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First Cruise - First Review - Valor 2/16/2014

mr.chris.

By mr.chris.,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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mr.chris.

mr.chris.

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So as I am quite new here and a fairly inexperienced cruiser I first wanted to take a second and share a little bit about myself and travel experiences that might add some relevance and perspective to this review.

 

I grew up an airline brat. Dad is a recently retired Hawaiian Airlines Captain. I myself am a commercial pilot though my aviation career lasted all of about a week in the early 1990's because I quite simply did not enjoy driving a bus.

 

I had cleared the million mile mark by the time I was 22. I still travel heavily for business but mostly up and down the West Coast (MVP Gold on Alaska 12 years running). Growing up I traveled the South Pacific and Australia quite heavily, a function of flexible schedule and free travel.

 

My wife works for that big airplane manufacturer here in the Northwest and travels quite a bit between Miami, Seattle and London for work so I'd call her a seasoned traveler as well.

 

My wife and I did a short repositioning cruise from Seattle to Vancouver BC in 2005 on the Norwegian Sun and that was the extent of our cruise experience prior to this.

 

Because of our kids sports commitments, especially our 17 year old's high school baseball season, there is no travel during spring break. This leaves President's Day week which is our school districts mid-winter break to travel. But as the kids get the full week off it works out okay. We always do one big vacation each year for this week.

 

I'll try and keep it as organized and coherent as I can. But it will take a few days and a few posts to get it all in.

 

Pre-planning:

 

Okay the wife and kids all were screaming "CRUISE". We all agreed on the need for warm weather as we were sick and tired of the perpetual rain, drizzle, showers and gray skies of Seattle.

 

I went about this a little differently as I wasn't particularly concerned with prices but very concerned with itineraries. I was also concerned that too many sea days would prove boring. I'll revisit that thought later! But along with itineraries was atmosphere. Based on reading reviews, talking with friends, etc. We decided we wanted fun more than anything else. I am not a opera and caviar kind of guy. I can dress up when I need to, wear shirt, ties and suits for work but I'm not stuffy and boring.

 

One of the stops I really wanted as it has been on my wish list for many years was St. Maarten. That really narrowed down the options and this cruise on the Valor fit our travel dates nearly perfectly!

 

Airfare (and stops) from Seattle to San Juan are less than ideal but we were all willing to work with it.

 

Travel Day 1:

 

No sleep Friday night as we finished packing and tied up loose ends. 6:00am flight meant getting to the airport by 5:00am at the latest. Kids up and everyone showered and out the door at 4:30.

 

First flight was to ORD (Chicago O'hare) and a 2 hour layover which gave some time for deep dish pizza for lunch. Then on to Miami and some Cuban food for dinner.

 

Finally arrived in San Juan at 11:50pm local time. Smallish airport and easy to navigate. Baggage claim was fast and efficient and we were in line for a cab within 15 minutes of walking off the plane.

 

We flew American, not my usual airline (which is Alaska, which has a Miami flight but nothing timed to fit our needs and nothing that continued on to SJU). Being Gold MVP let me take advantage of their priority boarding at least (though again more on this later on the return flight). This made finding room in the overhead bins a little easier. On Alaska gate checked items are waiting at the gate at the other end. American takes the gate check items and delivers at baggage claim. So with 2 stops gate checking anything prior to the final leg could prove difficult.

 

I hesitated a little too long in finding our pre-cruise hotel and wound up rolling the dice with Priceline. Got the Hotel Verdanza near the airport (right next door to the Embassy Suites) for a surprising price of $115. I knew little of it before arriving but it would prove to be perfectly fine and in fact was a rather pleasant if not brief stay. They knew we were getting in late and although their restaurants were already closed they had some coconut and some mango frozen smoothies waiting for us so we had a refreshing snack before turning in.

 

It was then off to sleep........

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mr.chris.

mr.chris.

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Cruise Day 1 - Departure Day!

 

Yay! Everyone was up and excited despite the 4 hour time change and long travel day, the day before.

 

Checkout at the Verdanza was quick and painless. No one in the family save for me wanted breakfast so we skipped it. Left the Verdanza about 10:45 headed for the cruise ship terminal. For a Sunday there was a surprising amount of traffic and it took us roughly 30 minutes from the Verdanza to the terminal.

 

Dropped off right in front, porter took the luggage and we walked on in fully expecting that we were too early to do much. Quite the contrary, walked right in and there was already a line about 40 people deep checking in.

 

Within 15 minutes we were checked in and waiting for our embarkation number to be called. We were given group 7. We wanted to go back into town for a bit so my wife asked the guy handling things there what the procedure was to do that and if there was somewhere to leave our carry-ons. He handed us a group 1 card with a smile and a wink and said to go ahead and drop our bags off in our cabins once they started boarding at 12:00p.

 

Sure enough about 11:55am they called group 1, we went past the liquor samples and on to security. Quickly through there and onto the boat. Swung by our cabins and they were good to go so we dropped our carry-ons and headed up to the Lido Deck for some food.

 

Quick snack and then we headed back off the boat and into town for a few hours. Wandered around the waterfront area and took some pics. Checked out the Sheraton Old San Juan where we'd be staying a night after the cruise. Stumbled into a street fair of sorts and hit the CVS just past Senor Frogs for some last minute needs.

 

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Edited by mr.chris.
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mr.chris.

mr.chris.

