Party of three on LIBERTY with the ScottD Family ... (to Bermuda 7/18 from NJ -that part didn't rhyme)

[ScottD]

Current situation...on a ferry from the Bermuda dock yard to Hamilton. We have no concrete plans...might just walk around Hamilton, might hop a bus to the blue hole/Tom Moores jungle or might go right to Horseshoe.  Bought us all day passes for the ferry and busses, so we can jump on and off all we want. I love having no all aboard time, so we are just going with the flow today. Probably try lunch and some ice cream in Hamilton.  Tomorrow we have the glass bottom boat early, so today is "free choice " day.  View of Liberty from the ferry....

 

[MaryS]

20 minutes ago, ScottD said:

Current situation...on a ferry from the Bermuda dock yard to Hamilton. We have no concrete plans...might just walk around Hamilton, might hop a bus to the blue hole/Tom Moores jungle or might go right to Horseshoe.  Bought us all day passes for the ferry and busses, so we can jump on and off all we want. I love having no all aboard time, so we are just going with the flow today. Probably try lunch and some ice cream in Hamilton.  Tomorrow we have the glass bottom boat early, so today is "free choice " day.  View of Liberty from the ferry....

 

If you take the bus to Blue Hole you can have lunch at Swizzle Inn and ice cream at Bailey's Ice cream shop (just an fyi cash only for the ice cream shop).  Both are just down the road from Blue Hole.  You can take the 10 or 11 bus out of the bus station in Hamilton.

[ScottD]

21 hours ago, MaryS said:

If you take the bus to Blue Hole you can have lunch at Swizzle Inn and ice cream at Bailey's Ice cream shop (just an fyi cash only for the ice cream shop).  Both are just down the road from Blue Hole.  You can take the 10 or 11 bus out of the bus station in Hamilton.

 

And this is exactly what we did!  It was a pretty great day, got a lot squeezed in. We took the ferry to Hamilton,  walked around a few shops on front st then walked over the the bus depot like 2 blocks off of the main stretch. We thought for sure we'd have to wait for a 2nd bus, it was jammed but right as she was about to close the doors, she said she rad room for three...and even  though we were still about 20 deep in line, we were the only party of three...having just one kid comes in handy sometimes! 

So after a tight, windy ride..got off across the street from a gas station, walked a little through some paths and boom...there was the blue hole, beatiful blue water with a little viewing platform. Lots of people cliff diving off the side, we chose to climb down the pretty rough rocks and slide it...no one wants to see pasty old Scott diving. After all three of us waded around,and the boy snorkeled a bit, we walked around Tom Moores jungle a bit. My kid Found the cool little cave that I've seen on many YouTube vids, so that was pretty awesome. Definitely glad we decided to make this little trek. Got some ice cream at Bailey's right up the street, hit the Swizzle inn right across the street so wife could try the rum swizzle while me and the boy changed out of our wet shorts in the bathroom. 

We bought an all day pass for bus/ferry transport so we jumped another bus right across from the Swizzle back to Hamilton. 

Did some shops, grabbed a pretty expensive lunch at the Irish pub (Flanagans)..then decided to ferry back to the dock yard. We missed the ferry by minutes, so we could wait another 1.5 or grab the bus...so we took the hour long bus ride back. At least we got to see some more of the island that way. The locals on the bus have all been super friendly..definitely not like riding the bus back home,lol.  Did Italian night dinner...never realized how many people participate in White night, the dining room looked like an asylum with all those white shirts and jackets! Wife and I ended the night with the adult comedy show, and like expecting..he was MUCH funnier without the censor.  Heading out this morning for a glass bottom boat ride, the I guess we'll finally check out Horseshoe bay since that seems to be the "must check out" thing here. Assuming it will be a mad house since a second ship docked this morning,we were alone yesterday.  I'll do a big photo dump when I log into wifi...I'm up on the top deck using regular cell service and the pics are taking forevvvver to load. For now, heres one of blue hole

[ScottD]

[AshleyDillo]

2 hours ago, ScottD said:

Did Italian night dinner...never realized how many people participate in White night, the dining room looked like an asylum with all those white shirts and jackets!

