Carnival Victory Review
Rating by category
Additional details
My wife and I recently spent 4 days on the Carnival Victory over the Memorial Day Weekend. We wanted a quick getaway, and with great Florida residents rates, whats not to like. We arrived at the ship around 12:30 and breezed through embarkation. Fortunately our room was ready, so we dropped off our luggage and headed to the Lido deck for lunch. Some quick comments on the Lido Buffet. While at times the lines were long, they moved fairly quickly. Breakfast and lunch selections varied and followed different themes, i.e. Chefs Caribbean Lunch. The lido deck also had a grill area for hamburgers and hotdogs, etc., a sandwich bar, a Chinese restaurant and a pizza parlor. Tip: after you get your food, if the main seating area is crowded, go up the stairs to the next level. No one is there, plus you have an ocean view. The Victory is an older ship(built in 2000), but has been well maintained and is clean. While it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the newer ships, it has plenty of lounges, bars, a nice casino, shopping area, and two large main dining rooms. Speaking of dining. We chose the "any time dining" plan which allowed us to enter the Atlantic Dining Room anytime between 5:30 and 9:30 PM. We never had a wait of more than 5 minutes and we usually showed up around 7PM. Plenty of tables for 2. Food was typical cruise ship style, but with good variety, and very good service. Night time entertainment was varied from a piano bar to a comedian to the usual game shows. We also had two PG rated Las Vegas style review in the main theater. While I am not a great critic of singing and dancing, I would give the shows a solid B. Our room, described elsewhere, was completely adequate and "roomy". No problems there. Ports of call included Key West, and Cozumel with a day at sea. Some excitement on our day at sea as the ship altered course and stopped to render assistance to two men in a rowboat attempting the crossing from Cuba to Florida. Unfortunately, the law required the Victory to report this to the US Coast Guard, and we later rendezvoused with a Coast Guard cutter and turned the men over. Brave guys.
Disembarkation on our return to Miami was very easy as we had chosen "self assist" where you "schlep" your own bags. We left the ship at 8:15AM and were home by 10. Great time and will do it again.
Cabin Review
Room 6273 was our home for four days. It was very adequate with plenty of storage, a roomy bathroom and shower, and space under the bed to store our luggage. We also had a balcony which we enjoyed sitting on just watching the ocean go by or reading. Compared to some other staterooms I have been in, I would rate it a 4 out of 5. Our cabin attendant Glorioso was excellent. No flat screen TV, but who watches that much TV on a cruise. Plenty of other stuff to do. Comfortable bed and couch with lots of room to walk around. The only caveat would be the location, and that was my bad as I chose the room. We were very near the central lobby which extended from deck 3 to deck 8, (did not realize this)and at night when a Latin Band was playing at the bar, the music funneled straight up, and we could hear it quite loudly. While not annoying, they played until midnight. My suggestion would be to choose a cabin further forward of aft away from the central lobby, unless you enjoy background music, or will be partying until 12. I think the 8B category, the first deck of balcony rooms, would be fine.