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Carnival Liberty 3/22-3/29 2015 Repositioning Cruise Review

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in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Even though I typed this up ahead of time posting all the pictures is more time consuming than I remember! I'm sorry but I will have to come back to post the information from our port days either tomorrow or the next day. For now I will leave you with the towel animals of the Liberty....

 

Animals getting some sun!

 

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St. Thomas Day



 

Our itinerary was a little unique being a repositioning cruise. We started with two sea days followed by four port days.

 

Our first stop was St. Thomas. This was our 4th time here. We were debating between taking the trip to over to Trunk Bay, trying out Magen’s Bay or going back to Sapphire Beach because it was close and had good, easy snorkeling. We decided to visit Sapphire again because I wasn’t sure if we’d have another chance to snorkel this trip, and I was worried about traffic getting back from Trunk Bay with 5 ships in port. As it turns out it was a little chilly to me that day, and I ended up not going in the water at all. I wish we had gone to Magen’s Bay and saw a new part of the island. Despite my regret, we enjoyed our nice relaxing day on this beautiful beach.

 

When we got off the ship there were sirens going off and a garbled announcement about a tsunami blaring over the island. Some people were freaking out but it took about 10 seconds to look around and see the locals had no concern at all, so obviously it was a drill. Too bad our ship didn’t let us know that would be going on. (That’s one complaint I have about the Liberty is that there were never any announcements telling us when we were cleared to get off the ship each day or if any excursions were cancelled etc) We took a cab straight to the beach, it was an open air truck style so it was a nice ride; it was $10pp each way. We stopped at Coral World to drop off some other people first so the ride was probably about 20-25min. We tried to find a shady spot as soon as we got there because they don’t rent umbrellas at this beach but since we didn’t get there until 10:45ish, shade was hard to come by. We had to squeeze into a spot next to some other people, I felt a little bad but I was already burned from the two sea days so I needed shade. The lounge chairs were $9pp and you can only go to a certain spot on the beach, past there is private beach. We sat right next to the line. There were a few runners on the beach with food and drink menus. We ordered a few drinks early and then lunch and a “bag of beers” a little later. I wish they had a bar or restaurant you could walk up to but we couldn’t find anything, so we had to seek out a waiter when it came time for lunch despite generously tipping the first waitress who brought our drinks. I remember service being slow the last time we were there too, I think there’s just not enough servers for the amount of people. Anyway, I ordered the jerk chicken sandwich and it was very good! Seth got the chicken caesar wrap and liked it but said mine was better. We paid $12 for each sandwich and $20 for 6 carib beers in a bag with ice. Surprisingly this kept them colder than a bucket! (*tip-keep it classy and bring a few coozies to keep your beers cold on the beach). We packed up around 3 to head back to the ship because I wanted to do a little shopping too. Getting a cab back was easy, there were several waiting and we got right in and left. This time it was an air-conditioned van. We hit traffic on the way back, and started to panic a bit. Thank goodness we left as early as we did! All on board was 4:30; we got back to the port area around 4pm but I still had about 20min to shop!:D

 

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Beers in a bag!

 

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seemed more crowded than last time

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St.Kitts Day



 

 

Our next stop was St. Kitts, an island we had been to once before. Last time we just did a beach day so this time we thought we’d see a different part of the island. I convinced Seth that hiking the volcano would be fun! We had hiked Gros Piton in St. Lucia a few years ago and it was very, very difficult but well worth it and quite an accomplishment. (You can read about it in my Victory review below.) I did some research and it seemed like more people had done the volcano hike and some cruise lines even offered it as an excursion so I thought it had to be easier than the Piton…..right? Well anyway, Carnival offered no such excursion so I found a company that had good reviews, Poinciana Tours. I contacted them via email and they were very prompt with their responses. This is the description from their website:

 

Mount Liamuga Volcano Hike & Beach

This tour lasts for 6 hours.

 

The Mount Liamuga peak is 3,792 feet and is the highest point on the island of Saint Kitts, in the federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis as well as one of the tallest peaks in the eastern Caribbean archipelago The mountainsides are covered in farmland and small villages up to 1,500 feet, after which lush tropical rainforests drape the slopes until cloud forest takes over at 3,000 ft. Journey to the historic village of St. Pauls via an open Safari Truck and journey along the trail in the dense tropical forest . The views are outstanding; including the entire island and the beautiful Caribbean Sea, as well as the neighboring islands of Saba, Statia, St. Barths, St. Martin, Antigua, and our sister island Nevis. Various rest stops are made along the way.

Dress: Wear comfortable hiking shoes and clothing.

