Jan and Byron's 25th Anniversary Cruise - Liberty w/pic- Western Itinerary 3/23-20/13

[boa toting mama]

Was the steakhouse worth it?/ What night do you think is the best to go?? I am thinking either 5(Roatan), or the second formal night(Grand CAyman)??

 

Brian

 

The steakhouse was *very* worth it. Either night should be good. Look at the MDR menu and see which night you like least of those two menus and eat at the steakhouse that night. It would be nice on formal night, if you want as the steakhouse is dressy and the elegant night is dressy. For preferred time book early (like the day you get on board or ever before). It books up fast the end of the cruise but was empty (ish) the first day.

 

We liked eating there the first night. Free wine is nice. Byron and I kept commenting on just how much we loved the food there. He's a restaurant cook and I have a business with Pampered Chef (in addition to my teaching job) and we cook at the time at home. We thought the MDR food was ok (fine, nothing wrong with it but nothing super) and we thought the steakhouse was *outstanding.* And well worth it. We'd easily have eaten there again, but the budget had other ideas considering we had other things we wanted to try and wanted to do on vacation.

[Scorchy725]

Loving the review! Thanks for doing it we will be on it in May.

[boa toting mama]

Cruise Day 4 part 1 (of 3) - Belize

 

Today the weather is gray and cool, and water is very choppy. An announcement is made that the tenders will be slow. I wasn't all *that* worried about it as we had Priority tendering due to our Ocean Suite.

 

We had coffee in the room and headed up to the buffet for breakfast. We were due at our excursion meeting place 1.5 hours after docking time. This was our first tender port and it was adventure to get our tender. After breakfast we made our way to the lounge for non-ship-excursion passengers. I was given two stickers for Tender 14 and Tender 6 was being called. I mentioned to the dancer handing out tender tickets that I wanted to know where the priority tender line was located as we had a suite (and thus qualified for priority tender ship to shore). She stated that priority tendering was only for Platinum guests and FTTF (faster to the fun). That made no sense to me as as a suite guest, I couldn't have bought FTTF even I had wanted to and I knew we had priority boarding. Anyway, we sat around for about 10 minutes and then I decided to head to the cabin and see if I could find our cruise documents, if they said something about priority tendering. Our boarding pass said priority, but nothing about tendering. I tried calling guest services, but no one answered. I went to guest services and there was a line. So..... I went up to Deck 5 to see if I could find someone on my way back to the lounge. I found two housekeeping supervisors and I politely asked if I was correct that suite guests get priority tendering and was told yes *and* was told where I should be for priority tendering. I then proceeded to the aft lounge, retrieved Byron, politely told the dancer/helper who was passing out tender tickets that I was eligible for priority tendering, gave her back the tender 14 stickers (she was on tender 20 at that point) and she was able to give my tender 14 stickers to the couple just getting to the desk.

 

Off we went to Deck 3 and joined the priority tendering group. About 5 minutes later we were on our way to the tender.

 

 

 

Now that we were on our way, I knew we'd make our tour. Today was the tour that I'd been wanting since I was very young. We were going to tour Mayan ruins. I'd *always* wanted to see Mayan ruins. And today we were going to travel across Belize, almost to Guatemala and visit the site of Xunantunich.

 

The tender took about 15 minutes and once there, we found our way out of the terminal area and then I saw the sign for our excursion company, Island Marketing. We were taken to the tour company office.

 

 

 

 

[boa toting mama]

Great start, we're doing the same cruise in May...can't wait to read about the ports.

 

Loving the review! Thanks for doing it we will be on it in May.

 

Thanks! It was such a fun trip.

 

I'm finishing up Belize tonight and will do the rest tomorrow.

 

We ended up skipping Roatan :mad: due to high winds and we weren't able to dock. We were supposed to do Victor Bodden's "Zip and Dip" there, but wasn't able to. I was disappointed, but will have to go back one day. But we had a day at sea that I'll write about tomorrow. Also Grand Cayman, our last sea day and disembarkation day (which held it's own adventures).

[boa toting mama]

At the tour office the various tours split into groups. Our group was with Richard, the boss of this tour office. He's been in tourism for 30 years, including hotel/restaurant, and has been all over the world. He was extremely interesting to have as a tour guide and very friendly.

 

The site we visited is about 2 hours away from Belize City, where the ship was docked. We drove through the country side for a couple of hours. Belize is a beautiful, beautiful country. After a couple of hours we arrived at our destination. To get to the site we had to take a hand cranked ferry across a river.

