan

NCTribeFan

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Half-day tours make so much sense to me.

 

You can't possibly see everything in a whole day-tour,

so why are you beating yourself to death, port after port? :confused:

 

I'm doing half-day in some ports, but some are full-day (like Cosol in St Lucia).

 

I'm doing them because, unlike you, I may not get to most of these Southern itinerary ports for years. Since all but St Thomas as new to me, I want to see as much as possible!

 

I don't think that's unreasonable. I don't understand why people would go to some of these places they've never visited and "just" go to a beach. Beaches are everywhere. Go to Half Moon Cay if you just want a beautiful beach because there's nothing else to see.

 

That's why I'm staying 2 days post-cruise in San Juan at the Marriott Stellaris. To rest after my vacation! Some of us want to see these beautiful islands. Of course we can't see everythign there is to see, but we can see as much as we can within reason.

 

I have no plans to go to shows on the ship in the evening or lay out and watch movies. I plan on getting plenty of sleep (since I figure I'll lose my daily gambling allotment in about 15 minutes each night :o ).

 

So please don't give us a hard time because we want to see these ports! I cannot imagine why people go on cruises and then don't seem interested in the ports, but it's none of my business, is it? I only cruise because I want to see the ports. I don't cruise for the ship, or to stuff myself to the gills eating, or to drink myself into a stupor every day. I cruise to get to ports, and, dang it, I'm going to see them! :p

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