seannyice81

Hey NCLers

I've been on here before inquiring about the Epic. But this time its a little more broad of a subject.

I want to start getting ideas for the next winter's Caribbean cruise. I have not cruised NCL yet and would like to. I originally liked Epic, but I'm open for more suggestions. I like the idea of stopping at a port or 2 that aren't quite as popular, but this isn't a requirement.

That said, Anyone have any suggestions? I'm also looking for RCI comparisons as it will likely be them if I can't find a cruise I like with NCL.

Any input is greatly appreciated.:D

This was one announcement that I can say is impressive and if they carry it out like they say, should be a lot of fun. Looks pretty cool!

Maybe it's just me. I think one thing that might actually be hurting Carnival Corp more than helping is the constant announcements of "we're changing this... and we're changing that." I can't speak for Princess or any of the other brands, but reading into things here, it seems like its a tone. I would like to see Carnival just deliver a consistently good product with occasional updates that aren't sensationalized. It seems when they make these announcements for the Carnival brand they give them a lot of hype and then when I experience it in person, I ask myself "what was all that about?". Particularly the Playlist/Hasbro shows. Sometimes I get the impression they have shot themselves in one of their feet in order to improve their product (Destiny-Sunshine). Some moves might be to bring some change into the mix and others may be to redistribute costs I suppose. Typical of any business. I just feel like Carnival could be a little better at it. Reading about some of the other lines, they haven't had an easy time rebounding from the recession either, but some appear more organized about it.

That said, I will still continue to cruise on Carnival ships and have a good time. I will also try to cruise other company's ships and have a good time on them as well. My cruise following the Victory will likely be a NCL or RCI, not ruling-out another on CCL.

You are a good son to give up what you wanted to be with your Mom. I hope to go to St. Lucia some day. Thanks for the review.

Thank you. She's been a wonderful mom to my brother and I

I highly recommend you make it to St. Lucia. It is gorgeous with amazing views and culture everywhere you look.

I am really enjoying your review. Am I the only one having problems with the pictures. It seems like in every one of your posts one of the pictures only shows the top part. Very strange.

Thanks!

I think I fixed it... Photobucket is being wonky.

CRUISE DAY 5 - ST. LUCIA - PART 3

Our stay at the beach was only an hour and a half (booooo), but we had a lot more to see though (yesssss), so our guides had to get us to hustle to get as much in as possible. We got back on the boat and headed back over to Soufriere. When we got there, they had a booze bus waiting for us. I had another Piton Lager and most of the ladies had the mixer which was supposedly pretty good and was also "supposed to make us guys good in bed." Seeing as how I had no girlfriend this cruise, I was happy with the beer.

Heres a shot of a couple cars in Soufriere. [cargeek]I love the re-badging... Front to back, we have a re-badged Toyota Camry, Lexus IS300, and Toyota Corolla. All of which are slightly different looking for the Caribbean market.[/cargeek]

We piled back into the vans and were taken to the currently inactive volcano. The closer we came to the volcano and caldera the power of the sulfur smell increased. Rotten eggs or egg fart smell as I call it. They had us walk with another guide for a little bit and take some photos. Because nobody wanted to smell like an egg fart, everyone declined on the mud bath. Immediately after the volcano we rushed into the van and were taken to the waterfall. It wasn't as impressive as I had hoped, but it was still a very nice place regardless. People had the ability to bath in the pool at the base of the waterfall.

Volcano caldera (one side slid away hundreds of years ago). "Whats that smell?"

Waterfall and vegetation around it.

After the waterfall we hurried back into the vans because we had to grab our lunch. Our driver picked up his pace a little and man, did he need to. All that sight seeing we did on the way over, I didn't realize just how far we had come and how long it was going to take to head back. We were running so far behind that they pulled the vans over and brought the food to us in the vans. They gave us each a freshly baked roll (literally seconds out of an oven) and some delicious local cheese to put inside so it could melt. The roll was in the shape of a turkey leg. They also brought around more drinks including beer (which I had, again), the "sex" mixer, and water. We got back on the road and our driver hurried us back to port. Once back we, had roughly 45 mins before we had to be back on the ship and a little over an hour for sail-away. I took the time to get a magnet for my tool box. Whilst doing so had some great conversation with a local girl. Wish I remembered her name, she was pretty nice (and easy on the eyes). She worked in one of the stores with her grandma. After buying my magnet from her, I headed right back on the ship after no success from getting my passport stamped.

