Cruise-ginity lost on Carnival’s Victory – 10/7-10/14 Review

[jmwg49]

Great review! Loving your pictures...but where did you go???

[jjtimes6]

Great review! Looking forward to reading the rest. We did this cruise a couple years ago, and loved it so much that we're going back in March to do it again! We'll be on the Valor this time.

[trippingpara]

Great review! Loving your pictures...but where did you go???

 

Thank you! Here's a breakdown of where we went and our excursions:

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Tour of Old San Juan (El Morro, San Cristobal)

Rainforest tour of El Yunque

St. Thomas

2 tank dive at Coki Beach from Coki Beach Dive Club

Toured Coral World

Barbados

2 tank dive (Carlisle Bay wrecks and Old Fort reef drift dive)

Toured around downtown Bridgetown

St. Kitts

Took an island tour that visited Romney Manor/Caribelle Batik and Brimstone Fortress as well as downtown Basseterre

St. Lucia

Took a sea and land tour with Son of Man

St. Maarten

Missed this island due to Tropical Storm Raphael

[trippingpara]

Friday, October 12th - Basseterre, St. Kitts

 

This was the island that we struggled to find something to do. We originally reserved a scooter to cruise around the island in, but between my hurting back (from my fall into the mud baths yesterday) and the chest cold that I've developed, we decided to skip the scooter and to see what we could find on our own.

 

I really wanted to see Brimstone Fortress, so that was at the top of my list of things to see. When we arrived at the port, we started chatting it up with some of the taxi operators. They are regulated so the tours and prices are pretty much set but you do have some leeway with what you get to see (some areas might cost more to go see).

 

We settled on the standard tour which included Brimstone Fortress. So we jumped into a van with a couple from Tennessee and a lady from Colorado and off we went. We started with a nice tour of downtown Basseterre including the Government Headquarters (where we saw this gentleman guarding the front doors):

 

 

We soon left downtown Basseterre and began our trek along the Main Road on the leeward side of the island. Apparently today was Awareness Day as we ran into a parade of various organizations advocating awareness of disaster prevention, AIDS awareness, mental health awareness, etc.

 

 

After the parade went by, we were off again. We soon found ourselves coming around a corner to see the infamous Bottle Tree (apparently tradition dictates that the men of the village hang their empty rum bottles on this tree after a long week of work).

 

 

Okay, whatever rolls your boat! Well, just up the road from the bottle tree we started to see ruins of old sugar mills.

 

 

Soon we stopped at Romney Manor/Caribelle Batik. I knew this would be a moderately interesting place but nothing too crazy, however, I knew that my DW would really enjoy it. So, we hopped out of the van and wandered off on our own. We had about 30 to 45 minutes here to roam around to see the sights and of course to shop at the Caribelle Batik's store.

 

This land was once owned by Sam Jefferson II, the great great great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson (3rd President of U.S.A.). The great house was renamed Romney Manor following its acquisition in the early 17th century by the Earl of Romney. Although the house is no longer there (burnt down a few years ago), the grounds themselves are truly beautiful and worth the visit.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2012 by trippingpara

[trippingpara]

Caribelle Batik is located on the grounds of Romney Manor. If you have never seen batik before, prepare to be dazzled. It is amazing to watch them create such beautiful fabrics. They use an ancient Indonesian method of resisting dye with wax to create some truly stunning works of art. It takes them at least one day per color to create their design. When you enter the store, you stop in a room where you can see them creating the batik and they will explain the process to you. Designs are drawn onto cotton fabric with wax. Any area covered with wax will remain white. They then dip the fabric in one color at a time usually starting with the lightest color first. This process is repeated for every color in the piece. This process usually takes anywhere from 3 to 9 days to complete. All of their pieces are then hung outside to dry.

 

This had got to be the most photographed washing line in the world!

 

 

Once everyone was finished touring the grounds and shopping their little hearts out in the batik store, we loaded up the van and headed back out. Along the way, we passed the International University of Nursing, Ross University of Veterinary Medicine, Trinity Church, Challengers Church as well as Palmetto Bay.

 

Soon you could make out a huge structure high on the mountain ridges above us. The foreboding citadel called Brimstone Fortress is up ahead. The road leading up to the fortress is narrow and winding with extremely tight corners and stone gates that are barely wide enough for the van to fit through. Apparently all taxi drivers must drive a bus up to the fort in order to get their license. Yikes!! I drive a giant Dodge Ram 2500 pickup and I could never imagine trying to drive that beast up that road! A Yugo or Yaris maybe, but a Dodge Ram? Not!!

