Liberty - Jan 10-17th

[Joaljoe]

Hi everyone, I can't believe I've been back for so long already. Originally I had intended to come on here and write a great review for everyone but since returning home we've been going through something horrible and I haven't had the time or desire to. :(

 

I've only now finally got some time to upload pictures of our vacation. I will post the link to them down below. These photos are mainly of the ship and San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. You won't see us in these photos...just everything else. :)

 

We flew into Miami 2 days before the cruise. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton which was a really nice hotel. I enjoyed everything that we did, although I can't believe how many snobs there were. But I guess that's what you get with Miami??? We rented a car and drove down to Sawgrass Mills mall...what a huge mall, definitely the best mall that I've ever been too. We spent like 5 hours there and didn't even go into majority of the stores. LOL But got some nice stuff for the kids. It was really nice already being there though. On our first cruise we flew in the same day and were sooooo tired by the time we got on the ship. We'll always fly in early for future cruises!

 

I thought the cruise was great! This was our 2nd Carnival cruise, the first one was on the Fantasy. I thought the ship was very nice, confusing to get around....my husband caught on very fast but I got lost until the very last day of the cruise. lol

 

The food in the dining room was great...I had no meat the entire cruise so can't comment on that but loved all the fish and seafood. My hubby is the meat eater and he was really happy with the food as well. Finally got to try the chocolate melting cake!!! Mmmm....had it 3 times and loved it each time! The buffet food was ok to me. Not great but not gross. But I was fed so I was happy. We loved the Pizza and the cesar salad they made at the Pizzeria. Deelish!! I personally didn't go to the Deli, hubby went a couple of times and enjoyed it. I tried the Mexican food a couple of times and enjoyed that. Except for the last day when I got a chunk of frozen guacamole in my dish.

 

Our waiter in the Dining room was AWESOME!!! We were at table 224, his name is Anthony. If you're lucky to get him you'll have a great week. He was very nice, always used are names and asked how our day was every day. Loved talking to us about what we did and even shared a few personal stories with us. We made sure to give him an extra tip at the end which he was very greatful for. We gave one to his assistant as well which I don't think he gets very often because he acted like he won a lottery. lol The lady who comes around to take drink orders was awesome to us all cruise as well. She'd give us the big drink but charge for the small ones, and if she saw us at the past guest party, or captain party or anything else she made sure to come over and say Hi and get us drinks of our choice. We made sure to tip her on the last day as well. That really made her day! It felt nice to put smiles on their faces.

 

I thought our Stewart could've been better. She did a few things that I wasn't impressed with. I understand that they like to save on laundry and ask to reuse towels if we can. Which I don't mind but please don't fold up my WET towel and hang it up as if it was a new one. If I'm going to keep the same one I'd like it to dry before I use it again. And she kept unplugging my chargers and clock....I guess to use the vacuum but she'd never plug them back in so my batteries wouln't charge. The Stewart on the Fantasy was much better.

 

Getting on and off the ship was a breeze. Although, on the last day trying to get off in the morning was CRAZY!!! Hmm...they should organize that a little better I think. Not that I was in a hurry but it seemed like everyone else was and people got mean and pushy. We had to kill 7 hours at the airport so next time I think I'll just chill on the Lido deck and leave at the last possible second if time allows.

 

There seemed to be a lot of seniors on this particular cruise. I know there was a Christian group of 35 years or something like that. I think more than half the cruise was seniors but I didn't really mind it. I'm 29 and hubby is 36....we don't party late so it didn't bother us that the clubs were dead. LOL I think they said there was about 650 kids on the ship which is a lot but normally there is around 1000 or more. I didn't find that the kids bothered me at all, there weren't too many obnoxious teenagers and the seniors were all so friendly so we really enjoyed the company everywhere we went. Although, one morning we decided to go to the Dining room for breaky and kind of regretted it afterwards. We got put at a table for 10 with other older couples and the couple we sat beside was pretty grumpy. Kind of ruined it for everyone so no one spoke. Seriously! It was the most awkward moment of the cruise for us...we couldn't wait to get our food and get the heck out of there. LOL

 

The comedy shows were good. My least favourite was Percy Crews so we skipped his adult show. And if you do go to an adult show...go EARLY or you're not getting a seat.

