Debunking the Myths - Liberty 6-2-12 Review

[crewsweeper]

Enjoying the "faceless-unknown cruisers" review so far:cool:. Glad you had a good first meal at F&C, my 2nd fav spot to eat after the Blue Iguana, which you have yet to cover, and I hope you do. Your Steakhouse dinner so far mirrors our typical start too. Waiting on more food porn:D

 

Do hope to see more views of the fashionistas that you packed for. Next time don't stress over luggage, it'll get there. Pack what you need for the first night (crusie casual in all venues) in your carry ons. Better service, despite waiting in line at Guest Services than over the phone. And BTW, while decent, ordering a Thristy Red Frog in any gaustro-pub would drawn jeers and chorkles from the craft brew snobs(yours truly included:p)--it's an InBev/AB concoction. But on the ship, it's the best way to go outside of Grolisch and Pilsner Urquell in bottles.

 

Please continue!

[rtw68]

Great review! :D

 

We go on Liberty in 2013 and can't wait! :D

[dawnie216]

Loving this review..Going on Miracle in November.. Loving the food porn although it's not helping my pre-cruise oh **** summer is here diet!! Lol

[cruiserNC]

Loving your review!

[kwagmyre]

What is the orange thing in the spoon?

 

I asked my wife this question for you, since that one was "hers" (though we shared both, of course.) Here was her response:

 

"Cherry tomato but yellow. Nothing but it being skinned."

 

So, uh, there you have it. :cool:

[DEERINH2O]

Loving the review. Can't wait for more :)

 

 

Kathy

[meatloafsfan]

Great review so far.

 

This is going to sound dumb but the picture of your salad clinched taking my parents to the steakhouse in October - while my mom's not the biggest fan of steak, she loves blue cheese and spinach and I think that salad would just tickle her pink (along with the massive slice of cheesecake). My dad is easy to please as he will just love the big, honking piece of beef.

[kwagmyre]

Ok, time for more food porn. So, for the main course, I ordered the lamb, and my wife, the surf & turf. She was torn for the lamb also, but knew she could eat off my plate. :) Plus, she is a big lobster fan, whereas I do not eat it.

 

Myth: Carnival chefs are mostly Indian, and european-trained, so when ordering meat temperatures, you'll want to order a level back.

 

Reality: Carnival meat temps, at least on our cruise, are by "American" standards. Without exception, every cut of meat I ordered on this cruise was cooked to the correctly ordered temperature. However, when I ordered the lamb, I ordered it rare, thinking I was going to get American-medium-rare, but rare is what I ordered, and rare is what I got:

 

 

Now, I am not saying that is a bad thing - not at all. True "rare" is actually pretty hard to do, but this was done to perfection - a charred crust outside, graduated pink inside going to a purple center. I think the cut would have tasted better at med. rare, but they did exactly what I asked for, and did a perfect job of it. I suffered through. ;)

 

The wife's dinner:

 

 

Her review of this was mixed, but not badly so. She swooned over the lobster, and said it was wonderful. The filet left her feeling kind of flat - it was perfectly cooked, but needed more seasoning/flavor. She didn't realize until later that she could have ordered a sauce with it. I think it would have been perfect with the bearnaise, although I am not a big fan of filet to begin with. Not enough fat in it for flavor. There was certainly nothing "wrong" with it, and the lobster, and my lamb made her more than happy, lol.

 

Speaking of the lamb, it may be hard to tell from the picture, but those are two, double-cut chops, or four "lollies", as my wife calls them. And these were HUGE to boot. This was more than enough to satisfy both our meaty appetities. FYI, those are beef medallions on the front, not lamb. Not sure why they put them there. Maybe to show you how superior the lamb is? LOL.

 

While we were eating, the executive chef of the boat, "Chef Frank" as my wife took to calling him, came over to introduce himself, and personally confirm our reservations for the Chef's Table later in the cruise. He also confirmed that she had a peanut allergy, and assured her there would be no peanut products in her selections. This made her feel extra-special. Super classy and swanky move, on an already classy and swanky experience.

[19cruiser59]

Damn, that looks good ! I am salivating and its not close to lunch yet !! lol

[dforeigner]

Loving the Foodie review.

[SoundDawg]

I don't understand why I can't see any of the pictures?! Never had this happen before. I pop over to another review and no problems but for some reason nothing is showing on this one. Anyone else having problems?

[kwagmyre]

I don't understand why I can't see any of the pictures?! Never had this happen before. I pop over to another review and no problems but for some reason nothing is showing on this one. Anyone else having problems?

 

I am using TinyPic as the image host. Are you at work? Maybe a proxy/filtering type of an issue? I would suggest trying from a different location, to see if you have the same problem.

[kwagmyre]

And now for the grand finale...

 

I am a chocoholic, so for me, the decision was easy:

 

 

 

I would say that, of these, my favorite was the third from the left, basically a very dense chocolate cake. 2nd from left was the Tiramisu, which, while quite good, I very surprisingly enjoyed the one in the MDR better later in the week. We will discuss when we get there. The one on the far right was a white chocolate with a strong raspberry component, very similar to a white-chocolate mousse with chambord sauce that I sometimes make at home.