 

The fortress itself is in fabulous condition. It was built out of volcanic rock and limestone that was all dug out of the hill that it sits on. Its amazing to think of how they were able to actually build such buildings in the 1600 and 1700s. The views from up there were even more amazing!

 

 

 

 

[trippingpara]

Here are some more views of Brimstone Fortress

 

Sint Eustatius with its white cliffs of Buccaneer Bay

 

Looking down at Magazine Bastion

 

The Gunnery Deck

 

Jumbie Barracks

 

The main citadel

 

Artillery Officers Quarters and Cookhouse

[trippingpara]

We spent close to an hour at Brimstone (we could have spent a lot more but then again, I am a serious history buff and I like to stick my nose into every little crevices that I can find when I'm visiting historical sites). After leaving the fort, we continued to make our way along the Main Road the rings St. Kitts. We meandered our way around the northern end of the island and passed by Dieppe Bay, Sandy Bay and soon came across the Black Rocks. This is a large rock formation sitting on the edge of the Caribbean Sea that was formed by lava from Mt. Liamuiga (the large volcano that dominates over the northern half of St. Kitts).

 

 

Unfortunately, we were not able to stop here so I could not get any really good photos of the rocks. But then again, they are just rocks that are colored black. The rest of the tour was just driving around the remaining portion of the island. We did not see the southern most tip of the island were many of the top beaches are at such as Half Moon Bay, Frigate Bay, Friar's Bay and Cockleshell Beach.

 

 

A random house

 

The Atlantic Ocean - you can see how much choppier it is compared to the Caribbean Sea

 

Our taxi driver than dropped us off back at Port Zanta, the cruise terminal.

[trippingpara]

After we were dropped off at the cruise terminal, we decided to head back into downtown Basseterre as we still had several hours in port. Our first stop was for some lunch. We had read a lot of good reviews about Ballahoo Restaurant which is located on the Circus where Berkeley Memorial clock tower is. So, we decided to give them a try. It was a nice open-aired restaurant that served a lot of local dishes. The prices were a little high to me but it was a great location on the second floor overlooking the Circus so I guess it all works out.

 

The Berkeley Memorial - you can see the Ballahoo Restaurant to the very right of the photo.

 

Looking out over the Circus from our seats at the Ballahoo Restaurant

 

 

Of course, we had to have some local drinks!

 

I had to try some conch so I ordered conch in a garlic butter sauce. Yum-la-friggin'-yum!! My DW and I both order a chicken in a wrap dish. It was very spicy. Good, but spicy! I'm as Irish as they come, so me and spice do not make good bedfellows! I ate as much as my bland Irish ticker could take and left the rest. Like I said, it was still very good though!

[trippingpara]

I'll finish off St. Kitts with just a few more photos of downtown Basseterre.

 

St. Kitts National Musuem

 

Independence Square - this is where slaves were sold and at times executed

 

 

 

I loved the English phone booths!

 

[trippingpara]

Here are a few more:

 

 

 

These next photos were taken from the secret decks aboard the Victory

 

 

 

 

After a little bit of shopping, we went back to the ship, took a bunch more photos and then rested up a bit. For dinner, we went back to the Atlantic MDR. We both had Oyster Rockefeller off the Did'ja menu (holy cow was that good!!!). I order the lasagna while DW order the red snapper. Sorry, no photos here as we forgot to bring our camera again.

 

After dinner, we went to see the family friendly comic show followed by the Magic Show. The comic was pretty funny. The magic show was okay in my eyes but my wife really did enjoy it. After the magic show, we tried to go see the adult comic show but we once again got there late and the house was packed. We could only fit standing in the doorway. We watched for a few minutes but had trouble hearing the comedian with the karaoke show in the nearby Red and Black Sea Bar bleeding through. So we just called it a night to rest up for St. Maarten.

