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

[trippingpara]

Great review so far! Congratulations to your daughter and happy birthday! Love the elegant night photo of your family :)

 

Quick question regarding FTTF.... we've done it the past 2 cruises and it was worth the money, especially for tender ports. Since most (if not all) ports on this itinerary dock, did you think the FTTF was still worth it?

 

Thank you so much for the kind words! All of us really thought that FTTF was worth it on this cruise. This particular itinerary has probably the least value since you have all day to board and there are no tender ports but we mainly got it to get early access to our room (which was great since we were on a time schedule). The priority lane for Guest Services was also very nice. For what we paid for it, I would do it again for this cruise.

[Shih-tzu]

Are there a lot of stairs on the behind the scenes tour? Just curious as with the heat/humidity I get short of breath easy..... or do they take it pretty easy?

(sorry for all my questions...but wouldn't want to spend the $$$ and have to be a "drop out" part way through.)

[trippingpara]

Are there a lot of stairs on the behind the scenes tour? Just curious as with the heat/humidity I get short of breath easy..... or do they take it pretty easy?

(sorry for all my questions...but wouldn't want to spend the $$$ and have to be a "drop out" part way through.)

 

No worries with the questions, that's why I like to do these reviews! There were a fair amount of stairs but they were all inside the air conditioned ship so there wasn't any real heat and humidity to deal with. As long as you are fairly mobile, they will work with you. They also use the elevators too.

[EBONI325]

Looking forward to reading this. Will be on liberty 8-23-15

[russelldavison]

Enjoying the review and pics. I'm happy to see someone else getting all dll up for Elegant Night.

[trippingpara]

Here are a couple interesting tidbits from our Behind the Fun tour:

 

Carnival Liberty guests consume:

18,170 cans of soft drinks;

17,090 cans/bottles of beer

2,010 bottles of wine

420 bottles of champagne and sparkling wine

400 liters of rum

370 liters of vodka

90 liters of tequila

46 liters of gin

 

65,000 eggs

50,000 slices of bacon

22,500 slices of bread

15,000 Danish pastries

10,000 boxes of individual cereals

10,000 pounds of chicken

7,350 hamburgers

5,600 hot dogs

5,200 pancakes

4,800 slices of French Toast

4,500 bagels

4,000 steaks

3,000 pounds of shrimp

2,800 racks of lamb

2,500 gallons of fruit juice

2,100 pounds of coffee

2,000 pounds of prime rib

1,300 pounds of salmon

865 pounds of ham

865 pounds of veal

600 pounds of lobster tail

400 Cornish game hens

325 pounds of Nova (smoked salmon)

200 duck breast

 

And this is only a sampling of over 1,500 separate items that are consumed each week by the Carnival Liberty. The thing that really amazed me, is that everything that they take on for the passengers much be shipped from Miami. None of it is taken aboard at each port. The ship will take on fresh water at each port but that is for the ship not the galley or bars. I think I might be starting up a freight company in Miami...there's some money to be made there!

 

 

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[Cruisertommyboy]

Trip, thanks for taking the time to write the review and post the pictures. Wetting my appetite for 8/30 on the Liberty

DW and I will be with you on the Vista in the Med

Tom

[trippingpara]

Barbados!

 

 

 

[trippingpara]

Wednesday, May 27th – Bridgetown, Barbados

 

Once again that offensive bloody alarm clock started rocking out to Volbeat’s Sad Man’s Tongue at an extremely evil time. It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t program my phone’s alarm to play a song that I can’t stand as it surely would have found itself a couple thousand leagues under the sea! Luckily for the phone, I am a big fan of Volbeat and that song in particular so it was safe. At least for the time being!

 

After everyone grumbled and groaned as they slowly climbed out of bed, we got up, showered and headed over to the Lido deck for our breakfast. Omelets and fruit. I wish they had better offerings at the buffet but I’m not much of a breakfast guy anyways, so it’s not really worth a complaint. The food served its purpose and filled the belly! It was then off to “ding” ourselves off the ship and grab our ride to the catamaran. Have I mentioned that I love sailing on catamarans?

 

Pulling into Barbados. A very industrial dock.