 

 

 

Richard, our guide is in the front left of this picture. Jason, the driver, was in the van. Only the driver is allowed in the van when crossing the river. When we arrived at the river, we had a "site guide," he said to call him Junior, he's the one pointing. Our tour had six people. You can Byron and a couple of the others in this picture.

 

Once on the other side we rode the van upon a mile up a steep hill to the site. We were at the site about 90 minutes. The site was fascinating, marvelous and everything I'd hoped for.

 

 

The large group behind "Junior" is the tour group on the Carnival excursion (many many more people and more expensive than the tour we were on).

 

I took many pictures of the site, but I won't share them all here (I can hear the collective sigh of relief) and pictures any number of pictures of the site are available on a google search (or my pictures on my fb page for those who know me there). However, it was now time for us to climb the main temple and of that I'll share a couple of pictures.

 

 

 

 

See how tall/steep those stairs are? Well, up we went. Me on all fours at some points. My right knee was bugging me and taking the steps in the traditional manner simply wasn't going to happen. I may not have been graceful, but I made it to the top! My right knee still hasn't forgiven me, but it was worth it!

 

[boa toting mama]

See that city in the distance???? The one on the left? That's about 2 miles away and that's Guatemala. We were very close to the border. Isn't this country just beautiful?

 

 

 

And here we are at the top!

 

We climbed back down, went through some more of the site and started back to the ship. But first we stopped for lunch (included in the tour).

 

 

Oh, but first on the ferry on the way back, we were greeted by a number of young Belize children/scouts and

their leaders. They were very friendly and it was lovely to say "hi" for just a minute.

 

 

 

 

The restaurant was small and had other tourists there. We all had a set menu, though the restaurant did have a menu on hand, the tour had a set menu. We had chicken (very tender and tasty), friend plantain, a fried rice dish, cole slaw and bottled soda.

 

 

Lunch was quick, we had to be on our way to the ship. We learned more about the country on the way back and arrived back at the ship at the same time the Carnival excursion bus did. This is a very long tour - about 6 hours, so we got back in time for the next to last tender.

 

 

 

This was a marvelous day and I highly recommend it. And I very highly recommend Island Marketing. It would have been nice to spend more time at the site, but the glimpse we had was amazing and wonderful and I'm so very glad we had that chance.

[boa toting mama]

Once back on the ship we showered and relaxed a bit. I really liked having the 8:15 dinner in the main dining room. It gave us some time to relax after a port day before scurrying off to dinner. It had been a cool, windy day. So I called for coffee and cookies from room service (ah, so enjoyed that luxury). They asked coffee for how many (2) and cookies for how many (2). I figured they'd send 4 cookies for 2 people. No, they sent about 10!?! So we ate those over the course of the next couple days. We watched the ship leaving port from the balcony.

 

However, Byron determined he didn't want dinner in the main dining room. This meant missing the Bitter & Blanc dessert I'd heard so much about on the cruisecritic forums, but switching a dessert to make a hubby happy is a small price to pay. And it had been a long day. So we head to the buffet. By the time we get up there, it wasn't very crowded. There was a show going on for the late seating guests (we didn't attend the show) and so it was fairly quiet up in the buffet. I had beef stroganoff and rice(um, it was warm and edible, but I wouldn't give it much more than that - but what does one expect from buffet beef stroganoff). I had a nice salad, they did have a good salad bar. We had lemonade with dinner, though Byron mixed his with iced tea. And I had a cup of coffee. I must have had something for dessert, but can't remember what.

 

After dinner we wandered around a bit and then were heading back to the room. It was cold, windy and the ship was fairly rocking. So, the deck party had moved inside. It was Mardi Gras on the Tuesday before Easter. Fancy that! So I told Byron I was going to the lobby for a bit. From the elevator I saw a few hundred people doing the "YMCA" song, that was quite a sight! I watched (from Deck 7 interior balcony down to Deck 3 atrium lobby) for a few minutes and then headed down. The dancers were throwing beads and people were catching them. I watched that. And then everyone started in with a rousing chorus of "When the Saints go Marching In." I'm *FAR FAR* from a singer (by any stretch of the imagination) but I was happily singing along near the atrium lobby stage and everyone was marching off the Karaoke bar to crown the king and queen of Mardi Gras. All of a sudden I notice that Troy (cruise director) was next to me and he stuck the mike in my face, so I had a "solo" of sorts singing a chorus of "When the Saints Go Marching In." My first and last solo singing engagement!

