Carnival Liberty Med Cruise, 9/4/06 Review

[caflygrl]

This is my review of the cruise I took on the Carnival Liberty in the Mediterranean (sail date 9/4). For those not familiar, we visited the following ports with cities visited in parenthesis: Rome, Naples (Positano, Amalfi, Pompeii), Dubrovnik, Venice, Messina (Taormina, Mt Etna), Barcelona, Cannes (St Paul de Venice, Nice), Livorno (Florence, Pisa). I took lots of notes (and even more pictures!) in hopes that my review will help future vacationers just as the past ones helped us!

Just a bit about our group, we are a family of 4, mom (M), dad (D), sis (S), and me. I am the youngest "child" but being in my mid-20s, I am sure you can gauge the age of our group. This was our first cruise on Carnival and second cruise to Europe. We have taken many cruises on Royal Caribbean and most recently, M, D, and I took the Star Princess around the Baltic last year. This was my 5th time to Europe and with the exception of M, we had never been to any of these ports.

I'll start my first post with the ship review. A lot of comments are mixed in with the trip report but I tried to pull out the big ones. Please let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them!

SHIP REVIEW:

General:

- Our first stop was the Purser's desk to get maps of the ship. I don't know why they don't leave these in the room or give them to you at check in. How is anyone supposed to find anything?

- We found in some parts of the ship there was a smoky smell. This was interesting because we hadn't even set sail and the casino and other smoking areas weren't open. This was a problem throughout most of the cruise with the smoky smell wafting all over the place in the stairwells and in to the non-smoking areas of the ship. I had never had a problem on prior cruises.

Layout/ Rooms:

- My 1st impression was that the hallways were quite wide (maybe 5 ft across) and the rooms were bigger than other ships. The bathroom was a good size with lots of shelves for all our stuff. There was a little basket filled with toothpaste samples, lotion, hair gels, and shaving razors. We agreed they must've left this basket because everyone probably had to check in or leave behind all these items.

- As we unpacked, we were able to slide all our suitcases under the beds. That's 3 large suitcases, 1 rolling duffel, and 2 carryon's, out of sight!

- General layout of the ship was terrible. For a new ship, you think they would have figured out what worked and what didn't.

• The Victoria Lounge is "sideways." As in the left side of the theatre is the back of the ship so you can only come in the right side. There are two entrances on the right, one near the back seats and one in front near the stage. When I went for a show it was pretty dark and there was no way one could come in the entrance on the right side and walk through to the other side. So people were just piling in and standing on the right side and the people sitting down were getting mad because it was blocking their view. People started going in to the entrance near the stage and standing around, but then the dancers couldn't get through. What a mess! I don't know who decided this layout was a good idea. Also, I don't think I ever had to walk away from a show because I couldn't find a seat or even get IN.
  
• There were numerous lounges and areas that stayed completely empty the whole cruise! I never once saw someone in the Hot & Cool dance lounge and the arcade, Without Batteries, was desolate. Plus there were a couple rooms like the Tapestry Room or Empress Room that just seemed like a waste of space and decoration. I think they should have stuck with fewer lounges/rooms but made them bigger. The Piano Man and Paparazzi Bar were sort of just squished in to corners and they actually had people in them.
  
• The Web is mainly accessible by walking through The Cabinet which is the cigar bar. I am fine with them having a bar for cigars, but everyone who wants to use the computer now has to navigate their way to the back of the ship, then walk through a smoky cigar bar (what if you have kids?), and go to a little door in the corner near the bar, to reach it. When I went they had the door open so I’m sure it gets pretty smoky and loud inside whenever the Cabinet is in use. I read on another review sometimes they do art auctions in the Cabinet and then you can’t even walk through. What poor planning for a new ship! It seems like they forgot to add this in and then decided to turn a storage room for this lounge in to an internet area. There were maybe 10 computers and each computer was in a little desk hutch. Needless to say I didn’t use it the services. I think the boat has wireless so bring your own laptop
  
• For Fish & Chips you have to walk to the back part of Emile’s and up the staircase. Or, you can get out at deck 10, the level above the pool, go out to the deck and walk all the way around to the back of the ship and go in that way. Needles to say F&C was usually pretty empty.
  
• The dining rooms are smack dab in the middle of decks 3 and 4 so to get across you have to go up to 5 (through the smoky casino) or down to 2. I saw a lot of lost people.
  
• The Henry's Supper Club layout is horrible. It is a U shape with band and dance floor at the curved part and the tables to each side. So with the exception of the bar and maybe 4 tables, no one can see the band or the dance floor. There was only one couple dancing.

Food/ Dining Service:

- For drinks they had lemonade, a variety of juices, iced tea, coffee, hot tea, and hot chocolate. I was surprised they were not pushing the soda cards and throughout the whole trip, not one person seemed to even be selling them

- Like others have mentioned, the maitre’d never came to our table to ask how things were. The only time we saw him was during the “showtime” when he was dancing on top of a table.

- The food was ok. The menu had a wide selection but it wasn't like other cruises were you wanted all the dishes and couldn't decide. It was sort of like, well, I guess this one is the best of the lot so I'll have that. The meat was way overcooked even if we asked for it medium. It seemed no matter what we asked, it always came out well! We learned about half way through the cruise to ask for rare and sometimes medium rare but this mostly applied to the steaks. Other meats like chicken, pork, and fish were just always overcooked. The salads (which are hard to ruin!) were sometimes limp and I could tell they'd been sitting for a while. On past cruises there is usually one set menu of something they have all the time like Caesar salad or shrimp cocktail. This one did not have it. They brought around a basket of rolls which we were able to pick from one at a time. This would not have been a problem since I'm sure it saves from a lot of wasted rolls, but sometimes we would sit there for 10 minuets and no one would bring us rolls. And the rolls were really good! The waiters got better with this as the cruise went on. We were used to having really fun waiters who would chat with us and amuse us. One waiter on our Hawaii cruise would eagerly come over to us with a new joke every day and he would do tricks for us and make paper napkin roses. The waiter on our last cruise would have all our drinks ready and bring us plates of extra food and desserts to try. We were always so sad to leave our waiters! The waiters on this cruise (at least ours, others appeared better) were paltry at best. I don't even know our main waiter's name. He would take our order, bring us food, and ask once how it tasted. The assistant waiter was a bit better. At least he came and chatted with us once and was always smiling. He would try and serve us iced tea right when we sat down and though we all had it, somehow by the middle the cruise he was serving only me the iced tea and everyone else got water. But then he remembered that M liked to have lemons and honey with her tea so he'd have that ready. Sadly, every day we'd contemplate skipping the dining room since the food was just ok and it was overall just kind of boring. Unfortunately the thought of eating at Emile's wasn't all that enticing either. So we went for most of the nights to the dining room and every once in awhile we'd get a really good dish or dessert. There was no charge for cappuccinos (which I found really strong) and espressos so that was a plus.

