Fast & Dirty Review of Carnival Liberty 4/6/13

[ThisFemmeKat]

Great review! It may not be long, but you hit all the high points! It's so nice to read a positive review. :)

 

We are doing this same ship/itinerary next March. i was happy to hear that you liked the beach area at Mahogany Bay. Do they charge you separately for each way on the sky lift thing, or is it round trip? Do you know how far of a walk it is to the beach if you choose not to do the sky lift?

 

There is a charge for the lift if you do not have a cabana.. you get a bracelet for unlimited rides included in the price of the cabana.. I dont know what the charge is.. Im sorry.. Shouldnt be too bad.. and its worth the ride for the peaceful trip and view for pics.. Next time i will ride it back and forth just for the fun of it.. im a dork.. lol

[ThisFemmeKat]

Loved reading your quick review. I was glad you liked the staff. My cousins son is Pauly V.!!! You said D but he will be excited to know the staff was well spoke of. This was his first contract with a cruise ship and he is loving it. We will be on The Liberty in July with him. Can't wait.

 

 

Sorry about the typo.. but he was great.. we went to the adult comedy shos, which he hosts, and they were awesome.. and his "Addicted" Toast was great.. Ask him to do it on your trip.. lmao..

[beachbum53]

I totally agree with the "click" part.. And it was surprising to me since this isnt one of the new and improved ships.. She really impressed me.. and we will sooo be back..

 

Yes I did win some ships on a stick and some medals.. I actually started giving them away.. I only need one from each ship so I usually shared them with friends we made or the second place winners.. anyone really.. The only tip I can give is to play often.. the more you play the more chances you get.. lol one of them was win lose or draw and no one wanted to play except 3 kids and me.. so i teamed up with a girl and we beat the boys badly!! GIRLS RULE! lol

 

Did you have a favorite place on the ship where you seemed to spend most of your time, especially on sea days? As I already mentioned, our favorite place was the Adults only pool area. Never crowded, not noisy like the main pool area, and no chair hogs.

[ThisFemmeKat]

Thanks for the quick review! We are sailing the Liberty with this itinerary.

So, we have a couple of questions for you....

 

1) In Cozumel, we are thinking about taking a taxi to Paradise Beach. How far is the beach you went to? Is there a pool? Activities for kids?

 

2) In Belize (we've never been there), sounds like there isn't anything to do at the port? What is in the immediate area?

 

Thanks!!

:D

 

 

For Cozumel, if you have kids.. little ones.. I would not recommend Playa de Uvas. But I would say Paradise Beach is a good way to go.. Uvas has a rock line before the sand in the water and little ones could get hurt easily. Paradise Beach has way more for kids to do and there will be other kids to play with as well..

 

In Belize, I didnt see anything in port to do.. Also Belize City is not the safest place to just walk around. I would not recommend leaving the port without a well reviewed tour. The one I linked about was great and took all day and a good value at 50 each with lunch & transport.. There is a 35-40 stroll through shaded jungle. you know your kids.. Not sure what the age requirements are but they are cavetubing.BZ and fantastic.. check out my review link above.. I will do this trip again.. best excursion I have ever booked. and they never had a guest miss a ship ever!

[ThisFemmeKat]

I thought of one more question!

Looks like Mohogany Bay, Roatan appears to be a "private beach day". Does Carnival provide lunch there? If not, are there places to have lunch? :) Thanks again!

 

They did not serve lunch in Roatan, like they do in HMC. We were only there for half day so we waited and ate on the ship.. there are restaurants and things in the port to purchase at.. sorry I dont have more info than that about food there.. we just grabbed some froot loops boxes for snack and waited to get back onboard for lunch.. GUYS BURGERS!

[ThisFemmeKat]

Question about the cabanas. Do they include sodas and snacks like on HMC?

 

Thanks

 

No the cabanas did not include any food or drink.. they did promptly bring us menus.. the prices were kinda high.. more reason why we waited til we got back onboard.. but again.. it was an early port day.. we left about 1:30 to head back to the ship.

