Carnival Liberty 4/4/16 - 5 day out of Galveston

[nsullivan]

This is a work in progress. I've never posted a review so bear with me. Here's the ship while we were pulling up to the port.

 

[nsullivan]

Some of this will be in present tense. I started writing things down while on the ship.

 

Day 1- Galveston Embarkation

 

We got to Galveston late afternoon the night before the cruise. We didn't really do much because we were tired from packing and driving. We stayed in the Super 8 Motel for about $60. I was concerned it would be sketchy because it was so cheap but it really wasn't. I was pleasantly surprised. The room smelled a little damp but it was really clean. My husband was bummed that they didn't catch AMC so he missed the Walking Dead finale. And he now has to wait until we get home Saturday to watch it.

 

The morning of the cruise we woke up around 8:30 because I couldn't sleep any longer. We ate breakfast and got packed up. We were waiting for Specs liquor to open at 10am so we could get some wine to bring. We ended up with Llano moscato and Taylor Fladgate 10.

 

 

I know nothing of wine. I tend to not like it but when we open these, I'll let you know how they taste.

 

Once done at Specs, we headed to the port. We had FTTF. Mainly because I was DETERMINED to be one of the first on board. I was dying to get the Behind the Fun Tour and was freaking out about it selling out before we could get it.

 

We dropped our check in luggage with the porter and then went to the Port parking. Parking was so easy and the shuttle was ready for us and brought us back to the port. FTTF was awesome. We bypassed pretty much everyone. No issues with my birth certificate. It wasn't any more difficult than my husband having his passport. We were done checking in around 11:30 and then sat and waited to board. I think we only sat for like 20 minutes and then they started calling the wedding parties and the diamonds and suites. Then us. Wayyyy more people had FTTF than I was expecting. My carry on had two packs of Cokes, one bottle of wine, and a power strip. They opened both packs of Cokes to check them. Didn't even look at the power strip. My husband had a fan and a bottle of wine. They didn't care. I know people have had power strips and fans confiscated. Ours were new in boxes. Once on board we hurried to the shore excursion deck and booked my Behind the Fun tour. We were the first people booked! I'm so excited! I can't wait to do it in a couple days! Then we headed to our room which was ready. Our bags weren't there yet but they weren't far behind. The mini bar fridge was locked but I think that was due to Galveston's strange laws. Our steward unlocked it while we were at dinner. We have an aft balcony room.

 

 

 

 

My husband started to unpack a little but I told him we needed to go eat. I was getting a migraine from not eating breakfast. Of course I get one on my first cruise day. I decided I wanted Mongolian wok. So we waited in line for that for what seemed like forever. And it wasn't that great. The Thai BBQ sauce wasn't good. But my husband got Szechaun sauce and it was much better. Then we headed back to the room to wait for the muster drill. The muster drill was as long and boring as you'd expect. My feet were killing me after that. Then we went back to the room to wait for our 6pm dining in the silver Olympian dining room.

 

Bye bye Galveston

 

[nsullivan]

Service seemed a bit slow at dinner. They didn't seem to have their flow yet. For some reason, none of the employees seemed to be in a good mood today. Maybe it's just a chaotic first day. We'll see. I can't remember our waiter's name. I'll get it tomorrow night. My husband was beyond excited that we got a table for 2. Here's today's menus.

 

 

Justin chose the shrimp cocktail and the flatiron steak. He said the steak was pretty tough but I thought it usually was due to the cut of meat. I might be making that up.

 

I got a Caesar salad and the salmon filet. The salad was a typical Caesar salad. The salmon was bland. Really bland.

 

 

[nsullivan]

 

We both got the chocolate melting cake but I forgot to take a pic of it. Im sure the majority of you know what it looks like.

 

After dinner, we went to the fun shops to get us a couple lanyards. Then we went back to the room. I am tired so I decided to rent a movie. "Sisters" It was too chilly for me to try to watch Minions on the deck. My husband decided to go try the jacuzzis and then some games at the casino. He is currently there and I am in bed writing this.

 

Our first towel animal of the day. I think it's a puppy.

 

 

-the mini fridge was fully stocked so Justin tracked down the steward to get him to empty it. He said the steward was a little rude about it. He told us to just empty it and put it all on the counter

 

I am making sure I save all my fun times so I can scan them in for y'all.

