Carnival Libery Eastern Caribbean- Cruising with kids!

[apey9995]

Our first family cruise!

 

 

Hi everyone… we just returned from a 7-day exotic eastern Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Liberty. (Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turk). We had an awesome time, and we’re already trying to decide on our next cruise!!

 

 

I booked our cruise in January, and was busy planning right up until the day we left. Cruise Critic played a big part in that. I loved reading other reviews, packing lists, tips & tricks, advice on the different ports, etc. The main thing I was so happy to find were a few reviews with tips for cruising with young children. I was excited to share my own review when we got home. My review will focus mainly on things that were relevant to us as a family, especially tips for cruising with kids. You won’t see a lot of pictures of the ship, "food porn", or things of that nature... which of course there are plenty of those exact same pictures already on cruise critic. My review may not appeal to everyone, but hopefully there are a few parents out there like myself that may find my review useful.

 

 

A little about us- on this trip were myself (April), my husband Bryan, and our two boys Logan (6) and Brody (2).

 

 

I’m the planner (spreadsheets, lists, and itineraries), but husband is the type who likes to wait until the last minute, shove some stuff in a suitcase, and just show up. Bryan and I have been on one other cruise prior to this one, but this was our first cruise with the boys. We knew it would be different (a lot less alcohol, a lot more sandcastles... haha). We were very excited to share the experience with them, but also a little nervous about how it would all play out. Happy to report that cruising with the kids was a breeze! Definitely a great vacation choice for families.

 

 

We were traveling from southern Virginia. We flew from Raleigh, NC to Miami the day before the cruise. This was also my kids first time on a plane- they were so excited! The first part of my review will be a little wordy, just because I plan to talk a little about what we packed and the planning process.

 

 

Anyways, as I mentioned above, having never cruised with kids before, we really didn’t know what to expect, and I learned quite a few tips for things to pack from Cruise Critic. Some advice we used, some we didn’t. Here is what we packed in the kid’s “personal item” for the plane: (they each carried a backpack)

-an activity bag that I put together for the plane ride to keep them occupied. Each bag had a couple sheets of stickers, an airplane sticker scene book, an activity book, a pack of crayons, and some lollipops (for ear popping). My oldest son’s pack also had his flash cards with his spelling words that he had to practice for the week for school.

 

 

-a notebook/journal

 

 

-headphones for our portable DVD player, and also for the plane

 

 

-a few toys from home

 

 

-sunnies of course!

 

 

Some little “extra” things that I was really glad I packed:

 

-take & toss cups for our youngest to use at dinner, otherwise they have to drink out of the wine glasses at dinner- not ideal. I also packed a small container of dish soap and a sponge to wash them out in the cabin- worked great!

 

 

-a belkin 3-outlet plug- there is only one outlet in the cabin, and we definitely got a lot of use out of this

 

 

-packing tape- I used almost the whole roll. Honestly, I can’t even remember what we used it on now, except I know we used it in the hotel the night before we embarked to attach our carnival luggage tags.

 

 

-plenty of extra zip locks in different sizes. Used them for a variety of things, and also for repacking at the end of the trip.

 

 

-diaper sacks (those little blue trash bags). Pretty self-explanatory if you’ve ever been in close proximity to a stinky diaper!

 

 

-portable dvd player- (an ipad/tablet, etc. would work well also). It really helped the kids (especially Brody) feel more at home to be able to watch an episode or two of their favorite shows right before bed/naptime.

 

 

-Mio liquid drink flavor/mix (mainly for the kids, they’re not big fans of plain water, and we did not purchase the soda package on board). They also drank a lot of lemonade.

 

 

-I also packed kids Dramamine, kids ibuprofen, and ginger candies. Happy to report that we didn’t need any of them! We felt hardly any movement on the boat except in the aft dining room (still pretty minimal), and luckily no one felt sick at all.

