lauraodonnell86

I have 2 questions. Has anyone ever done an excursion at Bengal Falls in Falmouth? And do you think it is safe to book this through Shore Excursioneer?  We have used the website to book excursions in the past on other Caribbean islands but wasn't sure about Jamaica. Here is the link for the excursion. https://www.shoreexcursioneer.com/falmouth/bengal-falls-white-water-river-rafting.html. We are looking to avoid the long drive to Dunn's Falls but still doing something fun close by. 

Thank you for your input! 

6 hours ago, marti314 said:

The MDR breakfast menu doesn't appear to have eggs Benedict anymore, has this been gone for awhile now?

On Freedom in January, it was on the menu but I'm not sure if they are revamping it and taking it off or what. 

Last time we visited Antigua, we took a taxi to Dickenson Bay and had them drop us off near the Sandals resort. From there we went to the left and there was a beautiful beach where you can purchase chairs/umbrellas. The picture of me is next to the huts on the Sandals beach. My husband is standing in a little bay area that has nice, calm water. The third picture is pointing the opposite way from where our chairs were. The beach was really nice and long to walk as well!!

On 2/15/2019 at 4:00 PM, Matt said:

I spotted popcorn for sale at pool bar. $2 per bag. Popcorn for sale onboard has been something I’ve seen here and there over the years.  

On Freedom last month, we saw popcorn for the first time ever on a cruise. They mainly had it in the theater for shows. Even though it's crazy to pay that much, my husband loves popcorn so we bought it a few times. Who cares? We're on vacation!  

Thanks @twangster! I had read this a few weeks ago when we were booked for this itinerary but went through it again today with the pictures back on there. Those are so awesome! We had to move to the week after due to school being extended (snow/ice days) and I'm bummed not to be able to visit Roatan and Costa Maya. 

Hello! Every time we visit Barbados, we go to Boatyard Beach Club. http://www.theboatyard.com/adventure-beach It is $25 per person to enter which includes a chair, umbrella, snorkeling, a ride back to the ship, and more. We have eaten at their restaurant several times and the food is always great! We recommend the hot wings!  I have attached some pictures. One of them is looking out at the ocean from the restaurant. It is a great place and actually our favorite beach in the whole Caribbean! 

Carambola Beach Club is a short/cheap taxi ride from the port and is beautiful!

Hello! For St. Maarten, we have booked this tour a number of times. https://www.shoreexcursioneer.com/st-maarten/beach-bum-orient-maho.html You really can't beat it for the price! You have a couple hours at both Maho and Orient Beach (they will substitute it for another beach if it not in good condition) and all drinks are included the whole time. The tour guide is always very informative during the drive to the beaches and we always have a great time!

For anyone wanting more of a personalized experience, we booked through Renee 2 years ago and it was fantastic. http://www.reneesnorkeltrips.com/snorkel-trips/  She used to be a Marine Biologist and could point out every fish along the way to us. Some of the fish would have completely been missed if she hadn't pointed them out to us. She keeps the groups very small (4 people in ours) and it is $45/person. I would highly recommend booking a tour through her! 

It may not be the most fun for teens but we have gone to Carambola Beach Club several times and it is a wonderful place! You can snorkel from the beach on your own and there is a little secluded area right next to it that is great for snorkeling. I think the taxi ride is $8 per person round trip but it's been 2 years since we have been there so don't quote me on that. Good luck!

Aruba a couple weeks ago.  

Well, we had to move the cruise back a week due to snow days pushing school late. So now we are going to Jamaica, Cozumel and Grand Cayman. I am bummed to miss Costa Maya but excited to visit Grand Cayman for the 1st time. We missed it last year due to a medical emergency. 

As you can see in my signature, we have done Adventure a number of times (7) and have Freedom booked for several as well. We base the ship off of where we want to cruise from (mainly San Juan) so we are at the mercy of RC. Luckily, we loved Adventure and Freedom is also wonderful! 

@Vacation Crazy, @twangster answered the questions exactly as I would have. They aren't private but we didn't feel like people were looking at us all of the time or anything. The sun just depends. A few times, it was very sunny but I like it that way! I think 9406 will be a bit more shaded due to the side walls. 9404 only has the wall on 1 side so the sun really came onto the balcony if it was positioned right. We had full sun mostly all day coming back from the ABCs on the final sea day. 

1 hour ago, Vacation Crazy said:

Hope you had a great trip!  How did you like your aft balcony?  We are in a deep freeze here.  I'm dreaming of our Southern Caribbean cruise!!

