REMEMBER ME, FAMILY OF 11 ON VICTORY JULY 17TH(SHORT REVIEW)

WELL , WHERE DO I START? the ship was wonderful, crew wonderful, food fantastic, balcony cabin, loved it, loved our room steward, shows great, dana hodson, so funny and on and on.

however, we had some disappointments and i cannot move forward from them. we planned this trip for two ;years and our kids and grandkids were so excited to go. they all had a wondrful time and no complaints about anything on the ship.

OUR ITINERARY GOT TOTALLY SCREWED UP BECAUSE OF ;HURRICANE EMILY. THE ONLY WEEK OUT OF THE ENTIRE SUMMER IN THE WESTERN CARRIBEAN AND IT IS THE ONE WE PICKED TO GO. I COULD JUST SCREAM I AM SO MAD ABOUT THIS.

we left on sunday july 17 o;ut of miami and emily was moving through cayman, jamaica, and hit cozumel on monday, so carnival decided to(instead of going cozumel, cauyman, jamaica,) to go jamaica, cayman, cozumel. instead of ocho rios jamaica, we docked in montego bay( two hour drive to ocho rios and dunns river falls, so we totally missed the falls. did we want to take five kids in our group on a two ;hour bus ride and back to falls, no thank you. plus we were going to just take a taxi to the falls and come back to ship.THIS WAS A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT FOR THE WHOLE GROUP.

we went to doctors cave beach in montego bay and it was beautiful and we had a good day swimming and snorkeling, but we missed the falls and the kids really were looking forward to it.

cayman islands , we docked different day so our excursion which had been booked for six months was cut short by an hour because the other six ships docked that day got first choice on excursions already planned.. tenders could not handle all of ;the ships in port, we werevery late for our cut short excursion and almost did not make it. we did get to see the sting rays and swim with them and snorkel at one stop. THANK THE LORD, AS I DO NOT KNOW HOW I WOULD HAVE EXPLAINED THIS TO THE KIDS IF WE HAD NOT GOTTEN TO THE SANDBAR. IT WAS A NIGHT MARE IN GEORGETOWN, ACTUALLY A MOB SCENE WITH PEOPLE TRYING TO GET OFF AND ON SIX SHIPS DOCKED OUT IN THE WATER FROM FOUR DIFFERENT CRUISE LINES ON THE SAME DAY BECAUSE OF THE HURRICANE. LINES OF PEOPLE UP AND DOWN THE TOWN WAITING TO GET BACK ON SHIPS.

last by not least, we arrive in cozumel on friday morning and it is pouring down rain all day long. our plan there was to spend the day at chankanaab national park, swimming , snorkeling, eating mexican food, going on the jungle trail, looking at iguanas. WELL FORGET THAT, AS CHANKANAAB WAS DAMAGED BY THE HURRICANE AND WAS CLOSED, CLOSED, CLOSED. as we walked in the rain to the shopping center, a little mexican man approached us and said he would give a half price snorkeling excursion for the eleven of us in his little glass bottom boat to two reefs. it stopped raining but was gray and for two ;hours he transported us to two snorkel stops. that was pretty great and all of the kids had a wonderful time.

as we all got backin the boat and were sitting there, my granddaughter looked at my husband and i and said, grandma, "this has been the best vacation in the whole world"

i think i, grandma am more upset about the itinerary changes than anybody. i am still very disappointed about dunns river falls and chankanaab. please no one tell me to get a grip, as i am working on it myself slowly.

[Luanne Russo]

You can vent with me. You are not as mad as you are disappointed. I won't tell you to get a grip, because what you are going through, is a human emotion. I am glad everyone is safe, and in the eye of a child, she had the best vacation. <VBS> I'm so sorry it didn't go better. I would love to hear more about the ship.

Luanne

[themomtk]

Glad the grandchildren had a great time. That makes up for everything with most of us grandmas. Yes disapointment but as the little one said this has been the best vacation every. Glad you were able to take them all.

I as an adult have a hard time dealing with disapointment, but I bet it was beautiful to see all those cruise ships together, that was one of my disapointments in June all our ports we were all alone not once did we see another ship, great for crowd control, but I do love looking at them.
Now you can have fun planning another cruise.
Gail

[JeanS]

Perhaps cruising isn't for you.......it's not for everyone....."flexible" is the word to remember when cruising....

[Kristine]

I know how it is to be the trip planner and you feel like you let people down if things don't go as planned. Your grandaughter took it for what it was,a wonderful time together in a new an exciting place. we all need to remember that in the summer you do take the chance that itinerys need to change and enjoy what there is to do and not dwell over those things that you missed. Remember, some people lost homes and businesses to emily, feel blessed that you did not. I am glad you got a chance to spend time with your family, that is what is important and you were so lucky to get to do it.
Kristine

We have been on many cruises with missed ports of call, that is to be expected, especially during hurricane season. Don't beat yourself up over it....I too take things very personally because I am always the trip coordinator and want everyting to go perfectly but it's not a perfect world....Dunns River Falls is a slippery and treacherous climb, my 12 year old grandson wouldn't even climb the falls once we arrived, all he wanted to do was swim in the water. My son-in-law slipped on the rocks halfway up and really banged his knee up and was in pain for the rest of the cruise. If you book another cruise to the western Caribbean, plan another excursion to Dunns River Falls, they're not going anywhere. Our excursion to Chankanaab was disappointing in that it is not a gradual slope of beach entering the water, the shoreline is made up of huge boulders and stairs carved into the stones to create an access but very slippery, everyone was falling trying to get in and out of the water and the water was instantly deep...they did have a very small sandy area for tots to play in that was protected from the ocean but the water only came up over my knees. There was a young couple on one of our cruises when they cancelled our stop in St. Maarten due to an approaching hurricane and she was meeting all her family there and GETTING MARRIED!!!! She was devastated. She exited the ship in St. Thomas and was going to try to book a flight from there, don't know how she made out. My grandson likes the ports of call but enjoys being on the ship even more. He loves to go to all those silly things Carnival has, i.e., mens hairy chest contest, water slide, ice carving demonstration, etc., and misses his pizza, ice cream and chili dogs on the ship, ha! I have sailed on the Victory twice and just loved that ship, the food, entertainment, service, etc. When you go on a cruise you have to be prepared for itinerary changes and bad weather and just go with the flow, there are plenty of other great things to do on land and on the ship. Patticake, whenever I coordinate a family cruise I warn everyone prior to leaving that itineraries may change and shore excursions cancelled and always have a Plan B and C in place and then I just relax, enjoy the moment, for me, it's just wonderful being on the ship with my family spending quality time together.

as Art Linkletter made a fortune by understanding that "kids say the darnest things" and your granddaughter taught you a valuable lesson

"thru her eyes it was the greatest vacation in the world because you were with family"..all the other stuff is disappointment

Children have a different view to things. The innocence of looking through the eyes of a child. Nothing better..... But i know u must be disapointed in the changes.... That is why we never cruise in Hurricane season. It cost somewhat more but i am assured that the weather will be better. In 6 cruises we have never even had a drop of rain. You still have the great memories of the ship and having the whole family with u. Savor all memories and forget the disapointment when u can.



Happy cruising......

last year we took cruise to the western carribean after all the hurricane one of
port of call was grand cayman but carnival change port to coasta maya i was disapointed my frist thoughts were is coasta maya and what can you do in
coasta maya i'm so glad that port was change i get to see mayan ruins my mom and i had great advanture and a ngood time we already have our next cruise booked for next