Liberty of the Seas: 3/6 – 3/13 Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel

-FOOD: B+

We did the Windjammer for most meals. MDR on a couple nights (No Formal). IMHO Windjammer breakfast was outstanding. Lunch was our lighter meal so just salad and fruit for the most part. Dinner was just about everything they offered from hotdogs to lobster to prime rib to sushi. Loved the Mac & Cheese. The HUGE apple pie with vanilla or strawberry ice cream was fantastic!

I need to mention the Windjammer coffee. It was great! I mention this because we were on Navigator last year and the coffee was like turpentine. I mentioned this in the after cruise rating survey from last year’s cruise and I guess RCI heard us! I asked an officer working in the Windjammer if they changed their coffee and he confirmed they did indeed switch suppliers due to a lot of negative feedback. It’s great to hear they actually listen. Perhaps it was just me, but the MDR coffee seemed even better!

-SERVICE: A

The service was outstanding! Everyone from the Windjammer, the MDR, the cabin stewards on displayed an “ownership” attitude to every need or request. I saw this as a big improvement from Navigator. While Navigator was in no way bad, Liberty was just that much better that the service crew really made a difference. For example, my wife was having an afternoon glass of wine in the Solarium and she wanted some brie cheese. I went to fetch some at the Windjammer (Deck 11) but they did not have any displayed. (Apparently it is a dinner offering). One of the officers offered several time to go to the Deck 5 kitchen to get me some. I declined of course but his offer was genuine. On another occasion I asked a gym attendant if I could have a bath robe for the sauna. No problem…he got one for me no questions asked. I also asked for soft-serve ice cream in the Windjammer and they did not have any, but mentioned the machine was on the pool deck and they offered to go get me some. I declined, but again, a genuine offer.

-THE SHIP: A

The LOS is a fabulous ship and although I really couldn’t notice any size difference from Navigator, I never found it to be crowded. I thought Sorrento’s was nice (and the pizza really isn’t that bad). I had a couple tuna sandwiches that were fresh and delicious. The coconut macaroons were great and the other goodies were great as well. I am not a bar person so I cannot comment on any of them. The Saturday Night Fever show was okay. (It’s a cruise ship after all…).

The new waterslides where “OK”. I tried them out on a sea-day and the lines were not too bad. They seemed a bit slow to me though. I went down the green and then the orange. The green seemed a tad faster, but not by much. Maybe it’s a kid thing…

The new Tidal Wave was not operational. I asked a ships officer, who just happened to be consulting with a group of men who I was told were engineers from the Tidal Wave manufacturer, what the real story was for getting it operational. He shook his head and essentially said that it was unsafe in its’ current configuration and that the engineers were working on the problem. He did mention that there was a chance that it may never be operational in its’ current configuration and they may need to do a complete re-engineering design and rebuild. I am not an engineer, but looking at the “flow” of the thing gave me some real concerns as well. I could see how someone could fall off at the peak and also at the downward hump.

-THE SPA: A

My wife did a couple massages and she thought they were fabulous. One of the masseuses also worked Security and ran the x-ray machine when re-boarding from our shore excursions. I thought this was a bit odd. Nevertheless, I spent a lot of times in the gym and men’s spa (I actually worked-out 4 out of the 7 days) and I was impressed with how clean everything was. The steam room and dry sauna were great and attendants came through often to make sure there were plenty of towels and such. One weird thing I noticed that I didn’t see on NOS (or maybe just missed it??) was a sign by all the water fountains saying it was against “United States Health Regulations” to refill water bottles. Hmmm…..good thing we were not in the USA and not on a US flagged ship. I asked an officer why these signs were posted and he said that they buy the drinking water and use the onboard desalinization for everything else. IOW, if true, it’s to cut costs. The US Health Regulations is simply BS.

Great Excursion:

Jamaica and The Blue Hole!

I am not sure this is even offered through RCI, but if you are thinking about taking the Dunn's River Falls tour please rethink it and give the Blue Hole a look. Google "Liberty Tours Jamaica Blue Hole" for more info. No deposit needed and they were spot-on reliable. Our guide - Carlton Smith - was awesome! Lunch at Scotchie's Jerk Chicken in Ocho Rios is included and it is to die for! It's an all-day excursion and you will get wet! It was some of best fun I have had on a cruise! It is safe and a great family outing.

-THE NEGATIVE

OK…here’s what I found to be the bad of the cruise.

OUR RCI GRAND CAYMAN EXCURSION BIG LIE

We booked the Stingray City, Turtle Farm and Hell Adventure trip though RCI way back in January. I paid for it using my RCI VISA and I paid the card off immediately. This means I owed nothing to RCI for the excursion.

