Carnival Valor, 9/25/11: A "pink" review of the Eastern Caribbean.... PICTURES!!!

[gapearl]

Great review so far! We are sailing on the Valor for the first time next year and am loving reading up on her. Love your heels! Can't wait to read more!

 

Thank you! That was my first time wearing those heels and they were killing my feet! They actually left blisters by the end of the afternoon, but oh well, they looked good. ;)

 

 

Wonderful review so far . . . can't wait to read more!

 

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more.

[gapearl]

why were you allowed to book a handicapped cabin?

That's a no no

 

I didn't know this was a handicapped accessible cabin. When I was on the phone with my PVP booking this cruise, I was also on carnival.com looking at the deck plan and never saw that it was a handicapped cabin and she never told me. Again, she was the one that recommended it. I never asked for it. I didn't find out it was a handicapped cabin until right before the cruise, I think from a recent thread about 4J cabins. I would have had no problem switching to a different cabin if someone needed it.

Edited October 2, 2011 by gapearl

[gapearl]

Just have to say you are so beautiful!! Great pic :)

 

Thank you so much for the compliment!

[snow52408]

Hey there! Thanks for reading this one too! I'm glad you decided to dress up. I got lots of compliments on my outfits. I don't get out much at home so I love dressing up on vacation. Glad I inspired your cruise wardrobe! :p

 

 

 

Same here! I dont dress up hardly at all, but after seeing ur cute outfits in ur reviews makes me wanna dress up for our next cruise! Oh, and u may have inspired me to get some heels! haha. u have the cutest shoes! =)

 

-Jamie

[mrsbuddha123]

Boarding the Valor on a chartered cruise on 10/23 looking forward to your entire review!

[mjohns2]

 

Be sure to wave if you see any officers by the windows, and you will!

 

 

 

I was just thinking, If I had that walkway/balcony I'd sneak me some chairs and a table some the Lido deck and put them out there.... I don't know how much the Officers would like that though.

 

Awesome review, keep it coming..

 

Edited October 3, 2011 by mjohns2

[gapearl]

Same here! I dont dress up hardly at all, but after seeing ur cute outfits in ur reviews makes me wanna dress up for our next cruise! Oh, and u may have inspired me to get some heels! haha. u have the cutest shoes! =)

 

-Jamie

 

Awesome!!! I sort of declared myself one of the best dressed women on this cruise. You're gonna love the dresses from this one. Keep reading.... :p

[gapearl]

Boarding the Valor on a chartered cruise on 10/23 looking forward to your entire review!

 

You're going to have a fabulous time! Which itinerary are you taking, eastern or western?

[gapearl]

I was just thinking, If I had that walkway/balcony I'd sneak me some chairs and a table some the Lido deck and put them out there.... I don't know how much the Officers would like that though.

 

Awesome review, keep it coming..

 

 

It's so tempting to bring some chairs out here! There are a few benches and that's about as good as it's gonna get. I wish I spent more time out there. I'd book that cabin again in a heartbeat. Thanks for reading!

[gapearl]

Our bags arrived while we were waiting for the muster drill. FYI, the laundry room on this floor is across from room 7339 and equipped with washers, dryers, and only 1 iron. I spent 45 minutes in there ironing all of our clothes for the cruise. The muster was quick and painless, 10 minutes at most. The sailaway party had the usual line dances- electric slide, cha cha slide, wobble, and the cupid shuffle. Ally (allycat81) from the roll call came and joined me for some dancing since her new hubby didn’t want to participate.

 

This was the other ship in port. I've never heard of them but in doing my research, I've found it's a German cruise line and is owned by the Carnival Corporation.

 

 

The whale tail.

 

 

This view never gets old.

 

 

Why don't I have a DOD in my hand?

 

 

Bye Miami! See ya in a week!

