Just back from the Carnival Liberty - Western!

[gabby0102]

Our family of 4 just returned from a 7 day cruise on the Carnival Liberty to the Western Caribbean. We had an amazing trip - the ship is truly beautiful and the ports are amazing! We came back sunburned, exhausted, and a little heftier around the waist - just like we like our cruising vacations to be;)

 

Day 1

We caught an early morning flight on Saturday, our departure date, into Ft Lauderdale airport. We saved over $400 by flying into FLL instead of Miami, even after factoring in the shuttle service. We arrived in Ft Lauderdale at 9:30, and called our shuttle after we retrieved our luggage. We used Jiffy Jeff shuttle service between FLL and the Port of Miami and I can't say enough great things about this service. Within 10 minutes of our call Jeff picked us up in a beautiful shiny Mercedes van, loaded our luggage, and we were off to the Port! We were the only pickup at that time so we had the shuttle to ourselves with no waiting - yea!! Along the way Jeff pointed out various places of interest and we were soon at the POM. We pulled up to the drop off for shuttles and buses, Jeff unloaded our luggage into the capable hands of a Carnival luggage steward, and we made our way to the front of the terminal.

 

We were meeting another family of 4 and waited about 15 minutes for them to arrive at the Port, and then we all went in to begin our cruise experience together. By this time it was 11:00ish - short wait to have our passports checked, then upstairs for S&S cards and to board the ship! We were boarding zone 15 - oh no, that sounds so late :(- but they call the zones very quickly and we were boarding within 15 or 20 minutes from the time they started the boarding process.

 

The Liberty is a beautiful ship - the atrium with the chandelier and all the lights that change color was really cool! We paused for a second to take it all in, and then headed straight to the Lido deck - time to start our vacation!! Some of our group went for pizza, some went to the Mongolian Wok, but I headed straight to Guy's Burgers. Let me tell you, it's as good as you've heard:p! I ordered a Ringer, loaded it with all sorts of amazing toppings, and quickly found that it was so filling I could only eat half! My hubby ate the other half, and that pretty much was par for the course the whole week!!

 

We spent some time exploring the ship, found our cabin, and made our way back to the Lido deck in time for Sail Away. The party was a lot of fun, and even though it drizzled a little on us during Sail Away, it was great to see South Beach in the rear view!!!

 

We eventually made it to the Golden Olympian for dinner - we chose Anytime Dining because with our group of 8, it's easier to make our own schedule. During the course of the week, we really enjoyed most of our entrees, and just a few, not so much. I can assure you, however that nobody went hungry and overall the dining was a really fun experience!! After a leisurely meal the teenagers went to explore the ship, and the adults went to the Alchemy Bar for the martini tasting-the Spicy Chipotle was amazing!!!:) We eventually made our way back to our cabin, unpacked, and called it a night around midnight! Great first day!!!

 

Day 2 - Sea Day

Because we were sailing in the remnants of some sort of tropical depression something something, it was overcast on our sea day. This doesn't bother me one little bit - I fry in the sun and as long as it's not raining, I really don't mind the clouds! We spent the day lounging on the Lido deck, some of us(I mean them!) went to work out, the boys and I played bingo, we saw the ice carving demonstration, the hairy man contest, listened to some great guitar players by the pool, and kicked back the whole day. No real problems with chair hogs and at this point, nobody really staggering drunk!!!:) Just a great chill day!!:) This was the first elegant night, so we enjoyed a great lobster dinner in the dining room and pictures on the staircase. We all went to the Family friendly comedy show and then set off in different directions to entertain ourselves for the evening. For our family, the one thing that we would like to see improved upon is more options for the teens. The family comedy was over at 8:30, and there really wasn't much for them to do after that. The rest of the comedy shows were adults only; on this particular night the poolside movie was Gone with the Wind(it wasn't only the teens who weren't interested cuz there were only about 10 people up there watching it!!), and the sports deck closed at 5:00. We aren't arcaders, they are too young to hang out in the bars and casinos, so they were left to wander the ship. We have traveled on other Carnival cruises where the sports deck stayed open til 10:00- easy fix!!! Anyway, we were docking in Cozumel early in the am so called it a night to prepare for a busy day in port!!! Remember the thing about the rain and the remnants of the tropical depression - we had no idea!!!!!

