My Disappointing Cruise... Valor Dec 12-19 Review

[GlendaleCruiser]

Anyone who would make the comment that firefly is a troublemaker either is not on here very much or lacks reading comprehension skills.

 

I have learned one hell of a lot about cruising and many tips on making our cruises better from her.

 

She tells you what she thinks which remember is what CC is all about.

 

 

Hear, hear!

[jebuell]

I feel the same way. Port days are so busy and I get exhausted. On sea days I just want to lay in the sun and watch the big screen while drinking the DOD and reading my book. If my friends come out, we will play cards. Then maybe we will walk around the decks for exercise or go down the slides. Then get a little cone of soft serve and start all over again!

 

I would get this if you were on a port heavy cruise. But if you had a lot of Sea Days, especially with 2 in a row (like what our canceled Splendor itinerary had), I'd find this very, very boring. But I'm also a very active person. I actually lay in the sun at work and play cards a lot at work. When I go on vacation I prefer to be active. That's my sort of fun. It seems like Carnival is trying to cater to the "relaxing" crowd and not the "active" crowd whereas RCI seems to be geared more towards the "active" crowd. This is a HUGE generalization, of course, and experiences will differ based on the ship itself, but I do wish Carnival would take a page out of RCI's book and put some physical stuff on their ships (besides the gyms).

 

Though, from what I've seen on their website, it looks like Magic will be more appealing to "active" cruisers so I think they are listening to their customers and adding more of these things. So everyone will have a ship that's "for them".

[Thoth]

I suppose I'm one of those "Carnival cheerleaders" but I always come back from a cruise feeling everything is perfect. I always have problems finding areas to improve.

Others always find very little good about their cruise. Finding an objective happy medium is often difficult.

[Vanessa L]

 

We don't take cruises to be entertained, we take cruises to totally relax, enjoy the sea from our balcony, and meet many interesting people on board....it appears to me that they (RCI) want to entertain you to death and that isn't what we take cruise for in the first place.

 

 

I think you hit the nail on the head, Procruise. Someone like you (and me) would pay for a bunch of "stuff" we'd never use. We too cruise solely for R-n-R and would get zero use out of all the "stuff" offered on RCI. However, in the OPs' defense, if they are used to "stuff" and use the bejesus out of it, they will find a Carnival ship decidedly lacking in said "stuff". That would make any Carnival ship "boring", I suspect. I personally have no desire to be entertained to death and as such, find that the $574 we just paid for an 8B balcony on an 8 day cruise, right up our alley ;) I do not need, nor would I use, any of the extra-curricular crap offered on an RCI ship.

[gatour]

As a point of reference, I normally sail Princess with a smattering of RCCL and Disney. I have been on a couple cruises on Carnival in recent years but it was on the older ships that sail out of Jacksonville.

 

I mention this because, I have found all the lines don't have a lot of activities on-board when the ship is in port. So what you experienced when you decided to return to ship early or stayed onboard would not be a surprise to me.

 

Sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise.

[dan40]

Those that require to be "entertained" 24/7/365 should look into vacations venues other than cruising.. Las Vegas comes to mind for as long as one can stay awake.

 

Go camping, oops, no bands playing in the woods.

 

Go skiing. But all there is to do is ski until night.

 

Go golfing. Hard to do at night.

 

Why go on one type vacation when one is wanting some other kind of vacation?

[mjl1960]

In only Carnival could control the weather....it would be a perfect world.

[misguidedangel]

It is too bad you didn't have fun becuase every cruise I go on I have to decide what to do because of overlapping activities!!!!!

 

If you want to know rough seas, go during hurricane season when one hurricane is just leaving and other right behind it. I was on the Liberty in September when Igor was just ending and Julia was just arriving. Every day we were sailing was rough and no performer or activity was cancelled cuz of the rough sea.

 

It is totally possible that all the activities on sea days were not to your liking, but they do some fun activities right on Lido deck on both sea days. The day at Half Moon Cay had a bunch of activities going on and the next day, a sea day, did have activities going on.

 

The casino is never open during port time, so that one comment is confusing....As for the evenings, my last cruise after dinner I generally had three or four things I wanted to do after and had time to do one....needless to say I didn't see either productiin show (saw em two years before), go to the piano bar, but I did enjoy the comedians in the club!!!! The other variety shows in the large lounge were great!!!!!!

