Carnival Liberty Mini-Honeymoon Cruise Review
January 11, 2015 - January 16, 2015
Just The Facts:
Ship: Carnival Liberty
Ship Captain: Giuseppe Giusa
Cruise Director: Craig E. Johnson
Ports: Port Canaveral, Freeport, Nassau, Half Moon Cay (cancelled due to rough seas :-()
Weather: Good
Water: Rough All The Time
This was Heather's 5th Carnival Cruise (which gave her VIFP Gold Member status) and my 1st Cruise, ever. We took this cruise as a short Mini-Honeymoon getaway. Plus, it was a nice getaway from all the preparations we have being doing to get ready for the BIG move to Cuenca, Ecuador this coming April.
Day One: Sunday - Travel, Parking, Port Canaveral, and Embarkation
We began our MiniMoon by getting up at 5:30am. Heather and I had been up late (2:00am) trying to tie up some loose ends prior to being gone for the next 6 days. We showered, dressed, finished packing for our trip, and loaded all of our luggage into the truck.
As soon as Candice, arrived home from work, at about 8:45am, we hugged her, loved on the furbabies, and said our goodbyes. We traveled the two and half hour drive to Cape Canaveral, FL via the Florida Turnpike. While we were driving the skies went from cloudy to full on pouring rain.
Now, on January 6, 2015 Heather booked us a secure parking spot at Park Port Canaveral:
Contact info:
8600 Astronaut Blvd (A1A)
Cape Canaveral, Florida 32920
Phone #: 321-868-8715
Email:
info@parkportcanaveral.com
The total for the six days was only $57.18. It was super easy to find, unload, park, and travel to the cruise terminal using their shuttle bus.
We didn't let the rain dampen our spirits. We were so happy to finally get to go on a MiniMoon and to be able to spend some quality alone time with each other. I hope that we have much of the same kind of feelings when we move to Ecuador. Heather and I are truly, Soulmates!
We proceeded quickly into the cruise terminal and then through security....then we rounded the corner and saw the long maze of people that lead to the check in agents.
It took us less than 20 minutes to reach the desk. The lady checked our passports, our tickets, our drivers licenses, she took our pictures, she handed us our sign and sail cards, she wished us a happy honeymoon, and sent us toward the ship to board.
Our tickets said boarding was between 12:30-2:30pm. We were allowed to board the the ship at about 11:30am. We headed straight to the Lido Deck (9th floor) to have a quick lunch at Guy's Burger Joint. We were both really excited to try his burgers as there was allot of hype online about how yummy they were. Heather tried "The Ringer" and loved it, I tried the "Pig Patty" and was a little less impressed. We sat by the window and talked for a bit.
"The Ringer"
"Pig Patty (it had a thinly sliced solid disc of bacon fat, LOL"
Then around 1:30pm we both professed a desire to head to our cabin for a quick nap before we had to go to Muster. So....Down, down, down, we went. And then wayyyyyy forward. We were in cabin 1228 on the lowest level, Riviera Deck 1, plus we were just 7 cabins from the bow.
When Heather first booked the trip she was assured that the original room that we booked would have two twin beds that converted into a king bed. A few days before we left for the trip Heather starting feeling that something was really amiss. She decided to go ahead and call and check on our reservation. It was a really good thing that she had, she discovered that the new agent had in fact booked us into a room that had bunk beds. The original agent lied to us and thankfully the call was recorded by Carnival. Heather threatened to cancel the cruise if they didn't fix the mistake. They offered us a switch from an inside cabin to a cabin with an unobstructed ocean picture window. It did cost us $12 extra per person. We went ahead and took the upgrade.
This was just the beginning of the issues we had on the cruise. I'm not going to post several blog entry's filled with our disappointments and the shortcomings that we experienced. We decided that at the end of our trip details we will post a pro's and con's list. This way you can read about the trip and skip the negative, if you want. We really try to keep a positive glass half full attitude and we don't want to convey that all we do is complain.
We entered our stateroom and I took several photos for the blog. As I was snapping photos, I noticed the silver decorations that wished us a Happy Honeymoon. I thought it was pretty neat that Carnival would recognize our celebration in such a manner.
Heather asked me what I thought of the decorations and I told her my thoughts. She then said SURPRISE and admitted that the decorations were her and Candy's doing and that they were a surprise for me. Now...Heather has a very hard time keeping secrets so this was a very big deal that both her and Candy managed not to let it slip. It was pretty cool and it made the room more personal instead of a standard everyday cabin!
We decided to chill out in our room until we were instructed to head to our muster station for the mandatory safety drill at 3:30pm While we were waiting...there was a knock on the door. A steward delivered us 6 chocolate covered tuxedo strawberries. Yet, another surprise from Candy. The cruise was looking very good at this stage.
To Be Continued....
.jpg)
.jpg)
