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Chrissandra's Honeymoon in the Aft (an eastern Liberty review)


Anung Un Rama
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Yeah, I just went there ;). So for those of you who have read our previous reviews, this will be somewhat different. First off all we had a wedding to get through, so it was only the last few days of the countdown that we really got to enjoy. We also got to spend a few extra days in Miami pre-cruise which we’ve never gotten to do before. And lastly, we didn’t do as many activities as we normally do. We wanted to enjoy our aft balcony and each other as much as possible. We do have some pictures of the ship but not nearly as many as our previous cruise on the Liberty.

 

We had previously sailed on the Liberty for my birthday last February and loved it so much that we immediately booked this as our Honeymoon cruise. Actually, we set the date for our wedding around this cruise. So after getting through the most stressful day of my life, also one of the best, we could relax and look forward to the Honeymoon. But here are a few quick pics from our special day.

 

 

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Thursday – Flying into Miami – After 3 busy days at work it was time to pack Wednesday night. As I’m packing I get a call from a # in Miami and think to myself ‘Upgrade Fairy’. Yep, they had us down as a Honeymoon couple and wanted to offer us a suite that had been recently cancelled. I politely declined as I knew I couldn’t wait to be in this room with the extended balcony. And “Honeymoon in the Suite” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Up early and to the airport around 9. Breezed through security and everything with almost 2 hours to spare. Flight was on time but after we boarded the Captain came on the intercom announcing that something snapped off the terminal and a part of it hit the plane. They needed to inspect it and take some pictures to send to Tulsa to get the OK before we could take off. This was expected to take 15 minutes but an hour and a half later we’re all wondering if our flight was going to be cancelled. It was really annoying not having any information and I sure as hell was glad this was a direct flight. Poor lady in front of us had a connecting flight to Ecuador with only an hour layover. After 15 more minutes they came on to say they’d gotten the all clear. We made up a bit of time in the air but getting to the beach today was out of the question. The cab ride to our hotel, The Colony, took 15 minutes and was a flat rate of $33.

 

 

We caught a glimpse of the Victory as we were on our way to the airport

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And this is where things got really interesting. We get our room keys and head down to our room at the end of the hall. We didn’t care for anything fancy since we’d hardly be in the hotel room but we certainly weren’t expecting this….

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I’m not sure who dropped the ball on this one but damn! Cass went to the front desk and they immediately sent someone up to fix/take care of the situation. After 10 or so minutes we’re both just really frustrated and I’m about to go back to the front desk to request a different room. The phone rings and maintenance guy answers then hands it to me. It was the front desk telling us to come down as they had a different room for us. We grab our suitcases and lug them back down the hallway. As I get to the front desk I hear him asking his boss ‘Same price?’. She nodded and that peaked my interest. So we get our new room keys and head up the old time elevator. Not too shabby.

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Our view

 

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Words can’t even express how much this helped us both flip our moods around. Our Honeymoon was looking like a National Lampoon’s movie but quickly turned into a nice story to tell.

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The beach was pretty much out of the question at this point and we both needed a drink so we walked down Ocean Drive to Finnegin’s Way, an Irish Sports bar we’d found online. Absolutely loved it and they had Yuengling!!! We split some wings and a bbq chicken pizza along with a few beers each. Definitely a great place to people watch.

 

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There was a guy walking down the street holding a freaking Lemur!!! Yes, a Lemur!

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We knew we were close to a couple spots we'd seen on Tv (club duece, Miami ink) so we walked around a bit and saw a lot of pretty cool places including Espanola Way (which is where we found the Mexican restaurant we were planning on eating Friday). One of the coolest spots on south beach Imo. As we're walking back to the hotel I see someone that looks familiar, yep it's Chad Johnson (Ocho Cinco). I didn't really want to bother him but I had to say hi in some way so I walked up to him and told him 'I'm not your sticker *****' (one of his lines when He was on the League. He got a laugh out of it and shook my hand.

 

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Got back to the hotel and decided to try some of their monster sized drinks. Seriously, these things are as big as my head!

 

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Edited by Help@
edited out inappropriate word
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Unfortunately those things are buy one, get one so you need to drink a lot!!! Who cares, we’re on vacation. We both got our 2nd in a to go cup (can you walk South Beach with an open container?) and went across the street to check out the beach.

 

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Called it a night and went back to the room. A word of warning, if you are staying on Ocean Drive, bring earplugs. We could hear noise outside our room well into the morning (like 3-4 am). I doubt things would have seemed so loud if we weren't right above the street.

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Friday – Beach Day – Woke up with one of the worst headaches ever (can’t imagine why). Grabbed some breakfast downstairs (delicious ham and cheese croissants). As we're eating, we see a film crew come up and start talking to some of the staff. They then set up across the street.

 

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They were apparently filming something for The Cooking Channel (not Food Network). I'm not sure how many channels they need about cooking but whatevs.

 

Took a walk down the beach in the direction of the Walgreen’s so we could get some water and soda to bring on board. Went shopping on Collin’s avenue and we each found a few things that we liked at the Quicksilver store. Back to the hotel to change (free towels at the front desk) and spent some time on the beach.

 

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The water was pretty cool and Cass didn’t want to get in too far so I spent some time by myself out there.

 

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We had lunch right next door at Johnny Rockets which is apparently in the same building where some of Scarface was filmed. Took a refreshing nap in the room and got ready for the evening (really enjoyed the view from our room).

 

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Friday nights certainly are interesting on South Beach. I don’t know if it’s exactly our vibe but we were determined to have a good time. We walked a few blocks to find a decent place to have drinks and ended up just heading back and sitting in front of our hotel with more ‘Head Sized’ drinks.