[Jeafl]

Great start, can't wait to read the rest! We're doing the same ship and itinerary in March so I'm very interested in reading about the rest of your cruise.

[gabby0102]

Day 3 - Cozumel

We were in Cozumel from 8 - 6 and we hadn't really planned anything for the day - we were snorkling and sailing later in the Caymans, doing a beach in Roatan, so just thought we'd hire a driver and tour the island, then maybe hang out at the beach afterwards. We usually book excursions on our own, and in this case we didn't even book in advance - just decided to wait until we got there to set our schedule! That turned out to be a great thing because as we sat at breakfast on the Lido deck, the heavens opened up and the downpour began!! Never ones to let a little rain spoil our fun, we went and bought ponchos and made our way to deck 0. We passed a guy coming back on the ship who said, "I wouldn't go out there if I were you", but what were we going to do - stay on the boat??? No way - we had one day in Cozumel and we could get out and enjoy it in the rain, or not enjoy it at all! We chose the rain!!! As soon as we got off the ship, we totally understood what he was talking about - the wind was so strong it actually blew the rain sideways, and it really felt like we were going to be blown right off the dock into the sea!! We were laughing our heads off, and eventually made it (safely without anybody ending up in the drink!) to the shops and undercover. No way our ponchos could hold up - we were soaked but not about to slow down!

 

We wandered a little bit and the rain eased - felt a little better about hiring a driver when he could actually see the roads:p The rest of the day turned out great! For $20 a person we had a 3 - 3.5 hour tour of the island, in a private van. We did a tequila tour, a chocolate tour, drove over to the wilder Eastern side and stopped for nachos and beers at some nude beach(glad it was raining cuz the boys, or my hubby!! didn't need to see that:D! Saw the nests where the sea turtles are coming onshore to lay eggs, and even stopped at a beach club for a few minutes.

 

It turned out to be a great day, and we even had time to shop afterwards!

[gabby0102]

Jill,

You'll have a great time! I'll try to post some pictures if I can figure out how! We loved the ship and loved the ports!

[Fla Mike]

Sounds great! Keep it comming

[berrybright]

We leave in 75 days for same ship, same itinerary! Great review. Keep it coming. Any pics of your Fun Times you have would be greatly appreciated.

 

Anxiously awaiting the next chapter...

[gabby0102]

Day 4 - Belize

Woke up to much better weather in Belize - yea!!! We were in Belize from 9:00 - 6:00 so knew we had a nice long day and would have plenty of time in port. I kind of wanted to cave tube, but everybody else wanted to see the ruins and it was a really good call. I had done a lot of research on these boards, and we decided to book a tour to Altun Ha with Nacho and Cynthia. I emailed Nacho to inquire about availability and rates, and within 15 minutes my phone was ringing! I told him we would also like to see a little of Belize, so he suggested we also do the baboon sanctuary-more on that!!!

 

Anyway, we wanted to be on one of the first tenders off the boat so showed up for a tender sticker about 30 minutes too early - there was only 1 other family in the lounge at the time to get stickers - oh well. But, the very next family that came into the lounge saw my paperwork and we realized we were going on the exact same excursion - yea!!! We ended up on the first tender off the ship and met Cynthia at the gate, holding a sign with our name on it. She helped us navigate through the crowds of vendors and soon we met Nacho, and were in their van and on the way to the ruins. Lots of construction on the already bad roads so we were very grateful to have a driver who knew how to navigate the city. During the drive to Altun Ha Nacho really educated us on his country and we learned a lot about Belize and the people. They had a cooler of waters and sodas in the van and we each took one into the ruins for the tour - it was super humid that day and we were thankful to have it! Just a nice touch! Nacho had another party of 7 on the tour so there were 20 of us altogether, and had hired another guide and a van for us all to travel together. During our time at the ruins, we were able to climb all of the structures and either Nacho or the other guide did a fantastic job educating us about the ruins. We learned so much, and had more than enough time to climb and take pictures! It really was extremely cool! There was only a group of about 30 school children there besides us, so we never felt crowded or rushed. After spending plenty of time touring the sites, we got back in the vans and headed out for lunch. As we were leaving the ruins, 4 ginormous busloads of people were headed to the ruins - I think these were the cruise excursion. Not only was the group huge, but it was now midday and the sun was brutal. We were very grateful to have our time in the ruins before the crowds got there and the sun got so intense!

