Carnival Victory 09/22 3 Day Quick Review

If anyone has any questions, ask away. This cruise was better than I was expecting and totally gave us a better outlook to Carnival. :) Definitely made us rethink any future RCL cruise.

Embarkation:

We flew in the day before and spent the night at our relatives' house. We booked an Ocean Suite and had priority and didn't worry about what time we were going to check-in. The lines at POM worked like this. "Priority/FTTP", "Early/Late Arrival", and "On-Time Arrival". We arrived at 12:30 PM. Both Priority and On-Time Arrival were dead. I'm not sure if they were turning away people since they have the new line, but some people were still sitting outside. Not sure if they were just waiting for the rest of their party or not. They scanned our passports and took the photos off them for the sail & sign card except minors. I'm assuming it's because they grow up so fast. There was no need to sit down and we boarded immediately. We had to stop and add a credit card and there was a priority line and a regular line. Walked up and it was done, easy. There was a line though for regular guests. We boarded all the way at the end at the AFT of the ship and walked up to the atrium doors. On Royal, we were constantly bothered to buy beverage packages as soon as we boarded the ship, but that wasn't the case on Carnival. We just walked through and not one person said a thing. There were express elevators to the lido and regular elevators.

Cabin:

We booked an Ocean-Suite for the four of us. It was renovated and it was a great room. The whirlpool function of the tub was great and two of us used it. The balcony was a nice size and there were four chairs, two could recline so it could be used sort of like a lounger. We loved the decor, same as the Breeze. A good step in direction for Carnival. The only negatives on the cabin was the balcony was a little dirty, the TV could not swivel, and the wifi did not work in our room. I could access the Majesty OTS's wifi that was at the furthest dock away from us in Nassau, but I couldn't access the Victory's... Our cabin neighbors liked to blast music on their giant speaker and the wall would shake. They turned it down when we asked, but they always had it on during the day.... I get it's a 3 day cruise, but blasting the speaker was a bit much.

Room Steward: One of the worst we have ever had. He was friendly, but was not helpful and hardly approached us. They also did not clean the cabin very good and left used wine glasses and cups out everyday. We asked for an extra pillow and fresh wine glasses, but they never came. I know they have a higher workload now, but I just found it weird with only having service once a day. It wasn't the same like other cruises. It just felt odd having the fun times shoved under the door.

Ship: I kept reading the same user on this forum making negative comments about the Victory, but honestly, don't see it. This ship is not flattering by all means (except the rooms, they are gorgeous), but it was a very nice boat for its age. Some public areas were nicely decorated like the AFT lounge and the theatre. The ship had a decent layout. Those mid-ship elevators are useless when getting anywhere except the Lido. The casino really made the promenade smoky and we could smell it when we entered the ship on the first day down on Deck 3. I also did notice that the A/C was not very strong in the elevator lobbies. It was definitely hot around those areas, but the air was perfect everywhere else. Weird. The lido buffet has a terrible design and I did miss the wrap-around promenade. The pools/hot tubs were always filled to the rim during non-meal times, but the AFT pool always had less people than the lido pool. One thing I did hate were the public restrooms. Dirty and dark. However, I would totally cruise on the Victory again and by far would choose it over the Empress of the Seas.

Internet: It was very slow. Slower than RCL. I pre-paid for the social package and I noticed that they blocked facebook calling. I'm not sure if it was because the internet was just too slow, but man, it was much slower than the Breeze. My aunt wanted to read some books on her kindle app, but they were not downloaded, so she bought the value plan. It would not connect so guest services gave us a refund, which was very kind. I would avoid buying the package and see about a data plan in Nassau. AT&T is $10 for 24 hours and you can use your normal Mobile share plan. T-Mobile is free for 2G and Text. Not sure about Verizon and Sprint. I used my aunt's phone since they have T-Mobile (we have AT&T) and I used facetime to call home. Worked great. Internet a little slow since 2G. I tried adding the 24hr pass, but the wait times were long to connect with someone. In Ireland, they sent us a text that we could reply back with some code and it would be added to our plan. I didn't get it this time, but AT&T automated system said it was an option in the Bahamas, yet it still said I had to connect to someone to get it added. I just hung up.

Food: The food was very good and it was very unexpected, but the lido could use some work.

• The lido buffet was ok, but like I said, the design was horrible. I felt claustrophobic at times when it was prime time. The walkways are narrow and the lines are long, long, long. The only time when I didn't have to wait in a line was 6:30 AM breakfast. I did miss Mongolian Wok, but definitely not on this boat as it would make the long lines worse. The pizza was fantastic and just like it was on the Breeze and HAL's New York Pizza. Come on RCL. I mainly had to stick to making a nice big hearty salad and a slice of pizza for lunch at the Lido as the vegetarian options were low. That's why I liked the Breeze a lot as they had Tandoor, Mongolian, and Blue Iguana.
  
