REVIEW: Carnival Liberty - Western Caribbean - 4/5/14 thru 4/12/14

[pghsteelerfan]

We sat out there for close to 45 minutes before we finished our beers. Since we hadn’t really finished packing, mainly just organizing, we decided to get another beer to take back down to the cabin with us. We got those at the Red Frog rum bar and took them to our cabin. We went to the balcony first and it looked like the MSC ship was ahead of us now, but still sailing in the same direction. We were wondering if she was headed to Fort Lauderdale or Port Canaveral. I noticed that the water seemed calmer now but still a little choppy. We noticed another ship, so I got my camera and used the zoom to get pictures. This wasn’t another cruise ship, it was a large cargo ship.

That’s when we noticed that Liberty was turning in a large “arc”. We didn’t think anything of it since we were guessing we were ahead of schedule for our arrival in Miami the next morning and thinking that Liberty would do some “Figure 8” patterns. I got pictures of Liberty’s wake when I noticed the “arc” in it.

We decided to go back inside and get most of the rest of our packing in and started on that. As I mentioned earlier, I had most of my clothes in my regular suitcase this time instead of in my carry-on since we would be flying home. I do keep identification with our address, phone numbers and our flight itinerary inside the suitcase in case it would get lost. We do have the identification on our luggage tags and although they seem secure, I am aware that they do come off. We also keep our luggage locked with the TSA locks, so if my suitcase was lost, they could always have TSA open it to look for identification. At least I would hope they would.

The other thing I had to take into consideration was the weight of my suitcase, which I wanted to keep under the 50 pound limit. United Airlines policy has a $100.00 fee for check-in suitcases weighing over 50 pounds and we did NOT want to pay that. The night before our cruise, we weighed the suitcases we’d be checking in. Mine weighed 37 pounds, but I had 14 pounds of clothes and an extra pair of shoes in my carry-on. So if I put most of what I brought down in my suitcase, it would weigh about 48 pounds. Here’s where the problem is: I had several Carnival souvenir cups (4 coconut monkeys, two pirate blue fish cups, two funnel cups, two ceramic mugs, two “Fat Tuesday’s” attitube drink cups, five cordial shot glasses) in addition to a mid-sized bottle of vanilla (has to go inside check-in bag), five T-shirts purchased on the cruise (two gifts for others) and several small souvenirs (again, some of those for others). My breakable souvenirs would be going in my carry-on and I also planned to put a few of the souvenir cups in my carry-on with the breakable, wrapped, souvenirs inside those. I was definitely going to need to do some rearranging.

I ended up with most of my clothes going back in my carry-on and put all plastic souvenir cups in my suitcase. I also put the four coconut monkeys in the suitcase but wrapped each in clothing so they wouldn’t get all scratched off and have pieces of the sides of the coconuts stripped off. Basically everything that came down in the suitcase was in it for the return trip in addition to the unbreakable souvenir stuff. That should keep it under 50 pounds. As for lugging around a heavy carry-on, well, I made it down so I can certainly make it back. DH announced that he made up his mind to do “Self Assist” debarkation. OK, so that’s all set.

As we were packing, we heard the “announcement chimes”. This time it was our captain again, Captain Guiseppe Guisa, with the announcement. We would be making an unexpected stop in Key West, FL, to disembark one of our passengers for a medical emergency. He told us we were heading toward Key West now and would be there in a few hours (between 7:30 and 8:00PM). We didn’t hear of anything happening to anyone and were guessing (and hoping) that it wasn’t life threatening. The reason we were guessing it may not be life threatening was because we were actually going to Key West and not having a medevac to a Coast Guard helicopter. We had one of those on our Carnival Glory cruise four years ago. That was the day we left Miami and the passenger was a pregnant woman who was ill. All we know, which we later found out on the ship and from an article we looked up in the “Miami Herald” after our cruise, was that it wasn’t “life threatening” to the woman but because she was pregnant, the ships aren’t equipped to deal with pregnancy complications. We never heard how she or her unborn baby made out, but I hope they are parents of a healthy four year old or almost four year old now. Back to this cruise. This is why Carnival Liberty made that turn. We had been heading east, toward Miami, but the ship turned in a long arc pattern to the south and looped around and we were now heading northwest. DH turned the TV on to the channel that showed Liberty’s path, so we got pictures of that.

