Carnival Valor???

MarieATL · January 9, 2005

Has anyone been on Valor yet??? I'm going May 15th.. whewhoooo I heard from my Travel agent that just got back from the Maiden Voyage that it's gorgeous... :) Ican't wait...

quackerduck · January 10, 2005

My husband and I just returned from the second cruise that Valor went on. It was horrible. The ship was grossly overbooked (by almost 500 people mostly children) and we found the management the most uncaring group. They overbook their excursions so badly that one gentleman would have drowned if a passing boat hadn't pulled him to safety. They sent out over 50 people snorkeling, without obligatory lifevests, and with only one leader. Safety and fun take a distant back seat to "how much more money can we get you fork out". Their 24 emergency hotline was not working when we got strande on a cancelled flight, booked by them. They gave no help to get another flight or accomodations enroute to catch up to the ship. They do not honour dinner time reservation requests. The list is endless.

Rat · January 10, 2005

Wow, this doesn't sound good! Hopefully, all the bugs will be worked out for this new ship.

DaCruzNut · January 11, 2005

I sailed on the inaugural voyage of the Norwegian Star, and on the Costa Allegra, when she had been in service only three weeks. I promised myself that I would NEVER take a cruise on a ship that had been in service for less than a month!

Nowadays, the cruise lines usually have a number of ships, already in service, that are built from the same general plans. The "new" crew members train on these ships, while the new one is getting ready. The cruise line then takes a mix of "new" crew and "seasoned" crew for the new ship. Therefore, things run a lot smoother than in the "old days," when each ship had a unique design.

However, it still takes the crew about a month to get used to each other and to form a "rythm" that keeps the ship humming.

gymbrat33 · January 11, 2005

I sailed on it for the 2 day pre-inaugural cruise to the Bahamas. The ship is absolutely beautiful. Everyone on the ship was super happy and there weren't any compalints from anyone. You must sail on this ship.