CruzinScotty

St. Thomas starboard side:

Havensight shopping area

I was awake early today; out on the balcony at 6am. There was lots of relaxation time this morning watching the coast of Puerto Rico.

Today is the 3rd day in a row we met outside the Silver Dining Room at 8:30. Today, all 9 were ready for breakfast. I’ve been really positive about this trip because we had a FANTASTIC time. But, I’m also being realistic and giving some mild criticism where it’s warranted. If you hear something is 100% good or 100% bad – can you really trust the source? :D

Having said that, I must say, the service in the MDR for breakfast was not as good as we remembered from previous cruises. Juices that were requested when ordering were delivered after asking a 2nd time (when someone ordering juice later had theirs delivered quickly). After 8 of us had been served, our last person was just asking where their meal was when it was delivered. Maybe they had to get the stone out and make the cream of wheat from scratch since it’s not ordered much? :p Did any of this ruin our cruise? Nope. Is it a legitimate decline in service over the years. Yes, it is.

Back to the good: the pastries in the morning were always great! The raspberry quickly became my favorite. We had more general breakfast fare. I just LOVE the bagel/cream cheese/smoked salmon. We can see we are getting close to St. Thomas now.

We liked deck 10 for arrivals and sail aways. This morning was nice because there is a lot to see on both sides of the ship in St. Thomas and deck 10 is easier to go back and forth.

St. Thomas - port side:

Hope you'll come back soon! I am really enjoying your review and it helps to hear you all had such a great time with all the negativity going on right now on this board. I know we'll have fun...a lot of it is what you make of it. I am worried a little about the dining room. We have early seating and really have never had a bad waiter (okay, once, but we moved because we wanted a table for 4 and the new waiters were awesome).

 

Question, in the evening were there lots of things to do? It seems they don't have a show in the main theater at least one night. I really do enjoy the shows and enjoy the comedy shows, too. If nothing else, we'll go sit and watch a movie on the lido.

I'm back! Hope to get more posted the next few days.

You have the right attitude; I'm sure you'll have a wonderful trip. Where/when are you going? Are you going on the Liberty?

There was one night that didn't have a lot scheduled in the Venetian. If you like the parties on the Lido; those are a lot of fun. That night, they did have some game show and trivia type things going on. A few from our gang went and did enjoy it. Plus, there's the casino, strolling the decks, the pools/hot tubs are open. Also, we really didn't spend much dedicated time in the Deck 3 Lobby or the Promenade near the casino where there was always live music in the evening. I don't think you'll have trouble finding something you like.

For dinner - you already have a plan. If you don't like where you are in the beginning; ask to change.

THat's pretty funny, because I was the "guy in the middle".. LOL I actually whispered to the girl next to me and told her I was going to say my name was "Jeff" and I wanted her to do the same. I was afraid that she wasn't going to do it and was going to make me look bad..LOL.

Totally amazing that we have 2 out of 3 Jeffs!

OK - Jeffette - are you out there? Show yourself, please. :D

Welcome to the boards, KC #3!

One of the things I find so fascinating on a cruise is meeting new people. I notice when on a land-vacation, you don't run into the same people over and over - you just don't have the same connection.

And, more coincidences with the first names - us secretly rooting for each other's family. :p And, to further it along -with most of my family living in Florida - they all went thru a lot of hurricanes in the middle of the last decade. Ma/Pa went thru Charlie; the others went thru Frances, Jeanne and Wilma.

Gotta head to work; hope to post part of St. Thomas tonight.

Hey Jeff! You're not hijacking the thread at all. I'm happy to have participation, especially from someone that's already been mentioned in the report!

You're one of the siblings! So, was it your wife or SIL that was laughing so much at the Dan Smith show? She's the one I spoke to by name before the Wonderful World show.

I remember now from EDGE that you were Team Kansas City ;) And, yes, he was very surprised you pulled the stunt off. It really was quite amazing, I bet it doesn't happen very often.