- We really enjoyed the sushi and the Fish and Chips and went back numerous times!

Decor:

- The decor was a bit overkill. They really took themes to an extreme and in some cases, it appears they couldn't decide on a theme so just went with all of them. The decor at Harry's reminded me of traffic lights and lighthouses and though the dining room was better, there were great blue flash bulbs next to the beautiful glass chandeliers.

- Most of the signs indicating where things are were in different, usually unreadable, font. And to make matters worse, the lighting on the signs was constantly changing color. I would have to stare at something for a minute or two before finally deciphering what it said. I tended not to rely on these signs and just use my map or the ones located near the elevators to find my way around.

Laundry:

- Our laundry room was located just two doors down from our cabin. There is one on every floor that has cabins. There were 3 washers, 4 dryers, and 1 ironing board. $2 wash, $2 dry, $1 for detergent. Rolls of quarters were available from the pursers and we had packed some dryer sheets so we could have nice soft clothes!

Carnival Caper/ Port Guide:

- The Caper itself was fine and I carried it around a lot so I knew what was going on. But they sure put a lot of flyers in there! Every day there would be 3 or 4 flyers calling out "Must Read! Eat more and lose weight!" "Spa special! 2 for 1 Massages!" I go on vacation to get away from this and here I am being bombarded with spa flyers and other junk. What a waste of paper. I threw them all away or used the back to take notes.

- Before I went to bed I read the Port Guide that was inside our Carnival Caper. It wasn't so much as a port guide as a shopping guide. Basically it was paid advertisements and the poorly printed map had unreadable street names and only marked where the advertised stores were. A whole 4 page guide and that's all they could provide. They didn't even say where our ship would dock which was almost a problem in Barcelona. Every port guide was like this until finally the last few days, I noticed a small blurb on the back page near the bottom giving a very brief overview of the city we were to visit. Either I missed it the first few days or it just wasn't there. Normally I keep all these things as souvenirs but we threw these all out.

Excursions:

- We booked all our own excursions but with Carnival, it was all about sell, sell, sell. John Heald, the cruise director, would give his port talks which he emphasized that one member of your family MUST attend and this was VERY IMPORTANT information. Uh huh. We went to only the last talk to hear about disembarkation. It was basically a short talk on the port and then a sell, sell, sell of all the port tours. He exaggerated a lot making it sound like unless you went with their shuttles or their tours, you could never get around and you'd get lost, ripped off, miss the ship, get abducted by aliens, etc. I don't recall other cruises being like this. It is one thing to caution people on smart travel and another to use scare tactics to sell your tours. They would make announcements over the PA how the tours were filling up fast and buy now! Then later on they'd say, oh, it was so popular we added 3 more buses so come and buy! Anyway, if you're reading this your a smart traveler and have found CC and can figure out for yourself what's fact and what's fiction!

Shops:

- The onboard shops which were less than thrilling. One shop is all t-shirts, alcohol, kids stuff, and a small supply of toiletries. The other is all jewelry and makeup. Only 2 shops! I remember Princess last year must’ve had 4 and they had a large area outside where they would set up tables for that day’s special (i.e. inch of gold, rings, Faberge eggs). For the daily specials on Carnival, they had a couple of tables inside the jewelry shop, but it was VERY crowded. I think the capacity of those shops is 10 people each. Plus they only had 2 or 3 registers open at a time, some transactions took awhile so there was a long wait, and there was no place to stand in a line.

Entertainment:

- The costumes were elaborate and they sure did a lot of singing and dancing, but it was more quantity than quality.

- As others have noted, they have a lot of shows featuring passengers. Apparently we are our own entertainment.

- The majority of the activities were trivia, bingo, trivia, karaoke, and trivia. Did I mention trivia?

- The Funvision by the pool was a nice treat and we enjoyed the shows. However in the staterooms they would show only one movie per day and sometimes it was a repeat of what was on the Funvision before or just a repeat from prior in the cruise.

[lv2cruz]

This is my review of the cruise I took on the Carnival Liberty in the Mediterranean (sail date 9/4). For those not familiar, we visited the following ports with cities visited in parenthesis: Rome, Naples (Positano, Amalfi, Pompeii), Dubrovnik, Venice, Messina (Taormina, Mt Etna), Barcelona, Cannes (St Paul de Venice, Nice), Livorno (Florence, Pisa). I took lots of notes (and even more pictures!) in hopes that my review will help future vacationers just as the past ones helped us!

Just a bit about our group, we are a family of 4, mom (M), dad (D), sis (S), and me. I am the youngest "child" but being in my mid-20s, I am sure you can gauge the age of our group. This was our first cruise on Carnival and second cruise to Europe. We have taken many cruises on Royal Caribbean and most recently, M, D, and I took the Star Princess around the Baltic last year. This was my 5th time to Europe and with the exception of M, we had never been to any of these ports.

I'll start my first post with the ship review. A lot of comments are mixed in with the trip report but I tried to pull out the big ones. Please let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them!

SHIP REVIEW:

General:

- Our first stop was the Purser's desk to get maps of the ship. I don't know why they don't leave these in the room or give them to you at check in. How is anyone supposed to find anything?

- We found in some parts of the ship there was a smoky smell. This was interesting because we hadn't even set sail and the casino and other smoking areas weren't open. This was a problem throughout most of the cruise with the smoky smell wafting all over the place in the stairwells and in to the non-smoking areas of the ship. I had never had a problem on prior cruises.

Layout/ Rooms:

- My 1st impression was that the hallways were quite wide (maybe 5 ft across) and the rooms were bigger than other ships. The bathroom was a good size with lots of shelves for all our stuff. There was a little basket filled with toothpaste samples, lotion, hair gels, and shaving razors. We agreed they must've left this basket because everyone probably had to check in or leave behind all these items.

- As we unpacked, we were able to slide all our suitcases under the beds. That's 3 large suitcases, 1 rolling duffel, and 2 carryon's, out of sight!

- General layout of the ship was terrible. For a new ship, you think they would have figured out what worked and what didn't.

• The Victoria Lounge is "sideways." As in the left side of the theatre is the back of the ship so you can only come in the right side. There are two entrances on the right, one near the back seats and one in front near the stage. When I went for a show it was pretty dark and there was no way one could come in the entrance on the right side and walk through to the other side. So people were just piling in and standing on the right side and the people sitting down were getting mad because it was blocking their view. People started going in to the entrance near the stage and standing around, but then the dancers couldn't get through. What a mess! I don't know who decided this layout was a good idea. Also, I don't think I ever had to walk away from a show because I couldn't find a seat or even get IN.
  
• There were numerous lounges and areas that stayed completely empty the whole cruise! I never once saw someone in the Hot & Cool dance lounge and the arcade, Without Batteries, was desolate. Plus there were a couple rooms like the Tapestry Room or Empress Room that just seemed like a waste of space and decoration. I think they should have stuck with fewer lounges/rooms but made them bigger. The Piano Man and Paparazzi Bar were sort of just squished in to corners and they actually had people in them.
  
