Year 3 Day 151 – “Living the Dream”. Saturday, 9/30/2023. Disembarking the Liberty of the seas in Bayonne, NJ and driving to Avon NC. Read to the end and you will find a review of this nine-night Canada and New England Cruise and the Liberty of the Seas ship. We are up early,
showered, packed,
and eating breakfast at 6am. It is a crazy busy breakfast in the Windjammer this morning. People are very hyper and ready to get off the ship and travel home. Do not get in front of anyone getting coffee. Short tempers abound. What happened to that vacation happiness.
Good by Cowboy Greeter! He was kind of annoying with his cheerful Howdy Cowboy greeting in the mornings. Washy washy is much nicer! Alot of passengers seemed to love this cowboy though.
It is drizzling, foggy, damp, and cold here in NJ. This is the worse weather we have had. Ha ha only in NJ. We are doing self-assist and carrying our luggage off the ship directly from our room. We did not put it out last night for the crew to transport to the terminal. We are driving to Avon, NC and want to get an early start. Self-assist allows us to be the first group off the ship at 7:45am. The ship is cleared early, and we are on our way at 7:57am. We walk off Liberty of the Seas, through facial recognition, then drag our luggage the 1/2 mile to our car.
We paid the $270.00 for this luxury parking spot and we are on the road again. Included in that $270.00 is $35.22 of tax. GPS says 9 hours 17 minutes’ drive today to Avon, NC.
First stop was to buy waters and coffee at the Thomas Edison rest area on the NJ Turnpike. We used the rest rooms and I have to talk about toilet paper right here. The ships toilet paper was the cheapest roughest paper. At this rest area the toilet paper is so so nice. Okay I am happy to pay Tolls and have soft toilet paper. As a side note Steve’s Dad went to Thomas Edison’s funeral. Thought that was very interesting.
We started talking about NJ and the current house prices. I found this advertisement. Look at the price of this house in Levittown, NJ between 1958 and 1960.
Just heard today that Royal Caribbean has renamed the Diamond Lounge to the Crown Lounge across the entire fleet.
In Delaware on route 1
and then on route 13 we had detours due to accidents with fatalities.
We are headed to this house in Avon, NC. https://deestimes.com/…/avon-nc-osun-oceanfront-home…/ At 3:30 pm we are finally at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We have another three hours to go. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is a 17.6-mile bridge-tunnel that runs over and under water as deep as about 95 feet in some places and as shallow as four feet in others. It includes not one, but two tunnels, each about a mile long. Crossing the bridge-tunnel takes only about a half hour. There is a 45mph minimum speed limit and a 55-mph maximum speed limit when traveling the bay Bridge Tunnel. We have not been over this bridge in three years, but the restaurant, gift shop, and fishing pier were closed then, and they are still closed. Currently, there is a $756 million project to create a second, parallel tunnel between the first and second islands of the bridge tunnel complex. The new tube will be a mile long, and will carry two lanes of traffic southbound, while the existing tube will change from two-directions to two northbound lane. The history of this crossing is interesting. Starting in the early 1930s, the only way to get from the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area to Virginia’s Eastern Shore was via private ferry service. The original Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel construction began in late 1960, and 42 months later, the Bridge-Tunnel opened to traffic in April 1964. The new thoroughfare proved highly successful, and the old ferry service was discontinued.
Okay I am settled into the long ride now. The driving excitement has worn off and I am already missing our cruise dining friends.
We are also getting pinged from the cameras at home. They are reminding us we have work to do, but wait we have a week’s vacation yet. The old question is vacation? get the house done? That keeps floating through our minds as we drive.
It’s time to do that that Liberty of the Seas 9-night New England Canada September cruise review I promised.
Pros
– Very large Balcony room. Here’s a video of our balcony stateroom #1234 on Deck 10. https://youtu.be/uRkAVIJDNMw?si=B__LOyyGzq0Yi2eh
– Very clean ship except for the Chandelier entering the main dining room.
– Excellent service
– Exceptional employees. All helpful and pleasant.
– Nice casino
– The wait staff was excellent. Best we have had in ages.
– Easy walk off departure at Cape Liberty in Bayonne, NJ with facial recognition.
– Sprinkles soft serve ice cream was excellent. I love that they now serve it to you. It was pretty gross and messy when everyone made their own cones.
– Windjammer lunch buffet was good. Here’s a video https://youtu.be/NUauBI1cggI?si=TxO8kIf3dJ0kAo9F
– Excellent app. Here’s a video. https://youtu.be/T5m1m6u5B3o?si=jrAuab9m9qj8jKQk
– Loved the Anchors aweigh parade. Here’s a video https://youtu.be/TvgIXWsizps?si=rxGp2c4LNf6UPe2J
– Wifi was excellent.
– Royal Caribbean casino has a great reward system.
Cons
– Very smoky casino. One of the worse I have ever been in.
– Food was edible, but nothing to rave about.
– Horrible horrible toilet paper. My butt still hurts.
– Pizza was over cooked and crunchy most of the time. I can’t believe Royal did a survey to see if people would buy it.
– Cheers with an officer was a waste. Food was nothing you couldn’t get around the ship. It looked to be poorly attended by passengers. The wait staff was excellent though. The officers that attended gave very brief champagne toast and were out if there. Captain did not bother with attending.
– Cape Liberty cruise Port parking leaves a little to be desired. It is very run down and a long walk. They do have a shuttle, but who has time or the patience to wait for it. Hey this could be a pro also. It will give you a good morning stretch before getting in your car to drive home.
Something’s to think about today:
Today’s product recommendations are cruising essentials (paid links): 1) It is so nice not to have to worry about stapling your luggage tags to your luggage handles and to have them rip off. We have these plastic holders on our luggage and love them. We use them for Royal Caribbean cruises and also fold the MSC tags to fit in them when we travel with MSC cruise lines. Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/3RAGgED 2) A lanyard is great to have. It makes it so easy to carry your seapass card and some tip money around the ship. These are really nice. Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/3PTVLGB 3) I have found that a nice toiletry bag is essential, and this is the one I love. Here’s a link to it: https://amzn.to/3EO2Y4F 4) Packing cubes – I can’t say enough about them. I would never go on vacation without them again. Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/3Rxx8AA 5) You have to have a small purse for getting off at ports or for carrying a few things with you around the ship. Great for when you have no pockets to carry the cell phone. This one is beautiful. Here’s the link: https://amzn.to/3ETJNpS 6) Room Thermometer- I leave one of these packed in my bag. The temperature fluctuates so much, and I like to try and keep my room at a stable temperature. This keeps me honest with myself. Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/46tNoXH
#CommissionsEarned
To view the complete daily diary, click here – This starts at Year 1 Day 1: Living the Dream – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count