Liberty Review 3/3-3/10

[lawyer180]

We are late thirties husband and wife who have cruised 6 times in the past, with Royal Caribbean, Norweigan and Celebrity. This was our first Carnival cruise. We actually won this cruise! The cruise was part of a large group from Pennsylvania and was organized by a local travel agency. For our past cruises, we always booked everything ourselves, but in the end, we were VERY thankful to have a travel agency involved, but more on that later.

 

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale the morning of the cruise. Our group got on a pre-arranged transfer and travelled to the POM. The trip was much shorter than anticipated, and we arrived at the port right around 11 am. The group went inside to start the dreaded embarkation process. We were pleasantly surprised, of all the cruises we've done in the past, this was quick and orderely! We were on the ship in under an hour. After using the self service Kiosk, we were given #19, but the wait was only a few minutes.

The ship was very nice and clean. Our stateroom was an interior on deck 2. It was a nice size and had more than enough storage. We typically book an interior cabin on our cruises since we don't spend much time in the room.

As for food, I'd have to agree with other reviews that say the food was so-so. However, I am by no means a food snob, and am happy to eat anything that I don't have to cook! With that in mind, the food was ok, but nothing to get excited about and not comparable to other cruises. Same thing with wait staff, I'm definitely not complaining, but the service wasn't near what we've had previously.

The entertainment was unfortunately also lacking. We thought the shows were pretty poor, when they had them at all. There was one or two nights that there wasn't any show scheduled in the big theater. However, the comedians were entertaining, and a lot of other passengers must have also thought so because almost all of their shows were at max capacity.

The ports were great and we made all of them. Half Moon Cay was the only tendered port. I must say that Carnival really needs to come up with a better organized plan for the tendering process. It seems like they have a decent plan on paper, but the execution is really poor and the staff doesn't seem to be able to carry it out and provide direction to passengers. It took us close to two hours to get off!

On Thursday night while the comedy show was going on (deck 5) there was suddenly a really loud banging noise with really bad vibrations (rattling the windows!) for a long period of time! People were leaving the show to go to their rooms to get life jackets. People were inquiring with the staff and all we were told was "don't worry, it's just the thrusters, deal with it" We are by no means knowlegable about sailing a ship, but it seemed really odd they would need thrusters while sailing the open sea (not near any port). The next morning, the Captain announced that one of the propellors was not working and it would delay our arrival into POM until 10:15 a.m. on Saturday, and that a crew member needed airlifted off due to a medical problem. Contrary to what others have posted, there were times we were only traveling at 4 knots and at times up to about 14 knots. Later in the date, they announced that we would not reach POM until 12:15. (However, we got to port and cleared to exit the ship around 11:40) This presented a huge problem since our flight was suppose to be at noon. This is why we were SO thankful a travel agency organized this trip and had agents on board. They took care of rearranging flights for us. Luckily were were able to get a new flight only a few hours later.

Disembarking was absolutely terrible! Again, they probably have a plan that looks good on paper, but execution was awful! Self assist (carrying your own luggage off) is suppose to go first, then they call Zone #'s in order. Unfortunately, they were just allowing everyone to go at once and there was a lot of pushing shoving and the staff really didn't seem to be able to enforce the procedures. Very frustrating and stressful. We've never experienced anything like it.

Interestingly enough, when we got off the people waiting to go inside the terminal said they were only told our arrival was delayed because a crew member needed airlifted, they were told nothing about the propeller not working!! Overall, we were not impressed with Carnival, especially the food, entertainment and their ability to control and manage the crowds. However, most any day of vacation is better than being at home at work! We were not bothered by the delay part of it too much since we understand that those things can certainly happen and no one has control over it, but we probably would have been upset had we actually paid for this cruise and not won it, mostly for the reasons outlined in the first sentence in this paragraph.

[19031]

Sorry to hear you were not as impressed in Carnival as the rest of us are. We have been on several Carnival Cruises-most recently on the Liberty in Jan and we have loved every one-with the Liberty being one of our favorites....We always book a flight later in the afternoon so we do not need to stress out if we get delayed a bit, we just go with the flow. And I would never be mad that I was late because of a crewmember (or anyone for that matter) needing to get airlifted off.. We made friends with many of the crewmembers when we were onboard-hoping it was none of them that was sick or hurt....We also have cruised other lines and keep coming back to Carnival.. I do know different people like different things, thats why it is good there are other lines out there for those who are not happy with Carnival. For us-we will stick with them at least until we have a bad experience I guess... Good thing you won the cruise-it would stink to pay for a cruise and not be happy with it:) I will agree that the big shows this time were not as good as the ones I have seen in the past.

