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

[Easton13A]

Great review, looking forward to being on the Liberty in September! One question that you may have answered earlier, but I didn't see....did the kayak company for the bio bay do the transportation from your hotel in OSJ to Fajardo, or did you book that separately?

[trippingpara]

Great review, looking forward to being on the Liberty in September! One question that you may have answered earlier, but I didn't see....did the kayak company for the bio bay do the transportation from your hotel in OSJ to Fajardo, or did you book that separately?

 

Thank you for reading along. The kayak company we used did book the transportation for us. It was a 3d party transportation company (Fine Line Transportation) but it was all set up and billed by the kayak company. Very easy to use! Happy cruising!

[SoloSailorII]

Awesome start, I will say I have literally laughed out lout a time or two so far. Doing this cruise in September. Cant wait....

 

Fair Winds and Following Seas....

[Hinano]

Great review. We were in St Lucia for a week in January and went to the same mud bath. Stinky but fun. Thanks for bringing that memory back. AND the Piton beer, loved it.

[trippingpara]

Awesome start, I will say I have literally laughed out lout a time or two so far. Doing this cruise in September. Cant wait....

 

Fair Winds and Following Seas....

 

Finally, an out loud laugher! My job is done. I can now rest peacefully tonight! Thanks mate! Happy cruising, cheers!

[trippingpara]

Great review. We were in St Lucia for a week in January and went to the same mud bath. Stinky but fun. Thanks for bringing that memory back. AND the Piton beer, loved it.

 

Thank you for reading along and the kind words. That place was a wee bit stinky wasn't it? But my skin was as smooth as a baby's bum afterwards!

[trippingpara]

Sorry, almost forgot. Here are the Fun Times for St. Lucia:

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Friday, May 29th – Basseterre, St. Kitts

 

I’m finally catching on to the timing of that devious alarm clock. Once again I woke up in anticipation of Michael Poulsen’s twangy voice singing Sad Man’s Tongue. That is an interesting song to wake up to! It starts to pleasantly wake you up like gentle kisses from a loved one and then it grabs you by the hair, beats you to a pulp and flings you across the room like an evil mother in-law! (Not that my mother-in-law Mummsie is evil or would beat me to a pulp...I think...hmm, maybe I should send her some flowers just in case.) I guess that’s why I selected that song as my alarm clock. It works! Any ways, our adventure for today is an all day tour with Javin from MyIsland Tours. It’s portrayed as an off the beaten path kind of tour.

 

The last time we were in St. Kitts, we did a tour by taxi of the standard stops: Brimstone Fortress, Romney Manor, Caribelle Batik, the Rum Tree and a quick glance of the Black Rocks. We wanted something…more. I don’t know how else to describe it, but those sites just didn’t seem interesting enough to see them again. This is not to say that they are not worth seeing (Brimstone Fortress has some of the best views on the island!), but we were looking to see something different on St. Kitts. Javin’s tours looked just like what we were looking for.

 

As usual, we took our turns showering and getting dressed. While I was out on the balcony, I noticed a familiar looking silhouette in the bay before us. A whale tail!

 

 

Carnival Splendor! This was actually the only port that we shared with another ship. I immediately grabbed my camera, waited for it to acclimate to the humidity and then started clicking away.

 

 

I'm not so sure I'd want that job!

 

Thankfully our cabin is just a hop, skip and jump away from the secret decks so we jumped out to catch a glimpse of us coming into port along with the Splendor.

 

 

 

 

I should probably warn you. I have close to 600 photos of this island alone, so expect a slightly elevated number of images on these posts for St. Kitts.

 

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[trippingpara]

Once everyone was ready we headed down to the Blue Iguana for our now traditional breakfast burrito. On our way across the Lido, we noticed that the crew had put out all of the different towel animals around the main Lido pool. How cool is that?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d never seen them do that before. Maybe I just missed it before by coming a different way to the buffet area (I normally go straight for the omelet station near the aft pool or in the side along the buffet area and skip past the main Lido pool)

 

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[trippingpara]

Before we departed the Liberty, I had to grab a few more pics of Splendor alongside us.

 

 

Such a different layout than the Liberty

 

Splendor crew members watching us watching them.

 

Dropping the mooring line

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

After we “dinged” off the ship, we quickly met up with Javin standing right where he said he would be. There was a nice, young couple from Kansas patiently waiting with him. Wait…what?! We’re late?? How did that happen? Actually we weren’t, everyone else was early! That’s what I’m going to keep telling myself as I can’t stand to be late! Seriously, it was 8:55 am and we were to meet him at 9 am. Okay, so we were cutting it close, but we were still on time!! Now that the gang was all here, it was time to head over to Javin’s ride and get the party started!

 

Our luxurious and stately ride for the day

 

Javin gave us a little breakdown of what our day was going to look like and then he put on his lawyer hat and handed our liability waivers for us to sign. What the heck kind of tour did I sign us up for?? I didn’t recall anything in his tour description sounding dangerous? Why am I promising not to sue him? It’s a foreign country any ways, good luck trying to sue him! Seriously, don’t worry about it. He’s being smart and covering his tushy. It is a moderately physical tour so he doesn’t want to get sued if anyone falls and hurts themselves. The main premise of this tour is really to go and see (and do) the things and places that Javin grew up around. It was very cool! Once we got the intros and waivers out of the way, we were off for a quick tour of Basseterre and the island leading up to our first stop.