 

I follow everyone off to the Karaoke bar and watch the cruise director choose the king and queen, that was fun. It was a sort of a contest, all very good natured. Then they started Karaoke, which isn't my thing. So I wandered out.

 

On the way back to the room I stopped in the Piano Bar for about 10-15 minutes and then headed back to the room. It had been a really long day. Byron was reading in the room and I got ready for bed. We were looking forward to Roatan Honduras.

 

Stay tuned for tomorrow: The Port Which Was Not to Be (followed by Grand Cayman, Sea Day and Disembarkation Day).

 

Thanks for reading the trip report.

[deedle7544]

Great review! And I have to say, Belize is one of my most favorite places ever. I would love to go back some day, and xipline through the rain forest again.

[CocoaMom]

Really enjoying your detailed review. I'm on this same this month and in a suite as well. Question for you though - it's my understanding that on carnival having a suite does not allow for priority tendering ... has that changed or maybe you just got lucky this time? Here's hoping I have smooth seas!

[CruzerDeb]

Thanks for the review; looking forward to the rest!

[boa toting mama]

Really enjoying your detailed review. I'm on this same this month and in a suite as well. Question for you though - it's my understanding that on carnival having a suite does not allow for priority tendering ... has that changed or maybe you just got lucky this time? Here's hoping I have smooth seas!

 

I asked and they let me in. I was under the impression that suites get priority tendering and when I asked housekeeping they checked and said yes. The dancer said no when we got to the non-carnival-excursion room. But seeing as FTTF gets priority tendering and Suites get priority boarding and first off the ship at the end of the cruise (group, though we stayed on till about 11 as we had a 2:45 flight), I had heard and found that suites do get priority tendering. When we got to the prioirity tendering area, I just said "we're in suite 7279" and they welcomed me to the priority tendering area.

 

I hope you have smooth seas too.

 

Perhaps I just "got lucky" and in any case next time we're booking a balcony. I got the suite as it was for our 25th anniversasry. Next time it's an aft extended balcony. But, I did ask and was told to proceed to priority tendering *and* each time (Belize and Grand Cayman) said we were in a suite *and* and my blue sign and sail card on my lanyard, so it was quite plain I wasn't platinum. Maybe I got it just because I asked, but all I did is mention I was in a suite and they gave it to me. Perhaps I confused priority boarding (which we did get and were escorted through the whole process and give the priority boarding pass) and priority debarkation (which we had but didn't use) and then just assumed we also had priority tendering. However, I asked and we got it. I wasn't trying to get something to which I wasn't entitled.

[boa toting mama]

This day I don't have pictures. Not sure why, but don't.

When we woke up we went out and saw Honduras. It was very very windy. An announcement came on an Troy (cruise director) sad we were delayed as a HAL shipping was in front of us and repeatedly tryig to get in. The HAL ship was reportedly smaller than ours. Anyway, that ship got in their third try. We did not make it it. The capain tried (once) and then it was reported that with consultation with the port pilots that we would not be making it to Port and would have a sea day.

 

Darn. We were going to do Victor Bodden's Zip & Dip and was really looking forward to it. But, I'd read on cruisecritic that ports do get missed and there isn't much to do but make the best of it. So we did.

 

Our day consisted of:

 

A "What's my Line" game in themain theater - it was funny and we ran into the couple I'd met our first sea day and spent time with at Mr. Sanchos.

 

Mongolian Wok for lunch (YUM YUM, a line, but with custom made food, a line is expected)

 

Relaxed in the room a bit after lunch.

 

Then I went to a Love & Marriage game in the main theater that was hilarious. Byron met me there about halfway thorugh, he was doing some more reading before he came down.

 

Read some on my kindle and played games/apps on my ipad in the atrium lounge and watched a couple of dance classes (Hi Lynette if you're out there)

 

I bought 2 hours of internet time and did some homework (doing a Masters program and had some discussion questions to answer/respond to) and a quick look or two at facebook and a quick post on cuisecritic forums from my phone/ipad)

 

Hung out in the room, wasn't able to get to my online class from my ipad, so went to the internet cafe for the homework.

 

talked to Christie at the future cruise desk about which cruises visit Roatan, perhaps from Galveston as that's closer (relatively speaking to us than Miami) and cheaper airfare for us (we're in Colorado Springs). Just looking at options as someday I really do want to get to Roatan.

