Live from the Valor!

[myangel]

Just boarded yesterday, our second time on the Valor. For those of you (like myself) who love the sail away party with the usual Cupid Shuffle, Electric Slide etc... You will be sorely disappointed ! It was awful. Worst sail away party ever in this being our 28th cruise. The music was all " with a Caribbean twist" as Cassie the cruise director said every song. I know she is new at cruise directing, but she just seemed like maybe she made the wrong choice in accepting the cruise directors job, just going through the motions.Other then the sail away party, life is grand aboard the Valor! Steakhouse was awesome as it usually is. The casino stole lots of money from me on my first night but it was still fun! Ha ha. There is a gentleman on this sailing that is on his 152nd cruise!! For those of you sailing on the Valor soon, you will love it!!

[MtnDweller]

Thanks for the info. Our cruise can't get here soon enough.

 

Sorry about the sail away party not being great. I've read a lot of "not so great things" about Cassie. That won't matter to us as we do our own sail away party anyway. :)

 

Have an awesome time on the rest of your cruise!!

[Mary49]

Just boarded yesterday, our second time on the Valor. For those of you (like myself) who love the sail away party with the usual Cupid Shuffle, Electric Slide etc... You will be sorely disappointed ! It was awful. Worst sail away party ever in this being our 28th cruise. The music was all " with a Caribbean twist" as Cassie the cruise director said every song. I know she is new at cruise directing, but she just seemed like maybe she made the wrong choice in accepting the cruise directors job, just going through the motions.Other then the sail away party, life is grand aboard the Valor! Steakhouse was awesome as it usually is. The casino stole lots of money from me on my first night but it was still fun! Ha ha. There is a gentleman on this sailing that is on his 152nd cruise!! For those of you sailing on the Valor soon, you will love it!!

 

Then you must have seen Music Boardwalk who play outside the casino. I am a #1 fan of theirs. Love them. Enjoy.

[myangel]

Yes! Music Boardwalk were very good!

[Hobbsey]

Just boarded yesterday, our second time on the Valor. For those of you (like myself) who love the sail away party with the usual Cupid Shuffle, Electric Slide etc... You will be sorely disappointed ! It was awful. Worst sail away party ever in this being our 28th cruise. The music was all " with a Caribbean twist" as Cassie the cruise director said every song. I know she is new at cruise directing, but she just seemed like maybe she made the wrong choice in accepting the cruise directors job, just going through the motions.Other then the sail away party, life is grand aboard the Valor! Steakhouse was awesome as it usually is. The casino stole lots of money from me on my first night but it was still fun! Ha ha. There is a gentleman on this sailing that is on his 152nd cruise!! For those of you sailing on the Valor soon, you will love it!!

 

Funny, I was just thinking I haven't done a sail away deck party in a long time and thought, hey I'll be on Carnival, I should go...We'll be on Valor 4 weeks from today.

 

If you have the chance here are a couple questions:

 

1. Do you know what time boarding began board for your cruise?

2. Are you signed up for a CC Meet and Greet. If so it'd be good to know when they are having it. Someone needs to make clear to Carnival that these should happen earlier rather than later in the cruise.

3. Can you let me know if they hold a cigar under the stars event in Serenity.

4. Did you have the free or the 50% off option on wine in Scarlett's?

5. How's the fun in the Piano Bar.

 

That's plenty. Thanks in advance for any all updates!

Edited August 20, 2016 by Hobbsey

[myangel]

Hobbsey:

Boarding began at 11:15. No, we did not do the meet and greet. I will keep my eye out about the cigar on serenity for you. Yes the steakhouse still has the 50% off any wine. :)

[originalgeek]

This is relative to my interests!

 

Thanks for the report and have a great time!

[ohsusan429]

I just got off the Valor 8/14/19 sailing and researched that the cluster of bites all over my body were bedbug bites! Did anyone else experience this. I called Carnival to tell them and all they did was say "thanks for letting us know. We will contact that department."

[rtap23]

Was on the Valor in July and did not have this experience thankfully

Edited August 20, 2016 by rtap23

[skivoodoo]

I just got off the Valor 8/14/19 sailing and researched that the cluster of bites all over my body were bedbug bites! Did anyone else experience this. I called Carnival to tell them and all they did was say "thanks for letting us know. We will contact that department."

 

What room? Yikes!

[RicoMari]

Just got off the Valor as well, the 8/14-8/19 sailing. Loved our aft wrap # 6452, except for the guest next door blasting rap music and smoking weed. Adult pool was awesome. Regular lido pool was packed with kids, loud people and tons of babies. Sail away party was geared to some other age group/demographic than I am in. Steakhouse fantastic. MDR good ( we had YTD, but same waiter each time, Acer). Guys delicious. Cheers a good value. Casino....paid for the trip and more. I won a bunch, and I do mean a bunch, on the Asian babies slot machine. Ask the hosts, I was the screaming blonde lady on Weds night!

