Valor 9/6 – 9/13 Pictorial Review

[fofita01]

WARNING: This is a very long review.... read at your own risk! :p

Background Info: This was my 11th Carnival cruise, and I was celebrating my (early) 26th birthday. I traveled with my cousin Sasha (21) and this was her second cruise. We both live in Florida, about 40 minutes northwest from the Port of Miami. This was my third cruise on the Valor, and second time doing this same itinerary (previous one was in May 2007).

Now on to the review…

Day 1 – Embarkation, Miami

Sasha and I began our day early, but due to our parents wanting to drop us off at the port, we got a bit delayed (OK, it was mostly our fault getting dolled-up J). We our house at 11:20 am, and like clockwork made it to the Port of Miami at Noon. The Whale Tail was in sight and we were officially on V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

 

Upon arrival at the terminal we noticed that it was very crowded and that debarkation was still going on from the previous cruise! My dad followed the Porter’s instructions and he quickly began helping us unload our 2 giant suitcases and carry-ons. We tipped him $5 each for his help with our big bags and thanked him for ensuring a timely delivery. J It was a sea of bags so we discretely stood around until we saw our suitcases go inside the terminal.

We showed our VIP FunPass and were escorted to the VIP line. We were the only ones there – YEAH! Security was a breeze, by 12:05 pm we were done – only five minutes from having pulled up at the terminal. We got the H1N1 forms and went upstairs for check-in. It looked like a mad house! There were so many people checking-in and just sitting waiting in their assigned sections. We took a sharp left and proceeded into the Concierge Lounge. An agent greeted us and took us to check-in. We handed our passports, credit cards and completed H1N1 forms and we were “Welcomed Back to Carnival” with a smile and received our Sail & Sign cards by 12:11 pm – It rocks to be Platinum! We were told the ship would be ready shortly, so we stood in the lounge as all seats were taken.

An agent said the ship was ready for boarding at 12:30 pm and escorted us to board the ship. I felt so bad for everyone who was in the terminal… it was packed! We went up the next escalator and then stopped at our first photo opp – the Embarkation photo!

[jbroons]

GREAT start.....Looking forward to the next installment.....and perhaps the embarkation photo!! Thanks!

[fofita01]

The first order of business, before food, before DOD, and before anything else was to drop off our carry-ons. I know what we were an hour early, but we proceeded anyway to the Main deck. We opened the fire doors and immediately a cabin steward told us that the cabins were not ready yet, to come back at 1:30 pm. I told him we were on a ship tour and went our way (tsk, tsk). We arrived at our cabin, 2246 – this is a great cabin location, between the Atrium and Mid-ship elevators. We dropped off our bags and locked our valuables in the safe. We met our cabin steward, Iketuk, and immediately gave him a small tip. We told him that we knew the cabins were not ready yet, but had dropped off our bags. Iketuk told us he was done with our cabin, so we could close the door. Great! We had a few requests – plenty of ice all day, we needed the mini bar unlocked and told him we’d be removing all the drinks and placing our own inside it.

[fofita01]

Now with the carry-ons taken care of, we went up to the Lido deck for some lunch at 12:45 pm – we were starving! We scouted Rosie’s Restaurant for our favorite embarkation day lunch items. Sasha got some items from the Taste of the Nations and pizza and chocolate cake. I got a made-to-order chicken burrito from the brand new Burrito Bar (it had only opened for 3 weeks). I also went to the Fish & Chips upstairs and got the fried calamari, Ahi tuna on watermelon and the seafood ceviche. I ALSO had something from the Mongolian Wok – chicken, shrimp and beef with noodles and the Schezwan sauce… I didn’t really like it as much as I did when I had it on the Splendor. Lastly, I had dessert, but I can’t remember what it was! WOW, it sounds like I ate a lot, but in reality I nibbled on all of the items I just mentioned.

ME

SASHA

Towards the end of our feast, our fellow Cruise Critic members – John, Brenda and Kent joined us and we got to know each other a little more in person. It was great to finally have met, but this was just the beginning…. We literally spend the entire cruise running into each other and on excursions together.

