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Another Froufie Review - Jan 21-28, Carnival Liberty


Froufie

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Well for those that have been chomping at the bit I have been working furiously night and day with no sleep or rest or fun to get this up for all of you! :D:D

 

Okay seriously - having fun reliving the cruise by writing the review and downloading and choosing the right pics to go along with it....

 

So for all of those interested - here is a SUPER LONG day by day account of my recent Liberty cruise. Lots of pics and information included. For those that like details and photos this is for you....and for those who don't - move along...nothing to see here! :p

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Well as an avid cruiser I always want to get away from the cold Canadian winters, so a very very very long time ago (right before Carnival decided to charge 200% for solos in a 1A) - I grabbed this ‘final’ bargain and booked 1A porthole room 2217, randomly choosing the Liberty (loved the ship - had been on her before) and many of my favorite ports (HMC, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk). Little did I know at the time that the Liberty would be the first ship to be upgraded with the Funship 2.0 enhancements - but that just added to the excitement once that was announced.

 

I did book solo but had many potential cruise buddies in the wings, and ended up cruising with my good friend Bonnie - who while well travelled- has never cruised before. I knew it would be fun introducing a ‘cruise virgin’ to the ins and outs of cruising. She also booked a solo 1A porthole cabin 1211 and loved it!

 

Friday, January 20, 2012 - getting there is half the fun?

The fun began on Friday January 20th as Ottawa found itself in a deep freeze (think biting cold winds and blowing snow) and we headed to the airport to catch our 11:15 am Continental/United flight (via Newark to FLL).

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Of course I still seem to look like a terrorist/smuggler and as usual I was ‘selected’ for a special search. (Yup once my boarding pass was scanned I was only referred to as ‘the 4S’ whatever that means - yes this is the 4S here - step aside ma’am.....) - so I chose the patdown instead of the big scary machine (dh is a radio frequency engineer and insists that if this is an x-ray machine it should be avoided at all costs)....after the patdown - then the ‘disassembling’ of the very heavy carryon - and the swabbing of my brand new insulated mug for the cruise (thanks for rubbing some chemical compound on it looking for explosive residue - you should have seen me scrubbing that thing once onboard!).

 

Finally get everything repacked, shoes on, thru the Nexus machine (retinal scan) and down the escalator to grab a coffee and sit at the gate (and Bonnie even made us some home made cranberry muffins to snack on!).

 

Flight was great - and I reviewed the ‘cruise binder’ with Bonnie going over ship and excursion details - we even landed in the same connecting terminal at Newark so no need to figure out the skytrain/bus thing to switch terminals. We grabbed some lunch and headed to our next flight.

 

This was a bigger and fuller plane and we were very disappointed to find no movies or tvs or anything else despite a 3 hour flight? Oh well - thankfully I had my ipad with me to wile away the hours, as well as a book to read. We ended up sitting with a gentleman also going on a cruise (his wife was at their place in Florida and had booked it) - took him a while to remember he was on the MSC Poesia - and I did remember that they were docking alongside the Liberty in a couple of ports! Hey maybe we’ll see you around - we mentioned the Carnival Liberty as we were getting off the plane only to discover that the 2 couples in the row behind us were also on the Liberty - how cool is that? We chatted a while and got off the plane realizing too late that Bonnie had left her carryon in the overhead bin! So back on the plane to get it!

 

We had pre-arranged transportation with SAS and I had received a text message while in Newark from Hector asking about our timing - all was good and I called once we landed. In a few minutes we met up with Hector and were on our way to Miami in Friday night rush hour traffic. Please note that all flights arriving after 3 pm for SAS pickup are a 3 person minimum so we had to pay $45 instead of the usual $15 pp because there were only 2 of us!

 

We were dropped off around 6:30 pm at the Marriott Biscayne Bay where I ‘won’ two rooms on Priceline for $100 each - not shabby! The place was gorgeous and no big lineups. I had emailed the hotel before arrival - and we again mentioned being on the same floor and possibly with a bayview please? (I know they sometimes offer this upgrade for a price....). We were offered either 2 rooms next to each other on the 31st floor - but they were cityview....or 2 roomm on the sixth floor - a few doors away with a bayview - but told it was ‘low’ but we would see the water.

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Bonnie sitting outside the hotel

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Hotel Lobby

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The 'front desk'

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Computer 'pods' with free wifi in the Lobby

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Being city girls we decided we definitely wanted to see some water so chose the 6th floor rooms - and were very pleasantly surprised. Bonnie was in 610 - which was a ‘regular’ sized room with windows facing the bay - very lovely. But when I opened my door to 602 I was stunned to see this corner/triangle room with a wall of windows to the bay and marina below - IT WAS STUNNING (what was that girl talking about? The view was incredible). Tried taking pics at night but they didn’t turn out that well. However next morning (couldn’t sleep of course) got some great sunrise pics and enjoyed watching the drawbridge open and close as the yachts went by! The king size bed was fabulous as was the plasma TV - there was a safe in the desk drawer which I made use of and finally found the coffee maker and stuff inside the cupboard! Also loved the great ‘lemon’ scented toiletries.

