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

[5-to-cruise]

And the obligatory picture of the chocolate melting cake.

 

Drop the kids off at Camp Carnival again for t-shirt coloring. Sit with family for a while and pick up copy of picture after 9:00 pm. Its very busy and there is some confusion I watch the guy in front of me get totally mad because he wanted a picture cropped and 3 copies of it and they only did the cropping. He wants the 3 copies delivered to his room because he's "done standing in lines". The lady says he has to pic them up tomorrow morning.

 

The guy taking care of me can't find our photo. He tries to call down to the photo center but comes back and looks some more. He finally finds it. Says he couldn't find it because he couldn't read the writing on the envelope which I agree was hard to read.

 

Finish packing. We're in zone 19 with an estimated exit time of 9:15-9:30. We had hoped to be able to drive to Tampa and go to a place called Big Cat Rescue. Krista has sponsored a few cats there. But we'd have to be off the boat by 8:00 am to get to Tampa by 1:00 (we think). Oh well, something to do for another trip.

 

Bed at 11:00. Boat is rocking more. I remember someone once saying on a review here that he thought the ship was running without stablizers on the last night. I checked the tv where it shows the speed and ship location (which was very cool btw) and it showed our speed at 20 knots. I think usually our speed was 15 knots.

 

Talking to my sister the next day and she got sick from the rocking. It didn't bother me nor did anyone else in my family say anything about it.

[ilangal]

Does anyone know if there is a different way to leave Dunn River Falls to avoid the vendors? I thought I read once that you could leave through the "entrance" and avoid them. I am dreading trying to leave with 7 kids in tow.

 

Dawnrae

 

When I went to Jamaica 2 years ago, we also hired a private tour. Our driver told us specifically not to follow the 'exit' path but to come back out the same say we came in. He told us that following the exit was just a tourist trap. So as we began to exit via the 'entrance' route, the locals were shouting at us that we were going the wrong way and to come their way to exit. We ignored them/signs and sucessfuly exited way we in missing all the vendors. So, when going to DRF, no matter how much the locals shout that you are going the wrong way, igonore them and exit the same way you came in.

[5-to-cruise]

Something like this might be an option

 

We saw that boat when we walked down the pier. I figured it was a 'party boat'. But when we walked down the stairs to climb the Falls there it was at the beach. It must have picked people up and sailed to the beach at the Falls. I figure if you exit at the beach you'll miss the vendors up top. Though the beach might have their own set...

[5-to-cruise]

One other mild word of warning on Jamaica. Some of the shops have wooden statues in their widows of men with very prominant... ummm... members sticking out. My boys couldn't believe it when they saw one and warned Sherry and Krista away so they couldn't see it (which is kind of funny).

 

Do they really need those in the windows?

[5-to-cruise]

Capers for Thursday

 

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~rvalle/2009cruise/ocho-rios.pdf

 

 

I left my notes at home so can't do the last day. Hopfully tonight.

 

rv

[adamt]

The wife and i honeymooned in Jamaica. We never really found it that hard to refuse trinkets. We walked through the tourist section, kept our hands in our pockets, and utterd about a dozen, "no thank you's", and we were good to go. We went to the Taj center, as well. Got some KILLER deals on rum cream.

 

[hlb76]

I will be sailing Liberty soon. We will be doing the other option though, HMC, GT, San juan, St Thomas. All the same we are excited. Was very fun to read this review.

 

We have been to Grand Cayman and Ocho twice.

 

We used Naitive way in GC did the rays reef and rum package both times. I would HIGHLY recommend this if you go again. Sting rays are the coolest thing EVER!!!

 

In OR we used Phil Lafeyette. We loved using him. Great tour of the city got us to the falls before the crowds Helped us to avoid the market and left us to shop at another mall where Jimmy buffets place is. I have never had a bad experience there but dont look to go back in the future. We enjoyed climbing the falls both times. We only rafted once and where not offered the dives and swings. That would of been fun. It was a drizzly day though and we had a person fal off there tube and hit there head pretty hard so we where rushed along a bit.

 

OR port must of changed since last Jan or there is more than one now. Where we got off the ship looked nothing like you pictures. Very nice!!!

[5-to-cruise]

The wife and i honeymooned in Jamaica. We never really found it that hard to refuse trinkets. We walked through the tourist section, kept our hands in our pockets, and utterd about a dozen, "no thank you's", and we were good to go. We went to the Taj center, as well. Got some KILLER deals on rum cream.

