lilmizz

 

Our relationship doesn't work that way. I don't get mad at DH when he has the occasional drinking fest and he doesn't get mad at me when I give him grief for it....but if he drinks enough to get himself sick then I'm not going to let him get off with out a LOT of ribbing :D:p. He was kicking himself for it because he was paying for his 2 hours of fun with missing a day of the cruise. He doesn't drink that much very often. It was at the past guest party and I don't think he realized just how potent those Rum Punches were. I couldn't even drink one glass. He has only gotten that drunk maybe a handful times in the 27 years we've been married. I don't think he will be having that kind of "fun" for quite some time again.....I don't see him touching Rum Punches for quite a while;).

Totally understand that point of view! lol:o

Can't help you about the Liberty, never been on her but....

HAVE A GREAT CRUISE!!!!! I wish I was you

Thanks We will And Ill be wishing I was you in 123 Days! :p

I have a Pinterest page of things I have seen about the Liberty. If I have left anything out, let me know:

 

https://www.pinterest.com/jeffstrater/carnival-liberty/

Thanks!!!

My DH got "sick" on our last cruise in April and I don't let him hear the end of it. He even managed to hit the toilet and not make a mess. But his having a "good time" put a big dent in our having a "good time". I ended up going out that evening on my own without him because he couldn't leave the bathroom. The following day we were in Grand Turk. Again I had to explore it on my own because he was still too hung over to go ashore. Yeah....what was supposed to be "our" vacation turned into "my" vacation for a couple days all because he was having "too much fun" for a couple of hours. He's not living this one down anytime soon:D:p.[/quote

 

Sorry that your couple days were ruined. All I can say is if Dan would get mad at me and not let me live a drunk night down we would be divorced. things happen. Sometime alcohol sneaks up on you especially on warm days.. hope your next cruise goes better than the last.:D

Sometimes Id like to just pop some of these negative ppl in the nose!

Nothing wrong with your post OP.. U were just curious as alot of ppl would be ad wanting answers. ppl are just on here to start trouble cause they dont have anything better to do. prolly miserable peeps:eek:

8 days til cruising:D

Finally!!!

 

Tell me anything and everything bout the liberty please!

nOTHING??????

Yeah we cleaned it as best as we could sans chemicals. for sure we will be leaving a large tip. I may have overstated the bathroom....but it was pretty bad.

 

This isn't something that happens often with us. In 13 years between the two of us, drinking to excess has happened maybe a handful of times....just so excited to be out of the cold for a week!

 

Well, thanks for your replies everyone, going to finish taking care of this and enjoy the rest of our cruise! you guys were all a big help!

 

-Tony@STT

OMG!! It happens! Now for me I would have him clean it up because I just cant handle that. lol and also you should give the stewart a lil extra. Beating your BF for having too good of a time. uh no. really ppl!! they are on vacation and entitled to a good time. JEEZE! as long as it gets cleaned up, no big deal. the world is not gonna end. well not cause someone had too much fun and got sick. PS teach him how to hit the toilet and or trash can. lol.

:eek:

Finally!!!

Tell me anything and everything bout the liberty please!

Klfrodo… My goodness, that is a great idea. Why didn’t I think of calling the airline and explaining my situation to see if they would lower their prices just for my family. Silly me, here I am on a message board, trying to find another solution to my problem by drawing upon a forum with a vast amount of knowledge and expertise pertaining to my situation.

Some ppl are just A%$#%^^

Try and change dates, sometimes the carnival person is really nice about it, We did it and got cruise cash with the cruise being cheaper. I would try that. airfare prolly wont get much cheaper being spring break...

Good lucK!!:)

Anything is possible, why not just take over driving the ship, while in the bridge, that would be way cooler

The captain Frowns upon that... I tried... lol, Actually he let me push a button and steer the wheel! THE ONES THAT WERENT NEEDED..LOL:D

I will try to post more as I get my pictures edited! For now - here is an introduction.

 

I am in my 30s and a single female with no kids who loves to travel and mainly go with my mom who is in her late 50s (my dad hates to travel).

 

A few key things to know about us:

1. I am a bit of an OCD planner, I create itineraries and research every vacation and book everything months in advance for every trip I take. I have a degree in Industrial Engineer, so you will see that come out throughout this review.

2. We both enjoy photography so there will be lots of pictures, and none with us in them, since I like taking the pictures not having them taken of me. I actually did not take as many pictures as I had planned, as I have advanced I have gotten more picky of what I shoot.

