Our Victory Vacation to the Western Caribbean Jan. 15-19, 2015

[jpm1973]

The tour finished up around 11:30 and decided to try the sea day brunch in the aft dining room. We were seated right away and I opted for the huevos rancheros and Will chose the Honey-Nut Cheerios-crusted French toast. I wish I had gotten a picture of that – quite something! He said it was actually pretty good and didn’t need any syrup at all with the sweetness from the cereal. My huevos rancheros were also quite good.

 

After brunch we decided to stop at the casino where they were having the slot tournament qualifying rounds. I had participated and won this on the Glory in November so Will wanted to give it a try. I thought about skipping it myself since there was no way I’d be that lucky twice but figured it would be fun to try anyway. The first place prize was $500 and a seat at the grand final tournament in May; second place received a seat at the grand final tournament as well.

 

On the Glory I was lucky with machine 8 so I chose that one again this time. Will chose his lucky number 4. We took our seats and once they said go we hit our max bet buttons like crazy. After 5 minutes were up Will had scored somewhere above 800,000, not quite enough to make it on the board of top qualifiers. I had scored just around 1.1 million, which was enough to put me at #4. Maybe machine 8 was going to be lucky for me again! There were a few more qualifying rounds to go so it was definitely possible I’d be knocked out of contention.

 

The final round was scheduled for 1:30 so we had a little less than an hour to kill. Will was complaining about one eye being a bit blurry, so he could take a break and close his eyes for a bit. He had been wearing a scopolamine patch to help with motion sickness the whole cruise. He put one on in Miami that he took off once we docked in Cozumel since we would be off the ship or at least not moving for a while. He put a second one on that night once we departed so he would be covered for the last day at sea. Since one of the side effects is blurry vision, I suggested he might want to take the patch off and then just take Dramamine if he had any issues with feeling the motion of the ship. He agreed that might be a good idea and ditched the last patch. It would take a several hours for the medication to work its way out of his system, but hopefully that would solve the blurry vision issue.

 

Around 1:20 we headed back down to the casino and saw that I ended up in the number 5 spot so I would definitely be competing in the final round. The hosts let the qualifiers choose their machine, starting with the top qualifier and working their way down the list. I was hoping no one before me would pick machine number 8 and no one did! So I took my seat at the machine again, though really had no expectation of winning the same tournament again.

 

The hosts were covering up the scores on each machine for the final round, so as we played no one would have any idea who was winning until the final scores were revealed. So off we went on our button-banging spree for five more minutes. As I played it seemed like I wasn’t getting many high-point payoffs so I was feeling pretty sure I’d not end up the winner here. Toward the end, however, I hit a few big ones and thought I might possible have a slim chance, depending of course on how generous the seven other machines were feeling.

 

One by one the scores were revealed, starting with machine 1 and working down to me at machine 8. I think the player at machine 2 had the lead, 1.2 million or so. Then down to machine 6 where someone topped that score with 1.4 million. I was pretty sure that was going to be the winner this time. Machine 7 couldn’t beat it. Then it was up to my machine and the host pulled off the cover … 1.5 million! Holy s**t I had won again.

 

Needless to say the lady who ended in second place was bummed, but very gracious about the whole thing. (I didn’t bother to mention that I had just won this same tournament two months prior on another cruise.) One of her friends said the least I could do is buy her a drink, and I said of course I could! We received our grand final tournament certificates and I received my $500 and we made our way to the sports bar for margaritas.

 

So now I have two certificates to participate in the grand finals slot tournament on the Carnival Dream in May, but have no plans to go since the rates for that cruise are a bit steep. The certificates are transferable so if anyone out there is interested, let me know!

 

After the tournament we thought we might try heading up to the pool area since the sun was out. We got changed and made our way up to deck 9 and 10. It was understandably very crowded but we managed to find to lounge chairs next to each other. After only a few minutes Will was complaining that his vision in his right eye had gotten worse; not just blurry but almost like it was too bright for him to focus on anything. He also had a bit of a headache. He decided to go back to the cabin where he could take out his contacts and close his eyes and not be in the bright sunlight.

 

After he left I went into nurse mode and started looking at an app on my phone that has a reference guide for drugs and side effects, trying to see if there were any potential adverse reactions from this patch beyond the normal side effects we knew about. There wasn’t anything specific listed, though it did warn against using the patch if you have glaucoma. Will doesn’t, but what he was telling me made me think the effects of the patch could be causing the pressure in his eye to increase to a point of causing acute glaucoma. I grabbed my stuff and went back to the cabin quickly to check on him.

 

He was lying down and said nothing had really changed, but he still had trouble focusing with his right eye. I took a look and the pupil was definitely much more dilated than the left, but when I shined a light in it did react, so that made me feel a bit better. I was still concerned about the headache though, but he said it was specifically on the right side, more in the middle toward the back and felt like he might have just slept a bit off and strained his neck. He was understandably worried, and so was I. I thought about taking him to the medical center, but thought there probably wouldn’t be anything they could do to test his eye pressure anyway.

 

In any event, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the cabin; I read on the balcony while Will rested inside. After a few hours he said his vision was getting better, so we both felt relieved that hopefully the effects of the patch were finally starting to wear off. We figured that he may have put that second patch on a bit too soon in relation to when the first one came off and maybe gave himself a higher dose than he should have. Or possibly he just can’t wear a patch like that for so many days at a time. Thankfully by the next day his eyes were pretty much back to normal so all was well.