Picture of the TV screen on the channel that's showing Liberty's path and current position:

Since we wouldn’t be in Key West for another few hours, we continued with the packing. Neither of us have ever been to Key West but know many who have who really enjoyed it. That is a place we’d love to go to and would love to drive down through the Keys and spend a few days there. We are aware that this is a medical emergency disembark and not a port of call where we’d be getting off the ship, but at least we'd finally get to see Key West.

[pghsteelerfan]

Once we finished packing, we decided it was time for another cold beer, so we went up to Lido Deck 9 and went to the Red Frog rum bar again and got our beers to take back and have on our balcony before we’d have to start getting showered and ready for dinner. We planned that a little early so we’d have an opportunity to see Key West since we were headed there. Right now we had no idea if we’d actually be docking in Key West or if there would be a smaller boat that would come to Liberty and pick up our fellow passenger. By now it was almost 6:00PM so we took the beers on the balcony and enjoyed them there. When we finished, we took turns getting showers. I let DH go first since I wasn’t quite finished with my beer and I stayed on the balcony while he showered and once he was done, I took my turn. When I was finished in the shower, about 6:45PM, DH had the TV on the station that showed the view from the front of the ship to see if he could see anything yet and we could see land…Key West. He mentioned a red flag tied to the front that he hadn’t noticed before and wondered if it was some kind of “distress” or “emergency” signal flag. We tried getting pictures if it on the TV screen but the wind was blowing the flag around and we couldn’t get good pictures of it. It looked like it was red and white. Instead of getting my dinner clothes on, I threw on a T-shirt and a pair of shorts to wear on the balcony. It was almost 7:00PM. I hurried to get ready and went out with my cameras.

Pictures of the TV screen in our cabin from the channel that shows the current views from the front of Liberty where we noticed a flag we didn't notice before:

At first, Key West appeared to be a good distance away and was flat. We took pictures anyway.

Approaching Key West, FL:

As we got closer, at about 7:30PM, we started getting a lot more pictures. We also noticed several sailboats and got pictures of those. As we got closer, I could tell there was a beach but am guessing it’s one of the manmade beaches. I used my zoom to see if I could see the “Southernmost point in the USA” marker, but did not see it. I saw the lighthouse and tried getting pictures of it. We weren’t the only ones out there on our balconies, both neighbors on each side and it seemed most cabins to the side, above and below had everyone out. I’m sure there were many others up on Panorama Deck 10’s starboard (right) side at this point.

I'll let the pictures do the talking for a while. These are all as we approached Key West, FL:

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

As we got even closer, we looked toward the front of the ship and saw a lot more sailboats. We still didn’t know if Liberty would be docking or if a boat would come and meet us. A few sailboats sailed close to us but never appeared to get too close.

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

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[pghsteelerfan]

 

There were also some cool bi-planes that we were able to see that were pulling advertisements for...bi-plane rides:

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2014 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

As we sailed up closer to Key West, we saw two piers which appeared to be large enough to be cruise ship piers. The first pier had a box like structure that had “NAS Key West” (Navy Pier?) and also had an ambulance waiting. We’re docking. Not too far from this pier was the other pier, which was just outside a marina, and I think cruise ships normally dock at that one. From that area we could hear all kinds of cheering and clapping. I’m guessing that everyone there thought we were stopping as a port of call.

[pghsteelerfan]

 

We watched as the ship moved closer to the NAS Key West pier and there were people out there waiting for us. There was the crew from the ambulance with a stretcher right at the edge of the pier and also some people who appeared to have driven to the pier in personal vehicles, pickup trucks and a larger van, to help tie Liberty to the dock since those people were waiting in the areas that Liberty would be tied to. One of them was a gal. Once Liberty got closer, we could see the sand turn up in the water and the workers were busy tying Liberty in. I was getting pictures of all of this, in addition to pictures of Key West.

A sea plane:

Edited May 28, 2014 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited May 28, 2014 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

Once Liberty was tied in, the crew from the ambulance got on with the stretcher. I also noticed a nice moon out, not full, but almost. I ended up getting pictures of the moon and some more of Key West.

