Give me Liberty AND give me a fantastic family vacation- trip report 4/1-4/4

[caryatid]

Following. I will be sailing on her 4/28/2019 for my 45th birthday with my DH and our BFFs. This will be my 5th cruise and the 1st for everyone else. Waiting to see their faces when they see her for the 1st time.

 

Cant wait to read more!!

 

I'm sure your traveling party will be blown away, I was really impressed with the decor of the Liberty!

 

We are going on a Girl's Fun Cruise towards the end of May on the Liberty and am really enjoying reading your trip report. Cypress Gardens was a favorite of my Mom's and I used to enjoy the water ski shows they had back in the day when I was a kid. Looking forward to reading more!!

 

A girls cruise sounds like fun! I also have found memories of Cypress Gardens from back in the 80s. My grandparents lived in Deltona, FL, so as a kid I spent all my summers down there and we visited almost every attraction in the Central Florida area. I especially loved the southern belles they used to have all dressed up!

[caryatid]

I understand your jealousy with doing a Disney cruise. I haven't taken one but every time I sail from Port Canaveral I wish I was getting off at the Disney World exit.

 

Me too! I really miss living in Florida, when going to Disney was a simple weekend trip and we could get the Florida resident discounts!

 

Loving the review & pictures so far! We are boarding this Sunday the 15th so very excited!

 

Your cruise is almost here, yippee!

[caryatid]

Day 1- Port Canaveral cont

First order of business- lunch time! I mean, it had been at least two hours sincebreakfast and I had only eaten a breakfast sandwich and two chocolatecroissants, so of course I was starving, lol! We joined the masses in Emiles buffet and quickly found a table. In the future I would have kept walking tothe back side of the buffet, because it was much less crowded and quieter.

 

 

 

 

Its a little more crowded over here

 

 

I took both boys to get food while Mark helddown our table and babysat the carryons. Foster found plenty of fruit and cheese and Everett got some pizza. Ihadn’t been on a conquest class ship before, and I have a defective sense ofdirection under the best of circumstances, but my eagle-eyed Everett saw thesign for pizza pirate through the door and luckily the line wasn’t that longyet. Apparently I wasn’t the only onewho hadn’t figured out how to get there, but our luck didn’t last. The pizza line was insane for the entirecruise, way worse than I ever saw on our Oct cruise on the Ecstasy.

 

 

 

 

a boy and his pizza

 

We headed back to the table and switched out, I sat with thekids and Mark went to go get both of us Guy’s burgers. I also flagged down the roving waitstaff toget my first drink of the cruise (I think) a Funship special. The drink started out with an umbrella andorange slice and cherry, but one kid wanted the fruit and the other wanted theumbrella, so my drink went from fancy to naked before I got a chance to snap apicture.

We sat around, ate, and just enjoyed the first moments ofvacation, those moments when you can just bask in all the fun that lies aheadof you.

 

 

 

 

a naked funship special

 

 

After we finished up lunch, we headed out to the Lido forsome pool time, and here is where things went a little sideways. The pool was very cold which really disappointedEverett, and he started to get a little upset. Everett has some issues with anxiety, and while you and I canunderstand that the pool will warm upover the course of the cruise, it is easy for him to enter a spiral in his headwhere it seems like he is going to miss out on something that he was very muchlooking forward to. I tried distractinghim with the hot tub and explaining to him that the pool would warm up (or theweather would), but he was having a hard time. He did take a quick dip in the hot tub, and luckily it was time for ourrooms to be ready, so I was able to take him back and get him calmed down.

 

 

We had booked a porthole view room on deck two, room2220. It was a small step up from steerage,little by little we’ll get to those balcony rooms, haha. The portholes were fun and gave the room aquirky nautical feel that you wouldn’t get with a straight up ocean view, andthe room had a great layout.

 

 

 

 

Everett is still unhappy about the pool and Foster won't stop touching light switches- ahh vacation ;)

[caryatid]

Day 1- Port Canaveral Cont again

 

 

The room felt really spacious and was more than adequate for our needs. The room had the typical king bed configuration and then a couch bed and fold down bunk.