[fofita01]

It was now time to get re-acquainted with the ship and take the obligatory ship-tour pictures. It amazes me how I have the same set of pictures from the Valor, now for the third time. During my days as a Carnival PVP, I brought Sasha, my aunt and uncle to have lunch on the Valor, so Sasha had a memory of the layout of the ship (I hope!). So this was a quickie ship tour to kill some time before the hated Muster Drill and to walk off some of the calories from lunch. We began at the top, working our way down so that we’d conveniently be near our cabin when it was time to retrieve our life vests.

Deck 11 – The Spa: the staff tried to get us on the Spa tour, but we declined. We could do it at our own pace. I now take this opportunity to say how much I LOVED the hot tub that was located in the Spa (where they now how the aerobics/spinning room). It was just awesome to go there after a massage or after using the sauna/steam room. Bummer!

[Sdallnct]

Awesome so far...just great! We are on the Valor 11/1 so anxiously reading all you got!

 

Oh and I LOVE this....it is exactly what I would do....Big piece of yummy pizza, chocolate cake and a healthy bannana....:p

 

[fofita01]

We worked our way down from Deck 11 and visited pretty much every single bar, lounge and public room on the ship. Below are some pictures for your enjoyment:

Atrium Wall

American Atrium/Lobby

Ivanhoe Theater

Promenade Shops

The Bronx Bar (Sports Bar)

The Shoegun Casino

[islandcroozers]

Great start, Lorena! I've been waiting for someone from our roll call to post a review....thought I was going to have to do it myself, lol! We never ran into you other than at the meet & greet, but it'll be fun hearing the stories of the fun you had with the others that we did hang out with somewhat!! Keep it coming.....:cool:

[fofita01]

Sdallnct - Glad you are enjoying the review.... you will have so much fun on the Valor!

 

jbroons - I will have to post our embarkation picture now :p

 

islandcroozers - This review is turning into a novel! First I was lazy to begin, but now I cant stop writing... I'm doing it in Word and copy/pasting here. I too wish we would have ran into each other after our M&G.

 

Ok... more pics coming N-O-W!

[KenMo]

Hey Lorena!!!

 

Great start to your review!!

 

We were on the week after you.

 

I freakin' loved that Burrito Bar!

 

We're doing Valor again in May.....you coming???

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[fofita01]

 

Coffee Shop

 

Togo Sushi Bar

 

One Small Step Disco

 

One Small Step Disco Bar

 

Jeanne's Wine Bar

[fofita01]

Hey Lorena!!!

 

Great start to your review!!

 

We were on the week after you.

 

I freakin' loved that Burrito Bar!

 

We're doing Valor again in May.....you coming???

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

MONA !!!

 

Last time we cruised together it was on the Valor on this same itinerary!:D

 

Darn! I would love to take you up on that offer... but I'm going on the Victory for a Southern Caribbean.... which reminds me I need to update my signature stats!

 

I am craving a burrito right now!!! It's an awesome addition to the ships!

[fofita01]

Lindy Hop Piano Bar

 

 

Lindy Hop Piano Bar

 

Eagles Aft Lounge

 

 

Paris Hot - My FAVORITE venue on the ship... Latin Music all night!

 

 

Winston's Cigar Bar

 

Winston's Cigar Bar

[fofita01]

Are you still reading? Good, because we haven’t even left port yet! As we were exciting the Winston’s Cigar Bar, Gary, our cruise director began his announcements for the Muster Drill. Since we were on deck 4 and almost done exploring, we made our way to our cabin. We hung out until the last possible minute, and then we heard a knock on the door… time to really go to the Muster Drill. We put on our life jackets and walked on over to Muster Station H.

The drill took what seemed like an eternity, and we were hot and sweaty! Thank goodness we delayed our arrival and were in the front row right in front of an opening. We had a group of guys who kept on talking and saying funny things throughout the drill – a lot of us were giggling at their comments. Once it was over, we walked at lightning speed back to our cabin, dropped off our life jackets and headed to the very top!