 

One day when I can scrape enough to do a 15 day Panama Canal transit I'll check out Princess, but count RCI out, none of the ships have what I look to do in a cruise and to much I don't want to do....that is my choice and if I am paying, I'll do what pleases me.......

[ANGSWIN]

I am sorry that you did not enjoy your cruise.

I bet the weather did play a part in that. It rained a lot on our trip, so a few things that I wanted to see (like the ice carving) were cancelled because of that.

 

We also had rough seas on our last sea day - the boat rocked back and forth all day long. All up and down the hall, all you could see were the "Snoozin" signs. Hubby had to stay in bed, too, with the trashcan next to him. I don't tend to get motion sickness, so I felt fine. Therefore, I went exploring, but I did have a hard time finding stuff to do. Of course, not many people were out and about like I said, so they might have adjusted the schedule to compensate for that (knowing in advance the seas would be rough?) I ended up just grabbing a window seat and a DOD and watched the world go by.

 

For the rest of the cruise: I don't really like the Lido type games: hairy chest, gender wars, etc, so sometimes I did feel like there wasn't much to do. There really didn't seem to be a lot of shows, either, compared to our last cruise. However, this trip was all about getting away and RELAXING for us - so it worked out great. I spent a lot of time on our balcony, brought my NOOK with a lot of great books on it, packed a deck of cards, and my hubby and I just enjoyed some quiet time together. Overall, I had a great time and would probably book Carnival again. I would just plan ahead for some down time.

[gogetter]

HHHMMM...sorry for your bad time. Only observation i have is......you stayed on the ship in Cozumel and got off in Belize?....bad choice IMO

[golfadj]

HHHMMM...sorry for your bad time. Only observation i have is......you stayed on the ship in Cozumel and got off in Belize?....bad choice IMO

 

Very odd actually. Wonder why they go to Belize as much as they do actually. Other than cave tubing not a place I look to go back to anymore.

 

and did the cave tubing so been there done that!

[Chirpbird]

they are anything but a trouble maker...he/she is nothing but helpful! they are also very seasoned cruisers so why not add opinions based upon the experiences?

I tend to agree with Firefly's comments, and generally like reading them. But, her last salvo about the OP just looking for an excuse to complain is not really offering a "different point of view." It's firing a zinger.

[flalady29]

hamfiveo I appreciate that you wrote a review of your expierence on the Valor. I think any cruise or land vacation can have it's good and bads you just have to make the best of it. What you thought about your Valor cruise is what I thought about my RCCL cruise in 2006 I did enjoy the hairy leg contest to funny and the belly flop ( ouch ) LoL but don't remember any activities that didn't involve sports,but I still really enjoyed it and will sail RCCL again. I have read good and bad reviews on just about every ship on all lines I take it in but never let it affect any decisions I make. I can't wait to hear your RCCL review.

[truchattycathy]

Op sorry you were unhappy with your cruise. I guess it is all in how you look at it. I have only been on five cruises, and all on carnival, but there are so many things offered on the ship, I never get around to most of them. I always cruise on a budget, so I rarely do the casino or bingo. Hope you have a better experience on your next cruise.

[ricew001]

Sorry your cruise wasn't as enjoyable as you hoped. I've only done two - one with Princess and one with Carnival. While I am just two weeks away from my next Carnival cruise, I have to say I prefered Princess for its elegance and service, but Carnival had a great price on my upcoming cruise.

I also must say I have learned a lot from this posting and gained some interesting perspective as well.

Happy sailing to all!

[friedshrimp]

Very odd actually. Wonder why they go to Belize as much as they do actually. Other than cave tubing not a place I look to go back to anymore.

 

and did the cave tubing so been there done that!

 

 

Actually they do have a cool Safari type jeep drive/ride through the jungle with a boat ride up the Sabun River and a little spelunking thrown in for good measure.

[lcbandt]

Actually they do have a cool Safari type jeep drive/ride through the jungle with a boat ride up the Sabun River and a little spelunking thrown in for good measure.

 

Is this a Carnival excursion? I'm trying to figure out what to do in Belize, and I know my DH would LOVE this!

[halos]

Geez.......,that was nasty.No wonder people hate to post reviews.The OP is entitled to their opinion and it is disgusting the way people get beat up for posting a negative review.

To the OP,I am sorry you did not enjoy your cruise.Thank you for posting and I hope your next cruise meets your expectations.

