My 1st Cruise Report Ever - Liberty Of The Seas 5-Night 3/8/2012

This is my very first Cruise Report, so please bear that in mind as you are reading (i.e. go easy on me!). I am feeling very proud of myself right now, as I just learned the Photobucket method of inserting pics into this report. I am not a very computer savvy person, so this was an accomplishment for me!

This was the March 8 sailing of Liberty Of The Seas and is the same one HostFaith did her incredible report on. I am not even going to try and come close to hers, but I’m going to do my best and hopefully you all will enjoy it!

Some background first. I am Tony (in the pic above, that’s me in the dark blue shirt in the back). We are from the New Haven area in CT. My partner, Guy, and I took his parents (here on in referred to as the “in-laws”!) on this cruise to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Also travelling along with us was my younger brother Russ who is disabled. He has Down Syndrome and gets around in a wheelchair due to partial paralysis from brain surgery 8 years ago. We are his guardians since my Mom passed away in 2004. Russ lives with us and he also loves to travel with us. He has been to Florida many times, but this was his very first cruise (other than the Long Island Ferry!) so he –and we- were pretty excited. Not too shabby … your first cruise being on the Liberty Of The Seas!

My partner and I have been on a few cruises before (Costa Riviera, Regal Empress, SeaBreeze and Monarch Of The Seas), but this was our first time on a ship of this class.

The in-laws spend winter in Cape Canaveral so they drove down to FLL to meet us. We flew in the day before because, being a former airline employee, I am a firm believer in NOT flying down the day of a cruise, particularly in winter ! JetBlue from Hartford to FLL and back. Can’t say enough great things about JetBlue. We have flown them many, many times now and the ground and in-flight crews are always very helpful, friendly and accomodating while assisting us with my brother. Their planes have always been spotless and comfortable – and the seatback TVs they have really make the flight go by quickly.

BUT! We got raped on a rate at the Hilton Marina in FLL. We paid $261 !! for ONE stinkin NIGHT. My fault though. Granted it was a tower room with a view of the cruise port, but it was NOT worth it. We used Hotels.Com, though later found out that we should have used Priceline’s Name Your Price Option. Oh Well, Next Time. Nice enough hotel, small-ish rooms and almost a little too obviously “Latina Golden Girls” looking in the décor. And since the hotel is directly across the street from the cruise port, they obviously get a lot of one night pre-cruise passengers who they figure they’ll shamelessly gouge in every way they can. We went down to the cabana bar for a cocktail to celebrate the beginning of our vacation. Two margaritas (very weak) and one Coke came to $38.00 ! Whatttt?! And then, since apparently we hadn’t learned our lesson, the next morning, we went down the the small café they have in the lobby. What would you think that one very ordinary supermarket-type rubbery bagel and one croissant with two coffees would cost? TWENTY DOLLARS. TWENTY (what?!) DOLLARS. Keep in mind that this is a counter service kind of place. You go and get your own coffee – and they add in an 18% gratuity, even! For what !? Again .. lesson learned. I would avoid this place in future – NOT worth it.

What WAS cool was standing out on the balcony of the hotel watching the Liberty pull into the port. It was still dusk, so the ship was all lit up and looked gorgeous! Now we were really getting excited! We also watched the Island Princess, the Seven Seas Mariner and one other smaller ship pull in. Very cool!

That is a very blurry crappy pic, I know. But i put it in just to illustrate how HUGE Liberty is in comparison to that big condominium building right next to it. Incidentally, that is the condo buildiing the person tho does the Port Everglades and Inlet Photos webcam lives in. Tell me that wouldn;t be an amazing place to live !

I hope you are enjoying this report so far. I have quite a bit more coming, along with more pics! I appreciate any feedback too re: the layout, etc ... I am definitely learning as I go here!

Good start....sorry to hear about the hotel. We thought about hotels very close to the port but couldn't bring myself to spend that type of money on a one night stay. We are staying in Hollywood.

