REVIEW: Carnival Liberty - Western Caribbean - 4/5/14 thru 4/12/14

[pghsteelerfan]

What we really found amazing was that they were occupied from about 900 BC (yes, BC as in before Christ) to about 1000 AD. I knew they were old but didn’t realize they were around THAT long ago. I was thinking maybe the early 1400’s. There were two areas that we walked through and got plenty of pictures. We were told after the tour that we could climb, shop or both. In the first area several people in our area climbed the one and our guides told us to go ahead and climb and they’d wait, so more of us joined. I got some pictures from the top while I was up there.

The ruin I climbed:

Views from the top of the one ruin:

View from the top of the ruin in the first area we toured over to a ruin in the area we'd be touring next:

[pghsteelerfan]

One more picture from the top of one of the ruins:

 

What we really found amazing was that they were occupied from about 900 BC (yes, BC as in before Christ) to about 1000 AD. I knew they were old but didn’t realize they were around THAT long ago. I was thinking maybe the early 1400’s. There were two areas that we walked through and got plenty of pictures. We were told after the “tour” that we could climb, shop or both. In the first area several people in our area climbed the one and our guides told us to go ahead and climb and they’d wait, so more of us joined. I got some pictures from the top while I was up there. I found it was not a problem getting up, but coming back down was a different story. I was wearing crocs since they are very comfortable and even more comfortable than my tennis shoes. I also don’t like wearing tennis shoes and socks on a hot and humid day, so I went with the crocs. I didn’t see any recommendations for shoes to wear in the tour description, only that it’s a “moderate activity” level excursion. So, here I am at the top of a Mayan ruin, and the first step down I take, the top surface of those steps was pretty darned slippy (that’s how us Yinzers say “slippery”). It wasn’t wet, just a very smooth surface that was added to the top surface of the steps during preservation. Crap!!! I do NOT want to be the one falling off the top of a Mayan Ruin, but I’ll be darned if I’m going to be the one sitting down and coming down that way. I don’t mind going barefoot, and I hoped others didn’t mind me going barefoot, so I took those crocs off and walked down barefoot and had much better traction, making it a breeze. When I got to the bottom, I looked at the bottom of my crocks, yeah, the tread on the bottom for good traction was worn down completely smooth. Now that I’m back down, do I keep them off and walk around barefoot because it sure felt good??? But I also didn’t want something else to carry so I just put the crocs back on for the rest of the tour, in which we walked over to another section with more ruins, but not after getting a few more pictures of the first section as most of the others were headed over to the second area.

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

The ruins in the second area of the site we toured:

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

After that, we were free to climb or shop. ***If any of you reading are planning on doing this tour, if you want to climb the ruins, make sure you’ve got shoes on with good traction.*** I mentioned that this tour is listed as a moderate activity level in the excursion description. I think the “moderate” part is doing some climbing but that is up to each individual. If you don’t do the climb, I would say this is “easy activity” level.

Now that we were free to shop or climb, I decided to browse the items that the vendors had for sale. The first section of vendors was right up at the ruins. They had a lot of beautiful wood carvings. They also had wood carved refrigerator magnets in the shapes of Mayan ruins that were polished. The first section of magnets were just like that, no “Belize” on them. There was a price written on the top of the board with the magnets of $5.00 each. I asked the guy selling them and if he had any with “Belize” on them and pointed to the one I was looking at. He said he would write it on for me with a white pen but as he was telling me that, I went to the next board of fridge magnets and saw several that had neatly written, in white ink, “Belize” and right under “Belize” was “Altun Ha Mayan Ruins”. I told the guy I wanted one of those but he still had the first one I picked up, without writing, and asked around for a white pen. I told him it was fine and I’d buy one with the writing already on it. He insisted it wasn’t a problem and I’m not one to argue, so I told him that would be fine. He went down to another group of vendors and borrowed a pen and wrote on it then had it wrapped up when he came back to me. By that time I saw a nice, smaller, wood-carved Toucan that I really liked with “Belize” written on the bottom. I asked him the price and that was $10.00. I don’t know if I could have bartered them down or not, but I didn’t think the prices were bad and the refrigerator magnets I see in the souvenir shops, the ones with a “Made in China” sticker on the bottom are usually priced anywhere from $5.00 - $8.00. The toucan was beautiful and would go nicely in our home and I had no problem paying him the $15.00 total. While I was paying him with a $20.00, I asked if he’d like to trade some Belize money for USA money and he could give me change with that. He had a Belize $10.00 bill that he gave me. DH did something next that surprised me, he gave him another three dollar bills so I could get a variety. When he came back, he brought me Belize money of a $5.00 bill; $1.00 coin and other misc. coins.

