During our 7 Night Caribbean cruise aboard Carnival Liberty, we got to sample different types and flavors of food that we don’t get to experience in our day-to-day lives. From exotic items like frog legs and ox tongue to regular fare such as grilled salmon and flat bread, it was a feast lasting a week. So before any delay, let’s start our food porn aboard Carnival Liberty. Night #1: Night #2: Night #3: Night #4: Night #5: Night #6: Night # 7:
Cruises Restaurant ReviewsMay 2015 – Trip Report (in pictures) of dining on-board Carnival Liberty
Caribbean Destination Trip Reports North AmericaMay 2015: Port of Call – St. Maarten: Visiting Maho Beach and Mullet Bay
The last port of call for the Caribbean Cruise was the island of St. Maarten. The island holds the record of the smallest island governed by 2 countries (Netherlands and France). The cruise ship docks in the dutch side of the island, close to Philipsburg, St. Maarten. Karen and my parents decided to go shopping at this port so I went out on my own. After disembarking, I made my way to the ferry terminal by the cruise port and bought a day pass for $7 which allows unlimited trips by the ferry. The ferry trip from the cruise terminal to …
Caribbean Destination Trip Reports North AmericaMay 2015: Port of Call – St. Kitts: Visiting South Friars Beach
Before the cruise while researching about St. Kitts, I found out from Tripadvisor forums that most previous cruise goers were recommending either Cockleshell Beach or South Friars Beach. Since Cockleshell Beach is much further south compared to South Friars and there did not seem to be that much quality of beach difference based on reviews we chose the latter. After disembarking from the ship and walking through the duty free area of the terminal at Port Zante we started negotiating fares from the terminal to the South Friars Beach. Finally we found a cab driver who would drive us for …
Caribbean Destination Trip Reports North AmericaMay 2015: Port of Call – St. Lucia : Visiting Rodney Bay and Reduit Beach
St. Lucia is one of the two port of calls (the other being St. Kitts) in the 7-Day Caribbean Cruise itinary that does not have spectacular beaches compared to what people expect when they think of the Caribbean. After researching online at various websites, I had decided that we were going to go to Reduit Beach at Rodney Bay which is located in the northern part of the St. Lucia island. After disembarking from the ship, we walked through the duty free shopping area and outside the Cruise terminal. There were a lot of cabs outside the terminal but their …
Caribbean Destination Trip Reports North AmericaMay 2015: Port of Call – Barbados : Visiting Carlisle Bay
We disembarked from the ship around 9 AM and made our way through the duty-free shopping area in the cruise terminal. Outside the cruise terminal there were a large number of cabs and vans waiting on passengers. We decided on a beach day in Barbados and after researching online about various beaches in Barbados, I had settled on Carlisle Bay. This beach is very close to the Cruise terminal and there are two options to get there. * 5$/person one-way by cab * 2$/person one-way by bus/van to town and then walk to the beach (about 10 minutes walk) Since there were …
Caribbean Destination Trip Reports North AmericaMay 2015: Port of Call – St. Thomas : Visiting Trunk Bay, St. John
Our first port of call for the 7 day Southern Caribbean Cruise out of Puerto Rico was St. Thomas, USVI. There are a few very beautiful beaches in St. Thomas, namely Magens Bay and Coki Beach. However, I had read about the Trunk Bay (located in Virgin Islands National Park) in the neighboring island of St. John, USVI which has been listed among top 10 Caribbean beaches, and so I wanted to visit this one during our stop in St. Thomas. Even though Carnival Cruises offers shore excursions for trips to St. John, I did enough research to figure out that it was …
Caribbean Cruises Destination Trip Reports US, Canada, MexicoMay 2015: My Parents’ USA Trip – From Puerto Rico to Portland: Introduction
My parents are visiting us again in May and will be staying with us for just over a month. Since my parents really loved the 5 day Caribbean Cruise we took in 2012, I went ahead and booked a 7 day Southern Caribbean Cruise with Carnival. Also, for the Memorial Day long-weekend, I wanted to take them on a trip to Portland, which we loved during our long weekend trip in 2013. Here is a list of the upcoming Trip Reports and Hotel Reviews for the trips in May 2015: Hotel Review: Days Inn Jamaica – JFK Airport Puerto Rico Trip …
Destination Trip Reports North America US, Canada, MexicoFebruary 2015: Whale Watching Trip Report in Point Loma, San Diego
We had been thinking of going for a whale watching trip for a while. An opportunity presented itself when Karen’s niece wanted this for her 18th birthday present. After doing a lot of research on the internet, Karen finally chose the H&M Landing company based out of Point Loma, San Diego. We arrived at the pier on a sunday afternooon and after exchanging our internet purchase receipt with a ticket we arrived at the boat. Our boat captain was Scott McDaniels who also does multi-day sport-fishing trips down the coast of Mexico. He is a very good captain and it made …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsJanuary 2015: 12 Hours in Taipei
After spending a month on our India – South East Asia trip, we started our journey back home from Bangkok. We had a long 12 hour layover in Taipei and I wanted to make a trip out of it. I had researched earlier that the Taiwan Tourism Bureau operates a free half-day tour out of Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) for passengers connecting through this airport. The morning tour covers the Sanxia and Suzhi Temple while the afternoon tour covers landmarks such as the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and Taipei 101 (Tallest building in the world from 2004 – 2010 and currently the 6th …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsJanuary 2015: Phuket Trip Report
Day 1: We arrived at the Phuket International Airport very early in the morning. Before you fully exit the terminal building you see different taxi vendors with price listing. The prices for airport taxis in Phuket are outrageous compared to Bangkok. If you google “Phuket Airport Taxi Mafia” you will know what I mean. Anyways, after getting various quotes from 900 THB to 700 THB we finally settled on an operator offering the latter. For the first night we were staying at the Doubletree Resort on Surin Beach and the next night was in Le Meridien near Karon Beach. The …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsJanuary 2015: Bangkok Trip Report
