Thanksgiving on Liberty 2.0 Review

[Lacaena]

Hi Guys! I’ve noticed a distinct lack of Liberty reviews since 2.0 was implemented, especially ones with pictures. So I’m setting out to do just that! But first a little background. On this trip was myself, my long term boyfriend, and his mother. This was my second cruise on Carnival, his third, and his mom’s first cruise and first time to the Caribbean!!! Needless to say, she was really excited.

 

We had never done a vacation over a holiday before but I’m a third year law student so the time we have available for vacation is very limited. So here we all are:

 

the bf and I

 

the bf's mom

 

Let’s get this review started! Please keep in mind I’ve never done this before :)

 

So we decided to drive from PA. I fly sometimes but I don’t really enjoy it and we like driving so we thought a car trip would be fun (more on that later). His mom lives in NH so we flew her to us and all drove down together. Our plan was to get all the way to Jacksonville, stay the night, then finish our way to Miami and have a night there to spare.

 

We left PA in the early afternoon on Thursday (I had class that morning) and figured we would get to Jacksonville around 2 a.m. Well turns out we hit some pretty bad DC traffic ,even though it wasn’t rush hour, and were delayed about 2 hours. The rest of the ride after that was uneventful and we finally arrived in Jacksonville at 4 a.m. :eek: We had reservations at a hotel called Aloft at the Jacksonville airport. I like staying near the airport when we are in an unknown area because it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s a safe area. I had made reservations through Hotwire but I had reverse engineered it so I knew which hotel we were getting before we booked. I had made a note when I booked through Hotwire that we needed 2 QUEEN BEDS.

 

I feel a slight rant coming on, even though I told myself I wouldn’t. My apologies in advance.

 

So we finally, after 13+ hours of driving, arrive at the hotel. I check in while the bf unloads the car (we didn’t want to leave all our luggage in the car overnight). Check in was a breeze, we tote all our stuff to our room and open the door. From the door you can’t see the bed, it’s on the other side of a wall, I walk around the corner and it’s ONE KING!!! You’ve got to be kidding me… Nope, so I call the front desk and explain the issue. Well according to the young man who was manning the desk at that hour, I must have made a mistake and he couldn’t do anything to help me because they were fully booked. I explained to him that I booked a room for 3 adults, even if I hadn’t made a note in the reservation (which I had) wouldn’t it be common sense for there to be two beds. I kindly told the young man that I don’t know what kind of people they usually cater to but where I come from 3 adults rarely share a bed. Ok so that wasn’t my finest moment but I was really tired and super mad that he had told me it was my fault. I should probably mention that there wasn’t even a couch in this room! I ask him if there is a roll-away available, nope. I ask him what he expects us to do, sleep on the floor? He says he doesn’t know but if I want to I can come down and get an extra blanket. So I do and I tell him that I will be speaking with his manager in the morning, could I please have that person’s name.

 

We honestly are the kind of people who just go with things, but this was too much. Anyway, we made the best of it for the night, got 4 hours of sleep and woke up to continue on to Miami. In Miami we had a suite at the Intercontinental and I just kept thinking that it MUST be better than this! So in the morning I spoke with the manager who informed me that there were air mattresses for that very purpose. OMG, seriously? I told him that I was told there was nothing and he was honestly apologetic at that point and told me that he would have a word with the young man. Well, now I was in a mood to thoroughly throw this young man under the bus so I informed the manager that he may also want to speak with the young man about telling customers issues are their fault. The manager was nice but informed me that since I had booked through a third party he would not be able to reimburse me but he would happily send me a free night for a future stay if I wanted to leave my home address. I did and I will say that when I got home: there it was.

 

Apart from the snafu,the hotel wasn’t spectacular but it was clean and perfectly serviceable for a quick overnight.

 

After about a 5 hour drive we arrived in Miami at the Intercontinental. They have valet (it’s $36 a day) and there isn’t really another option because everything around there is metered parking so you’d have to feed the meter every 2 hours. So if you are going to stay there be sure to build that into your budget. Again I go to check in while the bf deals with the bellhop and the valet. After last night I had checked my reservation and it was noted on the print out that I had requested 2 queen beds. But, just to be sure I ask the woman at the front desk and she says yes 2 queen beds, phew didn’t want to go through that again. So we go up to our suite (we had a friend staying with us in Miami which is why we got a bigger room) and I walk in the door and…. my jaw hits the floor ONE KING BED. I didn’t know if I should just laugh or cry (keep in mind I’m running on about 3 hours of sleep).

