Liberty of the SeasApril 18th - 25thWestern CaribbeanCabins: 1406, 1404 - Deck 10Cabins: 7714, 7414, 7412 - Deck 7I like to use my pictures as my visuals in my review so this will be long but fun!We sailed with a group of 10 people. All in our 50's. Coming from: Nevada, California, Colorado, Texas and Florida. We all had made our reservations way back in 2007 and we all had booked AFT cabins. Two on Deck 10 and three on Deck 7. This was the first aft cabins for everyone.Most of us got to Miami on Thursday so we could have a day of sightseeing. We all flew into Miami and rented a mini van to use on Friday. Stayed at the Hampton Inn - Blue Lagoon. http://www.hamptoninnmiamiairport.com/This was an excellent choice for us. It is really close to the airport. Across the street there was a Walgreens, and a CVS, a grocery store (Publix), liquor store, Starbucks and many fast food restaurants. We all settled in on Thursday early evening and just ordered pizza to the hotel as we all flew in from different locations and we were tired. The Hampton Inn was very nice and quiet. The beds were comfy and the sheets were creamy smooth. They had laundry facilities which proved useful as my husband spilled something on one of his pairs of pants so I was able to get them washed. Each morning they had a continental breakfast which was mediocre to say the least. I would much rather grab something at McDonalds. But they had muffins and cereal, fruit, the omelets were a little rubbery for my taste. When we arrived at the hotel Thursday, we also arranged for our transportation to the ship. The hotel called a company they use and we reserved a van for 10:30am on Saturday. The cost would be $10pp. On Friday, we did the Duck Tour around Miami. http://www.ducktoursmiami.com/If you are going to Miami early I highly recommend this. It is a tour bus that drives along the streets and then drives right into the water and then becomes a boat. I know, I know.. but you have to see it to believe it. We saw about 6 ships in port on Friday which just made us all anxious for Saturday because we all kept taking lots of pictures of the ships all lined up; we ate lunch on a sidewalk cafe there on Ocean Blvd in South Beach. After the "touring of Miami", we went back to the hotel and then ran across the street to stock up on liquor and snacks.We bought cases of water, 12 packs of soda and mixers. Each couple had their own supply of rum runners that we purchased online months earlier. http://www.rumrunnerflasks.com/sneak-alcohol-on-cruise-ship.aspxWe did not travel with the liquor as we did not want to weigh down our suitcases on the plane. After we filled up our rum runners we put them into our checked luggage in different places distributing throughout the luggage (inside pant legs, shoes, in the lining of the suitcases ) and then the luggage was locked up with those plastic zip cable ties that we brought with us. Each couple also had a small rolling ice chest that we checked in with our checked luggage also. This was nice because as you may know the little refrigerators' in the cabins really don't keep things as cold as you'd like and the room attendants would keep our ice chests filled with ice for us each day. At the store:Later that day (Friday) three more of our group of 10 arrived in Miami. It was fun getting together and seeing everyone. We had shirts made for our group and handed them out when we all finally were together. Everyone got a laugh out of the shirts that said on the front:  Does this ship make my aft look big??The back had the name of the ship, the ports visited and everyone's names.We had dinner that night at "Joe's Stone Crab" also on South Beach. We had about an hour and a half wait but we were in the atrium having drinks and catching up with each other so the time went by very fast. http://www.joesstonecrab.com/On Saturday morning as I stated, we had plans to meet a driver who was going to take us to the port. He was to pick us up at 10:30am. Lot's of excitement in the lobby as I would say 80% of the people staying there were cruise people. The driver was there right on the dot to pick us up. There were about 8 disappointed cruise travelers from other groups who thought our shuttle was their shuttle and tried to hijack it away from us. The driver had our last name so there was no mistaking who the transportation was for. That settled all the anxious travelers down but we did get some L@@ks from them. I think some of them were sneering at us as we drove off.  

The mini van had a little trailer attached to the back of it and the driver just puts all the luggage in there like a puzzle.. amazing.. We had our cruise luggage tags on our cases of water and sodas.The ride over to the port was about 15 minutes or so and it was exciting to see the Liberty of the Seas sitting there waiting for us. The van was unloaded and the luggage handlers loaded up the entire luggage in the crate and put the cases of water and sodas next to it.  Be sure to tip them well.  They work hard.and we all had so much luggage that we filled up the entire crate.  One of the ice chests is there on the ground.After the porters took our luggage, we started walking towards the terminal and there are signs that say to have your passports and SetSail papers ready. They check them as you enter the door. This picture shows everyone starting to dig their things out of their bags.

Once we got inside they had different areas for the numbered decks. So you would just follow the signs and go where you needed to go to check in.It was very organized and we were waited on right away. I would say that it was about 11:30 about this time. Everyone received their Sail & Sign cards and I had brought a hole puncher and punched the cards for the ladies so that we could wear them around our necks attached to these nice necklaces we brought. My card had a coke sticker on it as I had purchased the fountain package a few weeks earlier. My sister and friends did also but for some reason their sticker was not on their card, so once they got on the ship they had to go to a place where the coke packages were being sold and talk to them about it and then the person working the stand had to look their names up on a list ... it was a bit of a hassle so if you purchased a coke card, then make sure that your sticker is on the Sail & Sign card before you leave the check in counter.The line to get on the ship weaved in and out and down through another building but it kept moving and I would say that we were on the ship in 20 minutes. So we just kept taking pictures of each other as we went through the lines.Then we finally got to board the ship.The ship was beautiful just like I had imagined. I always felt like I was in a shopping mall or resort. Couldn't imagine we were on water.Then like I said, the ones who didn't have the coke sticker on their cards had to go get their stickers. So we all waited for them to get their stickers and coke cups. Because I had my sticker already on my card at the time of check in, my coke cup was waiting for me in my cabin.   Read more