CCL Valor 5/2-5/9 review w/ pics!!

[LoveTravel23]

The place where we were

 

 

 

 

 

[LoveTravel23]

 

The entrance to the private beach

 

The port area

 

Fat Tuesday!

 

 

My mom

[SMSACE6]

Im enjoying your review so much! Love the review and photos. I did the same itinerary on Valor in 2007 and had a great cruise. Your photos are bringing back some great memories of ports of call and the ship.! Thanks again for taking the time to post.:)

[LoveTravel23]

 

My dad chillin before getting back on the ship

 

Getting back to the ship.

 

The beach again

 

[LoveTravel23]

With the hot weather that day this was def. needed!

 

Leaving & on our way to Belize

 

Chicken Noodle Soup-prts picked and didn't like much.

 

My awesome plate of watermelon.

 

Red Snapper-good.

 

Vegeterian Lasagna-too much stuff but good.

[LoveTravel23]

Im enjoying your review so much! Love the review and photos. I did the same itinerary on Valor in 2007 and had a great cruise. Your photos are bringing back some great memories of ports of call and the ship.! Thanks again for taking the time to post.:)

 

Ur very welcome!!

 

Coming back later everybody. Going out w/ my mom. :D

[dancemom3]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review and pictures! We're going on the Valor this summer.

[jimbri]

Looks like you had a great time. Thanks for posting.

[Ms. Fun Bunch]

I'm enjoying your review so far. Keep up the good work.

[jks336]

enjoying your review, have it saved so i can come back to it :)

You stated you got your passports stamped in grand cayman, where did you go? my roommate wants to do that.

[LoveTravel23]

enjoying your review, have it saved so i can come back to it :)

You stated you got your passports stamped in grand cayman, where did you go? my roommate wants to do that.

 

Before you leave the gates to your left there's a building and customs are in there. You just go in and stamp it for you.

[LoveTravel23]

Belize Day

 

Let me say something about Belize because this post is going to be based mostly on pictures. 1st of all the ship docks like 30mins. away from the island so its a ride to go back & forth. I always wondered why many ppl didn't like this port & we were always like we stayed by the port area & then went str8 back to the ship until today. Honestly my parents and I did not like the island but we did enjoy the Mayan Ruins. If I ever go back to Belize I would do the Cave Tubing-cuz its just something I would like to do but if not I would stay on the ship & do a spa day! Here's my review for that day:

 

We woke up @ 7:30am to start getting ready for Belize. Our tour is @ 9 through CCL-Altun Ha & City Tour & we have to meet @ the Ivanhoe theater 15 mins. before like we tender here. The CCL Legend is also here w/ us today. @ 8 we went up to Lido to have breakfast and @ 8:45 we were @ the theater getting our tender tickets. They call you by #/color depending on the tour you are on. We were #3/pink & @ 9 we were on our way to dock 0. We purchased water bottles here & thank God we did becuause w/ the tour and the weather we def. needed it. We reached the island & followed a long line to outside to board our AC bus to begin the tour. The city itself didn't have anything grand so you can miss the city tour. The island is so small that most ppl walk and traffic is handled by speed bumps only and they have 5 stop lights on the whole island. To get to the ruins is an hr drive so we were seeing trees & trees & rivers & hearing the history of the island. In Belize you can buy land for $5,000USD and a house for $15,000USD & that's in the good area. We finally arrived to the Altun Ha site & we were given 30 mins. to go use the bathroom & walk around before starting the tour. Well you already know the women line is long and the men is cut short but thankfully the bathroom had many stalls. We then went to the Mayan site & I was really impressed & this was the only place that I could say we enjoyed it much (well my dad & I becuase my mom could have cared less). The tour guide (who is a decent of the Mayan) informed us that no the world is not going to end in 2012 but a catastrophe will occur...we will see. We were able to climb the last one-what a work out!! My dear father left his only daughter to fend 4 herself and he went str8 to the top and once I reached up he wanted a picture taken he saw & left me again-dads!! The view 4rm on top was great, going down not so great! After that I bought a coconut to drink the water. The water wasn't cold but it felt good and went back to the bus for the 1 hr ride back. @ this point my dad felt asleep & I layed down to get some rest but this kid sitting behind me was talking about the #23. He was fascinated w/ that # ever since the Jim Carrey movie so he was making me laugh but then I tuned him out because I was tired. We arrived back to the pier and dad buys a shirt that says Belize on it-$18 and 1 Barrel-the rum of Belize that has won the Best Carribbean rum 7 times in a row. He still hasn't drank it so we'll see. After that we got str8 in line to get back on the ship and we were back on the ship by 3. Some pics of Belize before I go on w/ the rest:

 

A cashew nut tree

 

Their bird/tree/animal/flower.

