Valor Review - 7/5 to 7/12

[jackdhouse]

This is just my initial installment. I will add the rest over the weekend, and hopefully have the Capers scanned as well.

 

Pre-cruise day (July 4th) - Hyatt Regency Miami ($125…I booked thru Hyatt website, probably would have gotten a better price with priceline.com) – cab from airport to hotel $25 for 5 people. Hotel is nice for overnight stay before a cruise. Not much going on near hotel. No restaurants close by, hotel is located at intersection of some busy streets. The draw bridge went up a few times and could hear the buzzer and bell from the lower floors. Pizza Hut, Subway, and CVS are about 3 blocks away. Nice walkway along river that heads out to sea. This also will take you to Bayside Park. While sitting along the river watching the boats in the canal we did see a manatee swim along the sidewall, which was neat to see. We also came in a day earlier to watch the fireworks from the little pier just outside the Intercontinental Hotel, a great spot to watch the fireworks. They were being launched remotely from a boat docked at the pier we were sitting at, and were actually firing off from what appeared to be in from of the Royal Caribbean building across the water.

 

Embarkation Day (July 5th) – Van from hotel to port for 12 people $65 (They only charged us for 10 we had 2 little ones 5 and 6). My brother-in-law set this up and he didn’t know it probably would have been cheaper just taking a cab there. The driver dropped us off right to the porters and we checked in all our luggage, except our camera bags and paperwork. We were in line at the port around 11:30. We got onto the ship within an hour. We had enough time to walk around and eat before the muster drill. The Deli makes some good toasted ham and swiss sandwiches. The muster drill took a good 30 minutes, seems a bit longer than I have remembered from previous cruises, but that was 6 years ago. We had inside cabins on the Riviera deck near the middle of the ship. Our room 1365 was right next to the laundry room, which was great on formal nights, when things needed to be ironed. The line for ironing got kind of long near dinner time on those nights. FYI washer and dryer is $3.00 each. Beer is $5.25ea plus 15% grat. I bought the 4 beer bucket that ended up being $21 with grat. For those that are wondering about bringing your own liquor, I brought two 750ml bottles of mango rum in two 1 liter Aquafina bottles in my checked luggage. Tastes pretty good with the lemonade they have on board.

[YFancyface]

Great start! Can't wait to hear more! Please don't give up on us!! haha :p

[WAcruisers]

Cant wait to read more!

[jackdhouse]

I've added the Capers and a few pics. You can access them via the link on my signature. I'm still putting together the rest of my review. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have.

[cruisingbajan]

This is just my initial installment. I will add the rest over the weekend, and hopefully have the Capers scanned as well.

 

Pre-cruise day (July 4th) - Hyatt Regency Miami ($125…I booked thru Hyatt website, probably would have gotten a better price with priceline.com) – cab from airport to hotel $25 for 5 people. Hotel is nice for overnight stay before a cruise. Not much going on near hotel. No restaurants close by, hotel is located at intersection of some busy streets. The draw bridge went up a few times and could hear the buzzer and bell from the lower floors. Pizza Hut, Subway, and CVS are about 3 blocks away. Nice walkway along river that heads out to sea. This also will take you to Bayside Park. While sitting along the river watching the boats in the canal we did see a manatee swim along the sidewall, which was neat to see. We also came in a day earlier to watch the fireworks from the little pier just outside the Intercontinental Hotel, a great spot to watch the fireworks. They were being launched remotely from a boat docked at the pier we were sitting at, and were actually firing off from what appeared to be in from of the Royal Caribbean building across the water.