Italian night + white night...Definitely party in the asylum  

[MaryS]

So glad you had a wonderful 1st day in Bermuda.  Bermudians are the friendliest people I have ever met.  They love to be helpful to tourists and are proud to tell you about their island.  Hope you have a great 2nd day!  

[Sweety]

1 hour ago, ScottD said:

What a beautiful moon!

[Ampurp85]

Those pictures are beautiful. I am glad you had a wonderful day with some luck.

I am always like "you brave, brave people" when it comes to white night being on Italian night in MDR.

[OCSC Mike]

3 hours ago, ScottD said:

Did Italian night dinner...never realized how many people participate in White night, the dining room looked like an asylum with all those white shirts and jackets!

LOL. Sometime in the past 5 weeks Wonder switched white night from Italian to Mexican.

Love a couple of those desserts.

[WAAAYTOOO]

8 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Love a couple of those desserts.

I think the tres leches is the best dessert on the whole ship.

[ScottD]

So far the food had all been really good this trip. Desserts have been great, that warm chocolate cake and cream puffs have been my favorite. 

Yesterday was a little more relaxed,  we had the glass bottom boat ride which was fun. The captain was hilarious, and it was a small group of maybe 10 people so we had plenty of room to gather around the windows below deck. Got a nice history lesson, got shown the official corner of the Bermuda triangle and went right over a ship wreck which was full of fish and coral.  After that we planned on doing Horseshoe beach, but it looked a little overcast plus with the NCL ship in port, we knew it would be absolutely packed so we decided that's our excuse to come back again (especially since we'll be able to sail here from right down the street from our house soon!)

So we did a little souvenir shopping at the port mall and some of the stands. Then we walked back to the ship...dropped the wife off because she wanted to relax at the pool,  and me and the boy went back out to the big mini golf course on the other side of the port. It was fun, beatiful views, but SOOO HOT. I was dripping by the time we even started. Got my butt whooped, then we headed back with about 2 hours until all aboard.

Decided that no one wanted anything on Mexican night, so we did our first WJ dinner. The boy was happy because they still had grilled steak..then he had about 6 jello cups... wife had  salad, grilled chicken that she thought was great and some mashed potatoes, I grabbed a fajita which was just ok, little light on the filling...a few slices of strip steak, a burger, a dog, some fries and a few ranger cookies. Don't judge..I had no real food up until now, we didn't do breakfast and I think I had a slice of pizza in between boar ride and mini golf, so I was ready to eat!  

Wrapped up the night at Saturday night fever at 945. Glad we went, that was a really fun show. Great production and the dancing was amazing in some parts. Realized we went to the theater every night this cruise,  but I think we saw it once total in the past two cruises on OA. Definitely made it a point to do some more shows and live acts this time. 

Oh..I did hit the casino one more time once they both called it a night, lost a few bucks hut played for a bit so I always consider that an ok night.  

Going up to do some family mini gold competition with the boy soon then Quest tonight!

Here's a few boat ride and mini golf pics...

We've gotten two towel animals and not sure what either one is... so I posted them both for your opinion

 

[Ampurp85]

That water is gorgeous .

I know your post says MDR but you meant the WJ. How were the crowds?

[ScottD]

Just now, Ampurp85 said:

That water is gorgeous .

I know your post says MDR but you meant the WJ. How were the crowds?

Thanks,fixed it. It wasn't bad at all for dinner... breakfast today,on the other hand...ooof. like the Hunger games up there. People attacking those fresh mounds of bacon like it's the last bacon they'll ever see, people shoving their way in-between each other to grab stuff, and to top it off, the crew is up there dancing and singing to Sweet Caroline and doing a conga line through the whole restaurant.  I went up on my own, shoveled down what I got and got the hell outta there.

[ScottD]

I think the heat wore the fam out yesterday so they're both just relaxing in the room. I took a stroll and at this very moment, I'm finally eating a Cafe promenade tuna! (Or two)

[asquared17]

tuna!!!!!

also i love the pic of the duck

[ScottD]

Just now, asquared17 said:

tuna!!!!!

also i love the pic of the duck

That duck was in a great spot! We were walking along the outside deck where the shuffleboards are, so I wanted to show the kid where they keep the equipment,  we popped the little box open on the wall and there he was.  

