Liberty of the Seas Oct 3-10

[Moondawgie]

Here is my very long review. Keep in mind that I am not a huge ship fan (meaning size), but we had a great time.

I wanted to write a review specifically to help those who may be taking the same voyage. My research on some things helped me a lot. The rest is my experience and can be subjective.

My group consisted of my family from 82-years to 18 months. There were 9 of us. Organizing the group was fun and a lot of work. My daughter turned 35 and wanted to celebrate with all of us. She chose the ship and the date and used her Carnival Sea Miles points for 2 cruisers.

First, we flew into FLL. I found Quality Limo through recommendations on cruise critic, and they were perfect. Dealing with Karina who answers the phone was so pleasant and stress free. QLS as they are called on their van took care of all our limo needs. FLL to hotel, ship to FLL or hotel for all of us. They have my wholehearted recommendation.

We stayed at the Best Western Marina on 79th Causeway in Miami and that was also PERFECT for us. They are on the intracoastal waterway with pool, nice restaurant on the water, free Internet and complimentary continental breakfast with the Cruise Package reservation (price varies, but we paid an average of about $109/night). There is a bus right across the street from the hotel that takes you to South Beach for $2/pp or $1/senior. They have a free shuttle to the ship which leaves at 12 noon – kind of late for us, but it was ok. It gave us time to eat breakfast and spend some family time together before the mad rush. When we were on the way, my daughter realized she forgot her new Blackberry in the Internet room. We called and some nice person had turned it in. The shuttle driver volunteered to go all the way back after he dropped us off at the pier, get the phone and return with the next group of passengers. We thought that was very helpful of him. By the time we checked in, he was there with the phone. This hotel has my recommendation for sure.

We arrived in the madness. Let me tell you that traveling with kids and a senior is challenging, but every venue we had to use was extremely helpful. Southwest got a wheelchair for my Mother at all the airports, checked in curbside and they wheeled her on and off the plane, gave us priority check in, priority boarding and helped wherever they could. Bring lots of $1 for this because my Mother and I were tipping like crazy … but well worth it! It made flying relatively easy (except for the TSA agents who I will explain later on). I also like Southwest for many reasons including on time departures and arrivals, free luggage (2 pieces), pleasant personnel and of course the handicap assistance.

We checked in on board with minimal effort. Although I could not do Platinum check in with everyone, when they saw my Mother had a cane, they immediately brought us over to a special check in lane (1st ones in line). With all the confusion, we didn’t get our first of many opportunities for a family photo. No one had a boarding photo.

While I am on that subject, I would like to state now that I do not like the big ships, and this one was way too big for my taste. There are too many people (and mostly crowds don’t bother me, but this was mass confusion). I miss the old smaller ships with their personal service and intimacy. Another aspect that affected the experience was that 66% of the passengers were non-American. About 3/4 of those didn’t speak English. I heard every language in the Universe. Although I love different cultures and love to immerse myself in their countries while visiting, this was not the case on board. The usual aspect of conversing with people in the elevator or sitting next to you was extremely challenging or non-existent. The nationalities pretty much stuck together and did not interact (somewhat because of the language barrier). I heard some calling the passengers more rude than they had seen on other cruises. I didn’t experience too much of it – possibly because being a New Yorker, I understand that style of interaction. However, the language thing did bother me. I heard everything from Spanish, Ukrainian, French, German, Hebrew, Norwegian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean on to British accents and two men I spoke with had such a strong Irish brogue that I hardly understood them either. A few people that I met who spoke English said that the non-American aspect was difficult. I wondered why so many were on board, and I was told due to the weak US dollar, the cost of cruises booked abroad is very low.

