The newbies will be coming back
Carnival Valor Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
7 Night Exotic Western Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: July 18, 2010
Ship: Carnival Valor
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 13 years ago
Review summary
My fiance and I both enjoyed the cruise a great deal. To this day, we still tell our coworkers and family and friends that it is a great experience and one we'd like to do again in the future. The ship is very well maintained, the staff, both at the desks and at dinner and in the room-keeping are first-rate - they made our stay so much better. The rooms are very accomodating and have plenty of space and the balcony rooms are worth the price! The dinner service was excellent and very, very tasty, even to a foodie like myself. The drink prices weren't "cheap", but they weren't terribly expensive for people like us that have a max of one-two drinks a day (beer, wine, mixed drinks). The ports of call were fantastic. There is sufficient enough freedom that you can make your own "shore excursions" by just talking to the taxi drivers when you arrive at the ports. We did a lot of activities that were both educational and relaxing and we didn't pay a dime extra because it wasn't a "Carnival Shore Excursion". I do have to say that the Cruise Director (Big Tex) was a little pushy with his "over the air" announcements how we "NEEDED to go to the steakhouse" or that we "NEEDED to get our photos to take home". It didn't work on us, but I can imagine that if you are an impulse buyer, you will be pushed into buying a lot of things that you may regret later. The one negative thing I would say were the fellow cruisers. Never have I seen so many greedy, pushy, inconsiderate people. When the buffets were open, people were greedy with food and pushy about cutting or holding their place so they could wait in another line for food. It made us both want to eat at the Dining rooms where it is table-service without all the riff-raff. We noticed a lot of "hoarding" by people and just a general sense that a majority of these patrons were self-serving.Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ports of call
Coxen Hole, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras
Pros: flexibility, freedom, affordable, ports of call
Cons: crowdedness, lack of quality of fellow cruisers (loud, pushy, greedy)
Recommends Carnival Valor? Yes!
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