frejk@webtv.net wrote:
> Any thoughts or reviews of the Carnival Victory? Fred
>
> fjk
>
We sailed on her last September 11th. Yep, Anniversary of 911. And they
flew a large American Flag over the main bar during our cruise. Nice touch.
Anyway, this was our second cruise. The first was on the Norwiegean
Dreamward, now Norweigean Dream before they cut her in two and made her
longer to hold more passengers. Our cruise on the Dreamward had
slightly over 800 passengers. Made for a real nice cruise.
However, the Victory will hold over 3,000 passengers and they fill as
much to capacity as possible. Dining choices are great and if you are a
drinker, you will have no problem at all finding a bar. They are
everywhere. One even has a glass ceiling so you can look up at the dance
floor above and play peek-a-boo. Panty hose took all the fun out of it
though.
The main decks are very crowded during the day and you have to hunt for
a deck chair to lounge in. The cabins are typical. You have to squeeze
yourself between the foot of the bed to get around to the door. We had
a balcony which was great when the people next to us were not smoking
cigars, cigarettes, or pot. The smell blows right down the side of the
ship. We were on deck 10 which was very nice since it had fewer cabins
than other decks but I understand deck 11 is even smaller.
You will be assigned to a dining room - the Atlantic or the Pacific and
each has dining times set at 5 p.m. or 8 p.m.. There's something going
on every night in the dining rooms, so have fun. If you don't like what
you ordered, order something else. If it's lobster night and you love
lobster, order two, three, four, whatever. The kitchen is yours to
enjoy. Beware of drink prices and even bottled water prices.
A little secret that not many people are aware of are the SODA MACHINES
located on each deck (I think they are on each deck). You really have
to look for them as they are tucked away in a small room. Sodas are a
buck in these machines and I think 2 bucks if you order at the bar.
There are also ice machines around you have to hunt for. If you want to
smuggle a jug of your favorite hootch aboard, people here have suggested
that you pour it into an empty large soda bottle - hint, hint, if you
drink say Scotch, don't pour it into a clear water bottle or if you
drink Vodka, don't pour it into a clear Pepsi bottle. Be sure the cap
is tight and to ensure safety, put the bottle in one or two plastic
Ziploc bags. There is no guarantee this will work and all they will do
is take it away from you, but it's worth a try considering the price of
hootch aboard ship. AND, don't have the hootch sitting out in the open
in your cabin when you are away. Your Cabin Steward just may turn you
in or confiscate it - they have parties down on the crew deck too ya
know. Hide it in a pocket in something you hang up in the closet or in
a drawer wrapped in your undies.
Now for the really bad part..... hee hee, always comes last....
You are most likely departing from the Port of Miami. If you are
spending the night before the cruise, I recommend the Holiday Inn across
from the Cruise Terminal. It's ok if people don't slam their doors all
night long. We were going to go to the terminal at the boarding time
stated on our tickets and so we took a drive over to see what it was
like and where the garage was located - we drove. We went over around
Noon and lo and behold, people were already lined up entering the
terminal building. It was hot as hell outside too. So, I dropped off
my wife so she could get in line (I stayed in my air conditioned truck),
I dropped off the luggage to the porters - a buck a bag I think or maybe
two is the normal tip, and drove over to the garage where they allowed
me to park for free since I had a handicap placard. I don't know why
they do this, but they did. Otherwise it would have cost me nearly $90
to leave the truck there for a week.
I walked back to the terminal as my wife was just entering. No air
conditioning and the line was two miles long and creeping. Since 911,
security has been tightened up and you have to go through the same crap
you go through at the airport. Metal detectors, carry on searches, etc.
(that's why you should put your hootch in your luggage and not a carry
on). We finally made it to the desk where they snap your photo and
present you with your onboard credit card. And of course, the ship's
photogs want to snap you as you are boarding the ship - we passed on
that. I take much better photos. The first thing we did was locate our
cabin and freshen up a bit. Our luggage made it about two hours later.
In the meantime we went out on deck and had a beer. Then we had boat
drill.
As I said, the ship carries over 3,000 passengers and about half want to
get off at each port we visited. It wasn't bad when we hit Cozumel
since we had a dock to tie up to (no more after Wilma). But when we hit
Grand Cayman, five other cruise ships decided it was also a good day for
a visit. Figure an average of 2500 passengers times 5 then cut that in
half. That's how many people had to be tendered into port at Grand
Cayman and at the same time. It was one big mess. You could hardly
move around on shore. We did our little submarine tour and quickly got
back on the tender and returned to the ship. I got some beautiful
photos of all the other cruise ships in port that day.
The ship's crew were friendly, although the security folks looked a bit
scary. They were all from India and their dark eyes looked at everyone
with suspicion, especially when re-boarding after a port stop. They were
sitting there with a hamper taking everyone's booze and labeling it.
You get your booze back the night before you dock in Miami. A person can
get pretty smashed up on the final night at sea. If you are taking the
Western Carribean route, you will have Cuba off to your left most of the
entire cruise. Watch for water spouts. They are beautiful and scary at
the same time. Always have your camera ready. Our last night at dinner
was the only night I didn't bring my camera with us. There was a HUGE
water spout off to our left we could see out the dining room window and
it would have made for a nice photo, even for TV. It must have been a
mile high and only about five miles away. I know the ship's Captain was
watching it closely.
Hope that helps. Oh, and dis-embarking was almost as bad as boarding
the ship. You dis-embark by the color of your luggage tags. We didn't
get off until nearly 11 a.m. and they started at 8 a.m. Fortunately
Customs flagged us right on through and we were out and on I-75 in less
than 30 minutes. Hurricane Rita was right behind us too. The next trip
took the Victory back to where we came from. That pissed some people
off since they booked a double ended cruise to see both the Eastern and
Western Carribean.
Enjoy. Hopefull others will add to this. I didn't mean to make it look
like a Cruise Review. I still need to post mine. |