Destinations & Excursions Were great - but The Ship Experience - NOT SO MUCH
Carnival Valor Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern
7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)
Sail date: May 23, 2015
Ship: Carnival Valor
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 7276
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 9 years ago
Review summary
Yjos was our third Carnival Cruise. frankly, one ship is just the same as the next. Basically it has already become no greater an experience than riding a city bus. Same old thing... We enjoyed our destinations very much and the excursions were loads of fun, but the time spent on board the ship were so-so, at best. Carnival food (buffets) is clearly sub par, with every attenpt to make things look wonderful, but the quality is clearly lacking. They call it cheesecake, I call it cake that has a cheese like flavor. It is CLEARLY not even remotely real cheesecake, EVEN IN THE DINING ROOMS. We went to the dining room for brunch one morning and my English muffin was brought to the table a full ten minutes before my breakfast, so it was cold as a corpse by the time my eggs arrived. The eggs were cooked through, although I asked for over easy. We were VERY disappointed with the dinners as well. We have been relatively happy with the evening meals on previous cruises with Carnival, but even some of the regular fall back items were poorly prepared. Honestly, the service at dinner was not entirely star studded either. Movies on the deck were a nightmare! Loud mouths who had no respect for the fact that the deck was loaded with people trying to watch a film would sit in the areas immediately adjacent to the screen and blab at full volume. No one from the ship staff thought it needful to address this issue, so watching the movie became a waste of time and effort. YOU COULDN'T HEAR IT ANYWAY for all loud and obnoxious blabber mouths! Carnival is interested in selling booze, so drunks abound, and I personally have no interest in dealing with obnoxious drunks, but plan on having to do so at least once or twice a day. We loved our open seating dinner companions and made lasting friendships which we plan to continue, even on land, Honestly, as far as cruising is concerned, Carnival is a ship that gets you where you are going. Other cruise lines make the trip as enjoyable as the destinations. Not Carnival.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
If you have been on ANY Carnival ship, you will easily know your way around this one. Nothing new or exciting. Just different "wallpaper, drapes, and carpet."
Ports of call
Traveler Photos
4 Comments
revchasm 9 years ago
I really am not trying to be mean, but at the same time I am very straightforward and honest about things from my perspective. We love cruising, but this particular cruise had it's not-so-glorious aspects that detracted from the experience as a whole. As far as the food is concerned... these companies know they are loading passengers at an American port and are therefore boarding Americans (for the most part). I honestly feel that Carnival (in particular) cuts every possible corner where the food is concerned, especially the buffet fare. We really have to try all kinds of stuff to find anything that we really can say we enjoy. Because most of the time, even something we would normally be familiar with doesn't even come close to tasting like it should.
noname111 9 years ago
Thank you for leaving this review. We understand what you mean when talking about cake with cheese-like flavor because we notice that a lot with desserts and dishes that we are used to being prepared in a certain way. For instance, we consider NY-style to be the standard cheesecake. On cruise ships, recipes are interpreted from a multi-national perspective so we are never really sure what dish is going to be served unless it clearly states "Maine lobster" or in the case of desserts "NY-style cheese cake".