Victory 1/20/08 sailing review

[bchbum641]

1/18/08- We arrived in Miami and stayed at the Holiday Inn Miami Beach- great location- we were able to walk to SOBE- pretty good walk- 2miles - but it was a beautiful walk- ocean the whole way. We went to the club Mansion in SOBE on Friday night- we didn't arrive until about 1am. Stood in line for about 10 minutes and were escorted in- $20pp cover. Very salty but we had to do the club scene just once in SOBE. We ordered 2 drinks at $18 each- It was a pretty expensive night. The dance floor was packed. We stayed for about an hour and headed back. Pamela Anderson and ARod were gonna be there on Saturday night.

 

1/19/08- Slept in- met up with the 2 couples going on the cruise with us. Had diner at the outside bar at the Courtyard by Marriott- very nice with a view and breeze from the ocean.

 

1/20/08- Embarkation- We arrived at the port at about 11:45 and were on the ship by 12:15pm. We had to check out all of our rooms- yes we did walk right by the sign that said staterooms weren't ready yet. Of course rooms weren't ready yet so we just had to go check out the Lido buffet. Had our first round- or 3 of drinks and made friends with our lido waiter- Igor- great guy- we tried to stay loyal to him all week by the pool. He was great.

 

Shows- I thought they were par with all of the other Carnival shows. We enjoyed them.

 

Food- I love the salad buffet at lunch time. Never had a burger but they looked good. The hot dogs were huge. Food in the dining room was very good. I thought it was better than the other cruises- I had grouper one night that I didn't like and I mentioned in to our waiter- because he asked and he insisted that he get me something different. Every night after getting our food our waiter would ask everyone if it was good. If not, he would insist that we try something different. The shrimp was great. Of course, we had to have the warm melting cake most nights.

 

Chairhogs- our group of 6 found a set of chairs saved with towels and flipflops- one per chair. They were there at 8am when we 1st got out there and were vacant until 10:40am- when we had had enough of this. We moved the things and placed them down a few chairs and finally 1 hr later at 11:45am 2 kids arrived and looked a little puzzled. They sat on the two chairs that we put their things by. About 1pm their mom and dad arrived and went to the llido staff to try to get us to move- chair saving is not allowed so we weren't scared at all. They never said a word to us and just pulled a few more chairs over by them. Hopefully they will never do that again. It's not too smart to try and save chairs when you aren't even their.

 

St. Thomas- we walked several blocks to the Kmart plaza and asked the locals in Kmart about the dollar - safari bus- just $2pp to Red hook. We got the next bus and sat with locals as we drove to Red Hook. No problem eith the locals at all. We were the only tourist on that bus. Took the noon ferrry to St. John. Went to Woody's for a few painkillers and a burger. They have great burgers!! Dh and I shared one and it filled us up. We met the rest of our group at Woody's- 6 in all and headed to the St. John Fire Dept. DH and friend are both ff's and we had to get a shirt and trade a patch with them. From there we took a taxi to Cinnamon Bay - 9pp each way. We spent the rest or our day at this beautiful beach. Snorkeled at Cinnamon Cay. Decent snorkeling but yiu should be a decent swimmer. To get back to the beach we encountered so strong currents- had to kick those feet pretty good but we made it back just fine. Took the 4pm ferry back and a taxi from their. Got back to the port to stop at a few shops before boarding the ship- 5:20pm.

 

St. Maarten- Rented a van with our group and drove to Phillipsburg to shop. Bad idea- drove around for a while before we found a spot to park. A local told us we couldn't park there but we watched a cop car drive right by and had no problem with us parking there. After that we just drove to Dawn Beach- told the snorkeling was good but it was too choppy to snorkel- We found a Westin on Dawn Beach and just started ordering drinks- the Captain Hook was great. We stayed there all day- I'm pretty sure we were not supposed to be there but I think they were just happy about all the $$$ we were dropping and let us stay.

 

San Juan- We went to a local bar that one of our friends knew the owner of. It is within walking distance from the ship- The BrickHouse is it's name. The owner is from the same town in Indiana that we live in. Not a lot to do in San Juan that we could see.

 

Debarkation- not as smooth as embarkation. Some lady compaining the the social director just wasked herself and here whole family past the line of all of the other waiting guests to cut. It was so funny because she had 3 kids that whe was yelling a to follow her- cutting in line- One of the kids said is this ok-looking a bit confused (we do teach kids in school that cutting is wrong). I looked at him and said no cutting is wrong never do that again. At least the kids knew right from wrong. Of course the kids had to almost run to keep up with mom. That vacation didn't do much for relaxing her. Immigration was very long too. I have never seen lines like that before. The immigration officer said that they had like 5 ships coming and going that day and would be moving 80000 guests through the port on that day. So be ready to wait for a while at debarkation. We got off the ship around 10am and though it all at about 11:30 or so. If you don't wait as long as we did and got off the ship when your group was called it may go faster. We thought by waiting it would go fast but that was not the case.

 

1/27/08

 

We took a shuttle to the Crown Plaza Hollywood Beach resort and stayed there one night. As we pulled up we thought we may have made amistake. The lobby was full of loud kids- who just ran in the marathon and weren't checked out so we just put our luggage in storage and hung put at the pool. It was a great day- Sunny and warm. We watched the boats sail through the intercostal waterway. Took a walk down the Hollywood boardwald. Our room was very spacious and the service was good.