 

Weather was nice, the last couple of days were a little chillier and there wasn't much sun but we were just happy that it didn't storm and pour the whole time and compared to the weather and snow back home in Barrie, Ontario we couldn't complain.

 

I know a lot of people complain about Steve the director but I actually enjoyed him. I kept telling my hubby what a huge geek he is. lol But I liked him....he was nice to us.

 

OK I just thought of a really crazy moment! The had a watch sale that we went to because I thought for $20 why not? Holy Moly!!! The crowd was crazy and the employees were just pulling watches out one by one from a box and yelling out what they had in hand so people would just stick their hands out and try to grab it. If you're tall you have an advantage but we could barely get through the crowd to try and get a watch. And all these older ladies were around me not knowing what to do or how to get a watch. Definitely should organize that!!!

 

Well time to put kiddos to bed (who are coming with us on our next cruise because we missed them like crazy!!!). If I think of anything else of importance I'll add on later....

 

Enjoy the pictures! :)

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/joaljoe?vhost=community

[Donna n Francis]

Hi everyone, I can't believe I've been back for so long already. Originally I had intended to come on here and write a great review for everyone but since returning home we've been going through something horrible and I haven't had the time or desire to. :(

 

I've only now finally got some time to upload pictures of our vacation. I will post the link to them down below. These photos are mainly of the ship and San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. You won't see us in these photos...just everything else. :)

 

We flew into Miami 2 days before the cruise. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton which was a really nice hotel. I enjoyed everything that we did, although I can't believe how many snobs there were. But I guess that's what you get with Miami??? We rented a car and drove down to Sawgrass Mills mall...what a huge mall, definitely the best mall that I've ever been too. We spent like 5 hours there and didn't even go into majority of the stores. LOL But got some nice stuff for the kids. It was really nice already being there though. On our first cruise we flew in the same day and were sooooo tired by the time we got on the ship. We'll always fly in early for future cruises!

 

I thought the cruise was great! This was our 2nd Carnival cruise, the first one was on the Fantasy. I thought the ship was very nice, confusing to get around....my husband caught on very fast but I got lost until the very last day of the cruise. lol

 

The food in the dining room was great...I had no meat the entire cruise so can't comment on that but loved all the fish and seafood. My hubby is the meat eater and he was really happy with the food as well. Finally got to try the chocolate melting cake!!! Mmmm....had it 3 times and loved it each time! The buffet food was ok to me. Not great but not gross. But I was fed so I was happy. We loved the Pizza and the cesar salad they made at the Pizzeria. Deelish!! I personally didn't go to the Deli, hubby went a couple of times and enjoyed it. I tried the Mexican food a couple of times and enjoyed that. Except for the last day when I got a chunk of frozen guacamole in my dish.

 

Our waiter in the Dining room was AWESOME!!! We were at table 224, his name is Anthony. If you're lucky to get him you'll have a great week. He was very nice, always used are names and asked how our day was every day. Loved talking to us about what we did and even shared a few personal stories with us. We made sure to give him an extra tip at the end which he was very greatful for. We gave one to his assistant as well which I don't think he gets very often because he acted like he won a lottery. lol The lady who comes around to take drink orders was awesome to us all cruise as well. She'd give us the big drink but charge for the small ones, and if she saw us at the past guest party, or captain party or anything else she made sure to come over and say Hi and get us drinks of our choice. We made sure to tip her on the last day as well. That really made her day! It felt nice to put smiles on their faces.

 

I thought our Stewart could've been better. She did a few things that I wasn't impressed with. I understand that they like to save on laundry and ask to reuse towels if we can. Which I don't mind but please don't fold up my WET towel and hang it up as if it was a new one. If I'm going to keep the same one I'd like it to dry before I use it again. And she kept unplugging my chargers and clock....I guess to use the vacuum but she'd never plug them back in so my batteries wouln't charge. The Stewart on the Fantasy was much better.

