We had an awesome time. The Valor is a beautiful ship and the crew was very attentive.
Carnival Valor Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Third Mate
Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 49
5 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)
Sail date: April 06, 2019
Ship: Carnival Valor
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 6225
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
We had a great time on the Valor. She is beautiful! Embarkation and disembarkation went smoothly. We had an excellent steward named Katam. We loved Mr Sancho’s at Cozumel. Progreso was beautiful, but had too many vendors on the beach. Would cruise Valor again!Embarkation
Embarkation went very smoothly.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The food was great! There were so many options! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to try them all. The MDR had excellent food and our main server, Mark, took great care of us. The dance they did each night was very entertaining. Loved Guys Burgers. Top notch patties and loved that they had the toppings bar where we could choose additional toppings. The buffet was also great. It had many options and great desserts. My only suggestion would be for the Bubbles package. You basically have to go to a bar to get a Coke. This means longer lines and longer wait time just to get a Coke. I just think they could be more accessible.
Onboard Activities
The Valor has a huge water slide, but we opted not to try it. Looked like fun though. The pools and hot tubs were nice.
Entertainment
The main shows in the Ivanhoe were very entertaining and our cruise director, TJ, was awesome! The musicians in the Lobby were always entertaining. My husband love the comedy shows. We saw Mark Simmons several times and he had us laughing the whole time. Unfortunately, the Eagles Lounge is almost too small. It was very difficult to find a seat. The shoes were awesome though!
Children's Programs
Had no children this time, but Camp Ocean looked awesome!
Service and Staff
Our room Steward was Katam. He was very good. He was so nice and attended to our every need. He always filled my ice bucket and when we saw him in the hall, he always addressed us by name. He was so kind to answer any questions we had and even helped me getting my chat app working. I would recommend him every time! Mark and Roni was our servers in MDR and were very attentive. We dealt with Mark more and he took great care of us!
Ship Quality
The Valor is beautiful. This was our first cruise, so I don’t have another to compare to, but I thought she was beautiful. I love the Patriotic theme. The ship seemed well maintained.
Cabin / Stateroom
Our cabin was plenty spacious. Of course, would be nice to have more than one outlet. We had plenty of storage space. I brought extra hangers so that helped. I also brought the metal clips and command strips as everyone suggested, but I didn’t even need them. The shower had a clothes line to hang bathing suits. We were on a 5 day cruise, I may have needed them had I been on longer cruise. I loved having a balcony. I can’t imagine not having one! It was so nice to go out and watch the sunrise each morning.
Ship tip
Pack less! As a first time cruiser and a female, I packed way more than I needed. Especially as female, you think you’ll need all these changes of clothes for the different events, for one, there just isn’t enough time. Two, it makes disembarkation a lot easier. I also definitely advise to bring your two packs of soda and wine. We also ordered bottled water for our room, but it’s nice to have drinks in your room at night. Our friends decided against bringing the drinks and they wish they had.
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
Cozumel was beautiful! The port had a lot of shopping and great photo opportunities. It leads you right to where all the cabs are waiting to take you where you want to go. We chose to go to Mr Sancho’s. We had a great time! We made our reservation months ahead of time. (You have to go to their website to make a reservation). They had so much to do, like parasailing, kayaking, snorkeling, jet ski’s, and rock climbing inflatables in the water. The beach was beautiful! It was too cold for me, but hubby enjoyed a swim. We had a table for four and a lounge chair each. The food was great! The coconut shrimp is the best ever! The drinks were good, but didn’t have much alcohol in them. Our server was very nice, but we didn’t see him as often as we would have liked. We had to flag him down most of the time if we needed something. I’m not sure if he just had too many tables or what. He seemed to be very busy. I had a 20 minute deep tissue massage for $35. I asked for only upper back due to having previous surgeries on low back, she did as requested and it was awesome and we’ll worth it! Overall, it was a great time! We’d definitely go back!
I loved Progreso, my husband however, did not. The town is very true to cultural Mexico, which we loved that part. They had buses waiting at the pier for us and took us into town a few blocks from the beach. There were little shops with vendors along the way, but they weren’t push at all. We chose not to do an excursion here due to my having a bad back and might be too much walking or climbing. Our friends went to the Myan ruins however, and loved it! They said they learned a lot about the Myan history. Anyways, my husband and I chose to go to the beach and enjoy a relaxing day. We walked along the beach for a bit and found a hut type umbrella with two lounge chairs for $10. We planned to just laze there for the day. The owner of the restaurant behind us came to offer us drinks and was very kind. The bad this is, we didn’t get to relax much. There a lot of people on the beach walking up to you constantly to sell you something like a necklace, a weaved basket, or some other hand crafted item. I didn’t mind so much because I was just taking in the scenery, but my husband wanted to relax with eyes closed. Every time he would close his eyes, there was someone else interrupting him. He found it very annoying. There was a also guy selling large sea shells that I guess when you blow in them, they sound like the ships blow horn. Unfortunately, the guy had to sample it every few minutes and it was very loud. Well, as you can imagine, it’s not very relaxing. Haha. Then all the sudden a group of young men gathered right in front of our chairs. We couldn’t tell what they were doing at first, then they hit the boom box! They would proceed to put on a dance show that looked like a 90’s breakdancing competition right in front of us. It was entertaining, but way too close and loud. They then sent around another member of the group with a container asking for donations. Needless to say my husband wasn’t very happy, lol. He was ready to go back to the ship. So, our relaxing beach day lasted more like two hours. Someone did get arrested on the beach tho, that’s was interesting to watch. Haha. The beach was beautiful, we just wish it was a little more peaceful. We understand they are just trying to make money, but it might have been a little much. I would definitely go back, but my husband says he has no desire to go back. Something I observed though, and might be some advice for other first timers, is to sit right on the beach, like where the waves would graze you, because for some reason the vendors didn’t go to theses people often. They mainly visited the tables and lounge chair areas. Unfortunately, there are no chairs that close to the beach, but you could probably bring a towel to lay on.
Disembarkation
Disembarkation was smooth overall. We had to stand around for about an hour with our luggage in the halls, but once they called your floor, all was good.
Traveler Photos