[ohsusan429]

I was in cabin #7396 and my daughter was in #7398. I would really love to know if anyone else was affected. At first I thought they mosquito bites, but I knew they looked really different. Really tiny and in small line clusters. When I got off the ship and looked them up, I knew.

[javamom]

Just got off the Valor as well, the 8/14-8/19 sailing. Loved our aft wrap # 6452, except for the guest next door blasting rap music and smoking weed. Adult pool was awesome. Regular lido pool was packed with kids, loud people and tons of babies. Sail away party was geared to some other age group/demographic than I am in. Steakhouse fantastic. MDR good ( we had YTD, but same waiter each time, Acer). Guys delicious. Cheers a good value. Casino....paid for the trip and more. I won a bunch, and I do mean a bunch, on the Asian babies slot machine. Ask the hosts, I was the screaming blonde lady on Weds night!

 

Adult pool? Valor has an adult pool? WooHoo!

[arubanut]

Just boarded yesterday, our second time on the Valor. For those of you (like myself) who love the sail away party with the usual Cupid Shuffle, Electric Slide etc... You will be sorely disappointed ! It was awful. Worst sail away party ever in this being our 28th cruise. The music was all " with a Caribbean twist" as Cassie the cruise director said every song. I know she is new at cruise directing, but she just seemed like maybe she made the wrong choice in accepting the cruise directors job, just going through the motions.Other then the sail away party, life is grand aboard the Valor! Steakhouse was awesome as it usually is. The casino stole lots of money from me on my first night but it was still fun! Ha ha. There is a gentleman on this sailing that is on his 152nd cruise!! For those of you sailing on the Valor soon, you will love it!!

 

O.M.G. We sailed the Valor 8/6-8/14 and you have nailed it with regard to Cassie.... Somewhere something went horribly off track with her career path, I hate to tell you this, but by the end her voice will be like nails on a chalkboard. Out of the 5 carnival cruises I have been on she was by far the lamest CD. She killed the vibe each and every time... T.J. Is great though, he ran a lot of the trivia and on the rare occasion you heard him over PA, the vibe he set off was amazing. We were also extremely disappointed that smack in the middle of the cruise we lost the comedy only for it to return the last two days, 5 shows in a row the nights they finally had something worth seeing in the showroom. They do not have the 2.0 upgrade in entertainment on Valor and when we tried to ask Cassie via FB message why no comedy she waited to reply until the comediennes were back.... My sister however made a comment on carnival FB wall and got a personal phone call, a little too little a little too late. But we were spoiled early on by having Jen Baxter as the CD on our first cruise.... Jen and Cassie may be from the same country of origin but are light years apart from each other in so far as being able to get the fun going.

 

Regarding bedbug question, we had 4 cabins on port side deck 10 and thankfully no issues in any of our cabins

Edited August 20, 2016 by arubanut
Info

[RicoMari]

I agree that Cassie is in the wrong field. Attempted bingo one evening and I was ready to throat punch someone after 15 minutes. Just avoid her and all her scheduled activities. Killer Beaz (comedy show) was great!

[MtnDweller]

I was in cabin #7396 and my daughter was in #7398. I would really love to know if anyone else was affected. At first I thought they mosquito bites, but I knew they looked really different. Really tiny and in small line clusters. When I got off the ship and looked them up, I knew.

 

Do you not pull the covers back and check out the bed beforehand?

 

Well, I'll let you know in October. I just upgraded to 7396 last night.

Edited August 21, 2016 by MtnDweller

[ohsusan429]

Do you not pull the covers back and check out the bed beforehand?

 

Well, I'll let you know in October. I just upgraded to 7396 last night.

 

This was my 14th cruise and I never had a problem before, but I will never not check again. I know that it can happen anywhere. They also say that they can live in headboards. I will pull apart everything next time. I can't go through this again. It is so painful and itchy.

 

I am sure that it will be cleared up by October. I hope that they are addressing the problem on this cruise. Try to change the cabin # anyway.

Edited August 21, 2016 by ohsusan429

[MtnDweller]

This was my 14th cruise and I never had a problem before, but I will never not check again. I know that it can happen anywhere. They also say that they can live in headboards. I will pull apart everything next time. I can't go through this again. It is so painful and itchy.

 

I am sure that it will be cleared up by October. I hope that they are addressing the problem on this cruise. Try to change the cabin # anyway.

 

 

I'm not going to change cabins as I am happy with the one I have.

[Hobbsey]

Hobbsey:

Boarding began at 11:15. No, we did not do the meet and greet. I will keep my eye out about the cigar on serenity for you. Yes the steakhouse still has the 50% off any wine. :)

 

Thanks for the insight. Enjoy the cruise. Ill be watching when web cams are available.

