Carnival Victory - trip review with pictures

[CruisinCrow]

We were on the Carnival Victory 4-night cruise January 16-20. I write journals of all my trips so this is more of a journal than a review, but I hope you enjoy it and get some information from it. I'll be glad to answer questions too, if I can. A little background - We are Susan and Ron and we are in our 40's. This was our first cruise on Victory.

 

Here we go!

 

 

Miami

 

The problem with taking a cruise in January is that you never know what the weather will be like. We’ve been cruising over MLK weekend for the past five years now and for the most part we’ve been lucky. But as our cruise on Victory neared, the temperatures on the weather forecast got lower and lower. On the drive to Miami, we stopped at the rest stop on Alligator Alley and it was 56 degrees with a fierce wind. Everyone was bundled up in scarves and jackets except for a few people in shorts who apparently hadn’t gotten the memo that it was COLD!

 

When we got to the port at noon, they were just starting the boarding process. We were assigned to Boarding Group 10 so we had a wait a bit but we were onboard and exploring the ship by 1 o’clock. I loved Victory’s theme, Famous Bodies of Water. All the restaurants and public areas were named after oceans or mythological sea creatures, like the Atlantic and Pacific Dining Rooms, the Caspian Sea Wine Bar and the Tritons Pool. I especially liked the Atlantic Dining Room. It was 2-stories high with a dramatic staircase, statues of mermaids and mermen, and wavy blue lights. It was very pretty. Well, except maybe for the mermaid heads lining the walls. They were a little creepy. :) The Seven Seas Atrium was decorated in greens and blues, with a deep green ceiling that gave the area an underwater feel. And there were seahorses everywhere – on the door handles, on the bar stools, on the stairway banisters. People on Cruise Critic warned about the stairway seahorses. Since the seahorses’ snouts stick out farther than the handrails, they will “bite” you if you walk too close. Fortunately, we made it through the trip without any seahorse attacks.

 

 

 

 

[CruisinCrow]

Sure, the seahorses look innocent...

 

 

Seven Seas Casino:

 

 

Coral Seas Coffee Shop:

 

[CruisinCrow]

After the muster drill, we went to the pool deck for the sail away party. I joined in for a few dances, but when the sun started to go down it got chilly so we headed for our cabin. We had an ocean view cabin on Deck 1. The cabin was dated but huge, definitely the largest cruise ship cabin we have had yet, with lots of storage space. And there was a nice gift waiting for us on the vanity table - $25 Cruise Cash from my sister Mary. Thanks, Mary!!

 

 

 

Our large cabin:

 

 

[CruisinCrow]

The luggage arrived just as we got the room, so we unpacked while we watched the sunset from our window. Now let me just say that Ron is the world’s worst packer. He always waits till the last minute, then throws everything into the suitcase and forgets something important. A couple of years ago, I wanted to dress up for formal night. Ron packed his suit but forgot his dress shoes. We ended up having to rent shoes from the tuxedo rental shop. When I bought myself a new LBD for this cruise, I pestered Ron for weeks to make sure his dress clothes still fit since he’d lost so much weight last year. A few days before the cruise, Ron finally got around to trying on the clothes. That’s when he discovered that he didn’t have any dress pants! He must have given them to Good Will when he cleaned all the too-big clothes out of his closet. So we had to make an emergency shopping trip to find him new pants. He did remember to pack his shoes this time, but not his belt. More importantly, he’d forgotten to pack his cell phone charger. Not that we were going to make any phone calls, but we needed the phone’s GPS to get us back out of Miami. We checked in the ship’s gift shop but they didn’t sell phone chargers so we would have to wait until we got to Key West to look for one.

 

By the time we finished unpacking, we were ready for dinner. We had signed up for Your Time Dining, which was located on the lower deck of the Atlantic Dining Room. There were plenty of tables for two but, wow, they were really close together! I’m a fairly small person but I couldn’t get between the tables to my seat. It reminded me a hilarious thread on Cruise Critic (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1915547) discussing whether it was more polite to bump into your neighbors’ table with your butt or your “groinal region”. Fortunately, one of the tables next to ours was still empty so I didn’t have to make that decision. We just pushed the empty table over so I could get through without taking out the wine glasses.

