Funship 2.0 (Liberty) Review w/Lots of Pictures

[CPAYNE1997]

Thank you for the wonderful review! I will be booking the Liberty for May 26th very soon!! Beautiful pictures!:)

[funfamilyof6]

I just got back Saturday from the Liberty, so I'll try to address these for you.

 

The volleyball and basketball courts are in the same area with no net or wall between. But they are separate. The bball court is a half court. I didn't really pay attention to the vball court, so I'm not sure if it's standard size. I wasn't in that area much, but I did see vball being played two separate times.

 

The top few decks are only partial decks: part up front, part in back. So the sports deck is on the same level as the spa, but the spa is in the front of the ship, and the sports deck is in the back. It's easy to get up to the sports deck, just go outside in the lido area mid-ship by the main pool, look for the funnel, and go up in that direction.

 

Pasta is the hardest question for me, as I didn't really look at the standard buffet. One suggestion for her would be the Mongolian grille - you choose your own stuff that they cook in a wok for you. There are noodles of some type there, plus veggies and meat and different sauces.

 

hope this helps!

 

Thank you so much for answering my questions...I really appreciate it. Hope you had a great time! :)

[Anung Un Rama]

We had some problems with the Kiosk - my name is Christopher, but due to CCL’s registation textbox only accepting 10 characters, they know me as “Christophe”. This means my passport name doesn’t match the name they have for me on file. The kiosk isn’t smart enough to figure this out, so we had to go find a real person. The termial was pretty vacant, but we went to the only person we could find just to the right of the kiosks about 50 feet or so.

 

 

I'm so glad I decided to reread this review as I missed this the first time (must have been distracted by the pretty pictures :o). I have this same issue with my name being the same so I'm glad that I at least know to expect an issue and to need help. Loved the review btw, obviously since I'm rereading it :D.

[spacepotatoes]

Thanks for taking the time to post this review! Your pictures are just beautiful, the HDR ones are especially great. Did you use a small tripod at all for those shots, like a Gorillapod or something?

[jkudzu]

Well, I have tried to send Monica a little Thank You for her help, but she's thwarting my plans.

 

First, I asked her for a mailing address where I could send something. She said nothing was necessary. So, I friended her on FB because I know you can send gift cards over FB. She accepted, then unaccepted quickly. Shucks.

 

Is there anything else anyone can think of that I can do?

 

Why don't you write to Carnival and let them know about the wonderful thing she did for you? I've sent letters/emails to Carnival and Princess letting them know about special employees. I've gotten replys back saying it would go into their employee files and I've gotten replies back from the employees thanking me. Great review and great pictures. I'm an am. photog. too and sometimes I have to remind myself to have fun rather than take photos.:o

[pyroguy]

Thanks for taking the time to post this review! Your pictures are just beautiful, the HDR ones are especially great. Did you use a small tripod at all for those shots, like a Gorillapod or something?

 

I didn't bring a tripod or a monopod on this trip. I set my camera for bracketing and high speed, so I could just hold down the shutter until 3 shots were taken.

 

Of course, I did do the standard stand with a wide stance, exhale and relax before shooting...which was tough on a segway!

[pyroguy]

Why don't you write to Carnival and let them know about the wonderful thing she did for you? I've sent letters/emails to Carnival and Princess letting them know about special employees. I've gotten replys back saying it would go into their employee files and I've gotten replies back from the employees thanking me. Great review and great pictures. I'm an am. photog. too and sometimes I have to remind myself to have fun rather than take photos.:o

 

Thanks for the advice! I posted a comment to JH's blog thanking her. Hopefully it'll make it to her superiors.

[vc562894]

Hello pyroguy, I have a few questions after reading your amazing and informative review! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your pictures. I actually just bought a DSLR camera myself and I am trying to teach myself how to use it (ha).

My questions are:

1) The St. Thomas at night picture, what setting did you take it with? I am trying to learn the settings for the perfect night photo.

2) how did you take all of the panaroma pictures?

3) HDR-- what does that mean?

4) What is this SECRET DECK!?

[LEXIpoo]

amazing reviews and the pics were breathtaking!

I'm looking into cruising on the Liberty next!

[pyroguy]

Hello pyroguy, I have a few questions after reading your amazing and informative review! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your pictures. I actually just bought a DSLR camera myself and I am trying to teach myself how to use it (ha).

My questions are:

1) The St. Thomas at night picture, what setting did you take it with? I am trying to learn the settings for the perfect night photo.

2) how did you take all of the panaroma pictures?

3) HDR-- what does that mean?

4) What is this SECRET DECK!?

 

Great questions!

 

St. Thomas at night: They are with 1/30s shutter, f/5, ISO 1600. Depending on the camera you have, you may have high noise at ISO 1600. Every CMOS sensor is different - I try Program mode to see what the camera thinks I should shoot at, then switch to manual mode and see what I can tweak from there.

 

For the Panorama pics, I turned on the "grid" feature in my viewfinder, then stood still...taking pictures from one side to the next, overlapping by at least 1/3 of the picture from the previous one. The grid makes that easy.

 

HDR stands for "High Dynamic Range" - read up on Bracketing on your camera. Taking 3 or more pictures and "mapping" the tonal values to a single picture.

 

The Secret Deck is all the way forward on Decks 7-10 I believe.

[vc562894]

Great questions!

 

St. Thomas at night: They are with 1/30s shutter, f/5, ISO 1600. Depending on the camera you have, you may have high noise at ISO 1600. Every CMOS sensor is different - I try Program mode to see what the camera thinks I should shoot at, then switch to manual mode and see what I can tweak from there.

