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

[pghsteelerfan]

The "Fun Finds in St. Thomas" flier that we received when getting off Liberty in St. Thomas

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

The last time we did this cruise on Valor, I had just missed a great photo opportunity for a sunrise picture, due to a fogged up lens. I was able to get pictures, but the ones I missed would have been much better. This time I wanted to be sure not to miss another opportunity. As I mentioned earlier in the review, the sunrise and sunset times are both listed at the top of each day’s “Fun Times” and the sunrise for the morning of St. Thomas was 6:10am.

 

I was going to set my alarm clock to go off at 6:00am, but was having trouble with getting the alarm set, so I got it back to 5:30am. That also happens to be our “normal” wake up time during the week, so I just left it. When the alarm went off at 5:30am, I got up and let DH sleep. I had my cameras ready but in order to prevent the fogged over lenses, I took the cameras out and set them on the balcony table then went back inside and got ready for the day, trying to be as quiet as possible so I wouldn’t wake DH. I was ready by 6:00am and went back out to the balcony. This was going to be a beautiful sunrise!

I could see St. Thomas (we were actually getting pretty close) and we were also passing “Sail Rock”, which is a tiny little island off the coast of St. Thomas. The first time we saw it was on our Glory cruise in 2010 and we also saw it when we got up in the morning of our Valor cruise in 2013. When we see “Sail Rock” now, we know that we’re about a half hour from the pier at Havensight, where we will be docking. Since I didn’t have to deal with fogged lenses this time, I got a lot of pictures. The water was calm, the clouds were beautiful and their reflections shown on the water. Then the actual sunrise. I definitely took a lot of pictures. I had to make up for the last time, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

This is "Sail Rock"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

Now is as good a time as any for me to bring this subject up and this is not the first, nor will it be the last time this subject has come up on Cruise Critic. I’m talking about balcony doors. We have had balconies on our four cruises prior to this one and have occasionally heard a balcony door slam a few times, but this time? Wow!!! I’m glad I was already awake, but even so, it gets annoying after a while. As mentioned, we were in cabin #8353 and next to us was #8355. The occupants of that cabin were also out on their balcony as we sailed into St. Thomas. As we sailed in, they were constantly in and out, letting their balcony door slam each time. This is very loud. After a while, in addition to the next door cabin, I could hear the balcony door of the cabin next to them constantly slamming. I heard a few others around as well, but the cabin next door was the worst.

 

The balcony doors do not slide, they open like a regular door. When you let go of it, there is tension at first, like it’s going to close slowly, but then it slams. They all do. I was hoping that the next door neighbors would realize this and make an effort to hold onto the door instead of just letting it slam. Wishful thinking. This would continue the rest of the cruise. We became award of the balcony door slam on our first cruise with a balcony, on Miracle in 2006. I accidentally let it slam when we went to check out the balcony when we first entered our cabin. It scared the living daylights out of me and I almost lost a “Funship Special” because of it, but managed to hold onto it. Lesson learned.

 

I stayed out on our balcony watching as we sailed in and at 6:30am, we were just about to the pier getting ready to dock for the day.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 4, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

One more from our balcony as we approached the pier

 

 

DH started to wake up and I let him know we were at the pier, docking. He said he had a headache, not bad but the headache “was there”. I told him to sleep some more and let him know I’d be up getting coffee then would be up on Panorama Deck 10 for pictures and I’d get him up when I got back.

 

I grabbed my camera and one of the tumblers I purchased the day before, for the coffee. I like warm to hot coffee, but won’t drink it very hot, so I’d get a juice cup to get ice, put it in the tumbler, then I’d get a cup of coffee and pour that into the tumbler, then go and add some cream. It was perfect, right up to the top but not overflowing or too full to get the lid on. I think for sanitary purposes you’re supposed to use the cups provided at the coffee/water/juice stations to fill your personal cup instead of putting your personal cup under the dispensers to fill directly. I did get some strange looks from one woman, but who cares. After getting the coffee, I went up to Panorama Deck 10, where I got a lot more pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Thomas is just so pretty and I’ll never forget the first time we were there. Our first cruise, our honeymoon, was also out of San Juan on a similar itinerary. St. Thomas was our first stop. I had never been to the Caribbean before or out of the USA for that matter. Our cabin had a port hole and when I got up and looked out that first morning, I was “wowed” and remember telling DH to “come look and see where we are!!!” We had the view across the bay looking toward Charlotte Amalie.

