Western liberty review march 24, 2012 with a great friendship formed

[carncruiser1964]

Day 2 – Sea Day

 

By 7am, we just decided to get up. We put our bathing suits on and headed up to the Lido Deck for breakfast. We both got an omelet which was very good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[carncruiser1964]

We sat at a table by Guy’s Burgers and noticed right away that the chair hogs were in full force.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[carncruiser1964]

Frank and Linda, from the Meet & Greet, joined us when we were just about finished and we sat with them for a while and had some good laughs. We could already tell that there was something special about this couple.

 

I must say that normally, Hubby & I don’t put ourselves out there on a cruise and pretty much stay to ourselves, however, this time we both are so glad that we did open up because we met the nicest couple and know that we will see them again.

[carncruiser1964]

After a while, Hubby and I went to Deck 10 to go to the “naughty room” and then find a couple of chairs to lay out for a while.

 

Hubby is not very good at this as he gets a bit ansy so after a short while he took a walk to find Harry’s Steakhouse to make our reservation for the night we were in Belize (Tuesday) and also stop at Customer Service to discuss the embarkation picture issue. Customer service said they had to check into why no one was there to take pictures and someone would get back to us.

 

I watched the Morning Show on the Big Screen and found it to be very entertaining. There were cameras positioned in many different areas and really got the people on the Lido deck involved.

 

 

[carncruiser1964]

Hubby came back and stayed for about an hour and then went to the casino.

 

I looked at my watch and noticed that it had been over an hour since we noticed all the chairs that were being saved. I got up and looked over the railing and no one had come to claim them at that point. We did notice that many people were using their own personal towels to save the chairs.

When it got to be just about 2 hours, the chair hogs actually started arriving. It always amazes me that people don’t think there is anything wrong with this.

 

This was after an hour and a half!

 

Random shots

 

 

[carncruiser1964]

Around 11:30am, I went back to our room for a minute (our room had not even been cleaned yet) and then made my way down to the casino and waited for the Slot Tournament to begin so Hubby and I could sign up.

 

Hubby did pretty well and made it into the finals which began at 2pm. So before the finals, we went to the Lido deck to get some lunch. I finally was able to get my turkey sandwich and it was so good.

 

Just before 2pm, we made our way back to the casino so Hubby could play in the finals. It was really close but he came in second. We got another t-shirt so I used it to cover my legs again and played for a while. About 4:30pm, I decided to go up to the room to shower and get ready for dinner. It was very early for me to normally do this but tonight was the first formal night and I just wanted to take my time.

[crewsweeper]

WooHoo, my fellow FL Yankee Fans are back at sea!

 

Really enjoying your review. Hoping your casino expereince beats last time. Following in your footsteps Friday!

 

Best of luck with the vaping!

[carncruiser1964]

When I got out of the shower, I noticed that there was quite a bit of water on the bathroom floor. I thought maybe I hadn’t fixed the curtain right so when Hubby went to take a shower, he rearranged the curtain but that did not help. We needed to take all the bath towels and the beach towels to soak up all the water.

 

At this point, we still had not met our cabin steward, so I began to call him (or her) the mystery cabin steward. I thought maybe Hubby should call someone about the shower, but he was sure that the steward would take care of it once he saw all the towels and how wet they were.

 

I also had to leave the mystery steward a note asking not to have our towel animals removed and that we needed a bucket of ice for our bottle of Asti that we brought with us.

[carncruiser1964]

When we were all ready, we went down to deck 5 to find a good location to have our picture taken. We chose the area right outside of the casino by the stairs. We seem to always take pictures on the stairs but this time we decided to have the photographer put a couple of vases by the railing on the side of the stairs. Even though there were only two other couples waiting after us, we felt that he rushed through taking the pictures. Needless to say, the pictures did not come out good at all and for some reason I never got any with our camera. Very disappointing as Hubby had bought a tux and I bought a new gown for this cruise. Oh well, there’s always next time.

[carncruiser1964]

We headed to dinner and noticed that some of the people at the 10 top were not the same. The three that caused such a scene the night before were not there and everyone else seemed to have a much more enjoyable dinner. We also noticed that there was a lady that kept walking around several large tables checking on everyone and telling them what was going on that night and the next day. We later found out that there was a very large singles group on the ship and apparently the woman was the group leader.

[carncruiser1964]

Tonight for dinner Hubby had minestrone soup, shrimp cocktail & prime rib, which was extremely thin and not very tasty at all. I had the pumpkin soup (one of my favorites), shrimp cocktail and the shrimp and lobster tail.

 

Col Klink, as always, made the trip

 

 

 

One of our Servers - never got her name

 

 

[carncruiser1964]

We noticed that there was a family on the first floor of the dining room and one of the guys sitting at the table was wearing a t-shirt and swim trunks. At first we were completely shocked that he was even allowed in the MDR. However, after thinking about it, we came to the conclusion that his luggage must not have gotten to the ship and surely it would arrive in Cozumel.

 

We did get pictures of the table but don't really feel it is appropriate to post them due to the possible circumstances.

 

 

After dinner, we went back to the room to drop Col Klink off.

 

Our VIP gifts were waiting for us and we were so glad that they were the backpacks. Very cool!

 

 

 

[carncruiser1964]

We did not go to the show tonight. We just hung out in the casino. We didn’t do all that well tonight but we both got our “On Us” drink cards.

