Mississippi River to Mexico on the Carnival Valor - MistyRo76's Review of the 10/22/22 Sailing

[MistyRo76]

Welcome to my review of our group’s trip on the Carnival Valor’s October 22, 2022, sailing which visited the beautiful ports of Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico! Before we get into the meat of the trip report, let me give you a little background on how this trip came to be!

 

Initially, this cruise started as a girl’s trip with me and two of my very best friends. My husband and I had just returned from a cruise to Cuba on the Paradise in April 2019 and I had a really sweet Suite offer enticing me to book again. My friends and I agreed to book a suite on the Carnival Conquest going to Key West and Cozumel in October 2020. I think we ALL remember what happened in 2020 – so of course, that cruise was cancelled come August of that year. At that time, we decided to wait a while before we decided to rebook. We kept the $300 On-Board Credit re-booking incentive in our back pocket. As it started to look like cruising would be returning in the not-so-distant future, we decided to get serious about re-booking. As I began looking at itineraries, the October 22^nd sailing on the Valor out of New Orleans caught my eye! Prices were great! It was 5 days vs. the 4 in the original itinerary. It visited Costa Maya which I hadn’t been to in ages. And it went out of New Orleans! I had never sailed from NOLA before and only been there once years ago for one night on a work trip. I stayed in a hotel by the airport and didn’t really see any of the city! So, my friend Jody and I decided to take the leap and rebook. Our other friend was on the fence at that time, so Jody and I booked a cabin for just the two of us. We ended up booking cabin 7439 on the Empress Deck – Aft. This is one of the “bowling alley” cabins, so named for the unique set up of the cabin which also gives you an extra-long balcony – all for the same price as a regular balcony! Instead of being able to fit only two chairs and a small table, this balcony also can fit a lounge chair. The cabin was all the way aft on the side and next to the aft wrap corner cabin.

 

Before long, our group of ladies had grown to 12. My sister booked the same exact cabin we had just on the opposite side of the ship on Empress. And our other friends all booked cabins near us. Unfortunately, closer to sailing, three of our friends had to cancel so our group was down to 9. But we were all excited and looking forward to this first cruise since the post-Covid re-start!

 

For the most part, our group are experienced cruisers. This would be my 19^th Carnival cruise, my travel mate Jody has cruised with me many times and has also done several European cruises, and my sister Julie is one of my frequent cruise companions and the person I took my first cruise with 25 years ago! Of our group, only one person was taking her first cruise. Our group also came from various parts of the country. Jody, me and another friend were coming from Northern Kentucky (just across the river from Cincinnati, OH), my sister was coming from Montana and the rest of our group came from Arizona, Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania.

 

So now that you know who we are and how we got here, let’s get on with the fun stuff!

[MistyRo76]

October 21, 2022 – Pre-Cruise Travel & NOLA

 

I think my cruise countdown started at 500-something days when we initially booked, so to see it getting down into double and then finally single digits was a long-time coming! My sister, who just retired in July, flew to our home in Kentucky and spent 10 days with us before us heading to NOLA together the day prior to our cruise. It wasn’t exactly a pleasure visit, as we spent most of the time she was here, moving our mom from her assisted living apartment to a room in her facility’s memory care unit. Our mom has dementia which has been getting progressively worse. It was a much-needed move for her and it was nice to have help here to get it all done.

While my sis was visiting, we took care of all the pre-cruise necessities – completing our on-line check-in, printing documents and doing our Verifly. I got my “Ready to Cruise” notification within minutes. And yes, I WAS ready to cruise!!!

 

Jody, Julie and I were on the same flights heading down to NOLA the day before our cruise. I always like to fly in as early as possible the day before to enjoy as much of the day in the port city as possible. I started looking at flight options as soon as they were available for booking. Even that early, airfare was pricey! I always try to fly Delta when I can – Cincinnati is a Delta hub, plus I worked for a Delta regional airline for 10 years early in my career. So, it’s my go to. But prices on Delta were just ridiculously high for round trip with the timing we preferred. As such, we ended up booking American Airlines through Dallas/Ft. Worth going down and Delta thru Atlanta coming back. In the months after we booked, we probably had no less than six different time/routing changes on our flights. When it was time to go, we ended up going through Charlotte going down and Detroit coming back.

