The Magic For Less Travel Blog

We had a wonderful vacation. We were there from August 2-8, 2008. Thanks to you and the service you provided everything was a breeze.

We are already talking about going back in a couple of years. The food was perfect. I would suggest Chef Mickey's for anyone who wants to see classic characters. The dining plan paid for itself within the first 2 days. If you want to eat at other hotels make sure you plan 2-3 hours to get through dinner. There are no buses that go just between resorts. Seeing characters is not as easy as it used to be. If you want to see a character that happens to be out you have to stand in a roped off line and wait for a turn. Coronado Springs Resort was beautiful. It did get crowded as certain conventions came through. I think we will rent a car next time. The buses get crowded by the end of the day and we were tired of standing. The extra magic hours were a blast. My daughter and I were in Magic Kingdom until one in the morning. We also were able to spend 15 hours at Epcot in one day. Once the parks closed and only people who were there were eligible to stay for Extra Magic hours the parks really cleared out. Most rides only had a 20 minute wait during those times. I am beyond tired but it was worth it! I attached a few pictures.

Linda & Family – August 2008

Cast: Myself – Linda; DH – Mike; DD – Deanna (10); DD – Jessica (8)

When: August 15 – 29, 2008

Where: Pre-cruise - Hyatt Regency Miami; Royal Caribbean Liberty of
the Seas; Post-Cruise Port Orleans French Quarters

Day 4 – Third cruise day – San Juan, Puerto Rico

Today we make the first port of call on the cruise, San Juan, Puerto
Rico. We have skirted the tropical storm Fay on our way here and
the weather has been very nice. We did not expect to reach Puerto
Rico till 3:00 p.m., so after a leisurely brunch at Windjammers the
girls played a round of miniature golf. Jessica wanted to try the
Flowrider, but was just a half an inch too short to be able to
participate in it. We asked the girls what else they wanted to do
before we reach land. As expected, they wanted to go swimming
again.

When we reached San Juan, the girls changed and we headed for the
port. We had not signed up for any shore excursions for this port
because we didn't quite know what to expect since there was a
forecast of rain. It turned out to be a good decision because there
were drivers soliciting tours of the city for $10 per person, the
same tour that we were thinking of signing up for at the price of
$29.95 each onboard. The driver was very knowledgeable and friendly
without being condescending and the bus was very comfortable and air-
conditioned. We had a great time touring the old/new San Juan in
addition to visiting the Forts of San Juan before ending our tour at
the shopping center just two blocks from the ship. We looked
through the shops and bought a few souvenirs for the girls before
heading back to the ship just a little late for dinner.

We had every intention to see the second Broadway Production – "Ever
After". However, when we got back to our cabins to rest before the
show, we all fell asleep and missed the show. The phone ringing
woke us up and it was a reminder for Mike that his appointment for a
hair cut and shave at "A Clean Shave" was at 10:00 p.m. He had a
great cut, shave and a facial massage while the girls and I had fun
watching him get the treatment. Since Café Promenade is right
across the way, the girls made several trips to it to get sandwiches
and managed to polish off three sandwiches each in addition to a
brownie and a cookie. I wondered if these were the same girls that
wouldn't eat much at home or if they got switched somewhere along
our travel…

At 11:00 p.m. the girls headed for bed since we told them that we
had a shore excursion planned at 10:00 a.m. in the morning and they
needed to be up, ready and had breakfast before we left. Mike and I
stayed up for the 11:30 p.m. Promenade 70's Block Party. It was
great fun and incredible how the large promenade filled up with
people for the party. It's been the best cruise we've been on so
far and we can't wait to see what tomorrow brings…

Linda & Family – August 2008

Cast: Myself – Linda; DH – Mike; DD – Deanna (10); DD – Jessica (8)

When: August 15 – 29, 2008

Where: Pre-cruise - Hyatt Regency Miami; Royal Caribbean Liberty of
the Seas; Post-Cruise Port Orleans French Quarters

Day 3 – Second cruise day – at sea

The beds onboard The Liberty of the Seas is the most comfortable
we've ever had, and that's not just tired bodies talking! We had
trouble waking up to get the tickets for the ice show later this
week because it was so comfortable staying in bed. Our kids were
not about to go anywhere no matter how we poked at them, so we
headed for Studio B to get the tickets then to a nice sit down
breakfast at the main dining room. We were seated at a large round
table along with other diners. The six seated to our left were from
France, the couple immediate to our right was from New Zealand and
the couple beyond them was from Toronto, Canada. The couple from
New Zealand will be on back to back cruise on the Liberty of the
Seas, and when they reach Cozumel on their 2nd 7 night cruise they
will be taking a detour and flying over to Cuba for two weeks before
boarding the Liberty of the Seas again to complete their journey.
Mike had perfectly made eggs benedict while I had a mushroom and
onion omelet. After our breakfast and interesting conversation with
the New Zealand couple we headed for Windjammer to grab a couple
plates of food for the girls.

We headed for the kids club when the girls were finally done eating
and getting dressed for the day. Though the girls had good
experiences at other kids' club on Royal Caribbean cruises, they
were not entirely sure about what to expect on the Liberty of the
Seas because their experience on the Freedom of the Seas' kids' club
were less than stellar. Their worries were dispelled as soon as
they checked into the club. While the girls got acquainted with
their new friends Mike and I headed over to Johnny Rockets to have a
shake and a snack. As always, Johnny Rockets is great fun and the
malts were first class. As crown and Anchor members we had coupons
in the booklets provided for free cover charge to Johnny Rockets,
otherwise there would have been a surcharge of $3.95 per visit to
Johnny rockets.

The girls had a choice to eat with their friends at Johnny Rockets
tonight, but chose to go with us to dinner because it is the first
formal night and they knew there would be shrimp cocktail – their
favorite appetizer on the RCI cruises. Deanna had two servings of
shrimps before going to her main course, Jessica couldn't get enough
and asked for a third serving before starting on her pasta.

We headed for the Broadway production show "Ever After" following
dinner. "Ever After" is RCI's interpretation of well-known
fairytales. The production had 16 talented singers/dancers and was
very well done.

The girls couldn't resist the temptation of the swimming pool and
asked to go for a swim after the show, so while Mike went to sleep,
I took the girls to a late night swim. The swim apparently used up
all their stored food and afterwards we headed to Sorrento to grab
some pizza before heading to our cabins. We ended up requesting a
whole cheese pizza then as we headed for our room at the other end
of the promenade, the girls HAD to get three more sandwiches and two
brownies from Café Promenade since it WAS on the way anyway. The
scary part is that the girls actually polished off most of the food
that we carried back to the cabins. Where they store all that food
in those tiny little bodies I'll never understand!

Linda & Family – August 2008

Cast: Myself – Linda; DH – Mike; DD – Deanna (10); DD – Jessica (8)

When: August 15 – 29, 2008

Where: Pre-cruise - Hyatt Regency Miami; Royal Caribbean Liberty of
the Seas; Post-Cruise Port Orleans French Quarters

Day 2 – Boarding the Liberty of the Seas

After breakfast we took a taxi to board Liberty of the Seas. The
Liberty of the Seas of Royal Caribbean International along with
other Freedom class ships are currently the largest cruise ships in
the world. We had taken the Western Caribbean Cruise on Freedom of
the Seas last August, so we had an idea of what to expect onboard.
What is different on this cruise from all of our previous cruise is
that for the first time we will be in two connecting cabins rather
than one cabin that accommodates the 4 of us. We had given the
girls the option of either taking one balcony cabin or two promenade
view cabins. They chose the promenade view without hesitation
because they would be able to have a room of their own.

As we entered our cabins we immediately had the feeling that we made
the right decision. Although the cabin is much smaller than the
cabins on DCL, the way everything is situated made it seem much more
spacious than it really is. There is a couch overlooking the window
to the promenade and a couch by the wall, and a chair by the desk.
A fridge stocked with drinks and snacks were provided and the kids
were promptly warned NOT to raid the fridge for food and drinks
since Café Promenade is directly outside of our windows one floor
below and is only minutes of walks away, providing free sandwiches,
cookies and other delicious desserts and drinks 24 hours a day.

The ship's décor is similar to that of the Freedom of the Seas, but
the arts along the walls are all movie themed. Time flew as we
snacked on some delicious sandwiches and roamed the ship. Hours had
gone by and it was time for the safety drill then time for dinner.
We had a small table right by the window for four on the bottom
floor of the three-floor dining room. The wait staff was extremely
friendly and attentive. Both our waiter and assistant waiter are
from India and have been with Royal Caribbean for years. All four
of us chose Prime Rib for dinner and they were so tender we hardly
needed the knife to cut. After dinner we headed for our cabins for
a short nap before going for a swim.

