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Blogging Photography Travel

My Carnival Liberty Vacation 2022

And now Week 4 of my 7-week series on my 8-day fun-filled vacation on the Carnival Liberty out of Miami Florida.

Back in 2019 when I was thinking about booking my next Carnival cruise after a fun 7-day cruise on the Carnival Glory I knew that I wanted to return to Aruba and Curaçao on my next cruise. The last time I visited new islands for the first time on a cruise was back in October 2012 on the Carnival Valor when I stepped foot on Dominican Republic, Curaçao, and Aruba on 3 successive days. That was an awesome 8-day cruise – seeing and exploring new lands for the first time ever.

When I saw that the Carnival Horizon (a new ship) was sailing from Miami to Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao – I was intrigued. Bonaire was the missing link from that October 2012 cruise. I’d be able to conquer all 3 of the ABC Islands if I booked that cruise. Bonaire is a fairly new port-of-call for Carnival (since January 2015), and it appears that they will be sailing there more often – and perhaps to Curaçao less often.

So I booked that Carnival Horizon cruise to the ABC Islands in February 2020 for January 2021 that was ultimately canceled (due to the pandemic). I then rebooked it for exactly a year (52 weeks) later in January 2022. The older Carnival Liberty replaced the Carnival Horizon for several sailings in January (including mine). Despite the downgrade in the ship – I was still excited about this cruise to the 3 small islands down at the south-end of the Caribbean. I would have loved to sail on that much newer cruise ship, but the bigger reason that I booked this cruise was the unique itinerary to all 3 of the ABC Islands on 3 consecutive days in alphabetical order.

So back to my story. It’s Day 5, and the 2ND-half of my cruise has begun.

Fun Fact: I embarked onto the Carnival Liberty shortly after 11 AM on Saturday January 08TH 2022, and I disembarked shortly after 8 AM on Sunday January 16TH 2022. That’s 189 hours. Half of that is 94½ hours. That would place the exact halfway point of my cruise shortly after 9:30 AM on Wednesday January 12TH 2022 – Bonaire morning !

The Carnival Liberty was the only cruise ship in port that entire day. We had the entire island to ourselves – and the 20,000+ permanent residents of the island.

We arrived in mysterious Bonaire early on that Wednesday morning just after 7 AM ship’s time (Miami Florida) / 8 AM local time. I didn’t have a shore excursion until 12:30 PM, so I had plenty of time to relax on the ship, and to take some nice photos of the island from the top decks.

The port, capital, largest city, and population center is Kralendijk. It’s on the upper-southwest coast of the island that measures about 24 miles from northwest to southeast. It’s about 3 to 5 miles wide at all points. It has a mountain range on its north side with peaks of up to nearly 800 feet above sea level. Bonaire kinda-sorta looks like a distorted Florida geographically that’s been elongated in its panhandle and squished a bit in its peninsula. The mountain range extends from “Pensacola” to “Jacksonville”, and Kralendijk is right along the “Big Bend” area.

I took a nearly 4-hour bus tour of the island (via a Carnival-sponsored shore excursion). I think it was the most popular tour. Our bus driver and tour guide were 2 older Dutch gentlemen with a weird and wacky sense of humor who often derided each other in a somewhat loving way. They were very protective of their somewhat primitive island, and they want it to stay that way and not become another congested Aruba or Curaçao. They did appreciate us (as tourists). They seemed very bitter that (in their general words) the Netherlands gives all of the money to Curaçao to distribute evenly between themselves, Aruba, and Bonaire; yet, Bonaire gets very little of that allocated funding – just a tiny percentage of it. Perhaps some of their comments out loud should not have been so, as they did a bit of political commentating rather than presenting their beautiful island to us.

Nevertheless I enjoyed the tour of the island from the salt flats of the southeast to the mountains of the northwest. I hope to see it again in the future !

I took almost 50 photos of the island. I’ve selected six of the best to present here:

Next #TravelThursday – it’s on to Curaçao.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Photography Travel

My Carnival Liberty Vacation 2022

And now Week 3 of my 7-week series on my 8-day fun-filled vacation on the Carnival Liberty out of Miami Florida.

It’s Day 4 of my cruise, and we arrive in beautiful Aruba early on a Tuesday morning just before 8 AM ship’s time (Miami Florida) / 9 AM local time. I didn’t have a shore excursion until 1 PM, so I had plenty of time to relax on the ship, and to also walk into the downtown area (just off the pier) to take some pictures and do some souvenir shopping.

The port is Oranjestad. Also at the port was a small Church of Scientology cruise ship – and an old familiar friend from a decade ago – the Norwegian Epic (now based out of San Juan Puerto Rico). I sailed on two 7-day cruises on the Epic 13 months apart in December 2011 and January 2013. The first cruise was a lot of fun during the 7 days leading-up to Christmas Eve. The second cruise was not as much fun with various maintenance issues with my cabin and poor customer service. I haven’t sailed on #NCL since, and I don’t plan to anytime soon. But it was cool to see the Epic docked at the port. I wish her and her passengers many happy sailings !

Oranjestad is located on the upper south coast of Aruba. It’s the capital and largest city of Aruba with a 2010 population of over 28,000. Accounting for small growth since then it may be a little over 30,000 today. Aruba itself has a population of between 110,000 and 120,000, so a little over 25% of the nation’s population live within the capital. Aruba is a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It’s located less than 20 miles north of Venezuela and the top of the South American continent. It’s about 20 miles wide from northwest to southeast, and it’s always less than 6 miles from north coast to south coast.

