Valor Review 4/16-4/23 pre-dry dock

[hapytobehr]

This will be short and sweet because I don't go into deep details....but please feel free to ask me any questions and I will be happy to answer as best I can.

 

First I'll just formally introduce myself and my husband. I am 60 years old and my husband is 59 and we cruise often on Carnival as well as other lines. Many of our cruises are not listed here. I work full time but I am lucky that I get a lot of vacation time. My husband works from home so he is very flexible.

 

We have never gone out of Port Canaveral so this was a first for us. We live in Florida and we are 40 minutes North of Fort Lauderdale and 55 minutes North of Miami but we wanted to try a different ship with some ports we hadn't been to yet which were Belize and Costa Maya.

 

It was a 2 hour drive for us and we arrived at the port around 11 AM and since my husband is Platinum (i will be after 2 more cruises) we went right in and waited about 5 minutes before we got our cards. They were already calling Zone numbers so the ship apparently emptied quickly from the previous cruise.

 

I was a little disappointed because we did not get to go into the Captains lounge because they were "full" but it was no big deal.

 

We were on the ship and went directly to our room to drop off our carry-on and our room was ready. We had cabin 7449 which is an extended aft balcony. Its was fantastic!! I was a little concerned that it would be noisy but it was calm and quiet!

 

I will say though, the first day when we were out waiting for sail away i smelled someone smoking a cigar on their balcony. I can't stand cigarette smoke but I tolerate it as much as possible but cigar smoke makes me sick.

 

I reported it to our cabin steward Jaime (who was very good btw)and never smelled it again during the rest of the trip.

 

We were late in sailing because the trucks were late to the ship that had the equipment and supplies for dry dock. We did not sail until after 6 PM. We also arrived late to Cozumel and I think Belize. (I'm old so I tend to forget).

 

It was so funny because the casino players were all getting antsy because the casino couldn't open until we were 4 miles out so it was really late before it finally opened.

 

We went to eat at the buffet and had a burger and fries which was pretty good. I prefer the "off the grill" to Guys because I find Guys burgers to be "greaseburgers". It wasnt crowded at all so we got our food quickly.

 

We ate in the MDR every night and had a nice booth near the window and had Neal, Min and Nathinat (spelling) as our wait staff. They were wonderful!!! They definitely wanted to please.

 

For those of you interested, they are not switching to American Table until September so you will still have tablecloths. :)

 

We had dinner one night in the Scarlett's steakhouse and it was excellent. They had a sweet surprise dessert for us because it was our anniversary.

 

We also did the Chef's table and it was outstanding. It was really enlightening to be able to go into the galley to see the way they operate.

 

We are Casino players and all our cruises are bounce backs. This as I said was our first on the Valor with these dealers, supervisors and hosts.

 

All the dealers were awesome and fun especially Alvaro and David (from Mexico). More especially Alvaro who gave me my first straight flush ever playing him one on one on Ultimate Texas Hold'em! I wanted to quit and he kept saying, c'mon....one more! So the hand that I said would be my last he dealt me a 4 and 7 of diamonds. I asked for diamonds and the flop came up the 3, 5 and 6 of diamonds. I 'bout fell off my chair!. It was so exciting (I still lost, lol).

 

The supervisors were very nice as well, but I was not overly impressed with the hosts or the Casino Manager and Assistant Manager.

 

I have been on the Conquest 3 times and after our first cruise, we knew who the Casino manager was, as he was very visible. The Assistant was also very visible and by the 2nd day they knew our names. They were ALWAYS out on the floor talking to the guests and mingling. I saw these two maybe two or three times, NEVER mingling with the guests.

 

In addition, the Hosts.....Monique and Zo were just okay. I rarely saw them talking to the guests unless they were doing their promos.

 

We did not go to any of the shows as there were only 2 with the exception of the love and marriage and welcome aboard.

 

We did not go to any of the comedy shows either and I did hear that they were standing room only.

 

We did not get off the ship in Cozumel or Costa Maya as we have been to Cozumel many times and could not find anything interesting that we wanted to do in Costa Maya. (you've been to one island they all seem the same)

 

We did an excursion in Belize which was the Ruins and boat ride. It was just okay, ( it was hot) but the guides were wonderful and very knowledgeable.

 

Mahogany Bay we did the Ultimate beach package. This included your snorkel gear, floats, 1/2 hour use of the kayaks, lounge chairs with the clam shell and the chair lift. The beach was really nice and the weather was perfect. We would do this again in a heartbeat.

 

Overall it was a great cruise and we would sail Valor again. We found that the Valor was in much better condition than the Conquest to our surprise since Conquest had already been upgraded.

[luv2cruiseeverywhere]

Thanks for the nice review. We were on the Valor a couple cruises ago and am excited for the up coming cruise. We plan on going to the steakhouse possible the first night and we also have the Chef's table booked. I am really looking forward to the Chef's table. I have read a lot of reviews about it, and all of them have been positive. This is the first cruise for my husband and I by ourselves and I am excited, so I want to do a couple things we have never done. Thanks again for the review. I will do a review once we get back in June.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[gene g]

Glad to hear that they are not switching to American Table until September, will be sailing on her May 15, 2016 :D :D

[jordanaire]

Darn! I was hoping to try the new menu on our May 21st cruise. Oh well, we still enjoy the old menus.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the report.

[Fern Crest]

No American Table menus until September? Hmmm. Well, I guess I'll have to go back to searching for the 5 day menus to see when we'll be going up to the Steakhouse! I was counting on being able to order Steakhouse items in the MDR.

 

Well, maybe I'll get the wine promotion from the Steakhouse on the first night after all! :)

 

Thank you for your review!

[LAWISE5210@AOL.COM]

Thanks for the review. I will be on board in August. The countdown is on. Can't wait to be in the sun.:D:D:D

[RuthlessBoss]

Do you recall how late you got to Cozumel and why? On another thread, someone was mad about leaving Canaveral late, so got to Cozumel late so he missed an excursion. It seems the ship could have made up some time during the long distance involved.:confused:

[canadaman111]

great report! Thanks!

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed our review.

 

Keith

[Watery Dan]

Thanks for the review. Well Done. Did you have a flat screen in your stateroom? How was the coffee?

[kingston13]

No American Table menus until September? Hmmm. Well, I guess I'll have to go back to searching for the 5 day menus to see when we'll be going up to the Steakhouse! I was counting on being able to order Steakhouse items in the MDR.

 

Well, maybe I'll get the wine promotion from the Steakhouse on the first night after all! :)

 

Thank you for your review!

 

They have the steak house items on the left side of the old menus

[hapytobehr]

Do you recall how late you got to Cozumel and why? On another thread, someone was mad about leaving Canaveral late, so got to Cozumel late so he missed an excursion. It seems the ship could have made up some time during the long distance involved.:confused:

 

The Captain didn't go into detail about why we were late but I am sure it was because we left Florida late the day before.

 

They actually stayed later in Cozumel. I guess they couldn't adjust the time of the excursion which they did in Belize. However, Belize is 2 hours earlier than ship' time.

[hapytobehr]

They have the steak house items on the left side of the old menus

 

Correct

[hapytobehr]

Thanks for the review. Well Done. Did you have a flat screen in your stateroom? How was the coffee?

 

Yes, we had a flat screen TV. The coffee in the MDR on Sea Days was okay. I don't

drink it anywhere else.