Valor June 12-17 Review - We loved the Valor! Awesome Ship!

My daughter and I went on the Valor June 12 – 17 for anawesome Mother/Daughter Cruise! We wereso happy with our experience – outstanding customer service on the Valor – the friendlieststaff we have encountered on all of our cruises!

We drove from Tulsa to Galveston the day before – I45 waskind of a nightmare on our trip down – they actually closed all four lanes intwo different areas – once in New Waverly and once at the Fuqua exit inHouston. These two delays added about 2 ½hours to our normally enjoyable 8-hour trip. Other than that, it was a pleasant drive down. Each time we take a cruise out of Galvestonwe stay at the Hotel Galvez. This is anAMAZING hotel! We love it for manyreasons; it is on the sea wall with great views of the Gulf, they will let youpark your car in their garage for the cruise for free (well – you pay $19 forone night of valet and then they let you leave it there with no additionalcharges) and it is right next to Millers – the best restaurant inGalveston!!! When we arrived at 4:00p.m. and drove up the valet service is right there to greet you and take all ofyour luggage. All you have to do is get out,give them your keys and go in to check-in. After a long day of driving they are such a welcome sight. We walked in to the check-in desk and weregreeted by Sarah. She asked our name andthen told us we had been upgraded to the Presidential Suite!!!! We were esthetic! Just in awe really – we went up to our room(it was actually a suite with three rooms and two bathrooms) – it waslovely! We dropped our stuff – waited untilthe luggage arrived and then headed off to Miller’s (right next door to theHotel Galvez) for dinner. In my opinion,they have some of the best food in Galveston! We shared the shrimp dinner and then treated ourselves to their peachcobbler. Honestly, it could feed up to 4it is so big. But we devoured it – only lefta little behind! We walked down thebeach for a while and then headed back. It had been a long day so we crashed around 9:00 p.m. with greatanticipation for our upcoming cruise on the Valor.

We woke up early – around 6:00 a.m. and went down to theseawall and watched the sun rise. It wasbreathtaking. Sunrises and sunsets onthe beach are just about our favorite. It was an absolutely love sunrise – we were so excited to have prettyweather for our sail-away! We headedback to the room, ordered room service in our giant room and took our timeeating and started to get packed back up. (We had called ahead on the trip down and put our names on the shuttlelist (we highly recommend doing this if you stay at Hotel Galvez)). We went down around 9:15 for our 9:30 shuttleand were loaded and heading to the Cruise Terminal by 9:28 a.m. We had Faster to the Fun and have learned overthe years that if we arrive early and turn our luggage in early we get ourluggage super early – usually by 1:00 p.m.! So, we arrived at Terminal One and we pulled our luggage over to the luggagedrop-off and met the nicest porter. He putthe orange Faster to the Fun tape on our luggage (be sure they put the orangetape on if you purchased FTTF) – we tipped him $20 and he said he would makesure our luggage was in the first bin to go on. We then headed to the other end and found the Priority Check-in area andwalked right through (no lines yet) to the holding area (nicely air conditionedand lots of benches to wait) until they were ready for us to proceed through tothe security check-in. There was a largewedding party already waiting – so we just hung out and waited. Around 10:00 a.m. they took the wedding partyto proceed through to security. Therewere no diamonds or platinums there yet so they started with the FTTFpeople. We breezed through security andupstairs and were walking through to the check-in area. We were the first FTTF people so we walkedright up and checked in. They gave usour sign and sail cards – we connected them to our lanyards and went to have aseat in the FTTF area. We sat untilabout 11:15 and they started loading. The wedding was first – then they called the diamonds/platinum andsuites. They were about to call FTTF butstopped the boarding process to let a large tanker pass by. It was causing enough wake to make the Valormove up and down therefore making it “dangerous” to load. Finally, after about 20 minutes, it passedand they resumed boarding. We were thefirst FTTF on board. Walking up the gangwayis just about the most fun anticipation of all – and stepping on to deck 3 wasawesome!! All that waiting and planning –it was finally here! We made our way toour room (our first time without a balcony – we had an ocean view (more on thatlater) Cabin #7203) and dropped our carry-ons and headed out to Guys, thebuffet and the BBQ place (upstairs right above the buffet) and had a deliciousmeal!! Guys never disappoints!! The buffet was exactly how I remembered it –lots of choices – medium food. But theBBQ place was AMAZING! Some of the bestpulled pork (it is called pork butt on the ship) I have ever had! Delicious! Their BBQ sauce was not the best though – so we brought some from Guysand it was delicious! Wonder why theydon’t just use the same stuff?? Anyway –be sure to grab your BBQ sauce from Guys and take is upstairs with you to enjoythe BBQ – they had chicken, brisket and pork butt along with mac and cheese(delicious), potato salad and coleslaw. Yum!!

