FlyingCruiserNJ's Victory Tour (Carnival Victory-OCEAN SUITE) 11/28-12/2

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Hello good people of the Carnival boards. It is the one and only Flying Cruiser of NJ and I am here with yet another cruise adventure review. I sailed on the Carnival Victory out of Miami on November 28, on a 4-day journey, and cannot wait to share my experiences with you all. It's been a while since I have sailed on Carnival, so I haven't done any reviews but I came back home for the first time in over a year after trying out some other lines in the meantime.

 

Firstly, about me. If anyone remembers my past reviews of Carnival cruises on this forum, I am in my mid 30s, single and no kids and cruising is my preferred method of international vacation travel. I try to cruise as many times as possible, and was looking for a short getaway before the end of this year so I chose the November 28 sailing of the Victory from the port of Miami. I often travel with my mother, who is retired and even more of a cruise addict than I am, and we both enjoy the time we spend on the seas.

 

 

The last time I sailed on Carnival was on the Magic, last October out of Galveston, TX and in the meantime I have sailed a few times on Norwegian and once on Royal Caribbean. But there is nothing quite like a Carnival cruise. My mother and I am both Platinums on Carnival, so we both cruise quite often. I had some vacation time to burn before the end of this year, and we found an itinerary that would work around our holiday schedules and found a nice 4-day trip on the Victory, which would be making stops at some familiar ports. More on how we settled on this cruise....

 

So, how did we settle on this cruise and what not? I looked around and saw a good Monday-Friday for a good price on Carnival out of Miami, so we settled on that. Neither of us had ever been in an ocean suite before and the price was not that outrageous for this voyage, so we decided to go for it instead of a standard outside or even balcony (will tell you what I thought about the suite later on - very mixed feelings). The itinerary this cruise took included stops in Cozumel and Key West and we have been to both a million times it seems, so the money we saved from not taking excursions went into the suite. I like to travel during "shoulder season" which includes the time after Thanksgiving and before Christmas, as demand for travel both by sea and air is way down and availability and prices for both are way lower. We got a good special rate that we booked through our Carnival PVP (can't say his name here but he is good and we have done business with him for many years) a month or so ahead of time and took care of the majority of our planning pretty well in advance of the cruise. My mom likes to plan everything out but since we did not plan to do much extra on this cruise, it did not take long to get everything ironed out ahead of time.

 

So, with that background story out of the way, let's get to it. I like to tell a story as I experienced things on and off the ship, and my review will cover everything from the pre-planning and travel to the ship, the cruise itself, debarkation and post-cruise activity (we did do an Everglades tour after debarkation on the day we got back) and the trip home. I try to offer an honest and no-nonsense critique of everything, and give people the opportunity to see the adventure from the perspective of a cruiser. I know these reviews help people who are planning their own cruises, so I do try to give people an idea of what to expect through my pictures and writing style. I took a lot of pictures, and I will include them in with my review.

 

I also must note, these reviews also take a lot of time to do, and I like to make each day of the cruise as through as possible, so it may take me a while to get through this entire thing. I update these reviews as I can, but don't be surprised to see it take a few weeks to get done. I will try to expedite the process whenever I can. If you don't hear from me for a while, I didn't abandon it, I just haven't had time to continue with it. I will be including a day at a time, beginning with the first day, which I will get to this evening in another post.

 

With that, enough of the pre-cruise intro. It is time to jump into yet another Flying Cruiser of NJ review. Here goes. Comments and questions are welcome, I will get back to you at some point. I like to make these reviews into conversations, reader feedback is always appreciated. Here we go!

[OceansOfTravels]

Very optimistic, I love your reviews! I just realized that I missed your Princess and Empress reviews, so in the meantime I'll catch up on those! :D

Edited December 12, 2016 by OceansOfTravels

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 1: EMBARKATION DAY (AND TRAVEL TO THE PORT)

There it was, time for yet another cruise adventure to start. The month in between the planning of it and the day itself goes pretty quickly, especially when it is the holiday season and you are busy. So, here we go with the review. I am from New Jersey (Philadelphia suburbs) and Miami is a thousand miles away, so getting to the port itself is its own adventure. We chose to travel to Florida the day of the cruise this time, although I generally frown upon it as lots can go wrong and delay your trip enough to cause you to miss the cruise you have been looking forward to for a while. Of course, this required a real early start on embarkation day, but it is what it is....

