Carnival Valor Review

Valor - Excellent time for first family cruise

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Valor
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ShazzMan
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Mar 2009
Traveled with children

Excellent Time. First cruise ever. Loved time. Traveled March Break 2009. Boarding - very easy and well organized. Amazing that they loaded so many people so easily. Cabin - very nice. Kids fought over who got bunkbed. Had balcony view. No noise from neighbors. Little tight on space, but overall was spacious enough. Cabin attendant very nice and very thoughtful and helpful. Always clean. Towel animals were nice surprise too. Food - never ate bkfast in main dining room. Always ate at Rosie's on D9. Very good selection of foods, many foods on demand. Tables always available as waiters always cleaned off tables fast. Main dining room food very good. Waiter very friendly and good service. Sat alone though (didn't share table). Good selections of food. Kids Camp - had a great time. Although for 5 year old, he was stuck with ages 2-5 and not allowed to go into next level (6-9). Counselors very good with kids and very friendly. Liked that they gave a cell phone if your kid needed something. Babysitting was cheap for after hours. Kids had great time with arts crafts, activities, scavenger hunt... It was really important that kids have good time and they did. Water Activities - kids loved water slide and pools. Lots of activity at pool though (busy time). One pool was closed due to repairs for a few days. Entertainment - hung out at Karaoke bar alot, had great time. Lots of entertainment. Magic show sucked though. He did only a few tricks and too much dancing and audience participation. Get on with the magic dude. Final Saturday show was great: I got to sing (hint: Karaoke bar DJ looks for guests to perform in final show). Casino was OK, but sometimes too smoky. Lots of activity over the place. Guest Services Desk - very knowledgeable and friendly. Fitness - didn't use the gym or spa. Dislikes: 1. Photographers - constantly hawking photos. yes there is no obligation but felt like we were accosted a lot to take photos. 2. Smoking Cigar bar - stupid to have such a huge cigar lounge when nobody was there. Stupid to have to walk through lounge to get to internet cafe or to get to front of ship. Carnival should really reduce size of lounge to a quarter of the size. I never saw more than 2 people in the lounge. 3. Waiters Hawking Drinks - drink prices were not too bad, but again felt accosted by waiters trying to hawk the fruity drink specials in special glasses... 4. Costa Maya destination - what a dud of a place. It's an up and coming place but it has a lot of upping and coming to do. 5. Carnival Ship Map - to nitpick, discovery map should show what decks go all through the ship.

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