Victory 4 night review - APRIL 10th Nassau/Freeport

Here’s my short review of our short (4 night ) cruise. We sailed on the Victory out of Port Canaveral on April 10th. The last few cruises we were on were 6/7 night cruises but we had chose this one, mainly because we hoped that some other family members were going to join us and it fit right into our 2 week visit to see them all in Florida. Unfortunately no one was able to come this time, so it was just myself (57) and DH (a very youthful 72). :)

The drive south was uneventful and we made pretty good time. Long gone are the days when we used to drive straight thru. We usually drive till dinner time and the check into a hotel for the night.

The first day (April 2nd) we drove from home (Niagara area, Ontario) leaving about 6AM to Orangeburg South Carolina arrived about 7:30 PM. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn. The next day we left about 7AM and arrived at my SIL’s in Micanopy FLA about 2:30 in the afternoon. We stayed there till Saturday April 9th and then drove to Stuart FL and stayed over night with relatives there for one night.

We left Stuart at 8AM – stopped for breakfast and drove to Cape Canaveral. We arrived at Cape Canaveral about 10:45am. We had purchased FTTF and we received an email stating – “Also, and most importantly, if you have flexible travel plans, to ensure a smooth embarkation experience, we suggest you arrive at the cruise terminal for check-in between 11:30 AM and 2:30 PM.” Happy to see the 11:30am checkin.

Here was my first glimpse of the Victory ! I love that first sighting of my future home for the next week (or 4 nights in this case).. You think you’re excited when you are on the way – well actually seeing the ship is the best feeling of all - with this being our 7th Carnival cruise I can honestly say the feeling is just as exciting as the first time !

HELLO VICTORY !

We pulled into the luggage drop off area and a porter helped get our luggage from the car and I walked over the entrance of the terminal and my DH parked the car. Parking was $ 75.00 ($15 per night) they took cash or credit. The porter saw that we had FTTF tags on our luggage and she added a different FTTF tag, then directed me to where we would enter the terminal.

TERMINAL

Inside we first went through security - no line up at all. DH had forgotten to leave his pocket knife in the glove box of the car and he had to empty his pockets into that bowl (looks like our dog’s food dish, LOL) … uh oh..:eek:

Sounds like things went well- I am curious as to how the food was since the Victory has been upgraded... ? :)

DH expected security to take the knife, he knew it was his mistake but, much to his surprise – they handed the dog food bowl back to him, knife and all … from security we went up an escalator the check-in counter where you receive you sail & sign card and confirm your charge account. With the FTTF pass we went left instead of right – going to the right we would have had maybe about 15-20 people ahead of us – think because we were already pretty early it wasn’t that bad - yet, but going to the left we only had 2 couples ahead of us – both FTTF. Once checked in we were seated with the rest of the FTTF guests and within about 20 minutes from first stepping foot in the building, we were already boarding the ship (diamond and platinum were called first to board). I was amazed how quickly we were on the ship. We entered onto deck 3 and there were no crowds, no lines – we rode on the elevator with just one other couple, up to deck 9 LIDO.

We were in a balcony cabin, # 9287. We were the 3rd last cabin towards all the action on lido. I liked the cabin – it had a new flat screen TV and only once did I have to put the A/C on to the coldest setting.

Cabin

This picture of the balcony was taken after I had been laying out there with my feet up ! (the chairs normally would be turned and on either side of the little table).

We were on this ship and had a great time, but then again the Victory is one of my favorite ships.

We were onboard and had our DOD – “Funship Special “ in hand within an hour of arriving to the port !

me :D

Great start! We are doing the Victory 5 day in a month. That Funship looks tasty!:D

I meant to add above that our cabin was ready, so we went there first and dropped off our carryon that contained our cans of pop and our ipads cameras etc. Then just down the hall and we were out on the LIDO for some lunch – we had burgers from the lido grill but I got to say that after having Guy’s burgers on both the Breeze and the Pride, I personally didn’t care for the Victory’s burger and only had one. DH on the other hand said they were just as good as Guys and he had a couple of the 4 days.

Here's DH's burger

After lunch we took our drinks and went to the cabin. Our luggage was there so I unpacked while DH sat out on the balcony. We decided to hang out in the cabin for a while because the lido deck was becoming busy with those getting their lunch and then waiting to get to their cabins.

