Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Victory Cruise Review
Halifax, Canada

Jackson
Age: 17
Occupation: Student
Number of Cruises: 1
Sailing Date: August 3rd, 2006

I traveled with my family and several of our friends. This was our first cruise so we did not want to spend too much money or too much time and we found a 4-day cruise from New York to Halifax for roughly $400 a person.

Embarkation
We live in New Jersey so it was a perfect opportunity to carpool to the pier. The uneventful trip was approximately 3 hours including about a half an hour stuck in New York traffic. Make sure you leave an ample amount of time to get to New York, especially by car, because of heavy traffic. We arrived at the pier at around two o’clock and parking was $24 a day. The brochure says it is $10 and it is wrong. By 2:45, we were already on the boat! This was extremely quick and easy, even if you are non U.S. citizens who happened to be standing right beside us. Unfortunately, being the first cruise, we did not realize we could get rid of our luggage that would have been brought right to our cabin. Also, finding the cabin was a little bit difficult, but we eventually arrived at our cabin on deck 7.

Room Service
Although the cabin was a bit small, it was still very comfortable. I really enjoyed the complimentary movies on the TV that featured new movies like The Chronicles of Narnia, Rumor Has It, and the best: The Ringer. In addition, the room service was fantastic. It seemed like every time we left our cabin; they went inside to clean it up. Our housekeeper even made little “towel animals” every night. You will see what I mean when you get onboard. We barely spent any time in our cabins, except to sleep, so even a balcony cabin would’ve probably been a waste, unless you spend a lot of time in your cabins. Everything was very clean, and the Caper delivered to our rooms was very good, so we know what to do the next day. In addition, in the showers, the soap and shampoo came out of dispensers, which I thought was a very good idea.

Food and Beverages
To describe the food, just one word: excellent. One downside is watch out for your dinner reservations. We reserved a time for 6:00 and instead we got 8:00, because the time reserved is not guaranteed. So, the first day we ate alone and met these wonderful people sitting with us who were funny. The next day, the Maitre’d was able to fix the schedule and even put our entire group on one table! The food in the dining room was excellent, although the lobster were hard. I really admired how the servers were able to work so hard and still dance and sing for us! You will also see what I mean when you get onboard. The Mississippi Grill had great cheeseburgers, but the french fries were not that good. The pizza was also excellent (probably the best I’ve ever had), but the calzone is not worth the wait. The ice cream was also not that good. Finally, the Mediterranean Restaurant has the same food as the dining rooms, so if you don’t want to dress up or are too lazy, just go there. The food is the same (except some items are not available), but it is much quicker than waiting for the waiters to bring food to you. In addition, the Chinese food at Yangtze Wok was delicious, especially the soup and the seafood in scallop. As for the beverage, I am too young to comment on beers, wines, etc, but the lemonade was great. The hot chocolate was too sweet, and coke is coke. If you want to drink soda, buy a card so you can drink as much soda as you want (if you drink a lot), instead of what I did (buy them each time I wanted them).

Shows
All the shows were great, especially the last day. The welcome aboard show was not very fun, except when the social host started cracking jokes and the guest talent show was mostly just singing. However, do not miss the two productions: Livin’ in America and Vroom! Although, I was shocked at how skimpy the clothing were, so if you don’t want your little boy to look at the skimpy clothing on the beautiful women performing (even Jaime Rae the girl singer), put him at the back to listen to the great voices singing and the excellent Victory band.

Activities
There were a limited number of activities, especially for my parent and older people. However, I thought there was too many activities. One advice is do not bother with all the trivia, because they were hard! In addition, bingo was a waste of money, unless you are lucky, and the club O2 was just music and dancing. You can do that anywhere else too, so do not waste your time there. The Ice Carving, waterslide, men’s hairy chest competition, and survivor were all excellent. Basically, don’t miss the activities on Lido. And did I mention the music: the band on Lido was one of the best bands I’ve ever heard!

Halifax
Boring! It was a total waste of a port, because there was nothing to do. You can walk around, but there was nothing really cool. Even the museum that had “Titanic” in it was not very interesting. We got off the cruise around 10 and were back on by noon. Total waste!

Photo Gallery and Gift Shop
The photo gallery was great and the pictures did not cost a lot of money. People are always taking pictures of you, so you’re bound to find one you like to keep as a cruise memory. The gift shop was not as great, because they were just jewelry and clothing.

Debarkation
Again, just like embarkation, very quick and easy. I did not like how we had to pack the night before and leave them outside, but it was easier to do this, so that you do not have to carry your luggage off. Picking up the luggage was even easier, because you just had to remember your tag color and go to there to pick it up. My parents told me it was not as scary as they said during the debarkation talk, so do not bother going to that either.

Overall, this was one of the best vacations I have ever had. It was just incredible that you can have fun on a boat (by the way, my mom who gets seasick easily, did not even feel the boat rocking). My family has already planned another cruise either during Christmas to the Caribbean or next summer to Alaska, but definitely longer! The time passed too quickly on this cruise, and we really wanted it to be longer. The cruise was so nice and clean (although finding your way around even on the last day was hard, because you cannot walk from back to the front unless you are on the Lido deck or cabin decks). Be prepared for a great time!
 

Ask a Question About Carnival Cruise Lines

Ever thought about becoming a home based travel agent? Check out my web site for home based travel and cruise agents located at;

Home Based Travel Agent