[Lovetocruise2002]

5 hours ago, ScottD said:

I grabbed a fajita which was just ok, little light on the filling...a few slices of strip steak, a burger, a dog, some fries and a few ranger cookies. Don't judge..I had no real food up until now,

Umm...I think it's quite safe to say that this is a judgement free zone when it comes to food lol

[OCSC Mike]

4 hours ago, ScottD said:

I think the heat wore the fam out yesterday so they're both just relaxing in the room. I took a stroll

I'm quite familiar with the "wife is napping, time for a stroll" myself. The only question for me is what food venue to hit and what to use a voucher on to go with said food. ELF and the attached tequila bar has been my recent go-to but it would likely be Cafe Promenade or Sorrento's on Liberty (drink along the way from who knows where).

*On Oasis class those are designated as night time snacks for me since the other places are closed. Yes, my eating plans have no bounds.

2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Umm...I think it's quite safe to say that this is a judgement free zone when it comes to food lol

Obviously this, lol.

[Lovetocruise2002]

20 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Obviously this, lol.

I was actually thinking of you when I wrote that haha

[OCSC Mike]

6 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I was actually thinking of you when I wrote that haha

No way! i never would have guessed...

[ScottD]

So while the wife was napping and the boy wasn't up for doing much, I ended up checking out the ice show on my own. Not gonna lie,it started out slow..I was pretty close to sneaking out,but then it switched "eras" and the last 20 minutes was all Stones,The Who, a little Elvis, Joplin...so it actually turned out to be a fun show once they eased their way into it. So I'm glad I got it in, saw a lot more shows this time around.  Pretty laid back day overall.  Finally got everyone moving by dinnet...Caribbean Night. Not a favorite, but I really enjoyed the pork bao tacos and roasted chicken.  Both of my adventurous others got NY strip,lol.  I totally forgot pics but this was the only night that the steaks came out kind of dry and over cooked. After being stuck through the THREE song staff dance and announcement, we blew outta there.  Did our packing, got the bags in the hall and then me and wife went to her first Crazy quest. Our Cruise director,Danny Turner was really good all week...swear he was at every single show and activity we attended. He was really good, but just slightly more subdued than Elvis was during the Quest. Made a few raunchy comments but NOTHING like the last one I did. I also didn't participate in this one,where the last one I was definitely more involved.  Capped our night off at Schooner bar, which turned Into our spot most of the week. Definitely the best of the bartenders, the one guy always worked the theater bar then made his way down to schooner,so he got to know my order by day 2 and always had a white wine and sugar free red bull waiting..had to tell him to chill on the red bull at a certain point each night if I wanted to sleep and not have my heart explode,lol. 

Right now it's 640am, literally crossing back under the Verazanno bridge so we are just about back to Bayonne. Thanks for coming along, I wish I spent a little more time in details with the various pics and what not, but i will do a little recap/review of the ship and port when I'm on my real computer tomorrow.

The Scott special, a really cool looking storm behind us, ice show, sad library and belly flop contest

 

[Robert M]

I hid ducks in Library books and saw a little guy find one and he lit up so excited as he was reaching for a kids book to stay entertained. We thought they ice show started super slow last July but the ending was awesome, enjoyed your blog for sure !

[asquared17]

i hope your disembarkation went smoothly!!!

[ScottD]

1 hour ago, asquared17 said:

i hope your disembarkation went smoothly!!!

It went great! We had 9am...met up in the theater and snuck right out with the 830 folk. My car was like a mile away,so the porter brought our luggage to the corner of the parking garage, then I hiked the mile (ok not quite that much..) to my car and looped  back around to pick everyone and everything up. A lot of people on the FB group complaining about disembarking, but we were off the ship and on the NJTP in maybe 30 minutes.