 

I called the desk and the woman was so nice! She was all apologies and told me that she would take care of it straight away. Which she did, we moved to another room and all was well. The intercontinental was great! This was the view from our room.

 

 

That night we walked to Bayside and shopped a bit, then took a cab to dinner at The River Seafood & Oyster Bar, it was very good! After dinner we walked to a liquor store so that we could buy some wine. Then we went to Walgreens and picked up some water. It was a bit rainy but that wasn’t going to keep our spirits down because the next day was embarkation!!!

 

this was the IC when we went to get liquor and water (it's the building on the left w/ the lights around the top).

 

More later.

[cruisinJenF]

Enjoying your review!!!!! My son has almost decided on the Liberty for his honeymoon so I am sharing your review with him :). Thanks!

[Lacaena]

Enjoying your review!!!!! My son has almost decided on the Liberty for his honeymoon so I am sharing your review with him :). Thanks!

 

We loved it! If you or he have any specific questions about it I can try and answer them :)

[boaterette]

Very nice start. I would have been upset about the rooms also.

[Lacaena]

The next morning we woke up bright and early and had breakfast at the hotel, it was kind of pricey but very tasty. We called for the car and checked out. Everything at the IC was very classy and we would stay there again in a heartbeat!

 

We were going to park at the port because I had heard very mixed reviews about parking lots in Miami and we just thought that we’d rather have the peace of mind of port security. Off we went, just down the road to the port. Once here we caught our first glimpse of the ship! I know most of you know that feeling and it is SO good, I just love embarkation day!

 

There it is on the left!

 

We arrived at the port at 10:30 and by the time we had unloaded and parked it was 10:45. I thought this was a perfect time. Embarkation went very smoothly and once we had gone through security and gotten our sail and sign cards we were given Zone 8. We waited about 20 minutes and our zone was called. The wait on the gangway was kinda long and they snaked us around the outside of deck 3 before we could get into the actual ship, but finally we got into the ship and I heard that beautiful “bong” of my sail and sign card!!! The atrium of Liberty is nice, so we sat down for a couple minutes to give the bf’s mom a bit of a break.

 

 

We wasted no time in getting a drink from the Atrium Bar but I was itching to explore before it got too crowded! So we went to see the Blue Iguana, Red Frog, Alchemy, Sports bar, and the Serenity area. Here are the pics I took, sorry they aren’t all that great they were taken with my phone.

 

Blue Iguana Cantina

 

Red Frog Rum Bar (The Blue Iguana Bar is basically the same but blue instead of red and they face each other, but I wasn't able to get a pic)

 

I guess it's not called the Serenity Area for nothing lol.

 

EA Sports Bar, it has booths facing the bar too.

[Lacaena]

Alchemy Bar

 

After sitting for a bit we wanted to get some lunch. We were all exited to try Guy’s burgers so we went there first. The burgers were very good! They came on a toasted bun with just cheese and there was a self serve area with all kinds of toppings like; caramelized onions, tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup, mayo, chipotle sauce … it was nice. The fries were large steak style and had a nice seasoning, the seasoning could get a bit spicy on some of them though. I liked that but the bf thought it was a bit too much.

 

 

After lunch we got into our room and it was a relief. I always take too much carry on and end up regretting it and lugging it all around for a few hours. So we chilled out on the balcony for a couple minutes and then before we knew it it was time to go to muster. We waited a bit so that we weren’t shoved in the back against the wall. It was pretty painless.

 

Our home for the next 7 days!

[Lacaena]

At 4 it was Sailaway! We went onto the deck and saw all the other ships in Miami that day. Among them was the Epic, and the Destiny which was our last cruise.

 

The Destiny

 

The Epic

 

Sailaway Party

 

BYE MIAMI!!!

 

We went to the cabin and freshened up for dinner. We love food, as you can probably tell by the pictures lol and I was really happy that a warm chocolate melting cake would be in front of me soon! We decided to do early dining this time as last time I was falling asleep in my plate at late seating. Our wait staff was great!