We enjoyed seeing various members of your family throughout the ship. One evening, some of the younger members of your group were sitting a couch or two over from us at one of the comedy shows. And seeing your Mom do so well at the slots tournament - it made us feel like we had a 2nd person there that we knew. :)

After our photo, we then walked into the Golden Dining Room for our Anytime Dining Lobster Night Extravaganza! We generally eat early at home and knew from CC postings, that with Anytime Dining – there are less crowds early on. We’re glad knew because there was quite a line of people when we left; the largest of any night. We also like arriving at the Dining Room early to enjoy seeing the ocean until it get’s dark.

After we ordered, DW wanted a picture of all of us at the table. She looked at the next table. She and another woman waved to each other. DW said to me, “There’s the Quarter Lady, she’ll take our picture”. That’s nice, exactly who is the “Quarter Lady”? LOL It turns out the Quarter Lady is someone a few of the women had met at the machines in the casino that you put quarters in with the hopes you can get more quarters to fall into the coin bucket. She was happy to take our pic.

Now – it’s time for the food! For starters, this wasn’t a 2 Starter night. Too many things looked good, so a few of us had 3 or even 4 appetizers! I personally had the pumpkin soup, shrimp cocktail and alligator fritters. I heard the strawberry bisque and stuffed mushrooms were also wonderful. There were 13 Lobster tails consumed at our table. Desserts favorites were the WCMC and Cherries Jubilee, Others said the banana cake was good and the apple puff pastry was only OK.

Hint – if you don’t know the 7 day dinner menu inside and out: The Prime Rib is repeated on the last night. So, for those trying to decide between 2 lobsters and Surf and Turf tonight: go for the 2 lobsters. :D

When we finished, we walked over to the Venetian to get floor seats for the show. Who was in the row in front of us? Team Kansas City! I spoke to the woman who was inadvertently part of the comedy show the night before and called her by her first name. She looked at me shocked, until I told her I’d been at the show the night before.

Karl with a K did a nice warm up; then on to the main show: Wonderful World. I don’t see much mention of this. The singers and dancers perform to songs from various regions of our wonderful world: France, Italy, China, Japan, Ireland, Africa, Latin America, with the USA as the finale. We enjoyed the show quite a bit.

Tonight some of us hit two more comedy shows. At 9:45 was Tommy Drake – his forte is joking about marriage and his very understanding wife. Dan Smith had the 10:45 show with more good improv. He’s a man for my generation – he did Mad Libs. Great fun! I had a nightcap, trying the Jokester (vodka, peach, lemon) – good. The 11:45 show is a little too late for me.

Time for the evening ritual: towel animal, enjoy the balcony for a bit and lights out - around midnite tonight.

Next – After 30 years – St. Thomas!

Helpful hint: when you get your daily Carnival Fun Times – read EVERY detail on it. There are items that are HARD to find. I even knew this from reading prior trip reports – trivia contests and other various activities can be well hidden.

Anyways, today is Memorial Day and I wondered if anything special would be done for the occasion. I didn’t see anything about this in the Fun Times. But, the first time today I approached the Atrium, I saw a huge American Flag had been hung. It was a nice fitting tribute.

So, it was 4:30 and I headed back to the room to start getting ready for dinner. While waiting for an elevator, I heard a teenager say something I would not expect to hear a teenager say. She mentioned something about a “Veteran’s Meet” going on. As quick as I turned my head to ask about what I heard – she was gone.

I made my way quickly to the room. It took me 5 minutes, and finally, FINALLY – I saw it listed on the right hand 1/3 sized tear-off page that listed the activities. In small print, it said – “4:30 Veteran’s Meet”. I quickly made my to the Piano Bar to see if anyone was there. There were a few and I was invited in. But, I said I had to go get my Pop who was the WWII Veteran. Pop and W’ma had to get their shoes on and we quickly made our way back. Karl with a K was leading this group. It was not a large gathering, but there were people from WWII thru almost every war we have had up to our current one. I won’t share the details of this event; but suffice it to say it was a very special gathering for those in attendance. To those who have served in the military – during war time or not; you’re service is greatly appreciated! I thought this was a VERY special event to be held on Memorial Day.

