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Give me Liberty annnd an $18 DX Package? I'll Take it! Liberty of the Seas Feb 16-23 Western Caribbean


GregD

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30 minutes ago, emsff02 said:

Well, I did it again, and forgot to get pictures of our dinners for the people that like them. Heather said that @Matt and @Lovetocruise2002 are going to suspend my live blogging privileges ??

It’s ok. You get a pass for forgotten MDR dinners. If it was CK that would be another issue. ?

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Sea Day #2

I woke up this morning and made my way to the cafe promenade to repair my caffeine to blood ratio, and did a few laps around the outside of deck 4.

Here is our current location 

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I can see land off in the distance.

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We don’t have too many plans for the day other than some relaxing. My daughter did want to do the cupcake decorating class so we do have that. There will be more pool time. I’m going to try to get some time on the slides etc. There will be some trivia, which I will lose, some more beverages etc. 

some stray observations: As would be expected, the crew is very dedicated and friendly, but I feel are even more so than the crew we had on Navigator. They seem to be engaging us, and the kids (which I feel is more important) more enthusiasticly.

The ship is very clean. When on Navigator, the level of house keeping seemed to be lower. Every day the hallways were full of room service trays sitting outside stateroom doors for hours and hours. Here this is far less. The pool decks are also swept of empty glasses etc quickly it seems. 
 

Now I know these are subjective observations and can vary from sailing to sailing and experience to experience but it has stuck out in my mind.

I have not posted to many pictures of the ship. @twangster has a great blog when he was on Liberty with outstanding pictures. If anyone out there in the blogosphere wants something specific, let me know and I will seek it out.

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I wonder if there's a direct correlation between the tasty drinks and the incorrect trivia answers...I suggest more research to confirm.

Although you already got more musician instruments right than I would have. Eric Clapton and Louis Armstrong probably would have been it for me.

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Round 3

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the winning team had a younger kid with them. I didn’t stand a chance....

Just now, Vangrizz said:

I wonder if there's a direct correlation between the tasty drinks and the incorrect trivia

Research is in progress. I can say for the first round, the questions were HARD. The winning team got 4 correct.

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Just now, jcackler said:

Where did all those dogs come from?    I have a music degree and I didn't know half of the musicians/instruments.  What do the little lines by them mean?  Oddly enough I know Julian Lloyd Weber plays the cello.... but that's pretty obscure...

All the dogs are characters in some sort of show/cartoon and the object was to name the dog. The little lines were ones we completely guessed on. Julian Webber we guessed piano based on his brother. 

 

Just now, ellcee said:

Love the formal night family pictures!

Thank you! It’s not often we get to dress up all fancy, so when we do, we like to go all out.

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Round 4, Winner winner chicken dinner! Full disclosure, just about everyone was a winner this round. The poor host is new to the entertainment team, and was just given an iPad by her coworker and told her to go. The original objective was supposed to be name that TV tune. It turned into just “name that tune, with the most obvious answers ever” She played about 25 seconds of each tune, and played the chorus of each song that named the tune she was playing. Thankfully everyone was gracious and applauded her efforts, and a good time was had by all. While going over the answers, she played each song again and it turned into one big giant sing along. Prize is a RC keychain.
 

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1 hour ago, Vangrizz said:

I wonder if there's a direct correlation between the tasty drinks and the incorrect trivia answers...I suggest more research to confirm.

Although you already got more musician instruments right than I would have. Eric Clapton and Louis Armstrong probably would have been it for me.

I would have gotten Ravi Shankar.  That's the only other one I recognized !  ...that's b/c I am very old.

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So back to yesterday. Following the trivia, we let the kids hit the pools before dinner. The kids really like the splash away bay and would stay there the entire day. 
 

Earlier, Lydia did the cupcake class. She said she had a lot of fun doing that. Here are some pictures of that. We originally did not sign up for this, but got cornered while at breakfast the other day. Lydia promptly exclaimed she wanted to do that as soon as the crew member asked about it. How can you say no after that. We did get it for 30% off at least.

 

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Dinner time. For fun we got all matchy matchy. Here are some pictures of the fam. FD5BF5AC-008B-4097-BDC6-765E8141F962.thumb.jpeg.5e924df425e52b73fc725af80164efe3.jpeg
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This time I remembered to take some food pictures. 
 

