My very detailed Carnival Victory review from December 9-16, 2012

[whendoweleave?]

Love it! Subscribing!

[Pellaz]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Your review is almost over! :(

 

What a great review! I'm frankly quite envious of you for visiting Maho Beach....that's on my 'bucket list' of places to see -- preferably with a lot of planes landing. :D

[cruiseclues]

Thank you very much for your straightforward photo review. We enjoy reviews which are honest and tell it like you see it. We especially liked your food photos. :)

[deladane]

A few words about packing: As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I traveled with only carry on luggage for this vacation. I had to transfer planes in both directions and didn't want to risk it that my bags might not get to my final destination at the same time I did. I used a large backpack with several sections and a standard rolling carry on bag. I actually found that I was able to bring everything that I would have wanted. Perhaps I would have enjoyed one extra pair of shoes to wear at night, but I really didn't feel that I was missing everything. I was able to fit 6 bathing suits, 6 pairs of shoes (beach flip flops, nicer flip flops, flat sandals for casual nights, dress heels for formal night, aqua socks, plus an old pair of sneakers which I wore on the plane), casual dresses as cover ups or shorts and tshirts for every day, casual or formal dresses for every night, all of my toiletries and electronics (iPhone, waterproof camera, regular camera, iPad, and their respective chargers), and even my snorkel mask! The only thing I didn't fit was my big bottle of suntan lotion which I bought at CVS in San Juan when I arrived (and that would have physically fit in the bag, but TSA wouldn't approve of such a big bottle... oh well!).

 

I had read all the threads that recommended people pack duct tape, over the door shoe organizers, bungee cords, and tons of other things. Since I was so tight on space, I didn't bring any of these things and I didn't really need them! There was plenty of storage in the cabinet in the bathroom, so no need to waste luggage space on that. The one thing I did bring was a small dry-erase board that I found at the dollar store. This proved very handy for leaving notes to our steward when we wanted extra ice or towels, or just wanted to wish him a good day! We also used it to write ourselves reminders on things we needed to pack or take care of. I suppose a pad and paper would have worked just as well, but it was convenient to just erase the message and re-write on the board. I left the board in the room on the last day with a note that I hoped the steward would have some use for it (I also left behind the two paperback books I brought, since I use a Nook to read at home and only brought the paperbacks so I could leave them on the beach while I went in the ocean without worrying about them being stolen. And we left behind half the bottle of vodka we brought on, some granola bars, and a few other things which I didn't want to waste space with on the trip home and which might have been handy for the steward to use).

 

Overall, it was a great trip. I had fairly low expectations for my time spent on the ship, knowing that it was an older ship in need of some renovations and knowing that Carnival has a bad reputation for their food. With that said, I tried not to let the negative things impact my vacation, and I put most of my effort into making the most out of every minute we had in port. Would I sail on Carnival again? Possibly, but only if I couldn't find the same itinerary on another cruise line, and only if Carnival's prices were significantly cheaper than the other cruise lines making it hard to resist booking the trip! I do tend to prefer port-intensive cruises, so the actual ship and cruise line isn't as much of a priority for me as things like itinerary and cost. I hope you enjoyed reading my review. Please let me know if you have any questions!

[Tropical Traveler]

Kudos for a most excellent presentation and thanks for taking the time and effort.

 

We have a similar trip (but on a different cruise line) under consideration for this coming fall and, if we do go forward with it, this will help with some of what we would plan to do.

[Mizzouaholic]

Great review!

[Chelleum]

Great review and pics!! I'm doing the same itinerary in Oct, but on the Valor. I also prefer to do cruise that are port intensive.

[deladane]

Kudos for a most excellent presentation and thanks for taking the time and effort.

 

We have a similar trip (but on a different cruise line) under consideration for this coming fall and, if we do go forward with it, this will help with some of what we would plan to do.

Thank you! I highly recommend doing this itinerary as it includes some of the most beautiful Caribbean islands that you can visit!

 

 

Great review!

Thank you so much! :)

 

 

Great review and pics!! I'm doing the same itinerary in Oct, but on the Valor. I also prefer to do cruise that are port intensive.

Thank you! I hope you have a fabulous time on your cruise! You can't go wrong with an itinerary like this! :)

[chill6x6]

I REALLY enjoyed your review! In fact it is one of my favorite on CC! Lots of great, useful info with a lot of really great photos! I also appreciate your candid honestly without bias that is so hard to find these days!

 

So....Do you have another cruise in your future?

[Pellaz]

APPLAUSE!

 

 

Great review!