 

Since our flights going down were so early, I had initially booked a car service to take us to the airport and my husband would be able to pick us up when we got home. It would have been cheaper than driving my car to the airport and paying for parking. But as the situation with our mom changed, my sister and I weren’t comfortable with both of us being gone and not easily reachable and her not having any family here if there were any issues. She was also still getting used to her new living arrangements and big changes like that can cause her anxiety to worsen. So, our brother ended up coming to town to be close and visit her daily while we were gone. He was flying into Cincinnati later the same day we flew out and would be flying home early on the day we were coming home. So, it really made most sense for me to drive us to the airport and leave my brother instructions on where to find the car and keys so he could take my car home and have it to use while he was visiting. Then he would leave the car for us to have when we flew home. It really did work out perfectly for all of us!

[MistyRo76]

My alarm went off at 3:30AM on the day before our cruise. I got up, got ready and my sis and I loaded our bags into my car and headed to pick up Jody. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 6:35AM so we wanted to be to the airport no later than 5:00 AM. We got to Jody’s house by 4:25AM and we were pulling into the CVG Terminal Parking Garage around 4:50AM. Running right on time! We all checked in on-line the day before and there was a decent line just to drop off our checked bags. I tend to be an over-packer but only wanted to pay for 1 checked bag. I planned to check my large suitcase and carry on my smaller rolling suitcase and backpack. Before long, we had dropped off our bags and headed to security. All 3 of us have TSA pre-check, but I was very surprised to see that the posted wait times for pre-check were running longer than the regular lanes. But even with a slightly longer wait, it is still worth it not to have to take out my liquids, remove my shoes, and separate my electronics. I honestly haven’t seen security lines that long at the Cincinnati Airport in ages! But things moved along and soon we were making the trek through the tunnels to Concourse B.

 

Snapping a pic of where we parked so my brother could find my car when he arrived that night! 

 

Jody, Julie and I heading through security! 

 

Some interesting artwork at the CVG airport. I'm not really sure what this piece is trying to convey! 😁

Edited November 7, 2022 by MistyRo76

[MistyRo76]

Now I have to say that when I used to travel more frequently for work, my go-to for an early morning meal at the airport was Chick-Fil-A. But the Chick-Fil-A in our airport didn’t reopen after the COVID shutdowns until late this summer. When I had an early flight back in August, I was so disappointed to get to the food court at the airport only to see Chick-Fil-A not open yet. There was an employee there getting things ready, but I didn’t have time to wait. So, I tried to keep my expectations in check for this trip. Hoping for my favorite Chicken Mini’s but preparing myself to have to settle for a McDonald’s Sausage Burrito. But imagine my delight when we came up the escalators into Concourse B and I saw the lights on and people working at Chick-Fil-A. We got in line and after a lengthy wait I had my Chicken Mini’s (with honey mustard) and fruit cup! After filling our bellies, we made the walk to our gate which was at the very end of the Concourse.

 

[MistyRo76]

When we arrived at our gate, they were soliciting for people to check a bag due to the flight being completely full and not having enough bin space for everyone. SOLD! We all went to the podium and gladly let American check our small roller bags all the way to NOLA! Before long, our flight was boarding. Since we didn’t need to cram anything into the overhead bins, we waited until the very end to board. No use sitting on a crowded and cramped airplane any longer than we had to! When Jody and I booked our flights, we chose our seats specifically. Jody likes a window seat and I chose the aisle in the same row as her. When the lady in the middle seat between us saw we were together, she immediately offered to give up her middle seat in exchange for either our window or aisle. Um….NO DEAL! 😊 But nice try!

 

It was a smooth and uneventful flight to Charlotte, and we arrived about 15 minutes ahead of schedule which gave us just over 90 minutes on the ground there. Once on-board our flight from Charlotte to New Orleans, I treated myself to my first vacation cocktail, a Tito’s and Orange Juice! Vacation drinks just taste better! Wi-Fi on our second airplane wasn’t working which meant I wasn’t able to finish watching the Dateline I had started on the first aircraft (I love me some true crime drama!). Again, we landed early in NOLA and had to wait a few minutes for our gate to become available. We were scheduled to arrive at 10:42AM, but it was that time exactly when we arrived at baggage claim where our bags were already waiting for us on the carousel! Truly, we couldn’t have asked for a better start to our vacation!

[MistyRo76]

Once we gathered our bags, we followed the signs outside to the area where Lyft/Uber picked up. It was extremely crowded with people waiting for their cars to show up. I priced a Lyft, and it was coming back at around $80 for the trip to our hotel in the French Quarter. We asked one of the people directing traffic there in front of the terminal if she knew the cost for a taxi and she said it would be $45 for three of us ($36 for 1 or 2 people, $15 per person for 3 or more). So, we left the Lyft line and made our way back across the street and got in the queue for a taxi. It was quite long but moving quickly. After we had been in line about 3 minutes, I looked down and noticed that Julie didn’t have her large suitcase with her. I pointed it out and she looked across the street and noticed it was still sitting over where we had been standing in the Lyft waiting area. 🤦‍♀️ What was funny was this was the third time that morning that she had walked off without one of her bags! And she’s usually known as the responsible sibling! This isn’t boding well for us! LOL She went over and retrieved her bag, and we were soon in a taxi and on our way to our hotel! We ended up paying $18 per person for the taxi which included tip.

