My First Carnival Cruise (review) Liberty 4/23

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Sorry for my crappy writing style. It may read more like a reference manual. For those who do not tolerate differing opinions, please go elsewhere. Go hug your Freddie Funnel doll and go back to bed or something.

Having been wanting to do a cruise for a while now, my girlfriend and I finally settled on a week we both could get off. She wanted to do Jamaica at least as one stop and only one other cruise from Miami was going there that week. Well only one that was a 7 day. Some shorter ones were going there and another line had one but it included stops in places she never heard of. Since tis was her first cruise and first time leaving the country, I let her pick the stops.

I have to admit, Carnival does not have the best rep in the general publics view. Most of which is all hearsay of course, but this review isn't about that. No need to debate it. Lets just say Carnival must be working hard to dispel its old undeserved rep as this ship and cruise was nothing like the naysayers alluded to.

After having checked out reviews for this ship here and elsewhere I felt better about booking it. Almost no bad reviews other than a few You Tube vids of nasty water from the sinks. I was feeling pretty confident about our cruise. Only worry was the drinking water but figured those two vids were not what is normal.

We picked our excursions privately for Cozumel and Grand Cayman and even though they are not official Carnival excursions, I will include them briefly in the review. We opted for Carnivals excursion in Ocho Rios as it had what we wanted and as much as its a picturesque Island, Ocho Rios is a dump and I don't want to walk around town looking for lunch. The excursion included it.

The Ship- First impressions. Its a clean and well kept ship. The fact that they played rock music on the system was telling me I will be just fine. I remarked to my girlfriend that we were officially old farts now that they play Alice Cooper and RUSH on elevators. It told me that this wasn't going to be a boring stuffy cruise with a bunch of pretend blue bloods that all went to bed by 9:30.

I really liked the ship and layout was pretty easy to get used to. Since we were on Deck 7 it was easier for us as that deck goes all the way across the ship.


So far the cruise was starting of incredibly well. Fast embarkation, friendly staff, good tunes, good layout. This was going to be an awesome week and as long as we don't sink, not much will ruin a cruise for me. Even then as long as no one dies and we all get safely picked up, it would just be an incredible adventure to tell of later.

The review wont necessarily follow any time line. Just reviews of parts that come to mind.

I will rate on a scale of 1-5
1 = Horrible
2 = Tolerable
3 = Meh, average at best but expected more
4 = pretty good, somewhat impressive
5 = excellent/ outstanding/above an beyond my expectation

The Room. - 4
We booked a 4j. Room 7201 right smack dab in the middle of the front just under the bridge. What a great room. Its not huge but then again its only two of us. The window was great, each morning I would jump up in bed and see each port coming in. Being able to walk out the door and be within fresh air was nice and I really enjoyed having the front deck pretty much all to ourselves. Good stargazing, watch flying fish and overall get a nice quiet place to enjoy the breeze.

First problem on cruise. I had ordered a bottle of Jim Beam from BV and a chocolate strawberry plate for the room. My girlfriend loves chocolate strawberries so it was a nice touch to welcome her to the room. Well the strawberries weren't there. Oh man oh man. You don't screw with my girlfriends strawberries. I was so pissed I drank the entire bottle of Jim Beam right then and there and proceeded to thrash the room in a blind drunken rage, swearing the whole time to never sail Carnival again as I flushed towels down the toilet.

Well actually no, I called Guest Services and asked when they would arrive. They profusely apologized and explained that sometimes not all supplies get on board in time and offered to call me personally by 6 if I didn't see them by then. Thats cool with me. Stuff happens and as far as problems go, it sure is a small one. I was happy. I just tossed in the stuff about being pissed and drunk in hopes of causing one or two particular members to pop a vein and pass out in shock. The missing strawberries were in our room within the hour.

Entertainment. - overall a 5
I don't care for shows and such but since this was my girlfriends first cruise, and since all the entertainment is included, we tried to see everything the ship had to offer.

The shows up front are incredibly well done. Its amazing how they can put on a performance with an ever chancing stage set like that with a really good band. I am not a show guy and I am definitely impressed. Very very well done Carnival. In fact I hope my future cruise has a show and set up as good.

The comedians were pretty funny. Some were OK but the fact that they rotated them through out the week was nice. Good job Carnival. Way to keep it fresh.

Sorry I didn't catch the piano guy for long but the short time I was there, he was very good and engaging. I think his name was Brad.

Lots of stuff going on for passengers , even if it wasn't something I was interested int Carnival sure tried to make sure something was going on.

FOOD (sorry here is were I will be a bit picky and may upset some)

MDR Food – dinner – 3
Sorry I guess I expected more. It was not bad but it wasn't anything to brag about IMHO. Naturally we all have different opinions on food. To me it was a step below chain places like Red Lobster and such but the presentation was very nice.