[Harris Jeffer]

Crowds , lines, pushing, crew not able to execute plans.......hmm sounds just like Carnival:rolleyes:

 

Not telling the waiting passengers about the extent of the troubles...well that just not right either!:eek:

[PhotoPete]

DW and I were on this cruise and have to agree with what OP said. Food was so-so. Getting off in HMC was a real pain and the getting off in POM was a joke. We got off the Liberty at 1pm.

[crewsweeper]

Thanks lawyer 180, and PhotoPete, for posting your review and comments. Nice to win a free cruise!:) I'm sure that the problem with the propeller and the med evac left a disappointed stamp on your vacation. The rush to finally get off the ship by passengers wanting to get to their flights home probably exacerbated th e debarking process. If there were any US Customs hangups, that slows the line too and isn't Carnival's fault. The cruise before yours had 45 minute waits in the customs line backing up the lines inside the ship. Most cruises however debark fairly quickly. I do see the issue with tenders at Half Moon Cay being a problem hat should not have occurred. To me, the evening shows have never been THAT good, although some have been entertaining. We usually skip. Food is very subjective. Did you have the Guy's burgers or the Blue Iguana tacos? How were the other ports, St Thomas, San Juan, Grand Turk?

[patrice1]

I agree about a late arrival disembarkation. We were on Destiny when it lost a propeller last year and the late arrival (around 12PM) debarkation was awful! The rest, not so much :). As a previous poster stated, we think the shows were never that good & haven't gone in years. The rest of the entertainment is fine with us - piano bar, casino, comedy club, relaxing on the balcony, etc.

[sweetp0618]

We have cruised on four different cruise lines and have been (more or less) happy with the seven cruises we've taken. We were on the same cruise as the OP and agree the food was so-so. We gave up on the MDR after the second night.

 

We didn't experience any problems with wait times when tendering at HMC or leaving the ship. I guess we had good timing. We got to the Venetian Palace just after they announced our arrival at HMC. We waited less than 5 minutes to get our tender stickers and another 5 minutes to get on a tender. When disembarking, we had a low number but decided to do self-assist; however, we saw that the atrium and hallways around the gangway were mobbed so we waited until they called our group number (2) and we walked straight off the ship and were through customs in less than 10 minutes. We were in a taxi on our way to MIA about 20 minutes after we walked off the ship.

[soccersharon]

I was on this cruise as well. I guess my point of view is a bit different from the others posting here.

 

Food: I thought it was fine. I always found something on the menu I liked. Hot food was hot, cold food was cold.

 

HMC tender process: We had the stingray adventure booked, so we were off the ship early. I can see no other way to get thousands of people off a ship - I'd venture that the other lines go through the same process. HMC was beautiful. Next time though, I will rent a cabana.

 

St. Thomas - we did the Sunny Liston tour, and went to Sapphire beach. Beautiful weather, and Sunny was a wonderful tour guide. Would book him again.

 

San Juan - did not plan much there, so we took the free trolley, and had lunch at Senor Frogs.

 

Grand Turk - another beautiful day at the beach. We went to Jack's Shack, and enjoyed the water and sunshine.

 

Our room steward said that he did not know anything except to say that the ship was experiencing technical difficulties. What else are they supposed to say?

 

We had a wonderful time on the Liberty and were never bored. My husband and son participated in Mardi Gras (my son was thrilled to receive a medal).

 

The staff on the Liberty is top-notch, and overall we really enjoyed our cruise. Attitude is everything.

[TKDgirl2456]

I was also on this cruise. This was my family's 6th cruise with Carnival, we've never sailed with anyone else and I have to say, by the time we finally got off the Liberty, we were talking about trying a new cruise line. The disembarkation process was awful, probably the worst one we've experienced.

 

We saw inconsistencies within the main dining room (sometimes the food was a :D and others, it was :() and were fairly annoyed with the lack of rules. We're the kind of family who enjoys dressing up for dinner and were upset when we saw a couple in t-shirts, jeans and flip-flops on formal night in the main dining room. The other main disappointment regarding dining was dinner on lido. We skipped the MDR experience one night so we could attend a show and we just ate on lido. The food was REALLY bad. We won't be doing that again.