3. My mom has zero directional sense and leaves 100% of the planning up to me. The day we got to San Juan someone asked what ship we were on and she couldn’t tell them, she just knew it was Carnival. Her only two requests were jewelry shopping in St. Thomas (when have stayed here before and she had a little too much fun shopping, so much so that the credit card company called twice confirming it was her) and snorkeling somewhere.

4. I am of Scandinavian heritage (dad’s side) therefore I burn. This did have an impact on my battle plan for the cruise. Water and sand are reflective surface therefore can be disastrous for us fair skinned people if great care is not taken.

 

The planning process:

I am a pretty avid traveler and go on several trip each year, but I have never cruised before and was amused by the concept. So we decided to pull the trigger and go on our first cruise in 2016.

 

1st Question: When to go? Living in Illinois, winter was a given (it’s cold, so why would I cruise in the summer when it is hot here?) and I don’t have kids so I generally try and avoid traveling during school holidays (I like kids, but in moderation and it is also cheaper and generally less crowded when they are in school).

 

So from that, here were our cruise must haves:

1. 7-Day Cruise

2. Minimum of four ports of call (As photographers we wanted to experience as many ports as possible)

3. No Mexico - My dad hates Mexico (he thinks it is too dangerous) and has banned it. My dad is my dog sitter, so I go with it.

4. Over the week of MLK Jr day was picked to save a vacation day since we get that Monday off and like to maximize our time.

 

1st stop – Disney’s website. Being a Disney fanatic this was the obvious choice for me. I immediately found a 7-Night, Southern Caribbean (no Mexico), out of San Juan with 5 ports of call on the Wonder leaving January 17 - Perfect! Then came the price…ouch! My mother determined it was too much so back to the drawing board, now which cruise line.

 

I decided to look at Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, and Norwegian since those are the lines I had heard about the most. Norwegian and Princess did not meet my four must haves, and were eliminated leaving my two finalist.

 

Carnival came out on top for the following reasons: Bigger rooms (ocean view was 220 vs 161 sq ft), price, and I read good things about the 2.0 upgrades.

 

So I pulled the trigger and booked an ocean view cabin on deck 1 in the middle for $529 per person. A few months later, Carnival had a 36-hour sale where I could get a guaranteed balcony for $629 per person (vs $719 if I picked an 8A). The guaranteed room part made me a bit nervous, but for $90 less per person then a 8A I went ahead and did it figuring worst case scenario is 6-Aft above the club, and if that happened I would just pack earplugs. In the end I ended up with cabin 7446 with is an Aft Extended Balcony cabin.

 

I also spent a lot of time reading articles and reviews which covered what to pack, excursions and so forth. All that helped me know what to expect, so this review is returning the favor.

 

I will start with the extra stuff people recommended packing and if I actually used it.

•1st Aid kit and medications such as Tums, Pepto Bismol, pain reliever, Allegra, Aleve cold and sinus, and bandages. We used most of it, but what I forgot was NyQuil/DayQuil which I paid for dearly since what I brought didn't help chest congestion.

•Motion Sickness: Bonine & Sea Bands. On a boat…enough said. I was actually surprised how well the sea bands worked.

•Tide Travel Sink Packs: I did use one of the tide travel sink packs and it seemed to work pretty well when I spilled on my light gray capris on night one.

•Power Strip: With cameras, phone and other electronic devices, need all the power outlets I can get. The one lone outlet is kind of crazy, there isn’t even an outlet in the bathroom.

•Shoe Organizer: Instead I used my Vera Bradley Handing Travel Organizer: I love mine and liked it so much, my mom and sister have one now. I got 3 oz. bottles for all my liquids for the bottom compartment so I don’t have to pack big bottle. I just hang it up and keeps counters less cluttered. I will say that I used my own shampoo and body wash, I tried theirs but it is awful (We are not that fussy) so switched back to mine.

•Magnets for the walls: Never used them, I just kept my fun times in a neat pile on the long desk. Not really sure what I would have hung up so I would skip this next time.

•Highlighter: Never used it. I didn’t find it that hard to keep track of what I wanted to do.

•WITZ Waterproof Case - Never used it, I ended up getting a $2 lanyard for my sign & sail card that came already hole punched. I did have a cross body camera bag I carried every day in port with plenty of zipped pockets for my passport and sign and sail card. This may be different if you do beach/water stuff.

 

I will work on posting more over the next couple days!

Great review so far!!

