Carnival Victory 4 Day Review

Carnival Victory 1/14/16 - 1/17/16 Miami to Key West / Cozumel

After reading hundreds of reviews and posts over the past few years i’ve decided to write my first review. I never took the time to learn how to post pictures before but I think I’ve mastered it.

Leading up to our cruise there seemed to be a drought of reviews so I’m hoping mine will help feed someone’s cruise addiction while they patiently wait for your cruise clock to tick down. Let’s see how it goes…

Background:

Jess and I began cruising in 2011 when we honeymooned on the Pride. We sailed the Pride again in 2013, then the Liberty in 2014. This past August we sailed the Breeze to the southern carribean. Since Jess is a teacher we’ve been limited to only cruising during the summer months. When her 2015/2016 schedule came out she quickly realized that with MLK day we would be able to make a winter cruise happen! Sure it would only be 4 days but isn’t better to cruise for 4 days than to never have cruised at all?

Planning:

Once we knew that we would be able to pull it off, we had to figure out which ship we would go on. There were a few options but the decision was easy. We haven’t been on the Victory (or that class) and we haven’t been to Key West or Cozumel. We did sail out of POM in August so we wanted to repeat the the same travel arrangements before hand (we’ll get there in a later post). We read up a bit on the two ports, the ship, and excursions and it all looked good. The day Jess got approval for the time off we went ahead and booked it that night. Fortunately Jess already knew what she wanted to do in each port because once we booked the cruise Carnival had a “promotion” (I know a carnival “promotion” is always going on right?) where we had 1 hour to book 2 excursions at either 10 or 20% off? I can’t remember the exact discount. But we already knew what excursions we were doing so we went ahead and bought our two excursions that night.

Key West - Pub Tour (10AM! when in Rome.. uhh Key West)

Cozumel - La Casa en La Playa (The beach house)

We’ll cover more on these when we get to the those days. But if you decide to stop reading here (and I don’t blame you) I’ll just say both were really cool and we had a great time on both.

I will definitely be following:) I sailed on the Victory last October, and had a wonderful cruise.

Great start to your review, I'm looking forward to more, and thanks for taking the time to post a review.:)

Carnival Victory 1/14/16 - 1/17/16 Miami to Key West / Cozumel

Thank you. We are sailing on Victory in about 40 days so we are thankful for this review

Looking forward to this. I did the same cruise in December but different things in each port.

Mom, Dad?

I just came off her and loved it. Did the same exact cruise, and I gotta tell you I was super impressed of the condition of the ship. It may not have every new thing carnival has, but the captain must run a tight ship.

Enjoying your review.

Keith

 

Mom, Dad?

That's Funny

OK fast forward from some time in September when we booked, zoom through Halloween and Thanksgiving.. Christmas is here Yah! it’s a great time but we still got 2 weeks until cruise boooo! Then, New Year’s Eve.

My FIL and his GF sail out on the same ship and itinerary for New Year’s Eve. They come back and tell us all about it. They loved it which is a good sign since they have been on other brands and complained about a bunch of stuff.

We laughed a bit as he described to us a few things that any CC member or Carnival regular would know. Serentiy has nice clamshells by the hot tub? Who Knew.. You can order steak house selections in the MDR, how about that? He was so excited as he described his trip to us that we didn’t burst his bubble and tell him we know this already.

OK so now here were are, Tuesday, the night before we fly out. Our bags are packed, we drop max off at my parents to spend his dogcation.

We have some time to kill so I turn on netflix and immediately go to Everyone Loves Raymond to watch the episode where him and his mom go on a cruise together. If you haven’t seen this episode you’re missing out. Side Note: the ship they use in the opening scene is the Mardri Gras but the CD calls it the “Star Princess”.

After that we try and find the King of Queens cruise episode but Netflix doesn’t have it.. Oh well. We have some other cruise shows recorded on the DVR but decide to just go to bed since we have a 5am wake up and a 7am flight. And just as we lay down to bed, the phone rings.. Jess has a 2 hour delay tomorrow.. Too bad school wasn’t cancelled she could have saved a day off.

Finally the day we leave this cold weather! I woke up a half hour before my alarm and took in this view one last time for a few days.

We were faced with a dilemma that we’ve never had to experience before since we only cruise in the summer. I don’t want to wear my winter coat to Florida but I also don’t want to freeze until I get there. I decided to just drop off Jess curbside and run as fast as I could after I parked.

