We (a couple in our mid 60's) took this Carnival Valor Caribbean cruise the second week of December as a pre-Christmas treat in lieu of gifts to each other. Normally, we are loyal NCL cruisers, but when checking possible cruises, I discovered that we could either take an NCL cruise from Miami with 3 ports, or the Valor cruise with 5 ports. Fight for a lounger on the pool deck on NCL during sea days, or hit 5 beaches with Carnival? It was a no-brainer for us, plus the Carnival cruise was $150 less per person than NCL. The airfare to San Juan was $150 more per person than it would have been to Miami, so the cost evened out, but having 2 extra ports was fantastic as we love swimming and snorkeling.

I almost didn’t chose the Valor cruise, because my first Carnival cruise was on the Breeze and it was very disappointing. Our Valor cruise changed my mind about Carnival. The best things about Carnival compared to NCL in my opinion are: you can bring a bottle of wine on board each; the pizza is pretty good for a cruise ship; and, there are laundry facilities on board.

My only mistake in choosing this cruise was to fly to San Juan on the day of embarkation, rather than fly to San Juan the day before and stay overnight. Living in the Northeast, we had to get up at 2:00 a.m. Read more