We decided to take a cruise to celebrate lots of birthdays, anniversaries, and milestones among three families. There were 16 of us traveling, ranging in age from 20-60, so we had both small and large group excursions at the four ports.

The first two days were at sea, and the ship always had activities going on. We played a bunch of trivia, bingo, cornhole, and ping pong and spent many hours in and around the pools/hot tubs. The Valor had movies playing on their HD big screen on the top pool deck each night, and even played game 7 of the NBA Finals. Although the picture quality was superb, the satellite signal was extremely poor despite clear skies.

Our first stop was in St. Maarten where our entire group took a private tour of the island through a third party company, Bernard's Taxi and Private Tours. Our guide drove us around the entire island in an air-conditioned "party bus". We stopped at a few beaches and overlooks while drinking the complimentary water, soda, beers, and rum punch provided on board. We came across herds of wild goats and iguanas but had the most fun at Maho Beach, watching the planes come and go right over our heads. Our driver, DJ, even let us stay past the designated time so we could see a few of the larger commercial planes take off. Read more