Another Froufie Review - Jan 21-28, Carnival Liberty

[coasterjan]

DH and I had Jorge as our CD twice and LOVED him - our favorite CD! I was so sad when he retired. It would be VERY cool if we get to see him on our Liberty cruise in May. He made the *best* Dolly Parton!

 

Thank you for the review Froufie - loving it so far!

 

Coasterjan

[buddylover]

Hi Froufie! Another EXCELLENT and well written review.....just sitting here and drooling!!!!!!

[Froufie]

Loving the review so far. We'll be on the Liberty for the first time in 3 weeks and nothing gets me more excited than reading reviews.

 

I am jealous - you will love the ship!

 

Loving your review! 287 more days to go til my Liberty cruise. Looking forward to introducing the BF to Carnival, looks like I picked a great ship for it! :)

 

You did a good job with your choice (as did I like a year and a half ago? who knew)....I am sure your BF will get hooked on cruising (as Bonnie now is! :) )

 

Awesome review. We're on the Liberty, same itinerary, in 433 days! Just got back from this year's AI Cuba vacation a couple of days ago and now full steam ahead planning next year's cruise. This review is really getting me excited - can't wait for more :D

 

The itinerary is excellent - many of my most favorite ports - and lots of 'beach time' too! Enjoy your cruise! :)

[Froufie]

Love your review. We have very similar itinerary, we went to St Maarten instead of St Thomas. HMC is an absolutely beautiful place, will go back there in a heartbeat. Since we visited HMC on the day before we debarked, it's a quite challenge to pack the wet bathing suits. Liberty and our ship met at San Juan on Jan 11. (Liberty left earlier than us).

 

 

Can't miss the "whale tail"

P1000204 by David's1938, on Flickr

 

Wow - great shot! And St. Martin is another favorite spot of mine as well! No one can deny the beauty of the beach at HMC - even if you have to put up with some wet bathing suits! :D

[Froufie]

Oh Froufie...Hooray..love love love them, your reviews and writing style..thanks..Sarah

 

 

Thanks so much Sarah - you are always so sweet! :)

 

Love, love, love the review.

 

Funny, but even though you posted pictures of yourself, I'll always think of you as a fluffy brown bunny running around the ship. :D Love your avatar.

 

I'll take that as a 'compliment'? :D:D Thanks! (and I even saw a lovely 'winter' bunny relaxing in our backyard this morning - very fluffy and brown - just like me? :D)

[Froufie]

I thought the name sounded familar, I veleive he was our CD on the Triumph aa couple years ago and he was my favorite CD so far

 

I thought so too. I remembered the name!!

 

DH and I had Jorge as our CD twice and LOVED him - our favorite CD! I was so sad when he retired. It would be VERY cool if we get to see him on our Liberty cruise in May. He made the *best* Dolly Parton!

 

Thank you for the review Froufie - loving it so far!

 

Coasterjan

 

This was mentioned on another reivew and sounds like you are all correct? I have never had him as a cruise director so he didn't look familiar to me at all.

 

Glad you are enjoying the review :)

[Froufie]

Awesome review, I was great meeting you. And really enjoyed our tea time.

 

Thanks Jeff - it was great meeting you and Kelly and the rest of the gang (and I even have a small video of when you were on stage with Karl doing that 'story' - very funny)......

[Froufie]

I am loving this TR as I am booked for the SAME ship and itinerary in June. We've been married for 11 years and its our first vacation alone together. We are both thrilled. Any MUST Do's?

 

Wow - that is so extra special - enjoy your time alone together!

 

Must do's? Well I sure kept busy! But you can just relax too if you like. I would definitely suggesting trying 'teatime' (on days at sea 3"30 pm) - a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the ship and yummy too! :)

 

Of course I am also assuming you will try the Guy's burgers and all the other new venues on the Lido deck!

[Froufie]

Great review 69 days before I sail on the liberty

 

Are you packed yet? :D:D You will love the Liberty - have a nice cruise!

[Froufie]

Sunday, January 23, 2012- FINALLY HMC!!!

