NCL/Royal Caribbean Cruiser Sails Carnival Liberty

[Venusleo1]

I wrote up this review for cruise critic and thought I would share it. I know alot of you are carnival fans, and I appreciate that but please no flaming, I have also posted this on the NCL and RCI boards. People need to know that there are better options out there.

 

My husband and I are seasoned cruisers, mostly with NCL and we are Diamond with Royal. I am 30 and he is 40 and we have no children. Cruising is our preferred vacation, but we're also big on Disney world vacations. We booked this Carnival cruise to cruise with some cruise critic friends of ours, and I was very excited to check out all the 2.0 upgrades and a new ship I had never been on. I had sailed Carnival once before on a short 3 nighter to the Bahamas out of Miami back in 2007 and I was not impressed, but I heard all about how the longer carnival cruises were better and how the 2.0 upgrades were sure to make this a great cruise, so although a bit leery, I was very much looking forward to it and going in with a great attitude, I really wanted to love it since they have a lot more itinerary options out of south Florida in the summers then NCL and RCI, so if we liked it, it would open up a whole slew of cruising opportunities for us, since we can only vacation May-Oct.

Prior to the cruise we did lots of research here on CC and on the carnival website. We had heard about the Faster to Fun program through our roll call and decided to buy it. More on that later.

We live in Palm Beach County, FL so there was no pre or post hotel stay. A relative drops us of at the port and picks us up. On the day of embarkation, we arrived at the port at 10am to meet our friends and to try to take advantage of the faster to fun program and board the ship as early as possible.

Faster to Fun is one of the few things Carnival got right. We loved this program and we used it to it's full capacity numerous times during the trip. Check in was a breeze. We joined the Faster to Fun line and had our sail and sign cards in our hands in less then 5 minutes from entering the terminal. Once checked in, we were lead to a waiting area. We waited for about an hour and a half once they started letting the VIFP's on and following them they allowed all the Faster to Fun people on. The only comment I have about this is that they should have water, juice, etc. in the terminal for you while you are waiting. Once we entered the ship we had access to our rooms right away. Yay!

We went to drop off our carry ons and there was a room steward (not ours) vacuuming our stateroom and he said he would be just a minute. My husband and I were totally 100% fine waiting for the minute and a half that it took him to finish vacuuming. While waiting outside our stateroom an officer (I am assuming she was head of housekeeping) walked by and apologized to us for the wait. We said it was no problem and we were in our cabin just a minute later. This is important for later.

Our cabin was very spacious. We were in an Ocean View Cabin 2380. It was clean and had plenty of room under the bed for suitcases, lots of closet room, plenty of drawers and counter space. The bathroom was a decent size and they provided some free toiletries like toothpaste, shampoo and woman's deodorant. On the wall of the shower they had a dispenser with body wash and shampoo. We also had a safe, mini bar (fully stocked), and a flat screen interactive tv, phone, and blow dryer. We heard there was only 1 outlet so we brought a power strip which was a necessity! So bring power strips, so needed. We very much loved our room throughout the cruise and the only complaint we have is that the beds are really hard. We had just a few requests for our room steward but had not seen him around yet. We dropped off our stuff and went to go meet up with our friends for lunch. Great embarkation and start so far.

And this is when it all starts to go downhill.

Throughout the whole cruise the buffet was a major disappointment. Not many options, crowded, long lines, rude guests, hard to find a place to sit, no one doing the happy happy washy washy song to get people to use hand sanitizer. They were never open in the afternoons when you get back from port. It was just not good, I really don’t know how else to explain it. I found nothing interesting for lunch so I tried the Mongolian Wok which was good. How much Mongolian wok can someone have though? Breakfast in the buffet was just a major disappointment. The eggs tasted like powder every time, they had no salmon for the bagels and when I asked I was told I can get it through room service or at the deli counter when they were open. Not many choices. I ended up having powdered eggs, bacon and a bagel with cream cheese without salmon and grits every morning that we ate at the buffet. One morning I tried the omelet station and asked for a couple of eggs over easy and they were swimming in oil or whatever it is they use to fry them.

