Just got off of the Liberty for the 11-29-08 - 12-6-08 Eastern cruise and wanted to give everyone an update on the ship for those of you who will be cruising on it soon.  I was on the Liberty during the week after Thanksgiving in 2007 as well on the Western cruise so hopefully I can give you an idea of what has changed on the ship in the last year.

We got to the cruise terminal in Miami at 10:30 and you can get your paperwork processed immediately at the terminal.  There was already a line of people at that time.  We were checked in by 11:00 and waited in the lobby until they started loading the ship at 11:30.  When you checked in you received a number and they began loading the ship by number at 11:30.  We were eating lunch at noon on the Lido deck.

Dining -  We were scheduled (not guarenteed) dinner at 8:15pm.  When we arrived at the port terminal we were told we were selected for open seating, but we could always change to a fixed time if we wanted.  My wife and I said we would give it a shot and see what it was like since we have always had a fixed dinning time in the past.  The first night things were a little hectic.  You could tell this was something new for both the staff and the cruisers.  We arrived at dinner around 8:00pm and that is when a wave of people came at once.  Many of them were not happy but we did not think it was a big deal.  We were given a pager like your given in a typical restaurant and told the wait would be ten minutes.  After about five mintues the pager went off and we were seated.  The service was very un-Carnival like the first night.  It took about ten minutes for someone to speak to us once we were seated, we had to ask on three different occasions for milk for our two boys, and the waiter kept forgetting to bring things to our table.  We were on vacation though and decided that it must have just been a bad night for someone (believe it or not they are human too) and decided to try the open seating again the next night.  The remainder of the cruise the service was back to Carnival standards.  There was only one other evening the last six nights where we were given a pager to wait and the wait was under three minutes.  We did not know if we were going to enjoy the open seating (especially after the first dinner) but we ended up liking it better than having the standard time (just our opinion) since it made our time with our two boys more more flexible around the different activities we wanted to do.  Out of the two dinning rooms on the Liberty, only the second floor of the Golden dinning room had the opening seating.  The first floor and both floors of the Silver dinning room had the standard dinning times.  So you are not stuck with open seating if you do not want it.  The one major downside to the open seating is that you do not form that friendship with the wait staff like you do when you have the same staff each night with standard dining.  I did miss that aspect of it. 

Camp Carnival - We did use Camp Carnival a little bit (we actually enjoy spending time with our two boys so we only use Camp Carnival sparingly) and use them once before in the past.  The boys enjoyed themselves tremendously during the times they were there.  We were told they are running a test program on the Liberty for Camp Carnival that they are not running on any other ship.  I guess they received a bunch of complaints about Camp Carnival only being open a few hours here and a few hours there so they are testing new hours on the Liberty where Camp Carnival is open at 7:30am and the free activities end at 10:00pm with paid baby sitting avaliable until 2:00pm or 3:00pm.  They only shut down for a couple of hours each day for lunch from I believe noon to 2:00pm.  Other than that they are open almost all day now but just on the Liberty.

Ship Changes - We noticed a few differences to the ship from the previous year since it was dry docked (probably missed many more).  The new miniture golf course is literally wrapped around the red, white, and blue exhust funnel of the ship.  Four holes on the left and five holes on the right.  Tiger Woods is not going to practice on it but I thought it was fine.  It is free but you have to give them your sail and sign information in case you do not return the clubs and balls.  The main pool in the middle of the Lido deck used to have two hot tubs against the back of the pool.  They moved both of the hot tubs back into the first row of the tiered seating, one on each side of the entrance to the Lido deck. 

Carnival Next - They have the Carnival Next program on board and said they had just expanded it to six ships (I would think that in the near future it will be on all ships) where you can put down $100.00 deposit that we be good for any future cruise taken within the next five years.  They will give you anywhere from $50 - $200 on board credit on the next cruise in addtion to counting the $100.00 against the cost of the cruise depending on the length of the cruise (7 day cruises get $100 OBC).  We did sign up for the Next certificate as we plan on cruising again in the next five years.  Even if you sign up and decide not to cruise you can request a refund of the $100.00 so there is really no downside to getting the free OBC.  you can purchase up to five certificates but I did not see the purpose in purchasing more than one at a time. 

Entertainment - Most of the theatre shows in the evening were the same as last year with new singers and dancers.  They did have a couple of new ones.  Even though the were the same I thought they were done very well and better than the year before.  They have a new morning show that the cruise director Steve and his assistant James run each morning that they braodcast on the TV and the big outdoor screen on the Lido deck.  It is a call in show so some cruisers call in and ask questions and they will have some of the other staff on the boat call in or be present for the show.  It was new and kind of entertaining.          

I thought the crew was extremely pleasant and accomdating maybe the best experience we have had in our five Carnival cruises.  Maybe because the ship has just come off drydock and everyone is new and fresh.  I do not know but they were great.

That is all I can think of right know.  I hope it helps some of you.  Thanks.