the_lovely_voyage

Saturday, April 22, Day at Sea continued:

After eating something, we headed back to the Serenity and sat near the bar on some really comfy chairs for a while where we read, people-watched, and bird-watched. There was a small bird hopping around on the deck looking for food, and we of course became concerned for its safety. We told a bartender and he said that he knew about it. I’m not sure what happened to this bird but we were hoping it debarked in Florida and made a new life for himself. :D *Don’t ruin the dream for us!!!*

We decided to find some deck chairs to lay down, so we moved to another part of the Serenity and continued enjoying the sun- it was toasty! My fiancé checked out the hot tub on the second level of the Serenity, and said it was very warm in the hot tub, nothing like the ones on the main deck with access for children. In sum, we stayed in the Serenity for at least 3 hours and had a great afternoon! Already daydreaming of our honeymoon cruise (can you tell?) and relaxing in the Serenity, as well as the Spa since we bought the 8-day pass.

We headed to the Skybox Sports Bar for Sports Trivia again and it was definitely more packed than the night before. The announcer reading the questions said they were random questions but for some reason, about half of the questions were in the lineup from the night before, so that was a little annoying. We had a great time interacting with all of the other passengers in the sports bar and had some good laughs. Unfortunately our last attempt to earn a ship on a stick was futile, but maybe next cruise!

After trivia, we decided to skip out on the MDR for tonight. We felt bad not saying by to our tablemates, and in retrospect, we probably should’ve popped in just to say goodbye, but we weren’t very hungry and wanted to hang out and people watch. We went to the casino bar and watched live music for at least 45 minutes. We very much enjoyed a duo named Tom and Pete and I learned that my fiancé really enjoys live music even if it doesn’t come in the form of a large concert venue. So happy to realize this after 4+ years! I foresee much more live music in our life.

Here are Tom and Pete doing their thing in the casino area:

We still grabbed photos of the sea day dinner menus for the MDR in case anyone wants to see them!

Saturday, April 22, Day at Sea:

We were up by 8am and headed to the Blue Iguana Cantina for breakfast burritos. They were really good and I’d definitely recommend them. On my Vista trip this fall, we’re looking forward to more Cantina meals, including arepas and huevos rancheros. Can’t wait! After breakfast, we grabbed a drink and headed up to the Serenity for a while to enjoy the weather and ocean. I also noticed that the internet worked really well early in the morning, but as the day progressed it became harder to use (presumably because more people were using it as they woke up). We purchased the $5 Social Package for the day to make sure we were checked in for our flights, check in with our families, etc.

On our way to breakfast, I saw these friends hanging out by the pool!

We made a stop in the Lobby Bar for a drink and perused the Pixels gallery, which still prints out all of the photos they take, which is truly a waste of money and paper and ink. I’m very much looking forward to the Vista Pixels where we can see our photos on a screen before printing them. Yay for saving the Earth!

We headed down to the Venetian Palace to watch the Love & Marriage Show at 11:15am. Yep, you read that right. 11:15 am. Seemed like a VERY odd time to have this event. All of the other Love & Marriage shows I’ve seen on cruises have been at night, so seeing it in the middle of the day was peculiar. Also, there was a newlywed couple (3 days and counting) who didn’t get picked to be the newlywed couple, and instead it was a slightly older couple that had been married for months. If the whole point is to find the newest married couple, they missed the mark by choosing the couple they did. We always enjoy this game show though and still had a great time! The answers are always hilarious and we look forward to the show on every cruise. We also talked about possibly trying to get selected on our honeymoon cruise in 5 months, so we’ll see how that works out!

I think we grabbed BBQ for lunch and enjoyed it just as much as we did on Thursday. We stopped by the Chocolate Extravaganza for some dessert and didn’t find it as enticing as I was hoping. We grabbed a few things to try and headed to find seats on the lido deck to look at the water. Not all of our picks were delicious, but at least we know what this chocolate buffet is all about and can opt for ice cream next time.

[side Note: At some point on this cruise we had Guy’s Burgers and although I can’t remember which day, I know we really liked them! Looking forward to another tasty burger when we’re on the Vista in 5 months!]

