Review: Liberty April 14 - 21, 2012

[hygienist999]

This was the first cruise my husband and I have ever taken with Carnival. I'm going to attempt to write a review with photo's of the things we liked and the things we didn't like.

 

We left our home in middle Georgia around 5:30am and drove to the airport in Atlanta. We arrived in Miami around 11am. After finding our Carnival person and being told where to go, we loaded a bus with more carnival cruisers. The ride to the port was very fast, about 20 minutes. Once off the bus, we grabbed our bags and turned them over the Carnival porter who was in charge of getting our bags on the ship. He met us at the bus, this was very smooth and easy. We then walked around to the front of the building and encountered a very, very long line just to enter the building.

 

 

 

We were in this line for about one hour. It was very chaotic. There were men trying to stack luggage onto the carts and move the carts, while cruisers were trying to get into the building. I felt this could have been better organized. We have never had this problem at Port Canaveral. We laughed about it, we were so excited this didn't bother us to much.

 

Finally we got into the building, just to be line after line. It took us another hour to get to the Carnival Photographer.

 

 

Once we boarded the ship, we had to stand in another line on the deck to enter the ship at deck 3. This is where they scanned your Sail and Sign card and took a photo of you. After we entered the ship, we went to our cabin to drop off our carry on bags. Our cabin was on the Lido deck, all the way forward. We loved this area. Very quiet and very close to most everything. Our cabin was an inside cabin, which I like since its very dark and lets you sleep good. Although as the cruise went on, we wished we had gotten a balcony cabin, more on that later. I did think the cabin was very small, but it had plenty of closet and storage space, especially once I hung up the over the door shoe holder.

 

We then decided to find Guy's burgers for lunch. We ate here many times. The burgers and fries were wonderful, although my husband thought the burgers were to salty.

 

 

Here are a few more photo's of Guy's Burger Joint I took later on at night so I could get a better shot.

 

 

 

[hygienist999]

The Carnival Photographers were working hard to capture memories.

 

 

We then walked around the ship to acquainted with where everything was. Which most things were on Deck 5.

 

 

This is the adult area only pool. We didn't go here too much. Never could find a chair, although their were always open tables.

 

 

This is the Venetian Palace Theatre. We were here a lot. Who ever designed this theatre didn't put much thought in the seating arrangements. If you were in the balcony most seats allowed you to see only parts of the stage. This was true for the seats on the main level also, if you were sitting in the seats to the right or left. Again, this didn't ruin our experience, we just had to get there very early to find the better seats.

 

 

This is the Piano Bar. The room I loved, I thought Carnival did a fabulous job on the design. We went here one time, the guy was not good at all in our opinion. Room was great, entertainer was not.

 

This is the dance place. I don't know the name of it as we never went in and never saw many people in there through out the entire cruise.

 

 

Main walkway down Deck 5, goes by casino, bar, etc... There chairs were always full. This was a very active area and there was usually a lot of fun going on all around.

[hygienist999]

This was the sushi bar that was hardly ever open. When it was, it was very busy. We don't like sushi, so didn't didn't eat from here.

 

Here is the infamous Casino that took all of my money. We didn't play the last two days. We never had any luck in here. I would put a 20 in the machine, and it was gone in 5 minutes. No fun in that. That being said, there was always a lot of people in here. Although, the tables were never very busy. The smoking in the casino was almost unbearable. I had to move several times just to get away from the smoke. I was surprised with the amount of smoke that was everywhere. This cruise had the most smokers I have ever seen on one ship. There was smoke in the casino, bars, comedy area, all outside decks. Smoke blew in my face, while trying to watch games on lido deck. This was a huge negative to me.

 

This was the store that had the Carnival items. I only went in here about 3 times. I didn't care for the merchandise they had. The only thing I bought in here was an $18 bottle of dayquil. I took every drop.

 

 

Now, this is the store I spent a lot of time in. It was great jewelry. I bought a watch, a bracelet, a bracelet for my mother and a pair of swarovski earrings. They also had prize drawings. I never won anything but it was great fun.

 

We went to our cabin to see if our luggage had been delivered. All of it had but my husband big bag, with all of his clothes. We checked the fun times to see what was going on and went to our muster stations when it was time. This took about 35 minutes.

 

Afterward we went to Lido Deck for the Sailaway party.

 

 

This is Jaimie the Cruise Director. She was FABULOUS. We loved her and the Assistant CD Christian. They were everywhere and made a huge impact of the quality of the cruise.

