This was a two family cruise which we planned as a budget alternative to longer and larger cruise. For my wife and I, we had never cruised with Carnival. For the first time, we drove to the port from home in TN. We stayed the night prior in Gainesville, FL and took a leisurely drive the next morning via I-75 and the Turnpike to the port. (We have a Sunpass so that makes it pretty easy). Embarkation at Port Canaveral was very smooth. We arrived about noon and parked at the terminal which was very convenient. Our checked bags were taken right before entering the main building and we proceeded with our documents to get our cruise card. From the time we parked to the time we were on board was about 30 mijnutes..pretty fast I thought.

Initial impressions of the Valor were very good. Clean ship with a good variety of things to see and do as we prepared to sail. Next up was the emergency drill. Took about 20 minutes to get through that and seemed pretty well organized. Sail away had us hitting the buffet line with the rest of the crowd and a piece of Pizza. Not bad but pretty much regular buffet fair what you might see at a land based buffet....Right off the bat, noticed not much emphasis on use of hand sanitizer (as we've seen on 3 other cruise lines) which was surprising considering lots and lots of kids doing what kids do. Before leaving the port we downloaded the Carnival Hub app on our phones. There are options to buy a wireless plans and a chat plan which seemed a pretty good idea, but opted out. Instead I used it to keep up with our account balance, used the map feature and schedule of events. Pretty nice utility.

First stop was in Freeport. Kind of an "industrial" looking port areas...we chose to stay aboard this day with a quick jaunt to the shops pier side to have some fried Conch which was really, really good. Spent the day at the pools and lounging in the sun. We bought the drink packages(Cheers) and the soda package (bubbles) for the son...think it turned out to be a pretty good value. This was the night of our one and only "formal" night of this 4 night cruise. Ate in the Washington Dining room with the family (7 of us) with Stephens as our waiter. Really great guy who was particularly attentive to the 3 boys...remembered everyones names and what all our preferences were on succeeding meals in the dining room. We took in the comedy show at 10:30 in the Eagles Lounge. Nice venue and comfortable. By the time everyone was seated and show began, it really went fast. His set was barely 30 minutes before they had to clear everyone out for the next show which started at 11:30. Think maybe the last show might be the best option...perhaps the set lasts a bit longer. Read more