MimiMia

I had an encounter with a very pushy waiter in the comedy club on Valor. I mean every 5 minutes he was at our table, mind you the show hadn't started yet. Then when he came over it was almost like a guilt trip to get us to purchase. We actually left the show because it became that obnoxious to us.

My aunt will be joining us on our cruise and she has had her leg amputated. She recently was advised to stop using her prosthesis and will be using "Canadian Crutches" as she refuses a scooter. Has anyone had experience with these on a ship?

Just remember it's more "stuff" for them to tote home.

I realize it's more to take home but the good thing is we all live within an hour of Baltimore.

Are Amenity Points available for that cruise? Many times High Peak cruises have no Amenity Points. Though they can be bought.

 

Look on the Honeymoon & Wedding Board for OOT (Out of Town) bags. Lots of ideas over there.

 

ETA--Also check out the Family Board for ideas.

Thank you. A TA in a fb group I'm in confirmed my cruise had points.

I would have never thought to check the Honeymoon and family board

Sorry I meant Chocolates. All the children are under 10 and I feel that a 16 oz tumbler is just too much for a kid. It's a family cruise and I thought a more person gift outside of what carnival offered would be nice.

Also thought that because it's the week before Christmas it would be nice to do a little extra as well.

I'm coordinating a family group cruise. When I called a TA they told me that you get more OBC by booking individually rather than a group. The costs of the rooms would only be about $5 less as a group. My question is should we look for another TA, book individually, or book as a group? Right now, our group is about 10 cabins.

I would look for another Agent. I say this because even though it's only a small difference you lose the amenity points (if applicable) and the free berth. With every 8 cabins and 16 full price passengers you get a free passenger but they would have to pay taxes and port fees or you could split the free berth among your guests.

I have put together a group cruise for next December and was wondering do others give gifts to their guests?

I know you get some things with amenity (fun) points but what about something extra, if so what do you do?

I wanted to do the bath robes and strawberries with the points. I would have to robes delivered to my room so I could put them in a handmade tote bag and include personalized tumbles for the adults. I have no idea what I would do for the 5 kids going yet.

Any help would be appreciated.

So is fttf worth it on this cruise?

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Forums mobile app

I felt it was for the simple fact that our room was ready as soon as we boarded. I will admit that it could have been ready even without but the stewards were still cleaning the surrounding rooms.

Great review!! thanks for taking the time to post. Couple questions...Were you happy with your aft balcony room? Did you hear any noise from the lido deck?

Yes we only book aft rooms. We did occasionally hear noise but because of the location noone really sat there. However you could feel when the propellers turned, it was a quick jolt and that was it.

To be honest you do feel the sway more but i love that as its soothing to me

No pictures for today. We went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast because the hotel does not offer a continental service and the room service price were just a bit unreasonable once you added in the almost 20% taxes to it. They also offered free wifi, as did the hotel but it was slow.

Check out was 11 am and you could have extended it for $100 until 1pm, wish we had known before. Anyway at check out the concierge asked about our flight time and offered to hold our luggage at no charge until we were ready to depart and we could still use the pools and wifi. We chose to jut hang out in the cabanas

and lobby of the hotel

Once we were ready to go a cab was summoned and off to the airport we went. I will say that if you feel uncomfortable with your driver dont get into the cab. No we were robbed or anything but this woman clearly must have just gotten her license and had anger issues.

When traveling from Puerto Rico remember you have to pass through Agriculture before checking your bag. Are you ready for another man don't listen story? Well TSA instructed us to remove all items from our pockets and put it through the scanner. Why doesn't bf listen? he was escorted to a private screening room because of the cigarettes in his pocket kept setting off the machine.

We made it aboard the plane and home safely at midnight. Yay just in time to prep for work the next day. Wont make that mistake again, I'll be taking the day after travel off from work.

I hope you have enjoyed my review. If you have questions just comment and I'll answer.

