Overdue Review

The cruise was a blast! We had a lot of fun and it was great to just get away from the business of being at home. The day before we left for the cruise I found out that the following Monday there would be a layoff where I work. So that meant that I would come home from vacation not knowing if I still had a job or not. Thankfully, a coworker of mine sent me a text message that day to let me know that I was safe! That made the rest of the trip much better for me!

Anyways, I will now attempt to give a brief review of our cruise on the Carnival Liberty.

Our trip really got off to a bad start. We had an early flight out of GSP at 7:30 that was suppose to get us to ATL by 8:30 for our connecting flight to Miami leaving ATL at 9:30, arriving at MIA by 11:30. That gives us plenty of time to get to the ship before it leaves at 4:00 PM. However, that is not at all how it happened. We boarded the plane on time and all appeared as if we were getting ready to leave the gate until the pilot made an announcement that due to heavy air traffic in Atlanta, we would not be taking off for at least 30 minutes. Okay, so we would leave at 8:00 and make up some time in the air. We could still make our 9:30 flight out of ATL. Well, 8:00 rolls around and the pilot makes another announcement that we are still being held from taking off, probably another 30 minutes or so. That puts us taking off at 8:30. Now I am starting to freak out! What if we don't make our 9:30 flight now? Are there other flights going to MIA with empty seats that will get us to the pier in time? Finally, we take off around 8:45 and land in ATL at 9:15. We have 15 minutes before our next flight and I think we might have a chance of making that flight, but the pilot drives the plane to the wrong concourse and so we don't get to the right gate until right at 9:30. By the time we get off the plane we find out that our 9:30 flight had already left the gate. I'm really panicking right now! Anyway, to make this very long story short, we were rebooked on a 10:30 flight that got us into MIA a little after 12:30. We got on the ship in time and that is all that matters. Bottom line is I don't deal well with someone else being in control! Next time, we will either fly down the day before or leave out of Charlotte where it is a non-stop flight to MIA.

Embarkation on the ship was a little disappointing, too. We checked in at the desk in a timely manner, but there were so many passengers waiting to get on that we had to sit in this large area waiting for them to call our zone number before we could actually get on the ship. We probably waited somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour. That's not long really, but the last cruise we went on with Princess the embarkation was a breeze. We checked in at the desk and got on the ship immediately.

Our cabins were acceptable, I guess. They were slightly larger than what we've had before, but our balcony was also slightly smaller than what we've had before. Nonetheless, we weren't too concerned with the room because on a cruise you really don't spend that much time in the room. We did enjoy the balcony, though. It is very nice to have when coming into a new port or leaving a port. It is also nice to go out on the balcony first thing in the morning and late at night while traveling at sea. I highly recommend a balcony room!

I thought that the food on the ship was pretty good. I usually don't have many complaints in this area. I won't go into what all I ate because half the time I was ordering stuff that I either couldn't pronounce or really wasn't sure what it was exactly. I didn't have a single complaint about the food in the formal dining room. Our head waiter, Calvin, was extremely nice and accommodating as well. I I did have a very delicious fillet mignon one night at Harry's Supper Club, but I don't think that I would pay the extra money to eat there again. It was a flat $30 per person to eat there (which wasn't bad), but everything about it just seemed a bit eccentric to me. The food at the buffet/grill was just okay, but the food at any buffet is usually just okay.

The decor of the ship was slightly better than your average Carnival ship, but there didn't seem to be any consistent design going on. Everything just seemed a bit mixed match in some areas of the ship, but in other areas things were very nice. I think the overall decor of the ship was just a little too gaudy and at times it really took away from what could have been a nicer decor had they just stopped adding stuff.

I was a little disappointed in the entertainment that the ship had to offer. I actually fell asleep during one of the "Las Vegas" style shows. There didn't seem to be enough variety and the times and locations of some of the activities just didn't seem like they were very well thought through. I also think that the cruise director was not as funny as he thought he was. I did enjoy the comedic hypnotist, but I was (and still am) very skeptical of his hypnotic abilities. We ran into several people who he "allegedly hypnotized" and they weren't very convincing after we asked them several questions about their experience. Karaoke was also FUN! That's all I'll say about that!

We stayed on the ship with about 300 other people in the Bahamas while the rest of the 2700 others chose to get off on tender boats and go to the island. This was a great decision as we had almost the entire Lido deck to ourselves. The water slide was also a lot of fun that day! We also stopped in St. Thomas which is one of my favorite places. I love the port their and the scenery is just amazing. I got some brownie points with Megan by buying her some bling in one of the many jewelry shops there. We also went the Magen's Bay and spent the afternoon at the beach there. Magen's Bay is touted as one of the top 10 beaches of the world. Very nice! San Juan was just okay. Didn't care too much for the shopping there so Megan and I decided to do a tour of one of the forts there. It was very interesting as I enjoy things like that, but it was a huge fort and involved a lot of walking in the hot sun, but that's the Caribbean for you! We chose just to make Grand Turk a beach day which was a very relaxing day. We had lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Restaurant and then just laid out on the beach the rest of the afternoon.

Disembarkation from the ship was much better than embarkation. We chose to do the self assist and left the ship right after breakfast. We were off the ship and at the airport by 8:30 in the morning. The only bad part about that was that our flight didn't leave MIA until 1:15 PM. So we had a lot of wait time that morning. That's where an MP3 player and Sudoku came in handy!

The flights home were uneventful and on time and the excitement of seeing our kids again at this point had us both very anxious. We had a lot of fun and needed time away, but we missed our kids very much! When we saw them at the airport it was one of those "BIG" moments for us! To have them run to us and jump in our arms and give us such BIG hugs was great and a moment I'll never forget!

Overall, the trip was great and we did have a lot of fun! Were there things about it that we would change or that we wished had been different? Of course, but overall the cruise served its purpose for us!

Now, we are looking forward to going to the beach for a week in August. This will be the first vacation that we have taken where it will be just the four of us (Me, Megan, Tyler and Ryan). We love our families (and friends) and have gone on lots of vacations with them, but this will be a very special trip for us!