My mom and I were beat from running around most of the day so we made it an easy night. We watched as our ship and Adventure of the Seas sailed away from Beautiful St. Lucia.

We had dinner in Rosie's that night. It was elegant night again, but neither of us felt up to dressing nice. We wanted to keep it simple for the rest of the night. My mom was particularly tired and headed back to her cabin and relax. I stayed up to watch the 80's show in the Ivanhoe Theater. It was actually pretty good and I think it might be missed when Valor gets Playlist Productions. Afterwards, I called it a night.

Tomorrow, St. Kitts and St. Maarten.

Wow! What a great review. I love your writing style and your attention to detail. I've been on the Valor twice; she is a great ship. Can't wait to read more of your experiences. You photos are very vivid. Thanks for posting this wonderful review.

Thank you.

I'm enjoying sharing my experience as well. I've read many great reviews here and wanted to try one myself.:)

CRUISE DAY 5 - ST. LUCIA - PART 2

We continued on our tour with a couple of stops and some information here and there. One van stopped so some could have a photo op with a snake and goats. We passed on the snake (supposedly, a "mellow" boa constrictor). We made our way to our first food stop for a brunch. Cosol pretty much had his entire armada of Toyota passenger vans there all at once which made things crowded, but it wasn't too hectic. The food provided was a mix of local fruits, pastries and desserts. Sweet sop is delicious. One thing that struck me was how big they were on recycling. As people threw things away, they said "please, let me take that for recycling" often. I started taking notice that many parts of the island were fairly free of loose trash. At least more than many others I've been to. Thumbs up, St. Lucia.

I also got to sample the local beer

Outside the house was a cashew tree.

After brunch we continued towards Soufriere. We had one big scenic stop that was just stunning. The locals knew this and set up shops there as well. One view of the coast, the other of the lush hillsides.

We got back in the Vans and continued to the town. It was a rather busy town that was undergoing road construction. Once in town, they elected to take us to the beach before touring the volcano/waterfall. We all got on the boat (mom had some difficultly) and headed over. The boat ride itself was fun. It was fairly fast and the view of the Pitons and the landscape from the water was amazing! We arrived on the beach and there was a little dismay about the area we were able to use. I had read about it being small and the very small selection of folding chairs. I was a little surprised though. There were a number of chairs, but many of them were in tatters and useless. The beach area was indeed small, but not that bad. You did have to mind the area near the dock in case of boats. There was a small area for snorkeling and some of the locals would throw in bait to get the fish going. Speaking of the locals. A little while into the beach stay a funny smell began to linger... Somebody was smoking weed! haha! I suspect one of the locals had gone into the woods behind the beach to "take a smoke break" but didn't go quite far enough. A couple others in our group noticed it too and we joked about having munchies.

Here is the beach we share with the resort. *NOTE* You can't use any of the chairs or structures on the resort side. Nicely situated between the Pitons.

love your pictures!!!

Thank you!

Plenty more on the way :)

CRUISE DAY 5 - ST. LUCIA - PART 1

St. Lucia was a mystery as far as what to do for the longest time. I kicked a lot of ideas around for stuff to do. I read GAPearl's excellent review of her Valor cruise and became a little obsessed on doing something related to the Pitons. GAPearl had booked an independant tour to climb one of the Pitons and it looked really enticing to me. I wasn't too intimidated by the thought of climbing in the heat. I spent most of my summer turning wrenches in a hot/humid shop with no AC. I'm also a good runner and can climb fairly well. I was so set on climbing the mountain. I was going to show it what's up. BUT... Mom was having a pretty tough time deciding on finding something fun and safe that she could do herself. Knowing that I didn't want her doing something she was uncertain of by herself, I had to decide against climbing the Pitons :( (sorry GAPearl, I really wanted to). We looked for things that we could do together and a day-tour became the best option. Mom ultimately contacted Mary (PhotogalMB) on the roll call who was looking to organize a Cosol tour group.

The morning began earlier again. We had breakfast in Rosie's. They're eggs benedict with salmon was gross, so I swapped the fish for a slice of ham. After breakfast, it was back to the balconies and secret decks for docking (We had been entering the channel as we ate). What a gorgeous place Castries was appearing to be in the morning. There was this cool fog lifting off some of the buildings in the morning sunlight. There were quite a lot of sea containers next to where we made port. Not too far behind us was Royal's Adventure of the Seas, which had left San Juan the same night as us.