With our belliesfull we set out to explore the ship! Itis a bit worn and the deco is somewhat outdated but it was extremely clean andsparkling! We kind of fell in love withthe outdated decorations and color theme. It grew on us all week – wish I was there now to enjoy it! We sailed on the Breeze and Christmas and we100% love, love, love the smaller ships. We will probably stay with the smaller class ships from now on. Just a charming ship – we really, reallyenjoyed it! We did notice that the aftpool is still adult only!! That made usso happy! The Serenity Decks were lovely– just really, really windy on sea days (one day they closed the top SerenityDeck due to high winds). Our room wasright under the bridge at the front of the ship and we enjoyed our “private”deck many, many times. There are not anychairs out there (just a couple of benches) but the privacy was lovely. I will probably not sail without a balconyagain, however, it was nice having the deck to walk a few steps out to get to.

Our luggagearrived around 1:30 – we unpacked and got organized and headed back out to enjoythe celebratory mood! At 2:30 we headedback to our rooms to take a break from the heat – it was around 90 degrees –not a lot of wind. Then, LaLaine, ourcabin steward come to meet us. She gaveus the option of a.m., p.m. or both and we took both. We asked for an extra pillow and to keep icein the bucket and she was happy to accommodate! She was really a very sweet lady – we enjoyed getting to know herthroughout the week. She remembered ournames from that point on – such a nice touch to customer service! We tipped her $20 and she headed out. We rested for about an hour and then theycalled us for the muster drill. Weheaded down to Muster Station A and waited in the heat for everyone toarrive. They finally began and we wereout of there by 4:00 – ready to set sail! We headed back up to our room and our extra pillow and ice werethere. That was fast service!! We pushed away at 4:15 – we were watching thesail away from our “private” deck and made some friends who were our neighborsin that area! We headed in at 5:00 tochange for dinner and headed down to the Lincoln Dining Room at 5:25 to get inline for Anytime Dining that started at 5:45. They opened the doors at 5:30 (never seen them start early before?!?!!)and we got to enjoy our first dinner. Weactually like the American Table Menus – we love having the carafe of water onthe table – seems like we are always thirsty when we are cruising. We also love the bread basket (we are big breadeaters) and the butter that they bring. We finished dinner (of course we had our Carnival Melting Chocolatedessert with ice cream!) and headed to change. We were excited to go to our first Dive-InMovie. It was Boss Baby (hadn’t heardanything about this movie so we gave it a try). We found our seats (go early as there are a limited number of seats on deck9 – our favorite place to watch the movie) and snagged some popcorn. The popcorn on the ship is free but tastelessso we bring our own salt and butter shakers! We salted and buttered up – grabbed our M&M’s from home and wereset! We saw that the sun was starting togo down – ran up to deck 10 and watched the sun set over the water – beautiful! These pictures make my best screen savers andjust remind me how awesome cruising is!!! The movie ended up being pretty dumb – so we didn’t stay until the endand we were beat so we headed back to our room turned in. What an amazing first day! We felt we had made the most of it. We jumped into bed (our beds wereAMAZING!!!!) – I think these were some of the most comfortable beds on any ofour cruises so far! We slept soundly tothe rocking of the ship. Our hallwayswere super quiet – not a lot of traffic that far up.

I'll post the Fun Times each day too!!

I will post Day 2 (our first sea day) tomorrow!

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Great start! Will be following along.

