Liberty Review - 10/17 - A veteran cruises with a ROOKIE!

[cynt]

We woke up to sunshine and clear skies for our port day in San Juan. It could not have been a better day. It was gorgeous outside, not too hot, a slight breeze and a great way to make up for our rainy day in St. Marten. However, BF had an attitude so I gave him his space so he could get a grip before our excursion. He left the room fairly early and said he would be back. I showered, dressed and was wasting time waiting on him to get back. He came back and I asked him did he have breakfast. Yes. OK I’ll meet you at the dock at 8:30. What I’m learning about BF is that he’s a loner quite like me. We both need our space and “ME” time to function with the rest of society or we turn in to irritable little brats. I head to the Windjammer and to prepare my famous lox, capers, cream cheese, sliced tomato, slight drizzle of fresh lemon juice and English muffin sandwich. YUM!!! For some reason I eat these every cruise, kind of like my daily cruise breakfast. Afterwards, I go to the gangway to make my way off the ship. We decided last night to do the canopy tour. I love zip lining and boy were we in for a treat. I make it to the dock inside the building at our meeting place. No BF. I stand outside to see if he’s coming and I see him walking down the sidewalk. We get in line and wait for a few minutes before we get on the bus. Bfs attitude is almost gone and by the time we purchase water for the trip, $1/bottle from a local who enters the bus to sell them BF is in good spirits. I noticed the bus driver received a free bottle. We didn’t know it but this bottled water would be our saving grace.

 

We drive about 30-45 minutes to our destination. A pleasant ride on an air conditioned short bus. We make our way through some winding roads and uphill streets and stop. We all look up this huge hill and ask the bus driver, “Are you going to take us to the top?” “No.” We exit the bus and our guides arrive. Our guides inform us we have to climb this huge very steep hill to get our gear. We all “man up” and get to moving up the hill. It was about a 5 minute hike up the hill and we were all huffing and puffing when we reached the top. We were gasping for breath and jug lugging our water. Several people had to stop and catch their breath. We gear up and are informed it’s another 20 minute hike to our starting spot. “What?!?!?!” We didn’t sign up for a hike. There were about 25 of us. 5 were fairly healthy athletic built; 10 just your average Joes we probably could all lose about 20 lbs; and the remaining 10 out of shape, obese, we should apply for the Biggest Loser. I’m not poking fun at anyone but a 20 minute hike up a steep mountain in the woods should be a disclaimer in the description of this excursion. Someone even pointed this out and mentioned it says a walk. IT WAS NOT A WALK! It was a hike! So if you’re going to do this excursion keep this in mind. The guide takes of and we follow. We hike about 5-7 minutes and take a break. When I say we needed the break to replenish the fluid that we lost and rest our aching legs I’m not joking. I climbed Diamond Head in Honolulu this summer. DH was a long hike this was a steep treacherous hike. Our calves and thighs were burning. She demonstrates a few procedures and we hike up the mountain a little further before taking a second break. She was kind and told us to hike at our own pace and she would stop whenever we wanted her to. We hiked and stopped about 4 or 5 times before reaching our destination. She mentions during the hike DO NOT TOUCH THE TREES! They have fire ants and they will eat you alive. Just as she was saying this an ant drops onto BFs neck and proceeds to have brunch. LOL! Every time she asked do you want to stop we all yelled, “YES!” We were all exhausted after the hike and it took a few minutes to gather ourselves and prepare for the zip line.

 

This zip line had about 8 or 9 lines to zip. As I mentioned before it was a perfect day to zip line because it was clear outside and it wasn’t hot. The view from the mountain was beautiful. This weekend I’m going to upload pics so you can see. BF zipped first and then me. The 1st couple of times are scary because you’re trying to figure everything out and get your timing on when to break and not break. By the 3rd and 4th time you’re having a blast and your adrenaline is flowing. At one point during the excursion you’re on a ledge at the top of the tree and they hook you up to a cable and you propel straight down to the bottom of the tree. It was scary as all get out. I yelled because it’s kind of like that feeling you get in your stomach on the amusement rides that drop straight down but you’re only connected to a cable. It was GREAT!! We finish the zip and are talking a mile a minute about the experience. I also find out that BF was a little scared. It was his 1st time zip lining. He endured it but I don’t think it’s anything he will do again. LOL! Not his cup of tea. Me on the other hand LET’S DO IT AGAIN!! And of course I get this strange look from him like no. Let’s not. LOL!!

