Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

My A to Z review, Liberty July 7, 2012

hayesktrm

By hayesktrm,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

Recommended Posts

hayesktrm

hayesktrm

Posted
Posted

This review will be a little different. In order for me to keep things straight, I like to do things alphabetically. I will try to add some pictures, if I can figure it out. Hope I can provide some information that is useful. On the trip were my DH, DS (19) and DD (15). Missing from the cruise was DS's GF, and oh my, did we hear about how much he missed her throughout the cruise! She will most likely be joining us next year, just so we don't have to hear about it!

 

A: Alchemy Bar—we only went here once, but it was terrific. I had some wonderful concoction with chocolate. The Deal Breaker or something like that. The bar staff was really friendly and fun. We went on lady's night (we didn't know it was lady's night until they told us) and it was $1 off all drinks. I think the regular price is $8.95 + tip.

 

B: Blue Iguana Burrito Bar—I ate here once and my DH twice. I thought the burritos were really good. When my DH was handed his fish taco, he said, “this isn’t going to be good.” Once he added all the toppings he changed his mind, he thought they were great. He didn’t care for his burrito later in the cruise, but I really think it’s what you put on it. The kids thought Chipotle was better.

 

C: Club O2—DD has always gone to the kids’ clubs since she was 5. She tried this one the first night and wasn’t thrilled, but said she would try again. The next day she was gone most of the day so I thought she was having fun. She came home and said they were grinding while dancing and that the kids really weren’t that nice. She is 15 and most of the kids were older, so I’m sure that had something to do with it. She gave it one more try, but gave up and hung out with her 19 year old brother and mom and dad. Nice for us, but she was disappointed. We noticed when we went by the club that there were boys dancing provocatively on the counter. After that we were happy that she decided against going back. We have never had any problems with Club O2 before—in fact my DS loved going. It was always such a huge group they spilled outside of the club. On this cruise, there really weren’t that many kids in there. DD said all the nice kids were hanging out with their families (maybe they got scared away, too).

 

Cabana—we rented a cabana on Half Moon Cay. The kids teased me about it, but after an hour there, they admitted mom knew what she was doing and said it was so great. We loved it. The snacks and drinks were cold and delicious! A couple of things I did wrong. When I looked at the ticket for the excursion, I only saw that it started at 9:00 am so we went to the lounge to meet at 9:00 am. Ooops, there was another time to the right of that that I didn’t see. It said to meet at 8:30 am. It was fine; we just had to wait a little longer to get a tender. I was mad at myself for not looking closer. Also, there is a fan in the cabana. It is also a mister. We didn’t find this out until we were about to leave. That would have been nice to sit on the loungers in the cabana and be misted. More on HMC in the H’s.

079.jpg

 

Cabin—we had two OV cabins on deck 2—connecting (2344 and 2340). We have done this a few times and having the extra room and bathroom is wonderful, especially with two teenagers! We didn’t have any issues with noise. We loved the location. I know it’s silly, but I missed having the little samples in the bathroom. I would love to go see what kinds of things we got. This time it was just toothpaste and shampoo. Really, though, if this is my biggest complaint about the cabin, things are pretty good.

 

Casino—I only went once. I am not a bigger gambler so when I won 1,198 credits I was thrilled and cashed out. Now, that sounds like a lot, but when you are only betting with pennies it’s only $11.98, haha. I took my DS gambling for the first time and I am happy to say, he is over it. He lost $20 and was done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hayesktrm

hayesktrm

Posted
  • Author
Posted

D: Dining—We had the Silver Olympia dining room. It was really nice. We had great service from our wait staff. They weren’t overly friendly like we are used to, but they were nice and did a great job. Most of the time I found something on the menu that I liked. There was nothing that I hated. Temperatures of the food were always correct. The portion sizes were smaller, but I liked that. I do have to say, I missed having the shrimp cocktail every night. I am not a big main course type of person, so I usually have a few starters and except for elegant night, there weren’t a lot that I liked to choose from.

Diamond’s Steakhouse—we celebrated our anniversary here. It was delicious! I had the surf and turf. We really liked the ambience, and of course, the wait staff was incredible. My dessert was just okay, but no complaints otherwise. I saw a thread on someone bringing their 2 year old here…I just can’t see it. Don’t want to get flamed, but I felt it was definitely an adult feel and I think having little ones there would have been an unwelcome distraction. All the adults were behaved, too!