The Disembarkation was easy. The night before we were given tags and such for today. We of course taking every last minute to sleep ended up lugging all of our luggage to Lido for breakfast and just as we sat down they called our number. I will say we were a little confused on the instruction but knew we wanted self assist because we didn't want to have to wade through the luggage area.

Once we finished eating we just headed off the ship. The line we really long and think next cruise we wont sleep in at all. As soon as they announce they are starting we'll be on our way already, the heat was just so dry.

By time we got into the terminal the line picked up and we easily breezed through customs with our pass ports, they didn't even bother to ask about the alcohol on the back of my form. I honestly don't even think she looked at it.

We decided to stay an extra day just to see the island, yeah we didn't do that. We took a cab to the LaConcha by Renaissance. It is a beautiful hotel. Back in the first thread I created I told you all the hotel came to a whopping $50 because of the credit given to us by the online booking service. I mention this because the LaConcha is just under $300 a night regularly.

Now because check in wasn't until 3pm and we arrived just after 10 am we had more than enough time to waste. The hotel nicely checked us in, took our bags and gave us a pager in case the room was ready sooner. Not wanting to rummage my bag for my swimsuit we decided to walk to Walgreens, just 2 blocks away. I had to purchase floaties to wrap our alcohol in for the flight the next day. We stopped at a Wendy's to eat again and as we walked out we walked right into an Equality parade. We watched the parade, took pictures then headed over to the open air market. the market was just so crowded that it grew tiresome trying to navigate it.

By this time it was about 2 and we were buzzed for our room. They also called bf cell phone. They had already delivered our bag to the room so all we had to do was pick up our keys. Our room was in the atrium portion of the hotel.

We took pictures of the room (which I can't find at the moment, I'll post as soon as I do) and headed straight to the adults infinity pool at the back of the hotel just off the beach. see how close the beach is

This was my pool look. This was a huge hat, I mean it was boarder line obnoxious. But hey I needed coverage :D.

At 8:00pm we headed to dinner. Our original plan was to go to the Italian restaurant on the property but they were closed so plan b was Perla. Perla is known for its architecture, as the building is shape like a sea shell. The sun prevented me from getting a good picture but here is the inside

We both ordered the sea bass and lobster risotto which was delicious.

After dinner we walked around a bit, all the way to the Marriott actually and back. We called it a night after that.

The reason we didn't explore the island more was frankly because the cost of cabs there and we didn't want to get a rental. I will definitely suggest a rental if you chose to stay at the LaConcha.

Finally the day I had been looking forward to. We booked the ATV and Beach excursion. I grew up 4-wheeling and was super excited about this, it was actually the first thing we purchased after final payment, even before FTTF :D.

Again we were off to the Ivanhoe before we were lead out from the pier to load onto a bus. It was s very short ride to the location and we were required to have a drivers license. Everyone chose to ride sole.

The tour through the city streets would be off putting to some but I enjoyed it more because I like seeing the local culture and not the force happiness in tourist hotspots. We stopped at an area outside a gated community to get pictures of the water from atop a hill then proceeded to the beach. Took about 30 minutes to get here.

It is important to note this was not a free for all, we had to travel in a single line and were very often on 2 lane roads.

On the 30 minutes it took to to get from the first stop to the beach we got caught in a little rain shower. Can I say it was a welcomed one as we were all hot and it didn't help that I wore jeans because I thought it was a requirement for the tour. Once we got every one lined up and shut off the ATVs we were walked to a little resturant/bar, shown the restrooms and told we had an hour or so on the beach. What they failed to tell us that the beach was topless and about 100yards to the right was a nude beach. I'm not prude by a long shot but I was a little shock and amazed when I notice the man standing at the far end, posing as Superman sans cape was completely naked.

All in all the beach was great. The sand was so soft and the water soo clear you could see straight to the bottom. Just at the end of our beach time there was a passing water spout, almost like an alarm to signal it was time to pack it up.

