Liberty Eastern Caribbean Feb 6 - 13

Don't know how much I can offer but wanted to provide our novice (3 time cruisers all with Carnival) review of our recent Liberty cruise.

First, embarkation was very smooth. Left our airport area hotel in Miami (Crowne Plaza which was great by the way) at 10:30 am via cab. They have a shuttle you can pay for but it ended up being cheaper for the two of us to take the cab. Got to the terminal around 11 am, short lines for security, grabbed a boarding card (I think we were group 11 but if you looked around lower numbers were available), checked in, got our sail and sign cards which we were proud to see were gold and then sat down for only a few minutes before boarding began. We were sitting fairly close to one of the escalators and a nice lady started allowing people to board despite their card numbers since it wasn't too busy. We went on around group 7 I think which was really nice. Boarded quickly, toured the ship a little bit before stopping at a bar on Deck 5 for our first drinks. I think our sail and sign account charged us at 11:54 am for the drinks so the process of checking in and getting to our first drinks was great! :-)

The ship itself is very nice, clean and nicely decorated. I did find it a bit difficult to navigate the decks as you can't always get from one end to the other without going down or up a few decks and over to get back down or up but it really was not as bad as some make it out to be. There is a handy map by every elevator bank to guide you and we welcomed the "extra exercise" given our alcohol and food consumption for the week!

The staff is EXCELLENT!!! I couldn't tell you the name of any staff on our prior cruises but I won't forget Butch, Leonida, Brad and many others from Liberty!

Food was as good as we remember. Harry's was GREAT! Worth every extra penny for the food and service. Despite saying everyday we wanted to try the Mongolian or Fish and Chips we never made it! We think this is a good reason for us to book another Liberty cruise in the future!

The formal nights were Monday (the first SCHEDULED day at sea) and Thursday. We actually didn't make it to the dining room on Thursday as the seas were so rough and we weren't in the best of form after drinking at Jack's Shack in Grand Turk all day! The seas were so rough that night that they had to cancel the entertainment due to the danger of dancers falling!

We enjoyed the aft adult pool but honestly there were so few kids on this sailing that the regular pool was fine too! On prior sailings we hit school vacation weeks and couldn't get a toe into the pools or hot tubs due to all the kids! Better planning on our part this time!

Deck chairs were always available but not necessarily where you want to be unless you got to the deck early before everyone saved their seats. No big deal, you're on vacation, find another chair and enjoy, the waiter with drinks will find you, trust me!! We had one lady try to get us involved in her taking folks chairs and moving chairs around since according to her stopwatch they had been gone too long! We politely told her we really didn't want to get involved as we didn't want to cause problems for anyone or have them think we were the ones that moved all their stuff onto the ground and took their chairs! She didn't like that, oh well. I put my sunhat on and sipped on my drink of the day! In the end the family she took the chairs from were very nice and SHE actually was the one creating a ruckus and insisting on telling everyone they had left their chairs etc etc. Mind you, she was now sitting in their chairs and they weren't trying to get them back from her nor were they saying anything to her! Luckily we never saw this woman again! :-)

Other than the deck chair lady we found the folks on the ship so much fun! We made a lot of new friends at the piano bar and via the roll call here! And despite the fact it is the largest ship we have been on, we saw our new friends a lot!! Which was great!

Past Guest Party -- on our way to our party (they had more than one to accomodate all the repeat cruisers) we had someone tell us don't bother, the drinks suck and so does the food. We were almost there so we decided to go despite this person's less than stellar review. Not sure what they may have done in the past but we found both the drinks and food nice! You had a choice of many drinks, wine, beer, yellowbird, raspberry sours etc. and there were waiters everywhere with full trays! No waiting at all really. The food were typical finger foods and they were just fine too, we didn't expect a fine dining experience! We enjoyed the video they showed about Carnival history as well.

Piano Bar -- we spent a LOT of time here! We love piano bars and we were so glad to find Brad Alexander! He is GREAT! Run, don't walk, to the piano bar if he is on your ship! And wear your bathrobe to the Friday night bathrobe party!!!

Ports of Call -- Half Moon Cay cancelled due to high seas and danger in tendering. We were disappointed but not devasted as we found great deck chairs since we were up early to find a good spot on the beach. We actually kept the chairs all day AND night for the Super Bowl on the big screen. And in case you were wondering, we never left them for more than 30 minutes! :-)

St Thomas -- Sunny Liston tour - GREAT, GREAT, GREAT - get a Bushwacker from one of the bars in the shopping area!

San Juan -- walked to the fort and all through old san juan. found a GREAT restaurant for mofungo but need to find the name/location to post. Went to Barrachini's for Pina Coladas, they were great!

Grand Turk -- spent the day at Jack's Shack which you can get to by going to the left of Margaritaville on the beach and walking down the beach. Jack's is not far before you get to what appears to be an old pier. They have volleyball set up outside and you may see their dog (Topher) running around in front! HIGHLY recommend Jacks! The owners are wonderful, great food and drinks AND much more economical than Margaritaville. We saw a lot of the Liberty crew at Jack's.

I had good intentions of saving all the "Fun Times" and posting them but by Day 3 I was already missing 2 days so I gave up. Sorry guys! I know a lot of you are excited to see them! I had good intentions but got off track!

I did get a mani/pedi at the Spa on the last sea day. While it was really nice to sit in that chair overlooking the sea, they seem to be a bit hard sell on the products which is probably where they have the highest profit margin. I would probably skip it next time because I hate that but the services were good.

Debarkation -- our flight wasn't until 4:45 pm so we were not in a hurry debarking but it seemed to occur fairly smoothly none the less, no real lines getting out or getting our luggage. We used the Carnival transfer to the hotel. It was very smooth but again we had a LOT of time till our flight!

