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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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frayedend

frayedend

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We just booked the Valor for July. Thanks for posting your review.

 

I was a little surprised by this quote... "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!"

 

Heck, we can't ever seem to book a cruise that doesn't have St. Maarten. :D

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huntm

huntm

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We just booked the Valor for July. Thanks for posting your review.

 

 

 

I was a little surprised by this quote... "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!"

 

 

 

Heck, we can't ever seem to book a cruise that doesn't have St. Maarten. :D

 

 

When in July are you going? We are July 6th

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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mr.chris.

mr.chris.

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Cruise Day Three:

 

Day at Sea!

 

After Monday's stop in St. Thomas it was a sea day enroute to Barbados for Wednesday.

 

Originally when planning this trip I was concerned with the kids and even the wife getting bored with too many sea days and a big reason why we chose this itinerary. In hindsight this was a busy trip and another day at sea around Thursday would have been welcomed.

 

Everyone (well the wife and the kids) slept in until lunchtime. I was up about 8:30 and grabbed some breakfast and coffee from the buffet.

 

There was an ice carving demonstration by the pool that was entertaining. Movies on the pool tv screen and lots of activities elsewhere on the boat to stay busy.

 

In the afternoon my wife and I went to the "Love and Marriage" game show. Think along the lines of the Newlywed Game. Three teams were picked from the audience. Felipe' our cruise director was hosting. This was a total riot. The answers they were coming up with (as well as Felipe's questions) set the stage literally for a good afternoon of fun.

 

One of the questions was "What holiday describes last nights romance" i.e. a: 4th of July (boom boom fireworks), b: Thanksgiving (happy for whatever leftovers you got).

 

Well when they brought the men out to give their answers to match up to the wife's this one guys answer was "Memorial Day, cause it was like raising the dead". Poor Felipe' was so caught off guard by that he about laughed himself off the stage.

 

Shortly after this was over we learned there was a medical emergency that required an interim stop in Martinique. We never actually tied up to a dock. We headed in towards the harbor and a harbor patrol/coast guard type boat came out and met us about a mile or so out and they transferred the person. We then continued on and arrived the following morning in Barbados right on schedule.

 

This afternoon Club 02 had a "dodgeball" game. Though the rules were heavily modified. This had my 17 year old all excited. He's one of the top high school baseball pitchers in our state and has quite an arm as you could imagine. He's also very agile. This has proven to be a deadly combination when he plays dodgeball. But the modified rules evened out the playing field a little, but he still had a blast.

 

Tuesday night was also our first casual elegance night (formal night) in the dining room. Wife wanted to do at least one of the two formal nights up big. She had a brand new dress, boys were in shirts and ties and I was in a nice black suit. Crowds were kind of heavy with the photographers on deck 5 in Kings Blvd but we managed a few different settings before it was time to head downstairs to the dining room.

 

Also while up there waiting in line for pictures they were filming for the DVD of the cruise. The assistant cruise director Eric was going around interviewing fake Olympic Gold Medal Winners in make believe events. For those of you that saw it played on the ship or bought the DVD it was my youngest son that was interviewed as the "Car Stereo Dash" winner.

 

Headed off to dinner and had kind of an odd experience. Nelson was top of his game as always but Inacio our drink/beverage dude totally forgot us. Main course was on the table and he hadn't even asked us for a drink order. We aren't ones to complain and just had water but Nelson stopped and asked us why no drinks so I mentioned no order was taken. Not sure what conversation took place between him and Inacio but the rest of the week our drinks were on the table waiting for us when we walked in!

 

After dinner we went to the 10:15 show in the Theater and it was entertaining. Again here though getting a drink proved impossible. Twice I had orders taken but drinks never delivered. From this night on I would just get drinks directly at a bar and carry them in.

 

Both boys were off with their groups from Circle C and Club 02 respectively though to my surprise both groups attended the show and the boys seemed to enjoy it.

 

Off to bed knowing that Barbados awaited us in the morning.

 

.....

 

For those that asked I was shooting with my Canon 7D primarily (more on that in St. Lucia) and my Canon EOS-M as a backup with a handful shot from my phone which does better than most.

