Review: Carnival liberty – september 20, 2015 – southern itinerary out of san juan,

[pghsteelerfan]

When we were about half way through the drinks, we took them back down to the cabin so we could take turns getting showered and ready for dinner. Once we were ready and just before we left the cabin, I had an idea. That human size towel creation that Kendrick left us the night before was still in the cabin, intact. He had been lounging around on the couch all day. I wanted to move him over and put him in the bed so DH helped me carry him so we could hold him together. We sat him in the bed and I put the souvenir bluefish cup in his arms to make it look like he was kicking back and enjoying a drink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that, we went up to Emile’s Lido Buffet. When we were on Valor, they had this mushroom pasta dish that I really liked and I was happy to see they had it tonight. It’s actually called Fusilli Mushroom Cream so I got some of that (I give that one an A). I also got chicken breast (I’ll give that a C, it was too dry) and Caesar Salad (even though buffet, still tastes the same, A). I think DH had prime rib but I can never remember all that he had and on what night. When we finished, we went back to the soft-serve to get ice cream cones and when we finished those, we went back to Red Frog for Captain & cokes and hung out there for a while.

 

 

 

 

There was comedy scheduled in the Punchliner Comedy Club tonight. The “18+” comedy shows were at 9:30pm, 11:15pm, and 12:00am. We decided we’d definitely go to the 9:30pm, find something to do and see how things were going before deciding on the later shows. We started heading down to Punchliner’s sometime between 9 and 9:15pm. We though there could be a chance it would be busy with a line to get in. We walked right in and two thirds of the rest of “that other” roll call were in a table booth. There were eight of them so not enough room for two more. The table booth next to them was empty, so we sat there and visited until the show started.

Tonight was Tim Young. I can’t remember much but he was OK. When he finished, we thought we might have to leave since the next show wasn’t until 11:15pm, but we were allowed to stay. We ended up visiting with the rest of the group and all of us were talking “early night”. There was still bar service as someone would come around once in a while to see if we needed anything. When 10:45pm rolled around and we were all still there, we decided we might as well just stay to watch the next comedian

.

Naturally, we talked about what we did in St. Kitts. I knew some of them were also going to South Friar’s Bay but didn’t see them. They had been at Carambola Beach Club, on the other end of South Friars. They said the beach was nice, but it was very loud and noisy and compared it to a “Spring Break” atmosphere. Apparently one of the larger groups on Liberty, the ones that would get loud and seemed to annoy a lot of people? Yes, them. Our friends told us they basically took over that day and were just very loud…like ”Spring Break”. We told them they should have walked down to Shipwreck, it was quiet and relaxing. Both are on the same beach, but on opposite ends. Carambola may have sand shipped in because they said it wasn’t black sand but they could see black sand once they got in the water.

As the room started filling up again, more bar waiters were making the rounds. I have wanted to try a Chocolate Mocha Getaway for a while now, just have never gotten around to it, and tonight I ordered one. It was as good as everyone else said it was. No pictures of it though. We stayed through the next comedian, Carl Faunlkenberry. He was really good. When he was finished, there was some debate. Do we stay for the next show, which would be Tim Young again, or do we call it a night? At this point, I was still feeling the effects of that inhaled salt water and was tired on top of that. I’d had been up since 5:30am. The guys kind of wanted to stay but the gals we ready to call it a night. I told DH that he could stay and watch if he’d like to, but I was going back to the cabin and going to bed. The guys discussed it, the other guy wasn’t that good but maybe his other show would be better. The all decided to call it a night and we went back to our cabins.

When we got to the cabin, Kendrick had already been there, so our towel animal today, a monkey, was hanging over the dresser area and tomorrow’s edition of the “Fun Times” was on the bed. He had moved his human sized towel creation back over to the couch. We took turns getting ready for bed then went to bed. I did not set the alarm for tomorrow. We had nothing scheduled and it would be another “wing it” day, so no sense getting up at 5:30am. I had a feeling we wouldn’t even be needing alarm anyway. Remember, the time for my alarm is stuck and it’s a PITA to change the alarm time. I need a new travel alarm clock, but I have time.