Muster drill (deck 4) was at 3:00 not much different from any other time. From there we headed up to the top deck to watch sail away. :D

MDR – I will review all our meals here - Since the last few cruises we were on was with a group we always had tablemates we already knew – this time we were seated at a table for 12.

The first night there were 3 couples – including us – the next night a 4th couple joined us and that was it for the rest of the cruise – I don’t know if 4 were missing or if only 8 were assigned to the table..

The menus have not changed yet on the Victory and we were familiar with the item listed from past experience. I did not take and food picture in the dining room – my tablemates talked about “unplugging’ and not carrying cell phones, I didn’t want to take out my phone and start snapping away .... LOL

(More to come tomorrow )

Great start to your review! I sail on Victory for a short 3 day cruise in July so I will be following along to learn more about her. :)

Great review so far!

Very nice photos!

Thank you for your review.

Keith

Nice photos and thanks for the review. I liked your balcony cabin with flat screen...nice.

Sarah...56....lol.

Hope you can post the fun times going on her in July....loving your reveiw!

Loved the waiter who was dancing when the lady when and put a dollar bill in his waistband.

Hey, you actually had a flat screen TV! We had the old tube thing last month. Maybe they will get around to replacing them in all the cabins.

Following along. We are on the Victory next year out of Miami, but soaking in any info about her that I can until then!

Hey, you actually had a flat screen TV! We had the old tube thing last month. Maybe they will get around to replacing them in all the cabins.

I know the tvs on deck one were still the old ones.

Enjoying the review so far!

Following along. We are on the Victory next year out of Miami, but soaking in any info about her that I can until then!

Watch out for the sea horses they bite....they are at the end of the banisters on the stair cases and if you run into them it hurts.

Our assigned table was the first table directly behind the hostess counter at the entrance. All our meals were good. One of the ladies at the table had an issue with a seafood dish she had ordered, it wasn’t what she had expected and she sent it back and got something different. We all agree that the service was very fast for the entire cruise except one night when 6 out of 8 of us ordered steak from the additional charge menu, which of course was understandable.

The serving staff performed their song and dance routines all but the first night. Everyone at table enjoyed the fun.

We had a 3 person waiter team they were very efficient and service was prompt but I felt that they did not get overly friendly with us, like I have experienced on past cruises. I don’t blame them for that, I think they were just too busy.

Thanks everyone for your comments so far.

Menus - Still the old ones, no changes there..

TV - Yes, I remember seeing in another review that only some of the TV's were updated, so I made a point of noticing that we had a new one :D

Dancing Waiter - we actually heard the outburst of everyone laughing and couldn't see at first what everyone was laughing at or the dollar bill in his pants until one of the guests at our table noticed.. LOL

FUNTIMES - Yes - I have all the funtimes, I'll try to scan them tomorrow at work.

FOOD on the LIDO

I have always had mixed feelings about the buffet - and I do believe that it does differ from ship to ship. I found the buffet food on the Victory to be very tasty and there was a good selection of items. We ate dinner every night in the MDR, but for lunch & 3 out of 4 breakfasts, we ate on the lido.

When we went down for breakfast on the first morning we noticed all the HOT food was out for the buffet by 7:00am but it didn't open till 7:30am - at 7:00am they did have danish and muffins available. Later we went and had a fresh made omelette and did so every morning except for the Seaday brunch day - more on that later. OMELETTE TIP - go to the aft pool area for your omelette. We found that there was either no lineup at all or a very few people in line - however no juice and coffee station back there so bring you beverage with you.

PIZZA - Pizza was very good. I liked the thin crust and the fact that it was fresh all the time. They did not have a lot readily made and made it to order. A pizza takes 5 minutes to cook - the fella there had a pretty good routine where he would take 3 orders, make the pizzas needed and put them in to bake, them he would take out the already baked ones, serve them to the few people waiting then repeat the process all over again - 3 ordering and 3 waiting - it kept the line moving pretty good. :)

DELI - DH had a Reuben a couple of times and said it was just okay – I ordered my fav, a turkey wrap – BUT I ask for ham to be put on it too. It is so good.. :D