REVIEW: Carnival Liberty - Western Caribbean - 4/5/14 thru 4/12/14

[pghsteelerfan]

What a wonderfully detailed review - your pics are amazing! I sail on the Liberty this coming Saturday and now I am more excited than ever!!!! Thank you!!

 

Thank you! I'm glad your enjoying it and getting excited for your cruise...tomorrow! :) I wish I was going again. I hope you have a wonderful time and great weather for your cruise.

[pghsteelerfan]

We loved the Valor cruise and hope to do it again some time. We ended up flying to San Juan out of Ohio rather than Michigan and had to drive 4 hours but the difference is price for the our flight was $400 per person (x 4 people). I think if we could find an inexpensive flight from Michigan, we'd do that itinerary again.

 

We loved Paradise Beach and will probably go back there if we ever end up back in Cozumel again. You pay as you go. It was $3 pp to get in which included a lounge chair, umbrella, use of the pool, bathrooms etc .... They ask that you buy food or drink worth $10 pp, but no one is keeping track of that. We bought bands for the boys to use the water toys (they were $15 pp).

 

The food and drink were good and the prices were very reasonable.

 

As for the cruise, we had a wonderful time. Trying to decide what to do next year!

 

We were actually considering Valor again this year too, but DH really wanted to do a Western again and the airfare to San Juan was more than we wanted to spend this year. I think I'd do the four hour drive to save that much in airfare too. Last year, and again this year, airfare to San Juan from Dulles is just over $400 per person. We looked into the Legend out of Tampa, but the airfare was over $600 per person ($1200 round trip - more than the cruise). I would love to do that itinerary again as well, it's definitely my favorite.

 

Thank you for the information on Paradise Beach, that really sounds like a really good deal.

 

Glad you had a wonderful time, we did too. We really loved Liberty, but I'm partial to all the ships we've been on. I don't think we'll be cruising next year, but I didn't think we'd be cruising this year either. We'll have to see what family and friends are doing then go from there.

[CruzinTamela]

Thanks so much! I'm optimistic! :D

[pghsteelerfan]

Great review. I am on the liberty next month going to Grand Turk, St. Thomas, Tortola, and St Maarten. Can't wait.

 

Thank you! I love that itinerary!!!! We've been to all but Tortola (loved them all) and Tortola is one that I'd love to get to. I hope you have a wonderful time on your cruise. :)

[wrigley80]

I am all caught up now. After seeing your review I am definitely going to cruise on the Liberty. I loved the décor of that ship. Thanks Again for doing this review. I know how much work they are and yours is no exception. LOVE IT!!!!!! :)

[travel33]

The rum punches...you and me both!!! LOL!!!

 

On Valor we sailed out of San Juan and went to St. Thomas; Sea Day; Barbados; St. Lucia; St. Kitts; St. Maarten/St. Martin; back to San Juan. The prices for the cabins on this itinerary were a lot lower than the other itineraries, but airfare to and from San Juan is a little pricey. If you ever get a chance to do that itinerary, I say "go for it". The scenery and beauty of all of these islands is the best I've seen. With the exception of Barbados, all the others are very mountainous. Some people on our cruise said that St. Lucia reminded them a lot of Hawaii. I've never been to Hawaii, so I can't say for certain. Just very scenic.

 

So glad you have a cruise buddy in your son. My family never cruised so my first cruise was our honeymoon. My family used to spend a week every June in Nags Head, NC, and we've been there with friends here several times now. I just love it there! I'd love to try Atlantic Beach/Emerald Isle area someday.

 

I wish we lived a little closer to FL...close enough to do the complete drive in a day and get a hotel close to the cruise terminal the night before the cruise. We could drive to Baltimore, but that would have to be a summer cruise. We've looked into that and the prices are a lot higher. I think a perk with driving would be not having to worry about how heavy my suitcase is.

My family never cruised either, they always took us camping. It was great fun for us kids, but I'm sure not as much fun for my mom. My 1st cruise was on the Carnival Holiday for DH and I's 1st year anniversary 21 years ago!! We had moved from Montreal to Florida at the time.

I am very lucky not to have to worry about how much the luggage weighs, that's just a real pain to me :( The itinerary you went on out of San Juan sounds fantastic! Will have to keep that one in mind :)

My kids 1st cruise was out of Baltimore almost 5 years ago, and we went at the beginning of November. Except for a hurricane nearby and almost getting flown about the ship, we had a great time :D The kids never felt bad at all, but I turned green for a few hours..lol..It was on our way back, so we never missed any ports or anything like that.

