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-LIVE- Liberty - Transatlantic 10-26-14


Twibes
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Howdy folks, it's just about the end of day 1 here in Barcelona, Spain. I'll recap how the long day went so bear with me.

 

FLIGHTS:

 

Kelcey and I got up bright and early to say goodbye to our dogs and make way to the airport. After making it through security and parking our still 'in-shape' butts at the gate, one couldn't help but feel a part of the crowd. I say this because ethics mandate that when you're surrounded by 5000 other people sitting in semi-silence, you put earphones on or turn off the speakers on your mobile TV SET, I'm sorry, I mean your cell phone TV show. I think we may have inadvertently been victim to a full episode of Sanford and Son.

 

Our quick flight from PIT to JFK went smoothly (Even after being delayed on the tarmac for hour due to JFK being busy) although I felt like a full size human display of Saran Wrap as snug as this little plane was. The weather in the northeast cooperated greatly and we had sunny skies / warm temps. Staying on the lighter side of things, I won't go into detail about the older gentleman to my left on the plane who made an audible gurgling noise after every turn of his magazine page. Each minute felt like a new medical emergency but he made it A-ok!

 

We had a 2 hour layover in JFK but no complaints there. I will add that since I don't fly American Airlines on a regular basis, I was more than thoroughly confused about just how many statuses of Awesome to Pure Nobody they classify you under. I thought being in Group 1 on a ticket meant you were right after business class... boy was I wrong! There were every color / name of member classes, first class, business, handicap, military, I think we really boarded group 10 after all was said and done. The flight from JFK had some of the best service I've ever received on an airline, and I can't say enough about how I enjoy free meals and drinks on the TransAtlantic flight!

 

BARCELONA:

 

Once we exited the terminal the weather was beautiful. It was only about 6:30am local time and we hailed a taxi from the queue of about 100 ready and waiting. We spent $29 Euros for a ride from BCN to the Barcelona Renaissance hotel where a3Lakes was staying. We met up and walked a few blocks for some breakfast and coffee. This coffee, let me tell you, it could grow freshly shaven hair back in seconds, and I loved every minute of it. I believe they consider Coffee in US language to be Espresso here. This cup of java was so good I bought another for the road (and had the shakes to show for it!)

 

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Here is a view from the rooftop of the hotel which clearly shows the La Sagrada Famigla clear as day:

 

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A view of Barb and Jim getting the violence portion of the trip out of the way early, good thinking!

 

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CRUISE TERMINAL:

 

I'm not sure how to react on this area of my input.. as departure from Barcelona had a certain 'flair' for the ability to classify every Crown & Anchor member regardless of cabin or suite type as Priority Boarding! Ok, maybe I exaggerate, but the line out the door into the parking lot where you risk life and limb being sideswiped by a taxi was pretty intense. There wasn't really any order to the line other than a 30 minute free for all to shove ahead to the checkpoint & detectors! Once past security however, departure lines were separated accordingly and things went quickly!

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Here is a shot of Kelcey with her favorite church in the background:

 

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LIBERTY OF THE SEAS:

 

Once onboard, we headed straight to the pool deck for something to drink. The Liberty of the Seas looks great and it was refreshing to finally be on her. We're in Junior Suite 9598 which is in the middle of the ship. The room is as expected and we more than appreciate the size, balcony, and bathroom.

 

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Have fun, and take care of her! (My Mom and I will be on the Liberty in 17 days.) I'm looking forward to the rest of your review!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by DJan07
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Thanks for reviewing Liberty! There is so little current info out there so I really appreciate the review. We are sailing on her in July to Bermuda and cannot wait to learn more about her. I have some specific questions about dining. I've read wine dinners exist, but know little else. Also is Sorrento's more than just pizza? Does Vintages serve more than just wine? Thanks and cannot wait to read more!

 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Forums mobile app

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Good morning from the coast of Spain!

 

We're about 390 miles from Cadiz, Spain which we'll arrive at tomorrow morning (its 8am as we speak.) I'll grab more photos of ship today, and I have plenty of video to try and get online sometime.

 

Today's simply a sea day and we'll have the Meet & Mingle in 3 hours, should be fun with over 200 people.

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Does Vintages serve more than just wine? Thanks and cannot wait to read more!

