Carnival Liberty Review

Carnival's Cost Cutting Measures Lose a Repeat Customer

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Liberty
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hhmom
6-10 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: May 2015

This was our sixth cruise overall and our fourth with Carnival. It will be our last with Carnival. We chose this cruise because it went to southern Caribbean ports we had not previously visited, and because we only had one day at sea. We also wanted to spend a few days in San Juan, which was enjoyable. But our cruise with Carnival was a huge disappointment. Carnival is clearly cost cutting in order to bring in new cruise passengers with cheaper fares. It is definitely damaging the brand.

First, was the short amount of staff. It was apparent everywhere. Service in the main dining room was painfully slow. We were at a large community table of 10, and half the dining hall was through with their dinner and leaving the room by the time we received our entrees. And we weren't alone. Servers were assigned to too many tables. We were not asked for refill drink orders or water glasses refilled. In the buffet area, there was so few staff that food offerings were often out of stock for long periods of time and tables were not cleared of used dishes. There were few staff in the photo area, we rarely saw more than one bartender at busy bars, and we rarely saw our cabin cleaning staff.

Second was the quality of the staff. The staff was slow, not friendly and many in key passenger interface areas like the bars, and restaurants spoke very poor English. This led to slower service and wrong orders. Also, many of the staff were terribly unfriendly. This may have been in part due to the language barrier, but also I was told by a staff member from the spa that many of the crew members were at the end of their 10 month contracts and were ready to go home. She herself was leaving at the end of the cruise and said she would not be working on cruise ships anymore.

Cabin Review

Port Reviews

St. Kitts (Port Zante)

We went ashore but quickly came back to the boat. Not much there. The island was very brown. They have been in a drought.

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