Tag Archives: caribbean

Carnival Valor Cruise ~ Day 10

April 16, 2015 deladane Leave a comment

Saturday, March 21 ~ Birthday celebration on a speed boat in St. Maarten!

Today was my birthday and we had a fun day planned. After we booked the cruise, I checked to see how many ships would be in each port with us each day. Most of the time we only had 0, 1, or 2 other ships with us, but today we would have 6 big ships! I could only imagine how much traffic there would be and how crowded the beaches would get!! So I knew immediately that we needed to find an alternative option. After some research, I found a speed boat tour that left from a marina located 10 minutes walking distance from the port. That meant we wouldn’t need to worry about taking a taxi or sitting in traffic on the way back to the port in the afternoon. There were 2 companies offering similar tours: Mike Robinson and Bob Cass. They both left from the same marina, both cost $109 per person, lasted from 10am to 4pm, made a few snorkeling stops, and included water/soda/beer on board and lunch on a beach. They had slight differences in where they stopped to eat lunch and what order they visited the snorkel stops. The reviews were excellent for both captains, so I emailed both of them to get some more details about booking the tours. Captain Bob never replied to my email, but Captain Mike wrote back within a day, and he replied to several follow up emails to answer all of my questions. I was impressed with his help, so I decided to book with him. I also requested that we be placed on his boat for the tour, as I had read reviews that some people ended up on boats with other guides but I couldn’t find any reviews specifically recommending another great guide. All of the reviews about Mike were excellent so I wanted to be sure we would have the best day possible. Mike said he would put us on his boat as long as he was working that day (he wasn’t sure if our tour would fall during his vacation time). This was back in August, so we agreed to touch base again closer to the tour date. About 2 weeks before the cruise, I emailed Mike to confirm that we were all set and he replied that we were.

On Saturday morning, we woke up early, got ready, and headed up to the Lido buffet for a quick breakfast. You can see another ship coming into port towards the left of this photo:

We left the ship by 9am to walk over to the marina. Mike’s directions were a bit vague, so we weren’t totally sure about where we needed to go, but there were many security guards stationed throughout the port area and they pointed us in the right direction. It was an easy 10 minute walk along a sidewalk to reach the Chesterfield Marina, and we found Mike sitting at the bar. We checked in and paid him in cash for the tour, and he told us to wait in the shade as some people hadn’t arrived yet. At 9:30, Mike came over and said that we would be on Jimmy’s boat. What?!? I thought you told me we would be on your boat?!? Well apparently he didn’t have space for us or something, and we ended up on Jimmy’s boat with a bunch of other couples who booked with Bob’s tour company. I was really disappointed about this. I know the tours are similar, but what was the point of doing my research and booking with Mike if he was going to pass me off to a different company and a different guide?? Not only that, but Mike took the people on his boat and they left the marina by 9:35am. We were left waiting on the dock until 10:15am because one couple was late. They never showed up, so we ended up with only 8 people on our boat, but we didn’t get going until 10:15am so our tour was 40 minutes shorter than the tour we should have been on. We had to be back by 4pm to have time to get back to the ship before the 4:30pm all aboard time, so it’s not like they could extend the tour at the end. This was quite a bummer and not the best way to start our day.

We decided to make the best of it and enjoy the day as much as possible. Jimmy turned out to be very nice and informative. After briefly giving us some safety info, he helped us board the boat. We were not allowed to wear shoes/flip flops on board, but he did have a safe dry place to store our bags for the day. Our boat held up to 12 people, so we had a little extra space with only 8 people on the tour. Jimmy warned us that the ride is bumpier but drier in the front of the boat, versus a smoother ride with more splashing in the back of the boat. J and I ended up sitting in the front on top of the cooler (it was stocked with water, Coke, Diet Coke, Heineken, and Coors Light), and while it was a bit rocky and jumpy at spots, I never felt like I would be thrown from my seat into the water.

Looking back towards the cruise port as we left the marina…

Once we left the marina, we sped through the water for about 20 minutes to Simpson Bay to see all the huge yachts. Jimmy took us under a bridge and into the bay and told us to grab a few drinks as it would be calm cruising for the next few minutes.

At some point, we crossed over from the Dutch to the French side of the island. Jimmy said we would spend the rest of the day on the French side because the waters were calmer here. From there, we sped along the coast for another 30 minutes or so, passing all the places we would return to later in the day, to get to our furthest point: Tintamarre island. This was probably the bumpiest portion of the ride, so I’m happy to report that I did not get bounced off the boat! When we approached Tintamarre, it looked like a secret tropical oasis in the sea.

Looking back towards St. Maarten:

Jimmy handed out snorkel masks, fins, pool noodles, and life vests to anyone who needed it. He also had a little spray bottle filled with Johnson’s Baby Shampoo and water. He told us to spray the goggles and to rinse them off in the ocean, and that would prevent the goggles from fogging up. Wow did this stuff ever work like a charm! I don’t know how I never knew to do that before, but I am definitely packing a spray bottle with that mixture on future cruises because it made such a huge difference! We spent about 40 minutes snorkeling here. The highlight of this location is there are a few sea turtles hidden in the grass. Unlike in Barbados where we had a ton of tourists kicking us in the face as we tried to swim with the turtles, there were only a handful of people with us in the water at Tintamarre and we could take our time and leisurely swim with the turtles without feeling crowded. I spent a solid 5 minutes completely alone swimming with one turtle off to the side of the island… it was so relaxing and intimate.

Ready to jump in the water!

Not many fish in the water here

Hanging out with some sea turtles!

Once we were all tired, we climbed back on the boat and sped over to Pinel Island. Jimmy anchored the boat a few feet off shore and told us we could have 20 minutes to swim ashore, use the restrooms, buy a drink, and explore the beach. There was a small trail that is supposed to have lots of wildlife, but I didn’t get a chance to see it. The water here was very shallow… when I jumped off the side of the boat, I could easily stand with my feet on the sand, so we walked ashore instead of swimming hehe This beach was absolutely beautiful!! Definitely one of the prettiest beaches I have ever seen, with crystal clear water and powder soft white sand (warning: the sand further up on shore is VERY hot on your feet so stay closer to where the tides come in and out to avoid the pain! haha) I have read other reviews where people spent the whole day here and now I know why… I could definitely see spending a whole day on Pinel Island if (when) I return to St. Maarten again. I wished we could have spent more than 20 minutes here, and I know the original tour I booked with Captain Mike was scheduled to eat lunch here, so I was a little upset that we had to miss out on that opportunity because he changed our boat.

Sorry for the blurry photo (I think there was water on the lens), but I just wanted to show how shallow the water was, even this far from shore. I am 5’2″ and the water only came up to my waist

Swimming back to the boat:

Once everyone was back on board, it was time for lunch. We headed back in the direction we came from until we got to Grand Case Beach. Jimmy told us we would be eating lunch near the orange umbrellas on the right side of this beach:

We had to swim ashore again, but the water here is much deeper than at Pinel Island. While lunch was included in the excursion price, it did not include drinks so Jimmy offered to carry a dry bag ashore for us with our cash or anything else we needed (I brought my suntan lotion!) Jimmy took our lunch orders: we had a choice of chicken, ribs, or fish, and either rice and beans or french fries as a side. Once we got to the beach, we found that most of the lounge chairs in our section were occupied by other people’s towels. How ironic that I hadn’t even thought about chair hogs on the ship all week, but I found them on our excursion. We were able to find 2 chairs that were not directly next to each other, but they were both in the shade so we took them.

Lunch was ready in 20 minutes and it was worth the wait! The fish was very fresh and delicious! I easily could have eaten a second portion haha

After lunch, we had a few more minutes to hang out on the beach, but I really just wanted to continue on with our day. By now, it was 2:30pm and I was getting nervous about getting back to the ship on time. After a little prompting, Jimmy came over and told us it was time to leave. We swam back out to the boat and went 2 minutes out into the water to reach Creole Rock.

