Carnival Cruise Lines Carnival Liberty
by Deakon
Western Caribbean
November 24, 2007
Captain: Carlo Queirolo
Hotel Director: Pier Giorgio Micallef
Cruise Director: Karl with a K
Length: 8 day, 3 port 4 sea days
Ports of Call: Cozumel Mexico, Limon Costa Rica, Colon Panama
Embarkation DISASTER!
What's up Carnival?? Maybe you should LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS and do something about the train wreck, err or should I say SHIP WRECK that is the embarkation process!
The line went out and around to the BACK of the terminal building. I found out later they refused to even begin checking anyone in until 1:00 on the nose. Who do you think you are? THE BANK? Let people on the bloody ship! Send them up to the Lido if they can't get in to their cabin. And just when you wait 90 minutes in one line, you start walking and think you're in the clear. And then you come to another room with a HUGE mother line in it! Fast forward a total of 2 and a half hours. We get on the ship. Thanks for violating me in ways only prison inmates should be violated.
On to happier memories:
The ship is almost identical to the Triumph and so for the first few hours it was very surreal. I also took my vacation during one of the busiest radio times of the year so I felt a wee bit guilty (not really). Having sailed Triumph in June it made for very easy navigation of the ship. I looked at my dining time which was supposed to be at 6:15 in the Golden Olympian. They changed it randomly to the last dining time which didn't work for us. So thanks to the good people at the CRUISE MATES message board, I knew to march on over to the Maitre 'D. He set us up with the early dining time at a table for two. FANTASTIC!
Next priority: NAP!
We had been up since 2am, so we took a nap.
Now, as many of you know, I'm friends with the piano man on the Liberty. I didn't tell him we were coming as I was going to surprise him that night at the piano bar. So we woke up from the nap and went to the drill. What are the chances Brad is at my muster station? The look from him was precious. Kind of like "that looks like -- HOLY @#$" -- so we had a quick catch up and then did the drill.
Next surprise: I had a couple of friends from college working on the ship as well. I won't name them because they took me in to some areas of the ship that would get them in trouble. So we'll call them Dylan and Rockwell. But more on that later.
We had dinner. Of course Carnival can't cook a steak to save its life outside of Harry's supper club.
The rest of the week pretty much went like this: Wake up at 10:30ish. Go to the Lido, eat, tan on lido (or go onto land if applicable), nap, get ready for dinner, eat dinner, see the show or hit the casino and then hit the piano bar to round out the day.
Food It was alright. The chef learned how to make a caesar salad on this ship but the meat (beef, chicken, etc) was mediocre at best. I wasn't that impressed with the food overall.
Harry's Supper Club: Wow! what a night! Dylan and Rockwell were working, but Brad had the night off. So the three of us went on up to Harry's. I don't understand why the whole dining experience on Carnival isn't run like this. Everything was fantastic. They comped our initial drinks and the wine was courtesy of Brad. They brought the meat out to us to select which we wanted. We were on our second bottle of wine at this point so I only remember I had the porterhouse -- 24 ounces of heaven. It was cooked to perfection. They made Caesar salad right at the table. We talked and drank the whole night. We actually closed down Harry's 4 and a half hours later! The average is about 2 and a half hours. We rolled out (literally cuz we were stuffed!) and stepped onto deck to find a party going on. We met up with the rest of the crew later and partied all night. Later, Rockwell took me to the bow of the ship which is actually a restricted area. He made me walk alone in case we were caught. I went past several chains and it was a fantastic view! It was pitch black except for the stars overhead. We sat and talked for a while until someone from the bridge put a spotlight on us. Then we ran Laughing.
I had to walk Rockwell back to his cabin because he was in NO shape whatsoever to do so by himself. So we walked along deck 2 (because some decks you cannot walk from forward to aft) and deck 2 has less security on it. I got him into his cabin and snuck out of the crew area.
Lido: Food was pretty good for buffet. Mongolian BBQ is gross -- don't waste your time unless you like crappy food. They overcook everything. I didn't even finish mine.
