Liberty June 28-July 6 *Late Review*

OK, yeah, yeah, I'm late, sorry....

OK, let me first say I got to cheat a little, as I live a few minutes away from Port Canaveral, so we didn't have to stay anywhere, park anywhere or do anything more than have my daughter drop us off.

I had one jumbo sized motocross gear bag, this is a bag a racer can fit boots, helmet and everything needed, it's massive and large enough to fit a body, seriously. The reason I mention this is because I put a full case of Fiji Water in it, along with my clothes, and it was heavy. I had a separate bag for wife (small), and tipped the porter a 10 because of the weight and so no one would freak over the weight. I carried on a small Igloo cooler with some Red Bull's and a backpack. We arrived at 11am and pretty much zipped right in...bing, bang, boom and we were on board. I don't think we stopped at any point longer than 60 seconds.

Did the first smart thing everyone should do, find our dining table. Since that day was my wife's B-day (of a much younger age than the year prior) and we were sailing sans children, we wanted a two-top. When we found our table, it was a six-top, so we immediately made our way to the maitre' d station where a sign said that he'd take requests at 1pm. So wife and I made out way to back of Lido, got some lunch, she got a burger and I went to the Fish and Chips and got an order of F&C as well as they had some Ahi Tartare w/watermelon....very good....and then we made our way back to dining at 12:30 and were second in line to a lovely woman who's a regular cruiser from Huntsville, AL, who was also seeking a two-top for her husband and herself. We talked as the crowd grew and then "the man of the hour" arrived, swiftly dispatched her request and then mine and we were out of there. Now what was interesting, and funny, was that while we were still late dining (talk about that in a bit) we were moved from the "Golden Olympian"(think that's what it's called) to the "Silver"...now my wife was saying "we got a downgrade? Is it a lesser nice dining room? Has to be to go from 'Gold' to 'Silver,' right?" and I have to admit, I thought the same because it made sense....well, the "Silver" dining is the one at the aft, with a view of the ocean and "Gold" is the midship without as much of a view, and the table the Maitre' d gave us was last row, dead center of the dining room, and with a twist of the head, a beautiful view of the ship's wake and typically sunset....well, it started as sunset, but each night as we got farther and farther south, the sooner and sooner darkness came...and then the reverse happened on the way back....quite interesting.

As for late dining; on paper it sounds like a good idea because you have more free time, not rushing to get ready and/or rushing back to port to make dining (we prefer MDR over buffet), but the problem is, you start at 8:15 and you're not done until after 9:30, and we are not night owl people, so once dinner was done, we were pretty much done. Also, if you dine late, you have to go to early shows if you want to see the shows and it just seemed that the late dining was more hinderance than helpful. When we sailed in the past, it was with the kids, so we did early because that was our schedule, but after doing late on this trip, I don't think we will do it again. We never saw a show and after dinner all that's left is comedians, karaoke or casino. I'm fine with casino, but she isn't a gambler, so it just didn't work. We saw some comedians (not bad) and one night they had an "amateur comedian" night, which was interesting because some some were funny, for like 2 minutes, and then sucked or just sucked entirely. It shows the difference between a pro and a "one trick pony" amateur. One guy was pretty funny and did a good three minutes and he knew when he was out of material, and he bailed...he didn't try to spin gold from hay...he knew when he was out of material. Smart guy. On one karaoke evening, we walked in just as this one guy was KILLING IT on Pearl Jam's song "Black"...just nailed it. It was a full and complete Eddie Vedder impression, but he nailed it nonetheless.

So to lay out the itinerary, it was an 8-day (ha ha, right...why they count the day of return where you're off by 10am, "a day," is such BS)....but whatever, it was an 8-day to Curacao, Aruba and then Grand Turk. This was the "relaxer's itinerary" as you had a lot of days at sea....depart-2 days at sea - Curacao - Aruba- Day at sea - Grand Turk - Day at sea- Home....so lots of down time

We had no real plans. The only "goals" if you really wanted to call them that is I like to collect a couple things....1. Locally produced booze, even though I do not drink and am 22 yrs sober and 2. Casinos. I like gambling and I like being able to say I have played here or there. It's a mental collection. Now of course I could not leave Curacao without a bright blue bottle of locally produced Curacao. So we walked around the downtown area, looked around, everyone was staring at TV's because it was the Germany vs USA day of the World Cup, and it was also "Flag Day," so it was very busy and areas cut off with grandstands and stages for a parade and fireworks we would get a glimpse of from the ship later on in the evening. It's a nice port, plenty of shopping and lots of local restaurants. You could easily amuse yourself without an excursion. I did run into one of the ship's dealers in the local casino playing some BJ, I said hello, she recognized me, was polite and said hello and when I saw he back on board, I asked her how her play went and she unfortunately gave me a thumbs down.

