1/26 Liberty Retailer Therapy 3.0 – Trip n Ship

[BSQ]

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? This is my little Trip n Ship write up of my recent sailing aboard the Carnival Liberty. We were on the Exotic Western Caribbean Itinerary, with the following Ports of Call: Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Grand Cayman.

 

Here’s a little about me/us’ens. I am a retailer (hence the title). We live in the South, hence the accent. Many of you are familiar with Retail Therapy as a way to de-stress. Well, for many years I’ve been one of the people who put all the things in the stores for all y’all to buy. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around I’m exhausted and in need of a relaxing vacation. BubbaQ is quite the Tech Nerd. For him, a vacation means no phones or computers.

 

Here’s me and BubbaQ - for reasons I can't go into, I've altered our images slightly. I know you'll understand ....

 

 

We spent the week with a group that we’ve come to call our “Cruise Family,” Mr. & Mrs. Jeffy294, Mr. & Mrs. Vacruizer, MollyBPOE & Girliefriends, Me & BubbaQ.

[BSQ]

One Year Ago …

 

Is when we thought to book this cruise. We were actually aboard the newly 2.0’d Liberty and enjoying ourselves so much we used the ever so slow internet on board to check out the prices for 2013. I think within 2 weeks of being home we booked it Danno.

 

To say 2012 was a rough and stressful year, would be an understatement. It was one of those when it rains it pours kinda of years for all of us. BUT IT’S OVER AND WE’RE IN 2013 now!!

 

The Week Before ...

 

North Carolina was in for a bit of a winter snow/ice storm. Originally it was forecast to hit the day were to fly out. :eek: I booked a room near the hotel in case everything was going to be frozen.

 

It was a 20 degree day and very windy but we all made it to Raleigh safely (well except MollyBPOE … we’d meet up with her group in Miami). Comfort Suites Hotel Page Road is where we stayed. I’d booked a Stay & Fly rate which included up to 14 nights of parking, shuttle to and from the airport. The hotel also had a free hot breakfast set up, which as hotel breakfasts go, was fine. There are a lot of hotels near RDU and while this one was OK, it is a dated hotel, and I’m not sure I would stay here again. Check-in went smoothly, and I signed us up for the airport shuttle the next morning. I did like that there were plenty of places nearby to grab a bite to eat. One caveat, most places close down (or the kitchens close down) by 9pm, this area is a bit of a business park still. Normally not a problem, but BubbaQ and I had some errands to run (translation he was still packing and we had to buy some stuff). We ate at Page Road Grill – good food, good beer and then settled in for the night.

 

After a leisurely breakfast the next morning, we headed over to the airport and checked in for our Southwest Airlines direct flight from Raleigh to Fort Lauderdale.

[BSQ]

the Day before ...

 

Southwest Air, what can I say? It is what it is. We had gotten a great fare on a direct flight, but with that comes the quirks of Southwest Air. Chair hogs on the ships have nothing on the Chair Hogs on our RDU-FLL flight! We had a rude flight attendant, and a full flight. Lessons Learned: If doing this again, pay for the Business Select upgrade (leg room is very important to Bubba and he believes no one under 6’4 should be allowed to sit in the emergency rows). I (5’9), ended up in the last row with BubbaQ (6’9), and Jeffy294 (6’7), and two cows. Mrs. Jeffy was across from us, Mrs. Vacruizer was in a middle seat a row in front of us, and Mr. Vacruizer? Well we never saw him again. They may have put in down with the luggage. BUT, we got to FLL on time, and it was 50 degrees warmer than Raleigh.

 

We did not arrange a shuttle to Miami ahead of time. We tried but did not like the conditions that were being put on the reservations. Many wanted payment up front, and had the disclaimer that basically said if you weren’t at the airport when you said you were going to be you were SOL. They would keep your money and leave you high n dry. With the chance that there might have been an ice storm in Raleigh, we did not like those odds.

 

We ended up walking up to a Go Shuttle area and booked a shared ride. I honestly don’t remember if anyone else was in the van with us, but booking shared worked out to be a better deal than booking private. (The guy working the kiosk figured this all out for us… and yeah he was right).

 

Our final destination for the day …

[BSQ]

PRECRUISE HOTEL

 

We stayed downtown at the DoubleTree Grand Bayview. Hotel deals were hard to come by. The ING Marathon was on Sunday, and many of the downtown hotels had blocks of rooms set aside for the race participants. We learned from the previous year that the hotel rates would just keep rising , so just under a year in advance we’d made reservations at a hotel close to the airport, Fairfield I think it was.