Rumor had it that Creole Rock offers some of the best snorkeling in the Caribbean so I was really looking forward to our time here. Jimmy said we could have 25 minutes to snorkel here, and he showed us where the best spots were to find the fish and coral. He also warned us that there is alot of fire coral and sea urchins, and instructed us to avoid touching it (obviously!!). I jumped in the water as soon as we were anchored and swam for a few minutes until I reached the most incredible underwater experience I have ever had! There were so many colorful fish and interesting types of coral, and I felt so lucky to be able to see it all first-hand.

Poor attempt at a selfie with the coral in the background

Our 25 minutes ended far too quickly, but by now it was after 3pm and we still had a long way to travel. I am fairly sure Jimmy was driving much faster on this leg than he had earlier in the day, but at 3:30pm, we arrived on the shores of Maho Beach. I spent some time here in 2012 to watch the jumbo jets landing at the airport. Unfortunately, those planes only arrive in the morning and early afternoon, so we missed all the action. At this time, there were just a few smaller planes landing and it wasn’t nearly as exciting as the last time I was there.

We only stayed for about 10 minutes, and then we had to get on our way back to the marina. I know this photo is a little blurry, but I just wanted to share it because this was another speed boat traveling back to the marina alongside our boat (and you can also see one of the cruise ships behind it leaving port).

We arrived back at the marina promptly at 4pm. We gathered our belongings, tipped Jimmy and thanked him for a (mostly) wonderful day, quickly used the restrooms, and went to the little store at the marina for some free ice cream! They had those little paper cups of ice cream that you get as a kid with the wood “spoons” and we could choose between vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, pistachio, and rum raisin. I had the pistachio and J had the rum raisin. We enjoyed our refreshing treat on the walk back to the ship. We got back by 4:20pm, so we didn’t have a chance to do any shopping at the port (we knew that we would be back close to all aboard time so we hadn’t planned to shop there anyway).

Looking back, we had a fantastic time on this excursion. It was a bit rocky in the beginning, and I am still disappointed in how Mike switched our boats because I really would have loved to eat lunch on Pinel Island, and I think the day would have been more relaxed if we were on the boat that started at 9:30am instead of 10:15am, but Jimmy was great and the beauty of the island speaks for itself.

Once back onboard at 4:30, we ran up to Lido for a snack since we were still hungry after the ice cream and didn’t want to wait until dinner. When we got there, they were cleaning up from the chocolate buffet. I had assumed this would be long over by the time we got back to the ship, and I hadn’t planned on participating, so I was thrilled to see they were still serving stuff. When we got to the end of the line, there was a crew member holding a sign saying the buffet was closed. What?!? But there is still cake there and I wanted a piece!! I asked if we could quickly get some food, and she said no. I then resorted to begging, and pulled the “it’s my birthday” card! I figured I had nothing to lose and I really wanted that chocolate cake! There were other people next to me who also wanted some of the chocolately yumminess, so the crew member gave in and let us take a plate. There weren’t many options left and they were literally clearing the cakes away as we walked down the buffet, but at least we got a few little things to try. I didn’t take any photos because it was all so hectic and rushed, but they had a few types of chocolate cake, chocolate cookies, and some fruit to dip in the chocolate fountain. Pure chocolate heaven! It’s the little things in life! haha

We took our plates to go and headed up to our balcony to watch one last sail away. At 5pm, they announced 3 names over the pager system… it looked like we would have a few pier runners coming our way! It was exciting but nerve-wracking at the same time, not knowing if these 3 people would get back to the ship or how long the Captain was willing to wait for them. There were golf carts running up and down the pier and soon enough, we saw all 3 people come back to the ship. Everyone was cheering and clapping as they walked up the gangway! In the end, they were only 10 minutes late, but they were lucky that the ship waited for them because I have read stories of people getting left behind in similar situations.

The last few people going up the gangway before all aboard time:

Here are the guys on the bridge trying to see if those pier runners are on their way:

With everyone back on board, we could finally set sail!

After sail away, we got showered and ready for dinner. It was finally time to break out that fancy champagne J bought at the San Juan pier duty free shop!!

The steward brought us champagne flutes earlier in the day, so we poured two glasses and took the bottle with us down to the dining room to enjoy over dinner. There was only about a 5 minute wait to be seated at dinner tonight. I’m not sure if the hostess didn’t see the bottle, or didn’t care because it was already opened, but we did not get charged a corking fee. Once again, we arrived as the waiters were doing their little show. A word of advice: try to avoid getting to the dining room at 7:15pm if you can because that’s when they do their shows and the waiters aren’t available to take your orders or serve your food. It’s not a huge deal since the show only takes 10 minutes or so, but when you are hungry and rushing to make it to the theater for a show, it’s annoying to have to sit through the waiters dancing. I think another issue is that the anytime dining people are seated on the lower level of the MDR and there is a glass partition that blocks our view from the show so we can’t see what’s happening. I have always had a good view of the waiters dancing on other cruises, so I guess it never bothered me before, but this time it just seemed annoying. At least we had a wonderful bottle of champagne to enjoy while we waited!

Dinner was tasty as always. I had the fettuccine with mushroom sauce and chicken as an appetizer, and the sweet potato and cheddar cheese soup, followed by the prime rib for an entree, and one last warm chocolate melting cake for dessert.

While we were eating dessert, the waiter came over and started chatting with us. I had a feeling I knew what was coming. Sure enough, a few minutes later, 2 other waiters joined him with a piece of pie with a candle in it and they sang happy birthday to me! This was my first time celebrating a birthday on a cruise ship, so it was a fun way to end the meal.

After dinner, we tried going to guest services to settle our bill, but the line was realllllly long. Instead, we went to the Carnival Legends show in the theater with plans to go to guest services after the show. The Legends show is like karaoke on steroids. They hold auditions for the show throughout the week at karaoke each night, and assign 10 passengers one of the song to perform. The passengers were dressed in costume and had back up dancers for their performances. They had someone dressed as Britney Spears, Elvis, Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and a few others. All of the passengers were terrific and I give them a lot of credit for getting up on stage in front of hundreds of fellow passengers! My only issue with it was that it seemed like Carnival cheaped out by enlisting the passengers as free entertainment instead of hiring a professional to perform like on my prior cruises.

When the show ended, we tried to go to guest services again, but the line was still super long. We found one of the self-service kiosks to check our accounts but it didn’t work. We decided to wait it out until the morning, and just head back to the cabin to pack. One of the many benefits of traveling with only carry-on bags is that we didn’t have to put our suitcases outside the cabin tonight, so we could pack a little now, and finish the rest in the morning.

It’s always a little bittersweet to see this towel “animal” on our bed at the end of the cruise…

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Carnival Valor Cruise ~ Day 9

April 11, 2015 deladane Leave a comment

Friday, March 20 ~ We found paradise in St. Kitts

Why do I keep waking up before my alarm?!? For the third day in a row, I woke up a bit before the alarm went off. No worries though… I was excited for a beautiful day in St. Kitts!

This would be my third time visiting St. Kitts and I had done something different every time. My first time in 2010, I took a half-day island tour through Liz Pereria. My second time in 2012, I went stand up paddle boarding. If you want to read more info about either of these experiences, please check out my other reviews (links listed below). This time around, we planned to go to the Palm Court Gardens. For $11 per person, we had access to a lounge chair, umbrella, free wifi, restrooms, and a beautiful infinity pool overlooking the harbor where the Valor was docked. With all the high-action things we had to do in the other ports, this would be our mellow day to relax. I emailed them a few months before the cruise to reserve our chairs, and they responded quickly with more details about their facilities.

After a big breakfast on Lido, we left the ship at 9am. They had given me pretty vague walking directions, but I thought we would be okay to figure it out. We left the port area and walked left along the water. I didn’t feel unsafe, especially since I had J by my side, but I don’t think I would feel comfortable to do that walk alone. We walked past some run down homes and lots of locals who looked like they were going to work. After about 10 minutes, we saw a tall monument which was our landmark to turn left up Wilkins Street and the Palm Court Gardens was about 200ft up the road on our left hand side.

