Carnival newbie cruising with Victory (trip report and photos 5/29/17 - 6/2/17)

Goodbye Miami...

The kids wanted to go swimming so I went back to our room to unpack while they were gone. We had Your Time Dining so we decided to aim for 7pm to eat. We all got ready and met at the Neptune’s Way Promenade right beside the Taste Bar around 6:35pm, their sampling tonight was from Nick & Nora’s Steakhouse (Short Ribs Croquettes – tasted OK and Pumpkin Bisque - spicy).

I understand that Carnival has done away with the Taste Bars but to be honest we were usually heading to dinner or shows during their open hours. We would try and stop if we could but did not make it every night they were open.

**One thing about Victory that is a little confusing is the dining room locations, they cannot be accessed from every elevator/floor. The stairs closest to our room put us behind the Atlantic Dining room so we had to walk to the elevator/stairs closest to the lobby and go down to deck 3 to enter it (we would eat here every night with YTD).**

There was supposed to be Photo Time with Dr. Seuss and the shoot was set up but no photographer there, oh well. We walked into the dining room at 7pm and were seated immediately (there were 9 of us and they sat us at a long table with a booth on one side).

The waiter brought 2 bread baskets for the table which we all thought was delicious.

We decided to try different appetizers and see what we liked; there were nights I only ordered 1 appetizer but others I would order 3 it just depended on what we wanted to sample. Everyone tried to order something different and we would all sample it this way we could try different items without wasting food (I just hate that). I don’t remember who got what items specifically but we tried…

Appetizers:

Fried Calamari – I did not try because I don’t like calamari but RD loved it

Shrimp Cocktail – loved, loved, loved

Chilled Vietnamese Roll – no one really cared for these and would not order again

Smoked Chicken Quesadilla – a little crunchy but good

Cream of Ripened Tomatoes – I really liked it but the others just thought it was OK

Corn Chowder Maryland – I did not try this one but JP said it was really good (almost like Dixie Stampede vegetable soup)

Caesar Salad – good (but hey it’s mostly just lettuce)

Grilled Cheese from the kids menu

Mains:

Sweet & Sour Shrimp (I didn't get a picture of it)

Grilled Sword Fish Steak – my son GW like the fish but I thought it was just OK

Honey Glazed Pork Loin – tasty and tender

Braised Beef Brisket – probably the best food of the night, it was tender and had a good taste

Vegetable Lasagna – I liked it but would much rather have a good piece of meat or seafood

Flat Iron Steak w/ baked potato – John ordered the steak and he usually eats his medium but it was overcooked so every night after that he would order it medium rare and it was cooked perfect; the steak was good

Desserts:

Warm Date and Fig Pudding - good

Carnival Melting Chocolate Cake – I finally got to try the famous Carnival cake, it was really good but really sweet and I couldn’t eat too much of it; the texture was not really cake like though

Nutella Tiramisu – OK but I did not like the coffee taste

Chilled Strawberry Parfait – this is sugar free and didn’t taste bad but Cindy hated the texture of it (jello like)

Apple Pie A La Mode – I didn’t try it but Gavin loved it

Tip…be prepared for your meals to take a while if you eat in the dining room. Each night we were 1 ½ to 2 hours no matter what time we were seated.

Dinner took so long that the kids did not make the “Meet & Greet” for the kids clubs at 8:30pm; to be honest I don’t think it broke their hearts because they never went back to the clubs for the rest of the cruise (they must have some pretty cool parents to want to hang with them all the time:D)

After dinner we split up and John, Gavin and I (Family 1) caught the end of “Gender Showdown” which started at 8:30pm but we only saw the last 10 minutes of it (hence the slow meal time).

Family 2 went to the Lido deck to check it out…

…while we went to the casino to check it out and play some slots (we are not big gamblers)

We went by the Fun Shops to check it out and that’s when we noticed the liquor sale that was going on for the 1st night. They had a 2 for sale (buy 2 Jack Daniels Bourbon for $45) then you got 15% off that price which made the total $38.25 (or $19.12 per bottle). We are from Tennessee which is where they make Jack and we can’t even get it that cheap here. We bought 2 bottles and they held them till the last morning where we could pick them up before we headed home.

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Jordan met up with us and we watched the“Welcome Aboard Show” at 10:15pm.

We stayed for about 20 minutes then headed back to our rooms to get some sleep since Key West would be early in the morning. Our first towel animal of the cruise was waiting on us.

Good night day 1...

Whatever you switched to for pictures for the second half, isn't working :(

Unless the spaces weren't for pictures.

Thanks for posting everything. It's very helpful. We're on victory in July. I'm excited. Do you have the papers for the other days?

The Arcade...

Alchemy Bar...

Irish Sea Piano Bar...

Adriatic Lounge...

Skybox Sports Bar...

Indian Library...

Caribbean Lounge...

Atlantic Dining Room...

Bread Basket...

Fried Calamari...

Shrimp Cocktail...

Chilled Vietnamese Roll...

Smoked Chicken Quesadilla...

Cream of Ripened Tomatoes...

Corn Chowder Maryland...

Caesar Salad...

Grilled Cheese (kids menu)...

Grilled Sword Fish Steak...

Honey Glazed Pork Loin...

Braised Beef Brisket...

Vegetable Lasagna...

Flat Iron Steak w/ Baked Potato...

Warm Date and Fig Pudding...

Carnival Melting Chocolate Cake...

Nutella Tiramisu...

Chilled Strawberry Parfait...

Apple Pie A La Mode...

Gender Showdown...

Welcome Aboard Show...

Towel Animal Day 1...

Day2 (May 30th) Key West:

We were dressed and up on deck by 6:35am to watch us dock at Key West.

We had the buffet for breakfast, we started eating at 6:46am and the crowds were not big at all.

The buffet was good but I am not a fan of eating so early in the morning, I usually need to be up a couple hours before my high gear kicks in so my breakfast was very light.

…by the way, the scrambled eggs were horrible so save yourself the trouble

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We never heard the announcement that is was ok to leave the ship and with us being newbies we just kind of waited around until we saw people on shore. We tried to head down to deck 1 to find the gangway but keep in mind you can’t get there from just any elevator. We finally walked to the front of the ship and took the elevator down to deck 1 to exit.

We got our group photo taken by the paparazzi (aka Carnival photographers):D

We docked at the Naval Air Station and had to wait on trolleys to take us on in to town. As you exit the ship there were people with signs advertising the different tours and such for those who did not book an excursion (like us). We were approached by a lady who let all 9 of us ride for the price of 4 ($80) on the City View Trolley Tours which I thought was a great deal. They charged it to my room and she told us to wait in the gazebo area for the tour to start.

There was a gazebo area to wait for a ride, this was around 7am.

Outside the ship.

Trolleys were coming and going but I never saw one for City View so after about 15 minutes I went back and asked if we could take any trolley into town or what time would they be there? She said the tour did not actually start until 8:30am, wow I didn’t want to kill an hour+ waiting so we jumped on one of the other trolleys and rode it into town.

**You are not allowed to take any photos while on the base but I snapped this one as we were exiting.

We were dropped off at the Conch Tour Train location on Front St around 7:25am and decided to walk around since the City View trolleys wouldn’t be running until 8:30am and we only had a short time in Key West.

We walked down Front St toward the Key West Art & Historical Society but it was closed.

We kept walking down Whitehead St where we saw:

Mile Marker 0 of US-1

Free range chickens everywhere

Some sort of funky truck

The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum

Key West Lighthouse