Sunrise or Liberty...Which to Choose?

[Fla Mike]

Thought I would ask the Carnival Gurus for their opinions and thoughts.

 

We are looking to head out on either the LIBERTY or SUNRISE for a quick 4 day in November and have some questions about both ships.

 

A little about us.

Both retired mid 60’s, but very active and always like a good party, but also like to chill on the balcony.

Cruising since 1981.

 

We live between Port Everglades and Canaveral, so that is not a factor.

 

Our last Carnival cruise was back in November of 2016, so it has been a few years, but have been on many Carnival cruises in the past, all 3-5 days. Last 3 cruises were on Princess, Celebrity, and Holland America.

 

We could care less where the ship goes, especially on short cruises as we have been there and done it all before, so we are more interested in the ship itself.

I know the Sunrise will be all new and has not sailed under her new name yet, but I’m going to assume it will be similar to the Sunshine?

Wondering about aft balconies.

 

From the photos I’ve seen it looks like there is very little overhang, which leads to much less shade, and it looks that way on both ships.

If it were you, would you do an aft, or just a regular balcony.

 

If going on Sunrise how about a Cloud 9 SPA balcony? What extras to you receive with a Cloud 9 SPA balcony?

 

I like the idea of a newer ship, especially the Cucina Del Capitano, but the Liberty seems like it will be less crowded. Also, in regards to Serenity, although we are pretty active, DW can have problems navigating steep steps, and I see the Sunrise will have an elevator to both levels. When we were on Victory, they had a small separate elevator from deck 11 up to deck 12 but it never seemed to work. Liberty looks the same.

 

I’m leaning towards the Sunrise, but DW is leaning to the Liberty due to potential crowding a better port experience at Canaveral.

 

Thanks for your thoughts and recommendations.

 

[ProgRockCruiser]

I've never cruised out of Port Everglades, so I cannot compare, but I do find Canaveral to be fairly smooth - CBP and late ship arrivals will be the cause of glitches more than the actual facilities.

 

As for aft balconies: we love the aft balconies we've had on Liberty and Sunshine - but we like sun!  There is usually enough shade that if you need to stay out of direct sun you can at least partially succeed, I suppose.  But if you really like/prefer the shade of a balcony, I would stay away from the aft balconies.

 

I honestly don't remember anything about that elevator for the Serenity area - I probably looked at it, but it did not register and functional not not.  We typically take stairs everywhere, though.

 

I suspect either way you will have a good time.

[beacha]

We have sailed twice on Sunshine . Both times we have been in spa cabins. Once inside and then balcony. We loved the balcony and being so close to the spa. We were in the steam rooms every evening.

There is a small elevator that goes up to Serenity decks —11 and 12. It was slower , but always worked.

[PhillyFan33579]

We just got off Sunshine this past Saturday. While we enjoyed the cruise, both my wife and I agreed it was our least favorite ship of the 10 Carnival ships we have cruised on. Sunrise is not going to be a duplicate of Sunshine, which might be a good thing.  On the other hand, Liberty is one of our favorite Carnival ships, so the decision would be an easy one for us. The lounges on Sunshine are way too small, and this will likely be the same on Sunrise based on the deck plans I have seen. 

[KmomChicago]

OP, did you make a decision yet?

[Fla Mike]

26 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

OP, did you make a decision yet?

 

Not yet, leaning more and more towards Sunrise, but not the aft.

Either a regular balcony or a Cloud 9.

 

Sunrise will just seem to have all the newer venues and we have been on Victory, and Liberty looks pretty much the same.

 

I doubt we will get off the ship no matter where the ships stops, so I'm not that worried anymore about crowding. We can snag a spot on Serenity while everyone else is on whatever private island or port and on the sea day just relax around.

 

I may hold off until the weekend to see what prices may do.

I'm hoping for a March Madness sale. 

 

[ProgRockCruiser]

1 hour ago, Fla Mike said:

I may hold off until the weekend to see what prices may do.

I'm hoping for a March Madness sale. 

 

If Carnival does any actual "sale" where prices are reduced for a short period of time, I will fall over!

 

From what I gather, Carnival hasn't done that for years and years.  As far as I can tell, any current "sale" is just cherry-picked cruises where the fares are still low because they haven't got close to selling out (like airlines, I think Carnival starts to raise prices as capacity get full).  So they run an algorithm that finds the cruises with lowest fare rates for the next x months, say the lowest 10%, and display those as the "sale".  Next week, after some of those have sold some more cabins, they re-run the algorithm, and maybe a different crop of cruises show up as the lowest 10%.

[Fla Mike]

13 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

If Carnival does any actual "sale" where prices are reduced for a short period of time, I will fall over!

 

I agree totally.

I have been watching all the sailings we have been interested in for about the last 2-3 weeks.

There are no real sales and prices have been bouncing up and down, changing around $20 pp each time.

Worse than the airlines lately and one can go dizzy for nothing.

 

Yesterday the prices were $10 pp less than today, but today they are offering a $25 per cabin OBC.

So yeah, it's all BS.

 

We are looking at the 2 weeks before Thanksgiving, so those are slow weeks.

I usually don't do Early Saver, cause I always bargain hunt, but will do it this time. I'm not going to cancel unless something happens, but that is what insurance is for.

[PhillyFan33579]

2 hours ago, Fla Mike said:

 

Not yet, leaning more and more towards Sunrise, but not the aft.

Either a regular balcony or a Cloud 9.

 

Sunrise will just seem to have all the newer venues and we have been on Victory, and Liberty looks pretty much the same.

 

 

 

We have cruised on both Victory and Liberty multiple times. I wouldn’t expect Sunrise to be the same, much like Sunshine isn’t very similar to these ships. I have never felt crowded on Victory or Liberty, but definitely felt crowded on Sunshine. I think this will also be the case on Sunrise, since they are adding lots of cabins on decks 3 and 5, just like they did on Sunshine.   Like you mentioned it will have some new venues like the Steakhouse and Red Frog Pub, which is a plus.  But I expect Sunrise to be crowded like Sunshine is, so I personally have no plans to book a cruise on Sunrise until I get feedback from people who have sailed on her. 

[Fla Mike]

I thought I would come back and advise what we decided.

 

We picked the Liberty.

 

DW did not want to leave from Port Everglades again as our last four cruises were from there.

Last time we left from Port Canaveral was our last Carnival cruise in 2016.

I also had some concerns about the crowding and decided to read some reviews first.

 

But the big clincher for the Liberty was this reason...

I hardly ever sign in to carnival.com as I'm tired getting calls from my PVP when I do.

She is a total sweetheart, but no matter how often I ask her not to, she still calls, so I just do not log in.

Yesterday I did. Since I was ready to book and call her anyway, it did not matter.

 

Well, when I logged in and started looking around again, some very inexpensive, (like $50.pp less) expired VIFP pricing came up only for the cruise a week after we had planned.

No matter to us, we are retired so dates are not that important.

We never get off the ship on Bahamian cruises anyway, so the ship could float around for four days and we would be just as happy.

 

All the aft balconies on deck 7 were open!

 

When I called, my PVP she said for some reason the prices were still in the computer, and available.

 

So aft balcony on Liberty it is.

 

I'm a happy cruiser, (and saved a few hundred over the Sunrise)

[KmomChicago]

Great choice Mike! Have a ball! Enjoy that balcony and your great deal. And thanks for the follow up. Maybe you’ll send word about the experience after as well?