 

 

 

 

The room had plenty of storage and a mini fridge that worked tolerably well to keep our sodas cold. It was clean, everything was in working order and it was in good repair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was it as pretty as the Disney staterooms, nope, but it décor is not a make-it- or- break- it item for me. I really wish Carnival would switch to LED lights instead of compact fluorescent bulbs that take a minute to turn on, but that is really the only complaint I can even think to make.

 

 

I can’t remember our room stewards name (trip report fail #3), but he was always pleasant when we ran into him in the hallways, made towel animals every day, and did a fine job cleaning our room and even replacing our bathroom soap before it whittled down to mere nubbins. He did stop by with the dreaded service card, and I told him that we’d like morning service, but could he please put the bunk bed up in the morning and down at night. He did it every day without fail and it netted him a substantial extra tip at the end of the week.

 

 

After we met our (nameless) room steward and got out of our wet bathing suits the next order of business was to get the kids signed up for the kids club. We headed up there, but it was a little bit tricky, and “you can’t get there from here” pretty much summed up our adventures making it to floor 12. The elevators only go to floor 11 (and some not even that high), so we’d have to get off and then walk up the last flight. Many times I just got frustrated and walked up the whole thing, after all those desserts, I really could use the exercise anyway.

 

Camp ocean is located next to the Serenity Deck, which ended up being convenient for parents, but an overall odd placement. I’ll admit I had some trepidation taking the kids up there, I was afraid that they would be disappointed after spending time at the Disney Oceaneers club. There really is no comparison to Disney and everyone else when it comes to the kids club, they had a life-sized Millennium Falcon cockpit for crying out loud, I wanted to stay and play! Here is the thing about kids though, they don’t need all those bells and whistles to be happy, sometimes simpler is better. Both of my boys happily took to Camp Ocean and quickly found things to peak their interest. Everett found Monopoly, which he took out and immediately started playing with and Foster found a toy box full of plastic sea creatures and dinosaurs.

 

 

 

 

Foster happy as a clam with a plastic whale and an igloo

 

 



Checking the toybox for goodies

 

 



Toys and books

 

 

Both kids were happily entertained and I was able to get them all checked in, get the list of activities and chat with the camp counselors.

 

 

The counselors were very nice, seemed to genuinely enjoy being with the kids and ensured everyone had a good time. My boys, being 5 and 8 were in the penguins and the stingrays groups. They did ask me if I wanted to move Foster up to the stingrays, so he could be with Everett, but I declined. Sometimes it is better for the boys to have a little separation, I didn’t want them fighting with each other during camp.

 

 

One other thing that was different at Camp Ocean from Disney was that Camp Ocean didn’t really have any way to get in touch with the parents while the kids were at the club (they did have a few wave phones for kids with special needs). At first this worried me a little, but then I realized how awesome it was. Mark assured me that if one of the kids were gushing blood, that they would make an announcement over the ship, but anything else, the counselors could handle, that is what they are being paid for, which meant I could relax without checking my stupid wave phone constantly. It was freedom and it was delightful!

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[weluvcruising9804]

I'm enjoying reading your review. We are going on the 4-day cruise on the Liberty in June.

[runningmoms2girls]

Thanks for the great review! I'm sailing Carnival for the first time on the Liberty in January for our Mother/Daughter cruise.

[rs45thompson]

Following

 

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[MrsKC08]

Day 1-3 continued

 

 

 

First, let me just say thank you for your report. I'm doing a short girls cruise on the Liberty next month and the reviews have been few and far between. I genuinely appreciate you taking the time out from your mom life to do this report.

 

Secondly, your boys are precious!

 

However, as a former Florida resident who lived in central Florida for over 27 years, this photo makes me extremely sad. I remember the beauty of Cypress Gardens and spent a lot of time there over the years. I miss it terribly.

[caryatid]

Thanks for the report.

 

Thank you for reading along! :D

 

I'm enjoying reading your review. We are going on the 4-day cruise on the Liberty in June.

 

I know you will have a great time!