 

Getting on and off the ship was a breeze. Although, on the last day trying to get off in the morning was CRAZY!!! Hmm...they should organize that a little better I think. Not that I was in a hurry but it seemed like everyone else was and people got mean and pushy. We had to kill 7 hours at the airport so next time I think I'll just chill on the Lido deck and leave at the last possible second if time allows.

 

There seemed to be a lot of seniors on this particular cruise. I know there was a Christian group of 35 years or something like that. I think more than half the cruise was seniors but I didn't really mind it. I'm 29 and hubby is 36....we don't party late so it didn't bother us that the clubs were dead. LOL I think they said there was about 650 kids on the ship which is a lot but normally there is around 1000 or more. I didn't find that the kids bothered me at all, there weren't too many obnoxious teenagers and the seniors were all so friendly so we really enjoyed the company everywhere we went. Although, one morning we decided to go to the Dining room for breaky and kind of regretted it afterwards. We got put at a table for 10 with other older couples and the couple we sat beside was pretty grumpy. Kind of ruined it for everyone so no one spoke. Seriously! It was the most awkward moment of the cruise for us...we couldn't wait to get our food and get the heck out of there. LOL

 

The comedy shows were good. My least favourite was Percy Crews so we skipped his adult show. And if you do go to an adult show...go EARLY or you're not getting a seat.

 

Weather was nice, the last couple of days were a little chillier and there wasn't much sun but we were just happy that it didn't storm and pour the whole time and compared to the weather and snow back home in Barrie, Ontario we couldn't complain.

 

I know a lot of people complain about Steve the director but I actually enjoyed him. I kept telling my hubby what a huge geek he is. lol But I liked him....he was nice to us.

 

OK I just thought of a really crazy moment! The had a watch sale that we went to because I thought for $20 why not? Holy Moly!!! The crowd was crazy and the employees were just pulling watches out one by one from a box and yelling out what they had in hand so people would just stick their hands out and try to grab it. If you're tall you have an advantage but we could barely get through the crowd to try and get a watch. And all these older ladies were around me not knowing what to do or how to get a watch. Definitely should organize that!!!

 

Well time to put kiddos to bed (who are coming with us on our next cruise because we missed them like crazy!!!). If I think of anything else of importance I'll add on later....

 

Enjoy the pictures! :)

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/joaljoe?vhost=community

 

Thanks for the great review and pictures Joaljoe! I looking forward to my cruise on the Carnival Liberty soon to the Eastern Caribbean. Can you tell me what you did in the ports of call? I have been to all three but it has been a while since I have been to St. Maarten. I will be taking my DGS aged 9 years on his 1st cruise. We both want to go to Maho Beach to see the planes land and take off:D.

Donna

[beansatw]

Thanks for sharing your adventures and photos! :D

[Almost Packed]

great pics! thanks for sharing!

[Joaljoe]

Thanks!! I took over 1000 pictures this time around...it's always so hard to choose which ones to upload. LOL

 

Donna, we don't do excursions...just kind of wing it at each port. Because we were in San Juan later in the day we got off the ship and walked around all the streets, did shop shopping and enjoyed the city. We went to Barrachina (or something like that) for their famous Pina Colada did some more shopping and headed back to the ship. We were docked till 12am but we got back around 9pm. We figured that a lot of people would be off the ship so thought we'd take advantage of the pools and hot tubs. Which were indeed dead!

 

In St. Thomas we first went up to Paradise Point which gave us a great view of the Island. We went first thing in the morning thinking the lines wouldn't be so long. We were right! On the way back the line was HUGE!! At the top there is some shopping you can do as well and eating. We decided to go back to the ship to eat since it was just across the street. After lunch we took a taxi to Megan's Bay Beach which was nice. They charge $4 per person to enter though. We enjoyed a couple of hours on the beach (water was cold though) and headed back to the ship. There was quite a bit of traffic on the way back, which we didn't take into consideration so we made it back with 20 mins left. Eeek!! It was a nice day!!

