Carnival Victory July 10-17th. Amazing vacation for family of 5

[abseas]

Since I depended so much on these boards for our recent cruise, I thought I'd sit down and try to send out a review of our own. I'll start by saying that this was the 1st Carnival cruise for us. We have sailed with RCCL and Disney. We are a family of 5 with kids ages 17, 14 and 10. Making everyone happy can be challenging at times but this cruise was a hit for everyone. We actually joined the roll call for this cruise, which we haven't done before either, and ended up meeting some really great people.

 

Our reasons for trying Carnival this time were primarily financial. We got a great deal on this cruise and we were able get a suite (7-273) and an inside room right across the hall for significantly less than it would have cost for a regular balcony room with the inside room through RCCL. We used points for the airline tickets so the overall cost of the cruise itself and flights was pretty manageable. Now all the extras on board (drinks, pictures etc) and excursions is another story, but it's all about making memories...right?

 

Our comparison of RCCL and Carnival? There is good and bad with both, like all things. The price, as we said, is a huge benefit on Carnival. We liked the low key atmosphere of Carnival and everyone we met was very friendly. The staff, especially in the dining room and housekeeping, was very friendly. It was not the "party ship" that people worry about and, just like RCCL, there was polite, courteous people mixed with not so polite people who have obviously forgotten (or were clearly never taught) their manners. We didn't spend much time at the way too small pool, so we didn't run into the infamous chair hogs but those seem to be on every ship. As far as the food goes, we all agreed that the food was better on RCCL, but my family is pretty picky. The prime rib and lobster was good (1st formal night), as were the ribs, and the cappuccino pie was amazing. For as picky as my family can be, our boys actually really like the escargot as well. Comparing the different kid's clubs, our kids thought that the clubs on RCCL were probably better with more activities. The older ones were disappointed that Carnival didn't have a teenage hangout area outside of the kid's club like RCCL has. They did like the fact that there was no ship enforced curfew, however. Our 14 year old got permission to move up to the 15-17 year old group as he wanted to hang out with his brother and felt like 12-14 was too young for him. As far as the general ship goes, the kids missed not having a larger promenade area with stores and alternative food places, like Johnny Rockets. They weren't crazy about the pizza but enjoyed having it as an option and our daughter got her money's worth of soft ice cream. They didn't seem to miss the rock wall or Flowrider and never really used the slide or pool. The ship's layout is somewhat confusing but how bad can it be as long as you're on vacation. I would travel both lines again without hesitation but would definitely go for a suite again. We had an aft balcony on RCCL which we did love the view, but the extra space and storage in the suite was totally cool.

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[dettlja]

Oh Im excited to see the rest of your review. Im from AZ too.. and I leave on the Victory on 07/31 and I'll be in a room very, very close to yours.

[abseas]

I'm still trying to figure out the picture thing so I apologize for the large pictures.

 

We flew from Phoenix to San Juan via Delta on July 7th and returned home on July 20th so we had some time to explore Puerto Rico. We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Isla Verde. We usually end up at an Embassy Suites because they can accommodate the 5 of us and have the free breakfast and free cocktails and snacks for 2 hours in the evening. The hotel is a few blocks from the beach but they do reserve an area for hotel guests. It is near the airport but noise wasn't a problem and is walking distance to fast food, restaurants and Walgreens. The pool was very nice and there is an Outback Steakhouse in the lobby.

 

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While in Puerto Rico, we ended up taking the Segway Tour of Old San Juan

and El Morro which was great. You don't see as much of El Morro as you would if you went on your own, but the Segways were a blast. Even our 10 year old was able to do it. We also rented a car and visited Camuy Caves which was beautiful. There was a lot of complaints on TripAdvisor about poor service and long waits but we did not experience either of those. We got there by about 9:30 after an hour or so of a pretty stressful drive. We were on the tour within about 30 minutes without a problem and definitely felt that it was worth the time and drive. We would recommend renting a car ahead of time. Charlie's car rental, which has several locations and shuttles to port and airport, was a great deal when we looked at it online ahead of time, but expensive when we wanted to book last minute. We ended up booking the one day with them for Camuy Caves prior to the cruise but used Payless Car Rental for a 3 day rental on the tail end of our trip, which was considerably less expensive. Payless also had a shuttle to the airport. Be warned, though, drivers in Puerto Rico are insane. I'm usually a pretty calm passenger, but I was definitely not so calm on these roads. You have people stopping anywhere they want, along with people driving 40mph in the fast lane and others driving 80mph swerving around everyone...It is absolutely crazy!