 

[pghsteelerfan]

That wraps up our beautiful day in St. Kitts. Needless to say, we are both very happy that we were able to get back and also extremely happy that "Mother Nature" decided to cooperate and gave us an exceptionally beautiful day in St. Kitts.

 

Next update will be St. Maarten.

 

[pghsteelerfan]

I completely forgot about adding the pictures I mentioned from the first time we ever saw St. Kitts.

 

As mentioned, we were on Carnival Festivale in 1992 on our honeymoon on a similar itinerary out of San Juan. We stopped at St. Thomas; St. Maarten, Dominica, Barbados, Martinique, then had a sea day before returning to San Juan. On that sea day, we were heading north from Martinique and passing many islands. We also sailed a little closer to the islands, but I don't know if it was because we were on a smaller ship or not.

 

This is a scanned version of picture that I got that day (only had film cameras then) and after looking through our honeymoon pictures after our Valor cruise, I realized that this was St. Kitts.

 

St. Kitts in the distance...we were passing St. Eustatius at the time

 

St. Eustatius

 

Saba

[pghsteelerfan]

[pghsteelerfan]

Saturday, September 26, 2015 – St. Maarten/St. Martin (Day 7)

 

 

 

Today's edition of the "Fun Times"

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Today's flyer that was with the "Fun Times", the "Last Day Savings - Spa & Salon"

 

 

 

Map of the cruise center in Philipsburg, St. Maarten

 

Map of St. Maarten/St. Martin

[pghsteelerfan]

We woke up between 7:30 and 8:00am to the sound of slamming balcony doors. The next door neighbors again. I knew I wouldn’t be needing an alarm to get up. I was definitely feeling the effects of all that salt water that morning as my throat was very dry. When I went out to the balcony, Liberty was already in St. Maarten and backing into the pier to dock, so we had the view of Philipsburg and Great Bay and the mountains in the distance.

 

Following pictures are from our balcony just after I got up...we were already backing into the pier in St. Maarten

 

 

 

We slept in a little the last time too, getting up just as Valor was turning to back into the pier. So I have no idea if we passed any islands or not. Since St. Eustatius and Saba are so close, and we’d passed both the night before, there may not have been much to see. I’d love to know though. I got ready and went to the balcony for a few pictures. DH is a little slower moving in the morning, so I took my camera and went up to Lido first, for coffee, then up to Panorama Deck 10 for pictures.

 

 

When I got outside on the Lido Deck, to walk up the steps to Panorama Deck 10, I noticed the pool was empty and there were two workers inside the empty pool. This was the main pool on the Lido Deck. They appeared to have been replacing tiles. The set of stairs on the starboard (right) side were also closed off. They were doing work on the covering above where the DJ’s set up. I don’t know what kind of work they were doing, but it was cosmetic. There is constantly work being done on the ships to keep them in top shape and looking nice. I walked around getting pictures of the views of St. Maarten then walked around the outside decks again getting pictures.

 

Workers working on the main pool - they were doing tile work, either replacing or redoing it.

 

 

Edited November 14, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

Letting some pictures take over for a while. These are views of St. Maarten from Liberty and also more pictures of Liberty's outer decks with the beautiful scenery of St. Maarten in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

St. Maarten and Liberty pictures continued...

 

 

 

I went to the aft (back) to see if I could see Saba or any of the other nearby islands. I definitely saw Saba, the closest, but also St. Eustatius, St. Kitts, and Nevis and got pictures of all of them. The last time we were in St. Maarten on Valor, we could barely see Saba through the haze and humidity after we sailed out. I love being able to see all the different islands. After that, I went up to the Serenity area and got more pictures. I tried to get a reflection of Liberty’s “tail” (funnel) in the Serenity sign.

 

Both St. Kitts (on the left) and St. Eustatius are visible from St. Maarten today.

 

And so is Saba

 

Zoomed in view of Saba

 

Zoomed in view of St. Eustatius

[pghsteelerfan]

Liberty's outer decks, St. Maarten, and St. Maarten's neighbors on a perfectly clear day continued...