[deladane]

I REALLY enjoyed your review! In fact it is one of my favorite on CC! Lots of great, useful info with a lot of really great photos! I also appreciate your candid honestly without bias that is so hard to find these days!

 

So....Do you have another cruise in your future?

Thank you! That's so nice of you to say :) As of now, I don't have any other cruises planned. My job is very unpredictable so it's hard to plan vacations in advance, especially when airfare is involved, because I move around a lot. After seeing so many amazing Caribbean islands, I'd love to plan a Mediterranean cruise next, but who knows if/when that will happen! :)

 

APPLAUSE!

 

 

Great review!

haha Thank you so much!!

[WiscoGirl32]

Thank you again for this review! It was awesome! I'm sad that it is over!! We are flying out in 1 week to be on the Victory. I have a question about getting off the ship. Our last cruise on Royal Caribbean we took our own luggage off and we were the first couple people off the ship when the ship cleared. Since you took your own luggage off, but took your time, do you recall when the first "call" was for people to leave the ship if you were taking your stuff off yourself?

 

Thanks so much! Getting very excited to go!

[fbe2228]

WiscoGirl..

We were on this cruise with Deladane. I think that the first calls for self-assist debarkation came about 7:30am (corect me if I am wrong). We did self asist, but really weren't in any hurry to get off the ship since our flight was at 1:30. We got up, went to breakfast in the dining room, went back to our room to pack up the last few things and sat on the Lido deck (had a few more things from the buffet to stuff ourselves for the day) until about 9:45. It took maybe 20mins to go through Customs.

 

Deladane.. Again, great job on the review. We were almost in another one of your pictures. In your third picture of Orient Beach (not the nude side!) there are a bunch of orange umbrellas in the distance. We were under one of those umbrellas. Also, I read your review of Summit (although the pictures wouldn't open). How would you compare your ship experience between Summit and Victory? Last year we passed on a GREAT deal on Summit due to bad reviews, and booked Victory instead (for a lot more $$$). I'm beginning to search for a cruise for next December, and Summit came up again with another Southern Caribbean cruise that we might consider.

 

Perhaps we'll cross "photo paths" on another cruise in the future!!

 

Paul

[WiscoGirl32]

WiscoGirl..

We were on this cruise with Deladane. I think that the first calls for self-assist debarkation came about 7:30am (corect me if I am wrong). We did self asist, but really weren't in any hurry to get off the ship since our flight was at 1:30. We got up, went to breakfast in the dining room, went back to our room to pack up the last few things and sat on the Lido deck (had a few more things from the buffet to stuff ourselves for the day) until about 9:45. It took maybe 20mins to go through Customs.

 

 

Thanks, Paul. That is exactly what I was looking for. We have an early afternoon flight home, so we will be ready and waiting for that first call!

[tandemcruzr]

I am so glad I found your review. We cruise out of OSJ in November and have reservations for the Hotel Milano. So glad we got to see your pictures.

 

Thanks for the details and the time it took you to put this together. BTW, great photos. When that fullscreen shot of the sea turtle came up, it was WOW!

 

What is your 'regular' camera?

Edited January 11, 2013 by tandemcruzr

[deladane]

I am so glad I found your review. We cruise out of OSJ in November and have reservations for the Hotel Milano. So glad we got to see your pictures.

 

Thanks for the details and the time it took you to put this together. BTW, great photos. When that fullscreen shot of the sea turtle came up, it was WOW!

 

What is your 'regular' camera?

 

Haha thanks! I loved all my sea turtles pictures! It's really hard to see what you are photographing underwater, so I just kept clicking and hoped that something would come out good. I ended up with a TON of great photos, with different angles and parts of the turtles in the frame. That's the beauty of digital photography, I guess :)

 

My regular camera is a Canon point and shoot (PowerShot SD780-IS) that I bought in December 2009. I love that camera, and I use it all the time at home. I used it for pretty much all of the photos taken on the ship.

[deladane]

Deladane.. Again, great job on the review. We were almost in another one of your pictures. In your third picture of Orient Beach (not the nude side!) there are a bunch of orange umbrellas in the distance. We were under one of those umbrellas. Also, I read your review of Summit (although the pictures wouldn't open). How would you compare your ship experience between Summit and Victory? Last year we passed on a GREAT deal on Summit due to bad reviews, and booked Victory instead (for a lot more $$$). I'm beginning to search for a cruise for next December, and Summit came up again with another Southern Caribbean cruise that we might consider.

 

Perhaps we'll cross "photo paths" on another cruise in the future!!

