Day 2 Sea Day On Carnival Valor

Carnival Valor 2017 4-Day Caribbean Cruise Review
Day 2 June 23, 2017 Sea Day
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Morning Walk Around The Ship:
After sleeping well on the first night of the cruise, I woke up at 6am to make sure I had time to walk around the ship before breakfast. Each cruise I try to walk around the ship in the early morning for exercise, but also to get pictures of public areas without people. My tour started in the ship's atrium on Deck 3. The Deck 3 (Lobby) level of the ship's atrium is home to the Shore Excursions desk, Guest Services desk, and atrium bar. The Shore Excursions desk was closed at this time in the morning, but later in the day would be open selling tours & excursions for Cozumel. Later in the day, the Shore Excursions desk would have a long line of people wanting to buy shore excursions for Cozumel. The Guest Services desk is open 24 hours a day and had no line at this time of the morning. For those that needed something from Guest Services, this would have been the perfect time to get help, complain, or ask a question.

American Lobby - Atrium Deck 3 Level

Shore Excursions Desk - Deck 3

Sitting Areas Around The Atrium's Bottom

Looking Up At The Atrium's Skylight

Atrium Bar

Atrium Mini Stage and Surrounding Floor Area

After walking around the Lobby Deck (3), I headed up one deck to the Atlantic Deck (4). I walked through the Deck 4 level of the Lincoln Dining Room. Many of the tables were already setup for formal night, but the dining room still needed a lot of preparation to be completely ready for formal night.

Lincoln Dining Room - Deck 4 Level

After walking out of the Deck 4 level of the Lincoln Dining Room, I continued walking towards the back of the ship. I came across a tucked away bar area called Winston's. I do not know much about Winston's, but I think it was primarily used in the evenings and at night. This was the only time I walked in this area of the ship because later in the cruise when I walked by , it was closed off by fire doors.

Winston's - Bar Area

Dance Floor In Middle Of Winston's

Winston's

Following my walk on Deck 4, I headed up to the Promenade Deck (5). One of the first areas I wanted to walk in was the Eagles Lounge. I was unable to get pictures of the Eagles Lounge on the first day of the cruise because it was used for a wedding in the early afternoon and at night was used for karaoke.

View From Back Of the Eagles Lounge

Side View Of Eagles Lounge

Bar Area Located At The Back Of The Eagles Lounge

Right next to the Eagles Lounge, is a small lounge known as Paris Hot. I have no idea what events or activities took place in this lounge because I never saw anything or anyone in here. The Paris Hot Lounge had vibrant yellow colors that were bright.

Paris Hot

The Carnival Valor's Promenade Deck is one of the nicest decks on the ship. There are several areas for sitting and many of the ship's public areas / lounges are located on this deck.

Taste Bar Counter

Promenade - Looking Towards The Back

Stairwell That Goes To Deck 4

Red Frog Pub's Entrance

Coffee Bar - Sweets & Drinks Available For A Fee

Carnival Valor Booths and chairs On Promenade

Booths & Chairs For Sitting

Promenade Stage Area and Casino Bar

Casino Bar

Cherry On Top

Skybox Sports Bar - View From Entrance

Skybox Sports Bar - View Of Counter

Skybox Sports Bar

First Breakfast Onboard:
Today was my first breakfast on the Carnival Valor. The Carnival Valor offers cruisers multiple breakfast options to choose from. For cruisers that wanted to eat in Rosie's, breakfast was scheduled to begin at 7:00am and end at 10:30am. Continental breakfast (pastries, juices, and fruits) opened at 6:00am. The breakfast buffet lines opened about 5-10 minutes prior to 7:00am. I was impressed that breakfast began earlier on the Carnival Valor. I do not know if this is now fleetwide policy or just something the particular crew on the Carnival Valor did. However, I enjoyed being able to have breakfast earlier! Each cruise, I have an omelet everyday at breakfast because this is something I normally do not get to eat on land. The Carnival Valor had an omelet station located in the Deli area and the Mongolian Wok area. The Mongolian Wok area omelet station was open before the deli area's omelet station, so this was the omelet station I used each day of the cruise.
The general breakfast buffet lines as well as continental breakfast buffet lines were self service. However, bacon and ham items were served from behind the counter to prevent food waste. This has been Carnival's policy for so many years now this did not surprise me.
The following 12 pictures are of the Continental Breakfast buffet line:

Continental Breakfast- Pastries

Continental Breakfast - Milk & Yogurt

Continental Breakfast - Pastries

Continental Breakfast - Fruits

Unfortunately, I was unable to take pictures of the general breakfast buffet lines due to too many people in line. In the later parts of my review, you will see more breakfast buffet photos. The following 3 pictures are of the omelet station located at the Mongolian Wok's line:

Omelet Station - Toppings Behind The Counter

Omelet Station Menu

Omelet Cooking At Omelet Station

The breakfast lines were quick to move on the first morning. All of the food was extremely good. I tried french toast for the first time and enjoyed it. However, I did not put syrup on it as I am not a fan of syrup. Also, the Carnival Valor served biscuits and gravy. This was something that was not previously served on any of my cruises. However, I did not try the biscuits and gravy. I had an omelet, french toast, bacon, sausage, and hash brown potatoes. The food was good, but greasy!