Great start....you are doing awesome :)

We also stayed there and I loved the lobby but the rooms were like a Motel 8 ... Definitely would NEVER stay there again!

great start

Loving it so far! Your personality really pops and makes it fun to read. :)

Wahoo! Our first RCL was on the LOS, love her!

Thanks sooo much! I will be on her in 32 days!!!!!

Crystal, Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

We were on the same cruise and had a great time, cant wait to hear the rest of your review

Thanks everyone for the encouragement!

Loving it so far! Your personality really pops and makes it fun to read. :)

Wow .. now, coming from you that is one heck of a compliment! I have read every one of your amazing reports and consider you one of the best!

That made my night .. More to come very soon!

Can't wait to read more! I will be on her in 27 days.

Here's Part 2!

The in-laws met us at the hotel after driving down from Cape Canaveral. They got hit with some heinous traffic and were a little grouchy when they finally got to us. But once they came up to our room and looked over at our ship, everything was happy happy! We were going to take a cab across the street to the pier, but they insisted we could all fit in their SUV. And we did, Just b-a-r-e-l-y! Bags and people crammed in every interstice of that car and the wheelchair was tied to the roof. We looked like the Ricardo’s car that Fred Mertz packed for their drive to California on ‘I Love Lucy’! We got it done, though, and thankfully it was only about a 5 minute drive across the street to the port, where we arrived at about 10:00.

The mistake we made was that we pulled into the parking garage first. This left us to schlep all our bags way up to the terminal. Dodging angry cabs and busses and cars while we were crossing the street. I had visions of us getting plowed into just like a bunch of bowling pins. Of course, the checked bag drop was on the far end of the terminal. We had to walk the length of the terminal negotiating the obstacle course of grumpy bitter people who had just disembarked and were waiting for rides. And who were not moving! We finally made it to the area where you drop off checked bags. Really, it’s just a bunch of gnarly looking luggage guys who fill up the rolling racks while giving you menacing looks to scare you into tipping them well. Ours was an older guy who looked like a mean prison-inmate version of Grady Wilson and who actually rolled his eyes when I handed him a $-10- (TEN-DOLLAR) bill to take three normal size bags and lift them 6 inches up off the ground and put them on his empty cart. Yea, you have a nice day too, sucka (say it like Aunt Esther!). I’d love to have carried our bags on, but we had to check them since I had 3 Rum Runners in there and I wasn’t going to risk getting pinched like I did in Port Canaveral last year.

Wanna hear THAT story? Well, I had three Rum Runners in my carry-on (my own stupidity) and, of course I got caught. They yanked me nicely aside and a sweet older security guard asked me to open my bag. By this point, Guy -acting thoroughly mortified- was already making his distance from me by looking the other way and shaking his head acting like he was shocked to be travelling with some underworld drug smuggler thug. She went through my bag, but she only found one of the three Rum Runners! They even offered me the opportunity to go back out and put it back in the car so I wouldn’t have to have it confiscated. But I just wanted out of there quickly so she wouldn’t find the other two so I told her that it was OK for her to take it. I zipped my bag back up fast and got on the escalator as quickly as possible. But we at least made it through with two of our Rum Runners. And what do you think the first thing Guy said to me once we were in our cabin with our smuggled Stoli? ... “How bout makin me a cocktail!?”. And I am not kidding!

Well this time, all three of our Rum Runners made it safe and sound. So checking the bags were a good idea after all. And, to all you Rum Runner smuggler haters reading this, trust me -- we supported the bars on board very nicely too. But it is very nice having our own stash to enjoy in our cabin. So no lecturing!

