We usually take land vacations in the Caribbean or Mexico and stay in smaller boutique style resorts

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We usually take land vacations in the Caribbean or Mexico and stay in smaller boutique style resorts. This time we didn't travel italy want to be lying out in the sun all day, so I thought a cruise would give us a balance between the beach and non sun activities. We wanted to take an easy week long jaunt and I wanted to go somewhere that we hadn't been before. We decided on a cruise to Belize, Honduras, travel italy Grand Cayman and Cozumel. travel italy Belize sounded intriguing to me and cave tubing was just the adventure that we needed.
We booked right before the whole Carnival Triumph fiasco. Talk about horrible timing! If I would have known what was going to happen I may not have booked, but since we booked late, past the final payment date, we were going no matter what. Any vacation is a good vacation. We booked too late to get an early saver rate, so we couldn t get price reductions.
For our pre cruise night we were fortunate to get a room on points at the Hyatt Coral Gables. We have stayed at Hyatt Hotels in Cancun, Maui and Aruba in the past and never used any of our points. I was happily surprised that we qualified for a free room. The Hyatt Coral Gables is an older distinguished hotel that has a Spanish hacienda vibe to it. It isn t on the beach so we had to settle for a few hours lounging by the pool. I would definitely stay there again for a short stay. They had interesting breakfast travel italy selections like key lime waffles and orange French toast. travel italy Their concierge was helpful in suggesting a Cuban restaurant, Azucar, for dinner. We shared several tapas dishes and listened to live music from the Cuban band.
Since we had FTTF we slept in a little travel italy and left the hotel around 10 AM. It was an easy twenty minute cab ride from the hotel to the airport. We made sure to tell the porters at the terminal that we had FTTF, so they would put the special tags on our luggage. My husband travel italy had money out to tip the porters, but it turned me off when one of the porters said We re the ones who make sure your bags get on the ship. It sounded like a threat the way he said it. We gave him the money and had no problems, but it wasn t a very welcoming way to start the trip.
There wasn t much of a line when we went in but we were still routed to the special travel italy FTTF line and got through the check in desk quickly. Then we sat and waited travel italy and waited. We were able to go on the ship in the first round of passengers. It was very convenient. We were able to go directly to our room, drop off our carry-on luggage and meet the room steward travel italy who was nice. We saw our luggage on carts by the elevators and our room steward later put the luggage inside our room for us. We gave him a pre tip and asked him to leave out the towel animals from each day and to make sure I had an extra towel for my hair. The second day he took apart the towel animal travel italy so I put a note on the next one saying Please don t destroy me. From then on he left them all in our room. I really look forward to the towel animals and kept a small zoo of them on our sofa!!
On the first day I wanted to have the ceviche from the Fish and Chips station because it s something I forgot travel italy to try on my prior cruises, so off we went on a quest. Ceviche from Mexico is one my favorite vacation foods, but the Carnival version isn t quite as good. I don t know if I would search it out again. My husband tried the Octopus salad from the same area and didn t like it very much.
On our first day we hung out on the Lido deck listening to music in front of the Tequila Bar. I had a funship special for my first drink and it packed a punch. My husband got picked to do some dancing to the Tequila song. We stayed for the line dancing since that s my favorite. I requested the electric slide for the 80 s crowd and the DJ played it. It was a good start to the cruise!
We mostly ate in the MDR and had Your Time Dining. On our first night the hostess asked us what kind of a table we wanted and we told her a two person. We were in an awkward travel italy table seated on the L side of the hostess station in a long line of two person tables. Later in the cruise we were seated twice at a very nice table by a window on the right. We made friends with the drink waiters since we ordered from them each night. We had a special occasion one night and ordered a very nice bottle of Prosecco.
I was looking forward to the escargot since it s one of our favorites and it was delicious. I told my husband to order two of the escargot travel italy dishes because I mistakenly thought they only served two on the dish. Instead we were both served two dishes of six escargot which were a bit much. I think I ve had enough escargot for a while but it was really nice to see it back on the menu. I ordered a vegetarian Indian dish one night. I usually don t like vegetables but it was really spicy and tasted great. We only remembered to try the Taste Bar once and we liked it. I wish we would have remembered to go more often.
