Carnival LIberty-Eastern 3/30 Review

[KatPem]

So, we (and by we I mean my hubby) decided that instead of a cruise for just the two of us that we would take the kids for Christmas and invite his extended family to come with us. So, we wrapped the kids up a new carry-on bag and a few items of clothes for Christmas. Inside the bag, I had put a fake passport I had made.

 

 

On the first page I had their pic and info

, the next page I put the first port on my youngest's and left that page blank for the others.

I put the second port on my older son's second page while the others had a blank second page.

 

I put the third port on my oldest's third page and blank for the others

 

 

 

I put the last stop on my younger daughter's fourth page. Sorry, no picture

[KatPem]

The fifth page was a picture of the ship and the dates of the cruise

 

The last page had a small map and itinerary.

This way the kids had to work together to figure out where they were going. I had been talking about trying to talk my husband into taking me on a cruise for months (once we decided I wanted to talk it up as well as not have to worry if they saw some of my 'research' sitting around. Every time they talked about going with them I dismissed it and said it was too expensive, wouldn't be as much fun if we had to take them, etc ;) My oldest thought we were joking when she opened it and that we were going and rubbing it in her face where my )husband and I were going to go. It took 10 minutes to convince them that they got to go too! My oldest just kept saying, "Are we seriously going???" about 5 times....to which my younger daughter finally replied "Are you stupid??NO!!!" We finally convinced them that yes indeed they were going.

 

My older son (12) has food allergies, milk and peanut now but as a baby he was allergic to many things so consequently, he has and extremely limited diet now due to not liking the things he can now have. We were worried about him finding enough to eat on the ship. He is also apprehensive about trying new things and not the most adventurous a lot of the time. We weren't sure if he would want to go or not (the one time he talked about it he said he wouldn't want to go cause he would probably get seasick)

 

Why am I telling you this? I had looked and looked for an idea of how to tell them and just couldn't come up with anything....I was in a scrapbook store, saw a passport sticker and the idea hit me! Had I not talked about my husband taking me and about cruising, I don't think they would've been as excited cause they would have no clue. Since I was able to talk it up (they were 6 months to 6 years when my husband and I went on our only other cruise) they knew what a cruise was and how exciting I thought it was....

 

Along with my husband and our four kids (two daughters 15 and 11 and two sons 12 and 9) my mother-in-law and father-in-law, my two sisters-in-law and my husband's grandmother all went with us.

[KatPem]

We thought about Driving to Miami from Central Indiana but were able to drive to St Louis instead and fly out of there for about $130 per person on American. This was a 5 hour drive instead of 20-25 hours (I have to stop every 2-3 hours). Since we have an older vehicle, we would've rented a mini-van for two weeks and parked at the Port of Miami (I am handicapped so parking would've been free there and it was cheaper to rent for the whole time and park than to drive it there and return it due to one way drop fees. We did find however, that we could rent a minivan to drive one-way home and they(Budget) only charged us normal daily fees, no drop charge. Luckily, I was able to get an AirTran flight from FLL to St Louis (with a connection in ATL) for the same price if we waited to fly out on Monday. So, we decided to extend our vacation and avoid the spring break traffic.

I will say, be sure to check to make sure your luggage fits in the bins they have. We had a luggage **** at boarding. We had checked in at the curb and were carrying on our luggage, no one said a word. The dimensions of the luggage fit what was allowed but we had them fairly stuffed (a couple) and while we have traveled with my same piece just as stuffed and never have had a problem with it fitting in the overhead compartments, it wouldn't fit in the bin by the boarding counter. So, the boarding agent looked at all of our 6 bags and told us we would have to check them as they wouldn't fit. Three did but we pulled out some stuff from the others and put it into our personal items to get them to fit. We had brought an extra piece of luggage and left it in the car in case but since there were no issues when we checked in we didn't use it and at this point she told us 5 minutes before boarding. Checking and paying for 6 bags wasn't an option. It all worked out, was just a pain that could've been avoided so I thought I would share.They all fit on the plane and had extra room....

So, we arrived in Miami a little late due to our flight leaving late. We had reserved a 2 double beds, 1 bdrm suite with kitchen at the Hampton Inn-Blue Lagoon since they had an airport shuttle and could accommodate all 6 of us in one room. For some reason I thought the Hampton Inn was a little ways from businesses so we made sure to bring everythign we needed with us. Walgreens, McDonalds, Subway, Wendy's and CVS are all within a block, easy walk. We called the hotel when we arrived and they told us where to meet the shuttle. It was not well marked where to go at all unless I just totally missed the signs. Follow baggage claim but go upstairs and you will then see a hotel shuttle sign. Cross to the island and watch for your hotel.

