Carnival Liberty B2B Eastern then Western Review

[BAYA]

Paul,

My mother, brother, and SIL will be with me on HMC on our very first HAL cruise in Feb. 2009 on Eurodam. I already reserved the #5/Light Blue cabana. Your review convinced me that I will believe it is money well spent when I get there. BTW, HAL is charging $249 for the first 4 people in the cabana.

 

We've never sailed Carnival yet, but your review is making me interested :)

[CruisinfromRI]

Paul- I need to plan every cruise I take a few months after you and your family take your cruises. This review is fabulous, and I keep it bookmarked to watch for the next part of the review... Keep it coming!

 

Our trip will be the western route, so I am sure I will have more questions for you once you get that far! It looks like you have a great family who has a great time together on vacation.

[seafun]

"and it does clean your butt for you............"

:D Rolling on floor laughing my ass off after falling off the bidet! :D

[cruiselover00029]

I am loving this review and patiently awaiting more. We have an upcoming cruise to the Southern Caribbean. Having been to Half Moon Cay before I thought it was just okay, but after reading this I need to go back and get a cabana. You made that place sound amazing and now I must go back because I missed out on a good thing.:D

[poptart]

TGIF maybe Paul will be off work and can add more to his review!!!

I'm looking forward to it!!!

[earlethepearl]

Hey Paul, I too want to thank you for taking the time to do this. I know in the past I have promised reviews and it is so easy to get back to work and home life that you never do. Thanks again!!

[PaulMedik]

Luanne21,

 

According to the ship's pursor, we should have received a letter on the evening before debarkation listing our meeting place, meeting time, and our customs / immigration form. They also said that they'll sometimes include our S&S cards for the next week in the letter, but sometimes they hand them out as you're escorted from the ship.

 

Once we were back on board the ship, we received freshly produced S&S cards at the pursors desk and made the room changes for the coming week and also had some additional keys made for most of the cabins;

 

 

After our cards were made, they lined them up and punched holes in them so they'd attached to our lanyards;

 

 

Karen then got to play amateur Carnival guide for her sister and family as they checked out the ship;

 

 

She also had them break in their shiney new S&S cards;

 

 

Then the Lido buffet;

 

 

Their choices were from the deli and the buffet as well as Fish & Chips;

 

[PaulMedik]

After eating we headed down to 2465 (1A that is now an ocean view instead of 1A) to check out Karen's sister's cabin;

 

 

 

This room has been discussed quite a bit on Cruise Critic, so I'll just show the highlights. The room has a handicapped accessible bathroom, but the room itself is not handicapped accessible due to the narror entry hallway. The room is NOT listed as handicapped. Here's a pic of the vanity with the shower shown in the mirror reflection;

 

 

After checking out 2465, we headed across the ship to our friends cabin 2462. I booked the cabins two years out so nobody had to pay fuel supplements and we all got quite a bit of OBC due to price drops;

 

 

2462 is the mirror image of 2465 except that the bathroom is of normal size;

 

 

Afterwards we found more of our friends up on Lido (They had been upgraded two weeks prior to sailing from interior rooms down the hall from our room to connecting balcony cabins on deck 8. It really does pay to book early!);

 

[PaulMedik]

At 3:50 we headed down the crew stairs by our room on deck 6 to our muster station on deck 4 (entrance is the door on the left);

 

 

 

Crew stairs are a little less padded than passengers stairs;

 

 

 

Our muster station was manned by a Carnival dancer;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

After we were all jacketed up and listening to the instructions, it started to get a little warm;

 

 

After we were ready to wait out the instructions, our muster station fellow came over to us and said; 'you five can go now since you were here last week' We thanked him and left! (We didn't ask to leave nor did we remind him we were doing B2B.) ;

 

 

 

One last pic from the crew stairwell out in to the hallway by our door;

 

 

I have to rate that Muster as our number one muster drill ever! Our drill the previous week lasted a total of 12 minutes and ranked as number one for one week, but getting to leave early definately defeated the first week's record time.

 

As the announcements for the Muster drills conclusion were being made, we had already stowed our life jackets in the rooms and headed for deck 9 forward for sailaway;

 

This was my niece's first sail away so I wanted to make sure she got to see many of the sights as we sailed Government Cut;

 

 

[Luanne21]

Thank you Paul. I have everything you said in my plan book, so I will be looking out for the letter.

 

You also answered my next question about having to do muster again.

 

Do we take the passports with us when we go to the the stuff for the second part of the trip?

