Valor Review April 5-12 Day By Day

[murphalina]

Thanks for the detailed review and pics - we'll be on the Valor next month :D, 2nd time for me.

 

Question about teatime, which I didn't attend last year, I understand it is in Winston's....where I think they normally allow smoking. Do they allow smoking during tea time?

 

I couldn't tell, really. The tea was set up in one section of the room. There was no one smoking during our tea, but I don't know if it was restricted.

[cruisinez]

Enjoying the review, we were also on the same sailing so I'm re-living my cruise. We also did the Chaccoben Ruins in Costa Maya with Native Choice. I agree they were fabulous and would highly recommend them. We were in the second group, we had Jose as our guide.

[Sea Born]

I too, am enjoying it and ALSO leaving 5/17 on the Valor, except we are not going to Costa Maya. Great pics!

 

Sue

[vplsh]

Loving your review! We're on Valor on July 12 with a slightly different itinerary. Can't wait to read and see more!

[matt314hew]

I enjoy your review. I will be sailing on Valor in July. I love reading about the ship before hand, as this is my first cruise. So hearing others stories pumps me up.

[Artemus]

Great, great review so far. Looking forward to more!

[newbiecruiser2009]

Enjoying your review. We're sailing her on June 14th. Can't wait to read more :)

[murphalina]

Wednesday, April 8 - Belize

 

Once again, we enjoyed room service on the balcony as we docked 4-5 miles off the coast of Belize. DH brought our passports down to Guest Services to get them stamped, but it turns out you have to be there when customs boards, which is immediately after docking. Oh well! Capers said the tender tickets would be distributed starting at 8:30 AM. My fanny! I got there at 8:25 AM, and they were already on zone 4. Zone 1 had already left! About 15 minutes later, they called zones 2-4 all at once. I think the folks in zone 2, who had probably shown up pretty early, were irritated that us zone 4 people cramped their style (and their tender boats, lol).

 

The tender ride was about 15 minutes, and we got off the boat and found our way to the cave-tubing.com folks. I'll skip doing a review of our excursion here since I'll put that on the Belize board.

 

Back on the pier after tubing, we did a little shopping. DH wanted to buy some rum that his buddy who lived in Belize for a few years had told him about. We also picked up some hot sauce that said buddy recommended. I bought a handmade hematite necklace and earrings for $22 which I am just thrilled about. The shop owner's wife makes them, one of a kind!

 

Took the tender back to the ship, once again one of the last to get back on the ship. When I handed my sail and sign card to security to board, the machine made a LOUD obnoxious beeping noise when my card was inserted. My first thought was omg, we're still on security's radar after the "sneaking down to the flagpole" scenario (omg did I tell y'all about that???). But no, there was a message for me to contact guest services. To make a long story short, it turned out my dad had a lung transplant that day and was doing great, hallelujah!!! To add just a touch more to the story, guest services allowed me to try calling home all evening until I reached my mom, and I talked to my mom for probably 10-15 minutes. After the call, I asked Guest Services if the charge would be on my S&S card, and they said it was a complimentary call. VERY cool of Carnival.

 

Dinner in the Lincoln dining room. I had cucumber dill soup (meh), tomato & chopped lettuce salad, and Penne Mariscos (delish). DH had french onion soup (meh), chicken quesadilla (yuck), a salad and short ribs. The short ribs were outstanding, defintely one of the best meals of the entire trip.

 

Finished off the night at the casino (what's new???) where I came out even after being pretty far down at one point.

 

I don't have my pics from Belize handy, sorry!

 

Stay tuned... Tomorrow - Cozumel!!!

[murphalina]

Thursday, April 9 - Cozumel

 

Had our continental breakfast from room service again today. We docked next to the Carnival Inspiration. I really didn't want to get up this morning after a very long night at the casino.

 

Got off the ship and took a cab to Playa Uvas. It was a great place, very nice way to spend the day. I'll skip reviewing Playa Uvas since I already added my .02 to the Cozumel board.

 

Pics from Playa Uvas:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were, as usual, among the last people to get back on the ship. There were some CRAZY drunk people who had obviously spent too much time at Senor Frogs in line with us.

 

Back on the boat, we hit sports trivia at the Bronx Sports bar, because DH found out about ships on a stick and wanted to win one. He won, yay! At 7:30 we headed to karaoke. I sang "When it Rains" by Gretchen Wilson. DH sang "Alcohol" by the Barenaked Ladies. After watching some more karaoke, we headed to dinner at the Lincoln dining room. I had potato soup (yum), Caesar salad (meh), and seafood (mussels, shrimp, and scallops) with saffron rice (yum). DH had fried mozzarella (yum) and also had the seafood & rice. We were way too full to even THINK about dessert.

 

After dinner, we went back for more karaoke. I sang "Material Girl" by Madonna, and DH sang "Only the Good Die Young" by Billy Joel. After karaoke, we stopped by the piano bar where Liz was playing. Her voice was good, and her piano playing was beautiful, but it was kind of slow so we went to the casino (shocker!). I lost big time!! DH did really well at poker. Another late night, but no need to get up early in Progreso tomorrow because no planned shore excursion.

 

Stay tuned... tomorrow - Progreso!!!

[murphalina]

Friday, April 10 -- Progresso... or not...