 

Our day included leaving home to catch our flight at 0400 (I will use military time for this review as I have always done, it makes telling time easier as there is no confusion between AM and PM this way), yes that early. Considering this was the Monday after Thanksgiving, you expect long lines at check-in and security and full flights, but it really was not that bad on this day. We arrived at Philadelphia International Airport (KPHL), got our bags checked in (2 large suitcases which we really did not need for just a 4-day cruise) and through security quickly and were on our not-completely-full flight to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (KFLL) around 0600-ish. If you wonder why I almost always fly into FLL instead of Miami, it is because it is more convenient to go into FLL than MIA for me and generally costs less as well. Transport to the port of Miami is easy enough from FLL.

 

We departed close to on-time but had to go get defrosted at the de-ice pad at the complete other end of the airport before takeoff, as our plane was parked overnight and some significant frost had collected on the wings and fuselage. Planes cannot takeoff if there is any frost, ice or snow on the critical surfaces as it can disrupt airflow and cause the plane to not fly properly. So, being as early as it was, we were through within a half hour and were airborne, into the pre-dawn sky by 0630 and on our way to Florida. We landed at FLL a little before 0900, as we flew a pretty choppy downwind circuit on descent. Looked like we flew though an early morning thunderstorm. It was raining and a little windy as we landed, on time and smoothly on Runway 10L and were at the gate shortly thereafter. We did seem to use quite a bit of reverse thrust on touchdown as the runway was wet and it was a little breezy during the approach.

 

Shown below is the PHL de-ice facility. Got a quick spray of Type I glycol to knock the frost off the wings and fuselage I think, and were on our way. Since it was a clear morning, no need to apply Type IV anti-ice fluid and that saved us quite a bit of time. But think of it as if you leave day-of your cruise, have a connection or a later flight and get stuck in a winter storm, have to wait in line for de-icing and perhaps get stuck out there so long you miss your connection somewhere else or have a crew time out, it could cause you to miss your cruise. We took that chance today but we did have a few backups in the form of multiple flight options and also the option of going straight to MIA if we couldn't get to FLL early enough to get our shuttle to the port. It went smoothly but keep that in mind when planning a trip, especially from a northern city in the wintertime.

 

 

 

In-flight service, nice. Got to get that morning orange juice and some cookies and Fritos. Yummy. Also brought some beef jerky and peanut butter crackers so I wouldn't get hungry until we got to the ship. Good thing, and I will explain that more shortly.

 

 

Nice, smooth flight. A little over 2 hours, pretty smooth until we got near FLL.

 

 

Short final to KFLL Runway 10L. Rainy and somewhat choppy approach, raining at the airport when we landed, but it did clear up later in the day.

 

 

We got our bags and called our pre-arranged transportation to Miami, which was SAS Transportation. I have used them numerous times in the past, and they have always been good and reliable and are very competitive price-wise. Just make sure you book ahead of time as I did not once and was lucky to get a seat on a van that had an opening but did not have a guaranteed reservation. We got totally shut out another time as we booked our cruise just a few days before and did not call SAS to reserve and had to look at another van company to get to the port in time for embarkation once we arrived in FLL.

 

Anyway, we were on the van by 0930 at the shared shuttle pickup area on the baggage claim level, picked up some other people along the way at other terminals, and were on our way to the port of Miami. This being a Monday morning, we did hit some traffic on our way to the port. We had a really friendly driver and rode along with some other folks, a few of whom were going on their first cruise on the Norwegian Sky (btw, the worst cruise I have ever been on, a year ago, check out the review I did of it if you are interested in reading about that ordeal), which was also in Miami on this day (one of like 4 or 5 ships total) and that made the long ride go by quickly. Interstate 95 does get quite crowded at rush times, which is something I am used to back home and you just learn to budget extra time to get where you need to be at certain times of the day if you have to use the expressways.

 

We got through the tunnel to the port by 1030 and were dropped off at our terminal shortly thereafter. We paid our $20 each to the driver ($15 plus tip) and checked our bags in with the porter outside the terminal building and made our way inside. Yes, we tipped him, I would say recommended is at least a couple dollars a bag. We got our priority tags upon bag checkin (we printed our our tags at home and already had them on the bags when we checked them in) and made our way inside as we had our boarding passes and onboard spending accounts already set up beforehand (always helps move things along).

 

Interstate 95 south, approaching the famous tunnel to the port. It is neat and allows you to bypass the downtown scenic drive and just go right to the ships and has been open for a few years now.