 

Since we’d all had rough years, we decided we needed to spoil ourselves a bit. Since we weren’t flying into MIA, we decided to pay a little bit more and stay downtown. Glad we did. BubbaQ and I had a King Suite room and vacruizer and jeffy294 had a two-bedroom condo. Their place was HUGE and we used it as a gather spot at night and in the morning.

 

We arrived about 1pm, our room wasn’t ready, but the condo was. Sweet! After dropping off our luggage, checking out the entire condo, and the view, we headed downstairs to grab some lunch at Tony Chan’s. As soon as we sat down I got a call from the hotel to let me know my room was ready. Timing is everything … it could wait.

 

After lunch we checked into our room and regrouped for a trip to Publix. A nice new Publix was just a short walk away allowing Mr. Vacruizer to get his Mt. Dew supply for the week and we picked up some things for a light dinner and breakfast. Once all our groceries were dropped off BubbaQ and I took to settling into our room.

 

Here's the view from one of the balconies of our room.

 

 

the other view looked out over the marina on on to the Port.

[vacruizer]

:D:D:D:D:D

 

Now to plan 4.0. or 3.5. or whatever number this next one will be. :p

 

Oh, and Mr. Vacruizer says it felt like he was part of the luggage on that flight the way they treated him!

[BSQ]

well dangit. I'm having technical difficulties with the pictures I uploaded from my phone.

 

Story to be continued ....

[Isa65]

I'm SO looking forward to the rest of this review! What a funny writer you are!

[BSQ]

I kinda forgot that BubbaQ had never been to Miami before (dude grew up in Florida, but whatever). We hopped into a cab to visit Bayside Marketplace. The Heat were playing tonight so Bayside was pretty crowded. We were actually looking for a place to get Mani-Pedis and although there was a nail salon on the directory it would not be opening for another week. Oh well. Instead we walked around and got some ice cream. Yum. Ice Cream + Miami = messy .

 

While people watching, I started to hear some reggae music, off we went to check it out.

 

These guys were playing, and they were quite good .

 

 

They were just finishing up a Marley tune when we walked up. As we sat down I heard familiar opening notes. Immediately I dropped my head in disbelief to my hands and said "are you kidding me?"

 

They began to play Sweet Home Alabama. There’s a story here, and I could tell it to you, but trust me in this case, you wouldn’t get it. You’d have to know us from way way way back when we first met almost 20 years ago.

 

Suffice to say, BubbaQ is in denial about being a redneck, sweet home alabama seems to always follow him.

[BSQ]

We headed back to the hotel, enjoyed the warm weather and view from our balconies, and eventually made our way back to the condo since the beer we’d bought earlier was stashed in their fridge.

 

A meal of beer (Anchor Liberty Ale ... how fitting!!), hard cider, sandwiches, chips and salsa was just the ticket, as we all sat in the living room watching Duck Dynasty on the 50-something inch TV (Jeffy294 got me hooked on this show a couple weeks earlier ), and laughing at the men trying to figure out how one uses a bidet.

 

The night grew late, and BubbaQ and I retuned to our room to watch a lil more TV and head to bed.

 

 

Yaaawn. I guess I should mention that in the end the rate on this room was reasonable for Downtown Miami. Between the time we'd booked our rooms and we arrived, the price had dropped. The room was well appointed, clean, quiet, had a fabulous view and the bed was ultra comfy. We had a desk/office area, bar/coffee console, dining area, dressing area, large bathroom, sofa, and two large balconies. The Condo had more room than we imagined it would, with seating area for a lot of people. When all 9 of us were up and having breakfast, it didn't feel crowded at all. A great choice for a group.

[BSQ]

By the time BubbaQ and I woke up 9ish (this will be a trend for us) the California group had come in on a redeye and settled into the condo. We headed up for a leisurely continental breakfast. I don’t even remember what time we decided to head to the port.

 

Come time to go, since we were downstairs first of the group, I headed out to the front of the hotel and inquired about getting a couple taxis to the port since there were 9 of us. I was assured it would be no problem and to just come out front when we were ready. As if by magic, when we had all just gathered up in the lobby, the person I’d spoke to about the taxis walked up and proposed a different idea for getting to port. Originally it involved us in a van and our luggage in a trailer, which didn’t bother us so we agreed and headed outside. 10 of us and our entire luggage were piled into a van and for $5 each we were headed to the Port. 10 isn't a typo, another passenger ended up riding with us. She probably wished she'd slept in an extra 15 minutes. :p

 

DoubleTree Grand - extra points for great service and comfort. Thumbs down because the warm cookies we got at check-in had walnuts in them. I'm allergic to walnuts, but BubbaQ enjoyed a second cookie.

