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Carnival Victory 4 Day Review


maxwell'sparents
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So to wrap up Saturday.. we were walking around when I noticed something strange. Someone was getting pictures taking and I quickly realized that the backdrop was off...

 

The backdrop was freaking Pittsburgh!

 

Now I guess I should have stated this days ago but we're from Pittsburgh. This backdrop was as accurate of photo pittsburgh as there is. It even had "highmark" across the top of the 5th ave. building which takes away from it being a backdrop IMO. There were some fellow yinzers (people from Pittsburgh) getting their photo taking and they were just as shocked as we were.

 

So naturally we had to get our portraits done. The photographer explained to us that it is labeled as "little italy" or something. I told her that it's not Italy but we have more bridges than venice.

 

We never ended up going and trying to find our photos from this but if anyone has a photo with a gold bridge and the highmark building I would love to see it. Jess was convinced that it was all a dream that occurred after long day in cozumel.

 

After our photo shoot we went in to see Pete at the piano bar. For such a short cruise, the piano bar quickly developed some regulars there. We were one of them. So was Greenbay Fan. She was loving this place and played a mean tamberine.. 10 inches from my face. Fortunately the greenbay game was going on so she left every few minutes to check the scores. During one of those trips the tamberine found its way to the other side of the bar.

 

It was a good night that got better once greenbay's husband came in and started serenading us all with some improvised songs.

 

Jess was worn out and went to bed but I stayed a bit longer since we only had one day left of cruising and I couldn't waste time sleeping. I also managed to get to pizza pirate. ;)

 

Still to come.. a fun day at sea, John the legend from down under, and what happens when you only have 4 drinks left but it's only 6pm..

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Thanks for the review! We'll be on the Victory very soon, so I love your pics of the ship. Looking forward to the next installment. We did the Key West, Cozumel cruise a few years ago and had an awesome time!

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Thanks for the review! We'll be on the Victory very soon, so I love your pics of the ship. Looking forward to the next installment. We did the Key West, Cozumel cruise a few years ago and had an awesome time!

 

You're welcome. I wanted to write this for everyone passing the time until its their turn to cruise.

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Finally this review has made it to day 4 of 4…

 

Sunday – Fun Day at Sea

 

Unfortunately at the time we’re thinking, “how can it be the last day of our cruise already”. But we weren’t going to dwell on the fact that things were already coming to an end. Instead we kept reminding ourselves that this whole trip is a bonus cruise that we never get to take.

 

Not counting embarkation day this was our only full sea day. I’m the type of guy who enjoys a sea day so I was ready to make the most of it. We had only one thing on our agenda this day… The Steelers were playing at 4:30. The moment they won the week before we immediately packed our jerseys and terrible towels and were looking forward to watching our first game on a ship.

 

We started the day off with one of my favorite meals on this ship, Sea Day Brunch. I love the menu they have for this and I can never decide what I want to eat. We had a great table at an aft window and were seated with very friendly people from all over the country. We ended up again having slow service but it wasn’t so bad because we had good company and good conversations going on the whole time.

 

We were at brunch for a long time since we just sat around talking and having coffee for a while. Then once they brought out one dessert, we all wanted some. By the time we headed out of there we were ready to go and enjoy the sun. We quickly changed and got a lounger at the aft pool.

 

A quick side note, for whatever reason on this cruise we spent the most of our pool time at the aft pool. But when we were on the Breeze we spent all of our “pool time” at Serenity. I’m not sure the reason for it.

 

So there we are at the pool and Paige and Chesley sit down next to us so we chatted with them for a while. We ordered coronas but I couldn’t convince them to join us for drinks just yet. We wanted to get in the hot tubs but they were both full for a while. We kept an eye on them and when one emptied out a bit we hopped in.

 

Everyone in this one was all part of a large group and we told them when they rest of their group came back we’d get out for them. We were happy to switch to the other tub when they eventually came back and we were pretty happy to switch over to the other tub. That group started to get out of control and it turned out that the other hot tub was all people with pittsburgh roots.

We eventually named this the official steelers tailgate of the ship. We sat around talking all things pittsburgh and sports and had several more coronas there before heading back to the room to get ready.

 

Our goal was to get to the EA Sports bar by 3:30 and get a decent spot. To our surprise this place was already packed for the early game Seattle/Carolina. We managed to squeeze in and get a spot to stand in the back.

 

They way this bar is set up (and may be the same on other ships) but behind the bar are all tvs that show the game. You can sit at the bar or you can sit in one of the several booths along the other wall. So you can’t just stand behind someone sitting at the bar because then you’re blocking the view for those sitting down.

 

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They also have two tvs in the corners of the room where you normally find someone playing video games on. We were standing between these tvs and the booths when a seattle guy and a Carolina guy offered us their seats at this corner tv once the first game ended. We would have been fine standing where we were but we gladly accepted these seats next that were next to another couple in steelers gear.