 

 

We had an interesting pre-board delay today and I will get more into that in the next post, stay tuned.....that is coming right up.

[CruisinMama2003]

I can tell this will be a good review. Enjoying it so far....

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 1: EMBARKATION DAY CONTINUED

Apparently Carnival sent out email notices to everyone on this cruise a few days before, advising that boarding would be delayed a few hours due to maintenance on the ship and contractors being onboard who were loading and offloading some large equipment that would interfere with passengers being onboard. However, neither me nor my mom seems to have gotten these emails so we were quite surprised when we entered the building before 1100 and were given notices from Carnival that told us boarding would be delayed for all passengers until 1300, instead of the usual 1130 or so. Bummer.

 

The terminal with the NCL Sky in the background, as we pulled up to the port of Miami

 

 

I have never had issues with not being able to board early, even when we did get notices from Carnival telling us to arrive later to the port as boarding might possibly be delayed. Not the end of the world but it meant not getting on the ship right away. However, spending a couple hours in the rather comfortable terminal lounge while waiting to board this ship was not going to be a repeat performance of the 8 hours we spent in the customs dungeon during our Norwegian Sky disaster cruise last year. No worries there, LOL. At least this terminal had wifi, charging ports and real bathrooms along with actual chairs and air conditioning. LOL again.

 

There seemed to be quite a few Platinum and FTTF (faster to the fun) people in the lounge today, as the entire seating area was pretty much filled up with people who arrived early (like us) and had to wait to board. We were given priority check-in at the regular ticketing desk and thus did not have to wait in line, but we were not allowed into the Captain's Lounge to check in or wait to board, which is the separate room that I thought they had in Miami for Platinum and above cruisers. I think they had a couple weddings today and maybe they used the room to stage the people for those instead. Not totally sure. Like I said, at least we had wifi, chairs, bathrooms, a way to charge our devices and were OK with waiting to board this ship.

 

While we waited, I got my Carnival HUB app all set up on my phone, which I had downloaded earlier and would be using all cruise long to keep updated as to what was going on throughout the ship. It is a rather new thing, this is the first time I have used it and I liked it. I had used the Princess at sea onboard app on my California Coastal cruise just a few months ago and had a good experience with that as well. The app counts down the days, hours and minutes until boarding for your cruise (it considers the cruise to begin at 1200 on embarkation day it seems).

 

What the app looked like before I boarded and used it for reference during the cruise.

 

 

Around 1230, they actually announced that they would begin boarding a little bit ahead of the 1300 estimated time, cheers from those of us in the lounge soon followed. We are both Platinum and my mother has a hard time walking long distances and up and down steps, so we got the double whammy of being able to board in the first group (behind the wedding parties of course) and were quickly upstairs. I will note that since we pre-paid everything (including gratuities, which you have to actually call Carnival to pay - you cannot do it online as I found out the hard way) and set our spending accounts up ahead of time, check in was a breeze. You also do not need to get your picture taken at checkin anymore as supposedly your passport picture is tied to your folio or whatever now, not totally sure how that works. They also punch a hole in your sign and sail card so you can more easily put it on a lanyard if you so choose. I guess the many people who have asked to get their cards punched onboard the ships finally got through the Carnival and they just do it when you first get them now.

 

Since we were allowed to use the elevator, we bypassed the little station where you get your embarkation photos done (that are impossible to not buy later on) and headed right to the gangway. My mom loves to get those photos done so we missed out there but escalators are not for her so again, it is what it is. We did get stopped by a Carnival employee for some reason who said there was an issue with my mom's card when he scanned it and said it could cause problems getting on and off the ship later and were totally confused as we boarded. We stopped at guest services to verify the issue as soon as we entered the atrium and the equally confused girl at the counter scanned the cards again and said there would be no issues with them and we had none all cruise long. Whatever. It was a little after 1300 by now, and we were on the ship!

 

Dunno when they started this but now security has handheld scanners for sail and sign cards and you no longer insert the card into a machine that gives you a loud ding when it is accepted. Guess that is modern technology, perhaps a security enhancement? Anyway, the ship was not crowded and the cabins were not ready until 1400 (you could see the guys up on all the balconies working on them right up to boarding time) IIRC, so it was to the buffet. I was not that hungry because of my decent breakfast but my mom was starving so we went right to the Lido dining room on Deck 11 aft for some lunch. I got some stuff including dry roast beef, soup and maybe some pasta and stopped at the Chopsticks Asian place right near the entrance to the dining area for some rice, soup and beef. No, this place is not as good as Mongolian Wok on the newer ships, but the line moves faster and the food is still decent. It is open for lunch every day I think. I will get into the lack of variety for lunch later on in the review. I knew what the ship did not have on it ahead of time, so not complaining but will run through what the ship has and does not have in that department.

