SWEET LIBERTY! The cruise that almost wasn't! Sept 20-27, 2015 review

[seannyice81]

Really stinks with the bumpy start. Glad to read things are getting better.

[Wags67]

I am loving your review, Kendra!

 

I must have been napping or elsewhere on the ship when it rained, too...I had no idea until I seen your picture! LOL

[valentinebaby1]

Really stinks with the bumpy start. Glad to read things are getting better.

 

It was just a couple bumpy hours but things definitely got better! Thanks for reading!

[valentinebaby1]

I am loving your review, Kendra!

 

I must have been napping or elsewhere on the ship when it rained, too...I had no idea until I seen your picture! LOL

 

 

I didn't have any idea either, Laura! I was apparently sound asleep when it happened. I don't think Jim slept at all the whole trip lol

[valentinebaby1]

Day 9; September 24, 2015 Thursday

St Lucia!

 

I'm going to now bombard you with sunrise pictures from St Lucia! The morning was beautiful and although it wasn't the first time on this trip to see the Pitons, it was still a breathtaking sight to wake up to! I enjoyed the comfort of our cabin and balcony...but of course hubby was out and about taking pictures from every vantage point on the ship!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

[JKirkN]

I didn't have any idea either, Laura! I was apparently sound asleep when it happened. I don't think Jim slept at all the whole trip lol

 

:) I don't think I slept more than 2 or 3 hours each night...if that...

 

The rain lasted about 10-15 min... wasn't too hard of a rain... It just blew in fast and then blew away...

 

What I thought was hilarious was all the people in swim suits hiding under the balconies... THEY WERE IN SWIMSUITS!!! They were meant to get WET!!! LOL

 

I just kept walking around in my clothes and getting drenched...didn't bother me a bit... LOL...

[Wags67]

:) I don't think I slept more than 2 or 3 hours each night...if that...

 

I Still don't know how you did it, Jim.

This was an exhausting itinerary .. Even with my adrenaline rush being excited about this cruise... I was exhausted! :)

 

And when I'd see you at any point, you never looked tired!

You're my cruise idol ;)

[pghsteelerfan]

I'm still exhausted!!! LOL!!! We've been running ever since we got back so this weekend I'm making sure there are no plans - I need one full weekend at home. I think I got up at 5:30am every morning of the cruise except for the sea day and Barbados. Jim & Kendra, some of my pictures are identical to yours.

 

Oh, that rain just before leaving Barbados...Jim, did you happen to see that little sailboat that sailed right into it? They must have been drenched but that would have been so cool.

 

Loving the review and reliving the great memories!!!

 

Holly

[SenatorsFan]

Beautiful sunrise pictures; there can never be too many! :D:) I'd like to do this itinerary some day.

Heather

Edited October 20, 2015 by SenatorsFan

[JKirkN]

I'm still exhausted!!! LOL!!! We've been running ever since we got back so this weekend I'm making sure there are no plans - I need one full weekend at home. I think I got up at 5:30am every morning of the cruise except for the sea day and Barbados. Jim & Kendra, some of my pictures are identical to yours.

 

Oh, that rain just before leaving Barbados...Jim, did you happen to see that little sailboat that sailed right into it? They must have been drenched but that would have been so cool.

 

Loving the review and reliving the great memories!!!

 

Holly

 

No, I missed that. Must have been on the other side of the ship. I was on the port side (facing east) watching the rain make it's way towards the ship...it was really cool seeing the fog of the rain as it got closer and closer and then getting drenched :)

 

 

Edited October 20, 2015 by JKirkN
http://screenshot.net/nz7ejaz.jpg

[valentinebaby1]

After the gorgeous sunrise, we got ready to spend our day in St Lucia with Cosol Tours.

 

We booked a private tour because my sister is severely allergic to sulfur so taking the normal tour which would pass through the volcano area was not something we were willing to risk. Hubby and I weren't disappointed to miss that area either. The volcano isn't that exciting and the mudbaths are so stinky we were more than happy to give up seeing those and exchanging it for more time at the beach!