 

On the tail end of our trip, we visited Castillo de Cristobal for some amazing pictures and took a trip out to Vieques for the Biobay tour, which was the most incredible thing we have ever done. We hit El Yunque Rainforest on the way out to Farjardo to catch the tour to Vieques. It is a long day with lots of travel...1st by car, then catamaran on rough water, then van, the school bus on bumpy, narrow roads to the actual pontoon boat on the biobay, just to do it all over again in reverse order, but all agreed, definitely worth it. The biobay was indescribable. It is probably a 45 minute drive to the rainforest and then 20-30 minutes from there to the marina to catch the catamaran out to Vieques. The tour company serves soda, fruit punch, rum punch (actually rum anything), beer etc on the catamaran and dinner in Vieques which was quite good. We left San Juan around 2:30pm, went on the easiest hike in El Yunque to La Mina Falls then headed to the marina. The catamaran left at 5:30pm to Vieques where we took a van to the restaurant, ate dinner, then took the "wildest school bus ride of our lives" to the pontoon and biobay.

It was raining off and on which made it a little cooler than I would have liked but the bioluminescence of the rain on the water was pretty amazing. Whole experience was incredible but we didn't get back to the hotel until 12:30am.

[abseas]

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We checked out of Embassy Suites on the 7th around noon and grabbed a taxi to the port. We used the advice on these boards and grabbed a porter for our bags. Although we have travelled a fair amount, we haven't gotten the packing thing down and always have way too much stuff. The porter took all our bags and went on ahead, so all we had was a camera bag and a backpack to haul around, which was a major plus. The line wasn't too bad at 12:30 when we arrived but we were able to breeze through even faster without the luggage. Embarkation was pretty painless, especially with VIP boarding from having one suite. The other cabin didn't matter since we were all one family. We went immediately upstairs to the VIP area where they reviewed our paperwork while we drank lemonade and had cookies and sandwiches. I dragged the family back out for our token embarkation photo and then we were ready to board. We were on board shortly after 1:00pm. We bought soda cards for the kids and decided to see where our cabins were. Much to our surprise, both cabins were ready for us so we settled in a bit. Our sons, who have always been fine with their own inside cabin, were actually of bit jealous of our suite. I think we saw them more on this cruise then any other because they were always wanting to shower in the bigger bathroom, sleep on the king bed or use our TV since it was bigger and "better".

 

Once on board, we thought of a few odds and ends that we would like to have so we headed back off the ship to go to the CVS right across the street. Once we had our Sea Pass Card, getting on and off the ship was a breeze. We loaded up on some bottled water and extra snacks at CVS and headed back on board. My poor husband carried a crate of bottled water from CVS only to discover that they sell it just as you are boarding the ship...much shorter distance to carry but live and learn. We decided to grab some Coke and Diet Coke for ourselves at that point. The lines to get on board were definitely getting much longer around 2:30ish when we were getting back from CVS but since we already had our Sea Pass, we just walked right on. Once back on board, it was time to get a drink and explore the ship. We had a roll call meet and greet scheduled for 5pm which went well. Our luggage arrived around dinner time but dinner was casual that night so we stayed casual and headed to dinner with some new friends from roll call. The ship was busy with activities up to and following our sail away and everyone was in a cheerful/starting vacation mood. The muster drill was around 9:30pm and was pretty painless...a formality that has to be endured. Now, the party and fun begins!

[abseas]

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[deffenm]

Great start to your review! I just wanted to say hello and say what a joy it was to meet you and your family. We really enjoyed meeting you and joining you on some excursions. Of course, now I am really jealous of your suite. I will have to tell my husband we need to get us one of these next time. ;)

 

I am glad to see you made it home safely. I can't wait to read the rest of your review.

[sjn911]

Wonderful review..thanks so much...great photos..sarah

[VictoryLover2]

Keep the review coming, you are doing a fantastic job and you have some nice pictures.

We are sailing the Victory again in September and your review just adds to the excitement of the up-comming cruise.

Thanks...

Brookie & Ed:cool:

[abseas]

Great start to your review! I just wanted to say hello and say what a joy it was to meet you and your family. We really enjoyed meeting you and joining you on some excursions. Of course, now I am really jealous of your suite. I will have to tell my husband we need to get us one of these next time. ;)

 

I am glad to see you made it home safely. I can't wait to read the rest of your review.

 

We really enjoyed meeting you as well. It was nice to start the cruise with new friends. You guys were especially brave for putting up with us on the excursions, especially when you were attempting to get a break from kids on this vacation. Hopefully, you guys got to enjoy some downtime. Needless to say, our trip was pretty busy and hectic this time around, but we are fortunate enough to be going on a adult only trip next month. I bet the kids were excited to see you when you got back. We are all exhausted and now need a vacation from our vacation! Thanks for starting the roll call. I think it really added to our trip.

[JennLuvs2Cruise]

Enjoying the review.. Can't wait to see more photos & read more about it! :)

[abseas]

Pictures of Camuy Caves

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The caves are only $10-$15 to take the tour. They are out in the same area as Arecibo Telescope so you could do both things in 1 day. Our kids weren't up for both but they did enjoy the caves.

[abseas]

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[smurfm69]

Nice start to your review. This was definitely one of our favorite cruises ever and we hope to do this again in the future.

[abseas]

I think I am enjoying reviewing our trip just a little too much. I can't believe that it is over after all that planning. Thinking more about the Victory itself, we really enjoyed the entertainment on the ship. Karl with a "K" really does a great job, as does all the entertainers. We really enjoyed the comedy shows and the music trivia and games. There always was something to do if you wanted to. My DH and I gambled a little, mostly Three Card Poker, but we all know how that usually ends up. The kids seemed to always find things to do even after doing excursions on every port.

 

With regards to food, our kids rarely got up in time to get breakfast before our excursions. The buffet lines were always long, as expected. I enjoyed room service for breakfast. I would get up early before everyone else so I could enjoy a quiet breakfast on the patio. My DH would rush upstairs once he woke up to grab a quick bite before our excursions. We typically missed lunch because of the excursions. For dinner, we were originally assigned a table for the 5 of us in the Pacific dining room where we ate one night. We soon made friends with another family of 4 and changed to "Anytime Dining" in the Atlantic dining room without any problem. Staff was wonderful and was able to put up with a crazy table of 9. Special requests were always honored and they bent over backwards to please even the pickiest of picky eaters, our daughter. She usually just wanted to get back to the soft serve ice cream and kid's club. We did manage to eat all our dinners together, however, which is quite an accomplishment.

 

Here are some pictures of Castillo de Cristobal. This was one of my favorite places for pictures so I have a ton.

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[abseas]

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Notice Carnival's whale tail in the background.

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Our daughter feeding the iguana, which are abundant.

[Dirkgun]

Lovin the review so far.... This was my favorite cruise and also the funnest review to write (brought back the best memories) In fact we are thinking of doing this cruise again in summer of 2012. :D:D

[abseas]

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[abseas]

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[Dirkgun]

lovin the pictures.... I love San Juan and all the sites there. Post as many as you want.

[Dirkgun]

Oh Im excited to see the rest of your review. Im from AZ too.. and I leave on the Victory on 07/31 and I'll be in a room very, very close to yours.

 

 

You will have a great time. Please come back and write a review. I am very curious about the weather this time of year. I have only been in the Caribbean in the winter months.:D

[abseas]

We had pretty good weather throughout our cruise. San Juan was unusually rainy on the tail end of our trip but it always cleared in between. It seemed to rain midday then clear up. The last few days had the heaviest rainfall but there was still plenty of sunshine. It was mostly in the 80's while we were there. It was definitely humid but not as bad as we expected coming from Arizona. We had a few showers on all of our stops but they were typically brief and it was back to blue sky and fun. I thought the weather was perfect for our excursions.

[jgomez]

thank you for the greart review i am so looking forward to my trip 07/31/2011 question? what did you guys do in st kits?

[abseas]

I'm working on posting more about our excursions. We did excursions on all the islands and booked privately. In St. Kitts we did the rainforest hike and beach break with David Poinciana Tours. We had a great time and will post more detail. In summary, we took an island tour and beach break with Papa Bear in St. Thomas, Calabaza catamaran snorkel with the sea turtles in Barbados and Herod's Land and Sea Tour in St. Lucia. We rented cars with another family in St. Marten and did our own tour. We had an amazing time in all the ports and would highly recommend all the companies we toured with.

[Buffettfan 225]

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Once on board, we thought of a few odds and ends that we would like to have so we headed back off the ship to go to the CVS right across the street. Once we had our Sea Pass Card, getting on and off the ship was a breeze. We loaded up on some bottled water and extra snacks at CVS and headed back on board. My poor husband carried a crate of bottled water from CVS only to discover that they sell it just as you are boarding the ship...much shorter distance to carry but live and learn. We decided to grab some Coke and Diet Coke for ourselves at that point. The lines to get on board were definitely getting much longer around 2:30ish when we were getting back from CVS but since we already had our Sea Pass, we just walked right on.

We did this same ship last year and will be sailing again in March. We also do tyhe CVS thing--would like to save some steps with water.

1.)Where were they selling the water? Upstairs or down? Also was their soda-Coke their too? Otherwise we will take our rolling backpack and go get some at CVS as usual. A hint-we dashed back into VIP lounge after going to CVS and they walked us right thru to secuirty scanners since we also had a suite! Love that lounge service at that pier-so helpful.

2.)Can you also answer when they offered the Behind The Scenes Tour?-day,time & price. Last cruise we had no at sea days and it was on St.Kitts port day. It was listed in shore excursion booklet.

3.)Did they do safety drill on embarkation day or St.Thomas?

Thanks. I haven't read full review yet, so hope I didn't ask anything you covered!

[smurfm69]

We did this cruise in the beginning of May and it was pretty hot so I can't imagine how it would be down there in the Summer. I'm used to the heat being from New Orleans, but some of the cruisers from up North were not enjoying the heat at all. lol