 

We made some calls back home over lunch, and it was beginning to clear up some outside. The ship slowly got more crowded as the "regular, non-Priority" folks filtered in and we made our way downstairs to our Ocean Suite cabin as the announcement was made that the cabins would be ready. Along the way, I stopped and got my Bottomless Bubbles unlimited soda (and now juice if I read it right) card, paid the $27.60 for it ($6 a day with 15 percent gratuitity) and it does not include sales tax. The compromise was made a few years ago to stop charging that for the while trip and just charge tax on sodas ordered while the ship is docked or in US waters and that makes it cost less. The tax for sodas bought in Miami was 13 cents a soda and probably something similar for the next day in Key West. They do scan your card each time you buy a soda, and you do have to sign for the sodas bought in tax areas but usually, you do not have to sign for sodas ordered on the open seas or in international ports.

 

I probably would have just brought on a couple 12-packs of Coke for us in our bags from home but my mom said they would take up too much space in the suitcases and would add too much weight so we did not do that although it would save a little money. We did bring our wine allowance on with us though, 2 750-mL bottles of wine that we purchased back home beforehand and drank during the cruise. Each pax is allowed 1 bottle of wine and 1 case of soda if you are interested. We forgot to move our wine from our suitcases to our carryons and did not realize the mistake until we got to the cabin and brought our bags in later that afternoon. You are supposed to take the wine with you through security but we honestly forgot but it was not a problem as the wine was still in the suitcases when we arrived to the cabin and unpacked. Just know that you really aren't supposed to do it that way, we just were in a hurry to get checked in and honestly forgot this time.

 

So, we get to the cabin. I did mention that this was an Ocean Suite, right? Neither of us had ever booked a suite on a cruise (and based on this experience, probably wouldn't again unless we had a 4-person party traveling) so we were anxiously awaiting our luxurious living quarters for the next few days. Our cabin was on Deck 7, midship, even numbered cabin side, in a good location, 7300-range. The bags were waiting outside, we brought them in and began to unpack and guess what - the beds were together. As usual. Yeah, no matter how many times you tell them to keep the beds separate at booking, the stewards just won't do it and you have to flag them down around muster time to get them properly separated.

 

The room was spacious, don't get me wrong. However, it is probably too much space for just two people and the service is no better (and maybe worse) than a regular cabin. Our steward, Agus, introduced himself to us before muster time and we told him we would like ice in the bucket after servicing and would like the beds separate. I don't know if Carnival is really pushing the once a day servicing of cabins now, but we told him that we did not need a daytime service but night would be more important. So, we ended up getting service at inconsistent times all cruise long. No set time and we never knew when or if we would be getting a nice cabin when coming back from a port or hanging out on the ship. Uh.....weird. Hate to put people on the spot like that but what is the deal with that?

 

Our Funtimes for the first day's activities. They are smaller now, just show you important information, as the Hub app really makes the need for these less than before. Sorry I couldn't get closer up for the pics, but that is the best I could get and hopefully you can read them here. I still do have the originals if you have any questions about them.

 

 

 

We began to unpack and I went outside onto the balcony to check that out. It is a larger than standard balcony with a table and four deck chairs and it is nice. But again not sure if it is worth the price premium that they ask for it. Especially considering you do not get any extra perks with suites on Carnival. Except for the two extra large bottles of water that you get for being in a suite. And the whirlpool bathtub (which I will talk about in depth later). I took some pictures of the cabin later on in the cruise and will post them later. There is a nice couch and sofa chair on one side, a night table, 3 120V outlets and a couple shaver outlets in the dresser room and near the television (which is a large flat screen) and a 10-foot long corridor that you pass through when you first walk into the cabin. The dressing room with sliding door closets is separate from the living room (but no door) and the bathroom is large, with a full whirlpool bathtub. You can pull the curtains back and look out the window, at the open sea or whatever which is a nice thing to wake up to on sea days.