But back to Pier 25. Um, OK, I’ll just say it .. what a dump ! The snotties manning the lines and checkpoints barking at you as you are following the stanchions and trying to get your bearings and figure out what to do and where to go. Not a nice way to start your trip. “Av yer passpote and iiiii-D oat” .. “I SAID I need yerrr Set Sail Pahhss oat IN yerrr ‘and !” … “Sir .. NOT ova eeer, oooova DERE!!”. Complete with eye-rolls. Yea. That kinda thing. (That was my Jamaican accent, by the way). Guy was ready to punch one of them out, she was so snotty to him because he didn’t have his passport open to the right page. But my “you will not get on this ship if you wig out on her” glare got him to calm down a little. But he was seething. And he was right - she was really nasty. We did get checked in at a special table they took us to since we were with a wheelchair passenger. That was quick and the guy checking us in was very nice, if a little inexperienced and nervous. They herded, I mean –ushered- us upstairs since the lower holding pen was already teaming with masses of people forced to sit in chairs and wait to be called. The upstairs holding room was just a spartan waiting area. It reminded me of the bus terminal in Bridgeport, CT. It was now about 11:30, so we were expecting that they would start boarding. But right around then, some lady with THE most annoying chipper overly happy, peppy Filipina accent –and who no one could see- came on the P.A. and told us in the most sing-song way that due to the rain earlier in the morning, it took the disembarking passengers longer to get off the ship than normal. Um, What? Oh well. So we waited. And every ten minutes this chick came on and made the SAME announcement the SAME way EVERY time. People were getting REALLY irritated. Not at the delay, but at these announcements. But no one could see where she was. She was hiding. Lucky for her.. LOL!

Thats Mum, and Guy listening to chatty Kathy making that announcement for the 20th time in the Bus Terminal.

By about 1:00, no announcement was made at all but we just noticed people suddenly getting up and gravitating toward the windows. So we did too. As we walked along the corridor to the gangway, I looked into an opening that lets you see down into the check-in lobby. And now I know what 2,500 people crammed into a space the size of a McDonalds looks like. What a mess. I was SO glad we got there as early as we did. I’d have lost my mind if I had to go through that. It was heaving with people.

We boarded up a very steep gangway that put us out on to an open area of Deck 4. This struck me as a little unusual, as I’m used to initial boarding being through the Centrum (Monarch), I guess, so this took me by surprise. From a tongue-lashing I took about a week ago in another thread here on CC where I mentioned this, I understand that this is perfectly normal for this class of ship. Cabins were not yet ready so we went up to the Windjammer and got a great table next to the window. It wasn’t yet crowded and we had a great lunch. I got the obligatory Honey Stung Chicken (mehhhh, as usual … but we have to, don’t we?!) and had a great Turkey Burger and salad. I had the Turkey Burgers a couple more times during the cruise and loved them each time. Honestly, with the terrific salad bar and everything from burgers to hot dogs, pastas and roasts, to sandwiches, to the Asian/Indian dishes and pizzas, anyone who complains they can’t be satisfied in the Windjammer for their daytime meals is just too damn picky. It’s vacation food, people .. not Le Cirque!

Can you believe how high that is? Awesome views from Windjammer.

We made our way down one deck and found that our cabin was ready and our bags had already arrived! OK, Grady Wilson … you’re alright after all!

We booked D-1 Cabins 1604 (partner, brother and I) and 1608 (his parents) on Deck 10. In hindsight we very definitely should have booked a handicapped accessible cabin, but we thought back to the cabins we had on the two cruises we had taken on Monarch and weren’t too worried about space for the three of us or storage. What I hadn’t accounted for was how narrow the doorways were for the wheelchair and for helping my brother in and out of the bathroom. Lesson learned. It was a little bit of a challenge, but we made it work. Our cabin steward Lorraine was right there introducing herself and was very sweet throughout the cruise. Kept the ice-bucked topped off for us, the cabin nicely tended to and we got a towel animal every night – which I hadn’t expected. As the in-laws were in the cabin next to us, she immediately un-locked the adjoining cabin door for us. We asked her to open the balcony divider too and she told us that would be no problem at all. She had to go and find the special key they need to do that and soon enough, we had it open. SO nice having the double-width balcony! We also noticed the balcony was deep too – huge amount of room out there. And we were not on the hump. It was a standard D-1 sized balcony.

