Review: Carnival liberty – september 20, 2015 – southern itinerary out of san juan,

I just finished reading your review and I could not go without saying Thank You! I can only imagine the time and dedication it takes in putting a review like this together, but thank you for not giving up. It was like a good book that I could not put down and am sad that it is finished. I'm not even sailing on the Liberty and only visiting two of the ports you visited but still found it entertaining and very helpfull. Thank you again!!! Next I will find the other reviews you recommended:)

I just finished reading your review and I could not go without saying Thank You! I can only imagine the time and dedication it takes in putting a review like this together, but thank you for not giving up. It was like a good book that I could not put down and am sad that it is finished. I'm not even sailing on the Liberty and only visiting two of the ports you visited but still found it entertaining and very helpfull. Thank you again!!! Next I will find the other reviews you recommended:)

Thank you very much for letting me know how much you enjoyed reading this. The comments like yours definitely make it worth it. :) It does take a lot of time but I'm glad I did stick with it. The ships change itineraries and I do try to include that, but the ports will always be the same and I'm hoping that it can be helpful to someone else in planning as past reviews have been a BIG help to us. It's also a great way to relive a cruise and this cruise will go down as one of my favorites. Again, I am very happy that you enjoyed this and I hope you enjoy the others I recommended as well. Actually, Valentinebaby1 (CC member who did a couple of the reviews I recommended) and her hubby were on this cruise with us. We "met" them through our Valor reviews in 2013. I hope you have a great time on your upcoming cruise and hope this will give you an idea of what the two ports you'll be visiting are like. :)

Loved your photos and info.

Loved your photos and info.

Thank you and thank you for reading. Happy to see this pop up again since this was one of our favorite vacations ever. :)

Thank you and thank you for reading. Happy to see this pop up again since this was one of our favorite vacations ever. :)

Ours Too!!!! was so happy to see this thread. I feel for my friends in Puerto Rico, St. Martin and USVI whose ports were such a part of this fantastic cruise. I also pray for the other affected parts of the Caribbean; Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, BVI and of course my home country of Cuba. I think donations to worthy funds are still needed and we should support their economies with visits as soon as their infrastructure allows; and if able even earlier, if we can go with relief organizations rather than tourist.

Already planning our return to the beautiful Caribbean waters thanks fr the wonderful trip back in time.

Ours Too!!!! was so happy to see this thread. I feel for my friends in Puerto Rico, St. Martin and USVI whose ports were such a part of this fantastic cruise. I also pray for the other affected parts of the Caribbean; Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, BVI and of course my home country of Cuba. I think donations to worthy funds are still needed and we should support their economies with visits as soon as their infrastructure allows; and if able even earlier, if we can go with relief organizations rather than tourist.

 

 

Already planning our return to the beautiful Caribbean waters thanks fr the wonderful trip back in time.

Well, hello there! So nice to hear from you again! :)

I share your exact feelings about all of the devastation of these beautiful islands and keeping the beautiful people that call them home in my prayers. Mother Nature sure seems pretty twisted sometimes. Donations ($$$ and supplies/necessities) will be needed for quite some time and I just hope the islands and their people are not forgotten about a few months from now. There are a couple of CC members that I haven't actually met, but feel like I know (like Stinger-pr) either through my reviews, theirs, or both, who live in PR/other islands affected. I just hope and pray that they, their families, and friends are somehow safe.

I can't wait until we get the our next opportunity to help their economy's with tourism when they are taking visitors again. We have no actual plans, yet, but we tend to book cruises three months, or less, in advance. But I'm glad you were able to enjoy a wonderful trip back in time and again, so nice hearing from you again.

Thanks for your great review.

We will be taking Spencer's tour soon.

I'm always nervous about snorkeling off beaches since I'm afraid of getting cut on coral or stepping on a black sea urchin. Is there an easy entrance into "deeper" water on Jalousie Beach?

Thanks for your great review.

 

We will be taking Spencer's tour soon.

 

I'm always nervous about snorkeling off beaches since I'm afraid of getting cut on coral or stepping on a black sea urchin. Is there an easy entrance into "deeper" water on Jalousie Beach?

Thank you!

The entrance to the snorkeling area on Jalousie Beach...it's not coral and I've never seen a sea urchin there, but it's not exactly an "easy" entrance. It's very rocky, so I definitely recommend water shoes. We were there twice now, doing the Jalousie Beach Break in May 2013 and Spencer's Land, Sea, and Beach Adventure (2 hours at Jalousie Beach) in September 2015. After snorkeling in 2013, using the fins, lesson learned. To get the fins on, I had to walk in barefoot and all those rocks are a little tough on the feet. The second time, I skipped the fins and wore water shoes. Easy peasy, problem solved. ;) I've also found that when snorkeling in areas with calmer water, like Jalousie Beach, fins aren't really needed. You see more fish by just getting out there and floating above them. Once you enter, it will gradually get deep enough to swim and you won't have to go far to reach that depth. There is no sudden drop off. The water is clear, so you can see where the bigger rocks are. There is one that is above the water near the entrance, but you can't miss it.

If you are facing the water, the area that has a lot of coral, large rocks (boulders) and black sea urchins is on the right. You can still see them from a safe distance by staying to the left of them. With the snorkeling area being right at the base of the Piton, the water depth goes from shallow to deep from the right (shallower) to left (deeper). Once you enter and get out far enough to swim, again, not very far, you'll be able to see under water to avoid the coral and sea urchins.

I don't know if this will help, but there is a picture (3rd picture down) on Page 21, Post #418, that I took underwater looking towards the entrance so you can "see" what it looks like. I took that from over on the side next to the base of the Piton looking back toward the beach/snorkeling area entrance.