Food – I read many complaints about the food on RCI lately. Well, I cannot agree. I was able to find something good at all meals. Breakfast was more than adequate in the buffet and dining room. If you get to the dining room for breakfast, you could take from a buffet and/or order from the menu. I believe DR breakfast was only until 10 a.m. Another thing that I found funny was that after reading everyone’s favorite RCI foods, I had to try them. I did not find any of the favorites to be outstanding including the savory bites in the DR, the honey stung chicken (like Kentucky fried), the Vidalia onion tart … just about everything that was mentioned. Lobster night was the 2nd formal night and it was included in the Fisherman’s Platter. If you go to lunch in the DR, they have this marvelous salad bar where they take a large bowl and you choose what goes into your salad and they hand it to you at the end. Everything was delicious and fresh. Then you could also order from the menu.

We had early dinner at 6 p.m. We had intended to change to My Time Dining at 7 or 7:30, but it was too difficult to get everyone together. When I mentioned this to the Maître'd, he said that it was perfectly ok to show up at 6:30 or even 6:45 because we were together on our own table and it would not affect anyone else. I was skeptical about that, but it worked great and we all showed up between 6 and 6:30. My brother and his 2 teenagers were on their first cruise, so they were 2 steps behind in the beginning and wound up at Johnny Rockets the first night. Then they went to the Windjammer two other nights because they didn’t feel like wearing long pants.

The Maitre’d was outside the DR (along with tons of Purell) and I witnessed someone in shorts being turned away on a smart casual night (not formal). I heard him say that jeans were ok, but not shorts. Mostly people were dressed appropriately. I have to say that I used to love formal nights and didn’t mind dressing up at all. This cruise was different. I didn’t like dressing up and lugging all those extra clothes with the airlines, etc. was a chore. I feel myself getting more and more casual – but still dress appropriately – just not to the 9s.

One of the purposes of the trip was to get a family portrait. Well, the first formal night we tried to gather all of us together. We managed to do that – everyone looked quite lovely – when we were sent from background to background to find one that could fit 9 people. By the time we got to the 5th background – remember the senior and the kids – my grandson would not pose any more. He was done. So, we have a beautiful family portrait minus one person. Every time we found an opportunity to take a group shot, at least one person was missing. I have to say that we all made quite an effort, but it just didn’t work out.

Service – in my opinion the wait staff and housekeeping staff are the best on this ship. The Guest Relations was pretty good. The spa was awful as usual. I had a $99 massage and although the therapist was great, the reception people are just rude, rude, rude and not helpful. I had a $20 massage in Cozumel that was as good if not better. I had a few problems with charges and GS helped me straighten them out. One thing to remember, if you are looking for the $25 laundry service ($20 for platinum and higher with a coupon), wait until Wednesday. My brother used the service on Tuesday and was charged $61.15!! I took my complaint to GS and told the agent that this was totally unacceptable and to take the charges off and reduce it to $25. After some haggling, arguing and unpleasantness on my part, he did it. I told him I was a new Diamond member this sailing and nothing bothered me as much as this charge to my brother’s account. He called me later on to say that he worked it out with Housekeeping and the charge would be $25, but he could not use the Wednesday bag now. ~insert rolling eyes!~

I believe RCI management really drums into the staff to say hello to everyone and be pleasant because every single staff member I passed did just that, even when working their butts off! Speaking of RCI management, I would like to inject something about the Loyalty Program. A lot has been said about the changes. Well, I was not at all unhappy with those changes and I did not use any of the coupons in the book. One was for 15% off an 8x10 photo, but in fine print it is a photo with a white background, which we could not find. 8 x 10s are $19.95 each. If you buy 4 you get a frame with a nice photo of the ship … very expensive, but we wanted some family photos, so I bought 5 even though there were not 9 of us in any of them.

One complaint I had was that even though I was invited to 2 loyalty cocktail parties, there was no reward other than a free drink and a very boring sales pitch by the loyalty ambassador about how wonderful RCI is and to book the Oasis and Allure while you can. Our cruise director was Leigh from Australia and he was the highlight of the whole thing. Even the Captain said to “book your next cruise”. The parties were definitely not about rewarding loyalty, but certainly trying to sell more cruises to the people who booked before. One woman was on 132 RCI cruises – she got the only reward – flowers and a bottle of champagne. Big woop!

