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Review - Valor - S. Caribbean - May 5 - May 12, 2013 (not quite 100% but close)

Retiringworkingstiff

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Retiringworkingstiff

Retiringworkingstiff

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You're right. That's an odd itinerary to require an English speaking participant.

 

Like your wife, my daughter and I settled on the train in St. Kitts as well, and the price was fair, and the excursion was OK. We would recommend it mainly because it is different from most other excursions offered on the islands.

 

St. Kitts is the one island I would like to fly back to, for an odd reason. It had more butterflies than I've seen on any other Caribbean port. I spend lots and lots of my free time photographing nature, and my biggest interest is creepy crawlie critters, as well as not-so-creepy flying critters. If I could have gotten away with it, I would have jumped from the train and run off to take nature photos.

" ... creepy crawlie critters, as well as not-so-creepy flying critters ..."

 

Your are one brave soul!

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CallieS

CallieS

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Posted
Told my wife we can get a champagne cocktail (orange juice with champagne available up here in Canada). Waiter never heard of champagne cocktail???

 

This drink is called a mimosa here in the US. Maybe the waiter would have known it by that name.

 

Great review!! I've really enjoyed reading it.

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Retiringworkingstiff

Retiringworkingstiff

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Wrap Up (I promised, no more making of a short story long), this is it … FINIDO.

 

Some loose ends, some might not be under Carnival’s jurisdiction or control:

 

• A bit surprised how scare the sight of another Asian looking person on this cruise. On Allure last summer, tons!

 

• Scrambled eggs, thanks everyone, avoided that at the buffet counter. We went to the Omelette Station and had our eggs over easy, fresh.

 

• Over the duration of the cruise, I must have interacted with 30+ different individuals, personnel on board, with eye contact. With the exception of 2, all have this genuine smile when they greet you. I am near 60, believe me, I can tell! Not just “good morning Sir" and then turned the other way, there is actually interaction when I responded by saying “I am good, how are you this morning” and they would say “very good Sir”. Celebrity, yes the Room Steward did that, no one else. Allure, nothing like that at all anywhere. To be honest, first 2 cruises on Carnival wasn’t like that either.

 

2 exceptions are (really no big deal, hey, I have a Bad Hair Day once in a while too), but here we go:

 

- Of everyone, a person of supervisory capacity, behind the buffet counter didn’t know where I can get a soup spoon when I enquired, not only that, told me to look for it myself. Actually, I “discovered they were only 2 feet to the right of me, to her left, on top of the counter but nicely placed underneath a table napkin”.

 

- Someone, below waiter level, in the Washington Dining Room rudely asked me what I was doing walking into the premises outside of dining hours. There are 30 different ways to say something, some tact would be nice. Basically I told the joker, if you don’t want anyone in here, closed the doors.

 

• Day of embarkation, before reaching the scanner, some kid in uniform rather rudely told me (ordered me the way I felt) to stand back. OK OK OK, I didn’t see any sign saying DO NOT CROSS THIS LINE and I wasn’t even anywhere within 3 feet of the person in front of me. Again, some tact would be nice. The line he was referring to is there after I looked, it was quite fainted. There were 3 other “security officers” working there, none of them felt I was a problem as far as I can tell, neither do any other passengers from what I gathered. This is an area I wasn’t sure is actually under Carnival’s jurisdiction (can’t recall seeing any name badges etc. I am old enough to not let that type of thing bothers me, not a big deal. As far as I am concerned, the kid is low level, making minimum wage, to move life forward, he better learn - real fast, he looks like he is at least 25).

 

• First or second day after embarkation, bacon somehow was only available on request, i.e. you have to ask the person behind the counter to give you some. It is within sight but you have to ask for it. I like my bacon in the morning, wonder why they started “rationing”.

 

• In the buffet, they always have a flexi glass in front of you, to get to the goodies (food), the space between the bottom of the flexi glass and the large pans containing the food is quite narrow, holding a tong to grab the food can sometimes be difficult. For individuals senior to me, that configuration presents challenges.

 

• Pizza – tried it a couple of times, crispy thin crust, the way I like them. I know certain individuals on these forums don’t like their pizza that way, so that’s all relative. Only problem is I am weird in terms of food, like our son always tells me, no anchovies? (don’t know if the guy at the pizza station was pulling my leg). They had that in the Allure but you have to ask, can't remember what the situation on Celebrity was.

 

• Forgot what they called it on the cruise, it was the Meet the Captain event, a bit disappointed, no Hors d'oeuvre was served, no free drinks either. No sure why I expected that though or if it is fair for me to expect that? This is one example of a small detail that would not be a deal breaker in deciding if we want to go on another Carnival cruise.