[caryatid]

Thanks for the great review! I'm sailing Carnival for the first time on the Liberty in January for our Mother/Daughter cruise.

 

A mother/daugher cruise sounds like fun, maybe one day I can convince my mother to do one!

 

Following

 

Sent from my SM-G935V using Forums mobile app

 

Thanks for reading!

[caryatid]

First, let me just say thank you for your report. I'm doing a short girls cruise on the Liberty next month and the reviews have been few and far between. I genuinely appreciate you taking the time out from your mom life to do this report.

 

Secondly, your boys are precious!

 

However, as a former Florida resident who lived in central Florida for over 27 years, this photo makes me extremely sad. I remember the beauty of Cypress Gardens and spent a lot of time there over the years. I miss it terribly.

 

Thank you for reading along and I completely understand how you feel about Cypress gardens! I have such fond memories of going there with my grandparents (and Silver Springs and Weeki Wachee), I love "Old Florida". I do feel like Legoland did a good job of preserving the spirit of Cypress Gardens, they still have water ski shows and they preserved a whole area of the old gardens, including the Greek temple looking thing. Its not exactly the same, but at least they didn't ruin all of that old charm.

[caryatid]

Day 1- Port Canaveral- again

 

 

After our introduction to Camp Ocean it was time for our muster drill, this is another time when things went off the rails a little. Everett’s anxiety can really be triggered by sensory stimulation, like sound, close crowds of people and tactile sensations. Unfortunately muster on the Liberty includes all three and in retrospect if we sail another conquest class ship (all of them have the outdoor muster, right?) I’m going to see if we can get Everett into the special needs muster.

 

 

The muster alarm really set him off, and then we were stuck in a crush of people getting up to the muster and standing in line at the deck,and then they had to come and put a scratchy, weird-feeling wrist band on him. He started to get really upset, trying to pull his wristband off and saying over and over again that he didn’t want to be here, that he wanted to get off the ship, that he wanted to go home. He wasn’t being very loud, but it was obvious to everyone around us that he was spiraling and we were definitely getting some stares and whispers.

 

 

I was pretty upset myself, and really second guessing myself over whether I had made the right decision to take him on the cruise, even though I logically knew that it was just anxiety and difficulty with transitions and that the next day Everett would be loving it and having a wonderful time. I thought that the whole muster drill was pretty useless, since we were so far back I couldn’t really see anything, and the speakers were really muffled so I couldn’t really hear anything either. I don’t understand why they do the muster drill that way, when we cruised on the Ecstasy in Oct we mustered in the theater, where it was really easy to hear and see and then we were taken to our lifeboat area. If there was a real emergency on the Liberty no one would know what to do and we’d all be in big trouble!

 

 

After the disastrous muster drill we headed back to our room to try and get everyone calmed down and to take the time to unpack and regroup. We took a little break, the kids watched sail away from our portholes (they loved being able to sit up there, Foster even wanted to sleep up there!).

 

portholes were a big hit

 

 

The kids watched a little TV and I was really happy to see that there were two “kid”cartoon channels, Cartoon Network and Boomerang, even though the rest of the cable package was really limited. My kids mostly watched Boomerang when we were in the room (Cartoon network can get pretty adult), and they got a kick out of the commercials being in Spanish.

 

 

After we got settled in, Everett was still a little out of sorts, and he had a challenging rest of the evening, where just about any little thing would set him off. We managed and still had some fun, especially Foster who was just thrilled about every little thing he encountered on the ship. We took the kids out to do some exploring, and I wanted to get their bottomless bubbles packages set up, so we headed down to the Flowers bar in the lobby.

 

 

The kids were mesmerized by the glass elevators and asked if we could ride them up and down, and I decided “what the heck- it’s their vacation too”, so we got in the elevator and rode all the way up to the top,got off, and then rode all the way down to the bottom. The kids loved the view and were enthralled by the color changing lights. I have to admit, I was dazzled too, the Liberty is one pretty ship!