Entertainment – the entertainment on board was adequate. I cannot praise any one act other than the ice show of course. It was fabulous and the one night that all 9 of us were at the theater. My grandchildren even sat through it (basically). Other than that, nothing spectacular. I enjoyed watching the Love and Marriage show on the cabin TV. I did not get to attend many of those type activities, so I can’t comment on them. I never made it to Quest. The comedian Richard Starr was just ok. The comedy duo (keyboard player and stand-up comedian) were amusing. The theater was not packed mainly I’m sure due to the foreign language thing again.

The kids did not do the on board children’s program, mainly because we tried to stay together as a family as much as possible. However, I believe the Ocean Adventure kids (not too many there) had a blast. There was a family disco 2 nights. The first one we had so much fun. The DJ was laughing because my grandson knew all the words to some heavy metal song (thanks to his father). That was a highlight. The 2nd one was after Cozumel and hardly anyone showed up. In fact, after Cozumel the dining room was also empty. You have to be on board by 6 p.m. and that pretty much finishes off dinner time or anything else. The teens did not go to the teen club, partly because of the same family reason but party because hardly anyone was there that we could see. They peeked in a few times and found maybe 1 or 2 people. Again, I think the language barrier may be a cause.

Ports – Labadee was ok. Beach and BBQ. My Mother got off and took the tender (the Captain said the pier will be finished by the end of November) and when we got to the beach they had these huge rubber wheeled wheelchairs to help out. The Haitians will bring you a lounge chair in the shade or on the beach for a tip of $2 – we had 6 people helping us at $2/each. We stayed a while, but decided to get going to have lunch on board. It was just too crowded and not enjoyable for my mother and I – I wanted to get her back on the tender when there wasn’t mass confusion again. The rest of the family said they had fun and my brother and my nephew did the zip line and said except for the wait it was awesome.

In Jamaica we all went to the Jamaica Sunset Resort Ocho Rios. This was HUGE hit with everyone. It is an all inclusive for $50/pp – kids free. They have so many beautiful pools, beach, restaurants and great atmosphere. It includes all your drinks and food and non-motorized beach vehicles. I have to add something that is so bad for Jamaica. I had read to use the Jutta taxis with the red license plates. Well, I mentioned that to my daughter but she must have forgotten in the rush to get off and go to the resort. Five of us walked (15 minutes) and 4 people took a taxi (1 child, 1 senior, 1 teen, 1 adult). The taxi ride is all about 5 minutes away and I was told it is $4 (this is with the Jutta taxi). When my family got to the Sunset, the driver asked my mother for $35!!!!!!!!!! She was amazed. My daughter told him what about the $4/pp? He said no! They bartered and my Mother wound up paying him $20, but they were so upset at this point. When I told them at the resort, they made sure that the way back (1 senior, 1 child and me) found the right taxi and paid $4 pp, child FREE!! Be careful in Jamaica, mon. This was our least favorite port – but the resort was a beautiful. Good idea to do that.

In Grand Cayman we took another tender – of course with 4,000 passengers, that can be a challenge, but they made it as pleasant as it could be. I heard mumbling in about 55 languages about the process. We got ashore and just walked around and shopped then finished off with lunch at Senior Frogs. Short stay – about 4 hours by the time you figure tenders. My Mother stayed on board because she wanted a relaxing day.

Cozumel was a good day. We decided to split up so everything could do what they wanted. My DD/SIL/grandchildren/brother/teens went to Paradise Beach (free entry with purchase of food and drink). They said it was a good idea. I wanted my Mother to get off and at least experience Cozumel so we walked off to the shopping pretty close to the ship. She has a hard time walking, so luckily at each port they had wheelchairs to bring seniors back and forth and she took advantage of that on the way back. I took her back to the ship and went out to meet the rest of the family at Carlos n’ Charlies (what else?). While waiting for them I had the $20 massage (25 minutes) and it was terrific – to the right of C n C by the shopping. I bought a dress but paid full price because the marketplace was empty and I felt bad taking $$ away from the woman selling them. By the time they got there I had one yard high dirty banana, a balloon hat and a bucket of popcorn. We ate some appetizers. C n’ C was empty. The marketplace was empty. They told us it is low season and they don’t get much business. I think the shopping by the pier probably takes away from them. The taxi to town cost $4/carload – however, I got in a van and it was $16 for the whole van full. My family (7 who went to Paradise Beach and C n’ C) paid $80, $100 with tip for all of them for the whole day. I think that sounds expensive, but they enjoyed having the convenience of a taxi at their disposal the whole time. On board they told me I could not buy Sheridan liquor on the island and it was $25.99 on board – I found it in Cozumel for $22 but could have gotten it for less if I haggled. Again, I didn’t want to be greedy and felt they could use it more than I.

