We sailed on the Thanksgiving week cruise on the Carnival Liberty and had a great time. There were some things that were spectacular, some that were great, some I might have wanted to change -- but overall a vacation is what you make out of it and we had fun.

On this cruise were my husband and I -- and our 2 children (ages 4 and 8) who were new to cruising. We flew to Miami the day before the cruise so we would not run into any weather issues (since we were coming to Minneapolis). On a 3 1/2 hour flight -- the IPAD with movies was our best friend. We stayed at the Hotel Intercontinental close to the port (try last minute travel dot com -- they have deals -- you can see what hotel it is if you look at the photos and find the ones with the ugly sculpture in the lobby or google the number of rooms.) The hotel was in a good location and very nice. Unfortunately it poured rain on our whole Miami day and my daughter had an ear infection so we got to find the urgent care in downtown Miami, but it all turned out fine. We visited the CVS got our pop (soda to you non-Minnesotans) and also bought some cheap beach toys for fun on the trip.

We got the port plenty early (took taxi from hotel). Check in was easy and quick. Then we waited (not too long) and had an easy time getting on the ship. We made our way to the Lido -- Thumbs up to Guy's Burgers and the Blue Iguana. Throughout the trip I was not a big fan of the buffet, but could always find a burger, etc for lunch. The waits at these areas was never long. Also a shout out to the arepas at Blue Iguana for breakfast -- you cannot get these many places and I loved them! Read more