[ScottD]

Final thoughts: 

The ship was nicer than I expected, I see a lot of "it's run down and outdated" comments, but I honestly didn't notice. There were a few things that could be updated-the public bathrooms were just odd, a lot of the men's rooms had one urinal and one stall, but the doors to the bathroom opened up to the hallway, so when the door was opened, it was a clear shot of the guys at the urinal. My Wife said some of the women's rooms only had a single stall,- so you had to go through the main door, then lock that unless you wanted someone trying to open the stall door while you were in there.   A few of the auto sliding doors to get to the outside deck on four were a little slow or delayed and our bathroom light took a little trickery to open, but other than that- I thought the ship looked great, It's a really beautiful ship.  The promenade is nice, the casino is a bit tight- especially since you have to cut through there to get to the other side of deck 4 unless you go along the outside. Oh yeah, we were on deck two forward.  You can only access the FWD cabins of Deck 2 and 3 via the forward elevators, so that was a little hassle, nothing major, but kind of a pain to get to the room from places like Windjammer or the dining room, where we'd have to go down to 4 or 5, walk across then take the other elevator the rest of the way down. We found that out the hard way on day 1 when we wandered around deck two trying to figure out where the hell our room was, lol.   

The shows were all good, Saturday night fever was really fun, the juggler was way better than I expected and the comedian was hilarious once he was doing the 18+ show, he struggled during the PG show.  The ice show started slow, but it started rocking at the end and turned out to be a fun show. 

Food was good, like really good. We enjoyed every meal this time around, and tried Giovannis lunch for the first time- which was an amazing meal. The Filet was perfect, the service was great. We will definitely do Lunch there again next time.  The service in MDR was just ok, they took our order, dropped our food then that was it. Never really had any kind of conversation with them or any real connection. Our kid was a little let down, but that's because our last cruise MDR server was AMAZING, he still talks about Edgard and compares any server at any restaurant we eat at to him, ha.   The only time we talked to the server more than a few words was, of course the last night when he reminded us FOUR times during the meal to make sure we give them good reviews. 

Service on the ship - it was good and most of them were friendly, we just weren't blown away. There was one bartender who we really liked, he remembered everything we drank even when we saw him at his secondary bar in the theater, and actually talked and conversated a bit. Most of the staff just seemed to be there to do the job, usually with a smile, so no real complaint-just not overwhelmed by it.  I think if it was someone's first cruise or we did this ship before the Oasis cruises, we'd be blown away- but that last cruise on Oasis was just so good and everyone was so insanely friendly and went above and beyond, we just got spoiled.  

Bermuda was AMAZING and we already plan on going back- especially since they announced cruises would be sailing from Philly to Bermuda starting in just over a year... that's a $15 uber ride from my house, so we will definitely be trying that at least once!! 

We would absolutely do Liberty again (or try one of the other Freedom class ships). It had everything we needed and enjoyed the pools and bars. I liked the slightly smaller feel, but we all missed having the boardwalk area- that seemed to be the only thing all three of us mentioned at least once "this would be a great time to be hanging at Playmakers on the boardwalk".    

So our next two cruises will be our first Non- Royal cruises, Princess from NYC without the kid, then the MSC from Miami with him.  This is the first time we left a cruise without laying a deposit down at NextCruise.... we are still trying to figure out whether we want to do Symphony from NJ, splurge a little and do a B2B on Utopia or go all in on MSC and try  the ship they have out of NY.  

Thanks for coming along, logging in and out of wifi all week made it a little more of a job than I wanted it to be, but I think I hit on most of the important stuff. 

[Ampurp85]

I am glad you had a good time despite the ship being a lowly Freedom class. 

I love a bigger ship because there is often so much to do but I find Freedom is a sweet spot. It isn't too small to feel lackluster and not so big you feel overwhelmed. Usually, the saving grace is the crew and I wish that you felt it, however given what some humans are doing to others, I can understand the lack of enthusiasm. 

[ScottD]

Just now, Ampurp85 said:

I am glad you had a good time despite the ship being a lowly Freedom class. 

I love a bigger ship because there is often so much to do but I find Freedom is a sweet spot. It isn't too small to feel lackluster and not so big you feel overwhelmed. Usually, the saving grace is the crew and I wish that you felt it, however given what some humans are doing to others, I can understand the lack of enthusiasm. 

Yeah..like I said, i actually enjoyed the ship and would definitely do it again. We talked to a few of the crew and they seem to be winding down in the contract so maybe some of them are just worn out. No one was mean, angry or whatever. Some of them just seemed tired.  We had a great time, I guess now that I re-read my post it sounds a little negative but it certainly wasn't. I actually enjoyed the slightly smaller ship...even on that, we still didn't do or see everything since it was a 5 day. Speaking of humans treating humans badly...