Once we got back to the shop we were asked for tips and given a choice of necklace or rum punch. We also were expressly told to be sure we take all of our belongings (this is important). Back at the pier we ran into our table mates and I went to pull out the camera to get pic, this is when I realized I had left it on the ATV :eek:. Good thing there was another tour going out that day and the bus driver retrieved it for me and bought it back.

At some point after I walked back with the next group to the bus to get my camera my bf thought it would be a good idea to head to the table mates room. Later he told me he thought I had to ride back, which would not have been a problem if he had not said he would wait there until I got back. It is important to include this because upon my return to where I'd left him he was nowhere in sight. I walked to every place I though he'd be and waited in the spot for 5 minutes, in panic I run down the pier (I became a pier runner after all :rolleyes:) as I pull out my card to get back aboard, my s&s dings but nothing comes up and they all but refuse to let me aboard. When just as luck would have it the same person that scanned me out came by and remembered that they had to hand key my number for me to get off that morning. Now I'm aboard and practically running to the first phone I see to call the room, no answer. Quick b-line to guest services only for them to tell me he is already aboard. Storming to the room to see why he didn't answer the phone and guess what he was nowhere in sight. Well, I shower and rinse my swimsuit and he walks through the door. Apparently he had gone to their room thinking he had time to make it back to meet me. So can you imagine where he had to sleep that night?

Save for my oversight, I enjoyed this port and the excursion very much.

We started our day as usual and headed off the ship in search of the free wifi. Contrary to what I have read around, even if you ask the crew they will not share the password to the wifi. We ended up buying a key chain and getting the password from a store and it was extremely slow.

After facetiming back home again we decided to walk around a bit. Now I was well aware of the guys walking around with moneys that demand payment if you take a picture. We avoided all eye contact and just kept on our way following the crowds.

This lady was actually pooped on by that monkey on her head (sneak shot)

I had attended the shore excursion show the day before and picked up some coupons and tips regarding jewelry on the island. We met Mark at the Diamonds International and I received a gold coins and Tanzanite stone for trying on a Hearts on Fire diamond. They offered several different styles of settings for the gemstone and I really wanted to make it earrings but didn't want to cut the stone and they would only give 1 per stateroom. So I still have my stone, setting free :rolleyes:.

We headed toward the museum and quickly discovered it was closed. On the way back there was a little food shack that had a monkey chained to a little house on stilts to entertain the guests. I normally would have felt bad for him but he seemed to be healthy (actually he looked more than well fed). We stopped to take pictures and that is when we noticed that he was making several attempts at removing the young ladies bracelet and every time she tried to stop him he would pull her hair. It actually got to the point where he jumped on her and began to yank at it. I know that grooming is a natural thing for primates as a social activity but this was beyond grooming he was grabbing chunks of her hair. This is where my experience turned bad, remember I said he was chained to the house well there was a yellow line on the ground which we thought indicated that was how far he could go because it went around the perimeter of the house. Boy were we wrong. After he was done pulling hair he made his way full speed in my direction which I thought nothing of because of the Line. Let me first preface this by saying I do not believe in animal cruelty but before I had time to react he had attached himself to my ankle and began biting me. All I could think of was how to get him off of me as my boyfriend stood there in utter shock telling me to kick him off. If it had not been for the other cruisers redirecting him I'd done just that as his owner just sat there laughing.

Now most stories I had read said the their teeth were removed, I will assure you that he had every single tooth in his mouth and had it not been for me choosing to wear a maxi dress it would have been far worse. My poor little dress has clear bite marks in the fabric but luckily I suffer no broken skin so there wasn't a reason to visit the ships medical staff.

So let me just tell those of you that visit the island, just keep walking. As tempting as it is to stop and take charge free pictures the ower will not do anything to prevent his animals attempted theft or assault on their patrons.

This picture was taken from outside the line but zoomed in to get a good shot

I had originally booked the Spencer Ambrose tour which I had heard great things about but we decided to just hire a driver to take us on an Island tour.

When we exited the guest area we were immediately greeted my a vender and for $20 a person we were on our way. The van was filled with 2 other couples, one of which was at the comedy show with us. When I tell you we had a great time, that would be an understatement. Here are the pictures we took along the tour

http://s24.photobucket.com/user/lamia0817/library/Carnival%20Valor-Southern%20Caribbean-5-25-to%205-2/Day%205%20St%20Lucia%205-29-14

St. Lucia is a very hilly island. We were first taken to the Governor's Mansion which just outside had venders set up selling handmade jewelery, clothing and waters. There was a little boardwalk type of construction that gave beautiful views of the ship in port. We then went to the College and a soldiers burial ground from the war. Traveled some more around the island and to our surprise we stopped at a botanical/nature preserve owned by a family. While there we got to see some of the houses of the early settlers, taste local foods and on the tour around we were able to taste some fresh fruits and learn how to crack a coconut. Some of the fruits tasted were a Wax apple, fresh coconut juice, mango and sugar cane.

Side note: I didn't know cinnamon was a tree, I always thought it was a root.

After the tour we were taken to a beach. We chose not to stay at the beach; one because neither of us had suit and two because I saw very cautious of time, as this wasn't a carnival excursion and I didn't want to become a pier runner. Which I later found out the other 2 couples literally had the walkway pulled in behind them. All in all it was a great day.

That night we chose to go to a show in the Ivanhoe Theater which I believe was 80's/90's. After the show 2 of the performers were putting on a break dance show in the atrium

Decided to sleep in today as we didn't have anything planned so we enjoyed a late breakfast at the buffet, ok it was just a box of cereal for the both of us because we had just missed the cut off.

We headed off the ship at about 10:30. As soon as we got off the ship we realized we wouldn't last long but thought ok the terminal has to have some sort of cooling. Not by a long shot, we were however able to catch a break on wifi to check back in on our cats and daughter. We bought a rum cake and headed back to the ship. Most people would have been able to push through but I have asthmas and just couldn't get my breathing together.

On the way back we took some pics at the sign, then informed people on the other side if they walked around they could get the ship in the shot.

If you look closely those extra legs were people that didn't realize the sign had two sides

After being in that heat you would think that I would be famished but not at all, we grabbed a little food from Lido and headed back to the room

If i remember correctly this was also the night of the Whiskey and Stoggie tasting in the Josephine Baker Lounge.I am not a smoker but I can say I enjoyed it because the Staff person in the lounge was very helpful. BF is a smoker but not cigar and was in need of help. It cost $20 and you got a cigar of choice and 4 shots of various whiskey while we watched a rugby game. I loved the bartender because he noticed my curiosity about the game and explained it all to me and gave me a free shot of the whicksy my bf fell in love with, i think it was called Chivas (sp).

We headed to dinner in the MDR and met our table mates for the first time, they didn't come for elegant night :eek:. Amazingly I had attended the free liquor tasting on Monday (sorry fogot to include this, the liquor tasting consisted of shot size samples of the various liquors for purchase on the Shops) and the friend I made was our table mate. Food was amaze balls, again no pics left camera in room.

I thought I'd save the best story of the night for last. We headed to the gift shop because I had seen some popcorn that I wanted earlier. On the way out of the shop we past the newlywed couple from our excursion in St. Thomas and the wife was frantically running into the ladies room, the husband look purely terrified. Being the person I am I went in after her so I could atleast tell him she was ok but she wanted me to stay with her. Once she got herself together (a day of drinking and sushi dont mix) we headed back out to the men. They asked us if we had been to the comedy show and we hadn't, so they asked us to join them because it was the adults show. We should have just continued to our room but noooo. On the way to the show she proceeds to tell us how pissed she was with him because he had gotten so drunk that he had given the wrong discription of his wife to someone. And of all the people he could have chosen to describe was the woman who had been flirting with him all day. Now in between telling the story she has accused him several time of looking at other women. My bf thinks this is funny and refused to "read" my eyes pleading for escape. It also didn't help that she offered to buy his drinks because she had Cheers and knew she couldn't hit the limit.

Needless to say eveytime I saw them I went the opposite direction because I will not be the company to misery. If this is how they spend their honeymoon I could imagine what the rest of their lives together will be like.

Oh I should add that he passed out in thr comedy club after having more drinks and snored so loud that even the comedian noticed.

Our sea day was pretty uneventful. Took in some shows, lounged on our balcony and just took it easy.

This was also Elegant evening

We met 2 ladies from our excursions and headed to the dance club. Now this is good story. As we walk into the club Gayle spotted a man in a Saints jersey and through several compliments and conversation they found that they were actually cousins. Isn't that something family who had never met before ended up on the same cruise on a ship that sailed from San Juan.

After leaving the club we walked down the hall as it was just the beginning of the adults comedy and just our luck we were able to get good seats. It was a very nice show except for the clearly barely legal table of "kids" next to use who insisted on throwing ice at their friends sitting in front of them. I understandably dont like being hit with ice for 30 minutes. We chose to stay for the next show and moved to the table at the front once we had the chance. Well why did we do that? The show was just ok, Im not a big fan of racial jokes (im not a stick in the mud but the majority of his jokes were racial, so after a while it stopped being funny) I guess because we were at the front it was clear I was not impressed and he them turned to jokes on my and my bf, in a sexual way, referrring to his man parts and how I needed to "get it" to lighten up.

Here's a pic to show how close we were to the stage

After the show and a quick stop to the soft serve we retired to the room and heres what we found

7:30 am we got up to have some breakfast in the buffet. No pics because we were running bit behind for our excursion.

9:00am headed to the theater to meet the group for our excursion. We chose the BOSS under water adventure. We had a great time, well except my near death experience (ok let me say I kind of bought it on myself but it made it no less scary). We loaded onto the boat and headed out to sea. Let's get into the detail the excursion included snorkeling as well as an underwater scooter, we were told no swim experience was required. We went through thr safety drill at which time we were told to inflate the life vest and we would be able to float, as a non-swimmer I took it quite literally. This is when I jump into the water eager to snap away, well I immediately start to sink. As I am sinking in 20 feet of water no one comes to my rescue. I should add that there were 25 cruisers, 4 deck hands and the capitan. Now 3 of the deck hands were escorting the scooters in the water and the last was onboard readying snack and the capitan, well he was talking to the other cruisers still onboard. I finally flopped around enough to bump into the ladder and pull myself out.

After all of this I am happy to say that I didn't give up and got back in, this time more cautiously and holding on the ladder for dear life. here is the link for the pictures I took.

As for the scooter portion they were bought to the surface and we were guided under into it. I will say I will do it again. http://s24.photobucket.com/user/lamia0817/library/Carnival%20Valor-Southern%20Caribbean-5-25-to%205-2/St%20Thomas%20and%20Sea%20Day?sort=3&page=1

As I ventured to work on this review I came to find that the rest of my photos hadn't uploaded to photobucket. It is currently loading the remaining 227 photos as I type. I will continue tonight when I get home.

Once at the Security line we noticed it was the same as at the airport except you don't remove your shoes. It took less than 5 minutes to navigate the line before we were entering the ship.

We headed straight to our room to drop off our bags to head for food on Lido. This is an extended Aft balcony room number 8457.

Standard Bathroom with shower

Extended aft Balcony, notice there are 3 chairs, a table and not pictured are the 2 loungers (I was standing between them)

After taking pics and unpacking we headed to Lido buffet. The food was good, it wasn't 5 star restaurant but it was better than a standard buffet. Took pics of course, but only after we started to eat and nobody wants to see that kind of chaos.

It is now about 12:30 and we had heard there was a CVS up the street so we decided to walk over. Boyfriend made a stop to purchase our soda cards and fill up the tumbler he bought. Now we had heard it was a short 2 blocks from the pier to the CVS, yeah right! It wasn't those cute little short blocks, I'm talking downtown city block in 90 degree weather with humidity I had never seen in my life. (ok I am exaggerating a bit but the walk was longer than I expected.) We purchased 2 bottles of wine and made our way back.