 

We thought the shows were spectacular as usual and the comedians were hysterical. I haven't seen my dad laugh that hard in a long, long time; it was much needed for him.

 

As for the delay, Carnival was very accommodating, opening up the phone lines for free and when we complained that we couldn't get through with the phone lines, they provided us with an hour of free internet time. (Thank god we brought a laptop.) For those who are curious, two people were helicoptered off - one crew member suffering from severe burns and a passenger.

 

Overall, I would cruise Carnival again with friends, but I know my parents are already looking into Celebrity & Holland America.

[MissCruiseAddict]

I too was on this cruise. It was my fourth with carnival. I agree that the food in the mdr is not the best but it's doable and better than the buffet. Two nights though I skipped the mdr because there were Other activities I wanted to do. I do like there didja section of the menu. It allowed me to try stuff I would probably haven't tried otherwise.

 

Yes I agree the shows are lacking. Why can't they do broadway type shows? I know that stage isn't that big but it's bigger than the dinner theatre stage here at home and the do productions of shows like hairspray and my fair lady etc. I did enjoy the rat pack show

 

Also I think carnival, instead of having company wide trivia questions they should tailor them to each ship. Because after four carnival cruises I know all the answers.

 

I had no trouble with debarking. We drove so we were in no hurry to leave so we waited for our number to be called and was off at two pm (we were group 31)

 

Guys burgers were one of the best burgers I've ever had. I didn't try the blue igannna because I'm not big on Mexican food.

 

Karl with a k was a good cd. You saw him all the time and I got to dance with him during 70s song trivia

 

Half moon cay we were on a tender quickly no issues at all. My dad and bro snorkels with sting rays and I enjoyed beach some beach time and read a book

 

I'm curious though why the aft pool is not open 24hrs. The roof above it closes and with someone always manning the pizza area there is always an employee nearby.

[19031]

Lawyer180-OK, maybe you were just on a bad week for Carnival....from what everyone is saying, sounds like lots of people were disappointed in at least something this week which is not what we have experienced. Did you like the staff?? We found that the staff on the Liberty is top notch and that really helps in my opinion. I really am sorry you had such a disappointing week, maybe give them another shot, there's lots of ships out there-really like to keep the Carnival name a good one:)

[groundhog59]

I too was on this cruise and had an enjoyable time. Below are some of my opinions/observations:

 

Food - I'm not a foodie but I thought the food in MDR was good for the most part. Pizza was much improved from previous cruises. Avoided the buffet. Went to sit down breakfast all but one day. It was very relaxing and totally enjoyable to meet different people every morning. Burgers were good. DH had burrito and he liked it.

 

Red Frog Pub - Totally understaffed. Couldn't get served even though we were right up to the bar. They served everyone to the left and right of us. Eventually left the bar and got a drink somewhere else. Makes smuggling look attractive.

 

Entertainment - Thought the entertainment was lacking something. The deck parties did nothing for us but that is just us. Others might have liked them but more music in the 3rd floor area where New Dawn played would have been a nice alternative. I do agree that the production shows leave a little to be desired. Although I am not a prude, I don't think the thong costumes the dancers wear are appropriate for children under 16.

 

Music - Sorely missed the Steel Drum Band on the lido deck. I felt trapped in my kids car with the music they had blaring.

 

Communication - I thought for the most part they did a good job communicating the issues that were occurring. I was troubled that the night in the comedy club they kind of blew us off when we heard the horrible rattling, and felt the shaking. I too thought it was time to head up to the room to get the life vest but didn't.

 

As I said, I had an enjoyable time but as someone else said some of these things did make you feel like you wanted to try another cruiseline. Nothing is perfect and attitude is everything.

 

PS to lawyer180: Think we met you at the Fun Farewell party if you were sitting with the Australians.

[gelo7]

Nice review.

[crewsweeper]

This entire thread points to the variety of views/observations about the cruise from different cruisers. Really hones in on the point that you can't base a cruise or future cruise on the opine of one person. I am curious thpugh if the reviewers here ate in the MDR at seated dining or anytime dining, as there seems to some consistency in mediocre MDR experiences.

 

We're looking forward to our upcoming Liberty cruise and I do appreciate the good and the bad being vetted here.

