LOS 2/27 first time cruiser review! L>O>N>G

[iamerica]

For months I have been a cruise boards lurker trying to soak up as much information as I could for my first ever cruise! I loved reading reviews so I figured it only fair to post my review. ~ took my friend "flat Kelly" so she may make it into some pictures:-) ~

 

Background:

This was a first for both my DS (16) and I and I must say we sure picked a trip that would be hard to beat:-) I am a single mom and I try to make sure that my son has some amazing experiences and decided that taking trips was the best way to do that! I never thought cruising would be for me as I tend to get motion sick VERY easily! (I can get sick floating in the lake! ugh it is THAT bad!) However, once I discovered the patch, nothing is off limits anymore! I looked into cruising last summer and realized that it could be a very possible vacation for us. I contemplated between Royal and Carnival and to be honest there are things that both had that appealed to me. With that being said, what sold me on Royal was the initial customer service! I called to get information and the difference between representatives was night and day!( Now I could have just had a gal on a bad day at the competitor, but sometimes that is all it takes)! I got a follow up call from Ernie at Royal and next thing I know, my DS and I are booked on the Liberty for February 27! We booked an interior cabin as I wanted to save the money for other things. Let the countdown begin!

I watched the website like a hawk for price drops and wouldn't ya know it.... a HUGE one (after final payment) and we were able to upgrade to a deluxe suite with balcony! We were originally set for an interior aft cabin on deck 6. With the upgrade we were on deck 8. I called to confirm it was a port side room (I wanted to do a webcam wave with Port Everglades and they can only see port side). It was on the starboard side so the gal said I could move. She gave me some deck options (8, 7, 6) and I asked her to pick the best one. She said we would be in the corner aft stateroom (6710) as it was a coveted room and she was surprised it was still available! The webcam could zoom right in on us and we would be the last thing the camera would see:-) The balcony was also bigger due to being at the back. We were sold:-)

 

Countdown clock zero!

The day arrived that we were on our way! We are from Fargo, ND and there was a storm heading in (first real significant snow all winter!!) We arrived at the airport at 5am for our 6am flight. Ended up an hour delayed (ugh) to Minneapolis, MN. Once there we had to have our flights rebooked due to missing our connection. So instead of a connecting flight, we got a direct flight to Fort Lauderdale! Boarded and sat.... and sat..... mechanical problems :-( so we all had to get off the plane to get another one! (double ugh)

We finally ended up in the air on our way. Landed in FLL 5 1/2 hours LATE. But we were still in Florida! So all was good:))

We stayed in at the Fairfield Inn airport/cruise port hotel. The hotel was great, clean and comfortable (as in beds). Good breakfast in the morning and easy shuttle to the port. (cost was 8 dollars/pp to port. The airport shuttle was free)

Cruise day morning!!!

Breakfast and some exploring around hotel before shuttle time.

[iamerica]

ok... this is going to take awhile! Only SIX pics per post!? LOL

I have over 1000 pics to sort through so I will keep this going as soon as all the pics upload. No not ALL pics are going up! Only my favorites!

[deladypilot]

Keep it coming. Great so far. Love the photos and waiting for more

[iamerica]

Once we arrived that the port the process was fairly painless! Yes there were lines, but not too bad. We got there at about 11:30. In hindsight I wish we would have gotten there earlier so we could get on the ship even earlier, but not much could be done at that point. Seeing the ship was AWESOME! Pictures can never show just how big and amazing it is to see them in person!

We made it through customs and had our welcome aboard picture and we were on! TO say we were star struck would be an understatement! It was hard to decide what to do first! A few pics to post to facebook and send to friends... LOL

on the ramp to the ship!!!!

 

 

Headed into ship.

 

Our first view of the inside.

 

 

We made our way to the Windjammer to eat while our room was getting ready. The place was PACKED!!! We found a table after a few walk through (another reason I wish we had boarded earlier!) and settled in for lunch. My son was already using his pop cup to its fullest! The food was good, burger and fries. Nothing spectacular, but not bad either.

[iamerica]

After lunch we went to see if our room was ready. It was and WOW what a great view! (The structure of the ship wasn't an issue to me as I had nothing to compare it to!) Great size room for my DS and me. The beds were together so when Melissa (our stateroom attendant) came to say hello we requested them to be separated. No problem!

A few pics of our room. :-)

[iamerica]

! We dropped off luggage and went exploring:-) Took a gazilion pictures and soaked in the views! Had out muster drill about 30 minutes before we were to depart. Sat in the dining room and the staff demonstrated how to put on the life vest... whoop whoop... I will be saved! hehe. After we were dismissed, we went back to our room to get ready for the sail away! We had our banners hung up and we were ready. We were MOVING!

