Liberty's Memorial Day Review (photo heavy) - Including Extra Days in San Juan!!

[trippingpara]

Our next real stop was at Oyster Pond where you can overlook the bay and the island of St. Barths.

 

 

 

Since it took me some maneuvering to get out of the van which really hurt my knees (I have knee damage from my time in the Marines), a very nice newlywed bride offered me the seat next to her (the newlywed groom was sitting in the front passenger seat since he had recently injured his ankle. He did make one great bartender for us!). This seat was right at the door so it was very easy for me to get in and out. Thank you so much!! Any ways, our next stop was at the Rotary Lookout Point. This was a well-built little roadside stop where the local rotary club has built a nice viewing stand that overlooks Caye Château and St. Barth’s in the distance.

 

 

 

sea slug

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Our next stop was along the side of the road. Yep. The van just pulled over and said “you’re here!”

 

Okay, well he actually did tell us that we were stopping to check out some iguanas. Fabulous, I thought. I’ve already seen plenty of iguanas running around, do we really need to stop to look at one? Well, I was a wee bit off. We were not stopping to look at 1 or even 2 iguanas. More like 2 dozen iguanas! Not quite sure why they come to this spot (or stay here) as there is no fence or anything keeping them there. I got to feed them and then a few of us got to hold one (well, we held the hands of Bernard who truly held them!).

 

WARNING: IF YOU DO NOT LIKE LIZARDS, AVERT YOUR EYES! PLENTY OF MINI GODZILLAS WILL BE SHOWN HERE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Here are just some general shots of St. Martin (the French side):

 

 

 

 

The oldest surviving structure on St. Martin

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Once we were done playing with the lizards, we were off to Orient Beach. Yes, the famed beach of lore. We parked at L’Hoste Hotel and got a combo deal with the resident bar there, La Playa, for 2 chairs, umbrella and 2 drinks for $10. Sold! We quickly dropped off our gear, tied up my camera bag and take a wild guess where we were off to?

 

The bar? No! But that is a pretty good guess! Not yet. The water silly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We only had about an hour and a half here. When we got out of the water Trippette went to our chairs to lie down (and buy some souvenirs from the roaming vendors and of course chat it up with her chair neighbor!) Meanwhile Lady Trip and I made our way to the bar to order up our free drinks. We ordered our drinks and were then told our choice is a rum punch or a rum punch. Hmmm...let me think...I'll take a rum punch!

 

For those of you that are wondering, and yes I know most of you are...we did not see any nudity here. Now, we spent the vast majority of our time in the water and not scoping out the people strolling along the beach. Lady Trip and I have unfortunately seen the people that normally inhabit and take part in a clothing optional beach and my eyes are still scarred from pouring bleach in them to try and erase the visions! Nonetheless, the area of Orient Beach that we were at was NOT the clothing optional part (that is further down to the right at the end of the beach). However, since this is French territory, that means that woman can opt out of wearing a top at the beach. Again, thankfully we did not see any dangling bits or floppy bits bouncing around untethered on the beach.

 

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[momonthego17]

We saw one guy who was very proud of being naked and walking down the beach. We walked the other way. Wish I would have had bleach for my eyes!

Loving your review!

[Surrealistic]

Really loving the time & effort you are putting into this review. Photos are fabulous and you have a beautiful family. We did this itinerary on the Valor last year and every port was amazing. I'm enjoying reliving my cruise vicariously through your review, and got some ideas for my "next" trip there. :) Thanks for a great review.

[trippingpara]

Really loving the time & effort you are putting into this review. Photos are fabulous and you have a beautiful family. We did this itinerary on the Valor last year and every port was amazing. I'm enjoying reliving my cruise vicariously through your review, and got some ideas for my "next" trip there. :) Thanks for a great review.

 

Thank you so much for such kind words, I really appreciate it! Thank you for reading along.:D

[trippingpara]

Now that our time at Orient Beach was over, everyone made their way back to our van and climbed in ready for our next adventure. I really enjoyed chatting with the newlywed couple up front. They were so nice. I feel horrible that I don’t remember their names. Sorry! I’m lucky that I remember my own name. There are times I feel like I need to wear one of those “My Name Is:” stickers on my own shirt! Anyways, we were off to Marigot, the French capital of Saint Martin.

 

Unfortunately, we only had 45 minutes here and it was lunch time and everyone was starving so no one really got to see much of the capital as we all ran off in search of food. For us, there really wasn’t much searching. We knew exactly where we were going…Sarafina’s!

 

 

 

 

 

This photos does not do justice for this panini. It was huge and tasty!

 

Our neighbors

 

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[trippingpara]

It took us the full 45 minutes to get our food and to eat it. Now we weren’t rushed eating but we had absolutely no time to do anything else which was quite disappointing. There was a large market area just down the block from Serafina’s and almost right next to where we were parked. It was killing me not to be able to go over there and shop. It’s like teasing a little child with candy but not giving it to them. It’s just mean!

