Carnival Liberty Oct. 20th review good and not so good

[coolbolts]

First a little background. I am a Platinum cruiser with Carnival and I have also cruised most of the other major cruise lines for comparison and I believe a bad day at sea is better than a good day at work.

 

I sailed on the Liberty the week of Oct. 20th with the Players Club group of casino folks. They did an excellent job with multiple raffles and gifts to the room every night. Free drinks in the casino (Yeah).

 

Things that I liked

Embarkation could not have gone any smoother. There is a seperate entrance for Platinum cruisers and when you get to the security area they let Platinum cruisers enter a shorter line. Our bags where tagged with the faster to fun sticker and they where delivered when we returned from lunch. Great job.

 

We used Premire parking and would use them again. Note there is a place you can drop off your luggage prior to parking (ask them) otherwise you park and drag your luggage over. I think the total cost was $54 for the week. Definitely doing that again.

 

Food

Guys Burgers very good like an oversized steak and shake burger crispy on the outside and hand cut seasoned fries.

Burrito bar also very good reminded me a little of Chipotle grill you can pick and choose your toppings.

Mongolian Wok again very good but they need to add a couple of different choices for sauces. I just had them use Soy sauce.

 

Dining room staff had to be the highlight of the changes. The waiter explained they where now using a program called 3.0 which meant the head waiter stayed with the tables during the dinner servicel and he had two helpers that went to the kitchen to get the various courses and also helped in clearing dishes. This made the whole process run very smooth and quick (lots of attention).

 

Serentity area was nice at the very top of the front of the ship.

 

Brunch on sea days (sort of) You have to go to one of these. Steak and eggs, french toast coated with fuit loops or other cereal (don't knock it very good). They had an extensive menu and the food was very good.

 

We did get to one late night comic and he was vey funny.

 

Ship was clean and the staff very friendly.

 

We stopped at the new port in Roatan and it was a good day to go to the beach (Chair ride over is $12 for the day). If you just stay at the port and shop you will not experience the beauty of the island. You know the shops are controller by Carnival when some of them will take your sail and sign card for payment. The beach was nice.

 

NOT SO GOOD

 

First the weather which they cannot control. We knew from past experience that we would not be stopping at Grand Cayman and there really was no other place to stop. When we rounded the Florida peninsula Friday night and headed up to Miami all hell broke loose. We had a balcony on deck 8 and when the ship hit a wave we had to duck the spray 8 stories up. This went on until about 5 AM nothing like having your entire body lift up from the bed. There where a number of passengers that slept on deck chairs.

 

Friday sea day they cancelled the brunch becuse the new comedians could not board in Grand Cayman. Really! The two minute show they put on forced them to cancel the whole dining experience.

 

They had two deck parties but the late nigh Mexican buffet is now a thing of the past. They said that ships that where converted to 2.0 no longer have the Mexican feast. They did serve chips and Salsa. Come on Carnival there was a lot of hungry people looking around for food.

 

No more burgers late a night not sure if that has something to do with the Guy's burger thing. Hot dogs and ham and cheese late night seven nights unless you want pizza. They should do what NCL does and have a late nigh cafe open.

 

Getting off the ship was very quick. Interesting that the Victory was just pulling up to the dock when we where headed out to the car.

 

All in all a good time.

[peacefrog]

thanks for the highlights-will be on Liberty soon (OK, not too soon, but I can dream)

can you tell me approximately what time food is available until- (Mongolian, Guys, burritoes, etc)-I read that there is not a lot available getting back on ship on sea days or later in the day

 

Thanks for your help

[marshabear]

guys open til 6pm , cantina, fish and chips and wok only open til 2:30 or 3:30pm...

 

deli open 11am til 11pm....

 

 

 

 

 

Marsha

[peacefrog]

Thanks Marsha-gotta fill the tank :)

[emelvee]

Thanks for posting!

 

The "not so good" aren't issues for us...we never eat late at night, and weather is obviously out of Carnival's control.

[mikel24m]

First a little background. I am a Platinum cruiser with Carnival and I have also cruised most of the other major cruise lines for comparison and I believe a bad day at sea is better than a good day at work.

 

I sailed on the Liberty the week of Oct. 20th with the Players Club group of casino folks. They did an excellent job with multiple raffles and gifts to the room every night. Free drinks in the casino (Yeah).

 

Things that I liked

Embarkation could not have gone any smoother. There is a seperate entrance for Platinum cruisers and when you get to the security area they let Platinum cruisers enter a shorter line. Our bags where tagged with the faster to fun sticker and they where delivered when we returned from lunch. Great job.

 

We used Premire parking and would use them again. Note there is a place you can drop off your luggage prior to parking (ask them) otherwise you park and drag your luggage over. I think the total cost was $54 for the week. Definitely doing that again.

 

Food

Guys Burgers very good like an oversized steak and shake burger crispy on the outside and hand cut seasoned fries.

Burrito bar also very good reminded me a little of Chipotle grill you can pick and choose your toppings.

Mongolian Wok again very good but they need to add a couple of different choices for sauces. I just had them use Soy sauce.

 

Dining room staff had to be the highlight of the changes. The waiter explained they where now using a program called 3.0 which meant the head waiter stayed with the tables during the dinner servicel and he had two helpers that went to the kitchen to get the various courses and also helped in clearing dishes. This made the whole process run very smooth and quick (lots of attention).

 

Serentity area was nice at the very top of the front of the ship.

 

Brunch on sea days (sort of) You have to go to one of these. Steak and eggs, french toast coated with fuit loops or other cereal (don't knock it very good). They had an extensive menu and the food was very good.

 

We did get to one late night comic and he was vey funny.

 

Ship was clean and the staff very friendly.

 

We stopped at the new port in Roatan and it was a good day to go to the beach (Chair ride over is $12 for the day). If you just stay at the port and shop you will not experience the beauty of the island. You know the shops are controller by Carnival when some of them will take your sail and sign card for payment. The beach was nice.

 

NOT SO GOOD

 

First the weather which they cannot control. We knew from past experience that we would not be stopping at Grand Cayman and there really was no other place to stop. When we rounded the Florida peninsula Friday night and headed up to Miami all hell broke loose. We had a balcony on deck 8 and when the ship hit a wave we had to duck the spray 8 stories up. This went on until about 5 AM nothing like having your entire body lift up from the bed. There where a number of passengers that slept on deck chairs.

 

Friday sea day they cancelled the brunch becuse the new comedians could not board in Grand Cayman. Really! The two minute show they put on forced them to cancel the whole dining experience.

 

They had two deck parties but the late nigh Mexican buffet is now a thing of the past. They said that ships that where converted to 2.0 no longer have the Mexican feast. They did serve chips and Salsa. Come on Carnival there was a lot of hungry people looking around for food.

 

No more burgers late a night not sure if that has something to do with the Guy's burger thing. Hot dogs and ham and cheese late night seven nights unless you want pizza. They should do what NCL does and have a late nigh cafe open.

 

Getting off the ship was very quick. Interesting that the Victory was just pulling up to the dock when we where headed out to the car.

 

All in all a good time.

 

We were on the 10/6 sailing and I agree with everything you posted.Did you happen to see Jorge for the comedy brunch ,He is a great guy ,former cruise director turned comedian.Im curious about the Casino offer ,alot of cruises we spend well over 10k and have only gotten the offer a couple of time (usually when we are already booked).What would you recommend doing to get on the list ( Michael Bayona has told me multiple times we would be getting more offers and nothing)this past cruise I only got $250 in casino cage money and no premium package that was promised

 

Great review

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!