Having sailed multiple times in the past, I tend to use our Princess cruises as the gold standard. This 8 day cruise on the Carnival Liberty failed to live up to expectations. Perhaps we were spoiled by previous cruise experiences (including Carnival), but if this cruise on the Carnival Liberty is the new standard, we will never cruise again. Our list of grievances is long, so I'll just hit the highlights:

General: From the minute we stepped onto the ship we got a feeling that the crew was worn out. The general lack of enthusiasm and spirit from the majority of crew was obvious. Facial expressions belied a lack of happiness and job satisfaction on many many crew members.

Activities: The lack of meaningful activities was quite surprising. One activity we decided to participate in was bingo. The wait to purchase cards was quite lengthy because there was only one person selling cards. When the game finally started, it took all of 15 minutes to finish the 2 games. I conservatively estimate Carnival charged $1500 for the cards that night. They returned $400 total to the 2 winners. It was obvious that the activity was more about making $$ for Carnival than providing a fun activity for guests. Read more