[BSQ]

I'm SO looking forward to the rest of this review! What a funny writer you are!

 

Thank you! As you might be able to tell we take ourselves VERY seriously. :D

[navybaby1113]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. We just got off the Liberty and had a fantastic time!

[BSQ]

Embarkation - Faster to Fun Style

 

Shortly after Faster to Fun was announced for the Liberty I booked it. I ignored all the whiners on the forum complaining how it wasn’t fair to platinum cruisers. I just don’t see it that way. I liken it to paying for an upgrade to First or Business class on an economy ticket. I decided to buy this option because our itinerary had two tender ports. That was the only reason, and it’s the one place I didn’t use it. Go figure.

 

But I am getting a little ahead of myself. All 9 of us were either VIP, Suite or Faster to the Fun guests. When we walked into the terminal there wasn’t a line. I know it was relatively early, but again no clue what time. 11am maybe? So here I am with this herd of people all VIP, and now there’s a bottleneck at VIP where the regular folk like had no one. That’s right, it was empty! Where were you all??

 

Through security, the platinum folks peel off to their little room, and up we go to the check in desk. With my boarding documents in hand, the nice lady checks everything and sees the FTTF logo, and hands me a Boarding Zone 11 sign. :eek: apparently she didn’t get the memo.

 

The dedicated check in was nice and would have been nicer if they could have found our sail and sign cards. The woman who helped us did ask if we were given a zone boarding sign and shook her head muttering “now why did she go n give you that, here take this” Sail n Sign cards and priority boarding sign in hand, we breeze right on through, bypass the photo op, walk up the gangway (or what ever that long thing is called) and ahhhh. We are on the ship! It took less than 30 minutes.

 

I did like being able to go straight to our stateroom to drop off our carry ons, but I also felt like I was in the way as the stewards were still working getting everything ready (Our stateroom however was completely ready)

[TakeMeAway1001]

Great start, can't wait to read the rest :)

[BSQ]

Stateroom 1003

 

Here’s the downside to my review. Because I’ve been on the Liberty before (2.0 and all), and I had stateroom 1004 last year, I didn’t take many ship pictures. :mad:

 

1003 is a triangle shaped handicapped accessible room on deck 10. It has a large “secret” deck in front of it. There is a pole by the closets … naturally BubbaQ and I had a laugh about the pole and each had to take a swing around it. (this practice paid off later on a tender boat).

 

1004 was already taken when I booked this cruise, but since I loved the location so much I went with the same room on the opposite side of the ship, thinking I would enjoy it just as much.

 

I didn’t. 1003 is under the weights area of the gym. 1004 is under the treadmills. 1004 is quiet, 1003 is not. I did hear dumbafts dropping the weights either to the floor or the racks, I know not which. But seriously, you are on a ship and know that there is not solid ground below you. WHY can’t you re-rack quietly? Hmmm?

 

Back to the room, the bed was in the king configuration. The Carnival website states the twins can not be converted. It actually looked to be the opposite and I’m not sure there was enough room for the twins to be split apart. This cabin seems a little smaller. Our bathroom door had a case of the major squeaks. They fixed that on day 6 (we never complained about it, it didn’t really annoy us). With two of us in this cabin, we did miss having a sitting area, especially on the one morning we ordered room service. The bed wasn't as comfy as usualy, it wasn't so bad that it was unfomfortable to sleep in, it just seems like the beds have been downgraded. The pillows however were still lovely. Temperature in our room stayed an even 73 degrees.

 

Location, as expected was perfect, though BubbaQ might think differently since he was hobbling around on a bad ankle. It’s a hike to the Alchemy Bar and aft MDR. It does offer easy access to Lido deck and the Serenity area.

 

Anyway, we dropped off our bags quickly and headed out to Lido deck to grab some lunch. We started our cruise with burritos from Blue Iguana Cantina. I’d not tried these before and did think they were quite good. I never tried the breakfast options here, but certainly enjoyed the lunch I got.