I noticed that the ship was parked “backwards” and where we really wanted to be was Port side on deck 11, so away we went to find an empty spot along the railing. We did an 180 degree turn (thanks to the turning basin) and headed for open waters. YAY – we are truly on vacation!

Downtown Miami & AA Arena

 

 

 

South Beach

 

Ciao Miami!

 

 

 

[fofita01]

It was very windy and cloudy during sail-away, so as soon as we passed Governor’s Cut, and we made our last phone calls to family and friends to say “See You in A Week!,” we headed back to our cabin to see if our luggage had arrived so we could unpack and enjoy our home-away-from-home to the fullest. It hadn’t just yet, so we used this time to take out all the drinks from the mini-bar and stuff them behind and around the TV (we didn’t want to waste shelf space for this). Once this task was complete, it was time to decorate our cabin door!

Once we finished decorating our luggage arrived! Perfect timing! So we unpacked and got ready for dinner in the Washington Dining Room at 8:15 pm in the lower level with our fellow Cruise Critic friends – Gigi, Geoff, Vanessa, Christine and Justin. We were so happy to have pre-arranged to sit together. For appetizers, I had the cream of tomato soup, the sweet & sour shrimp and Sasha had the Caesar salad. My entrée was the flat iron steak (I think) and Sasha the rack of ribs. For dessert, we had our first serving of Warm Chocolate Melting Cake (yum) and I had the Crème Brule (meh)! Our meal was delicious and our tablemates were great of course.

Service tonight was a bit off though – at each course someone was missing something that they ordered, or we got someone else’s order placed in front of us, and our servers were a bit slowwwwww – we were out of the dining room at 10:15 pm. No biggie, it may just be because it’s the first night. I’m not cooking or cleaning, so I won’t be so picky!

[fofita01]

After dinner we took pictures at practically every backdrop. This is our nightly after-dinner ritual. We love pictures! And we developed a system too – I posed by myself first, then we did a few poses together, and while Sasha was taking pictures by herself, I would run down to the next backdrop…. REPEAT! We did this from aft making our way forward so that we would end right up by the theater just in time for the nightly show. In fact, we became friends with about 2/3 of the photo staff! LOL

After we finished our photos, we went to the Ivanhoe Theater. It was a full-house because there was only one show tonight – the Welcome Aboard Show. Since we made it just before it started, all seats were taken, so we settled for standing at the stairs. I’ve seen this show a gazillion times, so I didn’t care that we weren’t seated.

 

 

 

The second part of the show featured Eddie Capone, Carnival’s long-time comedian. He was pretty funny, but I knew from seeing him on previous cruises that his R-rated material was much better, so I looked forward to the next evening when he’d do this act.

After the show we went back to our cabin for a second, then we were off to dance the night away! First stop – Paris Hot to enjoy some Latin music with the Hot Fiesta Trio. Closing time was 1:30 am, but the band and the patrons in this lounge were having such a great time, the band kept playing till about 2:15 am! After they closed, onto stop #2 – One Small Step Disco – there was still a decent crowd so we continued on dancing. So then all of the sudden my sandal strap broke in the middle of the dance floor! So that was sign that it was getting late and we should head to bed if we wanted to wake up in time to enjoy breakfast in the dining room! We went to cabin, but we weren’t sleepy just yet, so I changed sandals and we went for a stroll on the Lido deck. There was a beautiful full moon shinning bright, illuminating the horizon.

After strolling for a bit, we called it a night (again) and headed to bed.