 

Now given this was our first time sailing out of NOLA, I didn’t know anything at the outset as far as what area of the city we wanted to be in or what hotels we should be looking at. We have sailed a lot from Miami and I have my “go-to” hotels there. My normal criterion for a hotel is something nice that is walkable to entertainment, dining, bars, etc. In Miami, we also like to find something with a nice pool area for an afternoon in the sun. But NOLA was a whole new ballgame. We knew that we wanted to be down in the French Quarter and be able to walk to the sites. I also wanted to find something with that old New Orleans feel. We didn’t want a chain hotel or something that felt totally new and modern. I got a lot of help from the CC New Orleans board and especially @SaintGreg with his NOLA expertise.

 

Prices for hotels for our date in NOLA were very expensive even 10+ months in advance. I kept a close eye on the Hotels.com Hot Deals and thanks to SaintGreg was able to figure out for the most part which hotels were being offered on these Hot Deals. I also was keeping an eye out on the pricing on Priceline. If you’re not familiar, Priceline has a deal where they will give you one of three hotels listed at a set price. The cool thing is that you have the option to edit the hotels listed. So, I played around with this and kept choosing to replace hotels until I got down to three hotels that we all agreed we would be fine staying at. Our #1 preferred option was the Hotel Monteleone which was running over $500 for the night.  I was able to get it to give me that hotel as one option along with the Royal Sonesta and Bienville House Hotel. The total cost of our hotel was $350 after taxes and fees. I confirmed with Julie, Jody and our friend Kae Lee that they were good with the three possible hotel options and pricing and then hit the book button. Within seconds, we were informed that our hotel would be the Bienville House Hotel (which I kind of figured is the one we would get). This hotel is located on Decatur Street and the location was ideal! We were just a few blocks from the hustle and bustle of Bourbon Street, an 8-minute walk to Café du Monde, and close to a multitude of dining and entertainment options. Two other girls in our group were able to book this same hotel and the other three ended up at the Place d’ Armes.

[MistyRo76]

We arrived at our hotel just before noon and thankfully our room was ready, and we were able to check in and drop off our luggage! Kae Lee took a slightly later flight than us and was just getting in a taxi to the hotel as we were checking in. So, we freshened up a bit and relaxed while we waited for her to arrive. Our friends staying at the other hotel, came by to say hello and we made plans to meet up with them at Gumbo Shop on Saint Peter Street for lunch once Kae Lee made it to the hotel. As we were waiting for Kae Lee, we walked around the hotel and took some photos of the lobby, pool/courtyard area, and other common areas. Some of the rooms here had balconies overlooking the courtyard. But it looked like all the rooms did have some kind of outdoor space adjacent to them. Just outside our room was a little outdoor seating area with a table and a few chairs that could be accessed by the three rooms on our side of that floor.

 

Overall impressions of the hotel were very positive. It was an older building with a lot of character and charm. It is on the smaller side, more of a boutique type hotel. The courtyard area was quaint and tranquil with the pool and fountain. There is an area off the lobby with seating and a station for coffee, tea, and water. Off the back of the lobby was Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29 which is full-service Tiki bar and restaurant serving modern Polynesian cuisine. I had read online that a few people complained of noise from the train nearby. But we never had any issue with noise from outside of the hotel. It was quiet as could be at night. The only noise we heard came from the adjacent room and it wasn’t anything above noise that you would expect to get in any hotel, much less an older hotel like this.

 

The room itself was small, at least for four grown women - but for one night, it more than sufficed. The beds were comfortable, the bathroom was remodeled with a large walk-in shower and there was a large closet for storage. But there was also still a lot of charm and character left in the room with the crown moldings and period furnishings. 

 

 

 

The Bienville House Hotel

 

Exterior View

 

View across the street from the hotel. The people of NOLA really go all out decorating for Halloween. What a great time to visit the city! 

 

I didn't get a pic of the main part of the lobby of the hotel. But this seating area is just off the lobby. 

 

The central courtyard area. 

 

The pool in the courtyard. Not sure how many people actually use it to swim as it's pretty much shaded most of the day. But it is a beautiful area to sit and enjoy some conversation or drinks. 

