This is the third cruise our family has taken and we were intrigued by the itinerary.  We're big snorkelers and since the Pacific Ocean near our home is at 58 degrees year-round, need to go long ways to warm water.  We live near San Francisco, have family and friends in Houston, so our first two cruises were on the Carnival Ecstasy and the Carnival Conquest out of Galveston in 2005 and 2006.  My husband just turned 60, our son graduated from high school last year and he and his best friend had been saving to take a cruise together, so we thought the Valor would be just the ticket. Carnival makes embarkation very easy, we flew Jet Blue (highly recommend it!) from SFO to Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday and planned to spend the night in Miami and board the cruise on Sun.  Our plane left one of it's brake assemblies in Austin on our stop there, so we got to learn how to "brace" for an airline crash as our flight was diverted to Orlando.  They had a longer runway than Ft. Lauderdale, and they needed all the runway they could get to brake a disabled jet.  The landing went smoothly (thank God!), we applauded the pilot on his finesse and were on our way to Ft Lauderdale at midnight, so not much time to see Miami.The Valor is very well appointed, but it still took us a few days to figure out where everything was.  The waiters and restaurant were very nice (enjoyed Rudy and Made in the Washington Upper dining room), the food was above average (we don't go on cruises for food), we go for the ports of call.  Cruising is a great way to see the world on a budget, of time and money.  My husband and I are both self-employed, so when we're on vacation, we're not earning money, so we need a lot of bang for the buck.  Cruising provides the traveling we need and it's a great "all-inclusive" vacation.We reserved a balcony and our boys had a separate inside cabin.  Our steward, Raymond, on Deck 8 was the hardest working steward we have ever had.  He was a delight and I know did a super job for all his rooms.  Tough job, 7 or 8 months at sea, no days off!  Whew, those people that work on cruise ships (most of them anyway) are amazing!Great balcony cabin, #8309 (starboard side of ship).  It was very nice, clean and we loved lounging on the balcony when we needed to get away from the crowds.  EXCEPT the starboard side of the ship allows smoking and often we had to close our balcony door to keep our room from filling with smoke constantly.  Our next door neighbors smoked up a storm all the time.  They must have kept the shops in business with all the cigarettes they bought.  They were kind enough to drop their "butts" on the ground, which kept blowing over to our balcony.  We unfortunately were just under the Lido deck pool area, I can still hear the scraping of chairs, all day all night.  On the ship's party night, the music kept us up way beyond midnight.  Other than that (and inconsiderate neighbors that felt the need to scream in the halls and their rooms at 2:00 am) our room was the best!Will never cruise again without reserving a balcony.  This was our third cruise on Carnival and we've worked our way up from inside cabin to ocean view and this is probably our last cruise, so we had to reserve a balcony.......I can still hear the water rush by as we travel from port to port!We were to originally go to Cozumel, but the swine flu (hoax) detoured us to Key West.  We loved Cozumel our first two visits, before and after Wilma and were very disappointed.Grand Cayman, easy tender port, excellent snorkeling.  Our last cruise we went on the Carnival excursion to dive to the Wreck of the Cali.  It was fine, but pricey and we tried to plan inexpensive snorkel shore trips.  We went to Eden Roc Dive Shop, they let us snorkel for free off their shore and it was beautiful.Our next port was Isla Roatan. Thanks to Cruise Critic members, we found and snorkeled at Fins and Flippers (loved it, a beautiful private island, very clean, excellent food and snorkeling.) They also have a "rescue" animal preserve-highly recommend this for families or snorkel "freaks". We would definitely go back to Fins and Flippers.We left Isla Roatan at 7:00 pm, and were awakened by the 7.1 earthquake onboard ship at 3:30 am.  Shook the ship just like our CA earthquakes, very noisy and we hope our hosts at Fins & Flippers and all the critters came through unscathed.Our favorite port of the trip was the excursion we booked online with "Grumpy and Happy" (Lorne and Jolene Jackson) in San Pedro, Belize.  We found these folks on Cruise Critic boards.  They had a toll free number, I called one night spoke to Loren and decided "what the heck....take a chance".  For a cost less than a Carnival excursion, we got a small plane ride over the reef and a half day's snorkeling.  Quite an adventure.We had an 8 hour port stop, but didn't want to take a Carnival excursion (we've done it before - too many people, rushed through) and found a private 1/2 day snorkel trip on a private boat out of Ambergris Cay, San Pedro with Grumpy and Happy. Belize has the second largest barrier reef (only the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is larger) in the world, but we wanted a more personal and up- close experience. The only problem was that it was 45 minutes by boat from Belize City. We wanted to see Hol Chan Marine Preserve and Shark Ray Alley. Lorne and Jolene offer a private guided tour of Hol Chan as long as you like and they work around the cruise ship schedules. To get to San Pedro we took the inter-island flight on Tropic Air from Belize City to San Pedro, about a 15 minute flight in a 15 seat Cessna airplane that allows you to view all the islands and reefs from the air-breathtaking! They include airfare in their fee. They can cater their tour to special needs divers and we were so appreciative of their TLC of my husband who has trouble getting into and out of the water. They provided time to "pat" the stingrays and huge groupers and led us to the most beautiful part of the reef, away from the crowds of other tour boats. We have snorkeled around the Caribbean and Hawaii and this trip was by far the most extensive trip we've ever had - the best trip we've experienced by far!! They even kept our two college-aged boys enthralled by sharks - what a gift to all of us. They were very careful to monitor the time so we made our flight back to Belize City in time to catch our boat tender. Delightful people, they had drinks and snacks on board, great stories and made our day one we will remember forever!We needed our Friday day at sea to recover from all this snorkeling and I was originally complaining about having to go to Key West.  Was I ever wrong!  We rented a four person electric car and tooled around town, visited the beach, and really enjoyed our visit.  In fact, I think we'll go back to Key West, it was delightful, very mellow!!Our only con on this ship was that EVERYWHERE we went people were smoking.  We've been spoiled in our little town in Northern CA that if you are not a smoker, very seldom are you assaulted by cigarette smoke.

In fact, I think this was our last cruise because everywhere we went we had to walk through or by a lounge and our clothes always smelled of smoke.  My husband has problems walking and cruising is very difficult for him (he needs two knee replacements, no insurance to do it, so he suffers a lot!).  But if he ever gets those knees replaced, we'll be back, maybe on another line that tries to accomodate non-smokers (if there is one).Thanks to Carnival and all the folks in Grand Cayman, Isla Roatan, Belize and Key West.  This was our best cruise ever!Thanks to Cruise Critic members, we did all our research with you before our trip and it was amazing!!!