After doing the shopping up there, we went down to the larger vendor set up right where we entered. They had a variety of handmade merchandise that I quickly browsed through. There were a lot of wood carvings and handmade jewelry. There were other items as well but I can’t remember all they had. These vendors were not pushy but almost every single one of them said “there is no charge to touch”. They were very friendly and encouraged you to pick up the items they were selling. I had my hands full between my camera, the beach bag, and my previous purchases. My hands were full and that is the reason I wasn’t picking things up. There was one thing I was hoping to find but I wasn’t sure if I would find them or not. I only knew of these because I had seen them on our previous Western Caribbean cruise in 2006 that also stopped in Belize…that time we did the beach break and never got into town for any shopping. On that cruise the evening the day after our stop in Belize, we were at a bar and ended up talking to the others next to us. One was a gal with two beautiful, wooden bangle bracelets. Not the thick kind that look big and clunky and not the bamboo ones, these were nice polished wood and were about a quarter inch thick. I LOVED those! I asked her if she brought them from home or got them on the cruise. She told me she just got them the day before, in Belize. I don’t know where in Belize but I didn’t think it would be a souvenir ship were most of the stuff was “made in China”. When we returned home from that cruise, I liked them so much I checked on-line and could not find them anywhere and I looked pretty hard too. So, I’m checking out the vendors tables for those and also keeping my eye out for Christmas ornaments. I never found the ornaments but half way down was a table with the bracelets, the same kind as the gal we were talking to at the bar on our previous cruise had on. The kind I searched and searched and searched for on the internet, with no luck. The exact same kind were here, even though it had been eight years since the last time we were in Belize. When I finally got to the table, which seemed to take forever because you are in a line behind others making their way down, the gal selling them still had them left. I asked her how much and she said $5.00. I told her I’d take two of them and as I was getting the $10.00 out, she told me they were very hard to make. I told her they were beautiful and let her know that I had seen someone else wearing bracelets just like them while on a cruise that stopped in Belize eight years ago and have been wanting some of my own since. She was the only vendor that had the bracelets. I didn’t ask the gal on that last cruise where in Belize since it didn’t matter at that point. At the time, I honestly didn’t think we’d ever get back. But we did, and after eight years of waiting, I’ve FINALLY got my wooden bangle bracelets and am definitely a happy camper.

We were done shopping, others were finishing up with their shopping and the climbers were all coming back. One last pit stop and time to board the bus. There were two police officers, a guy and a gal, who got on the bus and rode back with us. I think the patches on their uniforms said “Belize Park Police” or something like that, can’t remember exactly. They were working up at the Altun Ha Mayan ruins and I’m guessing it was for the day and we were the very last tour there that day, so they rode the bus back into town with us. They were stationed under a tree up there, right before we entered the area where the ruins are. It wasn’t exactly a bright sunny day, but the sun was in and out and they were in full uniform and sitting outside. They had to have been hot. We rode for a while before we heard others asking if we crossed the bridge yet. We hadn’t but it wasn’t much longer until we were going over it. This is the same bridge we went under on the boat right after entering the river that morning. Right after that, Merlene and Therese were letting us know that we were back a little later than normal and it was just getting close to 5:00PM and last tender was supposed to leave at 5:15PM. When we got back into Belize City, it was right around 5:00PM, so good thing I got most of what I wanted in souvenirs while on the tour. When we got back to the tender area, the line was very long, so we stopped in the same souvenir store so I could get the shot glass for my friend and look for some ornaments. I picked those up but the ornaments were pretty cheap. I also saw the dolphin refrigerator magnet that I liked so I got that too. We quickly looked at the T-shirts and sweatshirts but nothing stood out so we passed on those and got into line. The same two guys that I traded a $1.00 bill for a Belize $2.00 were still there and the one said to us “I knew you’d be back”. I told him I was good for my word. After we paid for our purchases, we thanked him and went to get in line for the tender.

