!!! Carnival Victory !!! ^_^ The Ultimate Review and Complete Pictorial Guide!!!

[gambee]

You all know this one.

 

 

Orange cake, no clue, but it did not look very good. I think it was a diet cake... I have never eaten anything diet that tastes good.

 

 

Dinner was great. It really displays the how different it can be between two ships within the same line. I can honestly say that I was not expecting this kind of thing at all. With our bellies contempt and full we departed the MDR. I noticed that this is possibly the first cruise that all the waiters said thank you to us when leaving the MDR. We made no extra purchases on most occasions. It was a nice added bonus, and it exemplified another remarkable point of Carnival.

 

Up in the room we had a little friend, of course uncle took no time to destroy it. This happened almost every night. In his defense, he was only trying to play with them.

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2015 by gambee

[funinthesun1964]

 

The every day beef, was really nice!

 

 

Grilled chicken, good as well.

 

 

Grilled Salmon (I missed the focus on this picture, sorry :/) Tasty as well

 

 

And my lasagna, it was really nice.

 

 

 

Love that lasagna! There are a few options that I like on the first night's menu. How will I decide?

 

And was the dip The Spinach and Artichoke dip? I think I must try that next month.

 

Enjoying your review. Thanks for your effort.

[vamartha]

Hot diggety dog, a new Gambee review! This will be the highlight of my weekend! And we actually get to see Gambee! Not just his shoes, or his reflection or his wine glass, we get to see the whole man, thank you GoPro!

[gambee]

Out on the balcony, we could see the sibling of one of my favorite ships.

 

 

Oasis of the Seas. It was then that I realized that we would be in Nassau together.

 

 

Then we decided to head to the aft pool for some water fun. How ironic, as kids we were always getting yelled at for going in the water too soon after eating. If I recall correctly, it was said that you could get cramps and drown from it. I could never verify such a thing, all I know is that now as an adult, not I only jump in the water immediately after eating, but I also eat in the water. Yet I am still here :D.

 

The aft pool became our place to go if we wanted water action. I guess mainly because it was close to the room. But there are other benefits. First of all the shaded areas provided somewhere for those to relax without melting to death. Then there is the closeness to the ice cream, pizza, and drinks.

 

The place can get really crowded on sea days, but it is still much better than the main pools or the Serenity area. There is also a great view of the wake.

 

Oh, I forgot, NO KIDS!!!! You all know that is a big selling point for me. It was reinforced by the crew. I saw in a few occasions that they were asked to leave, and most of them were quietly sitting with their parents.

 

 

As it is common with Carnival, the pools are salt water and the Jacuzzis are a concentration chlorine and germs, but mostly chlorine. Bring your nose guards :D. All jokes aside, it is a good thing that the pools are salt water, because you need something strong to wash off all that chlorine. Sometimes even showering at night would not help, and I would wake up smelling like bleach!

 

As my ex used to say, you're sitting in a petri plate, LoL. Yes I am, and it feels soooooo good.

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2015 by gambee

[janeyzee]

Then we decided to head to the aft pool for some water fun. How ironic, as kids we were always getting yelled at for going in the water too soon after eating. If I recall correctly, it was said that you could get cramps and drown from it. I could never verify such a thing, all I know is that now as an adult, not I only jump in the water immediately after eating, but I also eat in the water. Yet I am still here :D.

 

This is what I love about your reviews, the funny little personal things you add to the conversation. It's not just "here is the pool, here is the dining room", it's more like you are chatting with us as you go along. Very entertaining.

[disneylover89]

Thanks for this review!! I board the Victory on Saturday and this review has made me soooo excited!!

[gambee]

Sorry this post took a little while. I was just called downstairs by mom telling me that she could not open my car. Well, it is a bit hard to open the wrong car with my set of keys :rolleyes:

 

 

This is a really nice place at night, we unless they have that damn loud music blasting in my ear while there are only 3 of us there. I am almost sure they did just that on a couple of occasions to get us out of there. The thing that I never understood was the variety of music in the aft pool, it could go from DJ Tiesto, to Celine Dion, to Vicente Fernandez, to Supertramp, then the Beatles, to Zhu, to Odesza in a matter of minutes. It seemed like they had 3 drunk DJ’s fighting for the turning table behind the scene.

