melmar02

Being from Dallas, we love sailing out of Galveston because it is relatively close to home – a 5 hour drive, a day in Houston at a museum or Space Center, then a short drive to port the next morning. But to say itineraries are limited is an understatement. We were looking for something a little different this time, and DH found a 6 day followed by a 4 day on Liberty sailing from Ft. Lauderdale. This was a no brainer for us as Liberty is our favorite ship, we get 10 days instead of our usual 7, and while we do go back to Cozumel and Costa Maya, which are on every Galveston sailing, we also get to visit two new ports for our family - Nassau and CocoCay…twice!  
It will be the usual suspects: myself, DH, DD 15, and DS 11. We are staying in our favorite cabin, the 2 bedroom Grand Suite 9708. The 2 bedroom suites face aft on the Freedom and Voyager classes of ships, so we have a partially obstructed view with the superstructure. That doesn't bother us, and the extra living room and balcony space makes up for it.
We will hit 140 points on embarkation day, so we should be receiving our first crystal block. This is also our first back to back. We booked an excursion through Royal on turnaround day, so I will make sure to report how that process goes.
 
Here are the itinerary and excursion details:
Sunday 10/29 Fly from Dallas to Ft. Lauderdale
Monday 10/30 Ft. Lauderdale – Beach? Surf lessons as a Flowrider warm up? Nap all day in the hotel? We haven’t decided yet.
Tuesday 10/31 Embarkation – The kids have their Halloween costumes ready to go.
Wednesday 11/1 Sea day
Thursday 11/2 Costa Maya – No plans. Maybe the aviary to stretch our legs.
Friday 11/3 Cozumel – Save a Sea Turtle Experience
Saturday 11/4 Sea day
Sunday 11/5 Perfect Day. No plans. 
Monday 11/6 Turn around day / Ft. Lauderdale – Everglades Airboat Ride
Tuesday 11/7 Sea Day
Wednesday 11/8 Perfect Day – Thrill Waterpark
Thursday 11/9 Nassau – Queen’s Staircase, Fort Fincastle, and Pirate Museum on our own
Friday 11/10 Debarkation

That's nuts! Glad we were Star class when we were on her last spring! It will be interesting to see how Harmony disembarkation compares in a few months. 
 
DH is teaching DS to play solitare with a deck of cards we had in one of the carry on bags. An young airport worker was walking by and stopped trying to figure out what they were doing. He finally asked if that was solitare and when we said yes, he said he didn't know you could play it with real cards. #iamofficiallyold🤣

That's nuts! Glad we were Star class when we were on her last spring! It will be interesting to see how Harmony disembarkation compares in a few months. 
 
DH is teaching DS to play solitare with a deck of cards we had in one of the carry on bags. An young airport worker was walking by and stopped trying to figure out what they were doing. He finally asked if that was solitare and when we said yes, he said he didn't know you could play it with real cards. #iamofficiallyold🤣

That's nuts! Glad we were Star class when we were on her last spring! It will be interesting to see how Harmony disembarkation compares in a few months. 
 
DH is teaching DS to play solitare with a deck of cards we had in one of the carry on bags. An young airport worker was walking by and stopped trying to figure out what they were doing. He finally asked if that was solitare and when we said yes, he said he didn't know you could play it with real cards. #iamofficiallyold🤣

@asquared17Yeah, that was about 9:30pm too. 
We went to Chops for breakfast to avoid the craziness of the WJ, but the elevators are always crazy on the last day so there was no avoiding that mess. They had stairs roped off so everyone would be on the right side to disembark I guess? That created a lot of elevator traffic on one side of the ship. 
After breakfast we went to the suite lounge to wait for Jayson who said he would be there at 9am. He was taking a couple groups off earlier from the Schooner Bar, but our flight is not until 7pm, so we decided to take our time and go with the later group. They had muffins and pastries available. 
We found were off the ship too soon, and with luggage found went through the facial recognition line at customs. We poured out onto the sidewalk with 4400 other passengers and had no idea where an Uber would pick us up as there were arrows pointing in conflicting directions (some hand drawn and taped over the sign) and no discernable waiting area. We decided to just take a cab to the airport which was available immediately and $30.
We can't get our luggage checked in until 3pm, so we are parked in the lower level of the terminal across from the baggage claim. Should be good people watching.😆We looked at changing flights, but the only one we could find had only 45 minutes between the connecting flight and a plane change. The odds would not be in our favor with kids in tow, so we're sticking with our non-stop this evening. 
I'm secrectly hoping the bar we are sitting in makes us order something. "Oh no! I have to get a bloody mary on our last day of vacation!" I'll post final thoughts later.
 