They filled up two tenders while we were waiting and we were waiting for tenders to return from the ship to take us back. This is where we saw our only line cutters. It was a woman and a man, probably in their 60’s and the woman was the leader in cutting. They started at the back but slowly moved their way up the side of line while pretending they were looking at different things and would position themselves to move in. They did this several times behind us. Next thing you know they are right beside us and doing the same thing. The people behind us also saw this and said they were trying to “move up in line”. We all agreed “not in front of us”. I know that one of the Platinum VIFP member perks is being automatically able to move to the front of the line. They had their sail and sign cards out and were definitely not Platinum VIFP members and weren’t even Gold VIFP members. They were either blue or red, but I can’t remember. Before we knew it, there were three others who joined them and they obviously knew each other. The group behind us moved up closer to us and we moved up closer to the group in front of us. She kept trying to cut in front of all of us but we were all positioning ourselves not to let her in. Everyone was hot and tired from a long day. This group eventually gave up and went up and were able to cut in towards the front of the line. I have to say this is the only line cutting we saw throughout the whole cruise. I’m not saying it didn’t happen, we just didn’t see it except for this one time.

Picture of the "Welcome to Belize" sign that I missed when we came in. I took this picture while waiting in line for the tender:

Eventually the other tenders started to arrive and once they started filling them, the line moved again. We looked behind us and it was twice as long as it had been. It was already about 5:15PM. The one tender was filled and left and they started filling the other, which appeared to be a tour speedboat. I forget the actual name of it and never got a picture of it. We’ve finally toward the front of the line when it looked like that tender would be filled and we thought we’d be waiting again for other tenders to come back from the ship. They are still filling this tender and we couldn’t believe they were able to get that many people on it. We finally get to the front of the line and they asked how many were in our group. We told them it was the two of us. They let us on and then put the rope up and told the others another tender would be back shortly. What luck! When we got on, it didn’t appear there was any seating left, so we stood and grabbed onto one of the support poles. A man at the back told me there was room for one person at the back. DH told me to take the seat and he’d stand. I went back and it was a section that was uncovered but there was one seat left and I sat down. In the seats right next to where DH was standing was a family with a couple of toddlers and the lady put one of the kids on her lap, moved over enough so that there was enough space for him to sit, and motioned for him to sit down. I thought that was very nice of her. So to that kind lady, if you are reading this, thank you.

I didn’t mind sitting in the back and the others back there immediately included me in their conversations. There was a man I was seated next to talking to another couple about being from PA. The Pittsburgh area dialect (Pittsburghese), which is the way us “Yinzers” talk is very distinct for those from the Pittsburgh area or familiar with it. The couple talking to the man next to me recognized it and asked him if he was from Pittsburgh. He was from a town called Johnstown, which is less than an hour from where DH and I grew up. The lady within the couple was born in Pittsburgh and lived there as a child but moved. She still had relatives there and visits frequently. When there was a break in the conversation, I told them I was also from the area, they asked where and I told them and we had a nice conversation. Small world. There was also a lady to my left, not from Pittsburgh, that I was talking to as well. She was very nice and I enjoyed talking to her, while we could. As soon as the tender got out of the “no wake” zone, we were off at full speed. There were dark clouds approaching but the sun was still out. Of course, half way back to Liberty, it started to rain. It wasn’t raining cats and dogs…maybe mice. The sun was still out but we were all getting wet. I had my cameras in the beach bag, so they weren’t going to get wet, so I didn’t care. The lady next to me was also enjoying it. It actually felt good. Now if I had been a little closer to the one side, I’d have had a beautiful picture of Liberty. Dark clouds behind her and the sun shining from the other direction on her looked beautiful. I got the camera and tried to get pictures. I got one picture but it also had the backs of the heads of the people in front of me. I did my best to crop the picture but it came out grainy. If it hadn’t, that would have made a good picture for the photo book I’m going to do for our Liberty cruise. Oh well, I’ll figure something out and we still have Roatan and Grand Cayman for photo ops of Liberty.

