My thoughts on our 3 day Victory cruise

[pfleer]

Good morning all! As I sit here at the Orlando airport waiting on our flight to board, I thought I would reflect briefly on our 3 day short getaway cruise on the victory to celebrate 12 years of marriage. This trip was just myself and my husband, kids were left at home. We are 38 years old and this is our first short cruise since we got engaged on the RCCL Sovereign of the Seas 14 years ago.

 

I was afraid that the 3 day cruise would not be nearly long enough, but I was surprised that I was ready to come home. This cruise was certainly a different clientele than we are used to as compared to a 7 day cruise. I would even categorize this as a "booze cruise". I have never seen so many drunk people. In fact, we went to get in the pool by the slide on the sea day and noticed that no one was in it and that the water was a weird murky color. Come to find out, a grown adult male had, well, pooped himself while in the pool. If that was not gross enough, kids began swimming in that pool just 30 minutes later.

 

We did a couple things we haven't done before on the cruise. 1. We purchased the cheers program. We thought a 3 day cruise would be a good opportunity to try it out and see if it was worth it. For us, we have decided it wasn't. While it allowed us to try different drinks than what we normally would not have, the drinking completely ruined our appetites and left me feeling bloated and uncomfortable the whole time. Oh well, we now know and won't waste $800 on our next 7 day cruise getting the package.

 

2. We selected to only have our room made up once a day, in the evening. We passed our steward the first evening and asked him to keep ice in our room (Victory has no fridge). We also gave him an extra $10 tip in cash at that time. Well, when we got back to our room later that evening, we had ice, but our room was not touched. Weird. In fact, I don't think he spent more than an hour working on our room the whole trip. So much for that extra tip.

 

We did YTD and it was a great experience. We had Israel our first night and asked for him our 2nd night as well because he and his team were so good and efficient. Our dinner was never longer than an hour and a half. The first night, we had the escargot and spring roll appetizers. They were both excellent. My DH had a Caesar salad and I had the other salad....field greens?? Can't remember. Salads were good, my hubby wanted more dressing on his though. I had the the salmon from the everyday menu. It was delicious. My hubby had the pork steak. He said it was really good as well. We hardly ate any of it though because as I mentioned earlier, we didn't have much appetite from the drinking (we were not drunk). We took key lime pie to our room for later, but we only ate a few bites of it, again, no appetite.

 

The next night we wanted almost every appetizer!! We shared the mushrooms, scallops, alligator fritters, and an appetizer of the crab ravioli. All were delicious. I had the sea bass and the hubby had the duck. Again, delicious. We didn't drink as much so that we could enjoy dinner. I had the warm chocolate melting cake for dessert and he had the Black Forest cake and orange sherbet. Yum!! We went to dinner around 6 pm and the dining room was empty since we were in port until 8. After dinner, we walked to the outside deck right outside of the dining room to watch the people coming back from Nassau. Very entertaining. [emoji3][emoji23]

 

The next night, we decided to just grab a bite at the buffet for dinner because again, no appetite it was ok. I had a grilled ham and cheese from the deli served by a completely personality-less worker there. She was not thrilled to be there and it was obvious. No thank your, no your welcomes. Just what do you want and here you go.

 

We had a couple bites at the buffet for breakfast on the first morning and went to the Seaday brunch on the 2nd morning. I had the huervos rancheros but regretted not getting my normal eggs Benedict. Hubby had steak and eggs and said it was good. The servers for the brunch were not friendly at all.

 

Our room: we had cabin 7207 which was the very first balcony cabin, starboard side. The bridge hung over the top of our balcony. No big deal. I think, though, that this was the smallest balcony cabin we've ever had. I had to shimmy into bed each night with about 6 inches between the bed and the windows. The balcony barely fit the 2 chairs and table with the door. There was a ton of storage though. We did have the old tube tv and the sound didn't match the mouths which was annoying. Lol. This cabin hadn't received any of the beautification yet. It still had the old pink sinks and pink tile with the mildewy grout. The bathroom smelled like sewage when in port as well.

 

Prior to our trip, we received the notice about the beatification project and delayed boarding. Unfortunately, we had already booked our flights. We left Columbus at 5:30am and got into Orlando at 7:30. We almost missed our flight in Columbus because security was so backed up! We were the last ones allowed onto the plane. Yikes! We had originally booked Cortrans shuttle from Orlando to the port, but since boarding had been delayed to 1:30, we decided to cancel the shuttle and rent a car. We rented a mustang for $55, picking it up at the airport and returning it to port canaveral. We drove from MCO to Grills in canaveral for a late breakfast. It was delicious and cheap! Then we drove over to the port to see if they were boarding yet (it was like 10ish at that point). Nope. People were standing outside but no one was getting on. So, we drove down A1A and spent some time perusing the merchandise at Ron Jons and bought a couple of gifts. It was about 11:30 when we were done and I couldn't take the wait anymore so we returned or car and took the shuttle over the the pier. We tried to tip the budget driver and he wouldn't accept it. He was super nice and informative. We got the the pier about noonish. We checked in in about 5 minutes or less and took a seat. They started boarding slightly early at 1:10. We were zone 4 and were onboard by 1:35ish. Cabins were ready upon boarding.

