Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Victory Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

Lauren

Let me start off by saying that this was my first cruise and definitely not my last. We drove to the Port of Miami and stayed in Miami the day prior to sailing. Unless you are the “ritzy” type, than there is nothing to do in Miami except go to the beach.

Embarkation: We were told not to arrive to the ship until 1 pm which we later found out was false. You can get there as early as you want and they will let you on, but you can not go into your cabin. The whole embarkation process was really fast. It took us around 30 minutes to unload the car and check-in. Then they let us on the ship.

Food: The buffet in my opinion was only worth having for breakfast because you can get the exact same thing in the dining room. The dining room was very good. I must say our waitress was very good and made it enjoyable for us to eat there. They remember what you like and how you like your meat cooked. On the first night if you ask for a beverage to go with your dessert, then they will bring it to you every night.

For the decorations, some people though that they were a little too extreme. They weren’t that extreme. There were a couple of  paintings, but that was about it. They kept the ship nice and clean the whole time I was on board.

The cabin steward would come in twice a day and change your toiletries and at night they would even fold down your bed for you, and leave towel animals.

Almost the whole crew is made up of different nationalities and they are all very friendly. They can speak English well so there should be no language barrier.

PORTS OF CALL: Costa Maya, Mexico; Grand Cayman; and Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Costa Maya: We swam with the dolphins. It was fun but you only get to spend 30 minutes in the water with them, and you pay 200 something dollars for it. You also get the Beach Break tour also, where you can relax on the beach. In my opinion, if you are thinking about swimming with the dolphins it would be cheaper to sign-up for the Beach Break and then sign-up for the dolphin tour when you get there because you would be saving money.

Grand Cayman: We did the Island Tour. There are a couple of gift shops and a post office and a rock formation. Then we went to the Tortuga Rum Factory. This is just a shop where you can sample rum cake and rum, and buy it if you want. After that, we went to the Turtle Farm. There are approximately 5 exhibits. They are in the process of building a new facility. NOTE: You have to take a tender to and from the ship in this port.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica: We got off the ship at around 8:00 am, thinking that there would be shops open. We were wrong - the shops don’t open there until 10:00am. We were walking around until the shops opened. The next plan was to go on the Catamaran tour, but that all changed. The cab drivers were bugging us, and one kept following us, so we decided to go with him, after he lowered his price from $50 per person to $30. He took us up where the locals live and then he took us to the Dunn’s River Falls, which you must climb. The falls are fun to climb but the way that they made us link hands, is completely unnecessary, and it makes it harder to climb. Then we met our driver and he took us wherever we wanted for the rest of the day. NOTE: if you pay the driver with a credit card there is an extra $40 fee.

I went to every single show and they were all pretty good especially the first comedian. He was awesome. The second comedian was not as good. The Vegas style shows were pretty good but they are a bit revealing. The magic show was very good but some of the tricks were really old. The Carnival Legends show was good basically. If you want good singers, go the karaoke lounge and vote for the good singers.

All in all it was a very pleasant trip and I would recommend Carnival. We stayed in an ocean view cabin and it could accommodate 4 people. It was very crammed at times, so if you are traveling with 3 or more people, I would recommend getting a second cabin.

Debarkation: Was very smooth. They called the people that were carrying their own stuff off the ship and that took about 2 hours. Then they were calling by the color tag or whichever deck you were staying on. Once you checked yourself out of the ship all you had to do was find your baggage and go through customs, which took about 10 minutes. You are on your way  from there.