Vacationlover01

Check out other pharmacies. Sometimes, there are national backorders and no one can get a particular medication. Sometimes, it is strictly an individual store or chain who's supply has run dry.

By the way, our reservations were there, no problem. Having a great time!

That is a relief to hear. I'll take my email with me and just be confident in that. Thank you.

When I look at cruise planner I can view our reservation for the Dream Works breakfast and our excursions. But where it previously showed our dining reservation it states 0.

We sail tomorrow on LOS. I went to check all of our reservations tonight and it's showing completely blank for dining. We had specialty reservations for tomorrow and two other nights and the rest were for my time dining. I called RCI, but they are closed at this time. Please tell me this is a website issue and not that they've really lost our reservations. We made these reservations as soon as you were able to make reservations, back in August, I believe. Has this happened to anyone before?

Hooray for disinfectant spray! I was thinking about that too, lol. Thanks.

Great! Thanks for the info.

I'm enjoying your review. Love all the detail! We will be on liberty in November, so I love to soak in all that I can about her.

We will be on Liberty of The Seas in November. My kids (8 and 5)are really excited to try ice skating (something they've never done). My thoughts are that a concussion on vacation (and on a ship no less) would be less than desirable. Does anyone know if they offer helmets for kids or should we bring our own? Thanks.

We are set to go to Belize in November on RC. Our children are 8 and 5 years old. My husband is too nervous to take them cave tubing. We went on our last cruise there, just the two of us. Has anyone been on a cave tour that seemed appropriate for these ages, or any that you would definitely stay away from? Just looking for additional guidance, or to know if my husband is completely right on this.

Thanks.

Thank you so much Clarea.

I checked back again today, and the packages were available! I got the package of 3 for $75 each. I didn't see how you could choose which restaurant you wanted to book for the first meal though. I booked it for the first night, hoping to go to Chops that day. Should I wait until I'm on board or should I call them to clarify first?

Great news, thank you both!

We are leaving in November on the Liberty. Today is the first day to begin making dining reservations. I remember a while back there was a sale on a dining package of some sort. Is that something that is a frequent option, or should I probably not plan on seeing it again? Thanks.

We will be celebrating our son's birthday on our trip. I logged on to Royal's gift shop and found that the birthday cabin decorations are limited to certain ships (the Liberty isn't one of them). Does anyone know if this is temporary, or are there some ships that just don't ever have them available? We've gotten our room decorated on all of our Carnival cruises, so I just didn't think that this may not be an option.

Thanks for that OuterLimits. So hard to get the feel of what is being written. You are correct, I've only received the confirmation email. I've been checking my email all day to get either the amenity confirmation or the denial. Keeping fingers crossed, but I imagine it'll get returned. I'll let you know if it goes my way.

I just bough it for the 11/13/16 sailing, using the link provided by someone on the first page. It took me right through, I have my confirmation email and all. Maybe try again.?.

It's $500 more than what we paid for our November, 2016 trip on the Liberty (booked in November, 2015) and did not include the $400 on board spending we got. So really, this sale is $900 more expensive!!!

Thanks CC!! I just purchased it for my upcoming cruise in November on the Liberty.

Marlenruby- Thanks for putting on the fun times, I don't know how to load pics to this site.

Raxter 54- Yes, they did have the options for port inspired meals.

Review continuing -

After dinner (7:30), mom and I went to the comedy show featuring "the cowboy." He was funny and we enjoyed it. Mom was tired after the show so we went back to the cabin and I read a book while the others slept.

Tuesday we woke and were ready for Freeport. The three of us signed up for the 12.5 mile bike tour. Only one small hill in all of the tour and they broke it up in three or four places where we stopped for the guide to tell us more about his city. It was an easy ride, so even if someone isn't in top shape it should be fairly easy. The guide was very thorough and nice, seemed a bit nervous, like he was new maybe. It was a nice tour, at the end we stopped in Garden of the Groves and had a sandwich lunch. The gardens weren't very big but they did have some nice things to look at. After that, they drove us to the beach where we stayed for an hour and we were then transported back to the ship.