 

 

Now, I’m going to talk about CARSEATS. This was something I was so indecisive about. It’s a big (sometimes heated) debate topic on cruise critic about whether or not to travel with a car seat in Florida (or anywhere for that matter). We researched it a bit before we left, since there are so many different opinions out there. Our hotel told us that children <5 would not be allowed to ride in the hotel shuttle without a car seat. SAS Shuttles (we used post-cruise) told us it wasn’t a problem without a car seat. Google told me that he would have to have one in Florida regardless if we used a shuttle or cab. So then we had to decide how to get it there, and what to do with it. We debated checking it, but didn’t want to invest in a travel bag for the carseat, and were also worried that it might get damaged, and then we’d be SOL once we arrived. We also thought about taking a backless booster (not for the flight- for the shuttles), since he does technically meet the weight requirement, although he doesn’t ride in one at home obviously, (the main selling point here was that it would be lightweight and easy to carry around), but we knew we’d have to squeeze that into a carry on or pay to check it, since it’s my understanding that you can’t check backless boosters for free. Long story short--- we decided to just take his main carseat from home that he is already used to and comfortable in. I figured he would also be more comfy on the flight and more likely to go to sleep… and also keep him from trying to get out of his seat. The downside of course is that it is heavy and awkward and would take up space in our room. More on the carseat issue later…

 

 

DIAPERS:

I had really hoped Brody would be potty trained by the time the cruise rolled around. Unfortunately, he is using the potty some but isn’t 100% there yet. Therefore, we would still need diapers for the trip. I knew I didn’t want to pack them and take up all that room in our luggage for flying, so originally I had planned to just buy them in Miami when we arrived. However, in my planning process I realized that diapers.com would deliver to the hotel, with free two-day shipping. This was really helpful because I sometimes have trouble finding the specific size/brand of diapers that he uses, so this way I wouldn’t have to stress about not being able to find the right kind and him having a rash all week. Easy peezy! I would definitely recommend this to any parents out there! I ordered the diapers on Wednesday, and they arrived at our hotel on Friday shortly after we checked in. They also deliver all kinds of things (not just diapers), if anyone's interested. (We only ordered diapers though).

 

 

Well that sums up the packing/planning phase of my review, moving on to our travel day! :)

[Lovefuninthesun]

Thanks for writing - looking forward to more!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Cruise Critic App

[apey9995]

The day we had been waiting for and counting down had finally arrived!!

Our flight from Raleigh was at 1:30pm, we arrived at the airport around 10:30. We were a little over-anxious to get out of the house and on our way, and if we had to do it again, we wouldn’t have left so early. Sitting in the airport for three hours with kids is not ideal!!

Leaving our house, everyone’s smiling!

 

Our airport experience started out our vacation on a stressful note, but I’ve learned some valuable lessons! I should’ve purchased a LARGE suitcase that would have fit more of our clothes, and it would’ve been worth the extra baggage fees to check an extra bag or two, instead of trying to save money and carry on the max amount. My poor husband definitely looked like a PACK MULE going thru the airport. We only checked one large suitcase and carried on the carseat, and one carry-on and personal item each (so yes, if you're counting, that’s 3 backpacks, 3 suitcases, a carseat, and a duffel bag). To make matters worse, Brody had a meltdown after taking his shoes off to go thru security (I later learned that they don’t even require kids to take off their shoes?), and refused to walk after that. So my husband also carried him. By the time we reached our gate at the other end of the airport, we were ready to turn around and go home! Haha. We ended up gate checking all of our carry-on luggage, but that was after we drug it all the way across the airport.

 

It doesn’t look that bad in this picture, but trust me it was….

 

 

Waiting on our flight (thank goodness for those activity bags and DVD player!)

 

Once we were on the plane, things definitely started to improve. They loved the plane ride, and about ½ hour into the flight, Brody fell asleep and had a nice nap.