 

Some general shots of downtown Marigot:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Shih-tzu]

OK - I just gained 3 kg looking at those photos you took at the bakery.....that looks so yummy :-)

 

Are you just teasing us with the picture of the van from the Sunset Bar and Grill, or is your next installment of the report going to tell us that you went to Maho Beach? That is the one MUST SEE on my list for shore visits for the entire cruise.......

 

Loving the review.

[trippingpara]

Everyone climbed back into the van, all fat and happy and ready for a nappy-wappy. But wait! There was still more to come! Our next stop is the famed Maho Beach. Time to get sand blasted and our ear drums ruptured by screaming jet engines! Wait…I don’t think I set that up properly. No quite delivering the excitement level that I was going for. Let’s try that again…We’re going to the famous Maho Beach! Home of the only beach that sits at the end of a runway! Swim in crystal clear azure waters while watching giant airplanes land just a few meters above your head! Was that better? Did it make you tingle? Wait, don’t answer that!

 

I have to apologize. I am writing this after just having a very large cup of coffee (it’s really a cup of sugar with some coffee mixed in for maximum effect). The sugar and caffeine molecules are currently waging a mutinous war with my brain cells. So if my writing suddenly takes a turn for the bizarre and I start discussing my dangling bits and yak scrotums and writing in my underwear, then either the sugar and caffeine molecules have won the war or I’ve clearly been reading too much of John Heald’s Carnival blogs!

 

Where the heck did that just come from and what does that have to do with St. Martin? It must be the French. They always send me off on tangents! Any ways…we were off to return to the Dutch side and the country of Sint Maarten.

 

Crossing the border back into Dutch Sint Maarten

 

The famed surf board plane schedule - not very accurate. Don't rely on it!

 

 

 

 

 

I shot mostly video here. If I can ever figure out how to upload videos, I'll put some up here. If was so much fun hanging out in the water and watching jets keep getting closer and closer to you and finally fly right about your head. It seems like you can reach out and touch them! It was funny watching people (myself included) trying to judge the exact flight path of the planes. It looks like they are coming right for you and then you suddenly realize that they are actually about 50 yards off to your right. I was eventually able to make my way over to where they were actually landing so they could fly straight over top of me. Very cool!

 

Thankfully we were in the water when one of the large JetBlue jets took off. There was a sudden explosion of noise and then screams followed quickly by a flurry of hats, towels, shirts, etc., raining down on us in the water. Not to mention the sudden sand storm it caused. I can't imagine being those people that stand (or try to stand) at the fence when those jets take off.

 

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[trippingpara]

Maho Beach is very crowded and is actually a very small beach. There is also a sharp drop off in the water so you really can’t go out too far and the surf was much rougher than any of the other beaches that we had been to so far. Not sure if that was just the conditions that day or if that was normal. If you want to lay out and avoid all of the people gawking at the planes then stay closer to the Sunset Bar and Grill. They are quite away from the planes landing but certainly close enough to see them and to watch all of the people getting blown around by them.

 

And that was really the end of our journey around Sint Maarten and Saint Martin. It was a fun but quick day. Bernard’s Tours was a great way to get a quick snapshot of all that these two countries have to offer. Our next time here (and yes there will be a next time!), will be focused more on one or two things instead of a circle tour like this. This was really the end of our day. We shopped for a little bit at the pier (did not partake in the guavaberry daquiri’s – I’m allergic to berries so I was afraid to try one). We were really tired so we headed back to the ship and got cleaned up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the experiences we had the past several nights in the MDR we opted to skip it and head to the buffet line. After chowing down there we went and watched the dive in movie, Night at the Museum, Secret of the Tomb. And that pretty much wrapped up our day in St. Maarten!

 

 

Don’t worry, our vacation isn’t over yet, we have a couple more days in beautiful San Juan! Coming up next: debarkation, snuba, Caribe Hilton and our fabulous journey to Culebra Island!

 

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[mss22859]

The more I read your review, the more excited I am getting, looking forward to October! As of right now, the only thing we have planned is the Ice thing in St. Thomas. But I am getting some great ideas from your review. Also, your pictures are awesome! Makes me feel like I am there!

[trippingpara]

The more I read your review, the more excited I am getting, looking forward to October! As of right now, the only thing we have planned is the Ice thing in St. Thomas. But I am getting some great ideas from your review. Also, your pictures are awesome! Makes me feel like I am there!

 

Thank you so much for the kind words! You are going to have so much fun there! Happy cruising! :D

[Shih-tzu]

Sorry to bother you with yet ANOTHER question...(and so glad to see you did get to Maho - I can hardly wait...)

