Carnival Liberty- April 2017- Post One

[Archived from April 2017]

This Review:

This review will cover our pre-cruise experience and the cruise and ship itself, including menus, Fun Times, and lots of photos. Of course opinions will be peppered throughout but I think that I’m fair enough that the negative opinions get outweighed by the positive experiences. I don’t want to tell you “how it is,” but only give insight and explanations of the things we encountered, struggled with, and loved. We know vacations are all about what you make them, and ours was relaxing, fun, and very enjoyable.

Who We Are:

My fiancé and I are originally from the Chicago area but are living life out in Iowa (Go Hawkeyes!). We’re both in our mid 20s, this was my 8th cruise and his 4th. It was terribly unfortunate that I caught the cruising bug early in life, because now my fiancé has it, and as we all know, the only cure is more cruises. I had taken 4 Carnival cruises as a teenager with my parents, but hadn’t experienced it as an adult. When my fiancé and I started looking for a cruise to book, I suggested Carnival and was met with a little resistance from my other half. We had tried Royal and NCL, and he had preconceptions about Carnival being aimed at children/families. After a little persuading, he decided to give Carnival a try (spoiler: he had a great time!)

The Equipment:
Some of the photos were taken on our Sony a5100 mirrorless digital camera, a little gift we bought ourselves since we knew we'd want to properly document our cruising adventures in the future. Other photos were either taken on an iPhone 7 or a Samsung Galaxy S7. 

The Cruise:
Flashback to Spring 2016 when we had a cruise booked for November 2016 and our honeymoon cruise booked for 2017, and life was good. Until my fianc
é makes a comment to the effect of: “A year between cruises seems like a long time, what if we booked a short cruise to hold us over until the honeymoon?” And just like that, we booked the Carnival Valor sailing out of Port Canaveral on April 20th, 2017! 
Fast forward to Fall 2016 when we received an e-mail saying that the Valor and the Liberty would be switching spots due to the Liberty’s propulsion issue. I was a little upset since I had already sailed the Liberty in 2012 and since we were getting a “broken” ship, but there was nothing we could do so we switched efforts into reading Liberty reviews instead.
This specific 3-Night sailing was from Thursday 4/20 - Sunday 4/23, and visited Nassau on Friday and had a Sea Day on Saturday.


My fiancé snuck this photo of me walking on Cocoa Beach:



Wednesday, April 19th:


We previously drove from Iowa to Illinois (Chicago area) the day before to drop off our dog with family and get a few hours of sleep before the flight out of Midway to Orlando. We had a 6am flight which made for a VERY early morning. Very, very early. We were up by 3:05am and out of my parents’ house (where we stayed the night) by 3:20am. We drove 30+ minutes to Midway Park Saver, which was a parking lot that I found after doing some research on airport websites. It’s directly across the street from Midway, and I had a reservation that I booked online, which saved us a few bucks per day. The lot is probably a mile long (multiple city blocks) but we were lucky to find a parking spot near the front of the lot. We parked and walked across the street to the airport, which didn’t take that long since it was 4am and there was hardly any traffic to compete with. There is a shuttle that will take you from the lot to the airport, but it was faster for us to walk and we didn't have that many bags.

TSA and security check-in went quickly at 4:30 am since we weren’t checking any bags, and we had enough time to grab some breakfast before boarding started at 5:30am. Quick shout-out to Southwest: I will always recommend this company due to good prices, good service, and good snacks. The flight was quick and uneventful, and we were excited to finally be on vacation.


We made it to MCO Orlando Airport and took the fun tram from one part of the airport to the other. Once there, we called 888 Transportation as instructed by our Comfort Inn Cocoa Beach “Fly, Snooze, and Cruise” package. We were told via the e-mail that listed all of the details that it could take up to 1 hour for the shuttle to arrive to the airport. We were super fortunate and glad that it only took 10 minutes for the transportation to show up. We had an awesome driver named Dave who had some great stories to share with us and even nicknamed us “Iowa.” The drive from the airport to the hotel was 50 minutes, but it went quickly and we didn’t encounter any traffic. When we got in the neighborhood of the Comfort Inn Cocoa Beach, Dave the driver started showing us the area, pointing out restaurants to try and places to shop if we needed any last-minute items. We showed up at the hotel and were excited to hear that we could check in right away, even at 10:30am! We had great service at the check-in counter and I’d have no problem recommending this hotel; we'd definitely consider it for our next cruise out of Port Canaveral.