 

Our room on the fourth floor. 

 

Large closet w/ safe. 

 

Remodeled bathroom

Edited November 7, 2022 by MistyRo76

[ninjacat123]

1 hour ago, MistyRo76 said:

My alarm went off at 3:30AM on the day before our cruise. I got up, got ready and my sis and I loaded our bags into my car and headed to pick up Jody. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 6:35AM so we wanted to be to the airport no later than 5:00 AM. We got to Jody’s house by 4:25AM and we were pulling into the CVG Terminal Parking Garage around 4:50AM. Running right on time! We all checked in on-line the day before and there was a decent line just to drop off our checked bags. I tend to be an over-packer but only wanted to pay for 1 checked bag. I planned to check my large suitcase and carry on my smaller rolling suitcase and backpack. Before long, we had dropped off our bags and headed to security. All 3 of us have TSA pre-check, but I was very surprised to see that the posted wait times for pre-check were running longer than the regular lanes. But even with a slightly longer wait, it is still worth it not to have to take out my liquids, remove my shoes, and separate my electronics. I honestly haven’t seen security lines that long at the Cincinnati Airport in ages! But things moved along and soon we were making the trek through the tunnels to Concourse B.

 

Snapping a pic of where we parked so my brother could find my car when he arrived that night! 

 

Jody, Julie and I heading through security! 

 

Some interesting artwork at the CVG airport. I'm not really sure what this piece is trying to convey! 😁

I'm thinking "Village People" getting ready to sing "YMCA"😅

[mcgore83]

Great start!  Ready for the ride!

[MistyRo76]

As we waited outside of the hotel for Kae Lee’s taxi to arrive our friends from Arizona came down to say hello. They were headed over to H&M for some shopping and then were going to take the streetcar over to the Garden District to do some exploring. Somehow, we managed to miss Kae Lee’s arrival as her taxi driver dropped her off on the backside of the adjacent parking garage and not in front of the hotel where we were dropped off. I ran upstairs to let her in our room and then once she was settled, we headed out to meet our other friends for lunch.

 

The Gumbo Shop was only about a 5-6 minute walk from our hotel. Our friends had to stop in a bar next door to get a drink as the Gumbo Shop wouldn’t put them on a list for a table until our whole party was there. We grabbed them and got in line for a table. Given we had a group of 6, we waited a good 20 minutes to be seated. We were finally seated at a very small round table which was probably better suited for 4 people than 6, but we made do!

 

For lunch, I had Duck & Andouille Gumbo and Crab Cake appetizer. When I travel, I always like to try new things and sample some authentic local cuisine. This was my first-time having Gumbo and duck and it was excellent! Very flavorful and hearty! The crab cake had good flavor with the sauce and shrimp on top. But it was a little bit on the mushy side for me. The aesthetic of the restaurant was nice as it very much had that old NOLA feel. But the acoustics made it difficult to hold conversations as it got very loud in there. Hearing our server was extremely difficult especially since she stayed on one side of the table. Overall, though, we enjoyed our lunch and a few cocktails.

 

The Gumbo Shop!

 

The Daily Specials

 

My first drink IN NOLA!

 

The Duck & Andouille Gumbo and Crab Cake Appetizer - both on the specials menu. 

Edited November 7, 2022 by MistyRo76

[MistyRo76]

32 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

I'm thinking "Village People" getting ready to sing "YMCA"😅

I can totally see that! 😁😁😁

[MistyRo76]

19 minutes ago, mcgore83 said:

Great start!  Ready for the ride!

Thank you! Stay tuned! 🙂

[ninjacat123]

3 minutes ago, MistyRo76 said:

As we waited outside of the hotel for Kae Lee’s taxi to arrive our friends from Arizona came down to say hello. They were headed over to H&M for some shopping and then were going to take the streetcar over to the Garden District to do some exploring. Somehow, we managed to miss Kae Lee’s arrival as her taxi driver dropped her off on the backside of the adjacent parking garage and not in front of the hotel where we were dropped off. I ran upstairs to let her in our room and then once she was settled, we headed out to meet our other friends for lunch.

 

The Gumbo Shop was only about a 5-6 minute walk from our hotel. Our friends had to stop in a bar next door to get a drink as the Gumbo Shop wouldn’t put them on a list for a table until our whole party was there. We grabbed them and got in line for a table. Given we had a group of 6, we waited a good 20 minutes to be seated. We were finally seated at a very small round table which was probably better suited for 4 people than 6, but we made do!

