Christmas/New Year Liberty Review

[Richard Parker]

I'm still here... just had to catch up with a few of those pesky real world obligations that keep us from cruising all the time.

 

Rest assured that the rest of the review will be coming in short order. The port reviews are ones that I want to make as detailed as possible.

 

Believe me, if I were allowed to spend all day writing these reviews I would gladly do so. Unfortunately, days at home do not afford nearly the luxury and freedom as days at sea. I'm at work as we speak and will post my reports on Costa Rica and Panama either late tonight or tomorrow.

 

I appreciate the feedback and welcome all the questions. It takes a special breed to appreciate and take advantage of what these boards have to offer.

 

I think I'll wait until tomorrow to finish my port posts. I think it would be better for all involved as we had a party tonight to share our pictures and videos and anything I write tonight might not be with my best clarity. Thanks for your kind words and patience. For anyone on the Liberty this weekend with urgent questions, please post them and I'll try to answer. Otherwise, all I can say is that cruising is an attitude and it's way more fun to have a good one.

[palmtre2]

Thanks Rich - we are taking this itinerary in April and thanks to your reviews I really can't wait. I was wondering about the big screen and you've answered all my questions. Thanks again!! BTW - Congrats!!!

[Richard Parker]

12/28/05—Limon, Costa Rica

The Costa Rica and Panama stops were the reason we chose this cruise. My wife had spent a semester studying in Costa Rica during college and I wanted to see what she kept talking about.

After visiting the Costa Rica board, we decided to book a private tour with Charlie Soto. Our tour was to include a stop at the zip lines, a banana plantation, a wildlife tour and a stop to buy coffee. We were scheduled to start the tour at 11:00. the ship docked a little early, around 9:00, so we went ahead and had breakfast and got off the ship at around 10:30. There was a man standing with a board with our names on it at the end of the pier. Very easy to find and no problems. We were directed to a small bus like those you might see as a hotel shuttle. It had the A/C on, which was nice even though the temperature was not terribly hot. There was some confusion with the buses. Apparently a large family had booked the tour and didn’t want anyone else to be on the bus with them, so we had to move from the bus we were initially on to another bus sitting right next to it. Then, as we were about to get underway, they found out that some of the people on our bus didn’t want to do the zip lines. These people had to be moved to a different bus so they didn’t have to waste their time waiting for the rest of the group to get through the zip lines. When you book the tour, they will say that it’s a private tour. If you truly have a large group and don’t want other people to be with you, I would specifically ask about this and confirm it before you get there. I didn’t really expect that our “private” tour would truly just be the 2 of us, but it could cause some problems if someone was really set on that. I think that “private” part of the tour just means that you have to pay before you can ride. We finally got going after about 15 or 20 minutes on the bus and we drove directly to the zip lines.

Costa Rica is a developing nation. It is beautiful and lush, but the cities and the houses that you see remind you that they don’t have the infrastructure and services that we enjoy in the US. Nearly every house had a metal stand up on a pole where the garbage was kept. Apparently these are collected at some point, but none had been as we drove by. The houses were mostly small and looked to be in disrepair. Many didn’t look to have windows or doors at all. This is not a knock on the country or anything, just an observation on the different standards of living in developing countries. Of course, we did see several very nice houses that were well maintained and looked like they would be a great place to live. The people that led our tour and ran the zip lines were all wonderful people and very pleasant to be around.

We arrived at the zip line and had to be instructed on how to operate the lines. There were a lot of people waiting to ride, so there was some wait for harnesses and equipment for all of our group, but we eventually got going. The zip line was great and I would recommend it to anyone who is not terribly afraid of heights. The views of the beautiful jungle are phenomenal and it’s really neat to be up on a platform that high in the trees. I did get a few butterflies in my stomach on a few of the platforms as we waited for the next line to open up, but they are very safety conscious and there is never even an instant when you are not clipped onto a safety cable. Each harness has 2 safety clips so that they hook you on to the next safety cable before you are completely unhooked from the last zip line. This was obviously a first class operation and safety was their primary concern.