 

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Night shot of the marina (I tried!):

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Sink area:

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Separate 'room' for toilet and tub:

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After dropping off our luggage - and switching into flip flops! - off we went to find some dinner. We ended up down the street at NoVe - free ‘sushi’ bar appetizers and we both had the asian duck for dinner - very delicious especially when washed down with those watermelon margaritas (Happy hour and half price - yum yum!)

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We also explored the ‘shopping arcade’ downstairs (small shopping area connecting the Marriott to the Doubletree next door). We found a ‘high end’ drug store - very small - just for essentials perhaps? A hair/nail salon, a shoe store, another store which carried some clothing, gorgeous purses, jewellery, etc - Bonnie ended up getting a lovely sunhat there which she used throughout the cruise! Also some restaurants down there - los gauchitos (steakhouse), chinese place (tommy chan I think?) And the deli St. Faubourg - really 3 ‘stores’ in one - first a bar/restaurant area, then a grocery store/takeout food area, also carried wines and connected to a tiny liquor store. So should you wish to buy a few bottles of wine, soft drinks, water etc you should be able to do so. Yes the prices are probably higher than other places (e.g. the CVS) but then again you may be saving on the taxi fare to get to and from with your bags?

 

Shopping arcade downstairs:

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Interesting 'shop'?

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Liquor/wine shop:

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Connected to deli/restaurant/grocery store:

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So we each bought a bottle of wine to carry onboard (we also had purchased a wine package to share - Bonnie likes her wine!), and I got a small tonic water (to go with my smuggled small airplane bottles of gin) and a six-pack of San Pellegrino (sparkling water - they did not have my preferred soft drinks here). Back to the room to relax and unload. (And ironically while flipping channels found an ABC special on cruise ship mishaps - like people missing, jumping etc - I stopped watching and was hoping that Bonnie was NOT watching this in her room! LOL).

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Saturday, January 21, 2012 - get me to the ship on time!

 

Up bright and early to see some ships in port out of my fabulous windows (getting hot in the room due to all the sunshine!).....took this opportunity to try and get some photos of the bay and then got ready to go grab some breakfast.

 

How about starting the day with a lovely Miami sunrise?

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Morning shot of the marina from my window:

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See drawbridge opening up to let boat thru:

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I believe my ship has come in!

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Went down to the deli spot and got some fruit salad, muffins and coffee and sat at the little tables there (altho you could get hot breakfast as well and a sit down breakfast in the restaurant next door). Noticed many cruisers doing the same!

 

Back to the room to ‘repack’ and organize the carryon (Bonnie had the rolling suitcase which we used for the wine/drinks/ etc)....and down to the lobby to grab a cab. A few minutes later (around 10:45 am?) we had arrived at a very busy port and were handing our suitcases (and a $5 tip) to the porter.

 

Off to the VIP line to check in. Bonnie had only printed her booking summary it seems and not her actual boarding pass but that wasn’t a major problem as the carnival rep checked her off a list and off to the scanners we went. Once thru we were asked to open our carryon and each bottle was carefully inspected!!! The girl that was ‘helping’ us seemed very inexperienced and didn’t know what she was doing - when a young man came to help her out - again inspecting the same bottles (they were especially interested in examining the seals on the San pellegrino water bottles so smugglers beware!).....eventually all was placed back in the suitcase - and ‘have a nice cruise’ and we were off to the VIP Lounge.

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Froufie:

 

Enjoying your review! We have to wait until July for this trip, but I am so happy to be taking this "pre-cruise" cruise with you.

 

We were going to use Hilton Honors points for our Miami hotel, but after seeing the Marriott, I might check the priceline bids for July.....

 

Looking forward to more---love your detailed reviews!

 

Kathy

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Wow I am so loving this review. We are heading out on 2/18 for a b2b on the Glory out of Miami and staying at the Marriott Biscayne Bay too, never stayed there before and I am very happy I am after seeing your review. I can't wait to read the rest

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Woo hoo! Another spectacular Froufie review! Looking forward to hearing all the details - we're about Liberty in 28 days! So sorry we couldn't hook up for this one - how about next year!

 

Yep, I'm watching the Fifth Estate too...

 

Looking forward to the rest!

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Loving your review! I'm from Montreal so I hear you on the cold winters - also lived in Ottawa for 30 years....can't wait to read the rest of your review!

 

I am originally from Montreal and grew up there! (still miss is a lot). Glad you are enjoying the review! :)

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