We did sail-away on our balcony because we had pre-arranged with the person who operates the InletPhotos website to zoom in on us. Did you know you could do this ? This is the person who runs that Port Everglades webcam we all watch! Our balcony was on the port side of the ship which is the side that faces the person’s condo who records the activity in the channel. You just go on their website and leave them a request for when they are recording your sailing to zoom in on you. You tell them your location and a description of yourselves and though they don’t guarantee they can do it, they will try! And, boy, did they EVER get it right for us! It was amazing when we got back to not only see the ship we were actually on at the time, but there we were –in close up- on our balconies waving. What a great souvenir of this trip. They also offer the clip of the sailing as a download for purchase. It was cheap and now I have it on my computer and can burn it on a disk to give to the in-laws. Very highly recommend this if you are sailing out of FLL!

Thats Guy and I up top!

This is Russ and I down in the Promenade. We don't know the guy on the left LOL!

I hope you're still with me! I'll have more tomorrow!

And by the way, in spite of the title of this thread, this was a 4 night sailing, not 5. I noticed my typo too late to change it ...sorry bout that!

Coming up in the next installment: Dirty-Dirty Senor Frogs in Cozumel and the All-Access Tour!

Good start....sorry to hear about the hotel. We thought about hotels very close to the port but couldn't bring myself to spend that type of money on a one night stay. We are staying in Hollywood.

And we will too, for sure! Where are you staying, if you don't mind my asking?

Great start....you are doing awesome :)

Thanks, fish!!

Loving your review:D Can't wait for the rest:D:D

I love the way Russ is smiling in the photos! How can someone look so happy :D

Great start Tony, keep it coming.

Nice sail-away photos too!

Sinny

Enjoying your review and your sense of humor!

Looking forward to reading more.

Ksmd

" By this point, Guy -acting thoroughly mortified- was already making his distance from me by looking the other way and shaking his head acting like he was shocked to be travelling with some underworld drug smuggler thug. She went through my bag, but she only found one of the three Rum Runners! ....

what do you think the first thing Guy said to me once we were in our cabin with our smuggled Stoli? ... “How bout makin me a cocktail!?”. And I am not kidding!"

Lol! That sounds soooo much like Shon! Good thing they have us!

BTW, I couldnt wait to check this review out when I woke up this morning! I have been lol-ing!!! Great way to start the day. Can't wait for more.

Hi Tony! Awesome job so far, I'm loving your review. Thank you for taking the time to post your perspective on this cruise. You have me cracking up over here, your wit and humor are making this a great read. Can't wait to read more!! :)

And we will too, for sure! Where are you staying, if you don't mind my asking?

Found a LaQuinta Inn for a decent price. We will be booking 5 rooms for our cruise next spring. They shuttle from airport to hotel and then from hotel to Port Everglades. This will work great for our group as some will be driving down and some will be flying in. Loving your reveiws.

can't wait for more.

great job.

Backtracking an hour or so prior to sail-away, we found that our muster station was outside on Deck 4. So we located it and then sat in Bolero’s to wait. We had a little time to kill, so we ordered a round of cocktails and enjoyed them, after all, couldn’t just sit in the bar and not order anything, after all! Great Margaritas and Long Island Iced Teas there. We finished and got out to our muster station a little early since we had my brother in his wheelchair and weren’t sure how that was going to go. They were very nice in allowing me to stand off to the side with him. Muster took a while and it was getting a little hot since the sun was hitting that side of the ship, but it was done in a very professional manner. One funny incident happened. My partner leaned over to his Dad during the drill to say something to him quietly and this nasty old witch standing in front of him turned around and started shush-ing and barking at him to be quiet! “This is an important drill and you are putting all of us at risk by talking … blah blah blah”. He -a lot nicer than I would have been- didn’t reply. He usually doesn’t tolerate being spoken to that way, but she took him by surprise, I guess and he was at a loss for words! I don’t see that too often!

Thats Guy at lifeboat drill ... right after the smackdown!