I did try the dreaded flat iron everyone loves or hates. It was cooked properly but the gravy/sauce they put on it was pretty weird. I had much better at chain places like outback unfortunately.

The Chateaubriand was basically a Flat Iron but gussied up. Nice try there cook.

Positives on MDR food. The Prime Rib was decent and the Lobster Bisque was much better than the steakhouse version. It wasn't the best lobster bisque I ever had but it was so much better than the Steakhouse version.

Deserts were OK.

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. - 3
The renowned and often worshiped desert of Carnival. I just HAD to try this. Wow. It sent me into a nostalgic dream like state. I was magically teleported back in time. Back to 1970 something when I was about 7. It was Christmas time and my cousin got her first Betty Crocker Easy Bake oven and was making us some cakes. She poured the batter into the cup, put it in and “cooked” it under the light bulb what seemed to be about 7 hours. What came out was a brown hump with a slightly crusty top. Inside was gooey uncooked batter that suffered from an overly generous glop of Hershey's chocolate. It was good because, well hell, its warm gooey chocolate.

Thats pretty much it. Many local places here have that same type of desert. Its amazing that Betty Crocker never cashed in on that side effect of childhood cooking mistakes. Really cant say mistake because its warm gooey chocolaty goodness. One was enough for the cruise however. My girlfriend asked what it tasted like. The only word that came out of my mouth was “Diabetes”. Glad I tried it though.

MDR Breakfast - 3
The Eggs Benedict were a 1 though. Pretty bad IMHO. The sauce was crusty and minuscule. The eggs overdone. The whole thing was pretty bad. Honestly though, that was the only food on the ship that did not like. Everything else was just OK.

Lido Food – 2.5 -3
Hard for me to rate because I really don't like buffets. The pizza was pretty poor IMHO, I give it a 2. It was just tolerable. The Deli was OK but the sandwiches were small, no big deal order two. Decent though, of all the lido deck food, I felt this was my favorite. Mongolian was edible but I didn't really care for it. My girlfriend who was really looking forward to it was not thrilled with it either. Burrito bar was less then I hoped for. The Lido juices were a joke. Orange colored water called orange juice was available for the taking.
We never ate during peak times so at least crowds weren't a problem.

Origami Sushi – 3
I didn't expect much from there. The tuna was put into a blender and mushed up into balls. I am hoping it was really tuna. It tasted like it but had the consistency of a deviled egg. Friggin weird. The JB rolls were OK but I normally don't eat rolls.

Room service food – 3.5
Why the extra .5? Because I didn't have to walk my butt to get it. Actually the desert was really good. The sandwiches were on par with the deli ones. We only ordered 2x from room service
Only bad room service meal was breakfast. The bagel was horrible stale, old and cold. The coffee was worse than anything I had overseas in the Army. You could degrease a truck with it.

Harry's Steak House. - 3
While the atmosphere was pretty nice and the service was very good, the food was not much to brag about. I know many will disagree with me, thats cool we all have differing tastes and standards. Many times it where we are from that may determine that as well.

The server gave the presentation and mentioned that the steaks are aged according to their specifications. I was going to ask because that can mean anything. Most places will tell you exactly how long they were aged for. Sorry to sound snobby but I am guessing Carnival specifications were 10 minutes of “aging” there is no way those steaks were properly aged or at least aged for any amount of time that matters. Perhaps the cut or quality of meat just wasn't that good. I ordered the spiced Rib eye recommended by the chef and my girlfriend got the surf and turf with the fillet. She said hers was OK but nothing great. She did enjoy the spoiling atmosphere though. At first they didn't want to cook my steak Medium Rare. They said the chef recommend medium. I didn't want to argue and said OK, send it medium. It was medium. Thats fine, I can eat medium. Now it wasn't the cooking of the steak that I didn't enjoy, I can eat up medium steaks all day. The quality just wasn't there. Truth be told, I had better at large chain places. Heck the local Longhorn surprisingly did up Rib eye much better.

Would I try the Steakhouse again? Probably. It could have just been an off night. It certainly wasn't a bad meal, its just that I had high expectations because of all the glowing reviews here. I will give it another shot but there is no way those steaks were anywhere in the league of Morton's, Ruth Chris, Capital Grille and other fine quality Places.

I am also not saying for folks not to try it. By all means do. Its a nice change from the MDR and the food definitely is better, but not by a whole lot IMHO. Maybe better luck next time. And there will be a next time.

MDR Anytime dining service - 4.5
Really impressed as this was a worry of mine after reading some reviews. We eat early so we were among the first in. Service was excellent. We had 3 people serving us. Only problem we had was a coffee didn't get delivered the first night. No big deal, we figured it was the first night and things like that were to be expected.

