Supplement to Travel Trade
February 2005

Carnival Valor:

A Tribute to Heroes

By John Stone

The theme of heroism is splashed in bright primary colors, and throughout public rooms representing some of history’s most famous figures, on the new 2,974-passenger Carnival Valor.

The 110,000-ton vessel, which is the third in Carnival’s Conquest class, sailed its maiden voyage from Miami in mid-December with a mix of revenue and travel industry passengers.

Whether your idea of heroism is America’s Founding Fathers — along with some Founding Mothers — armored medieval knights, aviators, entertainers, astronauts, ballplayers, bald eagles, movie heartthrobs or female factory workers, you are likely to find a favorite on Carnival Valor.

While characters and images from early American history set the decorative tone in several areas of Carnival Valor, they by no means tell the whole story of heroism displayed onboard.

As an example, the Ivanhoe Lounge, the ship’s three-deck theater situated at the forward end, is a scarlet-and-silver world of knights in shining armor with replicas of castle turrets on each side of the proscenium stage and life-sized armored knights along the back walls.

As another example, the small but serviceable ship library is decorated with mythical Greek figures and named after the Illiad, the epic Greek book of legends by the pre-Christian poet Homer.

The visual tone of the vessel is immediately established in the soaring American atrium, which greets the arriving passenger. The atrium extends from the American lobby bar on deck 3 to a glass skylight ceiling above deck 9, and is set off on one side by a bank of glass elevators sprinkled with patriotic white stars on a blue background.

Overlooking the atrium space are two primary art elements, a lower façade of stone relief portraits of famous Americans and a massive wall mural, spanning the three upper decks on one side. The mural depicts a seamless commingling of 10 famous U.S. destinations in broad modernistic brush strokes of blazing bright colors. Above the scene is a raised border of copper-toned Liberty Bells, an element that is repeated in other spaces, such as on the interior borders of elevator compartments.

The male faces among the stone relief images are easily identifiable as Washington, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Less obvious are the women, whose faces alternate with the men’s along the façade, resembling a history version of Hollywood Squares.

According to Carnival interior designer Joe Farcas, they include: Martha Washington (1731-1802), America’s first First Lady; Dolly Madison (1768-1849), the wife of President James Madison and America’s consummate social entertainer of the early 1800s, and Harriet Tubman (1819-1913), a Maryland slave who escaped during the Civil War and helped hundreds of others follow along the famed Underground Railroad that headed north to freedom.

Another famous early American woman with her own private dining room on deck 3, immediately forward of the lobby bar, is Betsy Ross (1752-1836). She is credited with sewing the first American flag, a month before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, at the behest of a committee headed by George Washington.

Women, in fact, enjoy a focus of attention in the heroism recalled on Carnival Valor. Many guests gravitate toward the Lido deck 9 buffet area called Rosie’s for breakfast and lunch. The two-story oceanview diner, which includes a Fish ‘n Chips seafood buffet on Panorama deck 10, is like a giant citrus fruit, with solid lemon and lime colors. It is visually dominated by a giant wall mural of the heroine of the World War II munitions factories, Rosie the Riveter, who is seen flexing her formidable arm muscle and fist above a sign reading: “We Can Do It!”

Other tile portraits around Rosie’s include uniformed Naval and Air Force women officers seemingly ready for combat.
Most importantly, the food throughout the Lido buffet area, whether at the deli sandwich bar, the ethnic food buffet, the seafood bar or the outside pizza bar and hamburger grill facing the Prometheus Bar at the aft end, are diversified, fresh and uniformly superb.

The biggest eye-opener on Carnival Valor is that food quality throughout the Carnival operation, which has gone from mediocre to good in recent years, can now be enthusiastically recommended as better than good. Meals everywhere on Carnival Valor from the buffets to the grand dining rooms to the supper club presentations are closer in quality to premium cruise fare than the mass market edibles, which some people associate with Carnival.

The sequence of a dinner and pub crawl through the vessel is a virtual time travel tour spanning centuries and continents. Part of the passenger experience on Carnival Valor is of moving directly from one public room into another and thinking, “How did I get here from there?”

Starting with a pre-dinner drink in Winston’s Cigar Bar, located in midship on Atlantic deck 4, the guest is immersed in the wood-and-leather atmosphere of an upscale, yet accessible London business club. The color is provided by Union Jack flags in backlit glass rectangles set into the ceiling of the long, sofa-sprinkled club room, where a music trio provides an appropriate martini-sipping atmosphere.

The hero of the space is Winston Churchill, seen in numerous black-and-white framed photographs from World War II, displayed around the room. One intriguing picture, closest to the entry to the Internet Café left of the bar, captures Churchill with Richard Nixon in the early 1950s.

But a dinner reservation summons the guest to Carnival Valor’s supper club and, after a short elevator ride to deck 10, he or she has channeled to the Civil War Southern plantation atmosphere of Scarlett’s, named after the Vivian Leigh heroine of “Gone With the Wind.”

While there are visual distractions in Scarlett’s, such as a wall mural depicting Rhett Butler and his heroine dancing in a ballroom scene from “Gone with the Wind,” and paintings of the story’s Tara plantation viewed from different angles, the real star is the food.

An attentive, experienced wait staff in Scarlett’s served prime cuts of meat that were accurately cooked to order and accompanied by tasty side touches like sauteed mushrooms, gourmet breads and a medley of saucing choices. A lobster tail and filet mignon combination was flawless in texture and flavor.

The two grand dining rooms, named after Lincoln and Washington, have little Early American ambience, save for crystal chandeliers, amid their matching bright orange color schemes and lighting amid white wood trim, but the food and service remain consistently high. Recommended would be the quieter, more private tables at the rear aft end of the Washington dining room, if they can be obtained.

The accommodations in Carnival Valor’s balcony stateroom 6248 (category BA on deck 6) were spacious and comfortable in predominantly orange and beige colors. Surfaces included wall-to-wall orange carpeting, orange-toned wood cabinets, counters and closets and beige wall covering accented by colorful, modern paintings of landscape scenery.

Furnishings included a double bed, a couch with almond-shaped coffee table, two night tables topped with excellent, lamp-shaded reading lights and a built-in vanity desk beneath a shelf-supported television. Closet space was more than adequate with twin sides, plenty of hangers and clothing drawers down below.

The bathroom featured a step-in shower and expansive counter surface with a generous amenities kit stocked with trial-size toiletry items, both men’s and women’s, of various, familiar household brands.

There are 503 oceanview balcony staterooms on Carnival Valor, out of the vessel’s total 1,487 staterooms, and the remaining mix is 337 oceanview cabins without balcony; 18 oceanview with glass walls; 577 interior cabins; 42 suites; and 10 penthouse suites.

According to Carnival president Bob Dickinson, the company has been working for several years to address a “disconnect” in the impressions of Carnival between those who have experienced the cruise brand and those who have not. The favorable marks for the company, and the desire to return to a Carnival cruise, are far higher among Carnival-experienced guests than those who have never cruised with Carnival.

Dickinson added that bringing industry guests on a revenue cruise was a way to convince them there is no special treatment, or food service, on an inaugural voyage compared to any other Carnival itinerary. The food on Carnival Valor’s inaugural, impressive indeed, will be the normal fare experienced by regular future guests.

The time travel experience on Carnival Valor also includes the deck 5 Lindy Hop, a piano bar with several replicas of Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis suspended above the grand piano. The aircraft appears engaged in mid-trans-Atlantic flight between a panorama of New York on one side and Paris on the other.

Nearby, in the same deck 5 Boulevard nightlife area, are testaments to two more legendary heroines. One is Jeanne’s Wine Bar, a martini and champagne bar in French fleur de lys décor and named after Joan of Arc. The other is Paris Hot, a zebra-striped jazz club and karaoke bar in the style of a jungle room. It is ringed with statues of Josephine Baker (1906-1975), the famed African-American nightclub singer who found success in Paris after experiencing limited opportunity in the U.S.

One of two main music rooms is the Eagles Lounge, decked out in brown and cream colors with inlaid wood images of bald eagles on each table top and the stage dance floor. There are life-size replicas of bald eagles behind several glass cases at the rear of the seating area.

Flocks of golden eagles can also be spotted throughout the ship, perched upon gold columns in elevator lobbies and as sentinels along the nightlife Boulevard.

The other main music room is the One Small Step disco, a tribute to astronaut Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon in 1969. It has a dark, charcoal atmosphere with video walls displaying lunar videos, and photos of moonscapes. The gray marble floors in the space are spotted with black footprints pointing the way to a large oval bar serving thirsty moonwalkers.
Evenings on Carnival Valor often end within the Shogun Casino, where there is a whimsical juxtaposition of heroic characters. Around the colorfully-lit casino are dozens of armor-clad Japanese Shogun figures, standing at attention among the gaming tables and slot machines as if warning players against any thought of misbehavior.

Meanwhile, the central figure at the casino’s Dream Bar is a replica of the Statue of Liberty hoisting her lantern from a position in the midst of the beverage bottles, as if inviting the tired and tempest-tossed to rest here awhile with a refreshment.

Moving from the casino to the adjoining Bar, the guest steps from the Orient into a section of New York’s Yankee Stadium (perhaps a tribute to slugger Hideki Matsui?) in the simple crossing of a doorframe.

The Bronx Bar includes a replica of the Yankee Stadium façade above white tables covered in Yankee pinstripes and bearing the number 4 of the legendary Lou Gehrig. There is also a green stadium wall paneling, a bar backed by several television monitors for sports viewing and white leather banquettes. The last are lined with red stitching to resemble the cowhide surface of a baseball. Photos of the exterior of Yankee Stadium complete the sports bar scenery,

There are even touches in Carnival Valor that make the passenger the hero, such as the expansive spa and gym on deck 11, whose highlight is a central hot tub enclosed under a rocky waterfall and skylight.

Another is the Deck 12 kid’s pool and Camp Carnival area which, at 4,200 square feet, is the most extensive children’s center yet on a Carnival vessel. There are programs for three pre-teen age levels and two teenage groups. Young children benefit from a new gameroom facility sponsored under a joint agreement between Carnival and Mattel toys.

There is also a new arts program, called Watercolors, and a new science program, called H2Ocean, which are debuting as centerpieces of the Carnival children’s programming on the Valor, and will soon be expanded fleetwide.

Not to be overlooked is an 1,800 square-foot teen nightclub, called the Caboose, which will serve “mocktails” to the 15 to 17-year-old passengers, who can also enjoy an expansive video game lounge behind the railroad themed youth bar.