 

I can confirm at least this portion of your questions so far, No, the gentlemen in Vintages are certified experts in wine. They are trained and have at least 17 years of experience, at least on Liberty. They can take your taste preference and pair a wine for you without missing a beat. I'll give you this tip, don't take the $4.95 Sangria into Vintages or you'll insult them..I definitely got put in my place tonight lol!

 

DSCN3260-vi.jpg

 

I will however state that this Sangria which is right in the Promenade at Sorrentos (Yes more than pizza there too!) is very good. They have a white Sangria which is more of an apple taste, or the red which has alot of citrus flavor. I love the Sangria!

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As I'm a day behind on this update, bear with me!

 

DAY 2: Monday, Oct. 27, 2014

 

Monday we had a full day at sea, sailing from Barcelona, Spain to the lovely city of Cadiz, which is also just a 1 hour bus ride from Seville, Spain. The weather was much nicer than I had anticipated on a TransAtlantic cruise but very welcome after the chilly weather we had in the Northeast US. The waves were calm and the sun was shining. We spent the beginning of the day eating breakfast in the Windjammer (always amazing in our opinion) and then cleaning up for the Meet n' Mingle.

 

Prior to the Meet n' Mingle we were sure to get a new favorite of mine, the Wildberry Lava Flow drink from deck 5. Just as my track history with the Grandeur of the Seas last November, this cruise the Hotel Director stated we had the largest Meet n' Mingle yet on Liberty of the Seas (Again don't quote me but somewhere near 250?) We filled the entire Sphynx lounge on Deck 5 forward and met some great people. RCCL handed out at least 5-7 bags of goodies to raffle ticket winners as well as 2 bottles of wine. Following that official Meet n Mingle give-a-way, we had our own personally arranged Gift Exchange. Many thanks (I'm sorry I forget your name!) to the lovely woman who hand painted the flower of California and gave it to us as a gift, we'll be hanging it up on our return!

 

After the Meet n Mingle we had a Windjammer lunch (So far folks I'm sorry to say the Windjammer has been a bit better than the dining room, but that's strictly due to my personal tastes in food) I'm just not that into the main dining room menu the first 2 nights. While browsing around the ship all day and taking in the sites, we hit the pool deck for sun, as well as met Kelcey's ex-boyfriend in the Promenade. Boy let me tell you how awkward this was, meeting someone who's bigger than you and talks louder than you, let's just say I was forced to take a photo with them:

 

DSCN3259-vi.jpg

 

After this awkward run-in with Shrek we had more Sangria outside of Sorrento's while waiting for a photo with Captain Teo. What can I say folks, he personally requested our presence for a photo and stated we were the best behaved group of these party animals!

 

DSCN3279-vi.jpg

 

Now, in honor of mpoole3, I went into the Hoof & Claw for a little brewsky. In honor of our Scots on bored, I wanted to 'Schlep' around a bit. I sat right in front of the tap and stared down the bartender. I asked "Do you have some type of beer or drink named stella?" What can I say here other than I never had it and apparently never had the paycheck to claim ownership of a case of it! The bartender looked at me like the moron that I am, backed up a step and stated, "Nahhhh man We don't have that." Now, find the humor in this photo:

 

DSCN3256-vi.jpg

 

Obviously the red tap handle was 1 foot from my face. Regardless mpoole3, this Stella's for you! Here are two more shots from in the Hoof & Claw (My photos range from GoPro Hero3+ Black and Nikon Coolpix cameras) so sorry for some bad shots.

 

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I did enjoy the atmosphere here.. without my flash, it was more dark and cozy than I expected.

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Here are a few random shots of the Promenade area during the Captain's Welcome Aboard speech:

 

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Just and FYI if you're curious as to the unlimited internet package on this 13 night TransAtlantic voyage.. it was a steal with the Platinum discount (15% off) so in total we received a full 2 weeks of internet for $249. When we finally retired for the night due to my extremely old age and being lactose intolerant, ok maybe more like because I'm incapable of keeping up with these seniors on-board (Props to you all!) we headed back to the room and had a date waiting for us, Miss Swan.

