So if I’m ever going to finish the carnival posts I need to stop being so detailed.

Day 3

Today was the first of our two sea days. On the advice of our tablemates we got up earlish to grab a good spot on the deck to catch sun for the day. It was definitely too early in the morning to be out in our swimsuits but we did take the opportunity to read and doze for an hour which we often do anyway on a weekend morning. Initially we were the only people in the little section of the ship we had scoped out but the place quickly filled up with people and deck chairs all lined up next to each other.

The rest of the day was spent getting some sun while reading and sleeping. Its amazing how fast you can kill an entire day doing that with an occasional break for food and drinks. Initially we had planned to try and make it to some of the activities that the cruise director had scheduled but we managed to miss most of them. The only activity we did make it to that day was the ice carving demonstration which was really cool but the poor guy had to work super fast since it was so hot out and the ice was melting like crazy. We finally called it quits from time in the sun around 3 PM and quickly realized that we might have overdid the sun a bit. Nicole opted for a nap while i wandered around the ship and doing some people watching.

Tuesday night was first formal night of our cruise. So nicole got to get all dressed up in her new dress from White House Black Market. Before dinner was the captain’s cocktail hour where you get to meet the captain and his officers and they serve you free drinks. That was a lot of fun and kinda surprising since they were serving anything people wanted and had waiters going around the rooms with drinks and appetizers. Dinner was a lot of fun with our table mates and was an opportunity for us to have lobster and prime rib for dinner. I of course ate both . We ended up calling it an early night because nicole was pooped from the early wakeup and all the drinks she had at the cocktail hour.

Day 4

Today was our port day in the Grand Caymans. What I found really striking about the grand cayman’s was how utterly flat the island was. There really didn’t seem to be any variation in elevation which was really surprising to me since most islands are the tip of a mountain thats sticking out of the water. Also the grand caymans was our ‘tender’ port which meant we got to ride a little boat that took us from the cruise ship to the actual port. This was done keep the big ships from wrecking the coral as they came in to the docks.

Our original plan for the day was to just get off the ship and catch a taxi and go to the famous 7 mile beach. However thanks to our overdoing it the day before on the deck we decided that more sun/beach time was not that appealing. Instead based on the description by the cruise director at the talk about how to get off the ship we decided to book a tour to Stingray City. Stingray city is this large sandbar that fisherman used to park their boats and clean their catch before heading in to the harbor which attracted large numbers of stingrays. Combined with the fact that its very shallow making the stingrays feel safe made Stingray city a perfect tourist activity.

Our tour took us on a 30 min boat ride from the harbor to the sandbar. Once we were at the sand bar they dropped anchor and we were let off the back side of the boat. Once there the Stingrays began to come over to where our group was since they expected to be fed. The tour operators had some fresh squid that we could use to feed the stingrays. Feeding the stingrays was a really cool experience since you just put it in your hand and then put the squid under the water and the stingrays would come floating over your hand and suck up the squid into their mouths. They rays were remarkably leathery and slimy. I got a good laugh out of some of the people who went on the adventure. There were two main types of people. First were the young kids who went chasing after the rays to try and touch them (rays can move really fast in the water when they want to.) And then there were the silly women who were afraid of the rays and screamed whenever one got near them or touched them. Trying to avoid the rays in the water was pretty much impossible since there were so many of them in the water. It was funny watch some women who would be staring down the ray that was in front of them and not notice the other ray that was coming up behind them and when it would brush up against their leg they jump and go screaming away.

The second part of our tour was a snorkel a short distance way from the stingray city. We were a little disappointed with the snorkel. Based on the snorkeling on our honeymoon in hawaii the snorkeling in Grand Caymans was no where near as good. There wasn’t nearly as much fish and the coral was grouped into these small patches. Although it did have this really pretty nice purple coral that both nicole and I though were cool.

After our shore excursion was over we went back to the ship and got changed and got some food. Since we still had a couple of hours left in port we got off again and decided to walk around the port area and check out the shopping. We walked for quite a bit but didn’t find anything that interested use since your two main options was the cheap touristy junk or jewelry.

That evening we decided to skip dinner in the main dining room and go to the Harry’s the supper club which is the fancy restaurant that you can eat at for an extra fee. Dinner that night was absolutely amazing and one of the best meals we’ve ever had. The service there was also top notch. We had a 5 course meal with 2 extra chef compliment courses. Everything was very well prepared and presented beautifully. Nicole had a crab cake appetizer and surf and turf for dinner. While I had escargot for my appetizer and an 18oz porterhouse steak for dinner. We both had their chocolate dessert which was actually 3 desserts. By the end of the meal we could barely walk out of the restaurant.

Day 5

Day 5 was our port day in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. For the Jamaica we had prebooked a shore excursion for a zip line adventure since we didn’t get the chance to do one on Maui when we were there for our honeymoon. We were picked up from the port and had to take a 20 minute ride to their farm/base camp for the tour operator. It was a fun little drive and the tour guide did a good job of point out things on our drive and telling us a little about Jamaica. What struck me during our drive was the huge gap of living conditions between the tourist and the bulk of the population. It was sad how poor and ramshackle some of the homes we saw on the drive which were little more than concrete boxes or huts.

The zipline adventure itself was fantastic and loads of fun. The workers running the places were very friendly and were clearly very professional so it felt very safe. The harnesses that they put us into were a little uncomfortable but I don’t see how they can get around that since the harness has to support all your weight. Our zipline adventure had 7 ziplines and 2 ’surprises’. The first surprise turned out to be a very steep zipline that was probably at a 40 degree angle for 30 feet. The other surprise was the one i called the ‘elevator’ since it was a 20ft drop straight down. One woman when she finished that surprise was visibly shaking. All the ziplines and surprises really got your adrenaline flowing. I was surprised at what a great time I had especially since I have a problem with ladders and heights. But I didn’t really look down when I was on the zipline and you weren’t on it for more than 30 seconds at a time. Overall the zipline adventure was probably the highlight of the trip. After we were done with the zipline portion of our tour we got to a bonus walk through a botanical gardens as we went back to the buses to pick us up.

After the tour we went and checked out some of the shopping centers that were in Ocho Rios in an attempt to get some jerk chicken but we weren’t able to find anyplace except alcohol, jewelry, and junk shops. We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon relaxing and getting a little bit of sun on the deck. Before dinner that night we did stop in the casino and we got martini’s made in an ice luge which was neat. Dinner was the second formal night but the menu wasn’t as good as the first night. But our waiter did dance for us which was a lot of fun. At midnight was the gala buffet which was a chance for the chefs to make these really elaborate desserts and to show off a bit. It looked very pretty but nothing really appealed to us and according to our tablemates it was quite small compared to ones in the past.

Day 6

This was our last day on the cruise and it was another sea day. We got a latter start than the first sea day but we still got up early enough to get the same spot as we had on the first criuse day. Again we managed to kill almost the entire day in the sun reading and napping. It was a very relaxing day especially considering the business of the days before. Also it helped that the ship seemed to be much more sedate since i think most people had burned themselves out with all the stuff earlier in the cruise. We also like the first day managed to burn ourselves even though we took breaks during the hotest part of day. We had dinner with our tablemates and got to say good bye to them since everyone got off the ship bright and early the next day. The rest of the evening nicole and I caught the broadway ensemble show and then went to the piano bar and hung out and sang along with all the other drunk people.

The next morning we were off the ship, through custom, and at the airport by 9 AM for our flight home and the sad conclusion of our vacation. We can’t wait to take another vacation.

Our first morning on the boat we awoke to the feel of the boat docking in key west. Since we didn’t have anything formal planned for the day we figured we would avoid the rush of people trying to get off. Instead we decided to be a little lazy and have a leisurely breakfast at the lido breakfast buffet. There was nothing special about the buffet but it was nice to have the option of a whole bunch of breakfast meats, toast, cereal, eggs, and french toast. Plus it was kinda nice to actually be up for breakfast since most days we’ve skipped it or got going to late for breakfast.

Once we had fueled up for the day we decided it was time to make our way off the ship. It was fairly easy to get off the ship since all we had to do was swipe our sign and sail card to let the boat know that we were off the ship. There was still a bit of a line to get off the ship which was a bit of a surprise considering that at this point it was 10 AM and we had docked at 7.

Once in Key West we just kind of wandered around and followed the crowds. There wasn’t all that much to see. For the most part it was a giant tourist trap. Although there were some interesting named shops like “Mr. Cheapee’s Liquor and Stuff” and “The Pelican Poop Shoppe”. It was interesting that all the shops facade were in the old style that the buildings were originally constructed with. After walking around for an hour we came to the end of the road we were on and found ourselves in front of the butterfly conservatory. Since nicole already posted about it I won’t go over it again but needless to say it was a really cool experience. On our way back to the ship we stopped for lunch at Guy Harvey’s. It was a simple bar that had some fried platters that looked good. The only thing was that when we went inside the menu they gave us didn’t match the one that was outside that made us come in but our waiter knew what we were talking about and got us our fried shrimp and fried oysters. After eating we stopped for dessert so Nicole could get her taste of real Keylime pie. She got pie on stick from the Blond Giraffe which looked pretty good but i was too full to have any.

We spent the second half of the afternoon back on the ship getting some sunshine and otherwise just relaxing. Dinner was another fun but slow experience where we got to know our other cruisers a little better and met the new final couple of our table. The after dinner show had a juggler and a comedian. The juggler was pretty good and significantly better than the strong jugglers are U of R. The comedian was kinda of so so and we ended up leaving early to go wander around the ship.

