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goodml
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Posted: Mon Aug 28th, 2006 05:13 am | 1st Post |
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We were two families of four with four Panorama deck inside cabins on the 5 night itinerary. We drove in for our first visit to NYC and arrived at around 9:00 am on Sunday morning.
We needed two hotel rooms with quad occupancy in the Times Square area for the night before the cruise and were trying to keep costs down. At one time I think I had five different hotels reserved for that night - Travel Inn at $140 including free parking - a Comfort Inn near the Empire State Building for $169 etc. None of them were thrilling me much and then the price for the Westin at 8th and 43rd came down on Hotwire to $152/room so we grabbed it. That was definitely a great choice. The Westin rooms are absolutely gorgeous with very luxurious beds, plasma tv's and a lovely bathroom. Our room looked out over 8th Ave which we thought wasn't too appealing but around 7 Monday morning we were really pleased because we were able to watch Victory pull in. The hotel charges $45 plus tax for parking but we parked in the lot across 43rd for $30. There was a wonderful little cafe (always jammed) at the base of the hotel on 8th called Euro-Pan where we ate lunch the first day and breakfast the morning before the cruise. Excellent wraps, sandwiches and baked goods etc and really good cappucino all very reasonably priced for NYC.
On the CC ports of call boards I had read that a person had taken a limo tour of the city and really enjoyed it. I went to the recommended site and the tour appeared to be exactly what we were looking for at a price of $195 for three hours for all 8 of us. I called and booked the tour for Sunday at 11:30 am. The fellow gave me the name and cell phone number of the driver, took a $50 deposit and told me to pay the driver the balance plus an 18% gratuity in cash the day of the tour. At 11:00 am I called to confirm the pick up location and the driver told me the tour was booked for 11:30 PM !! I told him I had an email conf that said otherwise and he said he would get ready and be there between 12 and 12:30. 12:30 rolled around and Anthony (Ant-nee ) was still nowhere to be seen. Long story short, at 2:30 pm after about 6 different calls to both the driver and the owner of the company (who each told me he was stuck in traffic in the Lincoln tunnel but the traffic reports said traffic was moving smoothly there) I asked them to please just tell me if the guy wasn't coming and we'd find something else to do. He said he'd be there in 10 mins and when he finally pulled up my 16 year old son said, "10 to 1 the beater limo's ours" and it was  . Too funny - all banged up and chrome hanging. Turns out the guy was from New Jersey, had never given a tour of NYC before and had been out til 7 in the morning driving a bunch of girls around for a bachelorette party. In the end we had a 4 hour tour (we told him what we wanted to see and he'd check my map to find the spots) with a bar stocked with beer, champagne and some soda for the kids, all for $230 for 8 people. We actually ended up having a great time and we got the driver to loosen up after the first 10 minutes or so (he kind of looked like a Soprano:monkeys: ) but I really can't recommend this company for a tour because it just wasn't what they represented on their site (and they don't tell time well, lol.)
On Monday morning the dads took the four kids (16 y/o boy, 16 y/o girl and two 14 y/o girls) down to see Good Morning America and the moms stayed back and watched. It was fun to see them on tv and even more fun to hear that their grandmas back home had seen them too. We're small towners, what can I say ? When they got back we went to Euro-Pan for breakfast and by about 10:30 we were ready to head to the port. We decided to take a drive up 8th Ave past Central Park to somewhere in the 80's, then headed over and down Columbus for 15 blocks or so, then over to 12th and pulled into the parking lot at the pier right around 11. We got to the seating area at 11:20 and there were probably about 50 people there ahead of us. Check-in began right at 11:30, we were on board by about 11:45 and our cabins were ready so we were able to drop off our bags and head to lunch.
This was our second cruise on Victory and she was just as pretty as I remembered - very clean and well kept. Our cabins on deck 10 were all together and were very spacious and clean. We had to get some extra room keys made because the kids were staying in the cabins beside us but had been booked with an adult in each cabin. Our cabin steward, Wilson, and his assistant, Monica were wonderful to us and he had us in stitches all week. He treated all of our kids so well and they just loved him. We had towel animals every night and one night he took the chair and some of the clothes that my kids had left out and made the figure of a man with hat and glasses sitting up looking at the door. It was hysterical when they walked in that room and saw it.
One part of the cruise still bothers me. There was a woman in a cabin across the hall with her 6 y/o daughter and she was truly off her rocker. We would hear her screaming in her cabin at all hours and the room steward had to bring the hotel manager and security up a couple of times to document the damage and generally bad condition of her room. We were in the hall one evening when she accused him of stealing a dress and he very calmly went in and showed her that the dress was on the chair. He came back out and gave us a frustrated look. The last night of the cruise she brought her daughter back to the cabin about 1:30 in the morning and she was falling-down drunk and yelling at the little girl because she couldn't open the door. Another woman and I came out of our cabins because after they got inside their cabin the child kept screaming, "no mommy, please, no mommy" and the mom was saying, "you trust me don't you?" We ended up calling security because we were really worried about the little girl. I'm not sure what happened after that because we didn't see them in the morning. I can't stop thinking about that little girl.