 

Anyway, because the tables were so close together, we ended up chatting with the couple next to us. It turned out that they were lucky to be on the ship. After they had driven three hours to the airport and were about to board their plane, they realized that they had forgotten their passports. They called their family, who tore their house apart, found their birth certificates and faxed them to the cruise line. So maybe forgetting shoes or phone chargers isn’t so bad. It could be worse!

 

Atlantic Dining Room:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CruisinCrow]

That night we decided to forgo the casino and go to the piano bar. There were two drunken ladies who kept yelling out the answers to the “Name That Tune” songs. Another lady was ready to punch them. It was entertaining – so much drama over winning a 24k gold plastic ship on a stick. :)

 

Piano Bar:

 

 

[CruisinCrow]

Key West

 

The next morning we arrived in Key West at 7:30. After a leisurely breakfast (there was no reason to rush since nothing opens in Key West until 9), we headed out in search of a cell phone charger. We walked half way up Duval Street before we finally found a Radio Shack. Hurray! It was warmer that day, but still chilly. We’ve been in Key West in July and it is definitely more comfortable walking around in 65 degree weather than in 95 degrees. Still, 80 would have been nice...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CruisinCrow]

Since we’d been to Key West before and had already hit most of the major tourist spots, we decided to try something different and go to the Shipwreck Museum. The museum was set up like a shipwrecking warehouse in the mid-1800s when the wrecking industry made Key West the richest city in the U.S. We were guided through the museum by an actor portraying Asa Tift, a Key West wreck master who also built the home now known as the Hemingway House. I would have liked the tour to be a little less Disney-esque and a little more educational but it was interesting. Afterwards, we climbed to the top of the 65-foot observation tower for a great view of the town and the ship.

 

 

 

Next we headed down Greene Street for lunch at Garbo’s Grill, stopping on the way at Tattoos and Scars Saloon for some beer-to-go for Ron. We discovered Garbo’s Grill two years ago. It is basically a tiny food cart with really awesome food. The last time we ate there I had the Korean BBQ Tacos, and Ron’s been trying to recreate them at home ever since. This time we shared the shrimp tacos and the Korean tacos. I couldn’t decide which was better. They were both amazing!

 

Conveniently located across the street from Garbo’s Grill was our favorite hot sauce shop, Peppers of Key West. We spent about an hour there, sampling all the goodies. Our hot sauce “bartender” was a great salesman and pretty soon we’d bought as much as we could carry. We should now have enough hot sauce to last us until our next trip to Key West.

 

Tacos from Garbo's Grill:

 

 

[Cruzface]

Loving the review. Never been to Key West so this is very interesting.

[CruisinCrow]

It was time to head back to the ship, but first we stopped at El Meson de Pepe to pick up a mojito. As we walked through Mallory Square, we realized we didn’t need to rush. The line of people waiting to board wrapped all the way down the pier and half way to the Custom House! The wait didn’t bother me because it gave me plenty of time to sip my mojito. When we got past the security check point and onto the pier, we just sat down on one of the pier benches and enjoyed the sunshine until there were only a few people left in line. We were almost the last ones back on the ship.

 

 

 

Long line of people waiting to board:

 

[CruisinCrow]

Loving the review. Never been to Key West so this is very interesting.

 

Key West is awesome! I just wish we'd had more hours there.

[CruisinCrow]

Neither one of us had slept well the night before so we spent the rest of the afternoon napping in the cabin, waking up just in time to watch a beautiful sunset before dressing for dinner. That night was “Elegant Night” and the food was extra good. I had Greek salad, a farfalle starter and lobster with shrimp. The lobster was cooked perfectly and was tender and delicious. Ron and I both had the Bitter and Blanc, a white and dark chocolate bread pudding for dessert. Yum!

