This was cruise number 27 and the third one in 2010. We were 2 couples; the other couple was on their first cruise ever. We all thought the Valor was a wonderful ship and would recommend it to anyone. The things I disliked were few and some weren't Carnival's fault. When you book with Carnival you have different passengers that you won't find on more expensive cruises like the three thugs I saw on day one covered in tattoos from face to neck to total arms walking around with their droopy pants. Thank goodness I never saw them the rest of the cruise. This is going to be my last Carnival cruise for a while as I've been to all of their itineraries and their longest cruise is 8-nights. When you go on longer cruises the demographics change dramatically and you can go to southern Caribbean islands too.

Embarkment Miami - The process in the terminal was smooth and no problems there but outside I had 2 issues. We drove down so we were supposed to park across from the terminal in parking lot #2. They had the incoming gates chained off and were not allowing anyone in. After circling the lot twice and noticing 15-20 empty spots, we asked for assistance from a crosswalk attendant. He told us to go to Parking lot G and there would be a shuttle to take us back to the terminal. We parked there but no shuttle, no signs nor anyone to assist so we walked it since all of our luggage had wheels. It was over 500 yards back to the terminal and about 15 minutes to do that. Then when we finally got to the terminal the luggage guy shook us down for a tip saying that he was there to insure our bags would get on the ship safely insinuating that if we didn't tip him they may not make it on the ship. I blame the Port of Miami for the parking SNAFU and Carnival partly for the shake down.

Stateroom - We stayed in inside cabin 7224; no issues with the cabin except they put the hair dryer in the bedroom permanently attached to the top drawer through a hole in the back. So whenever my wife had to blow dry her hair I had to endure the noise instead of her doing it in the bathroom where 99% of most women prefer to do it in front of the big mirror. Also the menu that you could view from your cabin TV was always wrong. Maybe it was because they changed our itinerary. We went to all the same destinations but only the first, Grand Cayman was on the correct day. BTW the cabin cost $399.00 Read more