We eventually managed to find our way to the Piano bar in the back of the ship. It was an interesting little bar. In the middle of the bar was a round stage with a piano on it. There were seats all around the stage and on top of it the piano slowly rotated on the stage. The piano player was probably in his early thirties and had a lot of energy playing various songs and played anything he knew by request. What made the place a lot of fun is that he actively encouraged everyone in the bar to sing along (in their drunken state ). Also the bar seemed to be a favorite of the crew as the cruise directors, singers, and dancers could be found there. We spent an hour or so enjoying ourselves before we headed back up to our room.

So we just got back from our Carnival Liberty Caribbean cruise. It was our vacation for the year where we went and did something on our own that didn’t involve our extended since thats the way we generally spend our vacation time. The cruise was a six day cruise that left out of Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday April 20th. We choose to book an inside stateroom guarantee which was basically the cheapest possible accommodation. Instead of a trying to book a specific room we just went with the guarantee which let carnival pick the room for us. We figured we wouldn’t know a good room from a bad room so we’d pay the least possible and let carnival put us in a room. We ended up getting room 8314 which was on deck 8 much higher up on the ship than we expected. We were happy with the room we had and were glad we didn’t spend the extra money on a window or balcony since we hardly spent any time in the room.

Our cruise got started early since we decided to go down the day before and get a hotel room for the night instead of trying to fly out the morning of the cruise. This was mostly so we wouldn’t be exhausted when we got to the ship since we wouldn’t need to get up before dawn to get to the airport. We found a cheap hotel called the “Rodeway Inn” that was near the airport and the cruise port. It wasn’t a nice hotel by any stretch of the imagination but it was clean enough for the one night that we were going to spend there. We had dinner at this little restaurants that was in the hotel. It had a very limited menu but it was home cooked and fresh which made it quite yummy. We went to bed fairly early since we wanted to get a good night of rest before we had to get up and get on the ship. Sadly our plan of going to bed early did not work out. It turns out that saturday night a company was hosting some concert across the street and was blasting music with some serious base. It was so loud neither of us could get to sleep and went on till almost 5 AM. Apparently since they had a permit they didn’t have to respect any other noise or time ordinance in the state. That was really annoying and not the way we wanted to start our cruise.

The next day got off with a much better start as we were able to make a quick and easy transfer to the pier where we were supposed to get on the ship. Checking in and boarding the ship took a little longer than we expected but thats because we found out they had a full ship inspection that morning and slowed down their normal boarding process. Once we got on board we set out to explore the ship. It was pretty huge and for quite awhile I had no idea where i was on the ship or which way was forward or aft. We got our first taste of the food options as we grabbed some food from the lido buffet. Once we had some food in use we decided to cruising around the upper decks of the ship and check out what was available. This lead us to the mini-golf course that they had set up on one of the top decks. We decided to kill some time before we could go to our room by playing a round. Unfortunetly for me I managed to lose by a single stroke to nicole. As much as nicole I caught nicole trying to cheat and give me extra strokes I wasn’t able to come back and beat her :-p. At this point we were allowed to go to our rooms and we went to check out our room. We were impressed with the size of the room.

After we got a sense of our room we jumped into our swim suits and decided to get some sun on the deck before the ship left port. We got to enjoy an hour or so getting some reading and napping done in the sun. At this point it was time for the muster drill and the embarkation party. The muster drill was as boring as we had heard and spent awhile listing to what we were supposed to do in the event of an emergency and not to have anything in our rooms that might cause a fire. Then we had the extra fun of hearing it all again in spanish because there was a large spanish speaking group on the cruise.

Once the muster drill was over we went and met some of the people we had talked with before our cruise on the cruise critic fourms that we had been following. It was an interesting time and we met another couple that was on the cruise and chatted with them for awhile. After we were invited back to another couples cabin to check out their aft wrap around balcony. Their room was really cool and the balcony was certainly very impressive.

Before dinner that night we stopped off in the casino and learned how to play craps. It was very interesting and looked like a lot of fun but it also seemed really complicated. After learning how waste money (gamble ) we went to our dinning room for dinner and to meet our table mates. For our cruise we were seated at an 8 person table. On the first night we meet two of the couples. The first couple was Mike and Carrie Ann from Michigan. They were probably in their early thirties without kids. Carrie Ann was a pediatric nurse and Mike did some kind of work for the city. The other couple was William and Garnet from St. Louis. They were black and a little older at least in the 40’s and were on their honeymoon. They owned their own funeral home and that made for some interesting dinner conversations.

After a yummy dinner we went to check out the opening show. It was neat and we got to meet our cruise directory Steve and the Carnival Liberty dancers and singers. At this point we were pooped and decided to call it a night.