Review: Carnival Cruise Lines - Victory - [October 17 , 2004]

[Net Reviews]

Review By:

Reviewer Comments:

October 17-18, 2004.

We got off the Carnival Victory, for their 2 day cruise to Nowhere out of
Norfolk, Virginia this morning. We live in Northern Virginia, and we could
not resist a fun cruise weekend that we could drive to.

Here's my review:

This was our fourth cruise, first on Carnival (others on NCL and RCCL).
It was our kids' second cruise.

We decided to sign up for this cruise and take two of our adult children over a
year ahead. The real draw was the price for the cheapie rooms (a 1A for my
kids and a 4A for us.) and the proximity, as we live in Virginia and could
drive to the port. It looked like a fun weekend.

Carnival runs these cruises to nowhere several times a year out of Norfolk and
New York at least.

Embarkation: Was terrible. Lines, Lines, Lines. Norfolk does NOT know how to
embark a big mega ship, and some 3,000 people slows everything up. It did not
help that this given Saturday there were a number of big events on the Norfolk
waterfront. We left my in-laws' home in Williamsburg, VA at about 10, stopped
for 45 minutes or so at the nearby outlet shops to pick up a couple of things
we'd left behind then headed for Norfolk, into total gridlock. It must have
taken us an hour to get to and through the tunnel. Once at the parking lot,
(Carnival parks you about a mile away, $20 for the weekend, then shuttles you
to the boat. There is NOT enough room at the dock for people to even be left
off) there was a sizeable line for the shuttle busses to take us to the port
(It possibly could have been walked but it was a significant walk, especially
with luggage. Once at the port there was another line which snaked all over
the place to security. That one was about an hour long and outside, and it
deposited you at yet another line, where we waited for a while to get sail and
sign cards, then another line, still to actually get on the ship (although the
last one, picture included, was less than 10 minutes.)

So by 3:30 we were aboard, found our rooms (both on the Riviera deck or first
floor).

Quick note. Some one at breakfast this morning told me that Norfolk is going
to put in a proper cruise terminal. I hope so. The convenience of leaving
from here is powerful and in a couple years I'd be very interested in
cruising again from here, given proper facilities and an interesting
itinerary.

Rooms:

Carnival boasts larger rooms than other cruise lines, and the bottom-of the
line rooms were larger (especially the 1A which my kids shared, which was a
porthole cabin.) However, there was not sufficient difference between the 185
square foot rooms on Carnival and the 144s on Norwegian or even the 118s on
Royal Caribbean. The 1A was very nice though, with the second bunk over a couch
and a nice area near the portholes. I think it was actually larger than the
4A. All in all, though, it was the typical low end cruise stateroom; efficient
bath, twin beds that can be pushed together (they don't actually make them up
as a double, which I felt to be a negative compared to other lines). the desk
and sitting space is somewhat more than on previous lines, and this is where we
felt the extra space. Bathroom and closets are a wonder of efficiency; there
were lots of cabinets and hanging racks, and the drawers were outside of the
closets, which left lots of room in the closets. The storage would support
well a weeklong cruise.

Food:

After unpacking, we headed for a light snack. We had not eaten any lunch,
planning to eat on the ship, but a three hour delay after when we had hoped
to board, we were concerned about spoiling dinner. So, having heard so much
about Carnival's pizza we chose to try out the pizza. It is reputed to be
the best on the seas and I believe it. We tried pepperoni, garden vegetable,
mushroom and goat cheese and margarita pizza and all were excellent. We
had only one or two slices and some iced tea/lemonade to drink with it,
then enjoyed some tropical drinks (Sail Away Specials) which we bought in
plastic souvenir glasses.

We ate a total of 6 meals on ship, dinner every night in the dining room (which
we all enjoy) one breakfast in the Lido buffet, one in the dining room, and a
lunch in the pizzeria and one in the Lido buffet. All of the food ranged from
very good to excellent. We also went to tea on Sunday, which I'll cover in t
the activities section. Buffet food is particularly good, with a very nice
salad bar, a good selection of buffet food and a separate Chinese food window
and separate deli window. I particularly enjoyed the polenta with ratatouille,
as I am a vegetarian. But it was all very tasty. At breakfast they had 4
omelet stations, melons, grapefruit, hot and cold cereals, yogurt as well as
the usual buffet stuff, scrambled eggs, various breakfast meats, hash browns,
and many pastries.

Dining room dinners are set up as four courses, with appetizers and soups
together. They were very flexible of course, and when I preferred an
appetizer and soup over one of those and salad, they accommodated me. Standout
dishes included the duet of lamb, which my husband and son chose, the
vegetable curry which I had the first night, and the roast beef. I understand
the quail was good. The lobster was tasty, but was of course, frozen lobster
tail.

