Liberty 9/14-9/21 Eastern Review *Pic Heavy*

Hi all! After 200+ days we finally cruised on the Liberty! We did the 7 day Eastern to HMC, St Thomas, San Juan, & Grand Turk. 2 new ports & 2 we'd already been to. Also, my 26th birthday was the 15th so I got princess treatment throughout the week :) Just had to throw that out there...it won't be the last time ;)

For my husband & myself it was our 4th cruise but we generally cruise as a family (it's not as bad as it may sound...lol) & it was their 3rd (father in law, mother in law, & brother in law).

Jordan *husband* & I got gold cards on this cruise & I felt like such a big shot. Everyone else got red cards. Peasants.

Jordan & I flew down from Chicago & my in laws headed down from Charlotte all on Friday the 13th. I'm not afraid of flying whatsoever but if you make it Friday the 13th?! Automatically makes everything creepier. Coupled with how BAD it was for us to make it to O'Hare 2 cruises ago?! *We just about missed our flight due to a series of obnoxious events* - BUT we made it! And everything was fine!

J & I got there first & headed to our hotel - the La Quinta (nothing fancy) by the airport. It was clean though & cheap & we only stay for the night so...at about 3 the in laws got there & were ready for dinner. I already knew where we were going & that would be Bahama Breeze. I'm in LOVE with BB! Anyways, I'm rambling. The next morning we had hotel breakfast & shuttled to the port. We got the late-boarding email but still showed up shortly after 11 & made it on the ship around noon, so it wasn't so bad.

After a call to my mom & a quick check with our dog sitter we were ready for sailaway!

First post is never all that great lol But bear with me.

Some pre-cruise pics :

**Not a pre-cruise pic obviously but a nice intro to who we are*

^This is us. This is how I like to think we look all the time lol I'm the one in the swirly dress. My husband is the skinny one in the back. No, my father in law does not smile.

^Blurry but I really loved how it looked out. Leaving chilly Chicago for 90+ Miami. We were in the midst of a GORGEOUS sunrise though! It looked like fire in the distance.

^The cliche' sky porn photos from the flight

^Outside Bahama Breeze. My brother in law looks ,shall we say, "special". Bless it.

Coming up will be ship pics/first day & Half Moon Cay!

Looking forward to your review!

We will be on liberty in a few weeks!

Cant wait to read more! Woo hoo!

More please. Great start!!

Once on board I start going hogwild with photos! When I started to sort through them I realized I had about 40 of the main atrium area I'd taken throughout the week.

The Liberty is a gorgeous ship. By far, the best decor of any ship I've been on (closely followed by the Legend) - I've only been on 4 but still. It was also SUPER clean. None of the ships I've been on has ever been dirty but I passed someone vacuuming, dusting, shampooing carpets, etc - EVERY day MULTIPLE times a day. It's comforting, actually.

The Liberty was a very complicated ship to navigate though. I'm not good with finding my way through any of the ships but this one really got me! Even on the VERY last day I was still asking Jordan which way I needed to go to get to the dining room. It was laid out unlike any ship I've been on.

Our cabin was nothing special - just an ocean view on deck 2. Nice though! Our cabin steward was named Gabby & he was adorable. He was also Matt's cabin steward (brother in law) & I only mention this fact because I have an odd little story about Matt & cabin stewards I am going to mention later. Matt has never found a cabin steward who wasn't obsessed with him. They all know his name & they fist bump & do "bro" hugs in the hallways. It's very weird but sweet.

My first meal on the ship was a Guy's burger! I was so excited to try one of these because let's face it, I like food. The end. And I'm pleased to say that despite all the bad things I read on CC about Guy's - that my burger was excellent! I only had one though the entire cruise because they're VERY filling. Love those fries too! I had the Pig Patty & Jordan had a Chilleus Maximus. Both awesome.

Because I go crazy on the first day, even though I was very full from my burger I still loaded up a plate of lido desserts to try & can we all just decide on one thing here & now? Lido desserts are disgusting! Don't do it!

^My burger

^I swear that's not how either of them really takes pictures. Does anyone really even believe that they're brothers?!

^Just exploring the ship. Loved the EA Sports Bar...why? They have a Kane jersey!

^Sailaway

After eating & exploring for a while, Jordan & I went to confirm our Chef's Table reservations at the Steakhouse. This was our 2nd Chef's Table (last year on the Legend being the first) & it would be on St Thomas evening. I was completely unaware that although I booked it, Jordan had contacted them to let them know I had a birthday that week so I had a nice little surprise!

Sailaway was nice. Only 3 of us really went out to enjoy it though.

