Life, LIBERTY, and the Pursuit of an Awesome Cruise- Review 4/5-4/12 Southern Caribbe

[oliviaik]

Would love to see the other menus!

[funinthesun082611]

Doing this cruise in November. When were the elegant nights?

 

Formal nights are on Tuesday and Friday.

[funinthesun082611]

We leave today on her, flying out of Orlando, FL to SJU in 4 hours. Just a heads up to future cruisers, I received an email from Carnival yesterday that they were switching the stop at St. Kitts to Antigua. They've been switching it to Dominica, so this was new. Would rather go to Dominica, but oh well.

 

Have fun! Probably good on Carnival's part to switch the stop at St. Kitts if they just weren't able to ever make it there. I love Antigua. Dominica is a nice stop, but is less developed with less to do. Thanks for giving everyone the heads up on the switch!

[funinthesun082611]

St. Thomas has to be one of my favorite ports to dock at. All the boats just make me swoon!

 

 

We woke up and snagged a breakfast burrito from Blue Iguana Cantina by 8:30 a.m. We were ready to get out there and explore our first port! Our destination for the first part of the day...

 

 

It cost $10 pp one way for a taxi to Sapphire Beach. The ride was about 25 minutes, stopping to drop others off at the ferry for St. Johns.

 

It wasn't busy at all as we got there around 9:15 a.m. It stayed that way most of the morning. Even as people arrived, it never felt busy or crammed at all. It was perfect!

 

 

We snagged chairs from the dive shop for $9. The dive shop has a variety of things you can rent. My DH has his own snorkel gear, but I needed to rent mine. I chose to have the snorkel gear for 2 hours, which was $8. 1 hour was for $5 and if you wanted it the whole day it was $10. They do hold you ship card until the gear is returned.

 

The dive shop also has drinks available if so desired-

 

 

There are no umbrellas for rent here, but that's because there's an abundance of natural shade. I love the sun and don't burn as easily as my DH, so he found shelter under these beautiful trees.

 

 

We got prepped to go snorkel. The staff at the dive shop provided some instruction as where to go. In the picture below, you'll be able to tell. The dark blue areas are where the reef is. This is towards the right side of the water if standing on the beach. Stay in the aqua colored water around the reef to see fish and keep working your way towards the point.

 

 

From that point, you can swim/snorkel a straight line parallel to the beach towards the left side of the water. We were told that if we could make it to that point, we might see some rays or turtles. Sure enough, we did! Nothing else was out there (because turtles and rays like grassy areas, not near the reefs where you see fish) and I was starting to wonder. Lo and behold, we saw 3 turtles! We loved the fact that we came upon them without feeding them like most excursions do.

[funinthesun082611]

We only snorkeled for about an hour, but that was enough. We had seen the turtles- success! On our way back in, we did end up having an encounter with jellyfish. Word for the wise- just keep an eye out. If you see them, definitely go around them.

 

We spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon walking the beach, swimming, soaking up the sunshine. There weren't vendors at Sapphire trying to sell anything, which made for a very relaxing time.

 

 

We do always attempt to try local brews from everywhere we go. There is someone who comes to see if you want anything to eat/drink from the restaurant that's located at the condos at Sapphire and one from some place up the road that has sandwiches, etc. We did snag a beer from St. Johns brewing. Super good!

 

 

We left the beach around 1:30 p.m. As many times as I have been to St. Thomas (almost every cruise I've been on!), I'd never been to Paradise Point. I had purchased the "excursion" through Carnival as it saves $1 a ticket, and I purchased it shortly after buying our cruise where I was able to get 20% off. We had the taxi take us back and walked from the ship there. Very simple to do. There was absolutely no wait when we got there.

 

They had 2 sets of "cars" going up the tramway. The ride is about 7 minutes. The views are fantastic!

 

 

 

 

There is a restaurant/bar at the top with a variety of gift shops. There isn't much else up there, but the view is fabulous! We decided to grab the ever famous Bushwacker that is sold there.

 

 

The drink is awesome! I want to say it's about $10. We stayed for about an hour, sitting looking over the vessels below. Would I do Paradise Point again? No. I do however, recommend it once for the views. To me, it was worth it to do once, but it's not something I would do again.