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Day 2 Carnival Valor – Sea Day

We woke up early – not on purpose, just rested up from agood night’s rest! So, we got up andheaded out to the buffet for our first breakfast! We found our go-to spot for breakfast duringour exploration the day before – back of the ship on the Lido (deck 9) by theadult only pool watching the trail we were leaving in the ocean. AMAZING place for breakfast – always quiet –most days we were the only ones there! Breakfast was indeed the same fare every day but quite delicious. Waffles, pancakes and French toast, eggs, omeletstation, tons of fresh fruit, muffins, Danishes, hash browns and so muchmore. If you go hungry on this ship,then it is just your own fault or you are simply a picky eater. We found great food every day! We especially love the hot chocolate – we alwaysbring mini-marshmallows from home in small Ziplocs so that we can take one withus to breakfast each day, use the marshmallows and throw the baggie away – yum!! Wish I was sitting in our spot drinking a hotchocolate right now!! After breakfast,we noticed quite a few were up and around so my daughter grabbed a couple ofchairs by the back, adult only pool and held on to them while I dashed back tothe room for our towels and beach bag (we had already packed it the nightbefore out of sheer excitement). Iheaded back up to deck 9 and the chairs were quickly filling up (it was about9:00 a.m.). It was extremely windy onthis sea day. So windy that they closedthe 2nd level of the Serenity Deck (deck 11 I think). We had scoped out a couple of chairs that weliked there (we like to see the ocean while we lay out on sea days) but sincedeck 11 was closed we went with our second choice by the adult only pool. While we were sitting and enjoying our firstice cream cone of the day – yes ice cream at 9:00 a.m. on a cruise ship is avery normal thing hahahahahah! – we noticed that the crew was setting up deckchairs on the back of the ship on Deck 10 (one above the Lido where we weresitting) so we grabbed up our stuff and headed up there and snagged two perfect(in our opinion) chairs for our first sea day! (I’ll include a picture of our view below.) We lotioned up so that we didn’t burn – it wasextremely windy which can trick you sometimes making you think you are not burningwhen you are TOASTING!! We were glad webrought our towel clips – even with those on the towels were whipping in thewind. We had headbands or our hair wouldhave been whipping our faces!!! Wesettled in for a relaxing day reading some good books we brought along and justmarveling at our view! The deck filledquickly and by 10:00 it was completely full. This provided some people watching fun – interesting to see what peoplewill actually wear in public. (=

By 11:30 we werehungry again – mostly because we could smell lunch! We walked down to the buffet and realized itdidn’t open until noon. We walked backup to the bbq place (which happened to be right by a door that led to our deckchairs – how convenient!!! We grabbedsome pulled pork and split a sandwich then headed down to the buffet to see ifthere was anything that caught our eye (of course…there was) and we grabbed acouple of desserts. I am not a huge fanof the buffet desserts but tried a bite – didn’t like it but walked right bythe ice cream – picked up another ice cream cone! We walked to the main pool – hundreds ofkids were everywhere – most of them in the hot tubs – some in the pools. So many people around that pool area – made usso thankful for our quiet area on the back of the hip. Then we headed back to our deck chairs. We lathered on more sunscreen and enjoyedsome peaceful reading and people watching. Around 2:00 we felt we were getting a bit toasty so we headed down toour most favorite shady deck chair area – deck 3 right outside the door fromthe shore excursion desk. If you smokeuse the opposite side but guest services. If you are a non-smoker the shore excursion side is for you. It is so wonderful. Quiet with amazing scenery. There was only one other couple out when wefirst walked out and grabbed a couple of chairs. By the time we left there were maybe 15people there – still quiet and peaceful. I think I maybe fell asleep for a few minutes!! We headed to our rooms around 4:00 andordered our favorite room service – chocolate cake, veggie platter with ranchand pretzels – our pre-dinner snacks each day!!! (And it is free – just be sure to tip thecrew member delivering it – we usually tip $3.) We showered, rested and then dressed for dinner in time to get downthere by 5:20 to get in line. The openedthe doors promptly at 5:45 and we were shown to the same amazing window seatthat we had the night before! What agreat view to enjoy dinner each night! Bogdan and Irenae were our waiters – they greeted us by name (we startedto realize this was the typical level of customer service for our ship!!) andhanded us our menus. The night before mydaughter asked for more bread and asked for specifically just the white bread. When Irenae brought our bread basket it wasfilled with only white types of bread – I mean how awesome is that!?!?!?? We love My Time Dining the best because we aretypically served all courses and on our way in about an hour! Tonight we finished dessert and were out ofthere by 6:30 p.m. and headed off for the Lido to grab a couple of deck chairsfor the Beauty and the Beast Dive-In Movie. We took turns running to the room to change into some comfymovie-watching clothes and get our bag full of goodies! My daughter brought along a couple of extramini-bags of M&M’s and poured them on top of her bowl of ice cream. I grabbed another popcorn – salted andbuttered it up and sat back to enjoy the movie. We dashed back up to watch the sunset again – can’t miss those! We finished the movie – the next one was “JohnWick” – we weren’t interested in that one so we headed back to our room andpacked our backpack and snorkel gear for Cozumel and Nachi Coccum and headed tobed. We were pretty excited about oursnorkeling adventures in Cozumel – this will be our 3rd visit toNachi Coccum and we know the fun that is in store!