The sandwich shop is pretty darn good! I highly recommend it. The pizza is what it is. Not spectacular but not bad by any means. Room service is lame. Only simple stuff. Not even a burger.
Entertainment The entertainment was great. The two production singers are fantastic and very cool people. The first show put me to sleep, it was supposed to be music from all over the world. In actuality it was boring. I left early for the piano bar.
**BIASED ANNOUNCEMENT** I know Brad and I'm partial to piano bars.
The piano bar was fantastic. It was decorated much better than that on the Triumph. The LED's are great! Brad was on top of his game but the crowds were mediocre. Because of the time of year, the people on the cruise were much older. I kept saying we needed some college kids in there to get rowdy. However, there were some great characters in the bar -- Robert, Skip, Tiffany. And it once again became a meeting place of the same people every night. I love the familiarity of the place and how that didn't change from the last cruise. If you're cruising anytime between now and Feb, say hi to Brad, tip him well and buy him a stoli & soda. AND STAY FOR HIS LATE SHOW. But, if you're easily offended, go to bed. haha.
The Calypso Band SUCKS. It's HORRIBLE. They played the same 6 songs over and over day after day.
Ports Cozumel: This was the best port this cruise. Be wary of what you buy. Lots of fake tanzanite (yes I bought some, but it was for my bratty sister-in-law that insisted on me bringing her back some, so I don't feel bad about it -- haha). After we were finished shopping, we met the guys at the secret crew bar. They made me promise not to tell what it was called or where it was because they didn't want passengers coming in there lol.
The outside of the bar looked like a dive, but when we walked through into the back, it was AMAZING. It was a perfect private beach, with a pool and swim up bar. The crew from the various ships were all there and it was a little piece of paradise. We had chips n' salsa and Coronas. It was one of the most perfect afternoons of the cruise!
Costa Rica: This was interesting. Dylan & Rockwell had to legally be on the ship. (I forgot the term they used, but every 6 weeks the crew rotates staying on the ship in case of an emergency. It's maritime law). So Brad took us out for lunch. I was scared at first, but the place was very good. Right on the beach outside with a roof. It rained (cuz y'know, we were in the rainforest) but it was still a great day. The rain only lasted an hour or so. We then left in search of Noni juice -- apparently the NEW anti oxident! The shopping sucked in Costa Rica for the most part and I wouldn't wander too far without someone I knew. MATTER OF FACT: Carnival posted a warning that a number of passengers have been assaulted in Costa Rica in recent months.
Panama: Waste of time. We got off the boat so we can say we've been to Panama and then went back and onto the Lido deck to tan.
Overall The ship was a helluva lot of fun. The service isn't up to par in my opinion, but that's the trade off you make when you come to Carnival from another line. I keep coming back to Carnival because you really can't beat the fun. Plus when you're having fun, you don't eat as much! haha
Karl's last cruise was suppose to be the current one sailing right now, but some family emergency called him back to England early. He's a great CD and if you find yourself cruising with him, make sure you go up and say hi because he is HONESTLY a nice guy that cares about the passengers.
The captain is crazy. You wanna talk about a rock n'roll cruise.. He drives that ship like a ferrari. The barf bags came out more than once, lol. I heard more than one waiter talk about sailing with "the crazy captain" before.
As a side note, I won Name That Tune and our team (the Blue Team) won overall with 27,000 points.
As I mentioned earlier, the cruise was an older crowd. I think that's a symptom of the time of year we cruised in. Things shut down a little earlier, but it was still a lot of fun. There were virtually no kids on the ship, which suited me just fine!
The cabin was fine. We missed the balcony, but the window was nice. I don't think I could do an interior cabin. Our steward was friendly and I told her on the first day that we wake up late. So she always came to our cabin last.
I learned some things that were a bit disturbing to me. I won't go into huge details about them, but I would like to say that your tips are the crew's life blood and I threw my favorite waitresses some extra cash and they really appreciated it.
Disembarkation DISASTER! Self-assist was cool on the Triumph because not a lot of people were doing it. But now everyone seems to do it! And it just turns into pandemonium! I won't self-assist out again unless I have a really early flight.
