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

[pghsteelerfan]

Castillo San Cristobal pictures continued.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just could not resist getting a picture of Liberty's tail peeking above the wall

Edited November 3, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

Castillo San Cristobal pictures continued.

 

 

Hello there Liberty...you can't hide very well

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Castillo San Cristobal pictures continued.

 

 

 

We got to see a rainbow

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Castillo San Cristobal pictures continued.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Castillo San Cristobal pictures continued.

 

This rainbow lasted a while

 

 

 

I can still see you Liberty. :)

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Castillo San Cristobal pictures continued.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

After spending a little over an hour, we had pretty much covered a lot and decided that we’d better start making our way over to El Morro. It was about a 15 minute walk till we were almost there and DH noticed a vendor that had bottled water for sale for $1.00 each. We were both hot and very thirsty, so DH got us each a bottle of water and paid him the $2.00, then headed the rest of the way to Fort El Morro.

 

 

A look back at Castillo San Cristobal

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

More from our walk to El Morro from Castillo San Cristobal.

 

This is La Perla, which I learned through CC is an area to avoid. We didn't go down, but got this picture from the road above.

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

When we got into Fort El Morro, I had our receipt from when we paid to get into Castillo San Cristobal, so when we got to the counter to pay, all we had to do was show the receipt and we were in. What we didn’t realize was that at this time, it was almost 10 minutes till 6:00pm and 6:00pm is when the forts close for the day. Crap!!! The cashiers were letting people know.

I really wanted to walk down to the bottom and get pictures from the bottom looking up at the massive walls. Not happening this time. There is a great view out the windows of the women’s restrooms, so I told DH I was going in there to get pictures (the really, really confused look I got was priceless) so I told him there was a window with great views. I went in, got my pictures, and came right back out. They were getting ready to close, so we left Fort El Morro. At least we had time to spend here on our Valor cruise and I was able to get a lot of pictures, so not all was lost this time around.

 

Pictures from the women's bathroom "look out" at Fort El Morro

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

OK, now for “Patio de Sam”. At this point, neither of us was hungry, not even a bit. We should have walked off those burritos by now and we may have, but when it’s hot and we do a lot of walking, I know I don’t have an appetite. Apparently DH didn’t either, he said he wasn’t hungry either. Neither of us felt sick and the heat wasn’t getting to us, we just weren’t hungry. So, there’s another thing that’s going to have to wait until our next trip, the Mofongos and Trifongos at Patio de Sam.

 

We decided that since it was right around sunset that we needed to start heading back, but I really wanted to find the steps leading to Paseo del Morro near the “gate”, which appeared to be the walkway below that goes along the walls of the fort that would take us to Paseo de la Princesa, which would eventually lead us back to Liberty.

 

We cut across the lawn in front of Fort El Morro where we met a friendly little cat and near where he (or she) was, we saw a Banyan tree, and shortly after that, we ended up on a road. I also got some pictures of the views, which were pretty much the same as from the fort. It was pretty with the clouds, but would have loved to have seen a sunset from here.

 

Seeing this little one wasn't helping with me missing our babies back home, but they were in good hands

 

 

We could tell it was raining in the distance...better there than on us

 

 

This is where we wanted to be, we just needed to find the stairs to get there

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

A few more pictures along the way on our search for the stairs to the walkway along the water.

 

 

 

 

 

We continued on that road until we saw steps that would lead us down below. It was probably around sunset, but it was mostly cloudy so we didn’t see the sunset. It was a beautiful walk along the water and stopped here and there to get pictures. The steps were pretty close to the gate and just past the gate was the largest Banyan Tree I’d ever seen and it was a beautiful tree. Yeah, I took a lot of pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

The Banyan Tree

 

 

 

 

 

The street lights that line the walkway started coming on really looked beautiful, so I got a lot more pictures. There was a little pier there, where I also stopped for pictures.

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

Right near the pier was another cat who appeared to be old and probably some TLC. I did get a picture but felt so bad for him or her. I know there is a nearby cat rescue, so hopefully this was one of the cats from there just wandering about. I could have taken this baby home. Seeing the cats here made me think about our boys (four cats) and I was missing them. There were a lot of others out and it was crowded enough that we never felt uneasy about walking around at dusk. I’d love to come back here another time, hopefully at sunset, because I’m sure it’s beautiful.

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

More along the walk way on our way back to Paseo de la Princesa, which would get us back to Carnival Liberty.

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

More along the walk way on our way back to Paseo de la Princesa, which would get us back to Carnival Liberty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

We made our way to Paseo de la Princesa and found the famous fountain that I see pictures of in other reviews. So we stopped and got pictures before continuing on, where I got a few more pictures along the way back.

