Carnival Liberty Southern Caribbean review with pics (Aug. 2-9, 2015)

[Stinger-pr]

St. Maarten Cont...

 

On our last dinner aboard we had the Caesars salad to start with and for the Main dishes I went with the Jerked Pork Loin from the Ports of Call selection and my daughter had the pork chop. Both were tasty and tender and we both enjoyed them. We had our final Melting Cakes but none of the other desserts really appealed to us so we skipped on the extra tasting (BTW, the dessert menu looked like it was printed a few minutes before dinner since it was simple with none of the usual menu decorations…go figure). We caught the farewell song and dance from the dinning room crew and prepared to leave. We thanked our crew one by one for an amazing service experience (food and one night’s seating issues were not their fault). They were very communicative, attentive and really made our dinners more enjoyable. I handed our lead waiter an extra tip for the crew, took some pics and said goodbye for the final time (or so we tought) to everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

(No chocolates on the heart anymore)

 

After dinner we went to look at a week’s worth of pictures at the Pixels gallery and ended up taking home WAY too may portraits but to be fair, they came out very good. The posed pictures on the elegant nights were studio quality and while expensive for a single picture, they were worth it FOR US. Darn it!! I ended up spending too darn much on pictures but what the heck! No regrets… We hooked up with my daughter’s school friend and her family (which, I forgot to mention, turns out that her aunt and I had work for a few years together at a casino and the husband of the kid’s grandmother’s sister had been my boss when I started my career in gaming some 20 years ago….small world!!) and we all went to the Legends show in the auditorium and it was better then we expected. We were expecting a bunch of wanna-be singers make a fool of themselves and in part that’s what we got. But we realized that’s the whole point of the show!! This is not American Idol or Britain’s got Talent. Once that sunk in, we had a good laugh the whole show, we thoroughly enjoyed it and left satisfied with it. All in all it was a great experience. Once the show ended we went back to the cabin for the tedious and sad task of making our bags to leave the ship in the morning. We didn’t have to fly so weight was not a problem and we were doing self assist so we had extra time to pack. We spent a few minutes on the Lido deck outside since by this time we were passing between St. Thomas and Culebra, PR which meant there was cell phone service!! We checked in with our family, made some last minute calls to iron out the details of our pickup time at the terminal in the morning and of course make everyone I know envious on Facebook…lol. We also were a bit hungry since dinner didn’t really kill our appetite so we went for our last pizza which we brought to the room and ate while watching a movie on the tv. **Tip of the night: The tv in our room was a flat screen (we had a tube TV on the Valor last year) and it had easily accessible A/V inputs (for those that travel with game consoles for the kids) and at least one USB port which comes in handy to charge your phone using a USB cable. There’s also ONE electrical outlet with two connectors in the desk area. The one in the bathroom is supposed to be just for electric razors but I guess it should suffice for a small charger as well. A small multiplug strip can come in handy or something like the 3-sided block that I had can help as well if you have multiple chargers for phones, camera batteries, etc. Now, off to bed to get ready for what would become “disembarkation from hell.”

Edited October 11, 2015 by Stinger-pr

[Stinger-pr]

“Get-off-this-ship” Day:

Today was the day we had dreaded since the moment we set foot on the boat. While I was glad to be back home, I was wishing I was the guy who a few days ago celebrated 1,000 days at sea with Carnival. Since we had an arrival time of 7am at San Juan and from previous experience coming in a bit earlier, I had set my alarm for 5:30am thinking I’d had enough time to go outside and see the ship sail by the forts with ample time. I got up, turned on the TV to the forward cam and saw we were just near the forts. Darn it!!! I hurried outside breathing into my camera lens to help speed up the temperature equalization and prevent fogging of the lens and set up for some pics. This a hard time of day for pictures since I needed a long exposure on a large aperture and the ships movement didn’t help at all but after some tweaking in Lightroom I think they came out half decent.

 

After having taken the pictures I wanted I got back to the cabin to give the bed one last, short run before waking up to leave. By 7:30am they started going over the PA system with debarkation instructions and saying that the process would be delayed a bit due to Coast Guard inspection (just like last year). I’m guessing they always have a “delayed” debarkation in San Juan. We got dressed, checked that we had everything we needed and left the room around 8am. Our stewardess was in the hallway getting ready for her chores so I handed her some extra tips and we both thanked her for her service and for the chats we had here and there in the hallway with her. We wished her well and off we went to get our last breakfast of the trip. Once we were done with breakfast I went over to the deck 4 part of the Golden Olympian dinning room to pick up the liquor I had delivered in St. Maarten. Yes, it’s a hassle for those that fly out and have to stuff the bottles in their bags, Yes, it’s a hassle because they used to deliver the booze to your room and save you the walking on debarkation morning. Yes you have to stand in line a few minutes. BUT, the line at 8:45am wasn’t really that long. They had a lot of personnel working on this process. One person looks you up in a list, shouts the cabin number and another person (assigned by decks) brings your stuff to the desk quickly. I was in and out in about 7 mintues. I went back to get my daughter and my bags to start the debarkation process and while walking to the elevators ran into our waiter Samuel who was doing his other duty as waiter at the Lido buffet. We exchanged goodbyes again and off we went.

