Review of our Spring Break '12 Cruise on Carnival Liberty

[KroozFoolz]

Paul, I always enjoy your reviews (and pictures, of course!).

Thanks for posting. I look forward to more when you can.

[ComeSailWithME]

Great pics! Loving your review so far !

[janabm81]

What an awesome review so far!!! I'm loving all the pics...it makes me feel as though I'm there!:)

[cruiserguy11]

Very very nice review. Well written and great pics. Personally I'm not a fan of fish eye lenses but you've done well with them. I know how long it takes to put together a good review so thanks for taking the time.

 

Great looking family by the way ... sadly they'll be grown and gone before you know it. At least you'll have all your memories and pictures. (And we expect to see more of your reviews when your kids marry and have their own kids ... on a cruise of course.):)

[PaulMedik]

OK let's see if I can at least get us to Cozumel............

 

 

Our first 'Fun Day At Sea' was very relaxing. We enjoyed a few rounds of mini golf, ate some Guy's Burgers, met some cyber friends at our Cruise Critic Meet n Greet, and remember earlier when I mentioned I had to gut my laptop? Well the gutting began on our first evening on board and my only tools (if you could call them that) consisted of a Ford key from my wallet and a pair of scissors Britt brought with him. After the CC meet n greet Karen and went by the photo sales area on deck four and bought our boarding photo as well as an on deck photo;

 

 

 

After buying the photos we went to the shops on deck five to see if they had any eye glass repair kits. I was thinking the screwdriver from one of those kits might help me take the laptop apart with less damage. We spoke with a very helpful staff member who mentioned that she had some tools in the jewelry deparment for repairing watches that she could loan me. She walked us over and found a screw driver and a set of pliars and basically saved all of our precruise pictures that I had on our camera as well as some I had already downloaded onto the laptop hard drive. She saved them because I was a little too determined to extract the SD card; the whole left side of my laptop was already destroyed though only cosmetically it was bound to get worse without proper tools. She bagged the tools up for me so there'd be no questions and we headed back to our room.

 

In a very short amount of time my laptop looked like this;

 

 

 

It was a matter of minutes until the wayward SD card was on the desk and you can also see the damage I did to the external area of the DVD drive;

 

 

 

After reassembling the laptop I uploaded the pics from the card and put it away; I wasn't about to take a chance with using it again since it was just luckly not to have been damaged and there's no way I could rule out magnetic damage.

 

 

I got a few more pics before dinner including a fisheye pic that I wish I'd used my 15mm instead because of the position of the distortion;

 

 

 

The main thing I wanted to demonstrate was just how smooth the water was, but the fisheye in the middle of the horizon distracts from the smooth appearance.

 

My Powershot did a much better job;

 

 

 

How can the water remain so smooth even when there was ever present storms in the distance?

 

 

 

[PaulMedik]

Our Fun Day @ Sea also included our first formal or semi elegant or cruise elegant? This was our first cruise without tuxes for formal night and I confess I was a bit uncomfortable dressing down. I have no clue why other than perhaps it's always been tradition for us?

 

 

 

 

Both mouthfuls were excellent;

 

 

 

 

Bryson fell in love with the 'strawberry soup' as he calls it several years ago. Our waiter first plopped a few small berries in Bryson's bowl and said enjoy your soup. Bryson had a dumfounded look until the waiter immediately turned around and poured two pitchers of soup into the bowl;

 

 

 

 

Our formal dinner lasted well over two and a half hours. Our wait staff was fantastic other than not having food to serve; they constantly refilled our drinks, replenished our bread basket, and chatted about the cruise.

 

In between the courses I noticed a beautiful sunset outside and had to excuse myself to get some pics;

 

 

 

There's normally very few people out on deck three, but for that sunset the deck was lined from end to end with people getting pics. I love that magical time as the sun dips over the horizon and leaves a red glow;

 

 

 

I had lobster for the my main course and completely forgot to get pics, but it was quite tasty. They weren't much bigger than the shrimp, but certainly hit the spot.

 

After dinner our waiter got pictures of us on the stairs. I'm not sure why Karen is holding Britt's arm, but it makes it look like he was trying to escape;

 

[PaulMedik]

After dinner Karen and I played some more BlackJack and managed to stay ahead. When we returned to the room we found our Platinum pins and gifts had arrived along with a towel elephant compliments of Ketut;

 

 

 

 

Our second night on board was as restful as the first night and my cruise habit of waking up early failed to occur again because when I woke up we were already pulling in to the pier;

 

 

 

After checking out the beautiful sky and feeling the warm moist air I knew it was going to be a fine day. I then heard blood curling screams from beside me and found this stowaway standing on our balcony;

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure how a bird can make such loud screams, but this little fella sure tried to make himself sound a lot larger than he was. As I looked closer I discovered he may have been a little startled too;

 

 

 

 

Do they have Seven Elevens in Mexico?