Following along to this amazing review, and have spent the last few hours with my fiance reading your two Magic reviews as well. We LOVE your style of writing and your hilarious sayings, we can't wait to keep reading your review! Also, if you're looking for another cruise and want to meet new friends, we'll be on the Vista this November, the Magic June 2018, and the Horizon March 2019. Just saying :D:cool:

Forgot about posting a link to my review, sorry! Almost done with the review but I have the first few days posted.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2496671

Saturday, April 22nd, Sea Day- Fun Times!

Friday, April 21st, Nassau- Fun Times!

Thursday, April 20th, Embarkation Day: Fun Times!

Friday, Nassau, continued:

We arrived at dinner pretty close to 6pm and went to our table. It was elegant night, so I knew that meant American Feast instead of American Table, as well as tablecloths on the tables. I had read a lot on the CC boards about the discussion between tablecloths and missing them, and I will say it was slightly odd to not have tablecloths the night before, and I did enjoy them on Elegant Night. We sat down and waited for our tablemates to arrive, but within 5 minutes our server approached us and asked us to order. He must not have liked that the others were late! So we ordered and waited to see if anyone would join us for dinner that night. The couple that sat with us the night before once again came about 15 minutes late, and I wouldn’t consider what they were wearing as “elegant attire.” Now, I didn’t have on the fanciest cocktail dress nor did my fiancé have on a tux, but we definitely dressed up with very nice clothes and matched the atmosphere. We talked pleasantries again about our day in Nassau, how they were enjoying the ship, what plans were for the sea day, etc.

American Feast Appetizers:

Entrees:

Desserts:

To review our meal choices, I had the Caesar salad which I found to be very fishy and not all that delicious. My fiancé had the sea scallops as his appetizer but can’t remember anything about them. For my entree I had the Blue Crab Ravioli which I think was good, and my fiancé had the Sea Bass. For dessert my fiancé had the Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, which he said was very chocolate-y but very good. I had the coffee cream cake but can’t remember my opinions on it. As a side note, I’ll definitely remember to write my reviews of the food right after dinner so I can actually give feedback and good thoughts on the food for my next cruise reviews! Sorry about the vague-ness!

After dinner we enjoyed more of the piano bar, as well as two comedy shows at 9:30 (Tom Foss) and 10:30 (Jodi White). We saw Tom Foss the night before and thought he was funny, so we liked seeing another show by him. This was our first time seeing Jodi White and we thought she was hilarious! Her show was definitely raunchy and not child-friendly at all, but super entertaining. By the time 11:30 rolled around and Jodi's show was over, we were really tired and headed to bed. I originally had plans to make it to the deck party at 11:30 but we apparently have no fun left in us and can't stay awake very late anymore!

Up Next: Thursday and Friday Fun Times (because I forgot, oops) and Saturday Day at Sea

Friday, April 21st, Nassau - continued:

After a few hours and multiple drinks, we walked back to the ship in a slightly altered state and did some shopping for our friends- luckily we didn’t spend too much money and nothing was regrettable. We headed back to the room to put our stuff down and to get ready for Sports Trivia and dinner. To our delight, the bathroom sink was fixed while we were at the beach, hooray! It took 24+ hours, 4 direct contacts with guest services, and our room steward had seen it once. Honestly I was slightly annoyed that it took that long to get fixed and at a point where it could be used to brush teeth, wash hands, etc., but I was mostly relieved that it finally was repaired. I didn’t expect a gift or an apology of any kind, I just wanted a working sink.

We headed to the Flowers Lobby Bar on deck 3, where a kids game competition was taking place. We sat and enjoyed the scenery and a drink before making our way up two flights to the Skybox Sports Bar. Makes sense that the Sports Trivia takes place in the Sports Bar, but there's not A LOT of seating, so it definitely can get cramped if a lot of people attend, and it was when we played trivia on the following evening. There's one bartender working in the Sports Bar, but service was pretty quick. The trivia was harder than we expected and we weren't very close to winning, but we had a good time interacting with the other cruisers playing trivia and the fun ship staff who was running the game. The Skybox is definitely a cool atmosphere and had a lot of different shows and sporting events on the screen to watch.

