Carnival Liberty Review Eastern Review w/ Pictures

[navybaby1113]

We were originally going to take the sky ride up to Paradise Point, but I couldn’t get over how much it cost just to go up there and then come back down. None of the other Carnival excursions looked interesting, so I started looking at private excursions. After doing some research, we decide to book with Godfrey Tours because he had great reviews on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor, plus his tour was one of the cheapest. He has a shopping and sightseeing tour for only $25 and then for an additional $5 you can have 2 hours at the beach of your choice (Magens or Coki beach.)

 

We were able to reserve the tour with Godfrey through email. He does not require a credit card number or any money up front, which definitely made me feel better about booking the tour. This was our first time booking a private excursion, so we weren’t 100% sure what to expect.

 

You had the choice of three different pick-up times (9am, 10am, or 11am), depending on how much shopping time you wanted to have. We chose the pick-up time of 11am for the tour since we’re not huge into shopping and and we weren’t scheduled to dock until 10am anyways. Godfrey said he would meet us right outside the security gates and would be holding up a sign.

 

We got off the ship a little early and Godfrey was standing right outside the security gate, holding up a sign, like he said he would. We were the only people he was picking up at this time, so we got on the open air taxi and headed to Charlotte Amalie.

 

 

When we got to Charlotte Amalie, he mentioned that because of the sailing times of the other vessels, he would bring us back after the tour to do the shopping portion of our excursion. We waited for about 15 minutes while everyone who had been out shopping gathered on the bus. Godfrey split the group into two separate busses, one with the swimmers and one without. Thankfully since we weren’t swimming, we got to stay on the bus with Godfrey.

 

After everyone gathered back on the bus, we headed out on our tour of St. Thomas. Our first stop was halfway up the mountain. He gave us a brief history of the island and also told us about Blackbeard’s Castle. He said that he incorporated this stop into the tour once Blackbeard’s Castle started charging admission because he didn’t want to take his tour there and make them pay $15 to tour the castle.

 

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

Congrats on the house! And yay for more review! One month from tomorrow I will be on board the Liberty!

 

Thank you! I promise I will be done before you board!

[navybaby1113]

After this stop, we headed all the way to the Mountain Top. He asked that we all walk to the overlook deck together and he would give us some information about all the islands that we were seeing. After he was done talking, we had another 20 minutes to look around the gift shop and do whatever else we wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

thank you! I promise i will be done before you board!

 

lol! ;)

[navybaby1113]

Once we left the Mountain Top, we were on our way to Drake’s Seat. This was the most crowded spot of the tour and we had trouble finding a parking spot at first. We spent about 10 minutes here, allowing us to take pictures of Magen’s Bay.

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

Gorgeous St. Thomas photos! That is the port I'm looking forward to the most!

[navybaby1113]

Once we safely got out of the parking spot at Drake’s Seat, we started driving towards the beaches. Godfrey used his intercom to point out interesting spots along the way.

 

This is the only golf course on the island of St. Thomas.

 

 

 

The first beach we stopped at was Magen’s Bay. Since we were dropping off people from the other bus, our bus was able to get in for free and take a couple pictures.

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

Gorgeous St. Thomas photos! That is the port I'm looking forward to the most!

 

It was so beautiful. What are you planning on doing there?

[navybaby1113]

Then, we headed on our way to Coki Beach, where we’d drop off the remaining swimmers. We were allowed to get out and walk around on this beach for about 15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we were done at Coki Beach, we headed back to the cruise port. Godfrey gave us the option to be dropped off in Charlotte Amalie and he would pick up back up in a little bit, but we decided to skip the shopping and be dropped off at the ship. By this time it was already a little after 2pm and we were getting hungry. We paid Godfrey, thanked him for the tour, and headed back to the ship.

Edited March 13, 2013 by navybaby1113

[Weezerwoo]

Loving your review and re-living our cruise!

We ate in the MDR every night, late seating. We were seated with two other families of three: Mom, Dad, 21yo son, Mom and 21yo twin son and daughter, me and my two. We had a great week at dinnertime. Our waitstaff was Lalu, Gusti, and Luka. They provided wonderful service, and entertained us as well. As for slow service,not a problem for us-- we were finished each night by 9:15 or 9:30p, because we always had time to make it to the Punchliner for the late night comedy.

