Carnival Victory Review
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This cruise was a tenth-anniversary gift to ourselves, and we had done quite a bit of research beforehand as this was the first cruise for my husband and the third for me, but the first since going with my family while I was in high school. Since we live near Syracuse, we chose to drive to the port, dropping our two kids off at grandparents' house on the way (anniversary and all!). We arrived at about 1:00 pm and went through the line quickly. The longest part of the line was waiting to have our photo taken, and I didn't realize that we could have skipped that part until it was too late.
Once on board, we went right to lunch, which was a bit crowded. However, I had read that there is an often overlooked second story to the buffet, accessible by a dual staircase just behind the dessert table, and I was shocked to see not a single person up there. We ended up eating lunch there everyday, and never saw more than one or two of the other tables occupied. I suppose this is because there is a bit of a squeeze between the dessert table and the stairs, so maybe most people assume the stairs are for staff only.
After lunch, we took our one small bag each to our room, which was a balcony on Deck 8. Since the room was at the end of the ship, we had a view of each size of the ship. The room was bigger than I though, and the balcony was huge, though the floor space on the balcony wasn't completely usable since the railing came in at an angle. In the end, the extra money was definitely worth it as I spent many hours out on that balcony while my husband took afternoon naps, and the view was gorgeous! Our bags arrived very quickly after we went to our room, then we went up for the lifeboat drill. The drill was obviously not a highlight of the tour, and it got so hot that my ears started to ring and I thought I was going to pass out at one point, but it eventually ended, and we went up on deck to see the sailaway. Seeing the Statue of Liberty was great, as was going under the bridge. It's definitely a highlight of sailing out of New York City.