We did have to go to guest services twice...once to have a drink removed from the boys account, he had a soda package and ordered a Shirley ginger thinking it was a ginger ale and grenadine but they gave him a mocktail version then charged him like 9 bucks for it. Then had to go again on the last night because we didn't get the towels back in time and got hit with the charge, I waited 30 minutes because the same two people were arguing with the two reps about charges or services and just kept getting louder and louder until a 3rd rep finally came out to help me. I told him I hope they get paid well because that's probably the worst job on the ship..no one is coming to Guest services to praise them. So he took care of me quickly, I hope. The charges already went through so he said he put in a credit card reversal/refund request for the 50 bucks. So I won't know if it actually went through for a few days.

[Ampurp85]

It didn't come off negative. I was just saying usually in my experience the crew on the smaller ships often go above and beyond more than a larger ship. But that may no longer be the case because humans are making it harder 

[ScottD]

Well...that didn't take long. We didn't like not seeing anything in the app..lol.  unfortunately there are NO dates between June and August for 3 people that allow me to choose a room, at least I know there aren't really bad OV balconies on these ships...

[OCSC Mike]

1 minute ago, ScottD said:

balconies

No more low deck portholes, eh? Congrats!

Now if only we were crossing paths at PC like I did with @SweetPea this June... you could have brought me cheesesteaks and proper pretzels (the ones at Wawa here aren't very good for some reason).

I was on the bridge wing when Symphony passed us last week and she got pretty close, lol.

[ScottD]

8 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

No more low deck portholes, eh? Congrats!

Now if only we were crossing paths at PC like I did with @SweetPea this June... you could have brought me cheesesteaks and proper pretzels (the ones at Wawa here aren't very good for some reason).

I was on the bridge wing when Symphony passed us last week and she got pretty close, lol.

Oh ha..looks like we'll just miss each other! Yeah..the price for the OV GTY was only a few bucks more than the interior so it was a no brainer. Our TA told us for some reason Royal has all the 3/5 occupancy rooms basically blocked for Symphony, apparently to try and maximize the rooms and fill them more efficiently. Who knows...oh and the wawa pretzels here aren't very good,either..super doughy

[asquared17]

SYMPH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ScottD]

I just want to add a few things- one, I guess this cruise isn't officially in the books, as I'm STILL waiting on a $50 refund for towels.  We thought guest services put in the refund request on our last night, but after a week I decided to send an email just to check. They got back to me a few days later and told me that they are NOW putting the refund in, and to give it 7-10 days. Friday is 10 business days, so I'll give it the weekend, then I guess I'll check with the bank to see if they at least got the request. I did find it strange that they sent the refund request to my debit card, which was not the card on file on the ship- I only use that to make planner purchases. So we will see. 

Also, I know it doesn't belong here,  so I won't really push it, but I AM going on my first non-RC cruise on 8/31 and will most likely do a little blog\daily recap thing over on that other page if you want to see what it's like on one of Princess' newer ships. Going with no kid, so it'll be a completely different experience from start to finish.  I'm easy to find- same profile pic, same name (except I accidentally used my full last name over there and couldn't change it, lol) 

 

[ScottD]

Just staring off the balcony of my first non-Royal cruise at the ship I was just on last month. This has been nice, but it won't get me to jump ship (pun absolutely intended)

[ScottD]

Hey guys, so I'm two days back from my first Princess cruise, I'll post a little comparison, and maybe some pics (I have a full on daily blog on the other place if you wanna see lots of pics and details). 

Embarkment in Brooklyn: Luggage drop off was smooth, got dropped off at the front door, porter took out big bag and we walked right into the terminal. Princess has no check in time, they just send you a boarding pass that says "1030-2pm"  SO we got there right at 10:30. We had something called green lane, meaning we completed all check in info AND got our medallion sent to us ahead  of time. This meant NOTHING for the security check- waited a good 25-30 minutes to get to the xrays, but after that we walked right up to the check in agent, scanned our medallion and went to the waiting area...on our way, they noticed I had the "Elite" color medallion and swept us into the Elite lounge (I'll admit it was a bit awkward being on my first cruise, but being treated like a Pinnacle cruiser) 

Ship: the ship was BEATIFUL. Shiny, still very new (only sailing like 2 full years), and big. I'd say it was about the size of a Freedom class ship- just about 4000 passengers.  

