Relayer

Awesome choice. The only thing better than a Breeze cruise is another one!

Enjoyed our second this past January and found it as awesome as we remebered. A remarkable ship. Enjoy!

As far as I knoow, only the Spirit class ships have obstructed view balcony cabins and I think the Freedom is Conquest class, so no worries.

 

Have a great cruise!

Sensation also has obstructed view balconies. Not horrible at all. I beleive you may find them on more ships than you think. Sensation was blocked by work/life boats. Other classes could be obstructed by something else.

Thanks for the nice review and especially the great pics. We're five years removed from our only Victory cruise and the great memories still linger. Your nice pictures helped just make them that much fresher.

That was when the Victory was doing the 7 islands in 7 days cruise out of San Juan. After many more cruises on some of CCL's newest ships we still look on our Victory cruise as our favorite.

Again....Thanks!

Sailed the southern itinerary on the Breeze to Aruba and Curacao a few months back.

Two stunning ports. Beautiful and interesting. Throw in sailing on the Breeze and thats a can't lose deal.

Done both the suit and tie as well as MDR appropriate. Got to tell you it's a really nice experience to dress up a bit and enjoy the meal with the beautiful DW in her finest!

Only thing better than a 7 day cruise is an 8 day cruise. Seriously the Conquest class ships are great. St Kitts is a beautiful island and we always enjoy Cockleshell Beach. Pinel Island just off of St Maarten is also a treat.

Throw in San Juan and GT and that sounds like an awesome trip........Of course sail away from St Thomas at dusk is sweet!

You cant go wrong! Enjoy!

Dark Wood beach hands down. 30 minutes from port. Lightly crowded with a very good little bar and restaurant. Nice views of Montserrat in the distance. Moderately rough surf but makes for a great swim.

Little Bay is close to port in St Maarten. Nice beach with a condo development

Took the plunge and booked the Valor for next April last night with the 1/2 price deposit. Have been looking at condos to rent in San Juan so we can get some beach time in a few days before the cruise leaves. We booked for the final week of April as the 3rd week had restrictions on occupancy. Did not like the sound of that and thought it might be a group cruise or something.

 

So, we need some help ..... we are beach and snorkeling people and would love some of your thoughts to do in the ports that Valor does: St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Maarten.

 

Also, what is not to be missed on the ship?

Valor is awesome as is your itinerary!

St Thomas - Magens Bay

St Maarten- Pinel Island

Barbados - Accra Beach

St Lucia - All time favorite island! Water taxi to Anse Chasenet, Jalouise Beach and the Pitons by sea

St Kitts - Cockleshell Beach.Magnificent drive. Sadly Wilbur passed 2 years ago

ago

Have a blast!

Sailed on the Breeze this past Jan to Grand Turk, Aruba and Curacao. Just could not have been nicer. We'll always go south when we can. The "true" Caribbean we dream of lies in the southern islands.

We also really like every thing out west as well with the possible exception of Costa Maya. Weather has been fantastic in Nov and March

Any cruise - Any direction - Any time!

Book direct with CCL mostly but have used TA and big company sites. Never a diff in price though most up to date available cabins direct with CCl. One company offers pretty good post cruise rebates but look closely at thier "fees". Bottom line little if any net price diffence. Little more direct control on dining etc when going direct.

July 3 sailing on the Sensation we received a nice aluminium blue coffee mug.

Leaving for our 11th Carnival cruise in 3 days. Our first sailing was in 2006.

Now...all of our experiences have been simply awesome. Solid food and entertainment. IMHO additions far outweigh any decline. There are few things that would "break" a cruise for us. Give us plenty of sun, lounge chairs and deck space and we're happy campers.

Price is an issue with our choice. My name is not Tom, Dick or Harry and frankly looking at the other lines pricing for like cabins and itineraries is mind boggling.

Of course I could pay an extra 1000 for a DCL 4 day cruise and have them "announce" us when boarding!