 

Currency

 

The entrance to the ruins

 

When u 1st walk in.

 

[LoveTravel23]

 

A face on the rocks

 

The one we climbed.

 

My prts chillin

 

My dad on top of the ruin

 

The view 4rm on top.

[LoveTravel23]

 

My dad ready to go down.

 

Everybody else coming down.

 

The best part after drinking the water.

 

The Legend

 

So back to the ship by 3 and we had lunch and then chilled in the cabin. Tonight was the 2nd elegant night not the next night like I thought. We took some pics & this was the only night we were able to hace our pic-all 3 of us taken by one of the pros and it was only 1 time so thank God the pic cam out good! Dinner was good and tonight the waiters danced and boy can our assistant waiter Danilo dance!! After that prts went back to cabin and I walked around finishing the night w/ an ice cream =).

 

Mom & I ready for elegant night 2-BTW sry for all the sideway pics but in a rush to finish this quick so again sorry!

[LoveTravel23]

Food that night:

 

 

A fish dish that the chef has actually won an award on-sry don't remember the name.

 

My dad had this & he liked!

 

Amaretto Cake-good.

 

Mom had this-she thought it was something else even though I explained so she left it.

 

It's midnight here so I'll be back tomorrow w/ Cozumel and the last day @ sea =(. Sweet dreams!

[ibm_db2]

thanks, great review.

[mickiemac]

Love the review and especially the pictures. We will be on the Valor in Sept and can hardly wait. Thanks for taking the time to do this!!

[jks336]

enjoying again.. and i do have to say, your mom does NOT look like your mom. she looks more like your sister.. good genes, you'll have to thank her as you get older and still look young like you do now :)

 

also, if i didn't say it before, post your room pics on the cruiselinerooms in my signature. great way for ppl who wonder what the room will look like :)

[Jeans*Fanatic]

I love your review! And you and your mom look like sisters!!! Glad that you had a great time!

[Binky66]

Was on Crown Princess April 2010. About the same itenerary. Currently booked on Valor for 8/29/010 and you are really wetting my appetite. Can't wait to see the balance of the review. hanks so much.

[CRU1Z1N]

Was on Crown Princess April 2010. About the same itenerary. Currently booked on Valor for 8/29/010 and you are really wetting my appetite. Can't wait to see the balance of the review. hanks so much.

 

Hi Binky! DH and I will be on the same cruise with you!! Can't believe we've finally hit the double digit mark!! We too are soooo ready for this cruise!

 

OP: Great review...thanks for being so detailed!!

[LoveTravel23]

To everybody that has enjoyed the review so far you're very welcome and to those that are about to go on a cruise pls save a spot for me for that I can tag along, thank-you! =)

 

Now ladies and gents I present to you my favorite port (even though the weather was HOT!!) Cozumel, Mexico!!! My parents and I really enjoyed it and had a great time. I booked a tour through CCL-Cozumel Highlights & Shopping which I highly recommend. Here's my review for that day:

 

We arrived @ 8am & our tour began @ 9am @ the end of the pier. Breakfast @ 8:15, off the ship by 8:50 and it literally took the last 10mins. to reach the end of the pier through the gates to meet our tour guide Jorge not George-his words. While he was waiting for anybody else to show up we decided to take pics by Three Amigos which is right by the pier & right across you have Fat Tuesdays.

 

My dad lost his wife for a while...

 

Thanx 4 the comments that she looks more like my sister-we get that all the time. =)

 

She was found! =)

 

After that Jorge had everybody and we were off into an AC bus. The tour began with us visiting the Discovery Mexico.

 

 

There we saw a 5mins. video of Mexico. We also saw this while there:

 

The tree of life

 

Their Virgin of Guadalupe.

 

After that we went outside where we saw replicas of the Mayan Ruins and of the city itself. For those that didn't know Mexico City is going down every year because it was built over a ruin. I don't want to be there when that goes down. After that Jorge gave us 20mins. to roam around.

[LoveTravel23]

 

 

 

 

 

[LoveTravel23]

In the bus...

 

 

After that we went to a small cozy beautiful church where the majority of Mexicans get married in Decemeber. Outside the saints of fertility-love/business/pregnancy are there. There are also 5 local shops but Jorge told is that the first 3 are the ones we can really trust when it comes to prices. There you can buy jewelry-black corral/pearls and many more stuff. My mom bought a Mexican mantra for $10 that she's going to put over the sofa once she goes back home to DR. Here are some pics of that area:

 

The small/beautiful church

 

Inside...

 

The largest iguana I've seen.

 

[LoveTravel23]

The Saints....

 

 

After that we stopped at a little shop right on the water. Some ppl shopped, others bought drinks, I took pics by the coast.

 

 

My father "resting"...