Attn LIBERTY & VALOR cruisers: Detailed Review of Valors Last Cruise from Puerto Rico

[IloveOrchids]

Enjoying your review! Going on the Valor in June .

 

It was great that you got to change rooms. What was the number of the clanging balcony?

[deladane]

Enjoying your review! Going on the Valor in June .

 

It was great that you got to change rooms. What was the number of the clanging balcony?

 

The clanging was back in the oceanview cabin: 1301. It is mid-ship, starboard side.

 

The new balcony cabin was 7220 :) a forward cabin, port side. It's a great cabin, especially if you want to spy on the folks working in the Bridge haha

[deladane]

Tuesday, March 17 ~ St. Patrick's Day at Sea

 

We woke up without an alarm at 8:30am... so much for sleeping in on our one and only sea day! We went to brunch at 9:15am and ran into our new cabin steward Ali in the hallway. I was very impressed that he greeted us by name before I could even mention that we had just moved up here.

 

Brunch was in the aft Washington dining room, and we were seated immediately at a shared table for 6 people. Service was slow, but it was no different than on any other cruise and the meal took 1.5 hours total. I had the bagel with lox and cream cheese, fried eggs over hard, and turkey bacon. It was all very good and very filling! I did miss getting to order a free cocktail from being a past guest... that bottle of water just isn't as exciting haha

 

 

 

We got back to the cabin by 11am after brunch, and spent the next 3.5 hours enjoying our balcony. Being a balcony virgin, I never really understood why people obsess over having a balcony and I always saw it as an unnecessary added expense when there is plenty of outdoor public space we could enjoy for free. Now I finally understand what the excitement is all about. It is so relaxing to sit outside in your own private space, drink a glass of wine, read a book, and listen to the waves pass by. No loud party music. No screaming children. No cruise entertainment staff talking about hairy chests. Just us. Oh, and the people who work on the bridge! As a warning to anyone looking to book cabin 7220, it is very close to the port side wing of the bridge. We can see them, and they can see us! In fact, when the all access ship tour got to the bridge, we waved at them and they waved back so we know they can see us. I guess that puts a slight limitation on the privacy offered by this cabin's balcony, but it really wasn't a big deal, and it was actually kind of fun to check out all the action up there!

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

No cruise is complete without sneaking a peak of the wake off the back of the ship!

 

 

 

Tea time was at 3pm and we were both looking forward to trying it as neither of us had gone before. We arrived at the aft Washington dining room as they opened the doors, and we were seated at a shared table for 10 people. Right away, they brought us each a mini kettle of hot water, and a waiter came around to let us pick out our flavor of tea.

 

 

Then the waiters came around with various desserts. I noticed they also had cucumber sandwiches and something with smoked salmon on top, but somehow they never brought the savory items to our table. In fact, there was one of the desserts that I really wanted to try, but the waiters kept skipping our table so eventually I had to ask someone to bring it over! I'm really not sure what their system is, but it all seemed rather random. My goal was to just try a taste of each item so I wouldn't ruin my appetite for dinner. Sadly, that idea was quickly forgotten as everything was so yummy and I ended up eating more than planned.

 

 

 

[mzlinda]

I've never been to the back of the ship to see the wake. That's going on my To Do list for my Liberty cruise this month. I haven't been to Tea Time either. That was on my To Do list on the Fantasy but I forgot to actually do it.

 

I'm enjoying your review. Welcome to the balcony world.

[cruisemom2010]

I am so enjoying your review! I am cruising the same itinerary in July with The Golden Girls. I can't wait to see all your photos from these ports. I want to do Meghan's Bay in St. Thomas on this trip. I was wondering if there are taxis at the dock that will take you there? Did you book any excursions through Carnival?

[PurdueChefAmber]

You lucky duck! What a nice balcony and review! Thanks for taking the time!

[Tutontow]

You were so lucky you were able to change cabins. On my big retirement cruise on The Dream, just after dry dock, we sprung for an aft balcony.

 

On the first night I heard clang, clang, grind, grind. It drove me nuts. For four nights I couldn't get any sleep and nobody could seem to find the source of the noise. Guest service actually recommended we sleep when we are in port because it only made the noise when the ship was under way.

 

Finally I was so tired and cranky they sent up the head of engineering and he figure out is was a support beam for the balcony above us. I will say Carnival was more than generous by removing over $300.00 from out Sail and Sign accounts and gave us 40% off our next cruise and we didn't even ask for any of that. I just wanted a good nights sleep.