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

 

 

 

The Caribe Brewery

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

The first stop was one of the places that his friends and him hang around in (and spray painted much to his own disgust). It’s an old abandoned sugar mill. When I saw this on his tour list, I was like why am I going to tour an old abandoned sugar mill on vacation? There are plenty of old and abandoned mills and factories where I live now! In reality, it was actually really neat. Having Javin talk about his experiences there growing up and playing around the site made it more personable and interesting. You could envision yourself playing around there as a kid (and realizing just how cool that would have been!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turns out that "Boo" was Javin's nickname when he was a kid

 

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[cruiser1836]

I just want to say that I'm loving your review so far...it's both informative and entertaining and your pictures are incredible. I'm counting down the days until I do this cruise in November and your review is increasing my level of excitement so thanks!!

Edited June 24, 2015 by cruiser1836

[trippingpara]

I just want to say that I'm loving your review so far...it's both informative and entertaining and your pictures are incredible. I'm counting down the days until I do this cruise in November and your review is increasing my level of excitement so thanks!!

 

You're very welcome my friend. Thank you so much for reading along and taking the time to leave me such kind words.

[trippingpara]

I love the scenery of St. Kitts. It is very different than St. Lucia since it is not as lush but it still has its rainforests and mountains (which I’m a sucker for!) Along the way to our next stop, I was of course, clicking away with my cameras!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

 

 

Sign? What sign? I didn't see no sign!

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Our next stop was at Black Rocks. We briefly saw this last time, but Javin’s tour is a bit different. Here we get to climb down onto the rocks. Talk about a completely different point of view! There is also a great place to use the restrooms as well as to grab a cheap beer or other souvenirs. As we took pictures from the top of the cliff, Javin went and grabbed his rope and got it set up for us.

 

 

 

 

You really don’t need the rope, but it is a lot easier (and safer) to use it. The climb down isn’t very steep but it is a dirt cliff with plenty of rocks that can slide out from under you so use the rope! Once we were down at the bottom, I went completely camera happy! We have seen plenty of lava bombs and lava flows in Hawaii but never in the Caribbean (it just doesn’t seem like a volcanic area – of course tell that to those in Martinique or St. Lucia!)

 

 

 

 

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[momonthego17]

Loving you review!

 

 

 

Thanks for your tips earlier on where to stay and stuff to do on SJU.

 

 

 

We are looking to hopefully book a Journeys Cruise on Sunshine that start in SJU and ends in Port Canaveral. The ports and itinerary seem amazing - SJU, St. Thomas, Antigua, Dominica, Martinique, St. Croix, Grand Turk, Port Canaveral. :) Just trying to figure out flights and all from Toronto and decide (US / CDN exchange rate doesn't hep either :()

 

 

 

We hope to be in SJU for 3 days prior to the cruise. We did the forts, so maybe bio bay, walking around, beaches, maybe rent a car for the duration and drive around exploring...

 

 

 

I have a few questions please.

 

 

 

1. Ferry to Catano - I love rum and am thinking maybe we can do this tour. But we have two kids (8,10) with us. Is it conducive for kids? Would we have to pay for them too? Is there anything else to do on Catano? $1 for a the return ferry ride just for fun sounds good too...

 

 

 

2. Steakhouse - This would be our second cruise. First was on Freedom last Dec and we didn't do the steakhouse. Were thinking that since this would be our 15th wedding anniversary we would go on the first night? Do you have to book on board or can it be done prior? Secondly, I guess it would be best to leave the kids at Camp to go there? Last cruise they did not even go the camp and we just loved all hanging out together and spending family time. They went to check it, but said they would never want to be at Camp while on the cruise.. what fun would that be! LOL

 

 

 

Thanks again!

 

My DH and I had the steakhouse booked for the first night and found out that there is no Child watch the first night. We moved our reservation to another night, although no free wine. If somebody else answered this, my apologies:)

[trippingpara]

 

St. Eustatius in the foreground and Saba in the far background

 

 

 

 

 

Coming up next...Cayon Ghaut

 

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Edited June 24, 2015 by trippingpara

[tpiper55]

THANK YOU Mr. Tripp!!! I am absolutely LOVING this review. Mr. Tpiper55 and I did this same itinerary last October on the Valor - The pic in my signature is us at the halfway point coming down from the summit of the Gros Piton. I'm having the time of my life reliving our cruise through your words and photos. We did Javin's tour as well - those black rocks were scary, lol.

 

We are booked for this itinerary again on the Liberty 8/30 sailing so I'm definitely getting some ideas from you.

 

THANKS for putting this all together. Your family is beautiful and you all look like sooo much fun :)

Edited June 24, 2015 by tpiper55

[jimbo5544]

Great review and pics (so far). Love the Cliff Notes report card version up front. Reading your review makes me want to do another southern caribbean cruise. Also enjoy seeing our old friend the Carnival Liberty who we have sailed on 4 times. Thanks for posting your review.

[cessnabmw]

My DH and I had the steakhouse booked for the first night and found out that there is no Child watch the first night. We moved our reservation to another night, although no free wine. If somebody else answered this, my apologies:)

 

Oh no! Thanks for posting this! Was planning on having the kids at camp the first night so that we could go to the steakhouse (just my wife and I)...

[trippingpara]

THANK YOU Mr. Tripp!!! I am absolutely LOVING this review. Mr. Tpiper55 and I did this same itinerary last October on the Valor - The pic in my signature is us at the halfway point coming down from the summit of the Gros Piton. I'm having the time of my life reliving our cruise through your words and photos. We did Javin's tour as well - those black rocks were scary, lol.

 

We are booked for this itinerary again on the Liberty 8/30 sailing so I'm definitely getting some ideas from you.

 

THANKS for putting this all together. Your family is beautiful and you all look like sooo much fun :)[/quote

 

Thank you so much for such kind words! God bless you and your hubby for hiking Gros Piton!! We would love to do that but my knees just won't let me. A bit too strenuous for them, unfortunately. Hope you and Mr. Tpiper55 have a blast on the Liberty! Thank you for reading along. Cheers! :)