Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Victory Cruise Review
Canada

Wendy W.
Age: 53
Occupation: Investments
Number of Cruises: 2
Sailing Date: September 8th, 2007

Carnival Victory was our second Carnival Cruise.  The ship is nice in the usual Carnival Style.  It is, however, cut up differently and can be difficult to get from one end of the ship to the other making it necessary to go up or down a floor or two.  Embarkation out of NY was long.  A lot of the older individuals complained at not being able to sit down.  It seemed that many didn't have their documents ready.  Suggestion to Carnival would be to have someone going up & down the lines seeing to it that all had whatever they needed ready.  Once on the ship all was fine.  It was a beautiful trip out of the NY harbor.  Passing by the Statue of Liberty and under the Verrazano Bridge was an amazing experience.  Our luggage was delivered to our room timely.  The ship was spotless and kept that way throughout the cruise.  Kudos to the cleaning crews all over the ship.  Dinning areas included. 

All the cities and towns visited were beautiful.  Getting back on the boat in Boston was a nightmare.  We waited almost 2 hours in line.  The port terminal was a disgrace to Boston.  The cruise ship had only one gangway to get on and all the excursions seemed to be done at the same time.   Thankfully they had the foresight to have open sitting for dinner that night.  I’m sure the dinning staff wasn’t happy though as everyone on the ship wanted to eat at once.  It was noted by everyone that on that evening the dinning staff was less friendly and efficient.

Saint John and Halifax were delightful.  The Canadian’s really made us feel welcome.  They had people at the port in costumes.  In Saint John they gave out roses to the women and in Halifax they greeted us with a Town Crier and a Fife & Drum band and saw us off with a Bagpiper.  Very friendly people.  We did the Kayak & Lobster lunch excursion in Saint John.  The bus ride out of town was great with sight seeing information given.  The kayaking was great but it takes a lot of time getting ready & showing newbies what to do.  We only got about an hour in the water.  Saw one eagle.  I was disappointed we didn’t see more wildlife.  The mussel and lobster lunch was great.  It was served outside.  Guides were great and food delicious.

In Halifax we did the Peggy’s Cove/ Double Decker Hop on Hop off excursion.  This involved a trip in a bus to Peggy’s Cove.  This was a beautiful ride and narrated throughout the trip, however, I was stuck in the back and there were no speakers back there so I never heard a thing!  The trip there took about an hour and they gave us less than an hour to visit the cove. The cove is breathtaking with a lighthouse.  I didn’t see everything even though I moved around pretty fast.  We really needed more time there.  When we got back we dropped our stuff on the ship & went back out to start our hop on hop off Double Decker bus ride.  When we got outside we realized spending the money for the bus would not have been necessary.  The town has a bus you can ride for free called FRED.  But we had already paid when we booked the excursion so we did it.  The city is built on a hill so we really just took the bus to the top (to see the Citadel) and then walked back down stopping at sights on the way.  The Public Gardens shouldn’t be missed.

Back on the ship.  I love cruising but much is wasted on my husband and I which is the reason I like a balcony room.  We enjoy spending time on it watching the ocean or other sights.  We don’t participate in the contests but watched parts of some.  Don’t like going to the bars or casino’s as they are all full of smoke.  We did see the shows and they were really good.  They have a new group of dancers that were terrific.  Also saw the R rated comedians.  One was good the other not so good.  All in all, I hated to go home.  Debarkation was much better that embarkation.  We waited in our room until called.  They have a new choice to self-assist meaning you take all your luggage off your self, no crew can help at all.  Next time I would do that.  We didn’t because we were in no hurry as we were taking the train home.  Had no early flight but I would do it next time to avoid trying to retrieve your luggage once in the terminal.  Wasn’t hard to find, just a lot of people trying to do it at once.

 

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