Carnival Liberty 9/25-10/2

[steeners81]

Hi, was there a reggea band playing on the Lido deck at the sail away?[/quote

 

This is bad its less then two weeks ago and I am struggling to remember. When the cruise staff was doing the dances the songs were not played by a live band but after those three songs were done a live band did start playing. I don't know if it was a reggae band or not.

[steeners81]

Day 4 Grand Caymen….or not

 

I was so excited to go to Grand Caymen. I hadn’t been here in years and we had booked a swimming with the sting rays . I had done this before but my bf hadn’t and I thought he would really enjoy. We woke up and got ready and headed to breakfast and we looked out side. It was overcast and looked like it could pour any minute but we were holding out hope. As we were walking into breakfast they made the announcement they had closed the port due to bad weather. They would printing a new Funtimes with things to do today. Then he mentioned how they were looking at an alternative port to go to. At this point I looked at my bf and said it’s going to be *#@# Costa Maya. I eventually turned out to be right and I apologize if anyone likes Costa Maya but you can see how I feel about it from that statement but more on that tomorrow.

OK so off to breakfast we went where we were going to decide on what to do on our new “Fun Day at Sea.” First we headed off to the digital scavenger hunt where they gave us a list of 20 things to find and photograph. Off we went racing around the ship taking pictures

 

 

My favorite hugging a giant hand ( I ever so nicely made my bf pose for all the pictures while I took them)

 

We got them all raced back to find out that we were the first team back YAY!, then found out one of my pictures didn’t take. So while we ran off to retake the picture another team took first. So we moped off that for a good 30 seconds then raced off to trivia.

 

At this point we really should have just stopped going to reg. trivia we were that bad at it. But I do know now some useless trivia that I will never ever have a reason to use. After trivia headed to scattergories again, same concept as before. I came in third.

 

 

Then off to the game of love, which I have seen on other cruises and they are all the same but still funny. Then bingo ( lost again). We decided to try the sushi before dinner. I don’t remember what each one was but it wasn’t bad

 

 

Dinner was not so fantastic though.

 

 

French onion soup-Wasn’t bad but wasn’t great tasted like you typical French onion soup

 

 

 

Chicken quesadilla-really good

 

 

Penne Mariscos-Really not good-the seafood tasted as if it was overcooked

 

 

Grilled flat iron steak-was way to tough

[steeners81]

Banana split-off the kids menu-very good

 

After dinner we headed back to dinner before the show and found this on our bed.

 

 

I had to laugh since we were supposed to go snorkeling with the sting rays that day.

 

The show for the evening was “Just Rock” where the singers and dancers performed songs from the past decades. It was really good probably my favorite show of the week.

After the show I decided to head to the Mardi gras celebration in the lobby. The band came out and started playing

Then they started tossing beads from the 4th floor into the lobby. You would have thought they were throwing money the way some people reacted. After that the band started the parade heading up to the fifth floor down the promenade towards the casino. I stayed with them until we got to the casino then it just got way to crowded. After that I headed to see the midnight show of the comedian Scotty K. As I said previous he was hysterical.

 

Attached below is Day 4 Fun Times

Day 4[1].pdf

[TracersQQ]

I'm really enjoying this - I don't know how you remember all of the little details, lol. When they announced we would not be stopping in Grand Cayman, I felt the same way as you - I knew they would end up going to Costa Maya. But, I thought I'd give it the benefit of the doubt since I haven't been there since before the hurriccane. Well, I wish they would of just given us another sea day, if this was our only choice for a new port. Did you go to the sound bite and tv theme song trivia on this day? I found out about the scavenger hunt after it had started : ( I really would have liked to do that. But I did go to the 2 trivias, that I just mentioned - these were the only 2 Carnival organized activities that I went to. My husband decided to catch up on some sleep and so I went to trivia by myself. But, I ended up running into my sons friend, at trivia, and then my son showed up looking for his friend - so I wasn't alone, after all : ). It ended up being worth my while since I was one of the 2 winners in the the tv theme song trivia. : ) My husband didn't believe that I won - he wanted to know how much I paid gor the medal, at the fun shops or did I steal it from some little kid, lol. But, my son and his friend confirmed it, for me.