Outside the Skybox Spots Bar was a screen with the games they planned on showing for the cruise.

Unfortunately the game we were hoping to see (Chicago Blackhawks) wasn't on the list nor did we ask for them to try to find it.

Skybox Sports Bar (Deck 5, mid)

Sports Bar Menu

UP NEXT: Dinner and night events

Hi everyone, I promise I haven't abandoned ship! The end of the year has been crazy but tomorrow is my last day of work for the summer! (Woo-hoo!!) perks of working in the education field. I'm hoping to be back at it super soon! Thanks to everyone who has been reading along and giving compliments, I appreciate it!

Friday, Nassau continued:

Upon getting to Junkanoo Beach and looking for the Tiki Bikini Hut, I became very confused- where was the hut that I had seen in so many pictures and reviews? I must’ve clearly looked confused because a guy came up to me and asked what I was looking for, to which I responded “Tiki Bikini, but I don’t see it!” The guy ended up being a pretty great resource, as he worked for Tiki Bikini and said they were doing construction and were definitely still open and having a great time, and lead us over to a few tents with tables.

He asked what sort of deal I was looking for, and I said that online I had seen that there was a deal: $30 for 7 beers, 7 shots, and an umbrella. He said that they didn’t have that special anymore, so we went back a few times haggling offers and prices. I probably made the mistake by saying I was willing to pay $30, because I might have gotten a great offer for less, but oh well. In all of my cruises, it was my first true experience buying something and haggling for it, so it was certainly a learning experience! The deal that we finally settled on was BETTER than what I wanted: for $30 we got 8 beers, 8 shots, and umbrella, and a mixed drink. WOO-HOO!

So we paid our $30 and the guy asked us where we wanted our umbrella placed. We picked a spot and he and another worker started digging a hole to put the umbrella pole in. The umbrella was partially broken so it spun around in the wind, but it stayed upright and provided us shade and was overall totally good for our needs. The worker also brought over a bucket of 4 beers to start us off and we were ready to enjoy a beach day by 11:15, only 30 minutes after getting off the ship. We had a great day there. The sun was playing hide-and-seek part of the day, but the temperature was still nice so no problems there. They had quite a crowd as an NCL ship had pulled in after us and brought a large population of people to the town. There were many different group games and competitions going on throughout the early afternoon, along with music playing from speakers.

Our setup for the day!

Pretty sure this was the NCL Escape that joined us about two hours after we arrived:

We bought some conch fritters and they were super tasty. It was also my first time trying them so clearly I realized what I had been missing for so long. YUM! I don’t think we were ever bothered by people while relaxing except for one time a lady asked if I wanted my hair braided, I politely declined, and she continued on down the beach. Walking to the beach felt a little unsafe at times just because you’re walking near traffic and on unknown streets, but once we were there, I felt really safe and didn’t worry about much for the rest of the afternoon. If you’re looking for something fancy and upscale, this isn’t the place for you. If you’re looking for a beach with drinks, food, music, games, and a place to enjoy the sun, I would totally recommend Tiki Bikini Hut!! Maybe by the time you make it there, they’ll even have re-built their hut! We definitely plan on checking it out again if our travels bring us back to Nassau. For much cheaper than cruise prices, we enjoyed many drinks and certainly felt fantastic after our 3-4 hour adventure there.

I think this is a view from on top of the dock at the Tiki Bikini Hut beach. You can see the ships in port as well as the construction which unfortunately blocked some good views:

Our second stop with the Hawkeye flag- Junkanoo Beach in Nassau, Bahamas:

(fun fact, we have three other cruises planned in the next two years and certainly plan on taking pictures with the flag at all of our port stops, to spread Hawkeye love everywhere!)