[have2vacation]

Does anyone know if they have Keno on the poker machines and if they pay decent odds? Payouts should be close to this when betting 1 get 400 for 5/5 or 7,000 for 7/7

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[easyboy]

Just boarded yesterday, our second time on the Valor. For those of you (like myself) who love the sail away party with the usual Cupid Shuffle, Electric Slide etc... You will be sorely disappointed ! It was awful. Worst sail away party ever in this being our 28th cruise. The music was all " with a Caribbean twist" as Cassie the cruise director said every song. I know she is new at cruise directing, but she just seemed like maybe she made the wrong choice in accepting the cruise directors job, just going through the motions.Other then the sail away party, life is grand aboard the Valor! Steakhouse was awesome as it usually is. The casino stole lots of money from me on my first night but it was still fun! Ha ha. There is a gentleman on this sailing that is on his 152nd cruise!! For those of you sailing on the Valor soon, you will love it!!

Thanks for sharing. Too bad the CD messed up your Sail away party.

[myangel]

Enjoying the morning of our last day of the cruise! For those of you worried about sailing in bad weather, our cruise has been great! The captain switched us from St Kitts to St Thomas on Tuesday because of swells, and yesterday we had a sea day instead of grand Turk, and today we will go to Nassau instead of a sea day. The weather has been sunny and beautiful the entire cruise except we had a little rain in San Juan and my husband was able to get some sun there, and I see sun right now as we are docking in Nassau! The only problem I had was we were planning on going to sea day brunch today. Sea day brunch is only on sea days. I assumed the fun times activities would still be the same even tho yesterday was changed from grand Turk to sea day. We got up, went to serenity, had lunch and went back to the cabin at 12:30 and found a brand new fun times. The only complaint I have is all the announcements Cassie the CD makes and not one was mentioned about the "new" fun times for the day. I went to guest services and asked if we could still use our free drink coupon even tho we never attended the sea day brunch. They said yes we could, in the lobby bar only on the last day. That was very nice of them. Out platinum gift was The tervis tumblers ( older ones with the VIFP club on them) I asked guest services if we could change them out as we have many tervis ones. The only alternative they had were the chess game and the ceramic mug that had the VIFP club on them. I brought them to lunch and just found 2 people who had lanyards around them that weren't platinum and gave them away. Made 2 people happy so I was happy! As we say goodbye to the Valor and look forward to the Magic in January, I'll have tears in my eyes tonight as they sing that last song, i will be happy knowing I get to go on another one and I'll be milestone!! Not exactly sure what all that entails but number 25 yay!!!!

[Hobbsey]

Enjoying the morning of our last day of the cruise! For those of you worried about sailing in bad weather, our cruise has been great! The captain switched us from St Kitts to St Thomas on Tuesday because of swells, and yesterday we had a sea day instead of grand Turk, and today we will go to Nassau instead of a sea day. The weather has been sunny and beautiful the entire cruise except we had a little rain in San Juan and my husband was able to get some sun there, and I see sun right now as we are docking in Nassau! The only problem I had was we were planning on going to sea day brunch today. Sea day brunch is only on sea days. I assumed the fun times activities would still be the same even tho yesterday was changed from grand Turk to sea day. We got up, went to serenity, had lunch and went back to the cabin at 12:30 and found a brand new fun times. The only complaint I have is all the announcements Cassie the CD makes and not one was mentioned about the "new" fun times for the day. I went to guest services and asked if we could still use our free drink coupon even tho we never attended the sea day brunch. They said yes we could, in the lobby bar only on the last day. That was very nice of them. Out platinum gift was The tervis tumblers ( older ones with the VIFP club on them) I asked guest services if we could change them out as we have many tervis ones. The only alternative they had were the chess game and the ceramic mug that had the VIFP club on them. I brought them to lunch and just found 2 people who had lanyards around them that weren't platinum and gave them away. Made 2 people happy so I was happy! As we say goodbye to the Valor and look forward to the Magic in January, I'll have tears in my eyes tonight as they sing that last song, i will be happy knowing I get to go on another one and I'll be milestone!! Not exactly sure what all that entails but number 25 yay!!!!

 

Thanks for the updates. I love how they made sure of guest enjoyment and safety with the intin changes. Also good to know of their flexibility at guest services. Enjoy your last day! And have safe travels homeward.

[tamirpr]

Gracious! Good for you for having a good attitude. If I missed St. Kitts AND Grand Turk and was substituted with Nassau...well, I wouldn't be very happy. :mad:

 

To the poster about bedbugs. Are you sure it wasn't sea lice? They're prevalent right now down here in Florida and the carib. The bites are similar.

[snc_cam]

We sailed with Cassie (and Sam) this past winter and I know that everyone does not get along with every CD so there will always be complaints. But IMHO, my wife, friends, and I enjoyed spending time the time with both Cassie and Sam. They are both very outgoing and did their best to always have a smile and a hello each time we met them along the cruise as well as make the events they hosted a good time. We have had cruises where we didn't "click" with the CD but that didn't change how we felt about the cruise nor did we complain about it.

 

With that said, I do hope that we get the opportunity to share a cruise with both of them in the future.