 

For lunch, I had Duck & Andouille Gumbo and Crab Cake appetizer. When I travel, I always like to try new things and sample some authentic local cuisine. This was my first-time having Gumbo and duck and it was excellent! Very flavorful and hearty! The crab cake had good flavor with the sauce and shrimp on top. But it was a little bit on the mushy side for me. The aesthetic of the restaurant was nice as it very much had that old NOLA feel. But the acoustics made it difficult to hold conversations as it got very loud in there. Hearing our server was extremely difficult especially since she stayed on one side of the table. Overall, though, we enjoyed our lunch and a few cocktails.

 

The Gumbo Shop!

 

The Daily Specials

 

My first drink IN NOLA!

 

The Duck & Andouille Gumbo and Crab Cake Appetizer - both on the specials menu. 

Looks yummy!!  Was this restaurant a recommendation?

[MistyRo76]

1 hour ago, ninjacat123 said:

Looks yummy!!  Was this restaurant a recommendation?

Not really! One of the ladies in our group had remembered eating at this restaurant when she had visited NOLA years before. She loved it then and wanted to try it again...so we did! It seemed to be hit or miss! Those who got the shrimp creole raved about it and my gumbo was fantastic. But some of the other dishes didn't knock it out of the park! 

[MistyRo76]

After lunch, we bid our friends goodbye and we just spent an hour or so strolling up and down Bourbon Street checking out the interesting sights and people watching. Bourbon Street is in a word….ALOT! But we enjoyed checking out the architecture of all the buildings and seeing all of the kitschy shops! We found a few convenience stores and picked up some last-minute cruise necessities then headed back to our hotel to freshen up and change clothes for dinner and a night out. Here are a few of the pics I snapped as we strolled around the French Quarter. 

 

This may have been a cool little place to check out but we didn't go inside. 

 

 

Julie trying on hats in one of the souvenir stores - thankfully, she passed on this one! 

 

We said "hello" to this big guy! 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2022 by MistyRo76

[MistyRo76]

I had solicited some restaurant recommendations from a NOLA local I know. I was looking for something walkable from our hotel and that had a diverse menu as we had several in our group who don’t eat seafood (which is very prevalent in NOLA cuisine). Our group settled on Oceana on Conti St. We had a reservation for all 9 in our group for 6:30 PM. We had planned to stop at the Hotel Monteleone’s Carousel Bar for a pre-dinner drink or two so a later dinner reservation would give us time to do that.

 

We walked the couple of blocks to the Hotel Monteleone around 4:30 or so. If you’re not familiar with the Hotel Monteleone, part of the Tiffany Haddish movie Girls Trip was filmed there. It is a gorgeous hotel! Just beautiful on the outside and inside. The Carousel Bar is just off the lobby. The bar itself looks like an old carousel and it actually rotates. I believe it makes one full revolution per hour. I had hoped that we would be able to get seats at the bar, but with 9 of us that would prove to be difficult! Even at 4:30, the bar was already hopping and the seating areas adjacent to the bar were full as well. As we were standing around waiting to order a drink at the back bar, a gentlemen indicated that we could sit in the seating area he was in. He was sharing it with another couple, but there was room for the six of us there at that time to squeeze in. He left shortly there after and we had a delightful time chatting with the other couple who were locals just enjoying an earlier lunch and now drinks in the city. Once they left, our other three friends joined us. Live music started just before we had to head to dinner.

 

Now I want to point out one thing that we were learning from our short time in NOLA so far – most restaurants/bars will not split out checks individually. It was fine for me as I always make sure I get plenty of smaller bills from my bank before traveling for this very reason. So, I am easily able to make my own change to cover my portion. But for lunch and our drinks at the Carousel Bar, we had to figure out what everyone’s portion of the bill was which is more math than my brain wants to do especially on vacation! My sister has used an app called Splitwise where you can track what everyone owes for shared expenses. Next time I travel with a group, I think I’ll definitely use this! For the bill at the Carousel Bar, I just put the total amount on my credit card, and we worked it out later!  

 

Oceana was just a quick 3 minute walk away. Once we checked in, we waited just a couple of minutes for our table to be ready. They seated us at a table upstairs. The atmosphere at Oceana was great. It wasn’t so loud that you couldn’t have a conversation. Our waiter was fabulous! And the food was really good! I had my first NOLA Hurricane which was super tasty! One of the other ladies wanted to try the Gator Bites appetizer which comes with a remoulade sauce so I offered to split it with her. They were just OK – a little bit mushy for me. For my entrée, I had the Mardi Gras Pasta which included Gulf shrimp, crawfish tails, bell peppers and onions in a creamy alfredo sauce. It was really, really good! And our awesome waiter also was able to split our checks out individually.