 

• Certain posters had commented on passengers who are locals from Puerto Rico, loud, budding in lines at the buffet etc. I didn’t see any of that at all. They were all courteous, “law abiding” in terms of equitee. The elders, they all looked like they worked their way up, finally a chance to have some quality time with their grandkids. Now if that doesn’t get you some respect, you have a problem, not them. Yes, I did hear some kids talking loud in the hallway around 9 pm - 10 pm, nothing too serious and that didn’t last long. They were near the section of the deck near us either but that's not why I am qualifying the situation, they weren't there for long, period.

 

• The bed covers (at least in our room) looked wrinkled daily, maybe I am shooting for perfection which one never gets. Certainly not O T's fault, our Room Steward. Another one of those “not a deal breaker”.

 

• For our next cruise, hopefully first week of September, first week of December, all 2013 or first week of January 2014, all depends on workload which is paramount. The decision rest on the marginal expense others vs. Carnival. Carnival is cheap cheap cheap (at least for the next 6 months I hazard to predict provided everything is smooth sailing for the next say 3 months and nothing drastic happen with any of the other say 4 main stream cruise lines (be they under the Carnival HQ or not (I mean HAL, Princess, Cunard etc.). My take is if the spread is around $3,000 between the 2 of us, we MIGHT try Celebrity again, or HAL (after I heard from a HAL faithful client of mine that everything is not dead after 9:30 am), or Carnival again but a balcony or up. There are choices!

 

Thanks everyone for reading, I got a lot of tips from Cruise Critic, specifically in respect to Carnival this time. In my small way, payback time. With very much respect … adios.

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larkz

larkz

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Posted

Wish you had done a back-to-back, with 7 more days to write about!

 

I agree with you, I found the people who sailed from PR and nearby islands to be quite friendly and courteous. I loved hearing the Spanish language spoken so much around the ship. No harm to me, and it sounds better than English IMO, even if I don't know what they're saying.

 

I also enjoy the pizza. But pizza can be prepared a million different ways, so it's no surprise how many people disagree about that.

 

Thanks again for an excellent review!

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Retiringworkingstiff

Retiringworkingstiff

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Wrap Up (I promised, no more making of a short story long), this is it … FINIDO.

 

Some loose ends, some might not be under Carnival’s jurisdiction or control:

 

• A bit surprised how scare the sight of another Asian looking person on this cruise. On Allure last summer, tons!

 

• Scrambled eggs, thanks everyone, avoided that at the buffet counter. We went to the Omelette Station and had our eggs over easy, fresh.

 

• Over the duration of the cruise, I must have interacted with 30+ different individuals, personnel on board, with eye contact. With the exception of 2, all have this genuine smile when they greet you. I am near 60, believe me, I can tell! Not just “good morning Sir" and then turned the other way, there is actually interaction when I responded by saying “I am good, how are you this morning” and they would say “very good Sir”. Celebrity, yes the Room Steward did that, no one else. Allure, nothing like that at all anywhere. To be honest, first 2 cruises on Carnival wasn’t like that either.

 

2 exceptions are (really no big deal, hey, I have a Bad Hair Day once in a while too), but here we go:

 

- Of everyone, a person of supervisory capacity, behind the buffet counter didn’t know where I can get a soup spoon when I enquired, not only that, told me to look for it myself. Actually, I “discovered they were only 2 feet to the right of me, to her left, on top of the counter but nicely placed underneath a table napkin”.

 

- Someone, below waiter level, in the Washington Dining Room rudely asked me what I was doing walking into the premises outside of dining hours. There are 30 different ways to say something, some tact would be nice. Basically I told the joker, if you don’t want anyone in here, closed the doors.

 

• Day of embarkation, before reaching the scanner, some kid in uniform rather rudely told me (ordered me the way I felt) to stand back. OK OK OK, I didn’t see any sign saying DO NOT CROSS THIS LINE and I wasn’t even anywhere within 3 feet of the person in front of me. Again, some tact would be nice. The line he was referring to is there after I looked, it was quite fainted. There were 3 other “security officers” working there, none of them felt I was a problem as far as I can tell, neither do any other passengers from what I gathered. This is an area I wasn’t sure is actually under Carnival’s jurisdiction (can’t recall seeing any name badges etc. I am old enough to not let that type of thing bothers me, not a big deal. As far as I am concerned, the kid is low level, making minimum wage, to move life forward, he better learn - real fast, he looks like he is at least 25).

 

• First or second day after embarkation, bacon somehow was only available on request, i.e. you have to ask the person behind the counter to give you some. It is within sight but you have to ask for it. I like my bacon in the morning, wonder why they started “rationing”.

 

• In the buffet, they always have a flexi glass in front of you, to get to the goodies (food), the space between the bottom of the flexi glass and the large pans containing the food is quite narrow, holding a tong to grab the food can sometimes be difficult. For individuals senior to me, that configuration presents challenges.

