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Our son who lives in Canada was invited to be best man at a friends wedding on board Carnival Liberty. We gatecrashed from the UK.
Our booked Delta direct flight Heathrow - Miami was pulled with alternate route via either JFK or Chicago offered.Offer refused and Air France via Chas De Gaulle substituted. Booked extra legroom on Atlantic flight but could not use it as such seats are only by emergency exits and wife uses walking stick. No refund due to small print - beware. Meals barely edible.Good inflight entertainment.
Rapid embarkation at Miami due to wedding party - a plus.Onboard wedding was cost efficient $2K ceremony and reception (2hours free bar and excellent food).
Ceremony professionally handled. Cruise Photographer extra $2K, product only fair.
Port mid-aft balcony cabin well placed.A liitle on small side but well layed out with ample storage. Bed comfortable. Bathroom extremely well considered in such a small place. Cabin stewards efficient and friendly, always addressing passengers on first name terms as directed by Carnival. Room service failed to deliver breakfast on 1st day, so used cafeteria for rest of holiday. Plentiful & varied selections in cafeteria, tables cleared quickly after use, but oh! for real English bacon! Hand sanitisers are available for passengers, but rarely saw them used; suggest stronger enforcement of this.
Entertainment is provided throughout the day in an over enthusiatic "Butlins on sea" manner. Serenity sundeck for adults is the only respite from this. Lounge entertainment poor-mediocre with single exception of one girl vocalist who was superb. Theatre shows were vibrant and well rehearsed, especially the dance troups, but the Hypnotist was rather dismal. Comedy club acts appealed to the dominant US audience, but fear would not excel with British/European audiences.
Dining Room is where Carnival delivers exceptional value; standards are very high and are topped further by Chef's Table and Steakhouse offerings at additional cost. Another example of "Butlins at sea" are the Singing waiters. A novelty at first, but tend to bore when repeated every night.
On board shopping is not forced down passengers throats, which is a plus, but even on holiday expect to receive junk mail with your daily on board newspaper.
Overall, for this example, Carnival delivers good value compared to some other lines, but the on cost of travel to Miami and the tedium of that from the UK will forever make a Caribbean cruise a once-in-a-lifetime thing for most UK cruisers. Carnival must develop their presence around the Meditteranean and other European venues to appeal to many UK cruisers on a regular basis, and in that market they would surely prosper.
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