Disappointed with the Victory

[NoPiratesPlease]

We just returned from a 5 day cruise to the Canadian Maritime Provinces aboard the Victory and were quite disappointed with the Carnival experience.

 

It was our first time on Carnival after about many times on NCL. We didn't expect all the conveniences so that wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise was three things that hit hard.

 

For the "fun ships", there was less to do than we are used to, but especially during the days at sea. With all the hype of "Dancing With The Stars", they had one cha-cha class and none of the other dances. Events were all scheduled at the same time, so there was lots and lots of down time. Very little dancing was scheduled other than disco, and dance floors were small and crowded. They didn't even have a barbecue. This was the first time in many years we spent significant time in the casino. We've gone on many cruises where we never even walked in, much less played. On the plus side I came out a few dollars ahead in BlackJack--not many, but I got hours of entertainment playing for free (always a plus).

 

The next big surprise was that lack of stuff for older kids. For up-to-13, there seemed to be good fun, but the teens? Nada. We were traveling as a couple, having left the kids home but we spoke to families and the teens were not having fun--these were good kids not trouble-makers (and, no we didn't see any of THOSE on this cruise--that was a plus).

 

The third big surprise was how little open space there was. This was the most cramped ship we've ever been on. Even the 5,000 ton WindStar felt more roomy. The main pool area on the NCL Dawn, a smaller ship, is two to three times larger, and, by itself is much larger than the main and rear pool area on the Victory. To Carnival's credit, the Victory had a pool slide that dwarfs anything we've seen before. We didn't use it, but we appreciated it.

 

Some pluses of the Victory:

 

This may be the smoothest sailing hull we've ever seen. We were in the North Atlantic and never felt anything. We WERE in a top cabin, Cat 12, SR 7299, and Carnival locates the top cabins centrally both top to bottom and forward and aft. Still, it was as smooth sailing as we've ever seen--beating even the QE2 and the late Norway.

 

I may have some problems with some of the services, but this may well have been one of the friendliest crews we've ever seen. EVERYONE of the hotel staff was warm and pleasant. Some of the officers were cold and distant, but that's not a big deal.

 

Not only were the drinks good, but the COFFEE was excellent! We are SO used to atrocious coffee that on ships that have in-room coffee makers we bring a pound of ground coffee and coffee filters and use bottled water. But this ship's coffee was a wonderful unexpected pleasure!

 

The cabin was about the size and comfort level we expected, maybe a little roomier and with a nice balcony. We were very comfortable there.

 

We only did one tour--the St Johns/St Martin/Reversing Falls tour, but for a ship's tour (and we've been on many) it ranked as one of the very best. Compared to some tours, like the Big Island in Hawaii, or a private tour of Pompei, this one held it's own. I would never have expected it to be one of the best tours we've ever taken, but only the private tours we've done have been better! The guide was experienced, knowledgable, interesting and able to connect with her tour group. That's saying something considering the material was only so-so interesting-but she made it FASCINATING!

 

But here I have to add some serious criticisms--3 again, this time health and sanitation.

 

First, we were astonished by how dirty the ship was. We didn't dare use the cabinets in the bath or drawers in the dressing area as they were filthy. Much of the ship could have been cleaner. Room maintenance was poor to go with that--the bed had a 3" sag, there was broken open sloppy caulking in the shower and tub, and there was a big hole that looked like it once held a VCR under the TV.

 

Second, unlike every other ship we've been on in the last 5 or 6 years, there were no hand sanitizing stations anywhere. You go on ANY NCL ship and you cannot get aboard or into ANY dining area without passing hand sanitizers. Getting aboard they REQUIRE you to hand-sanitize, every time. Having had two bouts of Norwalk virus and my wife having had one, I can tell you it's awfully nasty, and when it first appeared, it could race through a ship and leave the staff and passengers devastated (August 2002 on the Cunard Caronia--1/3 of the crew and passengers were down with it). I don't know how Carnival gets away with it or justifies it.

 

Third, we had troubles getting a hot meal. By the time the hot food reached us it was usually cold. And the cold food was tepid. Not only is it unpalatable, it's downright unhealthy. The food on Victory may rank as the worst of any ship we've been on (except, of course, the coffee). Stick to simple foods, and the cold soups (mango, apple-curry) stood out as exceptionally good.

 

A big disappointment was the in-room tv. Most ships at least play a couple of full-length movies a la HBO, but not Carnival. Movies were strictly pay-per-view, just like a hotel (complete with selections of "adult" for double the price). Happily, we kept ourselves busy enough digging up dance floors and in the casino so we didn't use PPV at all.

