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Valor June 12-17 Review - We loved the Valor! Awesome Ship!

5 in OK

By 5 in OK,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Medinkr

Medinkr

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Fellow Tulsan,

 

I have enjoyed reading your review. I have got some pretty good information from it. My husband and I will be taking our belated honeymoon the same time next year.

 

Thanks for sharing!

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Rudyard

Rudyard

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Thanks for such a detailed review. We're doing the five day on Valor in December and are really looking forward to it. Like you, we traded in our usual balcony for an ocean view this time, so hoping we won't be too disappointed. I know we'll have a great time either way.

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5 in OK

5 in OK

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Fellow Tulsan,

 

I have enjoyed reading your review. I have got some pretty good information from it. My husband and I will be taking our belated honeymoon the same time next year.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Hello!! Anticipation is half the fun for us - we usually book 8-12 months out too!! You are going to love the Valor - such a lovely ship!

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5 in OK

5 in OK

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Carnival Valor – Final Sea Day

 

Even though we had an amazing cruise so far we are alwayssad for the last sea day to come! Wedidn’t want to waste a moment of it so we got up around 7:00 a.m. and headed upto the buffet – grabbed all of our favorites and headed to our favoritebreakfast spot! It was almost emptytoday – just one other couple drinking coffee and watching the sun rise! We sat and lingered a bit too – having asecond cup of hot chocolate with our marshmallows from home (we had a couple ofbags left over and were trying to use them up!!). We sat for a while and then headed back toour room to change into our bathing suits and pack up our bag with everythingwe would need to veg on the deck for the day! We took the elevator to deck 10 and walked to the back of the ship toour “spot”. There was no wind today – itwas lovely! When we got out to our spotwe noticed the crew had not yet set up the deck chairs on the back of the shipon deck 10. Hmmmm…..that wasunexpected. There were chairs set upalong the sides of deck 10 but not on the back. We are pretty big rule followers (a curse for sure) so we tromped downthe stairs to the adult pool area and grabbed a couple of seats there to waitfor the crew to set up the chairs on the back deck. Around 9:00 a.m. they still had not put outthe chairs – we were watching closely and lots of passengers had showed up withtheir beach bags and towels to find no chairs. Finally, at 9:30 my daughter and I made a bold decision to drag a coupleof chairs from the side to the back. Another couple followed suit and the four of us had the entire back ofthe boat (well – on deck 10 anyway) to ourselves for the day! Around noon we walked over and got a pulledpork sandwich (same deck and there are these convenient doors right by the bbqplace) – my daughter went down and got a Guys Hamburger (she said she wantedjust one more since it was our last day!). We enjoyed a quiet lunch up by the bbq place on deck 10 and then headedout to enjoy a couple more hours of sunshine. It was getting pretty hot so we took frequent dips in the pool andsnagged an ice cream cone a few times! By2:30 we felt we were getting too toasted so we told our new friends goodbye andgathered up all of our stuff and headed to deck 3 to read until it was time togo and get ready for our last dinner. Wehad both just fallen asleep in the shady deck 3 chairs when someone woke us up –it was one of the crew telling us we had to go to the other side of deck 3because they were cleaning this side. Bummer!! I mean really!?!? On the last sea day at 3:00 they are cleaningdeck 3. Just really weird….but we packedup our stuff and went to the other side. So many people were smoking that we could not stay. So we went back to the room, showered andrested for about an hour and then got ready for dinner. We took a $20 with us to tip our amazingLincoln Dining Room Wait-staff. Theywere awesome. We know they get a portionof our gratuity that is placed on our account, however, we felt they went aboveand beyond all week long! We finisheddinner and went to our room to change and begin packing (it is my 2ndmost unpleasant cruise duty – right after the muster drill!!). We got a chunk of packing finished and headeddown to deck 5 to the comedy club to see the comedian, Scotty K. He was pretty funny – had some good jokes andgood impromptu. Had some slow spots butoverall a 4 out of 5! After the comedyclub ended we walked around the ship and shopped a bit more. We watched some people trying to get thestacks of money from the crane machine. Someone actually won 100 dollar bills while we were watching – that waspretty cool. We listened to the bandthat plays by the Casino – they were playing decades of music and were on the80’s – songs I actually knew!! I told my21-year-old daughter – you can understand every single word they say in thesesongs!!!

It was gettinglate and we knew we had to tackle I45 on the way home the next day so we headedup to our rooms – did last minute packing and went to bed. (We carry our own luggage off on each cruise –I don’t know….setting my luggage with everything I brought on the cruise andall souvenirs that we purchased just kind of freaks me out!)

 

 

 

Debarkation will come next!

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5 in OK

5 in OK

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Thanks for such a detailed review. We're doing the five day on Valor in December and are really looking forward to it. Like you, we traded in our usual balcony for an ocean view this time, so hoping we won't be too disappointed. I know we'll have a great time either way.

 

At first we were going to go ultra budget and just do an inside. The more we thought about it we decided to upgrade the ocean view. I think it made a big difference - being able to see outside! You will be happy no matter what because you will be cruising and it is just an awesome ship!!!:)

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5 in OK

5 in OK

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The Valor has the best crew!!! Our room steward, the poolside bartenders, the atrium bartenders, the MDR staff, and the rest were all great!! Although not my favorite itinerary, my favorite crew, by far!!

I agree 100%!!! They went above and beyond - just a friendly crew! Makes such a difference!

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Forums mobile app

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5 in OK

5 in OK

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Carnival Valor – Debarkation (just the saddest part Ithink!)

 

We knew we had about 8 hours of driving ahead of us to getback to Tulsa so we woke up early and went to eat about 6:30 a.m. By 7:00 p.m. the pilot had boarded so wehustled and walked into the Lincoln Dining Room on deck 3 by 7:20 a.m. There were tons of people there already (thepaperwork said to be there at 8:00 a.m. so we thought we were early but I thinkeveryone knew we would be cleared before 8:00 a.m.). We were in terminal #2 since there wasanother Carnival ship in on that day. Welike Terminal #2 the best for debarkation because there are just downhill rampseverywhere instead of the escalator – it’s just easier and faster!! We called Hotel Galvez while were waiting inthe customs line and they were sitting there when we came out! Now THAT is service! He was smiling and waiting and loaded up ourheavier-than-when-we-came suitcases. Wemade the short drive to Hotel Galvez and our car was waiting for us with the hatchopen! They loaded up our suitcases andwe were driving home by 8:15 a.m. Wethink this might have been the smoothest debarkation we have ever had. Kind of glad it went smooth since it isalready just so sad that your amazing cruise has come to an end!!! I45 was kind to us on the way home and wemade it in just under 8 hours. We weretired and exhausted and ready for Father’s Day! A good kind of tired – one that comes from too much fun instead of work!

 

 

Until next cruise then! Hope your cruises are wonderful and plentiful!

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5 in OK

5 in OK

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Thank you for the review. We just booked the Valor for the quick 4 day to Coz in August. Just for something to do that weekend. Review was very helpful. We just cruised the Breeze twice this year and wanted to try this one.

Yay! There should be less kids on in August too! Have a blast!

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Forums mobile app

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