Carnival Valor Review
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This was a “Christmas / 60th Wedding Anniversary” cruise that included 9 family members. We chose the Carnival Valor based on the timeframe and the destinations since my parents had never visited any of the Caribbean islands. This was my tenth cruise and ultimately confirmed my theory that “a cruise is 90% what YOU make of it”.
Things started off on a positive note when we all converged at the Coca Beach Best Western the day before our sailing. In addition to comfortable accommodations, the BW offers two cruise parking options: a voucher for 40% off parking at the cruise terminal, or a “Park –n- Shuttle” from the hotel. My wife, son & I chose the “park at the terminal” option since we needed to get on the road for our 777 mile journey back home, while my parents, sister & family chose to leave their vehicles and get shuttled to the terminal.
Though the check-in process was fairly smooth and we all arrived at the terminal before noon, only eight of the nine pieces of luggage my parents & company brought with them made it on board the Valor. LONG Story Short: one (very important) piece of luggage found its way onto the next pier and on board the Carnival Sunshine. Needless to say, this situation put a major damper on this cruise when we found out late that first night after getting underway that the luggage was not only on a different ship, but there was no way Carnival could get the luggage to my parents anytime during our cruise. It seems the Sunshine was hitting every port we were – except that it was visiting those ports AFTER we did. Due to “homeland security regulations”, Carnival was not able to ship the luggage ahead to one of our future ports. {Note: if security was such a concern, then how in the heck did a piece of luggage clearly labeled w/ a VALOR tag wind up on the SUNSHINE? And why wasn’t the problem rectified during the four plus hours before either ship got underway?] So the first day at sea was pretty much shot dealing with Guest Services and the “case of the missing luggage”. Luckily, the weather was not very conducive to “laying out & catching rays”.