Carnival Cruise?

This sounds like the same cruise I took this past summer! On Carnivals Ship the Valor. Leaving frim Miami and stopping in Bahamas, St Thomas and St Martin.

I can tell you I was very impressed with this cruise!! I had no complaints. The only thing is the pools are very small, but that seems to be an issue on all cruises. There are ways to get around that though, go early in the morning or later at night. The food was delicious, the crew were so friendly, the ship was clean. It was just a relaxing week, no cooking or cleaning, felt like royal treatment.

You would need extra money for the ports. Taking cabs, buying souvenirs etc. On the Cruise itself anything that costs extra is simply added to your bill, which goes to your credit card.

Extra expenses are things such as alcohol, pop, any souvenirs on the boat, photos, and special coffee drinks.

Carnival has a great teen Program called Camp Carnival. There is a group for ages 15-17, the oldest group in camp carnival. Its located on the 5th floor, promenade. There is a video arcade called the Caboose and a disco dance club for the teen parties.

At the beginning of the cruise your 15 year old will be given a booklet that shows everything happening for teens over the next week. From activites such as reality show games, parties trivia games etc.

For the 18 year old, they are part of the adult activies. They can go to all the disco parties in the one step dance club etc. They are pretty much adults.

I really enjoyed the teen program it was alot of fun, and there are lots of fun things planned!

I included below info on the ports:

The ports were all really beautiful. There isn't really a lot you can walk to on these islands, cabs are necessary.

In St Thomas we took a cab into the main town area where they have the jewelry stores etc. We took a tour/ trip to the beach. Just a guy from St Thomas had a large open taxi car and he took us around the island. giving us a short tour. After the tour he took us to a beach (where we stayed for 2 hours then he came back to pick us up), there were 3 which you could choose from Magens Bay, Sapphire and Coki point. Magens bay is a popular beach, usually crowded, when it does rain on St Thomas the rain usually hits Magens bay. There is a small entrance fee to get onto the beach, $3 adults $1 for children. The snorkeling at Magens is poor. There are restrooms and showers as well as lifeguards, food and a gift shop.

Then there is Sapphire beach, the one we chose. It was the perfect beach, we enjoyed it very much. Its not a huge, but they do have good snorkeling at the reef at the end of the beach. There are some really neat tropical fish and my mom saw a turtle! There are also Iguanas behind the beach area, but they won't bother you. Sapphire also has restrooms and a shower as well as a restaurant close by.

Then Coki point, which I do not know much about, but I was told they have great snorkeling. You can find more info on these beaches such search in google. I wouldn't call this an excursion but it gave us a chance to see the island and spend a few hours on a beautiful beach. It cost us $25 a person. There were 5 of us, but he let the 5 year old go for free.

Hope that was some help for St Thomas. Of the three islands we stopped at on our cruise St Thomas was by far my favorite. The people living on the island are very friendly!

St Martin has a french and dutch side. The cruise ship docks in Philipsburg, on the dutch side . In St Martin, you have to take a water taxi or taxi to get anywhere, from what I remember there is not much just off the ship. So we took a water taxi over to the main shopping area. It was around $5 a person and if you got a pink wrist band you could come and go on the water taxi as many times as you want throughout the day. Again there are all the jewelry shops. So from there we took a cap to a beach on the french side, called Orient Bay. It is 2 miles long, but be aware it is a clothing optional beach, BUT the nude part is at one of the ends of the beach, so there are not nude people all over the beach. We did see 1 or 2 topless women walk by, but not a huge worry. Orient beach was beautiful but not calm due to numerous water sports going on. Jet skis etc. The snorkeling was not bad. There were washrooms and showers also.

Again not really an excursion, but we didn't want to pay a huge amount of money for an excursion booked through the cruise so we did out own thing. I would get some info on other beaches on St Martin. A few other things about Orient beach I forgot to add above is that there are quite a few vender's that walk the beach selling necklaces etc, but they are not overly pushy. It is much quieter in the morning, but as the day went on it became quite busy.

Nassau, Bahamas. I had always wanted to go the Bahamas, mainly because I wanted to go to Atlantis. The stop in Nassau is short, only 7am to 2pm. Doesn't give you a whole lot of time. We just took a cab to the beach.

If you are interested in going to Paradise Island, where Atlantis is located there is a fee to get onto the island. I believe the cruise does have an excursion to Paradise Island, but its expensive.

I don't have alot of info on shore excursions, we just enjoyed days at the beach. I'm sure they are fun, just alot of money.

Overall I would chose this cruise! You won't be disappointed. Hope I was of some help, enjoy the Caribbean!

I love Carnival. I've travelled with them three times and I do think they offer great cruises for great prices. Especially for someone on a budget, it seems the way to go.

In terms of spending I managed to spend only $300 on a 7 day trip! But my boyfriend spent $1200. So it really depends on what you do. This is how I saved money while still having a good time..

- Brought wine with me. - Carnival allows you to bring bottled wine on the ship. It doesn't specify how much, they just say "a reasonable amount" - so don't go over board (no pun intended...). I brought 3 bottles and my friend brought 3. We split a bottle each night and basically spent no money on drinks. I spent some money on drinks during the day (frozen drinks etc) but I saved a lot. You can walk around the whole ship with drinks so it's not a problem.

-I didn't buy Carnival excursions. Instead I spent some time before the trip doing some research on the ports of call and booking privately or planning my own trip. Private tours are wonderful and are often much cheaper. Carnival, and other cruises, try to scare you by saying they're not safe or you may miss your ship... but if you're responsible and you research for company reputation - you should be fine.

- I didn't buy photos. The pictures are sooooo expensive... I just couldn't bear to buy them. I own a nice digital camera and I had a blast taking my own and they came out fine. I did take advantage of the formal poses and went to every station! but I did that so I could have a good selection to choose from for my 1 or two pictures for purchase.

You don't have to spend a lot ... I sure didn't.

As for teens, there is a kids club they can participate in... they have their own play room with TVs and games etc. They also host dance parties in the evening and play games on the deck or throughout the ship. If anything, it's a great place for teens to meet teens who can then go off and do their own thing. There's a video game room, computer room with internet access, and most Carnival ships have slides for the pool! There is plenty to do.

Extra Expenses...

Tipping.. make sure to prepare for $10 a day per adult for automatic tips.

Carnival Cruise lines-to me- are more for young,broke people who party alot and can't afford a better cruise line. Try Norweigian or Princess first of all.Extra expenses include alcoholic drinks,off shore activities such as a zip line tour, souveneirs etc.There should be plenty for the teenagers to do when aboard.