Liberty April 25th Sailing

[quiltsnh]

Background: I am the TA and group coordinator for a group of 43 who sail together every other year. Ages are 17-late 50's. Had a variety of cabins from inside/promenade/balconies and 1 Owners Suite. Most on deck 7 port side suite on 10. We arrived on Friday and all stayed at the Holiday Inn Bayside.

We used Quality Limo for all ground transportaation..... highly reccommend them 1st class operation.

Embarkation: Longest I have seen. No priority boarding for Paltinum or Diamond.... Just check in desk then go to end of long line.... we arrived at 11 AM. About 65 minutes to get on board. Got our soda cards went to Sorrentos for lunch. We had sailed Freedom 2 years ago so it was like going home. Newbies were most impressed with their first look at the ship. At 1 went to drop stuff off at the cabin and met our cabin guy Anthony wwho took real good care of us. We had private Flowrider time booked so I went to confirm it at the Flowrider and this is where the communication started breaking down they had no record and would not discuss booking it withoutt the manager I was told to come back! well I went to the oursers office and asked to speak to the group coordinator Gabriella was a huge help and she was able to confirm it did exist.... huge relief!

I then headed to the spa to book a beach massage at Labadee.... price 129.00 for 1 hour. More on that later...

By now we went out to the pool to hang out..... until Muster Drill... it was typical. We met on deck 12 for sail away. It was windy! Wnet to our room to find our luggage was there..... started to unpack and then headed out to dinner. We were on deck 5 tables in the corner 2 tabkles of 4 1 table of 10 3 tables of 8 great waiter and asst. Food which is subjective.... I thought overall good but not special. The show that night was a juggler and a comedian. Good The cruise director was James Andrews... he is good but we had sailed with Richard Spacey on Freedom and that is a tough act to follow (Richard is going to Oasis yeah)

 

Day 2 at Sea

Very windy and rough.... flip flops were flying around the pool deck no getting away from it! Gave up after a while. We ate lunch and breakfast in the windjammer most days. Most of the day we just explored and hung out together. Went to the photo shop to arrange for a group photo. They charge 75.00 for the sitting fee..... it was arranged for the morning of a sea day... got Gabriella to follow up on it when I did not get a confirmation. It was a formal night and we went to the ice show fantastic a must see. We then had reservations for Chops. At this point I was feeling a little sea sick from all the rocking and rolling and I never get sick... worst I had felt on all our cruises.... Went to bed at 7 after having some ginger courtesy of the Chops waiter and a green apple from my fruit basket......

 

Day 3 going to San Juan

Very windy but was able to sit by the H2o zoneout of wind but definately not warm. We were supposed to arrive at 3 were delayed til 4 and then getting off the ship was a nightmare..... gridlock on the dock..... very disorganized.... fianlly got to the end of dock and we headed to Segway we had booked independently and we were too late! So we headed to the Bodies exhibit... we were impressed and really enjoyed it. We then walked around OSJ up and down several blocks then went to a cafe on the water before heading back to the ship.

 

More to come later....

[lovetocruise75]

Background: I am the TA and group coordinator for a group of 43 who sail together every other year. Ages are 17-late 50's. Had a variety of cabins from inside/promenade/balconies and 1 Owners Suite. Most on deck 7 port side suite on 10. We arrived on Friday and all stayed at the Holiday Inn Bayside.

We used Quality Limo for all ground transportaation..... highly reccommend them 1st class operation.

Embarkation: Longest I have seen. No priority boarding for Paltinum or Diamond.... Just check in desk then go to end of long line.... we arrived at 11 AM. About 65 minutes to get on board. Got our soda cards went to Sorrentos for lunch. We had sailed Freedom 2 years ago so it was like going home. Newbies were most impressed with their first look at the ship. At 1 went to drop stuff off at the cabin and met our cabin guy Anthony wwho took real good care of us. We had private Flowrider time booked so I went to confirm it at the Flowrider and this is where the communication started breaking down they had no record and would not discuss booking it withoutt the manager I was told to come back! well I went to the oursers office and asked to speak to the group coordinator Gabriella was a huge help and she was able to confirm it did exist.... huge relief!

I then headed to the spa to book a beach massage at Labadee.... price 129.00 for 1 hour. More on that later...

By now we went out to the pool to hang out..... until Muster Drill... it was typical. We met on deck 12 for sail away. It was windy! Wnet to our room to find our luggage was there..... started to unpack and then headed out to dinner. We were on deck 5 tables in the corner 2 tabkles of 4 1 table of 10 3 tables of 8 great waiter and asst. Food which is subjective.... I thought overall good but not special. The show that night was a juggler and a comedian. Good The cruise director was James Andrews... he is good but we had sailed with Richard Spacey on Freedom and that is a tough act to follow (Richard is going to Oasis yeah)

 

Day 2 at Sea

Very windy and rough.... flip flops were flying around the pool deck no getting away from it! Gave up after a while. We ate lunch and breakfast in the windjammer most days. Most of the day we just explored and hung out together. Went to the photo shop to arrange for a group photo. They charge 75.00 for the sitting fee..... it was arranged for the morning of a sea day... got Gabriella to follow up on it when I did not get a confirmation. It was a formal night and we went to the ice show fantastic a must see. We then had reservations for Chops. At this point I was feeling a little sea sick from all the rocking and rolling and I never get sick... worst I had felt on all our cruises.... Went to bed at 7 after having some ginger courtesy of the Chops waiter and a green apple from my fruit basket......

 

Day 3 going to San Juan

Very windy but was able to sit by the H2o zoneout of wind but definately not warm. We were supposed to arrive at 3 were delayed til 4 and then getting off the ship was a nightmare..... gridlock on the dock..... very disorganized.... fianlly got to the end of dock and we headed to Segway we had booked independently and we were too late! So we headed to the Bodies exhibit... we were impressed and really enjoyed it. We then walked around OSJ up and down several blocks then went to a cafe on the water before heading back to the ship.

 

More to come later....

 

I was on this cruise and working on my review. I am with you..ROUGH seas those first two days! BTW, Ken Rush is going to Oasis as C.D.

[quiltsnh]

I was on this cruise and working on my review. I am with you..ROUGH seas those first two days! BTW, Ken Rush is going to Oasis as C.D.

 

Funny James Andrews told me it was Richard Spacey!