I have decided since jam man does such awesome reviews, to let him do one when he gets back from the Liberty :D

[Jamman54]

I have decided since jamman does such awesome reviews, to let him do one when he gets back from the Liberty :D

 

I'm looking forward to doing it!!! :)

[travel33]

I'm looking forward to doing it!!! :)

 

Thanks Jamman! You have a much better camera than mine, and already have experience doing one....thanks...:p

[pghsteelerfan]

I am all caught up now. After seeing your review I am definitely going to cruise on the Liberty. I loved the décor of that ship. Thanks Again for doing this review. I know how much work they are and yours is no exception. LOVE IT!!!!!! :)

 

We LOVE the décor of Liberty and were awed by the Garden Atrium the minute we walked in. I actually love all the ships that we've been on but Liberty definitely ranks #1 in décor.

 

I'm really enjoying doing it...when I can find time to work on it. :) Doing a review is sure is a nice way to relive a nice vacation. I do have our day in Belize almost finished up and ready to be posted and the pictures have been uploaded (a lot) so I'm hoping to get some posted this afternoon/evening. Thank you again. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

My family never cruised either, they always took us camping. It was great fun for us kids, but I'm sure not as much fun for my mom. My 1st cruise was on the Carnival Holiday for DH and I's 1st year anniversary 21 years ago!! We had moved from Montreal to Florida at the time.

I am very lucky not to have to worry about how much the luggage weighs, that's just a real pain to me :( The itinerary you went on out of San Juan sounds fantastic! Will have to keep that one in mind :)

My kids 1st cruise was out of Baltimore almost 5 years ago, and we went at the beginning of November. Except for a hurricane nearby and almost getting flown about the ship, we had a great time :D The kids never felt bad at all, but I turned green for a few hours..lol..It was on our way back, so we never missed any ports or anything like that.

I have decided since jam man does such awesome reviews, to let him do one when he gets back from the Liberty :D

 

We camped once, with another family, a long time ago and my parents said "never again". Like you said, it was fun for us kids but not the adults. It wasn't a nice campground, kind of tacky and campsites were almost on top of each other, so no privacy.

 

The luggage weight, the one thing I don't like about cruising. We're going to some places we may never get to visit again and we would like to bring things back, so it's a pain always having to think "how am I going to get this back". We've considered bringing bottles of alcohol back but don't due to luggage weight. United charges $25.00 per checked bag and are now enforcing the size of carry-ons. An overweight check-in bag (over 50 lbs) was $100.00 last year. Heck, it would be cheaper to take two check-in and pay $50.00 instead.

 

I don't think I'd have been able to handle the cruise you were on out of Baltimore. I'd have been sick for sure. Was that on Carnival Pride? I'd love to do that one, but during the summer when it's warm. This time of year we get a lot of fog, low clouds and drizzle coming off the Atlantic/Chesapeake Bay (and we're inland) and I'd be freezing on a ship. Yes, the cruise we went on last year out of San Juan was fantastic. I would not hesitate to recommend that one. :)

 

You mentioned your first year anniversary cruise 21 years ago, were you married in 1992? That's the year DH and I were married. Our honeymoon was our first cruise.

[CruzinTamela]

At the airport waiting for the shuttle to take us to her. SO excited!!!

[pghsteelerfan]

At the airport waiting for the shuttle to take us to her. SO excited!!!

 

I hope you have a wonderful time and check back and let me know how your cruise went! :)

[travel33]

We camped once, with another family, a long time ago and my parents said "never again". Like you said, it was fun for us kids but not the adults. It wasn't a nice campground, kind of tacky and campsites were almost on top of each other, so no privacy.

 

The luggage weight, the one thing I don't like about cruising. We're going to some places we may never get to visit again and we would like to bring things back, so it's a pain always having to think "how am I going to get this back". We've considered bringing bottles of alcohol back but don't due to luggage weight. United charges $25.00 per checked bag and are now enforcing the size of carry-ons. An overweight check-in bag (over 50 lbs) was $100.00 last year. Heck, it would be cheaper to take two check-in and pay $50.00 instead.

 

I don't think I'd have been able to handle the cruise you were on out of Baltimore. I'd have been sick for sure. Was that on Carnival Pride? I'd love to do that one, but during the summer when it's warm. This time of year we get a lot of fog, low clouds and drizzle coming off the Atlantic/Chesapeake Bay (and we're inland) and I'd be freezing on a ship. Yes, the cruise we went on last year out of San Juan was fantastic. I would not hesitate to recommend that one. :)

 

You mentioned your first year anniversary cruise 21 years ago, were you married in 1992? That's the year DH and I were married. Our honeymoon was our first cruise.