 

The back bar inside the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone. 

 

Decor inside the Carousel Bar

 

The band was getting ready to start up! 

 

Most of our group at the Carousel Bar

 

Hurricane at Oceana

 

Mardi Gras Pasta at Oceana

 

Oceana decorated for Halloween in their courtyard. 

Edited November 7, 2022 by MistyRo76

[MistyRo76]

While we were at dinner, my sister noticed on FB that a guy she went to high school with was on Bourbon St. with his wife. She hadn’t seen him since high school. They were texting and trying to make plans to meet up and say hello! We did finally track them down at the Cat’s Meow bar later that night. Other than that, we just took in all the sights and smells of Bourbon St. on a Friday night. We stopped in the famous Pat O’Brien’s bar for a Hurricane (which was huge and I personally didn’t find it to be all that good! Too sweet for me!). The piano bar side of Pat O’Brien’s was packed without a seat to be found. We didn’t find the piano bar music to be all that great, so we moved out into the courtyard area for a bit. Then we continued our trek down Bourbon where we made several stops. I will say that I didn’t think Bourbon St. was too crazy. It was busy, but there wasn’t much of a wait for a drink in most bars and you could walk the street without constantly bumping into people. Several people warned us to be on alert while there as crime can be bad. We made sure to keep our purses in front of our bodies and I almost always had my hand on mine when we were walking. But I never felt unsafe walking around down there. There was a noticeable police presence with several on horseback right there on Bourbon. We headed back to our hotel around 11PM or so. Most of us had been up since 3-4AM and were sleepy and we had a big day the next day boarding the Valor!

 

Bourbon Street at Night

 

Pat O'Brien's Piano Bar

 

Overlooking Bourbon St. 

 

Bottoms Up! 

 

She had no idea we were up above! We kept yelling for her, but she couldn't hear us! I finally had to send her a text telling her to "look up". She got a kick out of that! 

 

Julie's friend from high school - hadn't seen him in 40 years! 

 

Beautiful church along the walk back to our hotel. 

 

Excited to be cruising with this girl again! It's been too long! Friends for over 30 years! 

Edited November 7, 2022 by MistyRo76

[ninjacat123]

Great pics!!  Looks like everyone is having a wonderful time😃

[MistyRo76]

October 22, 2022 - Embarkation Day & One BIG Surprise

We all started waking up by 7:30-8:00AM on embarkation day morning. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day in NOLA. Being this was the first time I had spent any time in the French Quarter, I knew I wanted to make it over to Café du Monde to try their famous beignets. So we all pulled ourselves together and made the 8 minute walk to Café du Monde. As we approached the restaurant, there was a long line down the street. After getting in line, we noticed a second line on the other side of the outdoor eating area. I walked over to check it out and found that the OTHER line was for to-go orders and the line we were in was for table seating. So we hopped on over to the to-go line. Café du Monde really only sells beignets and beverages (coffee, tea, etc.), so, the line moved quickly. The beignets come in orders of 3. We went ahead and ordered 3 bags of beignets to share between the four of us. They were piping hot when we got them and covered with powdered sugar. I’m not a huge sweets person, but they were pretty divine! We munched on our beignets as we made the walk back to our hotel. Once back to our room, we finished getting ready for the day, re-organizing our luggage, putting our Carnival bag-tags on our bags and any other last-minute to-dos.

 

The four of us had selected the 11:00-11:30 boarding window, so our plan was to be down in the lobby to check-out by 10:30 and hop in a taxi or Lyft to head to the port. We ended up going with a Lyft which arrived within minutes of confirming our ride. Our Lyft driver was honestly one of the highlights of our trip. She was absolutely delightful and had us in stiches the whole way! She just radiated positivity! When we got to the port, she expertly maneuvered the queue of cars dropping people off and got us quickly to the front of the line. As soon as we stepped out of the car, we were met by a porter ready to take our bags off our hands. I gave him both of my rolling suitcases and carried on only my purse and backpack. Even though it was still 15-20 minutes before our boarding window, we were ushered right into the line going into the building. The line moved quickly and before I knew it, we were upstairs and checking in. Check in was easy-peasy! Quick passport scan and peek at our COVID docs/Verifly and we were headed into the boarding holding area.