UP NEXT: Nassau afternoon/evening activities

FRIDAY, April 21st- Nassau, Bahamas:

We woke up by 8am, and my fiancé headed to guest services to let them know about the clogged sink (going on hour 19 at this point) while I got ready for the day. When he got back, we headed to the MDR for the breakfast. I’ve always wanted to eat in a fancier location than the lido deck, so I was excited to finally have time to try it out. It was fine, just like dinner last night, there’s food to eat and a good number of options, but I feel like I might have worked up the idea of MDR breakfast so I didn’t find it as fantastic as I expected it to be.

Up on the Serenity deck overlooking Nassau's arrival:

By 9:30am we were on the Serenity deck watching the Liberty head into the Nassau port. Our arrival time was slated for 10am, and once everything was said and done and we received the message that it was okay to debark, it was probably closer to 10:10, but no big deal! We were doing our own thing in Nassau and didn’t plan to be the first ones off or have an excursion to get to, so we took our time collecting our stuff for the day and were off the ship at 10:45am. We took a few pictures around the port area and headed straight to Junkanoo Beach.

The aft of the Liberty with our room circled in green. Great views out of the back!

Clearly it was very sunny in Nassau!!

A (hopefully quick) backstory on Junkanoo: This was my 4th time at Nassau and I had never successfully made it to Junkanoo before, even though it had been in the plans two others times- it just never happened. I had read for years about how to get there and the instructions never made it seem too far. It probably didn’t take more than 15 minutes to get there, but there were a lot of twists and turns to make it there, maybe partially due to the construction going on near the Senor Frogs area, but I certainly thought it was a much straighter path than it actually was. Thankfully there are signs and as long as you know which way to start heading and have a good mental picture of where you are in relation to the beach, you should be able to find it without much problems. As a side note, I feel as though the sidewalks were pretty small, so it was hard to pass slow walkers without side-stepping into the street. Just a general observation.

UP NEXT: Nassau Continued

Thursday, Embarkation Day continued:

After dinner we headed to the Gender Showdown at 8:30 in the Venetian Palace. We watched from the second floor and had a good time laughing at answers and activities going on, but chose not to participate. After that show, we headed to the piano bar for about an hour and had a great time there. The performer wasn’t the best singer but he was great at playing and was pretty funny, so we definitely knew we would be coming back every night. There’s one waiter/bartender for the piano bar who walks around taking multiple orders and then heads back to make them all. He’s really nice and unfortunately I didn’t write his name down, but he had pretty great service although sometimes it was a little slow, we didn’t have any problems! The piano guy, Tommy G, ran his show as a sing-along, so he welcomed people shouting out requests and making music choices. It was such a great environment and atmosphere!

Piano Man Bar, Deck 5 aft- We would end up spending a lot of time here! (picture taken earlier during the day)

After the piano bar we headed to the late night comedy show by Tom Foss who was a little raunchy but definitely really funny! The show was at 11:30 and since I had heard that the Victoria Lounge in the aft fills up quickly, we arrived at 11:10 to get our seats, and by 11:20 it was packed. His show was pretty quick on the first night, as I think we were heading back to the room around midnight. My final note of Thursday/Embarkation day was that at midnight, our bathroom sink was still clogged. We decided not to call anyone to fix it and wait for the morning, but at this point, it’s now been 10.5 hours since we first noticed the sink was clogged and asked to have it fixed.

Up Next: Friday, Nassau

Is wine included with it?

 

Sent from my SM-G930P using Forums mobile app

Yes, red and white house wines are included with the cost

Oh no! That's very weird, I also can't see it when trying on my phone. Good luck and I hope it works out in your favor!

We're doing a deck 9 forward interior next June- how was the forward outside deck above the bridge? We purposely booked this deck to have access to that "secret deck"

Thursday, Embarkation Day Continued

Once back at the room around 5:30ish, we notice that the bathroom sink is still clogged, so we call again to complain and they say they’ll come take care of it. For those still keeping track, 4 hours have passed, we have now called twice and told our room steward once (although we also told her someone was taking care of it). We also noticed that our room steward didn’t bring us a corkscrew yet so we called room service and they brought one over quickly, free of charge! It’s a pretty simple piece of plastic with the metal spiral, but it’ll for sure be our travel corkscrew from now until it breaks! We opened our wine, got ready for dinner, and headed to the the 6pm dinner seating in the Silver Olympian Dining Room in the aft of the ship.