 

Zoomed in view of St. Kitts (Mt. Liamuiga is also visible today too...not cloud covered)

 

More of Saba

 

 

 

 

They were doing tile work (replacing tiles I think) in the main pool, so it would be closed.

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Liberty's outer decks, St. Maarten, and St. Maarten's neighbors on a perfectly clear day continued...

 

Everyone knows what this is by now...

 

One of the party lights on Panorama Deck 10

 

 

 

 

This is a better picture

[pghsteelerfan]

Liberty's outer decks, St. Maarten, and St. Maarten's neighbors on a perfectly clear day continued...

 

 

This is another pool on Carnival Liberty called the "Coney Island Pool". It is on Panorama Deck 10 by the water slide.

 

This is the hot tub behind the Coney Island pool

 

 

The Red Frog Rum Bar

 

They were also doing some cosmetic work on Panorama Deck 10 (reason the steps were closed off)

[pghsteelerfan]

Liberty's outer decks, St. Maarten, and St. Maarten's neighbors on a perfectly clear day continued...

 

 

These are the doors on Panorama Deck 10 that lead to the inside and although I didn't go in, I think this is the area where passenger cabins are located (at the front)

 

The steps leading up to the hot tub by the Coney Island pool

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Liberty's outer decks, St. Maarten, and St. Maarten's neighbors on a perfectly clear day continued...

 

 

Definitely not done with "tail" pictures

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Liberty's outer decks, St. Maarten, and St. Maarten's neighbors on a perfectly clear day continued...

 

Great views of St. Kitts (larger island on right); Nevis (middle); and Montserrat (the "m" shaped smallest one). I can't see Redonda today, but that's because it's on the other side of Nevis

 

St. Eustatius

 

Saba again

 

Serenity hot tub

 

 

Great views of the other islands from this hot tub this morning

[pghsteelerfan]

Liberty's outer decks, St. Maarten, and St. Maarten's neighbors on a perfectly clear day continued...

 

These are the satellite antennae (the golf ball shaped domes are protective casing)

 

 

 

 

Once I got the pictures, I went back down to Panorama Deck 10 and looked over the railing to see if I could see Liberty’s “tail” reflection in the water like I did on Valor. I got a picture of Valor’s “tail” (funnel) reflection then. I was able to see the reflection of Liberty’s tail, so here’s a picture.

 

 

After that I went back in since DH should be close to being ready to go for breakfast. Just as I turned the corner from coming down the stairs, I saw Kendrick in the hallway. He’d always speak then start laughing. He told me he liked how we had the human sized towel creation he made in the bed drinking. He said it startled him a little because he wasn’t expecting to see it in the bed. Just then, Snezana came out and we spent time taking. I asked if I could get a picture of them, so they called I-Ketut and asked if he’d take a picture of me with them on my camera, so he did. After we spent a few minutes visiting with them (I didn’t want to hold them up), they continued with their work and I went into the cabin. DH was ready, so we went up to breakfast, and Kendrick was still in the area so he wished us a good day and we wished him the same.

 

 

This is the picture that I-Ketut got of myself, Kendrick and Snezana.

 

 

Out of all of our cruises, seven total now, they were the best housekeeping/cabin steward crew we've ever had. Not only did they do a great job with our cabins, they were fun and just very genuinely nice and always looked happy and made time for all of us guests. John Heald posted the question today on his social networking site asking if we ever get contact information from Carnival Staff members and keeping in touch with them. I answered "no" because I feel odd about asking if I could send them "friend requests" on social media pages. But this is a crew that I'd love to have kept in contact with.

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Today, it was typical, others in the lines but not really busy, but I went through the omelet line and DH went through the regular buffet. I hadn’t had the omelets since our Miracle cruise (2006) but it’s mainly because the lines were too long (I’m not a fan of waiting in long lines) or we had plans for the day and wanted to get through breakfast as fast as possible. I wasn’t that hungry this morning, so an omelet would be good enough. They do make the omelets with actual eggs and appeared to make three orders at a time. When you get up to the front, they’ll ask what you want in it. The toppings are right there, so you just let them know what you want in it and they make it. It’s so cool watching them, they’re good, even flipping them in the pan. If I tried that at home, it would either be on the floor or stuck to the ceiling.

