Liberty - just back 9/29 - 10/7

[patrice1]

Got in a few hours ago. Here's our take on a great week.

Embarkation & Debarkation:

Excellent! Got to port at 10:30 AM & we were on the Lido deck at 11:15. Quick & painless. Better self-debarkation than on last year's Triumph as they called floors. At Ft. Lauderdale airport to pick up rental car at 8:10 AM & home in KW at noon.

Cabin:

#7439, L-shaped cabin, starboard aft. Great steward, can't remember his name, but he was visible, not obtrusive and always a kind word & a smile. Told him about our shower not draining and it was fixed. Once he realized we went thru alot of ice, he brought us 2 every time after that. Comfy, comfy beds and the linens - OMG! - wonderful! The bed faces the windows, so we loved waking up each morning looking out at the sea. Had pre-ordered liquor for the room (hence the ice ;) ) and it was there on arrival. The only problem was the neighbors. The 2-3 cabins next to us were all friends who had the balcony dividers removed. There were 6 of them I believe & they were older folks. They were out on their balconies early every AM & happy hour. Now, we're all for everyone having a good time but these folks were LOUD, talked over one another and the women had the highest pitched, cacklely laugh I've ever encountered. Definately prevented the beloved morning coffee/reading and the late afternoon cocktail. We called them the "magpies" and waited till they were gone to enjoy our balcony. As I said, I'm glad they were having a good time, but it definately prevented us from the "peaceful enjoyment" of our balcony. It did not, however, "ruin" our cruise.:rolleyes:

Food:

If you couldn't find anything to eat that you liked on this cruise, you have a problem. The buffet was ordinary, but servicable. We tried it once for breakfast (fake scrambled eggs, yuk!), but we loved all the other daytime venues like the grill for burgers & dogs, the oriental, deli, pizza & the fish & chips. All great! We did dining room for dinner, had Robert & Rico in the Silver at 8 PM, table for 2. BTW, checked with Maitre' D at boarding to get 2 top. Service was good, but not "fun" like previous cruises as our staff were quite business-like. We actually had a great time with the waiter in the next section. Food was very good to excellent. Went to Harry's one night - do not miss this! Superb! Worth every penny. Yes, they dance a few nights and yes, it's cute & we didn't mind. Maitre' D came around almost every night.

Entertainment:

Did not make any shows. Enjoyed the piano bar after dinner on a couple of occasions and one dancing venue - Victorian Lounge with "Music Society" was excellent for dancing, altho is was strange to see an all Asian band with Manderin jackets belting out Louis Armstrong or Elvis :eek: ! The casino was fun. Did well 2 nights at Black Jack but the slots were very tight for us. Played Bingo twice and never came close.

Service:

We found to be excellent. Lot's of smiles and interaction with guests. If you are on this ship before next February, go to the Lobby Bar & say hello to Elena - she was fantastic & we stayed with her all week. On the last day, another guest came up & asked how to spell her name, as he would be writing to CCL to tell them how wonderful she was and what good customer service she demonstrated. We agreed, as did many others we met there. We found the Liberty to be immaculate and quite beautiful. Again, service in every venue was excellent.

Ports:

Did them all on our own. We love Cozumel and shopped & had a Margherita, explored the city square & shopped in Costa Rica, and took a tour of the locks that we arranged at the port in Panama. Nothing remarkable. This cruise wasn't about excursions for us, it was about relaxation.;)

Odds & Ends:

Weather was crazy. Mostly cloudy and frequent rains. Still enough sun with 5 sea days to get burnt, tho :D . We found a spot outside the Fish & Chips where DH could have shade while I had sun and there were no crowds and a beautiful breeze. It was rough a few days and the water was like glass on a couple of other days. One morning at dawn on the balcony (before the Magpies got up) I saw dolphins following the ship. Too cool!:D

The past guest party was just OK. The funniest part were the older couple who sat next to us and just pounded down Whiskey Sours that they were serving. These folks were pretty old and each had 6 of them! We were amazed.

