LynnAB

How r u doing? Have not talked in a while. Been oh so busy here..:eek: Had our 5th grandchild in FEbruary, finally got a boy (YEAH:p). Going on a cruise 4/16. Need the vacation...

 

Whats new with you?

Hi, Jim,

Wow. We haven't "talked" on here in AGES.

How are you doing?

Are you still listening to audiobooks? I'd like to hear your recommendations again :)

Does anyone know whether the leaves have started turning yet.

Yes she was on that cruise it was her first ever cruise and i was in florida waiting for the ship to dock and did not find out till afternoon that it was coming in a day late. I was picking them up and we were going to ft lauderdale for a couple of days. She used the next cruise certificate that she was given and booked her next cruise when she got home.

I loved having that extra day :)

Did you wife enjoy the cruise? I absolutely loved the excitement...once we got past the first night, which was kind of scary.

It seems like our 9/24 group is getting super excited. I can't wait either :)

Thank you soooooo much. You sound like a travel expert, I've noticed. I appreciate the info.

I'm definitely stressing over my quart bag. Are the following considered liquids:

Regular tube style lipstick?

Mascara?

Cream blusher?

Lipliner?

Eyebrow pencil?

Body cream? I'm guessing yes, it's considered liquid, although it's a thick cream?

I think that's it...until I find something else to stress about.

Thank you :)

Lynn

Sorry to bust in but Lynn the hurricane cruise in 1979 was that hurricane david and frederick? My wife and bff were also on a hurricane cruise in 1979 that ran from hurricanes all week long.

Hi, Dave,

Yessssss, that's the cruise I was on. Song of Norway, running from the hurricanes? Is that the one your wife was on????? It was a wild but amazingly fun week. I'd love to reminisce with her :)

We live in Orlando so I understand on the weather! But I am sure it will be beautiful.

I agree. I'm hoping for my son to see fall foliage colors, but that's unpredictable. I grew up in NY many, many years ago, so I've seen the gorgeous colors, but he hasn't.

Sounds like a smartie! You will love them.

 

You are going to get off the ship at India and Commercial Rte 1A. For us we turned headed left down Commercial until Pearl Street to avoid the tourists. Most passengers stayed on Commercial. We turned right on Pearl and walked one block up to Fore Street. We then turned left on Fore and walked until Exchange Street. It is on the right up the hill on Exchange Street. It was about 10 minute walk at most. We had to wait about 10-15 min in the line.

Hi is a smartie :) He's 29 years old and a real OCD planner like me. Our goal is to have many lobster rolls (and probably other seafood as well) and Holy Donuts.

I put your directions in my cell phone, so we're READY now. I can't wait for our cruise on the 24th. Thank you, thank you for the wonderful information :)

My big concern now is temperature. We live in South Florida. That says it all, right?

Day Four, Portland

 

On this day, we had nothing formally planned. If you haven’t already noticed, we like to eat so of course, all of our plans in Portland centered around food! We got off the ship with no problems. It was a little hot and humid which was surprising for us. We were hoping to leave this weather in Florida.

 

I had planned a walking tour for us that hit some of the highlights in town. I found a suggested one on this conference website.

 

http://ivla.org/conference/2012/Portland_WalkingTour.pdf

 

We first headed to Holy Donut. The restaurant serves donuts made out of potatoes. When we got there, a line was out of the door which is a good sign. I was able to get a couple of gluten free dark chocolate with sea salt donuts and my DH got the flavors of wild blueberry and maple glazed with bacon. Boy, were they yummy and filling. We could only eat one.

 

Then we continued to walk around the city attempting to burn off the donuts we just ate. We stopped in the Portland Museum of Art to both cool off and rest. It is really a great little museum with works by Homer, Monet and others. I would recommend it. We then finished walking around downtown a little after lunchtime. It is really walkable city with some unique sites and shopping.

 

We ate lunch at Duckfat. My DH was on a mission to eat poutine and this place was known for it and their fries that are cooked in duck fat. I ordered the fries with a truffle ketchup and horseradish mayo dipping sauces. My husband ordered the traditional poutine that consisted of fries, cheese curds and gravy. We thought the food was really good but did not notice a difference in them cooking everything with duck fat.