 

We did Main dining room for dinner

 

Starters:

Me: Cream of Broccoli soup (YUM)

Byron: Fried eggrolls (he enjoyed them) and caesar salad

 

Main:

Chateaubriand w/Bernaise (YUM - we both had this)

 

Side:

Baked potato (we both had this)

 

Dessert:

 

Me: Baked Alaska and coffee

Byron: Coffee, I don't think he had dessert tonight

 

Beverage: 1 glass Kendall Jackon Merlot for me and the Barefood cab for Byron

 

 

Spent a bit of time in the Piano bar after dinner.

 

Watched some table games and a "name that tune" game in the promenade near the casino

 

Sorted through the pictures taken by the photographers in the Pixels section and found the pictures of us and looked thorugh them.

 

We managed a full, relaxing day. We enjoyed our extra sea day even though it was unexpected. Yeah, I was sad we missed port. But we made the best of it.

[boa toting mama]

PS I apololgize for the typos in my prior post. My break was over and I pushed submit before proofing. And now it's too late to edit.

[boa toting mama]

The wind continued, the ship rocked and rolled, but I was taking my Bonine (lovely stuff) and wasn't seasick.

 

We awoke to the ship having arrived at Grand Cayman. But, due to the weather at a different port than they usually use at this island. There were 4 ships in port today. Three Carnival ships and one Norwegian Cruise Line ship. Two ships (Carnival Magic and Norwegian Pearl) were at the "normal" docking site, right near the middle of town. Our ship (Carnival Liberty) and the Carnival Conquest were in another port, about a 15 minute taxi ride ($5 per person) from town.

 

We had our room service breakfast and went to get on the tender.

 

 

 

Arriving at the rocky beach area which was where the tenders landed, we went through the entry area and found our Captain Marvin guide (we had the Stingray City and Snorkel - 2 stop tour). The van was loaded up with Liberty and Conquest passengers and off we went for the 15 minute ride to the Captain Marvin office in town.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, there was a funny conversation about "ship time" while waiting for the van to load to take us into town. We were told to stay on "Ship Time" in all ports, and often (actually in all our ports) ship time was off "port time." So I was having a conversation with someone off the the Conquest and they were telling me ship time and port time were the same that day. And I was saying they weren't. They said their ship said it was. I said our ship said it wasn't. Then we both went "aha" -- my ship left out of Miami and theirs out of New Orleans, thus the Conquest had ship time/port time the same and the Liberty didn't. However, it was a bit of an odd conversation.

 

After awhile waiting for our tour to leave, we boarded another van and headed to the Captain Marvin dock, which is in a private neighborhood area. Captain Marvin has been leading tours since 1951. He's 95 now and though he wasn't on our boat, his house is next to the dock and we caught a glimpse of him when we got back to the dock to get on the van to go back to town.

 

[boa toting mama]

Cruise Day 6 - Grand Cayman Part 2 - Stingray City

 

 

We boarded our boat (the Miss Aly) and headed out to Stingray City. Stingray City is a sandbar about 20-25 minutes (by boat) off Grand Cayman's coast. The stingrays come right up to you and you can feed them, hold them, pet them and "kiss" them. Seeing as my camera got left home and my iphone isn't water proof, we didn't get pictures of us in the water with rays, but a good time was had by all and I do have pictures of us in that area on the boat and of others in the water with the rays.

 

 

We saw beautiful houses on our way to Stingray City.

 

 

 

 

The water was choppy, the wind was um, windy... and we were bobbing and hopping around while playing with the rays. I'm sure it's nicer when the weather is calm, but I'm so glad we got to play with these wondrous creatures.

 

 

 

We stopped at a snorkeling area not far from Stingray City, but I wasn't in the water long. The wind was too much for me, blowing away from the boat. Even though I'd put on a precautionary life jacket, and was having fun snorkeling, it was hard to get back to the boat for me. I ended up having them toss me the life preserver and they towed me to the boat. In calm water I'd have been fine, but I was tired and wasn't making progress to the boat with the wind that last set of yards. Byron was fine in the water. We did see some beautiful fish and coral. We were in the snorkel area about 20-30 minute and I was in the water maybe 10 of that.

 

 

We headed back to shore and took a van into town. Here it got a bit complicated. See, there are 4 ship in port, in two different areas. The Conquest wanted everyone back by 3:30 ship time/local time, but we didn't have to be back till 5:30 ship time (4:30 local time) and there were people from both ships on our tour.