On our walk to the room we passed a refreshment area, a small fish pond/water feature, the pool, game room, on-site bar, volleyball court, and shuffleboard court. There's definitely a lot to do at this hotel, but some of the things could use repairing/updating. Example: The shuffleboard courts were missing several discs and the paint wasn't looking the best. The game room had a pool table that had really poor quality pool cues and the balls were atypical/textured oddly. 

Living room area with couch, table/chairs, and TV. In the back of the photo you can see a part of the bedroom, which had two double beds, a large TV, and a desk/chair:



Kitchen area in between the living room and sleeping area with a sink, cutting board and utensils, fridge, microwave, and coffee maker:


The balcony for our room overlooking the pool area. We had no noise complaints at night, and it was a great place to sit in the afternoon for a quick drink break:


After we got settled in the room and took a quick breather, we walked to Walgreens down the street for pop and wine to carry onboard. It was a few blocks away from Comfort Inn and very easily within walking distance for mobile people. After we picked up our supplies and dropped it in the room, we headed to the beach in search of Sandbar Sports Grill which was recommended by Dave the driver. After a nice little stroll on the beach, we found Sandbar, which is totally the type of place I’d work if I lived in Florida- on the beach, open air, tropical, and fun. The food was pretty alright and the prices were higher than I’d like for lunch/am used to being from Iowa, however the nachos I ordered were monstrous, like seriously absolutely ginormous. My fiancé just gave me input that he “had the fish tacos and they were equally as monstrous” and that he enjoyed them. It was really nice to eat lunch on the beach and feel the nice breeze. 

Monster Nachos at Sandbar Sports Grill:



We noticed that there is a mini golf course across the street, so we went to check it out. It’s called Light House Cove and has two 18-hole courses. We were offered if we wanted to buy one or both, and we opted for one. Unfortunately it’s pretty pricey at $10.25 per person, but maybe everything is just more expensive in Florida. We had a great time and really enjoyed the course. They also sold adult beverages as well as had an ice cream store inside the main building. Not sure if we’d go back only because it is so expensive, but worth checking out if you’re a mini-golf lover!

Light House Cove and my handsome fianc
é


Mini-golf course fish tank:


Mini-golf cave:


After mini-golf, we went to the hotel’s bar to redeem a coupon I had for two free drinks. The bartender was nice and made our drinks strong, like we like them! After sitting on our balcony, sipping our drinks, and reading and chatting, we decided it was time to get ready for dinner and head out. A quick backstory- we stayed in Cocoa Beach two years prior and were told by that hotel that they had a free shuttle that would take us to a place called Coconuts on the Beach, a restaurant/bar that is open air on the beach, but also has an enclosed eating section as well. We tried it out in 2015, loved it, and were so excited to eat there again on this trip. Skip to 2017, I had also read that there is a free shuttle that the restaurant has in which you call and tell them where to pick you up. We made two separate phone calls but they never showed up, so we ordered a Lyft to the hotel. The trip from the hotel to Coconuts on the Beach was about $10 each way, we had very nice drivers and had good conversations. Of course, trying to save money, I was a little upset that the free shuttle didn’t work out, but oh well I suppose. 

There were bursts of rain on the drive to the restaurant but everything cleared up when we arrived. The Lyft driver and our server at the restaurant were both telling us that Florida is weird in that it will downpour for 5 minutes and be suddenly done, or that it’ll rain on one side of the street and be sunny on the other side. Here in Iowa, we get rain for a few hours at a time and it’s certainly not spotty. Once again we had a great time at Coconuts on the Beach and I’d totally come back next time we’re in the area for a cruise. Their Happy Hour deals are great and the atmosphere is fun and relaxing. 

Representing the Iowa Hawkeyes on a Florida beach!!:



After dinner we walked on the beach and watched the Carnival Pride leaving Port Canaveral after a day-long port stop on their trip. We ordered another Lyft to take us to the hotel where we played pool and shuffleboard and relaxed before preparing for the next day.

Link to Next Post: Thursday, Embarkation!

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