All in all, we had a ball & did alot of relaxing. If you have any questions, I will answer as best I can & I still have all the Capers.

[Water Baby 1983]

Thank you for a wonderful review! Glad to see you had a good time!!

[Sea Turtle]

Thank you, Patrice! :cool:

[thepeach]

We just got off the Liberty also this AM. Walked off at 8:30 am and home outside of Atlanta at 2:30. We also had a wonderful time, and thought the ship was absolutely beautiful. Agree about the food on the Lido deck. Dining staff OK-very nice staff, but very slow-we rarely got out of our 6:15 seating much before 8:15. We were in a balcony room on the Lido deck, and our next door neighbors were smoking marijuana-not exactly an odor we liked in the evening!! Oh well, what are you going to do? We did go to the shows-loved the comedians and the Carnival dancer/singers were good. Did not like the shows for either of the singers during the week-just not our thing, so we walked out after about 15 minutes during both shows quietly. Sorry the cruise went so fast!!

[dfmeeks]

Thank you for a wonderful review, Patrice!

 

I have a few questions. You mentioned the powdered eggs. Were they served at the buffet or the restaurant? Also, do you have a way of scanning or downloading the Capers? I've read a few from cruises to other ports but haven't seen any from Cozumel, Costa Rica, Panama trips.

 

Sorry to hear about your magpies! It sounds like you took it all in stride however.

 

Thanks again for the review!

Dorothy

[lyttleone1977]

Thanks Patrice! Can you post the Capers? We are sailing the same itin over Halloween and wanted to see an updated version.

 

Thanks

[bills blasters]

We were on the Liberty last Jan. and had a Waiter named Elena that we really loved. I wonder if that is the same woman. We had also seen her at the Buffet area when we were there. We will have to check out the bar on our next cruise and see if that is her.

[jimbug]

Thanks for your review! I will be on this itinerary/cruise with my extended family in March. We are definitely looking forward to it, as it's my first time on Carnival, and a first cruise ever for 5 of our family members.

 

A couple of questions...how did you feel about the vast number of sea days on this itinerary? It sounds great to me, but I am afraid some of the first-timers might be a little bit bored. Also, was there any shopping near the pier in Costa Rica? I plan to take an organized whitewater rafting tour there, and am afraid I won't have time to do any shopping. Thanks!

[powderqn]

I believe the Elena she is talking about is in the lobby bar. Elena was a burst of sunshine, and was always happy to greet us each evening and ask how our day was. She was a definite pleasure to be around. We were on the Liberty 9/15-9/23 (8 day Eastern). We also wrote her up in the comment card.

Great review...

Christine

[kansas kruiser]

:cool: Great review! Just like our Aug. Liberty cruise. I agree about Elena at the Lobby Bar what a wonderful person.:) I thought she was finished working after our cruise? But glad she is still there, I hope she is working when we are back in March!!;)

[birdie16]

We just made it back to Phoenix this evening...long day!

 

We LOVED the Liberty. After five cruises on Carnival I have to say this was the best run ship overall. I was amazed that there was hardly ever a line at the Purser's desk and I think that says a lot. The ship looked like it was brand new and the crew was very good.

 

The eggs...yes, in the buffet they were horrible. They had omelete stations where you could order eggs made fresh...a much better choice and not really that long of a wait.

 

I have to agree about the dining room not being as much fun as normal, but it was nice and our service was good. We were in the Golden, I guess they had some big groups that took up all the tables in our preferred seating which would have placed us in the Silver.

 

The shows were great and had some of the best sets and costumes we have seen. The asian pair that sang in the lobby was very good and there was a nice crowd every evening. We still can't figure out how those voices came from those two!

 

We walked out of the comedians show...didn't float our boat and we were tired.

 

I kept looking for dolphins...sorry I missed them.

[patrice1]

Sorry, those who asked, can't scan the capers.

Fake eggs are on the buffet. You can get the real thing in the DR or omelet stations, cooked however you like.