 

We also were happy to see Nora, a Pitt Boss, again. This was the 3rd time sailing with her. It is so great to see people you have met on previous cruises. It’s like seeing family again – sometimes depending on your family, it’s even better. :eek:

 

We called it a night around 12:30am and was hoping for a good night’s sleep.

[carncruiser1964]

You guys sure cruise a lot! How cool is that! Great start to your review.

 

 

Just in the last 3 years we've been fortunate to do this. Also living in Florida makes it much easier. Thanks

[carncruiser1964]

WooHoo, my fellow FL Yankee Fans are back at sea!

 

Really enjoying your review. Hoping your casino expereince beats last time. Following in your footsteps Friday!

 

Best of luck with the vaping!

 

Hi Crewsweeper!

Thanks and yes we had a much better time in the casino this trip. Have fun on your upcoming sailing on her and if you get a chance, tell Sean in the casino that Brad and Michele said hi!

Thanks for the well wishes on quitting. We definately are going to try.

[carncruiser1964]

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

Good luck to both of you on trying to cut down/quit cigarettes!

 

Thanks for the well wishes, we sure are going to try. The e-cig works for me. Kind of wishing that Hubby would try it. We'll see ;)

[carncruiser1964]

Great review:)

 

Thanks!

[carncruiser1964]

Day 3 – Cozumel

 

I guess it was wishful thinking about that good night’s sleep. Right on schedule, at 6:30am, the housekeeping cart was being stocked. Right after that we heard the thrusters as we approached the dock in Cozumel. I got up and took some pictures of sleeping Cozumel. Then laid back down again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[carncruiser1964]

No way we were going back to sleep so we got up and got dressed and headed to the Lido Deck for breakfast. As we left our room, there were 2 guys (room stewards we assumed) standing by the cart across from our room. Hubby told them that 6:30am was a bit early to be making such a racket. The guys just looked at Hubby, smiled and nodded their head up and down. I don’t think they had a clue what he just said.

[carncruiser1964]

The line for an omelet was too long so we both just got scrambled eggs with French toast. I added the fresh salsa that was on the buffet. I have become more than addicted to the salsa. So much so, that I got the recipe and have made it at home. I’ll eat it with anything!

 

We saw Linda and Frank sitting at a table by Guy’s Burgers so we sat with them and ate. We chatted with them for a while then headed back to the room to gather our things to get off the ship.

 

We got back to the room at 9:30am and we noticed that our room still had not been touched. Our question was why all the noise at 6:30am with the cart if they are not going to start the rooms until way after.

[carncruiser1964]

My brother Jimmy (who was on the Legend with us in September) had asked us to pick him up some tequila while in Cozumel. The only thing is that it is only sold in a few places and you have to go downtown.

 

We also had to go to Tanzanite International to get a necklace fixed that we purchased a couple years ago, so this was actually our first stop. It took them about 20 minutes to repair it and we were on our way to the taxi area to take us downtown. First goal completed.

 

We actually asked a few shops right off the pier if they had this particular tequila but they all said we had to go downtown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[carncruiser1964]

It was 10:30am our time which meant 8:30am their time and nothing really started opening until just after 9am so we had some time to kill and we asked the taxi driver to drop us off at Starbucks. We also asked the driver where we could find the Cava Antigua Store. He didn’t know exactly where it was but said to ask around and we would find it.

 

We sat at Starbucks for a while and had some coffee and played with my iPhone trying to get their free Wifi connected. I had no problem with the Wifi on the cruise last September but couldn’t for the life of me remember how my settings were, so we were not so lucky this time. I ended up just shutting my phone off and we were off to find this one particular store.

[leelee1966]

Awesome review so far...keep it coming...I'm 53 days from sailing on the Liberty and very excited to check her out!

Good luck on quitting...I quit smoking about 10 years ago and it's the best thing I could have done for myself and family~

[crewsweeper]

I know Cava Antiqua is the tequila from the Tequila Factory/Musuem out on the Transversal Road, but don't know where it is sold downtown. I'll wait for you to tell your adventures.

[carncruiser1964]

We walked a few blocks and went into a couple of stores. I saw a cute sundress that I liked and Hubby tried to bargain but that was a big fat NO! $14 period! We left without buying it but Hubby saw my face and said we would stop on our way back and get it. Okay, I’m happy now. We found a couple of tequila stores but they didn’t have Cava Antigua so we asked them if they knew where the store was. Surprise, surprise, they didn’t know. Then we found a store that actually did sell it. The size we needed was $54, but it wasn’t the actual factory store so we kept on going. Finally, someone told us where to find this store and it wasn’t but another block up and down a side street. We had completed another goal for Cozumel, or so we had thought. We went inside and talked with the man that ran the store. We found what my brother wanted (it also helped that I printed a picture of the bottle before we left). The price was $63! The same exact thing for $9 more? We explained to the gentleman that we would be happy to purchase the bottle from him for $54. The man said he could not lower his price, so Hubby told him that we would just go back to the other store and buy it for $54 since we had to walk that way anyway. We started to leave and the man said “Wait, I will give it to you for $54 but you have to tell me where these other stores are.” No problem with that. We told him exactly where they were and paid him. He even threw in 2 miniature sombreros and blankets. Now our 2nd goal was complete.