Review Liberty 4/25 - 5/2

[iamgolden]

Myself, my sister and my two boys age 13 & 14 sailed on the Liberty 4/25 – 5/2. This was my 8th cruise, 4th on Carnival. We flew from Boston to Miami on a late afternoon flight and arrived in Miami at 10:30PM. We took a cab to the Hyatt downtown, and were upgraded to a room on the concierge floor which provided free breakfast. The next AM we walked to a nearby drugstore for some water and left for the port via cab.

We left our bags with a porter, and after having to throw away a water I just cracked open, went through security. I had to explain to security that my laptop was in a new “xray friendly” bag and didn’t need to be taken out (they knew this at the airport) and he just said “ok”. By now it is 11:30 and I’m thinking we are going to be on deck in no time, but the terminal is mobbed. We check in, where our PVP had totally screwed up our room assignments (we had a balcony and an inside, wrong people in each room) as well as screwing up credit card info on my sister and I sail and sign. No biggie we took care of it at the pursers.

The ship had a noro outbreak, which was explained in a letter, and they were doing an extra good cleaning, and waiting to be inspected before they could board us. It was about 2:00 when we were called. It sucked sitting on the floor for two hours, but we lived. There were people pissing and moaning everywhere of course, there’s nothing you can do about the situation, chill out people! During the entire cruise the passengers were not allowed to even touch anything food related. The Lido servers handed you milk cartons, fruit, catsup in little cups, and served all food to you. At no time could you touch anything food related except your own plate to hold up to have food put on it. Good job Carnival. The buffets always skeeved me out with those communal serving spoons anyways.

This is the first cruise I haven’t booked a suite, due to the economy. We were on deck 6, myself and my sister in a balcony cat 8, and my two kids directly across the hall in an inside. Our steward Noel, was a nice guy, but never bothered to learn our names, and seemed to know exactly when we were showering for dinner to try to enter the room. This is the first time I got the impression that my steward was harried by his responsibilities, and rushing around to get things done. I had to ask him to empty ashtrays on the balcony, and call maintenance to unplug the drain on the balcony because it was filled with swill, which he would have seen had he ever gone out there. No big deal, and maybe it was just my particular steward. I tipped him extra as he had to separate the beds on the inside because it was booked for a single, when in fact my two kids were in there.

[iamgolden]

Our bags got to our room quickly, and we unpacked and headed up to have something to eat on the Lido. The fish and chips were excellent, as were the reubens. The muster drill was as always irritating to me, as you have to wait for the people who saunter down as if everyone else packed up against the wall sweating has no where else to be.

We opted for the “Anytime Dining” which fit us perfectly. We went to the upper level of the Silver Olympian anytime between 5:45 and 9:30. We were always granted our own table for 4 as we don’t enjoy tablemates. We only had to wait with a beeper once for about 5-10 minutes. The best part for me was you got to skip the “waiter entertainment” on the upper level, which I have always disliked. There were no interruptions in dinner service. We requested the same waiter on 3 occasions, and had 4 different people on the other nights. As I had found in the past, you had to practically fling yourself into the path of the drinks waiter to get something to drink with your meal. I stuck to water, but my sister is a wine drinker, and my kids had soda cards. One night she was not to be found ever throughout the meal, and the waiter kept promising she was on her way. Oh well. The waiters were attentive for the most part, but seemed overworked on some nights and flustered, like they were understaffed. It could be they were still getting used to this new dining. I loved it as I could never seem to be ready at a consistent time for dinner, and loved that I could go as I pleased.

I found the food for the most part to be very good, on par with other cruises. I only dislike my meal one night, and I was full anyways. Choc melting cake every night for me, yummy.

We went to the end of the Welcome Aboard show and caught the comedian Phat Kat, I thought he was pretty funny. I must say, Steve Knisley was the best Cruise Director ever. Every other cruise I have found the CD irritating or just forgettable. This guy was so well spoken and funny, the first night we saw him I thought he was a stand up act as we came in late to the show.

The next day, Sunday, was Half Moon Cay, which was the only tender port we had, thank god. I had rented a cabana, but it took us a while to get off the ship, it seemed very unorganized to me. We made it to the island, which is beautiful, and our cabana #7, which was awesome. We hung out, floated around, snorkeled, and just generally had a blast. The cookout on the island was very good.

[iamgolden]

Tendering back was a nightmare. We waited until toward the end as we had the cabana, and when we went up to the line it stretched forever in the hot sun. We waited for at least ½ hour until we got on a tender, where we were entertained by a large group of drunk 20 somethings. I couldn’t believe the crew didn’t tell them to shut up and sit down, irritating to say the least, especially since one of them was next to me screaming in my ear. Once on board and back out to sea, the barf bags quickly came out and were taped in abundance near every elevator. It didn’t bother me, except when trying to walk in heels. The entertainment that night was a couple of guys who did some great stunts and juggling. I seriously don’t know how they did as well as they did—the ship was actually pitching back and forth at this point.