SIDE NOTE: We noticed as soon as we arrived to our cabin earlier in the day that it felt a little warm, so we turned the A/C all the way down. After sail-away it was still warm, but we wondered if it was because we were so hot from being outside?? Umm… NOPE! Our A/C was broken! We notified our cabin steward as we walked out to go to dinner and he told us he’d have someone look at it while we were out. I don’t know if he did or not, but when we came back to our cabin at around 3 am it was a sauna! We went to the purser’s desk to notify them and they had a technician in our cabin within 10 minutes… very impressive considering it was so late! He agreed with us that it was very hot… his little gadget that measures the temperature read 78 degrees… ummm, yeah that’s like what the temperature should be OUTSIDE and NOT in my cabin. So he did something to turn it all the way down and said it should cool down in a few minutes. He said the lowest temperature cabins go down to is 72 degrees… eh! It sort of cooled down, but not as much as we are comfortable with for sleeping temps…. But it was late and we were exhausted. Our CC friends Gigi and Geoff were down the hall from us in an oceanview and they also had A/C issues. I wonder if this was a fluke or it’s the norm for this area of the ship!?!?!

Up next – Day 2: First Day at Sea…

[gypsyrose]

You are doing a FABULOUS job!! Love the way you write and love all the pics. I had to laugh when I read about your 1st meal on the ship. It is the exact thing I was thinking of doing. I was trying to decide how I was gonna try everything. Just go to each place, get it and sit down and enjoy your ready made buffett. LOVE IT! I am a little disappointed that you did not have a pic of the burritto. I am really looking forward to that and the mongolian. How was it?

Looking forward to the rest.. Oh, I loved your cabin decorations also.

[jimbo5544]

Nice review so far and love the pics. It has been some time since we were on the Valor and you have brought back the memories.

[fofita01]

You are doing a FABULOUS job!! Love the way you write and love all the pics. I had to laugh when I read about your 1st meal on the ship. It is the exact thing I was thinking of doing. I was trying to decide how I was gonna try everything. Just go to each place, get it and sit down and enjoy your ready made buffett. LOVE IT! I am a little disappointed that you did not have a pic of the burritto. I am really looking forward to that and the mongolian. How was it?

Looking forward to the rest.. Oh, I loved your cabin decorations also.

 

Gypsyrose - thanks! Glad you are enjoying the review so far. I always do that on embarkation day (buffet). The door decorations were purchased at the dollar store.

 

I have a picture of the burrito right next to my bowl from the Mongolian Wok. I will post it just for you. Lol. I LOVED the burrito bar. The noddles were a different story.... I just didn't care for them. It was sad because the Mongolian Wok was one of my favorites on the Splendor last November. But maybe it was just that one day that it was off. Anyhow the lines were always long, so I never bothered again. But that makes me think everyone else enjoyed it. So give it a try when you go on the Valor.

[FreezingInMichigan]

Fofita:

I'm LOVING reading your review! We leave on the Valor come November 1st. This sneak preview is wonderful. Thank you!

~ Sheryl

[singbluesilver1]

Thanks I'll be on the valor Sunday

 

 

What kind of music does the disco play normally??

[Smoke_1]

Loving the review so far. Keep it up. I'm trying to convince the rest of my crowd that we NEED to be on the Valor in Jan. No pressure, but I am using your review to give a cuple of 'em an extra push. ;)

John

[fofita01]

Fofita:

 

I'm LOVING reading your review! We leave on the Valor come November 1st. This sneak preview is wonderful. Thank you!

 

~ Sheryl

 

Freezing - Thanks! You will love the Valor.

[fofita01]

Thanks I'll be on the valor Sunday

 

 

What kind of music does the disco play normally??

 

They play a good variety each night. Everything from hip-hop, Michael Jackson, Reggaeton, Spanish/Latin.. all the popular radio songs were played. The DJ was pretty good I must say.

[fofita01]

Loving the review so far. Keep it up. I'm trying to convince the rest of my crowd that we NEED to be on the Valor in Jan. No pressure, but I am using your review to give a cuple of 'em an extra push. ;)

John

 

John,

 

This goes for your group "YOU NEED TO BE ON THE VALOR" :p It's an awesome ship and an awesome itinerary.

 

I've got lots to write... heck I'm only done with day one, so I'm sure something I say will get them convinced! LOL

 

 

I'll be back with more this evening when I get home... I have my review in a word document on my personal laptop.