My Omelet

Breakfast Plate Of Honeydew, French Toast, Biscuits & Gravy, and Bacon

Breakfast Plate Of French Toast, Bacon, Sausage, and Hash Browns

Omelet and Pastry

Banana Bread & Apple Pastry

Walk Around The Ship's Outside Decks:
After eating breakfast at the Lido buffet, I head up to the Panorama Deck (10) to walk around the ship's outside decks. My camera lenses fogged up and stayed foggy for nearly 15 minutes. It seemed like forever before I could start taking pictures. During my wait for the lenses to unfog, the retractable roof was opened. It was interesting watching the crew member open the retractable roof through a control panel. Once my camera unfogged, I was ready to move on and take some pictures!

Waves At The Ship's Back - View From Deck 10

View Of the Sky

Looking Down At The AFT Pool - From Deck 10

AFT Pool - Hottubs

Deck 10 - Looking Towards Ship's Funnel

View Of Lido Pool Area - From Deck 11

Looking Down At Ship's Main Pool

Deck Chairs

Looking Towards Ship's Back

After walking around the Panorama Deck (10), I walked back down to the Lido Deck (9). I took pictures of the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar, Red Frog Rum Bar, and Guy's Burger Joint. All of these areas would later be packed. Although it was before 9am, some people were already arriving to claim deck chairs and start laying out in the sun.

Lido Main Pool Hottubs

Blue Iguana Tequila Bar

Red Frog Rum Bar

Guy's Burger Joint

Promenade Area Where Trivia Was Held

Morning Trivia:
The daily Fun-Times newsletter said a trivia game was going to be held at the Dream Bar starting at 9am. My family and I went to play the trivia. One of the members of the Fun Squad came a few minutes before 9am to setup and put out trivia answer sheets. When it was time to begin the Fun Squad member called out questions and we were supposed to write our answer on the trivia sheet. There were 20 questions total. The theme of this trivia was general so the questions covered a wide variety of topics. My family won trivia by 1 question!!! We received our very first plastic ship on a stick trophy for the cruise!

Lincoln Dining Room - Deck 3 Level

Table Setup For Formal Night

Lincoln Dining Room

Towel Animal - Dog

Morning Stateroom Service:
While we were eating breakfast, walking around, and at trivia our stateroom steward came by to clean the stateroom. He left a towel animal dog on one of the stateroom's beds.

Lunch #2 At Rosie's Lido Buffet:
For my 2nd lunch onboard, I decided to eat 2 tacos from the Blue Iguana Cantina and try the Carnival Valor's pizzeria.For dessert, I had a cookie and key lime pie. I always look forward to Carnival's key lime pie in the buffet.
The choices for lunch on this sea day were:

Blue Iguana Cantina 12:00pm - 2:30pm
Chef's Choice - Was Serving American Food 12:00pm - 2:30pm
Mongolian Wok 12:00pm - 2:30pm
Ol' Fashioned BBQ 12:00pm - 2:30pm
Seafood Shack (Costs Extra) 12:00pm - 5:00pm
Sushi At Sea (Costs Extra) 12:00pm - 5:00pm
Guy's Burger Joint 12:00pm - 6:00pm

Here are some food pictures from the 2nd day's lunch:

Blue Iguana Cantina - Salsa Bar

Blue Iguana Cantina

Blue Iguana - Tacos Line Menu

Lunch - Tacos From The Blue Iguana Cantina

Lunch - Assorted Buffet Food

Lunch - Pepperoni Pizza From Pizzeria

Lunch - Bowl From Mongolian Wok

Lunch - Key Lime Pie (Yummy!)

Besides taking pictures of our plates of food, I also managed to get some pictures of the Chef's Choice buffet line too. The Chef's Choice Buffet line was serving American Food for this particular day at lunch. I was surprised the line was non-existent at this buffet line because normally on sea days the buffet is packed. Here are some pictures:

Carnival Valor Chef's Choice Buffet Line

Lunch: Chef's Choice (American) Buffet Line

Here are a few dessert station pictures:

Lunch #2 - Dessert Station

Afternoon Walk Around The Ship's Outside Decks:
Since the weather was hot, sunny, and extremely nice, I was not surprised to see the Carnival Valor's outside decks packed with people. The pool areas were crowded! While there were still deck chairs available, the availability of deck chairs close to the pool was limited. After eating lunch I headed up to Deck 11 to look out at the front of the ship. There were very few people using the ship's very front deck areas because there was no seating on most of the front areas of each deck.

Ship's Front - View From Deck 6 Front Area

Side View Of The Ship From Deck 11 Front Area

Looking Down at the Carnival Valor Sailing

After leaving Deck 11, I continued randomly walking around the Carnival Valor's outside decks to look at the nice blue water of the Gulf of Mexico.