Fresh local fruits, drink and snack will be served after the tour.

US$70.00 per person for Volcano Hike. However, if you are interested in Beach time this will be an additional US$10.00.

 

We met our tour guide Al at 8:30 just outside the gate exactly where he said he’d be. We were supposed to be joined by another couple that we had “met” on cruise critic but only the man came along as wife wasn’t feeling well that day. So off we went in Al’s air-conditioned mini van. The ride to the volcano was about 40min or so, and he pointed out a lot of highlights on the island as we drove through. The last road directly to the volcano was very bumpy and not really a road at all, here’s where I got very nervous and excited. We told Al that we had hiked Gros Piton before and was wondering if he had ever done it and how he would compare the two. Interestingly enough he actually had done the Piton hike and he said the volcano was much more difficult and kind of chuckled. I was very surprised to hear that, and didn’t really believe him I thought he was just trying to “psyche” me out. I couldn’t imagine a hike much more difficult than the Piton hike. So we reached the end of the road and climbed out, used the banana tree “bathroom” before heading on up. We timed ourselves and I wore my heart rate monitor just for kicks. Al said 2 hours is a pretty good time to reach the top in, other reviews I read said about 2 – 2 ½ . It started off pretty average but quickly got steeper and started resembling our piton hike with large rock steps and tree roots going up up up. About 1/3 of the way as we are huffing and puffing, Al turns to us and says here’s where the volcano separates itself from the Piton. Sure enough, just when I didn’t think it could get any steeper, it did. We were literally climbing walls of tree roots and rocks, but without any ropes! Eeeeeks. It got scary a few times, the rocks were sandy and slippery, and I slipped a few times. It was extra hard for me because some of the steps up were to my waist (I’m only 5’2) so I couldn’t just “step up” like my 6 foot tall co-hikers. I was using my hands and arms a lot which is something I didn’t have to do on the Piton. We stopped several times to catch our breath but ended up making it to the top in 1 hour 45min! Al seemed pretty proud of us and said since we had a little extra time he showed us two view points. The first one was just out to a clearing where you could see the vast and very green crater to this volcano. The second spot Al called “his office”. We had to climb a little more (Al almost had to practically lift up one of the rocks) and then up a little wooden ladder Al claimed he made, to a small clearing with an amazing view of Mt. Liamuiga’s crater, and highest peak (another 1,000ft up only reachable with ropes). We sat up there for about 20min and had some snacks that Al had brought for us, fresh raisin bread from a local bakery and fresh squeezed papaya juice. It was a wonderful treat to enjoy in such a beautiful spot. We saw a marmot at the top as well, he looks just like a ferret! We were also able to see a view of the Caribbean sea from where we were as well. Just amazing! Pictures don’t do any of this trip justice, it’s something you need to experience and see for yourself. So after our little break we head back down full speed ahead. I have a harder time going down than up so I was REALLY concerned about how I was going to get down all those crazy tree root walls. My legs started quivering from exhaustion and I slipped and fell on my butt once going down but we made it back down in about 1hr and 20 min. I visited my banana tree again, then we headed off to rinse off at the beach. On our way to the beach I checked my heart rate monitor and I had burned over 1400 calories, not too shabby. Later I looked up info on Mt. Liamuiga and learned it used to be called Mount Misery until about 1983 when they changed it after gaining their independence. LOL. How fitting. We went to Frigate Bay Beach for about an hour to rinse off and relax a bit. We didn’t rent chairs or anything since we weren’t staying long but it was a beautiful black sand beach with chairs, umbrellas and a few restaurants available for those looking to go for the day. When we went to get back into the van Al had just discovered he had a flat tire. Holy moly, this is the reason people only take cruise ship based excursions, right? Traffic jams, flat tires….what’s next?? Luckly, our friend Al was prepared and dug through his trunk and whipped out a bottle of none other than Fix a Flat! Seth and Ron offered to help him change the tire but Al insisted that we were on vacation and shouldn’t have to worry about that. He blew up the tire enough with his can to get us back to the ship with plenty of time to spare. Al was an awesome guide, very personable and funny. He was VERY smart and really knew his botany. He knew the common and scientific names for all the trees and plants he showed us, and explained a lot about how they grow etc. He also showed us some survival techniques and showed us plants that are used for medicinal purposes. He seemed to enjoy our questions and learning about us as much as we did him. I highly recommend Poinciana tours and Al specifically but I’m sure all of the guys are just as great.