Our wait staff was good especially the assistant waitress, who even on a two day
cruise remembered that I was a vegetarian, remembered our end of meal coffee
orders and greeted us in the Lido at breakfast. Her name was Lina, and I cannot
remember the name of our main waitress.

They appeared to have pizza and ice cream/yogurt 24 hours, and a buffet both
nights from 11:30 to 1 AM.

Public Space:

I'd expected glaring decor and was pleasantly surprised to find the Carnival
decor just fine. There are a lot of lights; just about everything seems to be
lined in them. The tall atrium is impressive, but not as impressive as the
Norwegian Dawn was. We had some trouble finding our way back to front, which
I attribute to the shortness of the cruise. It's usually by the second day
that I settle into a cruise, and in this case that was when I was leaving~!
There were a couple decks that did not go front to back, or only did so via
an empty dining room, which was awkward. It was difficult to find the
Pacific dining room (although the Atlantic was fine.)

The casino was very crowded. I don't know if that was usual or just this crowd.
In general there were more lines than I am used to and more crowds just about
everywhere. I think with a 2 day no one spent much time in their cabin at all.

There were 7 hot tubs, so that was one area which was never fully crowded,
which was very, very nice. I am a hot tub fan, but the one I went in was very
hot indeed. We keep ours at home around 104 degrees, and this was hotter
than that.

The lounges were nice, standouts were the Ionian lounge, done in a Greek theme
with lots of Greek vases. It was the site of the tea, but it was also the
"Cigar lounge" so I tended to avoid it at night. The Caribbean lounge was
great also, and we were there both nights for well-attended Karaoke. The show
lounge was nice, also, with good sightlines from both the floor, and the
balconies.

The Lido deck was a standout with three pools (yes, one designated for adults)
six hot tubs. One of the pools is in an area called windows, near the Pizza-
ria which is more or less enclosed, with a retractable roof. This area is very
nicely designed and a pretty place to be, with a Mediterranean touch, which
I liked very much.

Activities:

This cruise was a bit sparse in the activity department from my point of view,
which may have reflected the northern nature of it. No wine or liquor tastings
or meaningful dance classes (the "Austin Powers" dance class does not count).

There was a hairy chest contest, which my son (who has a very hairy chest)
participated in and thought it was a hoot, and the usual newlywed game, so
I guess there was really quite a bit. My kids, in their 20s thought the
activities were great, and I filled in the time playing blackjack.

Art auctions and bingo sessions were not as heavily hawked as on other ships
I have been on. Nor were photos as aggressively marketed, although the videotape
of the cruise was. The casino had slots and blackjack tournaments, and there
was a full complement of evening entertainment, with two excellent production
shows "Vegas" style (which appears to mean done while wearing thongs most of
the time). I never did see the cruise director, which may have been because of
the size of the ship, but he was not at the production shows. The shows, while
very well done, were not as good as NCLs. The other major entertainment was
a late night comedian, which I missed, being somewhat used to going to sleep
early (though we were up until almost 2 the first night).

I must say that although activities seemed sparse to Me, they would have been
just fine for a first time cruiser, which is really their market on this kind
of ship. I did retain the daily listings.

Musicians on the ship were uniformly good and interesting. the Caribbean band
was a little loud. The classical trip was wonderful, and played Strauss
waltzes, which my son and I danced to. I was unable to hear the jazz group,
as they played in the Ionian during the hours it was a cigar bar, and I cannot
stand cigar smoke. (I was glad to see that smoking was limited on the ship,
and passengers adhered to those limitations, so I was glad there was a cigar
bar, I just did not go there when it was such. It did not smell of cigars when
it was used for tea.)

Tips:

We prepaid tips, and then gave extra to the waitress and assistant. We never
even knew who our cabin steward was, though he kept the cabin clean and even
left us a towel lobster (my first towel animal) he also neglected to push our
beds together (we did it ourselves). If you had not prepaid tips, they were
taken out automatically. I think that is a good idea when you are talking
about a cruise like this where many, many people are first time cruisers.

Disembarkation:

It was too soon. 2 days isn't nearly enough, though it was a very fun
weekend. It was exceptionally smooth, largely I think due to the fact that we
had not gone to any port at all, so customs was not too concerned with the
little bit of duty free shopping we might have done on the ship, and everyone
was carrying their own bags. No porters, and we all left quickly as we were
ready.

Summation:

This was a fun weekend and a great value for the money at less than $200 per
person. Having tried Carnival, I would be open to traveling on them again,
given the right itinerary, although they would not be my first choice. My
children, in their 20s, both liked Carnival a lot, and my daughter (the
youngest) rated them better than Royal Caribbean. They did like the younger
crowd, which may have been due to the length of the cruise. This was a fun,
enjoyable, all too short weekend.

I would have liked to be on this trip in warmer climate.