Helpful Hint for all Veteran’s: I believe the Veteran’s meet is a normally scheduled event. There was another meet scheduled on our other sea day. Check your Fun Times for details. Both events were late afternoon – before dinner.

So now we’re running a little late for our designated meeting time for pictures. We got changed quickly and met in the Lobby. DW had scouted out the photo ops, and found that a group our size has to be done on the stairs. Gee – no back drop – we get to be on the Liberty’s version of the “Grand Staircase” – what a pity. :D

I don't want to post a Carnival picture; but it did come out good. Instead, here’s one of our balcony room:

Next time, Formal Dinner in the MDR

I'm heading back to work. I'll try to post more; but may not be able to for a few days.

Here's one last installment.

I decided to join DB because I wanted to have a lighter lunch than the breakfast I had and wanted to eat early since it’s Lobster Night! I had a small piece of fried chicken, roasted corn salad (it had a fancier name ;) ) and some fresh fruit. For dessert, I decided to go for the banana pie and two chocolate cake pops. That’s a lot for lunch at home; but I’m not home – this is a small meal considering it will be 6 hours before I eat again. LOL

Hint – try the Cake Pops – those things are yummy! They had strawberry ones on the buffet in Miami that I forgot to mention. One of the few moist cake items. Get them – you’ll like them. :D

By the time we got to the casino, was had just missed our family’s round. W’ma had done pretty well, we would have to check back @ 2:00 to see if she made the finals. The gang had not had lunch, so they headed to the back Lido. DS and I went to the arcade to play a few games of air hockey; he won 2 games to 1. Then, we then met everyone in the Lido where the fair consisted of Guy’s burgers, tuna and corned beef sandwiches and various items from the American buffet.

There was a little time before 2PM, so we split up with the intention of me, DW, DB/SIL to head for the photo shop. We realize we haven’t seen DB’s room. Though they have the same cabin layout, it was nice to see the view from the 9th floor balcony as opposed to our lowly 7th. ;)

There went our time to look at photos – gotta head to the casino. W’ma is in 6th place; only the top 8 go to the finals. They just finished the last round. Did she make the finals? Well, that last group had a good/lucky player. She moved to the top of the leader board. This person just happened to be the matriarch of team “Kansas City”! In 7th place – W’ma DID make the finals.

It was fun and exciting watching the final 8 push those slot buttons as fast as possible for 5 minutes. They covered the scores so you couldn’t see immediately who won. W’ma ended up in 4th or 5th; but gave a valiant effort! Well worth the $20 – the entire family got to enjoy.

Some head to the cabins to rest, others finally get to the photo gallery. I don’t know why I had in my mind all of the photos were $20. I knew there were expensive – but not that bad. In reality, it made the $10 and $12 sticker shock not as bad; though the portraits actually are $22. We bought a few pics and then everyone returned to their cabins to rest. I enjoyed the newly cleaned balcony, listening to tunes and maybe dozing for a few minutes.

Useless information: I listened to a lot of music this trip. I even updated my “cruise” playlist and posted to that thread. Do you think I listened to it “on” the ship – nope. Go figure. But, I DID listen to it while driving to Florida. Part of that anticipation thing for us obsessed planners, you know. :D

Anyways, I then decided to wander the ship for a bit. Here’s another photo, just because:

DW wanted a group shot of everyone tonight; we only had 7 of 9 together for the embarkation photo. I decided to scout out the different photo areas to see what backdrop would work. There were too many on deck 3 and 5 to keep track of. We enter the Golden Dining Room thru the Lobby, so later informed DW that there were 4 photo backdrops there; it might be the best place to meet.

Coming next – a VERY, VERY unique and personal encounter.

I had heard we were to be out of the storms fairly quickly. The back pool area had the retractable roof closed. It was quite pleasant. I remember on the Liberty in 2008, we had our itinerary rearranged to keep us from going thru Tropical Storm Dolly. The back pool area was much hotter and humid on that day – but then again that was mid-July ;)

I walked thru the gift shop to see what type of t-shirts they had. Outside, they had ones for HMC. I guess we picked a newer shirt while on land – our design was not there. Also, in case you forget – you can buy your St. Thomas and San Juan t-shirts – before we get there. :confused: I was surprised though when I got inside the gift shop. They had a lot of nice Carnival items. But, there was a total lacking of items specific to the Liberty. I got a shot glass last trip; that was the only thing I saw with the Liberty name. Of course I was really looking for a new Liberty t-shirt – none be found. Oh well, no worries.

I found DS. He had skipped breakfast and was hungry a little before lunch, so he decided chocolate ice cream was his choice. Ahh, vacation. DS had seen DW and said W’ma and SIL were joining the slots tournament. So we headed to the casino. Everyone was there except DB. There was a 30 minute wait for my family's turn in the tournament. I correctly figured out that DB had not seen anyone since breakfast and had met at our pre-determined lunch spot. He was enjoying his 2nd bunless Guy Fieri burger extravaganza.

I was out on the balcony around 7. DW joined me earlier today; she’s really enjoying the balcony more this trip. We set the same routine to meet for breakfast at 8:30 outside the Silver Dining Room. Today, 7 of 9 showed up and off we went. The crowd in the MDR, or lack there of; was great.

Today I had the baked apple and pancakes with banana sauce, with more corned beef hash. And another favorite not at the buffet – pineapple juice. A couple of us have now had the pancakes and were in agreement – the flavor was good; but they were a bit tough and rubbery. The bananas in sauce were very good, no additional syrup needed.

After breakfast, it was time for everyone to have the morning to relax and explore on their own. It was nice that everyone was feeling a little more at ease on the ship. Pa took Ma to the Lido for breakfast – she had enjoyed sleeping in and watching the view from her bed. They said the buffet was the first time since embarkation that the felt there was a crowd on the ship.

I decided I needed to get a little walk in. I went to the cabin to get shoes on. I went on the balcony and realized it was very windy and starting to rain. So, out goes the walking track. Plan B – not the best sights; but long hallways on a big ship are a great place to get a good walk in. From the Atrium Lobby around both sides of the ship, back around the aft cabins. I did floors 7, 8 and then 6. That’s enough exercise – can’t let the body think I’m trying to be overly healthy. :p

Side note – the hot tub in the adult area on Deck 9 was a lot of fun. But, the temperature was not very warm. I understand the reasoning – people stay in longer than the recommended time, combined with the fact that some are enjoying libations at the same time. ;) Still, I was missing the warmer temperatures that I enjoy in a hot tub.

Sooooo - next, I was heading to the spa. I put on my bathing suit and brought a change of clothes. I got my locker and head into the gym to head into the nice deep hot – hot tub. Make that - the hot hot tub that USED to be there. I guess with the 2.0 upgrades and new Serenity hot tub – the one in the gym was replaced with what looked like Zumba machines. It’s vacation time, no worries. After the non-existent hot tub visit, I was going to hit the steam room and sauna – they didn’t take those away. :) Afterwards, I headed to the room to drop things off.

It’s a sea day – the only time the crew can wash the balconies and our deck was scheduled for today. We had a nice letter informing us of such and they were opening all the separators in preparation before I headed to wander the ship a bit.

That’s a lot of dialogue – time for a few random pics from the week.

The new Cherry on Top store. It’s little, but there was more than one purchase made by our group this week:

I just LOVE this map on the Promenade. I know it’s also on your TV; but it was fun to chat for a minute with people about where we were, how far before the next stop, etc.

How about another picture of the lights:

Next, more sea day fun.

Thanks for the positive posts. Melanie - you've got the right attitude!

Any idea how long Karl with a K will be on there? He was the assistant CD on our Miracle cruise years ago when Miracle was brand new :D We loved him!!!

I don't know the answer to your question. But, since recent reviews had a different CD; I'm hoping he's back for awhile and you'll get to see him.