 

By the time we got settled in, it was 1430 and due to the early start, I took an hour long nap on the couch, using the nice bathrobes from the closet as "blankets" while my mom unpacked some more. Come about 1600, they called muster so I had to get up then and head down to the 4th deck I think for the drill. I was still half asleep so it sucked having to stand shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other people in the heat and humidity on the outside decks as we waited for everyone to get to their muster stations, but we were underway before 1700. Carnival now scans your card when you arrive to make sure you are at the right station and that you are actually there. They did not used to do that, but they do now and they take these drills very seriously. The usual announcements, it was over in 15 minutes or so and we were all released for the sailaway party, which was to start at departure time of 1800. The cruise director was Marcelo Alvarado and the captain was Giuseppe Donato (who was not particularly talkative during this cruise) in case you were wondering. Marcelo was an OK cruise director.

 

My mom went back to the cabin to take a nap and I went upstairs to check out the sailaway. Nothing like a sailaway from Miami. We also got the added treat of having a night departure due to the delayed boarding and since the sunset is early in December in Miami, we got to see Miami all lit up as we left out. While it was still light, we saw the Royal Caribbean Empress of the Seas depart before us (been on this ship just this last summer and it is a nice ship albeit the smallest I have ever been on) as well as the NCL Sky. Horrible ship. But I digress....

 

NCL Sky and RCCL Empress as they sailed past us and out to sea

 

 

I forgot to include the full itinerary for this cruise, so here it is before we go any further:

 

DAY 1: MIAMI

DAY 2: KEY WEST

DAY 3: COZUMEL

DAY 4: AT SEA

DAY 5: BACK TO MIAMI

 

Anyway, I still have plenty to show of our sailaway from Miami - more in a moment and hope you are enjoying so far.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 1: EMBARKATION DAY CONTINUED

 

Looking back through my notes and just thinking out loud, does anyone know if the Cheers program is unlimited alcoholic beverages now? I heard some people say it was, but not sure. I know it was limited to 15 in a day before but since the other lines are going to unlimited, maybe they changed it recently. I know it is $54 a day per person plus gratuity for all pax in a cabin and includes soft drinks but I just don't drink enough to have it be worthwhile. Anyone know the rules for it now?

 

Anyway, the sailaway and dancing was getting going as the sun was setting behind downtown Miami. Nice backdrop for our sailaway. I went to the back of the ship on Deck 12 (along with a lot of others) to take in the scenery.

 

Sunset in Miami - don't usually get to see this as most ships leave around 1600 and not 1800.

 

 

 

I went back to check out the festivities on lido, around the pool and heard some music and watched the fun team get people into it and watched the sunset behind us as we began to push away from the dock right around 1800.

 

 

The Miami-Dade police boat that patrols the port area sure was busy today. We were the last ship to depart, here is a close-up of him clearing the way for us to depart. Yes, they have a tough job. I once saw a mindless boater drive his private motorboat right near the ship as we were leaving the port and had to be chased away by the police. You never know these days, and the police do have an important job to keep the area around these large ships clear and secure.

 

 

Pushing away from the now-quiet terminal with the city all lit up behind us.

 

 

 

It actually began to rain a little as we headed through what I think they call Government Cut, a man-made channel that connects the port of Miami to the Atlantic Ocean and that sent people scattering off the open decks, for cover for a short time. I will get all into it later, but I learned all kinds of stuff about the port of Miami and South Florida when we took our Everglades tour after the cruise, learned a lot of stuff I did not know about before.

 

Anyway, more to come of our departure from Miami....

Edited December 12, 2016 by FlyingCruiserNJ

[easyboy]

Enjoying your review and nice pictures. Will be following along again.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 1: EMBARKATION DAY CONTINUED

Uh, I had to remind myself that it was still a Monday in the rest of the non-cruising world and you could see the rush hour traffic along the MacArthur Causeway that runs parallel to the cruise port as we sailed out. I would have been stuck in similar traffic back home had I not been on this cruise, lol.

 

The sailaway party was getting going again as the rain stopped for long enough to allow some more music and dancing.

 

 

Things began to slow down around 1830 as everyone headed off to do whatever for the evening and I went back to the cabin to relax before dinner. We had late dining on this cruise, which began at 2015 and early dining was at 1800 for those who care. I sat out on the balcony and watched us sailaway from Miami and watched as the lights on the coast got more and more distant until my cell service went out around 1900 and I put my phone into cruise ship mode (airplane mode) for the rest of the night. I enabled it for wifi and logged into the Hub app to see what kind of stuff you could do on there as we sailed out to sea.