Regardless of choice you can always make the pre-dinner trip to the Sushi resuarant!:rolleyes:

A few of the "Luxury" lines were offering some fairly spectacular deals through end of November for extended 10-14 day European sailings that included all air fare. I though the rates were surprisingly good for that type of cruise.

Merry Christmas and hope you have a blast in just a few days!

We have been to Belize and Roatan on five occasions, March and October for the most part. Never have had any issues with sand fleas or any other biting bug. We have always packed the Off brand disposable wipes just in case.

Happy sailing!

Never have sailed without it and not planning on starting. Really not a lot of money if the bad stuff happens kids or no. Of course we're in our 50's so more stuff seems to happen!:rolleyes:

Last straw? I haven't even experienced the first straw. 10 totally great cruises with CCL. So I can't say. They have earned a good bit of slack for what might happen in the future.

We're sailingg right before you on the 4th.

We sailed on the Breeze last March. And like all of our other Miami cruises we boarded about 11:30. It's been as early as 11:00 occassionally but never later than 12:00. We just have never hit any delays with deboarding issues and we get to port by 9:30 or so.

My husband and I are going to be in Belize forr the day in early January.We are on tht Carnival Magic and want to take a water taxi to one of the Cays for the day, I was thinking of geoffrys cay.Has anyone done this? we just want to sit on the beach and have lunch.Do they have beach clubs like Cozomal?

You may mean Goff's Cay. About 8 miles out of Belize City. A wonderful day trip to this very small cay. Maybe the size of a football field? A dozen palm trees or so. Sits right on the reef so you can snorkle right off the beach. Food Hut sells some beverages to go along with grilled chix and lobster. Done this trip three times and it's one of our favorite cruisin' things to do! There are no resort style facilities here, but adequate.

Carnival may run an excursion directly off the ship without tendering to Belize City. This will give you limited time on the cay..maybe two hours.

We book from the port and the last trip we were there pretty much all day.Can't remember the cost...maybe $40 per?

You actually sail in to Belize right between Goff's and English Cay..the one with the light house. It's so small you may miss it!

Lovely!

Earliest has been 10:45 out of Miami. Usually between 11:00 and 11:30 regardless of port. We always arrive at the port by 9:30 or so. Not as urgent now that we have gratefully achieved priority boarding.

Sailing out of San Juan in 2009 we were actually the 1st and 2nd guests to board. A unique experience to see an empty ship with the exception of a few crew members.

Had a great cruise on teh Breeze last year and REALLY looking forward to sailing her again in 2 weeks or so.

Glad you had a massively great time!

PVP, TA or online. All just methods to book our request. We always have it nailed down to ship, dates, cabin and itineraries then start shopping price. Very little if any difference between any of them at any given time. Occassionnaly one of the on line sites will be giving a little OBC post cruise but that;s about it.

Nice people all.

Not to be a party pooper but our Sunday flight experience out of San Juan was way less than OK. Arrived at 9:00 for 2:00 flight. 5 ships returning to port that day equaled 1000's at the airport. 1 1/2 hours through the ag inspection, then 2 hours in the US Air line to check bags. When we finally arrived at security there were so many waiting. We were not going to make our flight. Our flight ended up cancelled and we rebooked out at 8:15.

Now the blessing to it all. We got to see a shuttle launch right as were flying down the middle of Florida. One of the most awesome things. Crystal clear skies at sun down. People taking turns at the windows.

Hoping your flight experience is a great one!

Interesting thread. We always look a the other lines, Disney, RCCL, Princess and others every time we book. Prices tend to be much higher on like itineraries and cabins than CCL. Entry level? The general consensus on most of the threads and with our personal contacts seems to be that there are more similarities than differences especially between CCL, RCCL, NCL and Princess.

Can't say as we have sailed only Disney and Carnival. The reason why for us is that, to date, we have never has less than a great vacation experience with Carnival. In our 8 years we haven't seen a ton of changes as I am sure some of you more veteran cruisers have. We could sail the other lines and I'm sure we will at some point. Just not enough reason to.

The Europe itineraries on some of the more luxury lines are very tempting now with longer 10 and 14 day trips with air fare included.