We had dinner in the MDR each night on Deck 5 in the My Time Dining level. We the same serving team each night. Donabel was our Maitre D and Bento and Rodel was the Waiter/Assistant Waiter team . They were terrific. We had a little bit of a roundabout route to get to our table since we had a wheelchair with us, but each night when they saw us, they would clear a path for us by nicely asking people to pull their chairs in, or by clearing the way through the service station we had to walk through. On two of those nights, Bento himself came and insisted on pushing my brother’s wheelchair in for us so that I could go right to the table. They were absolutely a great team and really worked hard. That bread basket did me in! I loved the assortment and Rodel just kept the rolls coming for us all. There was not a single bad meal for any of us on any of the nights. I absolutely love the RCCL Indian dishes they have on the menu each night. I sampled those twice. Bento (who is Indian) seemed pleased when I wanted to try the Indian dishes and I was not disappointed. Now, we truly don’t expect 5-star dining on a cruise. This is mass produced food for thousands, of course, but we were all very satisfied with what we had. Any requests for a second entrée or appetizer were met with a smile. Really enjoyed our dinners. The desserts were 50/50 … some good, some meh … but again, no complaints at all.

We had only two mishaps in the MDR. On formal night, my partner’s Dad came to the MDR in a collared shirt and shorts. Very nice dress shorts, but shorts none the less. The host at the door refused to let him in. Fair enough, it was formal night afterall and the Cruise Compass did specify no shorts in the dining room at dinner. They told him if he just went back and changed into long pants of any kind he’d be fine. But apparently he was not happy at all about the way he was spoken to by this guy (I didn’t hear the exchange myself as I was behind everyone with my brother), but all of a sudden I see the in-laws charging off and Mum saying “they won’t let Dad in .. go in and eat without us!”. Huh?? We felt bad because we really enjoyed dinner time together. But before we knew it, they were gone, so we reluctantly went in anyway. Now that was kind of awkward because it was just 3 of us at this big round 6-top table right smack in the middle of the dining room. Donabel, Bento and Rodel were all so concerned about what happened that they insisted on sending entrees back with us to the cabin for the in-laws! How sweet is that?! We declined it, knowing they would go and eat somewhere else, but their concern was really sweet.

That was also the night that my brother accidentally knocked over his big glass of Diet Coke. All over. I mean ALL over! It went e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. But the way Bento, Rodel and one other assistant came over and quickly cleaned it up, but in such a way as not to embarass him or even call undue attention to the salvage effort, it shows what pros these guys are and what good training they must have to handle awkward situations. We really appreciated that and still enjoyed our meal that night in spite of the drama! Bento insisted on cutting my brother’s steak too, since he is not able to do it himself. He said “Please allow me tonight .. let me give big brother a rest”. What a nice gesture. They also insist on standing over you and peeling the shells off your shrimp when you order a shrimp entrée. This seemed a little odd to me, I don’t know why, but it just did! The next night, I decided to treat my brother to the Filet from Chops. When you order it in the MDR, it is only $15.00 and let me tell you, that is one beautiful dish. It is one of the biggest filets I have ever seen and was cooked to perfect Mid-Rare. It came with some great mashed potatoes and a very nicely arranged vegetable assortment. That steak was so big we all had to help him finish it. And it was fabulous. Again, I can not say enough nice things about the staff that took care of us in the MDR. Even though we had MTD, we were happy to tip these 3 extra (and pretty nicely too, I might add!). People who try so hard to please their guests deserve extra recognition above and beyond whatever they make off the pooled MTD tips, as far as I’m concerned. I also wrote a very nice letter to RCCL about them and some of the other staff that we felt went above and beyond. I only wish I got some pictures of them. For some reason, I didn’t take a single picture in the dining room. Food is a distraction for me, I guess!

