First time Trip Report - VALOR - 5th - 12th

This is my first trip report on this cruise board, because until last week, I hadn't been on a cruise in 18 years, so,,,, to say the least, I, that is WE, were VERY excited about this trip...........My husband and I went with our good friends (who will from this point on be referred to as DFs, lol ) and they have NEVER cruised before, so we were all excited !!!

Here goes !!!

and, I hope you all like pictures, cause I have TONS of them,,, lol

This was rather a last minute trip,,,, only planned 6 weeks earlier, so at least we didn't have long to wait. Yeah !!! If I had to book a cruise and wait a year or so, like some of you, I think the anticipation would drive me crazy lol

We booked through a TA and got a good deal, or at least we THINK it was a good deal...... lol

I have been on 2 cruises before,,,,the first, my honeymoon MANY MANY years ago,, and had an inside stateroom,,,, then, the next cruise was 18 years ago, and had a window room, and this time,, I said I wouldn't go unless I could have a balcony. Wow, what a difference ! I think once you've had a balcony room,,it would be hard to go back to any other,,,,, at least for me it would be hard. lol

We booked the Valor, leaving out of Miami on July 5th. We had a 7 am flight, due to arrive in Miami at 10:30. I had been nervous about not coming in a day earlier,,,,, (having nightmares of missing the ship, lol) but all that worry was for nothing. The flight was on time and we grabbed a taxi to the dock, so we could stop at a drugstore and pick up water and cokes to bring onboard with us. Everything went off without a hitch and 30 minutes later, we were out of the cab and looking at the biggest pile of luggage I've ever seen in one area lol

We left our luggage with a porter, and off we went into the terminal. By now it was around noon and the terminal was getting pretty full. We stood in line for approximately 45 minutes, and then finally got to the counter, got our S&S cards and we were onto the ship !!

YEAH, WE HAVE ARRIVED !!!

After taking that first important cruise picture, of what seems like a thousand posed cruise pictures, <eyeroll>, we headed straight to the dining room with high hopes of changing our dinner seating from early seating to late. But,,,, the maitre'd said, as of that time, it was full and put us on a waiting list. <sigh> Ok, ok, we're sure not going to let that spoil anything,, but we were hoping we'd hear from them the next day that we'd gotten lucky and it would be changed. <praying>

First place we headed was the Lido Deck, for some of the food we'd been hearing about from these boards. Now, I'm one of those people, who eats to live and not the other way around, lol, so I'm basically happy with anything as long as it's decent. I knew that food would never be a make or break deal for me on a cruise. I'm happy with just about anything. lol So, for me it was a hotdog and fries, (been hearing about the hotdogs and fries for weeks reading this forum) and a variety of other things for DH and DFs. It was good, we were happy, so it was time to check out our rooms.

DH and I had room 1022, 8E category, a balcony room on the Panaroma deck and our DFs had 1020, an inside stateroom.

Our TA did a great job getting us right across the hall from each other, which is amazing since we didn't book this cruise until 6 weeks before sailtime.

I loved this deck,, and our room <smiles> I think I'm spoiled now, and for any future cruises I will want the same type of room in the same area. Never had any problems with noise or anything else, and all we had to do was walk down the hall, out the door and down a few steps and we were on the Lido Deck. Couldn't have asked for a better location !!

Of course, no luggage was there,,, so we dropped off our carry bags, and decided to explore the ship.

Promenade deck,,,,

The coffee bar,,,,

The casino,,,,,,

Look at that,,,,,, DH got lucky already !!!

( j/k,, the casino wasn't open yet, lol )

Paris Hot, the Latin Music club,,,,,,,

DF is a wanna be rock star,,, and I, of course, liked the drums,,,,,,, lol

Ya know, they NEVER really grow up, do they ? ;)

The Caboose,,,,, a video arcade area for the kids,,,,,,

Don't leave me hanging now. We're booked 11/28 and need all of the info we can get.:D

Can't wait to hear more! Would love to hear about the Captain's reception, past guest party and the new 'farewell' party!

Don't leave me hanging now. We're booked 11/28 and need all of the info we can get.:D

Be forewarned,,,

I won't leave ya hanging Clackey, but this report will probably take a week or more to do,,,,, lol

You can only post 6 pics at a time, and I have, well, let's say, QUITE a few pics ;)

Really enjoying this - keep it going. :D

continuing,,,,,,,,

a few other bars along the promenade deck,,,,

and one of my favorites, the piano bar,,,,,,:)

By now we had been exploring for a while, and we heard the call to muster, so off we went, back to our cabins, picked up our life jackets and down to Deck 4 for the drill.

I took a picture of the prettiest little girl who was in line next to us at muster, she was happy sitting on the floor and playing through the entire drill. lol

Can't wait to hear more! Would love to hear about the Captain's reception, past guest party and the new 'farewell' party!