We requested a table the first night and got it. We met some really great people that night and it ended up being us 3 couples at that same window table the entire cruise. Worked out great.

Pools and such – cant rate, sorry.
I don't use the salt water pools. I just lay out on the deck and get sun. I have no idea about chair hogs. I sunned in the top deck with the jogging track and there were always plenty of chairs open. When I got too hot I would walk over to the shower, cool off and get back to sunning.

I also don't use the giant petri dishes also knows as Jacuzzis. The water is just warm enough to speed up the growth and transmission of whatever open sore is now festering hidden under someones clothing. Sorry but there was no way I would get in one of those things. Public room temp Jacuzzis gross me out big time.

Ships gym - 4 It was better than I expected.

I think it can use more ellipticals as folks were waiting. Sorry but anything less that 30 minutes of HiiT isn't doing your body much good. I did ask folks around me if they were wanting to use it but no one took me up. First few days it was mostly folks exploring the gym . It was evident who would not be there later in the cruise but it was still good to see folks at least give it a shot at the beginning. They had classes and such and had a “Boot Camp” which I almost did but then saw it was basically a variation of the P90X I do at home. No way I was paying $200 for that on the ship. Glad others gave it a go though. I hope they took what they learned and applied it later.

Tendering- 4
When we were anchoring I watched the tenders circling like hungry sharks in the distance, they were definitely ready. I heard of a number ticket system mentioned here. Not so on this cruise. It was first come first served. Worked out great because in Grand Cayman, the tenders hold just under 300 folks and two were always filling up all the time while the super expensive Regent ship was using its own life rafts for tenders.

Disembarking at piers – 4 fast and smooth. Not as chaotic as I envisioned.

I cant think of anything else off the top of my head to give a numbered review of at the moment. If anyone thinks of something, just ask and I will give my opinion. I am sure I missed plenty of things that some folks may want info on.

I enjoyed myself immensely. What a great time. I was really worried the slow economy, high fuel prices and such would have affected much. It didn't. It was a good quality cruise. Every bit as good as you folks here said it would be. Not so much on the food for me, but I don't cruise for the food alone anyway.

Each day was slow and I was thankful for that. It was nice to bring my binoculars as when you think you are alone out there, if you scan the horizon you will see other cruise ships just on the edge of vision chugging along. The first night a Princess ship was along side of us about 5 miles out for the first entire day and night. Some really big fires on the coast of Cuba. Once in a while a lone sailboat out there in the middle of nowhere just gently breezing it way to wherever. One nice 3 masted sailboat was out there doing its thing. Looked like an old pirate ship. I took a pic through my binoculars. Not the clearest shot but it gave it a haunted look to it. I told my kids it was the Flying Dutchman, LOL.

My favorite things to do were..... Wandering the ship after my girlfriend went to bed. I am a night owl and like to explore. Watching people late for the tenders through my binoculars in Grand Cayman was fun. They go from shuffling along and once they realize there is NO ONE else there, they start to panic and run. One little girl left her parents in the dust. Her parents made it to the tender, they got loaded while our ship was backing up. I think some folks didn't make it though. They called for some a bunch of times and gave up. I remember seeing about 3 people behind the chain link fence gate at GC looking though and pacing and looking frantic. By then the ship was heading out.

I loved watching the flying fish off the bow as we left ports. To me that was always a good omen. Its bunk, I am a really skeptical guy but I decided I needed something goofy like that to believe in, so I made that up.

Weather was near perfect. No rain except for the second to last night. We plowed though a storm but I was in the comedy club and hardly felt movement. It was like a airplane as the most. Last night of the cruise was an incredibly beautiful lightning storm, we sailed right past it. It was most lovely.

Anyway. Tired and rambling at this point. Will update more this weekend. Maybe excursions and such

for the (TLDR) Too Long Didn't Read crowd.....
First time on Carnival. It was the Liberty. Was much much better then anticipated. Food was mediocre. Will cruise Carnival again. Probably same ship as well.

Out of a scale of 1-5 I give it a solid 4. Up the food quality a bit and you have a real winner. For me of course. Others loved the food.

Will be back later this weekend with more stuff if I have time.
Thanks to everyone here at CC who helped with pre cruise questions and advice , you helped make this cruise all that much more enjoyable.

[LBumb]

good job

[blondietink]

Great TR! i enjoyed reading it.

[Thestapels]

Great job. Lobster Bisque in the MDR better than the Steakhouse? You don't hear that to often

[Islandbear]

Originally Posted by Rottweiler Puppy

.... You don't screw with my girlfriends strawberries. I was so pissed I drank the entire bottle of Jim Beam right then and there and proceeded to thrash the room in a blind drunken rage, swearing the whole time to never sail Carnival again as I flushed towels down the toilet.

That is the funniest set - up line I have read ever. Congratulations! You are my new hero.