I’ll post Day 3 either this evening or tomorrow! Fun Times and a picture of our view from our favoritedeck area to follow soon!!

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Thank you for doing this review! I'll be on the Valor next week, 26th-1st, also on a mother daughter cruise. Sounds like y'all had a blast so far!

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Thanks for the review! We will be doing the same itinerary one week for today. I think we will try to find the same spot as you had for sea days. Also, the quiet spot on deck three sounds relaxing. ;)

Enjoying your review!

Thank you for doing this review! I'll be on the Valor next week, 26th-1st, also on a mother daughter cruise. Sounds like y'all had a blast so far!

 

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Yay! You will love it! It is just the perfect size ship!

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Thanks for the review! We will be doing the same itinerary one week for today. I think we will try to find the same spot as you had for sea days. Also, the quiet spot on deck three sounds relaxing. ;)

It is perfect - shady and quiet! Best reading spot on the ship for us! Have so much fun!

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Enjoying your review!

Thank you!

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Thank you for the posts so far!

By any chance did you take pictures of the American Table menus each day?

Thank you for the posts so far!

By any chance did you take pictures of the American Table menus each day?

We did not take pics of those - I am so sorry!!!

Carnival Valor Day 3 – Cozumel!

This was our most favorite day of the cruise – our #1 goalfor snorkeling each time we get to go to Nachi Cocom is to swim with seaturtles and we did find one on this trip!!!