 

Plus with all those ships in port it was crowded in the touristy part of town and the road was semi-gridlocked in that area. Add in our ships were 15-20 minutes away (in no traffic) and some other ships were right off the tender dock in town. Also add in that there are only so many taxis and shuttles on this small (and exceedingly gorgeous) island and you have a lot of people worried about making it back to ship.

 

We had more time than the Conquest passengers, so we took the shuttle to town and got off and walked around a bit.

 

We shopped for some small souvenirs and then took a cab back to port. However, the cab is actually a van and the van held about 12 people AND there was a young couple from the Conquest who were absolutely upset that they were supposed to be back for "last tender" at 3:30 (port time) and it was 3:10, but the cab driver was on "island time" and kept telling them that she'd been driving cabs for 29 years and for them not to worry and she waited for more passengers. After about another 15 minutes the van was filled and off we went.

[boa toting mama]

Ends up the Conquest couple was fine, the conquest was still taking tenders a good 30-45 minutes after their "last tender" time and we waited in an hour long line for our tender.

 

 

 

While waiting it was cold, but I had my towel from the ship to use as a shawl of sorts and we visited with people round us and watched some chickens run around.

 

 

 

 

Once back on ship we had some time to relax before changing for the last formal night. We changed, had some pictures taken for fun (only bought one, but had a lot taken so we had a good number of choices the next day).

 

Dinner:

Starters:

Me: Tomato/Basil/Mozzarella Salad - was ok, what does one expect with April tomatoes. Was good, but summer tomatoes are better.

 

Byron: Caesar Salad

 

Main:

Me: Filet Mignon

Byron: The same I think

 

 

Sides:

Me: Steamed veggies and a baked potato

Byron: fries

 

Dessert:

Warm Chocolate Melting cake for me / coffee

Ice cream for Byron / coffee

 

Beverage: Same as always, one glass of the Kendall Jackson for me and one of the Barefoot for Byron

 

This evening we wandered around, listened to music around the ship. Byron read in the room and I went up to Deck 9 aft and got us some of the pizza to try. It was good.

 

Oh I found some pictures of the piano bar from the night before:

 

 

 

[boa toting mama]

Our last day was a sea day. It was nice and relaxing. So relaxing in fact that Byron didn't leave the cabin till nearly 1 or 2!

 

We slept in, me till about 8 (late for me) and Byron till about 10:30. We had the usual coffee, fruit and yogurt delivered to the cabin. I got dressed and wandered down to Deck 3 atrium lobby (which had become my usual "hang out spot") and was playing on my ipad and people watching. Some came and sat on the couch I was on and said they were waiting for trivia. The sofas seat about 7, so I said sure, have a seat, I just need this one spot.

 

A bit later I wandered off to the Internet lounge to get some things done and checked our sign & sale balance and as it was payday back home, my bank balance. Coming back to the sofa, it was close to trivia time. The wives of the men came over and we were chatting. I'm a special ed teacher and so was one of the wives, so we talked shop for a bit and then trivia started. They invited me to join their team. I hadn't played before and this was round 3 of 3.

 

It was great fun, though I didn't know these people from Adam. Ends up it was two family groups who had met on the first trivia day. I was able to help the team out of a bit an a couple of answers I knew and they didn't and another answer I did know but they went with another answer (I was right). In any case, they had been in first place at the beginning of the round and I helped lead them to victory! Since I wasn't in the game from round one, when they offered me a prize I didn't pick the ship on a stick. But I did get a medal and a pirate hat. They offered me a sombrero but I declined saying it wouldn't fit in the suitcase.

 

I went upstairs and on the way ran into Putu, our Cabin Steward who asked if Byron was still sleeping. The do not disturb was still up. I said I didn't know, but that's what I was coming to see. Byron was up, but on the balcony reading. He was having a very slow, relaxing start to the day. I suggested he dress and we wander about so that Putu could get in the room. Byron decided this meant he'd start packing ???? So he did. I wasn't in the mood to pack, so I watched the "debarkation" video on TV and went over the Fun Times to see what was going on.

 

Eventually we went to lunch at the buffet (and Putu was at last able to get in the room and do room steward things). Now that I'm home I dearly miss having a room steward . It was nice. At the buffet I don't remember what I had. Oh yeah, it was turkey dinner day (just what I always want to eat on Good Friday). Anyway, I had turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, salad and a roll. I had some sort of lime "cheesecake" which had some texture that wasn't like cheesecake - it wasn't bad, not at all. It just wan't what I thought of when I think "cheesecake" Byron had some thing, he doesn't remember.