 

After dinner we went to the welcome aboard show and we really enjoyed it. Butch was our Cruise Director and he was really good. Up tomorrow: Day at Sea!

 

Waiting for us that night when we returned was our towel animal and excursion tickets!

[golfadj]

Keep it coming we plan to book one on Liberty for next year.

[pe4all]

Will be on Liberty in 2 weeks - can't wait. Loving your review!

[Sugaraynh]

Loving the review!!!! Keep it coming!!!!!! ;):rolleyes:

[jtdlmc]

Awesome review - thank you!!! We're booked on the Liberty in 2013 so it's nice to read the reviews to pass some of the time until we get to board!

[TriciaEMTB]

Loooove your review! Keep it up.

[mississauga]

Great start! You are doing a wonderful job...keep it up and thanks for taking the time in your busy schedule to do this.

[mrpayroll]

Will be on the Liberty in January. Thanks for the review. I will be stopping by GUYS burgers for sure.....

[MyDogRudy]

Agreed with all, this review is really good. Perfect amount of detail and pictures and already to dinner time on embarkation day. Thank you for taking time to do this - I, too noticed the lack of Liberty 2.0 reviews and will be sailing on her in 5 Saturdays. Looking forward to the rest!

[CrimsonQueen]

Agreed with all, this review is really good. Perfect amount of detail and pictures and already to dinner time on embarkation day. Thank you for taking time to do this - I, too noticed the lack of Liberty 2.0 reviews and will be sailing on her in 5 Saturdays. Looking forward to the rest!

 

Me, too! And, so glad to find this one. We will be aboard the Lovely Liberty in March next year.....97 more days!!:p:D

 

I'm loving this review....thanks so much!

[vacruizer]

Great review so far! We are on her in 5 weeks also and can't wait!

[LizaMM]

THANK YOU!!!

 

I have sailed the Liberty 2x and always thought she was just beautiful. I am so excited to hear about and see photos of all the changes!!

[familycruzr]

Thanks for sharing. I especially love the pictures.

[densol]

Fab review and fab pictures !!! We are on a back to back in a years time and cannot wait !! It looks fab - thank you for sharing :)

[Lil_One]

Yay! Very excited to read your review! We are booked on the Liberty next Thanksgiving! :)

[Lacaena]

On our first Sea Day we ate breakfast in the MDR and just had a nice relaxing day. We aren’t really lounge in the sun people so we did all sorts of other stuff. We played trivia, went to the casino, went to the shopping talk (the beginning of our freebie goodies) and had our first formal night. It was a good day, but nothing so exciting that I feel the need to relay it here. Up the next day was Cozumel and we had reservations at Nachi Cocum, my next few posts are probably going to be less about the ship and more about ports and excursions because we had a port heavy itinerary. I will talk more about the drydock toward the end.

 

Our towel elephant / dog! (More about hard to identify towel animals later)

 

We got up and grabbed a quick bite to eat at the buffet. I was surprised that Blue Iguana Cantina had breakfast burritos. I didn’t try them that day but made a note of it and decided to try them another day.

 

We were in port with the Carnival Freedom that day.

 

We grabbed beach towels and got off the ship! We had gone to the shopping talk so we picked up our goodies at Diamond’s International, Tanzanite Int, and a couple other places. I don’t know if anyone else collects the Diamond’s International Charms but there are 4 of the DI’s in Cozumel and they all have a different charm. The bf’s mom loved the freebies. After we had collected them all we went to get a cab to Nachi Cocum, it was $15 and the ride was probably about 15 minutes.

 

I had been warned that the outside of Nachi was nothing fabulous, and that wasn’t wrong. It was a little bit sketchy but once inside we were not disappointed. The first thing I asked was if their ice was filtered, this was Mexico after all and I didn’t want any stomach troubles. I was informed that it was. Yay, I see a frozen drink in my future. We were brought to our chairs on the beach. The beach here was beautiful.

 

 

It never got more crowded than it was in this picture.

 

Our beach chairs.

 

The bf’s mom about to dip her toes into the Caribbean Sea for the first time!

 

As you can see a little bit in this picture the beach was a bit shell heavy toward the water, it was only a small strip before the ocean but the sand was definitely chunkier there, for lack of a better term. You can also see a little bit that the water is very shallow for a few feet then drops off to about 2 or 3 feet very quickly, this isn’t a big deal for an adult but if you wanted to take a toddler here it would be something to keep an eye on.

