Carnival Cruises, Valor, Exotic Western Caribbean

Our previous 8 cruises have been with Princess and have been mostly pleased with each one. This time we decided to try Carnival due our short drive from Houston to Galveston to catch the cruise as well as the 4-day cruise option offered by Carnival Valor. (Dec 22-26, 2017)

Overall, we were very disappointed with the cruise. It started out on the wrong foot. We had purchased the Faster To Fun package which expedites the onboarding process. This includes having your cabin ready as soon as you board. Our room was not ready and the stewards were unaware that our room was on the Faster To Fun list. Needless to say, we had to wait for our room to be finished before we could unpack.

There were rusted areas on our balcony and the glass balcony rail was very dirty. Windows throughout the ship were equally dirty.

The buffet area needed some maintenance. There were missing toppers on the poles supporting the sneeze shields.

Our room steward left our trash unemptied and a used pool towel lying in the couch for two days.

I have to use a CPAR and due to the lack of plug-ins, the steward had to bring a long extension cord to run across the entirety of the room floor to my side of the bed.

The musical entertainment lacked a lot to be desired. One couple that played very old country only, another couple that played salsa, one single man playing some contemporary music.

My wife and I both got sick after one breakfast in the buffet. Probably had something to do with the really greasy bacon that we tried to wipe dry.

We ate most of our meals in the Washington or Lincoln dining rooms. The evening meals have a dress code which does not include shorts, flip-flops or t-shirts. However, this was always overlooked by the staff and let anybody in regardless of how poorly they were dressed for the occasion. I’m not being snobby about this but if we take the time to pack and dress according to the requirements, I think others should as well. And the staff should enforce the rules.

Also, the staff at the Lincoln dining room needs to learn the difference between an appetizer and main course. These do not get served at the same time.

There were multiple instances of rude staff at various locations on the ship. However, bar staff at the casino were excellent.

We’ll go back to Princess cruises and will also consider Royal Caribbean. I had always heard that that food and entertainment were better on those two cruise lines than Carnival and now we believe it.

I went on a cruise with the Carnival Valor for my Honeymoon. It was wonderful. Although they could have offered us a few more luxuries such as champagne upon entering and on formal night the service was great.

Everyone that worked on board were very positive and friendly. When we saw our dinning room waiters during the day they made an effort to come over and speak to us, inquire how our day was and what we had planned. We came to really enjoy speaking with them and ended up giving a few people extra tips on top of the tips they charge you every day per person.

We were originally placed at table with some very talkative and annoying guests and I made a request to have a private table even though they were fully booked and they made that change the very next night.

Our stateroom attendants were very nice, we had some trouble with the drain in the shower over flowing and we called and they came right away and fixed it.

The room was comfortable, they made the bed in the morning and in the evening and they made these very cute and very creative animals out of the towels, a new one every night witch I thought was a very creative touch.

They only had one iron and ironing board available per floor in the laundry room so the wait to use it especially on formal night was long.

Breakfast lunch and dinner was great, the food was good and they offered food from different countries or culture every day along with the usual food.

The pizzeria was open 24 hours and it was fairly good.

They didn't have an ice cream bar they had a self serve soft ice cream machine with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. They could have used an ice cream bar with more flavors. And the machines were out of service a lot due to the abundance of people using it.

The shows were good so was the comedian

They had a few night clubs which played a variety of music and were quite enjoyable.

They could have used more interesting activities during the day with a bit more variety.

I loved the deck, there were a few levels and many places to sit at night and they had an outdoor screen to watch movies which was excellent.

They had a water slide even though the pool was rather small as I found them to be on many ships that I have been on.

The ship was very nice inside impeccably decorated. The valor had presidential themes and very rich colors and very appealing art work through out the ship. The grand entrance was beautiful and the glass elevators which overlooked the entrance were very nice.

The spa was also very nice, the services were great. I booked a hot stone massage and since I was the last customer for the lady that was doing the massage she also did a complimentary leg and foot massage which was great.

We did have a bit of a line to get off and on the ship at the ports and they didn't offer cool towels and drinks upon entering as they did on some of the other cruises I have been on.

The cruise director Gary was very personable and funny! We found ourselves watching his appearances a couple times on the TV and laughing at his fast wit and humor. He gave us excellent advice on which ports we should book an excursion and which ports we could go off and find our own excursion that would be cheaper.

The information provided on the TV was excellent. You could even check the dinner menu in the grand restaurant for that night right from your TV. As well as shore excursions and events and shows that you missed.

The excursions are a bit expensive. We booked two through the ship, a city tour and air boating in Belize and the beach, jungle and monkey tour in Rotan Honduras. They both went very smoothly and were very organized and enjoyable.

We were also allowed to take two bottles of wine per stateroom which was good as drinks can add up very fast on these cruises.

I did think that the fountain drinks should offer more variety. They offer ice tea, lemonade and water along with some other juices but they were very sweet and didn't taste all that great, we drank water most of the time. I think soda should be included in your all inclusive trip package.

The people at the front desk in guest services very friendly and helpful in fact the friendliness of the staff was one of the things that stuck out the most to us the service was fantastic.

They didn't seem to be able to make too many changes to the dinning requests in terms of food, taking out a particular sauce or substituting something you didn't want with something else but the food was good.

Over all it was a pleasant trip and I will defiantly sail with Carnival again.

Happy cruising I hope this helps.