 

Is there a self-service laundry on the Liberty and if so, do you know what deck or area it is in? I can't seem to find one on the deck plans but another thread mentioned one (I did ask that question there but there hasn't been any more traffic/views). With airline baggage restrictions it would be more convenient to have one available. Although I do have an extra baggage allowance, it doesn't mean that I really want to be bumping a 2nd bag up and down the entire Eastern seaboard and 3 airports.

[trippingpara]

Sorry to bother you with yet ANOTHER question...(and so glad to see you did get to Maho - I can hardly wait...)

 

Is there a self-service laundry on the Liberty and if so, do you know what deck or area it is in? I can't seem to find one on the deck plans but another thread mentioned one (I did ask that question there but there hasn't been any more traffic/views). With airline baggage restrictions it would be more convenient to have one available. Although I do have an extra baggage allowance, it doesn't mean that I really want to be bumping a 2nd bag up and down the entire Eastern seaboard and 3 airports.

 

There are laundromats. We were on the Panorama deck and the closet one was right below us on the Lido deck. I believe our steward said that they are every other deck.

[Shih-tzu]

There are laundromats. We were on the Panorama deck and the closet one was right below us on the Lido deck. I believe our steward said that they are every other deck.

 

Thanks - good to know - I'm on the Lido :) I'll look at the plans again and see if I can figure out which of those "grey" spaces it could be.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Shih-tzu
Spelling error

[AdrenalineRush]

Great review Trip! Will be doing this run again in January. Always great to read detailed reviews

 

 

Is there a self-service laundry on the Liberty and if so, do you know what deck or area it is in? I can't seem to find one on the deck plans but another thread mentioned one (I did ask that question there but there hasn't been any more traffic/views).

I added the laundry locations on that thread.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2225877

[Shih-tzu]

Thank you so much Caribbean King 1. I see that you post now - last time I checked there was no info. The laundry will be very handy for me.

[twinbee]

Great review!! My husband and I and some family members will be doing this cruise in November. I have a question concerning Maho Beach. I am wheelchair dependent. My husband and family really want to check the planes out, however my husband will not go if I am not able to. Can you tell me if there is any place for someone in a wheelchair to sit and still see the planes coming in. Did you notice if there is enough room by the bar/grill area? Thanks for any info you can give me.

[trippingpara]

Great review!! My husband and I and some family members will be doing this cruise in November. I have a question concerning Maho Beach. I am wheelchair dependent. My husband and family really want to check the planes out, however my husband will not go if I am not able to. Can you tell me if there is any place for someone in a wheelchair to sit and still see the planes coming in. Did you notice if there is enough room by the bar/grill area? Thanks for any info you can give me.

 

There is plenty of room at the bar to see the planes. My photo with the JetBlue plane was taken from the bar area. Have a great cruise! Thank you for reading along and for the kind words.

[trippingpara]

Sunday, May 31th – San Juan, Puerto Rico

 

This was the day that all 3,000 of us on the ship dreaded. Debarkation Day! We opted to do the self-debarkation as it seemed to be the quickest route. The documentation provided to us by Carnival was a little confusing. One part said to meet at 6:45 am to depart the ship at 7:30 am. Another part said that you can just go straight down to Deck 0 anytime between 7:30 and 8:30 am. Well, we went down to the Lido and had our last breakfast. And it felt like the Last Breakfast! But at least we had a couple more days in San Juan! We then went back to our room and slowly made sure that we had everything packed. Normally I'm very laid back and don't have any OCD tendencies. But packing up for departure...this is where my OCD kicks in...I have to fanatically check everywhere in the room. Multiple times! I've left stuff behind before and it drives me nuts, so I end up checking things over and over just to make I'm not missing anything. I grabbed a couple last shots from our balcony and said goodbye to our dear friend, Liberty.

 

 

 

We grabbed our bags and headed towards the elevator. Only one elevator was blocked off so there were plenty available. We started to depart at 7:30 and by 7:45 we were standing outside the terminal looking for a taxi. It was super quick and super easy! We will be doing this again! So much better than standing in line forever at customs or searching through thousands of bags for your luggage.

 

We got into a taxi van and headed over towards the Condado area for our next hotel, the Caribe Hilton. I’ve read quite a bit about this hotel here on CC as well as TripAdvisor. I originally had reserved a condo in Isle Verde but the owner and I were having some communication issues (like she seemed to enjoy changing the terms of our agreement on me without notice). I got sick of playing games with the owner so I decided to pull out and cancel the reservation. Before I got the chance, I got an email from her stating that she had already booked the condo to someone else and had to cancel my reservation. I was bent! It's like when you decide that you're going to break up with your girlfriend/boyfriend but they break up with you first.

 

"Wait, you're breaking up with ME?? You can't do that! I'm breaking up with YOU!"

 

SIGH! Once I got over my self-esteem issues, it was all good. The owner had immediately refunded my deposit so no harm, no foul.

