Liberty review August 30, 2015 (and April 5, 2015)

[BcIcemen]

By any chance do you have any photos of the American Table menu's?

[KatPem]

Thank you!!! We have our own equipment and have never been to STT so will get to St John next time :) Because there WILL be a next time

 

Oh yes, St John is gorgeous. We have gone there twice and both times we had them drop us at the trailhead for the Cinnamon Bay Trail. It is 1.2 miles downhill and ends at the beach. You are hiking and all the sudden...bamm..this is your view

Cinnamon Bay is beautiful and less crowded than Trunk Bay.

 

Next time, and there will be one for us as well, we are going back to St John. St Thomas is nice but for us, it just doesn't compare.

[KatPem]

Thank you so much! I leave on 10-31 on NCL...but will hit St. kitts, Barbados, St. Lucia. And St. Thomas. I have already booked Calabaza and Spencer Ambrose, so excited to see your review and pics. I can't wait!

 

Then....in March 2016, I am booked for the first time on the Liberty out of San Juan for a 12 day Journeys cruise.

 

I am thinking of taking your advice and checking out Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas.

 

I am so jealous of the Journey's cruise. Unfortunately, we are only able to travel on school breaks with the kids (next vacation will be with them for Spring break) and they don't have any journey's then. Hopefully they will continue to have them and my husband and I will be able to get away. He coaches year round right now so that makes it difficult to work around all of his sports, even for just the two of us.

[KatPem]

This was an amazing review. We head out on 10/18 and it is the 6 day cruise which includes Dominica. I was have a hard time figuring out what to do there. Thanks for the great review. BTW do you have a site/link where your photos are posted so I can get the fun times. I would like to go through them before my trip.

 

I have included the Fun Times from this trip within this review. I don't believe I still have the one from Dominica since it was an itinerary change. I love Dominica, simply gorgeous!

[KatPem]

By any chance do you have any photos of the American Table menu's?

 

I don't, sorry.

[QTPieRye]

Great Review! May I ask how much the tour with Spencer Ambrose cost per person. Please and thank you :)

[KatPem]

Great Review! May I ask how much the tour with Spencer Ambrose cost per person. Please and thank you :)

 

It was $100 per person, I paid $10 pp online to reserve and rest in cash when we got there. It was well worth it. We were the first group to the mud baths as well as the waterfall and had them both pretty much just to our group. When we got to Jalousie Beach, the only tours that were there were the full beach day tours of just a handful of people, we were the only ones there for about an hour and we stayed at least 20 minutes past the other tours. I thought it was a great balance.

Edited September 16, 2015 by KatPem

[deetrayn]

This is a great review, thanks for sharing. The Liberty is one of my favorite ships! I always love reviews on this ship, and for cruises sailing out of San Juan. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

I just sat down and read your whole review and I really enjoyed it and the pictures you added were beautiful. We took a cruise on this itinerary in May 2013 on Valor and are doing it again, next week, on Liberty. I have spent most of last week tuned into the thread about Liberty being evacuated until the issue was resolved and Liberty once again resumed her schedule for the current cruise. What a shocker!!! We had really been looking forward to our turn and our hearts just sunk with the possibility we may not be cruising. We put a back up plan into place for a week in San Juan/touring PR, but still had hopes that we'd get to cruise. Now that the repairs have been made and Liberty is on her current sailing, it appears we will be cruising. Thank you for taking the time to do a review of both of your trips and so happy you were on one of the sailings that got to go to Dominica. We were there on our honeymoon and really enjoyed it. Now I need to get off this computer and get back to packing.