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Cruise Day Two:

St. Thomas!

 

No real plans in mind for this stop. We figured we'd just get up and wander off the boat and wing it. Maybe do the tram or a little shopping.

 

Up around 7:30 we headed to the Washington Dining Room for breakfast about 8:20. Meal was about what you'd expect for breakfast in a hotel type situation. Everything tasted fine though the bacon was the razor thin, kind of cheap type bacon. That said bad bacon is still better than no bacon and no one really complained. Eggs and the rest tasted just fine. Service was perfect.

 

Walked off the boat about 9:10 and by this point any crowds there might have been had clearly thinned out as we walked straight up to the kiosk and punched our cards and walked out, no lines, no delays. After wandering a few minutes around the shops right there off the boat we decided we'd head over to the sky tram. On our way however my wife decided she'd rather do some sort of tour of the island.

 

Tried negotiating with a few of the cab/bus/safari rig drivers there and got prices all over the place and they were very pushy. Finally found a guy that wasn't pushy and quoted a pretty fair price. $120 for 4 hours for the 4 of us.

 

Drive covered a few scenic points including a longer stop at the Mountain Top for banana daiquiris and photos. One stop had a lot of people selling junk and being quite militant about it and he intervened and got them to leave us alone. He was quite knowledgeable about the island and it's history and the kids really enjoyed his stories. I'll be darned if I can remember his name though.

 

At the end he dropped us off downtown and we wandered around a bit picking up some souvenirs and such. I will say walking down the street the jewelry store owners were way over the top trying to lure you into their stores. It really degraded what would have been otherwise a very nice day.

 

From there we walked back to the ship via the trail/sidewalk through the yacht harbor.

 

Back on the boat we went up and had a late lunch/snack thanks to the grill on the Lido Deck. Boys went off and jumped in with Circle C and Club 02 respectively (we had to talk them into it and it wound up being there favorite parts of the cruise. Both made lots of friends they are still in contact with since leaving).

 

Wife went and took a nap and I just lounged a while near the pool.

 

We had requested and received the late dinner seating at 8:15pm. We had eaten dinner on departure night during open seating in the MDR so this would be our second meal there but first with our "official" staff.

 

Whether by luck of the draw or what we wound up not only in a section relatively close to the door making ingress and egress a little faster but we probably landed the section with the best staff on the boat. Our waiter for the cruise was Nelson. He was simply awesome, and I don't mean just good at his job but awesome. More about him as the week goes on. His assistants were Gabor a nice young man from Hungary and Anak a very quiet man from Indonesia who didn't say much but always had a smile on his face. Drink steward was Inacio.

 

I don't recall what everyone ate, other than my youngest son who went with the burger, that's a 12 year old for you. Everyone was quite happy with their meals and dessert was creme brule' for myself and my 17 year old. Wife and youngest selected the WMC. Kevin my 12 year old like it so much he ordered 2 more. Nelson was happy to oblige.

 

After dinner the kids ran off to be with their groups. Wife and I stopped in the casino for a bit before heading off to the adult only edition of that nights comedy show. Tony Esposito was the comic that night and he was quite entertaining. I tried to order a drink, and three different times a server took my order only I never received my drink. This was a common and chronic theme during the cruise. Thankfully I was never charged for drinks I never received. But Carnival would have got a lot more money out of me if they could deliver the drinks!

 

After the show we wandered around a bit before getting some pizza as a late night snack. The pizza was a bit slow but it was really tasty. Being a traditionalist I went with just pepperoni, the wife ordered some fancy four cheese thing or something. Both were very good, great crust and ingredients.

 

Off to bed for us around 1:00am, it would turn out the boys in what became a common theme for the cruise turned in around 3:00am.

 

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Dirkgun

Dirkgun

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Looks like a great start to your review. I just love Valor reviews. That is the best itinerary IMHO. We have done it twice (on the Victory before the Valor and Victory changed places in March of 2013) I love the Southern Caribbean Islands. Subscribing so I can catch it all. Thanks for taking the time to do the review. :D

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Avril

Avril

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Really enjoying your review and pics, thanks for sharing!! :D I love the Valor, sailed on her a few years ago (different itinerary though, we went to Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten with 3 sea days from Miami), beautiful ship!!!! :D

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kruisegirl

kruisegirl

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Great photos, so clear. We are going on the valor April 20. 7th time from

San Juan on 5 different ships on Carnival. Excited for the valor. Sure wish they would mix up the islands though. Years ago, they alternated itineraries every other week. Would love to get to some of the lesser visited islands, St Croix, Grenada, Dominica, Aruba, curacao. Would be cool, but until then, love going out of San Juan

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Dirkgun

Dirkgun

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Great photos, so clear. We are going on the valor April 20. 7th time from

San Juan on 5 different ships on Carnival. Excited for the valor. Sure wish they would mix up the islands though. Years ago, they alternated itineraries every other week. Would love to get to some of the lesser visited islands, St Croix, Grenada, Dominica, Aruba, curacao. Would be cool, but until then, love going out of San Juan

 

 

I completely agree..... they need to add some different islands in to the mix so a B2B would make sense. We also love leaving out of San Juan.

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Michpier

Michpier

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Can you give me some details on what your 12 year old did in the kids club? I have a 12 year old that is reluctant to try. Do the activities go later than 10pm? Thanks, travelling in 8 days on the Valor!

 

 

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