 

We had an oceanfront room that was located in the Hilton tower. We checked in and of course our room wasn’t ready (it was a few minutes after 8 am!). So we dropped off our bags with the porter and headed straight for…take a guess…yep! The pool! The Caribe has some gorgeous property. Multiple pools, a swim up bar, beach front and tons of lounge chairs. We had plenty to keep us entertained for a while. We had already booked a snuba tour right there on the Caribe grounds for 11:30 am so we only had a couple hours to frolic around in the multiple pools.

 

 

 

 

 

Eleven thirty finally rolled around and it was time to check in for our snuba tour. Luckily, the operators, Aqua Adventures are located right on the Caribe Hilton property about 20 yards from the pools and right on the beach. Super convenient!

 

Up next...snuba with Aqua Adventures!

 

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[RiotAct]

Awesome review - thanks for taking the time! And congrats to Trippette on her graduation - it mist feel great.

 

Looking forward to seeing what 'snuba' is!

[trippingpara]

We strolled up to the kiosk for Aqua Adventures. A young gentleman with a pleasant southern U.S. accent welcomed us. He introduced himself as Cade and informed us that he would be our guide for the day. The 3 of us were the only ones on the tour today so it was going to be very personalized. Awesome! Lady Trip and I are scuba divers so we’re very comfortable underwater with weights and a regulator. This was going to be different for us since we wouldn’t have on all of the other equipment that a diver normally has on namely the BCD vest, spare regulator and tank. Now for Trippette, this was going to be an entirely new experience as she just got comfortable snorkeling and has never dived (she’s not real fond of fish touching her). But she’s a trooper and was ready for the adventure.

 

For those of you that do not know what "SNUBA" is, it's a combination of snorkeling and scuba. What the heck does that mean you ask? Well, it means you wear a mask and fins just like snorkeling but instead of a snorkel, you have a regulator like a diver uses as well as a weight belt (a human body floats so you need weights in order to be able to stay underwater). Now, unlike like snorkeling, you can dive under water and get down to about 25 feet (and stay down there!). Normally a snorkeler has to know how to free dive and hold his breath in order to be able to get underwater and see the sights down there. The big difference with diving is the fact that you don't have tanks with you. Your regulator is attached to a pair of tanks that is floating on the surface in a raft. You have a 25 ft line which keeps the non-dive certified people from going too deep and getting themselves in trouble. As you swim around you pull the raft along with you. Don't worry, you don't even realized that you're pulling it along. It just sort of follows you. This is a great way for people thinking about getting scuba certified to see if they like it (getting scuba certified is NOT cheap!). No training is required in order to do SNUBA. If you can swim and are comfortable in the water, then you can do SNUBA. Do it! Now!

 

We told Cade about this being her first time underwater and he was great! He explained everything to her in a funny yet informative way and taught her the various hand signals that divers use and what she could expect to see and experience. He was able to keep her very calm and excited about what laid ahead. This was no small task as any divers can attest to. The first time going underwater can be a bit intimidating. Your brain starts screaming at you that there is something fundamentally wrong with this picture! A human being should not be swimming 40 feet underwater! It can be tough for a newbie to overcome that inner voice. But if Trippette hadn’t have told us that she was nervous, you never would have known it. She looked all calm, cool and collected. She was making jokes and generally having fun.

 

We waded out into the little inlet in front of the hotel and put on our fins and tested out our regulators. Lady Trip’s regulator was leaking some air but nothing too bad. Mine was free flowing pretty good (air flows non-stop – generally not a good thing for a diver!). Cade played with it for a bit and declared it as a bad reg and disconnected me and headed back to shore to grab another one. Once he was back and I was connected back up to my air supply, he did one last check and declared we were ready to head out. Cade also offered to take our camera and to shoot photos of us so we could concentrate on just enjoying ourselves. Sweet! Trippette shot us a huge smile and a thumb’s up and plopped under the water.

 

 

 

 

Cade taking a selfie

 

 

 

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Edited June 28, 2015 by trippingpara

[trippingpara]

Turns out Trippette is a natural! She was cruising around like a pro. When it came time to feed the fish, I was a bit concerned with how she would do having hundreds of fish suddenly swarm around her. She did great! You could see that the concern in her face at first but then it went away as she realized that the fish have no real interest in her just the food.

 

 

 

 

 

A sea horse! This are very hard to find

 

 

We had an absolute blast! We got to see sea cucumbers, urchins, starfish, sea horses, reefs and a ton of various types of fish. I highly recommend this! It is very easy and the only requirement is to be fairly comfortable in the water. Cade is great (as was TJ). Aqua Adventures also does scuba dives, snorkeling, BOBs tours (the tours where you wear a helmet and you walk under water). If it involves the water and fun, then they can handle it!

 

Up next...our room, jazz festival with a very unfortunate experience...

 

 

 

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