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Carnival Liberty 3/22-3/29 2015 Repositioning Cruise Review

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Carnival Liberty Repositioning Cruise

March 22nd – March 29th 2015

Port Canaveral, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, St. Maartin, Tortola and San Juan

 

 

Hello! We are Jen and Seth from central Connecticut, a couple in our mid 30’s and this was our 6th cruise, 4th on Carnival. We have also sailed twice on Princess so occasionally I might make a comparison to Princess since we were just on the Emerald last year. I always do a lot of research and get lots of good information from others here on Cruise Critic so I like to share my experience and return the favor in hopes someone will find something useful. Warning, this will be a long winded review, including lots of pictures! We flew in a day early and stayed overnight in San Juan after so I’ll be including what we did those days as well. Also, we purchased FTTF for the first time this cruise, so I’ll mention a bit about that.

PS: I’m apparently in the market for a new camera as you will see many of my pics are blurry, and dark. Sorry for the lack of quality on the pictures and if you have any suggestions for a good point and shoot camera I’m all ears!



Pre-Cruise

Living in the unpredictable northeast, we always fly down to Florida a day early to allow time for delays without totally stressing us out. This year it actually was snowing the morning we left, even though it wasn’t a lot, the peace of mind the extra time gave us was priceless. We flew direct on Southwest from Hartford to Orlando International arriving in Orlando at 7:00pm. This was our first time leaving from Port Canaveral and when we initially booked, we had no idea it was an hour away from the airport! We decided to book the Comfort Inn at Cocoa Beach because we wanted to get the long drive over with and be that much closer to the ship in the morning. We were able to book the “fly, snooze and cruise” package which included a shuttle from the airport to hotel, to the port in the morning and then from port to airport after the cruise. Since we were on a repositioning cruise we didn’t need the shuttle back to the airport, and by calling the hotel directly I was able to speak to someone and arrange a special price eliminating the return shuttle cost. Our cost was $179 plus tax and fees. It seemed a bit pricey at first, as we usually don’t pay more than $100 for a pre cruise hotel (we don’t care about fancy), but when you factor in the cost of an hour taxi ride, private shuttle or other mode of transportation, the extra $80 was very reasonable, and again, peace of mind knowing we had a ride arranged in advance. Comfort Inn uses a shuttle service called Travel Lynx. They emailed me directly and took my flight information in order to have a shuttle available. The instructions were for us to call them once we had our luggage and were ready. I was literally digging through my purse looking for my phone to call them, when my phone rang and they were calling me. They confirmed shuttle pick up area, which was clearly marked and easy to find. We waited about 15-20min for it to arrive (a van picking up passengers at other airlines). Our driver, Alan, was very polite and professional, and the drive took just under an hour as expected. We checked in at the hotel and inquired about the shuttle in the morning. Previously when I booked the hotel I was told that the shuttles to the port started around 9:30am. Since we had FTTF (Faster to the Fun) I wanted to get there by 1030 to ensure we got our early boarding. When we checked in, they gave us a ticket for the shuttle and we were assigned to the 11:30 am shuttle! I asked about an earlier one and they told me they didn’t have any earlier. Feeling frustrated, we set off for our room. Now I thought we had booked a hotel, but apparently we were in more of a motel. We had to lug our luggage about 3 buildings away and had a room with a door to the outside parking lot, on the ground level. I was also frustrated about this, it was a long bumpy walk and I wasn’t expecting this sort of setting. The room was satisfactory, not overly nice or horrible. It did have a kitchen in it which was surprising but useless to us. The room was a little run down looking, some of the finishes had been updated but still was looking quite worn out, and was so-so clean, not super clean. (hairs in shower etc…)

We had been to Cocoa Beach as a port stop a few years ago and visited the Sandbar Beach Bar and really liked it, so we mapquested it and discovered the comfort inn was walking distance from there. Once we got settled (around 9-930pm) we walked down to our little bar and had our first vacation drinks and dinner. They had a band playing and it was pretty hoppin’. We stayed for a bit but headed back to get some rest for our big Embarkation day!