Yes, there is shopping near the port in Costa Rica. Most sell the same things, but we checked them all out & went back to the ones with the best prices.

Five sea days were fine with us, but there's still alot to do. If the weather's great, there's all the pool stuff & big screen movies & concerts. If it's bad there's bingo, casino, trivia, and tea time. Don't worry.

Elena is a star & should get some kind of award! Her cousin was on this cruise & she was thrilled to sleep in a guest cabin, do things with her cousin & spend time in the "guest" areas of the ship. We met her cousin and she was adorable, just like Elena. Last night, she was near tears all night, not only because her cousin was leaving, but because she says she always hates the last day of every cruise. What a gem!:D

[Catrin]

Thank you for your review!!

 

We will be on this ship and itinerary in February.

Who did you book your Panama excursion through? Did you enjoy it?

 

Another thing about the eggs.....

At the omelet station, as mentioned, they serve real eggs. You can have them prepared anyway you want, not just in an omelet.

 

Catrin

[thepeach]

Thanks Patrice! Can you post the Capers? We are sailing the same itin over Halloween and wanted to see an updated version.

 

Thanks

We have the capers for every day except Friday (not sure what we did with that day). If you would like us to scan them for you, please let us know-we can email them to you, or upload to a file sharing site.

[Guest Mary49]

Got in a few hours ago. Here's our take on a great week.

 

Embarkation & Debarkation:

Excellent! Got to port at 10:30 AM & we were on the Lido deck at 11:15. Quick & painless. Better self-debarkation than on last year's Triumph as they called floors. At Ft. Lauderdale airport to pick up rental car at 8:10 AM & home in KW at noon.

 

Cabin:

#7439, L-shaped cabin, starboard aft. Great steward, can't remember his name, but he was visible, not obtrusive and always a kind word & a smile. Told him about our shower not draining and it was fixed. Once he realized we went thru alot of ice, he brought us 2 every time after that. Comfy, comfy beds and the linens - OMG! - wonderful! The bed faces the windows, so we loved waking up each morning looking out at the sea. Had pre-ordered liquor for the room (hence the ice ;) ) and it was there on arrival. The only problem was the neighbors. The 2-3 cabins next to us were all friends who had the balcony dividers removed. There were 6 of them I believe & they were older folks. They were out on their balconies early every AM & happy hour. Now, we're all for everyone having a good time but these folks were LOUD, talked over one another and the women had the highest pitched, cacklely laugh I've ever encountered. Definately prevented the beloved morning coffee/reading and the late afternoon cocktail. We called them the "magpies" and waited till they were gone to enjoy our balcony. As I said, I'm glad they were having a good time, but it definately prevented us from the "peaceful enjoyment" of our balcony. It did not, however, "ruin" our cruise.:rolleyes:

 

Food:

If you couldn't find anything to eat that you liked on this cruise, you have a problem. The buffet was ordinary, but servicable. We tried it once for breakfast (fake scrambled eggs, yuk!), but we loved all the other daytime venues like the grill for burgers & dogs, the oriental, deli, pizza & the fish & chips. All great! We did dining room for dinner, had Robert & Rico in the Silver at 8 PM, table for 2. BTW, checked with Maitre' D at boarding to get 2 top. Service was good, but not "fun" like previous cruises as our staff were quite business-like. We actually had a great time with the waiter in the next section. Food was very good to excellent. Went to Harry's one night - do not miss this! Superb! Worth every penny. Yes, they dance a few nights and yes, it's cute & we didn't mind. Maitre' D came around almost every night.

 

Entertainment:

Did not make any shows. Enjoyed the piano bar after dinner on a couple of occasions and one dancing venue - Victorian Lounge with "Music Society" was excellent for dancing, altho is was strange to see an all Asian band with Manderin jackets belting out Louis Armstrong or Elvis :eek: ! The casino was fun. Did well 2 nights at Black Jack but the slots were very tight for us. Played Bingo twice and never came close.