 

(As a side note, a few weeks after we returned home he went to the optometrist for his annual visit and they did test his eye pressure – it was elevated a bit from normal. Not sure if it was like that before, and the patch exacerbated it, or if the patch incident caused an increase in eye pressure that has yet to resolve. His doctor is monitoring it now and he’ll return in a few months to have it rechecked.)

 

After our eventful afternoon we decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. We did a little shopping at the Fun Shops and picked up a couple mugs and two stuffed Fun Ship Freddies for our dogs to play with (I know, I know, not really what these are for). We did go to dinner that night and planned to take in the last show of the cruise in the main lounge. Will wasn’t feeling like eating much so chose just a salad and a baked potato; I had the crab cake starter and the mahi mahi. We skipped dessert since nothing really appealed to us and we wanted to make it to the show on time.

 

Tonight’s show was called “Vroom” and included a whole range of music from several different genres. Overall it was a good show – much like the “Living in America” show we had seen two nights before. The two main singers were definitely the highlight. It was interesting watching the show having participated in the Behind the Fun tour earlier and learning how things work behind the scenes.

 

After the show we hit up the casino for a bit; Will on his favorite slot machine and me at the craps table. Neither of us won big, but I figure the slot tournament more than made up for that. Around 10 we decided to call it a night and head back to the cabin to start packing for our arrival in Miami the next day.

 

We were both up pretty early the next day for our arrival.

 

 

 

 

Since we had just carried on our bags we planned to do self-assist debarkation and head off the ship pretty early. We were docked by 7:30 and by 8:30 or so they were calling for the self-assist group to make their way to deck 3 and off the ship.

 

We had reserved the Carnival transportation back to Miami airport for our noon flight back to New York and were on the bus and on our way just a little after 9 a.m.

 

Overall we had a good time but could have done with better weather and without Will’s vision issues. The crew and ship were great, the food was good for us, and the entertainment probably some of the best I’ve seen out of my three cruises.

 

As it turns out my mom received some great offers from Carnival Players Club and she, my sister, and I will be sailing this exact same itinerary on the Victory in May. Will be interesting to see what changes after the scheduled dry dock this month and how it’s different from this cruise.

 

And I'll leave you with pictures of Max and Jackson enjoying their Fun Ship Freddie souvenirs. :)

 

 

[sjcarter407]

I loved your review! I sailed on the Victory last June. Did you write a review on the Ecstasy? I sail on her in September.

[jpm1973]

I loved your review! I sailed on the Victory last June. Did you write a review on the Ecstasy? I sail on her in September.

 

 

Thanks for reading! I didn't write a review of our Ecstasy cruise but would be happy to answer any questions. We loved that cruise!

[sjcarter407]

Thanks for reading! I didn't write a review of our Ecstasy cruise but would be happy to answer any questions. We loved that cruise!

 

My main concern is that I am going to compare the Ecstasy to the Victory. I'm worried there won't be as much to do on the Ecstasy. I especially loved your review since your ports are the ones I will be going to. :)

[jpm1973]

I really don't feel like they were that different in terms of things to do. Probably the biggest difference was in terms of outdoor space and pool areas - the Victory definitely has far more in this area. But on the Ecstasy we never felt like any areas were overly crowded. I will say the waterworks area on the Ecstasy was much nicer than the one slide on Victory.

 

In some ways I liked the smaller size of the Ecstasy as it made getting around a bit easier. I definitely wouldn't hesitate to sail on the Ecstasy again.

Edited March 5, 2015 by jpm1973

[sjcarter407]

I really don't feel like they were that different in terms of things to do. Probably the biggest difference was in terms of outdoor space and pool areas - the Victory definitely has far more in this area. But on the Ecstasy we never felt like any areas were overly crowded. I will say the waterworks area on the Ecstasy was much nicer than the one slide on Victory.

 

In some ways I liked the smaller size of the Ecstasy as it made getting around a bit easier.

 

Great! The size of the ship doesn't matter to me personally. The waterworks sounds fun! The Victory did feel crowded in areas so that will be a major plus for me. Thank you for answering my questions.

[boaterette]

Very nice review. Thanks for sharing.

[RIvacationgirl]

Hello fellow nurse!

I was so happy to read your review of the Victory, as this will be our first venture into the Carnival line. We are NCL cruisers and are unsure about many things. We made final payment yesterday and are looking forward to July. Your pictures and remarks have made us very excited to try out the Victory. It looks like a beautiful ship. We are traveling with another couple who are also first timers to Carnival.

We have opted for the anytime dining, and tend to eat early 5:30- 6:30pm. How are our odds of not too long of a wait in the main dining room? On NCL they have electronic boards all over the ship which tells you how busy the restaurants are- do they have this on the Victory?

Happy you had a great trip and thanks for sharing:)

[jpm1973]

I think you'll enjoy the Victory! It will actually be in dry dock for a few weeks this month so should be in even better shape when you board. I've never sailed with NCL so can't compare directly but make the best of it - you're on vacation after all. :-)

 

On the Victory we usually went to dinner on the earlier side - latest was 7 - and the most we had to wait was 5 minutes. No electronic boards on Victory or any Carnival ship (that I'm aware of) but that's a great feature! Hope you have a great cruise!

[anewmac]

Thanks for the review loved it! Im trying to talk some friends into this ship/itinerary. Loved the idea for Cozumel too.

[cruiseclues]

Thank You for the great Photo Review...& thanks for the Ocean Suite Photos. :):):):)