[iamerica]

more pics......

one of the MANY stops at the yogurt stand

 

St. Tropez (must be the sun bathing only deck.... although it was pretty empty when we were there)

 

King of the WORLD!

 

Taking in some Port Everglades sites

 

Headed back to our room for sailaway~dog in elevator bay.

[iamerica]

actually leaving port!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still in shock that we were actually on the ship and headed out to sea! The Port Everglades camera found us (parents and friends were watching back home). We waved and posted our last goodbye picture (gotta rub it in a little more:-)... hehe) and shut the phone OFF. No international data charges for this gal.

[iamerica]

. We looked into the menu for dinner and my son just wanted burgers in the Windjammer so off we went. Very easy to find a seat and sat next to the window and watched the shore disappear.

When we got back to our room to change for the hot tub, our beds were separated, the compass was there and the yummy chocolate covered strawberries from Ernie were there!

Some hot tub time (my DS was old enough to hang out with me in the adult pools, so that was so much quieter:-) We had the hot tub to ourselves a good portion of the time!

We tired of that and changed for more exploring! We found the teen rooms, the mini golf (again had the place to ourselves!) and explored some more!

[iamerica]

Day two~ At sea:

We enjoyed some breakfast in the Windjammer (my son LOVED the donuts and the fact that he cold eat and eat and eat! Bright, beautiful day!

More ship exploring. We did take in the seminar about the shopping at the ports. Who knew that diamonds and jewels were a HUGE deal on cruises! Learned a lot about where to get diamonds, who had the best deal and how to get free stuff!! Cashed in our free casino pull (my son did NOT do the pulling... too young) and lunch at Johnny Rockets!

My son LOVED LOVED the peanut butter chocolate shakes!

The cost at Johnny Rockets wasn't a huge deal (about 5 bucks pp, drinks extra) but I figured we could splurge once. The food was great and the view couldn't be beat. The staff was fun too! They sang and danced a few times on the deck.

We then went to the pool deck to watch the belly flop contest. Fun stuff!

and of course ANOTHER stop at the Scoops yogurt

[iamerica]

Tuesday was also the day we watched the Ice Show. Great show. Amazing that they could do all of it on a moving ship and on a small space!

Ice skating rink... photos weren't allowed once the skaters were out.

We chilled on our deck and ate cookies.

took in some more ship sites....

 

aft sports deck

while my son checked out the teen lounge I checked this out....

[iamerica]

Formal night and In The Air:

It was so fun to have my son dress up! We met our servers, Astuti (Tootie) and Gomez. They were AWESOME! We were fussed over and had very fancy food! We had a table for two and didn't have anyone too close to us so there was no real dinner conversation. Good and bad.

The food was great! I even tried stuff I would normally never try~ I figured to step outside my comfort zone!

 

 

 

 

 

A picture of the picture we bought:-) one of the few that they took that I thought was worth the money!

[iamerica]

We then got ready for the evening show, In The Air. We had premade reservations so we got to walk right in! There was a pretty long line waiting, so I suggest making ressies online beforehand. We ended up in the very front. Not ideal, but we were running late. This was the ONLY night I could really feel the ship rocking. It was the last day of my patch before switching so that didn’t help! The show was AMAZING! Even my teenage son was impressed. LOL

After the show I was ready for bed. Again we got back to our room and Melissa had turned down the beds, left our cruise compass and made us a cute little towel animal! I was so excited as I had hoped we would get some. The staff that was in the hall as we walked to and from our room were so friendly! Watching them work was fun. (Very dedicated and personable.)

[iamerica]

Day Three ~ Labadee Haiti:

I woke up and looked outside and to my surprise we were pulling into port! I stood on the deck and watched as the boat slowly got closer to the port and turned into position! I quickly got ready and my son and I went up for breakfast so we could head ashore.

More donuts! Haha

We had zip line reservations at 10:30 and my son wanted to ride the Dragon coaster as many times as he could before and after. (We had the unlimited pass)

Getting off the ship was easy and quick. Headed straight to the Dragon coaster, had a few picture stops on the way.

The coaster fit both my son and I so we only had to pay for one rider which was a nice perk! I had to controls for most of our rides, I did let my son drive us once and that was enough! Haha~ he is a bit of a dare devil and speed demon. The views from the top were amazingJ

[iamerica]

Labadee Haiti

 

 

decided hair braiding wasn't right for our flat Kelly! hehe

 

 

 

 

[iamerica]

We then headed over to the Dragon Flight line check in. We got a locker for our things and were suited up.

There was a bit of a wait until our group was next. We walked up to the mini flight line so we could practice the starfish move.

Got a quick idea of what was ahead. We had a ton of fun and couldn’t wait for the big one.

The ride up to the top,

then we got our lane assignments. My DS was first. I ended up using the video cam and forgot to take pics of him going down.

My son is in the blue shirt middle lane, right next to the rocks.

