My First Carnival Cruise (review) Liberty 4/23

[tx1234]

Love the review. You are quite entertaing and giving good info with a great attitude!

[cruiserNC]

Loving your review and point of view!

[kew1031]

I like your 1-5 scorecard and the "what does the WCMC taste like?" answer was greatness.

Excellent review and you made me laugh. the "trashed the room like a petulant rock star" cracked me up.:D

 

About that cabin location... how bad was the the bounce from being so far forward? The front deck sounds great, but I'm not sure about the wave action for myself.

 

ETA: oops, I apparently didn't read every post and your answer about the cabin location.. I'm pretty sensitive to that motion, not sure I'd last through 6 or 7 days of it.

[dwayneb236]

Great reviews, keep em coming. I need to laugh more.

[DeDe63]

Lovin' your review! Please continue!!!

[suzwes]

Terrific review, made me LOL during my lunch hour at work! Can't wait for more of your review. Boarding Liberty on Saturday for my first cruise.

[jerseygirl79]

Awesome review. I'll be sailing Liberty in September and would love to hear about your excursions.

[Sundiego]

You're an excellent writer! Thanks for a great review. Question though... I never heard of a chef saying you had to order a steak MEDIUM. Lots of peeps (myself included) like rare or medium rare. What was the rationale for that? Did they say?

[Nezmo]

You're an excellent writer! Thanks for a great review. Question though... I never heard of a chef saying you had to order a steak MEDIUM. Lots of peeps (myself included) like rare or medium rare. What was the rationale for that? Did they say?

I've heard it in some restaurants - generally not in the 'nicer' ones though. I believe it's a throwback to scares about undercooked meat. If the restaurant at least recommends medium they are off the hook if you do get sick from anything you ask for. I had to admit I have never heard it said in a Carnival steakhouse.

 

Medium rare for me or nothing.

[elcuchio24]

Yo Yo. Thanks for a good honest review. Sorry the Steakhouse wasn't better for ya.

[elcuchio24]

I've heard it in some restaurants - generally not in the 'nicer' ones though. I believe it's a throwback to scares about undercooked meat. If the restaurant at least recommends medium they are off the hook if you do get sick from anything you ask for. I had to admit I have never heard it said in a Carnival steakhouse.

 

Medium rare for me or nothing.

 

If they wouldn't cook it Md Rare or Rare, I would be finding me another steakhouse.....

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Glad you guys like the review so far. I will try and get pics up tonight and hopefully start the excursion reviews.

 

As far as the steak being cooked medium. The server was trying to explain why but I couldn't make heads or tails of what he was saying due to language differences and all. Something about the spices and something else. I don't know. I was hungry and was ok with Medium. Now the steak wasnt bad. I just had higher hopes and will try the steakhouse again on my next trip. Going to try the porterhouse next time.

[Rottweiler Puppy]

OK some pics. I hope they arent too small, or too big. Anyhow sorry I don't have tons, I am not a good picture takin guy.

 

The room. (edited to add, I just noticed the goofy picture light thingy on the left side was illuminated. Later on during the cruise we were trying to figure out how to turn it on. I dont know why because that thing was fugly as can be)

 

The complimentary Carnival body bag. Kind of creepy I thought but hey, looks like a good spot to put our luggage on.

 

The table we ate at every night. Well its actually four 2 top tables really close together, but we and the same 3 couple ates there all the time because of the good company and good service.

 

And of course the first sunset of the cruise. Taken off the bow right in front of our room.

[Rottweiler Puppy]

May as well do some excursions.

 

Warning, long and possibly boring.

 

First stop was Cozumel. I love being on the front deck when coming into port so I was out there bright and early. Always nice to see it fresh. It certainly has grown since the last time I was there in the 80's. Back then we anchored and tendered. This time there were two docks close together and there was a little fake Mexico on the end of the pier. Don't get me wrong. Fake Mexico in the real Mexico is better than not being there eat all, it was just too "not Mexican" More like something at Epcot. OK maybe something more like an outdoor mall. Still nice to have at the end of the pier to do some quick browsing and shopping in a very safe area. (not that Cozumel is all that bad, safer than Miami to me).

 

Disembarking - 4 (fast)

Naturally you have to make it through the gauntlet of goofy characters that try to get your pic with. We take them just in case as its not like you have to buy them. One was a tall pirate with a little skeleton puppet on strings. Well it was the cute short Ukrainian photographer as the puppet.