• The Web is mainly accessible by walking through The Cabinet which is the cigar bar. I am fine with them having a bar for cigars, but everyone who wants to use the computer now has to navigate their way to the back of the ship, then walk through a smoky cigar bar (what if you have kids?), and go to a little door in the corner near the bar, to reach it. When I went they had the door open so I’m sure it gets pretty smoky and loud inside whenever the Cabinet is in use. I read on another review sometimes they do art auctions in the Cabinet and then you can’t even walk through. What poor planning for a new ship! It seems like they forgot to add this in and then decided to turn a storage room for this lounge in to an internet area. There were maybe 10 computers and each computer was in a little desk hutch. Needless to say I didn’t use it the services. I think the boat has wireless so bring your own laptop
  
• For Fish & Chips you have to walk to the back part of Emile’s and up the staircase. Or, you can get out at deck 10, the level above the pool, go out to the deck and walk all the way around to the back of the ship and go in that way. Needles to say F&C was usually pretty empty.
  
• The dining rooms are smack dab in the middle of decks 3 and 4 so to get across you have to go up to 5 (through the smoky casino) or down to 2. I saw a lot of lost people.
  
• The Henry's Supper Club layout is horrible. It is a U shape with band and dance floor at the curved part and the tables to each side. So with the exception of the bar and maybe 4 tables, no one can see the band or the dance floor. There was only one couple dancing.

Food/ Dining Service:

- For drinks they had lemonade, a variety of juices, iced tea, coffee, hot tea, and hot chocolate. I was surprised they were not pushing the soda cards and throughout the whole trip, not one person seemed to even be selling them

- Like others have mentioned, the maitre’d never came to our table to ask how things were. The only time we saw him was during the “showtime” when he was dancing on top of a table.

- The food was ok. The menu had a wide selection but it wasn't like other cruises were you wanted all the dishes and couldn't decide. It was sort of like, well, I guess this one is the best of the lot so I'll have that. The meat was way overcooked even if we asked for it medium. It seemed no matter what we asked, it always came out well! We learned about half way through the cruise to ask for rare and sometimes medium rare but this mostly applied to the steaks. Other meats like chicken, pork, and fish were just always overcooked. The salads (which are hard to ruin!) were sometimes limp and I could tell they'd been sitting for a while. On past cruises there is usually one set menu of something they have all the time like Caesar salad or shrimp cocktail. This one did not have it. They brought around a basket of rolls which we were able to pick from one at a time. This would not have been a problem since I'm sure it saves from a lot of wasted rolls, but sometimes we would sit there for 10 minuets and no one would bring us rolls. And the rolls were really good! The waiters got better with this as the cruise went on. We were used to having really fun waiters who would chat with us and amuse us. One waiter on our Hawaii cruise would eagerly come over to us with a new joke every day and he would do tricks for us and make paper napkin roses. The waiter on our last cruise would have all our drinks ready and bring us plates of extra food and desserts to try. We were always so sad to leave our waiters! The waiters on this cruise (at least ours, others appeared better) were paltry at best. I don't even know our main waiter's name. He would take our order, bring us food, and ask once how it tasted. The assistant waiter was a bit better. At least he came and chatted with us once and was always smiling. He would try and serve us iced tea right when we sat down and though we all had it, somehow by the middle the cruise he was serving only me the iced tea and everyone else got water. But then he remembered that M liked to have lemons and honey with her tea so he'd have that ready. Sadly, every day we'd contemplate skipping the dining room since the food was just ok and it was overall just kind of boring. Unfortunately the thought of eating at Emile's wasn't all that enticing either. So we went for most of the nights to the dining room and every once in awhile we'd get a really good dish or dessert. There was no charge for cappuccinos (which I found really strong) and espressos so that was a plus.

- We really enjoyed the sushi and the Fish and Chips and went back numerous times!

Decor:

- The decor was a bit overkill. They really took themes to an extreme and in some cases, it appears they couldn't decide on a theme so just went with all of them. The decor at Harry's reminded me of traffic lights and lighthouses and though the dining room was better, there were great blue flash bulbs next to the beautiful glass chandeliers.

- Most of the signs indicating where things are were in different, usually unreadable, font. And to make matters worse, the lighting on the signs was constantly changing color. I would have to stare at something for a minute or two before finally deciphering what it said. I tended not to rely on these signs and just use my map or the ones located near the elevators to find my way around.

Laundry:

- Our laundry room was located just two doors down from our cabin. There is one on every floor that has cabins. There were 3 washers, 4 dryers, and 1 ironing board. $2 wash, $2 dry, $1 for detergent. Rolls of quarters were available from the pursers and we had packed some dryer sheets so we could have nice soft clothes!

Carnival Caper/ Port Guide:

- The Caper itself was fine and I carried it around a lot so I knew what was going on. But they sure put a lot of flyers in there! Every day there would be 3 or 4 flyers calling out "Must Read! Eat more and lose weight!" "Spa special! 2 for 1 Massages!" I go on vacation to get away from this and here I am being bombarded with spa flyers and other junk. What a waste of paper. I threw them all away or used the back to take notes.

- Before I went to bed I read the Port Guide that was inside our Carnival Caper. It wasn't so much as a port guide as a shopping guide. Basically it was paid advertisements and the poorly printed map had unreadable street names and only marked where the advertised stores were. A whole 4 page guide and that's all they could provide. They didn't even say where our ship would dock which was almost a problem in Barcelona. Every port guide was like this until finally the last few days, I noticed a small blurb on the back page near the bottom giving a very brief overview of the city we were to visit. Either I missed it the first few days or it just wasn't there. Normally I keep all these things as souvenirs but we threw these all out.

Excursions:

- We booked all our own excursions but with Carnival, it was all about sell, sell, sell. John Heald, the cruise director, would give his port talks which he emphasized that one member of your family MUST attend and this was VERY IMPORTANT information. Uh huh. We went to only the last talk to hear about disembarkation. It was basically a short talk on the port and then a sell, sell, sell of all the port tours. He exaggerated a lot making it sound like unless you went with their shuttles or their tours, you could never get around and you'd get lost, ripped off, miss the ship, get abducted by aliens, etc. I don't recall other cruises being like this. It is one thing to caution people on smart travel and another to use scare tactics to sell your tours. They would make announcements over the PA how the tours were filling up fast and buy now! Then later on they'd say, oh, it was so popular we added 3 more buses so come and buy! Anyway, if you're reading this your a smart traveler and have found CC and can figure out for yourself what's fact and what's fiction!