So I have been dreaming of this for a while especially having missed HMC on my Destiny cruise last year - all looks good we are anchored and no ‘cancellation’ announcements. We meet Carol for breakfast in the MDR (oatmeal and fruit for me and Bonnie is enjoying the first of many eggs benedict breakfasts) and then back to pack up the beachbags and head out.....(and I fill my first ‘free’ laundry bag!). Went to the purser’s desk re priority tendering - they told us just head down and get in line - okay! We met some more ‘canadians’ on the tender - on their first cruise - asked how they were enjoying it - the young lady mentioned the rocking and her seasickness - but it was getting better! HUH??? The sailing was so smooth - maybe a tiny bit of rocking at night ? But I didn’t want to tell her that it might get worst and this was nothing? (She had gone to the purser’s desk to get meds!).

 

Tender ride is lovely and we are enjoying the breezes. Weather is gorgeous, sun is shining, beach is beautiful, sand is lovely and soft and we have arrived (nothing like coming from the deep north to appreciate some sunny weather in winter). We each have our dollar store float mats which we inflate, reapply our sunscreen and grab some loungers in the shade (near cabanas 10-11 - strategically placed near the washrooms).

 

Tender ride over:

 

 

View of the ship from the beach:

 

 

Back of the new Pirate Bar:

 

Washroom building located 'behind' cabana 10:

 

Bonnie’s sony camera has been acting up already - despite being charged the battery seems to crap out after a few minutes of use - I also have a sony but it seems a different model as my battery and charger don’t work with her camera, so throughtout the cruise Bonnie becomes the main photographer as I hand over my camera so she can take pics (having cruised these ports before I most likely have all those pics already)...Bonnie is a scrapbooker so is taking some ‘special’ shots and collecting all sorts of ‘stuff’ to include in her scrapbook (and was delighted when I pointed her towards those scrapbook packages they sell at the photo shop onboard!).

 

So we swim around (I snorkelled but not too many fishies at HMC) and lounge in the sun until we get hungry then head over to the island bbq! We were smart and remembered to bring our insulated mugs with us so we could fill them up with iced tea/lemonade (what’s with those teeny tiny paper cups that only hold 3-4 ounces of liquid? If you have a mug bring it along -so you don’t get dehydrated in the hot sun!). I enjoyed the ‘jerk’ chicken, rice/beans veggies and some of the salads (brocolli salad, couscous, etc). We also had some fruit/cakes for dessert - then back to the loungers to relax.

[Froufie]

Around 3:30 pm we packed up and started heading back to the very long tender line. Took about 20 minutes til the next tender showed up and we headed back to the ship around 4 pm. Of course a snack was in order so I ordered room service: BLT, chocolate milk and some cookies - not too long a wait but the BLT was a bit disappointing - not as ‘high’ as last time and some of the bacon was really realy crunchy (not crispy, but crunchy - like falling apart) leading me to believe it had been sitting around for a while?

 

I also checked my folio on the TV noticing an extra drink charge from embarkation day (I had a mango swirl - and not an additional funship special as indicated on the screen) I do keep my receipts so had to visit the Concierge desk (twice) to get this corrected.

 

Tonight’s late seating show was before dinner at 7 pm so off I went to see Edge, the juggling comedian (and I was able to use an old bar coupon from a previous cruise to get myself a Miami Vice!). Check him out here: http://www.edgerockson.com/theshow.html

 

How about a Miami Vice before dinner?

 

Off to dinner ...Our wait staff is very good except for a couple of issues. Head waitress Putri is adorable with a great smile and attitude - calling us all by name after the first night. She seems to have 2 assistants Edy - who is not too swift (looks a bit scared most of the time?) And Edad from Bosnia who is very helpful and tries to make sure we have everything we need and will stop and chat once in a while.

 

Putri - isn't she cute?

 

What I didn’t like but perhaps was a necessity...was when ordering more than one appetizer which happened almost every everning by everyone at the table - they seemed to appear all at once? Now I understand the galley is probably a busy place and they want to avoid going in and out more than necessary but you would be eating your first appetizer (e.g. sushi plate) and all of a sudden your soup would appear and be placed at the side of your plate? So do you finish the sushi? Well no the soup is getting cold - so you want to eat that first - but where do you put your sushi plate while eating your soup? Or do you gulp down the rest of the sushi, try to place the dirty/empty plate on the table hoping someone will soon pick it up while you have your next appetizer? Now mutiply this by 5-6 diners at the table and you get the picture!