 

We had had our usual breakfast on the Lido deck and headed out to the port around 8:15. We recognized Cosol and he introduced us to Livingston, our driver for the day.

 

Livingston had a comfortable mini van and we started out on our tour.

 

As we drove through Castries we saw several landmarks including the large Samaan tree that is said to be over 400 years old. They call it the Massav Tree. The story behind it is that there was a tourist who asked a local what the name of the tree was, and the local replied "massav", which means "I don't know". So the name stuck!

 

 

 

 

After heading out of Castries, the winding roads were quite the adventure! Now if you remember my anxiety while in the car...for some reason that only seems to apply when my husband is driving. I have very little anxiety when others are driving, and I have had no issues with these winding mountain roads on the tours we were on. I'm sure there's some deep rooted psychological reason for this but I just haven't figured it out yet. Anyway, here's an example of the winding roads:

 

 

Soon we stopped for our first photo op, which was a gorgeous view of the Liberty in port:

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

Overlooking the city of Castries:

 

 

The ride along Morne Fortune road passes the Government House, which is the residence of the Governor General. Literally as we pulled up by the house, a limo was just leaving. Livingston said the Governor was in the limo and had just left the house. We were able to get a great photo of the house while the gates were still open!

 

 

The tour continued on to the banana plantation. My husband had been looking forward to this for 2 years! He normally doesn't like bananas but loved eating them in St Lucia. He was quite happy in the banana plantation!

 

 

Once a banana tree has produced bananas, it will die, but the tree automatically replaces itself with a new tree. If you look really close you can see in this photo 4 trees: a new tiny sapling, a still growing tree, a current tree producing bananas and a dead stump.

 

 

Livingston collected all the banana peels and brought them with us, which I thought was a little odd, but we soon found out why.

 

 

 

After feeding the goats and chickens at Livingston's cousin's house, we continued on our drive.

 

[valentinebaby1]

We drove through Anse La Raye as we continued on the tour:

 

 

 

Just a few months after our last visit to St Lucia, a terrible storm came through that started on Christmas Eve and lasted for 24 hours through Christmas day. Six people died in St Lucia and there was devastating flooding through much of the island, but especially in Anse La Raye. Many bridges were washed out. This is one of the new bridges installed after the Christmas storm of 2013:

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

We made another stop, which had an opportunity to sample rums and take some photos. I believe it was somewhere between Anse La Raye and Canaries. Hubby was upset because we didn't stop at a place we had stopped at the last time, which was overlooking Marigot Bay. We had purchased a bottle of banana rum there, and sampled some spiced rum that was the best rum hubby had ever tried. On our last visit, hubby was going to buy the spiced rum at that spot, but our driver told him there was a better place later to buy it so we just bought the banana rum. He bought the rum later in the day and when we got home he was terribly disappointed that it wasn't as good as what we had at the Marigot Bay overlook. He even had a friend from work who took a trip to St Lucia and he sent them on a wild goose chase to get the spiced rum and some banana rum for us, but they weren't able to find what he was looking for then. So THIS time he was GOING to get some of that spiced rum one way or another!

 

But this wasn't the place...he sampled some but it just wasn't what he remembered.

 

 

You have no idea how disappointed he was :(

 

Our tour continued though, and it was time for brunch. The normal tour and our private tour stopped at the same place/time. Tables are laid out with all kinds of samples of local foods and fruits, and drinks are available here.

 

We started into the balcony room where all the foods are spread out for everyone to sample. Livingston stopped us here and directed us to a table by itself in the back. He said we had a private tour and that included a private table! The plates were set out with 4 of each type of food and fruit for us to try:

 

 

 

We sampled the most delicious mango I've ever had, plus watermelon, passion fruit, sugar cane, some homemade coconut candy, fried fish, johnnycakes and I'm not even sure what else.