 

 

 

 

By this time it’s really getting dark, so we continue on until we got to the CVS. I wanted to find Christmas ornaments, or at least a key chain that I could make into an ornament. I ended up with two. One is a little ceramic replica of a fort sentry box, or “Garita”, which was on a key chain. The other was a little airplane bottle of Bacardi rum, but enclosed in a little leather wrap with décor unique to Puerto Rico, a little leather hat on the top of the bottle, and a string attached to the neck of the bottle (I guess to wear around your neck???). DH warned me that I might not be able to get that on the ship. It was worth a try. I was also sure to get post cards this time. I haven’t been getting post cards from the ports and this time that is something I wanted to get. We already have the refrigerator magnets, shot glasses, and T-shirts from a couple. We didn’t need to worry about picking those up this time. I also have Christmas ornaments from each of the other islands on this itinerary, except for Puerto Rico. Couldn’t find any the last time and a friend suggested a key chain. That will work! When I went to locate DH, he was in front of the coolers where bottled drinks are kept. He asked if I wanted something. We’d both finished our water and were still thirsty from the walk. We got a Gatorade that we could share since we couldn’t take it on the ship. After paying for our purchases, which was a self-checkout, we made our way across the street and headed toward Liberty.

 

 

 

 

 

[SmudgeCat]

Pghsteelerfan, thank you so very much for writing this fantastic review!! I'm thoroughly enjoying following your adventures as we prepare to take our cruise on the Liberty in early December. Your pictures and commentary are just fantastic. We live in Charlotte but are driving to Richmond (almost went with IAD/ DCA) in order to catch our flights to San Juan via JFK. The flights out of Charlotte (both direct and with stops) to SJU cost more than twice as much per person as they did going from Richmond. I really love all of the details and photos that you're including!! Thank you!!!

[pghsteelerfan]

Liberty was all lit up and was just beautiful. I’d seen ships lit up at night, but not up close like this. We got pictures from the side by the Sheraton first. then DH said he was ready to get back on board.

 

 

After getting pictures of Liberty from that side, DH said he was ready to get back on board. "Uh, not so fast hon, I want pictures from the OTHER side too, the side without the yellow, cruise terminal building blocking her (Liberty)”. He as anxious about his suitcase and I can’t blame him, but five minutes isn’t going to make a difference. Besides, we still had to finish the Gatorade.

 

We walked along that side, stopped for a picture. Oops, Liberty is not going to fit in the picture. Need to walk down a little further. Did this a few times to where we finally got far enough to get all of Liberty in the picture. The pictures on the phone appear to have turned out really nice, but can’t really tell on the DSLR yet. I’m still in the learning stages but on our Liberty cruise last year on our arrival back in Miami when it was still dark, I found that if I played around with the ISO setting that I was able to get decent pictures. So I was hoping these would too and I was happy to see that they did. This was definitely worth it as I am very happy to have been able to get these pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[Mr2Scents]

Great review so far. I love your pics. We're doing this itinerary for the second time in December and this is definitely building up the anticipation. Hopefully for this trip our travel and connections will go without a hitch much unlike last time and we'll be able to explore OSJ which we weren't able to do before.

[pghsteelerfan]

One more

 

 

 

Re-entering the cruise terminal

 

 

 

 

We got back on Liberty but had to go through security again. I had to put the little bag of purchases from CVS. That little bag of purchases contained booze, not much, but booze is booze. Remember that little airplane bottle of Bacardi rum hidden underneath a little hat and wrapped in leather? Yes, that one. I put through the scanner… and it made it!!! No one said a thing!!! No bright orange tag on the little bag of purchases. Wahoo!!!! Does that officially make me a “smuggler”? This won’t be the last time this trip. Wink, wink.

Our first stop was to the cabin to see if DH’s MIA suitcase was there. We expected my suitcase to be there but his was the one that went AWOL on the flight down. We get to our cabin and no suitcases were outside. We hadn’t met our cabin steward yet, so maybe he or she brought them inside. Nope, not even mine. Once inside, we checked our phones and there was a new post on the “that other” roll-call site. One of the groups had gotten three out of their four missing suitcases and one was still MIA. They asked if DH had gotten his yet, to which we replied that he hadn’t gotten it.

DH was going to walk down to Guest Services but changed his mind. He said he wanted a Funship Special first. Sounded great to me. I heard a noise outside the cabin door as we were getting ready to open it and when I opened the door, we saw that my suitcase was sitting there, so we brought it in. We then continued down to the Lido Deck for a drink and we went down to the Red Frog Rum Bar this time and this is where we met our favorite set of bartenders on this cruise.