 

We did manage to have ourselves a nice time--a couple on a 5 day cruise without kids for the first time in 6 years--how could we NOT have a good time?

 

Still, we had hoped for more--better food, more to do, than we got. We doubt we'll be on Carnival again in the future.

 

NPP.

[tomsmom]

We have had the opposite experience from you. While we have sailed both NCL and Carnival we much prefer Carnival. We also sailed on the Vicotry and looked it. We did sail on the Victory two years ago so things may have changed but we found it to be great.

 

We would still cruise both lines but Carnival is by far our first choice.

[firefly333]

It is kinda odd that Carnival owns Princess and Princess uses those hand sanitizers but Carnival doesnt when you think about it?

[nckvilledudes]

We saw plenty of movies on the tv on the Legend last fall. Didnt have to pay for any.

 

Dan

[Wennfred]

Shoot! we lost another paying customer to NCL :D

 

Great Review

 

 

Fred

[hana56]

We got off of the Victory a few weeks ago and had not one complaint. Our cabin was spotless, everywhere we went staff were cleaning or shining something, and we thought the food was, for the most part,outstanding. I even saw one guy polishing the copper on the edge of the steps by the aft pool. Granted, I've only been on 2 cruises and both were the Victory, so I have nothing to compare it to, but we couldn't have asked for a better cruise experience, and would sail this ship again anytime.:)

[Wennfred]

We got off of the Victory a few weeks ago and had not one complaint.

 

You forgot your X-Ray Vision Glasses :D

 

[ce2000]

My experience is just the opposite of yours, but I have never been on the Victory. I was on the Carnival Valor in May and was surprised to see that there were no hand sanitizers upon entering the restaurants. So I looked up the CDC rating and was surprised to see that Carnival's CDC rating is higher than NCL's. But I also read that the alcohol in the hand sanitizers evaporates before killing the germs. I read that Carnival is looking to start using some sort of towellette that you can use to clean your hands when entering a restaurant. Apparently this will alleviate the evaporation problem of the existing hand sanitizers. It just feels right to clean your hands upon entering an eating establishment. I really hope your next cruise is better, whichever line you decide to try next, and thanks for posting your honest opinions here.

[PrettyLA]

 

A big disappointment was the in-room tv. Most ships at least play a couple of full-length movies a la HBO, but not Carnival. Movies were strictly pay-per-view, just like a hotel (complete with selections of "adult" for double the price). Happily, we kept ourselves busy enough digging up dance floors and in the casino so we didn't use PPV at all.

NPP.

 

I'm not sure why there was no movie. On our Carnival cruise we had a movie...can't remember the name of it but it had Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow in it...where she plays a very overweight woman and he sees her as thin. They played this almost nonstop.

[Wennfred]

I'm not sure why there was no movie. On our Carnival cruise we had a movie...can't remember the name of it but it had Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow in it...where she plays a very overweight woman and he sees her as thin. They played this almost nonstop.

 

Sounds like Shallow Hal, great movie.

 

All Carnival Ships show 2 Free first run movies and 1 or 2 Kids movie on the T.V. every night.

 

This past April, we saw The Queen, Eragon, Robots, Night at the Museum

 

 

Fred

[makunc1]

I agree with all of the complaints laid out by the OP. I was on the Victory and noticed the same concerns. Basically, the food, aside from the hot dogs, baby back ribs on the first night and the daily chocolate melting cake, was atrocious. And our cabin was filthy as filthy can be. And I am not talking about worn carpet here. I am talking about "gunk" everywhere, including lots of hair in the bed when we arrived and gunked on tomato juice on the ice bucket tongs. Truly disgusting.

 

We were also shocked (that's the wrong word - since we knew from this board beforehand) to find that there was not a single hand sanitizer on board the ship. And the staff made it very clear that this antibacterial measure was NOT on board because noro is a VIRUS and it would not help protect against it. They mentioned that it would stop people from washing their hands and truly preventing NORO so Carnival made the choice to not use them on their ships. So then why Princess and HAL?

 

Personally, I agree that they should be on every ship AND people should also wash their hands many times during the day. These people who don't wash their hands are not going to do so anyway, so what's the harm?

[MrPete]

I hope you are all writing these things on your comment cards!

 

These things must all be fixed before my embarkation on Thursday~! :(

[NoPiratesPlease]

Sounds like Shallow Hal, great movie.

 

All Carnival Ships show 2 Free first run movies and 1 or 2 Kids movie on the T.V. every night.