 

On to a wonderful Belizean lunch at a roadside restaurant & then to the Baboon Sanctuary. To me this was just an add on to see the countryside, so I was beyond excited when I realized we were hanging out with howler monkeys! When we arrived the owner of the sanctuary had prepared homemade tamales and cut open coconuts for us to drink the water. But then, we each got to hand feed a howler monkey - the boys absolutely loved it, and loved it even more when we went further into the jungle and the guide got the monkeys to howl at us! Who knew????

 

We soon loaded back in the vans and headed back to port. Nacho and Cynthia made a quick stop at a local grocery store for some of our party to buy cashew wine and some local spices. They pointed out places to shop at the port to get the best deals, and we were soon on our way to the tenders and back to the ship.

 

We had a great day in Belize. After a full day of climbing, hiking and sweating, we headed to the Lido deck and decided to have dinner there and relax by the pool -we just didn't feel like showering and dressing after an action packed day, and really enjoyed being casual. Unfortunately, that was the night they served bitter and blanc in the Main Dining Room so we missed it:mad: Oh well.....

 

Interesting note - the last tender was supposed to run at 5:15, and at 6:15 there were still full tenders bringing people to the ship. I would never plan on catching a late tender, but thought it was interesting how many people were on them. Ship tours????

 

That night they showed The Amazing Spiderman and The Hunger Games at the Seaside Theatre. The kids loved that and it was a great night - the decks were packed so a lot of other passengers must have as well.

[gabby0102]

Random pictures from Sail Away, leaving the Port of Miami.

[gabby0102]

Random pictures from Cozumel.

[inlinesick]

sound like you had a blast!!

[cemebro]

Thanks for doing the review. We were on the same cruise with you and had an amazing time also. I like hearing about your excursions. We may try some of those next time.

[spacepotatoes]

Thanks for the review! Looking forward to the rest. :)

[gabby0102]

Sorry these pictures are so small - I have no idea what I'm doing!! I'll keep working on it!

[gabby0102]

Day Whatever - Mahoghany Bay

 

Sorry - I don't feel like looking up in the post to see what day it was! Anyway, this is the only day that I was a little disappointed in. Thought we had planned really well, but left a little too much to chance as I later realized.

 

All of us wanted to do a zipline tour-some more than others:p. Everybody agreed we had to try it - probably never be here again - but a few of us are scared of heights and a few of us are just scared!! I found a great site that compared several different zip lines in Mahoghany Bay - number of zips, height, total length, .... Lots of great excursions available that also included a stop at West Bay Beach, which we heard was really beautiful, and relaxing on the beach sounded like a great way to calm our hearts after zipping!:):) Anyway, we didn't pre-book this excursion - just wasn't sure if anybody might chicken out- but decided to just get off the ship and book a driver to take us to zip and to the beach.

 

Got off the ship at Mahoghany Bay and found someone booking excursions right in the port. We talked to him about doing a zipline with a stop at West Bay Beach afterwards, and it's a go! Several other families walked up to the hut and also booked different excursions while we were waiting. So far, so good. We were escorted to our van and on our way to the Mayan Canopy Jungle zipline. Our driver was great - told us a lot about his homeland and easily navigated the crazy roads. When we got there, we recognized several other groups from the ship, so this was a pretty popular zip. We all had a great time - totally conquered our fears - most of us even tried zipping upside down! And afterwards, the price included a tour of the Monkey Business onsite - capuchin monkeys sitting on your shoulder was absolutely amazing!!! All of us totally loved it - so far, so good!

 

We got back in the van and were on our way to the beautiful West Bay Beach. We had heard it was gorgeous, there were supposed to be serveral resorts where we could rent snorkel gear or just relax, and were really excited about spending a couple hours at the beach. Our driver dropped us off at the beach, and I have no idea where we were but it was definitely not where I thought we were going:confused:. It was a teeny stretch of beach in an extremely small bay area. The beach was only so so, nothing really to rent, and the local vendors would not take no for an answer. Over and over and over, they walked back and forth and asked us to buy bracelets, have a massage or our hair braided, it just went on and on. We were always polite and said no thank you, but we couldn't even carry on a conversation because it was a non stop solicitation.