Dinner was excellent! I have to say our wait staff wasn't perfect but they were very sweet & made small talk. They weren't super attentive though. But the food was always delicious.

One more picture post coming up & I'm off to bed!

We LOVED the Liberty....I sooooo want to cruise her again (and may do so next year). Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Some (relatively blurry) food porn for you :

^Vegetable spring rolls

^Brisket. Blurry.

^Melting cake of course & creme brulee. I didn't want to be fat & order 2 desserts so Jordan did it for me & we split the creme brulee. I love it but never order it & always whine about never ordering it...

^Just a layin' back, watchin' Happy Days on the big screen! I never sat down & watched one thing on the big screen but my FIL loved it.

...the first night ended with me & Jordo falling asleep for a while in one of those clamshell chairs on Serenity. I swear, ya put us on a ship & we'll fall asleep anywhere. We're like cats. All in all, a successful 1st day of cruising!

Next up (tomorrow) - Half Moon Cay & MY BIRTHDAY!!!! (Told ya that wouldn't be my last time mentioning it!)

More please. Great start!!

Thank you! Workin' on it :)

We LOVED the Liberty....I sooooo want to cruise her again (and may do so next year). Looking forward to the rest of your review.

She was a great ship! Thanks :)

Looking forward to your review!

 

We will be on liberty in a few weeks!

Hope you have a fabulous time! I'm sure you will!

Cant wait to read more! Woo hoo!

Yay! Off to bed for the night but I'll be back at it tomorrow!

Love your review, thanks for sharing. Now hurry back so we can all finish reading it (lol).

Looking forward to more of your review.

We're doing a B2B on Liberty next January, and this itinerary is the 1st leg of our cruise.

We're also staying at LaQuinta Airport East. Have stayed there 2 other times when we sailed out of Miami. It's fine for one night.

Love your pictures...Can't wait to hear more. We will be on the Liberty in 28 dayssssssss........:):):)

enjoying your post...thank you!

I left off at Half Moon Cay...my favorite place ever! Isn't that place just absolutely gorgeous?! Also, my 26th birthday. No, I'm not old but dang I sure feel it sometimes (especially since I was sore most of our cruise from walking steps on the ship...) - it was a wonderful birthday!

I love how clear HMC is. It's just paradise to me! The first time we went there, I saw not one hint of sea life...this time I saw tons of fish & a tiny little sting ray (no pics but I sure wish I got some!)

Pulling up

I'm so in love with how CLEAR the water is there.

Seriously, can you tell I'm water obsessed?!

I'm really dark. My husband is really not. Matt took this picture - we wanted the ship in the background but Matt kinda loses focus easily lol

I really, honestly do!

My mother in law took this one. We wanted the sign in the background. This is obviously where Matt learned his photography skills.

Back on the ship it was all about showering & lunch.

I ended up at the deli today for a reuben since my -other- favorite station (mongolian wok) was closed already.

Afterwards it was our usual ritual of finding some place to pass out for a while so we found a nice shady deck & some lounge chairs and did this :::

I swear sleeping is just BETTER on a ship.

My blurry reuben. My food pics turned out terrible this time around!

That night's dinner I was expecting to be sang to...nope. I was expecting a cake...nope. I got nothin' - as wonderful as my day was I gotta say that kinda stung a little bit lol I thought for sure SOMETHING would happen! However, I did get presents so all was well in the long run!

Carnival's vegetarian options are so good. I'm not a vegetarian by any means but I had more veg meals than non. I love the indian on the everyday menu as well so that's what I had that night along with pumpkin soup (their soups are always really yummy as well)

^Just a nice picture of my man. Doesn't he look nice here? When he wore this, 2 different people asked him if he worked on the ship! Yes, because MOST of Carnival's employees are from WEST VIRGINIA!

Other highlights from HMC day -

Matt's impression of Bernie from Weekend at Bernie's coming out of the water.

Matt's impression of Tom Hanks in Castaway.

I regret to inform you there are no videos or photos.

Next up: 1st sea day, elegant night, and a lot of ship photos!

Living your review and looking forward to more.

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Love your review, thanks for sharing. Now hurry back so we can all finish reading it (lol).

I'm not trying to be lazy lol But I'll be back again tomorrow :) I was in Chicago all day today & it whooped my butt.

Looking forward to more of your review.

 

We're doing a B2B on Liberty next January, and this itinerary is the 1st leg of our cruise.

 

We're also staying at LaQuinta Airport East. Have stayed there 2 other times when we sailed out of Miami. It's fine for one night.