You will LOVE Spencer and crew!!! They are so nice and so much fun and we really enjoyed both times we toured with them. Next time we get back (whenever that may be), we love Jalousie Beach so much that we're doing the Jalousie Beach break with them again.

Great review and great photos! I'm amazed at how many shots you were able to get without crowds of people in them! I recently returned from the Triumph, and it was wall-to-wall bodies, all day and all night, in every area!

Thanks for sharing!

Great review and great photos! I'm amazed at how many shots you were able to get without crowds of people in them! I recently returned from the Triumph, and it was wall-to-wall bodies, all day and all night, in every area!

 

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed this. I was surprised that it popped up again recently. For the pictures of the inside of Liberty, I got up early the morning of St. Lucia to see the Pitons as we sailed past, then took a walk through the ship, so not many others were up yet. In ports, we were always the only ship, so it always seemed less crowded. Other than the crowds, did you like Triumph? Our first Liberty cruise was over spring break in April 2014, so I know what you mean about wall-to-wall bodies, all day and all night, in every area! We really felt like sardines on that cruise. :'):'):')

We got into Charlotte a little earlier than scheduled. When getting off the plane, we actually had to use stairs down to the tarmac and then enter the airport that way. Even though our connecting flight was through the same airline, we had to walk all the way over to the other side of the airport. It was at least a half hour walk!!! By the time we got to the gate, we only had about a half hour before we’d start boarding our 8:00AM flight to San Juan.

 

 

The plane that would take us from Charlotte to San Juan

 

 

The time went pretty fast and we were boarding and on our way, on schedule, to San Juan!

 

 

 

My plan was to catch a few zzzzz’s on the flight to San Juan, but that wasn’t happening. There was a very talkative toddler a few rows behind us that proceeded to talk, non-stop and loudly (in that high pitched, squeaky toddler voice), for the first two hours of a four hour flight. Making it worse, this kid would suddenly start shrieking, and it was ear piercing. It would start with a growling sound, then turned into a full on shriek. I’m guessing that this is when the parents/guardians were trying to encourage the toddler to use an “inside voice”. I have nothing against kids, but I was tired and just wanted to get some sleep. Since our flight was scheduled to land in San Juan at 11:50AM, and our hotel was a five minute taxi ride to the hotel (we did this in 2013, so we knew) we’d hopefully be able to be in a lounger on the beach by 12:30 or 1PM and I could get a little cat nap in there.

 

 

View from the plane right after we took off from Charlotte

 

 

 

On flights, I always try to get a window seat. For the views of the Old San Juan, the forts, and the piers, a seat on the left side of the plane is what you want. I was on the left. About a half hour after takeoff, I noticed we were flying over a large body of water, a lake. Santee Lake/Lake Marion? There was a bridge over a narrow section of the lake – could that be I-95 where it crosses over the lake? I confirmed later that it was in fact Santee Lake/Lake Marion and that was the I-95 Bridge that I saw over the lake. How did I know? I’m all too familiar with that trip when we take I-95 down to Hilton Head, SC, where we’ve spent umpteen family vacations over the years and that’s one of the narrowest, if not the narrowest, spots on the lake.

 

 

I believe this is Lake Norman, right outside of Charlotte, NC

 

 

 

 

From my seat on the plane

 

 

 

Santee Lake/Lake Marion, South Carolina

 

 

 

South Carolina's low country

 

 

 

 

Cool story. I live in Georgia. My husband fishes at Santee and my sister in law lives at Lake Norman.

Cool story. I live in Georgia. My husband fishes at Santee and my sister in law lives at Lake Norman.

Small world then! :) I think we'd have been able to see Savannah (been there several times, just LOVE it) if we were on the other side of the plane, but was happy to see HHI since we'd vacationed there.

Merry Christmas Holly!

I just disembarked the Liberty tonight, thanks for this fantastic review.

  Your photos are astronomical!!  I loved the underwater ones! I'm not much for swimming in anything other than a swimming pool. My kids and grandkids laugh when I say "I'm Italian I don't swim with the fish" 😄

I think I'll take a break for the holidays and hen try to hitch a cruise with someone else for a while.

Have a wonderful Christmas and hopefully a better new year than this one!!

Hugs

Nicki

15 hours ago, princess76021 said:

Merry Christmas Holly!

 

I just disembarked the Liberty tonight, thanks for this fantastic review.

 

  Your photos are astronomical!!  I loved the underwater ones! I'm not much for swimming in anything other than a swimming pool. My kids and grandkids laugh when I say "I'm Italian I don't swim with the fish" 😄

 

I think I'll take a break for the holidays and hen try to hitch a cruise with someone else for a while.

 

Have a wonderful Christmas and hopefully a better new year than this one!!

 

Hugs

Nicki

 

 

Hi Nicki!

So happy to have you join this cruise too.  This is probably one of our favorite cruises ever.  Not only because it's our favorite itinerary, it's the great friends we met on that cruise whom we're still in touch with and hoping to cruise with again and soon.  One of the couples was going to be on both of our cruises that were cancelled.  Once cruising resumes, we're going to try for a reunion cruise.

I love the "swim with the fish".  Lol!!!  I'm not Italian (I'm a Heinz 57/mutt) but I definitely know what that means.  😂  I know a LOT of people who refuse to swim in anything but a swimming pool and for the same reason, they can't see what's in the water.  So happy you got to enjoy the snorkeling pictures so you could "see" some of what's under water. 

Merry Christmas to you too and yes, I definitely hope next year is better than this.  I can't complain since the worst that really happened to us were the cancelled cruises, so I'm good.  But still hope 2021 is better - I'd like my freedom back.  😁