This was our second cruise—our first was on Royal Caribbean. We flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before our cruise and stayed at a Westin. The room was nice; they were renovating the hotel lobby which wasn't prohibitive, but still...we hired a driver to take us to Miami—it was a good experience. He even stopped by a CVS Pharmacy so that we could pick up some small stuff we forgot.

We go to the cruise terminal at about 11:15—hardly a line. We gave our luggage to one of the many porters hanging around there. We went in to check in, stood in a small line, and then were given a card that said "Zone 13" and sat in the waiting room/lobby area for about 30 minutes. When they called our zone, we went to the ship, waited outside (in the Florida humidity) for a bit and then made it inside to the bank of elevators. We made it to our cabins (DH and I had a balcony; two sons had an inside cabin right across), met our steward (Nat—a very nice lady from the Philippines). We were hungry so we made our way to the buffet, through the rain on the Lido deck. Oh my—the buffet was swamped! The food was decent; the crowds almost prohibitive. A deep breath and a meal later, we were back to our cabins and our luggage had already been delivered. Muster drill was all right; no biggie.

We wandered through the ship. I don't remember if RCI had this posted (or if their layout is the same), but I liked how Carnival posted "Even-numbered cabins" on the port side, and "Odd-numbered cabins" on starboard. I also like the number of elevators the Valor had. Other than that....well...I'll elaborate shortly. Read more