 

While I was up there, I saw “J” from “that other” roll-call. He was out doing the same, getting a lot of pictures. I also went up to Sun Deck 12 and got pictures of the mini-golf course, and of course, the funnel. To get to the mini-golf course, you need to go up to Spa Deck 11 and enter the basketball/volleyball court, where there is a set of stairs that go up there.

Edited November 4, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

I will let the pictures take over for a while

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

More pictures of St. Thomas early in the morning

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

The basketball/volleyball area

[pghsteelerfan]

For some reason, I can't resist getting pictures of this

 

 

Mini Golf course - does not go the whole way around

 

 

This is Liberty's backup generator. All Carnival ships have them since the Triumph incident a few years ago.

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Which side looks better, this side...

...or this side?

 

View down into the basketball/volleyball area from the mini golf course

 

The Havensight shopping area

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

I was getting ready to head back to the cabin but decided to take one more walk around Liberty. At one point, when I was at the very back, I saw a partial rainbow and took a lot of pictures, but for some reason they aren’t showing up on the camera I was using. I wasn’t imagining it because others saw it too and commented on it.

 

This is one I took of the rainbow, but obviously it didn't show up. It was not a full rainbow, just a partial one withing the clouds in the distance

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

By this time I had spent almost an hour and a half up there, so I went back to our cabin to see if DH was up yet, but stopped on the Lido deck for a coffee refill, then continued back to the cabin.

When I turned the corner by the stairs to go to our cabin, our cabin steward, Kendrick, was out there. His assistant, I-Ketut, whom Kendrick introduced me to, was also with him. I ended up talking to Kendrick for a few minutes (I-Ketut was on his way to another cabin with the cart) and while we were talking, another female cabin steward came up the hall and introduced herself. Her name is Snezana and she was actually Kendrick’s and I-Ketut’s manager. She was also working, right along with them. Snezana was also very nice, down to earth, and was just so genuinely happy. I spent a few minutes talking to them before they had to be on their way and I went into the cabin.

DH was already up and getting ready and said his headache was about gone, so I told him I’d go get him some orange juice (he doesn’t drink coffee) and brought that back down for him. After all, I am the reason he had that "fireball" shot the night before and also the reason he didn't have a good meal in him.

Our plan for today was the Sky Ride to Paradise Point. I mentioned earlier that I booked this as an excursion through Carnival to save $2.00, per ticket, well you’re actually only saving $1.00. To purchase tickets at the Sky Ride directly, it cost $21.00 per adult/$12.00 per kids age 6-12. Does this mean kids under 6 are free? That I don’t know. Carnival charges $19.99 per adult/$9.99 per child. There is no set time to be there if you purchase tickets through Carnival, you can go when you want.

The Sky Ride opens at 9:00am, so we didn’t have to rush. It seems that most people do something else in the morning then do the Sky Ride later in the day. I wanted to go in the morning because I thought it would be prettier with the sun behind us.

We had planned to do the Sky Ride to Paradise Point on our Valor cruise, but that just happened to be about two weeks after the Sky Ride was shut down for several months for road widening and Paradise Point was also closed, so we weren’t able to get up by cab. Apparently the Paradise Point building was under new ownership and the new owners decided to do the renovating while the Sky Ride was closed. Both opened back up sometime that fall.

After the Sky Ride, our plan was to go to Sapphire Beach for a few hours. Someone else had highly recommended Secret Harbor to me on my Valor review and it looked really nice, but we were worried about transportation back and didn’t know if cabs would be waiting or not. We were at Sapphire on our Valor cruise and really liked it.

 

DH wanted to get some breakfast, so we went back up to the Lido deck so he could get something to eat. I had already eaten that last section of my Blue Iguana breakfast burrito. Right after DH was finished with breakfast, he wanted to get pictures, so we did that then went back down to the cabin to get what we needed for the day and headed out at about 9:10am.