 

The Bajan Coast Guard

 

 

 

We met our taxi driver where she said she would be and we all jumped into her van for the short ride to the marina. Everyone quickly kicked off their shoes and hopped aboard Calabaza. They limit the number of passengers to 12 so it does not feel crowded at all! I believe there were only 11 guests on our trip. It included seneca257 and his family. It was neat listening to his wife’s adventures as she paddled from Cuba to Florida for 3 days and nights. They were a cute family. If we ever find ourselves down in Key West we’ll be sure to stop into your bakery!

 

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[trippingpara]

 

After a brief orientation and description of the day, we kicked off our ropes, hoisted the sails and made way for open water! Talk about amazing! The water was so beautiful! Our last trip to Barbados, we dived at Carlisle Marine Park on the shipwrecks and a drift dive near the fort so we spent almost all of our time underwater. Never really got to see just how beautiful it was on top of the water! The sail out to our snorkeling spot took about 30 to 45 minutes and was sooooo relaxing! But we soon dropped anchor and it was time to go see some turtles! Since there was going to be a lot of people in such close proximity to a lot of turtles, fins are not allowed. You don’t want to knock out a poor little sea turtle now do you? They recommended that everyone wear a snorkeling vest as treading water/snorkeling for 45 minutes straight can be tiring. Luckily, being the extremely prepared packer that I am, I already had some snorkeling vests packed for us. For those that didn’t have them, have no fear the Calabaza crew has you covered.

 

Trippette has never had the pleasure of swimming with sea turtles before so she was super excited and couldn’t wait to hop in. Lady Trip and I followed her in and immediately found ourselves sitting over a large stingray that was cruising around the bottom.

 

 

 

After watching the sting rays for a bit, I suddenly noticed that several sea turtles decided to join the fray too.

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Turtles, turtles and more turtles!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

We spent about 45 minutes swimming with the turtles. Everyone then climbed back aboard (of course we were the last ones – we’re like little kids in the water…”do we HAVE to get out?!” said with the whiniest voice possible. Once we were all aboard, we cruised over to our next snorkeling spot over the shipwreck of a small barge. While we were sailing over, Mike and Bobby came around handing out rum punch and beer (or water) as well as some delicious fried Bajan fish balls (sorta like a spicy version of hush puppies).

 

 

 

 

Bobby, one of Calabaza's crew members goofing off

 

 

 

We only spent about 30 minutes here before it was time to hop back aboard and head out for another spot.

 

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[trippingpara]

We cruised down along the beach for a few minutes and dropped anchor on some of the bluest water I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot of water in my days!). “Lunch is ready,” shouted Danny the captain. They had a heck of spread laid out for us. There was a sweet pepper mixed salad, Caribbean chicken, grilled marlin, potato bake, rice, bread and some desserts. Ah, so delicious!! Of course their special rum punch and beer was flowing as well. Eating a delicious lunch with your family, enjoying a nice cocktail all the while bobbing over some of the most beautiful azure water with an incredible beach in the background is the foundation of a perfect day! Add on top of that a great crew and some good new friends and it just doesn’t get much better than this!

 

 

 

 

 

Bobby telling stories

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Once lunch was safely ensconced in our bellies, cries of joy could be heard as one by one, everyone started jumping back into the beautiful waters and frolicking around like children. I cannot think of anything better then laughing and playing with the two greatest women I know and this was one of those perfect times!

 

 

It seemed like only seconds later, the call came out to climb back aboard. It was actually a good 30 to 45 minutes, but it flew by too quickly! Somehow I was dubbed as an honorary crew member and was soon giving everyone and their equipment a fresh water shower as they climbed back on board. Once everyone was safely back aboard, anchor was hoisted and we were heading back towards the marina. Luckily, it was still a ways away so we still had some time to enjoy this beautiful catamaran on these beautiful waters.

 

 

Passing the Atlantis submarine and its tender

 

Mike, Lady Trip, Trippette, Bobby, Danny and me

 

There's a reason that Calabaza is rated as one of the best catamaran tours in Barbados. I have been on a lot of catamarans whether its in the Caribbean or Hawaii, etc., but this trip ranks as one of the best! Great crew, great boat, great food, great times! After we docked, we made our way through the duty free shopping area (Trippette bought some good rum for her boyfriend and Lady Trip and I had to make our traditional stop at the Harley store.

 

 

After jamming out with the steel drum band on the pier, we did the death march back up the gangway and “dinged” ourselves back in. Trippette had to turn her bottle of rum in to security and we then made our way back up to our cabin. As we took turns taking a shower, those that weren’t showering were watching for pier runners. The popular Boatyard is always a trusty contributor to helping create a few pier runners. The Captain must have been in a generous mood as he did delay the ship by 30 minutes as a couple groups of pier runners made their way slowly down the pier.