 

Now St. Maarten will be a day we will NEVER forget!!! We had no clue what we wanted to do there. We had heard about this beach with the air planes, saw some photos on the internet before but were told that it's too far so we wrote it off. But then, the day we arrived there we found out it's only a 30 min drive so we decided to go. I didn't even know it was called Maho Beach...I thought it was Simpson Bay..that's what the cab driver told us. Nonetheless, we drove over with another couple from Montreal. It was a nice drive over and the beach is really nice. I don't swim so I couldn't do the water there because it was pretty rough from the planes. The waves were too scary. LOL We decided to park ourselves right in front of the airport, we wanted the whole experience. HA!!!! Did we ever!!! With the small planes arriving it wasn't so bad, we enjoyed it. there were a few that came in the first hour. Sometimes the sand would hurt as it hit our bodies but it was bare-able. THEN, Caribbean Airlines took off...now that was an experience and that's not even a huge plane!!! Basically, we got sand blasted as it took off and because the winds were so hard it pushed us towards the ocean. We're small people (5'4') so it was really hard for us to stay on the beach. My husbands hat flew off so he ran to get it and just got blown into the ocean. I literally freaked out as I was trying to runaway to the side looking back at him fighting to get out. LOL (He's not a strong swimmer). It's funny now, but at the time it was the scariest thing ever!! I had what looked like a "sand eye liner" on my eyes, our scalp had a couple of lbs of sand in it and it was stuck all over our body. And there are no showers there either. What an experience!! When we decided to leave instead of going straight to the shopping we went back to the ship instead to shower up. It took me 45 mins to try and get all the sand off of me. Haha After we were all cleaned up we took a water taxi over to the shopping area. The beach there was very nice and calm. We regretted not putting our other suits on to do some swimming. But the shopping was fun....we spoiled the kids (who were back home) at Del Sol. St. Maarten is a place I will never ever forget!!!

 

I uploaded a video to my webshots if you want to take a look. Nothing special but it's neat seeing the airplane.

 

And here is a link I found with some info... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maho_Beach If you go there...stay off to the side if you know there are any planes departing. With the 9 year old there especially. :)

 

I found someones video on youtube.... this is pretty much how it was, although not as many people. Crazy!!

 

[Donna n Francis]

Thanks!! I took over 1000 pictures this time around...it's always so hard to choose which ones to upload. LOL

 

Donna, we don't do excursions...just kind of wing it at each port. Because we were in San Juan later in the day we got off the ship and walked around all the streets, did shop shopping and enjoyed the city. We went to Barrachina (or something like that) for their famous Pina Colada did some more shopping and headed back to the ship. We were docked till 12am but we got back around 9pm. We figured that a lot of people would be off the ship so thought we'd take advantage of the pools and hot tubs. Which were indeed dead!

 

In St. Thomas we first went up to Paradise Point which gave us a great view of the Island. We went first thing in the morning thinking the lines wouldn't be so long. We were right! On the way back the line was HUGE!! At the top there is some shopping you can do as well and eating. We decided to go back to the ship to eat since it was just across the street. After lunch we took a taxi to Megan's Bay Beach which was nice. They charge $4 per person to enter though. We enjoyed a couple of hours on the beach (water was cold though) and headed back to the ship. There was quite a bit of traffic on the way back, which we didn't take into consideration so we made it back with 20 mins left. Eeek!! It was a nice day!!

