This cruise reflected my previous experiences with Carnival. The food was consistently good, some of which was excellent. The only complaint I had about the food was that sometimes it lacked enough flavor. We ate at the dining room for each dinner and was extremely pleased with our server. We also ate in the dining room for most breakfasts. We enjoyed sitting down and being served, rather than going through the buffet. For lunches we usually tried a variety of stations. We particularly like the Fish and Chips. The Mexican bar (I think this was the last day at sea) was very tasty. And we definitely saved room for dessert that day for the chocolate buffet. It was scrumptious!We were very pleased with our cabin as well. We had a balcony room on the Empress deck. I would highly recommend booking a room on this floor. It was an ideal location for getting from place to place. We rarely used the elevators, since we only had a flight or two of stairs to take to get anywhere we were going. Our cabin stewart was very efficient and we had no complaints here.NIghtly entertainment was hit or miss. At the beginning of the trip there were two comedians that were hilarious, but the two at the end of the cruise were luke warm funny. We made it to a couple of shows in the main theater and they were okay; entertaining enough, but ready for them to end.Embarkation on the Valor was the easy enough. We got there before noon and had to wait a little while to get on but everything went smoothly. Debarkation was extremely easy. The easiest of any disembarkation I've had before.Overall, our family had a great time! My parents who had not cruise before are discussing planning their next cruise. My husband, who had also not cruised before and was a skeptic, would also cruise again. So I think everyone had a great time!I would definitely recommend the Valor. We had a blast!