At the end of March beginning of April my mom and I took an eight-day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. There is only one word to describe the experience- fantastic! The ship (Carnival Liberty) was huge, clean, fun and had the most wonderful staff. Except for several rain showers, the weather was beautiful and we got to visit all 5 islands as planned. Here is a short overview of the trip.
We flew to Ft. Lauderdale on Skybus Airlines on Friday (plane was late and kept everyone wondering if we were to make it that night to FL at all) and next day were on the ship. Saturday and Sunday was spent on the ship on the ocean with plenty of various activities, tons of great food, several swimming pools, live-music, shows, drinks and much more. Even though we didn't spend much time there our room was fairly large and cleaned by room service people twice a day.
First stop we made was Puerto Rico. We got there at 6PM and only had till 11.30PM to visit a few of many jewelry stores and streets of San Juan. This town is very historical and is very beautiful at night time. Witold, a gift store assistant from Poland, and Barb and Brenda from Kansas City, MO who we met at dinner, joined us- we all had a good time exploring narrow steets of San Juan.
The next day we arrived to St. Thomas and from the port we went straight to Magen Bay- one of the most beautiful beaches out there with tons of sun, white sand and teal water. After some sunbathing we went back to the ship, ate lunch and went for some shopping in downtown where one could find D&G purses for $50 and sunglasses by Channel for only $10!
The following day we were in Antigua- the weather was not as nice as we hoped so instead of hitting the beach we took a tour of the island. The driver took us to Nelson’s museum, showed couple of panoramic views and drove us through the rain forest. Antigua didn’t impress us much- the beaches that we passed were amazing and I am sure the resorts were absolutely gorgeous, but overall, the island looked dirty and not taken care of. The most impressing things that I saw in Antigua were huge crabs randomly hiding in the street rain gutters.
Next morning we were in Tortola where we rented a car to take our own tour of the island. It was entertaining to drive a car on the left hand side on steep and narrow with sharp turns mountain roads. Some of those roads shown on the map were not recommended by local police- as one policeman said he was not sure where that road would take us or whether it even existed.
Tortola Island was a lot nicer and the weather was beautiful- warm enough to hang out by the beach but not as hot and humid. We drove a circle around the island, stopped by Sage Mountain National Park, visited couple of beaches. Overall, it was a nice visit.
After that another day was spent on the ocean, relaxing by the pool, drinking pina coladas and reading one of several books that we brought with us on board.
Final stop was Bahamas and as my mom said, ‘If there is a paradise on earth then Bahamas is that place.’ As soon as we arrived in Nassau, we took a cab and rode to Paradise Island, visited Atlantis Aquarium and hung out by the beach. Afterwards, we took a nice walk on the beach, did some more shopping and were back on the ship heading to Ft. Lauderdale. The trip was over!
Once we arrived to Ft. Lauderdale we got some bad news- Skybus Airlines went out of business while we were cruising! So, our plan to visit Key West was changed to a brief visit to South Beach in Miami. Thanks to my wonderful husband we already had arrangements with U.S. Airways to fly back home.
Note: Experience with U.S. Airways was pretty bad and a word of advice- if you can avoid it, do not fly it!
More photos from the trip are available in Travel Albums 2008 section.