 

E: Entertainment—we skipped the welcome aboard show. We went to the Wonderful World show. I thought it was very well done, but a little boring at first (just not my type of music and dancing at first). We were glad we stayed, because we really enjoyed it after the first part. There was a rock and roll show and that was a lot of fun. My DD made me go to the Legends show and I was glad she did. Wow, there were some very talented guests on board. The gentleman who did Frank Sinatra was so incredible I wanted to give him a standing ovation. I’ll talk about Punchliners under P.

Emilie’s Bistro—it was okay. I really don’t like buffet food, but breakfast was fine. I enjoyed their oatmeal every day. Everything was warm when it was supposed to be. I loved the deli and would order a grilled cheese sandwich every night.

Embarkation—smooth. We got to the port around 11:00 am and were on the ship by 12:30 pm. We had zone 19. I thought it would take forever, but was pleasantly surprised.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hayesktrm

hayesktrm

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks!

 

F: Fun Ship Shops—my DS had a lot of fun in here. He bought a nice watch for himself and a beautiful bracelet for his GF back home. The only thing I bought here was a costume jewelry wedding band because while I was on the plane I noticed one of my prongs came completely off my wedding band. It was $20 and isn’t too ugly. I also bought a bottle of gel aloe—we got really burned the first day in HMC.

 

G: Grand Turk—we got off the ship easily and walked through the shops. My DD wanted to buy some gifts for friends, so we did that first. We should have done it at the end because by the time we walked down the beach to The Local, most of the chairs were taken. We got lucky and found 2, then later found another 2. The Local was reasonably priced, they were nice and the food was good. It was a nice day at the beach.

 

121.jpg

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu337/disneynut1966/Carnival%20Liberty%202012/116.jpg

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu337/disneynut1966/Carnival%20Liberty%202012/115.jpg

 

Guy’s Burger Joint—had one, it was pretty good. My DS prefers Five Guys, but he was excited he could eat as many as he wanted and didn’t have to pay any extra.

 

H: Half Moon Cay—we were in paradise. Like I said, we loved the cabana and the island is SO beautiful. I wanted to get cabana 11 and it was still available when I went to the excursion desk. We weren’t really impressed with the shops and the food was okay, but the water and beach were incredible! We did a really good job of putting on sunscreen at first, but forgot the whole part about reapplying. We suffered the rest of the cruise. Memories of the cruise come back every time a piece of dead skin falls off my body! We wanted to stay forever. So, our one complaint—when we were ready to leave we went toward the ship. The line to get a tender was SO long. We stood out in the hot, hot sun for over an hour. It was ridiculous. There has to be a better way to get people tendered back to the ship. One problem they did have was they had to do CPR on a man who had a heart attack. They had to completely empty one of the tenders and take him back to the ship (I heard he was okay, thankfully). This didn’t help matters, but really by that time, it was already really backed up so that really wasn’t what was taking so long. I would also think that in emergency situations they would have an easier way to get people back to the ship. I imagine it must have taken quite a bit of time to empty all those people off and it must have been awful for the man and his family. I felt bad their vacation started this way.

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu337/disneynut1966/Carnival%20Liberty%202012/007.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DDFla

DDFla

Posted
Posted

We had the best wait staff in the last three cruises as well as room steward. I really enjoyed this cruise. Half Moon Cay was the best, we were stuck in the same line returning. Glad you enjoyed the cruise as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hayesktrm

hayesktrm

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Boaterette, yes we thought those people who were just hanging out swimming had the right idea. By the time we got in line we were all very sunburned and tired, and a little dehydrated. We also didn't have towels with us because the cabana supplied those for us...so we just waited. It would be nice if they would at least make some more shade.

 

DDfla, glad you had a great time, too! It is such a beautiful ship!

 

Thanks for the nice compliments. I don't usually write reviews, so thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
girlscruise2011

girlscruise2011

Posted
Posted
This review will be a little different. In order for me to keep things straight, I like to do things alphabetically. I will try to add some pictures, if I can figure it out. Hope I can provide some information that is useful. On the trip were my DH, DS (19) and DD (15). Missing from the cruise was DS's GF, and oh my, did we hear about how much he missed her throughout the cruise! She will most likely be joining us next year, just so we don't have to hear about it!

 

A: Alchemy Bar—we only went here once, but it was terrific. I had some wonderful concoction with chocolate. The Deal Breaker or something like that. The bar staff was really friendly and fun. We went on lady's night (we didn't know it was lady's night until they told us) and it was $1 off all drinks. I think the regular price is $8.95 + tip.

 

B: Blue Iguana Burrito Bar—I ate here once and my DH twice. I thought the burritos were really good. When my DH was handed his fish taco, he said, “this isn’t going to be good.” Once he added all the toppings he changed his mind, he thought they were great. He didn’t care for his burrito later in the cruise, but I really think it’s what you put on it. The kids thought Chipotle was better.