 

 

 

After looking him over he didn't appear to be injured so I left him to enjoy the balcony alone and went to breakfast. I'm sorry to share bird poo and food pics in the same post, but here's my breakfast;

 

[PaulMedik]

We had breakfast at our customary table on deck ten. This picture of Bryson really drives home the comment from earlier about how it will be gone before we know it;

 

 

 

 

After breakfast we gathered our beach bags and headed down the long hallway to the atrium elevators;

 

 

 

After a quick elevator ride we were on deck zero and posing for the Carnival photogs on the gangway;

 

 

 

Walking down the pier in Cozumel;

 

 

 

We ran into more Carnival photogs along the way;

 

 

 

When we were at Cozumel the last time I don't think they had built the Duty Free shops on the pier yet at Puerto Maya, but they are reminiscent of the International Pier shops that were destroyed in a hurricane a few years back;

 

[Poorplaya]

Keep them coming, I cant get enough of this review

[PaulMedik]

The port shops are layed out such that it's not possible to pass thru without passing just about all of the shops, but our boys have been thru enough times to know the way;

 

 

 

Taxis are very plentiful especially early in the morning. Our ship was the only ship in port so we had no problem finding a van to fit all of us;

 

 

 

 

Has anyone ever traveled at less than Mach 4 in a taxi in Cozumel? And why do people who never ride motorcycles think they should ride them in Cozumel?

 

 

 

These two young ladies were traveling around fifty I would guess when we blasted by them at whatever speed the van would do. The lady in back was carrying several boxes that blew off as we passed;

 

 

 

Who carries an arm load of boxes while riding on a motorcycle and not holding onto anything but boxes?

 

 

It's about a ten minute ride from the pier to our destination; Paradise Beach!

 

 

 

You can tell by the look on Bryson's face that he thinks we've arrived at the wrong place;

 

[PaulMedik]

When you arrive at Paradise Beach you enter via a gravel road and your taxi pulls around a half circle and lets you out at the wooden steps up to the backside of the bar. Well there aren't any wooden steps now;

 

 

 

 

And the bar the boys are posing in front of is not the bar they are used to seeing at Paradise Beach;

 

 

 

'They built a pool at Paradise Beach.' I had read that and I'm sure we all have read that, but this isn't the pool I expected nor did Karen and the boys even though I'd told them about it;

 

 

 

This used to be a parking lot with more pot holes than gravel;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we're almost to familiar territory and can in fact see what used to be the top of the wooden steps at the edge of the parking lot;

 

[PaulMedik]

Bryson had been looking for one item from the time we got out of the van. He looked thru the trees past the pool along the way and didn't see it, he looked as we walked along the brick path and didn't see it, and he looked as we went thru the bar and didn't see it;

 

 

 

 

As he walked between the rows of beach chairs he couldn't see it;

 

 

 

What has Bryson been looking for? What has he talked about every time he talked about the cruise? What is missing from the pictures above? There's plenty of water toys and more than enough to keep him occupied, but what's not there? No ICEBERG! Paradise Beach with no iceberg?

 

Paradise Beach sans Iceberg;

 

 

 

 

Obviously he didn't dwell on the missing iceberg for too long;

 

 

 

 

His first round on this toy didn't last too long either;

 

 

Didn't last long on this one either;

 

 

 

 

We found out a few hours later that the iceberg was deflated for repairs and they in fact worked on it for several hours that afternoon and partially inflated it while checking for leaks. We likely just picked the one day that it wasn't floating, but it sure was good to hear it was still around and good to see it being worked on. Paradise Beach has to have it's Iceberg.

[PaulMedik]

If you get to Paradise Beach early you'll have all of the water toys to yourself, but that doesn't mean you can walk the log and fall and nobody will see you fall;

 

 

 

 

Because someone will be there to get pics for all the world to see you fall;

 

 

 

 

They still have the floating mats and Karen & Britt enjoyed some time on one;

 

 

 

Paradise Beach also has the stand up surf boards;

 

 

 

 

The stand up surf boards may be fun to ride, but without a doubt it's fun to watch people ride them for the first time;

 

 

 

 

Bryson was hillarious. He'd start dancing around trying to keep his footing and flail all over and you could tell when he'd reach for his nose that he was going in;

 

[PaulMedik]

They also still have regular ocean canoes;

 

 

 

 

Britt soon figured out why Bryson asked him to come with him;

 

 

 

 

While not specifically designed for use as bumper cars, ocean kayaks stand up surf boards can be used in such a manner;

 

 

 

If you try this, I'd recommend the kayak;

 

 

 

 

That gravel parking lot is certainly more attractive as a pool and safer for boys who tend to be boys;

 

 

 

 

Karen was convinced this picture would be a good idea;

 

[PaulMedik]

Well it was an idea, but I'm not so sure it was a good one;

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good sun hat should be able to stand a little water huh?

