Carnival Liberty Review Eastern Review w/ Pictures

[Pellaz]

Wow, really love the pics from San Juan and St. Thomas!

 

For St. Thomas, I took Carnival's "snuba" excursion, something I'd always wanted to try, since it was only $70 and I've never seen snuba offered for less than $100 by CCL or RCCL. It even included transportation to and from the port and admission to Coral World, where the excursion is held (right next to Coki Beach), and some beach time at Coki as well. Surprisingly good deal for a cruise-line excursion!

 

I'm really considering swapping my upcoming 5-day on Victory for another 7-day on Liberty, and your review and pics aren't making this any easier.... :D

[MEOWSMURPHY]

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.

 

 

 

Oh Soooo cool to see pictures of the golf course...my inlaws retired to St. Thomas many years ago and we actually lived there about 40 yrs ago...anyway..my father-in-law was an architectural engineer and he donated his services to help design this course....thanks for including in your review which I am absolutely loving. We are taking 2 of our grandsons on the Liberty in October as their 16th birthday present...they are counting the days :D

[LBumb]

great photos

[xrayvin]

I love your review!! We are planning to do some geocaching when we go in Sept! Your pictures are fabulous!! Can't wait to hear more!

 

Wow, really love the pics from San Juan and St. Thomas!

 

For St. Thomas, I took Carnival's "snuba" excursion, something I'd always wanted to try, since it was only $70 and I've never seen snuba offered for less than $100 by CCL or RCCL. It even included transportation to and from the port and admission to Coral World, where the excursion is held (right next to Coki Beach), and some beach time at Coki as well. Surprisingly good deal for a cruise-line excursion!

 

I'm really considering swapping my upcoming 5-day on Victory for another 7-day on Liberty, and your review and pics aren't making this any easier.... :D

 

Do you have a review of your time in St Thomas? We are interested in the snuba as well. Would love to hear more about it!

Edited March 17, 2013 by xrayvin

[BarbG]

Do you know if there is any shopping within walking distance of the port in San Juan?? Thanks for the review, we sail her in October. Wonderful pictures!! :)

[navybaby1113]

Do you know if there is any shopping within walking distance of the port in San Juan?? Thanks for the review, we sail her in October. Wonderful pictures!! :)

 

Yes, there is tons of shopping within walking distance of the port.

[navybaby1113]

Oh Soooo cool to see pictures of the golf course...my inlaws retired to St. Thomas many years ago and we actually lived there about 40 yrs ago...anyway..my father-in-law was an architectural engineer and he donated his services to help design this course....thanks for including in your review which I am absolutely loving. We are taking 2 of our grandsons on the Liberty in October as their 16th birthday present...they are counting the days :D

 

Very cool! Glad to be able to share the pictures with you!

[lovestocruise19]

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.

 

 

Aww! Cute kitty! I'm a sucker for kitties!

 

Quick question: how did you know which trolley to board? I thought I read that some go to the forts and some go into the town instead. Ditto on the way back. How did you know which trolley was headed back to port?

[cuted126]

Still loving this review! I am so excited to go to St. Thomas:D

[KatPem]

Great review with GORGEOUS pictures!! I am so excited to take the kids to El Morro! We are going to head to St John's for some hiking but I love your pictrues of St Thomas, that was definantly one of our favorite places last cruise!

[Pellaz]

 

Do you have a review of your time in St Thomas? We are interested in the snuba as well. Would love to hear more about it!

 

Yes, I posted my review here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1721966

 

 

The Snuba excursion is in post #23: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=35766711&postcount=23

 

Highly recommended IF it's still around $70. I'm actually considering changing my October cruise to THIS same itinerary so I can do this again!

[sjn911]

Fabulous photos and review, thanks so much...sarah

[xrayvin]

Pellaz~ thank you for the link! We decided to book the snuba. I had been concerned about the number of people allow on the tour but it sounds like it is pretty limited. Thank you!!

