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After spending 3 lovely days on the beautiful island of Barbados, we embarked on the Victory at the Port of Barbados, a painless process, very quick and easy, both on and off at the end of our voyage. What we didn't anticipate and weren't advised by Virgin Travel was having to disembark at Puerto Rico to go through US Immigration and Customs and then queue with all those joining the ship at San Juan to get back on board. This was very unpleasant as there was no shelter from the sun when in line, it was hot and sticky, very tiring and waste of time. I had registered with US Homeland Security for a Visa Waiver certificate prior to leaving the UK, but the Immigration Official didn't seem to know about the ESTA regulations and we had to fill out another waiver form and the usual grilling.
My husband and I sailed in the Carnival Valor last September from Miami to the Western Caribbean and expected to undergo the US Immigration procedure sailing from a US port. but the above process is ridiculous.
The Victory itself is jaded, although our cabin was quite spacious and cleaned every day, the carpet was filthy and stained, the toilet blocked up 3 times and the shower had an extra spray from a leaking valve. The beds however were very comfortable and the linen was as new.
When we joined the Valor at Miami, our cabin steward introduced himself and was very hands on. We didn't even find out the name of the steward on the Victory
The service at the late sitting in the Pacific dining room was slow although the waiting on staff were lovely. We waited 45 minutes on the first night for our starter, this improved slightly on subsequent evenings. The food wasn't as good as on the Valor which was excellent.
The Lido dining room was messy, tables were left uncleared and the staff had a couldn't care less attitude although the food was quite good especially from the deli and the desserts were to die for.
The evening entertainment was mediocre apart from the 2 Revue nights which were excellent, singers and dancers were outstanding. We watched 2 late night adult comedy shows, the first one was very funny and the other pathetic, only about a dozen people in the lounge for this guy.
We enjoyed the casino and had a flutter but the drinks were very expensive with a 15% service charge even though we had already paid for our gratuities in the price of our package. Beware UK cruisers, the travel agents don't let you know about this. Dewar's Scotch was $7.25 a shot, about £5 in UK money, a bit annoying when Dewars is at the bottom end of the Whisky market.
All in all, quite disappointed with this ship, have sailed with Carnival a number of times and this was not in the same league.
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