After the zip line, our bus took us to the banana plantation. On the way in to the plantation, there was a family sitting by the side of the road. They stopped the bus and a little boy got on carrying a small sloth in his hands. It was amazing to see this animal up close and to even get to touch it. There was another boy who gave the ladies each a pretty red flower. Their dad was walking behind them with a box for money, so I gave him a couple dollars. After the sloth left, we continued to the bananas. We didn’t do an official tour, we just stopped and got out and walked into the field between all the trees. Our Charlie Soto guide (not Charlie himself with our bus) told us all about the bananas and answered all of our questions. It was neat, but we didn’t stay very long, which was fine with me.

After the bananas, we went to see some wildlife. We were taken to a boat where a guide drove us up a sort of river and pointed out a bunch of different animals and birds. The waterway we were on was almost like an intercoastal channel. It looked like a river, but there was no appreciable current. I think the guide told us that you could take this channel all the way to Honduras. We got to see a couple sloths, a capuchian monkey, a howler monkey, a bunch of different herons, a couple iguanas and a Jesus lizard (although we didn’t see it walk on the water.) This was a really neat part of the trip.

After the boat, we got back on the bus and it was getting late, so we went back to the port to be sure we didn’t miss the ship. The whole tour was a neat experience. It cost us each $50 plus $40 for the zip line. I felt like we got a pretty good value, but didn’t really do a price comparison to see what a comparable Carnival excursion would have cost. I did enjoy the size of our tour (about 20 people) compared to a larger bus that usually takes Carnival excursions.

There was a shopping area right at the pier. Kind of a flea market feel with lots of typical knick knack souvenir type stuff and coffee. We walked through but didn’t buy anything. Everyone says to get some coffee, but we’re not really big coffee drinkers and didn’t get any.

We got back on the ship and had a nice dinner. Again, we didn’t have the energy for much night life, so after dinner, we headed back to the room, bungeed the balcony door open, and called it a night.

[2funcruzin]

Zip lines sound like great fun! I particularly enjoyed the line about the Jesus Lizard! Too funny....he probably does walk on water but you have to pay extra! :p

 

Can't wait for the next one....thank you again.

[Richard Parker]

12/29/05—Colon, Panama

 

Still slowly churning away on my review...

 

The Panama Canal is one of the things that we wanted to be sure we saw on this trip. This is obviously no secret to Carnival, as reflected in the prices for the Panama Canal excursions. After repeated visits to the Panama Canal port of call board, I couldn’t really find a private tour that I was confident would show us the canal at a price significantly better than the official Carnival excursion, so we sucked it up and shelled out $175 each for the Panama Canal tour. We reserved it through the TV in our room on about the second day of the trip, which turned out to be a good idea. Brent, our cruise director, said later in the ports of call talk that this tour had sold out. I don’t know whether they had any luck finding additional spots for the people who waited till the last minute, but if you want to do this tour, I suggest you reserve it early in the week just to be sure. It also seems like we could have had it for around $160 each had we reserved online before the cruise. Just something to check into.

 

Our Panama Canal tour left at 7:00 and, like most of the Carnival shore excursions we have taken, it was a cattle call getting onto the buses. I believe there were 8 or 9 tour buses full of people on this excursion. Be sure to be on time. Our tickets said 7:00 a.m. and we were late getting up and arrived at about 7:15 and were on either the last or second to last bus. It would have been a lot of money for an extra 10 minutes of sleep. Our bus took us from the Atlantic side of Panama across the continent to the Pacific side where everyone from all 9 buses boarded a ferry boat. The bus ride across the continent took between an hour and an hour and a half. We didn’t really get a good look at the pier or the port because we got right on the buses at the ship in the morning, so I’ll address these on the return to the ship.

 

The first impression of Panama is that it seemed a lot more modern and Americanized than Costa Rica. I suppose this is due to the huge American influence on the Canal through the last century and the huge free trade zone in Colon. We were told that it was the second largest free trade zone in the world. Lots of businessmen drive from Panama City on the Pacific side to do business at the free trade zone in Colon every day. The free trade zone wasn’t really much to see other than an enormous complex behind walls with lots of warehouses. Our waitress, Noemi, said she tried to go there, but most of the stores wouldn’t sell to her and only dealt in wholesale. Colon had several McDonalds and many other American fast food restaurants. It was still obviously a developing country, but the modern American influence was apparent. The roads in Panama were also significantly better than in Costa Rica. Much of the bus ride across the continent was spent napping due to the monotony of any bus trip and the early hour of the tour.

