Carnival Valor Review
Rating by category
Additional details
This review is really very late but I had such a good time that I wanted to get it in. We are both in our 60s and we were on a cruise with Carnival Valor that left San Juan Puerto Rico on January 26 for 7 nights. We stayed in San Juan at Best Western Condado for 3 nights previous to the cruise. I have written a favorable review of the hotel on Trip Advisor so I won’t do more here than say it was a great location for us and a nice experience. Our first night in San Juan we ate at a Chinese restaurant, no less, named Mandarin House. We had a special which was $8.50 and very good and included some really good French fries with the Chinese food, odd but good. After that we went for dessert and Flaminco dancing at Bar Gitano, both good and all within a few blocks of the hotel.
From our hotel we took a bus on the second day to Old San Juan, which was $1 or 35 cents for seniors one way and took about 15-20 minutes. Buses run a little irregularly but on vacation we were not in a hurry, felt safe, and saw some nice scenery along the water. There is a free trolley near the bus terminal which does a circuit through Old San Juan to all the sites. We went to one Fort and then walked from there to the other Fort. The walk is doable although it was hot but the view is very nice and passes an old cemetery which is worth the stop. On day 3 we took the Bacadi rum tour. We caught the ferry at the port. Round trip for seniors cost 50 cents. In spite of some ho-hum reviews we had a good time. For that price we got an acrylic Bacadi glass which they were selling in their store for $10 and a 2 shot rum drink plus the tour. There is a cab to the tour for $6 near the ferry exit. We did have an experience at the bus terminal in which a tourist looking man told anyone that would listen about his father who had been accousted in Old San Juan and this man needed money to get to the hospital. His story was bogus and when we didn’t jump at the opportunity he went on to another group to tell his story and hope for success. We never did feel unsafe using the standard precautions of any big city so this experience was more amusing than scary.
We took a cab from our hotel to the ship on Sunday. The cost from Condado was $16 plus $2 per bag. (Sorry to be so cost oriented but I’m giving what I wanted to know on the trip)
Cabin Review
Ocean View
Our Room was 2331. The travel agent from Carnival suggested this room which he had stayed in in the past. It was fairly central with an elevator in each direction out the door. It was a room with a window which was adequate for us because we didn’t spend much time in the room other than for sleep. We never had a problem with noise especially because our room didn’t have an adjoining door to another room. The bathroom although not big was bigger than the last cruise ship we were on. The hardest part being centrally located was remembering which direction out of the door was aft and forward. The room attendant as I said before was very friendly and helpful.