It's Such a Letdown . . . .

[bankerbabe]

To come home. :D

 

We just got off the Valor on Sunday, the 27th of March. We had a fantastic time. I won't bore you with a thorough review, but here are some of the basic points:

 

Flew into West Palm Beach, since it was cheaper when we booked, and rented a minivan to drive down to Miami. Worked well, and I would do it again if the price was right.

 

Stayed at the Marriott's Villas at Doral Golf Course and really liked it. 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, and we were able to share the villa with another family traveling with us. We paid with Marriott Rewards points. Fully stocked kitchen, BBQ grill, and pool.

 

Ate dinner at Texas de Brazil in Miami Beach and LOVED it. Best dinner of our trip, though very expensive at $500 for 8 people (with a 25% off coupon). If you love meat, this is the place to go.

 

Embarkation was easy - arrived early and left half of our party with all checked luggage, returned rental cars at Alamo at the Miami Airport, and then hopped on the free shuttle back to port. On the ship by 11:30, in our cabin by 1:30, and had all checked luggage before late dinner.

 

Disembarkation was also easy. We did self assist (our first attempt with this) and we were off the ship and through customs by 8:30 am. If I had known it was going to be that easy we would have come home on Sunday instead of waiting an extra day to come home. (It's hard to find good flight times back to Oregon, so we usually wait until the following day to come home.)

 

We had an aft-wrap cabin. I may never cruise without one again. We easily fit all twelve of our traveling party on the balcony. It's where we spent the vast majority of our time. Cocktails after a long day in port, mimosas in the morning, pre-dinner cocktails, post-dinner relaxing, it was awesome. We ordered four bottles of liquor through Bon Voyage (we were a large group) and brought mixers on in port and much preferred our balcony over any public areas on the ship.

 

And on that note: there isn't much that I can say about the public areas on ship. I didn't see much of them, other than the dining room. We hit the Serenity deck one afternoon, but it was usually pretty full and there weren't many places to park. Our balcony was better. (I'm a bad CC'er.)

 

Our friends had 8c balcony cabins. They were pretty typical cabins. Nice. Our friend's kids had a "sideways" inside cabin - 7412 - and it was better IMHO than the regular inside that our kids had. It seemed more spacious. I intended to take pictures to post, but totally forgot to. I can provide more detail if anyone is interested.

 

This was our third time to Grand Cayman. Both prior trips we had gone to see the stingrays. This time we just walked to Eden Rock Dive Center and did some snorkeling and then took a taxi to 7 Mile Beach (Calico Jack's). It was OK. The beach was smaller than I expected. The food was good, though.

 

This was our first trip to Roatan. I went zip lining at Clip 'n' Zip and REALLY enjoyed it. Very professional staff, fun zips, and only $40 pp. Highly recommend if you are into zip lining. We then went to Mahogany Beach for a few hours. I know some people complain about this beach being man made - but sometimes man makes some nice things. I rather liked the beach. We had lunch, drinks, and floated in the water for a while.

 

This was our first trip to Belize. A lot of people dislike this stop. I liked it. (But, I will admit that I'm pretty easily pleased.) People here were no pushier than other stops - in fact I always find the people in Cozumel stores to be WAY pushier than anywhere else. We went cave tubing with Major Tom and Minor Tom. It was very pleasant. It was nice to see the countryside a bit. Yes, the country is poor. But it isn't going to get any wealthier if everyone avoids going there. Everyone we came into contact with was friendly and happy, our guides gave us some interesting history on the country. I wish I had more time to wander a bit.

 

This was our third stop at Cozumel. I always love Cozumel. I always love Mexico. We did a little bit of shopping - in the stores that were open that early, and then we headed to Paradise Beach. We chose PB over any other beaches because of the inflatable water toys since we have 6 kids in our group of 12. The kids were very well entertained all day, which meant that we adults had plenty of time to relax on the beach (while keeping a watchful eye on the kids in the water). I'm sure there are prettier beaches to be had but this one suited our needs nicely. We really enjoyed our day there.

 

And that's my (somewhat) abbreviated review. If anyone has questions, please feel free to fire away.

[hi2you]

It is tough coming home after a Carnival cruise vacay. Back to housework, cooking, work. But now you can start planning on the next one hopefully.

[bankerbabe]

It is tough coming home after a Carnival cruise vacay. Back to housework, cooking, work. But now you can start planning on the next one hopefully.

Yes, it's hard coming home. Back to work. Back to rainy Oregon.

 

But I AM already planning the next one. We are considering a private yacht charter with a few other couples. It's not as expensive as one would think.

[crusinpsychRN]

Thanks for your review.

 

Only cure for PPD is to book another, you know.

[nytraveller53]

Great to hear you had a good time! By your title, I thought we were going to have another one-post wonder! :eek:

[bankerbabe]

Great to hear you had a good time! By your title, I thought we were going to have another one-post wonder! :eek:

We always have a good time. It's all about frame of mind.

 

The only negative of our trip was the wait staff at dinner. And even then it wasn't too much of a negative, they just were not as good as previous staff. But it would be hard to compete with the stellar duo of Momciello and Igor on the Conquest. We loved those guys.

[nytraveller53]

You had IGOR on the Conquest? I had an Ast. Waiter named Igor on the Valor in Aug.! I wonder if it was the same waiter, because Igor was fantastic too!

[michelle1836]

Hurry and book another one!!! glad you had a great time :)

[bankerbabe]

You had IGOR on the Conquest? I had an Ast. Waiter named Igor on the Valor in Aug.! I wonder if it was the same waiter, because Igor was fantastic too!

Tall and skinny Serbian? We were on the Conquest in March of 2009, so it's likely he's on a different ship by now.

[Cruise, J.D.]

It sure is . . . thanks for the review.

[nytraveller53]

Tall and skinny Serbian? We were on the Conquest in March of 2009, so it's likely he's on a different ship by now.

Oh, no. My Igor was Russian, but still tall and skinny.

[bankerbabe]

Oh, no. My Igor was Russian, but still tall and skinny.

Must be in the name. I've never met a short and fat Igor. :)

[pacarolinagirl]

Oh my, my hubby & I were depressed the day we had to disembark the cruiseship. That was almost 2 yrs ago. We are so glad we are back to cruising this year. YAY! :)

[okwriter]

I agree that returning to reality BITES! But glad you had a good time. :)