We finished getting ready and made our way off the ship. We walked though the pier duty free shops and out to the street where we were to meet with the group for the Cosol tour. It was jam packed! So many people! We met up with Mary and the others (I'm sorry again, I'm really bad with remembering names). Once we had everyone we split into two vans and the tour began. Ultimately Mom probably could have gone with the group on her own and I could have climbed the Piton. I felt better though, knowing I'd be there if she had any issues.

The first part of the tour was a couple scenic stops. One was a beautiful overlook of Castries with the ships. I stopped and took a couple photos. One of the whole area and another with my mom. Look at how happy she is to be there.

The tour continued and we stopped at the Banana fields. Bananas as far as the eyes could see. We were given some and they were delicious. The irrigation ditches were cool to see. Simple, but neat.

Afterwards, we made another scenic stop. This one was one of the smaller coastal towns (can't remember the name). There was a guy pretending to be Bob Marley singing Jammin and a couple other songs. He was so bad though, and being a fan of Marley, I was not impressed. I wasn't the only one who noticed. The guy seemed kind of pissed as we left because barely anybody left him a tip. I think he expressed it to one of the tour drivers.

Nice view of the village.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask :cool:

CRUISE DAY 4 - BARBADOS PART 2

We arrived back in port. I felt a little bummed though as I wanted to experience more of Barbados, but time was just a little too much on the short side for us to get anything else in (great excuse to come back and visit for a land vacation, right?). Instead we headed to the shops. Mom wanted to find something for my brother's girlfriend. I was looking for a magnet, t-shirt, and possibly a coffee mug. Touristy stuff, I know, but I wanted something. I stopped in a couple places noticing they mostly all had the same stuff. One store gave me a Caribbean dollar as change. I was happy about it though, another neat thing I picked up. After getting what I wanted, I filled out a port survey (no personal information needed) for a local girl who was having a tough time getting others to fill one out. Basic questions like "what did you do?" "How did you find out about it?" That kind of stuff. Afterwards, I met back up with Mom who was having a hard time finding a sea turtle souvenir that wasn't cheesy. She gave up and we headed over to get our passports stamped at their customs station. At the station we knocked on the door and were met by a friendly official who was happy to tell us more about Barbados. We complimented how nice of a place it was and he gave us some friendly tips in case we chose to come back (I probably will).

We headed back to the Valor who was joined by a smaller Bahamian flagged ship.

The steel drum band was still playing and it was great music to my ears. Thankfully I had a balcony cabin on the side that made port, right above them! I headed onto the ship and immediately bought a pina colada to sip on while I listened to the steel drums and looked at all the scenery. This still included the ballet of sea containers, this time with just the vehicles moving them around since the freighter had departed. It was great to watch everything and I didn't want to move from my balcony. What a great place. Eventually though, the inevitable happened. The band started to pack-up, the mooring lines slacked, and we had to be on our way to St. Lucia.

Leaving Barbados. What a beautiful end to a great day.

I got all cleaned up and met up with Mom for dinner in the dining room. That night we were seated next to a pretty grumpy older couple. I greeted them and the wife acknowledged me. Our head waiter came over to introduce himself and before he could, they barked out their order. Dang! At least let the guy tell you his name. Sheesh. We had to put up with them for a little while but enjoyed the dinner for the most part. I had the jerk pork which was pretty good. I forgot what Mom had, but she thought it was "meh". She was really there for the warm chocolate melting cake, which she cleaned up faster than me, haha.

It was great to see my mom enjoy her time in Barbados today, and she was thrilled to have her passport stamped.

I wrapped up the evening about 10:30 after a short trip to the casino (lost $5)

CRUISE DAY 4 - BARBADOS PART 1

We woke up and had some breakfast in Rosie's. I generally like to have my breakfast and then watch us come into port. I noticed Mom appeared to think the same. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. It was looking to be a beautiful day. As the ship started pulling into the harbor, we came in really close to a smaller freighter that was having its cargo swapped around. The port workers were doing it so fast and efficiently it was pretty neat to watch. Almost like a symphony of sea containers moving around.

Neat watching the activities around this ship.

As the ship's mooring lines were being tied, we noticed a steel drum band setting up to play for the ship's guest. They started playing right before we left to go ashore. The music was really a treat for my ears it was great to listen to them playing. We had plans though so we headed ashore.

