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

[trippingpara]

Awesome review I don't want to stop reading but it is 3:05 am and I need sleep. I'll finish reading it tomorrow.

 

S.C., thank you so much. Take your time reading it, it's not going anywhere!

[JKirkN]

In case you were wondering what was inside that little chapel, we were there during a holiday (Maybe it was Columbus day or something similar) and I got to go in... Here's the outside with the doors open...

 

 

And a couple from the inside... very pretty...

 

 

[trippingpara]

In case you were wondering what was inside that little chapel, we were there during a holiday (Maybe it was Columbus day or something similar) and I got to go in... Here's the outside with the doors open...

 

 

And a couple from the inside... very pretty...

 

 

 

That's awesome! Thank you so much for sharing!! I've been at or next to that chapel several times over the years and I've never once seen those gates open. Mystery solved! Now I know what it looks like inside! Thanks again.

[ImALittleTeapot]

Thanks for all the information! I will be taking this same cruise for Christmas and staying over in San Juan for one night afterward. I'm going to go back and make notes about everything that I want to see and do.

 

Is there one place in particular that you would recommend for dinner in San Juan?

 

(As a side note, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!)

Edited September 21, 2015 by ImALittleTeapot
additional text

[trippingpara]

Thanks for all the information! I will be taking this same cruise for Christmas and staying over in San Juan for one night afterward. I'm going to go back and make notes about everything that I want to see and do.

 

Is there one place in particular that you would recommend for dinner in San Juan?

 

(As a side note, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!)

 

Thank you very much for the kind words and appreciation. Our favorite restaurant in San Juan, hands down is Marmalade. It is located on Fortaleza Street in Old San Juan. This is the place that I always recommend and everyone has always thanked me for it. The food is fabulous and the service is top notice. Just do a quick search for "best restaurants in San Juan" and Marmalade is always listed on it! Their paella is to die for as is their lobster risotto! Aw crap, now I'm drooling just thinking about it!!

 

Hmm, Christmas in the Southern Caribbean...now that is one fabulous way to celebrate the holidays!!

[runninchick8]

Sorry if this has already been asked/answered, but where and how did you book your excursions? I was going to book mostly through Carnival for our Thanksgiving cruise, but am open to other possibilities, especially after seeing your adventures. I am VERY interested in St. Lucia, particularly. Thanks!

[DopeyRN1]

We were then brought down to the Golden Olympian Dining Room where we were served champagne and mimosas and were given our swag bags. The bags contained a Carnival Behind the Fun baseball cap and a bar of soup carved out in the shape of a swan. We also got to keep our Behind the Fun lanyard but we had to give back the Behind the Fun pass. A bit later on in the day we found a tray of chocolate covered strawberries and copies of the photos for all three of us in our room.

 

 

The whole tour from start to finish took a little over 4 hours. The cost was $95 per person and we thought it was well worth it. Yes, it was pricey and Lady Trip went through an aggravating experience to get tickets since it was a first come, first served style and they weren’t available to purchase online. Nonetheless, we plan on doing this again when we’re on the Vista next year. Hopefully, they’ll offer it on their inaugural cruise!

 

Now that the tour was over, we could now begin our relaxing sea day. The ladies wanted to check out some make-up seminar that the spa was offering, so I walked over to the Stage Lounge where it was being held out, verified the time it was to be over with and then headed out to the Lido Deck to watch the Hairy Chest contest, enjoy some drinks, soak up some sun and generally be a lazy sunbird. As always, the Hairy Chest contest was entertaining in a very sophomoric way, but entertaining nonetheless.

 

 

Once that was over, I hit up the Red Frog Pub for some drinks and then grabbed a lounger just above the Red Frog Pub where I told the ladies to look for me. Apparently, the make-up seminar went on for much longer than original scheduled. It was supposed to be for 45 minutes and it was now going on an hour and a half. I was starting to get cooked out there and the drinks were starting to flow a little too good. The Asst. CD was calling for people to join in on the cause for St. Jude Hospital so I got up jumped in line to donate for the 3 of us and then returned to our cabin to drop off the St. Jude shirts that I just got. As I walked back out onto the Lido Deck, I bumped into the ladies.

 

Although their make-up looked very nice, they weren’t very impressed with the “seminar” as they said it was more of a sales pitch not an actual seminar on make-up. Not too surprised. I often hear that about the various “seminars” that Carnival offers. I tend to avoid them like the plague. I can think of much more enjoyable things to be doing like…ummm…I don’t know…DRINKING instead of sitting in a seminar. But then again, they don’t offer seminars on power tools, cars or guns. I may have a completely different response if those seminars were available! Grunt, grunt!

