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My Carnival Valor Southern Caribbean review!! With 2 days in Old San Juan !

PS1818

By PS1818,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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PS1818

PS1818

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Hello everyone! We just returned from our cruise on the Carnival Valor. This is my very first review so please be gentle with me. There will be typos and poor grammar along with a LOT of pictures and a lot of selfies, and even some food porn! I know some people don’t appreciate selfies as much as I do so if you don’t like them you can just move along now:p. Also, as a disclaimer, these are my opinions. If you happen to disagree with my opinion that is totally OK! There is no need to be rude or even tell me about it. You can write your own review and let us all know YOUR opinion! See how that works? Ok…moving along.

 

I suppose before we get started you should know a little about me. I am a returning college student studying in the medical field. I (S) am 36 years old and have spent the last 17 years working in the upscale/casual dining industry. So I know a bit about customer service, food, and beverage. I am a tiny bit sarcastic, and I can laugh at most things. I love vacations and cruising. I constantly need to have something to plan and look forward to. I like to refer to myself as a bit of a “control enthusiast”, so you know that everything that occurred on this trip occurred because I wanted it to…haha ;). This was my 3rd cruise. I have done an Alaska cruise on Princess about 10 years ago and the Eastern Caribbean route on the Norwegian Epic last December. I will probably be comparing Norwegian and Princess a few times during this review. My Husband (P) is a teensy tiny bit older than me. He is more laid back and leaves most of the planning to me. He is very funny, doesn’t drink much, and has the palate of a 3 year old. He really likes hamburger and milk. Not mixed together. But truly…a bowl of ground beef and a cold glass of milk is his favorite meal. I am a bit more adventurous when it comes to food.

 

Here is me…and the very first of many selfies.

cruiseiphone032.jpg

 

As you probably noticed I LOVE football. And I LOVE the Dallas Cowboys. I don’t know how it happened. We live in Washington State so I guess I am supposed to be a Seahawks fan. But I am NOT. In fact I am the complete opposite of a Seahawks fan. I have been a Cowboys fan since I was 3. I am not allowed to watch Cowboys games in public because I get a teensy bit “aggressive and frightening”. So we watched the playoff game against Green Bay (which happens to be my second favorite team) in our cabin right after we boarded the ship in San Juan. I will save you all a lot of time and trouble and say that it was the worst call EVER and they should have won the game(again, just my opinion, write your own review and give me yours. ). But did I let that ruin my vacation? HECK NO!!

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pghsteelerfan

pghsteelerfan

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So happy to see another Valor out of San Juan review! We did the same cruise on Valor in May 2013 and it was one of our favorites. We loved the islands we went to and would love to go again and will eventually. I love reading reviews by others, even on itineraries we've done, to relive our cruise and to get other ideas in case we repeat since we always like to try something different. Reviews do take time and I really appreciate them, so you won't be getting any rudeness from me. I really hope that you had as good of a time as we did. I'm looking forward for more and thanks for doing a review. :)

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Cruisegirl6 Great Review Rare

Cruisegirl6

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So am I, great start and with humor lol. Nice photo by the way! We all truly appreciate your giving us your review I do have a few questions perhaps you can answer if you can....

 

1- What cabin were you in and please tell me that the cabin was not on the warm side at night (going through my changes haha...ah...not funny lol)

 

2- I am very interested about the buffet lunches and dinner, the food basically...I have to be gluten and dairy free so its important for me to have meat entrees, meat carving and vegetables did you find there was a good assortment?

 

3- After 11pm besides room service and pizza was there anything else?

 

Can't wait to hear your review!:)

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Jennifer925

Jennifer925

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Excited for your review!!! I'm 38 days away from boarding the valor!! And good god I can't wait!!

 

I'm a cowboys fan also!! Yay!! I'm from jersey the land of the Eagles and giants fans UGH! (it sucks!! :P)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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PS1818

PS1818

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Sorry, had to take a break and eat some cheerios because after our trip my body seems to think that if I don’t eat every 25 minutes it will die. I have no idea how that happened.

 

So I realized too late that I forgot to put the dates of our cruise in the title…stupid rookie. We were on the 1/11/15- 1/18/15 sailing out of Old San Juan. We flew out of Seattle on the 8th on the overnight flight. We stopped in ATL and had a layover then arrived in San Juan on Friday morning. We like to take the overnight flight because we sleep on the plane and don’t have to waste a whole day of our vacation traveling. Plus it’s usually cheaper. Our flight was smooth and uneventful. I usually have trouble with pain in my ears when I fly (like someone is stabbing my eardrum with an icepick) but this time I wasn’t in tears when we landed. Success!!