 

After dinner, we stopped by the Caspian Sea Wine Bar for the Mini-Martini Tasting. I did the tasting on our Paradise cruise last year and loved it. You get to choose four out of the eight different martinis. This time I picked three new drinks – Caribbean Sunset, Melon Crush and Pomegranate Breeze. I already knew what a Cosmo tasted like so I skipped it and repeated the Spicy Chipotle since it was my favorite last time. It was still my favorite, along with the Caribbean Sunset, which had Stoli Razberi and Ohranj, cranberry juice and lime juice. The bartender, Silvia, was a lot of fun and could pour eight martinis at one time (she said her record was twelve). Pretty impressive!

 

Some formal pics:

 

 

 

Mini-Martini Tasting at the Caspian Wine Bar:

 

 

 

[CruisinCrow]

Before heading off to bed, we made a lap around the decks to see the ship's lights.

 

 

 

[CruisinCrow]

Taking a break for the night. I'll continue tomorrow.

[jchris1230]

Subscribing

 

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Forums mobile app

[luv2fishpink]

We were sitting on our balcony while you were waiting to go on board. I too was surprised at how long the line was to get back on at that point.

[CruisinCrow]

We were sitting on our balcony while you were waiting to go on board. I too was surprised at how long the line was to get back on at that point.

 

Wasn't it crazy?

[CruisinCrow]

Ok, I'll get this finished up now.

 

Cozumel

 

The ship didn’t arrive in Cozumel until 1 o’clock so we spent the morning in the gym, working off our lobster and Bitter and Blanc. When we pulled into port, we docked alongside Carnival Paradise and Carnival Elation. It was neat looking down at the Paradise’s deck from our deck. We were there last year!

 

Towel animals on the pool deck:

 

 

 

 

Puerta Maya:

 

 

[CruisinCrow]

When we first booked the cruise, I had signed us up for the Mexican Cuisine Cooking and Tasting tour at Playa Mia. I know, normally I don’t even like to cook at home, much less on vacation! But I do like eating and the tour was something we could do even if the weather didn’t cooperate. Plus there was an open-bar, so Ron was all for it.

 

There were only six of us on the cooking tour, but we shared a large bus to the beach club with a group on the Playa Mia Beach Break tour. The bus ride took about 15 minutes and soon we were at Playa Mia, being introduced to our chefs, Oscar and Moises. The first order of business was to don aprons and chef hats and wash our hands. Oscar instructed us to sing “La Cucaracha” while we scrubbed. Unfortunately, none of knew the words so we sang, “La cucaracha, la cucaracha.....la la la la la la laaaa.” :)

 

 

The menu was fantastic – Chipotle Shrimp Sopes, Grouper Fillet with Sautéed Vegetables and Tamarind Sauce, and Caramelized Plantains with Chocolate Tequila Sauce. Yum! We started with the dessert, caramelizing the plantains with butter, cinnamon and sugar and making a chocolate sauce to pour over them. Then we decorated the edges of our plates. Chef Oscar gave us a few examples but we could decorate however we wanted. Ron is usually the one who makes food look pretty while I tend to just throw things on the plate, but my attempt at a swan wasn’t too bad.

 

Next was the sautéed grouper and vegetables, which were wrapped in foil and whisked away by the assistants to finish cooking in the oven while we made the shrimp sopes. The whole time we were cooking, the assistants brought us drinks (beer, margaritas or whatever we wanted) and Oscar and Moises kept us laughing. They were hilarious. When the sopes were finished, we went upstairs to eat our meal together. Everything tasted delicious, and we all commented that we couldn’t believe we had done it ourselves. Chef Oscar handed out copies of the recipes so we could make them at home.

 

 

 

 

[CruisinCrow]

 

The view from lunch:

 

 

The finished dishes:

 

 

 

With Chefs Moises and Oscar:

 

[CruisinCrow]

We had about an hour and a half afterwards to enjoy the rest of the beach club. The beach was beautiful and there were rows and rows of lounge chairs, plus hammocks, two pools and water sports. I wished it had been warmer because I would have loved to play on the inflatable water park, but at least it wasn’t cold or rainy. Maybe on another trip we’ll go back for the Beach Break tour.

 

Playa Mia:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the ship, we didn’t feel like going through the whole dining room experience, so we just ate a quick dinner at the buffet and went to the cabin. Ron had consumed a few too many cervezas at Playa Mia and immediately fell asleep. But I stayed up and watched out our window as we set sail and the lights of Cozumel slowly faded away.