 

My wife had the cheesecake:

 

 

 

Surprisingly, neither of us enjoyed this very much. Cheesecakes, in our opinions, were not Carnival's strength. Most of the cheesecakes we had on this cruise were very "light", almost airy, including this one. I think they are using real cheese, just not nearly enough of it. It almost seemed like they were propping them up with gelatin or something. The crust was excellent, and was on every cheesecake we had, but cakes themselves just never seemed dense enough, or flavorful enough.

 

Overall impressions:

 

Although it might seem like I am being critical here, the overall grade we would give the steakhouse would be an A+. It was very much the type of experience where the total was greater than the sum of its parts. Worth every penny, even with the $35 upcharge. We felt, at the end, that this was the best meal we had on the ship, on a trip with more highlights than disappointments, and would not hesitate to do it again.

 

Oh yeah, one last thing:

 

Myth: The free bottle of wine Carnival serves in the steakhouse on the first night is cr*p, but hey it's wine, and it's free.

 

Reality: We must have some serious oenophiles here, because we thought the wine was perfectly fine, quite drinkable, and married very well with the dishes we chose. It was a Chilean Merlot, if memory serves, and was a very serviceable accompaniment to our meal. The fact that it was included made it all the more enjoyable.

 

Oh yeah, one other last thing:

 

Although escargot was still printed in the menu, and is what I would have ordered if I could have, it is still not available, not even in the steakhouse.

 

Now, as this was a honeymoon cruise, this was not the end of our night, but I think this is a good point to end the "public" portion of our Day1 review. ;)

 

Coming up next: First Sea Day

[donandmelissa]

Great review so far!

[canela023]

I'm a family lawyer, I'm guessing that it's ex-spouses or baby mamas and/or daddies who would try to use evidence of a cruise as evidence of financial wherewithal.

 

Not that I've ever cross examined someone with their facebook posts or anything....just saying!

 

Anyway, just my guess, and if I'm right I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, everyone needs a honeymoon, I'm blessed that neither my or my husband's ex are unreasonable but not everyone is so lucky!

 

 

Ok I'm not a family lawyer and to tell you the honest truth I don't really care what your reasons are for staying annonymous, although I do know the real reason why...... Your aliens!!!! :eek: Oh no,that's not it, your Vampires, and you wont come out in pictures anyways. That's it, Vampires?

Either way I'm enjoying your review, please keep it going!!!!!;)

[rosiemannc]

i too, am enjoying your review, so yes, the fact that you had to mention the fact that you are not going to mention any facts :) about yourselves made the rest of us even more curious. if you would not have said ANYTHING about that, we probably would not have even noticed.

 

but regardless, i am loving your review and my only complaint is that you are not posting fast enough to keep my obsession satisfied.

 

we cruise liberty on the 23rd and i CAN'T WAIT.

[MSRussell]

Your food pictures are fantastic. I also applaud you for not getting upset (at least where it didn't show outwardly) about your Honeymoon Registry. That shows a lot of class.

Melanie

[Coolcruise02]

Enjoying, thanks for sharing with us! :)

[meatloafsfan]

Ok I'm not a family lawyer and to tell you the honest truth I don't really care what your reasons are for staying annonymous, although I do know the real reason why...... Your aliens!!!! :eek: Oh no,that's not it, your Vampires, and you wont come out in pictures anyways. That's it, Vampires?

 

Either way I'm enjoying your review, please keep it going!!!!!;)

 

Nope - they're superheros travelling under their alter egos and need to keep things on the down low in case any evil doers find them out and try to do harm. :p

[kwagmyre]

Your food pictures are fantastic. I also applaud you for not getting upset (at least where it didn't show outwardly) about your Honeymoon Registry. That shows a lot of class.

Melanie

 

I was somewhat upset, yes, but I had backups in the meantime (ALWAYS have backups), and I knew that, one way or another, I was going to get the money, even if it wasn't until after the trip. I actually worked it out once we got to Cozumel, I thought the land towers there might be a bit cheaper than the "cellular at SEA" rates. I will discuss it more when I review that day, since I think it's important for people to know about it if they are considering doing it.

 

Thanks for the compliment. Especially considering your posting history, and how well you handled missing that cruise a little while back. So I know you know a thing or two about mitigating disappointments! :)

[kwagmyre]

Nope - they're superheros travelling under their alter egos and need to keep things on the down low in case any evil doers find them out and try to do harm. :p

 

FINALLY, someone figures it out. I mean, even we need a break from saving the world sometimes, y'know? Sheesh!!! :cool:

[crewsweeper]

Great review so far.

 

This is going to sound dumb but the picture of your salad clinched taking my parents to the steakhouse in October - while my mom's not the biggest fan of steak, she loves blue cheese and spinach and I think that salad would just tickle her pink (along with the massive slice of cheesecake). My dad is easy to please as he will just love the big, honking piece of beef.

 

Have your mom order the fish (Sea Bass?)...That's what DW gets and it's an excellent piece of fish, nicely sized portion, leaving plenty of room for that cheesecake:D

[TheTravelista]

Love this review. You're a great story teller and the added mystery makes it better!

 

I am hoping to see a few more glimpses of the fashion though lol

[Jimd66]

We were also on this cruise, good so far.

[MIZZ_K]

Can't wait to read more,I am sailing on The Liberty in August with my 15yo granddaughter,looking forward to eating at the steakhouse.