Carnival LIberty-Eastern 3/30 Review

[KatPem]

We caught the ferry, the waves were big so it was a bumpy but fun ride!

Our ride back.

 

This boat was catching a lot of the waves.

 

Now I will discuss the taxis....I didn't look into taxi charges cause I dont' remember it being too bad when my husband and I went. We assumed $20-30 each trip. As we exited the dock area on the way back to the ship I noticed this nice plaque...

So, our taxi driver, Conrad, was great but he had told us $10 a person but my husband thought he heard him wrong. Nope, when we got to Red Hook, it was $70!! ONE WAY! So, it also cost us that back to the ship. The brochure we picked up while waiting for the ferry on the way there listed cab fares on St John. From Cruz Bay to Cinnamon Bay is $7 per person, each way. So it was a grand total of $238 for cabs and another $64 for the ferry and while it is $$$, it was really priceless! They had excursions to St John but they would have been more than that and we wouldn't have been able to hike and would've missed out on those views! Definitely a lesson learned to not assume cab fares, especially when traveling with a small army!

[battchief1]

Thanks for the review

[KatPem]

Our third and final stop was San Juan. We knew that we wanted to take the kids to the Fort. We had an extended day since our Grand Turk was cancelled, they were letting us stay from 7am-10pm instead of til 3PM.

 

I had read on here about the free trolley but apparently not enough in the details, I didn't see a stop outside the terminal but had read if you walked left you could hit the previous stop. We still weren't exactly sure what we were looking for so we asked some police officers and they told us it was in front of the flagpoles and we wanted the while trolley. This is the sign you are looking for.

Now, you can take the white trolley as we were told or as we found out later, the green bus pictured on the stop. We got on (it was pretty full), passed the terminal, took a left and low and behold, that was the stop outside the terminal. It was really full though at that stop there were a lot of people.

 

We took the trolley to Fort San Cristobal.

 

It was $5 per adult to get entrance to both Forts (this and El Morro). Luckily kids under 16 were free. We paid this and then went to watch the free video. The have it in English and Spanish, alternating every 15 minutes. Durig both showings though, there are both subtitles, so it isn't necessary to wait until the next showing. I thought it was a nice video about the history of the Fort and we also liked that it was air conditioned!

We then took the stairs (there is an elevator as well) to the next level.

 

We were able to spy an iguana

[TakeMeAway1001]

Thanks for the review, you have a beautiful family :)

[Coolcruise02]

Awesome review and pictures!

 

FYI-a great place for kids to learn/practice snorkeling is in the pool-ideally at home or hotel without the salt water or waves :)

[KatPem]

I LOVED the sentinals! They are so beautiful!

The hubby and I in one.

A view through one of the holes in a sentinel.

My oldest asked me to take this one cause she said the background has everything in it, history, city, beach, beauty!

[KatPem]

more from Fort san cristobal

 

 

Hallways underneath

the Dungeon!

[KatPem]

from the top of San Cristobal is a great opportunity to get a picture with your ship in the background.

 

My kids were intrigued with the flags, wondering what the third one represented...we would find out later.

 

Me and the baby

Iguana we saw out front of the Fort. YOu can see from the second picture how close it was to us. My youngest was the only one brave enough to stand with his back to it lol

[KatPem]

My family likes to geocache, a lot of caches are in cemeteries....so we had to explore the beautiful cemetery by the sea. We were able to find a geocache on the way to El Morro near the plaza (Plaza del V centenario (El Totem)

GC2CZMG) By the way, be warned, there are a lot of birds near the plaza, so if you sit at a bench and tease said birds, do so at your own risk! I will not post the picture of my husband cleaning up the 'mess' on his pants that one bird left ;) I will be sure to scrapbook it though! lol

beautiful cross in cemetery.

The wall towards the sea had an opening in it and when you looked out, this is what you saw

and around the corner to the left, this.

[KatPem]

El Morro and the cemetery as seen from San Cristobal

entrance to El Morro

Since we had paid the $5 at the last fort, we simply showed our receipts to enter this one. Inside we found the answer to the kid's question of the flags, my oldest had guessed correctly and did a victory dance. (The burgundy cross flag belonged to the Spanish Army and flew here for many years)

[KatPem]

Another Iguana down below

the lighthouse...it was closed and we could not get in it but it was working when we sailed away that night!