 

We arrive back at the starting point and remove our gear. We were near the front of the line so we had to wait for the others to complete the excursion. We are then informed we have to walk back down the hill to the bus. All we could do was laugh. We walk back down the hill and no bus. At the bottom of the hill we notice the bus. One of the guys take off to see what’s the problem. He yells back that we have to walk to the bottom of the hill. So off we go to the bottom of the hill. As we were walking to the bottom of the hill we notice this beautiful waterfall in between the trees. It was picture perfect. We make it to the bus and collapse in our seats. It’s about a 30 minute wait for everyone to make it back to the bus. We drive back into town and are dropped off at the port.

 

We have about 2 hours until we depart so we take off on foot to explore Old San Juan. We do some shopping and go to the Fort. We didn’t go in we just took pictures from the outside. We had a long day and our stomachs were calling us. We head back to the ship. We stop at the Windjammer and eat but during our meal we over hear a family talking about the Mexican Fiesta they are having outside. We venture outside to the pool deck and they have a full Mexican meal available. We eat again and order Mango Tangos and margaritas. What a wonderful way to end an exciting day!

[gabbygrrl]

GREAT review so far!! Sounds like you guys had quite the vacation :p

 

Did you have a chance to check out the Get Fit with Dance (Zumba) classes??

[cynt]

GREAT review so far!! Sounds like you guys had quite the vacation :p

 

Did you have a chance to check out the Get Fit with Dance (Zumba) classes??

 

No I didn't check it out. We slept in most mornings. I'll check my cruise compass when i get home because I want to say it was a charge for attending the class. I'll verify that tonight.

[cynt]

I already reveiwed Day 6 - Labadees so this just about sums up my review.

 

I'm going to upload my pics this weekend and add them to my review as well as give an overall review and what my rookie taught me throughout the cruise.

 

Thanks for joining in and by Sunday I should have the pics up so come back and check them out.

[Spoiledliz]

I already reveiwed Day 6 - Labadees so this just about sums up my review.

 

I'm going to upload my pics this weekend and add them to my review as well as give an overall review and what my rookie taught me throughout the cruise.

 

Thanks for joining in and by Sunday I should have the pics up so come back and check them out.

 

Boo! I want more!!!

 

Thanks again for taking the time to write all of this out.

 

You have a great sense of humor and it made me just a bit more excited for my cruise!

[NEMMRRC]

Thanks for the great review.

[WMCMRBILL]

Thank for the review. I enjoyed reading of your experiences. Hope your BF will once again join you on a cruise. I'm sure, now that he has his sea legs, his next cruise will be even better.

 

bill

[cynt]

I uploaded my pics to my laptop and tried uploading them to my review this morning. No luck. It says upload failed. So I tried uploading one instead of 5 and still upload failed. I will tried later today. I tried copy and paste - no luck w/ that either.

[cynt]

Now I'm getting this message...Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing.

 

If this occurred unexpectedly, please inform the administrator and describe the action you performed before you received this error.

 

HELP!!

[NEMMRRC]

Cynt,

 

There is a restriction on the file size and dimensions.

 

 

Attachment Key

Filetype,Max Filesize,Max Width,Max Height

bmp 19.5 KB 620 280

gif 19.5 KB 620 280

jpe 19.5 KB 620 280

jpeg 19.5 KB 620 280

jpg 97.7 KB 620 280

png 19.5 KB 620 280

psd 19.5 KB 620 280

 

It looks like photos need to be no larger than 620 pixels by 280 pixels and 19.5 kb for all formats but JPG which cannot exceed 97.7 kb.

 

Maybe that is the problem.

[cynt]

Thanks Nemmrrc. I'll try it again when I get home.

[storm1of4]

Thanks Nemmrrc. I'll try it again when I get home.

 

 

Well Folks, I guess she never made it home!

Talk about being left at the pier!!!!:p:p:p

[cynt]

Nope I'm still around. I'm trying to figure out how to compress photo/reduce size. I'm going to call my niece and see if she can assist me.

[storm1of4]

Nope I'm still around. I'm trying to figure out how to compress photo/reduce size. I'm going to call my niece and see if she can assist me.

 

 

GOOD I thought we lost ya!

Well forget the pics..for now... please finish your review..

Have you noticed how many people are reading your review? You have quite a following......But beware... they are a fickle bunch of folk and will jump to the next review or Flame you if you disappoint them! LOL:)

[cjankowski]

Waiting for the rest. I have loved reading this post so far.

 

Thank you