Once ashore we noticed this yacht was in port with us. It was pretty nice, but something was a little off... It had fire damage! Near the top of the yacht, part had caught fire, doing extensive damage to the upper decks and starboard side. Some of the yacht's crew were doing clean-up. I don't really have any photos of this. I'd not like somebody taking photos of my expensive misfortune.

For Barbados, my mom had decided to get a day pass at the Hilton for the resort beaches, pools, and restaurant. We had originally talked about going to the Atlantic side to see the rock formations and beaches, but it was a long drive. Our cabbie said he was up for it, but we passed. As we approached the Hilton, our cabbie dropped us off in a slightly awkward location, but we walked around to the hotel lobby. Once inside the Hilton, we purchased our day passes. They included, use of the properties beaches, pools, courtyards, gym, towel service, lunch, and a drink. We started making our way around the property. It was a pretty nice place! Beautiful views! Nicely maintained pools and beaches. Very friendly staff. Very quiet hotel guests enjoying their stay. Mom chose well.

Now, here are photos from the Hilton in Barbados. No photos of the hotel itself, but it was a pretty nice place. Trust me.

We stayed at the Hilton for a few hours. I spent a lot of time on their nice beaches and Mom happily spent most of her time under a pool umbrella to stay out of the sun. Lunch was served by the poolside restaurant/bar. Mom had a salad and I had mahi mahi tacos. Both were awesome! I didn't want booze at this point, but I had to order a drink to get the included lunch. I opted for a coconut to drink out of. I cannot remember our waitress's name, but she was very nice to us. While I finished my coconut, Mom bought a bracelet from a local vendor who the hotel allowed to setup on their property. A while later, we turned in our passes and checked out. Our cabbie returned to bring us back to the port. I snapped a couple photos of places we passed. One warehouse in particular was very photogenic. While stopped at a traffic light, our cabbie made conversation with an ex-girlfriend of his who was waiting in a bus stop along side the road. Normally I'd be like 'WTH?" about it, but this was different. She had gone blind over the years and he checks up with her whenever he sees her. She seemed like a nice person too. It was actually nice to see this interaction. Now feeling a little humbled, we continued making our way back to port.

Photogenic old warehouse.

CONTINUED BELOW...

Barbados AND St. Lucia tonight... What have I committed myself to?! haha

CRUISE DAY 3 - AT SEA -sorry, no photos for this day.

This morning began a little earlier than my body wanted it to, and Mom said she was in the same boat (har har). We had to be up a little early to have breakfast and for her to be ready in time for our Behind the Fun tour. I was regretting my gluttony a little from the steakhouse the night before. I was just fine once I took an Imodium though and we headed off for the tour.

The tour started at 8:45am in the library. I snacked on a couple of the cookies and juice they had setup for the group. Our guide came around at exactly 8:45 (Please forgive me, I'm TERRIBLE with remembering names). I can't remember her name but she was very understandable and efficient. She handed us each lanyards with large passes on them after completing our short roll call. We then headed off to begin the tour. She told us there is a lot of walking with the tour and she was right. I was good for it, but it was a stretch for Mom. Be warned, if you can't be on your feet for longer periods, you may have a tough time with this tour.

The tour began as we headed to the lower decks of the ship. First stop was the bow of the ship. This was normally a crew only area. I was thrilled to be there because its generally my favorite part of the ship. Some crew were indeed out there having a break (some, a smoke break, don't be surprised). We learned how heavy the spare anchor is. I forget just how heavy it was but my guess was WAY off. I was surprised that sucker didn't weigh down the bow more! Continuing on from there, we visited the stage and did some Q&A with the entertainment staff. They were very informative and more than happy to answer questions. It was neat to see all the different things that could be done with the stage and all the different costumes for the dancers/singers. We also learned of the multiple duties everyone had in that particular department. They are busy. From there, we went below to the crew and "business" decks of the ship. We walked along the "I-95" of the ship. We found (but didn't look inside) the brig and morgue.

Continuing on, we worked our way to the engine control room. I laughed a good bit because one of the crew had placed a Ferrari sticker in good humor next to the ship's speedometer (which reads knots). The engineer gave us an excellent breakdown of what controlled what as best as he could through his heavy Croatian accent. Pretty cool guy with a neat job. In the control room there, were video monitors displaying the actual ships generators (which are pretty big).