 

By the time the first game was ending this place was really jammed as everyone was coming and trying to get in for the next one. It got to the point where people couldn’t even get close to the entrance, let alone have a spot once inside.

 

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I was glad we got there when we did. We started to feel bad for the bartender. All of these people and he was there by himself. It seemed like he called his boss because he was on the phone and shortly after there were three bartenders. The best part was one of his

reinforcements was Ida!

 

I immediately knew I wouldn’t have to fight any of the lines at the bar.

 

As soon as he saw me he came over and took my order and when I went to get my card he told me not to worry he still remembers my number. Now I’ve always been impressed when the staff remembers my name or my drink of choice but my mind was blown when this guy knew all of that and my folio number.

 

So once we got situated in our seats we started chatting it up with the Steelers couple next to us. It turns out we were sitting with a legend. OK so maybe he was only a legend among the steeler nation on this ship but a legend none the less.

His name was John and his new bride was Rosetta. They were from Sydney and were on their honeymoon. Well.. they were on the end of their 5 week honeymoon. It started over a month ago when the first stop was a trip to Pittsburgh! He wanted to watch a game at Heinz field since he’s been a fan since the early 90s.

 

This type of dedication to the team made him a celebrity. Around the ship you heard people talking about the Australian they met. And while watching the game with him, other steelers fans would come and talk with us. Once he mentioned he was from Sydney they would respond “You’re the guy everyone’s been telling me about!”

 

We had a blast during the game talking about the team, primanti sandwiches, and giving the Denver fans a hard time. John was really happy to be watching the game among other steeler fans for a change. Jess and I realized we were about to be in trouble though..

 

It was only about 6:30ish and we only had about 4 drinks left for the day! John wanted to intervene and start putting our drinks on his account. A small bending of the rules I know but we all had cheers so no harm no foul. John had been there since we walked by on our way to breakfast so he was was towards the end of his limit too.

 

It was obvious that I shouldn’t have been drinking 12 oz. coronas all day. I wanted to switch over to Fosters since they’re twice as big he guilted me out of it. Apparently it's not a very respected beer among Australians so I joined him in the Pirate Punch.

 

We continued to watch the game with lots of hollering, towel waving, and general good time.

 

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We were winning through most of the game and we started making plans for John and Rossetta to come to pittsburgh for the superbowl. Then we ended up losing and I’m sure anyone who wasn’t a steelers fan was probably glad to see that so we would finally shut up.

 

As soon as the game ended John stormed out. Rosetta followed him but eventually came back to say goodbye to us.

 

 

Still to come, mourning this loss at alchemy and the piano bar, random thoughts and pictures of the victory.

 

Thanks to everyone who's been following along!

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Great review we will be sailing the Victory this summer.

 

You said for elegant night there was no lobster, I am a little disappointed. We haven't sailed Carnival in over a year and didn't know they took it off the menu for short cruises. What was on the menu for Elegant night?

 

Also I am a coffee snob and was wondering if they have a place to buy premium coffee on the ship?

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Great review we will be sailing the Victory this summer.

 

You said for elegant night there was no lobster, I am a little disappointed. We haven't sailed Carnival in over a year and didn't know they took it off the menu for short cruises. What was on the menu for Elegant night?

 

Also I am a coffee snob and was wondering if they have a place to buy premium coffee on the ship?

 

Thanks for the kind words. Enjoy your trip!

 

On elegant night we had scallops for our appetizer. They were small, but tasted good. I would order two next time. For the main course Jess ordered the "jumbo" shrimp and I ordered blue crab ravioli. The ravioli was pretty good, but it was no lobster. Jess left the dining room before her shrimp arrived. She was not really hungry and after an hour of waiting decided that there were better things to be doing.

 

There is a coffee shop on promenade deck near Alchemy bar.

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Sounds like you got sub par service in the dining room. You should have spoken to the maitre d! There is no reason to be so slow that you don't even get to eat your dinner! Of course do so politely since these people have access to your food!

Edited by Jana60
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Sounds like you got sub par service in the dining room. You should have spoken to the maitre d! There is no reason to be so slow that you don't even get to eat your dinner! Of course do so politely since these people have access to your food!

 

 

Yeah the MDR definitely wasn't up to the standard that we normally receive from Carnival. And if it was a longer cruise I may have spoken up but since we knew we would only have dinner twice it wasn't worth the bother. Surely we could have just had bad luck two nights in a row.

 

We always have anytime dining and once we are seated in a good section we always ask to be seated in that same section every night.

 

I really think we were just spoiled from our service on the Breeze in August. We were fortunate enough to have Ryan's section on the first night and he exceeded our expectations 8 nights in a row.

 

The rest of the staff throughout the Victory was great.

