Cruise Ship Review

It's no great mystery why my Carnival Victory complaint card was left blank: There's the tremendously laid-back feel, the service that's outstanding without being irritating, and the antiseptic clean of the whole vessel. Launched back in 2000 (and even with a recent refurbishment), the ship has a comfortable worn-in feel. And the overall operation comes off as effortless. In harmony with the gentle rocking of the ship, it's easy to fall into a sleepy rhythm.

As such, Carnival Victory serves as an excellent intro to Carnival Cruise Lines for the uninitiated--and a welcoming escape for the line's aficionados.

A member of the Destiny-class of vessels, Carnival Victory has all the traditional Carnival accouterments--a decent variety of dining options (from the Pacific dining room to an expansive, two-deck Lido buffet), a bright, centrally located casino, an impressive spa, a comprehensive Camp Carnival program for kids, a daily schedule of jocular activities, and more than enough places to drink and socialize.

At the same time, some of the more contemporary touches found on later ships--such as a sushi bar, supper club, and drive-in style poolside movie screen--are not to be found.

Still, what was most appealing on our recent seven-night Eastern Caribbean cruise was that on Carnival Victory there's no haughty pretense. It's admirable that no one tries too hard to please--from the tabletop dancing dining room waiters, to the dryly sarcastic blackjack dealers, to the amiable bartenders who call you "chief" or "boss." Most of the nearly 2,800 passengers give the impression of being quite content with this, and why wouldn't we? There's no pressure placed on the ship to be anything that it's not, and the guests feed off this, basking almost immediately in a serene sense of welcome.

On my particular Victory sailing, no one seemed to mind when the ship simply stopped moving in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on our way to San Juan. The violent shudder, alarming outpouring of dense black smoke from the funnel, and subsequent straining halt was taken completely in stride. There was no panic; instead passengers just thought of it as a brief reprieve from the drone of the engine (not that anybody really seemed to mind the drone in the first place). And an hour and a half later, we were on our way again, running a little late, but no worse off.

Guests were irked when we were wrenched out of bed at 6:15am to complete immigration before arriving at St. Maarten (several hours before the scheduled processing, but of course that was the U.S. government's call, not Carnival's). But a few hours later, it seemed a distant memory. And even when cruise director Jorge Solano rekindled the aggravation of the morning by bringing it up prior to an evening show, the crowd (and the laugh track) responded favorably to his bit.

For this Carnival first-timer, it's also relevant to note that while Carnival has, in the past, been pigeonholed as the slack-jawed, party line (perhaps the line itself is guilty of emphasizing this rep with its own "Fun Ship" distinction), in reality it offers a more impressive range of options than it's given credit for.

But ultimately, you get a week of evenhanded leisure at a great price. It's like a comfortable dream, of which you remember little more than a general feeling of well being.

Dining

There are two main dining rooms, both spanning two decks, the Lobby (3) and Atlantic (4). The Atlantic dining room is located amidships; the Pacific, all the way aft. Each sea-themed venue (stoic mermaid heads, seahorses, fish murals) has two set seating times for dinner serves up to 900 people and features a second floor wraparound balcony.

The quality and selection of dining options was consistently solid. My traveling pal applauded the "Farfalle with Roast Turkey Breast and Green Peas in a Cream Sauce." On the other hand, I also had a comically bad rib eye steak that was, in essence, a twelve-ounce piece of grizzle. But as has been mentioned before, our waiter cheerfully encouraged us to replace the dish. That's just Carnival's style. They aim to please. Don't be shy if you don't like something.

In a nod to healthy eating, each dinner menu includes three Spa Carnival selections where calorie and fat content are listed. There are also healthy choices for dessert, including sugar-free ice cream, fruit plates, and some diet cake/pie choice, like Pumpkin Pie or Banana Gateau.

Every night, the menu also features the standard chicken, steak, and salmon, as well as the gratuitously lauded warm chocolate melting cake.

A big topic of discussion in the dining room was the noticeable fleetwide upgrade in Carnival's level of cuisine, perhaps as a result of the French (Michelin-starred) chef Georges Blanc, who has been overseeing Carnival's menus (and chef training) for the past year or so.

Carnival Victory's more casual venue is the two-deck Mediterranean Restaurant, located on Lido (8) and Panorama (9) Decks. It's fashioned after a seaside Italian villa, with alternating pink and teal paneling inset in (darker) pink stucco walls. Standard greasy breakfast choices are offered daily, including scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, and fried potatoes. You can also choose from the healthier items, like fresh fruit, yogurt, and dry cereals. Also on Lido, there's an omelet station (the lines can get long), where you can have an omelet cooked with your choice of fillings: mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, ham, or onions.

