My family of 8 (4 couples) took a week long cruise on the Carnival Liberty, sailing 11/28/09. After reading a couple of the negative reviews here, it is hard to believe that we were on the same ship.

We found the ship to be absolutely amazing. When we boarded the ship, there was a piano player in the atrium. The atrium was beautiful, with a glass ceiling, glass enclosed elevators, and a nice bar area. We found all of the public rooms to be very nice. The piano bar and karaoke bar were both a lot of fun. The Venetian Palace (where the shows take place) was beautiful and we could see fine regardless of where we sat. Our dining room was very elegant. I can't think of a single complaint about any of the public areas. Carnival also does a good job of separating smoking/no smoking sections. Of course smoking isn't allowed in the dining room, Venetian Palace, etc., but I was happy to see that one side of the Lido deck area was non-smoking, which meant that we could take our breakfast out on deck and not be bothered by smoke. There seemd to be a good number of bars that allowed smoking and also some that did not allow smoking, and for non-smokers, that is a big plus. One poster described the decor as 'garish'...I can't even imagine what they are referring to. The decor is colorful but not garish. The atrium has a beautiful chandelier with constantly changing colors, which we enjoyed looking at...maybe to some that is 'garish'.

We have been on six cruises (1 Royal Caribbean, five Carnival), and our room on this ship was about twice the size of any other cabin we have ever had. We had an ocean view room with two huge picture windows, a king size bed, a sitting area with a couch, in-room safe, small refrigerator, plenty of closet space, and an adequate bathroom. Overall, an amazing room for the price we paid for the cruise. Our steward, Javier, was helpful and friendly and knew everyone in our group of 8 by first name. Our cabin was always cleaned in a prompt manner and was spotless. We were always greeted in a friendly manner by basically every Carnival employee was saw, even when just walking down the hallway to our room. If they wanted to be elsewhee, it certainly wasn't evident on our cruise. Read more