After the comedy show, some of us retired to our cabins, and some made a quick stop by the casino where a few dollars may have been left behind. ;)

Now, on to the Venetian for the show, EDGE. There wasn’t much of an advertisement of what we were about to see. Karl with a K came out and announced that EDGE was a one-man-show with variety, comedy and juggling. The variety was good, comedy OK, and the juggling was great. I do remember an audience partipation portion where 3 people were called onto the stage. I don’t know if this was staged or not, but – when the first guy gave his name, the woman on the end whispered to the guy in the middle. Turns out, for the purpose of this show; both men and the woman – were all named “Jeff”. :p

There were three more comedy shows this evening. All of these were the R-rated ones. We missed Dan Smith’s first show, but were able to make the 2nd show. This show featured the 2nd comedian, Tommy Drake. There would be one more Dan Smith show, but that was at 11:45, just a bit too late for me. Instead, it was up the Lido for some ice cream.

Then, to the room for a night with the dog:

And lastly, a few minutes on the balcony. Lights out around midnight.

Next – a full day at sea

Reasons: It’s day 2 and we’re already on food overload. :eek: In addition, we didn’t want to spend 2 hours at dinner every night. Lastly, we had somewhere we wanted to be.

In my notes, I didn’t write down what I we had. I do remember that the 2 nights I ate dinner at the buffet, I did check the main menu and as discussed in other threads – 2-3 main courses from the MDR are served on the buffet, with the marquee item (lobster, prime rib, etc.) not offered. But, since I have no negative notes; I can assure you that we all ate well and plenty. ;)

We were often attendees to the Punchliner Comedy Club this cruise. There were a total of 16 shows. I attended a lot them. The shows are in the Victoria Lounge, which is fairly large; but not large enough.

This is a poor shot, but the only photo I have:

There are 4 comedians on the cruise, two at the beginning who change out in St. Thomas; and then 2 more for the end of the cruise. There are 4 shows on four different nights. The first show each night is family friendly. We wanted to make this show at 7:30.

Asst. Cruise Director, Roly, was the MC here; he did a great job. The family friendly show is a 30 minute show with each comedian getting 15 minutes. I think I have this right in that Dan Smith was the first comedian. He does a lot of improv comedy and spent the entire 15 minutes talking with and about a single family at two of the front tables. They were a large group and part of the family had slow service in the dining room and had not arrived. Dan ran with that, “what, you have people coming late and you pick seats at the center stage” and stuff like that. Of course, we all anxiously awaiting for the family to arrive – fun was had by all.

Have you ever noticed that when you buy a new car; you seem to notice every single car just like yours when you are driving? Have you ever noticed a similar thing happening on a cruise? You meet or see someone in passing and then, it seems you see them everywhere? Well, the family at the front for the comedy show was from Kansas City, and we seemed to see “Kansas City” for the rest of the week. Of course, there were 18-20 of them – harder to miss parts of that crowd. ;)

Coming next: Living on the EDGE

This is my 10th cruise. I’ve never not gotten off at a port. Getting back to the boat early today helped to create the best of both worlds – get a taste of the island, AND enjoy a less crowded ship. We gathered for lunch in Emile’s – it’s Caribbean Day. In two Liberty cruises, I decided to try my first deli sandwich. Yes! Absolutely no line. I had the corned beef on rye – it was wonderful.

I must comment now about the desserts in general on the ship. Most things that had cake in them were very dry. I understand they are feeding 3000 people and have to cut the servings ahead of time. I’m just keeping it real. After many of us trying several items, we were all in agreement on this issue. Any cake-type desserts you do see me post furthermore will be ones that were good to me. :)

Anyways, the winning dessert on the buffet today was the Raspberry Napolean. It was great!

Time to head to the back of the ship for some time in the hot tub. Various family members stopped by to visit for a bit, but DW and myself were the only ones in the hot tub.

In the port hot tub, DW is chatting with some new friends:

Who doesn't love a pic of the whale tail:

We also got a picture of this excursion:

The lack of crowds this afternoon: priceless!

