Sailing at Night on the Carnival Liberty

The pool decks of the Carnival Liberty cruise ship are filled with light, but not filled with people, late at night.

From our experiences, one of the most interesting times on a cruise ship is at night. Everything seems to take on a different atmosphere. There aren’t nearly as many people out, and most of the ones that are out aren’t in the pools, so it is quieter. The air is cooler, and there is often a breeze blowing. The sky overhead is filled with darkness. Lights illuminate everything. Off in the distance, you might see the lights of a passing ship staring at you like eyes from the darkness. Everything is much different from the bustling daytime hours. And on this cruise, it was no different.

In the above photo, a few people were watching the end credits of the movie Zootopia, which was playing on the large screen to the right of where we were standing. A few people were still in the pool, and others were starting to walk back to their rooms for the evening. The chairs that were filled with people enjoying the sun for most of the day were practically empty, except for just a few people, who didn’t linger much longer.

And I particularly like the blue lights that line the rails farther back past the pool area. Those areas were elevated so that they gave good views of the screen, even though they were farther back. I don’t know if they were designed around the screen or not, but it almost had a stadium seating feel to it.

If you are thinking this looks familiar, you might be remembering the earlier post Sailing on the Carnival Liberty, because that photo was shot from the same location as this one. Except of course that this one was at night and that one was during the day. But you could probably tell that already.

This photo was the scene from slightly earlier in the evening, as the movie was still playing, although you can’t see it in the washed-out brightness of the screen. There was a good crowd for the movie that night since it was a popular family movie. There had been some drops of rain during the evening, but you can also see the moon shining brightly right above the top left corner of the movie screen. It was a nice night to be outside.

We were actually on the level above the main pool deck. But there were still several people up there with us, even though we were somewhat off to the side of the screen. We got there about halfway through the movie, so most of the best seats were gone. We had seen the movie before back home, so we knew what was going on, but it was still nice to see part of it again. A good way to wind down our cruise before returning to the States.

After the movie ended, we went for a walk on the walking/jogging track, which is the blue surface on the right. This was the track that led past the movie screen, and it also circled the large iconic funnel. You can also see the moon rising above the funnel here, just as it was above the movie screen earlier. Interestingly, there never were that many people on the track whenever we were up there, even in the middle of the day. We only encountered a couple of joggers during our whole cruise. I’m sure there were others, but we never did cross paths with them. However, we never were up there in the cooler early morning hours, either. Maybe that was the secret. As you might tell from this photo, we are much more late-night people than early morning people.

It is always interesting to be outside at night, as long as you can sacrifice a little sleep.

The fear of the Lord leads to life; one will sleep at night without danger. - Proverbs 19:23

About the Photos

Just some minimal processing here to bring out the colors and bring up the brightness a bit. And then some noise removal to compensate for the grain of the high ISO setting for the nighttime photos.

Photos: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: July 20, 2016
Location: At Sea in the Gulf of Mexico