 

Navybaby~ thanks for all the info on the Geochaching! That is also our plan on many of the stops. We really hope we make it to HMC!!! I love the pictures and always enjoy the stories that are in our future.

[cruisergirl56]

Thanks for the review. Love the pics!!! we are going on the Liberty in a couple weeks. 4/13. Have been to St. Thomas many times, but haven't been to San Jaun since the 90's. Good idea about taking the trolly. Thanks!

[Pellaz]

Pellaz~ thank you for the link! We decided to book the snuba. I had been concerned about the number of people allow on the tour but it sounds like it is pretty limited. Thank you!!

 

As I recall, it was eight people for each snuba excursion (but 7 for ours, since it was 3 couples plus me alone), and each group takes about 90 minutes doing snuba. The other 90 minutes you can explore Coral World at your leisure or walk over to Coki Beach. I foolishly forgot to bring my own snorkeling gear, else I'd have been over at Coki more. :)

[lovestocruise19]

Hey navybaby? Any chance you will finish your review before I board the Liberty? :) I'm hoping that Grand Turk issues will be fixed by the time I go...

[gapearl]

Another great review from you! Looking forward to the rest! :)

[navybaby1113]

Hey navybaby? Any chance you will finish your review before I board the Liberty? :) I'm hoping that Grand Turk issues will be fixed by the time I go...

 

I am so sorry! I've just been caught up with so many things. I'm about to post some now. :-)

 

And I hope the Grand Turk issue is fixed for you too!

[navybaby1113]

Continuation of San Juan

 

Once we got back on the ship, we decided to head to lunch. DH finally stopped by the Mongolian Wok, which is one of his favorites. I grabbed some delicious lamb from the carving station, a pork chop for the buffet and some rolls. This was by far one of my favorite lunches of the entire cruise. Both of the meats were so delicious!

 

 

 

For dessert we grabbed a carrot cake cupcake, espresso cake, and pina colada tart.

 

 

 

After lunch, we attended a few trivia games and then went and took a nap until sailaway.

[navybaby1113]

I vowed not to miss the sailaway from San Juan because I heard it was so picturesque. Everyone was right! It was one of the most gorgeous sailaways I have ever seen. Make sure to be on the side of the ship facing Old San Juan because you will get to see the fort as you sail by.

 

The next few posts will be pictures of sailaway. I took a ton!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

 

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

 

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

 

 

[navybaby1113]

After we were done taking pictures of sailaway, we headed down to the EA Sports Bar to see if there was any coverage of National Signing Day. Sadly they only have ESPN and ESPN2 and it wasn't playing on either of those. We were able to catch a little bit scrolling along the bottom of the screen though.

 

 

The past guest party was this afternoon, so we went down to get dressed and grab our invitations. The party was held at 5pm in the Venetian Palace. There was a really long line to get in and they didn't even bother to gather invitations.

 

They have plenty of waiters coming around with drinks and appetizers. They were handing out the normal size Fun Ship specials. I saw a couple other drinks going around, but those were snatched up pretty quickly so I didn't get a chance to try any of them.

 

 

 

The appetizers they serve at these parties still aren't very good... They had a proscuitto thing (seen in the picture above), beef tips in cheese sauce (this was pretty good, but more sauce than beef), and then fried chicken bites (this was the best app of the entire party).

 

The band played on stage for a while and then Karl came on stage. He started off by playing a little came and asking Carnival trivia. Then, he showed the video where you cheered for the ships you have sailed on. After that, all the senior officers were introduced and they called the diamond guests up on stage for a picture.

 

 

There wasn't too much difference between the new past guest party and the old one. The biggest change is that the drinks are much larger, which was nice!

[navybaby1113]

After the party, we enjoyed the sunset for a little while. It's so peaceful on the outside deck off of the Lobby in the evening.

 

 

We decided to head inside for dinner. Here are the menus for tonight, borrowed from Zydecocruiser.