From past experience I had decided to skip trying to get an elevator going down to deck 0 because they usually come down full. So once we got to the forward elevators we took the first one going up and stayed in until we reached deck 0. Turns out this was a good decision since there were tons of people coming down the stairs from deck 1 and there was quite a line to get to the gangway. But this was nothing compared to what we were about to go through in a few minutes. It took us about 8-10 minutes to reach the gangway and say goodbye to the Liberty and as soon as we entered the terminal to go to Customs my jaw dropped. The terminal was PACKED! There were (I think) 5 lines going and all but one was insanely long. The only line moving somewhat fast was the one reserved for the porters. You give them a tip and in theory, they zoom you around the lines and to the CBP officers faster. But there were only 3 Officers available which meant that soon enough the line with the porters was also jammed. It took us about 40 minutes of standing in line with all our bags and extra stuff we carried on (except the sodas) in an area that was getting warmer by the minute. It really made no difference if you self assisted (took your own bags) or left your luggage outside the room the night before, nothing would save you from this line since those bags were in the same area of the terminal that the lines were. By the time we got to the CBP officer we were hot, sweaty, thirsty and cranky. The officer took a look at our IDs and glanced at the Customs declaration form for about 3 seconds and waved us on. As we walked on the covered sidewalk towards the street exit we felt satisfied having had an awesome week but at the same time we felt we were on the walk of shame, walking as though we had been kicked out looking at the smiling and exited faces of those waiting to be let on board to take our place.

In the end my daughter had a blast (I almost had to drag her off the ship) and experienced things that for some are once-in-a-lifetime and for others are things they will never get to experience while a select few have the means to experience more than once and I am so grateful I'm on that select few and hopefully so will she. It was my second cruise but I did new things and saw others in a different perspective and never had a dull moment. Hiccups aside the crew of the Liberty was awesome all week. While not a perfect trip, we didn’t let the things that didn’t diminish our enjoyment of the cruise. Anyway, thanks for taking time my read my review and I hope you have enjoyed reading as how I enjoyed writing bout my trip.

[pghsteelerfan]

I just had time to browse through a few of your pictures at first since we were on Liberty when you started your review. So much work to do, not to mention tons of pictures to go through, when returning from a great cruise but it's all well worth it. I'm usually not on the computer in the evenings since that's when hubby is usually on, but he's watching football so I decided to take the time to sit down and read your whole review. I really enjoyed reading since it's a great way to relive our trip (we did the same tour with Spencer Ambrose that you did) and I also love the quality of your pictures. The evening pictures you got during sailaway and again the picture of the fort when returning to San Juan are great. I'm so glad that your daughter got to experience the cruise with you and it's obvious she was having a great time. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your pictures of Puerto Rico as well since I do want to get there some year for an extended vacation, 10 days would be nice to be able to experience all we'd like to. Thank you for taking the time to do another great review and hope you and your daughter cruise again soon.

[valentinebaby1]

Nice review! I missed it somehow but looked for it after you posted on my review-in-progress. Very nice photos! I love the photo after Liberty pulled out of St Kitts, and I loved the photos of the fort coming back into San Juan.

[SoloSailorII]

We did this Itinerary 9/20 and loved reading your review and seeing your pictures brought back so may wonderful memories. We love St. Lucia so I am in total agreement with your girl.

 

Thanks for taking the time and sharing.

 

Fair winds and Following seas

[Katfncy]

I wanted to tell you that this was a great review. If possible i am trying to find some interesting things to do in PR before my cruise. We are coming in Friday evening and will have all day Saturday. Any good recommendations?

[ILUVCRUIZN]

Loved, Loved, Loved your pictures and review. Looks like you and your daughter had a wonderful time. Our 10 year old son loves to cruise, he gets as excited as we do. It is so much fun to watch him and watch how much fun he has.

 

I have not sailed on the Liberty yet but we are sailing on the Glory in 2 weeks out of Puerto Rico. This will be our 3rd time sailing from Puerto Rico and I just love it. There is just so much to see and do. Best departure port in my opinion.

 

Again, great review!!!! :D

[Gallivanting Souls]

Found this comment on another thread, but didn't want to hijack his thread:

<<Yes, I do work at the hotel industry (in one of the casinos to be more specific). I'd love to sit and have a chat with you guys. Also, you can shoot me any questions you (or anybody, as a matter of fact) might have of Puerto Rico. I'll do my best to help you out. Have a good one!!>>

 

I haven't finished this thread yet, but would appreciate gaining some knowlege about lodgings/hotels. We will be there next June. Can you please email me?

Click on my name and the email is there.