by myke

The room was beautifully cleaned and you just wanted to take photo's, of everything all the time.



The room is nice it's almost as big as the hotel room at the Holiday Inn Express we stayed at in Miami the first night. Its nice to have the queen size bed. On our last cruise there was 2 single size beds we pushed together to make one, then you kept slipping between them if you tried any "together" in the middle snuggle time. It's comfortable and I have slept great so far. Our son and daughters room is directly across the hallway from us and our room has a nice balcony, our room number is 7-357 My sister in law's room is a little bigger with a balcony that is twice the size of ours. I didn't know there was such a "variance" between rooms. I'll have to do a little more research if we ever get to go on that Hawaii vacation. One of the people I went on the ship tour with (more about that later) claimed he had the presidential suite and that it was the largest room on the ship. Not sure how many of these rooms Victory has?

The hallways looked like this for 800 ft or so



She was clean and not broken down, i did not see much that needed any repairs with only the one exception of the tiles in the shower stall. If your looking for a job and your good at bath room tiles, don't mind being away from home for 9 months of the year, apply for the position and tell them I sent you.

I got to snooze watch the packers game on the ship in my room, it was great!



I tried to collect more details about the ship itself as the days passed. I booked my "behind the fun" exertion $55 early, it includes a hat and photo with the captain. The last 3 cruise ships we were on listed this ship tour but all were cancelled or dropped last minute due to 911 security elevation or something. I'm supposed to see the engine control room, bridge and galley.



I planed to try and either take notes or record the audio ( no photography is allowed ) it's 2 and half hours and it's one part of the vacation I am really looking forward to. When I signed up there were 19 people and they said if any more signed up they would split the group into two. As it turned out in the end, I was able to take some notes, later I found out that I was defiantly not allowed to bring any recording devices.

Friday the 13th was our key west day. On our way back to the carnival port our bus driver "john" said the bridal path directly across from the beach was created in the 30's but never really got used and is now just left as is for nostalgia. He said he has a class "C" CDL and hoped to one day get a class B. I slipped him a $5 on the way out and wished him good luck. We stopped at the shops for some T-shirts and then got back on the Victory. See this post for more information about the wedding.

I took this photo from our balcony on our way into the port to dock, later we had to walk around this red building on the shore to get to the bus, it had statues that were nudes on the one side.



Lite rain on day 2 on our way to Cozumel. Right now as I write this its a little after 10 am and due to reach the port by 1:00 the ship is doing about 20 mph or 17 knots and we are around 40 nautical miles out. 11:00 now and I can see the shore, sitting in a lounge near the casino now, watching the people pass, listening to music and slot machines, nice comfortable couch I found with a window to look out. After noon coming into port now I can see Mexico on one side and Cozumel on the other side of the ship. Kathy and Jeff just finished playing bingo and they each won a whopping $3.




We are now docked at the port in Cozumel Mexico! Sounds like some of our group will be enjoying the shore excursion's like snorkeling and boat trips around the island. One couple I spoke with said they might try the Mayan ruins tour and some snorkeling. Kathy and I both enjoyed the snorkeling allot the last time we came to Cozumel but the Mayan ruins were disappointing. They claim if you really want to see anything you need to visit the main land. This being our second trip to Cozumel we plan to stick to the shops and maybe a little beach visiting, not much sun out today but I'm sure it's still enough to get burnt. Maybe after the shore leave we can do some more cigar bar and comedy club. I see some speed boats whizzing by from my balcony and the water actually looks somewhat clear. Wasn't sure how the water visibility would be with the hurricanes and stormy weather forecast. Our trip has been really calm weather but I noticed the water did get a little rougher the closer we got to Mexico.


Cozumel was allot of walking but it was fun and we saw allot kewl things. Stopped at quite a few bar's and although I don't drink them myself I noticed the prices ranged from 2 for $3 up to $10 each depending on what place and how far inland we went. Most of the shops had basically the same stuff with prices that started out high and got lower the more disinterested you appear. T-shirts were everywhere, one person from our group got one for a single cigarette, we paid $4 - $5 each for ours. We stopped at one place that apparently had a strip club or possibly a brothel upstairs, the girls could be seen hanging out of the upper floor windows beckoning us to come join them and making various obscene gestures with long neck beer bottles. We took a pass this time.



