CARNIVAL VALOR Eastern Caribbean - Stories, Questions, Reviews

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Valor Eastern Caribbean Review Valentine's Cruise 2008

I posted this on Feb 23 2008

 

This was our 1st Carnival cruise our other was Royal Caribbean Legend of the Seas eastern Caribbean last year. We are a married couple 47 and 51.

 

 

Due to the stress of flying in the winter we chose fly 2 days early into fll with a connection in Toronto. It worked out well for us with no delays. We picked up a car rental from Thrifty at fll. We did the wild card rental and got a PT Cruiser convertible. Stayed at the Days Inn Oakland Park against most reviews as we had a room booked for 2 night for $2 each night. The room was Clean and no bugs that was what mattered to me. Would not have stayed there with out a car. Had lunch at Shooters which was pretty good and had my 1st Miami Vice Drink. We to Charley's Crab for dinner. The Garlic Crab was the best crab I've had in a long time.

 

 

Dropped the car at Thrifty Mia and took the free shuttle to the port. We just printed the luggage tags and brought them as is, the porter stapled them on the handles and everything arrived in tact. We were in line at 11:55 and were on the ship by 1 pm. The long lines moved fast.

 

 

We had 2465 and was amazed at the size of the room compared to our inside on the RC. Our luggage arrived safely in our room well before dinner with a bottle of Whiskey in one and Baileys in the other when we went back after meet CC Jilltoons and L&J (hi) for drinks at the aft pool bar.. Met our room steward Joe who was efficient in his job and always pleasant in greeting us. Receive numerous towel animals.

 

 

Ate in the Washington dinning room with the 8 pm seating had a booth for 4 to ourselves and really enjoyed each others company for the week as we don't get to eat together to much at home. We had most of our meals there and thought the food was very good.

We also tried the Pizza(many times), Fish & Chips (great) , Deli (ruben with turkey and no sauerkraut) and the Grille (hotdogs were great)(ask for grilled onions & mushrooms on burgers) through out the week. Did not get to try the Mongolian Grill as the line up were to long for my liking.

Tried at least 1 DOD every day. Yummy.

Did room service most mornings by leaving the card on the door. Mostly ordered a carafe of coffee. Heard later that you could get a carafe of coffee from Rosies, anyone try that? One day we phoned in the order and it took 75 minutes, left the card the next day.

Tried the Melting Chocolate Cake with ice cream and really liked it.

 

 

Really liked the decor and though that it was very tastefully done. Even though I had studied the layout of the ship I always seemed to get off the elevator on a floor that did not go all the way through and walk up or down a flight of stairs (which did not hurt we can use the exercise). I wish that I had taken the printed deck plans.

 

 

Nassau Bahamas

Did not have any plans for here but took a carriage around town for $10 pp. Half way through was offer a bigger tour for double the price which we chose not to. Checked out by the pier and the straw market then took a $4 pp taxi to Atlantis. It was a fun day.

 

 

Bought a nice purse and necklace/earing set to go with my formal dress and the $10 ” Blowout Sale” at the shops on board.

We did attend the Captain's Welcome A board Party in the Eagles Lounge then went for lobster that was very tasty.

 

 

At Sea

We did go to the Juggler/Comedy Manuel Zuniga and Jeff Laub and had some laughs. The only other show we went to was “Far From Over” 80 show on Friday. Did not go to any of the shopping talks, caught them in bits and pieces on the tv.

Did see some young kids 4-6 (with there parents) get kicked out of the aft hot tub, but know one seemed to say anything at the aft pool.

Check my email a couple of times but did not buy a package (sent $25).

 

 

We did lot of pictures with the photographers all week as we want to get a nice picture of us and thought that this was the perfect opportunity and there were so many backgrounds to choose from.

We did end up buying 2 pictures then came home a printed a release form so we can get copies for the family that has been bugging us for years to get a portrait done.

Spent to much time and money in the casino, but had lots of fun there!

 

 

St Thomas.

We book Sunny Liston tour and had “Elvis” as a driver and had a lot of fun. As we were late getting to port we missed the shopping part. Loved the World Famous Banana Daiquiris on the Mountain Top such good flavor. Could have had more.

Would love to have had more time up there, everyone on the tour knew as we were the last back to the bus (sorry everyone). We liked Sapphire Beach but it was really windy and did not stay. Went back to the shops to spend money. Bought the Granddaughters the TopsyTurvey Dolls at Al Cohen's Discount Mall just outside the port gates for $12.99. Did see one of them in St. Martin at Rima's for a little cheaper.

 

 

St Martin

Valentine's in St Martin was a perfect way to spend our 17th Anniversary. Booked SMX tours last fall and stayed with Victor. Worked out great. There was one other couple with us and really enjoyed the day. We only got to see a small plane landing at Maho Beach where we had $2 beers from the “Dragon Gate” store. Stopped at Marigot Open Market was neet to see. Then went to Orient Beach, it was not as windy as St Thomas the day before so we stayed and had lunch on the beach. We thought the lunch was kind pricey for what you got. The burgers were kind of dry. Stopped at Rimas on the way back to Phillipsburg and bought some trinkets (a good selection) souvenirs. Looked around Phillipsburg and bought more souvenirs and U.S. cigarettes $53 for 5 cartons (what a deal). We then went back to the port and looked around more. All in all I loved St. Martin and would consider going there for a land vacation.

The assistant Maitre'd brought red coronation to the woman. Dh had pork chops and I ordered Seafood New burg which we both enjoyed. Dh ordered a cake for our Anniversary in the dinning room and some waiters came and sang “Happy Anniversary” to the tune of Happy Birthday that was funny and sweet.

 

 

Debarkation went well we had #27 tags and changed them to #7 at the pursers desk. Caught the Thrifty shuttle to car rental and were on the road to the Keys by 9:30!

 

 

 

 

Carnival should have informed the passengers of this sailing about the 1800+ group (Market America) that kind of over ran the ship! You really had to time your self for the buffets for before their meeting let out or it was a really long line and could not find a table. Line butting was also a problem as when one person got to the front of the line more would join them. We should have been given the choice to either stay with this sailing or rebook another ship or sailing. The group should have chartered the whole ship (I did research groups and could not find any info on this group)! My observation was that it was frustrating for the passengers and crew. Language and cultural differences were very noticeable. A crew member told us that he figured that there would be 1200 complaints from this cruise. We did call Carnival Guest Relations Dept 1-800-929-6400 and voiced our concerns when we arrived home. You can also email them a grelations@carnival.com.

 

All in all I thought that Carnival (with out a large group) and Royal Caribbean are very similar and would sail either line again!

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