My review of Carnival Valor Western Cruise Day 1

[Talulah]

I swore that I would do a review when I got back from my cruise since I enjoyed the reviews I have read... so here I go! (I am not a writer, I'm not a super funny person... these are just opinions and such. Don't expect much! LOL)

 

We did the Carnival Valor Western Carribbean cruise. I will answer any specific questions that anyone has, but I'm only reviewing things that caught my own attention based on my own expectations and things that I actually went to do. This was my first cruise.

 

We arrived at the port of Miami around noon on Sunday June 7th. Everything seemed very organized and it didn't take much longer than 20-30 minutes to get through the line and onto the ship. Once on the ship we were directed to deck 9 for lunch. Walking around the ship was fun... it was beautiful! We didn't take too many pictures of the ship since everything I could have taken-I've already seen posted on CC. Going up to deck 9 we see signs that the rooms will be ready by 1:30. Not bad since it's already past 12:30. Heading up to Rosie's for lunch I am giddy and excited already. We sit down with chicken fingers, fries, and some fresh fruit. I was burgers, and lots of other food there too. We grabbed our first and only drink of the day... it was the Funship Special. Not too bad... not too good. Definatly weak. Yummy... but could have been a lot better. By the time we finish lunch we decide to search the ship. Walking around we are approached by someone selling wine packages. They are a little pushy... but honestly we wanted a wine package anyway. We got the $150 package of 5 premium wines. After gratuity it was $172.50. IT was worth it for us. Now... going through my review I will be adding "Things I wish I would have done..." and I'll start now. I WISH I would have taken a tour of the Spa/Salon/Gym. They give tours between 1pm-Boat Drill. I WISH I would have taken the boat tour. I think it would have been easier to learn the ship layout. Ok. Back to the review. We are finally able to make our way to our room. We are on Deck 7 room 7444. This room is at the back of the ship with a balcony. I have to give this room 4.5 stars. The only reason I wouldn't give it 5 stars is due to the fact it isn't a suite... but it was larger than expected and the balcony was amazing! We never had any problems with noise. We did have a few fruity drink umbrellas end up on our balcony... but I saw how the wind can blow those away once you eat the fruit off of them... so I wasn't about to throw a fit and swear people were "throwing them". Anyways. Pics of the room now!!

 

We took a nap until around 3:40 when we had the boat drill. It didn't last that long and wasn't as bad as most people make it sound. You just kinda deal with it and go back to your room. We were really hoping that our luggage would arrive soon. I was in ratty clothing and I didn't want to go to dinner that way. It was around 4:30 when we sailed away. We decided to take a walk around the outer deck after watching from our balcony for awhile. It was very crowded outside. It wasn't long before we headed back in. We searched for things to do while looking at our caper. We went to the casino, the lobby, peeked into the spa. At this point we really just wanted to unpack so we went to our room happy to find our luggage! We spend the next hour unpacking. Now I read that there were PLENTY of hangers... so I didn't bring any. If you are a shorts/t-shirts person... this is true. If you wear sundresses every day... bring more hangers. We had late sitting for dinner and by the time we were done packing it was around 7 so we started getting showered and dressed for dinner. The bathroom is small, as you can see... but it does have a lot of storage. We had no issues with bathroom clutter. The shower was wonderful. I wish we had that good of water pressure in our condo! Continued next post....

[chachi]

I look forward to hearing the rest of your review.

[cjkumbaya]

Good start to your review - really enjoying your photos. Looking forward to more!

[Talulah]

We went to dinner in the Lincoln room. Seat 154. It was a seat for 4. Not bad. Our head waiter was Reynaldo and our assistant was Yo... short for something that sounded like Yo-Highness. I really wanted to call him Your Highness. :) We couldn't have asked for a better staff at our table and our table mates were wonderful as well. I hope we are that lucky every cruise! We got the Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio for our wine and it was wonderful! After dinner we skipped the show. I thought I would hit every single show... but I just wasn't interested. We ended up spending all night at the casino. It was a lot of fun. My husband played blackjack and I learned how to play. We went to bed around midnight and slept like babies.