 

It was cool though because you know, when anyone thinks of Mexico, the first thing that comes to mind is 9 foot tall zombie pirates playing with skeleton marionettes.

 

We did a little looking around in the mall before taking a cab to the Divers Memorial about 4 blocks up the road. That is where we were to meet our dealer, er I mean tour guide. We booked a non ship tour through CozumelDuneBuggyTours.com. Island marketing sells the tours also but we went straight to them. Many good reviews, included tons of food and drink. 5 hours or longer depending on the group.

 

Now I was kind of nervous after reading about that preacher driving into a couple folks and going to jail. Now he was admittedly negligent, but I was still a little nervous. I figured since we were part of a tour, we may be a little safer. Hopefully the tour company already sent in their pay off, I mean kick back to the local police. (sorry, thats Mexico business as usual).

 

We met Omar, our tour guide and we were the only people booked on his tour that day. Cool, private tour. no worries about other groups holding things up, or speeding up stops we may like. He said that the day is ours to spend as long as we wanted wherever we went. He was a great guy and very friendly. Now since we were the only group going, he had some family in another dune buggy go with us but they were just along for the ride. No decisions on where the tour went. They had their own buggy as well.

 

The dune buggies were cool looking but a little scary. No seat-belts, no doors, and if you wanted to adjust the seat, you just scootched it. Little nervous at this point but I can drive a stick so I figured it shouldn't be that bad. So far the traffic in Cozumel didn't seem to bad, no worse then some parts of Miami.

 

Main problem with the buggies is the pedals were close together. Or I have sasquatch feet. It was fairly hard to get on one pedal at a time at first but after fiddling around I was able to safely use them.

 

Well here we were in our Dune Buggy driving around Cozumel with our tour guide Omar.

 

Was pretty fun. We passed up these dorks though. What a couple of losers.

 

First stop on our drive around the Island was a nice little snorkel trip. It was a nice area and no one else was there. After driving over the dead iguana, I parked the buggy on the side and made a mental note as to where it was. That way if I saw it missing later, I would politely say no thanks to lunch.

 

The water was beautiful. Flat as a pancake and oh so blue. Now my girlfriend and myself go snorkeling a couple times a month here at home but we wanted better and Cozumel definitely has better. What a nice time. We were in for about 45 minutes and leisurely floated around enjoying ourselves immensely. We brought our own masks and snorkels but did use their fins.

 

Our guide Omar using his Aquaman powers to send a school of fish after me. Or maybe it was the sand dollar turd he threw by me they were after. I never knew sand dollars even had turds, let alone butts. (note the elusive sand dollar turd floating right towards me)

Camera was the Fuji that was recommended in another thread. Nice camera for $99.

 

Another pic of some fish. I kept diving down to get a better picture and before I knew it, I was pretty deep and nearly out of breath. Got the pic though. Sorry the colors aren't so great I had the flash off and I was about 20 feet under.

 

We then headed to a little town in the middle of the island. Thats my favorite stuff to do right there. Get in there and see the real Island. It was great. Roosters running around the streets and little shops with very little hassle. We had to use the restroom which was part of someones house and had to pay. It was 50 cents a person and they had a 7 year old security guard there to make sure you paid.

 

We learned that May3 is the big holiday there as it celebrates the first Mass in Mexico. We went into the tiny little church but they were doing construction on the inside so no good pics. Right next to the church was an old Mayan temple. Pile of rocks basically, but still cool to see.

 

While my girlfriend was browsing the little shop I saw a guy with an obese Iguana walking around. I have seen pics of this. He puts it on your head, you take a pic, and give him a buck. I know they are cool if you are not used to them but back home, they are pests. They eat all the flowers you try and plant and they get pretty pissed off when you try to get them off the back porch. If this dude ambushes my girlfriend and puts it on her head, I wil never hear the end of it. When she came out of the shop, I steered her away from where Iguana-man was waiting and went back to the buggies.

 

We drove around the Island on a scary 2 lane road next to the beach. Normally it wouldn't be too scary but since the steering sucked, the wind was insane, we had absolutely no seat belts and the roll cage was cosmetic, Rolling off the road would have been very bad.

 

We drove by a few different bars and beach places. All looked fun and inviting but we kept on driving and exploring, finally stopping here.