Punchliner's Comedy Brunch:

What a joke! Literally. I think the comedy about this is how silly this concept is. We did the Comedy Brunch twice on both of our sea days. First sea day I ordered a Bagel w/ Salmon as a starter and Eggs Benedict, I also had a coupon for a free drink in the dining room so I choose to use it that morning for a mimosa. They brought the bagel out first and what seemed like forever later they bought out the overcooked eggs benedict. It took over an hour and a half for us to be served, eat, and get out of there. Of that hour and a half the comedian did 7 minutes of comedy. That's it. It was basically just a teaser to get you to go see his full comedy show at night, plus both times we did the comedy brunch we couldn’t see the comedian, just heard him over the speakers. It was hard to get drink refills on water/coffee or just to get someone to stop so you could ask for anything. The 2nd sea day we also tried the punchliners comedy brunch and again I ordered the same thing and they brought everything out to me about 40 minutes later all at the same time. Bagel was hard and cold and eggs again were overcooked. Can I just get 1 good breakfast please? Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and I would be happy to eat breakfast for dinner all the time but my hubby won’t let me. Major disappointment.

Guy's Burgers- Awesome, ended up having 3 burgers on the trip since it was the only place open when you get back from port aside from the pizza place.

Pizza- I was really hoping they would at least get this right. First of all they make each and every pizza as you order them and it takes forever. Each pizza has 4 slices of very thin crust with barely anything on it. There was always a line at the pizza place (because it’s your only option for food after the buffet closes after dinner, and one of your only options for food when you get back into port in the afternoons before dinner) Bad pizza, bad service.

Taco/Burrito Bar: This place was great, if it were ever open. Aside from its pitiful hours I very much enjoyed my shrimp burrito with all the toppings. I heard they did good breakfast burritos as well, maybe I should have given it a shot instead of the buffet for breakfast, but I’m not a breakfast burrito kinda girl. I think I should have been and I would have been alot happier.

Main Dining Room- Our head waiter had about 7-8 tables that he was in charge of. We were seated in the Golden Olympian 4th floor at a table for 4 with our friends. The food here wasn’t bad, it was the best food of the cruise (with the exception of the specialty steak house, more on that later), but that's not saying much. It wasn’t great either. We ate here 5 of the 7 nights and I had 1 great dinner. Service was slow, it was hard to get water refills, and iced tea. I guess it was overall OK, but nothing compared to the main dining room food and service on Royal Caribbean. Also, all the singing/dancing was cheesy, I know it’s the "fun ship" but I just don’t think a conga line at dinner is appropriate. One waiter was dancing with an elderly lady and she fell down hard, right next to our table. Our head waiter did the best he could do, but it seems they give them just too many tables and we only had any interaction with him twice out of the 5 nights, and it was brief. We really enjoy getting to know our wait staff and having them tell us what they recommend, or what’s coming up the next night ect. He never gave us any recommendations or told us about upcoming events.

Diamond's Steak House: My friend and I decided to do a group dinner here on the 4th night after Belize. I said I would go ahead and make the reservations on-line and I never received a confirmation, so she did it and got one. The night before we had our reservation, I received a card in my room reminding me. So I guess my reservation request went through. When we went to check in for our reservation we explained to the hostess who I think was also the manager of the steakhouse that I had made reservations for 4 but never received a confirmation but that my friend had then made a reservation for 4 so we both had reservations but that there was really only 1 needed. This seemed to really distress her, she seemed a little flustered but got us seated. The cover charge here is $35/person. The service was fantastic. We had a wonderful waitress from Romania and she explained that it was her first week, she did great!! I expected a lot more from the food though. For $35/person I wanted it to be good, real good. Royal Caribbean has chops and NCL has Cagney's and those are $20-$25/person and are far superior to Diamonds. It was however the best meal of the cruise. During dinner the hostess or manager came by with a printed copy of the confirmation that I didn’t receive to show me that she did in fact send it. Okay.... a little awkward to kind of be like see I told you so, it was off putting.

After lunch on the first day we went back to the cabin to change into our swim suits and hit the main pool. One of our favorite cruising activities is to sit at the pool with a drink and make new friends, listen to some Caribbean beats, and have a relaxing good time, we don't like it too quiet though so the adults only pools are a little to serene for us. We like to people watch and have a good mix of action with our relaxation so the main pools are where we want to be. The main pool on this ship is very small with very limited seating since they added all the 2.0 upgrades to the lido deck. We spent embarkation day here as well as both sea days. The music out here is just too loud. They either have a DJ spinning night club tunes or a couple of guitar players at either Red Frog or Blue Iguana but the speakers are sooo loud. How about a steel drum band or pipe in some jimmy buffet?? Also, no drinks allowed in the pool. This is such an annoyance of mine. Alot of ships will allow you to sit on the shelf of the pool with your feet/legs in with a drink. I don’t think you should be able to be completely in the pool with a drink but they wouldnt let you even sit on the shelf with a drink. You had to get completely out of the pool area to drink. We're not big drinkers but this is the time when we normally will drink, however my husband and I didn’t want to keep getting out of the pool to have a drink, so they lost a few bills on us because of this.

