In early October, Carnival Cruise Lines announced Fun Ship 2.0, a $500-million dollar investment on a majority of the ships in their fleet.

In a nut shell, it’s an overhaul of some public areas and entertainment on the ship.

Carnival Liberty was the first ship to go into dry dock to get these enhancements and the crowds are really receptive.

We decided to put ‘Fun Ship 2.0’ to the test and embarked on the 2,974-passenger Carnival Liberty for a 7-night Western Caribbean sailing.

 I spent a pre-cruise night in Miami at the DoubleTree, downtown. The cab ride to the hotel from the airport was USD$29 and the hotel was quite nice. We actually reviewed the hotel in 2010, so you can read the review here.

On Saturday morning I woke up and took a cab to the pier at around 11:30am which cost USD$14. Miami now adds USD$1 to every cab fare for a fuel surcharge.

Embarkation at the Miami cruise pier was a breeze. There were five other ships in port; Norwegian Epic, Celebrity Millennium, Celebrity Eclipseand Carnival Destiny.

We boarded the ship around noon and went straight to ‘Guy’s Burger Joint’ where I had two of the most awesome burgers, hands down, the best at sea!

The burgers were created by chef Guy Fieri and you can tell. The hand cut fries also rock!

The acoustic guitar player on the lido deck really helped set the mood and the musician was awesome. He played a lot of top 40, rock, and country.

The lifeboat drill was on deck four and very organized, lasting only about 15-20 minutes before we headed to the sailaway party.

 If you’ve never sailed out of Miami before, do it! This was the first time I’ve sailed out of Miami on a full port day and our ship was the only ship that had to go all the way up harbour and spin around so we got to pass all the ships awaiting departure.

As we were making our way up harbour, Norwegian Epic, Carnival Destiny and Celebrity Millennium got a head start on us. Celebrity Eclipse was the last ship from the pier and it was clear that the passengers on the Carnival ships were hands down the ones in it for fun!

The other ships looked like a ghost town on the decks!

During the sailaway party, led by Cruise Director Butch, the crowds were really receptive to the new dining venues ‘Blue Iguana Cantina’, ‘Red Frog Rum Bar’, ‘Guy’s Burger Joint’ and ‘Blue Iguana Cantina’.

During the sailing there are going to be a lot of games and contests between the two bars. I thought that adding all those venues would be a complete cluster on the lido deck (where they’re located) but all the venues have plenty of depth so crowding isn’t an issue at all.

After we made our way out of the port I went to get my third burger at ‘Guy’s Burger Joint’, the Pig Patty.

Once the casino and shops opened, a lot of passengers headed down there and I took some time out to walk around the ship and explore for a couple of hours before dinner.

We were allocated late dining and the menu consisted of steak, shrimp, soups, and a variety of other delights. I selected the beef soup and a rare steak and am happy to report that, as always, Carnival’s food and service was awesome.

After dinner we went to their new ‘EA Sports Bar’, adjacent to the casino.

This was another one of their ‘Fun Ship 2.0’ enhancements and it was a crowd pleaser. I’ve never seen so many screaming football fans in one bar!

The 20+ flat screen TVs and 24/7 sports ticker were awesome. I’m hoping they’ll air the Jaguars game for ‘Monday Night Football’ (the true test)!

I caught the 11:45pm adults-only comedy show but, unfortunately, he wasn’t the best comedian I’ve seen at sea. His name was John Knight and he did the ‘showtime’ thing which I notice a lot of comedians doing these days. I’ll give him time, it is only the first night but he sure didn’t impress me and I ended up walking out.

Though this ship has the ‘Fun Ship 2.0’ make-over, they don’t yet have the comedy program implemented on any of the ships in the fleet. Once rolled out, it will be run by comedian George Lopez.

This morning we have an event with one of the Carnival VP’s, showing us top to bottom the additions as part of the initiative.

My balcony cabin is located on deck 8 mid-ship, right next to the elevators so luckily there’s not much noise.

Click here for live updates on my Carnival Liberty voyage or check back on e-Travel Blackboard daily.