Carnival Valor

[lisacpa]

We sailed on the Carnival Valor last week (9/7/08 - 9/14/08). The overall experience was good, but I noticed some things that took away from our experience. We were on deck 10 - Panorama. The room was great. We were upgraded to a suite last year, but the balcony stateroom is good too. We wouldn't sail without a balcony. Carnival has a new terminal in Miami and it was great.

Each time we went to the buffet, I saw at least 1 dirty plate in the clean dish rack. They had obviously come out of the dishwasher like that. The overall staff was friendly, with a couple of exceptions. The morning bartender at the Promethius Pizzeria was very arrogant and unpleasant, as was our original waiter. We later found out that the waiter was sick and had to fly home on Tuesday. Carnival is now automatically charging your sign and sail account $10 per day per guest. The idea is that you will not have to tip these folks cash at the end of the cruise. This wasn't made clear to us until the welcome back party and we had already tipped with cash. I ended up standing in line on the last day of the cruise to get my $140 back. Carnival should give you a choice when you set up your sign and sail account and there will be no confusion. It seemed to me that there were a lot of extra charges that I don't remember before. Remember, on top of the $10 per day, all alcoholic drinks are assessed an automatic 20% gratuity at the time of purchase. The dress code for the dining room was not enforced and we saw a lot of shorts, tee shirts, and ball caps. The number of photograph stations seems to have doubled from last year also. You can drop a chunk of change on pictures if you're not careful.

Overall, there seem to be some details slipping through the cracks on Valor. We enjoyed the Liberty much better last year.

 

[mickeyboy7]

I'm afraid most of the cruise lines are caving in to the publics wish of more casual dining. Pretty soon there will be no formal dining. As for the dirty dishes I must say that I've never had that problem...you should certainly let the maitre'd know about it...it's HIS duty to look over the dining hall AND the buffet.

As for the unpleasant waiter, I've also been through a little bit of that and a quick word with his supervisor not only put a quick end to his "attitude" it also got us a nice tray of chocolate strawberries delivered to our cabin.

I must disagree with you about your comments on tipping...I think Carnival is very clear about the policy...I've never had a problem. =twocents :wave

 

[j13c85]

I believe that vacations are what you make of them and I would like to chime in about a few things regarding this cruise (OK it is more than a few and I apologize in advance for the length of this post)):

1- We were on the same cruise (Sept 8 was our wedding anniversary). We became kind of celebrities on the ship as we played the Newlywed Game- we were the MIdlyWeds- and the game was broadcast over the ship on channel 17 for the duration of the cruise

2- We were in the Washington Dining Room and thought the wait staff was terrific. Raul was our waiter and Carlos was his assistant. We chose to dine in the dining room for dinner each night except September 9, as on that evening we tried the Supper Club. I found the dining room to be comparable to previous trips; although, I was terribly disappointed that Beef Wellington was removed from the menu as that is one of my favorites. I discovered a new cocktail on the trip, the BBC, and it replaced the Miami Vice as my favorite (and I had a bunch of those BBCs on this cruise). That said, we did encounter some people who had less than favorable experiences in the Lincoln Dining room. Lastly, our tablemates were very nice. I hope the fates bring us together on another ship someday

3- We ate in the buffet most mornings (could not get up early enough for the dining room). Found the fare to be what you would expect. It was nice to have strawberry frozen yogurt in one of the machines. On Spirit it was only chocolate or vanilla.

4- I agree with the assessment of the guy at the pizza stand. He was pretty aloof and not very friendly; although I did get some smiles from him by the week's end. Also, I found the pizza to be very disappointing and when I asked for a Caesar w/chicken, he was not able to accommodate.. That said, the fresh cal zone was great.

5- Fish & Chips upstairs were very good (my wife liked that; I am not a seafood guy)

6- Grilling station was very good. I had fresh grilled steak sandwiches made to order.

7- Supper Club was off the charts. I had the best Fillet Mignon of my life that night. Funny thing, it seems that anything you eat or drink has a tip built in; but that is not the case w/ the supper club. We tipped the servers $20 and they were definitely worth it.

8- Complaints about tips being added to the sail and sign card strike a chord with me. First, $10 per day is very reasonable when considering the overall price of the cruise (my wife and I did the prepaid and then did not have to worry about them being added to our sail and sign card). That said, each family was asked to send one representative to the debarkation discussion in the Ivanhoe Theatre. Anyone who attended had this explained and we were also advised that we could adjust those numbers up or down at any time.. Personally, we gave a little extra to our Steward, the Maitre D, our bar server in the dining room Lalita, Raul and Carlos.

9- As for the dress code in the dining room; I personally prefer the more formal approach; however, with the increased costs of getting luggage to the ship, I appreciate that Carnival has loosened their dining room standards.

10- The weather was memorable. We could not get into Nassau due to rough seas, and we passed thru 2 pretty intense storms. On the third night, we passed though an intense lightning storm. My wife and I killed all the lights in our cabin and just looked out the window at the storm. It was a sight to behold.

11- We had rear facing balconies at the back of the ship. These are the best balconies I ever had; although the cabin is smaller. When we cruised Spirit, our extended balcony cabin had a couch and this room did not. That said, the balcony was much bigger and we used it more often because of the space.

12- The deck party was off the charts. We danced, did Karaoke, played some silly games, joined a conga line, it was a great time

13- The cruise director seemed ill prepared for our extra day at sea. I had no problem skipping Nassau (safety first) but Ryan (our cruise director) seemed to have a hard time getting things going on this day.

14- Conquest Class ships can be difficult to navigate. Anyone going on one should heed this advice, get yourself to the 5th floor and then get to the elevators you want.

15- We had a blast with trivia. I like playing as much trivia as possible because you get to interact with the different social hosts (and that can be more fun than the games). As usual, we bombed out on must of the trivia we played. I say most because we finally won our first ship on a stick for Sports Trivia. We also got a ship on a stick (and a bottle of champagne that we shared with our table mates in the dining room) for playing the Newlywed game. Name that Tune at the piano bar was awesome.

16 Previous poster was right about the picture stations. We dropped about $300 on pictures (and our Christmas cards look really good)

17- At the past guest party, we bought 20 tickets ($1 each) for the free cruise raffle that takes place the last night of the cruise, and miracle of miracles, WE WON THE RAFFLE for the free cruise. We are going to go to Alaska next summer

Overall, this was a great trip (even if we hadn't won the cruise). We are going on Legend in February for our best friend's 40th birthday (there will be three couples) and then Alaska this summer. We cannot wait.