 

[CruisinCrow]

Sea Day

 

We woke up at 7 and watched the sunrise from bed. What a perfect way to start the day! After a light breakfast, we hit the gym again and then showered up for brunch. Carnival has started serving brunch on sea days from 8:30 until 1. It wasn’t available on our Paradise cruise last year so I definitely wanted to try it this time around.

 

The brunch was held in the Pacific Dining Room at the back of the ship. By the time we got there, it was 11:30 and the line into the dining room went all the way down the hall and to the stairway. Apparently, 11:30 is peak time for brunching! It took about half an hour to be seated, but that was OK. Where else did we need to be? :) I had the pancakes topped with fresh blueberries and a side of cheese grits and bacon. Ron had steak and eggs. Mmm mmm mmmmmm. It was well worth the wait!

 

 

 

Used my free drink coupon for a Cosmo:

 

 

Fish art outside the Pacific Dining Room:

 

[CruisinCrow]

FINALLY we were getting some warmer, sunny weather, so after we finished eating we joined our 3000 closest friends on the pool deck. Victory seemed to have plenty of lounge chairs and we didn’t have any trouble finding two together. And as long as we stayed out of the wind, the temperature was tolerable. We read and napped and watched the AFC Championship game on the big, movie screen - just a quiet, relaxing afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

That night we finally made it to the South China Sea Casino but we didn’t stay very long. We weren’t really in the mood and the casino was so smoky! Just as well - it probably saved us some money. :) We stopped by the wine bar for one last martini, hit the adult comedy show and then called it a night. We had an early morning and a long drive home ahead of us.

 

Early morning Miami, Ecstasy arriving in port:

 

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[CruisinCrow]

I’m surprised there’s not more interest in Victory. It’s such a nice ship! Oh well, here are a few more impressions of the cruise:

 

 

• I liked it more than I was expecting. A lot of the pictures I’d seen when I was researching for the cruise made the ship look dark and dreary, but it’s not at all. I enjoyed the undersea theme.
  

 

• One negative is the layout of the Mediterranean buffet. You have to wait in a long line even if you just want one item, like fruit salad or French fries. I started asking people if I could cut in if I just needed to grab one thing. It is a very inefficient layout.
  

 

• On the other hand, the buffet area does have plenty of seating. If you don’t find a table in the main area, there are more tables upstairs (the stairs are behind the dessert area) or keep going out the back to the Sirens pool. We liked to eat breakfast out there. Another plus, if you don’t like dealing with the “bacon police”, is that you can get your own bacon at the grill by Sirens.
  

Unattended bacon! :)

 

 

 

• The cutbacks in the dining staff were very obvious on Victory. We had Your Time Dining and the poor waiters only had time to take our orders and bring our food. There was almost no personal interaction. I’m not sure they even had time to introduce themselves. This was very different than our experience on Enchantment of the Seas last year. We Any Time Dining (RC’s version of Your Time Dining) and our wait team gave us such personal service that we requested their section the rest of the cruise. So the problem isn’t Your Time Dining, it’s the staff shortage. I didn’t fault the waiters at all and made sure to mention it on our post-cruise survey.
  

 

• It took a while to figure out how to get to the ship’s bow. You have to go past all the cabins on the Upper or Empress decks. You can't get to it from the top decks.
  

 

• Our cabin was large, had plenty of storage and the bed was very comfortable. No problems with noise from the hall or lobby, but there was a lot of clinking and clanking coming from the hull. Once we got the cell phone charger, we were able to use the white noise app on Ron’s phone and slept a lot better.
  

 

• I tried the Taste Bar once. It was good but I liked the sushi bar better.
  

 

• Loved the Sea Day Brunch
  

 

• The Mexican Cuisine Cooking and Tasting Tour was so fun and the highlight of our trip. Highly recommended!
  

Overall, it was a great cruise and I would sail Victory again.

Edited January 31, 2014 by CruisinCrow

[Name Of The Game]

We had a great cruise on the Victory...gosh that was almost six years ago already.

 

Enjoying your review!