 

BTW I am enjoying your report. Keep it coming. I am on The Valor April 12th.

[deladane]

I've never been to the back of the ship to see the wake. That's going on my To Do list for my Liberty cruise this month. I haven't been to Tea Time either. That was on my To Do list on the Fantasy but I forgot to actually do it.

 

I'm enjoying your review. Welcome to the balcony world.

 

Oooh, definitely add both tea time and checking out the wake to your to do list! I love looking at the wake and seeing nothing but water behind the ship... it's something you can only do when you are on a boat! I'm glad we finally got to try out tea time and I'll definitely go back on future cruises. Just try to go to brunch early enough that you are hungry again by 3pm to eat all the yummy cakes! Have a great cruise!!

[deladane]

I am so enjoying your review! I am cruising the same itinerary in July with The Golden Girls. I can't wait to see all your photos from these ports. I want to do Meghan's Bay in St. Thomas on this trip. I was wondering if there are taxis at the dock that will take you there? Did you book any excursions through Carnival?

 

Yes, there are a ton of taxis at the port. When you get off the ship, walk about two blocks past all the stores in the shopping area. You will get to an intersection with someone waiting to direct you to a taxi. Most people end up in big open-air taxis that hold 20-25 passengers all going to the same place. Magens Bay is very popular so there will likely be a taxi assigned for everyone going there. I have never been, since I went to Sapphire Beach both times I was at St Thomas, but I have heard that it is also easy to get a taxi to go back to the ship at the end of your day.

 

I did not book any excursions through Carnival- I find that they tend to be twice the price as if I book the same activity on my own, and there are way more people doing the activity so it's more crowded than a private excursion too. I just make sure to get back to the port early enough that I know I won't miss the ship at the end of the day!

[deladane]

You lucky duck! What a nice balcony and review! Thanks for taking the time!

haha thanks! Glad you're enjoying it :)

[deladane]

You were so lucky you were able to change cabins. On my big retirement cruise on The Dream, just after dry dock, we sprung for an aft balcony.

 

On the first night I heard clang, clang, grind, grind. It drove me nuts. For four nights I couldn't get any sleep and nobody could seem to find the source of the noise. Guest service actually recommended we sleep when we are in port because it only made the noise when the ship was under way.

 

Finally I was so tired and cranky they sent up the head of engineering and he figure out is was a support beam for the balcony above us. I will say Carnival was more than generous by removing over $300.00 from out Sail and Sign accounts and gave us 40% off our next cruise and we didn't even ask for any of that. I just wanted a good nights sleep.

 

BTW I am enjoying your report. Keep it coming. I am on The Valor April 12th.

 

Oh wow! That's horrible that you had to deal with the clanging sound too. Were they really serious that you should become nocternal and skip all your port days so you could sleep during the day?!? That is so not a viable solution! haha That's great that Carnival did everything they could to compensate you though. We also weren't really looking for anything in return- we just wanted them to fix the noise so we could have some silence in our cabin. After we agreed to change cabins, the guest services lady admitted that there were some technical issues that they can't fix until the ship goes into dry dock. I don't know when the Valor will actually get it's next dry dock, but she said there are things that she knows have been needed to get fixed since 2014, and it got pushed off when they cancelled that dry dock. I just hope they can do something about it before another passenger has to stay down in 1301!!

[deladane]

After tea time, we went back to the cabin to enjoy some more balcony time, then we got ready for formal night at dinner.

 

 

We got down to the lobby at 6:35pm and noticed a long line of people waiting to enter the dining room. We waited for 15 minutes to reach the front of the line, and they took our cabin number and gave us a pager so we would know when our table was ready. Unsure of how long the wait would take, we decided to get a few drinks at the lobby bar.

 

 

We got seated at 7:30pm, but they were doing the show where the waiters sing and dance, so we had to wait 15 minutes before we could order our food. After 35 minutes, we still had no food so we complained to a manager when he came over to check on us, and then our appetizers came out 5 minutes later. Like magic, the service was much faster after we complained. We planned to go to the 8:15pm show in the main theater but missed it because dinner took so long. We left dinner at 9pm, 2.5 hrs after we originally got on line. In theory, any time dining should be a great option, but unfortunately, in reality, the hour-long wait and the slow service meant we had to miss out on several things we planned to do around the ship at night.