We had a cruise critic meet and greet after muster in the aft pool bar area where the adult’s only pool is. We had a huge group and we had a great time. It started to rain so they closed off the retractable glass roof and it gets HOT in there. Aside from that it was lovely.

We headed to our room to get ready for dinner and we still hadn’t seen our room steward. After we were dressed for dinner I left him a little note with a $20 bill on the dresser asking for him to remove the items in the mini bar, to bring us some extra towels and 1 extra pillow and to please just keep the ice bucket full.

We headed off to dinner and after being out and about for a little bit we headed back to our stateroom and we get to finally meet Romeo from the Phillipeans. Romeo wanted to talk to us, and asked to be able to come in our cabin. He wanted to basically tell us that we got him in trouble... huh?? He said that his supervisor chastised him because we were waiting outside our room and complained about it not being ready when we boarded. Ummm okay. I assured Romeo that we did not complain and told him we were very sorry that he got in trouble. Romeo had brought us our extra towels and pillow and he made sure our ice bucket stayed full the whole cruise. After the first night we never got extra towels, but he did keep our ice bucket full and although we never saw him again until the last night but he kept our room clean and made us towel animals every night. The last night of the cruise was a really bad night for Romeo. On our way to our cabin to get ready for dinner Romeo was in the hall. He was right by my door, he didn’t offer to open it for me while I went through my stuff to find my room key, like so many other awesome room stewards I've had would have done. Instead Romeo asked me if I was pregnant. No Romeo I am not pregnant. He then proceeded to say that he thought I was. Just drop it Romeo okay? Foot meet mouth... Later that night after dinner we went back to our cabin before going out and Romeo again was there wanting to speak to us. As we were walking to our room he told us that he had to take down all the towel animals I had been collecting on the back of the couch because the towels had to be washed. I was waiting for my last night’s towel animal to have them get a group picture so I was a little bummed but not a huge big deal, but do they have such a shortage of towels it couldn’t wait till we disembarked? He asked to come into our room again. My husband and I gave each other a look because we remembered how things went the last time Romeo wanted a private conference, but we obliged. He came in to sell us a carnival beach towel. We politely declined and then he proceeded to remind me about the $20 tip I had given him at the start of the cruise and if he gave that back to me would I use it to by a towel. He explained that it would be more helpful to him for me to buy a towel then it would be for him to keep the $20 because Carnival requires they sell so many on each sailing. Are you kidding Carnival??? This guy (although a little off his rocker) works his but off for barely any money so he can support his family back home and you have towel quotas for him? I’m so sure the cash would have helped him more than selling a towel for Carnival. Anyways he practically begged us to help him and in the end we did end up with a Carnival beach towel. Poor foot in mouth crazy Romeo. Anyways we felt this whole thing was just incredibly unprofessional and just not the way we have been treated by previous room stewards on other lines.

Now onto fun stuff!! Bars, entertainment, casino ect.

Karl with a K was a cruise director. We really liked him. He was very engaging and seemed to really love what he does. Only complaint is that there are speakers in the hall ways outside the cabins and they are really loud. We went to bed around 9pm the first night and around 9:45-10pm Karl came on over the speakers plugging bingo or something, but it was so loud I thought I had speakers inside my cabin. I woke up and jumped up thinking I forgot to turn the speakers down, like they have on some RCI ships. But no speakers in our cabin. So every time there was any kind of announcement either from Karl or the Captain, you better hope you’re not already sleeping or taking a nap cause if you were you won't be for long.

So aside from that Karl was great! One of our cruise critic members put together a meet and greet on the first sea day for our group and asked Carnival to have some officers come by. The captain, 2nd officer, engineer and Karl all swung by. So big props to them for coming by to say hi and to take a group photo with all of us. They also allowed us to have private access to the Piano man bar and provided us with a bartender for two hours. Kudos to Carnival’s group events dept.

Production Shows: we went to one of the Carnival Liberty singers and dancers show and it was slow moving. The singers and dancer did a great job though but the show didn’t keep our interest. I actually thought the dancers were some of the best ship dancers I have seen but the songs/plot of the show didn't do it for us and we did not attend any other production shows.