 

 

The infamous glass elevators

 

 

The color changing chandelier was just beautiful

 

 

When we were going back down I told the boys that when we got to the bottom, we’d get off and go get a soda, so when the elevator doors opened,Mark, Foster and I exited, and I thought Everett was right behind me. Well, I turned around just in time to see the elevator doors close with Everett still trapped on the inside. At this point I started to panic and was yelling, “stay in the elevator, don’t get out!”, but I don’t think he heard meat all.

 

 

 

My DH sprinted up the stairs to go see if he could find him,and I knew that I should stay where I was in case he came back down. At this point I was alternating between pacing back and forth and yelling up the elevator shaft and wondering if I should stay put or sprint off to find help, when who should come sauntering down the staircase- Everett! He very calmly told me that he just got off at the next stop, which was floor 5, and he remembered that I was on floor two, so he knew that he just had to walk down three flights of stairs. I couldn’t believe how calm he was and I was incredibly proud of how level headed and logical he was and I never was more thankful that separation was never one of his anxiety triggers!

 

 

We then all walked up a flight or two of stairs until we found my husband, (who had huffed it all the way to the top deck!), and he and I decided it was definitely time for a drink! We went back down to the Flowers lobby bar, got ourselves some drinks, got the kids their sodas, and took a seat.

 

 

Look, Mom, I was just stuck in that elevator!

 

 

I was just sitting around, enjoying the atmosphere when I happened to overhear a very interesting conversation going on behind me. Apparently there was a gentleman and a lady (there fellow cabin mates were not present) who were trying with all their might to convince some poor carnival customer service person that they absolutely needed to be upgraded from their inside room.

 

 

The gentleman was going on and on about how no adult could fit in the top bunks, and that they were victims of deceptive advertising, and that no four adults could ever stay in that room for four nights (that I do kinda agree with him on), that they should upgrade him, that he provides free advertising with his podcast, and on and on and on. This guy and gal were laying it on thick, and at once point in their conversation they mentioned that they had been talking to Carnival employees for the past 5 (!!!) hours.

 

 

I never did find out what happened to that poor, disenfranchised traveling party and I still am curious if the Carnival staff ever caved to their demands, because at point the string trio started up and the hapless cruisers took their lamentations elsewhere.

 

 

I loved these guys!

 

I really loved the string trio, who’s name I don’t remember,(trip report fail #4) and we made a point to stop and listen to them many times throughout the cruise. They were incredibly talented and versatile and were my favorite live music on this ship. We listened for a few songs until it was time to go and get changed for dinner at which point we headed back to the cabin to get dressed up.

Edited April 11, 2018 by caryatid

[caryatid]

This is where I will admit that my kids openly broke the dining room dress code and went in shorts. I did make my husband wear pants and I dressed up, but we were some of the few. I don’t care about dress code,but it seems to pop up constantly on the boards, so I’d figure I’d mention it(and make amends) because it seems to matter to some people. There were always a few nicely dressed individuals, but for the most part (even on formal night) it was shorts and t-shirts all around.

 

 

 

 

We did the early dining rotation in the Silver Olympian dining room and lucked out into a really nice booth. We were close enough to see all the action in the middle, but we could also see out the windows to the ocean. We’ve only done Fantasy class ships before,so I was impressed with the size and scope of the dining room. I also thought that the décor was a little over the top, but that made it fun.

 

 

 

 

We had a really great waitstaff, who’s names I’ve also forgotten (trip report fail #5). They were attentive and speedy with the courses, and I was completely satisfied with my dining room experience. I was especially happy that they ran things so smoothly on this first night, because we had the kids with us, and they don’t usually do long drawn out meals.

 

 

This first night was the only night that we brought the kids with us to the dining room, the other nights they ate at the kids club, which I think is a HUGE perk of Carnival. On the Disney ship, they didn’t have that option and the kids had to eat with us each night, which had it challenges. Being able to drop off the kids and know that they were enjoying food that they liked in a laid back atmosphere was priceless.

