reallyitsmema

We took a taxi and went to Sunset Beach Bar at Maho Beach. Taxi was $25 for two people or $9 a person if they fill the taxi. My DH went down on the beach and at the curb for some pictures but I just stayed in the shade at the bar. Many were swimming too but it is a steep, short beach. This was the first time that we have seen areas of the bar roped off and required you to order lunch to be in that section and no groups of two allowed along the outside at the larger tables. We were able to get a good table in the area that was open when we got there but had we not ordered something, at 11:30 we would have had to move to the bar. Excursions from the ship stop there too but they are pricey.

Perfect weather today. We timed getting to Sunset Beach Bar pretty good and saw the large planes we had planned to see. There was a good crosswind and the airbus from Prague had to go around again. Couple more pictures from my cellphone. Will post more when we get home if my DH got any better ones with his DSLR.

Welcome to St Marteen.

Someone on the rollcall mentioned that too. They said there is a risk of transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI).

Not sure why gender specific. The rollcall says they have a donor. One person who tried was told they weren’t needed at this time. Dr google showed a study saying male donations have less risk of mortality. Not sure, hope person got what they needed. No further announcements. Since we didn’t get to Bermuda, we are due in St Marteen at 7am instead of noon. Our course hasn’t changed at all according to the position map on the tv.

I was hoping you could tell me why! They came over the PA and asked for male volunteers. Never heard that before.

We now have a medical emergency on board and they are looking for O negative blood from a male. Asking for anyone with their donation card to go to medical. My DH donates but we never thought to bring his card. He isn’t a match but will add it to our packing list for future cruises.

Tonight’s dinner on Liberty was great, though it didn’t start well. We called the number of the head waiter that we were told to call when we were leaving cabin. The number was for Chops! He had written down the wrong number! We decided to just continue down to dining room. A maitre’d saw us and motioned for us to follow him, he had been looking for us. He took us to the table we had last night and there were water glasses already full on it. The head water said he did that to hold the table so that once they started bringing people in from the line, this will be our table as long as the people assigned to it don’t decide to show up. We can deal with it, we just won’t come until 5:30 when they open tables to the 200+ who were overbooked. We now have the correct number to call and a great waitstaff, if we continue to get that table. Unfortunately, we got a notice canceling the Americas Cup excursion due to “operational reasons”. We haven’t decided what we are doing yet but will likely head to Maho Beach since my DH likes to see the planes.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms! Gorgeous weather today on Liberty as we have passed the storms and will hit our first port tomorrow. My DH is doing the Americas Cup sailing excursion tomorrow. I originally was going but was advised to skip it. Liberty had a beautiful cake in the WJ at lunch. Probably long gone now based on the sizes of the slices they were giving. I asked for a small piece! It was good though. We shared one piece and still have a pile of frosting leftover. It was strawberry shortcake with fresh berries and a very nice sponge cake with a light frosting. Well done by the pastry chef!

We usually do CK and specialty too but no CK on Liberty. We aren’t fans of Giovanni’s either, we prefer Jamie’s. We have avoided MDR in the past but since we are nine nights, there are additional menus we haven’t seen before. We will give it one last shot tonight and then we’ll do Chops and WJ. We are also looking into Celebrity to mix it up a bit.

I am very happy that our next cruise is on your favorite ship! We might try to get on Symphony this summer but can’t wait for Odyssey to get to Bayonne later this year.

Glad others have had good experiences on Liberty. Ours has not been the greatest. Dining room issues still remain. Early seating was overbooked by over 200 people. We had early seating from when I originally booked and us what is on our cruise documents. Once we boarded, we saw we had my time dining and went to dining room to have it fixed. They put us on a list and said we would get a note in our cabin. That never happened. Spoke to concierge, she made a few calls, couldn’t get it fixed. Went last night and were in line for over a half hour and were told we would have to do that every night. We are being told that 5:15 on our booking is a request, not a reservation! Received a dinner reservation in cabin today, along with a bottle of champagne and plate of sweets. Went to dinner at 5:30 and was told to take our place in line. Spoke to head waiter again and he will seat us each night but still no assigned table. Many upset people. C&A status means nothing as far as priority in getting this corrected. We are giving MDR one more try and then we are just going to do Windjammer and Chops again. Weather last night was crazy with driving rain and high seas. Rain most of the day so activities moved inside or canceled. Line dancing moved to Royal Promenade, archery to Studio B, movies added in main theatre. Cruise director is trying. We didn’t see the gorgeous skies last night due to weather but have seen some unbelievable pictures from home. Massachusetts had a great show! Heard if you still have your eclipse glasses, you can see the sunspot if you look at the sun. Think tomorrow is last day to see it. Hoping our calmer seas stay with us for the rest of the night. Liberty shimmies a lot. Luckily, we do fine with the movement. Lots on rollcall looking for patches.

We booked this because of timing and price. We wanted to do Symphony since it is doing its first summer out of Bayonne but it was pricey. We are doing nine days for significantly less than what we could have done seven on Symphony. I wasn’t sure about the older ship but it is well maintained. Our cabin carpet needs replacing but is clean. We prefer the cabin features of the new ships but not a big deal. Food has been good so far. Chops was excellent last night. Best food and service we have had in recent years. MDR tonight will be interesting. We had early seating on our reservation but they moved us to MTD. Went to have it fixed yesterday and they “put us on the list” of those that needed correcting. Was supposed to have a note by 4pm today. Nothing yet. Not expecting it at this point. Went to MDR earlier and was told they are fixing it now. Casino is crazy smoky, so that’s going to save us money. We just saw the ice show and it was the best we have seen on any ship! Great skating without a ton of props like some of the shows. Lots of C&A members on this sailing. Tons of families too. Haven’t heard a kid total yet but lots more than expected with school still in session. If someone could flip that last picture for me that would be great. I can’t get it to flip on my phone. Thanks.

Puerto Plata is new for us too. We don’t mind missing Labadee.