Our Liberty cruise via Miami, FL(with pics) 5/27-6/4/11

This is my fist review so please bear with me. My boyfriend told me since I spent so much time reading other peoples reviews before our cruise I should return the favor. So here goes. This is my entire vacation with lots of pics. Some people just want the cruise, others want info on before/after so I will have titles so you can skip if you don’t want to read a certain portion.

Thanks in advance for reading! I will try to answer any questions you may have. A little info on us: Me, Dana, 36F, 7th cruise, DBF Marty, 40M 2nd cruise and his DD, Amber 14F 1st cruise J and along for the ride is my sister, Debbie,8th cruise and her BFF, Michelle 7th cruise(we will say they are 39ish).

We had a great time. After all, we were on a cruise!! We did have a few downers like rain and having to return to port (more about that later) but all in all it was lots of fun. We got to do everything we wanted. We did the early saver booking so we had a looonngg wait..but the time was finally here!

We had to get up super early for our 8am flight. There were storms the night before that knocked out power and they were still rolling at 4am when we were getting ready to leave. We were hoping they would stop as this was DD’s first flight she would remember (she flew when she was 3 but didn’t remember it). Thankfully by the time we got to the airport the storms had stopped. We checked our bags at the curb went through security in no time and went to find our terminal (ATL is huge if you haven’t been there). After we found where we needed to be we went and had some breakfast from Chic-fil-a. We hopped on our flight and were off to Fort Lauderdale. We had a good flight (Delta) it was an older plane and our armrest radios didn’t work. That was ok though we were all excited. In Fort Lauderdale we picked up our rental car with gps and headed to Miami. Traffic was a nightmare! It was the Friday before Memorial Day and there was some sort of concert going on Sat. on the beach so everyone was trying to get to Miami that day. We finally got to Miami, went to Burger King for some lunch and then checked into the Spring Hill Suites Miami Airport. It is normally about a 20min drive to the port and sits on a lake. Very quite inside (at the pool you can hear the airplanes taking off). The place was nice enough for an overnight stay. We had a suite with a pull out sofa that faced the lake. We got the cruise package that included parking and a shuttle to the port (had to find your way back though) for $120 a night. We had planned to drive down but found a good flight later so we didn’t use the shuttle.

our room

view from the room

We decided to take a drive to South Beach and the port area to see where we were going tomorrow. Again, traffic was awful! We found some parking at the beach and by 2pm we had our feet in the sand!

We walked down to the pier area and saw a walkway so we started walking to check things out. We saw yachts, speed boats and sailboats then…we saw the BIG BOATS. We could see NCL, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival all in the distance. We walked all the way down to the end of the park. We waited a while to see if we could watch one of them leave but it was still early. Just seeing the boats made us all very excited. We couldn’t wait for tomorrow when we would be on the big boat ourselves! We made our way back to the hotel which took 1 ½ hours to make the 20 min drive. I prayed that everyone would get drunk tonight and sleep in tomorrow! We ate dinner at an overpriced Italian restaurant near the hotel. I forget the name but we weren’t impressed. DD and I soaked our feet in the pool for awhile while DBF watched a movie. We had a long day so we were asleep by 9:30. Up next..the BIG BOAT!

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Can't wait for more - I'm going on the Liberty in November and am also booked at the Spring Hill Suites in Miami - am hoping I can pick up some wine and soda the night before my cruise while at the Spring Hill Suites.

We checked in at the kiosk which took no time at all (I love this!), got our sign and sail cards (Welcome back!) and went to wait in a nice area for Zone 31. We waited about 20 min then headed up to the ship. About 10 min later we were on the ship. DD’s first time seeing the atrium.

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The lights in the atrium were color changing. We loved it. You always had to look to see what color(s) they were!

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Hopping on for the ride!! Great start. Can't wait for more!:D

We went to lido to have some lunch. Headed up to Fish and Chips to drop off our carry-ons and, of course there was no one there. We had a yummy lunch then decided to go see if our rooms were ready. It was only 1:25 so no luck. They were a few min late opening the doors so DBF was pouting..lol

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But we got to go see room 1060 and loved the balcony! We still had time to kill before the muster drill and we were waiting for my sis and her friend to arrive (they took a flight on Sat directly to Miami and had Carnival pick them up they were very happy with the service) so we walked around and got to know the ship and we took pics along the way. We did have to go outside for the drill but did not have to take the life jackets with us. DD and DBF got soda cards ($90). More on that later. We missed the Sail Away party because we were on the balcony taking pics as we left. I was ok with missing it this time. Miami is a beautiful port to sail away from you are feet from South Beach. My sister said it was a nice sail away party! Here are a few pics of the ship.

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these are from the theater

Can't wait to be on the Liberty in February. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

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Sailing out of Miami..

Great start! I am signing on as well. We cruise on the Liberty in November, so the suspense is killing me!

We went down to the hot tub and pool area for a little while. DBF and I walked around the upper decks to dry off (we left our towels in the room and didn’t want to go check any out). Then found some BIG chairs on deck and joined DD to watch Kenny Chesney in concert on the big screen.

Little did we know my sis and shell were on the opposite side watching him too..lol We went and showered and got ready for dinner in the MDR. Our room was already turned down and we had this little guy waiting for ushttp://

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This was the "teen area" for the cruise. She loved having the bunk and sofa and completely took over the entire area

On the way to dinner we caught a glimpse of the sun setting.