 

Omar made fresh salsa and guacamole while serving us nice grilled chicken. We were here for a little bit as a storm blew over up the road. We never got wet. Very nice stop and I even hopped in the ocean for a little while. Tons of food since we were the only ones on the tour and plenty to drink. There was beer and I was continually reminded of that. I don't drink much. A 6pack can sit in my refrigerator for months and I often end up tossing it out for being old. I did want a beer though, but only after the tour.

 

Omar asked if we wanted to drive around some more then head back. He said the view was the same, or we could stop at a Tequila joint and learn how tequila was made. We don't drink tequila, I think its nasty but it would be a cool tour so we said yes.

 

 

Nice place. Normally its $14 to get in but since Omar has the hooks ups. It was only a buck. Oh btw Omar definitely knows everyone, including the cops. Pretty much everyone on the Island knows him it seems. Thats good as I think he might have an upper hand if he had an accident and the cops showed up.

 

We learned how them make tequila and how to find the good stuff. Then came to taste testing. Now I don't know the DUI rules in Mexico but no one seems to care. I actually had to refuse samples after a bit. You can definite leave there with a buzz if you have a good tour guide. It was amazing at how many different tequilas there are. We ended up buying 2 small bottles. 1 cream and 1 coffee. Went in as tequila haters, came out as tequila snobs.

 

Well thats pretty much it. We went back to town parked the buggy thanked and tipped Omar and went our way. Before I got to far Omar reminded me that we still had water, juice and beer in the dune buggies cooler. That was cool he could have not said anything but he remembered my goal was to have at least one beer in Mexico. I drank it up and headed back to port.

 

Getting back on the ship was easy and of course we had to turn in our booze. No big deal. We still haven't opened the bottles yet here at home. Showered , ate and went back to the little mall and shopped for one of my girlfriends daughters. She is 19 and hard to buy for. Naturally we didn't find anything. Man will those guys cut bargains the hour before the ship leaves. If you ever go there, don't shop until the last hour.

 

Thats it for my first excursion review on my awesome Carnival Liberty cruise. Thanks for tuning in.

 

Oh yeah the ratings

Overall tour excursion - 4

Service - 5

food - 4

Dune Buggies 2.5 -3 due to the condition.

Embarkation at the port -4

 

Would we do it again?

No. Once was enough but very glad we did it.

 

Would I recomend it?

Yes but its definitely not for everyone. The Dune Buggies have no doors. You hop in Dukes of Hazzard style and no safety equipment. I would not recommend for the elderly, disabled and groups with children. Driving around is slow and the other drivers are no worse then downtown Miami. Actually once you are away from the port, its pretty nice and open.

 

Will try and do Grand Cayman review next.

[StingRaysfan]

Whoo Hoo... I must have missed it for the last couple days, but glad I found your review!!!! :) Well written!!! MAN, I can't wait. I'm a little worried about the food on the Liberty. We loved the MDR food on the Valor last year... so much so that after our night in the steakhouse we decided we like the MDR food just as much so why pay. I didn't eat the flat iron steak though... that does even sound good. It probably tastes better to me because I don't have to cook though.. LOL

 

Can't wait to read about Grand Cayman!!! Even though we are going Eastern you are making me sooo excited for our Liberty cruise!!!

[nytraveller53]

Glad you enjoyed the water.

[crusing48/51]

Enjoying your review. Thank you for taking the time to do one. Also, like your screen name. As you can see, we have an 8 month old Rottweiler puppy. Her name is Christa. Sorry to go off topic, but wanted to share our girl with you.

[vermontcruisers]

Hey Man.I don't usually post replies too often on here,but I have to say this is the best review I have yet to read on CC.-Thanks.-Andy.

[fern1226]

Great review. Thanks for posting. Thanks to you, I will forever think of open sores when I see a jacuzzi:p

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Glad you liked it Stingrarysfan, and you will have a great time. No doubt in my mind.

 

Don't worry about the food. Most people found it rather good. Perhaps I am spoiled as I live in an area known for entertainment and food. Downtown Los Olas Blvd in Ft. Lauderdale. If the food isn't outstanding, the place goes out of business real quick. Also most of my friends are executive chefs at some of those places so even at home, we get spoiled. Even the chain places have to kickit up a notch to compete as a generic chain restaurant in that area is much better than one across State because of the competition. So yeah, we are spoiled a bit.

I think you will find the food to be very good and enjoyable. Have an awesome cruise.