Adios 8 degrees

Great beginning! We've done this same itinerary numerous times over MLK weekend, since DH and I both teach. Great to have a winter getaway, no matter how short!

The Day Before We Cruise:

After a very smooth flight on JetBlu we touched down in Fort Lauderdale. We were going to follow the same precruise arrangements that we did in August.

Fly in the morning before. Stay at the Sleep Inn in Dania Beach. They have a free shuttle to pick us up from the airport. (they'll also take you to Everglades in the morning) But we would use SAS again to shuttle us to POM the next day.

Now part of me wants to try new places and see new things. But the other part of me didn’t want to try and fix something that wasn’t broken. And with only a 4 day cruise, I didn’t want to risk spoiling this day.

The Sleep Inn is exactly what you expect it is. A budget motel that is easy on the wallet and shows some wear and tear. Sure the wall base was pealing off the wall and the bathroom door was damaged

But we’re pretty easy going people and so long as the sheets are clean and the hot tub and pool are working we’re OK with it.

What brought us back is that it’s only a mile away from the beach and the number 12 bus goes from the hotel to the beach in about 5 minutes and is only $2 each way.

Additionally, right next door is a Wal Greens, and chinese resturante. Within walking distance is also a Publix, Starbucks, a Liquor store, a Chipotle and a Pollo Tropical.

Sleep Inn allowed us to check in early when we got there around 11am. Last year they charged us $10 to do this. This time they didn’t charge us but we were prepared to pay it.

Once we checked in we got changed for lunch and the beach. We went to Pollo Tropical again since we don’t have any of these near us. I didn’t really plan what time we should have went to lunch so once we finished eating I realized we probably just missed the bus by about 5 minutes.

We decided to walk to the beach and were just happy to be outside, in shorts, enjoying the sunshine. We got this just in time. As soon as we crossed the drawbridge it went up to allow some boats through.

The water was too cold to go in but just being on the beach was awesome and after a while we caught the bus back to the hotel.

Loving your trip report! We did the same excursion in Cozumel last May. Clemente was our host and he was amazing. We still keep in contact.

The Day Before, Continuted:

After the Beach we utilized the pool and hot tub back at the Sleep Inn until we wanted to grab dinner.

What I learned new on this trip is that you can now use Uber in Broward County. Back in August this wasn't allowed I assume to some regulation issues.

So what we didn't do last year was make it to Jaxon's for ice cream even though everyone I knew told me we had to go. But this year we were more motivated and we had Uber to take us there for about $5.50, how can you beat that?

10 minutes later and we're there

It was definitely worth going for either food or ice cream.. We got both!

Somewhat as a joke I always imitate my dad and ask any waiter what they would recommend. But if its a new place then I end up ordering that sense they would know best right?

I ordered the pulled pork and jess got the new york style hot dog that comes with all the toppings on the side. Both were awesome and I wish I was there right now. They also give you fresh popped pop corn but don't fill up on it!

If you go, be sure to save room for desert.. they range in sizes from normal to outrageous. I again deferred to our waiter and we told him we were in the mood for something chocolate-y and that there isn't anything we don't like. So he brought us some concoction of chocolate and cookie dough and hot fudge and candy pecans and a brownie and a side of caramel just in case it wasn't sweet enough for us.

So now that we we stuffed we ubered back to the room, another $5.50 well spent.

Coming up soon:

We finally get on the ship

we'll learn about room 9-256 (lido interior. spoiler: its pretty good for an interior)

how did my bag get FTTF?

And for the first time ever on a ship I'm asking.. why won't anyone sell me a drink?

(technically not true, last cruise we hit 15 drinks and they wouldn't sell me one then either.. but I at least knew why)

Thank you for doing a Victory review! I sail a 3 day cruise on her in July.

Embarkation Day:

So the day has come, 157 days since stepping off of the Breeze we were now going to get back on board a ship.

The Sleep Inn has a complimentary continental breakfast which is just as average as any other motel that offers this. Your standard coffee, juice, bagels, fruit, yogurt, waffle machine, and some questionable eggs and breakfast sausage. Nothing to rave about but good enough to tide us over until onboard.

