Carnival Liberty 9/25-10/2

[steeners81]

I am aiming to try and get this all up by the weekend. It would be a lot quicker if my boss would let me do my review instead of work but I don’t see that happening.

 

OK a little background. This was my 10th cruise ( 5 on Celebrity, 1 on RCCL, 2 on NCL, and 1 on Premier). I was traveling with my BF , his 11th cruise ( 9 on RCCL and 1 on Princess), and his mom and grandparents. I am 29 and he is 22. This was our first cruise together, we had met aboard the Liberty of the Seas last Dec. Both of us are very active, you will never find us out laying around on the pool deck, we like to get involved in all the activities. Also we had a change in itinerary due to the storms in the Caribbean instead of the ship going : Miami, sea day, Cozumel, sea day, grand caymen, Jamaica, sea day, Miami we went: Miami, sea day, jamiaca, sea day, Costa Maya, Cozumel, Sea Day, Miami.

 

I flew out of Atlantic City on Spirit on Friday night. I was supposed to get in at 8:30 pm to Fort Lauderdale but the plane was delayed. We were told the plane had some mechanical issues in Tampa and thats why it was delayed. I love hearing the plane I am about to get on had mechanical issues ( I am not a huge fan of flying). Then when I got on the plane they stopped boarding because the mechanics wanted to retest the engine. All I wanted to do was get off the plane at this point. Finally we got in the air and down to Florida (with no mechanical issues YAY). I had to laugh when the pilot came on as we were pulling into the gate and said he couldn't wait to put the flight out of its misery. Found my boyfriend and my luggage and headed to the hotel. I had booked a room at the Holiday Inn Express in Plantation Florida. It isn’t close to the pier but it was 49$ a night and also close to my bf’s house (we were all driving together to the port the next morning).

 

Day 1)

 

 

Got up at 7 am and checked the weather for Cozumel for Monday. On Friday they were predicting heaving rain and now it looked like scattered thunderstorms so I was happy. Then decided to hop on cruise critic real quick to see what was going on. I then noticed there was an itinerary change for our ship, they had reversed the itinerary to avoid tropical storm Matthew. Luckily it only effected our reservations at Harrys so we figured we would just try and change them on board. I was actually debating booking some excursions on our own and save some money but decided to play it safe and book through the ship. I was glad we did because I would have had to spend Saturday morning trying to get a hold of our private tour operators.

 

 

We left the hotel at 10 , made a quick detour to target to pick up a few last minute things, got to his house, and packed up both cars. We left the house around 11:00 am and arrived at the port at 11:25am. Unloading and parking was very easy. We handed our bags right over to a porter and then I waited with his grandparents and within 10 minutes I saw my BF and his mom walking towards us. Sort of strange when I was waiting for my bf I looked up and saw an owl sitting above me. I did get a picture but I am having trouble with the clarity.

 

 

 

 

When we walked in to go through security the line was really long but moved pretty quickly. The same thing happened with the line for our sail and sign cards. I found using the Kiosks very easy but can see how someone could get easier confused by them. There was one employee who was going around helping anyone who needed help. Picked up our sign and sail cards and took our embarkation photo (one of many photos we will have taken through out the week) and we were onboard.

 

I love love love the lobby of this ship. I think the color changing chandelier is absolutely gorgeous.

 

[steeners81]

Right when we walked into the lobby there was someone there from Harrys so we went to discuss with him about changing our reservations. He then informed us that we didn’t have reservations. …umm I had the email showing him that we did but it didn’t matter anyway since we were changing them but if you do get an email confirmations make sure you print it out and bring it with you. After sorting that out we decided to head up to Emiles for food. I wanted to try everything for lunch but I had to be realistic. I got the Mongolian wok with chicken and shrimp and szechwan sauce. I was very spicy but very good, I think I had this everytime we ate lunch here. I also decided to try and fish and chips since there was no line. I had the fritters and the ahi tuna. The fritters had way to much in them ( it was a Calamari Zucchini Maui Onion Fritter) and the ahi tuna wasn’t bad but with it sitting on a slice of watermelon it had a different taste.

 

That is the tuna, Mongolian wok, a piece of choc cake, and apple crumb cake.

The fritters with fries

 

After lunch we had some time so decided to go exploring. . We found the mini golf course it was nice but I liked it better on the liberty of the seas. On RCCL you could play 24 hours were on Carnival there were set times.

 

 

We also realized right in front of us was the Epic. I couldnt get any side shots of her but here is a pic of the back of her.

[Perfect Stranger]

Robbing the cradle, eh? J/K ;)

[steeners81]

Lol just a little. I have been hearing it for the past 10 monthes so I am used to it.