Shops:

- The onboard shops which were less than thrilling. One shop is all t-shirts, alcohol, kids stuff, and a small supply of toiletries. The other is all jewelry and makeup. Only 2 shops! I remember Princess last year must’ve had 4 and they had a large area outside where they would set up tables for that day’s special (i.e. inch of gold, rings, Faberge eggs). For the daily specials on Carnival, they had a couple of tables inside the jewelry shop, but it was VERY crowded. I think the capacity of those shops is 10 people each. Plus they only had 2 or 3 registers open at a time, some transactions took awhile so there was a long wait, and there was no place to stand in a line.

Entertainment:

- The costumes were elaborate and they sure did a lot of singing and dancing, but it was more quantity than quality.

- As others have noted, they have a lot of shows featuring passengers. Apparently we are our own entertainment.

- The majority of the activities were trivia, bingo, trivia, karaoke, and trivia. Did I mention trivia?

- The Funvision by the pool was a nice treat and we enjoyed the shows. However in the staterooms they would show only one movie per day and sometimes it was a repeat of what was on the Funvision before or just a repeat from prior in the cruise.

Wow. I was on the Sept.28th sailing and hardly experienced anything you did.

Our service in the dining room was absolutly fantastic.Our "waitress" was so attentive, friendly and patient with a group of 10 that we had. Never charged us for corkage. Knew our names, our likes and dislikes. If our steak was overdone, which once it was, she whipped out another one as if to know or anticipate someone may not be satisfied.She knew how each ofus it liked it!! The Maitre' D's name was Paul, very friendly man who even had our group of 10 be seated at the Capatains table that was being unused for the duration( he had it changed by the second night) otherwise we could not have been seated together. He even sent a bottle of champagne over because we were friendlly and very appreciative toward him..Harry's Super Club ( not Henry's)is decorated beautiful, the food for a charge of only $30pp was superb.I enjoyed my table looking out toward the sea as opposed to watching people dance since our table was neither near the bar or dance floor.

I had no problem reading or seeing anything due to the ever interesting light fixtures changing colors. Such a gradual,subtle change.

Never went to shows other than the comedy one night, I must say, the comedian was not good.

John Heald can be a bit of an annoynance but i have learned to tune C.D's out a long time ago. Trust me, this one did not come on the loud speaker nearly as much as they did when i went on the Elation a few years ago.

I hate the smell of smoke and was pleasantly surprised after being on the Elation how much it did not smell like smoke. Of course in the Casino and the Cigar Bar and yes to get to the Internet Cafe was not the wisest choice by having to walk through this area for people who cant stand the smell of smoke.I'll give you that.

General layout of the ship was not designed to be user friendly,and it was a bit confusing but you get used to it and quickly figure it out.I guess you dont have a choice but this certainly had no bearing on the quality of my cruise.I did like the decor as it was FUN and vibrant.

Not a big deal about too many fliers advertising services for spa tratments or tours. For some, it can be an interesting read or quite possible interesting to go to a motivational or informative seminar on board for people struggling to loose weight or whatever else they were offering.I just dont get the original posters gripe about "getting away from this on vacation".Maby for you, but for others they may want that "two for one massage special" that was advertised in that flier.

Of course the ship is going to try to "sell,sell,sell'.They are a business trying to make money like every other business in the world. It's up to you to pick and choose what and when you will do things.

The jewelry,gift,makeup and perfume shop held no more than "10 people".This is a bit of exageration. It did get crowded on out to sea days,but i just went in when it was not so crowded. Came home with a beautiful watch at a great price. Inches of gold or silver was displayed on a table outside of the shop. I dont feel there is anymore need for gift shops on the ship as there is enough shopping to do in port!!!

TV, well we did watch a few movies when we retired for the night, otherwise i am not on vacation to sit around in my room all day wondering what the quality or quantities of movies are on or how many.

I think for some, Carnival is simply just not for them and thats OK. For me, the ports and the price ( with my balcony) did it for me . If i wanted a 5 star cruise with a 5 star price tag then i may do that someday but for now Carnival puts out a pretty decent package for what you get:)

[English Tim]

Thanks for the review. I am particularly interested in your pictures and ports review. Are these elements posted elsewhere or are they still to come?:)

[caflygrl]

Botham: The trip report is to come. It is quite lengthy and for me to post it all at once I think would cause the whole website to crash. ;) We did a 3 day pre-cruise in Rome which I hope to post in the next few days!

As for the pictures, I don't think I will be posting any here. There are just too many to sort through. However many of people have posted pics of the destinations so it shouldn't be hard to find some on the internet! :)

 

lv2cruz: Sometimes it's easier to point out the parts I didn't like but I did enjoy the cruise overall. And like you said, for the price and itinerary, I can't complain too much! As for the waiters, all the other tables seemed to have better ones. I think we just got a sort of shy waiter. All the other waiters would talk with their diners and come out to dance and sing during the "showtime." Our waiter always disappeared!

I really did think the shops were too small. It could be on your cruise there were less people. I just remember when they put out the Venetian glass jewelry it was 3 people deep just to try and look at the table. Obviously there was more to buy in the ports but it was nice to stop at the onboard shops after dinner or on the sea days. Glad to hear you got a great deal on your watch though! I always have to pick up some Swarovski when I'm on a cruise. :D

[Spicy]

I agree with everything you wrote. We were on the 9/28 sailing and had all the same frustrations. Bad ship design, mediocre food and service. We had the 8:30 seating (which was frequently closer to 9) and were always the last to be served (and finished), which put us late getting to the show and then, of course, there would be no seats available. One night we actually sat on the stairs to watch the show. It will be our last Carnival cruise. Thank you for writing what I didn't take the time to do.

[Cruising89143]

The Conquest class of ships is without a doubt the worse ship design that I have experienced. I call it a "cattle call" design. Shove as many passengers on a ship that you can and let them herd around. Chopped up passenger flow also.

 

Joe Farcus who has designed the Carnival fleet for years does not know when to quit. His over the top decor became really old to me. I cruised with Carnival many times but even though you should never say never, I don't see myself back on one of their ships again.

 

I look forward to the rest of your review.

[Queenk2]

We were on the Liberty last Christmas...it was sooooo bad that we were give 25 percent off another cruise and 150 shipboard credit pp. can you imagne how terrible the service was??? Our rooms flooded the food was TERRIBLE and to top it all off, our dining room waiter didn't speak ot us for 2 days, Evebtually we had our table changed, but the food remained inedible. Granted, we were in the Craibbean, not Europe. I have been on 35 other cruises...none with Carnival. Celebrity/RCCl are my personal favorites along with Princess. I want to use the coupon, BUT I really am not anxious to go on another Carnival cruise. Truth be told we are going on caribbean Princess this Christmas,but next year..who knows maybe we will try carnival Freedom...Who can pass on a deal like that?

