Carnival Valor: July 3-9. Eastern Caribbean

[bridetobe53108]

We went on the Carnival Valor July 3- 9th and did the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. To give some background information: this was our 7th cruise, our 6th on Carnival. It was my husband and I and we traveled with another couple. We are all late 20’s to early 30’s.

Overall it was an awesome cruise and there was really nothing that went wrong or anything to complain about. This is my first review, so hopefully I include lots of helpful information J

Day one: We drove up from the Tampa area and arrived about 11:15. We were confused about where to park, but found the entrance to the parking garage after a few minutes. We parked then carried our luggage over and left it with a porter. We carried our water on, but the porter asked us why we were doing that and said we should have just put it in our checked luggage. I was confused by this because everything I read on-line said that you could not have any liquid in your checked luggage or they would take it. We waited in line, showed our fun pass, waited in line, went through security (20 minutes), checked-in at the kiosk (this was our first time using this- it was fine. I have read people complaining about this. But this way or an actual person is the same to me. There were employees standing around to help if necessary.), went to a person to get our sail-and-sign cards (20 minutes), given a boarding number (we were 27 and they were currently on 9). It didn’t take as long as we thought it would and after about 15 minutes our number was called. Then we went up an escalator and waited some more (10 minutes) for photographers took the first picture (which we skipped). The line snaked around the boat and finally we were on! As soon as we stepped on they took the pictures that get shown when they swipe your card.

We went right to Deck 9, aft, for food! I had heard a lot about the Mongolian Grill and this was the first ship with it we had been on, so we went right there. We waited about 20 minutes. I thought it was worth it. You put your own veggies/noodles in a bowl, then give it to the cook, who ads the sauce and meat that you tell him you’d like. I had steak, shrimp, and black bean sauce (no spice). There were two other sauces- one mild and one medium. I also had a salad. The desserts were a disappointing. There wasn’t much selection. The candied cupcake that looked so good was not. The apple cake was alright.

Next we went to our room. It was ready and some of our luggage had arrived so we unpacked what we had. I napped a few minutes. I reviewed the Fun Times. I bring a highlighter so I can plan our day. Muster drill time. It’s really nice not having to bring the vests with you! The guys grabbed some soft-serve and we went to watch the boat leave the pier. We skipped it because we couldn’t find the strawberry. Sail Away Deck Party on the Lido. The “Fun Patrol” led some dances. We were happy to see Alivia, who was on the Legend with us in November. After reading about it on this board I decided that I wanted to sign-up for the “Master Mixologist” contest, so I looked for it in the Fun Times. I found Squishy and signed up for it. There were 2 other spots, so my husband and one of our friends signed up as well. We filled out the form, picking a name and the ingredients. Not that we were hungry again, but sushi was open, so we went. Every day it seemed to be similar, one spicy, one fish, one vegetarian or with shrimp. Today they had a spicy tuna, shrimp block (I don’t know what this is called, but it’s not a roll), and a salmon, but I realized later mine was missing the piece of salmon from the top. None were too great. The other female with us doesn’t like sushi, so we stopped at the dinner buffet. I had some very yummy chocolate mousse, fruit, and cheese

[bridetobe53108]

Night 1: We went back to the room and the rest of our luggage had arrived so we finished unpacking and got changed for dinner. This was our first time trying “Your time dining” so we planned our night how we wanted, not around when we had to be to dinner, which was nice! We tried to do the free liquor tasting, but the line was sooo long and wasn’t moving at all. I asked an employee if there were any special sales that night on the liquor and there weren’t, so we decided to go back another night for our purchases. We explored the boat a little and planned on doing two trivias, but instead headed to dinner because we weren’t sure what time we needed to be seated by (we later asked and were told 9:30). We waited 5 minutes for a table. Something different from our other cruises was that the bread basket was put on the table and we got our own. It seemed like a waste since some nights we ate no bread, but I guess it’s easier for the servers. I had the shrimp, flat iron steak, mac-and-cheese (I asked for an extra and was brought 3 cups), crème brulee, and coffee. This was one of the best meals I had all week! My husband had the spare ribs which he also loved. The corn on the cob was not good. After dinner we went to Game Show Mania (Ivanhoe Theater). We explored the ship some more, including outside (it was sooo windy), and spent some time in the casino and the Roulette table before going to bed.

[cawagner]

Great review so far...can't wait to read the next....any pictures? :D

[bridetobe53108]

Thanks! No, I don't think I'm going to do pictures this time. Sorry! :rolleyes:

 

Great review so far...can't wait to read the next....any pictures? :D

[bridetobe53108]

Day two: Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. Happy 4th of July!

We planned on waking up at 8:00. We were woken up at 7:30 by loud people in the hallway. I have to say, this was the noisiest cruise we have ever been on. We were woken up a lot, in the morning, during afternoon naps, late at night. It’s not a big deal because I can fall right back asleep, but this was the first cruise it was ever an issue on, so I thought I'd mention it.

I read a tip on this site to order coffee through room service. We don’t normally order too much room service and had never gotten breakfast from there, so I had never considered this. Having the coffee arrive a few minutes after we woke-up was the BEST IDEA EVER!! Thank you sooo much to whoever suggested this! I like to drink my coffee slowly, so this was perfect.