I took an organized bus tour of the island for 4+ hours. I was last on the island in October 2012 (via another Carnival cruise). I did a similar tour back then. Looking back at my photos from 2012 we visited many of the same places on this tour. It was a fun tour that covered the western two-thirds of the island. Our bus driver / tour guide was very knowledgeable, and he had a fun sense of humor.

I took almost 50 photos of the island. I’ve selected six of the best to present here:

Next #TravelThursday – it’s on to Bonaire.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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1980s Blogging Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1987

Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 4TH Friday of the month, so I go back 35 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday February 01ST 1987:

  1. “Someday'” – Glass Tiger
  2. “C’est La Vie” – Robbie Nevil
  3. “Walking Down Your Street” – The Bangles
  4. “Trampolene” – Julian Cope
  5. “I Love My Radio” – Taffy

Julian Cope was one of my favorite singers on the radio in late-1986 and early-1987. His “Saint Julian” album was actually released after his two hit singles from the album – “World Shut Your Mouth” (which actually became a mainstream rock hit stateside) – and “Trampolene”. I liked both songs equally. They were quite hard rock for British Top 40 radio at the time (not known for much rock). I guess both songs could best be described as “psychedelic pop punk”.

Here’s the music video for “Trampolene”:

January / February 1987 was a great time for pop music in my life as a 19½-year-old living in Gloucestershire England. My 2-year U.S. military tour of the region was more than half-done and on the downhill, so I knew that I had to maximize my limited time remaining by exploring the area and enjoying the arts and entertainment when not working at my job.

I attended 2 LIVE concerts in January 1987 – The Human League at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, and Frankie Goes To Hollywood (opened by Berlin led by Terri Nunn) in Birmingham.

Next #RetroFriday I’ll go back 15 years ago to February 2007.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going retro with me !

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Travel Weather

My Carnival Liberty Vacation 2022

And now Week 2 of my 7-week series on my 8-day fun-filled vacation on the Carnival Liberty out of Miami Florida.

So I sailed on a ship that was built between 2003 and 2005. It was my first sailing on the Carnival Liberty, but it was my 7TH Carnival cruise in a row (going back to February 2010) that was on the nearly identical Conquest class ship (Glory, Valor, Liberty, Freedom). The flagship of the class – the Carnival Conquest – I’ve actually never sailed on.

This ship definitely had its issues. It was leaking from the ceiling above on various decks / floors. With a drip-drip here, and a drip-drip there. Here a drip. There a drip. Everywhere a drip-drip. Actually it wasn’t that widespread. Just a few drip-drips in a few spots around the ship, and perhaps a few flooded cabin bathrooms and deck corridors.

I had a few issues in my own cabin. Shortly upon arrival I realized that my mini-fridge had power (a light on), but it was not cooling at all. It appeared to be completely defrosted and warm to the touch. I notified my cabin steward when he introduced himself to me on that first afternoon, and while I was enjoying my fancy steakhouse dinner up on Deck 10 my mini-fridge was swapped out and replaced with one that actually cools. Oh – and my cabin steward left behind my first towel animal of the cruise:

I also left behind a note to my cabin steward on the 2ND morning of the cruise due to barely lukewarm water coming out of the shower and faucet in the bathroom. A technician was there within a few hours, and he fixed it almost immediately. I enjoyed hot showers every day after.

I’ve sailed on Carnival, NCL, Royal Caribbean, and Disney, and all cruise ships have their assorted problems – more so on the older ships. It’s how they respond to the problems that’s important. After 2 Norwegian Epic cruises just 13 months apart in late-2011 and early-2013 I haven’t been on another NCL cruise ship since. The 1ST Epic cruise was fantastic during the week leading-up to Christmas (2011). The 2ND Epic cruise was not such a good experience for me – due mostly to some maintenance issues in my cabin that went unresolved for the entire cruise. I also encountered condescending customer service on that cruise.

But let’s get back to my Carnival Liberty cruise. My cabin steward (Ketut) was awesome. Every time he saw me out in the hallway (which was every day) he enthusiastically greeted me by first name, and I did the same with him. Customer service all around from the cruise staff was wonderful. The “Fun Squad” was friendly. The Cruise Director – Dustin Gabriel – was perhaps one of the most visible and personable Cruise Directors I have encountered on any cruise ship I’ve been on. He was everywhere. I saw him numerous times per day all around the ship. He led many fun activities. He was funny and sarcastic at the right times, and he was also informative and serious when he needed to be. I hope he’s my Cruise Director on a future Carnival cruise !

The itinerary for this cruise included 2 full days at sea (after embarkation day) – followed by Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao (in that order) – and then 2 full days at sea en route back to Miami. Sailing south and east towards and into the southern Caribbean on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday was a bit unsettling for some on the ship as we were sailing against very strong and gusty southeasterly winds the entire way due to a wide pressure gradient between low-pressure and a series of cold fronts to the north – and strong multiple high-pressure centers to the east. The ship did a little bit of rocking and rolling during this early part of the voyage, but then the winds and the seas calmed a bit as we slowly approached Aruba on Tuesday morning – Day 4 of the cruise.

I rarely get seasick on a cruise ship, and I didn’t this time either, but I was ready with the Dramamine on-hand in the event that I did. (I never had to take it.)

And so next #TravelThursday I’ll tell you all about the first port-of-call – Aruba.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp