Valor August 18th Review

[Reva_Dearchi]

Just back from the Valor and it's southern itinerary. Please let me know if you have any questions. Traveling with me - DH, DD, DDF, DF, DFH, DFS. "kids" were 18, 19, 18 years old.

 

Friday August 16th flew Southwest Airline to San Juan. Just a couple of initial mishaps...my DH somehow managed to leave his Ipad in the seat pocket on the plane and of course no one turned it in to the Airline lost and found and although I knew better than to pack a brand new watch in the box with my checked luggage, I did and of course some trustworthy TSA official stole it. These incidents were our fault so I won't complain...just making you aware so these things don.t happen to you.

 

Stayed at the LaConcha Renaissance by Marriott and booked the tower suite rooms for $186 per night for 2 nights. We booked a while back and got the Luxe package which entitled us to 2 free welcome drinks and a $50 credit. The hotel was very nice and the rooms in the tower were beautiful. We had a partial ocean view and it was equipped with stove, refrigerator, and microwave. The surrounding area was busy and the hotel had a lovely pool and the beach on the property. I would definitely stay there again.

 

We visited the Plaza Las Americas on Friday evening, which was just an average shopping mall with Macys as the anchor store... no big deal here. The mall was less upscale than I remembered.

 

On Saturday we went to the Barcardi Distillery and found it to be an interesting tour and the 2 free drinks were a nice treat. We tried to take public transportation but the wait time was killing us so we just took a taxi from the hotel. Entry for the tour is free so you only pay for transportation.

After the tour we took a taxi for $3 to Old San Juan and hung out there for a while before heading back to the hotel. We again tried to take a bus but after walking to the bus terminal and waiting 30 minutes, only to be told by the bus driver that he would be leaving in another 25 minutes, we headed out of the terminal and took a taxi back to the hotel. The casino was nice to us and my DF and I both won a little.

 

Sunday August 18th - Embarkation was a breeze, checked in VIP at 11:30 and was on the Lido deck by noon. Had a great day in Old San Juan. Shopped for a few trinkets and had a couple pina colodas at the place where they originated, Barrachina's. The muster drill was quick and painless and the sail away party was chock full of line dances and a lot of fun.

 

Monday August 19th - St. Thomas - Found a taxi and did the island tour with beach for $30 per person. Not much shown to us in terms of sight seeing and our independent tour guide was just OK. She did end up taking us to both Coki and Sapphire beaches. She had to drop one family off at Coki but we wanted to check out Sapphire. Sapphire beach had a rocky shore and was much to subdued for our taste. There were no restaurants that we saw near the beach area and it just seemed a little boring so we had our guide take us back to Coki.

There were lots of folks at Coki who were snorkeling in the shallow water and the shallow water and the beach just seemed nicer than Sapphire. We did Magen's bay a couple years ago on this itinerary and the beach was just OK as well. If I had to do it over again, I would skip the tour and head to Coki beach and downtown for some shopping. Liquor prices were definitely cheaper here and you are allowed 4 bottles per person from St. Thomas without worry as far as customs and duty is concerned. Punchliners comedy club was packed and Thomas Brown was not very funny to us so we left the show. Also the cruise director Felipe was engaging but not very entertaining and rather on the corny side. I loved CD Matt from last year on the Dream. We also ate at the Steak house on Monday as it was y DF's birthday. The food was delicious but as usual, just too much food and we can never get to dessert. We always take it with us and then no one ever eats it. Although I will say the cheesecake has a weird texture that was not very good anyways.

 

Tuesday August 20th - Day at Sea - Relaxed on the deck most of the day, bought a few items at the on board shops and lost a little in the casino.

 

Wednesday August 21st - Barbados - by far the best of the islands for us. We had a great time at the BOATYARD. The cost was different from what was previously posted. Taxi driver initially told us $5 but of course we got him to take us for $4 since there were 7 of us :) The entry fee was actually $12 person for 2 chairs, 2 watered down drinks and one umbrella. There was a rock climbing toy, water trampoline, rope swing, and jet ski rentals all there. The competition was really stiff for the jet ski ride so I bartered the price down to $30 and the guy took both my DDF and my DFS out separately for about 25 minutes total. That was fine because they both just wanted to experience the jet ski ride. The beach it self was absolutely the best beach I have ever seen. The water was crystal clear and the sand was really fine...line light brown sugar. After 15 cruises I can say that I cannot remember being on a more beautiful beach.