Come Thursday morning the 10th, we got in line early for the tender trip into Georgetown. The short boat trip was easy and uneventful. The water was calm and there was just a nice light breeze. A perfect day I thought to myself.

Once we got to the cruise tender port, we went directly to the excursion tent and got in line for our tour. I need to mention that I am very familiar with Grand Cayman. I used to scuba dive a lot in the 70’s to the late 90’s and a buddy of mine owned a condo development at Bonnies Arch at the SW end about a mile from the Turtle Farm. He was a local custom boat builder in Grand Cayman. I have been to Stingray City many times (to the point that it’s boring). When we checked-in for our tour, we were told by a RCI representative that it was “cancelled due to weather”. HUH???? I looked up at the sky and it was a gorgeous sunny day with a light breeze. I asked the RCI rep several times to explain what she meant by “weather” and she dodged the question like Hillary dodging email and private server questions. I was offered a couple substitute alternatives, but nothing interested me. One alternative was a 25 minute helicopter ride. I found it odd that the weather was okay for a helicopter ride but not for a bus tour of the island and a visit to Stingray City.

We walked outside the gate that separates all the usual local vendors from the cruise ship folks and there we discovered about a dozen different tours to Stingray City and just about everything else on the island. (And over half the price!!) I asked a lady selling the Stingray City tour if she had any reports of bad weather and she said “no” and went on to say that the weather was nice. She even got on her cell phone and called a tour boat and confirmed the weather on the North side was just fine and all the tours were operating.

I confirmed this with at least 3 other tour operators. I then went back inside the cruise ship area and I confronted a LOS officer and demanded an honest answer. I hope I don’t get her fired, but “Kelly” from Australia was very candid with me and disclosed that since the past few cruises could not anchor in Grand Cayman a lot of the RCI contracted tour operators have been cancelling if LOS could not confirm a port stop by the night before. The tour contractor we had was unfortunately one of them.

I was able to find our SAME tour operator just outside the gate and they were running all their tours with no problems AND they were more than half the price of the RCI booked tours. They were able to confirm Kelly’s story and even went on to disclose that they were very disgruntled with RCI’s lack of communication about visiting Grand Cayman and that it has been a problem for several weeks. They are not huge tour conglomerates. They are locals who make their livings driving vans and operating boats and if the cruise line cannot give them a commitment by the night before a scheduled stop they have no choice but to cancel and then go after the non-RCI booked business, which BTW was booming. It’s a small island with lots of cabs and even a public bus system so getting back to your ship is not a problem.

Now keep in mind that we had a prepaid RCI booked trip that would last all day. When we got off the sip and got on the tender we only carried about $100 US in cash. In Cayman dollars this is about $80. I could have waited for a tender to return me to LOS and then re-board and go to my cabin and get more cash, but by the time I did that and caught another tender back into Georgetown, too much time would have been wasted. (Again…RCI absolutely knew before we tendered to GC that our tours had CANCELLED and they FAILED to notify us so that we could prepare and make alternative plans…and bring more cash!!!)

Plan B: We talked a local cab driver into taking us to the East End (not a tourist area) where I have a time share property. It’s about an hour drive each way. We went to the East End and had a nice time and we stopped at a local roadside bbq joint that is a go-to for the locals. We had a nice bbq ribs and chicken lunch and then returned to the cruise port. All in all it was about 4 hrs. After paying the drive and buying lunch, we returned to the LOS with a single (ONE) Cayman dollar!

Once back on-board we learned that RCI had given the same “weather cancellation” BS talking point to hundreds of passengers. If you were on this cruise and your GC tour was cancelled please mention this in the survey we all got yesterday. I sincerely believe that the reason RCI is lying to us is because our cruise contracts clearly state the RCI is not responsible for weather related cancellations or incidents. So why not….just blame the weather when it’s your screw-up and you are off the hook!

OK…enough of the long rant. Let me be clear. Except for the RCI Grand Cayman Big Lie we had a great time! I would do it all again and I highly recommend this cruise. The only thing I would change is to book your Grand Cayman excursion with a private tour operator (remember, it’s a very small island) and bring extra cash. Heck, you don’t even have to pre-book a tour. Simply walk out the gate and there are dozens to choose from and most are the same tour operators RCI is using anyway!

(If you want the name and # of a reliable, friendly and knowledgeable local GC driver just PM me.)