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Enjoying your review. Thank you for taking the time to do one. Also, like your screen name. As you can see, we have an 8 month old Rottweiler puppy. Her name is Christa. Sorry to go off topic, but wanted to share our girl with you.

Rotties are the best. Mine is 9 now. Still thinks she is a puppy though. Thanks for sharing your little girl, much appreciated.

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Hey Man.I don't usually post replies too often on here,but I have to say this is the best review I have yet to read on CC.-Thanks.-Andy.

 

Thanks for the kind compliment and thanks for hopping in and reading. I was a little nervous about posting a review but am glad I did. I hope it helps others, or at least entertains some.

[spideyfam]

Very good review!

Thanks!

[blondietink]

Those are great underwater pics! So, which Fuji camera did you use? :confused:

 

Also regarding the WCMC: My DH dumps his ice cream into the cake right when he gets it and says it takes just like a hot fudge sundae. ;) Don't know if this is how you are supposed to eat it or not, but he does. I can't eat any chocolate at all so I couldn't even try it.

 

Keep up the great review!

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Excursion # 2 Grand Cayman

 

The water was as calm and as beautiful as it was last time I was there. Such a great Island. Naturally my habit is to get up and watch the Islands come in. Glad I got room 7201. So worth it for a person who loves watching port come in.

 

Good Morning Grand Cayman. Taken about 30 minutes before we got closer and anchored.

pic

 

 

We wanted to get off the ship early as we had a non cruise sponsored tour to meet at 9:15 so we ordered room service. Ugh. Pretty much covered earlier on in the review. Definitely had better at La Quinta's in rougher parts of town.

 

Many people here mentioned that you have to go to the theater up front and get a ticket and wait. Not the case on the Liberty apparently. Jen the Cruise Director told everyone in the excursions class/ seminar /whateveritwascalled that my girlfriend went to, that you go to deck 0 and wait there. I confirmed with the excursions desk so we got up early, attempted to eat and made our way to deck 0.

 

Evidently we were not as early as we thought. Not too bad though. We were probably about #30 in line by the stairs on deck one. That was about 7AM. Withing 20 minutes the line grew and snaked down the hallways a bit. We all waited patiently and all of a sudden husband and wife appear out of the elevator. Did they get in line? Heck no. Lines are for fools and suckas. They stood there next to the elevators, fully intent on cutting in line? How could I tell? Just could. Well they started the line moving and we went down to deck 0 and what do ya know? Hubby and wife hopped back in the elevator and dropped back down to zero and tried to cut in line. Well I pushed them back inside and hit ALL the buttons and sent them away. Muahahahaha, enjoy your ride ya creeps.

 

Actually they were able to cut right in line. Oh well. 2 people aren't going to really hold me up, I am already feeling the breeze of Grand Caymans air. The woman was pretty hefty and probably couldn't stand long or something. Whatever. just trying to figure a valid reason for their action. As long as they had a good time in Grand Cayman and came back safe is all that matters really. Besides, what comes around goes around if they were truly in the wrong, it will come back to them.

 

The tenders are pretty big and they had four going at the same time. Almost 300 per, so the ship empties pretty quick. 2 tenders loading and 2 unloading constantly. Carnival must have slipped an extra couple bucks to the port manager because some other ships, the Regent ship in particular ,was having to use their life rafts as tenders while Carnivals tenders kept on a nonstop rotation. Good job Carnival.

 

Yay. We are in Grand Cayman.

 

 

My girlfriend snapped a pic of this doofus. Man look at him. He just looks shady. I will keep an eye on him.

 

 

My girlfriend wanted to go up to the official CG information building and ask directions to Captain Marvin's (Which happened to be about 200 feet away). We go into this air conditioned building right at the docks and she starts talking to the very friendly government people. While she was talking the power went out. Weird because there were no storms. It got dark briefly and everyone was wondering what happened. Turns out some idiot leaned back and his backpack hit the light switch. Looked just like that guy in the previous pic. I knew he was an idiot just by looking at him. Also looks kind of like that dork in the dune buggy in Cozumel.

 

Man I am glad I ain't that friggin dumb, what a loser. The dudes girlfriend must be embarrassed as heck to even be with the guy. What a chump.

