We got back on Saturday morning after a lovely relaxing week cruising the Caribbean. We have cruised this itinerary before but we didn't do the excursions this time as we had done the ones we wanted last time. What we did do was walk off the ship and do our own thing which was great, especially in St Thomas and San Juan. If I were to have a complaint of any of the ports it would be that with the large ships in port, especially at Grand Turk, with so many people it is hard to find a beach chair. These big cruises should be on the islands by themselves, when our little cruise ship came into port there just wasn't any room for our passengers. That really sucked.

As to the ship itself we definitely saw some problems. We really liked that the Liberty was refitted with new restaurants and bars but the buffet at Emile's was disappointing. Breakfast meant cold food, and I don't mean fruit I mean eggs, bacon and toast, all cold. And the lineups were awful, even early morning when most people were still asleep there were long lines. We don't cruise and expect a 5 star food experience but the food should still be hot in the Buffet. As to the shows that are put on...we gave them a pass too. They just aren't worth the time, but we did do the comedy club as that was a little better. Having said this the people that take care of you on the ship were always courteous and smiling. I was ill on the cruise with a very bad ear infection and our room steward asked about me every day, sometimes twice. Our favorite bar server - Erwin from Peru - was great, always a smile and we even had him serve us at dinner time which was great.

Will we cruise Carnival again, probably, will we try another cruise line, definitely. We love to cruise and the only way to compare is to try different lines, so next for us is Royal Caribbean, we'll see if they can give us the experience we want.