[steeners81]

After looking around a bit more I then went and got my first drink of the week the funship special. It was really good.

We then realized it was after 1:30 so we headed to our cabin. We were cabin 1410 ( an inside cabin). I was very impressed with the amount of storage space in the room.

There were these shelves on both sides of the mirror.

We were able to hang up most of our formal wear and shirts and still room to spare. In the picture above you can also the see the plate that had choc. covered strawberries and chocolates on it. My bf had that delivered to the room. Honestly if you were thinking of ordering this from Carnival I would hold off and just get the strawberries from the Jardin Cafe on deck 5. The strawberries looked better and the chocolates on the plate were not that good.

 

Then it was off to the muster drill. It’s great how you don’t need your life jackets anymore. I used to get grossed our when I saw people blowing on the whistles.

Us looking happy not to be dragging our life jackets around

[whendoweleave?]

Already spent too much time on cruise critic at work this morning! :eek: But I for sure wanna read this one! Thanks for taking the time!

[MamaParrotHead]

Digging it thus far...keep it coming! :D

[steeners81]

After the muster drill we headed up to the Sailaway party. The did the usual dances (cha cha slide/electric slide/cupid shuffle) and we got right out there with the cruise staff. The sail away party did seem a little short and once the cruise staff left we decided to head down to the cabin. All of our luggage had arrived. I love being able to unpack everything and put the suitcases away. While we were doing this our room steward (I belive his name was Rambert) came to our room to introduce himself. I had to sign a paper to prove that he had introduced himself to us. I found this a little odd, I have never done this on any other line.

 

We had opted for Your time dining though we ended up eating around 6 every night so we could have done early seating. Our head Team waiter was Antonio and he was great. We sat in his section the rest of the week. He knew both of our names and was very personable. He told us he had been working for Carnival for 7 years and had been a head waiter for the past 5. I am one of those people who take pictures of the all the food ( as you saw from lunch) so I have pics of alot of the dining room and speciality dining entrees.

 

Fried Chicken tender starter

Shrimp cocktail

Sweet and sour shrimp

[hfweather]

I am absolutely loving this review! Don't worry about the age difference between you and your boyfriend. I'm 41 and my husband is 33 and we've been married for 8 years now. :D

[KruznKel]

I am absolutely loving this review! Don't worry about the age difference between you and your boyfriend. I'm 41 and my husband is 33 and we've been married for 8 years now. :D

 

LOL.. too funny I am the exact same age and my hubby just turned 33 this past weekend.. and we have been together 10 yrs:D

 

Awesome review.. can't wait for the rest.. we have along haul until we get to the Liberty next year;)

[steeners81]

Sorry about the sizing on these pictures me and photobucket are not getting along today!

 

 

Fillet of Tilpia-The Mac and cheese was amazing

 

 

 

Ny Strip

 

Vanilla Creme Brulee

[giannasage]

What a good review. Love the pics. I am 42 hubby is 36 been married 15 years together 18. You look like you make a great couple. Cant wait to read more....

[steeners81]

After dinner we changed out of our dress clothes ( we are one of those couples who wear dressier clothes every evening). Then off to burn some calories at country line dancing. They actually held it up on the venetian palace stage which was really cool. It was taught by one of the dancers, Sam who I believe was from England. It was a really good class and if he is teaching on any of the ships you go on def. go.

 

After that we stayed in the theater for "Be a game show star". I decided to laugh at everyone from my seat but my bf volunteered. We got some great shots and video of him having to doing the chicken dance and the YMCA.

 

 

And he actually won!

 

 

proudly showing off his ship on a stick.

After that we tried our luck at Bingo but ended up a bunch of losers. Before the cruise I had read how people think bingo is so expensive on Carnival. Between everyone in my group we had been on all of the big lines and all agreed Carnival has the cheapest bingo.

 

 

The final event of the evening ( at least for us) was the welcome aboard show. We got to see all the cruise staff for the first time and the cruise director (Kyle Post who did a good job). The singers and dancers came out and at first we thought they were ehh but they proved us wrong in the shows later that week. We also saw one of the comedians Scotty K. He was hysterical we were looking forward to seeing his "adult" show later in the week. But the highlight of the show was Funship Freddy. I don't know why we all thought it was hysterical when he came out but we could not stop laughing.

Attached below is the Funtimes for Day 1

Fun times Day 1.pdf

[colsbom]

Great review, thank you so much for including the Fun Times! And I love the food porn, keep it coming!

[steeners81]

Ok I should prob at least pretend I am working for the rest of the day. Hopefully I will be able to continue this tonight. Thanks for all your comments!

[LBumb]

great job.