 

Service:

We found to be excellent. Lot's of smiles and interaction with guests. If you are on this ship before next February, go to the Lobby Bar & say hello to Elena - she was fantastic & we stayed with her all week. On the last day, another guest came up & asked how to spell her name, as he would be writing to CCL to tell them how wonderful she was and what good customer service she demonstrated. We agreed, as did many others we met there. We found the Liberty to be immaculate and quite beautiful. Again, service in every venue was excellent.

 

Ports:

Did them all on our own. We love Cozumel and shopped & had a Margherita, explored the city square & shopped in Costa Rica, and took a tour of the locks that we arranged at the port in Panama. Nothing remarkable. This cruise wasn't about excursions for us, it was about relaxation.;)

 

Odds & Ends:

Weather was crazy. Mostly cloudy and frequent rains. Still enough sun with 5 sea days to get burnt, tho :D . We found a spot outside the Fish & Chips where DH could have shade while I had sun and there were no crowds and a beautiful breeze. It was rough a few days and the water was like glass on a couple of other days. One morning at dawn on the balcony (before the Magpies got up) I saw dolphins following the ship. Too cool!:D

The past guest party was just OK. The funniest part were the older couple who sat next to us and just pounded down Whiskey Sours that they were serving. These folks were pretty old and each had 6 of them! We were amazed.

 

All in all, we had a ball & did alot of relaxing. If you have any questions, I will answer as best I can & I still have all the Capers.

 

Hi Patrice1, regarding the entertainment. The bands on Carnival ships seemed to be all Asian Groups. They are all quite good and scattered all over the different ships. I've seen Music Mix, they happen to have a lady who does lead singing. Then my favorite group is Music Boardwalk. I have seen this group 3 times. They sing everything from 50s to 80s and maybe some 90s. They are all just amazing talented people. Hope to try the Liberty maybe next year sometime. Mary49

[birdie16]

One more thing I wanted to say about this cruise...people really dressed up! Both formal nights people were dressed to the nines...loads of tuxes and gowns. The "casual" nights there were a lot of people that still dressed nice, pretty coctail dresses, nice sport shirts and even some sport coats. We really enjoy dressing up for dinner so this was very nice to see.

[AllyCat81]

 

 

Service:

We found to be excellent. Lot's of smiles and interaction with guests. If you are on this ship before next February, go to the Lobby Bar & say hello to Elena - she was fantastic & we stayed with her all week. On the last day, another guest came up & asked how to spell her name, as he would be writing to CCL to tell them how wonderful she was and what good customer service she demonstrated. We agreed, as did many others we met there. We found the Liberty to be immaculate and quite beautiful. Again, service in every venue was excellent.

 

 

 

We were on the Liberty a few weeks ago. Wasn't Elena just fabulous?! We didn't meet her until Thursday (we got off the ship Saturday). Had we known earlier in the week that she was there, we would've made the lobby bar our hang out for most of the night. We really enjoyed her. She was always offering to make us different versions of the drinks we ordered (usually margaritas), and she made them well!! Loved her!! :D

When I went to the omlette station, my eggs came out of a carton. I didn't see any fresh eggs there. But I agree, the regular scrambled eggs were nasty in the buffet.

Our service in the dining room wasn't fantastic either. Our waiter wasn't personable at all. It was actually kind of disappointing going to dinner each night. But that was just my take on the dining room. Seemed like it was hit or miss with the wait staff.

Glad you enjoyed your trip!!

[MarriedInStThomas1807]

I love dressing up for dinner. We always dress up for dinner no matter what night it is. :D

[birdie16]

When I went to the omlette station, my eggs came out of a carton. I didn't see any fresh eggs there. But I agree, the regular scrambled eggs were nasty in the buffet.

Glad you enjoyed your trip!!

 

 

If you ordered an egg white omelet or fried eggs they would actually break eggs for you. I am sure if you asked for fresh scrambled eggs they would have broken eggs for you too.

[GROUCHPUSS]

We too were on the Liberty last week!

