Western liberty review march 24, 2012 with a great friendship formed

After the last 3 very stressful months, our cruise was finally here and we just couldn’t wait to get on the road. Normally, we will leave around 7am when leaving out of Miami, however, we were up and started getting ready by 5:30am and were on the road by 6:30am. We stopped at McDonald’s for a quick bite to eat and then stopped to fill up gas in Naples right before getting on Alligator Alley.

We arrived at the Port of Miami around 10am and there were still many people lined up from the previous cruise waiting for a taxi or shuttle. I thought at first that it was the line to board the ship, but was relieved to find out that it wasn’t. Hubby dropped me and the luggage off and went to park the car. Once he did that, we walked to the building and got into the VIP line, except there was no line, just us. That made it very easy to go through security, up the escalators and into the VIP lounge where we received our Sail and Sign cards.

The VIP lounge has two adjoining rooms and we sat in the one off the main entrance. It was 10:30am and we were all checked in and figured we’d have a good hour anyway before boarding began. There was only about 20-25 people in the lounge between the two rooms. At 10:45am, we heard some announcements being made outside of the lounge asking everyone if they were ready for their cruise. We figured they were just trying to pump everyone up so we didn’t think too much of it, until someone popped their head into the main part of the VIP lounge and told everyone it was time to board. No one came into the room that we were sitting in and it’s a good thing that Hubby heard what the lady said or we would have been sitting there for a bit.

We made our way to the escalator and they started calling Zone 1. Everyone started merging together and rushing to the escalator. It really was a bit ridiculous especially since it was only 10:50am! We have never boarded a ship before 11:30 – with the exception of when we got married on the Spirit. When we got to the top of the escalators we noticed right away that there was no one there to take the embarkation pictures. We were VERY disappointed as this is the one picture that we always buy. The employees were telling everyone to keep moving and directing us to the ship. More on this later.

I thought I spotted EastlovesWest09 aka Frank and Linda and I was right!

Great Start keep it coming! I love the Liberty!

We boarded the ship and went directly to the Lido deck where our normal routine would be to go to the Deli, which we did. My usual for embarkation day is a turkey sandwich on a country roll, unfortunately, the country rolls were not ready so I settled for a Reuben and Hubby got a turkey wrap. Actually, most of everything on all the buffet lines still had plastic wrap on them. It was nice to get on the ship early, but it was very evident that the ship itself was not ready for us.

You guys sure cruise a lot! How cool is that! Great start to your review.

We took our food and went up to Deck 10. We found a couple of chairs and tried to enjoy our lunch. I say tried because the Reuben was very fatty and chewy and just not what I wanted. Hubby said his wrap was good and offered me part of it, but I figured I would go find something else a little later.

As for the time being, we are smokers so we found the area that smoking is allowed on Deck 10. A few chairs and a couple of small tables in a very small area is what we found. No ashtrays were out but you could use the ashtray that was attached to the side of the railing. Truly, it looked like the “naughty room” so that is what I will refer to it as.

Update: I have purchased an e-cig and have been using it alternatively for the past 2 days and I feel it is going to work for me. Hubby says he is just going to quit. Wish us luck! ;)

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Good luck to both of you on trying to cut down/quit cigarettes!

While we were there we met a young man (Kevin) that we starting talking to. He told us he had just gotten out of the Army and he was meeting some other friends on the ship. We talked for a little while and then decided to walk around the ship.

JP in the Dining Room

We went down to the Casino to look around and met picturechris and scgamecock. They told us that they snuck in their room and dropped off their carryons so we decided we would give it a try too. We went to Deck 6 and opened the door to the hallway and luckily our room was right there so we opened the room door and went inside. We dropped our bags off and quickly left and went down to Deck 5 and ordered a DOD from the Casino bar. The drinks came in a regular soda glass. Hubby asked if they had the DOD glass and the bartender said they don’t have them any longer and they are using the soda glasses instead. “But,” she said, “You can get a $1 off today.” So, keeping with tradition, we ordered one and looked at the bill. They raised the price $1 and then gave you the special $1 off! Wow, what a bargain and you don’t even get the DOD cup. We figured…just another cutback. We sat there for a while and had conversation with an older couple that was sitting at the bar. When we finished, we made a stop at the Silver Olympian Dining Room to see where our table was situated. The Matre d brought us to a nice location near a piano (which was covered up). A table for 2…Perfect!!