The weather for our cruise was excellent. We had sunshine and calm seas the entire time and the pools and hot tubs seemed to be well used. Saint John was an absolutely wonderful port that I have to admit looked really really unimpressive as we pulled in. We found though that the people of Saint John were the most welcoming of any port we've ever been in and that the city itself was lovely. There was a band playing and they had volunteers greeting everyone and handing out maps and roses as we came off the ship. We didn't have a tour booked so we looked at the map and made a left when we came out of the shopping tents at the pier and walked down towards Market Square which was very pretty. Here's a great tip for anyone who'd like to check their email while they're away but not pay cruise ship prices. The Saint John Public Library is located two blocks from the ship and they offer free use of the internet for a half hour or an hour for anyone including cruise ship passengers. We went to the desk and reserved a couple of computers for a half hour and all of the kids got about 10 mins each to check their email and send some to friends.
We walked around that area for a while and then headed back to the pier because we had seen that they were offering taxi tours for $40 per hour for up to 6 people - for more than that you have to rent two taxis. We got lucky because a local tour company was just finishing a three hour tour with a 10 passenger van and my husband approached the driver and asked about a tour for the 8 of us. The fellow's name was Richard and he was hilarious. He gave us a fantastic hour and a half tour for $65 for the 8 of us and showed us the reversing rapids and most of the other highlights of the city. It was an excellent day.
The next day we were in Halifax which is a beautiful port and we walked along the waterfront looking at all the different shops and sights. Our dh's are BIG Alexander Keith's fans so we of course had to do the tour and it was fun (a bit hokey but fun). The beer was icy cold and served in stoneware mugs and they gave each person two mugs full. After that we headed up the hill and had lunch at the Little Fish and then on to the Citadel and saw the changing of the guards. We left the men and the older kids there and headed back down towards the ship. On the way we found the neatest little candy store called Freak's Lunchbox that had just about every kind of candy you can imagine and was jammed with people. We walked back to the pier and my son is a real history buff so we looked around Pier 21 for a while until it was time to go back on the ship. We had no problem bringing some 8 packs of Keith's Red beer back on board.
I had read some negative comments about the Victory before we sailed on her and I have to admit I noticed some differences since we sailed her in 2003. I have always loved the food in the dining rooms on our previous cruises but this one was a bit of a letdown by comparison. It's not that anything was bad and some things were really good but most were just ok. The desserts were really quite unimpressive. I had doubted the comments I had read about them because I take a lot of reviews with a grain of salt but I have to admit that even the old standards like Grand Marnier souffle just weren't the same. Our wait staff seemed to really be struggling to keep up and I've not experienced that before. Again nothing was bad, it was just a bit of a letdown when compared with previous cruises.
All of our kids participated in Club 02 and really enjoyed themselves. The organized activities were pretty slim but it was basically a place to meet up, dance and hang out and that worked really well for our group. We had strict curfews for them and we had check-in times every evening. We had all but two meals in the dining room and the kids ate with us at every meal. Formal night was fun because they love to get decked out and go to all the photo stations and have a million photos taken. (Since there’s always much discussion about this, the Capers actually said “formal dress required” for formal night in the dining room.) Then they went to O2 for the formal night dance and had a great time. They made some really nice friends and thanks to the internet they’re busy talking to all of them today.
All in all it was a great cruise and for the price we paid it was an excellent value. Some of the service levels that have slipped over the last few years concern me a bit. I think I'd rather Carnival charge us a bit more and maintain service levels as they used to be. I'm sure the abundance of ships and the need to fill them has brought us to this point but I'm hoping that maybe I'm wrong and this was just a fluke.
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ML
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nhrich
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Posted: Mon Aug 28th, 2006 12:24 pm | 2nd Post |
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Great review, thanks!.
Hope that little girl is okay. When the mother makes a comment about the daughter not trusting her, there's probably a reason she said that. 
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Carefree Vacations
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hstrybuf
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Posted: Tue Aug 29th, 2006 12:17 am | 3rd Post |
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Welcome back Mary Lynne! We were wondering about you last night in chat. Sounds like you had a great time. I too hope that poor little girl is alright. And I love it that they said "formal dress required". It's about time! 
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Deb
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
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goodml
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Posted: Fri Sep 1st, 2006 04:40 am | 4th Post |
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| Thanks rich and deb.:D
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BAMA X 2
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Posted: Fri Sep 1st, 2006 01:32 pm | 5th Post |
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| Nice review. To bad about the little girl it sounds like a nightmare cruise (and life) for her. Sounds like you had a great trip otherwise.
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gurlwithbaggage
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Posted: Mon Sep 4th, 2006 01:43 am | 6th Post |
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| Great review ML!! And I am also disturbed for the little girl. Why some people are loving and not able to have children where others have them and treat them like crap....I'll never understand.
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Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans~~John Lennon
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goodml
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Posted: Mon Sep 4th, 2006 03:48 am | 7th Post |
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| I know. That's definitely one of life's great ironies.
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ML
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