 

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DAY 3: Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014

 

Today we arrived in Cadiz/Seville Spain around 8:00am. We woke up in time to streak across the large Junior Suite balcony in the buff to see this view:

 

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I'll say now that Liberty is the largest of the ships I've been on thus far but she sure does handle well. I'm sure Richard Gere would say she handle's like she's on rails, or would I say that about... Well anyway..

Today turned out to be about 80 degrees and Sunny and very nice during the a.m. Many cruisers had already booked excursions or had some type of bus tour setup, but Kelcey and I opted for the more manly tour AKA: 'A man not asking (ever) for directions tour', which was the 'Tim getting us lost excursion.' You all should participate in that excursion, it's as easy as turning up two alley ways and walking west instead of East for 45 minutes but commonnnnnn who's watching. :cool:

 

Here was the beginning of our walk alone. No,really, literally alone. Perhaps we were the only ones with a sense of adventure or urge to play frogger with the unlimited amount of mopeds taking turns passing in this years Nascar race. Nothing like the smell of moped fuel in the morning to fire up your taste buds.

 

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This was a pretty nice experience to be honest. It's a priviledge to be able to say you've walked in the oldest Civilized city known in the world, and walked the wall that protected it without any sign of people traffic. Once we walked a good mile on this route (Ok well to me it felt like a mile!) we decided to put Plan Tim into affect. We cut toward the left and walked straight into the heart of Cadiz. If you're curious about why we embarked on such an adventure, I blame it on my navigator who forget the 'Rob Me I'm a tourist Poster' AKA: map.

 

So the plan was simple, walk into the city halfway, turn toward the ship, and rendezvous with our lunch location. Well I'll spare you the suspense, it never worked out that way. If you are able to see a normal walking map or even a google image of Cadiz, take 90% of the streets you see, and scribble a red line over them with a crayon. We pretty much laced a security perimeter around and inside the whole city, yup, we hit every street. Needless to say, we took some photos of things we accidentally found that are historically important:

 

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Cadiz was just too amazing to not take photos and videos of so here are a few more random shots while walking through of the Liberty:

 

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Before leaving Cadiz, I should note that we ate breakfast in the #4 ranked restaurant in Cadiz. The reason we ate breakfast is because (duh) Spain has a more active evening life than morning. Although it was 11am'ish they only had breakfast. So we ate bread/butter/oil and (2) Cafe's. By Cafe I mean coffees. Ok what I should really say is that a Cafe in Spain is a drug laced mind-altering super adult speed drink flavored to taste like coffee. I don't know what they brew in this obviously mislabeled espresso drink but it's genius marketing. I couldn't get enough of this stuff, if it weren't for Kelcey feeling the effects that fast, we would've had 3 instead of just 2!!

 

While on-board we did see a special deliver to our room's Daily Compass, for anyone who can win the lottery and afford a spa appointment, I know enough to know this is a good deal that you may find for yourself!

 

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Following Cadiz, it took us a few extra minutes to exit the port. The wind fluctuated between 35-40mph and being as we pulled forward into the port, we had no option but to back entirely out of the port. I believe I laughed a good while after hearing the Captain's message prior to departure: "Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to begin operations here. Once we find the keys to this thing we'll start our engines and be on our way."

 

Once out of the port which we shared all day with the AidaBlu, we headed into the Atlantic toward the Canary Islands. The weather was still very warm out however still extremely windy. The waves caused a good listing side-to-side so the nightly show put on by Royal Caribbean's entertainer's was postponed until tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll be enjoying a day at sea on our way to beautiful Tenerife. I'll be in touch!

 

- Special thanks to a3Lakes for handling the roll call so long on our Roll Call and to everyone so far that I've met. Motorman23, great sharing some drinks with you at the pool bar. Margaret whom I believe we met on the pool deck today, we'll see you Halloween night!

Edited by Twibes
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As I'm a day behind on this update, bear with me!

 

DAY 2: Monday, Oct. 27, 2014

 

Monday we had a full day at sea, sailing from Barcelona, Spain to the lovely city of Cadiz, which is also just a 1 hour bus ride from Seville, Spain. The weather was much nicer than I had anticipated on a TransAtlantic cruise but very welcome after the chilly weather we had in the Northeast US. The waves were calm and the sun was shining. We spent the beginning of the day eating breakfast in the Windjammer (always amazing in our opinion) and then cleaning up for the Meet n' Mingle.