 

 

By the way, why is it always that the waters 10-50 miles off of Miami are always choppy, regardless of the seas everywhere else? At least it seems that way. Always seems bumpy for a few hours after you leave Miami and then it calms down again. Anyway, you can see deck plans, activity schedules, operation hours for restaurants, look at your onboard spending account, and make purchases to your sail and sign through the app (I think). Pretty nice. I used it a lot during the cruise.

 

This being the holiday season, they did a Christmas tree lighting in the atrium, on deck 3 I believe, along with some Christmas caroling around 1930. We went to that and it was a good time. Nice to get everyone into the holiday spirit. After all, the official holiday season was just beginning.

 

 

 

Since it is acceptable for cruisers to not have to get dressed up for dinner on the first night of a cruise these days, we went straight to the Pacific main dining room on Deck 4 aft for our late dining on the upper level. Although it was never crowded all cruise long, it was especially empty this night. Sad, as if this trend continues, Carnival will try to do away with the traditional dining setup, which is one of the things I love about cruising. If you don't believe me, look at NCL. Already did away with it, and the other lines are trending that way also. I know a lot of people don't want to be bothered with a full sit-down dinner but it really is a shame. Anyway......that is up next - got a little preview of that here. That is what I will talk about next.

 

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 1: EMBARKATION DAY CONTINUED

 

One of the best parts of the day - DINNER! Just love the idea of dining on a cruise, and you can order whatever you want off the menu if you can't decide on one thing and want to sample a bunch of different things. Is it gourmet dining? No. But it is good, and I enjoy it.

 

A few years ago, Carnival began the American Table dining room concept. Reading about it at first, I thought it would be a disaster. So did a lot of other people. Then I experienced it on a cruise on the Sensation a few years ago and it really is a good concept. The old menus and dining style had gotten stale, let's be honest. I knew exactly what would be served each night of a 5-day cruise, regardless of ship and itinerary. At least the American Table switches it up and has different stuff based on where the ship goes and that is cool. Never know what you will get until you actually get on the ship. They also do tablecloth-less tables except for elegant (formal) night which I thought would be awkward but really is not that bad. They also decorate the tables with bottles of red wine which I suppose is for sale but nobody actually buys. It was my mom's first time experiencing the new style dining (or so she said) and she said it was OK as well.

 

The waiters introduced themselves to us (team of 3 - Mardoko (spelling) and his assistants) and were good and attentive all cruise long. They had more time to spend with us because the MDR was so empty but they were good, took care of everything we needed. Got our drink orders (soda and iced tea) and made sure we never were without them at dinner. Of course the bar guy came around trying to sell shots but I was not interested. Good bread was brought to the table before we ordered and I requested olive oil for dipping with the bread as I had done that at a nice restaurant on land a while back and it was good there, but it was not as good this time. Oh well.

 

I got some Vietnamese spring rolls with peanut dipping sauce as an appetizer and they were awesome. I often go with shrimp cocktail as a default appetizer if there isn't anything else good but skipped it tonight as the spring rolls just stood out to me. Very good, never had them before. Would get them again.

 

 

My entrees were sweet and sour shrimp with fried rice and beef brisket. The brisket was better but both were good. Yes, that is the theme. I usually like multiple things on the menu and cannot decide between them so I order both. That was some weird cornbread-type thing on the side of the brisket, not sure what that was but the brisket was great.

 

 

And oh yeah, for dessert was the world-famous warm chocolate melting cake (wcmc) or as they call it now, simply Carnival Melting Cake. Dat wcmc. Hadn't had any since my last Carnival cruise last year. Missed it. It was kind of undercooked this night but still good. Just cannot finish the whole thing after a huge dinner. I surely left the mdr full tonight. My mom got hot tea for dessert each night and she got a teapot with a crack in the side the first night, which leaked hot tea all over the table which was kind of funny. We told the waiters so they could take it out of rotation and nobody else got a defective teapot.

 

The entrance to the dining room, or exit tonight. Interesting artwork.

