We loved this cruise and the Victory is very nice. 8 of us in all (Adults ages 40, 45 and 52 and kids ages 22 (big kid) 16, 16, 16, and 14.) We had 3 category 11 suites and one category 12. The Victory is huge and the dEcor is not as tacky as the older ships (Sensation) but still a bit too glitzy for my personal tastes. If you like green, you'll love this ship. Let me start at the beginning... We flew out of Boston Logan to Miami Airport the day prior to our cruise. Carnival had a representative waiting for us, very nice! They took us to the Wyndam Miami Airport which had a lovely lobby, but not all of the rooms were ready (8:00PM). The kids enjoyed the pool and even though the place reeked of cigarettes it was not bad. Room service was extremely expensive, though the rooms were free (Carnival could not accommodate air on the day of the cruise so they paid for the Wyndham). Our room service was over $200.00. I felt the staff at the Wyndham would rather we stayed elsewhere.

On Sunday I was able to take everyone's ID and go stand in a very orderly, fast moving line at the Carnival counter, where I registered. All of our boarding passes where marked with a green dot. Then we dragged our luggage out front for Security screening and waited in a comfy air-conditioned lounge for the busses. This was easy and stress free. We arrived quickly at the Port of Miami our luggage came off the bus was matched to us, we tipped the porter and did not have to worry anymore about it. We stood in a few more lines but the longest line was avoided because we had already gotten our green dot sticker at the Wyndham. After getting our Sail and Sign cards we walked directly on the ship, stopping to have our photo taken. There are many opportunities to have your photo taken and we never pass on one! (As I tell my family "were only getting older and fatter...SMILE!") We know Carnival hopes we will go to the photo gallery and buy them and of course we do. I had to go the purser's desk to get extra keys to the kid's cabins, no problem. We also had to swap rooms so that we could put 2 kids in each room, this was a bit confusing but we ended up okay. We found our cabins easily and the 3 Category 11's were next to one another so we had the steward open up the balcony separations giving them a huge balcony and easy access to one another's cabins. My Cat 12 was excellent. I loved having 2 phones and one of them next to the bed! I wish it had a clock. Plenty of closet space and drawer space. My shower door was missing a panel or 2 and it took a couple of days to get it fixed, no big deal. There was a VCR in the room but you cannot record with it, I think this is because Carnival wants you to buy the travel video diary and not copy it off the TV. The TV programming is extremely limited but we did not go on the cruise to watch TV. My kids rented movies a couple of nights. We did have the Adult Channel blocked so they could not rent it and the room steward removed the alcohol from the fridge. Back to the cabin, When looking directly down from our cabin we could see mostly water but also parts of the lifeboats. After viewing our cabin we were off to the Mediterranean Restaurant on the Lido Deck for the welcome aboard buffet. This was Okay. After being on the Pride in February I had hoped for that similar great buffet experience, not so. The space itself is fine and seating is a bit tight, there are some sofa style seats looking out at the ocean but they are not to comfy. The food was good and the variety fair. But the lines were endless. I found room service to be even better on the Victory with an expanded menu including Caesar Salad with chicken. We went to the bar and bought us all fountain-soda cards. The Adriatic Lounge is beautiful, the Ionian Room is gorgeous, the Indian Library is very nice and the internet area is quiet and out of the way. The Card Room is a waste of tiny space. My husband enjoyed the gym and my kids had wonderful massages from Eva. The Arctic Disco was loud in sound as well as dEcor as it probably should be. I loved the Karaoke in the Red and Black Seas Lounge, The Agean Sports bar was a bit disappointing, no NESN or ESPN or maybe it was just while I was there but the dEcor here was fun and funky and they have nickel slots at the bar. We asked for the channel to be changed and they could not do it. I found the layout of the ship is quite confusing, for example my elevator would often land on a floor with only the Pacific Dining Room (?) We were invited and attended a past cruisers party in the Adriatic Lounge, it was fun with live music, dancing, free drinks and deserts.

My kids had a blast on this Ship. We have a strict buddy system rule so they were never alone. They enjoyed the disco and the arcade, 24 hour pizzeria, hot tubs, pools, waterslide, room service, Camp Carnival is too young for them. They did have a hard time at the Disco after 11pm you have to be 16 years old and well for 3 of mine no problem but the security guard hassled them almost nightly and asked for their ID's numerous times. We were told the ship was totally booked and it was crowded. Oftentimes we could not find a seat at the Caribbean Lounge. Read more