Juggler: We went and saw the juggler one night in the theater and we thought he was very entertaining.

Punchliners Comedy Club: We went to four comedy shows. Midway through the cruise the two comedians get off and two new ones get on so you have 4 comics to see. This is a great idea. We really enjoyed punchliners comedy club, I though the Carnival rep/MC Rolie was just great. Only downside was that you had to leave the club and get back in line to go back into the 2nd show. No big deal.

Piano Man Bar: Dave the Piano man was so so so great! We spent many nights in here making new friends, and singing along with Dave. Dave is by far the highlight of our cruise. We had a great time playing a name that tv show theme game here and then also just regular sing-a-long. Dave really made this fun and he had a loyal group of followers by the end of the trip. We made a lot of friends in here and found a great camaraderie in this club. Also the waiter in the club was fantastic and always was around for a refill.

Alchemy Bar: 2nd favorite part of the trip. We had a great time hanging out here and getting to know the bartenders. This bar also had a loyal following throughout the cruise, and it was helpful that it was right next to the Piano Man lounge. I kept ordering The Deal Closer which was a chocolaty cocktail and my husband loved the Antioxidant. I also really enjoyed the French Kiss, but my biggest suggestion is to have them make you a custom cocktail. Just tell them what you kind of like and they will whip something up for you. Don't miss The Alchemy Bar! We found it later on in the trip, and wished we would have stopped here sooner.

Hot & Cold Night Club: We only went in here a few times later in the evening and the service was horrible. 40 minutes for a beer? Really? A large group of us from CC would hang out in here in the evenings after all the shows ect had ended. For the most part the music was your typical top 40 club music till about 1:30am and then it would get a little too gangsta rapish so at that time we all knew it was time to go.

Casino: We found the slots to be tight so we didn’t end up gambling much in here but hubby won some money in a game called The Casino Vault that always had a crowd. Our cruise critic group also organized a slot pull for after our Meet and Greet and although we didn't win any money it was a ton of fun.

EA Sports Bar: Great concept but there was rarely anyone in here. I really thought that my husband would have spent more time in here but he just ended up stopping by time to time to read the tickers and get score updates.

Photogs: This ship probably has the best set up for professional photos. The whole 5 floor promenade has station after station for professional photos. We ended up taking a lot more pictures this cruise then any other because they just made it so easy. Lines were short almost all the time and we did end up spending $50 on photos. They also had photogs around the ship taking candid shots and we found a couple of us at the pool doing the groove for St. Jude and dancing to the cha cha slide inside the pool. We thought they were great! It was a little difficult finding your photos but they have a huge photo gallery in the atrium on both sides of deck 4.

Faster to Fun: We thought this program is worth its weight in gold. We used it to board the ship first and to have access to our rooms right away, but we also used it to get us on the tenders as soon as we wanted without waiting. We would just walk up the line for the VIFP and Faster to Fun tell them we were ready to get a tender and we would have someone from guest services escort us down to the tender in a private/reserved elevator. This was great as we booked all of our tours with independent operators and had two tender ports. We also had priority disembarkation, but we didn’t use this option as we preferred to sleep as long as they would let us and get off when we wanted. Although I guess we kind of did use this option since when we were up showered and dressed we headed to the line to disembark and didn’t have to wait for our number to be called as we were #1.

We had some amazing ports of Cozumel, Belize, Roatan and Grand Cayman and I have submitted my reviews for those under the ports section of this review. We really enjoyed our time spent on shore, so that made this cruise much more enjoyable.

Disembarkation: Not Carnival's fault but this was the worst disembarkation we have ever experienced. My dad was set to pick us up at 10am so we got in line to disembark the ship just before 9am. We waited a while on the ship in line before being allowed off. Once of went to the carousels and found our luggage no problem but then waited an hour and a half in line at customs. We ended up walking out of the terminal just after 11am, so over 2 hours.

All in all we had a great time with our friends on this cruise, and we made a bunch of new friends too. We had a great time in ports and some cruise highlights were Dave the Piano man and the Alchemy Bar, as well as winning $$ in the casino. But we just were not happy with the level of service, quality of the food, and the other things I mentioned. Due to the lack of pushing hand sanitizer my husband, my friend, her husband and a hand full of other CC members on our sailing ended up sick. Husband has bronchitis due to his cold, my friend's husband ended up with pneumonia, and a bunch more fellow CCers with a head cold. They really need to push the hand washing/sanitizing more like NCL and RCI do. Washy Washy really does mean Happy Happy!