Monday, we had a sea day, and it was the first formal night. We played mini-golf and almost died laughing because the winds were at about hurricane force up there. Our balls went back more than forward. We went out on deck and never had a problem finding lounges, except of course the ones right in front of the pool which were taken over by chair hogs. But I don’t care about that stuff. We went to the casino and made a donation, the cocktail staff were particularly vigilant here. I got irritated at one point as 3 different waiters asked if I wanted a drink in a 5 minute span, and I don’t drink. We also donated at bingo, and did the sports trivia. We really dressed up every night for dinner, and tonite was formal night where they served lobster and prime rib. As always, I was slightly shocked at what some people wandered into the dining room wearing, but to each their own. Very good meal, and then off to Eric Buss, comedy and magic, he was pretty entertaining. Off to bed.

I forgot to mention, we went to bed fairly early each night at 11-12. And every AM I ordered room service coffee for 7AM as a lovely alarm clock to get me up.

My kids spent little time in “Club Circle C” except when it was video game, or arcade game activities. There were just not a lot of things they were interested in doing.

[iamgolden]

Tuesday, St. Thomas. We had originally planned to go to a beach, but the weather was so-so, and the traffic was horrendous because there were 5 ships in port that day. We walked around a little shopped, and headed back to the ship. One of my kids entered the ping pong tournament, and had a great time. We watched the “Thriller” dance class in the casino, which was funny, and skipped the entertainment for the night which was a big band/singing.

Wednesday, San Juan. It rained off and on, we walked around and hit the Dooney and Bourke outlet and bought some purses. Into a few other shops and then headed back to the ship to get out of the rain. It is a beautiful old town, with cobble stone streets. I wish we spent more time walking around. I bought the coffee card at Jardin’s, and it was well worth it to get some latte’s and specialty coffees which were quite delicious. We went to sports trivia again, the casino and turned in as the entertainment was a hypnotist which doesn’t interest me. Tonite was also the “deck party” at 11:15 on the Lido, which had a Mardi Gras theme.

Thursday, was Grand Turk, where we had a Carnival “Reef and Rays” scheduled. We got off the ship as soon as it cleared and gathered with our group. We were off to a reef to snorkel where I saw a nurse shark that the guide pointed out to me. It was good, but not the greatest snorkeling I’ve done in the Caribbean. We went to a little island where the stingrays came right up to you in ankle deep water. I fed them and patted them. I love the stingrays; it was my 3rd time seeing them in various ports. The crew was very nice, and we had a great time. We shopped a little and went to Margaritaville to grab a bite, and watch the drunks who were competing in some sort of dancing contest. They had a nice pool there, as well as a beach with tons of beach lounges for free. We went to dinner, which was the second formal night and had a great dinner. Then off to the show “Just Rock” which was well produced, but too cheesy for my tastes. I’m more into Metallica than Elvis and bad 80’s music.

Friday was our last day at sea, this was a very port intensive cruise as you can see. We hung out on deck and lounged around this day. Since they did away with the Midnight Chocolate Buffet, they had a smaller scale chocolate buffet during lunch at the Lido Buffet. The weather turned cloudy and we headed in for bingo donations, the Newlywed Game, which was funny as usual, and then skipped the show as it was the “Carnival Legends”=passengers lip synching to such favorites at Britney Spears and Ricky Martin L. We packed up our stuff and set most of our bags out that night.

[iamgolden]

Debarkation was easy, we didn’t have a flight until 12:20, so we waited in the Venetian Lounge, which was pretty empty as everyone else jammed the stairwells and elevators. I never understand this herd mentality. After the line died down, we debarked easily, found our luggage, and caught a taxi to the airport.

Nice vaca all around as usual, will certainly cruise Carnival again next April during my kids school break!

[RedToasterBox]

Good review! We are on the Liberty next Saturday (the 16th) on the Western Caribbean route. Can't wait!!!

We have adjoining balcony rooms on the Verandah deck. Only my second cruise, first time having a balcony.

[Caligirl33]

RedToasterBox - Have a wonderful cruise. I am looking forward to hearing all about it as I will be on the Liberty doing the Western in July!

[cabbam]

Thanks for the review we leave on the same itenerary this coming Saturday!

[Nezmo]

I'm starting to wonder if Marco ever puts the stabilizers out. I may be talking out my rear end on this and maybe he did but we had a lot of movement even in relatively calm seas. Do not remember the same on the Conquest.

[firefly4423]

Thanks for sharing!

[kjunea]

Thanks for the review! We sail this same itinerary in a couple of weeks! I wish we were getting Steve too, but he is going on vacation and Butch is moving in!

[iamgolden]

have fun all of you sailing her in the near future, i know i did!