[Lacaena]

We hadn’t been at our chairs for 5 minutes before our waiter stopped by and asked us if we wanted anything, his name was Manuel. He was very attentive all day. We spent the morning on the beach and in the water. I rented a water mat thing for $7 and just floated for a while. The bf decided he wanted to rent a jet ski, Manuel set it up for him. It was $60, it was in good working condition and there were no problems. He had fun and we watched him from our beach chairs for a bit. While he was gone Manuel brought us lunch menus and told us that we could eat on the beach or in the dining area. We opted to go sit at a table.

 

Here is the menu in case anyone is interested:

 

 

 

This was the bar and lunch area.

 

 

The prices are in pesos but we had paid for an all inclusive day, it was $55/pp. With that we each got an appetizer, entree, and dessert off the menu. The food was good and the drinks were good but a little weak. During lunch it started to rain, I ran to the beach chairs and made sure all our bags were covered. For a while it really poured. No big deal we were all already in swimsuits.

 

you can’t really tell here but it was pouring when I took this.

 

After lunch bf’s mom and I decided we wanted to get a massage. I think it was about $40 for 30 minutes. The massage area is set just off the beach in an open air thatched hut and they can only do one person at a time. His mom wanted me to go first, so I did. The girl spoke virtually no english, which is fine, I don’t expect everyone in the world to speak english, but it did make for a bit of a language barrier. It was a little awkward as I was wearing a swimsuit and she had me get on the table and lay down then slid it off my shoulders. It was a bit hard to get it back in place when she was done because I was trying not to flash the whole beach (yikes). The massage was nice but a bit firm, which I don’t mind at home but on vacation I don’t really like to be sore the next day.

 

It continued to rain throughout my massage and it got so bad at one point that parts of the roof dripped onto me. She just put a towel on me and it was fine. After my massage I jumped in the hot tub because it was getting a little cool out with all the rain. It wasn’t super hot but warm enough. The bf and I huddled under the overhang of the swim up bar and watched the rain from the hot tub. It was actually nice.

 

This is taken from under the overhang after it had stopped raining.

 

By the time his mom was done with her massage it was starting to get later in the afternoon and Manuel came to find us to let us know that whenever we wanted a taxi to just let him know. We hung out in the hot tub for a while longer then we got our stuff together and called for a cab. Nachi was nice, it was quite. There were only a couple of younger children, it was mostly adults and not that many of them. It never felt crowded. The beach was pretty and the service was good. I would definitely go back.

[Lacaena]

Bye Mexico!

 

We wanted to get our passports stamped but the only place was downtown and we didn’t want to take another cab ride. So we boarded the ship for a typical ship evening. MDR and a show, which is always nice. We aren’t crazy nightlife people. I get tired with the motion of the ship so I like to head to bed and relax or knit early and he usually goes to play poker. His mom was more on my schedule so we would head back to the cabin fairly early. That night we managed to make it to the Adult Only Comedy which was pretty good, then we called it a night.

 

Waiting for us was a frog / crab towel animal (we debated this for a bit and never came to a conclusion). We think our cabin steward specialized in hard to identify animals. It all started on the first day with the excursion tickets, we had NO idea what that was, then it was an elephant/ dog, we found it very amusing. However, I must say that I wasn’t super impressed with our steward. Don’t get me wrong, he did his job just fine but that was it. Little things like the fact that our mini-bar was locked all week, I asked for an extra robe and never got one… I know it’s silly and like I said I have no complaints I just wasn’t feeling the wow factor, which I think a lot of carnival employees evoke. So on the last night we really needed some water and there wasn’t any around, we didn’t want to go grab some from a bar and the room steward was right in the hall so I asked him to unlock it. He said that he couldn’t because he had already taken inventory of it and he wouldn’t have time to take another inventory because he was going home in the morning. Ohhhhhhh suddenly it all made sense, and really who can blame them at the end of a contract to lose a little bit of the wow factor. So that was that mystery solved. Not that it was that much of a mystery in the first place.

 

 

Here he is; our frog / crab!

 

Up next: Belize!

[gelo7]

I'm enjoying your review.