We ended up seeing a lot of Canada camping, and I'm very grateful DH and I have the means to do some cruising with our boy's. The cruise out of Baltimore was the Pride. We were lucky that it was beautiful weather when we sailed away, and we were in tshirts :)

I just wish they would change the ship going out of there, as the Pride has been there at least 5 years now, and would be nice since it's so close to home to have another ship to choose from.

We were married in 1992, just like you :D We got married Labor Day weekend, and went to Club Med on Paradise Island in the Bahamas for our honeymoon. It' s no longer there because of Atlantis :( After cruising for our 1 year anniversary we didn't return to cruising until about 5years ago, and now I'm addicted! We did all inclusives for the past 2years, but with the poor entertainment last year, knew I needed to be back on a cruise ship.... What time of year were you married?

[Jimmy Geegitz]

This is probably one of the best reviews I have ever seen.

[pghsteelerfan]

We ended up seeing a lot of Canada camping, and I'm very grateful DH and I have the means to do some cruising with our boy's. The cruise out of Baltimore was the Pride. We were lucky that it was beautiful weather when we sailed away, and we were in tshirts :)

I just wish they would change the ship going out of there, as the Pride has been there at least 5 years now, and would be nice since it's so close to home to have another ship to choose from.

We were married in 1992, just like you :D We got married Labor Day weekend, and went to Club Med on Paradise Island in the Bahamas for our honeymoon. It' s no longer there because of Atlantis :( After cruising for our 1 year anniversary we didn't return to cruising until about 5years ago, and now I'm addicted! We did all inclusives for the past 2years, but with the poor entertainment last year, knew I needed to be back on a cruise ship.... What time of year were you married?

 

Camping would have been a great way to see Canada and I'll bet the scenery was just beautiful. The Pride HAS been in Baltimore for a long time and I heard they were going to move her but I guess that's changed. We haven't been on her yet, so they need to wait until we have our turn. LOL!!!

 

We were at an AI once and really liked it. It's not something we can do every year and when we do get a "break" from the normal family and/or friends' vacation, we prefer cruises. What I like about cruising is that we can see the different places and when we do an AI again, we'll have a better idea of what we're getting into. We were at the Sandals resort in Negril, Jamaica (Jamaica's west coast) in September 2007 and LOVED it. I'd love to go to the Club Med at Grace Bay in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos (the large island north of Grand Turk). From the pictures I've seen, it really looks beautiful there. We were at Atlantis for DH's mother's 70's birthday a few years ago. She loves casinos and that's where she wanted to go. We were there in September and although it's nice, to me it's a big tourist trap that is very expensive. At least we got a good deal on the room but the cost of food??? Unbelievable. I did like the grounds but was constantly asked by Atlantis personnel for my room key card to show that I was actually staying there. I know they do this and I've seen others comment on that here on CC, but it just gives the impression that you don't look like you "belong there". Did it once and that was enough. LOL!

 

We were married in June 1992 and left the next day for San Juan and our Festivale cruise. We lucked out with beautiful weather for our wedding and the whole cruise. The only rain we had was a brief shower on our last day before returning to San Juan, which was a sea day. It actually felt good, but was brief and the sun was back out, which was also nice.

[pghsteelerfan]

This is probably one of the best reviews I have ever seen.

 

Thank you, I really appreciate hearing that. In my first review I left a lot of details out, but I guess that can be considered my "practice round". :) I have read so many great reviews here and it's the details in those reviews that have been really helpful to us in planning a cruise. Even though we've cruised in the past, those details still help.

[pghsteelerfan]

Day 4 – Tuesday, April 8, 2014 (Belize City, Belize)

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Today's edition of the "Fun Times":