This was our reference point on when to turn left… it was a World War II memorial

We both agreed this place was beautiful! The grounds were well kept, and the views of the water, the ship, and St. Kitts’ sister island Nevis were perfect!

We spent the next few hours checking in on social media with the free wifi, and relaxing on our lounge chairs under our umbrellas (we had to keep moving them to hide from the sun as it moved across the sky… #firstworldproblems haha). We also went swimming for a little bit, but not as long as I would have expected. There was a hot tub but unfortunately, we never had a chance to use it because the entire time we were there, there were a bunch of children playing in it like it was a kiddie pool. Didn’t anyone ever tell their parents that hot tubs aren’t meant for children?!? Not ideal, but at least we were sitting fairly far form the “splash zone” haha

Who put the cruise ship in the swimming pool?

Another interesting aspect of Palm Court Gardens is, well, the gardens! The grounds are well maintained and there were lots of beautiful plants and flowers around the property.

We had a lovely time at Palm Court Gardens. We bought a few drinks from their bar… be forewarned that tax is not included in the drink prices and they charged like a 30% tax! Luckily we brought our remaining Gasolinas along to supplement the drinks we purchased (shhh! Don’t tell them!) It never got very crowded… at most, I think half the lounge chairs were occupied. There were a few people who stopped by and took a look around, and then left within 10 minutes. They were not wearing bathing suits, so I think they may have been on a ship tour or something and just came to see the gardens and the views. Other than that, it was fairly empty. We asked the staff and they said it opened in 2010, about a year after the new cruise port opened. I think they need to do a bit more advertising or something because they could easily have more guests if more people knew what they had to offer (although I did love that it wasn’t crowded!) It was our own piece of paradise for a day!

One last photo on our way out…

At about 2pm, we walked back to the ship and grabbed lunch on Lido. I got the Mongolian Wok again and this time I timed it… It took 15 minutes from the time I got in line to the time the guy handed me my food. I guess the wait wasn’t such a big deal but it felt like a long time since J had no wait on the buffet line (they served Caribbean food today), and he was nearly done eating lunch when I got to the table (I told him to go ahead and eat and not to wait for me).

After lunch, we spent some time relaxing on the balcony and then got showered and ready for the past guest party. This was the first time I was eligible to attend the party since I turned Gold on this cruise, so I was very excited to get in on the fun! We got downstairs to the theater at about 4:45pm and people were starting to line up. At 4:55, they opened the doors to let us in (no one checked for invitations). We were greeted with waiters holding Mardi Gras beads and trays of rum punch (interesting fact: Apparently every time Carnival gives out Mardi Gras beads, they are referencing the original Carnival ship with the same name). We quickly found seats towards the back of the theater on the aisle based on advice I had read on Cruise Critic, but it turned out that we could have sat anywhere and been happy. There were so many waiters walking around with trays of snacks and drinks and it looked like everyone got as much as they wanted. Other reviews had mentioned that only people on the aisles get served because the waiters run out of food by the time they reach the middle of each row, but I didn’t notice that to be true. In fact, many time the waiters approached us from the other end of our row, meaning we were the last people served in our row and they still had plenty of food for us. The waiters also brought around a few hors d’vours- tomato wrapped around mozzarella and pesto, cubes of raw salmon (yummmmy!), and some weird savory cheesecake thing that we didn’t care for.

One slight disappointment was that the drinks were very weak. I know we could have asked for something other than the rum punch, but we didn’t bother. We each ended up with 4 or 5 drinks and we were both still sober when we finished. Weird, but I guess we can’t complain since they were free! Haha The waiters were really great about making sure everyone always had a drink in their hands. Once our cup was half empty, they brought us another drink!

After about 10 minutes, the Captain and all of the officers came out and spoke. No wonder they hold the party before all aboard time! If the Captain is down here entertaining us, who would drive the ship?? hehe

After that, they showed a little video promoting the Carnival brand. It was fun when they asked us to cheer for the ships we have been on. I think I was the only person in the room who cheered for sailing on the Holiday (that cruise was a LOOONG time ago!) I was so jealous of people who cheered when they showed the Vista (meaning they have a cruise booked on the not-yet-built ship). Hopefully someday I will get to be one of those people!

The party ended at 5:40pm (maybe their watches are fast since it started and ended 5 minutes earlier than expected), and we went up to our balcony, and then to the secret deck all the way forward on deck 6 to watch the sunset and sail away. It was beautiful and the perfect place to watch the views.

Sorry for the abundance of sunset photos… it was just so amazing out there that I couldn’t narrow it down any more than this haha

This is one of my favorite photos of the trip…

As we were heading back inside, we noticed that one of the forward facing cabins (maybe considered an obstructed oceanview?) had their blinds open. In case there is any question about if people on the secret decks can look into your cabin if you leave your blinds open, I think this photo will answer that question!

I’m glad no one was getting dressed while we were out there!!! I do think it’s important to note that this was after sunset so it was dark outside, and their cabin lights were on inside, so that is probably why we could see in. When we went out there during the day, I do not remember obviously being able to see in to the cabins (but we didn’t actively try to see in, so it is possible that we could have).

We were full from all the snacks and drinks at the past guest party, but decided we should at least go to dinner for a light meal. We got there around 8pm and were seated immediately. I had the beef brisket for an appetizer, and the short ribs for dinner (I guess I was craving beef that night!). No dessert tonight!

We were stuffed after that so we skipped dessert. Plus, that allowed us to get to the comedy club in time for the 9:30 show.

There were 2 new comedians on board tonight. Up first was Vera something (I can’t remember her last name), and we didn’t care for her so we left after 5 minutes to check out the piano bar. We stayed there for a half hour or so, sang along with a few songs, then went back to the comedy club to check out Tim Young’s show. We thought he was great and fully enjoyed his show! However, by the time he was finished, I was nodding off in my chair (not because I was bored… Just from the exhaustion from another long day in the sun!) so we called it a night and went back to the cabin.

We turned off the lights at 11:55pm, and I fell asleep right away… 5 minutes shy of being the birthday girl!

Cruise

Carnival Valor Cruise ~ Day 8

April 7, 2015 deladane Leave a comment

Before we fell asleep last night, we left the breakfast room service door tag outside our room so we could eat breakfast while getting ready this morning. We had to meet our tour on the pier by 8:30am today and wanted to avoid spending an hour on Lido deck dealing with the buffet. It worked out perfectly! The room service lady knocked on our door at 7:20am, right in the middle of the 7:15-7:30am window we requested. We both ordered the bagel with lox and cream cheese, and we decided to eat it on our balcony and watch as the ship finished pulling into port. It made such a scenic place to enjoy our breakfast!

Back when we booked the cruise, we knew we wanted to go zip lining at one of the ports. St. Lucia is the kind of port where you really need to plan a specific excursion because it’s not like you can just get off the ship and go to a beach like on other islands. St. Lucia is a lush tropical rainforest and it offers tourists many options of active things to do. With that in mind, we decided to make this our zip lining day. I did a bit of research on Cruise Critic and found a company called Treetop Adventures which offered a half-day zip lining tour with round trip transportation to/from their facility. They have 12 zip lines of varied lengths and speeds (whereas most zip line places only offer 4-5 lines), and they got tons of positive reviews so we booked the tour online. The company was easy to deal with and answered all of my questions promptly via email.

Our instructions said to meet their guide on the pier at 8:30am. Sure enough, we walked off the gangway and literally 50ft away was a guide holding a Treetop Adventures sign! It could not have been any easier to find him! They had us sign a safety waiver, and then we walked together through the small port shops area to the parking lot where a big van picked us up. I think we had about 15 people on the van so it was a nice small group for the day. Our guide’s name was Eagle, and he told us all about the history of St. Lucia and pointed out important landmarks as another man named Cornelius drove the van. I read a few reviews saying that it is a 25-30 minute drive from the port to the zip line facility… Wrong!! The drive took exactly one hour (plus a brief 5-minute stop to take photos at a scenic overlook). So basically our tour was 4 hours long, but 2 of those hours would be spent in the van getting to and from the facility haha oh well! At least it was air conditioned and Eagle kept us entertained.