That's nuts! Glad we were Star class when we were on her last spring! It will be interesting to see how Harmony disembarkation compares in a few months. 
 
DH is teaching DS to play solitare with a deck of cards we had in one of the carry on bags. An young airport worker was walking by and stopped trying to figure out what they were doing. He finally asked if that was solitare and when we said yes, he said he didn't know you could play it with real cards. #iamofficiallyold🤣

@asquared17Yeah, that was about 9:30pm too. 
We went to Chops for breakfast to avoid the craziness of the WJ, but the elevators are always crazy on the last day so there was no avoiding that mess. They had stairs roped off so everyone would be on the right side to disembark I guess? That created a lot of elevator traffic on one side of the ship. 
After breakfast we went to the suite lounge to wait for Jayson who said he would be there at 9am. He was taking a couple groups off earlier from the Schooner Bar, but our flight is not until 7pm, so we decided to take our time and go with the later group. They had muffins and pastries available. 
We found were off the ship too soon, and with luggage found went through the facial recognition line at customs. We poured out onto the sidewalk with 4400 other passengers and had no idea where an Uber would pick us up as there were arrows pointing in conflicting directions (some hand drawn and taped over the sign) and no discernable waiting area. We decided to just take a cab to the airport which was available immediately and $30.
We can't get our luggage checked in until 3pm, so we are parked in the lower level of the terminal across from the baggage claim. Should be good people watching.😆We looked at changing flights, but the only one we could find had only 45 minutes between the connecting flight and a plane change. The odds would not be in our favor with kids in tow, so we're sticking with our non-stop this evening. 
I'm secrectly hoping the bar we are sitting in makes us order something. "Oh no! I have to get a bloody mary on our last day of vacation!" I'll post final thoughts later.
 

Man did I get my steps in today! I was up earlier than usual, and DH usually drinks all the coffee in the room. I wait until we go to breakfast and get a cup from the suite lounge then. Instead I went once by myself, and a second time with DS right at 7 when they were setting out the continental breakfast. Here he is, sadly getting ready to gobble down his last pre-breakfast donut of the cruise. It was gone before we reached the elevator. 

I brought the second round of coffee back to the room just in time for DD to be ready to go to breakfast. I'm case you were wondering, here is the menu for the suite breakfast at Chops. We could get the same thing at the MDR or WJ, but it is cooked fresh and the service can't be beat.

After breakfast we wandered off the ship for our self guided tour. I had Google ready to guide me to the Queen's Staircase and Fort Fincastle which is really small, but right next to the stairs. We felt fine as a group, but Google took us through a neighborhood that felt a little off the beaten path - not sure I would have walked it by myself. 




According to the the Bahamas tourism website, the fort admission is free with donations appreciated. That info is out of date as it cost is $3 each plus VAT for a total of $14. Kids 5 and under were $2 plus tax. A warning about the additional VAT tax on 12% was listed on the front page of the Cruise Compass. This fort is small the round exterior with three canons, access to 2 small rooms that were maybe 10' x 14' and a small platform at the top. This was plenty for my kids though. 😆
Next we walked back through the neighborhood and on to our next stop thr Pirates of Nassau museum. Admission was $14 for adults and $7 for kids 17 and younger. They had a display of a shanty town and the interior of a ship. Several mannequins along the way to display the various parts of the ship. The mannequins made it a little hokey, but it was a decent 45 minute field trio. DD had quite a bit of reading and writing assignments relating to pirates at the beginning of our school year, and she enjoyed the museum. There are only a few actual artifacts and several replicas. 




