Carnival Valor Review
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My flight was scheduled to leave from Philadelphia at 9:30am. Everything ran pretty smoothly - including the flight to Miami. But with great despair, when we arrived at the Miami airport, there was a mix up with the luggage, and somehow US Airways put some people's luggage on the flight behind us, which wasn't scheduled to arrive at Miami until 3:30pm! Now remind you, the Valor was due to leave port at 4pm. During our wait, things were pretty hectic, people were flipping out. We had gotten word that if our luggage doesn't make it in time before we leave, we would just have to leave it behind and it would be air shipped to us on our second day at our first port of call - Grand Cayman Island! Nobody was happy with the news, but the Carnival employees were such nice and helpful people during the entire time and reassured us that it was most likely we WOULD get our luggage before they left. They hung around and waited with us until 3:40ish - which was pretty amazing, seeing that the boat was supposed to leave at 4pm. With great luck, the flight arrived somewhat late, but our luggage finally showed up at the very last minute. A lot of smiling faces during this time - we were relieved!!!
We had to pretty much haul ourselves the rest of the way - from the shuttle bus arriving at the port and embarking on the boat. Since we were SUPER late, we had no lines to wait in. Amazingly the boat didn't leave port till after 4 anyway, so we made it just in time - along with the few others that were in the same crisis we were. When we arrived in the Valor everyone on the ship was already scurrying around for the lifejacket drill that is mandatory for all first time guests that arrive. We didn't have to do it, the Carnival employees pretty much told us to just go up and find our room - I think they realized just how exhausted we really were.
Our first day on the boat was a very exhausting one. The ship was absolutely amazing and brilliantly designed. I couldn't believe how elegant it was inside - like an upscaled swanky hotel. The elevators were incredible - I loved the ones in the lobby that were made of glass - as you went up or descended you could see a wonderful view of everything. It was amazing!