 

We arrived on the Pacific side of Panama and boarded a ferry boat for our trip back through the Panama Canal. The boat was packed, but we were able to get a couple chairs on the middle deck on the front of the boat. This proved to be a good decision, as the ship became packed with people who were cramming into small places trying to get pictures and videos. I highly recommend getting to the tour early and getting to a seat somewhere near the middle of the boat. The seats near the sides will look better at first, but people will line the rails of the ship taking pictures and your memory of the Panama Canal will be the relative merits of your fellow guests’ backsides. From our seat in the middle, we were able to stand to take pictures when we wanted them and then sit back down to a relatively clear view. They had free Coke, Diet Coke and water on the boat and you could buy beer for $2. They also served a box lunch consisting of a turkey sandwich and a muffin. I heard lots of complaints about the lunch, but we were pleased with it given the circumstances of trying to feed that many people on such a small crowded ship. Don’t go into this tour expecting anything other than a sandwich to keep your hunger at bay and you won’t be disappointed.

 

The Canal itself was amazing. Our boat went through with a tugboat and 2 sailboats that were around 40 feet. This made me particularly jealous as I am a novice sailor, even given the limitations of living in Missouri, and wanted desperately to be crewing one of those boats rather than on our lumbering ferry. Oh well. I’m not going to try to give many details about the Canal itself. I’m sure there is no shortage of websites devoted to Panama Canal facts and lore that will give you far more accurate details than I. I will try to say what we did see and were able to do. First, we were able to muscle our way to the side of the boat and touch the side of one of the locks. This is supposed to bring good luck and grant you a wish. We also saw a Celebrity cruise ship and a huge auto carrier pass us in the canal after the locks before we reached Guatan Lake in the middle. IT was interesting to hear the prices for Canal passage. I can’t remember how much they said it was for our ferry boat, but the cheapest any ship can pass for is $500 and they said that would basically be a 3 passenger dinghy. Every ship that transits the canal must be piloted by an official Canal pilot, even the smallest vessels. The 2 sailboats with us were said to have had to pay around $1500 each for passage. The most expensive ship to go through the Canal is one of the Princess ships, which must pay somewhere in excess of $250,000 every time it goes through the Canal. They told up that the country of Panama collects around $1 Billion per year in Canal tolls and profits around $500 Million per year on the Canal. Panama is a country of 3 Million people and they told up that 40% of those live below the poverty line of around $400 per month. It struck up as odd that there is that much money coming in from a single source and so many people are still so poor. And I am positive that the information I gleaned from this tour is enough to make me an expert in Panama finance so I can comment on the country’s financial policy. Just kidding.

 

So, our boat took us through the locks on the Pacific side, to the manmade lake in the middle of the country that is 84 feet above sea level. Instead of taking the boat back down the Guatan locks on the Atlantic side, we got out in the middle and got back on to our buses to ride back to the pier. I’m not sure why they had us do it this way instead of simply boarding on the Atlantic side where the ship was and going halfway through the Canal before taking buses back. I guess it was nice to see more of the country, even though it meant spending extra time in the bus.

 

We arrived back at the ship a couple hours before we were due to leave. There is duty free shopping at the pier and you can venture out into the city if you dare. It didn’t seem too dangerous and as I said, it is a pretty developed city. There were a lot of tourists walking around in the city outside the pier complex. We chose to get back on the ship and get some food.

 

Overall the time in Panama was great. The Canal is something that we felt we had to see while we had the chance. The tour was a bit expensive, but after we heard the prices that they have to pay to get the ship through, it didn’t seem so bad. The country was beautiful and it was truly an experience to actually go through the Canal and hear all about its history and how it works. The tour wasn’t as exciting as our Costa Rica tour, but I think that was more a function of doing so many different things in Costa Rica as opposed to the singular focus on the Canal in Panama. Still, I think that when I look back on this trip, the more memorable of the two will be the Panama Canal.

 

The ship departed on schedule a little after 4:00. We got out of the harbor and there was a ton of ship traffic, which was interesting to watch. After we got just outside of the harbor, our ship stopped and I saw the crew members on the bridge looking toward the port with binoculars. After 20 or 30 minutes, a pilot boat came speeding out of the harbor toward our ship. Apparently some of our passengers had missed the ship and they were bringing them out to meet us. We watched as either 4 or 6 people were loaded from the pilot boat to a stairway that came out of our ship. I have no idea what the story with these people was, but I was certainly glad it wasn’t me.

