*** The Cruise ***

Wow.....where to begin? Firstly, I want to tell you that we all had the best time EVER on this 8 day Cruise! Just the facts ma'am....just the facts......first! The ship was called the Carnival Liberty, and is the largest in their fleet thus far. Beautifully decorated.....11 floors......6 (or more) Hot tubs.......3 huge pools with twisty curvy slides.....spa......gym.....mini golf course.....basketball/volleyball/handball etc ball courts.......choices of many dining areas.....casino........choices of bars (ie piano, disco, jazz, oldie goldies, you name it), all different kinds of bands, vegas type entertainment, and I have only listed some of the amenities, as there really are too many to list. In our cabin each evening, was a list of "Events" for the next day and they started at like 6:00 am and ended with the last thing starting around 1:00 am. If you are the ambitious type you could literally be scheduled from the minute you wake up till the minute your head hit the bed and never do the same thing twice the entire trip! The beauty of a cruise, in my opinion, is that you can be as busy as you'd like or as unbusy as you would like. You can join in any, all or some events or you could grab a book, lay on the deck and read, nap, or walk around and people watch, swim, jacuzzi or whatever your mood dictated you do. I truly believe, especially for the money, cruising is the best vacation you could choose, because of all of the options available. Our ports of call were Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and St. Maartin and again, when arriving in your port, you had a choice of at least 15 different "excursions" you could book (all reasonable I thought), from just a tour of the island to riding horses on the beach, to shopping......again......so many choices to decide on. Or...you could not even get off the ship if you didn't want to (although I don't know why you wouldn't!) I especially think it's a great vacation for alot of people (ie family get-togethers, birthdays etc) as you have the freedom to do what you want, yet meet up with the others at a designated time to do something together. All together there were 9 of us and everyone did what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it......and that included dining too. OH THE FOOD!! LOL......ANYTHING you could imagaine and more and your choices of sit down dining for all 3 meals OR a buffett for all 3 meals, or the Burger/sandwich/mexican/sushi/other stations that were open 24/7.....and let's not forget room service, which cost nothing extra at all. We had 2 pots of coffee waking us up every morning at our requested time (and not a minute late either) and more than once we weren't hungry when it was time for "sit down dining room time" so we'd grab either the late nite buffett or order room service (desert included...and I mean warm cookies and milk!) Anything and everything and as much as you want was available. I think Carnival Cruise Lines to needs to call me for an endorsement, as we all truly had such a great time and I really can't think of a better way that gets everyone's vacation needs met in one place. A highlight at our St. Thomas port was that 5 of us chose to take a water taxi and bus to go snorkeling on St. John's for the day and if you've ever been to the caribbean you know that there are NO WORDS to describe the beauty of the waters. Colors of blues and aquas you never dreamed of and of course crystal clear. The water was a bit cool for me, but I slowly got myself in and after that it was fine. I hadn't been diving in quite some time, so it really felt good to get all suited up and spend some time underwater. Nothing like cruising around underwater, looking at all the gorgeous colors and types of fish and coral and rocks to appreciate the wonders of the Universe. Truly an awesome feeling. I'm adding some photos from the cruise and in them you'll see me and Kate and Dicky, and my Uncle Tom and Patty, and Mom and Van and Dicky's sister Terry and her fiancee Bill. I am looking forward to booking my next cruise, so anybody wanna join me? Oh yeah......I walked away EVERY NIGHT from the BlackJack table WITH money in my pocket (theirs.....not mine) and even won a seat at a black jack tournament (my first ever).....I was in the #1 position for about 1 1/2 hours. WOO HOO! Now how can you go wrong with taking a kickass vacation AND coming home with money you've won?