For a typical lunch in the Mediterranean buffet, you'll find made-to-order pasta, salads, hot entrees like chicken parmesan, carved beef, baked salmon with bearnaise sauce, etc. There are also daily theme buffets, ostensibly offering foods from places like Mexico and India.

Beyond the usual buffet station offerings, but all located in the same general Lido Deck area, the Yangtze Wok offers made to order stir-fries; The East River Deli features a variety of interesting sandwich choices but the resulting sandwiches, with their fatty processed-tasting meats and untoasted bread were a bit disappointing. Just outside the Mediterranean Restaurant, Lido Deck's Mississippi BBQ serves burgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, and french fries; also on Lido Deck, Pizzeria Arno served pizza with addictive properties.

There are also several highly intoxicating soft serve ice cream stations, available 24 hours a day.

Room service is available 24 hours a day, and it's free. You can get a variety of food items delivered to your cabin, including sandwiches, cheese and crackers, and booze too.

Continental breakfast is also available. Simply mark the card found in your stateroom with your choices, jot down a time, and someone will deliver your food.

Sushi was available on a few of the dining menus. While some Carnival ships feature sushi bars, Victory does not.

Public Rooms

Though seemingly disparate, the Farcus-designed public spaces share the common theme of "the high seas." The stairwells host illuminated murals of mermaids and other mythological sea-beings. The names and decor of hallways feature references to Roman sea myth, as in "Neptune's Way," and their Greek counterparts, "Odyssey Hall"; the theme bars, restaurants, and activity rooms have imagery of sea horses, mermaids and mermen, and, again, references to the world's ocean in their names (South China Sea Club Casino, Black & Red Seas Bar, Caspian Wine Bar, Virtual Sea game room, etc.). Throughout the ship, the coloring is comprised of the many hues of the oceans. And as the piece-de-resistance, the Atrium is tied together by a massive, multi-colored hanging fish sculpture.

If you have no sense of direction, you may find yourself retracing your steps when trying to get around the ship. Navigation is honestly pretty simple though. As on other Carnival ships, Promenade Deck (5) and its nine-deck high atrium (stretching up from 3 to 11) is the focal point to remember. Fanning out from there, you'll find the ship's main features, including the Carnival shops (logo clothing, liquor, perfume, jewelry), the casino, bars and lounges, etc. When you're in the atrium, don't forget to pause to consider the design elements of the cavernous space--the focus being the Tiffany-style glass dome in translucent shades of greens and blues.

At the base of the atrium, Lobby Deck (3), next to the Purser's desk (starboard) and the Tour Desk (port), you can head outside onto a sliver of open deck; one side of the ship is typically sunny, the other shaded. Both are good choices for quiet reading and/or dozing. These chairs were a bit more difficult to come by, however, as the slivers of deck are popular during the day.

Adjacent to the Ionian room is the ship's 24-hour Internet cafe. There are six terminals; the charge is 75 cents per minute. You can also buy time in packages: 100 minutes go for $55 (55 cents per minute) and 250 minutes is $100 (40 cents per minute). There was never an issue obtaining a computer. Look out for Internet specials. On my sailing, between the hours of 2 and 4pm on a Friday, there was a buy two minutes, get one free deal. Victory also has Wi-Fi hot spots in the Ionian lounge and Club Arctic.

The miniscule Indian library, located on Atlantic Deck (4), is used less for the selection of reading materials and more for people playing board games, taking part in the unsupervised chess tournament, or attending the near-daily Friends of Dorothy or Friends of Bill W. meetings.

Cabins

Cabins are standard Carnival offerings (which means they are among the largest in the big-ship category). There are 444 verandah cabins (210 square ft.), 327 standard oceanview cabins (220 square ft.), and 530 inside cabins (195 square ft.). The decor was a touch loud, with its presence of peach bedding, a red pleather couch, and Formica closets and drawers, but the absurdly comfortable beds trump any questionable design elements. Bathrooms in all categories have showers, a hair dryer, and a medicine cabinet. Carnival includes free toiletry/amenity kits; ours included disposable razors, soap, shampoo and conditioner, breath mints, emergen-C energy booster, and a Binaca-like Listerine product. But although your cabin steward will provide refills of the amenities, the Listerine spray is a hot product, so they may run out of those.