 

Embarkation Day (July 5th) – Van from hotel to port for 12 people $65 (They only charged us for 10 we had 2 little ones 5 and 6). My brother-in-law set this up and he didn’t know it probably would have been cheaper just taking a cab there. The driver dropped us off right to the porters and we checked in all our luggage, except our camera bags and paperwork. We were in line at the port around 11:30. We got onto the ship within an hour. We had enough time to walk around and eat before the muster drill. The Deli makes some good toasted ham and swiss sandwiches. The muster drill took a good 30 minutes, seems a bit longer than I have remembered from previous cruises, but that was 6 years ago. We had inside cabins on the Riviera deck near the middle of the ship. Our room 1365 was right next to the laundry room, which was great on formal nights, when things needed to be ironed. The line for ironing got kind of long near dinner time on those nights. FYI washer and dryer is $3.00 each. Beer is $5.25ea plus 15% grat. I bought the 4 beer bucket that ended up being $21 with grat. For those that are wondering about bringing your own liquor, I brought two 750ml bottles of mango rum in two 1 liter Aquafina bottles in my checked luggage. Tastes pretty good with the lemonade they have on board.

 

jackdhouse...thanks for posting. Dare I hope for more?

 

I am really enjoying these Valor reviews but so far no one has completed theirs:rolleyes:. Everyone has started but to date has not finish and I am really living vicariously thru these reviews:D

 

Thanks for posting again and I look forward to your complete review;)

[firefly4423]

thanks for sharing!

[rrjoy11]

Great photos thanks. If you can I'm intrested in hearing about the Your overall impression of the Cruise and specifically following:

Your Stateroom and what Deck you were on, The Meals, Your Dinning Time, Formal Evening/Dinning, Fine Dinning (if you did it) The Pools.

[deeolasingh]

Nice pics the water was very rough I probably would have freaked out sitting in that for 1/2 hour...:eek: I want to hear more please as I will be cruising the valor in 38 days... whoo hooo

[megnsamsgracie]

FYI washer and dryer is $3.00 each. Beer is $5.25ea plus 15% grat. I bought the 4 beer bucket that ended up being $21 with grat. For those that are wondering about bringing your own liquor, I brought two 750ml bottles of mango rum in two 1 liter Aquafina bottles in my checked luggage. Tastes pretty good with the lemonade they have on board.

 

 

 

Thanks! We are cruising Carnival Valor for teh first time on Sunday! It feels like our first cruise since Carnival is so different!

[Luanne21]

Sounds like a good start. Can't wait to read the rest.

[Froufie]

Did you go to the Captain's cocktail party on 1st formal night? Is it true they are no longer offering free drinks? Just discounted drinks?

 

Was there a 'farewell party' on the last night?

 

Also which nights were the formal nights?

 

Thanks!

[h20cruzer]

Dumb question how do you click on the signature to see the pics, not sure how to do, someone please help me.

[WAcruisers]

Dumb question how do you click on the signature to see the pics, not sure how to do, someone please help me.

In the bottom of the box you will see the cruise ship name and the dates that the person went. It will be something like this....Carnival Valor 7/3 - 7/11 pictures in photobucket ******. Just click on that and it will open a new window up where that person has put their pictures.

[YFancyface]

That was so nice of you to post the capers and pictures. I particurally LOVED the pic in Playa Palancar - Cozumel! How beautiful! If I were you, I'd submit it to a calandar site or something similar- it's got great perspective. Can't wait to hear more!

[gailc]

I looked at the Capers, but I couldn't find the time for the Muster Drill. Do you remember the time it was held?

 

Gail

[cahill85]

Muster was around 4 that day. The boat left a little late on the 5th.

[jackdhouse]

