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Carnival Liberty Jan 2019 review

runningmoms2girls

By runningmoms2girls,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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runningmoms2girls

runningmoms2girls

Posted
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This is my fourth cruise (first on Carnival) and my first review.  When I was searching for reviews on Liberty I never saw any so I wanted to add my thoughts.

 

Traveling was myself, my sister, and my mom.  We usually do a mother/daughter cruise every two years or so.  This is our first Carnival cruise.  

 

Carnival Liberty - 4 day to Nassau and Princess Cays

 

Pre Hotel

Stayed at the Hampton Inn Cocoa Beach.  Great hotel.  No issues.  Great views of the ocean and very large buffet breakfast.

 

Parking

Parked right at the port.  Best decision ever!!! $85 for the duration of our cruise.  Very quick and easy.  It was so nice to be able to walk off the ship and to our car.

 

Embarkation

Very quick.  We had the 11:30am - 12:00pm time slot.  We showed up at the parking deck about 11:00am.  There was a very short line.  We sailed through the check in process.  (Make sure you have all your check in stuff done ahead of time!  It made the process very easy.). We waited in the waiting area for about 20mins.  Right at 11:30am our boarding zone was called and we were on board!

 

Rooms

Premium Vista Balcony - aka Aft Wrap Balcony - Deck 6

AWESOME room!  The rooms weren’t ready until 1:30pm.  We just spent the two hours exploring and eating on the Lido deck.  Our room was so roomy and the balcony was huge!  We are spoiled now for sure.

 

Excursions

Nassau

We did the Blue Lagoon Island Segway Safari.  Great choice!  We loved Blue Lagoon and would go back again in a heartbeat.  The shuttle over there was very good.  They kept us entertained the whole way there and back.  They took the scenic way home going slowly by the houses and resorts on Paradise Island.  Great way to end the day.

 

Princess Cay

This was our chill beach day so we didn’t do any excursions.  We did rent a clamshell shade ($30) for the day.  If you are looking for a more quiet and laid back area, head over the bridge and to the right when you first get off the tender.  They had a hamburger/hot dog buffet for lunch.  The lunch was just ok.  We didn’t eat much on the island.

 

On Board

We participated in a variety of on board activities.   We went to the Flick show (just eh.  We weren’t wowed.) and America Rocks!  America Rocks was a lot of fun and a great show.   We also went to the Hasbro Game Night.  This was a lot of fun.  None of us were chosen to go on stage but it was such a fun “show” to watch.

 

Dining

The first night in the dining room we were not thrilled with our wait staff at all.  They were very inattentive.  We had the Your Time Dining so the next night we asked to be moved.  They gave us a great table with fantastic wait staff.  We sat there the rest of the trip.  We did eat at Guy’s twice.  The burgers and fries there are very delicious!  The rest of our meals were either at the Lido or the dining room.

 

Debarkation

This process went pretty smoothly as well.  We chose to take off our luggage ourselves.  We waited from them to call our deck (around 7:45am/8am) and off we went.  We were off the ship, through customs and at our car in about 45 mins.  They were a little delayed in starting the debarkation process but the CD kept us informed all morning.

 

 

This was my first Carnival cruise and I was pleasantly surprised.   We had a great time.  We are already shopping for our next Carnival cruise.  😃   

 

The few “negatives” were the lack of shopping and sales on board verses RCCL.  RCCL seemed to have more souvenir type shopping on board than this cruise did.  In fact I only came home with an ornament for myself.  Also I do not like the way Carnival (at least on the Liberty) did their Pixel photos.  We spent so much time searching for our pictures.  You would think they would have a way to do it digitally with facial recognition.  So many people were throwing away pictures (including us) that didn’t turn out good.   We did get pictures done on formal night but we were not pleased with how any of them turned out.

 

I've included pictures of our cabin.  If anyone is looking for any specific pictures or information just let me know and I'll see if I have it.  

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CrazyIrving

CrazyIrving

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Thank you for the wonderful reviews. I also  like the way it was express. 

 

We will be going on our very first cruise in June.  Doing the same ports. 

 

Will try my best to post a review. 

 

C74D19DD-5833-4A17-8932-2B3845ECC8EC.jpeg

Edited by CrazyIrving
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sra12574

sra12574

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Thanks   for   your  report .  I was wondering  how  the  photos   were  done on this ship . I  was  hoping  they  would  show  up  on  the  hub   app . I  hate   going   down  and   having to  find  the  pics   on the  wall . It was sonice  just  checking  my  phone   whileI enjoyed  my  morning  coffee on the balcony . I ordered a  package   before my last  cruise  that  was  5 prints  and  the   canvas print   but wound up order extra  digitals  and the  girl  gave me   some coupons  for photo  books   on  shutterfly .

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livingthedream1

livingthedream1

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We have sailed the Liberty a few times and have another booked for April. We always enjoy our cruises. I always check to see if there is a steakhouse and Alchemy bar on ships before I sail.  I agree about parking at the port we have tried parking off site on several occasions but have found parking at the port is way more convenient even for the few more $ you have to spend.