 

We grabbed a drink and a few slices of pizza for a late lunch. We sat on the balcony to watch as we sailed away.

[funinthesun082611]

We got ready for dinner and headed on down to the Silver Dining room for our first assigned dining with our wait staff. We chose early dining at 6:00 p.m. It has always worked well for us, particularly because the back on board time for all the islands was by 4:30 or 5:00.

 

We met our wait staff and were seated at a 4 person booth. We sat on the same side of the table, but the tablemates didn't show all week. The food tonight was scrumptious!

 

 

 

 

I wanted to try almost every appetizer! I didn't want the staff to know how much I love food, so I stuck with one. I ended up getting the gazpacho. Seriously SO good. Really refreshing after being in the sun all day.

 

I ended up getting the veal parmesan for my entrée. My DH got the port of call options and really enjoyed them.

 

I never took pictures of the dinner menu, but I ended up with some type of key lime cake. The entrée was your typical (I didn't order anything too thrilling, but I was still full from pizza).

 

 

 

 

My DH's birthday was during our cruise. When you book your trip, you can mark if you are celebrating anything. I did put down that it would be his birthday. I couldn't decide whether or not to buy a cake from Carnival or not- there was only 2 of us, and my DH doesn't really like cake. I'd heard rumors that you could ask your wait staff to sing and bring out a dessert with a candle to "celebrate." Although it wasn't his birthday (I know I had the date marked correctly), his dessert came out with a candle and he got a lovely rendition of "Happy Birthday". It was almost better that it wasn't on the correct day- surprise!

 

We spent the evening at the Alchemy Bar and at the Punchliner Comedy Club. We personally enjoyed all the comedians throughout the cruise, although we felt that the ones toward the end were better. The comedians switched half way through, so it does offer some nice variety if you aren't fond of one of them.

 

We went to bed without an alarm set- the joys of having a sea day coming up!

[Skates99]

Really loving your reviews so far! We are sailing this itinerary on the Liberty on June 7th and are very excited! We actually did this same itinerary on the Valor in November 2013 but I think with the change in ships and Carnival in general (Menu changes etc) there have been some changes since then so I'm loving your more recent review! ;)

 

2 Qs, do you remember what day the past guest party is/was? And also which day they are doing the Behind the Fun tour? We have never done it before and we were thinking this might be a fun cruise to finally do it because although this is our first time on the Liberty, we have done multiple cruises on the Valor and Freedom which I believe are sister ships with essentially the same layout...

 

Thanks for your review and the FunTimes posts!

[rocking-m-cruiser]

Hello, great job on the review. Did you spend anytime in the piano bar? If so how was it?

[MonsterS4R]

so appreciative of this detailed review!!! We're first time cruisers and sail on the Liberty on May 10th...hopping off in St. Thomas to get married on the beach :cool: We have absolutely no idea what to expect, that is until I came across your amazing review. Priceless! Thank you soooo much!!!

[Spincognito]

so appreciative of this detailed review!!! We're first time cruisers and sail on the Liberty on May 10th...hopping off in St. Thomas to get married on the beach :cool: We have absolutely no idea what to expect, that is until I came across your amazing review. Priceless! Thank you soooo much!!!

 

Loving the review! Leaving this Sunday! 4th time with this itinerary. Sailed Liberty awhile back before the upgrades.

 

MonsterS4R, which beach in St Thomas? We got married 11/11/11 (at 11:11AM) on Emerald Beach. Boarded the Valor a couple of days later right in St. Thomas. :)

[funinthesun082611]

Really loving your reviews so far! We are sailing this itinerary on the Liberty on June 7th and are very excited! We actually did this same itinerary on the Valor in November 2013 but I think with the change in ships and Carnival in general (Menu changes etc) there have been some changes since then so I'm loving your more recent review! ;)

 

2 Qs, do you remember what day the past guest party is/was? And also which day they are doing the Behind the Fun tour? We have never done it before and we were thinking this might be a fun cruise to finally do it because although this is our first time on the Liberty, we have done multiple cruises on the Valor and Freedom which I believe are sister ships with essentially the same layout...

 

Thanks for your review and the FunTimes posts!