[cherylroslyn]

Keep going...can't wait to hear the rest of your review...you are doing a nice job...very straightforward....

[filledwiththefire]

Sounds wonderful! We are leaving on the Valor this Sunday and I just can't wait! :) Thanks for posting the room pictures, this will be my first balcony and I love to see pics of the different balcony staterooms!

[Talulah]

I forgot to mention that we were sung to at dinner the first night and presented a honeymoon cake. So for anyone who heard "happy honeymoon to you... kissy kissy" that first night... yup... that was us. And also... the first towel creature on the first night! Yay!

 

 

 

Day 2... day at sea! I'm sad to say that I misplaced my caper for this day. We woke up early and ran down to the dining room for breakfast. This was the only day we actually ate breakfast in the dining room. The food was good. Service was ok, but it wasn't as wonderful as the dinner service. We had the entire day to spend on the ship so we did lots of looking around. We spent time in the gift shops, the casino, on deck, in our room on the balcony. We didn't join in any games or anything, but we did attend the diamond and gem seminar. For anyone who is planning to go to these for the "free earrings" think again. I'll explain later. LOL We really enjoyed this lecture and learned a lot about buying diamonds so for anyone interested in something like this... do go! So after this lecture we went to the room for a nap. Really enjoying these naps! Later we went to Rosie's for lunch. Rosie's is really hit or miss with the food. You can almost always find SOMETHING you will like... and there is lots to choose from... but not everything is good. Dinner that evening was a formal and we had pictures taken. I have to admit... the photographers are great on the ship. We took pictures almost every night and had to choose only three to buy. This is the first picture. Anyone recognize us? Haha!

 

 

Dinner was wonderful as usual. The staff knew us by name and remembered things about what we like and don't like from the night before. Another bottle of Pino and we were happy campers. I think we spent even more time in the casino that night. We had peeked into the piano bar but it was so crowded we decided to wait until we had time to sit up closer. We went to bed fairly early due to Grand Cayman the next day. Animal of the day....

 

[Talulah]

Grand Cayman!!!! YAY! We were so excited when we docked in Grand Cayman. We jumped out of bed and got ready to head off the ship. We were planning on swimming with the stingrays today. We went with the Reef and Rays tour. It didn't leave until 11am so we had a few hours to run around until the tour met at 10:30 on the pier. We didn't realize that getting off the ship at 7:30am was only 6:30am in Grand Cayman. The stores and such do not open until 8-8:30! We walked around in the blazing hot sun waiting for shops to open. Took a few pictures, and just enjoyed being off the ship.

Our tour met and we went off to the stingrays! We took a bus to the dock and got onto a small boat that took us out to the coral reef. It took about 20-25 minutes to get to the reef and we got to spend at least 20-30 minutes snorkeling. I had never been snorkeling before but it was easy and lots of fun. The fish were beautiful. I WISH I would have gotten an underwater camera... we didn't take any pictures on the boat or in the water and I wish we had some. After the reef we went out about 10 minutes further to the stingrays. This tour isn't on a sandbar with the stingrays around you... you actually snorkel with them. And they are HUGE! I am terrified of them... so this trip was actually to try and get over that fear. You can touch them, dive down to swim with them, and they will swim right up to you sometimes. They really are beautiful creatures and where I am still freaked out by them... I am comfortable swimming with them now. I understand enough about them now to know they won't TRY to hurt you. We spent about 20 minutes or so here before going back to the bus and back to the ship. We got back on the ship after a long wait for a tendor. We took lots of pictures from the ship! It was just a beautiful day!

[LUPY48]

How tall is DH? It looks like he'll never fit in that bed! lol

Loving your review so far. Keep it coming.

[lollylew]

I like to read all the reviews from the Valor because it takes me back to WHEN I was on my cruise! :D

[junebug8]

Great review so far! Keep it coming.:)

[Maxax]

Stellar review...you've got your work cut out for you...to keep it till the end!