[BSQ]

Oh, let me add that BubbaQ was traveling with a CPAP machine. This room was not ideal for that. The outlet is very far from the bed. Fortunately I was familiar with it, and had packed two extension cords and some glow sticks. We had no issues with the extension cords at security. At night I would drip a bracelet glow stick on the floor so as not to trip over the cord, in the event that I woke up in the middle of the night. I also put a glow stick in the bathroom. This worked well and we didn't get blinded if we had to use the bathroom before our eyes were fully adjusted to being awake. :cool:

[battchief1]

Thanks for the review

[BSQ]

Mandatory Safety Briefing

 

Yup, it's that time in the review, and for this section I have to say what a difference a year makes!

 

Last year, we were on the first sailing after the Concordia disaster. You could hear a pin drop at the safety briefing. This year I can report that good or bad, things are back to Carnival’s usual. It was noisy, people did show up with drinks, and generally arrived throughout the whole thing. It seemed a bit hmmm, chaotic isn’t quite the right word, just less serious than it had been. There was something not quite right here, but you gotta go, so whatever.

 

There were several ships at POM, and a mini horn war started between those sailing, while we were still at our muster stations.

 

The good news, no one ummm, passed gas.

[BSQ]

Thanks for the review

 

Hi Neighbor!

[BSQ]

Sail Away and Meet & Greet

 

After Muster, BubbaQ and I decided to head to deck 3 for sail away. We either made this decision because it was windy or because BubbaQ wasn’t up to walking that much. Flip a coin, either answer could be right. Regardless, we were on our way!!!

 

 

Hey wait, everyone else is going the other way. We're heading right smack towards Miami, psst. Mister Captain Sir, I don’t think she’ll fit under that bridge

 

 

A quick turnaround and we were headed out to sea. At one point by the cargo pier, we passed a clock that said 4:58. About 15 minutes after that I realized I was supposed to be on Deck 5 by the casino for a meet & greet. Oops!

 

There were a few people there from the Carnival Forum roll call and it was nice to meet them. I usually try to include both CC and Carnival posters cause the more the merrier. Unfortunately with the chaos leding up to this cruise that is my life, I was not really active on either forum except to post a Saturday Countdown. :o

 

So to all who were expecting to see a little black and white cow at the M&G, I do apologize. It was a little too windy for her to be out roaming.

[BSQ]

a quick trip back to our cabin and our lugage was all waiting for us. I liked this aspect of FTTF as well. we unpacked, and this is where the cabin layout was akward. Traveling solo I had no problem with it, add BubbaQ to the mix and we kept getting in eachother's way. You learn alot about a person when you travel with him. This was not the first trip BubbaQ and I had traveled together. But I did learn (perhaps I already knew and had just forgotten), BubbaQ is a Hanger Hog!! Boyfren overpacked. :eek:

 

Eventually we were unpacked without killing eachother. Ah, the clock! It's Cocktail Time!!!

 

This is the time where we relax, unwand and pretend we are sophisticates drinking martinis. We enjoy the conversation with our friends, and usually the first few night of the cruise we are the only people at the Alchemy Bar. So if you walked by before Late Seating and saw the entire first row of the bar taken up ... that was us. Next time stop by and jump into the conversation.

[BSQ]

Shoot I'm jumping a little ahead again.

 

Anticipation of Cocktail Hour actually started at lunch. I received a text from Jeffy294 it said “Gabor is in the Martini again” Every cruise we have ever taken together, my cruise family usually meets up for cocktails (Martinis) at the wine bar or in the case of the Liberty, the Alchemy Bar.

 

If you read my review last year, you know I spent a good deal of time working my way through the menu and I also gushed about the fabulous bartenders. Gabor was one of the Fabulous People. I had said hello to him after lunch while he was setting up the bar, but now we were returning for Cocktail Hour.

 

He wasn’t there. Miro was. I shall have to induct him into the hall of Fabulous People. Other’s in this hall are Tommy (who we met on the Liberty when this bar was the Paparazzi Bar), and Maria who we met on the Freedom at the Wine Bar.

 

Gabor was happy to see me (no seriously when the little bovine wandered up to the bar he scooped her up)

 

Old Friends Reunited ...

 

 

Consulting with me about drinks

 

Yo Mister Gabors, my glass is over there!!

[BSQ]

 

 

 

40 is the New 20 ... my favorite from the Menu

 

[BSQ]

Selecting

 

Waiting

 

Sipping

 

Sipping

 

Gathering with Friends

[Jeffy294]

In case anybody is wondering, the inflatable donkey's name is Aft.