 

Sorry but I don't have answers to either of these! We haven't cruised enough yet on Carnival to earn the spot to be at the past guest party. I tried to figure out the Behind the Fun tour... is that typically advertised (like Chef's Table, etc)? I tried to look in my FunTimes but no such luck.

[funinthesun082611]

As much as I tried to sleep in for my DH (I'm a "let's go all day all night!" kind of gal), I just couldn't do it. We had received an upgrade to a balcony on the Lido deck. My original concern was noise at night, but we had no problems there. I found that it was loud in the mornings- I think there may have been a "service room" or something of the like that housekeeping accessed early in the morning.

 

Unfortunately for my husband, we were up at 8:45 a.m. But c'mon, look at the view!

 

 

We headed up to the Lido deck. On sea days, that's where you find me. I'm from Michigan- I crave the sun, the breeze, the live music, the everything! It sprinkled for about 5 minutes and there were still plenty of chairs, so we headed for some breakfast from you guessed it.. Blue Cantina (we like what we like!).

 

The day was beautiful. We laid out for the morning until 1, soaking up the sun, enjoying a few drinks, reading, listening to the live performers, watching the ice carving contest and the Red Rum vs. Blue's Tequila Challenge (guests making cocktails and getting "graded on" how good they are). Out of bar service anywhere, I found the Lido deck to take the most time.

 

We headed in for a nap- happened almost every day. Something about the sun just takes the energy outta ya! We must have been napping pretty hard, because I woke up to a Carnival employee in my room saying something about our toilet. I think we alarmed him as much as he alarmed us, so he quickly left. Someone did come back later that night literally with an entire new toilet waiting in the hallway. Strange!

 

We had signed up for a private martini class/tasting at the Alchemy Bar the previous night. At 2:30, we headed on down. We felt bad for Daniel as we were the only ones! On other ships, they hold the class on the 2nd sea day. He explained that by then, the bartenders would have enough clientele where they could easily invite more guests to attend. So really, it ended up being pretty private! We learned about all sorts of spirits, what goes into making a martini, and practicing a few parts of making one. It was $15 for 3+ tastings with a coupon for a free drink. If you're looking for something to do on the sea day, this is an option. I think for the price, it's worth it. Not my first choice (I literally will stay in the sun forever! and I like the entertainment on the Lido deck) but we enjoyed it.

 

We left back to the stateroom to get ready for the night. It was the first Elegant Night. I love seeing everyone dressed up! In the dining rooms, everyone was dressed nicely- I didn't see any jeans or anything of the like. Attire ranged from polos and pants to suits with button-down shirts and ties for the men and semi-casual to formal dresses for the women.

 

We snapped a few pictures with the Carnival photographers before dinner. This night there was only one backdrop that appealed to us. There wasn't a long wait for pictures- although I did notice that after the early seating and before the late seating it was much more busy.

 

It was food time!

 

 

My picture of the menu is a little funny. I don't know what the vegetarian option was. They did offer the typical "From the Grill" options like chicken breast, salmon, pork chop, and flat iron steak.

 

What I ordered: the Italian wedding soup, the tart with braised kale and pork tenderloin, and the lobster tail.

 

What my DH ordered: the shrimp cocktail, mushroom cream soup, and the prime rib.

 

 

 

The lobster was good but small. I always order it because I love seafood, but expect to get hungry later or order two appetizers. My DH said that the prime rib was excellent.

 

 

For dessert, I picked the Melting Chocolate Cake and my DH chose the crème brulee. The Melting Chocolate Cake varied the handful of times I chose it. My first was probably the best. Some nights it was too "melty", other nights the center didn't have a drop of liquidy chocolate goodness.

 

We spent our evening at the casino and at 2 of the comedy shows- one of the "PG" shows and 1 of the "18+" shows. Only my DH gambled- he didn't put in much to play with but did quadruple his money. This is also the night where you can meet the Captain and officers, which was on the Promenade deck in the area near the casino bar. Both of the comedy shows were very funny that we attended.

 

 

Afterwards, we strolled toward the atrium. Still, one of the prettiest I've seen. We stayed for awhile listening to the evening music in the lobby. The entertainment varied in quality we found- some played guitar better than others, some sang better than others.

 

We headed to bed as the next day we had to be up early for Barbados.