 

This past April, we saw The Queen, Eragon, Robots, Night at the Museum

 

 

Fred

 

Well, we must have missed it. It's possible.

 

Look, I've read many reviews by CruiseCritics. I'm simply reporting what we saw and experienced.

 

I'm fully aware that two families can be on the same ship, even on the same cruise, and one has an outstanding time, and the other has a miserable time. That doesn't make one right and one wrong, it is simply a record of their experiences. This, simply, was ours.

 

Yes, we did put it on the comment card.

 

I tried the baby back ribs. Sent them back because they were a) undercooked b) excessively fatty and c) not quite hot....UGH!

 

As for hand sanitizers, that's nonsense that they don't work. Antibiotics don't kill viruses, but alcohol does. It's very important that you rub your hands hard when you use them, and when you wash your hands. The abrasion is a critical part of the killing process.

[Clutterlady]

Oh...this is really not sounding good! Going on the Victory 7/14 and am really going to try and keep an open mind:)

[gfsmith]

Like you we also didnt care for the Victory. We found it to be filthy and cramped.

 

But we still are avid Carnival people. 1 pit in a bowl full of cherries isn't that bad :)

 

I wouldn't base the entire fleet on a 1 ship experience.

 

Also like you we didnt see any movies on the victory.

 

Thanks for your review

[hockeymom97]

I won't be on the Victory until November but I seriously hope we don't run into the same issues as the OP. I can deal with a lot of things but a dirty cabin is NOT one of them. I hoping that when MrPete gets back, he has a better review for all of us :eek:

[LHP]

Oh...this is really not sounding good! Going on the Victory 7/14 and am really going to try and keep an open mind:)

 

I would not be terribly concerned. On any given day, you can read similiar complaints about any ship from any of the mass cruise lines. Personally, I would never write off an entire cruise line from one cruise. That approach seems short sighted to me. I have traveled enough to know that there any ship (or hotel or resort) can have an off week. I mean the last Holiday Inn we stayed at in New Orleans was less than sanitary. Doesn't mean I am never staying at another Holiday Inn.

 

I can tell you that out of 16 Carnival cruises that we have taken our children on, they have always had a great time at Camp Carnival and Club O2. Were some better than others, of course. Club O2 goes through the age of 17. After that, you are on your own. My 19 year old has never had a problem finding something to do and people to hang with.

 

Does the OP have some valid complaints? Of course, but again they are no worse than the same complaints I have read about NCL or RCCL as well.

 

If my cabin is not "clean enough", I would simply (and nicely) request that my cabin steward correct the problem. I would point each spot out if necessary.

Again, personally, I always go over the cabin myself upon entry with Clorox spray.

 

As far as to many activities being at the same time, my guess is if they did not do that, most would complain that the activities were to crowded. When trying to entertain thousands of people at one time, my guess is it is better to "spread them out". As for what to do every day, I found this link with the Capers listed for this time last year.

 

http://www.webshots.com/search?query=Victory+%2BCapers&new=1&source=chromeheader

 

I plan to sail all the cruise lines before my last "debarkation" and I will have a fun time on all of them.

[Loralie]

I will also be on the Victory with Mr. Pete on Thurs. and all these negative reviews are getting me nervous. I plan on bringing a journal and writing everything down so when I get back I can post a full review. I have never been on Carnival before and the only cruise I was on was 14 years ago for my honeymoon (RCCL) so I don't think I will be as critical.

 

I will be on this cruise with my DH and my 2 sons (9 and 11) and my whole family will be with us for a total of 15 people. I am sure we will have fun just being together and I am going to go into this with a positive attitude. Our main goal for this trip is being together so no matter how bad the ship is I think we will have fun.

 

Loralie

[GoinCruisin]

As for hand sanitizers, that's nonsense that they don't work. Antibiotics don't kill viruses, but alcohol does. It's very important that you rub your hands hard when you use them, and when you wash your hands. The abrasion is a critical part of the killing process.

 

It's true.... hand sanitizers are "anti BACTERIAL" or antimicrobial... not Antivirus.... they are effective on germs and bacteria, but not necessarily viruses... the CDC recommends handwashing, and only relying on hand sanitizers when there is no hand washing facility (like on excursions)... and it has to have over 62% alcohol...

 

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/pub/Handwashing/handwashingtips.pdf

 

too many people use these hand sanitizers and don't practice good handwashing techniques... hand sanitizers have made people lazy (many people). You should wash your hands often... period. I take my own sanitizer, for germs and bacteria... Carnival is really good about educating people about the virus and informing passengers about what they can do to help curb the transmission.