Bottom line. We will not be sailing Carnival ever again. If this had been my first cruise and I didn’t know how much better the other options were then I may have been very happy, but I know just how much better it can be and although they have a wider range of itineraries and sailings in the summer I rather cruise with NCL or RCI on the same ships where I know I will get the service, food, and the ambiance that I am looking for(main pool area, dinning room) , and for just a few hundred more for the week. The price difference is not that huge. Sorry Carnival, but I can overlook a wacky room steward or a bad day at the buffet, I can't overlook all of the issues we had, but your mileage may vary, as many in our cruise critic role call are thrilled with their cruise. Happy Sailing!

[marshabear]

thank you for your honest review...while Liberty is one of our favorite ships, I realize it is not for everyone....

 

sorry you will not be a repeat customer of Carnival's but I wish you smooth sailing on your future cruises....

 

 

 

 

 

Marsha

[Georgiagolfer]

Sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise. DW and I have sailed Liberty 2 times and had a good cruise each time. I have never had a room steward try to sell me a towel on any line, never mention they are for sell. I agree MDR wait staff appear to be overworked with too many tables.

[gapearl]

Thanks for your review. I'm sorry the cruise wasn't as good as it could have been for you. The cabin steward selling the towels must be new, as I've never had one try to sell one to me. I think it's a little unfair to say that Carnival's lack of hand sanitizer is the reason for the husbands getting bronchitis and pneumonia. I don't use the sanitizers because I actually go wash my hands. Many people have sanitizer in their purses and back packs. If a few from your roll call got sick, perhaps someone had a cold upon boarding the ship and spread it during your meet and greet. I'm sorry they got sick, but it might not necessarily be because of the reason you stated. I'm sailing Royal Caribbean for the first time next month after 6 Carnival cruises and looking forward to making some comparisons.

[yesaccasey]

Everyone has their own opinion but I don't know how you could be happier on RCCL's old ships you've been on than CCL Liberty. I just can't buy it...

[vols159]

Everyone has their own opinion but I don't know how you could be happier on RCCL's old ships you've been on than CCL Liberty. I just can't buy it...

 

 

Sometimes its not the ship but the service.. The OP had a few bad experiences at the buffet, room stewart and steakhouse manager..

[jules815]

Sorry to hear your experience wasn't as good as you'd hoped it would be. I've never sailed on Liberty, but it's on my list of Carnival ships to sail because I like the itineraries.

 

I would have been put off by a room steward approached us about buying a beach towel, too. That just seems odd to me. Are they selling them now and required to make a quota? Sort of like the high pressure spa sales? Was it a new towel or was he trying to sell one that you used that week? Has anyone else experienced this?

 

I have to agree with the other poster though; it sounds to me like someone boarded ship while they were ill. Out of my 6 cruises, the only one I've ever been sick on was a RC ship...Norovirus on the last sea day. The washy washy on that cruise didn't help my husband and I! :eek:

[nhraformula00]

Sounds as though you had a pretty good trip, not perfect but pretty good. Some people are not happy unless things go perfect all the time. We went on the RC Freedom about 6 years ago and thought it was boring,food was ok,entertainment OK, just not our style i guess.

[jobell]

I am sorry to hear that your cruise wasn't very enjoyable. I really do appreciate your honest review. I have never had a room steward though ask us to buy a Carnival towel...very odd.

[Cruisegirl6]

After my last Carnival cruise three years ago we went to RCI for the next 5 cruises and love the Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas. There sure is a huge difference when it comes to service, food (variety,selection especially in the buffet) and entertainment. We love Portofino's over Chops but Chops is excellent too. We never had any problems at all with any of our past RCI cruises.

 

Next week we will be on the Dream and why? We just want to leave out of Pt. Canaveral and just need a change of scenery. We would jump to take another cruise on the FOS but feel we need a change overall just this one time. We also want to give Carnival another chance knowing the Dream is a newer and larger ship than our last cruise on the Fascination and feel she will offer us more. We didnt' have any other choice never would consider a disney cruise so its back to Carnival for us. We know the food is just so so as a result, we are confirmed four evenings at the Steakhouse and looking forward to it knowing it.

 

I am surprised at the very slow service at Punchliners that you had and we do realize we not there for a comedy show but for brunch. We like to stay up late heck we on vacation and we not want to get up early am, usually around 9:19:30 we get up about time we get to the dining room its closed so Punchliners does offer us a breakfast and happy about that.

