My Review of Carnival Liberty

[twopeasandaprincess]

Ship: Carnival Liberty

 

 

Date of Sail: 6-8-07 to 6-16-07 (8 day eastern Caribbean cruise)

 

 

Number of Guests: 8

 

 

4 Adults (2 in 30's, 1 in 50's, and 1 in 70's)

 

 

4 Kids (ages 14, 8, 6 and 17mos.)

 

 

Previous # of Cruises sailed: 2 (Princess, Grand Princess and Royal Caribbean, Voyager of the Seas)

 

 

Ports of Call:

 

 

Ft. Lauderdale, FL

San Juan, PR

St. Thomas

Antigua

Tortola

Nassau, Bahamas

 

 

WEATHER: The weather on this trip started with rain and ended with rain. There was a tropical storm out there (which I didn't know about until later) and we got a lot of wave action from it. There were sunny days and sunny parts of days. Overall the temp was in the mid 80's.

 

 

EMBARKATION: Figures it would begin pouring down raining cats and dogs when we pulled up to luggage drop off. We off loaded our own luggage because no one was willing to help us in the pouring rain. It was a bit of a frustration with fussing kids and a husband who was stressed out and desperately looking for a vacation. We arrived at embarkation gates about 1p and we easily passed through the lines. There was a bit of a line to sign in, but when the Carnival employee saw how many of us there were and a fussing little one, he let us go through the wheelchair access line which put us up at the front of the line, which I can only call on a blessing for that. Signing in was extremely easy and the Carnival Staff were all extremely kind and helpful throughout the process.

 

 

LUGGAGE: Most of our luggage arrived in a very timely manner. We only had my teen son's bag go “missing”, but after checking in with the purser, we were told of an area we could check for missing bags. When we checked that area there it was along with about 30 other pieces of luggage. I'd recommend making sure that you have those plastic luggage tags on your suitcase as well as the Carnival tags they give you. There wasn't anyone there checking to make sure that the luggage you took was indeed yours, so hopefully everyone was honest and everyone's luggage made it to their rooms safely.

 

 

STATEROOM: We had 2 indoor staterooms (1345 and 1349) next door to each other. The room was larger than we had previously experienced in our last 2 cruises and the stateroom attendant was AMAZING! He cleaned our room 2 sometimes 3 times a day. We saw towel animals 3 or 4 nights out of our 8 day cruise, which the kids enjoyed. Everything was always put away so nicely and I can't say enough wonderful things about how well he did his job. (In fact I miss him now as I'm putting away our things and doing laundry!)

 

 

SHIP: I have to admit that the layout of the ship is confusing. Spending 8 days on her, I'm still confused and not sure I could even find my muster station if I had to! Ekkk! There were many passengers that had that same confused look on their faces as to where to go. All of the elevators don't go to every floor, so you have to make sure your on the right set of elevators. One time a couple was on Deck 5 looking to get to the back of the ship and were told that they couldn't just walk straight back that they would have to get on the elevator, go up to Deck 6, walk back, then go back down the elevator to Deck 5. As it stands, I'm still confused, and I don't think I'm the only one who left that ship wondering exactly how to get around.

 

 

The majority of the ship was very nicely cleaned and kept, but I did notice that in some places (like the arcade) that the couches were filthy... I was just imagining the dirt that could come off those things with a steam cleaner! Also the chairs there were really beat up and worn. I don't know if it's because this area is usually the hang out for teens so they don't care as much, but ekkk.... some maintenance could be done in this area.

 

 

There were lots of garlands and Christmas trees all around. We sailed during Hanukkah so they had a minorah and lit it nightly, which was nice for those that wanted to participate in that. They lightly played Christmas tunes in the hallways, but nothing was overpowering. When we left they had a display of a gingerbread village which I guess was going to be on display for the next round of passengers.

 

 

CRUISE DIRECTOR: Our cruise director was Steve, and I have to say that he was probably our best cruise director we've ever sailed with. He was really funny and seemed to be like a really nice down to earth kind of guy. He gave us lots of laughs, and what more can ya ask for?

