Carnival Liberty September 6, 2015

[grsshppr]

Hi! My partner and I just booked and can't wait to finally check out the Southern Caribbean! Any other gay family members book?

[bradburleson]

My partner and I are booked, too! :-)

[grsshppr]

YAY! For a while there, I thought we'd be the only ones. HAHA

 

We are from NYC. How about y'all?

[bradburleson]

I wondered if there would be any others, too. LOL. We love NYC! What part?

 

We're from Hot Springs, Arkansas. It's a beautiful lake/resort town about an hour outside of Little Rock. We're both in our 30's. This will be our second cruise and second trip to San Juan and St. Thomas. We're stoked and ready for a vacay. We're staying over a few days after the cruise near Fajardo, PR.

[grsshppr]

Oh nice!

 

Technically we live in Weehawken, NJ (across the river from midtown Manhattan). It's a short 10 minute bus ride through the Lincoln Tunnel. After living in San Diego for a few years, we got used to space and that suburban feel. Plus it's super dog friendly!

 

We are also in our 30's. This is is our fourth cruise together. We will be celebrating our 6 year anniversary in September, so we thought this would be a nice way to celebrate.

 

We will be arriving from Cancun on the day of embarkation--our friend is turning 40 and she wanted to celebrate there. How nice that you are extending your stay. I'm jealous! Leaving the cruise is always the hardest part. Smart thinking by making your vacation longer!

[grsshppr]

Have you booked any excursions yet?

[bradburleson]

Weehawken is a great area from what I remember. I had a friend who lived there right out of college. Great view of Manhattan, for sure!!

 

Happy 6 years to you guys! We're working on year 3. This is Joseph's 35th birthday cruise. His parents have the cabin next to us and they're a blast, so a good time will definitely be had. The last cruise Joe and I went on, his dad insisted we go to the FOD get togethers. We just laughed. But we did go to two. They were duds.

 

And Cancun will be a blast! How long will you be there before jetsetting over to San Juan?

 

We haven't booked anything yet - just the hotel room the night before the cruise. Ha. We did the ziplining at El Yunque and walked around Old San Juan last time. It was awesome. We rented a car in St. Thomas and drove to all the highlights and awesome beaches. That was our most favorite excursion of the whole trip! I bought cool snorkeling gear last week on Amazon and am hoping to put it to use as often as possible while we're there. That's as far as I've gotten. I've checked in to options through (and outside of) Carnival, but we've not made any decisions. How about you?? Have you been to any of the other ports?

[grsshppr]

Sorry for the delay! Looking forward to meeting everyone and having a great time! We went to one or two FOD meetings as well but there was never anyone there and Carnival didn't have a staff person manning it, just left up to the passengers to go up to each other and ask, "Are you here for the meeting?"

 

We will only be in Cancun for 2.5 days, flying in Thursday afternoon and back out extremely early Sunday morning. A little nervous about the flight because it's 6am with a connection in MIA, arriving into SJU around 1:30pm. There are much cheaper flights on the Spirit airlines of Mexico, Volaris, but there are just too many horror stories online for us to take that chance. But it is a direct flight and midmorning which would be a much better schedule. Have you ever flown with them before?

 

No excursions have been booked yet but we did go through them all by port and selected the ones we're interested in. All through Carnival so far.

 

St. Thomas - Tree Limin' Experience or BOSS Underwater Adventure

Barbados - Mount Gay Rum & Food Tasting

St. Lucia - Ultimate Rainforest Adventure - Zip, Hike, Skyride

St. Kitts - Sky Safari Zip Lining

St. Maarten - Horseback Riding Scenic Trail & Sea Ride or City Clickers Phillipsburg at a Glance or Sea Trek Helmet Diving & Snorkeling or Scenic Coastal Hike or Scoot Coupe Island Adventure & Beach

 

We love to do zip lines! We won't do that in every port that offers it though.

 

My partner has been to some of these places but I can't remember which ones.

[bradburleson]

Yeah, I know what you mean. There were a mix of people in the bar the times we went. A few were obviously NOT FOD so I didn't know who was there for the get together or just there randomly. We'll have to be the self-designated FOD hostesses. Ha!