 

Killing time, we roamed the streets looking to buy souvenirs. No one posts their operating hours in Grand Cayman. Pretty odd. We finally found a t-shirt shop that was open. I asked why no one posts their hours and he said it depends on how many ships are going to be in and when they get there. Or something like that. I want to work there. “Hey boss when do I come in?" “Whenever”

 

Grand Cayman sure isn't cheap. I bought 3 of those doofy color changing shirts in Cozumel for $15. In Grand Cayman they were almost $20 each. Well we got the shirt and headed towards Captain Marvin's office. My girlfriend wanted to take a pic of Jimmy Buffets. I don't know why, maybe she thought it looked cool. Anyway she took one quick pic and I think we got a fellow CCer in the shot. Nezmo? Is that you and the Mrs?

 

 

 

Well fast forward a bit and we are getting on our boat to see the Stingrays and do some snorkeling. Nice people, nice boat. They had juice and water to drink as well. The ride was OK. Some folks wanted to sit on the bow and they were getting totally soaked from the waves. I was laughing my arse off. Sorry. I don't know why folks freak out about getting wet when in 20 minutes, they will be snorkeling.

Originally we were supposed to snorkel the barrier reef, then a Coral Garden, then go do Stingray sandbar. The boat tour guide said we will do the Stingray Sandbar first before it got crowded later. I am glad he made that call because the sandbar was closed not too long after.

 

It was so fun. The stingrays are like puppies wanting a treat. So graceful and calm. Hard to imagine they can be deadly if need be. The tour guide was giving instructions on not what to do. Like DO NOT go and try and grab your own as some are not tame and only the guides know which ones are safe. Naturally the potential Darwin Award candidates ignored him and tried to get their own. Thankfully no injuries. Always a few knuckleheads in every group.

 

Here is our boat and group from Captain Marvin's

 

We got to hold one and get some pics. They say kissing one gives you good luck. OK what the heck “honey, go for it” I said. No way I was going to make out with a stingray. She was going to give it a little smooth and it reared up and pucked in her face. Well it was just water but it was pretty funny. I almost got left in Grand Cayman.

 

She tried again and got a good friendly smooch. No tongue though, we aren't swingers, and definitely not interspecies swingers.

 

Post stingray kiss. It was a fairly big critter. So gentle though.

 

After the rays we snorkeled the barrier reef, then the coral gardens. Very nice snorkeling and beautiful fish. Too bad my damn camera decided to have problems. The LCD quit working. I couldn't tell what I was taking pic of from here on out.

 

The day was great except for one problem. Box Jellyfish. Some people on our boat got stung. One guy got it pretty bad. I remember reading about their venom and how bad they can be. I know the ones in Australia are fatal but the Caribbean ones are thankfully not. The poor guy was in immense pain. He was a bigger dude then me and he was literally writhing in pain from the sting. Definitely needs to go to the hospital.

 

Captain Marvin's crew looked to be helping as best as they could. Really a good bunch of folks. Well we docked and turns out the guy was there with family and his daughters. They all rode the shuttle back to the port while he went to the hospital. That poor family, his daughters having no idea what will happen. Good news though folks, he recovered and made it back on the ship later in the day.

 

It also turns out the government shut down the sandbar as more people were getting stung throughout the day. 28 stings, 8 hospitalizations. From what I understand its pretty rare for that type of jellyfish to be there. So if you are planning on going to Grand Cayman, please remember thats not very common but its a good reminder why you absolutely need trip insurance. I would hate to see that guys hospital bill if he didn't have any insurance. I would suggest wearing a shirt if you are worried. Arm stings are bad but torso stings are absolutely bad news.

 

OK enough of that. Heading back to the ship we stopped and got a burger and enjoyed our remaining time on the Island.

 

Here is Liberty and a RCI ship. Later another RCI ship pulled up next to that one. A Princess ship also arrived as did Regent and Happy Cruises.

 

Getting back on-board was smooth and easy.

Of course I have a dark side so I had to watch folks run for the tenders through my binoculars. Its my entertainment. Many folks were late but most made it as the tenders kept backing up to get them. One woman and daughter were put on while the ship was in reverse. I also think some didn't make the boat.

 

Do not rely on your cell phones folks. Many will self adjust to local time while you are there. Keep a watch on and keep it on ships time ALWAYS.

 

Quick score card. I am getting tired and cant type anymore.

 

Tendering - already covered early on in the thread.

Grand Cayman – 4. Hey, its not Hawaii but still very nice

Captain Marvin's – 4 really good outfit

Box Jellyfish – negative 5 you brainless squishy venomous bastards.