 

After lunch we wandered through the last day art auction for a couple of minutes. We wandered through the Pixels shop the last time and picked one more picture to get (total of 2 for the cruise).

 

 

After choosing our picture we went back to the cabin and I started packing. One drawer I called the "scary drawer." Most of the drawers we'd kept nice and neat (mostly) and it was fairly easy to pack. One drawer had misc. receipts and random jewelry I'd taken off in the evenings, but not put away properly, and random other things. I packed "scary drawer" last. We left out clothes for debarkation day and started clearing out toiletries and things that I could and saved the minimum for the next morning. Our lovely trip was coming to an end.

 

After awhile we headed down to the Atrium lobby for a "Q&A Session" with Troy and Adam (cruise director and assistant cruise director). It was great fun and lasted an hour. Lots of questions asked and answered.

 

It was 5:30 by this point and dinner was at 8:15. We headed up to the room to relax for awhile and get ready for dinner. We left for dinner early and stopped by the tasting area (where they give samples of food from various restaurants (some on this ship/all ships and some on other ships). We sat and relaxed and looked out the window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night dinner in the Main Dining Room.

 

Starter:

Me: Baked Sweet Potato Soup (I thought it was very good and flavorful)

Byron: Navy Bean Soup (he liked it)

 

Main:

Prime Rib for both, steamed vegetables for me, baked potatoes for both

 

Dessert:

Warm Melting Cake for Both (with coffee)

 

Beverage: Our usual (Kendall Jackson for me and Barefoot Cabernet for him)

 

Also our dining room team brought us a piece of cake (cappacino pie) with a candle, announced our 25th anniversary and sang to us (and had us kiss for the duration of the song!) A round of applause from neighboring tables ensued.

 

We thanked our dining room staff and wished our head waiter a good trip home (he was going home for his several week long break the next day).

 

We went back to the room and started some last minute packing. Byron was filling out our luggage tags and going over our customs declaration form. The phone rang, it was the friends from cruisecritic we'd see a few other tines, the family who had helped me when I'd lost my wallet on Cozumel.

 

We'd talked all along about seeing each other's rooms. So they came over and toured our Ocean Suite on Deck 7 and then we went down to Deck 6 and saw their Aft Wrap (oh my goodness that balcony is HUGE and gorgeous). We visited for awhile. Byron really liked that room. I also peeked over the divider to the next balcony and saw the "extended aft balcony." I think I'd like this class room.

 

We were about to head back to our room when I went to see what time it was and reached in my pocket for my cell phone -- no phone. Ooops. (As I was using my phone as my camera I had it with me nearly all the time, in airplane mode, with a global data block and data turned off). I *knew* I had my phone in the elevator to dinner. I hadn't seen it since. I went to guest services, but it hadn't been turned in. The staff there suggested I check again in the morning as any crew who found it would turn it in at the end of their shift (and not mid shift) and in any case, the next day was debarkation day/embarkation day for the next guests and the ship would be thoroughly gone over in the night to prepare for the switch.

 

I went back upstairs, we checked everything one last time for debarkation and it was time to sleep in our cabin for the last time.

[boa toting mama]

We had Priority Debarkation, could be off the ship first (around 7 am) but our flight wasn't till 2:45 pm so we planned on staying on board till about 11 (when they make everyone left get off). Ends up this was a good plan.

 

We'd put the suitcases (2 checked and 1 carryon) the night before and only had one carryon and my purse and a totebag in the room. We had our last room service coffee, checked every drawer and nook and cranny one last time to make sure we left nothing behind and headed to breakfast on the Lido. This was about 8:15. They recommendation is to vacate the cabins by 8:30 at the latest as the room stewards have to change over all the rooms by noon - 1:30 for the new guests coming on.

 

Announcements were coming over the PA for various zones to debark. There were 30-something zones, plus various special categories (guests going on excursions after debarking, guests who'd checked their luggage clear through to home (Luggage Express) and Platinum guests, decks, etc.

 

By 8:30 people had left, were leaving or were up on Lido or on the Promenade waiting for their zones. Customs kept getting backed up and so the zones were delayed. Also, a Coast Guard inspection (routine, they have one every few months routinely and today was the designated day), was to take place before the new passengers could board.

 

For breakfast Byron had eggs and fruit and I had pancakes, yogurt and fruit. After breakfast I went to Guest Services and stood in line to check to see if my phone had been found. It had. It was found on the floor of the dining room, had fallen out of my pocket during dinner the night before (just like I thought it had). Phone in hand, I went upstairs, and was able to get 3G. Free internet was at hand!

 

We waited around on Lido and ran into the people we'd toured with in Belize and visited with them a bit. Zones were called slowly, very slowly. Finally about 10:45 they announced that it was time for everyone to leave and we disembarked. This was the last thing to go right for the next couple hours.

 

Once we were off the ship we went to the luggage pick up area, picked up the luggage and got in line. There were a few hundred people in the cruise terminal at this point (in the customs area) We were chatting with the people in front of us when a woman came up and took us to a shorter line. Well, we thought this was dandy. And we commenced talking with the people in front of us. Ends up this line too a long, long time. Other lines were moving quickly, this line was moving *very* *very* slowly.

 

We *finally* get to the front of line, by this time there were maybe 50 people in the terminal (if that) and present our documents to the customs agent. He was *not* friendly. He took my passport and Byron's license and birth certificate and started punching buttons on his computer. He was asking Byron where he worked and what he did and basically ignoring me. He then said we had to come with him. By this point there were only about 3 other people in the cruise terminal. Off went went to the search area. Hmm, an adventure I thought. Hey, best to make the best of any situation, right"?

 

We put our suitcases where we were told and the customs agent started going through Byron's suitcase one item at a time and feeling in pockets and such. He squirted suntan lotion on his glove and smelled it. He questioned my nitro (I have a heart condition and have had two heart attacks) and asked me why I needed it. I told him. He said it's for heart conditions, I agreed, said I had one and he let me have it back. He was looking in the naproxen bottle we had. He went through a second suitcase. He asked us if we had more than $10K in cash with us (um no,...... I wish, we'd have played in the casino or bought more souvenirs or something.....).

 

He started to go through my suitcase and I asked him how one became a customs agent, he was prior military and I told him our son was going into the Air Force next year. He'd (the customs agent) had been AF and I asked where he'd been stationed. After awhile he got nicer and figured that we had nothing to hide (and we didn't) and he sent us on our way.

 

At this point NO ONE was in the cruise terminal except us, one couple who were having documentation issues (were missing a green card or something) and an older gentlemen.

 

Having had this adventure, I was really glad we had a 2:45 flight as it was about 11:30 at this point. We go out, get a cab ($25 flat rate for both of us to the Miami airport). We check in to our flight and get to our gate with an hour to spare.

 

We fly Miami to Charlotte, (have a quick and not very good lunch at a race car bar/grill in the B concourse) fly Charlotte to Denver, land at Gate B7 and have less than 20 to get to gate B90 to take the little plan from Denver to Colorado Springs. Ends up we made it, but the luggage didn't. We landed in Colorado Springs late (had left late due to mechanical issues). No one on the Charlotte-Denver flight who took the Denver-Colorado Springs flight (about 20 people) had their luggage.

 

We got home about 11 pm Mountain time (1 am eastern) having left the ship 14 hours earlier.

 

We received our luggage the next day (March 31, Easter, about 4 pm).

 

It was a great trip! We had adventures we had some odd things, but that makes life more interesting, right?

[boa toting mama]

What a great trip.

 

I can't wait to cruise again. Byron, when we left, wasn't sure if it was something he wanted to do again. Now he does want to cruise again. :D He thinks a week is a great time to cruise, he thinks 5 days would be great too. Good thing as we're going on a 5 night cruise on Victory in December (I'm giving him that for his birthday in August). He doesn't think he'd like 10 days, after a week he was ready to get home.

 

Pros:

Room service - LOVE room service breakfast

 

Our ocean suite was great - though that was a one time splurge for our 25th, it will be balcony from now on

 

The staff was superb, just wonderful

 

Steakhouse WELL worth it, we'd do it twice on another cruise, budget permitting

 

Our balcony door did NOT slam (no matter how I tried, it closed slowly, very slowly and didn't even close unless I pulled it that last couple of inches shut

 

We brought the allowed 2 bottles of wine on board and it was nice to relax and enjoy those in our room/on the balcony

 

Sign and sail kiosks were great to check the account (and on the TV)

 

 

Could be better:

Lido is LOUD, did I say Loud? Um yeah.

 

Food in MDR was fine, but we're used to more seasoning on the food. Many dishes were really good, others were fine, but nothing spectacular. However, with Byron in food service, we understand that getting 3,000 people fed multiple times per day is a challenge.

