Victory Jan 22-29 Just back

[pjhootch]

Pictures to follow

Overall impressions of this cruise were very positive. We are pretty easy going travelers so don't often have complaints anyway. We've done the Victory route once before when it included Dominica and Antigua. This time we had a sea day and St. Maarten instead.

The ship: Victory had a dry dock since our last sailing and added a serenity deck and some new carpeting. The serenity deck area is very nice, but much in demand. We spent some of one afternoon up there and folks were hovering like vultures for the fan chairs and padded bed areas. The hot tubs did not appear to be crowded when we were up there and we did not see any children in the area.

Smoking policy: All our neighboring balcony rooms were smokers. It didn’t bother us, since we are too. I didn’t see any ash blowing around or anyone being stupid by throwing butts overboard… but you could tell when someone was out having a smoke while in port. When the ship was moving the smoke blew out to sea. We noticed the smoking policy in the casino was not much enforced, in other words, people were sitting at smoking machines and not playing, and were allowed to remain.

The food: No reason to fuss about either the menu changes or the quality of the food. We eat in the dining room every night so never ate the dinner buffet. We had lunch at the buffet several times and although there were some misses (the potato salad was so bland it was tasteless) there were some very good items served at lunch.

The dining room: The service for us, and around us was excellent. The food always arrived quickly and was warm/hot. Three nights of our cruise our head waiter was ill, and the assistant (or “team” waiter) served us and all his other tables alone. He still did an excellent job, and was a sweetheart on top of it. The head waiter was his sister and was apparently ill from a bad tooth. She was very nice, but reserved when she worked. Probably because she didn’t feel well, or didn’t really know any of us since she was out half of the cruise.

Despite the menu additions that didn’t attract us (burgers, fried chicken etc.) we found plenty to explore on the menu and lots to look forward to. The kitchen did a wonderful job with the prime rib and all the seafood. We had a horrible experience with the chateaubriand on a previous cruise and I warned our kids not to try it this time. Then three of us tried it anyway… and it was perfect.

Our room steward was personable and did an efficient job. He did introduce himself the first night and said hello to us every evening on the way to dinner. We never had to ask for anything.

The casino: No luck this time! That seemed to be going around. We saw a couple of people hit for a few hundred dollars, the largest win we saw was $750 on a quarter slot machine. Video poker was remarkably crappy much of the time. I did hit the 1500 points pretty early on by playing dollars, and was able to do that without winning or losing a large amount of money. However, after I got the free drink card, I went down to playing quarters because I seemed to have used up all my luck! I did notice the last couple of nights the waiters would bring me free drink, and then a few minutes later they would show up with another free drink for my husband (who never came close to 1500 points since he plays a quarter at a time).

Cruise director: Matt. This is the first cruise director we’ve encountered that didn’t bug me. He made announcements at reasonable hours, but not too many of them. He was young and seemed genuine but didn’t have that “trying too hard to be a wild man” thing that so many former cruise directors seem to go for. He was always around and available and friendly with all the folks I saw approaching him.

The piano bar: oh brother. I felt sorry for the guy in the piano bar. I’ve heard worse. Far worse. However, he just didn’t have the excitement thing going. We popped in a couple of times and never stayed long. He played fine. He sang okay. He was able to do some pretty good Billy Joel, Elton John type of stuff, and played a lot of Beatles. His voice was alright, although it sounded very overused and abused. Whatever the problem was, he just couldn’t hold a crowd. Two nights we walked by after late seating dinner (when the piano bar is usually hopping and full up) and the place was completely empty and he was playing to himself. I mean NOT ONE person in the piano bar.

More about the islands once I get some photos in order.

[laurierocs]

thank you for your review! Can't wait for the pictures! We leave on the Victory in March!

[Starfire_rules]

Ditto on the enjoying the review! We leave Saturday for the Victory:)

 

 

Sent from my iPod Touch using Tapatalk

[nycfa]

Can't wait for the photos!! Going in August! :)

[pjhootch]

Still working on photos since we had 4 different cameras being shared amongst the 5 of us. :o

 

Since some folks are leaving on Victory very soon, I thought I would add some about the islands even though the pictures aren't ready yet.

 

St. Thomas: It is very pretty, but to be honest, it doesn't do much for me. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because it is billed more as a shopping stop than anything else. I would probably enjoy it a lot if we went and stayed on the island for a while. We took a cab to a Emerald beach. I was trying to avoid Magen's since there were quite a few ships in port and I wanted something a bit quieter. Our cab driver took us to a beach bar and we spent the afternoon sunning and splashing. There were no crowds and it was beautiful. The water was a bit chilly so we didn't spend too much time in the surf. We avoided shopping like the plague!