We get to the bar and the bartender who waited on us, Antonio, was so sweet. He asked how we were doing and how our cruise was going so far. DH told him it hadn’t started off too well and told Antonio about his luggage. He said we were there to enjoy a drink then he was going to go to Guest Services because he thought for sure it would be there now. Antonio told him that he had a feeling it would be there when he got back, told him we were on vacation and to just enjoy and not worry. DH told him that’s why he as there ordering a drink. I also ordered one but ordered mine in a Red Frog tumbler. We needed one for DH to use as well. Antonio looked around and asked if anyone was looking, we shook our heads “no”. He poured more rum into our drinks. We would definitely be back down to the Red Frog. All the guys working were great and very friendly and their friendliness wasn’t forced or phony in any way.

When we were almost finished with our drinks, we took them to the cabin to finish. If DH’s suitcase wasn’t there, I was going to start getting showered and ready for the evening and DH was going to go to Guest Services. When we got up the steps and turned to go down the hallway, we saw it…Dave’s missing suitcase. I posted to “that other” roll call to let the others know. They had also just received the last missing suitcase. The other missing piece belonging to someone in the other party had been delivered at some point. All MIA suitcases now on board Liberty and accounted for. Yeah!!!

When DH opened his, there was not one, but two of the notices from TSA stating that his suitcase was opened and manually inspected. Go figure. And the airline tag that goes around the handle…instead of SJU for San Juan International, it had SDF…Louisville, KY. Instead of DH’s name, there was another name. We know exactly when and how that happened. At least we had his suitcase and it's contents now.

The two TSA notices in DH's suitcase

And the reverse side of one of them (en Espanol)

And those infamous luggage tags. Inserting a picture of those as well. The tag on the left is the one that came off my suitcase. It had the correct destination SJU (San Juan). I blocked out our last name, which was on the tag that was on my suitcase. What is weird is that it's DH's name, not mine, but this tag ended up on my suitcase. It could have been that since DH made the reservation and made the payment for the two checked suitcase, both tags were under his name. Or...sickening feeling here, the tag with my name on it went on a bag that wasn't ours. I wouldn't have been too happy if my suitcase was lost, but at least I had a few day's worth of extra clothes and things I needed...unlike DH. Now, the tag on the right was the one that was put on DH's suitcase that morning by the airline counter agent. The destination is SDF (Louisville, KY). This one was tightly wound around the handle of DH's suitcase and had someone else's name on it, which I also blocked out for his privacy. It never occurred to us to check the name on the tag that was on the lone, unclaimed suitcase circulating on the carousel at the baggage claim in San Juan to see if that one had DH's name on it (or, quite possibly my name).

 

 

 

Infamous luggage tag (one on left was on my suitcase; one on right was on DH's)

 

 

The only advice I can offer here is to make sure the agent gets the correct luggage tag and that the destination on that tag are correct.

Edited November 3, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

Pghsteelerfan, thank you so very much for writing this fantastic review!! I'm thoroughly enjoying following your adventures as we prepare to take our cruise on the Liberty in early December. Your pictures and commentary are just fantastic. We live in Charlotte but are driving to Richmond (almost went with IAD/ DCA) in order to catch our flights to San Juan via JFK. The flights out of Charlotte (both direct and with stops) to SJU cost more than twice as much per person as they did going from Richmond. I really love all of the details and photos that you're including!! Thank you!!!

 

Thank you much for letting me know how much you are enjoying it. By doing it, it's almost like reliving our cruise again.

 

I can't believe the airfare is so expensive out of Charlotte to San Juan. There is one direct out of IAD on United, but it wasn't available this time around, but we booked this kind of late in the game and most of our flights were close to being booked. But still, you'd think it would be less expensive out of Charlotte. The flight we got went from IAD to Charlotte, where we caught the connection to San Juan. I guess since that would be direct for you, but still.

 

It won't be long until your cruise. I clearly remember a month before ours and how that month flew. Of course, that was summer and summer always flies by.

 

Thank you again for following along and I hope you have a wonderful trip on Liberty next month. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

Great review so far. I love your pics. We're doing this itinerary for the second time in December and this is definitely building up the anticipation. Hopefully for this trip our travel and connections will go without a hitch much unlike last time and we'll be able to explore OSJ which we weren't able to do before.

 

Thank you about the pictures. I took so many. This is our second time on this itinerary as well and it's one I hope to repeat again one day. It's our all time favorite. Sorry about the travel connection hitches your last time. I sure hope all goes well this time for you. OSJ is beautiful and I could spend a week there.

 

I noticed you were on Glory once before, same here! Liberty is the same layout, different decor. We loved Glory but Liberty has the nicest decor of all the ships we've been on. Thank you for following along and as I just mentioned to SmudgeCat, that time between now and then, it did for us. I hope you have a wonderful cruise on Liberty.