***This morning, Liberty pulled into the pier (sometimes they back in), so the starboard (right) side was facing the pier. To get off Liberty, we had to go all the way to the forward (front of the ship) elevators and take them down to floor “0”. They had two gangways out, but only one was open (the one on the right if you are looking from the ship toward St. Thomas). Also important…in St. Thomas you will need your photo ID with you in addition to your Sail & Sign card. This is the only port on this itinerary where we needed photo ID to get back on the ship, so you’ll want to take it with you.***

We walked all the way down the hallway to the forward elevators and went down to “0”. There were no lines to get off the ship this morning. We got the brochures and maps that they hand to you when leaving the ship, then exited to the “dings” of our Sail & Sign cards. There will be ship photographers at the bottom of the gangway to take “Port of Call” pictures. Since we don’t purchase these anyway, we don’t waste their or our time. I’m always sure to smile and tell them “Good morning” and most are very pleasant about that, but there are some who seem offended if you decline having the picture taken.

Edited November 4, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

Once off the ship, we had a general idea of where to go since we saw the entrance to the Sky Ride from our balcony. It was about 9:15am when we got off Liberty then it was a five minute walk to get there. There are steps leading up to the window where to pay/give them your ticket. You will then get a bracelet that we weren’t able to get on ourselves. There was another couple in front of us that couldn’t get theirs on either. We just decided to carry them in to where you get on the ride. The folks running the Sky Ride helped all of us with our bracelets. When your hands are full, it’s kind of hard to do it yourself.

 

When you go to get in line for the ride up, you’ll be asked to pose for a picture that will be available for purchase when you come back down. There was no pressure to buy it. At this hour of the morning, it was not crowded at all, so we were on the next “car” (gondola or whatever the correct word is). We rode up with the other couple, but there was room for several more. There are open windows to let air in. The trip up only takes about 10 minutes, if that. We got a lot of pictures as we made our way up and when we were at the top, the views were spectacular.

 

 

 

They have lookout platforms and because we were there early, it wasn’t crowded and we didn’t have to wait to get pictures and we could also take our time. There is also a map at the top that identifies the other islands you see in the distance. I tried getting a picture of that, but in order to get it to fit in the picture frame I had to back up to where it can't be read. I found this on the internet, it's the same map.

 

 

Some of the pictures I got

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

More Paradise Point pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll admit, I went shutter button happy up here - it was such a gorgeous day and we could see for miles.

[wrigley80]

I haven't been on in awhile so it was a nice surprise to see your review in full on photo mode. Love the photos. I am on page 6....it looks like your guys had a great time. Thank You for sharing your vacation with us Holly

[pghsteelerfan]

While we were down there, someone called to us by name. It was J & K from “that other” roll call and the other two in their group were also there. We took turns getting pictures of each other with the scenery overlooking Liberty and Charlotte Amalie in the background. We spent some time talking with them before they left to do a tour of the island.

 

This is a picture that "J" and "K" got for us with my camera

"J" got this picture of the four of us with their camera and just sent it to me this morning, giving me his blessing to use it in my review.

 

At Paradise Point, there are several souvenir shops, so I stopped in one and got a few post cards then DH and I made our way to the bar where I ordered a “Bailey’s Bushwacker” drink. It’s a frozen drink that contains mostly alcohol but it tastes like a chocolate milkshake. I’ve always heard about these and wanted to try one and they are really good. They do pack a punch though, so one would be enough. We walked around some more and got more pictures. We spent almost an hour there and that was all we needed.

 

 

 

 

Want a Bushwacker? This is were they're at.

 

[pghsteelerfan]

I haven't been on in awhile so it was a nice surprise to see your review in full on photo mode. Love the photos. I am on page 6....it looks like your guys had a great time. Thank You for sharing your vacation with us Holly

 

Brianna! So good to hear from you! I have been thinking of you constantly. You and your mom have been in my thoughts and prayers.

 

We did have a good time on this cruise, actually, a great time. We actually met some others on CC and are still in touch and sharing pictures back and forth. We had some "not normal for us" escapades on this one.

 

I took over 3000 pictures this time. :eek: I had to go through them all then type up the actual review to cut and past so I can keep it flowing. I had to hurry with it or I'd be finishing after Fascination takes over the route next year. How was your cruise? Will you be doing another review? I hope so but understand if you don't.

 

Thank you for commenting and glad you're enjoying the pictures.

Edited November 4, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

Loved seeing here when looking down from the top (this is zoomed in)

 

 

See the other island way in the distance? That's St. Croix.

 

Zoomed in to get a better view of St. Croix

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

We couldn't have asked for a better day to come up here

 

 

 

 

For our ride down, we had a “car” to ourselves. Once we got off, we looked at our picture and passed on it. Again, there was no pressure to buy it (I think the cost was $10.00) and we were not given a “guilt trip” for not purchasing it. I have to say that the employees working there were all very nice.