 

Barbados: Man... I love this island. We went to Rockley beach, and had our driver take us to the far end where there is a quiet beach bar that gives you coupons/credit for the money you spend renting chairs/umbrellas. The water was calm and peaceful. The sand is beautiful, but there are large rocks in the shallows so you have to either swim out past them or wear water shoes. The temperature of the water was like bath water, and if you got out far enough (the shallows go out a long way) the waves were perfect for bobbing around. There was enough of an undertow I would not want to swim too far out.

 

St. Lucia: We spent the day with Bompy from Cosol tours. We had a great tour of the island and loved the traveling bar and breakfast buffet of local treats. The bananas at the banana plantation were the best I've ever had. We took a water taxi over to Jalousie beach, and paid wayyy too much ($43 for 3 beers, a mixed drink and a water) for a drink at the resort bar just so we could relax on their comfy furniture and take in the scene. We popped in and out of the water since we only had around an hour there. The beach sand is not terribly fine but the setting can't be beat and the water was very warm and comfortable.

 

St. Kitts: We took a taxi to Friar's beach. I intended to head to South Friar's and the Shipwreck, but the taxi driver convinced us to try a new restaurant/beach club that had recently opened. Since we had done the basic beach bar scene in St. Thomas and Barbados we gave it a try. It was gorgeous. The chairs were wooden with very comfortable cushions and slide out side tables for drinks, and the waitresses provided beach service with drinks and/or food. There was comfortable seating on the restaurant patio for those that did not want to rent a chair on the beach. Drinks were reasonable... the average price for just about anywhere we went on the islands, which was about $3 a beer and 6 ish for a mixed drink. Of course, we had to negotiate with one of the monkey men for photos of the kids with diapered monkeys sitting on their heads. NOTE: For parents with young children, the end of the beach is absolutely perfect. The far end is sheltered by rocks, and there is a little deep water by the rocks... BUT there is also a reef off shore that keeps the waves very gentle and the majority of this end of the beach has a very gentle slope so even a young child can walk quite a ways out without going over their head or hitting any undertow or rip currents.

 

St. Maarten: We spent the day with David from Bernard's Tours. We learned a lot about the island and did a circuit of the French and Dutch sides. We stopped for iguanas and sea urchins, and made the obligatory stop at Maho beach to watch the airplanes blow silly tourists into the ocean! The Sunset Beach bar is a cool place with reasonably priced drinks and food (it is all relative after our $$ at Jalousie beach).

[ibcnusoon]

Nice review!

 

Do you know the name of the bar on Barbados or the beach on St. Kitts??

 

Trying to figure out what exactly to do on both these islands on our upcoming cruise on the Victory.

[CShelly]

Thank you for the review. I was on the Victory in November and going back in May so I love reading her reviews. I was wondering if you knew the name of the piano bar guy because the one we had in November, Jerry Seelix, is generally not very well liked and he was to be replaced this month. But from your description it sounds like the same guy. I was so hoping for someone new to come in but hoping the one you had was not the NEW guy. Two bad ones in a row would be disappointing.

 

Also, the new beach club on St. Kitts you went to, do you know the name of it or maybe the name is in the pictures?

 

Thanks for taking the time to post!

[pjhootch]

Nice review!

 

Do you know the name of the bar on Barbados or the beach on St. Kitts??

 

Trying to figure out what exactly to do on both these islands on our upcoming cruise on the Victory.

 

The beach in St. Kitts is Friar's beach, and the bar was the Carembola Beach Club. It is the same beach that has the Shipwreck bar, but Shripwreck is at the opposite end of the beach.

 

I don't remember the name of the bar on Rockley/Accra beach. We told the driver to take us to the bar at the far eastern end of the beach. You can't go any further... I'll get the photos up soon. It was really nice and relaxed.

[pjhootch]

Thank you for the review. I was on the Victory in November and going back in May so I love reading her reviews. I was wondering if you knew the name of the piano bar guy because the one we had in November, Jerry Seelix, is generally not very well liked and he was to be replaced this month. But from your description it sounds like the same guy. I was so hoping for someone new to come in but hoping the one you had was not the NEW guy. Two bad ones in a row would be disappointing.

 

Also, the new beach club on St. Kitts you went to, do you know the name of it or maybe the name is in the pictures?

 

Thanks for taking the time to post!