Another iguana, this time on a ledge just a few feet away

[KatPem]

If you go to the forts, please be prepared as they are enormous and require lots of walking. They are mainly wheel-chair friendly though if you have someone strong enough to push them and there is at least one elevator. There are lots of ramps, many that are on the steeper side so you definitely get a good workout climbing them! I bet we walked a few miles total that day. From el Morro we were going to pick up the free trolley cause they kids were getting tired of walking. It was full so we headed towards the ship anyway. It is mainly downhill so it is a nice walk. It is probably a mile when all is said and done but you really don't notice it.

 

Across from the entrance to the road back to el Morro, a man had a shaved ice cart so we got some for us and the kids. He manually shaved the ice off a huge block, very cool to see. They were $2 each and had tons of flavors...yum!

We were glad to walk back, we had told the kids how the streets look like alleys so they were able to see it for themselves.

[KatPem]

We found the local pigeon hangout but did not attempt to get any closer lol

Fruit delivery to a restaurant

to the water, there were lots of tables with things you could buy...very reasonably priced. The kids ended up getting a few small things, bracelets for $2-4, necklaces for $3-5.

 

We ended up back on the boat a little after 5:30 and headed up to dinner. We did stop at the Cold Stone Creamery across from the terminal for dessert before our dinner ;) It is a favorite of ours!

[rockbock]

Thank you so much for taking this photograph of my husband and me (well, half of me!)!!!

 

 

 

We had a great time on this cruise and I plan to write a thorough review, but I haven't found the time yet. Enjoying reading your review. :)

[KatPem]

So, that is it as far as what we did at the ports, now I will cover what we did on the ship. I will say, we didn't do very much considering all that was offered.

 

 

On Saturday, my husband wanted to go to the free spa raffle drawing at 5. I went with him but left after about 10 minutes to meet the kids in the Venetian lounge for the youth programs orientation and since I am not lucky at that kind of stuff. I had pre-registered the kids online before we left and printed the forms out and brought them with me. Since I had researched the heck out of this vacation, this was pretty much a waste of time for us. That being said, if you have concerns, young children, or don't know what to expect, you should definitely attend this! This lasted til just before 6 so we ran back to the room and then headed to dinner for the early seating.

 

 

Here comes my husband waving around his $75 spa credit he ended up winning at the raffle. He told me I should use it. On the bottom I noticed that it said a couple of things including A) it must be used on a signature service (which I found out later started out at $149), B) must be used WHILE we are in port and C) must be booked by 10PM THAT NIGHT!! I ran up there after dinner and went ahead and booked a hot stone massage for the next day at 1:45, the latest I could use it since we were in port til 2. That night after dinner, we just spent most of our time exploring the ship.

 

 

We did decorate our door. I did not see hardly any doors with decorations. I have a cricut that will cut things out and vinyl that will not leave any residue. I forgot to take a picture but on our door I cut out the state of indiana in white and cut out a star where we live and then cut out a red IU symbol and Go Hoosiers since IU was still in the tourney when we left home. For the kids, I cut out First Family Cruise in Turquoise and a Cross with grass along the bottom border and happy easter on the sides. Some we were with thought it was a dumb idea...ahem...in-laws...but I figure if I can take a couple of minutes and we don't have to think about what our room number is, great. I mean, my youngest is only nine...it would be real easy for any of us and it isn't like you can just look at your sign and sail card.

 

 

We went to bed early for us since we had an early morning the next day.

 

 

 

On Sunday we were set to meet for the excursion at 8:30 near the gangway. We found out that the breakfast buffet doesn't start til 7 so we decided to meet at 7 to eat instead of trying to get off then. It would be nice if they would open it at 6 on days when you dock that early. I know we could've gotten room service or the continental breakfast but we like to eat breakfast foods (usually for dinner but still lol)

 

 

We got in line to get back on the boat about 1:15. It was 1:35 by the time I got on board. A lot of people really hold up the line when going on board. I saw so many people stop on the gangway waving at or looking for people. It would be nice if they wouldn't do that, it would help the line move so much faster! I was able to make it just in the nick of time for my massage. I had forgotten the certificate in the room but I had it when I booked so she just told me to bring it back up later.The hot stone massage felt really good, being only my second massage ever, I don't have much to compare it to. Lol It did say it was non-transferable but they didn't give me any problems using it and we were even booked in different rooms.

