We just got back 1 week ago from our fabulous cruise. This was our 3rd cruise; we previously sailed on RCCL Mariner of the Seas, Carnival Miracle. I sailed with my husband and our 9 year old son. We did not bring our 1 year old daughter with us this time; she spent a fun filled week with her grandma. We left out of NYC-JFK on June 28th. We flew into Ft. Lauderdale and took Carnival's shuttle to the port of Miami. The cost is about $48.00 each roundtrip. We had a good flight although I hate flying now-post 9/11. However, once we arrived and proceeded down to baggage claim we immediately saw several Carnival representatives. One of whom accompanied us to retrieve our luggage and then directed us to the next person who led us to the buses to take us to the port. Our driver was great and hilarious; however he cordially announced "please don't forget the driver." We were told the ride would be about 45 minutes; however we arrived within 30 minutes-SMOOTH. When we arrived at the port with trying to retrieve ALL of our luggage and giving them to the porters, and seeing the horde of people I thought OH BOY!! However, the line was long but moved so quickly. I do not think we were in that first line 15 minutes. Afterwards, we immediately went through the metal detectors, then on to the room where you line up to receive your sign and sail cards, etc. There were only 3 or 4 people ahead of us and then our turn. We showed our passports and credit cards, registered and off we went to board. We were giving a boarding number, I thing we were "group 14", and at this point they had just called group 12, so less than 10 minutes we were going up the escalator to the wear our embarkation photo was taken. Next was a small line up to actually getting onto to the ship in which we had our cards dipped into the machine with our photos taken to validate. All in all embarkation was about an hour give or take. Definitely not bad, especially considering from what I heard about leaving from Miami, I was expecting it to take much longer. Upon entering the Liberty on the deck 3 we were so excited to see the main atrium and happy that we finally boarded. The Liberty is absolutely beautiful. Just a little side bar information about me, I have a preference to the bigger, newer ships. Yes it's true, the first couple of days we had to get use not being able to go all the way through from front to back on decks 3 and 4. However, the Liberty is not a hard ship to learn your way around after the 2nd day. I will now break this review up into sections of interest:

Ship Decor and public areas: again beautiful and big. Deck 5 goes all the way through from front to back and also have the casino which can be quite smoky. However, what I liked is that to walk through you did not have to go through the casino as there is the walkway on the side with windows and big comfortable seats for people watching or whatever you fancy. We had the Main (early) 2nd seating in the Golden Olympic Dining room (see food section). The dining room is beautiful and our wait staff was Marcin (pronounced Mar-cini) ?? and his assistant Yohanes, we were at table (booth) 137. If anyone has them on an upcoming cruise please tell them that "Miss Michele" and Sly said hello and we miss them. They were absolutely the best!! They were the best wait staff we've had on any cruise. They were very efficient and had great personalities. Plus, it may not mean much to most, but I was really happy that they were personable and remembered our names. Fernando was the Maitre 'D, and I have to say of all the cruises we've been on, he was the most personable and vocal. Normally, when it comes to the gratuities I do tip the Maitre 'D just because of the protocol, but afterwards I would kinda scratch my head and think we just tipped someone who we only saw from a distance maybe once. However, this time on several occasions Fernando made his rounds and stopped at each table to introduce himself and asked how things were going and to let him know if it was anything that he could do. He was also in the dining room making announcements each evening. This time I absolutely had no regrets with tipping him and we actually went to find him on the last night to extend our well wishes and gratuities. However, he wasn't too hard to find as he was right near the entrance. (hahaha)

Cabins: We were in cabin 1362 which is on the Riviera deck (deck 1) and it was perfect. The beds and the bedding were to die for, absolutely plush and very comfortable. There were plenty of drawers and closets for storage. Our suitcases fit with no problem under the beds. There were actually 3 closets. The bathroom was small (of course) but nice with body wash and shampoo dispensers in the shower. There were also trial size samples of toothpaste, his and her razors, pepcid, and some other stuff. Our cabin steward was great. I am so sorry that I never did catch his name though. However, he did a great job with cleaning the rooms twice a day, filling the ice buckets twice a day. My son loved coming back to the cabin at night and seeing the different towel animals along with chocolates on the pillow, I love the turn down service. The television worked fine, however I was curious as to why all "local" stations and news was for Denver, Colorado? Oh well we definitely were not on a cruise to stay in our cabins to watch tv. Read more