Sea Days were very crowded on board. I made my way to Deck 4 where there are hardly any people and watched the ocean. You can get to the helipad through Deck 4. It’s a great place to go to the very bow of the ship like in the movie Titanic. I took my grandson there and he liked it. The pool area was a madhouse especially when the 2 for $10 t-shirts were put out there! Ugh. There is free frozen yogurt at the H2O (kids) zone. They have a splash pool for diaper babies and they don’t want others not in diapers going in there because then they get into the kids pool and … well … you can figure what that means. Not many babies were in there – not sure why. The kids’ pool area adjacent to the babies’ pool was not even crowded. I think most people were at the big pools.

Towels can be obtained using your sail pass. You get up to 2 of them and have to return or exchange them before the end of the week or get charged $20. I think the last day there were many people arguing about the charge on their account. I really felt sorry for the Guest Relations people at this time. They were being argued with in several languages. Ugh.

When I packed, I had my bottle of Sheridan that the store had packaged with a lot of newspaper, tape, plastic and I wrapped it in two bathing suits and put it in the middle of some other clothes. When I arrived home, TSA had ransacked my suitcase. The packing was torn apart with newspaper everywhere. My clothes were strewn all over. Nothing was as I had packed it. Things fell out of plastic bags. It looked like they let a raccoon loose in there. Then they put the bottle ON TOP of all the mess of things. It arrived safely, but I was not happy about that. After 9/11, flying has become a nightmare. The good part is the assistance for seniors and handicapped. The bad is the terrible hassle of homeland security.

Speaking of seniors, my Mother had a handicapped cabin on the Promenade. I was 3 doors down. Her cabin was 3X the size of a regular cabin with a huge bathroom. It was perfect for her with grab bars and lots of room to move around with the cane and no lips on the doorways to trip over. We both enjoyed the Promenade cabins, although we were on Deck 8 and I think Deck 7 would have been better. I didn’t hear any noise other than parades, but that was fine, especially since I attended one of them. My Mother doesn’t hear very well, so she didn’t hear a peep.

The sea was like glass all week. I didn’t feel a bump. I had to go out and see if we were moving or not. The kids told me they felt some motion in the middle of the night, but I was fast asleep. I didn’t need my Bonine, although I took ginger tablets every day just in case. The only malady I got was a cold (we all got one by the end of the week). Purell can only do so much.

All in all, we had a great time. We had family time and got to be on vacation. Traveling with children was a challenge for my DD/SIL and the rest of us tried to help out where we could. Adults traveling without children have a totally different experience.

I’m sure we’ll all look back and remember this time together. A few times I looked at my Mother and the tears started to flow because I know that some day she won’t be with us on these family outings and that breaks my heart more than I can bear. Of all of us, she was the only one who never lost her temper, understood everyone’s challenges and joys and pushed herself so as not to hold anyone back. She insisted on doing everything on her own. Her cabin steward was in love with her, along with, I’m sure, any of the people on board who met her. She got where she had to be, on time, struggling along with her cane, no complaints. She filled out her own paperwork, packed and unpacked, got up early and got ready despite all her physical limitations. She is a trooper beyond compare! She did it all with a sense of humor and fortitude that I hope I have at 82.

If you have any questions at all, just ask. Research on the cruise boards was invaluable during many times on and off the ship.

[jsjr]

Great review. I am new to Cruise Critic, eventhough I have cruised before. I have cruised RCI 4 times, husband 3 times and boys (2) 1 time. We have a cruise booked for July 2010. Liberty. We cruised last year with the family (11) of us on Disney. Very disappointed in Disney cruise line. I'm so excited for my coming up cruise I can hardly wait.

[temple1]

Originally Posted by jsjr

Great review. I am new to Cruise Critic, eventhough I have cruised before. I have cruised RCI 4 times, husband 3 times and boys (2) 1 time. We have a cruise booked for July 2010. Liberty. We cruised last year with the family (11) of us on Disney. Very disappointed in Disney cruise line. I'm so excited for my coming up cruise I can hardly wait.

Hi JsJr, Welcome to the boards. Just curious, why were you disappointed in Disney? I always read such glowing praise.

[temple1]

Moondawgie - Great review. Glad your family had a good time and they were able to acomodate everyone in your group.

Interesting about the mix of nationalities. Something to keep in mind.

[FigmentsKiss]

Originally Posted by Moondawgie

My group consisted of my family from 82-years to 18 months. There were 9 of us. Organizing the group was fun and a lot of work. ....
We had early dinner at 6 p.m. We had intended to change to My Time Dining at 7 or 7:30, but it was too difficult to get everyone together. When I mentioned this to the Maître'd, he said that it was perfectly ok to show up at 6:30 or even 6:45 because we were together on our own table and it would not affect anyone else. I was skeptical about that, but it worked great and we all showed up between 6 and 6:30. My brother and his 2 teenagers were on their first cruise, so they were 2 steps behind in the beginning and wound up at Johnny Rockets the first night. Then they went to the Windjammer two other nights because they didn’t feel like wearing long pants. ...

One of the purposes of the trip was to get a family portrait. Well, the first formal night we tried to gather all of us together. We managed to do that – everyone looked quite lovely – when we were sent from background to background to find one that could fit 9 people. By the time we got to the 5th background – remember the senior and the kids – my grandson would not pose any more. He was done. So, we have a beautiful family portrait minus one person. Every time we found an opportunity to take a group shot, at least one person was missing. I have to say that we all made quite an effort, but it just didn’t work out....

If you have any questions at all, just ask. Research on the cruise boards was invaluable during many times on and off the ship.

Thanks for the great review. I condensed it to cover the parts I have some questions about.
I am traveling on Freedom in a few weeks with a family of 15, so I really enjoyed reading your review.

Hope you don't mind the questions:
My DD is 17 months old and I noticed the youngest in your group was 18 months. Any tips or advice?
You commented that most backdrops could not accommodate 9 people. I know we plan on doing a full group shot with the plain white background and probably a lot of mix and matches with the other backdrops, but not a full group. Was there a backdrop we should look for that would better accommodate a full group? I never really thought about the backdrops possibly being unable to fit all of us.

[shoppgirl69]

Originally Posted by Moondawgie

We both enjoyed the Promenade cabins, although we were on Deck 8 and I think Deck 7 would have been better. I didn’t hear any noise other than parades, but that was fine, especially since I attended one of them.

Thank you for your very detailed review! I enjoyed reading it. We booked an extended family cruise for 8 of us, in 4 cabins on the Liberty for July '10! I was interested in your comment about the promenade rooms and wondered why you thought deck 7 would be better? Our cabins are on deck 8 centre, and I was wondering if I had made the right choice of picking deck 8 and was evening thinking maybe I should have chosen deck 7. Could you please elaborate as to why you think deck 7 would be better? Not that I can change anything, but I am just curious! Was it nice to watch the parades from the cabin? I saw in photos how crowded it can get on the promenade that I thought the girls would have a better view from the room.

Did you find it crowded in the promenade rooms? Were any of your cabins connecting cabins? If yes, did you have the doors opened the entire time? Does that take up space leaving the connecting door opened? We were thinking of having our daughters stay in one room and we would be next to them, but we would have to/want to leave the door opened at all times.

Thanks in advance for any info. We can hardly wait to go ourselves!