We did the 5-bottle Wine Package. Not sure how much money we saved, if any,but it was convenient. And it did lighten our bar tab a bit, because having pre-paid the wine, we weren’t hit with the bottle charges on our SeaPass account (which was shocking enough as it was!). Now, we enjoy wine, but are not wine snobs so we got the least expensive package ($135 for 5 bottles) and there was enough of a nice selection for us. The only thing was that this was a 4 night cruise and we had the “problem” of 5 bottles. So we had to force ourselves to drink 2 bottles on the last night! Such an inconvenience! LOL

Day 2 was spend exploring the massive ship. Truly no pics do this ship justice. It was just absolutely beautiful inside and out. And as big as it is, we had no trouble at all finding our way around. The touch screen maps were a big help. We loved the adult Solarium area but that pool was freakin COLD! Finally by the last day of the cruise, I worked up the, uh, nerve to get in. And it was warmer on that day but still COLD ! Anyone know why the pools were not warmed? Is that normal? To be honest, that was my very first time in a cruise ship pool. On my previous cruises, I never went in, I guess.

Cozumel was OK. I had been there once before, so knew what to expect. I noticed the Carnival Triumph follow us in, though they used the pier a bit further south from where we were. We pulled in along side Jewel Of The Seas and that was where the size of Liberty Of The Seas became really evident. The Liberty positively dwarfed the Jewel!

I know .. size ain't everything, but ... GOD !!

We did not do any shore excursions in Cozumel. We decided to just hang out in the port area and check out the shops and vendor stalls. It was HOT. About 90 degrees. After seeing the shops and buying some nice stuff like T-Shirts, souvenirs and even a couple nice pottery pieces and booze, we went over to Senor Frogs. Strictly to cool off, of course, as they had umbrellas! We ordered a round of Margaritas, which came in those gigantic yard cups. Good drinks .. stronger than I thought they would be. Loved the view of the ships and the craziness that ensues at Senor Frogs when the dominatrix shot girl starts blowing her whistle and coming around the place to force feed people tequila! She also made a few couples go, uh, how do I word this on here without getting banned from the site? Well, she would fill a shot glass with the tequila and place it in a rather personal place … i.e. in a woman’s cleavage .. or in a man’s crotch. And then their partner had to go and retrieve the shot glass .. with their teeth! No hands. The whole time, she was feeling up the women, ripping the men’s shirts open and rubbing their chests. You know, good trashy fun! I was having fun watching it all and would have ordered another round, but everyone else was ready to walk around some more. And this is the end of the R-rated portion of this Report!

But what got REAL old REAL quick was all the merchants and their cat-calls trying to get you to come over and check out their wares.

“Senor!! Wha joo looking for, Senor? Coo-ban Seegars?!”

“Senor!! Leesen to me, joo wan Coo-ban Seegars?!” ….

“Pssssst! Senor! Joo come wiss me ..I gonna cho joo my chop upstairs…..!”

That kinda thing. You couldn’t walk more than 5 feet without being accosted like that. My partner and brother went back to the ship to have a nap, but I stayed behind to go and find the in-laws as they had kind of wandered off. By this time I had really had it with these guys so the next time I heard “Senor …. What are joo looking for?” I said “MY BOYFRIEND!”. He walked right away from me! Fast! Wish I had thought of that earlier in the day!!

I was very sleepy afterward and had a nap, but I was SO bummed to have missed the “running of the drunks” I had heard so much about! My in-laws watched it from Deck 11, just above the gangway out of the window panels that you can slide open and they said it was hilarious. The talk of the ship the next day was that two or three people went off the pier into the water. Instead of turning right where the pier turns, they kept on stumbling forward and went over the side. I’m not sure I really believe it as people on every sailing probably say that! We did find out that a few people missed the ship though. Oops!!

I love how you can go splash in the water on the little beach at Senor Frogs. What a view!

Mum insisted on dragging that little guy over to pose with them in the pic. He works on the pier. She was thrilled to finally find someone shorter than her! LOL

Hope you're still enjoying! All about the All-Access Tour tomorrow!

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Great review!! Love your pictures

I love your review so far and can't wait to see more.