 

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[kmarie10531]

Wednesday, May 27th – Bridgetown, Barbados

 

Once again that offensive bloody alarm clock started rocking out to Volbeat’s Sad Man’s Tongue at an extremely evil time. It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t program my phone’s alarm to play a song that I can’t stand as it surely would have found itself a couple thousand leagues under the sea! Luckily for the phone, I am a big fan of Volbeat and that song in particular so it was safe. At least for the time being!

 

After everyone grumbled and groaned as they slowly climbed out of bed, we got up, showered and headed over to the Lido deck for our breakfast. Omelets and fruit. I wish they had better offerings at the buffet but I’m not much of a breakfast guy anyways, so it’s not really worth a complaint. The food served its purpose and filled the belly! It was then off to “ding” ourselves off the ship and grab our ride to the catamaran. Have I mentioned that I love sailing on catamarans?

 

Pulling into Barbados. A very industrial dock.

 

The Bajan Coast Guard

 

 

 

We met our taxi driver where she said she would be and we all jumped into her van for the short ride to the marina. Everyone quickly kicked off their shoes and hopped aboard Calabaza. They limit the number of passengers to 12 so it does not feel crowded at all! I believe there were only 11 guests on our trip. It included seneca257 and his family. It was neat listening to his wife’s adventures as she paddled from Cuba to Florida for 3 days and nights. They were a cute family. If we ever find ourselves down in Key West we’ll be sure to stop into your bakery!

 

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we sailed the week after you and I was never able to get a good picture of the aft of the ship . Glad you did, now I can actually see where our room was . It was the balcony right above the NIV in CARNIVAL LIBERTY .

[trippingpara]

we sailed the week after you and I was never able to get a good picture of the aft of the ship . Glad you did, now I can actually see where our room was . It was the balcony right above the NIV in CARNIVAL LIBERTY .

 

Glad we could help you out there! We were originally booked for an aft cabin on the Valor but it then got switched to the Liberty and there wasn't an aft cabin available that could house 3 peeps so we switched to our cabin on the Panorama Deck. Someday we'll get an aft cabin!

[trippingpara]

Once we were all showered and presentable, we made our way down to the Golden Olympian again for dinner. As we checked in and requested our normal table and wait staff, we were informed that Corina (our head waiter) had fallen ill and was not available. Bummer, but that’s okay, we’ll still sit there as the rest of the team was still there. A very cute little Romanian lass escorted us to our normal table and we were immediately greeted by Wayan who was formerly the Team Waiter but was now working as the Head Waiter. We really liked Wayan but he was a lot quieter and more reserved than Corina was. No problem, we’ll survive. They did bring another waitress in to assist them. The only problem was she only filled your glass of water. That’s it. The rest of the time she stood at her station and didn’t move. We asked her a question once and she looked at us like we had three heads. She never did answer us, just stared at us like she was trying to will us to go away.

 

It was at that point that we knew that we were in for a long night at the MDR! The food tonight was good (as usual).

 

Escargot

 

An extremely tasty Mojito

 

Spicy Alligator Fritters

 

Penne Mariscos

 

Vegetable Lasagne

 

A banana split from the children's menu

 

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[trippingpara]

After dinner, we went back to our cabin and changed into another set of swim wear and headed out to the Lido aft pool (Siren Pool). Lady Trip and I hopped right in. Trippette stuck her toes in and declared it too cold and headed over to whirlpool. Lady Trip and I enjoyed the pool to ourselves for a while before we too declared that it was getting cool and joined Trippette in the whirlpool. Apparently, the hot water did something to Trippette and me as we soon launched into a goofball session that left us and everyone watching us in tears. Meanwhile, Lady Trip clicked away with her camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of the evening was filled with perusing the Fun Shops and fighting the crowd for the 75% off Invicta watch sale (which was a joke – prices were seriously inflated to start with so their 75% dropped it down close to what they normally are in the stores back home!). You live and learn!

 

Next up…St. Lucia and a private tour with Real St. Lucia Tours.

 

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[brymern]

I was wondering what is meant by the "Rockers" title of the production show and since you say you're a fan of Volbeat (one of our favorites, too), I figured your definition of "rocker" would be similar to ours. So, is it TRULY rock music or what?