 

And my husband just came back from the casino. He won $100 from that machine with the claw that reaches down and grabs money. Usually has stuffed animals in it.

[nsullivan]

Day 2- Sea Day

 

Today was a sea day. We woke up and had room service breakfast. Then decided to go to the spa. Justin decided on a Swedish massage and they got him in right then. I decided to have my hair colored. I had to wait about 45 minutes until my appt so I just walked around the ship. My stylist was Nicole and she did a great job. I just wanted my ends lightened. She didn't try to sell me anything which was nice. After that we went to lunch. Justin had a Guy's burger and I had chicken tacos. They were good. We had to wait until after 1 to go back to our room because they were cleaning the balconies. After 1 we laid on the balcony for a while. Then I decided I wanted coffee. The guy did a great job on my foam art.

 

Tonight was cruise elegant night so we got dressed up and went to dinner.

 

 

Justin had the scallops and duck. I had the salad again and duck. The duck was awesome. And a lot of meat.

 

 

[Clarea]

Excellent photos, looking forward to more.:)

[nsullivan]

For dessert, he had the melting cake again and I got Creme brûlée.

 

 

[Princess_K]

Absolutely am following along!

[nsullivan]

Day 3 - Progreso

 

I forgot to mention before that we did the continental room service breakfast every morning. They were right on time every morning and called about an hour later to make sure we got it and everything was good. I ordered room service coffee a lot and to be honest, the woman that answered the phone sounded like she hated her job. That was a bummer but oh well.

 

Progreso:

 

 

This day may take me longer to post. I took quite a few pics of Uxmal. I had already been there on my first cruise and wanted to take my husband.

 

So we met the guide in the Venetian Palace. We made our way to the buses past all the shops. The bus ride was uneventful. It took about an hour and a half I think to get to Uxmal. The guide told us some info about Progreso and the Mayans. He showed us some Mayan calendars we could purchase with any date we wanted. Since this was our late honeymoon cruise, I decided to get one with our wedding date. It was $20. He took our info and then radioed it to someone and they made the calendar while we were in Uxmal. We got them when we got back to the port.

 

Uxmal is one of the only places that you can still climb a pyramid. From what I read, it hasn't become as commercialized as Chichen Itza(sp). There were shops and people selling things but they didn't really hassle us.

 

We had about two hours at Uxmal. An hour with the guide and then another hour to explore on our own. It was very hot. I couldn't imagine going in the summer.

 

[nsullivan]

This is the ball court at Uxmal. The winner of the game would be sacrificed to the Gods for rain.

 

 

I wanted a picture of us with the pyramid in the background. Of course we asked someone who didn't speak English. He was from France. So it was a little difficult to get the picture but we made it work.

 

 

My husband decided to climb the pyramid. I took about two steps and decided that was not for me.

 

 

I made a friend. I named him Julio. That was our guides name.

 

[Princess_K]

I have a question. .. I have left from Galveston before but cannot remember if the terminal is one that has the large glass window where you can see the ship from inside. Does it?

[nsullivan]

After Uxmal we went to Hacienda Ochil to look around and eat some snacks. It was gorgeous. And apparently when the Spanish settled in Progreso long ago, they actually took stones from Uxmal to build parts of this Hacienda. We were given two drinks to try. One was made from flour I believe and one was made from Hibiscus flowers. I tried the Hibiscus flower and it basically tasted like watered down koolaid. They brought us a bowl of Pico that was amazing. And a little slider that looked like a mini sloppy joe. They were good. Then we walked around until it was time to go back to the bus.

 

 

A lot of Agave plants

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[nsullivan]

It did have Windows but I wasn't paying much attention to that. I don't remember seeing the ship out of the Windows but I was so focused on getting on the ship, I really wasn't looking at anything else.

[nsullivan]

The Hacienda has a little cave with water. It was pretty but also a bit creepy. The water wasn't moving at all.

 

 

Apparently these red handprints are found at a lot of Mayan ruins.

 

 

We were running behind. Our excursion was booked through Carnival so I knew we wouldn't be left behind. But our guide was nervous and wanting us to get back quickly. Once we got to the port he was stressing that we did not have time to shop. We needed to go straight back to the boat. He also gave us our Mayan calendar.

