7 Day Western Caribbean Cruise

I have just returned from a 7 day Caribbean Cruise and what a cruise it was. I can hardly type fast enough to tell you all that went on this past week on that cruise and land excurisons. Our ports of call were Rotan Honduras, Belieze, Grand Caymen and Cozumel Mexico. This cruise was very exciting in many ways and was a nice distraction from the daily grind of life.

First of all our cruise was a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise on Carnival, and the ships name was the Valor. First and foremost this was a huge ship, even after 7 day on board I was still lost when trying to find my way off the ship, it was just that freaking big. I don't want to bore anyone with the details of the ship, oh why the hell not, let me tell you just a little about this behemoth. I don't know if you will be impressed by these numbers but I sure was once I stepped on board. Well, here goes. First of all there are many classes of ships, the Carnival Valor is in the Conquest class. Here are the stats that I found so interesting.

Length : 952 ft

Total Staff : 1,150

Passenger capacity : 2,974

Speed : 21 Knots

Tonnage : 110,000

14 Decks

1 morgue

1 jail

1 Disco Open till 4 am (Way pass my bed time)

It also has a running track, a large casino, a library, an Internet cafe, two very large dinning rooms, a theater, a boulevard, yes I said a boulevard and the biggest freaking T.V. screen that I have ever seen. Get this it is outside in front of one of the pools and they have rocking chairs facing the screen so you can rock while you watch a movie, how damn cool is that? There are just to many other things to mention, I think you get the gist of what I am trying to convey here, this thing is a monster. I have never been so lost in all of my life, but never had this much fun being lost either, so it evens out some how.

So that is all of the details of the ship, now I want to tell you what I thought about my whole first experience with carnival, I am a Royal Caribbean gal myself, but here goes nothing. Over all I had a nice time. Partied till almost dawn many night's. Many of the shows and adult entertainment did not start until well after midnight. So If you were not a night owl when you came you were when you left. I mean really, how can you go to bed at a respectable hour when the disco is jumping right above you, I couldn't do it. The catch phrase for this trip was what the hell, were on vacation, can you see my point now, going to bed early on a cruise is lame, period. Enough ranting on that point.

Here is the basis on which I judge a cruise. I will list the categories and the ratings I gave to each one.

1. Service 9

2. Food 7

3. cleanliness 9

4. cabin size 5

5. comfort 8

6. entertainment 4

7. safety 9

8. Excursion 4

Now I will consider all of these and give them a number rating, and remember this is just strictly my opinion, there is absolutely nothing scientific about the way I do my rating except on how it looks and feels to me, because in the end I think that is all that really matters. So don't write or call or e-mail me about this review, remember it is a free country I can voice my opinion, and this is it.

I thought the service was fantastic, almost everyone was on their game, they were very friendly and and went out of their way to make us feel welcome in their floating city. I would give them a 8, the crew only get an 8 because we ran into only 1 smart ass crew member and he runs the Internet cafe. He treated us like we were the stupidest people on earth when we asked about the cost of wireless Internet aboard ship. So He brings the score of the whole crew down, side note ( a copy of this review is always forwarded to whom ever is being reviewed.) Moving on to the food. I was sort of disappointed in the food. The food in the formal dining rooms was OK, except on the lobster night and the last night which was prime rib night the food was out of this world on those two nights. All the others was just so, so. When I am on a cruise I expect food almost around the clock, well on carnival you had better love tasteless pizza and hot dogs after midnight, because that is just about all there was. The only other choice was room service and that food was awful, my sandwich was so bloody, I had to order a BLT instead, the room service food looked like it was just thrown together, with no thought or time taken to prepare it. After that experience we decided we would just go hungry and wait till the morning breakfast to eat. So it is a disappointing myth that there is good food all night long on a Carnival cruise, it just ain't so. The sushi bar was only open from about 5:30 till 8:30, how lame is that, sushi should be available all night long, pizza and hamburgers are for kids who don't worry about the size of their ass just yet. Adults usually will make better food choices if they are available but on this cruise if you didn't get a good dinner you were out of luck for decent food after about 10:00 P.M.

Sailing on to Cleanliness, I thought the crew did a great job keeping the ship clean. I will just simply give them a 9 on that front. No rants from me on that. (It's coming up stay tuned)

Cabin Size, I really can't complain about that, you simply get what you pay for on a cruise. we were on floor number 1, 1 floor up from the ghetto, that's what the crew called the floor they live on, so not my words so once again no nasty letters or e-mails please. So if you are thrifty and want a bargain floor number 1 is for you too.

Comfort, I felt quite comfortable on this ship and after a few days was referring to our cabin as home. This ship really does have almost everything one needs to feel as comfortable as at home. I found the bed to be more comfortable than my own bed at home, how sad is that. I left saying I have got to get a new bed.

Entertainment, I thought that the entertainment could have been much better. They seemed to hype up the shows and then not deliver on that hype. As an example they talked up a comedian named Phat Cat, they talked about all of the T.V. comedy shows that he had been on. His first performance was a complete let down, just not that funny and sort of boring. The second show of this Phat Cat that we went to was a little better, but still not that funny. I hate to say this but the karaoke nights were the best, period. Over all I felt Carnival could have done so much better with their entertainment. If I ever sail with Carnival again I will skip the shows and maybe hang out in the piano bar's a little more.

Safety, I think Carnival did a nice job making passengers feel safe. There were lots of security all around. There were a few dark places on the ship that I wouldn't go to alone, but safety on a ship really comes down to using common sense just like you do in your own city.

