We've been very satisfied with our 2 Carnival cruises that we've taken so far. They have been far superior to the lone cruise we did on Norwegian. My wife and I decided to go on another cruise for our 10th wedding anniversary. We did the cruise with Norwegian for our honeymoon, and needless to say, it was a learning experience that nearly soured us from cruising again.

We flew in to Miami on Friday via Delta, and spent the night at the Embassy Suites Miami International Airport. Very nice hotel. Large suite with separate bedroom and living room areas, flat screen TVs, sink, etc. The atrium/courtyard area is an open, 10 story view of the koi pond and buffet area below. We dined at the restaurant in the hotel. Decent food, but lacked any wow factor. Our flight out of Miami, however, was rather abysmal. Since we booked our flights through Expedia, the return flight home got changed from a direct flight to a one-stop (no other direct flights were available.) On top of that, the return flight times changed 6 more times before we flew home. The only benefit was that since it took so long to debark the ship, we didn't miss our flight due to a delay.

This cruise was actually a repeat of our previous cruise with two exceptions - my wife wasn't pregnant this time, and we weren't detoured to Key West, Florida by way of the H1N1 flu outbreak. We previously cruised on the Carnival Valor, starting in Grand Cayman, then Roatan, Belize, and finally Key West. The Liberty is a sister ship to the Valor, so we were fairly familiar with the layout and amenities before we even got on board. Read more