 

Alcohol based hand sanitizers should also be kept away from children, they are dangerous for children, as well as smokers.

 

You can check the CDC reports, where over and over there are reports of eColi, and other noroviruses, that were resistant against alcohol based sanitizers... And when you read article after article on how to prevent transmission, it never states to use hand sanitizer, it always puts emphasis on hand washing: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/ships/en/gssanitation7.pdf

 

I would suggest taking your own and using it in between washings... but I certainly wouldn't rely on it.... proper hand hygiene is the only proven method for helping to keep the transmission rate down.

 

 

Otherwise, thank you for the balanced review!!

[vacruizer]

The TV on the Victory only had a few channels and no movies as of a few weeks ago. Most channels for some reason were saying "temporarily out of service." We weren't really there to watch tv but did notice we only had about 5 channels to choose from.

 

I came away from our Victory cruise with a sort of indifferent feeling about it. I wasn't sure if it was just a fluke, because it was a 2 day CTN that they only do a few times a year, or if I was just overly critical because nothing could live up to the Miracle cruise we took this year. It wasn't bad, just didn't seem to be overly special. I think some of my impression was from the crew. Everyone was friendly but seemed unhappy and doing the bare minumum to get by.

 

We still love Carnival as well and are looking forward to experiencing the Liberty in a few months.

[UpstateCruizer]

It is kinda odd that Carnival owns Princess and Princess uses those hand sanitizers but Carnival doesnt when you think about it?

 

This is something I'd write in big letters on the comment cards for those who are bothered by this. I do agree that they should be available for those who prefer using them. I didn't give it a second thought other than the day we boarded our Carnival ship last month Royal Carribean had the Liberty in port and was delayed because of the amount of Norovirus cases they had onboard that sailing. Next cruise I'll be sure to add the santizer request on my comment card :)

[Crusin Karen]

To the OP, sorry you didn't have a great cruise experience on the Victory. We have sailed her twice and never had any of your problems. We are leaving next Monday to go on her again. A question: what excursion was the reversing falls that you booked? I would like to go on that. Thought maybe we'd rent a taxi, but if this is a good excursion, we will book that. Thanks for any info.

[UpstateCruizer]

I won't be on the Victory until November but I seriously hope we don't run into the same issues as the OP. I can deal with a lot of things but a dirty cabin is NOT one of them. I hoping that when MrPete gets back, he has a better review for all of us :eek:

 

If I got to my cabin and found it dirty or had issues with it you can bet I'd be calling my cabin steward. If that didn't bring the desired results I'd be at the Purser's desk looking for someone who could make it right. Just as I always told my kids ....do not complain about something after the fact if you did nothing to try to fix it when it happened. A filthy cabin is nothing that can't be fixed. If something bothers a person enough to complain about it then it should be complained about at the time to the appropriate person. Don't sweat the fear of a dirty cabin just make sure you speak up if you find your cabin to be anything less than desirable :)

[vjmatty]

:confused: I wonder what happened to that ship in the few hours between my cruise and yours? We had plenty of movies on the TV and I didn't see a dirty spot on the ship anywhere. In fact, the only wear or disrepair I noticed was a few wire rods misssing from the soapdish.

 

Even though there were no sanitizers, the public bathrooms did have antibacterial-wipe dispensers but I am not sure if they have the same chemicals as the sanitizers. The food was fine also, no problems with anything beng cold or undercooked.

 

How strange that two sequential cruises were so different... if I were doing a b2b I would not be happy.

[marshabear]

we had a wonderful cruise a week ago...had a great cabin steward and our cabin was spotless...sounds like your steward wasn't doing his/her job very efficiantly ...this definitely should be reported but please don't assume all cabins are nasty because yours happened to be... the cabin stewards work very hard and it is not neccesary to criticize all of them when it is a few who ruin the others' fine reputations....

 

we had hot food all the time in the dining room...but in fairness, we have been at tables on past cruises where we were far from the galley and thus had cold food upon it arriving at our table...i agree, send it back until it is right....

 

i saw crew cleaning the ship all the time -even the stairs and railings by the aft pool...i thought this ship was in great shape...we always bring our own purell so not a problem that they didn't have any...(like to use my own anyway, then you know whose been touching that bottle)

 

sorry your experience was not up to your standards..but glad you had a good time anyway as every vacation should be for enjoying yourselves...

 

thanks for your honest review and sharing it with others....

 

Marsha