 

 

 

The hotel was nice but pricey. Hot tub and pool were open 24 hours. Pool I thought was heated but it was too chilly for me to swim, although the boys braved it for a little bit. They had a nice breakfast in the morning. Fresh fruit, eggs, sausage, bread, english muffins, waffles, cereal, juice, milk, more. We got down there about 9am and it was packed. We ended up going outside to eat which ended up a great idea! We checked out about 11am and asked them to call us a van taxi. It took about 15 minutes to show.

[hayesktrm]

Enjoying your review so far! It's a great way to relive our cruise.

[tinkerbell_82]

I love the passports!! How cute!! Subscribing. :)

[KatPem]

We got to the Port of Miami at about 11:30. Let me just say...I was REALLY glad to be in a cab and not driving myself, there are tons of cabs and they all drive crazy! We handed our luggage to the porter and tipped him. He told us where we needed to go. The line was outside the building about 1-2 rows. It took about 20 minutes to get up to the counter. Here you will need your Ids and boarding passes. Then it is on to security, this took about 10 minutes since there were just a few in line ahead of us but with us 6, it is never fast. We went inside the terminal (about 12:05 now) and it was standing room only. We ran to the restrooms and then got our boarding of zone 16. As we were heading to the line a carnival employee was standing at the entrance with a zone 14 pass and my husband joked that he thought we got them mixed up. The guy said, I think you are right and switched us :) A different employee came around to everyone in line and apologized for the delay. Boarding had not begun due to customs issues.

 

 

At this time they announced that velcroed under two seats were priority boarding passes and for everyone to look and if they found it, they could now board. They started boarding around 12:20. Boarding went fairly quickly once they started. We were in line to get our sign and sail cards and as we got to the counter they called Zone 14. We got our pictures quickly taken and we were off to board. We got in line and then they got to the next zone so my husband's quick thinking saved us a few minutes anyway.

 

 

I will tell you the only annoying thing, people wanting to cut in front of you. It is a nice orderly line and then they have boarding pictures and several skip that and then want to cut in front of people that just got done taking their pictures (but were ahead of them and finished up before those people cut in front. It wasn't a big deal, just a big annoying since you are talking about 2-3 minutes difference. Our group of 6 (4 of which were children) got split up due to 'cutters' and then were given some nasty looks as we tried to catch up to my husband and the rest of my kids like we were cutting in front of them. A little courtesy goes a long way people.

 

 

So, we headed to the gangway. Here are some pictures of the terminal at this time (about 1)

 

 

We got on board and went straight into the guest services line. There were about 8 people in front of us but it was 1 and I was tired of carrying my bag with our electronics in it (I took my laptop cause I take TONS of pictures and we had family from out of state so we could share pics) so we went ahead and got in line. We put a $20 limit on the kids (thinking we would see how they budgeted it and add more in a couple of days....we never had to, none of them maxed out). We also tried to switch my son and I so my husband and I were in the same room and kids next door. They said they couldn't switch us but were happy to make us extra keys. We did that and then had them punch our cards (including the key cards) for our lanyards. Our lanyards were something I would not go without. My husband refused to use his and consequently 'misplaced' his card a few times, quickly finding it in the cabins. I would suggest that you get a lanyard that tells a little bit about you, it is a great conversation starter. My 11 year old is a competitive gymnast and had a gymnastics one....many people commented. My 12 year old is a Detroit Lion's fan and the 9 year old a Colts fan. The 15 year old had an Indiana University one and all four commented that people talked to them about it.

 

 

When we got done with this, it was 1:20 so we decided to check out our rooms (2345 and 2341) and to dump our stuff. When we got there the rooms looked done. We quickly met Putu, our steward for the week. He apologized for our rooms not being finished yet. We apologized to him since we were a few minutes early and told him we were just dropping stuff off and going to Lido. He said there were lots of delays due to customs.

 

 

We headed to the Lido deck. My 11 year old loved the 'cool' chairs.

 

 

[KatPem]

The boys jumped in the pool....they were surprised that it was salty lol

 

 

The girls and I went exploring...

 

Muster was about 15 minutes behind, starting at 4 PM. We were muster station C.

The workers repeatedly asked for everyone to remain silent and I felt so bad for them cause most of the ADULTS didn't care. Finally everyone got quieted down and we could proceed but it wasted about an extra 5-10 minutes waiting on them.

 

We decided to go to deck 10 for sail away. A friend of mine from High School was on the Dream so I wanted to get some pics of it for him.

[KatPem]

The Celebrity Reflection got started before we did..

 

The Breeze....my 9 year old said he wants to go on this boat next lol

 

 

The Dream

Partying on the dream

[KatPem]

I didn't get many food pictures, there are so many on here and I was too busy eating but the first night my son had the Flat Iron Steak from the everyday menu (ordered it about every night)

and I had the Comfort Food Brisket.