So here we are at security and I proceed to reach into my bag but am hostilely rushed to put my bag in and move along. (note: I had a beach bag, not a purse). Here I am thinking ok I hope they don't think I'm sneaking anything; my bag goes through, bottles and all. No one lifted an eye to check on what they were. However they make my BF empty the tumbler he filled before getting off the ship. As we walk the tunnel back onto the ship I expect the lady at the desk to stop me about my wine, no such thing happened. So suffice to say they are very lax on the alcohol policy when departing San Juan because you could clearly hear the bottles knocking against each other in the bag.

We Spent the next few hours exploring and re-familiarizing ourselves with the Valor. We had chosen to watch the sail away from the Serenity deck but wouldn't you know as soon as we found a good spot the sky opened and started to rain.

this is the only shot we have from sail away

It had rained on our parade so we headed to dinner in MDR

We were beyond tired at this point and went back tot he room for bed.

So my day actually started at 3:30 am. We had a direct flight from DC to San Juan via JetBlue. Well lets just say I wasn't the happiest person in the world when the alarm went off.

4:30am - Super Shuttle driver calls to say he can't find our apartment which leaves us to have to lug all of our luggage to the complex entrance to meet him.

5:00am - Arrival to the airport, off load bags and proceed to TSA. Well this is where it gets crazy. I specifically wore clothing that had no metals and flip flops for easy removal. Going through the metal detector I beeped, and beeped again, then once more before they decided to hand wand me. Needless to say ladies if you are more than endowed on the top, understand that the underwire may set off the detector. :eek:

Thank goodness we weren't the only ones having to get up at that time of morning

By 7:50 we were flying over the Pentagon

By 10:40 we got our first look at the island

We were off the plane, collected luggage and getting into a cab by 11:15. You should note that cabs in San Juan are charged by zone no matterhow many people, so to get from the airport to the pier it was $21. Luckily we found 2 other women heading that way, total cost per person $5. 25 plus tip. We loved our cab driver he was very nice and even informative of the location we passed on the way. Took just over 20 minutes to get there.

As you know we can't take pictures in the terminal but we had purchased the FTTF, so check in was a breeze. Our drive, upon pulling up to the pier flagged down a porter and loaded our bags right onto the cart for us. Once inside the terminal there was only 1 person in the line for FTTF, we made deposits to our S&S accounts and headed straight to the security screening. I'd like to note that we passed the P/D lounge which still had several guests in it.

After some serious thought I decided to move the review because I have changed the style. Check it out here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=43497230#post43497230

Finally I have gotten some time to finish my review, only weeks late. :D

Here's the link to the beginning regarding booking travel and price drops. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2038973

I am sorry I have left you all hanging. I had some persona/medical things to tend to. I will finish the review sometime this week, as I have also just learned how to add pictures as well.

Just came off this ship in May. I carried a beach bag as my carry on, we check-in, unloaded his carry on and got back off. We walked down to CVS and bought 4 bottles of wine and put them in my carry on. No one said a word and we had to go back through the scanners and past the alcohol check point. We simply kept walking, however I wanted some chocolate so we got back off and went to the shop in the terminal. I had the worlds smallest bag for my Godiva's and the same woman I originally walked past demanded to see inside my bag:confused:. Not sure why, mind you I don't mean the huge beach bag I mean the bag I got from the store.

I don't smoke ciggs or cigars but boyfriend does. While on the Valor back in May the cigar bar was very DEAD, except when they had Karaoke. I can also say the time I spent on our balcony I never smelled smoke from our neighbors (both sides were smokers). Only reason I knew they were smoking was because we were talking and leaning at the railing (of course they were seated and we had aft balconies). But back to my point I loved the cigar bar, reminds me of my grandfather. We even went to the "Stoggie & Whiskey" tasting and were the only people in there, mind you we went towards the end and the waiter that was there said we were the only ones to come in the entire hour of the event. Glad I went too, found a great whiskey.