 

For the Panorama pics, I turned on the "grid" feature in my viewfinder, then stood still...taking pictures from one side to the next, overlapping by at least 1/3 of the picture from the previous one. The grid makes that easy.

 

HDR stands for "High Dynamic Range" - read up on Bracketing on your camera. Taking 3 or more pictures and "mapping" the tonal values to a single picture.

 

The Secret Deck is all the way forward on Decks 7-10 I believe.

 

Thanks for all of your help with my questions..I just bought the Canon Rebel T3! One last questions.. after you take the panorama pics, is that on photoshop?

[pyroguy]

Thanks for all of your help with my questions..I just bought the Canon Rebel T3! One last questions.. after you take the panorama pics, is that on photoshop?

 

Yes, I use CS5, which is currently the only one that can open Nikon RAW files. The nice thing about photoshop is that it has an auto stitch feature, and as long as you overlap enough, it will stitch them together nicely. I have even done 3 rows x 6 pictures wide...pretty cool, but the file size is HUGE!

 

Good luck!

[fredspaw]

...Tofer, Jack’s Dog waiting for his cheeseburger - his daily routine...

 

...wait for it...

 

What a great dog! Seeing this would make me homesick and want to run right home to see my boy! This vacation starting 5/1 with our cruise taking off on the 5th will be the longest length of time away from him.

 

Pyroguy your photos are amazing!, and especially love the HDR and panoramic photos! For a so-called "amature" most of your photos have great composition.

[pyroguy]

Pyroguy your photos are amazing!, and especially love the HDR and panoramic photos! For a so-called "amature" most of your photos have great composition.

 

Thanks! Like many things I like, I learn and learn and learn some more if it interests me.

 

I really like cruising and photography. Maybe there's a career in there somewhere ;-)

[cantwaittwogo]

Thanks pyroguy,thans to your reveiw it helped me pick that hotel doubletree biscayne bay.if you have any more pics of the hotel and that erea please post them. Thanks

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to post your great review and awesome pictures.

[pcrum]

Enjoyed your review of our favorite Carnival ship. Like you, we are always underwhelmed with the chocolate buffet. We prefer to skip it and go to tea time instead!

 

Thanks for the wonderful review!

[cruisegal96]

Awesome pics & review!!! Thanks so much for sharing! We sail Liberty this weekend & can't wait to enjoy the wonderful Eastern Caribbean for 7 days!

[Kjudge]

The next day was San Juan. We had reservations to do the Segway Tour and Sheila and Joe from our Roll Call and Chef’s Table were on it too. We met up with them and headed down. It’s a short walk from the pier to the one (I think 2 piers over) to the Segway place, so it was pretty nice.

 

***Side Note***

Careful of the tour vendors in San Juan right outside the pier. They were pretty aggressive, asking where we were going, then telling us “Oh, that’s right here, that’s me”...then taking me by the arm and trying to make me go with them. What a bunch of crooks.

 

We waited for a bit for the Segway office to open. Soon after, Manuel (our tour guide/instructor) showed up and started us in on the safety and operation of the segways).

 

...Manuel...

 

...Taren was first...

 

The Segways are really fun. He took us outside one by one, taking us around turns and up and down a small hill nearby to get us acclimated to using the machine. He was a great instructor and a really nice guy.

 

Soon we headed off for our Old Town San Juan tour. Note...I’m a big guy, a little over the 260lb weight limit for the Segway, but they have a larger one that used to be a police one. I used that one for the tour, and it was MUCH easier than the smaller ones that we practiced on.

 

He stopped in several places along the way to show us history on San Juan.

...A US flag flying in San Juan...

 

 

...some local boats along the ocean walk...

 

 

...Narrow Streets (HDR)...

 

...view of the coast from the Fort San Cristobal (HDR)...

 

really enjoying your trip. The picture "narrow streets" is a work of art. love the colors. technique? By the way all the pictures are gorgeous! you have a talent!

[Pellaz]

Glad this Liberty review got 'bumped' up...I missed it earlier and we'll be sailing on Liberty in late September. Can't wait! Thanks for the awesome review and photos!

 

Question about the Serenity area on Liberty....did it have any hot tubs in it? I've seen some deck-plans implying their existence and some that didn't. Really enjoyed the Serenity area on a Fantasy-class ship (it was at the stern, great view of the ship's wake and not too windy, plus two hot tubs) and was wondering if the Liberty's was similar.

[Atomic911]

Great review!

[ChefSusan]

LOVE this review!

 

Thanks for the tips on Grand Turk - we'll be there in January with two other couples on Breeze, and I was wondering what we should do for that day.

 

I have to say that I totally love the photos you took with your camera! I picked up a Nikon Coolpix P500 a couple of months ago, and have been very slowly turning away from the auto setting and trying others out. I will definitely check out digital-photography-school.com and freehdrsoftware.com so that I can play around with my camera a little bit more before we set sail on Legend in two weeks.

 

Thanks for the inspiration, and I am so glad that they were able to find your SD card! I think I would absolutely freak out if I ever left my pictures anywhere!!!

[Cjh1975]

Thanks for the great review and the AWESOME pics. We are doing the same cruise in October. It's my first cruise and I'm so excited!!

[titanic27]

Thank You for your review, can't wait to see the Liberty in person:D

[Dimples489]

I loved your review of your eastern carr. cruise. I saw that you had three children with you, one of them being 3 years old. Next year when we go on our cruise our son will be 3. How did you find camp carnival to be? Did you use the sitter service on the port days?