After the first night, my iced tea was always poured, and those of us who loved coffee afterwards always had it without asking.

We did not have any complaints about the food--there was always something we loved. Most of the table had their second plates of lobster without even asking. My 19yo skinny daughter ate whatever they brought her, especially the WCMC which she had each night.

Loving your pics of sunny HMC and St Thomas. HMC was cloudy and cool for us, and St Thomas was getting their first rain in two months. We still had fun!

 

Can't wait to see the rest!

[lovestocruise19]

It was so beautiful. What are you planning on doing there?

 

We actually have tickets for the Paradise Point tram. I think the views will be priceless. Plus I plan on indulging in their famous Bushwacker drink at the top! :D

[ch27088]

Nanvybaby - I just love the adult areas on the ships. DH and I are going on the Carnival Sunshine next March and can't wait to relax in the Serenity area (adults only area). I hear they have three levels for just adults, so no kids allowed. BTW, folks don't get mad at me, I love kids, but mine are grown and out of the house. I just don't like the rude, loud, and annoying kids that run all over the place.

[ch27088]

At the very aft of Deck 5 is the Victoria Lounge. This is where the Punchliner Comedy Club is held.

 

 

 

 

I take it that George Lopez is not the comedian on the ships, right?

[lovestocruise19]

I take it that George Lopez is not the comedian on the ships, right?

 

George Lopez is just the "sponsor." Kinda like Guy Fieri and Guy's Burgers.

[ShanZro]

St Thomas was one of our favorite ports. We did the Champagne Catamaran Tour. It was amazing!

[navybaby1113]

Time to continue with St. Thomas...

 

When we arrived back on the ship, we decided to lunch. DH decided to enjoy another Guy's Burger and I got a couple slices on pizza. For dessert we had a slice of pineapple upside down cake and a red velvet cupcake.

 

 

We went to a couple trivia games for the remainder of the afternoon. After trivia, we went and got dressed for dinner and then watched us sail away from St. Thomas. Since it was dark, the entire island was lit up and it was absolutely gorgeous. Sadly I couldn't keep my camera steady enough to get a picture.

 

Here is tonight's dinner menu borrowed from Zydecocruiser.

 

 

[navybaby1113]

For appetizers tonight, I ordered the fruit cocktail and DH ordered the chicken tenders marinated in thai spices.

 

 

We both loved our entrees tonight. I got the petite filet mignon and braised boneless short ribs and DH got the lasagna bolognese.

 

 

 

For dessert I ordered WCMC again and DH got his favorite chocolate, raspberry, and vanilla cream cake, which is served with the best sorbet ever.

 

[navybaby1113]

After dinner, we listened to some music in the atrium while waiting for the early show to get out of the Venetian Palace. I really wish Carnival would get some better musicians for the atrium. It was a really popular place to relax on both the Freedom and the Liberty, but we were disappointed with the musicians on both ships.

 

The show tonight was Just Rock. It was my least favorite production show of the cruise. They were in the middle of a cast change and this was only the second show they have done for an audition. I'm not sure whether they just didn't have high enough energy or whether the show just didn't do it for me, but I wasn't a huge fan.

 

We came back to our room and were greeted by this creepy little guy...

 

[navybaby1113]

Wednesday, February 6th (San Juan)

 

We woke up this morning around 7am and headed to breakfast at the buffet. After breakfast, we walked right off the ship around 7:30am. If you don't have anything planned for San Juan, there are a ton of tour operators waiting right outside the terminal trying to sell you theirs. Not sure how trustworthy they are though.

 

Both DH and I enjoy historic sites, so we decided we were going to check out the forts while in San Juan. The forts didn’t open until 9am, so we weren’t sure if we were going to have enough time to see both of them, so we planned to hop on the free trolley and head to El Morro first and then if we had time, walk back to San Cristobal and tour that fort.