 

Mt. Liamuga pulling into port

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Trip to the Volcano

 

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Road to the volcano

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monkey trap :(

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Tree roots

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St. Maartin Day



 

The next day was St. Maartin day. This was our third time in St. Martin and we were just planning a low key day so we went back to Orient Beach. Just as I was waking up around 715 we were surprised by an emergency announcement calling the alpha team to a certain part of the ship. It was hard to understand what they were saying but they were ordering evacuation of some of the crew cabins and stairwell. Once I was up and around I could smell a burning/motor oil type smell. They came on again and announced some smoke had been seen coming from the ship but everything was under control and we were clear to debark the ship. We went to breakfast and then got off the ship as usual, but this time there were no paparazzi there taking pictures as we got off. There were a couple of fire vehicles and still strong burning smell lingering but otherwise everything seemed normal. Later that night we had a letter in our stateroom from the Captain explaining there was a damaged bearing on one of the thrusters (I think?) that caused a lot of smoke to come from the ship, but there was never a fire and everything was under control the whole time and the problem had been repaired and we would not be affected by this situation. Don’t quote me on that explanation but it was similar to that.

As soon as we got off the ship we headed to the very well organized taxi stand to take a cab to Orient Beach. We took an air-conditioned van with another couple over to Orient, about a 15-20 cab ride. The cost was $8pp since there was four of us in the van. The driver dropped us off behind the Bikini Beach Club and this time we headed to the left to find a spot. We decided on La Playa because the chairs were nice and spaced out, cushioned and they still had front row available. The cost was $25 for two chairs, an umbrella and 3 beers. ($20 if you didn’t want the beers) They had a guy running around taking drink and lunch orders, but just like every where else, it takes forever for him to make it way around. We weren’t overly impressed with the lunch menu anyway and decided to for a walk down the beach. We looked a lot of menu’s and really just wanted a couple of sandwiches or wraps, which were surprisingly hard to find. We ended up eating at Orange Fever which I read good reviews about. I forgot my camera so no blurry pics, sorry. I had my first ever frozen mojito and it was delicious. If it wasn’t for the three, count ‘em THREE hairs in my drink I would have gotten another. I ordered a chicken sandwich and Seth got a mahi burger. The food was good, but I was ready for another drink but I just couldn’t get my mind of the hairs (I sucked one up into my mouth) so we headed back to our chairs for another round of drinks. This time we ordered the famous St. Martin guavaberry colada! We headed back to the cab area around 3 and found several vans waiting. We expected to have to wait for the van to fill up before he’d take us back, but to our surprise he left right away with just the two of us, which of course made the cost of the ride back $10pp.

 

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tortola day



 

our final port day was tortola and it was our time here. After doing some research on this island, it was pretty clear that the bath’s on virgin gorda was a must see. We had a few options; either take a ship based excursion, a private tour excursion or just take the ferry over on our own. We wanted to have as much time as possible to spend at the baths and weren’t sure what to expect so we decided to just do it on our own. I had read that there were two ferry companies that went to virgin gorda. Each only has a few departure times, so to maximize our time there and still allow plenty of time to get back to the ship, we planned to take the 9am speedy’s ferry to virgin gorda and the 2:15 smiths ferry back to tortola. Best laid plans….