Edited April 20, 2015 by funinthesun082611

[Shih-tzu]

 

 

We decided it was time to see our room. I had originally booked an inside cabin on the 7th deck. A couple of months ago, we were lucky enough to receive a 1 day offer to upgrade to a balcony for $200. We took it and ended up midship on the Lido deck.

 

 

We are supposed to be on the Liberty in February and our room is Lido Mid-ship. Do you remember your room number?

 

Looking forward to your review and lots more photos :-)

[funinthesun082611]

I want to say we were in 9271? Midship starboard side.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MonsterS4R]

Loving the review! Leaving this Sunday! 4th time with this itinerary. Sailed Liberty awhile back before the upgrades.

 

MonsterS4R, which beach in St Thomas? We got married 11/11/11 (at 11:11AM) on Emerald Beach. Boarded the Valor a couple of days later right in St. Thomas. :)

 

LimeTree beach, also called blueberry beach. We chose it because of the scenery and because it's not nearly as crowded as others.

[MonsterS4R]

Funinthesun keep it coming, I'm hanging on every word!

[funinthesun082611]

We woke up by 8 a.m. and couldn't wait for the day to start. It was DH's birthday and we were both looking forward to the private excursion we had planned that day. We weren't sure what the weather would do- some gray, some clouds, some sun. The temperature was great. Throughout the whole cruise, it was right around 80 degrees.

 

Just be warned, it can take about 10 minutes to walk from the ship to where you meet for private excursions. Our ship was the farthest docked, so plan extra time if need be.

 

This day, we had a private catamaran/snorkeling with turtles planned with Calabaza. To sum it up before I get started= AWESOME! Hands down my favorite excursion/day.

 

Now for the details!

 

We hopped in a van with 10 other people (they only allow 12 people on the catamaran) and took a ride to the marina 2 minutes away. We officially started the excursion at 9:30 a.m., with expected arrival back by 2:30 p.m. We met the crew who would be with us for the day- Sean, Bobby, and Andrew. All extremely nice and very knowledgeable about the island. One of the things I loved about this excursion I discovered next- one of the fellas is in charge of a camera and takes pictures all day- of you on the catamaran, of everyone else, of you snorkeling, of the things you see while you're snorkeling. It was nice to not be plastered to my camera all day- I still took a few of my own, but I didn't have to worry about it!

 

From the start, they treat you like royalty. After boarding, we were offered any drink- tea, pop, water, rum punch, beer, etc. as it is all included. All day long, the guys were constantly checking on you, refilling as needed. I never had to go ask for a drink because they came to me first. We were also given homemade banana bread right away.

 

 

(Sean, the captain, is the fella in the background)

 

We sailed for about 45 minutes to an hour to our first snorkel stop, an area where we were expected to see turtles. We spent most of our time up on the nets. As we sailed by, the guys gave us background about the things we were seeing. While we were sailing, they also brought fish cakes (that's what they called them- they looked similar to hushpuppies) for us to try. Very good. We definitely weren't going to go hungry on this excursion!

 

They had plenty of snorkel gear with them, so about half of us borrowed while the other half had their own.

 

 

(see, they do get pictures of everyone :) )

 

It was not very crowded here, just one other catamaran of Gina's (owner of Calabaza). Lo and behold, there were 3-4 turtles!

 

 

 

We were instructed to just let the turtles come to us, not to chase after them like hooligans. They'd just swim right by you, and come to the surfaces every now and then- so cool to see!

 

We got lucky, because a sting ray also showed up. My DH likes to free dive, so he got his picture taken near it.

 

 

We stayed at this spot for about 45 minutes. The perfect amount of time to take it all in.

 

Next up- we would sail a short distance away, maybe 5 or so minutes, to a reef to snorkel.

[funinthesun082611]

We arrived at the reef, and in we went! You were free to do as you pleased- one woman didn't get in ever. Some snorkeled with the use of a noodle to help. Whatever you wanted.

 

We jumped on in and man, what a sight to see!

 

 

 

 

I even tried my own first attempt at freediving with semi-success.

 

 

I'm not sure how long we stayed in, but I'm guessing a similar amount of time. The catamaran stayed here as we had our buffet lunch. I've seriously never seen so much good looking food! There was salad, Greek salad, corn salad, couscous, garlic bread, flying fish, chicken, potatoes, and I'm sure more than I've forgotten. You could sit at the table, on the benches in the back, or up in the front.

