May 2009, Western Caribbean Cruise on the Carnival Liberty
5/1 - Flew to Ft. Lauderdale, and Dwight and Jan picked us up and took us to Miami. We went to lunch on a strip that is a big hang out for
seeing a lot of interesting people. We had chinese for dinner with Justin joining us, and then spent the night at their house before our cruise. A fun time as always, and we almost convinced them to book the cruise last minute, but they came to their senses, as they had much planned the coming week.
5/2 - Started our cruise in Miami. We were able to board around 2:00 after a delay to scrub down the ship due to a higher than usual amount
of sickness on the previous cruise. The Liberty departed around 5:00. We booked a inside room, 6428. It turned out to be right above the
disco which was loud, with the music going past midnight, and when we called were told it would be every night. Lynn always ask if there is anything above, below or around a room that is noisy, before booking any room, so whoever answered her did not answer correctly. The front desk sent us ear plugs, and
told us they would see what they could do for us. The next day we were given the option to move to a different room 1288 which was an
upgrade with a window. The room was quiet, except for a rattle on the floor below which was where you departed from and the infermery. It
was not loud enough to keep us up but it was a strange noise happening every 3-10 seconds. After another day we mentioned it,
and they must have been able to locate the noise as it went away. The Carnival Liberty is a nice ship, but it is a bit confusing, as you have to be on certain decks to be able to go from bow to stern. It was our second time on in less than a year and still we were backtracking at times.
Leaving Miami
Room 1288
Dress up
Mike & Jennifer
Chulicorn 5 meg movie
Dining room 10 meg movie
5/3 - Sea Day. Usually they have the dress up dinner on sea days. I have to go, due to that being the day they have the lobster and prime rib dinners, which I got both. Yeah I know, honk honk, and that is not even counting my two deserts.
Ocho Rio, Jamaica
5/4 - Well I think this was our third time to Jamaica. We were in an all inclusive resort in Montigo Bay, for our honeymoon in 1985, and went back for a week on our own in 1991. In general the Jamaican people are nice and just trying to make a living like all of us, but I could tell we were real bait when we got off the boat to walk around on our own with all the ships tourist. We were asked to take a taxi and get show around about 100 times, if we wanted to buy drugs about 10 times, and they attempted to direct us to their friends markets, shops and stores, where we were to tell them so and so sent us, so they could make a commision. We did buy some low cost liquor, two bottles of abosolute for $19 (one designed by Mario?), Lynn bought a turquiouse necklase for about $15, and I looked at t-shirts. We got tired of being hasseled after a couple hours so we headed back to the ship.
Frog
Ship
Shops
Tree
Grand Caymond, BWI
5/5 - Our third time in Grand Caymond, and we decided to walk around town on our own and then meet friends that we met and became customers of Lynn back in 1988. Barbara and Ed from the Book Nook. We walked around for about 2-3 hours then were picked up by our friends and went to a nice restaurant for lunch. After lunch they took us on a short tour around their neighborhood, and we walked by a house of a Jerry Beck (don't know of him, but they said he is in his 30s, has a few houses, this one I believe they said was 40,000 sq. ft., with a $12,000 electric bill per month when it is lit up). The house looked nice, had it's own grotto, and was right on the water. Here is a link I found when back home:
Jerry Beck Grand Caymond After the visit and tour they dropped us back off at the pier and we were back on board to relax once more.
Downtown Georgetown
Lunch
Beck house
Towel art
42 meg shoreline movie
5/6 - Sea Day. We really were relaxing this cruise. We were relaxing in our room by 9:00, usually skipping the shows (they usually don't seem that exciting to us) and all the other happenings. We did get up five of the mornings and worked out on the eliptical, treadmill, and weights. Part of the motivation was to burn some of the calories from all the food. My favorites was the anchovies that came with my ceasar salad, prime rib, lobster, stir fry with your fixings in a wok, chocolate molten cake. I think I gained about 6 pounds on the cruise, Lynn gained a few also even though she showed much more food moderation than me. As she said "I didn't know you could eat so much."
Belize (almost Cancun, then Roatan)
5/7 - We were suppose to go to Cozumel, but there was the swine flue worry so they avoided Mexico. They changed the itinoary to Roatan, but the night before said there was civil unrest. Someone later said the unions were protesting and blocking some roads. So, quick planning by Carnival and we stopped in Belize. We again chose to just walk around the area ourselves. There were a lot of shops right on the pier, and then outside the gates by the pier there were some smaller markets. It did seem strange going out the gate as their were a pile of people by the gates trying to get people to take a tour, etc. After you go past the small crowd it was nice to see the small market. The people were very polite and not pushy. We did hear that a little ways into town it got very dirty with people on the streets, a have and have not population we heard.
Dock movie
Market movie
Dinner movie
Market
Carvings
Coconut
Dancer
Sea day coming back
5/8 - Last chance to workout, relax, pack, dine, etc We bought four bottles of liquor that needed to be packed in the suitcase for the flight home.
Drinks
Inside
Inside
stairs to dinning
Monkey
Miami
5/9 - Picked up a rental car, and drove to Key Largo for a visit. Had lunch at Mandaly with Bob & Linda then back for a visit with Linda Hinkin for a while before heading back to the Ft. Lauderdale airport to come home.