View Of The Ship's Funnel From Deck 12

Carnival Valor Sailing In Gulf of Mexico

View Of the Blue Water

Ship's Funnel

Afternoon Snack:
For an afternoon snack, I got some french fries from Guy's Burger Joint. The fries were hot and tasty. I really enjoyed their seasoning. Since I was starting to get a sore throat, I decided to drink some hot chocolate. The hot chocolate machine was easy to use since you stick a mug underneath the dispenser and press a button. The dispenser will give about half a cup. The hot chocolate was hot, but was not a sweet kind of hot chocolate.

Guy's Burger Joint - Fries

Hot Chocolate

View Of Water From Deck 3

American Feast Table Setup

Carnival Valor's Formal Night - "American Feast" Dining Experience:
Tonight was our cruise's only formal night. The dresscode for the dining room was "Cruise Elegant". This means cruisers were expected to dress nice for dinner. The daily Fun-Times did not give specific information about the definition of "Cruise Elegant". It appeared cruisers were allowed in the dining room as long as they were not wearing shorts, flip-flops, or bathing suits. However, most people made an effort to dress formal or semi-formal.
The dining room opened around 5:45pm. We did not have the opportunity to make a table request and were seated on the opposite side of the dining room from the night before. Since this was formal night and the dining experience was "American Feast" our tables had tablecloths. This was the only night of the cruise our dining room tables had tablecloths. Once again, our food was tasty, but these servers made no effort to try to be personable. I was surprised out of two nights of dinner, both sets of waitstaff were not very friendly. This was not the Carnival Cruise dining room experience I was used to on past cruises.
I took pictures of the menus and food from this night's dinner. You can view the menus below and can click on each picture to make it larger. Click each photo to make it larger!

American Feast - Appetizers Menu

American Feast - Entrees Menu

American Feast Menu Cont.

Carnival Valor American Feast Dessert Menu

Basket of Bread

Carnival Valor Chilled Strawberry Bisque

Appetizer - Chilled Strawberry Bisque

Appetizer - Heart of Iceberg, Radicchio, And Red Onions

Appetizer - Caesar Salad

Appetizer - Shrimp Cocktail

Main Course - Grilled Jumbo Shrimp

Side Dish - Baked Potato

Dessert - Tropical Fruit Plate

Dessert - Buttered Pecan Ice Cream

Carnival Valor Carnival Melting Chocolate Cake

Dessert - Carnival Melting Chocolate Cake

Dessert - Kid's Menu Banana Split

Sunset - View From Deck 11 Jogging Track

Following dinner I took a quick walk on the ship's Deck 11 jogging track. I enjoyed watching the sunset as I walked around. However, I was not able to spend a long time walking because the first showing of "Far From Over", one of the ship's production shows, was at 8pm.

Production Show - "Far From Over":
This production show had an 80's theme. All of the music was from the 80's. I enjoyed this show so much. The Carnival Valor was getting Playlist Productions during the time of my cruise, so this was our only production show because the other old show had already been closed out. The background music had a malfunction about 5 minutes before the show's end and the singers and dancers were left without any music to sing to. Both singers knew their lines and continued singing as if nothing happened. I was very impressed they knew their lines so well. They finished the song they were singing and then the curtained closed. Our cruise director, Orlando, made an announcement that the technicians were working on the problem and the finale would be performed as soon as possible. In less than 5 minutes the curtains opened and we got to watch the end of "Far From Over".
This was a great production show! The singers and dancers did a great job. Although the malfunction interrupted the show, this was still one of the best shows I have seen on a Carnival ship.

Looking At The Late Night Dinner Buffet Options:
Rosie's lido buffet was serving food from 6pm - 9:30pm for dinner. Also, the Seafood Shack and Sushi at Sea were serving food for an additional fee until 10:00pm. I took a few pictures of the food, but did not include all of the food pictures here due to the quality of the pictures not turning out as well as I thought. Here are a few pictures:

Rosie's Lido Buffet Dinner Food

A Near Medical Emergency (The Worst Way To End An Evening):
After checking out the buffet, I had plans to walk around the ship's outside decks and take some night pictures. I was also contemplating going to the second showing of "Far From Over". After walking outside, my camera lenses became fogged, so I could not take any pictures. I decided to walk down from Deck 11 to Deck 10 on a spiral staircase that was very close to the Lido pool. About halfway down the stairs I slipped on the wet stair decking and fell about 4-5 steps. As I fell, I hit my right hip and right elbow. Immediately, two crew members came running to offer me assistance. One of them pulled a chair for me and had me sit down. They were about to make a call for a medical emergency, but I stopped them because I knew nothing was broken, just extremely sore. The crew members offered me water, but I declined. Both of the crew members were extremely nice and I am grateful for their hospitality. I hurt, but I was not hurt enough to need help. After a few minutes of sitting, I was able to get up to go to my stateroom. That night I hurt throughout the night and when I woke up in the morning I was horribly bruised. Walking was a little difficult the next day due to my hip, but I managed to get around Cozumel and still continued walking around the ship as I normally would have otherwise.
TIP: Always be careful on your cruise ship. You never know what floor surface or decking is wet. I was wearing brand new shoes that had horrible traction. I regret wearing those shoes now!

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