[iamerica]

Next was me! I had the video (a flipcam) in one hand and the small camera in the other. I had wrist straps on both so I could let go and not lose them. I was instructed to go “starfish” the whole way down. It was a blast! No nerves just in awe of the view. Got to the end and the springs jolted me back to reality as I was already on land. (Takes less than 2 minutes from start to finish.)

my DS was waiting for me at the end.

We no sooner got to the beach and the sky’s opened up! Downpour! The beach cleared in no time. Haha.

Then it was sunny blue skies the rest of the day.

[iamerica]

We had lunch on the beach and it was good! Burgers, hotdogs, and ribs were the main dish. Pretty sure it was stuff from the ship. There were a few more authentic looking food items, but we are pretty basic. HA!

We went to the ship to drop off our souvenirs and get in our suits. It was very easy to get on and off. Cody’s sword had to be taken to the “naughty” spot and we got a slip to get it back after the cruise was over. We then went to the beach to tan, swim and relax. When it was getting close to boarding time, we rode the coaster another time, explored the island as we walked back and took a zillion more pics! Pretty laid back getting back on, not huge lines so I assume people were on and off as we were being the ship was right there.

 

 

 

 

[iamerica]

more Labadee....

 

this guy wanted my DS to some try putting the fire out with his mouth... we politely declined!

 

 

 

 

 

[iamerica]

Once on we changed and went to the top to watch the ship leave. My son was not as enthused to watch the ropes drop as I was. Fun to see the locals see us off with some music.

Goodbye Haiti!

[iamerica]

Supper that evening was in the dining room for casual (or was it smart casual and was exactly is the difference?) DS enjoyed the shrimp and I thought it was funny that Tootie had to remove the shrimp from the shells. She then did it for another table so I assumed it was part of the dining experience. They also kept us stocked with bread and made sure our silverware was in the correct spot and we had the right ones at our table for each course. So very fancy!

More exploring and DS tried the teen lounge while I explored the decks nearby. Found the bars and chapel. Good to know for future more adult oriented cruises! Stopped for cupcakes then bed soon after, we had Jamaica to wake up to!

[iamerica]

Day four~ Falmouth Jamaica:

Had breakfast delivered to our room so we could get an early start! Yup, more donuts!

 

 

Falmouth Jamaica!

 

[iamerica]

We had our Dolphin Experience and Dunn’s River Falls adventure to get to! As soon as we docked, we headed ashore. We had to get to our tour guide as we started right away. Had about an hour drive to Ocho Rios. Our tour guide was Shade and she was AWESOME! We learned a ton about Jamaica history, some “key” phrases and had some laughs along the way. It was weird to have the steering wheel on the opposite side of the van and seeing the cars driving on the wrong side of the road! (at least it was wrong to me….LOL)

We headed to Dunn’s River Falls first. We were told to NOT take anything from the merchants even if they said it was free... nothing is free! We felt safe and the locals weren’t much of a bother. Some were rude when we all walked by, but not a huge deal. The only downer was that we ended up having to pay to rent water shoes as our water sandals were good enough. Had I know we HAD to have fully covered water socks I would have bought some in the states. The excursion description was waterproof shoes, so I figured our Keens would be enough. Oh well. Lesson learned. We had our little group and we all held hands as we started our climb. It was a lot more climbing that I even imagined it would be! A pretty easy to climb and a quick way to get to know your neighbor, I imagine there is a lovely video of us out there somewhere are there were guides everywhere videotaping the whole climb! We took pictures sitting under a water fall, slid down a big rock, fell backwards into a big pool area and had a great time. Once our group was finished we all headed back to the bus. Shade wasn’t kidding when she said they would hound ya. No thanks to the lady trying to sell me our lovely pictures. Not going to pay to have proof of my lovely soaked self. Plus I had my waterproof camera with pics of Cody (DS) so that was enough.

[iamerica]

Off to Dolphin Cove. The Cove was beautiful and we were so excited to get in the water with our dolphin. We got in our lifejackets and headed to the deep part where we met our dolphin. Betty was our girl and we (a group of 9) got in the water. We had so much fun petting Betty. She swam past us several times. We lined up and she swam underwater to us then came up and we grabbed he flippers and she pulled us one by one to the side. We also got to hug her and kiss her for some pictures. Then all the dolphins in the water swam and jumped for us. It was so magical! We finished and looked through the MANY pictures they took. No other cameras were allowed so I HAD to buy at least oneJ Bought Cody’s favorite.

of course my son HAD to find some local kitties so I found this sign very fitting!

 

[iamerica]

CRIPES! if you are still with me... God bless you:)

This thing has taken on a life of it's own.

Is there a limit to how long a review can be? LOL:D

I may have to take a break as this has taken me quite some time.

We still have two more days AND all the trouble getting home.

so, to be continued......................................