 

About your cabin steward, I would have gotten hold of the housekeeping manager or whoever was in charge of your cabin steward and mention the things he has done because it is just plain wrong! Never ever out of my 48 cruises has a cabin steward ask me if he can come in my room to speak to us. I feel Carnival should know about this cabin steward so he not bother anybody else. Its a shame it happened but its Carnival and it doesn't surprise me. My main complaint on Carnival is every morning the cabin stewards are vacuuming the hallways around 8::15 am waking us up, I think that is totally rude and feel 9am is a more reasonable time for them to do this. I feel they do this to wake us up so they can finish their morning work. If this happens to me again on this upcoming cruise I surely will make it known to Carnival because quite honestly I never could sleep in the am (9:15 is not late to sleep when your up till 2am) and I just not going to take that any longer.

 

I understand your not coming back to Carnival and totally can relate. I not sure if I will say the same I want to keep an open mind and hoping all be great on the Dream, but if not, RCI we be back.

[Venusleo1]

We did have a good time, it's just that we feel there is a superior product out there and the price difference isn't huge so that's why we won't sail Carnival again. We feel like if we can get better food and better service for just a little "up charge" I rather pay the up charge.

 

Re: RCI smaller ships. Majesty is one of the smallest RCI ships and it happens to be one of our favorites. We love the pool deck on Majesty and I have to say it has the best service in the fleet. It also has a Johnny rockets, sorrentos pizza, compass deli and the food in the MDR is fantastic.

 

Re: towel sales. In the fun times they keept handing out flyers to buy a beach towel/towel animal book/robe and various combos of items mentioned. I just kept tossing them out. The pitch came on the last day. And it was for a new beach towel (same kind though)

[Cruisegirl6]

Glad you had a great time! We always had a nice carnival cruise may not be perfect but always enjoyed each one of them.

 

We totally agree with you. We not mind paying more for a cruise, or pay additional for specialty dining and such. We rather have better quality and selection.

 

We may try NCL again on the Breakaway next year, and definately will be back on RCI if our Dream cruise doesn't meet up with the standards of the other cruise lines which also includes Princess and Celebrity.

 

I love the Monarch of the Seas, sister ship of the Majesty of the Seas unfortunately they getting rid of her early next year and replacing her with the new upgraded Enchantment of the Seas.

 

$20 for a beach towel (new I presume) is not a bad price, I may consider purchasing one for my daughter if it is a different type than the others that Carnival sold in the past.

[Pauser]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the Carnival experience. We've been on Princess, NCL & Carnival and find them more alike than different. I think much probably depends on the ship and staff - sounds like you had a very unusual, shall we say, room steward - wow!

 

As an aside, the only time we ever came home from a cruise sick was on an NCL cruise, despite the washy, washy! Never on Carnival. I think when you're in an enclosed environment with thousands of people, the odds are it's going to happen on occasion. Hope everyone is feeling better soon.

 

Again, thank you for your detailed review. Best wishes on your future cruises.

[gusandgidgetsmom]

Sorry you did not enjoy your Carnival experience. I have been on NCL, RCCL and Carnival several times. I have found my experiences to be very similar. I have had great Carnival experiences and some not as great. I have had great RCCL experiences and some not so great and I have had the NCL experience--all I am going to say. I have however found something on each cruise i have liked so they have been good. Just some better than others. I have been cruising since the '80's and really cruise for the ports not necessarily the ship. I have found that food in Carnival's MDR seems better than the others but really like the specialty places on others.

Funny you mentioned getting sick. The only time I have gotten sick in the 30 years I have been crusiing was on RCCL. I am one that always washes washes washes! Don't think that can be blamed on a line. I loved the Liberty. It is one of my favorite Carnival ships. I say keep trying them all and cruise for the itinerary.

[glorialagos]

Throughout the whole cruise the buffet was a major disappointment. Not many options, crowded, long lines, rude guests, hard to find a place to sit, no one doing the happy happy washy washy song to get people to use hand sanitizer. They were never open in the afternoons when you get back from port. It was just not good, I really don’t know how else to explain it. I found nothing interesting for lunch so I tried the Mongolian Wok which was good. How much Mongolian wok can someone have though? Breakfast in the buffet was just a major disappointment. The eggs tasted like powder every time, they had no salmon for the bagels and when I asked I was told I can get it through room service or at the deli counter when they were open. Not many choices. I ended up having powdered eggs, bacon and a bagel with cream cheese without salmon and grits every morning that we ate at the buffet. One morning I tried the omelet station and asked for a couple of eggs over easy and they were swimming in oil or whatever it is they use to fry them.