 

We were exhausted that night, but found time to soak in the hot tub before dinner. Again, we had a great dinner in the dining room and I think this was the night that we went to the Piano bar for a while. The singer was OK, but not as engaging as the others we have had before. There was more of a laid back lounge vibe as opposed to the higher energy sing along scene that we have seen in the past. It wasn’t really our style, so we stopped by the dance club for a drink. My wife hated the décor of the Hot & Cool dance club, but we found a seat and enjoyed a drink while watching the dance floor struggle to get going that early in the night. (This was probably right around 11. I did stop by later, after midnight, one night and the dance floor was full.) Again, we just didn’t have the energy for a full night of partying and dancing, so we headed back to the room and called it a night.

 

I know this review is very slow in coming, but rest assured that it will eventually all get posted, whether anyone is still interested or not. If I’ve missed anything that anyone has questions about, let me know.

[FloridaBrit]

Richard, thanks so much for taking the time to write your review in such detail. We have a group of 20 sailing the same itinerary on 1/21 and found your observations helpful. I was on a similar itinerary two years ago, and it sounds that Panama is continually improving.

 

Paul

[Richard Parker]

12/30/05—At Sea

 

OK. Time to finally finish this review. I’ve covered most of the things that I can remember, so I’ll use these last couple entries to fill in any loose ends.

 

The last 2 days of the cruise were days at sea. We mostly just took it very easy these 2 days. No major activities other than dinner and, of course, the New Year’s celebration. Today we did decide to try to spend some time laying out on the deck where we could hear the band and enjoy a few drinks while reading and relaxing This was the first time on the cruise that I really realized how bad the chair hogs were. I walked around for 20 minutes looking for a chair, but most of them were taken by people who would “be right back” according to the person 3 or 4 chairs away who seemed more intent on making sure nobody sat in “their” chairs than actually relaxing and enjoying themselves. I found some chairs up on one of the upper decks, but it was way too windy to enjoy being up there for more than a few minutes. So I walked back down to the deck where the band was, above the pool and found a row of 4 chairs occupied only by towels. I asked someone 4 seats away whether anyone was actually sitting there and he told me that they were saved for his family who would be “right back. This one person had 3 seats on one side of him and 4 on the other all saved for his family who all apparently had gone to do something at the same time and would all be “right back” and in desperate need of a deck chair in a prime location of the ship at the same time. I didn’t feel like fighting right then, so I moved on. I finally found a single chair that was not filled by a sunbathing towel at the end of a row right down by the pool. I sat down and began to read my book and ordered a drink. I also started the timer on my stopwatch. I counted 8 chairs between me and the next guy up the row, all covered by towels. An hour and 15 minutes later, my wife found me on the deck. At no time during this period had anyone as much as sat down to talk in any of the 8 chairs, so I moved the towel from the chair next to me and my wife sat down. Immediately, the guy 8 chairs down says “Hey, that’s my chair. It’s saved.” I told him that nobody had used it for over an hour and we were going to use it. He said “Well that’s why I get out here at 5:30 in the morning to save chairs.” I responded by pointing out the sign posted behind him stating the policy against reserving deck chairs. He finally said “OK. You can use it, but I just want you to know that it’s my chair.” We sat for another 2 or 3 hours and during that entire time, only 2 or 3 of the remaining 7 chairs were ever used and those for only about 15 minutes each.

 

The chair hogs were the only thing that really got under my skin about the cruise. Because we didn’t want to spend all that much time out bon the deck, it didn’t really interfere with out cruise that much, but something really needs to be done. There was absolutely no enforcement of the policy against saving chairs. All week, when I woke up in the morning and was running or getting breakfast, there were dozens of groups of chairs occupied by t-shirts or towels with not a person in sight. In fact, I was out this evening a bit after midnight after my wife had gone to bed. I was walking around the pool and saw a group of 4 t-shirts already set out to reserve chairs for the next morning. This really just struck me the wrong way, so I gathered the t-shirts from the back of the chairs and took them to the pursor’s desk, telling them the shirts must have been lost because surely someone was not trying to save a chair for the following day given Carnival’s clear policy against saving chairs. I had seen these same shirts saving the same chairs all week and it finally just made me mad enough that people were being that selfish that I decided to do something.

