Carnival Liberty Review Feb 16, 2013 - FTTF with Photos

[nickiford]

Hello everyone! I had the best of intentions of getting this review up and running as soon as I got back but of course life gets in the way and now I find myself 2 months later and just getting started. I'm trying to to start and finish fairly quickly.

 

This was my 3rd cruise with Carnival, first on the Freedom, then the Pride, trip reports are in my signature. I always travel with my sister and we are in our mid thirties. This trip our mother decided to join us for her first cruise! We were very excited to show my mother the Carnival Life and to check out the new 2.0 upgrades on the Liberty.

 

I'm going to post a test pic in the first post and I will see if it all comes back to me and then I should be up and running.

 

Hotel Room in Toronto - Best Western Toronto Airport

[nickiford]

We live in Southern Ontario. Getting on the ship for us is half the trip. I was able to get an awesome deal with Best Western earlier in the year. I signed up for a Best Western no fee credit card and received enough promo points for our stay in Toronto and our stay in Miami to be totally free! It was really expensive to stay in Miami so ultimately this saved us close to $400.

 

We left for Toronto mid-afternoon on Thursday before our Saturday boarding. There were slight flurries on the drive but nothing compared to the massive snowstorm that had fallen the weekend before. We normally travel the week before so we were considering ourselves extremely fortunate that we decided to delay one week this year.

 

We checked into the hotel and then decided to go up to a nearby mall the Bramalea City Centre just to kill some time. We ate at the hotel restaurant Savannahs for dinner. It was acceptable.

 

We had some issues with the toilet in the room not working, we ended up getting complimentary breakfast and a bottle of wine...we weren't going to let it bother us, we were on vacation!

 

We were flying Air Canada direct to Miami around 11:00, security was a long line so by the time we got to the gate we really didn't have to wait long.

 

 

Sister and mother

We arrived in Miami to rain :-(. We waited about 40 minutes for the shuttle to arrive to take us to the Best Western Miami Inn on the Bay.

 

 

The room was more like a motel...but it was fine for the night. They had a nice seafood restaurant in the hotel called Shuckers. Unfortunately, in a nasty turn of events, I was up all night very sick...I thought maybe it was food poisoning, ultimately it turned out that I appear to have developed an allergy to shrimp! Late onset food allergies is the story of my life lately, the list grows longer avacado, grapes, bananas, melons and now shrimp.

 

[nickiford]

We did have a nice waterfront view from the hotel. And the next morning in the distance we discovered we could see whale tails!

 

 

 

The hotel had a shuttle that you could take for $10 per person, that seemed like a pretty good deal to me so I went to the front desk to arrange it. He said the first shuttle available was at noon and I said I didn't want to wait that long. We had FTTF and I planned on leaving around 10:00, he tried to argue with me that there was no point in getting there that early...but I knew better :-)!

 

I asked them to please arrange a van taxi to come for 10:00 as we had large suitcases and wanted to make sure we had room. It was about a 15 minute ride to the port.

 

Waiting for the shuttle

 

 

When we exited the shuttle, we gave our luggage to the porters and gave him $5 per bag and made sure that he knew that we were FTTF.

 

We walked down and there was no one at all at the security check. We breezed through there and then encountered at fairly long line at the check in. We were escorted right to the front and were given our S&S cards, whole process 5 minutes. We were given a priority boarding card and took a seat. We waited for about 30 minutes and then they called for priority boarding. I was expected them to call VIP and then weddings and then FTTF, but they didn't they just called anyway with a Priority card so off we went. We were on the ship by 11:30.

[nickiford]

After we boarded we went right down to our room on the 2nd deck which was ready. It was our first oceanview room and we quite like it. The couch was already made up into a bed for our mom. Luggage wasn't there yet, so we dropped our carry ons and decided to go for a bit of a wander and have some lunch. I had the buffet salad and fish, my sister went right for the Burrito bar and said it was delicious.

 

Goofing around the ship

 

 

Me in the Oceanview Window

 

 

After lunch we went back to our room and luggage was there and we got unpacked. For me, this is when vacation begins...one of the biggest reasons we decided to get the FTTF. We met Imade our room steward and asked for a few extra pillows and that we would want ice daily.