[groundhog59]

We had 8:15 assigned dining time. Another observation about MDR. We were in the Golden Dining Room on the 2nd floor. I believe the first floor of the Golden Dining Room was for anytime dining. I think, not sure, but I believe the Silver Dining Room was all assigned dining. It was the first time I was on the 2nd floor of the dining room and I didn't like the location at all. We had good table partners and excellent servers so that helped. Really missed being in the main area for the servers performances. I know they are cheesy but they do add a bit of fun and in talking to the staff they really enjoy it as well. They also enjoy seeing diners participate, which I did because we go by ourselves and don't know anyone so who cares if I can't really dance. My personal feeling is that those with assigned dining time should be in the main portion of the lower level and those doing anytime dining should be on the 2nd floor and around the perimeter of the 1st floor where they would nto be disturbing the dinners of those with the early and late assigned time. Again that is just MY opinion.

[mizLORInj]

Such things happen on any ship/line. NCL Gem had engine issue when we sailed in December, delayed us getting into a port. Fortunately the captain was up front and explained in detail.

We've also had medical emergencies and waited for coast guard and helicopters for airlifts (hope the people were ok) on various cruises.

Been through disorganized debarkation too, but we fortunately didn't have a plane to catch.

At least you got to experience Half Moon Cay--I think that's the most beautiful place.

[ptn]

My family and I were on this cruise and we had a wonderful time. Here are my review and opinions/observations

 

Background: this is my 3rd time with Carnival but my last cruise was 8 years ago. This is also my first time to sail with my 2 little daughters (22 months and 3.5 years old). My party included my parents-in-law and my SIL's family with 2 kids (3.5 years old daughter and 5 years old son). He was picked as baby bear in the last show and got a medal for it. We're in our late 30s and my parents-in-law are in their 60s. This is their first cruise.

 

Sailing with kids: we tried hard to keep our kids in check by constantly reminding them to be respectful of other passengers. My youngest daughter was handful so we had to take her out of mdr a few times and gave her time-out in the hall way to remind her that she had to stop crying before she could go back in. Majority of the passengers were really kind to our kids and we apprecidated that.

 

Guy's burger: my BIL and I loved burgers so we ate there a lot. Compared to our favorite burger joint at home, they are good but not great. However, it's an excellent option on the ship.

 

Blue Iguanna: we didn't try it until our last lunch. Burritos and tacos were tasty.

 

MDR: We ate all our dinners in Silver Olympian. On sea days, we ate breakfast and lunch there (except for 1 lunch). Services were excellent. After the first night, the waiting staff got all the clues and got milk ready right after we sat down on our table. Victor even took time to play with my nephew and made him felt really special. They knew to bring my a cup of capuccino with my dessert even when I forgot to order it. Food was really good. Once again, it's not comparable to a nice restaurant at home but we can't ask for a better one on a ship. We like to take our time and chill so breakfast and lunch were great in the mdr. People at our section dressed up for formal nights but I see people with casual attire at formal night, It didn't bother me though.

 

Lido deck buffet: there were good variety of everything. We like the fried oysters and calamaries. My wife and SIL tried Mogolian Wok and didn't like it. However, we have high expectation when it comes to Chinese food so please take our opinion with a grain of salt. One thing that we didn't like was that there was a sign at the water station telling us that we couldn't refill our personal bottles. We have two kids so we want to keep them hydrated through out the day and they ask for water at night. That's why we always have water bottles with us. I knew they had a reason for this but it was an inconvenient for us. We just filled up plastic cups and used those cups to fill our bottles.

 

Pizza: We ate there several time late at night. It was really nice to have that option late at night.

 

Bars: None of us were drinkers so we didn't check out any of the bars.

 

Casino: MIL tried her luck at the slot machine and lost $10. We lost $20 and MIL lost another $20 to bingo. We bought raffle tickets and didn't win

 

Entertainment: two main shows were really good. However, they were the same shows I saw 8 years ago. I guessed Carnival spent a lot of money on these shows so they wouldn't replace them that often. Magician show was good. I saw the sample of comedians and they were really funny. However, we didn't have a chance to check out the comedy shows. I wished they had something besides the scavenger hunt show but I understood why other passenger might like it. I liked all the live band but didn't care much for dj music at lido deck. A steel drum band there would be great. I guess I'm getting old :)

 

Camp Carnival: we took our oldest daughter there with her cousin for half a day on our first sea day. However, she didn't want to go back on the second sea day so she hung out with us. At home she goes to daycare so she probably wants something different on her vacation :)

 

Room services: Our room steward and his team was excellent. Our room was a mess and they did a great job keeping it tidy.