I wore my SGU "YOU ARE HERE" t-shirt and one lady came up to us and asked to take my photograph, she never said anything about why so I just assume she must have been a fan. At the dock in Cozumel the carnival ship "paradise" was already docked when we arrived around 1:00, she blew the horn several times and then disembarked around 7. We hung around at a happening place on the shore called Fat Tuesdays for the remainder of the evening.

These 3 guy's were going to play a song no mater what, I tipped them $3 and that didn't discourage them, they played anyway.



Eventually we made our way back through the duty free shop and security check point down the pier, then climbed up the Victory's gangway in time and managed to get cleaned up and make our way down to the sit down dinner in the dinning room at 8:15. After dinning I spent the rest of the night lounging around visiting with family and friends yawning and looking forward to bed time.

This our last fun day at sea, they left my behind the scenes ticket for 9:15 am. I assume then that they filled up past the 18 max for the first tour, dropped it back to 17 and scheduled the second tour. Reading the packet they included with my ticket I found out a little more. In addition to the no photography rule is no phones or recording devices period. So much for my note taking plan to record the audio and write my story. We will have to see how good my memory is. I'll try to bring a pen and paper if it's allowed. It's just after 8 am now and I think i will head down to the breakfast buffet before the tour.



Our tour started out in the Indian library down on deck 4 with a security check with metal detector wand and walk through arch. My pocket change set off the wand but I was fine after the pat down indicated that's all it was. A few of the others had cell phones and camera's and obviously had not read the rules beforehand. They were confiscated and held by our tour guide Christopher until the tour was over.A couple of interesting facts mentioned by Christopher early were ironically about the number 13.

Since the wedding day was on Friday the 13th I felt it was worth a mention. There are only 24 life boats that hold 150 guests per boat but they are numbered 1 - 25 due to the fact there is no boat number 13. There are also no rooms with a 13 or decks. Apparently the carnival cruise line bunch are quite a superstitious bunch. Life rafts for the crew are located at the front and rear of the ship if needed.

The tour basically started out in the galley, it's really difficult to comprehend just what it takes to feed over 3400 guests with over 1000 crew as well for a typical 4 day cruise. The ships systems are integrated together in a way that is very impressive. Describing the way it is set up from my perspective will be challenging but I'll try to be as accurate as I can. I took some notes during the tour and its funny how I find myself referring to notes from the engine control room as I prepare to talk about the kitchen. However, allot of the food preparation is accomplished with steam from the ships boiler that I learned more about when I saw the control room.It's amazing to me the huge vat's of food that rapidly brought to a boil in a short time with steam. They said it only takes 8 minutes heat these giant ( like twice the size of a typical garbage can ) vats to boiling temperature. They showed us how to make some decorative food that looked like flowers make with carrots. I met the head chief and his second in command Raji who makes the ice sculptures and various decorative food creations.



They only showed us a small section of galley but it was enormous. I only saw a small group of the cooking staff and it was an off time. They said how there are 1500 separate menu items, some examples, 2000 pounds of prime rib, 600 pounds of lobster tails, 4000 steaks, 3000 pounds shrimp, 5600 hot dogs, 7300 hamburgers, 65000 eggs and 50, 000 slices of bacon just to name a few. The beverages served are just as impressive, 17, 000 beers and 18, 000 cans of soda. They explained how the soda fountain type systems won't work due to the ships constantly bouncing and movement so everything must be cans and bottles. 2000 bottles of wine and over 400 liters of vodka are consumed in an average voyage just to name a few things. The food waist is amazing, although they have developed allot of clever techniques to avoid as much as possible, there is still allot to deal with. They separate the hard things like egg shells and bones and the soft things are all combined and then ground into sauce which is then dumped into the ocean provided the ship is at least 12 miles out to sea. At the same time the shower and toilet waist is also dumped in the sea.

