Hello future travelers. For some background, My husband and I have cruised with Carnival once before last year to the bahamas on the Sensation. It was a great time. I am 32 and my husband is 30. We have a 6 year old daughter who didn't go with us. We are from Phoenix, AZ. This time it was to the Western Caribbean on the Valor. A few days before the cruise I called Carnival and they told me that due to the hurricane that Costa Maya would no longer be a port for about the next year. He told me that we would be going to Cozumel instead. I was really excited about that change. I had never been but heard many people talking about it. We flew in the night before to Fort Lauderdale and stayed in a hotel in Fort lauderdale. I had read and heard that Miami is an IFY location. Plus to get a rental car and explore the day before you end up paying 10-30 dollars to park it at the hotel. That didn't make sense to me. So we stayed in Fort Lauderdale, ate dinner at Houston's at the Bay. It was a beautiful restaurant with a great view. We drove around Miami the next day and the entire town looked to be under construction. It was very strange to see so many huge skyrises not put together. We had learned a trick the previous year from some people that sat at our table. They said that they drive the rental car to the port and drop off their luggage then on the shuttle they have nothing to worry about just to go get in line. We did this and it was GREAT!! We didn't receive any of the paperwork through the mail and the porter was great he took from the email the room number and all of our stuff and off we went driving around Miami. That was one less thing we needed to worry about. We then took the shuttle to the port and arrived about 1. There were lots of people but Carnival did well keeping the lines moving. As you all know it takes awhile to get 3000 plus people on the ship. Think they did well considering the numbers. We got on and went straight to our room to drop off our carry ons. ALL OF OUR LUGGAGE WAS AT THE DOOR. I was shocked and happy that it was all there. So off to Rosie's for lunch. The ship was laid out pretty similar to the one we were on a year before so it was pretty easy to navigate. Husband was very excited about the food. He wasn't disappointed. Within an hour, we had walked around and found our dining room, eaten lunch and was back to the room unpacking. We knew that we would need to be out with the life jackets on going through the drill so it gave me just enough time to unpack everything. Then they announced to get our jackets and off to the muster station. It was pretty quick and painless. The staff knew what they were doing just a lot of people enjoying the party drinks already had some problems. Then we were off. Ship .... I think the ship was great, beyond clean, and the staff was AMAZING. With having the first full day at sea we were able to look around and see what the ship had to offer. It was HUGE. Husband loved the Deli counter. I loved the fish and chips counter. It also had Asian, buffet, pizza, a fast food hamburger, hot dog, chicken, and fries area, desserts, room service, and of course the ice cream station. There is also a sushi area and it's hours are the same as formal dining time so we never made it to that. Our table #522 was the best. The couples at our table were great. We were very close in age. Last time we were the youngest and this time I think we were the oldest. It was great and always fun to look forward to dinner. We had a great wait staff. Sandra and Igede (pronounced like Good day) our wait staff, and Iketut the bar staff were all great. They were the best. They Would tell us about the areas we were going to and what to look forward too. They were a lot of fun. Iketut knew everyone at the tables order and name within 2 days. We saw him at a past cruiser night and he called my husband by name and gave us drinks. It was really nice. The food was great. My husband was the 2 dessert guy. By the end we were so proud of other couples doing the same!! =o) Ports Grand Cayman - tender port, We decided not to do an excursion on this island since there was a lot of shopping right off of the boat. We walked along the main street shopping. Husband decided that he wanted to walk back into the city to actually see the town. There was a HUGE black cloud that was coming, so we headed the opposite direction. We walked about 5 miles, then realized that there were no streets heading back in the direction we came. So 5 miles later we asked someone were the port was and in our heads it should have been to the right, but it was now on the left. I think we walked pretty much the whole island LOL! It was nice to see the area, we were so glad that we took a huge water each on shore. It was an ok port. Roatan, Honduras - We had booked an excursion through carnival for this trip, were advised there is no beach and really nothing to do here without it. We decided on a beach day and snorkeling at Coral Cay. We had a great driver, Marvin who has lived on the island his entire life. He answered a lot of questions that we all had. We realized that driving there is just unbelievable. People, dogs, cars, bycycles all over. He said that accidents were rare there. However, we found out that the worst accident in 10 years happened that day and there were fatalities. We went to Coral Cay and they have a section of turtles, different types, Sharks, and other marine animals. A guide was there telling us all about the animals. He was a very nice gentleman and was very informed. After that we went to the snorkeling area and changed, it started to rain and felt great. We got in at the end of the dock. The snorkel guide was great locked all of our stuff in the shack that houses the gear. We got in the water and there was a guide in front, one in back and another in a boat. I was a little nervous about it but it was the best thing I ever did. We got to go to the drop off, snorkel through a channel and see a bunch of fish. I emailed my daughter when I got back to the ship that we got to do a lot of things from Nemo. My husband got to go under the water about 40 feet down and it was amazing. After the snorkel we had about 2 hours on the beach at Coral Cay. It was straight out of a corona commercial. Great music and chairs on the beach. All in all a great day. Belize - a tender port, We booked an excursion on this port as well. We did Altun Ha Ruins with a Belize River tour. I told my husband that we had to see the ruins and he really wanted the boat ride. It was a WIN WIN!! The best ruins are in Belize. We saw about 5 different ruins. We hiked to the top of one and it's a great photo area. Very green and to one side was jungle and the other ruins. We saw some of the largest bugs I have ever seen in my life there. WEAR TENNIS SHOES ON THIS EXCURSION!!! All the women wearing flips were screaming. LOL. Remember BUG SPRAY TOO!! The river ride was great. We saw monkeys in trees, crocodiles, iguanas in trees, and bats, the boat driver would just flip the boat around and point it all out. It was a great excursion that we were able to see a lot. Cozumel - We didn't book anything, we took a taxi to downtown and shopped. Then we spent about 2 hours at 1/2 senor frogs. Good times!! The people are very pushy with trying to get you into there shops. Not really what I thought it would be. Still we enjoyed seeing another location. The only problem that I had with the entire cruise was getting off the ship. We waited til they called our deck. We were the last number for them to call and when we got off it was a HUGE line. If they are able to space it out why would they call us so early when they clearly were not ready!!??! That was the only part that was not executed well. Also NO SIGNS for car rental pick up once you get outside. We asked several people and no one sent us to the correct area. So we got a tour of the parking lot with all of our luggage. It is to the left!!! Just so you all know. We will cruise again, I am thinking this time to Alaska for a little cold.

Puckbunny23@hotmail.com If you have any questions email me.