Carnival Liberty Thanksgiving 2015 cruise

[bcsurvivor05]

just got home from a great vacation on the liberty! in this review I will cover the following:

 

traveling with a child with special needs

traveling with a large group

traveling with an adult needing wheelchair

faster to the fun

camp carnival

sports bar

 

there won't be too many pics as there are so many recent reviews and I don't take to many scenic pictures.

[Anneschmera]

Following I eave on Liberty the 13th

[bcsurvivor05]

In my review, I don't plan on it being day by day but rather an overall. Again, there are so many recent Liberty reviews I don't want to be repetitious and want to hit upon concerns and topics that were not discussed in those reviews so you can really get answers that you might have been looking for and couldn't find on other reviews.

 

Our group had 4 children (15, 11, 10 and 7 yrs old) and 3 older family members (77, 76 & 73) one of which needed a wheelchair/scooter (21 people total)

 

***EMBARKING DAY!***

 

A++++ to Carnival on this one...

 

We were traveling in a group of 21 family members coming from NY. We took a very early flight (2 different flights actually) and took a coach bus to the airport. Some of us slept the night before some didn't. The limo picked up the first group at 2:45 am (I was part of this first group, with my 10 yr old daughter who has special needs, my husband, my mother and her boyfriend) and we then stopped at 3 other family members houses along the way until we finally reached the airport.

 

Both flights were pretty uneventful (thankfully) and we made our way to the San Juan Port. There was what seemed like a long line outside the port but it moved pretty fast and we got into the terminal in about 15 or so minutes once arriving. ***Make sure you fill out your health form prior to getting to the terminal to avoid delays...they will not let you in the building unless it is already filled out***

 

***DETAILS ON BRINGING A CHILD WHO HAS SPECIAL NEEDS:***

 

A++++ to Carnival again

 

Now let me back track....we planned this trip 271 days prior and I had been on the phone with Carnival for months going over stuff for my daughter. It was very easy to get in touch with them if you called the special services department. She has many delays (kind of like autism but not so you understand what we are dealing with). Carnival was absolutely AMAZING! Each time I called they were able to pull up the prior conversation and everything was set for embarkment. They called us the day before the trip to tell us what we should do upon arrival to the terminal. The process was extremely smooth. We were set to be able to embark upon arrival and set up a private muster drill. Carnival did not disappoint! Now, the rest of my family did Faster to the Fun. I did not feel I had to pay the extra money being that we had "faster with the special needs child" lol. We were actually boarding before half of my family did. I cannot say enough about how Carnival handled everything with my daughter and cannot thank them enough. We were escorted onto the boat and right to guest services so we could talk about other accomodations and such for my daughter. Each person was nicer than the next. They called up to Camp Carnival where Alicia (the manager) wanted to meet up with us to discuss my daughter and find out what placement would be best for her (her chronological or ability age group). Our rooms were ready so we headed down to drop off our carry ons.

 

We were on board and eating at Guys Burger Joint and drink in hand by 1:36. **special note*** DO NOT MISS OUT ON GUYS!!! IT IS AMAZING!!!***. Anyway. The boat was pretty empty most of the day on Sunday. I think a lot of people went on tours in San Juan or they were on later planes. It was great. We were able to do a lot without it being to crowded.

 

The first day we brought her to camp (Monday) they gave us a cell phone that we could use to call anywhere on the boat and most importantly they could get in touch with us if anything happened with my daughter (thankfully it was rarely used but great to have).

 

The private muster drill wasn't so private but it was better than the regular one. We were told to meet in the Cabinet room, which was not easy to find let me tell you. Once there they gave us a paper to read, some announcements were made and all of the kids in the room got a green wristband that they had to wear if they were going to camp carnival. Not to fear...if your child has sensory issues, you could take it off and only wear it at camp (it says your muster station in case of an emergency so the staff will know where to take your child to meet you). The really bad part about the muster drill on this itinerary was that it wasn't until 9:30 pm and being that most of our group was up since 2 am (children included) it made for a rough day/night for them to have to stay up so late). But...we lived to tell about it.

