Review of our Spring Break '12 Cruise on Carnival Liberty

[PaulMedik]

Paul, That ship you were talking about is called a Ro-Ro (Roll On-Roll Off). They are fairly common now, All Automobile carriers are of this type, and the Military Sealift Command (Part of the Navy) maintains several to transport combat vehicles overseas.

 

In fact there is a whole group of them at Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean that is kept, fully loaded with the equipment for a heavy mechanized brigade, ready to sail at 48 hour's notice. If you've sailed out of New Orleans, there are 2 of them just downriver from the cruise terminal.

 

 

PunkinsDad,

 

I remember now that you mentioned it that he did say there were called Ro-Ros. It was the first one that I recall seeing.

 

Haven't sailed from New Orleans yet, but Sunshine's deck 5 aft wrap is making it too tempting so we're planning to drive down and try her out.

 

Hey Paul! Long time no talk. It's always great to see and read your reviews. We are doing the Liberty in March and are anxious to see the 2.0 changes. Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

Steve

 

 

Steve,

 

Thank you.

 

We enjoyed the 2.0 changes; mainly the Guy's Burgers, but the new Lido bars were a nice touch too. The former Paparazzi Bar was a hit with several of our CC friends. Here's the former Paparazzi Bar post 2.0;

 

 

 

Normally when the aft wake disappears before the horizon it means the seas are rough, but that was not the case on this cruise; the wake disappeared because we were cruising slow and smooth all day so it just naturally disappaited (My apologies to the owner of the incidental aft in this picture. This was the only pic of our wake that I snapped while up on deck that day);

 

 

 

After Guy's burgers we headed to the aft ice cream station for desert and watched a young lady make a very nice cone, take one lick, and then watched it fall between her feet on the deck. She ran, I took a pic;

 

 

 

After I took the pic above I was scolded by a fellow cruiser for wasting ice cream just to get a picture. She then proceded to cover the ice cream up with a napkin and brought wet floor signs over from next to the pool and placed around the spill. She was furious with a few folks who stepped over the ice cream instead of going around. I started to tell her I didn't drop the ice cream, but figured she was having a good time rambling on about it so I let her continue.

 

 

Our CC roll call had a Meet & Greet scheduled from 3-4 in The Stage Bar so Karen and I made our way down to deck five and found the party in full swing;

 

 

 

The Meet & Greet was open bar and after five screwdrivers and a couple of blue drinks, the picture above is the only one that is close to being in focus; the others are online in the album if anyone is interested in some out of focus pics of their fellow CC members.

 

 

After the Meet & Greet we stopped by the casino and played some more BlackJack for about an hour. We then returned to our cabin and found Britt sound asleep;

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile Bryson and Spencer were back up the golf course practicing up (Karen had beaten Spencer so he just had to practice some more);

 

[hehrball]

Wow! I loved the pictures! I can't wait to leave January 19, 2013. I am looking forward to the upgrades. Thank you -;)

We will be with you guys! We have a group of about 10 going so far:)

[jjtimes6]

Love it so far, Paul! Looking forward to reading the rest!

[cruzininga]

Enjoying your review. Can't wait for my turn in October.

[MisterMom]

Loving the review and missing me some Carnival Liberty. Alchemy was my fave.

 

[Prairie_Gal]

Great review Paul!

[girlscruise2011]

I had a Guy's Cheese Burger on the balcony for lunch. Bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and a cold Diet Coke to wash it down;

 

 

 

Granted they aren't real healthy looking, but my mouth sure is watering just looking at this close up pic;

 

 

Ok, now I'm hungry :D

 

This is the first thing I'm doing when I get on the Liberty in November. I need to get me one of those Guy Burgers, they look delicious

[Atomic911]

Very nice pics :)

[familyfuncruise]

We are looking forward to it - see you guys on the ship!

[pbmsmile]

More deck 7 forward via the 'secret door' pics;

 

View from the area where your window will be; the sky didn't really look that ominous, but to show the deck I had to tweak the light quite a bit;

 

 

Looking forward (Pics were taken while anchored off of Belize). I love how you can see areas where it's storming and areas that are sunny and beautiful all in one image;

 

 

 

 

 

 

View from port side corner of deck 7 Forward (and storm in the distance);

 

 

 

Looking down with the fisheye at the port side corner really distorts the horizon. I should have got this pic from the other side of the ship where it was sunny;

 

 

 

 

For perspective, this is a shot of the port side corner of deck 7 forward where the two shots above were taken from;

 

 

 

Looking past Karen at the exterior door you can just make out the interior port hole door aka 'secret door;'

 

 

Paul you are so awesome for taking those for me!! I showed them to my husband and he couldn't believe you took time out of your own vacation to indulge my request...what a sweetheart!! Thanks for being the model Karen ;)

[finoky]

Enjoying your review as always Paul.

[shipshape3]

great pics! your making me hungry for some Guy's burgers. It looks yummy!

[NurseW2Kiddies]

Hi Paul and Karen!! So enjoy your reviews!! Can't wait for the next installment. Your handsome boys are getting SOOO big!!

Can you tell me if the hairdryers in the room are the kind that are attached to the wall in the bathroom or are they the regular kind of hairdryers and found in the drawer?? Thanks so much for the info. Trying to cut down my packing list:D

[familycruzinnewbie]

Paul, we just returned from the Liberty April 28, Eastern. We stayed at the Savoy the 2 nights before. I had seen your pics from last year. We liked it, great location and price. Though our 1 BR ended up being in the left building, ground floor, so no separated bedroom, kitchen table, stove (just microwave on top of the fridge) or balcony (2 princess rails). I will have to try to request the main building next time.

 

I'm wondering about your time dining. We went with 6pm seating. Our service was hit and miss, with a few bad services. Dinner usually lasted until 7:45pm. The family comedy show went from 7:30-8pm, so we were only able to make it for the end. I was thinking about your time dining for next time but I don't know if that would help with the comedy show which was my kiddos (9 and 12) favourite entertainment. Would you recommend your time dining?

 

Also, since it seems your family has cruised a lot, I'm just wondering what ports, route or ship you would recommend for a 2nd cruise. We had the worst rain in HMC and our favourite port on this one was Grand Turk. We have to get expensive flights from Eastern Canada no matter what, so it could be another year or two.

[gail811]

Hi Paul and Karen!! So enjoy your reviews!! Can't wait for the next installment. Your handsome boys are getting SOOO big!!

Can you tell me if the hairdryers in the room are the kind that are attached to the wall in the bathroom or are they the regular kind of hairdryers and found in the drawer?? Thanks so much for the info. Trying to cut down my packing list:D

 

They were in the drawers when I was on in March. Still have to hold the dang button down while you dry too.

[cruiseclues]

Great review and outstanding photos...we liked your fisheyes :)

[Teamv]

I'm wondering about your time dining. We went with 6pm seating. Our service was hit and miss, with a few bad services. Dinner usually lasted until 7:45pm. The family comedy show went from 7:30-8pm, so we were only able to make it for the end. I was thinking about your time dining for next time but I don't know if that would help with the comedy show which was my kiddos (9 and 12) favourite entertainment. Would you recommend your time dining?

 

.

 

Hi, I am just jumping in here about Your Time dining and the family comedy shows. We were on the Liberty the same time as the OP. You can easily do Your Time dining and make it in time to the early comedy show if you don't mind eating early. For us it was worth it as the comedy shows are one of our kids' favourite activities. We would be at the dining room at 5:45 to 6:00 and always made it to the comedy show in plenty of time to get a good seat (ie 7:15 or so) for the 7:30 show. One night the service was a bit slower and we said we were hoping to get to the comedy show and our servers brought dessert out in about 3 minutes.

 

Our only issue was that on elegant night we made sure we got to the dining room right at 5:45 because we thought it might be really busy, but the room was still practically empty and the service was super fast and we found that we didn't enjoy elegant night as much. We were in and out in about an hour.

 

We ate earlier than usual on this cruise but I think it kept us from pigging out in the mid to late afternoon, because we knew we would be eating early and we wanted to save room!

[steelerjen]

Paul, your review is awesome!!! Love the pics, and I can't wait to read the rest.

[Missjamis3]

I had a Guy's Cheese Burger on the balcony for lunch. Bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and a cold Diet Coke to wash it down;

 

 

 

Granted they aren't real healthy looking, but my mouth sure is watering just looking at this close up pic;

 

 

Ok, now I'm hungry :D

 

This is the first thing I'm doing when I get on the Liberty in November. I need to get me one of those Guy Burgers, they look delicious

 

I can't wait to eat one of these. 2 weeks and 3 days =)

[jrmende63]

thanks for the deck 7 pics as that is where our cabin is...maybe even the one that you got the pic of!