 

 

I did see some Rum Cream and thought about it. I really like Irish Cream and figured it must be similar.

 

Your post reminded... I was going to suggest to the person going with 7 kids to have them put their hands in the their pockets on the way out. Or cross their arms and put their hands under their armpits and walk out.

 

Kinda silly in a way but proably better then trying to deal with 7 kids and an aggressive seller.

 

rv

[dawnrae]

I did see some Rum Cream and thought about it. I really like Irish Cream and figured it must be similar.

 

Your post reminded... I was going to suggest to the person going with 7 kids to have them put their hands in the their pockets on the way out. Or cross their arms and put their hands under their armpits and walk out.

 

Kinda silly in a way but proably better then trying to deal with 7 kids and an aggressive seller.

 

rv

 

Hmm. Good suggestions. I may have found another use for duct tape. We will try the exit thru entrance strategy and hope for the best.

[5-to-cruise]

I never did a likes/dislikes for Friday... I didn't write anything down during the trip. A few things I've thought of.

 

Likes:

 

1. All the info they give for the disembarkation process.

 

2. The fact they rebroadcast the talk on the tv.

 

3. We were able to put the boy into the Kids Club twice.

 

Dislikes:

 

1. The service during breakfast.

 

2. The fact that they didn't say they were going to rebroadcast the disembarkation information up front and instead said 'everyone should be there'. I didn't go so not sure how crowded it was but it seems like it could have been.

 

3. One of the kids wrote 'I hope you die' on one of my kids t-shirts when they were passing them around for the kids to write stuff on. Whoops. One of the people working there changed it to 'smile' and said she would have a talk with the girl.

 

_______________________

 

Review

 

It was nice to have a day at sea after two ports back to back. I didn't get a chance to do the Chocolate Extravaganza because the lines were so long. Seems like that could have been done better but not sure how.

 

All in all a good day and we were able to start winding things up to leave the ship tomorrow.

[taxiang]

I

 

Dislikes:

 

 

3. One of the kids wrote 'I hope you die' on one of my kids t-shirts when they were passing them around for the kids to write stuff on. Whoops. One of the people working there changed it to 'smile' and said she would have a talk with the girl.

 

Wow. That's messed up.

[5-to-cruise]

Friday Capers

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~rvalle/2009cruise/friday-capers.pdf

 

I tried to save some other material like how much the liquor was selling for but I think its been tossed. I'll check when I get home.

[nessz79]

Incredible review! Great pictures!

 

Sorry to hear about the aggressiveness in Jamaica. My mom and grandma will not get off a ship at Jamaica- they have been to many ports and it's one of the only that they just don't feel safe in.

[Lib0007]

Hi RV, I've enjoyed reading your review and your pictures are great. I'm glad I got to meet you at the meet & greet.

 

We also went tubing in Ocho Rios . . . our guide gave us this song & dance about how he only gets 2 or 3 trips a week down the river as a guide so he doesn't make much money . . . . well he was great and we tipped him well. Didn't think much about it until I saw your pictures and you had the same guide! (I think he may get more than 2-3 trips a week since he had at least 2 that day!). I enjoyed his singing. He said he had never traveled away from Jamaica so he was asking us alot of questions about Florida.

 

Thanks again for the great review.

[5-to-cruise]

Hi RV, I've enjoyed reading your review and your pictures are great. I'm glad I got to meet you at the meet & greet.

 

We also went tubing in Ocho Rios . . . our guide gave us this song & dance about how he only gets 2 or 3 trips a week down the river as a guide so he doesn't make much money . . . . well he was great and we tipped him well. Didn't think much about it until I saw your pictures and you had the same guide! (I think he may get more than 2-3 trips a week since he had at least 2 that day!). I enjoyed his singing. He said he had never traveled away from Jamaica so he was asking us alot of questions about Florida.

 

Thanks again for the great review.

 

LOL That is so funny. He have us the same talk... "there are a lot of guides and I only gets 1 group per day". I guess he's another graduate of the College course mentioned above. :)

 

rv

[5-to-cruise]

Saturday Leaving the ship : (

 

Woke up at 3:00 am and had a hard time getting back to sleep. Finally dozed off and woke up at 6:00 to see land on the TV... Miami!

 

Our bills are in the mail boxes by the door. After I subtract out the tips we've gone just a little over the $500 I had set aside for the ship. That included all the pictures, dinner at Harry's, the kids shopping and our shopping.