 

 

**MY TIME DINING***

 

**C- to Carnival for this***

 

For dinner we choose My Time dining (or whatever it was called). My personal opinion was that I did not like it. Yes, it was nice to be able to eat at any time but you lost that personal interaction with your wait staff. I found out the last day that you could have requested certain waiters but honestly it wasn't until the second to last day that we had anyone who we got the "warm and fuzzies" over anyway. I feel like when you are in the same section with the same staff it is a completely different experience and don't think I would do that again. I 'think' that the golden dining room was specifically for this type of dining and the silver was for traditional dining but I could be wrong about that. It was almost like the staff knew that they weren't going to get tipped more because they wouldn't have the same people each night so they didn't try very hard. It took forever for us to get drinks from the bar (even soda) some times we had to ask several times before getting our orders. When you do the set dining time/waiters they get to know you and sometimes have your "usual" drinks waiting for you upon arrival.

 

***EA SPORTS BAR***

 

***F to Carnival on this***

 

Now this part is from my husband as I did not step foot into the sports bar. He was very disappointed in it. They said that they "didn't have Hockey" so he couldn't watch that. He is a die hard sports fan (fantasy everything) so it was a huge let down for him. It was very small. They didn't serve much food (not even wings or nachos...you know...standard sports bar stuff). He would not recommend it at all.

 

***CASINO***

 

***C to Carnival on this***

 

Again, I did not step foot in here but this was as per my husband who went every night.

 

He felt that the dealers didn't know what they were doing. One actually left in the middle of a game because he had a headache and one called that he had one type of hand and then realized he had another and changed his mind to call that after it was already said. The rest of my family seemed to be ok with it...I didn't hear to many other complaints.

 

2 of my family members were "rewarded" with a free drink card (to be used only in the casino) because they gambled so much. Make sure to use your room cards when using machines because that is how they track your "points" and that is how you earn those free cards I believe.

 

My husband was looking forward to doing the Texas Hold em tournament but it was a $150 buy in so that wasn't happening. Turns out that only 4 people signed up and the most they could have won was $200 so it certainly wasn't worth it.

 

***ELDER ADULT NEEDING WHEELCHAIR/SCOOTER***

 

***C- FOR CARNIVAL ON THIS ONE***

 

They had an A until the disembarkment as you will see...

 

Carnival (and our travel agent) recommended that we call Care Vacations to rent a scooter for my mom who is 73 and recently recovering from a mini stroke as well as other health issues. Care Vacations was amazing. We got her a scooter that was waiting for her in her room upon arrival and all she had to do was leave it in her room upon departure. I HIGHLY recommend this for anyone traveling with someone who has trouble walking. It enabled my mom to enjoy herself without having to worry about who was going to push her in a wheel chair the entire trip. She was able to take if onto shore (though she choose not to) I cannot say enough about this for anyone who needs it. A++++ to Care Vacations for that one.

 

Anyway, back to Carnival....I called the Friday before we left to go over stuff for my daughter and also about getting a wheel chair for my mom to get on board. During the conversation I mentioned that we had ordered a scooter for my mom and they (Carnival) said that we had to fill out a form (keep in mind we were leaving on Sunday and the office was closed on Saturday) so we went into panic mode but managed to get it all done. So keep that in mind....if you are renting a scooter you MUST have a form filled out and on file with Carnival!!!

 

Back to the story....my mom did do Faster to the fun but didn't have to because she was in the wheel chair and, like us, was escorted on board. It was very smooth and worked out really well.

 

The last day WAS A NIGHTMARE!!! All of my family members had Faster to the Fun (except for my immediate family remember) and they were to disembark as one of the earliest groups (group 2 to be exact). Well...because my mom was in a wheel chair they had to escort her off the boat. On Saturday night she called guest services and arranged for them to come get her at 8 am. Long story short, we were off of the boat 2 hours BEFORE my mom was. It was horrible and we could not get any answers from anyone to find out where my mother was. We found out later that they completely lied to us several times. They told us that she was still in her room waiting for an escort to come get her and they told her we were waiting for her outside the terminal. (we were told this several times over the 2 hours). When she finally came out she told us that they came to get her at 8:40 and she sat in the Venetian lounge until they decided to bring her out. She never got a message from us. This was all completely unacceptable. She paid extra for FTTF and she ended up being on the boat (she is a diabetic and she hadn't eaten either mind you) for an extra 2 hours.