 

C: Club O2—DD has always gone to the kids’ clubs since she was 5. She tried this one the first night and wasn’t thrilled, but said she would try again. The next day she was gone most of the day so I thought she was having fun. She came home and said they were grinding while dancing and that the kids really weren’t that nice. She is 15 and most of the kids were older, so I’m sure that had something to do with it. She gave it one more try, but gave up and hung out with her 19 year old brother and mom and dad. Nice for us, but she was disappointed. We noticed when we went by the club that there were boys dancing provocatively on the counter. After that we were happy that she decided against going back. We have never had any problems with Club O2 before—in fact my DS loved going. It was always such a huge group they spilled outside of the club. On this cruise, there really weren’t that many kids in there. DD said all the nice kids were hanging out with their families (maybe they got scared away, too).

 

Cabana—we rented a cabana on Half Moon Cay. The kids teased me about it, but after an hour there, they admitted mom knew what she was doing and said it was so great. We loved it. The snacks and drinks were cold and delicious! A couple of things I did wrong. When I looked at the ticket for the excursion, I only saw that it started at 9:00 am so we went to the lounge to meet at 9:00 am. Ooops, there was another time to the right of that that I didn’t see. It said to meet at 8:30 am. It was fine; we just had to wait a little longer to get a tender. I was mad at myself for not looking closer. Also, there is a fan in the cabana. It is also a mister. We didn’t find this out until we were about to leave. That would have been nice to sit on the loungers in the cabana and be misted. More on HMC in the H’s.

079.jpg

 

Cabin—we had two OV cabins on deck 2—connecting (2344 and 2340). We have done this a few times and having the extra room and bathroom is wonderful, especially with two teenagers! We didn’t have any issues with noise. We loved the location. I know it’s silly, but I missed having the little samples in the bathroom. I would love to go see what kinds of things we got. This time it was just toothpaste and shampoo. Really, though, if this is my biggest complaint about the cabin, things are pretty good.

 

Casino—I only went once. I am not a bigger gambler so when I won 1,198 credits I was thrilled and cashed out. Now, that sounds like a lot, but when you are only betting with pennies it’s only $11.98, haha. I took my DS gambling for the first time and I am happy to say, he is over it. He lost $20 and was done.

 

Thanks for the Cabana picture. I had #11 in May on my Destiny cruise and loved it. Boy, do I wish I was there right now :D I'm on the LIberty in November but doing the Western Caribbean itinerary but looking forward to your full review

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hayesktrm

hayesktrm

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I have been out of town...went to see Mamma Mia with my daughter! Wow, what a fun show. Anyway, back to it.

 

I: Ice cream—yes, we had ice cream and frozen yogurt several times a day, and it didn’t disappoint. My DS went down for breakfast one morning and came back with ice cream. He said the buffet line was too long, I think it was a good choice.

 

Intercontinental Hotel, Miami—We got this hotel for $127 including taxes off a last minute hotel website. It was such a great deal we got a room for the kids, too. Beautiful rooms (next to each other), great location (we walked to the Bayside Marketplace and had dinner at Bubba Gump’s) and nice staff. It was a quick walk to CVS to pick up last minute items (twice). We would definitely stay here again. We didn’t have a car so we didn’t have to pay for parking, which I heard wasn’t cheap. In the morning we went to Starbucks in the hotel and got lattes and breakfast sandwiches for all of us. It was still $30, but much better cheaper than their buffet. We figured we were going to eat a lot on the cruise, so why eat a lot a few hours before boarding. We took a taxi to the pier--asked the guy to go directly there (we had heard since it was such a short drive, that they sometimes they take a roundabout way). For the 4 of us with tip it was less than $20 total.

 

intercontinental.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hayesktrm

hayesktrm

Posted
  • Author
Posted

J: Jardin Café—we went here twice. The lattes were just okay (we are from Seattle originally and love Starbucks), but the cookies were great!

 

K: K—Karl with a K. He was a great Cruise Director. Is it just me or does he remind anyone of Davy Jones? He was funny, engaging and just plain nice. A good Cruise Director doesn’t make or break a cruise for me, but it’s nice bonus.

 

L: Library—we went here a few times and played Battleship, Trivial Pursuit and Yahtzee. It was fun spending time with the kids. They are at age where they are constantly going somewhere so we don’t have a lot of time together. My only complaint is that there were many games with a lot of missing pieces.

M: Miniature Golf—this was my third Conquest ship and I have never played mini-golf. Every time I say I am going to do it and never do. I finally did it. I got beat terribly by my DH. It was fun, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail on Sun Princess®
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...