 

As mentioned Bonnie and I got the basic wine package - which gives us 5 coupons for specific choices of wine - Bonnie gets 3 coupons I get two and order one bottle of wine (pinot noir - very good). I have come home with my other wine coupon (to use on another cruise) as I still had one bottle of white and red in my cabin (along with some wine glasses so was able to ‘carry’ my wine with me to shows/dinners as required).

 

This evening I had the cream of wild mushroom soup (excellent) and the oysters rockefeller - very yucky - Natasha the assistant maitre D has just come by to deliver some bar coupons to Steve and asked how dinner was so we told her - the oysters were not really baked/cooked - mostly raw with lots of green spinach and no cheese! (Well she did ask!) - she apologized of course but we told her perhaps she should mention this to the kitchen for future dishes? Anyone else have issues with the oysters rockefeller?

 

For my entree I had the petite filet mignon and braised short ribs - the ribs were a bit chewy, but the filet was pretty good - came with one of those tiny mac and cheese cups on the side! And my one and only warm chocolate melting cake and of course my usual decaf cappuccino for dessert.

[stunned]

Hi Froufie,

 

As usual loving your review. We will be in different ports on our Liberty cruise, but still love the pics of the ship and your great stories. Can't

wait to read more.:)

 

Judy

[Froufie]

Since the show was before dinner tonight we took the opportunity to visit the piano bar and I am happy to report that it was packed and everyone was having fun - while piano man Bob is not the greatest singer - he is a good ‘entertainer’ and can show the crowd a good time. I had to take some videos in there cuz it was so funny - he had everyone already trained - so if you stepped in or peeked in the door he would stop playing and say “hey everyone look who’s here’ and the entire population of the bar would respond ‘holy sh it, come on in’ - it was HYSTERICAL (at least I thought so and just cracked up every time and yes it happened to me later in the week but of course I was expecting it).

 

Some 'samples' from the piano bar:

http://travel.webshots.com/video/3089582140059010061aIIuUF

 

After a few songs Bonnie is off to bed and I am off to the 11 pm adult comedy show with Tommy Drake - I realize I have seen him before but he is still pretty funny and the crowd loves him. Then a visit to the internet room to find out that again hotmail is not working??? and even Funville is a bust (for those that know about the ‘free’ internet using Carnival’s funville forums which are free onboard - be prepared for LONG waits to get the site up and running, to log in and to post - many times I just gave up cuz it was taking so long).

 

Up to Lido for my cup of tea to bring back to my cabin, and grab a banana.....For those interested the back grill that used to have the hamburgers is now the late night snack spot - serving grilled sandwiches, hot dogs, cookies/brownies and fruit.

 

Old 'back' grill area open at night:

 

Hot dogs/buns/grilled sandwiches:

 

Cookies, brownies, fruit:

 

 

 

Back in the cabin at 1 am - it’s a rockier night with some of that banging going on (going over potholes in the ocean?) but I do love being rocked to sleep!

 

 

Next up - our first day at sea!

[MissKIA]

I'm glad you posted about the piano bar. I've been trying to find some info on him but can't really find much. Glad to hear he's fun! I don't really care if he's the best singer or not, but fun is important!

 

Looking forward to reading more!

[Froufie]

Hi Froufie,

 

As usual loving your review. We will be in different ports on our Liberty cruise, but still love the pics of the ship and your great stories. Can't

wait to read more.:)

 

Judy

 

Thanks Judy - wish I was cruising the Liberty again with you guys! :D

[Froufie]

I'm glad you posted about the piano bar. I've been trying to find some info on him but can't really find much. Glad to hear he's fun! I don't really care if he's the best singer or not, but fun is important!

 

Looking forward to reading more!

 

Check out the 'videos' I posted - I thought it was a fun place to be (altho I didn't stay late or long) and the lack of smoke was appreciated! :)

[sjn911]

The blue color is just fantastic Froufie at HMC..and you are very cute and pretty..love seeing you in some of these photos...love our 1A portholes and can not wait to try one..and love this ship's photos and this multiple island thing...it would be neat to do a back to back with a slower paced one and just go to miami for two weeks sometime..due to the air..wow..last minute from here; this month I checked, just wiped out any pack and go savings...to say the least..LOL..ok keeping the dreams alive...onward and thanks again!!!

