Carnival Victory Cruise Review by suitearia

Hello!  My husband and I just completed the 7 day cruise on Carnival Victory Sunday, July 5^th.  I specifically picked this ship for it’s itinerary; stopping at 6 islands in 7 days: St. Thomas, Barbados, Dominica; St. Lucia, Antigua, and St. Kitts.  If you count San Juan we actually visited 7 islands.

While we are exhausted, we loved the cruise and the ship and have nothing but praise for our cabin steward Noel and dining room head server Victoria and Budi.  In fact, one morning as I had gone for coffee and had my hands full, one of the maintenance staff saw me, stopped what he was doing and literally ran over to open the door for me.  He did not have to do that but it was appreciated.  I wish I had gotten his name.

Our cabin was on deck 10 – 1038.  The only issue that we had was that the kids club was directly over our cabin and it sounded like the ceiling was going to fall in at night!  Fortunately the noise did die down around midnight.  Also, our first cruise with Carnival was on the Miracle and our room was a bit larger than Victory; but beyond that the room was comfortable, clean, and the beds are great.  It is tempting to buy their sleep system!

The ship has 2 dining rooms; the Atlantic and the Pacific.  They are very close to each other but getting to the Pacific (which was our assigned dining room) was very confusing.  From the front of the ship; you needed to go down to either deck 4 or 5 – go behind the Casino and then down to the 3^rd deck.  You cannot just go to the 3^rd deck from the front of the ship.  Ladies – do remember your sweaters or shawls as the dining room and Casino can get chilly.

We went early so that we could experience Old San Juan.  We stayed at the Sheraton and were able to walk across the street to the cruise terminal.  We were onboard by 1230. Embarkation and debarkation are a breeze. Even the airport was straightforward - we had been warned about the USDA check but that took us maybe 5 minutes - maybe it was because we were an early flight out and got there before the rush of the late flights.

Old San Juan was nice - we saw the fortress along the coast which is impressive itself but all along the coast are colonies of feral cats; hundreds of them.  We never got to the beach or the castle or traditional San Juan food but we enjoyed our visit all the same.