 

 

Afterwards, I went out to look for my family. We went to dinner in the MDR. That night was a show “Edge presents the Evolution”. Im not one that is much into shows but my husband really wanted to go. The older two were going with their clubs and the younger two didn't want to go since we had no clue what it was about. My husband told them they could go and in 10 minutes if they didn't like it, they could leave. Edge is an AMAZING comedic juggler!! There was a teen in the audience that juggled and they had a 'competition'. They were both simply amazing! Ten minutes in, my husband asked them if they were ready to go...NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is good! Was the answer he got. We loved that show, he is a talented, talented man! I highly suggest to watch him if you get a chance!

 

 

Afterwards, we got the younger two settled in the room and we went to the adult comedy show with my father-in-law, sisters-in-law and my husband's 82 year old grandma. I wasn't sure what she would think during the show. A lot of it was sexual, some a bit vulgar. The first guy at 11 was Jason Blanchard....he was HILARIOUS and our favorite of the week! Even grandma liked him! The second guy was Marvin Todd and he was good but not great. I think it didn't help him having to follow Jason.

[KatPem]

On Monday we decided we were sleeping in! We gave the kids instructions and ended up sleeping til noon! We didn't do much that day, I believe it was raining. We are sooo busy all the time with all four of our kids in year round sports that I wanted to just relax.

 

 

That was our first formal night. I LOVE formal nights! We don't get the opportunity to dress up much here. I saw a few men in tuxedos...boy do they look handsome! We decided to get a few formal pictures done. I was excited to get ones of all of us dressed up! Here are some we got

 

As for the pictures. For an extra $10 you can get the digital image to make as many copies as you want. Well, if you buy 10 pictures you can get all 10 for $10. Since there were so many of us, we put ours together to get the 10 so we now can make as many copies of them as we want.

 

 

 

After dinner, my husband wanted to go see another show, this time "Wonderful World". While they were talented, it just wasn't our cup of tea. they had some technical difficulties so we took that time to head out. We took the kids to the hot tub. the only hot tub that was consistently warm was the one nearest the water slide. Unfortunately, many of the nights it closed at 9. We decided we had better get to bed since we were going to be in St Thomas in the morning.

 

We met my in-laws for breakfast the morning of St Thomas, we made sure we were ready to go and on deck 1 at 10:45 so we could be close to first getting off since we were going to be pushing it to get all of what we wanted to do done.

 

We got back on the ship about 5:30, just in time to shower and change for dinner at 6. We chose the early dinner since all 11 of us wanted to sit together and figured my husband's mom (in her 60s) and grandma (82) would rather eat earlier. That worked out great but we sadly missed every sunset! Next time I will choose the late dinner if we have this many of us.

 

It was a long, tiring, physical day so after dinner we pretty much took the little two to the hottub (they swam in the pool) and then went to bed since we had another long day the next day.

[KatPem]

The next day was San Juan. Since the buffet didn't open until 7, we decided to meet there about 8 since we had until 10 pm and the forts didn't open until 9.

 

We got back again just in time to shower and head to dinner in the MDR. We talked about going to some actitivities but ended up in the hot tub again as we were sore! we have Verizon and were told by others that you could use it on San juan just like you were at home. My sister-in-law had called. My husband had to hear it firsthand though so he tried to call but didn't have the number so he tried and tried but couldn't get through. So, after dinner I asked if he had tried 1-800-Verizon. Low and behold, he found out that indeed we could. We ran and gave the girls their phones and told them as soon as we sail away, they go off. the oldest wanted to talk to her boyfriend...you know how that goes... Iafter the hot tub, I then went and got my cell phone out of the safe and went to the secret deck on 6 and called my parents to check on our dogs and my best friend. I watched sailaway from there, loved going past El Morro all lit up! Unfortunately I didn't think to grab my good camera so I didn't get any decent pics. I went back to the room to read after that while my husband hung out playing Black Jack in the casino :)

[KatPem]