Coming next: reasons to skip the MDR

I can tell you why South Beach traffic was so bad and not moving on your embarkation day. Memorial weekend is Urban Beach Weekend over there and it's a mess. Due to a lot of violence last year (a shootout with police) this year major roads were shut down, more police were brought in to deal with the crowds, etc.

Sorry to hear this is the answer; but I figured whatever was holding up traffic was probably not something good. Thanks.

I was on this sailing as well. The delay was due to them trying to find the luggage of a guest that couldn't sail - we saw an ambulance on the pier right before departure, so that might have had something to do with it.

 

Enjoying the review so far!

Thanks for the answer. Hope you had as much fun as we did.

I couldn’t believe our luck in finding lounge chairs. In the very first section we found two of them. A couple was just settling in, and then – there were another two empty chairs. The couple was kind enough to move down, so, we had 4 chairs in a row for 7 people. No chair hogs here. :D Just enough space to store stuff for those swimming, but sitting room for those just taking in the beautiful scenery.

So, I’ve seen everyone's beautiful pictures, and now I have proof that “I” myself have been there!

I must tell you something you can’t tell from the photos. I admit I’m from the south. But, for the Southern Bahamas in late May – that water was a lot colder than I expected! It did warm up some after a few minutes.

We didn’t linger too long in the water. Next, we stopped at the t-shirt hut where we found something we liked. We’re not much on souveners. I collect shot glasses, but didn’t see anything special.

Though the BBQ sounded tempting, we decided to head back to the ship. There was a tender unloading, it was nice to beat the crowds back to the ship. Out time on HMC was short; but this trip was about making memories with our family. That we did.

Next -The best of both worlds

Thanks for the positive feedback. I've been out enjoying my last vacation day before heading back to work tomorrow. Until then, I'll post what I can. :)

Karl with a K said it, and we didn’t listen. He said, “Get to the tender area early for HMC. People will sleep in and eat late, the lines early are good and heavy later”. Well, since San Juan and debarkation in Miami are early days; we didn’t want another one. So we hoped people would listen to Karl – because we didn't. ;)

Anyways, as crowded as the Venetian was; we were called to our tender 30 minutes after we arrived. Not horrible. I remember in the past where you were supposed to get tender tickets, but everyone just jammed into the stairwells and waited in line – ticket or not. Now, you can’t get to the tender unless you’ve gotten your tender pass. With all of the talk of the downslide of Carnival and cruising in general; this process is a HUGE improvement over the past, IMHO.

The weather this morning is overcast. YEAH!!! There’s a method to my madness. :) For our 3 generation family, clouds mean less direct sun and less direct heat. We weren’t sure who would come ashore here; 7 of made the trek.

I told ya I liked to take pictures from a little different angle:

We're here!

Next: Finding seats on a crowded beach.

A quick note: I’ll start each day with the day/date/location for the ease of following the report. During the trip, I had a couple of questions asking the day or date. I told everyone we're on “island time”. Keeping track of the day/date might mean we would think too hard about how little time was left (cuz we ALL know it goes by way too fast). So, for us on the ship, it was simply “Half Moon Cay Day” :D

I awoke to the sun and was out on the balcony at 6:45. Quick – grab the camera for this:

Ahhhh, paradise! I really loved my time on the balcony. Time to read the Fun Times, take notes from the day before for the trip report, and listen to my I-pod. DW would always join me for some quiet time.

Breakfast plans today were to meet outside the Silver Olympian Dining room at 8:30. Anyone missing at 8:35 would be assumed to be doing breakfast on their own. Today, we had 7 of 9.

One nice thing about having dinner in the Golden Dining Room is seeing the Silver one for breakfast! There are a lot more windows in the back; we had a great view of HMC as we ate.

Having been on Carnival several times, I know the breakfast menu pretty well on the Lido and in the MDR. I tend to go for things in each area that are not offered, or are better in one location. I ordered the baked apple, bagel w/cream cheese and smoked salmon and corned beef. Blueberry and banana pancakes and many varieties of eggs were the typical breakfast fare at our table today.