Sorry I haven't posted much sooner, I had to go out of town for a few days unexpectedly. I'll answer the questions that have been asked first. I had cabin 1365 which is on the Riveria Deck (Deck 1). It was midship next to self service laundry room, which I touch on earlier. Personally I like inside lower cabins. I can't really justify OV or balcony since we were/are hardly ever in the room except to sleep. I found it quiet, but about 5AM I could hear somekind of beeping from the deck below. Sounded like a forklift backing up. Yet I'm not sure, but it a "crew deck" below so who know what was going on down there. I got up early anyway to see the sunrise from that great site on Promenade (Deck 9) forward. Awesome view from there, same view you see if you were in the bridge just below. We had earlier seating for dinner 6PM, it worked for us, don't think we missed out on anything at this time. The meals were great and I'm a picky eater. I always found I liked on the menu. One night I had 3 starters and 2 entres. There were 2 dress up nights, one was Monday and the other Friday night. Mondays' dinner was more formal than Friday. I wore dressy shirt/tie, slacks no jacket. Friday I was dressy casual. The other days I was nice t-shirt kakhi shorts and sandals or my son would say mandals. I packed light so I didn't want to have too many different outfits. Hey, I'm a guy. The pools were a bit small and they seems pretty packed on sea days. I didn't go in any of the pools but did go on the slide a few times, I loved it, but I'm a (42 yo) kid at heart. Not sure what time the muster drill ended up starting, the Capers said 3:30PM, but we did it before ship left port. Good thing about the Valor is that its the only ship leaving Miami on Sundays, so they can be a bit more flexible on the departure so it seems.

 

Glancing over the Capers day-At-Glance these are the things we did. We like watching karaoke, so I think he hit that in the evening to watch at least several songs every night. There was a Free Liquor Tasting in the shops area, they had several liqours to taste. This is for an hour 7:30 to 8:30PM. They gave sample of about a half a shot, I was able to get about 3 of those. Tried banana, and 2 of the pineapple rum. We went to the Welcome aboard show. Eddie Capone was the headline comedian for the night he was not bad. The comedy shows have a toned down version in the Ivanhoe Theater one night, then have an adult version the following night in the Eagle's Lounge.

 

Thats about it for the embarkment night. I'll get my review of Grand Cayman together and post it, i hope tomorrow sometime.

[jackdhouse]

We mainly spent the day getting familiar with the ship. Just a few things to point out; Decks 9, 5, 3 and 1 run the length of the ship. Since our cabin was on the Riveria Deck (Deck 1) we had easy access to get to the tenders via Deck 0 and the Washington Dining Room, just down the hall to the back of the ship and up two flights of stairs. Decks 9 and 5 have the most activity going on.

My wife and I had breakfast on the Lido Deck poolside. Omelets are made to order which is great. Cereal, fruit, oatmeal, and French toast are some of the choices for breakfast. There was a good Orange Guava Pineapple juice available along with coffee orange and apple juice.

Had a mini golf tournament with a few others in the group we were travelling with along with our kids. The course is only 9 holes that go around the funnel, so we played twice.

We had lunch at the deli inside Rosie’s Restaurant. I just had to have another one of those toasted ham and Swiss sandwiches.

I fell asleep on Deck 10 during the Hairy Chest competition, so I missed out on a chance to win something onboard. I guess I got a little something of a sunburn instead. Make sure you bring the SPF50 LOL My wife did say the competition was hilarious.

We missed the Captain’s reception, since our dinner was at 6:00PM. The Captain’s Reception was at 5:00 and then again at 7:00PM. We were busy getting ready during the first session. The Capers said that all drinks would be a dollar off.

At dinner we had two tables of six next to each other in the Washington Dining Room Lower. The wait staff for one of our tables was fast getting us the food. The other was a quite a bit slow. One table was on their dessert while the other was barely getting their appetizers. We spent from 6:00 – 8:00PM in the dining room every night. Keep in mind we had a party of 12.

After dinner we headed to Ivanhoe Theater for the Night Club Express show. It was basically singing and dancing by the Carnival dancers. It was OK if you like this kind of of show. Big Tex the Cruise Director did say a few things as well.

Later in the evening we attended another session of karaoke in the Eagle’s Lounge. Watch several songs and then headed next door to Paris Hot Club to hear some of my favorite music Salsa and Merengue. Across the hall is the piano bar, where I heard them playing Barry Manilow songs it seems every time we past by.

Then we ended the evening by seeing the late show of Eddie Capone, which was a more vulgar version of the show from the night before and for adults only. For those of you who don’t like to get picked on from comedians, I would suggest not sitting near the stage for any of the comedy shows. The comedians definitely work the crowd.

[cruisingbajan]

Hi jack...great review so far.

 

I heard you can now get eggs benedict on the lido deck. Is this true?

