Carnival Valor Review A Quick Getaway

[Mutumbojimbo]

Fun review, thank you!! I can't wait to read more!

[moongal]

Please continue! We are on the Valor next month so I am anxious to hear more!

 

 

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[cynt]

This was a short cruise so this is about when I turned off my phone and started to enjoy the cruise and my BF.

 

So I'm going to start talking about a few topics that peaked my interest.

 

FOOD

The most subjective topic on the forum. The food was fine to my BF and fam. My dad and uncle loved the buffet. They never went to the MDR. They are your typical SS that want to see and be served their food immediately. So the buffets worked awesome for them. They love Lubys so they were in hog heaven.

 

My BF and I went to MDR the 1st night. Everything went well. I had booked us 6pm dinner thinking my dad and uncle would join us every evening. Well that wasn't the case and BF didn't like eating that early. I explained to him my reasoning but we agreed late dining for next time. Thats fine by me because late is what I usually book.

 

So begrudgingly I went to the buffet the remainder of the weekend. Im not a buffet person so this was a bit of a sacrifice for me. I like to be served. So I took one for the team. But I did find something to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

This brings me to my next point. We met a couple Sunday night on their first cruise. They were not enjoying the cruise nor the food. Cruising is not for everyone. I understand that. They were ragging on the food and I was really trying to get them to tell me specifically what they ate.

To no avail.

 

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[cynt]

The wife then proceeds to tell me the poor decisions she made concerning the shore excursions. She selected the Mayan ruins. The time it took to get their and back was like 4 hours. So I don't think she did much research. So I believe due to that mishap they put the whole cruise experience in the we don't like it box.

 

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[Mutumbojimbo]

The wife then proceeds to tell me the poor decisions she made concerning the shore excursions. She selected the Mayan ruins. The time it took to get their and back was like 4 hours. So I don't think she did much research. So I believe due to that mishap they put the whole cruise experience in the we don't like it box.

 

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I think that's an excellent point, we have done the Mayan ruins at Uxmal twice from Progresso and loved it both times, but I made sure that my family/friends knew what we were getting in to in terms of travel. I think that's about an hour and 15 minutes each way. If you do ruins from Cozumel, I think it's longer. Research is important.

[Gumbo4Life]

Enjoying your review. We are on the Valor in August. We base out of N.Texas and a stop at Bucee's is mandatory!!

 

:)

[E@syPe@zy]

Really a cute review....your enthusiasm comes through loud and clear! Something tells me you just enrolled a new member in the Cruise Club.

[cynt]

Thx everyone for ur comments. Whenever I have time to pull this up on my laptop I'll respond.

 

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[cynt]

So back to the food. I really was paying a lot of attention to the food because we didn't go to the MDR. I know in the future I might eat without him a few times. I missed the ambiance of eating in the MDR. I also really missed the brunch on sea days.

 

Let's start with breakfast. Plenty of selections at the buffet. Made to order eggs and or omelets. Either pancakes or french toast. Many danishes, bagels, white n wheat toast, English muffins. Bacon, sausage, eckrich sausage and jalapeno sausage. Deli meats,cheese, fruit, many cereal brands, oatmeal. And Blue iguana is open for breakfast tacos. Oj, flavored waters, milk, hot chocolate, teas, coffee.

 

Yes they served the majority of it every day. But they're breakfast foods. They let you decide what you want to eat each day. Day one: oatmeal plus all the trimmings, bacon n scrambled eggs. Day two: Omelet and bacon n breakfast potatoes. So on and so forth. Plenty of options to have a breakfast fit for a king.

 

Lunch was the same. Many options in the buffet plus Guys burgers and fries (YUMMY), bbq, Mongolian grill, pasta bar, pizza and made to order deli sandwiches. We had burgers and fries every day. I love fries and he loves burgers. Hence why we're both on not fast food for a few weeks. We would add a salad and or a meat and side dish if we felt like it.

 

Im just puzzled by people who say they didn't like the food. I really want to know what do they eat at home every day. I tried a chicken dish that I didn't care for but the slow roasted beef was to die for. Moist, juicy, tender and the au jus was delicious. I had two servings.

 

So to sum it up the buffet food was fine. There was something for everyone.

 

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[cynt]

Next I want to talk about our excursion in Cozumel. We went with Chichicharters.com. Their deep sea fishing and snorkeling excursion, 6 hr tour.

 

It was incredible. Customer service top notch. The price is a little steep. Im frugal. Ok I'm cheap but I'll pay a premium for quality and convenience. This hit both of these so I would do this excursion again in a heart beat.

 

I reserved it via their website. Easy peasy. The response and communique was excellent. Very detailed and logical. We paid a $100 deposit via the website. We paid the balance the day of the excursion in cash.

 

A quick taxi ride from the pier to the marina where we met Chichi. He took our money and directed us to our boat and crew for the day, Alex and Luis.

 

They went over some safety stuff and we were off to do some deep sea fishing.

 

Pics of the boat. Clean and functional.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[cynt]

My uncle decided not to go with us. He has this fear of the ship leaving him. LOL!

 

So we were off and Alex was bating and throwing out the lines. I don't know how many lines there were but it had to be over 10 or 12.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[cynt]

Some more pics of Alex.

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed watching and learning from a pro. He moved and maneuvered with pure skill. He was all over that boat. I just watched and admired him doing his thing.

 

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[cynt]

We sailed and fished for a couple of hours. They told us before we left if we begin to feel ill let them know ASAP. Well BF was in the fishing chair but he moved back to the seats. I didn't think anything of it. Well he wasn't feeling to good. He said he was ok. My dad got wind of it and told Alex. A few yells up top to Luis and we were at the sandbar in no time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[cynt]

Time to snorkel. This was our 1st time snorkeling. So we started in shallow water.

