Our Frist Cruise experience with Carnival

Carnival Valor Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 49

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Verified Review
Carnival Valor

7 Night Southern Caribbean (San Juan Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 08, 2014

Ship: Carnival Valor

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 1446

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 10 years ago

Review summary

It was my husband and I's first cruise.  I feel all the staff on board had done a great job to make our cruise a positive experience.  They are all very hard working and worked very long hour.  The ship was always clean and in good condition.  We appreciate the towel animals that greets us every night we went back to our room.
We enjoy music played by two groups: Take two (variety music) and Ian (Guitar music).
The food in deck 9 was not very good because they were not tasty.  The food was bland without much seasonings or spices. What a shame!  The food will be much more enjoyable only  more seasonings, herbs and spices were added.  Our favorite place to eat (dinner) was the Lincoln Hall in Deck 3.  We sat mostly near the water dinning area which was served by an exception team: Arwin, Rex, and Xin.  These three gentlemen have done an exceptional job.  As busy as they were, we felt like they were our only waiters.  They attended to our every little needs even before we asked for them.  Our orders were always correct and came speedily.  They were always very friendly, not all business but yet they did get their job done.  Unfortunately, we sat somewhere else one night and our experience was not very good.  Orders were dropped and services of our waiters were not anywhere close to Arwin, Rex, and Xin.  The Lincoln Dinning hall was great because food were tasty, have many different variety to choose from.  I had cold mango soup, cucumber soup, sushi, escargot, frog leg, lobster tails (plus many more) which we only expect them in  very high end restaurants.   We also love the entertainment provided by the dining staff in fact we look forward to their performances every night.  We love every dinner we had in Lincoln Hall except their desserts.  Their desserts were very undesirable.  Cheese cake did not taste like cheese, pumpkin pie look like custard pie.  That said it all.  All in all, our dining experience in Lincoln Hall was positive and highlights of our cruise.  
Our most negative experience was from the customer service desk on deck 3.  On the day of checked out, we went to where we supposed to wait to leave the ship. We waited for 2 hours which was not the thing that bothered us.  We were the last group to call to leave the ship and that we found out our statement was sent to our room in the morning which we did not see (we were in the waiting area already).  When we asked for the statement, we were treated not friendly at all.  The staff were irritated the fact we wanted to have our statement at that time. They told us their computers were already shut down and also "reminded" us we were the last to leave the ship meaning we were holding them up.  Who wanted to be last to leave!!!  We waited for more than 2 hours without a complain but they complained us to hold them up!!!  How about let us know ahead of time when we will receive our statement, we will definitely not hold them up!!  It is so ironic we had such a good experience the whole time we were on the ship except the last moment.  The bad experience were created by the customer desk.  That was the only time we did not feel welcome at all!!What a shame!!!    Please forward our comments to the staff or directors on Valor so that improvements could be made.  Thank you!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
I put ok because deck 9 was not good but the Lincoln dinning hall was good. We love it except desserts!!

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
should have more variety

Entertainment

3 out of 5
need more variety in music

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Most of them were great, hard working and friendly except our last experience with customer service desk (see comments)

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
did not wow us but it was in good condition and clean.

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
no complain, we had everything we needed.

Ship tip

good food is in the dining hall downstairs!! Plan your own excursions. most places have published taxi fares to prevent ripping off tourists.Taxi drivers are all fighting for your businesses and you can always bargain with them. The ship excursions are short and have many restrictions.

Ports of call

San Juan, Puerto Rico

3 out of 5
Expensives

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

3 out of 5

Bridgetown, Barbados

3 out of 5
taxi was published, you can see right off the port. Beware of the beach you go to, some of them have people constantly selling stuff to you.

Castries, St. Lucia

3 out of 5

Basseterre, St. Kitts

5 out of 5
beautiful island, clean water. We love our beach experience there. The cheapest price for shopping

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

5 out of 5
The prettiest and well run of all islands (except USVI) but most expensive

Traveler Photos

towel animals - dog frog dino Towel - elephant mama and baby bear oyster steak shrimp our favorite waiters!! The best! lasagna
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