Carnival Victory Review

3.5 / 5.0
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JUST BACK FROM CARNIVAL VICTORY - Amazing Cruise!

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Victory
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Martycai
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: May 2011
Cabin: Interior with Picture Window (obstructed views)

Overall, this was an amazing cruise vacation. The ship itself is a tad smaller and dated compared with previous cruises we've taken, but we don't have any complaints - other than we're still tired from a busy itinerary. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this trip, though, to anyone.Our trip began with an early morning flight from Virginia to San Juan, one day prior to embarkation. I will comment about Old San Juan here, and our hotel, since we stayed there before the cruise. It was raining when we arrived in San Juan, we got our bags and headed to the taxi. They have a Dispatch line for local taxis, and they give you the rate up front. For the pair of us, the fair was $19, plus $3 for our 3 bags = $22. I gave him $25 when we got to our hotel in Old San Juan. By the time we got to OSJ, the sun was peeking out, and it was lovely. We stayed at SOFO Hotel Casa Blanca on Calle de Fortaleza. I cannot say enough about this ideal location. We were just a few minutes walk to EVERYTHING in Old San Juan. Including piers 1-4, the Carnival pier was pier 4. It was about 2 blocks down hill, and one block over from our hotel, and there was plenty of room to cart our bags when we left the next day.Our room was ice cold when we arrived, very clean, charming, and tiny. It's everything we expected based on the research we had done. The hotel staff (one is native to Pennsylvania, and she was a great help for local recommendations and advice), was helpful. There is no elevator, but we needed to stretch our legs a little after flying. We paid $99 per night through Orbiz.com (same price as the hotel's website). We had been to Old San Juan once before as a stop on our last cruise for a few hours. But it was really cool to have a day before and after our cruise this time to spend time in San Juan. Several cool restaurants are on the same street and around the corner from our hotel. We were close to a plaza south of the fort San Cristobal, which features local artisans. We had dinner at Cafe Puerto Rico, which was really quite good, and after two dinners, two sangria's, and a dessert, we paid about $60. Had mofongo with grouper and chicken with yellow rice. There are a million places to eat in OSJ, but this was a good one. The next morning, we got up and walked around the corner to Starbucks to get coffee. Then we walked uphill to the San Cristobal fort (tour this if you haven't done it - it's a US Nat. Park, so everything is in English, and it only costs $4 each). We spent a couple hours and then walked back to the hotel by 10:45, showered, changed, and got all our luggage in order to embark.After we checked out of the hotel, it took about 10 minutes to walk down to the ship terminal. It was about 12 noon. There was virtually no line to enter, no line to drop off our luggage, and only about 15 people in front of us to go through the check-in line. I think because of the LATE departure, and embarkation is so spread out, that there is never a huge rush or line to board. We actually got done and got our Sign & Sail passes before they were letting people on the ship. We had to wait about 20 minutes or so, so we walked around the duty free shops. Then about 1:00pm they let us through security by zones, and onto the ship. Once on, we went up to the Lido and had a big long lunch. The weather outside had been beautiful all morning, but at lunch, it started pouring! So we made great timing. We laid by the aft pool after lunch, which was covered. Then after a brief exploration of the ship we went up to our cabin (about 2:45). Since it was raining, we decided to go ahead and unpack and relax a bit. Our cabin was an accessible room (even though neither of us is in a wheelchair) and it gave us a little more space. We went off the ship again around 4 when the rain let up. We knew we wanted to do some souvenir shopping and stop by the grocery store and Walgreen's for some snacks and soft drinks to carry on board.We got off the ship and caught the free trolley at stop number 1 or 2 I think, right outside the terminal. We rode that around to El Morro, toured it again (an additional $2 each after we paid for the other fort), and then we slowly walked ourselves back through town, taking it all in. We stopped at a Supermax, and Walgreen's, next door to each other on the West side of town. Purchased soft drinks and bottled water, and some trail mix, then walked back to the ship by around 6:30. If the weather had not been a little drizzly, we would have stayed out by the board walk longer - there are some local musicians and artisans.Got back on the ship, took our stuff to the cabin, and then went to open-seating diner by 7:00pm. There is no assigned dinner the first night. We enjoyed it a lot. In fact, it was better than our dinner the rest of the week. Our regular waiter had an extra table all week, so our service took a while every night. Don't get me wrong, Edgar (waiter) and Jorge (asst. waiter) were awesome and fun, but it just took a while. (Also, I will mention here that we usually had lunch off the ship because of excursions, but the Victory has only two main buffet lines instead of the 4 on our last ship, and you notice the lines unfortunately). That's our only actual complaint about the Victory, just slower dining and longer lines at the buffet. Everything else was great or better.After dinner we had a short muster drill, sans life vests. Then off to the deck party at sail away!Next stop, St. Thomas!

Cabin Review

Interior with Picture Window (obstructed views)

Cabin 4J

Great, quiet location. A short walk to the pool without having to get in an elevator. It's an interior room, but has a picture window and larger room for accessibility. So we feel like it was a steal! And there is access to a semi-private deck on 10 and 9 on the bow of the ship, that few people find. So it was like we had those decks to ourselves above the bridge. It would have been near impossible to see into our room from those decks, too, because the glass on our window was reflective.

Room steward was great. There is no fridge, but he kept our cooler full of ice. And there is a bit more room in the bathroom, which is nice. This room's couch can convert into a single bed, and there is another bunk that can come out of the ceiling above that if needed, but we were only two, so we didn't see it.

We were right below the gym, but never heard a sound from up there. There is only ONE tiny complaint about this room. There were some strange squeaky sounds every minute or so, and we never figured out what it was. It sounded like a cross between a horn and a saxophone outside our window, but when we went out there, we never heard what it was. We got used to it, and never woke up, but the first night I needed earplugs (which we brought luckily just in case).

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