Yeah, that hotel was fine. Clean & had a good breakfast + the shuttle. Can't complain! Enjoy your B2B! I want to do that SO bad!

Love your pictures...Can't wait to hear more. We will be on the Liberty in 28 dayssssssss........:):):)

I'm slow but I'm workin' on it! HAVE A GREAT TRIP!

enjoying your post...thank you!

Thank you!

Living your review and looking forward to more.

 

Sent from my SM-T310 using Forums mobile app

Thank you! Will be back again tomorrow. Off all day with no real plans to do anything lol So lots of posting!

loved the Liberty this past summer. and your blurry food and cut off pictures are great!! LOL

Great review! Can't wait to read more

Great review so far. We will be sailing the Wetern itinerary one week from today! We've been booked since July 2012 and needless to say we are sooo ready!!! Can't wait to read more! :-)

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loved the Liberty this past summer. and your blurry food and cut off pictures are great!! LOL

Thank you!! When we were looking through all our vacation pics that someone else took, Jordan just simply shook his head because something was ALWAYS cut off!!

We were on there with you. I've got to get around to that review.

Ok, I'm up to the first sea day & elegant night. I personally love sea days! I love pool time, hot tub time, & falling asleep in lounge chairs.

This morning we went to the Punchliner brunch for the 1st time. I gotta say, the effort was nice lol I appreciate a different menu (I get SO sick of the every day breakfast menu) but none of the food was spectacular. I had the breakfast burrito & it wasn't great. Matt ate ,well, basically everything that morning & even HE didn't like the burrito. The 2nd time I had this french toast that was coated in frosted flakes...different & kinda tasty but not great. Matt had Mac & cheese one day...not good at all. MIL ordered churros...served cold.

I swear I'm not a complainer. Really! However, the food was pretty bad. The service was worse. And at the 2nd brunch we got a taste of the comedy & I felt horribly for the guy...all I wanted was for him to just STOP TALKING lol It was so embarrassing.

Hey, sometimes ya gotta call 'em like ya sees 'em.

Also, I figure today I'll get to that story I mentioned about Matt & cabin stewards. My brother in law has a quality about him that draws people to him. In every crowd he WILL be the one picked that people go to. The cabin stewards always end up loving him. As I mentioned before, if you walk through the halls with him ALL of them will stop to fist bump him or give him a "bro" hug. One day we're strolling through the ship & Matt decides to let us know that one of the stewards (who shall remain nameless) asked him what he prefers to drink & that he could score him some liquor. Even made mention that he was invited to crew areas to party with this guy. I didn't believe him. Matt has a tendency to ,well, lie. Or stretch the truth really lol Anyways, we are in his room that day waiting on him to get ready & Matt shows us this bottle of Captain Morgan & a 6 pack of soda & said the steward brought it to him. Ok. Sure. Well he's still getting ready & Jordan finds a receipt for ,well, Captain Morgan and soda purchased & paid for by the steward with his employee discount. I was jealous. THAT GUY WASN'T EVEN MATT'S STEWARD. ***.

I know. Lame story. But it was really quite cool. I want free stuff! Lol, hey if we're being honest here I'll say it - I want free stuff too dangit! None of our stewards seem to like us enough to just go buy us stuff. (Fyi - While free stuff would be nice, I would NEVER expect ANYONE to do that for us...Just being silly!)

Anyways, back to the day. It went mostly like this ::

And eating Mongolian Wok. And trying to convince myself that Lido dessert would be a good idea (SERIOUSLY. IT NEVER IS! WHY DON'T I LEARN?!)

And hot tubbin' it on Serenity

Now for my 2nd story - the elevator ride from Hell. My MIL & I went to the Spa so I could set up my birthday appointment for later in the week. As we're leaving we hop on the elevator at the spa deck. As soon as we step in, we notice a) it's insanely small and b) it only goes down one level so what's the point? Well. The doors close. We have no choice. We hit the button for the next level down and wait. And we wait. And we wait. We wait for like 4 minutes. I'm sorry but for a one level elevator ride that feels like eternity. It didn't help that the elevator would kinda...thump every few seconds. It felt like we would rise a bit...then drop. And the door would not open. I won't lie here, we both panicked. BIG TIME. It doesn't help that I'm mildly claustrophobic & I panic easily. Ok, I'm a drama queen. Whatever but the point is...when it takes multiple minutes to go down ONE level don't blame me when I'm opening to emergency phone box to call ship 911!!! Luckily, the doors opened at that moment and I didn't have to do that.

Beware that elevator. I'm warning you now.

Some ship pictures for your entertainment...

Theater

Golden dining room

Casino

Casino