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

[steeners81]

I'm really enjoying this - I don't know how you remember all of the little details, lol. When they announced we would not be stopping in Grand Cayman, I felt the same way as you - I knew they would end up going to Costa Maya. But, I thought I'd give it the benefit of the doubt since I haven't been there since before the hurriccane. Well, I wish they would of just given us another sea day, if this was our only choice for a new port. Did you go to the sound bite and tv theme song trivia on this day? I found out about the scavenger hunt after it had started : ( I really would have liked to do that. But I did go to the 2 trivias, that I just mentioned - these were the only 2 Carnival organized activities that I went to. My husband decided to catch up on some sleep and so I went to trivia by myself. But, I ended up running into my sons friend, at trivia, and then my son showed up looking for his friend - so I wasn't alone, after all : ). It ended up being worth my while since I was one of the 2 winners in the the tv theme song trivia. : ) My husband didn't believe that I won - he wanted to know how much I paid gor the medal, at the fun shops or did I steal it from some little kid, lol. But, my son and his friend confirmed it, for me.

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

 

I did the the TV theme song trivia. Thankfully my bf's mom came in right at the beginning of it to help us out be we still didn't do that good. Congrats on winning that was really hard.

[steeners81]

Day 5 Costa Maya

 

OK as you might have guessed from my previous post I am not a fan of Costa Maya. This would make my fourth time there. The first time I went there the excursions were cheaper and as was everything in the stores. There is really nothing to do there unless you book an excursion through the ship. We were looking to see if there were any excursions that interested us but they were all either to expensive or I had already done it. So we decided to try and sleep in hang out around the boat and get off to look around just to get off the ship.

 

We got up around 8 and headed to breakfast then decided to try Slogan trivia. I was hoping not to many people would show up and I would have a shot. Well the only people who were there were my bf and I. SO we decided to compete against each other. After this trivia I decided I need to watch more tv because I think I got 4 of them right. I almost missed the question about carnivals theme which was a little embarrassing. So my BF beat me but we were both given medals. So I can now say I have my own medal I just didn’t really win it.

 

My bf then headed up to putt putt contest and I decided to try out room service. I got back to room and found these waiting for

 

 

Then I decided to order the medium rare roasted strip loin with brie cheese that I have heard people rave about on here

 

 

once I took the cheese off it was pretty good.

 

 

MY BBF came back to let me know noone showed up at the putt-putt so they canceled so we decided to head off the ship to walk around a bit. My Bf found a pair of fake Oakley’s he liked ( which he then found cheaper in Cozumel) and I was on the fence about buying a wooden necklace that was pretty but I couldn’t get anyone to go lower then 20$ and the clasp was junky so I passed. A few pics from Costa Maya

 

[steeners81]

Another Costa Maya pic:

 

Then we were off to lunch. Again I had Mongolian Wok, I have no idea why I photographed my lunch today but I did

 

 

 

Mongolian Wok with chicken, clams, and mussels

 

No idea what these desserts were.

 

After lunch I decided to hit the gym while the bf hit the water slide. I was very impressed by the gym. It wasn’t very big but there was not many people in there while I was there. I used the treadmill, weight machines, and elliptical and all were just as good if not better then the machines I use at home. The front of the gym is all windows so you can look out which is a nice touch. Also on the treadmills there are tvs to watch as you work out.

I never tried the waterslide but according to the bf it wasn’t bad just bumpy.

 

We decided to try to get to dinner at 6 because there were activities we wanted to get to starting at 7:30. Dinner was much better then the previous night

 

Fried mozzarella

 

Sliced beef tenderloin and noodle salad

 

Assorted seafood Newburg style-so much better then the previous nights seafood dish

[steeners81]

Farfalle with roast turkey breast

 

Tiramisu

 

Bitter and Blanc

 

Diet Coconut cake-this was delicious

 

After dinner we headed to the Venetian lounge for the Hip hop dance class. I learned that doing hip hop and heals and a short dress do not mix so before the next activity I ran back to the room to change into something more comfortable. By the time we got back they were in the middle of the sea feud challenge which is just like family feud. After that was the 60 seconds or less game in which my bf really wanted to participate in but I had never heard of. He didn’t get to play but it was fun watching the people try and do the tasks in 60 seconds. Next was $1000 bingo….yup I lost.

 

After that was the Carnival Color hop. I know some people don’t like the color wars thing but I thought it was fun. I don’t think it was intrusive to the people who didn’t want to participate. We were on the red team

 

and no we did not pack clothes for this it just ended up we both had red shirts that when we found out we were the red team decided to save for this night.

 

We started out at the casino bar area and they had us do a dance, and there was a booty shaking contest. Then we were off to the hot and cold lounge

We had a twist contest, sand summer loving from grease, and had a worst dance move contest ( I did a little bit of the sprinkler).