 

OK. That’s my one major rant for the week. Another thing that is mentioned a lot is the hot tubs. We used these quite a bit and enjoyed them greatly. We always went to the aft tubs that are marked “Adults only.” There was only one occasion where we had a problem. We got in to a tub with a couple of people who were probably in their late teens. Not a problem. They had with them a child who was probably 8 or 9. The kid was behaving and not splashing or playing around, so we didn’t really have a problem with this either. We were able to relax and enjoy ourselves. A short time later, 2 unattended girls of about the same age came back and got in. The 3 kids began swimming around, doing handstands and splashing. After a short while of this, I politely reminded them that this was an adults only tub and if they were going to be playing and splashing, they needed to go to the other hot tubs. I said that if they wanted to sit in the tub and act like adults, they could stay. At first I think they were shocked that someone would actually say something to them. They sat there for a while and after a few minutes got out and left. All of our other hot tub times were great except for one time when the security guard didn’t let me bring my plastic bottle of water near the tub. I didn’t have a problem and complied, but it was strange as whole groups had been drinking many different drinks all week with no problem. I didn’t actually know the policy, so I just left my drink by the stairs and didn’t worry about it.

 

Anyway, those are just two things that I haven’t covered yet and thought I’d include in the review. This entry seems negative, but I think that’s just because these things were small annoyances and the other things I have already written about are the more important memories of our trip. I’ll do my best to get the last couple entries of the marathon review done before the details are gone from my memory.

[dognewtricks]

Thank you so much for the great review. It was well worth the wait. I can't wait to sail the Liberty in March, especially after reading what you've written!

 

I don't blame you for ranting about the chair hogs. I posted a thread about it earlier in the week. I think I'll do what your wife did, and plop down if a chair sits empty for over an hour.

 

Thanks again!

[zookepr0]

My husband and I are on the Liberty in March and this will be our first cruise with Carnival. We very much have enjoyed your review and have found it helpful. Looking forward to reading the rest. By the way congratulations on your marriage.

[wadecruiser]

I really am enjoying your perspective on the Liberty. We (my husband and daughter) will be on the March 26th sailing and are really looking forward to it! As to the chair hogs, we have no problem unsaving saved chairs if no one is around for an hour.

[Richard Parker]

Almost 2 weeks later and I finally got the review done. Thanks for all the kind comments. I've enjoyed doing this review. Now all I need is another cruise to look forward to!

 

12/31/05—At Sea

 

New Year’s eve. I said that I would probably not choose to spend another Christmas on a cruise. We would definitely do another New Year’s eve on a cruise. We had expected this to be a formal night, but they did the second formal night on 12/30, the second to last day of the cruise. (We did get dressed up again and had a wonderful formal night on Friday night.) New Year’s eve was listed as Formal Optional. The day was spend mostly relaxing in the hot tubs and packing and enjoying the balcony. The clear focus of the day was the New Year’s eve festivities. Because we didn’t get in to Harry’s, we decided to splurge on a very nice bottle of champagne to have with dinner. The dinner again was amazing. Noemi and Hademir were running around very busy, but still had time to talk to us and exchange well wishes on our last night in the dining room. Our plan was to save part of the champagne for the new year, but we were having a great time at dinner and decided to finish it and get a cheaper bottle for the new year. My wife wore her special 2006 New Year’s dress and I opted for just slacks and a shirt.

 

The party was on the Lido deck. The DJ started playing music at 9:30 and the band took over at 11. This was one of the times they made great use of the TV screen. We arrived a little before 11 and were lucky to find a place to stand right at the base of the water slide. We had a bench to sit on if we needed it and to stand on for later in the evening to see everything. The deck was absolutely packed. The waiters were all carrying around buckets with champagne bottles and glasses. We got another bottle and were dancing and enjoying the party. As I said, the deck was packed. There were people everywhere you could see. There were also 2 other cruise ships, one on each side of us, so we could see their lights which was really neat. There were camera operators catching party shots of people as they danced and waited for midnight. These shots were interspersed with cuts from the live feed from Times Square. It was one of the best New Year’s party atmospheres I’ve ever experienced. At midnight, they had a countdown on the ship’s horn blew for the new year. The party continued for quite a while with everyone dancing and enjoying their last night on the cruise. Unlike Christmas, which loses its spiritual meaning on the ship, New Year’s eve is the perfect celebration for a cruise because everybody is celebrating the same thing at the same time.