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PhillyFan33579

PhillyFan33579

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1 hour ago, livingthedream1 said:

We have sailed the Liberty a few times and have another booked for April. We always enjoy our cruises. I always check to see if there is a steakhouse and Alchemy bar on ships before I sail.  I agree about parking at the port we have tried parking off site on several occasions but have found parking at the port is way more convenient even for the few more $ you have to spend.

 

I agree with you that parking at the port is way more convenient than parking off site.  We live in Florida and always drive to the port when cruising. The additional cost of parking at the port is well worth it to me. I like knowing my car is in a garage while we are away and I like knowing it is just a few minutes walk to and from the terminal. 

 

 

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ProgRockCruiser

ProgRockCruiser

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Posted
4 hours ago, livingthedream1 said:

I agree about parking at the port we have tried parking off site on several occasions but have found parking at the port is way more convenient even for the few more $ you have to spend.

 

3 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I agree with you that parking at the port is way more convenient than parking off site.  We live in Florida and always drive to the port when cruising. The additional cost of parking at the port is well worth it to me. I like knowing my car is in a garage while we are away and I like knowing it is just a few minutes walk to and from the terminal. 

 

Indeed, we always park at the port.  I figure we could save maybe $5-7 per day parking elsewhere.  Even on a longer 7 or 8 day cruise, the hassle of dealing with a shuttle to/from, luggage going out of my control into a mysterious trailer, and the potential waiting around at either location, annoys me.  Folks pay more for FTTF (admittedly with a lot more potential perks) - so to me this my private version of FTTF targeted at my specific needs.

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ProgRockCruiser

ProgRockCruiser

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OP, thanks for the review!  We sailed on Liberty in Dec 2017 and March 2018, and we had a great time!  I like the layout of the ship, and the crew were very friendly!

 

I just wish Liberty did longer cruises, like a 6 day somewhere, so we could explore her more while on board.  3 and 4 day cruises to the Bahamas just aren't long/varied enough!

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PhillyFan33579

PhillyFan33579

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1 hour ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

OP, thanks for the review!  We sailed on Liberty in Dec 2017 and March 2018, and we had a great time!  I like the layout of the ship, and the crew were very friendly!

 

I just wish Liberty did longer cruises, like a 6 day somewhere, so we could explore her more while on board.  3 and 4 day cruises to the Bahamas just aren't long/varied enough!

 

I understand your last comment, but I like that Liberty and currently Victory offer 3 day cruises over weekends.  We usually do several 3 day cruises a year. It’s a nice little get away and gives us something to look forward to in between the 2-3 longer cruises we do. Conquest is replacing Victory doing short cruises out of Miami when Victory gets “sunshined”.  It will be nice having two Conquest class ships to choose from when doing 3 day weekend cruises from Florida ports. 

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shellindc

shellindc

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The cruise we went on in June (Fascination) had the "hunt for your photos for 123345 hours on the boards". The cruise we went on in December (Conquest) had the digital portals that we could scroll through. MUCH BETTER. I wish the ships didn't have to wait until dry dock to switch over. That's a bummer. 

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laststop

laststop

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Posted (edited)
18 hours ago, OSUcruiser said:

Thank you for the review!  Who was the CD for your sailing? We sail real soon!

Thanks! 

 

We just sailed Liberty from Jan. 6-10 and Nono was CD. I had previously seen Donkey would be CD but now appears she is there until April? But she was great. One of the most available and interactive we’ve ever had. 

Edited by laststop
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runningmoms2girls

runningmoms2girls

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On 1/11/2019 at 10:57 PM, PhillyFan33579 said:

To the OP, Carnival has been changing older ships to digital photos during dry docks recently. Unfortunately I don’t believe Liberty is due for a dry dock any time soon. 

Good to know that it is out there on some ships!  It's not a deal breaker - just annoying. 😃

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runningmoms2girls

runningmoms2girls

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On 1/12/2019 at 10:58 AM, ProgRockCruiser said:

OP, thanks for the review!  We sailed on Liberty in Dec 2017 and March 2018, and we had a great time!  I like the layout of the ship, and the crew were very friendly!

 

I just wish Liberty did longer cruises, like a 6 day somewhere, so we could explore her more while on board.  3 and 4 day cruises to the Bahamas just aren't long/varied enough!

I know!   There's so much we didn't get to see or do! Same with the restaurants.  We just ran out of time.

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runningmoms2girls

runningmoms2girls

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On 1/13/2019 at 9:17 AM, laststop said:

 

We just sailed Liberty from Jan. 6-10 and Nono was CD. I had previously seen Donkey would be CD but now appears she is there until April? But she was great. One of the most available and interactive we’ve ever had. 

She was very good!  I agree - very available and very interactive.  The Q&Awesome she did for our sailing was so much fun.

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laststop

laststop

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7 hours ago, runningmoms2girls said:

She was very good!  I agree - very available and very interactive.  The Q&Awesome she did for our sailing was so much fun.

 

For sure. She answered quite a few questions we had wondered about life and career in cruising. 

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