Thanks for the report. Sorry about the unfortunate GC excursion cancellation, but this cruise line seems to have a serious problem with accurate communications.

Thanks for your review.

Thanks so much for this information on Grand Cayman and your experience with the tour!

I copied and pasted it to our roll call.

Thank you very much for your very thorough review.

Keith

Nice report. I am so excited. April 3rd come on now. Lol

great information.

What did you do in Cozumel? Thanks.

great information.

 

What did you do in Cozumel? Thanks.

We have been to Cozumel a few times and "have the t-shirts"...LOL.

We stayed onboard in Cozumel and took advantage of a nearly empty ship.

Loved it!

My wife spent most of the day at the Solarium and I hung out at the gym/spa. No regrets at all not going ashore. It was a lazy, relaxing day with no agendas, lines or crowds (Clearing Mexican Customs coming back to the ship can be a real PITA!)

Your excellent comments about the Grand Cayman tour fiasco has me a bit concerned. We're already pre-booked that same excursion through RCL because our daughters were so interested in doing that. Hopefully we won't have the same problem.

A quick question - will you get a refund back on your CC for the canceled tour? Or are you going to have to dispute the charge with your CC company?

 

A quick question - will you get a refund back on your CC for the canceled tour? Or are you going to have to dispute the charge with your CC company?

Well I wasn't going to mention it, but since you asked...

I was assured by the RCI Excursion rep that my pre-paid tour of GC would be fully refunded and I would see the refund in the "My Account" screen when I got back to my cabin. When I returned to the ship I checked my account and there was no refund showing. I waited until the next morning and it changed to a charge for $297 and then a debit for $297. Remember, I pre-paid the tour in January with my RCI VISA and immediately paid off the card.

I went to the Deck 5 Cruise Desk and I explained the situation to a mind-numb robot who was unable to do simple math. (Perhaps he was a student of Common Core...). I had to ask him for a pen and paper whereupon I laid it out in very simplistic detail. I also reassured him that I was not a con-man trying to scam RCI and that RCI LIED! He then, surprisingly, offered to just give me cash or send a credit authorization to B of A (RCI VISA). Of course I took the cash money offer! I took out 3 one-dollar bills from my wallet and I said, "Just give me 3 one-hundred dollar bills and we are even." He gave me a "deer in the headlights" look and I reassured him that I was not a quick-change artist. I got the cash and went on my way.

I have to admit I was very proud of myself for remaining calm and not belittling him. (I'll just do it here...)

great information.

 

What did you do in Cozumel? Thanks.

I see you have 3 teenagers. May I suggest Paradise Beach? It is amazing and your family will have tons of fun.

Google their website and see all of the activities they have.

To get there, at the end of the port you will see many signs for cabs and shuttles. They are "fixed" prices, so you can not be ripped off.

When you are ready to come back to the port there are tons of cabs and shuttles to take everyone back. Leave an hour before you are due back on the ship even though it is only a 10 minute ride. You may want to pick up a souvenir at one of their many shops on the pier.

Thank you so much for your review! Great to hear all the good news!

I'm not worried about the Grand Cayman issue since I have booked on my own with Native Way Watersports. My DH and I used them in Oct 2014 and had a great time! Traveling with my DD this time so using them again.

I do have an excursion booked through RCI for Jamaica. We are going to do Dunn's River Falls just because we never have. I have heard good things on this board about Blue Hole though. What company did you book through for future reference?

For others - for Cozumel we will probably go to Paradise Beach if the weather is good, though I too would be happy to stay on the ship.

Thanks for the review and information! We'll be on Liberty Sunday, March 20th, for the same itinerary. My wife and I were looking at scuba diving in Grand Cayman or Jamaica and will definitely book direct or at the port rather than through RCCL.

The blatant lies are a bit disconcerting, though it seems to be a pattern of little or no communication.

Did the WJ say where the new coffee is from? It has been from Central America in the past from what others have posted.

I'm confused about the Stingray City issue because I had a respected, private tour operator recommend against it.

I also was on the 3/6 LOS sailing, and I had prebooked a private 3-stop tour with Captain Marvins on 3/10.

We arrived from the tender and went straight to Captain Marvin's office:

1) A Captain Marvin employee was working the check-in line explaining to everyone that conditions at Stringray City were extremely rough and only recommended for expert swimmers. They would refund 100% of deposits if you chose not to go.

2) A document was passed to every person where they had to sign acknowledging rough conditions and could not ask for a refund if they chose to go forward with the tour.

