The last ever Carnival Victory review, with photos.

[CoasterGuy]

Day 5: Disembarkation and Miami Beach.

 

1/10/2020

 

Neither of us slept particularly well the night before, and I never seem to sleep well the last night of the cruise. 7:30 am we went to the main dining room for a pancake breakfast. 

 

I booked us a LATE flight back, 8PM, on Frontier. So we were in absolutely no rush to get off the ship. Sat around in the buffet area until around 10:30 when we finally went down to disembark. This was by far the smoothest debark I’ve ever had. 

 

We took an uber to the airport and had several hours ahead of us before our flight. So we used the luggage storage service. We took a backpack with what we would need and went to Miami Beach. Ate lunch at TGI Fridays before finally going to the beach. Used the public restrooms to change into swimwear. 

 

The weather was kinda meh. Not cold, but overcast and windy. Walking on the sand and towards the water, I had what will be the quote of the year. I said to Nicky: “I wonder how wet the water is?” 🤦‍♂️.  I meant to say how COLD the water is, but it came out all wrong. Ugh. Sometimes you just gotta own it…

 

We didn’t stay in the water long. Nicky relaxed on the beach while I walked up Ocean Drive just seeing what was around. I asked Nicky if she’d be interested in going on a bike ride. There’s a citi bike station right there. One of the bikes would not release from the rack for me. Pretty sure I ended up being charged twice even though I only took one bike.

 

We rode our bikes up and down Ocean Drive just taking in all the sights. Did this for probably an hour or so. Afterwards just did some more relaxing near the beach, and it was eventually time for us to head back to the airport. Ubered back. Hello and goodbye again, Adrienne Arsht Center.

 

We had a fast food meal at the airport. Our flight on Frontier had a slight delay once on board but we arrived in Cleveland at around 11:30PM. Time for some much needed sleep.

[CoasterGuy]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CoasterGuy]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CoasterGuy]

 

 

 

[lazydayz]

Thanks for the review.  But the pics of Nassau made me really miss cruising.  I love that port! 

[CoasterGuy]

Final thoughts on Carnival Victory:

 

My biggest concern going into this cruise was the state of the ship’s facilities. With the ship being three months from renovation, would the maintenance staff be letting things go and fall into disrepair? The answer was no. Other than that leak on day 1 that was quickly fixed, I noticed absolutely no maintenance issues. The ship did not seem run down.

 

Nicky did complain about a musty smell in the hallway once or twice but each time it quickly went away. 

 

I don’t recall what days specifically, but this is the first time I’ve ever had Carnival’s breakfast omelettes and they were awesome! Pretty sure I had them twice during this cruise.

 

Dinner buffet was the only thing I ate on the ship that I thought could have been better. Everything else was fine. Nicky said she really liked the dining room food, and I’d have to agree. No complaints.

 

Other than one guy at pixels who was kinda clueless, we had no problem with the service from the staff. Bar staff, dining room staff, and room steward all get high marks. I didn't mention our room steward at all, his name was Marhar, and he provided us good service as well. Saw him a couple times during the cruise and he was nice to talk to.

 

Nicky and I both really liked the casino bar band (Music Boardwalk), and they were a big hit with many on our sailing’s facebook group.

 

Comedy shows were good again.

 

Aft hot tubs being open until midnight was great. 

 

We had a great time on Victory. It was a good introduction to cruising for Nicky, and we both look forward to seeing what changes are made when she becomes the Radiance (hopefully that project will go on despite the pandemic). 

 

Thanks for reading! 

[Joe817]

A good read!  Thanks mucho for sharing!  👍

[cruisequeen4ever]

Yay, a cruise blog; thank you!

[Etta1213]

On 8/5/2020 at 5:55 PM, CoasterGuy said:

 

Thanks for reading! 

Thank you for taking the time to type this review. I really enjoyed it, especially due to being in withdrawal from no cruising. Best wishes to the two of you !

[princess76021]

Hey CoasterGuy,

 

Thanks for taking me along on your Victory cruise!!

 

Your review and pictures helped my withdrawal a bit!!

 

Thank you

Hugs

Nicki

[PrincessPatti]

Love the Victory!  I sailed solo on her last weekend in January.  The casino was very good to me.  Can’t wait to be on a cruise ship once again!

[CoasterGuy]

22 hours ago, princess76021 said:

Hey CoasterGuy,

 

Thanks for taking me along on your Victory cruise!!

 

Your review and pictures helped my withdrawal a bit!!

 

Thank you

Hugs

Nicki

 

Glad you found time to read it and enjoyed! See you on other review threads. 🙂

[CoasterGuy]

6 hours ago, PrincessPatti said:

Love the Victory!  I sailed solo on her last weekend in January.  The casino was very good to me.  Can’t wait to be on a cruise ship once again!

 

Wish the casino had been good to me. But everything else was pretty much. Thanks.

[sanmarcosman]

Glad you had a fun cruise together. The photo of the steak and eggs at Seaday Brunch with its petit filet mignon and a side of bacon has my mouth watering for our next cruise. We love the Seaday Brunch Menu and now that Carnival has their new Port Day Breakfast Menu we always have breakfast in the dining room instead of the buffet.

 https://www.carnival.com/~/media/Images/explore/dining/menus/dining-room-breakfast-menu.pdf

[mvaygibson]

Great review and pictures. I was on the Victory in Oct of 2018 and had a great time. I also liked learning that you can store your luggage at the airport and what you did for the day. We also had a later flight to CLE ( but flew in and out of Fort Lauderdale) so we rented a car for the day and drove up the coast stopping along the way wherever we wanted. Your day sounded more relaxing!

[CoasterGuy]

Thank you mvaygibson. We did have a good time in south beach. But I think if I ever had to do that again I would get the day pass at an area hotel resort. You can find some of them which have locker storage for the day to store your luggage.

 

We didn't have a car so we had to: Uber to the airport, pay the luggage storage (which isn't terribly expensive), Uber to the beach area, and then Uber to the airport again when done. By the time you pay all that, you're almost at what it would have costed to just get the resort day pass. 

[MistyRo76]

On 8/5/2020 at 12:19 AM, CoasterGuy said:

For evening entertainment we again listened to the casino band, Music Boardwalk. Several people were dancing near the bar. Nicky isn’t much of a dancer but I got her on the floor to slow dance with me once or twice. Tonight I did a better job babysitting my drink. One more R rated comedy show. This time the comedian was Percy Crews 2. He was very good but I think we liked Jaylyn a little better. We ended the night with a final relaxing dip in the aft hot tubs, and drinks from the aft bar. We may have had pizza as well.

 

 

 

 

We've seen Percy Crews twice on our previous cruises and we LOVED him! He was razzing a girl who got up during his show to go out to the restroom. She was a white girl (important note for later). While she was gone, he had her whole group of friends get up and changes tables with a group of black people who had a table further in the back. So when this poor girl comes back in from the restroom, she starts to head to her table walking pretty fast as she doesn't want to get razzed again and she got about halfway across the room when she slowed down as she noticed the people sitting at what she she thought was her table. Percy is just continuing on with the show like nothing is going on. This girl did not know what to do - just standing in the middle of the room looking around. I felt so bad for her as everyone finally couldn't contain themselves and starts laughing - including all the black people sitting at her table and her friends in the back. It was hysterical! And one of the moments from my previous cruises that I'll never forget. Percy finally let her off the hook and moved everyone back to their original tables. But it was enough to make this girl decide that no matter how bad I may have had to go during his show, I would be holding it! LOL

 

Enjoying your review! 

[tandemcruzr]

Thanks for your review.

 

If you go to Nassau again, turn right when you leave the port and then turn left at the end of that sidewalk. Continue to Junkanoo Beach. Good bars and food and you see your ship at the port. Easy walk. (We are in our late seventies and have no problem with the walk.)

[CoasterGuy]

12 hours ago, MistyRo76 said:

This girl did not know what to do - just standing in the middle of the room looking around. I felt so bad for her as everyone finally couldn't contain themselves and starts laughing - including all the black people sitting at her table and her friends in the back. It was hysterical! And one of the moments from my previous cruises that I'll never forget.

 

Wow! I'd probably be livid if some comedian did that to me. Hopefully she took it in stride and was able to just laugh it off. I mean yeah I'd get over it but that's almost like going out of your way to embarrass someone. 

Edited November 29, 2020 by CoasterGuy

[Roger88]

I took like 1000 photos in general from my last two cruises and its not even including photos taken by my kids and wife. I doubt I will even take a single photo next year. Such a waste of time really unless its something particularly interesting.  But what can be interesting on board the ship lol 

[CoasterGuy]

Roger88 I assume you're talking about the pixels photos. Yeah I'm not going to bother with them next time. If Nicky wants one or two taken that's fine. 

[Roger88]

On 8/6/2020 at 12:28 AM, CoasterGuy said:

 

 

 

Yeah, kinda stormy and probably very cold. I wouldnt want to swim there or chill by the beach. And as I also have noticed that all the facilities by the beach are closed. Not a good time to travel to this place really 

[CoasterGuy]

18 hours ago, tandemcruzr said:

Thanks for your review.

 

If you go to Nassau again, turn right when you leave the port and then turn left at the end of that sidewalk. Continue to Junkanoo Beach. Good bars and food and you see your ship at the port. Easy walk. (We are in our late seventies and have no problem with the walk.)

 

Good stuff. I had considered Junkanoo when first planning our visit. Glad to hear the walk isn't terrible. 

[Roger88]

Regarding Carnival Victory, I would like to say that their dinners were some of the best I had experience in a very long time. I mean I totally understand that some of view  might say that its all a total joke but honestly it was like the only one that I could remember  

[CoasterGuy]

8 hours ago, Roger88 said:

Yeah, kinda stormy and probably very cold. I wouldnt want to swim there or chill by the beach. And as I also have noticed that all the facilities by the beach are closed. Not a good time to travel to this place really 

 

Yeah I see your point. This wasn't the destination, we just happened to be there and made the most of it.

 

4 minutes ago, Roger88 said:

Regarding Carnival Victory, I would like to say that their dinners were some of the best I had experience in a very long time. I mean I totally understand that some of view  might say that its all a total joke but honestly it was like the only one that I could remember  

 

Yeah Nicky and I loved the MDR as well. A lot of people in our sailing facebook group thought it was "just ok". Thanks for your comments and I hope you enjoyed the review.