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New Carnival Valor superliner makes Miami debut

First cruise ship to go wireless

By Phyllis Steinberg

Carnival Cruise Line's newest entry into the vacation market is the 2,974-passenger, Carnival Valor, which made its inaugural cruise voyage to the Bahamas on Dec. 15.

The three-day, two-night cruise gave many first-time cruisers an opportunity to try out the shipboard experience and repeat Carnival cruisers a chance to party on the new “fun ship."

Photo of Carnival Valor pool deck

As for me, it was a chance to get away from my day-to-day duties and check-out the latest Carnival Ocean going vessel.

The new Carnival Valor has ship-wide wireless, so guests can bring along their laptops and surf the net anywhere on the ship, which many passengers did. They still have an internet room with computers for those who prefer to just check emails and spend the rest of the day having fun, which is what Carnival tries to provide plenty of options for doing.

One of the newest places to celebrate a special occasion on the ship is Scarlett's Supper Club, a reservations-only, steakhouse-style supper club. This intimate restaurant carries an additional charge of $25 per person and features hand-cut dry-aged beef along with other gourmet cuisine. I tried the lobster tail and my companion selected the Chilean sea bass. Both were delicious and beautifully presented on Versace china.

A combo played dance music and a singer entertained as we “cut a rug” between courses. In Scarlett's you can all but forget you are on a nearly 3,000 passenger cruise ship.

Photo of Scarlett's Supper Club

Scarlett's is for adults but the kids also knew right where to go to have fun. They headed straight for Camp Carnival which is a separately contained 4,200 square-foot area divided into three age groups. Here is everything from a computer lab and toys to sand painting and candy making with counselors to surprise participants with numerous other entertaining activities.

Photo of Sand painting station at Camp Carnival

Exercise gurus and those who just want to use a state-of-the-art fitness center to work off their extra calories while on board had fun trying out all the latest equipment in the fitness center. Adjacent was the spa and the beauty salon. The spa offered a wide range of services from facials and massages to the exotic lime and ginger salt glow and Cellutox Ocean wraps.

Photo of spa rooms on board

The ship has many dining options including fun offerings at Rosie's Restaurant, located poolside on the Lido Deck. Here, I enjoyed the self-serve breakfast and lunch buffets with a wide variety of choices from pasta and meat-carving stations to deli sandwiches, an Asian grill and pizza parlor. I also didn't have to worry about getting dressed up fancy or waiting for waiters to take my order. A nice touch on this new ship was a server who wheeled a cart around the Lido area, serving coffee, tea or water after passengers sat down with their trays.

The Washington and Lincoln dining rooms were large, yet you never felt that you were in a cavernous noisy area as both restaurants have quiet areas for families and passengers. There was also a pianist playing dinner music adding an even more elegant atmosphere.

Photo of a cozy corner in the Washington Dining Room.

With a 24-hour a day pizza bar and numerous dining options, you would think that the mid-night buffet, abandoned on many cruise lines, wouldn't be necessary. It wasn't. No one was really hungry, but it was certainly fun. Those that entered the dining room filled from stem to stern with ice-carvings and everything from elaborate appetizers to decadent desserts certainly got an eye-full even if they didn't have room for another bite.

Photo from the midnight buffet.

The evening's activities included a fabulous Broadway-style stage show with a 12-piece orchestra and a cast of nearly two dozen talented performers. I also made a stop at several bars, including a revolving piano bar, where you can make requests and sing along with the entertainer, a karaoke bar where you’ll be the star and a coffee bar, for your favorite café latte. Shopping on board in the duty-free stores was another way to have fun with many bargains garnered from around the world.

The Carnival Valor will take passengers on 7-day Eastern and Western Caribbean Cruises. The Eastern Caribbean route will visit Nassau, the Bahamas; St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Maarten and the Netherlands Antilles. While the Western Caribbean cruise visits Belize City, Isla Roatan, Honduras, George Town, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico.

If you opt for the Eastern itinerary, take the shore excursion to Atlantis on Paradise Island. Atlantis has 11 lagoons full of 50,000 live creatures from the oceans of the world including giant rays, piranha, barracudas, rainbows of tiny topical fish and sharks. Never have I seen an aquarium bigger or a better presentation of underwater life. There is a guided tour at the resort.

Photo of fish at Atlantis

Atlantis is my personal pick for exciting things to do when in Nassau. Nassau has several handmade straw items for sale by the natives, but the prices aren't much different then in the states. Save your shopping time for St. Thomas and visit Atlantis instead.

Photo of Atlantis Resort

Cruise line trackers, say that only 16 percent of the population has ever been on a cruise. If that includes you, Carnival Cruise Lines, with some of the lowest prices in the industry, offers a chance to find out how much fun it is to take a cruise. Carnival pioneered the term, the "fun ship" and "fun" is what most of the passengers were having in large quantities on the first voyage of the new Carnival Valor in Miami.

For more information about Carnival Cruise Lines, call 1-800-Carnival or visit www.carnival.com

Photos by Phyllis Steinberg

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