Victory Review - 7/19/07-7/23/07

[jhaasz]

DH (44) and I (41) booked this cruise two months in advance for a quick getaway for our anniversary. We have done this cruise before.

 

After paying a total of $1603 for a suite guarantee, we were assigned cabin 7270. The location was great - right by the elevators; however, since you were also next to the opening of where the lobby bar was, you could hear the noise from the lobby bar while sitting on the couch. However, once by the bed, the noise faded. It did not deter me from taking a nap every day before late dinner seating (8:00 pm). The room itself was large, much larger than the regulary balcony cabin; however, I thought the bathroom size was not much bigger even with the tub (but, again, it's been a year since we've cruised and I could have lost perspective).

 

We did edocs and had VIP tags. I printed the tags on "sticky labels" and threaded them through the handles (ala Royal Caribbean). We got to the pier and proceeded to the desk, where they gave us a priority boarding pass and told us where to go. We went straight through security, straight to checking in and getting our board cards, straight to getting our pictures taken and then we had to wait with everyone else to board the ship. The whole process took approximately 10 minutes (if that). Upon boarding the ship, the cabins are not ready until 1:30 pm so we went to grab some lunch and wait.

 

I do want to mention our cabin steward. I agree with the other posters about the steward not being great. When we entered our room, we found a bunch of receipts in a drawer from the previous passengers (who liked Bacardi Rum), a shirt on top of the safe and boxes of fruit loops, bowls and spoons in one of the cabinets - totally gross. It took her two days to introduce herself to us and, on the first day, she wanted to clean our cabin at 7:30 pm (when she knew we had dinner at 8:00 pm). I have never, in 15 cruises, had a room steward knock on my door directly before my dinner seating to clean my room. Of course, I was in various stages of dress and could not open the door to her. I just thought it was odd that she did not wait until after our dinner seating time had passed (which she did for the rest of the cruise).

 

I was very disappointed in our dining location. We were right next to the staircase wall that you had to "squeeze" through to get to your seats. OK - I'm being a snob but, having booked a suite, I thought I would get a much better dining location. Also, we requested a large table and were again seated with just one other couple. Unfortunately, she had a cold the whole cruise and I think I brought it back with me. :( However, they were very nice people but we had nothing in common.

 

The rest of the cruise is, what can I say, the cruise. If you've been there before (which we have) and have taken the city tour, there's not much to do. We went to Steamers for lobster (ok, nothing great but expensive), went to a chocolate place I read about on Prince William Street (excellent chocolate - made a great souvenir for the family) and then to O'Leary's pub. We left the ship at about 1:00 pm and were back by around 4:00 pm. We did get lucky as the weather held out for our entire cruise. This is not "beach" weather and there was some fog, but you could still see the water and sit out on the balcony during the day (on some of these cruises we did, the balcony would be wet, it would be too cold, etc.). The weather in Saint John was nice. I wore a t-shirt with a wind breaker and was comfortable. I did find it too cold for the pools (of which they opened the cover on our second day at sea).

 

Disembarkation - The nice thing is that they now allow you to stay in your cabins until your tag is called (well worth waiting for your cabin when boarding the ship). Unfortunately, because of the weather, our luggage arrived soaked and our VIP tags were ruined so we had to get new tags (Blue). We decided not to do self-assist as we knew, from past experience, that the lines would be LONG (which they were). We had to wait some time before they called our color tag (there was a problem during the calling of the tag colors) but, once they called our tag, we were down the elevator and off the ship in less than 10 minutes (which was great). We found our luggage right away and our limo driver was waiting for us outside. We were the fifth luggage tag color called and were off the ship and at our limo by 10:00 am.

 

This cruise was great for a short getaway and to sit back and relax. Any questions - feel free to ask.

 

Can't wait for our next cruise - only 32 days to go (and we're so busy, they'll fly by).

[MrPete]

Can't believe the Victory is back yet again! How time flies!

[JohnGaltny]

Amazing. This is the second completed round trip since we got off one week ago today.

 

We were in 7351 in a balcony aft of the OP and our cabin steward was excellent if invisible. We had the pantry across the hall and actually liked it to get our own ice when necessary.

 

We also agree that debark was the only time Carnival got the mass movement thing right. Perhaps there's a message there.

 

All in all though it sounds like the trip was "meh". Sems to be a pretty common reaction to Victory this year.

[mom23guys]

John,

Don't want to hijack this thread but we're sailing in a couple of weeks in 7345, a few rooms forward of your location. You said you were across from the pantry. I assume we will be close. Was there a lot of noise in this location?

[MagicMike]

We were on the same cruise in cabin 7266, were you the couple I was talking to looking over the railing at the lobby down on deck 3 whil we were waiting to be called?

 

 

 

DH (44) and I (41) booked this cruise two months in advance for a quick getaway for our anniversary. We have done this cruise before.

 

After paying a total of $1603 for a suite guarantee, we were assigned cabin 7270. The location was great - right by the elevators; however, since you were also next to the opening of where the lobby bar was, you could hear the noise from the lobby bar while sitting on the couch. However, once by the bed, the noise faded. It did not deter me from taking a nap every day before late dinner seating (8:00 pm). The room itself was large, much larger than the regulary balcony cabin; however, I thought the bathroom size was not much bigger even with the tub (but, again, it's been a year since we've cruised and I could have lost perspective).