[crewsweeper]

In Belize, I didnt see anything in port to do.. Also Belize City is not the safest place to just walk around. I would not recommend leaving the port without a well reviewed tour. The one I linked about was great and took all day and a good value at 50 each with lunch & transport.. There is a 35-40 stroll through shaded jungle. you know your kids.. Not sure what the age requirements are but they are cavetubing.BZ and fantastic.. check out my review link above.. I will do this trip again.. best excursion I have ever booked. and they never had a guest miss a ship ever!

 

Thanks for your quick review. But I get an invalid thread error message when I click on your link to the cavetubing review. I'll go to the Belize board and see if I can find it. DW and SIL are booked on this in two weeks. DW and I cave tubed in the past but SIL never has. So much fun. I will respectfully disagree with your assessment of walking around Belize City being UNSAFE. I do this every time I'm in Belize. Never had an issue. There are some fairly aggressive hawkers for tours jus toutside the gates, but that's to be expected and they are only trying to make a living, not rob you. After a block north, they aren't around anymore. There are parts of B.C. that are very poor and I wouldn't go into after dark but they aren't easy walking distance from port, just you have to drive through a couple of them to get out to the Western Highway. Again, though, they aren't carjackers. Mostly though these are simply poor people trying to make a go of it.

[BigLar1]

Ahhhhhhhhhh! I'm so excited! I will be on the Liberty in 3 days going to those same ports!!!!! I'm running through the house screaming in excitement!!!! Woohoo!!!

[soccersharon]

We love the Liberty as well - and totally agree about something clicking with us! We've been on the Liberty 3 times, and each time is better than the last. We were lucky to have Karl with a K as our CD twice. He's fantastic - as is the rest of the crew.

 

Here's what we did on the Western itin:

 

Cozumel - Mr. Sanchos - great for families and adults. Liberty was the only ship in port that day, so Mr. Sanchos was quiet and relaxing. We hung out with some fellow roll call members, ate and drank. Perfect day!

 

Belize: We took the Altun Ha / Belize City tour through the ship. So glad we did this. Our tour guide was awesome.

 

Roatan: We book a private tour through Victor Bodden. Toured the island, went to Victor's place to see the monkeys, and went to West Bay beach. Great day!

 

Grand Cayman: booked Stingray City through the ship. If you've never done this, it's a must!

[ThisFemmeKat]

We are going on the Liberty in June and booking our excursions seperate also. Can you tell me if you changed your clocks to local time or did they stay on Miami time? Want to make sure I set up the right time to meet our tour guides. Sounds like a fun cruise. We can't wait and glad to hear you had such a great time! Oh, one more question, did you do anytime dining or a set time?

 

 

OMG This is IMPORTANT!!

 

Set your watch to SHIP TIME ONLY!! but some excursions are on island time.. make sure you ask when you book.. We almost missed the last tender in Grandcayman because I booked a tour too late because of island time.. YIKES!! Never again will I make that mistake..

 

I have always booked on my own and never had this problem before.. but now I will be even more cautious.. best thing to do is always book early and pick tours in the beginning of your day.. then you have lots of "screw up and delay" time..

 

For dinner I had set time at 6pm. worked great for us.. and we love making new friends with our tablemates.. IMO its a cruise staple.. and I am still in contact and friends with many tablemates from the past several years.. I did hear from other guests that anytime dining ran smoothly for them.. The Liberty really has their stuff together and organized..

[Jeafl]

Thanks for the quick review! We are sailing the Liberty with this itinerary.

So, we have a couple of questions for you....

 

1) In Cozumel, we are thinking about taking a taxi to Paradise Beach. How far is the beach you went to? Is there a pool? Activities for kids?

 

2) In Belize (we've never been there), sounds like there isn't anything to do at the port? What is in the immediate area?

 

Thanks!!

:D

 

There is a charge for the lift if you do not have a cabana.. you get a bracelet for unlimited rides included in the price of the cabana.. I dont know what the charge is.. Im sorry.. Shouldnt be too bad.. and its worth the ride for the peaceful trip and view for pics.. Next time i will ride it back and forth just for the fun of it.. im a dork.. lol

Thanks for the info! I had one other question. If you don't get a cabana at Mahogany Bay, is there any shade elsewhere? My parents will be with us and they don't like to sit in the sun too long, and I can't see them spending enpugh time there to make a cabana worthwhile.

[ThisFemmeKat]

How was debarkation? Any delays getting off the ship?

