EXCURSION TO BAMBOO BEACH, JAMAICA

We were very excited to finally visit Jamaica on our recent cruise on Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas. Despite this being our 13th cruise, we had never visited this island. Unfortunately our previously-booked excursion to the Blue Hole was canceled (literally the day we boarded the ship), so we had to choose another excursion for our port stop in Falmouth, Jamaica.

We chose the excursion to Bamboo Beach because it gave us the opportunity to visit a beach and samples of Jamaican food would be served as part of the excursion. It also wasn't an all-day excursion so we would have some time (not enough!) to walk around the cruise port terminal and do some shopping.

It's about an hour and fifteen minute drive from Falmouth to Bamboo Beach. This allowed us to see some of the beautiful countryside scenery of Jamaica...

Bamboo Beach is a really nice beach with lots of sugary sand and turquoise water.

Comfortable beach loungers were available for us under swaying coconut palm and almond trees just steps from the water.

We laid out our beach towels on our loungers and immediately headed into the water. I'm not much of a swimmer, and I am very cautious about burning in the Caribbean sun so I wear a t-shirt over my swimsuit along with a hat and sunglasses. But I absolutely love just wading out in the cool Caribbean water as far as I can. My husband loves laying in the sand and having the waves pummel him. We had so much fun.

I wanted to taste some real Jamaican food and part of this excursion included tapas-size portions of different types of the local dishes. The young women who worked at the beach club served us the food and drinks right at our beach chairs. We were able to sample several different dishes including jerk chicken, cole slaw, spicy sausage, flavorful fried dough, rice and vegetables in a spicy sauce. All were delicious.

We were entertained with some Jamaican dancing by young men and women in traditional costumes.

We really enjoyed our time at the Bamboo Beach Club. It has a really nice beach...

Jamaican reggae music playing under the shade trees...

Souvenirs for sale...

A walk-up bar...

Plenty of beach chairs with great views...

And friendly people...

We would highly recommend it for anyone sailing to Jamaica. 

All photos were taken by my husband and me during our visit to Jamaica in November, 2017. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

CARNIVAL VISTA IN PHOTOS

We planned our 10th cruise onboard the new Vista because we wanted to see the newest, biggest member of the Carnival fleet. The itinerary wasn't my favorite: we had already been to each island more than once, but for this one time we would cruise based solely on the ship, not the itinerary. We did have a wonderful time and the ship is beautiful. Here are some photos...

Carnival Vista is a huge ship: it's 1,055 feet long. Over 1,450 hardworking crew members take care of over 3,950 passengers. Here the ship is docked in Grand Turk.

The beautiful atrium on the Carnival Vista: The 3-story center sculpture sits above the bar and reaches to the ceiling above.

The scenes on the vortex are animated, with the fish, stingrays and seas turtles swimming around as if you were in a large aquarium.

Of course like any cruise ship there are numerous places to drink:
Alchemy Bar...

Piano Bar 88...

Skybox Sports Bar...

Havana Bar...(I love the décor in here!)

Red Frog Rum Bar...they brew their own beer.

There are so many places to relax on the ship...

So many fun things to do...

Soak up that Caribbean sunshine...

Swim in the pools, relax in the whirlpools...

For the kids there's the Waterworks fun area...

 

For the adventurous there's the Skyride...

or the Skycourse obstacle climb...

For the less adventurous there's mini golf and shuffleboard...

Overall Carnival Vista is a wonderful cruise ship.  There is so much to do, so much to eat, so many memories to make and so many new friends to meet.

For more information on Carnival cruises, click on its website here.

Thank you for visiting.

A Great Europe Trip Planner

All photos were taken by me during our cruise in November, 2016. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

WATERLOGUE WISTFULNESS

There is something exciting about seeing a real Dutch windmill for the first time. When I visited Amsterdam a few years ago, I was thrilled to see them dotted along the countryside during train excursions to Delft, the Mauritshuis and the Kröller-Müller Museum. At the Keukenhof Gardens there is a windmill that visitors can actually go inside. Walking up a flight of stairs visitors can see how the giant blades rotate. The photo below shows that windmill along with some of the beautiful trees that were in bloom during my visit.