[apey9995]

Once we arrived in Miami, we gathered our mountain of luggage and went to find our hotel shuttle. We were staying at the Hampton Inn Miami Airport South- Blue Lagoon. I had booked this advance purchase through Priceline. I had debated hotels closer to the port, but this one seemed nicer based on pictures, had better reviews, and better prices. It also offered a free airport shuttle, and a shuttle to the port for a fee of $10/adult, and $5/child. We would be using both shuttles. I had also chosen this hotel for the fact that there was a Publix and a CVS right across the street, so I knew we wouldn’t have to go far to purchase our pre-cruise items.

 

After we got thru baggage claim and stepped outside in the pick up area, I called the hotel and they informed me that the next shuttle would be in about 20 minutes (we must’ve just missed them). The wait went by pretty fast except for my moments of mom-panic (“Don’t touch that!” “Don’t put your hands in your mouth!” “Stay on the sidewalk so you don’t get squashed like a pancake!”).

 

Now here’s the kicker. Remember my long rant about carseats? Well when the shuttle van arrived, Bryan began loading up the back with our luggage, saving the carseat for last. I went ahead and got the kids in the van and waited on Bryan (and the carseat). Then Bryan got in, the driver shut the doors, and he got in the front. “Wait, where’s the carseat?” “Oh, he said we don’t need it, so I put it in the back”. WHATTTTTT?!?! We just dragged a 40 lb carseat thru the airport for nothing. Remember, this shuttle ride was the main reason we brought the carseat, because they told us we needed it. So lesson #2 learned… leave the monstrous carseat at home. Oh well, we were just happy to be in Florida!

 

We had a short ride to the hotel- about 5 miles I think. The hotel very nice, clean and the staff was very friendly and helpful. When we arrived we signed up for the 11:00 shuttle. Based on the reviews I had read, I was hoping to leave a little early, but since we had FTTF, I wasn’t too worried about it.

 

We were pretty tired from travel, so we decided not to go out for dinner. We ordered Papa John’s delivery, made some phone calls, and just relaxed. I ventured out to Publix to buy some items for the cruise- some carry-on sodas, juice boxes and trumoo milk boxes, and full size shampoo/conditioner (glad we did this, the bottles were almost empty by the end of the cruise, and we just left them in the room. Travel-sized bottles wouldn't have lasted us all week, and the big bottles would’ve taken up too much room in our luggage). By the way- if you haven’t heard of trumoo, it’s probably one of the greatest kid inventions ever. Its “milk boxes” that can be served at room temperature if need be, and they taste great.

Some pictures of the hotel room:

 

Next up: CRUISE!!

[cruizinisthebest]

Yup, those are some cute little boys!:) Looking forward to the rest. Beautiful family pic by the palms on the beach. I hope you frame that one!

[apey9995]

We woke up early (habit, we rarely sleep past 7), and had breakfast at the hotel. They have a really nice continental breakfast, with a variety of hot and cold items. (Sausage, oatmeal, fruit, pastries, potatoes, waffles, etc.) We packed up the rest of our stuff and headed downstairs to the lobby around 10:30 to wait for the shuttle. There were a lot of people waiting for the shuttle, the majority were for the Breeze. It was only us and two other families headed to the Liberty.

It felt like it was taking forever to get the shuttle loaded and get moving, but in reality I think we left around 11:15. All I could think is, people are probably boarding already! Haha

 

Not really sure why Logan looks so grumpy here, other than just to mess with me every time I try to take a picture

 

It’s always so exciting when you first spot that whale tail! The shuttle got to the Breeze drop off first, and then took the rest of us to the Liberty. We handed over our bags and tipped the porter, and then started the embark process.

Let me just say—Faster to the Fun is WELL WORTH the money. We walked right to the front of the ID checkpoint, then right thru customs with no wait and into the terminal waiting area. There were a TON of people already there, but again the FTTF line was no wait at all. We were 2nd in line. Got our sail and sign cards and walked onto the ship at 12:00. So easy! I felt bad for all the people waiting because it looked like they were going to be there awhile.