 

Some Hotel Pics

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Embarkation Day



 

 

We woke up around 8am and decided to try and get a cab to take us to the ship earlier than our assigned shuttle. I knew an 11:30 shuttle meant we would get there closer to 12 and then have longer lines to contend with etc. I had arranged for a 10:15 pick up, they said the cost would be $15 for two of us. When we went to check out at 10am, we handed our shuttle tickets back in and explained how we wanted to get there earlier, and the lady in charge of the shuttles overheard us and said she had one leaving at 10am and we could fit on it. I was so happy and annoyed at the same time. Now I felt bad about the cab, but they hadn’t arrived yet so I called and cancelled. We got on to the 10am shuttle and headed off to the port! It was about a 10min ride, and Liberty cruisers were dropped off first! We showed the luggage porters our FTTF tags (and gave them a little cash) and saw our bags off. We walked right in, no lines. We showed our passports and boarding passes, then went through security, which was a million times easier than airport security. The guy in front of us was carrying a huge duffel bag which he told us was filled with beer…he went right through! We headed over to the desk where you get your sign and sail cards and there was a separate line for FTTF, but there really was no line. They took our picture at the desk and off we went to sit in the FTTF section. We were all checked in about 10:45am, and they called FTTF to load at 11:15. We were on board before our 11:30 shuttle would have left the hotel!

 

Once we got on board we headed straight up to the Lido to try and be the first to the Red Frog but we were beat by two other sets of people. Booo. I still had my carry on so we went to drop it off and check out our room. Since we had FTTF we were able to go to our room right away. We dropped off my bag and walked around the ship to take some photos before it got crowded. We decided on Guys Burgers for lunch since there was no line yet, and boy am I glad we did when we did, the line 5 min after we got our burgers and the rest of the cruise was always quite long! They were much better than the old carnival burgers but still not better than my favorite local burger joint here in CT. Still delicious nonetheless!! Next we headed over to the Blue Iguana to get our first drinks. I had Blue’s Patron Margarita ($1off special too!) and Seth had Iguanas Iced Tea.

The muster drill was at 3:30pm, we did not have to take lifejackets. It was about 15-20min long once everyone was gathered. I just wish they’d allow a little more time before sailaway for people to disperse. This time they released one side of the ship and made the other side wait (felt like forever). By the time we worked our way up to the Lido to get a drink for sailway, we had already started moving and all the railings were blocked. Kind of a bummer but this happened to us the past 3 cruises despite our best efforts. We had a few drinks, met up with a couple that mutual friend had connected us with, and chatted until the party and dancing started to die down then headed back to the room to get ready for dinner.

 

Walking up the hallway to the gangway!! Huge smiles plastered on our faces

 

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Guy's Burger

 

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Blue Iguana Menu, not sure if you can read it

 

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Drinks made with FRESH lime juice! I need this juicer...

 

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First Drink Pic!

 

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Our Room

 

When we arrived to our room we found our VIFP complementary water bottles waiting for us as well as our Gold member pins! We became gold halfway through this sailing so apparently they give you gold status from the start because our cards were gold also.

Woo hoo!

We had a balcony on the Lido deck room #9276. It was our first time staying on the Lido and it was pretty nice! It was obviously very convenient to the pool area and buffet, and very quiet. Some Lido first timers are worried about noise but even with our room being right next to the atrium and the elevators- it was still not noisy. There’s a barrier wall to separate the open atrium and the stateroom hallway. We did hear music from the Atrium in the evening, and the dinging of the elevator sometimes, but we went to bed pretty late each night and never had a problem sleeping. We also bring a travel fan with us for white noise, can’t sleep without it! A few people on cruise critic pointed out that there is a vent over the balcony for this room, which is true. They described it as a freight train and said it was unbearable to listen to. I definitely heard some noise, but I can’t tell if it was from the ships whale tail, the wind, the vent or all of the above. In all honesty I wouldn’t have thought twice about it if I hadn’t read about it, and it didn’t affect us at all. Everyone is different though! The room itself was pretty standard. It had a flat screen tv which was new for us, (stopped working one night and we left a note for the Steward and after dinner it was fixed) there was a little corner cubby of shelving I don’t remember having on previous ships, and a corner soap holder in the shower I don’t remember on previous ships. I brought a suction cup shower caddy for all my stuff, it was very nice to have and I will always take it from now on. There was no basket of goodies this time, and also no chocolates at night. I know they cut out the chocolates but thought maybe they’d still be using up their supply. ;) No biggie, I still got my towel animal each night and that’s all I really care about!!  Our room steward was efficient; we didn’t ask much of him though. We put up our snooze sign and he didn’t bother us in the morning and came quickly after we put up the cruisin’ sign. The bed to me was comfortable, and this room had two night stands which after sailing a ship that only had one, is nice to have! I use my phone as an alarm clock so the little table is kind of a big deal. Overall we liked the room, but in the future I would probably not choose the Lido again because our pool usage vs night time entertainment usage was small. I’d rather be further towards the back of the ship and closer to the lounges/bars and dining rooms and on a deck that you can walk from bow to stern without any blockages. We often went down to 8 to traverse the ship because I didn’t want to walk outside and through the buffet in my dinner clothes every night. Just not as convenient for us as it might be for others, but I’m glad we gave it a try!