Next: Listen to the Cruise Director!

With the laid-back attitude of this trip, we decided to try Anytime Dining so we would not have to be at dinner at a specific time every night. We ended up picking a time each night for those eating downstairs, but it was our time, not the ship’s time ;)

I will say that the service was a little slow, as some have noted with Anytime Dining. For us, I want to lay some of the blame on the fact we were a large table. I did see a few groups come in when we did and leave before us. However, 1st seating is 6:15 and 2nd seating is 8:15. Most of our dinners took close to 2 hours. Even the 12 top tables during 1st seating have to finish in less time than we did.

Anytime Dining is on Deck 3, Golden Olympian Dining Room – enter from the Main Lobby. We were seated with Maria-an from The Phillipines as our head waiter and Tamas from Hungary as the assistant waiter. Suarmeka from Indonesia helped a lot as well. He seemed to show up more around dessert time. Sometimes cleaning dishes away, and others giving us the dessert menu. Anyways, in spite of the slow service, the attitude and friendliness of this group made up for all of it. We requested to sit in the same area every night that I ate dinner in the MDR.

Where we were seated, ½ the group had a view of the ocean; the other ½ could see a reflection of the ocean – very nice. I mention this because we saw a rare event. Sunsets are beautiful; but too many times, there are clouds in the horizon which block the view of the true, actual sunset. Tonight, we were able to witness a GEORGOUS sunset with not a cloud in sight. There's a name for the instant when you see a sunset; but none of us could think of it. Anyone know?

We did feel the boat moving slightly. True or not, we quickly decided that we were going thru the Gulf Stream. Made sense to us because it only lasted a short while.

At our table, the tropical fruit salad, sweet and sour shrimp and warm chocolate melting cake were the favorites of the evening. But also ordered were the spring rolls, salad, beef/barley soup, salmon appetizer, flat iron steak, tilapia, fried chicken, and crème brulee. ½ of us had two desserts :D

Ma with her Melting cake and crème brulee (exactly what I had - both wonderful!)

Breakfast plans were made, and some retired to bed. The rest of us walked the Promenade for a bit and looked at the casino.

I watched a bit of the Family Trivia, then went back to the room to find a little walrus waiting for me:

A few of us made it to the Welcome Aboard Show. It’s a typical show for those that cruise often. But for those that don’t; it’s a good chance to see what type of entertainment there is. In addition, you get to meet the Cruise Director: Karl with a K. I saw in a few recent Liberty reviews that he must have been on vacation recently. I’m glad he was back. I’ve never seen a cruise director make a cruise worse; but a good one like Karl (with a K ;) ); surely can enhance the trip.

A few more headed to bed and the last few headed to the Lido to watch a bit of Men In Black on the jumbotron. DS was the only one to make it till the end before coming to bed. In the meantime, I began my evening and morning ritual – time on the balcony. The water looked like glass and I could see the moon peaking thru some clouds. A beautiful end to a great day. Bedtime was a little after midnight.

So, next it’s time for the Muster Drill. This was very well organized. There were no late comers on our trip causing a delay in this necessary process. Afterwards, we met our room steward, Ketut, from Indonesia. He was wonderful; always calling us by name and keeping our room tidy and the ice bucket full.

It was time to meet the gang on Deck 10, portside for Sail away. We found a few loungers in the shade and enough space on the rail. This was nice as it was quite warm and those wanting to stay out of the sun had shade. For some reason, we left over an hour late. We watched the traffic. It wasn’t moving – just like us. ;) I know it’s a holiday weekend; but there must be an accident.

For us, the captain did come over the speaker. I missed part of what he said, but it sounded like someone was “deboarding”. Anyone else on board hear more of an explanation? When we left, the Valor was running even further behind us. We never saw them leave. I LOVE leaving POM. It’s just such a beautiful port.

DS, me and Pa

You can’t tell from this picture; but inspite of the traffic leaving Miami Beach, South Beach was still VERY crowded

Coming next: Dinner and a show