 

We had early sitting for dinner. Our dining room was the Silver one. After sailing away we went to change for dinner and make our rounds having our photo taken. Poor hubby, I wore him out with photo opportunities.

 

[purplemusik]

great pics!!

[hygienist999]

At 6pm we made our way to the Silver Dining Room. Very chaotic. We had to ask a server where we were to sit. She had to ask someone else and then she just pointed in a direction. We were annoyed. We finally got seated and were disappointed to be put at a table by ourselves. We were looking forward to tablemates. To make matters worse, our small table was in the way for other guests to get to their table. Our chairs were bumped a hundred times. It got so bad, that all we could do was laugh about it. It was worse on the first night and the other two elegant nights because most people showed up to eat these nights. The other nights there was a lot of empty spaces. Our servers were very nice and we enjoyed them a lot.

 

 

Carnival photographers came around every night during dinner to snap photo's.

 

As far as the food goes, I thought the food in the MDR was great. The bread was fantastic also. The only negative was the caesar salad dressing was very bland, no taste what so ever. The only dessert that I liked was the warm melting chocolate cake. Everything else I tried, and believe me I tried a lot, was just awful.

 

 

The lemonade is awesome from Emiles, but very watered down in the MDR. I finally had to order margarita's with my meal.

 

After dinner we played in the casino and at 10:30 went to the show in the Venetian Palace. The first 30 minutes was good, but after that it became boring. There are only two singers and about 10 dancers. The singers I thought were pretty good, the dancers were average.

 

 

We went to the lido deck to get a glass of lemonade and went back to our cabin. We were exhausted. I brought a small cooler and 16 small bottles of diet coke. Anthony our cabin steward was great about keeping it full of ice the entire cruise. That way I could get my diet coke fix.

 

That ends our First day on the Carnival Liberty.

[navybaby1113]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Great job so far!

[re-re]

Great start, Your pictures are nice.:)

[hygienist999]

Day 2 - Sea Day

 

We slept great and late into the morning. We got up and put on our swimsuits, and went to eat breakfast at Emiles. The omelets were very good, although the line was long. I didn't think they had a lot to choose from as far as the real food goes. What I got for breakfast I thought was good, but not great. The Mango punch was THE BEST. I so wished they had this available all day long. I brought a large insulated cup, right before breakfast was to be over i would fill it up and also a cup from Emiles. I miss that fruit juice. I hate we didn't eat breakfast in the MDR, I heard it was good. We just didn't want to put that much time into breakfast.

 

 

We tried to find a chair, but the chairhogs were out in great numbers. What was sad was there were more chair with towels in them than people. They had Serenity area closed off due to the wind. And it was extremely windy.

 

We ended up going to deck 5 and sitting on one of the curved sofa's for about an hour. I entered the slot machine tournament, so we did that around 12:30pm. I didn't do so good. We ate from Guy's again for lunch, but got desert from Emiles. The only thing good was the chocolate chip cookies.

 

 

We decided to go ahead and get showered and go to Bingo. I loved the Cash Craze tickets. I bought several thru out the cruise.

 

 

 

 

After playing Bingo, we went to check out the photo's at the Photo Gallery. We would come here several times a day.

 

[rtw68]

Great pictures! Looking forward to more. :D

[hygienist999]

Tonight was our first Elegant night. So we went to our cabin to get ready. On our way to the Casino area we ran into Fun Freddy for the first time. I had to get my photo made with him.

 

 

Again, I dragged my poor husband around to all of the photo opportunities.

 

 

It was time again for dinner. So off to the Silver dining room we went.

 

 

Here are a few shots of the food. Again, food was great.

 

 

The Waiters put on a show for us. One of them sang, while others danced. Pretty good show.

 

The photographers were at it again.

[hygienist999]

When we finished with dinner we again made our way to the casino area. We watched people play the Prize vault machine. We then were entertained by the people dressed up as pirates.

 

 

There were several things going on around the ship, and of course had to stop by the photo gallery.

 

 

I believe we went to whatever the show was and also to the comedy club before making our way back to our cabin.

 

[hygienist999]

Day 3 - Sea Day

 

Again, we slept late. Ate breakfast at Emiles. Again, not bad, but not great. We tried again to find somewhere to layout. And again, no chairs to be found. This was why we wished we had a balcony. Serenity was still closed due to wind issues. We finally found a couple of chairs. We laid out and read. I was actually cold, due to the wind. We ate lunch at Emiles. Food was really bad. Lets just say, we did not like the buffet for the entire cruise. Poor quality and selections.