Feel free to ask any specific questions you may have. If we can answer them we will!

Thanks for your reveiw, sounds like you had a great time, I have a couple of questions.

What night did you go to Harrys and did you book before sailing?

Did you notice alot of peoples drink being confiscated due to new enforcements?

Did you see any good shows? Thanks

We went to Harry's on Wednesday night and we did book it before the cruise but only a few weeks before. There were definitely a lot of empty tables so I think you could wait and be okay but it's probably a good idea to secure a reservation before if you know you want to go.

Didn't hear about anyone's "stash" being confiscated out of their checked luggage. And coming back on the ship in one of the ports the couple in front of us put their bottles of alcohol through the x ray machine and got them at the other end. They seem to be pretty lenient.

We only went to the Welcome Aboard show. The little bit we saw of the dancers and singers at the welcome aboard show they seemed pretty talented but I can't speak to how the other shows were. We saw a teaser for the comic, Phat Kat, at the welcome aboard show and he was hilarious. We planned on going to his show but somehow we missed it!

Have a great time!

Thanks for the great review!

Could you tell me more about Sonny Liston's tour? We are still trying to figure out what we want to do in St. Thomas.

That is a shame that you missed Half Moon Cay, but at least you made the best of it by enjoying an extra sea day.

Is there anything else you did on the ship that was fun or not to be missed? We will have a wide range of ages with us, so we are looking for things to keep everyone happy.

Sunny picks you up at the cruise terminal in an open air bus, takes you to the shopping area for a few hours of shopping (you can adjust the time he picks you up if you want more or less shopping), then you meet him at a designated time and place to continue with a tour of the island. He takes you to a few lookout points and does a nice job of pointing out all the sites on the island and allowing for pictures. The last such stop has a bar with the famous banana daiquris where you control the amount of rum that goes in! I saw a few people go back for a second pour! From there he will take you to any beach you would like, Sapphire, Magens. Since the rest of our bus wanted to all go to Sapphire we went there and it was very nice. He also took some folks back to the ships that didn't want beach time. We have about 2 1/2 hours on the beach then met up with Sunny again for the ride back to the terminal. The fun part of Sunny's tour is that all the rides with the exception of the short ride from the cruise terminal to the shopping area is filled with great music with Sunny leading a sing along! It was a LOT of fun and we had a lively group!! I would definitely recommend this as a fun/easy way to get around! If you google Sunny Liston St Thomas you can find his website with more details.

As for other areas of the ship we really enjoyed. We very much enjoyed the singer on Deck 5 near the casino. He sang a lot of different kinds of music and was very entertaining as a pre dinner area for a drink. It is also close to the sushi bar if you want to get some as an appetizer before dinner! I love sushi and I have to say the sushi was surprisingly good! I didn't expect it to be!

We also enjoyed the bar on Deck 3 at the bottom of the large atrium for pre dinner drinks but it tended to get crowded. They had a nice duo one night with a lady singer that was amazing!

Karaoke was fun for one evening as well. Some really amazing singers and then some really funny ones too!

Hope this helps! Have a GREAT time! Honestly in thinking back it was the wonderful staff that made the trip so enjoyable!

Thanks for taking time to review the cruise I'll be going on in January next year. Glad you had a good time. I can't wait. I've been on the Liberty before so I don't have any questions.

Sunny picks you up at the cruise terminal in an open air bus, takes you to the shopping area for a few hours of shopping (you can adjust the time he picks you up if you want more or less shopping), then you meet him at a designated time and place to continue with a tour of the island. He takes you to a few lookout points and does a nice job of pointing out all the sites on the island and allowing for pictures. The last such stop has a bar with the famous banana daiquris where you control the amount of rum that goes in! I saw a few people go back for a second pour! From there he will take you to any beach you would like, Sapphire, Magens. Since the rest of our bus wanted to all go to Sapphire we went there and it was very nice. He also took some folks back to the ships that didn't want beach time. We have about 2 1/2 hours on the beach then met up with Sunny again for the ride back to the terminal. The fun part of Sunny's tour is that all the rides with the exception of the short ride from the cruise terminal to the shopping area is filled with great music with Sunny leading a sing along! It was a LOT of fun and we had a lively group!! I would definitely recommend this as a fun/easy way to get around! If you google Sunny Liston St Thomas you can find his website with more details.

 

As for other areas of the ship we really enjoyed. We very much enjoyed the singer on Deck 5 near the casino. He sang a lot of different kinds of music and was very entertaining as a pre dinner area for a drink. It is also close to the sushi bar if you want to get some as an appetizer before dinner! I love sushi and I have to say the sushi was surprisingly good! I didn't expect it to be!

 

We also enjoyed the bar on Deck 3 at the bottom of the large atrium for pre dinner drinks but it tended to get crowded. They had a nice duo one night with a lady singer that was amazing!

 

Karaoke was fun for one evening as well. Some really amazing singers and then some really funny ones too!

 

Hope this helps! Have a GREAT time! Honestly in thinking back it was the wonderful staff that made the trip so enjoyable!

Thanks! It sounds like there is plenty to do at night if you want to be busy!

Do you remember iwhat they were showing on the big screen at night? Was it movies? I've heard that they show CNN all day long, is that true? If so, it will drive me NUTS! :)

Does anyone know if the Liberty has the adult serenity? I saw on a recent Freedom review that it has it now.

Does anyone know if the Liberty has the adult serenity? I saw on a recent Freedom review that it has it now.

The deck plans do not indicate that Liberty has the Serenity. Liberty is scheduled for dry dock Oct 2011 and may get it then?

The Serenity is nice but it was really popular to get a lounge chair there when we were on the Glory 10 days ago. We spent a lot of our time above the aft adult only pool and that worked out fine.