We continued through the gangway area on deck 0, into the galley, laundry, rooms, and crew areas. One of the chefs showed some of us how to make flowers from veggies. The crew cafeteria really reminds me of an American diner. We walked through the galley and ascended the then stopped escalators to the upper level of the mid ship dining room (Lincoln). We took a break for a little bit.

The bridge was the best part of the tour. looking at the controls was awesome and meeting the officers was a privilege. They have an AWESOME view out of the bridge. Particularly from the wings. NOTE Don't do anything embarrassing on you balcony, because chances are they would see you. The captain wasn't present at the time but did greet us shortly after. I think he might have been taking a nap, or been busy in his office. We took a group shot (while I'm the only dummy not looking at the camera, dang). Then exited the bridge.

The tour wrapped up in Scarlett's Steakhouse. We were offered some drinks. We completed a survey and we got some swag from Carnival. Our swag included a travel bag, cap, arm band, lanyard, and recipe for warm chocolate melting cake. One of the crew also carved us each this cool swan out of a bar of soap. It was a great time that was well worth the 90-something dollar price and lasted just shy of 4 hours. When I returned to my cabin, they also left each of us chocolate covered strawberries and cookies.

The rest of the day went rather fast. I got a couple of drinks and we enjoyed the rest of the day at sea.

Drawing on my previous 2.0 ship cruises I have to admit I like the updated lido bar setup on those ships. The hot tubs in the middle of the deck seemed a little odd to me too, but I never used them. I missed Guy's Burgers and Blue Iguana Cantina, but there were still good lunch options. The burrito bar's food was almost as good as Blue Iguanas, but not quite.

That evening we skipped-out on elegant night and had dinner in Rosie's lido café. It was pretty decent and not too crowded when we went. We then went to see Night Club Express in the Ivanhoe theater. It was dated but was still entertaining. I stayed up a little later, visited the club, and then walked around for a while before crashing.

This evening... BARBADOS and ST. LUCIA! Stay tuned!

I'm on the Valor in 31 days. I can't wait to see your pictures of the islands and what you did.

 

I hope some day my sons will cruise with me, especially when I don't have to pay their way :)

I hope they do as well. I'm very happy to have cruised with my Mom.

Great Photos and Review...and very interesting on the Flamenco Dancers...thanks. :):):):)

Welcome. There are a few other places besides Barrachina that have flamenco dinner shows, but I'm fairly certain Barrachina has the best.

I can't wait to see if you also did the Gros Piton climb in St. Lucia. I remember you posting about it on the St. Lucia board. :D

Stay tuned. St. Lucia will be posted later this evening when I get off work :)

Sweet, I subscribed.

 

I'll be there with the family in 3 days!

 

:)

You and anyone else waiting for this cruise will really enjoy it. Its a little busy itinerary wise, but you'll get a lot out of it!

CRUISE DAY 2, ST. THOMAS

Day 2 started pretty early. Most days did really.

We had ordered room service early because we wanted to be off the ship early. We wanted to taxi over to Red Hook Bay, then take the water taxi over to St. John. I forget what time we arrived in port but it was indeed early.

Pulling into Havensight pier at St. Thomas.

Being prepared and with all our stuff together, we headed down to deck zero once we saw that the mooring lines were all tightened. This was really cool timing wise because we were the first guests off the boat. I let my mom go first down the ramp so she could have bragging rights but it was pretty cool. Vendors and taxis were still getting setup. We grabbed a cab with a pretty cool cabbie and made our way over to Red Hook Bay. I already knew much of the Virgin Islands history, but our cabbie gladly went through history and pointed out some sights to my mom on the way. I was still a little sleepy so I just let Mom enjoy what he had to say. We stopped at the water taxi terminal and waited maybe 10 mins, then boarded Caribe Time to take us to St. John.

I've been to St. John (this time now) 3 times. I always head to Trunk Bay and Cruz Bay. Its an awesome island with a small town kind of feeling where it seems everyone knows each other. Once we arrived we grabbed a truck taxi to Trunk Bay. None of the shops in Cruz Bay were open yet for Mom to look around. I've shown Mom my photos of Trunk Bay and she was not disappointed when we arrived. Because we arrived so early there was no gate guard and with the exception of a couple people, there was hardly anyone else.