Edited October 28, 2012 by trippingpara

[Chelleum]

Great review and pics!! I just booked this cruise for next year, but I will be on the valor instead of the Victory.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Chelleum

[trippingpara]

Saturday, October 13th - Somewhere in the Puerto Rico Trench north of the Leeward Islands

 

Our captain was like clockwork when it came to docking. If the Fun Times said that we were going to dock at 7:00 am, you could set your watch to it! Well, it is Saturday morning and we were docking at St. Maarten. This is the island that we were looking forward to the most. I couldn't wait. We were scheduled to dock at 7:00 and our tour didn't start until 9 am so we had some time. But I was excited, so I jumped out of bed at 7:00 am sharp and looked out our window anxious to see the sights of St. Maarten.

 

I threw back the curtains and saw...water. A lot of water. No palm trees, no brightly colored buildings and most importantly, no dock. At first my brain said "well, we must have docked on the port side (our room was on the starboard side). Then my eyes drifted downward and saw the wake of the ship pushing walls of water away and I knew something was wrong.

 

Up to this point, we had not heard that there was anything brewing in the Caribbean Sea. When we were packing up and leaving the dive shop in Barbados the divemaster had said something to one of his crew that a storm was brewing and they probably won't dive the next day. I didn't realize that storm was forming into a tropical depression which would follow us for the next several days.

 

Well apparently, that tropical depression turned into Tropical Storm Raphael and quickly caught up to us. About 7:30 am the captain came on the intercom and informed us that a tropical storm was now over St. Maarten and we were running from it and would not be docking there. He then told us that we had no other options for that day but to run for open sea and chase the sun. Of course, no one really understood a word that the captain said because of his super thick Italian accent. Okay, now its nice to have the captain come on the intercom and address everyone but if the captain can barely speak the primary languages being used on the boat why bother?

 

Luckily Goose, our CD, came on a couple minutes later to "reiterate" A.K.A. "translate" what the captain had just said. This was quite a relief since I was convinced the captain had just said that the ship's warp drive was broken down, Elvis was dating Jennifer Aniston and we were about to dock at Niagara Falls for their wedding and repairs. I'm so glad that Goose set the record straight as I was seriously questioning my sanity and the fact that I might need to invest in either a hearing aid or a babelfish to help with translation (if you don't read Douglas Adams, sorry you won't understand the babelfish reference).

 

Anyways, we slowly got dressed and meandered our way up to the Lido Deck for some breakfast. We were quite bummed about the turn of events but we decided to not let such minor things as missing an island ruin our vacation. I mean, heck, we could be sitting on the beach at St. Maarten having 50 mph winds rock us about. Now that would certainly kick up the excitement meter a bit! Who needs the planes at Maho Beach when they have a tropical storm to kick up the sand?

 

Well, now that we were having another Fun Day at Sea, our issue of Fun Times was pretty much worthless. So Goose and his fun team (or whatever they called themselves) were running around the ship handing out freshly printed copies of new Fun Times for us to marvel at. Needless to say, everything was pretty hastily put together so there really wasn't anything that screamed "Holy crap Batman, we need to see or do that!"

 

So, we did what any other normal human being would do in such dire circumstances...DRINK! Okay, let me backtrack a little bit. I just realized that I jumped from breakfast to drinking. There was a little bit in between. We played around in the Siren Pool for a bit and then played some mini golf under the watchful gaze of the whale tail. And then we drank!

 

The captain did a pretty good job keeping us in the sun for the most part. A couple quick rain showers but that was about it. Now that captain really had the petal to the metal. It was fun in the pools as it suddenly became a wave pool and the water sloshed from the front to the back of the pool. One second the water was down to your waist and the next it was launching you poolside next to some elderly lady reading a well used copy of Fifty Shades of Gray.

 

We even hit the water slide. And I use the term "slide" very loosely. The sun was hot and the line moved quickly. Next thing I know I'm standing at the mouth of the slide about to throw myself down the tube anxious for the cool landing at the bottom until the guardian of the slide told me that I needed to take my sunglasses off. What? The really cute girl in front of me didn't have to take hers off! Why me? Befuddled, I grudgingly take my sunglasses off and plop myself down on the slide blinded by the blazing sun.

 

And I start my descent down the slide...for about 10 feet! Apparently, if you don't throw yourself down the slide, you don't slide. I had to scoot myself down the entire flippin' slide. Do you have any idea how long that slide is? Neither do I but I can tell you that it is long. Very, very long! There was no splash down at the bottom for me. No. As the slide started to bottom out I realized that I was doing a great impression of my dog scooting his butt on the floor and suddenly became aware that everyone on the Lido Deck was staring at me. So I quickly got up, jumped out of the slide, and immediately headed for the nearest bar. Which luckily was very close indeed. Of course, my wife rocketed down the slide like one would expect screeching the entire way like a little girl. Fortunately, she is a girl so that was okay.

