Review: Liberty West Carrib 11-21/11-28

[dnj1]

Your review is awesome. I think its cool your kids actually done homework while on vacation.

[LBumb]

you are a great photographer

[5-to-cruise]

Your review is awesome. I think its cool your kids actually done homework while on vacation.

 

And I have the pictures to prove it. :)

 

you are a great photographer

 

Oh gosh... thanks! Actually I chalk it up to taking LOTS of pictues. I have somewhere around 2000 pictures. You guys are only seeing some of the ones that turned out well. There are lots and lots that did not. :)

 

rv

[crewsweeper]

Great review so far rv...Can't wait for the rest. Glad you and your family enjoyed your cruise.

 

crew

[busdriver475]

FANTASTIC JOB. A Plethora of information I know I will be using a lot of it

Thank You for taking the time to share with all of us I know I really appreciate It

 

Thank Again :cool:

[recyclelady]

As a former teacher, I am impressed with your kids! Any kid that sits on a deck chair reading a Roald Dahl novel gets my vote.

[PA2CRUISE]

I love the dancing video. It's looks like your kids had a wonderful time. And thanks for posting the camp capers. They really keep them busy in there.

[Cruisefriends]

Great detailed review. Thanks so much...we all appreciate it!!

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Tuesday Capers

 

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~rvalle/2009cruise/day4.pdf

 

Wed Capers

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~rvalle/2009cruise/cayman.pdf

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The 'thing' Alex had a hard time buying. I think the thought process went like this:

 

Its cool looking but costs $12 and I only have $25. Its made of glass. It will break. But its cool looking. But its going to break. Repeat over and over...

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Jamaica - Ocho Rieos

 

(Another long one... I just uploaded 130 pictures. I think I need to cut that down some.)

 

I have to admit I was a little nervous about the Jamaica stop. From what I had read here it was... less tame then Cozumel and Cayman. But we aren't ones to not try something out (within reason) so off we go. I warned the kids about people trying to sell things and to just say 'no thank you' and keep going.

 

Up at 6:45 again. I turned the tv on to check the views off the ship and can see land. Jamaica!

 

Breakfast at Emiles. Looking out the windows you can see a mass of green. I have a bit of a headache again and take more Advil. Can't blame those Goomba's this time.

 

We go out on deck to get our first good look at Jamaica.

 

This is the port area. The people in white are the ones you can ask for directions. The gray building to the right is the one we walked though. I'm not sure what the pink one to the left is.

 

Down to get our stuff and get ready to go. Dunn Falls and river tubing via Peat Taylor awaits.

 

 

 

[dawnrae]

Anxiously awaiting the Peat Taylor reviews. I have not seen the $15 martini tasting yet on the capers. Do you know if this was offered? Thanks for the great review so far.

 

Dawnrae

[5-to-cruise]

Anxiously awaiting the Peat Taylor reviews. I have not seen the $15 martini tasting yet on the capers. Do you know if this was offered? Thanks for the great review so far.

 

Dawnrae

 

Trying to get the Jamaica review up now but looks like photobucket wants me to upgrade. Trying to figure out what to do.

 

I did not see the martini thing but didn't look for it. Though if I had noticed it I wanted to try it with Sherry where we split/shared the drinks.

 

rv

[5-to-cruise]

Wohoo! Got it. On with the review.

 

rv

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A walk down the long pier brings us to a waiting area. There is a sign saying to head to the right for independant tour guides but everyone is heading to the right. I ask one of the ladies there and she yells out to a fence and someone waves back. We head to the right and outside and met Peat's son who says Peat was doing something this morning and will be here soon.

 

Looking around we see my sister, boyfriend, Austin and Mom waiting for their guide. The original plan was for them to join us but she misunderstood the directions and made her own arraignments via another vendor.

 

Soon Peat shows up and we board a bus and get a driver.

 

Peat

 

Peat hands us tickets for getting into the Falls. (The tickets are marked as $15 each). We drive a short distance and some people change buses as they are not doing the Falls. Our driver goes with them and we get a new driver - Wesley. The people in front of me chatted with both drivers. Both were nice and gave out some information about Jamaica as we went. I look out for photo opps.

 

 

Wesley drives us up to the falls. Its not a long drive... maybe 10 min. He drops us off and tells us where to go and that he will pick us up in 2 hours which would make it 11. As we head down to the entrance we find my sisters group there and also the friend Krista made on the ship and her family. We hand over the tickets and head in.

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Thats one big spider.

 

 

You head down a path where everyone is stopped and broken up into smaller groups.

 

We grouped up with our family and Krista's friend. We are assigned two guides.

 

 

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They introduce themselves and let us know that they expect tips at the end. We also get a guy assigned to our group to take video.

 

We get a locker to put our stuff into for $8. You get a lock with a key. You pick what locker you want and put the padlock on it. Off we go.

 

You head down some stairs to get to the bottom of the falls.

 

You get your first view of the falls on the way down!