 

The problem we encountered was that everyone else on the tour felt it was necessary to wander back to our table, which we thought was pretty clearly not part of the other tables, and help themselves to our food. With just 4 of each item specifically set for us, we weren't happy to share! The food was exactly the same items as on the other tables too. We would tell people that this was a private table and they would laugh and take stuff anyway. We started getting kind of irritated at this point because they didn't believe us and now we had to spend out meal time defending our private table. It was either not say anything as they took our food, or say something and have them snort and laugh at us and take it anyway, or stop and get defensive and then try to put the food back that they had already touched. It was a nice idea to have the private table for our tour, but they should have included a sign that said so.

 

After eating, and getting a few drinks, we headed back out again.

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

I believe at this point we were approaching Soufriere.

 

 

 

Our next stop was a photo op overlooking the town of Soufriere and the Pitons!

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

Now here on the tour the last time is when we visited the volcano, botanical garden and mud baths. Since our private tour was to avoid this area, we were taken to a dock to catch a water taxi to the beach. The water taxi was just the 4 of us. The ride was very bumpy!

 

On our first cruise, you may recall that I was dealing with a very painful toothache. No tooth problems for me this time, but instead I was dealing with some lower back problems. I had injured my back a few months prior to the trip and it was still giving me some issues. I think I would have rather dealt with the tooth ache! I tried to make the best of it, but there were times it was really quite painful. This boat ride was one of them! The boat would jump the waves and hit back so hard it was jolting to my lower back. But we did manage to get to Sugar Beach/Jalousie Beach still in one piece.

 

This was the beach where the water taxi started:

 

 

 

 

Did you know the pitons are not the highest point on St Lucia? The tallest point is called Mount Gimie.

 

Another fun fact...the beach sitting between the pitons was known as Jalousie Beach on our last visit but just a few months before our 2013 visit, Matt Damon renewed his wedding vows on the beach here, and ever since the beach was referred to as Sugar Beach. The resort that sits at this beach is the Sugar Beach resort. Livingston made it clear that the locals were not happy with this change in the beach name.

 

Up next: Beach time and the ride back to port

 

 

 

[bumbles]

Love, love, love all the photos - doing this in 11 days and St. Lucia is the place I'm most excited about!

[JKirkN]

Love, love, love all the photos - doing this in 11 days and St. Lucia is the place I'm most excited about!

 

If you like rum, make sure to stop at Gloria's place overlooking Marigot Bay! She's got the best (and sweetest) spiced rum on the island. And if you like banana rum, she makes a homemade one that is better than anything else you can buy! If she has any on hand, buy it!!!! :)

 

And tell her the crazy guy that hugged her says HI!!!! :)

[wantocruisemore]

Really enjoying your review. Liberty is my favorite ship. But now she's in Galveston for dates I need.😞

[bumbles]

If you like rum, make sure to stop at Gloria's place overlooking Marigot Bay! She's got the best (and sweetest) spiced rum on the island. And if you like banana rum, she makes a homemade one that is better than anything else you can buy! If she has any on hand, buy it!!!! :)

 

And tell her the crazy guy that hugged her says HI!!!! :)

 

Will do! Thanks!

[valentinebaby1]

The water taxi landed at Jalousie/Sugar Beach. The dock was full so the boat just pulled up to the beach and we had to climb out into the water.

 

 

We got 4 "chairs" (if you can still call them that, with most of the seat busted out) and used them mostly just to keep our bags out of the sand. We headed right into the water.

 

 

If you aren't going to snorkel with fins, I'd highly recommend bringing water shoes or waterproof Teva type sandals with you as the beach is very rocky!

 

Hubby and I got ready to snorkel and I kept having trouble with my mask and snorkel leaking. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Hubby offered to trade sets with me so he could try to figure it out. Turns out one of our snorkels ended up with a hole in it. So hubby had to rent one. But once we both got situated, it was probably my favorite snorkel day ever! I usually have some trouble with a leaky mask or I get water in my eyes and they burn or something...but this day, at least once I got a functioning snorkel, was perfect!

 

I was so relaxed and we had extra time because of our private tour, so I really felt like I was able to snorkel all that I wanted without worry.

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

I saw a bunch of cuttlefish. If you've never watched the youtube video called "True Facts About the Cuttlefish" go do it. Now. I'll wait. Ok you're back? Wasn't that great?