 

Prior to the Meet n' Mingle we were sure to get a new favorite of mine, the Wildberry Lava Flow drink from deck 5. Just as my track history with the Grandeur of the Seas last November, this cruise the Hotel Director stated we had the largest Meet n' Mingle yet on Liberty of the Seas (Again don't quote me but somewhere near 250?) We filled the entire Sphynx lounge on Deck 5 forward and met some great people. RCCL handed out at least 5-7 bags of goodies to raffle ticket winners as well as 2 bottles of wine. Following that official Meet n Mingle give-a-way, we had our own personally arranged Gift Exchange. Many thanks (I'm sorry I forget your name!) to the lovely woman who hand painted the flower of California and gave it to us as a gift, we'll be hanging it up on our return!

 

After the Meet n Mingle we had a Windjammer lunch (So far folks I'm sorry to say the Windjammer has been a bit better than the dining room, but that's strictly due to my personal tastes in food) I'm just not that into the main dining room menu the first 2 nights. While browsing around the ship all day and taking in the sites, we hit the pool deck for sun, as well as met Kelcey's ex-boyfriend in the Promenade. Boy let me tell you how awkward this was, meeting someone who's bigger than you and talks louder than you, let's just say I was forced to take a photo with them:

 

DSCN3259-vi.jpg

 

After this awkward run-in with Shrek we had more Sangria outside of Sorrento's while waiting for a photo with Captain Teo. What can I say folks, he personally requested our presence for a photo and stated we were the best behaved group of these party animals!

 

DSCN3279-vi.jpg

 

Now, in honor of mpoole3, I went into the Hoof & Claw for a little brewsky. In honor of our Scots on bored, I wanted to 'Schlep' around a bit. I sat right in front of the tap and stared down the bartender. I asked "Do you have some type of beer or drink named stella?" What can I say here other than I never had it and apparently never had the paycheck to claim ownership of a case of it! The bartender looked at me like the moron that I am, backed up a step and stated, "Nahhhh man We don't have that." Now, find the humor in this photo:

 

DSCN3256-vi.jpg

 

Obviously the red tap handle was 1 foot from my face. Regardless mpoole3, this Stella's for you! Here are two more shots from in the Hoof & Claw (My photos range from GoPro Hero3+ Black and Nikon Coolpix cameras) so sorry for some bad shots.

 

DSCN3257-vi.jpg

 

DSCN3258-vi.jpg

 

I did enjoy the atmosphere here.. without my flash, it was more dark and cozy than I expected.

 

WOW! You are the best!! I was just wishing the next two weeks would fly by and I get online to see you actually had the stella for me! I hope you enjoyed it, I'm going to go up to the bar and say the very same thing.

 

The pictures are great so far.

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Oh how exciting!

 

We'll be boarding the day you get to Fort Lauderdale. I know its always a mess when a ship arrives after a TA. Will you be posting the morning of debarkation, about how long it's taking? I don't want to leave my house too early (we live 30 minutes from the port) if there are major delays like in 2012 and 2010!

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I can confirm at least this portion of your questions so far, No, the gentlemen in Vintages are certified experts in wine. They are trained and have at least 17 years of experience, at least on Liberty. They can take your taste preference and pair a wine for you without missing a beat. I'll give you this tip, don't take the $4.95 Sangria into Vintages or you'll insult them..I definitely got put in my place tonight lol!

 

DSCN3260-vi.jpg

 

I will however state that this Sangria which is right in the Promenade at Sorrentos (Yes more than pizza there too!) is very good. They have a white Sangria which is more of an apple taste, or the red which has alot of citrus flavor. I love the Sangria!

 

So appreciate your response! I don't think I'd have the nerve to bring food to Vintages, but I am sure people do. Having been to Chef's Table twice on the Allure I sure can appreciate wine pairing. I look forward to reading the rest of your review!

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Oh how exciting!

 

We'll be boarding the day you get to Fort Lauderdale. I know its always a mess when a ship arrives after a TA. Will you be posting the morning of debarkation, about how long it's taking? I don't want to leave my house too early (we live 30 minutes from the port) if there are major delays like in 2012 and 2010!

 

I can easily post a quick update the morning we depart so you have an idea as to the status of cleanup :D!

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