The swimming pools onboard the Liberty of the Seas are all fresh
water and are open 24 hours a day. Something different on this ship
is the pool towel provided for guest uses. Instead of having the
towels available for anyone to grab and use during the day and none
available at night, there is now a towel station on each side of the
ship with attendants. The Seapass card must be shown and scanned in
order for towels to be issued. We could check out as many towels as
we wish for pool/shore use, but if the towels were not turned in, we
would be charged $20 per towel. I don't know if it is enforced or
if it's just a warning as it is on DCL, but I'm not about to try and
find out :-)

Linda & Family – August 2008

Cast: Myself – Linda; DH – Mike; DD – Deanna (10); DD – Jessica (8)

When: August 15 – 29, 2008

Where: Pre-cruise - Hyatt Regency Miami; Royal Caribbean Liberty of
the Seas; Post-Cruise Port Orleans French Quarters

Day 1 - Pre-cruise Travel Day – The stuff nightmares are made from…

Do you hate waiting at the airport for your plane to arrive? Have
you ever thought of planning on arriving with JUST the right amount
of time so that you won't have to wait too long before boarding your
flight? Don't give in to the temptation! Take it from one frazzled
beyond believe, saved from mental meltdown only by the grace of good
fortune at the last moment. It is simply NOT worth the consequence
if it doesn't go as planned!

This is the story of our perfect vacation almost ruined on the day
of our outbound travel from a mis-calculation. Our flight to leave
Lost Angeles was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. I reserved the flight
early enough to have our seats assigned in two rows of two, one
right behind the other. I checked in and got our boarding passes
the day before. We were to leave our house at 7:00 a.m., giving us
plenty of time for travel, go through check-in, security, etc.
Everything planned perfectly… or so I thought…

We left the house a few minutes late in the morning, partly because
it took the girls longer to get ready than we expected, partly
because I wanted to finish the last couple of things on the
computer… I figured "no big deal" then horror struck as we got on
the freeway and I realized that I forgot for once we're leaving at
TRAFFIC HOUR!!! For anyone who has ever been stuck in traffic in
Southern California they'd know what a miserable mis-calculation
that was. Our normal 25 minute ride to the airport became more than
an hour long. We were at the check in counter 42 minutes before the
scheduled flight. That was three whole minutes past the latest
check-in time for travelers with check in luggage. My heart sank.
We have never missed a flight before. Now what?!? I was told to
not worry, that we'd simply be placed on stand-by for the next
flights till one was available. I was given the standby boarding
pass, then directed to the security line. Our family trudged to the
end of the line for security, down at the end of the terminal,
OUTSIDE the door. Half an hour later we got to the front of the
security. I give them our passports and the boarding passes only to
hear him say "Mam, I need your boarding pass". "It should be
there," I told him, "Deborah had to print out the standby boarding
pass because we were late for our flight". Turns out Deborah wasn't
as thorough as I thought she was and somehow printed two boarding
pass for DH, instead of one each for him and I. We trudged back to
the check in counter, got the correct boarding passes, got back in
the security line and finally got to the boarding gate. "It can
only get better now," I thought. At the gate I was told that the
flight was over-booked but they'll do the best they could. Five
minutes before the flight time I'm told by the gate agent that we
have a decision to make… there were two spaces available, we can
either have two of us travel now and have the other two stand by for
a later flight in order to have a better chance of getting to our
destination today or all of us could standby for the next flight.
By this time I was on the verge of tears, thinking that we'll not
only miss our flights, but miss our cruise as well, but DH would not
entertain the family traveling separately. Seeing how upset I was,
my DD gave me a hug and told me that her little travel book said
she'd have good luck today, so she wants to give me a big hug to
transfer the luck to me and make me feel better. Her pixie dusts
must have been magical… As the last passenger boarded for the
flight, we were informed that we'd be walked to the door so that
they could do a head count of the passengers because there may be
two more seats available. By incredible luck there WERE four open
seats for the flight and we were on our way!

Although we were seated in four separate locations when we boarded
the flight, a kind hearted solo traveler traded seat with one of my
DD so that both of my DD's could sit together. I shed a happy tear
at the kindness of strangers as our luck truly took a turn for the
better from then onward. Our connecting flight was over three hours
after we landed at Houston, giving us time to get some food for the
girls AND we were able to request our seats so that we were all
sitting together for the second leg of our journey. We checked in
to our hotel well past 1 a.m., over six hours later than our
original arrival time, but we are here, safe and sound. Our room on
the 15th floor had a beautiful view, the beds were comfortable, and
we won't miss our cruise tomorrow! It's a beautiful end to a
horrendous day and it has taught me a valuable lesson… ALWAYS
ARRIVE AT THE AIRPORT HOURS EARLIER THAN NEEDED! NEVER PLAN TO BE
JUST IN TIME.