Skipping ahead a little—the other perks of FTTF were also really nice. (Priority tender at HMC, and debarkation on the last day). Also, the priority line at guest services which we used several times (there was never a wait). My husband got cussed by a fellow cruiser waiting in the regular line at guest services one day. He tried to explain to her that it is a service we PAID for, but she wasn’t having it. :rolleyes:

Anyways, once on board we chose our cabana for HMC, and then headed to our room to drop off our luggage.

We had a balcony room (category 8C) on the Empress deck, #7368. This was a great location, in close proximity to both the midship and aft elevators.

Edited October 26, 2013 by apey9995

[CruisingSoon88]

Thanks for the review! My sons started cruising when they were 2 and 5. They are now almost 5 and 8 and we will be doing this Liberty cruise for Thanksgiving. It will be their 4th cruise. We love cruising and find that it is the best family vacation for us. We spend time together as a family and the kids love camp so DH and I get alone time as well. I'm excited to read the rest of your review!

[apey9995]

We were really happy that we decided to book a balcony room. We had stayed in an interior previously, and there is no comparison! It was very relaxing throughout the week to sit out there and watch the ocean, and watch as we arrived at each port. Also, when Brody was napping, we could sit out there and have a drink or read a book.

 

We went and grabbed some lunch at the much-anticipated Guys Burgers. They definitely live up to the hype! I think I enjoyed the fries more than the burgers though. My husband probably had at least 10 burgers during the week, he loved them!

 

We didn't waste much time getting our first cruise drink

 

After lunch we walked around the ship a little bit, and then headed back to the cabin to unpack. You always think about cruise cabins being small and cramped, but we never felt cramped at all. We were able to completely unpack all of our things and fit them into the closets and drawers. We stored our empty suitcases under the bed, and it really helped to have the cabin organized.

 

We had a tight deadline for naptime, since we knew the muster drill would be at 3:30-ish. Bryan laid down with Brody (who surprisingly didn’t put up a fight at all), and Logan and I headed out again to do some exploring.

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying his first virgin pina colada. I think he’s starting to like this cruising business…

 

The view from our balcony...

 

We spent a little time in the arcade, found our dining table, and hung out on the Lido while we waited for Brody to wake up. Bryan and Brody joined us around 3:00 and we got ready to head to the muster. Not much to say about that, it was horribly boring and its really difficult to get kids to stand still for that long. Brody threw a fit when they tried to put the green bracelet on him. All kids under a certain age have to wear them. I believe its in case they're not with their parents in case of an emergency, the camp carnival staff will know what muster station to take them to for meeting their parents. After we got finally it on, he wore it the rest of the week and didn't even complain.

[apey9995]

Yup, those are some cute little boys!:) Looking forward to the rest. Beautiful family pic by the palms on the beach. I hope you frame that one!

 

Thank you! :)

[apey9995]

Thanks for the review! My sons started cruising when they were 2 and 5. They are now almost 5 and 8 and we will be doing this Liberty cruise for Thanksgiving. It will be their 4th cruise. We love cruising and find that it is the best family vacation for us. We spend time together as a family and the kids love camp so DH and I get alone time as well. I'm excited to read the rest of your review!

 

Thanks for reading! I agree-cruising is a great way for families to vacation! We can't wait to plan a return trip. I hope your family has a great time on your Thanksgiving cruise! :)

[apey9995]

Thanks for writing - looking forward to more!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Cruise Critic App

 

Thanks :)

[apey9995]

After muster we watched sail-a-way from our balcony. The Breeze sailed past us first to turn around.

 

We attended the camp carnival orientation at 5:00, and then went to dinner at 6:00. We had early dinner seating. Our servers were "Cookie" (I think her real name was Audriana) and Wistawan. They were fantastic! My boys fell in love with Cookie and would hug her every time they saw her. She was so sweet, and paid them lots of extra attention, bringing them extra scoops of ice cream, cutting the food, and making sure they had everything they needed. She was one of our favorite crew members, and I know the boys will always remember her! I think Logan may have had a little crush on her, because he would turn bright red every time she spoke to him!