 

Embarkation/Debarkation: Both were painless. We checked in via kiosk and got zone 19. 10 minutes later, we were called and lined up to get on board. We got zone 22 to debark so we hung out at lido deck, ate lunch then got off the ship at 2pm.

 

We didn't know about the issue with the ship propulsion system until the captain announced it. My in-laws didn't fly out until 4pm and our filght was the next day so that didn't affect us. However, we felt really bad for other passengers who were affected by this as we saw long line at customer services. I thought the announcement was appropriate with enough information. The first one told us that there was issue to propulsion system. The ship would slow down but didn't affect any other functions of the ship. They needed to evac a crew member due to medical emergency. We would be back in Miami at 10:30am. They would open phone lines and compensated $200/person for travel re-arrangement. The second announcement mention about the evac again and told us at that we would be back at 12:30pm instead. Phone lines were re-opened again. I didn't think they needed to give us more detail.

 

Ports:

 

HMC: This was the best port. We rented cabana and the kids took turn to sleep in there when they were tired. Nice and relaxing day at the beach.

 

St. Thomas: rented 2 cars to drive to Sapphire beach. We didn't like it because of its rocky bottom and we didn't see many fishes. We packed up and drove to Magen Bay and spent the rest of our day there. Great beach for little kids as water was so calm

 

San Juan: rent 2 cars to drive to El Yunque but Hertz gave our reservation away because we were 1 hour late. There were 1 hour different between Puerto Rico and ship time. Two hours later, they called us and told us that they had 1 car available so we decided to cancel our reservation. We walked to 2 forts and took the trolley back.

 

Grand Tunk: I stayed at the beach to watch 3 kids while the rest of the family took the stingray tour. They had a great time.

 

I knew many people didn't have a good experience because of the ship's late return to port so you'll probably see polarized opinions about this cruise. Overall, we had a great time. I think it's all about perspective. Food is not comparable to our favorite restaurants in town. However, for the price that we paid for our cruise and the fact that we were on ship, the food are excellent. It was amazing that dancers on the second big show could dance when the ship was rocking. Crew members always greeted us with a smile and we met many pleasant passengers. We all bought $100 certifications so we could book another Carnival cruise in the future.

[crewsweeper]

Thanks for the review PTN. You guys seemed to have a good attitude, even on the food. Portland has so many great restos like Park Kitchen, BlueHour and the ubitquitous VooDoo donuts, hard to best that with cruise food on any ship.

[ptn]

I also want to mention that even though there are 4 people in my cabin, Carnival only puts 3 service changes on my sign and sail card. My youngest daughter is less than 2 years old and that's probably why. We felt bad because she made the biggest mess out of 4 of us so we added her share and gave the staff a little extra for their excellent effort

[groundhog59]

Reading cruise critic even with an open mind can lead one to nit-pick. I am very easy to please but think I found more wrong with this cruise because I was looking. As I said before, I had a good time and would cruise again.

[Virginia21]

I was on this cruise as well. my second with carnival, first was on the dream.

As someone else stated I also REALLY missed having the steel drum band on the lido deck, the dj played very loudly and i had to yell into my hubbie's ear in order for him to hear me. I couldnt go to the adult pool because I had my six year old with me (when he wasnt in the kids club) so I was stuck with the college kids. I didnt realize college spring break was going on in the U S (in canada they had it in feb.).

i guess i should have researched better, HOWEVER all in all we had a wonderful time and i still love carnival despite all the things that happened including the medical emergencies and the technical difficulties etc.

i loved the food, the cruise director, the staff, the burritos, and all the ports of call. my cozy bed and room, activities, bars, kids club, shops, atrium etc etc etc.

I have to add that I do travel alot and this is probably my 23rd vacay in 13 yrs of marriage so ive learn to make the best of my trips. for ppl that dont travel often, or if this was there first cruise then they are probably upset. My advice is this: lots of research. each carnival ship is different and obviously timing is important. with all that being said things can go wrong at any time learn to make the best of it and enjoy yourselves no matter what. i feel lucky just to be able to do these things, and all these experiences, and how i handle them, make me who i am.