[jackdhouse]

Hi jack...great review so far.

 

I heard you can now get eggs benedict on the lido deck. Is this true?

 

We only had breakfast on the Lido Deck once, so I can't verify that. I do know it is available in the Dining Rooms.

[djneph]

I am sailing the Valor on 9/27, this will be my first cruise on Carnival in a long long time. I have sailed RCI many times in the last few years. How is Karaoke on Carnival, is it like Royal? I don't like how RCI does Karaoke (ie. Karaoke idol), making it a competition. I liked prefer it just being a Karaoke lounge that people just sing when ever they want for fun, not a competition.

[jackdhouse]

I am sailing the Valor on 9/27, this will be my first cruise on Carnival in a long long time. I have sailed RCI many times in the last few years. How is Karaoke on Carnival, is it like Royal? I don't like how RCI does Karaoke (ie. Karaoke idol), making it a competition. I liked prefer it just being a Karaoke lounge that people just sing when ever they want for fun, not a competition.

 

 

Anyone could sing whatever song they had available throughout the week. We never sang any songs, we just enjoyed watching the "talented singers" all week. Near the end of the week they had a special audition session for a "Carnival Legends" show. Where they chose singers to sing songs of famous artists on the main "Ivanhoe" stage on the last night.

[gailc]

jackdhouse - How did you open the safe? Was it a key pad or with an old card with a strip on the back?

 

Gail

[jackdhouse]

I tried using the hotel card I kept from my stay in Miami, but it didn't work. So I ended up using my credit card. There was no keypad on the safe. I've read on these boards that a grocery store savings card will work, tho I can't verify it.

[jackdhouse]

7:00AM Ship arrived in Grand Cayman (My picture link below has a couple photos from Grand Cayman) This is a tender port, but the ride is very short and getting on and off the ship is easy. There were 3 ships in port that day. We had a quick breakfast on Lido deck, before our tour.

Seven people in our group did the 2.5 hour Sting Ray city tour with Fat Fish Adventures. We booked this excursion online. We rented 3 wave runners ($125 ea) that sat 2 people. My son rode in the speed boat with the tour guide. We were picked up around 8AM outside the Hard Rock Cafe. Then took a van ride to the other side of the island to where our tour started. Peter from Fat Fish was there waiting for us. We locked all our belonging we didn’t want to take with us in his SUV while we were gone. We got our life vests on and he had us follow him to the Sting Rays. He drove the speed boat pretty fast, so you have to gun the wave runners to keep up. I loved it. It took about 20 minutes to get there. Peter and his assistant Craig gave us some background on the Sting Rays. They are pretty much domesticated, and look forward to the frequent feedings from all the tours. Each of the people in our party got a chance to feed a ray. It just kind of sucks the squid out of your hand. Looking around at all the boats with around 50 people on them from other tours, it was nice knowing there were only nine people in our group. Once we were done at Sting Ray City, we hopped on the wave runners and zipped off to another spot to snorkel. We anchored the speed boat and tethered the wave runners near a reef. The water was kind of choppy but clear. The reef was beautiful, but not as many fish as I had expected. I guess that snorkeling I did in Hawaii last year spoiled me. We stayed here for about 30 minutes; we then sped back to the dock which took around 20 minutes. When we got back there were many gray clouds blowing in within minutes it was pouring. The next tour to leave had just pulled up. This is definitely a tour for the younger crowd.

12 noon back on ship ate some lunch on Lido deck, this time we had cheeseburgers and fries. Awesome!

After lunch, I played another round of mini golf with the wife. The course was wet and it was pretty windy still from the storm that passed over earlier. After dinner that evening, we went to the bingo game in the Ivanhoe Theater so we could have decent seats for show following. They play one game, its $10 for one card, and $20 gets you a triple card.

Following bingo the entertainment was a juggler Manual Zuniga. He was really good. Then there was a comedian Jim Brick, a very funny comedian. This night was one of my favorites for entertainment. Jim Brick would put on another show for adults the following night in Eagle’s Lounge.