 

Any ways, before I bore everyone with the details of our Sea Day (which really weren't all that exciting), I will just jump to the main parts. We ate again in the MDR. The Did'ja tonight was frog legs. I've had them many times before in Canada as well as France however, it was a first for my wife who was quite anxious and scared at the same time. Even Ioan, our waiter told her..."tastes just like chicken!" Yep, tasted just like chicken she pronounced!

 

After dinner we caught the early adult comedy show. I guess the third time was a charm! He was pretty funny. Not gut busting, howling like a baby funny, but still pretty flippin' funny. After the comedy show we decided to close the shops down with their final sales. I stopped at the jewelry desk and finally gave in to the $1 an inch chains. I grabbed a silver bracelet and the lady gave me a ticket for the big raffle that they were having in 15 minutes. I thought what the heck, why not.

 

The place was mobbed with people waiting for the raffle. There were people with dozens of tickets for this prize. I didn't even know what the heck the prize was. The funny thing was, that you got a ticket for every $50 that you spent in the jewelry store. Well, my DW and I aren't huge jewelry people so that was the only ticket that we had. Slim chances I thought. Well, after all of the hype, they finally get ready to call the number out. If you're not present, you don't win. That must explain the enormous crowd anxiously staring at their tickets. Well, Tim from Canada calls out the numbers. I'm following along and then I suddenly realize, holy crap that's me!! I won! I don't know what I won, but I WON!! One ticket and I won! In fact, I shouldn't have even gotten that ticket because my bracelet was far from costing $50 or more (remember, its $1 an inch. For it to be over $50, I would have to have the world's largest wrist!).

 

Anyways, I finally get through the crowd and verify that yes, I do indeed have the winning ticket. Tim then hands me a large Carnival duffel bag that is chalked full of Carnival goodies. Darn glad I hadn't done any shopping for souvenirs yet! There were watches, bracelets, magnets, annoying wind chimes that my wife loves so much, t-shirts, etc. You name it, it was in there. Even a stuffed Freddy! Luckily, we were flying JetBlue back to New England and we only had one checked bag so we could check another for free. Gotta love JetBlue!

 

Well, since we had a Carnival Rainforest tickets for the next day in San Juan, we had to put our luggage outside that evening. We were originally planning doing the self-embarking but we couldn't with the tour. So we packed up all of belongings and put them out in the hallway. Now I don't know what rocket scientist came up with that idea, but if you wanted a new wardrobe, that night was a perfect time to grab some. Plenty of suitcases ripe for the taking! Apparently, no one wanted our stuff as we got it all back the next morning. Well, so long for now. I'll write about San Juan and our tour of El Yunque later. Still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Sandy here so please be patient. Until next time....

[trippingpara]

Well I just found out that they are now out of business so we are turning this over to our bank as a fraudulent charge. I hear that they may be trying to come back in business so take this as a hard-earned lesson.

 

The tour group that we had booked with, double billed us and has since refused to refund us the money back is Son of Man Tours out of Soufriere.

 

They must have just gone out of business as there are positive reviews as late as the week prior to us. Well, I'll be sure to leave a not so positive review for them.

 

Just to keep y'all in the loop (did I just say "y'all"? Don't ask me why I just suddenly developed a southern accent!). Anywho...the amount that we were demanding back from Son of Man suddenly appeared in our bank account. Not sure if they are looking to come back into business and wanted to clear any potential problems or did we just become so flippin' annoying to them that they decided to pay us back. Not sure of the answer as long as we got paid! Nonetheless, if they did return back to business, I still would not go with them nor would I advise anyone else to. (We also had a rather bad interaction with James from James Touring Service - we didn't tour with him so I can't discuss his actual tour [he is ranked very highly on Trip Advisor] - but we ran into him at the volcano and mud baths where he was extremely pushy and abrasive, ordering everyone and I mean everyone around. He even walked up and took away our pail of mud while my wife's hands were in it! Of course, he always wears a Steelers jersey so maybe that just turned my rose colored glasses black!)