If you are interested in purchasing variations of this print, please visit my Travels in Watercolor blog by clicking here.

Thank you for visiting,

A Great Europe Trip Planner 

Photo taken by me during my visit to the Keukenhof Gardens in May, 2010.
Waterlogue image created by me.
Unauthorized use is prohibited.

ABOARD THE CARNIVAL LIBERTY

I've written about the five islands we visited on our recent southern Caribbean cruise on Carnival Liberty, but I haven't yet written about the ship itself.

We sailed on Carnival Liberty for three reasons: First, it sailed out of San Juan. I really wanted to revisit San Juan because I fell in love with the city on our previous cruise (see that blog post here). Second reason was it was a ship we had never sailed on before, and third, it sailed the particular itinerary we wanted, specifically to the islands of Barbados and St. Lucia which we had never visited and had always wanted to.

Compared to the last two ships we sailed on, Carnival Liberty is a smaller ship, though at 952 feet in length and 2,974 passengers, it is no dinghy. It is one of Carnival's Conquest-class ships, and in 2011, the ship went through a major refurbishment as part of Carnival's $500 million Fun Ship 2.0 initiative. 

Before I continue with this post, let me reiterate that we loved our time on Carnival Liberty. However, if this ship was refurbished just 4 years ago, it has gone through a lot of wear and tear since, and Carnival has neglected to maintain a few of the refurbished spaces (pools needing paint, light bulbs needing replacement). That being said, 95% of the ship is beautiful, and we enjoyed the majority of our cruise. Therefore, I'm going to give you a tour of the ship by sharing some of my favorite photos.

Our cabin: We had a standard balcony cabin on Deck 6. We are simple travelers; we don't need a suite. However, I must have a balcony...no compromising there. One of the best features of the room was the mattress. The exclusive "Carnival Comfort Bed" was one of the best mattresses I've slept on: firm without being hard and great cushy pillows.

 



The food: Many other Carnival cruise passengers will agree that a Guy's Burger and fries is one of the best food experiences on a Carnival ship. We agree! 

As far as rating the food and the dining overall on this ship, our eating experiences ranged from pretty good to awful. Most of the food was delicious, and the dining room service got better as the week progressed (the first night's service was simple terrible which left us wondering how it would be the remainder of the cruise). The main issue was temperature of the food. Lukewarm really isn't a good thing, but after so many complaints to our waiter, it got to the point where we just dealt with it. I believe one factor was not enough waitstaff per table.

The decor: Here is where I will give a thumbs up. I really liked the way the ship was decorated.

The wrought-iron chandeliers in the public areas had multi-colored lights which changed color constantly. The different colors showed reflections in the floor.  

The staircase railings were also wrought-iron scroll work. Decorative scroll work was on the tiles lining the atrium walls and the walls of the elevators.

Czar's Palace Casino: A major highlight of our cruise was winning $175 on the slot machines in a period of less than 10 minutes. Needless to say, we left right after that.

The interior bars and lounges:

Casino Bar: I love those multi-colored lighted chandeliers!

Hot and Cool Nightclub:

The Stage Lounge:

The Alchemy Bar:

Piano Man Bar:

Victoria Aft Lounge:

This is where we saw two really good comedy acts. I really loved the chairs they had in this lounge.

Venetian Palace Main Show Lounge: 

with the Venetian carnival masks decorating the tables...

We saw musical song and dance shows here including a darling Towel Animal Theatre, a puppet show featuring talking and singing towel animals. It might have been targeted to children, but this big kid loved it. I still something sing in my head: Towels Just Wanna Have Fun, a parody to Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

On the Pool Deck:

Blue Iguana Tequila Bar

Pools, whirlpools and waterslide:

Below also shows the Red Frog Rum Bar from where I got all those delicious strawberry daiquiris!

Lit up at night:

These photos show you that Carnival Liberty really is a beautifully decorated ship, and we had a wonderful time aboard. The few issues experienced with dining room service and food temperature did nothing to deter us from having a wonderful time on our cruise. We can't wait for our next cruise!

Thank you for visiting,

A Great Europe Trip Planner 

All photos were taken by my husband and me during our Carnival cruise in April, 2015.
Unauthorized use is prohibited.