Carnival Liberty western caribbean - any cruise report yet?

We are booked on the Liberty for an 8-day western caribbean trip (Ft
Lauderdale-Cozumel-Limon CR-Colon Panama) in February. I think this
ship started doing this trip last month. Any reviews yet on the ship,
ports of call, etc?

Thanks,
Vidya

booked on the Liberty for an 8-day western caribbean

I am doing the 6-night Liberty FLLFreeportGrand Cayman & Cozumel on
January 15. Am sure you will see some report from me on here once back.

Len...

We were on the Liberty from 11/26 to 12/4. It was our first cruise, so I
have nothing to compare. The ship was absolutely gorgeous from top to
bottom. It may have ruined me for any other ship.

I won't bore you with the details of embarking, but it was horrendous. We
were supposed to ship out at 4:00, but didn't leave 'til 5:00. Experienced
cruisers said this was normal. I learned never to arrive at the lifeboat
drill too early. We had to line up against a wall and there were 4 rows
deep in front of us. My husband almost passed out from the heat.

The stops: Monday, 11/28 - We went to Costa Maya instead of Cozumel. I was
very disappointed because there were places in Cozumel I really wanted to
see. We were supposed to go snorkeling in Costa Maya, but the waves were a
little rough. Since it would have been our first time, the guide suggested
we not go. We did get our money refunded. They offered 15 tours there
ranging from 39.00 to 199.00. The high priced one was for fly fishing.

There's a shopping area that sells all kind of stuff. I didn't buy anything
there because I just saw souvenir stuff, however people were buying, so
maybe it was just me. An American looking and talking man tried to get us
in his store by saying "hey, come in here and let me cheat you just a
little". We laughed. A lot of people were interested in a very nice
looking cigar shop with the right humidity, and enclosed glass room, etc.
selling authentic Cuban cigars. There was a swimming pool there and 1
person jumped in it, but the pools on the Liberty looked more appealing. We
arrived at 8:00 and left around 6:00.

Tuesday, 11/30 - Limon, Costa Rica. Arrived 10:00, left about 6:00. They
offered 17 tours ranging from 33.00 to 129.00. Our tour was the Bus,
Caribbean Train and Boat for $79.00 each. The bus took us to an old train
that used to go though the rich areas of Limon. It was very slow moving,
but we had fun anyway. We were given bottled water and a photographer from
the ship took pictures. These were then posted on board and could be bought
for, I believe $8.00 apiece. Of course we bought them. We boarded another
bus to take us to the Tortugero Canals. We boarded a covered open air boat

oups.com...
We are booked on the Liberty for an 8-day western caribbean trip (Ft
Lauderdale-Cozumel-Limon CR-Colon Panama) in February. I think this
ship started doing this trip last month. Any reviews yet on the ship,
ports of call, etc?

Thanks,
Vidya

Sorry, this wasn't supposed to go out yet.
wrote in message
.. .
We were on the Liberty from 11/26 to 12/4. It was our first cruise, so I
have nothing to compare. The ship was absolutely gorgeous from top to
bottom. It may have ruined me for any other ship.

I won't bore you with the details of embarking, but it was horrendous. We
were supposed to ship out at 4:00, but didn't leave 'til 5:00.
Experienced cruisers said this was normal. I learned never to arrive at
the lifeboat drill too early. We had to line up against a wall and there
were 4 rows deep in front of us. My husband almost passed out from the
heat.

The stops: Monday, 11/28 - We went to Costa Maya instead of Cozumel. I
was very disappointed because there were places in Cozumel I really wanted
to see. We were supposed to go snorkeling in Costa Maya, but the waves
were a little rough. Since it would have been our first time, the guide
suggested we not go. We did get our money refunded. They offered 15
tours there ranging from 39.00 to 199.00. The high priced one was for fly
fishing.

There's a shopping area that sells all kind of stuff. I didn't buy
anything there because I just saw souvenir stuff, however people were
buying, so maybe it was just me. An American looking and talking man
tried to get us in his store by saying "hey, come in here and let me cheat
you just a little". We laughed. A lot of people were interested in a
very nice looking cigar shop with the right humidity, and enclosed glass
room, etc. selling authentic Cuban cigars. There was a swimming pool
there and 1 person jumped in it, but the pools on the Liberty looked more
appealing. We arrived at 8:00 and left around 6:00.