Karen

[Cruising89143]

We were on the Liberty last Christmas...it was sooooo bad that we were give 25 percent off another cruise and 150 shipboard credit pp. can you imagne how terrible the service was??? Our rooms flooded the food was TERRIBLE and to top it all off, our dining room waiter didn't speak ot us for 2 days, Evebtually we had our table changed, but the food remained inedible. Granted, we were in the Craibbean, not Europe. I have been on 35 other cruises...none with Carnival. Celebrity/RCCl are my personal favorites along with Princess. I want to use the coupon, BUT I really am not anxious to go on another Carnival cruise. Truth be told we are going on caribbean Princess this Christmas,but next year..who knows maybe we will try carnival Freedom...Who can pass on a deal like that?

Karen

 

I would suggest trying one of the four Spirit class ships. They are the best in the Carnival fleet. A much better design and they do not have the crowded feeling that the Conquest class of ships have.

[Queenk2]

Thanks for the advice.. I will look into it. Is the food any better on the Spirit class? How about service in the sining room?

Karen

[Janet19]

I think the OP is being waay to picky/

 

I am very sensitive to cig. smoke and, at no time, did our group smell any lingering stale smoke anywhere on the ship...and our group included a smoker.

 

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out how to navigate this particular ship..just figure out which decks go all the way through.

 

Fish & Chips were very easy to find just up the stairs in the center of Emile's.

 

Many passengers enjoy "Trivia"...it is a way to exercise the brain...mindless shopping hardly increases the IQ!!

 

There were very few 'kids' on this sailing so why the comment of how they (gasp) had to walk through the cigar bar to get to the computer room.? Why would kids be using computers anyway?

 

The comments concerning the food were waaaay off. All meals were simply delicious..not a wilted 'lettuce leaf' amoung them. The waiters were wonderful...Juan even brought Baked Alaska on the last night at my request!

 

I would disregard most of this review as the facts were twisted...it written more for 'dramantic flair' rather then giving a true pic. of this fantastic ship.

[RoePost]

We were also on the 9/4 sailing and had a wonderful time....Of course some things were different from what you are used to...but hey wouldn't it be boring if everything always stayed the same...We have a great time even thought I had bronchitis while visiting Europe.....Your vacation is what you make of it....

[lv2cruz]

Botham: The trip report is to come. It is quite lengthy and for me to post it all at once I think would cause the whole website to crash. ;) We did a 3 day pre-cruise in Rome which I hope to post in the next few days!

As for the pictures, I don't think I will be posting any here. There are just too many to sort through. However many of people have posted pics of the destinations so it shouldn't be hard to find some on the internet! :)

 

lv2cruz: Sometimes it's easier to point out the parts I didn't like but I did enjoy the cruise overall. And like you said, for the price and itinerary, I can't complain too much! As for the waiters, all the other tables seemed to have better ones. I think we just got a sort of shy waiter. All the other waiters would talk with their diners and come out to dance and sing during the "showtime." Our waiter always disappeared!

I really did think the shops were too small. It could be on your cruise there were less people. I just remember when they put out the Venetian glass jewelry it was 3 people deep just to try and look at the table. Obviously there was more to buy in the ports but it was nice to stop at the onboard shops after dinner or on the sea days. Glad to hear you got a great deal on your watch though! I always have to pick up some Swarovski when I'm on a cruise. :D

I do think for ones dining experience on a cruise and in general, a waiter/waitress can make or break your overall dining experience. We knew we were lucky with the gal and her assistant and for us we all took turns tipping her during the course of the 12 days just to have the level of service consistant.I know this is not customary but we decided early on this is what we would do. Besides, we brought appx. 4 bottles of wine to the table each night w/out a corkage fee that she could have charged us. Some do, some dont.It was cheaper to tip her than to pay $10p bottle .It was unfortunate for you and your family that you had service that was not up to par.

As far as the shop with the jewelry ( and this sailing was to capacity) the night they had Venetian items/jewlery it was priced more than what it was in Venice so you really did not miss out! It was crowded that paticular time as well and i quicky got out of there.All the luck to you on your next cruise:)

[Cruising89143]

I think the OP is being waay to picky/

 

I am very sensitive to cig. smoke and, at no time, did our group smell any lingering stale smoke anywhere on the ship...and our group included a smoker.

 

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out how to navigate this particular ship..just figure out which decks go all the way through.

 

Fish & Chips were very easy to find just up the stairs in the center of Emile's.

 

Many passengers enjoy "Trivia"...it is a way to exercise the brain...mindless shopping hardly increases the IQ!!

 

There were very few 'kids' on this sailing so why the comment of how they (gasp) had to walk through the cigar bar to get to the computer room.? Why would kids be using computers anyway?

 

The comments concerning the food were waaaay off. All meals were simply delicious..not a wilted 'lettuce leaf' amoung them. The waiters were wonderful...Juan even brought Baked Alaska on the last night at my request!

 

I would disregard most of this review as the facts were twisted...it written more for 'dramantic flair' rather then giving a true pic. of this fantastic ship.

 

Why are you allowed to give your opinion and tell others to dismiss the opinion of someone else? The Conquest class is one of the worst designed ships sailing the world today. Very poor passenger flow, chopped design and one of the worst passenger to space ratios of any of the mass market lines. Food is very subjective but just because you liked the food doesn't mean that someone else did. Give the OP a break. I didn't see anything dramatic about her review. :rolleyes:

[Cruising89143]

Thanks for the advice.. I will look into it. Is the food any better on the Spirit class? How about service in the sining room?

Karen

 

Here's my take on food. First I have never gone hungry on a cruise and two people can sit down at the same table and eat the exact same thing and come away with two totally different opinions.:)

 

I also believe that food can vary from ship to ship within the same line as it all depends on the Head Chef and their crew with just how much they put into the overall product. Some are just better than others.

 

I had no problem with the food on the Carnival Pride or Legend. Both were good. I just like the ships layout much better and it has a MUCH higher passenger to space ratio than the Conquest class of ships.

[JohnL1935]

We just got off the 10/22 sailing and my first consideration is the food since many hours are spent each day consuming the cuisine. I would rate the food below average, however, the prime rib I had 2 nights was better than in local restaurants. The steaks also were great and the lobster was perfect except they only had it 1 night. The letdown is in the lido. On our late return in Venice, we missed our sitting (early) so we went to the lido. They had one preparation that looked like a chicken shrimp goulash. There was supposed to be something on the carving station but no one was there. It was so pathetic looking that we went to Harry's and got reservations for 30 minutes later--had to go back and dress up ,however. I compare the lido to Princess where their lido servings almost mimick the dining room. Princess also had different and delicious fish offerings all the time--both dining and lido. At lunch Princess would have fruit carving demostrations and sometimes deserts almost like the old midnight buffets. The one night the Liberty had a late night buffet, it was almost comical in what they presented. Princess had deck parties in combination with a tropical night or whatever. Carnival had a mask party on deck after Venice but there was no food served--just a lot of noise and a snake line.