Excursions, there were quite a few excursions offered, a little something for everyone. You could swim with dolphins, para sail, go for a dune buggy ride, reef snorkel or even swim with stingrays. The caveat about the excursions is that they are very, very expensive. You could easily pay more for the excursions than you did for the cruise. There for if you plan on doing a few excursions make sure you add them to the total price of your cruise. On a serious note I am offering a warning if you decide to go on any excursions. On our reef snorkel tour we had an 85 year old man nearly drown, when he was pulled from the water he was blue and unresponsive. Here is the rant and warning part. The operators of this excursion did not know basic first aid and did not have gloves or mouth guards for mouth to mouth. They were totally unprepared for any type of a medical emergency and had myself and others not stepped in and took over, this man would not be with us today. I really don't know what else to say about this awful day except that it is one that I will not soon forget.

Over all we had a blast on this cruise, but there was one thing that I really didn't care for on this ship and that was the fact that there was no large pool. The only pool's were a couple of little ones at opposite end's of the ship and one was being re tiled during this cruise. I feel this was a huge over site in the design of this big ship. I will be more careful the next time I book a cruise and check out the ship's amenities very, very carefully.

General thoughts about my Carnival Cruise

On the very first day before we pulled away from the port there was a wicked thunder and lightning storm brewing on the horizon with funnel clouds and all. That was an awesome site to see several funnel clouds at the same time right in front of us. We knew at this point that maybe booking a cruise during hurricane season wasn't such a bright idea after all. The weather cleared and we were able to sail away just as we had planned. Over all I had a really nice time just getting away from it all. I would sail on carnival again but I would make sure that the next ship I sailed on had a few basic things that I felt like our ship the Valor was missing. There was no large pool only small ones scattered around the ship, and better variety of food after midnight for the night owls. If your just looking for a fun cruise at a decent price the Carnival Valor would work for you.

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Miami Round 2

Here we go again, this is our second time in the same hotel this week. we stayed one day before the cruise and the day we got off of the ship. We did this for the simple reason that our flight to Miami got in very late at night so flying in on the same day of the cruise was out. when we arrived into port on Sunday we would not have been able to make the our flight out it left at 10:00 am so we booked our flight for the day after we arrived in port. Both days on the beginning and the end our our trip we just hung out at the hotel and went for a walk in the park and took in the sights and sounds of Miami. So nothing really special about these two days in Miami, only a few interesting things. We stayed at the Double Tree Grand Hotel at Biscayne Bay. This hotel shows well on the web in pictures, but in real life leaves much to be desired. The lobby is grand and nice but that's where the niceness stops. The hotel is old and is in need of a total overhaul. I think you can get better accommodations for your money than this hotel. As part of my research of the vicinity I walked around to get a good look at the area and found it to be a little seedy and quite dirty. We didn't feel to safe in some of the area's even in broad day light. And the Burger King a couple of blocks away from the hotel was so dirty we only got soda's and left. Burger King should be ashamed at having a store that looks like this, they seriously need to check on this franchise, I say eat at your own risk there. Back to the double tree hotel. The only saving grace is the swimming pool hot tub area, it is quite nice. But since you can't sleep in the hot tub or pool I suggest that you find some other place to lay your pretty little head.

Trouble In Sin City

I just read the most interesting article on the economy troubles in Las Vegas and could hardly believe what I was reading. I seems that Sin City has hit hard times. There are deals to be had there in housing and in hotels stays that really do sound to good to be true. It seems our beloved Las Vegas has over bet and over built.

I however am a show me girl and always want to see things for myself, therefor off to Vegas we went. I must say I was quite surprised by the multitude of half built skyscrapers, towers of condos just left sitting unfinished. It really was sad to see this great city in such disarray. As we all now know Vegas is not the only city to take a hard hit at the hands of the economy in the last few years but her vacant building are very stark reminders of just how bad it is for Las Vegas.

I started to think that maybe it was just the strip it self that took hardest blow, that was not the case. I took 30 minute taxi ride out away from the strip and found that my suspicions were true, all of Vegas was indeed suffering. The building may have stopped on the strip but the casinos are still full, maybe this is a sign of positive change that our beloved city so dearly needs.

We stayed at the Hilton which was a few blocks off of the strip and got a good deal of $ 50.00 a night, great deal your thinking right? well remember the old saying, you get what you pay for? It's true, our rooms were decent enough though a bit old. This place could really use a face lift. On our second day there we had no hot water for showers and we had to towel bath as best we could before we left for the day. We did end up changing rooms that evening. My advice, skip the Hilton and spend a few more bucks, stay downtown or on the strip in a hotel that is known for it's quality, the Hilton is not it.

As for food buffets we found that the Old Golden Nugget had the very best buffet we could find, great food, awesome service, clean and crab to die for, that alone will bring me back for sure. FYI stay away from the Cesar's Palace buffet, it is way over priced and they bring your crab to you in measured amounts, So next time you are in sin city venture off the strip, head downtown to Fremont street and see what you might be missing.

Air Show Blast

I went to an airport air show two weeks ago and has a total blast. I wanted to do a little something close to home that weekend. We had a great time, I had forgotten how much I really love airplanes of all kinds. That's kind of normal when you are in the travel biz as I am. Anyhow what a day we had. Just watching the stunt pilot's warm up gave me chills. We thought that there was one truly amazing pilot that stood out from all the rest and stole the show. His name was Shaun D Tucker, wow, he was amazing. I was in awe at his skills, I mean the man has some serious skills. If you ever have a chance to check out an air show close to home I would highly recommend it. It's great fun and a totally reasonable price for a family, admission was 2o.oo each, not bad for a whole day of fun. Two important things to remember if you go to an airshow is to take folding chairs unless you purchased grandstand seats and take food for lunch. At the air show we attended the food was very expensive and gross, fair warning.