Carnival Valor Review 3/16/14 to 3/23/14

[Aplmac]

We will be doing this zipline tour on our upcoming cruise.

Loved the Go pro video. Were you holding the cam

or was it on some sort of mount?

My brand new GoPro was mounted on the same box it came displayed/mounted on!!

 

The flat base of said box works well

when mated with the 4 in. wide flat that runs along all the ship's balcony railings!

 

That box now contains 3 lbs. of sand

which has made it more stable due to the weight.

 

___________________

 

Here's two more quick videos of Old San Juan Harbor, Puerto Rico :)

 

 

Very early morning

 

 

Again at sunset

 

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Edited March 27, 2014 by Aplmac

[aricczona]

Thanks for posting those videos, looking forward to filming my version soon. The tip about the box; Amazing! Some of these accessories are ridiculously expensive! Ingenuity and creativity helps keep more money in my cocktail budget. :D

[arubacabo]

Rwombough;

 

Can you please share your issues with Spencer, we have a tour planned with him in 3 weeks.

 

St. Lucia - booked a tour thru Spencer Tours (if any one wants info on this tour let me know) we had a great tour guide but we also had some issues (nothing that ruined this tour, but made it a little frustrating at times).

[Aplmac]

Another quick one, shot on Lido Deck 9 aft

-near the pool.

 

 

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Edited March 27, 2014 by Aplmac

[kaybeebee]

Hi, We are booked on the Valor on March 30. Having terrible time figuring out how to use the 160 shore excursion credit since you cant use it till your on the boat. Been watching the excursions and all three that we were interested in have already sold out. Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. We have already booked independent tours in Barbados ( Cool Runnings) and St. Lucia ( Joe knows tours)

[rwombough]

Rwombough;

 

Can you please share your issues with Spencer, we have a tour planned with him in 3 weeks.

 

St. Lucia - booked a tour thru Spencer Tours (if any one wants info on this tour let me know) we had a great tour guide but we also had some issues (nothing that ruined this tour, but made it a little frustrating at times).

 

Arubacado, we reserved a tour with Spencer Tours at St Lucia - they will be waiting for you at the terminal once you pass thru the building. We were a party of 8 - our guide was Aaron (sp?). Had no issues with getting to the van, just a short walk around the corner. Once we boarded he told us we had to make a stop the Sandals resort to pick up a couple.... which I guess was on the way (however, it did take up some time when we had to wait for the couple to come out). We stopped at the church and the massive tree before we picked them up. Once we had the additional people we headed out for the rest of the tour. (the couple were not very sociable).

The island is very hilly - no speed limits, roads very windy.

He drove us thru the college pointing out local fruit trees, stopped at a road side banana plantation and sampled some bananas and banana products (ketchup, liquor and rum). We continued on the windy roads and then stopped at the volcano pits. (a little smelly - like hardboiled eggs). A tour guide gave us information about the volcano and then we headed out (we chose not to do the mud bath).

We stopped at the Captain Hooks restaurant and had our light lunch (very tasty) and then headed to the boat to make our way over to the beach .

By this time other Spencer tour groups were arriving at the boats, so it was first come first served. We were able to get our 8 on and off we went (I believe Spencer was the boat captain). he went fast, it was a lot of fun. Once we got to the beach we found ourselves 8 lounge chairs (that didn't cost any money to rent) and relaxed for about an hour and 15 minutes. We were told to meet back at the pier at 1:45pm. (this is where the frustration kicks in).

Our group was back on the pier around 1:40 - and it appeared all the other groups were told to meet back at the same time, unfortunately at chartered fishing boat arrived on one side of the pier while an unattended boat sat on the other side of the pier leaving no room for Spencer to bring his boat to load up. After waiting for about 15 minutes, the unattended boats owner showed up to move, just to have another excursion boat to pull in. It took us about 25 minutes to actually get on the return boat. This time it wasn't Spencer as the boat captain. We sped back to the original pier only to find that pier occupied by boaters filling up with gas and cleaning their vessels. Our guide was not happy. It took about an hour in total to go from the beach to getting off the boat.

 

Now our remaining time was running out. Aaron originally had told us he would take us to a waterfall and Magens beach - we headed out and were on our way up the mountain when Aaron got a call that he had to go back to the boat pier because there were 3 people that needed to be added to our group. (we really only had two available seats so I'm not sure what they were thinking), He turned around and headed back. When we got there there were actually 5 people in the group. No way could we fit them all!! He told him they wouldn't fit and off we went (another wasted 30 minutes). At this point I was worried we would be pushing it pretty close to the departure time that I told him to just take us back to the port. We got stuck behind a long line for jeeps (going slowly) - I was very nervous. He did get us back in time, but I definitely felt rushed and uneasy by the end.

Aaron was great - he was very informative and nice. We got to talking to him while we were on the beach (very sweet young man).

I doubt anyone else will have the same issues as us, I just wish it didn't end with the frustrated feelings.

[faroozi]

Be glad you were not on Spencer's boat. We got on the last boat I think about 2:30. I just know we didn't get on the first set of boats, but waited a little while. We were doing the boat tour back. Dropped a couple off at one of the bays. The boat was giving him troubles, so he turned it off, only then it would not turn on again. He tried to get it working again, but couldn't so we had to wait for another boat to finish the tour and come back for us. We made it to port and on the boat with 3 minutes to spare. Not his fault, they were new motors. But stressful.

[chipandsteph]

Be glad you were not on Spencer's boat. We got on the last boat I think about 2:30. I just know we didn't get on the first set of boats, but waited a little while. We were doing the boat tour back. Dropped a couple off at one of the bays. The boat was giving him troubles, so he turned it off, only then it would not turn on again. He tried to get it working again, but couldn't so we had to wait for another boat to finish the tour and come back for us. We made it to port and on the boat with 3 minutes to spare. Not his fault, they were new motors. But stressful.

I wonder how many problems they have with their boats. We took a tour with them in August. It was the one where we went back to the ship by land. We didn't have any problems, but I had a very odd email when I got home. It was from Spencer. He was apologizing about the issues with the boat and offering 40% off another tour if we came back to the island. They must have had a problem with another boat and mistakenly thought we were on that tour.

[chipandsteph]

I am loving reading everyone's thoughts on the Valor! You are helping me relive it!

[labyorkiefan]

I enjoy reading these reviews. I'll be doing this cruise in September and it will be my first cruise. Can't wait.

[MVoelker]

kaybeebee,

 

Remember you can use OBC for your week long tips too. Any drinks, shopping, casino?

Edited April 18, 2014 by MVoelker

[PathfinderEss]

Great review, thanks for posting it.

[WendyJo]

Thank you for your review. We sail '

May 18th and are so ready to get away from the weather here in North Texas.

 

We'll be on the May 18-25 sailing as well!

[bizeemom4]

I did this cruise the week before you did. We did Spencer's Land & Sea Tour. It was good but way too overscheduled. We ended up with only 45 minutes on the beaches by the Pitons - way too little time to do what we really thought was the highlight of the tour. There were no lounge chairs to be had when we arrived. That was a bit awkward.