 

Now St. Maarten will be a day we will NEVER forget!!! We had no clue what we wanted to do there. We had heard about this beach with the air planes, saw some photos on the internet before but were told that it's too far so we wrote it off. But then, the day we arrived there we found out it's only a 30 min drive so we decided to go. I didn't even know it was called Maho Beach...I thought it was Simpson Bay..that's what the cab driver told us. Nonetheless, we drove over with another couple from Montreal. It was a nice drive over and the beach is really nice. I don't swim so I couldn't do the water there because it was pretty rough from the planes. The waves were too scary. LOL We decided to park ourselves right in front of the airport, we wanted the whole experience. HA!!!! Did we ever!!! With the small planes arriving it wasn't so bad, we enjoyed it. there were a few that came in the first hour. Sometimes the sand would hurt as it hit our bodies but it was bare-able. THEN, Caribbean Airlines took off...now that was an experience and that's not even a huge plane!!! Basically, we got sand blasted as it took off and because the winds were so hard it pushed us towards the ocean. We're small people (5'4') so it was really hard for us to stay on the beach. My husbands hat flew off so he ran to get it and just got blown into the ocean. I literally freaked out as I was trying to runaway to the side looking back at him fighting to get out. LOL (He's not a strong swimmer). It's funny now, but at the time it was the scariest thing ever!! I had what looked like a "sand eye liner" on my eyes, our scalp had a couple of lbs of sand in it and it was stuck all over our body. And there are no showers there either. What an experience!! When we decided to leave instead of going straight to the shopping we went back to the ship instead to shower up. It took me 45 mins to try and get all the sand off of me. Haha After we were all cleaned up we took a water taxi over to the shopping area. The beach there was very nice and calm. We regretted not putting our other suits on to do some swimming. But the shopping was fun....we spoiled the kids (who were back home) at Del Sol. St. Maarten is a place I will never ever forget!!!

 

I uploaded a video to my webshots if you want to take a look. Nothing special but it's neat seeing the airplane.

 

And here is a link I found with some info... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maho_Beach If you go there...stay off to the side if you know there are any planes departing. With the 9 year old there especially. :)

 

I found someones video on youtube.... this is pretty much how it was, although not as many people. Crazy!!

 

 

Thanks so much for the tips. I was thinking about not doing excursion too. I was thinking that I will do a self guided walking tour of Old San Juan and the Forts as soon as we dock. Do you recall what time you arrived in San Juan? I read a few reviews and it seems like the ship docks earlier than stated on our itinerary. For St. Thomas I do plan to purchase the Pirates Boats Tour (Water Taxi) to take myself and DGS to do the Blackbeard Castle (99 steps) tour. He has been watching Pirates of the Caribbean and has some books on pirates too. If we have time after that I plan on heading over to Magen's Bay and stay just long enough to get back to the ship and to do the trip up to Paradise Point. In St. Maarten I am not sure yet our plans for the morning but we are heading over to Maho Beach for the afternoon. But I don't think I am brave enough to stand on the beach while the plane is taking off. I will be sure to wear swimmers goggles if I do because it must be really hard on contac lenses....LOL

Donna:D

[Joaljoe]

You'll definitely need goggles. LOL If I ever go back I'll be sure to stay on the side lines.

 

We did arrive in San Juan early. We got there at 3:30pm and were off the boat just after 4pm. Our cruise director told us we'd probably get in early so we were all prepared. We didn't get as far as the forts but I'm sure you'll enjoy it. :)

 

I can't wait to go back on another cruise!! I want to go back to Half Moon Cay (with the kids this time). They are begging us to go. lol

[sravery]

Thanks!! I took over 1000 pictures this time around...it's always so hard to choose which ones to upload. LOL

 

Donna, we don't do excursions...just kind of wing it at each port. Because we were in San Juan later in the day we got off the ship and walked around all the streets, did shop shopping and enjoyed the city. We went to Barrachina (or something like that) for their famous Pina Colada did some more shopping and headed back to the ship. We were docked till 12am but we got back around 9pm. We figured that a lot of people would be off the ship so thought we'd take advantage of the pools and hot tubs. Which were indeed dead!

 

In St. Thomas we first went up to Paradise Point which gave us a great view of the Island. We went first thing in the morning thinking the lines wouldn't be so long. We were right! On the way back the line was HUGE!! At the top there is some shopping you can do as well and eating. We decided to go back to the ship to eat since it was just across the street. After lunch we took a taxi to Megan's Bay Beach which was nice. They charge $4 per person to enter though. We enjoyed a couple of hours on the beach (water was cold though) and headed back to the ship. There was quite a bit of traffic on the way back, which we didn't take into consideration so we made it back with 20 mins left. Eeek!! It was a nice day!!