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Ok time to wrap this thing up..

 

When I left off we were mourning the Steelers loss. Where better to get medicine for this depression than at Alchemy. It was surprisingly empty again and we were able to chat with Felipe some more. Every few minutes someone would come by and see us in our jerseys and ask us who won. We refused to change out of the jerseys though since it would be our last time wearing them until september.

 

After a while we went into the piano bar and hung out with all of the regulars in there. Since I were almost at our 15 drink limit I purchased a round of shots for us and 2 others that we were watching the game with. I’m not sure the official rules purchasing drinks while having Cheers but I did it and the bartender in there brought them out.

 

We had a good time in there and Pete was having fun messing with Jess. She kept asking for scenes from an italian restaurant and he’d play the first 5 seconds and then stop. Then one time when she was coming back from the ladies room he played the end of it to make her think she missed it.

 

We stuck around a bit after we hit our 15 limit but then we were off to go grab some food. Greenbay’s husband was trying to get us to stay and kept offering to buy our drinks since we were shut off but it was time to move on.

 

The next morning we were back in Miami and had to head home. We had a later flight so we were in no hurry to get off but we tried to get out of the room as quickly as we could. We ate and walked around for a while until we dragged ourselves off. Once we got through customs we called SAS to find our driver. We picked up a group from the Ectasy and we were on our way to FLL. Before long we were back home and freezing again..

 

All in all it was another great vacation and we can’t wait until summer to take a longer cruise. It was nice to cruise in the winter but 4 days just isn’t long enough.

 

Our initial plan for this summer was to possibly do the Fascination out of San Juan. This would offer us a new class of ship and some new ports. But we’re not sure what we’re going to do. The Zika virus has made us slow down a bit with booking anything. We may still end up doing that cruise but we want to see if any new information comes out about the virus between now and then.

 

Because of this we’ve also been considering possibly Alaska or the Mexican Riveria out of Long Beach. What’s great is we have so much research and reviews to read and options to consider that we’ll be able to keep busy until it’s time to go again.

 

 

 

 

Here are some random photos that didn’t fit in anywhere else:

 

 

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And to wrap things up just some random thoughts about our trip

 

In general we enjoyed the Victory. It’s noticeably smaller than our previous two cruises, the Breeze and the Liberty, and IMO me that’s a good thing. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles like the new ships but it’s a more intimate setting as you keep seeing and talking with the same people. It can show its age in some spots but nothing more than normal wear and tear. The staff seemed to constantly be cleaning.

 

I found it easy to navigate having been on a few cruises now and because everything you need is on deck 5 really.

 

One thing I didn’t talk about yet was our CD Marcelo. He was just ok, he didn’t do anything to really wow me but he didn’t do anything to ruin our cruise. He has a bit of an accent so understanding him at times could be hard if you’re in a location that the volume is low. Our favorite CD is still Josh AKA Big Sexy.

 

I would definitely go on this ship and itinerary again and/or recommend it to a friend. I would like to one day return to both ports as I feel like there is more to see and do at both.

 

Doing my first review has given me a new respect for those who do them well, Thanks for reading along!

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Thank you for a very well written and entertaining review. We will be sailing on the victory in May and your information was invaluable

 

Thank you! It's a great ship. We loved the size and layout. We really felt a sense of community on this ship that we didn't get from the Dream class.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great review - we will be sailing the Victory in August - does anyone know when the Victory moves up to Port Canaveral? Will it be going into dry dock prior to moving up to PC?

 

I'm disappointed no lobster on formal night - we may be heading to the steakhouse

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Great review - we will be sailing the Victory in August - does anyone know when the Victory moves up to Port Canaveral? Will it be going into dry dock prior to moving up to PC?

 

I'm disappointed no lobster on formal night - we may be heading to the steakhouse

 

She moves on Feb 24-25th. No dry dock

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I am not real sure when it is moving to Port Canaveral, but it was only in dry dock just last year, so I don't think there will be another yet for a while. I understand the disappointment about the lobster tail, but I hate to inform that there is no steakhouse on the Victory.

 

All that aside though. I really liked the Victory (sailed last October). There is plenty to like about this ship. I found it to be just the right size ship, for me, of course. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your cruise as well. The crews was tops.

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I am not real sure when it is moving to Port Canaveral, but it was only in dry dock just last year, so I don't think there will be another yet for a while. I understand the disappointment about the lobster tail, but I hate to inform that there is no steakhouse on the Victory.

 

All that aside though. I really liked the Victory (sailed last October). There is plenty to like about this ship. I found it to be just the right size ship, for me, of course. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your cruise as well. The crews was tops.

 

 

Thanks - I just realized that about the Steakhouse........I guess that leaves more money for beverages :eek:

 

We love this class of ship and lets face it any day at sea is better than a day at work

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