 

After dinner, it was after 2200 and mom wanted to go to the welcome aboard show, in the theater at the pointy end of the ship which was at 2230 so we went right there and had to sit through some bingo game until it was time for the show. It was an OK show, featured a welcome by Marcelo, the CD and the usual variety show that is the welcome aboard. I almost fell asleep during this to be honest and it was not that crowded, and it was over around 2330. I was so tired I did not even bother going to the 2330 comedy show featuring Macio in the Adriatic Lounge, which was on Deck 5 aft. He would be performing again later in the cruise anyway.

We went right back to the cabin and I was asleep around midnight if not before. Funny that the sheets and comforters they have on Carnival ships are just so heavy, you sweat while you sleep no matter what the room temperature is. Anyone else notice? Opposite of Princess, where you can barely find a cover that will keep you warm enough while you sleep. There was plenty else to cover that went on nightly on the ship, such as a cover rock band, a guitar player and a piano man, will talk about them later in the review as they were all good.

 

We arrived back to the cabin to see the next day's Funtimes, an invitation to some art auction (lol, never been to one on a cruise, never will go to one) some other paperwork and of course, a towel animal on the bed.

 

 

Since the next morning featured a very early arrival to the port of Key West (like 0700 early), I was surely going to enjoy my sleep after a long, eventful embarkation day. That wraps up Day 1 of the cruise, hope you are enjoying and I have plenty to get to when I talk about our day in the Conch Republic. I will try to get to it in the next few days, and thank you for your comments and questions, I look forward to talking to each of you as this review moves along. Have a good week!

 

 

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Very optimistic, I love your reviews! I just realized that I missed your Princess and Empress reviews, so in the meantime I'll catch up on those! :D

 

Thanks, glad you enjoy them. This upcoming review surely won't disappoint. It's a ship I have been on before, going to ports I have been to tons of times but still plenty to do and talk about with this cruise. I am having a good time writing about it. The Princess cruise out in California this fall was a different type of experience but that is what I was looking for and it was a good time. The Empress cruise was just a "booze cruise" with my buddy that we had a good time on for a long weekend. Happy holiday season!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I can tell this will be a good review. Enjoying it so far....

 

Thanks, I sure did have one action-packed first day as I didn't even realize how much I did until I went back and wrote about it, lol. Thanks for reading along and I am sure you will enjoy this review as it moves along. Nice ship, and got to do some stuff I have never done on a cruise before on the last sea day. Lot of fun indeed.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Enjoying your review and nice pictures. Will be following along again.

 

Thank you, glad you are following. The review will get better and better, I promise. I am happy that you are enjoying the pictures as well. It helps get what I am talking about in my summaries across to people in a visual way. I want people to see how someone who has cruised this ship saw it, from the reviewer's perspective.

[KPfromCT]

Thank you for the review! Great start!:D:D

Patiently waiting for more......

[Jamericannn]

Great review so far. What camera/phone did you use to take the pics?

I hope they don't do away with formal nights. It is kinda difficult though for people who have early dining to do formal night on the first night of the cruise. Time creeps up on you when you do sailaway party, muster drill and a little tour. By the time all that is done it is dinner time and you realize you haven't showered or dressed as yet.

[ABQrobin]

nice start and photos! keep it coming!

[97gstchick]

So far this is a great detailed review! I'm heading out on this ship Jan 6th and this is also my first cruise. So far your review and pictures are giving me a good idea of what to expect. Thank you :)

[tw67]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I am loving this review. We are also South Jerseyites, and taking this ship on January 2. I am really looking forward to the rest, and especially your pictures! I already told my husband and two kids that they need to read your review!!

 

Thanks again!

 

Terry

[JaniceB]

Enjoying your review and the pictures. Following along.

[SenatorsFan]

Hi, it's nice to see you back with another review. I'm enjoying it so far and look forward to reading more whenever you have the chance! :) I know what a busy time of year this is.

Heather

[tdh8359]

Following

[Jamman54]

GREAT start to your review! Looking forward to the rest. :)

[Meadet]

Loved Key West when we visited 5 years ago can't wait to hear your thoughts on it! Really enjoying your review

[Jobeth66]

Hey from Exit 5 (or 47, off 295 :) )!!

 

Loving your review so far, I'm on the Victory for 10 days in 2018 on a charter and I can't wait. Looking forward to more photos of the ship!

[Can'tWait2SetSail]

Thank you for your review! Can't wait to read the rest. Sailing the Victory in May! I am from Jersey too!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Thank you for the review! Great start!:D:D

Patiently waiting for more......

 

Thanks, glad you like it so far. Got more coming up in just a little while, should get to Key West day tonight later on.