PDCC Twice, Our First B2B - Liberty OTS 10/31/23-11/10/23

[ScottD]

That's a cheesy cheesesteak! I can dig it.  Loved all of the towel animals, you guys got a lot of them during the trip, very cool!   SO.... we have our first Liberty cruise in July for a 5 nighter to Bermuda...BUT now you have me looking at adding the next cruise which is a 4 nighter to Canada and making it a little 9 night B2B.  My wife is up in the air because "what if we don't like the ship" but I don't see that being an issue. 

[melmar02]

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.

[asquared17]

oh man we always do self assist — and it is a JOURNEY — but WOW that is one quiet corridor! 

[melmar02]

@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.

 

[jbrinkm]

6 hours ago, ScottD said:

SO.... we have our first Liberty cruise in July for a 5 nighter to Bermuda...

Will you blog this? I'd love to read it!!

[ScottD]

6 minutes ago, jbrinkm said:

Will you blog this? I'd love to read it!!

Absolutely! 

[jbrinkm]

@melmar02 It always stinks when you feel like you got off this ship too soon, and also with the late flight to have to wait in the airport all day. The one time we had such a late flight, we ended up getting a day pass to a hotel, mostly so we could nap!

We ran into that elevator issue when we disembarked Allure last spring - everyone was getting routed through the dining room to exit and they were alternating letting people into the line from the elevator "lobbies" and letting people out of the dining room to follow the line to exit, so it backed up the elevator spaces. So much so, that people couldn't even get OUT of the elevators at times with their luggage - there was no room for them to move out of the elevator and into the waiting space.

[melmar02]

52 minutes ago, jbrinkm said:

@melmar02 

We ran into that elevator issue when we disembarked Allure last spring

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

[OCSC Mike]

4 minutes ago, melmar02 said:

he said he didn't know you could play it with real cards

That's awesome!

[asquared17]

39 minutes ago, melmar02 said:

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

okay goODBYE.

[Ampurp85]

I am always dead when youths see certain things in real life and are shocked. But seeing real life solitaire and being confused has my side hurting from laughter. 

[FireFishII]

On 11/10/2023 at 12:38 PM, melmar02 said:

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

I am sorry but I think this was the best part of the blog!!  I am dying here with laughter.  

[melmar02]

On 11/12/2023 at 2:38 PM, FireFishII said:

I am sorry but I think this was the best part of the blog!!  I am dying here with laughter.  

We were too, and it was certainly a much needed funny encounter after a long day at the airport!

[melmar02]

Final thoughts - 

Liberty is starting to show her age in a few places, especially in hard to reach parts like the superstructure. I probably would be too after 16 years in the water, and we could look past the few blemishes. The crew was out painting throughout the sailing. The sports court was closed for the entire 6 days of the first leg because they were resurfacing it. All of the aft balconies need the same TLC - I believe they are covered in the same material, and there are major pock marks in the floor from the chairs.

Laundry - We sent out 2 Wash and Fold service bags the first leg since it was more than 5 days, but we had to specifically ask for the right forms. DH also sent out a couple of things on the second leg. Our D discounts were applied without us having to ask. Everything came back just fine except for our socks. They had all shrunk. None of the other items - t shirts, polos, undies, pants... just the socks. They stretched back out and fit fine, but it was comical just how much smaller they were.

  

 

Jayson, our concierge was amazing. We mentioned to him in passing that we elected to get an Uber and not wait on the turnaround day excursion bus to go to Miami airport before dropping us off. He casually asked how much our Uber was - $11 and change. The next day we had a $20 credit to our account. It certainly wasn't necessary, and it was a nice gesture. I don't think I have ever had anyone smile at me so much and it feel genuine. I hope we can sail with him again in the future.

Crown Lounge - I poked my head in a few times, and never did see the concierge. 

Flowrider lessons - worth it. To us anyway. My kids are at that age where Splashaway Bay isn't quite as cool, and they are ready for the next big(ger) thing. We have done the Flowrider in the past, but it was very nice to have dedicated instruction. We plan on taking what we learned and practicing here at home before our next sailing as we have access to one about 45 minutes away. 

Perfect Day - My kids continue to surprise me, especially DD who is on the spectrum. Before this trip Thrill Waterpark would have felt like a waste as they would have spent most of their time in the wave or adventure pools. We bought it on last year's Black Friday sale for just under $50 per person. Both kids went on multiple slides, some way outside of their comfort zones. For the right price, we would definitely go again. DS and I think they should add a few Flowriders to the island, but outside of the waterpark. It was nice to have 2 full days there so we could experience things outside of the waterpark.