 

The piano player was James. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but just didn't have any excitement going on. We normally love the piano bar, but there wasn't a good singing crowd on our cruise, and he wasn't doing anything to pull folks in. His playing was sound, his voice was okay but sounded strained and a bit horse, and he certainly played popular songs... but the place was a ghost town. The most crowded night- the crowd only filled the circular bar around the piano. I think that was the first night.. maybe the second. He had a night off, and after that there were 2 nights in a row when he was literally playing the piano to himself. We walked by several times and he was in there playing and singing but absolutely no one was in the bar but him. Kind of sad.

 

I've certainly had worse sounding piano players on cruises, but even they managed to bring some people in. Poor guy. Of course, I felt bad for him, but not bad enough to go in and be the only 2 people in the bar while he struggled through "Hey Jude" again.

 

Instead we wound up in the kaeroke lounge, which we never ever go into. We had some very suprising singers that popped up in there, and the DJ "Kim" was a hoot. He was very flamboyant and hysterically funny.

[Flythrower]

Can't wait to see some pictures. Great review thus far. We are leaving on Feb 18th for this same cruise!!

 

I agree, kinda sad about the Piano Bar. On our last cruise on Royal, the piano bar was the place to be at night. I hope he is able to get the crowd going on our cruise!!

[CShelly]

What a shame about the PB guy. That "ghost town" is exactly what we encountered in November. Having read such great things about the PB guys on other ships I had high hopes. We did go in a few nights but we were almost always the only few there.

 

I think your guy was on his first week on your cruise. Whether it was his first time as a PB entertainer I don't know but hopefully he will hit his stride in the coming weeks and be much better by May.

 

I hear some people choose their cruise for the PB guy! I may have to rethink this notion.:)

[pjhootch]

The photos are just too large and I'm too tired to re-size them all manually (and don't see a link here to do it automatically upon upload).

 

So here is a link to photobucket where you can see some of the beach photos:

 

http://photobucket.com/pjhootch_victory

[CShelly]

The photos are just too large and I'm too tired to re-size them all manually (and don't see a link here to do it automatically upon upload).

 

So here is a link to photobucket where you can see some of the beach photos:

 

http://photobucket.com/pjhootch_victory

Your pictures are great! Especially the beach pictures of Accra. I was trying to explain to someone about the reef off the eastern side but your pictures show it perfectly. Gorgeous!

[k2]

Thanks for the info.. our group will have to go liven up the piano bar lol! 16 days and we will be there!

[CShelly]

Thanks for the info.. our group will have to go liven up the piano bar lol! 16 days and we will be there!

 

Come back and post to let us know if he got livelier.:)

[Trish12345]

Thank you for the review. The Victory is a beautiful ship & I can't wait to board again next year!

[pjhootch]

Maybe if a group and goes in and sings with James (the PB guy) it will get him going. He seemed capable enough, just kind of dull. But, the couple of times we went in there when he had some folks around the piano bar, they didn't seem to be much of a singing crowd. The last time we were on the Victory there was a group of Irish/Aussies traveling together out of Barbados and they were great company in the piano bar. They could all sing anything and sing harmony and we would be in there until the piano player just couldn't take it any more. :)

[BenjiRodney]

Thanks for sharing, we also did this this past November and are going again this November. We finally broke down and booked airfare and pre and post cruise hotel stays tonight. Oh well so much for prepaying for Carnival's transfers, they are non-refundable.

[kingoftheicedragons]

We were on this cruise this week, as well.

 

I wasn't as impressed with Matt as you obviously were. His "welcome back aboard" announcements were at weird times....30-60 minutes before the time you were required to be back on board. But that's a minor issue, I don't cruise for the energy of the cruise director, anyway.

 

Also, there were odd smells aboard the Victory. I noticed this mostly on Deck 1 midship which smelled like sewer, and it was intermittent, and as the cruise went on, it seemed to be not as prominent. I noticed on John Heald's blog that someone else had a similar complaint about this sort of smell on Deck 8, also midship.

[pjhootch]

We were on this cruise this week, as well.

 

I wasn't as impressed with Matt as you obviously were. His "welcome back aboard" announcements were at weird times....30-60 minutes before the time you were required to be back on board. But that's a minor issue, I don't cruise for the energy of the cruise director, anyway.

 

Also, there were odd smells aboard the Victory. I noticed this mostly on Deck 1 midship which smelled like sewer, and it was intermittent, and as the cruise went on, it seemed to be not as prominent. I noticed on John Heald's blog that someone else had a similar complaint about this sort of smell on Deck 8, also midship.