Silver Olympian, looks pretty similar to Gold...but in Silver. Huh, imagine that!

We showed up a little early but were seated right away, around 5:55. We had opted to sit with other people, which we were a little apprehensive about. I’ve had one or two less-than-great tablemate experiences but overall, all has gone well, so we decided to try it out again. We were seated at a table for 6, so we were guessing there would be two other couples with us. For the first 20 minutes of dinner, we wouldn’t know who our tablemates were, because no one was showing up. Finally at 6:20, after our orders had been taken, one couple arrives. We ended up having some good conversation, mostly pleasantries about where we’re from and the cruising experience, but it was nice to meet other people. Spoiler: our other two tablemates never showed up for the entire cruise. Also, I had read that Carnival was implementing a policy that if someone arrives 30+ minutes late to the dining room, they would be turned away. I can say for certain that this was not being implemented on this cruise, or at least for our dining room. I was pretty surprised to see people showing up that late, but they were and they were granted access.

MENU- Thursday 4/20/17, Port Canaveral Embarkation

The food was okay. And by okay, I mean I was able to find something that I’d eat, but I don’t think that there was anything I was ever SUPER excited to try or thought was delicious after I had tried it. I know that food is a huge complaint across the boards and I get it- we could’ve eaten somewhere else or asked for something else. We didn’t starve and we didn’t hate the food, but we did find ourselves unimpressed and wanting better food options and quality. My fiancé had the "Rare Finds" Cured Salmon which wasn't what we expected but was okay, and the Vietnamese Roll which was good but mostly filled with noodles and not meat/vegetables. He also had the Port of Call Main dish of Sword Fish which he said was really good but the rice was super dry and not sauced, and the Carnival Melting Cake that was VERY melt-y and really rich. I think had the Chicken Quesadilla which I'm sure was alright, the Sweet and Sour Shrimp which was also not what I expected as it was 90% fried batter with 10% of a stick of shrimp with fried rice, and the Melting Cake that again was really melt-y but I enjoyed it! The service staff was mostly great, no real complaints there.

UP NEXT- Thursday evening events

Thursday, Embarkation Day Continued:

We headed to the Blue Iguana Cantina for my fiance to get a burrito (even though we had BBQ no more than 2 hours prior, he was really excited to try the food). He said it was delicious even though the jalapeno tortilla wasn’t that spicy and is now hooked on their burritos. We headed to the Versailles bar and got a round of drinks, which took about 5 minutes to get served, but it wasn’t a big deal.

A comment about the drinks: this was our first of four cruises together that we didn’t buy or receive the unlimited drink package. I was pretty nervous about not having it, since I really enjoy saving money and didn’t want to drink more paying per drink than we would’ve using the drink package. We love the drink packages but are learning that there is an internal pressure to drink and get our money’s worth, even if we don’t really feel like having a drink at the time. Luckily, we made the smart choice to pay per drink on this cruise instead of the package. After some quick calculations, we paid about $200 in drinks instead of the $300 the package would’ve cost us. We had a lot of beverages off the ship in Nassau, so we didn’t drink that much Friday night, and we brought a bottle of wine that accompanied us (via wine glasses I borrowed from the Cabinet Bar upstairs from us) to the dining room. Sure, we probably did limit our purchasing of drinks a little knowing that we pay per drink, but overall it worked well and we definitely won’t be buying the drink package on our honeymoon (8 days, 4 ports).

So back to the review, we hung out at the Versailles bar and pool until muster drill was called. This pool used to be adults-only but the switch to allowing children occurred a few weeks before the sail. I was a little bummed since the Serenity doesn’t have any pools, but the reality is- we don’t swim that much and it didn’t affect us at all. I do totally understand that people do enjoy the pool and having kids in a space that used to be child-free could annoy them. Thankfully we found that relaxing in the Serenity was were we found our quiet time. Also, we don’t recall seeing that many kids on this cruise, so maybe it would’ve been more problematic in the summer. We went to the muster drill and they didn’t scan our cards, but we never got called to redo the drill and even checked with the staff at the drill to make sure we didn’t need to be scanned in, and they said no we were good. The muster drill was very long compared to Royal’s muster drill, but thankfully we weren’t standing in the shade so that part was easier to manage.