When we arrived at the facility, Eagle explained that they had lockers to store our belongings, but that we needed to leave a $5 deposit which would be refunded when we returned our keys. They also had bathrooms and encouraged us to use them since there were no bathrooms on the course. Once we walked down to the entrance area, a man named Shetty (rhymes with machete, as he told us) approached us and explained that he would stay with us all day and take photos and videos for us on my camera. Each couple or family had their own guide to take photos, and I loved this aspect of it. Shetty held my camera the whole time and took fantastic photos of me and J on the zip lines and throughout the course, and that meant I had both hands free to control the zip line and I could focus on what I was doing and not on operating my camera.

There were 12 lines in total and we spent about an hour and a half on the course. When we got to the fastest and longest line, Shetty said he and I would go together in tandem and he would push me super fast.

Once we finished the course, we had some time to get changed out of our harnesses, use the restroom, and purchase a beer. Piton is the local brew and it was a light and refreshing way to finish the excursion ($2 each!).

On the hour-long ride back to the port, Eagle pointed out a bunch of local plants including banana trees, pepper trees, coconut trees, and a few others.

Bananas growing in the blue bags for protection from the sun

Teeny tiny bananas

Pepper trees

Papaya trees

We also stopped at another scenic overlook to see the Atlantic Ocean.

The roads in St Lucia are very windy and narrow, so this is probably not the best island to rent a car, and if you are prone to motion sickness, you might want to take a Dramamine before going on your tour. We got back to the pier at 12:45pm and went straight up to Lido for lunch. I had the Mongolian Wok for the 3rd time… I’m not sure why I was so addicted to it, but it made for a yummy lunch. The downside was that it always took a long time to get my lunch. J opted for a burrito and he finished his food before mine was even made! We also went upstairs to the fish and chips. There was no line for food, and only 2 or 3 tables had people sitting there, so even though the cruise was half over, it looked like people still hadn’t found the fish and chips place. We shared a battered fish and it was pretty good, with a good ratio of dough to fish.

After lunch, we went in search of somewhere to sit in the shade. My souvenir from Barbados was a bad burn on my back, so I didn’t want to be in the sun any more than necessary. Sadly, our options of outdoor places in the sun were very limited. I didn’t want to sit in the section of Lido deck underneath deck 10 because it is behind the windows and I wanted a clear view of the ocean. Why don’t they put any umbrellas out on the decks?? We wound up on serenity under the shade of the deck above and with a beautiful view over St Lucia and the ocean. We relaxed there for an hour or two as J read his book and I took notes for this review, then we got ready for formal night.

We definitely wanted to avoid the disaster from Tuesday’s formal night with the hour long wait. We were both hungry by 4pm so we decided to hold off on snacking and we would go to dinner when the dining room opened at 5:45pm. We had no wait at all and were seated within minutes, so our plan worked but I did notice that it never got full for the whole time we were there. When we left at 7:30pm, there was still no wait to be seated so I guess fewer people go to the second formal night. That was fine though, we were happy to finish our meal by 7:30pm and have tons of time to enjoy the evening activities on the ship.

But let’s not skip too far ahead… Dinner was delicious, as usual! I had the eggplant parm and my favorite appetizer, the escargot. I had the chateaubriand for my entree and the diet cheesecake for dessert.

After dinner, we took a few photos around the ship (not the paid professional ones)

We got to the theater at 8pm and found a seat in the front row.

Showtime Selfie!

Tonight’s show was called Far From Over, and it was an 80s theme. We both LOVED it!! It helps that we are children of the 80s and love 80s music, but we spent the whole show playing name that tune/band and singing along with the songs. At one point, they brought out 2 beat boys to do some break dancing. At first we thought these guys were part of the normal dance group, but we soon realized these must be the guys brought on the ship for more entertainment in the lobby later tonight. They were a great addition to the show and they were extremely talented, but I was wondering if they come to the ship every week to join the show, or if this was a one-time thing. Does anyone know? For people who have done this itinerary before, did the break dancers perform for you too? Anyway, the show ended at 9:15, and everyone filtered out of the theater and into the lobby to watch another brief break dancing show.

After that, we went to Lido so J could get a sandwich from the deli, and then we went to the piano bar. We stayed for about an hour and had fun singing along with Milton, but like Tuesday night, there were only about 20 people in there and it seemed like it was the same people who go there every night.

We then went to karaoke in the Eagles Lounge next door and stayed until midnight when we called it a night to rest up for St Kitts.

Cruise

Carnival Valor Cruise ~ Day 7

April 5, 2015 deladane Leave a comment

Wednesday, March 18 ~ Boatyard Beach in Barbados

We woke up at 7:15am, got omelets for breakfast at the Lido buffet at 8am, and left the ship at 9am to grab a taxi to the Boatyard Beach on Carlisle Bay.

The taxi costs $5 per person, and we shared the taxi with 13 other people. The whole time we were in the taxi, the driver tried to convince us to go to Harbor Lights, saying that there would be a long wait for taxis at the Boatyard when we wanted to leave (spoiler alert: we had no wait at all). Anyway, no one in our taxi fell for his tricks and we arrived at the Boatyard by 9:30am. The driver then proceeded to escort us to the check in spot so he could collect his commission! Go figure! We paid a $15 per person entrance fee which included lounge chairs, an umbrella, a cup of rum punch, use of the rope swing and water toys, and the bathrooms/changing rooms. There were already a lot of people there when we arrived, but we were able to get front row seats on the right side of the pier (red umbrellas). By 11am, I heard the staff say they ran out of chairs, so plan to get there early if you want a chair at the Boatyard (and we were the only ship in port that day- I’m sure they fill up faster on days with more ships docked).

Within minutes of putting our bags down, the local vendors were asking if we wanted to rent jet skis or go swimming with the turtles. If you plan to swim with the turtles, it is a good idea to head out early in the day because a) more boats filled with tourists show up as the day progresses so it will get very crowded, and b) the guides feed the turtles to entice them, but as the day goes on, they fill up and don’t respond as well to the bait. There are many different vendors, and most charge $20 per person for the tour, which includes life vests, rum punch, and snorkel equipment if needed (the people on the lounge chairs next to us bargained it down to $15 per person!). We found it a bit annoying at how aggressive the vendors were. There are a bunch of guys on the beach soliciting tourists to take the tour, and they expect you to be loyal to them if they approach you first. Well, we noticed that some of our friends from Cruise Critic were going to snorkel at the same time so we joined up with them on their boat, and our original vendor got very upset and started harassing me about it. It was a stressful situation and I felt uncomfortable about it, but luckily the guy didn’t bother us once we got back from the tour. It’s just something to be aware of if you do go to the Boatyard- the water sports vendors are verrrry pushy!

Anyway, back to the story… We went out on a double-decker glass-bottom boat right away, and were gone for about an hour. We chose to bring our beach bags with us, but noticed many others leaving their bags on their lounge chairs later in the day. Here is the view looking back at the Boatyard as we sailed away…

First, we went snorkeling over a ship wreck. In my opinion, the snorkeling here was sub-par. There weren’t that many fish, there was a bit of a current that we had to swim against, and the water was too cloudy. It was my first time snorkeling in 2.5 years, so it was nice to have some practice time to get the hang of it again, but it was kind of hard to see the fish in the cloudy water. Oh well, it was still fun!

We stayed there for about 20 minutes, then the guide signaled for us to swim back to the boat. Next, we went over to an area where there were already a bunch of boats anchored. The water was very crowded, but our guide said this was where we could snorkel with the sea turtles so we jumped in the water and made our own space. Notice all the heads bobbing in the water…

Sure enough, there were 5 beautiful sea turtles swimming amongst all the tourists. It was definitely very crowded with 40-50 people trying to get close to the turtles, and everyone was getting kicked and hit by neighboring swimmers, but it was all part of the excitement. I was very surprised to see so many swimmers out there since the last time I did this on my cruise in 2012, there were just the 4 people on my boat, but we also went on a lot earlier in the morning so I guess there is a big difference between going at 9am and 10am!!