 

We made the best of it and enjoyed our formal night dinner. I had the stuffed white mushrooms, kale and beets carpaccio (a new appetizer I had never tried before), two orders of the lobster and shrimp entree, and the fresh fruit for dessert. These photos all look very dark to me... I took all my food porn pictures both with and without the flash, but the ones with the flash totally washed out the food and looked waaaay too light, so I had to use the non-flash photos. I'm sorry if they aren't the best quality, but hopefully you get a good enough view!

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

We didn't have a ton of opportunities to acknowledge St. Patrick's Day today, and I didn't notice the corned beef and cabbage which was rumored to be on tonight's dinner menu (perhaps because they didn't want to alter the formal night dinner menu??), but J didn't want to ignore the holiday. Despite the limited space in his 3-1-1 bag for TSA on the plane, he managed to squeeze in a tiny bottle of green food coloring! He brought it to dinner and used it to turn all of our liquids green. Both of our cocktails were green (you can see them on the sides of this photo... people actually asked us what we ordered because they wanted green drinks too!!), our waters were green, even J's soup was green! Our waiters looked very confused when they walked passed our table because they knew they didn't serve us green water or soup haha

 

 

 

After dinner, we went to the 10:15pm production show called Nightclub Express. It was ok but would have been better if it had more songs that we knew. The show featured a unique narrator... a giant talking sofa! It reminded me of an after school special or something haha A few times during the show, between singing and dancing numbers, the couch rolled out on stage to tell us about the next set of songs. Very strange! We also thought it was kind of odd that the dancers wore thongs for most of their costumes... that's not very family friendly!

 

After the show, we went to see the piano bar. There were maybe 20 people in there so it wasn't very lively. We stayed for a few songs, then went up to Lido to grab a snack before bedtime. I loved how pretty the aft pool looked at night...

 

 

 

There are very few options for food this late at night... sometimes the grill was open, but not every night. The only other option was pizza, but it always had a looooong line. It was nice that they make each pizza fresh when you order it, but it takes 20 minutes to cook each pizza, and that creates a long line of people waiting for their food. Maybe it would work better if they continuously made pizzas at this late hour considering there was clearly a demand for it, but I guess it would get cold quickly since it's such a thin crust. Here was the pizza place menu:

 

 

Up next: Boatyard Beach in Barbados

[cruiser fanatic]

What was the Captain's name?

Edited April 2, 2015 by cruiser fanatic

[lovestocruise19]

You're so lucky you got upgraded to a balcony room from an OV! We've never had a balcony room before, but have always wanted to try one someday. I think I'd like one that close to the bridge so I could peek in on them!

 

I have a random question. How did you get all those pictures taken of you and your boyfriend? Just friendly fellow passengers? My DH hates to have his photo taken and it's hard when it is just the two of us. It's usually me reaching out doing a selfie of us. Lol. Our Valor cruise will have my parents so they can take photos of me and DH which I'm sure DH will love. :rolleyes:

 

Also, I like your formal night dress. :)

 

That show with the talking couch sounds...interesting. Hopefully better than the Playlist Productions shows we've seen.

[Gallivanting Souls]

After the flights were booked, we called Carnival to book the cruise. I went back and forth a lot on what type of cabin we should book. On my last two Carnival cruises, I was very happy in my inside cabin mid-ship on deck 7. We were two floors up from the bars and nightlife, and two floors down from the buffet and pools on Lido deck. The problem was that on both of those cruises, I had the 'two twin beds' set up (the first cruise was with one of my best friends, and the second was with my mom). We arranged the beds to be perpendicular to each other, and had a ton of open floor space in the middle of the cabin so it never felt cramped. I also really liked the value of booking an inside cabin since I spend very little time in my room and prefer to invest most of my budget into activities in port.

 

This time around, I would be cruising with my boyfriend so we would have the 'one king bed' set up. Based on photos I have seen in other reviews, I knew that the one big bed in the middle of the inside cabin would leave nearly no floor space, and I was afraid we would be tripping over each other all week. That lead me to consider an oceanview cabin. It would be nice to have a couch to sit down on, and the extra square feet would be great for having more space to walk around. I ruled out a balcony cabin because they were twice the price, and there's plenty of public outside space if we want to be outside so no reason to spend the extra money on that.