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

View of all the people on the one building watching the sunset:

 

 

[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

 

They were on the ship for about five minutes when a lady in a wheel chair was brought out. It looked like she had her foot wrapped with a large bandage. Once they got her off the ship, everyone was clapping and cheering for her. It looked like she was alright and maybe broke her foot or ankle in a way that required set or surgery to set as soon as possible. They wheeled her over to the ambulance but didn’t put her in. DH said they still didn’t bring the stretcher off yet…there was probably someone else who had the medical emergency, the spouse of the lady. I was hoping he was wrong. I know things happen to people, serious things, but I just don’t like to see it, especially to someone enjoying their vacation. A few minutes after they brought the lady out in a wheelchair, they brought a man out on the stretcher. He was definitely alive (thank God). They wheeled him on the stretcher to the ambulance and loaded him in. Where the ambulance was positioned, it was partially blocked from our view from a smaller building on the pier. Once both of our passengers were loaded into the ambulance, it left. I did not get pictures of our fellow passengers as they were wheeled off Liberty because I don’t feel right doing that. By this time it was getting darker and when the ambulance left, we got pictures of it.

[pghsteelerfan]

 

Our hopes are that our fellow passenger had nothing serious happen and that the medical evacuation was mainly precaution and hope they are now fully recovered and doing well. Pretty soon the same folks who tied us in untied us and we moved away from the dock. Liberty then made a turn, which allowed us to see the remnants of a Key West sunset – another first for us. The sun had already gone down, but the clouds were still a beautiful color. The pictures don’t really show that though. What is really strange is that the pictures I got of it on “Old Reliable”, it’s more vivid but also looks a lot darker than it actually was. The pictures I got on “Rebel” came out lighter and more of what it actually looked like.

"Old Reliable's" pictures of the sunset:

"Rebel's" pictures:

[pghsteelerfan]

More "Rebel" sunset pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2014 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

After getting the sunset pictures, it was almost time for us to head down four our last dinner of the cruise in the “Silver Olympian Dining room” and we knew that all of our tablemates were supposed to be there tonight. By the time we were finally ready, it was about 8:30PM, so we didn’t have to waste time before going down. I remembered to get the $1.00 Honduran bill for our tablemate who also collected foreign currency and wasn’t able to get any in Roatan. The other night I promised to give him the extra one I had on the last night at dinner since we wouldn’t be seeing them on formal night. When we left our room, Eduardo, our Cabin Steward, was on his way down the hall. We talked for a few minutes and I asked if I could get a picture and he posed with a big smile.

 

Eduardo, our Cabin Steward:

 

 

When we got to the dining room, we were the last ones at the table, but we did follow a few of them into the dining room. I went over and gave the Honduran $1.00 to our tablemate and he was so glad to have it.

 

Our dining wait staff seemed to really be picking up the pace tonight. As soon as we all got there and seated, we had our water poured but DH and some of the others still had to ask for what they wanted. Our bread guy was out right after that and Nicholai came around with the menus. Now tonight was actually the Friday right before Easter Sunday…Good Friday. Since many people give up meat on Fridays during Lent and especially on Good Friday, the menu seemed to reflect that. DH and I are not seafood eaters so I was really afraid that’s what the non-meat choices would be tonight. If that was the case, and shame on me, but I was going to eat meat or fill up on sides and appetizers instead. There was seafood on the menu but they also had some non-meat pasta. For my appetizer I ordered my favorite, Caesar Salad which I still give an “A”. For my main course, I had the Ricotta Ravioli with tomato cream sauce. It was very good and I’ll give that an “A”. For the side, I had the Bacon Mac & Cheese (but I did pick out the bacon or ate around it) and that’s still a solid “B”. We were commenting on how quickly things seemed to move tonight. Andi, my “shot guy” came around with the tray of cordials but all were in yellow shot glass and the drink in it looked like it could be good. The drink was one that was layered. The liquor on the bottom was blue with what appeared to be a thicker liquor that was yellowish/green on top. It could have just been that color because of the blue at the bottom. Either way, I didn’t get one because I have the yellow shot glass and I really didn’t feel like having to find a place to pack it securely without breaking it. I did ask Andi if I could get a picture of him, my “shot guy”, with the tray of cordials and he was happy to pose.

 

Andi, our dining room bar waiter, affectionately known as my "shot guy":

 

One of our table mates also got a picture of both Andi and myself for me with my camera.

 

Andi and I:

 

Right after that our dessert menus were delivered and I got the usual sorbet and so did our other tablemate but I forget what the others had, including DH.