If you look closely, you can see 4 turtles in this photo:

Snorkel Selfie!

It was crowded!

We spent about 15 minutes snorkeling with the sea turtles, then got back on the boat. The guide gave us a cup of very strong rum punch to enjoy as he brought us back to the Boatyard. Overall, it was $20 well spent and I think everyone on our boat had fun, but I do think it was a bit too crowded to fully enjoy the experience. One thing to keep in mind is that many of the other boats near us were half- or full-day catamaran excursions that run up to $100 per person, yet we were all snorkeling at the same time, in the same water, with the same turtles! I am sure they had a great rest of their day on the boat whereas we only had 1 hour on the boat and spent the rest of our day on the beach, but I don’t think it is worth the difference in price if you are only going for the snorkel experience and don’t care about spending all day on their boat.

We spent the next few hours relaxing on our lounge chairs, drinking our free cup of rum punch, and chatting with the people on our neighboring lounge chairs. Everyone was so friendly and it is always fun to meet new people. J even met some people from his home town and their son went to J’s high school! What are the chances?! Less shocking was when I met a couple who live in the same apartment building where my brother used to live in NYC (it’s kind of an infamous building and once they mentioned the intersection, I knew the exact building they were talking about… they found it funny that they met someone in Barbados who could identify their apartment building by it’s nickname lol)

At some point, we heard a siren go off to signal that they were pouring free shots at the bar. Tons of people ran up to have the bartender pour liquor from the bottle right into their mouths! It felt like we were on spring break! Haha

Later in the afternoon, we decided to try out the water toys. J loved the rope swing and went on it a few times. Sadly, I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would, and it took me a while to recover from all that water that got in my ears upon landing haha oops! We also spent some time relaxing on the giant trampoline (btw, it is much harder to climb that ladder than it looks!! Haha), and J was able to climb to the top of the inflatable iceberg on his first attempt!

At 3pm, we packed up our belongings and caught a taxi back to the cruise ship. As I already mentioned, there was no wait for a taxi and they run continuously from noon until 5pm (but don’t wait until that last taxi or you will miss the 4:30 all aboard time!!)

Being silly tourists back at the port…

Once back on board, we spent a few hours relaxing in the cabin and getting ready for dinner. Luckily there was only a 5 minute wait for dinner tonight when we arrived at 7pm. I ordered the prosciutto with melon, the French onion soup, and the penne mariscos. I had the fig cinnamon cake for dessert.

I promise this tasted better than it looks in this photo!

After dinner, I suddenly became extremely tired. Tonight was the night of the Mexican buffet and the big deck party, but I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open so we just went back to the cabin. I was in bed and asleep by 9pm and J read his book out on the balcony for a while. I guess the sun got the better of me today (and it left me with the lovely souvenir of a terrible sunburn on my back!). I am disappointed in myself for not staying awake to go to the deck party, but I guess this falls under the category of “you can’t do EVERYTHING on a cruise” and “now I have an excuse to take another cruise!”

Good night Barbados!

Up next: zip lining in St. Lucia

Cruise

Carnival Valor Cruise ~ Day 6

April 2, 2015 deladane Leave a comment

Tuesday, March 17 ~ St. Patrick’s Day at Sea

We woke up without an alarm at 8:30am… so much for sleeping in on
our one and only sea day! We went to brunch at 9:15am and ran into our new cabin steward Ali in the hallway. I was very impressed that he greeted us by name before I could even mention that we had just moved up here.

Brunch was in the aft Washington dining room, and we were seated immediately at a shared table for 6 people. Service was slow, but it was no different than on any other cruise and the meal took 1.5 hours total. I had the bagel with lox and cream cheese, fried eggs over hard, and turkey bacon. It was all very good and very filling! I did miss getting to order a free cocktail from being a past guest… that bottle of water just isn’t as exciting haha

We got back to the cabin by 11am after brunch, and spent the next 3.5 hours enjoying our balcony. Being a balcony virgin, I never really understood why people obsess over having a balcony and I always saw it as an unnecessary added expense when there is plenty of outdoor public space we could enjoy for free. Now I finally understand what the excitement is all about. It is so relaxing to sit outside in your own private space, drink a glass of wine, read a book, and listen to the waves pass by. No loud party music. No screaming children. No cruise entertainment staff talking about hairy chests. Just us. Oh, and the people who work on the bridge! As a warning to anyone looking to book cabin 7220, it is very close to the port side wing of the bridge. We can see them, and they can see us! In fact, when the all access ship tour got to the bridge, we waved at them and they waved back so we know they can see us. I guess that puts a slight limitation on the privacy offered by this cabin’s balcony, but it really wasn’t a big deal, and it was actually kind of fun to check out all the action up there!

No cruise is complete without sneaking a peak of the wake off the back of the ship!

Tea time was at 3pm and we were both looking forward to trying it as neither of us had gone before. We arrived at the aft Washington dining room as they opened the doors, and we were seated at a shared table for 10 people. Right away, they brought us each a mini kettle of hot water, and a waiter came around to let us pick out our flavor of tea.

Then the waiters came around with various desserts. I noticed they also had cucumber sandwiches and something with smoked salmon on top, but somehow they never brought the savory items to our table. In fact, there was one of the desserts that I really wanted to try, but the waiters kept skipping our table so eventually I had to ask someone to bring it over! I’m really not sure what their system is, but it all seemed rather random. My goal was to just try a taste of each item so I wouldn’t ruin my appetite for dinner. Sadly, that idea was quickly forgotten as everything was so yummy and I ended up eating more than planned.

After tea time, we went back to the cabin to enjoy some more balcony time, then we got ready for formal night at dinner.

We got down to the lobby at 6:35pm and noticed a long line of people waiting to enter the dining room. We waited for 15 minutes to reach the front of the line, and they took our cabin number and gave us a pager so we would know when our table was ready. Unsure of how long the wait would take, we decided to get a few drinks at the lobby bar.

We got seated at 7:30pm, but they were doing the show where the waiters sing and dance, so we had to wait 15 minutes before we could order our food. After 35 minutes, we still had no food so we complained to a manager when he came over to check on us, and then our appetizers came out 5 minutes later. Like magic, the service was much faster after we complained. We planned to go to the 8:15pm show in the main theater but missed it because dinner took so long. We left dinner at 9pm, 2.5 hrs after we originally got on line. In theory, any time dining should be a great option, but unfortunately, in reality, the hour-long wait and the slow service meant we had to miss out on several things we planned to do around the ship at night.

We made the best of it and enjoyed our formal night dinner. I had the stuffed white mushrooms, kale and beets carpaccio (a new appetizer I had never tried before), two orders of the lobster and shrimp entree, and the fresh fruit for dessert. These photos all look very dark to me… I took all my food porn pictures both with and without the flash, but the ones with the flash totally washed out the food and looked waaaay too light, so I had to use the non-flash photos. I’m sorry if they aren’t the best quality, but hopefully you get a good enough view!.

We didn’t have a ton of opportunities to acknowledge St. Patrick’s Day today, and I didn’t notice the corned beef and cabbage which was rumored to be on tonight’s dinner menu (perhaps because they didn’t want to alter the formal night dinner menu??), but J didn’t want to ignore the holiday. Despite the limited space in his 3-1-1 bag for TSA on the plane, he managed to squeeze in a tiny bottle of green food coloring! He brought it to dinner and used it to turn all of our liquids green. Both of our cocktails were green (you can see them on the sides of this photo… people actually asked us what we ordered because they wanted green drinks too!!), our waters were green, even J’s soup was green! Our waiters looked very confused when they walked passed our table because they knew they didn’t serve us green water or soup haha

After dinner, we went to the 10:15pm production show called Nightclub Express. It was ok but would have been better if it had more songs that we knew. The show featured a unique narrator… a giant talking sofa! It reminded me of an after school special or something haha A few times during the show, between singing and dancing numbers, the couch rolled out on stage to tell us about the next set of songs. Very strange! We thought it was kind of odd that the dancers wore thongs for most of their costumes… that’s not very family friendly!

