Thoughts on my March 6 sailing of the Carnival Liberty

A few thoughts on my March 6, 2010 sailing of the Carnival liberty.

First off, thanks to Ray for coordinating this cruise and once again
doing it excellently!

This Carnival Liberty sailing, at about $125 per person, cruise fare
only, for balcony accommodations, delivered excellent value... and it
was fun!

Having sailed on the sister ship Valor, we found the Liberty was
maintained well in overall in good shape.

"Your time dining": what they basically do is take the upper deck of
one of the main dining rooms and use that for 'Your Time Dining". We
enjoyed this flexibility, but the service was a little "rougher" than
in the main dining room where you have the same waiters each night.
Our wait times for a table ranged from immediately to 35 minutes on
the first formal night... They give you a pager that covers the entire
ship. The food quality was above average banquet food, complete with
lobster tails, filet mignon, Châteaubriand... which were all prepared
correctly. They seem to have scaled back some of the dessert
selections from our prior sailing with Carnival... but they were all
very good.

"Camp Carnival": they do an excellent job, and are meticulous about
daily sterilizing of all toys and games. The staff was incredibly
accommodating and the added benefit of a phone was very helpful... In
addition to calling the camp staff, you could use it as a house phone
and call any extension on the ship... very helpful. The toddler in our
group loved camp carnival.

"Grand Turk": a new port for me. Carnival has cloned their Costa Maya
village in Grand Turk ( or vice a versa)... basically they find a
place on the beach where they can construct a pier far away from any
other business establishments so they can direct the revenue stream of
drinks, food and souvenirs back to the ship's cash registers as they
take commission on all sales within the village. It has a very nice
pool which is adjacent to Margaritaville, the flow-rider and the
beach... all of this is right next to the pier. There was a total of
two ships in Grand Turk that day and it was crowded...

We definitely enjoyed our time on the "Fun Ship" Liberty... but I
think for our next cruise were going to make it an "Epic" voyage.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

jay
Mon Mar 22, 2010