Day 3 of Liberty Cruise~Cozumel

We were up bright and early again for our first port day.  This is a port that we were docked right at the port, so you just get off the boat and walk to your destination.

We visited Cozumel on our last cruise and enjoyed touring the island with a guide.  This time we thought we would go explore on our own.  We walked to the place where you can get a taxi ride to anywhere on the island and headed over to Chankanaab National Park.  The ride over was maybe ten to fifteen minutes or so, and it was a pleasant drive.  We were one of the first people to arrive at Chankanaab so we felt like we had the place to ourselves.

It was somewhat cold and windy so we were not sure it was quite beach weather.  Luckily there was lots of other things to pick from along with the beach.  We headed to the ruins first.

After the ruins, we walked over to see the beach area.  It was still pretty cloudy and windy, but we figured we could sit and read books and still enjoy the view.  We stopped for a few minutes to see the trainers working with the dolphins.  We settled onto the beach and ordered chips and salsa to munch on.

After hanging out here for some time and being asked multiple times if we wanted a massage, we finally said yes and I'm so glad we did.  It was a wonderful massage and it was a great price.  We decided to wander around the park after the massage and see what else there was.  There was a lagoon, alligators, a Tequila tour, gift shop and everywhere we went, it was beautiful.

We heard a Sea Lion show in progress, so we joined that even though we missed much of it.  Afterwards, they let you come up and get a picture taken with the sea lion kissing you.

We headed back over to the dolphin swim area after the show and sat for about an hour watching people swim with the dolphins and the trainers do tricks with them.  It seemed well organized and it also looked like it was done with smaller groups of people which is probably nice.  We just enjoyed watching the dolphins, especially the ones that weren't "working".

I could have sat there all day long, just watching them swim and jump but we were getting hungry and the weather still was not fabulous so we decided to head back.  It was late afternoon by then, so we knew we had just enough time to board the ship and get ready to be first in line for dinner.  We took another taxi back to the ship and spent a few minutes looking around at the market near the dock.

It looked like a lot of other people decided it was time to head back when we did.  As you can see, it is still very overcast and windy but the temperatures were very nice so we still enjoyed our day here.

Back on the ship we rested for a few minutes and then started getting ready for dinner.  We still had a full night of activities ahead of us so the day was nowhere near done yet.  I only grabbed a few pictures while we were at dinner and they were dancing and singing for us.

We had a great day and were exhausted when we fell into bed.  This was only the first port day, with three more to come.  Tomorrow is Belize!

Day Two of Liberty Cruise~Day at Sea

Day two of the cruise was a sea day.  We decided the day before to spend this day on the Serenity Deck, which is our version of a spa day.  We love this space more than words can describe.  We noticed that the little wicker pods that we wanted to sit in only had one that had a cover though.  So Nathan got up at 6 am to snag that one and only pod and I joined him a few hours later.

We sat and relaxed and read all day long.  Yes, all day long.  We only got up to use to eat or use the bathroom.  It was awesome!  I could see and hear all that was going on down at the Lido deck while relaxing on our deck.  Perfect!  Only one shot of the food today because I got so relaxed here, I didn't even take many pictures.

Day One of Carnival Liberty Seven Day Cruise

We have been so busy with other things, we haven't really spent much time focusing on our upcoming cruise that we booked months ago.  Nathan booked it for us thinking that after the wedding and due to my dad's death landing on the holidays, that I could probably use it.  He was so right with that!  Still, I did very little planning for this cruise compared to the others so I was a little concerned that it might not go as well as the others have.  I am happy to report that I had no reason to be concerned because the cruise was fabulous.

We headed down to Miami the night before and had family time.  We exchanged Christmas gifts, played games and then we spent the night at Amibr's gorgeous new apartment.  Here is a shot of Daniel and my mom chatting.  I wish I had thought to take more pictures that night, and of the apartment but I didn't think of until bedtime.

The next morning, we were up bright and early.  Ambir took us to the port, which was wonderful!  It saved a lot of time and hassle and we joked that would be our new means of port transportation from here on out if we could pick.  We checked in and sat down in the waiting area.  We had Faster To The Fun, so we only waited about fifteen minutes before we were on the ship.  We loved having FTTF! Best money we spent for the cruise and we will always try to do this in the future.  Not only did we get to board early, we were able to go to our room right away.  So we headed there first thing.  We loved our room this time.  It was huge compared to our two other cruises and it was very bright and cheery inside.

Now off to explore the Liberty.  This is the biggest ship we have cruised on so far and she is a beauty!

We were quickly distracted by the food.  This ship has The Blue Iguana and Guy's Burgers.  I read online that both could be busy once we were sailing, so we took advantage of an almost empty ship and tried both right away.  I tried the Mexican food and Nathan tried the burger.  We both thought they were very good!!

After our meal, we went to find our favorite place on the ship, the Serenity Deck.  We found it pretty quickly because it was right by the food.  It was also located right above/next to the Lido deck, so I'm not sure how much serenity there will be due to the noise down below, but we decided to plant ourselves there for the Sailaway Party to find out.

We stayed here through the party, and nope, not much serenity going on but it was still a kid free zone and had gorgeous views so we were happy.  We loved being close enough to the action for the party that we could hear/see it but not have to be in the congested area.  So it was a win-win for us.  Just a bit of the Sailaway Party fun:

After the party, we decided to head back to our rooms and get ready for dinner.  We had Anytime Dining, which we also love.  We have done that all three cruises and hope to continue to do it.  After getting a bit dressed up, we went up one short deck to our dining room and were seated immediately.  Dinner was great, the food was very good and we enjoyed the whole meal.

After dinner we walked around the ship some more.  I loved that there were Christmas decorations up on the ship.  It was so festive.  It was like getting a Christmas cruise without having to put up with the crowd that would be there for an actual Christmas cruise.  We heard Christmas carols being sung, and went to enjoy that and while there we had an extra surprise: snow!  Yes, they had snow coming down from the ceiling which added to the holiday spirit.

When we were done with the singing and exploring, we headed back to our room to chill for the rest of the night.  We knew we wanted to be up very early so we planned to go to bed early.  Our towel animal and bedtime mints were waiting for us.

We can tell already that there will be a lot of goodness packed into this cruise.  We can't wait to have tons of fun for the next six days!