 

 

[MistyRo76]

They were leading people to certain seating sections based on your boarding time/zone number. We were boarding zone C2. We grabbed seats for the four of us right on the aisle and waited for boarding to begin. We had heard that boarding was being slightly delayed due to a Coast Guard Inspection going on. I decided to walk over to the windows to get my first photo of our home for the next five nights. As I was taking my picture, I heard the unmistakable sound of my sister half laughing/half screaming behind me. When I turned around, she was hugging someone tightly. After running in the guy she knew from high school the night before, I thought to myself, who does she know here now??? That’s when I realized who it was she was hugging – it was our dear friend Mark, who we had met on a cruise in 2009 and who has cruised with us probably dozen times since. He’s become one of our best friends. Mark lives only a couple of hours from me and he had just traveled down to visit us when my sister was in town at my house the week before our cruise. He said nothing about having booked this cruise. I had jokingly told him several times he should come with us as an “honorary girl” on our girl’s cruise! And here he was! I ran over to give him a big hug! And ask him so many questions – when, how, where, what??? LOL He had booked this trip quite some time ago and in fact had booked the aft wrap cabin right next door to the cabin Jody and I were in! We use the same PVP for booking and he booked through her but didn’t link our reservations or obvious reasons. So once onboard the ship, Mark was going to talk to the Maitre D’ about us being all seated together at dinner. And he had already booked the beach club we were going to in Cozumel. He’s a sneaky one, for sure! He also surprised me in Vegas for my birthday the year we first met them. So, this shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but I honestly had no idea! What an amazing way to start off our trip!

 

Boarding was scheduled to finally begin around 11:30, so we just sat (somewhat) patiently in the boarding area. True to their work, they began calling the Wedding guests to board just after 11:30 and went on with zone boarding shortly after. Once boarding started it went fairly quickly. Before we knew it, they were calling our zone, C2. We stopped to take an embarkation photo and then headed onto the ship. According to the time stamp on my photo, we were heading up the gangway at 11:55AM.

 

My first pic of the Valor!

 

So Surprised! Look at those grins! 

 

Heading up the gangway! 

 

Finally onboard the Valor! 

Edited November 7, 2022 by MistyRo76

[MistyRo76]

After getting on the ship, we headed right to our cabins to drop off our luggage and then went down to our muster station, G, to get that order of business out of the way. Literally, muster took about 60 seconds. She was just finishing up with another couple as we arrived and basically just asked if we’d done this before – to which I answered that this was my 19^th muster on Carnival. So, we apparently seemed to know what we were doing and she signed us off and sent us on our way!

 

Cabin 7-439 Empress Deck - all the way aft on the side. 

 

Looking into our cabin from the hallway. 

 

Love that our beds face the windows/balcony door. You can see the door to the bathroom is on the far side of our cabin and not when you first walk in like most cabins. 

 

Standard Carnival bathroom - nothing to see here! 

 

View from our balcony door to the left. Two chairs and a table. 

 

View from our balcony door to our right - one lounge chair. 

 

Our neighbors in the aft wrap cabin, Mark and Jeff. Our cabin steward opened the balcony divider between our two cabins giving us one HUGE wrap around balcony! 

Edited November 7, 2022 by MistyRo76

[ninjacat123]

10 minutes ago, MistyRo76 said:

After getting on the ship, we headed right to our cabins to drop off our luggage and then went down to our muster station, G, to get that order of business out of the way. Literally, muster took about 60 seconds. She was just finishing up with another couple as we arrived and basically just asked if we’d done this before – to which I answered that this was my 19^th muster on Carnival. So, we apparently seemed to know what we were doing and she signed us off and sent us on our way!

 

Cabin 7-439 Empress Deck - all the way aft on the side. 

 

Looking into our cabin from the hallway. 

 

Love that our beds face the windows/balcony door. You can see the door to the bathroom is on the far side of our cabin and not when you first walk in like most cabins. 

 

Standard Carnival bathroom - nothing to see here! 

 

View from our balcony door to the left. Two chairs and a table. 

 

View from our balcony door to our right - one lounge chair. 

 

Our neighbors in the aft wrap cabin, Mark and Jeff. Our cabin steward opened the balcony divider between our two cabins giving us one HUGE wrap around balcony! 

You're lucky that your steward opened up the deck doors.  They did that for my family once (like 2014) then the next time (2016) said they weren't supposed to.

[MistyRo76]

We headed up to Lido deck to get the party started….I mean grab some lunch! We did make a quick stop at the Red Frog pub for our customary first drinks – Fun Ship Special for me and mudslides for Julie and Mark. Then we split up to get some food. I grabbed a couple of tacos (one fish, one pork) from the Blue Iguana Cantina and headed up to the 10^th floor of the Lido restaurant in the very back. There were tons of seats up there. Jody, Julie, Mark and I enjoyed our lunch. After, Jody said she was going to make a few calls before we set sail and she lost service. Now it was time for me to enact a surprise of my own.