 

We went for muster, it was quick and painless. We then went up to Serenity for sailaway. It was pretty sailing our of Miami, we saw Star Island where Rosie lives and a wedding on the beach.

 

Sailaway

 

 

 

 

[TakeMeAway1001]

Great start ~ Thanks for doing a review :)

[Sundiego]

Love reviews with pictures! And the pic of your sister with the chess piece is hysterical. Waiting for more!

[nickiford]

More sailaway

We had reservations for the Steakhouse this night to celebrate vacation and to get the free bottle of wine. We decided to go with the white, it was a Santa Carolina Chardonnay and it wasn’t half bad.

 

The steakhouse was soooo delicious. I don’t think I have any food porn from this trip. But the amuse bouche was a chiled tomato soup and a lobster roll. The bread was to die for. I had chicked, everyone else had steak, the spinach salad was good as well as the Caesar. We had the crab cake and the escargot

as appetizers and finished off with the dessert sampler. We were so impressed.

 

Mom and I at the Steakhouse

Steakhouse

[nickiford]

After that we went and wandered around the shops and then went to the Welcome Aboard show. It was the first time I’ve seen this show were they didn’t have the blow up ship and the dancers. This is our first meeting with Karl with a K and he was great! He did this whole singing bit impersonating people and he was very talented.

Theatre

After that we were exhausted and just went to bed.

Night 1 – Towel Vajayjay

 

The next morning was to be our Half Moon Cay day. We were originally not planning to get off the ship this day. We are not beach people, I would much rather stay on the ship but my sister really wanted to get her hair braided so I had said I would get off with her for a bit so she could do that.

 

It was a nice sunny day but when we went down for breakfast I noticed that the seas seemed really rocky and the swells seemed quite high. Breakfast was so good, I had been waiting a whole year for eggs benny and those delicious little has browns. We could see HMC in the window and then all of a sudden it was gone, and I thought, oh, they must be turning the ship around, and then we would see it again. ..and that’s when I realized…they can’t anchor, we are not going to be stopping here today!

 

Just minutes later we hear the captain, and sure enough they were going to have to cancel. The winds and swells were too powerful to tender safely. No big deal for us, but I thought of all of the people waiting in the theatre all ready to go that would now be making a mad dash for the best sea day chairs. I turned to my sister and I said GO!, run back to the room and get our stuff and head for Serenity Mom and I would meet you up there in a minute. We left the dining room and 15 minutes later were getting settled in to our perfect sea day spots and within minutes it seemed like there was not a chair to be found. We really lucked out this day.

 

 

I really try to avoid the sun so I love being under these rafters on the serenity.

 

Side story – I have been dreaming for a year of a Mocha Chocolate Getaway. Sailaway tried to get one on the pool deck, no can do, no ice cream mix. Tried to get one later that night in the lobby…same story, no ice cream mix. I thought to myself, I’m going to lose it if I can’t get a MCG this whole cruise. But then, my sister went to get drinks around lunch and lo and behold….my dreams came true.

On this first sea day, everyone seemed to be indulging quite a bit. These were some fun people that were next to us, the one fellow had quite a bit to drink, but very good natured. He kept calling my Mom, Mom and making sure that she was looking after us. A fun afternoon.

[inlinesick]

love your review, cant wait to see her!!!

[Jeansfanatic]

Yay!!! Another great review!!! Can't wait to read more!!!!! 😆😃😄

[beans79]

Great review! I will be on the Liberty in 6 more days!!!! :D

 

I bet it was nice to get away from the cold. I can't wait. I live in Upstate NY and we still have not even had a spring. Rain, snow, and cold!

[cruisinsly]

Cant wait for the rest. We are going in a month!

[michelle1836]

love the pictures! Sailing on the Liberty in July

[skittl1321]

I LOVE sitting in the oceanview windows. I think it is as cozy as a balcony, but less windy :)

 

Can't wait to read the rest of the review. (Does anyone know what the towel vagina is supposed to be? We've never figured it out.)