We got up early as we were scheduled to depart the ship at9:00 a.m. That means we had to line upon the stairs on deck #1 by 8:30 (they tell you NOT to line up or head down todeck #1 until notified, however, if you need to be off within the firstthousand people you have to get there early). So, we got up around 6:30 and headed up to eat breakfast at our favoritespot – there were a few more people milling about than yesterday – due to aport day. We loaded up on breakfast andheaded back to our rooms to get ready for our amazing day ahead (and we didn’teven know how spectacular it was going to be!!!). We got our backpack and headed down to deck#1 at 8:30. There were less than 50people in front of us – that was good news as we would have to head straight tothe taxi hut (we had to wait about 15 minutes in line at Christmas – but therewere 5 ships in port that day!). Wewalked off the ship by 9:10 a.m. – there were only 2 ships in port so far! We walked through the port shopping area andaround to the taxi hut. There were onlya couple of groups in front of us and we were in a taxi by 9:30 a.m.!! The trip to Nachi Cocom took about 10minutes and the cost was $17. We tipped$3 so it is $20 each way. We walked towardthe entry and the picture lady greeted us, handed us each a sombrero and wetook the obligatory picture. Then wewere directed to the welcome desk where we paid our balance (about $59 each andthen we took the snorkeling excursion for an additional $35 each) and wereintroduced to Manuel, our waiter for the day. He showed us to our palapa and chairs right on the beach (about half waydown to the end) where we would call home for the next few hours. It was a lovely view – partly cloudy andabout 80 degrees. No wind – no whitecaps! We were excited about snorkelingin these conditions!!! We unpacked ourbeach towels from home (the blue Carnival ones are too heavy to carry ashore sowe bring old ones that have thinned a bit and are very light weight) and founda place for everything else. We sat andenjoyed the scenery and free wifi for a bit and then headed into the water tocool off! We swam a few minutes and thenwent to the area just behind our beach chairs where three hammocks were hung(new ones since we were here at Christmas!) and hung for about 30 minutes. We signed up for the 11:00 a.m. snorkelingand they came to get us at 10:45 to go and load the boat. There were maybe 8 others on this tour(compared to the 200 we once snorkeled with on the Carnival excursion throughFury a couple of years ago!) and we set out! The first place they took us was known for the hundreds of star fish youcan find and it did not disappoint – they were everywhere! We also saw a pretty large barracuda – with amenacing under bite. I am figuring ifyou are close enough to see the under bite and gnarly teeth coming up out ofthe under bite you are way too close! So,we quickly swam over and moved on. Thenwe loaded back up in the boat and they took us to the area with thecorral. This is where we saw the seaturtle last year – it was an amazing experience and we were so hoping to catcha glimpse of another sea turtle this trip!! We swam over some amazing corral and saw a 4-foot nurse shark – kind ofscary again but they are not known for aggression to humans – we swam on and hedidn’t flinch. Great picturesthough! Then the moment we had been waitingfor!!!! A beautiful adult sea turtleswam right under us – we cheered – it was so beautiful. They are just graceful, beautifulcreatures! After calming down from thesea turtle sighting we swam over a couple more barracudas and then someadditional fish. It was then time toboard the boat and head back to Nachi. The ride back was about 30 minutes – lovely breeze, no waves. Just an all- around great snorkelingadventure!!! We tipped our guys $20 andthanked them for the adventure promising to return again next summer!

When we got backto our beach at Nachi we were starting and worn out! We went to the open-air restaurant (or youcan order from your beach chair and they will deliver) and ordered anything wewanted off the menu and started looking at our go-pro pics on my daughter’sphone. They were awesome! We finished our meal and walked back down toour chairs. We rested for about an hourand then rented one of the $7 float mats and went out into the water on thebeach by our chairs. We swam and snorkeledfor about an hour – we found a couple of conch shells with snails in them (wedove down and brought them up – we made sure to nestle them comfortably back onthe floor of the ocean) and then we found a star fish. Holding a star fish has been on my daughter’sto-do list (she is 21) for a while. So,we dove down and she got to hold it and take a picture with it. It was the perfect ending to our amazingday. The only thing we did not get tosee that was on our list was a sting ray. We seem to see these every time so not a big deal – didn’t dampen ourspirits for a great day of beach and snorkeling fun!

By now it wasaround 2:00 - we told our waiter Manuel that we wanted to get a cab back to theport at 3:00 (the ship sailed at 6:00 – so that gave us plenty of time toshop). Then we gathered up our stuff andheaded to the swimming pool to get the salt water off of us. It felt SO good toswim in the pool. We got some water fromthe swim up bar – we were feeling a bit dehydrated and rested for a bitthere. We got out and rinsed off intheir fresh water shower area and then dressed in dry clothes (they have areally nice changing facility) – tipped our waiter Manuel $20 and got into ourcab that pulled up right at 3:00 p.m. $20 back to the port and we were ready to shop. We found some souvenirs and then headed toRon Jon’s Surf Shop and my daughter bought some clothes there. We were hot, tired and ready to get back onthe ship. By 4:30 we were in line toboard – headed to our rooms by 4:45 and showered for dinner. We were in our favorite seat in the LincolnDining Room at 5:50 – just in time for the sail away!!! We had an amazing dinner and thendessert. For some reason, tonight was abit slower and we weren’t finished until around 7:00 p.m. We headed to our room to change and then wentto the magic show in the theater! It waspretty awesome! It ended and we wereexhausted so we called it a night and headed to the room to bed! Progresso was the next day – much calmer day tomorrowwith massages on the beach and shopping! We fell asleep with that wonderful kind of tired from a great day offun!