 

 

"Impressed" with Matt might be a bit strong. ;) He just didn't bug us. I honestly can't tell you the name of other cruise directors we've had, but he was the least intrusive. Most of our previous Carnival cruises our CDs were constantly making announcements and making me crazy with their overly "jolly" information. You're right that the welcome back messages were a bit premature- especially since at least twice we seemed to be waiting for people that didn't get back on board on time.

 

I was only down on deck 1 one time with our kids, who were in an aft/inside on deck 1, so I luckily missed a smell of sewage.

 

We did lose pressue in the water for the toilet flushing up on deck 10 a couple of times, but the problem seemed to be corrected and everything worked normally most of the time. When the pressure disappeared one night, I did notice a sewage smell in our bathroom until they got it fixed wherever the source was.

[balcony bound]

Nice review!

 

Do you know the name of the bar on Barbados or the beach on St. Kitts??

 

Trying to figure out what exactly to do on both these islands on our upcoming cruise on the Victory.

 

The bar name in Barbados is "Bar Kan'ei" -- we enjoyed a day there, also and I recognize it from her photos. When we repeat this itinerary next year, I'll be heading right back there!

[LarCourt]

Nice review and pics.....Thanks. We will be there in June!

[cluelyss18]

Great review! Thanks for the short to the point views!

I love the pics and I'm sooo excited for our trip on May 20th! What kind of camera do you have? I can't remember the name of ours, but I know it's a good one, it's the picture taker that's not any good! lol

I would love any tips or pointers you may have.

 

Barbados: you went to Rockley which is originally where I wanted to go, then I read that we may have a better chance of seeing Turtles while snorkeling at Payne's I think? Do you or did you snorkle? Did you see anyone snorkeling? Just curious if we'd see enough, since I've read so many great things about this beach.

 

St Thomas: last time we took the trip over to St John and loved it. Have you ever done this? Just wondering what the comparison would be between the beach on St John and Emerald that you went to this time.

 

St Maarten: my boyfriend is possibly going to be scuba diving in the morning since we've done this island before. So I will be looking for something to occupy my time while he does that before we head to watch the airplanes (I know it may seem silly but I can't resist!)...where did you see iguanas and sea urchins? I did the shopping right off the ship last time while they did jet skis before we went to see the airplanes, so I'm not really interested in shopping. Any ideas of something I could check out in the morning would be great!

 

 

THE SHIP: the last Carnival ship we were on was the Miracle. Left much to be desired, but honestly I'd rather be on a ship in whatever condition than here at work telling the cops where to go!....how was the ship? Anything we should know, or anything we shouldn't miss?

 

We are going to purchase wine before getting on, were they strict about how many bottles you could take?

 

How was the dress code? The last cruise we took was on Holland America, so the dress code was slightly strict. I was hoping to squeeze all my summer clothes into a duffle bag so I don't have to pay checked-luggage fees on the flights! Plus, I have a bet going with my family...they don't think the girl who usually brings 2 pieces of luggage plus a back pack can go on a trip without 12 pairs of sandals......aaaand I agreed to skip formal night this ONE time. How many were there? I really don't like skipping the main dining room, it's my favorite part about the trip.

 

 

San Juan: did you go a day early or stay a day later? Just wondering if you had any suggestions of where we could eat since we're going a day early and I love trying new food!

 

Sorry for all the questions, but I have OCD and can't stop planning!

[pjhootch]

Cluelyss:

 

San Juan, we went a day early and stayed a day late. There are 5 of us, so we didn't stay in old town, because the nicer hotels are quite costly when you get more than one room. We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Isla Verde which is quite close to the airport. There is a nice beach about 3 blocks away and a strip of hotels and restaurants along the beach. Avoid the american food and eat local. We at at Don Jose's and Ruben's (right next to a Howard Johnson hotel). Wonderful food at both and came in around $55-65 for 5 of us (all adults). My husband is Puerto Rican from New York, so we were looking forward to these dinners nearly as much as the cruise itself!

 

Don't miss old town. It is what everyone does, but there is a reason for it. When you go the old fortress you will see lots of iguanas around the large grassy areas. The food around old town is quite good, but much more expensive than other parts of town. If you are there on a day other than Sunday, check out the bars and cafes for empanadas. Not the breaded cutlet type (those are good too) but the meat pie type in a fried crust. Nothing like empanadas and fried bananas (sweet) or plantain (yummy but not as sweet).

 

We didn't snorkle this trip at all, but our end of accra beach didn't look like it would yield much for snorkleing. There were a few people out by the reef but the swells were big and the sand was swirling that day. Payne is supposed to be good for turtles, and how good it will be depends on the clarity I guess. We've snorkled in Barbados before and had a great time, but went from a Catamaran that time instead of from a beach.

