Carnival Valor Review

Mid-20's From Canada - First Time Carnival Cruiser

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Valor
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habsfan93
First Time Cruiser • Age 30s

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Sail Date: Jan 2009

The Ship The ship was easy enough to learn and navigate, after about a day of orienting ourselves, we pretty much had the lay of the land down pat. Easy to get just about anywhere, and I liked that you never had to walk through any smoke filled areas to get anywhere, there were always alternative "clean air" pathways to every part of the ship. The decor was absolutely gaudy, a true tribute to Americana - even the floors were tiled American flags. Every elevator had a golden bald eagle next to it. The atrium was surrounded by busts of former American presidents and other major figures. A little self-indulgent maybe, but after a day or two, I stopped even paying attention and more or less ignored the design.

We were a little worried about the smoking on the ship, seeing as how we value the air we breathe, but were pleased to see that it was quite controlled. Smoking indoors was only allowed in the casino and bars, which was fine with us. Walking through the casino, it was only noticeable for a few minutes, although when I left the casino, my clothes smelled like smoke, which was unfortunate. In the bars we were careful to sit away from smokers, and it was never an issue. Outdoors, smoking was only allowed on one side of the ship and even then, we very rarely ever noticed smoking outdoors.

Other features of the boat included 3 small pools and 5 hot tubs (all located directly adjacent to one of the pools). One of the pools and two of the hot tubs are in an "adults-only" area which was accurate - we never saw kids in this area throughout the week. The pools were nice though a little cold for our tastes. They mostly stayed empty for most of the week, never really saw more than 5-6 people in a pool at any given time. They were definitely smaller than we had expected. The hot tubs were much busier throughout the week, though several of them could be better described as "warm" tubs. The two hot tubs in adults-only area were hotter than the others.

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