 

Now St. Maarten will be a day we will NEVER forget!!! We had no clue what we wanted to do there. We had heard about this beach with the air planes, saw some photos on the internet before but were told that it's too far so we wrote it off. But then, the day we arrived there we found out it's only a 30 min drive so we decided to go. I didn't even know it was called Maho Beach...I thought it was Simpson Bay..that's what the cab driver told us. Nonetheless, we drove over with another couple from Montreal. It was a nice drive over and the beach is really nice. I don't swim so I couldn't do the water there because it was pretty rough from the planes. The waves were too scary. LOL We decided to park ourselves right in front of the airport, we wanted the whole experience. HA!!!! Did we ever!!! With the small planes arriving it wasn't so bad, we enjoyed it. there were a few that came in the first hour. Sometimes the sand would hurt as it hit our bodies but it was bare-able. THEN, Caribbean Airlines took off...now that was an experience and that's not even a huge plane!!! Basically, we got sand blasted as it took off and because the winds were so hard it pushed us towards the ocean. We're small people (5'4') so it was really hard for us to stay on the beach. My husbands hat flew off so he ran to get it and just got blown into the ocean. I literally freaked out as I was trying to runaway to the side looking back at him fighting to get out. LOL (He's not a strong swimmer). It's funny now, but at the time it was the scariest thing ever!! I had what looked like a "sand eye liner" on my eyes, our scalp had a couple of lbs of sand in it and it was stuck all over our body. And there are no showers there either. What an experience!! When we decided to leave instead of going straight to the shopping we went back to the ship instead to shower up. It took me 45 mins to try and get all the sand off of me. Haha After we were all cleaned up we took a water taxi over to the shopping area. The beach there was very nice and calm. We regretted not putting our other suits on to do some swimming. But the shopping was fun....we spoiled the kids (who were back home) at Del Sol. St. Maarten is a place I will never ever forget!!!

 

I uploaded a video to my webshots if you want to take a look. Nothing special but it's neat seeing the airplane.

 

And here is a link I found with some info... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maho_Beach If you go there...stay off to the side if you know there are any planes departing. With the 9 year old there especially. :)

 

I found someones video on youtube.... this is pretty much how it was, although not as many people. Crazy!!

 

 

 

On your pictures of St Thomas, I have a question..at the front of the album, all the pictures taken of the ships down below, were those taken from Paradise Point?

 

By the way, your pictures are wonderful. I am going on this same trip in April, along with Donna who posted above:D and I have really enjoyed looking at everything you did. I was on Liberty 2 years ago, and all your pictures of the ship brought back soooo many great memories...she is just like I remember, and maybe even MORE beautiful!!!

[Joaljoe]

Yes, those photos were taken from Paradise Point. It is so beautiful up there....great picture taking spot!! :)

 

I am so jealous of you...even though I just went!!! LOL I want to go back sooo bad, it's sooo cold here and we have way too much snow!! Hope the two of you have lots of fun and make sure to take lots of pics!! :)

[boncruisebon]

Hello

 

I have been a lurker here for a couple of years. Have always got some great information from everyone. I just read your review and looked at all your pictures. They are so beautiful. I was on the same cruise as you and had a great time. I was wondering if it's okay with you to save some of your pictures to my computer? You have some great pictures of the ship and Islands we visited.

 

Thank you very much. :)

[Joaljoe]

Of course you can!! :) I think people download photos from webshots all the time.....that's what you get for uploading them to that site. LOL

 

Enjoy!! :)

[boncruisebon]

Thank you very much Joaljoe. I'm not much of a picture taker and then always regret it. I really like the airplanes. Wish I took a ride up to that beach, even though I'd probably get blown right into that water. lol

 

Take Care! :)