 

Kids on board Easter Week:

 

1250 kids on board, not bad, we rarely even saw kids the first part of the cruise other than near dinner time. by the end of the cruise many were around, it wasn't bad at all. I'm only mentioning it as I see "spring break" mentioned on the forums. I saw a total of *3* kids running on the promenade - really nothing to speak of. It was really great

 

Excursions:

We booked private excursions in each port and would do so again. I even already have them picked out for when/if we do this itinerary again.

 

Mishaps:

Weather - cloudy, windy, not warm, good weather 2 days. Couldn't see the stars at night. It was what it was and we enjoyed the cruise very very very much. However, it would have been nice if the weather was better.

 

Oh we were in the comedy show for about 3 minutes one night. I *knew* it was the "adult" show and I *KNOW* I have issues with "bad" language, but really is it necessary to have the "F word" a dozen times in the 5 minutes I was in the comedy show. I can handle the word, but tossing it around for the take of adding it every third word isn't my thing. We didn't stay. Byron would have, but he knows my sensitivities and didn't press me to stay.

 

What we didn't do:

- Mini-golf (I heard the wind was out of control and so we didn't bother)

- Serenity deck (See weather, if the weather was better I'd have gone up there and read, as it was, Atrium Lobby was my hangout for the most part)

- Alchemy Bar - just never tried it, passed it often, meant to stop there and at least see what was up, but I never got around to it

- Bingo - too expensive for me. $25 per game? Even with 3 cards? That's not an amount I'm willing to pay with the amount of people playing (even if I did have the budget for it, which this trip we didn't).

- Library - passed it often, kept meaning to go in and didn't.

- Shows - meant to get back to a show, but never got around to it. Heard part of the Legends show (was fun to hear) the last night when I was in line at guest services waiting to see if my phone had been found

 

 

What I'd do differently:

Ok, ok, I admit I really did think I'd wear a different outfit everyday and a different outfit every night. I didn't. Not by a long shot. Next time I'm bring 1/3 the clothes I brought this time and I'll be fine.

 

Next cruises:

Victory in December (Aft extended balcony)

I'm looking at Magic October '14, (cove balcony or regular balcony) but we have a lot of family stuff going on next year (graduations, father in law's 85th birthday, business trips for me, a trip to WDW for Anthony's graduation in May) and am not sure I can fit in (vacation time wise or budget wise) a cruise but I'm going to try and we can hit Roatan this time).

 

Future cruises after that:

Going on a 4 night cruise with some friends (about a dozen or two dozen) November '15, but that will be RCCL, that's already decided.

Southern and Eastern Caribbean and probably Mexico. RCCL for one of those and maybe try NCL. Which will depend on sale prices and such.

 

I loved our cruise, just loved it. When I booked a year ago I got a super price on the Ocean Suite (a price I haven't seen again) and am glad we had it. So's Byron, but he says we didn't need that much room for just the two of us and I agree (sure was nice though and the bathroom with separate dressing/vanity area was amazing, loved it). Next time we'll do FTTF and do the aft extended on Victory and try a regular balcony after that. I saw inside cabins, the price is right, but I *crave* light. I don't think I'd be happy with no natural light, Byron agrees. I don't do well in dark and we spent enough time in the cabin during the day to make at least an ocean view mandatory for us.

 

That said, our son is planning a spring break cruise next year (his senior year) with his fiancee and three friends (2 cabins) and they'll book insides. I'm all for that, but for me, and inside just isn't what I'd be happy with.

[poptart]

I really enjoyed your review. I love the way you roll with the punches.

We took our 1St. Cruise for our 25th anniversary.... we'll be celebrating our 44th next month.

 

Thanks for the review and pictures!!!

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[boa toting mama]

I really enjoyed your review. I love the way you roll with the punches.

We took our 1St. Cruise for our 25th anniversary.... we'll be celebrating our 44th next month.

 

Thanks for the review and pictures!!!

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

Thanks! And Happy Anniversary!!!

[Scorchy725]

Loved reading your review and can't wait to be on the liberty in 32 days. Thank you!

[boa toting mama]

Loved reading your review and can't wait to be on the liberty in 32 days. Thank you!

 

Have a great time!!!!!

[Running the race]

Reading your reviews made me look forward to our cruise this summer to Alaska. BTW, I'm a SL friend on FB. :)

 

Maryann

[LadyBurdett]

Really enjoyed your review...THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deanna