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

The alarm clock went off at 7:00AM and I got up right way and did what I always do on a cruise and went out to the balcony to see if I could see anything and also what the weather was like. It was still dark out, but I was expecting that seeing how it was 5:00AM, Belize time. Again, we stayed on “ship time” throughout the whole cruise, which was Eastern Daylight Time. I also knew that we wouldn’t actually be able to see the mainland of Belize since it’s a tender port and the mainland is pretty far from where the cruise ships anchor. I do remember passing several small islands that are off the coast of Belize from our last Western Caribbean cruise. Since there was not much to see, I took my good old sweet time getting ready. When I was finished, I made sure DH was awake and let him know I’d be going up to Panorama Deck 10 to see if I could get any sunrise pictures and then stop on Lido Deck 9 for coffee. Since the Tervis tumblers are good for hot or cold drinks, I decided to use my Red Frog tervis tumbler for coffee, so I took that in addition to my camera (I used "Old Reliable") and Sail & Sign card. I think it was on our Glory cruise in 2010, I did the same (going up to Panorama Deck 10 for pictures and stopping on Lido for coffee to bring back down to the cabin), but I forgot to take my Sail & Sign card. Good thing I was travelling with DH and that he was still in the cabin because I had to knock on the door for him to let me back in. He answered the door, laughing, and said “Did you forget something” as he was holding my Sail & Sign card. I was lucky he was already out of the shower. So, I always remember to take it with me on my little morning jaunts upstairs.

I took the stairs up to Panorama Deck 10 and saw that it was cloudy with fog but starting to get a little pink in the east. I also noticed a smell of smoke in the air and guessed that there was a fire somewhere close. Even though it was still pretty early, there were several other people up there enjoying coffee. Since it wasn’t quite sunrise time yet, I took a walk around Panorama Deck 10 and got pictures of the deck with the lights on the edges of the covered areas all lit up. The decks were damp and I could tell by the drops of water on the railings that it had rained sometime during the night and that it wasn’t just because the decks were hosed down.

A few pictures from Panorama Deck 10:

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

I walked toward the back of the ship and got more pictures of Liberty’s funnel with the lights still shining on it and then headed up to the sports deck and jogging track. I was surprised at how many others were up there walking and jogging.

Spa/Sports Deck 11 (Reflection of Liberty's funnel):

I went to the back because it was getting lighter and very pink in the east and I could see one of the small islands, if you can call it an island. It looked like a bunch of sticks poking out of the water. Maybe a cluster of mangroves. I couldn’t tell before that point if Liberty was still moving or not since the water was very calm. As we slowly passed that small “whatever it was” I was able to confirm that Liberty was still moving. I got pictures of the pink sky and the “whatever it was” and waited to see if the sun was rising but couldn’t see the sun. I noticed a glass cover over the Versailles aft pool, which was a first for me. I’m still kicking myself for not thinking to go down to see what the pool area looks like with the cover, but I hadn’t had my coffee yet so my brain was still pretty much on “sleep mode”.

View of a very pink sky, the roof over the aft pool and the "island of sticks":

[pghsteelerfan]

A few more early morning pics from the Sports Deck:

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

After getting pictures from the sports deck and jogging track area, I went back down to Deck 10 and walked down to the front end of the ship to get pictures from the front looking back with that beautiful pink sky as background, but by the time I got back there, the sky wasn’t so “pink” anymore. I got pictures anyway and was going to go up to the serenity area to try for better pictures looking toward the back of the ship from there. Well, guess what I found? The stairs were roped off with a sign, a sign that said “It’s really windy out here. Please do not enter”. Another first! I have read about and seen pictures of these signs in other reviews, but this is the first I had ever seen one. What did I do? I got a picture of that sign.

The "It's windy up here" sign:

It had been pretty windy the night before and the water was kind of choppy but it seemed pretty still now. Either way, the stairway was roped off with a sign, so I turned around and got a few more pictures looking toward the back of the ship, one of the waterslide and a few of the wet decks since I thought they looked pretty cool.

I went to the other side to see if I could get up that way, but there was another sign:

[wantocruisemore]

We're on our balcony right now on liberty waiting to leave port. You've done such a great job with review and photos of ship I will likely just do a menu review. Thanks for getting us excited!!!!!

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

Since I knew the sun would be coming up shortly, I walked to the back of the ship again and waited, for about a half hour. I was determined to get sunrise pictures. The sun finally showed, but it was through clouds and never a shine off the water. I zoomed in and got pictures of it through the clouds. It reminded me more of pictures I saw of the planet Jupiter (Jupiter without the big red spot) when I was a kid in elementary school studying the solar system and learning what the planets were. I still thought the sun looked pretty neat. If any of you reading are interested in the sunrise/sunset times, they are printed on the front of the “Fun Times” at the top.

The sun:

[pghsteelerfan]

We're on our balcony right now on liberty waiting to leave port. You've done such a great job with review and photos of ship I will likely just do a menu review. Thanks for getting us excited!!!!!

 

On your balcony, really?!?! I'm sitting here at the computer working on the next review update, but I can feel the excitement. I sure hope you have a "Funship Special" in your hand. :D It's almost 5PM now, what time will you set sail? I hope you have a wonderful time!!!