Pictures from the tender back to Carnival Liberty (look at the line for tenders in this pic):

 

[pghsteelerfan]

More pictures from the tender:

 

Out of the "no wake zone":

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

More from the tender:

 

The pictures I was able to get of Liberty when returning on the tender (the guy getting pictures in this picture had the best views and I'd love to see the pictures he got):

 

 

When we arrived back to Liberty, they unloaded the tender and I ended up getting off before DH. I was with the lady in the back who I was talking to and she was also off the tender before her DH. Once through security, we talked some more before the DH’s arrived, which was almost the same time. DH and I decided to just go ahead and take the stairs since there were so many others packed around the elevators. That’s where it can get a little pushy, so we just opt for the stairs. We could always use the exercise as well.

We stopped at our cabin first and dropped off our beach bags and the things we bought and went up to the Lido Deck 9 for a drink. We stopped at the Red Frog Rum bar and got “Bahama Mamas”, which were really good. We were both hungry and even though we’d be having dinner in about 3 hours, we couldn’t pass on the Guy Burgers. This time I just asked for the cheeseburger without the fries, easily found a table and had those.

It was getting close to 6:00PM and Liberty would be leaving soon, so when we finished our burgers we went up to Panorama Deck 10 and walked to the back of the ship and there were was one tender unloading passengers and another with more passengers pulling up to the ship. So much for leaving at 6:00PM. We watched as the last two tenders left Liberty and were heading back to Belize and got pictures of that.

The last two tenders heading back to Belize City after dropping the last of Liberty's passengers off:

[pghsteelerfan]

Since there wouldn’t be much to see for sail away from Belize, we took our drinks back down to our cabin and had them on the balcony before we started taking turns getting showered and ready for dinner. When we were both ready for dinner, we still had about a half an hour so we went on the balcony and noticed that we were passing a little island off the coast of Belize called “English Cay” and saw a boat, which we think was the pilot boat, pulling alongside Liberty. We tried to get pictures of that but from the angle we were at, we weren’t able to see the driver board the smaller boat from Liberty. Once he was on, the boat headed toward English Cay.

English Cay from our balcony:

[pghsteelerfan]

Since we still had some time, I went through the purchases I made in Belize and unwrapped the little “Mayan ruin” refrigerator magnet that I purchased and notice that they guy only wrote “Belize” in a thin, black sharpie pen on it. I still really like it but would rather have had one of the ones with “Belize” and “Altun Ha Mayan ruins” written in white. Oh well, lesson learned. Next time I will be sure to insist I buy exactly what I want.

Just before we left the cabin, we heard the “announcement chimes”. We thought it was going to be our cruise director with announcements for the evening’s activities but it was our captain, Guiseppe Guisa, making the announcement about “some important information regarding our visit to Isla Roatan”. Uh oh, are weather conditions going to prevent our visit? OK, we’re all tuned in to hear what the important information is. The announcement was to make us aware of “a number of reports of armed robberies and other street crimes against tourists” in and around certain areas and to make sure that we avoid these areas and recommended we observe following common sense security measures. Before our cruise we had not heard of any incidents in Roatan but we had never gotten an announcement by a ship’s captain about crime in any other place we’ve visited while on a cruise before. We had an excursion booked and planned to stick with that since we would not be going to any of the areas the captain recommended we avoid.

After getting the things I bought together with the purchases I made in Cozumel and straightened out the cabin a little, we made our way down to the Silver Olympian dining room. Our tablemates, the couple we met on our very first night, were already there and the other family showed up right after we did. After we were all seated, Nicholai came around and filled up our water glasses and passed out the menus. DH again had to ask for ice tea and the other family again had to ask for cokes. When Nicholai went to get those, one of the other wait staff came around with the bread. We all got what we wanted then talked about our day. We knew the family at our table was with us on our “Altun Ha Mayan site and River Wallace” tour so we asked the other couple what they did. They did the same tour the rest of us did, but in reverse. They did the Mayan ruins first and the river part of the tour next. On their river tour, they saw a few large crocodiles. At the Black Orchid resort, which was the mid-way point and 45 minute break for both groups, they had gotten off the bus that we ended up getting on, but we didn’t see them. When most of our group got on the bus, the driver turned the air conditioning on and that blew a bunch of dust into the screened in area where those that just got off the bus were. We asked them how they “liked our dust” and they just laughed. They asked what caused that and we told them it was when the driver turned the air on.