 

While I loved pretty much all of the music, it was really irritating to switch from one music to the other and change the mood so abruptly. I would love it if when it is busy have some nice party music, and then at night something mellow for the few who go to relax and talk. They even had some great country music that they would ruin the second it was over, with some Spanish music. Pick a theme and stick to it!

 

 

The aft view from up there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

[gambee]

 

Uncle and I.

 

 

Tell me that is not amazing, and the water temperature was lovely.

 

 

 

As far as the jacuzzi goes, it was really hot that night. But some other nights it was cooler, the temperature seemed to fluctuate a lot. The chlorine made it really hard to breath, so we ended up turning off the bubbles. Then again the added chlorine makes me feel more safe.

 

 

We relaxed there for an hour or so. While the girls used the internet and chatted.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Love how the pool changes color, I am a fool for colors.

 

 

 

After enjoying the pool for a good time, we decided to head down and get changed. The girls went to their room to get ready and we to our room to do the same.

 

For the longest time I was planning a joke on my family with a horse head.

 

 

[gambee]

Originally I wanted to appear on the buffet on our boarding day and start eating their food. But the logistics of the prank proved really hard to play. Mainly because they would notice me leaving with a large bag to change fully, and then coming back. So I figured that I would first scare some in the group and then the others.

 

I first played the prank on my uncle. I figured he was the bravest one and thing should go easier with him. I told him that I was going to take a shower, while he played with his camera and whatnot. Then I wore the mask and came around the corner and scared the living crap out of him. At first he jumped further into the bed, and then he jumped on the sofa :D. It took him a few seconds to realize what was going on. He even had a nightmare with the damn horse. He said that the horse came flying with the red eyes, and chasing him all over the place. I felt so guilty about it that I ended up giving him the mask so that he could take it back to Colombia with him. He had been talking that he wanted one, but he did not want to pay $40 for it. I found for around 12 on amazon.

 

Here he is trying it on, after I told him he could have it. He sure deserved it :D, oooppps

 

 

I knew I had to change my scaring technique, the last thing I wanted to do was to give any of them a heart attack. So I told him to go get them, and I stayed at a distance. When I came out of the corner, there was a considerable distance between us. They got scared, but it was much milder and faster. I think that much safer. Yet it was not as hilarious as the one from my uncle.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

After everyone had settled down, we went out for a short stroll around the ship.

 

 

They had bingo going on.

 

 

I stopped to get an additional card that could open my room to give my uncle. As you can see there is a line. No matter at what time you approached the guest service desk there was always some kind of line.

 

 

There were two aboard the ship, but only one was in operation.

 

 

 

The line moved fairly quickly, I believe that it took around 7 minutes or so.

 

 

[gambee]

 

We wanted some pictures on the promenade so moved outside to get a few pics.

 

 

It was nice and peaceful out there, and the blue lighting helps mellow the mood. Really pleasant.

 

 

How funny is this picture? Muahahahahaha :D

 

 

Those doors were incredibly hard to open, they almost slammed into my mom.

 

 

[gambee]

We kept on moving, and taking photos. There was a singer in the lobby area. One thing to notice is that there is a lot of Spanish music throughout the ship. The buffet is strictly Spanish music. And while I appreciate some Spanish music, I would enjoy it more if it was English.

 

I believe the singer that night was in Spanish, but I could be wrong.

 

 

 

 

By the way, I’ve been informed that the theme here is not goth as I called it before. It is a Sea theme :D, opsssss, sorry.

 

 

By the way, there is an excessive amount of photographers on this ship. Here are my thoughts on this. I noticed that the Carnival Victory is always looking to make money, and they just make a ton of announcements and have a lot of events that require extra money. The same goes for the photographers. You cannot leave one photography stand, before you already hit the next one. What was really irritating was that they noticed you declined the one before, and they still ask you. This forms a chain of walking and saying no about 6 times on just that deck.

 

OMG and I almost forgot about the MDR they come out of nowhere and start giving commands! I think they got me chewing at least two times. I would love to see those pictures. They don’t even look at the picture. They just give another command and move on. The worst part is that either they don’t give you time to say no, or if they do, they ignore it. I am usually extremely respectful to them, as I can imagine how annoying this job can be. Nevertheless, on this ship they were pushing my limit. I will show you pictures later on in another case, you know I always try to get evidence.

