Carnival Liberty – Western Caribbean – Day 1

You would not believe how excited both Hubster and I were to finally be going on our cruise. We really hadn’t had any time alone since he got back from Afghanistan, so this was going to finally be our chance to relax without the kids. We woke up bright and early to get everything situated to depart.

We left my parents’ house right around 10:30am to go to Kinko’s and print our boarding passes and luggage tags. Great planning on our part. From there we drove to the Port of Miami. I’d say we arrived at the port right around 11:30am. Kinko’s took a while.. Hubster and I hopped out of the car, said goodbye to the kids and my mom, handed the porter our luggage and the tip that he requested, and made our way to the terminal.

 

Inside of the terminal our passports were scanned right away and Hubs and I were sent on our way to security. I was holding the carry-on which had to be checked since we had our two bottles of wine inside. It was an interesting experience as one of the agents tried flirting with me and when my husband approached to make sure everything was ok, the guy told him that there could only be one passenger per bag. Needless to say, one of us started off the vacation in a little bit of a grumpy mood.

From security we made our way to the line to get our ship cards and received our zone number on the way there. We made it to the front of the line within a few minutes and received our shiny red Sail & Sign cards. The agent at the desk also took our picture for the card right there at the desk, which was new to us. Afterwards, we sat and waited for our zone number to be called. We weren’t waiting long before our number was called. We made our way up the escalator, took our photo, and were on the ship in no time.

The very most important thing to do first on the ship is go eat. Thankfully there was hardly anyone on board yet and we were able to get our large plates of food and a fantastic seat by the window. Beware: the tea is pretty awful. I think I added seven or eight sugar packets and it still wasn’t very tasty. I stuck with the lemonade from then on.

After lunch we made our way up to the Serenity area, which is absolutely glorious. There are hammocks and no children allowed. This is probably where we spent the better part of our vacation. Around 1:30pm the cabins were ready, so we went to drop our stuff off in our room and returned to the Serenity for the next few hours.

The muster drill began at 4:00pm, and honestly they always feel like such a waste of time. We had the annoying drunk girls in front of us and it was just hot and uncomfortable. Thankfully, it wasn’t obscenely long and we were on our way back to Serenity. The ship set sail right behind another Carnival ship at approximately 5:00pm. We took some Flat Stanley photos from the front of the ship and then laid out on the deck to nap a bit.

Dinner was at 8:15pm in the Silver Olympian dining room. We sat at a six-top right next to the Captain’s Table, which remained empty all week long. At our table, one couple never showed up; we later learned that they had gone to the steak house for dinner, and the other couple showed relatively late, which was also a trend for the remainder of the week. After dinner, we did what all young married couples with kids do. Sleep. Can I just say that it was fabulous to only have to share our king sized bed with one other person who doesn’t kick and roll all over the place.