 

***FASTER TO THE FUN***

 

***A To Carnival on this one***

 

Ok...as I said...all but my immediate family did the FTTF. Was it worth it....I guess. On this particular trip, when we got there, the terminal was pretty slow so they would have gotten on pretty fast even if they didn't have it. There were no tender ports on this trip so that was not an issue. The best part was that they didn't have to wait online for guest services (which by the last day was NUTS) and, if it wasn't for my mom and the issues listed above...disembarkment would have been great!. FYI being that we were with a large group and were being picked up together by a limo they allowed my immediate family who didn't have FTTF to go with them and gave us the #2 luggage tags without question!

 

SO....would we do it again...probably...especially if they had to tender the boats as I have heard that FTTF people get first priority for boarding.

 

***CAMP CARNIVAL***

 

***A+ for Carnival on this one***

 

As I mentioned earlier...we met with the manager of the camp on the first day. She was so great and greeted us each time she saw us around the boat with a HUGE smile and knew exactly who my daughter was. Though there are 4 different age groups at the camp and they say that they are very strict with them being separated, there was a good part of the time where they were together. My nephew was 7 and my daughter and niece are 10 & 11 respectfully. He was with them most of the time they were in camp. So it was nice for them to be able to play together. The camp was wonderful with my daughter and she loved being there. My niece and nephew were on the Night Owl part of Camp several times (my daughter needs to be in bed at a reasonable hour and close to her normal schedule as possible so we never brought her there after dinner). My niece and nephew seemed to love it and were there very late several times. If anyone would like I do have the camp carnival packet they give to you on the first day but for the 9-11 yr olds. I meant to take the other ages but forgot. Let me know if you would like a copy of it and I will post it.

 

***FOOD***

 

***C for Carnival on this one***

 

Well let me start out by saying again that Guys Burger Joint was AMAZING. That is what brought the score up to be honest.

 

The first night dinner was really good in the Golden dining room. I remember I had the post roast and it melted in your mouth. The bacon mac and cheese was awesome and we really thought we were in for a huge treat the rest of the week....sadly...not so much. Dinner was HORRIBLE and had no taste until the last night. Thanksgiving was such a let down. It was almost like a TV dinner. It wasn't "real" turkey...at least it didn't seem like it anyway. Everything was such a disappointment that night. One night they had veal parm and we were so excited...it too...was like a TV dinner. SOOOOO BAD!!!

 

Desserts were a huge let down (unless you liked the lava cake, which, in general, I am not a fan but everyone else loved it). I also heard the bread pudding on the last night was great.

 

The pizza was like pita bread pizza. In all fairness I am from NY and there is no pizza like NY pizza so it would automatically pale in comparison. I did hear that drunk it was good lol.

 

***The Alcohol Package***

 

Only my 1 niece got this package (mostly because there is a rule that if one person in a room gets it then everyone MUST get it and she was the only one who was in a room with underage kids so it made sense for her to get it as they wouldn't make the others in the room get it). I have to admit, it did come in handy especially when she got 50% off of the bottle of wine at dinner and shared with everyone.

 

We did find out that on board it DID include the soda. On the website it says it does not but it does in fact include it and my niece was able to get a credit for the soda package that she had paid for prior as she was misinformed.

 

****Soda Package***

 

I got the soda package for myself (my husband and daughter drink iced tea) and I didn't get the full use out of it like I thought I would. I wouldn't do this again. I was drinking the lemonade most of the time which was mighty yummy!!! Most of the people in our party did not get that package either

 

***PORT INTENSIVE ITINERARY***

 

This was my 6th cruise and I had been to many of the ports prior. My intent this time was to relax and I am sure glad we did this itinerary. My immediate family stayed on board most of the time. It was so nice when everyone was not on board and we really got to enjoy the ship. There was very little lines for food and my daughter really had fun without getting overwhelmed by tons of people. If you have a child with special needs...stay on the boat if you can. They can do the slide without long lines and really get to enjoy everything.

 

We did get off in a few ports:

 

St. Thomas (Megan's Bay), It was $8 per person each way. Get there early. There are showers, lockers, bathrooms, food. It was heaven! It didn't get overly crowded but we left around 11:45 so we could have lunch on the boat.

The rest of my family went to Sapphire Beach and said it was great too.