 

Martinique

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CruisingObsessed

CruisingObsessed

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Thanks for the great review! So far I have enjoyed it all....except the Husky shirt (we're a long line of WSU alumns here :D). Oh well, Huskies need love too.;)

 

You have a nice looking family and I'm glad you had such a good time! Cruising is such a perfect family vacation---kids have their stuff to do, and it's safe but even the teens like it; and the adults get alone/down time. There's plenty of family togetherness too. Pretty much nothing else offers all of that in quite the same way.

 

Booking something with too few sea days is a classic rookie mistake. The usual first timer worries are 1. I'll get seasick and 2. I'll fell trapped or get bored on a ship. It's rare that either come true.

 

Can't wait to hear the rest of your story!

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mr.chris.

mr.chris.

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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!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

I do know that most of their activities didn't start until 6 or 7 in the evening. They would go to the nightly show as a group on many of the nights. They had pizza making contests, dodgeball, karaoke, movies, etc. They typically had stuff going until midnight. It was mostly active type stuff, mini-golf, basketball, etc.

 

Our 12 year old was reluctant as well, but decided to jump in and make the best of it. As a result there was a core group of about 8 of them that became nearly inseparable and they would hang out whenever on the ship outside of dinner (we required the kids to eat with us except for the one night that both groups had their "group dinners").

 

I never once heard my son complain about activities being too childish for him and he'd be the first to complain if they were.

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mr.chris.

mr.chris.

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I agree great images, very crisp and clean. What lens are you using on the 7D?

Looking forward to hearing about Barbados!!

 

Mostly a 24-105 F4L. The other lens I brought despite being a little too heavy was my 70-200 F2.8L IS II.

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mr.chris.

mr.chris.

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Thanks for the great review! So far I have enjoyed it all....except the Husky shirt (we're a long line of WSU alumns here :D). Oh well, Huskies need love too.;)

 

You have a nice looking family and I'm glad you had such a good time! Cruising is such a perfect family vacation---kids have their stuff to do, and it's safe but even the teens like it; and the adults get alone/down time. There's plenty of family togetherness too. Pretty much nothing else offers all of that in quite the same way.

 

Booking something with too few sea days is a classic rookie mistake. The usual first timer worries are 1. I'll get seasick and 2. I'll fell trapped or get bored on a ship. It's rare that either come true.

 

Can't wait to hear the rest of your story!

 

I was worried about being bored. Seasick not so much, I was in fact surprised to see the number of people I did with the Scopalamine patches behind their ears.

 

Being from the NW and spending LOTS of time on the water in smaller boats and in big seas I wasn't the least bit worried about seasickness. We frequently go salmon fishing out of Ilwaco and Westport in 30 foot seas in a 50 ft boat.

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CruisingObsessed

CruisingObsessed

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I was worried about being bored. Seasick not so much, I was in fact surprised to see the number of people I did with the Scopalamine patches behind their ears.

 

Being from the NW and spending LOTS of time on the water in smaller boats and in big seas I wasn't the least bit worried about seasickness. We frequently go salmon fishing out of Ilwaco and Westport in 30 foot seas in a 50 ft boat.

 

Worrying about seasickness on small fishing boats IS legitimate for sure!!! We enjoy fishing and whale watching too, but those little boats rock and roll and some people do get sick. If you can handle that, it is unlikely that any large cruise ship will ever be a problem.

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NS-Cruiser

NS-Cruiser

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Saving my place, we leave on the valor march 30th and am so ready.....

 

 

DW and I will be on the same sailing with you on March 30... You should join our roll call.... We also have a page on another face page site that shall remain nameless cause you are not allowed to mention it here.... But if you go to that face type page and search for "carnival Valor March 30, 2014 you will find a large (crazy) group that will also be on the same sailing.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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mr.chris.

mr.chris.

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Cruise Day Four:

 

St. Lucia...

 

This would prove to be probably the most frustrating day of the cruise in certain respects. But it still wasn't a horrible day.

 

I had made arrangements with Spencer Ambrose Tours for the four of us on their "Western Delight" package. This included a van tour of the volcano and then Jalousie Beach for a couple hours.