All cabins have TVs, radio, phones, and an adequate amount of closet and drawer space. Most rooms have twin beds that can be converted to a king bed upon request. Although we kept our beds separated, a nice feature of Carnival cabins is that their beds are genuine twins, so instead of combining to form a queen as on most other lines, you have a solid king-size bed. TV channels include CNN, Fox News, a music video station, a Carnival station (replays of your cruises' Match Game and Newlywed (Not So) Newlywed Show, as well as port excursion overviews by cruise director Jorge Solano), and a channel dedicated to Carnival Corp. advertising.

If you need anything ironed or laundered you can simply point out what needs doin' to your cabin steward. Be sure to check the rate sheet prior to requesting this service; we paid $13 to have four items ironed (three shirts at $3 each, one pair of pants at $4). We also shelled out $15 to have a sack of laundry cleaned and folded (no jeans or dress shirts allowed). There are six small self-use coin-laundry rooms (with irons for use) if you're a self-motivated type.

Entertainment

Almost every night in the three-deck high, state-of-the-art Caribbean Lounge there's some sort of entertainment. Every type of act is represented, from a Vegas-style illusionist/magician to R-rated comedians and singing/dancing/cabaret acts. On the final night, following Powerball Bingo, Victory features the Legends Show, a passenger talent revue comprised of costumed guests, performing as Elton John, Cher, the late-great James Brown, etc. This was the best attended show of the cruise, and the only show where obtaining an outstanding seat was a challenge.

During the day, there's your standard "Fun Ship" schlock, including Lido Decks' hairy chest and belly flop competitions (leaning over the railing of Panorama Deck affords an unobstructed vantage), the Match Game, trivia, bingo, and slots tournaments in the Casino, etc.

The South China Sea Club Casino is the ample casino with bright red columns, ornate gold light fixtures, and blue sculptures of noble-looking lions. The witty, teasing blackjack dealers add a nice dash of sarcasm to the space. They'll make fun of you, but you feel privileged to be made fun of, so it's okay.

With the tremendous upsurge in poker popularity, Carnival has added poker table(s) to many of its ships. On "fun days at sea," there were daily, ten-person No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em tournaments. The entry fee was $25 for the first tournament (day two at sea) and $60 for the following three tourneys ($350 winner, $150 second).

By Saturday, they did seem to be running out of fun activities. One particular event listed in the Capers said to "fill a bag with stuff and come to the Caribbean Lounge..."

The Ionian Room, Atlantic Deck (4) aft is a comfortable cigar bar with red leather chairs, Hellenic columns and glass display cases with "Grecian Urns." The room was never crowded, and there was a jazz trio that would play two or three sets a night starting at 5:30pm for the three-set night (followed by 7:15 and 9:30), and 7:15 (and 9:30) on the two-set nights. They take requests too, and let people sit in on songs if they can accommodate you instrumentally. If you can tolerate cigar smoke, it's a great place for a pre-dinner cocktail.

Aft, all on Promenade Deck, you have the Black & Red Seas Bar, a nightly karaoke hang, and one of the most popular spots on the ship; The Caspian Wine and Caviar Bar featuring portraits of Czar Nicholas (and wife Alexandra), a ruler known for his love of wine, bloody suppression techniques, and summary execution following the October revolution of 1917; and The Irish Sea Bar, a sing-along alcove fashioned after a traditional Irish pub that features a (surprisingly, because he wasn't bad) lonely piano player. Connected to the casino on the port side, the Aegean sports bar is a modest-sized hang with about eight TV's.

For late-night partyin', there's Club Arctic, with its kaleidoscope of floor to ceiling TVs, inset half-circle dance floor, and surrounding seats to watch and mock at fellow passengers spazzing about. The Adriatic Lounge is a more adult hangout. Modeled after a French salon with columns and gradually ascending steps, it's a bit more elegant and a bit less in your face. This spot features more traditional couples' dancing, rather than the improvisational hip-hop groovin' found in Club Arctic.

Fitness & Recreation

Carnival Victory has four pools and countless lounge chairs located on the open upper decks. I never had any issue finding a lounge chair, either with the masses or away from them. The ship's four pools include Sirens' pool (all the way aft on Lido deck), featuring a retractable roof; Triton's Pool, centrally located on the open portion of Lido Deck; the King of the Seas pool (Panorama Deck), the drainage receptacle for the Carnival slide; and the Children's Pool (Sun Deck), a small splash pool. There are showers located by the pools for lowering your body temperature if you've worked up a sweat either baking under the Caribbean sun or dancing to the Lido Deck reggae band.

