Review: (photos) Christmas on Carnival Valor

[duncan449]

Good by San Juan:

 

we walked up to the 'secret deck' on 10. There were probably less than 20 people out there the entire cruise. Walk all the way down the hallway on 6,7 & 10 toward the front of the ship, it will dead end and on you left or right, depending on which hallway you go down, there will be a double set of doors leading outside! Nice for sail away pics.

 

 

 

 

[duncan449]

Day 6: Grand Turk

 

I can't tell you how beautiful this island is! It should be a requirement for cruise ports to be this gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[duncan449]

 

 

When we got off the ship we signed up for a hop on hop off tour of the island. We saw the entire island with info and Q&A from the driver who was really nice.

 

 

 

 

[pscruzinboyz]

Nice reveiw....We are RCL guys....but sail once a year on the 3 day cruise from Long Beach on the Inspriration so will look on the Carnival thread to see what is going on. We are doing somewhat the same cruise next December...how many nights and how was the weather? We are doing a 8 nighter...Saturday to Sunday. Thanks

 

Mike

[duncan449]

 

 

The old salt mines, used to be their source of income - but now it's tourism. They have 2 cruise ships at port 7 days a week!

 

 

After the tour we made our way down the beach to Jack's Shack! Great environment, if you visit the website before hand you can print out a coupon for a free shot of local made rum! It was so good my husband bought a bottle of it to bring home!

 

Best drink ever, the front is 'Bent over the Rainbow' in the back is a 'sandy vagina'. lol

[duncan449]

Nice reveiw....We are RCL guys....but sail once a year on the 3 day cruise from Long Beach on the Inspriration so will look on the Carnival thread to see what is going on. We are doing somewhat the same cruise next December...how many nights and how was the weather? We are doing a 8 nighter...Saturday to Sunday. Thanks

 

Mike

 

It was 7 nights, Sunday to Sunday. The weather was great for the most part. The few times that it rained we were at sea, and it only lasted a short while. The last night, on our way back to Miami we were coming into the front that pushed through, it got chilly and by midnight the seas were rocking. I found out the next morning that it was actually around 10ft + waves. We had a balcony room, and the furniture outside was moving around because of the wind. I actually got up and slide the door lock in because the wind was pulling the door out enough that it created a whistling!

[duncan449]

 

 

After having lunch and drinks at Jacks (The food & drinks are amazing there, as are the people!) we went back down the beach to rent snorkel equipment. My husband and dad snorkeled, I hung out and relaxed in the water taking pictures. The locals said not to leave your stuff anywhere on the beach because it would most likely go missing.

So if your visiting Grand Turk DON'T LEAVE YOUR STUFF ALONE. The lady in the snorkel hut held our bags behind the counter for us, I just didn't trust it enough to leave my expensive camera back there. lol

 

Gnomie floating away..

 

 

 

[duncan449]

 

When they were done snorkeling we made our way into the shops to find a t-shirt for my dad. (Every stop lol)

Do we have to go back to Miami?

 

 

 

This is one of my favorite pictures. It's like the default screen savers that come on your computer. lol This is the definition of relaxation.

 

[duncan449]

 

Good bye Grand Turk!

 

Nice shot of the moon.

 

Pool deck at night.

 

Putt Putt

 

It started raining during putt putt so we ran for cover. lol They had the courts blocked off so that you couldn't play... no explanations. I really didn't like that you couldn't play at anytime, and you had to check the equipment out, which wouldn't be a problem except that the hut was only open certain times of the day and even then there wasn't always a person in it. Disappointing.

[duncan449]

We ended up going to the 80's show in the theater. I didn't know 3/4's of what they were doing (I was born in 85...) but My husband knew most of it and what I did know what entertaining. lol

They were doing Thriller here:

 

Break dancers:

 

[duncan449]

Sea Day

 

Good Morning

 

We tried our hand at bean bag toss again. This time it was everyone for themselves, instead of teams. (We came in second during the team competition) Out of 35ish people I came in 6th, and my husband came in 2nd again. The same guy won both times too)

 

 

The lady running the competition kept trying to distract the guys, and on my husbands last throw she kicked her foot out and he hit the pole instead of her.. after she handed out awards, the guys played one more round just to see, and my husband won that one. lol

 

I spent a good portion of the day packing our stuff up as it had to be tagged and outside the door by midnight, but we did spend some time relaxing in the sun.

