SWEET LIBERTY! The cruise that almost wasn't! Sept 20-27, 2015 review

Hi everyone! DH and I are just back from our 2nd cruise. You may have seen my review of the Valor, doing this same itinerary, so there will be some similarities to my previous review (see my siggy) but there was enough differences to warrant doing a review again, so here goes!

Hubby and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on the Valor in Oct 2013, and this time were looking to plan a trip for our 27th anniversary. After such a fabulous trip the last time, we decided to revisit Puerto Rico and do this same cruise again. This time though on the Liberty!

We left behind our 3 kids (ages 25, 21 and 18) and didn't feel too guilty doing so. Our last vacation in Oct 2014 included the kids, for a week in Playa Del Carmen, MX. Our oldest has decided she really doesn't like boats, the beach and the heat so a Caribbean cruise isn't something that appealed to her at all. Our 21 year old is in college and although she wanted to go, it just wasn't feasible with her school schedule. She was recently diagnosed with narcolepsy and on a new medication and truthfully, keeping her on her current schedule and routine is probably the best thing for her at the moment. Our 18 year old son is a senior in high school. He has Aspergers syndrome (autism) and doesn't really like to travel. He likes his normal routine and would probably implode if he didn't have internet for a week. So it was a pretty easy decision to leave them at home for this one.

Travel isn't something in our normal budget, but after the first 25 years of our marriage without travel, we've come to realize how much we've missed out on, so we've figured out a way to make it happen. Since our cruise in Oct 2013, we took a week all inclusive to Cozumel in March 2014 (super bargain priced at $1000 for the week total for both of us, and we had free plane tickets so that was too good of a deal to pass up!), and then our week in Playa Del Carmen with the kids (and my in-laws) in Oct 2014, so after that crazy year with 3 trips in 12 months, we had almost a year's wait until this one. So that was a year spent working lots of overtime at work to save up for this one.

We started the planning process and my sister and her husband asked if they could tag along, so we agreed and worked out dates that worked for all 4 of us. We weren't able to travel on our actual anniversary, but we did decide to make the trip a full 2 weeks (4 days prior to the cruise, the 7 day cruise and then 3 days after). We still had enough free miles for our plane tickets so that also had something to do with the dates we chose, in order to use the fewest miles.

As the trip drew closer, we found ourselves worrying about several storms brewing (Hurricane Danny, for example). What we never anticipated was the Liberty fire that happened just a week before we were to leave for Puerto Rico.

We found ourselves constantly reading any and all information we could find about what happened, what the current status of the Liberty was, the extent of damages etc. The week before we left I had some personal news that had me stressed, I was exhausted from working extra hours, and now the stress of what had happened on the Liberty...I won't lie. I spent a lot of that week before our trip in tears. But I literally cried tears of relief when we watched the Liberty on her webcam, move on her own from St Thomas to Puerto Rico! It was such a relief! In that week we made alternate plans for our vacation, in case the cruise got canceled, but didn't need them after all!

This will be a long review, and will include the pre-cruise and post-cruise days in Puerto Rico. It will also be photo heavy. I think between my husband's 2 cameras and mine we took a combined 10k photos. I'm not even exaggerating!

Day 1: September 16, 2015 Wednesday

We flew out of Omaha to Atlanta on a very early morning flight. My sister and brother in law flew from Wichita to Atlanta and we met up on the same flight from Atlanta to San Juan. The flights were uneventful, everything was on time and there were no complications.

We had arranged for our seats specifically on the left side of the plane in order to see the forts as we landed in Puerto Rico. We were also able to see our first cruise ship the Valor in dock!

We arrived in San Juan around 1:30pm to find that one of our checked luggage pieces arrived with a missing wheel. This made things extra difficult to maneuver. We each had a checked luggage, we each had a carry on and hubby had a backpack and I had a bag. The bag was brand new (a gift) and one of the handles broke on the bag before we even made the transfer in Atlanta. So with the broken bag handle, the wonky suitcase with the missing wheel and the rest of the luggage we decided that it might be easier for hubby to go alone and leave us at the airport, pick up the rental and return to us. We knew from our previous trip that it wasn't very far.