 

 

DINING: I was actually extremely disappointed in the dining options. The food was not great (or sometimes even good!) and I was really surprised because I had read such good reviews of Carnival's food. I am pretty picky with what I like to eat (I'm a southern gal through and through, just give me a good 'ol steak and potato and I'm set, LOL!) but my husband on the other hand is just a garbage disposal and eats any and everything. All 8 of our guests had complaints about the food and sometimes my DH's mother and grandmother skipped the dining room to hit up Emilie's for dinner. (Which they raved over the Honey Baked Ham!) After the first couple of nights we learned not to order whatever the chef's special dessert was... how dessert can ever be yucky I don't know, but one night we ordered a sponge cake type dessert and the sponge cake was a baby pea/puke green color with a clear jelly like substance on top of that with some thin cream between the layers.... and one taste of that just left our faces turning baby pea green! I had to giggle because one night at the comedy show the comedian asked how we liked the food (he expected to hear a lot of applause, which led into the joke) but a bunch of folks yelled out EWWWW.... and he was like “You don't like it?” with a roaring NO came back and he was like, “Oh well, you guys can just live off the Frosted Flakes”.... and then went on with the joke. Overall I would say that when the food was good, it was really good, and when it was bad, it was really bad. Sadly, in our case, we had more of the bad things.

 

 

Another thing I couldn't help but to notice was that there were a lot of cracks in the dishes. I was drinking out of my water glass one night when I felt on my lip the sharpness of the glass where it was broken. Once that happened, it just seemed that everything started to stand out to me... butter dishes had cracked broken glass, water goblets had visual cracks on the sides, tablecloths had dime sized holes in them...and this was all in the dining room, not in Emilie's. This was the first time anything like this has ever stood out to me on a ship.

 

 

Buffet Hours: I was also a bit bummed about the buffet hours. After attending dinner (and sometimes not eating what I got) I was still hungry, and trying to hit the buffet after dinner is pretty pointless, because nothing opens up again until after 11:30.... which made no sense to me. One can only have so much 24/7 pizza. When DH and I got to Emilie's buffet at 5p and found it CLOSED I was really surprised... so all I can say is that if your hungry, plan accordingly, LOL.... or you might be eating pizza 24/7.

 

 

ROOM SERVICE: We used room service twice. Both times it took 1 hour + to get our food and apparently there were a lot of folks ordering because we had to wait on hold for awhile both times before they took our order. Again food was ok, but it's kind of hard to mess up deli sandwiches and potato chips.

 

 

CASINO: We visited the casino a couple of times. DH and I aren't heavy gamblers, we usually just drop $50 or so of quarters into machines during our trip. I never go in expecting to win, I more or less just judge the machines on how much playing time I can get for my money. The machines seemed pretty tight because I wasn't getting a very good pay rate on any of the machines I tried. I tried a few random quarter machines, but enjoyed the flipping quarters machine game. DH and I spent a lot of time in the casino just watching others play this game because it took more than it ever gave.

 

 

SHOWS: The shows were all very good. The first couple of nights the boat was rocking so much that the dancers were unable to perform (for their safety, and who could blame that, we as passengers could hardly walk without falling down, so who could dare dance in heels?!) Later in the cruise when we were able to watch the dancers, everyone did an amazing job, and Carnival's theatrical team does have the most amazing costumes I've ever seen on a cruise. We saw all of the comedy shows and they were good...not the best I've ever seen, but I laughed, so it was all good. Our 6 and 8 year old were able to be apart of Carnival's Christmas show, which was really great and a proud parent moment.

 

 

ACTIVITIES: On past cruises DH and I were always bombarded with the amount of things to do wondering if we should do A or B or maybe even C, but on this cruise there really weren't a lot of activities. I should have looked at the Caper's more carefully before I left so I would have been aware of this, but they looked stacked full of things to do, when in reality, there really wasn't much. One day I asked my husband what there was to do (this was in the afternoon) and he looked at the caper and said “A Bean Bag Toss”.... I said .... “Ok, what else?”..... he's like that's it.... A Bean Bag Toss. So, we were a bit bored because one of the things I like previously about our other cruises were the options of being able to choose to do lots of different things at the same time.

 

 

BINGO: I played Bingo once... $20 for 3 cards, 1 game. Bit pricey in my opinion, which is why I only played once... and that was cuz I was bored and didn't have anything else to do. We did ALMOST win tho.... I was 1 number away from a full card bingo.... dern.... could have won $1,000.... oh well.