 

We did edocs and had VIP tags. I printed the tags on "sticky labels" and threaded them through the handles (ala Royal Caribbean). We got to the pier and proceeded to the desk, where they gave us a priority boarding pass and told us where to go. We went straight through security, straight to checking in and getting our board cards, straight to getting our pictures taken and then we had to wait with everyone else to board the ship. The whole process took approximately 10 minutes (if that). Upon boarding the ship, the cabins are not ready until 1:30 pm so we went to grab some lunch and wait.

 

I do want to mention our cabin steward. I agree with the other posters about the steward not being great. When we entered our room, we found a bunch of receipts in a drawer from the previous passengers (who liked Bacardi Rum), a shirt on top of the safe and boxes of fruit loops, bowls and spoons in one of the cabinets - totally gross. It took her two days to introduce herself to us and, on the first day, she wanted to clean our cabin at 7:30 pm (when she knew we had dinner at 8:00 pm). I have never, in 15 cruises, had a room steward knock on my door directly before my dinner seating to clean my room. Of course, I was in various stages of dress and could not open the door to her. I just thought it was odd that she did not wait until after our dinner seating time had passed (which she did for the rest of the cruise).

 

I was very disappointed in our dining location. We were right next to the staircase wall that you had to "squeeze" through to get to your seats. OK - I'm being a snob but, having booked a suite, I thought I would get a much better dining location. Also, we requested a large table and were again seated with just one other couple. Unfortunately, she had a cold the whole cruise and I think I brought it back with me. :( However, they were very nice people but we had nothing in common.

 

The rest of the cruise is, what can I say, the cruise. If you've been there before (which we have) and have taken the city tour, there's not much to do. We went to Steamers for lobster (ok, nothing great but expensive), went to a chocolate place I read about on Prince William Street (excellent chocolate - made a great souvenir for the family) and then to O'Leary's pub. We left the ship at about 1:00 pm and were back by around 4:00 pm. We did get lucky as the weather held out for our entire cruise. This is not "beach" weather and there was some fog, but you could still see the water and sit out on the balcony during the day (on some of these cruises we did, the balcony would be wet, it would be too cold, etc.). The weather in Saint John was nice. I wore a t-shirt with a wind breaker and was comfortable. I did find it too cold for the pools (of which they opened the cover on our second day at sea).

 

Disembarkation - The nice thing is that they now allow you to stay in your cabins until your tag is called (well worth waiting for your cabin when boarding the ship). Unfortunately, because of the weather, our luggage arrived soaked and our VIP tags were ruined so we had to get new tags (Blue). We decided not to do self-assist as we knew, from past experience, that the lines would be LONG (which they were). We had to wait some time before they called our color tag (there was a problem during the calling of the tag colors) but, once they called our tag, we were down the elevator and off the ship in less than 10 minutes (which was great). We found our luggage right away and our limo driver was waiting for us outside. We were the fifth luggage tag color called and were off the ship and at our limo by 10:00 am.

 

This cruise was great for a short getaway and to sit back and relax. Any questions - feel free to ask.

 

Can't wait for our next cruise - only 32 days to go (and we're so busy, they'll fly by).

[JohnGaltny]

Mom 23 -- We were right across from it and heard nothing at all. Like I said, elves or magicians. You may want to take a look at my review and the one from Diver Girl. Both are very recent.

 

Mike -- Wasn't me. We sat in the cabin till they called us and walked right off.

[ChelliChan]

I was on the same cruise in 7248 and it was lovely. Sat right above the wake and we left our balcony door open at night so we could listen to it. There were a couple of instances where there were loud kids walking by, but it was during the day so nothing to complain about.

 

I must agree with you that although St. John was small and quaint, it was...well, small and quaint.

 

Too bad about the weather, though! My bf and I were really hoping to get some sun, but I think we came back paler than when we left! :(

[ChelliChan]

I didn't see anywhere to edit my previous post - I have pictures online of my cruise. Contains pictures of Category 11 suite (where we stayed). Also has a couple pics of the Inside/Oceanview rooms and Category 12 suites as well.

 

Carnival Victory - Destiny Class

7.19 - 7.23

 

Enjoy!

 

http://www1.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=165726374/PictureID=3523387961/a=73889863_73889863/t_=73889863

[MrPete]

Says we have to be a member to view. :mad:

[jhaasz]

MagicMike - Yes, we were (what a small world). :)

[MagicMike]

MagicMike - Yes, we were (what a small world). :)

 

Well it's great to hear from you again. Funny thing is, when we finally got off the ship, between the 8 of us, half our luggage was in the blue section and the other half was in the VIP section! No rhyme or reason as to which went where.

 

For the life of me I can not understand why it took over 2 hours to call our color, once we actually stepped foot off, we were out waiting for our ride in 5 minutes.

 

This was my mother in laws first cruise and she is already asking when we can go back.

[jhaasz]

MagicMike -

We walked off and our luggage was right there in the blue section. Even though we did not do self-assist, did you see that line? It was much more comfortable waiting in our cabin (which I liked, instead of getting booted out in the past at 8:00 am) for our color tag and so easy to get off and find our luggage. It took us about ten minutes to get from our cabin to our limo driver (who was waiting for us outside).

[MagicMike]

MagicMike -

We walked off and our luggage was right there in the blue section. Even though we did not do self-assist, did you see that line? It was much more comfortable waiting in our cabin (which I liked, instead of getting booted out in the past at 8:00 am) for our color tag and so easy to get off and find our luggage. It took us about ten minutes to get from our cabin to our limo driver (who was waiting for us outside).

 

It just amazed me that how once they started calling colors for us non-self assisters, they were done in less than 15 minutes! I guess most people self assist, or get off before their color is called.