[Froufie]

Monday, January 23 - A Fun Day At Sea and first Elegant Night!

 

Why oh why am I up at 7 am when I went to bed at 1 am? Maybe that bouncing and rocking woke me up? Off to breakfast in the MDR with our new friends Carol and Marie. After breakfast we visited the new Serenity deck (top of decks 12/14) and found it to be lovely! While it was busy you could still find some seats (and there was even shade if required). Left Bonnie up there while I was off to Round 1 of Super Trivia (yes as you may know I must return home with at least one ship on a stick to add to my collection - displayed in my office at work). There I find several members of the roll call (who have cruised together before: Mike and Jocelyn and Jeff and Kelly and Lorraine) and join up with them and a few others join our team as well to become Full Signal (altho my favorite team name was team 2 who were called “Piece of Ship”).

 

So Super Trivia is like a trivial pursuit type game with a huge inflated cube - with numbers and colors on each side - the color indicating the category and numbers indicating the points won should your team answer correctly - if not the question goest to the ‘next’ team and they have a chance to steal points! We are off to a good start (and I help by answering the sole ‘canadian’ question). Since it is a three round game we will not know or score or find out who won til the end! Next up was 70's music trivia (and I didn’t do too well on that one).

 

Hungry for lunch so my one and only visit to the buffet - it was ‘carribbean’ themed so I grabbed some jerk chicken, rice, salad with an ice cream cone for dessert!

 

Busy on deck

 

Ship originally built in 2005:

 

Atrium view:

 

 

View down the 'promande deck'

[MissKIA]

Check out the 'videos' I posted - I thought it was a fun place to be (altho I didn't stay late or long) and the lack of smoke was appreciated! :)

 

 

Oh geez I didn't even see the link somehow. lol Yeah he's not the best singer, is he? hehe That's okay, I've heard much much worse. :D

[Froufie]

At 3 pm as indicated on our roll call, all those interested were to report to the Alchemy bar to meet for Funtime Teatime with Froufie and Friends (catchy name don’t you think?). A few showed up and we chatted for a while before heading down to deck 4 aft dining room doors. Found tablemate Carol wandering around so we invited her along as well. There was six of us so we filled up a table and filled up on cakes, cookies, strawberries and vanilla cream - along with a few smoked salmon sandwiches and tea of course - we had so much fun - especially discussing the ‘anklet’ situation, Lorraine’s stripper pole in her cabin and other such nonsense.

 

Carol joins us for teatime:

 

Other 'participants' Carol, Julie and her mom Jean

 

Doesn't this look delish?

 

Back to the cabin to get ready for elegant night and $1 off drinks (much prefer the previous captain’s welcome aboard cocktail parties!)..... but not before capturing a caribbean sunset!

 

 

 

 

Bonnie and I meet up at the Alchemy Bar at 7 pm (where we find our roll call friends again who regularly meet their every evening for cocktails). I get a french kiss martini and Bonnie gets a mint martini and we head off to the Victoria lounge (deck 5 aft) to enjoy the 7:30 comedy show with Tommy Drake.

 

[jaburr24]

Love your pics, thank you so much!

[Froufie]

The blue color is just fantastic Froufie at HMC..and you are very cute and pretty..love seeing you in some of these photos...love our 1A portholes and can not wait to try one..and love this ship's photos and this multiple island thing...it would be neat to do a back to back with a slower paced one and just go to miami for two weeks sometime..due to the air..wow..last minute from here; this month I checked, just wiped out any pack and go savings...to say the least..LOL..ok keeping the dreams alive...onward and thanks again!!!

 

You got it - the best way is a relaxing b2b or 'padding' the cruise with before and after days in Miami (esp when coming for the cold dark north! :) )....Thanks! :D

[Froufie]

Off to dinner where we feast on baked stuffed white mushrooms, lobster, shrimp and prime rib. (I ordered a ceasar salad which never appeared? Oh well - not like I went hungry!). Had a bite of the alligator fritters - nothing amazing. A new guest at our table tonight Sherri from Alabama. Seems she is a ‘friend’ of the male nurse on board and is visiting with him for the cruise. As he was on call that evening she was seated with us and was a welcome addition to the table.

 

New 'temporary' tablemate Sherri:

 

 

1st elegant night - don't we all look 'spiffy'?