After the show, we went to see the piano bar. There were maybe 20 people in there so it wasn’t very lively. We stayed for a few songs, then went up to Lido to grab a snack before bedtime. I loved how pretty the aft pool looked at night…

There are very few options for food this late at night… sometimes the grill was open, but not every night. The only other option was pizza, but it always had a looooong line. It was nice that they make each pizza fresh when you order it, but it takes 20 minutes to cook each pizza, and that creates a long line of people waiting for their food. Maybe it would work better if they continuously made pizzas at this late hour considering there was clearly a demand for it, but I guess it would get cold quickly since it’s such a thin crust. Here was the pizza place menu:

Up next: Boatyard Beach in Barbados

Cruise

Carnival Valor Cruise ~ Day 5

March 31, 2015 deladane Leave a comment

Monday, March 16 ~ Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas

When we woke up at 7:15am, we were already docked in St. Thomas and we could see people getting off the ship out our window. We got ready and went to breakfast at the Lido buffet. It was very hectic and crowded, and we waited 15 minutes for an omelet!

The port area in St. Thomas is so beautiful with all the little white boats contrasting against the deep blue water and bright green hills…

We left the ship and walked through the little shopping area to the taxi stand. A taxi to Sapphire Beach cost $10 per person each way, plus tip. We ended up in a minivan with 7 passengers instead of a big open air taxi like most people. It was really nice to have the air conditioning, but it was a long ride and we had to drop some people at Coki Beach on the way so that took extra time. It took 35 minutes total and we arrived at Sapphire Beach a little after 10am. There was already a lot of people there, although I wouldn’t say it was crowded. We paid $9 each plus tip for lounge chairs, and the girl set them up where we requested under a tree for shade. Little did we know that it would be overcast and cloudy all day with occasional drizzle, so we didn’t really need the tree’s shade. There was a light breeze and it was slightly cool all day. I only took my cover-up off to take a few quick photos, and it was too cold and the water was too choppy to snorkel in the ocean.

We brought a few pouches of Gasolina to enjoy on the beach. I’m not sure if it was because they are only sold in Puerto Rico so the St. Thomas locals didn’t know what we were drinking, or just because they didn’t care, but no one said anything to us about drinking something we didn’t buy directly from them. In fact, there was a big group of college-aged kids sitting next to us who were on spring break and staying on the island all week, and they had a huge cooler filled with beers that we watched them carry onto the beach and no one said anything to them either.

We took advantage and took some photos when the sun eventually came out…

A few other things about Sapphire Beach: I know they had some construction for the past few months. As of when we were there, the bathrooms were open, but there was still a section of the property under construction. There was one vendor set up on the beach selling jewelry and dresses, but she did not bother us or pressure us to buy anything. If people approached her to browse her products, then she answered their questions, but she did not walk up and down the beach asking us to buy stuff. There were 2 runners from the restaurant who came around with drink and food menus and could take your orders from the beach so you didn’t have to get up if you were hungry. Other than that, it was a pleasant quiet day at the beach, even if it was too cold to do the water sports! I was able to snorkel here on my 2012 cruise, so if you are interested in that experience, please refer to that review.

There was a taxi waiting outside to bring us back to the ship when we were ready to leave at 1:45pm. It again cost $10 per person for a 30 minute ride, and the driver dropped us off near the stores outside the port. We got back on the ship by 2:30pm after a slow moving line at the gangway. First stop was to drop off our bags in the cabin (it came in handy that we could run up one flight of stairs to our cabin on deck 1 instead of waiting for the elevators), and then we went to the Lido buffet for lunch… another Mongolian Wok stir fry for me, and the burrito bar for J.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon relaxing on a sun bed on Serenity deck. I have seen photos of those sun beds having a clamshell to provide shade, but none of the sun beds on the Valor had that clamshell attachment. Today was a good day to use the sun beds because it was a bit overcast and cloudy, but I avoided the beds on bright sunny days for fear of getting a sunburn.

I got hungry again an hour later so I grabbed some cheese pizza (which involved a long walk all the way across the ship to the aft pizza station.) I really wanted to have the mushroom pizza but it would take them 20 minutes to cook it fresh for me and I didn’t want to wait that long so I just took the plain cheese slices that were already available.

I went back to the cabin to shower at 5pm and the clanging noise came back. I called guest services and they said they would send someone up to check it out. The maintenance guy finally arrived nearly an hour later, and of course the sound stopped by then. He said he thought it was the anchor settling after sail away. I explained that it happened last night over an hour before sail away too so I doubted it was the anchor. He said to call guest services if the noise came back. I’ll bet you can guess what happened next… 10 minutes after the maintenance guy left, the clanging noise started again. I called guest services again and the girl said she would come right away to hopefully arrive while the noise was still happening. She knocked on the door 5 minutes later and waited with us for about 5 minutes but sure enough, the noise remained quiet while she was there. And of course, a minute or two after she left, the clanging returned. By now, it was 6:45pm and we planned to go to dinner at 6:30pm so I didn’t want to call and wait for them to come again (especially since the noise seemed to be scared of the ship staff and it always stopped when they were around!). Instead, I took out my iPhone and recorded a 1 minute voice memo of the sound. It worked great and really captured how consistent and annoying the banging was. We then headed down to dinner and agreed to forget about the banging for a few hours and we could deal with it after we ate.

This was my first experience with any time dining. We got to the 3rd floor mid-ship Lincoln dining room and there were maybe 5 parties ahead of us lined up to be seated. It took just a few minutes until we were brought to a table for 2 towards the back of the dining room. I had read enough Cruise Critic reviews that complain about how close together the tables are, so I wasn’t surprised to see that our table had about a foot of space between our neighboring tables. No big deal! It was great to have the flexibility to eat when it was convenient for us, especially with all the clanging drama in our cabin.

I ordered the duck and the fried shrimp for my appetizers, the seafood newburg for my entree, and of course the warm chocolate melting cake for dessert. They brought everyone 2 ramekins of vanilla ice cream without having to request it. All of the food was served warm and it was delicious as always. I am not going to post the menus for each day since they were the same old menus that you can easily find in other reviews (plus all the ships will have new American Table menus soon anyway). I will post some food porn though!

We wore our green Mardi Gras beads in anticipation of St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow…

Walking through the lobby…

After dinner, we went to guest services to play them the sound recording of the clanging noise. We spoke with a lovely lady named Sylvia, and she was extremely helpful. She listened to the recording and excused herself for a few minutes to speak to her supervisor. When she returned, she explained that there was one unoccupied cabin left on the ship and she offered to take us to see it. I had spent a great deal of time and energy picking out the perfect cabin for our needs, so I was worried that this new cabin would be in a bad location. As it turned out, it was a balcony cabin all the way forward on deck 7. As I mentioned at the start of my review, I am a huge fan of deck 7, and I have never been in a balcony cabin before. Maybe everything would work out well for us after all! Sylvia took us up to see cabin 7220. On the way up there, she explained that it was only available because another couple missed the cruise due to flight cancellations during a blizzard in their home city. We felt really sorry for whoever that was- it must be awful to miss out on your vacation so last minute due to weather problems!

The new cabin was lovely… Not a single clanging noise to be heard! We were thrilled at the idea of a silent peaceful remainder to our vacation, and Sylvia said the cabin was ready immediately if we wanted to change cabins tonight. While it was less than ideal to miss out on an evening of fun on the ship, I wanted to make the room change ASAP to avoid another night in the noisy cabin and so we could get on with enjoying the rest of our cruise. We took 30 minutes to repack all of our belongings (and by repack, I mean take every plastic grocery bag we had in or cabin, plus our beach bags and other luggage, and throw everything in so it was portable… no need to cram it all tightly which would have taken way more time!), and we called for a porter to help move our bags. By 10:45pm, everything was unloaded in the new cabin and we decided to head down to the 11:15pm adult comedy show so at least we could do one fun thing tonight!