[WAcruisers]

Love it! :D

[BeefBeagleAle]

Thanks for the review, I can't wait until i'm on board!:D

[filledwiththefire]

Beautiful pictures of the ship at sea... the water in Grand Cayman looks amazing! :) Keep up the great review, I'm really enjoying it!

[Trish12345]

Thanks for the reviews. We depart on the Valour Sunday (6/21). We are also on the 7th floor, mid ship tho. Our group is going to swim with the sting rays in Grand Cayman. I am also a little nervous about this. I found out long time ago the free earrings, free charm at Diamonds Inter, don't bother.

 

And best of all, I love Pinot Grigio as well!

[joydisney]

great review and pics -

[valancy1]

Good review so far! I will subscribe--we are thinking of sailing Valor around T'giving now that we had to give up our Glory cruise in September (boo hoo).

 

Is this the cruise where you go to Belize, Honduras, etc.?

 

Oh, and for the person nervous about sting rays, DO NOT BE! It is the most awesome thing--that's one reason we want to cruise this again because we love Grand Cayman and the sting rays so much! :D

[gypsyrose]

Great review so far. Love pictoral reviews the best, they seem to make you escape right to where that person was. Thanks!! Waiting on the rest

[trini_ras]

love the review, keep it coming :p

[emmysmommy]

More please!!! I'm loving your review...keep it coming. :)

[themerle]

I'm enjoying your review and hope you will continue to post the remaining days. I was on the Valor in December (a different itinerary) and really enjoyed the ship and crew.

[terisu10]

I was on the Valor the week before you. The next day, WE went to Roatan. The island is poor but beautiful. We did not plan on taking an excursion. Instead, we took a taxi right outside the port gates. This is an experience in itself. The drivers basically FIGHT over the customers. One gentleman came over to negotiate a $50 price for a car and driver. Immediately, another came over and undercut the first man by $5. The first man became very angry and the two of them had a shouting match as many drivers started crowding around us. It was very intimidating as I never experienced this before. Now, I have traveled a LOT and have been to many poor countries but I guess times are so bad now that they really have to fight for their business. Anyway, we decided to go with the first man since DH had made a gentleman's agreement with him and we always honor those. We got a nice air conditioned SUV with a very nice driver. He explained to us that the tourist business is so competitive that the younger guys have to fight for business from the established tour guides and drivers. We drove around the beautiful island stopping at some lookouts to take pictures and to admire the tropical foliage. We then continued to our destination. We had wanted to spend the day on a beautiful beach. We asked to be driven to the Mayan Princess. There, you pay $10 PP to spend the day on this beautiful resort. You can use the chairs, tropical pool, locker rooms, bathrooms, etc. at no extra charge. There is a lovely outdoor bar and restaurant with waiter service. There are many water related fun activities. The driver waits for you until you are ready to return to the port. You can continue to sightsee after the beach or you can stay at the beach until it is time to return to the ship. In essence, it was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever visited. The people were friendly and helpful, the beach sand was pure white, the water was crystal blue, and the driver took us wherever we wanted. Oh, and those Bahama Mamas weren't bad either. :D

We LOVED the Valor. Our 7 days went too fast. The food was perfect, the shows were great, we had a fabulous roll call on CC and met with the folks at the Meet & Greet. We made a lot of new friends and we are staying in touch! I REALLY loved the nightly entertainment on the Valor. There was live music on 3 different decks nightly. One night, the Carnival dancers and the CD, Big Tex, (a hoot!!!) came out and led guests in all sort of dances. I think it was a planned activity but it became an impromptu dance fest as the crowd got bigger, more dancers came out, and everyone was moving to the music. I have to hand it to Big Tex - he has quite a personality and seems genuinely friendly. I really got a kick out of his "TEX MESSAGES". I hope this small review of Roatan helps to motivate the OP to continue her review.

[YFancyface]

You don't give yourself enought credit!! This is an awesome review! I love your first time cruising thoughts! We're on the Valor in a Aug! So excited!!

[terisu10]

Come on, OP, I was hoping you'd get motivated and continue your review? Tell us what you did in Belize???