 

 

After dinner it’s off to see the first production show Wonderful World. I am happy to report that both singers on this cruise (Bree and Bentley) were very very good (unlike other cruises where one singer is stronger/better than the other) and we enjoyed the sets, music and costumes!

 

We then dropped into the disco, and The Stage lounge (great latin band playing during our cruise), peaked into the piano bar.....I then stopped by the casino and instead of the Lemmings machine I found the puppy machine (Maltese Terrier) and was rewarded with a $140 win which I proceeded to donate back to the casino for the remainder of the cruise (well I guess that’s better than donating my own $$?)

 

All of sudden it’s 1 am again - I am back in my cabin filling out my room service breakfast card for our first port stop in St. Thomas tomorrow!

 

A towel animal and 'presents'!!!

[gail811]

Around 3:30 pm we packed up and started heading back to the very long tender line. Took about 20 minutes til the next tender showed up and we headed back to the ship around 4 pm. Of course a snack was in order so I ordered room service: BLT, chocolate milk and some cookies - not too long a wait but the BLT was a bit disappointing - not as ‘high’ as last time and some of the bacon was really realy crunchy (not crispy, but crunchy - like falling apart) leading me to believe it had been sitting around for a while?

 

I also checked my folio on the TV noticing an extra drink charge from embarkation day (I had a mango swirl - and not an additional funship special as indicated on the screen) I do keep my receipts so had to visit the Concierge desk (twice) to get this corrected.

 

Tonight’s late seating show was before dinner at 7 pm so off I went to see Edge, the juggling comedian (and I was able to use an old bar coupon from a previous cruise to get myself a Miami Vice!). Check him out here: http://www.edgerockson.com/theshow.html

 

How about a Miami Vice before dinner?

 

Off to dinner ...Our wait staff is very good except for a couple of issues. Head waitress Putri is adorable with a great smile and attitude - calling us all by name after the first night. She seems to have 2 assistants Edy - who is not too swift (looks a bit scared most of the time?) And Edad from Bosnia who is very helpful and tries to make sure we have everything we need and will stop and chat once in a while.

 

Putri - isn't she cute?

 

What I didn’t like but perhaps was a necessity...was when ordering more than one appetizer which happened almost every everning by everyone at the table - they seemed to appear all at once? Now I understand the galley is probably a busy place and they want to avoid going in and out more than necessary but you would be eating your first appetizer (e.g. sushi plate) and all of a sudden your soup would appear and be placed at the side of your plate? So do you finish the sushi? Well no the soup is getting cold - so you want to eat that first - but where do you put your sushi plate while eating your soup? Or do you gulp down the rest of the sushi, try to place the dirty/empty plate on the table hoping someone will soon pick it up while you have your next appetizer? Now mutiply this by 5-6 diners at the table and you get the picture!

 

As mentioned Bonnie and I got the basic wine package - which gives us 5 coupons for specific choices of wine - Bonnie gets 3 coupons I get two and order one bottle of wine (pinot noir - very good). I have come home with my other wine coupon (to use on another cruise) as I still had one bottle of white and red in my cabin (along with some wine glasses so was able to ‘carry’ my wine with me to shows/dinners as required).

 

This evening I had the cream of wild mushroom soup (excellent) and the oysters rockefeller - very yucky - Natasha the assistant maitre D has just come by to deliver some bar coupons to Steve and asked how dinner was so we told her - the oysters were not really baked/cooked - mostly raw with lots of green spinach and no cheese! (Well she did ask!) - she apologized of course but we told her perhaps she should mention this to the kitchen for future dishes? Anyone else have issues with the oysters rockefeller?

 

For my entree I had the petite filet mignon and braised short ribs - the ribs were a bit chewy, but the filet was pretty good - came with one of those tiny mac and cheese cups on the side! And my one and only warm chocolate melting cake and of course my usual decaf cappuccino for dessert.

 

I LOVE your shirt! Where did you find it...would love to get one!

[Froufie]

I LOVE your shirt! Where did you find it...would love to get one!

 

Ah yes - my famous cruise ship 'bling' shirt - Isn't it the best!!! Found it on ebay (it is made by quacker factory - I have a lot of their stuff - very cute). You can try ebay or QVC - good luck!