 

My wife says it was the ports that was so important and they were great!! I think a few more comedians in the aft lounges late in the evening would have helped. For us, the casino was our primary entertainment so we got by without the normal entertainment generally offered on cruises but many passengers do not want to "waste" their money in the casino. The music on the Liberty was very good and I was surprised at the number of people involved in listening and dancing.

 

Just my few comments on the Liberty...

 

John L.

[winewanderer]

We were on the Liberty in May.

 

We had a great time on this ship but I agree the design isn't the greatest, I love the Spirit class ships much better.

 

In the dining room our waiter had the personality of cold noodles and even gave one of our tablemates, a very nice gentleman, a bad time a couple of nights because he ordered 2 entrees.

 

Oh well, we took the bad with the good, nothings perfect.

 

The food overall was very good and actually I was shocked that my steaks and prime rib arrived med. rare when that's what I ordered. That's tough when you're cooking for that many people.

[caflygrl]

I had meant to write this in my first post but was having so much trouble posting that I think it got cut out.

I am sure we all know that we have different opinions and that this one is just mine and based on what I experienced. I think there are enough reviews out there that a person can decide for themselves what to read in to or not. That being said, I love reading everyone's comments whether you agree or not. :)

So on with the show.

Thurs, Aug 31: Departure

We decided to do a pre-cruise in Rome so we all flew out on Aug 31st. I flew from Boston to Philadelphia where I met up with my family who flew from San Francisco. From there we had a direct flight to Rome. All our flights were USAir. We had booked to have 4 seats together (the plane was configured so it was 2 seats, aisle, 4 seats, aisle, 2 seats) but somehow M, D, and S got moved back 3 rows and I got the same seat. I'm not sure what happened there but thankfully we were able to switch seats and we all sat together. Just to note, headsets were still $5 so bring your own and the alcohol was not free like I'd experienced on other int'l flights.

Fri, Sept 1: Arrival and Rome

Our flight was a red eye so by the time we landed in Rome, it was early morning (8:15am) the next day. We landed on time and went to collect luggage. My family's bags came off first and one of the suitcases had a huge dent in the corner so M went off to see if they would compensate us for it. Meanwhile I waited for my luggage. And waited, and waited. I thought it was never going to come out but finally I could see it through the flaps and then the luggage belt stopped. So close yet so far! Eventually the belt started and I got my bag. M came back and said that US Air would not fix the bag. Apparently the man in front of her lost a wheel off his suitcase (sadly I saw it going round and round the luggage belt) and they wouldn't fix his either because he could still use it to hold clothes.

The airport was very crowded with all the flights coming in and there were lots of signs for other cruises. We made it out to where we had a driver waiting for us from RomeCabs. He had a Mercedes station wagon and drove us to our hotel in Rome which took about 1/2 hr. The transfer from the airport to the hotel cost 65e.

We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Miami located at 320 Via ****onale, which I think is on the East side of the city. The entrance to this hotel (as most seemed to be) was through a set of doors off the main street and down a corridor. Our rooms were not ready yet but they let us drop our bags in the small lobby and use the restroom upstairs.

Like most travelers, we tried to combat the jet lag by going out and seeing the sites before sleeping. We grabbed a map from the hotel (it was very useful and the only one we needed) and walked 10 minutes to the Trevi Fountain which is located in a small square surrounded by buildings. If there weren't signs, we wouldn't have known it was there! It was very crowded but we took pictures and tossed in a coin which means we will come back to Rome some day!

We walked down one of the roads off the Trevi Fountain called Via del Lavatore and decided to eat lunch. There were lots of restaurants and shops so we stopped in for a bite to eat at one of the restuarants. We were able to use our credit card here. We sat outside and they brought us our food. The pizza was thin crust and very good. There were still cars going down the narrow street so we had to make sure we pulled our chairs in! Also the streets are small cobblestones so my chair almost fell in to a crack. I wouldn't recommend wearing heels here unless you desire a sprained ankle. The cobblestones made for very bump cab rides!

We finished up and went back to our hotel to find our rooms were ready. We had booked a quad but were told we could either have a quad that was a bit small, or two rooms - a triple and a single. We looked at all 3 rooms and decided to go with the two room deal. D had his own room which was small but practical and had its own bathroom (only a shower stall). We ladies took the triple which was a king bed and then a cot. We had a bathtub shower. As in most European hotel rooms, they were on the smallish size but good enough.

By then it was time to head to the Vatican for the guided tour we had set up. We had the hotel call a cab and they gave us the number of the cab (not the phone number but the number on the side of the cab). By the time we walked out to the street, the cab was waiting for us. We headed for the Vatican which took about 10 minutes only the cab brought us around to the front of St Peter's. We didn't think this was the right area so we had the driver take us to the Vatican Museum entrance. The ride cost about 10e (for tipping we typically just rounded up). We were to meet the guide and another couple from CruiseCritic at 1:30 and it was about 1:35 when we arrived. There was a line but it wasn't long and seemed to be moving quickly. We walked around looking for a sign with our name on it or the other CC members (even though we didn't know what they looked like!). We looked in the line and walked down the street and all around but no guide! We had no way of contacting the guide. We jumped in to a cab to take us back to the St Peter's Basilica entrance (another 5e) in case the guide was there. We grabbed the taxi from a taxi stand as I don't think you can hail them off the street like in the US. We walked all over the Square and finally gave up. Since we were already there, we stood in line for St Peter’s. The line moved quickly and we had to put our bags through an x-ray machine and walk through a metal detector.

We went inside and underground where some of the tombs where. There were a handful of people stopped by Pope John Paul's grave. We then went upside in to the main part of the church and walked around. Through the entrance on the right is Michaelangelo’s Pieta statue of Mary holding Jesus in her arms. The church is huge and it probably would have been helpful had I brought the Rick Steves' book with me instead of reading it after. We saw a sign and a line for the "cupola." I figured this was some special wing of the church so we didn't go.

We bought postcards (0,50e each) and stamps (0,80e each) and mailed them. Vatican City is its own country so it makes for a great souvenir. M used to buy magnets from all the places we visited but now her filing cabinet is covered with magnets and they can get expensive! So now she gets a postcard and stamp from every country and writes down the day's events before mailing it back home. This was our mission in every place we visited.

We decided to walk back to the Vatican Museum so we wouldn't have to come back the next day but sadly, they had closed just 5 minutes earlier! With the jetlag, heat, and frustration of missing the guide, we decided to call it a day and took a cab back to the hotel (9e). We had read there was a supermarket near the hotel so we asked at the desk. The woman said there was one around the corner so we went right out of the hotel, and another right at the first light which was Via Quattro Fontaine. At number 38 there was a "bar gastronomia" which had lots of cookies and spices and even some sandwiches and coffee. In the back room we found the cooler of drinks and bought 2 large bottles of water for 1,30e each. They also had gelato so we had two cones for 3e total.