After we ate we gather our things and waited for SAS to transport us to POM. We had a 9:30 pick up scheduled and the driver called us around 9 to tell us he’s 15 minutes behind. No problem, we appreciated the proactive approach of letting us know.

Once he got us, we had one more stop at the motel 8 to grab an older couple from southern cali. There were also two ladies from Indiana having a birthday cruise on our shuttle. The 6 of us and our driver chatted about cruising the whole way and we discovered the Indiana girls would be in our key west pub crawl. We would also see the California couple throughout the cruise for a friendly hello.

Let me stop here and say that on this cruise we have had some very friendly passengers. It seems that we’ve met and chatted with people everywhere we went. I can’t remember many of their names but I can tell you where they live and they’ll be referred to in that way.

So despite 15 minutes behind schedule we still got to POM at 10:30 which we hoped for and there was no line at security or the check in and we were issued zone 1 boarding.

Side Note: We got a pair of hockey tickets for christmas that also came with some of the free give aways they hand out at the game, bobblehead, team yearbook, and yes a Selfie Stick. Now i’m the type of person who makes fun of people using selfie sticks. But not ANYMORE! I still think they’re dumb but they are a lot fun.. and who says dumb things can’t be fun?

During last year’s trip on the Breeze we were on board by 11:30 so when it became 11:30 and they still weren’t even boarding yet we started getting antsy. Shortly thereafter they began boarding and it wasn’t too much longer until we got on in zone 1 I believe it was about 12:30.

Apparently I didn’t take any photos of the Atrium but that’s OK because i’ve seen photos of it and I don’t think the photos do it justice. In the photos it seems very neon green but in person it felt more subdue

So there we are in the atrium ready to sign up for Cheers! but no bartenders are anywhere in sight and as Jess will tell you, once I get on board I can’t just sit around in one spot (even if we each have heavy carryons). I had a whole new ship to explore.

Alchemy bar, you haven’t seen the last of me...

Here is the lounge for the comedy club which I thought was pretty fancy looking. We weren’t fans of the comedy lounge on the Breeze. They had really awkward chairs that seemed to take up too much space when we all know seating can often be at a premium. So we were happy to see this lounge with seating similar to the Liberty.

We eventually made it up to Lido and just like the atrium.. no bartenders in sight! What the? I thought this was the fun ship.. why is no one forcing (sarcasm) a fun ship special down my gullet.

No worries, we hit the food and sat at the bar while we ate. We ate and watched the line get crazy and soon enough the bartenders starting showing up.

Let’s talk about the lido food here. The Victory doesn’t have Guys or Blue Iguana which we all know are awesome. But it does have chicken fingers and cheese sauce which you can’t get on the Breeze or Liberty. So really I have two questions for Carnival.. why doesn’t the Victory have Guys and why can’t I get chicken fingers on the Breeze?

Obviously this is no big deal and I stuffed my face for 4 days straight. Really all I need is pizza pirate and i’m a pretty happy guy.

The lines up on lido seemed to have their standard periods of busy and not so busy. The secret to a happy cruise.. Don’t go to something if the line is long. As much as I enjoy pizza I don’t get in line if its long. Similarly, we hit the omelette station one morning when there wasn’t anyone there at all.

Eventually I started to piece together what was going on while we were eating lunch and kept hearing random calls over there loudspeaker for the staff. Some type of training/drill was going on and it seemed like the majority of the staff was there. This then explained why it took us so long to board this time around. Also, the Coast Guard was present at our muster drill so it all seemed to be related.

After lunch we headed to the aft pool bar because the lines at the Cheers sign up table (near the main pool) was really long. They were able to take care of us pretty quick and they seemed to be trying their hardest to serve all of these thirsty cruisers. This was one of my preferred bars (most are), they were quick and friendly.

Finally, we had our golden tickets (gold card with a cheers sticker. I'm singing in my head "I've got a gooolden tiiiicket"), drinks in hand, and a selfie stick.. a bad combination. (I promise this is the end of it)

As you can see it wasn't a great day for sail away and we're now 0-2 for sunny days in Miami. But that's ok the aft pool has a cover and it is Adults Only to my surprise. For some reason I thought I had read that it wasn't.. The staff did a good job of enforcing it.

Up next we get to the room at 2:30 and find our bag already...

Awww! This review is great! U2 are so cute!:D:D

All this time I thought Maxwell was your son, but now I see he is your "furbaby".