 

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

I think it's hard to compare my Summit cruise to the Victory cruise without comparing Celebrity vs. Carnival. In terms of the actual ship, they were very similar when I sailed in 2010. The ships were both about 10 yrs old, held approximately the same number of passengers, and were both due for dry dock renovations pretty soon. Summit has since been upgraded and now has a bunch of new dining/bar venues that it didn't have when I sailed, so I imagine it's a fantastic ship right now. Back in 2010, I'd say the Summit and the Victory were on par.

 

If you are talking about how did I like Celebrity vs. Carnival, that's a whole different story! I LOVED sailing on Celebrity! I thought the food was significantly better (in the menu options, food presentation, taste, pretty much every aspect). I sailed solo on that cruise (as you know), and only paid $80 more for that oceanview cabin than I paid to share my inside cabin on the Victory, so I definitely got a great price on the cruise. If I were able to find more great deals like that from Celebrity, I'd definitely pick them over Carnival in the future (but sadly, I'm sure my budget will force me to stick with Carnival more often than I'd really want to in the future haha)

 

If you are referring to how I liked the itinerary, that's also an interesting question. The Summit itinerary was what I called "off the beaten path". We went to a bunch of islands I had literally never heard of before researching that trip. I really enjoyed visiting those islands (except Grenada- I didn't like it there much, but that could be because it was pouring rain all day and I had planned a day at Grand Anse beach) but they are not touristy at all and are less built up than most of the other Caribbean ports. On the other hand, the Victory offered a more commercial and touristy itinerary. These islands were a thousand times more beautiful and scenic than the ones I saw last time. The beaches were amazing and I saw colors in the ocean I didn't think were possible. I also found that there were more appealing options for excursions and things to do in the islands for the Victory itinerary. I know the Summit has changed it's itineraries since I sailed (I think they got rid of Tobago?), and they used to do two different itineraries, alternating every other week. Which itinerary are you looking at?

 

So I guess I can't give you a straight answer haha Sorry about that! For the itinerary, I liked Victory better. For the cruise line, I liked Celebrity better. And for the ship itself, it was a wash.

 

Oh, and as for my photos in my Summit review, you can blame that on Webshots :( I was super bummed that they all got deleted when Webshots changed their site a few months ago. I had tons of photos posted (as you can tell from all the 'X's you see now), including all the menus and photos of all my meals, the ship, and the ports. I still have all those photos posted on Facebook, but I'm not sure how to edit all my old posts to change up the links. I hope the written portion was helpful for you though :)

[jabberman_76366]

Your review was outstanding! I was in St Kitts last summer and really liked the iland!

[deladane]

Your review was outstanding! I was in St Kitts last summer and really liked the iland!

 

Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed the review. St. Kitts is a beautiful island with so much to offer! It was great getting to stop there on both of my Southern Caribbean cruises :)

[My4Grandsons]

Thanks for your review. I did the Victory cruise in August. This March I'm doing the Summit cruise. Tobago is now St. Thomas. Since I went to St. John's on a Victory tour, I will tour St. Thomas this time.

[Fydlstyx]

 

Coconut shrimp with shrimp lo mein

 

Thank you for this awesome review. I am sitting at work on a Saturday morning, pretending to be on this cruise. haha

 

I always look at cruise ship shrimp and wonder....why? Why is it long and straight? Do they put it on sticks to cook it and then take it off the stick to serve?! I have never ordered it because the way it looks weirds me out.

 

Sherry

[deladane]

Thank you for this awesome review. I am sitting at work on a Saturday morning, pretending to be on this cruise. haha

 

I always look at cruise ship shrimp and wonder....why? Why is it long and straight? Do they put it on sticks to cook it and then take it off the stick to serve?! I have never ordered it because the way it looks weirds me out.

 

Sherry

 

Hahahaha yea I guess straight shrimp is a bit bizarre. I think u r right abt how they put sticks inside to make them cook straight. The good news is that it didn't impact the taste, and these were yummy enough that I ordered them twice (appetizer on night 1 and as an entree when they returned to the menu later in the week)

[sonicbuffalo]

I really enjoyed your review....been to some of the islands, and lived in Puerto Rico for a year on the other side of the island from San Juan. Your pictures were great and I loved the fact that your camera was found. Here's hoping that you get to cruise a lot in the future as I can tell you really love it.

[mrstravel]

I was on the 12/23 victory sailing and the ship did not go by the pitons when leaving. However, if you knew to look, you saw them in the distance.

[sim444]

great review/journal

thanks