Nicholai and another guy brought out DH’s ice tea and the cokes the others ordered and by that time we were ready to place our order. Tonight I got the Caesar Salad for my appetizer, the BBQ Pork Spareribs for my main course and Mac & cheese with bacon for my appetizer. DH got the Caesar Salad for an appetizer and I think he had the Roasted strip loin for his main course and the baked potato for his side. We split an order of the “Fry Jacks” that were listed under the “Port of Call” section of the menu. Again, Caesar Salad gets an “A”; the BBQ Pork Spareribs (served with baked beans and corn bread) were VERY good and the ribs were not skimpy and were a nice size with a good amount of meat on them. I give that an “A”. The “Fry Jacks”, which are a Belize cuisine and were served with Chipotle butter, were also very good. We both gave those an “A”. Even though we’d just had a Guy Burger a few hours before dinner, we ate most of it. The only thing I didn’t finish was the Mac & cheese with bacon, but I did have some of it. Again, I give that a “B”. When we finished dinner, our shot guy came around again. I was finally able to get his name, Andi. The shot (or cordial) glasses tonight were the clear ones and I got one of those. I think tonight’s came with a Blue Maui, which was very good. I forget what everyone else had for desert but the two of us not big on sweet, rich deserts again ordered the sorbet. I had decaffeinated coffee and a few of the others had the regular coffee. There was a Mardi Gras party tonight that at 10:15PM, but none of us were in a real hurry since we’d all done that before on other cruises so we sat around and visited. The one gal was telling us how on a prior “Gals’ cruise” they took the wine glasses, wet their fingers then ran them along the rim of the wine glass, creating that noise they make. If you’ve never heard it, it sounds kind of musical. She told us that after their table started that, the others seated at tables around them also started doing it and she said it seemed they had the whole dining room doing it. Well, she started then the other lady and I also started doing it and got some good noise going. They guys were just shaking their heads. We could tell others noticed but it seemed that no one else started doing it so we stopped. We were definitely the fun table that night. The dining room was almost emptied out by the time we decided to leave.

[pghsteelerfan]

DH and I decided we’d stop by the cabin, drop off the cordial shot glass and get changed and go and find something to do. Since there was no wait for the elevator, DH and I decided to take it. When we got on, there were several other people, mostly adults. Once we were on and the doors closed, we noticed that every button was pushed. We stopped on Deck 4, no one got off. We stopped on Deck 5, two adults got out, and Deck 6 was our stop and all but one got out. I have no idea if it was an adult or kids. There were two kids that got off on Deck 6 and headed down the hallway the same direction we were headed but they were in front of us. They were a girl about 14 years old and a boy who was about 10 or 11. They were trying to figure out what side of the ship they were on and from the sound of it, they were on the port side since they were talking about “even numbers”. I don’t think they realized we were behind them and the boy let out a loud belch. I know some would reprimand him and tell him that was obnoxious and disgusting, but I just laughed and his sister was embarrassed and yelled at him then turned around and apologized to us for her brother “being such a pig”. I told her they didn’t need to be sorry. Both kids started laughing. I decided to start having a little fun with them and said “Hey, that was a good belch, but I could do better” and they both started laughing. They were just kids being kids and having some innocent fun. And probably a little “immature” on my part, but I’m not too old for a little fun myself. No one is too old for a little fun, right? They made their way down the hall, just past our cabin and the laundry room where they made the left and headed to the other side of the ship and we went into the cabin. Our towel animal, which just so happened to be a pig, was waiting on our bed with us with tomorrow’s edition of the “Fun Times” along with a letter from our captain with the same message he made in his earlier announcement about safety in Roatan on one side and a map of the areas to avoid on the other side.

Our towel animal, a pig, the next day's edition of the "Fun Times" and the warning letter about crime targeting tourists in Roatan:

 

The letter regarding crime targeting tourists in Roatan (the front):

 

The back of the letter with the map of areas to avoid while in Roatan:

 

I forgot to add these pictures earlier, but this is the Belize currency I traded United States money for:

 

[pghsteelerfan]

We quickly changed into some comfortable clothes and went upstairs to Lido Deck 9 to get a drink and to see if anything was going on up there. Tonight was “Family Night” at the Seaside Theater and they were currently showing “Bedtime Stories”, which started at 10:00PM. The movie they showed at 8:00PM was “Despicable Me 2”. Since we didn’t want to get involved in a movie, we decided to go ahead and check out the Mardi Gras party. I thought the pool looked neat from where we were standing so I got a picture.

