Liberty Oct 11 Photo Review

Thank you in advance for tuning in as I recap my second cruise on Carnival Liberty, my 5th Carnival cruise and 9th cruise overall.

I am 45 and I cruise with my beautiful Mom, who is 73, this was her 3rd cruise on Carnival and her 4th cruise total.

The last time I was on Liberty was last October with my boyfriend. He and I had a good cruise but I cruise differently when I am with my Mom. We have more fun and laughs and it's just very special.

My Mom and I both love cruising on Carnival for many reasons. it's fun, relaxed, and often filled with surprises. This cruise would be no different.

On the last Liberty cruise, I had an inside on Lido deck. Loved it. Having an inside cabin does not bother me a bit! It's dark, stays cool, provides a place to sleep and shower.

This time, Mom and I decided to go for a balcony on Lido. As time passed, we started to see the prices begin to drop. Having booked Early Saver, we were able to take advantage of these price drops, firstly by upgrading to an Aft Extended Balcony, and by the time sail date came, we had $244 OBC! We also have Verizon as our cell phone provider, and with their Smart Rewards program, we were able to purchase e-gift cards at discounted prices to use towards our on board expenses.

And so, our itinerary was to be 7 nights...depart Saturday, Nassau on Sunday, a day at Sea on Monday, St. Thomas on Tuesday, St. Maarten on Wednesday, 2 Sea Days Thursday & Friday, then return to Port Canaveral.

Without further delay...we start in Virginia, pulling out of the driveway at 4:30am Friday morning, with many stops along the way we arrived at our hotel in Cocoa Beach at about 5:30Pm.

The last time I stayed in Cocoa Beach pre-cruise was in 2003, I used Hotwire to book a hotel and it was great, nice hotel, nice location, parked our car for free and free shuttle to the ship. I have had amazing success with Hotwire. I decided to try my luck again, it did not go as well. I had decided that no matter what I would pre-pay to park at the port, so getting a hotel that would or would not let us park for free/discount was a non-issue. We just ended up at a 3 star property that looked and felt more like a 1 star. We were so glad it was just 1 night!

So, the night before the cruise, we were attempting to make due with our accommodations when I got a call from Carnival saying not to go to port until after 1pm Saturday because the ship would be late due to an emergency with a crew member. As it turns out the ship was not that much more late getting in than usual, when I heard that people were getting checked in at 10am, we decided to get a quick breakfast and go on over to the port at about 11am.

I had dropped off Mom and luggage and was parking at 11:20am.

With Faster to the Fun, we had zero wait for security and no wait for check-in. In fact, as our check-in was wrapping up, FTTF was being called and security let us on through and we went on to the ship . We were at Guest Services redeeming our e-gift cards at 11:38am and buying Cheers at 11:52am.

Cheers was $303 and change each, yes they add tax to individual drinks while in Port Canaveral.

We were in our cabin at 12:15. Cabin 7449, loved the location. I will get into that in more detail, but want to assure anyone worrying about cabin temps, that our cabin was cool, very cool, as long as we kept the curtains closed allll the way during daytime. We had a lot of direct sunlight. And no power outages during our cruise.

Can't wait to read more! I'll board the Liberty two weeks from this Friday!

Looking forward to your review!

Nice! Waiting for more :D

Great start!!!!:D

Cannot wait for more.

Thanks!!!!!

I too, have found that "Liberty" is my favorite ship. I've sailed her 3 times already this year, and will be back aboard in two weeks! :cool: Can't wait for the rest of your review.

"SKY"

And so we have a balcony, an aft extended balcony cabin 7449. Like I said previously, having a balcony has never been a priority. I have enjoyed inside cabins and the spirit class "French Door" cabins. The cabin is no bigger than a standard balcony room and is the same size as the French Door cabins.

We had 2 fabulous room stewards, one was "Johnson" and he really stood out. He brought us an ice bucket immediately upon getting to our cabin for the first time, and it was kept fresh throughout the day ever day. He caught on to our routine by Monday and he was visible to us and always addressed us by name and asked about or day.

The balcony itself is larger than a standard balcony. There is room to stretch out a bit, we had 1 chase lounger, a chair, and a high back chair with an adjustable back, and a little table. The balcony felt cramped and we were often moving the chairs around.

There are many advantages to having a balcony, but it's not everything, ya know? You get light, sun, a view, and air if you so choose. With an aft facing balcony, there can be advantages and disadvantages.