 

Since we've been home, I've looked at a lot of pictures of West Bay Beach and that is not where we were!!!!! We hung in there for a good hour, mainly because we thought the soliciations would eventually stop - they didn't- and because we really thought somehow the beach would magically get better - it didn't!!:) We finally called our driver to come back early and get us. There were several families from the ship there also, and one of them ran and jumped in the van with us when they saw us leaving - they couldn't take it anymore either!!!

 

I think if I had specified a resort at West Bay Beach we would have been fine. By leaving it wide open, I think we were taken to a little tiny bay area of public beach and it was not at all what we meant to do! Lesson learned - in the future when I'm trying to communicate with someone in a foreign country, I need to be precise about what I'm asking for!!!

 

Oh well, the zip line was great, the capuchians were amazing, and it didn't hurt the kids a little bit to see how difficult life is for people in other parts of the world. Our driver was very kind, we saw the island, and made it back safely to the ship. Because we got back a little earlier than we expected:), we even had a little time to visit Mahoghany Bay.

[mikenbon]

Thanks for the review. We will be going on the same itinerary March 2014 - can't wait!!!

[Elmo31]

129 days and it will be my turn.....I'm trying to be patient :D. Great review

[gabby0102]

You are going to have a great time - I hope the time goes quickly for you! The ship is gorgeous and we loved the ports - gave us a chance to try a lot of new things!

[2toSea]

Thanks for the review especially about the West Bay issue

[gabby0102]

Next Day - Grand Cayman

We were in Grand Cayman from 10 - 6, so slept in a little bit. When we went to get our tender stickers, the line was unbelievable and we were group number 19:( They call the tenders in huge groups though, so we didn't wait more than 15 minutes after getting our sticker before our number was called.

 

We had booked a sailboat to Stingray City and a snorkel stop, with Stingray Sailing. When we got into port the owner met us and told us his motor was broken. He had chartered another boat - wasn't a sail boat - but he would love to take us out and he would add in a 3rd stop to Starfish Point. Bummer - we were really excited about the catamaran- but what are ya going do??? There were only 14 people total on the charter and 3 crew members, so we knew we'd have a great experience and decided to go ahead. That turned out to be a great decision!!!

 

When we arrived at Stingray City there were many other charters there, of course!!! We saw several groups, including the excursion from the cruise ship, that were packed to the gills. Chip and his crew were amazing - they were in the water the entire time as we fed and held the rays. Please do your research on this one - on many of the charters the crew was not in the water with the passengers, or there were so many passengers that people were just left to wander around in the water on their own. Because our experience was so amazing, several passengers on the other charters wandered over to join our group so they could at least touch the rays. After holding a lot of rays and a lot of pictures, we headed to the reef to snorkel, and then to Starfish Point. It was a fantastic day and an amazing trip!!

 

We had a little time to buy t shirts and soon it was time to tender back to the ship. This was the second Elegant evening on the ship, and afterwards we watched the NBA Playoffs on the Big Screen on the Lido deck.

 

Fun, fun day!!!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Sparky2]

Day 4 - Belize

we decided to book a tour to Altun Ha. Interesting note - the last tender was supposed to run at 5:15, and at 6:15 there were still full tenders bringing people to the ship. I would never plan on catching a late tender, but thought it was interesting how many people were on them. Ship tours????

 

We Did the Altun Ha & Belize City tour through the cruiseline. It was a 4 hour tour.

 

There also was a 7 hour tour - Xunantunich Mayan Ruins with lunch. The last tenders were probably for those people as the tour lasted longer than expected.

[wantocruisemore]

We Did the Altun Ha & Belize City tour through the cruiseline. It was a 4 hour tour.

 

There also was a 7 hour tour - Xunantunich Mayan Ruins with lunch. The last tenders were probably for those people as the tour lasted longer than expected.

 

We're booked on the Altun Ha & River Cruise next month. Any hints? I've heard to take mosquito repellant.

[silvercrikhix]

We're booked on the Altun Ha & River Cruise next month. Any hints? I've heard to take mosquito repellant.

 

We did this....fantastic!

Fun & Educational Excursion.....we'd do it again in a heartbeat!

You will have a very fun day!

No hints...we did not need bug spray...but a great precaution to take!

Sunscreen of course.

When you get to the lunch spot, order quick so you'll have time to look around after you eat, before the boat portion.

Binoculars are helpful on the boat for spotting critters!