8/22 Cruising on Liberty of The Seas

I left my home at 3am on 8/22 to catch my flight on American Airlines from LAX @6am to Miami,Florida to join The Liberty of The Seas that sails at 5:30 pm.  This is the view from my window as we are starting to descend into Miami International Airport.  The weather was cool for this time of year and the humidity was low which was nice for me.  I wasn't dressed for hot weather, so I was ok.  I was met by a chauffeur driving a town car which was arranged by The Blue Shuttle Taxi that was so kind to take me to Melbourne Airport in Port Canaveral.  They didn't have any taxis, so they sent a town car and only charged me the price of a taxi.  Great company owned by two brothers so when in Miami call them, they will take care of you.  It did take longer to get my luggage and jewelry inventory I check so when I made it to the cruise terminal, I hurried up to the Port Coordinate to register for the cruise.  I always walk all my luggage on due to the fact it takes till late night to get my luggage delivered to my cabin and I have to work at night.  I made it down to my cabin around 4pm just as they were getting ready for boat drill.  I missed it in order to shower and ready to go promote my event for the next day on the Promenade.  They frown on not doing drills but since I was once a crew member and have been cruising a lot lately, I was ok.

I was assigned a very nice passenger cabin on Deck 2, still below water level but very acceptable.  I always have the bed separated so I have more room to work.  You also can ask your Cabin Steward to take care of it and it will be done before you return to the cabin.  They also fill you ice bucket and straighten the cabin and each night I love to come in and be greeted with a different bed buddy.

 My first night bed buddy, lol.  It is little touches like this that warms my heart and I have to chuckle at the creativity they put into each one, some are more elaborate than others.

I have joined the Liberty on a full Moon so I thought it was only right to go up on deck 12 and bask in the light of the full moon, I know there is a song there somewhere if not already, lol.  I took the best picture I could but it really does not do it justice.  I was so tired but I had to just stand and take it in.  I love the full moon but it does seem to bring out the worst in some people and it did with some passengers.  I stayed as long as my legs would allow before making it back down to my cabin to my bead.  An early morning tomorrow. 

The 2nd day of the cruise was a Sea day which is when I unveil one of my 3 collections.  This is the setup which takes about 1-2 hrs.  I had anywhere from 3-4 staff members helping which is a great help.  We hold a raffle of a free necklace which brings a large group of passengers to see if they will win, sorry only one winner.  After that the sales begin but today it was slow.

So slow the crazy shoppies modeled the jewelry, who says my jewelry isn't unisex.  I had a good time with the staff while we were slow.  Here are Kirk from Jamaica, Helen from Canada and KK from India.

And here is their fearless leader Daniel Jackson from good old England.  He is a blast as a manager I wish I had him as my manager when I was a shoppie 15 yrs ago.  He treats his staff very well and they return to him the respect a manager needs to run a prosperous department.









The 3rd day of the cruise was also a Sea day so another long day for me with another unveiling of a 2nd collection Gems of the Sea, The first day was Gems of the Caribbean.  I was moved to 4 large tables in front of the Logo shop.  Another raffle was done at 11:30am.  I finished at 8pm with 3 hr breaks and the sales were better this day.  I still have the last Sea day so all is well.  At the end of the night after packing all my collection up.  I dropped it back at my cabin and decided to go back up to deck 12 to see the moon. 

Again the picture does not do it justice but it was so clear from the winds we were having I just had to do it again.  I also took a few of the pools at nite all lite up.

Here are a few shots of the kids pool which is empty because it closes early.

I stay again as long as I could till, I was ready to put my head to my pillow.  And when I opened my cabin door I was pleasantly surprised with a frog on my bed.  Time for a good night sleep.  I always move my bed buddy to the other bed; I just can't bring myself to destroying it.

Tomorrow is our first Port of call, St Maarten.

My favorite port on this side of the Caribbean, St Maarten.  The weather was not as humid as 3 weeks ago but it was still very hot.  I dressed as cool as I could and with my laptop and a cup of ice I walked towards town with every intention of walking far but it was too hot so I made my destination Chesterfields.  The picture below is a view from the ship that I took after I took a steam and on my way to breakfast.  I start with a steam in the morning when I can, which is on deck 11 in the front of the ship and after that I walk back to the aft end of the ship and take a few pictures along the way.  Then breakfast before leaving the ship.

here at Chesterfields I ordered a virgin Pinacolata, which was cool and delicious and spent a few hours on the Internet.  When I lost my connection, I decided it was a sign to head on back to the ship.  I packed up, paid my bill, asked for a cup of ice and made it back to the ship.  It was hot, hot, hot!  Did I tell you how hot it was? LOL. 

Since it was a few hours before sailing I decide to finally make it to the back of the ship on deck 12 to see the famous and ever so popular Flow Rider.  I am told it is exclusive to Royal Caribbean ships and only a few in the fleet.  Also the rock climbing wall and there is also a basket ball court, not too mention the golf course.  You can also watch what is going on with the flow rider on a channel on the TV in your cabin

The Wall was closed but I will try to get back up here to take some pictures of people climbing it.

It was time for sail away which I wanted to see so I went up to deck 4 to watch it.  We happened to be in port with the Emerald Princess which is also a grand ship.  So I decided to take a few pictures.  We were late in sailing because we had to wait for passengers that had not made it back to the ship on time.  So the Emerald had to wait for us to pull out before they could.  We all exchanged waves from ship to ship and waited.

Here is part of the Bridge on The Emerald so I took a picture to show how it hangs over the side of the ship.

Finally they returned and we can sail.  They almost got another night in St. Maarten.

This was the sky as we sailed away from St. Maarten, just stunning. 

After we sailed, I made my way to the front of the ship to watch from the Bow.  I have been wanting to do this and finally made it up here.  This is the Bridge of The Liberty where the Captain and all the electronics take our ship from port to port safely.

Tomorrow San Juan, Puerto Rico.