The flat iron steak was pretty good. My brisket was good but very fatty. The mashed potatoes were delicious. As for food for the week, I tried the fried Chicken, it was decent but not great...if you like friend chicken, go to the buffet on American day and they have delicious fried chicken bites on it! Prime rib was tasty but you might ask for extra au jus. The filet mignon and pork that came with it were really good.

For my son with the allergies, we notified them the first night (he won't eat hardly anything so I wasn't concerned enough to contact them prior to the cruise.) They offered to let him pick the night before but he opted to just pick each night. He ordered a double order of fries and a baked potato along with veggies every single night. We were able to get broccoli and/or cauliflower...his favorites...most nights.

 

I was impressed with the fruit selections and we got the Fruit Starter every night in the MDR. It had two pieces of watermelon, two pieces of cantelope, two pieces of green melon, a piece of strawberry, piece of kiwi and a couple grapes

 

the buffet breakfast was decent. For those that like grapefruit, they have it already sectioned off as well as halved. My son did not care for the bacon, I thought it was fine. They had a large selection of boxed cereal and a decent selection of danishes. I loved the croissants.

 

We did the punchliner brunch on Thursday and it was our favorite. Eggs cooked to order. Here is the menu

Here was the selection offered to your table at the punchliner's brunch and their fruit.

 

[KatPem]

First port was Nassau, Bahamas. It was Easter Sunday. We had gotten a note the night before that they would be doing a family egg hunt later in the afternoon, the kids after being soo concerned before the cruise about one, didn't want to do it lol.

 

We had booked a snorkeling excursion on Grand Turk, I got an email on Thursday night at 11:15 PM that Grand Turk was cancelled and excursions would be refunded. Since the 6 of us along with the kid's aunts and grandpa were signed up for this, we decided to book snorkeling in Nassau since we had stuff we wanted to do at the other stops.

 

We booked the Catamaran Sail and Snorkel. We met (all 100 of us) just off the gangway and we walked through the terminal and out to the right. Here was our catamaran

 

The ride out was about 35 minutes or so. It was 8:30 when we left and the kids were chilly. Note, if you go on this and don't want to get wet, don't sit on the front, outside corners of the boat! Guys there were drenched! Also, bring something to lay out to sit on. You will be more confortable if you sit on the net, which I highly encourage!

Ships docked from the catamaran

Houses along the way.

Island in the distance

[PittsburghGirlee]

Awesome review and pics so far....

Thanks for taking the time to post....

I love the Liberty, one of my fav ships in the fleet!!

[twinglemom]

LOVE the passport idea!!! We are booked on the Dream next January - first cruise for the kids and we are going to surprise them at Christmas. I have been trying to come up with a good idea of how to tell them - I'm totally going to steal this!!

[Isa65]

Thanks for your review, Kathy. We were on this sailing, too and it's great to see your pictures and relive our vacation!

[KatPem]

The catamaran ride was a lot of fun! When we got to our destination, the guy in charge did a great job quieting everyone down and giving instructions on how to use all the equipment. You were given the option of using fins. I had gotten a new waterproof camera on clearance at Walmart the week before we left (Fujifilm XP55) and was excited to try it out. When hooking my vest, I hooked one of the straps though the camera strap which was a great idea since I didn't have to worry about dropping it. We got in the water, it was chilly but not cold and we got used to it in just a few seconds. The water was REALLY rough though. My kids had never been before and so they weren't comfortable using the mask and breathing tube and they hated it. It was too rough for them to get used to using it. They lasted 5-20 minutes and then gave up and went back on the boat. There were a few colorful fish but really not many. I had a hard time taking pics since it was so rough so I just pointed and shot randomly lol

 

 

On the way back they had rum punch and fruit punch. It was very good (I had the non-alcoholic version)! I felt like the guys did a really good job, just it was too rough to enjoy it much and we didn't see many fish. The kids didn't enjoy the snorkeling but we all loved the ride so it was worth it anyway!

[Anung Un Rama]

Great start so far!! Please tell me you're going to finish this review today as we'll be leaving for the same cruise tomorrow :p

I was curious if you could tell me who the CD was and how they were. And also, did you check out the Piano Bar at all? Thanks!

[KatPem]

when we got done, they took us back to the same spot we got on at. We finished about 12:30. We had planned on going to the Queen's Staircase but decided we didn't have enough time. We took the picky eater to McD's to get some nuggets since we knew he wouldn't eat much for the week on board. We then went to go grab a quick geocache(Cathedral Cache-

GC43MGV) ...our first in another country!