[DJ56]

Keep the review coming!! Sail the Liberty in 6 days!!

[nickiford]

I LOVE sitting in the oceanview windows. I think it is as cozy as a balcony, but less windy :)

 

Can't wait to read the rest of the review. (Does anyone know what the towel vagina is supposed to be? We've never figured it out.)

 

I've heard maybe a walrus or a seal...

[nickiford]

Keep the review coming!! Sail the Liberty in 6 days!!

 

I will try and finish for you before you leave, next updates will probably be Tuesday. So jealous you get to go in 6 days!!!

[nickiford]

Great review! I will be on the Liberty in 6 more days!!!! :D

 

I bet it was nice to get away from the cold. I can't wait. I live in Upstate NY and we still have not even had a spring. Rain, snow, and cold!

 

love the pictures! Sailing on the Liberty in July

 

Thanks! I'm completely obsessed with reading trip reports so I really feel like I want to give back and do one of my own.

[LynnAnne]

We were on the same cruise. I think I remember you guys and you getting the chocolate drink. It looked so good that I got one later on the cruise and loved it!

[Chileancruiser]

Hooked can't wait to read more.

[stefyo]

LOVE your review so far!!

[fouremmetts]

"I was up all night very sick...I thought maybe it was food poisoning, ultimately it turned out that I appear to have developed an allergy to shrimp! Late onset food allergies is the story of my life lately, the list grows longer avacado, grapes, bananas, melons and now shrimp."

 

I feel for you. I developed tons of allergies about 3 years ago - soy, avocado, all shellfish and fish, cucumbers...... Hub WILL NOT grocery shop anymore since soy is in EVERYTHING! I always email ahead for vacations and everyone is SO accomodating. They tell me what I can and can't have. The best was last year, the chef at the Disney character breakfast personally came out and guided me around the buffet. He then went and made me a Mickey "gluten-free, soy-free" waffle! Yummy! You will sort of get used to it.

 

I love your review so far and am going on her for our 1st B2B end of November!

[nickiford]

We were on the same cruise. I think I remember you guys and you getting the chocolate drink. It looked so good that I got one later on the cruise and loved it!

 

That's so cool! Boy, I love that drink. I've tried to re-create it at home but it's never quite the same.

[nickiford]

That night we went to the dining room for supper. Probably the worst meal of the whole trip. We all just made poor choices, food wasn’t that great, we weren’t all that hungry from drinking all day. We had some wine, I wasn’t feeling all that well so I went up to the room for the night. My sister and mom went to go see a comedian, they said he was hilarious. The gambled a bit, went up to lido to check out the party had some pizza, which was good and then came to bed. They didn’t have the camera, so no pics.

Towel Animal – Dog?

The next day was a planned sea day. We were up early to score our good seats on Serenity but it was closed due to high winds. We then went to the Adult Lido pool but they had the roof closed and it was really stuffy and hot and crowed in there. There were tons of chair hogs, but we also watched security take their stuff and then watched the people when they came back to find their stuff gone…pretty entertaining lol. They finally opened the roof and it was much nicer. You could see the people on the deck above looking like they were getting blown away.

 

We hung out there for awhile and then went and had a Guys burger for lunch, so good! We then went to the wine pairing in the steakhouse. I think I forgot to mention that the night that we ate at the Steakhouse we met the sommelier Marco. He was quite a character. He and my sister had quite a conversation about red wine. We walked into the tasting and he recognized us and said “Hey Red Wine” to my sister. It was pretty funny. We really enjoyed the tasting, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Marco

 

Another side note is about drink coupons. We purchased the coupons as we have in the past well in advance of our cruise. Before they decided to discontinue them. We realized that we were not going to have the coupons and instead just a credit. We were fine with that. We kind of liked seeing all of the drinks charged at zero… until we ran out. Also, I can confirm that if you purchase the wine package you can use your credit towards it, you can also use your credit for the wine tasting.

[Momma1980]

Goofing around the ship

 

 

 

Hi! Love this pic of your mom and sis happy and having fun!

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Thanks for posting:)