First Time Carnival Cruiser - Liberty

Background:

We are in our late 50’s and cruise mainly to unplug and relax. We are very active and enjoy rising early and going to bed late. We can take or leave most ports and enjoy staying on a quiet ship.

This was our 12th cruise and our first cruise on Carnival. We chose the Liberty based on the ship and the itinerary. We were so convinced we would enjoy the ship we booked a back to back cruise (8 day southern itinerary followed by 7 day eastern itinerary). Ports were Aruba, Bonaire, Grand Turk, Nassau, Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas.

The Good:

Bonaire – our first visit to this island .. it was gorgeous

Food – quality – of RCI, Princess, Celebrity, HAL, and Carnival – we felt the quality of the food was 2nd only to HAL.

Food - variety – Guy’s Burgers (best burgers at sea), Blue Iguana (Mexican – excellent shrimp tacos), Mongolian Wok, Buffet, Deli, 24 hr Pizza (2nd only to Princess), and Fish and Chips (including fried oysters) - the best variety of any ship we have been on and it was all free except for the Steakhouse ($35 pp)

Aft Pool – love the aft pools on Princess, HAL, and Carnival

Comedy Club – rotated different comedians each week performing 4 shows each – 2 family/2 adult – loved 4 of the 5 comedians we heard

On turnaround day (66 of us were B2B) had small reception, drinks, free picture of group, and a bottle of champagne and fruit basket delivered to our cabin

The Same:

Chair hogs

Waiters and room stewards were excellent

Entertainment – production shows were good

Ship - like all cruise ships at sea 365 days a year it showed some signs of rust in various places

The Bad:

Casino lounge –live music and entertainment nightly – my wife could not stand the smoke – so we missed a bunch of good entertainment

Ship layout – typical Princess, HAL, Carnival – Dining rooms and galley prevent walking all the way through the ship on decks 3 and 4

Piano Bar – entertainer was bad – only second time we encountered a bad vocalist

Casino – took my money

Summary:

Great cruise, great ship, great staff, great food. Will definitely cruise with Carnival again.

Any questions, ask away.

Background:

 

We are in our late 50’s and cruise mainly to unplug and relax. We are very active and enjoy rising early and going to bed late. We can take or leave most ports and enjoy staying on a quiet ship.

 

This was our 12th cruise and our first cruise on Carnival. We chose the Liberty based on the ship and the itinerary. We were so convinced we would enjoy the ship we booked a back to back cruise (8 day southern itinerary followed by 7 day eastern itinerary). Ports were Aruba, Bonaire, Grand Turk, Nassau, Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas.

 

The Good:

 

Bonaire – our first visit to this island .. it was gorgeous

Food – quality – of RCI, Princess, Celebrity, HAL, and Carnival – we felt the quality of the food was 2nd only to HAL.

Food - variety – Guy’s Burgers (best burgers at sea), Blue Iguana (Mexican – excellent shrimp tacos), Mongolian Wok, Buffet, Deli, 24 hr Pizza (2nd only to Princess), and Fish and Chips (including fried oysters) - the best variety of any ship we have been on and it was all free except for the Steakhouse ($35 pp)

Aft Pool – love the aft pools on Princess, HAL, and Carnival

Comedy Club – rotated different comedians each week performing 4 shows each – 2 family/2 adult – loved 4 of the 5 comedians we heard

On turnaround day (66 of us were B2B) had small reception, drinks, free picture of group, and a bottle of champagne and fruit basket delivered to our cabin

 

The Same:

 

Chair hogs

Waiters and room stewards were excellent

Entertainment – production shows were good

Ship - like all cruise ships at sea 365 days a year it showed some signs of rust in various places

 

The Bad:

 

Casino lounge –live music and entertainment nightly – my wife could not stand the smoke – so we missed a bunch of good entertainment

Ship layout – typical Princess, HAL, Carnival – Dining rooms and galley prevent walking all the way through the ship on decks 3 and 4

Piano Bar – entertainer was bad – only second time we encountered a bad vocalist

Casino – took my money

 

Summary:

 

Great cruise, great ship, great staff, great food. Will definitely cruise with Carnival again.

 

Any questions, ask away.

Thank you for your breath of fresh air and opinon on the Liberty! I am preparing to sail on her in May and am very much looking forward to it!

Lately in most reviews that I have read, many people are talking very poorly about the ship and the crew - lack of entertainment, hardly any bar staff walking Lido deck offering drinks, food is decent but not great, ship has been vibrating constantly and even rocking more excessively than the normal (your on a ship - they rock!). Did you experience any of this while on the ship?

I understand that everyone has their opinions but it makes me slightly nervous as when I booked the cruise last summer, the ratings were 89% and everyone raved about the ship and they are now down to 78% here on CC and mostly all the reviews are stating they would never sail Liberty again! :eek:

Again, thanks for your review! 45 days can't come soon enough! :)

Thank you for your breath of fresh air and opinon on the Liberty! I am preparing to sail on her in May and am very much looking forward to it!

 

Lately in most reviews that I have read, many people are talking very poorly about the ship and the crew - lack of entertainment, hardly any bar staff walking Lido deck offering drinks, food is decent but not great, ship has been vibrating constantly and even rocking more excessively than the normal (your on a ship - they rock!). Did you experience any of this while on the ship?