 

After a late night at the casino, we were glad not to have to get up early. We had no shore excursions planned in Progreso, and were just planning to eat, drink, shop, and hang out on the beach. But in the morning, the captain came on the intercom and said we would not be stoping in Progreso. He said the channel is very narrow and surrounded by rocks on both sides, and that trying to get into Progreso would be dangerous for the guests, crew, and the ship. Instead we'd "be enjoying another magnificent day at sea". After that, the cruise director Charlie came on. He said all Carnival-sponsored shore excursions would be automatically credited back to sail & sign accounts by the end of the day, and everyone would be getting a $25 onboard credit. He said they were putting capers together which would be delivered to our rooms ASAP. He also asked people not to call Guest Services, and just to let them work on putting together a great day for everyone.

 

A little bit later, Charlie came back on and said PLEASE don't contact Guest Services. Oh, and he made a mistake and the onboard credit would be $20 a person, not $25. We decided to head to the Washington dining room for breakfast. I had pancakes with blueberry sauce. DH had pancakes with stewed bananas and corned beef hash. Pancake portion was pretty smalll, but it was enough for me. After that, we went up for mini golf. It was sooooo windy, omg, our golf balls were rolling all over the place.

 

Then Charlie came on the horn and announced some events for the day. We headed on over for general knowledge trivia. We lost by two questions, boooo!!! Then we went back to our cabin and sat on the balcony for a while. Just before 1 PM, the captain came on the loudspeaker. He explained in more detail why we hadn't been able to dock in Progreso. He also said he understood that people were disappointed to have 3 ports instead of 4, but there was only one other port on the way to Miami -- Key West. So, he contacted Key West and guess what, we'll be docking there tomorrow, yee haw!

 

After that, we went to Name that Tune trivia, which was HARD. Then it was time for lunch. I had fish & chips & ceviche from deck 10. It was pretty good, if fish & chips is your thing. DH had mongolian grill which was sooo yummy, I had food envy. At 2:30, I headed off to the spa for a treatment which was so awesome. It was some daily special with massage, facial, foot massage, scalp massage, etc. Awesome. Then I hung out on the promenade and read while DH napped. Between the late nights at the casino and the Bonine, we are pooped.

 

Gave sports trivia another try and lost by one. Another ship on a stick seems not to be in my future!

 

Dinner in the Lincoln dining room. This was the second formal night. I had corn chowder and Chateaubriand (both yum yum). DH had escargots (yum), broccoli soup, and penne siciliano. After dinner, we went to the end of karaoke night. I sang "Break Down Here" by Julie Roberts. Then we stayed for the adults-only comedy show with Jerry Goodspeed, the ventriloquist. He was absolutely hilarious, I was crying with laughter. Of course, after that we went to the casino. I played until about 1:30 AM and broke even. Not as fun as winning, but not bad!!!

 

Our towel animal tonight was funny:

 

 

Stay tuned... tomorrow - surprise, Key West!

[murphalina]

Saturday, April 11 - Key West

 

This was supposed to be our fun day at sea, but we had a last-minute port change, so docked at Key West today. We slept in then hit the Lido deck for a late breakfast. The sausages are so good, I am glad I didn't discover them before today, or I would not fit into my bathing suit anymore. Eggs were okay, french toast was awesome. We took our time, because we had to go through immigration and the lines were very long. The US citizen immigration check was in the One Small Step disco, level 5 aft. The lines were so long that Charlie said to go all the way forward before going down to level 5 since that's where you would be catching the end of the line, omg.

 

Around 11, we went down to immigration, which was very quick. Then we disembarked to check out Key West. Key West was HOT. Srsly, I cannot even tell you. HOT.

 

We had no clue waht to do since we hadn't been able to research this port. We saw the stand for the Conch Train tour, so bought tickets for that. It was a 1.5 hour tour which went all over Key West for $30 a person. We saw Hemingway's house, the "Little White House" retreat of many presidents, and other landmarks. After that, I wanted to try conch fritters so we went to Sloppy Joe's, an old favorite of Hemingway. I got a margarita which was so strong that I had to ask for some lemonade to add to it. How embarassing!

 

After that, we kept walking down Duval to the southernmost point where we had our photo taken. Key West was so hot and the sun was so strong, I felt like I was burning and kept reapplying my SPF 30. Turned out I didn't burn which is a friggin miracle.

 

Southernmost point:

 

 

Stopped for some key lime pie and some girts then got back on the ship.

 

Ah, so beautiful:

 

 

 

And that is where I put down my journal and ceased to record this cruise. So what happened the last night? What did we eat? Was it good? Did we return to the casino? Did we win more ships on a stick? You will never know!

 

Love, Murphalina

 

(okay, okay, I know it's killing you, so I will divulge. DH won two more ships on a stick after we got back on the ship in Key West. I was napping so cannot share in his glory... and while we both won in the casino overall, it didn't come near to covering our bar bill. :p)

[lollylew]

We will be sailing in about 2 weeks on the Valor and I am totally expecting that our stop in Cozumel will be canceled and we will end up in Key West. I sort of am looking forward to it!! :o:p

[deeolasingh]

Thanks for your awesome review will be sailing her in august cant wait... did you notice if there were any "theme night" in the night clubs?

[joydisney]

Thanks for a great review and pics. It's great to hear about others experiences.