We just got back from cruising the Western Caribbean on the Carnival Valor. We were a group of 4 women. 2 return cruisers (my 4th cruise, friends 2nd cruise) and 2 first time cruisers. We flew into Miami the day before. We stayed at The Red Roof Inn Airport. Nothing fancy, but nice room and pool. They offer a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel and a free shuttle to the port also. Our concern was the lateness of the free shuttle. The free shuttle leaves for the port at 1:00pm. The hotel added a 12:00pm and 2:00pm shuttle also. However, since we did not sign up the night before, we would have had to go on the 2:00 pm shuttle. We wanted to go earlier. We asked the front desk to call us a cab for 10:30. We asked for a van as we had a lot of luggage. The front desk staff were very particular about the cabs they called. One cab driver came in and was trying to get a fare, but was kicked out by the front desk staff, she was very adamant that we wait for her van. She knew exactly who we were waiting for. Other cab drivers also came in, and she knew which guest she had called for. Once our van got there we realized that it was not a cab, but a van service that already had about 5-6 people on it already. It was a little late, so we were picked up at the hotel at about 10:45. It cost us each $10 for the trip to the shuttle.

Boy, were we glad we did not wait for the shuttle. After being picked up at the hotel, we got to the port and got our luggage settled with the porters, and went into the terminal to check in and do all that fun embarkation stuff (including pictures) with minimal lines. We were on board the ship, found our cabins and were sitting on the Lido deck eating lunch by 12:00!!!

Our cabin was a forward inside cabin on Lido deck. We really liked this location. The cabin itself seemed to be the smallest I have had in 4 cruises. At least that was what we thought when we first saw it. We both had to admit, it was plenty big. We had the 6:15 seating for dinner. We were in the lower Lincoln dining room. Our wait staff were Rodica from Romania and Margurita from Bulgaria. They were excellent!! We really felt like we were pampered. The food was very good. One night, we did not like what the menu ordered. We asked for a sirloin steak and baked potato. We were told that they were sorry, but if we were ordering not from the menu, all they had was filet mignon. Darn, we will just have to suffer!!! We usually ate breakfast at the buffet. It was fine for a buffet!! Lunch we all pretty much ate what we wanted, Pizza, burgers, deli, buffet,etc. Read more