 

• Pizza – tried it a couple of times, crispy thin crust, the way I like them. I know certain individuals on these forums don’t like their pizza that way, so that’s all relative. Only problem is I am weird in terms of food, like our son always tells me, no anchovies? (don’t know if the guy at the pizza station was pulling my leg). They had that in the Allure but you have to ask, can't remember what the situation on Celebrity was.

 

• Forgot what they called it on the cruise, it was the Meet the Captain event, a bit disappointed, no Hors d'oeuvre was served, no free drinks either. No sure why I expected that though or if it is fair for me to expect that? This is one example of a small detail that would not be a deal breaker in deciding if we want to go on another Carnival cruise.

 

• Certain posters had commented on passengers who are locals from Puerto Rico, loud, budding in lines at the buffet etc. I didn’t see any of that at all. They were all courteous, “law abiding” in terms of equitee. The elders, they all looked like they worked their way up, finally a chance to have some quality time with their grandkids. Now if that doesn’t get you some respect, you have a problem, not them. Yes, I did hear some kids talking loud in the hallway around 9 pm - 10 pm, nothing too serious and that didn’t last long. They were near the section of the deck near us either but that's not why I am qualifying the situation, they weren't there for long, period.

 

• The bed covers (at least in our room) looked wrinkled daily, maybe I am shooting for perfection which one never gets. Certainly not O T's fault, our Room Steward. Another one of those “not a deal breaker”.

 

• For our next cruise, hopefully first week of September, first week of December, all 2013 or first week of January 2014, all depends on workload which is paramount. The decision rest on the marginal expense others vs. Carnival. Carnival is cheap cheap cheap (at least for the next 6 months I hazard to predict provided everything is smooth sailing for the next say 3 months and nothing drastic happen with any of the other say 4 main stream cruise lines (be they under the Carnival HQ or not (I mean HAL, Princess, Cunard etc.). My take is if the spread is around $3,000 between the 2 of us, we MIGHT try Celebrity again, or HAL (after I heard from a HAL faithful client of mine that everything is not dead after 9:30 am), or Carnival again but a balcony or up. There are choices!

 

Thanks everyone for reading, I got a lot of tips from Cruise Critic, specifically in respect to Carnival this time. In my small way, payback time. With very much respect … adios.

Correction:

 

One typo among many others ..

 

A bit surprised how scare the sight of another Asian looking person on this cruise. On Allure last summer, tons!

 

I mean there were not too many Asians onboard, not that I am scared seeing any of them.

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JennN

JennN

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Posted

Your English is perfect and I didn't even mind your "old school" view :D

 

I wonder why your bottle of vodka was confiscated. Did you check your bag or carry on? We packed 10 bottles of alcohol (rum mostly) in our checked bags and didn't have a problem. TSA did search one but all was in tact and there.

 

Thanks again for the review!

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Retiringworkingstiff

Retiringworkingstiff

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Your English is perfect and I didn't even mind your "old school" view :D

 

I wonder why your bottle of vodka was confiscated. Did you check your bag or carry on? We packed 10 bottles of alcohol (rum mostly) in our checked bags and didn't have a problem. TSA did search one but all was in tact and there.

 

Thanks again for the review!

That was inside my carry-on. Maybe the outcome would have been different if it was inside our 1 piece checked luggage instead, in accordance with the rules, no idea as I am not a frequent air traveler.

 

I actually left my carry-on unzipped intentionally after I took my laptop out and placed that on a bin, thinking nothing about the bottle. Maybe that's why the guy (security) was very courteous when he told me he need to take away the bottle.

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Hogladyrider

Hogladyrider

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Really enjoyed your review and photos! Thanks for taking the time to put it all together.

 

You did just fine with your writing style, very entertaining, as I too am in your "age group" and we are not all dead as some would lead you to believe.

 

One of the great things about cruising is eating what you want when you want, if you only want appetizers at dinner, go for it, I applaud you!

 

We have only sailed on Carnival and hope someday to branch out there and try other cruise lines.

 

Don't work too hard these next few months before your next cruise!

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Retiringworkingstiff

Retiringworkingstiff

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Really enjoyed your review and photos! Thanks for taking the time to put it all together.

 

You did just fine with your writing style, very entertaining, as I too am in your "age group" and we are not all dead as some would lead you to believe.

 

One of the great things about cruising is eating what you want when you want, if you only want appetizers at dinner, go for it, I applaud you!

 

We have only sailed on Carnival and hope someday to branch out there and try other cruise lines.

 

Don't work too hard these next few months before your next cruise!

Thank you for your kind words.

 

Absolutely agreed! At our age, not dead by any means, the trick is to stay healthy for the next 20 years or so and pass along our experiences to the next generations (relations or not).

 

Yes, thinking of September 28, 2013 sailing on the Breeze. Hopefully still some cabins available around end of August (can't decide until then due to constantly changing workload).

 

In the meantime, take care and cheers!

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