Once I was through the line, DH was there waiting and we went and found a table. We took turns getting juice, so went I went up for that, I got one of the cinnamon pastries as well. I’d get coffee after we finished. Once we were finished, I got a cup of coffee and we went up to the Panorama Deck 10 so DH could get pictures. We went over to the port (left) side because I wanted him to see Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts, and Nevis. He got pictures of them and then we went over to the starboard (right) side and he got pictures and video.

 

 

I got these two pictures while up there because of the color of the water

 

 

 

We went back to the cabin after that and we had to decide. Our original plan was to go to Maho, but I was tired and just not feeling like a long day. DH wasn’t either. That was settled then, a beach nearby. I read here on CC that Great Bay occasionally has pollution warnings, so I didn’t want to spend the day there, even though it is very pretty. If I didn’t know that, we probably would have and we still hadn’t ruled that out either. As far as we knew, there were no pollution warnings at the time.

We’ve been to St. Maarten two other times, on our honeymoon in 1992 and again on Valor in 2013. Both times we went to Pinel Island, which is on the French side. The first was a “Snorkel Beach Break” excursion through Carnival. In 2013, when on Valor, Carnival no longer offered that excursion and the only way to get there was a stop, one of many, on local tours that weren’t through Carnival and they didn’t allow enough time there. You can go on your own by taxi, and it’s easy, but taxis generally aren’t waiting to pick cruise passengers up since it’s not a popular destination. A month before that cruise, we found a local tour operator that offered tours to Pinel Island, for the day for a reasonable price. They were reliable and had good ratings. I booked. It is beautiful there and I’d love to get back, but this time we wanted to stay on the Dutch side, St. Maarten. But since we’d only been to Pinel Island, we hadn’t experienced anything else. For beach days, most of the research points to Orient Bay, Maho Bay, and sometimes Mullet Bay. A few others have been mentioned. We just had no idea yet.

We decided we’d go to the taxi stand, see if any of them could suggest a nice beach close to port and go from there. We decided to grab all we’d need for a beach day, put it in my beach bag and headed out with no plans other than to “wing it”.

 

 

 

 

***Today, Liberty backed into port with the pier being on her port (left) side. The gangway was still at the front, so we’d still be taking the forward elevators as we had the rest of the week but we’d be getting off on the port (left) side. We made our way down the hall to the forward (front) elevators and took it to Deck 0***

 

 

Again, there wasn’t much of a line to get off. This moment is when we all realize that this is the last time we’d be getting off Liberty in a port and knowing we’d be getting back on her, as this was our last day of the cruise. But, we still had a full day ahead, in beautiful St. Maarten. As soon as we got down the gangplank and onto the pier, the “Mr. Potato Head” guys were on the pier, with a ship photographer. The photographers were still set up at the bottom of the gangplank for the port of call pictures as well. Once we passed the “Mr. Potato Heads”, I turned around and got a picture of them.

 

 

 

As we walked down the pier, I got a few pictures since I don’t have pictures from St. Maarten’s pier or cruise center area from the last time. I just plain forgot to get any.

 

 

 

 

When we got close to the end of the pier, where you can see the water against the rocks, the water was so clear. I went over and took a picture. As soon as I took that picture, I heard a whistle blowing, like a lifeguard’s whistle. I looked down and there was a yellow painted line. Oh crap!!! Yes, me again, getting reprimanded for taking pictures. It probably wasn’t the picture, it was probably because I was over the yellow line. To me, this was very annoying because long ago visions of elementary school suddenly came back, and vividly, of playground monitors with whistles, bringing attention to every wrong move, no matter how minor. The attention was on the person being whistled at, and for most kids, including myself, that was humiliating.