The entertainment director talked about how the counter and balance weights for the various stage effects needed to be on guides because of the ships rocking and movements. To raise and lower the different stage props for the shows. They have many techs involved for the theater shows who handle the sound and lighting effects. There is also a special bomb proof locker to keep the explosives for use in pyrotechnics displays. Only 2 people on board have a key. I saw the dressing rooms back stage with all the costumes, wigs and hats. The costumes were new in 2008 and will need to last awhile longer. One of the dancers is also a seamstress and the costumes need to be constantly maintained so that they will last as long as possible.



I found the crew quarters interesting, they sometimes share a cabin with approximately 2 or even 4 crew members, married couples and even couples who are not married are automatically placed together by Carnival's policy. In the crew lounge I saw many clocks with times from around the world, chess, a dart board, Foosball table, computers and television sets. The crew get to purchase drinks for $1.25 and food is free. There is a zero tolerance for alcohol for crew members, although they are allowed to drink there are alcohol levels they are not allowed to be above that change depending on the situation. The pay for the crew sounds pretty good, with a retirement plan and benefits. One of the dancers told me that although she might work 8 or 10 hours in a given day it won't be all at once. Might be a couple hours on then a few off then back on throughout the day. On average they don't make any OT pay until after 70 hours.

I found it interesting that their family members can sail at a discounted rate, like $10 a day because the crew spend such extended periods away from home.

The ship can sail without it's captain but not without the medical staff. There are 4 nurse's and the 2 doctors must on board before the ship can leave the port. Although they prefer to turn the ship around or fly patient's out who need it, they could perform surgery on board if need be. Our guide Christopher mentioned that during his career, there have been a few deaths and one child birth. There is a ships morg if there is the occasion. We saw the ships brig which is rarely used, they prefer cabin arrest. Tell a crew member that you are thinking of jumping over broad and you will be placed on cabin arrest for rest of your trip.

The engine control room was interesting. There were schematic's and diagrams hanging on the back wall in the room. On the 2 side walls and front wall were what appeared to be electrical circuit indicators, for lack of a better description. Picture the entire wall covered in labeled LED lights with connecting lines like a flow chart. In sections were words like Ballest System, Air Conditioning System, Compressed Air System, Fire Alarm, Fuel and Boiler System. I assume the various LED light would eliminate to indicate a fault to help the technician trouble shoot and problems. on the wall was a Diagram the 4 main 16 cylinder diesel generator's plus 2 secondary 12 cylinder diesel generator's. I'm going to have to research this a bit more but from my notes the engineer said that the 4 larger engine's developed 8500 horsepower while secondary engines made 4150 each for a total of 15, 500 horsepower. All these generators are used to power twin electric motors to drive each of the ships props. The diesel fuel was not refined as much as fuel that you can get from the gas station, it was thicker and needs to be preheated by the ships boiler. They burn around 160,000 gallons of fuel on an average cruise and average around 950 gallons per hour. The ship can operate on 2 engine's and there is no needs to stop to make repairs on one at a time. The Victory built around the year 2000 weighs in at 102, 000 tons is 893 feet long and is 116 feet wide and has 13 decks although there is no deck 13. ( 0 - 12 ) it's max speed is 22.5 knots, she needs a minimum of 31 foot of water to operate ( 27 foot draft ) and cost $440 million to build.

The bridge was allot like the engine control room, allot of buttons. I would have have liked to learn more of the technical side , maybe just a sample lesson of one station would have been fun. I was not allowed to take any photo's while on the tour, they did give me this one. The captain and I are like old pals now.



Home from the cruise now I'm sitting here thinking about the dinner that we had and although everybody else in our group all agreed the food was fantastic aboard the victory I find myself a little bit disappointed for some reason what did I order, you wonder? I ordered the gourmet bacon cheeseburger every night and it was fantastic. The only reason I can think of now that I think about it is that my table location was not very good, not the staff by any means, they were all fantastic. But the location of the table itself was too close to the door. Walk in sit right down was nice, but I didn't realize until the 3rd night that it was better to come in from another direction and walk across the room, that way you could look and see what the entrees look like before you ordered them. If I could change one thing about the beautiful Pacific dining room dinner it would be the table location.

But they did make a very good bacon cheeseburger I'll have to admit

myke