 

 

[duncan449]

Our last sunset, beautiful:

 

enjoying the last night

 

 

 

The later it got the more the weather changed, you could feel it getting colder. Around midnight you could really feel the movement in the ship. When we finally made it to bed, around 1:30 the wind was blowing so hard outside that our balcony furniture was moving around. I went out to make sure it wasn't going anywhere and there was more white in the water than blue because the waves were so big. I shut and locked the door because the wind was pulling on the door and causing the seal to separate and whistle loudly in the room. It was kind of crazy. At one point I nearly rolled out of the bed. lol I found out the next morning that it was 10+ ft waves. Crazy.

 

 

Good morning Miami...

[duncan449]

We arrived in Miami earlier than scheduled, so they started releasing people early. Our zone was supposed to get off at 10, we were off the ship, found our luggage, through customs, into a taxi and back at La Quinta by 9:30! WOW. I don't know if it's Carnival, or the Port of Miami - but getting on and off the ship was really fast and easy, the best I've ever been through!

 

 

My review up to this point has mostly just been pictures, so this is my overall review of the trip.

 

This is going to sound REALLY negative.. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed my vacation - why wouldn't you when you are given a new place to discover each day that you wake up?! Given the chance, I will choose cruising for every vacation!

BUT - it will not be on Carnival.

 

There were a handful of crew members that were nice, for the most part they were rude and acted as if you were beneath them, or they just didn't have time for you. There wasn't a full set of working elevators on the ship. At least 1 at each set had a 'sorry' sign on it. During debarkation's they disabled the elevators from going down to 0, so everyone was pushing and shoving down the stairs. At one point I was pushed so hard I nearly fell down a flight, and I would have had there not been a hoard of people in front of me to land on. We were all going to the same place... did you really need to get off a few minutes earlier than everyone else?! It was the same for the sales that were held in the fun shops. I was jabbed in the back with watch boxes more than once by several ladies during the watch sale because they were trying to get to the next table. ***?! Is that overpriced watch set really worth that? Another lady was grabbed by her arm and moved out of the way during the bracelet sale and had fingerprint bruises on her arm later that night! (I wasn't there for the sale, but she showed me the bruises when we got on the subject of rude guests) I don't think I've been around that many rude people all at once... between the crew and guests. wow.

 

The food wasn't good at all. There were gaps in the activities when there would be nothing to do, and then all of a sudden there are 4 or 5 things at the same time that you want to do... so unless you were in the pool, casino or at the bar there wasn't a lot to do at times. Bingo was overpriced for what you get, maybe 20 minutes of play, and that's when the machine was malfunctioning. The last night my husband was cut off from the bar... they scanned his card to print the receipt and then said they couldn't serve him anymore. He was pissed, because he really wasn't drunk and he wasn't causing a problem or anything. He asked for a manager, and security ended up being called - turns out they cut him off based on the amount of drinks he had signed for during the day. Well, the majority if the drinks weren't even his. At dinner that night the waiter put all of our drinks on his card even though we tried to hand our cards over too. So he had my dad's 2 or 3 drinks, my 3 drinks, my mom had 1 or 2 - and he had a couple himself - but that was over a course of several hours... after security discussed it with my husband and the head bar tender they overturned the bar tender and moved him to a different bar for the night. But while all of that was going on the bar tenders were ignoring the both of us, and all I wanted was a glass of water! I had to get someone else on the other side of the bar to get it for me. Even the people sitting around us were being neglected ... One of the main guys in the white suites, I forget his name, eventually came down to the bar and apologized to him but what does that really do.. we spent over an hour dealing with it. I ended up going back to the room to finish packing our stuff while he was dealing with because our time limit was nearly up to get our bags out into the hallway. When I made it back down there to check on things I was over it, I got a glass of water and went back to the room. I didn't want anything else to do with the whole place, that was my deciding factor on Carnival.

 

some of the photographers were really pushy and if you didn't pose the way they wanted you to they wouldn't take the pictures.. well I'm sorry if I don't want to get on my hands and knees in the middle of the floor and pose like a mermaid... just take a picture of us standing together. nope. ugh Once you fought with them to take the pictures you go to the gallery to find that portraits are $22 EACH, and 5x7's of you exiting the ports are $12 EACH... and there are no combination packages, and if you want a digital copy of your pictures you have to pay another $10 EACH. *** On RC you by the picture, or you can pay one price and get all of your pictures and have them all put on a cd for you. I was so shocked going from that to this. I threw away nearly all of our pictures, only choosing a select few to purchase.

 

The atmosphere on this ship was so far from holiday spirit.. there were a couple of small trees and wreaths along the walls, but they just blended in with the gaudy decorations of the ship. Sure, they made it snow for a few minutes one day, and Brandon wore a santa hat, and the last day there was a santa walking around taking pictures... but nothing about this cruise said Christmas.

I know you shouldn't compare one to the other..

but on last years RC Christmas cruise there was a giant tree, and there was always a santa somewhere. The entire ship was decorated, there was music, and even xmas carolers. Oh, and they even had a xmas party where santa handed our presents to the kids. It was just a RC fleece blanket, but it was something.

 

To me there is no comparison. RC cares about its passengers and wants them to keep coming back. Carnival just wants more $...

 

I hate that this is so negative, it sounds (even to me) that I had an awful time - and that's not what I'm saying. I DID enjoy my time away from home, and I am glad that we went on Carnival as I enjoyed the ports and now I will no longer wonder. I think the annoyances on the last night caused all the bad to out weighed the good in my mind.

 

You never know until you try, and now I KNOW that I am a RC girl!

 

I'm not saying you shouldn't sail Carnival. If you haven't tried them, please try it at least once. You never know, it may be your cup of tea - but I can't even get a glass of water there! :rolleyes:

 

 

THANK YOU for reading my late night ramblings. I hope you enjoy all of your future cruises! :D

[duncan449]

Here are some random shot from out trip home:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[iluvthe-c]

Thanks for the review. I will be on the Valor Feb 24th but doing the Southern Caribbean route. I have a couple questions.... did you buy the soda card sticker and what kind of juices were available with that? Were the dining rooms, theaters, and other public areas inside the ship too cold from the air conditioning being cranked? Thanks.

[boaterette]

I enjoyed your review. Thank you for taking the time to post it and the pictures. I sail a lot of different cruise lines and they all have something for me.

[duncan449]

Thanks for the review. I will be on the Valor Feb 24th but doing the Southern Caribbean route. I have a couple questions.... did you buy the soda card sticker and what kind of juices were available with that? Were the dining rooms, theaters, and other public areas inside the ship too cold from the air conditioning being cranked? Thanks.

 

My husband purchased the soda sticker, but the only thing he used it for was Coke - so I'm not sure what juices were available with it. Sorry. In the buffet room there are fountain drink machines that serve Orange/Mango, Orange juice, and apple juice for breakfast - and lemonade for lunch/dinner. Water is there all day too. They are open all day long though and it's free without the card.

I only needed my jacket getting on and off the ship in Miami. Sometimes it was even a little warm... we had the ac in our room turned up on high the whole time and were still a little too warm at times. We did have a balcony room though, so I'm sure the glass wall had a lot to do with that.

[chipq]

Great information in your review. Thanks for sharing.

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

[patrickt888]

We arrived in Miami earlier than scheduled, so they started releasing people early. Our zone was supposed to get off at 10, we were off the ship, found our luggage, through customs, into a taxi and back at La Quinta by 9:30! WOW. I don't know if it's Carnival, or the Port of Miami - but getting on and off the ship was really fast and easy, the best I've ever been through!

 

 

My review up to this point has mostly just been pictures, so this is my overall review of the trip.

 

This is going to sound REALLY negative.. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed my vacation - why wouldn't you when you are given a new place to discover each day that you wake up?! Given the chance, I will choose cruising for every vacation!

BUT - it will not be on Carnival.

 

There were a handful of crew members that were nice, for the most part they were rude and acted as if you were beneath them, or they just didn't have time for you. There wasn't a full set of working elevators on the ship. At least 1 at each set had a 'sorry' sign on it. During debarkation's they disabled the elevators from going down to 0, so everyone was pushing and shoving down the stairs. At one point I was pushed so hard I nearly fell down a flight, and I would have had there not been a hoard of people in front of me to land on. We were all going to the same place... did you really need to get off a few minutes earlier than everyone else?! It was the same for the sales that were held in the fun shops. I was jabbed in the back with watch boxes more than once by several ladies during the watch sale because they were trying to get to the next table. ***?! Is that overpriced watch set really worth that? Another lady was grabbed by her arm and moved out of the way during the bracelet sale and had fingerprint bruises on her arm later that night! (I wasn't there for the sale, but she showed me the bruises when we got on the subject of rude guests) I don't think I've been around that many rude people all at once... between the crew and guests. wow.

 

The food wasn't good at all. There were gaps in the activities when there would be nothing to do, and then all of a sudden there are 4 or 5 things at the same time that you want to do... so unless you were in the pool, casino or at the bar there wasn't a lot to do at times. Bingo was overpriced for what you get, maybe 20 minutes of play, and that's when the machine was malfunctioning. The last night my husband was cut off from the bar... they scanned his card to print the receipt and then said they couldn't serve him anymore. He was pissed, because he really wasn't drunk and he wasn't causing a problem or anything. He asked for a manager, and security ended up being called - turns out they cut him off based on the amount of drinks he had signed for during the day. Well, the majority if the drinks weren't even his. At dinner that night the waiter put all of our drinks on his card even though we tried to hand our cards over too. So he had my dad's 2 or 3 drinks, my 3 drinks, my mom had 1 or 2 - and he had a couple himself - but that was over a course of several hours... after security discussed it with my husband and the head bar tender they overturned the bar tender and moved him to a different bar for the night. But while all of that was going on the bar tenders were ignoring the both of us, and all I wanted was a glass of water! I had to get someone else on the other side of the bar to get it for me. Even the people sitting around us were being neglected ... One of the main guys in the white suites, I forget his name, eventually came down to the bar and apologized to him but what does that really do.. we spent over an hour dealing with it. I ended up going back to the room to finish packing our stuff while he was dealing with because our time limit was nearly up to get our bags out into the hallway. When I made it back down there to check on things I was over it, I got a glass of water and went back to the room. I didn't want anything else to do with the whole place, that was my deciding factor on Carnival.

 

some of the photographers were really pushy and if you didn't pose the way they wanted you to they wouldn't take the pictures.. well I'm sorry if I don't want to get on my hands and knees in the middle of the floor and pose like a mermaid... just take a picture of us standing together. nope. ugh Once you fought with them to take the pictures you go to the gallery to find that portraits are $22 EACH, and 5x7's of you exiting the ports are $12 EACH... and there are no combination packages, and if you want a digital copy of your pictures you have to pay another $10 EACH. *** On RC you by the picture, or you can pay one price and get all of your pictures and have them all put on a cd for you. I was so shocked going from that to this. I threw away nearly all of our pictures, only choosing a select few to purchase.

 

The atmosphere on this ship was so far from holiday spirit.. there were a couple of small trees and wreaths along the walls, but they just blended in with the gaudy decorations of the ship. Sure, they made it snow for a few minutes one day, and Brandon wore a santa hat, and the last day there was a santa walking around taking pictures... but nothing about this cruise said Christmas.

I know you shouldn't compare one to the other..

but on last years RC Christmas cruise there was a giant tree, and there was always a santa somewhere. The entire ship was decorated, there was music, and even xmas carolers. Oh, and they even had a xmas party where santa handed our presents to the kids. It was just a RC fleece blanket, but it was something.

 

To me there is no comparison. RC cares about its passengers and wants them to keep coming back. Carnival just wants more $...

 

I hate that this is so negative, it sounds (even to me) that I had an awful time - and that's not what I'm saying. I DID enjoy my time away from home, and I am glad that we went on Carnival as I enjoyed the ports and now I will no longer wonder. I think the annoyances on the last night caused all the bad to out weighed the good in my mind.

 

You never know until you try, and now I KNOW that I am a RC girl!

 

I'm not saying you shouldn't sail Carnival. If you haven't tried them, please try it at least once. You never know, it may be your cup of tea - but I can't even get a glass of water there! :rolleyes:

 

 

THANK YOU for reading my late night ramblings. I hope you enjoy all of your future cruises! :D

 

We were on this same cruise, and there were a total of 17 of us (friends and families). I have to agree with you 100% that a lot of the staffs are terrible. our family would never cruise with Carnival again. I found the staffs are trained to be like robots. They are very good at doing the daily routines. However when there is something wrong, they do not handle it well. Most of our problems were with the staffs of the Washington dinning room.

 

With that said, we did enjoy the cruise experience with friends and families.

[Crusin Karen]

Enjoyed reading this and loved your pictures. GT and HMC are both my FAVORITE ports of call. If you loved GT, you would flip over HMC! Question about SJ: what was the fort with the cemetary? You said you walked. How long did it take you and would you advise this? TIA and happy cruising to you and your DH.

[AmberTeka]

I loved your review. I enjoyed the pics of Grand Turk. We are booked on a six day on the Breeze in May, and one reason I booked was Grand Turk. We have never been. The second..Key West. My Favorite port.

 

We are VIP on Carnival, so we have sailed some on them. And we are booked again. But for a Christmas Cruise, I would book Princess. I think you can get past guest rates with them..if you mention being on Carnival..and their sales can be great. The reason why I suggest that..and both lines are owned by Carnival..is that my DH and I were on the Caribbean Princess over New Year's. The Christmas Decorations were still up. Every time we saw a tree..I would call a Christmas Alert...because he had grumped about cruising on a Holiday. I remember..the HUGE Tree in the Plaza..The Gingerbread House that was four stories tall..Trees on every floor by the Main Elevator..On the Promenade Deck..where we played Trivia a lot.. A big tree by the back elevators was our marker for which elevator took us to our MDR. Strange elevator arrangement. Wreaths...Poinsettias everywhere..It really made a holiday feeling. They had the champagne FfountationI think on Two Nights...One was NYEve. And that..wow. Huge Ballon Drop. Parties on DecK In the Plaza. At dinner everyone was given hats and horns. Then rooty tooty sounds were heard all

night. We caught it early ..on sale...and it was worth every penny.

 

So...Carnival..I love certain ships..Freedom..Fascination.. We sail the Dream a lot because it is close..but...they cannot get their dining situation right..love the ship

but Princess.. For Holiday...I mean they go the distance. You would be having a Christmas alert every time you turned a corner.

I don't think the Valor has ever gotten real good reviews. The Freedom..The Liberty..The Dream...do. So does the Fascination..that little old boat...I just love it.

Happy sailings dear. Again..I loved your pictures.

[Crusin Karen]

I loved your review. I enjoyed the pics of Grand Turk. We are booked on a six day on the Breeze in May, and one reason I booked was Grand Turk. We have never been. The second..Key West. My Favorite port.

 

We are VIP on Carnival, so we have sailed some on them. And we are booked again. But for a Christmas Cruise, I would book Princess. I think you can get past guest rates with them..if you mention being on Carnival..and their sales can be great. The reason why I suggest that..and both lines are owned by Carnival..is that my DH and I were on the Caribbean Princess over New Year's. The Christmas Decorations were still up. Every time we saw a tree..I would call a Christmas Alert...because he had grumped about cruising on a Holiday. I remember..the HUGE Tree in the Plaza..The Gingerbread House that was four stories tall..Trees on every floor by the Main Elevator..On the Promenade Deck..where we played Trivia a lot.. A big tree by the back elevators was our marker for which elevator took us to our MDR. Strange elevator arrangement. Wreaths...Poinsettias everywhere..It really made a holiday feeling. They had the champagne FfountationI think on Two Nights...One was NYEve. And that..wow. Huge Ballon Drop. Parties on DecK In the Plaza. At dinner everyone was given hats and horns. Then rooty tooty sounds were heard all

night. We caught it early ..on sale...and it was worth every penny.

 

So...Carnival..I love certain ships..Freedom..Fascination.. We sail the Dream a lot because it is close..but...they cannot get their dining situation right..love the ship

but Princess.. For Holiday...I mean they go the distance. You would be having a Christmas alert every time you turned a corner.

I don't think the Valor has ever gotten real good reviews. The Freedom..The Liberty..The Dream...do. So does the Fascination..that little old boat...I just love it.

Happy sailings dear. Again..I loved your pictures.

Wow...that sounds awesome. And you don't even have to put the decorations up or take them down! ;);)OP, if you ever want to give CCL another try, sail on a Spirit class ship. Have never been on the Pride, but Spirit, Miracle and Legend are great ships. And find one that stops at HMC! :D:cool:

[Crusin Karen]

Oh, BTW, unless things have changed, even tho CCL owns Princess, you can't get "credit" for a CCL cruise on Princess and visa versa. :(

[Cruiser 2 too]

Great review and pictures!

[gelo7]

Very nice review.