From there we visited the straw market to get a couple souvenirs and then went back to the ship. Google said our trip should have been 1.8 miles from the port entrance and back. 
We had lunch in the WJ, and spent the afternoon packing.
We were able to catch a nice sunset from the suite lounge. Jayson said he is getting some time off in November and December, but will be back on. Liberty starting in January. 
DD left a small crochet jellyfish for our cabin attendant, and the kids received two towel animals tonight.

We had breakfast at Chops, and then went back to the cabin to change into our swim suits. We had tickets to Thrill Waterpark, and we decided to make the wave pool home base. We chose loungers somewhere in the middle of the pack, next to a tree so we would have a little more shade than the umbrella provided. 

We headed to Splash Summit and went on the racer mat ride 4 times so we could try each color. Then we did the tube slides. Next we headed over to Daredevil's Tower for a bit. DD and I both went to the Peak and we all did most of the other slides. I finally talked DS into the Slingshot, and I wish I had a picture of his face when we started the big descent! They are making progress on the new green slide - it looks like it may be another multi person slide like the sling shot. Daredevil's Peak had the worst wait time at about 25 minutes. All the other slides were 10 minutes or less with some, like the racer mats, that had no wait. Our legs are beat!

@asquared17Yeah, that was about 9:30pm too. 
We went to Chops for breakfast to avoid the craziness of the WJ, but the elevators are always crazy on the last day so there was no avoiding that mess. They had stairs roped off so everyone would be on the right side to disembark I guess? That created a lot of elevator traffic on one side of the ship. 
After breakfast we went to the suite lounge to wait for Jayson who said he would be there at 9am. He was taking a couple groups off earlier from the Schooner Bar, but our flight is not until 7pm, so we decided to take our time and go with the later group. They had muffins and pastries available. 
We found were off the ship too soon, and with luggage found went through the facial recognition line at customs. We poured out onto the sidewalk with 4400 other passengers and had no idea where an Uber would pick us up as there were arrows pointing in conflicting directions (some hand drawn and taped over the sign) and no discernable waiting area. We decided to just take a cab to the airport which was available immediately and $30.
We can't get our luggage checked in until 3pm, so we are parked in the lower level of the terminal across from the baggage claim. Should be good people watching.😆We looked at changing flights, but the only one we could find had only 45 minutes between the connecting flight and a plane change. The odds would not be in our favor with kids in tow, so we're sticking with our non-stop this evening. 
I'm secrectly hoping the bar we are sitting in makes us order something. "Oh no! I have to get a bloody mary on our last day of vacation!" I'll post final thoughts later.
 

DD wanted to eat in the MDR one last time, but DD wanted to go to bed early. DH went with our son, and I stayed I and ordered room service. Cobb salad, cheese steak with fries, and the fruit plate. They brought me bonus fries.

Man did I get my steps in today! I was up earlier than usual, and DH usually drinks all the coffee in the room. I wait until we go to breakfast and get a cup from the suite lounge then. Instead I went once by myself, and a second time with DS right at 7 when they were setting out the continental breakfast. Here he is, sadly getting ready to gobble down his last pre-breakfast donut of the cruise. It was gone before we reached the elevator. 

I brought the second round of coffee back to the room just in time for DD to be ready to go to breakfast. I'm case you were wondering, here is the menu for the suite breakfast at Chops. We could get the same thing at the MDR or WJ, but it is cooked fresh and the service can't be beat.

After breakfast we wandered off the ship for our self guided tour. I had Google ready to guide me to the Queen's Staircase and Fort Fincastle which is really small, but right next to the stairs. We felt fine as a group, but Google took us through a neighborhood that felt a little off the beaten path - not sure I would have walked it by myself. 




According to the the Bahamas tourism website, the fort admission is free with donations appreciated. That info is out of date as it cost is $3 each plus VAT for a total of $14. Kids 5 and under were $2 plus tax. A warning about the additional VAT tax on 12% was listed on the front page of the Cruise Compass. This fort is small the round exterior with three canons, access to 2 small rooms that were maybe 10' x 14' and a small platform at the top. This was plenty for my kids though. 😆
Next we walked back through the neighborhood and on to our next stop thr Pirates of Nassau museum. Admission was $14 for adults and $7 for kids 17 and younger. They had a display of a shanty town and the interior of a ship. Several mannequins along the way to display the various parts of the ship. The mannequins made it a little hokey, but it was a decent 45 minute field trio. DD had quite a bit of reading and writing assignments relating to pirates at the beginning of our school year, and she enjoyed the museum. There are only a few actual artifacts and several replicas. 