So many of you reading who have cruised with Carnival before know what’s coming now…the “Leaving on a Cruise ship” song. For anyone reading this who have never been on a Carnival cruise before, there is a song that all of the wait staff come out and sing to the passengers on the very last night of a cruise. Some of you may be too young to remember, but there was a song in the late 1960’s called “Leaving on a Jet Plane”. Now I do remember the song as a real little kid (toddler) so I had to look the other information up and here is some potential “Carnival Trivia” but I’m not sure since we’ve only done the music ones of guessing song/artist from the late 70’s or 80’s, not the 1960’s or earlier. ***Leaving on a Jet Plane was written by John Denver and released as “Babe I Hate to Go” in 1966. Another band of that time was called “Peter, Paul and Mary” liked it so much they did their own recording in 1967 but it didn’t become popular until released as a single in 1969. I think they were the ones who really made it popular. There were also two other bands that recorded it, “Chad Mitchell Trio” and “Spanky and Our Gang” (not familiar with either of their music). John Denver recorded his own version for his debut album and re-recorded it for a greatest hits album in the early 1970’s***

So, back to the review. We are in the dining room and our dining room wait staff are all getting into their positions to sing to us “Leaving on a Cruise ship”. Sad song indeed because when we hear this, we know this is our last night and that we will be getting kicked off the ship the next morning. Let me rephrase that because Carnival doesn’t actually kick us off the ship. We will be debarking from our ship the next morning. The time has come and now they are singing the “Leaving on a Cruise ship”.

Nice song and enjoy them doing it, always have, but at the same token I’m going to miss being on the cruise ship. There was actually a lady at a table behind us who was wiping her eyes. I don’t know if that brought her to tears or not but if so, I’m sure she isn’t the only one. No shame. None of us wants to get off the ship (well, most of us don’t) and get back to the real world and responsibilities and the realizations that you’re going to have to prepare your own meals, no ice cream machines (well, no one I know has one in their house), now towel animals, no chocolates with turned down bed service, and the list goes on. But that’s why we book another cruise. Maybe not the very next year, but we will cruise again. Now, they finished singing “Leaving on a cruise ship” and we thought that would be it. Wrong! Next thing we knew they were playing the Psy song called “Gangnam Style” and our wait staff were all dancing to that, some of them were even dancing on tables. They weren’t just up there swaying to the music or just moving their arms a little, many of these guys and gals knew the moves and really could dance to it. We thought that was really nice. We’re sad one moment and cheering and upbeat the next. We’re still aware we’re getting off the ship tomorrow morning…early. Thanks DH. But you’ll pay too since I know you do not like to get up in the morning.

Gangnam Style dancing:

[pghsteelerfan]

More Gangnam Style dancing:

This is Nicholai, our head waiter. This is the only picture that I got of him. He was very nice but just SO busy that I didn't have the heart to ask him to stop for a picture. Glad I got this one:

 

 

 

When they were done performing, we all said our good byes to each other and headed our separate ways. We did our usual and went right back to the cabin and changed into some more comfortable clothes and believe it or not, it was only 9:30PM!!! That was a quick dinner, but they were really rushing about and things were really moving. Our towel animal was on our bed waiting for us, if you could call it a towel “animal”…it was a heart with the chocolates right inside.

There was no edition of “Fun Times” tonight. The debarkation information sheet and luggage tags (we were Debarkation number 18) were delivered to our cabin earlier. I can’t remember if it was earlier that day or the previous day. Either way, we had them. Once we changed, we headed out for one last night on the ship, although it would not be a late night. There was the Legends show in the Venetian Palace at 10:15PM, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t be over by 11:00PM, which is the latest I wanted to be in bed. Alarm clocks have strange ways of working themselves into dreams when I’m really, really tired and certainly didn’t want to risk that the next morning. Of course, DH would hear it, I’d hope. Either way, we both agreed no later than 11:00PM. Funny thing was there were some good movies on tonight at the Seaside theater too. At 7:30PM was “The Hunger Games”. Never saw it but after hearing a lot about it and the number of my friends and their kids who like it, I kind of want to see it. That was during our dinner anyway. At 10:00PM the movie “Pacific Rim” was playing. I forget what this one is about but something about it got me curious when I saw previews when it was in theaters. That was also too late. We walked around for a while, stopped in the “Fun Shops”, stopped by the EA Sports Bar since DH wanted to see the score of something, probably hockey, walked through the beautiful Garden Atrium, and went up to Lido Deck 9 just to see what, if anything other than the movie, was going on out there.