 

Any who, now that we were all together again, we took a quick little self-tour of the ship for some more photos and then got changed in our swimsuits. There was a giant green slide that was calling our names! We ran up the stairs to Deck 12 to hop down the slide like little children. I was just praying that I didn’t have a repeat of the slide incident from our last cruise. One would normally expect to actually slide down a water slide pretty effortlessly. Me? Nope, I did my best impersonation of a dog scooting their butt across the floor all the flippin’ way down the slide! That’s a very long slide!! It wasn’t funny at all! Okay, so it was really funny for everyone but me! Alas, my fears were not realized as I quickly rocketed my way down the slide resulting in a giant splash down at the end. Something akin to a giant blue whale doing a belly flop in your backyard pool. Luckily everybody standing near the landing zone to the slide was already in the pool next to me so they were already wet. Coming down behind me was Lady Trip screeching like a little girl. Note to self, don’t screech like a little girl when coming down the slide. It can be heard the entire way down and is very funny to see a fully grown man splash down when you were expecting a 14 year girl!

 

My nemesis – the dreaded butt-scooting slide!

 

Lady Trip screeching her way down the slide

 

Of course, in true Trippingpara family style, the 3 of us bolted back up the stairs, giggling as we ran, throwing little kids out of way and body slamming anyone in front of us. Okay, in reality the two ladies had to carry me up the stairs as I was out of breath from screeching like a little girl after I got beat up by a toddler in diapers for cutting in front of him. What can I say? He was awfully big for his age!! Any ways, We went down the slide a couple more times until I was asked to stop as there was no more water left in the pool after my splashdowns. Seriously, we had a blast as we always do anytime we’re around water. There’s something magical about water that just turns us into kids. What is it that they say…”you’re only as old as you act.” In that case, I need a binky and some Depends stat!

 

.

 

I'm sitting here laughing hysterically as my husband and dogs look at me! :D They just never understand. Will probably be a few days before I get back to this, but cannot wait. You are snarky, like me, and I love snarky!!!

[trippingpara]

Sorry if this has already been asked/answered, but where and how did you book your excursions? I was going to book mostly through Carnival for our Thanksgiving cruise, but am open to other possibilities, especially after seeing your adventures. I am VERY interested in St. Lucia, particularly. Thanks!

 

I do most of my research right here on Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor has all of the websites and contact info for any tour or event provider. I just search there under Things to Do for each island. When I see one that I really like and has great reviews, I then reach out to them directly and book. There are many great tour providers on this itinerary and the vast majority of them are discussed in reviews here as well as TripAdvisor. Since you're very interested in St. Lucia, the biggest tour providers are Cosol Tours, Spencer Ambrose Tours and Real St. Lucia Tours. You can't lose with any of those companies.

[trippingpara]

I'm sitting here laughing hysterically as my husband and dogs look at me! :D They just never understand. Will probably be a few days before I get back to this, but cannot wait. You are snarky, like me, and I love snarky!!!

 

Dear fellow snarky cruiser - very happy that someone enjoys my off-kilter sense of humor! If your husband and dogs continue to not understand, just feed them a solid diet of cuba libres with a splash of lime and they too will be laughing right along side you. Or they'll be praying to the porcelain god all night! Either one will end up with them no longer giving you odd looks as you laugh out loud at my dribblings. Cheers!

[Indiansbaseball]

Trippingpara, I just found this and read it all the way through. Very riveting ! Hubby and I are leaving very soon and even though this will be our third time doing this itinerary ( in a row) on three different ships, your review and photos have me giddy to do it all over again. This time, I took notes on new things to do and places to eat. So thank you again ! My hubby would just adore doing all the snorkeling and the scuba but I am like Tripette only a huge chicken and am afraid of fish and other sea going creatures :eek:

Happy sailing !

[trippingpara]

Trippingpara, I just found this and read it all the way through. Very riveting ! Hubby and I are leaving very soon and even though this will be our third time doing this itinerary ( in a row) on three different ships, your review and photos have me giddy to do it all over again. This time, I took notes on new things to do and places to eat. So thank you again ! My hubby would just adore doing all the snorkeling and the scuba but I am like Tripette only a huge chicken and am afraid of fish and other sea going creatures :eek:

Happy sailing !

 

Three times?! You are so lucky!! We absolutely love this itinerary! Our next cruise is the Vista's inaugural sailing in the Med but I'm sure we'll find ourselves back on this itinerary pretty soon! Thank you for the kind words and taking the time to leave me some feedback. Have fun and watch out for those fishies!