From there we visited the straw market to get a couple souvenirs and then went back to the ship. Google said our trip should have been 1.8 miles from the port entrance and back. 
We had lunch in the WJ, and spent the afternoon packing.
We were able to catch a nice sunset from the suite lounge. Jayson said he is getting some time off in November and December, but will be back on. Liberty starting in January. 
DD left a small crochet jellyfish for our cabin attendant, and the kids received two towel animals tonight.

That's nuts! Glad we were Star class when we were on her last spring! It will be interesting to see how Harmony disembarkation compares in a few months. 
 
DH is teaching DS to play solitare with a deck of cards we had in one of the carry on bags. An young airport worker was walking by and stopped trying to figure out what they were doing. He finally asked if that was solitare and when we said yes, he said he didn't know you could play it with real cards. #iamofficiallyold🤣

That's nuts! Glad we were Star class when we were on her last spring! It will be interesting to see how Harmony disembarkation compares in a few months. 
 
DH is teaching DS to play solitare with a deck of cards we had in one of the carry on bags. An young airport worker was walking by and stopped trying to figure out what they were doing. He finally asked if that was solitare and when we said yes, he said he didn't know you could play it with real cards. #iamofficiallyold🤣

That's nuts! Glad we were Star class when we were on her last spring! It will be interesting to see how Harmony disembarkation compares in a few months. 
 
DH is teaching DS to play solitare with a deck of cards we had in one of the carry on bags. An young airport worker was walking by and stopped trying to figure out what they were doing. He finally asked if that was solitare and when we said yes, he said he didn't know you could play it with real cards. #iamofficiallyold🤣

That's nuts! Glad we were Star class when we were on her last spring! It will be interesting to see how Harmony disembarkation compares in a few months. 
 
DH is teaching DS to play solitare with a deck of cards we had in one of the carry on bags. An young airport worker was walking by and stopped trying to figure out what they were doing. He finally asked if that was solitare and when we said yes, he said he didn't know you could play it with real cards. #iamofficiallyold🤣

That's nuts! Glad we were Star class when we were on her last spring! It will be interesting to see how Harmony disembarkation compares in a few months. 
 
DH is teaching DS to play solitare with a deck of cards we had in one of the carry on bags. An young airport worker was walking by and stopped trying to figure out what they were doing. He finally asked if that was solitare and when we said yes, he said he didn't know you could play it with real cards. #iamofficiallyold🤣

@asquared17Yeah, that was about 9:30pm too. 
We went to Chops for breakfast to avoid the craziness of the WJ, but the elevators are always crazy on the last day so there was no avoiding that mess. They had stairs roped off so everyone would be on the right side to disembark I guess? That created a lot of elevator traffic on one side of the ship. 
After breakfast we went to the suite lounge to wait for Jayson who said he would be there at 9am. He was taking a couple groups off earlier from the Schooner Bar, but our flight is not until 7pm, so we decided to take our time and go with the later group. They had muffins and pastries available. 
We found were off the ship too soon, and with luggage found went through the facial recognition line at customs. We poured out onto the sidewalk with 4400 other passengers and had no idea where an Uber would pick us up as there were arrows pointing in conflicting directions (some hand drawn and taped over the sign) and no discernable waiting area. We decided to just take a cab to the airport which was available immediately and $30.
We can't get our luggage checked in until 3pm, so we are parked in the lower level of the terminal across from the baggage claim. Should be good people watching.😆We looked at changing flights, but the only one we could find had only 45 minutes between the connecting flight and a plane change. The odds would not be in our favor with kids in tow, so we're sticking with our non-stop this evening. 
I'm secrectly hoping the bar we are sitting in makes us order something. "Oh no! I have to get a bloody mary on our last day of vacation!" I'll post final thoughts later.
 