We decided to go back up to Deck 10 to see what was going on. We met up with Kevin again and hung out with him as he was still waiting for the rest of his group to board.

Around 3pm we went to our room where we found 2 pieces of our luggage. We unpacked those and hung out on the balcony while we waited for the Safety Briefing to begin. During that time, our other two pieces of luggage came and once we finished unpacking everything, we were good to go.

Very poor in the bathroom goodies

Around 3:30pm, the Safety Briefing began and we went to our muster station. Karl with a K had to make several announcements letting people know that they could not begin until there was absolute complete silence from everyone. What do people not understand about silence? There were just some that would not stop talking. You would think that especially after what happened recently that everyone would take this very seriously.

Once it was able to begin every few sentences that were said were then translated in Spanish and also French. That, in itself, made the briefing much longer than it normally has been in the past.

Once the briefing was complete we went back to the room for a few minutes and then headed to Deck 10 Aft where our Meet & Greet was to be. It was a small group but a lot of fun still. We stayed there while we began to sail away. (At this point we have always met our cabin steward. Not this time, however, we figured we would meet up sometime that night or in the morning.)

Our New Friends Frank and Linda

A little while later we decided that it was time to go introduce ourselves to the Casino Host. We went to the casino and met Sean and Dimitry. We later found out that this was the last cruise of Dimitry’s contract and Sean would be taking over after. That is why there were two.

It wasn’t much longer before the casino opened. I played slots while Hubby played blackjack.

The area where I was playing was right under an air conditioning vent and it was beyond freezing! Dimitry came by and asked how I was doing. I told him I was freezing and shortly after he came back with a t-shirt and put it over my legs. Hmmm…nice gesture. I felt very good about this cruise already.

Great review:)

We always have late dining and so when it was time for dinner we waited until about 8:20pm before heading to the MDR. We already knew where our table was and wanted to wait for the line to shorten first.

We went straight to our table, sat down and just took in all the surroundings. We both thought how perfect it was for us….but then the table of 10 sat down next to us. 3 people were soooooo drunk and were dropping the “f” bomb all through dinner. The 3 consisted of 2 guys and 1 girl. One of the guys was literally hanging all over this girl and making very explicit gestures. We didn’t get the feeling that any of the other people at the table knew each other because most of them were almost slouching in there chair – assuming from embarrassment. The table to the left of us was a small 4 top with a very small child – maybe a year old. It was shocking that not once during dinner did anyone go to the 3 people that were out of control and say something.

We just thought it was the first night and people are excited and happy and drinking so we’ll just see how the next night would be first.

So, on to dinner. Hubby had beef & barley soup, Caesar salad, sausage & penne pasta as a starter and flat iron steak. I had beef & barley soup, Caesar salad and sweet & sour shrimp. Hubby had a cup of chocolate ice cream for dessert and I opted just for coffee.

The food was good tonight. No complaints at all, however, it would have been nice if our servers had introduced themselves. We always look forward to getting to know the staff in the MDR. Maybe tomorrow night.

We were in and out of the MDR in 1 hour.

Because we had some time to kill before the show we went back to the casino for about an hour.

We always go to the Welcome Aboard Show, however, this time we left halfway through it. In 10 years, it just hasn’t changed – at all! It just gets old after a while.

Around 11pm I started to feel a bit off so I told Hubby that I was going up to the room for a little while. Not 10 minutes later, he came to the room to check on me. I told him I was fine but he decided that it had been a very long day and we both turned in for the night.

We found out very quickly that our room location was probably one of the worst we had ever had. Our room was 6414 and it was just off the elevators one floor above the piano bar, comedy club and another night club. So whenever the comedy shows let out (if we were in the room) we heard the noise, from all of the people, echoing up the stairs. Also, the first night there seemed to be an awful lot of people having conversations right outside our room and they didn’t talk softly at all. The other thing we noticed that night was the amount of people that allowed their balcony doors to slam shut. If you are reading this and have had a balcony or will have one in the future, please try to be considerate of this and not let your door slam.

Needless to say, neither of us got a good night’s sleep. When we finally did fall asleep we were woken up by the housekeeping cart being stocked. Ice buckets being filled, glasses clanging and steward’s talking to each other. This was at 6:30am!!!