[DopeyRN1]

PER TRIP: So we slowly made our way back to an area that we could safely get up and step out without fear of getting a grievous injury and having to pee on ones’ self to ease the pain. Oh wait, that’s for jellyfish! Glad I didn’t get stabbed by a sea urchin then! Everyone would have been pretty shocked and scared to see me frantically trying to pee on my wound.

 

Dear Trip. I birthed 3 children... 2 HUGE! I am 56 years old. You really should include disclaimers and full bladder warnings!!! :eek:

 

I LOVED your report! I suffer pretty severe vertigo. It has worsened and to say I may be on the ship in bed the whole week is not out of the question. But sometimes you just need to roll the dice..right?

 

You pictures are so freakin' fantastic that I felt I was in them. I doubt I will board a catamaran, even if it IS the best in the Caribbean. And no way will I make it to Culebra, so I greatly appreciated your stunning pictures from there.

 

I loved your food pictures too. Now. I live in New Orleans, and we have some really good food here. Yet on past cruises I have found I am really not super picky. But in all honesty, the food pics from MDR were beyond underwhelming to me. I have read a couple of dismal things about the food. We are on a budget, but may make it to the Steakhouse once. And if worse comes to worse, I can live a week on breakfast and burgers!

 

I still have not decided on FTTF. It would be nice to board a little earlier, yet... And good info on muster. I tend to be one of the first to arrive, but in this instance I think I will take the scenic route.

 

So I sincerely thank you for your honest, straightforward and hysterical review. You truly did help me make some port decisions! :cool:

[trippingpara]

PER TRIP: So we slowly made our way back to an area that we could safely get up and step out without fear of getting a grievous injury and having to pee on ones’ self to ease the pain. Oh wait, that’s for jellyfish! Glad I didn’t get stabbed by a sea urchin then! Everyone would have been pretty shocked and scared to see me frantically trying to pee on my wound.

 

Dear Trip. I birthed 3 children... 2 HUGE! I am 56 years old. You really should include disclaimers and full bladder warnings!!! :eek:

 

I LOVED your report! I suffer pretty severe vertigo. It has worsened and to say I may be on the ship in bed the whole week is not out of the question. But sometimes you just need to roll the dice..right?

 

You pictures are so freakin' fantastic that I felt I was in them. I doubt I will board a catamaran, even if it IS the best in the Caribbean. And no way will I make it to Culebra, so I greatly appreciated your stunning pictures from there.

 

I loved your food pictures too. Now. I live in New Orleans, and we have some really good food here. Yet on past cruises I have found I am really not super picky. But in all honesty, the food pics from MDR were beyond underwhelming to me. I have read a couple of dismal things about the food. We are on a budget, but may make it to the Steakhouse once. And if worse comes to worse, I can live a week on breakfast and burgers!

 

I still have not decided on FTTF. It would be nice to board a little earlier, yet... And good info on muster. I tend to be one of the first to arrive, but in this instance I think I will take the scenic route.

 

So I sincerely thank you for your honest, straightforward and hysterical review. You truly did help me make some port decisions! :cool:

 

DopeyRN1 - thank you so much for such kind words! I will keep the disclaimer about full bladders in mind when I do my Vista inaugural review! I wish you the best of luck on your cruise. Hopefully you'll be able to come out of your room and enjoy some of that Caribbean sun! I have a strong belief that there is nothing that cannot be cured by generous amounts of alcohol. You either get drunk enough that you forget what ails you or you pass out. Either way, your ailment isn't a problem (at least for the time being!!) - See?...I should be a doctor!!

[krzymamabear123]

The ride back to San Juan was uneventful and quiet. Ricardo dropped everyone off at their respective hotels. We were now able to actually inspect our new home in Old San Juan. As I mentioned earlier, we were staying pre-cruise at Chateau Cervantes which is located on Calle Recinto Sur which is pretty much directly behind the Sheraton Old San Juan. This little hotel has quickly become my favorite in Old San Juan. We still really like Casa Blanca (which is just a couple blocks away) but we got a better deal on a much better room (plus Casa Blanca was already filled up). The service we received at Cervantes was outstanding. I hear that they have a fabulous breakfast but we never partook in it so I really can't comment on whether or not that is true. Even though this hotel is located in one of the original structures of Old San Juan, it actually has an elevator (most of the small hotels in OSJ do not). They will also hold your luggage for you before and after your cruise as well. We will definitely be staying here again.