 

I understand that everyone has their opinions but it makes me slightly nervous as when I booked the cruise last summer, the ratings were 89% and everyone raved about the ship and they are now down to 78% here on CC and mostly all the reviews are stating they would never sail Liberty again! :eek:

 

Again, thanks for your review! 45 days can't come soon enough! :)

Just remember people that have negative comments tend to post more than people with positive comments.

Ship was in great shape and like other ships and lines saw them doing light to medium maintenance activities every day.

Plenty of bar staff on Lido.

Regular staff and CR desk were all extremely friendly. Found mid level staff in uniforms to always be in groups and less friendly. Rode the elevator one day with the captain and another senior staff person and they were very friendly.

I travel a LOT and enjoy good food. My wife and I both found the food very good .. 2nd only to HAL. Although we did not care for the Steakhouse .. for $35/pp it did not compare to specialty restaurants on our other cruise lines. Murano's French restaurant on HAL was by far our favorite.

Seas were mostly light to medium during the 15 days except for one day they were pretty rough for about 4 to 6 hours. No unusual movement, however there was a slight vibration in the rear of the ship the entire cruise .. someone on an earlier cruise also mentioned it .. Really didn't bother us.

We're cruising on the Valor soon, our first Conquest class (15th CCL cruise). Just got off the Sunshine and our only real complaint was also the smoking issues. I understand Valor, like Liberty, has the same smoking issues. I don't consider it a deal breaker, but it is annoying smelling yourself when you don't normally deal with smoke in your clothing and hair, not to mention developing a cough by the end of the week. Hopefully, we can work around the smoke as we learned to do on the Sunshine.

Glad you had a mostly good time. Carnival offers a great value and a variety of cruising experiences.

We're cruising on the Valor soon, our first Conquest class (15th CCL cruise). Just got off the Sunshine and our only real complaint was also the smoking issues. I understand Valor, like Liberty, has the same smoking issues. I don't consider it a deal breaker, but it is annoying smelling yourself when you don't normally deal with smoke in your clothing and hair, not to mention developing a cough by the end of the week. Hopefully, we can work around the smoke as we learned to do on the Sunshine.

Glad you had a mostly good time. Carnival offers a great value and a variety of cruising experiences.

The only smoking issue we had was having to walk through the casino to get from one end of Promenade deck to the other. No problems with outdoor smoking areas.

Thanks for your review. I love the Liberty, probably is my favorite ship, or tied with the Freedom. I appreciate your review and comparisons. I agree that they /Carnival do love to put those great bands outside the casino on promenade deck. I happen to like the casino, but as I get older, cannot tolerate the smoke. My eyes hurt get red, so I tend to go early in the day, and less at night. But I wish they would give those great bands a lounge to play in, I would sure stick around longer to listen and maybe dance too:)

Thanks for your review. I love the Liberty, probably is my favorite ship, or tied with the Freedom. I appreciate your review and comparisons. I agree that they /Carnival do love to put those great bands outside the casino on promenade deck. I happen to like the casino, but as I get older, cannot tolerate the smoke. My eyes hurt get red, so I tend to go early in the day, and less at night. But I wish they would give those great bands a lounge to play in, I would sure stick around longer to listen and maybe dance too:)

They did a pretty good job rotating bands between casino, atrium, and the Cabinet .. but a lot of the parties with the CD were held in the casino only.

The only smoking issue we had was having to walk through the casino to get from one end of Promenade deck to the other. No problems with outdoor smoking areas.

That's interesting because a lot of people complain about the open smoking area on deck 10 above Lido looking like a giant haze over the pool area.

Also, if anyone has children, they have to walk thru this area to get to the Camp Carnival entrance. We noticed both of these issues after reading about them here.

That's interesting because a lot of people complain about the open smoking area on deck 10 above Lido looking like a giant haze over the pool area.

Also, if anyone has children, they have to walk thru this area to get to the Camp Carnival entrance. We noticed both of these issues after reading about them here.

I avoided the smoking area except at sunrise and sunset for taking pictures .. morning was not an issue. Didn't notice any smoke around or above the pool area.

We are now trying to convince our "loyal to Royal" friends to cruise on the Breeze in October.

Booking Breeze Oct. 18th :-)

Thank you for your review!

We sail on her in 8 days, and although I don't normally follow my upcoming ship reviews, I clicked on yours because this was your first time sailing with Carnival.

Your review/critique/praise was great to read. I love to read honest reviews, not the cheerleading bias nor the negative nellie complainers.

I'm pretty sure with the port intensive itenirary we won't have to worry (too much) about the chair hogs, and even though I love to gamble (especially poker), I don't see spending a lot of time in the casino, especially with the smoke issues.

This will be our youngest children's first cruise (they are 13,13, and 11). They are so excited (as I am) they can hardly stand it!

Glad you enjoyed Carnival!

Here are the chair hogs

We are embarking on a week cruise on Liberty from San Juan next Sunday. We are seasoned Royal Carib cruisers and first time Carnival. Does anybody know what the entertainment is currently onboard? Thanks.