Thursday - August 22nd - St. Lucia - Got off the ship at around 11:00 and took the Pitons tour for, get this... $30 per person, I remember this tour being more than twice as much a few years ago. I don't know why it was so cheap now but actually it was just an OK tour anyways. I think the higher cost is because the Pitons really are nearly 1.5 hours away from where the ship docks. What we didn't realize was that the "tour through the volcano" was not worth the additional $8 per person. Here the guide take you for a walk up some steps and tells you about the hot springs and up some more steps/ramp and tells you about the lava. That's it so if you, like us were expecting to drive through some volcanic structure in the dark, please note that is not the case. You are driving 'through the crater of the volcano' on your way to take the bogus $8 tour. We didn't do the mud baths and I heard someone saying it took forever to finally get all the mud off. Also my DF got motion sickness from the long ride up and down the hills. It I had a do-over I would take the tour that shows the other side of the island. We did that one a couple years ago and it was good.

 

As a side note - the casinos were never crowded on board and the dealers were often just standing around, bored to tears no doubt.

 

Friday - August 23rd, - St. Kitts - Opted to just hang out in the port area and did a lot of souvenir shopping and bought some food from the locals who were having a party there later that night. The jerk chicken and pork were very good and we had a nice relaxing day just walking around here. I again did the tour here a couple years ago and it was really nice. My DF had no desire to get in another taxi after her motion sickness incident so we had a nice day just hanging out.

Saturday - August 24th - St. Maarten - Went to Orient beach and had a nice relaxing day. Got dropped off at Pedros and walked down to KaKao which is where we rented chairs/umbrellas 2 for $15. We didn't order any food here and again the drinks were watered down. the beach itself had a lot of seaweed like 'stuff' as the waves were strong and washing it in but the water was nice and we played in the strong waves and lounged in the chairs most of the day. We were on the 'please wear your swimsuit' side of the beach but we did see one very strange guy walking along the beach with a thong bikini on. But why was all I was thinking... lol We later went into town and finished up our souvenir shopping and headed back to the ship to start packing :(

 

Sunday - August 25th - back to San Juan - debarkation was uneventful and thanks God we made it home safe and sound and we have a great vacation. Already thinking about next year. :)

 

Side note - CCL definitely needs to beef up security on decks as there were so many kids in the "18 and over" hot tubs that we never even used them. Some parents are just so rude and know the hot tubs are not for their kids to play in but allow them to do so anyways. Not cool at all!

 

All in all we had a great time!!!

[scgirlatheart]

Thanks for your review, I enjoyed reading it. We just booked this ship for next July and are really looking forward to it.

[DaisyGirl55]

Thanks for posting! I am sailing on the Valor out of SJ in just 12 days and 12 hours (but who's counting! ;))

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Do you have that tracer AP on the ipad? My honey has used it before to find other people's iphones. You can tell when people are using it?

[Reva_Dearchi]

Unfortunately, Apple informed us that we had to have the "find my iphone" app downloaded on the Ipad in order to track it. We did however have independent travel insurance so we stand a chance of getting reimbursed for it from them. Thanks for asking anyway!

 

Already looking at what's available for next year for our annual cruise. We just don't want to do Belize ever again so that limits us somewhat. We'll see and happy sailing to you!

[Reva_Dearchi]

FYI... the travel insurance we had through insure my trip dot com actually paid for my husband's lost Ipad. Sorry I cannot remember which company we had but they actually sent us a check and my DH bought a new ipad. That was fantastic!

[chipandsteph]

My fiancee and I were on this same cruise with my 9 and 10 year old. I completely agree with you about some of the kids on this ship. I saw some that were constantly running around unsupervised in the pool area. The parents were nowhere to be seen. My kids had to stick with me or Camp Carnival. Not only disrespectful, but dangerous for those kids.