Back in the hotel we received a call from Stefano regarding our guided tour for that day. I did not speak to him personally but he sounded very apologetic about the whole matter. Apparently the guide had waited around awhile and the other CC members were able to find him even though it was 15 minutes past the meet time. Oh well.

I relaxed in bed and read in the Rick Steve's book about what I had just seen in St Peter’s and realized, the cupola line was to climb up to the dome of St Peter’s! Oops! We decided to go back the next day.

[caflygrl]

Hmm, somehow my post posted twice so ignore this...

[notmartha]

I think the OP is being waay to picky/

 

I am very sensitive to cig. smoke and, at no time, did our group smell any lingering stale smoke anywhere on the ship...and our group included a smoker.

 

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out how to navigate this particular ship..just figure out which decks go all the way through.

 

Fish & Chips were very easy to find just up the stairs in the center of Emile's.

 

Many passengers enjoy "Trivia"...it is a way to exercise the brain...mindless shopping hardly increases the IQ!!

 

There were very few 'kids' on this sailing so why the comment of how they (gasp) had to walk through the cigar bar to get to the computer room.? Why would kids be using computers anyway?

 

The comments concerning the food were waaaay off. All meals were simply delicious..not a wilted 'lettuce leaf' amoung them. The waiters were wonderful...Juan even brought Baked Alaska on the last night at my request!

 

I would disregard most of this review as the facts were twisted...it written more for 'dramantic flair' rather then giving a true pic. of this fantastic ship.

 

I was on the August sailing and find many similarities, so I don't think the facts were twisted:

 

- the meat is overcooked at the dining room, undercooked at Harry's

- the salad is wilted - day after day for 12 days. It's because it's pre-tossed, and we had late seating

- the service was acceptable, but it was hard to flag the waiter down for extra rolls or water refill. You only see them when they take the entree/dessert order, deliver the food. Sometimes we can't get them to take the coffee/tea order either.

 

The layout is confusing, especially for the promenade deck. I know the layout but I caught myself doing the wrong turn time and time again. It doesn't really cut down on the annoyance factor.

 

Anyway, I heard that the food at the Med cruise is different than the ones to Caribbean, so that may explain some of the difference in opinions. Maybe late versus early seating contributes too. But the poster didn't exaggerate! I am compiling a review of my August sailing and was thinking of posting it, but it seems like anything remotely negative isn't very much appreciated at CC.

[PTC]

I was on the August sailing and find many similarities, so I don't think the facts were twisted:

 

- the meat is overcooked at the dining room, undercooked at Harry's

- the salad is wilted - day after day for 12 days. It's because it's pre-tossed, and we had late seating

- the service was acceptable, but it was hard to flag the waiter down for extra rolls or water refill. You only see them when they take the entree/dessert order, deliver the food. Sometimes we can't get them to take the coffee/tea order either.

 

The layout is confusing, especially for the promenade deck. I know the layout but I caught myself doing the wrong turn time and time again. It doesn't really cut down on the annoyance factor.

 

Anyway, I heard that the food at the Med cruise is different than the ones to Caribbean, so that may explain some of the difference in opinions. Maybe late versus early seating contributes too. But the poster didn't exaggerate! I am compiling a review of my August sailing and was thinking of posting it, but it seems like anything remotely negative isn't very much appreciated at CC.

 

I think you should write a review and post. Isn't that what this is all about? Sharing our experiences? It would be most helpful also, to provide examples of what was bad or good about your cruise. What was your cabin like or how did you choose late seating or ship excursions or did you do ports on your own /private tours, what companies did you use, what kind of research did you do before you went, etc etc.

Looking forward to you sharing with the rest of us your August sailing.

 

PTC

[caflygrl]

I was on the August sailing and find many similarities, so I don't think the facts were twisted:

 

- the meat is overcooked at the dining room, undercooked at Harry's

- the salad is wilted - day after day for 12 days. It's because it's pre-tossed, and we had late seating

- the service was acceptable, but it was hard to flag the waiter down for extra rolls or water refill. You only see them when they take the entree/dessert order, deliver the food. Sometimes we can't get them to take the coffee/tea order either.

 

The layout is confusing, especially for the promenade deck. I know the layout but I caught myself doing the wrong turn time and time again. It doesn't really cut down on the annoyance factor.

 

Anyway, I heard that the food at the Med cruise is different than the ones to Caribbean, so that may explain some of the difference in opinions. Maybe late versus early seating contributes too. But the poster didn't exaggerate! I am compiling a review of my August sailing and was thinking of posting it, but it seems like anything remotely negative isn't very much appreciated at CC.

 

I have to agree with PTC. I still think you should write a review about your experiences. It's what CC is all about! If people don't want to read it, they can go to another thread. I for one, would love to read your review. But if you still decide not to, please chime in on this thread!

[caflygrl]

wow I'm really bad with this double posting... does anyone know how to delete a post??

[PhillynBill]

WOW what different experiences everyone seemed to have...

 

We were on the Sept 16th sailing and had a incredible time ..... Yes the layout was wacky but we had the best waitstaff--- saw and talked to the matrie' d every night-- John Heard did push the ship's tours (who cares)

 

The food and variety were good (An awful amount of people gouging themselves for horrible food) I wonder what they would of done if they didnt like the food!!

 

The shows were OK but I wasant there for the shows ....

 

My cabin room was spacious and very very comfortable ...

 

Yes the shops could have been better but boy did we love our trip and the memories we shared and all the absouletly fantastic places we've seen ...

Was on a Costa cruise last year and it couldnt hold a candle to the experiences of the Liberty and we had the best time ever on that trip also!!!!!!!! so even though there was alot of room for improvement TRIP to EUROPE ----- PRICELESS:)

Philly n Bill

[lv2cruz]

WOW what different experiences everyone seemed to have...

 

We were on the Sept 16th sailing and had a incredible time ..... Yes the layout was wacky but we had the best waitstaff--- saw and talked to the matrie' d every night-- John Heard did push the ship's tours (who cares)

 

The food and variety were good (An awful amount of people gouging themselves for horrible food) I wonder what they would of done if they didnt like the food!!

 

The shows were OK but I wasant there for the shows ....

 

My cabin room was spacious and very very comfortable ...

 

Yes the shops could have been better but boy did we love our trip and the memories we shared and all the absouletly fantastic places we've seen ...

Was on a Costa cruise last year and it couldnt hold a candle to the experiences of the Liberty and we had the best time ever on that trip also!!!!!!!! so even though there was alot of room for improvement TRIP to EUROPE ----- PRICELESS:)

Philly n Bill

Good to hear! And i thought i was the only one that had a good time and could careless about the minor annoyances:)

[caflygrl]

Sat, Sept 2: Rome

We were up at 7:30am this morning and enjoyed breakfast at the hotel which was included. They had a variety of pastries and cereal along with juice, coffee, and tea. We had the hotel call a taxi and went back to the Vatican (8e). Just as we were leaving the hotel, the man at the desk came running out after us. He was waving a fax from Stefano from the day before indicating who our guide was and giving us both the guide's and his cell phone numbers. It was obvious the fax was sent the prior day in the early morning so needless to say we weren't happy to be receiving it a day late - especially since we had spent a lot of time in the lobby waiting around and talking with the woman who worked the desk. We dropped our keys and picked them up every time we went out so there was no reason the fax could not be given to us. Oh well, water under the bridge as they say.