Day 1: We arrived at the Don Meuang International airport from our Air Asia flight from Bali around evening time. We took a cab to our hotel Ramada Plaza Menam Riverside. By the time we checked into our hotel and freshened up it was already dark and time for dinner. We took the hotel tuktuk to the neighboring Asiatique Night Market. The Asiatique night market is located next to the Chao Phraya river (and approximately a 10 minute walk from the hotel). There are a huge number of shopping and dining options here. Even if you are not interested in …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsJanuary 2015: Bali Trip Report
Day 1: We arrived at Ngurah Rai International Airport at Bali around 10 in the morning by Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur. I had already booked Sanny from Sanny Bali Tours for our 2 days stay in Bali to drive us around in his Toyota van. He came highly recommended by the posters in Tripadvisor Bali forum. Sanny was waiting in arrival hall for us and after a brief stop to pick up some local currency, he drove us to our hotel (Sheraton Bali Kuta Resort). After checking in and freshening up, we had lunch at a local cafe. Next we …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsJanuary 2015: Kuala Lumpur Trip Report
Day 1: We arrived at Kuala Lumpur by Air Asia early in the morning. After passing immigration and customs, we made our way to the Air Asia Skybus desk. We were staying at the Le Meridien right on KL Sentral train station and I had booked an airport transfer from KLIA2 terminal to KL Sentral on Air Asia Skybus for 9 RM/person one way. One can take the KLIA Express to the same train station or take a cab but since we were in no rush, the bus seemed the best option for us. Pretty soon we were on our …
Asia Destination Trip ReportsDec’14 – Jan’15: India and SE Asia Trip – Introduction
Its December again which means its Vacation Time !! This trip I am leaving for India 10 days before Karen and will spend some alone time with my family before Karen will join me. During the second week of January, we will be going on a 9 day trip to South East Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand) with my parents. I have been to both Bangkok and Phuket before (Bangkok trip report and Phuket trip report) but it would be the first time for Karen and my parents. There will be a lot of trip reports, airline reviews and hotel reviews following this trip. Airline …
Caribbean Destination Trip Reports North AmericaSeptember 2014: Aruba Trip Report
We visited Aruba for a weekend trip in September. I have always wanted to go to this small Caribbean island (located less than 20 miles off the coast of Venezuela). Lying outside the hurricane belt, this dry, desert island is perfect to visit any time of the year. Our Itinerary: Flight: Los Angeles – Orlando on Delta Airlines and Orlando – Queen Beatrix Airport, Aruba on Southwest 2 Nights at Radisson Aruba Resort, Casino & Spa 1 Night at Holiday Inn Resort Aruba – Beach Resort & Casino Flight: Queen Beatrix Airport, Aruba – Orlando on Southwest and Orlando – …
Destination Trip Reports EuropeJuly 2014: Paris Trip Report
We arrived in Paris Orly Airport by EasyJet from Rome pretty late at night (around 11 PM). The Orly Airport is much closer to the city than Charles De Gaulle airport. Even though a cab is a perfectly economical mode of transportation for 4 passengers, we wanted to use the public transportation. The OrlyVal train was already closed by the time we got out of the terminal. We took the OrlyBus shuttle from the airport to Denfert Rochereau and took the RER B from there to Charles De Gaulle Etoille station (after transferring in between to Paris Metro). The exit …
Destination Trip Reports EuropeJuly 2014: Rome Trip Report
Day 1: We took the FrecciaArgento #9423 train from Venice Santa Lucia station to the Termini station in Rome. The Termini station also has the Metro station outside the train station. Rome has only two metro lines, Line A (Red) and Line B (Blue). Our hotel for our stay in Rome was Holiday Inn Express, San Giovanni which is closest to the Ponte Lungo stop on Line A. We took the Line A metro outside the Termini train station to the Ponte Lungo stop and walked for 10 minutes to get to the hotel. After checking in and freshening up, we …
Destination Trip Reports EuropeJuly 2014: Venice Trip Report
We got on a FrecciaBianca train bound for Venice from Milan Central station in the late afternoon. There were luggage racks at the end as well as mid compartment. I had read warnings on online forums regarding putting luggage at the end of the passenger car so we kept it in the mid-compartment luggage racks. The train had a dining compartment too but we had already had lunch at the Milan station. We arrived at the Venezia Santa Lucia station in the early evening. The weather Gods were not kind as there was a thunderstorm going on in Venice. Heavy …
Destination Trip Reports EuropeJuly 2014: Trip Report – 4 Hours in Milan
After breakfast, we got to the Lucerne Train station. We picked up some more sandwich supplies from the Coop store at the train station. We were heading to Venice and had a 4 hour connection in Milan. The journey to Milan was on Eurocity (EC 253) train, a 4 hour trip. I had opted for the shortest route from Lucerne to Milan, not necessarily the most scenic route. There are other scenic routes available between these two cities (although not as direct and more time consuming). Since we had around 4 hours in Milan, we wanted to utilize the time …
Destination Trip Reports EuropeJuly 2014: Lucerne Trip Report
We arrived at Zurich Airport from London in the evening. After clearing immigration, we walked towards the train station which is at the airport itself (there are plenty of signs). The automated kiosks and ticket booths are at the ground level and the train platform at the lower levels. This was the only train journey (Zurich Airport – Lucerne) for which I didn’t have a reservation and so we paid the regular fare which came out to be 24 Euro/person. The train journey from Zurich Airport to Lucerne train station only takes about 1 hour. Some trains go directly from …