He picked up the rental and decided to upgrade to a mini van once we realized that a standard car wasn't going to have the room we needed for all our luggage plus my sister and brother in law's luggage. We rented through Charlie's/ACE rentals, which was the company we used on the previous trip. There were no issues, no complaints with them this trip either. The cost was about $40 per day for the mid size car, but the upgrade ended up being another $10 per day.

The representative at Charlies said it wasn't easy to get back into the airport for him to pick us up, so he suggested calling us to have us take the next shuttle and meet him. So after we had already been waiting, we now loaded the wonky luggage into the shuttle van and met up with hubby at the rental office. It was extremely hot and we were extremely tired from our early morning flight so we were getting a bit cranky.

After catching up with hubby and getting everything loaded into the van, we started our drive to Luquillo, a town about 45 miles east of San Juan. We had rented a condo, on the beach in a property called Playa Azul, building 1. We were on the 18th floor. We were given instructions to get to the condo, but weren't given a specific address so GPS wasn't helpful at all. We knew where the building was, but still needed a refresher on how to get there. We were a bit annoyed that the condo owner wouldn't give the actual address for the unit though. We found our way there and had a little hassle getting checked in without having a specific unit number either. It was just kind of strange how it was handled. We were told the unit was going to be left unlocked with the keys on the counter, but without knowing the unit number that made it a challenge. The buildings are gated, with security at the desk and they were able to finally figure out which unit after looking up the owners info.

We opened the doors to the unit and were pretty much instantly let down a bit. The unit is on the beach, and the view was amazing, but the place was pretty beat up and run down a bit. The unit was much smaller than the photos made it seem. There were no supplies other than a half a roll of toilet paper in each of the 2 bathrooms. There were a/c units in the bedrooms but none in the living room. The living room had a large sliding door that opened up to the balcony but there was NO breeze. We went to our bedrooms and our room had a new a/c unit that worked very well. My sister's room a/c unit didn't work. At all. We immediately called the number left for us for maintenance issues and they said someone would be there in a few minutes. Of course a "few" minutes ended up being nearly an hour, but they did show up and determined the unit could not be repaired. They contacted the owner, and agreed to get a replacement unit in as soon as they could, but that wasn't until the following morning. We offered to take the bedroom without the a/c but my sister said they'd be fine.

Yay, Kendra!

Such a wonderful surprise when I logged onto CC and seen you started your review. I. am. so. excited ! :)

This is going to be an amazing review!

10K pictures?! :eek: You have me beat by...oh 8K!!

The views from the condo:

We decided to head out to the grocery store to get some drinks, breakfast items and toilet paper and paper towels. We found a store very close, did our shopping and headed back to the condo. There was a bar/restaurant nearby called The Brass Cactus and we decided to stop there. Hubby took the groceries back to the condo and we stayed at the restaurant, and decided to eat there that night instead of cooking the meal fixings we had purchased at the store. We all had some type of enchilada casserole that was very good, had a couple drinks and headed back to the condo to call it a night.

Yay, Kendra!

 

Such a wonderful surprise when I logged onto CC and seen you started your review. I. am. so. excited ! :)

 

This is going to be an amazing review!

10K pictures?! :eek: You have me beat by...oh 8K!!

It was so nice meeting you and your family! I figured I'd beat the rush and get started right away! Hoping Holly does a review too! We can be like dueling banjos lol

Day 2: September 17, 2015 Thursday

We woke up to a bright, sunny day! Our first day was hot and humid, but just gray and overcast so it wasn't the first impression we had hoped for, so today was much better!

We had a catamaran snorkel excursion planned for today through a company called East Island Excursions. We had to drive a little bit to the marina, and didn't have too much trouble finding it. It was about a 30 min drive and we had to be there by 9:30. We got checked in, which was easy since we had prepaid, and waited under the tents they had set up with shade and ice cold water and soon we boarded East Wind for a day of fun.

We saw this friendly guy while waiting to board East Wind:

We started out towards an island called Icacos, a very small, uninhabited island, which was a popular place for several catamaran companies.

There were about 3 or 4 other boats there, but it wasn't crowded. The tour provided drinks, some snacks, and some alcohol (rum punch, pina coladas) but beer was a separate charge. The sail was pretty smooth, the day was crystal clear and it was hot! It took about an hour to reach Icacos and the boat was anchored very close to shore. Throughout the ride I started feeling very overheated and nauseous. I've not had a lot of boating experiences in my life, but have now had quite a bit in the last 2 years and never once felt sea sick. So this was a total surprise to me. As we were standing on the boat, listening to instructions, in the sun, I felt more and more ill. Once they gave the ok, I was the first one off the boat. I immediately felt better after getting into the water and cooling off, but after a little bit, I was still feeling ill. Without giving too much gross detail, lets just say I felt much better after a little bit.