[steeners81]

After that we went to the Victorian lounge for Karaoke

 

Our team captains Charlotte from the cruise staff and Sam one of the Dancers

 

They had the guys get up and sing brown eyes girl and then the girls got up and Sand I will Survive. Um, I think more of the girls knew the words to their song. After that we headed up to the pool deck where the three teams met. We did some dances then had a congo line. Honestly I thought it was one of the best deck parties of I have gone to I had a great time and seemed everyone there did also. After the party they had a Mexican buffet set up so I headed there to just look. The looking then turned into me getting a plate of food and desserts.

 

Ice sculpture at buffet

 

 

This little guy was waiting for us back in the room

 

 

Attached below is the fun times for the day

day 5[1].pdf

[Name Of The Game]

Did you have a favorite dessert?

 

We enjoyed the colors deck party too!

 

Love your review!

[steeners81]

Did you have a favorite dessert?

 

We enjoyed the colors deck party too!

 

Love your review!

 

Out of all the food i ate it was the choc. sampler in Harrys, but in the MDR it was either the banana split or the diet coconut cake

[Name Of The Game]

Hmmmm, not a big fan of coconut. How was the tiramisu?

[steeners81]

It was pretty good. Out of all the desserts I ate I think I like them all except for a few I ate at lunch.

[steeners81]

Day 6 Cozumel

 

I had really been looking forward to Cozumel. We had booked the excursion that took us to Xcaret. I had been there last year but my bf hadn’t. We got up got breakfast and were done on the pier by 8. We met up with the guide got our wristbands and were told to wait with the 15 or so other people who were going. As we were waiting we decided to get some pictures

Liberty and the Triumph

And we continured waiting and around 8:30 I noticed that the ferry that was heading over to Playa del Carmen was leaving. Um I am pretty sure we are supposed to be on it but the guide hasn’t said anything so we continue waiting. About 10 minutes later she comes over and tells us there has been a mistake and we were supposed to have been on that ferry. Our options were to go with the Triumph passangers at 10 am and get less time but 50% back or cancel and get a full refund. Since we didn’t have anything else planned we decided to go with the triumph passengers. Since we had an hour to kill we decided to do some shopping. I had found a necklace I liked and was planning on getting it later and told the guy so, I guess he thought I was bargaining so he dropped the price from 20 to 15. Um sold, so I got a better necklace then I saw in Costa Maya cheaper. My Bf picked up a few more pairs of fake Oakley’s for cheaper then in Cozumel. The last store we bought anything from was Del Sol. I have a young niece and nephew and figured they would like some color changing slime.

After that we went back and waited for our ferry.

 

Finally we got on the ferry and headed to playa. When we got there they loaded us on the bus and we headed to Xcaret, it was about a 15 minute ride. Xcaret is a great place and if anyone has any questions about it I will be happy to answer.

The tour guide was going to give a quick tour of the place but since I had been there before we bypassed that. We didn’t do the underground river because we were pressed for time and I had done it last year. We did manage to see all the animals and some of the flora. Here are some pictures:

 

For the underground river this is where you enter

We went to the butterfly pavilion

The butterflies are free flying and can land on you. I didn’t have any on my but my bf did.

[Raven Days]

Lol just a little. I have been hearing it for the past 10 monthes so I am used to it.

 

Dont worry my husband is 10 years younger then me. I love younger guys!:cool:

[Raven Days]

Right when we walked into the lobby there was someone there from Harrys so we went to discuss with him about changing our reservations. He then informed us that we didn’t have reservations. …umm I had the email showing him that we did but it didn’t matter anyway since we were changing them but if you do get an email confirmations make sure you print it out and bring it with you. After sorting that out we decided to head up to Emiles for food. I wanted to try everything for lunch but I had to be realistic. I got the Mongolian wok with chicken and shrimp and szechwan sauce. I was very spicy but very good, I think I had this everytime we ate lunch here. I also decided to try and fish and chips since there was no line. I had the fritters and the ahi tuna. The fritters had way to much in them ( it was a Calamari Zucchini Maui Onion Fritter) and the ahi tuna wasn’t bad but with it sitting on a slice of watermelon it had a different taste.

 

That is the tuna, Mongolian wok, a piece of choc cake, and apple crumb cake.

The fritters with fries

 

After lunch we had some time so decided to go exploring. . We found the mini golf course it was nice but I liked it better on the liberty of the seas. On RCCL you could play 24 hours were on Carnival there were set times.

 

 

We also realized right in front of us was the Epic. I couldnt get any side shots of her but here is a pic of the back of her.

 

 

I loved the Fish and Chips too and had the calamari the last sea day for lunch and it took me a freaking week to find the mini golf!

[steeners81]

After that we went and saw the jaguars. The male was laying around while the female kept circling the island it was interesting to see them move around

Then we went down into the bat cave which is not for the squimish. It is dark and the bats can buzz right by your head. I found it interesting but got a little nervous when a guy came down and looked like he was going to take a picture with flash.