 

As I mentioned before, I didn't take any food pictures. I personally just think its rude (and awkward?) to take pictures of your food during dinner. Just my personal opinion. Then again, I was too busy helping Brody and stuffing my own face to worry about taking pictures :p But I will be sharing what menu items we tried and giving our opinions on those! That night, I had the Caesar salad, and linguini with Italian sausage. Wasn't a huge fan of the pasta, it was just ok. Bryan and Logan each had the flat iron steak, and Brody had the fruit appetizer and kids mac&cheese (which I tried, and it was delicious!). We all had the melting cake for dessert.

 

After dinner, we went back to the arcade (we ended up spending a lot of time here), and went to the family dance party that Camp Carnival hosted. The kids had alot of fun there! Brody fell asleep around 8:00, so I went to lay down with him and Bryan and Logan tried out the waterslide. (Logan was a big fan).

 

Probably my favorite picture from the whole cruise... they saw this backdrop and voluntarily went up to take pictures.

[NHNEV2003]

We sailed the Liberty last November and had #7366--right next door--we had such a great time!

 

We love the Empress deck and that area is so convenient to both sets of elevators.

 

Thanks for the review!:)

[trini_ras]

Nice, I don't have kids but the review is STILL pretty useful

Thanks for sharing

[apey9995]

Nice, I don't have kids but the review is STILL pretty useful

Thanks for sharing

 

Thanks for reading! I see you are going on the Liberty soon, I hope you have a great time!! :)

[apey9995]

We sailed the Liberty last November and had #7366--right next door--we had such a great time!

 

We love the Empress deck and that area is so convenient to both sets of elevators.

 

Thanks for the review!:)

 

I agree- I would definitely try to pick this room location if we cruise again. Very convenient, and we never felt any movement at all in our room!

[Akleckne]

I'm glad I found your review. I will be cruising for the first time in April with my 4 year old. I'm really interested in camp carnival. We will also be traveling with an 8, 10, and 11 year old. Can't wait to read more!

[Hommiette]

You are awesome! Will be sailing Liberty Eastern as well with our 7 and 2 year old. Your review is perfect for us! Thank you and glad you enjoyed your cruise:)

[apey9995]

HALF MOON CAY!!!

Bryan and I had been to HMC on our previous cruise, and it was one of the main reasons we chose this itinerary. We were so excited to go back- and even more excited since we were going to have a cabana this time around. We figured the cabana would be a good choice since the kids were with us. On our previous visit, we did the horseback riding excursion, which was an awesome experience. This time we were really looking forward to just a nice beach day as a family.

Since we had FTTF (and also because of the cabana), we had priority tender. We went to one of the assigned lounges and sat down for a few minutes, before they told us we could go ahead and start going to Deck 0 to board the tender. We were off the ship around 9:30 or so.

A quick little story about while we were waiting. One of the entertainment staff was up front trying to pass the time and asked if anyone had any “really corny jokes” to share. Of course it was early and none of the adults seemed to feel like participating that early in the morning. Logan looked at us and whispered “I know one!”, so after we gave him the OK he ran up to the stage and told his joke. So cute, we were proud of him for not being shy.

Anyways, back to HMC.

I swear I thought I took some pictures from the tender boat looking back at the ship (it looks huge when you’re sitting outside of it on a tiny boat), but I can’t seem to locate them. Anyways, it’s about a 10 minute ride to the island, doesn’t take long at all. When we got off the tender, we looked around the little shops for a minute, and I bought some sand toys in the beach shop for the boys, and then went to wait for a ride to our cabana. The little trucks come by every few minutes, there’s a pick-up area to the right of the entrance. It didn’t take long to catch a ride, and the truck dropped us off right at our cabana.

We had chosen Cabana #9. It was right beside the restrooms, and far enough down where we had some privacy, but still in walking distance to the lunch area.

