Valor Southern Caribbean review with pictures and Fun Times - better late than never

[pghsteelerfan]

I believe its in front of 7341

 

Alexlee, thank you for your help. I had no idea where it was and even looked at the little ship map that's provided and they didn't have it on there.

[pghsteelerfan]

Wow Puerto Rico is one of my fav vacation spot......can wait to see the rest of the review.....

 

Pssss.....showed my DH the pic he loved them

 

LOL!!! I LOVE Puerto Rico and would actually love to spend a week there. I read another Valor review about a month ago where they had four or five days there, post-cruise and spent time on the island of Vieques, which is part of Puerto Rico. I've also seen pictures of the island of Culebra. I would love to spend a week's vacation in Puerto Rico, so much to see and do and it's beautiful. I can't believe it when I see comments putting it down and saying it should be dropped as a port of call.

[SwellBee]

Thank you for posting your review. I love reading all about the Valor, I will be on her in 135 days! :D I will wait "patiently" as you post more days. :rolleyes:

[shawne71]

Following...

[Missywantstotravel]

Thank you! I'm sure you'll love Valor and this itinerary is one of the best.

 

Yes, you get to keep the glasses and those aren't the only ones they'll have. I'll get more into the different souvenir cups they offer and I'm going to post pictures of all of them at the end of the review. Carnival offers five different souvenir cups: The hurricane (the ones in that picture); coconut monkey cups; blowfish cups; disco ball cups; and the "Whale Tail" funnel cups. In addition to that, they have the cordial shot glasses, which are glass, that are served with dinner. Those are brought out between dinner and desert. There are four different ones: white (or clear), green, blue, and yellow. If you happen to miss a night in the dining room, they sell them all at the atrium bar after Wednesday and will also be bringing around all the colors in the dining room Thursday - Saturday.

 

 

Thanks so much!!

[Alexlee]

Alexlee, thank you for your help. I had no idea where it was and even looked at the little ship map that's provided and they didn't have it on there.

 

No problem...;)

[shukapaw]

Thanks for your review. We sailed out of San Juan in June on the Valor and had a great vacation thanks to Carnival. We are enjoying revisiting some of the sites through your photos. We stayed in the condo right next door to the Marriott so your photos recreated the views we had there.

 

We spent 3 days in San Juan prior to the cruise and absolutely loved it. El Moro is a quite an engineering marvel. We also visited the El Yunque rainforest during our stay. We discovered some tasty dishes I San Juan that we are still talking about... Mofongo and Mallorcas.... yum! Oh yeah, Mojitos were mighty tasty too. ;)

 

Keep those photos coming... the first day of Fall is officially tomorrow and we need to keep re-living summer 2013 until summer 2014 arrives and we set sail again!

 

Thanks for taking the time to post this.

 

Brian

[pghsteelerfan]

Thank you for posting your review. I love reading all about the Valor, I will be on her in 135 days! :D I will wait "patiently" as you post more days. :rolleyes:

 

I'm glad you're enjoying the review and I'll try to get more posted. We were taking advantage of trying to get some outside work done around our house today before the rains came and have plans for this evening, but I'll see if I can at least get some of the next part done. I'm sure you'll have a great cruise and will be on Valor before you know it. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

Following...

 

Thank you and more will be coming. I'm going to try to get it finished up this week.

[pghsteelerfan]

Thanks so much!!

 

You are quite welcome! :)

[pghsteelerfan]

Thanks for your review. We sailed out of San Juan in June on the Valor and had a great vacation thanks to Carnival. We are enjoying revisiting some of the sites through your photos. We stayed in the condo right next door to the Marriott so your photos recreated the views we had there.

 

We spent 3 days in San Juan prior to the cruise and absolutely loved it. El Moro is a quite an engineering marvel. We also visited the El Yunque rainforest during our stay. We discovered some tasty dishes I San Juan that we are still talking about... Mofongo and Mallorcas.... yum! Oh yeah, Mojitos were mighty tasty too. ;)

 

Keep those photos coming... the first day of Fall is officially tomorrow and we need to keep re-living summer 2013 until summer 2014 arrives and we set sail again!

 

Thanks for taking the time to post this.

 

Brian

 

Brian, thank you for following the review. I'm reliving our vacation as well. Our balcony was on the side of the Courtyard that faced the condos you stayed in but we also had a good view of the beach. We loved it there. I'd loved to have had a few extra days in San Juan. We've never been to El Yunque but would love to see it, and other places too. I'd really like to just spend a weeks vacation in Puerto Rico sometime. I've heard about and seen pictures of the Puerto Rican Islands of Calebra and Vieques and would love to see those too and also do the bio-bay tour.

 

Yes, it's officially fall and from what they're saying, we are in for a cold winter. By then I'm sure that there will be many other reviews for us to relive summer until it arrives again.

[pghsteelerfan]

Day 2 - Monday, May 6, 2013 – Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

 

Fun Times for Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

I set my alarm for 6:00AM and got up and went to our balcony as soon as it went off. We were heading east and the sun had just come up. I was able to see St. Thomas in the distance and got a few pictures before the camera lens started fogging up due to the change from our air conditioned cabin to the humidity outside on our balcony. While I was waiting for the lens to clear, I miss out on what would have really been a nice sunrise picture because there was a mixture of clouds and sun that morning. We were also sailing past Sail Rock, a smaller rock formation several miles off the coast of St. Thomas that I remember sailing past on our Carnival Glory cruise in May 2010. At the time, I didn’t know what it was or even if it had a name, but thanks to Google Maps, I was able to locate it and saw that it was called Sail Rock. By that time, the camera lens finally adjusted and I was able to get more pictures. The water was also very calm that morning, almost like glass and the calmest I’ve ever seen while on a cruise, so the reflections on the water were spectacular.