 

 

Kid’s dining started at 6 pm (the same time as our dinnertime), so I would go and check the kids in at kids dinner, and Mark would go get seated at our table in the dining room, which worked out with no problems. The only issue I ran into was figuring out my way back to the dining room from kids dinner (the kids ate upstairs at Emiles where the barbeque place is located), I went on a virtual walkabout across the ship trying to find my way back, until the third day when I discovered that I could take the closest elevators to kids dinner, and they would take me right down to the dining room. Like I said, I’m not the best with directions, haha.

 

I found the food at dinner to be fine, tasty, warm, but really nothing to rave about, (with the exception of one dish I’ll talk about later). It was the same menu and really the same overall as we experienced on the Ecstasy. It was all solidly good,which is about what I expect from a cruise ship, so I was pleased.

 

 

This first night I ordered the calamari appetizer, the Caesar salad (not pictured) and the braised beef, the kids both had a hot dog and I have no idea what my husband ate because “taking pictures of food is stupid”. What I really should of done was take pictures of the menu, but I didn’t think about that at the time (trip report fail #6).

 

 

 

calamari

 

 



Braised beef (minus one bite)

 

 



Kids hot dog

 

 

 

[caryatid]

We ended up skipping dessert because the kids really wantedto take part in a special Easter Egg hunt that the kids club was putting on atthat evening. We took our leave andheaded back up to Camp Ocean to get our map and our baskets.

 

 

Foster with his basket and goodies

 

The kids club team did a really nice job, and I was reallyimpressed that they were able to pull together something so nice forEaster. Each of the kids were given awicker basket and then a map to follow to the treat locations. I guess it was a little more like trick ortreating than an egg hunt, but since I’m so directionally challenged, findingall the stops was certainly a hunt for me. The staff handed out a decent amount and variety of candy, includingchocolates, twizzlers, Swedish fish, nerds, etc. and my kids were thrilled.

 

 

The hunt ended at the nightclub, where the Camp Ocean staffhad a dance party with Easter cakes and cookies.

 

 

 

 

Everett was still out of sorts, so he didn’twant anything to do with loud music, so I ended up taking him back to the cabinearly, but Foster stayed a little longer and showed off his best moves on thedance floor.

Back at the room we had our first towel animal of the cruise“octy” and we got the boys into bed to finish up our first cruise day. I didn’t want anyone up to late because wehad a big day of adventure ahead in Nassau!

 

 

 

Foster (not so) ready for bed!

[Florida Glamazon]

Nicely written, and so kind of you to take the time to give us a glimpse of the cruise. You and your family are lovely and I hope you have many more fun cruises to show us :)

[caryatid]

Nicely written, and so kind of you to take the time to give us a glimpse of the cruise. You and your family are lovely and I hope you have many more fun cruises to show us :)

 

Thank you so much for your kind words and for reading along! I've caught the cruising bug hard, so I'm sure we'll be taking many more! We've got one already booked for Dec, and then I'm still trying to decide if we will do spring break next year again or next summer.

[caryatid]

Day 2- Nassau

 

 

Everyone was up bright and early in anticipation for a funbeach day at Nassau. The kids lovedsitting in the porthole nook to watch us pull in!

 

 

even Octy is watching us pull in

 

 

We headed up to the buffet for a quickbreakfast and we were off the ship in record time.

 

 

Everett is impressed with our ship!

 

 

This was my 4th visit to Nassau and our kids 2nd. On our Disney cruise in June, we docked inNassau, but didn’t get off the ship, so this would be the kids real first timethere. Mark and I have visited thepirate museum and straw market and did a resort day at Breezes last Oct. We had such a nice time at Breezes wedecided to try another resort day for this cruise and booked a pass at theBritish Colonial Hilton through Resort for a Day.

 

 

The pass was $79 per adult and included a $40 food andbeverage credit and was $39 for Everett with a $20 food and beveragecredit. Children 5 and under are free,so Foster was free. We purchased the pass on-line and paid a small deposit, and then paidthe balance at the check in desk for the hotel when we arrived. I was a little nervous paying a third partywebsite to book a day at a resort, but the company had gotten good reviews onCruise Critic, and I’m happy to say that everything ran smoothly and we had noproblems.

 

 

Everett was also feeling much better this morning and wassuper excited for a day at the beach. Hewasn’t exactly pleased with delays for picture taking and checking in.