Tuesday, 11/30 - Limon, Costa Rica. Arrived 10:00, left about 6:00. They
offered 17 tours ranging from 33.00 to 129.00. Our tour was the Bus,
Caribbean Train and Boat for $79.00 each. The bus took us to an old
train that used to go though the rich areas of Limon. It was very slow
moving, but we had fun anyway. We were given bottled water and a
photographer from the ship took pictures. These were then posted on board
and could be bought for, I believe $8.00 apiece. Of course we bought
them. We boarded another bus to take us to the Tortugero Canals. We
boarded a covered open air boat and headed down the canals where we saw a
few monkeys, sloths, bats, and beautiful blue butterflies. When we came
back, we were provided a fruit buffet, small calypso band singing Day O,
and bathrooms. Then we boarded buses again and went to a banana
plantation, which was really quite interesting. We enjoyed the day over
all. Some of our friends went on bike rides and some went to a sloth
sanctuary where they held a baby sloth. Everyone seemed to like whatever
tour they were on.

Thursday 12/1 - Colon, Panama - None of the tours looked interested to us.
We wanted to see the canal, but the ship tours were too expensive. When you
get to the port there's a building to go through with a lot of Carnival
approved shops. After you go through there, you are inundated with men who
want to drive you someplace. Police are all over the place. These guys
don't take no for an answer. We finally got away from them and looked
around the shopping area, but didn't see anything I was really looking for,
which was a good bargain.

10 of us decided to hire a van to take us to a gated shopping area that only
tourists and business owners can go to, but locals are not allowed. It was
raining hard at the time and the driver took us the long way around (we
found out later). We couldn't see much anyway because of the rain. Anyway,
when we got there, it looked not too safe and we told the driver to take us
back. We thought he had taken us to the wrong place. (It turned out to be
the gated shopping area). He took us back and it cost us $10.00 a piece to
go nowhere. One couple stayed on the van and said they were going back.
They later came back with tons of bargains, jewelry, clothes, linens,
glass, boxes of shoes and unbelievable prices. If I ever go back to
Colon, that will be my first trip.

4 of us decided to hire another van to take us to a shopping area to buy rum
and other yummy drinks. We negotiated a price of $20.00 a piece and off we
went. He took us to a kind of strip mall where the alcohol was really
cheap. While the men were in the liquor stores, I checked out a couple
women's shops. I saw cute two piece outfits for $15.00. Very nice, but the
sizes were very small. The salesperson told me they were Thailand sizes.
From there our driver took us to the canal where we watched a ship slowly
making it's way through. The people on board were waving at us. I felt
sorry for the people from our ship who paid $175.00 for this view. Our
driver came with us and explained what we were seeing and it's beginnings,
etc. We took a lot of pictures and left.

Our driver took us on a little tour of his own, showing us a market place in
Colon. He said everything was very cheap there, but he wouldn't advise us
to go. As Americans, we are not too popular there. He said we would have
to not talk, not wear jewelry or look affluent in anyway to get by there.
He said politically, they are afraid that George Bush will invade Panama by
saying the Canal is in danger of terrorists and will send troops down to
defend it. He took us by some rich housing areas, gated of course, and some
of the nicer areas of Colon. There aren't too many nice areas
unfortunately. All in all, our driver gave us a great time. He did give
me his card in case we come back.

We then did a little shopping near the ship and I went into a jewelry store
called Gemas Glamour S.A. PLEASE NOTE: This store is a rip off - They will
try to pass off gold covered silver jewelry as 18k gold. I was looking at a
necklace I was considering buying and had my Visa card near my hand on the
counter. The salesperson swiped my card and I told her I didn't want the
necklace as they was no karat weight on it. She said 721L was the way they
do karat weight in Panama. I said cancel the transaction and I took the two
receipts and left. When I got home Visa had approved the transaction. It
is now in dispute. They had tried to reach me, since they thought my card
had been stolen and then put a hold on my account. We then couldn't pay our
bill to get off the ship with that card and had to use another.

I learned many things on my first cruise. First thing: call your Visa,
MasterCard or Discover and tell them you are going on a cruise and to where.

That's all for now about the port of calls. Lots of things to talk about
the things to do on board, but too tired to type anymore right now.

Barb








oups.com...
We are booked on the Liberty for an 8-day western Caribbean trip (Ft
Lauderdale-Cozumel-Limon CR-Colon Panama) in February. I think this
ship started doing this trip last month. Any reviews yet on the ship,
ports of call, etc?

Thanks,
Vidya