 

 

 

While we were playing in the water and snorkeling Alex was preparing us a FEAST!!

 

 

We ate most of the fruit b4 I snapped the pic. We were famished. LOL

 

 

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[cynt]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[cynt]

Fresh homemade salsa and guac!!! Mmm mmm GOOD!!!

 

BF and I killed it! LOL!! It was good to the very last drop.

 

Alex wanted to take us a lil further to the lighthouse for more fishing. Dad was tired and BF was worried about getting back to the ship.

 

We still had about 2 hrs and 45 minutes left of our tour. Alex and Luis wanted to make sure we got our monies worth. They explained there are fish at the lighthouse. We will catch something. Because as of now we hadn't caught anything.

 

They further went on to tell us we could go to the reef for more snorkeling. Which I wanted to do but BF and Dad were ready to go back to the ship.

 

BF explained to them they were excellent. They didn't do anything wrong. We were just ready to go back to the ship.

 

So off we went.

 

EXCELLENT day. I highly recommend Chichi Charters! They are worth every dime and TIP!!!

 

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[E@syPe@zy]

Really enjoying the fishing charter information. My DH would love this! Looks like Alex took really good care of you and knew what he was doing.

[cynt]

Yes Alex was PHENOMENAL!!! That's what I liked about the excursion. You knew right off the bat they were taken care of you.

 

And you don't have to touch the stinky bate. They do all the work and you.

 

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[cynt]

Nothing more of significance happened on the ship.

 

Let me wrap up with BFs thoughts on his 1st cruise.

 

He did like it. However he didn't fall in love with it like me. That made me sad but ok.

 

He has to be busy 24/7. I knew this going in and adviced him that we should go on a longer more port intensive cruise. He insisted on a short cruise to get his feet wet.

 

Now he has definitely shyed away from the longer cruises. I just reminded him of our previous conversation that he would try another ship on a longer itinerary with more ports. He obliged. Thank God I enjoy cruising solo and/or with friends and family. I see now this isn't going to be our "thing".

 

He also wanted to stay at the ports longer. He didn't feel it was enough time at the port. I really wanted to blast him for being a scaredy cat and wanting to get back to the ship 4 hrs before departure. But I digress. He is more of a land vacation person. And that's cool.

 

I like land vacations too and I'm a Disney nut. We're going in September. He's going for a softball tourny. Im going to see the new Pandora at Animal Kingdom. I have no qualms compromising.

 

Happy cruising everyone.

 

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[E@syPe@zy]

You gave it your best shot with the BF. At least when you go on another cruise, he will have an idea of how you are spending your time. And who knows....after some time to think about the cruise, he may just decided to give it another try rather than staying at home. Men are funny like that. They act like they don't like something and then all of a sudden they don't want to be left out of the fun. And if he doesn't change his mind, you can still have a blast on a cruise.

Thanks for taking the time to do the review. Always learn something new when I read a new review.

[cynt]

EP you were right. At his softball game last night my BF was like babe I'm ready to go on another cruise. I just kept my eyes forward but I was jumping with excitement. He said did you hear me. I said yes, when ur ready to put down some money let me know.

 

Can you believe that. He's such an introvert. LOL!!! But I'm super ecstatic that the cruise addiction is slowly starting to kick in! YES!!!

 

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[E@syPe@zy]

EP you were right. At his softball game last night my BF was like babe I'm ready to go on another cruise. I just kept my eyes forward but I was jumping with excitement. He said did you hear me. I said yes, when ur ready to put down some money let me know.

 

Can you believe that. He's such an introvert. LOL!!! But I'm super ecstatic that the cruise addiction is slowly starting to kick in! YES!!!

 

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Well...how about that! :eek: See...you just never know about these guys! I can't tell you how many times my DH has acted like it was just okay and then he's asking about it and wanting to do it again. Go figure!?!

Glad to hear he "really" enjoyed himself after all. Now...you need to tell him if he wants to go again, he will need to go to the Main Dining Room with you or you will just go with someone that will. It's time to lasso him in!! And he will enjoy that too...no matter how much grumbling he does. Because now you know and you've got his number!

Have fun on your next cruise and let us know how it turns out.

[gottaluvcruises12]

I enjoyed reading your review and seeing your pics. I have never been on Valor. I was intrigued because it was your boyfriend's first cruise. I am going with my husband on his first cruise in September. We are only doing 4 days as well. I was nervous about going any longer. I don't know how he feels about it. Sad to know he didn't enjoy it as much as you do. I hope my husband does and we can go more often. I really want to try it out with my husband's best friend and his wife. I think he would have the time of his life. We will see.

[cynt]

I enjoyed reading your review and seeing your pics. I have never been on Valor. I was intrigued because it was your boyfriend's first cruise. I am going with my husband on his first cruise in September. We are only doing 4 days as well. I was nervous about going any longer. I don't know how he feels about it. Sad to know he didn't enjoy it as much as you do. I hope my husband does and we can go more often. I really want to try it out with my husband's best friend and his wife. I think he would have the time of his life. We will see.

 

Your hubby will love it!!! BF has decided to cruise again in Feb. He's still wavering 4 night or 7 night. Keeping my fingers, toes and everything else crossed for 7 nights. :D

[Texasopa]

Just a FYI, Harbor House on the pier next to the cruise ship port is also a sister Hotel to the Tremont and Galvez. We've stayed there many times and used the resort type pool at the Galvez.