In Aruba, we did Sonny Binn's tour and I am going to tell you here and now, if you are going to Aruba, Sonny Binn's tour is 100% recommended. He met us in the terminal, had a nice A/C bus and took us all over the island. Was very attentive and very honest, like for example when we went to "Natural Bridge" which has collapsed, but there is a small one, but he was very clear saying that "Hey, don't walk that way, you can see a crack there, and it makes me uncomfortable when people walk there. Other tours may allow their guest to walk that way, but I won't, because you just do not know if or when that crack could go all the way" and after looking at it, he is right and if I was him, I'd say the same, you just don't know and it's a big crack. If it goes while you're walking there, you could get really hurt. But he drove us all over and showed us the entire island, for $30pp...it was a four hour tour....so wife and I both decided to pay him $40pp, which is $10 an hour and what we felt was more than fair. I learned so much about Aruba, I almost feel like an expert.

On board, I checked out the excursion desk and saw a Segway tour in Grand Turk that was only $99pp for about 4 hours, and it sounded like fun and it was great! So glad I did it. It was so easy and so fun. I have a Tripadvisor account under DKimmey (http://www.tripadvisor.com/members/DKimmey) so once published you'll be able to read it there, but for the price, I highly recommend it and even the most clumsy person can do it.

OK, the ship...I haven't been on a Carnival for a few years and this is my first Carnival 2.0 and it was very cool but I also noticed that Carnival is moving away from the garish clash of colors and the atrium of the Liberty is very nice with the color changing LED lighting. I did get pissed off with this burrito bar thing, as it was never open. It was open in the morning for breakfast, closed at 10am to turn over to lunch, opening at noon, then closing at 2:30 and that was it! The burger thing was at least open until 6pm, but the burrito thing was actually closed more than it was open, and when it was open, it was packed, why? Because it was never open! I have to admit, this was a real thorn in my side the entire cruise, because every time I would walk past it on Lido, it was always closed. Just always seeing it closed just ticked me off. Out of 24 hours in a day, it was open less than 6 and it stands in a prominent highly visual location. It's stupid.

While we're talking about food, the buffet is the buffet. I can't be excited about a buffet and only one or two of the best there are in Las Vegas will get any type of positive response from me. The pizza from the 24-hour pizza was wafer thin. The deli was good. If you caught the Mongolian Wok at lunch, it was good, but crazy smoky....they really need to work on ventilation during that time.

Now for the MDR....we had the American Table, and for the most part, it was fine. Had a selection of 4-5 appetizers, 4-5 entree's and a few desserts. Dessert menu was pretty much same every night, and some of the apps were always there, like shrimp cocktail and in the entree's a flat iron steak, for example. I would rate the overall food as "fair." It wasn't horrible and I have paid for worse in national chain restaurants, but when I compare to my past Carnival experiences, the food quality had lessened. By the way, I am willing to accept that maybe it was the head chef of this crew, this galley crew, the sous chefs or line guys that threw it all off and it's not a fleet-wide issue, until next week, when I go out on Sunshine with my son, leaving this weekend. The thing I noticed most was the clear disorganization of the wait staff. It was just clear that the entire staff had either no leadership or a complete lack of timing. You'd see other teams with odd timing and confusion. Is it an "American Table" issue or a crew/management issue? I do not know.

Our cabin was awesome, we had #9288....right off Lido and tucked in a corner less traveled. Very quiet and we never heard noise from the Lido. It was great to walk out the door, make a turn, go though a door and BOOM, you're on the Lido staring at that giant screen. Go down a couple decks and you're on deck 5 with the casino and clubs. Also being on Lido, you just cross the deck to the aft, go down a few flights and you're at the aft MDR.

Well, that's it for now, I may think of a few things to add.....so, hope you enjoyed

Yes I did enjoy!:) Thanks for your review. I will always love the Liberty, and had the best cruise of my life on that ship 5 years ago. I do remember vividly the beautiful atrium and the changing lights. Thanks again for posting your review.

Thank you for the review! My husband and I are going on the Liberty August 9th on this itnerary. Can't wait!

Thanks for the review. I'm also sailing 8/9 -and we're already booked with Sonny in Aruba. Still struggling with what to do in Curacao since the snorkeling is supposed to be great, but there is also history and some natural parks, etc., that we'd like to see... just not quite sure how to fit in what. Starting to think we may have to skip the snorkeling (and we're doing that in Turk anyway, but still...).

Also, regarding "8 days"... It's not 8 days, it's 8 nights. There's about 1/2 day on the front end depending on boarding time, and as you note, nothing on disembarkation day. But since ours leaves on a Saturday and returns the following Sunday, that's 8 nights. :)

Thanks again - really appreciate your sharing your experience on the Liberty.

I got on the Liberty When you were getting off, July 6th. 5 day Freeport, nassau, HMC, Sea day. Haven't done a review yet but gotta say, you nailed it with the Taco Bar complaint!! I had it for breakfast every morning, yes it was that good! But never made it there for lunch!! I'm still frustrated about that! Thanks for your review!

We were getting off when you were getting on.

You wrote all the reasons we do early dining.

Great review! I was on the Liberty in March and on the Glory the week of June 28th, and the burrito bar was always empty during lunch time. I ate there every day. The most was 3 people ahead of me. So sorry that it was so full during your cruise.

Thanks for the report!