Do you have a picture of him?:D

Can't wait for more. Keep seeing great Victory reviews. Key West is on my bucket list.

Awww! This review is great! U2 are so cute!:D:D

All this time I thought Maxwell was your son, but now I see he is your "furbaby".

Do you have a picture of him?:D

Can't wait for more. Keep seeing great Victory reviews. Key West is on my bucket list.

By request here is Max aka Maxwell aka Maxwell House aka Mr. House aka House-y

He's a Puggle

Here he is in his Easter Bonnet

He's adorable!!

Let’s talk about Room 9-256

So I checked on our room once and not surprisingly it wasn’t ready. At 2:30 we checked back again and we were able to get in. But to our surprise, there was our bag and it had a FTTF sticker on it.

I’m not sure why it got this tag but I wasn’t gonna start asking questions about it.

Our room was 9-256. It’s a lido interior and we were very happy with it. Perhaps it is the configuration of the bed and the desk but it seemed so much bigger than our interior room on the Breeze. My guess is because the bed is perpendicular to you as you walk into the room so you have a bit more space as you’re standing by the table.

The room did show its age a bit as you can see by the old school TV that was often fuzzy. I’m not complaining because I had no intentions to watch tv or anything. Also you can see the bathroom has some wear and tear.

But just like staying in the Sleep Inn, these things don’t bother us. The room location and layout are way more important to us. But I do believe they are renovating rooms in sections while the ship is sailing so I’m sure it’s a matter of time until 9256 is in tip top shape.

I was a bit hesitant at first about booking a room on Lido and being that close to people constantly coming and going. But I loved this location.

On the Breeze I had room 8311 and it was about equal distance from the two different elevators and I felt like I was always walking down the hallway. With 9256 we were only a few doors past the elevator and If I needed to get to the aft I could have a more pleasant walk through Lido.

On the Liberty we had a 4J room with a walkway view (completely forward) and that’s when I really discovered how much I hate walking through hallways.

Other rooms we’ve had were both on the Pride, a 4K (interior with french doors to the lifeboats which is a great value) and an extended aft balcony. Obviously the aft balcony has been our favorites but if you’re cheap like us I would recommend this location for an interior.

One last thing I remembered about when we got to the room. Our 12 pack of water was there but our 1 Liter VIFP water wasn't. And since we had already been taking advantage of our Cheers! card my memory wasn't completely there. I couldn't remember if we still got our free water or if that was eliminated for 4 day cruises. But then later that night it arrived along with our pins.

I'll continue more later...

I laughed when I saw your quote on how stupid you thought selfie sticks were UNTIL you got one! ROFL because I thought the same way...everywhere you looked someone had one of these! Make it stop I used to shout! But for Christmas I got one..my children were determined I would have one and use it. I've practiced but the photos look like I've had my limit on Cheers drinks! BLURRY! ROFL. I think I need more practice!!!

Your pup is adorable!

Maxwell is adorable!! :)

We also love staying on the lido deck and/or close to elevators.

Can't wait to hear more.

Before I continue.. thanks to everyone for the kind words and feedback.

After unpacking we explored the ship some more and tried to get one more drink before muster but we missed last call. Like I mentioned earlier, the coast guard was there observing so we tried to stay on our best behavior.

Shortly after muster we sailed away and as they say.. Adios Miami.. Hello Fun!

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There was also an AIDA ship in port but didnt get a photo of it.

Before dinner we visited alchemy to explore all of the delicious options. They're all great but surprisingly enough I was a big fan of the cucumber sunrise.

Jess ended up calling it an early night while I decided to check out Pete in the piano bar which my FIL spoke highly of. It was pretty packed in there so I didn't stick around for too long. The sports bar had the Pitt basketball game on so I warched them lose in there. (Foreshadowing to how Sunday goes..)

Before wrapping this day up I'll tell you my one gripe about the piano bar. It doesn't have an actual bar. The bartender comes and takes everyones order then heads into the pantry area and makes everyone's drinks in thE back. I know it's minor and I think we were just spoiled from being on the Breeze and having Adi's bartending antics being part of the entertainment.

Up next: Key West 10am pub crawl, how many drinks will I have BEFORE the pub crawl? Then we head to Two Friends for the best lunch of my life.

This is really a nice review so far. I'm looking forward to the Key West review since I've never been there but want to go!