 

Barbados: (The Boatyard). It was $5 per person to get there and $15 per person to go on the beach which included cab ride back and a free drink...totally worth it. They had so much to do there, the beach was beautiful and we had an amazing time.

 

St. Kitt: (Dolphin Cove). This was so much fun....my family did the encounter not the swim which worked out to our benefit because we had the dolphin to ourselves the ENTIRE time where the other group had to share the dolphin they had with 8 people. The place we went to was very clean and new (only opened in January) and everyone was super nice. I didn't do the encounter but they allowed me to be right there on the dock with them (no pictures allowed to be taken of course) which was really great.

 

***INTERNET PACKAGE***

 

***B for Carnival on this one***

 

Ok, being that I have a child with special needs and a sports freak husband we decided to go with the top package for internet. I had with me a kindle, ipad 3 iphones and a lap top...I was set. If you bought the package from day 1 or 2 it was $99 for the week for the level I had. To be honest.....was it worth it...I would say probably not. At least one family member from each group we were with got the $5 per day pacakge (again, a bit cheaper if you bought it as a whole the first 2 days) and that was worth it. Being able to keep up with who was doing what and when with a large group was extremly helpful and I highly recommend it. Using the $5 per day package got you onto Facebook and other social media as well as enabled imessage for anyone who had iphones (which was all of us so that worked out well for us). The internet was intermittent and only 1 person from each group who was sharing the internet was able to be on at a time. I think I would just do the $5 package the next time. We were not able to Facetime with family from home most of the time which was a real bummer (especially on thanksgiving). So again, I don't recommend the highest package.

 

OVERALL

 

***A- for Carnival. ***

 

We had a great time and would love to sail the Liberty again (this was our second time on her). The ship is just big enough and so much fun. The staff is CONSTANTLY cleaning and I never saw anything that grossed me out or that I thought was inappropriate.

 

We had a balcony room (8433 & 8437 as we were adjoined to my mother in law who was supposed to have my daughter in her room with her but that just never happened). We were on the port side all the way in the back of the boat. The only "complaint" I would have is that being under the lido was a bit noisy but mostly because of the chairs being dragged along the floor. We were under the adult pool so it was pretty quiet overall and being that we weren't in the main drag we didn't have the kids running in the hallways. I would get this room again but on the opposite side of the ship. We didn't get to many nice views while at port. Most of the time the ports were industrial so we missed out on the ooh ahh factor but it was fun seeing us dock and sail away each time. I highly recommend the balcony rooms.

 

It took me forever to find the "secret deck" but I was on a mission and found it and truth be told...it wasn't worth finding lol. There were no chairs or benches so you couldn't stay there long unless you wanted to be standing the entire time....but I wanted to experience it...I did and don't feel like I have to do that again lol.

 

The Serenity Deck was fabulous. If you want to just get away from it all this was the place to be. It was right outside of camp Carnival so you are able to drop your kids off and go have some quiet time without being to far away.

 

The adult pool was great too. Kids came through to get ice cream or pizza but if any staff saw them starting to get ready to stay, they made them leave which was nice).

 

Sports deck was fun but hot.

 

The shows were OK...Nothing like they used to be. The best show was on the last night. The Legends Show. It was guest from the cruise dressing up to be famous people (my nephew was Frank Sinatra) and they did a whole show where they got to actually sing. It was so much fun. They pick people who go to the Karaoke nights (which was every night). Once you were picked they gave you an MP3 with the song you would be singing (they pick it for you) and the words so you could practice. (in case anyone was thinking of doing it). The Newleywed/Not so Newleywed game was hilarious as always, as was the battle of the sexes...they are all must see shows.

 

Smoking wasn't so bad. I have a very sensitive smell so I smelled smoke as soon as I stepped on the 5th deck no matter what time of day it was, but overall I never felt like I was walking into a wall of smoke anywhere on the ship...not even in the casino when I was running in to get my husband or looking for another family member.

 

I didn't feel like we had a personal connection with our room steward. I didn't even know their names. They were good but not as good as I have had in the past.

 

_______________________________________________________________

 

I think that about sums up everything I wanted to point out. If you have any questions please let me know. I will answer as best I can. If I think of anything else to add I will add it later on.