Tonight’s comedian was Lou Johnson and he did a whole set about cruising. I guess he really knows his audience! He didn’t waste any time making fun of people in the front row like most comedians do… The whole 30 minute act was filled with hilarious content about his experiences working on cruise ships. If you have a chance to go, I would definitely recommend seeing Lou Johnson’s act!

After that, we got back to the cabin at midnight, ordered some grilled cheese from room service, and spent an hour unpacking and getting settled in our new home for the rest of the week. Overall, the experience with the clanging noise was a hassle and it wasn’t ideal to waste time on our vacation dealing with it, but we thought Carnival handled the situation fairly and took care of us.

Mr. Monkey was waiting to say goodnight

Up next: our only day at sea, spent mostly outside on our new balcony!!

Cruise

Carnival Valor Cruise ~ Day 4, Part 2

March 30, 2015 deladane Leave a comment

Later, we left the ship to go back to the duty free shop to buy some fancy champagne for my birthday. They made us exit down to the ground floor before reentering the terminal to get to the duty free shop. While we were downstairs, we decided to leave the port to go take a quick photo with the ship in the background…

After we got back into the terminal and bought a nice bottle of champagne, we went through the same security point as before. This time, when we got to the guard at the end of the tunnel on the outer deck of the ship, he did search our shopping bag from the duty free store because we didn’t have anywhere to hide it, but that was no big deal because everyone is allowed to bring 2 bottles of wine/champagne per cabin on board. This was our 3rd bottle of champagne for the cabin but no one was keeping track that we already brought 2 bottles on board haha

Tonight we had reservations for dinner at the steakhouse. The main dining room has open seating on the first night of cruises from San Juan because of the late all-aboard time and muster drill. I remember the service being sub-par on the first night of my 2012 cruise, so we wanted to avoid that experience tonight. I have never eaten at a steakhouse on a cruise before so I didn’t have anything to compare this experience to, but was excited to try something new.

We purposely booked our dinner on the first night of the cruise to take advantage of the free bottle of wine. When we arrived, our waitress said we could either order a bottle of the house red or white wine, or we could have 50% off the purchase of a different bottle if we preferred. We opted to upgrade to a bottle of Kendall Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Sauvignon Blanc since I had read reviews indicating that the free bottle of wine is not very good. Also, the dress code at the steakhouse is more relaxed on the first night… They would have allowed us to wear shorts, and I think it is considered ‘cruise casual’ like the regular dining room on the first night.

Here is our waitress showing us what each cut of meat looks like:

Ordering dinner at the steakhouse is different from in the main dining room- you are allowed to order one soup/salad and one appetizer, or two appetizers if you prefer, one entree, and one dessert. I ordered the escargots bourguignonne and beef carpaccio for my appetizers, the surf and turf for my entree, and the cheesecake for dessert. We could also order a side dish so I had the sautéed mushrooms. I thought the food was excellent, but I think I liked my dishes more than J did, as he said his filet mignon was bland.

First, they gave us a little something courtesy of the chef. I was given a tiny bowl of tomato soup but J was kind enough to trade with me because I don’t like tomatoes. Here is my teeny tiny hamburger. It was yummy!

I expected the food to be very good and I wanted to make sure I had enough space in my stomach to try everything, so I purposely ordered things that I knew came in smaller portions. I think that was a good decision because everything was delicious and I was able to enjoy it all without feeling overly stuffed! The downside to eating at the steakhouse was that the plague of very slow service struck again. It took 40 minutes to get bread on the table, let alone our appetizers. We had 6:30pm reservations and they had to rush us through dessert at 8:45pm because the muster drill was about to start.

After dinner, we ran back down to our cabin and waited for them to announce that it was time to go to our muster station. Our steward already got to our cabin for turn-down service and left this little guy on our bed…

While we were waiting for muster, we heard this strange clanging noise. We couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but it sounded like it came from the closets or the bathroom. The noise sounded like pieces of metal banging together, and we heard a loud “clang” every 3-5 seconds. We didn’t know what it was but decided to ignore it and hoped it would stop soon.

They called for everyone to go to their muster stations at around 9:40pm. Luckily it was a cool night so it was comfortable to stand out on deck 4. The drill lasted about 15 minutes total, then they released one side at a time (port side went first… of course we were on the starboard side). We went straight up to deck 10 forward to the secret deck to wait for sail away. I was greatly looking forward to this as I have sailed from Puerto Rico twice before, but I have yet to watch the sail away. On my Celebrity cruise, my dinner time was during sail away (they have fixed dining times on embarkation day and sail away was at 8pm), and it was raining during sail away for my Victory cruise so they moved the party inside to the disco. I had my fingers crossed that the weather would hold out for us this time around so I could see the city and the forts as we sailed away, and I was not disappointed! We were the only ones out there for a while, but 5 or so people joined us by the time the ship sailed away. This made for a pretty amazing place for a mostly private view as we sailed past OSJ and the forts.

Once we got past El Morro, the view turned to total darkness as we sailed out into the ocean. We went back down to the Lido deck and joined the Cruise Critic meet and greet party for a few minutes, then went to guest services to let them know about the clanging noise. The girl at guest services came back to our cabin with us, but we didn’t hear the noise so we figured it had fixed itself. We thanked her and she left so we could get ready for bed, looking forward to a day in St. Thomas tomorrow!

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Carnival Valor Cruise ~ Day 4, Part 1

March 29, 2015 deladane Leave a comment

Sunday, March 15 ~ The Tides of March

Nearly 8 months after booking our cruise, it was finally embarkation day!! We went to breakfast at Waffle-Era, a little restaurant 2 blocks from our hotel.

They had a huge menu with lots of regular or iced teas, and tons of sweet and savory waffles. The waitress spent a few minutes reviewing the menu with us and suggesting the most popular options. It was a bit overwhelming, but in a good way! They serve their waffles either as a half- or whole-portion, so we decided to get a whole Caneloide for me so I could give one quarter of it to J, and J ordered a half-portion of the Honey Almond Blues. We each had ¾ of a waffle and it was the perfect amount (we wanted to avoid over-eating, knowing how much food we’d eat for the next week!).

After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and grabbed a taxi to the cruise port. We arrived at the terminal at 10am, and there were about 30 people already waiting to board. They were still debarking passengers from the previous cruise, but they opened the doors at 10:30am and we entered terminal by 10:40am. They directed us up the escalators where they first took our embarkation photos and then directed us to line up for check in. It took until 11:10am to get checked in because they only had 5 or 6 people working the counter. No worries though! We chatted with the couple standing on line in front of us, and before we knew it, it was our turn to check in. I was shocked that we got zone 1 since I thought that was usually reserved for Platinum/Diamond/FTTF, but I later realized that they just board those passengers separately before starting to call the zone numbers. The cruise terminal in San Juan has very limited seating, but since we were so early, we easily found seats.

Luckily, we didn’t need to use our chairs for very long… They started boarding at 11:30am, called zone 1 at 11:40am, and we were on the ship at 11:45am!! Let the cruise begin!!!

We went right to our cabin and it was ready so we dropped off our luggage and went up to the Lido buffet for lunch. This was my first time cruising on a ship with Mongolian Wok so I knew I wanted to try it out today! It is set up with empty bowls at the end of the line and you get to take as much as you want of two types of noodles and about 10 different veggies. When you get to the front of the line, there are 3 protein options (chicken, beef or lamb, and a seafood option) and only the chef handles the raw ingredients. Finally, you choose a sauce: black bean is mild, Thai BBQ is a little spicy, and schezwan is very spicy. I always enjoy made-to-order food options because I am picky about ingredients, so this was my ideal meal! The steaming hot bowl of noodles was as delicious as I had hoped!

