carnival victory

[bermudagal56]

Has anyone recently sailed on victory? Honest opinions of what you thought about it. Quality of food? service? entertainment? shape of the ship? We are trying to decide between carnival Victory or Royal caribbean's Serenade of the seas for a cruise out of san juan this year.

thank you for any opinions!

[VictoryLover2]

Has anyone recently sailed on victory? Honest opinions of what you thought about it. Quality of food? service? entertainment? shape of the ship? We are trying to decide between carnival Victory or Royal caribbean's Serenade of the seas for a cruise out of san juan this year.

thank you for any opinions!

 

We have done them both.... a cruise is what you make it.... they both offer many different things.... are you going for the ship or the itinerary? Then the only hard part about these two is inexpensive flights to SJU.

Either way.... it will be time at sea.... ENJOY.

Brookie & Ed:cool:

[Cinderose]

Wish I could say inexpensive flights to SJU!! Our flight from SLC cost more than the cruise! Seems we never get cheap flights to anywhere.

[preciouspup]

We have done both the Victory and the Serenade out of San Juan. Give the edge to Serenade. Beautiful ship and has 2 specialty restaurants. Victory has none. Our cabin (aft wrap) on Victory though was out best cabin ever!

 

You should enjoy either one since both are so port intensive.

 

What else do you need to know about either ship?

[bermudagal56]

We have done both the Victory and the Serenade out of San Juan. Give the edge to Serenade. Beautiful ship and has 2 specialty restaurants. Victory has none. Our cabin (aft wrap) on Victory though was out best cabin ever!

 

You should enjoy either one since both are so port intensive.

 

What else do you need to know about either ship?

 

There is such a price difference between the 2 of them that i guess i wanted to hear opinions from people who have been on them to help me decide which one to take. Their itineraries are almost identical for the month of may except serenade being 8 night rather than the 7 on victory. We do like overall quality in everything but is it worth the difference in price to go on serenade?

[preciouspup]

Serenade is a beautiful ship and smaller than Victory. If you don't mind lack of specialty restaurants and price is signficantly less Victory is great. We had a good time on both ships. MDR food we thought was about the same on both. I think Victory looks its age more than the Serenade does but that is mostly due to the color scheme and Carnival's Las Vegas style decor. The Serenade is very subdued. Lots of glass.

[Dirkgun]

We have gone on the southern route 3 times out of San Juan 2 times on Celebrity and 1 time on the Victory. Even though the Celebrity ships were more elegant and showy.... I think the Victory has been my all time favorite. The ship was great, the itinerary was awesome, the staff on both lines were great. I would do the victory all the time if I could. I know a little of that is the affection I have for San Juan as a city.... it is just a fun place to be. Enjoy your trip what ever you choose, then be sure to let us know how it went. :D

[Dirkgun]

Wish I could say inexpensive flights to SJU!! Our flight from SLC cost more than the cruise! Seems we never get cheap flights to anywhere.

 

 

I know... huh. It seems I can always find the $450 pp RT airfare from SLC but never much cheaper. I think next time I am going to try the price line bid.:eek: and see how that goes.

[bermudagal56]

thank you everyone, keep the opinions coming!

[Cinderose]

I know... huh. It seems I can always find the $450 pp RT airfare from SLC but never much cheaper. I think next time I am going to try the price line bid.:eek: and see how that goes.

 

My Problem is it usually says : only 1, 2, or 3 seats left at such and such price. I book for at least 5 or more out of our group at a time. Cant do the bidding since we may not end up on the same flights. I cant even find the $450 you listed its over $588 once you add taxes! Oh well, at least we get good prices to the West coast!

[VictoryLover2]

Again we have done both but if you look at our signature we are about to sail for the 3rd time on the Victory with this itinerary. Also in November the Victory was in Dry Dock for 2 weeks, a little more shine now.

The beds are the best on the Victory with inside cabins at 185 sq feet. RCCL Serenade interior cabins are 165 sq feet.

The plus to RCCL Serenade depending on your sail date... it will stop in DOMINICA!!! Carnival pulled the Victory out of Dominica after dry dock.

As far as air fare... we booked the upcoming cruise and air in MARCH 2010.... Non stop Chicago ORD to SJU was $532 for both of us... TOTAL. Plan and book early!

Brookie & Ed:cool:

[moonandsun]

:confused::confused: We were undeiceded as well, but opted for Victory in May. We are flying into SJU, should we be flying into SLC? Last thing we need is to fly into the wrong airport.

[bermudagal56]

:confused::confused: We were undeiceded as well, but opted for Victory in May. We are flying into SJU, should we be flying into SLC? Last thing we need is to fly into the wrong airport.

 

where/what is SLC?

[Dirkgun]

where/what is SLC?

 

It is the Airport code for Salt Lake City international airport (also the abbreviation for Salt Lake City)

 

 

My Problem is it usually says : only 1, 2, or 3 seats left at such and such price. I book for at least 5 or more out of our group at a time. Cant do the bidding since we may not end up on the same flights. I cant even find the $450 you listed its over $588 once you add taxes! Oh well, at least we get good prices to the West coast!

 

Yes the bidding does have its challenges..... but if you can break people into groups of 4 or 5 I think you can still do it??? The past two trips to San Juan for us were $458 and $415 per person round trip. :eek:

[Dirkgun]

:confused::confused: We were undeiceded as well, but opted for Victory in May. We are flying into SJU, should we be flying into SLC? Last thing we need is to fly into the wrong airport.

 

No it just so happens that we were from the same airport to fly out of.... Salt Lake is great but not when you are expecting San Juan. :cool:

[Dirkgun]

Has anyone recently sailed on victory? Honest opinions of what you thought about it. Quality of food? service? entertainment? shape of the ship? We are trying to decide between carnival Victory or Royal caribbean's Serenade of the seas for a cruise out of san juan this year.

thank you for any opinions!

 

 

What kinds of things are you worried about? What kind of group are you going with? I know there are some reviews that say bad things... but in my opinion they are from people with low tolerance levels and very picky. Until they took Dominica off the itinerary they did not have any sea days so the ship was kind of a minor thing since you were on an island all the time... Now with one sea day it becomes more of a question but it also just went into dry dock for some upgrades I guess and overall maintenance.

[wentworth]

Wish I could say inexpensive flights to SJU!! Our flight from SLC cost more than the cruise! Seems we never get cheap flights to anywhere.

 

Same thing happened to us. Flights to SJ were more than our February

cruise next month. We took a real hit on the airfare, but about a week

after, Carnival PVP called and informed us that the cruise price went down

$260 for our cabin.......helped a lot.

[bermudagal56]

What kinds of things are you worried about? What kind of group are you going with? I know there are some reviews that say bad things... but in my opinion they are from people with low tolerance levels and very picky. Until they took Dominica off the itinerary they did not have any sea days so the ship was kind of a minor thing since you were on an island all the time... Now with one sea day it becomes more of a question but it also just went into dry dock for some upgrades I guess and overall maintenance.

 

The things i am looking for to compare is the quality of the food, service, entertainment and just the all around ship experience. Breakfast and lunch are usually pretty good on royal caribbean and just so so on carnival. Dinners are about the same in my opinion. Both of the itineraries are similar so that is not a concern. We usually travel with about 4 to 6 couples and like to have fun so hoping there are alot of things to do while onboard.