 

 

WOW I forgot a lot of stuff! lol

 

Debarkation went well.. there was a slight delay in the middle because there was a problem with a gangway.. but 15 minutes later it was fixed and debarkation resumed. I always take my time debarking.. we had priority debarkation at 7:15 but chose to go to breakfast in the MDR and then headed out of the ship at 9 ish..

 

The customs line was long and SLOW.. According to the long shoreman in the port, they were recently forced to cut back on Customs agents.. (sequestration) and anytime a vessel is in Belize the line takes longer! So if you are on this itin.. keep that in mind. But it wasnt horrible.. the carnival portion of debarkation went smoothly and quickly..

[ThisFemmeKat]

Going on her soon and would like to see the fun times.

 

 

Im sorry, I did not keep the Fun Times.. they change a lot depending on the CD and other changes.. I didnt think to keep them.. sorry..

 

I will try to remember them in the future.

[ThisFemmeKat]

Did you have a favorite place on the ship where you seemed to spend most of your time, especially on sea days? As I already mentioned, our favorite place was the Adults only pool area. Never crowded, not noisy like the main pool area, and no chair hogs.

 

 

i am almost always busy running from game to game.. lots a trivia and stuff.. but when there is nothing.. I found myself.. for the first time on any ship... choosing to sit in the Atrium on Deck 3.. I did my manicures there.. as I mentioned before, the decor on the ship made it feel so open and bright.. I loved sitting in there and relaxing or listening to the acoustic musician.. he was great.. I have never cared much for the atrium.. its weird.. loved it on this ship.. I avoided the open decks a bit.. got enough sun on the 4 port days and couldnt take anymore without burning..

The atrium was a nice alternative with the Skylight.. still got sunlight in the room without the UV..

[rtw68]

Thanks for your review!

 

We are going on the Eastern itinerary on 4/27 and I'm glad to see that things aboard the ship went good!

 

Can't wait to go!! :D

[beachbum53]

Thanks for the info! I had one other question. If you don't get a cabana at Mahogany Bay, is there any shade elsewhere? My parents will be with us and they don't like to sit in the sun too long, and I can't see them spending enpugh time there to make a cabana worthwhile.

 

There is a shady area under the trees near the cabanas, with plenty of lounge chairs, and you can also rent a clamshell for the day. A clamshell covers two lounge chairs. The nice thing about the clamshell is, you can raise it up when you want shade, and lower it down when you want full sun. I don't remember the exact cost to rent one, but I think it was approx. $25.00.

[ThisFemmeKat]

It looks like my Review on the Cavetubing excursion was deleted.. no idea why?? but I will post it here..

 

Vitalino's Cave Tube tour was spectacular! My wife's has decided it is her favorite excursion ever over 8 cruises. We met Vitalino, himself, at the port terminal and he sent us off with Jenny & Jonathan. I should say that, after hearing that belize city was a dangerous place, we felt 100% safe and cared for the entire time on this excursion. My wife and I were joined with a few other cruisers and there was a total of 10 in our group (just the right size). we had a 1 hour ride in a van to the actual jungle trail. Jenny was great and gave us a ton of info about Belize along the way and Jonathan handled the talking and teaching on the jungle and Tubing part.. Once there, we got all our gear (helmet, tube etc.). Then off on our 35-40 minute walk to the caves. (Warning.. the entire path is completely river rock.. so wear good shoes..) old sneakers are better than water shows IMO. The whole walk is in the shade so its not too hot. (this was in April 2013) They were great about slowing the pace if needed for all the people in the group. Once you get to the river... well.. PERFECTION! I dont want to ruin it for you.. just know its very safe, and slow, and relaxing.. and super cool! There were 3 sections of the tubing part. (caves 1, Caves 2, and then 15 - 20 minutes of open river) Then, after you worked up a good appetite, they take you to their palapa for the most amazing lunch ever!! everyone in the group had seconds... and a couple refills on the Rum Punch. :) Finally we drove back to port right on time. This was the best excursion value I have ever had. The cave tubing excursions directly through the cruise line cost a lot more and they only did 1/3 of the river portion (caves 2 thats it.. ) Vitalino's Excursion was 5 1/2 hours of awesome plus lunch.. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!! I will definitely be back. Jenny and Jonathan were SPECTACULAR!

[ThisFemmeKat]

Thanks for your quick review. But I get an invalid thread error message when I click on your link to the cavetubing review. I'll go to the Belize board and see if I can find it. DW and SIL are booked on this in two weeks. DW and I cave tubed in the past but SIL never has. So much fun. I will respectfully disagree with your assessment of walking around Belize City being UNSAFE. I do this every time I'm in Belize. Never had an issue. There are some fairly aggressive hawkers for tours jus toutside the gates, but that's to be expected and they are only trying to make a living, not rob you. After a block north, they aren't around anymore. There are parts of B.C. that are very poor and I wouldn't go into after dark but they aren't easy walking distance from port, just you have to drive through a couple of them to get out to the Western Highway. Again, though, they aren't carjackers. Mostly though these are simply poor people trying to make a go of it.

 

Thanks for the alternate view on BC.. Its good to have all the info from all sides.. I appreciate you adding to my thread..

 

Were there any places near the port that you would recommend someone to visit or do? for those who rather not book excursions..

[ThisFemmeKat]

Thanks for the info! I had one other question. If you don't get a cabana at Mahogany Bay, is there any shade elsewhere? My parents will be with us and they don't like to sit in the sun too long, and I can't see them spending enpugh time there to make a cabana worthwhile.

 

 

There are some palms on the beach that provide shade. I would recommend getting to the beach quickly to snag a spot though.. as Im sure they are the first to go.. You can check though, but there may be a way to rent an umbrella or something.. I cant remember if i saw any but some research on the port board might get you info on it.

[inlinesick]

Was the cavetubing a little demanding or its was really slow?

Because my GF and me are really active, this excursion sound good but it might be too relaxing for us!

[ThisFemmeKat]

Was the cavetubing a little demanding or its was really slow?

Because my GF and me are really active, this excursion sound good but it might be too relaxing for us!

 

the walk is as slow as the slowest person in your group.. they tailor it to accomodate that group..

 

the hike it self is fairly level but all river rock.. so its work on the ankles.. especially if your a clutz like me.. lol but its very peaceful and relaxing in the river.. but if you like more adventure... do the combination zip-line cavetubing package they offer.. i dont know the details but thats bound to be more demanding.. i would think.

[inlinesick]

the walk is as slow as the slowest person in your group.. they tailor it to accomodate that group..

 

the hike it self is fairly level but all river rock.. so its work on the ankles.. especially if your a clutz like me.. lol but its very peaceful and relaxing in the river.. but if you like more adventure... do the combination zip-line cavetubing package they offer.. i dont know the details but thats bound to be more demanding.. i would think.

 

thanks!!

 

Love your reviews! Care to post pics?

We are thrills to see this ship, since our favorite ship is the valor so far. Liberty sound like a awesome ship!:D

[ThisFemmeKat]

thanks!!

 

Love your reviews! Care to post pics?

We are thrills to see this ship, since our favorite ship is the valor so far. Liberty sound like a awesome ship!:D

 

Thanks.. I think i am going to start puttin my review links in my signature next to the cruise. I only just started doing them in December. I figured people wouldnt be into them because i just write short ones.. but people seem to love this one.

 

I dont have any pics of the ship internally.. Just pics of the ports.. They are on my face "book" page.. search by my e mail below. my albums are all public.. so you should be able to see it easily. let me know if that doesnt work.

[cruises42]

WOW I forgot a lot of stuff! lol

 

Debarkation went well.. there was a slight delay in the middle because there was a problem with a gangway.. but 15 minutes later it was fixed and debarkation resumed. I always take my time debarking.. we had priority debarkation at 7:15 but chose to go to breakfast in the MDR and then headed out of the ship at 9 ish..

 

The customs line was long and SLOW.. According to the long shoreman in the port, they were recently forced to cut back on Customs agents.. (sequestration) and anytime a vessel is in Belize the line takes longer! So if you are on this itin.. keep that in mind. But it wasnt horrible.. the carnival portion of debarkation went smoothly and quickly..

 

Thanks!

[wordsneeded]

FYI - The chairlift in Mahogany Bay is 12$ for adults and 7$ for kids (roundtrip). We had a cabana too, but I remember looking at the prices.