This is our 3rd cruise with Carnival. We've been on the Fascination and the Freedom. It was myself, spouse and 14 year old daughter. We flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before we sailed. We picked up a rental car at the airport and drove to Miami. We stayed at the Holiday Inn(downtown). The hotel was clean and about 5 minutes from the cruise port. The Liberty was located at terminal E which was the first dock. We purchase bottled water, 12 pack of coke, potato chips, powdered detergent and a small bottle of fabric softener.

On Saturday we left the hotel at about 10:00 a.m. My husband dropped my daughter and I off at the terminal. He returned the car to the airport in Miami. The porters helped unload the car and we preceded to check in. There was no one in line. They checked our I.D. and passports and we were directed to the next station. There was no one in line and we received our sail and sign cards. We were given a boarding pass for zone one. My husband returned the car to the airport and took a cab back to the port.($24.00)He was back by 11:00 a.m. It took him about 10 minutes to get through the line. He was assigned to zone 5. We boarded the ship at about 11:15 and he was allowed to board with us even though he had been assigned a different boarding zone. We were all ready to take the embarkation picture. However, the photographers were still setting up. I was very disappointed. We had all wore yellow so our picture would look nice.

We went to the Lido deck and had a nice lunch. We decided to go to the room at about 1:00 p.m and it was ready. We had a balcony room on the Empress deck. The room had a lot of closet space and drawers. We had 6 suitcases full of clothes and shoes. We had ample closet space. You might want to bring some additional hangers . We also brought a bungee cord to keep the door open at night. We also brought an outlet that had 3 additional plugs on it. If you like to know what time it is. I would suggest you bring a small clock. I washed clothes 3 different times. I brought $20.00 in rolled quarters so I didn't have to worry about getting change. It costs $3.00 to wash and $3.00 to dry. The washing machine cycle last about 25-30 minutes and the dryer will give you 99 minutes. You can wash two loads of clothes and only pay once to use the dryer. They sell small boxes of detergent for $1.00. I also brought my own dryer sheets. Read more