Appetizers consisted of, escargot, Roasted Poblano Soup, and the Arugula and Radicchio Salad with Goat Cheese. 
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For entree’s we had the braised beef short ribs, creamy wild mushroom risotto, and the lasagna. I’m still trying to figure out why Heather ordered the lasagna. I’m Italian, and MDR lasagna doesn’t stand a chance against my homemade lasagna. As expected, she didn’t like it. Oh well.

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For dessert, there was some cheesecake, chocolate cake, and a warm apple fritter that Lydia had.

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Following dinner, there were some more beverages and adult time while the kids went to adventure ocean. 
Later that evening was the 80’s music trivia face party which we held on the promenade and was a blast. The cruise director Cory was all decked out in 80’s wear complete with big hair and the promenade was rocking. I pity the people who have those rooms. It’s got to be loud in them when all these parties happen.

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(Getting caught up finally) Wednesday morning we woke up approaching Roatan. For the day today, we had a tour booked with Bodden Tours. We booked their "Best of Roatan" private tour. We had our own driver for the day, and we were able to customize the day how we wanted. The tour base cost is 2 Guests - $40 per person, 3 Guests - $30 per person, 4 or more Guests -- $25 per person, Children UNDER age 5 are No Charge. This cost gets you the driver for the day, and "you are the boss" and can choose what to do for the day. There are many popular upgrades and activites that you can choose to do that you specify when you are booking. Everything is done via a web form then email. Their communication is great, and they promptly respond to your emails to them. We chose to go to Victor's Monkey business and sloth sanctuary, a $5 charge. We also added horseback riding along the beach $45, and then a beach visit. We were originally scheduled for Sol Y Mar for $10 but they recently doubled the cost of their day visit, so we chose west bay beach, still $10. The horse back riding is through http://www.barriodorcasranch.com/ and you make arrangements with the directly and CC victor bodden tours and everything gets set up.

After room service breakfast we headed off the ship. The port area is full of companies trying to get people to choose them for excursions, and is a bit hectic. It was a really crazy day since we were joined by the Norwegian Getaway. We were also joined by a Carnival Ship That I didn't see until we were sailing away later that evening.

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After getting off the ship, and heading through the excursion gauntlet, we awaited our driver among the organized chaos. 

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All of these cars are awaiting their passengers for excursions. Shortly after we met our driver William. He was very friendly and quite informative as we headed off. Our first stop on our tour was an elevated area that overlooks the port. It was great for photo ops. Johnny wasn't in the mood for pictures yet.

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Driving along the beach is allowed in Roatan, and this was while driving on the beach. This is a mangrove tree.

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As we drove along, it was apparent that the cruise port is in the poorer section of the Island. William mentioned that the island has segregated itself by class too. All of the wealthier people live in nice houses along the western side of the island, while the poorer people live in the East. Prices are higher because everything has to be shipped in. He says that the majority of the locals depend on the cruise ships for their income. He told us about his daughter who is in school. All students go to school in either the public or private schools. They all wear the same uniforms and go in shifts. He said his daughter usually goes tot he private school, but will switch to public school depending on money during the low season for the cruise ships. The same is similar for their health care. If you have insurance, you can go tot he private hospital and receive pretty good care. If not, you can go to the government funded hospital, where you will get care based on what they have on hand at the time. He mentioned that many times, the families of the patients will have to go to the pharmacies to purchase the medications that the patients need because the hospital does not have them. 

He believes things will improve for the Island as well because there are now multiple flights coming directly from the States and Canada on major airlines now, so he hopes the tourism dollars increase. If anyone is thinking of buying property there, there is plenty for sale. Ocean front lots run about $1,000,000

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After our drive around the island, we headed to "Victors Monkey Business" which is their own animal sanctuary, complete with other activities including ziplines etc. We were quickly ushered in and waited our turn for as Julie said was "the best day of her life"

The first part of their sanctuary we got to interact with some Capuchin Monkeys. These guys were quite friendly if you had treats for them. They had no problem landing on our shoulders and heads. Julie tried, but he wasn't interested in a selfie.

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We saw a few other monkeys, there were some howler monkeys, and spider monkeys, but they weren't interested in photo opportunities. We passed a Toucan who was more than willing to pose, 

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before heading into a pen to see some Macaws. 

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We got this guy to land on my head......

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Now the question needs to be asked.......

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Yes......yes the colorful chickens have very large talons.....

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Next we headed to the moment we have all been waiting for, which seemed like a lifetime.

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If you thought it couldn't get any cuter. Here is a 26 day old baby sloth sleeping with his mother.