 

Everyone up early to grab breakfast at the buffet and down to the meeting spot by 8:15. It was pretty crazy, multiple tour companies trying to meet in the same spot and it appeared as if there were more people there for tours than they planned on.

 

After 40 minutes or so of waiting we were finally walked about 3 blocks to our van. But we then had to fight through surprisingly horrible traffic for such a small town to another location to pick up someone from their hotel. Finally about 9:45 we were back downtown to view the cathedral. After about 5 pics my camera died. After making a few calls it was clear it was not something that could be fixed during the trip and in fact would cost more to fix than replace. I also brought my EOS-M (mirrorless interchangeable lens camera) which while not perfect was certainly better than nothing. But this pretty much set my tone for the day.

 

The driver we were assigned from Spencer seemed like a taxi driver he uses for overflow passengers. He seemed to do the best he could but it wasn't a smooth tour. We wound up trading passengers at some point to ease seating a little. At the volcano there was a massive traffic jam on our way out because of someone going the wrong way and not being able to back up. We were also told we could only look at it from the first lookout point near the road and not go to the other one because of time, but then we were given the okay to go walk the 100 feet to the better lookout point.

 

From there we went to the falls and got to admire them for a couple minutes before being hurried off to lunch. Lunch was a bit of a short buffet line type experience in a small restaurant that was converted from a house. Food was good and the restaurant owner very friendly. But it was hot and crowded and quite a few of us had to stand for a lack of seats.

 

From there we went to the boat dock nearby to take the boat to Jalousie. It was also suggested we pay the additional difference between this tour and the speedboat tour in order to have time at Jalousie. The way they said it and went on about it, it really felt like some arm twisting. Okay fine the kids wanted to ride the boat anyways but he kept insisting my 12 year old was an adult price (I had to show him the email from Spencer stating he was the child price) and then he kept adding up the $15 per person difference but $15x4 people he kept saying was $120 more. Anyways got it worked out but ultimately it seemed they didn't want to run a van back through traffic and it was easier and more convenient for them to put everyone on the boat. Just simplify it then and eliminate our version of the tour. That way everyone is on the same page from the first moment and there is no confusion of misunderstandings.

 

Anyways Jalousie beach clearly is a beautiful beach. There is a dock to one side and the larger portion of the beach to the south of the dock is reserved for the resort there. The smaller portion is used by Spencer and at least one other tour company. It was not kept as nice, crowded, etc. Still we went snorkeling and had a good time but it doesn't quite play out like the brochure.

 

The boat ride back with "No Problem" was actually quite good and entertaining. It made me feel a lot better about what led to us riding the boat. We stopped at the pier where the RCI boat was docked first and dropped off some folks and then to the other side of the harbor where the Valor was docked. Walked off Spencer's boat and jumped in line to get back on board the Valor with about 20 minutes to spare.

 

Back to the cabin to get cleaned up and then the kids were off with their respective buddies. Wife and I headed to the casino for a bit before meeting the kids at 8:15 for dinner in the MDR. I don't recall the menu for that night but I do remember that the meal was every bit as good as what we'd had so far. My youngest continued to do his best to clean them out of the WMC's.

 

After dinner the boys groups (Circle C and Club 02) went to the show as did the wife and I. The show was "Far From Over" and although I've never been a big fan of musical type shows it was entertaining. Either that or I had sufficient alcohol in me ;)

 

After the show we walked around a bit, checked out the pics from formal night and wandered up to get some pizza before calling it a night.

 

The next day is St. Lucia and it was the one stop everyone seemed least interested in so we decided to make no plans, and effectively treat it like a day at sea and get caught up on sleep. But that changed to some degree.

 

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gracie65

gracie65

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Day Four was the Barbados review, I believe. He just titled it St. Lucia accidentally

 

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The description he wrote was St. Lucia. I think he missed posting Barbados

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trippingpara Great Review Rare

trippingpara

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Did this itinerary back when the Victory sailed it. Just booked this same tour to take our daughter out on her first cruise to celebrate her graduating from Virginia Tech next year. Can't wait. Reading your review and looking at the photos are making the wait painful!! Yet, fills us with excitement too!

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