As a 4th time Cruiser all with Carnival this cruise was outstanding.We are from Southern Ontario in Canada and cruise with friends from the great state of Michigan.We sailed on February 28 from Miami and found the embarkation to be fast and very well managed by Carnival.Its about 45 minutes from arrival to having lunch on the Lido deck.For the amount of people that sail on this ship(3000) plus Carnival does an outstanding job of making sure people are handled with respect and courtesy.We all hope some of the airlines learn from Carnival.Our balcony cabin was a good size and was spotless when we were allowed in at 1.30pm on the day of sailing.All during our cruise our cabin was serviced immediately after we left in the mornings.Cabin service people were friendly and somehow remembered everyone's name. The meals in the Lincoln dining room were outstanding and offered a good variety.Our waiters who were from the former soviet republic went beyond what we expected and were the best that we had in all of our cruises with Carnival.Nightly entertainment was very good and there were a variety of entertainers from MoTown singers to Jugglers to Comics to Broadway style shows. There was always something to do on this ship.Some of the people on the cruise with kids were raving about Camp Carnival and how they hardly seen there kids all day.What I like about Carnival is you sail with a mixed crowd from the very young to people in their 80's.They are all there to have a good time and the Carnival Valor delivers.We were told there were 700 youths on the ship under 18 and I can tell you they were very well behaved.

The ports of call were varied from the Cayman's to Roatan,Belize and Cozumel.We decided to use independent tour operators after reading comments from other members on this site.In Rotan we used Victor Boden Tours and took a tour around the island with a very knowledgeable guide.Great guide and great service.Rot an is a very poor island that has tremendous potential and hopefully things will improve for the people living there because of the cruise ships stopping there.We visited Belize 4 years ago on the Glory and we found that Belize City has actually improved.It still has a long way to go but it has improved.

The cruise director Big Tex does and outstanding job with keeping people informed and entertaining people on the ship.My wife and I finally met him personally on day 6 and I thanked him for the wonderful time we had.We appreciated the conversation we had with him .He is a down to earth man that does an excellent job.This man along with the rest of the crew work 12 or more hours a day and you very seldom see a frown from any of the crew.On a previous post near mine a poster made a negative comment about Big Tex's hat and his performance.I say to that get a life and remember you are on vacation.Enjoy yourself. The only complaint I have is with the deck chair huggers who place a towel or a book on a deck chair and leave for 2 or 3 hours depriving a person who needs that chair.The Carnival people could do a better job of watching for that type of abuse. Read more