 

Typical Bathroom

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The Ship



 

 

As many before me have stated, this is a very pretty ship!! It was very colorful and modern and I enjoyed the little details. Its layout is similar to the Glory and the Victory, so it wasn’t too hard to find our way around, except we usually have our room in the aft and this time we were forward so we kept getting confused.

The cruise director was Felipe (woohoo!) who we actually had on the Victory before. He’s very energetic and fun, and always signs off his shows and announcements with his famous- woohoo! I really liked him the first time we had him, this time was no different.

We saw several comedy shows in the Victoria Lounge which is in the back of the ship. It fits more people that you would think, but even so, most of the shows were completely full. Early in the cruise they would empty out the lounge and make everyone re-enter for the next show, but the last two nights they didn’t do that. We enjoyed all of the comedians, but drink service was very slow here so make sure to order early or you won’t get your drink by the end of the show!

The Alchemy bar isn’t far from the comedy show lounge, and we liked their drink selection much better anyway so we’d stop there before heading to the comedy shows. I highly recommend the cucumber sunrise straight up, pineapple chipotle martini or anything mixed with their strawberry infused vodka. Needless to say this was our favorite bar on the ship. Even their menu lit up!

The first half of the cruise the piano bar always seemed packed, we never went in. The second to last night we finally made it in there and it was DEAD. The singers apparently changed out and unfortunately the new guy was pretty bad. He seemed to just get really, really drunk and wasn’t playing anyone’s requests. Finally a young girl started singing for him, but slow Celine Dion type stuff so we headed out.

The dance club was usually pretty crowded after 11, but only one night were people really dancing. DJ Extreme sure knew how to clear a dance floor! He’d play one hit song and have the floor packed then he’d play 5 odd songs no one really knew or could dance so the floor emptied. People were making requests but it didn’t seem like he was playing them. It was kind of a bummer! Speaking of music, I was hoping for some live music out by the pool, but unfortunately there was one guy who played guitar for an hour or two the first day at sea and that was it. DJ extreme played his ipod a little bit here and there, but the first few sail aways from our ports had no music at all! Definitely no

steel drum band or anything.

We only managed to catch one show in the theater- the Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Junior tribute. It was performed well, but not my cup of tea.

They had two deck parties at night, one for the red frog rum bar and one for the blue iguana tequila bar. There was the usual line dancing, conga line, limbo etc. They shot streamers and handed out beads, whistles, hats, balloons etc. It was fun in the moment but at the end of the week we had a pile of stuff sitting in our room that we didn’t want. I felt bad throwing it out, seems like such a waste! With Carnival cutting out small things like chocolates and bathroom toiletries, I’m sure they could save a lot of money and waste cutting some of this stuff out. Hope that doesn’t make me a party pooper!

As far as other activities they had the usually pool games like the hairy chest contest, spoon diving, synchronized swimming, ice carving etc. We also found corn hole up on the 11th deck and played quite a bit the first few days!

The casino had a slot tournament that I lost right away, and other tournaments we didn’t participate in. I’m sure there’s stuff I’m forgetting, and there’s definitely stuff we missed out like afternoon tea, bingo and trivia but its so hard to do everything! We got up early and went to bed late everyday but still couldn’t do it all.

