Carnival Liberty 7 Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise (2011)
We originally booked Family Travel Gurus client Carole McKeown of Denver on a Royal Caribbean cruise in early June for a special getaway with her niece. When her niece’s school schedule changed causing them to move their travel date by a week, the Royal Caribbean price jumped significantly. We recommended this Carnival Liberty cruise instead in the same price range as the original cruise. “Half Moon Cay is better than any port you would have visited on the RCCL cruise,” we told her. She was to find out what a special place Half Moon Cay is. Thanks to Carole for sharing this trip report and pictures with us.
My niece and I had a wonderful time! Thank you so much for the chocolate covered strawberries…we certainly enjoyed them! I wanted to give you a quick synopsis of our trip.
– The ship itself was very nice (actually, much nicer than I thought it would be)
– Our room was great. The twin beds worked out fine. They were very comfortable (we slept well). We had plenty of storage for our things. We liked being on the 1st floor towards the front of the ship. We were close to the exit for the shore excursions. Of course, the other side of this is waiting for elevators. We used the stairs alot to the 2nd or 3rd level to catch elevators (it was quicker).
– The food in the dining room was good. The buffet was okay. My niece loved the frozen yogurt stations everywhere!
– We liked the shows, loved the comedy club, liked all the live bands they had
– I thought Bingo was a ripoff (very expensive)
– We took advantage of the spa and had pedicures (very nice!)
Excursions:
– We LOVED Half Moon Cay. It was beautiful! If there was a hotel on that little island, I could have stayed there for 7 days or more…The beach was amazing; soft sand, clear water, no seaweed stuff. We rented paddle boats then rented a raft for the day. Other than the BBQ, we spent the entire time in the water. We loved it…
– I loved St. Thomas. I used Shore Trips for a private island tour. Our guide was a very nice young man with roots in the area. He took us all over the island and was very knowledgeable. Thank god we were riding in an air-conditioned Excursion because it was brutally hot that day! He was terrific. I would recommend him to others wanting a private, cool tour. The shopping was good. Kind of weird that it was gated…
– Grand Turk Island- this was probably the biggest disappointment of the trip. It looked beautiful as we were pulling up to the island but once you were on the beach, things changed. The beach was quite dirty. Lots of trash (cup lids, straws, paper) and cigarette butts in the sand. I was surprised by this because the setting is so pretty with the palm trees and stuff. The sand was very hard to walk on; very coarse. The water had lots of seaweed/kelp looking stuff in it and it was very hard to walk on as well. What saved the day was the pool area around Margaritaville. We were able to get some chairs under an umbrella and had a very pleasant day at the pool swimming and watching the flow riders and listening to the DJ. We had lunch at the restaurant and did some shopping there as well. It ended up being a great day despite the crappy beach.
The Hilton Garden Inn was very nice and a short drive from the airport. The shuttle drivers were very nice and quick to respond to getting picked up and dropped off. We also used another shuttle service to go to dinner that night and it worked out very well. Their continental breakfast is not free. I paid $25 (for 2 of us) for something I get for free at other hotel chains. The room was clean and cool.
Remember the authorization I needed from my niece’s parents to take her on this trip? Well, that was never questioned until we hit customs yesterday. The customs guy was the only one the entire time who wanted to know what my relationship was to my niece. I thought the cruise ship would ask this when we first checked in and they didn’t. I almost threw away the paper…
All of our flights worked out. No major delays. No lost luggage. The weather was sunny and hot, no rain. It was a great trip overall! Thank you again for all your help and making the process go so smoothly.