[Bakers1720]

 

 

 

And finally back to our home away from home

 

 

So, when we got back, it was about 3:30 so we decided to stop in the port area to get wifi and check in with the kids. One bar had beer 3/$5 as well as free wifi. We sat down and started talking to our daughter. For some reason, my kids think that their dad is drunk all the time on vacation. I don't get it, the man drinks maybe 3 times a year and doesn't get drunk then. I think they may have seen him drink in excess maybe twice in their life and even then, he wasn't drunk. Anyway, everytime I talk to them on vacation they want to know if dad is drunk yet? lol So, while I am messaging her, I glace over to the table next to us. there is a group and they are taking full advantage of the 3/$5 beer lol So, I get an idea and explain to them that my daughter is asking if dad is drunk and I wanted to mess with her and send a picture of all of their beer. Anyway, long story short, they were great sports and even let my hubby sit down. Here is the shot I sent her

 

 

She about died...in all caps IS THAT RIGHT NOW???????? ANyway, we let her know we were just joking but it was pretty funny!

 

St Lucia is a gorgeous island and I am so glad we chose this tour to get a taste of different things. It is now our co-favorite with Dominica! We would love to come back and stay a full week sometime in the future!

 

 

Enjoying the review. We have the Spencer tour booked too. What bar was you at when you returned?

[brinvic]

What type of underwater camera did you use?

[sandi422]

Loved your review! Thanks for posting. Question: do you remember if the spa ran any specials on port days? Thanks

[alreadypacked]

Now, for our August trip, we knew we wouldn't luck out again. We had been to St Kitts before. I re-researched it again this time and nothing sounded as good as another beach day at Carambola Beach Club. I love the nice, padded loungers. A nice restroom right there is great, the drinks are cheap ($15 for an ice bucket with 6 drinks (beer or soda). There is snorkeling right off shore for my husband and I can relax and enjoy. I know there were some that have said they didn't care for it but I enjoy it.

 

 

We took our finds back on the boat and headed out to Carambola. If you want to go there, you need to specify Carambola, otherwise if you just say South Friars beach, more than likely they will drop you off at Shipwreck, which is nice, just very different. We walked down there as there as often monkey's behind the bar. We didn't see any but we did see some Mongeese.

 

Great reviews! Thanks!!

 

Question: How much was the taxi to Carambola?

 

We will be a party of 3. I know it was just you and your DH, but trying to get an idea of costs.

 

Thanks!:)

[alreadypacked]

My husband wanted to go to Orient Beach in August. We had spent a week here on our honeymoon for our one year anniversary way back in 1998 and loved Orient. I started reading reviews and there was lots of construction going on so we opted to try something new. Finally, we decided on Pinel Island. We took a cab ($25) to the pinel island ferry. We were told that they ran every 10 minutes but it was every 30 minutes. We took the 10am ferry over. Looking at the island from the ferry

We chose a set of loungers, it was $20 for two for the day. We ended up hiking across to the other side of the island. Yeah, I found some more seaglass. We got a handful or two of it. I combed for glass while my husband snorkeled. I snorkeled for a bit myself but after seeing St Lucia, it just didn't compare. Here are some pictures he took snorkeling. I went straight out from the left end of the beach, it was ok. He ended up going to the left around the rock formation and he said it was better there. By that time I was done.

 

Wonderful review... And excellent info!! Thanks!

 

As such, I have more questions...

 

 

• How long was the taxi ride from the Cruise Ship Port to the Pinel Island Ferry?
  
• The ferry runs every 30 minutes (instead of every 10, as originally thought). Did you feel confident that you'd get back to the ship in plenty of time?
  

[KatPem]

I just sat down and read your whole review and I really enjoyed it and the pictures you added were beautiful. We took a cruise on this itinerary in May 2013 on Valor and are doing it again, next week, on Liberty. I have spent most of last week tuned into the thread about Liberty being evacuated until the issue was resolved and Liberty once again resumed her schedule for the current cruise. What a shocker!!! We had really been looking forward to our turn and our hearts just sunk with the possibility we may not be cruising. We put a back up plan into place for a week in San Juan/touring PR, but still had hopes that we'd get to cruise. Now that the repairs have been made and Liberty is on her current sailing, it appears we will be cruising. Thank you for taking the time to do a review of both of your trips and so happy you were on one of the sailings that got to go to Dominica. We were there on our honeymoon and really enjoyed it. Now I need to get off this computer and get back to packing.

