Our Carnival Liberty 2.0 [Party Cruise WOOOO!] Vacation, Part 2

(First...there will be a LOT of text in this post, but I *promise* to get to the pictures, many of them, and soon! Unfortunately before we were able to take many, a whoooollleeee lot of icky stuff happened, stuff that really needs to be aired out as I feel it was very poorly handled on Carnival's part)

Okay, I left off in my last entry mentioning that post-Guy's burgers, we ended up at Guest Services...though that actually wasn't the absolute next thing that happened.

Remember how I said that I was told by the woman who checked us in - the one who gave us our S&S cards - to go to the Golden Dining Room AT 3:30 PM to get our dinner reservation(s) fixed? (By the way, I clarified this with her TWICE before walking away)

Well, we finished our food from Guy's right about 3. I kid you not, I looked at my phone and it was 3:01 when we stood up and decided to head down to the MDR early. We figured better safe than sorry.

We arrived at the MDR no later than 3:05, only to be told that the maitre d' was actually there from 1 - 3 and had already left. I wish I had written down the name of the girl who "helped" us - because she was seriously downright rude, despite the fact that we were only a few minutes late and were actually far earlier than the time we were originally told to arrive. She refused to do absolutely anything at all and told us that we would have to just go to our separate dining reservations as scheduled, at 6 PM and not a minute before because the maitre d' wouldn't be there before that time, that night and that my husband and I - the ones scheduled to eat in the Golden dining room - could speak to the maitre d' and MAYBE (yes, just "maybe", not definitely) get our issue fixed for the rest of the week.

Honestly, having worked for Disney for five years (four of those in their restaurants) and then worked as a travel agent for about a year and a half, I deemed this nothing short of unacceptable, and we marched on down to guest services (thankfully there was no line). First I got my S&S card fixed (and was told that the problem was something to do with my name, even though I hadn't changed my name on this booking and again, never had a problem linking my past guest number with this booking when dealing with it before embarkation).

Then I had to spend a good 15 minutes convincing the girl to help us with the dining issue. Honestly, I had to reiterate to the girl at the GS desk at least three times that we had linked our bookings together, been told we would have dining together, double checked and been told both those things again closer to the cruise, been given incorrect information by the girl who checked us in, and dealt with an extremely rude MDR employee who made me go from sweet "if you could please fix this for us since it was Carnival's mistake in the first place" Tara to firm "this better get fixed today or you'll face my wrath" Tara.

In the end, it took me crossing my arms over my chest and exclaiming that this was the absolute worst first day of a cruise I'd ever had before she finally took down our information and promised to email it to the maitre d' immediately. She told us to go to the MDR at 5:30 to talk to him. I told her that we had been informed the maitre d' wouldn't be there until 6. She insisted that we should go at 5:30. I clarified the time with her once again before we said thank you and walked away.

And bought ourselves a drink to calm the frustration, of course! So, technically the second drink of the cruise (the first being a mojito from the Lido deck, but we were in such a rush to fix the dining stuff that I never got a picture :( )

At least my chocolate martini was yummy.

And then it was pretty much muster drill time. Quick and easy, though my hubby was confused as to why it was outside on a deck when on our previous two cruises (his first and second cruises ever) it had been in the ship's theater...

After that...sail-away!

As you can see, it was a bit crowded on the top deck...good luck finding a spot to squeeze in a picture or two of your own, haha...

As soon as I'd taken the above (plus a few more, but who needs 20 pictures of the Miami skyline in a cruise review, right? ;) ) I headed up to Fish-n-Chips for our Cruise Critic meet and greet! This was by far the most active roll call thread I've ever participated in, and it was great! Our meet and greet was short and quick...just some hellos/introductions and the exchange of monies and wristbands for our cocktail party, which was scheduled for the first sea day. We'd meant to talk about other activities for later in the week, but I think we were all just so excited to be there that we forgot...oops!

Now I've spent so long writing this (sorry about all the above text, I swear) that I need to take a break, but I'll try to be back later with posts about more important stuff...a.k.a. dinner and the Alchemy Bar!

Unfortunately, though, you'll first have to read more about our Adventures in Guest Services.

No, not kidding. But I wish I was. Trust me. Sigh.