My friend and I booked this cruise last fall through our travel agent. We are female, 50+ and have traveled with Carnival on 8 previous cruises.

Pre-Cruise: Our plan was to leave on Saturday, spend one evening in Ft. Lauderdale and be shuttled to the ship on Sunday. Plans changed because a snow storm was expected in our area late Friday night into Saturday morning which is when we would be traveling to the airport. We booked Friday night at the Best Western by TF Greene airport in RI. Our room rate covered the cost of a double room, continental breakfast Saturday morning, and transfer to the airport, parking and a pickup back to our car from the airport on our return. We are glad we came in early as the snow came down all night and then changed to rain and froze. Our flight left on time, had a connection in Baltimore and on to Ft Lauderdale, landing on time. We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Hollywood. This included continental breakfast and a transfer to the port. There was a shopping plaza within walking distance with all the basic mall/plaza type stores. We had dinner at a restaurant in this plaza. We were able to pick up wine for the cruise at this plaza.

We checked out at 10:30 to get our shuttle at 10:45 to the pier, which is when we found out the Liberty was going to be approx. 3 hours late due to a medical emergency on board. The ship had to return to Grand Cayman on Saturday, which put it behind schedule. We took our luggage out by the pool with us and spent a couple of hours there talking and passing the time with several people who were in the same predicament. Finally got on the shuttle at 1:30 for the 15 minute ride to the pier. That's when the waiting began! Read more