[PaulMedik]

We had a floatilla of USCG boats escorting us out of the Government Cut;

 

 

The USCG boats were constantly racing ahead to clear the channel ahead of and beside us;

 

 

Every time they approached a vessel, they had the guns manned and trained on the vessels. I don't know what threat level they were running under, but they were serious about security that day for some reason;

 

 

Our sailaway was noisy from all the USCG sirens, but it was also uneventful. After we cleared the cut, it looked like the sky opened up and poured on Miami;

 

 

After we were out to sea, the sailaway party on Lido was still going strong;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

Thank you Paul. I have everything you said in my plan book, so I will be looking out for the letter.

 

You also answered my next question about having to do muster again.

 

Do we take the passports with us when we go to the the stuff for the second part of the trip?

 

 

Luanne21,

 

Yes. Customs inspected and scanned our passports in between the cruises. If you don't get an officer like we did, you should also be able to get your passports stamped. (We got ours stamped after the second week).

 

 

After sailaway, we watched Miami in the distance and listened to the thunder crash and lightning flash;

 

 

 

We went to dinner on the first evening to check out our table assignments and see where every one would be. One family with two cabins had been assigned to the Silver dinning room in the aft, so we spoke with the MaitreD and had them moved for the next night. We were dissappointed not to have had our waitress Nirmala for the second week. As you can see in this pic, Britt is especially disappointed;

 

 

The MaitreD said that he tried to accomodate our request, but there were too many large groups on board for him to assign us to her. He showed me his assignments board and explained the situation and I could tell he'd done his best. He did reassign our frineds from the aft dinning room to tables beside our group.

 

As we headed South, we were able to catch a glimpse of sunset around the storm that was pounding Miami;

 

 

 

Even though Britt didn't get his favorite sever Nirmala, he did have his cousin Bailey with him so he was content;

 

 

The ice cream machines had been discovered by our friends so they were also content;

 

[PaulMedik]

Spencer called room service and had a BLT, and cookies & brownies for his bed time snack;

 

 

Bryson had Bailey rubbing his ears so he was ready for bed too;

 

 

I'm not sure who ordered the pizza and hot chocolate, but for those who enjoy pictures of food, the food is good even if the pictures are a bit odd;

 

 

Our next day was a day at sea. We made it through the first night with smooth sailing and we avoided all the rain that followed us out of Miami by heading South. If we had been doing Eastern this week, I doubt this glass would have lasted on the railing;

 

 

 

Our first sea day made for a great day for me to ride the water slides;

 

[PaulMedik]

Our friends and family enjoyed basking in the sun;

 

 

While I posed for them topless on the topless deck;

 

 

Our friends relaxing in the sun (and Wes showing off his funnel cup);

 

 

The people waving in the middle are Karen and friends & family;

 

 

 

Guy jumping for the ball and Lindsey in position to back him up;

 

 

 

For the first formal night, everyone met at our room to go together;

 

[Wags67]

Excellent Review, Paul! I am so enjoying your writing style & especially the pictures included:) I'll continue to "follow" you through your journey...

[PaulMedik]

The Cowger family;

 

 

Linsey hamming it up for the camera (she sang as Brittney Spears on the final night Carnival Legends Show);

 

 

Us hamming it up as well;

 

 

The Green family;

 

 

The Palmer family;

 

 

Karen and Spencer with CD Steve Knicely at the Captain's cocktail party;

 

[PaulMedik]

Steve Knicely is an excellent CD and along with being very funny, he also runs the shortest Muster drills of any CD (I thanked him for that at the cocktail party);

 

 

 

Britt and CD Steve in one of their staring contests;

 

 

After the cocktail party we had dinner all together in the Golden dinning room lower level. Britt's personal waitress Nirmala stopped by and he insisted that she set with him for a picture (Her table assignment was on the upper level on the opposite end of the dinning room so it was extra nice of her to make the time to come see him during dinner);

 

 

After two big lobster tails, guess what most of us had for dessert;

 

 

After we were finished eating, I had to explain to Britt that he could not be Nirmala's assistant;

 

[Handsome58]

Bro hat's off to you and your wife!!!!!!! You both are adding some great childhood memories for your children!!!!!! And bro that is part of being a great parent!!!!!! Good Job!!!!

[PaulMedik]

I wonder how many passengers at Nirmala's tables thought she had brought her son on board?;

 

 

After dinner we all went to the show......I forget the name now, maybe I'll remember later. Anyhow, at the end of the show they blast streamers into the audience and we got covered in them;

 

 

As we left the theater, Karen looked like she'd had one too many (She was sober, but sure doesn't look like it);

 

 

After the show we made our customary donation to the casino. I had some $100 chips left from our first week and had used them on the first evening so they were watching me closely at the beginning of the second week to see if I spent a lot. I didn't manage to accumulate any $100 chips, but they did rate me on a few occasions for whatever purpose they have. I normally wager $25 per hand at BlackJack and the $100 chips were from handing in my stacks for larger chips when I had one lucky night. I was stupid and wagered my last two $100 chips on one hand each and lost them both. I have a good strategy at BlackJack. The problems arise when I don't follow my strategy or get greedy.