I'll let you know about those as I move through the report, ok Froufie ? :)

We finished the drill, and headed back up to the Lido Deck for sailaway. The sun had come out and it was a beautiful day heading out of port.

Notice the guys with their, insulated mugs, already filled to the brim, and ready to party lol

Some Miami Beach pics

The guys were checking out South Beach, but even with binoculars, its was a little far away to see the really "good" stuff,,, lol

Post as many pictures as you can. We will be cruising Carnival Valor for the first time March 2010 with our two grandchildren. They are as excited as I am to see all the pictures. Keep them coming and thanks

Linda

continuing,,,,,,,,

 

a few other bars along the promenade deck,,,,

 

YOIKS! Those are the weirdest-looking, most uncomfortable, ugliest lounge chairs I've ever seen!!! :eek:

Post as many pictures as you can. We will be cruising Carnival Valor for the first time March 2010 with our two grandchildren. They are as excited as I am to see all the pictures. Keep them coming and thanks

 

Linda

Your weclome Linda, and don't worry,,, you will be sick of me and my pictures by the end of this report :D

Great review :) Thank you for taking the time to post one, you guys look like you had a great time~

YOIKS! Those are the weirdest-looking, most uncomfortable, ugliest lounge chairs I've ever seen!!! :eek:

I agree Amybeth,,,,,

We just walked by this lounge, never even went in it all week.

I think it was geared more towards the younger crowd than us older folks l;)

Great review :) Thank you for taking the time to post one, you guys look like you had a great time~

Your welcome Take,

We took a trip to Playa del Carmen last year, and I did a trip report for that trip on their board, and had a lot of fun doing it, so I knew I'd do another one for the cruise,,,

We did have a great time,, and it was hard to come back, <sigh> ;)

As we sailed out into the ocean, we turned around and this was our view,,,,

The sun was shining, the weather was beautiful,,, the music was playing and my favorite kind of music, the steel drum kind ,, :D , people were smiling and laughing, kids were running around and having fun and already in the pools,, there was dancing on the deck and everyone was having a great time already !!

Now, off to dinner. We had the early seating. DF had changed but I stayed in the same clothes I wore onto the ship. There was a variety of clothes that night, and we felt perfectly comfy in what we were wearing.

I tried to make a point of taking food pictures,, but sometimes I would forget and dig in before I got a picture,, lol

But, here's a few of them from the first night :o)

Fruit cocktail appetizer

Caesar salad

Ribs,,,, yum, they were good

Shrimp,,,,

Some kind of fish main course,, can't remember what exactly lol

Need more Pics. Faster Faster:eek:

AWESOME so far!!!!!!!!!

Subscribing! Can't wait for more :)

As the unaffical reviewer of reviews...you are doing an wonderful job...keep it coming...:D

Hey didn't you guys get your drink on by now? Shouldn't those food pics be a little blury? :p

After dinner,,, we went back to our rooms and made fresh drinks, with the liquor we snuck aboard, <eg> Yep, we had used our Rum Runners that we ordered online after reading all about them on this board. They worked great and held more than enough liquor for our trip,,, In fact, we brought quite a bit of it home. lol

Sometimes it was just too much of a pain to walk all the way back up to the rooms to get a new drink, so we had a good bar bill by the end of the trip.

Carnival did NOT lose much money on us bringing our own liquor lol

With drinks in hand, we aimlessly wandered around the ship, getting to know the layout, taking pictures,,, again, ones of thousands, it seems like, by the end of the cruise, lol........

It amazes me how many pictures are taken by the cruise staff throughout the week. I sure hope they are able to recycle the paper that is used and then thrown away when not bought. Their ink bill alone must be astronomical by the end of each week lol

Some lobby pictures,,,

Around 10 pm, we headed over to the Ivanhoe theatre to watch " The Welcome Aboard Show" Big Tex was our CD, and I loved him !! He has lots of energy and enthusiam for his job and it shows. I thought he did a great job all week !!!

If you want to get an up close seat for the show, you'd better get there early each evening. A LOT of people play bingo, and since they call Bingo games before each show, its always full on the lower level and up close to the stage. We ended up with seats in the back, but that didn't bother us.

The show was a dance and sing variety show. Its not Broadway, but the cast does work hard and do a great job. We thoroughly enjoyed it

After the variety show, we had a comedian, Eddie Capone. I thought he did a great job, especially when you could see he wanted to break out into his "adult" version, but had to hold it in for the family audience.

Hid adult version show would be the next night lol

After the show was over, we headed back down the Promenade Deck, people watching, listening to the music in the casino lounge, strolled down to the Piano Bar and had a few drinks, sang along with a few songs, then headed back to our rooms. It had been a long first day, and we'd all been up since 4 am and were pretty tired by now,,,,

We were greeted by our first towel animal and a turned down comfy bed (gotta love those towel animals, they are so cute !!)

And the best of all,,a balcony and a full moon our first night,,,,,,,,

Bontongrl,

Nice review thanks for sharing