Carnival - Valor (Golf Questions)

[NASA138]

Second time cruising, just booked the Valor for March 9th sail. Would like to play a round of golf during the week. Anyone played golf in either Nassau or St. Maarten? Any golf on the ship (driving, putting)?

 

Thanks,

[klfrodo]

Neither port. I'm sailing the Gory in March and looking for the same info.

 

My son and I did just sail on the Fascination last November. We took our sticks with us and played in Cozumel. We had a GREAT time. The on-board ship golf pro was with us the entire time. It was worth the money just having the one on one time with the pro.

[MszKitty]

We were just on the Valor and my husband & friend golfed at Mahogany Run in St Thomas. Hubby has golfed there before and when we were in the planning stages of this cruise, his only criteria was that we go to St Thomas so he could golf there again.

However, there were a few negatives about it...

When we pre-booked the golf excursion prior to the cruise we were quoted one price and when they charged our account, they charged us $40 more than we were quoted. We didn't realize it until we got our bill the morning we disembarked. So the guys had to dispute the extra charges. In the end, they reduced it by $30. Because the guys were golfing in Miami and they had to get off the ship early, they didn't have time to continue to argue about the other $10 difference. It wasn't worth missing their tee time for the other $10.

2nd negative and I know this was just a error, but it was still a negative. When the ship docks in St Thomas, everyone has to go thru immigration before getting off the ship. All the golfers went thru immigration at the same time. Somehow, the guys got separated from the rest of the golfers. So when they get off the ship, they think they are ahead of the other golfers so they stand there and wait. After about 7 minutes, they are thinking somethings not right....where are the rest of the golfers? They finally ask another tour representative if they are in the right place. Come to find out, the rest of the golfers were ahead of them and they already left! Luckily, the representative was able to call the golf pro and the bus came back to get them. Apparently, the golf pro had miscounted. There were twenty golfers and he thought he counted all twenty as being there.

The other negative thing was they expected you to tip the golf pro. What? Hubby is an avid golfer (we belong to a golf country club and he golfs several times a week, in team play, and in various tournaments throughout the year) and he has never been required to tip a golf pro.

 

They also felt the onboard golf pro wasn't quite honest when he was golfing. I don't golf, so I don't know the exact details, but they explained how a couple of times he moved his ball and didn't take the penalty stroke for it (or something like that).

 

But...to golf at Mahogany Run was one of the highlights of hubby's cruise!

[kiffrig]

My hubby golfs on every cruise we take with Carnival. He chooses to bring his own clubs so he doesn't have to rent them (but you can rent them). Unfortunately, he has not golfed in either place that you mention, but he too, did golf at Mahogany Run in St. Thomas this summer and absolutely loved it. We were on the Liberty. I have not been on the Valor but most of the ships we have been on, even the smaller ones in Carnival's fleet, have had a golf area on board. It's typically a netted cage that you can hit a drive into. They normally offer golf clinics and a putting contest on board. Unfortunately, my husband has never really been impressed with the golf pro's on board the ships for various reasons. He liked the guy on the Liberty this summer, but the guy blew him off for a personal lesson and also didn't show up for a golf talk/clinic or something else that was scheduled in the capers. Hubby was crabby about both of those things, and I can't blame him. The golf guy we had on the Paradise several years ago was a complete disaster. I won't get into the details, but I am hoping Carnival got rid of him after our cruise. No one on our golf excursion cared for him and felt he misled us several times during the day.

 

With all that being said, we still golf on every cruise and are still booking the excursions through Carnival. We know we wouldn't be golfing at any of these courses if we weren't on a cruise, so we focus on appreciating that aspect and try to dismiss the frustrations we have had with the golf pros. Maybe we have just had bad luck....who knows? I guess we will find out on the Freedom, this November, if we can break our bad luck streak.

 

Good luck on your golf excursion! I am sure you will have a great time!