Sail Away Party:

After the muster drill we went up to check out the mini golf course before the sail away party started. I was pretty annoyed to find that there were only 3 golf balls and mostly short child-sized clubs. I loved playing mini golf on cruise ships in the past, and I have never seen such short supply of golf balls and clubs. The course itself was a little rough too, with scratched up greens and some broken obstacles. We made do and played a quick round before the large whale tail sounded its loud horn, right next to us on the course. Yep that was pretty startling!

We put our golf materials away and headed down a deck to watch the sail away party and dancing start before making our way to the Serenity for a drink and to watch sail away. It took quite a while to get a drink in the Serenity, probably 7+ minutes, but we think there was only one bartender serving the window and a few other people that were roaming the deck taking orders and making those drinks. We watched sail away and had some great conversation about life and our love for cruising before heading to the room to get ready for dinner.

Watching Sail Away from the Serenity with my fiancé:

UP NEXT- Thursday dinner and evening events

Thursday, Embarkation Day Continued:

A brief intermission to add even more pictures from walking around the ship.

Gold Olympian Dining Room (Deck 3 and 4 mid, view from 4):

The Stage Bar, Deck 5 aft:

The Alchemy Bar, Deck 5 mid/aft

Casino/Promenade, Deck 5:

Someone asked if there's seating outside of the casino and if you can walked through the promenade from one side of the ship to the other; the answer is yes!

Thursday, Embarkation Day Continued:

A brief intermission to add more pictures from walking around the ship.

Main Pool, Deck 9:

Camp Ocean Deck 12 forward, Schedule for Embarkation (Penguins 2-5 y.o., Stingrays 6-8 y.o., Sharks 9-11 y.o.)

Circle C, Deck 4 mid, Schedule for Cruise, Ages 12-14, (zooming in may help to read it)

Circle C-

Circle C- Tons of Video Game systems-

Circle C-

EMBARKATION DAY CONT.:

 

Can you review with us what Dive In Movies were shown on this cruise. I'm going in 2 weeks with my 14 year old son and would love to have an idea as this is one of our favorite things to do is lay in a lounger in the evening and catch a movie. thanks.

 

 

Thursday: Ghostbusters and Sing

Friday: Jason Bourne and Fantastic Beasts

Saturday: Trolls and Moana

 

They could be different in two weeks, but this was valid for ours on 4/20-4/23

EMBARKATION DAY CONT.:

We headed to our room at 1:30 as the announcement was being made that they were ready. Now when we had booked our cruise a year prior, we decided on an inside room (which would’ve been new to us) but we wanted to save money. A few weeks after booking, the price of the room dropped $30, so I called and got the lower rate. About 6 weeks before the sailing I received an e-mail to upgrade to an ocean view room for only $30. In my mind it was a no-brainer; for the same price as we originally booked an inside for, we’d now have an ocean view. I kept the secret from my fiancé, who was fully convinced that we still had our interior room. He was a little confused why I was filming our walk down the hallway or why the door to our room wasn’t where he thought it would be, but upon opening our door and seeing the window, he was very excited. YAY!

We had room 2483, an aft oceanview with a really fun view of the water. Overall the room was fine, with the exception of the vibrations we could feel as well as the swaying of the whole boat. Not sure if it’s because the Liberty is smaller than the last ship we were on or if it’s due to the propulsion issue that the ship has, but the vibrations in our room were pretty strong. It didn’t keep us up or wake us up, but it’s definitely noticeable and something to consider when considering the room. The bed was comfortable, the room easily had enough space for the two of us, and the hallway was pretty quiet at nights. It was a somewhat longer walk since it was all the way aft.