 

Looking into the bedroom

 

The living room with the sofa bed made up

 

The balcony at night

 

Two of our three balconies (I was standing on the third one). Each room had one, the living room, parlor and bedroom

 

I didn't get a good photo of the outside so here is a stock photo from their website. Our room was the whole second floor front.

 

Coming up, boarding Liberty, Bacardi's tour and Diamonds Steakhouse

.

 

I can say your review is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Your so quirky and your photos blew me away. We will be on Mrs.Liberty in Jan. It will be here before we know it. We will also be staying at the Chateau Cervantes in a refurbished junior suite. Is that the same room description for you junior suite? I'm just wondering if our room will look the same as yours. I've been searching tripadvisor for a few months now trying to plan our trip. It seems we have booked two of the same excursions in your review. Great minds do think alike! We're doing the lunch tour with Calabaza and Real St Lucia Tours. We don't have anything planned for St.Kitts. Some people in our group don't want to do an excursion on every island, so would you recommend doing St Kitts on our own? Your photos are beautiful. I also love photography. I have a Nikon D90. I'm only a beginner and usually shoot in auto mode, but will be practicing with settings before we sail. We have a Gopro Hero4 black, do you have any suggestions on the best settings to underwater video? Thank you for the best review out there, your wonderful for taking the time out of your busy life to help others...:)

[trippingpara]

I can say your review is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Your so quirky and your photos blew me away. We will be on Mrs.Liberty in Jan. It will be here before we know it. We will also be staying at the Chateau Cervantes in a refurbished junior suite. Is that the same room description for you junior suite? I'm just wondering if our room will look the same as yours. I've been searching tripadvisor for a few months now trying to plan our trip. It seems we have booked two of the same excursions in your review. Great minds do think alike! We're doing the lunch tour with Calabaza and Real St Lucia Tours. We don't have anything planned for St.Kitts. Some people in our group don't want to do an excursion on every island, so would you recommend doing St Kitts on our own? Your photos are beautiful. I also love photography. I have a Nikon D90. I'm only a beginner and usually shoot in auto mode, but will be practicing with settings before we sail. We have a Gopro Hero4 black, do you have any suggestions on the best settings to underwater video? Thank you for the best review out there, your wonderful for taking the time out of your busy life to help others...:)

 

 

Krzymamabear123 - THANK YOU so much for such kind words and for taking the time to leave such lovely feedback! We had a Refurbished Suite which is a bit larger than the Junior Suite. Not sure how different the layout will be though. The Calabaza tour is still my favorite. That water was sooo amazing!! For St. Kitts, if you read my first review (same itinerary, different ship), I describe how we just grabbed a taxi at the port and did a tour of the island for little money. You can also grab a taxi to the southern tip of the island if you just want to hang out on the beaches. There are some great beaches there!

 

The Nikon D90 is a good camera. You're going to get some great shots with that. If I'm playing with the settings, it's most often the ISO or shutter speed. I got some great shots on the Big Island of Hawaii playing with shutter speed with all of the water falls.

 

As for the GoPro, I think the wide angle option (over the medium and narrow) is best for underwater. I want to capture as much of what I'm seeing as possible. You can always zoom in and crop during post-production. I also use Protune which gives me great flexibility during editing. As a diver, I usually have a red lens cover to add the color red back into my underwater shots (red is the first color lost as sunlight filters through the water). However I found that it over-colored a lot of my shallow water shots (while snorkeling) so I would not recommend using one unless you are actually diving. I ended up taking the colored lens off and the shots were much better. I hope this helps some. Have a great cruise and if you have any other questions, don't be shy! Cheers!

[cherrus]

Hi Trippingpara - quick question.....I don't have a great camera, a Nikon D5100 - I would like to bring it to take photos, but am worried about it being stolen when we go snorkeling as a family.

 

How do you bring your camera with you and go snorkeling?

 

Thanks,

 

Cheryl

[trippingpara]

Hi Trippingpara - quick question.....I don't have a great camera, a Nikon D5100 - I would like to bring it to take photos, but am worried about it being stolen when we go snorkeling as a family.

 

How do you bring your camera with you and go snorkeling?

