Normally I try to stay away from news on individual ship itineraries. With their being so many different ships and me not being part of a news service I doubt I would be able to do an adequate job keeping up so I don’t bother. However, when I heard about the new itineraries the Carnival Valor would be sailing in 2012 I had to post something.
Somehow Carnival has found a way to get me interested in sailing on the same ship 3 times in one year. They managed to set 3 different 8 day itineraries that all appeal to me. For those of you who haven’t seen the new Carnival Valor sailings here they are:
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Eastern/western Caribbean cruises calling at Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios, Grand Turk and Nassau
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Eastern Caribbean cruises featuring stops at St. Thomas, Antigua, Tortola and Nassau
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Eastern/southern Caribbean cruises to Grand Turk, La Romana (Dominican Republic), Curacao and Aruba
The Valor will rotate through those three itineraries alternating between one of the 8 days and a 6 day voyage. The six day cruise calls on Key West, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios, departing once every two weeks.
Although I have been to nearly all of those ports at least once there is something appealing about what Carnival Cruises has done here. They managed to diversify their Florida offerings while continuing to keep the cruises manageable for those of us who can only take off a week at a time.
The Southern Caribbean is one of my favorite regions to sail but normally it isn’t offered out of Florida. Usually, you have to fly to a port of embarkation that is already in the Caribbean to reach ports as far South as Curacao, e.g. Puerto Rico or Barbados.
Being able to visit both Aruba and Curacao while also hitting the under-utilized Dominican Republic is a dream come true for me. I also love the Ocho Rios, Grand Turk and Grand Cayman combination, this one has existed in the past but I have never been able to cruise that particular combination of ports in one sailing. The third option which contains Antigua, Tortola and Nassau is underwhelming in comparison to the others but still solid.
While I doubt I’d be able to find a way to fit all three of those itineraries into one year I would love to do my top two choices.
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