 

 

 

 

picture taking was not on Everett's agenda

 

 

The Carnival Liberty

 

 

It was a very easy walk from the cruise ship to the hotel,you walk all the way down the pier to the port exit, and then take a right,walk all the way down to Senior Frogs, follow the street around to the front ofSenior Frogs and walk a little ways to the entrance to the hotel.

 

 

Once inside the hotel we just checked in with the frontdesk, received our wrist bands, and we were set to go!

 

 

Waiting patiently in the lobby

 

 

The lobby was very pretty

[caryatid]

Day 2- Nassau cont

 

There were a decent number of people checking in for day passes when we arrived, the Disney Wonder and a Royal Caribbean ship were in port with us that day. Throughout the day I noticed most of the guests we encountered around the beach and pool were wearing wrist bands, so I think they do a lot of business with day guests. The hotel facilities never felt crowded though, there were plenty of loungers (although shade was at a premium), and plenty of space at the pool and beach.

 

 

The hotel itself was very pretty, the grounds and facilitieswere well kept and the beach and pool were nice.

 

 

 

These hammocks looked super comfy!

 

The kids wanted to go right to the beach, so we headed there first, setting up and then setting them loose. The water was cool, but not too cold (even for me!), but my kids were mostly interested in the sand. We brought a bag of sand toys, but there is a large box of sand toys at the hotel,so in the future we’ll probably not bring them along.

 

 

Foster headed into the water

 

 

The beach is really close to the port, but the water isn’t gross or dirty, the beach area isn’t huge, but it was just fine for us.

 

 

Cruise ships from the beach

 

 

Beautiful blue water

 

 

great beach for kids

 

 

The one negative was all the glass that my kids found, granted they were digging in the sand, but Foster and Everett easily brought me a dozen pieces of broken glass over the course of the day,that I quickly deposited in the trash can. If you are going to visit the British Colonial Hilton with young kids, I’d suggest warning them about the glass and also bringing water shoes.

 

 

let the building begin

[caryatid]

We spent most of the morning at the beach, I did some reading, some relaxing and just watching the incredible business of two boys at the beach. SO many holes were dug, SO many castles built, SO many buckets of water carried! These boys went non-stop for HOURS.

 

 

 

 

We even encountered a rare sand monster

 

 

 

sand monster emerges

 

 

sand monster attacks!

 

 

There was a roving waitstaff that would take orders and bring you food and drinks, and while the lady that came by was very sweet and pleasant, it took her FOREVER to bring anything back. It took us almost an hour to get drinks and then another hour to get lunch. We weren’t in a super rush or anything, but if you are going to spend the day there and are looking for faster service, I’d just cut out the middle-man and go straight to the bar.

 

 

pic of hotel from the beach

 

 

We used our food credits to order waters, two drinks, two sandwiches, and a hotdog, and we had a little left over. The mixed drinks were in the $9-10 and the sandwiches were between $17-20. I really should have taken a picture of the menu (trip report fail #7). I thought that the food was overall really good, I had the pulled pork, which came with thick French fries and a delicious three-bean salad, and Mark had a grilled chicken sandwich with the same sides and the kids split a hotdog with fries.

Everett and the Liberty

[caryatid]

After lunch we decided to try out the pool, which was very pretty and refreshing. The pool is deep at one end and they don’t have any life vests available for kids, so plan accordingly. Both boys had a blast at the pool, and I even had the chance to use the underwater feature of my camera!

 

 

 

Foster in the pool

 

 

Underwater Everett

 

 

Underwater Foster

 

 

Pool and bar/restaurant

 

 

Everett and Foster in the pool

[caryatid]

When the kids got tired of the pool we headed back to the beach for a little more fun, and then wrapped up the day around 3 pm. Neither of my kids wanted to leave and Everett was already planning a future in Nassau, telling me he was going to live there when he grew up.

