Carnival Victory 10/27 - 4 day

[Awesomephinatic]

Good afternoon I've decided to sign up as I have just finished completing my first cruise and now will be completing my first review and also share my experience so that I can hopefully help others. I may put it way to much information to those who are experienced cruisers.

 

First off I am 30 years old married with 2 kids however did not being the kiddos. We parked at "528 to port" at $6 a day and he was very prompt and had good customer service. We sailed out of port canaveral and although the line was quite long it did move pretty well. Also for us we did not have a big issue with our bags being heavily inspected for booze and other things. Mostly everything you pay for on the ship is with your card. We attached our credit card to it and it was very convenient.

 

We stayed on deck 1 (riviera deck) and the room (1247) was very nice and it was very quiet at night. It was very rough everyday at sea and being in the lower level also helped. I highly recommend this room and this deck. Our room steward was Romano and he was very helpful and also very nice I can't say enough nice things about the staff as a whole. I will say if you are staying on deck 1 either A) Be prepared to wait for elevators as some of them kept going out. Or B) be ready to use the stairs. However I can say being on deck 1 you don't have people on your deck unless their room is there and it was very peaceful at night.

 

When we checked in shortly after we had to do a safety session at the muster station and it was awful and unorganized and took way too long. Your cramped into a small area with a ton of people and half to wait it took about 45min for this.

 

So I have read a lot of people saying its a booze cruise and guess what it is. Now if you aren't big drinkers (we aren't had a few each day) no worries we still had a great time with no issues. If you are I recommend purchasing the Cheers package at $50/person a day (you are charged per person in the cabin!) So for a couple it's $100 a day. if you aren't and decide to have a couple drinks a piece you'll spend about $30-40 per day per couple on drinks if you are drinking liquor. They also have a drink of the day at a discount. We did purchase the bubbles package (all you can drink soda) for $20 a person. Now I wish we had just bought one as they never asked for both cards when we ordered two.

 

Food:

First off our staff at dinner was amazing and the performances they do during the meals were very fun to watch. All of the sit down meals were extremely good. I had the steak, blue crab ravioli, and The penne pasta I recommend all 3. We were also fortunate to be sat with some awesome fun couples. The melting chocolate cake and the fruit platter was very good. The only dinner that we had that we didn't care for is the prime rib my wife and others said it wasn't very good

 

The room service foods we had (sandwiches and cakes) were also very good. The sit down lunch and breakfast also were good.

 

Now we didn't enjoy our day eating breakfast and lunch at the Buffett. The chicken was very dry and the breakfast foods such as eggs and bacon were not good at all.

 

We didn't have pizza or ice cream however were told by quite a few people was good.

 

Pools/Ammenties:

 

The pools were not what we were expecting. Very small and quite crowded. If you like blistering hot hot tubs then you won't like them on this ship. We found them to be quite comfortable. The water slide is fun I would recommend at least going down once.

 

Serenity was our favorite place by far. There are hammocks outdoor beds couches chairs and 2 whirlpools looking out to sea. We spent many hours up there just relaxing with a beverage.

 

Casino is the casino if you enjoy gambling you will enjoy it.

 

Skybox stayed packed during college football games and the World Series.

 

Entertainment:

 

The punchliner comedy club was extremely good. I recommend going to the PG or R show. However I will say if you are easily offended or not prepared to get roasted or picked on beware.

 

Vroom is a very good show high energy lots of music variety and good dancing.

 

Love and Marriage is very funny and the gender showdown is very heavy in crowd participation and a lot of fun. They gave away champagne to the couples and the gender showdown captains!

 

The piano bar singer wasn't very good we sat for 2 song then split.

 

Kareokee was very good whether you like singing or watching WARNING if you are going to watch you better hope people are willing to sing or they will start grabbing people to go sing.

 

The outdoor movies were all recent movies and good movies and was fun to watch outdoors on the huge screen.

 

Shopping:

 

If you like cologne/perfume jewelry and handbags you can get some good deals on the ship and at Nassau.

 

Liquor is cheaper on the ship than you are use to and you can get MASSIVE bottles of crown royal and jack Daniels at good prices. Note: Technically when leaving the ship you can only have 1 liter of alcohol per person tax/duty free. Now we did not get checked at all when we left the ship.

 

Overal we very much enjoyed our trip however we are pretty laid back people. I do wish they had more shows. A lot of people say bring $100 cash a day and I would agree with that. The ship itself is older and as my wife said a few times is "tacky". The rooms though are nice and beds are comfortable. It was a great first cruise and will definitely cruise again. If you have ANY specific questions please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer for this ship. Also admins if I did something incorrectly please let me know.

[easyboy]

I am glad you enjoyed your first cruise. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

 

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[jenng1976]

Thanks for the review - sailing on Victory in 2 weeks!

 

 

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[Indianamale]

Thanks for your review, I'll be sailing on her next week I've been kinda of nervous after reading recent reviews but I've decided to quit worrying about things that I have no control over and I will have a great time. How long did you have to wait for a tender over to Half Moon Cay ? How long were the lines for lunch on the lido deck? Thanks again!

[sunshower9]

Thanks for the review! I'll be sailing in 3 weeks!

[Toddcan]

Thanks for the review! I'll be sailing in 3 weeks!

 

Is your itinerary Bahamas? At some point soon, it must switch to the Key West & Cozumel route since our Jan 2 cruise takes that route.

[sunshower9]

Is your itinerary Bahamas? At some point soon, it must switch to the Key West & Cozumel route since our Jan 2 cruise takes that route.

 

Actually mine is going to Key West and Cozumel too. We're going on the Nov 21 Thanksgiving cruise.

[Toddcan]

Actually mine is going to Key West and Cozumel too. We're going on the Nov 21 Thanksgiving cruise.

 

I would love to hear from you when you get back! I know it's tough to write reviews when you get back, but if you can remember - I know a lot of people will appreciate it!

 

Enjoy your cruise! I'm sure there will be turkey, stuffing, and ham for you :D

[jarofmar]

Is there anything included in the bars? Food/non alcoholic beverages? Would love to go sit in the piano or jazz bar and not have to buy a drink. Thanks!

[97gstchick]

I would love to hear from you when you get back! I know it's tough to write reviews when you get back, but if you can remember - I know a lot of people will appreciate it!

 

Enjoy your cruise! I'm sure there will be turkey, stuffing, and ham for you :D

 

I would appreciate the review as well. I'm heading on that route Jan 9.

[Popeye57]

You do not have to drink in the lounges if you don't care to. Just go and listen to the music and have fun

[Clarea]

Thanks for the report.