We ate again in the MDR. Since we were my time dining, we discovered we had to show up early to get a table by the window. We got there right at 5:45 and were able to get a nice table with a great water view. I tried the lasagna which was covered in about a pound of cheese which I picked off. Otherwise, it was again, ok. The others had the prime rib which they enjoyed. I had the pie a la mode (blueberry) for dessert that was very good.

After all of our activity that day we all decided on calling it an early night (after a short stint playing the slots).

Wednesday morning we ate at the buffet before getting off the ship in Nassau. We did the Underwater Sub Adventure. It was a long drive (to the other side of the island) to the dive shop. Once we got there they showed us a informational video. There were about 18 of us in the group. After a 10-15 minute ride to the site half of the group got started in the underwater subs while the other half started snorkeling. It was the first time snorkeling for my mom. She didn't take to it too well and after ten minutes said it was not for her. In hindsight I should have had her practice with the snorkel prior to going on the excursion, she just couldn't get comfortable breathing through it. So she got back on the boat, while I snorkeled around. I was really excited to use my new GoPro camera in the water. The coral was disappointing. Most of it was brown, like it was dying. Because the coral wasn't good there weren't that many fish either. They did have an interesting underwater sculpture there to which was neat to see. I got back in the boat when it was our time for the sub. Each person has their own motorized vehicle. The air pressure keeps the inside of the helmet dry when underwater, and you breath normally like you do out of the water. Mom didn't even get her glasses wet. You steer the machine around (it stays about 15-20 feet under the water, as it is attached to a large buoy that prevents it from dropping lower. There were three divers and a camera person that goes down with you and keeps everyone together. It was really amazing being down there and getting to see the fish that were there like that. The only negative I would say about it was that it was very loud inside the helmet as the air was flowing. It was around 78 degrees and windy and cloudy so I was worried we'd be cold. But, the water was great and we were comfortable once we were in. Once we came up they took us back to the dive shop and drove us back to port. Mom and I stopped and shopped and had lunch before getting back on the ship.

We arrived for dinner, again at 5:45 and were able to sit at the same window table. I honestly cannot even remember what I ate, so I guess it wasn't memorable either way.

Mom and I went back to the Dive In Movie that night and watched Mockinjay 2. Neither of us had seen it before so that was fun. We hit the casino again after the movie. Mom won a little and was excited. After that, we went to bed and looked forward to the sea day to come.

Thursday morning we woke to the best weather yet! Finally the wind died down and it was sunny and low 80s. We ate at the MDR, mom enjoyed the waffles while I had the bagel and lox again. My Aunt thought the MDR too slow so she went to the lido buffet.

After breakfast we were lucky enough to find another cabana in the serenity deck and laid there reading and relaxing for a few hours. For lunch I got the turkey wrap from the deli which was pretty good and a salad. After I had a cocktail and we all realized we were all getting burned we decided to head inside. Mom took a nap while my Aunt and I cruised around the ship.

Dinner that night, again at MDR was ok, but forgettable. It was my mom's birthday and they did bring her a special little cake and sang to her which she enjoyed.

After dinner, we again went to the Dive in Movie and watched Creed before we hit the bed.

Our last sea day we all slept in. We had a leisurely breakfast at the buffet. We were all burned so opted to stay out of the sun. We then went to the library and played dominos and cards for a while. We ate pizza for lunch at the aft pool and played more cards until it was time for bingo. During the second round of bingo I amazed myself by wining! I had bingo along with someone else so we shared the $270 prize. I never win anything so I was pretty excited. The only thing I thought wasn't cool about the bingo was that it was the $5000 prize for the 3rd round, blackout bingo. But someone had to win it by a certain number of draws (I want to say 50 but I could be wrong). So someone wins on the third number drawn after the cut off. Maybe this is common practice (I am not a typical bingo player so I don't know). But I thought that was just not fair (in a general sense, yes, I do realize it is part of the rules that everyone states they understand before they begin playing). He still seemed very excited for the $600 he won as I think everyone would be. I just think it's a sneaky way for them to get more people to play and then snag the prize away. But either way, it was fun.

That evening, we had our typical dinner in the MDR and then went to the casino for about an hour before we went to pack and call it a night.

In the morning, we ordered room service which arrived right on time. We chose self assist debarkation. They called for our floor debarkation at 8:15 (we stayed in our room until then), went down to the deck 3 and we were off the ship, through customs and driving away at 8:55.