 

Friar's beach in St. Kitts has a small reef and many people were snorkeling as we swam in the shallow water. The reef is very close to shore (and small) but worthwhile. There were many fish people were talking about seeing, and quite a few in the water around us just swimming close to shore.

 

We haven't been to St. John's so I can't compare it to Emerald Beach. Emerald was quite nice but I was still zonked from all the travel to get to the cruise ship. We sat at a beach bar near the Best Western and chatted with the bar owner while our kids baked in the sun and surf. The beach was beautiful though.

 

St. Maarten- since we took a tour I have no idea where the urchins were. Our driver took us down to the atlantic where there were people fishing and a guy he clearly uses for his tours was pulling creatures out of the surf. The iguanas were on a private property where they also had a cockfighting operation going on. However, iguanas are all around San Juan so you can find them easily there. ;)

 

Watching the planes come in at Maho beach is fun, even if it is silly. The bar is fun and crowded in the afternoons and the beach is crowded too. It is still fun- and I try to avoid crowds. We never went in the water there, just watched the planes come and drank some more local beer.

 

The camera I used on this trip is my trusty Nikon D-100. Although it is old enough to be "quaint" in the world of digital cameras (6 megapixel), it is a workhorse and reliable and sturdy. I used a point and shoot Nikon S570 on our last trip because it is tiny and so easy to carry around. The pictures were nice but I was willing to lug the D-100 in my bag this time around for a little more control over the end product.

 

The ship: They are quite strict about the wine and everything else coming on in San Juan now. We saw MANY people who got suckered at the Duty Free shop in the lobby of the pier, and had their many bottles of wine and booze pulled while trying to board. Sad scam those folks have going in the store. On the other hand, my son brought a large bottle of rum back on board from Barbados and they didn't take it.

 

As for the ship itself. I love it. Some hate it. The new carpet is a bit ugly! Orange and blue swirls to break up the green of the ship I think. Oh well. I like the green, the sea horses and the general scheme. It sees hard use for sure but generally I found it to be well kept up. The serenity area is just lovely and peaceful.

 

The ship sails quite full and has many large family groups. The staff on this trip was the friendliest we've ever had, including our prior Victory sailing. The public areas can be quite crowded and as with any ship, the buffet lines can get long if you want to eat right at lunch time on a sea day, or as soon as everyone gets back on board (usually around 4:30).

 

Do not worry about skipping elegant night if you have a sun dress and a sweater, which you will obviously need anyway. Those are the nights with lobster and prime rib, so you don't want to miss the menus! Many women were dressed in sun dresses with sweaters and still wearing sandals (but not flip flops).

[kingoftheicedragons]

San Juan: did you go a day early or stay a day later? Just wondering if you had any suggestions of where we could eat since we're going a day early and I love trying new food!

 

Sorry for all the questions, but I have OCD and can't stop planning!

 

I'll take this one, since I tend to be a foodie and like trying new food as well. We arrived Friday afternoon, so we had plenty of time to try many places.

 

One of my favorite places to eat was La Bombonera for breakfast. They have great mallorcas. Get the simple buttered one....you won't regret it (Cafe Mallorca has good mallorcas as well, but their water was dirty). If you don't know what this is, it's similar to a powdered donut, but so much better. Both of these restaurants have been featured on the Food Network/Travel Channel.

 

We got ham and cheese mallorcas from Siglo XX on Fortaleza Street, which was okay, but it was essentially like a ham and cheese sandwich. Supposedly they also have paella but I don't recall seeing that on the menu.

 

Raices is popular, if you go there, expect a wait. They are somewhat expensive, but yet still had probably the cheapest mofongo that we were able to find. Mofongo is mashed plaintains...make sure you get the stuffed variety as by itself it would be quite bland. Just about everyone is going to have mofongo it seems, and we were even asked a couple of times if we had the opportunity to try it.

 

El Mason is a Puertorican chain similar to Subway. Never got to try it, though.

 

The Saint Germain Bistro is also quite good (currently ranked #2 on Trip Advisor). Again, it's a somewhat small restaurant and you may need to wait.

 

San Sebastian Street, which we never made it up to, is supposedly well known for it's bars and restaurants (they have a large street festival in the middle of January every year), so you can check that out as well.

 

If you're not as adventurous, you can find Chicago Burger Company, Senor Frogs, Subway, Burger King, Starbucks, and Wendy's fairly easily.