 

 

[funinthesun082611]

We stayed in the same area after lunch for an additional 30 minutes. You could swim near the boat or to shore (we were a short distance away), or just relax on board. We decided to stay on board. It was a small world (very small!) but we realized 5 of the other 10 people on board were originally from our very small village in Michigan. Life is funny sometimes!

 

We enjoyed some rum punches... Dangerously good!

 

 

...had some dessert...

 

 

...and soaked up some sun...

 

 

Our time was up, so we made our way back to the marina. It was SO nice to be on such a small excursion. We made friends with everyone!

 

 

So sad to see it end!

 

 

The price of this catamaran tour with Calabaza is 100% worth it. I will absolutely repeat it again when (not if!) we make it to Barbados again. The snorkeling was amazing, it was relaxing, we were waited on hand and foot, we learned a lot and made a lot of friends. I DEFINATELY recommend this tour!!

[funinthesun082611]

We got back to the pier area around 2:30 or so. We shopped around in the stores right at the pier. We ended up purchasing an ornament made out of seashells and a bottle of local rum.

 

On our walk back, we managed to sneak a picture with the Liberty.

 

 

We did our typical routine- hour nap, get ready for dinner, pick up a drink from the Alchemy bar, and head on to dinner.

 

 

(I picked the flatbread and the chilled asparagus soup- really good! I enjoyed the cold soups, so refreshing and light after being in the sun all day.)

 

 

 

 

(My DH and I both picked the penne with seafood. Very good and filling!)

 

Edited April 22, 2015 by funinthesun082611

[funinthesun082611]

No matter what, I can always make room for dessert :)

 

 

(sorry the picture is so awful! apparently vacation brain made me decide I didn't need to actually hold up the menu as I took the picture)

 

I got the cheesecake with fruit relish.

 

 

Before making plans for the rest of the night, we headed back to our room. Our room steward dropped off a "birthday card" from Carnival. Not anything fancy, but a nice touch!

 

This night, we decided to head to the evening show- a Frank Sinatra production. My DH is a huge Sinatra fan and is very involved in music, and neither of us were very impressed. The performer indicated he was flown just for this show- not sure if he's only there the 1 day a week or just this once? We weren't upset we went, just wouldn't go again.

 

 

(the Victoria lounge)

 

We spent the remainder of our evening sitting in the lobby of the atrium listening to the live music.

 

 

(in the lobby- so pretty and calming!)

 

The perfect ending to a perfect day!

Edited April 22, 2015 by funinthesun082611

[Liltee42]

I want to say we were in 9271? Midship starboard side.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for the awesome review. Can you please tell me if Liberty docked on the even side or odd side at each port? I am in 7439 and just wondering if I get to be port side for at least one of our stops! Thank you.

[JKirkN]

I thought you might like to see these if you haven't already (they were taken on the afternoon sailing of Calabaza that day... :) )

 

 

 

 

 

[funinthesun082611]

JKirkN- what awesome photos of the ship sailing away! I haven't seen these yet. Thank you so much for sharing!

 

Thanks for the awesome review. Can you please tell me if Liberty docked on the even side or odd side at each port? I am in 7439 and just wondering if I get to be port side for at least one of our stops! Thank you.

 

St Thomas- docks with the starboard (odd) side facing the island, which is a less pretty view in my opinion

 

 

(view from starboard side)

 

Barbados- docks with port (even) side next to the pier. This is the starboard view, where you can see part of the island and the water

 

 

St. Lucia- Starboard (odd) side is next to the pier. This is the view from the starboard side (very good in my opinion)

 

 

 

St. Maarten- Port (even) side docks next to the pier. The view from the starboard side is nice.

 

 

From what I've read, if needed they can change the side they dock on based on if other ships are in port, etc. We enjoyed our views every morning/evening. And if we didn't see what we wanted to (like the ships in the bay at St. Thomas {my favorite} then we just saw what we wanted when we went to breakfast).

[Rockjock64]

Your posting an Exceptional review...Thanks so much, we go in just over 4 weeks.....

Thank you, thank you, thank you...