 

Before we went, I printed out information on the free trolley so that we would make sure to get on the correct one. You can get the information on the trolley from http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/free-trolley-old-san-juan/

 

I had heard a tip on Cruise Critic a few weeks before we left that they recommended walking back to stop 14 for the trolley. Most people try to get on at stop 1 and it fills up quickly. So by walking backwards, you are able to get onto the trolley before everyone else does. When we walked out of the cruise port, we immediately turned left and walked down to trolley stop 14. We waited about 5 minutes until the trolley showed up. We hopped on and were the only ones on there.

 

Our next stop was #1 and only one other person got on. So we could have easily hopped on at this stop and still easily had a seat. So if you’re getting off the ship first thing in the morning and you’re the only ship in port, then I wouldn’t worry about

walking back a stop.

 

If you're just wanting to see San Juan and don't want to walk around, I highly recommend getting on the trolley. It takes you around all the touristy areas and it's a lot less strenuous than walking around hilly San Juan.

 

We got off at the stop right before the fort to go searching for some geocaches. The first one we went looking for was in a really neat plaza with a totem pole.

 

 

 

Sadly this one apparently went missing right before we got into San Juan, so no find for us. :-(

 

The other geocache was located near a statue that I sadly don't have a picture of. We did find this one though!

[navybaby1113]

After we were done hunting for the geocaches it was around 9am, so we headed out towards the fort. It was about a 10 minute walk up the path to the entrance to the fort.

 

 

The cost to enter the fort was $3 per person. If you plan on going to both forts, you can $5 per person. We decided to only pay for the one fort because we weren't sure whether we were going to make it to the other one or not.

 

The fort is multi-levels, so expect to climb lots of stairs and ramps.

 

We started exploring on the main level of the fort, which is where the entrance is. This level is also where the bathrooms and water fountains are located. I recommend taking your camera with you in the bathroom. There is an absolutely gorgeous view from there.

 

 

 

 

Afte we were done with the main level, we took the ramp up to the upper level. This is where the lighthouse is located. You can go up part of the light house, but sadly you can't go all the way to the top.

 

 

From the upper level of the fort, you are able to San Cristobal in the distance.

 

[navybaby1113]

After you're done with the top level, go back to the main level and find this ramp going down to the lower levels (this picture is looking up the ramp from the lower levels). If you look towards the top left of this picture, those white areas with the railing is the balcony in the bathrooms.

 

 

We were shocked by how many more levels there were down in this area. This a huge fort!

 

 

 

 

In this picture, look right above the canon and you can see another small fort on the island. These two forts were able to create a crossfire on ships coming through this area.

 

 

The lowest level of the fort was very small and not very exciting, but we did meet a little friend.

 

Edited March 16, 2013 by navybaby1113

[navybaby1113]

We spent about 3 hours touring the fort and were worn out afterwards! San Juan heat and humidity is not joke!

 

Thankfully, the trolley was waiting right outside the doors to the fort when we were ready to leave, so we were able to just hop right on. In about 15 minutes, we were back at the ship. When we arrived at the ship, we had to wait for about 10 minutes on the dock while another person was medically evacuated. Hopefully they are doing well.

[grandmab57]

Thank you for the review, my DH and I will be on the Liberty in 3 wks. This has given me a reason for even more anticipation to build. We will be sailing the Western Caribbean so maybe next time we will sail the Eastern.

[pickles1942]

We had nothing planned at this stop so we took one of the tours when we got off for 20.00. It was very nice he took us around the town and we stopped at various places,, one being the capital building which we could go inside it was beautiful. Stopped at several sites along the water he had a ton of information. At the end he drop us off at San Christobal to spend the rest of our time. It was well worth the 20.00 since I have issues with a lot of walking. We stopped at the other fort but I would have never made the long walk so most of us on the tour just took pictures and then got back on to be dropped at San Chritobal.

[cruiseclues]

Nanvybaby - I just love the adult areas on the ships. DH and I are going on the Carnival Sunshine next March and can't wait to relax in the Serenity area (adults only area). I hear they have three levels for just adults, so no kids allowed. BTW, folks don't get mad at me, I love kids, but mine are grown and out of the house. I just don't like the rude, loud, and annoying kids that run all over the place.

 

We experienced the same thing on the Carnival Glory...but strangely, even though the Carnival Breeze was supposed to have more kids...none were running all over the place, and seemed very polite. :)