Room: We had an OV Balcony, the cool thing about our cabin is that we were on the pool deck, and right outside our room was the adult pool area- instead of a wall, there was an all glass wall that went the length of  the hall that you could see out into the pool area, but it was a one way glass, so they couldn't see in. It was nice to walk out the room and get natural sunlight for the whole length of the walkway.  We did have a TINY bathroom, and the showers have curtains! 

Shows: all amazing. A few great comedians, and the production shows were all VERY good. They constantly had activities going on, as well. Trivia, movies at the pool, games and contests in the main Piazza area as well as live music almost constantly in the Piazza (the 3 deck, open promenade)

OH it was the Love Boat cruise, so the cast of the show were constantly out and about, saw them everywhere- eating, on the tenders to shore, just walking around... very approachable. I got pics with "Isaac" and "Doc" from the show. We also had a performance from the band Air Supply which was fun. 

Food: The food itself was all pretty good. Lots available at all times, pizza, burgers, fries, fingers,  and hot dogs all available until late night at the pool deck  as well as their version of the Promenade cafe open 24 hours for sandwiches and desserts. Buffet was open a majority of the day as well, although I though the setup was really confusing...lots of walking around to get what you need. Grabbed a burger? cool... now walk three aisles over for that slice of cheese. Condiments were few and far between. But my only REAL negative on the food was the MDR. They did a reservation based system, so we reserved the same dining room, every night for the same time. The first two nights we waited over 30 minutes for a table, even with the reservation. We gave up after night two and just ate at the various casual restaurants (fancy pizza place, irish pub grub and buffet) Apparently they are switching to a set dining AND reservation based dining this month, so maybe a set early\late dining time will work better. 

The shops were pretty lame, too- the logo shop had like 2-3 shirts, model ships and a few mugs. No ornaments, not shirts with the logo on it..so I didn't end up with anything other than a tiny ship keychain that I'll convert to an ornament. 

Overall, the cruise was great- the staff was AMAZING, so nice and tons of fun. Food was good, room was nice, and we had a great, relaxing time. We did not bring our 12yo son, and I think that worked out- we saw about 3-4 kids his age and a few slightly older, but that was about it. 

The medallion system was great, too- no touch door unlocking, order food or drinks anywhere on the ship and they find you. VERY cool.  Anyway, I'll post a few ship pics shortly....

 

 

[Ampurp85]

Thanks for the review, not to be all in your business, but how would you say the value compares? 

[Cactus527]

I'm glad you said something. We have a 11 night Princess Cruise to Alaska next year, and I'm happy to see the comparison to Royal Caribbean because that's what I'm familiar with.

[ScottD]

5 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Thanks for the review, not to be all in your business, but how would you say the value compares? 

Honestly..it's hard for me to compare, I think the prices and the value were pretty close. I got this as a "free" cruise so all I paid was taxes and to add the package. But I do have to say, the packages are great and basically turn it into an all inclusive.. 60 a day includes all drinks except top shelf, gratuities for everything, 4 casual meals (think playmakers or johnny rockets...but not gios or chops...those are included in the higher package), specialty desserts (huge sundaes from the paid ice cream shop) and some free gym classes. 

I did hang at the casino a bit...it was nice, and was pretty good to me overall. It's just a bit small.

[Ampurp85]

Thanks @ScottD. Since I am prime and D+, it is hard for me to find the value in other lines. I do have Celebrity on the books, but a lot of people swear by Princess, and I was just wondering if you thought the offerings beat out Royal. 

[ScottD]

8 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Thanks @ScottD. Since I am prime and D+, it is hard for me to find the value in other lines. I do have Celebrity on the books, but a lot of people swear by Princess, and I was just wondering if you thought the offerings beat out Royal. 

It was really nice, definitely Vintage heavy...lol. We are mid 40's and were definitely in the minority. We also have a kid, so this was nice as a one time, no kid cruise, but there's no way I'd book that again with the kid when we know how great Royal is for us as a family (we will see about MSC in few months).

But the service and entertainment were definitely top notch, for sure!