I love following your reviews!

[srobins]

I'm enjoying this review and I am not even going on the Liberty! I am hoping you can tell us if they had the hurricane glasses for the DOD's or if they had the new glassware that I've seen mentioned? I would love to know if they had the new Tervis glasses and how much they cost.

 

Thanks for the great pictures!

 

Sherryl

[BlondeValor]

They did have the new drink ware! I purchased the twister - they come in different sizes and the staff isn't really up to speed on the prices... I ended up getting the large twister for the wrong price of $12.95 while at HMC (with drink, which turned out to be a bargain!), and then was SHOCKED when a refill was going to be $18.95... So, word of caution, watch the sizes and pricing. Sorry, don't remember the pricing on the other drink ware.

[PaulMedik]

.........Would you recommend your time dining?

..........

Also, since it seems your family has cruised a lot, I'm just wondering what ports, route or ship you would recommend for a 2nd cruise. .........

 

 

familycruizinnewbie,

 

Yes I would recommend your time dining. Normally I read the reviews just prior to our sailing and know in advance what wait staff to ask for, but this year I didn't. Our wait staff wasn't bad, but very very slow. It may have been a kitchen issue or a timing issue with the time frame the staff sings, but regardless it was too slow for us to give it more than two tries. Our boys ate in the dining room every night though.

 

Since you've tried Eastern I would recommend Western; both routes have ports that are worth doing again, but try them all first then repeat the ones you liked the most would be my advice. In our case we try for Half Moon Cay each time we do Eastern and Cozumel for each Western.

 

 

 

 

****************************************************

 

Thank you all for your kind comments.

 

I'm working tonight after having worked day shift since Saturday then I'll be off until next Saturday so I hope to get quite a bit of the review completed on those days off. 'Hope' being the operative word..... :o

 

 

As I recall the hair dryer was in the door of the desk and not in the bathroom and was the same type Gail mentioned.

 

Our first DODs were in plastic glasses, but later we had some in Hurricane glasses; when we were leaving Serenity the bar server asked if we were finished because he needed the glass back. I lied and said no. :eek: I meant to bring it home, but I'm not sure if it made it or not.

 

If I missed any questions, please repost.

[NurseW2Kiddies]

 

 

 

As I recall the hair dryer was in the door of the desk and not in the bathroom and was the same type Gail mentioned.

 

Our first DODs were in plastic glasses, but later we had some in Hurricane glasses; when we were leaving Serenity the bar server asked if we were finished because he needed the glass back. I lied and said no. :eek: I meant to bring it home, but I'm not sure if it made it or not.

 

If I missed any questions, please repost.

 

Thanks for the info!!!

 

Ewwwww!! I REALLY don't want to drink out of a used plastic Hurricane cup!! Sounds kinda yucky to me!! Why in the world would he be wanting that back??? :confused:

 

I woulda lied as well Paul!!!!:D

[boaterette]

familycruizinnewbie,

 

Yes I would recommend your time dining. Normally I read the reviews just prior to our sailing and know in advance what wait staff to ask for, but this year I didn't. Our wait staff wasn't bad, but very very slow. It may have been a kitchen issue or a timing issue with the time frame the staff sings, but regardless it was too slow for us to give it more than two tries. Our boys ate in the dining room every night though.

 

Since you've tried Eastern I would recommend Western; both routes have ports that are worth doing again, but try them all first then repeat the ones you liked the most would be my advice. In our case we try for Half Moon Cay each time we do Eastern and Cozumel for each Western.

 

 

 

 

****************************************************

 

Thank you all for your kind comments.

 

I'm working tonight after having worked day shift since Saturday then I'll be off until next Saturday so I hope to get quite a bit of the review completed on those days off. 'Hope' being the operative word..... :o

 

 

As I recall the hair dryer was in the door of the desk and not in the bathroom and was the same type Gail mentioned.

 

Our first DODs were in plastic glasses, but later we had some in Hurricane glasses; when we were leaving Serenity the bar server asked if we were finished because he needed the glass back. I lied and said no. :eek: I meant to bring it home, but I'm not sure if it made it or not.

 

If I missed any questions, please repost.

 

Well I was hoping you would be able to post more also.