 

Had a okay time I have to agree almost with the review everything was just OK.

Here are some Highlights and some lowlights of or Cruise

Ship was great!

Very bright colors, did not feel like I need to go to sleep because it was so dark in the entertainment rooms.

 

CD was: good.

Todd was a good, you would see him out and about alot on the ship not just when he had a job to do. Todd was very approachable as a CD. Anyone going on the Freedom after this week will be happy with him because he is taking over next week.

Karl will be the new CD on the Liberty starting on 10-7-07 run. Karl was on the ship with us last week getting to know his way around, he took the Mexican cooking class with our same group he was a lot of fun.

 

Room steward: OK

Talked to him on occasion but most of the time he was too busy to interact with us. I have noticed this on our last few cruises, I thought that Carnival may have asked them to be more invisible, but that is not the case we found out that they are responsible for more rooms now. They used to have 17 now it is 29, I may have the number a little off but you get the picture, more rooms less time to play with the guest.

Our steward did a good job on our room.

 

Piano Bar: OK

Brad drank A lot.

Closed most night 12:30 to 1:00

Asked for money a lot.

Same songs got a little old.

Have had better have had worse

 

Lobby bar: Great

All ways a crowed

Two person band was great

 

Casino bar: Good

Guitar player played 50-60's music. He would start a song play a few notes and sing a few bars and the start over with his back ground music on every song, he called it getting keyed up. I found it strange. He kept a crowd when was playing

 

Disco: OK

Did not spend much time here. It was one of the more interesting rooms on the ship.

 

Karaoke: :mad:

 

Sing was fine it was karaoke was do you expect some good some bad, but A++ for everyone how got up and tried.

I did not care for the host she was very annoying. She meowed and did some kind of seal noise before or after almost anything she did or said.

 

Did not care for the Karaoke outside at night by the pool, or having the Legends try outs outside. They had the volume so load it was ear piercing. They had it that way so the singer could hear the music while standing under the big screen TV on the music stage. They should have put a sound monitor on the stage so the singers could hear the music they were singing to. It was so bad that people were having to covering their ears and leaving. Again they were not leaving because of the quality of the voices.

 

Carnival Colors: bad

 

Personally I like the colors, it help keep thing upbeat and fun. On this ship for us it seemed to be not even there. We got our color the 1st night at dinner we were on the red team. After that very few time were people ask what color they were on. For EX. I won the what’s In the bag game was never asked what color I was on. Only once in the silver dinning did we get a update on scores it was somewhere in the middle of the cruise I think we were losing. They never told us who won. Normally you find out at the last show, we were there but no mention of colors.

 

I have some more +s but I have to get back to work now will post later

[cruisin blue]

Thanks for the great review, Patrice! I hope we have the chance to meet Elena when we cruise in January on the Liberty. I'm sure I'll need at least a few birthday drinks! ;)

[MarriedInStThomas1807]

Thanks for the great review, Patrice! I hope we have the chance to meet Elena when we cruise in January on the Liberty. I'm sure I'll need at least a few birthday drinks! ;)

We'll be on that cruise too! I cannot wait:D

[AllyCat81]

If you ordered an egg white omelet or fried eggs they would actually break eggs for you. I am sure if you asked for fresh scrambled eggs they would have broken eggs for you too.

I ordered egg whites, and they came out of a carton. Didn't matter though, they still tasted good. :)

[eltaylor99]

hey thepeach can you post the capers from this cruise going in Nov.

thanks.

[wonderfullife]

[

Service:

If you are on this ship before next February, go to the Lobby Bar & say hello to Elena - she was fantastic & we stayed with her all week. On the last day, another guest came up & asked how to spell her name, as he would be writing to CCL to tell them how wonderful she was and what good customer service she demonstrated. We agreed, as did many others we met there.

I was on the Liberty on 9-15-07. While I did not experience great service throughout the ship, I ABSOLUTELY agree that Elena was WONDERFUL. She exhibited the standard of service that should be expected and was a lot of fun also.

Wonderfullife