Carnival Liberty Review

Problem after problem

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Carnival Liberty
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dderevensky
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Dec 2016
Traveled with children
couch worn
dust on fire sprinkler
dirt on door way.  how it was entering the ship

For my daughter's 7th birthday we decided to go on a cruise. She has never gone on a cruise before and this will be my fifth. We booked a 3 day cruise on Carnival Valor out of Port Canaveral. A couple months after booking, I get an email notification that the boat is changing to the Liberty. It appeared to be a very comparable ship so that did not bother me. After a little research, I found out that the change was due to the Liberty's inability to maintain long term high speeds. Carnival stated the Liberty was a “better fit” for the shorter Bahamas trip.

The best way I can describe sailing on the Liberty would be a Motel 6 on the sea. The common areas, like the promenade were relatively small. The balcony room we had was far from impressive. The ship is only 11 years old and updated in 2011, but the decor in the room was out dated. There were stains on the sheets, dust built up on pictures and fire sprinkler, couch cushions were very worn, the curtains were dirty. The television and electrical socket were not working and were not addressed until the middle of the second day after several complaints. There were many instances of mechanical issues, such as the slot machines not working until the second day, snow machine not working correctly for Christmas show, and bridge not connecting to ship and causing an hour delay in disembarkment. The waterslide at the pool did not have enough water flow to push my 40lb child down the slide. She had to scoot herself down the slide that she described to be like sand paper. Her backside was red by the time she got down to the bottom. The staff was "just there,” they lacked the energy that I have experienced on previous cruises. The crew took care of my general needs, but in no way went above and beyond my expectations. When I made complaints to guest services on the ship they clearly did not care. They did not apologize for the problem nor did they apologize for the delay in fixing my issues. There were very few crew members smiling and happy to serve the guest.

Carnival has seriously disappointed me on this trip. Carnival changed the departure time from 4pm to 10pm. They took out 6 hours of our cruise. Then the day of sailing they adjusted the itinerary again. Now instead of getting to the Bahamas at 8am it was going to be 7am. That means that I need to be up around 530 to get everyone ready and eat breakfast so that we could make the most of our visit to the Bahamas. I thought part of cruising was relaxation and not rushing. Carnival compensated for the itinerary changes by giving me a $45 on board credit ($15 per person). In my opinion it should have been more due to losing 6 hours. After experiencing a late departure, I would cancel a trip before sailing with a late departure. So much of our vacation was lost. Plus having to stand in your muster station for the emergency briefing for 30+ minutes at almost 10pm with a tired child from traveling all day was ridiculous.

Cabin Review

Port Reviews

Port Canaveral (Orlando)

Average port. A little disorganized as to where we needed to go, but staff directed us well.

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