OK....Here's day 1.
I have to warn you in advance: It's long! But I want to try to share every detail.
My travel group: I'm sharing a room with my good friend Cindy and her aunt Jean. The rest of the group consists of 18 other members of Cindy's family, but I haven't met them yet because I skipped dinner the first night.
Now, I'm not trying to bash either cruise line. Just giving my honest opinions of positives and negatives of both. Overall, the Liberty is a beautiful and spotless ship, but I find myself pining for Mickey!
I tried to post pics, but I couldn't upload them to photobucket for some reason. Probably trying to load to many at once, so later I'll try to do a couple at a time later today.
This is not a creative writing project. Just stating observations. Very dry reading!
DAY 1
I got to port at about 1:15pm. It was amazing to see so many ships from many different cruise lines all clustered together: Carnival, Princess,
Royal Caribbean, Queen Mary 2 and more. My driver let me out and a porter took my bag. Carnival recommends only tipping the porters $1 per bag because they are salaried workers. I was unpleasantly shocked by the exterior of the building. It looked like a warehouse in a dumpy part of town. The inside was just as bad. There was trash all over the floors and it was literally just a dumpy, dingy warehouse. The line of people snaked back and forth through ropes, just like waiting in line for an amusement park ride. The good part was that the line never stopped moving, and they had about 15 workers checking people in at the long row of desks. The bad part is that it took me about an hour to get through the line. They definitely need to learn about Disney and Royal Caribbeans number system because my feet were throbbing by the time I got onboard. The check in process was about the same as
DCL. I showed my drivers license and birth certificate, the worker verified my info and gave me my Sign & Sail Card (same as DCLs KTTW card). The only difference is that you go through security after check in instead of before check in on DCL. I walked right past the boarding picture opportunity because it was an absolute joke. As youre snaking through the line to check in, they have you stand against a concrete wall, next to a plastic tree, holding a life preserver with Carnivals logo. Classy. Ummmm
..no thanks. Not exactly what Id like in my scrapbook.
As I walked the gangway approaching the ships entrance, I was surprised that the ship didnt look any bigger than the Magic and Wonder. The weight is larger (110,000 tons) and it holds more passengers (over 3,000), but it really doesnt look any taller. As I continues walking the plank I saw that it is much longer, so that accounts for the size difference.
Despite being a homely looking ship from the outside, it is truly breathtaking inside! The whole ships décor is sort of like a Tuscan look. Its absolutely beautiful! Nothing like the tacky Vegas décor I had read about the older Carnival ships. The ship is really clean too....spotless, just like DCL. Almost every elevator has somebody in it cleaning non-stop and there are tons of workers cleaning all over the ship, non-stop. Just like DCL.
Now, on DCL, I dont have to stop and try to figure out where Im going because Im familiar enough with the ships. But I remember my first cruise and I still had no problem getting around because of the signs DCL has everywhere with arrows pointing which direction everything is located. Not so on the Liberty. They hand out little pocket size maps of the ship to carry around, but Im sure Ill get it all memorized in a day or two.
When I stepped into our room, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasnt much smaller than a Cat. 6 on DCL. Its slightly narrower, but not enough to be a major difference. The layout was almost identical, but instead of the split bathroom, it only has one. Our room on the Liberty is just an oceanview, not a verandah, but I checked out a verandah room of others in our group to compare. Instead of a sliding door, its a large window with regular glass door on the side. The outside light is a long strip thats much too bright, in my opinion. DCLs verandahs are much deeper, but the width was the same.
DCLs rooms have a wider walkway when you first walk into your room. Carnival is much narrower, but thats because the closets are deeper. Instead of having sliding closet doors, there are 3 doors that pull open. Storage space is about the same, as far as closet and drawers go, but I definitely miss the steamer trunk on DCL! However, the 3rd bed (which would be where the pull open couch on DCL is) has 2 drawers underneath for extra storage, so it works out.
Despite being a beautiful restaurant, the lunch buffet at Emiles was nothing exciting. I really felt like I was at Old Country Buffet. Just ordinary cafeteria food. The desert selection consisted of 4 different kinds of cakes. Nothing really exciting. However, they do have a few self-serve soft ice cream stations with cones and bowls and sprinkles. I knew ahead of time about sodas not being free on Carnival, but the drink stations at Emiles have coffee (maybe tea toocant remember), lemonade, fruit punch, apple juice and water (maybe milk toocant remember). There are a few hand sanitizing stations around, but nobody standing outside the entrance to restaurants like DCL to enforce hand sanitizing. That was really surprising to me because this ship has had 2 major norovirus outbreaks in the past few months.
The dreaded emergency drill was different because instead of having muster stations in the restaurants, everybody was lined up on deck directly in front of the life boat your cabin is assigned to. The crew has everybody line up in 4 rows and it went quite well for having to wait for over 3,000 people to assemble. Much quicker than I had anticipated. I like the idea of being right in front of a lifeboat if there were an emergency, rather than having to gather elsewhere first, then be taken to the lifeboat. It sure seems like everybody would be able to get off quicker if needed.
The sail away party was similar to DCL, but nowhere near as fun without the Disney characters dancing on stage! Carnival has a mascot called Funship Freddie, who is basically a walking smokestack funnel. Very strange looking creature.
I went to the spa to book a massage, but decided against it when I saw the prices. I cant remember exactly what DCL charged, but I dont remember being this shocked about the prices. The lowest priced item was a facial for $109. The lowest priced massage is the aroma spa ocean wrap & massage for $176 (1 ½ hour). Nope, I wont be doing that.
I tried to check out the kids club (Camp Carnival) to post info for anybody interested, but they were closed at the time. I think the orientation for the kids (ages 2-14) was later in the day, so Ill check it out tomorrow. What I did see is that they have a kiddie pool only for Camp Carnival use. Its an oval shape, quite small, 1 ft deep and has a cute dinosaur painted on the bottom (or maybe its tile mosaiccant remember).
I skipped dinner tonight, so Ill comment on that tomorrow. Instead, I went to the casino. It was much larger than I had expected. Every slot machine I played gave me a nice little win, so I ended up turning $25 into $100.
On the same deck as the casino, there is a row of stores on each side of the ship (4 on each side). Wide variety, just like a tiny little mall. Free liquor tasting outside the liquor store. ½ off on lots of jewelry. Reasonable prices on everything I looked at.
There didnt seem to be anywhere near the amount of activities that DCL does. On Disney, I always find it hard to choose what to do because there are so many things I want to do at once. Here I had a hard time finding something to do. I ended up playing bingo, which I definitely wont be doing again. DCL has an efficient system. Two tables set up to sell bingo packets, everybody lines up and gets their cards fairly quickly, and bingo starts. Here, bingo was supposed to start at 9:45pm. It actually started at about 10:30. If paying with your Sail & Sign Card, there was one line to buy cards that way. If paying cash, you stay in your seat and a couple of workers go around the room to each person and sell cards that way. Good grief! Why not just have people buy their cards as they come in? Just another thing Carnival could learn from DCL.
So thats all for today. One thing I did notice is that there arent stumbling drunks all over the place like Ive read about. In fact, I very rarely saw anybody with a drink in their hand, except for up on the open decks by the pool areas and outdoor bars. If anybody wants to know anything, just ask and Ill check it out.
What? You mean there are NO characters? What am I going to do without my daily Mickey waffles for breakfast! YIKES! 
Never heard of them, but I might try it at some point. 
I hope I don't offend you with anything I say about the Liberty. It's a beautiful ship! 
Yup, I'm travelling with a nutcase.