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Did I mention that we got to hold them too? This guy was 11 months old.

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Julie may or may not still be crying.....

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Afterwards, Julie had to ask the sloth if he approved of her shirt (which is a sleepy sloth riding on a Llama). We believe he said yes, but it was taking him so long to nod that we had to get back to the ship before he could finish.

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Sadly, our time with the sloths ended, and we headed through the rest of the park. We met some more friendly animals.

We saw some iguanas, 

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An Amazon Parrot 

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and some white tailed deer. These guys are much smaller that the deer we see in the states. These guys are full grown. They are also a protected species on Roatan.

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Following our visit to the park, we headed to our next stop which was horse back riding along the beach. This was something Heather has wanted to do for a long time. Bucket List Item ✔️

I don't have as many pictures from this because it isn't exactly easy to take pictures from the back of a moving horse.

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After our trip along the beach on the horses, the benefit of having our own dedicated guide became quite apparent. Our plan was to go to the beach for a bit. William informed us that all the other guides had a group chat going. It was at this time that we learned of the third ship (Carnival) was in port as well, and that all of the beaches were very crowded and that finding a place to sit and get chairs etc would be very hard at this point. We headed there to check some out. He showed us one that wasn't as crowded, but there was no place to change, use the bathroom etc so that one was quickly crossed off the list. We went to another spot that had amenities, but would cost $10/pp. This place really didn't have any beach, so there was a quick veto from the kids. After a brief discussion among the group, we decided that our fun buckets were overflowing, so we would head back to an empty ship and enjoy that.

We were quickly whisked away by William and headed back to the port. Overall we had an amazing time there. We highly recommend Bodden Tours if you are ever in Roatan. 

Back at the port we grabbed a quick snack of some amazing tacos for $3,IMG_0316.thumb.JPG.9a55cf8b1516abf6434f2a7cf1272314.JPG

Next to the taco stand was a place touting the benefits of fish therapy. Yup that's and actual thing. People pay money....

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to let fish eat the dead skin off their feet....

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This couple that let me take their picture said it felt kind of wHeird.....

These are the supposed benefits of this.

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I'll pass.....

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Back on the ship, we went to check out the water slides. Lydia and I tried out the perfect storm slides. She was too light to do the other one. I’m wondering if there is an issue with all the water pumps back there. The flowrider has been out of commission all week. With the slides, they were not fast at all. I actually had to push myself out the bottom of them. They were almost painful when you went over each joint in to tube. Oh well, ✔️ those off the list of completed activities. One trip each in each color of the slides then we spent the rest of the afternoon soaking in the hot tubs and drinking rum punches. 
 

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Wednesday evening was Caribbean night, so we all got dudded up in our finest Caribbean wear and headed to dinner. (Sorry about the rotated pictures. For what ever reason, when on the mobile site, if you choose a smaller size, the pictures rotate. We are going through some rough weather right now, and Voom seems spotty and slow) 

The menu:

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Appetizers included escargot, burrata, and the crab cakes.

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Entreé choices included the ahi spiced tuna, and  the roasted beef strip loin.

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We all chose the Grand Marnier Soufflé. (Favorite dessert of the week so far)

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There was a little bit of wandering around after dinner. Johnny and I ended up seeing the parade of room attendants on the promenade. They all were carrying towel animals. One was given to him, which made his day.

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later, we headed to Studio B to catch the ice show Encore, An Ice Spectacular. This was a “review” of musing through the years, from Broadway Musicals to modern pop and rock. I though it was interesting, it started off with Phantom of The Opera, which they must not have a full license for, because they changed the lyrics for the show. 
 

The skating and the choreography was very good. There were plenty of spins, triples, flips, lifts etc. I did feel bad, one skater was having an off night, and just could not land his jumps. The show still was very enjoyable.

Love and Marriage came later. Always entertaining. 

The evening was topped though by accidentally twinning with the cruise director, Cory.

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@emsff02 Its kind of sad. As a child we went on a field trip with monkeys, I was about 8. My best friend, Adam, was playing with this monkey who kept touching his butt, laughing and sticking his finger in my bff ear. Adam caught a bacterial infection and couldn't fight it and passed away. I was 8 so I was devastated and blamed monkey's for their filthiness. Every time I see a monkey stealing peoples goods or digging in its butt it brings up horrible feelings. I just think they are the worst animals and can die in a fire...I said what I said. ...Also I don't know why Hawaiian shirts get such a bad rep?

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