 

[nsullivan]

This is the only night I don't have the menus. We were so worn out from the sun and walking that we decided to do room service. Justin got the pizza and I got quesadillas. They were all pretty good.

 

Then we decided to walk a little bit around the ship so we could give our steward time to come do the turn down service. I know there was been a big controversy about having to choose morning or evening service from the steward but we didn't have to choose. He came every morning and every night. He never introduced himself. We only ever saw him in the hallway passing by. I guess that's not such a bad thing. This was only my second cruise and the first one was four years ago. I remember the steward being very very friendly. Always coming around. This cruise seemed like everyone was a bit stressed.

 

Unfortunately for this review, my husband and I are very boring. We didn't do any nightclubs or comedy shows. We like to just lay around and relax. Or balcony was perfect for that. It was hot on the balcony. Since we had an aft, there wasn't much of a breeze. That's the only complaint I have about the aft balconies. But I would 100% book it again. Justin used our power strip to bring our fan outside.

 

Here was my towel animal for this night. Platypus maybe?

 

[nsullivan]

I'll post Cozumel and the rest tomorrow. I do have most of the fun times and random papers they gave us. I will post them as soon as I can get to a scanner.

[Princess_K]

It did have Windows but I wasn't paying much attention to that. I don't remember seeing the ship out of the Windows but I was so focused on getting on the ship, I really wasn't looking at anything else.

 

Thanks. I'm going with newbies and would like to see their reactions if we can see the ship inside the terminal. I think I also was focused on getting on the only time I was in Galveston and that's why I dot remember.

[PMLW918]

Thanks so much for the review! We are going on this cruise next week and I can't wait to see your fun times and the rest of your review!

[Keith1010]

Very nice report.

 

Keith

[bkcoogler]

I'm excited to read the rest of your review. We'll be sailing in September, while this is going to be my 5th cruise it's my first 5 day and I'm nervous about the number of activities and entertainment options.

[nsullivan]

Cozumel:

 

This is from our balcony. That is Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas

 

 

 

Also next to us was Carnival Valor. And the Breeze pulled up a bit later.

 

Our excursions for the day were Everybody Loves Rays and a fish pedicure at Mr. Sanchos. I had already done the stingrays on my last cruise but Justin really wanted to do them. We met the group after getting off the ship. When you get off the ship they have police check your bags to make sure you aren't bringing any fruit off the ship. They have a dog to sniff too but she was sleeping and didn't seem too interested. Then you walk through this huge shop where you do get hassled.

 

Our group was a big group for the stingrays. It took like 3 or 4 taxis to get us to the Stingray Beach. It's like a 5 minute taxi ride since the taxi drivers in Cozumel are insane.

 

Here's Stingray Beach

 

 

Once you get there, you sit in a little auditorium area where they explain to you the anatomy of the stingrays and how to hold them. Then they explain how to operate your snorkeling gear. After his little speech, we went to get our snorkeling gear. I didn't want to snorkel and neither did my husband so all I got were some water shoes. My husband brought it own. They split the group in half. Some would start snorkeling and we would start in the shallow end feeding and holding the Rays.

 

The first thing we did was feed the Rays. They have is each half of a little fish. You hold it with your thumb tucked in and put it down in the water. The Rays will swim over your hand and suck it up like a vacuum cleaner. Rays don't have teeth. And these don't have barbs. They cut the barbs off. They said it doesn't hurt the Rays. It's like a fingernail and it does grow back. After feeding them, we got to pet them and hold them and take pictures. It was a lot of fun. I will have to post more pics after I get to a computer. We purchased the pics on a disc and a frame. They have a little shop with drinks and food. They have iguanas and parrots too. We stayed for a little while and then got a taxi to go to Mr. Sanchos. They paid for $8 of the taxi and we had to pay for the rest.

 

[Kkross]

Great review! We leave on her beginning of June. Do you have any fun times?

[nsullivan]

I think I have all the fun times. I will scan them tomorrow at work and upload them.

[Honeybear]

What a WONDERFUL review! I cannot wait to read the rest of it! I know you went to a LOT of trouble to post this but we so very much appreciate it! You answered questions I had not even thought to ask! THANK YOU!!!