First Time Cruiser's Review of the Valor...

[wvliz]

And a few things I wish I'd known...

 

My husband and I took our 8 year old niece on a 7-day Western Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Valor, April 24th-May1st. This was our first cruise ever. We had a wonderful time although there were some things I wish I'd known beforehand. Thanks to CruiseCritic, we went prepared and I think we knew a lot more than most first time cruisers! So hopefully my review can help someone else. :)

 

I apologize in advance for any typos - my computer makes typing difficult sometimes!

 

We took all the required documents for our niece. We traveled with passports, and had notarized permission to travel documents and medical POA forms from both parents. We were never asked to show them, but you never know.

 

We live in West Virginia and drove to the Port of Miami. We left Friday evening at 6pm and arrived at the hotel around 10am on Saturday. We stayed at the La Quinta East, near the Miami Airport. It is hard to find and the traffic in that area is pretty scary, at least for what we're used to! The room was very reasonable, around $100 per night and offered free shuttle to the port and free parking for the week. I didn't take any photos of the room but it was very comfortable and clean. We had a very nice continental breakfast on Sunday before leaving for the port. The employees, although very busy and understaffed, were extremely friendly and helpful. There was always a wait at the front desk. KSA, the company offering the shuttle transport, has a booth set up in the lobby where you can book your shuttle to the port. They also offer to return you to the hotel when you return from your cruise for $10 per person, which we booked. The shuttle TO the port was fine. I don't recommend the shuttle FROM the port. They are very busy and have no way of knowing when you will be disembarking, so therefore we had to wait around 30 minutes for the driver to pick us up. We wished that we could have just flagged down a taxi. Upon our return, we were pleased to find that our car was safely where we had left it at the hotel, and were glad that we had not spent the $20 per night to park at the port.

 

We boarded the ship and had lunch at Rosie's on the Lido deck. Our rooms were ready by 1:30, as promised. We had booked an interior room and were offered a $70 upsell to an ocean view. I'm so glad we took it! We had plenty of space and having the window was very nice. Those interior rooms sure looked small. There were 3 closets with plenty of room. I do recomemend packing hangers if you want your clothes to hang - I think we had around 20 hangers maybe. The bathroom was small but comfortable for 1 person to get ready in at a time. I was worried about the toilets, but the ones on the ship were better than some land ones I've seen. There were never any clogged ones that I saw. There is a hair dryer, attached to the inside of one of the desk drawers of all places! I packed my own, and was very glad I did. Shampoo and Body wash were provided in dispensers in the shower, which my husband happily used, but I took my own. There were also samples of Caress body wash, toothpaste, Pepcid, and a mens' razor. The couch in the room was converted to a bed all week. We had 1 chair, a stool for the desk, and a coffee table in addition to the 2 twin beds pushed together. The beds were comfy and we had great pillows.

 

We packed our own alarm clock, since there is none in the room. Also a power strip, as there is 1 outlet in the entire room. We also took a 12-pack of Coke, a 12-pack of Hawaiian punch, and a 12-pack of bottled water. The fridge wasn't very cold. We didn't realize until almost the end of the week that the room steward kept our ice bucket filled with ice all the time.

 

Dining on the ship was so-so. We did not eat at Scarlett's, the steakhouse, but heard others commenting that the food was good and the portion sizes were huge. The food and service in the main dining room was fantastic. I didn't care much for the warm chocolate melting cake (I know, I know) but the strawberry cheesecake was the BEST, and I also loved the cappucino ice cream pie. We are not "pool people", so we spent very little time on the Lido deck except for when we went for lunch or snacks. The food on the buffet was hit or miss, and the desserts there were usually inedible. I ate way too much soft-serve ice cream. We never ate at Fish and Chips. It didn't seem like they had anything we wanted to try. The pizza was ok. The grill, which had hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, chicken tenders, etc. was pretty good except for the chicken tenders.

 

We did not use the spa. Our niece spent a lot of time at Camp Carnival and they had lots of great activities through the week for the kids. After 11, it seemed that all they really did was watch movies though, and she was getting tired of watching Ice Age, she said. Nonetheless, she had fun and wanted to be there most of the time that we were not in port. There were also lots of fun activities for adults and families on the ship, too. My husband and I went to several games, trivia, and all kinds of things and had a great time at most of them. We won $500 playing Bingo! We played some Blackjack in the casino but no slots. We didn't start going to the shows in the theater until later and the week, and I'm sorry we missed them because most of the ones we saw were fantastic! The comedians, family-friendly and R-rated, were hilarious. My one complaint with the entertainment was that most of the time, there was really no indication of whether an activity was appropriate for children or not. We went to something called Liars Game Show, or something like that, and thankfully did not take our niece but many families were leaving due to the sexual innuendo. I would have been upset had our niece been with us, and I'm sure most parents would have appreciated a warning. So, beware what you take your kids to.