 

 

 

Once I got back to where DH was, he told me in that school yard, tattling (ratting out, snitching) kind of voice, “you’re not supposed to cross the line.” Anyone remember those famous words “Uuuummmmm, I’m gonna teelllllll!” Kind of like that, except he didn’t start his sentence with “Uuuummmmm, I’m gonna teelllllll!” Why would he, I was already busted, called out on my "breaking of the rules". I’ll admit, I was getting a bit of a “tude” at that point. He started explaining to me about the yellow lines being there for a reason. My reply was “Shut up, I kind of figured that one out!” He knows that tone, nothing more said. I was expecting to get called over and get verbally reprimanded by that security guard too, but I didn’t. Maybe he saw DH scold me already.

 

 

DH is the type of guy who follows all the rules, even when he was a kid and all through school. From his mother I always hear about what a good boy he was and he never, ever caused her any trouble. I wonder what would she think of her dear, sweet, "good” son participating in the men's “Hairy chest” contest? Hehehe. Oh yeah, forgot…he didn’t exactly volunteer for that...I was part of the reason he was in it. Now me on the other hand? Pffttt!!! Sent out of the classroom on numerous occasions. Had teachers calling my mom at 10:30PM. Too many visits to the principal’s office over the years to count. A few detentions in junior high and high school. Mostly for minor infractions like talking or laughing in class or not doing homework. Never suspended though. I wasn’t evil and I wasn’t mean, but I didn’t like being told what to do and could be stubborn. My motto was “rules are made to be broken”. Yes, one of those kids. I liked to have fun and school and fun don’t always go together. Now excuse me while I go polish my halo…and yes, I do realize that it’s being held up by two little horns.

 

Now here's that picture that caused all of the grief...I took it because again, I loved the color of the water and how clear it was.

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Wrapping this up for tonight. I start the next update off where I'm leaving off...entering the cruise terminal with no plan in place for our day in St. Maarten.

 

[Wags67]

Thanks Laura! :) I am really missing this cruise too, but I agree, beautiful islands and friends!

 

Did you want me to email the "favorite" to you? I may have showed it to you since I had it on the phone but can't remember if I did or not.

 

I'll wait and be surprised with everyone else ;)

It was such a crazy week, if you showed me, I just forgot.

((Hugs))

[JKirkN]

These are the doors on Panorama Deck 10 that lead to the inside and although I didn't go in, I think this is the area where passenger cabins are located (at the front)

 

 

Yes, those are the doors to where our cabin was! Just in side and about 4 down on the right :)

 

Btw...deck 10 has a secret deck too! I noticed that I took some of the same pictures at the same time of the St Kitts sunset...but you were just below me a couple decks :)

[pghsteelerfan]

I'll wait and be surprised with everyone else ;)

It was such a crazy week, if you showed me, I just forgot.

((Hugs))

 

I don't know if there will be that many to surprise, I think you, Jim, and a few others are the only ones reading this. Same with "K's" review. At least we can relive the memories of a great cruise. :D

 

It was a crazy week, but a fun week, and I may not have showed that one to you. It might have been the night picture of Liberty from San Juan that I was thinking of. I do remember you showing me the one you got at Trunk Bay. We're definitely going there on our next trip to St. Thomas.

 

Again, so glad to have you following along. Hope all of you are having a great weekend! ((Hugs))

[pghsteelerfan]

Yes, those are the doors to where our cabin was! Just in side and about 4 down on the right :)

 

Btw...deck 10 has a secret deck too! I noticed that I took some of the same pictures at the same time of the St Kitts sunset...but you were just below me a couple decks :)

 

I was thinking that may be the way back to where your cabins were. I'd have loved to have our own secret deck but at least I know where those others are. :D We went looking for, and found them, last year on Liberty. That St. Kitts sunset was gorgeous and it was beautiful sailing out that evening. It's funny, but we have A LOT of the same pictures.

[pghsteelerfan]

[pghsteelerfan]

St. Maarten continued...

 

 

 

When I wrapped up yesterday afternoon, I had just gotten in trouble, again, for picture taking just before we headed into the cruise center in St. Maarten. We also did not have a plan in place...