 

 

CAMP CARNIVAL: I have to say that the Camp Carnival staff is WONDERFUL!!! They were all so sweet to my kids and I can't say enough wonderful things about each staff member. There are 14 of them, and the week we went I would say that there were only about 10 kids at any given peek time. Most of the time there were less. They did a lot of fun things.... everything is structured so if your child wants to do something, you have to make sure that they are there at that time to do it. My kids kept looking forward to doing the Candy Art and they finally got to do it towards the end of the week.

[twopeasandaprincess]

HOURS: My one complaint about Camp Carnival is the hours. Most of the week we woke up around 9a. By the time you get up, get dressed, get breakfast, etc. We were able to get them into camp by 10-10:15. They had to be picked up at 11:55 because camp was closed from 12p-2p for lunch. They reopened at 2p and closed again at 4p to prepare for dinner. They reopened again at 5:45 (meeting in Emilie's) for dinner. Half the time we took our kids with us to dinner which our seating was at 6:15, so they weren't back in camp until around 8p.... which they stayed until 10p free. Any later than 10p was $6 per hour for the first child and $4 per hour for every additional child. Another con was that kids 2 years and under were only accepted after 10p. I wasn't able to get in a good meal in the dining room without holding my youngest and trying to keep her quiet for the other guests. I would have gladly paid someone to be able to watch her so that DH and I could just get in dinner and a show!

 

 

The 6-8 program was the most popular program on our ship, and when the kids were there they truly had a remarkable time. They were just sad that they had to keep leaving and coming back throughout the day. I laughed at my husband one time because he kept looking at his watch so often on when we had to drop off and pick up kids that I told him he could be the poster child for the Norwegian commercial!

 

 

The program for older kids was a bust, IMO. My 14 yr. old only did Camp Carnival when they allowed that age group to play Playstation. He was with a group of about 7-8 kids in that age group and they all seemed extremely bored. I found them quite a few times when I was dropping off the younger kids just sitting in the hallway on the 12th floor in front of Camp Carnival just sitting there talking.... I actually felt really BAD for them.... My son ended up spending $100 (of his own money) in the arcade to occupy his time.

 

 

POOLS/ WATERSLIDE: During our trip the water had really high waves due to a tropical storm, so the pools were more like wave pools, and eventually a few of them were closed because it just wasn't safe to be in them. The water slide was open on port days and it was also open during one time while we were sailing that I remember. The kids LOVED the slide and had a blast going down that. Again you have to know the hours when it is open because it's hard to explain to younger ones why it's always closed.

 

 

AFTERNOON TEA: The only other ship that I had afternoon tea on was the Princess. There they had it in the dining room with white gloved servers. Here on Carnival tea is in a lounge area and it didn't really seem like anything out of the ordinary... no white gloves, just lots of chocolate goodness. The treats here were very good... if you like rich rich chocolate! The vanilla sponge cakes were very tasty too!

 

 

PHOTOS: One thing I can say about Carnival is that they like to take your picture! They had areas set up all over the ship to take your picture and people walking around taking your picture. They took pictures of you eating dinner and they took pictures of you walking off the ship. Lots and LOTS of pictures. I purchased 2 photo's... I 5x7 setting sail picture for $7.99, and one family 8x10 formal picture for $21.99. We took about 10 formal pictures, but I was a little surprised because they seemed blurry sometimes, and other times out of focus. Guess it wasn't a really bad thing because had they been really good I could have lost a lot of money here. DH and I decided it's a much better value to dress everyone up and get good formal photography shots done.

 

 

PORTS OF CALL:

 

 

SAN JUAN: We arrived in San Juan in the evening, and we all had been to San Juan many times in the past, so there wasn't anything for us to really do there and we knew that when we booked this cruise. I did want to get off the ship and hit up a Walgreen's for some more bottles and drug store type essentials. So we walked off the ship and finally made it to Walgreen's when we were about to walk out the nastiest storm came in.... you could tell it was part of the tropical storm because the winds were whipping and the rain was a downpour! Soaked we caught a cab with another couple and to go about 6 blocks was $10.

