Carnival Valor Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,524 reviews

Best vacation ever!

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Valor

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Sail Date: Mar 2008
Traveled with children

Not sure about cruising?  Well, I wasn't either.  I went any way and had the time of my life.  I took my husband and 6 year old daughter who absolutely loved Camp Carnival. We visited Grand Cayman, Isla Roatan-Honduras, Belize City-Belize and Cozumel, Mexico. Tips: 1. Plan excursions well in advance especially if you have young children or are on a tight budget. They fill up quickly and there's not much to do at some ports unless you have planned an excursion. Don't think of an excursion as missing out on the islands. They are a great way to experience them. 2. Take sunscreen, advil and a lot of motion sickness medicine. The boat rocks and the higher you are or if you are in the very back or front it is going to be worse. 3. Don't go crazy buying a lot of clothes. You won't need them. Take three outfits for a seven day cruise and spend a few minutes one night to wash them. You will need some downtime before dinner. 4. Speaking of dinner, if you have little ones plan your dinner early. Generally, you will be back on the boat around 4:00 and will have plenty of time to shower for a 6:00 dinner. The kids can even nap. If you reserve an 8:00 dinner be prepared to miss all of the performances and have your worn out tots sleeping at dinner. Dinner, by the way is awesome. 5. Balconies are best. I can't imagine not having one. I can't tell you how special it is to sail up to an island early in the morning as the sun is coming up over the ocean and the breeze is so fresh. You can run to Rosie's restaurant and get your coffee and pastries early and sit on your balcony taking it all in. Balconies are useful for tanning and are VERY PRIVATE if you ladies know what I am getting at... 6. Book your flight home immediately after your ship docks so you won't have to wait at the airport for 10 hours like we did. It can be very boring. Oh and buy travel insurance. It is cheap and it is worth the money. We used ours on our first cruise. 7. Take your bags with you when you get off the transport from the airport. Don't let the guys out front take your bags onto the ship. For one thing they are rough with your stuff. Secondly, it is not that big of a deal to carry them on and then you have your stuff to swim in once you get on board. if the guys take your bags you won't have your things in time for dinner and you'll be walking around the ship in your dirty clothes for the rest of the afternoon watching everyone else have fun. 8. Belize-ladies hold your children. Husbands watch your wives. If you cross the iron gates be prepared to get hounded to have your hair braided by 200 skinny women who want to make a couple of dollars. Also, my husband stayed behind while I took our daughter back to the ship to rest. He was solicited for several adult things which I will not go into detail about but i am sure you get the picture. So, don't leave your husbands. 9. Leave room in your suitcases for souvenirs because Cozumel has awesome shopping. Don't shop at the mall right when you get off the boat. Walk to the left a little and you will spend about 80% less on your souvenirs. 10. Honduras-go to Gumbalimba Park. My pictures look like a Corona commercial. It was so perfect in so many ways. There is so much to do: fresh water pool, shopping, canopy zip line tours, a botanical garden, a pirate adventure, authentic cooking (ask the owner and he'll let you eat at the workers' hut), monkeys, tropical birds, snuba, beaches, handmade hammocks and jewelry, I could go on and on. 11. Grand Cayman-plan an excursion. That is all I am going to say. Just plan an excursion. And not the turtle farm either. Plan one-seriously. 12. Ship board entertainment- we are not late night folks. We don't gamble. We don't drink. We don't swim. We don't dance. We still had a blast. There is something for even the most boring people (like us) to do. 13. Camp Carnival- I did not think my picky daughter would go. She did not want to leave it. She wanted to eat there, sleep there, dance there, do everything there. We had to make her come to the islands with us. She would have been perfectly happy staying on the ship. Parents have no guilt. Camp Carnival is coming to the rescue. You will not have to entertain your kids like at some other vacations. I won't say which ones but there is one in particular that starts with a D and ends with a WORLD. HMMMM????? 14. Most importantly, have fun. Have that drink you don't get to have because you are always caring for the kids. Buy that expensive plate of chocolate covered strawberries you won't find as good anywhere else. Go scuba diving for the first time and enjoy it.

Cabin Review

Cabin 11
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