 

 

 

 

Straw Market was open but we were limited on time by this point as sail away was 2 pm so we just looked at a couple shops on the way back to the ship.

 

There is a nice photo opportunity on the walk to the ship. There was a small line.

 

[lovestocruise19]

Awesome review so far! You have beautiful children! I leave for this cruise on Saturday! :D

[spacepotatoes]

Enjoying your review so far! The passport idea is great and I love that your kids didn't believe they were actually going on the cruise with you ;) Looking forward to the rest!

 

Great start so far!! Please tell me you're going to finish this review today as we'll be leaving for the same cruise tomorrow :p

 

I was curious if you could tell me who the CD was and how they were. And also, did you check out the Piano Bar at all? Thanks!

 

Happy honeymoon! Have a great trip :)

[rtw68]

Thanks for doing this review.

 

We go on Liberty and the Eastern itinerary in 15 days! Can't wait for more!

 

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

[KatPem]

Great start so far!! Please tell me you're going to finish this review today as we'll be leaving for the same cruise tomorrow :p

 

I was curious if you could tell me who the CD was and how they were. And also, did you check out the Piano Bar at all? Thanks!

 

Thanks! Im going to try ;) Im afraid if I don't, I won't get it done with as busy as the kids are with their sports lol The cruise director was Troy Linton, he was young, upbeat and entertaining. I thought he did a great job! We did not check out the piano bar at all, the comedy shows were great though!

[KatPem]

Awesome review so far! You have beautiful children! I leave for this cruise on Saturday! :D

 

Thanks! You will love it! We had a blast!

[KatPem]

Stop two was St Thomas and the whole reason we booked this particular cruise. We docked at 11 am and were second in line to get off. We walked out and saw lots of cabs.....except, you have to go straight down the sidewalks, across a drive and through the shops area turning a corner to get to where you can actually grab a taxi....quite a distance. We got in a cab and were off to Red Hook Ferry. We got there about 11:30 and the next ferry was at noon. We picked up some brochures for St John there. I researched the heck out of this trip, one thing I failed to check out was cab fares on these islands. I just assumed they would be $20-30...WRONG! More about that later but thank goodness we had brought extra cash in case the kids wanted souveniers.

 

It was $6 each way, we went ahead and purchased round-trip tickets so we wouldn't have to risk standing in line later, this proved helpful. Kids 11 and under were $1 each way. It runs every hour on the hour (but check to be sure). Here was our ferry. There are restrooms, information and a bar at the dock there. Please note, kids must have something over their suits and wearing a shirt (boys) and shoes on the ferry.

on the way over...beautiful water.

Boat in Cruz Bay where the ferry docks on St John.

Finally here!

 

We got off, grabbed an open air taxi and had him take us to our destination the Cinnamon Bay Trailhead.

[KatPem]

the Cinnamon Bay Hiking Trail is 1.2 miles all downhill and has some GORGEOUS views! We are an active family and like to camp and hike so we knew this was the one place we HAD to take the kids. I found out about this while reading a review here on CC before our last cruise 9 years ago! While it is all downhill, you still need to be fairly sure-footed. I have Multiple Sclerosis and my balance isn't great at times so I was planning on bringing a trek pole but couldn't carry one on the plane so I just brought my fold-up cane in case I needed it. I didn't. Me and my sister-in-law just went steady and had no problems. The trail isn't all that wide as you can see from these pictures.

 

And then you come to a clearing and BAM!

 

along the way we saw

 

At the bottom are ruins from a plantation.

 

 

The entire hike took us about 30-45 minutes.

[KatPem]

The beach you see in the picture with the view is where we are hiking down to.

There is a campground there as well. You can get food, drinks, equipment, etc there.

 

You walk a little road towards the beach and then

 

This is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! We got to the beach about 1:20 and decided that we needed to head to the taxis by 3 to catch the 4:00 ferry back to St Thomas. My sister-in-law had brought three snorkeling sets (minus fins) minus fins with her. She, my husband and the boys took turns snorkeling off the beach. If you go in front of the building on the beach, you can walk out quite a ways and then swim out a bit and there is coral and lots of fish. They saw sea urchins even and lots of them. My oldest couldn't get over how clear the water was, it was like swimming in a pool and the perfect temperature. There were slight waves but they were lulling, not overwhelming like the previous day. They all fell in love. My 9 year old said he wants to live there!

 

At 3 we packed up and headed back towards the taxis. It was about 3:30 by the time the taxi pulled out (he was waiting and we were getting nervous) but we got to the ferry about 3:50 and they hadn't started boarding even yet.

[Albrin1914]

I love your review...I was there on this cruise with you, so it's interesting to see it from your perspective. Love the photos! :D