Excited to hear more about liberty and ports as we will be on her in 9 days!

Glad I didnt watch Hunger games already!

Just off the Dream. I have to say this is the first time in 10 cruises I have been very disappointed in the MDR food. It seemed there were less choices and most of the beef was very fatty. I do hope this was isolated as I only cruise carnival and have the Pride booked in February next year.

I agree, the Dream food was not great in MDR Prime rib was horrible. BUT so many other options on the dream like Tandoor and the Pasta place, HECK the Lido buffet was better than MDR . I hope Liberty does better

And who "takes care" of the adults who act like children. Line cutting isn't just a child's activity. Elevator etiquette often doesn't exist on ANY elevator no matter the age of the passengers. Many adults can be loud, obnoxious, self-centered, self-absorbed to the point they don't even recognize that they are traveling with 3000 other people.

 

I think kids and parents get a bad rap. Sure there are obnoxious and unsupervised kids...but, at least in my experience, they are a minority....unruly adults, on some cruises, can be a vast majority. YMMV

I pay to act unruly on my cruise, HAHA Just kidding,, Well a lil bit. Adults sometime get a lil bit to much to drink and may get a lil loud.but they themselves pay for it in more ways than one.. Kids running amuck because parents paying no attention is the worst tho. Now Ive only had one time with a line cutter and let him have it

Used to drink Jaeger bombs with half pints of beer. This was in the days before energy drinks. Just the thought makes my stomach churn and my head hurt.:cool:

YES,, ewwww Done that before kinda on accident.. I have my own jager machine at home in my bar and we sorta got a lil bit drunk and i poured beer in everyones shot ..... Needless to say...

I have been on 7 cruises and have seen only two large spiders in Belize while cave tubing. I have never seen any mosquitoes any where. I have not gone to any heavily wooded areas except walking to the river to go cave tubing. I did hear today on the news that cases have been reported in Illinois and Florida. Has anyone seen any mosquitoes any where on their cruises?? Just curious.

never saw any but still take precautions :D

so everyone please use the repellent! take this seriously! i plan on spraying it everywhere!:eek:

Bring a case of redbull. I have no clue why Carnival switched to rock star but that stuff is horrible when mixing with vodka or jager. Ewww.

I always use Monster.. Does Rockstar taste like it?

I mixed up the Hub app. and Social package....makes sense now. Thank you

What is the Hub app?

Got a couple boxes of Orval redenbachers Pour over movie butter popcorn, Now to just take out the butter packets ad pack them! good for 4 days worth of movies! Ill prolly only watch a couple but good to have a spare! 13 more days!

They are rolling this out as the date comes up for washing them. They wash the robes once a month per cabin, so as that date comes up, they will take the robes from the cabin and wash them and from then on, you will have to request them if you want them.:):)

UM i HATE TO THINK THAT THEY ONLY WASH ROBES ONCE A MONTH! Im not horribly sloppy but when I put my make up on and do my hair I always have hair spray on my robe...Mine have always been fresh when I get my cabin..:eek:

We board the Liberty this Sunday, Jan. 24th. Can't wait. Take care of her for us! :)

When you get back can you tell us if there is live Music not just instrumental on Lido Deck? I hope so!

Probably the most important addition that I noted on Carnival occurred a few years ago. Prior to a few years ago when I entered a new cruise ship (Carnival or other cruise lines) the staff would stand around and if asked a question would shrug their shoulders or give you directions to the wrong location. Prior to the several years ago I was almost never addressed by name by my cabin steward or dining staff. Then Carnival suddenly started having friendly helpful staff. Suddenly everyone seems to be calling me by name. I truly felt like a VIP even though at that time I was far from platinum status! Instead of staff trying to avoid guests when they are lost or have a question, when you enter a ship you are greeted by people wearing shirts that say "ask me". And if the person doesn't know the answer to the question they don't just shrug their shoulders or just direct you to the wrong spot. Instead they actually go find out the answer to your question! And after the cruise the surveys actually ask you about the friendliness, and helpfulness of the crew. This reinforces the feeling that Carnival cares about these factors! This has probably been the single best improvement I have seen in any cruise line! This is an area where are the other lines are inferior to Carnival and would do well to emulate the service given by Carnival. Carnival needs to realize that their service given is their number one asset and do nothing to detract from it!

Love that staff calls you by name, Casino staff gives nicknames, Mine is bahama mama. lol :D

One. We leave on Saturday.

Have a great Cruise!