 

 

We continued into the cruise center area I got a few pictures before we got to the taxi stand. I forgot to get pictures of the cruise center in St. Maarten while there on our Valor cruise. I also spotted somewhere I wanted to stop once we got back to the cruise center from where ever it was that we’d end up today. The Guavaberry stand! I have heard so much about this place through other reviews and “J” and “K” from “that other” roll call had been there and recommended it. I pointed it out to DH and let him know I wanted to stop before we got back on Liberty. More on that later.

 

 

Inside the cruise center shopping area in St. Maarten

 

 

 

 

When we got to the taxi stand, they were very helpful. We let them know we’d like to go to a nice beach that was near port. The one guy recommended Dawn Bay. There’s a resort but we could rent loungers. It was about 15 minutes away. That sounded fine to us, so he told us to follow him. He led us over to a group of six others. They cheered and said “finally two more” and "we have our eight". We thought they were all going to Dawn Beach for the day and just waiting on “two more” to fill a cab before they’d be taken there. So we'll be headed to Dawn Bay...or so we thought.

 

 

Someone directed the whole group over to a building then started explain what all we’d see and do on the island tour. That someone was not a taxi driver, he was a tour guide. We let one of the others on the "tour" know that we thought we were only going to Dawn Bay for the day and one of them told us they were doing an island tour. When the guide was done with his speech, we went and told him that we were told that we just wanted to go to Dawn Bay and were told that this group were also going. The guide told us they were going to Dawn Bay at the end of the tour. Um, we just wanted a nice, easy day at the beach for a couple hours then time to shop in Philipsburg before having to head back. We let him know we only wanted to go to the beach for a few hours, not a tour. We had been misinformed, obviously. I don’t know if they ended up just going ahead with the tour or if they had to go back and wait for two more people.

 

 

We ended up right back at the taxi stand and the same guy asked what was wrong and why we didn’t go on the tour. We let him know that the group was doing an island tour, with the last stop at Dawn Beach and we only wanted to go to a nice beach for a few hours, not a tour. Another taxi guide then spoke up and told us that we did not want to go to Dawn Beach and the other guide asked him why. He informed us that Dawn Beach is COVERED in the seaweed and right now it isn’t a nice beach.

 

***I’m sure he was referring to the Sargassum seaweed, which has recently been a problem on beaches along the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean. We also saw it floating around in the ocean while on the cruise on a several occasions. There was also some on the beach at Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas, but not piles of it, but they probably rake it every morning. I also noticed loads of it in St. Kitts from the Timothy Hill Overlook on the beaches along the Atlantic side***

 

I asked the guy who warned us about the seaweed at Dawn Beach if there was another beach that was close by that he could recommend and he told us that Divi Little Bay was nice and it was close, and no seaweed. We asked how far it was and how long it would take. Not far, 10 minutes. He pointed to the peninsula across Great Bay and said it was right on the other side of that. I believe the cost for both of us was $10.00 each way. He let us know that it was a resort, but we could use the beach and rent loungers there. Perfect. That’s settled, Divi Little Bay it is. He took us over to cab driver and told him we both wanted to go to Divi Little Bay, so we got in with him and were on our way.

 

Carnival Liberty from the window of our cab

[pghsteelerfan]

The ride to Divi Little Bay was only about 10 minutes, but we did hit some traffic in downtown Philipsburg on the way. It was almost 11:00AM when we got down to the beach area of the resort, I thought it was a beautiful little beach. And straight ahead out in the ocean was Saba. What a view. There were others there but it wasn’t anywhere near crowded. We got loungers and an umbrella for both of us to use. The cost was $5.00 per lounger (2 for us), and $5.00 umbrella, so we paid a total of $15.00, which is better than we were expecting and comparable to some of the lesser expensive loungers we’d rented over the years. We were originally only going to spend two hours here, but I asked DH if we could stay till 2:00pm instead of 1:00pm and he agreed. There was no touring involved here today, no long walks, no steep climbs up steps, just a nice and relaxing few hours on the beach. A clean beach with a beautiful view. I got a few pictures as soon as we got there.