 

Some pics of the ship

 

 

Piano Bar

 

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Night club

 

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pghsteelerfan

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Thank you for taking the time to post a review. I love what you have so far and I'll definitely be following along. I do have to comment now to let you know how much I love your interior pictures of Liberty. They all look so nice and you've done a great job in catching the detail inside! We were on Liberty last year in early April on a western Caribbean cruise and love all the ships we've been on, but Liberty was our favorite in decor. I also took a lot of pictures but they didn't come out near as nice as the ones you got. I can't wait for more of your review and thank you for taking the time to do one.

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Glad you guys like it so far...:)



 

Food

 

As you probably know the Liberty has the 2.0 upgrades which include Guys Burgers, Blue Iguana Cantina and Tequila Bar, Red Frog Rum Bar, Taste bar, and the Alchemy bar. Unfortunately because of our port itinerary we only got to try Guys Burgers once and the Taco bar once. We also had the deli one afternoon because its open later than the other places, but the line was very long and slow. We had pizza several times because it’s always open and we stopped there late night before bed! (side note: I was constantly amazed at the amount of people out on the Lido at 1am, Carnival really is the fun ship). We never ate in the buffet, and I never got to try the Mongolian Wok because the line was too long the first day and it was always closed after we got back on the ship in the afternoon. They had the taste bar open the first two nights and the last two nights, we only remembered to go the first two nights. The first night it was the shredded pork from the taco bar and a tomato based soup that were both very good. The second night they had a fried short rib croquet and pumpkin soup. I wasn’t that impressed it tasted a little greasy to me and I don’t care for pumpkin soup although our friend said she really liked it. (Didn’t get a picture sorry)

I’m a little bummed we didn’t get to take more advantage of the restaurants on the ship, but I guess seeing each port was more important to us. I wish they would keep these places open later than 2:30 though! We did eat breakfast in the MDR almost every morning and we ate dinner in the MDR every night except one when we went to the steakhouse.

 

Taste Bar Shredded Pork

 

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Pizza Menu (PS I never knew you could get Caesar salad at the pizza station!)

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Quattro Formaggi my one and only

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Drinks

 

I was pretty happy with the drink selection this time around, I feel like they've added a lot of new mixed drinks and martinis to their standard menu and of course the Alchemy Bar and Blue Iguana each have their own special menu’s so there really was quite a lot to choose from. I felt the drinks were appropriately strong, and a good size for the money. They also have a much better selection of beer now than before, we love having Sam Adams on the ship! We have done Cheers! in the past and the All Inclusive on Princess last year and my records indicated we just about broke even the first time, and lost money on Princess. I convinced Seth that we should skip it this time (since the cost had gone up since our last Carnival cruise) and even with our port heavy itinerary, I failed us. We drank more this cruise (better selection of drinks? More availability??) than ever, and definitely would have saved at least $100 had we bought Cheers. Oh well, live and learn. For those wondering, the Cheers! package is $49.95 + 15% gratuity per day.

 

 

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Pineapple Chipotle Martini

 

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Cucumber Sunrise Straight Up

 

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I have no idea what its called just ask for the drink in the pineapple :p

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MDR



 

As I stated before we had breakfast and dinner each day in the MDR. Breakfast was pretty quick and easy. We had a table for two each day without any problems. They have the Sea Day Brunch on sea days (go figure) and regular breakfast the rest of the time. I had the eggs Benedict and the egg yolks were completely hard. I didn’t care much for the smoked ham either. I would give it a 4 out of 10. I had it on our last sailing and it was better. The second day I had the Hueveos Rancheros and it was delish! 10 out of 10. Seth got steak and eggs and liked it except he doesn’t really like runny eggs, his fault though. I can’t remember what he got the second day. As far as regular breakfast it was all just ok. I liked the scrambled eggs the best, I also had a pretty good omelette made with extra cheese that was cooked perfectly without a speck of brown on it (I HATE brown on my eggs) but then I had poached eggs that were very undercooked and make me a little nauseous. Seth enjoyed the corned beef hash every day. I also tried the waffle with strawberries and cream, it used to be my favorite but they don’t give you much for cream anymore and it deflates fast.