 

Overall, we had a nice time. Spent time by the pool talking with others which is something we don't normally do. This was fun. I won a few hundred playing 3 card poker in the casino which my hubby promptly lost playing anything he played. Lol. Service, other than Israel and his team in the Atlantic dining room was really lacking and unfriendly. We hung out a few times in the skybox bar watching the Nfl draft and some hockey. That was a fun bar and had some yummy drinks. Sorry, we didn't take many pictures!! This review is pretty rambling and all over the place. [emoji3] let me know if you have any questions.

 

 

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Edited May 1, 2016 by pfleer

[Trumpster]

I agree wholeheartedly about a different clientele, we did a 3 day and a 7 day b2b on the Magic and those were two very different cruises.

[pirate4me2]

Thanks for your review. I am taking my mom on her first cruise July 28 on Victory. She's in her late 40s, me my late 20s, and I'm hoping she will like it. I adore cruises and would like for her to join me on some!

[Suicine]

Thanks for taking time to write your review! I was in the same ship and had no idea someone pooped in the pool. That blows my mind.

Your experience was a little different from mine, and I'll eventually type it up if I ever get home. (Our flight had been delayed twice now.)

 

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[CruiseAdict218]

Thank you for the review, can't wait to return to Carnival in a few months. :D

[SeaBrz]

Thanks for the Victory review, pfleer. One of my best friends is on board right now waiting for their 6 PM sailing this evening. This is her very first cruise and I am so hoping that she has a great time so we can cruise together soon.

 

I am also sailing Victory on May 14 (5 nighter). Although my ninth Carnival cruise, this will be my first on a Triumph class ship. All the others were on Fantasy or Conquest class ships. I will definitely post a review and will try to get my friend to do the same for her cruise today.

 

Thanks again for your review (and for posting it on debarkation day)! I am usually too exhausted. ;-)

[La_Souris]

Thanks for the review! :)

 

I'm a little worried now... I hope our 4 nights cruise departing on Sunday October 9 (columbus day week-end) won't end up being too much of a "booze cruise"... :(

 

Was the cruise happening during a week-end?

[jayneez]

Thanks for the review! :)

 

I'm a little worried now... I hope our 4 nights cruise departing on Sunday October 9 (columbus day week-end) won't end up being too much of a "booze cruise"... :(

 

Was the cruise happening during a week-end?

 

 

Hi, my husband and I are going on this same Cruise too on the 9th Oct. We decided to book it whilst we are in Orlando just as a taster Cruise to try a different Cruiseline. We normally go with RCI. We are in our early 50s and enjoy the evening entertainment with a few cocktails. I,m a little worried too now as although we like to still have fun on our Cruise , we don,t want it to be a booze Cruise. I,m a little concerned as well about the amount of smoking venues on this ship. I,m not anti smoking but seems a few of the entertainment venues that we would like most, Disco etc, (not sure why they have entertainment in the Casino ? )we are not going to be able to go to. Wish I had read the reviews before booking.

[jayneez]

Thanks for the review! :)

 

I'm a little worried now... I hope our 4 nights cruise departing on Sunday October 9 (columbus day week-end) won't end up being too much of a "booze cruise"... :(

 

Was the cruise happening during a week-end?

 

 

Hi, my husband and I are going on this same Cruise too on the 9th Oct. We decided to book it whilst we are in Orlando just as a taster Cruise to try a different Cruiseline. We normally go with RCI. We are in our early 50s and enjoy the evening entertainment with a few cocktails. I,m a little worried too now as although we like to still have fun on our Cruise , we don,t want it to be a booze Cruise. I,m a little concerned as well about the amount of smoking venues on this ship. I,m not anti smoking but seems a few of the entertainment venues that we would like most, Disco etc, (not sure why they have entertainment in the Casino ? )we are not going to be able to go to. Wish I had read the reviews before booking.

[La_Souris]

Hi, my husband and I are going on this same Cruise too on the 9th Oct. We decided to book it whilst we are in Orlando just as a taster Cruise to try a different Cruiseline. We normally go with RCI. We are in our early 50s and enjoy the evening entertainment with a few cocktails. I,m a little worried too now as although we like to still have fun on our Cruise , we don,t want it to be a booze Cruise. I,m a little concerned as well about the amount of smoking venues on this ship. I,m not anti smoking but seems a few of the entertainment venues that we would like most, Disco etc, (not sure why they have entertainment in the Casino ? )we are not going to be able to go to. Wish I had read the reviews before booking.

 

The reviews I read so far are pretty good... but it seems like shorter cruises (2-3 days) tend to be filled with more party animals than other cruises. I'm hoping that a 4 nights ending on a thursday will be fine).

 

DH and I are in our late 30's but tend to go to bed early and wake up early (I'm hoping we'll avoid the parties a little bit with that kind of sleeping schedule)...

 

Also I booked a room with a verandah. Worst case scenario, we'll spend A LOT of time on our verandah! :D

Edited May 3, 2016 by La_Souris

[InitialD]

We are on the Victory May 14th and have the delayed departure too. What time was muster? I was a little concerned it might run into dinner (we have 6pm dinning time in the MDR) Thanks!

[bobbismith]

How far is the rental desk from the Carnival port?

 

Thanks, Bobbi