 

 

 

Me at the Beach

 

 

The boys and the Great Wall

 

 

Foster hard at work

 

 

The finished product

 

 

 

[caryatid]

It was a great day and a perfect way to enjoy Nassau. It was a great excursion with kids because it didn’t involve transportation. I’m a stickler about car seat safety, and if there is no way I’d put my kids in a car without a car seat in the US, there is no way I’m going to do it in Nassau. I’m planning on avoiding taxis until my kids are big enough to ride with just seat belts, so being able to walk to the British Colonial Hilton was a big plus. I’m sure we’ll be doing it again in the future, it was the perfect laid back and quiet beach day, there was no booming music, no one was harassing us on the beach and I think the price is reasonable, at least on par with a carnival excursion.

 

 

That night was formal night, so we headed back to get dressed up and ready for dinner. Usually the kids club closed between 5-6 to get ready for dinner, but since the ship was in port until 5:30, they stayed open. This was really nice because we were able to drop the kids off early(knowing that the club staff would take them to dinner at 6) and we were able to enjoy a pre-dinner drink at the Alchemy Bar.

 

 

 

 

Since I had just turned 40 in Feb, I had to try a “40 is the new 20” and Mark had a perfect storm (his favorite from our last cruise). Both of our drinks were excellent and it was nice being able to sit back and relax before dinner.

 

 

 

 

The dinning room was pretty empty this evening, the one-two punch of formal night and late port departure meant fewer guests. We blew through dinner in record time, I think we were in and out in 45 minutes!

 

The food was good, I enjoyed my shrimp cocktail and blue crab ravioli. I had the crème brulee for dessert, with was just OK. Its really tough to mass produce good crème brulee, and this one had just been sitting for too long.

 

 

 

shrimp cocktail

 

 

blue crab ravioli

 

 

After dinner we wandered the ship a bit, I loved all the artwork in the stairwells, especially the pastoral scenes with the birds. I would hang a picture like this in my house!

 

 

 

 

We ended up in the Venetian lounge to catch Flick. I’d heard really mixed reviews of this show and I was interested to see it for myself. We got a decent seat in the balcony and sat through the preshow (don’t bother) and then the main event.

 

 

 

 

I was not a big fan of Flick, I thought that the music was rather tired, and that the performers didn’t have the vocal abilities to really do justice to some of the songs. The premise was interesting, and I thought that some of the effects were creative,but I think they tried a little too hard to appeal to everyone. Throughout the show my husband kept whispering to me “they are going to do Top Gun, I know it, it’s going to happen”(he was a Navy Pilot for 11 years), and when they started in on “Take my breath away” there was just no living with him.

 

 

The ending of the performance was particularly disjointed,and I think the show would have been better overall if they kept it to 30 minutes and then used music from legit classics (Over the Rainbow was good as was the John Williams tribute) and songs from more recent movies (they also did a nice job with the James Bond movie) and cut out all of the smaltz. I think I speak for everyone when I say that no one ever needs to sing the song from Titanic ever, ever, again (the same goes for “Take my Breath Away”).

 

 

After that 45 minutes of my life I was never getting back again, we went up to retrieve the kiddos from Camp Carnival and took them to go and get ice cream. The kids enjoyed camp and apparently did really well, so that was a relief. They were also pretty exhausted from their big day at the beach, and there was another big beach day at Princess Cay tomorrow!

 

 

I was pretty tired and had gotten sunburn in a few patches where I missed the sunscreen, so I went to bed with the kids while Mark went out to try the piano bar. We really enjoyed the piano bar on the Ecstasy, but Mark said that this one wasn’t as good. The singer’s voice was going and there wasn’t much of a crowd. Oh well,maybe next cruise!

[momof4girls]

We did the same thing in Nassau with our girls in October. They loved it! I have a child that tends to have "meltdowns" so I'm familiar with the "looks and whispers". I was terrified when we took our first cruise, but thankfully, most people just looked the other way.

 

Weird question, but where did you get your sunglasses? They're adorable!

 

ETA: Just saw you said that you turned 40. You look much younger! Would never have guessed...

[siestakeys04]

I had that blue crab ravioli on my Valor sailing and I didn't like it at all. It looked good but it didn't have much flavor to me. Did you like it?