They announced self assist could get going at 6:30 this morning. I'm guessing there will be a lot of people taking their own luggage off the ship based on the amount of luggage that was in the hallways last night.

They announced self assist could get going at 6:30 this morning. I'm guessing there will be a lot of people taking their own luggage off the ship based on the amount of luggage that was in the hallways last night.

@asquared17Yeah, that was about 9:30pm too. 
We went to Chops for breakfast to avoid the craziness of the WJ, but the elevators are always crazy on the last day so there was no avoiding that mess. They had stairs roped off so everyone would be on the right side to disembark I guess? That created a lot of elevator traffic on one side of the ship. 
After breakfast we went to the suite lounge to wait for Jayson who said he would be there at 9am. He was taking a couple groups off earlier from the Schooner Bar, but our flight is not until 7pm, so we decided to take our time and go with the later group. They had muffins and pastries available. 
We found were off the ship too soon, and with luggage found went through the facial recognition line at customs. We poured out onto the sidewalk with 4400 other passengers and had no idea where an Uber would pick us up as there were arrows pointing in conflicting directions (some hand drawn and taped over the sign) and no discernable waiting area. We decided to just take a cab to the airport which was available immediately and $30.
We can't get our luggage checked in until 3pm, so we are parked in the lower level of the terminal across from the baggage claim. Should be good people watching.😆We looked at changing flights, but the only one we could find had only 45 minutes between the connecting flight and a plane change. The odds would not be in our favor with kids in tow, so we're sticking with our non-stop this evening. 
I'm secrectly hoping the bar we are sitting in makes us order something. "Oh no! I have to get a bloody mary on our last day of vacation!" I'll post final thoughts later.
 

@asquared17Yeah, that was about 9:30pm too. 
We went to Chops for breakfast to avoid the craziness of the WJ, but the elevators are always crazy on the last day so there was no avoiding that mess. They had stairs roped off so everyone would be on the right side to disembark I guess? That created a lot of elevator traffic on one side of the ship. 
After breakfast we went to the suite lounge to wait for Jayson who said he would be there at 9am. He was taking a couple groups off earlier from the Schooner Bar, but our flight is not until 7pm, so we decided to take our time and go with the later group. They had muffins and pastries available. 
We found were off the ship too soon, and with luggage found went through the facial recognition line at customs. We poured out onto the sidewalk with 4400 other passengers and had no idea where an Uber would pick us up as there were arrows pointing in conflicting directions (some hand drawn and taped over the sign) and no discernable waiting area. We decided to just take a cab to the airport which was available immediately and $30.
We can't get our luggage checked in until 3pm, so we are parked in the lower level of the terminal across from the baggage claim. Should be good people watching.😆We looked at changing flights, but the only one we could find had only 45 minutes between the connecting flight and a plane change. The odds would not be in our favor with kids in tow, so we're sticking with our non-stop this evening. 
I'm secrectly hoping the bar we are sitting in makes us order something. "Oh no! I have to get a bloody mary on our last day of vacation!" I'll post final thoughts later.
 

They announced self assist could get going at 6:30 this morning. I'm guessing there will be a lot of people taking their own luggage off the ship based on the amount of luggage that was in the hallways last night.

We have had a version of the ray before, but not with the curled edges. I think it was one of the kids' first cruises and we got something crazy like 14 animals on a 7 night cruise.
 
DS wanted to see In the Air. To be honest we all did - don't miss it if you are on Liberty. DH went with him and I crawled into bed and watched the end of Mrs. Doubtfire. When the movie ended, I was flipping through the channels and hit the schedule channel at just the right time. The photo gallery hours were at the top of the page. I almost forgot! 🤦‍♀️I ran back downstairs and picked our 10 for this leg.
If the Fitbit can be trusted, I've hit 7 miles today. After walking up stairs all day yesterday at the waterpark, my ankles are toast. I'm kind of looking forward to sitting around the airport all day tomorrow. 🙃 We are all checked in for the flight and are boarding group B26-29.

DD wanted to eat in the MDR one last time, but DD wanted to go to bed early. DH went with our son, and I stayed I and ordered room service. Cobb salad, cheese steak with fries, and the fruit plate. They brought me bonus fries.