 

Here we are at the airport all excited to take off!

cruiseiphone033.jpg

 

And here is my first official vacation drink!

cruiseiphone034.jpg

 

We arrived at SJU and went to collect our luggage. We were very happy to find it all there. On a side note- the best $5 investment I have ever made was in one of these babies….a woman who enjoys shoes and clothes should never leave home without one.

cruiseiphone113.jpg

 

Then we headed to the taxi stand. It is true what everyone says about the taxis at SJU. They are very organized and the line moves quickly. They ask you where you want to go and how many bags and give you a set price. In our case we were going to Old San Juan and had 4 bags (not including our backpacks). I know….I am an over-packer. Our fare was $25 plus tip.

cruise20153020.jpg

 

I originally wanted to stay at the El Convento Hotel in Old San Juan. It’s a beautiful old building that was once a convent and then converted to a hotel in the 1960’s. It was pretty spendy at around $350 per night. What really changed my mind about staying there was after they add the tax and the “resort fee” and some other fees it ended up being well over $400 per night. I was reading a review and the reviewer said they stayed in an apartment. What a great Idea I thought!! So I got on VRBO and found the perfect place. It was in a gated area on the same street as the coast guard and had a beautiful view of San Juan Harbor. It had two balconies, a full kitchen, washer & dryer, and was about 800 sq feet, and it was in walking distance of everything in OSJ. It was perfect! We sat on the balcony and drank wine and watched the cruise ships come and go. The best part was it was only $125 per night and had no hidden fees. We paid a $100 refundable damage deposit which was already here waiting for us when we got home. The property manager (the owner’s father) was wonderful and told us about cool things to see and do. We will definitely do the apartment thing again.

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PS1818

PS1818

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So happy to see another Valor out of San Juan review! We did the same cruise on Valor in May 2013 and it was one of our favorites. We loved the islands we went to and would love to go again and will eventually. I love reading reviews by others, even on itineraries we've done, to relive our cruise and to get other ideas in case we repeat since we always like to try something different. Reviews do take time and I really appreciate them, so you won't be getting any rudeness from me. I really hope that you had as good of a time as we did. I'm looking forward for more and thanks for doing a review. :)

 

Oh my goodness! You are one of my review idols! I LOVED your review! We had a great time on this cruise. Our best vacation so far.

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PS1818

PS1818

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So am I, great start and with humor lol. Nice photo by the way! We all truly appreciate your giving us your review I do have a few questions perhaps you can answer if you can....

 

1- What cabin were you in and please tell me that the cabin was not on the warm side at night (going through my changes haha...ah...not funny lol)

 

2- I am very interested about the buffet lunches and dinner, the food basically...I have to be gluten and dairy free so its important for me to have meat entrees, meat carving and vegetables did you find there was a good assortment?

 

3- After 11pm besides room service and pizza was there anything else?

 

Can't wait to hear your review!:)

 

Thank you!

 

We were in cabin 7388. We like to be cool while sleeping and the temp was perfect. We didn't mess with the AC once. I would imagine you could turn it down more if needed.

 

We mostly ate in the MDR for dinner, so I can't say too much about what they offered in the buffet. We did eat there at lunch and breakfast. At lunch they always had salad fixings and a lot of cold cuts. I wouldn't go as far as saying there was a TON of veggies, but there was a good amount. Hope that helps a little.

 

According to my Fun Times there was "late night snacks" available on the buffet from 11:30-1:00 am. I couldn't tell ya what it consisted of because I was always so stuffed from dinner I never made it to the late night buffet :(

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PS1818

PS1818

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Excited for your review!!! I'm 38 days away from boarding the valor!! And good god I can't wait!!

 

I'm a cowboys fan also!! Yay!! I'm from jersey the land of the Eagles and giants fans UGH! (it sucks!! :P)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Yay! Go Cowboys!! Oh yikes...that has got to be unpleasant. Being around all these fair weather Seattle fans is no walk in the park either. :rolleyes:

 

You will have a blast!!

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PS1818

PS1818

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YAY Can't wait to read your review!! I am a packers fan (sorry) but my husband also doesn't allow me to watch games in public (same reason). I feel your pain.

What ports did you visit on your trip?

 

Well the only thing that made that loss semi- not -crushing was that I never in a million years expected us to win. Aaron Rodgers is a machine. The way it ended was a tad heart breaking. I'm sure you know all about that after Sunday. Sorry...I was rooting for you guys.

 

We visited St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, and St. Maartin. It was a busy cruise!!

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PS1818

PS1818

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Super excited for this review! My future husband and I will be spending 5 days in OSJ before our Southern Caribbean cruise on the Liberty for our honeymoon in June. Can't wait to see how you enjoyed PR and the itinerary!

 

Hopefully my review won't disappoint!

You will love this trip! What a great honeymoon and Congrats on the Wedding! We loved this whole trip but especially OSJ! We are thinking of going back for a land vacation.

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pghsteelerfan

pghsteelerfan

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Oh my goodness! You are one of my review idols! I LOVED your review! We had a great time on this cruise. Our best vacation so far.

 

Really?!?! Thank you so much! I've seen so many great reviews here and I'm glad to know that you enjoyed mine. :) I've only done two & my Valor out of San Juan review was my very first. I'm really enjoying your review and I've gotten two great ideas already...the apartment and the luggage scale. I've heard of luggage scales but didn't know what they looked like, but that is something that we (well, I) need. So happy to hear you had a great time and it was your best vacation so far.

Edited by pghsteelerfan
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