[mykindaparty]

Saving my place....great review, your daughter looks like you[emoji3]. We did this cruise on the valor and it was exhausting (lol) no resting on this cruise....

[trippingpara]

I was wondering what is meant by the "Rockers" title of the production show and since you say you're a fan of Volbeat (one of our favorites, too), I figured your definition of "rocker" would be similar to ours. So, is it TRULY rock music or what?

 

LOL, I think Carnival's definition of rock music is a little bit different than ours! The show is actually called "Let's Rock" (I had to check my Fun Times) and is a dance show that showcases the musical history of rock starting with the 50's up into the 90s. I dug the 50's rockabilly but the "rock" did not get much heavier from there. It was basically "radio rock" (and not satellite radio kind!).

[brymern]

LOL, I think Carnival's definition of rock music is a little bit different than ours! The show is actually called "Let's Rock" (I had to check my Fun Times) and is a dance show that showcases the musical history of rock starting with the 50's up into the 90s. I dug the 50's rockabilly but the "rock" did not get much heavier from there. It was basically "radio rock" (and not satellite radio kind!).

 

Yes, we seem to understand each other nicely. Thanks for the heads-up. I won't get my hopes up too high then.:)

[trippingpara]

Saving my place....great review, your daughter looks like you[emoji3]. We did this cruise on the valor and it was exhausting (lol) no resting on this cruise....

 

Thank you so much for reading and for the kind words. You're correct, this is an exhausting itinerary but that's how we like our vacations. We always need another vacation just to recoup from our vacation!

[trippingpara]

Thursday, May 28th – Castries, St. Lucia

 

My eyes cracked open to see light shining around the edges of our blackout curtains. I could feel that the ship was still moving so I knew we weren’t docked yet. I glanced over at my phone to discover that I was awake before my alarm even went off. What the…! I heard rustling across the room and discovered that Trippette was awake as well. I looked over at Lady Trip to see her smiling at me. Looks like we’re all awake so no sense going back to sleep now I thought. So I sauntered out onto the balcony and low and behold…the Pitons!

 

 

Trippette and I stared at the Pitons as we slowly sailed past them into Castries Harbor. While we watched us dock, Lady Trip showered and got our gear ready to head out.

 

 

 

 

Trippette and I then got cleaned up and dressed and the 3 of us ran over to Blue Iguana’s for breakfast. The adventure for today would be a private tour with Real St. Lucia’s. Our last time here, we did a sea – land tour that was less than optimal. The vendor double charged us and refused to refund us and to top it off, I fell and got hurt. So needless to say, I thought that we might have better luck with a private tour. It was our first time with a private tour so we were curious how it would be.

 

As we ate our breakfast we could see that it was drizzling outside. Lovely. It looked like a pretty solid cloud cover and the drizzle seemed to signify a constant rain not the traditional Caribbean downpour for 15 minutes and the sun comes back out. Oh well, it’s not going to ruin our day! Once we wolfed down our breakfast burritos, we headed down to Deck 0 to “ding” ourselves off the ship.

 

 

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[trippingpara]

We had to stroll all the way through the shopping area to find Hygienus, our driver holding a sign with my name on it.

 

After we all greeted each other, he took us over to his car. A very nice Toyota that was a whole lot swankier than any of the other taxis around. The only problem? It was buried in-between a bunch of taxi vans. This apparently didn’t seem to concern Hygienus, as he just popped in the driver’s side and started backing out (that is after I almost hopped into the drivers side forgetting that their cars are the opposite of ours. Hygienus got a kick out of that and offered to let me drive). Once I got settled into the passenger's seat, I started to wonder how the heck he was going to get this car out of here. This guy’s about to smash up his nice car backing out of here! I should have known better. A friend finally did move one of the vans to help him out, but Hygienus already had it figured out.

 

Our first stop was at a viewing area on Government House Road that offered amazing views of the harbor.

 

 

 

 

And here's why it's called Government House Road! This is where the Governor lives.

 

After a couple minutes here taking photos, we were off towards Marigot Bay. We stopped at a small roadside stand to take pictures overlooking Marigot. Thankfully there was a nice roof over the stand as the rain really started then!

 

 

The lady running the stand was known as “Spice Lady” for good reason! She had some awesome homemade spices that she sold there. Lady Trip does love her spices so she picked up a couple to take back home plus a bottle of the traditional banana ketchup.

 

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