We did have a wonderful trip, thank you! I have attached some pictures of stateroom 9404 on Freedom of the Seas. Honestly, we probably wouldn't book it again. I've heard great things about aft cabins and I wouldn't hesitate to book another aft, but not this corner aft on deck 9. I have read that corner aft balconies below deck 9 get bigger as you do further down and we could see that to be true by looking at the ship from port. The cabin category is 6D which I believe is the cheapest (smallest) balcony category and it definitely felt small. We had less storage than previous balconies and it had the smaller couch rather than full size.

As you can see, there was a large beam on the balcony that caused some issues with the chair arrangement. There were 2 lounge chairs, 2 regular chairs and a table but there wasn't enough room to use all of them so the loungers stayed stacked together and were used as a foot rest  The views were great though and we have no complaints there! We knew the people next to us in cabin 9406 and so we got to see their balcony and it was HUGE! We are booked in that cabin next year and I'm excited to try that out for ourselves! I believe the room is still a bit smaller but at least the balcony is a little more functional. After a day or so, we were fine with the size of our room. 

Hope this helps everyone!

45 minutes ago, Matt said:

Cozumel: Paradise Beach is pretty close (maybe a 10 minute car ride)

Costa Maya: Krazy Lobster is a short taxi ride. I love Maya Chan but the taxi ride over would be no bueno for your son.

Thanks @Matt! I was actually looking at Paradise Beach and saw that it might be a good fit for us. I will check out Krazy Lobster! Just excited to be back on board Liberty!

Thank you @WAAAYTOOO! I appreciate the input! I will be looking into those!

5 hours ago, Matt said:

Regarding the car sick issue, does that mean no car/bus at all? Or short rides are okay?

Shorter rides are fine (15-20 mins) and if they aren't real crazy, maybe a little longer  

Hello all! We (myself, husband and 2 kids) are going on Liberty out of Galveston in May and I am in need of a few beach recommendations. We are stopping in Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Roatan. We've been to Cozumel but haven't been to the other 2 ports. I am looking for beaches that are semi close to the port due to 1 kiddo having car sick issues at times. We plan to be there for 4-5 hours. I have done some research on the blog (of course) and have a few good ideas but thought I'd reach out for a few more before making our decision! I am not necessarily wanting/needing an all inclusive but am not opposed to it if the price is right.  

Thanks so much for the input!! 

31 minutes ago, Matt said:

Was it @mpoole3?

While I do agree that @mpoole3 is a great guy and I've learned a lot from him, sadly he wasn't at my table last week!  

This was so much fun to read! We were on the same cruise and also enjoyed the cruise immensely. I really liked reading about it from someone else's perspective. This was our first time on Freedom and we liked it a lot. The service was great and we enjoyed the entertainment as well. We missed the last production show but are getting back on Freedom in December so will catch it then. We really have no complaints for the week other than the liquid sunshine in St. Maarten! 

For anyone going to the ABC's and wanting to eat on the island....we HIGHLY recommend Perla Del Mar in Curacao for a delicious steak/seafood dinner on the water and West Deck in Aruba on the water. We did dinner at both restaurants this week and can't say enough about them. They are both about a 20 minute walk from the ship, depending on where you are docked. In Bonaire, we love going to Karel's Beach Bar about 10 mins from the ship for a beer and/or coffee over the water. I love the ABCs!! Can't wait to be back there on the NYE group cruise!  

We sat with the Top Cruiser on board last week on Freedom, that was the closest I've come to meeting a celebrity on board, hahaha. He has 2900 cruise points!  I learned a great deal from him and he was a great guy. 

4 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

@lauraodonnell86  me too!!! Although they banned personal devices at my center so I just use one of my multiple monitors for cruise-related things, LOL.

Bummer! I dread the day that happens in ours. That's the only way I get through the long 12 hour midnight shifts!! 

14 hours ago, coneyraven said:

I'm sort of a +2 on this --- only it's multiple tabs, pages open, so I can switch from work pages to this page.

Since I am a 911 dispatcher, I have 6 monitors for work and 1 personal computer to surf cruise stuff. Good thing my job forces me to be a good multitasker!  Counting down the days until Freedom! 8 days!

We have done several B2Bs and it is nice having the same room but if you don't, it is very easy to move. Last January on Jewel, they knew we were moving to another room and got that room ready for us early so we were in that room by 11am(ish) and unpacking our stuff. They moved our luggage and our hanging items. We were able to upgrade for free last year from a balcony to a Junior Suite due to a large price drop so we took the upgrade since we'd never been in a Junior before. B2Bs are the best and I'd move from one cabin to the complete opposite end of the ship if it meant I got to stay on another week! Enjoy!