 

Jody’s birthday had been earlier that month. I had thought about having Carnival decorate the room for her birthday. But when I checked the options available, the prices were much higher than I remembered. So, I decided to buy some birthday decorations on Amazon and decorate the room myself with a little help from my elves (Julie and Mark). Jody loves dolphins (the sea creatures, not the Miami football team), so I found a cute dolphin set for her! I had remembered to move the bag of decorations into my backpack so I would have them as soon as we boarded. The three of us headed down to our cabin and got to work. And man, was it work! First of all, I hadn’t thought about packing tape, so Mark had to go borrow some from our cabin steward. And clearly, we’re not professionals at this. But we got it done and it looked passable! I was hoping that Jody kept drinking so our handiwork would look even better!

 

Speaking of drinking – I’ll stop here and address our purchase of drinks for this cruise! Now, I am always in favor of getting the Cheers Package. Even though I’m not as much of a drinker now that I’m older, I still more than get my money’s worth from it. I can easily hit 10 drinks even on a port day – a couple mimosas or bellinis in the morning, 2-3 fruity drinks from by the pool, a pre-dinner martini, a glass of wine with dinner and a few drinks after at a show or while playing in the casino – and I’ve barely even gotten a good buzz. The insane amount of food that I manage to consume while cruising helps, I think! But my friend, and roommate, Jody, isn’t a big drinker at all and she said she would never get her money’s worth from doing Cheers. I was thinking of telling her that if we can get Cheers and she keeps track of her drinks, I will pay her the difference if she doesn’t break even because it would have probably still been cheaper for me than buying a la carte. Luckily, I didn’t have to make that offer! Not too long after we booked this cruise, Jody got a targeted offer which included Cheers. This wasn’t one of those deals, that wasn’t really a deal! It was an actual deal deal! We were able to rebook under Jody’s offer which included Cheers for only an additional $118 per person over what we originally paid. If we had purchased Cheers separately at the regular price, we would have paid almost $300 per person. So, at the $118 extra, it made sense even for someone who doesn’t drink very much. We only had to average 2-3 drinks per day at that cost to break even. Thank you to the cruise Gods for sending that targeted offer Jody’s way!

 

First Cruise Drink!

 

Blue Iguana Tacos

 

Happy Birthday Jody!

Edited November 7, 2022 by MistyRo76

[MistyRo76]

4 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

You're lucky that your steward opened up the deck doors.  They did that for my family once (like 2014) then the next time (2016) said they weren't supposed to.

Interesting! I've not heard that. But I do know that not ALL dividers are able to be opened. You can find a travel agent type page online that has specific info that showing what cabins the dividers can be opened between. I used to have the page bookmarked but lost it somehow! Our other friends had the cabin on the other side of us, but those dividers don't open according to the site I mentioned before. 

[MistyRo76]

Now back to our trip report – after working up a sweat and burning off that first Fun Ship Special decorating our cabin, we headed back to Lido to find the rest of our group! While we had been in the cabin our luggage and Sail & Sign Cards had been delivered. I grabbed both of our cards and gave Jody hers. Now we were official! We continued to enjoy the beautiful weather and libations while I tried to keep my eye on Jody to make sure she didn’t go back to the cabin without us as we wanted to be there when she saw our handiwork!

 

We had a large cruise group (over 700 members) that was having a Meet & Greet in the Red Frog Pub at 2:30PM that day. Since I started the cruise group, I felt like I had to make an appearance and I’m glad I did. We probably had 75-100 people show up for the event and it was nice putting faces to the names of people who I’d been chatting with for many, many, months! Several people showed up with bags of beaded necklaces and other trinkets to hand out. After a while, we all decided to head down and get a jump on our unpacking. We let Jody lead the way and we all shouted a big “SURPRISE” as she entered the cabin. I think we did good! She was truly surprised and appreciative of our efforts! And she either didn’t notice or just didn’t comment on our less than stellar workmanship! 😊 We unpacked and then headed back up on deck again to await sailaway. The Sailaway Celebration was underway and there was line dancing going on and everyone was having a good time! 

 

Some shots of the Lido Deck mid-afternoon on Embarkation Day

 

The bartender at the Red Frog Pub showed me his Red Frog (which he had hidden in his jacket!) LOL 

 

We are heading down the Mississippi River! 

 

The Sailaway Celebration is underway! Everyone is having a great time! 

 

Here's us surprising Jody with her (belated) Birthday Decorations in our cabin! (Hope the Video works!)

Edited November 9, 2022 by MistyRo76