 

I did enjoy the reaction of one of my fellow BlackJack players when I split tens on a dealers four. He started yelling at me that I shouldn't mess with the game. I won, he lost. Later on I made a similar split and he stood up to yell at me and turned a few circles by his chair. I think he had a stroke on my final split when he ran from the table and began some kind of chant. He returned and lost all of his two sizable stacks of chips while I left a little ahead. I am aware that some people get upset when their fellow BlackJack players do things they don't expect. I made good moves on each occasion and won double what I would have won if I hadn't split. I also doubled on a couple of the splits and that also had him yelling. I never even glanced at him when he yelled and I think that made him even more angry with me.

 

BlackJack is a fun game. It's even more fun when someone allows themselves to have a breakdown based on the play of someone else. I can't say that I'd enjoy playing with him again, but he did provide quite a bit of priceless amusement. Like many people, I wonder what some players are thinking when they stand when I think they should hit, or they hit when I think they should stand, but I can't imagine letting it affect me like that poor fellow did. I admit I was tempted to stand or hit at random just to get him going, but I played my game and left him alone......at least intentionally left him alone.

 

After the casino we sat on our balcony for a while and watched the occasional passing ship as we sailed North of Cuba. I always study the lights of Cuba in the distance and wonder if we'll be able to sail there some day.

 

Our next day was our first day in port of the Western Caribbean leg. Our port was Cozumel and Cozumel means Paradise Beach! As we exited the ship, we were greeted by the Carnival Photogs (Spencer's eyes were even more light sensitive due to his contact lens malfunction. Even though he really looks like he's crying his eyes out);

 

 

 

After he found his sun glasses, he did better with the Mexican Indians;

 

[PaulMedik]

Spencer kept his eyes closed for the walk down the pier and was able to fake a smile by mid way;

 

 

It was funny watching him walk and try to follow the sound to know which direction to go. I followed him to keep him from walking off the edge;

 

 

On all of our previous cruises to Cozumel, we had docked at the International Pier. This was our first time at the down town pier (I tried to enter it once to pick up a shirt for a friend and was denied entry because my ship wasn't there);

 

 

While at the pier, my boys played with a monkey and this fellow approached me and said I had to pay him for the pictures I took. I said 'You want me to pay you for the pictures I took with my camera?' He said yes that I had to pay him. I wished him luck on collecting payment from me for pictures I take with my own camera. I didn't upload any of the pics he wanted me to pay him for, but here's his picture so you'll know who to pay if you want to take pictures with monkeys at the pier;

 

 

After the monkey fellow had calmed down (if he'd have been more practiced at marketing, he would have earned his photo payments, but as he was, I simply waited to see if he'd climb me to hit me, but he didn't) we met up with our taxi driver who agreed to take us all to Paradise Beach then back to the pier for $7 per person round trip;

 

 

Our ship in port as we head to Paradise Beach;

 

[PaulMedik]

The ride to Paradise Beach takes about ten minutes;

 

 

When we arrived at Paradise Beach, we were met in the parking lot by our Paradise Beach waiter for the day who then led us onto the beach and selected our chairs for us at the edge of the ocean;

 

 

After he set us all up with 25 ocean's edge beach chairs, he took our first orders for drinks while everyone was busy lathering up with sunscreen;

 

 

Karen assisted all the younger kids with their sunblock;

 

 

While we were getting settled in, Britt announced he was hitting the water to do some snorkeling;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

Bryson spent most of the day climbing the ice burg and jumping off. If there's a record for the most times up and down on the ice burg, I'm sure he's in the running for it;

 

 

On our previous trip to Paradise Beach, Spencer went parasailing and had arranged to go again with the Green family. Britt had planned to go along for the ride, but I paid for him to go too and he ended up loving it.....he didn't like thinking about it on the way out, but he asked to go again when we were done;

 

 

Spencer flew tandum with Terry;

 

 

Once Spencer made it back, Britt was more confident;

 

 

After we were up in the air, Britt decided that he liked parasailing;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

After we returned from parasailing, Britt tried out his tree climbing skills;

 

 

 

Karen then demonstrated where Britt inherited his climbing skills from;

 

 

 

 

Since it had been an hour or two since breakfast, it was time to eat again;

 

[PaulMedik]

While we waited for our food orders, Bryson and his Uncle Larry sampled their drinks;

 

 

Paradise Beach food pics;

 

 

 

If you like seafood, I highly recommend my choice of the Seafood platter;

 

 

I did manage to dent the platter of seafood, but there's still quite a bit left after I was done;

 

 

After lunch I checked in with Cruise Critic on the free internet;