Looking in from the hallway:

The bed and window:

The couch/vanity/closet area:

The view from our tilted window while moving:

We very quickly realized that our sink was clogged, so we called guest services and they said they’d send over a plumber. For those keeping track of the upcoming clogged sink saga, again that was 1:30pm on Thursday. (Yes, there is a small saga and drama about the sink. No, I won’t let it ruin my review or opinion of the ship/staff/Carnival. What happened was pretty annoying, but a sink sure isn’t going to ruin my cruise). We met our room steward Sheila as we exited our room around 1:50pm, and she introduced herself and asked if we wanted morning or afternoon cleanings. We selected afternoon. I know there’s also been a lot of back and forth about cleaning schedules on the CC boards, so I was expecting to be asked my time slot preference and it wasn’t a huge deal. We also asked Sheila for a corkscrew and she said she’d bring us one. We mentioned the clogged sink and that a plumber was coming, just to give her a heads up. As we said goodbye to Sheila and walked down the hallway, I pointed out to my fiance at how awesome it is that Carnival still makes it a priority to meet their guests and that I really love that about their service. Having sailed on RCL and NCL after cruising Carnival as a teen, I haven’t had the same level of friendliness and connection with RCL/NCL room stewards like I have on Carnival.

UP NEXT: Ship photos, Embarkation day continued

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2017- EMBARKATION:

Thursday morning we woke up ready for our true cruise adventure! We packed up all of our stuff and headed down to breakfast at the hotel. We were told to bring our breakfast tickets because someone would be checking at the door- they weren’t. Which didn’t bother us at all but if they advertise to have a process to keep breakfast for patrons only, they clearly weren’t enforcing it that day. Breakfast was typical waffles, yogurts, cereal, fruit, bacon, sausage, eggs, etc. Nothing fancy but it was good and it was included in the price, so I was happy. We checked out of the hotel and waited in the lobby for the shuttle to pick us up. We had a scheduled check-in time at the port for 11am, so when we were told the shuttle would pick us up at 9:45, I was a little concerned we would get turned away at the port. So the shuttle comes and loads 20+ people and their luggage on, and off we go. The first corner the shuttle turned, the AC unit dripped a very large puddle on me, which was not fun.

We get to the port at 10:15 and weren’t turned away! I know there’s mixed review about enforcing check in times, but let me tell you that based on our personal experience, we were able to walk up a ramp, inside the pier terminal and start the check in process at 10:15. There were no lines and security was a breeze. As a side note, they didn’t look at our pop/wine/red bull cans in our carry-ons, but I know sometimes they do inspect those drinks. We did receive our Sign & Sail Cards at check in, so they’re not putting them at the doors like some people had said. Also the card were pre hole-punched, which I’m not really sure what that meant or if it’s just because so many people ask for the hole punch to put their lanyard on. They took my fiancé’s passport to scan the photo of at check-in but not mine. Turns out, Carnival used my photo from when I sailed last in 2012, which I wasn’t too thrilled about. We got zone 2 for boarding and sat right near the front of the boarding area by 10:35, which means that from entering the building to finishing the actual check-in took only 20 minutes. We heard a staff member tell another passenger that boarding would start at 11:30, which I thought seemed sort of early, but I’m not complaining!!

The boarding process did begin at 11:30 as previously mentioned, and we were on the Carnival Liberty by 11:45, and had a drink in our hands from the Red Frog Rum Bar by 12. So excited to finally be on the ship, especially since it was earlier than we expected. We walked around the pool decks, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and headed up to the Serenity deck to try out a pod/cuddle clam. It was such a quiet area and a great place to hang out, we definitely knew we’d be hanging out here more. We walked around different parts of the ship to take photos and explore what there was to offer inside. After hiking up a hungry stomach, we headed to the BBQ station in the upper part of the Lido restaurant. The mac and cheese was really great, the baked beans were a little spicy for me, the pork was very tender and authentic, and the chicken was pretty good too. There weren’t a lot of people up there for lunch, which I had read on CruiseCritic reviews before, so we’re glad we tried it out before other people discovered it.