We arrived at the Vatican Museum at 9:15 and boy, the line was LONG. I think it was because it was Sat and they closed early (though my advice would be to go in the afternoon 2-3 hrs before they close). The driver dropped us off at the end of the line by Piazza Risorgimento. Thankfully it was cool out and there was shade. The line moved at a decent pace. There were people selling souvenirs in the line. We bought a strip of 23 postcards for 2e and a book about Rome. The book (with lots of pictures and pullouts of the Sistine Chapel ceiling) was originally 10e but we eventually settled at 6e. Not bad!

It took about 45 min to 1 hr in the line. We bought our tickets (12e adults, 8e for students w/ID) but be warned, they don't take credit card. We found many places throughout our trip did not. I forgot to mention but M got euros at Citibank before we left so we had enough for our first days in Rome. We rented one audio guide for 6e. Most places will want an ID of some sort so I left my driver's license. We spent about 2 hrs in the Museum. There was a lot to see (once again, should have brought the Rick Steves' book!). We tried to follow the signs to the Sistine Chapel which took us through the less beaten path of the museum but finally we made it! With the audio guide we were able to listen to the descriptions of the paintings.

We decided to eat at the Vatican so we followed the signs to the pizzeria which had both pizza and sandwiches. There was also a cafeteria which appeared to have cooked foods and salads. We used the bathrooms here which were clean (and free). We exited the Museum and checked out the vendors by the exit. One of them was selling something like 20 postcards for 1e so we bought another pack.

We walked back to St Peter's and stood in the line again. We headed to the cupola and paid 7e each to take the elevator to the top of St Peter’s (where the statues are). There were some pretty neat views from up there, especially of the square below. M and I decided to take the stairs to the top of the dome. First you walk to the inside of the dome so you can look down in to the church and get a closer look at the mosaics that decorate the dome. Then it's up to the top! What a climb! It is a bit claustrophobic and can definitely make someone nauseous. At one point all the walls are tilted (the curve of the dome) so even though you are walking straight, the illusion is you are at an angle. Apparently this does not bother many people because we made it to the top and it was packed. We took lots of pictures and walked down to the statue level. D and S stayed at the statue level the whole time but it turns out you don't come down the same side of the dome as you went up. This means take all your pictures at the statue level before going in to the dome and if someone is waiting for you at the statue level (like D and S were) they will have to make their way to the other side. Also, the statue level had a little snack bar and I think restrooms so go if you need to. After meeting up, we took the elevator the rest of the way down.

Back in to a cab again to the Pantheon (6e). The Pantheon is free to enter and the audio guide is a donation. We paid 2e and got 2 audio guides. It may look dreary and gray but the Pantheon was really interesting. It has a dome that is open at the top and the floor is slightly concave so that when it rains, all the water drains to the edges and down the holes. And the building is almost 2 centuries old!

We walked across from the Pantheon to the other side of Piazza della Rotunda to the McDonald's where we took a break. We got two cones of gelato (really just the normal McD's frozen yogurt) and a small bottle of water for 3,80e. Then we headed towards the Pizza Navona. The piazza was quite large and unlike most places in Rome, was not plagued with cars threatening to run over pedestrians. There were lots of artists displaying their paintings and drawings. The sides of the piazza were lined with restaurants and there were fountains in the middle part. There were entertainers like a man dressed as the Statue of Liberty and another as Death. Sadly Death was getting a lot more business than the Statue. We came across a man who had a table that was his stage and he donned different outfits on his fingers and was doing "finger dancing" (his fingers were the feet). It was quite entertaining as he had music and different outfits complete with shoes. He even did Michael Jackson and had smoke coming out on the "stage."

Pictures were taken and we walked up to Piazza Ponte Umberto (north of Navona) hoping to catch a taxi on the main road. There was a tourist info booth so we went in and picked up info about a boat ride on the Tiber River. Then we caught a cab to the Spanish Steps (5e).

The area around the Spanish Steps is where all the high end shops are. It was packed with pedestrians and the driver managed to make it halfway down the street before we got out. We took pictures and sat on the steps for a bit and people watched. It was crowded with both tourists and locals.

From there we started down Via due Macelli (back towards the hotel) when we came across another McD's. Only this one had real gelato! And a coffee bar!! I was craving an iced drink so we went in and got 2 iced cappuccinos for only 1,70e total. The McD's was actually quite big and we found out later on it is the largest and most fancy McD's in the world!

We walked back to the hotel where we stopped at the store for 2 more bottles of water (2,60e total) and a small bottle of coke (1,60e). After relaxing for a bit, we headed out at 7:30 to a restaurant M had read about (possibly on CC) called New Mary Meeting. The man at the hotel (there is only one person on staff at a time) Googled it and even printed us out a map. It was located about 2 blocks from the hotel at 20/22 Via Genova. We ordered 1 pasta dish, 1 lasagna, and 1 pizza plus a bottle of water which came to 38e plus a 5e tip. We had read that most places include the tip but when we asked our waiter, he said it was not included even though there was an extra charge on the bill. I tried to read the Rick Steves' book regarding this and it seemed to say that if service was included, there was no need to tip. But if service was not, 5 - 10% was enough. I guess I'm still not sure what we paid for but they got a nice tip out of it regardless.

The restaurant itself had a handful of tables outside but was quite large inside. It got busier as the night went on and the food was quite good. I really enjoyed the pasta and I loved the lasagna! I typically don't like lasagna. I think it has to do with the type of cheese they use but the one here had a creamy textured sauce and was delicious. All the things other people were eating, even the salad, looked yummy. Thanks to whoever mentioned this!

After dinner we walked around and discovered there was a real supermarket just half a block down from the bar gastronomia that we kept going to. Granted it's smaller than what we have in the states but it had everything: detergent, fresh veggies, antipasta, toiletries, etc. This supermarket called "Despar" was open till 9pm every night and was located at 211/213 Via ****onale. It was MUCH cheaper than the little bar we kept going to. We think this was the supermarket that someone had meant to point out and not the little one. I have no idea why the lady at the desk sent us to that little place when we specifically asked for a supermarket! And it was only another minute walk! Needless to say we were not very fond of the lady at the desk by the end of the trip. The same exact size of water was only 0,30 to 0,50e as compared to the 1,60e we had been paying. At least 3 times cheaper! We ended up buying 2 large bottles of water for 1e total. Then it was back to the hotel and time for bed!