 

Thanks,

 

Cheryl

 

Cheryl,

I spent a lot of time agonizing over that very dilemma! I then found out about Kyss and PacSafe bags. They are bags that you can lock to a tree, chair, picnic table, etc. They are not completely fool proof but it makes it difficult enough that any opportunistic thief will move on to easier pickings. I selected a PacSafe camera day bag that carried all of my camera equipment as well as towels, food, passports, etc. I would then lock it to a chassis lounge chair on the beach and just slide it under the chair. It worked like a charm. I was nervous the first time but as you can see from my review, we spent a LOT of time in the water so my nervousness quickly disappeared. If they wanted that bag, they either needed to take the whole chair with them, carry some chain cutters with them, or spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to find and then open the latches to the compartments. I highly recommend it! I hope this helps. The best of luck to you and happy cruising!!

[trippingpara]

At post #143 on page 8, there are photos of the bag I used as well as a brief review. I have a ton of camera bags (my DW has her purse addiction, I have a camera bag addiction!), and this is by far my favorite one. This will definitely by going with me on our upcoming Med Cruise on the Vista!

[cherrus]

Trippingpara,

 

Yes - that is very helpful! Thank you so very much.

 

Now, I am trying to figure out if the waterproof pouches really protect iphones, or if I should purchase a waterproof camera.

 

Cheryl

[Djonemore]

ROOMS: This was our first time with a balcony. It was Cabin 1067. We were located right at the very end of the hallway on the Panorama Deck (Deck 10), starboard side near the elevators and the door to the Lido Deck. It was an awesome location (talk about ease of movement!) and surprisingly quiet. I was concerned with it being so close to the elevators and the Lido doorway but we never heard anything from our neighbors or people in the hallway or Lido Deck. Some people have stated that there is a loud hum emitting from the extremely large grate that is located next to our room…!

 

I can say this. We booked on Freedom. We had the room directly under the vent, and I couldn't believe how loud this was. I have a video that I cannot find walking out to the balcony, and it was ridiculous. My PVP was traveling on the same cruise, I had her check this out and even she couldn't believe it herself. I couldn't even sit out on the deck because it was so windy/noisy. I had them move my cabin the first day. :eek:

Edited December 22, 2015 by Djonemore

[trippingpara]

Trippingpara,

 

Yes - that is very helpful! Thank you so very much.

 

Now, I am trying to figure out if the waterproof pouches really protect iphones, or if I should purchase a waterproof camera.

 

Cheryl

 

For me, I would get a waterproof camera instead of risking my cell phone (which costs double the price for a waterproof camera). But then again, I am a camera geek so my response shouldn't surprise anyone. I have the Olympus Tough TG-3 and the GoPro Hero 4 cameras. I love them both. Between the two, I like the Olympus better as it has a lot more functions and features. I also have the Fujifilm XP80 waterproof camera too. It is a good camera and is about half the price of both the Olympus and the GoPro.

 

Those waterproof pouches just scare me. If they aren't sealed just right, they will leak. Got a pinhole in it, you have a leak. I have one that I use for maps when I kayak and I often have some level of moisture in it. Too risky for me. At least that's my 2 cents worth.

[kteachcruiser52]

Awesome pictures. That itinerary was one of our favorites.

[trippingpara]

Awesome pictures. That itinerary was one of our favorites.

 

Thank you so much for the kind words. This is our favorite itinerary too! 6 islands in 7 days can't be beat!

[Djonemore]

I can say this. We booked on Freedom. We had the room directly under the vent, and I couldn't believe how loud this was. I have a video that I cannot find walking out to the balcony, and it was ridiculous. My PVP was traveling on the same cruise, I had her check this out and even she couldn't believe it herself. I couldn't even sit out on the deck because it was so windy/noisy. I had them move my cabin the first day. :eek:

 

I just wanted to say I found the video of the noise on the deck of our cabin I believe it was 9276 cabin. I added a link below.

Also I loved reading this review great photos, sounds like you guys had a blast.

[dfwhgsfan]

Hi Tripp!

What an awesome review!! This time next week, my DW and I will be sailing away on this same trip for our 25th anniversary. My middle daughter is in her sophomore year at University of North Texas getting her degree in hospitality management like Trippette. My daughter wants to study abroad, but I told her she should look and see if she could do an internship with Carnival.

I was hoping you had done some of the same excursions I have booked, but didn't see any that were the same, but it sure looked like you guys had a blast. I bet you guys are a hoot to cruise with!

I'm like you, I do all the research, booking tours and reading the reviews and my wife just comes along. However, she is the one who picked out this itinerary.

We love to snorkel and have 2 snorkel trips (St. Thomas, St. Lucia) and a discover scuba trip planned(Barbados). Would you recommend the GoPro4 for underwater pictures? I saw you have 2 underwater cameras and wondered which camera you used for your snorkel pictures as they were wonderful.

Thanks

George