Trunk Bay

Crowds started showing up around 10. Carnival and Princess cruise excursions showed up around then as well. I wouldn't say the place was crowded, but it was getting a little busy. I wanted to snorkel the the underwater trail again, but it was starting to rain a little. Mom was looking to head back to Cruz Bay to check out some of the shops and get lunch.

Once back in Cruz Bay, Mom looked around some of the shops while I set about finding a cool t-shirt. We stumbled upon a shop being run by this pretty cool lady from Texas. She was great to talk to about living on the island but man, was she chatty. I really wanted to get some lunch! We wrapped up the convo and headed over to The Beach Bar for lunch after realizing most of the other places were only open for dinner. I should have just gone there in the first place. I had their awesome Beach Bar Nachos and 1 of both their signature drinks. Mom had their fish & chips which she said were delicious. I then bought one of their t-shirts for a buddy who I was there with for a bachelor party trip.

After lunch we headed back to St. Thomas. We went back to the ship where mom headed to her cabin for a while. I went back off the ship and walked around for a while looking for some of the familiar places. Gone, was the Hubbly Bubbly where I got sick from inhaling too much shisha on the bachelor party trip. Some of the other bars were still there though. Walking back to the ship I witnessed two locals having a fairly minor car accident (look booth ways before pulling into traffic!).

I thought about taking the cable cars up to the vantage point, but it was starting to get close to time for everyone to get back. I made my way back onto the ship and made myself at home on my balcony with a Pina Colada. It was nice. Docked at the pier was Fountainhead. The yacht owned by the founder of Oracle. Staff were running all over it. Probably the largest and most extravagant yacht I've seen. Mom then came out onto her balcony. It was perfect timing too as she saw a sea turtle surfacing in the harbor next to the piers. She was thrilled.

The ship blew its horn to get the tardy guests back. We had a couple pier runners (probably from Senor Frogs). Afterwards we sailed away, bound for Barbados with one day at sea.

Sailing away from St. Thomas (after the party)

That night we ate in Scarlett's Steakhouse. There were a group of obnoxious drunks seated 2 tables away from us. One of the other tables complained and the steakhouse supervisor came over to ask them if they could tone it down. Thankfully, they did for a while. Mom enjoyed her meal and I over-ate. Whoops. No ridiculous cheesecake though. Afterwards, Mom grabbed an ice cream then headed to her cabin for the night. I walked around to people watch some more. I wanted to meet up with some others my age, but didn't make it to the opening of the dance club. I crashed shortly before 10.

Sorry for the lack of photos from the Virgin Islands. I will make it up to you though, tomorrow. Barbados and St. Lucia are picture heavy.

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Con't tomorrow.

CRUISE DAY 1, CON'T

Mom and me were really ready to get on the ship once they announced boarding after 12:30. To catch-up a little they allowed some FTTF guests to board with Platinum and Diamond guests (sorry guys!). Mom my was getting a little tired from standing so I took the opportunity. We heading inside and headed right to the Shore Excursions desk. I booked Behind the Fun for my mom and I and then we proceeded to our neighboring balcony cabins (7216-Mom, 7220-Me). We were a little bummed though when we realized that we couldn't open our balcony divider. Turns out if the balcony doors are next to each other, the divider will block one, which is not allowed. Bummer, but oh well.

We grabbed some quick lunch in Rosie's lido cafe. I ate a really small amount as I was sick only just a few hours earlier. I had to work my way back up. The sun started coming out and it was great to see it.

Feeling drained from the night and morning, I took a nap for a while to let my body catch up. Man, did I need it.

I woke up a little later to party cloudy skies. I grabbed my DSLR and walked around, shooting photos of the Valor mostly.

Lastly, the view of the bridge wing from my balcony Cabin...

This was my first cruise on a non-2.0 Conquest Class. I get more into the differences in my Sea Day post.

We ate in the dining room that evening. Both dining rooms were open seating (anytime dining) that night. Afterwards we went exploring the ship again. When I say that, what I really mean, is I showed Mom around as I had been on other Conquest Class ships before. She then went and unpacked, while I spent some time people watching.

Muster drill came at 9:30. It was one of the more difficult ones as Mom had difficulty standing for longer periods of time. If she stood in the back and rested against the railing she couldn't see. If she moved up, she had back pain from standing still unsupported for so long. It seemed like a long time, but it finally finished and we headed over to secret deck 7 for sail away. It was very nice. Not a lot of people (I kind of missed the deck party though). The front of the ship is not lit at night, so we saw everything once our eyes adjusted. There were now clear skies and once out of port we could see many stars.

Mom went to bed after that. I stayed up to get into the shop to buy a ship shaped Valor magnet for my tool box at work (to go with my Liberty, Glory, and Independence of the Seas magnets). I'm an auto technician. My $10,000 Matco tool box is filled with many expensive tools and parts. The thing I like most about it are the magnets I have from islands, ships, and beer caps (from these islands). No photo of this though.

CRUISE DAY 1

I tossed and turned most of the night. Having hardly slept, I woke up with a pounding headache and nausea. GO FIGURE! It was the day I had to sail. As the morning continued it got worse and worse. I then found out Paul Walker died. I was honestly pretty sad about it. Being a car enthusiast myself and fan of the "family" from the Fast & Furious franchise, I was a fan. I also admired his work with Reach-out Worldwide. He was a pretty good guy from my buddy who worked with him as a stunt man. R.I.P. Paul Walker.

Getting back to my nausea, it just kept getting worse. I looked out and saw the Valor docked at the pier and told myself. "Damn it! You're going to make this cruise! If not for you, you're not going to prevent your mom from going!" She was starting to get worried and asked if I thought we could make the ship in time to book Behind the Fun. I felt pretty bad though. Guts bubbling, head bumpin', and some dizziness.

The Valor in port. Who could say "NO" to this?! DLSR pic ;)

I made a big decision then. I then forced myself to "get sick." I had to get out whatever was doing this to me so that Mom and me could get on the boat!!! Boy, was it unpleasant. After "getting sick" several times and taking some alka seltzer I started feeling a lot better. Turned out I had food poisoning from the stupid fish salad I had at the stupid Cafe Puerto Rico. Hate that place now!

Felling much better now, we made our way down to the pier to get into the terminal. The terminal opened a little after 10:30 that morning. there was a little bit of a crowd waiting in disorganized "lines" to get in.

Once in we proceeded to the FTTF line which was a breeze. After checking in, we waited............ and waited! The coast gaurd was doing an inspection prior to this particular cruise and it pushed boarding back to past 12. Nobody at the terminal made any announcements about it though and the place started getting pretty packed. Seating isn't nearly as plentiful as the Miami terminals. I just really wanted to get on the boat and get situated after the very rough morning.

PRE-CRUISE DAY 2

Woke up fairly early to rain.

We had some rather expensive breakfast at the Sheraton's restaurant. The food was marginal but it was convenient. I just wanted an easy morning.

Afterwards we headed to the free-trolley stop to catch a trolley over to El Morro. We waited, and waited, and waited. Finally one came up, but it was more like a street-car-bus than the open-air, bendy-bus that I had been on before. Turns out it was the wrong free trolley as it only circled through a portion of Old San Juan but not up to El Morro. We jumped-off at a stop that was nearest to Castillo de San Cristobal. I paced myself so not to outpace my mom who was doing her best with the hills. Once we made it to the Castillo, we looked around for a while, took a bunch of photos and then went to walk to El Morro.

"Oh look!, there goes a bendy-bus free trolley!" Turns out, they come around less often then they used to. Well, now we know we'll have to wait extra long for one.

We wound up walking to El Morro, and it was then the skies opened up. downpours and wind. I got soaked, mom got soaked. Umbrellas were useless against the wind. A group of Japanese tourists huddled inside one of the small fort lookout structures, laughing their butts off. We were laughing pretty good too. The poncho my mom had on was blowing up and over her face doing nothing to really keep the rain off her. It let up a little once we were inside El Morro and the sun came out for 5 mins. NOTE

Those of you who have difficulty with stairs should not descend to the lower outside levels of El Morro. My mom had a tough time coming back up.

More rain came again though and it didn't stop. We decided to get some late lunch/early dinner at Cafe Puerto Rico BAD IDEA. When we finished the rain really started pouring and then turned into an all out monsoon. We tried to check out some of the souvenir joints in Old San Juan but were eventually washed back to our hotel room (sandbags were being put out).

It rained so much that sewer lids became dislodged.

We ran over to the CVS a little later but called it an early night as the rain kind of killed things. I thought about the casino in the hotel, but didn't want to blow any money before the cruise.

I turned into the hotel room and watched as Celebrity Summit, Jewel of the Seas, and Grandeur of the Seas sailed away.