There were rumors that the tortola pier was under construction and that we might have to tender in, but as it turns out one side of the pier was ready and we were able to dock. An oceania ship was also there that day but they were anchored off shore. We skipped breakfast in the mdr and just quick ate some food from the buffet so we could get off the ship as early as possible. I knew we needed to make the 9:00 ferry or the day would be a bust. There is nothing at the port as it is under construction so we quickly scooted off to the left and looked for the ferry port. It was a lot further away than i thought, we had to stop and ask for directions. It was close to a 10min walk, not too, too far but further than expected. We got in line for the speedy ferry and realized everyone was buying round trip tickets, but i wanted to find the smith ferry to double check their times. When i got to the window the smiths ferry was the next window over with no one at it, i inquired to the women about their ferry times and she rudely told me they don’t go to virgin gorda. I told her i saw on their website they did, and asked if there was no ferry because it was a saturday, she cut me off and just repeated there was no boat going there. Sooo now we had about 30 seconds to decide what to do. Get out of line and try to find a private boat to take us over? Or just go with speedy and figure it out later? We panicked and just bought the roundtrip speedy package. It was $37pp and it included a taxi to and from the baths which i didn’t realize until we got off the ferry. It posed a problem because the only two times the speedy’s ferry returned was 12:40 which was way early, almost not worth going all the way there or 3:30 which is cutting it quite close to return to the ship by 4:30. We decided to just play it by ear once we got there. So after rushing around, it was only about 8:20 and now we were just standing in a huge mob of people waiting for the ferry. The boat was there but they also move cargo so they were busy unloading until just about 9am. Finally they opened the gate to let us on and it was unreal how much pushing a shoving happened, i almost got knocked down. They need to create an organized line area instead because someone is going to get hurt. The ferry has 3 levels, the first one is enclosed and i think there’s a bar in there, the second was partially covered and the third was up on top completely open. We sat in the middle to avoid the sun but still get air, but about 20 minutes into the 35 min ride we both started getting a little nauseous from the diesel engine smell and heavy motion of the boat. Once we got off the ferry we were herded over to a bunch of open air taxi’s waiting to take us to the baths. We piled in and off we went; the ride to the top of the baths was about 10min. There’s a $3 fee per person to enter the baths, once you pay you can start walking down the path to the beach, it takes less than 10 minutes and is a nice little walk with some neat things to look at. Before you walk down there’s a restaurant where we bought some much needed bottled water. We headed down the main path after the crowd so it was nice and quiet and we could take our time. Once you get to the bottom there’s a small beach where people were trying to snorkel, swim and just sitting on the sand. You can walk to the left and there’s an entrance to the caves with a sign that explains what the caves are. The first crevice you have to climb through is quite small and scary, seth didn’t think we could fit through with our bags but tried anyway and we did. I recommend wearing water shoes for this, the rocks are very slippery and probably rough too. Lots of people were going through in bare feet and flip flops but i was happy to have my ugly water shoes. There are some tricky spots where they have ropes for you to hold on to, i saw a few people coming out bleeding from scrapes on knees and elbows. Once you get through the caves you end up on devils bay beach, a beautiful little beach with some of the prettiest water i’ve seen. There’s a few trees you can find shade under, again we squeezed our way in to a little spot and sat on the beach for an hour or so. We lugged our snorkel gear all week long and hadn’t used it yet, so i forced myself to go take a look here. I’m glad i did because we saw some nice fish and coral, and it’s just so peaceful watching the fish in their environment. While we were drying off, some wild chickens came running out of the trees making some very angry noises at us. The person next to us was eating a sandwich i think maybe they wanted his food, but we took that as our cue to get going. We packed up and headed up a different trail which brings you back to the parking lot. It was much longer, steeper and twisty than the walk down, and took about 15min. Originally i had wanted to take a cab to a mineshaft café, a restaurant i had read good reviews on, but we were tired and didn’t want to deal with another cab ride since our return cab was pre-paid so we just ate at the restaurant near the parking lot. The name of it, surprisingly enough, is the top of the baths. They have some really beautiful views, and there’s a little pool in the center for swimming, great for occupying the kiddos! We sat ourselves around 1pm and had to be back to our taxi pick up area no later than 3:00 for the 3:30 ferry. We figured we had more than enough time to have a few drinks and lunch. As it turns out the service was incredibly slow and it took us almost an hour to get one drink and our lunch. The place became more and more mobbed and there were only two waitresses and a bartender for what seemed like 75 tables. We weren’t in a hurry but after about an hour we started getting cranky. Finally our food came out and it was only so-so but we were starving so down it went! We ended up going up to the bar to get a second round of drinks because our waitress was so buried. I felt really bad for her, she was moving as fast as possible with people yelling at her from all directions. They really need to staff better when a cruise ship is in port. We paid our expensive bill and headed down to the taxi stand to try to be first in line for the cab, i wanted to be first on the ferry to ensure we wouldn’t miss it and to get a seat away from the stinky engine. As it turns out we were on one of the first speedy trucks back to the ferry around 2:30. Silly me thought we’d be able to get right on the boat and wait, but nope once again we sat in an unorganized group waiting to be let on. They had a shaded tent area with some chairs, but i waited as close to the entrance gate as possible. More and more trucks came dropping of tons of people, i really didn’t know how we’d all fit, i figured they must have people stand. Finally around 3:15 they let us on to the ferry, and we got a seat in a better ventilated area. Apparently my fear was true and ferry was full, and you can’t have people standing. They had to ask people to get off and they were sending a second boat. I think mostly locals got off, not sure if any cruise ship passengers had to wait. We left a few minutes late and got back to the ferry port about 4:10. All onboard was 4:30, so of course everyone was panicking and rushing. While we walked briskly, i wasn’t worried about the ship leaving 200 people behind, and also the ship didn’t actually leave until 5 anyway. We got back on board at exactly 4:35 with many, many people still behind us. Closest we’ve ever cut it for sure!!

 

ferry Boat

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Restaurant

 

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path down to the beach

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Edited by SugarStar00
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