 

The thrusters were making the ship rumble. Up at 7:10 to go to breakfast with family before we said goodbye.

 

Kind of crowded but found a table quickly so I sat down and sent kids and Sherry off to get food while I waited.

 

After breakfast and the sad goodbyes

 

we went down and picked up our stuff that we were carrying off with us. Checked the room several times to make sure we had everything. Said goodbye to our stewardess who, while I haven't mentioned her much, was very nice. In this case no news was good news as our rooms were always clean and she even found a safety pin for Sherry one night.

 

We were going to be what I've heard are some of the few people that wait for their boarding number to be called. I don't know what it was like down there but Butch came on several times asking people to stop trying to get off before their number was called.

 

We went down to 5 and grabbed a couch to wait our turn... estimated time 9:30 and its 8:45 right now.

 

And just after Sherry takes the kids for a quick potty break before we head off the ship they call our number! Its still only 8:45. Before Sherry can make it back they call the group of numbers after ours as well. They were taking them in groups of 5 or so.

 

We head down to deck 3. Get our S+S cards punched for the last time. No big lines, we walked right up to the assistant cruise director and he punched us out. We went down to the luggage carrousel's.

 

 

 

They are broken up by zone numbers. I think they are grouped by where you are on the ship... we had 19 and were at the back of the ship and our luggage was at the last of the 3 carrousel's. I suspect if you were at the front of the ship you would be on the first one.

 

We had followed someones advice here and put orange duct tape on the handles of our luggage. It did indeed make it easy to spot ours as they make their way around. It was only a few min before we had all our bags and a handler came up and loaded us up. He followed us all the way pass customs and outside. He suggested we take the free shuttle bus and also suggested we tip the driver. We had about 8 bags with us so walking there wasn't an option.

 

 

Tip him, get dropped off at Terminal C and tip that driver as well.

 

While on the bus Sherry found a document that turned out to be someones drivers license from Spain. We gave it to the driver in hopes he could turn it in. Hope the guy got it.

 

Sherry and the kids wait outside while I get the van and pull it around so we can load it up.

 

Dispite the signs that say you have to pay on your way out its a straight drive out as we had paid when we went in.

 

The van gets loaded and we're driving for Chicago... by 9:30. Sherry said there was a guy behind us complaining to the customs official about how bad Carnival was with disembarking passages. 1. It seemed like it went pretty well to us. 2. I'm sure the official could care less as ours looked bored to tears just looking at passports and forms.

[5-to-cruise]

We drive all day in heavyer traffic then we had coming down.

 

Somebody had a busy vacation and was a little wiped out. Had a heck of a time trying to wake him up for lunch at Cracker Barrel

 

We make it into GA for the night at yet another Holiday Inn.

 

For the first time I don't carry the camera with me... and wouldn't you know there are things I want to take pictures of? Our waitress was fantastic and my burger with bacon and jalapenos was stacked so high I had to smoosh it down just to bite it. Then she brings out warm cinnamon muffins for us at the end.

 

In the lobby is a wooden ship in a glass case. The story is - a guy orders this model ship. When it arrives its in 1000's of pieces and the instructions are in Swedish! He commanders the dinning room table and gets to work... and finish it 6 years later. Its amazing looking and I did take pictures of it the next morning.

 

 

 

(Not sure if this will be readable or not...)

[5-to-cruise]

Lets try to finish this up...

 

Sun

 

After our free breakfast we head out and drive... and drive.. and drive. Traffic is finally heavy with it being the weekend after Thanksgiving and we have slow going several times.

 

By 4:00 pm we're STILL IN GEORGIA! Just by the Tenn boarder by Chattanooga traffic stops and we idle forward and then stop for several hours. This is the 2nd time we've been stuck in this exact spot. Finally traffic just starts moving again. First there are stopped cars in front of us and then everyone starts doing 70. So weird.

 

We manage to get to Kentucky and stop at a Best Western as somehow Holiday Inn has neglected that stretch of road. $80 for the night and free continental breakfast the next day. Good enough.

 

Monday

 

Start driving at 9 am. Traffic is decent. Alex is starting to get sick... running a small fever and complaining he doesn't feel good. He skips our Taco Bell lunch (probably for the best...)

 

There were several times on our drive home that I felt weird to when we stopped for food. I'd be standing in the restaurant and feel dizzy. Krista complained of the same thing. It was here at Taco Bell I finally figured out that I had gotten my 'sea legs' and my body was expecting the world to be moving. As long as I was driving it was ok but when I stopped and stood still it felt weird.