Our home for the day!

 

Some of the snacks that were included (sorry, we had already taken a few nibbles before I got a picture). There was a large bag of tortilla chips, sour cream, salsa, and guacamole (which was really good!), a veggie tray, and an assortment of fruit. There was also another tray of cut-up fruit (pineapple, melon, strawberries, etc.). There was also a cooler with 10 sodas, and 2 bottled waters.

 

The cabana also came with snorkel gear for 4 people and 4 floating mats. There’s also a little shower outside of each one, which is great for getting the sand off. We were very happy with the choice to rent a cabana- worth every penny! (FYI- the island is owned by carnival, so all you need is your S&S card. Also, you can get towels on the island, no need to bring them with you.)

The water at HMC is so gorgeous; the pictures don’t even do it justice. And that sand is like powder. It’s really the perfect beach for children too, since there are no waves and they can walk out pretty far into the water. (What’s the technical term for this… a lagoon??). Anyways, if there was a 7-day cruise that spent every single day here, that would be perfectly fine by me! It’s still our favorite port. So nice and private, you don’t have people haggling you to sell you things, and there’s no one on the island but the people who work there and guests and crew from the ship.

[apey9995]

Bryan and Logan spent a lot of time snorkeling and Brody and I played in the water and built sandcastles. A perfect beach day! We also took a little walk down to the kid’s waterslide area. It’s a little mild for Logan but Brody had a great time- he must’ve went down at least 50 times. He threw a fit when we made him walk back to the cabana. I wish I would’ve taken my camera with me on the walk because the joy on his face was so cute. I’m glad he got to do this, since he wasn’t tall enough for the waterslide on the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

[apey9995]

There were two really short rain showers while we were there- each lasted less than 10 minutes if I remember right. This is when the cabana really came in handy! We just sat inside and had some snacks until it passed. The rain didn’t affect the water temperature at all, and we went right back in after the rain stopped.

Around 1:00, we decided to head to the lunch BBQ area. The boys had hot dogs and hamburgers, and I tried the jerk chicken. All very tasty, not as good as the food on the ship but it was a good “beach day” meal.

We went back to the beach for probably another hour or so, and we could tell the boys were starting to get tired. I didn’t want to leave!

Goodbye Half Moon, until next time! :(

[CruisingSoon88]

I have been trying to think a little more about our cabana choice. I would really like to have the balance of not having so many people around and not having to walk a long way to everything. Would you choose #9 again? Was your view obstructed any by the 2 story cabana next to you? Thanks for your help!:)

[apey9995]

I have been trying to think a little more about our cabana choice. I would really like to have the balance of not having so many people around and not having to walk a long way to everything. Would you choose #9 again? Was your view obstructed any by the 2 story cabana next to you? Thanks for your help!:)

 

Yes, #9 worked fine for us! We were next to a villa, but it didn't affect our view. There were other people around our cabana on the beach, but not very many (down by the first few cabanas it is very crowded on the beach). I've heard others say that further down (#10+) is much better for privacy, but we were happy with our location. It was a little walk back up to the main entrance, but it was doable.

[apey9995]

I'm glad I found your review. I will be cruising for the first time in April with my 4 year old. I'm really interested in camp carnival. We will also be traveling with an 8, 10, and 11 year old. Can't wait to read more!

 

They will have a great time! Our oldest LOVED camp carnival, we had to drag him out of there every night. Our 2 year old put up a little fight at first, but once he got there he had a great time! They do lots of fun activities, I think your kids will really enjoy it!

 

Have a great trip, thanks for reading! :)

[apey9995]

You are awesome! Will be sailing Liberty Eastern as well with our 7 and 2 year old. Your review is perfect for us! Thank you and glad you enjoyed your cruise:)

 

Thank you for reading! I hope you and your family have an awesome cruise! We would do this trip again in a heartbeat, it was a perfect choice for us. :)