For entrance to the Carnival slide, head up to Sky Deck (14) and get ready to propel yourself down a slowly snaking tube into a receiving basin of exceedingly slimy water. The slide is too enjoyable, however, to allow bacterial fears to keep you from participating. Many of the youths will slide down, sprint up, slide down, sprint up, etc. thirty times in a row.

Tucked on a corner of Spa Deck (12), Carnival has recently added a nine-hole mini-golf "course." The rubber and Astroturf holes are modest in size with small croppings of "rock" hazards. It takes less than 15 minutes to complete all nine holes, so you may want to play a few times. (The scorecard did mention that players were limited to four consecutive games.)

On Spa Deck (11), one deck below the funnel, there's is a running track (10 laps to the mile) along with a couple of shuffleboard courts. Despite my initial skepticism, the courts actually got some decent use on sea days.

Located all the way forward on Spa Deck (11) is the ship's fitness facility. I made a remarkable four appearances during my seven-night cruise. I'm not sure what I was doing in the gym, but there was plenty of equipment--several bikes, ellipticals, treadmills, a motley collection of free weights, and weight machines--available to help maintain anyone's svelte physique. The gym also houses two hot tubs, a steam room and a sauna, as well as men's and women's locker rooms. Specialty classes (Yoga, Pilates) are available for $10. Personal trainers are also available for an additional charge.

Also on Spa Deck, you'll find the full-service Spa Carnival. This 15,000-square-ft space, operated by Steiner's of London, offers everything from hot stone massages ($175) to Ionithermie Detox ($145) and the trendy GTW Teeth Whitening ($199). Take advantage of the special port prices, where you'll save about 10 percent.

Note: If you're going to cancel, make sure you give at least 24-hour notice; if not, you'll be charged 50 percent of the treatment cost.

Family

It's quite clear that the youths really have an enjoyable time aboard Victory. Carnival has activities set up for every age group, from toddlers to teens. Children's World (Spa Deck), Victory's dedicated kid's spot, features arts and crafts, movie nights, Gameboys, PS2, and music. Carnival breaks down the groups as follows: Under 2s, kids between the ages of 2 - 5, 6 - 8, 9 - 11, 12 -14 and 15 - 17.

All age groups are supervised by hip counselors, with regularly scheduled activities taking place between 9am and 10pm. Slumber Parties (baby-sitting services) are available from 10pm until 3am, at an additional charge. There is also baby-sitting available on port days at a rate of $6 per hour for the first child and $4 per hour for each additional sibling.

Up on Sun Deck (12), there's an outdoor area with a kiddie pool and playhouse for the younger kids, though despite walking past this area every day, I honestly never saw any kids there.

Also on Sun Deck, there's a spot just for the teens (No Grownups allowed!) called Club O2 where 13 - 17s may be found playing cards and talking about things that interest them, namely dating, music, and video games. There was also a daily teen disco in Club Arctic, available two hours before the club became adults-only.

Many of the daily age-appropriate activities, such as Outburst!, ship drawing contests and "name that tune" took place in Club Arctic.

Fellow Passengers

The variety of languages spoken onboard by guests was a bit surprising, given my initial expectations. I chatted about cameras with a group of Italian guys, asked an aged Russian man to borrow his ketchup, and heard a family from San Juan squabbling. It was an international mix.

The age range was expansive, with most brackets, from infants to elderly, evenly represented. For an early December sailing, a solid two weeks before winter school breaks, the number of kids was higher than expected.

Dress Code

There are two formal evenings per week (featuring a fair number of suits and a sprinkling of tuxedos), and the remainder of the evenings are island casual chic (if you're eating in the dining room). For men, this means dress pants and a shirt (button-down or polo). The "rule" is that no jeans or T-shirts are allowed in the dining room, but if you don't look like a slob, you'll have no problem. Daytime attire is shorts, T-shirts, and swimming costumes.

Gratuities

$10 per person, per day is automatically charged to guests' shipboard accounts. This amount can be adjusted either by requesting the purser to do so, or by augmenting the automatic charge by presenting the lucky recipients with cash. Maitre d's are not included in the $10 daily charge. Carnival adds an automatic 15 percent gratuity to all bar and wine bills.

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