 

We returned to the ship with no problems getting on. This evening we had the mystery dinner. It was so fun and the food from the Portofino was fabulous. We did learn that the Portofino will be turning into Giovanni’s during drydock so go eat there when you can before it is no longer available.

 

TIP: Mystery Dinery, the event last over 3 hours so plan accordingly because we missed some of the events because of it. Go eat in Portofino it is leaving at next drydock!

 

We did not mind the length of the mystery dinner because we had a great time with some wonderful tablemates.

 

We headed to bed after a long day and knowing we will have another busy day in Bar Harbor, aka Bah Habah!

Holy Donuts is a must do on my son's list. Would you be able to give me an idea of the quickest route to get there? Apparently we'll be racing there :)

Day One

We woke up had our free continental breakfast and headed downstairs around 10:30 to catch a cab to the port. The lobby was packed with cruise goers that were waiting on a shuttle. The bellman called us a cab and we headed out to beat the rush of people waiting on their transport. Boy are we glad we did. It was a crazy madhouse when we got there and it was only 11 a.m. The security portion moved extremely quick but it was the check in process to get your seapass cards that the wait was extremely long. We are platinum members of RCCL so we were able to get priority check-in. We were in line and onto the ship within 30 minutes. We had no problems but I overheard someone saying that it took them several hours to get through the regular line and onto the ship.

 

TIP: Get to the port early to beat the crowd because the lines are long!

 

We first headed to the dining room to ensure we got a table for 2 and my gluten allergy was noted. Our usual tradition is to head up to the pool deck and get our cocktails! For my husband it is a Tom Collins and for me it is a frozen mojito! Then we walked around the ship and got lunch at the Windjammer with everyone else (me not so much due to my allergy). After the mandatory muster drill, we headed back out to the pool deck for the sail away. The Dreamworks crew was out on the pool deck to get everyone in the spirit. It wasn’t appealing to us so we headed up to the Olive or Twist.

 

TIP: Make sure you stand/sit on the left hand side to get the great views of the NYC skyline and the Statue of Liberty.

 

We then went to the room to unpack and get ready for the evening activities. At the Welcome Aboard Show, we were introduced to the cruise director, Dru Pavlov and the comedian Don Gavin who was hilarious. I highly recommend seeing him at his shows throughout the cruise. We then went to dinner and had the best server duo of Sushamant and Omkar. They served the Mojo menu. We both had the prime rib which was the best we have had of the other RCCL ships. After a couple of drinks at the Champagne Bar, everyone went to bed rather early given everyone’s long day of travel.

 

On a separate note, this cruise we stayed in a promenade room. We normally get a balcony but we could not rationalize spending an additional $1000 for a balcony. We missed this tremendously throughout the cruise which I will explain why later.

I'm loving reading your review!!!

Here is the cruise planner for the week and the entertainment schedule. Hope this helps! :)

 

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Pthank you sooooo much. I can't wait!!!

Ohhhhh...I guess.:confused:

Don't worry, Tamara. I'm cruising on Liberty for my 14th time in a few weeks...including the inaugural in 2007 and a B2B. The ship is beautiful. The crew is amazing. There are ALWAYS people who love to complain about everything. Seriously.

Please, please if possible post a clearer picture of the Planner. Thank you so much....

If I can wait that long I will take MC Beaton's latest on my kindle -- her cozy mysteries Agatha Raisin and Hamish McBeth are so entertaining and fun

 

Also terrific are Alexander McCall Smith series such as Ladies Detective series and Isabel Dalhousie Philosophy series

He smooths over a lot of the rough edges in life.

 

Happy sailing

Hmmm. I've read all of the Agatha Raisin books (loved them) but none of the Hamish McBeth ones yet.

And...I haven't read ANY of Alexander McCall Smith's books, although they're on my "To Be Read" list.

There aren't enough hours in the day :)

Well after all my cruises i have never experienced this..... Hater?

I'm going to sail on Liberty for the 14th time this fall. Yes, I love that ship and the crew!!! I happen to be a very choosy cruiser, and I have only great things to say about RCCL and how they treat their guests :)

I get asked this about once a week or so! ;)

 

Here you go: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=47231129&postcount=3204

Thank you so much for your response, Donna. At least I know now. I was hoping to see Ken on Allure in November. Sigh!

Does anyone know where Ken Rush is?

What book are you going to take?

 

That is always the most stressful question. You don't want to be stuck with a bad book on a boat, or with a book you finish day 1 of 7.

 

I'll be going to Barnes and Noble today to pick my cruise read(s).

 

Picking a cruise book is a science!

I always take my Kindle with me wherever I go. I have LOTS of choices and refuse to ever read a book I don't enjoy.

That being said, I try to find a "happy" book for a cruise...or at least a light read.

I enjoy cozy mysteries, humor, romantic comedy, etc.

If you have any specific suggestions of great books, I'd love to hear about them :)

Thank you. I don't want to wait until noon, so I'll try those other sources.

I've booked Country Inn for the night of 9/23. I didn't book a transfer to Cape Liberty. I don't need round trip transportation as I'll be leaving Liberty on an excursion. That being said, I need to get to Cape Liberty the morning of the 24th. Does anyone have info regarding a good car service? I would consider the hotel shuttle, but I'm not sure how often that runs.

Thank you all in advance. I really need some advice. :)

The key is the cost of the transportation, which has risen a lot in the past year. You used to be able to get a shared shuttle back to the airport for $16. That price went to $28.50 plus tolls a few months ago. If you don't have a car, there are very few hotels that we recommend that offer a transportation package.

 

In January I stayed in a downtown Newark hotel just so I could take PATH and the light rail to Bayonne. I was going to take a local cab into the port, but one of my friends came by in her car service and picked me up at the light rail station. We returned in a snowstorm and the taxi dispatching was a disaster at Cape Liberty. I was able to piggyback onto someone's ride to Jersey City, but most folks were left standing there in the snow. Tempers were short and many nasty words. Ugly situation.

Omg. That's awful. Yes, one of my big concerns is the cost of transportation to the port. Initially I had booked transportation through RCCL, but that was before everything fell apart.

Embassy Suites is fine - you can get that on Trinity for $195 tax included, but your going to have to pay about $130 for round trip port transportation. You can buy a lot of drinks at Teddy's and breakfast and still save money.

Wow, that's true! I'm definitely trying to save money on the hotel and transportation. I would rather "invest" it on Liberty of the Seas :)

Country Inns, Elizabeth, NJ - on their web site $272.52 tax included with round trip port transportation ($70 value). 2 queen beds.

 

Same hotel on kayak is $185 tax included prepay. You can call and buy the port transfer separately.

 

Park/sleep/cruise through Trinityreservations.com at the Ramada Plaza -$208 tax included. Round trip port transportation included. No breakfast, but hotel has cafe, restaurant, and popular Teddy's sports bar. Even though you don't have a car, this is a great deal and is popular with cruisers. We recommend it all the time. Can choose 2 double beds. Cancellation by 12 noon one day prior to arrival.

Carol,

If I end up in Elizabeth, I was also looking at Embassy Suites. That includes breakfast and a Happy Hour. By the time I get to NJ, I'm really going to NEED the Happy Hour. Just kidding. Sort of :)

Country Inns, Elizabeth, NJ - on their web site $272.52 tax included with round trip port transportation ($70 value). 2 queen beds.

 

Same hotel on kayak is $185 tax included prepay. You can call and buy the port transfer separately.

 

Park/sleep/cruise through Trinityreservations.com at the Ramada Plaza -$208 tax included. Round trip port transportation included. No breakfast, but hotel has cafe, restaurant, and popular Teddy's sports bar. Even though you don't have a car, this is a great deal and is popular with cruisers. We recommend it all the time. Can choose 2 double beds. Cancellation by 12 noon one day prior to arrival.

Hi, Carol,

Thank you so much for the info. I'm making notes.