Ditto.

 

Also wanted to add that the first time I sailed CCL was in 1991...over the years, the 'things to do' list has indeed dwindled. By comparison, I find far more to do on NCL and I do recall my Royal C. cruise havign many more options.

I do want to add however, that sometimes, having nothing to do is exactly what I want, so CCL still suits a need (for me anyway).

[skittl1321]

I appreciate where this reviewer is coming from- as a non-party personality, I found sea days to be quite boring. There wasn't much to do at all besides trivia (which was always incredibly crowded) and eat- and I don't like overeating! I enjoyed the "nothingness" but worried my husband, who I convinced to come cruising with me would be really bored, so my worrying got in the way of my fun of relaxing.

 

This cruise, we picked a more port intensive itinerary and are prepared that there won't be anything we like to do on sea days (we don't drink, we don't gamble...) so we're bringing some games to play, an extra book or two, and we are going to try to force ourselves to do a bit more of the organized fun- things like karaoke which we do not normally do.

 

That said- we always enjoyed the shows and the comedians, but during the day- there was A LOT of downtime. If you aren't a party personality, Carnival might not be for you. For someone like me who doesn't enjoy hanging out on the Lido or in the casino, you need to be prepared for downtime, and I think some people expect to be entertained.

[friedshrimp]

Is this a Carnival excursion? I'm trying to figure out what to do in Belize, and I know my DH would LOVE this!

 

Actually, I was on a HAL cruise but only 10 of the 28 people on the tour came from our ship so that means 18 came from other ships, I don't know which one though. There are probably independent tour companies that offer something like this too in Belize.

[golfadj]

Is this a Carnival excursion? I'm trying to figure out what to do in Belize, and I know my DH would LOVE this!

 

Go to the port of call pages for more info and if necessary just post your question there.

[jebuell]

Very odd actually. Wonder why they go to Belize as much as they do actually. Other than cave tubing not a place I look to go back to anymore.

 

and did the cave tubing so been there done that!

 

Again we're arguing personal preferences. If I had a choice between the extremely Americanized and wasteful Cozumel versus Belize with it's amazing reefs and animal preserves, not to mention eco-friendly tourism initiatives, I would choose Belize. But that's MY preferences!

 

If I were to have enough time in port I'd try to get out to Cay Caulker and spend the day on the beach, dining at some of the awesome bars on that island, and just exploring. We almost bought a second home out there. Or head out to the Jaguar Preserve or the the reef to do some diving or snorkeling.

 

To me, there are a TON of "off the beaten path" things to do in Belize. Remember, you are not bound by the excursions offered by Carnival when you go places.

[jebuell]

Those that require to be "entertained" 24/7/365 should look into vacations venues other than cruising.. Las Vegas comes to mind for as long as one can stay awake.

 

Go camping, oops, no bands playing in the woods.

 

Go skiing. But all there is to do is ski until night.

 

Go golfing. Hard to do at night.

 

Why go on one type vacation when one is wanting some other kind of vacation?

 

So, basically what you're saying is that anyone who wants to be entertained 24/7 by being active should cruise with RCI and not Carnival. Got it! Thanks for the advice. :)

[dan40]

So, basically what you're saying is that anyone who wants to be entertained 24/7 by being active should cruise with RCI and not Carnival. Got it! Thanks for the advice. :)

 

I believe that you are well aware that I did NOT say that.

 

And being Platinum on Carnival and Diamond on RCL, I can attest that the differences in the 2 lines are primarily hardware, not software.:p

[LANDLADY]

I was booked on NCL Gem and I cancelled and booked Valor. Firends of ours just got off the GEM and were very disappointed with NCL....needless to say, I too was then disappointed and began to rethink my decision. Hvae been on both NCL and Carnival numerous times and always thought Carnival was more fun...so I switched. Also, I don't like the dining experience on NCL all that much. I like assigned seating time and same wait staff thur out the cruise. As far as posters saying RCCL has better activities...I whole heartedly disagree. We booked RCCL this npast summer for the first time...not sure what I was expecting but thought it would be ehad over heels better then Carnival and NCL from what I had read. We were very disappointed.....not any better. In fact we had a much better time on our Carnival cruises and they are a lot cheaper then RCCL too. Looking forward to out trip on Valor...new ship for us...hope we didn't make mistake changing from GEM. I don't think we will be disappointed....