 

This was my main complaint on our Freedom cruise in June. Food is not the entire reason I cruise but it sure does help to determine if it's a great cruise or just average. It just seems like with all the years experience and all the ships Carnival has, they could figure out a better way to do a buffet. Many times it seems they could solve some problems by simply opening an hour earlier or leaving a place open an hour later.

 

In 3 weeks, I will give Carnival yet another try. Hopefully Elation will be good to us. We certainly keep giving them second chances!!

 

Thanks for the comparisons. Interesting.

[april118]

I am the friend Steph is referring to in her original post. I have to agree with her. We have been on four other Carnival cruises, we were married thru Carnival weddings. Never a problem. This cruise was SUCKY! I started to wonder if I had become a cruise snob, but no I'm not. There are just certain services you expect and dining room service is one of the big ones. Food wasn't even acceptable some nights. We had a good time due to our great friends. We love cruising we love cruising with friends even more. I was seriously disappointed in the service, and lack or organization of buffets. Appalled by the fact that the staff could not keep my water glasses full at the table. I request butter for my potatoe and he brings it when we are finished with the meals. I have three cruises booked right now. NCL for 11 days on the Sun in November, Princess out of California in Feburary and an NCL Transatlantic Barcelona to Miami on the Epic.

[mrsd912]

Sorry you didn't have a great experience. DH and I were on this same sailing and pretty much had the opposite experience. Our steward was awesome, we saw him often, and he didn't try to sell us a towel. I had no idea how many tables our serving staff had because I really felt like we were the only ones. The food was so good in the MDR that I ended up feeling like the Steakhouse wasn't worth it. We loved the Liberty so much we're thinking about doing our second cruise on her.

With this being my first cruise maybe my opinion doesn't hold much weight, but I really went in with expecting sub par service given what some people have been saying on these boards lately. I was simply blown away with how wrong I was on the type of service I thought we'd get.

[sail2sea]

The room steward was more than a little off, that's for sure.

 

And I agree with you about Liberty and it's famous 2.0. A bunch of stuff added just to take away lido place that was already too small. As if there were not already enough food and drink bars on the ship. I probably am biased though. I prefer Dream class more.

 

Now the important question: Are you going to take your spanking new Carnival towel to Royal and Norwegian ships? :D

[LHP]

Sorry this was not the cruise for you.

 

Fortunately in our 50+ cruises on Carnival....we have never had this experience.

 

The only thing that is interesting is the tone of this post that these same issues can not happen on Royal or NCL ..... when I have read the very same complaints (and just as many of them ) about both... and on Royal they paid a lot more money for the same complaints.

[rajones007]

So, the buffet is not open 24 hours a day? Maybe I misunderstood you, but I'd like clarification please. What are the hours?

 

It's reviews like this is why I was hesitant to try Carnival in the first place. But I figured I'd give them a shot (the Liberty) this November.

 

My biggest concern is what the OP touched on; 1) the lack of OPEN dining venues, 2) the lack of dining venues with reasonable hours of operation, 3) the lack of variety, and most importantly 4) long lines wherever and whenever I am looking for something to eat.

 

My 14 year old son (well, my GFs son) especially, and myself are "hit and run" eaters during the day. My GF and her 16 year old daughter have somewhat similar habits too. We don't normally sit down and eat a big breakfast and then a big lunch and then a big dinner. When we cruise, we scatter ourselves and grab quite bites to eat when it suits us. Then we sort of re-group at dinner.

 

This is where I'm concerned that the NCL system of "LOTS of food variety available ALL the time" has spoiled us. And we were on the Star, one of NCLs older and smaller ships and we never had to wait in line or had to make due with the "same old stuff" from day to day. Not once. Seriously.

 

Well, we'll find out soon enough. I think the countdown was 64 days today. I'm still excited, please don't misunderstand me. I just don't know what to expect any more.

[snownyet]

Im not a cheerleader for any brand but we too find Carnival somewhat substandard when compared to RCI, but for the price we've just kept coming back. We sail on the Victory next month but we've already decided to up the ante and go to Royal again next year. Carnival's cheaper, but for good reason, I dont think they could get the same rates as RCI for what they offer in cruise ship amenities. Thats not bad, there needs to be a price point for a wide demographic of customers, we just want more and are willing to pay for it. To me its kinda like settling for a Honda Accord when you really want an Audi A6, both are good, ones just got the bells and whistles.

