Carnival Liberty Cruise: October 27, 2007 to November 4, 2007

My cruise was a lot of fun, but had a "lot" of drama in it. My family loves drama!! So, while this is a review, it is also the story of my family and "our adventure".

Flight to FLL We left home around 7 am. My parents were going to meet up with us in Benton Harbor before we all headed to O'Hare. My wonderful mother decided to take the Tri-State to O'Hare, and since I had never been that way before I followed her. Word of warning - if you are following someone, do not always assume that they know where they are going. I ended up missing one of the tollbooths, almost was hit by a semi, and started to freak out! We parked at the Park N Fly on Mannheim. Very easy to find and they were very quick to get all of our luggage on to the shuttle. When we got to the airport, we ran into a roadblock. My fiance has a very common name, so a red flag came up. We had a "security issue". It was quickly taken care of, and 30 minutes later, we were going through security. I managed my family (fiance, DS and DD) to get us all through security painlessly. My dad was a different story. He has not flown in about 20 years, and always carries a tiny pocketknife with him. Needless to say, it was confiscated and now sits in a pawnshop somewhere (where else are the airports going to put that kind of stuff??). The flight was uneventful, other then my fiance making a hand print on my leg because he has never flown before. We got to FLL, got our luggage, and I went to call our hotel. It was not listed on the board, so went to get some help. I ended up in the little airline office, where they gave me the number. I ended up finding it ON THE PHONE!! Just hit a little button and then you go. I then turned around and my family was gone. I figured they went outside so my dad could have a smoke - they were not there. Finally, I found my fiance, who was afraid he had lost me. I said "where are the kids", and he said "right outside the door". Guess what, they were not there!! They ended up down at shuttle pickup, which is down at the other terminal. Talk about steam coming out of my ears!! We stayed at the Sleep Inn Dania. I will not lie, the hotel is starting to show some age, but overall it was a great deal. We had a suite, and there was more then enough room. We had 12 suitcases, plus 6 carry-ons. We shoved all of the luggage in the little sitting area, used the big desk, and had plenty of room for all six of us. We had dinner at Villa JoJo across the street. I was not impressed, and it was expensive. I was not going to venture any further though because it was raining. If anyone wants to see the menu, let me know. The next morning we ate breakfast downstairs, and overall it was good. There was cereal, bagels and cream cheese, waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon and more. We had a 1:00 shuttle (we arrived at the hotel around 6 PM for those that are thinking about timing), so went over to Rite Aid next door were we picked up a couple of things, then wandered over to the strip mall across the street. The shuttle was there exactly at 1. We were at the port less then 15 minutes later, off loaded, bags checked, and in we went. Because my mom booked a suite, and my daughter was staying with them, we were all allowed to go through VIP check in. For some reason, my mom handed me all of the documents, then we went through security, and when we stepped up to the check in counter, I realized mine and my fiance licenses had disappeared. I searched through everything, then like a crazy person went back to security. I was standing there, looking at the ground, when I turned around and saw three security guards looking at me. In their hands were our licenses. After a minute of then saying I did not look like the picture in the license (was my fiance), I rushed back to check in where my family was stewing. We finished checking in, went and got our embarkation pictures taken, then up the escalator to get our mug shots taken, then on board. The ship The ship is beautiful! It is not gaudy, very classy. I loved the lobby. My favorite spot was the lobby bar, looking up and watching the chandelier change colors every 5-10 seconds. We had room 7214, Empress Deck interior. My parents had 7230, balcony. Both rooms were very nice, but I was really surprised by the bathroom in the suite. It was huge!! Muster drill seemed to last forever. We were down in station B, but we were shoved up against the big vents. I was wearing a dress. My family spent most of our time holding my dress down. For (what was supposed to be sail away), we went up to the Sun Deck. We were supposed to sail at 4, but there were so many other ships in port that day, we did not get out until after 5:30. We got to see the Emerald Princess sail on her inaugural sailing, plus Enchantment of the Seas, Zuiderdam, and Royal Empress. We ended up missing sail away because we had the 5:45 seating in the Silver Olympian. This is the dining room at the back of the ship. The best piece of advice I can give is fine a deck that goes all the way through. Empress does. Walk all of the way back then go down the back elevators. Our waiters were fabulous! Jose and Viktor were our waiters. They both interacted with the kids a lot and made dinner an event every night. Our bar waitress was Katarina. My daughter loved getting Shirley Temples every night and learned all of our orders quickly. Read more