We didn't see any jellyfish at all on our previous trip. But they warned us that "moon jellyfish" were in season. They are large, about 15-18" across, but that also made them pretty easy to spot. We saw a few:

After about an hour at Icacos, we boarded the cat again and headed to the snorkel spot. I was feeling much better at this point, but I did not eat lunch or drink any alcohol. I only felt confident enough to drink Sprite. We arrived at the snorkel spot and got geared up.

I'm not completely sure which pictures were taken at which location. There was some snorkeling off the shore at Icacos, but we mostly snorkeled at the 2nd spot, which was off another island that was occupied (so we couldn't go to shore).

This one has to be one of my favorite snorkeling pictures ever!

My sister and her husband have not snorkeled before. My BIL is not a swimmer and he didn't feel that he could be comfortable enough to do it. Sis wanted to try it so we got into the water and helped her get things figured out. Sis ended up really enjoying it, and BIL did manage to feel comfortable enough to get a noodle and at least join us in the water. The snorkeling was decent. But soon it was time to head back to the boat.

We started heading back to the marina and I was feeling better enough to at least have a couple drinks before docking. The trip ended at 3pm.

Can't wait to read the rest :) I think I would have freaked at the size of those jellyfish! I hope they are gone by January!

Can't wait to read the rest :) I think I would have freaked at the size of those jellyfish! I hope they are gone by January!

I think the jellies are more common in the summer months into fall, not so much in the winter/spring so I wouldnt' worry about it. The moon jellyfish were pretty easy to spot because of their size, and although we were not stung, we were told their sting is pretty mild so it wasn't a huge concern. They were actually quite pretty and neat to watch!

Yeah Kendra!!! I am so happy to see you've started your review!!! I loved your last one and have been looking forward to this one. You took way more pictures than we did and I'm still going trough mine. LOL!!! Let's just say I had some sizing issues and that ended up being a whole fiasco. I will be doing another review but between going through and picking out pictures and everything that needs done around here, not to mention busy weekends ahead (and a trip to PA), it may be a few weeks before I get mine started. I can't wait to see the rest of yours. :D Holly

Subscribing - loving the beautiful photos so far!! Looking forward to reading and seeing more - leaving on the Liberty in less than a month!

Can't wait to read all of your review. We will be on the Liberty in January and will be spending a few days before the cruise at Playa Azul I, but on the 22nd floor. The view looks beautiful in your pics.

Great start to your new review. Love the pics so far. subscribing and anxious to read more. Glad you were able to cruise... that the Liberty behaved herself for you. :D

Great start....looking forward to the rest!

Loving your review - can't get enough Liberty and Southern Caribbean - we'll be heading out in January - looking forward to the rest of your review

Great start

Yeah Kendra!!! I am so happy to see you've started your review!!! I loved your last one and have been looking forward to this one. You took way more pictures than we did and I'm still going trough mine. LOL!!! Let's just say I had some sizing issues and that ended up being a whole fiasco. I will be doing another review but between going through and picking out pictures and everything that needs done around here, not to mention busy weekends ahead (and a trip to PA), it may be a few weeks before I get mine started. I can't wait to see the rest of yours. :D Holly

I loved your review too, and can't wait to see yours from this trip! It was so cool that we got to take this trip at the same time! It will be fun to see how things compare. It was so nice meeting you!

Subscribing - loving the beautiful photos so far!! Looking forward to reading and seeing more - leaving on the Liberty in less than a month!

Thanks for reading, and hope your trip is wonderful!

Can't wait to read all of your review. We will be on the Liberty in January and will be spending a few days before the cruise at Playa Azul I, but on the 22nd floor. The view looks beautiful in your pics.

Hope you enjoy your stay in Luquillo. Have you been there before? Thanks for reading!

Great start to your new review. Love the pics so far. subscribing and anxious to read more. Glad you were able to cruise... that the Liberty behaved herself for you. :D

Thank you! We were so glad Liberty shaped up for our trip! Hoping she stays in line for everyone else too!