Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Victory Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

Amit
Age: 30
Occupation: Electronics Engineer
Number of Cruises: 1
Sailing Date: November 5th 2006

Let me start by saying that before my girlfriend and I went on this cruise, we had a lot of reservations based on prior reviews of the Victory.

Before I elaborate on the details, let me just say - it was AMAZING! The food, the people, the ports of call - as a whole this was an incredible experience which I strongly recommend to anyone who's considering taking a cruise for the first time.

Let's go over the specific points in more detail:

Embarkation: We decided to arrive relatively early (11:30am), which proved to be a smart move - we beat the mass of people that started arriving around 12:00-12:30 and were among the first to check-in (tip: if you have an international passport, use it - the lines for international cruisers is MUCH shorter...). During our check-in we found out we were upgraded to a penthouse (highest room class on the ship) from a balcony stateroom - let me tell you, that room was better than most hotels I ever stayed in.

The Victory
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General: The Victory is a huge ship and despite it being fully booked was kept spotless for the entire cruise - the crew was working day and night cleaning every bit of it. While there were plenty of kids on board, I have to say they were never an issue and were generally out of the way thanks to Carnival’s kids program.

Smoking was also not a problem at all – not in the bars, not in the Casino and not in the restaurants – it simply wasn’t such a problem (and that’s coming from a guy who really doesn’t like smoke around him…)

Entertainment: our cruise director was a hilarious guy by the name of Malcolm Burns (Woo Hoo - those who sailed with him would understand...) who really did an excellent job getting everyone into the cruise spirit and made sure everyone checked their attitude at the gangway. The Victory has a different show every evening (Las Vegas style) and those were excellent! From time to time there are also late night R-Rated comedy shows which were extremely funny.

There are activities for everyone - Bingo sessions, Casino, game shows, kid activities, etc (even though both of us found that during the Fun Days at Sea things were a little dry and could have had some more things to do - we found 3-4 hours during the day of absolutely nothing going on).

The Food: Unlike most of the reviews I’ve read here about the Victory's food - the food was excellent! Burgers, hot dogs, Pizza and sandwiches of good quality all through the day and quite a good dinner with a different menu every night (Prime rib, lobster, pasta...all of very good quality). Our dinner table consisted of 4 couples, all between 22 and 36, which made us click immediately - kudos to Carnival for the spot-on sitting arrangements (even though you could always change your table and even your dining hour if you didn't like it).

The staff:
Even though they are working 7 days a week and most of the day, everyone always had a smile on their face, a good attitude and were ALWAYS willing to help (a special good word here for Sergiy, our dinner bar waiter, who after one dinner knew everybody's names at the table including our drinking preferences - a great guy who quickly became part of our table group).

Ports of Call
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In all ports, we booked excursions with Carnival, which meant everything went smoothly but also that we paid through the nose...

Costa Maya (Mexico): We took a Snorkeling excursion which was a great disappointment - the water near Costa Maya are quite murky with very little to see (at least compared to the 2 other ports). If you're considering snorkeling, do it in the Cayman Islands where the water is amazingly clear with plenty to see.

The Cruise complex (where all cruise ships stop in Costa Maya) consists of some shops with a lot of junk on the one side and high-end diamonds on the other - which means that for the most part, there's nothing to shop for there, but there's always drinking…

Grand Cayman: We took a tour to Stingray city (or sandbar - depending on the operator) - DO NOT MISS! Feeding and playing with the stingrays was the highlight of the cruise - about 40 minutes of waist-high water filled with playful stingrays looking for some raw squid (that we fed them) - very gentle creatures, strongly recommended!
The shopping in Grand Cayman is also the best of all 3 ports - tons of shops with relatively good prices and quality, vendors who aren't the least bit pushy (but will also not haggle with you for the price).
Be careful when going to Margaritaville - you can end up paying upwards of $50 for a couple of drinks and a plate of nachos...but the atmosphere is great :-)

Ocho Rios (Jamaica): We chose an excursion to Dunn’s River Falls and Dolphin Cove - The Falls were great and are highly recommended, but in order to save some money I would recommend bringing your own water shoes (to walk on the slippery rocks up the falls) - $5 each person. You should also try not bringing ANYTHING else to the falls that you can't carry with you (such as anything that can't withstand water - like a camera), because you would have to take a locker and store your things there - another $5 (needless to say, these are NOT included in the tour cost).

Dolphin Cove was a bust - just an area where you can see the people who decided to pay to swim with the Dolphins and not much else.

Shopping in Jamaica is very cheap, but for very low quality items and with the pushiest vendors ever (granted, they are very poor and are trying to make a buck, but going into a 10 minute guilt-trip on how us tourists don't support their economy by not buying a piece of wood for $30 is not the way to go about it...).

In general, I believe all excursions were incredibly over-priced and for the Jamaica excursions we’ve heard some very bad experiences for the off-road and ATV tours – which were apparently very dull and wrongly portrayed in the excursions descriptions.

While you can book excursions online, I recommend doing it on the ship and if you can, wait until after the Ports of call talk with the cruise director – where you’ll get some more information on each excursion.

Debarkation: Went very smoothly, especially if you use the Self-Assist option and simply take everything with you or if you have an early flight – by 9am we were off the ship and on our way to Miami airport.

Bottom Line: Both my girlfriend and I had a wonderful time on and off the ship, and were very sorry to reach Miami at the end of the cruise.

If you come with the right attitude and are willing to participate in the activities and have fun – you will have the time of your life! We are already contemplating the destination for our next cruise…

For any questions, feel free to email me at amitmiron@yahoo.ca

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