Carnival Valor Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,524 reviews

First time cruising with young kids

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Valor
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jjconvert39
6-10 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Mar 2014
Traveled with children

We cruised on the Carnival Valor on March 30, 2014. This was our first cruise with kids so I did a lot of research. My husband and I have cruised many times before kids, but it has been awhile. Our kids are both boys, ages 4 ¾ and 7. I did not find much research based on families with young kids so I hope this review helps others. I copied and pasted good reviews and made my own research document from other’s postings. First of all, I took our own lifejackets. Seems like a big waste of space in the suitcase but it was worth it. My younger one does not know how to swim so he wore it in the pools on the ship and at the beaches. My older one wore his, at times, at the beach. We flew into San Juan a day before the ship left and stayed at the Marriott. It has a great pool and plenty of beach space to hang out. We had a Walgreens located across the street and we bought some snacks, pop and bottled water to carry on the ship. They let you do that and ask your room steward to unlock and empty the fridge so you can use it for your own stuff. Our fridge was not very cold but we just went and got ice. You can also carry on 1 bottle of wine per adult. Bring your own corkscrew. We had some wine on our balcony while the ship was leaving a port or after the kids were in bed.

Some things to consider packing with kids: life jackets or floaties or even little life rings. Something they can float on in the water. We took some sand toys too and they were used but probably wouldn’t be missed if we didn’t take them. Most beach places we went to had toys for the kids. Plastic pant/skirt hangers that have the clips on them. We used these to hang our bathing suits on the clothesline in the shower to dry overnight. I recommend some clothes pins to space them out since they all wanted to slide together. Also pack a sweater or something for evening time in the air conditioning. It can get a little chilly, same with airplane. A power strip since there is only 1 outlet in the whole cabin. Definitely came in handy. Also bring your own blowdryer. The one supplied is very loud and not powerful.

The food was ok. We used to be wowed by the food on previous cruises but the quality has gone down. We had milk in cartons for breakfast and even though it wasn’t spoiled, mold was growing on the inside of the carton. Most of the buffet places had weird hours so even though they talk about how you eat all the time, you can’t. We opted to not go to the dining room one night and do the buffet. It was closed. Our only option was the 24hour pizza or deli.

Cabin Review

We were in cabin 8296. Deck 8 balcony with king bed and bunk beds. Pretty nice for the 4 of us. There was just enough space for us. Our suitcases fit under the bed so that freed up some floor space. I contacted Carnival prior to the cruise to try and find out how high the bathroom counter was to see if I needed to bring, or if they had, a footstool for my younger one. They did not have stools available or the height of the counter. I measured it myself and it is 31” from floor to top of counter. No foot stool needed.

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