Thursday was supposed to be Grand Turk but was instead a sea day. We decided to sleep in again....my body was worn out from all the hiking/walking the past two days! I got up about 11 and laid in bed for a while. Finally decided to take my ipad to the serenity deck to read for a bit. It was almost 1 by this time. There were a few chairs open. I LOVE those chairs and the hammock, sooooo comfortable! Definitely my favorite place. I started to read...it was pretty hot that day and soon my ipad shut off cause it overheated. I lasted about another 15 minutes and then decided to go in. Just a few notes about Serenity. in the evenings it is almost empty but it is still a great place to hang out, relax! the hot tubs were a huge disappointment on this deck! You would think since no kids are allowed one would be hot but every time we checked BOTH were lukewarm at best. At least have one of the two hot! I went back to the room to finish my book. My husband caught some of the Love and Marriage Show. I was tired so I didn't feel like going. I had overdone it the last two days and my lower back was hurting so I wanted to just lay around.

 

After dinner we decided to meet up for the adult comedy show. They had two new comedians. Cowboy Bill was first and he was pretty funny, we all agreed that we like the guy from the other night better though. Cowboy Bill picked on my mother in law though so THAT was priceless! We were sitting up front at her request lol We stayed for the next show by Smily Joe Wiley. He was funny, just not as funny as Cowboy Bill, we thought it would've been better if they were reversed, just like the other night.

 

Friday was our last day and another sea day. it was rainy so a lot of activities were moved around indoors. We did a family digital scavenger hunt: my husband, myself and our 9 year old. Our daughter was supposed to meet us but decided she didn't want to do it. We ended up getting second place and our son got a medal which he thought was cool. Some pics:

Hanging Ten:

ONe member with Ice Cream all over their face

Holding up a "party in camp carnival" banner

Macarena in the Atrium....we finally ran into our daughter and her friend.

Conga Line on Lido deck

Smiley face on foreheads

[2 cruzen]

Thank you for the detailed report on San Juan....really looking forward to this port next year.

[KatPem]

son holding the scavenger hunt sheet with his medal

 

It was a lot of fun, one of the things was to look at employee name badges and take a picture...see how many different countries you can find. You had 40 minutes to do all of this. We found 20. We had a blast, I would encourage you to do this with your kids!

 

Friday night we decided we were taking the kids to the family friendly comedy. We had tried last night and it was a full house when we got done with dinner. This time, those that don't eat dessert went down and got us a table. We ended up right up front. The boys got picked on a little bit, they thought it was cool This time, we enjoyed Smiley Joe Wiley better than Cowboy Bill. The kids thought it was ok, some of them were over their head and my oldest couldn't believe a couple of the non-PC jokes....she was like, did he really just say that?? lol All in all, we had fun. We left to go start packing the rest of our stuff up :(

[KatPem]

Oops....Thursday was also our second formal night. I would encourage you to strike a pose in the dining room. So many of those pictures of ours turned out great....it was more natural looking since it wasn't really posed. We got a group shot the last night and it ended up being my favorite of them all! I wish we had done that earlier in the week. I have erased faces for those family members who don't like their picture to be put online.

[jabberman_76366]

Great review!

[KatPem]

well....we had a tornado warning and I had to wake the kids up to take shelter....all is ok and it has passed now but I lost everything I had typed so I will try to finish tomorrow.

[KatPem]

LOVE the passport idea!!! We are booked on the Dream next January - first cruise for the kids and we are going to surprise them at Christmas. I have been trying to come up with a good idea of how to tell them - I'm totally going to steal this!!

 

feel free!!! We had visited their aunt last spring break in Arizona and they complained about their luggage the entire time (two wheels, kept falling over, etc) so we knew that we were going to get that for them.

[KatPem]

Enjoying your review so far! The passport idea is great and I love that your kids didn't believe they were actually going on the cruise with you ;) Looking forward to the rest!

 

 

 

Thanks! I know, we have it on video and it is Hilarious!! My oldest actually threw the 'passport' cause she thought we were messing with them and telling them that me and my husband were going and trying to rub it in. We had to tell them about 4 times that they are going too before it finally sunk in...on a side note, they all said they would give up other presents every Christmas if we could go each year lol This was our first non-tent-camping, non-visiting family vacation we have taken. Our kids are 5 1/2 years apart, my husband was laid off for 5 1/2 years when the youngest was 6 months so we haven't been in a place where we could do something like this until now. So, it was a real treat for all of us!