Since we weren’t in a rush to get off the ship we decided to go to breakfast in the main dining room. I had wasn’t too hungry and had melon (yuck-hard), cream of wheat (yum), and orange juice (yum- but tasted like Sunny Delight). My husband had a strawberry yogurt and it was very good! I think it was a different brand than they’ve had in the past. The service was very slow, but fine with us since we weren’t in a rush.

We then went to the theater to get a tender pass. We waited about 15 minutes. There was a funny video show playing which kept us entertained.

This was our first time going to HMC. We had been to CoCo Cay (Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas) so we had an idea what to expect. I had read about the private cabanas and was worried that we weren’t renting one, but once we were there I realized it wasn’t at all necessary (for us). Once off the tender (a short and enjoyable ride) we found seats. We were happy to be able to find four together, including two under a clam shell ($20) and rotated laying under it. We just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful day. The water and view were amazing! At 11:30 we went to get lunch. It is really nice that since this is Carnival’s island they provide lunch (free). There was bar-b-q food- hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken on the bone (maybe it was jerk style), and some different rices/pastas. They also had desserts, which I can’t remember, so I don’t think they were anything great. After lunch we explored. There were a few different bars, one was in a big pirate ship; one had a DJ and I saw people dancing. So pick your spot on the beach based on if you want to hear the music/dj or if you want more quiet.

I took notes throughout the cruise so I’d remember details I wanted to include, however I didn’t keep very good record of the times. So I’m not sure what time we decided to leave the island. I do know that it was a pretty good amount of time before the last tender would leave (4:15) because we figured everyone would want to stay in paradise as long as possible and we didn’t want to have to wait to get back. We were VERY wrong. We were shocked when we saw how far back the line waiting for a tender was! We waited for a long long time. The worst part was there is no shade while waiting. We were crispy to begin with and got even worse while waiting. Plus we had no water left. We had a perfect day on a perfect island, but if I would have known about the wait to get back I would have considered staying on the boat, or gone back earlier, or something!! I don’t mean to be complaining, but this is a review, so I want to give the good and the bad.

When we finally got back on the ship we went right to soft-serve. Today we found the strawberry! Yay!

[bridetobe53108]

Night two:

We went back to the room to shower, nap, and get ready for the night.

We went to get sushi (delicous!)

We went to a county line dance class in the theater that my friend and I participated in and it was a lot of fun!

We planned on eating dinner next, but there was a wait. We were given a buzzer (which works anywhere on the boat, except for in the cabins) and told it would be about a half an hour. After 20 minutes it went off and we were seated. I had the shrimp (I actually got this every night), the prosciutto (yum!), the French onion soup (so-so), and the braised short ribs (very yum!). There weren’t any desserts that looked good so I had the butter pecan ice-cream. I don’t think I mentioned the service when I talked about the first night, but it was very good. We went at different times every night, had different people almost every night, and almost every server, assistant, drink, and bar person was friendly, kind, accommodating, etc. However, on many nights we did wait a really long time. I don’t know if this was because we did YTD or what, but it was annoying at times. We chose YTD so we could go to dinner and still do all of the other activities we wanted to do and on more than one night we missed an activity that we should have had enough time to get to if dinner would have been completed in a more reasonable amount of time. Not a huge deal, just something to mention for anyone considering YTD. On this night we waiting way longer that expected to get dessert. Tonight I also ordered an Arnold Palmer, which I had read about on this site as well. I normally get a soda card, but decided not to on this cruise since I am trying to cut back on caffeine. I don’t usually care for the lemonade because it’s too sweet, or the tea because it’s too blah, but when you mixed them together OMG they make a yummy drink!!! Thanks to whoever suggested this! The staff sang an America song which was very nice.

After dinner we stopped by the piano bar. We have been on some ships where we spend every night in the piano bar, but this was not one! IMO he was not fun, exciting, or anything else that we look for in a piano bar.

After we went to the adults only comedy show (another one of our favorite ways to spend our nights onboard). Jason Blanchard was first, but we couldn’t find a seat, so we left. At 11:00 was Ira Procor- he was funny, but not the best.

Then we went to the Small Step Dance Club. The club is set up nice, with a lot of seats around the dance floor, which we were luckily always able to get. This was perfect for people watching and so our hubbies could see us while we danced. It was very busy and the dance floor stayed full.

Around 2:00 am we went to get pizza.

[hockeygirl14]

Good review so far - interesting to see , considering we were on the same ship! We also found it incredibly noisy...one night there were like young kids screaming in the hall at 2 am..we went out and told them to be quiet lol!

[Captain Carnival]

Thanks! No, I don't think I'm going to do pictures this time. Sorry! :rolleyes:

 

 

Come on post some pictures as I might be in some of them! :D

[sp29488]

We went on the Carnival Valor July 3- 9th and did the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. To give some background information: this was our 7th cruise, our 6th on Carnival. It was my husband and I and we traveled with another couple. We are all late 20’s to early 30’s.

Overall it was an awesome cruise and there was really nothing that went wrong or anything to complain about. This is my first review, so hopefully I include lots of helpful information J

Day one: We drove up from the Tampa area and arrived about 11:15. We were confused about where to park, but found the entrance to the parking garage after a few minutes. We parked then carried our luggage over and left it with a porter. We carried our water on, but the porter asked us why we were doing that and said we should have just put it in our checked luggage. I was confused by this because everything I read on-line said that you could not have any liquid in your checked luggage or they would take it. We waited in line, showed our fun pass, waited in line, went through security (20 minutes), checked-in at the kiosk (this was our first time using this- it was fine. I have read people complaining about this. But this way or an actual person is the same to me. There were employees standing around to help if necessary.), went to a person to get our sail-and-sign cards (20 minutes), given a boarding number (we were 27 and they were currently on 9). It didn’t take as long as we thought it would and after about 15 minutes our number was called. Then we went up an escalator and waited some more (10 minutes) for photographers took the first picture (which we skipped). The line snaked around the boat and finally we were on! As soon as we stepped on they took the pictures that get shown when they swipe your card.

We went right to Deck 9, aft, for food! I had heard a lot about the Mongolian Grill and this was the first ship with it we had been on, so we went right there. We waited about 20 minutes. I thought it was worth it. You put your own veggies/noodles in a bowl, then give it to the cook, who ads the sauce and meat that you tell him you’d like. I had steak, shrimp, and black bean sauce (no spice). There were two other sauces- one mild and one medium. I also had a salad. The desserts were a disappointing. There wasn’t much selection. The candied cupcake that looked so good was not. The apple cake was alright.

Next we went to our room. It was ready and some of our luggage had arrived so we unpacked what we had. I napped a few minutes. I reviewed the Fun Times. I bring a highlighter so I can plan our day. Muster drill time. It’s really nice not having to bring the vests with you! The guys grabbed some soft-serve and we went to watch the boat leave the pier. We skipped it because we couldn’t find the strawberry. Sail Away Deck Party on the Lido. The “Fun Patrol” led some dances. We were happy to see Alivia, who was on the Legend with us in November. After reading about it on this board I decided that I wanted to sign-up for the “Master Mixologist” contest, so I looked for it in the Fun Times. I found Squishy and signed up for it. There were 2 other spots, so my husband and one of our friends signed up as well. We filled out the form, picking a name and the ingredients. Not that we were hungry again, but sushi was open, so we went. Every day it seemed to be similar, one spicy, one fish, one vegetarian or with shrimp. Today they had a spicy tuna, shrimp block (I don’t know what this is called, but it’s not a roll), and a salmon, but I realized later mine was missing the piece of salmon from the top. None were too great. The other female with us doesn’t like sushi, so we stopped at the dinner buffet. I had some very yummy chocolate mousse, fruit, and cheese

 

I have a couple of questions hopefully you won't mind answering? When did you have to pay for parking- when you got there or when you left after the cruise? In the past we had to bring the life vests but not have to wear them. Do they announce now that you can leave them in the cabin? We also have ATD- what time did you usually show to be seated? Did they have the normal productions in the Main theater with the dancers and singers and if so how many nights? Oh, this is the first time to use the kiosk machine. It's just me and dh on the cruise. Do we scan both of our passports, credit card on the same screen or do I have to check in with my passport, credit card and then dh has to sign in after I'm done? (hope that make sense.) Thanks for the help.

[New2Cruising24]

Thanks for the review...we're on the same ship and itinerary in 80 days!! :)

[chazzeek]

I have a couple of questions hopefully you won't mind answering? When did you have to pay for parking- when you got there or when you left after the cruise?didn't park, so I can't help here

 

In the past we had to bring the life vests but not have to wear them. Do they announce now that you can leave them in the cabin? I can't remember if it was announced, or if they talk about muster drill in the Fun Times. I do know though, that the life vests are not needed.

 

We also have ATD- what time did you usually show to be seated? Didn't do ATD, can't help with this one

 

Did they have the normal productions in the Main theater with the dancers and singers and if so how many nights? I'll do my best to remember them all:

First night= welcome aboard show

second night= Marriage show?

third night=first production show: night club express (elegant night)

Fourth night= Motown music show

Fifth night=Magic Show

Sixth night= Second production show (elegant night)

Seventh night= Carnival Ledgends

 

Oh, this is the first time to use the kiosk machine. It's just me and dh on the cruise. Do we scan both of our passports, credit card on the same screen or do I have to check in with my passport, credit card and then dh has to sign in after I'm done? (hope that make sense.) Thanks for the help.You will swipe your passport, or type in your name to bring up the booking information. As long as you and your husband are booked together, information for both of you will come up. then it will as you both to swipe your passports. after that you will select weather or not you want your husband to have spending privileges, and I think it will ask you to scan your credit card last. the kiosk will spit out a receipt that will tell you which line to get into for your S&S Card.

 

I feel like I might have the order of the shows mid-week messed up. I also can't remember if they did the marriage show in the evening? I couldn't remember any other show though, so I figured they must have done it one night.

[LBumb]

good job