I should point out that these photos were taken with my phone... Good DSLR photos are coming soon!

PRE-CRUISE DAY 1

This day started really early for me at 5 am. It might have started earlier though as I was pretty stoked about the trip. I couldn't wait to get on the plane.

6:30 am rolled around. The taxi showed up, and took us to the airport. We waited while JetBlue did a tango with their airplanes on the apron and then boarded the plane that became ours. I went baller-mode and booked seat 1A. On JetBlue this is an "extra leg room" seat which cost some more money. Seeing as how the flight was almost 4 hours from D.C., I was more than happy to pay a little extra for it.

Here is the legroom for seat 1A. *NOTE* No seat in front for you to put a backpack under.

The flight was pretty smooth. The seats were comfy and I watched a couple movies on my iPad when I didn't sleep.

About 2/3 through the flight, I looked out the window to see what looked like a cruise ship. It looked so small, but after checking my ship mate app, it turned out to be Royal's Allure of the Seas!

As we were coming into San Juan, I noticed there were quite a lot of clouds which looked like they were heading towards the city. Fortunately we were able to see Old San Juan as we were approaching the air port. It looks so small from the plane (but is a lot of walking on the ground).

We landed in what was a sunny San Juan and caught a cab over to the Sheraton right by the pier we'd be leaving from in the coming days. Along the way we passed by Royal's Explorer of the Seas as she was backing out to leave. I had just seen this ship leave NYC earlier in the week over the webcam. Cool!

Once at the Sheraton we made our way up to the suite we booked. It offered a bedroom and a living-room space with a fold out. It had a very small balcony that looked out over the piers and I could wake-up with the Valor right outside. Mom would crash on the bed. I took the fold-out which wasn't too terrible. The only things I didn't like about the Sheraton was this odd odor in the room. It was hard to describe, not really mold or B.O. but something organic-stinky. Didn't pay it too much mind. The real issue were the noisy cabbies that parked outside. Loud music and shouting which I didn't mind at some hours, but did when it was 2, going on 3 a.m.

View from our balcony

That afternoon it became a little overcast and eventually rained a couple times. This unfortunately set the tone for the rest of our time in Old San Juan. We made the best of it, visiting some cool places, but the rain really just didn't quit and when it did, it picked right back up again shortly after.

The first night we dined at Barrachina and watched live flamenco dancing. The food, service, atmosphere, and performance were awesome. Pedro was an excellent waiter. I highly recommend it if you have a chance.

Flamenco dancing (there were 4 performers. 3 girls, 1 dude).

We walked around a little more afterwards, but being up at an early hour, it was time to pass-out. Called it a night around 10.

A little background.

I like cruising quite a bit because I consider myself an island hopper. I enjoy sampling as much of the Caribbean as I can. That said, I had already sailed both of Carnival's Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries and a Royal Caribbean itinerary which was more like a Central Caribbean itinerary. I had been looking pretty hard at Carnival's Southern Caribbean itinerary when the Victory was sailing the route. When news came that Victory was swapping ports with Valor I was sold. I've seen the Valor sail out of Miami twice and I had a gut feeling the second time was going to sail on it.

Alright. Fast-forward to 7 months ago. I was just about ready to book a solo cruise for myself on the Valor. It came to me though that my mother had been talking about how badly she needed a vacation. I mentioned to her that I was planning this and she should consider. I honestly had no intention of cruising with anyone at first, but she's my mom. I don't consider myself a mama's boy, but she raised me and my brother as a single mom and we both admire and adore her for it. After a couple weeks she told me she wanted to go and we got the ball rolling from there. It was really a good thing she came. Mostly because she has hardly been outside the continental US, but also for reasons I'll get into later.

Fast-forward again to a couple weeks ago and I couldn't be more ready to take vacation. This was going to be great.

*I have some pretty sweet photos from this trip I'll post up. Not many from San Juan though, unfortunately.*

They will probably be removed by 1/19.

They come down the 1st/2nd cruise after New Years Day.

I faced the same choice 2 months ago.

I ultimately chose the Victory mostly because of the itinerary (Ecstasy was going to Mexico, when Victory was going to Bahamas and Grand Turk). I also wanted to check out the Victory pre-2.0 (which was recently pushed-back). If it wasn't for that, I'd have sailed the Ecstasy. I'd really like to try a Fantasy Class ship.