Ship size - I still think the Freedom/Voyager class is the sweet spot for our family, but with only one experience on an Oasis class, and that being in Star class, it's hard to say that for sure. Our next cruise is on Harmony, so we will get a better idea then. 

Drink package - I think we are going to try to go with no drink package at all this next time. We dropped to only the refreshment package when we hit diamond and it has worked out fine for us, but DH and I are starting to drink less and less  as we get older so our Diamond vouchers are pretty much covering us. Instead, we'll get the 24 water package for the next one and save $600 on pre-cruise purchases. Well, maybe not save... I have my eye on an excursion or two in the spring.

Photo package - I will continue to pre-purchase a package. I use the images we get plus the pictures we take and make photo books. I have no baby albums for my kids, but cruise books, you betcha! I usually get the 100 images so I don't have to think. The past several years it has been on sale for about $125 on Black Friday. This year's sale though has it over $200. I think I'm going to get the 50 image package instead which is $179 right now.

Crystal block - Jason had one waiting for us on day one, it was the old design. Brought it home in my carry one and it was not flagged at FLL as anything weird that needed inspection. 

Overall, our family loves to cruise, and we have 3 more on the books - one every 6 months or so. I don't see this changing anytime soon, especially now that we are expanding our itineraries. The three we have booked are all connecting balconies which will be different for us as we have only sailed in the 2 bedroom suites with the kids. I think current pricing is going to keep us to balconies instead of suites unless we drop to 1 a year, and right now I think we want to keep our current pace. We will turn D+ on the last night of our fall '24 cruise. 

Thanks for following along!

[asquared17]

this family photo

[Ampurp85]

You guys look great in that photo. 

I have to say it seems your daughter does pretty well as far as crowds and such go, based on my reading about your adventures. I love that she can still have a wonderful time, but also get the time she needs to decompress. 

I also have to agree that freedom/voyager class is great. I think the only reason I even prefer Oasis is because of the shows. 

[melmar02]

12 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I have to say it seems your daughter does pretty well as far as crowds and such go, based on my reading about your adventures.

She does as long as she gets a chance to recharge. She definitely has her bad days - like the last night of the cruise, she was just done. I think the water park the day before and walking all around Nassau did her in. Plus she was really absorbing the Pirate Museum exhibits - I think that really helped the books she read earlier this year come to life and click in a whole different way. It wore her out mentally though. Now if you get her fresh, say 10am, she'll chase you around a ship for hours telling you all about which Pokemon would be a good mash up with various Five Nights at Freddy's characters.  She's going to make a great fan fiction author one day!

[Lovetocruise2002]

16 hours ago, melmar02 said:

Liberty is starting to show her age in a few places, especially in hard to reach parts like the superstructure. I probably would be too after 16 years in the water, and we could look past the few blemishes. The crew was out painting throughout the sailing. The sports court was closed for the entire 6 days of the first leg because they were resurfacing it. All of the aft balconies need the same TLC - I believe they are covered in the same material, and there are major pock marks in the floor from the chairs.

I 100% agree with this! I saw the same thing on the floor of your balcony that I noticed in ours in August. Those floors need a resurfacing big time!

16 hours ago, melmar02 said:

but we had to specifically ask for the right forms.

Same. I also had to hunt down our room attendant for these forms.

16 hours ago, melmar02 said:

Jayson, our concierge was amazing. We mentioned to him in passing that we elected to get an Uber and not wait on the turnaround day excursion bus to go to Miami airport before dropping us off. He casually asked how much our Uber was - $11 and change. The next day we had a $20 credit to our account. It certainly wasn't necessary, and it was a nice gesture. I don't think I have ever had anyone smile at me so much and it feel genuine. I hope we can sail with him again in the future.

Love this! It's really those little gestures that make a big difference. The more I sail, the more I am coming to realize that.

Also, that is a beautiful family picture of the 4 of you!

Thanks for bringing us along again.

 

 

[FireFishII]

Love your blog and LOVE your family photo.  Thank you for sharing your adventures with us. 

[asquared17]

16 hours ago, melmar02 said:

She's going to make a great fan fiction author one day!

this got me right in the feels. fan fiction is how all of us start. blood, sweat and tears go into those stories and fandom friendships. 

3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

really those little gestures that make a big difference. The more I sail, the more I am coming to realize that

100 percent. and i know it’s a two way street with the crew as well; and i know both of you (and so many of us here) are committed to making it a hospitable, genuine and heartfelt interaction, regardless of the gen pop around us. 

that behavior does not go unnoticed.