Direct sunlight in 85 degree weather with 93% humidity does not make the aft balcony a comfortable place to relax.

Even a cold beverage is not much of a help.

But oh those views...

We loved the location; it's pretty quiet, and our favorite places on Liberty are aft...the Versailles Pool (adult only pool), the Alchemy Bar, the comedy club in Victoria Aft lounge, the Silver Olympian ding room for Sea Day Brunch. It's easy access to the Promenade and does not feel like a long walk to the forward areas.

Many can become frustrated by the fact that the galley spans a good portion of deck 3 aft to mid ship, so the solution to getting to the Golden Olympian for dinner is a ride in the aft elevator from the upper or lower decks to deck 5, then walk the Promenade to the "Garden" elevators, take a ride down to deck 3, have a glass of wine while watching people and listening to the live entertainment before going in for dinner.

Am I "sold" on aft facing balconies? No. I really do not know if I will book another balcony again. We just used it for about an hour total each day. 10 minutes here, 20 there, 10 here, 20 there. But I will book aft cabins for now on.

The aft facing balconies are not covered. When I am at the beach and have an oceanfront room with a balcony, it is covered, and I enjoy sitting out there watching and listening to the rain. Thankfully we did not have much for rain, but it was sail-away from port when it was lightly storming.

As previously noted, we had an easy check-in and embarkation. Once we found our cabin and settled in a little, we were ready for a trip up to Lido to visit the Red Frog Rum Bar.

We had plenty of time to explore, so we did just that.

We visited the Venetian Palace Theater

The Golden Olympian

Enjoying the review so far. Liberty is my favorite ship.

I have Verizon too. Please tell me more about that Rewards program.

Enjoying the review.

Thanks

Keep them coming, excited as we are FIRST time Cruisers going on Liberty in Feb 2015.

Paul

Enjoying the review so far. Liberty is my favorite ship.

 

I have Verizon too. Please tell me more about that Rewards program.

You earn point by being a Verizon subscriber and can use the points towards discounts on merchandise, entertainment, shopping, local deals, etc.

I got an email about it back in July or August, there is a section for Gift Cards and a subcategory for travel. That is where to find Carnival stuff, they have e-gift cards (1000 points and you can buy a $100 e-gift card for $90. For 5000 points you can buy a $500 e-gift card for $450.

https://rewards.verizonwireless.com

Yeah...Liberty review...115 days till we go...thx

Can't wait to read more. Love the Liberty :)

A look down at the lobby and bar, DJ playing tunes...

Cherry on Top

The Casino

The Casino Bar

Coffee Bar's dessert case.

The Taste Bar

Hot & Cool Night Club

The Alchemy Bar

Victoria Lounge (Comedy and Super Star Live Karaoke take place here)

The Stage

EA Sports Bar

DJ - throughout the week there was live entertainment here.

Gift Shop....

After running around a bit, we went to the room and unpacked and just relaxed for a short while. We needed to go to the Muster Drill, because of my Mom being 73 and wanting to avoid falls and mishaps, we made arrangement for her to attend with the "Special Needs" group. If you are not able to navigate stairs or have other ailments or disabilty, you can do that. We were in the Cabinet, Mom said it made her feel old. After that was finished, we were up for Sail Away.

Always love Liberty reviews. Feels like I'm revisiting home :) Thanks so much for posting.

Sent from my phone. Typos are inevitable.

we are in our hotel waiting for Liberty to come pick us up in the morning!!! Reading your review and looking at the pictures just 12 hours before we go to the port is making me more excited! :)

we are in our hotel waiting for Liberty to come pick us up in the morning!!! Reading your review and looking at the pictures just 12 hours before we go to the port is making me more excited! :)

Have a great cruise, if you have anytime dining, ask for Bobby, and tell him Dana & Patricia say hi. Also at the Alchemy Bar, tell Parviz we said hi, too.

Sail Away

We made our way to our balcony

Thanks for the review.... sailing next Feb. Can't wait to ready more

Loving your review. My plan was to be on the Liberty sometime mid to late next year, as I've read such great reviews. I'm only an hour away from Port Canaveral you would think by now I've sail on it. Seems I will have to fly to Puerto Rico to sail on it. No worries. I haven't done that Southern Itinerary so it's a 2 for 1 in my book.

Great pics.