 

In Grand Cayman, we booked an excursion for snorkeling and Stingray City through an outside company, Moby Dick Tours, who I highly recommend if you want to go to Stingray City. It cost $125 for all three of us. There were only about 20-25 people on the tour with us, and 3 or 4 tour operators. First, we had a short bus ride to the dock, where the driver gave us some info on the history, architecture, wildlife, etc. in Grand Cayman. We boarded the boat and took a scenic ride to where we would be snorkeling. After a quick safety discussion, we were in the water. We had plenty of time to take pictures and see the coral and fish. Then we went to Stingray City where they were happy to take photos with your camera and hold the stingrays for you to feed and interact with. There was plenty of squid for everyone to feed the rays. Everyone had many opportunities to kiss the rays and ask any questions before our trip back to shore. On the way back, one of the tour operators spotted a starfish and dove in to grab it. He brought it up onto the boat and let everyone hold and take pictures with it. This tour was cheaper than the ones through Carnival and it was very safe, professional, and we were back with an hour to spare before we had to get on the ship.

 

In Roatan, we had nothing planned. I regret this. I didn't know that Carnival owns this port, so you will not find any outside tour companies offering excursions inside the port. Unless you have 4+ people, your only option to see the island is to hire a taxi driver for $90. Reluctantly, we did this, because we wanted to see the island. We didn't feel 100% safe when we got in the taxi and started driving but it turned out to be fine. The driver took us anywhere we wanted to go and showed us the entire island. He took us to 2 different beaches and stopped at some good places for photos. He would stop anytime we asked and was very patient. His English wasn't 100% but was pretty good. We ended up having a pretty nice time.

 

Like Roatan, in Belize we did not book an excursion. Another mistake. Once you get into port, its pretty obvious that leaving on your own is not safe. We walked around the shopping area at the port, ate lunch at the Wet Lizard, and took the tender back to the ship. I feel like we really did not get to see Belize.

 

In Cozumel, we booked an excursion to the Coba Mayan ruins through Carnival. This was an all-day excursion and we didn't want to risk missing the ship. Immediately after arriving in port, we boarded a boat and crossed over to Playa Del Carmen, which took around 40 minutes. There, we boarded a bus and drove about 45 minutes to the ruins with one stop for restrooms and shopping. We were pretty rushed, however and I didn't even buy anything. At the ruins, we had another quick restroom opportunity and then walked to the ruins. The walk is entirely flat. You have the opportunity to pay $10 (for 2 people) for a ride to and from the ruins. We did not. It was EXTREMELY hot and I was suffering from heat exhaustion by the time we returned to the bus. I was able to enjoy most of the ruins but please, if you do one of these tours take PLENTY of water! They do provide you with water and a snack when you return to the bus.

 

My advice to you is that if you cannot or don't want to plan excursions ahead of time at each port, look into which ones will be safe for you to explore on your own. We did this completely backwards, as the ones we had booked excursions for seemed perfectly safe and the ones we did not book anything, we were afraid to even leave the port. We could have done ruins in Belize, and been able to explore Cozumel on our own, so I feel like we missed out on a lot in both of these ports.

 

Disembarkation was basically an organized mess, from our perspective. We opted to leave our luggage outside our door the night before, and carried only the necessary items with us. We were given Zone #25, which meant that we were scheduled to leave between 10 and 10:30. The process was extremely slow and we were not off of the ship until after 11, and did not get our bags and get through customs until after 12. Our shuttle was supposed to pick up at 10, so this was obviously a problem. As much of a pain as it might be, I would recommend carrying your own bags (self-assist) if you have to be anywhere by a certain time.

 

I can't think of anything else to tell you, but if you have questions I'll do my best to answer them!

 

Thanks for reading.

[wvliz]

The Pool/Waterslide:

 

The Ship at Grand Cayman:

 

Stingray City:

 

A Moby Dick Tour Guide:

 

Monkey in Roatan - He's eating Cheetos!

 

A Toucan in Roatan:

[wvliz]

The Ship in Cozumel:

 

From the Top of the Highest Temple at Coba:

 

Cozumel:

 

9th Floor Looking Down Into the Lobby: