Valor 5/29/05... REVIEW!

[Esmerelda]

First off, let me start by saying….I have traveled w/Carnival before so cruising is not new to me. After reading over their choices….I chose the Valor on May 29, 2005. We were getting married on Saturday, May 28 so we needed something quite close to that date. I chose the Valor for its newness since I’ve never sailed on a newer ship so to speak. My past experiences were the Sensation and the Triumph. I went with an open mind and lots of patience (which is generally me anyhow…I make everyday a great day if you will). I purposely did not read a lot of reviews so as to not taint my experience. I wanted my honeymoon to go wonderfully!!

 

Flying from our hometown into Miami went quite smooth. Once we arrived at the airport, we noticed a lot of folks spoke Spanish! I haven’t brushed up on Spanish in many many years..lol It was hard to understand some people. We met our limo driver (Ambassador Limosine was great) right on time and after 1+ hours, American managed to locate our luggage? (have no clue…there were at least 80 of us that our luggage was “mis” placed??) We were off and quite excited. My new husband had never sailed before on a cruise ship so this was all new to him. (he was a Marine however, but those ships don’t count ;) We arrived at the port at around 12-12:30pm. Of course, it was bumper to bumper and a nightmare. It took quite a while to make it up to where we were supposed to be. Our limo driver dropped us right in front of those big bins that they throw your luggage into. SPOILER: We hopped out of the limo, and before I could warn my new husband…we heard this familiar saying “don’t forget…this is the last time you will see me or your luggage…we don’t want anything to happen to it, spread the love mon”. He of course tipped the guy much to my dismay!!! I was so upset that I didn’t warn him. The porter moved our bags all of 2 feet into the bin. I looked him straight in the eye and told him I had better see my bags again or he would see me again! I did get his name and I will make a note in my letter to Carnival about that whole experience…it’s the biggest bunch of bullSh*t I’ve ever seen. These guys are paid already and our bags were right by the bin. I weigh a mere 114 and I could move all my own bags. I believe in tipping for good service but this was not the case here. They lifted 3 bags 2 feet…wow. Note: these guys are not the guys that get your luggage to your room…they are only contracted to work at the port.

 

EMBARKTION: SPOILER: This was again a nightmare beyond all belief. My other two cruises were never this bad. We waited in the hot sun for probably well over an hour to an hour and a half before we started to move. I felt very sorry for the families with small children as the sun was beating down and we were on blacktop…yikes! Once, we started to move, we were inside the building in about 30-40 minutes. We both had water bottles in our hands but they were empty by the time we reached the security checkpoint. Their sign reads “no food or drink allowed”. The security guy tells me to throw out my empty water bottle? I told him…sorry, I was going to reuse it on the cruise so I wanted to keep it. He again got nasty with me and said throw it out. I reinformed him it was an EMPTY bottle…he got even nastier with me. I said what if I was a diabetic and needed lots of water? His exact words were “I don’t care what you are…GET RID of the bottle!!” Five minutes later, we saw folks with half empty coke bottles…full bottles of water etc right out in plain sight..? It made no sense to me. My new husband was lost on the whole thing as well as me. This guy was the rudest of all so far. The desk folks were fine (they work for Carnival) and were very polite to us. We were finished at the desk within about 10 minutes. We then moved onto the “sail and sign” card area. Once again: some very rude and obnoxious lady tells me that one of us needs to go sit down...and one of us can get room keys? I told her there were only two of us….but she didn’t care. She was being rude to everyone that came thru there. I eventually had my new husband hop the line to stand we me so we wouldn’t get separated. At this point, I think my new husband is thinking a cruise was NOT a good idea for our honeymoon as everyone seemed to have a bee in their bonnet !! LOL…(to be honest with you...I had that same thought…)

 

We then were on the ship within about 15 minutes from that point. Our whole embarkation process took approximately 2.75 hours from start to finish. I have never been caught in this type of mess before with my other 2 cruises. If I had never sailed before…I would have never done so again after this beginning.

 

Our cabin was ready…7434 and our room steward was AWESOME!! Her name was Chitlada and she was the sweetest person I’ve ever had for a room steward. Our room was decorated for our honeymoon with the little streamers etc hanging from the ceiling and it had a super nice balcony!! Carnival also had sent us a bottle of champagne. We had brought 2 bottles of wine and one bottle of champagne on our own so we were starting to look like lushes! LOL… Chitlada unlocked the honor bar and we emptied out most of the small bottles so we could put our bottles in there to get cold. I’ve heard others say they won’t do this…we had absolutely no problem when we asked our room steward. It worked out great for us. We had lunch on the lido deck then later on dinner in the dining room. Our servers were awesome! I can’t say as we ever had a bad meal but I’m not a super picky eater either. Everything always tasted very good and was always fresh. We brought our bottles of wine and champagne with us to the dining room and were never charged a fee for uncorking. Our servers were James and Bela and they were awesome. I will say that the dining room décor left a little to be desired. (all that pink..?)

 

We both enjoyed shopping in the little jewelry shop. We got to know the folks in there quite well and they were the nicest group I’ve ever met! Say hi to Tina, Jimmy, Andrew and Richard when your onboard. They are terrific! We discovered back home that the Citizens watch we bought and my tanzanite ring were a TRUE bargain! J

 

We ate at Scarlett’s twice during our week and it was lovely. The food was awesome. We would definitely recommend it to anyone on board.

 

Spoiler: our cabin was located on the aft end of the ship which in my opinion was a good place to be. We were close to Rosie’s and all. We went to the “ADULT” only hot tub at least 3 times and all 3 times witnessed children in the hot tub! I am a mom myself and I would never allow my children to go into an adults only hot tub. Finally the third time I witness three small children…all under the age of 5 in the one hot tub with their dad. I promptly went and complained to a worker on that deck. His exact response: “well, their in there with their dad, there is nothing we can do. They are being supervised”…..???? What the hell that has to do with it is totally beyond me?? I reminded him it was an “adults only” hot tub and he just shrugged his shoulders and went on. Needless to say, we gave up the “adult only” hot tub after that….it was a beyond ridiculous response to both myself and my new husband. I even called the pursors office upon arrival to our cabin and explained the situation. Their response: “well, we have a lot of folks on the ship, its hard for security to keep up….we’ll try to send someone up”…..? Forget it….don’t even bother at this point pal. (don’t misinterpret this that I don’t like kids…but this was my honeymoon and this should have only been only ADULTS just as the casinos are only adults)

 

Ports: we got off in Belize only to shop at the pier. You had to be tendered in and this took a long time. I’m not sure but there is some glitch in Carnival’s system. It took hours to let everyone exit that wanted too? We waited a very long time. Belize was nice but I’m glad we didn’t’ venture outside of the pier area. We exited in Honduras first off the ship. We went to the Sante Fe Wellness Center. This place was the BEST place I’ve ever been too from a ship. We had massages…had this huge place to ourselves (one other couple got off with us)….had a lovely breakfast...a plunge pool. It was a nice quiet change from the ship and we truly enjoyed ourselves. Thanks Angela and Leon! We had our best massages ever there! We didn’t even exit in the Caymans because the weather was nasty. (FYI: I did not see anyone get into a life boat either…the boats we saw came from the pier. Our room was right on the side so we could see everything and these were NOT lifeboats). We of course exited in Cozumel and really enjoyed our day there. We swam with the dolphins….snorkeled…ate twice…lol…shopped. It was really a nice afternoon.

 

We enjoyed a couple of the shows. The eighties show was very good….the late night adult comedian was hysterical. However, I can’t say as we enjoyed the talent show. There were 6 folks that sang and only 2 of them really could. I can’t understand why they chose these people? Maybe the choices were slim? We even left before it ended. Sadly enough, it usually is my favorite show. It was quite disappointing this round.

 

Self disembarkation: this was the ONLY way to get off of this ship in my opinion. We waited until 15 minutes after they initially announced it before we left our cabin. We walked out of our room at 0745 and were in a cab by 0815heading to the airport…it was great!!

 

GOOD POINTS: new ship...great cabin location...awesome room steward.

The dining room staff....Scarletts restaurant....jewelry shop staff...the SanteFe Wellness Spa in Belize...Dolphin swim in Cozumel...self disembarkation. (we even tipped above and beyond standard amount in person for our room steward and our dining room servers:) Meeting some wonderful Cruise Critic folks!

 

BAD POINTS: the spa had issues (no time to write about it)...tendering in to a port...embarkation (YIKES!)..nasty employees prior to getting on the ship..the "adult" only hot tubs that weren't for adults...room service was very hit or miss?...$20 for every picture?...very smoky casino...going thru the cigar bar to get to the internet cafe to email my kids was disgusting..the speaker in our room didn't work so we had to open our door to hear any announcements..:(

 

Afterthoughts: we did enjoy our cruise for the most part AFTER we got onto the ship. The Valor was not what I expected though and I almost think I enjoyed the Triumph more two years ago. Overall on a scale of 1 to 10, I would give the Valor maybe a 7. Were we disappointed with all the other issues?…you bet. I almost feel bad for my new husband as his first cruise experience could have been much better. He is a real trooper though…we are already planning another one next year! LOL….Are we sailing with Carnival again? .I can’t say at this point but I’m guessing…no (sad face…) I think we will try another cruise line this time.

 

Let the flaming begin….sorry folks..no one was more disappointed than me.

Esmerelda

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

I understand what your going through :rolleyes: When I was on other cruises (even on Royal Caribbean) the adult pools were filled with children. No one does anything about it really :( I'm going to do the Dolphin swim in Cozumel :) I'm doing stringray thing (for the second time) in Cozumel. In Belize we are doing a reef and snorkeling to see the fish. In Roatan we are going to Tabyana beach. We are also going to try Scarletts one night. What did you think of the cruise director, Brent Mitchell?

[Cruisin Dave]

Great review. I have had the same experience with the hot tubs and I blame the parents more than the children. Been to Belize twice and once you get away from the city Belize is a beautiful country. Did you book the Sante Fe Wellness Center through CCL or on your own? This sounds like the perfect birthday present for my wife on our cruise in October. Thanks again for the informative review.

Dave

[noothername]

We were on that cruise also. Have to say agree with problems boarding the ship, but had one boarding experience that was even worse (Carnival too) have to say RCCL and Princess does this better. This is something they need to work on. We also did self disembarkation and it was a breese. We had tried it last year and it was a disaster however it was after we were "stuck" on a 7 day cruise for 9 days due to the hurricaines so everyone was anxious to get off, this time was much better and probably the norm. We did not encounter any rude staff, our cabin steward was very efficient but I would term him the "invisable man" we did not see him much. I guess he was just not the outgoing type, same with the dinning room staff we had. Food was good I always take in to consideration the amout of people they are feeding at one time and therefore consider it a nice meal when you look at that. We did go the Scarletts and that was WONDERFUL I think this is the type af meal we all wish the dinning room was like. It was worth the extra splurge.

 

I do have to say I did see the Staff removing children from the adult only hot tubs, I guess it depended on who was working.

 

I enjoyed all the ports and had booked tours indendently, Belize cave tubing,

Roatan- horseback and beach, Cayman-stingrays,turtle farm (and We went when the carnival tours were cancelled) Coz-Snorkle tour-3 reefs, Thay were all great and would recommend them.

 

All in all it was a great cruise, we had asked for a large dinning table and got a table for 4, I like a larger group, think it is more interesting. I tought the ship was pretty, even the lime green Rosies, the only thing I didn't like was the RED chairs in the main seating area where the piano was (don't think they matched well)

 

We could not make it to the eagle lounge after the muster drill but I did not see any green and yellow lias around (darn)

 

back to work tomorrow:mad:

[Cruising89143]

Thanks for writing a great review. Very well balanced.

 

There has been many discussions on this board about the porters at the ports of embarkation. They work for the port and not the cruise lines and regardless of which line you cruise they are all the same. Basically they have you over a barrell. It would be so easy to rip off the room tags if they feel their tip wasn't adequate. I believe in tipping and tip well but some of these guys have rubbed me the wrong way over the years.

 

Hopefully Carnival's embarkation process in Miami will get better as they are moving to new terminals later this year. The terminals that they currently occupy were not built for the number of passengers that the new ships hold. They will now be next to Royal Caribbean. Much better traffic flow and not bottle necked down in the cargo area. I have to say that RCI has the embarkation process down where they check passengers in by deck and you do everything in one stop including getting your Sea Pass card. Ships are clearing later than they used to due to the new immigration policies. This is causing ships to start loading the next set of guests later.

 

I hope that your next cruise is better. I suggest that you look into one of the Princess Grand class ships or RCI's Voyager class.

 

Again thanks for sharing your review.

[Cruising89143]

We did not encounter any rude staff, our cabin steward was very efficient but I would term him the "invisable man" we did not see him much.

:mad:

 

I have to wonder if I'm the only person that does not want to see my cabin steward every day? They usually introduce themselves on the first day and I go over the things that I need. As long as the room is cleaned each day then that is OK with me. I leave a note on the bed if I need something.

 

I had a steward on the Glory a few years ago that was a royal PIA. She would stop in and out of the cabin several times a day to bring in things that should have been handled when she did the morning room cleaning and would knock even if the Do not disturb was on the door. By mid week I put a stop to that.

[Cyt4SoreEyes]

Just returned form the Valor and seen this thread and seen where someone asked about the cruise xdirector..he was terrible!!!!!!!

[Cyt4SoreEyes]

We were onboard with in 45 minutes of waiting in line...its always better to get to the Port early than later. Try going at 10 am or 10 15 am for those planning cruise on Valor reading. I have to agree with the OP the people thru out that whole terminal there were some rude and some nice. And just from reading her comments I know exactly which lady it was who was giving her hell about one sitting..she gave me hell because I din't want to give my kids their Birth Certififcates while waiting to approach the Customs Ppl..I still had a long ways to go till reaching them and wasn't gonna take a chance on my kids ruinging any of them. Disembarkaton is what I called welcome to hell! Was the worst I have ever been thru and I have been on about 9 cruises maybe ten. Also wanted to mention the porters who take your bags to the bins as well..one guy was in such a rush he rolled right over my ankle bone with one of the largest suit cases I have ever seen..that pretty much put a damper on the first part of my cruise as I was in some pain and the elevators werent turned on yet excpet for one..which was a pain in the Butt as well.

[genxian]

I was on this cruise as well. My room was 7424 so I was in the same area as the OP. My sister got married to my best friend on the ship in Miami so we were some of the very first people on the boat, and we never had to wait outside.

 

Having been on many other Carnival cruises I have to say I was slightly disappointed with the Valor. The room seemed smaller than say the Ecstasy style rooms. The boat was smokey, and the Cigar bar was gross. We really enjoyed the pool and hottubs on deck nine in the back of the boat.

 

If you all have any questions let me know, I agree with most of what was stated above, but overall I would say 8/10 for the cruise, we had a fabulous time even with some of the stated problems.

[Esmerelda]

Ooops...forgot to put the word "review" in my title...thanks Randy!

 

 

Esmerelda :)

[ElCruiso]

Non-smokers always whinning about smokers. If smoke bothers you common sense would dictate you not go in the CIGAR BAR, because it is obviously a smoking area. And then the few areas on board that do allow smoking are usually occupied by people who don't smoke and whine about those around them that are. Personally I smoke mostly in my Cabin and definitly only in areas where it is allowed. There are no areas for DRUNKS ONLY so they bother everybody everywhere, as do some children whose parents give them the run of the ship. As with everything everywhere all is not perfect, but a Cruise is what you make of it. If you are there to enjoy yourself you will, and if you are there only to whine I'm sure you will do that as well. I was on the Valor in April and had an excellent Cruise, my wife is handicapped so you don't even want to know the extras we had to put up with. We enjoy ourselves in spite of obstacles and don't look for them. :rolleyes:

[Esmerelda]

Hi CruisinDave,

I booked the Sante Fe Wellness Spa online before I left. I believe its

http://www.santewellnesscenter.com This had to be the most wonderful time off of a ship I've ever spent! The home of Angela and Leon is absolutely stunning and they are such nice folks! The massage we had there made the one on the ship look pathetic and it was less than half the price! I would recommend this side trip to anyone visiting Honduras. It was time and money very well spent. Best wishes on your next sailing...

 

Esmerelda :)

[Susky]

Thanks for the info in Sante, Esmerelda. We booked it for a few of our ladies (while the guys head out for some other activities), and it's great to know they'll be well taken care of.

[Forchunut1]

Non-smokers always whinning about smokers. If smoke bothers you common sense would dictate you not go in the CIGAR BAR, because it is obviously a smoking area.

 

The problem on the Valor is that you have to walk through the cigar bar in order to get to the internet cafe to use the computers. It is a very odd set up and almost seems like they did this as an afterthought. But, it means there is no way to avoid the cigar bar if you want to use the internet.