 

One more thing to add to this topic. I am not sure where these companies are getting their photographer, but some of the results are just dire. I am not only talking about Carnival, NCL and MSC as well. I have not been recently on RCCL so I cannot comment. However, they really need to get their act together in this department. Quick walk around the picture department, displayed a number of pictures both over, under exposed and even blury. I think it is because they are not even checking the results. They just shoot and move on, it a mass game for them. I wonder if they have a quota to meet, that most certainly is the case. Like I said, I love taking pictures, but I would hate this job.

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

The colors; fresh white, bright blue and dark blue :D, LoL. Nice mugs though.

 

 

[gambee]

[gambee]

The alchemy bar always had a few patrons.

 

 

 

And here is the piano bar. Remember that I told you how deserted it was. Just look at it. Bear in mind the 2 people on the far left are my family members. So in actuality there were only 5 people there, and it must of been around 11pm. And he was pretty good. Like I said, the venue is just buried back there. There is no way that a musician can make money there… I wonder how he can get moved to one of the better ships?

 

 

We then went to the adriatic lounge for Karaoke. This venue is really nice, I think I said that already. We found cozy seating forthwith, and started enjoying the show. We stayed there until it was over and they started getting ready for the comedy show.

 

Check out the couple in front of us. They were in full swing :eek:! LoL

 

 

 

 

[jimbri]

Welcome back, Gambee. I cant believe it's been a whole year! Looking forward to the rest of your review. As always - Hi to mom!!

[gambee]

 

 

Look at them go =)! They were about to hit third base, right then and there, LoL

 

 

I ordered a chocolate martini for the girls, that thing was strong as hell! Very luscious :)

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

Once the karaoke was over, we went for a stroll.

 

 

 

 

Live band by the casino.

 

 

My uncle checking out prospective machines.

 

 

[gambee]

They had some kind of game show in the main theater, but we did not last long there. Quite honestly, it was kind of boring. I will get into shows later on when I discuss the CD.

 

By the way I think this is the only time I saw him... Although I must of heard him about 20 times a day :rolleyes:

 

 

We left and walked through the shops.

 

 

I think they were getting ready to close.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

[gambee]

 

My uncle stopped at the casino and played for a little while.

 

Here he is cheering!

 

 

Later on the ladies left us and went to bed, my uncle and stayed there playing a little longer.

 

Here something interesting happened. Let me see how I approach this. My uncle won a low amount of money, around $30. But we could find out the cash out button anywhere in the machine. We finally called an attendant and she pressed one button, and the following screen appeared.

 

 

Now here is the thing. Many people suggested that the machine was out of paper. But quite honestly, there no option for the paper cash out. Later on during the cruise we learned that the casino attendants would do anything to get my uncle to play with his card in the machine at all times. They would go as far as flirting with him to do so. Now, this is something that he will never do. There is a history of gambling in my family, and he has learned to control it by just playing low cash amounts.

 

Eventually they taught him how to cash out with the card, but even then they told him that he should always keep the card in the machine. Of course, he never did that. He was aware he would not get points and such, but this is something he could care less about. I would say that about on the third night they gave up with him, trying to encourage him to keep the card at all times. He would play dumb and lead them on. I think they just caught on that he was much smarter than they believed he was.

 

Anyway, this has never happened to me on any other line. We usually just press cash out, and we get a little paper slip. I am not sure if this is a Carnival thing, or a Victory thing, but the option was just not available there.

 

So on with the review. We then left and stopped by the window on the outside of the nightclub (or strip club as suggested by fellow CC'rs).

 

You can see everyone dancing throughout it.

 

 

I never found out if the window was both ways, or just for the outside in. Either was not very encouraging for the shy to dance like me. Once I start pulling my moves, I could imagine the crowd on the other side taking hour long videos, and then posted all over YouTube =)

 

 

 

[lfk60]

I will give that a try tomorrow, I am just afraid of peeling the paint off.

 

Thank you.

 

Before trying a bleach product, you might want to try Fantastic or similar type product. I use that on my Swarovski crystal and other porcelain pieces and it works great in removing yellowing.

[gambee]

Before trying a bleach product, you might want to try Fantastic or similar type product. I use that on my Swarovski crystal and other porcelain pieces and it works great in removing yellowing.

 

You have a point, bleach might be a little rough. I think mom was going to try a product like you suggested. I will let her know.

 

Thank you.