First Boat Drinks!:

Lunch Options for Embarkation Day:

My fiancé in the cuddle clamshell thing:

UP NEXT: Embarkation Day Continued, Room Photos, Ship Photos

WEDNESDAY, April 19th, Continued:

After we got settled in the room and took a quick breather, we walked to Walgreens down the street for pop and wine to carry onboard. It was a few blocks away from Comfort Inn and very easily within walking distance for mobile people. After we picked up our supplies and dropped it in the room, we headed to the beach in search of Sandbar Sports Grill which was recommended by Dave the driver. After a nice little stroll on the beach, we found Sandbar, which is totally the type of place I’d work if I lived in Florida- on the beach, open air, tropical, and fun. The food was pretty alright and the prices were higher than I’d like for lunch/am used to being from Iowa, however the nachos I ordered were monstrous, like seriously absolutely ginormous. My fiancé just gave me input that he “had the fish tacos and they were equally as monstrous” and that he enjoyed them. It was really nice to eat lunch on the beach and feel the nice breeze. After we finished we walked around the beach a bit before heading to the hotel.

Monster Nachos at Sandbar Sports Grill:

On the beach near our hotel:

We noticed that there is a mini golf course across the street, so we went to check it out. It’s called Light House Cove and has two 18-hole courses. We were offered if we wanted to buy one or both, and we opted for one. Unfortunately it’s pretty pricey at $10.25 per person, but maybe everything is just more expensive in Florida. We had a great time and really enjoyed the course. They also sold adult beverages as well as had an ice cream store inside the main building. Not sure if we’d go back only because it is so expensive, but worth checking out if you’re a mini-golf lover!

Light House Cove and my handsome fiancé:

Mini-golf course fish tank:

Mini-golf cave:

After mini-golf, we went to the hotel’s bar to redeem a coupon I had for two free drinks. The bartender was nice and made our drinks strong, like we like them! After sitting on our balcony, sipping our drinks, and reading and chatting, we decided it was time to get ready for dinner and head out. A quick backstory- we stayed in Cocoa Beach two years prior and were told by that hotel that they had a free shuttle that would take us to a place called Coconuts on the Beach, a restaurant/bar that is open air on the beach, but also has an enclosed eating section as well. We tried it out in 2015, loved it, and were so excited to eat there again on this trip. Skip to 2017, I had also read that there is a free shuttle that the restaurant has in which you call and tell them where to pick you up. We made two separate phone calls but they never showed up, so we ordered a Lyft to the hotel. The trip from the hotel to Coconuts on the Beach was about $10 each way, we had very nice drivers and had good conversations. Of course, trying to save money, I was a little upset that the free shuttle didn’t work out, but oh well I suppose. There were bursts of rain on the drive to the restaurant but everything cleared up when we arrived. The Lyft driver and our server at the restaurant were both telling us that Florida is weird in that it will downpour for 5 minutes and be suddenly done, or that it’ll rain on one side of the street and be sunny on the other side. Here in Iowa, we get rain for a few hours at a time and it’s certainly not spotty. Once again we had a great time at Coconuts on the Beach and I’d totally come back next time we’re in the area for a cruise. Their Happy Hour deals are great and the atmosphere is fun and relaxing.

Representing the Iowa Hawkeyes on a Florida beach!:

After dinner we walked on the beach and watched the Carnival Pride leaving Port Canaveral after a day-long port stop on their trip. We ordered another Lyft to take us to the hotel where we played pool and shuffleboard and relaxed before preparing for the next day.

UP NEXT: Thursday, Embarkation!!

So glad you reviewed this hotel and are continuing with the Cocoa Beach area. We are considering booking here the day/night before our cruise but have never been there before.

 

 

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I'm glad this review could be helpful for you! We had previously stayed in the Cocoa Beach area once before but this was our first stay at Comfort Inn. Our honest feedback is probably 95% positive there; it's not a 5-star luxury hotel with the newest and fanciest accommodations, but we found ourselves pleasantly surprised at many things, including the service/friendliness of the staff, the amount of amenities, the size of the room, and others I'm sure. A few walls could benefit from new paint and an external hallway needed a light bulb changed/turned on, but these were just minor things we noticed and certainly didn't change our opinion of the hotel.

I'm looking forward to writing the next piece about Cocoa Beach hopefully today!