• MDR was delicious. We ate there for "Port-Day Breakfast", "Sea-day Brunch", and Dinner. Most of the food was great except some dry pancakes. We picked YTD, but we sat with the same waiter for all meals except Sea-day Brunch (he was working at Dr. Seuss). He was amazing and was really nice to us. His team knew our names and made us feel at home. Very good service. The food was tasty and it was MUCH much MUCH better than RCL. I had soups and salads for appetizers and they didn't disappoint. The pumpkin soup was delicious. I had the Indian vegetarian each night since I don't like the other vegetarian option. The rest of my party (meat-eaters) enjoyed their food and the only thing that was turned back was this shrimp fresh spring roll. She thought it was a fried spring roll. The desserts were very good. Our new carnival cruisers discovered the warm chocolate melting cake and ordered two each night. I was impressed with my deserts which were Crème Brûlée, Tiramisu, and the Butter Popcorn Pot de Creme. They were all excellent. RCL's Crème Brûlée was terrible on every ship.
  

Special Note: I felt like plates etc. were always out on the tables in the Lido. They would just be sitting there and there was no staff around. I'm not sure if Carnival cut staff, but on HAL and RCL, they would grab up your plate quickly. HAL especially was always neat and orderly. We couldn't sit at some sections of the Lido sometimes because they all had dirty dishes on top. I noted this in the survey that Carnival sent us.

Entertainment: Great music around the ship. I'm not a show person, but they had very good dancers in their production shows. The fun squad was great and there were always things to do. Still, RCL does shine in this department, but I did like how Carnival always had music playing in the atrium. I don't recall that on RCL.

Disembarkation: We did self assist and I'm not kidding, it took us 7 minutes from getting off the ship and out on to the road. We did not have to fill out a customs form and just showed our passport. Super fast and easy and it was a perfect end to a great cruise and gave us more time to reflect on the cruise instead of complaining about lines. We parked at the port and our relatives dropped us off at MIA at 8:30. Our flight was at 12:20 PM on Delta for precaution and we had basically 4 hours to kill at the airport. Luckily, our flight was delayed an hour and the handy dandy Delta app allowed us to be rebooked for no charge on the 11:10 AM flight and we got to leave early.

Nassau: Nassau is Nassau, but we got out and went to Junkanoo Beach again. We rented two chairs and an umbrella for $35 and had a great time. It's a small, but nice beach and we relaxed for three hours. I took a nap while listening to the nice waves. There is a bar that sells coco frió which was refreshing on a hot day. It's a 15 min walk to the beach, but bring sunscreen or something to cover yourself if you're sensitive to the sun. There's not much shade on some parts of the walk. We got back on the ship at 4. I didn't really care for the overnight stop, but I know a lot of people were still partying it up at Señor Frogs in the wee hours. I could see it from my balcony. I just wish we stopped at Half Moon Cay or something the next day. It was just miserable out on the balcony at night as there wasn't some wind circulating the air as we stayed docked in Nassau. When we woke up at 9, it was just like a normal sea day and we were long gone from Nassau. I hope Carnival does away with the overnight. Most people were on the ship.

Conclusion: I really would not hesitate to book the Victory if you are thinking on it. It's a great weekend cruise and a great boat. For the price, it's a great value. A weekend cruise serves its purpose. Carnival really does try to make your vacation fun and they proved it. It was very enjoyable even with the negatives. This cruise gave us a better opinion on Carnival and will influence our future decisions, but we want to try more lines to see which one is the best for us. We are for sure marking off MSC/Costa on the list soon as they are the only options in Europe during Early April. We hope to try Celebrity/Princess soon.

Thanks for reading! :halo:

Thanks for the objective review. It’s really better to take the negative comments with a grain of salt since expectations may differ. Glad you enjoyed Victory.

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Nicely written review, thanks.:)

Thanks for the review.

Here's a picture of what I meant about the cleanliness of the lido..

Proof I connected to the Majesty.

But these are all minor things. Great cruise overall.

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Thanks for the review! We are going on the Victory December 15th and I haven't seen too many detailed reviews like yours, so it is much appreciated :)

I really like the way that you describe the differences between the two cruise lines. Thanks so much for this! [emoji6][emoji1476]

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Thanks for the nice review. We'll be on Victory for Thanksgiving. Only 9 days to go.:D