Day 4 in Progressotomorrow!!

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Our view from our beach chairs at Nacho Cocom!

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Perfect snorkeling weather in Cozumel!

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Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the review.

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Carnival Valor - Day 4 in Progreso

We had a pretty intense day the day before in Cozumel so weplanned 100% relaxation today. We werenot docking until 10:00 a.m. so we took our time getting up and going tobreakfast – by the time we went down at 8:30 a.m. our favorite breakfast areawas almost vacant – NICE!!! We had aleisurely breakfast and went back for seconds as we knew it would be a whilebefore we were back on for a late lunch. We were dressed in our swim suits and ready to head out by 10:15a.m. Orlando (the cruise director) hadalready announced that we were cleared for debarkation around 9:45. He came back on the PA at 10:15 and announcedthat anyone wanting to go ashore could debark at this time that there was nowait to go ashore. That was soweird?!!?!? In all of my cruises I donot recall ever hearing there’s no wait please debark now if you aregoing? Strange – I am guessing that moreand more people are not leaving the ship in Progresso so they are starting topush it a little. When we did make ourway down at 10:15 there was indeed to wait and we walked right off theship. Now, this is the port with the5-mile pier. So you have to ride theirshuttle from where the ship docks down the 5-mile pier to the port area. We boarded the free shuttle bus and headeddown the long pier. When we got to thedrop-off location (about a block from the beach at their open-air market) acouple of representatives from the local travel groups boarded our bus to tryto sell us a last-minute package to go to their all-inclusive. This lasted about 5 minutes (seemed longer –but only about 5 minutes). They finallyopened the doors and we headed back to the beach to Maria’s Massage place – ourfavorite! We were the first customers ofthe day and each enjoyed a one-hour massage. The cost for both massages was only $60.00 (about $300 cheaper than onthe ship). We tipped generously andwalked down to our complimentary beach chairs and umbrella! We relaxed for a bit – had a few peddlerscome by (a simple “no, thank you” works very well and they leave youalone). We rested and swam for a bit –by now it was about 1:45 and we were starting to get hungry. TIP!!! Take a bottle of water or two with you sothat when you get out of the ocean you can wash the sand off of your feet. There are not public showers or wateranywhere to get cleaned up. We took ourtwo bottles and tried to get as much of the sand off our feet as possible. Then we wrapped up and packed up and walkedback to the open-air market (it is one of our favorite shopping spots) and boughta few things and then headed out to the buses and rode back to the end of thepier. There are a few shops at the endof the pier – we shopped a bit more and then boarded the ship around 3:00 p.m.(Departure was at 6:00 p.m. so we were good to go!)

We went straight to the buffet and grabbedsome lunch – climbed the stairs and grabbed our pulled pork sandwich and satdown for a quick lunch with no crowds at all!!! We had been wanting to ride thewater slide at least once (kind of a one and done thing) but the lines werealways down the stairs with kiddos - since there was no line we climbed thestairs and rode the water slide. It wasa slower slide! Just my speed – kind ofenjoyed it! Then we headed back to theadult only pool for a dip and cooled off. It seemed we were always warm – the humiditywas pretty high. Around 4:00 we headedto our room to shower and rest before dinner! At 4:45 a storm blew in and it poured!! It came down in sheets! There was a long line to get on the boat andthose folks got soaked – we felt so bad for them! Then we headed down to My Time Dining in theLincoln Dining Room at 5:30 to get in line. We were once again in our favorite seats for the sail away and enjoyed adelicious dinner. After dinner, weshopped a bit in the ship stores (they had some amazing flash sales throughoutthe week!) and tried to find all of our pictures on deck 4. They weren’t too awesome so we put them inthe recycle Around 8:45 we headed to the room to change and then went down tocatch the 10:00 Dive In Movie – Rogue One. We watched for about an hour but kept falling asleep so we threw in thetowel and headed back to our comfy beds to sleep! It had been another great day of cruising!

Final Sea Day – Day #5 Coming Soon!!!

Thanks!

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