New to Carnival, Valor Questions

[transam84]

Hi, My DS and 3 friends will be sailing on the Valor on Aug 9. I'm new to Carnival, usually sail RCCL (sorry), but I think Carnival will be more fun for my DS and friends (21-24).

I have few questions:

- They are sailing the Western Itinery, when is the formal night? Is there 1 or 2, on RCCL there are usually 2 on 7 day or more.

- Is there a buffet or food available on day of embarkation (bunch of chronically hungry kids).

- What time to stop serving breakfast? My DS has to have his breakfast food but also likes to sleep late.

- They have cave tubing/zip line with Major Tom in Belize. We have been told to take the first tender. How do they assure they are on the first one. Are there tender tickets issued?

- Any other advise or comments on the Valor Western would be appreciated.

Thanks, Laura

[firefly333]

Unless you are platinum, being on the first tender might be hard, but usually those with carnival excursions will get on, assuming they are already in line when the door opens to get on the tender, means waiting in the stairwell :(

 

Yes, there will be a buffet when they get on, similar to RCL and usually cant get to the cabins until 1:30, so go eat and have someone sit with the suitcases while someone else fills their plate or bring your swim suits.

 

I dont know how long your cruise is, but the number of formal nights will correspond to RCL's #.

[KruznKel]

Hi, My DS and 3 friends will be sailing on the Valor on Aug 9. I'm new to Carnival, usually sail RCCL (sorry), but I think Carnival will be more fun for my DS and friends (21-24).

I have few questions:

- They are sailing the Western Itinery, when is the formal night? Usually 1st sea day and then Thurs or Friday nite Is there 1 or 2, on RCCL there are usually 2 on 7 day or more.

- Is there a buffet or food available on day of embarkation (bunch of chronically hungry kids). Yes food is readily available at 12:00 noon once you board.. if you are earlier it could be ready then as well

- What time to stop serving breakfast? My DS has to have his breakfast food but also likes to sleep late. Breakfast is served until 12:00 noon on the lido.

- They have cave tubing/zip line with Major Tom in Belize. We have been told to take the first tender. How do they assure they are on the first one. Are there tender tickets issued? If they book thru the ship they will get a tender ticket.. as Carnival excursions are the 1st to leave. As they are not with a Carnival excursion just go down afer they call the 1st tenders and they should be able to get off in no time

- Any other advise or comments on the Valor Western would be appreciated. Havent sailed the Valor.. but LUV the Western itin.. tell them to read up some on the ship.. I am sure they will have a great time.

Thanks, Laura

 

Bon Voyage;)

 

(pls see my answers above in RED)

[estella15]

I was on the Valor this past March, and it was a lot of fun! Your DS and his friends will love it!

 

There are 2 formal nights. The first one is on the first sea day (Monday). That is the night they serve lobster. I believe the second one is on Thursday, although I may be wrong about that.

 

The buffet on Lido deck will be open when they board the ship. Like firefly said, the cabins aren't ready until 1:30, so if they get onboard before them, tell them to wear their bathing suits.

 

Breakfast in the dining room is served until 10am I think. On Lido deck, I believe they keep the breakfast buffet open until 11am, but again I may be wrong about that.

 

We did cave tubing with Major Tom, and I definitely recommend it! The first tender will be for Carnival excursions. The second tender (the first one for everyone not doing Carnival excursions) is the one they should be on. They give out tender tickets in one of the lounges. They will announce what time they will begin giving out the tickets, but we found that they actually start before that time. So, they should get to the lounge early to get on that second tender.

[dvan68]

Hi, My DS and 3 friends will be sailing on the Valor on Aug 9. I'm new to Carnival, usually sail RCCL (sorry), but I think Carnival will be more fun for my DS and friends (21-24).

I have few questions:

- They are sailing the Western Itinery, when is the formal night? Is there 1 or 2, on RCCL there are usually 2 on 7 day or more.

- Is there a buffet or food available on day of embarkation (bunch of chronically hungry kids).

- What time to stop serving breakfast? My DS has to have his breakfast food but also likes to sleep late.

- They have cave tubing/zip line with Major Tom in Belize. We have been told to take the first tender. How do they assure they are on the first one. Are there tender tickets issued?

- Any other advise or comments on the Valor Western would be appreciated.

Thanks, Laura

 

 

There are 2 - the first one was the night of the day at sea. Can't remember the second - but it was a port day.

 

The lido buffet, as well as Deli, Chinese, Fish and Chips are all open on embarkation. The dining rooms are not open.

 

Breakfast in the dining room stops at 9:30 or 10 - depending if it is a sea day or port day. You can get breakfast food on the lido until 11:30. You can get a bagel with cream cheese at the deli after that.

 

For the tenders - you go to the theater and get a sticker with a number on it - then you go wait in line on the stairwell. That's how it worked for Grand Cayman anyway. For Belize we had a ship excursion, so we just waited in the disco, and then the group went down together.

 

We had a lot of chair hogs on our trip - just trying to find 2 chairs together in the sun (not by the pool) took a couple of laps around deck.

[transam84]

Thanks for all your helpful information. I will be sure the responsible female in the group will get my DS and the other guys up to get the tender tickets. This is their first "big" vacation alone and I'm so worried. I have visions of them being stuck on an island because they missed the bus. Just a nervous mom. It does sound like so much fun though. I'm so excited for them. My DS's one friend has never been on a "real" vacation before and he can't believe he can eat pretty much all day and not have to pay. He is so excited. Thanks again. Laura

[Drew B]

- They have cave tubing/zip line with Major Tom in Belize. We have been told to take the first tender. How do they assure they are on the first one. Are there tender tickets issued?

 

 

I did cave tubing with Major Tom. I was on either the first or the second tender (they're only a couple minutes apart) and when I met up with Major Tom's people ashore, we waited for at least a half hour for others to arrive. I'm sure that people who were even on the tenth or fifteenth tender would have made it. Remember, they don't get the money unless your DS and his friends show up, so they'll wait as long as they possibly can.

 

On the other hand, your son and his friends should realize that if they are late (not on one of the first tenders), that they will be holding other people up, and it might cut into THEIR excursion... Because we waited so long, we didn't do the promised stop for lunch, and by the time we made it back to port, we had no time to shop or anything because it was almost time for the ship to disembark. It's not like we almost missed the ship - they tour operators are extremely conscientious about that - but we probably got back with less than a half hour till last tender.