 

 

ST. THOMAS: This is our favorite port of call and our 2nd visit. We took the Godfrey tour the first time and did it again with DH's mother and grandmother. Again it was another spectacular tour, and I highly recommend it to anyone! Godfrey is extremely organized and knows his stuff! He makes you feel right at home and customer service is one of his top priorities!! We went shopping for a couple of hours and then we went on a tour of the island and went to the Mountain Top.... got a world famous banana daquari and then headed for the beach. Godfrey took us to Sapphire Beach where DH rode a jet ski on the crazy waves of the Caribbean. The water was quite a bit cooler this time in December than it was in April when we went last time. Not sure if that is because of the waters being stirred up with that tropical storm out there, or if that is just the water temp for that time of year. Being overcast/cloudy/light showers didn't help I'm sure either.

 

 

ANTIGUIA: Our highlight on this port was our taxi driver. He was extremely nice and told us all kinds of things about Antigua. He drove us to Dickinson's Bay. It was a nice beach, your able to rent jet ski's (for DH and the kids this time)... for $45 for 30 minutes. Chairs on the beach are $5 and umbrella's are $10 each. There were a lot of locals trying to sell you TONS of things here from hair braiding, jewelry, bags, and beach cover ups. I'm sure we will go to Antigua again, but I'm going to head to another beach where hopefully it's less con jested and I'm not trying to be sold something every few moments.

 

 

TORTOLA: We actually took the ferry (Speedy's ferry $12.50pp each way) to Virgin Gorda to go to the Baths. After taking the ferry we got on Speedy's open air tour van to Virgin Gorda National Park (the Baths). It was $3 pp to go in, and the path to the Baths was BREATH TAKING! This was truly a MUST SEE and I would do this again in a HEARTBEAT!! This was truly paradise at it's best and the walking trail through the boulders and all just left us all in awe. The kids were able to snorkel and see fish through one part of the trail and it was even shallow enough in some places for my 17mo. Old to sit and play in the water. It was really one of the most... if not THE most beautiful place I've ever seen.

 

 

NASSAU, BAHAMAS: We did a walking tour here. We've been here before as well, so it was a shopping trip mainly for us. We saw the Queen's Staircase this time, which was really a nice area. We got some great photo's there. Next time we go to Nassau, there is a lighthouse on Paradise Island and I think we will explore that.

 

 

OVERALL:

 

 

There are always pro's and con's whenever you go on a trip, and I do believe you get the most of of your trip with an adjustment of attitude. That being said, I do have to honestly say that this was not my most favorite cruise. We picked Carnival mainly as a price point because so many of us were going, and it was an 8 day cruise instead of a 7 and it also went to a couple of ports we had never been to. In the future, I really doubt that I will travel with Carnival again unless some really amazing, not to be missed deal comes our way. It seems like each cruise has it's own type of cruise ship passenger, and I think that DH and I just felt more comfortable with Princess and RC. We met many Carnival guests who have been on many Carnival cruises and continue to love to sail with them, and that is great, but for the things that DH and I like (mainly good food and lots to do!) we'll stick with Princess or RC.

 

I also kept the capers, so if anyone wants updated copies let me know and I'll take pics and upload them. I'm also happy to answer any questions you may have. :)

[MarriedInStThomas1807]

Thanks for the review! In almost 2 weeks I'll be on the Liberty with the same itinerary. :D

[CarnivalCruiser64]

When did you sail?

[twopeasandaprincess]

When did you sail?

 

We set sail on Dec. 8th- 16th. :)

[CarnivalCruiser64]

We set sail on Dec. 8th- 16th. :)

 

ok, your review said june !

[CarnivalCruiser64]

You can walk all the way from front to the back on deck 5

[pacerzfan]

Thanks for the reviews!

[happy cruzin]

ok, your review said june !

 

Yep....that confused me too :confused:

[twopeasandaprincess]

You can walk all the way from front to the back on deck 5

 

LOL.... your right... it was Deck 3 I was thinking about.... see, told ya, I'm still confused on the layout of that ship ;)

[twopeasandaprincess]

Yep....that confused me too :confused:

 

ROFL... Ah, I must have had June on the mind because I've been looking up cruises for June.... Told DH I needed a "make up" cruise, LOL!:rolleyes:

[WendyD]

Thanks for the review, we are sailing in Feb and I would love to see the capers. Could you post them or send them to my email. wjodoran@yahoo.com

 

Thanks

 

Wendy