The pool at night:

We then made our way back down to Promenade Deck 5 and decided to get a drink at the Promenade Bar (casino bar) and took a short cut through the EA Sports Bar. I took a picture right before we entered the casino from the bar since I wasn’t able to get a picture of it the other day.

The EA Sports Bar:

After that, we made our way through the casino, which was busy, and continued on to the Promenade Bar. Our favorite bartender was there and it wasn’t too busy and she was able to wait on us right away. She asked if we wanted the double Captain and cokes without lime and we told her we did. She made the drinks, just as good as always, and we signed for them and tipped her. From there we went to the Atrium where they were just starting to get the Mardi Gras party started and it was packed so we decided to stay right at the railing where we could look down and see everything. The main party was in the Garden Atrium on Lobby Deck 3, but there were also crowds gathered at the railings on Atlantic Deck 4 and Promenade Deck 5. They announced that the Mardi Gras party would start in the atrium then everyone was to form a line for the “Mardi Gras Promenade Parade”.

The Mardi Gras Party:

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[pghsteelerfan]

Once the Mardi Gras party started, the beads were being tossed and the crowd was really into it. DH & I got the attention of one of the guys who was on the stage, which is on Lobby Deck 3, in the Garden Atrium and he was trying to toss beads up to us. He came very close a few times but he never gave up and it appeared he was determined to toss beads up the two levels to Promenade Deck 5 to us. He eventually got beads that almost made it. They ended up on the ledge just below where we were standing and just above the stairs, but we couldn’t reach them. There was a guy on the stairs watching all of this who was also watching the guy determined to get the bead up to Deck 5 and yelling to him “you can get them (the beads) up there”. That guy was able to reach up to the ledge and get the beads, then he turned around to toss them up to DH. DH told him he could have them and he said “hey, the poor guy isn’t going to give up until you guys get beads” and he tossed up the beads and we thanked him. By now the guy tossing them from the stage was determined to get that guy some beads and he did. They toss the beads from the stage and we could tell that they were also tossing them from Atlantic Deck 4 down into the crowd in the atrium. While we were there, I was trying to get pictures of the lights above the atrium. They were constantly changing colors and I wanted to get pictures of the in each color. I think I did.

 

 

 

 

We stayed for the rest of the party and once they started getting everyone into a line for the “Mardi Gras Promenade Parade”, we decided to go and get another drink at the Promenade bar before the parade arrived. Our gal waited on us again, and again we got the “usual”, signed for them and added a tip, then went back upstairs to our cabin.

We kicked off our shoes and took our drinks out to the balcony. We noticed that the water was choppier and we were moving faster now that we were out of the shallow waters off the coast of Belize. We stayed out there until we finished our drinks, which was probably a half hour and now close to midnight. We took turns getting ready for bed and called it a night.

[pghsteelerfan]

I forgot to add the scans of the flyers that came with the "Fun Times" for today in Belize. Here they are:

The "Good to Know" page - Luggage Express Program (side 1):

 

The "Good to Know" page - Luggage Express Program (side 2):

 

The Fun Finds Shopping - Belize (page 1):

 

The Fun Finds Shopping - Belize (page 2):

 

The Fun Finds Shopping - Belize (page 3):

 

The Fun Finds Shopping - Belize (page 4):

[pghsteelerfan]

Well, this wraps up our Cruise Day 4 in Belize. Next up... Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan, Honduras. Until then...

[catty]

Love your review. I will be on Liberty from PC and doing the same ports. I have been to Belize and loved the San Pedro excursion. If anyone gets a chance to go there, it is beautiful and not touristy. It has been 10 years so I am sure some things have changed, but I can't wait to see it again. :)

[pghsteelerfan]

Love your review. I will be on Liberty from PC and doing the same ports. I have been to Belize and loved the San Pedro excursion. If anyone gets a chance to go there, it is beautiful and not touristy. It has been 10 years so I am sure some things have changed, but I can't wait to see it again. :)

 

Thank you for following. Is San Pedro on Ambergris Cay? I would LOVE to go there! A friend of mine stayed in Ambergris Cay for a week two years ago and I fell in love with it from the pictures she got. Is it a Carnival excursion that you do that goes there?