We finally decided we didn’t really want to get involved with anything anyway, so we went down to the Promenade Bar (casino bar) and got our final double Captain & coke of the cruise from our favorite bartender. We said our goodbye’s to her and went up one floor and around the corner to our cabin and had our drinks on our balcony. The moon was still out but too high up in the sky to get good pictures. We just sat there and watched the water and took it all in. The fresh air and breezes, the sights of the open ocean, the many stars, the moon…and the sounds of the wake of the ship below us. We sat out there and ENJOYED it until our drinks were finished. It was almost 11:00PM, time to get ready for bed. But before I start getting ready, there is one more picture I need to get...the suitcases out in the hallways on the last night.

A sad sight:

We took turns, I made sure the alarm was set and double checked just to be sure. We then got into that very comfortable bed and soon feel asleep to the gentle rocking of Carnival Liberty.

Next up: cruise not quite over and more pictures of a very pretty Miami pre-dawn and Liberty looks great too.

[erby2283]

So sorry I got you concerned about your cabin choice. We were in 6425 (2 doors down) on Glory two years ago and Glory and Liberty have the same layout since they are both Conquest class ships. We had no noise when we were in that cabin. I just looked up Carnival Liberty's deck plans to be sure. Same location. Those cabins are actually right above the Promenade hallway area and I am almost positive that they are above the booths along the windows in the hallway. Cabins 6445 and the few cabins back from it may experience noise from the piano bar but I don't know how noisy that gets. The night club generates noise and even though your cabin is near it, it's not directly above it. You may hear some noise but it should be more of a muffled noise since you won't be directly above it. Again, we were in 6425 on our Glory cruise and never had a problem with noise. I hope this helps some. As for the cabins on the other side of the ship...I think they're the ones that get the noise. When we booked, that's where most of the available balcony cabins were located. No thanks. I hope you enjoy your cruise. :)

 

Thank you so much for responding. Because I am obsessive and check 8 billion times a day, Carnival seemed to open up a "boat load" (ha ha) of cabins yesterday and we were able to switch to one at the rear of the ship right next door to the rest of our group. I know it's over the comedy club and I actually stayed in the L-shaped cabin on her sister ship, the Victory, and did hear some bass from the karaoke club when we sailed a few years ago but I'll know to bring ear plugs this time!

 

Also, thank you for you review. I know how much time it consumes and your pictures are very beautiful!

[pghsteelerfan]

Thank you so much for responding. Because I am obsessive and check 8 billion times a day, Carnival seemed to open up a "boat load" (ha ha) of cabins yesterday and we were able to switch to one at the rear of the ship right next door to the rest of our group. I know it's over the comedy club and I actually stayed in the L-shaped cabin on her sister ship, the Victory, and did hear some bass from the karaoke club when we sailed a few years ago but I'll know to bring ear plugs this time!

 

Also, thank you for you review. I know how much time it consumes and your pictures are very beautiful!

 

You got one of the L-shaped cabins at the back?!?! That will be SO nice. We actually got to see one of the cabins at the back of Liberty this time. Some of our tablemates had one and were nice enough to show the rest of us what it looked like. VERY NICE balcony with loungers. On our last Sea Day, they had tans and we didn't. They didn't have to worry about finding loungers and enjoyed their balcony most of the day. I have a feeling you're really going to enjoy that and also being closer to friends. I wear earplugs too and they do work pretty well. I hope you and your friends have a wonderful cruise.

 

Thank you about the review. This one is taking longer than I thought but we've been busy here and trying to get our yard and outside plants in shape and need to take advantage of the nice days for that. Add that in with the fact that this house doesn't "self clean". :) I'm hoping to get a good chunk of the review done this evening and getting started....right now. LOL!!!

[pghsteelerfan]

I was going to get some more of the review done, but for some reason I'm unable to "cut and past" into CC right now. It could be our computer or even the mouse, I'll have to see. I haven't forgotten about the review and I was hoping to get the last day done but I may not be able to this evening. Sorry for the delay...

[pghsteelerfan]

I'm not going to be able to work on this. Changed battery in the mouse, shut down/restarted computer and reset our cable modem and am trying the lap top now and still having the same problem.

 

What is happening is when I go to reply and use the mouse to place the cursor were I can start typing or cutting and pasting, it's not doing anything except giving me a symbol with a blue arrow that gives me another menu when I click on it. The only way I was able to post these responses is to hit "Preview Post" and I get the message that the message is too short, then the cursor is automatically there.

 

Is anyone else able to tell if maybe this review got "locked" for some reason?

 

Sorry again for the delays.