 

We enjoyed the ice carving that was held on the Lido deck. That guy was amazing. It took him 15 minutes to make a block of ice look like two love birds. Awesome.

 

 

I had my first Drink of the Day, which was A kiss on the Lips. Very good drink.

 

 

We had reservation at the Steakhouse for 7 pm, so we went to find it and look around.

 

 

 

We played bingo again and then went to get ready for dinner.

 

Before going to dinner, we went to all of the photo opportunity stops.

 

[loubetti]

Excellent review. Just the right amount of photos (want to see more of your wife! ;)) and not any wasted words. Keep it coming, you might just get me to sail Carnival one day!

[hygienist999]

The Diamond Steakhouse was very pretty. I was shocked at the number of people dining. The place looked almost empty. We were seated and a very nice girl explained the selections to us. I ordered the shrimp cocktail, caesar salad, New York strip, and the chocolate sampler.

 

Here is a photo of the restaurant.

 

My shrimp cocktail. It was very good.

 

 

My caesar salad. Everything was good except the salad dressing. No taste at all. Very bland. Could not eat much of it.

 

 

New York Strip. It was very good. I enjoyed it.

 

 

This is the chocolate sampler. It was AWFUL. I had to spit some out in my napkin is was so bad. I hate thinking about it.

 

 

Here is a photo of us. I enjoyed it, but did not think it was worth $60. The MDR is just as good. I thought there would be some entertainment, but there wasn't. We were only there about an hour.

 

[hygienist999]

We went to see The Edge featuring the Revolution in the theatre. He was very good and really got the audience involved. He sweated a lot though.

 

 

 

We always go by the pastry place so i can drool over this cake. I always meant to get a slice, but never did.

 

We went back to the cabin a little early since we would be in port at St. Thomas.

 

[hygienist999]

Day 4 - St. Thomas

 

After breakfast we took a few photo's of St. Thomas from the deck of the ship and the Serenity area was finally open.

 

 

A lot of people went to the Red Frog.

 

 

We made our way to Deck 1 so we could get off the ship and meet our tour. All of our excursions were thru Carnival and we really enjoyed them.

 

The Carnival photographers were hard at work while everyone got off the ship. I was surprised at the amount of people who did not want to have their photo taken.

[hygienist999]

Our tour was on an open air bus. I liked this as the breeze kept us cool.

 

 

Our first stop was at the Mountain Top. They served Banana Daiquiris. I bought a sun dress and enjoyed the observation lookout.

 

 

 

The views were gorgeous.

 

 

I really liked the berries hanging on this tree.

 

 

[hygienist999]

More photo's from the Mountain Top lookout area.

 

 

 

We went on an 11 night Med cruise on the Disney Magic, and we were surprised to see it from the lookout. My husband wanted to sneak onboard.

 

 

We then went back down the mountain and was dropped off in town for some shopping. I loved the little alleyways that had the shops.

 

 

 

[hygienist999]

We returned to the ship and took a couple more photo's from the deck before going to shower and change for dinner.

 

 

 

Of course we had to stop by all of the photo stations before heading to dinner.

 

 

Here are some photo's of the food we had in the MDR.

 

 

 

Carnival Photographers making their rounds.

 

[hygienist999]

I forget what the theme for the day was, but it was celebrated in the atrium.

 

 

Here are a few photo's from the show. It was good, not great, but good.

 

 

 

It was a busy day and we would arrive in San Juan the next morning so we called it a night.

 

[hygienist999]

We were excited about this port. We were looking forward to the Rainforest.

 

As usual we ate breakfast at the buffet, which usual consisted of froot loops, and pancakes. I loved, loved the mango fruit juice. I wish it was served all day long.

 

We made our way to Deck 1 and were met by the friendly Photographers as we got off the ship.

 

 

We met our group and loaded onto a bus. I did think the bus was a little cramped, but it was cool. We then rode about one hour to the Rainforest. We loved it. I wish we could have spent all day there.

 

 

The ferns were huge and gorgeous.

 

 

The flowers were beautiul.

 

[smurfm69]

I'm enjoying your review and all the pictures. We sailed out of Puerto Rico last year and plan to do so again in 2014. We definitely want to see the rainforest when we go back so I am looking forward to your pics and info on it. Great job so far!

[finoky]

Enjoying your review so far and great pics. The Liberty is one of our favorite ships. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[Atomic911]

very nice pics :)

[Cupcrazy]

Great review and fantastic pictures! Thanks for posting.