[Topo Gigio]

Great review. I TOTALLY agree with you about the food. Just said it here the other day I really don't see what people see in Carnival's food that they keep saying the food is sooo good. It's ok and eadible and you will always find s.t. that you like.

Just to avoid any misunderstanding I have been on 7 different cruise lines and 7 times with Carnival .When it comes to food Carnival is on number 7 for me.

[swimmom32]

Great Review thank you..We are sailing on Liberty right after dry dock for Thanksgiving, we cant wait...

[swimmom32]

We found the food to be excellent on our Destiny Cruise and we eat out quiet often and were very pleased...

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Originally Posted by swimmom32

We found the food to be excellent on our Destiny Cruise and we eat out quiet often and were very pleased...

I am actually looking at the Destiny for our next as its a little shorter and we can probably afford to take more friends and family on that one.

Glad to hear you liked the food on her.

[Name Of The Game]

Very thorough amusing review!

[Nezmo]

Nice job Rott.

The bottom line on food folks is that it's simply subjective. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

[otowncruisr]

Originally Posted by Rottweiler Puppy

One was enough for the cruise however. My girlfriend asked what it tasted like. The only word that came out of my mouth was “Diabetes”.

My wife accusses me at never laughing at anything, but this made me almost choke. Funniest thing I've read on CC in quite some time.

[oncruisecontrol]

Nicely done, Rottweiller Puppy. I rarely read reviews that have no photos, but you have such a witty writing style that I thoroughly enjoyed reading your review.

The food on Carnival can be hit or miss depending on what ship you're on and who the chefs/cooks are the week that you happen to go. Regardless, the food is never top quality, and I don't expect it to be (even though Carnival's food was better several years ago). For example, the Mongolian Grill was tons better on my cruise on the Freedom in Oct 2009 than it was on the Valor in Sept 2010....purely because of the skill of the cooks. As a result, I ate Mongolian Grill everyday for lunch on the Freedom, but after one try on the Valor, I never went back.

The food on ships will never impress me as I am someone who cooks from scratch meals that are simple and fresh everyday at home. Anyway,just some of my thoughts. I really enjoyed reading your review.

[wildcatcruzer]

Loved the line "tastes like diabetes", lol. It is sweet, but this chocolate lover likes it.

[ilovetexas]

Originally Posted by Rottweiler Puppy

For those who do not tolerate differing opinions, please go elsewhere. Go hug your Freddie Funnel doll and go back to bed or something.

Bless you for saying that!!

I remarked to my girlfriend that we were officially old farts now that they play Alice Cooper and RUSH on elevators.

Crap, now I'm old.

I was so pissed I drank the entire bottle of Jim Beam right then and there and proceeded to thrash the room in a blind drunken rage, swearing the whole time to never sail Carnival again as I flushed towels down the toilet.

Please don't do that again, you will offend some of the Platinum cruisers!

I just tossed in the stuff about being pissed and drunk in hopes of causing one or two particular members to pop a vein and pass out in shock.

I hope they post pictures when they do!

The shows up front are incredibly well done. Its amazing how they can put on a performance with an ever chancing stage set like that with a really good band. I am not a show guy and I am definitely impressed.

I'm not a show girl but Disney's are INCREDIBLE, if you ever get the chance.

I also don't use the giant petri dishes also knows as Jacuzzis. The water is just warm enough to speed up the growth and transmission of whatever open sore is now festering hidden under someones clothing.

Ummm.....gross.....

I enjoyed myself immensely.

That's all that really matters. Glad you had a great time and thanks for the wonderful review. I'm leaving in a week and am in cruise mode already!!

Would also love to see any pics you have from your trip!

[CanWeGoYet?]

Originally Posted by Rottweiler Puppy

The coffee was worse than anything I had overseas in the Army. You could degrease a truck with it.

I agree, room service coffee was usually hideous.

Glad most of the cruise was good. I love the production shows too.

Nice review, I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

[cjefffg24]

Thanks for the review! Quick question, we are sailing on Liberty and have room 6201, right below where you were. Worried about feeling "motion", did you experience any of that?

C

[Nezmo]

Originally Posted by CanWeGoYet?

I agree, room service coffee was usually hideous.

Glad most of the cruise was good. I love the production shows too.

Nice review, I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

One of the Lido machines I used had an indicator light on saying it needed descaling.

[C Cruise Dude]

Good job. I thought the chocolate melty was not what it's hyped to be. It was nasty to me, I just ate the ice cream. The Easy Bake example was good.

[Froufie]

Glad you enjoyed the Liberty and I loved your review!

I too beg to differ on the 'lobster bisque' analysis - so I do hope it was on off night at Harry's? I spend a lot of time dreaming about my next steakhouse lobster bisque - way better (in my opinion of course) than the standard MDR version....and yes food tastes are very subjective!