[pghsteelerfan]

Normally we would have eaten in the main dining room tonight, but because I wanted to get the pictures of Liberty at night, we decided that we'd skip eating in the main dining room and eat on the Lido Deck 9. We stepped onto the balcony for the views and for a few quick pictures first.

 

 

 

***Even though we didn’t go to dinner on the ship this evening, I will mention it for anyone planning on taking a cruise out of San Juan on the southern itinerary. There are normally two set dinner times, “Early Seating”, which starts at 6:00pm and “Late Seating”, which starts at 8:15pm. There is also a “Your Time Dining”, that is anytime between 5:45pm – 9:30pm. On the southern itinerary out of San Juan, the ship usually leaves at 10:00pm. The “General Safety Briefing” (Muster Drill), is scheduled at 9:30pm and is the mandatory, meaning all passengers must attend. Since that would be in the middle of Late Seating, when cruising this itinerary out of San Juan, the dining is “Open Seating” in both the Golden Olympian and Silver Olympian Dining Rooms from 5:30pm – 8:15pm.***

 

 

 

Right around that time there was a knock on the door. It was our cabin steward, Kendrick, stopping by to introduce himself and to meet us. We’ve had some good cabin stewards in the past, but Kendrick is now my favorite. He will definitely be playing a part in this review later on. After Kendrick left, we took turns getting showered and ready then walked down to the buffet, but there was nothing being served there. We knew that something would be open later and we knew it was getting close to the Muster Drill, so we just went back to the cabin and unpacked. But before going back to the cabin, I wanted to try for a picture of Liberty's outer decks lit up at night.

 

 

 

 

 

When we got back, there was an envelope on the bed with my name on it. Ah, the tickets for the Sky Ride to Paradise Point that I purchased through Carnival. You can do this on your own, but by purchasing through Carnival as an “excursion”, you save about $2.00 per ticket. I would need these for tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was also about this time that I realized what I totally forgot to get while at CVS….the Gasolinas!!! ****!!! I have read about them in a few other reviews and really wanted to try them. They are adult beverages in a box, like a drink box for little kids, and they come in a few different flavors.

Edited November 3, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

We’ve been through plenty of muster drills before and have learned by experience that if you go down to your muster station right when they start announcing it, you’ll be stuck way in the back behind four or five rows deep of other passengers. We decided to wait about 10 – 15 minutes before heading down. The longer you wait, but don’t wait too long, the better chance you have of being in that first row. We ended up in the second row back, which isn’t too bad, but the first would have been better. It gets hot out there. One think nice about leaving out of San Juan is that it’s dark, so you’re not standing out there in the heat of the day.

 

***For anyone planning their first cruise, you muster station should be on your sail and sign card, or S&N card.***

 

Our muster station was “E” this cruise. Since we’ve been on several cruises the past five years, I haven’t really paid attention, but I know at one point there used to be maps with the muster station location inside the cabin. I’m thinking the inside of one of closet doors, the closet with the life vests.

***If you don’t know where your muster station is, easy peasy. When you leave your cabin, there a plenty of Carnival staff in the hallways and stairwells who will direct you on exactly where you are to go. For our muster station, it has been on Atlantic Deck 4, outside, and under the lifeboats. There will be Carnival staff out there as well and they will show you exactly where you need to be. Years ago, it was required that you wear your life vest to the muster drill, but we no longer do. I will note that while you’re down there for the muster station, look at the life boat above where you’re standing. Lifeboat #19 was lifeboat at our muster station. If, heavens forbid, an emergency were to happen, knowing your lifeboat number will be a big help in finding your muster station ASAP.***

 

The muster drill probably took between 10 – 15 minutes and when you cruise out of San Juan, they will do it in English and then repeat it in Spanish. Once the muster drill is over, they won’t let everyone go all at once. On our past four cruises (all since 2010), we have been on Conquest Class ships (Glory, Valor, Liberty twice) and when muster drill is over, they let one side of the ship go first and will announce either starboard (right side) or port (left side). This cruise it was port side (we’re starboard). Oh well, ya can’t win ‘em all. I think we waited about five minutes longer.

 

***Another thing to note…elevators will not be in use so you’ll need to use the stairs, both getting to and from the muster drill***

 

I’m sure they have procedures for those who have problems with mobility. I don’t know what those are, but Carnival has a “Special Needs” department or I’m sure checking in with Guest Services that something can be arranged. It may have been here on Cruise Critic, but I do remember seeing that a traveling companion was in a wheelchair and it had been arranged for them to attend the muster drill in a lounge on the ship, but I’m not positive. Best bet would be to contact Special Needs ahead of time or Guest Services. On some of the newer ships, muster drill is held in a lounge.