We had a great trip and I'm so glad I got some time with my mom and my Aunt. I missed the kids and husband, but it was good to get away! And absence really does make the heart grow fonder :-)!

Mattcj89, the first formal night is the second night (Sunday), the last is on the sixth evening (Thursday). I've heard that the first night in the MDR can be chaos. This was the reason we chose that evening to dine in the steakhouse. We also got a complimentary bottle of wine (we could have also chosen to buy other wine at a 50% off discount), not sure if the first night is the only option for this though.

I've ordered two cakes (served on different days) on four of my cruises as we celebrate both of my boys birthday's on board. I can say the chocolate is fantastic, the vanilla is ok. I've always ordered a few months ahead. It's always been delivered just as ordered.

Hope this is satisfactory for everyone.

This was a seven day cruise to Key West, Freeport and Nassau Bahamas. I live in NW Houston. This was a ladies trip with my Mom and my Aunt (mom's first cruise). We were scheduled to arrive between 11:00-11:30. We ended up arriving a little late, around 11:40. We went through security with about a 15 minute line. We then checked in relatively quickly, another 10 minutes or so. Out of five Carnival cruises this was the first time we couldn't walk straight onto the ship. We had to sit and wait for our zone to be called, about another 10-15 minutes. All in all, not bad.

Once we got on board, we were able to go straight to our room, 7388, balcony, port side. We dropped our things and went up to Lido. Mom and I had a Guy's burger, while my Aunt had the buffet. Have loved the burgers in the past, but something about it was a bit off this time (I think it was the mushrooms). Not bad, but not as good as I remembered.

After lunch we walked around the ship for a bit. I was on the Freedom last November, this was the first time for my mom and Aunt.

Our luggage arrived around 3 o'clock. We got everything put away and then popped open some champagne and had mimosas for sail away. We were to sail at 4 pm, but at 4:45 they were still loading luggage on the ship. We actually left a few minutes after five.

We had reservations at the Steakhouse at 6 pm. It was really lovely, very nice staff and nice atmosphere. I had the escargot as an appetizer, it was the best I've ever had. A lot of places will have it swimming in butter, but this was not. Really nice big pieces with great seasoning on a nice soft crouton. My Aunt had some sort of bisque soup which she loved and my mom had the shrimp cocktail (which was much larger and tastier than the shrimp cocktail in the MDR). For our main course, I had the lobster tail with mashed potato (both were fantastic, the potato was chunky which I really like). Mom had the surf and turf which looked lovely, but by now she was already getting sea sick :-(. She had to leave half way through dinner. My Aunt had a steak which she said was cooked to perfection. For dessert I had the chocolate sampler (4 mini sized desserts, two of them were ok, the other two were fabulous). My Aunt had the fresh fruit for dessert, she said it was very dry. As we were there on the first night, we did get a complimentary bottle of wine, merlot, which was good. We sat by the window and saw several people snapping pictures on the deck beside us. A waiter came up to us and told us, "They can't see you out there unless they get very close to the glass. You'll see all kinds of things going on. People fight, have too much affection, fall down drunk . . ." Thankfully, we only saw people taking pictures, excited for their cruise to being, lol.

After dinner, we went back to the room to check on mom. She wasn't doing too well, and had already gotten sick. We decided to stay in the room and keep her company and get a good nights rest.

Sunday was a sea day, we got up around seven and hit the buffet for breakfast. I had a couple hard boiled eggs, a piece of fruit and a sausage link. Mom and Aunt had some oatmeal, yogurt, fruit. Mom seemed to be doing a little better but still not herself.

My Aunt's main objective this cruise was to find the quietest spot on the ship and to read as many books as possible. After breakfast she started her quest. Mom and I headed up to the Serenity deck. We managed to find one open cabana at the very front of the ship. The wind the first three days was intense, when walking on the serenity deck port side were were almost knocked over. But, we still managed to love it! It was a bit cool, in the high 70s and cloudy. I enjoyed not being able to hear the music and activity of the Lido deck when we were in the front of the ship, but come around the corner and it was still very loud. This was my first cruise without my kids so I was loving the quiet "me time."

