Liberty 05-19 Review

[auburn77]

Loved this cruise. Carnival people were wonderful with the air and transfer service. They really took care of us and it was a breeze to and from the ship.

 

Naples was more than it was expected to be. The Amalfi coast is one of the most beautiful sites on Earth. We went with 3 other couples on a private tour. Worth every penny.

 

Croatia was quite a surprise. The people were very friendly and Dubrovnik is a must see. You can't imagine what it is like until you actually get there. The bus station is very close to the dock and costs very little to go to the old town. It stops very close to the entrance.

 

What can you say about Venice? It was everything we imagined. We took the water buses everywhere we wanted to go. Buy the 24 hour pass (12 Euros). Go back after dark to St Mark's and listen to the several small orchestras in the square. Very uncrowded.

 

We went with another couple whom had rented a car in Messina. (About 30 Euros). We drove to Taormina(easy drive). Parked in a garage (5 Euros). Afterward we drove through the middle of Sicily up to the north coast. This was an adventure. There are few road signs but we drove through beautiful old towns in the mountains. We almost got eye level with Mount Etna. Worried about miising the ship, but no problem.

 

Barcelona was a sight to see. Las Ramblas was very interesting. Especially see the mimes. We walked to Familia (church). A very long walk. The taxi back to Las Ramblas was only about 5 Euros. Wish we had taken it to the church.

 

Go to the village of St Paul at the Cannes stop. You will love it. Very easy to get to in a rental car.

 

Missed the Florence/Pisa due to weather. Port closed. Carnival only gave $50 per cabin credit. I thought that was a little low considering it was probably the highlight. Hated it, but we will go back.

 

Only went on one Carnival tour - Rome at a Glance. It was ok, but we were pretty tired from the flight. Heard other Carnival tours had a few problems with timing and understanding the guides.

 

Cruise rating A+++.

[IrishDolphin]

that's a great itinerary, isn't it, seeing the Amalfi coast for the first time reminded me of all those old black and white romantic movies :o

 

sorryyyyyyyy to hear you missed Pisa though, what a royal bummer, make sure you go back though, when you can (you got Venice though, yayyy) and I agree with you, $50 per cabin not enough (imo)

 

if you had to do it over, what tour in Rome would you have done? how was the crew and food on the Liberty? were there any tours that covered volcanoes (in any of those ports)?

 

glad your trip was spectacular :D

[auburn77]

that's a great itinerary, isn't it, seeing the Amalfi coast for the first time reminded me of all those old black and white romantic movies :o

 

sorryyyyyyyy to hear you missed Pisa though, what a royal bummer, make sure you go back though, when you can (you got Venice though, yayyy) and I agree with you, $50 per cabin not enough (imo)

 

if you had to do it over, what tour in Rome would you have done? how was the crew and food on the Liberty? were there any tours that covered volcanoes (in any of those ports)?

 

glad your trip was spectacular :D

 

Would have probably done the Italian Countryside tour out of Rome. I heard people talking about how nice it was.

 

The crew and food were both excellent. The only day the crew was off a little was the missed stop in Livorno. Some had worked untill early in the morning hours and had to get up to wait on us. It was supposed to be their easy day.

 

There was a tour to Mt Etna that I heard was nice. The people got to get pretty close to an active volcano. I didn' ttalk to anyone that went on the Mt Vesuvius tour.

 

The Captain did sail close to Stromboli and stopped for a while. We watched several small eruptions. Small rocks hit the sea after one.

[sbwmail]

..good review, thanx! I am wondering if the ship (this week) is changing itineraries, also due to weather? The web cam shows the ship heading up to Venice? ...instead of first going to Dubrovnik.

[gsb]

e-mail me something--thx Gsb

[wbonn]

..good review, thanx! I am wondering if the ship (this week) is changing itineraries, also due to weather? The web cam shows the ship heading up to Venice? ...instead of first going to Dubrovnik.

 

I remember reading in the brochure that there are a few sailings which scheduled visiting Venice and Dubrovnik in reverse. I'm not sure why that is, but I imagine this is one of them.

[sbwmail]

...reverse order...interesting!

[karolm]

Perhaps there are other cruise ships in the port. Maybe there is a max.

Only guessing.

[Maryutah]

Thanks for the review there are such beautiful places to see. We are taking Freedom, so doing the other parts of that area (TUrkey and Greece instead of SPain, Croatia and France).

 

I had never considered visiting Turkey until this itinerary - and everything i've read is positive, same with Croatia when we were considering the May sailings.

 

Glad you found it fun. Sorry about Pisa. Was weather prohibiting the rest of your cruise/onboard or off?

[deb1835]

We did the Italian Countryside tour when we arrived. That was a big mistake! We landed at 7:30 a.m. and the tour left about 10 a.m. We were very tired from the flight. I also started having a really bad allergy problem due to something in the air. We went to a house in the countryside and had a good meal but too much wine. Between being tired, allergies and the wine, it was not a pretty picture. We didn't get to the ship until about 6 p.m. We just got in our room and had the lifeboat drill. We had a quick bite to eat then crashed.

 

If we had to do it over again, we wouldn't do any tour if arriving the day of the cruise. When we got off the plane we just wanted to get to the ship. We had 3 days post cruise in Rome and the would have sufficed. We didn't feel the tour was worth the $280 that Carnival charged.