[Meyer2]

Great review & pictures so far! I look forward to more!

[DJ Ware]

Steeners, we were on the same Quest game team! If my wife had put a certain "marital-aid" in her purse we would have won first place :( Lol

[steeners81]

Steeners, we were on the same Quest game team! If my wife had put a certain "marital-aid" in her purse we would have won first place :( Lol

 

We were on the same team for Quest? I will deny I was even there :)

[steeners81]

Day 2

I really wish someone had told my internal clock that I was on vacation because I was up at 6 am which was wayyyyy to early. I decided to just lay around and read and relax while my better half slept. When we were both up and dressed and ready to go it was 8:30. Emiles was empty so I decided to get an Omlette and there was maybe 3 people in front of me. It was delicious I wish I could make them like that at home. After breakfast we went to trivia where we realized how dumb we really are.

After trivia I headed to bingo while BF went to the volleyball tournament. It was a small court which was fine but the net was really low. He stands 6’3 and was taller then the net. We decided to meet up at scattergories. We were expecting it to be like reg. scattergories but instead of trying to get unique answers we were trying to match other peoples answers. It was fun but we lost. After that we went to Super Trivia. Super Trivia was going to be played on each of the sea days and we wouldn’t know the points total until the last day. There were four different teams playing and our team was team “boozing and cruising” (we did not pick the name).

 

The giant die we used to play super trivia

 

After super trivia we went up to the pool area for the ice carving demo. I am always amazed by this and this time was no different.

 

 

 

I decided to try the burritos today (sorry no pics). It wasn’t bad just not for me so I went back to the Mongolian wok. Then turbo trivia. This was interesting they had everyone who wanted to play go up on stage and they told you two outrageous stories one was true the other was false. True would go to one side of the stage false to the other. I managed to stay up there thru a couple of stories and then one about sea world came up. I looked to my bf in the audience and he was telling me it was false so I stupidly believed him and lost the medal. They had enough time to play another game and my bf won this and got his medal. I ever so maturely took it, licked it, and said it was mine since he steered me wrong on the previous round. Yeah I may be older but who is more mature is up in the air.

[steeners81]

After that Sam taught the Disco dance class. I am so thankful I have coordination or I would have been really embarrassed doing this. I am also grateful noone took pictures of this. Than another round of Bingo (shocker we lost) and it was time to get ready for formal night. I know a lot of people do not like elegant night but I LOVE it. I rarely ever get to get dressed up so I find this fun. After getting all dressed up we headed up for pictures. We realized that we all wanted different pictures done so I think we stopped at every photographer we saw. I was tired of smiling by dinner time. Here are a few of our pics.

We managed to work up an appetite after taking all those pictures so we headed to dinner.

Caeser salad-very good

Lobster and Shrimp

Prime Rib

[steeners81]

Warm Choc Melting Cake-Was good but would have better with another scoop of ice cream

Carmelized apples on a puff pastry-very good

Cheeries Jubilee

 

The show for tonight was big band. It wasn’t bad but I did not care for it. It was featuring the music of Sinatra and Sammie Davis Jr. After the show we decided to check out the comedian we saw in the welcome aboard show. He was hysterical. If Scotty K is on your ship make sure you go see him (unless you offend easily then go to his PG show).

 

Attached below is the fun times for Day 2

Fun times day 2[1].pdf

[w8ing2cruz]

I think it's awesome that you guys do so much stuff on the ship. I usually find myself being a Lido deck lounge lizard all day. This cruise I'm really going to try and make it to some of the game shows and productions. We have five cruise virgins sailing with us so maybe I'll even catch the Welcome Aboard show - which I don't think I've gone to since my first cruise! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your adventure with us!

[Sunshine-lady]

Thanks for the great review. Really enjoy reading everything. We sail her in just 149 days. Can't wait.

[colsbom]

Thank you again for continuing your review. I actually have a question regarding the seating for Your Time Dining guests. I noticed in the Fun Times that you attached that seating for YTD diners was in the Golden dining room, on deck 3. I have copies of some Liberty Capers from last spring (I think it was April) where it is stated that YTD guest are seated in Golden, on deck 4 (i.e. upper level of the dining room). Would you - or anybody else - happen to know whether this was a seating arrangement for this cruise only, or has Carnival moved all YTD guests permanently to the lower level of the dining room on the Liberty? We have not been on our cruise yet, but from what I have figured out looking at photos from the dining room, it appears that the lower level has more tables than the upper level. So is the demand for YTD seating getting higher and making Carnival change the seating arrangements? Somebody please correct me if I am totally wrong in my thinking or if I have absolutely misunderstood the dining room levels.