 

[gapearl]

We had a private meet and greet planned with our roll call in the Paris Hot Lounge from 5-6. We paid $12 in advance for an hour of unlimited drinks. This is where I discovered the Miami Vice. That became my signature drink of the cruise! It’s half pina colada, half strawberry daiquiri. When I joined the roll call 6 weeks before sailing, it was a 51 pages and going strong! A big part of our roll call was a group of friends that have cruised together for the last three years. We also had a facebook page for us to chat and get to know each other prior to the cruise. It was nice to finally put a name to a face with everyone I’d been talking to. One member of the roll call, Romy (Latin-QT) and I really hit it off. We’re both in our 30’s, work in the same industry, and she was traveling solo. We instantly became good friends and hung out together most of the cruise.

 

Miami Vice- I lost track of how many of these I drank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A big thank you to Kim and Mike (cruising rays) for putting this together.

[scgamecock]

I had an entire drawer full of nothing but makeup and jewelry! :eek:

 

Love that WD Reward card. Lol. (Stephen & I both work for Winn Dixie...)

[gapearl]

Dinner wasn’t great tonight. We were seated at a 6 top and only 2 other ladies showed up. They were around my mom’s age and mostly spoke Spanish among themselves, but we did engage in light conversation. Our dinner server never gave his name, never asked for ours, never smiled, never checked on us, had no personality, drink server never came by, I can go on and on about what didn't go right. I ordered the chicken a la greque and the pasta was undercooked but edible. Another 5 minutes in hot water would have done it some justice. I ate about half of it. I couldn’t deal with having a bad dining experience for the next 6 days so I knew I’d be making an effort to switch tables the next night.

 

Here comes the food porn. I took pictures of all of our food for during the week and don't remember what everything is. Maybe some of you all can help identify some of these dishes.

 

Fruit cocktail.

 

 

Fried shrimp with some kind of noodles.

 

 

Chicken a la greque. The worst I've had in 3 cruises.

 

 

 

 

The ONLY way to eat the warm chocolate melting cake is with TWO ice creams.

 

[sailwindtwo]

Thank you for the tip on the secret deck! We sail 10/16 and are staying on the Empress deck which is 7. I looked at the layout and I see the two doors you're talking about. I'm going to check it out!!!:D

[gapearl]

After dinner my mom and I headed to the casino. She gave me $5 for a slot machine and after about 3 quarters, I won $64. I was done! :D I heard later in the cruise someone hit the jackpot for $11,000 on a slot machine. :eek: I practically did a hallelujah happy dance when I won that $64, so I would have been doing cartwheels down the promenade if I won something like that. I'm not sure how true that is, but I did hear it from several people.

I caught a little bit of the welcome aboard show. There was lots of audience participation and all of the entertainment staff introduced themselves. The cruise director was Goose and Everson was the assistant cruise director. Ladies, these are some good looking men! :D ;) Great eye candy for a week. Also, I must say I was really impressed with Everson. I loved his energy. He was always out and about, meeting passengers, taking pictures, singing, dancing, leading the deck parties, getting the crowd hype at the disco, etc. Charlotte was in charge of the Punchliner Comedy Club and was another funny lady. I also met Justin, a new addition to the ship’s entertainment staff, and he also had a big personality, always having fun with the passengers. If you’re sailing the Valor any time soon, you won’t have a dull moment with these guys.

 

I stopped by the singles party and nothing seemed to be going on, so I headed to the disco. It was kind of a slow night. I met lots of new friends and mostly chatted with them and didn’t do too much dancing. I went back to the casino but decided not to play after watching everyone else their lose their money. I called it a night kind of early, around 1:30 am. Yes, that’s early for me. LOL

 

My outfit for the night.

 

 

Ok, that's it for now. I have a 6 am flight and need to head to sleep soon.

 

Up next: Day 2 and Half Moon Cay!

[gapearl]

Love that WD Reward card. Lol. (Stephen & I both work for Winn Dixie...)

 

LOL Yep I know! We don't have WD where I live, but there was one by the hotel. The cashier gave me the card and I used it instead of my credit card to lock the room safe.

[gapearl]

Thank you for the tip on the secret deck! We sail 10/16 and are staying on the Empress deck which is 7. I looked at the layout and I see the two doors you're talking about. I'm going to check it out!!!:D

 

Awesome! :p Be sure to take advantage of it, especially late afternoon/early evening. If you're lucky, you'll have the same cabin stewards I had, Juan and Arthur. I'll talk more about them later but they were some of the nicest guys I've ever met!