 

The water is cold but you get used to it quickly. Or at least you get numb : ) You defiantly want something with good traction on your feet. We had bought watershoes before we went. They also rent them there (for $8 I think).

 

 

 

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This is not a Disney ride... it's a real waterfall and at some spots it is work to get up. At the worse spot they had a bar put into the side to grab onto.

 

The guides seem to have certain paths they take depending where the groups in front of them are going. They help you up if you need it and everyone holds hands as you walk along. If you have kids and you are hold their hands its a big help for them... but not so much for you. Krista insisted on holding my hand as it helped her a lot. Sherry slipped into the water a few times as the kids were not big enough to give her support. The guide snapped at her about 'staying on the path' when she slipped and slid into the water which wasn't very nice. The hard thing is that you can't see though the water to know where to put your feet. So you can step on the side of a rock, slide off and end up in a deep spot.

 

At one spot you have to hunch over to walk under a bridge for a ways.

 

All in all it was a lot of fun. The guides stop you in a few spots and you can slide down a short way into the water.

 

Or they push you back into a deep spot

 

and they group everyone to take pictures. They will use your camera if you brought one.

 

The video guy leads everyone in a few cheers while he tapes you.

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The view looking back is nice as well.

 

There are some flat spots between the climbing parts.

 

 

 

 

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There is a place along the side where people who are not climbing can watch.

 

 

 

The whole thing took about an hour from when we were dropped off until we got to the top. As you walk out the two guides were there with their hands out to collect their tips. Its always hard to judge how much to give on something like this... we had fun but the one guide was kinda rude to Sherry. I gave one a $20 and he said to make sure to tip the other guide too. I let him know that was for the both of them... $10 for each. He didn't seem happy with that but said 'ok'.

 

As we walked out the video people showed up to make their pitch. $40 for the dvd. Wow, I was thinking I'd be willing to pay $20 for it so I say no thanks and walk away. She calls to me and says they would sell it for $30. I offer $20 but she says $30 was as low as they could go. I'm going to say no but my sister chimes in and says she'll give me $15 for it and we can just copy it and give them a copy. The video lady says it is copyable and that there are some nice still pictures on there as well. I agree to the $30, pay the lady and she says to come back later to pick up the dvd.

 

We were going to head down to the beach but between waiting for the dvd and the kids getting ice cream we ran out of time.

 

On the way out we were hit by the vendors selling the wood carvings. The guy by the tree tries to get me to look at his stuff and I say no thanks. As we move along another guy tries to get me to buy 2 wood carvings and puts them into my hands I manage to disengage and say no.

 

 

So then he sticks one into Alex's hands and the other into Austin's and it goes something like this.

 

Vendor: "They are free man, don't worry. Something to remember Jamaica by".

 

Alex is hesitating with the carving in his hand and then asks if the guy wants it back.

 

V: "Its free man, its free. Here, what is your name?"

 

He takes the carving back and starts to carve 'Alex' into the side.

 

V: "its free man... you just give me a tip"

 

Ahhh, so that is how it works. Oh well. I take out some money. He keeps looking at me sidways as he carves. He's done with Alex's and is Carving 'Austin' into the 2nd one.

 

I take out $10... I figure $5 for each is probably ok.

 

V: " I sell them for $10 each man, so just give me a $20".

 

I roll my eyes but figure its not really worth an argument so take out a $20 and hand it to him.

 

He takes the money hands over the carving and moves off.

 

As we walk off Austin looks at his carving... and the guy didn't even finish his name, he just took the money and ran. Really? It would have taken all of 10 seconds to finish off the 'n' but it was too much? Austin is disgusted and just puts the idol down to leave it. Alex grabs it to give it to Nicky.

 

 

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Overhead are flying many large birds. Hawks or buzzards or something.

 

We wait about 15 min for the driver to show up. We end up with Peat Taylor driving us. There is some confusion as we're not all going to the river rafting and Peat thought we were. He makes some calls and lets us know he is going to drop us off at the rafting place and will meet us at the end in an hour.

 

The drive further up into the hills is interesting. We are definatly away from the super tourist spots near the port.

 

 

You can have some nice place like this.

 

Next to a place like this.

 

Saw several places like this.

 

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Peat drops us off.

 

We get a guide and tubes and head to the river.

 

 

 

We all hold hands/tubes and start down.

 

There are a few rough spots early on. Nothing like 'white water' but it gets bumpy.

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The guide sings songs and talks to us on the way down.

 

Nice kid. We stop at a spot where we can jump into the river, swing and play in the water.

 

Nicky needs a little push to get going so Krista helps.

 

 

This is, of course, a dream come true for her.

 

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Anything the kids do I have to try as well.

 

 

 

There is also a table selling souvenirs and I think there is a grill of some sort. I didn't look at the table but I thought about checking to see if I could get some jerk chicken at the grill. It wasn't offered and I decide to let it go and try to find some elsewhere.

 

After the jumping spot the river is calm the rest of the way.

 

We see some people getting a boat/raft ride up the river.

 

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I just had to do this... a fish eyes view of Alex jumping into the water.