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Pictures from the ride down from Paradise Point

 

 

I was trying to get an overhead view of Havensight shopping area...think I got most of it.

 

 

Have I said how much I love this beautiful ship?

 

 

Another of Liberty

 

I got a lot of pictures of Liberty this time and that was to make up from our cruise on her last year in which the only decent pictures I was able to get of her, all of her, from the outside were from the ferry in Belize and believe me, those pictures weren't that great. Just doing her justice this time.

 

[SoloSailorII]

Have I said how much I love this beautiful ship?

 

 

I have to agree. I don't know if it was the itinerary , all the anxiety leading up to it, the perfect weather but ms liberty sure is pretty and this has been our favorite cruise by far.

 

Fair winds and Following seas~~~~

Tony

[pghsteelerfan]

At the bottom of the stairs down by the sidewalk, there was a taxi driver who asked if we needed a cab. We wanted to go directly to Sapphire Beach and had planned to walk back over to the area at Havensight (the shopping center/mall area right as you leave the ship). DH asked him how much he charged for a ride to Sapphire Beach. $10.00 per person. That was the same we paid the last time, so we went with him.

 

He had a nice, air conditioned van, so it would be a comfortable ride. The ride to Sapphire is only about 20 minutes but it took a little longer this time. We ended up getting behind a couple on a scooter. Our cab driver told us how dangerous that was because the roads are all up and down hills, some steep, and the roads aren’t in the best condition and you also have to worry about other drivers going around a bend too fast. This couple were obviously tourists, but don’t know if they were Liberty passengers or not, but they eventually pulled over to let the line of traffic that was forming behind them pass, after we were behind them for close to 10 minutes.

When we arrived at Sapphire Beach, our driver asked if we’d like for him to come back for us and we told him we’d be ready at 2:00pm and he said he’d be there and told us to look for taxi number “613”, which is an easy number for me to remember. DH paid him and gave him a tip.

 

It was now almost 11:00am. We remembered from our Valor cruise in 2013 that there were taxis waiting to take cruise passengers back to the ship, so we felt we were covered. It was in St. Thomas, on our very first cruise at our very first port, where a cab driver left us stranded at Magen’s Bay. We agreed on a time and he said he’d be there. We were at that exact spot at least 15 minutes earlier. A half hour after that, he still wasn’t there and it was getting close to the time we’d need to be back on the ship. We lucked out in that there was a ship tour (we were the only ship in port that day) at Magen’s Bay that day and when their bus showed up, we were able to get a ride back to the ship with them.

 

At Sapphire Beach, you are dropped off at a parking lot that isn’t in the best of shape. There is currently some new construction and renovation going on. To access the beach, you have to go down a walkway between two buildings.

 

I got this picture as we were leaving, but it belongs in this part of the review as I forgot to get a picture on the way in. See the pink building on the left in the picture? The entrance to Sapphire is that little walkway between that pink building on the left and the other one on the right (it's brick).

 

Edited November 4, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

I have to agree. I don't know if it was the itinerary , all the anxiety leading up to it, the perfect weather but ms liberty sure is pretty and this has been our favorite cruise by far.

 

Fair winds and Following seas~~~~

Tony

 

We have always loved this itinerary, our favorite. But there was just something about this particular cruise, and you may have nailed it with all the anxiety leading up to it, that has pushed it up to #1 for us as well. With September being prime hurricane season, then the engine fire, we really lowered our expectations. After all, it was our Liberty cruise last year when we ended up with the worst weather we've had while on a cruise (we've been lucky) and even missed a port. We also met some great people on this cruise who we're still in touch with and that's also probably part of it. I'm glad that this has also been your favorite.

[kimmiloulovestocruise]

I am officially caught up! I very much am enjoying all the pictures. You can never take too many pictures of paradise! I love your writing style and sense of humor :). Reading along is making me relive the great times we had on Valor in April 2014 and has inspired me to get out my memorabilia from my Carnival Liberty cruise from 2007. She sure is a beauty of a ship. I am also taking notes for my upcoming RC Adventure of the Seas March 2016 cruise. We will be sailing out of San Juan visiting St Thomas and St Lucia for the duplicate islands and additionally St Croix, Antigua, and Grenada. There is no place more beautiful than the Southern Caribbean!

 

Thanks for taking the time to write your review!