Initially, we decided to stay in line. But when I got to the desk to pay, the multiple Captain Marvin representatives looked at me and my 10/12 year old kids and said: do you really want to do this? Are they expert swimmers? Captain Marvin's rep said waves were crashing over people's heads at Stingray City.

So what is the truth? Did anyone actually go to Stingray City on 3/10 that could report actual conditions?

Thanks for your review - great. One thing I thought of though. If the tour operators are insisting on a guaranteed arrival the night before, RCCL might be put in a tough jam. They are not the ones to decide whether to tender or not - the port is. If the port authority decides to deny them, then maybe they are stuck with all the refunds on excursions, not the tour operators. Not taking away from their botched and unacceptable communication with you, but the problem seems to be between RCCL and the operators - and the passengers are the ones being screwed over in the power struggle. We've always booked independently and never had a problem - excursion contract always said full refunds if ship didn't make it to port FOR ANY REASON. We've been lucky - the one time we missed Cayman, we didn't have anything booked ahead of time.

Sorry about your tour, yikes. But at least you got to go to GC, *sigh.* Seeing GC is enough to make me book this same cruise again. I also really loved the ship and even though I thought I only want to cruise different ships, I would love to sail LOS again. I also thought the service was great.

Glad everything else was good!

 

So what is the truth? Did anyone actually go to Stingray City on 3/10 that could report actual conditions?

We had dinner Thursday night with a couple who went to Stingray City with their teenage kids and they said it was fine and they had a blast. They went through one of the many tour companies outside the gate. I think they said it was something like $20 per person.

Thank you so much for your review! Great to hear all the good news!

 

I'm not worried about the Grand Cayman issue since I have booked on my own with Native Way Watersports. My DH and I used them in Oct 2014 and had a great time! Traveling with my DD this time so using them again.

 

I do have an excursion booked through RCI for Jamaica. We are going to do Dunn's River Falls just because we never have. I have heard good things on this board about Blue Hole though. What company did you book through for future reference?

 

For others - for Cozumel we will probably go to Paradise Beach if the weather is good, though I too would be happy to stay on the ship.

We used Liberty Tours Jamaica for our awesome Blue Hole experience.

We had dinner Thursday night with a couple who went to Stingray City with their teenage kids and they said it was fine and they had a blast. They went through one of the many tour companies outside the gate. I think they said it was something like $20 per person.

We went to Stingray City on 3/10. It was bit more wavy than normal at Stingray City and the reefs were still ok to snorkel.

So do you need to be able to swim to do Stingray City? When we booked this tour, I didn't realize how far into the water you went. My daughters and I all swim; but, my DH doesn't. Would he be able to just stay on the boat?

excellent review , i talked to some other folks who were not happy with RC and their excursion policies.

Thanks

So do you need to be able to swim to do Stingray City? When we booked this tour, I didn't realize how far into the water you went. My daughters and I all swim; but, my DH doesn't. Would he be able to just stay on the boat?

Right off the bat, your DH could definitely stay on the boat if he wanted. He could also use a life jacket.

I've only been once but I want to say you really don't have to be able to swim. Of course I do swim so maybe I was more comfortable. When DH & I went it was rainy at the port but fine where we were doing the stingrays, snorkeling. But perhaps because of the weather the waves were a little rough. If fact, when it came to the snorkeling we weren't able to anchor near the reef so we just snorkeled nearby. Anyway, I'm only 5'3" so I had to "bounce" a little on the sandbar with the stingrays as the waves came and went. Which is a little tricky since you're trying to keep your feet down so you don't accidentally step on a stingray. For the snorkeling part we used life jackets so I know they have them available.

How old are your DDs? Mine is 23. We are doing the Stingray Sandbar, Coral Gardens and Starfish Snorkel with Native Way Watersports - 3 hours, $40/pp - if you would like to join us. 12pm departure, I'll give you our names if you're interested and want to be on the same boat. When we went with them before it was only us 2 and a family of 5.

Not sure how your DH is with snorkeling. As I said there are life jackets though. When my DH & I went we accidentally got the Starfish Snorkel for free since the other family on the boat had booked it and it was on the way to the beach that we had booked. So, since we weren't paying we didn't feel we should snorkel so we sat on this water-level platform on the back of the boat with our legs in the water and the guide brought the starfish up to us to see/feel. So that's an option for your DH too.

Liberty of the Seas

Taken while tendering into Grand Cayman.

Another shot taken while tendering into Grand Cayman. Note the calm water and blue skies.

Docked next to Allure of the Seas in Falmouth, Jamaica.

Wow!! Those shots while tendering are perfection! Great framing! The color of the water too - beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for your review! :)