Liberty Review from the 4th of July

[shelby_36]

We arrived at the port of Miami at 11am. We stayed 2 nights at the Hilton Beach Resort prior to reaching the port. There were short lines and we boarded relatively quickly. We couldn't get in our rooms yet so we headed to the WJ. Nothing spectacular- regular WJ food. I did try the Honey stung chicken and it was very good. The dining room was very uncrowded at this time.

 

Overall the WJ seemed to be run fairly efficiently. They were keeping tables cleared and even on the really busy mornings it only took 5 minutes or so to find a table. On Navigator I remember eating standing up.

We ate in the dining room for breakfast several times. I was surprised on the one port day they had a minibuffet in the DR. All of the staff in the dining rooms were fantastic. We ate in the MDR every night but formal nights. We had limited luggage space and decided to bypass formal night for the first time. One night we ate in Portofinos and the other at Johnny Rockets. Great at both.

 

We had a balcony cabin and our boys had a promanade stateroom (deck 7) Both rooms were bigger than we expected. We were happy even though it was a step down from our last 2 suites. The room steward was a ltitle more underfoot this time around. He wasn't as invisible as past cruises and several times we couldn't get back into our rooms when we wanted to. Not sure if he just hadn't figured out the whole scheme of dining schedules or if he just had alot more rooms. We had one major issue but we never mentioned it so it was probably partially our fault. Not sure what they could have done as it was a fully booked cruise. The first day our daughter had to sleep on the pulldown bed (we thought she was getting a sofabed) anyway she had some massive allergic reaction in her eyes. Then she had an asthma attack. She ended up sleeping with us (uncomforable) for health reasons. By the end of the cruise 4 of the 5 of us had respiratory problems. Not sure what it was, but some of us are still congested.

 

The deck patrol was well seen although I only saw one remove towels. by 9 am on sea days every chair was covered with something and only 10% actually had people at them. I sat one morning and read a book for 3 hours and saw many many "taken" chairs never touched. Its a shame.

 

My son did flowrider but didn't like it much , he stood in line for quite a while fell on his first attempt and was told to go back in line. He gave up and didn't go back.

 

The pools were fantastic. They had 2 general pools and hottubs, then the kids water "park" thing with pools,(my daughter LIVED here) and then the solarium for adults with pools and hottubs. THe only problem we had here was one night all the pools closed early for cleaning except for the adult pools so my son had thought he had seen somewhere kids could go in if an adult was with them (which later I found out not to be true)so I let my daughter go in the pool with me (9 yrs old) I told her she needed to be quite and relax that it wasn't a playing pool. No one else was there. A pool attendent came up and told her she had to leave. So we left and went to the other pool the next night.

 

Fast forward to the next night when we stayed in the now open regular pool. There were kids (11-12 yrs) BACKFLIPPING from a standing position in the hot tubs into the pool itself (with people in that pool) Many times. I went to the pool attendant and alerted him to the very dangerous situation. The kids had no adults around. I moved my kids to the other general pool and he did nothing about it. I think if the pool attendants are policing pools they should do it to all of them .

 

My daughter participated in Adventure Ocean several times and loved the staff and activites. They had to call for us to pick her up one night because of her asthma.

 

Ports- San Juan was great- like others wished the time was longer we only got the tip of the iceberg. We went on a horse and carriage ride through town and then walked to the other fort.

 

St Marteen we went to Orient beach and enjoyed a day in the sun.

 

Labadee was really nice. My daughter still wasn't feeling well and went back with hubby to the ship. My boys and I wandered around and went to the market. Very aggressive. Bought a few things but was disappointed that not many were locally made.

 

The weather the whole time was excellent, you wouldn't have known we were on a ship. I think other than the few little problems we had the only other complaint I had was that it amazed me how many people were on the ship that thought they were there alone. Very pushy and not very considerate of those around them. They would be walking along and just stop. A whole group and talk or whatever like slamming on your brakes on the highway.

 

I think next time I will opt of a smaller ship the larger ship didn't offer much new other than more people and a larger price.

 

Overall a great vacation.

 

Editted to say we did get Platinum C&A gifts. The canvas tote bags. and the kids got smaller blue ones. I wasn't expecting anything so I was pleased. No choclate though- daughter caught that one.

[KnATL]

We were on your cruise as well.

When you went to Orient Beach, were you on the side with all the umbrellas?

We took the 4x4 jeep excursion and were down the beach from that area.

Unfortunately, a gentlemen from our ship either drowned or had a heart attack in the water, when we arrived they were doing CPR, he died after a least 45 min of heroic measures from a RCI passenger, rescue and hospital staff. It was so sad.

 

on a lighter note, my daughter (13) was on the flow rider every second it was open, and loved it...she cried for two hours when we left to come home....

[shelby_36]

Wow! I had no idea that happened! The poor guy/family. I saw a young couple get off the ship at St Marteen with their luggage and passports not sure what their story was. They didn't look ill or upset.

 

We were at the "second" beach? The first one we drove past was the clothing optional and we were dropped at the next one. There were umbrellas and a BBQ place. We paid like $15 for the umbrella, 2 chairs, 2 rum punches, and a "bathroom pass" It was very nice and stayed almost all day- we left to go shopping for a while before heading back to the ship. Some of the "clothing optional" beach people carried over to our section which was mostly cruise ship passengers. My teenage boys got a kick out of it. Other than the old guy who was totally naked and must have walked up and down the beach 10 times.lol.

[MDCruizer]

We were on the ship the week before you guys and I have to tell you, the people on our ship acted the same way - like they were the only ones there. It became very annoying at times, people in the elevators were especially rude - coming in with big backpacks and backing into other people and not caring at all. There were 7 of us, youngest 17 and oldest 74 and we were all amazed at how other people act - no manners!!

 

You know my mom and myself both came home last week and got sick - she has bronchitis and I have a chest cough - two separate rooms at each ends of the ship - 8662 & 8554. Mom's room though did have the pullman bed that my 34 yr old niece slept on for one night and then asked the room steward to put the mattress on the floor. Hmmmmmm!

[shelby_36]

It makes me suspicious because my daughter has never had an asthma problem on a ship. It actually had been doing very well for almost a year now. Myself and my oldest son seldomly get sick- like once every 3-4 YEARS and all of us got the same bronchitis thing at the same time. Reminds me of when we go back to work at school and everyone gets respiratory gunk from the recirculated air.

[MDCruizer]

My daughter and her friend were in the room across the hall from us and mid week both were complaining of scratchy throat and stuffy noses. Maybe it does have something to do with the air. I for one will be glad to get rid of this darn cough though!

[KnATL]

We were on deck 7, my husband has bronchitis, started getting sick Sat pm. :(

They tested for H1N1, but was negative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(

[shelby_36]

We almost went and got checked for flu but it sprng up in my lungs so fast- I couldn't explain it other than venilation. No one had flu symptoms. It hit my daughter first and she was near the ceiling. interesting.

[KnATL]

Hmm, maybe there was another part of the family not on that beach, and they were getting off...as it would take several days to bring a body back to the US...strange thing though, the wife did not look too upset either... we assumed that was shock.

[shelby_36]

Hmm, maybe there was another part of the family not on that beach, and they were getting off...as it would take several days to bring a body back to the US...strange thing though, the wife did not look too upset either... we assumed that was shock.

 

 

We were also on 7