 

We were worried about TS Erika before our cruise and got off it on Sunday and the fire was the next day. We were very blessed to be able to go without any issues....I wish the same for you! Have fun next week! The weather was beautiful! I miss it already!

[KatPem]

Enjoying the review. We have the Spencer tour booked too. What bar was you at when you returned?

 

Im not sure the name of it, their internet was listed under Viking but I know that wasn't the name. If you come from Spencer's boat and walk thru the shops right there, you should see it. There was a sign out front, it was on the left just before you got back into the main port building to get back on the ship if you walk through the shops starting closest to the water. The beer special was advertised on a sign out front, you can get the wifi password from the bartender. I didn't see it advertised but we knew from our prior visit.

[KatPem]

What type of underwater camera did you use?

 

We have a Fuji XP80 but if I buy another one, I will go with an Olympus Tough Series. Calabaza used one for their pics and the quality of theirs was amazing....they are almost double the price of the Fuji though.

[KatPem]

Loved your review! Thanks for posting. Question: do you remember if the spa ran any specials on port days? Thanks

 

I know that they did but I don't remember what they were and I didn't bring those papers home.

[KatPem]

Great reviews! Thanks!!

 

Question: How much was the taxi to Carambola?

 

We will be a party of 3. I know it was just you and your DH, but trying to get an idea of costs.

 

Thanks!:)

 

Carambola is $8 pp each way for 2 people. If you get 4, you can go for $4 pp each way. We opted to wait for some others that were going there as well. Once you come off the pier, on the right there are covered benches, you can tell the guys there where you want to go and whether you want to wait for others. Cost was the same on the way back. We set it up for our driver that drove us there to come back and pick us up.

[KatPem]

Wonderful review... And excellent info!! Thanks!

 

As such, I have more questions...

 

 

• How long was the taxi ride from the Cruise Ship Port to the Pinel Island Ferry?
  
• The ferry runs every 30 minutes (instead of every 10, as originally thought). Did you feel confident that you'd get back to the ship in plenty of time?
  

 

Maybe 20-25 minutes. My husband had asked in the tourist info desk in the port shop area and they told him it ran every 10 minutes. When we got to the ferry, there isn't a ticket booth that was open but a guy said we would be leaving shortly, which ended up about 20 minutes or so later. It was $12 pp round trip, you paid it on the way to pinel.

 

We actually spent a week in St marten in 98 for our one year anniversary and traffic can be horrible so we allowed extra time. The ferry isn't exact so the 2:00 ferry got there about 10 after. Like I said, we asked the ferry driver about a taxi and he called and made sure one was waiting. We got back to Phillipsburg a little before 3. 4 hours was plenty for us on Pinel and that gave us a pretty good cushion in case of any issues. Instead of dropping us at the boat, we had him drop us on front street downtown so we could use wifi there and it was about 3 when we got sat down for that. We had to be back on by 4:30 so we headed that way about 3:45, it is about a 20 minute walk.

 

Honestly, traffic can be so bad in St Maarten, I would head back to the ship at 2 no matter where I was on the island. there are plenty of shops and such around the port so you don't have to go back to the ship that early but that way you are in the vicinity.

[alreadypacked]

Carambola is $8 pp each way for 2 people. If you get 4, you can go for $4 pp each way. We opted to wait for some others that were going there as well. Once you come off the pier, on the right there are covered benches, you can tell the guys there where you want to go and whether you want to wait for others. Cost was the same on the way back. We set it up for our driver that drove us there to come back and pick us up.

 

Great info! THanks!

 

Sounds like the taxis want $16 each way for 2 to 4 passengers. We're okay with that!

 

Many thanks again!

[rzyjzq]

Enjoyed your double review. Thanks for sharing!!

Susan

[Piggie1951]

We're sailing the Carnival Liberty 9/27/15. Great review, awesome photos. Thanks for sharing!

[Mr2Scents]

Thanks for the great review and pics. We're doing this itinerary again in December. All of your pictures and descriptions make me want to leave now!

[bumbles]

Thank you so much for the review and the FunTimes. Your pictures and your family are beautiful. Can't wait to do this itinerary in November!