[dsquared2]

Wow, I love this review. Going on August 1st on the 8 day southern caribbean and it was great to see the pictures of the ship.

[CruiseFlicks]

Enjoying your review very much. You've got some great photos.

 

One of these days, I'll revisit and update my cruise review. Was thoroughly disappointed when my photos stopped showing up because of bandwidth issues. I had not realized that there is a bandwidth restriction on free accounts at photobucket.

[catty]

Pghsteelerfan I went on Paradise in 2004 and yes it was a carnival excursion. We went on a boat (scary ride) but fun and we snorkeled, then they took us to San Pedro for lunch and just walking around for an hour or two. I loved seeing all the golf carts instead of cars, the people were so friendly. I have always wanted to return, but airfare is pretty expensive so a cruise is always the best value. Have I been to many places including the beautiful southern Caribbean, but this excursion has always been my favorite. I think the water was just gorgeous (fish and coral amazing) and the friendliness of the people. I hope it hasn't changed.

[titanic27]

Thank you for your reviews, they are helpful used the Valor for our trip in january and reading this one for next january on the Glory.

[pghsteelerfan]

Wow, I love this review. Going on August 1st on the 8 day southern caribbean and it was great to see the pictures of the ship.

 

Thank you! You will LOVE Liberty - beautiful décor. I was able to get pictures later in the week of the places that I missed when we were walking through on our Sea Day. The 8 day, isn't that the one that goes to Grand Turk, Aruba and Curacao? I would love to do that one. I noticed some really good itineraries lately. I hope you have a wonderful cruise.

[pghsteelerfan]

Enjoying your review very much. You've got some great photos.

 

One of these days, I'll revisit and update my cruise review. Was thoroughly disappointed when my photos stopped showing up because of bandwidth issues. I had not realized that there is a bandwidth restriction on free accounts at photobucket.

 

Thank you. I took so many pictures, but I always do. I maxed out my bandwidth on photobucket last year and just paid for it. I guess it will be good to have back up, on a website I can access from anywhere, just in case something were ever to happen where I'd lose my pictures. I'll have to check out your review. I love reading them. There are several that I'm following now but I need to concentrate on my own. LOL!!!

[pghsteelerfan]

Pghsteelerfan I went on Paradise in 2004 and yes it was a carnival excursion. We went on a boat (scary ride) but fun and we snorkeled, then they took us to San Pedro for lunch and just walking around for an hour or two. I loved seeing all the golf carts instead of cars, the people were so friendly. I have always wanted to return, but airfare is pretty expensive so a cruise is always the best value. Have I been to many places including the beautiful southern Caribbean, but this excursion has always been my favorite. I think the water was just gorgeous (fish and coral amazing) and the friendliness of the people. I hope it hasn't changed.

 

Thank you for the information on that. I'll have to look it up. I'm sure we'll be doing another Western Caribbean one of these days and that sounds like a lot of fun and something I'd like to do. I'm one of those who loves the "wild" boat rides. So glad it's a Carnival excursion too. Belize is one of the places where we prefer to stick with a Carnival excursion.

[pghsteelerfan]

Thank you for your reviews, they are helpful used the Valor for our trip in january and reading this one for next january on the Glory.

 

Thank you. I'm glad the Valor review was helpful to you in planning your Valor trip. What did you think of the itinerary? We LOVED it. I wanted to do that one again this year but just do different excursion, but we splurged on the airfare to San Juan last year and it was so much cheaper to fly to Miami. DH also wanted to do a Western this time since we were just on Valor last year.

 

We were on Glory in May 2010 and did an Eastern Caribbean cruise and really liked her. Same layout as Liberty and Valor, so we knew exactly where everything was and it was easy to get around on Liberty. I hope you have a great time on Glory.

[dsquared2]

Thank you! You will LOVE Liberty - beautiful décor. I was able to get pictures later in the week of the places that I missed when we were walking through on our Sea Day. The 8 day, isn't that the one that goes to Grand Turk, Aruba and Curacao? I would love to do that one. I noticed some really good itineraries lately. I hope you have a wonderful cruise.

 

I am loving the color changing chandileers and the theatre is classic Carnival.

 

That's the Breeze, Liberty does Grand Turk, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and San Juan.

 

I've never been to Grand Turk, I am wanting to try the brand new helicopter tour.