We ate at the dinner buffet twice instead of in the MDR. The first time was the Belize day since I was so tired. We had seafood newburg from the buffet and contrary to some reports, we both thought it was pretty good. They didn t seem to have a good variety of soup or desserts in the buffet even though they have such great hot and cold soup selections in the MDR. They should have a large pot of both a hot and a cold soup each night at the buffet which would be a great inexpensive addition. I couldn t find the warm chocolate melting cake on the buffet which was probably for the best. By going to the buffet we missed the Bitter and Blanc which we seem to have done each cruise we ve been on.
When I heard that the Liberty had the Alchemy bar in it, I was excited since I like trying different martinis. I tasted the Spicy Chipotle Pineapple Martini and Forty is the New Twenty. The spicy martini was something I ordered a few times since it was so good but make sure you also order water. My husband really liked a drink called a Negroni when we were in Barbados travel italy several years ago. When he asks for one in our area most bartenders have no clue what he s talking about. My husband made a friend with the Alchemy bartender, travel italy Dario who also likes them. For those who ve never tried one, it has gin, Campari and vermouth in it. My husband says that Dario made a great Negroni. We also enjoyed hanging out with Inna and Jovanna at the Alchemy Bar. One of them made a special very spicy drink for another patron who was braver than I am. If you want a drink with more of a kick to it, just ask them. The Alchemy travel italy bar is a great addition to the ship for the discerning adult crowd.
I love going to piano bars which is one of the reasons we continue to cruise on Carnival. We ve been to piano bars on land vacations on several Caribbean islands over the years. Peter Brenner, who seems like a low key kind of guy, was the piano player travel italy on the Liberty. He had a good list of songs that he knows to choose from but was more than willing to try to play anything that was suggested. If he didn t know a specific song, he would play another travel italy from the same artist or would try to learn it for another night. We liked him a lot. We talked about obscure Billy Joel songs with him and he played the song, James from Turnstiles for us which was a treat.
The first night in the piano bar it was so freezing that I actually ordered a specialty coffee to warm up. The rest of the week I made sure I wore capris and it didn t seem so cold. I think they may have adjusted the temperature. The lights in the piano bar amused us as they had a mind of their own. They would suddenly dim or all come on at once. It was like divine intervention. Ahhhh!
I m an eighties girl and my sweet husband humored me by going to the eighties dance hour in the nightclub one night. They overestimated the crowd s taste for Michael Jackson, but they did play a few fun one hit wonders. They also played my favorite, the Electric Slide. travel italy We had a good time!
The atrium lobby is another good venue to listen to live music. One night in the piano bar one of the singers on board stopped in and sang a song. We happened to be in Atrium lobby the next day when he started his regular set so we stayed for it. He had a great voice. We also enjoyed listened to a duo there one night before dinner.
I was disappointed that they changed the rules (probably to save money) and we weren t eligible to attend the Past Guest Party. They also stopped having the Fun Farewell Party. They were both events that we enjoyed and made us feel special on past cruises. I was looking forward to going to them again and was disappointed that I couldn t.
We always find favorite food to order on our vacations and this time it was the huevos rancheros and arepas at the Blue Iguana Cantina. I have since tried to find arepas at the supermarket and at Spanish restaurants in our area to no avail. The ones that I have found don t have the same sweet corn taste to them.
On the sea days we lounged in the Serenity area. There was an interesting incident that occurred on our first sea day. As always the area was full. A really nice older gentleman had been sitting next to us but he left and a couple who seemed like they had too much to drink then sat in the chairs. I was in the ladies room for the beginning of the incident so I didn t actually witness it. When I came back my husband told me that the couple next to us were arguing and rolling travel italy around on the ground. I was surprised that security didn t come and break it up. Several people left the area. My husband isn t fazed easily and just stayed there until they calmed down.
Cave tubing in Belize was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities. Everyone who knows me has been surprised that I chose to do this but when we go on vacation I m more adventurous