[GatorWop]

I was on the Liberty the week before you and I agree completely with your comments on the large amount of foreign passengers. I especially noticed the lack of passengers attending the shows due to the language barriers. The foreign passengers that did attend would leave early on during the shows. It was really noticeable at the comedy acts where large droves of people seemed to leave in the middle of the act.

I am a little concerned that Royal Caribbean has projected even larger amounts of international passengers in the next couple of years. It takes away from the camaraderie that I once used to feel amongst fellow passengers onboard. I would think that foreign passengers would prefer to spend their vacations on ships that cater to other nationalities (Pullmantur, Aida, etc…)

[Chitoryubt]

Originally Posted by Moondawgie

I’m sure we’ll all look back and remember this time together. A few times I looked at my Mother and the tears started to flow because I know that some day she won’t be with us on these family outings and that breaks my heart more than I can bear. Of all of us, she was the only one who never lost her temper, understood everyone’s challenges and joys and pushed herself so as not to hold anyone back. She insisted on doing everything on her own. Her cabin steward was in love with her, along with, I’m sure, any of the people on board who met her. She got where she had to be, on time, struggling along with her cane, no complaints. She filled out her own paperwork, packed and unpacked, got up early and got ready despite all her physical limitations. She is a trooper beyond compare! She did it all with a sense of humor and fortitude that I hope I have at 82.

This actually brought a tear to my eye. My Mom's 77 and she cruises with us and is quite the trooper as well. You could have been referring to my Mom - and to the same thoughts I have. Thanks for pointing that out - I don't know how many people take their parents for granted, but I know there are a lot of them. They won't be there forever.

[jsjr]

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Disney, I guess we are just use to the parks, that wonderful Disney magic, I just didn't have that magic on the ship. I don't know, it just wasn't what I expected. The room was great, and all cruise lines should take some hints regarding their cabins. The split bathroom was the best thing ever. The food in the MDR's (you change restaurants each night) was not good at all. We did have the brunch in Palio's - WONDERFUL. The cost for a 5 day/4 night was a little more then our 8day/7night RCI cruise. I have older boys (12 & 16) and the programs for my kids were good, for the younger kids they were great. Maybe my expectations were higher because it was Disney, not sure.

[mets550]

I am sailing on the Liberty of the Seas May 30 - June 6, 2010. I'm trying to figure out which nights to eat at Chops and Portofino..does anyone who has sailed this ship recently know which nights are the formal nights and which night lobster/Fisherman's platter is served?

[LBumb]

thanks for the review.

[amybeth4]

Originally Posted by mets550

I am sailing on the Liberty of the Seas May 30 - June 6, 2010. I'm trying to figure out which nights to eat at Chops and Portofino..does anyone who has sailed this ship recently know which nights are the formal nights and which night lobster/Fisherman's platter is served?

On the Costa Maya/Belize/Cozumel route, it's nights 2 and 6. It's pretty much ALWAYS night 2, and the 2nd one seems to be either night 5 or 6, depending on the itinerary.

[mets550]

Thanks for the response. I am on the St. Maarten, Puerto Rico, Labadee itinerary. I figured it would be night 2 and either night 5 or 6 but I had heard different things. I think I will just make a Chops reservation for nights 5 and 6 and cancel once I get onboard and ask the head waiter. Any thoughts?

[amybeth4]

Originally Posted by mets550

Thanks for the response. I am on the St. Maarten, Puerto Rico, Labadee itinerary. I figured it would be night 2 and either night 5 or 6 but I had heard different things. I think I will just make a Chops reservation for nights 5 and 6 and cancel once I get onboard and ask the head waiter. Any thoughts?

Well, when I was onboard, they were taking reservations in the Promenade on the first day and I was able to easily get the day and time I wanted. So changing SHOULDN'T be a problem, but who knows, really.

My other thought is to start a new thread with your question (more or less) in the title because there'll be a lot of people who've been on your itinerary with the answer, who won't be reading a review from Oct at this point.

[mets550]

Appreciate the advice. I'm too much of a planner sometimes lol. I just started a new thread. Thanks!