 

By about 1:00, most of the party had moved down to the bars and casino. We walked around for a bit, but had already had a great night and knew that the morning would come early, so we decided to end the cruise on a great note and call it a night.

 

1/1/06—Ft. Lauderdale

 

This morning came with the customary annoyingly loud announcements from Brent getting everybody up and ready to get off the ship. We felt surprisingly well for a New Year’s day morning, so we got up and moving fairly easily. We were scheduled on a 1:30 flight from FLL, so we didn’t have any rush to get off the ship. We decided to get packed and out of the room, but instead of fighting the crowds, we thought we’d just have breakfast and sit on the Lido deck and wait. We waited through the self assist and all of the luggage tag colors being called. Then, Brent made an announcement that everybody needed to start moving off the ship. This was probably around 9:45 or so. We tried to go, but there were people coming up the stairs who said it was still a mess down there, so we just saved ourselves a hassle and stayed on Lido watching CNN Headline News. Finally, just before 10:30, they made another announcement that everybody needed to get off the ship. We went downstairs and ended up waiting in line for maybe 10 minutes before getting off the ship. (We ended up kicking ourselves because we had taken several New Year’s pictures last night and then we sat for probably 2 hours doing nothing this morning when we could have been looking at our pictures. Oh well. Probably nothing worth $20 anyway.) We had no trouble finding our luggage and were at the FLL airport before 11.

 

We flew American home and were delighted to see that there was a connecting flight standby option that would have left at 11:24. We signed up for standby and hurried to the gate where we learned that there were already 20 people on standby and hardly anyone would make it. The lady said this happened every cruise day. They have people who sign up for later flights and then when they make it to the airport earlier, they all try to standby for earlier flights, but there are hardly any seats ever available because everybody who booked the earlier flights were also on cruises so there are virtually no no-shows. Bottom line: We could have easily made the 11:24 flight and we were some of the last people off the ship. Also, if you book a later flight, even if you are offered a standby option, don’t get too excited because it probably won’t happen. We ended up on our regularly scheduled flights (no first class upgrade on this trip like I got on the way down.) and were home right on time.

 

Overall, this was a fabulous trip. I love being on the water and cruising is a wonderful vacation where you can do as much or as little as you choose. We have had wonderful experiences with Carnival and I fully expect to cruise with them many more times in the future.

 

Thank you to anyone who is still reading for your patience. I hope I have provided some details that don’t always get included in reviews. I know that the details started to slip as the review went on, but life has a way of interfering like that. Happy cruising to all and I hope to see you someday behind the umbrella of a Drink of the Day! :)

[montana200024]

VERY WELL DONE , MR. RICHARD PARKER...THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL REVIEW...

MAY YOU HAVE MANY MORE WONDERFUL MEMORIES IN YOUR MARRIED LIFE...

[cathyoo]

Excellent review.. Thank you for taking the time to post such an organized and well written review. I hope there are many more cruises in your future and many more reviews.

[BettyB2]

Richard - thanks so much for the wonderful review! Very enjoyable with my morning coffee today! This is one itinerary I am very interested in and I thank you for all the detailed information.

GREAT JOB!!!:D

[Gabrielle R.]

Saw the Liberty on Costa Maya- your ship docked next to ours- Rhapsody of the Seas. I am looking at next Christmas a few questions:

No Christmas services aboard Liberty?

How were the kids? Were they everywhere or all over the ship and staying out of trouble?

Thanks for the review! Gabrielle

[Richard Parker]

We didn't see any Christmas service offered anywhere. We did look pretty carefully through the Capers but couldn't find anything. They did advertise the Hanukah celebration every day, so we should have seen the Christmas information if it was there.

 

We didn't feel like the kids were a problem other than the one incident in the adults' hot tub. There were quite a few kids, but for the most part,l they were well behaved.

[cruisinbuddy]

Now that was a good review. Thank you so much. DW & I have to wait til next Jan. for our Liberty cruise. I've wondered what it would be like to cruise over Xmas & New Years. Now I know, do New Years, not Xmas, unless of course I win the lottery and can take my whole family, LOL.

Thanks again.

[martdm]

Now that was some quality reviewing! I know it must have taken an enormous amount of time & effort to organize & relay your experiences to us and I, as an lover of detailed reviews, really do appreciate it! Thank you!!