 

Once I decided on the oceanview cabin, I had to choose a deck. I definitely wanted to be mid-ship. The kitchen galley for the Valor takes up most of deck 3 mid-ship, and I have read many comments on these boards about the risks of having a cabin below the galley because they start preparing breakfast very early in the morning, and I did not want my beauty sleep to be interrupted by the banging or cleaning or whatever it is that they do up there! Our cruise was in March to coincide with my birthday, but I know that also is when colleges have spring break. It made me a bit nervous to book a cabin on deck 1 during spring break, fearing that college kids would pick the cheapest deck on the ship and pile 4 people into all the inside cabins, and then be really loud and annoying at night. In the end, I decided to ignore my fears and we went with cabin 1301: a mid-ship oceanview cabin on deck 1 (hoping that spring breakers would stick with cruises leaving from Florida instead of flying to Puerto Rico).

 

Now that our cruise was officially booked, it was time to start the countdown!!

 

 

This dry erase board hung on my fridge and I updated the countdown daily. I also picked up these 2 jars and filled them with one piece of candy for every day until we left for the cruise (I had candy corn in my jar, and J got peanut butter M&Ms- he was very happy with the candy choice I got for him haha). It was so fun to eat one piece of candy together each day as we looked forward to our upcoming vacation.

 

What a cute idea! The dry erase board would work, but my DH would eat the entire jar in a sitting. (I probably would too :cool: )

[deladane]

What was the Captain's name?

 

I tried zooming in on a photo of one of the FunTimes and it looks like his first name was Antonio, last name was long and stared with Sam, ended with "artano" but I can't read the middle few letters haha Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!

[cruiser fanatic]

I tried zooming in on a photo of one of the FunTimes and it looks like his first name was Antonio, last name was long and stared with Sam, ended with "artano" but I can't read the middle few letters haha Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!

 

Thanks. It sounds like it is Antonino Sammartano. I hope we don't have him next month! He was so rude to me on the Conquest when I asked for a picture!

[deladane]

You're so lucky you got upgraded to a balcony room from an OV! We've never had a balcony room before, but have always wanted to try one someday. I think I'd like one that close to the bridge so I could peek in on them!

 

I have a random question. How did you get all those pictures taken of you and your boyfriend? Just friendly fellow passengers? My DH hates to have his photo taken and it's hard when it is just the two of us. It's usually me reaching out doing a selfie of us. Lol. Our Valor cruise will have my parents so they can take photos of me and DH which I'm sure DH will love. :rolleyes:

 

Also, I like your formal night dress. :)

 

That show with the talking couch sounds...interesting. Hopefully better than the Playlist Productions shows we've seen.

 

Yes, we were super excited to try out the balcony! For our photos, most of them were taken by other passengers. I usually looked for people slowly walking by (as in, not looking like they were in a rush to get somewhere) and with their hands free (not juggling children or plates of food!), and everyone was always happy to take a quick photo for us. Another good technique is when you are touring around, look for a couple where one person is taking a photo of the other person and offer to take one of them together. They are usually happy to return the favor for you!

 

The only exception to that is the handful of selfies we took (you can easily identify those because it is more upclose on our faces and you can't see one of my arms haha) Prior to the cruise, I bought a selfie stick. That's what I used to take the photos on the balcony because obviously there wasn't anyone else around to take the picture. I rarely brought it off the ship though because it was just one more thing to add weight to my beach bag, so I only got to use it on the balcony. Hope that helps!!

 

I love that dress too :) I bought it for a friend's wedding 2 years ago but rarely have a chance to rewear it, so I like to bring it on cruises for formal night so I have a reason to wear it again haha

[deladane]

Thanks. It sounds like it is Antonino Sammartano. I hope we don't have him next month! He was so rude to me on the Conquest when I asked for a picture!

 

Oh no! We never interacted with him so I don't know much one way or the other. I'm not sure if the Captain stays with the ship when it changes home ports. I think you will have a different cruise director, but we had Calvyn.

[deladane]

What a cute idea! The dry erase board would work, but my DH would eat the entire jar in a sitting. (I probably would too :cool: )

 

haha I actually did the dry erase board countdown on my 2 prior cruises too, and I always bring the board on the trip to communicate with the steward. After over 200 days hanging on my fridge, it was ready to be thrown out anyway, so I left it behind when we left the ship. As for the candy, we were on a "cruise diet" so that helped motivate us not to eat more than 1 piece of candy per day ;)

[TrqoisWtrs]

our waters were green, even J's soup was green! Our waiters looked very confused when they walked passed our table because they knew they didn't serve us green water or soup haha

 

That's hilarious - love it! :D

[deladane]

That's hilarious - love it! :D

 

haha thanks, we found it amusing too ;)

[rzyjzq]

Enjoying your review and pictures! Cruising in almost 2 weeks (YEA!!) and planning to go to The Boatyard so looking forward to hearing about your visit and how it was.

Susan