We ate in the MDR most nights. We had late seating and love it so we don’t have to rush back from the islands and get ready for dinner. If we were hungry we would grab a slice of pizza or something from the buffet to hold us over. We skipped one night and went for the buffet we were just too tired to get dressed for dinner and we tried Harry’s one night. There were beautiful chandeliers in the dining room.

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Our waiters were Edward, Jordan and Paul. This was our first time having

2assistants. They did a good job. We weren’t thrilled but they were ok. Edward didn’t warm up until the last two nights of the cruise (wanting an extra tip maybe??) Jordan was just shy but he always had a smile. Paul was very friendly and had tricks or jokes every night which DD loved. We never had a complaint with our food in the dining room. However, as I said DD and DBF both bought soda cards and it was hard to get a coke at dinner (the people buying mixed drinks, beer and wine didn’t seem to have that problem). We brought this up with Edward and by the 3rd time dining Paul was taking care of the cokes for them. I know the drink waiters want the extra money from the booze..but we spent money for cokes just like they did for booze. Ok enough of that rant. During dinner Jen, our cruise director, announced we had a medical emergency and were returning to Miami. We saw that we had made a U-turn on the TV but thought it was just to kill some time..wrong. The coast guard met up with us and evaced the person so we could continue on without going all the way back to Miami. I am not sure what the emergency was, we just said a little prayer for that persons well being. Since we had to turn around we were going to get to Half Moon Cay an hour late. But the capt gave us and extra hour so we didn’t loose anything. After dinner we went to the Welcome Aboard show. It was good, all of the shows were pretty good but we have seen the same things on other ships. That is one thing they should change. New boat, new show. Off to bed so we can get ready for Half Moon Cay.

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise this morning.

Today the boat is anchored so we had to take tenders to the island. We met with our group in the Victoria lounge to wait for our tender since we had an early excursion. It took a little while for them to get ready for us but before long we were off the boat and zipping across the water to HMC.

Once on the island the bottom fell out. It was pouring rain. We were afraid we would not get to do our stingray adventure. But as quickly as it came, it was gone. We were loaded onto our shuttle and taken to the other side of the island. We were given snorkel gear and swim shoes, given some instructions and then in the water we went. There were steps leading into the water which wasn’t very deep so it was good for DD who just learned to swim and didn’t want to snorkel . It was a great adventure. The rays would just scoot by you like you weren’t even there. Rubbing against you as they went (it felt like jello rubbing against you). We got to feed a ray some squid (yuck) but it was cool feeding them. They just suck it out of your hand. Then the guides gave us a star fish, conch, and sea cucumber to hold and check out. Very cool!

After we finished the shuttle came back and dropped us off right at the pavilion where lunch was about to be served. So we had time to fix us a drink then they were open for lunch. Where we had a BBQ lunch with burgers and hotdogs tortilla chips, salsa, fruit, and of course desserts. Yummy and no line! This is a great set up they had lots of little covered areas with picnic tables with little pathways connecting them. Oh and chickens running around too. We went to the beautiful beach!!!!

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BTW, the pirate ship is a bar. They were playing music doing some line dances and having lots of fun in there (there is also a restroom inside) and in the above photo you can catch a small glimpse of one of the cabanas. Now back to your scheduled program.

This is one of the prettiest places I have ever been. Beautiful beach with lots of chairs for everyone. We went through some of the shops then back to the boat. There was a huge line for the tenders but we lucked out and they opened a new one so we only waited about 15 min. And because of the lines for the boats, they gave us an extra hour in St. Thomas! So no worries! We showered, got dressed and went to dinner then to the show we saw edge the juggler tonight, he was great. That night we had a puppy waiting for us. Up next…Sea Day

Thanks to those that are reading. I hope you are enjoying! I am going to take a break and will be back shortly with the next chapter.

Thanks for the post. Cannot wait to read the remainder of it. Cruising on Liberty in December!!! This makes me so excited!!!

Our sea day was also Memorial Day. It was a nice surprise to ride down the glass elevators and see a huge flag hanging in the atrium. Loved it!

It was rainy today so we were lazy and after walking around the ship checking out the shops we watched a movie and took a little nap. We got up and went and played bingo. We didn’t get bing L Oh well. We went out to the lido deck and watched the ice carving. Hello Mr. Indian.

Next came the hairy chest competition. We always love to watch the antics. This time we watched in the rain. But everyone was great and kept right on going. DD bought an ice mocha from the coffee shop and we headed down to lido for some ice cream. Then we decided we were hungry so we ate a burger and fries. Hey, we were on vacation it was ok to have dessert first. We walked around the outer decks for a little while.

Watched the last little bit of Edge (clown from Ringling Bros circus) getting himself clowned up. This was our formal night and we wanted a family photo so we went and got showered and dressed. DBF decided to clown around a little while he waited on us girls to get ready.

DD and I met up with a sharp lookin Freddy.

We had fun taking photos that night. DD felt like a model. We had a great dinner in the MDR , where we had Paul take a photo of our group.

Then we went down for the show. I literally fell asleep during the show so DBF and I went back to the room. DD stayed with my sis for a while and she came back in a little while later. We had an elephant greet us tonight. Tomorrow: St. Thomas.