 

I bet you'll be just fine coming in at 1:30. That's 8 hours of leeway time. I've not had a chance to fly them, but I'm sure you'll be fine. We're using miles, so we're traveling all day the day before and going to BFE and back to get to San Juan. It's tough getting good flights out of Little Rock. Almost everything goes to DFW, ORD or ATL for a connection.

 

Those excursions sound awesome. I think last time we only booked one before the trip and booked the rest onboard. My other half can be a little (read: very) indecisive so we may be doing most of it last minute. :-) We did book the Chef's Table this week for one night onboard. I got confirmation back yesterday but we won't know what night until we board. Last time, we did that, the steakhouse and the behind the scenes tour. Can you tell we were newbies?

 

Do you guys usually pick a certain floor/room type? We were on the Dream last time in a balcony room on deck 7. This time we're on the Lido deck (9).

[grsshppr]

We didn't even know about the Chef's Table until just now! LOL That sounds like a great experience, what was it like? Our last cruise was on the Dream too!

 

My partner likes to stay on the 7th floor, I think just to minimize foot traffic going by the room. Some people on the 8th floor have reported that they could hear sounds from the Lido deck above them so we just went to 7. I've never been in a lower deck room, I think I just like the idea of a higher floor, lol.

 

We're in the back of the ship, what about all of you?

[bradburleson]

The Chef's Table is pretty sweet. On the Dream, they take you on a tour of the kitchen, and you end up a table for 12(ish) in the middle of one of the kitchens. The chef serves you each course (maybe 7?) and does a full presentation. They brought out a glass of wine with almost each course, so it got a little fuzzy towards the end. I just remember the food being awesome and everyone was my best friend. LOL. Send an email to eventplanning@carnival.com if you're interested. Give them your name, booking number, number in your party, departure port and sailing date and they'll schedule you a night. It's $75 p/p. It's weird that they don't advertise it very well. And they make it difficult to find info on how to sign up for it. It's a must do for any person who considers themselves a "foodie!"

 

We are almost in the center of the boat, just off the atrium near the. I was sure to read reviews on the rooms before booking because I was concerned about foot traffic. The only negative I could find was some people heard piano music from the atrium bar but that stopped at 11pm. Who knew you could google your ship name and room number and read a review on the room you're staying in?! The in-laws even saw a video tour of their room. Crazy. We're on port side.

 

We're having a family lake day, so we might talk excursions. I'll let you know if anyone has found anything cool! BTW, I'm Brad. Burleson. My mom taught me better, my apologies. lol.

[bradburleson]

HA! I just saw my screen name on this message board. It's, uh, my name. LOL.

[grsshppr]

LOL - maybe this would be easier to do off these boards. Send me an email at grasshopper81 on yahoo. Let me know once you've seen this message and I'll delete this post.

[pauleydm]

We are booked on this cruise. Paul and Ed here, from Orlando Florida. We have been together for 16 years.

[grsshppr]

Yay! More people for the FOD meetings!! :D

 

Welcome to you both!

[pauleydm]

I usually start a roll call, but the last two I started, no one joined. I was surprised to find this one.

[pauleydm]

We do have a regular roll call on another social site. There are lots of great people going that we have cruised with before.

[grsshppr]

Oh great! Which one?

[bradburleson]

I'm just getting a notification that you two have been posting back and forth. I haven't used a message board since the 90s, so forgive me. LOL! :-) And YAY to more FODs! ha!

[grsshppr]

Bf just reminded me that I totally spaced out on what floor we're on. We aim for 7, but we kept hemming and hawing about the price of this cruise and ended up on 8 when all was said and done.

[grsshppr]

Is anyone else excited for mini golf?

[bradburleson]

Lol!

[bradburleson]

Oh. You were serious. My bad. :-)

[grsshppr]

Yes, I am very serious about this. :)

 

Though I find that it is most fun at 3am when no one is around but you're sort of tipsy and stumbling your way through the course. But I have no problems gloating in my victory over a 9 year old child during the day too.

[bradburleson]

Well hell! Count me in for that!! Who doesn't love tipsy golf?!