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Carnival Cruise Line

MS Carnival Valor

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Reviewed by: Paolo Degrandi
# previous cruises: 10 to 20
Date of Trip: August 21, 2005
Itinerary: Caribbean - Western

Carnival Valor, built in 2004 by Fincantieri of Italy, is one the latest Carnival cruise ship. As the other cruise ships in the Conquest Class she is an enlarged version of the 1996 built Carnival Destiny.

The theme of the interiors of Carnival Valor is the Heroism, with a focus on the American Heroes. The ship offers a wide range of public lounges, spanning three decks. The most interesting... and intimate one... is the Paris Hot Lounge. As onboard all the ships in the destiny and Conquest Class the layout isn't very good: on Lobby deck, due to the presence of the restaurants' galley, and on deck Atlantic, due to the presence of the Lincoln midship restaurant, to reach the afterward part of the ship from forward and vice versa, you have to move to Promenade deck. The Shogun casino, japanese themed, is very large, and always very crowded when the ship is at sea. There are three pools onboard, including the aft magrodome covered Lido pool, but all of them is quite small. The uppermost pool, located on Panorama deck, has a pool slide (you can access it from Sky deck).

The two balconied main restaurants, named after Lincoln and Washington (the first is the most intimate one), spans two decks and offer four sitting dinner: 5:45 pm and 8:00 pm for Washingtons', 6:15 pm and 8:30 pm for Lincoln's. The menu offers a good choice of international dishes, but the appetizers and the soups are all listed under " Entrees". The fish and the meat (prime rib) is excellent... the pasta often overcooked. Rosies' Restaurant offer a very large choice of hot and cold dishes: it spans two decks including a large desserts station, a Deli for sandwiches, an Asian corner, a pizzeria (it doesn't offer a true italian pizza), and a station with daily changed themed specialties (french, italian, spanish ones). On Promenade deck there is also a free of charge Sushi Bar.

The cabins are of a good size: Suites apart, the outside cabins with windows are the largest accommodations available: all of them is equipped with a sofa bed. The closet and drawer space is good for a 7 days cruise: you will be able to store your baggages under the beds. The bathrooms are quite basic units, with plastic furnitures. A very nice touch is the basket filled with amenities like soap, shampoo, body cream and other items.

The balcony cabins are smaller than the outside cabins: the balcony takes away some space.

On a 7 days cruise two large american style shows were featured. There is an emphasis on comedies, including adult ones. The animation was quite low key. Frankly I'm not sure that Carnival Cruises is still the "Fun Ships".

We cruised to Belize City, Roatan, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. At each port of calls there was a wide range of shore excursions at very reasonable prices. Don't miss Xunantunich mayan ruins in Belize: it's a stunning place with little crowd of tourists.

Passengers were mostly americans, with 600 others coming from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. There was also a small group of around 40 Italians. I have met some very nice persons, including an american family from Baltimore area. I really hope to stay in touch with them and to have the opportunity to meet them again.