 

 

 

On our first trip to Paradise Beach I could easily lift Bryson up and carry him around. Now I'm just glad there's a pool in the parking lot otherwise I'd have had a hard time lifting him;

 

 

 

Paradise Beach and a cool Margarita. Sure wish I was there right now;

 

 

 

Paradise Beach also means great Mexican food;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

 

 

 

 

After a nice full meal wouldn't a nice siesta be nice? Perhaps, but why not a nice jetski ride instead;

 

 

 

 

We rented three jetskis for myself, Bryson, and Spencer. They were a blast;

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are on a Western Caribbean cruise, the best and cheapest place to rent jetskis is Paradise Beach. We rented three for $150 for half an hour and in Grand Cayman they wanted double that amount plus a huge deposit and a credit card.

[PaulMedik]

Sauri was our waiter for the day and kept us hydrated and fed us very well. Our bar and food bill came to almost $200 and we paid him $250 with tip. Not bad for six people for a days food and drink. If you wish to track costs, the taxi was $35 with tip each way. The wrist bands were $72 for five. I know five won't go into $72 so I'm guessing there was a chair charge too? The jetskis were $150. Britt got a henna tattoo for $20 I think. We had planned to get massages, but time just slipped by too fast.

 

I think Sauri has been our waiter before;

 

 

 

Britt getting 'inked' as he called it;

 

 

 

 

He was proud of his new tattoo and had me upload an iphone pic to facebook;

 

 

 

The Paradise Beach Iceberg undergoing leak testing;

 

 

 

Remnants of the old Paradise Beach are scattered about. I found the wooden adirondack chairs that used to be right outside the little shopping area back in the shade next to the pool;

 

 

 

 

The boys definately didn't mind not having an iceberg to climb;

 

 

****************************************************

Wow! It's almost 4AM. I hadn't planned to stay up all night....

Hopefully I'll get us back on the ship and to Belize tomorrow or later today I should say.

G'night all.

[pe4all]

I can't get over how big your "boys" have gotten! The iceberg was "down" when we went last summer, also. I think that when they anchor it, it puts a lot of stress on the repairs, and they re-rip. Time for a new iceberg!:)

[XCruiseMe17]

I was wondering, what type of lenses did you use to make the fisheye effect? If someone asked this already, Im sorry, I missed it!! I'm new to the DSLR world and I LOVE your pictures!! Awesome review!!

[PaulMedik]

I can't get over how big your "boys" have gotten! The iceberg was "down" when we went last summer, also. I think that when they anchor it, it puts a lot of stress on the repairs, and they re-rip. Time for a new iceberg!:)

 

 

pe4all,

 

I remember when the iceberg was their sole water toy; and I think it was the same one? Yeah I'd say it's time for a new one and maybe even a spare for when one is down. Hopefully the same type is available because we saw some cheap imitations elsewhere and they wouldn't last any time at all.

 

I was wondering, what type of lenses did you use to make the fisheye effect? If someone asked this already, Im sorry, I missed it!! I'm new to the DSLR world and I LOVE your pictures!! Awesome review!!

 

 

XCruiseMe17,

 

The fisheye is a Rokinon 8mm F3.5. The same lens is sold under several brands besides Rokinion; SamYang, ProOptic, and Peleng to name a few.

 

The lens is manual focus and manual aperture. I tend to keep mine set on F9 with focus set to near infinity for shots outdoors then I adjust the aperture as large as possible (max is F3.5 but the focus field is too narrow at that size and I like everything in focus) and estimate distance for shots indoors with lower light. I have a large flash for indoors, but where the field of view is so wide it actually leaves a shadow from the lens hood and the on camera flash leaves a hump shadow of the front of the flash itself. Low light shots will still appear dark when you first transfer them to your PC, but Lightroom can salvage them by tweaking the light and exposure. I took so many pictures that I opted to skip Lightroom developing, but most of my pics would be much better if I'd taken the time to tweak them in LR.

 

I have a screw on fisheye that will fit all three of my Canon L lenses, but I didn't like the results with it so it's been in a drawer and will likely stay there.

 

One of the best features of the Rokinon 8m Fisheye is that it's only ~$250! My other lenses were all well over $1500 each, but my cheapest lens is my favorite. Go figure. :D

[ourfamilylovescruising]

Hey Paul love the review. the taxi ride to PB do they charge per person or is it a flat fee? thanks for all the imput

[cruisinsly]

Cant wait for the rest! Great review.

[crewsweeper]

Paul...Glad you're finally back up. Was worried the laptop ate all your pictures:eek:. Waiting for the rest.

[soccersharon]

Thanks for the review - really enjoying your humour and families' antics!

 

Looking forward to more!

 

We really love the Liberty and wish she was doing the Western next March! May have to try the Glory instead!

[PaulMedik]

Thank you all for your comments. I've been catching up on yard work now that the monsoon season has let up a little. Hopefully I'll get more done on the revew later today.

 

Hey Paul love the review. the taxi ride to PB do they charge per person or is it a flat fee? thanks for all the imput

 

 

ourfamilylovescruising,

 

It's a flat fee.

 

 

Crewsweeper,

 

It almost ate them that's for sure. I assume my DVD drive is history, but haven't tried it yet. I did transfer pictures from cards daily after that to the laptop and it didn't eat any that I'm aware of..... :p