 

I know I left our a lot so if you have a specific question just ask- I have 3 kids I've got to tend to.

 

All in all I think this was the best cruise yet. That is probably because the people we had go with us. The weather was also excellent.

[pacerzfan]

Thanks for the review fellow Hoosier!

[stampinrobin]

San Juan- We went to a local bar that one of our friends knew the owner of. It is within walking distance from the ship- The BrickHouse is it's name. The owner is from the same town in Indiana that we live in. Not a lot to do in San Juan that we could see.

 

 

WOULD THAT BE THE BRICKHOUSE IN GOSHEN, IN ???

[Carnival Game]

I'll be sailing on the Victory too. Thanks for writing!

[Natanni]

Thank you so much for that review! And I lOVE how you handled the chair hogs!!!! Back on the Conquest a few years ago, a similar episode happened on the back pool. My then 8 year old daughter was swimming and I don't believe in not watching kids when they swim. There were no deck chairs, and some very nice people told us (this was @ 10:00 am) that the hat and book on the saved chair had been there all morning with no one sitting there. With the encouragement of other sunbathers, we moved her things aside. This woman came running over from under the shadded bar yelling that we had taken her chair. We didn't have to say a word, all of the folks around us were quick to point out that they had not seen her use that chair once that morning. Hubby and I shared this chair for an hour before another came available for him.

 

I also thank you for your details on dining and excursions!

[kimcruiser]

Thank you for your review.

[Sneezykevina]

Thanks, that's the route my wife & I are going on in May. We hope to do the treetops zip line in St Martin.

[bchbum641]

San Juan- We went to a local bar that one of our friends knew the owner of. It is within walking distance from the ship- The BrickHouse is it's name. The owner is from the same town in Indiana that we live in. Not a lot to do in San Juan that we could see.

 

 

WOULD THAT BE THE BRICKHOUSE IN GOSHEN, IN ???

 

 

It was the BrickHouse located in San Juan- I don't think he has a restaurant in In but not sure about that. He has lived on San Juan for I think 18yrs.

 

--sorry for all the typos- I didn't edit my post:o

[dewatson12]

Hey Bum,

 

We were on Victory 1/20. We did self debark and went through immigration in about 7 minutes. There were about 3-4 groups ahead of us in our line when we got there, and they had about 6-8 lines available.

 

We were off the ship and sitting in a taxi to the airport at 8:30. Had to go to FLL.

 

You forgot one item. You didn't talk about our second stop in St. Thomas. That was a beautiful view from the balcony.

[georgep]

How much is the Taxi from the port to Fll? How about fromFll to the port?

[bchbum641]

Hey Bum,

 

We were on Victory 1/20. We did self debark and went through immigration in about 7 minutes. There were about 3-4 groups ahead of us in our line when we got there, and they had about 6-8 lines available.

 

We were off the ship and sitting in a taxi to the airport at 8:30. Had to go to FLL.

 

You forgot one item. You didn't talk about our second stop in St. Thomas. That was a beautiful view from the balcony.

 

 

I remember that stop now. We were busy dancing or something at the time. Hope the person was ok.

 

We did self assist on the Spirit and it did go fast in San Diego- we were in no hurry since we we staying another night in FL.

[bchbum641]

How much is the Taxi from the port to Fll? How about fromFll to the port?

 

 

We took a shuttle from the port to a hotel in FLL- it was $45.00

[gypsyrose]

Thank you for the review. Lots of good info. We are staying in Sobe for 2 nites. What else did you do there? Any good eats that you recommend? We probably won't be able to stay up till 1 but we were wanting to hit some "hot spots" to see how the other half parties;) Any other places we should check out?

 

What did you think of the big pool screen? Did you enjoy or was it a nuisance? I have always wanted to do what you did to the chair hogs. We usually just walk around until we find 2 empty chairs. Good for you!

[bchbum641]

Thank you for the review. Lots of good info. We are staying in Sobe for 2 nites. What else did you do there? Any good eats that you recommend? We probably won't be able to stay up till 1 but we were wanting to hit some "hot spots" to see how the other half parties;) Any other places we should check out?

 

What did you think of the big pool screen? Did you enjoy or was it a nuisance? I have always wanted to do what you did to the chair hogs. We usually just walk around until we find 2 empty chairs. Good for you!

 

 

The clubs in Sobe don't open till 11pm- I know that's late- There were a lot of shops around the Sobe area. The boardwalk was really nice to take a stroll down. There were hotels all along the way. We ate at that Courtyard twice and loved the atmospere. You might want to check tripadvisor.com for more restaurants in the area too. We never watched a movie but during the day they would have music videos a lot of the time. At night they had ocean scenes- it was very relaxing to just sit and watch that. We found many crew members using the area as a couples area. Can't blame them. About the chair hogs- stake out a few chairs that are being "saved" and after an hr or so just take it. Maybe they will stop doing it if enough people do that. Remember --they are in the wrong--not you. Once you do it once it will be easier there after;)