 

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Had a great meal but it was a lot of food. Ended up sitting next to a very nice couple from West Palm (I think we need to look into moving there) and talked to them for an hour or so.

 

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We walked back to our hotel while people watching and called it an early night. Again very glad we had ear plugs as I could still hear people yelling for shots well into the morning.

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Beautiful wedding pics!!!! Subscribed! I've been waiting for this one.......Liberty may be our next one, but I'm worried she won't live up to the Breeze:o

 

Thank you! I was hoping to have at least a few teaser pics from our photographer from the wedding by now, but nothing professional yet... I will say The Breeze was amazing, but the Liberty is great as well, especially since she already has the great 2.0 upgrades with Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana, and not to mention the Alchemy Bar (which the Breeze didn't have!)

 

Congrats on your wedding! Looking forward to the your review. We truly enjoyed the Liberty.

 

Thanks! Yeah she's a great ship!! It was nice to be back on board :D

 

bueatiful your dress!!:)

 

Thank you Taylor!

 

Loving this review already!

 

Thank you! I think we are gonna try to do at least a day or 2 every day or so - but we are both busy at work, so it'll have to be limited to the evenings... but we'll do our best!

 

Congratulations~~~!!~~

 

Thanks! I think we would both agree it's nice to have it behind us! Although I do wish I was back on vacation, lol!

 

Aww lovely wedding pix, congrats!! Love your reviews, thanks for posting!

 

Thank you :) I really wish we had some professional ones back, but none yet... And thanks for the words of encouragement!

 

Congrats on your wedding! Looking forward to reading your review :)

 

Thank you!

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Saturday – Embarkation – We left the hotel at 9:45 and made it to the port right around 10. We took a taxi, and it was about $15/$20. We were really looking forward to skipping the long line and heading to the shorter VIP line. There were 12 people in the VIP line and 8 in the regular line…fail. We went right through security although I had a case of water in my carry on that they looked at/shook with a fine tooth comb. We were in the VIP Lounge by 10:15 where we got our sail and sign card (Chris was quite please to see that Silver Card for the first time... brat!)

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It was great not having to wait in line to get our cards and also the chairs in the lounge are certainly more comfortable. Someone had mentioned that they were still debarking so we figured it’d be another hour or so. Ran into a few of our roll callers and got the call to get ready right around 11:30. By the time we had gone up stairs and gotten our picture taken, they were already calling for zone 5.

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It seemed pretty smooth so fortunately there was no kind of inspection before we could board.

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Our room was ready as soon as we boarded so we dropped off our luggage and unpacked a little. Chris was also quite pleased to find his first Platinum pin ready and waiting for him.

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In Chris’s words… “OMG I love our balcony!!!! This thing is friggin huge!!!” In my words… “This thing is bigger than the Blue Banana!” (Bonus points for anyone that gets that reference!)

 

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There was one lounger but more than enough room for a 2nd. We didn’t see our room steward but left a note asking for constant ice and for a 2nd lounger. Note about the ice – they stopped automatically having Ice in the room on embarkation day because more often than not it would go to waste, but all you have to do is let your room steward know you want it, and should have it for the rest of the cruise.

 

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It seems like just yesterday when you got engaged! You both look so happy (as always ). Looking forward to your review as we haven't been on the Liberty yet. Looking forward to seeing you again in October. Nice to see a picture of the Victory:)

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We walked the ship a bit just to re-familiarize ourselves. It was a bit overcast and we had a feeling it was going to start pouring any minute.

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All Lido seats under cover by Guy's and Blue Iguana were taken (thanks to the d-bag that speed walked to take a table of 4 for himself), so we took our DOD’s and Guy’s burgers up to the Fish & Chips which was usually empty and a nice quiet place to eat.

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Kinda crowded this time but glad we were in here as the sky’s opened up. I went outside to get a few pictures and ran into one of the staff, Alina, more on her later.

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We walked some of the lower decks just to check things out and made our way back to our room to see if our luggage was there. Pleased to find both bags sitting outside our room just after 2 and took the time to get everything unpacked. It was close to muster time so we just hung out on our balcony (thankfully it stopped raining) until we got called.

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It seems like just yesterday when you got engaged! You both look so happy (as always ). Looking forward to your review as we haven't been on the Liberty yet. Looking forward to seeing you again in October. Nice to see a picture of the Victory:)

 

Hey Mary Jo!! We had friends that sailed on the Victory a few days after us, and we all met up in Grand Turk (as you'll see)... evidently it's laid out very similarly to the Liberty as well... can't wait to see you again!

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I'll throw in a few pics of the ship we took before lunch:

 

This is one of the few indoor smoking areas - deck 5 Aft... Karaoke Bar:

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Victoria Lounge where Comedy is held:

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Piano Bar:

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A fave location for many of our fellow cruisers:

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Interesting artwork around the ship:

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Muster on the Liberty is done outside all along Deck 4. I think we both got spoiled from the Breeze where the different muster stations are held in dining rooms and lounges throughout the ship.

 

We did the “pack in like sardines” song and dance, and were finally released - let the fun begin!

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In Chris’s words… “OMG I love our balcony!!!! This thing is friggin huge!!!” In my words… “This thing is bigger than the Blue Banana!” (Bonus points for anyone that gets that reference!)

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty Woman. Did I win???

 

Congratulations my friends!!!!!

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Congratulations on your wedding. You look like a very sweet couple. We are really enjoying your pictures.

This ship is on our bucket list. It has many great reviews. Can you tell me the cabin number? The balcony is wonderful!

Hae a wonderful life and LONG & HAPPY marriage!!!!:D

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