[sailwindtwo]

Awesome! :p Be sure to take advantage of it, especially late afternoon/early evening. If you're lucky, you'll have the same cabin stewards I had, Juan and Arthur. I'll talk more about them later but they were some of the nicest guys I've ever met!

 

I'm on it like Champ Bailey on a Sunday afternoon!!!;)

[deetrayn]

Thank you so much for this awesome review. I can't wait to see the rest of it. Sure helps me get through the days of waiting for my vacation. :)

[gapearl]

Thank you so much for this awesome review. I can't wait to see the rest of it. Sure helps me get through the days of waiting for my vacation. :)

 

You're so welcome! I just finished writing about Half Moon Cay so don't go anywhere!

[cuted126]

Awesome!!! I sort of declared myself one of the best dressed women on this cruise. You're gonna love the dresses from this one. Keep reading.... :p

 

I am so glad you said that lol! I told my dh on our last cruise,that we had to be one of the best dressed couples! Felt vain saying it,but I wasn't being vain,I just like dressing up lol!At home,I can't wear my heels all the time chasing after a three year old!!:eek:

 

Waiting for more of your review!

[gapearl]

DAY 2- HALF MOON CAY

 

First of all, did you know the Cay is pronounced like Key? I didn’t! So it’s pronounced Half Moon Key. Imagine that.

 

 

I was up early at 7 am and showered while my mom went to have breakfast. I eventually met her out on the lido deck, where Good Morning America was showing on the movie screen. I booked us for the eco lagoon tour for $36 per person. People with early excursions or cabana rentals get priority tendering at HMC. We were to meet in the Eagles Lounge at 8:30 to be escorted to the tender. (Just a side note, they didn’t check to see if you had an excursion ticket or not.) Goose made an announcement for everyone not on an excursion to get their tender tickets early because the wait would eventually be around 45 minutes. I was the third person on the tender and it was a 5 minute ride.

We didn’t have to meet for our excursion until 9:45, so that gave me a few minutes to take a quick dip in the ocean. There’s a small straw market with souvenirs and jewelry for sale. Some will let you use your sail & sign card, and some are cash only. I bought a bracelet and a pearl ring. Love those pearls, ya know. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

We had about 12 people total on our tour and it lasted about an hour and a half. The boat we were on had a glass bottom so we could see beneath us. Our guide was a lady with a lot of knowledge about the islands and plant life. We were taken through some neighboring islands and she pointed out all the plants that we could see. The water was about 9 feet deep where we first boarded the boat, but further out about 15 feet. She pointed out some plants with brown leaves and said they were brown because of the salt water left from Hurricane Irene.

 

Our guide throwing food in the water to attract more fish.

 

This plant can be boiled like tea and sipped to get rid of a cold or the flu.

 

This one is used to get rid of hangovers. You chew it for 3-5 minutes, spit it out, and it makes you feel better. Why aren’t they selling that in the gift shop?

 

In addition to the plants, we saw jellyfish, starfish, a stingray, lemon shark, nurse shark, sea urchins, and some other small fish.

 

 

[gapearl]

I learned that 35-45 people live on Half Moon Cay. Other workers commute from other Bahamas islands up to 1 ½ hours each way. HMC can only handle 1 Carnival ship at a time because they’re so big, but they can take 2 of Holland’s smaller ones. We were given soda or water on the ride back. I gave our guide a $5 tip for our enjoyable tour. This was a good option for my mom since she’s an inactive senior and wouldn’t be able to do any of the other ones. Most all of the excursions offered on HMC are water based and require some sort of physical activity.

 

 

 

This is where they do the stingray encounter.

 

 

The jet skis and kayaks looked like a lot of fun!

 

 

[gapearl]

I am so glad you said that lol! I told my dh on our last cruise,that we had to be one of the best dressed couples! Felt vain saying it,but I wasn't being vain,I just like dressing up lol!At home,I can't wear my heels all the time chasing after a three year old!!:eek:

 

Waiting for more of your review!

 

Glad to see I'm not the only one that dresses up every night! I need to take a break from writing mine to read your latest review! :)

 

Have you and your hubby decided on another cruise for your anniversary next year?