[smplyblessed619]

This has been one of the best reviews I've read and I have no plans on sailing on her or out of San Juan any time soon...but after this review, man oh man!! You have some amazing pictures and it looks like you had a great time! I'm glad you were refunded, and I'm sorry you had a bad experience with that company.

 

 

Also, happy 15th anniversary!!

Edited November 1, 2012 by smplyblessed619

[mlrack101]

Monday, Oct. 8th – Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

 

. Not a very good batting average (unless you play for the Red Sox, then you fit right in!). Sorry, bitter Red Sox over here.

 

 

haha! Being a New England Girl (NH)...I LOL'd...what a year:mad:

 

BTW get review

[Momma1980]

Let's try this again...

 

Amazing picture!

[DISNEY1975]

I love your review and your pics are amazing. Congrats on the big win and koodos to your wife for trying the frog legs. I dont care if it tasted like cheesecake, I wouldnt even allow it on a plate in front of me!!

 

Im not sailing the Victory, but I do have the same itinerary (on Valor). I love your pictures and am now more excited than ever to go!

 

Thanks for sharing :)

[LOVECRUISING100%]

Love your Pics .. What type of underwater camera were you using ?

[cocontom]

And of course, I turn my head for 5 minutes and my wife has already found a stray animal that she is trying to take home.

 

 

If it's any consolation to your wife, that cat more or less has a home- the notch in the ear indicates it's part of a managed feral colony.

[trippingpara]

Love your Pics .. What type of underwater camera were you using ?

 

We are using a couple different cameras for underwater pics. The first one is our dive camera which is one of the more inexpensive dive cameras on the market and I would give it a C+ for a grade. It is the Intova DC9 camera. The photos from that camera can be found in the dive photos from St. Thomas and Barbados.

 

The other underwater camera that we have is the Fujifilm XP50. We really like this camera (in fact, we have two of them - one for my wife and one for me!) It takes pretty good photos out of the water and really good photos under the water. You should see the shark photos we got in Hawaii! Yao-za!! In this review, the photos from the Fujifilm can be seen in my St. Lucia review as we both were carrying the Fujifilm cameras as our primary camera that day.

[trippingpara]

If it's any consolation to your wife, that cat more or less has a home- the notch in the ear indicates it's part of a managed feral colony.

 

Thank you! She'll be very excited to hear that! That would explain all of the cats running around Old San Juan and the forts. When walking in the neighborhood just outside El Morro, there were a lot of water dishes put out by the residents there for all of the cats. They look like they were babied more than the rat of a cat I got at home!

[ronandannette]

Thanks for the secret deck picks... :D did you happen to notice if there were any loungers on deck 9 ? some secret deck pics show loungers.

 

Yes, there is a stack of chairs on Secret Deck 9, but they remain tied up and locked except on the sea day when the crew put them out around 11:00 a.m. and took them back down before 9:00 p.m.

 

P.S. these chairs are good for sunning only; you can't see anything except hull when you're in one.

Edited November 2, 2012 by ronandannette

[trippingpara]

This has been one of the best reviews I've read and I have no plans on sailing on her or out of San Juan any time soon...but after this review, man oh man!! You have some amazing pictures and it looks like you had a great time! I'm glad you were refunded, and I'm sorry you had a bad experience with that company.

 

 

Also, happy 15th anniversary!!

 

Thank you so much for the kind words! So many people have written such great reviews that excited us and got us into cruising so I just had to pay it forward. I'm to see that others may feel the same about my review.

[LOVECRUISING100%]

We are using a couple different cameras for underwater pics. The first one is our dive camera which is one of the more inexpensive dive cameras on the market and I would give it a C+ for a grade. It is the Intova DC9 camera. The photos from that camera can be found in the dive photos from St. Thomas and Barbados.

 

The other underwater camera that we have is the Fujifilm XP50. We really like this camera (in fact, we have two of them - one for my wife and one for me!) It takes pretty good photos out of the water and really good photos under the water. You should see the shark photos we got in Hawaii! Yao-za!! In this review, the photos from the Fujifilm can be seen in my St. Lucia review as we both were carrying the Fujifilm cameras as our primary camera that day.

Thank You .. I'll take a look .. were leaving on our next cruise soon and I'd like to get a new one .. : )

[mamasue]

I don't usually read the longer cruise reviews, but you had me captivated from the start....and your pictures are awesome!

Ever thought of becoming a travel writer??:)