After that we sat and watched the dolpins for a bit. Then it was on to lunch. I had planned for us to eat a nice lunch but with the time restraints we now decided to grab food from a snack like place. We got chicken nachos and a soda for $8 and it was delicious. After that we went and saw the manatees. Usually when I see manatees they are not really doing anything but here there people in the water feeding them and they were really active ( well as active as they can be)

Next, on to see the turtles. Xcaret has a pretty cool program in which they hatch turtle eggs there and then when they are old enough they release them into the wild. So we saw everything from adult turtles

To young turtles

This little guy was my favorite he was just cruising around with his fins on his shell like that the whole time

[steeners81]

Then we went into the aquarium where we saw jelly fish. I live at the jersey shore so jelly fish are nothing new to me but it was neat to see them swimming and not just laying on the beach or floating on top of the water

We also saw lots of fish and some sea horses

In the same area is where we found the just hatched turtles

These guys hatched 1 day before they were so cute

[steeners81]

The went to the orchid greenhouse and the mushroom farm

As we were leaving the park there were incubators set up with quail eggs and some newly hatched quail. They were very cute ( I am a sucker for baby animals)

[steeners81]

So I took one more picture ( In case I forgot where I was)

 

And then it was onto our busses for our trip back to the ship.

A shot of both ships from the ferry

A cool shot of both ships as we were walking to the gangway

 

OK I love watching people who are late in Cozumel running to the ship. Is it sort of mean…yes. DO I care…no. If you are told to be on the boat by 4:30 you should be on the boat by 4:30. My favorite person was this woman who was walking to the ship and saw them start pulling in the crew gangway and I guess she assumed the ship was leaving so she started running towards the ship and then someone behind her started running also. But what annoyed me this time was at 5:15 we were still missing 7 people (at that point they were 45 minutes late) and when we watched them come aboard it was a family with little kids. Drunk people I get but someone with little kids has to be more responsible what would have happened if they got left behind. Ok stepping off my soap box now and back to the review. Anyway so after watching the ship pull off we headed down to the cabin to get ready for dinner. We decided to take a few more pictures in case we didn’t like any of the dozens that were already taken. Then it was off to dinner (2nd formal night)

[trvlqueen]

Great review so far! I'm just off Liberty 2 days ago - this is my B2B, lol - I couldn't stay on another week, so I'm living vicariously through you. :p

[steeners81]

2nd Formal Night

Cream of broccoli

Escargot-It was very good but it didn’t even come close to how good it was up in Harrys

 

Salmon

 

Grilled Jumbo Tiger Shrimp

 

Baked Alaska-was very good once you scraped the fruit off the top

 

Overall Dinner was very good. After dinner we headed back to the cabin to change into more comfortable clothes for the rest of the evening. This was our towel animal tonight

[recyclelady]

Nice review!

 

I love that you come back and answer all of our questions too.

 

I thought Quest was hilarious--and I was there with my grown children! Is cruiseperson Molly Lou still there? Did she lead the Quest?

[steeners81]

Day 6 continued

 

 

We then headed down to play balloon bingo. How that worked was they had 4 balloons up on stage and if you won you chose which color balloon to pop, the prizes were form $500-$800. We all decided to play and I was one number away and stood up and then they called my number….yay I won bingo. Someone else called it at the same time so we chose which balloon (the red one) and it was $600. SO I walked away with $300 I was quit happy

 

After that we stayed in the theater for the main show which was “The comedy and juggling of Wally and Will” I thought they were pretty funny and also pretty good. I did leave before the end because we wanted to see the 9:45 comedian so I volunteered to go save a seat for that ( side note the first night of the comedians it was easy to get a seat before the show but y the third night you needed to ger there early). So I sat around for about 30 minutes til my bf and his family and we saw both the 9:45 and the 11:00pm comedian (Will Marfori and Jimmy Carroll). Neither I though were great I actually dozed off during the second show but this may have to do with 2 things. First by this point I was exhausted and also I was comparing them all to the comedian Scotty K which none of them were even close to as good as he was. So since I was falling asleep we decided to call it a night after the comedian.

 

Attached is the Fun times for day 6

Day 6.pdf

[steeners81]

Nice review!

 

I love that you come back and answer all of our questions too.

 

I thought Quest was hilarious--and I was there with my grown children! Is cruiseperson Molly Lou still there? Did she lead the Quest?

 

No Mary Lou was not one of the cruise staff when I was on board. Yeah quest was hysterical...we were expecting it to be the same as RCCL but there was a def. difference