After lunch, we went back to the cabin to unpack. While the decor is a bit dated (the orange color scheme screams 70’s to me!), and the furniture is a bit banged up and shows its age, the cabin was clean and well laid out. I liked that the bed was on the far end of the cabin and the living space was closer to the bathroom and closets. There was more than enough storage for the 2 of us (we didn’t even need to use the big drawers under the couch), and we had enough floor space to walk around without tripping over each other.

As you can see in the photo, they did upgrade the tv set in our cabin. While I could care less what type of tv set they have since we rarely turned the tv on, I did like that the flat screen tv gave us access to a second electric outlet! We had to unplug the tv to access the outlet, but who cares? The flexibility of a second outlet was way more valuable than whatever sales pitch for shore excursions was airing on the tv haha

I already mentioned that we purchased a few bottles of liquor last night. Just like when I cruised on the Victory in 2012, it was very easy to smuggle our alcohol onboard. We put the Gasolinas and liquor in a separate small bag. When we went through the X-rays, they put an orange zip tie on the handle of the bag. After we walked away from the X-rays and were out of sight, I put the tagged liquor bag into a larger beach tote with the zip tie hidden on the bottom. Once we got through the tunnel and up onto the ship, we just carried the tote bag and the rest of our carry-ons past the guard as if everything was normal. They had a table set up to the left where I assume they were collecting contraband liquor bottles, but we had to walk to the right to get to the doors to enter the lobby, so we probably wouldn’t have seen the table if we didn’t know to look for it. No one questioned us at all and it was a very easy process. I know this is a very controversial topic on Cruise Critic, and I we did also purchase several drinks from the bars on board so it’s not like we didn’t pay for our fair share of drinks. We just wanted to have a few bottles to mix our own drinks in our cabin while we were getting changed for dinner or whatever. Here is our supplies for the week (not pictured: the 3 bottles of club soda and several cans of Rockstar energy drink since I don’t drink coffee but need a caffeine source… they were part of our soda allowance though, so not technically contraband!)…

After unpacking, we spent the afternoon in a hammock on Serenity deck while sipping on our Funship Specials. That drink really does pack a punch! I was a bit disappointed that they no longer have the souvenir cups that say “Best Day Ever,” especially considering they still charge the same price as when the drink did include the souvenir!

We also took some time to walk around the ship and take some silly photos…

Cruise

Carnival Valor Cruise ~ Day 3, Part 2

March 28, 2015 deladane Leave a comment

By now, it was 2:30pm and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast so we were starving. We considered walking across the city to Punto de Vista (where we originally planned to eat dinner last night but didn’t get to because of our delayed flights), but we knew it would take at least 20 minutes and then we would have to walk back to the west side of the city to continue touring. On the way, we past a restaurant called El Patio de Sam on Calle San Sebastian advertising their trifongo. The menu looked good so we decided to eat there instead. We were seated on their beautiful enclosed patio:

The menu was a little pricey for lunch, with $15 each for chicken mofongo and trifongo, but we were on vacation and knew we wanted to try the local cuisine, so we ordered it anyway. Both dishes were excellent and totally different! We had never tried it before and didn’t know what to expect. While both are made from mashed plantains, the mofongo is has the consistency of lumpy chunky mashed potatoes, whereas the trifongo is deep fried and crispy. I had read a few reviews where people mentioned that the mofongo is only good with a sauce on top, so we got the creamy garlic sauce for both dishes and it was delicious! I seriously wish I could have that for dinner tonight haha

Trifongo:

Mofongo:

While the food was excellent, the service was verrrrrry slow. We were there for over an hour and a half! I was starting to get the feeling that it wasn’t as much the individual restaurants providing slow service, but rather a cultural difference. We were tourists with things to do and places to see. We didn’t want to spend half the afternoon eating lunch. I think the Caribbean and Puerto Rican culture is more leisurely and slow-paced, so to them, it is normal to leave us alone and let us enjoy our meals. Unfortunately, we were hoping to eat a quick lunch and get on our way to continue exploring the town. I guess we weren’t quite relaxed and in full vacation mode yet!

Anyway, once we left the restaurant, we out through the old city gate:

We walked along the outer side of the fort walls and along Paseo del Morro until we reach the fountain and Paseo de la Princesa.

There was a little street fair with a few vendors and places to buy snacks. J got a small cup of coffee to drink as we walked around.

We continued a little further until we reached the CVS on Calle Marina near the cruise ship ports. Since we only used carry on bags, we both needed to buy big bottles of suntan lotion. The prices were basically the same as a regular CVS in the States. We also bought a bottle of champagne to bring on the ship. We then went back to hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.

Barrachina was located directly around the corner from our hotel. I called the restaurant in January to make a 7:15pm reservation for the flamenco show. We were seated in the 3rd row of tables, and immediately ordered some pina coladas. Barrachina claims that they invented the pina colada. I don’t know if that is really true or not, but either way, the drinks were very good!

We both ordered the chicken caribeno for our dinners and it was light and tasty.

The flamenco show lasted for one hour and it was very entertaining. They had 4 girls and 1 guy who took turns dancing and they were all very talented. It made for a unique way to enjoy our dinner.

After dinner, we went to the SuperMax supermarket in the Plaza de Armas. We bought an 8 pack of cans of Diet Pepsi, 3 bottles of club soda, one bottle of champagne (we intended to make mimosas at breakfast so we needed a lot of champagne haha), and 2 boxes of Gasolinas. I am fairly sure that you can only buy Gasolina in Puerto Rico. It is basically a Capri Sun for adults! They have a few flavors like rum punch and mojito, and are filled with vodka/rum/tequilla based fruity drinks in individual pouches with a straw inside so you can drink it on the go. It was perfect to bring in our tote bags to the beach! And even better, it only cost $1 per pouch! Can’t beat that!!

We then went to the Walgreens right across from the SuperMax and bought a bottle of whiskey and pineapple rum. By the time we got back to the hotel, my pedometer said we walked nearly 18,000 steps today! Being on vacation is hard work! haha

Up next: Embarkation Day!

Cruise

Carnival Valor Cruise ~ Day 3, Part 1

March 26, 2015 deladane Leave a comment

Saturday, March 14 ~ Do they have pie in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico for Pi Day?

After a comfortable night’s sleep, we woke up ready toenjoy a full day of exploring Old San Juan, Puerto Rico! We left the hotel and walked 4 blocks east to have breakfast at Cafe Mallorca. When we arrived at around 10am, it was busy, but there was a table available for us to be seated immediately. I loved that they had a guy playing a trumpet at the front of the restaurant… such a quaint atmosphere!

We both ordered mallorcas with eggs and cheese. While the waiter was quick to take our orders and bring us our food, we had very slow service in waiting for our bill, and then we had to wait in a slow-moving line to pay at the register in the front of the restaurant.

We left the restaurant at around 11am and walked a few blocks to San Cristobal fort. With little white puffy clouds dotting the sky, the views from the fort were amazing! We spent a little over an hour walking around and taking lots of photos.

The view looking back towards the cruise pier… tomorrow, the Valor will be docked here and waiting for us to board!!

Looking west towards El Morro fort

I found a fun app that lets you edit your photos with lots of different effects. I really love how these turned out….

After we finished at El Cristobal fort, we spent 20 minutes walking through the city to El Morro fort. The walk was mostly flat with a few moments of uphill climb, and there were narrow sidewalks the whole way. I love the cobblestone streets and how colorful all of the buildings are!

This must be the most beautiful cemetery in the world!

It was very windy as we walked across the huge lawn to the front of El Morro (notice my hair blowing in the wind!) There were lots of people flying kites and enjoying a picnic with their families on the lawn. If I lived in San Juan, I imagine that I would spend a ton of time out here too!

We spent another hour or so walking around El Morro and taking photos. There were brief periods of light rain, and very dark skies in the distance, but it was tolerable and there were plenty of places to seek cover from the rain.