We went to lunch on Lido around 1 pm. I got the Mongolian Wok, which was fantastic. However, it was a very rough ride so, even with my scopalamine patch my stomach was feeling a bit touchy. I ended up just eating a little of my food. Mom, was again turning green and had to leave to go be sick. My Aunt loved her food which was a big salad and some chicken.

After lunch, we went back to the room and convinced mom to take some ginger tablets and put on a patch for her as well. Both my mom and my Aunt were celebrating birthdays on board and they each had a $50 gift card to the spa waiting for them when we returned to our room, compliments of Carnival! I laid down and mom and I took a good two hour nap.

By this time, in her search for an optimal reading spot, my Aunt had already checked out the library, deck3, deck 4, the adult pool and several other places I don't remember. She said deck 3 and 4 seemed most promising for peace and quiet, but were far too windy so far. But she was thoroughly enjoying making her own coke floats with the coke zero she had brought on board and the vanilla frozen yogurt available at the Swirls locations.

I woke refreshed from my nap, but mom was still green. My Aunt spoke with someone with Carnival and they said between the wind and the fact we were going "very fast" (I believe she said 24 knots) it was the reason for the rough ride (I have no idea who she talked to, or what the normal speed of a ship is).

Mom stayed in the room, my Aunt and I went to dinner in the MDR (and our first formal night). We had my time dining at Chic and arrived at 6 pm. We were seated after a short five minute wait. We had bought the five bottle deluxe package of Cruising the Vineyards. Our coupons had not yet been delivered to us, but we had been told to ask our waitstaff. There was quite a lot of confusion on their part about it, even after I showed them my email confirmation. After about twenty minutes, they finally were able to get us the coupons. We enjoyed a bottle of Layer Cake Pinot Noir. I had the shrimp cocktail and the chicken (was a bit dry) but the veggies were steamed just like I like. I enjoyed the creme brule which was fantastic for dessert. My Aunt had the vegetarian dish and she enjoyed it. I tried to see if I could get mom some chicken broth to take to settle her stomach but the wait staff said it was not available.

Luckily, when we went back to the room mom had finally made a turn for the better. My Aunt wanted to stay in the room to read while mom and I went to see Jurassic World by the pool. We found front row seats. We took our beach towels and our bathrobes with us to cuddle up in as it was cold and windy. I enjoyed the popcorn (mom didn't think it had much taste). I really wanted to see the Star Wars movie after Jurassic World, but by the time I walked mom back to the room I didn't feel like coming back out.

We woke up Monday with everyone feeling well and were ready for Key West. Mom and I went to the MDR. I enjoyed the bagel and lox (which I was disappointed had been taken off the room service menu from my previous cruises) while mom had eggs and toast. In Key West we took the Conch Train which provided us with a 90 minute tour of the island. It down poured for about 20 minutes, but they provided us with ponchos so it all was fine. I wanted to get a picture of us at the Southernmost Point, but there was a line 50 deep waiting. I already had a picture with my husband there from another cruise so I wasn't too disappointed when we all decided it wasn't worth the wait. We had lunch at a nice restaurant which was remade from an old house (I don't remember the name). My Aunt then went exploring on her own while mom and I visited the Shipwreck Museum. It was interesting, smaller than I expected. At then end we walked up a wooden tower to get a good view of Key West which was nice. We then did some shopping and stopped for ice cream before we got back on the boat.

Dinner that night was in the MDR again. I had pasta in a red sauce with calamari and shrimp, it was ok. Like most of our experiences in the MDR, it wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about. My Aunt again had a vegetarian dish which she said was fine, I really can't remember what mom had, she said it was "ok" as well. I did have the chocolate melting cake which I loved, but it did seem a little under cooked.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier, is that when I sailed the Freedom in November, it had the American Table. Now it's the American Feast. The dining staff seems to still trying to work out the differences. Some nights there were tablecloths, some nights not. A couple nights, they served us bread, other times there was a bread basket placed on the table. The MDR was always "ok." Nothing was ever bad, but nothing was ever great. I never saw anything on the menu that made me think, "I gotta try this." The only other thing I'd say about the food is that I'd love for there to be more variety on the Lido buffet. For breakfast, I never saw anything different from one day to the next, never. Again, it's all good but nothing outstanding. This didn't cause a problem for me, but other people who are more foodies it might bother them more.

This is all I have time for right now. I'll add more later.