 

Finally, in the light of the fading sun, we make it home at 4:00 pm.

 

[5-to-cruise]

Last review/thoughts.

 

I thought the process for getting off the ship went smoothly.

 

Taking about 3 days to drive home was a bit much. Driving down in 2 long days worked well. Getting a 5 hour later start when getting off the ship hurts that time table.

 

Over all the trip was a lot of fun. I've told the kids they need to make a list of things the liked/didn't like about the trip. They were not so good about doing this daily so I'm going to try and get one for the overall trip.

 

The kids didn't use the Clubs nearly as much as I thought they would. Not a bad thing from their point of view... they had fun out of it and in it when they went. I had visions of us putting them in more then we did.

 

Other then going to sign up Krista never did a single thing in Circle C. She made a friend at the Meet and Greet and just hung out with her in her spare time. BTW, if you have kids I'd recommend setting one up so the kids can get to know each other.

 

Things we brought and used:

 

Alarmclocks

Power strip with usb adapter

Water proof case for the camera

Extra memory cards for the camera.

 

The kids had 4 disposable underwater cameras each. One for the ship and one for each port. They didn't use all the pictures on each one but did use most of them. We've not had them developed yet to see just what we got out of that.

 

Some bottles of water and prepackaged snacks. They came in handy for those long port days when we were getting back to the ship for a late lunch.

 

 

Thinks we brought but didn't use

The over the door thing... mosly didn't use it because the hooks to hang it up got lost.

 

Too many clothes. I could have gotten by with much less then I brought. Though I did use all the formal clothing we bought.

 

Thats all I can think of. Thanks for the words of encouragment. If there are any questions I'll be happy to answer them if I can.

 

Oh! One more thing.

 

I found those signs by the elevators to be very handy in figuring out how we needed to move around to avoid the floors that didn't go though. I had a hard time figuring out if I was near the front or the back of the ship while I was inside. Several times we headed down to 3 for dinner to find ourselves outside of the Silver dinning room instead of the Gold one.

 

Thats it!!!

 

rv

[lidodeckbound]

What a great review so far. We are not sailing until March 2011 on Liberty...but this story is cool.

We are on her March 2011 too. Seems like a million years away.

[revwood]

Our first cruise will be the day after Christmas - we are cruising with the family celebrating the in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary

 

Any words of wisdom for first timers?:confused:

[5-to-cruise]

Our first cruise will be the day after Christmas - we are cruising with the family celebrating the in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary

 

Any words of wisdom for first timers?:confused:

 

Go and have fun. :)

 

Its important to keep in mind what I heard Sherry telling the kids: Things don't always go as you planned when on vacation and you just have to deal with it and make the best of it. If you are there to have a good time and don't let things get in your way you should have a good time.

 

It can be tricky going with a big group. My attitude was to make plans for my family and try to include anyone else that wanted to be included. If other people wanted to do other things that was fine. We would meet up for dinner in the main dinning room and talk about our days.

 

Good luck!

 

rv

[5-to-cruise]

I thought of some things I had meant to mention:

 

 

Peat Taylor said gas on Jamaica was about $6.50 US/gallon.

 

The other Carnival ship that was in port on the day we boarded, the Destiny, had engine problems and changed their itinerary at the last min. We heard they were going to Nassau and back.

 

We heard one of the passengers didn't want that and said to put him onto the Liberty even though his luggage was already on board the Destiny. He would rather go to places with no luggage then sail to Nassau and back with it. I'd like to think we could be that spontainious but its harder with 3 kids in tow. I'm not sure what we would have done in that situation

 

Sailing on a Holiday. I have mixed feelings about this. It was very nice to have my family together. It was nice not to have to buy and make all the food for Thanksgiving or clean up after it. But, it also somewhat feels like I've missed that holiday because we didn't do those things. Its throwing my timing for Christmas off too.

 

One of the biggest plunges back into reality after the cruise has to do with food. With the driving down and back we bought or were given our meals for 2 weeks. The day after we got back I was standing in my kitchen, hungry and realized I was going to have to find and make something to eat MYSELF. Ouch.

[peachhead11]

Great review. Brings back memories of our Liberty cruise in October.

[recyclelady]

I loved your writing and the photos were some of the best I remember from the various reviews posted on CC.

 

We'll be on the Liberty in 80 days!