 

The best I could get of the sunrise. St. Thomas is in the distance

 

 

 

This is Sail Rock

 

 

Edited September 21, 2013 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

More pictures sailing into St. Thomas. This was the calmest water we remember seeing on a cruise.

 

 

 

I spent time on the balcony getting pictures and enjoying the scenery and when DH got up, I went upstairs to Lido Deck 9 to get a cup of coffee to take back to our cabin. The location was very convenient for that. We were a few cabins down from the elevators and stairs and being on the 8th deck, I only had one flight of stairs up. I went up to Panorama Deck 10 for better views, and more pictures, then went back down, got my coffee and then went back to the cabin and sat on the balcony some more.

 

 

The Marriott Resort in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

We're getting close to the pier

 

Once DH was ready, we went back up for breakfast right after we were docked in St. Thomas. We went to the buffet and got in line, which wasn’t very long at all. I got the scrambled eggs, some bacon, potatoes and a little stuffed breakfast roll that had eggs and bacon in it. We had no problem finding a table and got one just outside near the windows. I was pleasantly surprised that the breakfast was actually pretty good. The scrambled eggs were much better than the eggs we had at the hotel the previous morning. After we finished breakfast we went up to Panorama Deck 10 to get pictures. This is the third time we’ve been to St. Thomas on a cruise (the first was 1992 on our honeymoon and the second was just three years ago) and that is one view that I will never get tired of. Each time it looked the same, yet different. The view that morning is one of my favorites since the water was so calm and because of the mix of clouds and sun, the colors of the water and the mountains surrounding Charlotte Amalie were some of the best. We spent some time getting pictures then went back down to our cabin to get ready for the day in St. Thomas.

 

 

I just love this view

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

More from Valor's Panorama Deck 10 of Charlotte Amalie

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued tomorrow....up next: Sapphire Beach

[ktinnc]

Great review! I'm only halfway thru so far but I board the Valor in the am!! Cant wait!

 

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

[pghsteelerfan]

Great review! I'm only halfway thru so far but I board the Valor in the am!! Cant wait!

 

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

Thank you! I hope you have a great time like we did. We love Valor and the itinerary is one of the best. We'd love to do this same cruise again and soon. Happy sailing! :)

[pghsteelerfan]

St. Thomas continued...

 

 

 

We were debating on whether to go to Trunk Bay, St. John on our own or to just stay in St. Thomas. We were in St. John on the Glory cruise in 2010 and loved it. That was a snorkeling excursion that we booked through Carnival. This time we decided to stay on St. Thomas and after reading several reviews of Sapphire Beach, we decided to go there. Our plan was to spend a few hours there then take the Skyride up to Paradise Point but found out here on CC from someone who would be on the Valor sailing right after ours that they were notified by Carnival that the Skyride excursion they booked through Carnival was cancelled and were reimbursed by Carnival. After some searching, I found out that the Skyride was closed due to road construction (a road widening project). We got off of Valor at about 8:30AM and went to find a taxi to take us to Sapphire Beach. We were directed through the Havensight Mall to the taxi pick up area, which was a five minute walk. When we got to where the taxis were, we were asked where we were headed and were directed to a taxi that was headed that way. The taxis were open air busses that held about 20 – 25 people. This one would be going to Red Hook (ferry to Cruz Bay, St. John), Sapphire Beach, Coki Beach and Coral World. There was one more stop, but I forget what that was. They wait until the taxis are full before leaving, but we knew that ahead of time. Our taxi was almost full when we got on so we didn’t have much of a wait before we left. We sat with another couple who were going to Coral World and we really enjoyed talking to them on the way over. Our driver gave us a narrated tour and pointed out things of interest to us on the way. The first stop was Red Hook and Sapphire Beach was the next and not too far from Red Hook. The ride was only about 20 – 30 minutes. Our taxi driver dropped us off right in an area between two resorts and we were able to see the beach from there and were already impressed and felt we made a great choice of beaches for the day. The sand was white, water a beautiful blue and there were excellent views of the island of St. John and several nearby small islands. We could also see the larger islands of Jost Van Dyke and Totola, British Virgin Island, in the distance.

 

We went down the walkway to the beach to where some loungers were. We may have been the first ones from the ship to Sapphire that morning because we didn’t see anyone else yet. We knew we had to pay for use of loungers, which were stacked and locked, but we didn’t know if we were too early since it was only 9:15. As we were trying to figure out how to get a lounger, a gentleman came up and asked if we needed help. We told him we’d like to rent loungers and he said he was the man. The loungers were $7.00 each and he asked us where we’d like them and set them up for us. We chose a spot under a tree for DH and I was right next to him in the sun. We walked along the beach and got pictures then went in the water, which was very nice. They also rented out snorkel gear but we brought one set of our own to share, so I don’t know what the charge for renting was.

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

St. John is the island in the distance

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

We each took turns snorkeling so one of us would be with our stuff at the loungers since we didn’t want to leave it unattended. We only had our towels and each of us had a small beach bag where we kept our cameras, some cash, Sail & Sign cards and passports, which we used for photo ID to get back on the ship. I thought the snorkeling was ok, but not great, but we may have been in the wrong spot. We saw several kinds of fish and coral. There was one little fish that I called my “tour guide” that swam ahead of me and right in front of my mask about half the time I was in the water. I tried getting pictures of him but they didn’t come out. DH was able to get a blurry picture of him. While we were snorkeling, other people started showing up. There seemed to be a lot of people but it never felt crowded and remained quiet.

 

It's hard to see him, but I think this was a flounder

 

 

This was the little fish, our "tour guide" that swam with us (DH got this pic)