[Venusleo1]

The buffet is not open 24 hours. They close pretty early in the evenings around 9:30-10pm and they are not open between end of lunch and dinner so from 4-6 or so they are closed. When the buffet is closed you have a couple of options, Guy's Burgers (which is good, I enjoyed the burgers but I am not a big burger eater and always felt guilty when stuffing a big greasy burger in my mouth) they also have the blue iguanna burrito/taco place but they had some weird hours and were never open in the late afternoons or for dinner. The 24 hour pizza place, and sometimes on the other side of the pizza place they had hotdogs and some other stuff, but we only saw that open a couple of times, also in the buffet there was a deli counter that was open from like 4-11 but the lines were always really long and it was just sandwiches. So you do have some choices, but expect a good wait for any of them or subpar options.

NCL always has a sit down dining venue open all the time like O'Sheehans on Epic and Blue Lagoon on Pearl. It was nice to be able to sit down and get served hot fresh food at any time.

 

To the person who commented about my tone, I never said that these things couldnt happen on RCI or NCL, it's just that they have never happened to me. I'm sure it is very possible and maybe I have been luck but in all my many cruises with NCL and Royal I've had steller food and service.

The one thing I can say is that people who told me the 7 nighters on Carnival draw a better crowd then the shorter cruises. They were right. My fellow passengers (aside form a few rude foreigners, (please let people OFF the elevators before you try to get on, and please walk on 1 side of the hallway so people can walk past you)) were great. On my 3 nighter to the bahamas on Carnival it was a totally different story, and Ive been on lots of RCI 3 nighters and its not the same crown on Carnival 3 nighters. \

 

RCI really isnt that much more expensive then carnival either. We're talking maybe a couple hundred more a person for 7 nights. Which works out to less then $30 more a day. So if we decided to sail Carnival and book the steakhouse every night it would cost us more then sailing RCI and eating in the MDR and I found the food in RCI MDR better then specialty steakhouse food on Carnival. Plus better service, nicer pools ect. That's why I will choose NCL or RCI over CCL from now on.

[glorialagos]

So, the buffet is not open 24 hours a day? Maybe I misunderstood you, but I'd like clarification please. What are the hours?

 

It's reviews like this is why I was hesitant to try Carnival in the first place. But I figured I'd give them a shot (the Liberty) this November.

 

My biggest concern is what the OP touched on; 1) the lack of OPEN dining venues, 2) the lack of dining venues with reasonable hours of operation, 3) the lack of variety, and most importantly 4) long lines wherever and whenever I am looking for something to eat.

 

My 14 year old son (well, my GFs son) especially, and myself are "hit and run" eaters during the day. My GF and her 16 year old daughter have somewhat similar habits too. We don't normally sit down and eat a big breakfast and then a big lunch and then a big dinner. When we cruise, we scatter ourselves and grab quite bites to eat when it suits us. Then we sort of re-group at dinner.

 

This is where I'm concerned that the NCL system of "LOTS of food variety available ALL the time" has spoiled us. And we were on the Star, one of NCLs older and smaller ships and we never had to wait in line or had to make due with the "same old stuff" from day to day. Not once. Seriously.

 

Well, we'll find out soon enough. I think the countdown was 64 days today. I'm still excited, please don't misunderstand me. I just don't know what to expect any more.

 

You will have your own experience but my experiences, especially on the last Carnival, was extremely long lines, many buffets closed (with food there covered in saran wrap with a sign saying buffet closed), and few options. I also like the "grab a little here and a little there whenever" method and this was just not possible on our last cruise. Lines were so long that you had to commit to one "station" and couldn't then mix and match because it would require another very long line and then the first choice would be cold - plus, I just don't take a vacation to stand in line forever for food. I ate a lot of Indian cuisine because it wasn't popular so I could get something quickly. We even tried to do a sit down breakfast or lunch and could never hit the hours right - they were very limited. We definitely missed the Blue Lagoon.

[Applestacker]

That my friends is what this site is all about...... An honest review written in a very easy to read format with great information both good and bad. In fact it is so informative and unbiased I see no need to read the many comments that I'm sure this review will generate:D

 

Cruising on Liberty in 2 months so to Venusleo1 I say thank you for arming me with a list of do's, dont's, and maybe's:).

 

Applestacker

[GROUCHPUSS]

Oh NO!:eek: We just met our room steward on our Liberty cruise and it is ROMERO! We are in cabin 2390 I will lier you all how it goes!