 

We had anytime dining for dinner so we were assigned to the Golden Olympian Dining Room. The first night we requested a table for two and were sat at a table for four separated by no more than 3 inches. Our waiter took our orders together and treated us like a table of four. We were civil about it as were our “tablemates” and chatted and enjoyed ourselves at first, but soon realized they were getting very loud and obnoxious and were clearly very drunk. We were a little embarrassed by the time the dinner course arrived as they were drawing a lot of attention to us. Eventually the woman excused herself and was gone for quite a bit, came back and didn’t want her dinner. They left before dessert probably to go be sick in their room. We saw them later in the week and they didn’t even recognize us! LOL. It’s ok, no harm done. The next night we asked for a “real” table for 2 and we got it and to our surprise we had our favorite waiter from the Victory, Guillermo from Guatemala! We sat in his section a few times and he always is so personable, efficient and fun! He does little tricks and stuff for each of his tables and seems to genuinely enjoy what he does and the people he meets. We had dinner the last few nights with the couple we met onboard and they got to meet Guillermo and enjoy his antics as well. They have the American Table menu’s on the Liberty and I wasn’t overly impressed. I missed some of the old standby’s although reading through my old reviews I see I was sick of the repetition, so I guess I’m never happy! I tried a lot of the appetizers and enjoyed mostly everything, but the entrée’s were only so-so in my opinion and I don’t think I really liked any of the desserts. We even skipped it a few nights. The other thing about the MDR is it is PAINFULLY slow service. I don’t think it’s the wait staff it has to be the kitchen. I read it on here but I didn’t believe it, but it seriously took no less than 2 hours for dinner each night. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy chatting and relaxing a bit, but there was always so much to do on the ship that sometimes we just wanted to get moving so we didn’t miss out on shows. Bar service was very slow or non existent some nights in the MDR, however there was always a waiter going around with the souvenir shot glasses, which annoyed me a little. So again, we took note and got our drinks before going to dinner. Our new friend who we ate with the last few nights has a gluten allergy and had to order his meals the night before, yet every day he asked for gluten free bread when we got our bread and his bread didn’t show up until an hour into the meal. I felt bad they couldn’t seem to get that right. Overall we still enjoyed the MDR but I wish the service was faster!

 

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Steak N Eggs

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Huevos Rancheros

 

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Breakfast Dessert- Brownie with Salted Caramel Sauce

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Belgian waffle

 

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Steakhouse



 

We decided to do the steakhouse the night after our St. Kitt’s hike. We made the reservations a few days in advance and the earliest time we could get was 7:30. They said to allow 2-2 ½ hours for dinner, but service was faster than in the MDR and we moved along quite quickly as we were starving and ate very fast. The cost was $35pp and you get to pick an appetizer, a soup or salad, and entrée and a dessert. I really wanted two of the appetizers and a salad, and I asked the waitress and she said if I really wanted it she would give me the extra appetizer. The first thing we received were two compliments from the chef. I got a tiny bowl of pureed mushroom soup, and Seth got a little dish of a shrimp fondue I believe. Both very delicious and just a tease! For my apps I ordered the escargot and chilled shrimp cocktail because they were made a little differently then in the MDR, spinach and blue cheese salad and the surf and turf for my entrée. I originally wanted the lobster ravioli but decided I should have steak since we were in the steakhouse. The steak was very good, but didn’t care much for the lobster. The lobster was broiled and a little dry and salty for me, I think just prefer it steamed so it’s nice and tender. I really didn’t have room for dessert but ordered the giant cheesecake anyway. It was very delicious I wish I could have eaten it all! (They gave me a “to go” container but it didn’t fit in the fridge so it ended up getting thrown out anyway . I also ordered a cappuccino because it’s included with the meal, and I love coffee with my dessert. Seth had the crabcake, french onion soup, New York strip with a side of garlic mashed potatoes and the chocolate sampler for dessert. At the end of our meal a man came to our table and did card tricks for us, at first I was a little annoyed because I’m not a big fan of card tricks but he was truly amazing, scary amazing. Overall we really enjoyed the steakhouse, I like the slightly more upscale feel, and the silverware and glasses seem to glisten so much more. We talked about going back to try some of the other things on the menu but ended up not doing it.

 

Mushroom Soup Compliments

 

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Shrimp Dip Compliments

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Escargot Bourguignonne

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Crabcake

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Shrimp Cocktail

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French Onion Soup

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